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isTORiCAL Essays 
 
 INDIANS. TEEDYUSCUNG. 
 
 f 
 
 1 iR^i >!■ rri.^MENT 6y wilkes-barrk 
 
 OLD FORGE. EARLY METHODISM 
 
 COAL: ITS ANTIQUITY. 
 
 , i 
 
 hISCOVEKV AM' I AKI V III AEIOPMENT IN THE WVOMIN'. VAI I.KN 
 
 SABBATH-SUNDAY 
 
 ^l ND.\Y lEGISLATION. 
 
 '"■rr, B. KULP, 
 
 il-MliKH)uiiAI-HM»-Ot- lUH \v\uMINr. HISTORICAL ANIJ oKOLi".i..Ai 
 AUTHOR OF " I AMIUIB^OF THE WYOMING VAX-LEV," KTC. 
 
 W;ILKE.S-BARRE, PA 
 I 8 9 2 . 
 
Historical Essays 
 
 INDIANS. TEEDYUSCUNG. 
 
 FIRST SETTLEMENT OF WILKES-BARRE. 
 
 OLD FORGE. EARLY METHODISM. 
 
 COAL; ITS ANTIQUITY. 
 
 DISCOVERY AND EARLY DEVELOPMENT IN THE WYOMING VALLEY. 
 
 SABBATH-SUNDAY. 
 
 SUNDAY LEGISLATION. 
 
 GEO. b/kULP, 
 
 HISTORIOGRAPHER OF THB WYOMING HISTORICAL AND GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY 
 AUTHOR OF " FAMILIES OF THE WYOMING VALLEY," ETC. 
 
 WILKES-BARRE, PA. 
 1892. 
 
^ 
 
 i 
 
 Copyright, 1892, 
 
 BY 
 
 Geo. B. Kulp.. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 INDIANS, 1 
 
 COAL, 57 
 
 SABBATH— SUNDAY, 91 
 
 OLD FORGE 145 
 
INDIANS. 
 
 TEEDYUSCUNG 
 
 FIRST SETTLEMENT OF WILKES-BARRE. 
 
TEEDYUSCUNO 
 
INDIANS. 
 
 TEEDYUSCUNG. 
 
 FIRST SETTLEMENT OF WILKES-BARRE. 
 
 "Alas ! for them their day is o'er, 
 Their fires are out from shore to shore. 
 No more for them the wild deer bounds, 
 The plough is on their hunting grounds ; 
 The pale man's axe rings through their woods, 
 The pale man's sail skims o'er their floods ; 
 Their children — look, by power oppressed, 
 Beyond the mountains of the West — 
 Their children go — to die. ' ' 
 
 When the Europeans first discovered the Western Con- 
 tinent they found it inhabited by human beings. They 
 called them Indians, because they thought they had arrived 
 at the eastern coast of India — that great country for which 
 they had so anxiously sought a short passage. Though 
 erroneously applied the name then given them remains un- 
 changed. All Europeans had been taught to call them by 
 this name ; they recognized them by it, and they could not 
 change it. It is not known that a change of name was even 
 suggested, much less attempted, and it is possible that these 
 Indians received the right name by accident, though their 
 discoverers found them in a great country, far removed 
 from the continent, whence it is believed they had their 
 origin. The Europeans found tribes of these Indians scat- 
 tered along the entire eastern coast of this country, from 
 Maine to Florida, and each tribe had a different name. 
 Their origin was not then known ; and it is not known now 
 
to a ccrtaint}', though four hundred years have elapsed 
 since their discovery here. Who were they? It is sup- 
 posed that they originally came from the far west, even 
 from Asia — having wandered thence in some manner, either 
 by land or sea, toward the rising sun, to this continent. 
 When they landed in the west, and especially when they 
 reached the eastern coast, is still one of the great mysteries 
 of our interesting history. It may be that they wandered 
 eastwardly from a given point, just as the Japhetic tribe 
 of men wandered westwardly. If the theory of the Bible 
 is correct, all mankind must have originated from the few 
 survivors of the great flood, who landed on Mount Ararat, 
 in Asia. After this great event Japheth and his family and 
 their descendants migrated to the west ; Ham, his family 
 and their descendants to the south, and Shem, his family 
 and their descendants to the east. Accordingly, these 
 "Indians" may have descended from Shem. 
 
 A very long period must have elapsed till they became 
 settled along the Atlantic coast. Yet it would seem that 
 they had reached this point before the descendants of 
 Japheth, who, in their developments and geographical move- 
 ments, proceeded in an opposite direction. This was a re- 
 markable meeting in the history of progressive civilization. 
 Reckoning the flood to have transpired, according to sacred 
 history, in the year 2348, before Christ, they met after the 
 lapse of three thousand eight hundred and forty years / On 
 the one hand, the "Indians" were guided alone by the 
 "Great Spirit," preserving naught as they went from cen- 
 tury to century, and from one continent to the other, but 
 their instincts, their manners, and their languages, and ap- 
 parently showing no improvement in social, mental and 
 spiritual development, without literature of any kind, ex- 
 cepting rude inscriptions on rocks and stones. On the 
 other, the Europeans were guided by reason, producing one 
 improvement after the other in e\ery department of life, ac- 
 
5 
 
 companied by an abiding faith in God, by Revelation, and 
 by the Bible, and developing literature as wonderful in ex- 
 tent as it was superior in character. What a vast difference 
 in mankind such a time had produced ! Who can explain 
 it ? Why were they not kept equal in the progress of time ? 
 Eastwardly, though to catch, as it were, the rising sun, and, 
 by getting into the dawning light of day, to become pos- 
 sessor of his Creator's excellence, the one went into bar- 
 barity and darkness ; westwardly, though after the setting 
 sun and into darkness, the other went into civilization and 
 light. This is a contrast, indeed, wonderful to relate and 
 truly surprising to understand ! A comparison of the man- 
 ners and customs of the "Indians," as they have been given 
 to us by early settlers and historians from the time of the 
 first settlements in our country, say about 1600, A. D., with 
 the manners and customs of western Asia, as they have 
 been transmitted to us by literature for an equal period be- 
 fore Christ, say 1600, reveals many similarities, especially 
 in the daily affairs of domestic life. In spiritual life both 
 believ^ed in God, and knew what it was to be truthful and 
 honorable in social and political life. Yet, of the two 
 classes which has distinguished itself the most in point of 
 social honor and political integrity. The Indians have been 
 universally praised for these qualities, notwithstanding their 
 heartless barbarity and mental darkness, but the Europeans 
 have received continuous and general condemnation for the 
 remarkable want of these qualities, guided, even as they 
 claimed to ha\e been by the love of God and the light of 
 the mind. 
 
 The Lcnni Lcnape, or the original people, as they called 
 themselves, inhabited principally the shores of the river 
 Delaware, thence their name. The Lenape were of western 
 origin, and nearly forty tribes, according to Heckewelder, 
 acknowledged them as their "grandfathers" or parent stock. 
 It was related by the braves of the Dclawares, that many 
 
centuries previous their ancestors dwelt far in the western 
 wilds of the American continent, but emigrating eastwardly, 
 arri\cd after many )'ears on the Mississippi, or riv^er offish, 
 where they fell in with the Mengwe (Iroquois), who had 
 also emigrated from a distant country, and approached 
 this river somewhat nearer its source. The spies of the 
 Lenape reported the country on the east of the Mississippi 
 to be inhabited by a powerful nation, dwelling in large 
 towns erected upon their principal rivers. This people, 
 tall and stout, some of whom, as tradition reports, were of 
 gigantic mould, bore the name of AUegewi, and from them 
 were derived the names of the Allegheny river and moun- 
 tains. Their towns were defended by regular fortifications 
 or intrenchments of earth, vestiges of which are yet shown 
 in greater or less preservation. The Lenape requested per- 
 mission to establish themselves in their vicinity. This was 
 refused, but leave was given them to pass the river and 
 seek a country farther to the eastward. But, whilst the 
 Lenape were crossing the river, the Allegcwi, becoming 
 alarmed at their number, assailed and destroyed many of 
 those who had reached the eastern shore, and threatened a 
 like fate to the others should they attempt the stream. 
 Fired at the loss they had sustained, the Lenape eagerly 
 accepted a proposition from the Mengwe, who had hitherto 
 been spectators only of their enterprise, to conquer and di- 
 vide the countr)^ A war of many }'ears duration was 
 waged b)' the united nations, marked by great havoc on 
 both sides, w hich e\eiituated in the conquest and expulsion 
 (.if the Allegewi, who fled by the way of the Mississippi 
 never to return. Their de\astated countr\- was apportioned 
 among the conciuerors ; the Iroquois choosing their resi- 
 dence in the neighborhood of the great lakes, and the 
 Lenape possessing themselves of the lands to the south. 
 After many ages, during which the conquerors lived to- 
 getiier in great harmony, the enterprising hunters of the 
 
Lenape crossed the Allegheny mountains, and discovered 
 the great rivers Susquehanna and Delaware, and their re- 
 spective bays. Exploring the SJicyicJibi country (New Jer- 
 sey) they arrived on the Hudson, to which they subse- 
 quently gave the name of the MoJiicannittuck river. Re- 
 turning to their nation, after a long absence, they reported 
 their discoveries, describing the country they had visited 
 as abounding in game and fruits, fish and fowl, and desti- 
 tute of inhabitants. Concluding this to be the country 
 destined for them by the Great Spirit, the Lenape proceeded 
 to establish themselves upon the principal rivers of the east, 
 making the Delaware, to which they gave the name of 
 Lenape-iinJiittuck (the river or stream of the Lenape), the 
 centre of their possessions. They say, however, that all of 
 their nation who crossed the Mississippi did not reach this 
 country, a part remaining behind to assist that portion of 
 their people who, frightened by the reception which the 
 Allegewi had given to their countrymen, fled far to the west of 
 the Mississippi. They were finally divided into three great 
 bodies, the larger half of the whole settled on the At- 
 lantic, the other half was separated into two parts, the 
 stronger continued beyond the Mississippi, the other re- 
 mained on its eastern bank. Those on the Atlantic were 
 subdivided into three tribes — the Turtle or Delawares of the 
 sea shore ; the Turkeys or Delawares of the woods, and 
 the Wolves or Delawares of the mountains. The two former 
 inhabited the coast, from the Hudson to the Potomac, set- 
 tling in small bodies in towns and villages upon the larger 
 streams, under the chiefs subordinate to the great council 
 of the nation. The Wolves or Minsi, called by the English 
 Monseys, the most warlike of the three tribes, dwelt in the 
 interior, forming a barrier between their nation and the 
 Mcngwe. They extended themselves from the Minisink on 
 the Delaware, where they held their council seat, to the 
 Hudson on the east, to the Susquehanna on the southwest, 
 
8 
 
 to the head waters of the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers 
 on the north, and to that range of hills now known in New 
 Jersey by the name of Muskenecun, and by those of Le- 
 high and Conewago in Pennsylvania. Many subordinate 
 tribes proceeded from these, who received names from their 
 places of residence, or from some accidental circumstance, 
 at the time of its occurrence remarkable, but now forgotten. 
 Such probably were the Shawanese, the Nanticokes, the 
 Susquehannas, the Neshamines, and other tribes resident in 
 or near the province of Pennsylvania at the time of its set- 
 tlement. The Mengwe hovered for some time on the border 
 of the lakes, with their canoes in readiness to fly should the 
 Allegewi return. Having grown bolder, and their numbers 
 increasing, they stretched themselves along the St. Law- 
 rence, and became, on the north, near neighbors to the 
 Lenape tribes. The Mengwe and the Lenape in the pro- 
 gress of time became enemies. The latter represent the 
 former as treacherous and cruel, pursuing pertinaciously an 
 insiduous and destructive policy toward their more gener- 
 ous neighbors. Dreading the power of the Lenape, the 
 Mengwe resolved to involve them in war with distant 
 tribes, to reduce their strength. They committed murders 
 upon the members of one tribe, and induced the injured 
 party to believe they were perpetrated by another. They 
 stole into the country of the Dclawares, surprised them in 
 their hunting parties, slaughtered the hunters and escaped 
 with the plunder. Each nation or tribe had a particular 
 mark upon its war clubs which, left beside a murdered per- 
 son, denoted the aggressor. The Mengwe perpetrated a 
 murder in the Cherokee country, and left with the dead 
 body a war club bearing the insignia of the Lenape. The 
 Cherokees, in revenge, fell suddenly upon the latter and 
 commenced a long and bloody war. The treachery of the 
 Mengwe was at length discovered, and the Delawares turned 
 upon them with the determination utterly to extirpate them. 
 
They were the more strongly induced to take this resolu- 
 tion, as the cannibal propensities of the Mcngwe, according 
 to Heckewelder, had reduced them, in the estimation of the 
 Delawares, below the rank of human beings. Hitherto 
 each tribe of the Mengwe had acted under the direction of 
 its particular chiefs, and, although the nation could not 
 control the conduct of its members, it was made responsible 
 for their outrages. Pressed by the Lenape, they resolved 
 to form a confederation which might enable them better to 
 concentrate their force in war, and to regulate their affairs 
 in peace. Thannawage, an a^ed Mohawk, was the project- 
 or of this alliance. Under his auspices, five nations — the 
 Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagoes, Cayugas and Senecas 
 formed a species of republic, governed by the united coun- 
 cils of their aged and experienced chiefs. To these a sixth 
 nation, the Tuscaroras, was added in 17 12. This last origi- 
 nally dwelt in the w^estern parts of North Carolina, but 
 having formed a deep and general conspiracy to extermi- 
 nate the whites, were, as stated in Smith's history of New^ 
 York, driven from their country and adopted by the Iro- 
 quois confederacy. The beneficial effects of this system 
 early displayed themselves. The Lenape were checked, 
 and the Mengwe, whose warlike disposition soon familiar- 
 ized them with fire arms procured from the Dutch, were 
 enabled, at the same time, to contend with them and to re- 
 sist the French, who now attempted the settlement of 
 Canada, and to extend their conquests over a large portion 
 of the country between the Atlantic and Mississippi. But, 
 being pressed hard by their new enemies, they became de- 
 sirous of reconcilliation with their old enemies, and for this 
 purpose, if the tradition of the Delawares be credited, 
 they effected one of the most extraordinary strokes of policy 
 which history has recorded. The mediators between the 
 Indian nations at war are the women. The men, however 
 weaiy of the contest, hold it cowardly and disgraceful to 
 
 L 
 
10 
 
 seek rcconcilliation. They deem it inconsistent in a war- 
 rior to speak of peace with bloody weapons in his hands. 
 He must maintain a determined courage, and appear at all 
 times as ready and willing to fight as at the commencement 
 of hostilities. With such dispositions, Indian wars would 
 be interminable if the women did not interfere and persuade 
 the combatants to bury the hatchet and make peace with 
 each other. On these occasions the women pleaded their 
 cause with much eloquence. "Not a warrior," they would 
 say, "but laments the loss of a son, a brother or a friend. 
 And mothers, who have borne with cheerfulness the pangs 
 of child-birth, and the anxieties that wait upon the infancy 
 and adolescence of their sons, behold their promised bless- 
 ings crushed in the field of battle, or perishing at the stake 
 in unutterable torments. In the depth of their grief they 
 curse their wretched existence, and shudder at the idea of 
 bearing children." They conjured the warriors, therefore, 
 by their suffering wives, their helpless children, their homes 
 and their friends, to interchange forgiveness, to cast away 
 their arms, and smoking together the pipe of amity and 
 peace, to embrace as friends those whom they had learned 
 to esteem as enemies. Prayers thus urged seldom failed of 
 their desired effect. The function of the peace-maker was 
 honorable and dignified, and its assumption by a courageous 
 and powerful nation could not be inglorious. This station 
 the Meng-we urged upon the Lenape. "They had reflected," 
 they said, "upon the state of the Indian race and were con- 
 vinced that no means remained to preserve it unless some 
 magnanimous nation would assume the character of the 
 ivo))ian. It could not be given to a weak and contemptible 
 tribe, such would not be listened to, but the Lenape and 
 their allies would at once possess influence and commantl 
 respect." The facts upon which these arguments were 
 founded were known to the Delawares, and, in a moment 
 of blind confidence in the sincerity of the Iroquois, they ac- 
 
II 
 
 ceded to the proposition and assumed the petticoat. The 
 ceremony of the metamorphosis was performed with great 
 rejoicings at Albany, in 1617, in the presence of the Dutch, 
 whom the Lenape charged with having conspired with the 
 Mengwe for their destruction. Having thus disarmed the 
 Delawares, the Iroquois assumed over them the rights of 
 protection and command. But still dreading their strength, 
 they artfully involved them again in war with the Chero- 
 kees, promised to fight their battles, led them into an am- 
 bush of their foes, and deserted them. The Delawares at 
 length comprehended the treachery of their arch enemy, 
 and resolved to resume their arms, and being still superior 
 in numbers, to crush them. But it was too late. The 
 Europeans were now making their way into the country in 
 every direction, and gave ample employment to the aston- 
 ished Lenape. The Mengwe denied these machinations. 
 They averred that they conquered the Delawares by force 
 of arms, and made them a subject people. And, though it 
 was said they were unable to detail the circumstances of 
 this conquest, it is more rational to suppose it true, than 
 that a brave, numerous and warlike nation should have vol- 
 untarily suffered themselves to be disarmed and enslaved 
 by a shallow artifice, or, that discovering the fraud practiced 
 upon them, they should unresistingly have submitted to its 
 consequences. This conquest was not an empty acquisi- 
 tion to the Mengwe. They claimed dominion over all the 
 lands occupied by the Delawares, and, in many instances, 
 their claims were distinctly acknowledged. Parties of the 
 Five Nations occasionally occupied the Lenape country 
 and wandered over it at all times at their pleasure. Event- 
 ually, in i756,Teedyuscung, the noted Delaware chief, seems 
 to have compelled the Iroquois to acknowledge the inde- 
 pendence of his tribe, but the claim of superiority was often 
 afterwards revived. 
 
12 
 
 Tcedyuscung, according to his own statement, was born 
 about the year 1700, in New Jersey, east of Trenton, in 
 which neighborhood his ancestors of the Lenape had been 
 seated from time immemorial. Old Captain Harris, a noted 
 Delaware, was the father of Teedyuscung. The same was 
 the father also of Captain John of Nazareth, of young Cap- 
 tain Harris, of Tom, of Joe and of Sam Evans, a family of 
 high spirited sons who were not in good repute with their 
 white neighbors. The latter named them, it is true, for men 
 of their own people, and Tcedyuscung they named "Honest 
 John," yet they disliked and then feared them, for the Har- 
 rises were known to grow moody and resentful, and were 
 heard to speak threatening words as they saw their paternal 
 acres passing out of their hands and their hunting grounds 
 converted into pasture and ploughed fields. These they left 
 with reluctance and migrated westward in company with 
 others of the Turtles or Delawares of the lowlands, some 
 from the Raritan, some from below Cranberry and Devil's 
 Brook, some from the Neshannock, and some from the 
 Mouth of Squan and the meadows on Little and Great Egg 
 Harbor. Crossing the great river of their nation they 
 entered the pro\'ince of Pennsj-hania in its Forks. This 
 was about 1730. Finding no white men here they gypsied 
 unmolested along the Lehieton, Martin's and Cobus creeks, 
 the Manakasy, Gattoshacki and the Hockendocque.all south 
 and along theAquanshicolaand Pocopoco north of the Blue 
 Mountain. On crossing this barrier they reached the land 
 of their kinsmen, the Wolf Delawares or Monseys. By 
 these hardy mountaineers they were kindly received, and 
 with them they would often speak of their compulsory exo- 
 dus from the east, to which the Monseys made no reply, 
 but only smiled. 
 
 Scotch Irish immigrants began to crowd the Delawares 
 in the Forks, south of the mountain, as early as 1735. Two 
 )'ears prior whites had surve)'cd and located unpurchased 
 
13 
 
 lands in the upper valley of the Delaware, thereby exasper- 
 ating the Monseys and engendering in their hearts an im- 
 placable resentment which they cherished long after the 
 Turtle Delawares had buried the hatchet and were willing 
 to treat for redress. These highlanders were the warriors 
 who, moody and sullen, hung back at Trout Creek in July, 
 1756, when Teedyuscung and his company were already in 
 Easton engaged in negotiations for peace. In 1737 the 
 one and a half day's walk was performed. Captain John 
 and other Fork Indians south of the mountain were ex- 
 pelled from their corn lands and peach orchards in 1742. 
 Thus wrong was being heaped on wrong against a day of 
 retribution. Zinzendorf's reconnoisance in July of that 
 year introduced the Moravian missionaries into the homes 
 of the Eastern Delawares, and from that time they preached 
 the Gospel to them on both sides of the mountain. Teedy- 
 uscung, too, heard them first on the Aquanshicola and 
 then on the Mahoning. Impressed by the words of the 
 plainly clad preachers from Bethlehem his religious feelings 
 were moved, and a time came when he was convicted of sin 
 and then sought for admission into Christian fellowship with 
 the Mohicans and Delawares of Gnadenhutten near the 
 mouth of Mahoning creek. Carbon county, by baptism. 
 The brethren hesitated long before they acceded to his re- 
 quest, for they tell us that the man was unstable as water, 
 and like a reed shaken before the wind. Hence they 
 granted him a time of probation, and as he reiterated his re- 
 quest at its close they consented to admit him into their 
 communion. On the twelfth of March, accordingly, he was 
 baptized in the little turreted chapel on the Mahoning, 
 Bishop Cammerhoff administering the rite. The ceremony 
 was performed in accordance with the solemn ritual ob- 
 served among the Moravians at that time in the baptism of 
 adults, and when the straight limbed Delaware, robed in 
 white, rose from bended knee, he rose as Gideon the name- 
 
14 
 
 sake of "the son of Joash the Abiezrite, who threshed wheat 
 in the wine press to hide it from the Midianites." Thus 
 Teedj'uscung became a member of the Christian church, 
 and yet failed as so many do to become a Christian. The 
 lessons of the Divine Master whom he had promised to fol- 
 low proved distasteful to him as he found they demanded 
 renunciation of self, the practice of humility, the forgive- 
 ness of injuries and the return of good for evil. They w^ere 
 different from the doctrines taught in the school of nature 
 in which he had long been educated. Hence he ill-brooked 
 the restraints imposed upon him in the "Huts of Grace," 
 and resisted the influence of the Good Spirit that sought to 
 dispossess him of the resentment that burned within his 
 soul when he remembered how his countrymen were being 
 injured by the whites and how they had been traduced and 
 were being oppressed by the imperious Iroquois. And 
 once when his untamed brethren came down from the Min- 
 nisinks to Gnadenhutten, bringing their unshod ponies and 
 their broken flint locks to the smithy they opened their 
 hearts to him wide and took him into their councils. These 
 intended war. Telling him that the hour was come to pre- 
 pare to rise against their oppressors they asked him to lead 
 them and be their king. That was the evil moment in 
 which he was dazzled by the prospect of a crown and traf- 
 ficked his peace of mind for the unrest of ambition. This 
 was in the spring of 1754. Mohican Abraham also turned 
 renegade, and the two chieftains together prevailed with 
 seventy of the congregation to remove to Wyoming. The 
 Delaware chief at Wyoming was Tadame or Tamman)', of 
 whom at this day but little is known. He was variously 
 called Temane, Tamenand, Taminent, Tameny and Tam- 
 many. According to one account he was the first Indian 
 to welcome William Penn to this country, and was a party 
 to Penn's famous treaty. A tradition is that the evil spirit 
 sought to <zd'm a share in the administration of his kinef- 
 
15 
 
 dom, but Tammany refused to hold intercourse with him. 
 The enemy then resorted to strategy and attempted to enter 
 his country, but was foiled by the chief, and at length de- 
 termined to destroy him. A duel was waged for many 
 moons, during which forests were trampled under foot, 
 which have since remained prairie lands. Finally, Tam- 
 many tripped his adversary, threw him to the ground, and 
 would have scalped him, but the evil spirit extricated him- 
 self and escaped to Manhattan Island, where he was wel- 
 comed by the natives. Tammany appears to have been 
 a brave and influential chieftain, and his nation reverenced 
 his memory by bestowing his name upon those that de- 
 served that honor. Thus when about 1 776 Col. George Mor- 
 gan of Princeton visited the western Indians by direction of 
 congress, the Delawares conferred on him the name of 
 Tammany, as the greatest mark of respect which they could 
 show to that gentleman, who, they said, had the same ad- 
 dress, affability and meekness as their honored chief In 
 the revolutionary war his enthusiastic admirers dubbed him 
 a saint, and he was established under the name of St. Tam- 
 many, the patron saint of America. His name was inserted 
 in some calendars and his festival celebrated on the first 
 day of May in every year. On that day a numerous society 
 of his votaries walked together in procession, their hats 
 decorated with bucks tails, and proceeded to a rural place 
 which they called the wigwam, where, after a long talk or 
 Indian speech had been delivered and the calumet of piece 
 and friendship had been duly smoked, they spent the day in 
 festivity and mirth. After dinner Indian dances were per- 
 formed on the green in front of the wigwam, the calumet 
 was again smoked and the company separated. He is now 
 chiefly known as the patron of a democratic political orga- 
 nization in New York city called the Tammany society. He 
 was, however, treacherously murdered by some of the hostile 
 Indians from the northwest, whereupon a general council 
 
i6 
 
 of the Delawares was convened and Teedyuscung was 
 chosen chief sachem and duly proclaimed as such. He was 
 residin*^ at Gnadcnhuttcn at the time of his advancement, 
 but immediately removed to Wyoming which then became 
 the principal seat of the Delawares. In the summer of 
 1743 an Indian council was convened in Philadelphia upon 
 the invitation of Lieutenant Governor George Thomas, at 
 that time administering the government of the Proprietaries, 
 as William Penn and his successors were styled. The coun- 
 cil was numerously attended, large delegations being present 
 from each of the Six Nations, excepting the Senecas. Of 
 these there were but three chiefs at the council — that nation 
 having been prevented sending a stronger deputation by 
 reason of a famine in their country "so great that a father 
 had been compelled to sacrifice a part of his family, even 
 his own children for the support and preservation of him- 
 self and the other part." There seem likewise to have been 
 no Mohawks present. But several tribes of the Delawares 
 were represented. The chief object for the convocation 
 of this council was "to kindle a new fire," and "strengthen 
 the chain of friendship" with the Indians in anticipation of 
 a war with P^rance. Other subjects were brought before 
 the council for consideration. Among them the governor 
 produced a quantity of goods — being, as he remarked, a bal- 
 ance due the Indians for a section of the valley of the Sus- 
 quehanna "on both sides of the river," which had been pur- 
 chased of the Six Nations six years before. Canassatego, 
 a celebrated Onondaga chief, who was the principal speaker 
 on the part of the Indians during the protracted sittings of 
 the council, recognized the sale of the land. But in the 
 course of their discussions he took occasion to rebuke the 
 whites for trespassing upon the unceded lands northward 
 of the Kittatinny Hills, and also upon the Juniata. "That 
 country," .said Canassatego, "belongs to us in right of con- 
 quest, wc having bought it with our blood, and taken it 
 
from our enemies in fair war." This, however, was not the 
 principal transaction estabHshing the fact that the Six 
 Nations were in the exercise of absolute power over the 
 Delawares. On the fourth day of the council the acting 
 Governor called the attention of the Six Nations to the con- 
 duct of "a branch of their cousins, the Delawares," in re- 
 gard to a section of territory at the forks of the river which 
 the Proprietaries had purchased of them fifty-five years be- 
 fore, but from which the Indians had refused to remove. 
 The consequence had been a series of unpleasant disturb- 
 ances between the white settlers and the red men, and as 
 the latter were ever prompt in calling upon the Proprietar- 
 ies to remove white intruders from their lands, the acting 
 Governor now in turn called upon the Six Nations to re- 
 move those Indians from the land at the Forks which had 
 been purchased and paid for in good faith such a long while 
 ago. After three days consideration the Indians came again 
 into council when Canassatego opened the proceedings by 
 saying that they had carefully examined the case and "had 
 seen with their own eyes" that their cousins had been "a 
 very unruly people" and that they were "altogether in the 
 wrong." They had therefore determined to remove them. 
 Then turning to the Delawares, and holding a belt of wam- 
 pum in his hand, he .spoke to them as follows : 
 
 Cousins : Let this belt of wampum serve to chastise you. 
 You ought to be taken by the hair of the head and shaken 
 severely till you recover your senses and become sober. 
 You don't know what ground you stand on, nor what you 
 are doing. Our brother Onas' cause is very just and plain 
 and his intentions are to preserve friendship. On the other 
 hand your cause is bad, your heart far from being upright, 
 and you are maliciously bent to break the chain of friend- 
 ship with our brother Onas and his people. We have seen 
 with our eyes a deed signed by nine of your ancestors about 
 fifty years ago for this very land, and a release signed not 
 many years since by some of yourselves and chiefs now 
 
livinf^, to tlic number of fifteen or upward. But how came 
 you to take upon you to sell land at all. We conquered 
 you, we made women of you, you know you are women 
 and can no more sell land than women. Nor is it fit yoti 
 should have the power of selling lands since you would 
 abuse it. This land that you claim has gone through your 
 bellies ; you have been furnished with clothes, meat and 
 drink by the goods paid you for it, and now you want it 
 again, like little children — as you are. But what makes 
 you sell land in the dark ? Did we ever receive any part of 
 it, even the value of a pipe shank from you for it? You 
 have told us a blind story that you sent a messenger to us 
 to inform us of the sale, but he never came among us nor 
 did we ever hear anj'thing about it. This is acting in the 
 dark and very different from the conduct our Six Nations 
 observe in the sale of land. On such occasions they give 
 public notice and invite all the Indians of their United 
 Nations and give them all a share of the presents they re- 
 ceive for their lands. This is the behavior of the wise 
 United Nations. But we find you are none of our blood; 
 you act a dishonest part, not only in this, but in other mat- 
 ters ; your ears are ever open to slanderous reports about 
 your brethren, you receive them with as much greediness 
 as lewd women receive the embraces of bad men. And for 
 these reasons we charge you to remove instantly. We 
 don't give j-ou the liberty to think about it. You are women. 
 Take the advice of a w ise man and remove immediately. 
 You may return to the other side of the Delaware where you 
 came from. But we do not know whether, considering how 
 you have demeaned j'ourselves, }'ou will be permitted to 
 live there, or whether you have not swallowed that land 
 down }'our throats as well as the land on this side. We 
 therefore assign }'ou two places to go to, either to Wyom- 
 ing or Shamokin. You may go to either of these places, 
 and then we shall have you more under our eye and shall 
 see how you behave. Don't deliberate but remove away 
 and take this belt of wampum. 
 
 This speech ha\ing been translated into ICnglish and also 
 in the Delaware tongue, Canassatego took another string 
 of wampum and proceeded. 
 
19 
 
 Cousins: After our just reproof and absolute order to 
 depart from the land, you are now to take notice of what 
 we have further to say to you. This string of wampum 
 serves to forbid you, your children and grand-children to 
 the latest posterity, forever meddling with land affairs. 
 Neither you nor any that shall descend from you are ever 
 hereafter to presume to sell any land, for which purpose you 
 are to preserve this string in memory of what your uncles 
 have this day given you in charge. We have some other 
 business to transact with our brethren, and therefore depart 
 the council and consider what has been said to you. 
 
 There was no diplomatic mincing of words in the speech 
 of the Onondaga chieftain. He spoke not only with the 
 bluntness of unsophisticated honesty, but with the air of 
 one having authority, nor dared the Delawares to disobey 
 his peremptory command. They immediately left the coun- 
 cil and soon afterwards removed from the disputed terri- 
 tory — some few of them to Shamokin, but the greater por- 
 tion to Wyoming. The removal of the Delawares from the 
 Forks to Wyoming was as speedy as the order to that end 
 had been peremptory. Some years before the Wyoming 
 Valley had been allotted by the Delawares to a strong clan 
 of the Shawanese. These latter had planted themselves 
 upon the flats on the west bank of the river (Plymouth), 
 and on their arrival at the same place the Delawares 
 selected as the site of the town they were to build the beauti- 
 ful plain on the eastern side near what is now known as the 
 slaughter houses in the lower end of this city. Here was 
 built the town of Maugh-wau-wa-me, the original of Wyom- 
 ing. Meantime the Nanticokc Indians had removed from 
 the eastern shore of Maryland to the lower part of the 
 Wyoming Valley, which }'et retains their name. The Shaw- 
 anese made no opposition to the arrival of their new neigh- 
 bors. The Wanamesc, under their chief, Jacob, resided on 
 the east side of the Susquehanna above Mill Creek, known 
 as Jacob's Plains. The Mohicans came to W}'oming with 
 
20 
 
 the Delawares in 1742, and under their chief, Abram, built 
 a village above Forty Fort known as Abram's Plains. 
 Besides these there were a few wigwams on Shickshinny 
 and VVapwallopen creeks, and in Salem township near Beach 
 Haven. There was also a considerable Delaware village 
 at Nescopeck and one on the east bank of the Susquehanna 
 about two miles above the mouth of the Lackawanna called 
 Asserughney. There was a Shawanese village west of Ross 
 Hill, between Plymouth and Kingston. These are all the 
 known locations of Indian villages within the limits of Lu- 
 zerne county. The P'rcnch, through the influence of Cath- 
 olic missionaries who are often in advance of other denomi- 
 nations, had secured to their interest the Shawanese, the 
 Delawares and other Indians on the Ohio. However, Sir 
 William Johnson had succeeded in dividing the Six Nations. 
 The Mohawks, Oneidas and Tuscaroras remained attached 
 to the British cause. The Onodagas, Cayugas and Senecas 
 declared themselves neutral, nevertheless a considerable 
 number of the two last tribes took up the hatchet with the 
 Delawares. Shawanese and other tribes already in alliance 
 with the French. PLfforts were made b}- the P^rcnch through 
 the Senecas and Cayugas to induce the Susquehanna In- 
 dians to declare in fa\or of Onontio, the P'rench King, as 
 the Indians named him. Their arts and promises were 
 crowned with success. In 1753 they succeeded in remov- 
 ing nearly all of the Christian Indians from Gnadenhutten 
 to Wyoming, hoping by this to place them beyond the in- 
 fluence of the whites. The news of Braddock's defeat in 
 July, 1755, spread rapidly over the country, cariying dis- 
 may to the hearts of the English settlers. The frontiers of 
 Penns)'lvania were threatened with ruin by the victorious 
 French and their savage allies. The government of Penn- 
 sylvania did not act with the energy and promptness which 
 the emergency demanded. No means were adopted for the 
 protection of the frontier settlements, and murders were 
 
21 
 
 committed by the skulking enemy in many places in the 
 north and west of the province. The assembly, in one of 
 their messages, said : "What has this government done to of- 
 fend the Delawares and Shawanese ? Have we not always 
 lived in peace with them ? Why are they offended ? Let 
 us hold a treaty with them and persuade them ?" Such was 
 the ridiculous language of the assembly when the lives of 
 hundreds were trembling in the balance. "What has this 
 government done to offend the Delawares," asked the as- 
 sembly. The words and deeds of Teedyuscung proclaim 
 the deep seated offense and its cause. Sending a large 
 belt of wampum to the Susquehanna Indians, and even to 
 the Cherokees in the south, he said: "I am in exceeding 
 great danger, the English will kill me, come and help me?" 
 The Delaware town at Nescopeck was made the rendezvous 
 of the warriors. There assembled Shingas with his western 
 warriors, and Buchshanoath the great Shawanese war chief 
 of Wyoming. With these Teedyuscung attacked the set- 
 tlements in Berks county, November i6, 1755, spreading 
 fire and death in all directions. On the twenty-fourth of the 
 same month Gnadenhutten was attacked, a number of the 
 people were murdered and the buildings were laid in ashes. 
 It is said the murderers of the people at Gnadenhutten were 
 commanded by a chief of the Six Nations and not by Teedy- 
 uscung. In the beginning of December of the same year a 
 council of war was held at Wyoming by the Delawares, the 
 Shawanese, the Nanticokcs and others, at which it was de- 
 termined to lay waste the whole country on the Delaware. 
 They danced the war dance and sang their death songs. 
 At the appointed time the paths between Wyoming and the 
 Delaware, over which the missionaries had so often carried 
 the white flag of peace and good will, were crowded with 
 hostile savages on an errand of blood and death. Two 
 hundred warriors rushed from the mountain side upon the 
 defenceless settlements. Nearly the whole of Marshall's 
 
22 
 
 family, the mnn who performed the walk and afterwards 
 declared that the Penn's refused to pay him, were put to 
 death. Teedyuscung, at the head of a scoutint^ p^'^i'ty, fired 
 into a company assembled at a funeral. He penetrated 
 into New Jersey and even approached within a few miles 
 of Easton. During the month of December fifty dwelling 
 houses were burned in Northampton county, upwards of 
 one hundred men, women and children were murdered and 
 scalped, and nearly as many were carried away into captiv- 
 ity. This destruction of life and property is attributable 
 to the quarrel which existed between the governor and as- 
 sembly in reference to taxing the proprietaries' estates. The 
 assembly were wholly inexcusable for their neglect of the 
 public defense at that critical period. The great body of 
 the Indians in Pennsylvania who were disposed to arm 
 against the French, being left to themselves and unsup- 
 ported by the government, were easily persuaded by the 
 promises and presents of the French agents to make war 
 against the English. Paxinos, an aged Shawanese chief re- 
 siding at Wilkes-Barre, was a friend of the P^nglish. It was 
 he who, in the interview with Charles Broadhead, on Nov- 
 ember 9, 1755, «it Wyoming, urged upon him to send a 
 messenger to the Indians in the valley with belts of wam- 
 pum and presents to secure them to the P2nglish interest. 
 The message contained a warm and pressing inxitation to 
 all the Indians to attend a treaty to be held on January i, 
 1756, at John Harris's. But before the messenger started 
 on his dangerous journey Tecd}'uscung had devastated the 
 country of the Dclawares, and among others the plantations 
 of Mr. Broadhead and of Aaron Dupuy, who had been 
 selected to bear the message to the Wyoming Indians. On 
 January i, he was engaged with thirty of his warriors in 
 scalping the remaining inhabitant-^ and burning their dwell- 
 ings in Smithficld township, Monroe county. To return 
 to P.ixiiios. He used cverv' argument to dissuatle the Del- 
 
23' 
 
 awares and his own warriors from taking up the hatchet 
 against the EngUsh. He pressed his solicitations with such 
 zeal that the Delawares threatened to take his life. When 
 the warriors began to dance the war dance he, with Abram 
 and about thirty others, chiefly old men and women, retired 
 to a village west of Kingston, near Blindtown, where he re- 
 mained until all the Indians departed the valley for the 
 country of the Six Nations. On January i, 1756, Bucks- 
 henoath, leading a party of savages, attacked and put to 
 flight a company of forty soldiers at Gnadenhutten, sent to 
 erect a fort at that place. Buckshenoath was a co-worker 
 with Teedyuscung in his expedition against the English. 
 At this time Teedyuscung captured Peter Hess and others. 
 On his return to Wyoming with his booty and his prisoners 
 he encamped for the night on the Pokono mountain. Here 
 the savages killed Peter Hess, cutting him almost in pieces 
 with their knives, and tied 'the others to trees. They 
 kindled a large fire, but the night was so cold they could 
 not sleep. At daylight they set out and arrived at Wyom- 
 ing in the evening. They found the valley deserted. The 
 party pushed on to Tunkhannock, were they found about 
 one hundred men, women and children, and where the 
 prisoners remained until the cold weather was over. They 
 were afterwards taken to Diahoga and stayed there until 
 they were brought down and delivered up to their friends 
 at the treaty at Easton in the following November. In 
 April Governor Morris, with the approval of the Supreme 
 Executive Council, except James Logan, who entered his 
 protest, issued a declaration of war against the Delawares 
 and their associates, and offered the foUoiviug bounties for 
 scalps and prisoners: For a male Indian prisoner abox-e 
 twelve years of age, delivered at the government forts or 
 towns, one hundred and fifty dollars ; for every male or fe- 
 male prisoner twelve years old or under, one hundred and 
 thirty dollars ; for the scalp of every male Indian above 
 
24 
 
 twelve years old, one hundred and thirty dollars, and for 
 the scalp of an Indian woman, fifty dollars. Through the 
 influence of General Johnson, afterwards Sir William John- 
 son, with the Six Nations, the way was paved for a council 
 with Teedyuscung. The declaration of war was suspended 
 for thirty days, and Captain Newcastle and two other friend- 
 ly Indians, in May, set out for Diahoga. Passing through 
 Wyoming they found that the entire Indian population 
 from Shamokin to Wyalusing had gone northward. In the 
 valley there reigned the silence of the grave. At Diahoga, 
 Newcastle found Teedyuscung in council with the chiefs of 
 the Six Nations. But soon the Delawares, Shawanese, 
 Monseys and Mohicans assembled to hear what Newcastle 
 had to say. He delivered Governor Morris' message, in- 
 viting them to a council to be held at hlaston in July. He 
 was favorably answered by Teedyuscung and Paxinos, when 
 he took his departure. In July, on the day appointed, 
 Teedyuscung, with a few of his warriors, arrived in Easton, 
 where he was met by the governor and his councilors. 
 The Delaware king opened the council by saying he had 
 come as the messenger of ten nations, meaning the Six 
 Nations, and the four who were convened to hear Newcastle^ 
 at Diahoga. He wished to hear what the governor had to 
 say. "If it be good I shall lay hold of it and carry it to the 
 United Nations who will smile and be pleased to hear good 
 news, and if what you say be disagreeable, I will, notwith- 
 standing, keep it close (closing his fist), and deliver it faith- 
 fully to the nations. Hearken to what I say. Abundance 
 of confusion, disorder and distraction have arisen among 
 Indians from people taking upon them to be kings and per- 
 sons of authority. With every tribe of Indians there have 
 been such pretenders, who have held treaties, sometimes 
 public, sometimes in the bushes. Sometimes what they did 
 was come to be known, but frequently remained in darkness. 
 To some they held up their belts, but (-)thcrs ne\er saw 
 
25 
 
 them. This bred among the Indians heart-burnings and 
 quarrels, and I can assure you that the present clouds do, 
 in a great measure, owe their rise to this wild and irregular 
 way of doing business, and the Indians will have no more 
 transactions in the dark." Here he presented the governor 
 a string of wampum. Being asked if he had done speak- 
 ing, he said he had for the present. The main thing he 
 added is yet in my breast, laying his hand on his heart, but 
 this will depend on what words the governor will speak to 
 us. Then he repeated the Delaware word Wliishskiksy, 
 the same in the Mohawk as lago, with great earnestness 
 and a very pathetic tone, meaning be strong, look about, 
 active. The governor then spoke : "Brother, I have heard 
 with attention all you have said, and thank you for the 
 openness with which you have declared your sentiments." 
 After delivering a lengthy speech he presented many belts 
 and assured the Indians of his desire for peace. To which 
 Teedyuscung replied as follows : "Brother, this belt," lift- 
 ing up a large string of wampum, "denotes that our uncles, 
 the Six Nations, have lately renewed their covenant chain 
 with us. Formerly we were accounted women and em- 
 ployed only in women's business, but now they have made 
 men of us, and as such are now come to this treaty, having 
 this authority as a man to make peace. I have it in my 
 hand, but have not opened it, but will soon declare it to the 
 other nations. This belt holds together ten nations. We are 
 in the middle, between the French and English. Look at it. 
 This belt further denotes that whoever will not comply with 
 the terms of peace the ten nations will strike him. See the 
 dangerous circumstances I am in — strong men on both sides; 
 hatchets on both sides. Whoever is for peace him will I join. 
 Brother, this is a good day. Whoever will make peace let 
 him lay hold of this belt." Here the governor took hold of 
 the belt and said that he was pleased with what the king 
 had said. The figures on the belt were then explained — the 
 
26 
 
 English were represented on one end, the French on the 
 other, and the land of the Indians lay between them. Teedy- 
 uscung and his son then dined with the governor, soon 
 after which he departed for Diahoga. Major Parsons, at 
 this council, was requested to keep a written memoranda of 
 the general behavior and conversation of the king, from 
 which it would seem that the high position assumed arid 
 maintained by him in council was hardly compatible or 
 consistent with his ordinary life. "The king and his wild 
 company were perpetually drunk, very much on Gascoon, 
 and at times abusive to the inhabitants, for they all spoke 
 English, more or less. The king wAs full of himself, say- 
 ing frequently that which side soever lie took must stand 
 and the other fall, repeating it with insolence that he came 
 from the French who had pressed him much to join them 
 against the English, that now he was in the middle, between 
 the French and the luiglish, quite disengaged from both 
 sides, and whether he joined with the English or French, 
 he would publish it aloud to the world, that all nations 
 might know it. * * * He is a lusty, raw-boned man, 
 haughty and very desirous of respect and command ; he 
 can drink three quarts or a gallon of rum a day without 
 being drunk ; he was the man that persuaded the Delawares 
 to go over to the French and then attack our frontiers, and 
 he and those with him have been concerned in the mischief 
 done to the inhabitants of Northampton county. Some of 
 the Indians said that between forty or fifty of their people 
 came to Diahoga from one of the lakes about the time they 
 set out, in order to fall upon our inhahit.uits, and addressed 
 Teedyuscung to head them, but he told them he was going 
 to the governor of Pennsj'lvania to treat with him concern- 
 ing a peace, which the Mohawks had advised him to do, 
 and therefore he ordered them to sit still till he came back 
 again to them. The townspeople observed that the shirts 
 which the Indian women had on were made of Dutch table- 
 
27 
 
 cloths, which it is supposed they took from the people they 
 murdered on our frontiers. The king, in one of his conver- 
 sations, said that only two hundred French and about eighty 
 Indians were at the lake, where most of the English are, 
 and that he could bring the most or all of them off. The 
 governor invited Teedyuscung and the Ijidians to dine with 
 him, but before dinner the king, with some of them, came 
 to the governor and made the governor four speeches, giv- 
 ing four strings of wampum, after the Indian manner ; one 
 to brush thorns from the governor's legs, another to rub the 
 dust out of his eyes to help him see clearly, another to 
 open his ears, and the fourth to clear his throat that he 
 might speak plainly. Teedyuscung claimed to be king of 
 ten nations. Being asked what ten nations, he answered, 
 the united Six Nations — Mohawks, Onondagos, Oncidas, 
 Senecas, Cayugas and Tuscaroras, and four others — Dela- 
 wares, Shawanese, Mohicans and Munsies, who would all 
 ratify what he should do. He carried the belt of peace 
 with him, and whoever would might take hold of it. But 
 as to them that refused, the rest would all join together and 
 fall upon them. All the Indians, in short, would do as he 
 would have them, as he was the great man. The governor 
 used the same four ceremonies to Teedyuscung, accom- 
 panied with four strings of wampum, after which the gov- 
 ernor and Indians went to dinner, escorted by a detachment 
 of the First Battalion of the Pennsylvania Regiment." Con- 
 rad Weiser, the interpreter, was first introduced to Teedy- 
 uscung at this time, who, after watching his movements a 
 single day, reported to the council "that the king and the 
 principal Indians being all yesterday under the force of 
 liquor, he had not been favored with so good an opportu- 
 nity as he could have wished of making himself acquainted 
 with their history, but in the main he believed Teedyus- 
 cung was well inclined ; he talked in high terms of his own 
 merit, but expressed himself a friend to this province." 
 
28 
 
 Tcedyuscung at this council was alleged to have been the 
 instigator of the Indian outrages upon the whites in 1755, 
 by sending large belts of wampum to various tribes on the 
 war path, but the shrewd informer or negotiator, with a 
 view of personal advantage and emolument, informed Gov- 
 ernor Morris that as Teedyuscung had brought on the war, 
 he was the only person that could effect a peaceful solution 
 of all Indian affairs. To do this "Teedyuscung must have 
 a belt of wampum at least five or six feet long and twelve 
 rows broad, and besides the belt, he must have twelve strings 
 to send to the several chiefs to confirm the words that he 
 sends." Pursuant to arrangement made before he left, 
 Teedyuscung promised to return to another council to be 
 held in Easton in November. He returned to Easton Nov- 
 ember 8, 1756, and brought with him four chiefs of the 
 Six Nations, sixteen Delaware Indians, two Shawanese and 
 six Mohicans. Imposing ceremonies, both for state and 
 securit}', were kept up throughout the negotiations. At 
 three o'clock Gox'ernor Denny marched from his lodgings 
 to the place of conference, guarded by a party of the Royal 
 Americans in front and on the flanks, and a detachment of 
 Col. Weiser's Provincials in subdivisions in the rear, with 
 colors flying, drums beating and music playing, which 
 order was always observed in going to the place where the 
 council was held. Teedyuscung performed the part of 
 chief speaker on this occasion for all of the tribes present, as 
 he had done at the preceding conference. He is represented 
 to have supported the rights and claims of the Indians in a 
 dignified and spirited manner. If his people had cowered 
 like cravens before the rebukes of the Six Nations in the 
 council of 1742, their demeanor was far otherwise on this 
 occasion. The chieftain's imposing presence, his earnest- 
 ness of appeal and his impassioned orator)', as he plead the 
 cause of the long injured Lenape evoked the admiration of 
 his enemies themselves. He alwa)-s .spoke in the euphon- 
 
29 
 
 ious Delaware, employing this Castillian of the new world 
 to utter the simple and expressive figures and tropes of the 
 native rhetoric with which his harangues were replete, 
 although he was conversant with the white man's speech. 
 It would almost appear from the minutes of these confer- 
 ences that the English artfully attempted to evade the point 
 at issue and to conciliate the indignant chieftain by fair 
 speeches and uncertain promises. The hollowness of the 
 former he boldly exposed, and the latter he scornfully re- 
 jected, so that it was soon perceived that the Indian king 
 was as astute and sagacious as he was unmovable in the 
 justice of his righteous demands. On being requested by 
 the governor to state the causes of their uneasiness and 
 subsequent hostilities, Teedyuscung enumerated several. 
 Among them were the abuses committed upon the Indians 
 in the prosecution of their trade, being unjustly deprived of 
 portions of their lands, and in the execution, long before, 
 in New Jersey, of a Delaware chief named Wekahelah, for, 
 as the Indians allege, accidently killing a white man — 
 a transaction which they said they could not forget. 
 When the governor desired specifications of the alleged 
 wrong, Teedyuscung replied : "The kings of England and 
 France have settled or wrought this land so as to coop us 
 up as if in a pen. I have not far to go for another instance. 
 This very ground that is under me (striking it with his 
 foot), was my land and inheritance, and is taken from me 
 by fraud. When I say this ground, I mean all the land 
 lying between Tohiccon creek and Wyoming, on the river 
 Susquehanna. I have not only been served so in this gov- 
 ernment, but the same thing has been done to me as to 
 several tracts in New Jersey, over the river." When asked 
 what he meant by fraud, Teedyuscung replied : "Where one 
 man had formerly liberty to purchase land, and he took the 
 deeds from the Indians and then dies, and after his death 
 his children forge a deed like the true one, with the same 
 
30 
 
 Indian names to it, and thereby take lands from the Indians 
 which they never sold, it is fraud. Also, when one chief 
 has land beyond the river and another chief has land on 
 this side, both -bounded by rivers, mountains and springs 
 which cannot be moved, and the proprietaries, ready to 
 purchase lands, buy of one chief what belongs to another. 
 This likewise is fraud. When I had agreed to sell certain 
 lands to the old proprietor by the course of the river, the 
 young proprietors came and got it run by a straight course 
 by the compass, and by that means took in double the 
 quantity intended to be sold. This he thought was fraud." 
 He said the Dclawarcs had never been satisfied with the 
 conduct of the latter since the treaties of 1737, when their 
 fathers sold them the lands on the Delaware. He said that 
 although the land sold was to have gone only "as far as a 
 man could go in a day and a half from Nasliamony creek ^ 
 yet the person who measured the ground did not walk but 
 ran. He was moreover, as they supposed, to follow the 
 winding bank of the river, whereas he went in a straight line. 
 And because the Indians had been unwilling to give up the 
 land as far as the walk extended, the governor then having 
 the command of the English, sent for their cousins, the Six 
 Nations, who had always been hard masters to them, to 
 come down and drive them from their land. When the Six 
 Nations came down the Delawares met them at a great 
 treaty, held at the governor's house, at Philadelphia, for the 
 purpose of explaining why they did not give up the land, 
 but the English made so many presents to the Six Nations 
 that their ears were stopped. They would listen to no ex- 
 planation, and Canassatego had moreover abused them 
 and called them women. The Six Nations, had, however, 
 given to them and the Shawanese the lands upon the Sus- 
 quehanncf and the Juniata for hunting grounds, and had so 
 informed the governor, but notwithstanding this the whites 
 wore allowed to go and settle upon those lands. Two years 
 
3^ 
 
 ago moreover the governor had been to Albany to buy 
 some hmds of the Six Nations, and had described their pur- 
 chase hy poitits of compass which the Indians did not under- 
 stand, including lands both upon the Juniata and the Sus- 
 quehanna, which they did not intend to sell. When all 
 those things were known to the Indians, they declared they 
 wouuld no longer be friends to the English, who were try- 
 ing to get all their country away from them. He, how- 
 ever, assured the council that they were nevertheless glad 
 to meet their old friends, the English, again, and to smoke 
 the pipe of peace with them. He also hoped that justice 
 would be done to them for all the injuries they had received. 
 The council continued nine days and Governor Denny 
 appears to have conducted himself with so much tact and 
 judgment as greatly to conciliate the good will of tlie In- 
 dians. By his candid and ingenious treatment of them as 
 some of the Mohawks afterwards expressed it, "he put his 
 hands into Teedyuscung's bosom and was so successful as 
 to draw out the secret which neither Sir William Johnson 
 nor the Six Nations could do." The result was a reconcil- 
 iation of the Delawares of the Susquehanna with the Eng- 
 lish, and a treaty of peace upon the basis that Teedyuscung 
 and his people were to be allowed to remain upon the 
 Wyoming lands, and that houses were to be built for them 
 by the proprietaries. There were, however, several matters 
 left unadjusted, although the governor desired that every 
 difficulty should then be discussed and every cause of com- 
 plaint, as far as he possessed the power, be removed. But 
 Teedyuscung replied that he was not empowered at the 
 present time to negotiate upon several of the questions of 
 grievance that had been raised, nor were all the parties in- 
 terested properly represented in the council. He therefore 
 proposed the holding of another council in the following 
 spring at Lancaster. This proposition was acceded to, and 
 many Indians collected at the time and place appointed. 
 
32 
 
 Sir William Johnson despatched a deputation of the Six 
 Nations thither under the charije of Col. Cro^han, the 
 deputy superintendent of the Indians, but for some reason 
 unexplained, neither Teedyuscung nor the Delawares from 
 Wyoming attended the council, though of his own appoint- 
 ment. Col. Croghan wrote to Sir William, however, that the 
 meeting was productive of great good in checking the war 
 upon the frontier ; and in a speech to Sir William, delivered 
 by the Senecas in June following, they claimed the credit, 
 by their mediation, of the partial peace that had been ob- 
 tained. The conduct of Teedyuscung on that occasion was 
 severely censured by Sir William in a speech to the Onon- 
 dagos, Cayugas and Senecas, ^nd the latter were charged by 
 the baronet to take the subject in liand and "talk to him," 
 and should they find him in fault "make him sensible of it." 
 In 1757, Teedyuscung requested the governor of Pennsyl- 
 vania to so fix and define his land, around his village on the 
 Susquehanna, that "his children can never sell or yours ever 
 buy them," and to remain so forever. He also asked the 
 proprietary government to assist him in building houses at 
 Wyoming before corn-planting time. Ten log houses 
 "twenty feet by fourteen in the clear, and one twenty-four 
 by sixteen of squared logs and dovetailed," were built for 
 him in 1758. These were the first dwelling houses erected 
 in W\'oming. Other buildings were subsequently erected 
 there. To check or crush the ambitious projects of New 
 l"lngland men about forming a colony at Wyoming, in- 
 fluenced their erection by Pennsylvania quite as much as 
 any especial regard for the Delaware sachem. One of the 
 masons was killed and scalped by six hostile Indians while 
 engaged in this labor. The influence of Sir William John- 
 son, agent for Indian affairs, was invoked to bring the Six 
 Nations to a new congress. Neither presents nor promises 
 were spared, and in October, 1758, there was opened at 
 Easton, one of the most imposing assemblages ever beheld 
 
33 
 
 in Pennsylvania. Chiefs from the Six Nations were there, 
 namely : Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagos, Cayugas, Sene- 
 cas and Tuscaroras. There were also present ambassadors 
 from the tributory tribes of Nanticokes, Canoys, Turteloes, 
 Chenangoes, Delawares, Unamies, Minisinks, Wapingers 
 and Shawanese. Both the governors of Pennsylvania and 
 New Jersey attended, with Sir William Johnson and George 
 Croghan, sub-Indian agent, a deputation from the Provin- 
 cial assembly of New Jersey, and a large concourse of emi- 
 nent citizens from Philadelphia and the neighboring coun- 
 ties. Teedyuscung, on the way to the conference, having 
 fallen in company with the chief who had commanded the 
 expedition against Gnaddenhutten and Fort Allen, high 
 words arose between them, when the king raised his toma- 
 hawk and laid the chief dead at his feet. From this mo- 
 ment, though vengeance might slumber, he was a doomed 
 man, a sacrifice alike to policy and revenge. At the con- 
 gress Teedyuscung, eloquent and of imposing address, took 
 at first a decided lead in the debates. But one of the 
 chiefs of the Six Nations, on the other hand, expressed in 
 strong language his resentment against the British colonists 
 who had killed and imprisoned some of his tribe, and he, 
 as well as other chiefs of those nations, took great umbrage 
 at the importance assumed by Teedyuscung, whom, as one 
 of the Delawares, they considered in some degree subject 
 to their authority. Teedyuscung, however, supported the 
 high station which he held with dignity and firmness, and 
 the different Indian tribes at length became reconciled to 
 each other. The conference having continued eighteen 
 da)'s and all causes of misunderstanding between the Eng- 
 lish and Indians being remo\ed, a general peace was con- 
 cluded on October 26. At this treaty the boundaries of the 
 different purchases made from the Indians were more par- 
 ticularly described and they received an additional compen- 
 sation for their lands, consisting of knives, hats, caps, look- 
 
34 
 
 ing glasses, tobacco boxes, shears, gunlocks, combs, clothes, 
 shoes, stockings, blankets and several suits of laced clothes 
 for their chieftains, and when the business of the treaty was 
 completed the stores of rum were opened and distributed to 
 the Indians, who soon exhibited a scene of brutal intoxica- 
 tion. Great offence, it appears, was given to the ambassadors 
 of the Six Nations at the consequence assumed, and the for- 
 ward part taken, by Teedyuscung, and yet no immediate 
 measures were adopted to chastise his supposed contumacy. 
 A solution of what might otherwise seem difficult, both in 
 his more bold, independent conduct and the forbearance of 
 the Iroquois, may be found in the fact that the power of 
 their allies, was already sensibly shaken and Great Britain 
 was preparing with unexampled vigor to drive the French 
 from this continent. Fort William was taken in 1757, 
 Louisburg surrendered to their victorious arms in the sum- 
 mer of 1758, and far more important to the Iroquois, as it 
 was almost in the heart of the dominions claimed by them, 
 the shame of Braddock's defeat was washed out, and Fort 
 Du Quesne (afterwards named Fort Pitt), had surrendered 
 to the English the February preceding the October of 1758, 
 when the conferences at Easton were holden. That event 
 was a fatal blow to the widely extended claim of power on 
 the pari of the confederacy, although the council fire at 
 Onondago was for many years after numerously surrounded 
 by bold and ambitious chiefs and renowned warriors. In 
 1753 an association of persons, principally inhabitants of 
 Connecticut, was formed for the purpose of commencing a 
 settlement in that portion of the Connecticut territories 
 which lay westward of the province of New York. Agents 
 were accordingly sent out for the pur(oose of exploring the 
 country and selecting a proper district. The beautiful val- 
 ley upon the Susquehanna river in which the Indians of the 
 Delaware.: tribe, ^L'leven )'ears before, had built their town of 
 \\'\'oniing, attracted the attention of the agents, antl as they 
 
35 
 
 found the Indians apparently very friendly, and a consider- 
 able portion of the valley unoccupied, except for purposes 
 of hunting, they reported in favor of commencing their set- 
 tlements at that place and of purchasing the lands of the 
 Six Nations of Indians, residing near the great lakes, who 
 claimed all the lands upon the Susquehanna. This report 
 was adopted by the company, and at a general meeting of 
 commissioners from all the English American colonies, in 
 pursuance of his majesty's instruction, for the purpose of 
 forming a general treaty with the Indians, it was considered 
 that a favorable opportunity would then be presented for 
 purchasing the Wyoming lands. When the general con- 
 gress of commissioners assembled at Albany the agents ap- 
 pointed by the Susquehanna company attended also, and 
 having successfully effected the objects of their negotiation, 
 obtained from the principal chiefs of the Six Nations, on the 
 I ith day of July, 1754, a deed of the lands on the Susque- 
 hanna, including Wyoming and the country westward to 
 the waters of the Allegheny. In the summer of 1755 the 
 Susquehanna company, having, in the month of May pre- 
 ceding, procured the consent of the legislature of Connecti- 
 cut for the establishment of a settlement, and if his majesty 
 should consent, of a separate government within the limits 
 of their purchase, sent out a number of persons to take pos- 
 session of their lands at Wyoming, but finding the Indians 
 in a state of war with the white people, the settlement of 
 the country was at that time deemed impracticable. Tcedy- 
 uscung, in September, 1760, being in Philadelphia, had a 
 conference with Lieutenant Governor Hamilton, in which 
 he said: "Brother, I am ready to set out, but have heard 
 yesterday some bad news which obliges me once more to 
 wait on you. Yesterday I w^as told that some of the New 
 I^ngland people are going on the west side of Susque- 
 hannah with intent to settle the lands at Wyomink ; if this 
 should be the case then all the pains that have been taken 
 
36 
 
 by this government and me will be to no purpose. It is 
 the Indians' land and the}' will not suffer it to be settled. I 
 therefore desire the (governor will send a smart letter to the 
 government where those intruding people came from, to 
 forbid this proceeding, and tell their governor plainly that 
 if they do not go away the Indians will turn them off;" he 
 added with a great deal of warmth, "these people cannot 
 pretend ignorance, and if they shall then continue on the 
 lands it will be their own fault if anything happens," and re- 
 peated his entreaties to the governor to take every measure 
 in his power to prevent the settlement of those lands, for it 
 will certainly bring on another Indian war. The governor 
 informed Teedyuscung that he had, the other day, received 
 some information of this matter and that as the justices of 
 the peace were holding a court at Easton, he ordered the 
 sheriff and some of the said justices to go to the place 
 where it is said these New l^ngland men are settling, and 
 if they find any people settling, to let them know they 
 are sent by this government to warn them off, show them 
 the bad consequences that would ensue on such an en- 
 croachment on lands belonging to the Indians and the pro- 
 prietaries, and forthwith to report what they find doing, 
 that proper measures may be taken to prevent it. Teedy- 
 uscung further desired that he might be made acquainted 
 with whatever is doing of this sort, for if the governor can't 
 the Indians will put a stop to it, and he was answered that 
 he should certainly be informed of it. On April 6, 1761, 
 Teedyuscung was again in Philadelphia with some of the 
 Delaware and Opies Indians, and had another conference 
 with Lieutenant Go\'ernor 1 lamilton. He spoke as follows : 
 "Brother, I ha\c, for four or fi\e years, been constantly em- 
 ployed in promoting the good work of peace, and now 
 something looks darkish and unless what makes it look so 
 be removed, it may be hurtful to our old men, women and 
 children, notwithstanding all that has been done. Brother, 
 
37 
 
 I never did hide anything in my heart, and I desire if the 
 governor has anything in his heart that he would not hide 
 it. This is the way to keep all things right between us, 
 which cannot be done if we hide from one another what 
 is upon our minds. Brother, you may remember that when 
 I was here in the fall of the year I informed you that some 
 New England people were settling the Indian lands near a 
 place called Cushietunck, and expressed a great deal of un- 
 easiness at it. You told me that you had likewise heard 
 something of it, and had sent the sheriff and magistrates of 
 the county, bordering on these lands, to the place, with 
 orders to see what was doing, and to warn any persons off 
 whom they should (find) settling there. You likewise said 
 that as soon as you should be informed by these people of 
 what they should find doing there you would send a mes- 
 sage to the government of Connecticut to know if they 
 were abetted by it and what were their future designs. 
 Brother, I have not heard anything from you since that 
 time, and our people are become so uneasy at this new set- 
 tlement that several of them are moved away to other places 
 and these now present are come on purpose with me to 
 hear what you have to say about this affair. Brother, some 
 of the Opies were coming to settle at Wyomink, but being 
 disturbed at what they hear, they have sent their king that 
 they may hear what you have to say, and knaw the matter 
 from you before they proceed further. So many stories 
 were brought to Wyomink that I, myself, was almost ready 
 to leave my house, but I thought I would come and see 
 you first and consult with you about it. Brother, the 
 reason why we were so uneasy is this : About three weeks 
 ago Robert White came to our town, along with Tiiomas 
 King, one of the Six Nation Indians, and told us they had 
 been at Cushietunck among these people, and that Sir Wil- 
 liam Johnson had sent to warn them off if they intended to 
 settle there ; if only to trade, then he desired they would 
 
38 
 
 use the Indians well and give them no offense. But they 
 made very light of it, and said they would not regard either 
 what Sir William Johnson should say, nor the governor of 
 Pennsylvania, nor the magistrates, but only what should 
 come from their own governor. They said they had bought 
 that land from some Indians who were at the last treaty at 
 Easton, and would settle there. They said likewise, that 
 in the spring when there should be plenty of grass they 
 would come and settle the lands at Wyomink, and that 
 Thomas King had given leave to settle the Wyomink land, 
 and if the Indians who lived there should hinder their set- 
 tlement, they would fight it out with them and the strongest 
 should hold the land. Robert White added that they told 
 him that they should be four thousand strong in the spring 
 and would all come to Wyomink. Robert White told us 
 further that they kept continued watch for fear the Indians 
 should shoot them." Tecdyuscung being asked how many 
 Robert White found there, he answered that Robert White 
 told them there were thirty families. Another conference 
 was held with the same Indians and Governor Peters on 
 April 1 1. The governor acquainted Teedyuscung that he 
 would now give him an answer to his speech, and then be- 
 gan as follows : "Brother, I readily- acknowledge the zeal 
 with which you have for some years past concurred with 
 this government in promoting the good work of peace, and 
 it is owing, in a great measure, to your endeavors that the 
 same has been brought to an happy conclusion. Brother, 
 )-ou will please to obser\c that the people who arc attempt- 
 ing to settle your lands, and in so doing justl}' gi\e you so 
 much uneasiness, are none of them of this pro\ince, they 
 come from a distant government and set up pretentions for 
 this land partly under the charter of Connecticut, the colony 
 from whence they came, and partly under what they call 
 Indian purchases, for besides what they told Robert White, 
 that they had {)urchased that land from some Indians that 
 
39 
 
 were at the last treaty at Easton, they did assure the gen- 
 tleman whom I sent to warn them off that they had bought 
 it from Delaware Indians, who had signed them deeds for 
 it, which I shall read to you that you may inquire into the 
 truth of this matter." (He here read the names of eigh- 
 teen Indians w^ho had signed the deeds.) "Brother, you 
 may depend upon it that this gov^ernment will strictly ob- 
 serve their treaties with the Indians and will spare no pains 
 to hinder these people from settling these lands. In proof 
 of this I shall faithfully relate to you what I have done in 
 consequence of the last conference we had together on this 
 subject. I never did nor never will hide anything from 
 you, being fully persuaded that openness on all occasions 
 is the only way to confirm one another in a lasting friend- 
 ship. Brother, agreeably to what I lately told you, as soon 
 as it came to my knowledge that people were settling in 
 the upper parts of Northampton county, beyond the bound 
 of the lands purchased by the proprietaries of the Indians, 
 I sent the sheriff and magistrates of that county to lay be- 
 fore them the dangerous consequences that might follow 
 from such a proceeding and to desire they would desist and 
 go away, and I was in hopes my message would have had 
 a good effect, but when it was reported to me by those gen- 
 tlemen that they said they would persist in their settlement, 
 and that they were supported by the government of Con- 
 necticut in what they did, I immediately sent a letter to 
 their governor, informing him of my message to these set- 
 tlers and of their answer, and did not fail in the strongest 
 terms I was able to represent to him, that such a settlement 
 was not only against law and the rights of the proprietaries 
 of Pennsylvania, to whom the king had granted these lands, 
 but that you and your Indians at Wyomink had formerly 
 complained of this settlement as a violation of your right, 
 the lands not being purchased from the Indians, and that 
 being done without consent of the Indians it would endan- 
 
40 
 
 ger the peace so happily concluded between them and his 
 majesty's subjects at Easton, and I did insist that the gover- 
 nor of Connecticut should send for these people, put a stop 
 to their settlement, and discountenance all such dangerous 
 proceedings ; and if, nevertheless, they should continue in 
 their unjust attempts, they might depend upon it, that in 
 support of the proprietary and Indian rights, I would op- 
 pose them with all my might. To this letter I have, as yet, 
 received no answer, which keeps me in the dark, so that I 
 know not what the intentions of the government of Con- 
 necticut are, nor what measures these people will take. 
 At the time I wrote to Governor Fitch, I published a 
 proclamation strictly forbidding all the inhabitants of this 
 province from joining themselves to these intruders, and 
 giving it in charge to all his majesty's subjects to bring any 
 persons who shall be found settling those lands or encour- 
 aging such as did, before the proper magistrates, in order 
 that they might be dealt with according to law. And you 
 may assuredly rely on my carrying this proclamation into 
 execution, and doing everything in my power to remove 
 these unlawful intruders. But then, all this will be ineffec- 
 tual, if, whilst some Indians are complaining against them, 
 others, as they say, are encouraging them and are content 
 to have them settle." Teedyuscung thanked the governor 
 and expressed great satisfaction therewith. He asked what 
 should be done if they should come to Wyomink in the 
 spring ? The governor gave him for answer that they 
 should not suffer them to settle, and expected to be informed 
 of cver)'thing that they should attempt, either at Wj'omink 
 or in any other part of the country. To which Teedyus- 
 cung replied that he looked upon himself as the governor's 
 eye and ear, and that he would give him the earliest intel- 
 ligence of everything that should come to his knowledge. 
 Then Teedyuscung desired that, as the people who came 
 with him were poor and naked, the go\-ernor would order 
 
41 
 
 them clothes and provisions for their journey home, and 
 the governor promised to consult with the provincial com- 
 missioners and give him an answer. Another council was 
 held April 13, at which was present Lieutenant Governor 
 Hamilton and others. The governor, upon reconsidering 
 that part of his speech to Teedyuscung, in which he desired 
 him not to suffer the Connecticut people to settle at Wyom- 
 ink, was of opinion that they might possibly misunderstand 
 his meaning and look upon it as an encouragement for them 
 to use force in the preventing of their settlement, by which 
 means many murders might happen and an Indian war be 
 revived, thought proper to explain himself more particu- 
 larly on that head, for which purpose he sent for Teedyus- 
 cung and explained himself in the following manner : 
 "Brother, by what I said to you the other day about your 
 not suffering the Connecticut people to settle themselves at 
 Wyomink or on any of the Indian lands, I did not mean 
 that you should use force or proceed to kill any of them 
 for coming amongst you and attempting to settle your 
 lands, but you should rather collect the ancient and dis- 
 creet men of your nation and go to them in a peaceable 
 manner and endeavor to persuade^them to forbear settling 
 those lands till the right to the same should be settled by 
 lawful authority, and the Indians to whom the land of right 
 belongs shall consent to sell it." Teedyuscung being asked 
 if he understood what was said, answered that he perfectly 
 well understood it and was pleased with it. As for him he 
 will do nothing more in this matter, but will acquaint the 
 governor with anything that shall hereafter be attempted 
 by these people, and leave it to the governor to do what is 
 proper. He then acquainted the governor by a string of 
 wampum that some of the Opey and Mohican nations were 
 going to settle at Wyomink, and when he looked that way 
 he should see them sitting together as one people. He 
 will always do from his heart what shall be for the best, and 
 
42 
 
 in an open way. The governor then enforced again to him 
 not to have recourse to violence lest it should occasion fresh 
 disturbances, but that since he has said he would refer the 
 matter to him, he will take care to manage the matter so 
 as may be most for the interest of the Indians. In the case 
 of Van Horn vs. Dorrance and Fenn vs. Pickering, the dep- 
 osition of Parshall Terry was read. It contains inter alia 
 this information : "That in the year 1762, he then being an 
 inhabitant of Goshen, in the then province of New York, 
 and he then also being a proprietor in the Connecticut-Sus- 
 quehanna purchase, being informed that the company of 
 proprietors had granted two townships, ten miles square 
 each, as a gratuity to the first two hundred settlers, they 
 being proprietors (or in proportion to a less number), con- 
 ditional, that said settlers go and remain in possession fqr 
 the company for the term of five years ; that as near as he 
 can recollect, some time about the last of August of the 
 same year the deponent, with ninety-three others, mostly 
 from Connecticut, went to Wyoming ; that they carried on 
 and took w ith them horses and farming utensils for the pur- 
 pose of carrying on the farming business =i< * * 'pj-jg 
 deponent saith that on their arrival at Wyoming they en- 
 camped at the mouth of Mill Creek, on the banks of the 
 Susquehanna, where they built several huts for shelter ; that 
 they cut grass and made hay on Jacob's Plains ; that 
 they were shortly after joined by many others ; that their 
 whole company on the ground were one hundred and fifty 
 or upwards ; that they continued on the ground, according 
 to his best recollection, about ten days ; that the season 
 being far advanced and finding that it would be difficult to 
 procure provisions at so great distance from any inhabited 
 country, the committee of the settlers, viz., John Jenkins, 
 John Smith and Stephen Ganincr, thought proper and ad- 
 vised us to return, which was agreed to and the greatest 
 part of the company withdrew, the deponent being one ; 
 
43 
 
 that a small number were left on the ground who tarried 
 some time longer as the deponent understood. The depon- 
 ent says that at the time they arrived at Wyoming there 
 were no inhabitants in that country to his knowledge, ex- 
 cept one Teedyuscung, an Indian chief, and a number of 
 Indian families. The deponent did not discover any ap- 
 pearance of any improvements being made by white people 
 previous to the deponent and the company aforesaid going 
 on to the lands. The deponent further saith that at the 
 time they withdrew they secured their farming utensils in 
 the ground to be ready for the spring following, as they 
 expected to return at that time." A private conference was 
 held at the governor's house in Philadelphia, November 19, 
 1762, Lieutenant Governor Hamilton being present. The 
 governor desired Teedyuscung to speak nothing but what 
 should be strictly true, which he promised to do, and then 
 he began his business, saying : "Brother, you may remem- 
 ber that some time ago I told you that I should be obliged 
 to remove from Wyomink on account of the New England 
 {)cople, and I now again acquaint you that soon after I re- 
 turned to Wyomink from Lancaster" (August) "there came 
 one hundred and fifty of those people, furnished with all 
 sorts of tools, as well for building as husbandry, and de- 
 clared that they bought those lands from the Six Nations 
 and would settle them, and were actually going to build 
 themselves houses and settle upon a creek called Lecha- 
 wanoch, about seven or eight miles above Wyomink. I 
 threatened them hard and declared I would carr}^ them to 
 the governor at Philadelphia, and when they heard me 
 threaten them in this manner they said they would go away 
 and consult their own governor, for if they were carried to 
 Philadelphia they might be detained there seven years, and 
 they said further, that since the Indians were uneasy at this 
 purchase, if they would give them back the money it had 
 cost them, which was one or two bushels of dollars, they 
 
44 
 
 would ffivc them their land afjain. Brother, ten days after 
 these were gone there came other fourteen men and made 
 us the same speeches, declaring that they expected above 
 three thousand would come and settle the Wyomink lands 
 in the spring, and they had with them a saw and saw mill 
 tools, purposing to go directly and build a saw mill about 
 a mile above where I live, but upon my threatening those 
 in the same manner I did the former company they went 
 away, and as I was told, buried their tools somewhere in 
 the woods. These people desired me to assist them in sur- 
 veying the lands, and told me they would reward me hand- 
 somely for my trouble, but I refused to have anything to 
 do with them. Brother, six days after these were gone 
 there came other eight white men and a mulatto, and said 
 the very same things to mc that the others had said, and 
 immediately I got together my counsel and as soon as we 
 had finished our consultations I told these people that I 
 would actually confine them and carry them to Philadelphia 
 and deliver them to the governor there, upon which they 
 went away saying they would go to their own governor and 
 come again with greater numbers in the spring. Some of 
 these people stole my horse that I bought at Easton, but 
 they gave me another horse and five pounds in money in 
 satisfaction for my horse. Brother, tho' I threatened these 
 people hard tiiat I would confine them and carry them 
 down to you, yet I did not mean actually to do it, remem- 
 bering that you charged me not to strike any white men 
 tho' they should come, but to send you the earliest notice 
 of their coming that was in my power. Brother, before I 
 got up to Wyomink from Lancaster, there had come a great 
 body of these New England people with intent actually to 
 settle the land, but the Six Nations passing by at that time 
 from Lancaster, sent to let them know that they should not 
 be permitted to settle any of these lands, and on their ex- 
 pressing great resentment against them and threatening 
 
45 
 
 them if they persisted, they went away. This I was told 
 by Thomas King, who was left behind at Wyomink by the 
 Six Nations to tell me that they intended to lay this whole 
 matter before the great council at Onondago, and that they 
 would send for me and my Indians to come to Albany in 
 the spring, where they are to have a meeting with the New 
 England people, and desired I would be quiet till I should 
 receive their message, and then come to Albany. On this 
 speech of Thomas King's we met together in council and 
 agreed not to give him any promise to come to Albany, 
 but to advise the governor of Pennsylvania of this and to 
 take his advice what to do, and if he will go with us and 
 advise us to go, we will go in case we should be sent for in 
 the spring. Brother, surely, as you have a general of the 
 king's armies here he might hinder these people from com- 
 ing and disturbing us in our possessions. * * * Brother, 
 I have one thing more to say, and then I shall have finished 
 all I have to say at this time. Brother, you may remem- 
 ber that at the treaty at Easton w^e were promised that a 
 school master and ministers should be sent to instruct us 
 in religion and to teach us to read and write. As none 
 have been yet provided for us I desire to know what you 
 intend to do in this matter. I have now done." The gov- 
 ernor answered Teedyuscung's speech the next day as fol- 
 lows : "I thank you for the information you have given me 
 of what passed between you and the people of Connecticut. 
 Hearing that some of these people were gone towards the 
 Susquehanna, I sent a special messenger after them to warn 
 them from settling those lands and to take care not to give 
 offense to the Indians from whom those lands had not been 
 purchased. My messenger came, fortunately, just after the 
 Six Nations had ordered them to go away and shown great 
 reluctance at their presuming to come and settle those 
 lands, and met them returning home displeased with the 
 Six Nations for speaking to them in the rough manner they 
 
46 
 
 did. Brother, I have written both to General Amherst and 
 to Sir WiUiam Johnson and to the governor of Connecti- 
 cut ; this matter is hkewise laid before the great king by- 
 Sir William Johnson, so that I am in hopes you will not see 
 any more of these troublesome people, but that measures 
 will be taken to keep them at home. Brother, I commend 
 you for your prudent behavior; I did and do still desire 
 that no blood of the white people may be shed by you, but 
 that you will continue to give me the earliest notice you 
 can if you hear of any of them coming again in the spring. 
 Brother, * * * you know that your uncles, the Six 
 N£.tions, have kindled a fire for you at VVyomink, and de- 
 sired you would stay there and watch and give them notice 
 if any white people should come to take away their lands 
 from them and that you would not suffer them to do it. 
 You may think, be assured, that this winter measures will 
 be taken to prevent these troublesome people from coming 
 to disturb you. On these considerations I desire you will 
 remain quiet where you are and not move away, as you 
 seem to have no inclinations to go away, only on account 
 of these New England disturbers. As to any invitations 
 the Six Nations may make to you to come to Albany to 
 council with them and to meet the New England people, 
 you will pay such regard to them as your connections with 
 your uncles will require. I don't pretend to any authority 
 over you, but I would advise you to comply with such in; 
 vitation as you shall receive from your uncles. I am not 
 invited and know nothing of this matter, but if I hear an)'- 
 thing of it I will let you know. The times have been so 
 unsettled that there has been no opportunity of sending 
 ministers and school masters among you. Now there is a 
 likelihood of a general peace here soon established; if you 
 determine still to continue at Wyomink, about which you 
 have expressed some doubts to me, I shall consider of this 
 matter and send \-ou an answer at the proper time." 
 
47 
 
 This was the last official act of Teedyuscung with the 
 government of Pennsylvania. 
 
 For a period of nearly five years succeeding the last 
 treaty held at Easton, the frontiers of Pennsylvania were 
 exempt from Indian hostilities or depredations, except the 
 practice of horse stealing, to which the savages were always 
 addicted. The Indians frequently visited Philadelphia in 
 parties and received attention and presents from the gover- 
 nor. In 1762 the chain of friendship between them and the 
 whites was strengthened and brightened at a great council 
 held at Lancaster, attended by chiefs from the Six Nations, 
 by the western Indians and by those in Pennsylvania. At 
 this treaty Teedyuscung withdrew the imputation of forgery 
 made at Easton against the younger Penn's and their 
 agents, but adhered to the charge of fraud as connected 
 with the walking purchase. He, however, signed a release 
 for all claims upon lands on the Delaware, and received for 
 himself and his people seven hundred pounds, Pennsylvania 
 currency (eighteen hundred dollars), in money and goods. 
 The Moravians reestablished their missions at Gnadenhut- 
 ten, Waughwawame (Wyoming), Wyalusing and at other 
 points, and the whites on the frontiers, recovering from the 
 effects of the last long and bloody war were anticipating 
 the blessings of a prosperous peace. Though suffering 
 many privations, the zeal of the missionaries did not cool, 
 neither did their faith waver, nor their efforts relax ; their 
 souls seemed to glow with a divine ardor, success crowned 
 their labors, and several hundred Indians received the rite 
 of baptism. In the meantime Wyoming was the theatre of 
 highly interesting events. The correspondence between 
 the executive of Pennsylvania and Sir William Johnson was 
 reopened and the influence of the baronet was exerted upon 
 the Six Nations to persuade them to disavow the sale of 
 1754. Those of the Indians who had not been concerned 
 in the sale, and who, on the other hand, w ere doubtless op- 
 
48 
 
 posed to it, were of course not unwilling to repudiate the 
 transaction, and a deputation of fi\e of their chiefs was sent 
 to Hartford, accompanied by Colonel Guy Johnson, deputy 
 agent, and an interpreter sent by Sir William. Conferences 
 were held by these chiefs with the governor of Connecticut 
 and his council on May 28 and 30, 1762, in the course of 
 which the sale of the land was disavowed as a national 
 transaction. They admitted that a sale had been made, 
 but denied its validity, inasmuch, they averred, as it had 
 not been made according to ancient usage in a full and 
 open council, but the chiefs who had signed the deed had 
 been applied to separately, and had acted only in their in- 
 dividual capacities. Governor Fitch, in reply, assured the 
 chiefs that the movements of the company had not been 
 authorized by the government, and with their proceedings 
 it had, in fact, had nothing to do. For their further satis- 
 faction, moreover, the governor informed them that orders 
 had been received from his majesty commanding him to 
 use his authority and influence to prevent the intended 
 movement upon the lands in dispute until the matter should 
 be laid before the king. They were likewise still farther 
 assured that the company had acquiesced in those orders 
 and had unanimously agreed that no person should enter 
 upon the lands until his majesty's pleasure should be 
 known. With these assurances, the deputies, consisting of 
 one Mohawk, two Onondagoes and two Ca)'ugas — none of 
 them chiefs of note — seem to have been satisfied. But 
 whatever might have been the desire of the shareholders of 
 the company, the individuals who had resolved to emigrate 
 gave little attention to their stipulations with the governor, 
 and their ad\-ance was met by a series of unheeded procla- 
 mations and followed by the powerless remonstrances of 
 the sheriff and magistracy residing in Northampton county, 
 on the Delaware, to which the valley of Wyoming was held 
 to belong, the seat of justice of which was at Easton. Nor 
 
49 
 
 was this all. In the course of the same year the proprie- 
 taries of Pennsylvania made a case and took the opinion of 
 the attorney general of the crown (Mr. Pratt, afterwards 
 Lord Camden), as to the right of Connecticut to the terri- 
 tory she was claiming. That officer was clear in his opinion 
 against Connecticut — holding that, by virtue of her adjust- 
 ment of boundaries with New York, she was precluded 
 from advancing a step beyond. But the Susquehanna com- 
 pany was not idle. Colonel Eliphalet Dyer, a leading as- 
 sociate and a man of energy and ability, was dispatched 
 to England, charged likewise with a "case," carefully pre- 
 pared, which was presented to the consideration of eminent 
 counsel in London, who came to a directly opposite con- 
 clusion. Each party therefore felt strengthened by those 
 conflicting legal opinions, and both became the more reso- 
 lute in the prosecution of their claims. Meantime fresh 
 scenes were opening in the disputed territory, as painful as 
 unexpected. Notwithstanding a proclamation issued by 
 Governor Fitch, eight days after the conference with the 
 Indians were ended, forbidding the people of Connecticut 
 from trespassing upon the disputed territory, the pioneers 
 who, in the summer of 1762, had commenced their opera- 
 tions in Wyoming, returned to the valley to resume their 
 labors early in the ensuing spring, accompanied by their 
 families, and with augmented numbers of settlers. They 
 were furnished with an adequate supply of provisions, and 
 took with them a quantity of live stock, cattle, horses and 
 pigs. Thus provided, and calculating to draw iargel}' from 
 the teeming soil in the course of the season, they resumed 
 their labors with light hearts and vigorous arms. The 
 forests rapidly retreated before their well directed blows, 
 and in the course of the summer they commenced bringing 
 the lands into cultivation on both sides of the river. Their 
 advancement was now so rapid that it is believed the jeal- 
 ousies of the Indians began to be awakened. At least, not- 
 
50 
 
 withstanding the claims which the Six Nations had asserted 
 over the territory by virtue of which they had sold to the 
 Susquehanna company, Teedyuscung and his people al- 
 leged that they ought to receive compensation also. Sir 
 William Johnson had indeed predicted as much in a letter 
 addressed to Governor Fitch in the preceding month of 
 November, in which he said: "I cannot avoid giving you 
 my sentiments as I formerly did, that the Indians insist 
 upon the claims of the people of Connecticut to lands on 
 the Susquehanna as unlawful, and the steps taken to obtain 
 the same to be unjust, and have declared themselves deter- 
 mined to oppose any such settlement. I am therefore ap- 
 prehensive of any farther attempt at an establishment there 
 will not only be severely felt by those who shall put the same 
 in execution, but may (notwithstanding all my endeavors to 
 the contrary) be productive of fatal consequences on our 
 frontiers." Thus matters stood until in the spring, when an 
 event occurred which broke up the settlement at one fell 
 blow. Indian revenge may sleep, but never dies; the hour 
 may be postponed for months or years, but at last will 
 come as sure as fate. Teedyuscung had slain with his own 
 hand the chief who commanded the Iroquois war party in 
 their devastation of Gnadenhutten. War upon the whites 
 being now renewed, it is not improbable that the king ma)' 
 have declined to lead his tribe to battle. At the great 
 council held at Easton in 1758, the Six Nations had ob- 
 served, with no very cordial feelings, the important position 
 which Tecd}-uscung had attained in the opinion of the 
 w hites, b}' the force of his talents and the energ)' of his 
 character. Long accustomed to \ie\v the Delawares and 
 their (leri\'ati\'e tribes as tiieir s///>jir/s, the haughty Iroquois 
 could not brook this advancement of a supposed inferior, 
 and the reflection had been rankling in their bosoms until it 
 was determined to cut ofTthe object of their hate. Certain, 
 however, it is, that for some time se\'eral of the Six Nations 
 
51 
 
 had been visiting at Wyoming without any ostensible ob- 
 ject, minghng, socially, with the Delawares, and appearing 
 on friendly terms with the old chief. Whiskey had been 
 obtained, which, when in his power, the Indian propensity 
 was too strong to be resisted, and he drank until inebriation 
 overpowered his senses, and he lay sleeping in his wigwam 
 scarcely conscious of life, and wholly unsuspicious of dan- 
 ger. In the dead of night, on April 19, 1763, the house of 
 Teedyuscung, and twenty of the surrounding dwellings 
 burst, almost at the same moment, into flames, and thus the 
 great Delaware king miserably perished. The wickedness 
 of this deed of darkness was heightened by an act of still 
 greater atrocity. Th-ey charged the assassination upon the 
 white settlers from Connecticut, and had the address to in- 
 spire the Delawares with such a belief. The consequences 
 may readily be anticipated. Teedyuscung was greatly be- 
 loved by his people, and their exasperation at "the deep dam- 
 nation of his taking off," was kindled to a degree of corre- 
 sponding intensity. The white settlers, however, being en- 
 tirely innocent of the transaction — utterly unconscious that 
 it had been imputed to them — were equally unconscious of 
 the storm that was so suddenly to break upon their heads. 
 Their intercourse with the Indians, during the preceding 
 \'car, had been so entirely friendly that they had not even 
 pro\'idcd themseU-es \\ith weapons of self defense, and 
 although there had been some slight manifestations of 
 jealousy at their onward progress, among the Indians, )-ct 
 their pacific relations, thus flir, had not been interrupted, 
 l^ut they were now reposing in false security. Stimulated 
 to revenge by the representations of their false and insidious 
 \isitors, the Delawares, on the 15th of October, rose upon 
 the settlement and massacred twelve of the people in cold 
 blood, at noonday, while engaged in the labors of the field 
 on the flats in the lower part of this city. Those who 
 escaped ran to the adjacent plantations to apprize them of 
 
52 
 
 what had happened, and were the swift messengers of the 
 painful intelligence to the houses of the settlement and the 
 families of the slain. It was an hour of sad consternation. 
 Having no arms even for self defense, the people were com- 
 pelled at once to seize upon such few of their effects as they 
 could carry upon their shoulders, and flee to the mountains. 
 As they turned back, during their ascent, to steal an oc- 
 casional glance at the beautiful valley below, they beheld 
 the savages driving their cattle away to their own towns, 
 and plundering their houses of the goods that had been 
 left. At nightfall the torch was applied and the darkness 
 that hung over the vale was illuminated by the lurid flames 
 of their own dwellings —the abodes of happiness and peace 
 in the morning. Hapless, indeed, was the condition of 
 the fugitives. Their number amounted to several hun- 
 dreds — men, women and children — the infant at the breast, 
 the happy wife a few brief hours before, now a widow in 
 the midst of a group of orphans. The supplies, both of 
 provisions and clothing, which they had sesured in the 
 moment of their flight, were altogether inadequate to their 
 wants. The chilly winds of autumn were howling with 
 melancholy wail among the mountain pines, through which, 
 over rivers and glens, and fearful morasses, they were to 
 thread their way sixty miles to the nearest settlements on 
 the Delaware and thence back to their friends in Connecti- 
 cut, a distance of two hundred and fifty miles. Notwith- 
 standing the hardships they were compelled to encounter, 
 and the deprivations under which they labored, manv of 
 them accomplished the journey in safety, while others, lost 
 in the mazes of the swamps, were never heard of more. 
 
 Parshall Terry sa)'s : "That early in the month of May 
 (as near as he can recollect), in the year 1763, he, the de- 
 ])onent, w ith a small number of others, went on to Wyom- 
 ing to renew their ptxssessions ; that they were soon joined 
 b)' a large number, being mostly those who had been on 
 
53 
 
 the preceding year ; that they took on with them horses, 
 oxen, cows and farming utensils ; that they proceeded to 
 plowing, planting corn and sowing grain of different kinds, 
 building houses, fences and all kinds of farmers business ; 
 that they made large improvements in Wilkes-Barre, Kings- 
 ton, Plymouth and Hanover (as they are now called); that 
 they improved several hundred acres of land with corn and 
 other grain, and procured a large quantity of hay ; that 
 they carried on their business unmolested until the month 
 of October ; that during their residence at Wyoming this 
 season, according to his best recollection, there were about 
 one hundred and fifty settlers who made improvements, 
 though not so great a number on the ground at any one 
 time ; that he also well recollects lands being laid out and 
 lotted on the Susquehanna river the same year, and that he, 
 the deponent, drew a lot at that time in Wilkes-Barre (as it 
 is now called) ; that on the fifteenth day of October the set- 
 tlers being in a scattered condition, on their respective 
 farms, they were attacked by the savages, surprised in 
 every part of their settlement, and all at or near the same 
 time ; that near twenty were killed of the settlers, the others 
 taken and dispersed. The whole of the property of the set- 
 tlers then on the ground fell into the enemy's hands. The 
 deponent recollects the names of several that were killed, 
 viz., the Rev. William Marsh, Thomas Marsh, Timothy 
 HoUistcr, Timothy Hollister, junior, Nathaniel HoUister, 
 Samuel Richards, Nathaniel Terry, Wright Smith, Daniel 
 Baldwin and his wife, Jesse Wiggins, and a woman b)' 
 the name of Zeriah Whitney. Several others were killed 
 whose names he does not recollect." In an appendix to an 
 address delivered at the Wyoming Monument by W. H. 
 Egle, M. D., July 3, 1889, we have a brief narrative of the 
 captivity of Isaac Hollister. He .says: "On the 15th day 
 of October, 1763, as I was at work with my father on the 
 banks of the Susquehannah, the Indians to the number of 
 
54 
 
 one hundred and thirt)'-fiv^e came upon us, and killed my 
 father on the spot. My brother, Timothy, who was at work 
 about half mile distant under-went the same fate, as did like- 
 wise fourteen or fifteen others who were at work in different 
 places. The Indians, after they had burnt and destroyed 
 all they could, marched off, and carried me up the Susque- 
 hannah river about one hundred and fifty miles." 
 
 The names of the survivors were John Jenkins, William 
 Buck, Oliver Smith, Abel Pierce, Obadiah Gore, Daniel 
 Gore, Isaac Underwood, Isaac Bennett, James Atherton, 
 Ebenezer Searles, Ephraim Taylor, Ephraim Taylor, Jr., 
 John Dorrance, Timothy Smith, Jonathan Slocum, Benja- 
 min Follett, Nathan Hurlbut, Isaac Hollister, Matthew 
 Smith, Benjamin Davis, George Minor, John Smith, Elipha- 
 let Stevens, William Stevens, Ephraim Seely, David Honey- 
 well, Jonathan Weeks, Jonathan Weeks, Jr., Philip Weeks, 
 Uriah Stevens, Gideon Lawrence, Stephen Gardner, Augus- 
 tus Hunt, John Comstock, Oliver Jewell, Ezra Dean, Daniel 
 Larence, P2zekiel Pierce, Eilkanah Fuller, Benjamin Ashley, 
 
 Stephen Lee, Hover, Silas Parke, Moses Kimball, 
 
 Nathaniel Chapman, Benjamin Shoemaker, Simeon Draper, 
 David Marvin, Parshall Terry. 
 
 The descendants of a large number of the above named 
 persons still reside in the Wyoming valley, having returned 
 in 1769, when the next attempt at settlement was made. 
 
 Teedyuscung with all his faults, was yet one of the 
 noblest of his race. Yet, his character stands not well in 
 histor)- — not as well, by any means, as it deserxcs. That 
 he was a man of talent and courage, there can be no ques- 
 tion ; but withal he was greatly subject to the constitutional 
 infirmities of his race, unstable in his purposes, and a lover 
 of the fire waters — the enemy which, received to the lip, 
 steals away the brain, alike of the white man and the red. 
 It has already been seen that he was early a convert — and 
 apparcnth' a sincere one — to the christian fiith of the mis- 
 
55 
 
 sionaries. After the suspension of hostilities, and during 
 negotiations for peace, he was much at Bethlehem, and at 
 one time fixed his residence there. His attachment to the 
 brethren he openly av^owed, expressing his determination 
 to keep by them in preference to others of the whites. 
 Elsewhere he exulted in being called a Moravian. Although 
 he had broken his vows and had been unfaithful to his pro- 
 fession, he would frequently, when in conversation with the 
 brethren, revert to his baptism, and feelingly deplore the 
 loss of the peace of mind he had once enjoyed. And hence 
 we doubt not that there were times when, marshalling 
 his savage warriors for deeds of blood in the wild highlands 
 of the Delawares, there would come over him a vision of 
 the "Huts of Grace," in the peaceful valley of the Mahon- 
 ing, and of the turreted chapel in which he had knelt in 
 baptism, and which he had entered so often on holy days, 
 at the sound of the church-going bell. But his faith was too 
 weak to withstand the influence of ambition, and when ele- 
 vated to the supreme chieftainship of the scattering tribes 
 of his nation, his behavior was such as to cause the good 
 missionaries to tremble for his safety, seeing that he became 
 "like a reed shaken by the wind." Hitherto, for many 
 years, his nation had been down-trodden by the Iroquois, 
 but when they determined once more to assert their own 
 manhood, and to grasp the hatchet presented them by the 
 French, electing Teedyuscung their king, as he had been 
 their energetic champion in the councils before, he now be- 
 came, as he was called, "The Trumpet of War." He did 
 not, however, long continue upon the war path, but, as has 
 been seen, became an early advocate and ambassador of 
 peace, although his sincerity in this respect was questioned 
 by the Moravian clergy and likewise by Sir William Johnson. 
 Still it must be recorded in his behalf that he appears never 
 to have entirely forfeited the confidence of the Quakers. 
 They were indeed opposed to the declaration of war against 
 the Indians by Governor Hamilton — believing that the dif- 
 
56 
 
 ficulties with them might have been healed by a more pa- 
 cific course. And in this view they had the concurrence of 
 Sir Wilham Johnson. But in regard to the character of 
 Teedyuscung, the sympathies of the baronet were with his 
 own Indians — the Six Nations. They hated, and finally 
 murdered him, and Sir William loved him not. Yet in his 
 correspondence, while he labored to detract somewhat from 
 the lofty pretensions of the Delaware captain, the baronet 
 has conceded to him enough of talent, influence and power 
 among his people to give him a proud rank among the 
 chieftains of his race. Certain it is, that Teedyuscung did 
 much to restore his nation to the rank of Men, of which 
 they had been deprived by the Iroquois, and great allow- 
 ances are to be made on the score of his instability of con- 
 duct, from the peculiar circumstances under which he was 
 often placed. In regard to his religious character and pro- 
 fessions, his memory rests beneath a cloud. There were 
 seasons, according to the records of the faithful missionary, 
 in which he gave signs of penitence and reform. The 
 brethren did all in their power for his reclamation. Oc- 
 casional appearances of contrition at times inspired hopes 
 of success. "As to externals," he once said, 'T possess every- 
 thing in plenty ; but riches are of no use to me, for I have 
 a troubled conscience. I still remember well what it is to 
 feel peace in the heart, but now I have lost all." Yet he 
 soon turned back. All hopes of his case were lost, and in 
 recording his death, the benevolent Loskiel briefly says : 
 "He was burnt in his house at Wajomick, without having 
 given any proof of repentance." 
 
 The following authorities in part ha\e been consulted in 
 compiling this paper : 
 
 Chapman, I. A. History of Wyoming. 
 
 Colonial Records. 
 
 Day, Sherman. Historical Collections of the State of Pennsylvania. 
 
 Kgle, W. H., M. D. History- of Pennsylvania. 
 
 Hollister, H., M. D. History of the Lackawanna Valley. 
 
 lioyt, H. M. Brief of a Title in the Seventeen Townships. 
 
 Mif.er, Charles. History of Wyoming. 
 
 Montgomery, Morton L. Indians of Pennsylvania in Dr. Egle's Historical Register. 
 
 Pcarce, Stewart. Annals of Luzerne County. 
 
 Pennsylvania Archives. 
 
 Reichel, W, C. Memorials of the Moravian Church. 
 
 Stone, W. L. Poetry and History of Wyoming. 
 
COAL: 
 
 ITS ANTIQUITY. 
 
 DISCOVERY AND EARLY DEVELOPMENT IN THE 
 W/YOMING VALLEY. 
 
COAL, ITS ANTIQUITY. DISCOVERY AND EARLY 
 DEVELOPMENT IN THE WYOMING VALLEY. 
 
 [Paper read before the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, June 27, 1890, by 
 George B. Kulp, Esq., Historiographer of the Society.] 
 
 The word Coal has been derived by some writers from 
 the Hebrew, and by others from the Greek or Latin, but 
 whatever may be its origin, it is deserving of remark that 
 the same sound for the same object is used in the Anglo- 
 Saxon, the Teutonic, the Dutch, the Danish and the Islandic 
 languages. 
 
 In its most general sense the term Coal includes all 
 varieties of carbonaceous minerals used as fuel. Stone coal 
 is a local English term, but with a signification restricted to 
 the substance known by mineralogists as anthracite. In old 
 English writings the terms pit coal and sea coal are com- 
 monly used. These have reference to the mode in which 
 the mineral is obtained and the manner in which it is trans- 
 ported to market. Anthracite is the most condensed form 
 of mineral coal and the richest in carbon. Its color varies 
 from jet to glistening black, to dark lead gray; it is clean, 
 not soiling the hands ; ignites with difficulty ; burns with a 
 short blue flame without smoke, and with very little illumi- 
 nating power. It gives an intense, concentrated heat. Some 
 varieties when undisturbed while burning, partially retain 
 their shape till nearly consumed, and some become extinct 
 before they have parted with the whole of their carbon. 
 The constituents of anthracite are carbon, water and earthy 
 matters — not in chemical proportions, but in accidental and 
 varying mixtures. There are also other ingredients occa- 
 sionally present, beside the oxide of iron, silica and alumina, 
 which compose the earthy matters or ash. These are sul- 
 phur, bitumen, &c. All coals, including in this designation 
 naphtha, petroleum, asphaltum, &c., are but representatives 
 
6o 
 
 of the successive changes from vegetable to mineral mat- 
 ters. Anthracite is the condensed coke of bituminous coal. 
 It must be borne in mind that the signification now attached 
 to the word coal is different from that which formerly ob- 
 tained, when wood was the only fuel in general use. Coal 
 then meant the carbonaceous residue obtained in the de- 
 structive distillation of wood, or what is known as charcoal, 
 and the name collier was applied indifferently to both coal 
 miners and charcoal burners. The spelling "cole" was gen- 
 erally used up to the middle of the seventeenth century 
 when it was gradually superseded by the modern form 
 "coal." The plural coals seems to have been used from a 
 very early period to signify the broken fragments of the min- 
 eral as prepared for use. 
 
 The use of mineral coal as fuel certainly antedates the 
 Christian era, but the date of the earliest mining operations 
 is unknown. A paragraph from the writings of Theo- 
 phrastus, one of Aristotle's disciples, who was born in the 
 year 382 B. C, is quoted to prove its early use, but as no 
 reference is made to mining operations, it seems probable 
 that the coal gathered and "broken for use" was loose out- 
 crop coal. The passage reads : "Those substances that are 
 called coals and are broken for use are earthy, but they kindle 
 and burn like wooden coals. They are found in Lyguria, 
 where there is amber, and in Ellis, over the mountain towards 
 Olympias. They are used by the smiths." The word "coal" 
 frequently occurring in the Bible, is doubtless used to denote 
 wood, charcoal, or any substance used as fuel. The ancient 
 Britons had a primitive name for this fossil, and Pennant 
 says : "That a flint axe, the instrument of the Aborigines of 
 our island, was discovered in a certain vein of coal in Mon- 
 mouthshire, and in such a situation as to render it very ac- 
 cessible to the inexperienced natives who, in early times, were 
 incapable of pursuing the seams to any great depths." 
 Ca;sar takes no notice of coal in his description of England, 
 
6i 
 
 yet there is good evidence to believe that the Romans 
 brought it into use. In the West Riding of Yorkshire are 
 many beds of cinders, heaped up in the fields, in one of 
 which a number of Roman coins were found some years 
 ago. From Horsely it appears that there was a colliery at 
 Benwell, about four miles west of New Castle upon Tyne, 
 supposed to have been actually worked by the Romans, and 
 it is evident from Whitaker that coals were used as fuel in 
 England by the Saxons. No mention is made of this fossil 
 during the Danish occupation, nor for many years after the 
 Norman conquest. The first charter for the license of dig- 
 ging coals was granted by King Henry III in the year 1239 ; 
 it was there denominated sea coal, and in 1281 Newcastle 
 was famous for its great trade in this article. The privilege 
 of digging coal in the lands of Pittencrief, was conferred by 
 charter on the abbot and convent of Dumferline in 1291, 
 and at a very early period the monks of Newbattle Abbey 
 dug coal from surface-pits on the banks of the Esk. In 
 1306 the use of sea coal was prohibited in London from its 
 supposed tendency to corrupt the air. Shortly after this it 
 was the common fuel at the King's palace in London, and 
 in 1325 a trade was opened between France and England in 
 which corn was imported and coal was exported. Aeneas 
 Silvius Piccolomini (after\v^ards Pope Pius II), who visited 
 Scotland in the fifteenth century, refers to the fact that the 
 poor people received at the church doors a species of stone 
 which they burned in place of wood, but, although the 
 value of coal for smiths and artificers' work was early recog- 
 nized, it was not generally employed for domestic purposes 
 till about the close of the sixteenth century. In 1606 an 
 Act was passed binding colliers to perpetual service at the 
 works at which they were engaged, and their full emanci- 
 pation did not take place until 1799. 
 
 In 161 5 there were employed in the coal trade of New 
 Castle four hundred sail of ships, one-half of which supplied 
 
62 
 
 London, the remainder the other part of the kingdom. The 
 French, too, are represented as trading to New Castle at 
 this time for coal, in fleets of fifty sails at once, serving the 
 ports of Picardy, Normandy, Rochelle and Bordeaux, while 
 the ships of Bremen, Emboden, Holland and Zealand were 
 supplying the inhabitants of Flanders. 
 
 Macaulay, in his History of England, says that "coal, 
 though very little used in any species of manufacture, was 
 already the ordinary fuel in some districts which were fortu- 
 nate enough to possess large beds, and in the capital, which 
 could easily be supplied by water carriage. It seems rea- 
 sonable to believe that at least one-half of the quantity 
 then extracted from the pits was consumed in London. 
 The consumption of London seemed to the writers of that 
 age enormous, and was often mentioned by them as a proof 
 of the greatness of the imperial city. They scarcely hoped 
 to be believed when they affirmed that two hundred and 
 eighty thousand chaldrons, that is to say, about three hun- 
 dred and fifty thousand tons, were, in the last year of the reign 
 of Charles the Second (1685), brought to the Thames." 
 
 Coal mining was also prosecuted in Scotland in the elev- 
 enth and in Germany in the thirteenth century, while at the 
 antipodes the Chinese had even at that early day become 
 familiar with the use of coal. 
 
 Saward, in his Coal Trade for 1890, speaks thus of the 
 coal supplies of the world : 
 
 "In view of the question which has suggested itself on 
 more than one occasion as to how long it would be before 
 the Old World coal deposits would become exhausted, a 
 German scientific journal supplies some interesting figures 
 relating to the world's coal fields outside of the North Ameri- 
 can Continent. According to these, the Low Countries, 
 Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, and Bohemia possess coal 
 mines of a surface area of about fifty-nine thousand square 
 miles. Russia alone has twenty-two thousand square miles. 
 
(^3 
 
 The deposits of the island of Formosa amount to something 
 like ten thousand square miles, some of the coal veins rang-* 
 ing up to 96 feet in thickness. The coal fields of Austria, 
 Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Persia cover 
 about thirty-nine thousand square miles, those of India 
 thirty-five thousand, and those of Japan six thousand square 
 miles, while those of China are estimated at the enormous 
 figure of four hundred thousand square miles. But these 
 are not all. The Falkland Islands, Patagonia, and Peru are 
 very rich in coal, while the southern part of Chili is one im- 
 mense deposit. In Brazil veins varying in thickness from 
 seventeen to twenty-five feet are found in numbers, and in 
 the United States of Columbia there is an abundance of 
 the mineral. Mexico and the Vancouver Islands are also 
 well supplied, there being probably not far from twenty 
 thousand square miles, while the deposits thus far discovered 
 in Tasmania, New Caledonia, and Natal are estimated to 
 cover one hundred thousand square miles ; the larger num- 
 ber of these deposits have not yet been worked." 
 
 But it was not until the eighteenth century that coal 
 mining began to be scientifically prosecuted. Prior to that 
 time the mines were of very limited depth, rarely going be- 
 neath water level ; the coal was raised by a windlass or 
 horse-gin, drainage affected by adits, or the water was raised 
 in chain pumps or barrels operated by hand or horse-power, 
 and the natural ventilation — aided in some instances by fall- 
 ing water, and later by furnaces — was usually the sole reli-, 
 ance for removing foul air and explosive gases. 
 
 Yet in some of these early operations there are pictures 
 not unlike those to be seen every day at our modern mines ; 
 thus the following description of the early tram-roads and 
 wagons used at Newcastle, from "The History and Antiq- 
 uities of the Town of New Castle, upon Tyne," by John 
 Brand, M. A., 1789, in which an article written by Lord 
 
64 
 
 Keeper Guilder, 1676, quoted below, singularly resembles 
 'the present practice : 
 
 "The manner of carriage is by laying rails of timber 
 from the colliery down to the river, exactly straight and 
 parallel ; and bulky carts are made with four rowlets, fitting 
 these rails, whereby the carriage is so easy that one horse 
 will draw four or five chaldrons of coals, and is an immense 
 benefit to the coal merchants." 
 
 The fate of many who embarked in mining at that time 
 is strikingly similar to that which frequently overtakes the 
 projectors of enterprises at present, as evinced by the fol- 
 lowing from Grey's "Chorographia," 1649: 
 
 "One merchant imployeth five hundred or a thousand 
 in his works of coal ; yet, for all of his labour, care and 
 cost, can scarcely live by his trade ; nay, many of them hath 
 consumed and spent great estates and dyed beggars. I can 
 remember one, of many, that raysed his estate by coale 
 trade; many I remember that hath wasted great estates." 
 
 "Some South gentlemen have, upon great hope of bene- 
 fit, come into this countiy to hazard their monies in coale 
 pits. Master Beaumont, a gentleman of great inginuity and 
 rare parts, adventured into our mines with his thirty thou- 
 sand pounds ; who brought with him many rare engines, 
 not known then in these parts — as, the art to boore with iron 
 rodds, to try the deepnesseand thicknesse of the coale, rare 
 engines to draw water out of the pits, wagons with one 
 horse, to carry down coales from the pits to the stathes to 
 the river. * * * In a few years he consumed all his 
 money, and rode home upon his light-horse." 
 
 As it is with anthracite we have to deal, we will devote 
 ourselves to that branch of coal. Of the value or even the 
 existence of coal in America all races were ignorant until 
 the eighteenth century. "At Christian Spring, near Naza- 
 reth, Pa., there was living about the year 1750 to 1755, a 
 gunsmith, who, upon application being made him by several 
 
65 
 
 Indians to repair their rifles, replied that he was unable to 
 comply immediately ; 'for,' said he, 'I am entirely bare of 
 charcoal, but as I am now engaged in setting some wood to 
 char it, therefore, you must wait several weeks.' This, the 
 Indians, having come a great distance, felt loath to do ; they 
 demanded a bag from the gunsmith, and having received it, 
 went away and in two hours returned with as much stone 
 coal as they could well carry. They refused to tell where 
 they had procured it." As there is no coal near Nazareth 
 the tale seems improbable. If the time fixed had been two 
 days, instead of two hours, the coal could have been brought 
 from the Mauch Chunk region in that time. That portion 
 of Pennsylvania purchased of the Five Nations by the Con- 
 necticut-Susquehanna Company at Albany, N. Y., July ii, 
 1754, for the sum of two thousand pounds of current money 
 of the province of New York, embraced the Lackawanna 
 and Wyoming coal district. Fourteen years later, Novem- 
 ber 5, 1768, the same territory was included in the Fort 
 Stanwix purchase of the Indian Nations by the proprietary 
 government of Pennsylvania. The strife between Pennsyl- 
 vania and Connecticut resulted from these purchases. The 
 first notice of coal at Wyoming grew out of the settlement 
 there in 1762. Parshall Terry, in his deposition, says : 
 
 "As near as he can recollect, some time about the last of 
 August, 1762, he, with ninety-three others, mostly from 
 Connecticut, went to Wyoming, encamped at the mouth of 
 Mill Creek, on the bank of the Susquehanna, built huts, 
 made hay on Jacob's Plains, and shortly after were joined 
 by many others, and they continued there ten days or longer. 
 The committee of the settlers, viz. : John Jenkins, John 
 -Smith and Stephen Gardner advised us to return, which 
 was agreed to." After the return home of these settlers 
 the above committee, through their chairman, John Jenkins, 
 made report of the discovery of iron ore and anthracite coal 
 at Wyoming. 
 
66 
 
 "At a meeting of the Susquehanna Company, held at 
 Windham, in the county of Windham and colony of Con- 
 necticut, April 17, 1763, it appearing to this company that 
 some of the proprietors of our purchase of lands at Sus- 
 quehanna river, to the number of two or three hundred, de- 
 sire that the lands may be laid out into several townships, as 
 a part of their rights for the speedy settlement of said lands. 
 
 "It is therefore voted, That there shall be eight townships 
 laid out on said river, as near as may be to the townships 
 granted as gratuity to the first settlers, each of said eight 
 townships to contain five miles square of land, fit for good 
 improvement or equivalent thereunto as the land may suit- 
 ably accommodate, at the discretion of a committee here- 
 after to be named and appointed for that purpose, reserving 
 for the use of the company for their after-disposal, all beds 
 or mines of iron ore and coal that may be within the towns 
 ordered for settlement." 
 
 "This would appear to be the first discovery and mention 
 of anthracite coal in the countr\-." — Dr. Eglc's History of 
 Pen nsyha Ilia. 
 
 The next mention of coal is in a letter written by James 
 Tilghman of Philadelphia, August 14, 1766, addressed to 
 the Proprietaries, Thomas and Richard Penn, Spring Gar- 
 den, London. At the close of four compact pages on other 
 matters, it says : "My brother-in-law, Colonel Francis, one 
 of the officers who lately applied to }'0u for a grant of some 
 lands in the Forks of the Susquehanna, when there shall be 
 a purchase of the Indians, has lately made an excursion into 
 those parts and has removed a good many of the people 
 settled upon the Indian lands, partly by persuasion and 
 partly by compulsion, which has made the Indians pretty 
 easy, to appearance, lie went up the N. E. Branch as far 
 as Wyoming, where, he says, there is a considerable body of 
 good lands and a very great fund of coal in the hills which 
 surround a \er\- fine and extensi\'e bottom there. This coal 
 
6; 
 
 is thought to be veiy fine. With his comphments he sends 
 you a piece of this coal. This bed of coal, situate as it is 
 on the side of the river, may some time or other be. a thing 
 of great value." By way of postscript he adds: "the coal is 
 in a small package of the Governor's." In a reply from 
 Thomas Penn, dated London, November 7, 1766, to Mr. 
 Tilghman, he say in acknowledgment : 'T desire you will 
 return my thanks to Colonel Francis for his good services 
 in removing the intruders that were settled on the Indians' 
 land, and for the piece of coal which we shall have exam- 
 ined by some persons skillful in that article, and send their 
 observations on it." 
 
 The next mention we have of coal is on the original draft 
 of the Manor of Sunbury, surveyed in 1768 by Charles 
 Stewart in the Proprietary's interest, where appears the brief 
 notation "stone coal" without further explanation. The lo- 
 cation on the draft is near the mouth of Toby's creek, and 
 not far from where the Woodward breaker is located. 
 
 The next mention of coal is as follows : During General 
 Sullivan's march through Wyoming, in 1779, Major George 
 Grant, one of his officers, wrote of the valley : "The land 
 here is excellent, and comprehends vast mines of coal, pew- 
 ter, lead and copperas." The last three named have never 
 been found here. 
 
 The next mention of coal is as follows : John David 
 Schopf, in his Travels, mentions a visit he made in 1783 to 
 abed of brilliant black coal, a mile above Wyoming, which, 
 on handling, leaves no taint, and burns without emitting an 
 offensive odor ; that it was so abundant as to be obtained 
 without any charge. He further tells us that a smith had 
 erected workshops near it, and who spoke highly of its 
 value. He noticed the numerous impressions of plants be- 
 tween the shale and the coal, which he believes proves its 
 origin and great antiquity. It is found here on both sides 
 of the river, and in various parts of the valley. 
 
68 
 
 We here conclude the notice of coal with one further 
 mention. Joseph Scott, in his "Gazetteer of the United 
 States," published in 1795, in his remarks on Luzerne coun- 
 ty, says : "Wilkes-Barre, the county seat, contains forty- 
 five dwellings, a court house and jail, and several large beds 
 of coal are found in the townships of Wilkcs-Barre, Kings- 
 ton, Exeter and Plymouth. 
 
 It is impossible to state when the consumption of Wyom- 
 ing coal began. It is possible that the Indians at Wyoming 
 had some knowledge of the combustible nature of anthra- 
 cite coal. Two chiefs from the valley, in company with 
 three others from the country of the Si.x Nations, visited 
 England in 17 10, and it is presumed they witnessed the 
 burning of coal, then in general use in the cities of England, 
 for domestic purposes. The consumption of black stones 
 instead of wood could not fail to make a deep impression 
 on their minds, and they would naturally infer that this fuel 
 was nearly allied to the black stones of their own country. 
 The appearance of anthracite had long been familiar to their 
 eyes. The forge, or seven feet vein of coal, had been cut 
 through and exposed by the Nanticoke creek, and the seven 
 feet \cin of Plymouth had been laid open to view b}' Ran- 
 som's creek. The Susquehanna had exposed the coal at 
 Pittston, and the Lackawanna at several points along its 
 banks. If the Indians at that day were ignorant of the 
 practical use of coal, the)' were at least acquainted with its 
 appearance and not improbably with its inflamable nature. 
 That the Indians had mines of some kind at Wyoming, the 
 following account fully establishes : 
 
 In 1766 a company of Nanticokcs and Mohicans, six in 
 number, who had formerly lived at Wyoming, visited Phila- 
 ilelphia, and in their talk with the governor said: "As we 
 came down from Chenango we stopped at Wyoming, where 
 we had a mine in two places, and we discoxercd that some 
 white pcoi)lc had been at work in the mine and had filled 
 
69 
 
 canoes with the ore, and we saw their tools with which they 
 had dug it out of the ground, where they made a hole at 
 least forty feet long and fiv^e or six feet deep. It happened 
 that formerly some white people did take now and then only 
 a small bit and carry it away, but these people have been 
 working at the mine and filled their canoes. We inform 
 you that there is one John Anderson, a trader, now living 
 at Wyoming, and we suspect he or somebody by him has 
 robbed our mine. This man has a store of goods, and it 
 may happen that when the Indians see their mine robbed 
 they will come and take away his goods," etc. The sub- 
 stance alluded to by the Indians had been carried away in 
 small quantities for some time, by the whites, perhaps to 
 test its qualities, and it is highly improbable that it would 
 have been afterwards removed by canoe loads unless it had 
 been found to be a useful article. What could that useful 
 article have been but coal ? There were settlements of 
 whites on the Susquehanna, a little below the site of the 
 town of Northumberland, several years before the period 
 when these Indians had their talk with the governor, and 
 the coal may have been taken there for blacksmithing pur- 
 poses. The Indians who had their guns repaired at Chris- 
 tian Sirring certainly had knowledge of the value of coal for 
 combustible purposes. 
 
 Obadiah Gore, who represented Westmoreland county 
 in the legislature of Connecticut, in 1781 and 1782, and sub- 
 sequently one of the judges of Luzerne county, and in 1788, 
 1789 and 1790 a member of the Pennsylvania legislature, 
 emigrated from Plainfield, Conn., to Wyoming in 1769, and 
 began life in the new colony as a blacksmith. Friendly 
 with the remaining natives, from motives of policy, he learned 
 of them the whereabouts of black stones, and being withal 
 a hearty and an experimenting artisan, he succeeded in 
 mastering the coal to his shop purposes the same year. 
 He, in connection with his brother, Daniel Gore, also a 
 
70 
 
 blacksmith, were the first white men in Wyoming to give 
 practical recognition and development to anthracite as a 
 generator of heat. In the few blacksmith shops in Wyo- 
 ming Valley and the West Branch settlements coal was 
 gradually introduced after its manipulation by Mr. Gore. 
 Mr. Pearce, who differs from most of the historians of the 
 valley, says, "We do not believe, as do some, that the Gores 
 were the first whites who used anthracite on the Susque- 
 hanna for blacksmithing. Stone coal would not have been 
 noted on the original draft of the Manor of Sunbury if it 
 had not been known to be a useful article. Hence, when 
 the first settlers came into our valley the evidence inclines 
 us to believe the knowledge of the use of anthracite coal 
 was communicated to them by the Indians or by some of 
 their own race." Jesse Fell used anthracite coal in a nailery 
 in 1788. He says, "I found it to answer well for making 
 wrought nails, and instead of losing in the weight of the 
 rods, the nails e.Kceeded the weight of the rods, which was 
 not the case when they were wrought in a charcoal furnace." 
 When the struggle for American independence began, in 
 1775, the proprietary government of Pennsylvania found 
 itself so pressed for firearms that under the sanction of the 
 supreme executive council two Durham boats were sent up 
 to Wyoming and loaded with coal at Mill Creek, a short 
 distance above Wilkes-Barre, and floated down the Susque- 
 hanna to Harris Ferry (Harrisburg), thence drawn upon 
 wagons to Carlisle, and employed in furnaces and forges to 
 supply the defenders of our country with arms. This was 
 done annually during the revolutionary war. Thus stone 
 coal, by its patriotic triumphs, achieved its way into grad- 
 ual use. 
 
 The Smith brothers, John and Abijah, of Plj-mouth, were 
 the first in point of time who engaged in the continuing in- 
 dustry of the mining of anthracite coal in the United States. 
 They left their home in Derby, Conn., in 1 805-6, came to this 
 
71 
 
 valley and immediately purchased coal land and engaged 
 in mining coal. There were others who had made the at- 
 tempt on the Lehigh, but the obstacles and discouragements 
 which stood in the way proved too great and the work had 
 to be given up. It was not resumed until the year 1820. 
 TJie SniitJi brothers shipped their first ark of coal in the fall 
 of i8oy, to Columbia, Pa. This was probably the first cargo 
 of anthracite coal that ivas ever offered for sale in this coun- 
 try. In 1808 they sent several ark loads to Columbia and 
 other points. Prior to 1803, as we believe, the use of an- 
 thracite coal as a fuel was confined almost exclusively to 
 furnaces and forges, using an air blast, notwithstanding the 
 fact that Oliver Evans had, in 1802, and even before that 
 time, demonstrated on several occasions that the blast was 
 unnecessary for the domestic use of coal, and had success- 
 fully burned the fuel in an open grate and also in a stove 
 without an artificial draft. In order to create a market for 
 this fuel it became necessary to show that it could be used 
 for domestic purposes as well as in furnaces and forges ; that 
 it was a better and more convenient fuel than wood, and 
 that its use was attended with no difficulties. To accom- 
 plish this the Smiths went with their coal arks sent to 
 market, and took with them a stone mason and several 
 grates, with the purpose of setting the grates in the public 
 houses where they might make known the utility of their 
 fuel. In several houses in Columbia and in other towns the 
 fire places for burning wood were changed by them and fit- 
 ted for the use of coal, and coal fires were lighted, careful 
 instructions being given meanwhile in the mysteries of a 
 stone coal fire. After much perseverance and expense in 
 providing coal and grates to demonstrate the valuable quali- 
 ties of the new fuel, they disposed of a small part of their 
 cargo and left the rest to be sold on commission. Notwith- 
 standing the thorough manner in which they had set about 
 the introduction of coal as a fuel for domestic uses, it was 
 
72 
 
 several years before all obstacles to its use were overcome 
 and they were able to gain a profit from the enterprise. 
 
 The annual average of the business of the Messrs. Smith 
 from iSoy down to 1820 was from six to eight ark loads, or 
 abont four to five hundred tons. "The old Susquehanna coal 
 ark, like the mastodon, is a thing of the past. The present 
 men of the business should understand the character of the 
 simple vessel used by the pioneers of the trade. Its size and 
 dimensions, cost and capacity must be chronicled. The 
 length of the craft was ninety feet, its width sixteen feet, its 
 depth four feet, and its capacity 60 tons. Each end termi- 
 nated in an acute angle, with a stem post surmounted by a 
 huge oar some thirty feet in length, and which required the 
 strength of two stout men to ply it in the water. It required 
 in its construction thirty-eight hundred feet of two inch 
 plank for the bottom, ends and sides, or seventy-six hundred 
 feet board measure. The bottom timbers would contain 
 about two thousand feet board measure, and the ribs or studs 
 sustaining the side planks four hundred feet, making a total 
 of some ten thousand feet. The ark was navigated by four 
 men, and the ordinary time to reach tide water was seven 
 days. Two out of three arks would probably reach the port 
 of their destination ; one-third was generally left upon the 
 rocks in the rapids of the river or went to the bottom." The 
 average price of sales at this time was probably ten dollars, 
 leaving a profit of five dollars on the ton. If, therefore, 
 three hundred and fifty tons of the fi\e hundred annually 
 transported by the Messrs. Smith reached the market, it left 
 them a profit of seventeen hundred dollars, not taking into 
 account their personal services. Mr. George M. Hollen- 
 back sent two ark loads down the Susquehanna, taken from 
 his Mill Creek mines in 18 13. The same year Joseph Wright 
 of Plymouth mined two ark loads of coal from the mines 
 of his brother, the late Samuel G. Wright, of New Jersey, 
 near Port Griffith, in Jenkins township. This was an old 
 
73 
 
 opening and coal had been mined there as far back as 1775. 
 The late Lord Butler of Wilkes-Barre had also shipped coal 
 from his mines, more generally known of late years as the 
 "Baltimore mines," as early as 18 14, and so had Crandall 
 Wilcox of Plains township. Colonel George M. Hollenback 
 sent two four-horse loads of coal to Philadelphia in 1813, 
 and James Lee, of Hanover, sent a four-horse load to a 
 blacksmith in Germantown. In 1813 Hon. Charles Miner 
 was publishing Tlie Gleaner in Wilkes-Barre, and in a long 
 editorial article from his pen, under date of November 19, 
 and the head of "State Policy," he urged, with great zeal, the 
 improvement of the descending navigation of the Susque- 
 hanna and Lehigh rivers. He then said : " Tlie coal of Wyo- 
 ming has already become an article of considerable traffic luith 
 the lower comities of Pennsylva7iia. Numerous beds have 
 been opened, and it is ascertained, beyond all doubt, that the 
 valley of Wyoming contains enough coal for ages to come." 
 Chapman, in his Historyof Wyoming, writing in 18 17, speak- 
 ing of coal, says : "// constitutes the principal fuel of the in- 
 habitants as well as their most important article of exporta- 
 tion!' Plumb, in his History of Hanover township, says : 
 ''From 18 10 to 1820 one tJiousand or fifteen hundred tons 
 per year luere mined in Hanover',' and ''there ivas a constant 
 sale of coal dozvn the river by arks froju the time people 
 learned to burn it in the house." In this small way the coal 
 trade continued on from 1807 to 1820, when it assumed more 
 importance in the public estimation. The years preceding 
 that of 1820 were the years of its trials, and the men, during 
 that period, who were engaged in the business were merely 
 able to sustain themselves with the closest economy and the 
 most persevering and unremitting labor. The following ac- 
 count current rendered by Price & Waterbury, of New York, 
 to Abijah Smith & Co., is a remarkably interesting relic of 
 the coal business in its infancy. It very clearly exhibits two 
 facts — one the demand, price and consumption of coal in th^ 
 
;4 
 
 great city of New York at that period, and the other, the 
 wonderful zeal manifested in the pioneer dealers to intro- 
 duce the article into the market. The coal was sent to 
 Havre de Grace, Maryland, and thence by coasting vessels 
 
 to New York : 
 
 "New Yokk, Fkbruary, 1813. 
 Messrs. Abijaii Smith & Co., 
 
 Gentlemen : — Having lately taken a view of the business we have been 
 conducting for you this sometime past, we have thought it would be grati- 
 fying to have the account forwarded, and therefore present you with a 
 summary of it up to the 18th of January, 1813, containing first, the quan- 
 tity of coal sold, and to whom ; second, the amount of cash paid us from 
 time to time ; third, the amount of interest cash on the various sums ad- 
 vanced, the credit of interest on sums received ; and lastly, the quantity 
 of coal remaining on hand unsold. Should you on the receipt of this find 
 any of the items incorrect, we need hardly observe that the knowledge of 
 such an error will be corrected with the greatest pleasure. As it respects 
 our future plan of procedure we shall expect to see one of your concern in 
 the city sometime in the spring, when a new arrangement may be fixed 
 ui)on. Our endeavors to establish the character of the coal shall not at 
 any time be wanting, and we calculate shortly to dispose of the remain- 
 ing parcels of coal unsold. ' ' 
 
 i8i2. June 8. — By cash of Doty & Willets, for 5 chaldrons of coal J 100 00 
 
 By cash ot John Withiiigton, for 5 chaldrons of coal 100 00 
 
 By cash of Coulthaiti & Son, for 10 chaldrons of coal 200 00 
 
 By John Benham's note, 90 days, lor 10 chaldrons of coal .... 200 00 
 
 By cash of G. P. Lorrilard, for i chaldron of coal 20 00 
 
 By cash of J. J. Wilson, for 4 chaldrons of coal 8000 
 
 June 13. — By cash of Doty & Willetts, for 5 chaldrons of coal 100 00 
 
 By cash of G. P. Lorrilard, for ii}4 chaldrons of coal 230 00 
 
 By A. Frazyer's note, 90 days, for 25 chaldrons of coal 47500 
 
 By cash received of T. Coulthaid, for 5 chaldrons ot coal .... 100 00 
 
 By M. Womas' note, 90 days, for 20 chaldrons of coal 380 00 
 
 By half measurement receired for 9 bushels of coal 6 33 
 
 By B. Ward and T. Blagge, for i]^ chaldrons at J20 per chaldron 25 00 
 
 By Wiitingham, for J4 chaldron of coal • 10 00 
 
 June 25. — By Pirpont, for ^ chaldron of coal 11 00 
 
 By Mr. Landiss, for J4 chaldron of coal 12 00 
 
 July 16. — By Robert Barney, for 175^ chaldrons of coal at J22 per chaldron 385 00 
 
 sept. 15 — By cash for i chaldron of coal 12 50 
 
 Oct. 9. — By William Colman, for J4 chaldron of coal 12 50 
 
 By Sexton & Williamson, for 1^ chaldrons of coal 37 5° 
 
 Oct. 24. — By cash for i chaldron of coal 25 00 
 
 Oct. 29. — By cash for }4 chaldron of coal 12 50 
 
 Nov. 7. — By cash for ^ chaldron of coal 12 50 
 
 Nov. 12. — By cash for i chaldron of coal 25 00 
 
 Nov. 16. — By Mr. A. Le Briton, for 12 chaldrons of coal at $2$ per chaldron 288 50 
 
 Dec. 5. — By cash for 'A chaldron of coal 12 50 
 
 Dec. II. — By cash A. Daily, for J2 chaldron of coal 12 50 
 
 Dec. 14. — By cash for }^ chaldron of coal 12 00 
 
 1813. Jan. 4. — By cash for i chaldron of coal 25 00 
 
 Jan. 18. — By J. Curtiz, for 9 bushels of coal 6 27 
 
 By amount of balance this day 763 12 
 
 Total J3601 20 
 
 Errors excepted. Price & Waterbury. 
 
 t 
 
75 
 
 It will be seen by this account current that coal was sold 
 by the chaldron, thirty-six bushels, or nearly a ton and a 
 third to the chaldron. The sales therefore, for the New York 
 supply in 1 8 1 2, by this firm, were inside of two hundred tons. 
 
 It seems to be the common belief that the anthracite coal 
 trade had its rise on the Lehigh in the year 1820, when three 
 hundred and sixty-five tons of coal were carried to market, 
 yet, as a matter of fact, the industry was begun at Plymouth 
 thirteen years before, and for nine years prior to the begin- 
 ning of the coal business on the Lehigh river the annual 
 shipments on the Susquehanna were considerably in excess 
 of the first year's product of the Lehigh region. 
 
 Mr. Pearce states that up to 1820 "the total amount of 
 coal sent from Wyoming is reckoned at eighty-five hundred 
 tons." This we believe to be a low estimate. The same 
 author states that Colonel Washington Lee, in 1820, "mined 
 and sent to Baltimore one thousand tons, which he sold at 
 $S per ton." Coal had been introduced in Baltimore and 
 sold there by the Smith Brothers prior to that date. Let 
 us make a new a/)ex to the coal pyramids now in use. Let it 
 
 Note. — The Lehigh region is great in making claims. For instance, on April -23, 1891, 
 in the Senate of the state of Pennsylvania, Senator Rapsher of Carbon called up the fol- 
 lowing bill on third reading : 
 An Act appropriating the sum of two thousand dollars for the erection of a monument to 
 
 the memory of Philip Ginter, the discoverer ot anthracite coal in Pennsylvania. 
 
 Section i. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Common- 
 wealth of Pennsylvania in General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority 
 of the same, that the sum of two thousand dollars be appropriated towards the erection of a 
 suitable monument to commemorate the memory of Philip Ginter, the first discoverer of 
 anthracite coal in Pennsylvania, to be paid to the committee in charge upon the warrant of 
 the Auditor General. 
 
 Senator Hines from our own county asked leave to strike out the words "the first," be- 
 cause Philip Ginter was not the first discoverer of coal. 
 
 Senator Rapsher, in reply, said : Mr. President, the historians, like men, sometimes 
 differ on that particular point, as to whether Philip Ginter was the first discoverer or not, 
 but I think all the historians agree that Philip Ginter was the first authentic discoverer of 
 anthracite coal in what was then Northampton county, a himdred years ago the first of next 
 September, and it was the inception of ihe Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, and was 
 the beginning of the anthracite coal traffic in Pennsylvania, and because the anthracite coal 
 interest was of so much importance to the State credit in our section, this could be granted 
 without any great strain on our consciences. 
 
 Senator Green, of Berks, where they have no coal, said: Mr. President, I think we 
 ought to have a discoverer of coal, and we might as well have him now as at any other time, 
 so whether it is Mr. Ginter, or somebody else, makes very little difference to me. I am 
 willing to concede to that gentleman that claim. I am willing to go fuither : I am willing 
 to take the word of the senator from Carbon for it. If he thinks he is the discoverer ot coal, 
 I think so. 
 
 Fortunately the bill was defeated in the House of Representatives. Now, what was in 
 
76 
 
 be understood that the coinmcnconent of the trade was in 
 1807, when the Smith Brothers sent to market and sold 
 fifty-five tons. 
 
 Commencement of the Anthracite Coal Trade in the 
 United States : 
 
 WYOMING REGION. LEHIGH REGION. 
 
 1807 55 'ons. 
 
 1808 150 " 
 
 1809 200 " 
 
 I8I0 350 " 
 
 1811 450 " 
 
 i8n 500 " 
 
 1813 500 " 
 
 1814 700 " 
 
 1815 icxx> " 
 
 1816 1000 " 
 
 1817 iioo " 
 
 1818 1200 " 
 
 1819 1400 " 
 
 1820 2500 " 1820 36510115. 
 
 The foregoing statement we believe to be absolutely cor- 
 rect. The pyramids now in use give the year 1 829 as the com- 
 mencement of the coal trade in the Lackawanna region, and 
 seven thousand tons sent by the Delaware & Hudson Canal 
 Company. The same pyramids start us in the Wyoming 
 
 this bill ? First, to get 1^2000 out of the state treasury to perpetrate 3. falsehood. This under 
 false pretences. 
 
 Second. To place on record the ^wxC^^r falsehood that Philip Ginter was the (first) 
 discoverer of anthracite coal in Pennsylvania. Mr. Ginter, himself, did not claim that he 
 was the discoverer, because "he had heard of stone coal over in Wyoining ." 
 
 Mr. Rapsher is certainly mistaken when he says that historians differ as to whether 
 Philip Ginter was the first discoverer or not. No, they do not differ. All historians agree 
 that Mr Ginter discovered coal in what is now Carbon county, in 1791, and that he was 
 not the first disccnierer of anthracite coal in Fennsyh ania. Ill informed people may think 
 he was, but intelligent people know better. Mr. Rapsher states that the discovery of coal 
 a hundred years ago the first of next September (1891), was the inception of the Lehigh Coal 
 and Navigation Company, and was the beginning of the anthracite coal traffic in Pennsyl- 
 vania. The Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company was incorporated February 13, 1822, 
 and if its inception was in 1791, it took a long lime to be born — even thirty-one years. The 
 beginning of the coal trade was not on the Lehigh, but was on the Susquehanna, and com- 
 menced in 1807. Do not let this be forgotten. Senator Green thinks "we ought to have a 
 discoverer of coal." "Whether it is Mr. Ginter, or somebody else, makes very little differ- 
 ence to (him) me." Most noble senator; you certainly do not speak the words of truth 
 and soberness. In a work gotten up by the Central Railroad of New Jersey, in 1891, I read 
 the following: "Mauch (^hunk is in the very heart of the anthracite coal regions, and is 
 also the birthplace in America of the Black Diamonds." Considering that coal was dis- 
 covered on the Susquehanna in 1762, and on Bear Mountain, nine miles west of Mauch 
 Chunk, in 1791, Mauch Chunk is a queer kind of a birthplace. It goes on the principle, 
 claim everything for the Lehigh. 
 
 What surprises me, is that nothing in particular is claimed for the Schuylkill region. 
 About all the worthies who make up tables and pyramids are Pottsville gent lemen, like 
 Bannan, Uaddow, Sheafer, ct al. They are probably not familiar with the history of the 
 state, and least ot all, wilh the coal trade and its beginning in the Wyoming region. With a 
 new generation of better informed gentlemen Wyommg will probably have justice done her 
 in the future. 
 
77 
 
 region in 1842, as shipping by canal forty-seven thousand 
 three hundred and forty-six tons — a surely good com- 
 mencement, if true, of the first year's business on the canal. 
 Our canal was opened in 183 1. In 1830 the North Branch 
 Canal was completed to the Nanticoke dam. The first 
 boat, "The Wyoming," was built by Hon. John Koons, at 
 Shickshinny. It was launched and towed to Nanticoke, 
 where she was laden with ten tons of anthracite coal, a 
 quantity of flour and other articles. Her destination was 
 Philadelphia. The North Branch canal being new, and fill- 
 ing slowly with water, "The Wyoming" passed through 
 the Nanticoke cliute and thence down the river to North- 
 umberland, where she entered the Susquehanna division of 
 the Pennsylvania canal, and proceeded, with considerable 
 difficulty, by the way of the Union and Schuylkill canals to 
 Philadelphia. "The Wyoming" received in that city fifteen 
 tons of dry goods, and commenced her return trip ; was 
 frozen up in the ice and snow at New Buffalo, in January, 
 183 1. The voyage of "The Wyoming" was attended with 
 many difficulties and detentions, and embraced a period 
 of upwards of three months. The second boat, "The Lu- 
 zerne," was built by Captain Derrick Bird, on the river bank 
 opposite Wilkes-Barre. She was laden with coal which 
 was conveyed to Philadelphia, whence she returned with a 
 cargo of merchandise, arriving at the Nanticoke dam in 
 July, 1831. The pyramid starts us in 1846 with five 
 thousand eight hundred and eighty-six tons by the Lehigh 
 railroad. The mistake about this is that the Lehigh & Sus- 
 quehanna railroad was completed in 1843. These figures 
 from the pyramid are by Benjamin Bannan, and taken from 
 "Coal, Iron and Oil." Pearce, in his "Annals of Luzerne 
 County," says : "The completion of the Lehigh & Susque- 
 hanna railroad in 1843, connecting Wilkes-Barre with White 
 Haven, promised another outlet to market for Wyoming 
 coal. These improvements, together with the discovery of 
 
78 
 
 the methods of generating steam on boats, and of smelting 
 iron in furnaces by the useof anthracite, created a great and 
 increasing demand for coal in all quarters of the state, and 
 in .the seaports of the country generally." Let us take 
 another pyramid, that of P. W. Sheafer, in the "Coal Regions 
 of America." He has the old "chestnut" of the "commence- 
 ment of the coal trade" in 1820, on the Lehigh, with three 
 hundred and sixty-five tons. He lets us in with the "Wy- 
 oming and State Canals, Lykens Valley railroad," in 1834, 
 with forty-three thousand seven hundred tons, and the Le- 
 high & Susquehanna railroad in 1846. This pyramid busi- 
 ness should be reconstructed. The stereotype should be 
 destroyed. The apex should be an inch longer and given 
 to Wyoming. The commencement of the coal trade be- 
 longs to her, and there is no excuse for ignorance or care- 
 lessness in the matter. She liad knowledge of coal tzventy- 
 nine years, and had burned it hventy-hvo years before it was 
 discovered on the Lehigh, and she put her knowledge to 
 good use. When the time came the Yankees took their 
 coal to market and sold it. None of their coal was thrown 
 into the street as worthless. Under the instruction given 
 by the Yankees to the purchasers they found that coal 
 zvould burn, and nobody laughed at them for making invest- 
 ments in "black stones." 
 
 Philip Ginter discovered coal in the Lehigh region in 
 1791, on the Matchunkor Bear Mountain, about nine miles 
 west of the site of Mauch Chunk. Mr. Ginter tells his own 
 story, as follows : 
 
 "When I first came to these mountains some years ago, 
 I built a cabin on the east side of the mountain, and man- 
 aged, by hunting and trapping, to support my family in a 
 rough way. Deer and bears were pretty thick, and during 
 the hunting season meat was plentiful, but sometimes we 
 ran short of that, and frequently were hard up for such 
 necessaries, as could only be purchased with the produce 
 
79 
 
 of the hunter. One day, after a poor season, when we were 
 on short allowance, I had unusually bad luck, and was on 
 my way home empty handed and disheartened, tired and 
 wet with the rain which commenced falling, when I struck 
 my foot against a stone and drove it on before me. It was 
 nearly dusk, but light enough remained to show me that it 
 was black and shiny. / liad Juard of 'stone coal over in 
 \Vyomi)ig, and Jiad frequently pried into rocks in hopes of 
 finding it. When I saw the black rock I knew it must be 
 stone coal, and on looking round I discovered black dirt 
 and a great many pieces of stone coal under the roots of a 
 tree that had been blown down. I took pieces of this coal 
 home with me, and the next day carried them to Colonel 
 Jacob Weiss, at Fort Allen (Weissport). A few days after 
 this Colonel Weiss sent for me and offered to pay me for 
 my discovery if I would tell him where the coal was found. 
 I accordingly offered to show him the place if he would 
 get me a small tract of land and water power for a saw mill 
 I had in view. This he readily promised and afterwards 
 performed. The place was found and a quarry opened in 
 the coal mountain. In a few years the discovery made 
 hundreds of fortunes, but I may say it ruined me, for my 
 land was taken from me by a man who said he owned it 
 before I did, and now I am still a poor man." 
 
 Mr. F. E. Saward in The Coal Trade for 1891, states that 
 the Northern Anthracite Coal Field is the largest anthra- 
 cite basin in the world. It has long been known as the 
 Wyoming. Its coal production since i860 is as follows : 
 
 i860 2,914,817 tons. 
 
 1870 7,974,666 " 
 
 1880 11,419,270 " 
 
 1890 18,657,694 " 
 
 To mine this coal requires the services of over 50,000 
 men and boys, and this number is steadily increasing rather 
 than diminishing. 
 
8o 
 
 The total amount of anthracite coal mined in 1890, was 
 35,865,000 tons. Thus it will be seen that the Wyoming 
 region produces 52 per cent, of the total anthracite produc- 
 tion. The Schuylkill region in 1890, produced 10,867,821 
 tons, or 30.31 per cent., and the Lehigh region, the same 
 year, produced 6,329,658 tons, or 17.65 per cent., and the 
 Wyoming region, as we have seen, produced 18,657,694 
 tons, or 52.04 per cent. 
 
 We must disagree with Mr. Saward, as every body else 
 does zvho has any knoivledge of the subject, when he states 
 that "the tables compiled by Prof P. W. Sheafer, for the 
 years 1 820 to 1868, inclusive, * * * have been adopted 
 as the most correct so far as a report of the output is con- 
 cerned." (See our remarks in regard to Mr. Sheafer's tables 
 in another place). Mr. Saward says, further: "The first 
 means of transporting coal from the (Wyoming) coal field 
 was by the Delaware & Hudson Canal, from Honcsdale, 
 Pa., to Rondout, N. Y., opened in 1829." This is certainly 
 ignorance of the first water. Please remember that the coal 
 trade on the Susquehanna river commenced in 1807, and 
 constantly grew in importance. We have given in another 
 place the trade up to 1820. Stewart Pearce's Annals of 
 Luzerne County gives the following: "In 1823, Colonel 
 W. Lee and George Cahoon, leased the Stivers mines in 
 Newport, fourteen feet vein, and employed Timothy Mans- 
 field to mine and deliver one thousand tons of coal into arks 
 at Lee's Ferry. This coal was sold at Columbia, Pa." Mr. 
 Pearce says, further: "P^rom 1823 to 1829, the Susquehan- 
 na coal trade increased with considerable rapidity." Again 
 Mr. Pearce says : "A coal bed was opened by Calvin 
 Stockbridge in 1828, and during three years he sent about 
 two thousand tons down the Susquehanna in arks." Mr. 
 Saward states, further : "Shipments of coal from the Wilkes- 
 Barre district began in 1846, via. the Lehigh and Susque- 
 hanna Railroad, and the Lehigh Canal, and later by the 
 
8i 
 
 Lehigh Valley Railroad." We are sorry, exceedingly 
 sorry that Mr. Saward states that "shipments of coal from 
 the Wilkes-Barre district began in 1 846." Why, Mr. Sheafer 
 does better than this. He starts us in the Wyoming region 
 in 1842, as shipping by canal. It is true our canal was 
 opened in 1831, but Messrs. Sheafer and Saward were not 
 aware of this fact, or they would agree on their table. Mr. 
 Pearce, in his Annals, states that there was 41,210 tons of 
 coal shipped from the Wyoming valley, by the North Branch 
 Canal, South, in 1841. 
 
 In 1842 47.346 tons. 
 
 " 1843 57,740 " 
 
 " 1844 114,906 " 
 
 " 1845 178,401 " 
 
 " 1846 166.923 " 
 
 Both Messrs. Sheafer and Saward agree that the Lehigh 
 and Susquehanna Railroad was opened in 1846. The Le- 
 high and Susquehanna railroad was completed in 1843, but 
 Messrs. Sheafer and Saward were not aware of this fact. All 
 ive ask is that justice be done to the Wyoming region. We 
 are entitled to it and expect it. Mr. Saward further states, 
 that in 1850 the Pennsylvania Coal Company began opera- 
 tions (which is correct) ; four years later the D. L. & W. R. 
 R. Co. began mining and shipping coal. The Lackawanna 
 coal field was opened to the coal trade in 185 i (not 1854), 
 by the construction of the northern di\ision of the D., L. 
 & W. R. R. Co. 
 
 William Hooker Smith, M. D., removed from the prov- 
 ince of New York, to Wilkes-Barre, in 1772, where he pur- 
 chased land in 1774. His mind active, keen and ready, 
 looked beyond the ordinary conceptions of his day, as is 
 shown by his purchased right, in 1 791, to dig iron ore and 
 stone coal in Pittston, long before the character of coal as a 
 heating agent in this country was understood, and the same 
 year that the hunter, Ginter, accidently discovered "black 
 
82 
 
 stones" on Bear Mountain. These purchases, attracting no 
 other notice than general ridicule, were made in Exeter, 
 Plymouth, Pittston, Providence and Wilkes-Barre, between 
 1 79 1 -8. The first was made July i, 1791, of Mr. Scott of 
 Pittston, who, for the sum of five shillings, Pennsylvania 
 money, sold "one-half of any minerals, ores of iron, or other 
 metal which he, the said Smith, or his heirs and assigns, 
 may discover on the hilly lands of the .said John Scott, by 
 the red spring." Of others, the language of the purchase 
 was as follows : "The privilege to dig, delve and raze the 
 ore, or mineral of stone coal, or iron ore on my land, free 
 and clear, by William Hooker Smith." 
 
 It is impossible, at this date, to state who was the first 
 person to discover that anthracite coal could be used for 
 domestic purposes, but the weight of authority seems to be 
 that Oliver Evans was the person. In a letter written by 
 him to Jacob Cist, Esq., he says : "Being required to give 
 my opinion of the qualities of the Lehi coals, I do certify to 
 those whom it may concern, that I have experienced the 
 use of them in a close stove and also in a fire place that 
 may be closed and opened at pleasure, so contracted as to 
 cause a brisk current of air to pass up through a small con- 
 tracted grate on which they were laid. I find them more 
 difficult to be kindled than the Virginia coal, yet a small 
 quantity of dr)^ wood laid on the grate under them is suf- 
 ficient to ignite them, which being done they continue to 
 burn while a sufficient quantity be added to keep up the 
 combustion, occasionalh' stirring them to shake down the 
 ashes. They, however, require no more attention than 
 other coal, and consume away, leaving only a very light and 
 white colored ashes ; producing a greater degree of heat 
 than any other coal that I am acquainted with, perhaps, in 
 proportion to their weight, they being much the heaviest. 
 They produce no smoke, contain no sulphur, and when well 
 
83 
 
 ignited exhibit a vivid, bright appearance, all which render 
 them suitable for warming rooms. And as they do not 
 corrode mettle as much as other coals, they will probably 
 be the more useful for steam engines, breweries, distilleries, 
 smelting of metals, drying malt, &c. But the furnaces will 
 require to be properly constructed, with a grate contracted 
 to a small space through which the air is to pass up through 
 the coal, permitting none to pass above them into the flue 
 of the chimney until they are well ignited, when the doors 
 of the stove or furnace or close fire place may be thrown 
 open to enjoy the benefits of light and radiant heat in the 
 front. A very small quantity of them is not sufficient to 
 keep up the combustion ; they require nearly a cubic foot 
 to make a very warm fire, consuming about half a bus. in 
 about fourteen hours. "Oliver Evans. 
 
 "Philadelphia, February 15, 1803." 
 
 It a letter to Jacob Cist, Esq., Frederick Graff also writes 
 as follows: "Having made a trial of the Lehi coal some 
 time in the year 1802 at the Pennsylvania bank, in the large 
 stove, I found them to answer for that purpose exceeding 
 well. They give an excellent heat and burn lively. It is 
 my opinion they are nearly equal to double the quantity of 
 any other coal brought to this market for durability ; of 
 course less labour is required in attending the fire. Mr. 
 Davis, superintendent of the water works, has also made a 
 trial of them for the boiler of the engine imployed in that 
 work, and has found them to answer well. It must be ob- 
 served a draft is necessary when first kindled. For the use 
 of familys the fire place can be so constructed, with a small 
 expense, as to have the sufficient draft required. My opin- 
 ion is they will be found cheaper than wood. They burn 
 clean. No smoke or sulphur is observed, or any dirt flying 
 when stirred, which is a great objection to all other coal for 
 family use. If the chimneys for the burning of those coal 
 
84 
 
 arc properly constructed, and a trial made, I am well con- 
 vinced that most of the citizens of Philadelphia would give 
 them preference to wood. "Fred'k Graff, 
 
 " Clerk of the Water Works of Philadelphia. 
 "Phila., May i, 1805." 
 
 The originals of these letters are in the possession of our 
 Society. 
 
 Jacob Cist, at the time these letters were written, if not 
 an actual resident of this city at that time, was a very fre- 
 quent visitor. In 1807 he married Sarah Hollenback, 
 daughter of Judge Hollenback. 
 
 At an early day his attention was attracted towards the 
 uses of anthracite coal. He was a boy of ten years when 
 his father experimented on the Lehigh coal, and he might 
 possibly have seen him at work. He must often have 
 heard his father conversing with Colonel Weiss (the uncle 
 of Jacob Cist), both in Philadelphia and Bethlehem, on the 
 feasibility of opening their mines and making a market for 
 the Lehigh coal, long before he was old enough to appreci- 
 ate the importance of the undertaking or the disadvantages 
 under which these pioneers of the coal trade labored in per- 
 -suading people of the practicability of using stone coal as a fuel. 
 
 Jacob Cist was undoubtedly the first person to burn 
 anthracite coal in our city. The letter of Oliver Evans, with 
 its perfect description of burning anthracite coal in a grate 
 or sto\'e, accomplished the result. No better description 
 could be given nowadays to those unfamiliar with coal for 
 fuel than the letter of Mr. Evans. Mr. Cist was an enter- 
 prising citizen, perfectly familiar and interested in coal. He 
 made the "experiment" and found that it would "answer the 
 purpose of fuel, making a cleaner and better fire at less ex- 
 pense than burning wood in the common way." As early 
 as the year 1805 he conceived the plan of manufacturing a 
 mineral black for printers' ink, leather lacquer, blacking, 
 &c., from the Lehigh coal and the results of his experiments 
 
85 
 
 were secured to him by patent in 1808. This patent was 
 considered to be worth upwards of five thousand dollars, but 
 a number of law suits arising from a constant infringement 
 of it by manufacturers so annoyed Mr. Cist that he was glad 
 to dispose of it for a less sum. It is said that after the de- 
 struction of the patent office records by fire some one else 
 took out a patent for the same idea and is now working 
 under it. In the early days he made a study of our adja- 
 cent coal fields, especially at the mines of the Smith Brothers 
 at Plymouth, and the old Lord Butler opening. 
 
 We believe that from 1803 anthracite coal was used for 
 domestic purposes in this city. We have not before us the 
 population of Wilkes-Barre at that time, but in 1820 she 
 had a population of seven hundred and thirty-two. In 1803 
 the population probably did not exceed three hundred. 
 These letters, written to one of her citizens, would excite 
 comment and would be talked over by the entire population, 
 men, women and children. The social standard of her citi- 
 zens at that time was perfect equality. There were no ranks 
 or grades. The apprentice, the laborer, the physician, the 
 merchant and the lawyer were on speaking and visiting 
 terms. As another writer has said, in speaking of the early 
 history of coal : "Such was the theme of univ^ersal rejoicing 
 throughout the valley that the event was discussed at every 
 fireside, the topic went with the people to church, and was 
 diffused throughout the congregation at large by common 
 assent ; it entered for a while into all conversations at home ; 
 it silenced every adverse criticism, as it gave the signal for 
 long and mutual congratulations * * * where friend 
 and foe alike acquiesced in the truth that Wyoming was 
 freighted with infinite fortune." Coal up to this time had 
 been mined by farmers and blacksmiths for their own use. 
 In 1805 Abraham Williams, the pioneer miner, made his 
 appearance in the Federalist, published at Wilkes-Barre, 
 
 with the following advertisement : 
 6 
 
86 
 
 "The subscriber takes this method of informing the pub- 
 lic that he understands miners work. He has worked at it 
 the greater part of twenty-three years in the mines of Wales, 
 one year and a half in Schuyler's copper mines in New Jer- 
 sey and three years in Ogden's in the same state. If any 
 body thinks there is any ore on his lands, or wants to sink 
 wells, blow rock or stones, he understands it wet or dry, on 
 the ground or under the ground. He will work by the day 
 or by the solid foot or yard, or by the job, at reasonable 
 wages, for country produce. 
 
 "He works cheap for country' produce, 
 But cash I think he ■\vont refuse. 
 Money is good for many uses, 
 Despise me not nor take me scorn, 
 Because I am a Welsliman by my born, 
 Now I am a true American, 
 With every good to everj' man." 
 
 "Abraham Williams." 
 
 Doctor Thomas C. James of Philadelphia, in Hazanfs 
 Reg-ish'r,' gives an account of a visit that he made in 1804 to 
 the Lehigh coal region. He closes his article as follows : 
 "The operations and success of the present Lehigh Coal 
 and Navigation Company must be well known to the coun- 
 try ; the writer will therefore close this communication by 
 stating that he commenced burning the anthracite coal in 
 the winter of 1804, and has continued its use ever since, be- 
 lieving, from his own experience of its utility, that it would 
 ultimately become the general fuel of this as well as other 
 cities." 
 
 Hon. Samuel Breck was a prominent citizen of Philadel- 
 phia. "His Recollections," with passages from his note 
 books, 1 771-1862, were edited by H. E. Scudder, and pub- 
 lished by Porter & Coates in 1877. It contains this pas- 
 sage, among others : 
 
 "December 9, 1807. This morning I rode to Philadel- 
 phia and purchased a newly invented iron grate calculated 
 
8; 
 
 for coal, in which I mean to use that fuel if it answers my 
 expectations." 
 
 "Dec. 26, 1807. By my experiment on coal fuel I find 
 that one fire place will burn from three to three and a half 
 bushels per week in hard weather and about two and a half 
 in moderate weather. This av^erages three bushels for 
 twenty-five weeks (the period of burning fire in parlors). 
 Three times twenty-five gives seventy-five bushels for a 
 single hearth, which, at forty-five cents, is thirty-three dol- 
 lars and seventy-five cents, more than equal to six cords of 
 oak wood at five dollars and fifty cents, and is, by conse- 
 quence, no economy ; but at thirty-three cents per bushel, 
 which is the usual summer price, it will do very well." 
 
 The next person whom it is said burned coal in grates 
 in the early days of coal fuel was Hon. Jesse Fell, of this 
 city. He was a blacksmith in his early days, and had used 
 coal in a nailery as early as 1788. He made the following 
 entry on the last leaf of a book entitled "Illustrations of 
 Masonry by William Preston — Alexandria — Printed by 
 Cottom & Stewart, and sold at their Book Stores in Alex- 
 andria and PVedericksburg, 1804." On the fly leaf in Judge 
 Fell's handwriting is the following : "Jesse Fell's Book, 
 February 15th, 1808." 
 
 "February 11, of Masonry 5808. Made the expenncnt 
 of burning the common stone coal of this Valley in a grate, 
 in a common fire place, in my house, and find it will answer 
 the purpose of fuel, making a clearer and better fire at less 
 expence than burning wood in the common way. 
 
 "Jesse Fell. 
 
 "Borough of Wilkes-Barre, Feb'y 18, 1808." 
 
 We do not believe, as some do, that Jesse Fell was the 
 first person to burn anthracite coal in a grate in this county. 
 He makes no claim in the above that he was. Those who 
 make that claim, do so for the following reasons : 
 
 I. The entry as stated above. 
 
88 
 
 2. That he "constructed a grate of green hickory sapHngs 
 and placed it in a large fire place in his bar room, and filled 
 it with broken coal. A quantity of dry wood was placed 
 under the grate and set on fire, and the flame spreading 
 through the coal it soon ignited, and before the wooden 
 grate was consumed the success of the experiment was 
 fully demonstrated." 
 
 3. That Hon. Thomas Cooper, president judge of the 
 courts of Luzerne county, "became very angry to find that 
 he had been superseded in the discovery, and he walked the 
 floor muttering to himself, 'that it was strange an illiterate 
 man like Fell' (which was not true) 'should discover what 
 he had tried in vain to find out.' " 
 
 To these we answer : 
 
 I. There is no claim in the entry that Judge Fell was the 
 first person to burn anthracite in a grate. He states he 
 made the 'Uwpenuent!' It is very strange that an "experi- 
 ment" should be made after a fact had been fully demon- 
 strated. We think that he burned coal in a grate as early 
 as 1803, as that was the time when, we believe, coal was 
 first burned successfully in grates in Wilkes-Barre. If he 
 did not he was certainly behind the times. We do not 
 think that he would wait five years to make the "experi- 
 ment" after his friend Jacob Cist received letters from 
 Messrs. Fvans & Graff We also think that if he made the 
 experiment in 1 808 it would be published in The Lnzenie Fed- 
 eralist. Mr. Miner would never slight his friend in that wa\'. 
 We think this entry was made at a date subsequent to 1808. 
 
 V. L. Maxwell, in his lectures on Mineral Coal, saj's : 
 "At that day the Hon. Charles Miner was publishing in 
 this town The Luzerne Federalist, the only newspaper then 
 printed in this part of the state. I have had the pleasure 
 of examining its files, but I find nothing published in 1808 
 respecting coal." It was rather late in 1808 to make an 
 "experiment" after the fact had been fully demonstrated by 
 
89 
 
 Messrs. Evans, Graff, Davis, James and Breck, several years 
 before. The coal trade was opened by the Smith Brothers 
 in 1807, and their first shipment was made in that year, and 
 the year after was certainly a bad time to make the "experi- 
 ment" of burning coal in a grate. 
 
 2. We do not believe that a blacksmith, as Mr. Fell was, 
 would "construct a grate of green hickory saplings," and 
 make the experiment of burning coal in it. A bar iron 
 grate would be so much easier to make and would prove 
 more satisfactory. We are not foolish enough to think, 
 with our knowledge of coal, that a quantity of dry wood 
 placed under a grate of green hickory and set on fire would 
 prove the experiment of burning coal in a grate. The ex- 
 periment, it seems to us, would be to dry the green hick- 
 ory and then consume it and leave the coal down without 
 much ignition. 
 
 3. Judge Cooper was born in London in 1759, and came 
 to this country in 179S, and was, therefore, thirty-six years 
 of age when he came to America. It is probable that be- 
 fore he came to this country he never saw any other fuel 
 than coal, and that burned in grates. It is not at all likely 
 that he would become very angry to find that he had been 
 superseded in the discovery. It was not a new thing to him 
 and he had no discovery to make. 
 
 Mrs. Hannah C. Abbott, a resident of this city, the widow 
 of John Abbott, and daughter of Hon. Cornelius Court- 
 right, was born February 7, 1797, in Wilkes-Barre (now 
 Plains) township. Her father's farm adjoined that of Daniel 
 Gore, whom we have seen, burned coal in his blacksmith 
 shop as early as 1769. She has been familiar with coal 
 since her earliest recollection, having seen Mr. Gore burn 
 it in his blacksmith shop, and in a grate in his cellar kitchen. 
 She has no remembrance as to who the first person was 
 who burned coal in a grate, but is certain that it was not 
 Mr. Fell, as she never heard the claim made until she was 
 
90 
 
 grown up. In 1808 she was eleven years of age, and if Mr. 
 Fell burned coal in a grate at that time she would certainly 
 remember it, as her father and Mr. Fell were particular 
 friends, and both belonged to the same political party. Mrs. 
 Abbott, notwithstanding her advanced age, is in the full 
 possession of all her mental faculties, and is about the only 
 person living who has a perfect knowledge of the very 
 early coal trade of the valley. 
 
 If Judge Fell made the discovery that coal could be 
 burned in grates successfully, he should have the honor due 
 all persons wdio make valuable discoveries, and we would 
 be the last person to rob him of his honors. But in the 
 light we have to-day we must say that he was not the first 
 person, but that in 1808 coal was a common fuel in this 
 city, and was burned by all persons who had not wood in 
 profusion. Improbable assertion, unreasonable conjectures 
 and old wives' fables are not the best evidence that Judge 
 Fell was the first person to burn anthracite coal in a grate 
 in this city or anywhere else. 
 
 The following authorities, in part, have been consulted in 
 preparing this paper : 
 
 Buck, Wm. J., Article by, in Report of the Transactions of the Pennsylvania State Agri- 
 cultural Society. 
 
 Chance, H. M., Report of the Mining Methods and Appliances used in the Anthracite Coal 
 Fields — Second Geological Survey of Pennsylvania. 
 
 Chapman, I. A., History of Wyoming. 
 
 Daddow & liannon, Coal, Iron and Oil. 
 
 Encyclopxdia Brittanica. 
 
 Hazard, Samuel, Register of Pennsylvania. 
 
 Hollister, H., History of the Lackawanna Valley. 
 
 Hoyt, H. M., Brief of a Title in ihe Seventeen Townships. 
 
 Kulp, Geo. B., Families of the Wyoming Valley. 
 
 Macaulay, Lord, History of England. 
 
 Macfarlane, James, Coal Regions of America. 
 
 Maxwell, V. L., Mineral Coal. 
 
 Miner, Charles, History of Wyoming. 
 
 Pearce, Stewart, Annals of Luzerne County. 
 
 Plumb, H. B., History of Hanover. 
 
 Rees, Abraham, Cyclopsedia of Arts, Science and Literature. 
 
 Saward, Frederick E., The Coal Trade. 
 
 Watson, John F., Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania in the Olden Time. 
 
 Wright, Hendrick. B., Historical Sketches of Plymouth. , 
 
SABBATH— SUNDAY. 
 
 SUNDAY LEGISLATION. 
 
SABBATH-SUNDAY, 
 
 SUNDAY LEGISLATION. 
 
 In the beginning, after the Almighty created the heavens 
 and the earth, and all the host of them, He rested on the 
 seventh day from all His work which He had made. And 
 God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because that 
 in it He had rested from all His work which He had made. 
 This was the commencement of the Sabbath day. The 
 Lord Jehovah blessed the day, but there was no injunction 
 to man to keep it holy, unless implied from the blessing and 
 sanctification. 
 
 Eusebius of Caesarea (bishop from 315-340 A. D.) dis- 
 cusses the question of the observance of the Sabbath in his 
 Commentary on Psalm xcii (xci of his catalogue). He takes 
 the ground of Justin and Irenaeus, that the early patriarchs 
 knew no Sabbaths, and were justified without the observance 
 of them. He says: "The just and pious men who were 
 before Moses neither knew nor observed Sabbath days. 
 Neither Abraham, nor Isaac, nor Jacob, nor they who were 
 before them, seem to have known the Sabbath." He argues 
 that man's true rest, and therefore his true Sabbath, is to 
 be found in the contemplation of God, and that Moses, 
 dealing with shadows and symbols, gave the people a fixed 
 day, that on this at least they might be free for meditation 
 on divine things. The Jewish Sabbaths, however, became 
 false Sabbaths, and God said He could not endure them. 
 Wherefore the Word, by the new covenant, transferred the 
 feast of the Sabbath to the rising of the light, and gave us 
 the image of the true rest, namely, the saving day, the 
 Lord's Day, the first day of light, on which the Saviour of 
 
94 
 
 the world, having conquered death, entered on a Sabbath 
 becoming to God, and a most bhssful rest. Whatever, 
 things it was fitting to do on the Sabbath we have trans- 
 ferred to the Lord's Day, because it has precedence, is first, 
 and is more honorable than the Jewish Sabbath. (Com. on 
 Psa. xci : 2,3.) 
 
 The Jews appear to have forgotten the first of all the com- 
 mandments of God : "Thou earnest down also upon Mount 
 Sinai and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them 
 right judgments and true laws, good statutes and command- 
 ments: and viadcst knoiun iDito thcni thy holy SabbatJi, and 
 commandest them precepts, statutes and laws, by the hand 
 of Moses thy servant." (Nehemiah ix : 13, 14.) 
 
 Centuries pass ; the Israelites are about to leave Egypt, 
 the passover is instituted, "and this day shall be unto you 
 for a memorial ; and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord 
 throughout your generations: ye shall keep it a feast by 
 an ordinance for ever. Seven days shall ye eat unleavened 
 bread ; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your 
 houses : for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first 
 day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from 
 Israel. And in the first day there shall be a holy convoca- 
 tion, and in the seventh day there shall be a holy convoca- 
 tion to you ; no manner of work shall be done in them, save 
 that which every man must eat, that only may be done 
 of you." (Exodus xii : 14-16). This is the first place 
 where we meet with the account of an assembly collected 
 for the mere purpose of religious worship. Such assemblies 
 are called holy convocations, which is a very appropriate 
 appellation for a religious assembly ; they were called 
 together by the express command of God, and were to be 
 employed in a work of holiness. 
 
 Four weeks and more pass, the children of Israel are in 
 the wilderness, manna is sent down from heaven. And it 
 came to pass that on the sixth day they gathered twice as 
 
95 
 
 much bread, two omers for one man, and all the rulers of 
 the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto 
 them, This is that which the Lord hath said, to-morrow is 
 the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord ; bake that ye 
 will bake to-day, and seethe that ye will seethe, and that 
 which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the 
 morning. * * * And Moses said eat that to-day, for 
 to-day is a Sabbath unto the Lord, to-day ye shall not find 
 it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it, but on the seventh 
 day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none. And 
 it came to pass that there went out some of the people on 
 the seventh day for to gather and they found none. And 
 the Lord said unto Moses : How long refuse ye to keep my 
 commandment^ and my laws ? See for that the Lord hath 
 given you the Sabbath, therefore He giveth you on the 
 sixth day the bread of two days ; abide ye every man in 
 his place ; let no man go out of his place on the seventh 
 day. So the people rested on the seventh day. Two 
 weeks and more pass and the Almighty is again heard ; 
 then a positive command goes forth from the smok- 
 ing top of Mount Sinai. Remember the Sabbath day to 
 keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy 
 work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord 
 thy God, in it thou shall not do any work, * * * for 
 in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and 
 all that in them is, and rested the seventh day ; where- 
 fore the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it. 
 Here the time in which man shall work and in which he 
 shall not is fixed by Deity, himself, in a manner too solemn 
 to be forgotten or disregarded. It was pronounced with 
 the voice of a loud trumpet, midst the lightnings and the 
 quakings of the mount. And Moses gathered all the con- 
 gregation of the children of Israel together and said unto 
 them, these are the words which the Lord hath commanded 
 hat ye should do them. Six days shall work be done, but 
 
96 
 
 on the seventh day there shall be to you a holy day, a Sab- 
 bath of rest to the Lord ; whosoever doeth work therein shall 
 be put to death. Thus was proclaimed the first punishment 
 for a violation of the Sabbath day. And while the children 
 of Israel were in the wilderness they found a man that 
 gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day. And they that 
 found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and 
 Aaron, and unto all the congregation. And they put him 
 in ward because it was not declared what should be done 
 to him. And the Lord said unto Moses — the man shall 
 be surely put to death ; all the congregation shall stone 
 him with stones without the camp. And all the congrega- 
 tion brought him without the camp and stoned him with 
 stones, and he died as the Lord commanded Moses. 
 
 The stoning of the Bible and of the Talmud was not as 
 commonly supposed — a pell-mell casting of stones at a crimi- 
 nal. The manner was as follows : The criminal was con- 
 ducted to an elevated place, divested of his attire, if a man, 
 and then hurled to the ground below. The height of the 
 eminence from which he was thrown was always more than 
 fifteen feet ; the higher, within certain limits, the better. 
 The violence of the concussion caused death by dislocating 
 the spinal cord. The elevation was not, however, to be so 
 high as to greatly disfigure the body. This was a tender 
 point with the Jews ; man was created in God's image, and 
 it was not permitted to desecrate the temple shaped by 
 heaven's own hand. The first of the witnesses who had 
 testified against the condemned man acted as executioner, 
 in accordance with Deut. xvii : 7. If the convict fell face 
 downward, he was turned on his back. If he was not quite 
 dead, a stone so heavy as to require two persons to carry 
 it, was taken to the top of the eminence whence he had 
 been thrown, the second of the witnesses then hurled the 
 stone so as to fall upon the culprit below. This process, 
 however, was seldom necessary, the semi-stupefied condi- 
 
97 
 
 tion of the condemned, and the height from which he was 
 cast insuring, in the generality of cases, instant death. 
 Previous to the carrying into effect a sentence of death, a 
 death-draught, as it was called, was administered to the 
 unfortunate victim. The beverage was composed of myrrh 
 and frankincense {Icbana), in a cup of vinegar or light wine. 
 It produced a kind of stupefaction, a semi-conscious con- 
 dition of mind and body, rendering the convict indifferent 
 to his fate and scarcely sensible to pain. As soon as the 
 culprit had partaken of the stupefying draught the execu- 
 tion took place. 
 
 The later Jewish Sabbath, observed in accordance with 
 the rules of the Scribes, was a very peculiar institution, and 
 formed one of the most marked distinctions between the He- 
 brews and other nations, as appears in a striking way from 
 the fact that on this account, alone, the Romans found 
 themselves compelled to exempt the Jews from all military 
 service. The rules of the Scribes enumerated thirty nine 
 main kinds of work forbidden on the Sabbath, and each of 
 these prohibitions gave rise to new subtleties. Jesus's 
 disciples, for example, w^ho plucked ears of corn in passing 
 through a field on the holy day, had, according to Rabbin- 
 ical casuistry, violated the third of the thirty-nine rules, 
 which forbade harvesting ; and in healing the sick Jesus, 
 himself, broke the rule that a sick man should not receive 
 medical aid on the Sabbath, unless his life was in danger. 
 In fact, as our Lord puts it, the Rabbinical theory seemed 
 to be that the Sabbath was not made for man, but man {ox 
 the Sabbath, the observance of which was so much an end 
 in itself that the rules prescribed for it did not require to be 
 justified by appeal to any larger principle of religion or hu- 
 manity. The precepts of the law were valuable in the eyes 
 of the Scribes, because they were the seal of Jewish partic- 
 ularism, the barrier erected between the world at large and 
 the exclusive community of Jehovah's grace. For this pur- 
 
98 
 
 pose the most arbitrary precepts were the most efifective, 
 and none were more so than the compHcated rules of Sab- 
 bath observance. The ideal of the Sabbath, which all these 
 rules aimed at realizing, was absolute rest from everything 
 that could be called work; and even the exercise of those 
 offices of humanity which the strictest Christian Sabbatar- 
 ians regard as a service to God, and therefore as specially 
 appropriate to His day, was looked on as work. To save 
 life was allowed, but only because danger to life "super- 
 seded the Sabbath." In like manner the special ritual at 
 the temple prescribed for the Sabbath by the Pentateuchal 
 law was not regarded as any part of the hallowing of the 
 sacred day, on the contrary, the rule was that in this regard 
 "Sabbath was not kept in the sanctuaiy." Strictly speak- 
 ing, therefore, the Sabbath was neither a day of relief to 
 toiling humanity, nor a day appointed for public worship ; 
 the positive duties of its observance were to wear one's best 
 clothes, eat, drink and be glad. (Justified from Iviii Isaiah : 
 
 13. 14)- 
 
 A more directly religious element, it is true, was intro- 
 duced by the practice of attending the synagogue service, 
 but it is to be remembered that this service was primarily 
 regarded not as an act of worship, but as a meeting for in- 
 struction in the law. So far, therefore, as the Sabbath ex- 
 isted for any end outside itself, it was an institution to help 
 every Jew to learn the law. That the old Hebrew Sabbath 
 was quite different from the Rabbinical Sabbath, is demon- 
 strated in the trenchant criticism which Jesus directed 
 against the latter. (Matthew xii : 1-14; Mark ii : 27). 
 The general position which He takes up, that "the Sabbath 
 is made for man, and not man for the Sabbath," is only a 
 special application of the wider principle, that the law is not 
 an end in itself, but a help towards the realization in life of 
 the great ideal of love to God and man, which is the sum 
 of all true religion. But Jesus further maintains that this 
 
99 
 
 view of the law, as a whole, and the interpretation of the 
 Sabbath law which it involves, can be historically justified 
 from the old testament. And, in this connexion, He in- 
 troduces two of the main methods to which historical criti- 
 cism of the old testament has recurred in modern times. 
 He appeals to the oldest history, rather than to the Penta- 
 teuchal code, as province that the later conception of the 
 law was unknown in ancient times (Matthew xii : 3-4), and 
 to the exceptions to the Sabbath law which the Scribes, 
 themselves, allowed in the interests of worship (verse 5), or 
 humanity (verse 11), as showing that the Sabbath must 
 originally have been devoted to purposes of worship and 
 humanity, and was not always the purposeless, arbitrary 
 thing which the schoolmen made it to be. The Sabbath 
 exercised a twofold influence on the early Christian church. 
 On the one hand, the weekly celebration of the resurrection 
 on the Lord's day could not have arisen, except in a circle 
 that already knew the week as a sacred division of time, 
 and, moreov^er, the manner in which the Lord's day was ob- 
 served, was directly influenced by the synagogue service. 
 On the other hand, the Jewish Christians continued to keep 
 the Sabbath like other points of the old law. Eusebius re- 
 marks that the Ebionites observed both the Sabbath and 
 the Lord's day, and this practice obtained, to some extent, 
 in much wider circles, for the Apostolical Constitutions 
 recommend that the Sabbath shall be kept as a memorial 
 feast of the creation, as well as the Lord's day ; as a me- 
 morial of the resurrection. The festal character of the Sab- 
 bath was long recognized in a modified form in the Eastern 
 church, by a prohibition of fasting on that day, which was 
 also a point in the Jewish Sabbath law. On the other hand 
 Paul had quite distinctly laid down from the first days of 
 Gentile Chistianity that the Jewish Sabbath was not bind- 
 ing on Christians (Romans xiv : 5 ; Galations iv : 10; Col. 
 ii : 16), and controversy with Judaizers led in process of 
 
lOO 
 
 time to direct condemnation of those who still kept the 
 Jewish day. According to all the four evangelists the res- 
 urrection of our Lord took place on the first day of the 
 week after Plis crucifixion, and the fourth Gospel describes 
 a second appearance to Mis disciples as having occurred 
 eight days afterwards. Apart from this central fact of the 
 Christian faith, the Pentecostal outpouring of the Spirit 
 seven weeks later, described in Acts ii, cannot have failed 
 to give an additional sacredncss to the day in the eyes of 
 the earliest converts. Whether the primitive church in 
 Jerusalem had any special mode of observing it in its daily 
 meetings held in the temple we cannot tell, but as there is 
 no doubt that in these gatherings the recurrence of the 
 Sabbath was marked by appropriate Jewish observances, so 
 it ;s not improbable that the worship on the first day of the 
 week had also some distinguishing feature. Afterwards, at 
 all events, when Christianity had been carried toother places 
 where, from the nature of the case, daily meetings for wor- 
 ship were impossible, the first day of the week was every- 
 where set apart for this purpose. Thus, Acts xx : 7 shows 
 that the disciples in Troas met weekly on the first day of the 
 week for exhortation and the breaking of bread (I Corinth- 
 ians xvi : 2) ; implies, atr least, some observance of the da)', 
 and the solemn commemorative character it had very early 
 acquired is strikingly indicated by an incidental expression 
 of the writer of the Apocalypse, i : 10, who, for the first 
 time, gives it that name — The Lord's day— by which it is 
 almost invariably referred to by all writers of the century 
 immediately succeeding apostolic times. Among the indi- 
 cations of the nature and universality of its observance dur- 
 ing this period, may be mentioned the precept in the (re- 
 cently discovered) Teaching of the Apostles (chap. xiv). 
 "And on the Lord's day of the Lord come together and break 
 bread and give thanks after confessing your transgressions, 
 that your sacrifice may be pure." Ignatius speaks of those 
 
lOI 
 
 whom he addresses as no longer Sabbatizing, but Hving in 
 the observance of the Lord's day, on which also our life 
 sprang up again. Justin Martyr, during the reign of An- 
 tonius Pius, 1 38-161, says of the weekly meetings of the 
 Christians : "And on the day called Sunday, all who live 
 in the cities or in the country gather together to one place, 
 and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the 
 prophets are read, as long as time permits ; then when the 
 reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs and ex- 
 horts to the imitation of these good things. * * * 3ut 
 Sunday is the day on which we hold our common assem- 
 bly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought 
 a change in the darkness and matter, made the world ; and 
 Jesus Christ, our Saviour, on the same day rose from the 
 dead ; for He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn, 
 and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the 
 sun, having appeared to His apostles and disciples, He 
 taught them those things which we have submitted to you 
 also for your consideration." 
 
 A new name now appears for the first day of the week 
 which is not found in either the old or new Testament — 
 Sunday; so called because this day was anciently dedicated 
 to the sun as its worship. Sun worship was the worship 
 of the greater part of the people of the East. We are re- 
 minded in God's word to take good heed unto ourselves 
 lest thou lift up thine eyes to heaven, and when thou seest 
 the sun, the moon and the stars shouldcst be driven to wor- 
 ship them. (Deuteronomy iv : 19). This term Sunday, 
 was afterwards adopted by Christian nations. It is also 
 called the Lord's day, the first day of the week, the Sab- 
 bath. Sabbath — rest — day of rest — the day which God ap- 
 pointed to be observed as a day of rest from all secular 
 labor or employment, for the study of His law and for 
 praise, to be kept holy and to be consecrated to His service 
 and worship. Sabbath is not strictly synonomous with 
 
102 
 
 Sunday. Sunday is a mere name of a day. Sabbath is the 
 name of an institution. Sunday is the Sabbath of the 
 Christians. Saturday is the Sabbath of the Jews. It has 
 been contended whether Sunday is a name that ought to 
 be used by Christians. The words Sabbath and Lord's 
 day, say some, are the only names mentioned in Scripture 
 respecting this day. To call it Sunday is to set our wis- 
 dom before the wisdom of God, and to give that glory to a 
 pagan idol, which is due to Him alone. The ancient Romans 
 called it by this name, because, upon it, they worshipped 
 the sun, and shall Christians keep up the memory of that 
 which was highly displeasing to God by calling the Sab- 
 bath by that name rather than by either of those he hath ap- 
 pointed ? The earliest civil law on the subject of Sunday is 
 that of the Emperor Constantine, March 7, A. D. 321. The 
 following is the decree : "On the venerable day of the sun 
 let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let 
 all workshops be closed. In the country, however, persons 
 engaged in the work of cultivation may freely and lawfully 
 continue their pursuits, because it often happens that another 
 day is not so suitable for grain-sowing or for vine-planting, 
 lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations, 
 the bounty of heaven be lost." Constantine, at the time of 
 issuing this decree, was a Pagan, who worshipped the god 
 Apollo, whose sacred day was the first day of the week. 
 Webster says : "Apollo was a deity among the Greeks 
 and Romans, and worshipped under the name of Phoebus, 
 the sun." Gibbon, in his "Decline and Fall of the Roman 
 lunpire," says : "The devotion of Constantine was more 
 peculiarly directed to the genius of the sun, the Apollo of 
 Greek and Roman m)'thology, and he was pleased to be 
 represented with the s)'mbols of the god of light and poetry. 
 * * * The altars of Apollo were crowned with the votive 
 offerings of Constantine, and the credulous multitude were 
 taught to believe that the emperor was permitted to behold 
 
103 
 
 with mortal eyes the visible majesty of their tutelar deity. 
 * * * The sun was universally celebrated as the invin- 
 cible guide and protector of Constantine." Dr. Schaff, in 
 his "History of the Christian Church," says : "Constantine 
 enjoined the civil observance of Sunday, though not as 
 Dies Domini (Lord's day), but as Dies Solis, day of the 
 sun, in conformity to his worship of Apollo, and in company 
 with his ordinance for the regular consulting of the Jiarus- 
 pice. The edict of the sun's day was issued March 7, that 
 for consulting the liaruspice was issued the day following. 
 This edict of March 8, concerned the inspection of the en- 
 trails of beasts as a means of foretelling future events. Let 
 us examine a Roman army at the moment when it is pre- 
 paring for battle. The consul orders a victim to be brought 
 and strikes it with the axe, it falls, its entrails will indicate 
 the will of the gods. An liaruspice examines them, and if 
 the signs are favorable the consul gives the signal for battle. 
 The most skillful dispositions, the most favorable circum- 
 stances are of no account if the gods do not permit the 
 battle. In 323, according to the opinion of Mosheim, Con- 
 stantine made a profession of Christianity. Other writers 
 give a later date. The Encyclopedia Brittanicse says : "The 
 notion of conversion in a sense of a real acceptance of the 
 new religion, and a thorough rejection of the old, is incon- 
 sistent with the hesitating attitude in which he stood towards 
 both. Much of this may indeed be due to motives of poli- 
 tical expediency, but there is a good deal that cannot be 
 so explained. Paganism must still have been an operative 
 belief with the man who, down almost to the close of his 
 life, retained so many heathen superstitions. He was, at 
 best, only half heathen, half Christian, who could seek to 
 combine the worship of Christ with the worship of Apollo, 
 having the name of the one and the figure of the other im- 
 pressed upon his coins. Dr. Schaff further says : "When 
 at last, on his death bed, Constantine submitted to baptism, 
 
104 
 
 with the remark : 'Now let us cast away all duplicity,' he 
 honestly admitted the conflict of two antagonistic principles 
 which swayed his private character and public life." We 
 herewith give a brief summary of the acts of Constantine, 
 which seems to have a bearing on his inconsistent position 
 as a pagan and a professed Christian : 
 
 A. D. 3 1 2, professed to have a vision of the cross. There 
 is, however, no evidence that he ever spoke of such a thing 
 before the year 322. 
 
 A. D. 313, issued the edict of Milan, stopping persecution 
 on account of religion. 
 
 A. D. 321, March 7, issued a decree that certain classes 
 abstain from labor on "the venerable day of the sun." 
 
 A. D. 321, March 8, issued a decree for consulting har- 
 uspices — a practice purely pagan. 
 
 A. D. 323, according to the opinion of IMoshcim, made a 
 profession of Christianity. Other writers give a later date. 
 
 A. D. 324, murdered Licinius, in violation of his solemn 
 oath. 
 
 A. D. 325, convened the council of Nice, and presided 
 over its deliberations. 
 
 A. D. 325, after the council, revoked the edict of Milan, 
 and copied the penal regulations under which Diocletian 
 had persecuted the Christians, and employed them in per- 
 secuting those who did not accept the Christian faith. 
 
 A. D. 326, murdered his sc^n Crispus, and his nephew 
 Licinius, and a great number of their friends. 
 
 A. D. 330, May 11, dedicated Constantinople to the vir- 
 gin Mary. 
 
 A. D. 337, near the close of his life, was baptized into the 
 Christian faith. 
 
 The first Sunday legislation was the product of that pa- 
 gan conception so fully developed by the Romans, which 
 made religion a department of the state. This was diamet- 
 rically opposed to the genius of New Testament Christian- 
 
I05 
 
 ity. It did not find favor in the church until Christianity 
 had been deeply corrupted through the influence of gnosti- 
 cism and kindred pagan errors. The Emperor Constantine 
 issued the first Sunday edict by virtue of his power as pon- 
 tifex maximus in all matters of religion, especially in the ap- 
 pointment of sacred days. This law was pagan in every 
 particular. 
 
 Sunday legislation between the time of Constantine and 
 the fall of the empire was a combination of the pagan, 
 Christian and Jewish cults. Many other holidays — mostly 
 pagan festivals baptized with new names and slightly modi- 
 fied — were associated in the same laws with Sunday. 
 
 In 321, Constantine declared it most unworthy of this day 
 (Sunday), that it should be taken up with the strifes of the 
 courts and the noxious contentions of suitors, and that it 
 should rather be filled with good acts. This prohibition of 
 law suits included arbitrations. Under the head of good 
 acts are mentioned the emancipation of children, the man- 
 umission of slaves and the visitation of prisoners, to see that 
 they were not cruelly treated. Later laws made further ex- 
 ceptions to the above. The judges were ordered by Theo- 
 dosius (A. D. 408) to proceed against robbers, and espec- 
 ially against the Isaurian pirates at all times, not even e.K- 
 cepting Easter or Lent ; the reason given for this, being 
 that otherwise the discovery of crimes expected from the 
 torture of the robbers may be delayed and the pius hope is 
 expressed that the High God will pardon the act being done 
 on Sunday, because it tends to the safety of the many. 
 There were numerous other e.xceptions for those which ob- 
 tained as against the ante-Christian festivals of Rome were 
 held still in force. Their object was to prevent a failure of 
 justice in civil as well as criminal cases. Theodosius (A. 
 D. 386), went further and extended the prohibition to all 
 business as well as to litigation. In the same year he forbade 
 shows on Sunday, "so that divine worship should not be 
 
io6 
 
 mixed up with the slaughter of animals." Valentinian Theo- 
 dosius and Arcadius (A. D. 392) forbade, on Sunday, 
 the contests of the circus. Arcadius and Honorius ad- 
 ded theatrical games and horse races, and Honorius and 
 Theodosius (A. D. 409) added all pleasures. Leo and 
 Anthenius go more into detail, and so make the prohi- 
 bition of legal proceedings and of business more sweep- 
 ing, and add, that in thus ordering a freedom from labor, 
 they do not will tliat the day be given to immodest pleas- 
 ures, and mention specially "theatrical representations," 
 "games of the circus," and "tearful exhibitions of wild 
 beasts." The Roman theatre was very different from the 
 modern. Every citizen of Rome had a right to attend it 
 without expense. Hence, instead of an audience few in 
 numbers and of at least some culture, paying for their seats, 
 there were often gathered at a Roman theatre 30,000 people 
 of the very lowest and most brutal kind. This rabble — not 
 the few — had to be pleased, and as the result taste soon de- 
 generated. Purely dramatic representations gave way to 
 clowns, boxers, jugglers, &c., and the theatres were soon 
 polluted with the grossest indecencies, and the luxury of 
 the stage, as the Romans delicately phrased it, drew down 
 the loudest indignation of the reformers of a later day. The 
 contests of the circus were the struggles to the death, often 
 times, of the gladiators. The "tearful spectacles of wild 
 beasts," were not simply fights between the beasts them- 
 selves, or their wholesale butchery by hired spearmen, but 
 also fights between men and savage beasts, and yet further, 
 the butchery of helpless men and women, cast bound to the 
 animals to be destroyed by them. To the early Christians, 
 with the memories of the days of Nero and others still fresh, 
 these spectacles were especially hateful. They were con- 
 demned by the better class of Romans — the mere specta- 
 tors ; how much more then by those whose relatives, friends, 
 leaders and fellow religionists had been compelled to act 
 
lO/ 
 
 and suffer in them. These laws form the basis of the Eng- 
 Hsh legislation on this subject, and consequently of ours. 
 They can easily be traced in these. Like the laws of their 
 day, they deal with the concrete and do not lay down gen- 
 eral rules. But the principle underlying them is easily 
 seen. They forbid all labor or work on Sunday, except 
 such as was essential, or at least highly conducive to the 
 welfare, and which, in a broad sense, could be called 
 necessary to the state and its citizens. Hence, the farmer 
 could sow his seed and plant his vines, equally as the 
 state could pursue robbers and pirates, and to prevent the 
 loss of a right or the failure of justice, the private suitor 
 could take legal proceedings, just as the state could take 
 steps to prevent the escape of criminals. They prohibited 
 pleasures which were, to a high degree, offensive to the 
 taste and moral sense of the community. But they no- 
 where prohibited recreation qr inoffensive pleasures or social 
 enjoyments unless, indeed, the laws of Honorius and Theo- 
 dosius severed from its connexion, be held to do this. 
 This law, however, found no place in the Justinian code, 
 and consequently did not last very long. 
 
 As it is through England that we have derived our laws 
 on this, as on almost all subjects, we turn now to her legis- 
 lation. Of the laws before the Norman conquest, the 
 earliest is that of Ina or Ine, King of the West Saxons, in 
 the year 692 or 693. It is as follows : "If a slave work on 
 the Sunday by his lord's command, let him become a free- 
 man, and let the lord pay thirty shillings for mulct. But 
 if the slave work without his lord's privity, let him forfeit 
 his hide (be scourged) or a ransom for it. If a freeman 
 work without his lord's command, let him forfeit his free- 
 dom, or sixty shillings. Let a priest be liable in double 
 jiunishment." To a similar effect were the "dooms," A. D. 
 696, of Wihtred, King of the Kentish, and also the laws A. 
 D. 878, enacted by the convention between /Edward the 
 
io8 
 
 Elder and Guthrun the Dane. These latter, however, went 
 further and ordained that goods set for sale on Sunday 
 should be forfeited. Athclstane likewise, A. D. 925, for- 
 bade "buying and selling on the Lord's day." Edgar the 
 Peaceful, A, D. 958, forbade, further, "heathenish songs and 
 diabolical sports," whatever these were, and also markets 
 and county courts. He also fixed the beginning of Sunday 
 at three o'clock Saturday afternoon, to last "till Monday 
 morning light." This extension of Sunday did not last very 
 long. Aethelred (1009) added "hunting bouts" to the pro- 
 hibited sports, and renewed the interdict as to "trafficking, 
 county courts and worldly works." King Canute — sturdy 
 man as he w^as — also put hunting (10 17) under the ban. 
 He, however, relaxed the rule as to the courts, and allowed 
 them to sit on Sunday "in case of great necessity." The 
 constitution of Archbishop Islip, 1359, complains bitterly 
 "to our great hearts grief * _* * ^\^^^ ^ detestable, nay 
 damnable perverseness has prevailed as to the observance 
 of Sunday" — that though it is provided by sanction of law 
 and canon "that no markets, negotiations or courts be held 
 on that day, and that people go to church, yet, that men 
 neglect their churches for unlawful meetings, where revels 
 and drunkenness and many other dishonest doings are 
 practiced." Following this comes H Richard (1388), for- 
 bidding to servants and laborers on Sunday "the playing 
 at tennis, foot ball, and other games called coytes, dice, 
 casting of the stone, railes and such other importune games," 
 but doubtless, with an eye to the good of the state, ordering 
 that they should have "bows and arrows, and use the same 
 on Sunday." This law was reenacted with additional penal- 
 ties by Henry IV (1404). The same year a statute was 
 ordained that forbade cordwainers and cobblers from selling 
 shoes, &c., on Sunday. This, however, was repealed in 
 1523. In 1438, under Henry VI, an act was passed for- 
 bading laborers, engaged by the week, to claim wages for 
 
109 
 
 work done on Sunday. In 1458, under Henry VI, an act 
 was passed stating that "considering the abominable injuries 
 and offences done to Almighty God and His saints (always 
 aiders and singular assistors in our necessities), because of 
 fairs and markets upon their high and principal feasts," for- 
 bade the holding of markets and fairs on Sunday, except 
 the four Sundays in harvest. Edward VI, in his injunc- 
 tions, without waiting for a parliament, ordered that Sunday 
 "be wholly giv^en to God — in hearing the word of God read 
 and taught, in private and public, prayers, * * * visit- 
 ing the sick," &c., but allowed men in time of harvest to 
 labor on holy and festival days, and save that thing which 
 God hath sent, and adds, that "scrupulosity to abstain from 
 working upon those days doth grievously offend God." 
 The parliament of Edward VI ( 1 5 5 2) confirmed this with but 
 little change. All persons were ordered to keep Sundays 
 "holy days," and to abstain from lawful bodily labor, but it 
 was allowed "to every husbandman, laborer, fisherman, and 
 to all and every other person and persons of whatsoever de- 
 gree or condition he or she may be, upon the holy days 
 aforesaid, in harvest or at any other times in the year, when 
 necessity shall require, to labor, ride, fish, or work any kind 
 of work at their free will and pleasure." The harvest time 
 referred to was then apparently counted from July ist to 
 September 24th, and was not restricted to four weeks. 
 Under Queen Mary this act was repealed. Queen Eliza- 
 beth, who did not suffer her parliament to meddle much with 
 religious matters, rc-cnjoincd its observance, but the act was 
 not revived by parliament till I James, when the act of 
 Queen Mary was formally repealed and this revived. In 
 1564, Puritanism, which had been at work on the English 
 mind for many years, took definite form and first assumed 
 its name. It intensified yet further the severity and strict- 
 ness of conduct on Sunday, and apparently, about this time, 
 the name of Sabbath was for the first time applied generally 
 
no 
 
 to the day. Fuller mentions, as an incident which increased 
 this feeling, an accident which happened in 1583 at a bull 
 baiting on Sunday: "The scaffold fell and killed a few people, 
 and injured yet more." This, together with Dr. Bownd's 
 book (1583), pushed yet further the tendency of the age to 
 gloom and severity. Queen Elizabeth added to Edward's 
 injunctions by forbidding inn-holders and all house-keepers, 
 &c., "to sell meat or drink in the time of common prayer." 
 This stringency, then as now, produced some reaction. 
 King James I, in one of his progresses through Lanca- 
 shire, noticed the extreme strictness with which the magis- 
 trates compelled the observance of Sunday and the conse- 
 quent discontent of the people. Therefore, on May 14, 
 16 14, he issued for the people of Lancashire "The Book of 
 Sports," or "Declaration," that his good people after the end 
 of divine service "should not be disturbed, letted or dis- 
 couraged from any lawful recreations, such as dancing, 
 either of men or women ; archery for men, leaping, vaulting 
 or any such harmless recreations, nor from having of May 
 games, Whitsunales or Morris dances, and setting up of 
 May poles, or other sports therewith used, * * * with- 
 al prohibiting all unlawful games to be used on Sundays 
 only, as bear baiting, bull baiting, interludes and at all times 
 in the meaner sort of people by law prohibited, bowling." 
 This king who "never said a foolish thing and never did a 
 wise one," well illustrated this unhappy faculty in this de- 
 claration. The preamble deserves to be set out in full. "With 
 our own ears," says the king, "we have heard the com- 
 plaints of our people that they were barred from all lawful 
 recreation and exercise upon the Sunday's afternoon, after 
 the ending of all divine service, which cannot but produce 
 two evils. The one hindering the conversion of man}' whom 
 their priests will take occasion thereby to vex, persuading 
 them that no honest mirth or recreation is lawful or toler- 
 able in our religion, which cannot but breed a great discon- 
 
1 1 1 
 
 tentment in our people's hearts, especially of such as are 
 peradventure upon the point of turning. The other incon- 
 venience is this, that this prohibition barreth the meaner 
 and commoner sort of people from using such exercises as 
 may make their bodies more able for war, when we or our 
 successors shall have occasion to use them, and in place 
 thereof sets up filthy tipplings and drunkenness, and breeds 
 a number of idle and discontented speeches in their ale 
 houses. For when the common people have leave to exer- 
 cise, if not upon the Sundays and holy days, seeing they 
 must apply to their labor and win their living in all work- 
 ing days." Instead of extending this privilege to all classes, 
 he expressly refused "this benefit and liberty to known re- 
 cusants" (so-called Romanists), and to the Puritans. This 
 incensed these beyond measure. The calvinistic Arch- 
 bishop Abbott forbade the reading of this declaration (as 
 required by it), at Croydon Church. The Lord Mayor of 
 London stopped the king's carriage when passing through 
 London on Sunday. In 1618 King James transmitted 
 orders to the clergy of the whole of England to read the 
 declaration from the pulpit, but so strong was the oppo- 
 sition that he prudently withdrew his command. Puritan- 
 ism was still in the ascendant, and the "Book of Sports" 
 apparently fell a dead letter. It was not extended by this 
 king beyond Lancashire, and the observance of Sunday, 
 under the influence of the calvanistic archbishop, remained 
 generally as strict as ever. In the first year of Charles I, 
 the parliament which he had hastened to call passed an act 
 for the strict observance of Sunday, which the Puritans, 
 who controlled the parliament, affected to call the Sabbath, 
 and which they sanctified by the most melancholy indo- 
 lence. With that positive knowledge of God's will which 
 has always characterized the Puritans, they assert dogmati- 
 cally "that the holy keeping of the Lord's day is a principal 
 part of the true service of God," than which service there is 
 
I 12 
 
 nothing more acceptable to him ; and then enact that "there 
 shall be no meetings, assemblies or concourse of people out 
 of their own parishes on the Lord's day * * * for any- 
 sports and pastimes whatsoever, nor any bear baiting, bull 
 baiting, interludes, common plays or other unlawful exer- 
 cises and pastimes, be used by any person or persons with- 
 in their own parishes." The penalty was a fine of three 
 shillings and four pence, and in default of payment the of- 
 fender "should sit in the stocks for the space of three hours." 
 The broader and more catholic spirit of Laud, then Bishop 
 of London, apparently modified the strictness with which 
 those laws were enforced. Upon the death of Abbot in 
 1633 he succeeded to the archbishopric, and with the 
 greater power he thus obtained he secured a greater in- 
 dulgence to sports and pastimes. By his influence, as it 
 was afterwards charged, tho.ugh apparently not proved, 
 Charles re-published his father's Book of Sports on October 
 13, 1633, and extended its provisions to the whole realm. 
 This was sorely distasteful to the Puritan clergy, and they 
 avoided reading the book in the churches as far as they 
 could, or, on reading it, would follow it by the fourth com- 
 mandment, or by a sermon against it. Many of the clergy- 
 men were punished for refusing to obey the injunction. 
 Charles was, however, apparently more firm than his father 
 and the book was not altogether a dead letter. Later it 
 was, by order of the Long Parliament, burnt by the com- 
 mon hangman. In the third year of Charles (to go back a 
 little) we find another law of parliament (1627) which 
 enacts that no carriers with any horse, nor wagonmen with 
 any wagon, nor cartmen with any cart, nor wainmen with 
 any wains, nor drover with any cattle * * * by them- 
 selves or any other, shall * * * travel on Sunday, nor 
 shall any butcher, by himself, or through any person "kill 
 or sell any victual," on the said day. This brings us to the 
 act which, with that of Charles I just cited, is of most in- 
 
113 
 
 terest and importance to us Americans, i. e. the act of 1676. 
 It was of force at the Revolution, and gav^e more or less 
 color to the laws of the colonies and of the states which 
 succeeded them. For "the better observation and keeping 
 holy the Lord's day, commonly called Sunday," it enacts: 
 
 1. That previous laws in force concerning the observa- 
 tion of the Lord's day, and reparing to church therein, be 
 carefully put in execution. 
 
 2. That all persons shall apply themselves to such obser- 
 vation by exercising themselves thereon in the duties of 
 piety and true religion, publicly and privately. 
 
 3. That no tradesman, artificer, workman, laborer or other 
 person whatsoever "shall do any worldly labor, business or 
 work of their ordinary callings," on that day (works of ne- 
 cessity and charity only excepted)." Children under four- 
 teen years of age were excepted from the operation of this 
 section. 
 
 4. That no person shall publicly cry, show forth or ex- 
 pose for sale, any wares, merchandise, fruit, herbs, goods or 
 chattels whatsoever, upon pain of forfeiture of the goods. 
 
 5. That no drover, horse courser, wagoner, butcher, hig- 
 gler, or their servants, shall travel or come to his or their 
 inn or lodging. 
 
 6. That no person shall "usp , employ or travel * * * 
 with any boat, wherry, lighter, or barge, except on some 
 extraordinary occasion, to be allowed by some magistrate. 
 
 7. If any person travelling on Sunday shall be robbed, 
 the Hundred was relieved from the responsibility therefor, 
 but must still make pursuit of the robber. 
 
 8. It made void the services of all writs and other legal 
 process on Sunday, except in cases of treason, felony and 
 breach of the peace. 
 
 9. That this act should not apply to the prohibiting of 
 dressing of meats in families, or dressing or selling of meats 
 in inns, cook-shops, or victualing houses, for such as other- 
 
114 
 
 wise cannot be provided, "nor to the crying and selling of 
 milk before nine in the morning and after four in the after- 
 noon." 
 
 This ends my review of the English statutes on this sub- 
 ject. The later acts do not concern this country. Doubt- 
 less I have omitted some that I should have noticed. Still 
 the above gives, I hope, the most material regulations for 
 the observance of Sunday at that time. First, ordinary 
 work is forbidden. Then follows the selling of goods. Then 
 the joyous and rollicking festivities of fairs and markets. 
 Then comes games and sports, and thus gradually Sunday 
 is filled with unhappy associations to many. That bull 
 baiting, bear baiting and such like cruel sports should have 
 been interdicted on the day of rest — the day of peace — 
 seems natural to us, but it will be difficult to assign any 
 religious reason for the prohibition of quoits, foot-ball, &c., 
 while the use of bows and arrows was encouraged. The 
 reason implied in the Book of Sports was doubtless the 
 true one. The English archer made the English infantry 
 of that day peculiarly formidable. The peasants supplied 
 the archers. Cut off from all other amusements on their 
 day of leisure, they were almost compelled to become pro- 
 ficient in archery, and to form a corps of skilled reserves, 
 from which the army could always be recruited. These 
 laws of England, howev^er, did not suit many of the Puri- 
 tans of that day. They were too moderate for the followers 
 of Dr. Bownd, and these preferred to exchange their old 
 homes for a wild and unknown land, rather than not to 
 have their own laws, and to follow religion according to 
 their own views. These men were too much in earnest in 
 their convictions to brook any half way observance of Sun- 
 day, and their influence in this matter is felt among us yet. 
 
 We will now turn our attention to the laws of our own 
 state. When the frame of government for Pennsylvania was 
 adopted by Penn, 25th April, 1682, and certain laws were 
 
115 
 
 agreed upon by the Governor and freemen of the province, 
 on the 5th May, 1682, it was enacted, ititer alia, "That ac- 
 •cording to the good example of the primitive Christians, 
 and for the ease of creation, every first day of the week, 
 called the Lord's day, people shall abstain from the com- 
 mon daily labor, that they may the better dispose them- 
 selves to worship God according to their understandings." 
 In the "Great Law" of the province of Pennsylvania and 
 territories thereto belonging, passed at an assembly held at 
 "Chester, alias Upland," December 7, 1682, it was again 
 enacted, "To the end that looseness, irreligion and atheism, 
 play not creep in under pretense of conscience in this 
 province, that according to the example of the primitive 
 Christians, and for the ease of creation, every first day of 
 the week, called the Lord's day, people shall abstain from 
 their usual and common toil and labor. That whether 
 masters, parents, children or servants, they may the better 
 dispose themselves to read the scriptures of truth at home 
 or frequent such meetings of religious worship abroad as 
 may best suit their respective persuasions." This was, with 
 some other laws enacted at the same time, declared "a 
 fundamental law," and it was also declared that the same 
 "should not be altered, diminished or repealed in whole or 
 in part without the consent of the Governor, his heirs and 
 assigns and six parts of seven of the freemen of the province 
 or territories thereof in Provincial Council and Assembly 
 met." This and all other laws previously in force were, 
 from their dislike to William Penn, it is said, abrogated by 
 William and Mary, King and Queen of England, in 1693, 
 but this was reenactcd by the new provincial authorities 
 the same year and continued in force till the year 1700, 
 when it was again enacted, after the government of the 
 province, which had fallen into great confusion and disorder 
 during the absence of Penn in England, was again reorgan- 
 ized. (See Bioren's Laws, Vol. I, p. i.) This continued 
 
ii6 
 
 until a new act was passed by the legislature in 1705, which 
 appears to have superseded all previous legislation on this 
 subject, and the fourth, fifth and sixth sections of which are 
 still in force. The first section of this act, which was super- 
 seded by the act of 25th April, 1786, and that act by the 
 act of 1794, was as follows : 
 
 "An act to restrain people from labor on the first day of 
 the week, to the end that all people in this province may, 
 with greater freedom, devote themselves to religious and 
 pious exercises. Be it enacted by John Evans, Esq., by the 
 Queen's Approbation Lieutenant Governor, under William 
 Penn, Esq., Absolute Proprietary Governor in Chief of the 
 province of Pennsylvania and territories, by and with the 
 advice and consent of the freemen of said province in Gen- 
 eral Assembly met. That according to the example of the 
 primitive Christians, and for the ease of creation, every first 
 day of the week, commonly called Sunday, all the people 
 shall abstain from toil and labor, that whether masters, 
 parents, children, servants or others, they may the better 
 dispose themselves to read and hear the holy scriptures of 
 truth at home and frequent sucli meetings of religious wor- 
 ship abroad as may best suit their respective persuasions, 
 and that no tradesman, artificer, workman, laborer or any 
 other person whatsoever, shall do or exercise any worldly 
 business or work of their ordinary callings on the first day 
 of the week, or any part thereof (works of necessity and 
 charity only excepted), upon pain that every person so of- 
 fending shall, for every offense, forfeit the sum of twenty 
 shillings : Provided always. That nothing in this act con- 
 tained shall extend to prohibit the dressing of victuals in 
 flimilies, cook-shops and victualling houses." In 1794 an 
 act which is now the law of the Commonwealth was passed, 
 superseding and repealing all previous laws, in the terms 
 following : 
 
117 
 
 "An Act for the prevention of vice, immorality and of 
 unlawful gaming, and to restrain disorderly sports and dis- 
 sipation." 
 
 "Section i. If any person shall do or perform any world- 
 ly employment or business whatever, on the Lord's day, 
 commonly called Sunday (w^orks of charity and necessity 
 only excepted), or shall use or practice any unlawful game, 
 shooting, sport or diversion whatever, on the same day, 
 and be convicted thereof, every such person so offending 
 shall forfeit and pay four dollars, to be levied by distress ; 
 or in case he or she shall refuse or neglect to pay said sum, 
 or goods or chattels cannot be found, whereof to levy the 
 same by distress, he or she shall suffer six days' imprison- 
 ment in the house of correction of the proper county : Pro- 
 vided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to 
 prohibit the dressing of victuals in private families, bake- 
 houses, inns or other houses of entertainment for the use 
 of sojourners, travellers or strangers, or to hinder watermen 
 from landing their passengers, or ferrymen from carrying 
 over the water travellers, or persons moving with their fam- 
 ilies on the Lord's day, commonly called Sunday, nor to 
 the delivery of milk, or the necessaries of life, before nine 
 o'clock in the forenoon, nor after five o'clock in the after- 
 noon of the same day." 
 
 Judge Duncan, in the case of Updegraph v. The Com- 
 monwealth, II S. &. R. 394, states that "Christianity, gen- 
 eral Christianity, is and always has been a part of the com- 
 mon law of Pennsylvania ; Christianity without the spiritual 
 artillery of European countries — for this Christianity was 
 one of the considerations of the royal charter and the very 
 basis of its great founder, William Penn — not Christianity 
 with an established church, and tithes, and spiritual courts ; 
 not Christianity founded on any particular religious tenets, 
 but Christianity with liberty of conscience to all men. Wil- 
 liam Penn and Lord Baltimore were the first legislators," 
 y 
 
ii8 
 
 the first a Friend, and the latter a Roman CathoHc, "who 
 passed laws in favor of liberty of conscience, for before that 
 period the principles of liberty of conscience appeared in 
 the laws of no people, the axiom of no government, the in- 
 stitutes of no society, and scarcely in the temper of any man. 
 Even the reformers were as furious against contumacious 
 errors as they were loud in asserting the liberty of conscience. 
 And to the wilds of America, peopled by a stock cut off by 
 persecution from a Christian society, does Christianity owe 
 true freedom of religious opinion and religious worship." 
 The case was an indictment for blasphemy founded on an 
 Act of Assembly passed in 1700, which enacts that "whoso- 
 ever shall wilfully, prcmeditatcdly and despitefully blas- 
 pheme and speak loosely and profanely of Almighty God, 
 Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit, or the Scriptures of Truth, 
 and is legally convicted thereof, shall forfeit and pay the 
 sum of ten pounds." It was decided in September, 1824, 
 and the judges of the Supreme Court were Tilghman, Chief 
 Justice, and Gibson and Duncan justices. 
 
 The Supreme Court in 1853 was composed of Black, 
 Chief Justice, and Lewis, Lowrie, Woodward and Knox, 
 justices. In the court of that year was the case of Johnson 
 V. The Commonwealth, 10 Harris, 102. It was there held 
 that "driving an omnibus as a public conveyance daily, and 
 every day, is worldly employment, and not a work of charity 
 or necessity within the meaning of the Act of 1794, and 
 therefore not lawful on Sunday. Chief Justice Black and 
 Justice Lewis dissented. Judge Woodward, in delivering 
 the judgment of the court, said: "These statutes were not 
 designed to compel men to go to church or to worship God 
 in any manner inconsistent with personal preferences, but 
 to compel a cessation of those employments which are cal- 
 culated to interfere with the rights of those who choose to 
 assemble for public worship. The day was set apart for a 
 purpose and the penal enactments guard it, but the)- lea\'e 
 
119 
 
 every man free to use it for that purpose or not. If he 
 wish to use it for the purpose designed, the law protects 
 him from the annoyance of others — if he do not, it restrains 
 him from annoying those who do so use it. Thus the law, 
 without oppressing anybody, becomes auxiliary to the rights 
 of conscience. And there are other rights intimately as- 
 sociated with the rights of conscience which are worth pre- 
 serving. The right to rear a family with a becoming re- 
 gard to the institutions of Christianity, and without compell- 
 ing them to witness, hourly, infractions of one of its funda- 
 mental laws ; the right to enjoy the peace and good order 
 of society and the increased securities of life and property 
 which result from a decent observance of Sunday ; the right 
 of the poor to rest from labor without diminution of wages 
 or loss of employment ; the right of beasts of burthen to re- 
 pose one-seventh of their time from their unrequited toil ; 
 these are real and substantial interests which the legislature 
 sought to secure by this enactment, and when" has legisla- 
 tion arrived at higher objects ?" The Supreme Court in 
 1859 '^^'^^ composed of Lowrie, Chief Justice, and Wood- 
 ward, Thompson, Strong and Read, justices. In the court 
 of that year was the case of The Commonwealth z>. Nesbit, 
 10 Casey, 398. It was there held that "it is not a violation 
 of the Act of April 22, 1794, for a hired domestic servant 
 to drive his employer's family to church on the Lord's day 
 in the employer's private conveyance. Chief Justice Lowrie, 
 in delivering the opinion of the court, said : "Some worldly 
 employments are expressly allowed, such as removing with 
 one's family, delivery of milk and necessaries of life, and 
 the business of ferrymen and innkeepers; and of course, 
 these may be performed by a principal or by his servants, 
 and by all the ordinary means adopted for these purposes, 
 and which are not themselves forbidden. And all worldly 
 employments arc allowed which, in their nature, consists 
 of acts of nccessit}' or charit)', or if the)' become so for the 
 
I20 
 
 time beiiif^ by reason of famine, flood, fire, pestilence, or 
 other disaster. In such cases necessity and charity de- 
 mands the work, and with it all the ordinary means of 
 doing it. The whole purpose of some employments is to 
 do works of necessity or charity. The business of a phy- 
 sician cannot be stopped on Sunday because it is a work of 
 necessity. He must travel in performing it, and he is there- 
 fore entitled to use all the ordinary means of such travel, 
 and this includes, of course, the labor of his servants in at- 
 tending to his horse and carriage, and in driving if he thinks 
 it needful. The law does not inquire whether he might 
 have done such work himself It is not the driving, but 
 the principal work that is needful ; the driving follows mere- 
 ly as ordinary means. The business of the apothecary is 
 necessary, so far as it is connected with human sickness, 
 and a man may attend to it by his servants, though that 
 means may not be necessary. Hospitals in great variety 
 are necessary, and no one doubts that all the domestic at- 
 tendants of these institutions may lawfully pursue their 
 usual avocations therein, because they are the ordinary 
 means of a legitimate purpose. That people may enjoy 
 religious worship and instruction, the functions of the 
 preacher, the religious teacher, the sexton, the organist 
 and the singers are not forbidden, even though these per- 
 sons engage in these employments as a means of livelihood. 
 Hence, the ordinary means of attending public worship 
 are not forbidden when used purely for this purpose. In 
 this \iew of the case it is the rightncss and the exigencies of 
 the purpose that justify the ordinar}' means of effectuating 
 it. Conducting and attending religious worship are among 
 the x'ery purposes for which the law protects the day, and 
 therefore all the means which common usage shows to be 
 reasonably necessary for these purposes are not forbidden. 
 But no one ought to expect sharp definitions of legal duty 
 on such a subject. Modes of lix'ing, of business, of travel 
 
121 
 
 and other human customs are so continually changing that 
 definitions involving them can never be universally, but 
 only generally, adequate. All that we can expect is truth 
 and accuracy to a general intent. Even law, as a definition 
 of human duty, is subject to this defect. Yet, with very 
 few exceptions, it is true that no one who sincerely respects 
 the customs of society and strives to maintain them in his 
 social life, can fail to understand the law in all its main 
 features, and to live in conformity with it. It is only in 
 peculiar and exceptional cases that any difficulties can arise, 
 and even these are made easy of solution by a sincere dis- 
 position to conform to the order of society. Necessity it- 
 self is totally incapable of any sharp definition. What is a 
 mere luxury or perhaps entirely useless or burdensome to 
 a savage, may be a matter of necessity to a civilized man. 
 What may be a mere luxury or pleasure to a poor man, 
 may be a necessity when he has grown rich. Necessity, 
 therefore, can itself be only approximately defined. The law 
 regards that as necessary which the common sense of the 
 country, in its ordinary modes of doing its business, regards 
 as necessary. . By this test the business of keeping a livery 
 stable[for the care of people's horses is a necessary employ- 
 ment in large towns, and of course this requires some work 
 and attention on Sundays, and this may be performed to 
 the extent of the necessity by the ordinary means be- 
 longing to the business. By this test, also, iron and glass 
 are necessaries of life and they cannot be obtained without 
 some work being done on Sundays, if the business is to be 
 performed according to the ordinary skill and science of 
 the country. The law never inquires whether iron and 
 glass generally, or in such large quantities, are really nec- 
 essary in the strictest sense of the wortl, or whether it is 
 not possible to improve the art so that Sunday may not 
 need to be violated. This is not the province of law but of 
 individual enterprise and science. Law, therefore, does not 
 
122 
 
 condemn those employments which society regards as nec- 
 essary, e\cn when they encroach on the Sabbath, if, accord- 
 ing to the ordinary skill of the business, it is necessary to 
 do so. And then the business being recognized as neces- 
 sary, it may be performed by means of the services of others 
 and by all the ordinary means of the business, so far as it 
 is necessary. But let us consider the statutory definition 
 of what is forbidden. It is 'any worldly employment or 
 business whatsoever.' What does this word 'worldly' 
 mean ? Its correlatives help us to its meaning. Very evi- 
 dentl)' worldly is contrasted with religions, and the worldly 
 employments are prohibited for the sake of the religious 
 ones. Of course, therefore, no religious employments are 
 forbidden. Hence, funerals, as religious rites, are allowed 
 on Sunday, and all the functions of undertakers, grave dig- 
 gers, hearse and carriage drivers, and others, though such 
 persons use such employments as a means of livelihood. 
 Hence, also, while purely civil contracts are forbidden on 
 Sunday, marriage is not so, because it is not purely civil, 
 but also a religious contract. But the words domestic, 
 household, family, are also correlatives of the word worldly. 
 If they are so in this law, then worldly employments being 
 *alonc forbidden, of course these contraries are not. An 
 obstacle to this view is, that cooking victuals in families is 
 excepted as though the general prohibition of worldly em- 
 ployments included it. Yet this exception is possibly ex- 
 pressed by way of precaution to prevent a supposed but 
 perhaps misinterpreted Jewish law from being misapplied 
 to us as though repeated in our law. Exodus, i6: 23 and 
 35 : 3. Or possibly the purpose of the proviso was to save 
 from the prohibition certain worldly employments, such as 
 cooking victuals in bake houses, boarding houses and inns, 
 and delivery of milk, and cooking in families was also 
 named merely to prevent a prohibiiion of it from being im- 
 plied from the proviso, though not included in the general 
 
123 
 
 prohibition. If this is a redundancy it is not the only one. 
 Cooking victuals in bakehouses and inns is specially al- 
 lowed, and yet it is understood to be included under the 
 term 'works of necessity.' And if 'worldly employment' 
 is to be taken in its largest sense it includes hunting, shoot- 
 ing and sporting, and yet these are specially forbidden. 
 We think that these terms were not intended to include 
 such household or family work as pertains directly to the 
 proper duties, necessities and comforts of the day, and this 
 work may be done by any member of the family, including 
 domestics. The most convincing proof that this is the true 
 interpetation of the law is, that it has always been so under- 
 stood. It has never been regarded as applying to the 
 proper internal economy of the family. It does not except 
 the ordinary employments of making fires and beds, clean- 
 ing up chambers and fire places, washing dishes, feeding 
 cattle and harnessing horses for going to church, because 
 these were never regarded as the worldly business of the 
 family, and therefore not forbidden to the head of the 
 family or to the domestics. It is probable, however, 
 that the most of these occupations may have been regarded 
 as works of necessity, or as means of performing such work. 
 These domestic employments, being necessary for every day 
 are not worldly employments in the sense of the law, may 
 be exercised in the ordinary modes and with the ordinary 
 freedom of the family without any violation of the law." 
 
 The Supreme Court in 1867 w^as composed of Woodward, 
 Chief Justice, and Thompson, Strong, Read and Agnew, 
 justices. In the court of that year was the case of Spar- 
 hawk V. Union Passenger Railway Company, 54 Pennsyl- 
 vania State Reports, 401, where it was held that "running 
 passenger cars on Sunday is a violation of the Act of 1794, 
 and is within its penalties," but that "a party cannot vindi- 
 cate others' rights by process in his own name nor employ 
 ci\'il process to punish wrongs to tlie public." Judge 
 
124 
 
 Thompson delivered the opinion of the court which was 
 concurred in by the Chief Justice, and Read, justice. Judge 
 Strong and Agnew dissented. Judge Read, one of the most 
 scholarly men of his day, said in his concurring opinion : 
 
 "Christianity is a part of the laws of England, says Black- 
 stone, and Lord Chief Baron Kelly, in the late case of 
 Cowen V. Milbourn, Law Rep. 2 Ex. 234, uses similar lan- 
 guage : 'There is abundant authority for saying that Christ- 
 ianity is part and parcel of the law of the land.' It is clear, 
 therefore, that, as our common law is derived from Eng- 
 land, we must look to that country for information as to 
 what our common law on this subject was and is. Eng- 
 land, at least for the last eight hundred years, has always 
 had an established church, with the single exception of the 
 time of the Commonwealth. From William the Conqueror 
 to Henry the VIII it was the Roman Catholic, and from 
 his death to the present time, with the exception of the 
 reign of Queen Mary, it has been the Church of England. 
 Of course this part of the common law has been affected 
 and controlled and formed by the practices and usages of 
 the church, established by law, and not by those of any 
 other sect or denomination of Christians. England has an 
 established church, and Scotland has also another, and 
 neither have any control over the other. Our common 
 law, however, is derived from England, and therefore it is 
 only to England we are to look for it, and not to any other 
 country. The first day of the week, the Lord's day, com- 
 monly called Sunday, is a day for worship and rest as regu- 
 lated by the civil authority. It is dies non jjiridicus in Eng- 
 land, but in other respects it is the subject of positive regu- 
 lation by the legislative authority. I am aware that some 
 religious persons of some religious sects think the sanctity 
 of Sunday, as a day of entire rest, is prescribed to all nations, 
 and particularly to all Christians, by the fourth command- 
 ment in the Decalogue, but an attentive perusal of the 20th, 
 
125 
 
 3 1st and 35th chapters of Exodus, and of the 5th chapter 
 of Deuteronomy, will show that this commandment was 
 specially limited to the Jewish nation alone. The words 
 spoken were, 'I am the Lord thy God, which have brought 
 thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage,' 
 and the verses succeeding the Decalogue, and the 2 ist chap- 
 ter which commences, 'Now these are the judgments which 
 thou shalt set before them,' show clearly" that the command- 
 ments and judgments were addressed to the Israelites alone, 
 and so in the 24th chapter, where the people take the cov- 
 enant and said, 'all that the Lord hath said, will we do, and 
 be obedient.' So in the 12th to the 17th verses of the 31st 
 chapter, 'speak thou also unto the children of Israel, say- 
 ing, verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep, for it is a sign be- 
 tween me and you throughout your generations.' 'Every 
 one that defileth it shall surely be put to death ; for whoso- 
 ever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from 
 among his people.' 'Wherefore, the children of Israel shall 
 keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their 
 generations for a perpetual covenant.' 'It is a sign between 
 me and the children of Israel forever.' In the 5th chapter 
 of Deuteronomy, 'Moses called all Israel and said unto 
 them, hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I 
 speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and 
 keep, and do them. The Lord our God made a covenant 
 with us in Horeb. The Lord made not this covenant 
 with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us 
 here alive this day.' Then follows the Decalogue, but the 
 reason assigned for the fourth commandment is in the 15th 
 verse in these words, 'And remember that thou wast a ser- 
 vant in the land of P^gypt, and that the Lord thy God 
 brought thee out thence through a mighty hand, and by a 
 stretched-out arm : therefore the Lord thy God commanded 
 thee to keep the Sabbath day.' In the 22d verse Moses 
 says, 'These words (the ten commandments) the Lord spake 
 
126 
 
 unto all )-our assembly in the mount, out of the midst of 
 the fire, of the cloud and of the thick darkness, with a ^reat 
 voice ; and he added no more.' This recapitulation of 
 Scripture makes it clear tliat the fourth commandment, 
 which is a positive statute imposed upon the Israelites 
 alone, as a people separated from all other nations by the 
 Almighty for special and wise purposes, was not intended 
 either for the Gentries or for those Hving under a later dis- 
 pensation. Like circumcision, it was a sign between Him 
 and them only. It was a part of the ceremonial law, like 
 sacrifices, and not hinding at an}- time on any nation except 
 the Jews. It is evident that no great nation of modern 
 times, living under the Christian dispensation, could sub- 
 mit to an observance of a day of entire rest under the penalty 
 of death for any breach of it ; for the command of the Al- 
 mighty inflicted this penalty on the offender. The whole 
 Jewish constitution was framed for a small and partially 
 barbarous nation, whose tendency was to idolatry, and upon 
 whom were imposed burdens which could only be borne 
 by those who considered tfiemselves as specially selected 
 by the Godhead. It was not a nation who could spread 
 their doctrines or convert other nations, and their mission 
 ceased with the birth of our Saviour. The Old Testament 
 contains moral revealed law, ceremonial and judicial laws — 
 the two last being either typical, or intended especially or 
 only for the Jewish people under the old dispensation, were 
 terminated by fulfillment or abrogation on the coming of 
 Christ, and the completion of the Christian dispensation. 
 This was the view of the Apostle Paul, when he says in his 
 Epistle to the Colossians, 'Blotting out the handwriting of 
 ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, 
 and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross ; and 
 having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show 
 of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Let no man 
 therefore judge }'Ou in meat, or in drink, or in respect of 
 
12/ 
 
 an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days ; 
 which are a shadow of things to come : but the body is of 
 Christ.' Col. ii : 14, 15. So in his Epistle to the Gala- 
 tions : 'But now, after that ye have known God, or rather 
 are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beg- 
 garly elements, whercunto }-e desire again to be in bond- 
 age? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. 
 I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in 
 vain.' Gal. iv : 9, 10. 'Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty 
 wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled 
 again with the yoke of bondage.' Gal. v: i. So in his 
 Epistle to the Romans, 14th chap., 5th verse, 'One man 
 esteemeth one day above another; another estcemeth every 
 day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own 
 mind.' 'He that regardeth the day regardeth it unto the 
 Lord ; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he 
 doth not regard it ;' and in the preceding chapter, 9th verse, 
 the Apostle says : 'For this, thou shalt not commit adult- 
 ery ; thou shalt not kill ; thou shalt not steal ; thou shalt 
 not bear false witness ; thou shalt not covet ; and if there 
 be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in 
 this saying, namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy- 
 self.' It is evident from these texts that the Apostle did 
 not regard the fourth commandment as a part of the moral 
 revealed law, but as a ceremonial or judicial law which was 
 terminated by the coming of our Saviour and the comple- 
 tion of the Christian dispensation. It was part and parcel 
 of the old dispensation fitted only for a small and peculiar 
 nation, and necessarily perished with it, the whole being 
 supplied by the Christian dispensation embracing in its out- 
 stretched arms, not a single people, but all the nations of 
 the earth, and announcing principles of the purest morality 
 exemplified in the life and .teachings of the divine author of 
 our religion. The fourth commandment was a positive 
 statute, fixing the seventh day of the week as a day of rest. 
 
128 
 
 and is the day obscn'ed by the Jews ; and of course the 
 first day of the week cannot be the Sabbath day of the De- 
 calogue. The Sunday of the Christian world is therefore 
 not the Jewish Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and 
 such was the declared opinion of Luther, Calvin, and all 
 the early reformers. Luther said : 'As for the Sabbath or 
 Sunday there is no necessity for its observance ; and if we do 
 so the reason ought to be not because Moses commanded 
 it, but because nature likewise teaches us to give from time 
 to time a day of rest, in order that man and beast may re- 
 cruit their strength, and that we may go and hear the word 
 preached.' 'The Gospel regardeth neither Sabbath nor 
 holidays, because they endured but for a time and were 
 ordained for the sake of preaching, to the end God's word 
 might be tended and taught' 'Keep the Sabbath holy for 
 its use both to body and soul ; but if anywhere the day is 
 made holy for the mere day's sake — if anywhere one sets 
 up its observance upon a Jewish foundation, then I order 
 you to work on it, to ride on it, to dance on it, to feast on 
 it, to do anything that shall remove this encroachment on 
 the Christian spirit and liberty.' Calvin says in his exposi- 
 tion of the fourth commandment, 'The Fathers frequently 
 called it a shadoiuy coviuiandiiicnt, because it contains the 
 external observance of the day, which was abolished with 
 the rest of the figures at the advent of Christ.' 'l^ut all 
 that it (the Sabbath) contained of a ceremonial nature was 
 without doubt abolished by the advent of the Lord Christ.' 
 'Though the Sabbath is abrogated, yet still it is customary 
 among us to assemble on stated days for hearing the word, 
 for breaking the mystical bread, and for public prayers, and 
 also to allow servants and laborers remission from their 
 labor.' 'They complain that Christians are tinctured with 
 Judaism, because they retain any observance of days. But 
 I reply, the Lord's day is not observed by us upon the 
 principle of Judaism ; because, in this respect, the difference 
 
129 
 
 between us and the Jews is very great, for wc celebrate it, 
 not with scrupulous rigor as a ceremony which we conceive 
 to be a figure of some spiritual mystery, but only use it as 
 a remedy necessary to the preservation of order in the 
 Church.' 'They' (Luther and Calvin), says Rev. Dr. Rice, 
 'have observed the form rather as a matter of necessity or 
 expediency, than as divinely commanded.' Calvin encour- 
 aged the burghers of Geneva by his own presence and ex- 
 ample at their public recreations, as bowling and shooting, 
 upon the Lord's day after their devotions at church were 
 ended. Barclay, in his Apology, says : 'We not seeing any 
 ground in Scripture for it, cannot be so superstitious as to 
 believe that either the Jewish Sabbath now continues, or 
 that the first day of the week is the antitype thereof, or the 
 true Christian Sabbath ; which, with Calvin, we believe to 
 have a more spiritual sense ; and therefore, we know no 
 moral obligation by the fourth command or elsewhere, to 
 keep the first day of the week more than any other, or any 
 holiness in it. But, ist, forasmuch as it is necessary that 
 there be sometime set apart for the servants to meet together to 
 wait upon God, and that 2dly, it is fit at sometimes they be 
 freed from their outward affairs, and that 3dly, reason and 
 equity doth allow that servants and beasts have some time 
 allowed them to be eased from their constant labor, and that 
 4thly, it appears that the Apostles and primitive Christ- 
 ians did use the first day of the week for these purposes, we 
 find ourselves sufficiently mo\-ed for these causes to do so 
 also, without superstitiously straining the Scripture for 
 another reason, which is, that is not to be there found, 
 many Protestants — yea, Calvin himself upon the fourth 
 command hath abundantly evinced.' Melancthon, Beza, 
 Bucer, Zuinglius, Cranmer, Milton and Knox were of the 
 same opinion, and Jeremy Taylor says : 'The effect of which 
 consideration is this : that the Lord's day did not succeed 
 in the place of the Sabbath ; but the Sabbath was wholly 
 
I30 
 
 abrogated and the Lord's day was merely of ecclesiastical 
 institution.' Paley, Arnold of Rugby, Archbishop Whate- 
 ly and our great lawgiver hold the same language. Penn 
 says : 'To call any day of the week a Christian Sabbath is 
 not CJiristian but Jeivisli ; give us one Scripture for it ; I 
 will give two against it.' Bishop White, the chaplain to 
 congress during the revolution, and the senior bishop of the 
 Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, 
 in his lectures on the Catechism, p. 64, speaking of the 
 fourth commandment, says : 'In regard to its duration it 
 appears evident that as far as regarded the authority of the 
 injunction to the Israelites, and unless some new obligation 
 can be shown the institution ceased even in relation to Jew- 
 ish converts to Christianity at the destruction of their reli- 
 gious polity ; and that it never extended to the Gentile 
 Christians. Of this there shall be given but one proof; it 
 being decisive to the point. It is in the second chapter of 
 the Papistic to the Colossians : 'Let no man, therefore, judge 
 you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of 
 the new moon, or of the Sabbath days.' Here the Sabbath 
 is considered as falling with the whole body of the ritual 
 law of Moses, and this may show the reason on which our 
 church avoids the calling of her day of public worship — 
 'Tile Sabbath.' It is never so called in the New Testa- 
 ment.' And in the primitive church the term 'Sabbatizing' 
 carried with it the reproach of a leaning to the abrogated 
 observances of the law.' The late Rev. Dr. James \V. Alex- 
 ander, a very distinguished divine of the Presbyterian 
 Church, writing from New York, says: 'The question of 
 riding in our street cars on Sunday is agitating our com- 
 munity. I have not been able to decide it. The poor go 
 IN CARS, 'I'liK RICH IN COACHES. Tlic uumbcr of horses and 
 men is less than if there were no cars. It is a query whether 
 as many cars as would be demanded by those (among half 
 a million), who haxc lawful occasion to journc)'. If so, the 
 
131 
 
 whole question would be reduced to one of individual vo- 
 cation to this amount of locomotion. The whole matter of 
 the Christian Sabbath is a little perplexed to my mind. ist. 
 All that our Lord says on it is prima facie on the side of 
 relaxation. 2d. The Apostles who enforce, and, as it were, 
 reenact every other commandment of the ten, never advert 
 to this. 3d. Even to Gentile converts they lay no stress 
 on this, which might be expected to come first among ex- 
 ternals. 4th. According to the letter, Paul teaches the Col- 
 ossians (xi : 16), not to be scrupulous about Sabbaths. I 
 am not, therefore, surprised, Calvin had doubts on the sub- 
 ject. I must wait for more light.' To the young man 
 whom he directed to keep the commandments, if he would 
 enter into eternal life, and who asked him, 'Which?' 'Jesus 
 said, thou shalt do no murder ; thou shalt not commit 
 adultery ; thou shalt not steal ; thou shalt not bear false 
 witness ; honor thy father and thy mother, and thou shalt 
 love thy neighbor as thyself,' is a strong corroboration of 
 the second reason above given by Dr. Alexander. The 
 Sabbath of the fourth commandment being abrogated and 
 abolished, our Saviour did not command the observance of 
 Sunday, nor is it alleged that there is any express direction 
 to observe it by any of the Apostles to be found in the New 
 Testament. That Sunday {dies so/is) grew up by usage 
 among the primitive Christians as a stated day of prayer, 
 and was recognized as such in the time of Justin Martyr, is 
 certain. But it was clearly not a Sabbath in the Jewish 
 sense, for the division into weeks was not recognized in the 
 Roman world until the third and fourth centuries, and all 
 Christians who were slaves could not have obliged their 
 heathen masters to give them one day in seven, for an entire 
 rest from all labor. So, from Pliny's letter to the P>mperor 
 Trajan, it would appear, the primitive Christians met before 
 it was light for worship and prayer, which was obviously 
 adopted that it might not interrupt the labors or occupa- 
 
132 
 
 tions of the day, a lar<je portion of these early disciples be- 
 longing to the servile and laboring classes. When Christ- 
 ianity became the religion of the emperor, and of course of 
 the state, we find the division into weeks used, and the days 
 called by the planetary names, as dies solis (day of the sun), 
 dies lima' (day of the moon), &c. The act for keeping holi- 
 days and fast days of the 5th and 6th Edward the 6th, chap. 
 3 (1552), is framed upon the same principle as the edict of 
 Constantine. and speaking of the days appointed for the 
 worship of God, which are called Holy Days, says this, 
 'not for the matter and nature, either of the time or day ;' 
 'for so all days and times considered are God's creatures, 
 and all of like holiness. Neither is it to be thought that 
 there is any certain time or definite number of days pre- 
 scribed in holy scripture, but that the appointment, both of 
 the time and also the number of days is left by the authority 
 of God's word to the liberty of Christ's Church, to be de- 
 termined and assigned; orderly in every country, by the dis- 
 cretion of the rulers aiid ministers thereof, as they shall 
 judge most expedient to the true setting forth of God's 
 glory and the edification of their people.' Then follow the 
 holy days to be kept, 'all Sundays in the year.' These are 
 festivals. In Swann v. Broome, 3 Burr. 1 595, it was decided 
 that Sunday was dies non jiiridiciis, and Lord Mansfield 
 says: 'Anciently the courts of justice did sit on Sunday. 
 The fact of this, and the reasons of it, appear in Sir Henry 
 Spcllman's original of the terms.' It appears, by what he 
 says, that the ancient Christians practised this. In his chap- 
 ter of law days among the first Christians, using all days 
 alike, he says, 'the Christians at first used all days alike for 
 hearing of causes, not sparing (as it seemeth) the Sunday 
 itself.' They had two reasons for it. One was in opposi- 
 tion to the heathens, who were superstitious about the ob- 
 servation of da)-s and times, conceiving some to be ominous 
 and unluck)', and others to be luck}'; and therefore the 
 
133 
 
 Christians laid aside all observance of da}'s ; a second reason 
 they also had, which was by keeping their own courts 
 akvays open, to prevent Christian suitors from resorting to 
 the heathen courts. In Mackalley's Case, 9 Co., it was 
 'Resolved, That no judicial act ought to be done on that 
 day ; but ministerial acts may be lawfully executed on the 
 Sunday.' These cases are distinctly affirmed in Huide- 
 koper V. Cotton, 3 Watts, 59; Kepner v. Keefer, 6 Id. 231 ; 
 Fox V. Mensch, 3 W. & S. 444. It is clear, therefore, that 
 in England, Sunday, or the Lord's day, was considered an 
 ecclesiastical institution, and the only common law restraint 
 imposed upon it, as an observance of the day, was that no 
 judicial proceedings should be had on Sunday, and that 
 courts should not sit on that day. In early times Parlia- 
 ment sat on Sunday ; for in the reign of Edward the First, 
 in 1278 and 1305, three statutes were made on Sunday, and 
 Froude, in his first vol. of the History of Henry the Eighth, 
 p. 67, speaking of the English archery, says : 'Every ham- 
 let had its pair of butts, and on Sundays and holidays all 
 able bodied men were required to appear in the field, to 
 employ their leisure hours 'as valyant Englishmen ought 
 to do,' utterly leaving the play at the bowls, quoits, dice, 
 kails and other unthrifty games. On the same days the 
 tilt-yard, at the hall or castle, was thrown open, and the 
 young men of rank amused themselves with similar exer- 
 cises.' By the Act of 3 and 4 William, 4 ch. 3 1 , reciting that 
 the profanation of the Lord's day is greatly increased by 
 certain meetings, which are usually or occasionally held on 
 that day, it enacts that all such meetings of corporations, 
 vestries and public companies, and every other meeting of 
 a public and secular nature required to be held on any 
 Lord's day, shall be held on the preceding Saturday or suc- 
 ceeding Monday. It is therefore evident that the Lord's 
 day was considered like any other day, to be subject to re- 
 gulation by the civil authority alone, who could, if it were 
 10 
 
134 
 
 deemed expedient and necessary, authorize the courts to 
 sit on Sunday, notwithstanding the common hiw prohibi- 
 tion. By the Act of the 29 Charles 2, ch. 7, for the better 
 observance of the Lord's day, commonly called Sunday, no 
 tradesman, artificer, workman, laborer or other person what- 
 soever, shall do or exercise any worldly labor or work of 
 their ordinary callings, upon the Lord's day or any part 
 thereof (works of necessity and charity only excepted), 
 'under a penalty of five shillings.' Under this statute, it 
 has been held, a sale of a horse was not void, such sale not 
 being made in the ordinary calling of the plaintiff or his 
 agent, so a contract of hiring made on a Sunday between a 
 farmer and a laborer for a year is valid, and the enlistment 
 of a soldier by a recruiting officer is not within the statute. 
 The words 'other person or persons' do not include the 
 owner or driver of a stage coach, and therefore, their con- 
 tracts to carry passengers on a Sunday are binding ; so an 
 attorney, entering into an agreement on Sunday for the set- 
 tlement of his client's affairs, and thereby rendering himself 
 personally liable, is not thereby exercising his usual calling; 
 and the penalty can only be incurred once on the same day. 
 So a farmer engaged in haymaking on Sunday is not with- 
 in the statute ; nor are railways. 'The statutes clearly do 
 not apply to railway companies, so as to render it illegal 
 for them to run trains for the convc)'ance of goods or pas- 
 sengers on a Sunday.' Chitty on Carriers, 1 17, Such was 
 the law of P^ngland at the foundation of the Province of 
 Pennsylvania by William Penn, for although railways were 
 not in existence, stage coaches were, in 1658, in Cromwell's 
 time. Penn's \iews on the subject of Sunday are to be 
 found in his works and those of Barclay, and were the views 
 of the Society of Friends, who were the early colonists. In 
 the laws agreed upon in I'Jigland expression is given to 
 ihcni in the 3''ith law : 'That according totiie good example 
 of the primiti\'e Christians, and for the ease of the creation, 
 
135 
 
 every first day of the week, called the Lord's day, people 
 shall abstain from their common daily labor, that they may 
 the better dispose themselves to worship God according to 
 their understandings.' With all Penn's liberality, we find 
 by Janney's life of him, he was strictly orthodox in his own 
 belief p. 575- It is certain also that he agreed with Luther 
 and Calvin, and the statute of Edward 6th, as to the insti- 
 tution of the Lord's day, and that the mode of observance 
 of it should be prescribed by the civil authority. In 1705 
 was passed the act to restrain people from labor on the first 
 day of the week, which is copied verbatim from the English 
 statute, in the prohibitory part of the first section to which 
 a penalty is attached, and is therefore to be construed in the 
 same way, which would not have brought either stage 
 coaches or railways, if they had been in existence, within 
 the act. This remained the law until the 30th of March, 
 1779, when an act for the suppression of vice and immo- 
 rality was passed, by the 2d section of which it was enacted, 
 'that if any person shall do any kind of work of his or her 
 ordinary calling, qr follow or do any worldly employment 
 or business whatsoever on the Lord's day, commonly called 
 Sunday (works of necessity and mercy only excepted),' he 
 should be fined. This act not having been enforced, and 
 the fine, being payable in depreciated currency, having be- 
 come less than a shilling in specie currency, another act 
 was passed on the 25th September, 1786, forbidding, under 
 a penalt}^ any person doing or performing any worldly em- 
 ployment or business whatsoever on the Lord's day, com- 
 monly called Sunday (works of necessity and charity only 
 excepted) ; 'Provided, always, that nothing in this act con- 
 tained, shall be construed to prohibit the dressing of victuals 
 in private families, bake houses or in lodging houses, wine 
 and other houses of entertainment for the use of sojourners, 
 travellers or strangers, or to hinder watermen from landing 
 their passengers, or stage coaches, or stage wagons from 
 
136 
 
 carrying travellers (having the consent of a justice of the 
 peace upon extraordinary occasions), on the Lord's day, 
 commonly called Sunday, nor to the delivery of milk or 
 other necessaries of life, before nine o'clock in the forenoon, 
 nor after five of the clock in the afternoon of the same day.' 
 Then came the Act of the 22d of April, 1794, which was 
 passed the year after the yellow fever had devastated our 
 city, and which is the existing law. The first section enacts 
 that, 'if any person shall do or perform any worldly employ- 
 ment or business whatsoever on the Lord's day, commonly 
 called Sunday (works of necessity and charity only ex- 
 cepted), he shall, for every such offence, forfeit and pay four 
 dollars.' It will be observed that the Act of 1682 contained 
 no penalty, which was, however, supplied by the Act of 
 1700; but the Act of 1705, like the statute of Car. 2, did 
 not apply to stage coaches or to travellers by public con- 
 veyances, and this was the wise and liberal law of the prov- 
 ince under which grew up the usages mentioned by C. J. 
 Lowrie, in Commonwealth v. Ncsbit, 10 Casey, 398, and 
 which would be illegal under a strict construction of the 
 Act of 1794. In 1779 and 1786 the language was changed, 
 and this accounts for the exception of stage coaches in the 
 proviso of the last named act. The cardinal error in Johns- 
 ton z'. Commonwealth, 10 Harris, 109, in the omnibus case, 
 is in treating Sunday as set apart by divine command, and 
 from the whole decision two judges, two-fifths of the court, 
 dissented in opinions of very great weight and force; and 
 the error in Commonwealth 7'. Nesbit, 10 Casey, 398, was 
 in assuming that usages, which were considered exceptions, 
 had grown up under laws of a similar character, which we 
 iiave seen was not the case, instead of treating them as 
 works of necessity, which they clearly are. Judge Bell, in 
 Specht 7'. Commonwealth, 8 Barr, 325, puts the Sunday 
 law on its true basis : 'Its sole mission is to inculcate a tem- 
 porar)' weekly cessation from labor, but it adds not to this 
 
137 
 
 requirement any religious obligation.' I shall therefore 
 treat the case before us as one within the exceptions of nec- 
 essity and charity. Before doing so, it will be proper to 
 consider the history of this prohibitory law. With us it 
 binds all persons, whether Israelites or Seventh-day Christ- 
 ians. In Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York 
 and Ohio, persons who conscientiously believe and keep the 
 seventh day as holy time, may do secular work and labor 
 on Sunday, provided they disturb no other persons ; and 
 in Connecticut the prohibition to do any work is limited to 
 that portion of the day between the rising of the sun and 
 the setting of the same. Our very illiberality should make 
 us more desirous to extend the limits of necessity and 
 charity, and not to confine them within narrow boundaries 
 in this age of improvement. After another season of pesti- 
 lence, the legislature, on the 4th April, 1798, passed an act 
 to prevent the disturbance of religious societies in the city 
 of Philadelphia during the time of divine service, which, 
 after reciting the Act of the 6th February, 173 1, relating to 
 religious societies, and stating that they had purchased lots 
 and erected churches, and other houses of religious worship, 
 and that by the constitution of this Commonwealth it is de- 
 clared 'that all men have a natural and indefeasible right to 
 worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their 
 conscience.' 'And whereas, it would be nugatory to grant 
 the said rights without securing the peaceable and quiet 
 enjoyment of them ;' it then enacted that the religious so- 
 cieties aforesaid were each authorized by a suitable person 
 'to extend and fasten so many chains across the streets, 
 lanes or alleys,' as may be sufficient 'to hinder and obstmct 
 all coaches, coachees, chariots, chaises, wagons and other 
 carriages whatsoever, and all and every person or persons, 
 riding or travelling on horseback, from passing by the 
 said churches or houses of religious worship during the 
 time of divine service therein.' They were only to be ex- 
 
138 
 
 tended across the streets on Sundays, nor then until the 
 commencement of divine service within said churches; said 
 chains to be taken down before dusk and immediately after 
 divine service is ended in the same. The iron sockets in 
 which the posts were fixed to which the chains were at- 
 tached, are still to be seen opposite some of the old churches. 
 In 1816 this act was extended to the incorporated district 
 of the Northern Liberties, and both acts were repealed in 
 1 83 1, showing that the public were convinced that the pas- 
 sage of these vehicles and horses, neither disturbed the con- 
 gregations during divine service, nor injured the property, 
 or decreased the value of the churches. In England the 
 railroads are not compelled to run on Sundays, but when- 
 ever they do, they are obliged to provide a cheap train also, 
 which shall stop at all the usual stations, so as to accom- 
 modate poor persons. Some sixteen years ago the directors 
 of the railway between Glasgow and Edinburgh stopped the 
 Sunday train, except the mail car, which they were obliged 
 to run to carry the mail. This road has been lately pur- 
 chased by the North British Railway Company, who have 
 resumed the Sunday trains, much to the comfort of the 
 people. It is not astonishing that the Scottish clergy, who 
 are all of one denomination, should be very strict in their 
 Sunday observances, when it was thought improper to walk 
 on Sunday afternoon, after divine service, for recreation, 
 and when in some parts of Scotland a clerg)'man cannot 
 shave himself on Sunday morning, because it is an infrac- 
 tion of the fourth commandment, 'In it thou shalt do no 
 manner of work.' In 1658 the Presbytery of Strathbogie 
 condemned an offender accused of Sabbath breaking for 
 saving the life of a sheep. All other modes of passing from 
 one part of the state to another are extinguished, and trav- 
 elling by private conveyance no longer exists. If the Sun- 
 day prohibition extends to railroads, then no errand of 
 mercy, at any distance from the city, can ever be accom- 
 
139 
 
 plished on that day. I have had a personal experience of 
 the value of Sunday trains; for on a Sunday I was enabled 
 to take a most distinguished physician, who could not leave 
 the city on any other day, to see a sick sister, at thirty 
 miles distant, leaving after breakfast and returning before 
 dinner. I have therefore no hesitation in saying, that I 
 consider Sunday trains as coming within the exceptions of 
 necessity and charity. The Commonwealth v. Nesbit was 
 decided in the autumn of 1859, eight years ago, and Chief 
 Justice Lowrie said : 'The law regards that as necessary, 
 which the common sense of the country, in its ordinary 
 modes of doing its business, regards as necessary.' There 
 are now four passenger railways in Pittsburg, operating 
 se\'enteen miles of road, and passing in front of churches of 
 every sect and denomination, and all running on Sunday, 
 and used and patronized by divines, judges, and all the re- 
 ligious persons in the community. They have met with 
 universal approbation, and the Sunday cars have become a 
 matter of absolute necessity in taking persons to and from 
 church, and have conduced greatly to the peace and quiet 
 of the city and suburbs. This is the universal belief, and I 
 know it to be correct, having frequently ridden in them on 
 Sunday. Sunday cars are used in Boston, New York, 
 Albany, Troy and Brooklyn, in Hoboken and Jersey City 
 in New Jersey, Baltimore, Nashville, Cincinnati, Washing- 
 ton, St. Louis and Chicago, and give universal satisfaction. 
 Within the last ten years, 167 miles of passenger railway 
 have been built and worked in this city, which have entire- 
 ly superseded the omnibuses, which had numbered 400, 
 and have virtually dispensed with all other means of gen- 
 eral locomotion in this city. At the time of the passage of 
 the Sunday law, the population of the city of Philadelphia 
 was under 30,000, and we now have within the corporate 
 limits a population nearly double that of the whole state in 
 1790, when Pittsburg had but 1200 souls, and the county 
 
I40 
 
 of Eric was not the property of the commr.nw ealth. Some 
 of the vehicles named in the Act of 1798, are now known 
 only by tradition, and an entire and radical change has 
 taken place in the means of locomotion accommodated to 
 a municipality of 130 square miles in area, with lOO.CXX) 
 dwellings, and with streets extending miles in length, and 
 many of them separated by a navigable stream, which in- 
 creases the difficulty of passing from one part of the city 
 to another. In 1794 we had no waterworks, no iron pipes, 
 no steamboats, no canals, no railroads, no gas, no telegraph, 
 no Atlantic cable, and only one stone turnpike — all of which 
 are matters of indispensable necessity, and coming clearly 
 within the necessity exception of the Sunday law. In 1856 
 the first passenger railway was chartered. The passen- 
 ger railways to-day, in the short period of eleven years, 
 traverse nearly every portion of the city, and pass over the 
 Schuylkill by the bridges at Chestnut and Market streets, 
 at Fairmount and Girard avenue. The rails laid are broad, 
 and accommodate all vehicles, whether for pleasure or bur- 
 den, with a smooth surface, diminishing greatly the noise 
 and the labor of the horses. To an invalid nothing can be 
 more grateful than to escape from the cobblestones, and to 
 ride on the railway track. It has been decided that no per- 
 son can claim damages from a company whose road passes 
 on a street in front of his property. These passenger rail- 
 ways are therefore legal institutions, and the owners of the 
 tracks laid on the streets subject to a modified user by the 
 public. Workmen and laboring men are enabled by these 
 railways to work a long way from their homes without the 
 fatigue of walking long distances, and the consequent loss 
 of time ; men of business, old persons, invalids, women and 
 children, are enabled to ride on their different errands at a 
 small expense. Our city spreads out in every direction, • 
 because distances are in fact annihilated by the passenger 
 railways. The stoppage of these railways would utterly 
 
141 
 
 derange the \vho!e business of the city, reduce the value of 
 all property, and entirely destroy the present prosperous 
 condition of our metropolis. The railways are therefore an 
 absolute necessity, and are clearly within the exception of 
 the statute. These railways are in operation a very large 
 portion of the twenty-four hours, and in some instances 
 every hour of the twenty-four. Their necessity in cold, 
 wind, rain, hail, sleet and snow, and in the heats of mid- 
 summer, all acknowledge. Most of the plaintiffs, if not all, 
 have places of business on streets where passenger cars are 
 passing every few minutes, and no one has complained that 
 they have ever interfered with his addition of items in a 
 bill, in his correspondence with his customers, or the de- 
 tails of his trade or occupation. Clergymen and religious 
 persons have family worship on week days, and meetings 
 for religious worship are held on various days besides Sun- 
 days, but I have never heard that the cars disturbed them 
 or interfered with the prayers put up by pious men on every 
 day in the year in their own dwellings, except in the single 
 case of Sunday. People sleep whilst the cars are running, 
 and no one complains of them as a nuisance. The greatest 
 nuisance is the driving up of carriages during the sermon 
 to take home at the close of the service the rich members 
 of the congregation. There are two services a day, occu- 
 pying two hours in the morning, and two hours in the 
 afternoon, say four hours out of the twenty-four, and to 
 protect these four hours we are asked to enjoin the whole 
 day. When there is no religious worship a church experi- 
 ences no inconvenience, and its complaint is like that of an 
 owner of an uninhabited dwelling, and entitled to no more 
 consideration. It is certain that a railway car, rolling over 
 a smooth iron rail, occasions no more real noise than a 
 wagon or a carriage driven smartly over a cobblestone pave- 
 ment. It is to be recollected that this noise of the rolling 
 of the cars is legal, and authorized by Acts of Assembly, 
 
142 
 
 and therefore it is damnuui absque injuria, and it clearly is 
 not such an annoyance 'as materially to interfere with the 
 ordinary comfort of human existence,' and neither of the 
 plaintiffs could obtain any damages, much less substantial 
 damages at law, so as to entitle him to an injunction. Crump 
 V. Lambert, Law Rep. 3 Eq.' 409. As to disturbing per- 
 sons in private dwellings on Sunday, it is an absurdity, 
 which requires no answer. If, therefore, the churches, or 
 rather the individual pewholders, have no right to complain, 
 what right have these plaintiffs to deny others the right of 
 locomotion, in order to force them to attend church in the 
 very teeth of the constitutional provision, 'that no man can 
 of right be compelled to attend, erect or support any place 
 of worship, or to maintain any ministry against his consent.' 
 Having established the absolute necessity, in the present 
 state of our city, of passenger railways, and the utter im- 
 practicability of doing without them, why should there be 
 one day in seven in which that necessity must cease, and 
 not operate ? All that ceases on Sunday is common toil or 
 labor, and the intention is to protect the laboring man who 
 earns his bread by the sweat of his brow. Besides worship 
 and prayer, there are hours for healthful and innocent recre- 
 ation. These are protected by the constitutional provision. 
 We have public squares and a great public park owned by 
 our fellow citizens, and intended for their benefit and that 
 of their wives and children. Clergymen, lawyers, physicians, 
 merchants, and even judges, have six days in the week in 
 which they may enjoy all these and other similar adv^an- 
 tages, and which they may do so cheaply by means of the 
 passenger railways. The laboring man, the mechanic, the 
 artisan, has but one day in which he can rest, can dress 
 himself and his family in their comfortable Sunday clothes, 
 attend church, and then take healthful exercise ; but, by 
 this injunction, his carriage — the poor man's carriage, tJie 
 passenger car — is taken awa)', and is not permitted to run 
 
143 
 
 for his accommodation. The laboring man and his child- 
 dren are never allowed to see Fairmount Park, a part of his 
 own property. The cars are required on Sunday to carry 
 persons to and from church, and are not these church going 
 people entitled to have them ? The necessity for this clear- 
 ly exists on Sunday, and so it does enable persons to par- 
 take of the fresh air in the squares and parks and in the 
 country. But we should not oblige the working man to 
 confine himself to his own narrow, stifling room, and forbid 
 him to enjoy the fresh air of heaven. We have three long 
 months of summer which the laboring man cannot escape. 
 Merchants, manufacturers, lawyers, judges and physicians 
 run away from them, and even clergymen leave their 
 churches, and go to the seashore or to the mountains, to 
 avoid the torrid months of July and August. Shall not the 
 operative have the poor privilege allowed him of a passen- 
 ger car on Sunday ? The same necessity exists on Sunday 
 as on any other day, enhanced by the fact that you are pre- 
 venting thousands from attending houses of religious wor- 
 ship. I place my opinion, therefore, of the entire legality 
 of running passenger cars on Sunday, on the same footing 
 with the Sunday trains of the steam railroads, as being 
 clearly within the exceptions both of necessity and charity. 
 The mail protects nothing but the mail car on the steam 
 railroads, and many of the trains carry no mail at all. If I 
 conceded the illegality, still it would be clear to me that 
 these plaintiffs have no standing in this court, and no right 
 to ask for any injunction against these defendants. It is a 
 matter for the commonwealth alone, 'and she has her own 
 chosen officers to protect her own rights, and the rights of 
 the whole community are what constitute public rights, or 
 the rights of the commonwealth.' I am deeply impressed 
 with the necessity of a proper observance of Sunday as a 
 day of worship and prayer and of rest from labor; but liv- 
 ing under the new dispensation, and not under the old dis- 
 
144 
 
 pensation, I feci no inclination to turn the Lord's day into 
 a JeivisJi Sabbat! i . ' ' 
 
 Thus the law stands in Pennsylvania, and thus in sub- 
 stance it has stood since the establishment of the provincial 
 government of William Penn in 1682. I now close the re- 
 view of the Sunday laws as they have come down to us. 
 No one can be more conscious how defective this sketch is 
 than the writer. There is nothing new in it, and I know 
 that it is imperfect. I have derived great satisfaction in 
 the study of the subject and hope that it will prove equal!)' 
 interestin<: to all who read it. 
 
OLD FORGE. 
 
 EARLY METHODISM, 
 
OLD FORGE-EARLY METHODISM. 
 
 Remarks by George B. Kulp at the dedication of the Stewart Memorial Church, 
 at Old Forge, Pa., April 26, 1892. 
 
 "And the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy 
 shoe from off thy foot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy." 
 
 In the year 1791, in this immediate vicinity, the first 
 Methodist Class, in what is now Lackawanna county, was 
 held. It was also the most northern point in Pennsylvania 
 in which Methodism had been established. James Sutton 
 was the leader, and the Class was held at the house of Cap- 
 tain John Vaughan. Old Forge derived its name from Dr. 
 William Hooker Smith, who, after his return from General 
 Sullivan's expedition, located himself permanently here on 
 the rocky edge of the Lackawanna beside the sycamore and 
 oak where first, in the Lackawanna valley, the sound of 
 the trip-hammer reverberated or mingled with the hoarse 
 babblings of its water. The forge was erected by Dr. Smith 
 and James Sutton, in the spring of 1789, for converting ore 
 into iron. It stood immediately below the falls or rapids 
 in the stream, between two and three miles above its mouth. 
 Hon. Charles Miner says: "My recollections of Pittston 
 and Old Forge are all of the most cheerful character — but 
 to the Forge — the heaps of charcoal and bog ore, half a 
 dozen New Jersey firemen at the furnace. What life, what 
 clatter. And then at the mansion on the hill" (near the old 
 Drake store) "might be seen the owner, Dr. William Hooker 
 Smith, now nearly superannuated, who, in his day, was the 
 great physician of the valley, and if perchance the day was 
 
 Note. — The Stewart Memorial Church was erected by Mrs. Oeorge B. Kulp, Mrs. Charles 
 B. Scott, Mrs. William D. Loomis and Mrs. Lewis C. Hcssler, as a Mcinoriam to their 
 late parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Stewart, of Scranton, Pa. 
 
148 
 
 fine and his family on the parterre, )'ou might sec his 
 daughters, unsurpassed in beauty and grace, whose every 
 movement was harmony, that would add a charm to the 
 proudest city mansion." We might say in this connection 
 that Dr. Smith was not, and never became, a Methodist. In 
 his will, written by his own hand, and dated March 19, 
 1810, he uses the following language: "I recommend my 
 soul to Almighty God that gave it to me, nothing doubting 
 but that I shall be finally happy. My destiny, I believe, 
 was determined unalterably before I had existence. God 
 does not leave any of his works at random subject to chance, 
 but in what place, where or how I shall be happy, I know 
 not." And at the close of his will was the following : "Now, 
 to the Sacred Spring of all mercies and Original Fountain 
 of all goodness to the Infinite and Eternal being whose pur- 
 pose is unalterable, whose power and dominion is without 
 end, whose compassion fails not ; to the High and Lofty One 
 who inhabits eternity and dwells in light be glory, majes- 
 ty, dominion and power now and for evermore. Amen." 
 The first permanent settlement in the Wyoming Valley was 
 in 1769. In that year or the next Connecticut people set- 
 tled in Pittston, as this neighborhood was then called. The 
 first saw and grist mills in the Lackawanna Valley were 
 built by the town (Pittston) at the falls of the Lackawanna 
 river, near here, in the year 1774. In passing down the val- 
 ley one cannot fail to observe, as he passes over the Lack- 
 awanna bridge below the rapids, a deep, ragged, narrow 
 passage cut through the rocks, that here at one time turned 
 aside the waters of the stream as they come fretting and 
 chaffing over the rocky bed. This channel was dug out as 
 early as 1774 for mill purposes, as stated. It was afterwards 
 utilized by Messrs. Smith and Sutton in running their forge. 
 In the early days, owing to the magnificent water power of 
 the Lacka\v^anna, Spring Brook, Ascension, Mill and Keys 
 or Reisers creek, many enterprises sprang up. There were 
 
149 
 
 saw and grist mills, forges, bloomers, distilleries, tan yards, 
 foundries, &c. Cornelius Atherton resided at Keys Creek. 
 He was a blacksmith, and it is said that the first clothiers 
 shears in the United States were made by him. Prior to July 
 8, 1 778, a saw mill was erected on the same creek by Timothy 
 Keys. He was killed by Indians on that date. Samuel Miller 
 built a saw mill and a small log grist mill on Mill Creek in 
 1782. N. Hurlbut erected, at Old Forge, in 1805, a card- 
 ing machine, the first one erected in the county. Quite a 
 village sprang up in what is now known locally as Drake- 
 town. Old Forge, as a centre, when Luzerne county em- 
 braced the counties of Bradford, Lackawanna, Susquehan- 
 na and Wyoming, was, without doubt, the busiest place in 
 the county. In this important centre Methodism found a 
 lodgment which showed the keen vision of Father Owen in 
 establishing a class at this point. In 1828 there were but 
 fourteen heads of families living within the present limits of 
 the borough of Pittston, and John Stewart, Sr., the father 
 of the man whose memory we meet to commemorate, was 
 one of these. Wilkes-Barre, in 1795, contained but forty- 
 five dwellings. Old Forge was of so much importance that 
 the second postmaster of Pittston removed his office near 
 here. Anning Owen was the apostle of Methodism in 
 Wyoming. He was one of the hand full of courageous men 
 who were defeated and scattered by an overwhelming force 
 under the command of Colonel John Butler. In the battle 
 and massacre of Wyoming, in 1778, he was by the side of 
 his brother-in-law, Benjamin Carpenter, who afterwards be- 
 came one of the judges of Luzerne county. He stood the 
 fire of the enemy and answered it shot after shot in such 
 quick succession that the band of his gun became burning 
 hot. "My gun is so hot that I cannot hold it," exclaimed the 
 brave patriot soldier, "Do the best you can then," was the 
 reply of his friend. A shot or two more and the day was 
 lost. Owen and Carpenter fled to the river and secreted 
 
150 
 
 themselves under cover of a large grape vine which hung 
 from the branches of a tree and lay in the water. There 
 they laid in safety until the darkness of the night enabled 
 them to gain the fort. They were a portion of the small 
 number who escaped with their lives from the bloody en- 
 counter without swimming the river. In the account which 
 Mr. Owen often subsequently gave of his escape he stated that 
 when upon the run he expected every moment to be shot or 
 tomahawked, and the terrible thought of being sent into 
 eternity unprepared filled his soul with horror. He prayed 
 as he ran, and when he lay in the water his every breath was 
 occupied with the silent but earnest prayer, "God have mercy 
 on my soul." There and then it was that he gave his heart 
 to God and vowed to be his forever. Mr. Owen returned 
 to the east with the fugitives, but he was a changed man. 
 He considered his deliverance from death as little short of 
 a miracle, and that in it there was a wise and gracious de- 
 sign which had reference to his eternal well being. He was 
 now a man of prayer, possessed a tender conscience and in- 
 dulged a trembling hope in Christ. In this condition Mr. 
 Owen became acquainted with the Methodists. Their 
 earnest and powerful preaching and the doctrines which 
 they taught met in his heart a ready response. He was of 
 an ardent temperament and was never in favor of half way 
 measures in anything. He soon drank in the spirit of the 
 early Methodists, and was as full of enthusiasm as any of 
 them. His religious experience became more deep and 
 thorough and his evidence of sins forgiven more clear and 
 satisfactory. He now rejoiced greatly in the liberty where- 
 with Christ had made him free and panted to be useful. 
 The language of his inmost soul was : 
 
 "O, that the world might taste and see 
 
 The riches of his grace, 
 The arms of love that compass me. 
 
 Would all mankind embrace." 
 
151 
 
 In this state of mind Mr. Owen returned to Wyoming and 
 settled among his old companions in tribulation. He was a 
 blacksmith and he commenced, as he supposed, hammering 
 out his fortune in what is now the borough of Dorranceton, 
 at the point where the highway crosses a branch of Toby's 
 Creek. Mr. Owen had no sooner become settled in Wyom- 
 ing than he commenced conversation with his neighbors upon 
 the subject of religion, and began, with many tears, to tell 
 them what great things God had done for his soul. His words 
 were as coals of fire upon the heads and the hearts of those 
 he addressed, and he soon found that a deep sympathy with 
 his ideas and feelings was abroad, and rapidly extending. 
 He appointed prayer meetings in his own house. The 
 people were melted down under his prayers, his exhorta- 
 tions and singing. He was invited to appoint meetings at 
 other places in the neighborhood, and he listened to the 
 call. A revival of religion broke out at Ross Hill, about a 
 mile from his residence, and just across the line which then 
 separated the townships of Kingston and Plymouth. Great 
 power attended the simple, earnest efforts of the blacksmith, 
 and souls were converted to God. He studied the openings 
 of Providence and tried in all things to follow the Divine 
 light. He was regarded by the young converts as their 
 spiritual father, and to him they looked for advice and com- 
 fort. Mr. Owen now considered himself providentially 
 called upon to provide, at least temporally, for the spiritual 
 wants of his flock, and he formed them into a class. Most 
 of the members of the little band resided in the neighbor- 
 hood of Ross Hill, that point became the center of opera- 
 tions. This class was called the Ross Hill class until 
 the old order of things passed away. It was formed in 
 1788. The little band was, for the time, well content to re- 
 gard as their spiritual guide the man who had first raised 
 the standard of the cross in their midst, and being the means 
 under God of their conversion. He had not been con- 
 
152 
 
 stituted in the regular way either preacher, exhorter or 
 class leader, and yet he exercised the functions of all these 
 offices under the sanction of Providence, and to the great 
 satisfaction and edification of the little church in the wilder- 
 ness. Mr. Owen proceeded for a while under his extraor- 
 dinary commission but finally began to be seriously exer- 
 cised in mind upon the subject of the ministry. He visited 
 some point at the east where Methodism had a. local habi- 
 tation and a name, and on returning, at a meeting of his 
 society, said: "I have received a regular license to preach 
 and now have full power to proceed in the work." Among 
 the families connected with Methodism in Wyoming in its 
 infancy, were those of Adams, Baker, Brown, Bidlack, Car- 
 ver, Carpenter, Coleman, Carey, Catlin, Dana, Davenport, 
 Denison, Gray, Goodwin, Harris, Harvey, Inman, John- 
 son, Jenkins, Pierce, Parrish, Pugh, Pringle, Ransom, Rus- 
 sel, Sutton, Turner, Wooley, Wadhams, Williams, Waller, 
 Weeks, and many others. Classes were now or had been 
 established at the house of Jonathan Smith in Newport, at 
 the widow Jameson's in Hanover, at Captain John Vaughn's 
 
 at Old Forge, at the house of Lucas on Ross Hill, 
 
 and at the widow Coleman's in Plymouth. It will be ob- 
 served that the Old Forge class was the only one north of 
 Wilkes-Barre at this time. Rev. Nathaniel B. Mills had the 
 honor of being the first Methodist itinerant who found his 
 way. over the mountains into the classic vale of Wyoming. 
 This was in 1789, when he traveled Newburg circuit. Rev. 
 Joseph Lovel, who traveled on Newburg circuit in 1790, 
 was the next preacher who visited the valley. At this 
 period there were no conference lines. The "elders" had a 
 certain number of circuits in charge and the preachers at- 
 tended conference as directed by Bishop Asbury. In 1790 
 "Thomas Morrell, elder," embraced within his district New 
 York, Elizabeth Town, Long Island, New Rochelle and New- 
 burg. Thomas Morrell was a major in the Revolutionary 
 
153 
 
 War. In the Conference of 1789 he was ordained an elder, 
 and appointed presiding elder. Asbury, in his journal of 
 1802, says: "Wonders will never cease. Nothing would 
 serve but I must marry Thomas Morrell to a young woman. 
 Such a solitary wedding I suppose has been but seldom 
 seen. Behold father Morrell fifty-five, father Whatcoat, 
 sixty-six, Francis Asbury, fifty-seven, and the ceremony 
 performed solemnly at the solemn hour of ten at night." 
 The next conference held its session in New York, May 26, 
 1 79 1. At that conference Rev. James Campbell was ap- 
 pointed to Wyoming, and Rev. Robert Cloud was elder. 
 His district embraced Newburg, Wyoming, New York, New 
 Rochelle and Long Island. Mrs. Bedford, who was the 
 daughter of James Sutton, says: "Mr. Campbell preached 
 at my father's once in two weeks. It was like preaching 
 to the walls ! Pittston was, at that time, a very hardened 
 place, and great prejudice was raised against us." Thus 
 was the Church established in the wilderness. The same 
 year that regular preaching was held at Old Forge the 
 sainted Wesley died. On Wednesday, May 8, 1792, Rev. 
 William Colbert, in his journal, says : "Road to Lackawan- 
 na Forge and preached at James Sutton's on I Cor. 6 : 19, 
 20. Here I met with a disputing calvinist" [probably Dr. 
 Smith]. "Sister Sutton and her daughter" [Mrs. Bedford], 
 "appeared to be very clever women." In 1793 Bishop As- 
 bury visited Wyoming and no doubt preached at Old Forge. 
 In his journal, under date of July 8, he says : "I took the 
 wilderness through the mountains, up the Lackawanna on 
 the twelve mile swamp. This place is famous for dirt and 
 lofty hemlock. We lodged in the middle of the swamp, at 
 S's, and made out better than we expected." In 1807 
 Bishop Asbury again visited Wyoming. Under date of 
 July 17, he says : "To Sutton's, ten miles ; the house neat 
 as a palace, and we were entertained like kings by a king 
 and queen. It was no small consolation to lie down on a 
 
154 
 
 clean floor after all we had suffered from dirt and its con- 
 sequences. Once more I am at Wyoming. We have wor- 
 ried through and clambered over one hundred miles of the 
 rough roads of wild Susquehanna. Oh ! the precipitous 
 banks, winding narrows, rocks, sidling hills, obstructive 
 paths, and fords scarcely fordable. ruts, stumps and gul- 
 leys." In 1811 he was again at Wyoming. This was 
 probably his last visit to this section of the country. The 
 great body of the early Methodist preachers were plain, un- 
 educated men, who had come immediately from the masses 
 of the people. They were acquainted with the views and 
 feelings of their congregations, and their sermons were 
 adapted to people like themselves. The itinerating system 
 brought them in contact with an immense variety of char- 
 acter, imparting a most valuable knowledge of human na- 
 ture, while their extensive circuits furnished sufficient of 
 exercise to develop and strengthen the physical powers and 
 to give robust constitutions. They were pious, earnest 
 men, imbued with a deep sense of their responsibility, and 
 with a solemn concern for the souls of their fellow men. 
 They did not confine their ministrations to the highways, 
 and to the densely populated districts, but they penetrated 
 along the by-paths, into the secluded valleys, and among 
 the mountains. They preached in school houses, in private 
 dwellings, in barns, and in the open air, once in every work 
 day in the week, and twice or thrice on Sunday. They 
 went into the new settlements, preached, reached the hearts 
 of their hearers formed classes, enjoined on them to read 
 the word of God, to meet often for prayer, and "Gave out" 
 that at such a time, the Lord willing, they would be along 
 again. Wherever they went the people received them 
 gladly, for, apart from their sacred office, they were a most 
 interesting class of men, who possessed an immense fund 
 of information, gathered in their travels from observation, 
 and from the conversation of others. Still theirs was a life 
 
155 
 
 of hardship. The country was a wilderness, the roads were 
 generally in a most wretched condition, and the people were 
 poor. Their annual salary was sixty-four dollars, and trav- 
 eling expenses, and none but most devout Christians, who 
 looked to a future state of happiness as the only thing worth 
 striving for, could have been so indefatigable in their labors, 
 and so self-sacrificing in their lives. They have left a won- 
 derful monument of their labors and self-denial behind them. 
 On the foundation they laid and on the structure they 
 raised, a vast multitude of busy hands have been engaged, 
 and that grand monument is rising higher and higher 
 towards the heavens, and attracting more and more the at- 
 tention of mankind. In 1784, at the "Christmas Confer- 
 ence," the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States 
 was duly organized. She had, at this time, several hundred 
 local preachers, 83 itinerants, of which 63 assisted at the 
 Conference, and 14,988 members. In 1789 she was the 
 first of the religious denominations to send an address of 
 congratulation to General Washington after his introduc- 
 tion into the office of first president of the United States. 
 In 1800 there were 54,894 communicates of Methodist 
 Churches in the United States. In 1890 she had 4,980,240 
 communicants. Happily there is not the least sign of this 
 tide tending to ebb, and by another centenary of Wesley's 
 death may it not, with other kindred streams, have covered 
 the earth as the waters cover the sea. 
 
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