From 1826 to 1838 may be termed the Anti-Masonic period, for during those eventful years bigotry ran wild, while superstition and fanaticism, like the demons of old, took possession of the many. They were the halcyon days for broken-down politicians to ride into power and place.
Seizing the opportunity, these demagogues originated a political party, whose platform denounced all secret societies, particularly the Freemasons, as destructive of every principle of religion, justice and good government.
During the years 1823 to 1826 there resided in Western New York one William Morgan, a native of Virginia, by trade a stone mason.
It has been represented that he was a veteran of the War of 1812, but he earned his title of Captain as the owner of a fishing smack, with piratical tendencies, which plied along the gulf coast.
In 1825 “Captain” Morgan was residing in Batavia, N. Y., where a poor printer, named Wilbur, concocted with Morgan to publish a book containing the revelations of Freemasonry, which was in fact the copy of a volume formerly published in England in 1750, under the title “Jachin and Boaz.”
As would be expected, the announcement of the publication of the book in question wrought up members of the Masonic fraternity to fever heat. Efforts to suppress the work were freely discussed, and some even proposed doing so by force if it could not be done otherwise.
The respectable part of the fraternity, supposing that no book of that kind would really be published, and, like a nine days’ wonder, if it was, would soon vanish and wholly disappear, took little or no interest in the matter. While they were folding their arms, an inconsiderate scheme was developed by individuals for suppressing by force the contemplated work.
But at this time Morgan was arrested for debt, September 12, 1826, and placed in a carriage and driven to Rochester. That was the last ever seen of him.
Morgan’s sudden disappearance caused great excitement, and gossips gave out the statement that Freemasons had conveyed him to Fort Niagara, while others claimed they had drowned him in Lake Ontario.
Public meetings were held and finally a reprobate named Edward Giddings spread the sensational story that Freemasons had abducted and foully put Morgan to death.
At this time the body of a man was washed ashore on Lake Ontario, and a week after interment the body was exhumed and a second inquest determined that “William Morgan had come to his death by drowning.” The corpse did not, in any particular, resemble Morgan, but the crowd determined that “it was a good enough Morgan until after election.” This body was identified as that of Timothy Monroe, who had drowned September 26. The remains were buried by his widow.
This should have ended the Morgan excitement but it did no such thing. “A lie well stuck to is more convincing than the truth.” So a most infamous deception was practiced upon the people.
Prosecutions were instituted against those who were supposed to have anything to do with the abduction of Morgan. Many trials resulted, but no murder was ever established.
What had become of Morgan? Was he drowned or murdered?
As early as September 26, 1826, the “Intelligencer,” of Harrisburg, as well as other newspapers, cautioned the Masonic fraternity against “a man calling himself Captain Morgan, as he is a swindler and a dangerous man.”
It has been authentically settled that after the night of the so-called abduction, being threatened with numerous suits for debt and other misdemeanors, Morgan left the country of his own free will, going directly to Australia, the passage money being furnished him. Arriving in that far distant clime, he established a newspaper, but died ten years later. A son, who accompanied him, continued the business, and was living just prior to our Civil War.
The Freemasons of New York State, as a body and individually, disclaimed all knowledge of any abduction of “Captain” Morgan.
By 1828 the Anti-Masonic movement had gained such impetus in New York that a candidate for governor was placed on their ticket. Anti-Masonic tickets were named in Massachusetts, Vermont and Ohio.
In 1829 the storm broke out in Pennsylvania, and was first felt in the little town of New Berlin, Union County, where Lafayette Lodge No. 194 was holding a public procession August 18. The speakers for the occasion were Hon. Jesse Merrill, General Henry Frick, Henry C. Eyer, Reverend Just Henry Fries, Reverend John Kessler and Reverend Henry Piggott. Henry W. and George A. Snyder, distinguished sons of former Governor Simon Snyder, were officers of the lodge and had arranged the program.
The meeting was broken up by the hostile action of a mob. It was these same people who sent Ner Middlesworth, that great exponent of Anti-Masonry to the General Assembly; it was also in New Berlin where the first Anti-Masonic newspapers were established.
Joseph Ritner was placed in nomination for the office of Governor by the Anti-Masonic convention, which met in Harrisburg in 1829, and he received 51,000 votes, only 30,000 less than his successful opponent, George Wolf.
A national convention was held in Baltimore September, 1831, which placed a complete ticket in the field. In 1832 the Anti-Masons of Pennsylvania again placed Joseph Ritner in nomination, but he was again defeated by Governor Wolf, but two years later the Anti-Masons gained control of the Legislature, and under the capable leadership of Thaddeus Stevens, made political history in the Keystone State.
In the election of October, 1835, Joseph Ritner was elected, and with both branches of the General Assembly, the Anti-Masons were determined to carry out their various unlawful measures with a high hand.
The Stevens Legislative investigation held December, 1835, proved to be a fiasco, as the inquisition failed to disclose a single unlawful act upon the part of any member of the order of Freemasons or Odd Fellows.
By 1838 the clouds of ignorant oppression had cleared away, and the people, who cared to do so, could unite with either secret organization without fear of social ostracism or political suicide.
York County, erected August 19, 1749, from part of Lancaster County, played a conspicuous part and contributed its full share of troops during the period of the early troubles of our Republic. Indeed York County seems to have been in the struggle from the earliest moment to the end of the conflict and in addition furnished men who assumed a leading role in that stirring drama.
Colonel Thomas Hartley, himself one of the greatest patriots of the Revolutionary times, in a letter to President Reed, of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, says:
“They knew they had been as patriotic as any, that the York district had armed the first in Pennsylvania, and had furnished more men in it than any other district on the continent of the same number of inhabitants.”
As early as December, 1774, James Smith, who was a Provincial statesman and sensed the impending struggle with the Mother Country, employed himself in raising and drilling a volunteer company, of which he was elected captain. This is said to be the very first body of volunteer soldiers organized in Pennsylvania, with a view to oppose the armies of Great Britain. The officers were James Smith, captain; Thomas Hartley, first lieutenant; David Grier, second lieutenant, and Henry Miller, ensign. Each of these officers, thus early attached to the cause of liberty, became distinguished in the subsequent history of the country.
A company of riflemen was recruited in York County under the Resolution of Congress, June 14, 1775, which was attached to Thompson’s Riflemen, the first command to receive commissions after General Washington. This company reached Cambridge, Mass., July 25, 1775, and was the first company to arrive there from any point south of Long Island or west of the Hudson River. It got into action July 29, before all the regiment had arrived.
Another rifle company was recruited in York County for fifteen months’ service, which marched from York early in May, 1776, and at Philadelphia became a part of Colonel Samuel Miles’ rifle regiment. In July five battalions of militia marched from York County to New Jersey. Of these five battalions two were formed and attached to the Flying Corps; Colonel Michael Swope commanded the first battalion, and Colonel Richard McAllister the second. Colonel Swope’s battalion suffered severe losses in battles of Long Island and Fort Washington. One company in this battalion lost all but eighteen men at Long Island. Colonel Swope and fourteen of his officers were taken prisoners when Fort Washington fell into the hands of the enemy November 16, 1776. Ensign Jacob Barnitz, of York, was wounded in this battle and lay fifteen months in prison.
Toward the close of 1777, events occurred which brought York into prominence and made it for a time the capital of the now independent States of America. The Continental Congress sat there for nine months, and at a time when its proceedings were of the greatest importance.
The disastrous Battle of Brandywine, fought September 11, 1777, decided the fate of Philadelphia. On the approach of the British towards the Schuylkill, Congress adjourned to meet in Lancaster on September 27, and on the same day adjourned to York. The Susquehanna was regarded as a safe barrier between them and the enemy, and they began their sessions there September 30, where they continued until the British evacuated Philadelphia. The Congress left York June 27, 1778.
October 17, 1777, Congress passed a Resolve, to procure a printing press so that the intelligence which Congress would receive from time to time could be given to the public. The press of Hall and Sellers, of Philadelphia, was set up in York, and even Continental money printed there. This was the first printing press erected in Pennsylvania west of the Susquehanna.
On November 15, Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation; on November 27, a new Board of War was organized. On December 1, Baron Steuben landed at Portsmouth, N. H., and started for York, where he arrived February 5, 1778, and remained two weeks. He was received by Congress with every mark of distinction, and was appointed Inspector General of the Army.
The treaty with France was ratified by Congress May 4, 1778, which was the occasion for a general celebration.
General Gates resided in York during part of the time Congress met there and when Lafayette called upon him, he was surrounded by friends, seated about the table and it was at this dinner the conspiracy was revealed to supplant Washington and make Gates the Commander in Chief of the Army. It was in York that General Gates and Colonel Wilkinson planned to fight a duel to settle their differences, but before the meeting, their troubles were adjusted.
General Wayne arrived in York February 27, 1781, on his way to assume command of part of the Pennsylvania Line which was to reinforce General Greene, then in the south. On May 20, Wayne’s corps, smaller in number than he anticipated, and by no means well equipped, but reduced to discipline and harmony, marched southward from York.
On April 17, 1777, Congress changed the name of the “Committee of Secret Correspondence,” to “Committee of Foreign Affairs,” and appointed Thomas Paine, secretary of the committee. His “American Crisis,” Number V., addressed to General Sir William Howe, commenced in the house of Hon. William Henry of Lancaster, was finished and printed at York.
Major John André, afterwards executed as a spy, was in York for a short time after he was taken prisoner at St. John’s, September, 1775, and was from there transferred to Carlisle.
General Washington visited York in 1791, when he journeyed from Mount Vernon to Philadelphia. He arrived in York from Hanover at 2 o’clock in the afternoon of Saturday, July 2, 1791, and took lodging at the tavern of Baltzer Spangler. He was met with the Independent Light Infantry, commanded by Captain George Hay, which fired a salute of fifteen rounds. He had dinner with Colonel Thomas Hartley, and walked through the principal streets, and drank tea with his distinguished host.
At night there were illuminations and every other demonstration of joy. The next morning his excellency was waited upon by the Chief Burgess and principal inhabitants, and was given an address, to which the President replied. General Washington attended divine service and then proceeded on his journey, being accompanied as far as Wright’s Ferry by a number of the principal inhabitants, among the latter being his close friend Colonel Thomas Hartley.
After the close of the Revolution the country west of the Ohio was still occupied with Indian tribes ever ready to bring devastation, destruction, and desolation to the homes of the border settlers, and ever incited and aided by the British, who held a number of posts along the lakes. The Indians had determined the Ohio River should be the permanent boundary between them and the United States.
President Washington sent Generals Josiah Harmar and Arthur St. Clair in succession to command troops selected to overawe them, and each in turn experienced bitter defeat by the savages. Washington then sent for General Anthony Wayne and in April, 1782, placed him in command of the Army of the United States.
Wayne understood his mission. He organized his “Legion” in Pittsburgh, June, 1792, consisting of only 2,631 troops recruited from Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and New Jersey. Pennsylvania furnished all but 232 of the command.
Wayne inaugurated strict discipline. Two soldiers were shot down for sleeping on their posts. Whiskey was forbidden in the camp and drunkenness severely punished. He insisted upon cleanliness and regularity of diet. He taught the use of the bayonet and the sword. He dined with his officers, and carefully planned every detail of his expedition with their full knowledge.
Wayne had Chief Cornplanter, ninety Choctaw and twenty-five Chicasaw Indians with him, whom he used to sow dissension among the hostile Indians.
The war lasted more than two years during which time there were periods of four and five months that he was without communication with the seat of government. The Government viewed this Indian war with alarm, and not without cause, as two previous defeats made the outcome doubtful.
While the hostile Indians were perfecting their combinations the Government sent commissioners to Fort Erie to sue for peace. The result was that the Indians gained the time they needed, then refused to treat at all, and the burden fell upon Wayne to see that the commissioners reached their homes with their scalps on their heads, for which they formally gave him thanks.
On October 13 he had marched to a point on the Miami River, eighty miles north of Cincinnati, where he found a camp which he fortified and called Greenville and remained there through the winter. From this camp he sent out scouts and spies to secure intelligence and scalps. He also sent a force to the field where St. Clair had been defeated to bury the bones of the dead and erect a stockade called Fort Recovery.
In May a lieutenant with a convoy gallantly charged and repulsed an assault. About seventeen hundred of the enemy made a desperate attempt June 13, to capture an escort under the walls of Fort Recovery and to carry the Fort by storm, keeping up a heavy fire and making repeated efforts for two days, but were finally repulsed. Twenty-one soldiers were killed and twenty-nine wounded.
A few days later, after receiving reinforcements of mounted men from Kentucky, General Wayne marched seventy miles in the heart of the Indian country, built Fort Defiance, and then within sight of a British fort on the Miami River made his preparations for the battle which was inevitable.
He had marched nearly four hundred miles through the country of an enemy, both watchful and vindictive; had cut a road through the woods the entire way, upon a route longer, more remote and more surrounded with dangers than that of Braddock; had overcome almost insuperable difficulties in securing supplies; had built three forts, and now had reached a position where the issue must be decided by arms.
On the morning of August 20, 1794, the army advanced five miles, with the Miami on the right, a brigade of mounted volunteers on the left, a light brigade in their rear, and a selected battalion of horsemen in the lead. They came to a place where a tornado had swept through the forest, and thrown down the trees, since called Fallen Timbers, and where the twisted trunks and uprooted trees lay in such profusion as to impede the movements of the cavalry.
Here the Indians, two thousand in number, encouraged by the proximity of the British fort, determined to make a stand. Hidden in the woods and the high grass, they opened fire upon the mounted men in front and succeeded in driving them back to the main army. The enemy were formed in three lines in supporting distance of each other, extending two miles at right angles to the river and were protected and covered by the woods.
Wayne formed his force in two lines. He saw the enemy was strong in numbers and intended to turn his flank, and met this situation by ordering up the rear line to support the first, by sending a force by a circuitous route to turn the right of the enemy; by sending another force at the same time along the river to turn their left, and by a direct charge in the front to drive the Indians from their covert with the bayonet.
The Indians could not stand this attack, broke in confusion, and were driven two miles in the course of an hour through the woods with great loss. Their dead bodies and the British muskets lay scattered in all directions. All of the village, corn fields and houses, including that of Alexander McKee, the British Indian agent, within a scope of one hundred miles were burned and destroyed.
American annals disclose no such other victory over the savage tribes. It secured for civilization the territory between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. It made possible the development of such states as Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.
When the news reached London, the British Government, recognizing that the cause of the Indians was hopeless, ordered the evacuation of the posts at Detroit, Oswego and Niagara.
Two weeks later General Wayne was crushed to earth by a falling tree, so much bruised as to cause great pain and hemorrhages, and only the fortunate location of a stump, on which the tree finally rested, saved his life.
After the treaty of cession and peace had been executed, and after an absence in the wilderness for three years, he returned home in 1795, everywhere hailed with loud acclaim as the hero of the time and received in Philadelphia by the City Troop and with salvos from cannon, ringing of bells and fireworks.
His last battle had been fought. His work was done. “Both body and mind were fatigued by the contest,” were his pathetic words. Soon afterwards the President sent him as a commissioner to Detroit and on his return he died at Presque Isle, now Erie, December 15, 1796.
Tedyuskung, the great king of the Delaware tribe and one of the most powerful of the Indian sachems in Pennsylvania, much enjoyed the prominence he gained by frequent councils and conferences with the Governor and other Provincial dignitaries, even at the expense of causing a great jealousy among Indian chiefs of other nations. He was a skilled diplomat, a good speaker and a friend of the English, yet he was rather crafty in his dealings with both the whites and his own race, and was given over to excessive intemperance.
At the conclusion of the great treaty held at Easton, July 24–31, 1756, the Governor and others in authority doubted the sincerity of Tedyuskung, but he satisfied them on that score, and during August remained almost constantly in or about Fort Allen on a drunken debauch. Finally on August 21, he removed with his retinue to Bethlehem, where his wife, Elizabeth, and her three young children determined to remain, while the King went on an expedition to the Minisinks to put a stop to some Indian depredations.
Tedyuskung went from there to Wyoming and sent word to Major Parsons, at Easton, that he wanted his wife and children sent to him. Major Parsons went immediately to Bethlehem and made known the King’s desire to his wife, but she decided to remain where she was. This then was the cause of frequent visits to Bethlehem, where Tedyuskung much annoyed the Moravian Brethren, who were not in position to control his actions when he was their unwelcome visitor.
July, 1757, he was for some time in and about Fort Allen and then in attendance at the second great conference at Easton, during which time his wife and children were with him. Two days after this conference closed Tedyuskung, his family and others went to Bethlehem. Reichel, in his “Memorials of the Moravian Church,” says:
“Some of these unwelcome visitors halted for a few days, and some proceeded as far as Fort Allen and then returned, undecided as to where to go and what to do. During the month full 200 were counted—men, women and children—among them lawless crowds who annoyed the Brethren by depredations, molested the Indians at the Manakasy, and wrangled with each other over their cups at ‘The Crown’.”
Tedyuskung tarried in Bethlehem several days when he set out on a mission to Tioga, but on the way he was met by messengers from the Ohio Indians, who bore such glad tidings that the King determined he should go to Philadelphia and appraise the Governor and Council of the good news.
At Bethlehem Tedyuskung spent a few days with his wife and family, meantime holding a conference with Bishop Spangenberg, Reverend Mack and other Moravian Brethren—Augustus, the christianized Delaware chief serving as interpreter. Tedyuskung inquired of the Moravians why the converted Indians could not move to Wyoming. Bishop Spangenberg told him they would require a town of their own, where a school and church could be built. The king said these should be built there.
He then surprised the Brethren by telling them that reports had been circulated among the Indians that the Moravians had decapitated the Indians among them, placed their heads in bags and sent them to Philadelphia. These charges had so exasperated the Indians that they conspired to attack the Brethren’s settlements and cut off the inhabitants without regard to age or sex. He and Paxinoso had on one occasion persuaded 200 warriors, who had banded together for this purpose, to desist from their design.
After his interview with the Governor and Council in Philadelphia, Tedyuskung returned to Bethlehem, where he remained with his wife and children until October 7 when he again went to Philadelphia.
During all her sojourn in Bethlehem the King’s wife was maintained by the Moravian Brethren at the expense of the Province. Tedyuskung was back in Bethlehem in about ten days and remained until the 27th, when they set out for Wyoming, where the Commissioners were daily expected to build a fort and some houses for the Delaware.
Having previously signified to the Moravian Brethren at Bethlehem his desire to spend the winter at Bethlehem, permission for him and his family to do so was reluctantly granted. Thereupon, upon his return from New Jersey, a lodge was built for him near “The Crown” inn. There he held court and gave audience to the wild embassies that would come from the Indian country.
In addition to Tedyuskung and his family nearly one hundred Indians spent the winter of 1757–58 in the neighborhood of “The Crown.” Reichel says: “Government was imposing an additional burden upon the Brethren when it committed this lawless crowd to their keeping * * * We are at a loss how to act. Furthermore, we are told that some of our neighbors are growing uneasy at our receiving such murdering Indians, as they style them. I fear we shall be obliged to set watches to keep such of them off as are disposed to quarrel with, or may attempt to hurt any of them.”
Tedyuskung attended a long conference in Philadelphia in the early part of 1758, and made trips to and from Bethlehem for this purpose.
He was back in Bethlehem in April, and on the 17th sent a number of the Delaware, who had wintered in the Moravian town, to Fort Allen, there to join Captain Jacob Arndt’s soldiers in ranging the frontiers. He also sent his sons, Captains John Jacob and Amos and three other Delaware over the Allegheny to the Indians towns of the Delaware and Shawnee.
Tedyuskung remained in Bethlehem, and Justice Horsfield wrote on April 18: “I never before was so much convinced of Tedyuskung’s zeal for the English cause.” Five days later, however, a soldier came to Bethlehem from Fort Allen with a letter from Captain Arndt in which he stated that he was having trouble with the Indians sent to the fort by Tedyuskung—the messengers, who were still there, as well as those who were to range being continually drunk, having brought with them some casks of rum from Easton.
Tedyuskung made another trip to Philadelphia in May to urge the Governor to again send the Commissioners to finish the fort and the houses. He returned to Bethlehem about May 8.
Reichel says: “When the swelling of the maple buds and the whitening of the shad-bush on the river’s bank betokened the advent of Spring, there were busy preparations going on in Tedyuskung’s company over the matter of their long-expected removal to the Indian Eldorado on the flats of the Winding River. It was the 16th of cornplanting month (May), the month called Tauwinipen, when the Delaware King, his Queen, his counsellors and his warriors led by the Commissioners, took up the line of march for Fort Allen, beyond there to strike the Indian trail that led over the mountains to Wyoming Valley—and on the going out of these spirits ‘The Crown’ was swept and garnished and Ephriam Colver, the publican, had rest.”
Benjamin Gilbert and family, living on Mahoning Creek, about five miles from Fort Allen, now Weissport, Carbon County, were carried into a bitterly painful captivity by a party of Indians, who took them to Canada, and there separated them. At the time of this occurrence, April 25, 1780, the event caused intense excitement throughout the State, and from an interesting narrative published shortly after their release from captivity, August 22, 1782, the following facts are ascertained.
Benjamin Gilbert was a Quaker from Byberry, near Philadelphia, and in 1775 removed with his family to a farm on Mahoning Creek, near Fort Allen. They lived comfortably in a good log dwelling house, with barn and saw and grist mill. For five years all was peace and industry.
On the eventful day, about sunrise they were surprised by a party of Indians who took the following prisoners: Benjamin Gilbert, aged 69; Elizabeth, his wife, 55 years; sons, Joseph, aged 41; Jesse, 19; Abner, 14; and daughters, Rebecca, 16; and Elizabeth, 12; and Sarah, wife of Jesse; Thomas Peart, son of Benjamin Gilbert’s wife; Benjamin Gilbert, a nephew of the elder Gilbert; Andrew Harrigar, a German servant and Abigail Dodson, a neighbor’s daughter, the whole number taken being twelve. The Indians then proceeded about half a mile to Benjamin Peart’s and there captured himself and his wife and their nine months’ old child.
The last look the poor captives had of their once comfortable homes was to view the buildings in flames as they were led over Summer Hill, on their way over Mauch Chunk and Broad Mountains into the Nescopeck Path, and then across Quakake Creek to Mahanoy Mountain, where they passed the first night, fastened between notched saplings, with straps around their necks and fastened to a tree.
Their march was resumed soon after dawn and day after day they tramped over the wild and rugged region between the Lehigh and the Chemunk branch of the Susquehanna. Often ready to faint by the way, the cruel threat of instant death urged them again to march. The old man, Benjamin Gilbert, had begun to fail, and was already painted black, the fatal omen among the Indians; but when they were to kill him, the pitiful pleadings of his wife saved him. Subsequently in Canada, Gilbert told the chief he could say what none of the other Indians could, “that he had brought in the oldest man and the youngest child.”
On the fifty-fourth day of their captivity, the Gilbert family had to experience the fearful ordeal of running the gauntlet.
“The prisoners,” says the narrative, “were released from the heavy loads they had heretofore been compelled to carry, and were it not for the treatment they expected on approaching the Indian towns, and the hardship of separation, their situation would have been tolerable; but the horror of their minds, arising from the dreadful yells of the Indians as they approached the hamlets, is easier conceived than described—for they were no strangers to the customary cruelty exercised upon the captives on entering their towns. The Indians, men, women and children, collect together, bringing clubs and stones in order to beat them, which they usually do with great severity. The blows must be borne without complaint. The prisoners are beaten until the Indians weary with the cruel sport.
“Two of the women who were on horseback were much bruised by falling from their horses, which were frightened by the Indians. Elizabeth, the mother, took shelter by the side of a warrior, who sent her away, she then received several violent blows, so that she was almost disabled. The blood trickled from their heads in a stream. Their hair being cropped close and the clothes they had on in rags, made their situation truly piteous. Whilst the Indians were inflicting this revenge upon the captives, the chief came and put a stop to any further cruelty.”
Soon after this torture, a severer trial awaited them, when they were separated. Some were given over to other Indians to be adopted, others were hired out as servants, and the remainder were sent down the lake to Montreal. Among the latter was old Benjamin Gilbert, by this time broken in body and mind, and he there succumbed. His remains were interred near old Fort Coeur du Lac, below Ogdensburg.
Some of the family met with kind treatment from the hands of British officers, who were interested in their story, and exerted themselves to release them from captivity. Sarah Gilbert, wife of Jesse, became a mother, and Elizabeth Gilbert was allowed to give her daughter every necessary attendance. One day while Elizabeth was ironing for the family of Adam Scott, a little girl told her some one wanted to see her and upon entering another room, she found six of her own children. A messenger was sent to inform Jesse and his wife, so that Joseph Gilbert, Benjamin Peart and Elizabeth, his wife, and their young child, and Abner and Elizabeth Gilbert the younger, were with their mother on this occasion.
Elizabeth Gilbert, the younger, only twelve years of age, had been adopted by an Indian family, but was permitted to live with a white family named Secord, by whom she was treated with endearing attention.
A year later Mr. Secord took Betsy on a trip to Niagara, and there she saw six of her relatives, most of whom had been released and were preparing to leave for Montreal, perhaps never again to see the others. The sight of their beloved little sister roused every energy to effect her release, which desire was generously seconded by John Secord and the Tory leader, Colonel John Butler, who, soon after her visit to Niagara sent for the Indian who claimed Elizabeth as his child and made overtures for her ransom. At first he declared that he “would not sell his own flesh and blood,” but, attacked through his interest, or in other words, his necessities, the negotiation succeeded and her youngest child was among the treasures first restored to the mother at Montreal.
Eventually they were all released and collected at Montreal and on August 22, 1782, they took leave of their friends there and returned to Byberry, after a captivity of two years and five months.
The premises where stood the dwelling and improvements of the Gilbert family were on the north side of Mahoning Creek, on an elevated bank about forty perches from the main road leading from Lehighton and Weissport to Tamaqua, and about four miles from the former. Benjamin Peart lived about a mile farther up the creek, and about a quarter of a mile from it on the south side.
Alexander Wilson, the great American ornithologist, was born in Paisley, Scotland, July 6, 1766, and died in Philadelphia, August 23, 1813. He was the son of a distiller, but at the age of thirteen was apprenticed to a weaver, and after seven years abandoned the loom and adopted the life of a peddler.
Three years were thus spent and in 1789, having prepared a volume of poems for publication, he offered his muslins and solicited subscriptions for this work. It was published in 1790, but had little success; and he again returned to the loom.
In 1792 he published “Watty and Meg,” which having appeared anonymously, was ascribed to Robert Burns though the style is very different. It is said to have had a sale of 100,000 copies in a few weeks. He wrote a severe satire upon a person in Paisley and was thrown into prison, and was afterwards compelled to burn the libel with his own hand at Paisley Cross. Upon his release, he resolved to emigrate, and arrived at New Castle, Delaware, July 14, 1794, with only a few borrowed shillings, without an acquaintance, and with no decided purpose.
After working at various trades, sometimes as a copperplate printer under Alexander Lawson, in which he showed both ambition and talent, he went through New Jersey as a peddler and during this journey seems to have first paid minute attention to the habits and appearance of birds.
He afterward taught school at various places in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, finally settling in 1802 at Kingsessing on the Schuylkill.
One of the schools he taught was situated on the Darby Road, a short distance west of the intersection with Gray’s Ferry Road. His home was near the celebrated botanical garden of William Bartram, and he became acquainted with the famous naturalist, who, by his own love of birds, deeply interested young Wilson in that branch of nature. It was at this time that Alexander Wilson resolved to form a collection of all the birds of America.
His first excursion, October, 1804, was to Niagara Falls. He walked from Philadelphia through the unopened wilderness of western New York, and wrote a metrical description of his journey in the “Port Folio” under the title of “The Foresters, a Poem.”
Elsewhere Wilson wrote:
Wilson learned drawing, coloring, and etching from Alexander Lawson, the celebrated engraver, whose tastes and instructions stimulated his own talents.
He persuaded Bradford, a Philadelphia publisher, who had employed him in 1806, in editing the American edition of Rees’s Cyclopedia, to furnish funds for an American ornithology on an adequate scale. The first volume of this work appeared in September, 1808, but it was too expensive to be very successful. The seventh volume appeared in 1813.
The interval had been passed in exploring different parts of the country for the purpose of extending his observations, collecting specimens and watching the habits of birds in their native haunts.
In January, 1810, the second volume appeared, but before the next was prepared Wilson sailed down the Ohio River in a small boat as far as Louisville, he set out on horseback from Nashville for New Orleans in May, 1811, and arrived June 6. Sailing from there he arrived back in Philadelphia in August, and began the third volume.
In September, 1812, he started on another tour of the eastern States. He completed the publication of seven volumes.
In 1813 the literary materials for the eighth volume of the “Ornithology” were ready, but its progress was greatly retarded for want of proper assistants to color the plates. Wilson was therefore obliged to undertake the whole of this department himself in addition to his other duties. He employed himself so unceasingly in the preparation of his work that he impaired his already weakened condition and hastened death. It is said that in his eagerness to obtain a rare bird, he swam across a river and caught cold from which he never recovered.
All the plates for the remainder of his work having been completed under Wilson’s own eye the letter press work on the ninth volume was supplied by his friend, George Ord, his companion in several of his expeditions, who also wrote a memoir of Wilson to accompany the last volume, and edited the eighth. Four supplementary volumes were afterwards added by Charles Lincoln Bonaparte.
An edition of Alexander Wilson’s poems was published at Paisley in 1816, and another at Belfast in 1857. A statue of him was erected at Paisley in October, 1874.
Wilson was followed by another Pennsylvanian, John James Audubon, who lived for many years on the Perkiomen near its mouth. He published an immense work upon the “Birds of America,” which brought him lasting fame. Thus the two greatest ornithologists of America are claimed as residents of our state.
In the quiet retreat of the churchyard of the old Swedes Church, or “Gloria Dei,” at Weccacoe, where he delighted to worship, repose the remains of Alexander Wilson. The distinguished ornithologist requested to be laid to rest there, as it was “a silent, shady place where the birds would be apt to come and sing over his grave.”
During the summer of 1813 the shores of the Chesapeake and its tributary rivers were made a general scene of ruin and distress. The British forces assumed the character of the incendiary in retaliation for the burning of the town of York, in Upper Canada, which had been taken by the American army under General Dearborn in April of that year. The burning of York was accidental, but its destruction served as a pretext for the general pillage and conflagration which followed the marching of the British army.
The enemy took possession of Washington August 24, 1814, and the commanders of the invading force, General Ross and Admiral Blackburn, proceeded in person to direct and superintend the business of burning the Capitol and city.
On August 26, Governor Simon Snyder issued a strong appeal for a call to arms: “The landing upon our shores, by the enemy, of hordes of marauders, for the purpose avowedly to create by plunder, burning and general devastation, all possible individual and public distress, gives scope for action to the militia of Pennsylvania by repelling that foe, and with just indignation seek to avenge the unprovoked wrongs heaped on our unoffending country.
“The militia generally within the counties of Dauphin, Lebannon, Berks, Schuylkill, York, Adams and Lancaster, and that part of Chester County which constitutes the Second Brigade of the Third Division, and those corps particularly, who, when danger first threatened, patriotically tendered their services in the field, are earnestly invited to rise (as on many occasions Pennsylvania has heretofore done) superior to local feeling and evasives that might possibly be drawn from an imperfect military system, and to repair with that alacrity which duty commands, and it is fondly hoped inclination will prompt, to the several places of brigade or regimental rendezvous that shall respectively be designated by the proper officer, and thence to march to the place of general rendezvous.
“Pennsylvanians, whose hearts must be gladdened at the recital of the deeds of heroism achieved by their fellow citizens, soldiers now in arms on the Lake frontier, and within the enemy’s country, now the occasion has occurred, will with order seek and punish that same implacable foe, now marauding on the Atlantic shore of two of our sister States.”
Camps were established at Marcus Hook, on the Delaware, and at York. At the latter place 5,000 men were soon under the command of Major General Nathaniel Watson, and Brigadier Generals John Forster and John Adams.
When General Ross attempted the capture of Baltimore, these Pennsylvania militia marched thither and had the high honor to aid in repelling the enemy. In the same year other of the State’s military forces rendered excellent services at Chippewa and Bridgewater, and thereby won the gratitude of the people of the entire country.
During the entire war the soil of Pennsylvania had never been trodden by a hostile foot, yet it had at one time a greater number of militia and volunteers in the service of the United States than were at any time in the field from any other state in the Union, and as she furnished more men, so did she furnish more money to carry on the war.
The treaty of Ghent was concluded December 24, 1814, but the closing acts in the tragedy of the war were the battle of New Orleans, January 8, 1815, and the gallant capture of the British warships “Cyane” and “Levant,” by Captain Charles Stewart’s grand old frigate, “Constitution,” February 20, 1815.
On February 17, 1815, the treaty of peace between the United States and Great Britain was ratified by the Senate.
Pennsylvania’s finances were in such sound condition that only one small temporary loan was required to pay all expenditures incurred during the war. Business did not suffer, yet during the war period a cloud was gathering which soon was to have a serious effect on the financial situation in the State. The United States Bank, after twenty years of honorable and useful life, came to an end in 1811, and at a time when its services were needed by the government and the people.
The State banks were envious of the power of the larger institution, and in the failure to renew its charter their officers saw the opportunity to advance their personal ends.
The Legislature chartered State banks over the Governor’s veto, and again the State was flooded with paper money, as it had been during the Revolution, but the terrible consequences of that deluge had long since been forgotten. The excess of issue and lack of faith in them was soon reflected by rising prices. The banks had little or no specie for redeeming their notes. Soon many banks were without funds, hence were compelled to close their doors, and both the promoters and their victims were led into financial ruin.
Governor Snyder’s great friend, Editor John Binns, had the courage to maintain that, although individuals were thus made bankrupt, the State was benefited by the results of the banking acts, for, says he: “The titles to lands became more clear, settled and certain; strangers were induced to purchase and come to Pennsylvania and settle.” Quite a costly way to clear titles.
The downfall of the banking system was followed by general depression, and many men and business institutions were forced into involuntary bankruptcy. This was an unfortunate period in Pennsylvania history, and was not a condition single to this State alone.
Normal conditions were eventually restored and then followed an era of progress which was not marred for many years.
Throughout all this trying period Governor Snyder exhibited many splendid traits of character, and met every emergency with determined courage. He was not always able to control the Legislature, and his conduct in trying to stay the deluge of paper money was one of the most noteworthy of his three successful administrations.