The Susquehanna Company having been, apparently, successfully launched, a second land company was organized in the Autumn and Winter of 1754 by a large number of the inhabitants of Connecticut, many of whom were members also of the first-mentioned company. This new organization was named "The Delaware Company," but it soon became generally known as "The Connecticut Delaware Company." Its agents bought, with slight formality, the title of the Delaware Indians to all land lying between the Delaware River and the eastern boundary-line of The Susquehanna Company's purchase (to wit, a line ten miles east of the Susquehanna River), and bounded on the north by the forty-second parallel of latitude and on the south by the forty-first parallel.*

The deed passing the Indian title to this large extent of territory -nearly the whole of the north-eastern section of the present State of Pennsylvania-was executed May 6, 1755, by sixteen "sachems and chiefs of the ancient tribe and nation of Indians called Ninnepauws, otherwise known by the name of Delaware Indians." These grantors—whose names are all unfamiliar-were, without doubt, members of the Minsi, or Monsey, clan of the Delaware nation living along the upper waters of the river. The deed purports to have been executed at the nation's "headquarters upon Delaware River." The consideration named in the deed is 500 Spanish milled dollars and certain English goods valued at about 3,000 dollars. The names of the grantees number about 500, and the first name in the list is that of the Hon. Hezekiah Huntington,

vania, when, in the course of the fighting, the horn was torn from the strap, or cord, by which it was suspended, and was lost to its owner. In July, 1841, the Germantown Telegraph described the finding of this horn, nearly sixty-four years after its loss. It was found two or more feet under ground, when a grave was being excavated in the burial-ground atttached to the new Lutheran Church" of Germantown. Ebenezer Gray served through the siege of Boston. January 1, 1776, he was commissioned First Lieutenant and Quartermaster of the Connecticut regiment commanded by John Durkee (see Chapter VIII), and with his regiment marched to New York, where, August 31, 1776, Brig. Gen. Samuel H. Parsons appointed him Brigade Major. January 1, 1777, he was promoted Major of the 6th Regiment, Connecticut Line, and October 15, 1778, he was promoted Lieutenant Colonel of the 7th Regiment, Connecticut Line. He continued in service until June, 1783, when he returned to Windham and resumed the practice of law. He was an early member of the Society of the Cincinnati.

Colonel Gray was married March 30, 1786, to Sarah Standiford. He died June 18, 1795, and she died in 1835. Their children were: (i) Ebenezer, born May 16, 1787; graduated at Yale College in 1805; died in 1844. (ii) Charlotte, born March 9, 1789; was married to Thomas Lynch, a native of Ireland, and became the mother of Anne C. Lynch, a poetess and writer, who became the wife of Professor Botta, the historian. (iii) Samuel, born 1792; died 1836.

Mary Gray, the second child of Samuel and Lydia (Dyer) Gray, was born at Windham October 14, 1744, and July 17, 1764, was married to the Rev. Enoch Huntington (born in Windham December 15, 1739), son of Nathaniel, of Norwich, a descendant in the fourth generation of the original Simon Huntington, mentioned on page 281. Enoch Huntington was graduated at Yale College in 1759, and from 1780 to 1808 was a Fellow of the College Corporation, and its Secretary from 1788 to 1793. On the death of President Stiles of Yale in 1795 Mr. Huntington was spoken of as his successor, but ill health compelled him to decline the honor. Having been installed pastor of the First Congregational Church of Middletown, Connecticut, January 6, 1762, he spent there the remainder of his life-dying June 12, 1809. His wife died December 15, 1803. They were the parents of six children, the eldest of whom was Enoch Huntington, born October 19, 1767; graduated at Yale College with high honors in 1785; married November 6, 1791, to Sarah Ward; died in 1826. The fourth child of the last-mentioned Enoch was the Rev. Enoch Huntington, Jr., who in 1825 became Rector of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Wilkes-Barré. (For his portrait, and a sketch of his life, see Chapter XXX.)

Samuel Gray, Jr., fifth child of Samuel and Lydia (Dyer) Gray, was born at Windham June 21, 1751. In 1769 and '70 he was a student in the school of the Rev. Eleazar Wheelock at Lebanon Crank, Connecticut, and in the year last mentioned he accompanied Dr. Wheelock and a cavalcade of forty or fifty students through the wilderness to Hanover, New Hampshire, where they cut away the trees, erected a building and established Dartmouth College. Samuel Gray Jr., was one of the four young men composing the first class graduated at this institution, August 28, 1771, as Bachelors of Arts. In 1774 Mr. Gray received from his Alma Mater the honorary degree of M. A., and in 1775 he received the same degree from Yale College. In December, 1775, he was appointed an Assistant Commissary under Col. Joseph Trumbull, Commissary General of Issues of the Continental Army. He was at Cambridge with the army, and accompanied it to New York. When Colonel Trumbull (a sketch of whom will be found in a subsequent chapter) resigned his office, Samuel Gray, Jr., was commissioned by Congress, in July, 1777, Deputy Commissary General of Issues for the Eastern Department, and in this office he served under Col. Charles Stewart, Commissary General (see Chapter VII for his portrait and a sketch of his life), till near the close of the war. In 1779 he was stationed at Windham. Upon the decease of his father he was appointed Clerk of the Windham County Courts, and held the office for almost forty years. Samuel Gray, Jr., was married at Windham July 2, 1788, to Charlotte (born October 26, 1764), daughter of Col. Jedidiah Elderkin -whose portrait, and a sketch of whose life, will be found in Chapter V. Samuel Gray, Jr., died at Windham December 13, 1836, and his wife died there December 13, 1797. They were the parents of three children. * For the territory included within these bounds see the "Map of a Part of Pennsylvania" in Chapter XI.

mentioned on page 281. Another member was Capt. Robert Dixson (mentioned on page 251), who, in 1768, was a member of the Executive Committee of the Company. Shortly after the execution of this deed John Curtis, Asa Peabody and Joseph Skinner went upon the land (at Cushetunk-later Cochecton-in the present county of Wayne) and formally took possession for the body of grantees.

Tench Coxe, for some years Secretary of the Land Office of Pennsylvania-and in his time one of the most energetic and tireless opposers of the "pretensions made upon the Pennsylvania lands by the unincorporated Companies of Connecticut claimants"-wrote and published in May, 1801, a small pamphlet entitled "An Important Statement of Facts." On page 15 is this paragraph:

"It is remarkable that the best-informed people of Connecticut and Pennsylvania do not furnish, or cannot procure, any evidences of the pretended Title, or Indian Deed, to 'The Delaware Company. Even Colonel Franklin spoke of that Company's claim as of no value, before the Committee of the House of Representatives at the last session. Yet the impositions under it have been very gross, and not inconsiderable."

The original deed to The Delaware Company was recorded about the year 1782 in "Book No. 4," folio 668, &c., of the Public Records of Connecticut. There is also a MS. copy of it among the "Pickering Papers" (LVII: 21) mentioned on page 29, and a copy was printed, in part, in The Luzerne County Federalist (Wilkes-Barré), April 13, 1801.

THE SUSQUEHANNA COMPANY STIRS UP A HORNET'S NEST-SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON AND THE SIX NATIONS-FRENCH AND INDIAN WARWYOMING TEMPORARILY DESERTED BY THE INDIANSINDIAN CONGRESSES AND CONFERENCES IN

"Smiling Peace, bound with victorious wreaths, no longer holds sway over the once fair fields. Instead, grim-visaged War hath turned the merry meetings of the inhabitants into stern alarums, their delightful measures into dreadful marches.'

The agents and counselors of the Pennsylvania Proprietaries at Philadelphia were considerably excited and confounded by the various reports which they received from New York and New England relative to the doings and intentions of The Susquehanna Company. Some of these reports were rather confusing, as we have already shown, but nevertheless they contained sufficient indisputable testimony to the effect that the New Englanders were accomplishing, in a measure, what the Pennsylvanians had determined they should not be permitted to do. In October, 1754, Conrad Weiser wrote to the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania as follows*:

"As to the Connecticut affair I am clear of opinion that by order of the Governor you should write to Hendrick, putting him in mind of his promise he made the Commissioners of this Province in Albany when he said he would come to us upon any occasion to advise with the Governor as in the presence of the Most High-that the Governor wants to see him in this critical time. Daniel Claus might come-he knows the way by land. If Hendrick refuses to come he may be suspected to have [had] a hand in it, and we must then act by Shikellimy and Jonathan, as secret as possible; otherwise, Lydius and that wicked priest at Canajoharief will defeat our designs. I would advise in the meantime to have belts of wampum provided, and two or three belts all black. You will want a couple to send to the southward before long, and one must be made use of to demolish Lydius' proceeding. Mr. Claus must be ordered to keep everything relating to this affair as a secret, and to search very diligently whether Hendrick had any hand in signing the deed to the Connecticut people. If he had not, we shall succeed no doubt. He must have liberty to bring one or more Indians with him."

Following Weiser's suggestion, Gov. Robert Hunter Morris (who had succeeded Governor Hamilton a short time before) wrote to "King" Hendrick under date of November 15th, stating that it was necessary for him to have a private conference with the "King," and desiring the latter to make a visit to Philadelphia "in order to consult on some

* See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," VI: 248.

+ Miner (see "History of Wyoming," page 97) states that the person here referred to was the Rev. Jacob Johnson-mentioned on page 82, ante. This, for several reasons, is very doubtful.

affairs in which the safety of the Indians and His Majesty's Colonies" were "very much concerned"! This letter was sent under cover to Daniel Claus, who was directed to consult with Col. William Johnson "as to when to deliver it, and what to say to Hendrick." At the same time Governor Morris wrote to Colonel Johnson as follows*:

"If Hendrick can be prevailed upon to come down, and shall have all these matters laid down properly before him, he would find out a method of laying the whole before the Six Nations, and preventing a settlement of these lands. Should he be told beforehand that this is the business that he is sent for, he may decline coming. For this reason it is thought best not to mention a word of this matter to Hendrick, but-inasmuch as when he took leave of the Commissioners [at Albany] he made this Government a tender of his services, and declared in a solemn manner that he would at any time come to Philadelphia whenever the Governor should think it necessary to send for him-to write him a general letter, and leave it to you to give him what impression you please of this journey, and to persuade him to take it immediately."

From "Mount Johnson," under date of December 9, 1754, Colonel Johnson wrote to Governor Morris as follows (see "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," VI: 268):

*"Pennsylvania Colonial Records," VI: 251, 252.

SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON.

WILLIAM JOHNSON was born in 1715 at Warrenpoint, County Down, Ireland, son of Christopher and Anne (Warren) Johnson. Christopher Johnson, who was at that time a local magistrate for the bailiwick of Carlingford, had been from 1692 till 1708 an officer in a regiment of heavy cavalry known as Cadogan's Horse, and in a charge at Oudenarde was wounded in the leg and disabled by a French bullet. His wife, Anne Warren, was the daughter of a Commodore and the sister of an Admiral (Sir Peter Warren) in the British Navy.

William Johnson served for some time as a magistrate's clerk in his father's office, at the same time diligently studying law and history. He was listed for examination in the Spring of 1737 for admission to the Bar, but about that time a new field of work was thrown open to him by his uncle, Admiral Warren. The latter, whose home was then in the city of New York, had purchased some years previously, under a royal grant, a large tract of land in the valley of the Mohawk, west of Schenectady, New York. The settlements of the Palatines (see page 181) and the Holland Dutch were being pushed up the Mohawk Valley, so that by the year 1737 Admiral Warren's lands had become somewhat valuable and were worth looking after. Therefore young Johnson, then in the twenty-second year of his life, sailed for America late in the Summer of 1737 to act as the general agent of all his uncle's real estate interests in this country.

Sir Peter Warren's wife was Susannah, the daughter of Stephen De Lancey, one of the richest merchants in New York, and "the family held leadership in the most refined and aristocratic society of the Colonial metropolis." A few years later Sir Peter was a citizen of considerable consequence in New York. He had then returned from Martinique, where he had captured many French and Spanish prizes with his squadron of sixteen sailing craft. These prizes were sold for him by De Lancey & Co., and netted him a considerable fortune, and it is said that "he bought his Greenwich farm of 300 acres with a part of the money." The present Abingdon Square, with its little park, in the city of New York, is a memento of Warren's Greenwich farm-the eldest of Sir Peter's three daughters having married the Earl of Abingdon, for whom the square was named.

William Johnson spent the Winter of 1737-38 with his aunt in New York, but as soon as navigation was opened in the Hudson River in the Spring of 1738 he sailed with a sloop-load of stores and implements and several mechanics for Albany. Thence the party journeyed overland with their material to a point near the mouth of Schoharie Creek, where, on Sir Peter Warren's land, they founded a settlement which became known as "Warrensburg" and as "Warrensbush." Here William Johnson passed five years. In 1741, however, he purchased a tract of land lying north of the Mohawk River and comprising several thousand acres-upon a portion of which part of the present city of Amsterdam stands. He at once began building upon this tract a substantial stone house (still standing, about one mile west of Amsterdam), which subsequently became known as "Mount Johnson," and later as "Fort Johnson." To this mansion he removed from Warrensbush in the Spring of 1743, with his wife Katharine (née Weisenburg), to whom he had been married in 1739, and their two children-Anne, born in 1740, and John, born in 1742. In 1744 a third child-Mary-was born.

With his removal to Mount Johnson the active and effective public career of William Johnson may be said to have begun. In the Autumn of 1743 he was appointed by Governor Clinton to fill a vacancy on the Board of Indian Commissioners, caused by the resignation of Col. Peter Schuyler; and about the same time he was appointed Colonel of a militia regiment. In April, 1745, he was commissioned a magistrate for the district in which he lived.

In 1744 he established an Indian trading-post on the Susquehanna opposite the village of Oghwaga, mentioned in the foot-note on page 257. When he applied to Governor Clinton for a license he said: "I wish to create this trading-post not any more for the profits it may bring to me than to show by actual example that trade with the Indians can be conducted honestly as well as any other commercial business." This post was maintained for a number of years, being managed for the owner by agents, and a large volume of very profitable business was transacted.

In September, 1746, Colonel Johnson was appointed Sole Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the Colony of New York, and about the same time was commissioned a Colonel on the permanent establishment. In the Autumn of 1747 preparations were made in the northern Colonies for an expedition against Canada

in the ensuing Spring. Sir William Pepperell was selected for commander-in-chief of the Provincial forces, and Colonel Johnson was to be second in command, besides being in immediate command of a brigade of Provincials and 1,000 Indians under "King" Hendrick. The frontier was strongly guarded during the Winter, and in February, 1748, Colonel Johnson took command of the whole line of frontier forts. By April it became known that the war was practically over, and in July news came that preliminary articles of peace had been signed. (See page 229.) The French evacuated Crown Point, the Indians on both sides buried the hatchet, and what was known as the "Old French War," or "King George's War," was ended. Referring in 1755 to this war "King" Hendrick said: "During the time of the last war Colonel Johnson prevailed on us, and we listened to him. He was our Captain when no others did anything. He alone persuaded us, and we obeyed him and engaged in war against the French. We put ourselves under his protection. He promised to live and die with us.' ("Pennsylvania Colonial Records," VI: 281.)

In 1746 Colonel Johnson was invested by the Mohawks with the rank of a chief of that nation, the Indian name of "Warragh-i-ya-gey" was bestowed upon him and he was given a seat in the "Long House" at the Grand Councils of the Iroquois Confederacy. Not long afterwards, dressed in full Indian costume, he led the Mohawk tribe to a council, or conference, at Albany. He frequently accompanied the Iroquois deputies who went to Albany to transact business with the Government, and on all occasions he paid the utmost deference to the ancient ceremonial forms observed by the Indians in transacting public business. He received at his mansion with great ceremony the delegates from various tribes, listened to them patiently and answered them carefully; made them liberal presents, and ordered every attention to be paid to their personal wants. No Indian who came to him ever went away hungry or in want, and no one ever complained that he had not received an audience. He sent formal messages to the head men of the Six Nations desiring their attendance at Mount Johnson whenever occasion required it. This careful attention greatly pleased the Indians. Distance was immaterial to him, as he found it was nothing to them. "No one," states Schoolcraft, "can peruse the history of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland or Virginia-nay, even of the States farther south-from the beginning of the eighteenth century to the era of the Revolutionary War, without observing how intimately the Indian policy of these Colonies was connected with the Iroquois supremacy, and how completely Sir William Johnson] controlled it through a well-established system of subordinates."

The Rev. Gideon Hawley, in his account of his journey to Oghwaga in 1753 (mentioned on page 257, ante), refers to a visit he and his companions made to Colonel Johnson. "Friday," he wrote, "we left Albany for Mount Johnson, about thirty-six miles off, on the Mohawk River, to pay our compliments to Colonel Johnson and obtain his countenance in favor of our mission. At sunset we were politely received by Colonel Johnson himself at his gate. Here we lodged. His mansion was stately, and situate a little distance from the river, on rising ground, and adjacent to a stream which turned his mill." Dr. Eleazar Wheelock, sometime President of Dartmouth College, writing of Colonel Johnson's life about this period, said: I have seen at Mount Johnson, and also at Johnson Hall, sixty to eighty Indians at one time lodging under tents on the lawn, and taking their meals from tables made of pine boards spread under the trees. They were delegations from all the Iroquois tribes, come to pow-wow with their great white brother. They say,' said the Baronet to me once, 'that it is not right or fair that I should be Superintendent over the Indians and an Indian trader at the same time. Why, bless me. Doctor, my profits from the Indian trade do not reimburse me for my outlay in entertaining these delegations.'"

A writer in The Gentleman's Magazine (London), in 1755, said of Colonel Johnson: "Besides his skill and experience as an officer, he is particularly happy in making himself beloved by all sorts of people, and can conform to all companies and conversations. He is very much the fine gentleman in genteel company; but as the inhabitants next to him are mostly Dutch, he sits down with them and smokes his tobacco, drinks flip and talks of improvements, bear- and beaver-skins. Being surrounded with Indians he speaks several of their languages well, and has always some of them with him. He takes care of their wives and old Indians, when they go out on parties, and even wears their dress. In short, by his honest dealings with them in trade, and his courage-which has often been successfully tried with them-and his courteous behavior, he has so endeared himself to them that they chose him one of their chief Sachems, or Princes, and esteem him as their father."

By the Autumn of 1754 the French and Indian War (referred to on page 261) was well under way, although a formal declaration of war was not made by England until May, 1756. In February, 1755, Maj. Gen. Sir Edward Braddock arrived in this country as commander-in-chief of all the British forces in North America-regular, Provincial and Indian. Within less than a month after his arrival he, in the name and by the authority of King George, appointed to the important post of "General Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the whole of British North America," Col. William Johnson, who, some four years previously, had resigned the office of Superintendent of Indian Affairs in New York. At the same time General Braddock outlined the plans for an expedition for the reduction of Fort St. Frédéric, or Crown Point, then the southernmost fortress of the French on the New York frontier, and as commander-inchief of this expedition he appointed William Johnson, with the rank of Major General. On the 9th of July, following, occurred Braddock's disastrous defeat in western Pennsylvania.

The campaign against Crown Point was begun early in August by the building and garrisoning of Fort Edward, and on September 8th the battle of Lake George was fought. (See pages 264. 269 and 281.) Although this battle was won by the English, General Johnson advanced no farther against Crown Point, but contented himself with building Fort William Henry on the site of his camp. As soon as the news of the battle of Lake George reached England King George created General Johnson a baronet of the hereditary class, and promoted him to the rank of Major General in the British Regular Army, on the Colonial establishment, while Parliament voted him a gratuity of £5,000. He was censured, however, for not pursuing the enemy and capturing Crown Point. The victory at Lake George was the turning point in the ascendency of the British influence with the Iroquois and their allies, which had been at a very low ebb at the beginning of the Old French War in 1744; and the fame which followed this victory aided greatly in raising Sir William Johnson in the estimation of the Indians. From this date the Indian political horizon in New York began to brighten.

In the Summer of 1756 a royal commission was issued to Sir William Johnson appointing him "Agent and Sole Superintendent of the Six Nations and all other Indians inhabiting British territory north of the Carolinas and the Ohio River"; and at the same time orders were issued "forbidding any Colonial Governor to transact any business with the Indians or hold any communication with them except through Sir William Johnson."

At the beginning of 1758 a powerful French armament at Louisbourg on Cape Breton threatened the New England Colonies, and there was a call for men to defend them. In May an expedition under command of Gen. Sir Jeffrey Amherst was sent to attack Louisbourg, and at the same time an army under General Abercrombie and Lord Howe set out to capture from the French Fort Ticonderoga and Crown Point. The French forces were widely distributed, of necessity, since the frontier to be guarded was so vast, but the three points of greatest strategic importance were Louisbourg on the east, Fort Niagara on the west and Fort Ticonderoga in the center. Early in July Abercrombie was defeated at Ticonderoga -losing 2,000 men and retiring almost as if in flight; but on the 25th of the same month Louisbourg was surrendered to Amherst, who, a few months later, became commander-in-chief of all the British forces in North America.

During the Winter of 1758-59 General Amherst matured plans for a comprehensive invasion of Canada. It was proposed to attack the French in all of their strong posts at once; to fall as nearly as possible at the same time upon Ticonderoga, Crown Point, Niagara and the forts to the south of Lake Erie, while a great naval armament and a considerable body of land forces should attempt the capture of Quebec. General Amherst was himself to lead the attack upon Ticonderoga and Crown Point; for the command