Shamokin or Otzinachson | |
Native Name: | Schahamokink |
Etymology: | unm|Shahë-Mokink "place of crawfish"[1] or iro|Otzinachson "The Demon's Den" |
Settlement Type: | Historic Native American village |
Image Map1: | File:Northumberland County Pennsylvania Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sunbury Highlighted.svg |
Mapsize1: | 220px |
Map Caption1: | Former location of Shamokin, present-day site of Sunbury, Pennsylvania |
Pushpin Map: | Pennsylvania#USA |
Pushpin Label: | Shamokin |
Pushpin Map Caption: | Former location of Shamokin in Pennsylvania |
Coordinates: | 40.8639°N -76.7892°W |
Established Title: | Founded |
Established Date: | before 1711 |
Established Title2: | Abandoned |
Established Date2: | May, 1756 |
Population Est: | 300-400 |
Pop Est As Of: | 1745 |
Subdivision Type: | State |
Subdivision Name: | Pennsylvania |
Subdivision Type1: | Present-day Community |
Subdivision Name1: | Sunbury, Pennsylvania |
Shamokin (; Saponi Algonquian Schahamokink: "place of crawfish") (Lenape: Shahëmokink[1]) was a multi-ethnic Native American trading village on the Susquehanna River, located partially within the limits of the modern cities of Sunbury and Shamokin Dam, Pennsylvania. It should not be confused with present-day Shamokin, Pennsylvania, located to the east. The village was the focus of missionary efforts, and then was the staging area for raids on English settlements in Pennsylvania during the French and Indian War. It was burned and abandoned by the Lenape in May, 1756. A few months later, Fort Augusta was constructed on the site of the village.
"Shamokin" is usually described as derived from Schahamokink or Shahëmokink, ("place of crawfish")[1] but it may be also a variant of the Lenape term Shackamaxon,[2] from the Lenape term Sakimauchheen Ing which means "to make a chief or king place"[3] referring to the residence of the foremost Lenape sachem (sakima) on the Delaware River.[4]
The community is also sometimes referred to by the Iroquois name Otzinachson, which was according to Count Zinzendorf, the name the Iroquois gave to a "large cave, in a rocky hill in the wilderness...From it, the surrounding country and the West Branch of the Susquehanna are called Otzinachon, i. e., The Demon's Den, for here the evil spirits, say the Indians, have their seats and hold their revels."[5]
The date of first human settlement is not known. Stone tools and cord-marked pottery dating to between nine thousand and fifteen hundred years ago have been found in the area. A village definitely existed by 1711, when the Shawnee chief Opessa Straight Tail reportedly fled to Shamokin after being accused of complicity in the death of Francis Le Tort, an indentured servant who had fled into the forest with several escaped slaves that he was apparently trying to help. Le Tort was indentured to the Swedish-American trader, John Hansson Steelman (1655–1749) (also referred to as Stelman or Tillmann), and after Steelman offered bounty to some Shawnee warriors of Opessa's tribe to bring him back dead or alive, Francis was killed.[6] Opessa took refuge in Shamokin and while there, he married Polly, Sassoonan's daughter.[6]
At least one source states that the Delaware chief Sassoonan (Allumapees) was living at Shamokin as early as 1718.[6] However, historian C. A. Weslager indicates that it was probably Shawnee migrants who first settled there.[7] Delaware Indians displaced by German immigrants in Tulpehocken Creek Valley relocated to Shamokin in 1728.[8] A large population of Delaware Indians was also forcibly resettled there after 1737 when they lost rights to their land in the Walking Purchase. Canasatego of the Six Nations, enforcing the Walking Purchase on behalf of George Thomas, Deputy Governor of Pennsylvania, ordered the Delaware Indians to go to two places on the Susquehanna River,[6] Wyomink and Shamokin.[7] Early in the eighteenth century, the village consisted of Iroquois migrants from the north, as well as Shawnee and Lenape settlers moving away from expanding white settlements in Pennsylvania, and also some Saponi and Tutelo from Virginia.[9]
A 1727 map by John Taylor, of the forks of the Susquehanna River, shows Shamokin on both north and south banks of the west branch, with James Le Tort's store to the east.[10] John Scull's store is marked on the east bank of the Susquehanna.[6]
From 1727 to 1756, Shamokin was one of the largest and most influential Indian settlements in Pennsylvania.[7] Traders John Petty and Henry Smith had a trading post at Shamokin as early as 1728,[11] as did Samuel Cozzens,[2] John Hart, John Fisher, Timothy Higgins, Jonah Davenport, Alexander and Jack Armstrong, Woodworth Arnold, James Smith, John Scull and his brother Nicholas Scull II, and Anthony Sadowski.[2] James Le Tort established a trading post at Chillisquaque Creek (known at the time by colonists as "Chenastry") about six miles north of Shamokin.[6] These early traders are sometimes referred to as "the Shamokin Traders."[6]
Life as an Indian trader was dangerous and unpredictable. Anthony Sadowski wrote to John Petty in August, 1728 that "the Sauanos [Shawnees] have hanged Timothy Higgins upon a pole of their cabin," although he does not say why.[6] Petty wrote back that, while on their way to Shamokin, they had met Higgins, who "was thought to be hanged, escapt his life very narrowly...We dare not take him [back to Shamokin]." John Hart and John Fisher were accidentally shot and killed during a hunting expedition with a group of Lenapes in the fall of 1729.[2] Jack Armstrong and his servants Woodworth Arnold and James Smith were killed in 1744 by Lenape Indians over a stolen horse.[2] Jonah Davenport lost much of his property during violence with Indians and died in poverty near Lancaster, Pennsylvania.[6]
A later arrival was Thomas McKee (1695–1769), father of Indian agent Alexander McKee (1735–1799). He arrived in the area before 1735, when Alexander was born, and had two posts on the left bank of the Susquehanna, near Shamokin. He quickly became fluent in the Delaware language. The Moravian Bishop John F. Cammerhoff and David Zeisberger visited McKee's trading post on 13 January 1748. In his journal the bishop wrote:
At nine-o'clock we reached Thomas McKee's, the last white settlement on the river, below Shamokin. McKee holds a captain's commission under the government; is an extensive Indian Trader; bears a good name among them; and drives a brisk trade with the Allegheny country. His wife, who was brought up among the Indians, speaks but little English. They received us with much kindness and hospitality.[2]
In August 1736, Chief Allumapees (Sassoonan) visited Philadelphia and reported that "some of the Six Nations had been lately at Shamokin and had enquired kindly touching their Brethren there, towards whom they shewed much Love and Friendship."[12] On 18 September, The Pennsylvania Provincial Council was informed by Conrad Weiser that "there was a large number of those People with many of their Chiefs arrived at Shamokin, on Sasquehanna." This was a diplomatic visit intended to confirm the dominance of the Iroquois Confederacy over the Delaware. In October over a hundred of these Iroquois met with Pennsylvania authorities at Stenton, James Logan's country home in Logan, Philadelphia, to affirm friendship and to encourage trade. The Delawares were major suppliers of furs and skins as part of the growing fur trade in Pennsylvania.[12]
The Oneida chief Shikellamy moved to Shamokin in 1737, where he served as a representative of the Iroquois, supervising Lenape affairs. He was visited there in March of that year by Conrad Weiser.[13] Shikellamy was there when Sassoonan died at Shamokin in 1747. Shikellamy died at Shamokin on 6 December 1748, after which a faction of Delawares left and founded Tioga, Pennsylvania.[6] Chief Shingas may have been born at Shamokin.
Count Nicolaus von Zinzendorf visited Shamokin together with Conrad Weiser and Anna Nitschmann in September, 1742, and met there with Shikellamy.[5] The Count believed that Shikellamy, who had converted to Christianity, could serve as a vital agent of change in converting all Indians to Christianity. Shikellamy permitted the Moravians to establish a mission at Shamokin, and he served as an emissary between the Moravians and Madame Montour's village of Otstonwakin at the mouth of Loyalsock Creek and French Margaret's village at the mouth of Lycoming Creek. Shikellamy permitted the Moravians to stay in his home, lent them horses for work, and helped them build their homes. He formally converted to Christianity in November 1748 at the Moravian city of Bethlehem. On his return journey Shikellamy became ill and died in Shamokin on December 6, 1748.[5]
After a series of violent conflicts between Indians and white settlers, Meshemethequater, Sassoonan and other chiefs from the Six Nations (including Shikellamy), the Tuscaroras, and the Lenape met with Conrad Weiser and Andrew Montour at Shamokin on 4 February 1743, and received wampum from Weiser, who was trying to persuade the Shawnees not to attack English traders living on the Allegheny, to prevent war from erupting. Ultimately, the negotiations were successful.[14]
John Bartram and Lewis Evans visited Shamokin in July, 1743. Bartram wrote in his journal:
July 8: We crossed the creek and rode along a rich bottom near the river for two miles...beyond which, two miles good oak land brought us to the town of Shamokin. It contains eight cabbins near the river's bank...It is by means of this neighborhood that we may reasonably hope...that a very beneficial trade may be extended...I quartered in a trader's cabbin, and about midnight the Indians came and called up him and his squaw...She sold the Indians rum, with which being quickly intoxicated, men and women began first to sing and then dance around the fire; then the women would run out to other cabbins and soon return, leaving the men singing and dancing the war dance, which continued all the next day...As soon as we alighted they shewed us where to lay our baggage, and then brought us a bowl of boiled squashes cold...I had learnt not to despise good Indian food.July 9: After breakfast Lewis Evans and myself went to the point of the mountain...and having taken a pleasant view of the mountains and of the charming plain of Shamokin, 2 miles long and above one broad, skirted on the west and north by the river, and encompassed east and partly south with lofty hills...we returned to the town and dined.July 10: We departed [from Shamokin] in the morning, with Shickcalamy and his son, he being the chief man in the town, which consisted of Delaware Indians...Our journey now lay through very rich bottoms to a creek, six miles from Shamokin, a great extent of fruitful low ground still continuing. Here we found a fine meadow of grass on our right, and rich dry ground on the left...peach-trees, plumbs, and excellent grapes.[15]
In May, 1744 Conrad Weiser was sent to Shamokin to investigate the murder of Jack Armstrong, a trader, and two of his servants, after a dispute over a horse.[16] Weiser interviewed Shikellamy and Allumapees and learned that a Lenape Indian named Mussemeelin owed Armstrong a debt, and in late 1743 Armstrong had taken Mussemeelin's horse as payment. Mussemeelin later paid Armstrong 20 shillings to settle the debt, but Armstrong refused to return the horse. Mussemeelin and two of his friends later found Armstrong and his servants clearing a road on the Juniata River and killed them. Afterwards, Mussemeelin's friends told others in the village about the murder, and eventually they were arrested and made to confess. Weiser arrived on 2 May 1744 and heard the confession. Goods that were taken from Armstrong were returned to his brother Alexander, and Mussemeelin and one of the two accomplices were handed over to Weiser, to stand trial in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The second accomplice was arrested, but the Indians allowed him to escape.[12] The site of Jack Armstrong's murder, in a gorge on the Juniata River, was afterwards known as Jacks Narrows, and the ridge nearby is still known as Jacks Mountain.[2]
In September Weiser and eight other men built a house at Shamokin for Shikellamy, which he described in a 29 September letter to James Logan:
The day before yesterday I came back from Shohomokin, where I have been with eight young men of my country people, whom Shickalemy hired to build a locke house for him, and I went with them to direct them. We finished the house in 17 days; it is 49 1/2 foot long and 17 1/2 wide, and covered with singels.[17]
The designation of "locke house" may indicate either that this was intended as a storehouse that could be locked, or possibly a jail.
In June, 1745, Bishop August Gottlieb Spangenberg, Weiser and Zeisberger visited Shamokin where they met with Shikellamy and the elderly chief Sassoonan: "[Spangenberg] and Conrad crossed the river to visit the Indian King