Test Bank for General Chemistry Atoms First 2nd Edition by McMurry Fay ISBN

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General Chemistry: Atoms First, 2e (McMurry and Fay)

Chapter 2 Periodicity and the Electronic Structure of Atoms

2.1 Multiple Choice Questions

1) Arrange the following spectral regions in order of increasing wavelength:

infrared, microwave, ultraviolet, visible.
A) microwave < infrared < visible < ultraviolet
B) microwave < visible < infrared < ultraviolet
C) ultraviolet < infrared < visible < microwave
D) ultraviolet < visible < infrared < microwave
Answer: D
Diff: 1
Topic: Section 2.1 The Nature of Radiant Energy and the Electromagnetic Spectrum
2) The greater the energy of a photon, the
A) longer the wavelength and the higher the frequency.
B) longer the wavelength and the lower the frequency.
C) shorter the wavelength and the higher the frequency.
D) shorter the wavelength and the lower the frequency.
Answer: C
Diff: 1
Topic: Section 2.1 The Nature of Radiant Energy and the Electromagnetic Spectrum
3) Arrange the following spectral regions in order of increasing energy:
infrared, microwave, ultraviolet, visible.
A) microwave < infrared < visible < ultraviolet
B) microwave < visible < infrared < ultraviolet
C) ultraviolet < infrared < visible < microwave
D) ultraviolet < visible < infrared < microwave
Answer: A
Diff: 1
Topic: Section 2.1 The Nature of Radiant Energy and the Electromagnetic Spectrum
4) What is the frequency of a helium-neon laser light with a wavelength of 632.8 nm? The speed
of light is 3.00 × 108 m/s.
A) 4.74 × 1014 s-1
B) 4.74 × 105 s-1
C) 2.11 × 10-15 s-1
D) 1.58 × 10-15 s-1
Answer: A
Diff: 2
Topic: Section 2.1 The Nature of Radiant Energy and the Electromagnetic Spectrum

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5) According to the Balmer-Rydberg equation, electromagnetic radiation with the shortest
wavelength will be emitted when an electron undergoes which of the following transitions?
A) m = 1 → n = 2
B) m = 2 → n = 3
C) n = 2 → m = 1
D) n = 3 → m = 2
Answer: C
Diff: 2
Topic: Section 2.2 The Interaction of Radiant Energy with Atoms: Balmer's Equation

6) According to the Balmer-Rydberg equation, electromagnetic radiation with wavelength λ =

486.1 nm will be absorbed when an electron undergoes which of the following transitions?
A) m = 2 → n = 3
B) m = 2 → n = 4
C) n = 3 → m = 2
D) n = 4 → m = 2
Answer: B
Diff: 3
Topic: Section 2.2 The Interaction of Radiant Energy with Atoms: Balmer's Equation

7) A person is most likely to experience serious biological effects when exposed to which of the
following forms of electromagnetic radiation?
A) microwaves
B) infrared
C) ultraviolet
D) x rays
Answer: D
Diff: 4
Topic: Section 2.3 Particlelike Properties of Radiant Energy: The Photoelectric Effect and
Planck's Postulate

8) The work function of iron metal is 451 kJ/mol. What is the maximum wavelength of light that
can be used to eject electrons from iron?
A) 3.39 × m
B) 5.42 × m
C) 6.36 × m
D) 2.65 × m
Answer: D
Diff: 3
Topic: Section 2.3 Particlelike Properties of Radiant Energy: The Photoelectric Effect and
Planck's Postulate

2
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
9) The work function of copper metal is 437 kJ/mol. What is the maximum wavelength of light
that can be used to eject electrons from copper?
A) 2.65 × m
B) 2.74 × m
C) 6.36 × m
D) 5.42 × m
Answer: B
Diff: 3
Topic: Section 2.3 Particlelike Properties of Radiant Energy: The Photoelectric Effect and
Planck's Postulate

10) What is a quantum of light called?

A) the amplitude
B) the frequency
C) a photon
D) the wavelength
Answer: C
Diff: 1
Topic: Section 2.3 Particlelike Properties of Radiant Energy: The Photoelectric Effect and
Planck's Postulate

11) A quantized variable

A) can be continuously varied.
B) can only assume certain values.
C) consists of photons.
D) is extremely small.
Answer: B
Diff: 1
Topic: Section 2.3 Particlelike Properties of Radiant Energy: The Photoelectric Effect and
Planck's Postulate

12) Which of the following is not quantized?

A) the charge on a monatomic ion
B) the distance between two objects
C) the population of the United States
D) the static charge on a balloon rubbed with wool
Answer: B
Diff: 3
Topic: Section 2.3 Particlelike Properties of Radiant Energy: The Photoelectric Effect and
Planck's Postulate

3
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
13) Of the following, which has the shortest de Broglie wavelength?
A) an airplane moving at a velocity of 300 mph
B) a helium nucleus moving at a velocity of 1000 mph
C) a nitrogen molecule moving at a velocity of 1000 mph
D) a nitrogen molecule moving at a velocity of 5000 mph
Answer: A
Diff: 3
Topic: Section 2.4 Wavelike Properties of Matter: de Broglie's Hypothesis

14) What is the de Broglie wavelength of an electron (m = 9.11 × 10-31 kg) moving at a velocity
of 3.0 × 107 m/s (10% of the speed of light)?
A) less than 3.9 × 10-12 m
B) 2.4 × 10-11 m
C) 3.3 × 10-8 m
D) greater than 1.1 × 10-4 m
Answer: B
Diff: 3
Topic: Section 2.4 Wavelike Properties of Matter: de Broglie's Hypothesis

15) An old copper penny has a mass 3 × 1022 times that of a copper atom. Compare the de
Broglie wavelength of a penny moving at 0.5 m/s to that of a copper atom moving 104 times as
fast. The wavelength for the
A) copper atom is 3 × 1018 times that of the penny.
B) copper atom is 3 × 1026 times that of the penny.
C) penny is 3 × 1018 times that of the copper atom.
D) penny is 3 × 1026 times that of the copper atom.
Answer: A
Diff: 4
Topic: Section 2.4 Wavelike Properties of Matter: de Broglie's Hypothesis

16) What is the de Broglie wavelength of a 300-g object moving at a velocity of 50 m/s (about
100 mph)?
A) 4 × 10-38 m
B) 4 × 10-35 m
C) 4 × 109 m
D) 4 × 1012 m
Answer: B
Diff: 3
Topic: Section 2.4 Wavelike Properties of Matter: de Broglie's Hypothesis

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Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
17) The wave characteristics of a large, moving object, such as an automobile, are difficult to
observe because the
A) energy is not quantized.
B) energy is quantized, but the spacing between energy levels is small.
C) wavelength is very large.
D) wavelength is very small.
Answer: D
Diff: 2
Topic: Section 2.4 Wavelike Properties of Matter: de Broglie's Hypothesis

18) Which of the following is not true?

A) All moving objects have wave characteristics.
B) For objects moving at a given speed, the larger the mass, the shorter the wavelength.
C) The de Broglie relation and the Heisenberg uncertainty principle apply only to small particles.
D) The Heisenberg uncertainty principle is an inequality.
Answer: C
Diff: 2
Topic: Section 2.5 The Quantum Mechanical Model of the Atom: Heisenberg's Uncertainty
Principle

19) According to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle,

A) the position of a particle cannot be measured precisely.
B) the momentum of a particle cannot be measured precisely.
C) neither the position nor the momentum of a particle can be measured precisely.
D) the position and momentum of a particle can be measured precisely, but not at the same time.
Answer: D
Diff: 1
Topic: Section 2.5 The Quantum Mechanical Model of the Atom: Heisenberg's Uncertainty
Principle

20) A baseball with a mass of 150 g is moving at a velocity of 40 m/s (90 mph). If the
uncertainity in the velocity is 0.1 m/s, the uncertainty in position
A) may be zero.
B) must be less than or equal to 4 × 10-33 m.
C) must be 4 × 10-33 m.
D) must be greater than or equal to 4 × 10-33 m.
Answer: D
Diff: 3
Topic: Section 2.5 The Quantum Mechanical Model of the Atom: Heisenberg's Uncertainty
Principle

5
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 “Sawdust War” in Williamsport Lumber
Regions Began July 10, 1872

n the decade from 1870 to 1880, Williamsport was the largest

lumbering center in the United States. Everywhere
Williamsport was known as “The Lumber City.”
It was customary to send gangs into the woods in winter to
cut down the trees, saw them into logs and pile them on the
banks of small streams and afterward, when the water was at
flood height in the spring, to roll them into the streams whence they
floated down the river to Williamsport, where they were caught in the
big boom and rafted to the various mills to be sawed and manufactured
into lumber.
After the men were through their work in the woods it was customary
to bring them to Williamsport and place them in the mills to help saw up
the logs. As the season was short and it was important to clean up the
work of sawing before the next winter, the mills operated twelve hours a
day.
The “sawdust war,” as it was called, was a strike on the part of the
workmen in the mills for a ten-hour day instead of twelve. There was no
question of wages involved, and the principal advocates for the change
were men who were not employed in the lumber industry, but were
simply labor agitators.
The move for the ten-hour day began in June, 1872, and was
characterized by frequent public meetings at which the speakers urged
the men to go on strike. This finally culminated in a large number of men
walking out, July 1, 1872, and adopting as their slogan, “ten-hour day or
no sawdust.”
The strike reached to Lock Haven, where the men followed the lead of
their Williamsport fellow-workmen.
Many of the mills were compelled to shut down on account of a
depleted force until July 10, when an attempt was made to start up the
mills, but without success. This precipitated the “Sawdust War.”
Parades and marches were held every day, the strikers going to the
several mills and endeavoring to induce the workers still on the job to
quit. Meetings were held every night. Thomas H. Greevy, by reason of
being secretary of the local union and secretary of the State Labor
Organization, was a prominent figure and always addressed these
meetings.
After the strike had been in progress for a few weeks some of the men
were induced to go back to work, but others, who were not willing to
return, interfered, when a number of breaches of the peace took place.
The marches to the mills finally resulted in assaults being made upon
the loyal workmen, and several attacks were made on mill owners on the
streets of the city. These assaults finally became so frequent and so
serious that Mayor S. W. Starkweather and Samuel Van Buskirk, sheriff
of the county, called upon Governor John W. Geary for militia to be sent
to Williamsport.
This request was complied with, and on July 22 troops were ordered to
the city. They arrived the next day, July 23, and consisted of the
following units: City Grays, Harrisburg, Captain Thomas Maloney; City
Zouaves, Harrisburg, Captain Robert V. Vaughn; Middletown Zouaves,
Middletown, Captain James Stanley; Washington Zouaves, Lebanon,
Captain B. Y. Hean; Coleman Guards, Lebanon, Captain J. P. S. Gobin;
City Grays, Williamsport, Captain A. H. Stead; Taylor Guards,
Williamsport, Captain John H. White.
Williamsport was placed under martial law. On the same day, July 23,
Thomas H. Greevy, James M. Birmingham, A. J. Whitten, Thomas F.
Blake, Henry Crook and Alem Tate were arrested on charge of inciting to
riot and at a hearing on July 25, before the City Recorder, were held in
$10,000 bail for their appearance at the September term of court. Bail
was promptly furnished, but an hour later Greevy was rearrested and
$15,000 additional bail demanded. As other charges were pending, the
men were taken to jail to await trial. On July 27 motion was made for a
writ of habeas corpus and reduction of the amount of bail, which, on July
29, was refused by the court.
Subsequent arrests were made on the same charge and all held for the
next term of court, but those above mentioned were the principals. On
July 31 all defendants were released on bail.
On July 25 the troops on duty in the city went into camp at Herdic
Park under command of Brigadier General Jesse Merrill, of Lock Haven.
On July 27 the troops were reinforced by the Packer Guards, Sunbury;
Sanderson Guards, Mill Hall; Langlon Fencibles, Shamokin. On July 30
five companies on duty were relieved and sent home. The others were
relieved a few days later.
At the September term of court for Lycoming County, on September 7,
all the twenty-nine defendants were brought to trial before Judge James
Gamble. James M. Birmingham, Thomas H. Greevy, A. J. Whitten,
Thomas H. Blake, Patrick Conlin, Jacob Wolf, Timothy Shannon, Jr.,
Henry Crook, Patrick Dugan, Louis Plant, Michael Eustice, John
Benway, William Iam, Daniel McMullen, David Deauchamp, Thomas
Hackett, Joseph Ludget, James Spulong, James Sladen, John Bezel and
Joseph Shear were found guilty and sentenced to jail for periods of thirty,
sixty and ninety days, pay a fine of one dollar and the costs of
prosecution, except James M. Birmingham, A. J. Whitten, Thomas H.
Greevy and Thomas F. Blake, who, because they were outsiders and in
no way connected with the lumber industry, were sentenced to one year
in the penitentiary and costs of the prosecution.
They were sentenced on September 14; and on September 16 Peter
Herdic who was then one of the leading and most influential men in the
State, went to Harrisburg and induced Governor Geary to pardon them
all.
The parties soon after left Williamsport, and except for two of them,
all other records are lost. James M. Birmingham became a prominent
citizen of Kansas City, Mo., as did his son. Thomas H. Greevy removed
to Altoona, and became a prominent citizen of the State.
Greevy was engaged in journalism and edited the Labor Reform
Journal of Williamsport. He also held important offices in the local and
State organizations.
The first labor convention in Pennsylvania was held at Danville, in
1871, and Greevy was elected secretary, a position he held at the time of
the Sawdust War. John Siney, of Schuylkill County, was State president.
After taking up his residence in Altoona, Mr. Greevy studied law, was
admitted to the bar and since has become one of the leading attorneys of
the State. He is a prominent adviser of the Democratic State Committee,
and was a candidate for Lieutenant Governor. In every walk of life he is
one of the leading citizens of the country.

Moravians Visit Indian Town of Great

Island, July 11, 1748
 reat Island, situated on the West Branch of the Susquehanna
River, a short distance east of Lock Haven and opposite the
mouth of Bald Eagle Creek, was a favorite camping place and
council grounds for the Indians. An Indian village was
situated on this island, which is frequently mentioned in the
early records of the Province.
In the year 1745 David Brainerd, a missionary stationed at Shamokin,
tells in his journal of a journey which he took up the West Branch. In this
he speaks of extending his journey to Great Island and of the sufferings
he endured.
In the summer of 1748 David Zeisberger and John Martin Mack made
a missionary trip up the West Branch for the purpose of visiting the
Indians, who were undergoing terrible hardships as a result of a famine.
On July 11, 1748, two days after their start from Shamokin, we find the
following entry in Mack’s journal:
“July 11. Toward evening reached Great Island and found Indians at
home residing on this side of the island. They asked us whence we came
and whether we had ought to sell. When told that we were not traders,
but had only come to visit them, it was incomprehensible to them. But a
few old squaws were living on the island; the men had been driven away
by famine. We consequently remained on this side of the island and
asked an Indian whether we could lodge in his hut. He took us in
cordially and spread a bear skin for us to sleep on, but he had nothing for
us to eat. Ascertained that he was a Five Nation Indian and his wife a
Shawnese. Whereupon Brother Zeisberger conversed with him. His
father, who is upward of seventy years, was dying of smallpox and was a
most pitiful object. His care and that of the Indians here enlisted our
sympathies and silent prayers.
“In the evening we were visited by a number of Indians—Shawnese
and Cayugas. Here dwell in three houses Shawnese, Maquas and
Delaware; among the latter an Indian from Albany, who spoke Low
Dutch. In all three houses were cases of smallpox. In one hut hung a
kettle in which grass was being stewed, which they ate with avidity.
“July 12. Brother Zeisberger learned from our host that many Indians
passed and repassed his hut. Today he brought out some dried venison
and gave us some, and we in turn gave his child some of our bread, for
which they were very thankful.
“In the afternoon told our host we desired to visit the island to see the
Indians there, and he, unasked, went with us, and led us to all the huts.
 “We found some clever people here who had just returned from the
woods and who shared with us grapes, green and hard, which they ate
with avidity. We prayed silently to the Lord to have mercy on this
people.
“Returned to our lodgings, and our host again asked us why we had
come so far and had we not come in search of land? He said there was
fine land in the neighborhood. We explained that was not our object.
“July 13. We found an opportunity to speak to our host of the Saviour.
He had heard somewhat of God, and said he believed what we had told
him was good and true. He then gave us some dried venison and we in
turn some needles and thread to his wife.
“Set out on our return down the Susquehanna. At night camped on a
large flat by a creek, ate some mouldy bread, the last of our stock and
built four fires to keep off the vermin.”
In the year 1758 Christian Frederic Post, another Moravian
missionary, was sent by the Government of Pennsylvania to the
Delaware, Shawnee and Mingo Indians settled on the Ohio. In his
journal under the date of July 29 we find the following entry:
“29th. We crossed the Susquehanna over the Big Island. My
companions were now very fearful and this night went a great way out of
the road, to sleep without fire, but could not sleep on account of the
mosquitoes and vermin.”
On his return from his mission under the date of September 18, he
records:
“Came to the Big Island, where having nothing to live on, we were
obliged to stay and hunt.
“19th. We met twenty warriors, who were returning from the
habitations with five prisoners and one scalp; six of them were Delaware
and the rest Mingo. We sat down all in one ring together. I informed
them where I had been and what was done; they asked me to go back a
little and so I did, and slept all night with them. I informed them of the
particulars of the peace proposed; they said if they had known so much
before they would not have gone to war. They killed two deer and gave
us one.”
Post’s mission had been undertaken with the object of making peace
with the Indians, for, following Braddock’s disastrous campaign against
Fort Duquesne, the Indians had attacked the settlements, and the entire
West Branch Valley as far down as Sunbury was in complete control of
the French and their Indian allies.
 In 1755 Andrew Montour, who had been employed on various
occasions as interpreter for the province, and who at this time was
captain of a company of Indians in the English service, following an
attack upon settlers on Penn’s Creek, in which a number of the settlers
were killed, was summoned to the Great Island by the friendly Delaware
living there. Here he was informed that the French had made overtures to
the Indians to go on the war path against the English settlers in
Pennsylvania.
In November these Indians also sent word that two messengers had
come from Ohio to Great Island; and seeing an Englishman who
happened to be there at the time, said “Kill him.” “No,” said the Indians
of the Great Island, “we will not kill him nor suffer him to be killed. We
have lived in peace many years with the English; if you are so
bloodthirsty go somewhere else for blood. We will have no blood spilt
here.”
At this period as well as at the time of Post’s mission, three years later,
Great Island was being visited by both French and English in their
desires to secure the Indians as their allies. It was at this period also that
the Governor of the Province of Pennsylvania issued a proclamation
which encouraged the whites to scalp the Indians by the offer of a bounty
for every Indian scalp brought in.
 Riots in Philadelphia Caused by Boy
Assaulting Master, July 12, 1835

eelings of animosity against people of color had been

manifested in Philadelphia for several years, and were again
brought forth conspicuously through a most unfortunate
circumstance July 12, 1835.
Robert E. Stewart, a prominent citizen of Philadelphia, who
had been United States Consul to Trinidad, resided on the east
side of Sixth Street, between Prune and Walnut.
He had in his service an African boy, called Juan, who was a native of
the Eboe nation, the representatives of which bore the character of being
vindictive, revengeful and easily moved to anger. Juan had been brought
to the United States from the West Indies by Mr. Stewart.
For some reason not known Juan determined to take the life of his
master. The attack was made upon Mr. Stewart while he was sleeping in
the afternoon in his chamber. The butt end of a hatchet was used in a
shocking manner upon his head. He was frightfully mutilated and
injured, and it was supposed that he could never recover. He died several
years afterward.
The brutal attack upon Stewart was made July 12. A statement of the
circumstances in the newspapers of the next day created intense
excitement, and soon as the story was read crowds began to assemble,
and by evening a large crowd had gathered in the neighborhood of Sixth
and Locust Streets.
By this time the city authorities had learned something from the events
of former years, when the racial hatred had caused many fatal clashes,
and a large body of watchmen and police were dispatched to that section
of the city.
Crowds began to join those already in that neighborhood, and they
were made up of men and half-grown boys, usually in an angry mood.
The citizens soon dispersed about the neighborhood, talking together, in
small groups.
 The presence of the police rendered any outburst impossible so they
carried their destructive propensities into an adjoining district, and there
commenced an attack upon houses occupied by colored people in Small
Street between Sixth and Seventh. The inmates were beaten and put to
flight, and their furniture destroyed.
From that place their ravages were resumed upon the colored residents
in Seventh and Shippen Streets. Thence the destruction was transferred
to “Red Row”—a block of eight houses on Eighth Street below Shippen.
The mob here made a discrimination. All the young colored men who
could be found were brutally assaulted, because the colored youth were
generally saucy and impudent, but the old men and women of color were
not molested or in any manner injured.
During the proceedings “Red Row” was set on fire and all the houses
destroyed. The mob had now become so infuriated that they were
unrestrained even by the presence of police, and from the burning homes
in “Red Row” they proceeded to Christian and Ninth Streets, where
several brick and frame houses occupied by colored people were
attacked.
Several of those houses were defended by the owners, and others who
had sought refuge in them. Several shots were fired from behind doors
and windows, and two persons in the mob were wounded. By the time
the houses were finally entered the residents had escaped.
The houses in flames in “Red Row” had brought the firemen to the
scene, but when they set up their apparatus, they were opposed by the
mob. The hose was cut and no water could be brought into play. The
firemen, however, fought their way and succeeded in saving from total
destruction all the houses, except the one in which the fire was started.
The mob became even more determined and attacked houses which had
been passed by at the beginning of the attack.
By these occurrences the colored people in the lower part of the city
were frightened to a degree of terror which had not affected them in
previous years.
On the day after this riot hundreds of families moved out of the
neighborhood, or, locking up their houses, sought refuge where they
could find it. Numbers of men, women and children bivouacked in the
woods and fields, and not a few fugitives were given shelter in barns and
outbuildings.
On Tuesday evening, July 14, crowds again began to assemble in the
vicinity of Sixth and South Streets, on the rumor that a house on St.
Mary Street was garrisoned by armed Negroes.
 The mob proceeded to this house and upon their arrival found that the
statement was true. Fifty or sixty colored men were in the building,
armed with knives, razors, bludgeons and pistols, besides a great stock of
bricks and paving stones, which were stored on the third floor, where
they could be hurled with effect upon an attacking party. These men were
desperate and were rendered savage by the occurrences of the two
previous days.
The city police force was promptly upon the scene and prepared to
prevent the assault intended to be made by the whites upon the house.
The police, at the same time, had the difficult task of getting the colored
men away from the building in safety. This they were able to do.
With this attack frustrated, the trouble was finally quieted and there
were no further racial disturbances.

Hannastown, Seat of Justice for Westmoreland

County, Burned by Indians
July 13, 1782

he county of Westmoreland was established by the Provincial

Assembly, February 26, 1773, and the courts directed to be
held at Hannastown. This was the first place west of the
Allegheny Mountains where justice was dispensed according
to the legal forms by the white man.
Hannastown contained about thirty habitations and a few
crude cabins. Most of the former were two stories high and built of hewn
logs. There was also a wooden court house, a jail and a stockade, both
built of logs.
Robert Hanna, the first presiding Judge, was a member of the family
from whom the town derived its name. Arthur St. Clair, afterward the
distinguished general in the Continental Army, was the first prothonotary
and clerk of the courts.
On the morning of July 13, 1782, a party of townsfolk went to
O'Connor’s fields, about a mile north of the village, to cut wheat. The
reapers had completed one field when one of their number reported that
he had seen a number of Indians approaching. Every one rushed for
town, each intent upon his own safety, each seeking his own wife and
children, to hurry them into the stockade.
After a period of frightful suspense, it was agreed that some one
should reconnoiter and relieve the balance from uncertainty. David
Shaw, James Brison and two other young men, armed with rifles, started
on foot through the highlands between the fort and Crabtree Creek,
pursuing a direct course toward O'Conner’s fields.
An officer who had been on duty in the town pursued a more
circuitous route on horseback, and no sooner arrived at the fields than he
beheld the whole force of the savages there assembled. He turned his
horse to escape, but was followed. He met the four others who were on
foot and warned them to fly for their lives.
The four young men were hotly pursued by the Indians, who did not
fire upon them, for they expected to take the inhabitants by a surprise
attack. Shaw rushed into the town to learn if his kindred had gone into
the fort. As he reached his father’s threshold he saw all within desolate
and, as he turned, discovered the savages rushing toward him with their
brandished tomahawks, and yelling the fearful warwhoop. He counted
upon making one give the death halloo, and raising his rifle, the bullet
sped true, for the savage at whom he aimed bounded in the air and fell
dead. Shaw then darted for the fort, which he reached in safety.
The Indians were exasperated when they found the village deserted,
pillaged the houses and then set them on fire.
An Indian who had donned a military coat of one of the inhabitants
and paraded himself in the open was shot down. Except this one and the
Indian killed by Shaw, it is not believed any others were killed.
Only fourteen or fifteen rifles were in the fort, and but few of the men
of military experience, as a company had been recruited there but a short
time before and marched away with Lochry’s ill-fated campaign, leaving
not more than a score of men in the village. A maiden, Janet Shaw, and a
child were killed in the fort.
Soon after the Indians had set fire to the buildings of the village some
of them were observed to break away from the main body and go
towards Miller’s Station.
Unfortunately there had been a wedding at that place the day before
and many guests were still at the scene of the festivities. Among them
was John Brownlee, known along the frontier for his courage in scouting
against the savage marauder. The bridal party was in the midst of their
happy games, when, like a lightning flash, came the dreaded warwhoop.
 Those in the cabins and the men in the fields made their escape. In the
house, where all was merriment, the scene was instantly changed by the
cries of women and children mingled with the yell of the savage. Few
escaped.
Among those who got away are two incidents of intense interest. A
man was carrying his child and assisting his aged mother in the flight,
the savages were gaining on them, the son and father put down and
abandoned the child, the better to assist his mother. The next morning the
father returned to his cabin and found his little innocent curled up in his
bed, sound asleep, the only human thing left amidst the desolation.
The other incident occurred when a powerful young man grasped a
child, who stood near him and made his escape, reaching a rye field and
taking advantage of some large bushes, he mounted a fence and leaped
far into the tall rye, where he lay down with the child. He heard the quick
tread of the savages as they rushed by and their slower steps as they
returned, voicing their disappointment.
The wedding party were made prisoners, including the bride and
groom, and several of the Miller family.
When the Indians were all assembled and the prisoners secured, the
latter were loaded with plunder and the march commenced. They had
proceeded less than a mile when one of the Indians recognized Brownlee
and communicated it to the others. As he stooped to readjust the child on
his back, who he carried in addition to the luggage they had put on him,
an Indian buried a tomahawk in his head. When he fell the child was
killed by the same Indian.
One woman screamed at the sight of this butchery and the same
tomahawk ended her agony. These bodies were found next day and
decently buried.
At nightfall thirty men assembled and determined to give succor to
those in the fort. They armed themselves and hastened with great
caution, knowing that if the Indians intended to attack the fort at dawn
that they had retired to the low land at Crabtree Creek.
Fifty rifles were too few to attack 300 Indians and sixty white savages,
so they put in action strategy which won. They mounted all the horses
they had and trotted back and forth across a bridge of plank, near the
stockade, two drums and a fife completed the deception that re-
enforcements were arriving in great numbers. The ruse had the desired
effect. The cowardly Indians, fearing the retribution they deserved,
stealthily fled during the night.
 The prisoners were surrendered by the Indians to the British and taken
to Canada. After the peace eighty-three prisoners who survived were
freed and returned to their homes.

George Ross, Lawyer, Iron Manufacturer,

Soldier, Statesman, Patriot, Signer of
Declaration of Independence,
Died July 14, 1779

he Philadelphia Packet, July 15, 1779, contained this item:

“Yesterday died at his seat near this city, the Honorable
George Ross, Judge of Admiralty of this State.” He was
interred in the churchyard of Christ’s Church, Philadelphia,
the day following his death. The Supreme Executive Council
attended the obsequies in a body.
George Ross, the son of Reverend George Ross, minister of the
Established Church, and Catherine Van Gezel Ross, was born in New
Castle, Lower Counties, May 10, 1730. He was of excellent Scotch
stock, his family traced their descent from the Earls of Ross.
George received an excellent education, with special instruction in the
classics; studied law in Philadelphia, with his half brother, John, and was
admitted to the bar at Lancaster in 1750. He rose rapidly in his
profession, and was interested in the manufacture of iron, which he
continued to the time of his death.
Soon after settling at Lancaster, in 1751, he married Miss Anne
Lawlor.
He was made prosecutor for the Crown and took a deep interest in the
welfare of the growing town of Lancaster, which was soon recognized by
his neighbors and he was elected to the Assembly of Pennsylvania in
1768. From this time on his short life of forty-nine years was crowded
with civic and patriotic duties; while the State and Federal Governments
honored him with many positions of trust.
He immediately became a leader in the Assembly where he was a
most pronounced Whig. By successive elections he was continued in that
body until 1774, when he was a member of the Provincial Conference
and then a member of the first Continental Congress.
George Ross was one of a committee to whom was referred the
patriotic communication of the House of Burgesses of Virginia,
recommending a Congress of the colonies for the purpose of resisting
British arbitrary enactments, and in Congress he consistently furthered
those measures which finally led to American Independence.
In 1775, Governor John Penn having written a message disapproving
any protective measures on the part of the colonies, Mr. Ross drew up a
strong and convincing reply.
He was a true friend of the Indians, and served as one of the
Commissioners to Fort Pitt in 1776.
Mr. Ross was made a member of the Committee of Safety for
Pennsylvania; vice president of the Constitutional Convention of 1776;
colonel of the First Battalion of Associators for Lancaster County; and as
a fitting climax, he signed the Declaration of Independence.
During his service as a member of the Continental Congress he was
named on the committee with General George Washington and Robert
Morris to prepare a design for a new flag. It was through his suggestion
that the committee called on his niece, Betsy Ross, and with her help the
beautiful flag of the United States was designed and adopted.
Ill health forced Colonel Ross to resign from Congress and on leaving
office the citizens of Lancaster voted him a piece of silver to cost £150,
which he declined to receive.
After varied and valuable labors in the service of the colonies and of
Pennsylvania he was appointed a judge of the Court of Admiralty, as a
minute of the Supreme Executive Council for March 1, 1779, records the
following:
“Resolved, That the Honorable George Ross, Esquire, be
commissioned Judge of the Admiralty of this State, under the Act of
Assembly; that this Board highly approve the firmness and ability he has
hitherto shown in the discharge of his said office.”
During his incumbency, which lasted but a brief period, he was
regarded as learned and prompt, a happy combination.
Judge Ross probably knew the standing of every merchant in
Philadelphia.
His house in Lancaster stood on the site of the present Court House,
and his country home was a farm in what was then a suburb of Lancaster,
now a part of the city, called in his honor, Rossmere.
 He was interested in several iron furnaces, the most important of
which was the Mary Ann furnace of York County. This was the first blast
furnace west of the Susquehanna. His partners were George Stephenson,
one of the first lawyers in York County, and William Thompson, the
latter’s brother-in-law, later distinguished as a general in the Revolution.
George Ross also owned Spring Forge III, also in York County, and he
was a partner with George Taylor, of Easton, another signer of the
Declaration of Independence, in a furnace in New Jersey called
Bloomsbury Forge.
His half brother John Ross, was also much interested in the iron
business, and seems to have been a rather picturesque character. He was
an officer of the King, and Graydon says of him: “Mr. John Ross, who
loved ease and Madeira much better than liberty and strife, declared for
neutrality, saying, that let who would be king, he well knew that he
would be a subject.”
His health seems to have been poor for some time before his death as a
letter from Edward Burd to Jasper Yeates, July 16, 1779, says:
“Poor Mr. Ross is gone at last. I was one of his Carriers. He said he
was going to a cooler climate, and behaved in the same cheerful way at
his exit as he did all thro the different trying scenes of life.”
He was a Churchman by inheritance, and was vestryman and warden
of St. James’ Church, Lancaster, contributing liberally to its varied
interests. Genial, kind and considerate, his sense of humor evidently
lightened the cares of his strenuous life.
A memorial pillar was erected in 1897, on the site of his house in
Lancaster.

Provincial Convention Ends Proprietary

Government July 15, 1776

uring the debate in the Continental Congress upon the Declaration of

Independence, the old Provincial Government of Pennsylvania received
such a mortal blow, that it soon expired without a sigh, ending forever
the proprietary and royal authority in Pennsylvania.
 In the meantime the Committee of Correspondence for
Philadelphia issued a circular to all the county committees
calling for a conference in that city on June 18, 1776. This
conference unanimously resolved “that the present
Government of this Province is not competent to the
exigencies of our affairs, and that it is necessary that a
Provincial Convention be called by this Conference for the express
purpose of forming a new Government in this Province on the authority
of the people only.”
The delegates to this convention to frame a constitution for the
proposed new Government consisted of the representative men of the
Province. It is only natural that in time of excitement the men chosen for
such important duty should be those most active in the military
organizations, or local committeemen, men whose ability, patriotism and
personal popularity was unquestioned. It was to be expected that the old
statesmen would be crowded out unless they were leaders in the
revolutionary movement.
As such they met in Philadelphia, July 15, each taking without
hesitancy the prescribed test oath and then organized by the selection of
Benjamin Franklin, president; George Ross, of Lancaster, vice president,
and John Morris and Jacob Garrigues, secretaries.
On July 18, Owen Biddle, Colonel John Bull, the Reverend William
Vanhorn, John Jacobs, Colonel George Ross, Colonel James Smith,
Jonathan Hoge, Colonel Jacob Morgan, Colonel Jacob Stroud, Colonel
Thomas Smith and Robert Martin were appointed members of a
committee to “make an essay for a declaration of rights for this State.”
On July 24 the same persons were directed to draw up an essay for a
frame or system of Government, and John Lesher was appointed in place
of Colonel Morgan, who was absent with leave.
The same day the convention established a Council of Safety to
exercise authority of the Government until the new Constitution went
into effect. At the head of the Council was Thomas Wharton, Jr.
During the convention the delegates not only discussed and perfected
the measures for the adoption of a Constitution, but assumed the supreme
authority of the State, and legislated upon matters foreign to the object
for which it was convened. Not only did it form the Council of Safety,
but it approved of the Declaration of Independence, recently adopted by
the Continental Congress, and also it appointed justices of the peace,
who were required, before assuming their functions, to each take an oath
of renunciation from the authority of King George III, and one of
allegiance to the State of Pennsylvania.
July 25, Colonel Timothy Matlack, James Cannon, Colonel James
Potter, David Rittenhouse, Robert Whitehall and Colonel Bertram
Galbraith were added to the Committee on the Frame of Government.
The convention completed its labors on September 28, by adopting the
first State Constitution, which went into immediate effect, without a vote
of the people.
The Constitution as finally adopted vested all legislative power in the
General Assembly of the Representatives of the freemen to be composed
for three years of six persons annually chosen from the City of
Philadelphia and six from each county of the State including
Philadelphia, outside the city, afterwards the representation to be
apportioned every seven years to the number of taxable inhabitants.
Laws, except in sudden necessity, were not to be passed until the next
session after proposal. The executive power was vested in a Supreme
Executive Council of twelve elected members, one from the City of
Philadelphia, and one from each of the counties, including Philadelphia,
so chosen that one-third would retire each year and no member, after
serving three years, should be eligible within four years.
A president and vice president were to be annually chosen from this
body, by the joint ballot of the Councillors and Assemblymen. New
counties were each to have a councillor. The president and the Council,
five of whom constituted a quorum, were to appoint all Judges, the
Attorney General, etc.
The right to vote was given to all freemen over twenty-one years of
age who had resided within the State a year before the election and paid
taxes, but the sons, twenty-one years old, of Freeholders were not
required to pay taxes. The freemen and their sons should be trained and
armed for defense of the State under regulations and with exceptions
according to law, but with the right to choose their own colonels and
officers under that rank.
A debtor, except for fraud, should not be kept in prison, after giving
up his real and personal estate for the benefit of his creditors. A foreigner
having taken the oath of allegiance could purchase and transfer real
estate and after a year’s residence have all the rights of a natural-born
subject, but be ineligible as a member of Assembly until after two years’
residence.
A Council of Censors of two members chosen from each city and
county every seven years beginning with 1783 should inquire into the
violation of the Constitution and whether the legislative and executive
branches of the Government had exercised greater powers than they were
entitled to, and could impeach or, by a two-thirds vote of those elected,
call a convention to amend the Constitution.
Articles to be amended were to be published six months before
election, in order that the people might have opportunity of instructing
their delegates concerning them.

Gibson’s Lambs Start on Expedition for

Powder, July 16, 1776

owder has always been an essential product in every epoch of

the stirring history of our country. The situation was always
serious, but on the western side of the Allegheny Mountains
there were many times when the settlers were in desperate
situation on account of little or no powder.
In times of peace the powder used in these western counties
was purchased with furs, and every farmer had a quantity in his home for
both hunting and defense, but when the Revolution broke out the demand
was greater than the supply, and the Indian hostilities stopped the fur
trade.
Companies of rangers were organized and a patrol maintained along
the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers, so that the Indian marauders could be
detected and pursued. The work of the frontiersmen was of no use
without gunpowder, and in their desperation these hardy pioneers
planned an exploit to New Orleans, where they could purchase a quantity
from the Spanish Government.
The band of volunteers was under the leadership of Captain George
Gibson and Lieutenant William Linn. The former, the son of a Lancaster
tavern keeper, was a trapper and had gone to Pittsburgh with his brother
John, where they engaged in the fur trade. In his youth he had made
several voyages at sea and nearly all his life had traveled through the
Indian country. William Linn was from Maryland, a farmer and skilled
hunter. He had fought under Braddock and had been used as a scout
along the Monongahela River.
Captain Gibson selected fifteen of the hardiest and bravest of his
command. These came to be known as Gibson’s Lambs, on account of
their fearlessness. Flatboats were built in Pittsburgh and the expedition
started from that place Tuesday, July 16, 1776. A trip down the Ohio was
extremely dangerous, as all along the river and especially the lower part,
the Indians kept a constant watch.
The “Lambs” left behind them every evidence that they were soldiers.
They retained rifles, tomahawks and knives, but were clad in coarse
clothes resembling boatmen or traders. So clever was their disguise that
even when in Pittsburgh their errand remained a secret. The impression
was that they were venturing on a trading trip. The expedition
successfully passed the British posts at Natchez and reached New
Orleans in safety after five weeks on the water.
Louisiana was then a Spanish province, under the governorship of
Don Luis de Ungaza, to whom Captain Gibson bore letters of
commendation and credit, as well as to Oliver Pollock and other
American merchants, then resident in New Orleans. Pollock was a
wealthy Philadelphian and exercised great influence with the Spanish
authorities. He assisted in negotiating for the powder. Spain was at peace
with Great Britain, but willing to give secret aid to the Americans.
The British agents in New Orleans soon learned of the arrival of the
Gibson party and, sensing their mission, made complaint to the Spanish
authorities that rebels against the British Government were in the city.
Captain Gibson was arrested and lodged in a Spanish prison, where he
was treated with the greatest consideration. While he was confined,
Oliver Pollock obtained the powder and secreted it in his warehouse. The
purchase amounted to 12,000 pounds and cost $1800.
The powder was divided into two portions. Three thousand pounds of
it was packed in boxes, falsely marked as merchandise of various kinds,
and quietly conveyed to a sailing vessel bound for Philadelphia by way
of the gulf and ocean.
There was a coincidence in the fact that on the very night the ship
sailed Captain Gibson “escaped” from prison, got on board the vessel
and accompanied the precious powder to its destination.
The balance of the powder was turned over to Lieutenant Linn, as this
was to be used on the Western frontier. This was in half casks, each
containing about sixty pounds. These were smuggled during the night to
the barges which were tied up in a secluded place above the city.
 Lieutenant Linn hired a score of extra boatmen, mostly Americans,
and on September 22, 1776, the little flotilla made a fine getaway
without discovery and began its long journey up the Mississippi. The
work was hard and the trip took seven months.
At the falls of the Ohio it was necessary to unload the cargoes and
carry the heavy casks to the head of the rapids, when the barges were
dragged over the shallow stream and reladen. Several times the
expedition was forced to tie up by ice and many hardships were
experienced before the return of the spring weather.
May 2, 1777, the expedition reached the little settlement of Wheeling,
where Fort Henry had been erected. There Lieutenant Linn turned over
his precious cargo to David Shepherd, county lieutenant of the newly
erected Ohio County, Virginia.
Linn’s responsibility ended at Wheeling. County Lieutenant Shepherd
sent the powder to Fort Pitt, under heavy guard, where it was turned over
to Colonel William Crawford and safely stored in the brick magazine of
the fort. The safe arrival of this powder was the cause of great rejoicing
and nothing was too good for Lieutenant Linn and the fearless “Lambs.”
Virginia paid for the powder, but it was turned over for “the use of the
continent.” Portions were distributed to the frontier rangers and to the
two regiments then being mustered in Southern Pennsylvania for
continental service. It was from this powder that Colonel George Rogers
Clark drew his supply, in the spring of 1778, for his famous and
successful expedition to the Illinois country.
George Gibson was promoted to rank of lieutenant colonel in the
Virginia service and Lieutenant Linn was made a captain and placed in
command of the “Lambs.” To each of these officers the Virginia
Legislature made a grant of money in addition to their regular pay.
Both these brave men performed other acts of heroism during the
Revolution and both were killed by the Indians. Linn made a settlement
ten miles from Louisville. While riding alone, March 5, 1781, on his way
to attend court, he was surprised by a small party of Indians in the forest.
Next morning his mutilated body was found, with his horse standing
guard over it. Colonel Gibson was mortally wounded at St. Clair’s defeat
in Northwestern Ohio, November 4, 1791.
 Virginia Sends Captain John Neville to Command
Fort Pitt, July 17, 1775

y the original charter of Virginia the northern boundary of that

colony was supposed to be at the end of the fortieth degree,
which was as far north as Philadelphia. This charter was
dissolved in 1624, and instead of narrowing the limits of
Virginia it apparently increased them.
Virginia became a royal province without any definite
boundaries, and she considered herself as a keeper or trustee for the King
of England of all contiguous territory not lawfully granted to another
colony.
The Maryland grant to Lord Baltimore was taken out of the domain of
Virginia, and she acquiesced in it. But west of Maryland she insisted that
her ownership extended for an indefinite distance northward and
westward, and she had made it good by occupation as far north as
Pittsburgh.
This was certainly a broad claim of title, and the only remnant of it
now is that curious narrow strip of land, called the Pan-Handle, which
extends northward between Pennsylvania and Ohio for some distance
above the fortieth degree.
The Indian trade at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela
had always been an object of Virginia’s desire. In 1752 Virginia
determined to erect a fort there, and Pennsylvania was willing because
the fort would stop the advance of the French, their common enemy, but
she reminded Virginia that the land belonged to the Penns.
The French, in 1754, had seated themselves at Logstown, and the
Governor of Virginia began to construct a fort on the site of Pittsburgh,
but the French surprised the little garrison, captured the works, finished
it, and named it Fort Duquesne.
The French held the fort until English forces, under General John
Forbes, invested it November 25, 1758. It was abandoned in 1771.
Some time prior to 1756 Virginia erected the District of West Augusta,
covering the territory of Pennsylvania west of the Laurel Hills and south
of the Ohio and Allegheny Rivers, and in that year divided it into three
counties, viz: Monongalia, Yohogania and Ohio.
Pennsylvania also erected upon this disputed territory Bedford County,
in 1771, and Westmoreland County, in 1773 Penn’s Manor of Pittsburgh,
too, was surveyed for the proprietaries early in 1769, and in the
beginning of 1771 magistrates were appointed by Pennsylvania and for
some time discharged the duties of their offices without having their
authority questioned.
The new Governor of Virginia was John, Earl of Dunmore, or Lord
Dunmore, of whom Bancroft says: “No royal governor ever showed
more rapacity in the use of royal power.” He at once determined on
seizing control of the “Forks of the Ohio,” for Virginia and for himself.
He appointed Dr. John Connolly, a man of much energy and talent, but
without principle, to be “captain commandant of Pittsburgh and its
dependencies.”
Connolly arrived in Pittsburgh late in December, 1773, and early in
January, 1774, took possession of the dismantled fort, which he renamed,
calling it “Fort Dunmore,” required and commanded the people to
assemble themselves there as a militia.
He mustered the militia under Virginia law, intimidated the
Pennsylvania magistrates, marched some of them off to prison and
established the authority of Virginia throughout all the region between
the Monongahela and the Ohio.
While a large part of the inhabitants of that region were Virginians by
birth and predilection, there were some fearless and loyal Pennsylvania
adherents who did all in their power to resist Connolly’s high-handed
proceedings.
One of these, Arthur St. Clair (afterward General St. Clair), then
prothonotary of the new county of Westmoreland, issued a warrant
against Connolly and had him committed to jail at Hannastown, from
which he was soon released on giving bail for court appearance there.
Connolly returned to Virginia, was sworn in as a Justice of the Peace
for Augusta County, and when court met at Hannastown, he appeared
with his militia, armed and with colors flying, and refused to admit the
Pennsylvania magistrates. He arrested three of the magistrates and sent
them to Staunton, where they were confined in jail.
Subsequently, Simon Girty led a mob to Hannastown, stormed the jail
and released such prisoners as were Virginia partisans.
The Tory conduct of Connolly at Pittsburgh became so bold and
obnoxious that in June, 1775, he was seized by twenty men, under orders
of Captain St. Clair, and carried to Ligonier, with the intention of
delivering him to the Continental Government at Philadelphia. He was
released, however, and fled from Pittsburgh by night and made his way
 to Portsmouth, Virginia, where he joined Lord Dunmore on a man-of-
war, taking refuge in Canada.
Virginia had revolted from Dunmore’s tyranny at home, but showed
no disposition to repudiate his aggressions in Pennsylvania nor the
machinations of Connolly.
The boundary dispute was maintained, although, in view of the
troubles with the mother country fast approaching, the Virginia and
Pennsylvania delegates in Congress, including such men as Thomas
Jefferson, Patrick Henry and Benjamin Franklin, had united in a circular
urging the people in the disturbed region to mutual forbearance.
This action of Congress and the constant fear of an Indian uprising
persuaded the Virginia Provincial Convention, in session at
Williamsburg, July 17, 1775, to pass a resolution which sent Captain
John Neville with one hundred men from the Shenandoah Valley to take
possession of Fort Pitt.
The following year the Virginia counties in the disputed territory were
organized with their loyal and administrative machinery, but the rancor
of the contest had, however, somewhat diminished and there were no
such acts of violence committed as during the regime of Connolly and
his master.
Captain John Neville continued to command until the Continental
Congress determined to take Fort Pitt under its care and provide a
garrison at the continental expense. The offer was accepted by Virginia
and General Washington selected Brigadier General Edward Hand to
relieve Captain Neville of his command.

Susquehanna Company Organized in

Connecticut, July 18, 1753

arly charters granted to Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia and the

Carolinas made the Pacific Ocean the nominal western boundary of those
colonies. Prior occupancy by the Dutch and the settlement of the
boundaries had created an exception in favor of New York and New
Jersey, but all the country west of the Delaware River within the same
 parallel of latitude with Connecticut was still claimed by that
colony as part of her domain.
The southern boundary was to be a straight line beginning
at the mouth of Narragansett Bay. The line extended west
would have entered Pennsylvania near Stroudsburg and
crossed the North Branch of the Susquehanna at Bloomsburg,
the West Branch at Milton, and passing through Clearfield and
Newcastle would cut the State nearly through the middle. Penn’s charter
fixed the northern boundary of his province at the forty-second degree of
latitude. A large strip of territory was thus granted to both Connecticut
and Pennsylvania.
On July 18, 1753, about 250 men, mostly from Connecticut, met at
Windham, that State, and organized “The Susquehanna Company.” Then,
with the consent of the Connecticut Assembly, application was made to
the Crown for leave to plant a new colony west of the Delaware. It was
granted, and the company sent agents to the Indian treaty at Albany,
June, 1754, who succeeded in obtaining from representatives of the Six
Nations the cession of a tract of land on the northern branch of the
Susquehanna River, where eleven years before King Tedyuskung and his
tribe had built the town of Wyoming.
The Proprietaries of Pennsylvania protested against this purchase, and
claimed that this land was within the limits of their charter. They also
claimed that the purchase had not been made in open council, but had
been effected after making the Indians drunk.
As this council at Albany had been called to form a union of the
Colonies with the Six Nations as their allies against the French, the
purchase was not then seriously opposed. Besides, Pennsylvania bought
a large tract of land from the Six Nations at the same treaty, and in a way
not satisfactory to the Indians.
The French and Indian War prevented any attempt at settlement of the
Wyoming Valley until 1762, when about 200 colonists and their families
entered the valley and commenced building and planting near the site of
the present Wilkes-Barre. Before winter set in, extensive fields of wheat
had been sown upon lands covered with forest trees in August. But
owing to the scantiness of provisions, the settlers returned to Connecticut
for the winter.
About the same time another Connecticut association, called the
“Delaware Company,” had begun a settlement on the Delaware River.
Proclamations were issued and writs of ejectment were placed in the
hands of the Sheriff of Northampton County.
 Early in the month of May, 1763, the settlers returned, accompanied
by many others. Notwithstanding the remonstrances of Northampton
County, to which the Wyoming Valley then belonged, settlements were
made at Wilkes-Barre, Kingston, Plymouth and Hanover.
Several hundred acres were improved with corn and other grain, and a
large quantity of hay cut and gathered, and everything was moving
forward in a prosperous and happy manner when, without the least
warning, on October 15, the settlers were attacked while dispersed and
engaged in their work, and about twenty of them slain.
Men, women and children fled to the mountains, from which they saw
their homes plundered and burned and their cattle taken away. They
abandoned their settlement and made their way back to Connecticut or to
Orange County, New York. This is known in the history of Pennsylvania
as the first massacre of Wyoming. It was the work of the Delaware
Indians, led by Captain Bull, son of King Tedyuskung.
Some believe the Iroquois convinced the Delaware that the white
settlers had murdered Tedyuskung and that this massacre was committed
in retribution.
For six years after this assault no settlement was attempted. The
Indians, anticipating revenge for the massacre, left the valley.
Meanwhile the Penn family made every effort to prove that the title
given to the Susquehanna Company was not complete and that their
charter was valid. Finally some chiefs, assisted by Sir William Johnson,
openly disclaimed the sale to the Susquehanna Company. Then the Six
Nations assembled in council at Fort Stanwix and on November 5, 1768,
gave a deed of the disputed lands to the Penns.
Meanwhile Pennsylvanians took possession of the Wyoming Valley
and built a fortified trading house there. They laid out two manors, one
on each side of the river, and extending over the farms abandoned by the
New Englanders.
In February, 1769, the Susquehanna Company sent forty men into the
valley, to be followed shortly by 200 more. They were given land and
200 pounds Connecticut currency to provide themselves with farming
tools and weapons, on condition that they would stay in the valley and
defend it against Pennsylvania. They built a blockhouse called, from
their numbers, Forty Fort. Their leader was Colonel Zebulon Butler, a
hero of the French and Indian War, a brave partisan commander.
A civil war prevailed for some years known as the “Pennamite and
Yankee War.” Forts were constructed and many sieges and skirmishes
followed. Both parties led men to prison, drove women and children
away and committed other outrages.
The Connecticut men were generally successful in this strife. They
organized a separate State, but could not maintain it. So in 1774 they
attached themselves to Connecticut, as the town of Westmoreland, in the
County of Litchfield.
During the Revolution there was a lull in the strife in Wyoming.
However, as soon as the war ended the old feud broke out in all its
former fury.
Pennsylvania having, in 1779, succeeded the heirs of William Penn,
now appealed to Congress to settle the dispute. A commission met at
Trenton in 1782 and, after five weeks of deliberation, decided that
Connecticut had no right to the land, and that the jurisdiction of the same
belonged to Pennsylvania.

Tom Quick, the Indian Killer and Picturesque

Character, Born July 19, 1734

arly in the year 1733 a Hollander, named Thomas Quick, came

to the colony of New York, a few months later located on the
Delaware River, on what afterward became known as Upper
Smithfield, near where Milford, Pike County, now stands. He
appears to have been the pioneer settler on the Pennsylvania
side; here he cleared lands, erected a log cabin and barns, and
raised wheat and maize. A son was born July 19, 1734, named Thomas,
and he was familiarly known in after years as Tom Quick, the Indian
killer.
He was the pet of the household, and even the Indians who roamed
over that region frequently visited Quick’s place and much admired the
fine looking, stout lad, and often made him presents of plumes, feathers,
skins and other articles.
Tom grew up among these Indians, learned their language, and was
taught by them how to hunt wild animals, and fish after the manner of
the Indians. He grew fond of the Indian life, and became such an expert
hunter, trapper and fisherman, that his father could never induce him to
follow any other occupation. He even refused to attend school with his
sisters, and in fact became almost an Indian by nature.
In the meantime Thomas Quick, Sr., had become the prosperous
owner of a grist and saw mill on a small stream entering the Delaware
near Milford, called the Vandemark. But Tom, Jr., never became an
employe, but did learn much of the beautiful Minisink Valley, with its
high cliffs on the Pennsylvania side and receding hills on the New Jersey
side, as it extends from Port Jervis to the Delaware Water Gap. The
romantic water falls and rocky glens were his hunting and fishing
grounds. This knowledge afterward served his purpose in waylaying and
murdering Indians.
The Delaware Indians viewed with alarm the steady encroachments of
the whites, and many had already taken up arms against the English. The
Quick family, however, had always lived on friendly terms with them,
but the Indians were not unmindful of the fact that this sturdy Hollander
had been the very first to push that far into their favorite hunting
grounds.
The prospect of plundering an opulent man like Quick overcame any
feelings of gratitude that might linger in the savage breast.
When the French and Indian War commenced, the Quicks were uneasy
and their alarm increased as the Indians grew less sociable, and finally
withdrew altogether from the Delaware River.
Quiet reigned until the Quicks became careless and one day the father
crossed the river to grind grist, accompanied by Tom and his brother-in-
law, all unarmed. As they rounded a point near the river they were fired
upon from ambush, and the old man fell mortally wounded.
The young men endeavored to carry him across the frozen river but as
they stepped on the ice they were fired on and Tom was hit in the foot.
They soon got out of danger, but not before they saw the savages take
Tom Quick’s scalp.
Young Tom was frantic with rage and grief, and that moment swore
that he would never make peace with the Indians as long as one
remained upon the banks of the river.
From this time forth the demon of unrelenting savage hatred entered
Tom’s heart and he became more like the savages he pursued than like a
civilized man. He never entered the army but took Indians at all times,
whether in peace or war, and without regard to age or sex.
He seems to have operated about the close of the Indian War, at a time
when they began to again visit their former haunts, supposing they would
be well received.
Among the Indians who returned was a drunken vagabond named
Muskwink, one who had assisted in murdering Tom’s father.
Tom met Muskwink at Decker’s Tavern, on the Neversink, where he
had become very bold and abusive, claiming Tom’s acquaintance and
desiring him to drink with him. Tom refused and cursed him, which
caused a heated exchange of words, during which Muskwink boasted of
the part he played in the murder of Tom Quick, Sr. He bragged that he
scalped him with his own hands, and at the same time mimicked the
grimaces of the dying man, to corroborate his assertion, exhibited the
sleeve buttons worn by his victim at the time.
Tom seized a musket, which was hanging in the bar room, and ordered
Muskwink to leave the place. He arose slowly and departed, pursued by
Tom until they had gone about a mile, when Tom overtook the savage
and shot him dead. Tom returned to the tavern, gave up the musket,
drank a glass of rum, and left the neighborhood.
His next exploit was when he espied an Indian family in a canoe near
Butler’s Rift. Tom concealed himself in the tall grass and as the canoe
glided nearer he recognized the Indian as one who had committed many
outrages on the frontier.
Only a few words were exchanged when Quick shot the man and
tomahawked the woman and three children. He sank the bodies and
destroyed the canoe, and did not tell of this crime for years, when he was
asked why he killed the children. He replied, “Nits make lice.”
There are many stories told of Tom Quick, which have been preserved
by tradition and which are firmly believed by descendants of the older
families of Pike County.
One story is told in which several Indians caught him splitting rails
and told him to go along with them. Tom asked them to assist him split
open the last log and as they put their fingers in the crack to help pull it
apart Tom knocked out the wedge and caught them all. He then killed
each one at his leisure.
He went on a hunting trip with an Indian and they killed seven deer.
He took the meat but gave the Indian the skins. He threw them across his
shoulder, Tom fell behind and shot the Indian and took the skins as well
as the meat, saying he had shot a buck with seven skins.
He was hunting with another Indian and pushed him off of the high
rocks.
Tradition says that on his death bed he claimed to have killed ninety-
nine Indians, and that he begged them to bring an old Indian, who lived
near, in order that he might bring his record to an even hundred.
In his old age he was regarded as a hero by the pioneer hunters and
trappers. He died at James Rosencrantz’s in 1795, and was buried on his
farm.
The time has long since passed when such a revengeful murderer can
be exalted to the rank of a hero, yet Tom Quick, the Indian slayer,
weather-beaten, and with wornout accoutrements and costume in
keeping, presented a picturesque and Rip Van Winkle-like appearance
that would have formed no bad subject for an artist’s pencil.

William Maclay, First United States Senator,

Born in Chester, July 20, 1737

illiam Maclay, son of Charles and Eleanor Query Maclay, was

born July 20, 1737, in New Garden Township, Chester
County, Pa. He attended the classical school of the Reverend
John Blair, in Chester County. He studied law and was
admitted to practice at the York County bar in 1760. During
the French and Indian War he served as a lieutenant in Colonel
Hugh Mercer’s battalion, and distinguished himself during General
Forbes expedition in 1758. In 1763 he participated at the Battle of Bushy
Run, and during the subsequent progress of Colonel Bouquet’s campaign
was stationed in command of a company at one of the stockades on the
route of the expedition.
On account of this service he never practiced his profession. Much of
his time was taken up in surveying lands allotted to officers, but at a later
period Governor John Penn was instrumental in having him admitted to
the Cumberland County bar, and for a short time he acted as
Prothonotary.
At the close of the French and Indian War he visited England and had
an interview with Thomas Penn, one of the Proprietaries, relative to
surveys in parts of the Province, and on his return became an assistant of
Surveyor General Lukens on the frontier.
 In April, 1769, he married Mary McClure Harris, daughter of John
Harris, the founder of Harrisburg.
On the organization of Northumberland County March 21, 1772, he
was appointed Prothonotary and Clerk of the Courts.
In July, 1772, he laid out the town of Sunbury and erected for himself
a fine stone house, which, with modern improvements, is still standing.[5]
5. For many years the residence of Hon. Simon P. Wolverton, and now
that of his widow.
At the outset of the Revolution, although an officer of the Proprietary
Government, William Maclay took a prominent and active part in favor
of independence, not only assisting in equipping and forwarding troops
to the Continental Army, but marched with the associators which
participated in the Battles of Trenton and Princeton. He held the position
of assistant commissary of purchases.
During the “Great Runaway,” following the Wyoming massacre, July
3, 1778, William Maclay fled with his family from Sunbury to Harris’
Ferry, and in a letter to the president of the Executive Council he gave a
very graphic picture of the distress. Again after the attack and destruction
of Fort Freeland by the British, Tories and Indians, July 28, 1779,
Maclay again wrote to the seat of government in which he described the
forlorn situation of the frontiers. In a later letter he deplored the removal
of soldiers from the West Branch Valley, where the Indians had
committed such terrible depredations.
In 1781 he was elected to the Assembly, and from that time forward he
filled the various offices of member of the Supreme Executive Council,
Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, deputy surveyor, etc. After the
Revolution he made a visit to England in the interest of the Penn family.
In January, 1789, he was elected to the United States Senate, taking
his seat there as the first Senator from Pennsylvania. He drew the short
term, and his position terminated March 3, 1791, his colleague, Robert
Morris, securing the long term.
Maclay’s election to this body raised him upon a higher plane of
political activity, but contact with the Federal chiefs of the young
Republic only strengthened his political convictions, which, formed by
long intercourse with the people of Central Pennsylvania, were intensely
democratic.
Maclay differed with the opinions of President Washington; he did not
approve of the state and ceremony attendant upon the intercourse of the
President with Congress, he flatly objected to the presence of the
President in the Senate while business was being transacted, and in that
chamber boldly spoke against his policy in the immediate presence of
President Washington.
Maclay was the original promoter and later the actual founder of the
Democratic Party. Long before Thomas Jefferson’s return from Europe,
William Maclay assumed an independent position, and in his short career
of only two years in the Senate propounded ideas and gathered about him
elements to form the opposition which developed with the meeting of
Congress at Philadelphia, October 24, 1791, in a division of the people
into two great parties, the Federalists and Democrats, when, for the first
time, appeared an open and organized opposition to the Administration.
The funding of the public debt and chartering the United States Bank
were opposed by Maclay, even at a sacrifice of personal popularity, for
he was succeeded in the Senate by James Ross, a pronounced Federalist.
While in the Senate Maclay preserved notes of his discussions, both in
open and executive sessions, with observations upon the social customs
of the statesmen of the Republic, which have since been published.
On his retirement from the Senate William Maclay resided on his farm
adjoining Harrisburg, where he erected a fine stone mansion, afterward,
for many years, occupied by the Harrisburg Academy.
In 1795 he was elected a member of the Pennsylvania House of
Representatives and was again elected in 1803. He was a presidential
candidate in 1796, and from 1801 to 1803 was one of the Associate
Judges of Dauphin County.
William Maclay’s brother, Samuel, was almost as distinguished a
citizen as his older brother. He, too, was a soldier in the Continental
Army, a surveyor and statesman. He served as Associate Judge, was in
the Fourth Congress, State Senate and Speaker of that body, and
December 14, 1802, he was elected to the United States Senate. William
and Samuel Maclay are the only brothers to sit in that body.
William Maclay was the father of nine children. He died at his home
at Harrisburg April 16, 1804, and was interred in the old Paxton
Presbyterian Church graveyard at Paxtang. An elegant stone marks the
final resting place of this distinguished Pennsylvanian.