THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
PRESENTED BY
PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND
MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID
THE
ROCKS
DEER CREEK,
H/RFORD COUNTY, M/RYLAND.
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY.
BY
THOMAS TURNER WYSONG,
OF
" SHIRLEY, NEAR THE KOCKS."
TWO ILLUSTRATIONS.
BALTIMORE:
PRINTED BY A. J. CONLON,
No. 23 SOUTH STREET.
1880
Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1880,
BY THOMAS TURNER WYSONG,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.
TO MY FRIENDS
OF
MARYLAND AND OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA,
OF PENNSYLVANIA, AND OF VIRGINIA AS
IT WAS TERRITORIALLY AT THE
DATE OF MY BIRTH,
MAY 20, 1817,
THIS BOOK OF
Is AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED BY
THE AUTHOR.
M363111
INTRODUCTION.
MY residence is about a mile, as the bird flies, from
the celebrated Rocks of Deer Creek. I first saw this
great natural curiosity in the Spring of 1844. I was
then young, and did not dream that my advanced years
would be passed almost under its shadows. But He
who appoints the bounds of our habitations has so
ordered. To-day I occupy the place which I have
named, for peculiar reasons, " Shirley, near the Kocks."
Since I have lived in this locality I have been ob-
servant of much apparent interest in the Rocks, and
have read numerous compositions, both in prose and
poetry, descriptive of them. These were generally the
essays of the young, inspired by the beauties and sub-
limities of the scenes around them. Of the objects
seen, none have excited more interest than the King
and Queen Seats. Who made them ? for what pur-
pose were they used ? have been frequent enquiries.
These interrogatories suggested the writing of "The
Last King and Queen of the Rocks of Deer Creek."
Having done so for the instruction and entertainment
of the young people especially, it occurred to me that a
series of sketches, mingling fact with fancy, might give
them pleasure, and, perhaps, be of some profit to them.
These I have written, and they are to be found in this
small and unpretentious volume.
6 INTRODUCTION.
I hope that the character of these compositions will
give offence to no one, not even the most conscientious.
They are, indeed, the interweaving of fact with fancy,
but the facts are more numerous than one would imag-
ine who has not studied the locality and its history as
I have done. Add to these facts the laws, customs and
usages of the original inhabitants of the country, re-
ferred to in these stories, and the amount of absolute
fiction is not great. My apology for the presence of fic-
tion at all is, that it is, as I use it, a mirror a reflection
of the truth. Nature responds to imagination, and
imagination is the handmaid of Nature. Shakespeare
is read by all, not because his characters and scenes are
not fictitious, but rather because his imaginings mirror
the truths of Nature. That sublimest creation of poetic
genius, the Book of Job, the Divine inspiration of which
is not doubted, is a sacred drama, the persons of which,
though they may not have had existence in fact, are
nevertheless real, because they are truthful. Paradise
Lost and the Pilgrim's Progress are both creations of
fancy, but not therefore pernicious. If strict, literal
fact is alone to be tolerated, then all bo'oks embellished
with the colors of imagination must be discarded,
though imagination be the medium for the conveyance
of truth.
I am the more solicitous that the facts and truthful
fancies of this book shall be read, because of the changes
that will be wrought by the improvements now in prog-
ress and promised in the vicinity of the Rocks. The
iron horse will soon be running along our streams and
through our valleys, the srnoke of the locomotive will
INTRODUCTION. 7
curl its wreaths about the summits of the Rocks, par-
tially hiding them from view. The substitution of the
realities of the commercial and business life for the
poetries of undisturbed Nature is inevitable.
THE AUTHOR.
INTRODUCTION TO SECOND EDITION.
THE favor with which the first edition of one thou-
sand copies of " THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK ; THEIR
LEGENDS AND HISTORY," has been received, encour-
ages the issue of a second edition indefinitely large.
The sale of so many copies in so brief a space of time
shows that the interest is in the Rocks as a natural
curiosity of great attraction ; and this fact is a compli-
ment to the intelligence and taste of the many who
have purchased and read the book. Of the hundreds
who were courteously solicited to patronize this home
production, scarce a half-dozen lacked courtesy in their
refusal to do so, and charity believes that the majority
of this insignificant number were prompted by no un-
worthy motives. Occasionally there is found in the
forests a rare bird, in the waters a rare fish, in the fields
a rare beast; why, therefore, should it be thought a
strange thing when there is found occasionally among
those animals who, as has been scientifically determined,
possess the qualities and characteristics of all the infe-
rior animals, one to whom the presentation of a book
constitutes a grave offence. Some members of the
genus homo the microcosm never read a book, not
because they have no knowledge of letters, but because
all letters are offensive to them.
10 INTRODUCTION TO SECOND EDITION.
Care has been taken in making up the present edi-
tion to avoid as much as possible the defects and
blemishes of the first. Both grammatical and typo-
graphical errors exist in the former, and fortunate it
will be if none shall be found in the latter. The effort
to secure perfection of form will be appreciated, and
the failure to do so will be forgiven by all generous
readers.
This book is larger ; other legends have been added ;
the facts and incidents are more numerous. It is large
enough. We launch our boat, which, though not
4 ' as goodly and strong and staunch
As ever weathered a wintiy sea,"
will nevertheless, we hope,
" sail securely, and safely reach
The Fortunate Isles, on whose shining beach
The sights we see, and the sounds we hear,
Will be those of joy, and not of fear."
THE AUTHOR.
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
Title 1
Dedication 3
Introduction 5
Introduction to Second Edition 9
Description of the Rocks 13
Razuka ; a Legend of Rock Ridge Lake . 15
The Last King and Queen of the Rocks of Deer Creek 22
The Last Indian of Deer Creek 28
The Hermit of the Otter Rock 33
The Robber's Den ; or, The Learned Philologist 41
The Enchantress of Hunting Ridge 46
The Aged Trapper, Hunter and Fisherman of the Indian
Cupboard 51
The Mine Old Fields ; or, The Gathering of the Witches... , 58
The Falling Branch ; or, The Captured Bride 64
The Eagle 71
The Witch Rabbit 72
The Big Snake..* 73
Whitsuntide 74
The Perilous Feat 75
An Act of Vandalism 76
Canal and Railroad 77
The Original Moonshiner 79
The Monuments of the Giants 81
The Field of Darts 84
The Chrome Pits 86
The Slate Quarries 7 87
The Horse Epidemic and the Guinea- Man's Pony 89
The Church of the Rocks. . . 92
12 CONTENTS.
PAGB.
Mike' s Rock 94
The Ancient Mill and the Honest Miller 95
The Oldest Inhabitant '. 98
The Youngest Inhabitants 100
The Original Inhabitants 101
The Massacre of the Mingoes 103
Rocks Literature 105
Introduction thereto ,106
Selections therefrom, in Prose and Poetry 107
a. Description of the Rocks in Prose 107
b. Stanzas on King and Queen Seats 107
c. Description of the Rocks in Poetry 108
d. The Fern... 109
e. The Old MiU 112
A Prophecy .116
Mason and Dixon's Line 122
A Literary Curiosity 123
ILLUSTRA TIONS.
The Rocks of Deer Creek Front of Title.
The Falling Branch Page 64
THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
DESCRIPTION OF THE ROCKS.
THE Rocks of Deer Creek are in Harford County,
Maryland, distant nine miles north-east of Bel Air,
the county seat, and seven miles south of the
boundary line between Maryland and Pennsylvania.
The waters of Deer Creek, forcing their way at an
indefinite time past through Rock Ridge, have left
on either side an immense pile of massive rocks,
three hundred and eighty-five feet in height, which,
with the plunging waters of the romantic river
which runs at their base and the contiguous scenes,
constitute a rare picture of sublimity and beauty.
The western rocks are more accessible, and of great-
er attraction to visitors. The view from them is
less obstructed and more distant, embracing within
its range hill and dale, forest and field, river and
brook, farm-house and hamlet. On them are the
King and Queen Seats. To the verge of their pre-
cipice was driven, by a madman, Bold Hector, that
noble horse, which was as deserving of a monu-
ment as was Bucephalus, the war horse of Alexan-
der. At their base the Eagle was killed, and also
the last wolf and the last deer. These, with other
historical incidents, increase the interest felt in the
Rocks, the monuments of mighty and mysterious
forces exerted in the unknown past.
2
14 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
Every genuine Harfordonian is enthusiastic in
his admiration of the Rocks. They are with him
the Great Curiosity ; they belong to him ; he is
proud of them. He loves them, because associated
with them are memories of happy hours passed
with congenial associates on their summits or at
their base by the waters of his favorite stream.
Their inspirations are sweet to him, and their pres-
ence creates sympathies loving and tender. In
their presence he has a higher appreciation of Na-
ture, and an intenser sympathy with the spirit of
poetry which dwells amid such scenes. Here, as
beautifully expressed by our own great poet, whose
highest, purest inspirations are due to that " sweet
spirit which fills the world ;" here, amid everlast-
ing hills, mountain and shattered cliff, and green
valley, and river and brook, and the silent majesty
of deep woods
In many a lazy syllable repeating
Their old poetic legends to the winds,
his thoughts are uplifted from earth. And such
also is the interest he feels in the general library of
the Rocks, consisting of many volumes of rare in-
formations.
Will the coming of the Railroad and the devel-
opment of the commercial and business life, as has
been feared, lessen the attractions of the Rocks?
The poetries of Nature will still be there, and the
presence of the accidents of artificial life may
heighten by contrast the interest, making the poet-
ries of Nature more poetical. Happily, the ap-
proach by the Railroad, especially from the Smith,
will open up a view of the Rocks surpassing in at-
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 15
tractiveness. Passengers from that direction, in
crossing the bridge over the Creek at the head of
the dam, will have a view of the upper portion of
the Rocks, which by a well known quality of the
mind will exaggerate the whole picture. Mightier
structures they will seem to be, having their found-
ations in greater depths, because their summits
tower upward, touching the heavens. The Rocks,
their legends and history, the poetries of Nature
made more poetical by the contrasts suggested by
the thundering train and smoking locomotive, will
ever be sources of interest ; and that singular en-
thusiasm felt by those whose dwelling-places are
not distant from the Great Curiosity will abide.
RAZUKA;
A LEGEND OP ROCK RIDGE LAKE.
THE Rocks of Deer Creek are the great natural
curiosity of Harford County, Md. Who first dis-
covered them? What was their condition at the
time of discovery ? These questions may not be ca-
pable of satisfactory answers. A tradition of the
distant and uncertain past is that the first white
man who visited that locality did not find it as it
now is. Instead of the gorge, and the rocks, and
the river running at their base, there was an impact
16 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
rock ridge, holding against its gigantic breast the
waters of a mighty lake, and throwing from its sum-
mit, four hundred feet in height, the waters of Deer
Creek. The physical features of the ridge, and the
characteristics of the low lands for at least five miles
above it, justify the conjecture that the tradition-
ary lake and cataract are not myths. In the ab-
sence of certain historical information, it may be
allowable to accept the tradition as in accordance
substantially with the facts. Of the name of the
first discoverer we have no available knowledge. If
his name is recorded, it may be found in some
musty volume of some foreign library. There is a
bare possibility that some adventurer, associated with
the expedition of the celebrated Captain John Smith,
the founder of the colony of Jamestown, Virginia,
who in his exploration of the Chesapeake Bay and
its tributaries, sailed as far as the mouth of the Sus-
quehanna river, may have heard, on the arrival of
the expedition at that locality, of the wonders of
the not distant wilderness scarce a day's journey
and that he was the first civilized man who gazed
upon those wonderful exhibitions of nature. It
may be that to a Jesuit father, who had penetrated
the wilderness in the prosecution of his sacred mis-
sion, the honor of discovery is due. These holy
fathers were the earliest explorers of our Western
territories and inland seas and rivers. They were
the spiritual guides and counsellors of many of the
North American Indians, and in the furtherance of
their work rescued many a wonder of nature from
the gloom of the primeval forest. But even though
these conjectures be inadmissible, and we should be
left to the judgment that at the discovery of this
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 17
continent by Columbus, in 1492, the Rocks and the
Ridge were essentially what they are at the present
time, such a conviction does not destroy our faith in
the existence of the lake and fall at some more dis-
tant period in the past. The testimony of the ridge
and valleys assures our belief. We naturally regret
that the pent-up waters of Deer Creek exerted so
soon that resistless energy which clove asunder a
mountain and reduced their volume to the compar-
atively small stream of to-day. There is beauty in
the sinuous Deer Creek, threading its way between
abrupt wooded hills and along fertile valleys ; also
sublimity in the Rocks and rapids as they now are ;
but how much more of grandeur in the mighty lake
and the lofty cataract, rivalling the Falls of Mont-
morenci or those of the Yosemite Valley.
An ancient bard, whose name is unknown, sang
of the Rocks of Deer Creek :
A bare and isolated rock,
On which no tuft of moss has ever grown ;
In front a precipice descends far down,
Where a rapid river sweeps along.
Behind, nature has shaped an opening in the cliff
(Which looks with frowning brows upon the scene),
To the resemblance of a lovely garden ;
There wild flowers bloom, and scent the evening breeze;
There birds resort and warble all day long;
-TJiere lovers meet and whisper tales of love.
I have italicized the last line, and for two reasons ;
first, because it is as true of the present as the past ;
and second, because it recalls the legend of the Lake
and the Rocks, which was learned from the aged
and venerable hermit of the Otter Rock.
There once lived on the northern borders of the
lake, in the wigwam of her father, a noted chieftain
18 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
in his day, an Indian maiden of exceeding beauty
and rare fascination. This latter statement may
be received with incredulity by those who have not
had the opportunity of observing the North Ameri-
can Indians in their natural state, removed from the
contamination of civilization. The hermit assured
me that it is nevertheless true, and I proceed in his
own language to describe the attractions of Razuka,
the Beauty of the Lake :
" Slender, delicate and elastic as a reed swaying
in the currents of a gentle breeze, above the ordi-
nary height, while all the outlines of her graceful
figure displayed the lithe and fragile symmetry of
girlish years with the mature development of perfect
womanhood. Her brow and face were dark, and
the rich blood crimsoned her full pouting lips, and
flushed peach-like through the golden hue of her
cheeks with as warm a tide as ever burned in the
impassioned cheeks of an Anglo-Norman beauty.
Her long straight hair was of the deepest black.
Her eyes had the long almond orbits and long fringed
lashes, which are deemed the rarest charms of Ital-
ian beauty, and the large soft pupils of the deepest,
clearest hazel swam in a field of nacry bluish lustre,
which could be compared to nothing but the finest
mother-of-pearl. Her teeth were of perfect white-
ness, and her features had a harmony and unison
entirely their own, a soft, tranquil, half unconcious
majesty of stillness."
Such is the very imperfect recollection of the de-
scription of the beauty of Razuka, the loveliest of
her tribe. Habituated to labor, as all Indian women
are, it was but pastime to paddle the light bark
canoe, which was her favorite employment. On
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 19
the lake alone, angling for the fish which abounded
in it, she passed many days of her happy life. This
life, so free from the anxieties and perplexities of
the artificial life of civilized communities, might
have been protracted indefinitely but for the pos-
session of the personal attractions that entitled her
to the name she bore, Razuka, the Beauty of the
Lake. Not only the young men of her own tribe,
but those of other and distant tribes, were wont to
seek her presence at the wigwam of her father, or
gathering on the shores of the lake, gaze with fixed
look upon the Beauty shooting her frail canoe with
the speed of the arrow through the glassy waters.
At one time, having passed entirely over the lake
to the opposite shore, she was attracted by the
beauty of a wild rose, some distance from the bank,
and was about making an effort to secure it, when
she heard the rumbling of the not distant thunder.
Turning her face to the west, she observed a por-
tentous storm-cloud gathering on the horizon.
Anxious, she turned the prow of the boat home-
ward and rowing with energy, reached the middle
of the lake, when the storm fell in its fury upon
the waters. Standing upon the shore near the wig-
wam was a young man of another tribe, who had
been smitten by the charms of Eazuka, and solicit-
ous for the welfare of her whose life was evidently
imperilled, entered hurriedly a canoe lying near by,
and pushed out rapidly upon the storm -lashed lake
to rescue, if possible, the endangered. Happily he
reached her, and taking her into his stronger boat,
after almost superhuman exertion, brought her in
safety to her home. The rescuer, whose timidity
had hitherto deterred him from any marked demon-
20 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK,
stration of interest in Razuka, now very naturally
hoped that the heroic deed he had done would re-
commend him to the favorable consideration of the
chief, the father of the saved ; and having awakened
the sentiment of gratitude in the mind of the
daughter, it might eventually lead to the possession
of the prize he coveted. Under ordinary circum-
stances, such doubtless would have been the case,
but unhappily for the cherished hopes of the noble
rescuer, Razuka had, unknown to her family, re-
ciprocated the affections of another. Chocorea, the
son of a M aquas chief, was the favored one. The
father of Razuka, ignorant that the interest of his
daughter was endangered, and feeling the obliga-
tion of gratitude, would have encouraged the aspi-
rations of the saviour of his idolized child. He
intimated to Razuka that possibly her union with
the Swan might promote her happiness, and if so,
to himself the alliance would not be objectionable.
Desirous to undeceive her father, and unwilling
that her rescuer should cherish a hope that could
not be realized, she frankly declared that her heart
belonged to another to Chocorea, the son of the
chief of the Massawomikes, the inveterate foes of
her tribe.
" Never/' said the chief, her father, "shall the
daughter of a Susquehannock wed the son of a
Maquas," (the Massawomikes were sometimes so
called.) "The Maquas are dogs. These f<
had been from time immemorial the undisturbed
hunting-grounds of my people, and in this lake
they caught at pleasure the white belly and the
blue fin, and below the Tails, in the water of our
river, the shad, the herring and the eel ; and my
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 21
people had hoped that they would sit by their fires
unmolested, and smoke their pipes in peace while
sun and moon endured ; but, alas ! in an evil day
the prowling wolves of the frozen lakes and haunted
forests, the sneaking Maquas, came, and but for
the strength of my arm and the arms of my noble
braves, many of whom fell by the arrows of the
hated ones, my people would have been swept from
the earth, as the north wind sweeps the dry leaves
from the woodlands. Murderers the Maquas are
robbers, sneaks ! No Maquas shall ever wed the
daughter of Nieskan, the Susquehannock, and the
life of the insolent shall atone for his presumption."
This threat was put into execution.
In the twilight of the same evening when these
ominous words were uttered, Razuka met Chocorea
in the glen (their usual place of meeting), in the
rear of her father's wigwam. That interview was
hurried and anxious, and resulted in the determin-
ation of Razuka to leave the wigwam of her father
for the distant home of her hated lover. A meet-
ing was appointed for the ensuing evening to de-
termine the time and mode of their departure.
That interview never took place. On the morning
of that day, by the hand of the angered father,
Chocorea, the lover of Razuka, was slain, and his
body was thrown into the lake. The report of a
firearm announced the fearful tidings to Razuka,
and life for her had no further charms.
Standing, like some grim sentinel, on the south-
ern border of the lake, was a gigantic and precipit-
ous rock, which threw its shadows upon its waters.
To the summit of this eminence Razuka, imme-
diately upon the report of the death of Chocorea,
22 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
made her way, and, fastening to her body a stone
of heavy weight, secured by a cord made of the
bark of the birch tree, threw herself into the dark
waters.
"On the strand
Two sleeping bodies afterward were found,
Chocorea and Razuka, joined in death
As they had been in life. Their spirits, too,
(So the untutored children of the woods
Believed) had gone to happier grounds
The Red Man's paradise to live and love
Forever there."
And furthermore, the legend says that at that
lone rock, where Kazuka met her fate, is seen at
summer eve a great enchantress,
"Who will sometimes pour
Such glowing tales of love into your ear,
That, in a transport, you will spread your arms,
And clasp a lovely vision."
THE LAST KING AND QUEEN OF THE
KOCKS OF DEER CREEK.
ON the right bank of Deer Creek, nearly oppo-
site the present residence of E. S. Rogers, Esq.,
wan, two centuries ago, a village of the SusqiK-han-
nock Indians. Five miles above, on the same
stream, fifty yards from where the mill of James
Stansbury, Esq., is located, was another village of
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 23
the same Indians. Two and one-half miles south-
east of the Rocks, on the land now in the occupancy
of Bennett Grafton, Esq., was a third village.
Each of these villages had its own chief, but, for
mutual protection and aid, were confederate, ac-
knowledging the supremacy of the chief whose
location was in the vicinity of the Rocks. This
chief bore the not uncommon Indian name of Bald
Eagle. The chief of the upper village was Great
Bear ; of the lower, Lone Wolf.
In the autumn of the year Lone Wolf, accom-
panied by several of his braves, visited the Iroquois,
then living in the northern part of what is now the
State of New York. While there he became en-
amoured with an Ojibway maiden, who had been
captured by the Iroquois in her infancy ; and adopt-
ed by their chief, was brought up in his wigwam
as his own daughter. The stay of the visitors was
protracted until the snow began to whiten the earth
and the ice to cover the waters, and Lone Wolf
would fain have tarried until the snow and ice were
melted again. In the charms of the Fern-Shaken-
by-the-Wind, as she had been named by her captors,
he had found an attraction stronger than that he felt
for his own people in the South country. But fail-
ing in his efforts to win the affections of the Fern,
he resorted to diplomac}^, hoping that time, with
assiduity of attention, would soften the maiden's
heart, and she would ultimately become his wife.
The time of his departure having come, he besought
the Iroquois chief to allow his adopted daughter
and her brother to accompany him to his distant
home, promising to return them safely, and laden
with valuable presents, when the trees put forth
24 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREER.
their leaves again. This request was granted.
The Fern and her brother accompanied Lone
Wolf to his home. Two moons after their arrival
the braves of the three confederate villages were
summoned to attend a great council, to be held at
the Rocks. At the time appointed Bald Eagle and
his wife, as was their custom on such occasions,
took their places in the seats on the Rocks known
as the King and Queen seats, the braves of the tribe
and their confederates sitting upon the ground be-
neath or leaning against the interspersed trees.
At a short distance beyond the circle of the
assembled warriors sat the women and children of
the tribes and their Iroquois visitors. The Fern
and her brother listened attentively to the speeches
of the different orators. Nor were they unobserved,
the maiden particularly. She could hot fail to at-
tract attention, for to perfection of form and great
symmetry of features, was added a dignity of man-
ner rarely equaled. Among the braves most attract-
ed by the charms of the Fern was The-Bird-that-
Flies-High, eldest son of Bald Eagle, and prospec-
tive heir to the supreme chieftainship or kingship,
as it was sometimes designated. This young brave,
taking advantage of a short recess had by the coun-
cil, approached the Fern, and offered her as a pres-
ent a trinket of exceeding brilliancy and apparently
of great value, which she graciously accepted. This
was observed by Lone Wolf, who, under the influ-
ence of an unconcealed jealousy, rushed to the spot
where the maiden and her admirer were standing,
and seizing the trinket, violently wrenched it from
her hands, and throwing it upon the ground, train-
pled it under his feet. Ordinarily such an act
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 25
would have been promptly resented, but tbe Bird
had too much regard for the dignity of the occasion,
and too much respect for the character and author-
ity of his father, the confederate chief, to notice it
by immediate and violent resentment. He quietly
withdrew from the presence of the maiden,, enter-
taining, however, the purpose to avenge the insult
when the fitting opportunity arrived. That oppor-
tunity was not long delayed.
Ten days after the close of the council, there was
a gathering of the tribes at the lower village, to
participate in the ceremonial connected with the
rite of purification, a rite imperative in the case of
every male infant of the tribe at its eighth day.
From a grove of stately oaks, one of which may be
seen at this present time, one hundred yards east of
the spot on which now stands the house of Mr.
Grafton, a procession moved toward Deer Creek, in
the waters of which the child was immersed by the
venerable priest of the lower village. The rite per-
formed, the procession returned in the order in
which it came. The remaining portion of the day
was spent in feasting and dancing, in which the
Bird participated with seeming enjoyment and for-
getful apparently of his purpose to avenge the in-
sult perpetrated by Lone Wolf. True, however,
to the instincts of his race, that purpose was still
cherished, and only awaited the opportunity of its
accomplishment. When about to leave for his vil-
lage, he challenged Lone Wolf to a trial of skill
with the bow and arrow, to take place at the Rocks
early on the morning of the succeeding day, sug-
gesting at the same time the Fern as ump re, whose
decision would be respected by all. These propo-
3
26 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
sitions were gladly accepted by Lone Wolf, as the
trial proposed would afford him an opportunity of
displaying his acknowledged skill, and also of en-
joying the society of the Fern. On the following
day, before the frosts had been melted by the rising
sun, the contestants met at the place designated.
The contest continued until the shadows fell upon
the roots of the trees, when Lone Wolf was declared
the victor. The crown of laurel was placed on his
brow by the umpire, accompanied by a few words
complimentary to the skill of the victor, and seem-
ingly expressive of personal interest. The Bird
was excited to madness by the seeming preference
of the Fern for Lone Wolf, and remembering the
insult, suddenly grasped his rival, and rushing
with the speed of lightning to the edge of the preci-
pice, threw him headlong into the abyss below. As
he was falling, a few plaintive notes of the death-
song were heard, and the voice of Lone Wolf was
hushed forever.
The Bird made no effort to escape. Submissive
to the immemorial custom and imperative law of his
race, he sternly awaited the coming of the avenger,
and would certainly have been slain, but for the in-
terposition of the Fern. Drawing from the pocket
of a belt which she wore the trinket of two jewels
that had not been damaged seriously, she offered
them to the sister of Lone Wolf, his only surviving
relative, as an atonement for the blood of her broth-
er. The offering was accepted by her, as also by
her tribe. That trinket of two jewels was the Ar
and Thar, erroneously supposed to have been lost
by the ancestors of the present race of Indians in
their migration to this continent from the East. It
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 2?
had been preserved in the family of Bald Eagle,
and highly valued, as its possession gave prosper-
ity, and conferred princely authority and rule.
That the Fern should have parted with such a
treasure is understood in the light of the fact that
she had cherished an attachment for the Bird, and
secretly hoped to become his wife.
Three moons subsequently, at the feast of the
coming spring, always observed when the first birds
made their appearance, there was another gather-
ing of the tribes at the Rocks, to witness the cele-
bration of the nuptials of the Bird-that-Flies-High
and of the Fern-Shaken-by-the-Wind. Following
immediately this ceremony was the consummation
of a design that Bald Eagle had long entertained.
Aged and wearied with the responsibilities and la-
bors pertaining to his position as chief ruler of the
confederate tribes, he abdicated his authority, and
nominated his son as his successor. His choice was
ratified by all the tribes. Conducted by the aged
priest of the upper tribe to the seats on the Rocks,
the Bird-that-Flies-High and the Fern-Shaken-by-
the-Wind were formally declared King and Queen
of the confederate tribes.
They were the last King and Queen of the Rocks
of Deer Creek. Ere many moons waxed and waned
the pale faces came. Driven from their homes and
from the graves of their forefathers, the confederate
tribes fled to the land of the setting sun, finding
their last hours and their graves among strangers
in the distant wilderness.
Lone Wolf, whose romantic history and tragic
death have been related, was buried on the banks
of Deer Creek, about six hundred yards above the
28 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
present residence of Joshua Rutledge, Esq., and
often, during the autumnal nights, in the faint
light of the waning moon, is seen at that locality a
strange apparition. It is thought to he the spirit
of the murdered chieftain mingling with the shadows
that fall on the rippling waters.
THE LAST INDIAN OF DEER CREEK.
MINGO PARK is the name of the estate of our
well-known and respected fel lo vv -citizen, James
Stansbury, Esq. This place is most appropriately
named. It is derived from Mingo Hill, an ahrupt
eminence immediately opposite the residence of that
gentleman, at the base of which luns and ripples
the waters of the far-lamed Deer Creek. The hill
itself takes its name from Mingo one of the Min-
goes whose wigwam was located on the lowlands,
an hundred yards or more above the position now
occupied by the mill of Mr. Stansbury, and on the
left bank of the stream.
The Mingoes have become celebrated in Indian
history. They originally occupied a large part of
the territory now included in the State of New York.
They were known by several names. The English
called them the Five Nations, because they consti-
tuted a confederacy of that number of diMinrt
nations, increased to si* by the accession of the
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 29
Tnscaroras of Carolina. The French called them
Iroquois ; the Dutch, Maquas, and the Virginia
Indians gave them the name of Massawomikes. At
home they were known by the name of Mingoes.
At first their habitj had been rather agricultural
than warlike, but unhappily for their peace, and
the well-being of others of their race, they were
attacked by the powerful tribe of the Adirondacks,
then occupying the country three hundred miles
above Trois-Rivieres in Canada. Necessity drove
them to war, and by their prowess and success they
earned the proud title of the Romans of the West.
Nearly exterminating the Adironacks, and proudly
exalting themselves on their overthrow, the Iroquois
or Mingoes grew rapidly to be the leading tribe of
the North , and fi nally of the whole continent. But,
like many of the mighty nations of the earth, they
have yielded to a superior force, and there now
remains only an handful to recount mournfully the
mighty deeds of their valorous fathers. Another
race, with its teeming millions, occupies their hunt-
ing-grounds arid controls their waters. Their fate is
the melancholy recollection of a greatness never to
be recovered, and the agonizing anticipation of
the utter extinction of their race.
The Mingo whose history we record had, as we
have seen, his home among the wild, weird scenes
of the Upper Deer Creek. His wigwam at first
was one of many, for in the locality designated
there was a considerable village of his tribe. The
coming of the white man drove them from their
homes, and they migrated northward and westward,
resting for a time in the forests of Pennsylvania
and on the plains of Ohio. Mingo alone remained,
3*
30 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
occupying his wigwam, with his wife and children,
and finding his support in the waters of Deer Creek
and in the wooded hills that bordered it. The rea-
son of this seemingly singular procedure is, as will
appear, but another illustration of the mysterious
nature of man and the power of a sentiment.
The Mi n goes of Deer Creek made frequent forays
upon the Indians living on the waters of the lower
Patapsco, and occasionally extended their incursions
into Eastern Maryland and Virginia. In one of
their adventures they penetrated the country as far
south as the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay,
opposite the mouth of the Potomac, and attacking
suddenly and unexpectedly, surprised and captured
a large village, with much booty and some prison-
ers. Among the captives was Watumpka, the
daughter of Wesaco, in his day the most celebrated
chieftain of the Wicomicos. Brought by her cap-
tors to the Rocks of Deer Creek, which at the period
referred to was the general rendezvous of the Mingo
warriors of the vicinity, and from which they con-
ducted their warlike expeditions, and to which they
returned to make distribution of the common spoils,
happily for Watumpka, in the allotment of the
prisoners, she fell to the share of Mingo, who had
participated in the expedition. This youthful war-
rior had seen twenty summers. He had already at
that age developed into the noblest type of manhood.
Six feet in height, of corresponding weight, straight
as the arrow he let go from his bow, of perfect fea-
tures, rather Roman than Indian, and of dignified
mien, he was the admiration of his tribe. Added
to these physical attractions was a mind and heart
intellectual, sympathetic arid loving. The artist
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 31
would have selected him as his ideal, and the female
heart chosen him as its possession forever. Of
Watumpka it might have heen said, Indian though
she was, what the immortal bard said of the gentle
Desdemona :
"A maiden never bold,
Of spirit so still and quiet that her motion
Blushed at itself."
And of the attractions of her person what Michael
Cassio said of the gentle maiden :
"Tempests themselves, high seas and howling winds,
As having sense of beauty, do omit
Their mortal natures, letting safe go by
The divine" Watumpka.
Mingo saw and was conquered. His captive was
the captor. Watumpka submitting resignedly to
the fate of the captured expatriation from her
home and yielding to the ardent wooing of her
lover, consented to become his bride. The celebra-
tion of the nuptials was in accordance with the rites
of the Mingoes, after which she occupied with her
husband his wigwam on the banks of the Upper
Deer Creek. There, under the shadows of Mingo
Hill, in the quiet and patient performance of the
duties of her position as wife and mother, she passed
the days of her allotted life. Not indeed without
feeling the weight of the shadows that fell upon her
heart in the recollection of the happy scenes of
childhood and youth, and in the remembrance of
the loss of a noble father and the care of a tender
mother. These were but occasional experiences.
The duties of life and the sense of the affections of
him she had chosen generally absorbed her thought.
32 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
How long Mingo remained on Deer Creek after
the occupancy of the country by the whites is not
known. The ancestors of some of the present res-
idents of upper Harford knew him to have been
there several years after they had settled in the
neighborhood among them Richard Deaver, the
great-grandfather of the present George and Rich-
ard Deaver, Seniors. That after a time he followed
his tribe westward is conjectured ; but if so, not
until after the death of Watumpka, his captured
bride. By the side of the river, under the shadows
of the trees, was laid in deepest grief what was
mortal of Watumpka, the child of Wesaco the Wi-
comico, and the wife of Mingo the Massawomike.
And it is not difficult, we think, for the occupants
of .Mingo Park, as they sit by the blazing fire in the
winter nights, to imagine that they hear the voice
of Mingo, who long since joined Watumpka in the
land of spirits, mingling with the voices of the
winds without. It is the voice of the shade of the
yet living and loving Mingo, which seeks to com-
mune with the shade of the still living and loving
Watumpka.
Honnis, a venerable chief of the Wyandots, said
to an acquaintance of the writer of this narrative,
that the warriors of his nation were called upon to
put each one grain of corn into a wooden tray that
would hold more than half a bushel, and that
before all had done so the tray was full and running
over. The Mingoes were a more numerous and pow-
erful nation, covering a great tract of country, esti-
mated to have been twelve hundred miles in length
and seven hundred miles in breadth. Along the
Busquehanna and its tributaries, among the forests
Til KIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 33
of Deer Creek and in its valleys, were once many of
these people. There remained for a while after
their departure a single representative of this once
mighty nation. He lingered because his captive
wife, the beautiful and loving Watumpka, was alien
to his people. They had killed her father, Wesaco,
the honored chief of the Wicomicos, and made her
a captive in a strange land and among a strange
people. Obedient to a mysterious quality of the
human mind, she became the wife of a Mingo, par-
ticipating in his toils and sharing in his sympathies.
Him alone she loved, and for him and the children
she bore to him she lived to the Mingoes alien
forever, a sentiment that led her to end her life
and find her grave among the pale faces, also the
inexorable foes of her race.
THE HERMIT OF THE OTTER ROCK.
YEARS ago I will not say how many there lived
in the Valley of Virginia a family of English origin.
They had emigrated to America, not to better
their worldly condition, but to relieve themselves,
if possible, of the shadow of a great trouble which
had fallen upon them at their former home. The
head of the household was of noble birth the blood
of the ran in his veins. Unhappily his temper
was irascible, and he lacked ability to control its
34 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
violence. In a controversy with a fellow-nobleman
he yielded to its exactions, and struck a blow that
almost instantly proved fatal to his antagonist.
Conscious of the insufficiency of the provocation
that led to the fatal result, and properly fearing the
majesty of that equal justice which is a distinguish-
ing characteristic of English law, he fled his country,
and under an assumed name came to America, and
found, as he thought, a refuge of safety in the prov-
ince of New Jersey. Having brought with him
abundant means, he purchased an estate in the vicin-
ity of what is now , and made preparation for
the reception of his family. The large reward that
had been offered for his arrest stimulated inquiry,
and it was learned that he had fled to America.
Detectives were put upon his track, and they
were likely to accomplish the arrest of the object
of their search. Information of these facts coming
to the knowledge of the criminal and fugitive, he
suddenly and secretly left the locality in which he
had been living, and by concealed travel eventually
reached the forests of Virginia. Purchasing from
Lord Fairfax, then proprietor of the northern neck
of Virginia, a tract of land consisting of two thou-
sand acres, a few miles east of the present site of
, he again prepared for the reception of his
wife and children. Here he was secure, and was
in a brief time rejoined by his family. At that dis-
tant period of the past there were not, as now, large
towns, substantially built, and attractive villages,
with communities in town and country possessing
all the refinements of highly cultured society.
There was not a hamlet ; only an occasional cabin,
connected by paths or the blazings of the trees, and
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 35
with rare exceptions, the few, isolated inhabitants
were as rude and uncultivated as their surround-
ings. An exception was the family of noble lineage.
The oldest child of that family was a son, and at
the time of which we write was a young man twenty-
four years of age, of cultivated mind, and of much
personal attraction. In heart he was as his mother,
a woman of gentle nature and sweetness of disposi-
tion. And from her he inherited a love of solitude.
Though she was the wife of a nobleman of large
wealth, and constrained by her position when at
home to mingle much in society, it was always with-
out pleasure, and gladly intermitted. This predis-
position to solitude was intensified by the occurrence
which led to the removal of the family to America.
In its wilds at that day, where solitude reigned
almost supreme, Walter realized the fullest
gratification of the inherited and now cultivated
predisposition. He communed with nature and
with his own spirit, saddened by the remembrance of
a great misfortune.
Calamities come not singly. To that family of
stricken ones death came in the character of a mys-
terious plague, and all save Walter fell victims
to its relentless power. The solitude that he had
coveted and enjoyed, now intensified, became insup-
portable, and he sought relief from its oppressions.
Having heard from a trapper of the wild of north-
eastern Maryland, with its wondrous lake abound-
ing in fish, of the cataract falling from the summit
of a rocky ridge four hundred feet in height, and of
the rapid river, in the waters of which the otter and
the beaver abounded, and of the forests in which
roamed the elk, the bear and the deer, he resolved
36 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
to muke it his home, where, undisturbed by human
associations, he might commune alone with nature
and the denizens of forest and river ; and forgetting,
if such were possible, that crime of a parent which
had smitten his heart with an inexpressible anguish,
wait patiently and submissively for that event which
comes to all. Early on the morning of May he
bade adieu to the forests of Virginia, and, after a
fatiguing journey of some days, reached his desti-
nation. He had not been deceived by the represen-
tations of the trapper. He found lake and cataract,
waters abounding in fish and forests in game. About
one-half mile east of the Kocks of Deer Creek is a
massive rock projecting from a precipitous hill into
the water. The rock is cavernous, arid was a home
of otters ; hence its name, the li Otter Kock." On
the hill, one hundred yards above the rock, in a
thick growth of laurel, the hermit erected a rude
hut of fallen logs. The cabin was well concealed
from view by the thicket of undergrowth, and
having to and from it a narrow, circuitous path, ho
deemed himself secure from intrusion. The once
" petted child of fortune " took up his abode in this
solitary place of the wilderness, trusting in his skill
in the use of gun and trap and hook to supply him
with the material necessary to sustain his physical
life, and hoping to escape the recollections of the
great wrong that had poisoned so soon the springs
of his earthly felicity.
Solitude, to be advantageous, must be for a season
only. Communing with ones self cannot long be
protracted. Too long apart from his fellows, man
will conjure up a thousand beings to con verso with
his thoughts ; he will give sentiment and even Ian-
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 37
gunge to inanimate objects. The wild man will
people the solitudes of the wilderness with society,
and the untutored man in his solitary watchings
and walkings among hills and valleys has his fears
aroused by traditions of places haunted by spirits
and ghouls. Where human associations break not
the monotony of speechless existence, there it al-
ways is
"Fast in the wilderness and dream of spirits."
So it became with the hermit. Now he lived in
an ideal world. Educated from his youth to be-
lieve in spiritual existences, he peopled the solitudes
with real though invisible beings, and often in his
dreams, as also in his waking reveries, communed
with them. The Puckwudjimmenees those fairy
beings whom the Algonquins thought planted the
acorns from which the forests of oaks grow not
infrequently to his vision
" came fleeting by
In the pale autumnal ray."
In the vicinity of his retreat was a gentle spring
of cool, limpid water, which he imagined was
haunted by those mysterious little people. There
is., perhaps, some apology for the superstition, for
an ancient legend tells
" How that old fountain was peopled erst by fairies ;
That the spirit of their spells
And flowery rites yet on its margin tarries,
And that upon the summer eve, in the silent air still lingers
The wild, sweet music of a band of fay-like singers."
Such solitude could not be sustained, and the
hermit turned to the living instincts around him
4
S8 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
for relief. In so doing he found pleasure. He
found in his communings with the occupants of
forest and lake, grove and river, rare and exquisite
enjoyments, joys denied him by the presence of civil-
ized life, and not found in the dreamy existence he
had been living. The birds entertained him with
rarest songs of sweetest melodies, and to his ear the
howl of the wolf and the cry of the panther were
music. So also the scream of the eagle and the
hissing of the serpent. With all the habitants of
woods and waters he cultivated intimate relations.
He recognized them as friends, and deported him-
self towards them as such. His friendship was
reciprocated, and on their part was confiding. Had
he been seen in his wanderings through the wood-
lands, or in his solitary walkings by the river's side,
strange phenomena would have been witnessed.
The birds accompanied him, flitting after him from
tree to tree, or bush to bush, reluctant, seemingly, to
be absent from one whom they manifestly esteemed
and loved. The fish recognized his voice, and
upon his appearance on the banks of the streams
would gather to his presence. They fed from lii.s
hand as trustingly as the child feeds from the hands
of a loving mother. The raccoon, the opossum, the
wildcat and the timid deer were'equally confiding.
An Adam in his Eden, he ruled the beasts of the
field, the birds of the air, and the fishes of the
waters. If his physical necessities required the of-
fering of the confiding, that sacrifice was made with
the utmost tenderness and consideration.
The hermit was not always indifferent to human
associations. Rarely, indeed, did he Irave his seclu-
sion to mingle with men. At distant intervals the
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 39
hermitage was visited by persons prompted by curi-
osity, if by no otber motive. These rare occasions
were enjoyed by him, and to his visitors were of
great interest. His facility of communication was
great, and at the times referred to his conversations
were intensive in their character, the logical reaction
from the life of seclusion he had led.
Age came to the hermit, and with it thoughts of
other days and sweeter joys. Present to his vision
often was the image of his mother, and in the slum-
bers of the night he would dream that he heard her,
as in the days of his childhood, breathing blessings
upon him. He awoke to find it but an illusive
dream. Sickness came, and with it fever, picturing
images of terror. The vigils of the night brought
with them the sense of loneliness, and the mornings
gave no relief. Alone in the wilderness, without
the sympathy of his kind, and by infirmity denied
the happiness he had derived from association with
the instincts around him, he passed the days of his
closing life. He was then heard to say he was
thinking of his mother
' ' Thy gentle hand seems lightly still caressing
The flaxen hair so loved, so prized by thee,
And as in days gone by, I hear thy blessing
Breathed, oh! so earnestly."
The end came. The solitary watcher by the
couch of the departing was a lone star. Looking
upward, he- gazed long and intently upon it, and
interpreted the beautiful phenomenon as prophetic
of joys beyond it, where He abides who dwells in
the light inaccessible. His last earthly vision was
the fading image of his mother.
40 THE ROCKS OP DEER CREEK.
"Even thine image now,
The image of the lovely form, that shone,
The starlight of my childhood, seems to fade
From memory's vision. 'Tis as some pale tint
Upon the twilight wave, a broken glimpse
Of something beautiful and dearly loved
In far gone years, a dim and tender dream,
That, like a faint bow, on a darkened sky,
Lies on my clouded brain."
Times change, and men and things change with
them. The lake and cataract no longer exist.
Under the shadows of the Rocks human habitations
are built. The waters of Deer Creek are utilized
in the production of the necessities and conveniences
of civilized and, in a certain sense, artificial life.
The rude hut of the hermit has long since dis-
appeared, and the progress of the age threatens
greater innovations. But a very brief space of
time ago men of singular mien were seen among
the hills and along the valleys of Deer Creek, with
peculiar instruments in their hands, measuring the
surface of the earth as they passed. Unknowingly
they stood on the very spot on which rested the Her-
mit of the Otter Rock, and had they not been so in-
tent on pursuing their curious vocation, they might
have heard the voice of a mysterious though invisi-
ble stranger bidding them, " Begone ! " For have
not these men reported that these hills and valleys
shall soon reverberate with the loud whistlings of
the " locomotive " and the thunderings of the
" train?" And such will be the substitution for
the poetries of nature in the solitudes of the wilder-
ness.
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 41
THE ROBBER'S DEN ; OR, THE LEARNED
PHILOLOGIST.
A SHORT distance above the Otter Rock, on the
opposite bank of Deer Creek, and in view of the
Rocks, is a large cavernous rock, that was, as tradi-
tion informs us, in the. far past the retreat of an
unhappy man, whose hands, like those of Ishmael,
the brother of Isaac, the son of Abraham, were
against every man, and every man's hand against
him. The entrance to the cave is now partially
closed by portions of its roof, which have fallen.
Directly opposite, and near to the water, was a nar-
row path, used at first by the Indiana in their jour-
ney ings to and from the Rocks of Deer Creek and
the waters of the Chesapeake Bay and Patapsco
River, afterwards by the original white settlers in
their travel from one neighborhood to another.
The occupant of the cavern had been reared in
affluence and amidst elevating and refining associ-
ations. Born in Germany, he received his early
education in a gymnasium, an institution answering
to an American college. Afterwards he became a
student of the University of Heidelberg, one of the
largest educational institutions of a land which has
ever been distinguished for its ripe scholars and
learned philosophers. Immediately after the com-
pletion of his scholastic studies, he entered the ser-
vice of the government as an attache 7 of an Ambas-
sador to the English Court. Of great acuteness of
intellect, well skilled in international law and the
art of diplomacy, and ever prompt and faithful in
4*
42 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
the discharge of the duties of his position, he won
the confidence of his superiors, and was recom-
mended to preferment. Unhappily, at that period
of English history, the Court was corrupt; from
the monarch down to the humhlest servant of the
State, profligacy of manners generally prevailed.
Truth, honor, integrity, virtue, were words that
had no meaning, for the sentiments, principles and
actions of which they are the representatives had no
existence. Influenced by such examples, his moral
force was weakened and his sense of right obscured.
The tempter came to him in the guise of a gilded
bait the love of money that not for its own sake,
but for the ability it would give him to gratify his
depraved appetites and propensities. The German
government has always been characterized by a
commendable frugality, not parsimoniousness, but
a generous economy. Hence, the salary and per-
quisites of the attache 7 sufficed to maintain the dig-
nity of his position, but were not enough for its
abuse. The Embassy, having failed on several
occasions to receive remittances of money that had
been made in the usual manner, employed the ser-
vices of English detectives, who, after several fail-
ures, succeeded in fixing the crime of the abstraction
of the funds on the subordinate.
The young man, receiving timely information
that suspicion had fallen on him, immediately, in
the habit of an English laborer, went on board a
Dutch vessel then lying in the Thames, which in a
few hours thereafter hoisted sail for America. Ar-
rived at new New York, he deemed it unsafe to re-
main, and having heard of the wilds of Soutlmn
Pennsylvania, journeyed thitherward. And alter
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 43
a fatiguing travel of many days, through forests
and swamps, and crossing broad rivers, he reached
a locality one-half mile east of the present site of
Fawn Grove, York county. He built a rude hut of
bark, a few yards above the spring, ou the farm now
in the occupancy of Thomas II. Wright, Esq., and
there tarried for a time, subsisting on the game the
forest afforded and the trout caught in the waters of
Wild Cat Branch. His stay would probably have
been protracted, but ascertaining a few months after
his coming that several families of English sup-
posed to have been members of the Society of Friends
had migrated to his vicinity, he hurriedly left, and
directing his steps southward, found himself in a
few hours amidst the rugged hills and dense forests
in the vicinity of the Rocks of Deer Creek, and
believing that here, if anywhere, he would be safe
from the pursuit of justice, he chose as the place of
his refuge the rock now known as the Robber's Den.
Better thoughts came to the unfortunate, and he
resolved to expiate, by penitence and reformation, if
such could be, the sin that had made him an outcast
and a fugitive in the wilds of America. There was,
indeed, no church in the wilderness, at the altars
of which he could bow, no clergyman to instruct and
comfort, but He against whom he had most sinned,
who is not confined to temples built with hands,
was there in that " void waste," to witness his tears
and hear his cries. Alas ! there needed only the
presence of the tempter and the occasion of tempt-
ation where are they not? to call forth again
the vicious elements of character that had not been
destroyed, only suppressed. At that time Mason
and Dixon were running and marking the boundary
44 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
line between the provinces of Maryland and Penn-
sylvania, and their party had in the progress of
their work reached a point near where the road from
Fawn Grove to Fellowship Methodist Episcopal
Church crosses Wild Cat Branch. At a spring near
by, now on the farm of J. L. Glenn, Esq., they
had encamped for a few days to await supplies of
provisions from Philadelphia, by way of Joppa,
then a seaport town in the province of Maryland.
From what is now Forest Hill, there ran northward
toward the camp of the surveyors the Indian trail
of which I have written, along which the packed
mules must pttss.
On the morning of what promised to be a bright
autumnal day, the robber was awakened from his
somewhat protracted slumbers by the cries of the
muleteers then approaching. Hastily seizing his
gun, he made rapidly for the summit of Rock Ridge,
one mile southwest of the Rocks, and secreting
himself, awaited the coming of the train. In less
than an hour it reached that point of the path, and
being in range with his rifle, he fired, killing the
leading mule. This so alarmed the drivers that
they hastily abandoned the mules, and ran in the
direction of their camp. Hiding the spoils in a se-
cure place, the robber left the locality of his Den for
a time, to avoid the search that he feared would be
made for him. In a few weeks he returned to the
cave.
In the Den the once accomplished gentleman and
honored scholar and diplonmte, but now degraded
and dishonored man, passed several years of his life,
issuing therefrom, as necessity constrained him, to
prey upon the unsuspecting and often unarmed
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 45
travelers. His many deeds of cruel daring are re-
corded in the " Book of the Chronicles of the Rocks
of Deer Creek," but, sadly for our knowledge, these
chronicles are written in a language to which we
have no adequate key. There has come down to us
the interpretation of a few words of the now obso-
lete language, which gives us some faint idea of the
difficulty of translation by the most skilled philolo-
gists, if a translation is possible at all. The words
are : NummatQhakodtautamoQnkanunnannash our
lusts ; Kummogkodonattootirnmooetjongannunnon-
ash our questions ; and Noowomantainmoonkauu-
naunash our loves. Whether this was the lan-
guage of the Susquehannocks, who originally occu-
pied the country in the vicinity of the Rocks, or of
the Lenopes, who possessed the country eastward
and northward, or of the Mingoes, who at one period
dominated both of these nations, we have not been
advised. It may be an admixture of the three, as
it is known that the intermingling of tribes did
modify dialects. Nor do we know whether the
learned may or may not find in the words resem-
blance to the family of Semetic languages the He-
brew, Chaldee, Arabic, Punic, Aramean, Syriac,
Ethiopic, Hymyaritic. If such could be shown to
be the case, then we might hope for the ultimate
translation into English of the " Book of the Chron-
icles of the Rocks of Deer Creek." Such a result
would also establish the theory of the eastern ori-
gin of the Indians of North America.
The coming of new settlers made the habitation of
the robber and philologist untenantable. He could
not expose himself to the certainty of detection.
Furthermore, just at that time a paper was found
46 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
by him in the path opposite the Den ; its contents
were as follows: " By the King, a proclamation
for the more effectual reducing and suppressing of
pirates and privateers in America, as well on the
sea as on the land in great numbers, committing fre-
quent robberies and piracies, which hath occasioned
a great prejudice and obstruction to trade and com-
merce, and given a great scandal and disturbance to
our government in those parts." London Gazette.
Whither he went, we do not know ; and the only
remembrance of the unhappy man is the " Book of
the Chronicles of the Rocks of Deer Creek." Who
can translate it?
THE ENCHANTRESS OF HUNTING RIDGE.
RUNNING parallel with Rock Ridge, one and a-half
miles north-northwest of the Rocks of Deer Creek,
is Hunting Ridge, and, like the first, is high,
rugged, and in places precipitous. Both ridges are
covered with trees, generally of large growth, and
between them is a narrow valley. The whole scene
is of the wildest character, and, singularly, to the
inhabitants generally of the county of Harford, is
almost as much unknown as are the Highlands of
Scotland or the mountains of Switzerland. In the
narrow valley, at a time far beyond the memory of
living man, tjiere dwelt, as th-e ancient legend tells
TIIEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 47
us, in a rude hut, built of unhewn logs and cov-
ered with clapboards, a family consisting of three
persons an aged man, apparently of fourscore
years, intellectual in his appearance and courtly in
his manners; a venerable woman, intelligent and
dignified of mien ; their daughter, a young lady
possessing much beauty, affable, and of rare intel-
lectual and social accomplishments. Whence they
came none knew, and why they should have left a
refined and cultivated community to take up their
residence in so isolated and forbidding a locality
was a mystery to all. After a time the abode was
untenanted, and no one knew whither the former
occupants had gone. A few years ago a gentleman
visited La Grange, the country-seat of E. S. Rogers,
Esq., and hearing the legend, was prompted by
curiosity, and the interest he felt in the shadowy
past, to visit the unknown scenes. About the mid-
dle of the afternoon of a summer day he left the
residence of his hospitable friend at La Grange, and
walked to the locality of whose physical attractions
and mythical story he had heard. The experiences
of his visit I will give in his own language, as
nearly as my memory will permit me :
" Entranced by the grandeur of the hills and
the picturesque loveliness of the vale, I lingered
until the twilight of the evening came. Warned
by the lateness of the hour, I was about to retrace
my steps toward La Grange, when I observed, a
short distance from me, a rude hut of logs, which
gave signs of occupation. Associating this scene
with the legend of the mysterious family, I felt an
uncontrollable impulse to visit the rude habitation
and its inmates. As I approached the dwelling I
48 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
heard a female voice of exquisite melodiousness,
accompanied by a harp, singing
" When summer flowers are weaving
Their perfume wreaths in air,
And the zephyr wings receiving
The love gifts gently bear ;
Then memory's spirit stealing,
Lifts up the veil she wears,
In all their light revealing
The loved of other years.
" When summer stars are shining
In the deep, blue midnight sky,
And their brilliant rays entwining,
Weave coronals on high ;
When the fountain's waves are singing
In tones night only hears,
Then sweet thoughts waken, bringing
The loved of other years.
" The flowers around me glowing,
The midnight stars' pure gleams,
The fountain's ceaseless flowing,
Recalls life's fondest dreams,
Where all be bright in heaven,
And tranquil are the spheres,
To thee sweet thoughts are given,
The loved of other years.
" The interest I had felt was now intensified, and
immediately upon the cessation of the voice and
harp I rapped at the door. It was heard and an-
swered by a gentle voice, bidding me, ' Come in.'
I entered, and finding but a single occupant, a
young lady, made as though I would leave the
room, when a kind but emphatic, ' Be seated,'
constrained me to remain. The young lady in
whose presence I was possessed great personal at-
tractions. Her features were regular, he form elas-
tic and graceful, showing that no common blood
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY,. 49
flowed through her veins. An irrepressible desire
seized me to know by what strange mutation of for-
tune one so gifted should have been impelled to
bury herself and all her hopes in this desolate wil-
derness. I was about to enter into conversation,
with the view of eliciting information that might
give me a clue to the history of the mysterious be-
ing, when I felt myself under the influence of a
strange spell. In a few moments I was in a pro-
found slumber. How long I slept I did not know,
and when I awoke the scene was wholly changed.
I was in a princely mansion. In the room a soli-
tary light was gleaming. The windows were
draped with heavy silken curtains. A whisper of
leaves and the murmur of a fountain were heard
coming from without. Delicate flowers, arranged
in vases, were shedding their perfume through the
room, and the silver lam)) shed a soft arid radiant
light on every object. The only occupant of the
room besides myself was a young lady of medium
height, pale of complexion, standing, statue-like,
in the middle of the room, with a harp in her hand.
8 he sang :
" Deep hidden in the bosom lies
A talisman of magic power,
An heirloom borrowed from the skies,
For man in his first sinless hour,
Inwoven in his secret heart
By some kind, pitying angel's hand,
Eve, Eden saw him sad depart
A wandering exile through the land.
This, when all other gifts took wing,
When of each heavenly gift bereft,
He stood a doomed, deserted thing,
From the great moral wreck was left
Was left to light the lurid gloom
5
50 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
That gathered o'er in his fall,
To burst, to brighten, and to bloom
O'er mined Eden, Ere, Earth all,
Awakening joys that ne'er were his
In all their matchless pride and power,
Until all other hopes of bliss
Fled from him. In that angry hour,
When Heaven resumed the gifts it gaye,
And drove him forth in his despair
To look upon his future grave,
The self-same hand was ready there
As when it plucked the fruit for him.
She touched the gem his bosom bore,
And though till now its light was dim,
A glory like the Cherubim
It from that magic moment wore.
And ever, r mid the wrong and wrath
Of life, there beaineth far above
The darkness dwelling on his path,
The glory gleam of woman's love.
" Again the scene changed. I was in the depths
of a dark forest. It was midday, but the light of
the sun scarce reached me at the spot where I was
standing the overhanging branches of the heavy-
foliaged trees were almost impenetrable to its rays.
Of the time when I left the princely mansion and
its accomplished inmate I had no recollection, nor
how I reached the interior of the forest. I saw no
road, not even a path, by which I could have entered
it. My situation perplexed me ; indeed, alarmed
me. For the first time in my life I saw myself
surrounded by a network of curious circumstances
I cuuld not comprehend. My intellect failed me in
the perception of my real condition ; so also in the
apprehension of the means by which I might be
relieved from what seemed to me a hopeless impris-
onment in the unknown wilderness. The anxieties
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 51
of my situation awoke me. I was in the library of
my friend at La Grange. Looking at the clock
upon the mantel, I found that I had been asleep
half an hour. I had been under the influence of a
great Enchantress."
THE AGED TRAPPER, HUNTER AND FISH-
ERMAN OF THE INDIAN CUPBOARD.
THK Indian Cupboard is a well-known locality
one and a-half miles below the Rocks of Deer Creek
and one-fourth mile below the ancient mill now
owned by heirs of the late J. Bond Preston, Esq.
The Cupboard is a cavern entering a bold and pro-
jecting rock whose base is washed by the waters of
Deer Creek. Within a few yards of this rock is
the home of Alexius, the noted trapper, hunter and
fisherman. When Alexius first saw the light of
day is not known by the writer of this narrative,
nor is it important to the interest of the story that
it should be known. I am aware that ordinarily
such ignorance might be interpreted as evidence of
want of interest in the subject of the story, and
perhaps as a lack of appreciation of his deeds.
Such a judgment would do essential injustice to the
hero, and such he was in the truest and most sig-
nificant sense of that term. If his deeds do not
52 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
rival those of the celebrated Baron Munchausen in
the quality of exaggeration, or those of the Arabian
Nights in romantic significance, they are such as to
rank him with the celebrities of the time, and to
entitle him to a place on the historic page. The
place where the infantile cries of Alexius were first
heard is among the wild, weird scenes of Upper
Deer Creek, in the vicinity of the Rocks so celebrated
in .story and in song. The great-grandparents
of Alexius were from the Island of Madagascar, in
the Indian Ocean. Their migration to the Ameri-
can Continent was a forced one. The negroes of
Zululand, South Africa, known as daring and
aggressive warriors, and unscrupulous as to the
means by which they secured their ends, under
pretense of a friendly visit, entered Madagascar
with hostile purpose, and attacking their unsuspect-
ing and unprepared army, defeated them, taking
many prisoners. These they sold to Portuguese
traders, who, in turn, transferred them to English
dealers in men. Among these were the ancestors
of the subject of my story. They were put on
board ship, and, after a somewhat tempestuous
voyage of ten months, were landed at Joppa, then
a seaport town in the province of Maryland. Hap-
pily for them and their descendants, they were
purchased upon their arrival in America by a hu-
mane and benevolent gentleman then residing in
the vicinity of Scott's old fields, now Bel Air, the
county-seat of Harford.
Before proceeding further in the relation of my
story, I will state, by way of parenthesis, that the '
people of Madagascar are not negroes. They arc
copper-colored, have straight black hair, and lack
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 53
those prominent facial features which belong to the
African race proper. They were sometimes en-
slaved, because it was practicable to do so, and
profitable because their better looks made their
possession more desirable. Enslaved, they inter-
married with the inferior race, and hence but few,
if any, remain of unmixed Island blood.
It is due to the character of slaveholders gener-
ally of that early period in the history of our Conti-
nent, to say that they were not deficient in those
qualities that were needed to the discharge of the
duties of their relations as masters. Their ser-
vants such they were called were well fed, well
clothed, and their tasks, unlike those of Egyptian
bondmen, were not heavy. To them was imparted
a measure of education, and their attendance upon
religious service was encouraged. In their early
years they were allowed the utmost latitude of lib-
erty. Basking in the sun, rolling in the sand, wad-
ing in the water, and an occasional siesta, consti-
tuted chiefly their summer employment ; the winter,
in the ashes by the blazing hickory fire, the occa-
sional episode, snow-balling or sliding on the ice.
The only fear of the youthful negro was of his irate
mamma, whose habit of persistent beatings has often
suggested the inquiry, " Is the African woman des-
titute of sympathy ? ' ' Many a negro child has been
shielded from the cruel treatment of its mother by
the authority of a sympathetic master or mistress.
Instincts are hereditary, and though they may be
modified by time and circumstances, often survive
in their original character, with more or less dis-
tinctness, for many generations. The woman in
Africa who will barter her child for gain, in America
54 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
may inflict cruel chastisements. Alexius was for-
tunate in the possession of his Madagascan mother,
she having all that solicitude for her offspring, and
exercising that maternal care which insured their
comfort ; and having in his mistress a lady of great
benevolence of character and kindness of heart, his
youthful life was happy.
Alexius developed at a very early age those tastes
and qualities which have made him so celebrated in
the annals of Deer Creek as a most skillful and
successful trapper, hunter and fisherman. Retiring
in his nature, he loved the solitudes of the forest,
and found in communion with its occupants the
gratification denied by the common pursuits of life.
And it was thus in his association with birds and
fishes. At that period the forests of Deer Creek
abounded in game, and its waters in fish. In the
woods were raccoons, opossums, ground-hogs, wild-
cats, and smaller game; in the streams fall-fish,
perch, eels, trout and turtle. The favorite game
of our hunter was the ground-hog, or wood-chuck,
as naturalists call it ; and many are the wonderful
and marvelous stories told of his adventures with
this animal. Like a skillful hunter as he was, his
first effort was to secure their confidence. He fre-
quented their burrows and made their acquaintance.
He had the peculiar faculty of making himself
understood by them. This animal is not alone in
its susceptibility to education. The flea has been
trained to know the voice of its master, and to be
obedient to his commands. Unhappily fur the con-
liding chuck, the motive of the seemingly friendly
hunter was sinister ; he smiled only to betray, and
the confidence of the simple chuck was his destruc-
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 55
tion. 'Possum-hunting was an exciting pastime.
In the woods of Rock Ridge and contiguous hills he
passed much time in this, to him, pleasing pursuit.
His hahit was to leave his retreat about nightfall,
taking with him his two trusty dogs, Bell and Trav-
eler. Once on a trail, they followed it unerringly
to the hiding-places of the game, which were usu-
ally in the thick boughs of some lofty tree, or in
the rocky caves with which the ridges abound.
The coon treed, the hunter ascended the tree with
almost the agility of the squirrel, and, ascertaining
the position of the game, proceeded to dislodge it.
This he did either by a violent shaking of the limb,
or by pushing the animal from his perch with a long
and heavy pole. The coon on the ground was
immediately secured by the dogs. More than
once the hunter narrowly escaped the loss of
his life in these perilous adventures, and he
bears to this day on his hand the mark of the
bite of an enraged coon struggling for his liber-
ty. Want of space forbids the enumeration of
the many thrilling adventures connected with his
pursuit of game in the forests. In the water he
was equally successful. Eels of enormous length
and size were trophies of the fisherman's skill, as
also turtles of great bulk and wonderful strength.
Notwithstanding the asseveration of the fisherman,
whose veracity it is not our province to question,
it is hard to believe that " Big Turtle " supported
the weight of a man of one hundred and sixty
pounds, and carried him on his back the distance
of a half-mile. The theory of Darwin the survival
of the fittest would lead us to look for animals of
larger size at the present than in the past, and there
56 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
is the remotest possibility that this trophy of our
fisherman's skill was one the last survivor possi-
bly of a family that had, by a fortuitous and for-
tunate concurrence of circumstances, been preserved
from the power of all trappers, hunters and fisher-
men, from Nimrod down to the last of his class on
Deer Creek.
Our hunter was characterized by an even courage
that made him equal to emergencies generally. He
was never known to exhibit fear in contest with bird
or beast or fish. It was different as to a gigantic
snake, a habitue of the hill opposite the old mill
above the Cupboard. This snake tl was twenty ieet
long and thick as a man's body. " It is conjectured
that it was of foreign origin, or was of the Hairs-
spring species that in very late times so excited the
people of that section of Baltimore county, Md. But
whatever may be the opinion of the present genera-
tion as to these accounts of the size of the fauna of
the past, it is true that our hero was remarkably
successful in his favorite vocations. And now, in
his old age, he is envied by the younger generation
of hunters, trappers and fishermen. He may be
seen occasionally bearing homeward, as a trophy of
his skill, a fat " chuck," and often in the early
spring or summer morning drawing from the waters
of Deer Creek the largest fall-fish or the longest eel.
The " coon " and the " 'possum " are now secure in
their retreats, for age has incapacitated him for those
exertions necessary to their successful pursuit.
A new day has dawned. An intensive civiliza-
tion, eager for great achievements, has decreed that
the hills and dales of Upper Deer Creek shall no
longer rest in the; % comparative solitudes. The
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 57
tramroad and the steam engine, with their enormous
capacity of transportation, are about to substitute
the common modes of travel and trade. The change
will bring an increased population, and insure the
erection of factories and mills. The theatres of the
solitary wanderings and walkings and skillful
achievements of our hunter, trapper and fisherman
will re-echo with the whirr of the wheel and the
sound of the hammer. A new generation, with its
real and artificial wants, will take the place of the
old, content in its enjoyment of the common modes
of life.
The Indian Cupboard, no longer tenantable, has
been abandoned. A common country road has
marred its beauties, and soon the mighty and
mysterious dynamite will reduce its proportions
still more. Reluctant to leave a spot endeared to
him by so many recollections of the past, the subject
of our narrative is building of stone and wood, un-
der the shadow of the Copper Rock, a habitation
conformable to the style of modern times, where, as
a partial compensation for the great loss he has sus-
tained, the exclusion of the employments and pleas-
ures of the past, he will view the mysterious
stranger as it passes by, laden with the productions
of the earth and the fruits of human skill.
The story I have told is not of one reared in afflu-
ence, a child of fortune, but of a poor man, who has
illustrated the dignity of manhood in the faithful
discharge of the duties of life as he understood them.
And there are those who have owed to him the
preservation of their lives from a watery grave in
the sometimes excessively swollen and turbulent
waters of Deer Creek ; and many more for assist-
58 THE ROCKS OP DEER CREEK.
ances and courtesies that ought not to be forgotten.
To that class of the community who worship only
the great we have no apology to offer for this re-
membrance of the humble. We find in such recol-
lection an illustration of the well-known adage,
" Act well your part ; there all the honor lies."
THE MINE OLD FIELDS ; OR, THE GATH-
ERING OF THE WITCHES.
Two miles east portheast of the Rocks are the
Mine Old Fields. This locality, though the Ara-
bia Petrea of this section of Harford County, is
not without a certain degree of interest, and may
be catalogued with the many curious and attractive
natural objects of the neighborhood of the Rocks.
It is an elevated plateau of considerable area, abound-
ing in iron ore, chrome and other minerals. Much
of the rock is soapstone of a superior quality.
From this stone the Susquehannocks and other In-
dians of the vicinity made their culinary vessels.
Occasionally there is found a pot or other relic which
is treasured as a souvenir of the distant past. These
Fields, as they are called, have never produced
wheat, or corn, or other cereals, but did for a time
yield an abundant harvest of iron ore, which, being
smelted, was manufactured into various articles that
the necessities of civilized life demand, and they
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 59
will, doubtless, upon the completion of the Bail-
road, yield again their valuable treasures.
A tradition exists that on this territory was found,
many years ago, a rich mine of lead ; that it was
known to the first Mr. Rigdon, settled near by on
land now in the occupancy of some of his decend-
ants. He was, in his day, a great hunter, and ob-
tained there, it is said, all the lead he used. There
is a similar tradition that in the immediate vicinity
of the Hocks there is a gold mine, known to the Sus-
quehannocks, the original inhabitants, the knowl-
edge of which was communicated by them to some
white man who visited the locality at an early day.
The contractor who made his way by powder, and
crowbar and pick through the formidable rock, in
the hill immediately beyond the creek, above the
mill, found in the rock a substance bearing so strong
a resemblance to gold that he conveyed a Urge
specimen to the shanty. There it was for a time to
be examined by the curious. But like the discover-
ers of gold at the settlement of Jamestown, Vir-
ginia, expectants were doomed to disappointment.
The Mine Old Fields do have iron and chrome, and
perhaps lead.
Like other portions of this far-famed section of
Harford, the Mine Old Fields have a mythical his-
tory. The story of the gathering there by moon-
light of the witches to practice their mysterious
rites, has come down to us of the present generation.
We shall relate it substantially as it was told to an
aged citizen by that venerable hermit, whose roman-
tic and touching history is written in this book.
That the story may be properly appreciated, it will
be necessary to preface it by some preliminary
statements.
60 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
Many persons believe not only in the power of
the devil to assume a corporeal form, hut also in his
capacity of acting injuriously upon mankind through
the instrumentality of others. Baxter, the author
of the "Saint's Rest," shared this opinion with
many of the wisest and best of England in an age
of culture and refinement. The same credulous
tone of mind existed in New England in its early
history. It is true that at that period belief in
witchcraft -ind other diabolical agencies were popu-
lar delusions which were rapidly disappearing from
the world, but such men as Cotton Mather and the
intelligent inhabitants of Palem were always ready
to sustain their belief in such superstitions both
from holy writ and philosophy. It was an excess
of the imagination, affecting not only the stupid
and the dull, but also the highest wrought minds.
The early residents of our vicinage were a simple
and enthusiastic people, primitive in their manners,
and were doubtless affected by the sentiments of
their more pretentious fellow citizens northeast of
them. The Puritan, then as now, despite the pre-
judice and repugnancy felt toward him, singularly
impressed his views and opinions upon others. In
the existence of witches and other malevolent beings
a*id their power of harm, many of our ancestors
had the most implicit faith. They saw spirits and
witches ; to them devils appeared ; strange sights
were seen, strange sounds were heard. The Jack
o' the Lantern was recognized as a personality
whose every purpose was evil, and whose following
certainly brought perplexity, and even peril of life.
The Fay, though extremely diminutive in size, was
greatly feared, not so much on account of its physi-
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 61
cal ability to do harm as of a supposed moral power
of evil. The potent words were spell, charm, witch-
craft.
Why witches practice incantation on moonlight
nights may possibly be explained on philosophical
principles. There is no peculiarity, that we are
aware of, in the visual organs of a witch. The singu-
lar construction of the eye of an owl or an Albinos
adapts their sight to moonlight. The retinas of
witches are suited to the light of day. 'Tis not that ;
'tis this, perhaps. The moon is idiosyncratic ;
psychologically, she is peculiar, and by the well-
known law of sympathy impresses her own nature
upon the nature of man. It must be so, or else the
word lunacy would not have found a place in our
lexicography. Other reasons why the witches were
wont to assemble in the Mine Old Fields on moon-
light nights are apparent. They had light. Be-
sides, the fears of the people, heightened by moon-
light, were a defence to them as strong as the walls
of a fortified city. The witches were there, and there
they practiced their dark rites. Around the blazing
fire and the boiling caldron they, with joined hands,
walked during the hours of moonlight " black
spirits arid white, red spirits and gray," singing :
"Mingle, mingle, mingle,
You that mingle may,"
and invoking the spirits of power, ceased their
orgies only when there came to them the gifts of
power, in the exercise of which they satanically de-
lighted. The demonstration of the fact that they
who gathered in the Mine Old Fields by moonlight
were witches, was that people in the vicinity became
6
62 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
sick in all sorts of ways, falling into strange fits,
crawling under beds and into cupboards, barking
like dogs, inewing like cats, bleating like sheep, and
lowing like cattle. The doctors were sent for, and
they declared that their patients were bewitched.
All were superstitious. All believed in diabolical
agency. Terror and consternation were in every
heart.
Living at that day on Deer Creek, one mile east
of the Mine Old FieMs, in an humble dwelling, was
an aged woman, whose only misfortune if such it
were was that she was poor and infirm. The
other occupants of the hut were an aged Indian
woman, one of the very few who remained after her
people had migrated westward, and a young man of
the class of the "innocents," as the Swiss mountain-
eers benevolently name such unfortunates as are
not endowed at birth with the sana mens. Albert,
as he was always tenderly called by his aged moth-
er, willingly labored to provide sustenance for the
household, and the Indian woman, Maggy, having
been taught the art of weaving, contributed also by
her industry and skill to the support of the family.
Of the aged matron of the lowly household it might
have been said, " She that is a widow indeed, and
desolate, trusting in God, and continueth in suppli-
cation night and day ;" and of her assistant, " She
hath done what she could." An Eden it was. But
the cruelties of suspicion were soon to be felt by
the hitherto unsuspecting and confiding household.
Trouble came from an unexpected source.
Father G., a prominent man of the neighbor-
hood, in conversation had said, " Tliere have been
wizards and witches in all times," and that pious
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 63
and learned man, Cotton Mather, says, ".That if
all the spectral appearances and molestations of evil
angels, and tricks of necromancy, and bodily appa-
ritions of Satan and his imps, could he collected
and counted, that are daily and nightly going on,
all righteous and goodly men's hair would stand
on ends with horror." " In these parts," con-
tinued Father G., "are infernal doings," and
pointing significantly toward the cabin which the
unsuspecting were abiding in peace, ominously said,
" Satan may now abide there." That was sufficient
to create in all minds a suspicion that very soon
ripened into a conviction, that the aged and decrepit
occupant of the cottage, as, perhaps, also her faith-
ful assistant, dealt with familiar spirits, and that
much, if not all, the strange evils which afflicted
the community were to be attributed to their ma-
chinations.
On the morning of the following day the former
habitation of the widow was but a pile of smoking
ashes. The people said, "The wretches who made
a compact with Satan, and inflicted the evils we
suffer, have perished. Give God the glory."
From the Mine Old Fields the witches have de-
parted. Their unhallowed rites have ceased ; the
innocent are at rest. And Father G. has, we hope,
expiated his great wrong in the light of a knowl-
edge free from cruel suspicion.
64 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
THE FALLING BRANCH ; OR, THE CAP-
TURED BRIDE.
EMPTYING into Deer Creek, three miles above the
Rocks, is Falling Branch. It is so called from the
fact that a mile or more above its mouth its waters
fall from a rock twenty-five or thirty feet in height,
forming a miniature Niagara, which, with the
picturesque and romantic surroundings, constitute
a most pleasing attraction. To some this curiosity
is more attractive than the Rocks, nature not dis-
playing herself in such bold and massive forms, but
exceeding in picturesque beauty. It is a wild scene,
primitive almost as when the wild man speared the
speckled trout that abounded in its waters, or shot
the swift deer that frequented the adjacent forests.
Here the attention of the visitor is also curiously
drawn to a series of stone steps that lead from the
base of the rock over which the waters fall to its
summit. These steps were seemingly cut by the
hand of man. If so, by whom and by what instru-
ments? The Susquehannocks, who dwelt by the
locality when discovered by the white man, were
men of large size and of much strength, but could
physical strength so handle the stone axe or hatchet
as to make the achievement possible? If human
ingenuity and labor constructed the steps, it may
have been done by that previous race whose instru-
ments of labor were of copper or iron, or by the
present race, to whom invention has supplied such
instruments in their more perfect forms.
Within fifteen or twenty yards of the falls and
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 65
directly opposite them are the remains of a mill and
a dwelling-house, the former abode of the miller.
Why the immediate contiguity of those build-
ings to the ialls? Was the builder and occupier a
man of romantic turn of mind? Appreciating the
scene, and charmed by the music of the falling
waters, were these the motives that prompted him
to fix his residence in this wild spot? It would be
pleasant to think so, but sadly for our imaginings,
the suspicion of utility and economy is suggested.
His nearness to the falls obviated the necessity of
building a dam of perishable material, or the digging
of a race, or the construction of a trunk more than
a few feet in length. Wise, worldly wise, was Isaac
Jones in his day and generation. But for aught we
know, in the heart of that plain man who patiently
watched the hopper in the years long gone, when
northern Harford was a comparative wilderness, and
the progenitors of the pretentious race of the pres-
ent were a plain folk without ambition to be great,
there may have been the highest and the subtliest
appreciation of nature in her sublime and beautiful
moods, and a susceptibility to art that brought to
him the knowledge of that mysterious law a law
operative in the realms of spirit and matter equally,
which harmonizes the creations of the made with
the works of the Maker. The artist-born builds not
a high house in a diminutive and contracted valley,
nor a low one on a high hill overlooking an extended
plain. These are but few of the many fitnesses of
things perceived by the man whom God has created
great in his appreciation of the harmonies of nature.
Almost a demonstration of the possession of this
quality is the row of Lombardy poplars, now in
66 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
decay, that were planted in front of the dwelling,
which, with the native forest trees and rocks and
cataract and rapid river, constituted a scene of sur-
passing attractiveness.
The Falling Branch owes its chief attraction to
the story of the Captured Bride, which, though
confessedly legendary and mythical, is not without
a certain degree of interest, especially to persons of
much romantic susceptibility. Arlotto was the only
daughter of a gentleman of fortune, whose home
was in the vicinity of Hull, England. The attrac-
tions of her person and the fascination of her man-
ners, added to a superior mental and moral culture,
brought to her presence many admirers. Among
them was an officer of the English Army. Young,
handsome, accomplished, brave, the scion of a noble
family, in all respects worthy of her whose qual-
ities of mind and heart had so strongly attracted
him, his suit was encouraged, and after a proper
interval of time, they were wedded. The church,
or rather cathedral, in which the nuptials were
celebrated, was
^
"A dim and mighty Minster of old times!
A temple shadowy with remembrance
Of the majestic past."
Everything about it told of a race
41 that nobly, fearlessly,
In their heart's worship poured forth a wealth of love."
There, under its fretted roof, and in the midst of its
wrought coronals of ivy, and vine, and leaves, and
sculptured rose '*the teriderest image of mortal-
ity" the light which streamed through arch and
TI1EIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 67
aisle in harmony with all ; that dim, religious light,
which is a reminder of the past of the dim, the
shadowy, the heroic past there, in the select
assemhly of the high-born, they pledged each to
other their troth, and were by the aged and vener-
able priest pronounced man and wife. Retiring
from the church, they were followed by the aged
minister and his assistants, singing a recessional
hymn, accompanied by the organ, the flood of its
harmony bearing up on its high waves their voices
attuned to the praise of God. Such was the mar-
riage scene.
The past is always suggestive of the future. The
memories of the past, like dim processions of a
dream, are associated with visions of the future,
though indistinct as dreams that ic sink in twilight
depths away." Arlotto passed from the altar
happy, indeed, in the sense of the love of her now
adored husband, but not without thoughts tinged
with sadness. Apprehension of coming sorrows
was the shadow that fell upon her pathway so soon.
" Coming events " sorrowful and pleasant alike
" cast their shadows before." A few days after
the marriage the young officer was ordered to rejoin
his regiment, then at Portsmouth, about to embark
for America. This summons was the interpretation,
in part, of the mysterious revelations that mingled
with her present joys fears of future evils.
"Even so the dark and bright will kiss;
The sunniest things throw brightest shade,
And there is even a happiness
That makes the heart afraid."
The New World was at this period a theatre for
68 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
the struggles of giants. France and England were
contending for the mastery, and the stake was a
continent, with all its possibilities of wealth and
power. So desperate was the conflict, and of such
magnitude was the issue, that each party was
obliged to avail itself of all its resources. To the
place of battle, so full of peril to the participants,
the youthful officer would have gone alone. He
was unwilling that his bride should be subjected to
the privations incident to warfare, and to the perils
always attending it, greater in this case because of
the character of the foe. The savages were gener-
ally the allies of the French. Yielding to her en-
treaties, he consented that she should accompany
him.
Arriving in America, the regiment to which the
officer belonged was detached to form a part of the
army then being raised by the governors of Massa-
chusetts and Connecticut, and designed to operate
against the French and Indians, who in large force
were threatening the borders of their respective prov-
inces. In a battle fought soon after his entrance
upon the campaign, the young officer was wounded,
and left upon the field as dead. Arlotto, imme-
diately upon the cessation of the conflict, made her
way to the ensanguined field, and after a patient
and anxious search found her yet living husband.
The dying sufficiently recovered to recognize her
whose presence was the only earthly solace left to
him. A few words, with difficulty uttered, were
expressive of the tenderness and strength of his
affection. Arlotto hoped. How delusive that hope 1
"A moment more and she
Knew the fullness of her woe at last !
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 69
One shriek the forests heard and mute she lay
And cold; yet clasping still the precious clay
To her scarce heaving breast."
Awaking from what was less than death and more
than sleep, Arlotto became conscious of the presence
of a dusky form bending with seeming sympathy
over her prostrate body. It was an aged Indian
warrior, who, taking her tenderly by the hand,
bade her arise, and by further signs indicated his
desire that she should follow him. Toward the
setting sun they journeyed slowly for some days ;
then south-eastward until they reached the imme-
diate vicinity of the Falling Branch. There was
the home of her captor, a lone cabin in the woods,
within hearing of the plunging waters of the cata-
ract. The Indian woman in whose care she was
placed, seemingly won by "a form so desolately
fair/' or touched by the remembrance of some deep
sorrow, manifested an unwonted interest in the cap-
tive, and cared for her with all the tenderness and
solicitude of a mother. The aged warrior and his
wife had seen a daughter go to the land of spirits,
' ' And ever from that time her fading mien
And voice, like winds of summer, soft and low,
Had haunted their dim years."
And fancying that they saw in their captive a re-
semblance to their only child, whose early death
had thrown upon their pathway heavy shadows,
their hearts, " with all their wealth of love," were
touched by the sorrows of her to whom was left only
the memories of the past. In the forest was no
temple erected by human hands dedicated to the
Sufferer of Calvary. It was a void waste, in which
70 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
the sound of the church-going bell was not heard ;
nor priest nor altar was there. Yet in the silent
majesty of the deep woods, and in the presence of
the silver brook which pours from its full laver the
white cascade, was more than the spirit of poetry
which dwells amid such scenes. The spirit of the
Holy One was there, and valley and brook, and cas-
cade and deep woods and everlasting hills, and the
green trees, were a grand minster at the altars of
which the devout could worship and the sorrowing
find relief. To this temple and to these altars in
the green wood, by the side of babbling streams, in
the sunlight and the stars' bright gleams, the sufferer
went, and thither she led her captors, and there she
taught them to listen to the voice of Him whose
presence is the glory of all temples and of all altars.
The harp-string too strongly tensioned breaks.
Worn with grief and hopeless of relief, Arlotto
wasted, and when autumn's last sigh was heard,
and the winter's blast, in the first days of spring ;
when " sound and odors with the breezes play
whispering of spring-time/' bore to her couch life's
farewell sweetness, then she was passing away to
that solemnly beautiful sleep, that deep stillness
which falls on the silent face of the dead.
Arlotto's life work was ended ; its great purposes
accomplished. In the depths of the forest, within
hearing of the murmuring waters of the Falling
Branch, in God's acre she sleeps, and by her side
her foster father and mother. In God's acre they
rest, and
"Into its furrows shall we all be cast,
In the sure faith that we shall rise again
At the great harvest, when the archangel's blast
Shall winnow, like a fan, the chaff and grain.
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 71
"Then shall the good stand in immortal bloom,
' In the fair gardens of that second birth ;
And each bright blossom mingle its perfume
With that of flowers which never bloomed on earth."
THE EAGLE.
"He clasps the crags with hooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world he stands,
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls."
Some yards above the Saloon at the Kocks and
under the hill, there lived in a small cabin a man
by the name of Cully, the father of Arch Cully, so
well known in his day by the residents of Rock
Ridge and its vicinity. At that early period the
Rocks and their surroundings were in almost their
original wildness, unaffected by the arts and appli-
ances of civilized life. The axe of the woodman
might have been heard now and then, but no house
other than the cabin had been erected, and no forge
or furnace to mar the scene.
It was wash-day to the aged matron of the hut,
and while engaged in the necessary vocation, she
heard the crtes of the chickens and the excited bark-
ings of the dog without. An eagle, whose nest,
with young, was on the summit of the opposite
72 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
Rock, had swooped down from her eyrie, and seized
with its talons one of the chickens. The little dog,
true to its instincts, hastened to the rescue, and
chicken, and dog, and eagle were soon engaged in
earnest contest. The eagle was likely to succeed in
her purpose, when the old lady, grasping her beetle,
ran to the rescue, and striking the eagle a deadly
blow, carried it in triumph to the cottage.
The eagles, like the original human inhabitants,
pressed by the presence of civilized man, have sought
their eyries on more distant and secluded heights.
Occasionally one may be seen hovering about the
summits of the Rocks, as if curious to observe the
past homes of its progenitors.
THE WITCH RABBIT.
AMONG the hills in the vicinity of the Rocks was
many years ago a remarkable rabbit. Tradit on
tells us that it was of the size of a Jack Rabbit,
that well-known habitant of the West, though not
of the same species. The hunters of those early
times sought by trap and snare to secure it, but
without success. Many a charge from musket and
shot-gun and rifle was directed toward it fruitlessly.
The opinion of our simple fathers was, that the
body of tfmt rabbit was the habitation of a witch,
and in solemn conference they resolved that it could
TIIEER LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 73
be slain by a silver bullet only. The scarcity of the
precious metal prevented the making of the problem-
atical experiment, and hence the possessed animal
was left to wander at will. For many years it has
not been seen. The witch may have taken another
habitation, or assumed another form. The en-
lightenment of the community has thrown doubt
upon the story, once so implicitly believed. People
now-a-days suspect much of the past to be mythical,
as it doubtless is, but subjecting everything to a
mathematical test, they may forget, as my credulous
friend suggests, that there are more things in heaven
and earth than are dreamed of in their philosophy.
Candor compels us to say that in our philosophy
there are no witches save those bewitching ones
whose manners captivate the susceptible youths of
the stronger sex.
THE BIG SNAKE.
THE existence of a species of snakes of large size
in the neighborhood of the Rocks has been reported
for many years. Mr. William Jeffrey, an aged
citizen of Bel Air, informed us that the track of a
snake "broad as a cart wheel" was pointed out to
him by his father seventy years ago ; that thirty,
and again fifty, years thereafter, the serpent itself
was seen. The Ancient Trapper avers that in his
7
74 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
youth he learned from a reliahle source of a snake
of extraordinary size, whose home was in the hill
opposite the Ancient Mill. By the incredulous, the
story was considered doubtful, or supposed to be an
exaggeration, but very recently several persons
whose truthfulness is not questioned, have declared
that they saw the monstrous reptile. The visitor
to the Rocks need have no fear, as the animal is
most likely to shun the presence of man. And it is
probable that the blasting of rocks in the making of
the Railroad will induce his majesty to seek another
domain in which to enjoy his hitherto acknowledged
supremacy over the beasts that crawl*
WHITSUNTIDE.
FOR many years the Rocks were a resort at Whit-
suntide. The best people of the country patronized
the festival. It was a favorable time for making
acquaintance and cementing friendships. And I
suppose that then, as now, on festal days, Cupid
was present, armed cap-a-pie, and that his arrows
failed not of many a worthy mark. An estimable
lady, who died a few years ago, living to be nearly
one hundred years of age, was wont to speak with
great interest of her visit to the Rocks of Deer
Creek at Whitsuntide, when she was a little girl.
Her memory of the delicate and refined attentions
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 75
of Colonel John Streett, a prominent gentleman of
Harford county, in those early days, was very dis-
tinct, and she failed not to speak of them enthusias-
tically
The Rocks in later years became at this season a
scene of dissipation and rowdyism, and the patron-
age of the more respectable classes was discontinued.
In the procession of years, another change has come.
Now, at all seasons, the Rocks are a point of attrac-
tion to all classes. The pic-nic, harvest homes,
political gatherings, railroad meetings, have substi-
tuted Whitsuntide ; and upon the completion of the
Baltimore and Delta Railroad, the Rocks must, from
the attractions of scenery and the salubrity of the
air, become the resort of persons from all sections
of the county and more distant points.
THE PERILOUS FEAT.
To SAY fool-hardy, would be an appropriate ad-
dition to qualify the act. A well-known resident
of the neighborhood of the Rocks illustrated the
truth of the old adage, " When wine is in wit is
out," by forcing his horse to the very verge of the
precipice, with seeming intention of throwing him-
self and his noble animal into the fearful abyss
below. The sober horse, with more discretion than
his drunken master, seeing the peril, turned at the
76 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
moment of immediate danger, and thus saved him-
self and rider from certain death. This unhappy
man afterward, in an attempt to force his horse
across Deer Creek when swollen, was drowned.
The particular point on the Creek where he
entered the water is said to have been about the head
of the dam of Preston's Mills. Thus died igno-
miniously a man who, but for indulgence in the use
of an unnecessary beverage, might have lived for
many years, a comfort to his family and an orna-
ment to society. The horse, Bold Hector, as he was
not inappropriately named, survived his unfortunate
master several years.
AN ACT OF VANDALISM.
ON the summit of the western Rocks was an im-
mense boulder, weighing many tons, poised on a
fixed rock so slightly and delicately that a strong
man could move it at will, and yet it was so related
to the rock upon which it rested, that it required
the force of four men, aided by levers, to throw it
from its position. These persons, without apprecia-
tion of nature, and of mere wantonness, or con-
ceiving the purpose of giving immortality to their
names, threw this object of great interest from its
position to the rocks below, where it now lies with-
out hope of its ever being replaced in its original
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 77
location. I have understood that the then proprie-
tor of the Rocks offered a reward for the discovery
of the perpetrators of the ignoble deed, 'but that
it was not effectual in securing that end. This
may have been fortunate. Otherwise the names of
the guilty parties might have been coupled in history
with the destroyers of Rome and the burners of the
Alexandrian Library.
CANAL AND RAILROAD.
WHEN the Tide- Water Canal was completed, our
citizens agitated the subject of slack-water naviga-
tion from a point five miles above La Grange to the
mouth of Deer Creek, the accomplishment of which
would have made a direct and cheap outlet for our
trade to Baltimore and Philadelphia. The idea
was born of a felt necessity, but could not have
been made practical. Such a project would not have
paid. And it has been well for the health of the
country bordering Deer Creek that it was impossible
of realization. Canals and fevers are synonymous
terms.
Instead of slack-water, locks and dams, with in-
creased disease, we shall have a Railroad, and more
direct communication with Baltimore, our chief
commercial city. Under the direction of a most
energetic President and an enterprising Board of
7*
78 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
Directors, sustained by citizens along the line, who
are awake to its advantages, it is being pushed with
commendable vigor, and will, we cannot doubt, be
completed in good time.
To our immediate Rocks of Deer Creek neigh-
borhood the effect of the road will be very signifi-
cant. Our rocks and minerals will be marketable,
and the attractions of our scenery will draw many
curious visitors. And it is to be hoped that the
possessors of the soil will awake from their more
than Rip Van Winkle sleep. It is strange that they
have slept so long, seeing that around them there
are so many examples worthy of imitation. The
enterprise, thrift and judgment of the many success-
ful farmers above, and the no less competent tillers
of the soil below, should stimulate us to an exertion
that may make this comparative wilderness blossom
as the rose. The Railroad, completed, will ensure
the development of all our interests. Our fields will
yield abundant harvests, the waters of Deer Creek
will be utilized in the operation of mills, and fac-
tories, and furnaces. Our lofty summits will be
crowned with the residences of their proprietors, or
occupied as the retreats of the wealthy inhabitants of
the city.
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY.
THE ORIGINAL MOONSHINER.
SOUTHEAST of the Rocks three-fourths of a mile,
through a ravine hidden by wooded hills, runs a
small stream, having its sources in several springs
a short distance above, which gives evidence of oc-
cupation and use. Remains of a dam still exist, as
also traces of a ditch, leading to what has the ap-
pearance of the foundation of a building. For what
purpose was the dam built, the ditch dug, and the
building erected? The oldest inhabitants cannot
answer these interrogatories, and have no tradition
in relation thereto. We are therefore left to conjec-
ture the purpose for which they were made. It
may have been the location of the distillery of some
moonshiner one of the progenitors of the gentle-
men of West Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina,
and elsewhere, who are engaged in illicit distilla-
tion, to the great detriment of the revenues of the
United States of America. If so, he could not have
selected a place more favorable to his vocation.
Since writing the above I have had conversations
with James Wann, Esq., and with David Tucker,
Sr., an aged citizen, from whom I have learned
some facts that may throw doubt on the moonshine
theory. They informed me that in the earlier days
of Harford the tub-mill was in use, requiring but
little water ; that the turning of chair-stuff by wa-
ter, of which little volume was required, was com-
mon ; as also the distillation of brandies from fruits,
requiring comparatively little water. The waters
of my brook may have been used for one of these
purposes. A remark made by our venerable citi-
80 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
zen, Mr. Tucker, throws doubt upon all these spec-
ulations. He said that it is not rare to find in the
forests of this portion of Harford traces of ditches,
sometimes of considerable length, leading to low-
lands, and suggested that they might have been
used for purposes of irrigation. If so, by whom?
Not one of the oldest inhabitants has any knowledge
of such use, and none know by whom they were ex-
cavated ; nor is there tradition bearing upon the
subject. Can it be that the people who preceded
the Indians in the occupancy of this country, and
who have left traces of a superior civilization
the mound-builders or some other race were the
diggers of these ditches, and used them, as sug-
gested, for irrigating uses? Or might they not
have been rude aqueducts conveying water to their
villages or fortified camps, or, at a later period, to
the palisaded villages of the Susquehannocks,
against whom the Six Nations waged war for many
years ? It is known that the Tohocks, a tribe once
residing at the head of the Chesapeake, did thus for-
tify themselves against the fierce Mingoes. How
soon the past becomes mythical and legendary, and
how greatly it is to be regretted that there has not
been left more than mere conjecture of so much
which, if known, would greatly interest us of the
present 1
" Thus are the tracks of nations blotted out,
Faint impress leaving, like the passing bird,
Save when the mould, erst trod by them, is stirred
By other races giving to the light
Borne yellow, crumbling bone, or instrument of fight."
TIIEIll LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 81
THE MONUMENTS OF THE GIANTS.
WHEN the French first settled Canada, they heard
marvelous stories of a race of giants who were said
to inhabit the country at the mouth of the Susque-
hanna and westward of that river. How much
foundation of fact there was for these reports we
do not know, hut in after ^years the Susquehan-
nocks were known as men of large size and of great
strength. Six feet or more in height, and of corre-
sponding weight, was the representation given of
them by the first white explorers of their country.
The knowledge of the Indians who first communi-
cated to the French the stories of the size and
strength of the Susquehannocks might have been
traditionary arid descriptive of a race who had been
gigantic in stature and of herculean strength, but
who, from some unexplained and unexplainable
causes, had in the progress of time degenerated to
the proportions of ordinary mortals. Students of
ethnology know that such degenerations have
occurred. There are some slightly presumptive
proofs that the traditionary stories of the physical
proportions of the original dwellers by the Rocks
of .Deer Creek are not without some slight basis of
truth. The King and Queen Seats are the sitting
places of giants, arid they, presumptively, were
occupied at a time past indefinitely distant by the
rulers of the country. Indian Jupiters and Junos,
honored not less, perhaps, than the gods and god-
desses of Roman and Grecian mythology, may have
received there the homage of their subjects. The
gods have come down to us, said the superstitious
82 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
Ephesians, when Paul and Barnabas wrought
miracles in their city. The gods are with us, would
have been the natural exclamation of the super-
stitious Indians assembled in council on the summits
of the Rocks in the presence of their rulers. We
may not in this argument overlook the attractions
but little noticed by intelligent seekers of curious
objects which we have appropriately named, as we
think, the Monuments of the Giants. On the sum-
mit of Rock Ridge, northeast of the Rocks, are
several huge pillars of stone many feet in height.
The curious observer that looks at them from the
valley below in the dawn of the morning or twilight
of the evening can scarce resist the conviction that
they may have been erected by a race of giants in
honor of their monarchs and to perpetuate their
glory ; and that here may have been deposited their
remains, a use to which some, if not all, of the great
mounds in the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi
were appropriated. The geologist who shall visit
these attractions may smile at that simplicity which
attributes to the might of man that which may be
only a proof and illustration of the power of nature,
which, in the indefinite past, threw upon the sum-
mit of Rock Ridge these collossal piles. But what-
ever was the agency by which the result was effected,
there they are those monuments
"That look like frowning Titans in the dim
And doubtful light,"
to be numbered with the many curious and attract-
ive natural objects seen in the vicinity of the Rocks
of Deer Creek.
The view from the Monuments is commanding
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 83
and extensive. In the distance northward is seen
the Susquehanna River, and beyond it the hills of
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania; southward, the
Chesapeake Bay and the Eastern Shore of Maryland
the bay dotted here and there with white sails,
moving gracefully, like swans, upon the bosom of
the scarcely ruffled waters. On every side are
reaches of fields and forests, in the midst of which
are towns and villages, hamlets and farm-houses,
constituting rare pictures of Arcadian beauty ; the
interest heightened by the lowing of the herds
which feed upon the contiguous meadows, and by
the sounds of distant church bells, reminding the
devout of the hour of prayer, or summoning them
to the worship of the sanctuary on the early Sab-
bath morning. The observer of these entrancing
views is, however, conscious of that illusion which
is always associated with such scenes ; " every valley
is an Eden, and every heart therein is at peace."
The repose is the possession of unthinking nature ;
the hearts of the reasoning inhabitants are the
abodes of strife, for in them is found envy, and
pride, and ambition, and hate,
"Every prospect pleases,
And only man is vile."
84 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
THE FIELD OF DARTS.
ONE-HALF mile southeast of Rock Ridge, and two
and one-halt' miles northeast of the Rocks and bor-
dering on the Mine Old Fields, is a valley in which
have been found numerous Indian arrow-heads or
darts. The stone of which they were made is unlike
any that exists in that locality. Either the material
of which these points were manufactured was brought
there for that purpose, or it was the place of a great
battle or battles fought by contending savage forces.
Possibly, those confederated nations, Oneidas, Cay-
ugas, Senecas, Mohawks, Onandagoes and Tuscaro-
ras fought at that spot the Delawares and Susque-
hannocks, also confederated tribes, and that that
contest was decisive of that long-continued struggle
which reduced the latter nations to the condition of
women, which they were contemptuously called after
their subjection. No conjecture is at fault in con-
sidering that eventful past in which almost every
foot of territory occupied by them was the place of
battle between opposing Northmen and Southmen,
and no excess of imagination can paint in too vivid
colors the horrors of the struggle. To the South-
men the coming of the Northmen was as- the coming
of Gog and Magog. All resistance was vain.
Loups and Susquehannocks were as helpless in the
grasp of their foes, as effete Romans in the hands of
Goths and Vandals.
History is ever repeating itself. Three centuries
later the territory south, and bordering on the
former, was the theatre of a contest between civil-
ized people almost unparalleled, in its violence, in
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 85
the history of warfare, resulting as in the past in
the triumph of the warriors of the northern lakes
and rivers, but as also in the past, without loss of
honor to the conquered. The weaker was overborne
by the stronger. Once more, if the prophet is indeed
a seer, the mighty tribes of the distant North will
move down upon the strong ones of the South. Kuss
and American in the valley of the Mississippi con-
tending for the mastery, the former finding that
valley the place of graves. So shall close the con-
flict of the world, and the earth shall keep jubilee
a thousand years. The voice of Gitche Manito,
the mighty, will yet be potent to subdue man's
stubborn nature, and to allay his thirst for human
blood. Happy would it be for mankind if his
counsels were now heeded :
"O, my children! my poor children!
Listen to the words of wisdom,
Listen to the words of warning
From the lips of the Great Spirit,
From the Master of life, who made you 1
"I am weary of your quarrels,
Weary of your wars and bloodshed,
Weary of your prayers for vengeance,
Of your wranglings and disunion,
All your strength is in your union,
All your danger is in discord ;
Therefore be at peace henceforward,
And as brothers live together."
86 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
THE CHROME PITS.
SOUTHWEST of the Rocks, from one to three miles
distant, are extensive deposits of chrome. They
have been worked for many years, chiefly by the
Messrs. Tyson, of Baltimore, enterprising mer-
chants of that city. The working has often been
intermitted for considerable spaces of time, but
when the Baltimore and Delta Railroad shall have
been completed, this industry will doubtless be con-
tinuous, and also enlarged, and thus add materially
to the wealth of this section of the county of Har-
ford. In addition to chrome, there are in the neigh-
borhood valuable deposits of iron ore, magnesia,
black lead, flint, asbestos and natural paint. The
development of all these sources of material pros-
perity is but a question of time and of cheap trans-
portation to market. The rock of Rock Ridge,
which is fire-proof and particularly adapted for fur-
nace hearths, may of itself become a considerable
source of income. As an item of history interest-
ing to all, it may be noted that the fire-proof char-
acter of these rocks was first discovered by Dr.
Thomas Johnson, of the United States Army, and
brother of the late Mrs. Eliza A. Preston, of Deer
Creek.
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 8*7
THE SLATE QUARRIES.
THE Slate Quarries of Harford County, Mary-
land, and York County, Pennsylvania, are distant
about eight miles northeast of the Rocks. They
are a source of prosperity to the section of country
in which they are situated, and promise, upon the
completion of the Baltimore and Delta and York
and Peach Bottom Railroads, to develop its wealth
indefinitely. The slate is of superior quality, and
held in high estimation wherever used. The quar-
ries employ many men and afford subsistence to
many families. The Welsh alone, who are chiefly
employed, constitute a population of six or seven
hundred. The village of Bangor, upon the sum-
mit of the Ridge, is composed principally of this
nationality. It has several stores and other places
of business. There are two churches, Welsh Con-
gregational and Calvinistic Methodist. One of
these has a settled pastor, the Rev. Mr. Hughes,
and in both the Welsh language is exclusively used
in religious services. These churches have given a
desirable moral tone to the community, though,
like all other Christian communities, the good find
in the natural antagonism of the human heart a
constant incentive to holy work. The village of
Delta, at the foot of the Ridge, is composed chiefly
of a native population. It has many places of busi-
ness, but no church. In the immediate vicinity of
the two villages are Slate Ridge, Slateville and Mt.
Nebo churches, the first under the pastoral care of
the Rev. Joseph D. Smith, a gentleman loved by
his congregation, and held in high esteem by the
88 . THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
people generally, irrespective of creed or profession ;
the second by the Rev. Mr. Davenport, a gentleman
of deserved popularity among all classes ; the last
is under the charge of the Eev. Mr. Litsiuger, of
the Methodist Protestant Church, a Christian min-
ister of enlarged and liberal views, whose praise is
in all the churches.
The representative business men at the Quarries
of the Welsh population are Faulk Jones, William
E. Williams, John Humphreys and Hugh C. Rob-
erts, Esqrs., John Parry & Co., Richard Reese &
Co., Win. C. Robertson & Co., John W. Jones &
Co., Richard Hughes & Co., Robert L. Jones & Co.,
and Humphrey Lloyd, Esq. These gentlemen came
to America in their youth, and by industry and
skill have accumulated property ; and occupying
prominent and influential positions in the commu-
nity, have given proof that industry and integrity
are roads to success.
The first Welsh worker in the Quarries was a
Mr. Davis ; the first successful worker a Mr. Parry.
The latter leased from Major Williamson thirty or
thirty-five years ago, acquired a fortune, traveled
into foreign countries, and died at Jerusalem. His
family is now living in Bangor, Wales, on the inter-
est of the money made at Bangor, United States of
America. He is represented to have been a man of
great integrity, a proof of which is, that after his
return to Wales he called together his creditors,
and paid the whole amount of his indebtedness to
them, with interest.
The Quarries constitute a part of the group of
interesting objects that render the locality of the
Rocks of Deer Creek one of great attraction, and
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 89
the visitor to the Rocks will do well to visit them.
The Quarries have a promising future. Delta's
magnificent distances will be of the past, and Ban-
gor's sombre residences will be substituted by more
pretentious edifices. The whole ridge will be alive
with busy and enterprising workers, bringing from
the bowels of the earth the material that shall
shield its purchasers from sun, and rain, and snow,
and make fortunes for the sellers.
THE HORSE EPIDEMIC AND THE GUINEA-
MAN'S PONY.
MORE than one hundred years ago, during the
lifetime of Benjamin Rigdon, grandfather of the
late George W. S. Rigdon,, an epidemic among
horses, very destructive in its character, prevailed
throughout all this section of country. Tradition
tells us that the Durhams, ancestors of the present
families of that name, who were wealthy, owning
large tracts of land and many horses, lost two hun-
dred of them by the scourge ; that the only horse
that escaped the plague was a pony owned by an
aged Guinea-man belonging to the first Mr. Rigdon.
This old negro lived in a small cabin on the top of
Rock Ridge, a short distance above the present resi-
dence of Richard Mayes, Esq., and not distant from
the Rocks of Deer Creek. Whether the preservation
8*
90 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
of the life of the pony was owing to the healthful-
ness of the spot, or its isolated position, is not
known ; most likely to the latter, as the disease was,
doubtless, contagious. Though not another repre-
sentative of the equine race was left, the fortunate
pony ate sprightlily of the slight herbage that grew
on the open places of Rock Ridge summit, or of the
corn grown by his thrifty master on the plain below.
Looking down on the vast reaches of country on
either side of the noted ridge, which towers in
mountain height above the valleys, if he could not
say, with Alexander Selkirk (Robinson Crusoe), on
the island of Juan Fernandez,
"I am monarch of all I survey,
My right there is none to dispute,"
he could say, "I am the sole owner of a horse
in all these broad domains ;" and the proud pony,
joining his master in the refrain, could utter,
"No pent-up Utica contracts our powers,
The whole boundless continent is ours."
Theirs it was not as against superior man, who rules
the beasts of the field, but as against the beasts
themselves, every one of which, save the pony, had
succumbed to the power of the fell destroyer. The
invulnerable pony was alone in all his glory. The
value of such a pony could not be estimated.
The Guinea-man was a character. We write
only of his religion. In that he was Fetish. He
bore constantly about his person afeitico, the Por-
tuguese name for an amulet a talisman. To this
gru yrus, the name of the charm in his native lan-
guage, he attached much importance, as it shielded
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 91
his family and all living things belonging to it-
dog or cat or pony from disease, and made all safe
from the machinations of their enemies. We are
not to infer from his possession of the feitico, and
the power he ascribed to it, that he had no idea of
a Supreme Spirit, a King of Heaven, or that he did
not worship Him. Worship of the Highest is uni-
versal. So thought Pope :
"Father of all in every age,
In every clime adored,
By saint, by savage, and by sage,
Jehovah, Jove, or Lord."
The Guinea-man could not but recognize Him who
" Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the stars, blossoms in the trees,
Lives through all life, extends through all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unspent."
Fetishism is not a primitive religion. It is a cor-
ruption of religion, and even enlightened Christians
may well be fearful of foe feitico, for the tendency
to idolatry is universal. Solomon built altars for
Chemosh and Moloch. The possession of the feitico
by the G-uinea-man of Rock Ridge rendered him
very obnoxious to his fellow-servants. They were
afraid of him. " He possesses a charm," said they ;
" he can kill us if he will. He is a wizard, a con-
jurer ; his old woman is a witch ; they deal with
spirits." No one of them would have touched that
mountain, for to touch it was death, they thought.
If they could have taken his life by poison, the usual
mode of their race, they would not have done so ;
for does not the power of the feitico survive after its
possessor has gone hence, and may not his spirit
92 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
come in the silent hours of the night to avenge his
wrongs ? This apprehension was his castle. A
cabin without wall, or moat, or drawbridge, was
stronger than a feudal castle. It was defended by
superstition.
That pony should have been skinned at its death,
his cuticle stuffed and preserved, and labeled, " The
sole survivor."
THE CHURCH OF THE ROCKS.
"A CITY set on a hill " cannot be hid, nor can a
church in such a position. This is eminently true
of the house of worship now in the occupancy of the
religious denomination known as the Evangelical
Association. Situated on the summit of a lofty emi-
nence directly opposite the Rocks, having them in
full view, and overlooking the romantic and pic-
turesque valley of La Grange, it looks upon a scene
of alternate and mingled beauty and grandeur not
often seen. This view has a peculiar psychological
effect upon the intelligent and appreciative be-
holder. It intuitively demonstrates (I hope my
language is philosophical) the former existence of
a Rock Ridge Lake. That mighty basin, scooped
out of the mighty hills which surround it, and the
violent breaks of the Ridge, where the waters of
Deer Creek rush through it, are physical proofs of
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 93
its past existence, that, like axioms in mathematics,
are self-evident.
Years previous to the building of the church, re-
ligious services were held on the summit of the
Kocks. Prompted hy curiosity, if hy no worthier
motive, there gathered once on that high eminence
a congregation of men, women and children to hear
the preacher of righteousness, who, we may well
conjecture, was, with -his audience, inspired by the
scenes around them. In the selection of this spot
for the exercise of his vocation, he but imitated the
example of One greater than himself. "And see-
ing the multitudes, He went up into a mountain,
and when He was set, His disciples came unto Him ;
and He opened His mouth and taught them."
More than a century previously there was a gath-
ering of the chiefs of the Indians whose habitations
were not distant from the Rocks, to listen to a ser-
mon by a Swedish minister. The lessons were those
which are now given to such as sit under the min-
istry of the Word. The clergyman spoke to them
of the principal historical facts of Christianity
such as the fall of Adam by eating an apple, the
coming of Christ to repair the evil, His labors, suf-
ferings and miracles. When he had finished, one
of the chiefs, thanking him for the discourse, re-
lated one of the mythical traditions of his people,
which he deemed to be of like credibility, and
equally binding upon the faith of all, and thus
proved the inefficacy of the lessons taught him by
the Christian teacher. Now, the lessons taught in
the Church of the Rocks are doubtless believed, and,
we would fain hope, practiced.
94 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
MIKE'S ROCK.
\
A FEW miles northeast of the Rocks of Deer
Creek, and on Rock Ridge, is a large rock known
by the name of the title of this article. By the
side of it is a large tree, the branches of which over-
hang it. An unfortunate, wearied with the per-
plexities of life, perhaps its agonies, closed here
that life, if not precisely in the manner expressed
in the following lines of an atheist, found among
his papers after his death, yet in one of the modes
common to the sad who lack fortitude :
"An hour more;
Sixty minutes, and the light
Of this, we mis-call life, goes out forever.
Forever? Aye; beyond the grave is found
No life, save that great primal force, which here
Displays itself alike in growth of weed
Or human soul. Why longer live and suffer,
When Vie finger upon this slender
Bar of steel will end, with one sharp flash,
TJie hurry and the heart-ache?
"Death's messenger,
From out this glittering tube, I call, to bid
Me sleep ; and in that sleep I dread no dreams,
And no to-morrow. Salve, rex terrorumf
Moriturus te saluto"
A rash act, which was followed by a surprise.
Death terminates this, not that ; and that is eter-
nal.
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 95
THE ANCIENT MILL AND THE HONEST
MILLER.
HALF-WAY between the Indian Cupboard, the re-
treat of Alexius, the noted fisherman and trapper,
and the Otter Bock, above which was the habita-
tion of Walter the Hermit, is an ancient mill.
The first mill was of logs, and owned by an English-
man named Sankey. He was probably a York-
shireman, as tradition informs us that the boys of
that day amused themselves with his, to them, sin-
gular brogue. The mill, in the course of time,
passed to Underwood, Harry, Morton, and J. Bond
Preston, in the order named. This mill has fur-
nished for many years bread for man and " stuff"
for beast. One possessed of good descriptive powers
and of a poetical genius might make the mill and
its picturesque surroundings furnish material for an
article that would not discount the reputation of
Scribner or Harper, or any other leading magazine.
Such description is not sought. Attention is direct-
ed to it rather because it is one of the ancient land-
marks or watermarks of its neighborhood, and is a
connecting link between the distant past and the
immediate present. It derives also some notoriety
from the snake story of the ancient trapper, a snake
rivaling the sea serpent that has been so often seen
on our Atlantic coast from New England to Key
West the habitation of which was on the wooded
hill opposite it.
In this ancient mill was once upon a time, as
tradition tells us, an honest miller. To me, all
millers are honest ; but unhappily for the reputa-
9b TI1E ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
tion of the craft, suspicious people, or people who,
like the Heathen Chinee, as Bret Harte tells us,
themselves familiar with the ways that are dark,
are sometimes oblivious of the saying :
"Who steals my purse steals trash,
But he who filches from me my good name
Takes that which does not himself enrich,
And makes me poor indeed."
The honest miller was Thomas Wright, remem-
bered by the few ancient people who have survived
him. The story of the mysterious pig is both a
proof and illustration of the integrity of the miller.
Once on a time he left Sam's Creek, Carroll county,
Md., early on the morning of a summer day, for
the mill on Deer Creek. He had walked but a
short distance when he heard the squealing of a di-
minutive pig that was following in his tracks. To
escape the animal that was intent upon accompany-
ing him on his journey, he left the road, walking
through fields and forests. But in vain. The pig
was equal to the emergency, its instincts pointing
out the way of the miller unerringly. The integ-
rity of the miller consisted in this, that he made
every possible exertion to escape from that pig,
showing that if there has ever been in this Chris-
tian country a miller who fattened his pigs on
other people's corn, he was not that miller. The
sad thing about the story of the pig is, that the
honest miller, being of superstitious turn of mind,
interpreted its singular following as an omen of
his death. His death did occur a short time there-
after.
The wheels of the ancient mill yet turn not the
wheels used when the honest miller was occupant,
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 97
but turbine wheels. The old mill is doomed. The
coining narrow-gauge, insuring facility of transit to
and from our large commercial city, will make it a
potent reason why men of capital should utilize the
great and continuous water-power for manufactories
on a larger scale.
The unceasing flow of the waters of Deer Creek
symbolizes the onward flow of humanity uninter-
rupted by successive generations. Humanity lives
and the waters flow on, and such may be for a bil-
lion of years to come. But within the hearing of
the music of no onflowing stream will there be, if
my informant has uttered truth, a more honest
miller than Thomas Wright. (f An honest man is
the noblest work of God."
"At the window, looking upon a crystal stream,
There sat a little lady, indulging in a dream,
A dream of fairy visions conies up before her eyes,
As she gazes now intently upon the azure skies.
" A soft breeze fans the valley, the sun rests on the hill,
The water murmurs sweetly as it rushes past ' the mill ; '
The earth seems glad of springtime, unfolding every hour
From Nature's store, the tender bud that holds the fragrant
flower.
"The lady sits a-dreaming, with head buried in her hand,
And visions come a- trooping from off a fairy-land,
And in her dreamy fancies there is a potent spell
That acts like charm of music, the smiling lips now tell.
"The heart cons o'er its treasures glowing in rosy light,
The spirit basks in beaut}'- like stars that gem the night,
And thus the little lady dreamed happy hours away,
So happy in her musings she fain would have them stay."
The little lady whose musings form a proper se-
quel to the story of the ancient mill and its
9
98 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
occupant, cherishes now, and it will ever be so,
the highest admiration and esteem for the honest
miller.
THE OLDEST INHABITANT.
THE oldest inhabitant now living in the vicinity
of the Rocks of Deer Creek is Mrs. Rebecca Smith.
She was born within three-fourths of a mile of her
present residence. Here, within sight of the Rocks,
she has lived to be almost a centenarian, being now
in the ninety-sixth year of her age, surviving all
who commenced with her the journey of life. Of
a cheerful disposition and vigorous constitution, she
has borne the burdens of life with comparative ease ;
and in a serene old age, comforted by loving hearts,
she is awaiting resignedly the final summons.
Retaining unimpaired her mental faculties, which
were always strong, she is able to entertain the cu-
rious of a later generation with most interesting
descriptions of the habits, customs and manners of
her early cotemporaries, distinctly recollecting arid
graphically relating innumerable incidents of the
far past. In her youth this portion of the country
was comparatively a wilderness. Without attract-
ive and comfortable residences, as now ; no conven-
ient and well supervised roads, paths usually ; no
churches, preaching in private houses ; the school-
house a rude cabin of logs, without any floor but
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 99
nature's, the chimney built of sticks, unplaned
seats, without backs. Carriages there were none,
the ordinary mode of travel being on horseback.
The whole progress for ninety-six years, from the
rude past to the present more advanced civilization,
lias been witnessed by her. But whatever contrasts
she makes between the past and the present, they
are without invidiousness. All along she has ac-
cepted the conditions of life, and the circumstances
attending it, as they were more or less favorable,
without murmur or complaint, recognizing the fact
that the Most High appoints the bounds of our hab-
itations, and that all things promote the happiness
of the submissive.
It was her great felicity to be united in marriage,
at a comparatively early age, with a gentleman of
superior intellectual and social qualities, a conscien-
tious Christian, a faithful friend, and a considerate
and loving husband and father. The name of Amos
Smith is to this day in this community a synonym
of all that is excellent in character it is as precious
ointment poured forth. The memories of his unob-
trusive acts of kindness are treasured, and his ex-
ample valued as a rich legacy to those who have
followed him.
The venerable matron, the oldest inhabitant of
the neighborhood of the Rocks of Deer Creek, now
leaning upon her staff, and bending toward that
house of the earth that is the decreed abode of all,
suggests, in the remarkable vigor of her physical
being, and in the sprightliness of her intellectual
life, lessons of wisdom that the young everywhere
may with profit learn. An active life and a cheer-
ful mind were the great treasures she possessed
100 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
more valuable than gold or silver, or the jewels that
blaze in the coronets of queens.
THE YOUNGEST INHABITANTS.
THE youngest inhabitant in the neighborhood of
the Rocks is William Cecil Gladden, infant son of
our well-known fellow-citizen, William Gladden,
Esq.
Of the immediate vicinity of the Rocks, the
youngest inhabitants are Bessie and Jessie, twin
daughters of Joseph Wetherill, Esq., proprietor of
the store at that place. Born under the very
shadows of the Rocks, and by the side of Deer
Creek, in view of the plunging waters of its romantic
fall all that remains of the once majestic cataract
of Rock Ridge Lake they are passing their con-
fiding and unsuspecting life happy in the present
and without care for the future. These children
and William Cecil Gladden are cousins. May life
be to the three all that fond parents and loving
friends can wish. To each we dedicate the prayer
of the gifted Willis :
"Light to thy paths, bright creature! I would charm
Thy being if I could, that it should be
Ever as now thou dreainest, and flow on,
Thus innocent and beautiful, to heaven."
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 101
THE ORIGINAL. INHABITANTS.
THE original inhabitants were the Susquehan-
nock Indians. Their territory extended from the
Susquehanna River westward as far as the Allegany
Mountains. This nation had a close alliance with
the Len Lenapes or Delawares, who occupied the
country from the head of the Chesapeake Bay to the
Kittatinny Mountains northward, and as far east-
ward as the Connecticut River. This confederacy
carried on a long war with the Indians who lived
to the north of them, between the Kittatinny Mount-
ains and Lake Ontario, who called themselves Min-
goes, and were called by the English the Five
Nations. At the time of the settlement of James-
town, Virginia, this war was raging with great
fury. In one of Captain Smith's excursions up the
Chesapeake, at the mouth of the Susquehanna, in
1608, he met with five or six canoes full of warriors
who were coming to attack their enemies in the
rear. Having made peace with the Adirondacks,
through the intercession of the French, who were
then settling Canada, they turned their arms against
the Lenapi and their confederates, and subduing
them, reduced them to almost the condition of
slaves. Peace was granted them on condition that
they should put themselves under the protection of
the Mingoes, confine themselves to raising corn,
hunting for the subsistence of their families, and no
longer have the power of making war. This is
what the Indians call making them women. In
this condition the Lenapes and their confederates
were when the settlement of Pennsylvania was
102 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
begun. What is said by Stitb of tbe language and
dress of the Susquehannocks, may deserve to be here
inserted: " Their language and attire were very
suitable to their stature and appearance ; for their
language sounded deep and solemn, and hollow,
like a voice in a vault. Their attire was the skins
of bears and wolves, so cut that the man's head went
through the neck, and the ears of the bear were
fastened on his shoulders, while the nose and teeth
hung dangling upon his breast. Behind was
another bear's face split, with a paw hanging at
the nose. And their sleeves coming down to their
elbows, were the necks of bears, with their arms
going through the mouth and paws hanging to the
nose. One of them had the head of a wolf hanging
to a chain for a jewel, and his tobacco pipe was
three-quarters of a yard long, carved with a bird,
a deer and other devices at the great end. His
arrows were three-quarters of a yard long, headed
with splinters of a white, crystal-like stone in the
form of a heart, an inch broad and an inch and a
half long. These he carried at his back in a wolf's
skin for a quiver, with his bow in one hand and a
club in the other." Such was the appearance of
the first inhabitants of Deer Creek and the Rocks.
The Mingoes came, saw, conquered, and, occupying
the country as masters, ruled for a time. They, in
turn, were overborne by a superior race, and we
have only the recollections of the deeds of the bold
warriors.
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 103
THE MASSACRE OF THE MINGOES.
THE Mingoes of Deer Creek, as a body, left this
locality in the year 1752. A few of them remained
until, as is plausibly conjectured, the winter of 1763,
and left immediately after the extermination of their
kindred who had been living on Conestogoe Creek,
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. These Indians
were the remains of a tribe long settled at that place,
and thence called Conestogoes. Upon the arrival
of the English in Pennsylvania this tribe sent mes-
sengers to welcome them, with presents of venison,
corn and skins, and the whole tribe entered into a
treaty of friendship with the first proprietary, Wil-
liam Penn a treaty which was to last as long as the
sun should shine, or the waters run in the rivers.
This treaty was often renewed the chain brightened,
as the Conestogoes expressed it from time to time.
This tribe was ultimately reduced to twenty per-
sons seven men, five women and eight children,
when by one of the most cowardly and dastardly
acts on record in all the protracted and bloody con-
tests with the Indians, this handful of peaceable
people were murdered in cold blood by fifty-seven
Conestogoe gentlemen (.?). On Wednesday, the 14th
day of December, 1763, these cavaliers, mounted on
good horses, and armed with fire-locks, hangers
and hatchets, entered Conestogoe Manor, and sur-
rounding the defenceless village, fired upon, stabbed
and hatcheted to death three men, two women and
a boy. Shehaes, an old man who assisted at the
second treaty held with them by Penn in 1701, was
among the slain. All were scalped, and their huts
104 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
burned. The remaining Mingoes, absent at the
time of the massacre they were out among their
white neighbors selling baskets, brooms and bowls
were taken into protection by the humane magis-
trates of Lancaster, and secured from harm, as they
thought, in the work-house of that town. Fifty of
the chivalry, whose names are worthy to be inscribed
on the temple of cfo'shonor as high up as the sum-
mits of the Rocks of Deer Creek, suddenly appeared
before that town on the 27th of December, invested
the work-house, and by gradual approaches, doubt-
less, assaulted, captured and put to death all that
were left of the Mingoes men, women and chil-
dren, fourteen in all. The remains of the mur-
dered victims were dragged into the street and ex-
posed to view. The fifty patriots of the Simon
Girty stamp then mounted their horses, huzzaed in
triumph, and rode off, congratulating themselves
on their victory.
"Ah! where are the soldiers that fought here of yore,
The sod is upon them, they'll struggle no more,
The hatchet is fallen, the red man is low ;
But near him reposes the arm of the foe.
"The bugle is silent; the war whoop is dead;
There is a murmur of waters and woods in their stead,
And the raven and owl chant a symphony drear
From the dark waving pines o'er the combatants' bier.
"Sleep, soldiers of merit! sleep gallants of yore!
The hatchet is fallen, the struggle is o'er,
While the fir-tree is green and the wind rolls a wave,
The tear-drop shall brighten the turf of the brave?"
The Mingoes of Deer Creek, hearing of the mas-
sacre of their people, and fearing that their lives
would not be secure even among the humane white
THKIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 105
inhabitants of their neighborhood, left to join their
people in the West or South. Their fears were
groundless. We have never heard that gentlemen
of Maryland ever deported themselves toward de-
fenceless women and innocent children as those
Bayard-like representatives of the men of England
who wore the red rose.
The Mingoes occasionally visited their former
homes, but that for a few years only. In 1764, a
year after their removal, a party visited a locality
in the neighborhood of New Park, York County,
Pennsylvania, ten miles distant from the Rocks.
There was a wigwam still standing at that date on
the farm now owned by Duncan Brown, Esq., then
possessed by his paternal grandfather. They were
seen walking around it, and seemingly viewing it
with a curious interest. To Deer Creek and the
Rocks a final adieu came. The descendants of the
former occupants know of these localities only as
the homes of their ancestors the places where the
bear, the wolf and the beaver were many, and
where the eagle built her nest upon the High Rocks,
beneath which their chiefs sat by their council fires.
ROCKS LITERATURE.
I AM not perfectly satisfied with the designation
I have given to the communications in prose and
poetry which I have selected for this place in this
106 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
book. Rocks Literature is not poetical ; and the
title is justified only by the fact that these contri-
butions have been inspired by the sublimities and
beauties of that wonder of nature, the Rocks of
Deer Creek, with their romantic contiguities and
surroundings. Could I have said " The Curiosties
of Literature," the name giVen by Disraeli the
elder to that confessedly most curious collection of
literary gems which bears that title, I should as-
suredly be content, assuming, of course, that my
collection would bear some proper relation in their
literary qualities to that unique gathering of rare
intellectualities. No other title could I use, because
the literature I collect bears relation to but one
thing the Rocks of Deer Creek and their surround-
ings. And I am shut up to the necessity of using
the material I have, material not created by my-
self, save one short essay, but by others, and for the
quality of which I am in no degree responsible.
I am not to be understood, however, as disparag-
ing the efforts of the writers in prose and in poetry
whose contributions I shall insert in this book. I
have no doubt that many of the readers of them
will derive both pleasure and profit in their pe-
rusal.
I make these contributions a part of this volume,
because they are a part of the history, so to speak,
of the Rocks, and because they show that the Rocks
are potent in inspiration.
The literature of the Rocks is abundant suffi-
cient, perhaps, to make a volume respectable in
size. It is in accordance with my plan to limit my
collection to a few selections. The first was written
some years ago by a girl of tender years, and was,
perhaps, her first effort in such writing.
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 107
THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. .
" Nature, in her delineations, ever delights in
giving variety to the beauty and magnificence of
her creations. Mountain, hill, valley and plain
have each their enchantments, but the Rocks of
Deer Creek, situated in the upper section of Har-
ford County, present to the lover of natural scenery
a combination of attractions that nature, in her mu-
nificence, seldom deigns to lavish on her fair do-
mains. The Rocks are several hundred feet in
height, extending to a point that projects in solemn
grandeur over huge masses of rock that lie scat-
tered at their base." Having described the beauty
of the adjacent landscape, she continues : " But the
Rocks, apart from the lovely landscape that spreads
around us, are ever the scene that must enchant the
gaze, and infuse into the heart of nature's votary a
mingled feeling of admiration and awe." She con-
cludes : " The image of the scene is impressed upon
the soul, and in the secret chamber of our being
often will we view over again the Rocks of Deer
Creek."
The next selection is a poem, written by a young
lady of Long Island, New York. We give only the
stanzas which describe the " King and Queen
Seats:"
"In ages past, so runs a legend old,
These rocks were the wild home of warriors bold ;
Here they in council met, and warfare planned,
Talked o'er the mighty secrets of their dusky band;
I fancy how the echoes have rung out,
The noisy clamor of their war-cry shout.
Long years have passed away, the red man's tread
108 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
No longer echoes there ; the wild, fierce tribe is dead,
And nought remains but memories alone,
And two rough seats hewn from the solid stone.
"These were the lofty thrones of King and Queen,
Spread now with moss and trailing vines of green ;
We rested in their depths, and pictured rare
Visions of Indian beauties, wild yet fair ;
All still and silent now, only the breeze
Comes whispering soft sweet stories through the trees,
And echoes only waken to the words
Of untold beauty in the songs of birds,
Those clearest, bell-like tones that float and ring,
Pronounce the mocking bird the woodland king."
The following was written by a lady, a native of,
and now resident in, Harford :
Rocks of Deer Creek, I, a pilgrim,
Wander up thy mountain side,
And beneath thy lofty summits
Watch the sparkling waters glide.
Here upon this pile of ages,
Where the Red Man's flight was stayed,
I, in contemplation solemn,
View the mighty work displayed.
Think of Him who, out of chaos,
Called this great mysterious world,
With its mountains, vales and waters,
Like a picture fair unfurl' d.
Piled this mighty, rocky structure,
Like some castle, grim and gray,
Sublime mysterious wrote upon it,
A monument without decay.
List! methinks I hear "the voices
Of the hills" that round me lie,
For one grand and solemn anthem
Seemeth filling earth and sky.
And self is lost forgotten e'en
As I list the soft refrain;
Surely God, the builder of you,
Reigns upon this height supreme.
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 109
Misty clouds are upward rising,
Like pure incense, to the sky,
Peace-offerings from the waters
On this rock-bound mountain high.
Surely in this solemn grandeur,
On this temple most sublime,
More ancient than the pyramids
Of old, in eastern clime,
Man must see and feel a power,
Great beyond our mortal ken;
Rocks of Deer Creek, veil'd in mystery,
You must ever more remain.
MARY WARNER Ross.
Sandy Hook, 1879.
That which follows are the meditations of one
who discovers, in the vicinity of the Rocks, a sin-
gular fern. He is evidently in a philosophical
mood, and has been disturbed, it may be, by the
rash speculations of some modern scientists so-
called.
A REMARKABLE FERN.
Strolling one day of the past autumn along Deer
Creek, in the vicinity of the Rocks, I was attracted
by a species of fern with which I was not familiar.
Upon examining it minutely, I found, to my sur-
prise, and I must confess to my gratification, written
upon the stem and each leaf of the fern the word
Biogenesis : life from life, and from nothing but
life. And recollecting that Sir William Thomp-
son, President of the British Association for the
Advancement of Science, in an address to the Soci-
ety, incidentally refers to the theory of Biogenesis
and its opposite theory, Abiogenesis (spontaneous
10
110 THE ROCKS OF DEER CHEEK.
generation), I sought that address, and found the
following statement therein :
" I am ready to adopt as an article of scientific
faith, true through all space and through all time,
that life proceeds from life, and from nothing hut
life." I am not aware that Sir William had ever
seen a specimen of the singular Deer Creek fern, or
ever heard of it ; but one cannot fail to note the
agreement between the teaching of the fern and that
of the distinguished President of the British Asso-
ciation. Anxious to know what that other distin-
guished member of the same Association, Professor
Huxley, might have to say upon Biogenesis and its
antagonistic theory, Abiogenesis, I turned to an in-
augural address delivered by him to the British
Association, in which Professor Huxley concedes
that " the evidence, direct and indirect, in favor
of Biogenesis : life from life, and from nothing but
life, for all known forms of life, must be admitted to
be of great weight/' This utterance of the great
inductive philosopher gave me great pleasure, as it
seems to confirm the suspicion that possibly the
Creator of all things wrote upon my fern the word
Biogenesis: life from life, and from nothing but
life. My satisfaction with this declaration of the
philosopher would have been complete, had he not
to this just admission, as I thought it to be, added :
u But though I cannot express this conviction of
mine too strongly, I must carefully guard myself
against the supposition that 1 intend to suggest that
no such thing as Abiogenesis (spontaneous gener-
ation) has ever taken place in the past, or will take
place in the future. If it were given me to look
beyond the abyss of geologically recorded lime to
TIIKIK LEGENDS AND HISTORY. Ill
the still more remote period when the eartli was
passing through physical and chemical conditions,
which it can no inure sec again than a man can re-
call his infancy, / should expect to be a witness of the
evolution of living protoplasm from unliving matter."
I was now in a quandary. When doctors disagree,
who shall decide? And what estimate can I have
of the veracity of my fern? Singularly, the phil-
osopher whose just quoted utterance had tended to
overthrow my cherished theory of life, and brand as
false the teaching of the fern, comes to my relief.
The philosopher does not account for life without a
metaphysical cause. Hear him : " I, individually,
am no materialist, but, on the contrary, believe
materialism to involve grave philosophical error/'
His materialism is only a trick of logic ; his faith
is that all life has a transcendental, metaphysical
cause. He vindicates the truthfulness of my fern.*
The question is, where did my fern get its life?
Who wrote upon its stem and leaves Biogenesis?
My fern was sustained by inorganic substances.
From such substances it extracted the nutriment of
its life by a chemistry peculiar to itself. But whence
its life? It cannot be that life is a phenomenon ?
evolved from the forces of unliving matter. Science
does not say so. Matter is a basis of life ; in it life
manifests itself, and nothing more. Life, like
matter in which it dwells, was created, not evolved
from unliving forces. The life of my fern came
fro m abroad . Its cause was the only cause , ultimat e ,
spontaneous will. The Author of all life gave it
life, and wrote upon its leaves Biogenesis.
My fern is perishing. Is this not singular?
Strange that the living forces which built it up
112 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
should now, that its vitality is gone, tear down the
structure which they, with so much pains, con-
structed. The vital principle in my fern did for a
time hold in abeyance the physical forces, but this
having departed, its enemies triumph. My fern is
returning to unliving dust. Whether it, Phoenix-
like, will arise from its ashes, I do not know. And
if its unliving dust should become the basis of other
life, whether it will be the life of another fern, I do
not know. Of this I am confident, if it shall be
the basis of another life, upon that creation, be it
rose or magnolia or fern, will be written Biogenesis :
life from life, and from nothing but life.
If any of my curious friends would see a specimen
of the Deer Creek fern, they can do so by searching
the hills between Preston's Mill and the Rocks of
Deer Creek.
THE OLD MILL.
Opposite Mingo Hill, on the waters of Deer Creek,
a few miles above the Rocks, is a quaint old mill.
Of this ancient mill a poetess writes :
4 'Softly dim twilight lingers
O'er the picturesque mill,
Night, with her purple fingers,
Is draping each noble hill
With the shadows she loves to muster,
And waft in the twilight down,
Faintly outlined with the lustre
"Which streams from his starry crown.
Beautiful shadows that fall so still
And nestle down on the silent mill.
"Silent, for now the
Heart of the mill's at rest,
And only the breezes arc sobbing
O'er the water's breast;
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 113
Its ripples' musical splashing
Seem crowning a dreamy song,
As o'er the high dam dashing,
They hurry so swiftly along.
Laughing waters that scorn to feel
The ponderous weight of the old mill wheel.
" We sit in the night's dark splendor
And list to the whippoorwill,
Breathing in accents tender
Its moan o'er the night-wrapped mill,
And watch how the shadows linger
O'er the tree-topped hill on high,
Till each waving branch seems a finger
Writing against the sky.
And the spirit of night has awakened
The fairies that surely dwell,
In the quiet depths of the woodland
In some fair little hidden dell;
For the fire-flies twinkle their lights afar
Till each fairy lamp seems a tiny star.
" Brightly the summer dawning
Gleams o'er the quiet mill,
And scattered far by the morning
The shadows lift from the hill;
And the sunbeam's golden splendor
Pours o'er the dewy earth,
While the birdlings' voices tender
Thrill with sweetest mirth.
A morning concert given us free
Echoing sweet the softest melody.
"How lightly the water dances,
How sparkles its crystal breast,
As each arrow of sunlight glances
. In quivering, gay unrest,
And the dewy morning breathing
Tenderly touching now,
Silvery hair enwreathiug
An aged though cheerful brow.
For many years that are gone and dead,
The mill has echoed his gentle tread.
10*
114 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
"And long may it echo the paces
Of the feet that are walking toward
The golden gates of the city
Leading to home and God.
Respected friend, I will carry
Sweet memories as I roam
Of the picturesque mill in the valley,
And the sweetly embowered home.
With sad regrets my song will fill,
And a fond farewell to the dear old mill."
"JAMAICA, LONG ISLAND.''
WHAT immediately follows are the prophetic dec-
larations of the resident of "Shirley, near the
Hocks," who may be indebted, in a measure, to the
scenes amid which he dwells for the strength of
his patriotic inspirations and impulses. The High-
lands of Scotland, the mountains of Wales and
Switzerland, have ever been inhabited by peoples of
patriotic sentiments and practically devoted to lib-
erty. The dwellers by the Kocks are not an excep-
tion. The Eagle, which is the symbol of their
country's majesty, soars above the summits of their
mountains. They watch its lofty flights with pride,
and aspire to equal eminence in their sentiments
and aspirations. The lowlands are generally the
places of wealth, and luxury, and enervation, with
which the sentiments of personal independence and
individual liberty do not usually co-exist.
The prophecy is a portion of a Centennial Ad-
Til KIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 115
dress, delivered by the author, July 4th, 1876, in
Ward's Woods, not distant from, and in view of,
the Rocks, and is a legacy to the young men who
shall be living in 1976 ; bequeathed to them with
the hope that they will cherish an ardent love of
country, and maintain the principles of their
fathers.
116 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
A PROPHECY.
THE retrospect we have made very naturally sug-
gests the prospect. What shall the future of our
country be? Who shall forecast its destiny ? Have
we, by the marvelous rapidity of our growth in the
hundred years past, exhausted our energies, and
brought upon ourselves premature old age, premon-
itory of speedy deatli ? Or, are we as Hercules in
his cradle, possessed of a vitality and force and fer-
tility of resources that shall be manifested in achieve-
ments that will surpass all that has been seen in
the past of our history, and surprised the world
with their greatness. We are in the infancy of
our greatness, the beginning of a progress such as
has not hitherto been seen, and of which the most
sanguine could not possibly have dreamed. Man-
kind is standing on the very threshold of a new life,
on a boundary line, about to launch out into an
unknown future. The past is gone, the old land-
marks are swept away, and fresh armies of
thoughts, opinions and knowledge are breaking in
upon the world. The jungle has been cleared,
space has been almost annihilated, and the. human
mind, free from embarrassments that have inter-
rupted its progress, is entering upon a series of es-
says and conflicts that shall ultimate in achieve-
ments far surpassing those of the past, and that
Khali carry humanity upward to higher planes rap-
idly and majestically. It may be centuries before
tin- new life shall be matured. In the very "lisp-
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 117
ing infancy " of the new life humanity may be, but
the child is born, and there shall follow the vigor
of manhood and the ripeness of age. A sagacious
thinker and observer has said : " A mighty impulse
has come over the world lately. A time of looking
forward rather than back has set in. Great inven-
tions of all kinds are altering the face of the earth,
making the conditions of life different, and raising
the hopes and fears of men. Great discoveries are
bringing with them all the eager wildness, all the
enthusiasm for good or evil, that such unsettle-
ments must always bring. The vast ocean of
knowledge has found its Columbuses, and hearts
beat high with the daily hope of fresh wonders be-
ing unveiled by new voyagers." Where, we ask,
has this impulse been felt stronger than on this
continent and with us ? Where so much of change,
of adventure, of achievement? Where in all the
earth so much of enthusiasm, of earnest purpose,
of determination to do all that lies within the range
of possibility ? There are barriers that no human
invention can overcome ; conditions beyond the
range of mortal power. But within those great bar-
riers which God has fixed to human progress, an
almost infinite advance is certain. There are men
of folly, as was Canute the Great, when he sat by
the sea-shore, and said to the advancing waters,
" So far shalt thou come, and no farther," who in
the impotency of their reason may prescribe bounds
to human progress, but that progress, as did the
oncoming waves, will mock their folly and weak-
ness. This continent, this nation, shall participate
in this general onward movement, and in a degree
exceeding all. The genius of the American people,
118 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
their inquisitiveness, their steadiness of purpose,
their inflexibility of will, their inventive qualities,
their love of change, their ambition to excel, all
point to a destiny of unparalleled grandeur. Our
lofty mountains, our wide extended plains, our ma-
jestic rivers, are symbolic of the might and majesty
of our coining greatness. Here, upon the shores of
the Atlantic, on the banks of the Mississippi and the
Missouri, and by the side of the Pacific, in mountain
place and valley, shall be a teeming multitude of
men building up in their strength a material, in-
tellectual, social, spiritual empire, before which all
other empires shall pale as the glow-wortn v pales in
the presence of the sun. It will be the onward
movement of thought, and feeling, and faith, and
work, widening and deepening, and increasing in
strength, until mighty in its volume and resistless
in its force, it shall bear upon its bosom, as the
flood bears the oak, all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge. This is my thought it may be the
dream of an enthusiast.
In one hundred years the population of the
United States of America may exceed that of China ;
the area of territory, if extended, may embrace the
whole of North America, and our progress in all
other respects be commensurate. Then it will be
that those then living will look back upon the epoch
of the first Centennial as we, who celebrate it to-day,
look back upon its beginning as a day of very small
things, and, as we do, congratulate themselves and
the country on the progress made, differing from us
in this, that their felicitations will be greater pro-
portionate to their increased prosperity. The reali-
zation of this hope will depend essentially upon
THEIR LKGHNDS AND 1IIST011Y. 1 1 ( J
one thing that we remain at peace among our-
selves. This unity of the nation is the pledge of its
perpetuity, and the assurance of its high destiny.
Not, indeed, that unity which is enforced by strength
of will and power of bayonet, but unity .of senti-
ment and affection, that unity of mind and heart
which has its most striking illustrations and exem-
plifications in the virtuous household, each member
of which, recognizing the significancy of the rela-
tion, performs its obligations. The hope is that
Christianity, in its onward inarch, will so leaven
society with its restraining and conserving influ-
ences, that human passions will not simply be held
in check, but will be consecrated to virtuous pur-
poses, the human heart responding always and un-
erringly to truth, and the life to noble aim.
Our fathers sought to erect the superstructure of
American government upon a substantial basi^s, in-
tending that in th#5 ark of national safety their de-
scendants should be secure when the tempests gath-
ered. The fabric of government which they erected
was no temporary expedient," to serve the wants of
a day ; it was built, as the pyramids were built, to
resist the wear of ages, and serve the necessities of
generations. Washington, and Adams, and Jef-
ferson, and Madison, and Monroe, and all the illus-
trious host of worthies who laid the foundations of
American nationality, were men not only of wis-
dom, but of conscience also, having in view, not the
mere gratification of personal ambition and the ag-
grandizement of self,' but the welfare of the whole
people and of generations of people. To establish
this government our ancestors toiled, and sacri-
ficed, and poured out their blood, not anticipating
120 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK.
that Catalines would ever be found among their
descendants, who would conspire against the liber-
ties of the people, but hoping and believing that
they to whom had been bequeathed the precious
legacy of- American freedom, would cherish it as
vestal virgins and priests of Inca cherished their
sacred fires. The gift has so far been generally
appreciated, and the men of this generation are
bearing upon their shoulders the ark which contains
the sacred things placed therein by the fathers of
the republic. They cherish it as the ark of the
Lord was cherished in the house of Obed Edom.
It is not within the power of man to foretell the
time when this nation, having performed its allot-
ted part in the great drama of the world's life,
shall follow the peoples that have preceded it, and
pass in mournful procession to the graves of dead
nationalities. The race that forms this nation has,
as we have seen, been distinguished above all other
races for its vitality and force, resisting thus far
that strong tendency to decay that characterized the
nations that preceded it. It may follow in the
footsteps of the nations that have gone before ; but
if true to itself, if it fulfills the destiny which the
Divine hand has marked out for it, then when its
cycle shall have been completed and the record
made up, future races will look back upon its period
as the brightest in human history. And that re-
cord, the brightest spot in human history, may be
the roll of a thousand years.
Yea, if the period of the existence of the great
nations of antiquity was ten centuries, ten times ten
centuries may be the cycle of American history, the
time when its record shall be made up. The senti-
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 121
inent of patriotism existing in such intense force in
the bosom of every true American would place no
limit to his country's life. To-day, moved thereto
by the enthusiasm kindled by our recollections of
the past and our faith in the greatness of our coun-
try's future, we all with one accord exclaim, Our
country ; may she live forever !
My fellow-citizens, we congratulate ourselves
that we have lived to celebrate the Centennials In
honoring this day we do justice to the memory of
our fathers who bequeathed to us our heritage to
their intelligence, their virtue, their bravery, their
fortitude, their spirit of self-sacrifice. They have
gone to their graves, and the worthiest monuments
that we can erect to perpetuate their memories are
the appreciation of their virtues and the imitation
of their examples.
Fellow-citizens, we shall not live to celebrate
another Centennial. Ere the coming century of our
national existence shall have closed we will have
passed away been gathered to our fathers ; but we
shall leave a heritage worthy to be preserved by our
posterity, and by them transmitted to the genera-
tions following.
1 1
1-- THE ROCKS OF DBKR CREEK.
MASON AND DIXON'S LINE.
A FEW miles north of the Rocks of Deer Creek,
in latitude 39 degrees, 43 minutes, 26^ seconds, is
the boundary between the States of Pennsylvania
and Maryland. This line was begun in December^
1763, and concluded in the end of the year 1767.
Its whole length is 244 miles, not all of which was
laid out by the scientific gentlemen after whom it is
called. They were prevented by fears of hostile
Indians from proceeding further than Sideling Hill,
a distance of 116 miles from the place of beginning.
At the termination of every fifth mile is planted a
large stone, having on one side the coat of arms of
William Penn, and on the other or southern side,
the Escutcheon of Lord Baltimore, the proprietaries
respectively of the provinces of Maryland and Penn-
sylvania. Every mile is a smaller stone with the
letter P on one side and M on the other. All these
stones were brought from England. This line was
fixed after eighty years of constant discussion, and
thus was lost to Maryland much fertile territory.
It was not surveyed in the ordinary mode, but estab-
lished by mathematical and astronomical calcula-
tion. A survey was had in 1844, and the original
line was found to be substantially correct.
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 123
A LITP:RARY CURIOSITY.
IN the year 1661, the Rev. John Eliot, " the
Apostle to the Indians," translated the Virginian
Bihle into the language of the New England In-
dians. The following specimen exhibits the Lord's
Prayer (Matt, vi : 9-13) :
9. Yowutche yeu nuppenantarnook: Nooshun
kesukqut quttianatamunach knowesuonk.
10. Peaumooutch kukketassootamdonk, kutten-
autamoouk nennach ohkeit neane kesukqut.
11. Nummeetsuonqash asekesukokish assamaii-
uean yeuyea kesuked.
12. Kah ahquontamaiinean nummatchseonqash,
neane niatcheneukgueagig nutahquontamounna-
nog.
13. Ahque sagkompagunaiinnean en qutchhua-
onganit, webepohquohwussinean wutch matchitut.
Newutche kutahtaun ketassootarnoonk, kah raenuh-
kesuonk, kali sohsumoorik micheme. Amen.
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