Sugarloaf Massacre

The Sugarloaf Massacre was a skirmish that occurred on September 11, 1780 in Pennsylvania. In the event, a number of Native Americans and perhaps a handful of loyalists attacked a small detachment of militia from Northampton County. According to pension files and witness depositions, the militia detachment was led by a Lieutenants John Moyer and John Fish of Captain Johannes Van Etten's company of volunteer militia. The Sugarloaf Massacre was the first major historical event in what would become Luzerne County. In popular local folklore, the Indians and Loyalists were believed to be led by the Seneca chief Roland Montour, though no evidence exists to verify this claim. The bodies of the dead Revolutionary War soldiers were collected on September 17, 1780, according to the commanding officer of the burial detail.

Background

Previous violence between the Iroquois people and white settlers was one of the contributing factors to the events of the Sugarloaf Massacre. Such violence dated back as far as the 17th century. In the year 1780, there were a large number of attacks by Indians in the vicinity of the area where the massacre took place, including an attempted attack on Moses Van Campen.

On June 15, 1780, a group of American militia in Northampton were commissioned to serve for seven months. These soldiers were led by Captain Johannes Van Etten.

The area in the vicinity of the Sugarloaf Massacre, especially the communities of Bloomsburg and Catawissa was home to large numbers of loyalists, who aided the British army during the Revolutionary War. Near the end of the summer of 1780, however, several local people decided to do something about the loyalists in the area. Thus, after receiving orders from the Northampton County Lieutenant Samuel Rea, a detachment of 41 of Van Etten's men, half of his company, would head to the northwestern part of Northampton County, near the border of Northumberland to investigate these settlements. This detachment was placed under the command of Lieutenants Moyer and Fish. They would leave Northampton County in the beginning of September 1780 from Fort Allen and head into Sugarloaf Valley to search for Loyalist sympathizers and spies. Upon leaving the fort, Klader's men crossed the Lehigh River and traveled to the community of Jim Thorpe and then to Nesquehoning Creek, where they camped. The next day, Klader's men traveled over Broad Mountain and through a stretch of wilderness known as the Haselschwamp," which is now Hazleton. The men passed through the swamp on September 10.

On September 6, 1780, a group of approximately 250 to 300 Native Americans and British soldiers arrived at Fort Rice, near Chillisquaque Creek in Lewis Township, Northumberland County. The group of British soldiers and Native Americans proceeded to attack the fort and the surrounding residences, but Colonel Hunter sent some troops from Fort Jenkins to their aid. Approximately 200 men arrived at Fort Rice, and the British soldiers and Native Americans dispersed. Upon retreating, these people went over Knob Mountain and a group of 30 to 40 of them went down the stream known as Cabin Run to Fort Jenkins, which they burned down, along with numerous buildings in the fort's vicinity. After burning down Fort Jenkins, the British soldiers and Native Americans crossed the Susquehanna River and went to Sugarloaf Valley in southwestern Luzerne County.

The Attack and Aftermath

According to one survivor and pensioner, Peter Crum, on September 11, 1780, the men of the volunteer detachment had just sat down to eat dinner. It was then that the Loyalists and Native Americans in the area started firing muskets at them. The details and events of the actual engagement are lost to time; no account exists from any eyewitness source. Only legend and folklore exist, mainly tales from the late 19th Century which are fictional, or at best highly embellished.

A total of 10 militiamen were killed by the Indians, according to Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Balliet, who had gone with a small force of 150 militia to bury the dead. He writes in his report:

"On the first notice of this unfortuned event the officers of the militia have Exerted themselfs to get Volunteers out of their Respective Divissions to go up & Burry the Dead, their Labour Proved not in Vain we collected about 150 men & officers Included from the Colonels Kern, Giger & my own Batallions who would undergo the fatique & Danger to go their & pay that Respect to their slautered Brethren, Due to men who fell in support of the freedom of their Country. On the 15th we took up our line of march (want of amunation prevented us from going Sooner) on the 17th we arrived at the place of action, where we found Ten of our Soldiers Dead, Scalped, Striped Naked, & in a most cruel & Barborous manner Tomehawked, their throads Cut, &c. &c. whom we Buried & Returned without even seeing any of these Black alies, & Bloody executors of British Tirany…."

Balliet's burial detail must have skirmished with some scouts from the Loyalist and Indian forces while burying the dead, as Balliet went on to report:

"We also have great Reason to beleve that several of the Indians have been killed by our men, in Particular one by Col. Kern & an other by Capt. Moyer both of whome went Volunteers with this partie."

Most of the militiamen escaped (some were wounded) though three were taken prisoner. The men who were taken prisoner were a private, Lieutenant John Moyer, and Ensign Scoby. Moyer managed to escape, but the other two men were taken to Niagara. Upon escaping from the Indians, John Moyer traveled to Fort Wyoming, which he reached on September 14. It was at this point that everyone else in the area received word of the skirmish.

After the skirmish, the Loyalist and Indian war party searched the surrounding area for several hours. The next day, they, along with their prisoners, went down Nescopeck Creek and towards the Susquehanna River before turning towards Berwick and Catawissa. It is unknown how many in the Loyalist party was killed.

After the massacre, the soldiers who escaped spread the news of the event as far away as the Delaware River.

The survivors of the Sugarloaf Massacre lived until the middle of the 19th century. In 1933, the Pennsylvania Historical Commission together with the Wyoming Historical and Genealogical Society and the Sugarloaf Commemorative Committee built a memorial near to the location of the massacre. In 1947, a State Historical Marker devoted to the skirmish was installed on Pennsylvania Route 93, near Conyngham.

Media response

Accounts of the Sugarloaf Massacre were included in texts about regional and local history as early as the 1840s. In September 1866, an article about the Sugarloaf Massacre was written by John C. Stokes and published in the Hazleton Sentinel. In the 1930s, William Tilden Stauffer, a member of the Sugarloaf Commemorative Committee wrote a number of articles on the skirmish. A play about the massacre was performed in 1976, as part of the United States's bicentennial celebrations. However, as of 2000, the event is in obscurity.

Controversy

Number of Men Killed

The amount of militiamen killed in action at the skirmish is hard to pin down. The earliest and best source, Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Balliet, reports that ten men were buried. Samuel Rea, the County Lieutenant of Northampton County, indicated that Balliet's numbers were probably the most accurate:

“Col. Baliort [Balliet] informs me that he had Given Council a relation of the killed and wounded he had found Burned near Neskipeki as he was at the place of action his Accts must be as near the truth as any I could procure..."

Lieutenant Moyer, upon his return, said he had seen thirteen scalps on the belts of his captors, but it is hard to believe that they let him count the scalps while he was detained. Captain Van Etten did take a return at the end of the Volunteer's tour of duty, in January, 1781. He indicates that fourteen men were killed on September 11, 1780. But at least three of these men--George Schellhammer, Peter Crum, and Baltzar Snyder--show up on a few months later, and again in returns the following year, as substitutes (volunteers, not drafted) in Captain William Moyer's (father of Lieutenant John Moyer) company of militia and again a year later, in 1783. Peter Crum lived long enough to file a pension in 1833. It is likely that Van Etten simply didn't know who had been killed (his company was spread over a two dozen miles, east to west, along frontier forts in Northampton County) or these men had deserted after the massacre and returned to their farms.

The amount commonly believed, that fifteen had died in the massacre, is not sustainable according to the evidence. Thus the plaque at the site listing fifteen names is inaccurate.

Captain Daniel Klader

No historical evidence exists which places a man named Daniel Klader at the scene. No correspondence or militia returns mention his name. No birth record, marriage record, or death record for him exists. Not a single survivor mentions his name or his death in their depositions and not a single surviving pension file from any of the Volunteers indicate that they served under a Daniel Klader of any kind.

The earliest mention of a Daniel Klader is in the late 19th Century, almost one-hundred years after the events took place. The name is given as an alternative to John Moyer having head the company, and no source is cited or evidence given for this name being included. The best possible explanation seems to be a misidentification; some of the soldiers who served in Van Etten's company of volunteers later served a tour under Captain Jacob Klader (who was not a member of Van Etten's company). Thus it is likely that someone conflated their service under Van Etten with Jacob Klader, as it common in pension files from the 1830's onward. However, given the lack of any available evidence to support the claim that a Daniel Klader was at the massacre, or that he led the company, it has been proposed that no such man was there and might have been wholly invented by the individual who wrote the article in the 19th Century.

See also

• Sullivan Expedition
• Battle of Wyoming
• Cherry Valley massacre
• List of massacres
• Penn's Creek massacre

References

Works cited

• Thomas Verenna (2015), Murder Along the Creek: A Closer Look at the Sugarloaf Massacre (Journal of the American Revolution, July 6, 2015.
• Rogan H. Moore (2000), The Bloodstained Field: A History of the Sugarloaf Massacre, September 11, 1780, HerritageBooks

External links

• Map of the area of the massacre