The Oath of Allegiance

In accordance with the laws of the province of Pennsylvania, the passengers of the ship "Neptune," on October 4, 1752, were taken to the court house in Philadelphia in Second and High Streets, where they took the oath of allegiance to the King of England.

The oath was as follows:

"I do solemnly and sincerely promise and declare that I will be true and faithful to King George the Second and do solemnly, sincerely and truly profess, testify, and declare that I do from my heart abhor, detest, and renounce as impious and heretical that wicked doctrine and position that princes, excommunicated or deprived by the Pope or any authority of the See of Rome, may be deposed or murthered by their subjects or any other whatsoever. And I do declare that no foreign Prince, Person, Prelate, State, or Potentate hath or ought to have any power, jurisdiction, superiority, pre-eminence, or authority ecclesiastical or spiritual with the Realm of Great Britain or the dominions thereunto belonging.

I do solemnly, sincerely and truly acknowledge, profess, testify, and declare that King George the Second is lawful and rightful King of the Realm of Great Britain and of all others his Dominions and Countries thereunto belonging, and I do solemnly and sincerely declare that I do believe the Person pretending the be Prince of Wales during the Life of the late King James, and since his decease pretending to have taken upon himself the Stile and Title of King of England, by the Name of James the Third, or of Scotland by the Name of James the Eighth or the Stile and Title of King of Great Britain hath not any right or title whatsoever to the Crown of the Realm of Great Britain, nor any other of the Dominions thereunto belonging. And I do renounce and refuse any allegiance or obedience to him and solemnly promise that I will be true and faithful and bear true allegiance to King George the Second and to him will be faithful against all traitorous conspiracies and attempts whatsoever, which shall be made against his person, crown, and dignity, and I will do my best endeavours to disclose and make known to King George the Second and his Successors all treasons and traiterous conspiracies, which I shall know to be made against him or any of them. And I will be true and faithful to the succession of the Crown against him, the said James and all other Persons whatsoever, as the same is and stands settled by An Act, entitled an Act declaring the Right and Liberties of the Subject, and settling the Succession of the Crown to the late Queen Anne and the Heirs of her Body being Protestants, and as the same by one other Act, entitled An Act for the further Limitation of the Crown and better securing the Rights and Liberties of the Subject is and stands settled and entailed after the decease of the said Queen, and for default of issue of the said late Queen to the late Princess Sophia, Electress and Duchess Dowager at Hanover, the Heirs of her Body being Protestants and all these things I do plainly and sincerely acknowledge, promise and declare, according to these express, by me spoken, and according to the plain and common sense and understanding of the same Words, without any equivocation, mental evasion, or secret reservation whatsoever. And I do make this recognition, acknowledgement, renunciation, and promise heartily, willingly, and truly."

John Kress

John Kress was the eldest of the four brothers and no doubt felt it his duty to look after his younger brother, Carl, then only 13 years old, and he proceeded with him to the small settlement, called Egypt, in Whitehall township, in the newly formed county of Northampton. In the German newspaper "Pennsylvania Berichte" of January 1, 1755, published in Philadelphia, there is the following advertisement translated in English: "John Kress, beyond the great Lehigh, at Egypt, a hatmaker, makes known that his wife Catherine, widow of the deceased Frederick Eberhart, has left him. No one shall give her credit or lend her anything upon his account, as he will not pay anything." Frederick Eberhart died in 1751 and from this advertisement it is evident that his widow married John Kress. (It also appears that after she left him, for what reasons we are not aware, she married his brother Johann Nicholaus Heinrich Kress and they together took off to settle in North Carolina.)

Native American Attacks

In 1757 John Kress and his brother Carl lived on the eastern side of the Lehigh River in Lehigh township, where lived several of the eight men, previously mentioned, who came by the same ship. Some Moravian missionaries had purchased one hundred and twenty acres of land near the present site of Lehighton, in 1745, where they established the converted Mahican Indians and called the settlement "Gnadenhuetten," meaning "Tents of Grace." The hostile French Indians attacked the mission house on November 24, 1755, burned it down, and killed eleven persons. A company of soldiers under Captain Hays was ordered to the settlement across the river, called New Gnadenhuetten. Fourteen men of this company were killed by the Indians on January 1, 1756. Six persons were killed and six more taken prisoners by the Indians, on December 10, 1755, on the north side of the mountains, in what is now part of Monroe county. People in there excitement made many unreasonable demands of the government, so much so that the provincial Governor of Pennsylvania, Robert H. Morris, became somewhat discouraged. He wrote from Reading to the Council in Philadelphia, on January 5, 1756 requesting assistance.

This petition met with recognition and action. A block house, called Peter Doll's block house, was built near Scholl's mill, btween Little Gap and Smith's Gap and was garrisoned by twenty-five men. The distance to it form the fort at Lehigh Gap is given as eight miles.

That this part of Northampton County suffered much from Indian raids is shown by the fact that from November 1755 to September 1757, one hundred and fourteen persons were killed and fifty-two taken prisoners in the part of the county east of the Lehigh River, which includes the present Monroe County and part of Carbon County. The list of those murdered and taken prisoners was made by Captain Jacob Arndt, at Fort Allen, December 16, 1757, and belongs to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

A similar petition from the inhabitants of Lehigh and Allen townships, dated May 30, 1757, states that a company of twenty-five men was daily employed by the inhabitants, ranging on the frontiers against the Indians. Carl Kress was at this time 18 years old and was most likely a member of this company, but the names of the members cannot yet be ascertained.

It was natural that the peaceable German settlers became so alarmed at the Indian incursions that they sent these petitions to the governor for relief. That they were given assistance proves that their industry and thrift was appreciated. As early as 1738 Provincial Governor George Thomas said, " This Province has been for some years the asylum of the distressed Protestants of the Palatinate and other parts of Germany, and I believe it may truthfully be said that the present flourishing condition of it is in great measure owing to the industry of these people."

The part that the Pennsylvania Germans took in the Revolution and the history of the state, has not yet been fully recorded. In recent times Bancroft, the historian, siad that neither the Pennsylvania Germans nor any others claim for them the credit, due to them. That Pennsylvania was an ideal place to live in, was stated by one of the early immigrants, a man of learning, who wrote of it, "What pleases me here is that one can be a peasant, scholar, priest, or nobleman at the same time."

Final Native American Attack In This Area

Another Indian massacre occurred in 1763, when a group of twelve Indians killed nine persons in Allen township, on October 8, about seven miles south of the Kress homestead, crossed the Lehigh River, killed nine persons in Whitehall township and wounded several.

In the evening on October 7, 1763, Captain Jacob Wetterholt, Lieutenant Jonathan Dodge, Sergeant Lawrence McGuire and at least one other soldier, on their way from Bethlehem to Fort Allen, stepped for the night at the home of John Stenton, who kept a store and tavern on the road from Bethlehem to Mauch Chunk, about a mile north of Howertown, in Allen township, Northampton county.

Some Indians had been offended at this house, and they may have known too that Lieutenant Dodge, of the company of Captain Nicholas Wetterholt, a brother of Jacob, was there during the night. Lieutenant Dodge was a cruel man, hated by the Indians and disliked by the soldiers, because he abused his own men. For some reason no watch was kept and the Indians approached the house early in the morning of October 8th.

On their way they met Jean, the wife of James Horner, who was going to the house of a neighbor for coal, to light her morning fire. Fearing that she might raise an alarm, they killed her with their tomahawks.

Upon opening the door in the morning on his way to secure the captain's horse, a soldier was shot and killed. Captain Wetterholt went to the door and was mortally wounded. Sergeant McGuire attempted to rescue the captain, tried to shut the door. The landlord, Stenton, was wounded by a shot through the window, ran about a mile and dropped dead. His wife and two children were shot at three times but escaped. Captain Wetterholt crawled to a window and aimed at an Indian, who was setting fire to the house, when the Indians carried away their comrade and went off. They then plundered James Allen's house, shot James Hazlet, tomahawked his wife and two children, shot and scalped another man, and burned Frederick Kratzer's house.

Then the Indians crossed the Lehigh River, into Whitehall township and killed two children, Henry and Barbara Mickley, John Schneider and his wife and three children, wounded two other daughters, Magdalena and Dorothea, one of whom was scalped, but recovered from the severe wounds. They also killed Jacob Alleman's wife and child and burned several houses.

The Crown Inn at Bethlehem was crowded with refugees from Allen and Lehigh townships for the next few days, and it was late in December before the last of fugitives had returned to their homes. A letter of October 10th states that the number of the killed in all was twenty-three and many were wounded. The names of all the dead were not preserved. The inhabitants of Whitehall township crowded into Allentown, where a company was formed to defend the town. The Indians, however, had returned to their camps, north of the Blue Mountains. This was the last Indian massacre in the neighborhood.

Causes of the Native American Attacks and the Famous Indian Walk of 1737

As an explanation of the causes of the Indian massacres in Northampton County, it seems fit to give an account of the famous Indian Walk of 1737, which was really the cause of the Indian riots. The portraits of two Indian chiefs, Lappawinzo and Tishcohan, who lived at the Indian village, called Hockyondocquay, situated about seven miles from the Kress homestead, are shown with the views of an Indian village. A marker, placed by the Pennsylvania Historical Commission, is also shown.

An agreement was made by the Indian chiefs and the heirs of William Penn that they would give the white men land "as far as a man can go in a day and a half," along the Delaware River. Thomas Penn, in 1735, arranged for a trial walk, which began at Wrightstown, in Bucks county, and continued through Lehigh Gap to a point about eight miles beyond it, a distance of forty-eight miles and three quarters. It was done in order to ascertain how far a man could travel in a day.

Advertisements were sent out, in 1737, offering five hundred acres of land and 5 pounds in money to the person, who should walk the farthest in the given time. By previous agreement the governor was to select three persons and the Indians a like number of their own nation. The people employed by the governor were Edward Marshall, James Yates, and Solomon Jennings.

Early on Monday morning, September 19, 1737, at 6 o'clock sharp, when the sun rose, the signal was given and the men started from a chestnut tree, near the Wrightstown meeting house, in Bucks county. Three Indians, Combush, Neepaheilomon, more commonly called Joe Tuneam, who could speak English well, and Tom, his brother-in-law, accompanied them. They were followed by a small crowd on hoseback. Provisions and bedding had been sent on ahead of them with several men.

Between 10 and 11 o'clock Jennings gave up at the Tohickon creek and continued with the rest of the company until they arrived at the Lehigh, when he left for home, between where Bethlehem and Allentwon are situated now. On their way they crossed the Lehigh, a little below the present site of Bethlehem, to the northwest. At twilight, after walking twelve hours, they stopped for the night, about half a mile from an Indian town, called Hockyondocquay, where Lappawinzo and Tishcohan, Indian chiefs lived. The Indians who accompanied them had left, being dissatisfied, saying the men had run and did not care how far they went. In the morning three men went to Lappawinzo and asked him to send some Indians to accompany them, but he replied that they had all the best of the land and he would send no Indians with them. They then proceeded on an Indian path to Lehigh Gap and up through the woods to a large creek, where Yates gave out. Marshall got to the Broad Mountain, after six hours of walking. Here five chestnut oaks were marked as the extent of the walk. The route crossed the Lehigh near the present town of Mauch Chunk and covered a distance of about sixty-six miles and a half.

Then a line was drawn, not a direct line, but at right angles from the five trees to the Delaware River, which included the Minisinks, the Indians' favorite ground. From the point where Marshall ended his walk, it took four days to reach the Delaware. Had they aimed for the nearest point, they would have reached it at Water Gap in less than a day. But then it would not have included the coveted prize.

The proceedings in this walk are mentioned as one of the causes of the hostile feelings of the Indians, which eventually led to war and bloodshed; and the first murders, committed by them in the Province, were on the very land, out of which they believed themselves to be cheated. They always maintained that the walk should have been up the Delaware River by the nearest path.

Native American Complaints and Investigation Refused

Twenty years later at the council meeting at Easton, the Indians complained that they had been robbed of large tracts of land. An investigation was made, witnesses were examined, who were present at the walk and the Assembly asked the governor's permission to inspect the minutes of the Council, respecting the Indian purchases, but were refused. Thus, the influence of Thomas Penn prevented further investigation.

The Indian Walk had a more important bearing on the history of Pennsylvania than has generally been supposed. The efforts of the Indians to recover their favorite hunting grounds cost the lives of hundreds of settlers, claimed the attention of the governments on both sides of the Atlantic and by the excitement of the people prepared them more and more for independence.

Having given this explanation of the causes of the Indian massacres in the part of the country where the Kress family lived, we resume the history of Carl Kress.