Shannopin's Town, or Shannopintown, was an 18th-century Lenape (Delaware) town located within the site of modern-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, along the Allegheny River, approximately two miles east from its junction with the Monongahela River. In the early 1700s, British colonial settlers began spreading into western Pennsylvania, forcing Lenape and other American Indian tribes to move further west, settling in the Ohio Country. Shannopin's Town was one of several communities established in western Pennsylvania in the 1720s.Shannopin's Town, Ohio History Central, Ohio Historical Society The town was largely abandoned during the construction of Fort Duquesne in 1754, although a small community still existed when General John Forbes' troops arrived in September 1758. The community was gone by the time construction on Fort Pitt was started in 1759.
Establishment and location
The town or village is believed to have been settled by 1730.
Modern attempts to pinpoint the exact location of Shannopin's Town are based on settler's journals, early maps, and a burial site which was uncovered during building excavations in 1862.Shaun Slifer, "The Land that Held the Lenape Settlement of Shannopintown," at Compass Roses: Maps by Artists The village is believed to have been situated in what is now the city of Pittsburgh, roughly where Penn Avenue is today, below the mouth of Two Mile Run, from 30th Street to 39th Street. At this place the Raystown Trail leading from Harris' Ferry (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania) crossed the Allegheny River. According to George Croghan, the town was situated on the south bank of the Allegheny, nearly opposite what is now known as Herr's Island, in what is now the Lawrenceville neighborhood.Charles Augustus Hanna, The Wilderness Trail: Or, The Ventures and Adventures of the Pennsylvania Traders on the Allegheny Path, Volume 1, Putnam's sons, 1911
The town was near the western end-point of the Kittanning Path and at the southern terminus of the Venango Path. It was located at a convenient river crossing, within 16 miles of Logstown, about 20 miles from Chartier's Town, and a day's ride from Kittanning, all prominent communities with trading posts. Lewis Evans describes a ford near the town: "At Shannopin's there is a fording place in very dry times and the lowest down the river.""Analysis of Map of the Middle Colonies," by Lewis Evans, 1775, p. 25, quoted in Hodge, Frederick Webb, Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, The Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology Handbook of American Indians. Reprint of 1912 edition. Volume 3 N-S. William West reported that, on 16 June 1752, Shannopin's Town was found to be at "Forty Degrees twenty-seven minutes North latitude,"George P. Donehoo, Pennsylvania: A History, Volume 2, Lewis historical publishing Company, Incorporated, 1926 according to a measurement taken by Joshua Fry.Samuel Hazard, ed. Colonial Records of Pennsylvania, Volume 5. T. Fenn & Company, 1851
On November 15, 1753, Lewis Montour informed the Governor and the Speaker of the Assembly that "Shanoppin Town" was situated about three miles above the Forks of the Monongahela. John Hogan, who was taken prisoner at the destruction of Fort Granville, and carried to Fort Duquesne in August, 1756, stated in a deposition in June 1757 that, "at about two miles' distance from Fort Duquesne, there was an Indian Town, containing fifty or sixty natives, of whom twenty were able to bear arms."George P. Donehoo, "The Point: 'Diondega,'" excerpted from A History of the Indian Villages and Place Names in Pennsylvania with Numerous Historical Notes and References, Telegraph Press, 1928
Shannopin (Shawanoppan)
Little is known about Chief Shannopin, probably the founder of Shannopin's Town, who is also sometimes referred to as "Shawanoppan," "Shawanosson," and other variations of this name.Schutt, Amy C. Peoples of the River Valleys: The Odyssey of the Delaware Indians. University of Pennsylvania Press, Incorporated, 2013.
On 30 April 1730, Shannopin and five other Lenape leaders, "the chiefs of ye Delewares at Allegaeniny, on the main road," sent a letter, taken down by Edmund Cartledge and interpreted by James Le Tort, to Deputy Governor Patrick Gordon, protesting against the sale of rum in Lenape communities and asking the Governor to "prevent any further misfortunes for the future, we would request that the Governor would please regulate the Traders, and suppress such numbers of them from coming into the woods; and especially from bringing such large quantities of rum." The letter was to explain the death of two traders named John Hart and John Fisher, who were accidentally shot during a hunting expedition with a group of Lenapes in the fall of 1729. Another trader, David Robeson, was shot and beaten during an altercation. These incidents were blamed on intoxication by rum of those involved. Shannopin and the other signatories wanted to limit the free trade of rum and the numbers of people traveling from the European settlements in the east. The traders also complained that the rum trade had caused Indians in Shannopin's town to go into debt to the traders. Among the names signed to the message is that of "Shawanoppan his X mark."Chester Hale Sipe, "The Principal Indian Towns of Western Pennsylvania," Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, v. 13, no. 2; April 1, 1930; pp. 104-122Samuel Hazard, Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. I, Philadelphia: Joseph Severns, 1851
On 8 August 1732 Shannopin's name appears signed to a message sent by the Delawares on the Allegheny to Deputy Governor Gordon, promising to come to Philadelphia the following spring.Pugh, Edwin V., Mulkearn, Lois. A Traveler's Guide to Historic Western Pennsylvania. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1954. At Logstown on September 15, 1748 he made a speech to Conrad Weiser about the recent death of Chief Allumapees (Weiser refers to him as "Shawanasson")."Conrad Weiser's journal of a tour to the Ohio, August 11-October 2, 1748," HathiTrust Digital Library, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Shannopin died between 1748 and 1751. The exact date is unknown, but a letter from Governor James Hamilton to George Croghan, dated 25 April 1751, refers to a promise Shannopin and other Lenape leaders made, to meet with colonial authorities following the death of Chief Allumapees in October, 1747. The letter states: The Delawares...promised to visit their Brethren in Philadelphia to Consult with them about a new Chief, but those men who made such Promise, viz., Shawanapon and Others, are since dead..."
Senangel's Town
On 29 October 1731, James Le Tort and his colleague Jonas Davenport were called to testify before Governor Patrick Gordon.Charles Augustus Hanna, The Wilderness Trail: Or, The Ventures and Adventures of the Pennsylvania Traders on the Allegheny Path, Volume 2, Putnam's sons, 1911 Le Tort and Davenport had by then traveled to Native American communities across western Pennsylvania and knew them well. At the time of their examination, Davenport and Le Tort provided an estimate of the populations of the Allegheny settlements, and the names of their chiefs,Chance, Hilda, Austin N. Hungerford, Franklin Ellis, and Peck & Richards Everts, History of that part of the Susquehanna and Juniata Valleys: embraced in the counties of Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Union and Snyder, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Everts, Peck & Richards, 1886 including "Senangelstown," which has been assumed to be Shannopin's Town, with 16 families, 50 men, and a Delaware Chief named Senangel. Not all sources agree that this is Shannopin's Town, however. William Albert Hunter (1952) proposes that "Senangel's Town" was a separate communityWilliam A. Hunter, "Traders on the Ohio, 1730," Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, 35: 1952 85-92. and that "Senangel" refers to Chief Sayningoe, mentioned in other colonial documents.Alden T. Vaughan, ed. Early American Indian documents: treaties and laws, 1607-1789, Vol 2. "Pennsylvania treaties, 1737-1756," edited by Donald H. Kent. University Publications of America, 1979.
Visit by Peter Chartier, 1743-45
In 1743 Peter Chartier, a half-Shawnee Indian trader whose father was French-Canadian, moved to Shannopin's Town. He established a trading post on the Allegheny River about twenty miles upstream from the forks of the Ohio near the mouth of Chartiers Run, at what became Tarentum, known as Chartier's Town at the time, and Chartier's Old Town after it was abandoned in 1745.Boyd Crumrine, Franklin Ellis, and Austin N. Hungerford, History of Washington County, Pennsylvania: with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Philadelphia: H.L. Everts & Co., 1882. Chartier was in conflict with the Pennsylvania authorities because he opposed the sale of alcohol in Native American communities. In 1745 he declared his allegiance with the French and migrated to Kentucky, along with about 400 Pekowi Shawnees.C. Hale Sipe, The Indian Wars of Pennsylvania : an account of the Indian events, in Pennsylvania, of the French and Indian war, Pontiac's war, Lord Dunmore's war, the revolutionary war, and the Indian uprising from 1789 to 1795; tragedies of the Pennsylvania frontier based primarily on the Penna. archives and colonial records, Harrisburg, PA: The Telegraph Press, 1929.
Visit by Conrad Weiser, 1748
Conrad Weiser spent the night of August 26, 1748 at Shannopin's Town on his way to Logstown for a meeting with chiefs of the Delaware, Shawnee, Iroquois and Wyandot nations. Among those accompanying Weiser was Benjamin Franklin's illegitimate son, William Franklin, only nineteen at the time, probably sent by his father as a part of his education. William's journey subsequently inspired his father's keen interest in the frontier.Volwiler, Albert T. George Croghan and the Westward Movement, 1741–1782. Cleveland: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1926
Visit by Céloron de Blainville, 1749
In 1749, the Comte de La Galissonière wanted to strengthen French control over the Ohio Country, and in August he ordered the military commander at Detroit, Pierre Joseph Céloron de Blainville to travel down the Ohio River to demonstrate French dominance. Leading a force of eight officers, six cadets, an armorer, 20 soldiers, 180 Canadians, 30 Iroquois and 25 Abenakis,O. H. Marshall, "De Celoron's Expedition to the Ohio in 1749, Magazine of American History, March, 1878, p. 146. Céloron moved down the river on a flotilla of 23 large boats and birch-bark canoes, on his "lead plate expedition," burying lead plates at six locations where major tributaries entered the Ohio and nailing copper plates bearing royal arms to trees to claim the territory for New France.
Céloron reached Kittanning on 6 August 1749 and arrived at Shannopin's Town the next day. He writes:
The 7th I passed by a Loup (Mohegan) village in which there were only three men. They had placed a white flag over their cabins, the rest of their people had gone to Chiningue, not hazarding to remain at home. I invited these three men to come along with me to Chiningue in order to hear what I had to say to them.
Visit by Christopher Gist, 1750
Christopher Gist first visited the town in November, 1750.William M. Darlington, ed. Christopher Gist's Journals, with Historical, Geographical and Ethnological Notes and Biographies of His Contemporaries, First Journal, October, 31, 1750 to May 19, 1751. Pittsburgh, J. R. Weldin & Co., 1893William M. Darlington, ed. Christopher Gist's Journals, with Historical, Geographical and Ethnological Notes and Biographies of His Contemporaries, Pittsburgh, J. R. Weldin & Co., 1893; Notes to Christopher Gist's Journal of 1750-1 Shannopin's Town was small, containing about twenty wigwams, fifty or sixty natives and twenty warriors. It was much visited by traders.
Gist writes: