Wyoming Valley - History

History

The name Wyoming derives from the Munsee name xwé:wamənk, meaning "at the big river flat."

According to the Jesuit Relation of 1635, the Wyoming Valley was inhabited by the Scahentoarrhonon people; it was then known as the Scahentowanen Valley. By 1744 it was inhabited by Lenape, Mahican, Shawnee and others. From 1740s to the 1760s the valley was the site of Moravian mission work among the Native Americans living there. They envisioned a settlement there for Christian Indians. The French and Indian War however drove these settlers away with David Zeisberger, the Moravian "Apostle to the Indians."

Pennsylvania's and Connecticut's conflicting claims to the territory — King Charles II of England had granted the land to Connecticut in 1662, and also to William Penn in 1681 — led to military skirmishes known as the Pennamite Wars. After Yankee settlers from Connecticut founded the town of Wilkes-Barre in 1769, armed bands of Pennsylvanians (Pennamites) tried without success to expel them in 1769-70, and again in 1775.

The area saw the American Revolution Battle of Wyoming on July 3, 1778, in which more than three hundred Revolutionaries died at the hands of Loyalists and their Iroquois allies. The incident was famously depicted by the Scottish poet Thomas Campbell in his 1809 poem Gertrude of Wyoming. At the time, it was widely believed that the attack was led by Joseph Brant; in the poem, Brant is described as the "Monster Brant" because of the atrocities committed, although it was later determined that Brant had not actually been present. The popularity of the poem may have led to the state of Wyoming being named after the valley.