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Harlan Berger
McElhattan
It is clear the Graybill-Shoemaker debunking heats some of the locals. I will warm them again.
Wayne Township library holds a large collection of Shoemaker books, and I am one of those who urged the township to acquire them. Diane Whitaker of the Ross Library graciously assisted in cataloging them. Shoemaker's books record many mountain tales, and are a window into bygone times.
But as historical documents, as Hugh Graybill writes, they are mostly bunk. Take The Indian Steps story as repeated in Simon Bronner's "Popularizing Pennsylvania," 1996. The outside back cover cites Bronner as Distinguished Professor of Folklore and American Studies at Penn State University-Harrisburg. He mostly details Shoemaker's life.
But let us go to the famous Indian Steps story. As often, Shoemaker points to one real character and then takes to flight.
Kishacoquillas was a Shawnee chief living near Lewistown who was present at the Treaty of 1739 (Pa. Archives). He was a historical person -- maybe the only one -- in Shoemaker's Indian Steps story. A school in living memory bore his name. But Henry often called in a known person or location to entrap the reader.
Henry spells it "Kishoquoqillas" (close enough for government work). Then he writes about "Pine Grove" but with reference to Spruce Creek which lies beyond Pine Grove Mills, not to be confused with the town of Pine Grove. That's in Schuylkill County at the foot of the Blue Mountain.
The Centre County town was Pine Grove before the post office complained about the two PA Pine Groves getting each other's mail. And so, the Pine Grove of Col. Shoemaker became Pine Grove Mills. That's the recollection of Bill Garner, Linnippi Village, who grew up in Pine Grove Mills.
We can give Henry a bye on that confusion because he might have been writing during the Pine Groves' conflict.
The famous Indian Steps were supposed to be on the mountain next to Spruce Creek. But few Native Americans except the mound builders spent time digging dirt or building steps on mountains. They avoided them and walked easier valley trails. And none of the principal Native American people of Shoemaker except Kishacoquillas appears in the historical record.
It gets more confusing. "The northern Indians or Susquehanna's invaded the southern country" (Shoemaker). In reality the Susquehannock lived south near York, PA, and would have had to come north to cross Spruce Creek's Indian Steps and fight on the plains there. That's where Shoemaker's great battle takes place. At least in historical times, and I do not believe the Iroquois and their southern offshoots, the Susquehannock, have any tradition of this great battle.
John Smith met the Susquehannock at or near the mouth of Susquehanna River in the Chesapeake Bay in early 1600s.
Shoemaker cites the Native American town called Patterson's Town near the "Canasorgu" marker as a location for Pipsisseway's retreat (one of his main figures). That's the Pattersonville in the Centennial issue of the Express, according to the copy held by longtime Wayne Township historian Rodney Stabley. But to Col. Shoemaker's credit, he locates his Patterson Town where he put his phony Canasorgu marker.
Native Americans seldom made all-out tribal war on each other, although it did happen. And the Silver Eagle, Pipsisseway, Ironwood, and King Yellow Thistle chiefs are hard to find in any record, except Shoemaker's. Hard to spell, too. None of these luminaries can be found in C. Hale Sipe's The Indian Chief's of Pennsylvania.
Only Shoemaker lists them as royalty with a royal seat at what is now McElhattan. Eastern Indians had no royalty, although the white settlers gave a few the king title. Their chiefs were often elected or appointed by women of the tribe and often for a specific purpose or time. "Chief' as a Native American title is mostly "white eye's (man)" language.
You have to read Henry's books carefully to uncover his tricks. And they are not written for careful reading. In this case he used Kishacoquillas to lend his story credibility.
He would have been delighted with The Sasquatch-Bigfoot fuss. He came close with his stories of ghostly mountain lions that could only be dispatched with a silver bullet.
Oh, for a good Bigfoot hunt. Outside of those on TV and professional wrestling, there is no comedy anymore. If huge men and women can beat each other for minutes on end and seldom suffer serious injury, they are true professionals. And if several million Pennsylvania hunters in the past years have not shot a Sasquatch or even seen one, then people flailing trees with sticks to "call them in" have not much chance.
It boggles the mind, and so do many of Shoemaker's stories.