Yocum Family History
Page Eight
PAGE 257
November 17-In the morning we returned to Auren's house and having breakfasted, started for home in the company of nine Swedes. The Rev. Bjork's accounts on the repayment of Steelman's L220 loan provide some insight into Steelman's life between 1699 and 1711 when the account was closed. Steelman used the minister as his personal banker, directing payments from time to time to merchants, relatives, and himself. Among the payments to relatives were disbursements to "Peter Yocum" on 28 May and 9 June 1701 for L2-1/4 and on 2 May 1702 for another L6. Twice the account was attached by court action and the final
disbursements in 1711 were to Steelman's unsatisfied creditors.
John Hanson Steelman's tarding posts on the Elk and Susquehanna rivers in Cecil County, Maryland, were set up primarily to trade with the Indians living in territory claimed by Pennsylvania. He traded there without a license from Pennsylvania, a matter of considerable concern to William Penn. When in 1701 Steelman sought to expand his operations by
establishing a new trading post at the Forks of the Lehigh in
Pennsylvania, he fell into a snare of William Penn who confiscated his goods in transit. Penn, who had known John Hance's father, Hans Mansson, then wrote to Steelman as follows:
Jno. Hans.
Thou hast often promised to visit this place in order to treat with me about thy Indian trade, but hast as often disappointed me. Thy present management thereof amongst us is directly contrary to our Laws. I have therefore stopped thy goods intended for Lechay (present Easton), till according to thy frequent engagements thou come hither thyself and
give further satisfaction than thou has yet done to Thy friend W.P. 12, 2 mo (April) 1701
This message quickly brought John Hanson Steelman to heel. He not only went directly to Philadelphia but also brought with him at least a dozen of the principal Indians of the Susquehanna. He made his peace with William Penn and on 23 April 1701 was interpreter and witness to an important peace treaty at Philadelphia between Penn and and the Indians of the Susquehanna River, signing his name "Jno. Hans Stellman."
Undoubtedly, John Hanson Steelman and his contingent of Indians from the Susquehanna stayed at his brother's plantation, Aronameck, on this mission. It was probably also on this trip that John Hance learned of his brother's failing health and directed Rev. Bjork to send money for his assistance. At the Provincial Council meeting on 31 May 1701 Penn acquainted the Council with the Steelman incident and the Council agreed that Steelman's confiscated goods should be restored to him,
provided he post a bond to abide by the laws of Pennsylvania, "his father (Hans Mansson) being a native of it.
No records have been found to show that Peter Peterson Yocum had any contact with his younger half-brothers after they moved from the Aronameck plantation to New Jersey around 1681. These younger half-brothers, the sons of Hans Mansson and Ella Steelman, included Charles Hanson Steelman, who inherited his father's 100-acre tract on Pennsauken Creek in Burlington County, and both Jons (Jonas, James) Hanson Steelman and Peter Hanson Steelman, who moved prior to 1697 to Great Egg Harbor near islands that later became known as Atlantic City.
PAGE 258
PETER PETERSON YOCUM, PENN'S INTERPRETER
Peter Peterson Yocum, like his father Peter Jochimson, his brother John Hanson Steelman, his father-in-law Jonas Nilsson (Barb (Hays) Clayton's 10th great grandfather)and his grandfather Olof Stille, was on very cordial terms with the native Indians of the Delaware River valley. He was fluent in their languages and headed the only family in the 1697
Wicaco church census that had an Indian boy living in the household. That Indian was the same age as Yocum's eldest son.
Frequently Peter Peterson Yocum was called upon by William Penn to serve as interpreter and to witness treaties with the neighboring Delaware Indians confirming Penn's title to land for his new colony. Thus on 15 July 1682 Yocum witnessed an Indian treaty confirming to Penn lands between the Falls of the Delaware and Neshaminy Creek. A year later, on 14 July 1683, he witnessed two Indian treaties, one confirming Penn's right to all lands between Conshohocken on the Schuylkill River and Pennypack Creek and the other confirming Penn's ownership between
Conshohocken and Chester Creek. Later, on 5 July 1691, he witnessed an agreement with the Indians confirming Penn's ownership of lands between Chester Creek and Duck Creek in present day Delaware.
As is obvious, Peter Peterson Yocum must have been one of the Philadelphia Swedes well-known to Penn. This is verified by Penn's letter from London of 16 March 1685 to Thomas Lloyd, president of his council, in which he stated:
Salute me to the Swedes, Captain (Lasse) Cock, old Peter Cock, and (Peter) Rambo, and their sons, the Swansons, Andrew Binkson (Andreas Bengtsson), P. Yoakum and the rest of them. Their ambassador here dined with me the other day.
William Penn thought highly of the Swedes,. In an earlier letter written in 1683, he described them as "a plain, strong, industrious people." In this letter Penn concluded:
I must needs commend their respect to authority, and kind behavior to the English; they do not degenerate from the friendship between both kingdoms. As they are people proper and strong of body, so they have fine children, and almost every house full; rare to find one of them without three or four boys, and as many girls; some six, seven and eight sons: And I must do them that right, I see few young men more sober and laborious.
With his growing family and a successful plantation at Aronameck, Peter Peterson Yocum's household met these specifications.
Title to Aronameck plantation west of the Schuylkill was conveyed by Hans Mansson to Peter Yocum by deed dated 29 April 1681. On the next day Peter conveyed 270 acres to Jonas Nilsson, his father-in-law. On 2 May 1681 he deeded another 200 acres to Nils Jonasson, his wife's eldest brother. Later that year Peter was back in court again on his boundary dispute with the aged Peter Rambo
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