I SI -t- CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 1891 BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE Cornell University Library F 157L8 B81 History of Luzerne County. 3 1924 028 854 234 olin Overs Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028854234 HISTORY OF Luzerne County, PENNSYLVANIA, WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SELECTIONS. "A stoic of the woods, a man without a tear." — Cam:PbelVs " Gertrude of Wyoming.^ H. C. BRADSBY, Editor. ILLUSTRATED. CHICAGO: / (^- 'A, S. B. NELSON & CO., PUBLISHERS. V ^ 1893. -l^^'Uisp 30HN MORRIS COMPHNY, . . . .pRINTERSSglNbERS. /^y^/; xy^ s jBOUND BY W. B. CONKEY COMPAWV • • ■ . CHICAGO. PREFACE. " Like far-ofl chime Of half-heard bells in some forgotten clime, Pealed from the kingdom of the dead yesterdays." THE last written usually, though the first read by most intelligent bookmen, is this page. Therefore authors often use this privilege to fence against adverse criticism, or apologize for errors of omission and commission; singularly forgetful of the fact that nothing of man' s work is perfect, and that the dear critics are not only bupy pointing out the "Mistakes of Moses," but are eagerly exploiting the faults of creation itself. In faith, I would welcome them all, because the critics and doubters I esteem the salt of every civilization, and I will rest content in the one fact, namely, that everyone competent to know, after even a cursory examination, will realize that the whole has not been the work of "the idle singer of an empty day." This book, with all its faults, is much of the story of the bloody defeats and the immortal triumphs of the pioneers, now running back one hundred and thirty years; that marvelous race of men, whose bared breasts and fearless hearts erected the only wall of defense against the cruelest adversity that ever so pitilessly struck a portion of the human race ; the men and women, who, with the least resources, accomplished the greatest works. In the splendors about us behold their imperishable monuments ! The patriotic Mecca of this great State is in Luzerne qounty — focused at the base of Memorial Monument, that stands -sentinel over the ashes of the great dead. This is pre-eminently the historical spot of Pennsylvania, and here have come the poets and historians to mingle their meed of praise with the patriotic tribute of the civilized world to the devoted band whose scattered bones bleached on Abraham's Plains. From 1762 to the close of the year 1892 is the span of the quick told-off-years of the Beginning and the Now of the permanent settlement of Luzerne county — the fleeting years, as unheeded as the separate pulse-beat of lusty youth, yet here are their golden ripening fruits. To add something of the doings of the present age to the careful and well-told accounts of Isaac A. Chapman (1830); Col. William L. Stone (1841); Hon. Charles Miner (1845); Stewart Pearce (1866) ; Henry Blackman Plumb; HendrickB. Wright; Sheldsn Eeynolds, George B. Kulp, Esq., and others, whose writings have been freely laid under tribute in preparing these pages, is the whole of the ambitious purpose of this publication. All of these able chroniclers, except Stewart Pearce, treat on special subjects, and the compiler hereof has found it his great pleasure to weave as well as he could, all their garnered facts into a con- nected whole and bring 'it down to the present hour. The late Hon. Steuben Jenkins IV PEEFACE. was the busy and able gatherer of historical data of this county, and the great mis- fortune is death has dropped the curtain and his matter remains inaccessible to the seeker for facts. To the old newspaper files of the late William Penn Miner, as he received them from his father and as they are in the care of his son, William B. Miner, are obligations for many valuable cullings; also to Dr. F. C. Johnson's "Historical Record" and the same to George B. Kulp's " Fa7nilies of Wyoming." The quick-witted reader will readily recognize the paragraphs from the facile pen of Hon. C. Ben Johnson. To Rev. Horace Edwin Hayden, for the matter of the Protestant churches, and to Rev. M. J. Hoban, for that of the Catholic church, are obligations acknowledged; also to C. P. Hill, Esq., of Hazleton, for much valuable material of the Indians and early history. To the gentlemen of the press and to many others, are especial thanks cordially extended. From all these as well as still other sources, will be found from cover to cover of this book more or less of over 25,000 of the dead and the living whose lives are linked with that of the county. A goodly contingent, and to them is handed this much of the unequaled story, for them to transmit in turn to their long-coming posterity. Here is a monument that will outlive the finest bronze or hardest granite. The work is divided into Two Parts — Historical and Biographical, with a full analytical index, which will render easy reference not only to each name, but to every incident of interest in the work. THE EDITOR. CONTENTS. PART I. CHAPTER I. LUZEBNB COUNTY. PAGE As it Came from the Hands of God — First Viewed by Civilized Eyes- — Festival of the Foliage — The River and the Valley — Mountains and Streams — The Unknown Races of Men — Indians — Mammoth and Mastodon — Glaciers — Geological — Coal Strata — Fourteen Veins, Containing Ninety Feet of Coal — The County's Drainage — The Increase in Pop- ulation — Statistics of Present. Population, etc 17- 34 CHAPTER II. 1762. The First Attempted Settlement — First White Men to Visit this Section — Character Devel- oped under Adversity — Old French War — Massacre of Settlers— John and Emanuel Hoover, Noah Hopkins— Capt. Lazarus Stewart — Again This is a Silent Desert — Next Attempt at Settlement 1769 — First Pennamite and Yankee War — First Forty Settlers, List of — Four Times the Settlers Driven Oif — Capt. Butler and Capt. Amos Ogden— List of the First Two Hundred Connecticut Settlers — Renewal of the Troubles Between Yankees and Pennamites — Effort to Form a New State — A House Divided Against Itself, etc 34-67 CHAPTER III. HABITS AND CUSTOMS. Those Who Came Peeping in the Wilderness— Old Michael, or " Old Pickle "— " Oh Sister Phebe"— The Ancient Dude— Severe Religion— A Preacher Tried for Drunkenness- The Prophesies and Grotesqueries- The Brush Hut and Log Cabin— A Typical Woods Pioneer, etc ^'^~ 90 CHAPTER IV. BATTLE OF WYOMING. Westmoreland Town and County, of Connecticut— The People Quick to War for Inde- pendence Reckless John Penn— Plunket's Expedition— The Two Companies Sent to Washington— Steuben Jenkins' Historical Address— Massagre of the Hardings— The Fatal July 3, 1778— They Surrender and are Then Plundered— Conflicting Stories— The British Accounts— Pennites Called Tories and Many Driven Out— List of the Killed in the Battle— The Dorrances— Col. Franklin with Company Reached the Fort Just After the Battle— Butler Escaped to the Mountains— Denison Surrenders- Some Ancient Stories of the Battle Investigated— The Movement— The Centennial Day of the Battle, etc 90-133 VI . CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. habtlbt's and bullitan's expeditions. Page Following the Battle ■Washington Orders Hartley and William Butler to Form an Expe- dition—Sullivan Reaches Wilkes-Barre and Ascends the Biver— Extracts from Diaries of the Men in the Expedition— Importance of Sullivan's Movements— Indian Marauds in the Valley— Battle with the Indians at Frenchtown Mountain— King Nutimus . 123-134 CHAPTER VI. YANKEE AND QUAKER. The Seventeen Townships— Legal Aspects of the Subject— Address of Gov. Hoyt— Titles of Connecticut and Pennsylvania— Puritan and Quaker— Jurisdiction and Soil Considered— A Long and Bitter Controversy — Both Were Right, etc 134^168 CHAPTER VII. WAS. Whisky Insurrection— Threatened French War — Row with England — War of 1812-15 — Mexican War- Civil War, etc 168-199 CHAPTER VIII. SCGAB LOAF MASSACKE. Destruction of Forts Rice, Bosley's Mills and Fort Jenkins— Capt. Klader's Company Ambushed— Burial Party— John Ballietl^The Walk Purchase— Chief Nutimus— Peter Hess Massacred, etc 199-209 CHAPTER IX. LtrZBBNB COUNTY CREATED. Witchcraft — ^Westmoreland Town Erected — Interesting Items from the Records — Town- ships Within the Town — Prices Regulated by Law — Punishment of Evil Doers — Oldest Land Records — County Created — Courts and Lawyers — Resident Attorneys — Officials- Centennial, etc 309-249 CHAPTER X. ROADS. Blazed Tracks — Express — Mails — Turnpikes — Stage Drivers — George Root and Conrad Teter- First Highway — River Navigation— Canals — Rafting — Railroads- Ship Build- ing — Bridges — Storms and Floods, etc 260-269 CHAPTER XI. COAL. Vast Deposits Once All Over the State— First Shipped Down the River in 1807— Parties Who First Mined and Transported It— Jesse Fell— Canal Opened— Nicho Allen and Philip Ginter— Miner, Cist & Robinson Attempt to Miue and Ship Coal — Railroads and Transportation Companies— Value of Coal Lands— Eastern Middle Coal Fields— Coal Found— Ario Pardee — Eckley B. Coxe— Superior Hard Coal — George B. Markle — Tun- nels—Accidents, etc 270-330 CONTENTS. Vii CHAPTER XII. THB DEAD THAT STILL LIVE. PaGB A List of the Prominent Early Men Here— Those Who Stood in the Front— Hon. Charles Miner's List and Others Added, etc .' '. 331-373 CHAPTER XIII. Education Considered— First Schools— Free Schools— Present Schools— Educational Insti- tutions, etc 374^394 CHAPTER XIV. THE PRESS. The First Printers— Herald of the Times— Gradual Growth of Printing— Long List of Papers and Many Able Newspaper Men — Papers now Published in the County, etc 397-417 CHAPTER XV. MEDICAL. Salivation Army — Hot Water and Bleeding — A Learned Profession — Medical Societies — First Physicians^List of Registered Physicians — County Medical Societies, etc 418-433 CHAPTER XVI. CHUBCHES OP THE COUNTY. First Arrivals of Churches, and Organizations — A Religious People Were the Pioneers^ — Moravians, Puritans and Catholics in Their Order, etc 433-450 CHAPTER XVII. SOCIETIES AND ASSOCIATIONS. Anti-Masonic Politics— Modern Popularity of Secret Societies — Board of Trade — Early Debating Societies — Ninth Regimentr— Halls— Library Associations, etc 451-463 CHAPTER XVIII. AGKICULTURE. In the Valley Originally it was only Farmers— Time has Brought the Change— Now it is only Collieries— Fair Grounds and Associations- The Beginning and End of the Story —Some of the Early Manufacturing Industries, etc 463^70 CHAPTER XIX. CITY OP WILKBS-BASRE. , The Proud Queen of the' North Susquehanna— Founded by John Durkee— First Settlers- First Improvements— First House was Abbott's, Corner of Main and Northampton Streets- Forts— Reminiscences of the Early People and Buildings— Banks, Factories and Industries — City Improvements, etc 470-5/il CHAPTER XX. HAZLBTON. The New City in the County— Its Founding and Growth— Its Situation— Offlcials-Early Settlers— Drumheller, Davenport, Pardee and Others— Its Industries and Institu- tions 533-531 Till CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXI. TOWNSHIPS AND BOKOUGHS. Page Ashley Borough 531-533 Avoca Borough 533-534 Bear Creek Township 534 Black Creek Township 534-537 Buck Township 537-538 Butler Township 538-541 Conyngham Township 541 Dallas Borough 542 Dallas Township 543-543 Denison Township 543-544 Dorrance Township 547-548 Dorranceton Borough 548 Edwardsville Borough 548 Exeter Borough 549-550 Exeter Township 550-552 Fairmouut Township 552-554 Pairview Township 554^558 Porty Port Borough 558-559 Poster Township 560-561 Pranklin Township 563-563 Preelan* Borough 563-566 Hanover Township 566-580 Hazle Township 580-583 Hollenback Township 582-583 Hughestown Borough 583 Hunlock Township 583-584 Huntington Township 584-588 Jackson Township 588-589 Jeddo Borough 561 Jenkins Township 589-590 Kingston Borough 590-595 Kingston Township 595-596 Page Laflin Borough 596-597 Lake Township 597-598 Laurel Run Borough 600 Lehman Township 598-600 Luzerne Borough 600-603 Marcy Township 603-604 Miner's Mills Borough 604^605 Nanticoke Borough 605-608 Nescopeck Township 608-612 New Columbus Borough 587 Newport Township 612-614 Parsons Borough 614-615 Pittston Township 615-618 Pittston Borough 618-626 Plains Township '. 626-631 Plymouth Borough 681-634 Plymouth Township 634-641 Ross Township 641-642 Salem Township 642-647 Shickshinny Borough 647-649 Slocum Township 649-650 Sugar Notch Borough 650 Sugarloaf Township 650-657 Union Township 657-658 West Hazleton Borough 658 West Pittston Borough 658 659 White Haven Borough 659-663 Wilkes-Barre Township 663-664 Wright Township 664 Wyoming Borough 665-666 Yatesville Borough 666-667 PART II. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. Biographical Sketches in Alphabetical Order. Biographical Sketches Addenda .671-1489 1490 CONTENTS. IX MISCELLANEOUS. PORTIIAITS. Page Barton, A. A., :^r. D ,535 Beaumont, Col. Eugene B 125 Butler, Edmand G 545 Cake, J. L 609 De Witt, A. McI 355 Dills, John F 475 Dodson, John 105 Dodson, S. H 165 Dorrance, Col. Charles 35 Farnham, Alexander ■ 435 Foster, Charles D 75 Gilligan, P. M 395 Hardina:, Garrick M 195 Harschr Claude G 637 Harvey, Jameson 185 Hibbs'W. 1 583 Keck, Col. Morrison J 645 Kirkendall, W.F 525 Kisner, Elliott P 465 Kisner, William 275 Knapp, Charles P 265 Kosek, John 405 Kulp, Geo. B 65 Law, Jno. B 619 Lee, Conrad 573 Lenahan, John T 235 Lewis, G. Mortimer 663 Longshore, W. R 485 McGahren, John 365 McGroartv, John S 325 MacKnight, 0. B 145 Markle, G. B 445 Markle, Jno 355 Page Mitchell, G. W 495 Neale, H. M 345 Oliver, Paul A 205 Osborne, Edwin S 295 Pardee, A 35 Parrish, Charles 85 Pettebone, Noah •. 315 Pettebone, Payne 45 Pettebone, Stephen H 345 Pfouts, Benj'n P 155 Quigley, T. F 627 Reichard, Geo. N 375 Reichard, J 175 Reynolds, A. H 565 Reynolds, John B 285 Robinson, J. S 415 Robinson, R. P 305 Rockafellow, F. V 95 Sandel, John H., M. D 455 Search, Hendrick W 385 Shoemaker, William S 235 Shonk, Geo. W 315 Shonk, John J 135 Sprague, L. L 515 Stark, John M 335 Swetland, William 55 Trimmer, S. W., M. D 555- Tripp, Isaac 435 Troutman, Geo. H 601 Tyrrell, J. C 591 Van Wickle, A. S 505 Woodward, Stanley 115 The Wyoming Monument, View of 119 Part I. Historical IT Part II. Biographical 671 Index, Historical 1^491 Index, Biographical 1*95 Map of Luzerne County 13-13 PART I. HISTORICAL. LTJZEBNE COUNTY. CHAPTER I. LUZERNE COUNTY, As IT Came from thb Hands of God — Pikst Viewed by Civilized Eyes — Festival of THE Foliage— The Riveb and the Valley — Mountains and Streams— The Unknown Races of Men — Indians — Mammoth and Mastodon— Glaciers— Geological — Coal Strata — Fourteen Veins, Containing Ninety Feet of Coal — The County's Drainage — The Increase in Population — Statistics of Present Population, etc. RICH and beautiful Luzerne county! On thy face the hills swelling away in the blue distance at whose feet are the valleys where the bright waters for- ever sing their lullabies as the mountain brook joins the valley stream and both rush into the winding river in its merry, ceaseless race to the sea. When civilized man first clambered up the eastern incline of the Blue mountains and looked across toward the far-famed Pocono, and caught a glimpse of what was destined to be one of the most historical places in America, what grandeur and beauty of nature broke upon his vision! If in the spring with the fresh flowers and the new shining green leaves, the returning new life on every hand and the birds flitting from fragrant bower to bower and caroling to the limpid blue skies their joyous return from the south, or if, as is more likely, in " the mild September," when the nuts are brown, the gr.apes purple, the sumac flaming its red, and from the clear cold brook reflecting the images of the tall mountain top, this is the entrancing vision of the Festival of the Foliage; in either, or in any case, what a panorama of loveliness greeted his wondering eyes! He stops to breathe a moment and behind him, before him, to the right and left of him, bounded only by the limits of vision, what grandeur, what entrancing beauties! Here was nature's master effort of wide, peaceful and quiet beauty. Such rich coloring; such blending of rainbows, brawling brooks and forest -covered hillside; such billows of flame, from the dark gorge to the end of vision in one ever unfolding panorama, touched as is only possible by the master hand of God. .Never was the face of the earth so beautiful, so restful, so witching to the human eye. Mountains, promontories and gently rolling hills and restful valleys, all crowned with flowers, brilliant foliage, birds of song and silvery streams. The first view from the Pocono to the west-bound traveler presented the famed Wyoming Valley completely encircled with its everlasting hills, except where the Susquehanna river breaks through from the north near Pittston and winds along nearly through the center of its entire length. In the river can be seen many green islands slumbering in its embrace. Across there is " Prospect Eock" and from this lookout the entire valley can be viewed. The Pocono range extends an hundred miles nearly parallel with the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers — with 2 18 HIBTOEY OP LUZEKNE COUNTy. wild and rather desolate summits, but presenting on every hand the magnificent landscapes that constitute much of the glories of northern Pennsylvania. The Susquehanna river enters the valley at Lackawanna gap, coming in through a narrow defile in the mountain and passes out through a like narrow way below Nan- ticoke gap, traveling a distance of near twenty miles. The valley averages about three miles in width and the enclosing mountains are about 1,000 feet high on the eastern and about 800 feet on the western side. Then comes Wiikes- Barre mountain to the south, fronting its bold face and almost in articulate language saying, "Stop here!" And men simply passed along the river up and down, while the rugged hills covering all south and southeast of the Susquehanna were left to the wild forest denizens and the tireless hunters. But the white man was swarming from the old world and peeping all about the new. In due time he found the great anthracite coal field of southern Luzerne, and here, in the ragged sublimity of nature, he has penetrated the bowels of the earth and from its dark secrets has fairly enriched the world. The Eastern Middle coal field in due time came to bless the human race, and nature's most rugged and repelling face has proved to be one of the most interesting spots of our hemisphere. When the white man's eyes first beheld this favored spot of earth that is Luzerne county this was some- thing of its inviting wealth and beauties. The great valleys between the mountains were not only beautiful, but on their face told of the rich stores they contained for the future agriculturist. Had the beholder possessed the prophetic vision to see the incalculably rich mines beneath this fair surface — anticipated somewhat the change that one hundred years the magic touch of civilization had in store for this wonderland, could he have believed his supernatural vision, think you ? Let the youth of to-day simply attempt to picture in his mind the conditions and appear- ances of his surroundings of 150 years ago, and after the fairest efforts doubt- less he would draw the mental outline wide of the truth. The man wha first looked upon this locality could he now revisit the glimpses of the moon, would find so little in appearance of what he really saw that he could not believe it was at all the same. The streams and the hills are still here, but even these are so changed, especially the latter. The pine trees no longer towering straight toward the clouds, but farms, and dividing lines, much like a piece quilt extending from the valley to the low mountain top. In the flat valley, often where once was th& heavy timber so gracefully swaying in the breeze, are now equally high elevations, promontories, mounds and hills of culm that have been thrown behind the advanc- ing miners as they dug for the black diamonds. Prehistoric Peoples. — We call our continent the new world, simply because it is new to us. Both geologists and archeologists tell us that it is a matter of much doubt, but that these appellations should be changed. Geology is the most ancient of all history — the history of mankind is the most modern, because of all life man was the last to appear from the womb of time. Evidences are scattered across the continent that there were peoples here before the native Indians. One certain and probably two other distinct races. They are lost to history, whether one or many. The Mound Builders must have been a numerous race that were dead or a dying people probably before the pyramids or the Sphynxwere built. They covered this continent and to this day the works of their slave-lives are seen in the systems of great artificial mounds that we can trace from northern Canada, running southeast and along the whole of North America and the peninsula into South America. And of these innumerable hosts, with many evidences of considerable civilization, not even a trace of tradition has been passed down to us. Whether this numerous peo- ple so long held together by some form of organization — a form that had a controll- ing head that enslaved the masses, and finally broke up into warring factions and became the builders of the fortifications, with skilled engineers to plan and lay them out as we can dimly trace the remains, and thus hurried all to mutual destruction, HISTOBY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 19 or whether the uaeovered cities and remaias of public works and these extensive forts and places for military defense were from a new and distinct race succeeding the Mound Builders, we are wholly left to conjecture. History is but agreed fic- tion, but there is much realism in the fiction, while here all evidences of peoples, of civilizations, powerful society organizations that rose, flourished and passed away, concerning whom we have no tradition. All life is but swift change. The centuries chase each other as the ripples on the water; national life grows old and dies, plunging into the river of time like the snow-flake. Slowly and painfully civil- izations are builded, every step marked by the blood of its martyrs; every age by its wars for glory and for pelf. There is no day nor time with nature, while with all else it is but birth and death — the very change that is life itself. In Luzerne county there exist some remains of ancient fortifications, which appear to have been constructed by a race of people very different in their habits from those who occupied the place when first discovered by the whites. Most of these ruins have been so much obliterated by time that their forms can not now be distinctly ascertained. That which remains the most entire is situated in the town- ship of Kingston, upon a level plain on the north side of Toby's creek, about 150 feet from its bank, and about half a mile from its confluence with the Susquehanna. It is of an oval or elliptical form, having its longest diameter from the northwest to the southeast, at right angles to the creek, 337 feet, and its shortest diameter from the northeast to the southwest 272 feet. On the southwest side appears to have been a gateway about twelve feet wide, opening toward the great eddy of the river into which the creek falls. From present appearances it consisted probably of only one mound or rampart, which, in bight and thickness, appears to have been the same on all sides, and was constructed of earth, the plain on which it stands not abounding in stone. On the outside of the rampart is an entrenchment or ditch, formed probably by removing the earth of which it is composed, and which appears never to have been waUed. The creek on which it stands is bounded by a high, steep bank on that side, and at ordinary times is sufficiently deep to admit canoes to ascend from the river to the fortification. When the first settlers came to Wyoming this plain was covered with its native forest, consisting principally of oak and yellow pine, and the trees which grew on the rampart and in the entrenchment are said to have been as large as those in any other part of the valley. One large oak particularly, upon being cut down, was ascertained to be seven hundred years old. The Indians had no tradition concerning these fortifications; neither did they appear to have any knowledge of the purpose for which they were constructed. The distinct traces of another fortification similar in many respects to the above were found in Jacob's Plains, near Wilkes-Barre, in the highest part of the low grounds. Seventy-seven years ago Mr. Chapman and Charles Miner carefully exam- ined these works, and while they were then but very dim, could be more readily traced than now and of their examination they inform us that its outlines could be best traced when the waters overflowed the flats, when it appeared as an island entirely surrounded by the waters. The eastern extremity is near the line dividing the farms of John Searle and James Hancock, where, from its safety from inundation, a fence has long since been placed; and to this circumstance is to be attributed the preservation of the embank- ment and ditch. In the open field so entirely is the work leveled that the eye can not trace it. But the extent west is known, for " it reached through the meadow lot of Captain Gore" (said Cornelius Courtright) " and came to my lot one or two rods." The lot of Captain Gore was seventeen perches in width. Taking then these 280 feet, add the distance it extended eastwardly on the Searle lot and the exten- sion westerly on the lot of Esquire Courtright, we have the length of that meas- ured by Mr. Chapman so very nearly as to render the inference almost certain that both were of the same size and dimensions. 20 HISTORY OF LUZEKNE COUNTY. "Huge trees were growing out of the embankment when the white people began to clear the flats for cultivation. It is oval, as is still manifest from the segment exhibited on the upper part, formed by the remaining rampart and fosse, the chord of the arc being the division fence. The Wilkes- Barre fortification is about eighty rods from the river, toward which a gate opened, and the earliest set- tlers concur in stating that a well existed in the interior, near the southern line. " On the bank of the river there is an Indian burying place; not a barrow or hill, such as is described by Mr. Jefferson, but where graves have been dug and the deceased laid, horizontally, in regular rows. In excavating the canal, cutting through the bank that borders the flats, perhaps thirty rods south from the fort, was another burying place disclosed, evidently more ancient; for the bones almost imme- diately crumbled to dust on exposure to the air, and the deposits were far more numerous than in that near the river. By the representation of James Stark, the skeletons were countless, and the deceased had been buried in a sitting posture. In a considerable portion of the bank, though scarcely a bone remained of sufficient firmness to be lifted up, the closeness and position of the buried were apparetit f rom the discoloration of the earth. In this place of deposit no beads were found, while they were common in that near the river. " The most recent discoveries of archeologists have unearthed evidences of lost nations that passed away at least 5,000 years ago; peoples that had organized governments and complete systems of religion, with a written picture language; nations or peoples dying of old age and slow decay fifty centuries ago. Did they, think you, like us, delve with curious interest for the lost remains of their prede- cessors ? Indians. — This name came from the discoverers of this continent who did not know it was the Western Hemisphere. Their place in history that treats of civilization is a negative one. The race when we found it in the thirteenth century was mentally petrified, and the only good thing it could do the world was to pass out of it as quickly as possible. Fate so ordained that it stood in the path of the ever-advancing, bloody and all- conquering white man. The native savage had no history, and bad he remained here undisturbed indefinitely he would have made no more than the same idle, childish traditions that he possessed when Colum- bus first sighted our shores. He was in the act of dying out when we found him, and it is probable that the white man's coming, with all its supposed wrongs to these forest children, tended far more to prolong that people' s existence on the earth than to hurry them to unmarked graves. He. was but a filthy cannibal, and the seeds of decay were within. No lengthened existence' on earth would have ever caused the Indian to invent soap, the lever that lifts mankind from the wallow to the purer air and sweeter sunshine. If his nature had ever possessed possibilities of good they had given way many generations before we knew him to the baser heredities of the serpent and the ferocious wild beast. In these he was caked and mentally was petrified — cunning, cruel, hopelessly and helplessly ignorant. The only history there is of the American Indians of any intelligent interest now to us is the shorb story of their contact with civilization and futile struggles to beat it back or to live in new and strange environment. The Indians built no mounds nor enduring pyramids for after-coming races to wonder at and construct imaginative stories of their numbers, wealth and evident advancement; they proposed to leave no traces for future archeologists to hunt for their "lost arts." While this may be disappointing to the delver in the musty kingdom of the dead yester- days, to the more practical philosopher it reveals the best thing ascertainable of the Indian's nature. He was his own master; he loved his liberty better than his life- he was not and would not be a slave. That is the pre-eminent mark of the Indian character. You might cage him and so you might the eagle, while neither could be made to do base service, both would die of broken hearts. " Born in the wild- HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 21 wood, rocked on the wave," he would be free. Between death and a task-master he had no instant of hesitation in his choice. Some need of genuine admiration is due the wild savage here. It was that deep-seated love of liberty that is the most ennobling trait in human nature. He possessed a religious faith, but crawled upon his belly before no miserable fetich. His god lived across the mountains and was a great hunter and warrior, who would welcome every brave as a brother hunter in the land of plenteous game. He constructed his god after his own fashion — a fel- low hunter and never a master. The only history due the Indians is where he came in contact with the pioneer, and as such it will be found in this volume where it tells of the struggles and trials of the conquering race that came and possessed this now rich and teeming land. The mammoth, the mastodon and the huge hairy elephant once roamed over all this continent. There were, too, here lizards so enormous of size that we can now merely conjecture their outlines. The remains of the hairy elephant with long curl- ing tusks were recently found in Siberia where they had remained frozen in the ice for thousands of years, the flesh so well kept that the dogs ate it readily when uncov- ering the remains. All these monsters were of tropical habitat. The species passed away, so did the unknown races of men. Human, animal and vegetable life in kind and species come and go with the fleeting ages and the slight traces of existence that we find are only of the most modern who precede us. Our vision backward is short and imcertain, before us is the dark wall jutting up against our very noses. But antedating all this varied human and animal life were the infinitely more powerful factors in shaping the world's destiny — the glaciers that ground their way over this continent — the world builders, fashioning the face of the earth preparatory to our occupancy. These slow flowing rivers, or rather seas of solid ice moving over the land with resistless force, leveling the mountain of granite, grinding the hills to dust, turning the course of rivers, filling the inland seas and making water beds of the seat of the mountain range. The glacial rocks are found in all por- tions of the northern hemisphere. Glaciers now exist and are flowing in many parts, but particularly in Switzerland, the solid ice, miles in thickness, moving at annual perceptible rate. The power behind these glaciers is to our finite minds wholly inconceivable. These crystal ships were the first that ever came to this portion of the world. No commander walked their glittering decks, and yet those vessels with gleaming splendors refracting the colors of the rainbow, brought here much of the surface deposit of nature as man first found it. These ice visitations were no doubt regular and a most necessary part of the preparation for man's final coming. They moved always from the north to the south, and thus run the mountain ranges and the great continental rivers. When our hemisphere rose dripping from the bottom of the sea the highest point would be the central ridge or backbone of the eleva- tion running with the lines of longitude, and then the natural flow of the waters would be to the east and to the west. This is verified by the course of the dead rivers recently discovered. We can liken these wonderful ice movements to nothing so well as the world's finishing sand paper — the mere polish of a round world by the hand of the supreme Master. Geological. — The first great interest to man is the geology of his habitat. This and climate are the controlling factors of his being, the development of communities and the rise and ^read of civilization. Within the vegetable and the animal is always a prepotency toward the better and stronger life. This is the struggle for existence, and primarily the beginnings of life are in the soil and climate. In the adjustment of climates birds and fishes became migratory, as in their simple phys- ical formation this was of first importance. Wingless land animals could not migrate with the seasons and their physical natures became more complex, and ever ascending until man crowned creation with his presence; first in the tropics and in the course of ages he became a migratory animal, ever tending in his movements 22 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. toward a northern temperate zone until his bounding complex nature imperatively required for its full development something of the extremes of heat and cold,— - variety of climate, as well as variety of soils, the stubborn and severe mixed with the ever warm and the sometimes coy soils. In other words all nature's products are lazy— man the most of all, and to grow, to develop the best energies, to have life at all that is worth the living, he must struggle for it. The storm-winds drive the roots of the tree deep in the ground, gripping with their gnarled fingers, as a vice, everything they touch. Where nature fills all the requirements of animal life there are the songless birds and f.he persistent, ignorant savage man. Hence from the temperate belt running round the world has come all better civilizations, all superior intelligence. Extremes of climate whether of cold or heat stunt both the body and the mind, but there is more force inherently in the little Jakuts of the north than there is in the giant Patagonians. The ability to think therefore comes largely of soil and climate. The home of the higher civilization is marked by the corn and the cotton; one of the inhospitable spots of the earth being the shores of the North sea — damp, cold and forever dreary— a land of rain and fog and storm, where the waters trench forever upon the land and where the smiling sun seldom goes, yet this was the breeding ground for the world's dominating races of men. The hardy sailors upon treacherous waters, on rude log rafts, braved the storms ^nd driven by starvation became navigators and then pirates, and from pirates to war- riors and from warriors to conquerors and they swarmed out and possessed the known earth and pitilessly enslaved their captives or in mercy ate them. The North sea and the Black Woods had received the tender, tropical, lazy man, and grafted upon this stem its own grim and pitiless energies, bleaching his skin and hair to greatest whiteness, and this animal, hungry, fierce, fearless and sleepless, went out in packs like starving wolves and made tribute of the habitable world. No other animal was ever so inherently savage, and he grew to be a warrior, a tighter by instinct, and then he invented gunpowder, as a matter of imperative necessity, and in time from fighting his brother when he could find no common enemy, he grew from cunning to invention, from invention to investigation, and benign phi- losophy dawned from a world's long travail. The long and slow development of the race has gone on in its fierce, blind strug- gles — never by scientific, but always by the bloodiest methods. And never a moment since the morning stars sang together has there not been the inviting way to produce both the pessimist and the optimist. The course of civilization has ever been upward, but spirally so. Man struggles and dies, and when he is hastily returned to mother earth there are others to take his place, struggle and die in their turn. There is no time nor place for him to be gentle and good until he is dead. The resistless energies of nature never intermit, and it seems they are merely fate that through fire and blood drive him forever on and on. Cold and hunger develop or create his activities — all his wonderful energies, and he is so constituted that he will only expand and rise when beat upon by the adverse winds and his lazy hopes are riven as by the thunderbolt. " Life, love aad loss — three steps From cradle to the grave; three steps and then. Like little tired children in the lap Of our great mother earth sleep." The absence of the training and education that would best fit men to live has cost the human race ages of severest travail — a river of woe and wrong forever run- ning round the world; a raging, swollen stream, whirling, plunging and all engulf- ing. And ignorant man has sufPered and dreamed and lived on in the throes of death. Look upon this little spot of earth, bounded by your short imperfect vision! When civilized man looked upon it, he could see no more than the little of the sur- HISTOEY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. 23 face that the untutored savage had long made familiar. He knew his squaw could girdle the trees and plant the few seeds and the earth would yield a thousand fold. The white man could see no more than this. In even the first wave of immigrants to the Susquehanna there were men of the higher education of the day. But this school-man knew not his environment so well as the practiced, illiterate hunter, and his life was far more difficult. There was a misfit in the man, his education and environment. His knowledge of economical geology came wholly of the Mosaic account of creation — the literal six days and the job was a completed and a fiuished world. His school had not taught him that all and everything he can possess and enjoy in this world comes primarily of the rocks, bursting from the earth to meet and be kissed by the wind, the rain and the sunshine. Here is the source of life — the everlasting foundation of real education. A knowledge of the fundamentals of geology would have told him the transcendent story of the future visible on the surface, but far more deeply impressed by the secrets that lay hid under the sur- face. Life springs from the earth and here are the never-ending treasures to all who can see them and appropriate them. Some knowledge of the fundamentals of geology, even though slight, would have saved our pioneer ancestors the monstrous pains and penalties that for half a century was their chief h eritance. Then they would have known at once that which they had to learn by at least fifty years of bit- ter experience. The geologist looks beneath as well as upon the earth's surface. Understands the rocks and soils, he knows on slight inspection not only whence they came, but what in the way of minerals or valuable materials are their accompaniment. The earth is fretted with ever new budding life, all coming and going by the unvarying laws of nature. There is to-day, as in the long centuries past, a brooding uncer- tainty in the parent's mind over the education of children. The fault is not in the parent, if fault there be. Education should be a certain science ; unfortunately it is not, and is hardly tending that way. No more now than hundreds^f years ago can people know the outcome of all efforts at schooling. In the household, under the family roof-tree, are the best men's highest hopes and ambitions. If he could be ■ absolutely certain in matters of educating the young; know when he started his child off to school that he was not venturing, not merely trying an experiment, what a sheet anchor this would be to those myriads of rudderless vessels in the sweeping storms. He, as it is, simply feels his own imperfect education — shuts his eyes and sends his children to the hired man to receive knowledge and the ferule. This wonderful valley geologically extends from Shickshinny to Carbondale, a distance of fifty miles. Its topographical appearance, as viewed from Prospect Eock, is that of a spacious vale, fading on both hands into the hazy distance. The anomoly is the course of the river which is entirely independent of the strata- graphical structure of the region. North of Pittston, it cuts transversely through the mountain and carves for itself a course over the coal measures as far as Nanti- coke, where, passing through a notch in the conglomerate, it enters the region of red shale and continues in that course until at Shickshinny it again breaks at right angles across the end of the mountain rage. The hight of the river above the tide is 540 feet and the adjacent mountains from 700 feet to 1,500 feet higher. What is the Northern coal field is a long concave basin from Carbondale and extending north fifty miles; a mile wide at Carbondale and over five miles wide at Kingston, the place of greatest width. The floor of this basin is the Mammoth red stone' which is about 800 feet below the sea level, but rising to an outcrop at slope 2 of the Kingston Coal company and at the Hollenback slope below Prospect Kock. The Pottsville conglomerate roofs the coal beds. And around every coal bed is the Pocono sandstone, and between these two ridges is a thick bed of Mauch Chunk red shale which is eroded into a narrow valley. All the strata of this region that comes to the surface belongs to the paleozoic era and to the Devonian and car- 24 HISTORY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. boniferous periods. The Catskill formation is found in the Kingston mountains and here and there the rich plant food bearing soft Chemung rock. These strata are of variable thickness, and can be all easily found at Campbell's Ledge. A straight line from Harvey's lake to Bear creek vyould show all the way first the Catskill sand- stone, and along Toby's creek would find the Chemung. On the northern side of Kingston mountain we find the Pocono sandstone. There ought to be here, as next, the red shale, but it is absent; crossing this we find the Pottsville conglomerate, and crossing this come the outcrops of the coal measures with fourteen well-defined viens of coal, traversing the drift formations of the flats. Ascending Wilkes-Barre mountain again, we pass over the coal outcrop and reach the mountain's conglomer- ate summit, cross a narrow valley in the shale and arrive at the great Pocono plateau and thus to Bear creek. In the seismic disturbances this spot was more remote from its greatest movements than the basins of Carbon or Schuylkill coun- ties. Therefore its general character is that of one great synclinal, the coal seams outcropping on each side before they reach their proper anticlinal. The floor of this carboniferous trough is not symmetrical. It is crumpled into many rolls that run in long diagonals across the basin in nearly parallel lines, forming, as it were, many smaller or local basins. The number of small anticlinals existing in the sub- strata is consequently great, and many of them are detected only with great difficulty. These saddles as they approach Carbondale diverge more and more from the general direction of the valley, but become proportionately smaller in the steep- ness of their anticlinals with each advancing wave. The anticlinals which originate on the southern mountain become sharper as they approach the center of the valley and die out along the line of the Susquehanna. The anticlinals originating in the northern hills are supposed to have the same characteristics, but owing to the immense accumulations of drift on the surface, the topographical evidences are but meager. The geological survey describes forty of these troughs, and each of these, it should be bqfne in mind, is marked by a secondary series of anticlinals, which though but slightly seen in a map are of vast importance in a mine. Coal. — The thickness of the coal measures varies greatly. The deepest part of the basin is in the vicinity of the Dundee shaft, near Nanticoke, where 1,700 feet of coal strata is developed. The names of the principal seams as they are met in descending No. 4 shaft of the Kingston Coal company, with their average thickness, are as follows: Orchard vein, 4J feet; Lance vein, 6| feet; Hillman vein, 10 feet; Five Foot vein, 5 feet: Four Foot vein, 4 feet; Six Foot vein, 6 feet; Eleven Foot vein, 11 feet; Cooper vein, 7| feet; Bennett vein, 12 feet; Ross vein, 10 feet; Red Ash vein, 9 feet. The total thickness of coal is therefore ninety feet. The material in these veins is softer than the strata of the southern basin, but nevertheless it is identical in for- mation. Professor White says : "Although Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton are distant from each other over twenty miles the same coal beds can be recognized at the two places, showing that they once spanned the wide rock-arch of the Wapwallopen valley; that all the coal fields were once united; that the slow erosion of ages has spared to us but a small fraction of the black diamonds which must have once covered far more than the whole area of the State of Pennsylvania." The stupendous force of these eroding agencies is shown by the presence of the fine striae on Penobscot Knob, which is 2,220 feet high and is only nine miles north of the edge of the ter- minal moraine. Near the same summit, on the Catskill sandstone, is a large white bowlder of Pottsville conglomerate, measuring 9x6x4^ feet, that was evidently lauded there by a glacier that still towered above that point possibly miles. The phenomena of the glacial age, difficult as they are to read with certainty, are not any more difiicult of interpretation than the deposits of the paleozoic era. The Pottsville conglomerate is the rock cradle which holds the coal. Why is it that this millstone grit at Tamaqua is 1,191 feet thick and at Wilkes-Barre but ninety-six ^-r^-c COL. CHAJ-'LEG nOi-;B'AKCE HISTORY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. 27 feet thick ? Many theories coaoerning this are advaaced, but they are mere conject- ures. Everywhere in the anthracite regions this variation occurs. Professor Lesley says: " The variable thickness of the conglomerate must be discussed on one or two hypotheses: either we must surmise extraordinary and unaccountable variations in the quality of the sand and gravel deposited on neighboring parts or red shale sea bottom, or we must apply the mechanical law, that the folding of a plastic mass shifts all parts of the mass to allow of its accommodation in a smaller space." The history of the development of the coal interest of this locality will be found in a succeeding chapter. Drainage. — The main artery in the Susquehanna river and its affluents, as it winds its way nearly centrally through the county, entering from the north where the three counties join — Wyoming. Lackawanna and Luzerne — and passing out at the southwest on the dividing line between Nescopeck and Salem townships. The Lehigh river forms the southeast line of the county and its confluents, form- ing the county line from Lackawanna to where it turns south into Carbon county. Commencing at the north line of the county the principal streams that empty into the Susquehanna river are first, Sutton's creek, which rises at Cummings pond in Franklin township and runs nearly east to the river at Sutton's island. Below this is Abraham's creek, emptying at Wyoming. Toby creek is south of this and reaches the river at Kingston. The next is Harvey creek, draining Harvey lake and, going south, falls into the river at West Nanticoke. This is joined by Pikes creek in Jackson township. This lake was named for Benjamin Harvey, who located near its junction in 1775. Then is Hunlock's creek, heading in Boss township and strikes the river a short distance below West Nanticoke. The next is Shickshinny creek, its spreading branches draining the west part of Union township; Hunting- ton creek rises in Lake township, passing into Boss township and joins Kitchen's creek near the south line of Fairmount township, and, after joining, flows southwest and into Columbia county through Huntington township. Green creek runs south nearly parallel with the county line from Fairmount through the west side of Hunt- ington township. Bowman's creek rises in Fairmount township and runs northeast into Wyoming county. In the northwest corner of the county are the head waters of Mahoopany creek, which flows northeast through Wyoming county. Commencing at the north again the first stream entering the Susquehanna from the east is the Lackawanna river, which joins the main stream just above or at Pitts- ton. This runs a southwesterly course from the crossing of the county line. Then going south is Gardiner's creek, which rises in Pittston township, flows west and southerly and falls into Mill creek in Plains township. Mill creek, so called because the first mills in 1772 were erected on it, has its rise also in Pittston town- ship and flows in nearly a parallel line westerly with Gardiner's creek, and falls into the river a little more than a mile north of Wilkes-Barre. Then is Long Pond creek, which runs westerly along the south base of the Wyoming mountains, through Bound Pond and Long Pond and empties into Little Wapwallopen about a mile from the river. Little Wapwallopen rises in one branch in Triangular pond in Wright town- ship and passes through Dorrance and Hollenback township and reaches the river at the old ferry road. Big Wapwallopen also has its rise in Wright township at Crystal springs, pass- ing through the south part of Dorrance township, into Hollenback township, turns northwest and falls into the river at Wapwallopen village. Then comes Nescopeck and its confluent, Black creek. These join near the north line of Black Creek township, and from there run northwest and strike the river below Nescopeck; Little Nescopeck creek is an affluent of the main stream that rises near Jeddo and joins the main stream in Sugar Loaf township. Its general course is westerly. Another branch of the Nescopeck is Oley creek, joining the main stream at the west 28 HISTOKY OF LUZEBNE COUNTY. of Yager mountain. The Indian woi'd for Nescopeck signified deep black water. The stream rises in Denison township and is twenty-eight miles in length. Along its shores is the beautiful Sugar Loaf valley, which gets its name from the cone- shappd mountain standing nearly in the center of the valley. Passing along the southern and southeastern line of the county the watershed turns its drainage toward the Lehigh river. Wright's creek runs south toward White Haven, principally through Denison township. Then is the more important stream, Bear creek, with its many branches spreading like the limbs of a tree nearly all over the towaship of that name. Shades creek drains the "swamp" in Buck township and falls into the Lehigh a few miles above Bear creek. Many of these streams have their sources in the numerous lakes and ponds that abound, while others start from springs. All have clear cold water, many affording excel- lent water power. The largest body of fresh water in the State is Harvey' s lake near the north line of the county in Lake township. This is now finely improved and is a noted summer resort, growing in fame with each successive season. The Mountains in these ranges also run from northeast to southwest in their general trend, some in the lower part of the county running nearly due east and west, as the Bucks mountains that pass entirely through the county. Passing north from Bucks mountains is the valley of Nescopeck creek, that extends from the west line of the county to White Haven and branches at Yager mountain and runs through Bear Creek township. Then is the Nescopeck range. Then is the valley of the Wapwallopen, and passing this going north brings us to the Wyoming mountains, spurs of which follow down the east side of the river to Nescopeck borough. Passing northeast to nearly opposite Wilkes-Barre is Bald mountain and Moosic mountain, which are merely different names for the same ranges. From Shickshinny to Nanticoke along the river on the east side are Lee mountains. The ranges of mountains on the west of the river, commencing in the southwest of the county and following in the direction of the river to Pittston and are broken through there by the river and continue their general course through Lackawanna county, are known by several local names. In the extreme southwest is Huntington mount- ain, then the Shickshinny, the Kingston, the Capouse. Running across the north- west corner of the county are the North mountains, a range that turns the waters north and south on its respective sides. The general face of the country is broken and mountainous, with, however, many rich and beautiful valleys, among others the world-famed Wyoming valley, one of the large and certainly one of the richest in the world, equally immortal in war and in peace. These were beautiful and coveted lands to the eye of beast, savage and civilized man, as prolific in sustaining life as they were lovely on their face. The Indians following the game gathered here and in time civilization and savagery warred and killed for their possession and in the brief century, with the confines of the county being ever contracted by the erection of new counties, there are here 201,203 inhabitants. More people added to the county in ten years than there are in one of the States of the Union. There are sixty-seven counties in the State, with a total population of 5,258,014. Of the eight counties showing more than fifty per cent, increase in the decade just past is Luzerne, which, with no large city in its border, in 1880 already had far more than the average county's population — 133,065, or, in other words, the exact percent, of increase in ten years was 51.21. The marked feature of the increase in Luzerne is more manifest when we bear in mind that the State's increase has largely been in urban population while in this county it is the rural population that has added the marked increase. This is significant, vastly bo, because the healthy conditions of society are not in the rapid growth of cities and the gradual decrease of farm and village life, but in the reverse. The smiling fields and ihe pure free air are the conditions evolving better lives, stronger men and women — morally, mentally and physically. Thus HISTOBY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 29 nature and man's energies have happily joined hands here and made Luzerne county one of the highly favored spots of earth. Harvey's Lake is 1,000 feet above the level of the Susquehanna, situated in Lake township, twelve miles northwest of Wilkes-Barre. It is an immense spring of pure cold water, with a beautiful clean sand and gravel bottom, and varies in depth from five to 200 feet. It was first discovered by Benjamin Harvey, who settled upon its outlet prior to the Eevolutionary war. It was surveyed in 1794, when covered with ice, by Christopher Hurlbert, who found it extended over an area of 1,285 acres, a little more than two square miles. It is the largest body of fresh water in Pennsyl- vania, and furnishes an abundant supply of fish, which, owing to the purity of the water, are of superior quality. The first canoe ever launched upon the bosom of this lake, by a white man, was made in Wyoming valley, in 1800, by Andrew Ben- nett. It was shod with hickory saplings, and was drawn over the mountain by horses, and used in fishing and hunting. Beaver Lake, in Buck township, is one mile in length and a half mile in breadth. It is the source of Pond creek, which flows into the Lehigh. Triangle Pond, in Wright township, has an area of 150 acres, and is one of the sources of the Little Wapwallopen creek. Long and Round Ponds, in Slocum township, are alsti sources of the Little Wap- wallopen, and abound in fish. The former is about a mile long by a half mile wide; the latter is smaller. Their depth is from twenty-five to fifty feet. Three Cornered Pond, in Lehman township, is a handsome body of clear water, and constitutes one of the sources of Hunlock creek. North and South Ponds, in Eo.ss townships, the former covering 250 acres, and the latter about 150, discharge their waters through Hunlock creek. Mud Pond, in Fairmount township, empties into the Huntington creek, which also receives the waters of Long pond, in Sullivan county, near the Luzerne county line. At this latter point, on the summit of the North mountain, is 2,636 feet above the level of the sea. In 1777, when this was Westmoreland county. Conn., and its wide territory included what is now Luzerne, Wyoming, Susquehanna, Bradford, and a portion of Wayne county, there were, all told, 1,922 souls. Sixteen years after that, 1790, in the same territory, except the part of Wayne county above, there was a population of 4,904; or one to each square mile. In 1800 there were 12,838, showing an average annual increase of 793. In 1810 there were 18,109, a slight average decrease. In 1820, with Bradford and Susquehanna counties taken off, there were 20,027 inhabit- ants, and in 1830, 27,304; in 1840, 44,006; in 1850 (Wyoming taken off) the popu- lation of Luzerne county was 56,072. [At that time Wyoming county had 10,653 people.] The following table exhibits the classified population of Luzerne for the years 1850 and 1860: The following table exhibits the classified population of Luzerne for the years 1850 and 1860: 1850. 1860. White males 30,465 46,613 Females 26,234 43,337 Colored persons 373 450 Families 9,673 15,065 Dwellings 9,587 14,920 Births 1,976 2,966 Deaths 383 878 Married 597 925 Persons who could not read and write 3,328 3,981 Persons over one hundred years 3 3 Between ninety and one hundred 6 8 Blind 10 14 Deaf and dumb 8 12 Insane 13 16 Number of foreigners 13,567 23,486 1880, foreigners, 785. 30 HISTORY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. The official figures for the census years 1880 and 1890 show the following in detail: 1890. 1880. Luzerne county 201,303 133,065 AsMey borough 3,193 3,799 Avoca borough 3,081 1,918 Bear Creek township 343 159 Black Creek township 3,178 1,057 Buck township 94 173 Butler township 1,984 1,917 Conyngham township 1,399 488 Dallas borough 415 372 Dallas township 885 879 Denisou township, including Middleburg village 973 976 Middleburg village 533 Dorranceton borough 586 Dorrance township 743 639 Edwardsville borough 3,284 Exeter borough 790 Exeter township 453 1,021 Fairmount township 1,090 1,085 Fairview township, including Mountain Top village 1,008 Mountain Top village 961 Forty Port borough 1,031 478 Foster township, including Eckley, Highland and Sandy Run villages 7,590 . 5,116 Eckley village 1,241 1,070 Highland village 657 571 Sandy Run village 596 Franklin township 521 593 Freeland borough 1,730 624 Hanover township 2,579 3,000 Hazel township, including Ebervale, Hollywood, Lattimer and Milnesville villages 12,494 10,547 Ebervale village 567 1,108 Hollywood village 598 260 Lattimer village 1,051 784 Milnesville village 824 572 Hazelton borough 11,873 6,935 Hollenback township 734 736 Hughestown borough 1,454 1,193 Huulock township 881 759 Huntington township 1,557 1,596 Jackson township 657 661 Jeddo borough 858 350 Jenkins township 2,320 3,202 Kingston borough 2,381 1,418 Kingston township 3,809 5,878 Laflin borough 231 Lake township 1,144 863 Laurel Run borough 606 Lehman township 1,093 940 Luzerne borough 2 398 Marcy township 2,904 i'.isS Miners Mills borough 2 075 Nanticoke borough 10044 8 884 Neacopeck township, including Nescopeck town 1,456 1205 Nescopeck town 698 '360 New Columbus borough 214 267 Newport township, including Glenlyon village 5,411 1 581 Glenlyon village '.'.'. 3|255 .' Parsons borough 3,413 1498 Pittston borough 10,303 7,473 Pittston township 3 334 2 666 Plains township ■.■.■.■.■.■.'.'.'.'.■ 6,576 5,354 P ymouth borough 9 344 g 065 Plymouth township g 363 7 318 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 31 _ , . 1890. 1880. Ross township 1,103 1,053 Salem township 1,303 1,448 Shlckshinny borough 1,448 1,058 Slocum tpwnship 409 '377 Sugar Loaf township 1,854 1,390 Sugar Notch borough 2,586 1,583 Union township 874 930 "West Hazleton borough 931 191 West Pittston borough 3,906 3,544 "White Haven borough 1,634 1,408 "Wilkes-Barre city 37,718 33,339 Willses-Barre township 3,917 2,445 "Wright township 153 880 Wyoming borough 1,794 1,147 "yatesville borough 414 415 Going over the detailed official reports of the population of the divisions of the county, it is striking, even as early as 1860, how much more rapidly the coal-bearing sections increased over the other portions of the county. The vast coal interests at that time were only fairly begua to develop. Since then the rapid increase of popula- tion, still centering in the vicinity of the mines, has kept pace with the enormous growth of the coal output, and yet there is no great city in the county. Indeed until the last few months Wilkes-Barre was the only organized city in Luzerne county, and that contained less than 40,000 of the 201,000 inhabitants of the county. Hazleton is just now made a legal city, with only a population of about 12,000. Therefore, it is plain that the increase of population here, the past century, from a little more than 4,000 to more than 200,000, with the territory reduced by the counties of Wyoming and Lackawanna recently taken off, in addition to Bradford and Susquehanna, that were extracted in the early part of the century, shows a growth of rural population unequaled in any county in the United States. POSTOFFICES IN LUZEKNB COUNTY. Poatofflces. Townships. PostoMces. Townships. Alden Station Newport , Glen Lyon Newport Alderson Forty Fort Kingston Ashley Hanover Freeland Foster Askam Hanover Gowen Black Creek Avoca Avoca Borough Grand Tunnel Plymouth Beach Haven Salem Gregory Hunlock Bear Creek Bear Creek Harding Exeter Bell Bend Salem Hardpan Huntington Bloomingdale Ross Harleigh Hazle Briggsville Nescopeck Harvey ville Huntington Cambra Huntington Hazle Brook Foster Carverton Kingston Hazleton Hazle Cease's Mills Jackson Hobble Hollenback Chaxmcey . . . Plymouth Hudson Clarkes View Hunlock Creek Hunlock Conyngham Sugarloaf Huntington Mills Huntington Dallas Dallas Huntsville Jackson Dorrance Dorrance Idetown Lehman Dofranceton Kingston Inkerman Jenkins Drifton Hazle Irish Lane Ross Drums Butler Jeansville Hazle Dupont Pittston Jeddo Hazle Duryea Marcy Ketcham Franklin Bbervale Hazle Kingston Kingston Eckley = Foster Koonsville Union Edwardsdale Kingston Kunkle Dallas Exeter ' Exeter Kyttle Fairmount Fade's Creek -. .Lake Lafflin Pittston Fairmount Springs Fairmount Lake (at Harvey's Lake) Lehman 32 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. ^Jices. Townships. Laketon Lehman Larksville (formerly Blindton) Plymouth Lattimer Mines Hazle Lehman Lehman Loyal ville Lake Luzerne Luzerne Borough Maple Run Fairmount Meeker Milnesville Hazle Miners' Mills Plains Moosehead Denison Mountain Grove Black Creek Mountain Top Wright Muhlenburg Union Nanticoke Hanover Nescopeck Nescopeck New Columbus Huntington Oliver's Mills (Laurel Run Borough) Orange Franklin Outlet Lake Parsons Plains Peely (Warrior Run) Hanover Pike's Creek Lake Pittston Pittston Plains Plains Plainsville, L. V. R. R. Station Plains Plymouth Plymouth Pond Hill Port Blanchard Jenkins Prichard Hunlock Red Rock Fairmount Register Huntington Reyburn Union Postofflces. Rhone Nanticoke Borough Ripple Rittenhouse Fairmount Rock Glen Black Creek Ruggles Lake Sandy Run Foster Shavertown Shickshinny Salem and Union Silkworth Lehman Slocum Slocum Stockton Hazle Stoddartsville Buck Sugarloaf Butler Sugar Notch Sugar Notch Sweet Valley Ross Seybertsville Sugarloaf Tank Black Creek Town Hill Huntington Town Line Union Trucksville Kingston Turnback Black Creek Upper Lehigh Foster Wanamie Newport Wapwallopen -rr-rr-rrv. . . . . n~ Conynghan Waterton Huntington Weintz West Hazleton Hazle West Nanticoke Plymouth Wilkes-Barre Wilkes-Barre White Haven Poster Wyoming Wyoming Borough Yatesville Jenkins Zehner Foster LOCALITIES WHOSE POSTOEFICE DIFFERS FEOM THE NAMES BY WHICH THEY ABE GENERALLY KNOWN. Localities. Postoffice. Alberts Ashley Allentown Lehman Ashberton. Hazleton Avondale Grand Tunnel Baltimore Mines Parsons Barn Hill Grand Tunnel Beach Grove Belbend Bear Creek Junction Bear Creek Bear Hollow Outlet Beaumont Stoddardsville Beaver Run Ruggles Bennets Luzerne Berger's Moosehead Black Creek Rock Glen Black Ridge Conyngham P. O. Bowman's Hill Wilkes-Barre Bradersville White Haven Bridge No. 38 Moosehead Brown's Colliery Pittston Brown's Corners Huntsville Browntown Yatesville Bryar Hill Port Blanchard Buck Mountain Station Weatherly Buttonwood Askam Butzbaugh's Landing Nanticoke Ceasetown Nanticoke Charlestown Avoca Church Hill Nanticoke Localities. Postoffiee. Coalville Ashley Columbus NewColumbuB Conyngham Station Conyngham Cora's Mills Harding^ Council Ridge Eckley Coxton Pittston Cramer's Hook Sweet Valley Cranberry Hazleton Crystal Ridge Hazleton Daken Huntsville Davis Mills Harding Derrenger Gowen Diamond Addition Hazleton Drifton Junction White Haven Duck Pond Wilkes-Barre Dundee Nanticoke East Sugar Lake Eckley Empire Wilkes-Barre Espy Run peeiy Everhart Coal Company Pittston Pairview Mountain Top Fallmg Springs Harding Fa Is Run Rock Glenn Palls Run City Rock Glenn Fern Glen Q^wen Forest Castle Harding Forestdale ." .Rittenhouse foundry j^^^^. HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 33 Localities. Fostoffiee. Foundryville Eckley Franklin Pittston Freehold Freeland Frenchtown Jeansville Frogtown Pittston Gardner's Switch Parsons Georgetown Wilkea-Barre Gradsey Pond Sweet Valley Great Rock Red Rock Greenridge Moosic Hanover Nanticoke Hardwicksburg Ashley Harris Hill Trucksville Hartzille Slocum Harwood Hazleton Harvey's Creek Hotel West Nanticoke Harvey's Lake Lake Hazleton Mines Hazleton Headley's Camp Ground Harveyville Headley's Grove Harveyville Head of Plains Nescopeck Heberton Upper Lehigh Heimville Black Ridge Hellertown Belbend Hendricksburg Ashley Henrico Rittenhouse Hick's Ferry Belbend Highland Jeddo HofEenbach Wilkes- Barre Hollywood Minersville Honey Pot Nanticoke Homsville Jeddo ' Hublersville Huntington Mills Hughestown Pittston Humbolt Hazleton Huntington Town Hill Ice Cave Trucksville Indian Springs Stockton lona Shickshinny Iron Dale Port Blanchard Jackson Huntsville Jenkins Port Blanchard Jersey Mills Plymouth Jerusalem White Haven Johnson's Mill Nescopeck Johnsonville Nescopeck Kocher's Notch Sandy Run Eoonsville Harveyville L. & B. Junction Pittston Lake House Lake Lattimore, Hazleton Laurel Hill Hazleton Laurel Run Oliver's Mills Lockwood Lake Moosehead Lockout White Haven Lumber Yard Stockton Lutsoy Slocum Maltby Wyoming Maple Island White Haven Marr Avoca Middleburg White Haven Mill Creek Hudson Mill Hollow Luzerne Milltown Luzerne Mine No. 3 Eckley Mine No. 3 Eckley Mocanaqua Shickshinny Localities. Fostoffiee. Moretown Sweet Valley Morrison White Haven Mountain Grove Camp Mountain Grove Mountain House Milnesville Mountain House Briggsville Mount Pleasant Wilkes-Barre Mount Pleasant Colliery ) „ Changed to Harwood. ... J Hazleton Mount Zion Harding Nescopeck Gap Mountain Grove Nescopeck Junction White Haven Nesco])eck Station Moosehead Nescopeck Tunnel Moosehead New London Gowen Newport Wanamie Newtown Wilkes-Barre New Troy Wyoming North Pond Sweet Valley Oakdale Jeddo Oley Valley Eckley Patterson Grove Harveyville Pencadore Wilkes-Barre Penobscot Mountain Top Pike's Peak Nanticoke Pincherville Orange Pine Ridge Shaft Miner's Mills Pittsburg Pittston Pleasant Hill Sweet Valley Pleasant Valley Avoca Plumbtown Sugar Notch Pond Creek Sandy Run Pond Creek Colliery Eckley Port Bowkley Plainsville Port Griffith Port Blanchard Port Jenkins White Haven Powder Mills Freeland Prospect House Willkes-Barre- Ritta Station Mountain Top Sandy Valley Eckley Sax Wilkes-Barre Scale Siding Upper Lehigh Scale Siding Eckley Schloyer's Store Nescopeck Schloyerville Nescopeck Scotch Hill Pittston Sebastpol' Pittston Sewellsville Gowen Shoemaker's Mills Wyoming Shorer Town Dallas Siding No. 7 Slocum Slocum Mountain Top Sloyersville Wilkes-Barre Slykersville Audenried Solomon's Gap Mountain Top South Heberton Freeland South Pond Sweet Valley Stanton Hill Wilkes-Barre Stark's Colliery Pittston Stark's Patch Avoca Sturmerville Pittston Summit Moosehead Summit Siding Moosehead Tannery Station Lehigh Tannery Thomas' Mill Spring Brook Tomhicken Sugar Loaf Tunnel Hill Moosehead Tyler Harveyville 34 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. Localities. PoatoMce. Localities. . ■d'T "^'i^"^' Union Junction Yatesville Wintermute Island -Port Blancnara Warrior Bun Peely Wolfton Mountain Grove West End Wanamie Woodside w-',; ®l West End Honey Pot Yard Nanticoke Woodville Wilkes-iiarre White Oak Hollow Port Blanchard Yorktown JeansvUle White Eow Port Blanchard CHAPTER II. 1762. The First Attbmptbd Sbttlbmbstt — First Whitb Mbk to Visit this Section — Character Developed under Adversity — Old French War — Massacre op Settlers — John AND Emanuel Hoover, Koah Hopkins— Capt. Lazarus Stewart— Again this is a Silent Desert — Next Attempt at Settlement 1769— First Pbnnamite and Yankee War— First Forty Settlers, List or — Four Times the Settlers Driven Off — Capt. Butler and Capt. Amos Ogden — List of the First Two Hundred Connect- icut Settlers — Renewal op the Troubles Between Yankees and Pennamites — Epport to Form a New State — A House Divided Against Itsblp, etc. IN the preceding chapter is attempted something of a short account of the incalculable wealth of natural deposits within this favored county. So far reference has been coafined to the natural resources — that existing order for the good of man as it came from the hand of the Creator. The preparation for the arrival of the white man and the taking permanent possession of the country }iad gone on, like everything in nature, through the geological eons, being slowly evolved, first deposited in the "beds of the ocean, then uplifted and made dry lands and mountains, valleys and rivers, and as the ages were reeled off this and that came, flourished and passed away, the rocks slowly grew and hardened, the vegetable coals deposited and nature's prodigious alembic was busy gathering the sunbeams and laying them away for our use and benefit. The incalculable energies of nature and the inconceivable lapses of time combined, fashioned our world as we see it. What an awful miracle ia the most insignificant animal or even vegetable life, looked upon with the eye of science! What an inconceivably little speck is this ever- wheeling world of ours from the astronomer' s view ! Im- palpable star dust compared to the average heavenly bodies that are without num- bers or bounds. Suppose there is life in the average of these other worlds or planetary systems; then we may suppose that the length of individual life there is proportioned to the increased size of the particular planet; in that case there are many worlds where the longest animal or vegetable life here would be com- paratively as seconds to centuries. Having traveled hurriedly over the account of the work of nature, in preparing this as the most favored spot of earth for civilized man, it is well now to consider something of the obstacles that lay in the way of the pioneers in the stupendous work of making this garden we see of the tangled wilderness. Imperfect as this will necessarily be, yet it is a little of the other side of the story of the greatest movement of men that has occurred in history. Hence this, while one of the world's comparatively young places, is pregnant with history, if not the philosophy of the movements of the mind. There were three chief obstacles confronting the pioneers: first, the rocks and hills and the dense iind dark old woods that every- where cumbered the earth, and that required many a stroke of the woodman's axe a. HISTORY OP LUZERNE COUNTY. 37 to admit the first glint of sunshine to warm the rich dank soil beneath; second, the dangerous wild blasts on every hand and his more dangerous congener the wild forest Indians, and third and greatest of all was the long, bitter and often bloody contention between the " Yankee and Pennamite," where Greek met Greek, and made wounds that are hardly healed to this day. The first two mentioned were average of the pioneer's difficulties in other portions of the land. They had in addition to go through the same experience attendant upon the first settlement of every part of the continent, namely, of malarial diseases that always come of turning the virgin soils. We hear of these things now with little appreciation of the terrible afflictions they brought to our forefathers. Frequently there were times when there were hardly enough of the well to attend the sick; when physicians were scarce and medicines very difficult to obtain even after long journeys. The majority of cases at one time when families from necessity doctored themselves; barks, herbs and roots of the forest were diligently gathered and teas and decoctions were provided in every household. It is the oaks that battle with the storms that strike their roots deepest in the earth, and this principle ripens manhood for the severe trials of life. These people had little protection from the unfriendly elements about them, and brave hearts and strong hands were a first necessity . Within a circle of ten miles from the Wilkes-Barre court house, where is now a population of considerably over 100,000, was for fifty years the heart of the battlefield between savagery and civilization, and then came the War of the Roses in contention for the possession and ownership of the soil. The waye of the death sti-uggle swept back and forth; literally charges and retreats and counter charges; captures and expulsions and then recaptures and again repulsed; the swarming immigrant this year, the sad exodus the next; the victory to-day, the bloody mas- sacre almost sure to swiftly follow. The scythe of death mowed its winrows in the ranks and eagerly came others in the place of the dead. What destiny hung in the balance, so long suspended by a single hair! This was something of the alembic that distilled the remarkable manhood that has inscribed high in the temple of the immortals the names of most of the first settlers of what is now Luzerne county. Illustrious men and glorious women, all as brave as death! Your suffer- ings and your dearly earned triumphs deserve the record of the inspired pen, and that page would be the most luminous in history. Men, real men, develop best under adversity; the weak and inefficient faint and fall by the way, and the fittest survive and stamp their iron qualities upon their offspring, and this natural selection brings us a race of men on whose shoulders may rest a world. Heroes indeed, a race of the world's bravest and best. The simple story of their struggles and the final supreme triumphs are each and all an epic that should be written jn every living heart. Let their deeds be immortal ! their memories most sacred. The climax of the struggle came only when it was Puritan versus Quaker over the question of ownership of the soil. This was serious indeed; no men were ever more intensely earnest in the claims on both sides of the question. The law as interpreted by authority was on the side of the Quakers; yet the plain equity was with the Puritans. Both were right and both were, not intentionally, wrong. This paradox only expresses the general phase of the great problems. As a question of the letter of the law the Quaker's triumph was complete, yet to-day from Old Shamokin (Snnbury) to Tioga Point (Athens), this once disputed land is as Yankee in fact as any portion of Connecticut. When these forces were arrayed in armed hostility, the scant records now left us of the communications between the respective leaders, communications offering adjustments, proclamations giving the world the facts in the case; petitions to the Pennsylvania authorities, and statements in the nature of pleas for justice, as well as arguments before courts, show these pioneers from the Nutmeg State mostly as remarkable statesmen, diplomats and broad eon- 38 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. stitutional lawyers and defenders of the rights of mao such as are not surpassed in any chapter in our country's history. These men it must be» remembered were simple pioneers, the most favored with but sparsest advantages of the schoolroom and none of them really trained to the law, the courts or statesmanship. Yet they rose with the great emergency. Their records were halt and lame in spelling, yet they are the enduring evidences that their minds were strong and nimble. The Franklins, Butlers, Gores, Deniaons, Slocums, Fells, Durkees, Ransoms, Pickerings, McDowells, Stewarts, Youngs, Jennings, Ogdens, Claytons, Francises^ Morrises, Dicks, Ledlies, Craigs, Tripps, Folletts, Elderkins, Bennetts, Drapers, Luddingtons, Backuses, Parkes, Hurlbuts, Baldwins, Gallups, Talcotts, Batons, Pitkins, Buels, Landons, Angels, Pettibones, Stanleys, Smiths, Meads, Pikes, Van Dampens, Spaldings, Drapers, Stones, Hungerfords, G-reens, Olarks, Jacksons, Frisbees, Dorrances, Leonards, Averys, Hewitts, Thomases, Arnolds, Ashleys, Bab- cocks, Shoemakers, Terrys, Sterlings, Colts, Bucks, Squiers, Millers, Gardners, Hopkinses, Johnsons, Dingmans, Aldens, Satterlees, Colemans, Comstocks, Mathews, and Mileses, are some of the names that are written imperishably in their deeds. These are not all, not even the leaders where all were so nearly equal, but simply such family names as most readily recurred to the writer without referring^ again to the record. Stephen Brule, traditionally said to be the first white man to descend the Susquehanna, is surely entitled to a place in the history of this portion of Pennsyl- vania. What a type of that fearless vanguard of the human race this man was. He was born about 300 years ago; came to America when a youth, and it is said in 1610 was employed by Champlain, and was one of the first explorers of Lake Huron. On the authority of the Jesuit fathers, and Father Breboeuf especially, it is said he passed down the Susquehanna river in 1616 or 1617, visiting the Iroquois- villages, and was the first to report of the country; reaching in his downward trip Shamokin and gave the fathers the first account they had of the country and the river as well as the aborigines along the route. He must have been a wild, reckless,, remarkable man in many ways, With the Indians he was at one moment a prisoner, in the toils, and several times the work of sacrifice had commenced and each time for many years some cool daring or quick thought or accident on his part rescued him from the jiws of death. Once as they were stripping him preparatory to a, slaughter and feast, they found an Agnus Dei about his neck; he told them what it was. when a sudden storm arose and they were convinced he was a god or a close partner, and in lieu of eating they fell to honoring and worshiping him. He is reported to have been in Quebec in 1623, and was sent to bring down the Hurons to trade. Returning with them he led a dissolute life, and it is further told that so outrageous was his conduct that finally the Hurons killed and devoured him at a place near Thunder Bay. These facts are gleaned from Laverdier's Champlain, 1619, p. 27. They are given here with the evidences, such as we have, of their truth. The dates given make it somewhat nebulous as a fact in history. The records noting the fact may have been made many years after their supposed occurrence. So far as we can now know for a certainty the Moravians were the first whites- to come to this portion of the country for temporary settlement. Their mission was that of carrying the gospel to the children of the forests. These shepherds were as humble as were the chosen fishermen of the Master. They labored afield and at the little forge, and in their native language told the savages the sublime story of Calvary. With their own hands they built churches and taught such as they could get together to read and write where possible. Their practical ideas- were to educate, that they might come to read the Bible and be enrolled in the church. The simple Indians were fond of garish decorations; they flocked to the church to see the rows of candles and look in awe and wonder upon the crud& HISTOKY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 39 paintings and altar decorations. They joined the church in platoons and com- munities — with no more real ideas of what it meant than a cage of monkeys. A petrified savagery, nor its posterity, is ever converted to the higher civilization or its religious systems. You may cover his savage body with the outward forms and ceremonies, but it is only a thin veneer at best; beneath is the savage still, and he transmits it to his children's children. After 200 years of contact with the best civilization, the "Voodoo" and the "rabbit's foot" possess much the same charms in America as in Africa. In the Sandwich Islands for one hundred years the entire population are in outward forms and ceremonies members of the church, yet every one in every journey or emergency has hid away within easy reach the same savage idols that his fathers worshiped. They simply grafted onto their fetich worship the symbols of Christianity. Conrad "Weiser passed up the river and was here in the early spring of 1737. He was fitted by nature to mingle with these woods children, and lead them away from cannibalism and to the milder precepts of the Christian religion. He stood in this beautiful valley with the cross in one hand and the word of God in the other, the representative of the church and the Prince of Peace. He was on his way to the Onondaga Indian council, and stopped at the Indian villages and mingled with the natives. He spent a night at the wigwams where were Indians in what is now the southern part of Wilkes-Barre. He made notes of his observations of the people and the country over which he traveled. In 1743 John Bartram, an Englishman, passed, in company with Conrad Weiser, up the river, following much the same route that Weiser had previously traveled. He was a botanist, and his brief description of this portion of the State is what be designated as the ' ' terrible Lycoming wilderness." Two years later Spangenberger and Zeisberger, Moravian missionaries, visited the country and were here in June of that year. In 1755 Lewis Evans published a crude map of this portion of the country, and called it the ' ' Middle British Colonies." The Moravians had established headquarters of their order at Bethlehem. Another branch of the order had settled at the confluence of the Lehigh river and the Mahony, opposite Fort Allen, which place was called Gnaden- hntten or "Huts of Mercy." Except the erection of the fort, this was the first white settlement in this portion of the State above the Blue mountains — about forty miles from Wilkes-Barre. The tremendous struggle between the English and French for the possession of this beautiful land commenced as early as 1603. France granted charters to a large portion of the country from the northern Canadas to the mouth of the Mis sissippi river, and commenced systematic settlements. In 1605, two years later, England commenced a similar system, granting charters and making settlements. The French built forts, rather a system of fortifications, to overawe and expel the daring English, that commenced at Quebec, followed the St. Lawrence, the lakes to Detroit, along the Ohio to the Mississippi and its mouth. They won the friend- ship of the savages from the British. For the next fifty years matters were shaping themselves in many directions that culminated in the Franco-Indian war. In July, 1755, our northern frontier flamed out in war. In terrible fury the savages, poured down upon the frontiers and along the lower Susquehanna over the scattered, defenseless settlers. In 1763 the most notable conspiracy of the Indian tribes ever formed broke upon the country as the Pontiac war. This remarkable chief had traveled among all the tribes and formed the conspiracy to drive all the whites from the country or extirpate them. The first savage blow to what was then the nearest settlement to this place was at old Shamokin (Fort Augusta, now Sunbury), where the Moravians had gathered a small settlement. The missionaries were spared, but fourteen white persons were brutally massacred. This was soon after Braddock's defeat in 1754. The next 40 HISTOEY OF LUZEBNB COUNTY. year, -in 1755, Gnadenhutten was visited by the savages, and attacked at night, the men murdered as fast as found, and the women and children sought refuge in the upper rooms of the house with barred doors, when the house was fired and eleven persons, including young children, perished in the fiames. Two of the brothers had escaped by jumping from a back window. This settlement was again attacked in 1756 on New Year's day, many killed and all improvements burned and destroyed. England declared war against France in 1756. A great council was held at Easton, November 8, 1756. At this gathering appeared the noted Indian, Teedeus- cung, who had gone from what is now Luzerne county. He spoke for the Indians; told why they had changed their friendship from the English to the French; chief among which was the deception practiced upon them in the "walking purchase." This purchase was quite a Yankee sharp trade according to Chief Teedeuscung. It provided the sale of land as far as a man could walk "in a day and a half," from Neshomony creek. He claimed that the man ran all the way, and did not even go in the intended direction, etc. The war between England and France continued until 1763, when France yielded all the northern portion of the continent to England. In 1762 arrived the first Connecticut settlers. The first real immigrants who came to make homes and till the soil, just who they were, how many and where in points in that State they came from, is not fully known. They made small clear- ings, sowed and planted grain and returned for their families, and came here the next spring, bringing probably their worldly possessions. They settled near the Indian village of Maughwawame (Wyoming), in the flats below Wilkes-Barre, but nearer the river than the Indians. The season had been favorable, and the wheat sown the previous fall had grown well. October 15, following, the settlement was attacked without warning by the savages. About twenty of the men were killed and scalped; the residue men, women and children fled to the mountains. The Pennsylvania Gazette of November, 1763 published the following extract from a letter sent from Lancaster county, dated October 23: "Our party, under Capt. Clayton, has returned from Wyoming, where they met with no Indians, but found the New Englanders who had been killed and scalped a day or two before they got there. They buried the dead, nine men and a woman, who had been cruelly butchered — the woman was roasted. * * * They burnt what houses the Indians had left, and destroyed a quantity of Indian corn. The enemy's tracks were up the river toward Wighaloasing." (Wyalusing.) As the Indians started up the river after the massacre, they came upon John and Emanuel Hoover, building a chimney to a cabin on the flats, and made prisoners of them. They already had another white man prisoner. The prisoners were taken to where is Geneva, where John Hoover and the other prisoners (name not known), attempted an escape. The latter, it is said, succeeded in making his way to Shamokin. John Hoover's remains were afterward found in the woods where he had perished. Col. Stone, in his history of Wyoming, gives a graphic account of the narrow escape and suffering of Noah Hopkins, a wealthy man from Dutchess county, N. Y., who had come to the valley as a purchaser of lands of the Susquehanna com- pany. After capturing the Hoovers the Indians pursued him, but he hid in a hollow log, the account says, and after remaining there as long as nature could endure and darkness had come, he carefully ventured out, and began his wandering in the wilderness. Five days after the massacre he carefully stole to the place of the settlement, and says: "All was desolation there; crops destroyed, cattle gone, and the smouldering ruins of cabins were the only things visible. " * * The stillness of death prevailed." The man was nearly famished. He found, he says, the carcass of a turkey that had been killed and left. This he devoured raw. After wandering many days and surviving incredible hardships, he found his way at last to the white settlement. HISTORY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. 41 This visitation of horrors upon the first settlers, it was said and for a time believed, but is not now, was inflicted by the Delaware Indians upon the whites, as revenge for the killing of Chief Teedeuscung. The truth seems to be that it was the work of the Six Nations and not the Delawares at all, and was a part of their policy to exterminate or drive off the whites from the Susquehanna. It is stated above on the authority of Charles Miner, that it is not known who the settlers were, that is their names, who had returned here in 1763, and were the settlement when the massacre occurred. However, Stewart Pearoe, in his " Annals of Luzerne County," puhliahed in 1866, gives fifty-eight names of the 117 persons who settled in Wyoming in 1763, as follows: John Jenkins, John Comstock, Ephraim Seely, William Buck, Oliver Jewell, Oliver Smith, David Honeywell, Ezra Dean, Jonathan Weeks Jr., Obadiah Gore, Ezekiel Pierce, Philip Weeks, Daniel Gore, Elkana Fuller, Wright Stevens, Isaac Underwood, Benjamin Ashley, Gideon Lawrence, Isaac Bennett, Stephen Lee, Silas Parker, James Atherton, Moses Kimball, Ebenezer Searles, Timothy HoUister, Nathaniel Terry, Ephraim Tyler, Timothy Hollister Jr., Wright Smith, Ephraim Tyler Jr., Isaac Hollister Jr., Nathaniel Chapman, John Dorrance, Thomas Marsh, Eev. Will- iam Marsh, Timothy Smith, Mathew Smith, Jonathan Slocum, Benjamin Davis, Benjamin Follett, George Miner, Nathaniel Hollister, Benjamin Shoemaker, Nathaniel Hurlbut, Simeon Draper, Samuel Richards, John Smith, Daniel Baldwin, Stephen Gardner, Elipbalet Stephens, David Marvin, Augustus Hunt, Pascall Terry, William Stephens and Thomas Bennett. The following were killed in the massacre of October 15, 1763, Eev. William Marsh. Thomas Marsh, Timothy Hollister, Timothy Hollister, Jr., Nathan Terry, Wright Smith, Daniel Baldwin and wife; Jesse Wiggins, Zeruah Whitney, Isaac Hollister. Mr. Shepherd and a son of Daniel Baldwin were taken prisoners. The conditions of the frontier now became alarming. The marauds of the sav- ages became more daring, bloody and frequent. The people began to believe that the Quakers and peaceful Moravians shielded if not actually protected the murderers. The authorities of Philadelphia looked with continued leniencey upon the conduct of the Indians. Lazarus Stewart, an officer in the English forces, a young man of high character and noble courage, had been west on a military expedition and hastening his return to meet his affianced and marry her, found the family home in smoking ruins, the family butchered, and the lovely girl's head had been severed and stuck on a pole. The tiger was now roused and he swore a terrible vengeance, and from that moment woe betide the red man on whose tracks he once commenced the trail. On one occasion he took his Hangers and went to Philadelphia where a murderer was safe behind the prison walls, really protected against the vengeance of the Hangers and by force di'agged the wretch out and slew him. Stewart glutted his vengeance; treating with contempt the efforts of the proprietaries to stay his uplifted hand or to shield the savage. December 14, 1763, he attacked and destroyed the Indian village of Conestoga. Such of the Indians as escaped fled to Philadelphia and were received by the authorities. It was one of these fugitives that Stewart and his men followed and killed. The governor offered a reward of £200 for the arrest of Stewart, and the assembly passed a law that any person accused of killing an Indian should not be tried at the place of murder, but carried to Philadelphia for trial. This part of the story is told and told with ever increasing variations. Lazarus Stewart was, and no doubt would have been under any circumstances, a daring and rash leader, but under the circumstances he was more than all this — secretly or openly, by day or by night, he was a very sleuth hound on the tracks of the savages and he knew neither mercy nor pity. Possibly there may have been little foundation for this bloody romance in Stewart's life. It was an old-time story, and, if all true, it seems that he outlived it to some extent, because in the Wyoming battle his son 42 HISTOEY OP LUZERNE COUNTY. was a member of his company, and father and son fell together. When the propri- etaries offered a reward for his head, he issued a proclamation declaring them out- laws, and rallied his followers and opened war on their fort and captured it. He never asked for quarter, and there is little doubt that had he been given his choice, he would have died as he did amid the roar and clash of battle. No other attempt at settlement was made in this part or in what is now Luzerne county, until 1769. For seven years again was the quiet of desolation and death. The settlers of 1762-3 who escaped the massacre returned to Connecticut. In the meantime the flames of savage warfare raged in the settlements along the river below this point. Lazarus Stewart and his Eangers slept continually on their trusty rifles and pursued the savages relentlessly and at the same time openly di^fiedthePenuHyl- vania authorities to suppress them. The settlement was renewed as stated in 1769 and with various interruptions was rendered permanent. The project of establishing a colony in Wyoming was started by sundry indi- viduals in Connecticut in 1753, during which year an association was formed for that purpose, called the Susquehanna company, and a number of agents were commis- sioned to proceed thither, explore the country, and conciliate the good will of the Indians. The authorities of Pennsylvania stubbornly resisted the movement of the Con- necticut people coming here from the first. The Connecticut Susquehanna com- pany however was active, and it was the dangerous and unsettled state of the borders that delayed their first settlement until 1762. Then came the bloody massacre of these people the next year and their, being driven off the country, and what is now Luzerne remained without white settlers unfil 1769. The proprietaries in the meantime, 1768, had made still another purchase of the Indians to this portion of the country and had taken advantage of the absence from the country of the Connecticut people to strengthen their claim and had built some forts along the river and had a certain military possession. Lazarus Stewart smarting under the, as he and his followers believed, ill treatment by the Pennsylvania authorities, went to Connecticut and volunteered to join his forces to those of the Susquehanna company and hold possession against Pennsyl- vania. The Susquehanna company called a meeting in the early part of 1769 and resolved to resume the settlement by throwing a body of forty pioneers into the val- ley in the month of February, 1769, to be followed by 200 more in the spring. Indeed the association, in order to strengthen their power as well as their claims, and to expand their settlements, now appropriated five townships, each five miles square, and divided into forty shares, as free gifts to the first forty settlers in each township. Many parts of the flats, or bottom lands, were of course already clear of wood, and ready for cultivation. An appropriation of £200 was made for the purchase of agricultural implements; regulations for the government of the colony were drawn up, and a committee appointed to carry them into effect. The Pennsylvanians, for once, anticipated the people of Connecticut. No sooner had they heard of the renewed movements of the Susquehanna company than they made preparations for the immediate occupation of the vallejt themselves. To this end, a lease of the valley for seven years was given to Charles Stewart, Amos Odgen, and John Jennings, conditioned that they should establish a trading-house, for the accommodation of the Indians, and adopt the necessary measures for defending them- selves, and those who might proceed thither under their lease. Mr. Stewart was a surveyor, and by him the valley was divided and laid out into two manors, that por- tion of it lying upon the eastern side, inclu'ling the Indian town of Wyoming, being called the " Manor of Stoke," and the western division the "Manor of Sunbury." In January, 1769, the lessees, with a number of colonists, proceeded to the valley, took possession of the former Connecticut improvements, and erected a block-house HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 43 ior their defense, should their title and proceedings be disputed. The party of forty from Connecticut pressed close upon the heels of Stewart and Ogden, and sat down before their little garrison on the 8th of February. It was a close investment, all intercourse between the besieged and their friends, if they had any, in the surround- ing country, being cut off. As already stated Lazarus Stewart in 1769 went to Connecticut and entered into negotiations with the Susquehanna company. He and his followers were granted Hanover township, provided they would settle ou and defend the same. On the Ist of January, 1770, Stewart at the head of forty of his men and ten New Englanders entered what is now Luzerne county, coming direct to Wyoming and captured Ogden and Jenning' s garrison that had been left at Port Durkee. Ogden was then sent with a force from Philadelphia and again took possession of his fort at Mill creek. The Yankees were driven out and forced to retreat back to the Delaware river. Stewart was then joined by Maj. John Durkee, who had been released from prison, and they marched against Ogden and compelled him to sur- render, drove him from the valley and burned his block-house. One man was kiHec? in the encounter. Stewart and his men then took possession of Hanover township and proceeded to clear the land, improve and plant the soil. On June 28 Governor Penn issued a proclamation forbidding settlements under Connecticut, and offering a reward of £300 for the apprehension of Lazarus Stewart, Zebulon Butler and Lazarus Young, three persons against whom the gover- nor's ire was specially excited. About the last of* August, Stewart and his men left Wyoming for Paxton, purposing to return in November with their families. In September, during Stewart's absence, Ogden entered the valley with a large force, captured several men in the field, and, storming Fort Durkee, compelled the Yankees to surrender. Capt. Butler and other leaders were sent prisoners to Philadelphia, and the rest were forced, with women and children, to return on foot to New England . A few days before this event, Stewart was arrested by a posse in Lebanon, under the proclamation of the governor, but, seizing an axe handle, he knocked down the constable and one or two of his aids, and forced his way into the street. The town was in an uproar; the authorities called on the people to aid in his arrest, but they refused. At this juncture Stewart's comrades, who had heard of his danger, rode impetuously into the village, and bore away their leader in triumph. About the last of October following, Stewart crossed the Susquehanna with a span of horses, at Wright's Ferry, into York county, where he was going on business. He was immediately arrested by the sheriff of York and his posse, and thrown into the county prison. Fearful of a rescue, he was hurried away, pinioned and handcuffed, early'the next morning, to be carried to Philadelphia, to answer for his offence in acting against his native State in favor of the Connecticut settlers. He was in charge of the sheriff, accompanied by three assistants. No sooner had the ' ' Paxton Boys " heard of his arrest, than they proceeded in great haste to York, but they arrived too late. The sheriff was one day in advance of them with his charge. They, the prisoner and escort, tarried for the night at Finley's, many miles on the road toward the city. The night was cold, and the three guards, with Stewart, lay down before a large fire in the bar-room, the prisoner being fastened to one of the men, to prevent his escape. The sheriff slept in an adjoining room, dreaming, doubtless, of his success, and his reception at Philadelphia with a cap- tive whom Governor Penn had declared to be the most dangerous man in the prov- ince. But Stewart was wide awake. At the dead of night he cautiously unloosed the rope which bound him to the snoring guard, and, with noiseless tread, made his way, unobserved, into the open air. Handcuffed, and without coat, hat or shoes, he traveled through the woods and unfrequented thickets to Paxton, where he arrived on the following day. His presence brought great joy to his sorrowing wife and children, and etxultation to his Rangers. 44 HISTOBY OF liUZEENE COUNTY. Tidings of the arrest and escape of Stewart had scarcely reached the ears of Gov. I'enn, before he was informed of another serious offence committed by him. At three o'clock in the morning, on December 18, 1770, Stewart, at the head of his men, had made a rapid descent on Fort Durkee, and captured it a second time from the Pennsylvania party. A new warrant was now issued for his arrest by Thomas Willing, a judge of the supreme court, and directed to Peter Hacklein, sheriff of Northampton county, who raised an armed force and proceeded to Wyoming. Arriving at Fort Durkee, January 18, 1771, he demanded admittance. Stewart informed him from the parapet that none but friends should be admitted; that Wyoming was under the jurisdiction of Connecticut, and that he should recog- nise no authority whatever in any persons acting under commissions from the government of Pennsylvania. Capt. Ogden, who had accompanied Sheriff Hacklein, now attacked Fort Durkee, and his fire being returned by Stewart's party, Nathan Ogden, the Captain's brother, was killed and three others wounded. Stewart soon perceived his position was untenable. He was short of provisions, aad the number of his men was much less than that of the enemy. It was impos- sible to hold out against a siege, and, consequently, during the night, with the Paxton men, he left for the mountains. Gov. Penn issued another proclama- tion, offering a reward of £300 for the arrest of Lazarus Stewart, and £50 each for the arrest of James Stewart, William Stewart, John Simpson, William Speedy, William Young, John McDaniel and Richard Cook. But Capt. Stewart had marched through the country and united his forces with those of Capt. Butler, who had been released from prison, and these leaders were now preparing for another effort to regain their lost possessions. In April, 1771, Butler and Stewart, at the head of 150 men, marched into the valley, and, finding Ogden strongly entrenched in a new fortification, which he called Fort Wyoming, they besieged it. Reinforcements, sent from Philadelphia, were defeated, and their supplies were cut off. The fort at length surrendered, and the Yankees were once more in possession of the much -coveted prize. Stewart owned a large farm iu Paxton, and he had married Martha Espy, the daughter of one of the most respectable and wealthy citizens in Lancaster county. But his interests, as well as those of his associates, being now identified with the Yankees, they removed their families to Wyoming. He had obtained five tracts of land in Hanover, and he now proceeded to erect a large dwelling or block-house on the river bank, a short distance below the residence of Gen. E. W. Sturdevant. Emigrants from New England multiplied, and a suitable form of government was established, under which Stewart occupied some important positions. Farmhouses were generally erected, and the entire settlement, unmolested by the Pennaamites, was prosperous and happy for a period of nearly three years. In December, 1775, Col. Plunket, with 700 men from Northumberland county, invaded Wyoming, and was met at Nanticoke by Col. Butler, with 250 settlers. Butler stationed bis forces behind a breastwork formed of logs and rocks, near the late residence of Jamesoa Harvey. As Plunket approached Butler' s posi- tion he exclaimed: "My God, what a breastwork!" He was greeted by a blank volley from the guns of the Yankees, as the intention was to frighten, not to kill, at the first fire. Plunket then sent a detachment to the other side of the river' purposing to enter the valley near the residence of Col. Washington Lee. Here the force came in conflict with a party under the command of Capt. Stewart. Stewart had unbounded confidence in a volley of bullets, which were poured into the advancing enemy with fatal effect. One man was killed and several wounded. The rest rapidly retreated. Col. Butler was equally successful on his side, but not until he had resorted to something more effective than blank volleys. Plunket ingloriously returned to Northumberland, and this was the last effort, until after the Revolution, on the part of Pennsylvania to regain possession of Wyoming. ^.^ez:^- HISTOEY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 47 Capt. Lazarus Stewart was in command of the Hanover company, the command being turned over to him by Capt. McKarachan on the morning of the battle, saying, " Take you the lead, I will fight under you." Qapt. Stewart died, as would a brave soldier, gallantly fighting at the head of his command, in the "Wyoming battle, July 3, 1778. His daughter, Martha, was born only two days before the battle. When the awful news was conveyed to the widow and mother, she took her seven children and a small craft and floated down to Harrisburg. After the war she returned to this county, where she died about 1791. Forty Settlers. — Preparations for a recommencement of the settlement of the Connecticut people on the Susquehanna, after the massacre and expulsion of 1763, were commenced at Hartford by a meeting of the Susquehanna company in 1768, where it was resolved that five townships, to wit: Wilkes-Barre, Hanover, Kingston, Plymouth and Pittston, each Sve miles square, should be surveyed and granted each to forty settlers, on condition that they remain upon the ground and maintain their rights against the intrusion of rival claimants. Forty were to set forth without delay, and others to the amount of 200 (for the five townships) were to follow the succeeding spring. To these 200 must be added all those other settlers who had immigrated on settlers' rights. These were mostly sturdy farmers who came to the five townships, and of them were soldiers who had served their country bravely and well in the then late Franco-Indian war. The additional 160 settlers to complete the possession of the five townships arrived the next spring, 1770. Added to these were others that had come, some of them from Pennsylvania south of this place. Assembled at what is now Wilkes-Barre, April 10, 1770, were 270 or 280 able- bodied men. The block-house at Mill creek was too remote from the cleared fields of the old town of "Waughwawic (Wyoming), the flats of south "Wilkes-Barre, where were cleared fields ready for cultivation. These people built Fort Durkee at Fish's eddy, in the south part of the city. Having now complete possession, the Connecticut people entered with alacrity upon their agricultural pursuits, while their surveyors were employed in running out the five townships allotted to the actual settlers. But no one supposed that peace and security were finally yielded ihem by their alert and powerful opponents. Every breeze from the southern mountain awakened fears of an approaching enemy. Capt. Ogden with the civil magistrate, Sheriff Jennings, thongh absent, had not been idle, but having recruited their forces, appeared on the plains on the 20th of May. After reconnoitering the position of the Yankees, finding it too strong, and their number too large to be attacked with a rational prospect of success, they with- drew to Easton ; and Sheriff Jennings, in his report, informed the Governor that the intruders mustered 300 able-bodied men, and it was not in his power to collect suffi- cient force in Northampton to dislodge them. In the delightful season of spring, nature unfolding her richest robes of leaf and flower, the Susquehanna yielding boundless stores of delicious shad, a brief hour of repose seemed only to wed the Yankee emigrants more strongly to the valley. The beautiful lowlands, where scarcely a stone impeded the plow, contrasted with the iron-bound shores of New England, and her rock-covered fields, was a prospect as inviting as the plains of Italy of old to its northern invaders. But another force was threading the paths of the wilderness to attack them. Col. Turbot Francis, commanding a fine company from the city, in full military array, with colors streaming and martial music, descended into the plain, and sat down before Fort Durkee, about the 20th of June; but finding the Yankees too strongly fortified, returned to await reinforcements below the mountains. Early in September following. Sheriff Jennings, of Northumberland county, with the indefatigable Ogden, again descended upon the settlers with aearly 300 men and an iron four-pound cannon — the first piece of ordnance ever in what is 48 HISTORY OF LUZEBNE COUNTY. now Luzerne county. This cannon had a terrifying effect on the people. Capt. Durkee was arrested and taken in irons to Philadelphia and the people with their leader gone, capitulated. The articles of surrender provided that only seventeen settlers be allowed to remain to attend to the crops and all others should at once leave the country. The third sad exodus commenced, and who can now draw upon the imagination a picture of the sad hearts that turned their faces back toward the East! Capt. Lazarus Stewart and his followers, as already related, made the attack on Ogden's forces, in which William Stager, of Connecticut, was killed and several wounded — the first blood shed in the controversy between the settlers and Penn- sylvania authorities. The Yankees had captured the cannon and now they proceeded to capture Ogden, who was shut up in Fort Ogden. These farmers could not do much more with a cannon than make a noise, but they fired away two days and seemed to do no harm to the enemy within the fort. After quite a siege the fort surrendered, April 29, 1770, and Capt. Ogden retired from the scene of war and left the settlers in peaceable possession. The fort was burned and the property of the Pennsylvania people without much ceremony confiscated; in return, it was claimed by Durkee, for the bad faith on Ogden's part, who took everything when he had driven out the settlers, and the seventeen men left to care for the crops were simply turned out in the wilderness to starve. Gov. Penn now called on Gen. Gage, in command of the royal troops in America, to assist in expelling the Yankees. But the English commander curtly replied that he thought it ''highly improper for the king's troops to interfere in a matter of property merely between the people." Planting time again had come; peace reigned and the indefatigable Yankees were in peaceful possession. The toothsome shad again came up the river in count- less numbers, and from the rigors and famine of the camp and the march and siege these farmers turned with glad hearts to the huts of peace, the hunt of game and catching the fish in the river. New settlers began to arrive. Capt. Butler and his followers came now and were received with shouts of joy. Settlements commenced on the west side of the river. Old Forty fort was commenced and pushed to completion, with perhaps not a dream that its name was to become as historic as any spot on the continent. David Mead and Christopher Hurlbut, sur- veyors for the Susquehanna company, again were following the compass and locating townships to actual settlers. A peaceful and prosperous summer came with all its blessings, and time had lulled the vigilance of the people to a degree. But the fourth time Capt. Ogden swooped down upon the settlers with an army, but under the civil authority this time of Sheriff Aaron Van Campen, Jen- nings' term having expired. He arrived September 21, by an unexpected route, and the men were mostly in the fields at work. He divided his force in squads of ten and seized the men in the fields and marched them to his camp, and at night retired to his mountain bivouac. The people were thrown in the utmost confusion at the dreadful news. They supposed a very large armed force had arrived. Durkee sent for aid, but his envoys were captured and carried to Ogden, from whom he learned the confusion prevailing, when he at once put his army in motion and stormed Fort Durkee, and after a short and severe struggle captured it. Capt. Butler was wounded and carried to the cabin of Mr. Beach near by. Butler' Spalding and a few of the leaders were sent to Philadelphia as prisoners, and the others to Eastoa. Again the settlers were driven off; their crops, abandoned, fell ioto the hands of the victors. Mr. Beach started in the night with his family down the river; stopped temporarily at what is Beach Grove, and finally located there. The Pennsylvanians now retired, confident that this signal overthrow of' the Yankees would permanently settle matters, and that the contest was at an end- leaving only a small garrison of twenty men to hold the fort. ' HISTORY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. 49 But the Yankees were much like the ancient Crusaders. The -war of con- tention had now gone on two years. Suddenly, on December 15 following, the sleeping garrison was roused with the cry "King George, Hurrah!" and Capt. Lazarus Stewart and thirty men took quick possession of the fort in behalf of the Connecticut settlers. Six of the garrison, nearly without clothing, escaped to the mountains and the others were expelled from the place with little ceremony. This closed matters and brings us to the situation in the opening of the year 1770. Again Capt. Amos Ogden fitted out another expedition to capture the Yankees. This was about the 15th of January, 1770, when, with 100 men, in the dead of winter, he invested the fort, and to protect his men he built a fort as his old position on Mill creek was in ashes; this new fort was on the bank of the river within sixty rods of Fort Durkee. This expedition was ostensibly under Sheriff Hacklein, who demanded a surrender. Stewart deiiantly replied in the name of the Connecticut Colony. The new fort was called "Wyoming," and after the investment by Ogden every nerve was strung to add to its defences. On January 20 Ogden sallied out to attack. Another demand to surrender and refusal, and a brisk fire was opened. At the first volley Nathan Ogden, a young brother of Capt. Ogden, was killed and several wounded. The attacking party withdrew to their fort. The night following Capt. Stewart, knowing the vengeance in store for him by the Pennsylvania authorities, with his brave thirty followers, quietly left and fled to the mountains, leaving about twenty men — those the least obnoxious to the enemy. The next morning Ogden took possession and sent the captured to the Easton jail. An additional reward was offered for Stewart and from the following extract from the New York Gazette, November 11, 1771, the temper of the authorities may be gathered somewhat: " Philadelphia, November 4. — At the supreme court held here on Tuesday last William Speddy was arraigned and tried for the murder of Lieut. Nathan Ogden, who was shot from the block-house at Wioming, while it was in the possession of Lazarus Stewart and company; and after a long and important hearing the jury gave in a verdict ' not guilty.' " Capt. Ogden now devoted himself assiduously to rendering Port Wyoming impregnable, so far as his means would admit; to any force the Yankees could mus- ter to assail it. Pebiuary and March passed away without the slightest interrup- tion, or even note of alarm. Too wary to be again so ca"ught, Ogden this time, less assured that his conquest was safe, had remained with his men, to defend what they had purchased at, to him, a price so dear. It was well, though in vain, he did so, for early in April Capt. Zebulon Butler, with Capt. Stewart as an assistant, accompanied by 150 armed men, entered the valley, and forthwith laid vigorous siege to Fort Wyoming. Three redoubts were thrown up, one on the opposite side of the river, chiefly v/ith a view to cut off all access to water; — one on the river bank, between Ports Darkee and Wyoming; the other on the hill, known ever since as " The Eedoubt," by the old canal basin, at the upper part of the town of Wilkes- • Barre. The cannon, which had been carefully hid by the Yankees, too precious to be exposed to capture by a sortie, was placed on this elevation, and with skilful gun- ners would have completely commanded Ogden's position. But distance and want of skill rendered it in a very slight degree effective. Again the Yankees rallied their men, this time under Capt. Butler, and once more 'swooped down upon what might now be called the Dark and Bloody Valley. In this invasion appeared the Gores— father and son, Obadiah and Daniel, black- smiths. They made a cannon by boring out a log and strongly hooping it with iron bands. It was fired once successfully, but the second charge burst it into splinters as a matter of course. Capt. Ogden was destined to meet his match in Capt. Butler. Such had 50 HISTOBY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. been the secrecy and celerity of Butler's movement that the fort was completely sur- rounded before the presence of the enemy was suspected, and all chance of com- municating the news to Philadelphia was cut off. The place was regularly besieged and the process of starving out commenced. Finally Capt. Ogden determined to escape and carry the news to the authorities. In the darkness of the night he took off his clothes, made them into a bundle and tied his hat on the clothes aad these he attached to his arm with a long string and let himself gently into the water and swimming on his back deep in the water ho that his lips were above. His clothes were seen and fired at by the sentinel, and volley after volley at the moving bundle, while he was not seen and he made the shore far below and dressed himself in his wet clothes and hastily made his way to Philadelphia, where his story created the greatest commotion. He reached the city the third day after his escape. Capt. Dick was hastened to the relief of the fort with a convoy of thirty men and pack horses with provisions. Capt. Morris and his company were directed to follow with little delay. Capt. Butler knew of Ogden's escape and guarded strictly against the relief he knew would be sent. Capt. Dick and escort reached the val- ley the last of July. He was ambushed near the fort, the provision captured and his men rushed to the fort as they were allowed to^ as this would the sooner eat the stores on hand. Ogden returned with Dick and found himself again in the fort and besieged. Ledlie was now started from Philadelphia with a company to hurry on and join Morris and Clayton. In the meantime Butler knew of the coming relief and began vigorous attacks on the fort. The gallant Ogden was severely wounded and Lieut. William Kedgard had been shot dead while in the act of halting his leader, Ogden, when he was wounded. Negotiations were opened and the fort sur- rendered to Butler, and they started to return to Philadelphia and on the way met Ledlie and his force, who came on to the brow of the mountain and halted, awaiting orders from Philadalphia. After a short time he was ordered to return. Thus closed the first Pennite and Yankee war — lasting from January, 1769, to September, 1771. These two facts are now prominently brought to the fore. The proprietaries realized that the people of the province sympathized with the Connecticut settlers, or had grown tired of the profitless contention. On the other hand Con- necticut had not kept faith in backing her people in their claims to the land that she had induced them to settle on. The following is a list of the 200 first enrolled to come here and possess the five townships and man their rights. Those marked with a star were the first forty who came, and were followed the next spring by the others. Every name deserves a sacred remembrance — they were unequaled heroes: Dp,vid Whittlesey, Job Grreen, Philip Goss, Joshua Whitney, Abraham Savage, Ebenezer Stearns, Sylvester Chesebrough, Zephaniah Thayer, Eliphalet Jewel, Dan- iel Gore, Ozias Yale, *Henry Wall, Eowland Barton, Gideon Lawrence, Asa Law- rence, Nathaniel Watson, Philip Weeks, Thomas Weeks, Asher Harrot, Ebenezer Hebbard, Morgan Carvan, Samuel Marvin, Silas Gore, Ebenezer Northrop, Joshua Lampher, Joseph Hillman, Abel Pierce, Jabez Roberts, Jonathan Corrington, John Dorrance, Noah Allen, Robert Jackson, Zebulon Hawksey, James Dunkin, Caleb ' Tennant, Zerobable Wightman, Gurdon Hopson, Asa Lee, Thomas Wallworth, Robert Hunter, John Baker, Jonathan Orms, Daniel Angel, Elias Roberts, Nicholas Manvil, Thomas Gray, Joseph Gaylord, William Churchell, Henry Strong, Zebulon Prisbee, Hezekiah Knap, John Kenyon, Preserved Taylor, Isaac Bennett, Uriah Marvin, Abisha Bingham, Moses Hebbard, Jr., Jabez Fish, Peris Briggs,. Aaron Walter, James May, Samuel Badger, Jabez Cooke, Samuel Dorrance, *John Corn- stock, Samuel Hotchkiss, William Leonard, Jesse Leonard, Elisha Avery, Ezra Buel, Gershona Hewit, Nathaniel Goss, Benjamin Hewit, Benjamin Hewit. Jr., Elias Thomas, Abijah Mock, Ephraim Fellows, Joseph Arnold, Ephraim Arnold, Benja- min Ashley, William White, Stephen Hull, Diah Hull, Joseph Lee, Samuel . HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. Ol Wybrant, Reuben Hurlbut, Jenks Corah, Obadiah Gore, Jr., Caleb White, Samuel Sweet, Thomas Knight, John Jollee, Ebenezer Norton, Enos Yale, John Wiley, Tim- othy Vorce, Cyrus Kenne, JoBn Shaw, James Forsythe, *Peter Harris, Abel Smith, Elias Parks, Joshua Maxfield, John Murphy, *Thoma8 Bennet, Christopher Avery, Elisha Babcock, John Perkins, Joseph Slocum, Robert Hopkins, BeDJamin Shoe- maker, Jr., Jabez Sill, Parshall Terry, John Belong, *Theophilus Westover, John Sterling, Joseph Morse, Stephen Fuller, Andrew Durkee, Andrew Medcalf, Daniel Brown, Jonathan Buck, David Mead, Thomas Ferlin, William Wallsworth, Thomas Draper, James Smith, *James Atherton, Jr., *01iver Smith, James Evans, Eleazer Carey, *Cypi-ian Lothrop, James Nesbitt, Joseph Webster, Samuel Millington, Ben- jamin Budd, John Lee, Josiah Dean, Zophur Teed, Moses Hebbard, Dan Murdock, Noah Lee, Stephen Lee, Lemuel Smith, Silas Park, Stephen Hnngerford, Zerobable Jerorum, Comfort Goss, William Draper, Thomas MeClure, Peter Ayers, Solomon Johnson, Phineas Stevens, Abraham Colt, Elijah Buck, Noah Read, Nathan Beach, Job Green, Jr., Fred Wise", Stephen Jenkins, t)aniel Marvin, Zachariah Squier, Henry Wall, Simeon Draper, John Wallsworth, Ebenezer Stone, Thomas Olcott, Stephen Hinsdale, Benjamin Dorchaster, Elijah Witter, Oliver Post, Daniel Cass, Isaac Tracy, Samuel Story, John Mitohel, Samuel Orton, Christopher Gardner, Duty Gerold, Peris Bradford, Samuel Morgan, John Clark, Elijah Lewis, Timothy Hopkins, Edward Johnson, Jacob Dingman, Capt. Prince Alden, Benedict Satterlee, Naniad Coleman, Peter Comstock, John Franklin, Benjamin Matthews, John Dur- kee, William Gallop, Stephen Hurlbut, Stephen Miles. Very few of the settlers had yet brought out their families; and in May, 1772, there were only five white women in Wilkes-Barre: Mrs. McClure, wife of James McClure; Mrs. Bennett, grandmother of Rufus Bennett (who was in the Indian battle); Mrs. Sill, wife of Jabez Sill; another Mrs. Bennett, wife of Thomas Ben- nett, mother of Mrs. Myers, and Mrs. Hickman, with her husband; Mrs. Dr. Sprague, and her daughter, Mrs. Young. The second white child born in the set- tlement was a daughter of Mrs. McClure. Not until the year 1772 had there been any attempt to establish any form of police government. Stewart Pearce says that " each individual acted as his own sense of propriety, or his notion of right, might dictate. Even the salutary influ- ence of woman, exercised over man in civilized society, was wanting. In May, 1772, there were only five women in Wilkes-Barre township. But in this year quite a number of settlers went east for their families. Lands were surveyed and assigned to claimants, and block- houses were erected on both sides of the river. Many new faces appeared in the settlement, men gathered their relatives about them, and marriages were celebrated. The township of Wilkes-Barre was surveyed in the year 1770 by David Meade, and within its limits the struggles for possession of the valley mostly took place. The union of the names of John Wilkes and of Col. Barre, two Englishmen, the latter a brave and accomplished soldier, well known in America, and both celebrated as distinguished advocates of the rights of the col- onies against the encroachments of the crown, formed the name Wilkes-Barre. But the village or borough of Wilkes-Barre was not laid out until 1772. This was the work of Col. Durkee, who formed the town plot on grounds immediately adjoining Fort Wyoming, which, as has been already stated, was situated on the river bank near Northampton street. During that year the people were so busily engaged in preparing to live that there was no time to think of a regular form of government. When difficulties arose in respect to land rights, the dispute was decided by town committees. Those were halcyon days, for there was order without law, and peace without the constable — that was the golden age of Wyoming. Ferries and mills were provided for the people, and finally, toward the close of this year, as soon as prac- ticable, that is, December 11, 1772, provisions were made for the permanent sup- port of the gospel and of schools. Nor was there an exhibition of religious intoler- 52 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. ance, but the views and feelings of the Baptists were consulted by the Presbyteri- ans, who formed rouch the larger body. At lenffth, as the population increased, and the interests of the community became in some degree conflicting, it was deemed necessary by the Susquehanna company, on June 2, 1773, at Hartford, Conn., to adopt a code of laws for the government of the settlement. This code punished crime, enforced order, provided for the election of directors, peace officers, and other officers who might be found necessary in every township. Every settler was required to subscribe his name to these regulations, to abide by and to support the same. All males of the age of twenty- one years and upward were allowed a voice in the elections. It may be noted here, that at an early period, even before the code of laws was enacted by the Susquehanna company, the settlers resolved that any person who sold liquor to an Indian should forfeit his goods and be expelled from the colony. But it is probable this order was uever observed, for at first, after 1763, there were but few straggling Indians in the valley, and these were mostly Christians con- nected with the Moravian society. And in a short time almost the entire body of settlers became drinkers. Whisky and rum were consumed in astonishing quanti- ties. At that day ardent spirits could be procured in their purity, and as the peo- ple were hard workers and much exposed in the open air, they came to be consid- ered as articles of prime necessity. The effects of their use were wholly different from those produced on the people of our day, by the soul and body-destroying mixtures of alcohol and strychnine and other poisons. In October, 1773, the general assembly of Connecticut attempted to open nego- tiations with the Pennsylvania authorities, with a view to the amicable settlement of the dispute pending in reference to the Wyoming lands. But the governor and council, on behalf of Pennsylvania, alleging the total absence of right on the part of Connecticut, declined every proposition which the commissioners of the colony advanced. The general assembly of Connecticut then, on learning the refusal of the authorities of Pennsylvania to come to any terms, proceeded to exercise those acts of sovereignty which she conceived belonged to her. In January, 1774, all the territory within her charter limits, from the Delaware to a line fifteen miles west of the Susquehanna, was erected into a town called Westmoreland, and attached to the county of Litchfield. Westmoreland was about seventy miles square, embrac- ing nearly 5,000 square miles. Within it were numerous townships divided into lots, which were sold to purchasers or were drawn for by proprietors. The gov- ernor of Connecticut issued his proclamation forbidding any settlement in West- moreland except under authority from Connecticut. About the same time the gov- ernor of Pennsylvania issued his proclamation, prohibiting all persons from settling on the disputed lands, except under the authority of the proprietaries. Zebulon Butler and Nathan Denison were commissioned under Connecticut as justices of the peace, with authority to organize the town. In March, 1774, the whole people of Westmoreland, being legally warned, met and organized the town, and chose selectmen, a treasurer, constables, collectors of taxes, surveyors of highways fence viewers, listers, leather sealers, grand jurors, tything men, sealers of weights and measures, and key-keepers. Eight town meetings were held in the year 1774. The government was of the most democratic character. It can not be supposed that the whole male population entitled to vote turned out at every meeting, for the number of people in Westmoreland this year wa'h found to be 1,922. Referring to the close of the year 1771, when the Connecticut people had con- quered from the Pennsylvania proprietaries a respite by driving out Ogden and his forces, William L. Stone, in his Poetry and History of Wyoming, says- "Thus far the government of the Connecticut settlers— that is to say, all the government that was exercised— had been of a voluntary and military character. But the cessation of all opposition to the proceedings of the Sasquehanna company, for the time on HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 53 the part of Pennsylvania, rendered the longer continuance of martial law inexpe- dient, while by the rapid increase of the population it became necessary that some form of civil government should be adopted. The increasing irritation existing between the parent government and the colonies, already foreshadowing an approach- ing appeal to the ultima ratio regum, had taught the directors of the company that a charter for a new and distinct colonial government from the crown, was not to be expected. In this exigency, the company applied to the general assembly of Con- necticut to have their Wyoming settlements taken under the protection of the col- ony until the pleasure of his majesty should be known. But the general assembly was in no haste to extend its segis over so broad a territory, at so great a distance from home. They therefore advised the company in the first instance to attempt an amicable adjustment of their difficulties with the proprietaries of Pennsylvania, offering to undertake the negotiation in their behalf. In case of a failure to obtain a just and honorable arrangement, the general assembly next suggested a reference of the whole subject to the king in council. Meantime, while they wished the col- ony God-speed, they advised them to govern themselves by themselves, in the best manner they could. Pursuant to this advice, the inhabitants of the valley proceeded to elect a gov- ernment of their own; and the institutions established by them were the most thor- oughly democratic, probably, of any government that has ever existed elsewhere among civilized men. ' ' They laid out townships, founded settlements, erected fortifications, levied and collected taxes, passed laws for the direction of civil suits, and for the punishment of crimes and misdemeanors, established a militia, and pro- vided for the common defence and general welfare of the colony." The supreme legislative power was vested directly in the people, not by representation, but to be exercised by themselves, in their primary meetings and sovereign capacity. A mag- istracy was appointed, and all the necessary machinery for the government of towns according to the New England pattern, organized and put in motion. Three courts were instituted, all having civil and criminal jurisdiction; but the court of appeals, called the supreme court, to which every case might be carried, was formed, like their legislature, of the people themselves in solemn assembly convened. The extent of territory was 100 miles wide and 110 miles long — abundant room in which to sprout and grow a great democracy. Under this government the peo- ple lived very happily, and the colony advanced with signal prosperity for two years, when the town of Westmoreland was formed and became a part and parcel of Connecticut. Possibly it would have been better for the people had they contin- ued their independent democracy. A.t the closing decade of the nineteenth century it sounds a little odd to hear that a government that was "voluntary and military" was the "most thoroughly democratic, probably, of any government that has ever existed elsewhere among civilized men." A purely "voluntary" government, without a shred of military, may elect a king to rule over them, but a military power, to modern ears, sounds so anti-democratic as to be irreconcilable with all ideas of a democracy. But consider the times and the surroundings of the people of whom Mr. Stone was speaking, and is he not right ? Every man was a soldier, without pay, subsistence or arms, except as he provided these for himself; they worked by relays on the forts and block-house, while others stood guard, or with gun swung across his back, plowed and hoed the corn. Whether a man was enrolled in a company or not he was a soldier, all the time and everywhere, active and alert to beat off the open or skulking approach of the enemy; the women and children could mold bullets and load guns. Where all were unpaid soldiers, all were eqaally free, and in the spirit of justice and pure democracy these soldiers met in council snd voted their own laws. After Plunkett's invasion until 1782, six years, the whole valley had been repeatedly and most cruelly devastated. The unfortunate settlers, now worn and 54 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. weary, poor and literally like Bachel weeping for her children, now that the Eevo- lution was closing its long chapter of war, thus woke to the new, sad realization that it was worse than peace with themselves left out of the protocol. Like a shadow of death overspread, the cloud that now they must take up the battle anew against the authorities of Pennsylvania, and that they were left to fate by Connecticut. The decree of Trenton had been accepted by the latter and now where was a ray of hope for the settlers in the valley? They petitioned the general assembly of Pennsyl- vania for their rights. " We have settled a country, which in its original state of but little value, but now cultivated by your memorialists, is to them of the greatest importance, being their all. We are yet alive, but the richest blood of our neighbors and friends, children, husbands, and fathers, has been spilt in the general cause of their country, and we have suffered every danger this side of death. We supplied the continental army with many valuable ofdcers and soldiers, and left ourselves weak and unguarded against the attack of the savages, and of others of a more savage nature. Our houses are desolate, many mothers are childless, widows and orphans are multiplied, our habitations are destroyed, and many families are reduced to beggary." In the history of State papers I have met none whose every word was so signifi- cant of the deep and earnest sense of men who spoke from hearts moved by higher or nobler impulses. Notwithstanding, as soon as the continental troops were with- drawn from Wyoming, where they had been placed for the protection of the people against the savages, Capts. Kobinson and Shrawder, with two companies of Pennsylvania troops, marched and took possession of Fort Wyoming, which they named Fort Dickinson. Shortly after, the general assembly of Pennsylvania, in pursuance of the petition of the settlers, appointed Joseph Montgomery, William Montgomery and Moses McClean, commissioners, with instructions to repair to Wyoming and compromise the dispute between them and the commonwealth. They arrived in the valley in April, 1783, and immediately a spirited correspondence took place between them and John Jenkins, Nathan Denison, Obadiah Gore and Samuel Shepherd, the committee on the part of the settlers. The issue of this was that the State commissioners reported to the assembly^ recommending ' ' that a reasonable compensation in land in the western part of the State should be made to the families of those who had fallen in arms against the common enemy, and to such other set- tlers as had a proper Connecticut title, and did actually reside on the lands at the time of the decree at Trenton ; provided they immediately relinquish all claim to the soil where they now inhabited, and enter into contracts to deliver up full and quiet possession of their present tenures to the rightful owners under Pennsylvania by the first of April next." This report evidently expressed the sentiments of Alexander Patterson, who had in charge the interests of the Pennsylvania settlers. Patterson had been in the employ of the Penn family, and had aided to arrest the Connecticut settlers in 1769, He was now a justice of the peace under Pennsylvania, and was settled in Wilkes-Barre, whose name he endeavored to change to Londonderry. He, with his associate justices, and backed by military force, under the command of Maj. James Moore, and Capts. Shrawder and Christie, commenced a series of con- temptible and cowardly outrages upon the Yankee settlers. The soldiers were quartered upon the inhabitants. Col. Zebulon Butler, who had just returned from the army, and who boldly denounced Patterson's conduct, was arrested and sent to Sunbury jail. But, as the proceedings had been illegal, he was released. Mr. Miner says, " October 31, the settlement Shawnee was invaded by the mili- tary, headed by the justice in person, and eleven respectable citizens arrested and sent under guard to the fort. Among the prisoners was Maj. Prince Alden, sixty- five years old, feeble from age, and suffering from disease. Compassion yielded nothing to alleviate his sufferings. Capt. James Bidlack was also arrested. He was between sixty and seventy. His son, of the same name, had fallen, as previ- HISTORY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. 57 ously recorded, at the head of his company in the Indian battle; another son, Ben- jamin, had served in the army through the Eevolutionary war. Capt. James Bid- lack himself had been taken by the savages, and suffered a tedious captivity in Canada. All this availed him nothing. Benjamin Harvey, who had been a prisoner to the Indians, was also arrested. Samuel Ransom, son of Capt. Ransom, who fell in the massacre, was most rudely treated on being taken. 'Ah, ha! ' cried Patterson, ' you are the jockey we wanted; away with him to the guardhouse, with old Harvey, another damned rascal. ' Eleven in all were taken and driven to the fort, where they were confined in a room with a mud floor, wet and comfortless, with no food and little fire, which as they were sitting round, Capt. Christie came in, ordered them to lie down on the ground, and bade the guard to blow out the brains of any one who should attempt to rise. Even the staff of tbe aged Mr. Alden was taken from him." The men secure, Patterson turned their families out of doors, and placed Pennamite claimants in possession of their lands and houses. In many other cases the widows and orphan children of soldiers, slain in battle in defence of liberty, were forced from their dwellings, and their few implements of agriculture were destroyed or carried away, by order of Patterson. The settlers now (1784) petitioned congress and the assemblies of Pennsylvania and Connecti- cut for redress of grievances, and the Pennsylvania assembly sent a committee to Wyoming to take depositions. These depositions were read before the assembly, and although Patterson was severely denounced by many members, he was not removed or deprived of his authority. On January 23, 1784, moved by the petition of Zebulon Butler and others, con- gress adopted measures for the settlement of the dispute, but on the remonstrance of Pennsylvania the proceedings were discontinued. > On the 13th and 14th of May following, Maj. Patterson's soldiers dispossessed 150 families, burnt several houses, and compelled 500 men, women and children to march through the wilder- ness to the Delaware river. Several children starved and died in the woods, and the sufferings of the whole impoverished throng, as they wandered night and day over rugged mountains and through deep swamps, were terrible beyond description. Elisha Harding, who was one of this suffering multitude, says: "It was a solemn scene; parents, their children crying for hunger — aged men on crutches — all urged forward by an armed force at our heels. The first night we encamped at Capouse; the second at Cobb's; the third at Little Meadow, so called. Cold, hungry and drenched with rain, the poor women and children suffering much. The fourth night at Lackawack; fifth, at Blooming Grove; sixth, at Shehola; on the seventh arrived at the Delaware, where the people dispersed, some going up and some down the river. I kept on east, and when I got to the top of Shongum mountain I looked back with this thought: Shall I abandon Wyoming forever? The reply was, No, oh no! There lie your murdered brothers and friends. Dear to me art thou, though a land of affliction. Every way looked gloomy, except toward W/oming. Poor, ragged and distressed as I was, I had youth, health, and felt that my heart was whole. So I turned back to defend or die." These cruelties to the settlers excited sympathy throughout the whole country, and the companies of Shrawder and Christie were discharged by State authority. But the inhuman Patterson re-enlisted many of the soldiers, and continued to per- petrate his hellish deeds in spite of instructions to the contrary. After an absence of several weeks the Yankees returned and fortified themselves under a cliff or rock, on the Eastern or Wilkes-Barre mountain. This, Mr. Miner says, they called Fort Lillope, but we have in our possession several orders, sent by John Franklin, John Jenkins and others, from this cave-fortress, to Matthias HoUenback, in Wilkes-Barre, for rum, tea, sugar, etc., and these orders are dated at Fort Defence. From this fort three or four persons entered Wilkes-Barre under the promised protection of Patterson, who arrested and beat them with iron ramrods. Franklin and Jenkins, 4 58 HISTOKY OF LUZERNE COUNT If. now having no faith in the promises of anybody connected with Pennsylvania, removed in the month of July, with their associates, to Kingston. On the 20th of that month a company of thirty young men, marching to Plymouth, met a body of Patter- son's men on Eosshill. A conilict ensued, and Elisha Garrett and Chester Pierce were slain. Several of Patterson's men were wounded but none of them killed. Forty- two effective and twenty old men, now aroused to vengeance by this bloody deed, placed themselves under the command of John Franklin. They first marched to Shawnee, and dispossessed the Pennamite families there, then crossing the river at Nanticoke, they drove off all from their dwellings on the east side, and compelled them to take refuge in the fort at Wilkes-Barre. This fort Franklin's men proceeded to surround. Patterson's troops made a sortie from the fort, and set fire to twenty- three buildings, which were consumed. Franklin continued to invest the fort, and demanded its surrender, which was refused. An engagement ensued, in which the Yankees were worsted, and deemed it prudent to retire to Kingston. Patterson and forty others were now indicted by the grand jury of Northumber- land county, and Sheriff Antis was sent to arrest them. But Patterson and his associates saved themselves from arrest behind their threatening ramparts, and the sheriff was compelled to return without them. On the very day the sheriff attempted this arrest, Maj. Moore, who was returning from Northampton county, where he had secured a number of recruits for the Pennsylvania cause, was met by Capt. John Swift, at the head of thirty men, on Locust Hill. A conflict ensued. Jacob Everett, one of Moore's men, was killed, and several were wounded on both sides. Moore retired to Easton, while Swift marched back to Kingston. The next movement in this unhappy struggle was the appointment of Col. John Armstrong, in conjunction with Hon. John Boyd, commissioners, to restore peace to Wyoming. Boyd was a member, and Armstrong was the secretary, of the supreme executive council of Pennsylvania. This Col. Armstrong was the author of the Newburg letters, had been minister to Spain and France, and was secretary of war in 1812, under the administration of President Madison. The commissioners arrived in the valley on August 8, 1784. Three-hundred infantry and fifteen horsemen were ordered to be placed at their disposal. They issued their proclamation declaring peace and good-will. They demanded a cessation of strife, and the surrender of arms by both parties. The Yankees were fearful of treachery and hesitated to accept the proffered mediation of the commissioners. But Arm- strong pledged his honor as a man and as a soldier to respect his engagements, and make good his promises. The Yankees believed and laid down their arms, when they were immediately arrested. Capt. Swift's company of men, who had defeated Moore at Locust Hill, were bound with cords and handcuffed. In this con- dition they were marched away to Easton jail. Forty-two others were bound and sent to jail at Sunbury. Patterson's men were not disarmed. Armstrong then returned to Philadelphia covered with infamy. The Sunbury prisoners were released on bail. The Easton prisoners procured their liberty through Edward Inman, a man of great physical strength, who knocked down the jailer, seized the keys, and liberated himself and comrades. Fifteen of them escaped to Wyoming, but eleven were taken and confined in jail three months. An attempt was then made to indict them for the murder of Jacob Everett, who, as before stated, was killed at Locust Hill. The attempt, however, proved a failure, for the grand jury ignored the bill. No bills were found in Northumberland county against the prisoners sent thither by Armstrong. On the other hand, Patterson and Moore were both indicted, which shows that the people generally through Pennsyl- vania sympathized with the Connecticut settlers in their sufferings. In September, Armstrong returned to the valley with fifty men and arrested Franklin, Pierce and Johnson for treason, but they were never convicted. On the 29th of the same month the Yankees, under Capt. Swift, attacked a house which HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 59 Patterson occupied as headquarters. They set the building on fire, and two of his associates, Henderson and Bead, in attempting to escape to the fort, were shot down. Capt. Swift was severely wounded, but his loss did not in the least abate the ardor and efforts of his men, who spiritedly invested the Pennamite garrison. In this conflict Franklin was wounded in the wrist, Nathan Stevens was shot in the eye and died instantly, William Smith and one or two others were also killed, and finally the Yankees were compelled to abandon the siege. By the constitution of Pennsylvania, established alter the colonies had declared themselves free and independent states, in addition to the supreme executive council and the house of representatives, there existed a council of censors who assembled once in seven years. This body was elected by the people, and had power to send for persons and papers, and to examine into all questions respecting the rights of the people and the administration of justice. After an examination, by the censors, of the Wyoming difficulties, and after the refusal of the house of represent- atives to furnish certain papers, in the autumn of 1784 they issued a declaration enumerating the wrongs committed against the Connecticut settlers, and severely censuring the supreme executive council and the house of representatives. These bodies, however, disregarded the reproof of the censors, and prosecuted the unholy war. Armstrong was promoted to the position of a general, and at the head of 100 armed men, on October 17, 1784, again entered the valley. The day fol- lowing he attacked the Yankees, who had fortified themselves in four log houses, placed in the form of a diamond, situated above Forty fort. The contest lasted one hour, when Armstrong was compelled to retreat, having lost Capt. Bolin, and having had three or four severely wounded. On the side of the Yankees, William Jackson was dangerously wounded, and as he lay bleeding, Capt. Franklin seized his friend's bloody rifle and swore he would never lay down his arms until death should arrest his hand, or Patterson and Amstrong should be expelled from Wyoming. The next day Armstrong sent thirty of his men to gather the buckwheat on the Kingston • flats, but the Yankees, stealthily encircling the workmen, carried away the grain, amounting to about 100 bushels. At this juncture the assembly of Pennsylvania passed an act restoring the dis- possessed Yankees to their lands and recalling Armstrong and Patterson with the forces under their command. This was temporary relief. The settlers at once set about the appointment of committees to organize the militia, to provide for the punishment of offenders, etc. Franklin was elected colonel of the troops. A petition signed by ninety-six men and women, setting forth their grievances and sufferings, and praying to be permitted to elect their own officers and to be protected in their rights, was sent to the assembly at Philadelphia. John Jenkins was appointed to wait on the assembly and to secure the passage of a law for the final settlement of matters in dispute, and for the permanent establishment of the rights of the Connecticut settlers. These efforts proving of no avail, Franklin waited upon the session of congress, and upon the assembly of Connecticut and endeavored to interest them in the wretched fate of the Wyoming people. He also made a bold effort to revive the slumbering energies of the Susquehanna company, which, like Connecticut, had been stunned by the Trenton decree. In this he succeeded. In July, 1785, the company met and reaffirmed its rights in these disputed lands; land was voted to recruits, called half -share rights; committees were appointed, and extensive preparations were made. Franklin returned to Wyoming, held meetings, and addressed the people in the several townships, in regard to a new plan which had been settled upon. It remained. for the people to carry it out. It had been determined to form a new state out of northern Pennsylvania. The disputed terri- tory was to be dismembered and downtrodden Wyoming was to be set free from the thraldom of Pennsylvania. Wise heads at Philadelphia s^ the gathering storm, and on December 24 following, the assembly of Pennsylvania passed an "Act for 60 HISTOEY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. x quieting disturbances at Wyoming and pardoning certain offenders." This law- required the Yankees to give bail for their good behavior, but gave them no security in return. It was consequently disregarded. In July, 1786, the Susquehanna com- pany held another meeting in Connecticut, and Col. Franklin, Maj. Jenkins, and Gen. Ethan Allen, Col. Butler and others, were appointed a committee to locate townships, to decide upon claims, etc. The ball set in motion by the bold and fear- less Franklin was now being rolled onward by such men as Oliver Walcott, Joel Barlow and Gen. Ethan Allen, the hero of Ticonderoga. Stout hearts and heroes, who had braved the tempest of battle during the Revolution, and who sympathized with the widows and orphans of their comrades in their sufferings and wrongs, were gathering at Wyoming, and the result could not be mistaken. The authorities of Pennsylvania saw at once that the infamous policy which they had pursued was fast leading to a dismemberment of the State, and that the time had arrived for other and prompt measures. A division in the ranks of the Yankees was determined upon, and the question arose, who can accomplish it ? Timothy Pickering, a native of Massachusetts, and a man of distinguished ability, was at this time engaged in the practice of law in the city of Philadelphia. He was requested to visit Wyoming and examine into the condition of affairs there. This he did in August and September, 1786, and returning to Philadelphia reported "that the Yankees were entirely satisfied with the constitution of Pennsylvania, and were ready to submit to its government, provided they could be quieted in the possession of their farms." A few days after this report, September 25, 1786, the act creating the county of Luzerne passed the assembly, and Matthias Hollenback, Timothy Pickering and others were commissioned justices, with power to hold courts, etc. Pickering was also appointed prothonotary, clerk of the court and register and recorder. Lord Butler was commissioned high sheriff. On December 27, following this event, the Susquehanna Company held a meet- ing at the State house, in Hartford, Conn. , when measures were adopted preparatory to the organization of the new State. An executive committee of twenty-one persons, ' among whom appear the names of Oliver Walcott, Joel Barlow, Zebulon Butler, John Franklin and John Jenkins, was appointed with full powers to organize the government. On the same day, at Philadelphia, the Assembly of Pennsylvania passed a supplement to the act creating Luzerne county, by which Timothy Picker- ing, Zebulon Butler and John Franklin were appointed to notify the electors of Luzerne county that an election would be held there on the 1st day of February, 1787, for the election of one supreme councillor, one member of the house of rep- resentatives and a high sheriff. Thus, Pennsylvania succeeded in dividing the Yankees, and now they were no longer one people united against a common enemy. As the Ist day of February approached the breach widened) and on the mornintr of the election, " for the first time," says Miner, "was presented the spectacle, equally gratifying to foes and painful to friends, of open and decided hostility among the Wyoming people. Col. Butler, Col. Denison, the Hollenbacks, the Rosses, the fami- lies of Gore, Carey, Nesbit and others were in favor of election, while Franklin, the Jenkinses, the Slocums, Satterlies, Dudleys and others opposed it." The former were ready and willing to swear allegiance to Pennsylvania, and trust to her honor for a confirmation of their titles, and for the security of their homes; but Franklin and his adherents, remembering Pennsylvania's oft repeated and plighted vows and the outrages of Armstrong and Patterson, would not trust her without security Confirm us in our titles, and protect us in our possessions, said they, and then we will swear allegiance, but not till then. The election was held, but not without not and confusion. Col. Nathan Denison was chosen a member of the executive council John Franklin was elected to the house of representatives, and Lord But- ler to the office of high s"heriff of the county. It was understood if Franklin could be reconciled, the new state project would be seriously damaged. It was conse HISTOEY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 61 quently a prime object to seduce him from his former connections. With this view he had been appointed with Pickering and Butler togivenotiee of the election, and it was with this view he had been elected a member of the Pennsylvania assembly. It was doubtless intended as an exquisite stroke of political management. It was a cunningly-spread net, in which most men would have been caught. But Franklin was not so to be taken, for he stubbornly adhered to his first position, refusing to take a seat in the assembly or the oath of allegiance. The settlers who had united with Pennsylvania, and who recognized Pickering as their leader, denounced Franklin and his associates as " wild Yankees," prose- cuting a project which would involve them in endless war. On the other hand, Franklin and his adherents proclaimed them as traitors, who had gone over to the enemy, and against whose treachery they, even now, had not the slightest guar- antee. Oji March 28, following the election, the assembly of Pennsylvania, seeing that all efforts to reconcile the "wild Yankees" had failed, passed the confirming law, under which Timothy Pickering, Joseph Montgomery and Peter Muhlenberg were appointed commissioners, to sit at Wilkes-Barre, to hear and decide claims. Both parties now agreed to hold a general mass meeting of .all the settlers at Forty fort, and to discuss the merits of the late act of assembly. A stand was erected, and Samuel Sutton was chosen chairman. Timothy Pickering opened the discus- sion by a lengthy and persuasive argument in favor of the law. He declared that Pennsylvania was honest and sincere, and pledged his honor as security for her good faith. Stephen Gardner, half doubting, said, "Your lips speak fair, but oh! that there was a window in that breast that we might see and read your heart." Maj. John Jenkins replied to Pickering, " What guarantee have we that Pennsyl- vania will keep her plighted faith ? She has forfeited her honor time and again. If we accept the provisions of this law, when she finds we are tied hand and foot she will repeal it, and leave us without hope. " John Franklin now followed iu a powerful and sarcastic speech. He denounced, in the most bitter and irritating language, the conduct of Pennsylvania, as well as of those who had taken part with Pickering. The peut-up emotions of the excited assembly could no longer be restrained — a fight ensued, clubs were cut and used, and for a moment serious consequences were imminent. When order was partially restored a vote was taken, when it was decided to accept the law. The commissioners appointed under this law in August opened their court and decided upon a number of claims; but, being threatened with violence, adjourned. A constitution for the new State was drawn by Oliver Walcott, and officers were decided upon. In September Gen. Ethan Allen arrived; finding the Connecticut people divided, he, with Col. John Jrankliii, set hard about reconciling them. The latter traveled over all the country from house to house and addressed meetings at Kingston, Hanover, Pittston, Newport and other places. But their efforts were in vain. Gen. Allen openly declared he had made one new State and that with 100 Green Mountain boys and 200 Susquehanna riflemen he could make another State in spite of all Pennsylvania. A companion incident and nearly simuHianeously was the action of John Sevier, in carving the new State "Franklin " out of Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia. Col. Franklia and his followers had determined to make the capital at Tioga Point (Athens). The new State was to extend into the unorganized portions of southern New York. The Independent Gazetteer of October 5, 1787, says: "A few days since Capts. Craig, Brady, Stephenson, Begs, Pim and Erb went to the camp of Luzerne and there, by order of the supreme executive council, apprehended John Franklin, and yesterday brought him to this city. This man has been very active in fomenting disturbances in the camp, has great address and resolution, as was shown by the 62 HISTOEY OP LUZERNE COUNTY. gentlemen employed in conducting this business; tliey were all officers of the continental army, who distinguished themselves by their bravery during the late war — it is to be hoped they will receive sufficient compensation for their services." Asburn Towner's novel, Chendayne of Kotono, gives an interesting description of this event. The real hero of those days was Col. Franklin. Fraaklin, the wilderness hero, lay in jail while the national constitutional convention assembled to form our wonderful constitution. When after in prison a year or more Franklin was brought before the court, the court said: " There was evidence that he and the people had assembled for the purpose of opposing the authority and law of the commonwealth, and that a paper subscribed by him had been posted inviting the people to throw off allegiance to the State of Pennsylvania and to erect themselves into an independent State; also it appeared that the insurgents had appointed a court of three judges, vested with jurisdiction in all criminal and civil cases This was approaching rapidly, if not actual treason, but the commonwealth, in its great mercy, only charged misprison of treason. Franklin's followers quickly retaliated his arrest by literally kidnapping Pick- ering and carrying him into the mountains. In this their hope was to compel the release of Franklin and instead of helping him it hurt. When bail was asked for Franklin, the Chief Justice said: " Yesterday we might have allowed it; but to-day's news of the arrest of Pickering shuts out all such idea and the charge is reverted to treason. " November 5, 1787, Dr. Ben Franklin, then secretary of the commonwealth, sent the following to the council : Gentlemen: Since the last session there has been a renewal of the disturbances at Wyo- ming, some restless spirits there having imagined a prospect of withdrawing the inhabitants of that part of the State and some of the State of New York from their allegiance and of forming them into a new State, to be carried into effect by an armed force in defiance of the laws of the two States.' Having intelligence of this, we caused one of the principal conspirators to be apprehended and^ secured in the goal of this city — and another, who resides in the State of New York, at our request has been taken up by the authorities of that government. The papers found on this occasion fully discovers the designs of these turbulent people and some of their letters are herewith laid before you. ... To protect the civil officers of our new court of Luzerne in the exercise of their respective functions, we have ordered a. body of militia to hold themselves in readiness to march thither; which will be done unless some future circumstances and information from those points may make it appear unnecessary. [Signed] B. Fkanklin, President Supreme Ex. Council. Session of general assembly, October 31, 1787, mostly taken up with the Luzerne troubles, a resolution was passed to raise troops. Benjamin Franklin sent another message to the assembly recommending the adoption of eflPectual measures to suppress rebellion and enforce the laws. The people drove the commissioners from Luzerne court and at November election following, Timothy Pickering was elected to the legislature from Luzerne. He was afterward Washington's secretary of state. Franklin was cruelly treated, being ironed down in a cold, miserable dungeon, with insufficient food, no clothing except the light suit he had on when arrested, prohibited all communication with friends and all use of pen, ink and paper. Here he was kept nearly two years. His friends were desperately willing to do anything in their power to secure his release. June 26, 1788, they kidnapped Pickering, and proposed holding him as a hostage, or secure his influence for the release of Franklin. The kidnappers were pursued by Pickering's adherents, and were fired upon and serious wounds inflicted, when the pursuit was given over. This was the last time that blood was shed in the long and cruel contention. Pickering resolutely refused to yield to the demands of his captors, and was, after three weeks, released. The arrest of Franklin and the acceptance by the people of the "confirming HISTOBi OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 63 law" no doubt arrested the movement for the new State, which had already gone to the extent of completing its frame of government, and arranged that Maj. William Judd, of Farmington, Conn., should be governor, and Col. Franklin lieutenant-governor. Col. John Fraaklin was born at Caaaan, Litchfield county, Conn. , September 26, 1749; removed to Wyomiag iu the spring of 1774; was many years an acting magistrate under Connecticut; captain of an independent company during the Eevolutionary war, and, while attached to Sullivan's expedition against the Indians, was wounded in the attack on Chemung; member of the assembly of Connecticut in 1781; iu October, 1787, he was arrested on a charge of treason against the State of Pennsylvania, for " endeavoring to subvert the government, and to erect a new and independent State in the room and stead thereof;" was confined in Philadelphia nearly two years, a great part of the time heavily ironed, released on bail, and never brought to trial; in 1792 he was elected high sheriff of Luzerne county, while an indictment for treason was still hanging over him, was commissioned and served; in 1795, 1796, 1799, 1800, 1801, 1803, he was a member of assembly from Luzerne county; by the act of April 2, 1804, a small portion of Luzerne county, including his farm, was set off to Lycoming county; this act was avowedly for the purpose of keeping him out of the legislature, but in 1805 he again appeared in that body as a member from Lycoming; in 1789 he removed to his farm in Athens (then Luzerne, now Bradford county), which was laid out to him under Connecticut title, and there resided until his death, March 1, 1831. He never accepted nor recognized a Pennsylvania title, but after his death his heirs were required to purchase the title to his farm. In the settlement of northern Pennsylvania he was the recognized leader, making annual pilgrimages to New England, and bringing back hosts of industrious settlers, whose descendants, to this day, preserve the virtuous character of their Puritan ancestry; the people whom he brought thither, he never forsook. Their battles he fought in the courts, the assembly, in newspapers and pamphlets, and, if necessary, with his strong right arm, with a zeal, persistency and fidelity which deserved for the cause he thought to be right, a better fate. But little of the history of the county in the Revolutionary times could be written without some mention of the Gore family. An ancient document, rescued by chance from oblivion, is so full of history as to need no further words for its inser- tion here. In January, 1832, Samuel Gore penned his own petition to congress, asking for a pension; after a respectful address, he says: "Your petitioner's request is of a singular nature, differing from the common case of those who served in the war of the Eevolution; he was not engaged for any limited time; that he resided at Wyoming settlement at the commencement of the late Revolutionary war; that in the year 1777, in the month of May, he was enrolled in the militia of Capt. Aholiab Buck' s company, and took the oath of alle- giance to be true and faithful to the cause then at issue; that in December, the same year, he was drafted on a tour of duty up the river as far as Wysox and Towanda; the command he was attached to took twenty-eight prisoners, men that had served under Gen. Burgoyne the preceding campaign; that in the year 1778 the settle- ment was in almost continual alarm the afore part of the season; and what added mostly to their fears was that three companies of soldiers had been enlisted in the settlement and had joined the main army of Washington. "The militia that was left was on duty the principal part of the time, in fortify- ing, scouting and learning the military discipline till the month of July, when the settlement was invaded by the British and Indians, undef the command of Col. John Butler, and Brant, the Indian chief. " Your petitioner was in the memorable battle and massacre of Wyoming, and narrowly escaped the fate of five brothers and officers and the principal part of the company to which he belonged. 64 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. "In addition to his misfortune, in running across a bay or morass, the Indians in close pursuit, every step over knee deep in mud and mire, by over exertion, caused a breach in his body, vs^hich has been a painful and troublesome disorder ever since. " It is unnecessary to describe the entire destruction of the settlement by the enemy, dispersion and hardships of the fugitives, old men, women and children, fleeing through the v?ilderness, carrying with them scarcely enough to support nature by the way. "The place was retaken in August or September following, by Col. Zebulon Butler, and Capt. Simon Spalding and a garrison replaced there. Your petitioner returned soon after and served as a volunteer during the years 1779, 1780 and 1781, and was subject to be called on in every case of emergency. "The expedition of General Sullivan to the Genesee country did not prevent wholly the depredations of the enemy being frequently harassed by small parties. In the year 1782 Captain Spalding's company was called to join the 'main army at headquarters and a company of invalids was stationed at the post, commanded by Capt. Mitchell, soldiers that were not calculated for the woods, scoutings, etc. , Col. Dennison gave orders to have the militia organized and classed, which took place. ' ' Afterward, April 3, 1832, Sergt. Gore wrote a private letter to Philander Stephens, member of congress, and from which is taken the following extracts: "I would take it as a favor if you would inform me what is the prospect of a bill for the general compensation of old soldiers and volunteers of the Revolution. * * Some cheering information on this subject would revive my spirits, which have been almost exhausted during the severity of the past winter. * * * * Qn reflect- ing back in these trying times, I would state some particulars respecting our family at the commencement of the Revolution. My father had seven sons, all zealously engaged in the cause of liberty. Himself an acting magistrate and a committee of safety, watching the disaffected and encouraging the loyal part of the community. * * * * Three of his sons and two sons-in-law fell in the Wyoming massacre. Himself died the winter following. One son served during the war, the others served in the continental army for shorter periods." Then he draws a picture of some of the things he saw in that war, and says: " Let any person at this time of general prosperity of our country, reflect back on the troubles, trials and suffering of a con- quered country by a savage enemy. Men scalped and mangled in the most savage manner. Some dead bodies floating down the river in sight of the garrison. Women collecting together in groups, screaming and wringing their hands in the greatest agony; some swooning and deprived of their senses. Property of every descrip- tion plundered and destroyed, buildings burned, the surviving inhabitants dispersed and driven through the wilderness to seek subsistence wherever they could find it." " This," he says, and its truth is on its face, " is but a faint description of the beau- tiful valley of 1778," and it should be remembered the savages continued their dep- redations until 1782. " John Franklin was chosen captain. Your petitioner was appointed to sergeant and had the command of a class which was ordered to be ready at the shortest notice to scout the woods and to follow any part of the enemy that should be sent on their murderous excursions, that he performed four tours "of scouting that season of about eight days each. " Your petitioner never drew any pay, clothing or rations during the contest for independence, but ammunition he was supplied with from the continental store. "He had the charge of a family at the time (his father being dead); had to sup- port himself as well as be could by laboring between spells and frequently plowing with his musket slung at his back. " He concludes with this pathetic sentence, after stating that he had been informed (7' ^7~£::2a— . HISTORY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. 67 by the newspapers of the great spirit of liberality manifested by congress toward old soldiers: " I take the liberty to request of your honorable body to take my case into consideration; and if you in your wisdom and justice should think that your petitioner is entitled to any remuneration, to do what you may think right and just; and your petitioner will ever pray." Such was the language of the old Revolutionary soldier who had served his country " without any pay or rations " and had to support himself and his dead father's family by " working between spells; often with his gun strapped on his back." It is much of the story of the war in Luzerne county. The story of the wives and mothers of those times is condensed and typified in that of Samiiel Gore' s mother. When the battle was raging, she was watching at the door of the fort to catch the first news where were her four sons and two sons- in-law. The first panting courier told her the horrid story that her three sons, Ralph, Silas and George, and her two sons-in-law, John Murphy and Timothy Pierce, were dead, and their scalped and mangled corpses lay side by side — the brave woman's heart was broken, and her stricken soul cried: "Have I one son left?" The fort was pillaged the next day, and the Indians carried all the feather beds to the river's bank, and scattered the feathers to the winds. They burned Mr. Gore's house, and the children, while the Indians were sacking the fort, gathered enough feathers to make the noted "Wyoming Bed," and hid them. Mrs. Gore procured a horse, threw this "bed" across it, and started on the long journey across the " Shades of Death " that lay before them on their way to the Delaware. The old people and "the children rode alternately, and in hushed silence, not know- ing what moment the red devils would spring upon them. The small children endured agony in silence, and trudged on and on. CHAPTER III. HABITS AND CUSTOMS. Those who Came Peeping in the Wilderness — Old Michael, or "Old Pickle" — "Oh Sister Phbbb" — The Ancient Dude — Severe Religion — A Preacher Tried for Drunkenness — The Prophecies and Grotesqtjeribs —The Brush Hut and Log Cabin — A Typical Woods Pioneer — Etc. THERE were people enough her'e to begin to form scattered neighborhoods before there was such a thing as social life. The very first were nomads, wandering aimlessly across the mountains and along the winding streams, coming in sudden surprise upon the wigwams and brush and bark villages, and a few words in signs, and sit in that calm stolidity of the native about the camp fires, and then silently pass on and on. This strange creature was piloting the way across the continent — the vanguard to the millions that were soon to follow — and those to, who came to possess — the "nation builders," as they have been proudly called by their descendants. Indeed, they were far more than that; they were both the world's map makers and the founders of the new civilization. The reflex of their liTes have re-mapped the world — recast the fate of the human race. Bundled in this strange, uncouth creature, these lonely wanderers were the restless spirit of independence and liberty — the rights of man as against the "divine" rulers. These people were a strange development of their age and time — the marvel of all history — the glintings of the luminous civilization that was to follow them; 68 HISTOEY OF LUZEKNE COUNTY. whose developing food had been persecutions by church and State, and sect and heretic, and whose strong and unconquerable manhood and supreme self-reliance had come of cruel blows, or risen phenix-like from the flames. "Old Michael" — the ancient "sexton and high constable " —John Michael Keinzle, was a most interesting and typical character of the good old times. The wicked boys of that day knew him only as ''Old Pickle." He commenced so long ago, that memory runneth not, as sexton and grave-digger, and was elected high constable of Wilkes-Barre in 1806, aQd in his many ofiSces served until his death in 1846. He was a stumpy, red-faced, bushy-haired and stub- whiskered Swiss. Beneath a rough exterior was a kind heart and infinite love of children, though the wild boys thought him a very ogre. In loyalty and obedience he was af martinet to his church and the law of the land, and yet he would rebuke the judge or the min- ister with equal bluntness at what he deemed the slightest departure from the proper form. All must behave in his presence — little children, great judges or venerable divines. One of the olden time boys has furnished a reminiscence that is so graphic a picture of the times and customs of the people that we can not do better than give its substance, much of it in his own words: "I can remember being one of a soldier company of which Ned Mallery was captain and Ned Babb was first lieutenant. Our guns were made in the carpenter shop of John P. Babb, of good wood, with a snap spring on the side, which answered our purpose, and were not dangerous. We used to parade on the Saturday half-holidays. [Schools then commenced by the simrise and kept until sundown. ] We paraded on the river bank, near old Michael's residence, which was in the Arndt storehouse on the edge of the bank opposite Morgan's tavern. On these occasions Michael would fre- quently pass along our line and give each of the boys a penny, a great prize to every one of us. We knew he was poor, and we never forgot his kind heart. He was constable and sexton of the churches, and attended to the opening and cleaning, lighting and bell-ringing, and always snuffed the candles, wearing in the church pumps, and silently, with snufPers, would pass around during the singing. He was the servant of the town, and in many ways its master. On Sunday he sat in the gallery to watch the boys, and woe to the urchin who did not keep still or made a noise. Every night at 9 o'clock he rang the bell of the old meeting-house on the square, a notice to the merchants to close up, for all abroad to retire to their homes, and everybody to go to bed; this he did without pay or any reward save that of good conscience; and in this he was as punctual as the sun in all weather. He had a pound on the river near his residence, and cattle found at large at night were driven there and the owner must come and pay his tine. When he found a man drunk and helpless on the ground he went for his wheelbarrow and on this took him to the pound and dumped him in with the other domestic animals. In the winter when the snow would cover the way or coal-ash sidewalks, Michael would be up before day while others slept and with his snow plow drive along the walks and have all the snow off before the people were up — this too was voluntary and with no pay attached. The pleasure of doing good was his reward. He had the only hay scales in the place, near his residence and the pound. Long chains were attached to a beam, fastened to the wheels of the wagon and all was raised clear of the ground, and the weight ascertained. Thus he was weighmaster too; his charge for each job was ten cents. No man was ever more fearless in the discharge of official duties ; many a time he would make an arrest, take the prisoner to the door of the jail, when the man's goodness of heart would turn his prisoner loose after frightening bim terribly and many promises of "never do so any more." This latter applied mostly to the youths of the town, when, which was not frequently, he could catch them. He had "dumb the mast " in vindication of this claim, when a wag intimated a doubt, he ascended the steeple of the church and stood upon the small ball, 125 feet from the ground. The man had a strong temper as well HISTORY OF LUZEBNE COUNTY. 69 as a severe religion. If he found a cow blasphemous enough to enter the church- yard then his temper rose to white heat; he generally had to chase them several times around the building, as the brutes knew they were trespassers, and the man, finally out of breath, would follow them with blackest frowns as they galloped away and swearing in broken Swiss until the air was blue about him. The narrator told of a time when a lad he rode bareback and wanting a switch rode up under a willow in front of the church. This brought him on the sidewalk, and with both hands reaching up getting what he wanted. The keen eye of the sexton saw him, and while he had both hands above his head the sexton struck his horse behind with his cane. The astonished horse madly sprang forward, the worse astonished boy came near having his head broken, and when he righted up and looked back he saw the sexton standing there with a mere splinter of his cane left which he had ruined in the blow. The wicked boy added to the man's wrath by heartily laughing at the ruin of his cane. As he held up the splintered cane, the boy says, he actually outdid himself in broken swearing even over the worst old trespassing cow in the town. Fifty years after this incident the man said: " I was wrong for laughing at him, and am sorry now I did." He stood with that sympathetic manner peculiar to him by the side of every newly opened grave, so quiet, so full of real sympathy, as he dropped the dirt upon the coffin at the words " dust to dust, " as was the custom, the bystanders would throw in the dirt until old Michael would say: " Dis will do, shentlemens," after which the people would depart and he would remain to complete the work. Nearly a half century of the history of the times is in the story of Old Michael here, with his many offices, cares and responsibilities. The man always lived alone, having a room fitted up in the store house of E. P. Darling. His death came of a fall down the stairs which reached his bedroom ; his body laid away in the old bury- ing ground on Market street and the bell which he had tolled so often for others now mournfully pealed the knell for him. In conclusion the gentleman said: " I do not remember that any stone marked his resting place, and I have often wondered whether anyone now living could tell where his remains rest." Heat another time expressed a desire to contribute something to the erection of a suita- ble stone over the dust of " Old Michael." The publication of these reminiscences brought by return mail a letter from a gentleman of Wyalusing, signed " G. H. W." who heartily endorsed the idea of a suitable memorial stone over "Old Michael'' and said he was desirous to con- tribute thereto. He then relates one of his recollections: "About 1832 there lived in Wilkes-Barre poor ' Jim Gridley,' whom the boys used to delight in teasing when on his sprees. I was attracted to the intersection of Market and Franklin streets on one of these occasions in which I participated as an outsider and onlooker. I was perhaps riot as much on my guard as the more active ones, and Old Michael caught and dosed me with a prescription, ' when taken to be well shaken ' and the medicine was effective. I never assisted even theoretically in another 'mill ' of a drunkard." This brief outline tells more of the times and customs of the people really than it does of "Old Michael." How this quaint character lived and moved, the dread and admiration of mischievous children; so severe in his whims that grown people never crossed them — the dear old sexton, who in addition to taking care of the whole town, the boys, the pigs and cows, the church and bell, his various official duties and a constant watch upon all and over everything, also found time from his ' housekeeping to cultivate his garden down on the river's bank and raise a great variety of flowers where marriages and funerals were furnished free of costs. The larger portion of this man's labors were gratuitous; his earnings came mostly in dimes and pennies, and outside of his garden the simplicity of his living required but small outlay and he therefore gave away the major part of his wealth, being happy 70 HISTORY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. in making the chiHren happy — in doing always something to make everyone more comfortable. The difE -trance in the people then and now is expressed in the fact that " Old Michael" would be an impossible character to-day; he was a natural product then, when people took time to live, while now they are in such a strain to die of dyspepsia or get a permit to go to the madhouse, grab the earth or burn the candle at both ends, that we miss much of real life and fun. The log rollings, apple pear- ings, house raisings and in a great frolic harvesting some sick neighbor's or widow's crops were here before these "sports" of the prize ring, base-ball and foot-ball matches; the good old country singing school before the modern opera; young men preparing to* go a courting used perhaps more bear's oil then than now; the young ladies used more thorns for pins than diamonds, and the most aristocratic made music on the spinning wheels, the distaffs and the looms, and but rarely indulged in sea-side visits, but rather repaired with the soiled clothes on their heads to the spring or stream and with strong, red arms paddled the life out of the dirt, with the aid of old-fashioned soft soap. Tne beaux would esteem it the rarest favor to be allowed to help here and wring out the heavy garments or quilts, and while the work went on, there was many a bargain made for a long and happy future life. They worked and laughed and danced their hearty, innocent young lives away and took their places as the "old folks," whose privilege it was to eat at the first table. All worked hard and none read the daily papers. There were no daily papers and heaven knows there was before those people an appalling amount of work. These great forests were to be cut and carried away to the factory; the impassable wilderness to be reclaimed and made gardens and fields; bridges, roads, canals, steamboats, railroads, telegraphs, houses, farms, school- houses, churches, public buildings, barns, fences, everything now here in place of the solitude and savagery were awaiting the magic touch of frugal industry. We, their favored posterity, were demanding all this of their labors and it was given and never a murmur of disquiet escaped them. They had no time to be fashionable, but all time to be laborious and earnest. Fate cast their lot an unhappy, or at least a hard one, we now may well conclude. But altogether it was not wretched. They had their amusements and pastimes. Great hunts were then great events. A wide region of country would be surrounded and at a signal all moved toward the center, and the climax would be an exhilaration that we can not now understand. Along the smaller streams, some of them, were numerous rattlesnakes, and many were the hunting parties, the crowd divided, with captains, and at night they were counted and the victors had earned the spoils. A log rolling had its accompani- ment of a quilting — the men all day in the timber, the women at the house quilt- ing; at night the supper table cleared away and "Oh sister Phoebe, how happy were we," or a dance after the one eyed fiddler, who kept time by patting his foot. . Terpsichore! what dancing — the real walk-talk-ginger-blue, the hoe-down, juba; girls and boys racing over the puncheon floor, or better on the bare ground, all hearts full of innocent mirth and all the next day their legs equally full of soreness and pain. All people went to church then of a Sunday at least. The young men mounted on burry colts; the original "dude" had store trousers, strapped under his high-heeled boots, a belt instead of suspenders, his hair greased and curled under behind, and then, if possible, a quilted saddle and he was sublime, receiving most of the sly glances of giggling girls — a very Bean Brummell. Prob- ably he worked for some farmer at the gold-blinding rate of |7 per month, but he disdained anything but " bouten " tobacco. The young man in time became the noted possessor of a four-bladed store knife, that had a German silver heart on the handle. He showed it to the yirl he was courting, loaned it to 'her to keep a week for him. and when he went for it, she said "yes" without any further hesita- tion. They were happily married and the erstwhile " dude " was soon equally happy in playing " Jumbo " for the grandchildren on the green as formerly he had been as master of ceremonies at the old-time hoedown. HISTOEY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 71 They originally built their churches with no provisions for warming. There was a prevalent idea that sound religion did not accord with comfort. In the severest weather the grandmothers (often going many miles in the cart), would have their foot stoves. But the men and younger people disdained any such superfluities. The preacher was great and good measured by his endurance and powers of lungs. Preaching commenced rather early in the day — a short nooning, and at it again till nearly sundown. The text was read and re-read and every youngster was expected to be able ever after to repeat it, and the most of them could, months after, give the heads of the sermon — discourses that had dragged through hours and hours. A preacher was before the synod on trial for doctrines preached eight months before in a certain sermon. Numbers of men who had heard the sermon were wit- nesses and the exactness with which, after all that time, they could repeat the heads of the discourse, running way into the ' ' seventeenthly ' ' was one of the most remarkable feats of memory the writer can recall. When they had neither church, preacher nor school, the whole people were far more intensely religious than anything we have now. There was but little wealth and no paupers; no asylums and no insane; no penitentiaries, and it was some time before the earliest law-breakers came, who were known as counterfeiters. The only rich men were those who had bought at nominal prices large tracts of wild lands, and these were jaostly land poor. There was one feature of strange contrast of then and now. Those people were beginning at the bottom round to climb the long, steep ladder. They had all to build or make farms, houses, roads, bridges, schools, churches, public buildings, everything. The entire possessions were meager and values very low and cash almost none. They created and built everything, and the curious history is that the rate of taxes from that time to the present hour have reg- ularly gone higher and higher. And it is not a true explanation of this to say that we must have more now than they had to have then, and hence the increased tax. While we need more revenue, yet these needs have not grown with the marvelous increase of wealth. If the rate of taxes is greater with all public improvements made and paid for, and the increase of wealth is only in even proportion to the increase of needs for public use, then there is the fact that with all to make, such was their superior justice and economy that they could manage public affairs better than we can. The proportions have not been preserved, and whether this is all for the better or worse each one must determine for himself. Another very marked feature between then and now is the different environment of the young men, or the average business men. The young man now would hear of the great-grandfather when starting in life shouldering his axe, and, with a mea- ger supply of food, start for the forests to chop out the foundation of his future fortune, with much commiseration for that old-time young man, and a corresponding self- felicitation on his better lot and more fortunate time. But the fact remains that the proportion of young men of the old time who were successful in the race for wealth was then far greater than now. Any bright, resolute young man could then engage in business successfully without much capital and strong backers. Some of the greatest merchants of the past generation commenced with a meager pedlar's pack. A western cattle king commenced by investing his first |4 in a calf. Commodore Vanderbilt made his first money by ferrying a man across the river in a skifF — 50 cents. A hundred dollars would at one time start a country store that in a few years would be the leading mercantile establishment of the county. Intel- ligence, energy and economy were the capital then required — the whole world lay before all, equally inviting. Now we have the conflict of large capital and small capital — a war unto destruction, and the penniless young man, instead of starting in business on his own account, must accept employment, enter a field already becoming crowded, and it is the exception, daily growing rarer, where he can reverse, and become employer instead of employe. We older men can not realize how rap- 72 HISTOEY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. idly this change has come. The elderly rich man of to-day will scornfully preach his sermon to the young man who wants aid, and again tell over the story of how he commenced life with his bare hands as his only fortune. He imagines the identical conditions obtain now. Twenty years have marked an era in financial affairs at least. Capital is being gathered into vast aggregations, and its almost limitless power is used to crush out small operatives. This tends to destroy competition, and the con- flict of large capital against small extends its baleful influence until the entire com- munity becomes involved. People naturally welcome the company or man of large capital, and every door of welcome is thrown wide open to him. Each can see that, in one sense, his coming will better their aflFairs, and general improvements, proba- bly. The young man who comes into the village seeking employment is generally met with a polite request for a reference as to board bill. Cities pass a fire-limit ordinance, and the beginner without capital must then rent of the man able to biiild brick houses. The great merchant, one whose annual business is counted by the millions, can crush the small dealers, and has driven them out of trade in our cities, and you will find the former small trader now clerking in the great stores. Often the best brains in the community are hired — in fact, intellect is cheaper than gold. There is much competition among men of small capital ; there is none where the man or company has one hundred millions behind as backing. Thus, in one view, the community is helped by vast aggregations of capital; in other j-espects, in the long run, there may come corresponding evils. "All is not gold that glitters." The resettlement of Luzerne county, after the Revolution, while it brought back many of the first settlers, brought many more new ones. The new country, with blessed peace after nearly a quarter of a century of war, massacres, alarms and sav- age marauds, was an inviting field to the immigrant, and, like the rural justice's parties to the suit, as he noted in his transcript, they came "on foot and on horse- back." Some scattered ashes marked the spot where many rebuilt and commenced the wilderness life anew, and the old woods began to melt away before the swinging axes of these brave and hardy men. The supreme quality of the roughest of these men was a strong love of liberty and plenty of " sea room," and then boldly face the storm. The nearest neighbors often lived fifteen or twenty miles away ; bears and panthers were far more numerous than people. The men learned to hunt, and the old match-lock guns were their family meat-providers. Before flax and wool the thistle and the hides of animals were their resources for clothing. Had this been a tropical climate apparent necessity would have adopted the scant suits of the Sand- wich Islanders. A severe climate and the heavy growths covering the land fixed conditions here calling forth man's superb energies to the full; in turn, these were developing robust and the hardiest of men; stirred their energies and whetted their senses to keenest edge. All of which simply demonstrates the philosophy that man is ever seeking the easiest avenues in which to gratify his desires. If food and clothing of the best grew upon the trees the direct rays of the sun would warm and dry out the rain-soaked man; then men's energies would cease to act and physical degeneracy and mental petrifaction would soon follow. The pitiless storms, the pangs of hunger and the pinch of cold that moves the lazy animal, man, and he rises up, the all-conquering hero. The horrid severities man often subjects himself to (developing, also,) are the gloomiest of stories. An old church record " on the Susquehanna" bears these entries, copied verbatim: "At a meeting Brother exhibited his confession that he did passionately strike three of his neighbors," and in grievous repentance he was " disciplined. " Then follows: "Sister ^ was put on her trial for the sins of prevarication, falsehood and other unchristian con- duct." It was proved that she had spitefully said another sister had " painted with poke berries." Another sister had exhibited in open meeting her confession: " I believe the Sabbath to be holy, and do confess that I traveled on that holy day under peculiar circumstances." On another page is the following, that tells its own HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 73 story : " Oa the first Sabbath in February the sacrament * * * ^as adminis- tered to Sister Experience at her own house, on account of her being sick, after which the members present individually took her by the hand and bid her an affec- tionate farewell, not expecting to meet her in this world again, but hoping to meet her in another, to .serve God without alloy." The proceedings after the return to the church conclude as follows: "After some conversation in experimental religion, and confessions of stupidity and indifference, asked each other's forgiveness." Away back in the days when on every farm was a distillery a preacher was brought before the synod, charged with being, on a certain occasion "very drunk." According to the evidence he had drank the jug nearly empty while bringing it from the distillery, and the weather was very cold. All the witnesses agreed that he acted, looked and smelt like a man very drunk. The verdict of the court was: " There being nothing in the evidence to show that it might have been caused by going suddenly from the cold outside to the fire inside that caused the liquor to thus affect the man, therefore, not guilty." The next year the same man was again before the synod, charged with "irreverently whistling on the holy Sabbath." After a long, patient and fair trial, he was found guilty and silenced. These are literal cases from the records. They were an earnest, religious and severe people, inviting, each upon himself, the penalties that he would administer to others. While these old pioneer fathers were rigid and strong in every article of political faith, they wer« equally if not more severe in matters of religion. In politics they quarreled fiercely about war measuers, the proper defence of the flag, the building of domestic manufactories and like propositions, but in matters of religion they were unanimous in the deepest-seated faith, the very savagery of dogmas and the pitiless extirpation of heresy, they were agreed, however radically they might differ on points of doxy. Sternly, and even severely religious were these American pioneers; the representatives of the church militant, glorying in self-inflicted pen- ances, and with the sword of Gideon smiting sin hip and thigh; rare bundles of inconsistency, full of fight and religion; shoulder to shoulder, battling with an invading army; two souls as one in hating England or fighting Satan and his imps, yet always ready in the fiercest of the struggle even to turn and rend each other on the flimsiest questions of polemics. So full of the spirit of dissent were they that the laymen were ever ready to quarrel with the shepherds, and, without a qualm of conscience, they split, divided and subdivided their church organizations. Sermons were their literature, their daily papers and mental pabulum. They were long and to us would be dreary, but they came to them, no doubt, as thoughts that breathe and words that burn. The following is some of the peroration of an old-time sermon by one of the great men of his time: " How long, O inhabitants of the earth ! will you suffer yourselves to be deceived by false teachers, delusive spirits and doctrines of devils ?' ' Then follows a number of " How longs," concluding with, "How long will you catch at perishable things, outward ordinances or water baptism ? when you are commanded not to touch, taste or handle those things that perish with the using, after the doctrines and command- ments of men! * * * Why follow phantoms that can not save you at the hour of death? — take nothing with you that you can not carry into the gates of heaven: Can you carry water there ? No! my friends." There is food for reflection in this ancient sermon. It was the earnest words of a very earnest man, addressed to a people in active accord with the speaker. It is a marked characteristic of the times and the people, and yet how can we reconcile the fact that only a few years before this preacher preached. Goldsmith had evolved from his brain that lovable character, the immortal " Vicar of Wakefield " — the ideal of a preacher and his family and their simple daily home-life, as drawn from the fancy of the strolling musician, who played his flute through Europe, to the servant girls and the stable boys, for a chance crust of bread. The demands of mankind called 74 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. forth the eermon of the living preacher; the divine genius of Goldsmith impulsively warbled as the birds of the wilderness carol to the skies. To-day this good man and his sermon on baptism would, in one of our very fashionable city churches, be laughed at; but you must not imagine that therefore Goldsmith would, on the other hand, be lifted up and lionized by all people. On Broadway, he would be much the poor, wretched outcast he was one hundred years ago in the streets of London — just as likely to freeze and starve in a garret to-day as he did then; but the preacher and his great sermon would be haughtily directed by the bishop's butler to apply at the " little church around the corner." With the close of the eighteenth century there were permanent settlers here, and they had reached a time when men began to draw away from that intense age of religious fanaticism, that wild craze on the subject that had whelmed the civilized world in the five hundred years of the Dark Ages, and were inclined to mix in their thoughts and purposes some of the more practical affairs of life. They were rapidly extending the view of life, and the beliefs in supernatural powers in the most trivial affairs among men were loosening their long clutch of men's minds. The representatives of the church, while they had lost none of men's devotional respect for the cloth, for the sacred office they exercised, yet their power in the family circle and in the State, and in the material concerns of the individual were slowly waning. The influence of the churchmen was thereby signally bettered. A century preceding, the church had ruled the State and unfortunately wielded the gleaming sword, and interminable religious wars had blasted the bloom of earth, and the most horrid persecutions had filled the air with the wails of the dying, inno- cent victims. Prom these cruel ages the world was slowly emerging, but resist- lessly, because slowly, like the rise of the continents from the great ocean's depths, men were tasting the right of self-government; feeling the power and the good of regulating their own private and social affairs, and happily the sunshine and sweet- ness of advancing civilization was vexing the earth with its multitudinous sprouting. The unhappy spirit of persecution for opinion's sake was slowly fading away, and peace and blessed liberty began to streak the eastern sky; the jocund day kissing the mountain tops, foretelling the noontide flooding the deep valleys with efful- gence. Adjusting the prophecies was in the early part of this century the serious work of many of the world's holy seers; these cabalistic interpreters were a very impor- tant feature of the times, and they burned the midnight oil, and the press teemed with their books for all men to read. For many years these things raged with the utmost activity, like everything of the kind in answer to a popular demand. The obscure parts of the books of Daniel and the Eevelations of John were the fruitful sources of supply for the remarkable output of the press of that day These ranged in all degrees, from the most learned and solemn to the seriocomic, but all intended to show that the great oracles of the church were still abroad in the land- their erudition was astounding, their secular flavoring overpowering, and their demonstrations startling, ludicrous and, at times, whimsical. A man named Kett wrote and published a book entitled. History the Best Interpreter of Prophecu, and he seriously demonstrates "the man of sin" is at once "both the Papal power and the French infidelity;" that the "little horn of Daniel's fourth beast" designates Mohammedanism, Popery and French infidelity the beast of the bottomless pit which slays the two witnesses spoken of in the eleventh chapter of Eevelations typifies the same infidel power; that Daniel's little horn of the goat and of his third beast the Leopard symbolize Mohammed and the French mfidehty; that the second beast of St. John, which is to arise out of the earth and "the images to which he is to give life" are "infidelity and democracy;" that the two horns of the beast are "the German illumiuati and French pseudo philoso- phers; that the particular democratic tyranny, symbolized by the image of the ^^^^^ yA , t7^ C^^ HI8T0EY OP LUZEKNE COUNTY. ' 77 beast, is the revolutionary republic of Prance and that the mark of the beast is the tri-colored cockade. A contemporary of Kett's was one who called himself Galloway. This oracle read that the earth out of which John's second beast arose was France; the beast himself the French republic — his head the legislature; his two horns the committee of safety, and the lire he was to call down was the wrath of God; his marvelous per- formances were the French victories; the image he was to setup, the prostitute goddess of reason and liberty; his mark the cap of liberty and the cockade; that his number latinized is 666, the name of the monarch Louis XVI. The aggressive pioneers pressed the Indians that skirted along the Atlantic shore back toward the Alleghanies, and then across the mountains and on to the Missis- sippi river, and across that and then to the Eocky mountains, and eventually across these snow-clad ranges and down the slope and finally to the Pacific ocean. Nearly 300 years were consumed in these long and often bloody journeyings of the two peoples so distinct in color and instincts. They were antagonistic races that could not well exist together. The Indian's supreme impuise was that of absolute freedom — liberty in its fullest extent, where there was no law other than that of physical strength and courage; might was right, and from that the weak had no appeal save that of the stoic's divine right to death. The Indian's death song was therefore a part of his deep-seated philosophy, and whether cooped up on the tall cliff — Starved Rock — and slowly starved to death in famine or slain in battle, or dying of disease, his last and supreme act was to chant his weird death-song. Death then was not his one dreaded, invisible foe. When he could fight and kill no more, then it was his friend — the angel with outstretched wings in his extremity, tenderly carrying him away from his enemy and his pain. His ideal was that animal life typified in the screaming eagle of the crags or the spring of the striped tiger, whose soft foot had carried it in reach of its unsuspecting prey. The rugged and weather-beaten pioneer, he or his ancestors had fled from tyranny and religious persecutions, severely austere toward his own real or imaginary faults, welcoming any infliction that would only purify, as by fire, his soul, and fleeing from the persecutor of the body, he erected his altars to a god that was simply inappeas- able, not only for his own sins, but for the yielding to temptation of the first mother of the human race, and this he unfalteringly believed "brought death into the world and all our woe." This creature of curious contradictions, while over-exacting toward himself, and welcoming any and all self-inflicted stripes, slept on his arms for anything mortal that dared to threaten or trespass on his religious rights, or beliefs — yielding all to his God, he would yield nothing to anyone or anything else. He would put a padlock on his mouth, that it might not speak evil, and his very thoughts in the stocks, that he might not think evil — silence and dreams of the glories of heaven alternating with the groans and outcries of the damned, and eyes closed to all earthly things, he even tried to control the strong impulses of his heart in its love for wife or children in the fear that God would be jealous and might blast forever his soul with a frown. And from the depths of his troubled life he would cry out that he could do nothing to please God— that he was utterly unworthy and totally wicked; that his whole inheritance through a thousand ancestors was sin, and it would be but a supreme mercy in his Maker to cast him out forever. He invented his own penance, inflicted his own judgments, clothed himself in sackcloth and ashes, and finally consigned himself as the only mercy he deserved as he believed — the endless tortures of hell. This was the fugitive, the waif cast upon the troubled waters, that came from the old to the new°in the hunt of religious liberty and a home. Unkempt and unwashed, rough and storm-beaten, with long, bushy hair, and in his leather jerkin this apparition stood before the savages of the valley of the Susquehanna, rifle in hand, one foot thrown forward, braced, erect, his keen eye directed straight into the s 78 * HISTORY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. wild man's soul; there he had put his heavy foot down, and the quick instinct of the savage told him never to take it up again. The wild man struck like the coiled snake; the crack of the white man's rifle echoed through the old forest trees, and stilled the serpent's rattle forever. The first habitation was an open-faced brush house, if such a thing can be called a house at all. It was between two trees standing close together — a pole across, and leaned against this was brush, bramble and leaves piled on; two wings projected from the ends similarly constructed, and the whole front open, and here was the camp-fire. The furniture was a pile of dry leaves on one side of this brush dwelling. This was rather a poor protection, yet there was a time when it has been all some of the earliest pioneers had during their first long winter in the remote wilderness. They possibly had simply wintered there intending to resume their journey when warm weather came. Sometimes they thus camped, waiting the fall of the high waters in the stream. These advance couriers of civilization were encumbered with no camp equipage; the old heavy rifle, and the hunting knife, and the few leather clothes they wore were all thjpy had. Then, too, they may have reached the one spot in the wilderness they had traveled so far to find. Just there a stream or a spring of sweet water, the giant trees extending their strong protecting arms, and the abundant evidences of game on every hand may have been the determining cause, or, as was often the case, living away back in Massachusetts or Connecticut, the young man had met some hunter and trapper, and had made eager inquiries as to where he could find the best place in the new country, and the hunter had mapped out to his mind the long way to that particular spot. How he would pursue a certain course, guided by the sun and the north star, or the moss on the trees, and just where he would cross certain rivers and streams, and follow these to such a point, then deflect to the right or left and strike a certain mountain range, and after a while in the blue distance a point of timber, and from that another point, and then for days and days and another stream and follow up that to where a creek or arm emptied into it, thence up that stream, and then on and on and a spring would be reached — a natural camping place and perhaps the end of the long journey, and to day his grandchildren bora on the old farm where he first stopped and put up his brush house may not know or be able to find the spring that was his objective point when he so bravely started from his old pioneer father's home in the east. The brush covering protected him somewhat from the inclement elements, the fire in front served a double purpose — it warmed and dried him when wet or cold and kept away the fierce wild animals that otherwise would have attacked and devoured him. If during the night it burned low, the screams of the panther or the howls of the close-coming wolves would admonish him to throw a few sticks on the fire, or sometimes amuse himself by firing at the eyes of the beast that was so near him that its gleaming eyeballs would make an excellent target. The first months of this man's life in the wilderness were spent in the most primitive manner. He procured his food by his rifle, supplemented with the natural fruits and berries of the woods, learning to eat many of the roots he could dig. He neighbored much with the Indians, and often got of them some of their coarse materials for making bread. The one chief deprivation, both to him and the Indians, was the want of salt. This no doubt was the one luxury of which he would often dream that he had left behind him when he ventured out from civilization. Early in the spring he was hunting in the woods for the wild onions that are among the first to push their green stems above the soil, and in the wild sheep-sorrel he found the delicious acid that his system so much needed, then the May-apples, and then the berries, the pawpaws, the nuts and wild grapes, the buds, the bark of certain trees, and at a certain time in spring the tap-root of the young hickory, were all in their- turn within his reach, and were utilized. This was the first little wave, the immediate forerunner of the round log cabin. HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 79 He had soon learned many of the Indian ways, and their expedients in emergencies. He was a demonstration of the fact that a civilized man will learn to be a wild man in less than a fiftieth of the time it will take to teach a savage to become civilized or to like any of the ways and habits of civilized life. Had he forgotten to think in this lonely, silent life? He would visit his distant neighbors in their wigwams, approaching as quietly as they, enter with a grunt, seat himself, light his pipe, and all would sit and smoke in silence. An occasional grunt or a nod of the head and never a smile, this had come to be his idea of enjoyment in social life too. He learned to go to the deer licks, as had the Indians, for other purposes as well as those of finding the deer there and shooting them. He had learned to find certain clays that the savages ate. He soon knew as much of wild woods life as did the natives. One day, late in the spring, while hunting, he met an Indian, who startled him with the news that a pale-faced neighbor had come and actually had settled as near as fifteen miles up the creek. This was the moat astounding news he had ever heard. Only fifteen miles— why, this is settling right in my door-yard, and not so much as even saying, by your leave! Can it be possible? I can't stand too much crowding. He quits 'the chase, and returns straight to his cabin, cooks and eats his supper, and sits on his log and smokes and thinks, yes, actually thinks, till his head fairly swims over the day's news. He goes to bed and sleeps and dreams, and millions of people are pouring into his cabin, and behind them still comes the eternal stream of humanity, laughing, crying, shouting, struggling, and the great wave is upon him and he is being smothered, when, with a mighty effort, he wakes, and the owls are hooting from the tree-tops, and the wolves are howling beyond his cabin their loud lullabies. And he is thankful it is but a dream, but he again thinks over the news, and finally determines on the morning he will go and visit his near neighbor and make his acquaintance, and turns over on his dry leaves and is once more sound asleep. He pays the visit the next day, and his sudden and strange appearance is nearly as great a surprise to the newcomers as was the news to him the day before. He finds the man busy chopping, and for the last mile had been guided by the ring of the axe, and seated on the log, they tell each other the latest news from the settle- ments and from the wigwam villages. The new neighbor tells him that he and wife had come on foot from Vermont, and had arrived some weeks ago, and did not know that they had a white neighbor within a hundred miles. He described how he had carried the rifle, the axe and the few little things they had brought, and his wife carried the hoe, the only farming implement they had, and hung on the hoe over her shoulder was the small bundle of her earthly possessions; that they had heard of the rich country in the Susquehanna valley, and had got married and started for the good country, where they could make their home and their farm, and in time hoped to have a plenty; they had planted the two or three potatoes, the half dozen pumpkin seeds and the few hills of corn, and the first year hoped to raise some seed. The gun, the axe, an auger and the hoe were their marriage dower with which to start life. They had brought a few trinkets, and on their way had exchanged these for some skins and furs, that were so necessary. The man and wife had put up the round -log (or pole) cabin, and covered it with bark. It had simply a door for entrance, and a stick- and-mud chimney — no floor, except as nature had made, but here and there was laid a dried skin, and in one corner the man had made a one-legged bedstead, and crossed this with raw-hide whangs to support the bed- ding of skins. It is made by making the one leg, and then in the corner of the room you bore a hole in each wall ; one of these holes receives the side rail from the post, and the other receives the end rail from the same post. The two walls of the building form the other side and end of the bed, and there you have it — flt for a king! if the mind is content. Upon these primitive beds of our fathers has come as 80 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. sweet repose as ever found its way within palace walls, and on the great mahogany teester bedsteads draped in silks and satins and the costliest of laces. The small "clearing and girdling" was planted by the wife mostly, while the man felled trees, chopped logs and gathered and burned the fallen timber. The wife worked with the heavy hoe, and the man with the axe and gun. The few seeds they planted grew at a remarkable rate, and now they had in store a little bread, a few vegetables and abundance of meat. His gun and traps had brought them meat and fur and feathers, and honey they had found in abundance in the forests. Before the year had expired they made a raft, and loaded it with their stores, and went to the trading post, and exchanged honey, furs and pelts for such manufact- ured articles as they needed, and ammunition and salt. They had enough to buy a pony of the Indians, and by the second year were farming in great content. But a few years have passed, and the land begins to be dotted with log cabins. Tbat is, every few miles on the way could be seen in the distance the blue curling smoke lazily ascending from these outside, low, mud-and-stick chimneys. This, now, is the glorious log-cabin day and age. Let us examine one, and if we can, secure the shadow ere the substance has gone forever. As you approach you are impressed with the squat and heavy, solid appearance of the building. The roof is of split clapboards, weighted with heavy poles. There is not so much iron as a nail in all the building. The batten door is made of the same kind of boards, and swings on wooden hinges, and has a wooden latch, to which is attached a leather string that passes up and through a small hole to the outside. To pull this string is to raise the latch, and permit the door to open. To lock the door it is only necessary to pall the string inside, and then no one on the outside can open it. Hence, there is much friendly significance when one says to the other, " My latch string always hangs out for you." You will notice as you approach that to your right, and near the end of the cabin, but some feet in front of a line with the front of the house, is a very small cabin, a kind of baby to the main building. This is the meat house. The ford of the manor is evidently a little proud of this larder, and hence it sets a little in front of the line of the dwelling. It bespeaks for him a good provider, "and juicy hams and red gravy" galore. Farther off there you see the stables covered with straw, and the stacks of grain and hay, and over there, in a long rack made of rails crossed over a pole about two feet high, filled with straw, and about the premises are cows and calves, and horses, with long hair and bushy manes and tails, and razor-back hogs, the largest parts apparently the head, from their long snouts. On every hand there are evidences of plenty and content. Pull the latch and walk in, where a hearty and cheery welcome will greet you, even the long-haired curs will " bay you a deep-mouthed welcome," that wilt be stopped only by the authoritative voice of the master. The wide blazing fire, extending nearly across the whole end of the house, adds to the brightness, and the iron lard lamp, with a rag for a wick, the recent great improve- ment on the scraped turnip that did duty as a lamp, you hardly notice as it burns away stuck in a crack in one of the logs. The good wife, and the strong and red- cheeked girls are preparing the evening meal. The spare ribs hanging in front of the fire are turned frequently, and their odors at once whet your already keen appetite. The bread is in the oven, and on this is a lid with the edges curled up to hold the heaps of coal that are on the top, while there are still more under the oven. An iron pot is hanging by the crane, and is boiling furiously. While these preparations are going on, take an inventory of the room. You are in one of the two split-bottom chairs. The old chest can hold, or be seats for three or four of the family; then there are two or three three-legged stools. Then there is a bench made of a split log. with legs to it, that is, seats all along one side of the table, but is moved around at pleasure. Over there is " granny" with her " specs," the brass rims nearly worn out,, and all looking as old as she does, except the new yarn HISTOEI OF LXJZEKNE COUNTY. 81 string that holds them in place. That is her comer, on her low stool, where for years and years she has knit and knit and knit, never stopping, even when she told of when she was a little girl, and often lived in the fort when the Indians would go marauding over the land. At the other end of the 14x20 room are two beds standing end to end, with barely room for a person to squeeze between them. On these are such fat high feather beds, and over these such gay -figured red and white woolen coverlets. These were woven away back in the old settlements. Such gorgeous colors, sometimes eagles with outstretched wings, or horses and dogs or buffaloes, and even in a square in one corner were elaborate attempts at letters; but which, as you never could see exactly right side up, you could never read. A gay calico " valance " hung round the legs of the bedstead, and you know that these hide under each big bed a trundle-bed. You see this was the original folding bed, and from this, at one time universal part of the furniture of the cabin, came that barbarous expression from some sour old bachelor about " trundle-bed trash." Opposite the door, which stood epen nearly the year round except at night, is the window, the half of two of the logs cut away, making a hole a little over a foot wide and two feet long, and the light comes through greased paper that covers the opening. The floor was of puncheon — split logs ; the face dressed down nicely with an axe, and the edges tolerably straight, but cracks frequent. On the walls hung strings of sage, onion tops and a beautiful wreath of red pepper. Some loose boards were laid on the cross-beams, and the stairway were cleats fastened to the wall. This was the girls' boudoir, and from the rafters hung dresses and female clothing, and in one corner close to the roof were the shoes that were only worn on Sundays when going to meeting. The ingenuity and taste of the girls had secured a barrel, and over this was spread a pictorial Brother Jonathan, that had in some way come to the family long ago. This was their dressing-case, and on the barrel were combs, ribbons and trinkets, and a 4x5 framed mirror hung gracefully above the dressing case against the wall. But, leaving the privacy of the girls' room we go below again, and soon we discover that we had overlooked some of the most interesting things in the living room. In the wooden racks over the door were the two guns of the family, and hanging from either end of these racks the pouch made of spotted fawn skins, and the large powder horns with the flat end, wooden pegs in the small end that the hunter always pulled out with his teeth when he would pour out the powder in loading. The women were as proud of their household utensils as the men of their new buckskin hunting shirts or their guns, and chief among these was the cedar " pigeon." This was a bright red, medium-sized bucket, with one of the staves long and formed into a handle. The broom stood handy just outside. This was made of a young hickory split up into small strips and turned over gracefully and tied in a wisp. For many years after we had the modern brooms these were still to be seen in every house, and were the scrub broom. But supper is now ready and steaming hot, the dishes are sending out great volumes of appetizing odors, and you and the men and boys are all seated around the bountiful board. The women and children wait for the second table. How can you wait in patience while the good man invokes heaven's blessing upon what he is pleased to call the Lord's attention to this ' ' frugal fare." He likes that phrase, and his boys often think that to get to say it is sometimes the chief impulse to the cere- mony. "When the good man addresses his Maker, he changes his language ma- terially from every day use, somewhat as he does his clothes when he goes to church. For instance, he emphasizes distinctly all the ed's, saying bless-ed, instead of, as commonly, "blest." The blessing over: "Now help yourself," is all the ceremony, and all that you feel you need. The broiled venison steaks, the well browned spare ribs, the "crack- lin' " corn bread, the luscious honey piled in layers, and the cold sweet milk and the hot roasted sweet potatoes, with appetites all around the board to match this feast 82 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. fit for the gods. You eventually quit eating for two good reasons : Your storing capacity is about exhausted, and then you notice such a hungry, eager expression in the faces of the children who are standing around and furtively watching the food on the table, and no doubt wondering if you will ever get through. Sach one, when he finishes his meal, without ceremony gets up, and as no change of dishes is thought of, the particular youngster who is to eat after that particular person is quickly in the place, and proceeds to stay his appetite. This arrangement is one of the children's, and no doubt often saves serious scrambling for places. The supper over, the pipes are tilled, and the women have so quietly whisked things away and cleared the table — how they did it and where they put them you can not for your life tell; yet they are gone, and the day's working and eating are over, and in a few minutes the trundle-beds will be pulled out, and the children at the head and at the foot will fill them, something after the fashion of a sardine box; let us bid these good people good-bye. The Improved Log Cabin. — ^Nothing more distinctly marked the advance of the settlement of the country than the change in the architecture of the log cabin. I have tried to describe the open-faced brush and the round log cabins that were so distinctly the first era. In a few years if you go back to see your friend, as you are very apt to do, as you will remember that supper a long time, you will find a two-story hewed-log house, the cracks between the logs "chinked and pointed " with clean white lime mortar, and it may be the walls inside and out are heavily white- washed. It may be covered with shingles even, and glass windows with 6x8 glass put in with putty. Hard oak planks, mayhap cut with the whip-saw, are on the floors above and below. An outside rock chimney towers above either end of the building. A shed-roofed kitchen, which is also the dining-room, is along the whole length of the main building. A leaning ladder of easy ascent takes you "up stairs" which is one big room, while ihe lower part of the main building is divided by a partition. The upper floor is the sleeping-room of the boys and the "hands," while the room partitioned off is the girls' room, and which they consider the parlor as well as the bed-room. The old folks have their very tall feather bed in the main or living room, but under it is the trundle bed, as there is probably another under every bed in the house, and although the number of beds has greatly increased, if there is company to stay all night, this will necessitate "pallets" on the floor. There is still the great wide fireplace, and the cheerful open fire, and if it is winter, every evening just before dark a new back log is rolled in with handspikes and into its place, and a " forestick " quite as large as one man can handle is placed on the short, heavy dog-irons. But a second and smaller back log is on top of the main one, and then the great yavi/ning fireplace is soon full of the bright blazing fire. A hanging crane is here as well as in the kitchen fireplace. In the same yard is still the old round -log cabin where the family lived before the new house was built. This is now the loom-house. It is also lumbered up with barrels and boxes and piles of truck and hoes, tools, and probably there is still a bed in it. The people are now wearing home-made clothing, and here the girls deftly weave those bright linseys with their bright red, white and black stripes. On the outer wall of the loom-house are now stretched the coon and possum skins, and the roof is used to dry apples and peaches in the fall of the year, and in this lumber house, tied in sacks and hanging from the cross beams were the garden seeds, the bunches of sage, boneset, onion tops and the dried pumpkin on poles, on which were placed the rings as thickly as possible. The barrel of kraut with its heavy weights on it in one corner of the kitchen, and by the side of the fireplace the huge dye pot and on this a wooden cover, and this was often worn smooth, being a handy seat lay the fire. Even stories were told, that seated on this there had been much sparking ' done before the older girls were all married off. When a young man visited a girl, or for that matter a widower or bachelor paid any marked atten- tion, it was universally called " sparkin'." HISTORY OF LUZEBNE COUNTY. 83 This hewed-log house was neatly weatherboarded, painted and had a neat brick chimney, and you could not very readily tell it from a frame house. Here children were born, grew to maturity, married and commenced life nearly in their one-room log cabin, which more rapidly gave way to the nice frame or even the great brick mansion, with the ornaments and luxuries of modern life. Where now may be seen buildings of granite, marble and iron that gleam in the morning sun in blinding splendor that have cost hundreds of thousands, nay, even millions of dollars, once probably stood the round-log cabin that had been built from the standing trees about the spot by the husband, aided only by the young wife, with no other tools than the axe and the auger. These honest, patient, simpled-minded folk never bothered their heads to anticipate the regal edifices of which their humble cabin was the beginning. Their earnest and widest aspiration was merely, " be it ever so hum- ble there is no place like home." Around these wide but humble hearths they saw their children grow up to strong men and women, honest, unsophisticated, rough and bluQt in manner, but ignorant of the knowledge of the vices that so often lurk beneath the polish and splendors of older societies and superfluous wealth. Their wants few and simple, within the easy reach of every one, their ambition brought them no heart-burnings, no twinges of conscience, and none of that pitiable despair, where what we may call that higher sphere in the circles so often brings — where there are no medicines to minister to a mind diseased. A striking illustration of the prevalent credulity of the times is found in an obit- uary published in 1814, that is ornamented with an inverted rule at each end of the article. It is an account of the death of a Maj. Richard Elliott, of Ohio. Evi- dently it was not that they knew the man or had a personal interest in him, but it was the manner of the man's death that made it of such vital importance. The name of the person who gave the account is given as a voucher of its truth and cred- ibility. The substance is that on a certain Sabbath evening the man was passing along the highway, when he saw two lights in the shape of half-moons coming toward him; when the lights met him they seemed to close him in a circle about the breast, when a voice pronounced these words: " Are you prepared to die?" With- out hesitation, the man answered: "If it is God's will, I think I am.'' The lights then passed on, but turned and followed him until he came opposite the graveyard, where they made a stand; he could see them, by looking back, for half a mile. When the man arrived at home he told his wife and assured her that he had but a short time to live; he related the same to several people and announced to all that he was about to die. The lights were met on Friday evening, about 9 o'clock; on Tuesday following, the man was raving insane and in twenty-four hours died. The lugubrious story concludes with the words: "This is a simple statement of the circumstances of his sickness and death." The story is circumstantially told, and is quite ghostly. The men of that day, in their leather jerkins, and the dames at the looms and the spinning-wheels must have read and heard it with complete awe, and the children no doubt were freshly alarmed at the dark, and would shut their eyes in the fear of seeing the dreaded moon shaped lights. The poor man was simply mad — insane beyond question from the first, and then, as now, there were no certain medicaments for the mind diseased. The moon-shaped lights were but witches in another form — men were moving slowly away from the suttee of the east, or when old Clootie would daily come up through the hot crater's mouth to waylay the innocent people on the road, as he had been often caught in the act of finding a person alone, near a graveyafd, and seized him, and, despite his struggles and cries, had carried him off. and with his precious bur- den bad plunged into the vomiting volcano, on his return visit to his realms with his trophy. Men's beliefs were emerging slowly from these frightful conjurings — the travail of the dreary ages. The story of man's frightful superstitions— shadows to us, but horribly real to them — is one of the most painful chapters in human his- 84 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. tory; it had filled the world to the mountain's peaks with the deepest gloom, and in trembling and despair they literally called upon the rocks and the mountains to fall upon them and hide them forever from the face of an angry God. However, they were slowly approaching this age in the idea that the Supreme was not always so unreasonably angry with His children, and that He is all love and justice. " I thy God am a jealous God" is now more generally read "And He so loved the world, etc." The pendulum swings; it can never be at rest — the ebb and flow of the mind, as it rises, slowly and spirally, toward God's throne. The opposing theories: iuap-. peasable wrath, implacable hate or mad, convulsive, unreasoning love— the ortho- dox, with clubs and knocks, the altruist sweating blood over the innocent failings of ignorance, and offering up the great vicarious sacrifice, are but the ceaseless moan of the great ocean of men's troubled souls moving through the unending eter- nities. Possibly, here, as everywhere, when the historian comes, great enough, wise enough and fearless enough to point out the truth that ever lies in the mean of all extremes, then may mankind begin to feel and know that our civilization is safe, founded upon the rock against' which the winds and the storms may beat in vain, and foolish good men will cease to heart- bleed and wail in sadness over the crael contentions of men — over these beastly struggles to trample on each other. " All's well! " At the beginning of this century one of the sore needs of the people was wool with which to make clothing. The scarcity of this article was the mother of the idea of dressing deer-skins and making clothing. They were soon able to dress these skins, and they were soft and pliable, and the art of giving them a slight buff color was learned, and when made into trousers they resembled modern nankeen, and to this was soon added a bright color for the fringe around the deer-skin hunting shirts— these were soon worn with as much pride as a militiaman once strutted under his waving rooster feathers. " Doeskin " pants, as these leather trousers were sometimes called, were no doubt in their time quite dudish. The pioneers had their own amusements, and had more time to be amused than have our modern get-rich quick people. They had far greater wealth then than now in the way of dogs and many children; and if in the family was a rat-tailed spotted horse, the big boys of that fortunate household were not only rich, but happy. Fifteen children and forty-two grandchildren, to say nothing of the great- grandchildren, reveled in all the needed prospective wealth of the eldest male Monte Cristo, in the "old man's" long squirrel gun, and the bony, slim -tailed spotted horse, that in the course of nature would come to the expectant and hopeful heirs. It is a portentious fact that these peculiar guns and horses were far rarer in those good old times than are railroads and millionaire bondholders now; and the prospective heir was far more happy, as well he might be; and we know that great and splendid wealth is wholly in the variety of the dower, and not in any intriasic values. For instance, our modern idiots dote on diamonds and similar miserable and useless trash, all not only worthless, but worse than bubbles. Com- pare these with cur dot's, sixteen children and a rat tailed spotted horse and a flint- lock, long-barreled squirrel gun, and then please exploit yourself "a ass" in the stupid faith that the new order may smile in contemptuous pity upon the great past. Poverty then and riches now, no sir! It is base, diamond-crowned delusion now, and it was the gun and pony then — real substantial wealth versus a lunatic's dream. A glint of sunlight is worth more than all the diamonds and rubies the whole world has ever contained — and a dog, flint-lock and a calico pony, granting him a fair share of poll-evil and string halt, is a solid, intrinsic reality; a real wealth to dower fifteen towsley brats, and make them lords and ladies all. Then, too, the pioneers and their " brats" had amusements far better than any- thing we now know. Sugar making camps io the early spring, when the sweet sap from the maple flows, when the whole neighborhood would go to the woods and Y^>^'^^^ Kf/^^-^^i^'-i^ A/ HISTORY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. 87 camp and make sugar aad that dark aad delicious syrup. Why, our effete young- sters know not enough to dream in their lifeless way of real fun— life in its highest and best form. One hundred years ago the people knew how to really live— live for all that healthy, bounding life is worth. The woods were full of game and the streams of fish, and hunting, trapping and fishing commenced as soon as children could toddle, and continued with no game laws interfering, as long as old age could again toddle. The nightly concerts of the wolves and panthers would literally knock silly our make-believe tragic operas; two gew-gawed "lumaxes" singing out their mad duel, fought with paper swords, and another fellow stabbing himself with a bar of soft soap, accompanying the act with such boss bullfrog croaking as of itself ought to kill the lunatic as well as the audience. The pioneers had great hunting frolics, log rollings, and real courting that was give-and-take like the strokes from a mule's hind quarters compared to this modern dude-lolling. Our modern men hunt snakes, but the kind that is corked up in bottles, whose bite is so intoxicatmg that men seek them out and actually pay so much a nip. And other things have changed as much as ancient and modern snake hunting. One of the old time boys, so old that he remembers an incident in his life that occurred eighty years ago, relates the following: He was promised that if he would for the next month be a real good boy — that is, work to the utmost limit of endur- ance, that then he might go afoot five miles to the shop and see the man pound hot iron. His imagination was fired at the very thought — was ever a boy so rich in anticipation — a real blacksmith, and pounding hot iron and the sparks flying in every direction, and they never burned up the smithy — a sure enough king of fire — and his parents had promised him an afternoon holiday to go and see all this for him- self. Time with that boy now lingered, loitered, dawdled along the way incomparably slower than it now does with the hard-up young man who knows the "old man" has made his will, and there's millions in it for him, except the old man is awful healthy — has neither manners nor regards for his only hopeful and chip-of-the-old-block son; if the loving son only had energy enough he would poison the old duffer. But this is wandering from the boy that, if the slow-coach time ever did get around, was going to see the hot iron pounded. His mother and sisters realized that the boy must have different clothes — must be dressed well, as well as all over, to go on that great expedition; he had a pair of "doeskin" trousers and roundabout of the same, and on a pinch could wear his father's moccasins, but he,had no cap; a solemn coun- cil convened, and as a result of its deliberations a cat was killed, the skin dressed with the tail left hanging down his back for a queue. The great day did arrive and the boy went, and as good luck would have it the smithy was not too drunk to work, and his visions were more than realized. The smithy, with a tooth for enjoyment, took in the situation when the gawking boy was looking on so intently as he worked the bellows. and slyly spat on the anvil and jerked out the whit§ heated metal and struck it a tremendous blow, and the loud explosion nearly frightened the lad to death, and he confesses that he was a married man and had children before he had any other thought but that the anvil, the hammer and the smithy had al,! exploded at the same time — a veritable cataclysm to him — and that the creature was super- natural was evidenced as he pounded away right merrily. When that boy returned he was the hero of all the children for many miles around ; all of them went to church, or meeting rather, the following Sunday to see him. The nods, frowns and thumb-jerking of the old folks could not control them — the good divine thundered his thirty-seventhly louder, but in vain; the children* for once did not quake when he, a last resort with the good Shepherd, preached his one great sermon in which he would "lift the lids of hell and show them the fires." The children, the boys especially, had heard that before, but had never before known a boy that had been up to see hot iron pounded, and the poor preacher, parents, pickled rods, etc., were unheeded, and they gathered about the 88 HISTOEY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. hero of the day, who told them all he saw; that is all that he had words to express. Happily, children can make themselves understood to children, and there was never a boy at meeting that day but that went home with the high resolve that come what might, some day he too would go and see the blacksmith pound hot iron — utterly reckless of consequences, some day when he had a pair of "doeskin" trousers, like those his big brother always wore when he went a-courting, he would go and his mother and sisters could not scare him out of it, especialy if he could get his hair roached and look big and not afraid; hadn't he already gone clear out to the wood- pile one night, and although he heard a screech-owl, he held onto his armful of wood and landed it, with a good deal of clatter, it is true, on the floor by the chimney corner — and then foolish girls talk to him about being afraid of pounded hot iron, even if everything, and smithy too, did burst, what of it ? — go he woulfiL ! Simply as a matter of relish of life, can you imagine anything, anywhere of mod- ern days, that in the least compares with thjs instance in pioneer life ? All true life is in the mind's excitation, the mental exaltation in expectancy that tills the cup to the brim and it overflows. It is but one in every pioneer family of the land, where things were pure and primitive — when neither children nor grown persons died of ennui — when children had hardly anything as toys or luxuries that could be called "boughten." Why is it that the children who never had a doll, except rag ones of of their own making, remember their childhood with so infinite a zest that it is beyond all comprehension of the modern child that is loaded and even oppressed with its multitude of elaborate and expensive toys? Luxuries, expensive and valuable luxuries, costing great sums of money, and that are beautiful and fragile, are not what the child wants, unless the little one is first trained out of all natural sweet childhood. The boy that gets some person to bend a pin for him and provides his own string and fish-pole, for his first fishing in the shallow puddle, has incompar- ably more delight in fishing than is ever known to the coddled child of wealth who, when he is nearly grown, is allowed to go with a groom and fish with one of these expensive tackles that can be purchased at the sporting store. It is the boy four- teen years old who looks forward to the day that his father will buy a new cap or hat and give him the old one to dress up in and go to meeting, who will remember longest his triumphs and joys in the acquisition of new clothes, or anything and everything that comes to Mm in his callow days. The modern boy, and man for that matter, looks back upon the pioneer times and shudders at their primitive sim- plicity, because he is ignorant of the fact in the premises; he gratifies every appe- tite, and they in succession cloy, and he gets drunk, if he has the energy, or might commit suicide, and has but the one consolation — that he didn't live before they had railroads and uniformed servants and waiters on every hand, and he may have looked forward to thft one glory of death; of being buried in a suit cut and made in Paris. Expensive and artificial life is not a boundless joy— rather it is the keen earnestness of simplicity — gratified barely, but always enjoyed intensely. For fifty years the advance was so slow that it was hardly more than perceptible; the dark old woods melted away reluctantly, and easy or rapid transportation was unknown to them. The children of even the most favored or wealthy, while they had nearly everything they wanted, were ignorant, even of those luxuries children now demand as common necessities. Many a young man of that day was big and old enough to go "a-sparking"— that is what they called love-making in those simple, honest days— before he had become the happy possessor of a pair of boots. The young man of to-day breathes nearly a different atmosphere to that of the boys or young men of fifty years ago. One of these old-time boys, whose head is now white with many winters, recently recounted something of his boyhood to his interested listeners. He was born in this county of parents of more than the average advantages of wealth. He remembers every process of raising the flax and HISTOKY OP LUZEENE COUNTY. 89 clipping the wool, and from that to the home-made clothes that dressed the entire family; how the ox was slaughtered in the fall and the younger cattle in the spring and summer, and the hides were carried to the tannery and returned home, and then the annual visit of the shoemaker, who shod all around the big and little in footwear that was worn with infinite pride, but each pair must last a whole year; how, when he was large enough, he hired out and rode one of the neighbor's plow horses while the man plowed his crop of corn, and for three days the boy thus endured the sharp bare back, and when the man settled up he paid him two 10-cent silver coins — a picayune a day; and how, while he pocketed his wages in silence, as he trudged his way home, he took the coins out of his pocket and threw them into the brush by the wayside and hated the man most cordially all his life for .his meanness. This man could draw a vivid picture of his boy life in this then comparatively new country, especially in the long walks the childrep often took to the log-cabin schoolhouse, and while it was before the day of free schools, yet a large family of -children then cost their parents less outlay of cash to educate than each average child now costs. While the boys of to-day will hear of the boys of fifty years ago and pity them, yet it is a fact that the young man of to-day is under very many disadvantages in the comparison of then and now. Now, unless the young man has inherited capital, he must seek employment as a rule from others, and it is very much more difficult to become an employer of others than it was at one time. Capital and society have been recast. Capital has been aggregating, and the small beginners are smothered out; the country store, with its limited stock of goods, is more nearly in direct com- petition with the great city stores than formerly, and so of every other branch of business. The avenues to success are being slowly but surely closed up — fewer employers, and the army of employes constantly growing and expanding. In such surroundings the struggle for life, with all those who must struggle at all, will grow harder and harder. To use a phrase that is not exact — national wealth will more rapidly increase in these conditions, but so will the numbers of the poor and, alas, too, the numbers of those out of employment and seeking it. While stagnation is death, yet all change is not improvement, It is easy for us to say our society is now better — the nearest perfect the world has seen; that we have those things that contribute to our happiness in the highest degree; that our schools and churches and the laws are better than ever known to the world before. There are pros and cons to all this self -laudation. We have better food, clothing, houses and drainage, and the average of life is longer than it was when our ancestors were first strug- gling here; but we have more penal institutions, asylums, feeble-minded homes, soup houses and actual starvation; crimes wholly unknown, and a class of criminals that our grandfathers never heard of, and one feature that is wholly new, and that is the bequest or gift outright by one individual of the enormous sum of $6,000,000 to the church and school, and himdreds of others giving nearly similar amounts, and yet the State has taken charge of educating our children, and from free schools and endowed universities and colleges laws are being passed to compel parents to send their children to school. And, amid it all, the demand exceeds the supply on every hand, except on the evil side. Honest simplicity is never an ungainly thing — it may call for a smile of pity, but never a tear. Phenomenal school children, cun- ning and tricky street arabs of the city may know many things that George Wash- ington never learned. The ' dullard boy of to-day knows more of fast living than did the brightest boy 100 years ago, but does he live longer or enjoy it more? 90 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. CHAPTER IV. BATTLE OF WYOMING. "Webtmoubland Town and County, of Connecticut — The People Quick to War for Inde- pendence — Reckless John Pbnn — Plunkett's Expedition — The Two Companies Sent to Washington — Steuben Jenkins' Historical Address — Massacre of the Hardings — The Fatal July 3, 1778 — They Surrender and are Then Plundered — Conflict- ing Stories — The British Accounts — Pennites Called Tories and Many Driven Out — List of the Killed in the Battle — The Dobrances — Col. Franklin WITH Company Reached the Port Just After the Battle — Butler Escaped to THE Mountains — Dbnison Surrenders — Some Ancient Stories of the Battle Inves- tigated — The Movement — The Centennial Day of the Battle, etc. THE peaceful pastoral interim in the struggle with the Pennsylvanians was now, 1775, approaching a yet more bloody awakening. The cruel plowshare of war — of the long seven years' war for independence — was about to come crash- ing through the valley that was already stained with fraternal blood, as well as were the people the victims of repeated and cruel marauds and massacres by the savages. This was not only the border land, but the center of the long travails, where human suffering reached its limit. No spot on the globe is more freighted with the greatevents of history than this. Quoting from Miner's History: "The battle at Lexington had taken place April 19. On the 17th of June, the battle of Bunker Hill was fought, so glorious to the American arms. The effect produced at Wyoming, by those soul -stirring events, will be best expressed by the simple record ot a ' town meeting legally warned: ' "At a meeting of ye proprietors and settlers of ye town of Westmoreland, legally warned and held in Westmoreland, August 1st, 1775, Mr. John Jenkins was chosen moderator for ye work of ye day. Voted that this town does now vote that they will strictly observe and follow ye rules and regulations of ye honorable continental congress, now sitting at Philadelphia. " Resolved, By this town, that they are willing to make any accommodations with ye Pennsylvania party that shall conduce to ye best good of ye whole, not infringing on the property of any person, and come in common cause of Liberty in ye defence of America, and that we will amicably give them ye offer of joining in ye proposals as soon as may be. Voted, As this town has but of late been incorporated and invested with the privileges of the law, both civil and military, and now in a capacity of acting in conjunction with our neighboring towns within this and the other colonies, in ■opposing ye late measures adopted by parliament to enslave America. Also this town having taken into consideration the late plan adopted by parliament of enforc- ing their several oppressive and unconstitutional acts — of depriving us of our property — and of binding us in all cases without exception, whether we consent or not, IS considered by us highly injurious to American or English freedom; there- fore do consent to and acquiesce in the late proceedings and advice of the conti- nental congress, and do rejoice that those measures are adopted, and so universally received throughout the continent; and, in conformity to the eleventh article of the association, we do now appoint a committee to attentively observe the conduct of all persons within this town, touching the rules and regulations prescribed by the honorable continental congress, and will unanimously join our brethren in America m the common cause of defending our liberty." HISTOBY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 91 Here was outspoken patriotism and considerate diplomacy, offering an olive branch to their brethren of Pennsylvania, and unfurling the flag of defiance at King George. " Willing to make any accommodations with ye Pennysylvania party," and this was said in good faith, and it is, pity it is, it was not in that spirit taken up by the respective authorities of Connecticut and Pennsylvania. In November, 1775, Pennsylvania sent an armed expedition against the towns of Judea and Charleston, colonies of Connecticut people on the West Branch of the Susquehanna, and destroyed them, and then menaced the Westmoreland people. November 4, congress, on being advised of the attacks on Judea and Charleston, and the threatened attack on the people of Westmoreland town, passed the following resolutions : " The congress, considering that the most perfect union between all the colonies, is essentially necessary for the just rights of North America, and being apprehen- sive that there is great danger of hostilities being commenced at or near Wyoming, between the inhabitants of the colony of Pennsylvania, and those of Connecticut, " Resolved, That the assemblies of said colonies be requested to take the most speedy and effectual steps to prevent such hostilities." " Ordered, That Mr. McKean and Mr. Deane wait upon the honorable house of assembly of Pennsylvania, now sitting, with a copy of the above resolutions." " Ordered, That a copy of the said resolutions be transmitted by express to the magistrates and people of Pennsylvania and Connecticut, on the waters of the Susquehanna. " The action of congress was wholly unheeded by John Penn, the then governor of Pennsylvania, and equally reckless was he of the appalling fact that the whole country was in fact at war with the mother empire — the Revolution was on — when every one must stand shoulder to shoulder, brother to brother. This Penn can hardly go into our history as the worthy representative of his illustrious grandfather. In the dead of winter. Col. Plunkett, who had just returned from his triumphant expedition against the West Branch settlers, was fitted out, as usual under authority of the civil officers, with an army of 700 men, with cannon to proceed against the people of the town of Westmoreland. The middle of December (an unusual circum- stance, the river was free of ice), he set out in boats laden with men and stores to land near Wilkes-Barre, where the work of destruction was cruelly going on. There was cunning in the time chosen — committing the houses to flames, and stripped of worldly possessions — the people driven out of the country to make the exodus through the wilderness where many, mayhap all, would perish. Plunkett started on this unholy crusade with 700 men, nearly double the number all told, of the able-bodied men th^n here. The settlers had sent couriers to con- gress, to Philadelphia and to Connecticut, and at the same time made every possible effort to protect themselves. There were 285 of the settlers who had taken the "Freeman's oath," — this included the old decrepit and sick, as well as several who were known to be little else than spies on the Connecticut people. December 20 the invading army arrived at the mouth of Nescopeck creek, and by this time considerable ice was running in the river, impeding their progress. That same day congress by resolution enacted: "The congress taking into consideration the dispute between the people of Pennsylvania and Connecticut, on the waters of the Susquehanna, came to the follow- ing resolution : "Whereas, A dispute subsists between some of the inhabitants of the colony of Connecticut, settled under the claim of the said colony on land near Wyomiag. oa the Susquehanna river, and in the Delaware country, and the inhabitants settled under the claim of the proprietors of Pennsylvania, which dispute it is apprehended will, if not suspended during the present troubles in the colonies, be productive of per- 92 HISTOEY OP LUZEBNE COUNTY. nicious consequences, which may be very prejudicial to the common interest of the United Colonies; therefore " Resolved, That it is the opinion of this congress, and it is accordingly recom- mended, that the contending parties immediately cease all hostilities, and avoid every appearance of force until the dispute can be legally decided. That all property taken and detained be immediately restored to the original owners; that no interruption be given to either party, to the free passing and repassing of per- sons behaving themselves peaceably, through the disputed territory, as well by land as by water, without molestation of either persons or property; that all persons seized and detained on account of said dispute on either side, be dismissed and per- mitted to go to their respective homes, and that things being put in the same situa- tion they were before the late unhappy contest, they continue to behave themselves peaceably on their respective possessions and improvements, until a legal decision can be had on said dispute, or this congress shall take further order thereon, and nothing herein done shall be construed in prejudice of the claim of either party." But this action too was as idle as the wind to the invaders. They pushed the expedition, and on the 24th the advance guard of Plunkett came upon the picket guards of Butler's command. The latter had rallied in all 300 men, and having not enough guns for each man, several men appeared with scythes fastened to poles. Col. Butler had taken a position at the mouth of Harvey creek below Wilkes-Barre on the west side of the river. It was well chosen, and when Plunkett' s force came up they were halted, and Butler's men fired over their heads. The invaders saw they could not storm the position, and retired and attempted to send a boat load across the river to flank Butler, but this had been anticipated, and when nearly across they were fired on by Capt. Stewart' s squad, when they turned the boat down stream and fled precipitately. This day's fighting resulted in the wound- ing of a man and a dog in the boat. The next day Plunkett again advanced to the attack, and heavy firing com- menced. A party was sent up, concealed along the mountain side, to turn Butler's flank, but this was anticipated and repulsed. More or less firing went on all day — several were wounded on both sides. A son of Surveyor-general Lukens was killed. Col. Plunkett retreated on Christmas day. At this point in the melancholy story we are met with the doubly strange action of the Connecticut authorities; a resolution to prevent any addition being made to the Susquehanna settlement, unless under their " special license. " Just at this time, when the settlers were being threatened by the wild savages on one side and invasion and war from the Pennsylvania authorities on the other — a time above all others when they needed every possible aid from the mother colony, this was a most cruel and unexpected blow, and from the least expected source. The repulse of Plunkett closed the year 1775, and from that source no further invasion was expected that season. Alarms, however, from the Indians at the north were serious. Through the action of the leading men of the town the Indians were induced to come to Wilkes-Barre in September, 1776, to hold a council, in which the Indian, Capt. John, represented the savages and Col. Butler the colony. Capt. John made quite a speech, which if correctly interpreted was filled with the affectionate term of " brother " in nearly every sentence, and friendship was effusively expressed. The Indians wanted peace and brotherhood with the settlers; asked that they have a "fireplace" here and a great council, and "wampus" and " calumets " galore. The white man very properly suspected these over-friendly pro- fessions; and as time proved it was merely the savage cunning to get their warriors ' among the people and when disarmed, murder them at will. This all increased the fears and dread of the people. October following three chiefs from the Six Nations at Onondaga arrived and brought a "talk" from the "great head." This was more of their hypocritical pretensions of brotherly love and another plea for a great HISTORY OJT LUZERNE COUNTY. 93 " fire-place " at Wyoming. They complained that in a cow trade with a white man a certain Indian had been cheated, and demanded restitution, and also wanted flour given them to take home to their hungry people. Col. Butler promptly sent word to Eoger Sherman of the dangers threatening, and asked for arms to place in the hands of the people for defense against inva- sions. Soon reports arrived giving information that the British under Col. John Butler (his command being mostly Canadians and Indians) was at Oswego, and now the people were convinced the savages were in alliance with the British, and were join- ing Burgoyne. The town of Westmoreland extended north to the State line following up the Susquehanna river, and in the neighborhood of Tioga Point (Athens) were the strong Indian settlements of Newtown, Oquaga, Sheshequin, Chenango, Owego, and Choconut. From these points they could quickly float in their canoes to Wilkes-Barre. Chapman, in his history, estimates in round numbers there were 5,000 settlers in Westmoreland at this time. Hon. Charles Miner corrects this statement and from the records shows that the approximate number was 430 able-bodied men, or a total of 2,580 population. The patriotic vigilance of the settlers is given in the proceedings of a town meeting of Westmoreland, March 10, 1776: " Voted, That the first man that shall make fifty weight of good salt-petre in this town shall be eaDitled to a bounty of £10, lawful money, to be paid out of the town treasury." " Voted, That the selectmen be directed to dispose of the grain now in the hands of the treasurer or collector, in such way as to obtain powder and lead to the value of £40, lawful money, if they can do the same." The continental congress having recommended the appointment of committees of vigilance in every town, and the arrest of persons hostile to the cause of liberty, a committee of inspection was established, a measure that became the more press- ingly necessary, as, with the breaking out of the war, and the prohibition on the part of Connecticut of any further emigration to Wyoming, there had come in strange families of interlopers from Minnisink, from West Chester, New York, from Kinderhook, and the Mohawk, neither connected with Pennsylvania nor Connecti- cut, between whom and the old settlers there was neither sympathy in feeling nor community of interests — Wintermoots, Vangorders, and Von-Alstines. A path of communication was opened by the disaffected between New York and Niagara, to strike the Susquehanna twenty miles above Wilkes-Barre. Some of those new and unwelcome settlers soon made their sentiments known, and disclosed their hostility to the American cause, while others for the time remained quiet, though subsequent events showed the purpose of their emigration to the Susquehanna. John Jenkins, Sr., and Capt. Solomon Strong were chosen members of the legislature to attend at Hartford, with instructions to request the assembly, to demand of Pennsylvannia £4,000 for losses sustained by invasions and property destroyed. The people took steps to build forts. The general assembly of Con- necticut had to raise and organize the Twenty-fourth regiment of Connecticut militia at Westmoreland. The Wintermoots (suspected people) had purchased and had erected a fort near the head of the valley (Pittston). To counteract this the settlers built a fort above this near the Jennings and Harding families. Forty fort was strengthened and sites for forts at Pittston, Wilkes-Barre, Hanover and Plymouth were arranged. July 4, 1776, now dawned upon the world. The memorable day in history, ushering in the transcendant event in the great movements of mankind. Liberty, blessed liberty to man, stepped forth, robed in purity, and on either side supporting 94 HISTOEY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. her were the stern, strong knights of the plow and the axe, across whose broad shoulders were slung the long, block match-lock rifles; in homespun and buckskin, with moccasin and bare feet these sublime heroes had just emerged from the severest school of hard fate, unkempt and unmindful of exterior appearances, they came together silent and resolved, carrying their lives and sacred honor in their hands and flinging them all, all on the altar of liberty. Independence was declared! From Maine to southernmost Florida war was aflame. Its horrors were everywhere in the land, but far more intensely in this lone frontier settlement, that was worse than isolated and unprotected. It was menaced by double dangers on every side, and even within the household were traitors to the sacred cause. In November following Cols. Butler and Denison representatives returned from New Haven bringing the good news that the town had been made the county of Westmoreland. Jonathan Fitch was made high sheriff. During the summer Obadiah Gore, Jr., was commissioned lieutenant and recruited twenty men. About the same time Capt. Strong enlisted a squad of men — ten or twelve. August 23, 1776, congress, at the urgent solicitation of Col. Butler, resolved to station two companies at Westmoreland for the defence of the inhabitants. Robert Durkee and Samuel Hansom were elected captains in these companies; James Welles and Perrin Ross, first lieutenants; Asahel Buck and Simon Spalding, second lieutenants; Herman Swift and Mathias Hollenback, ensigns. These com- panies when raised were stationed one on the east and one on the west side of the river. In the early winter Gen. Howe had captured New York, the battle of White Plains had been fought; Washington was retreating with his little army of 3,000 men, hungry and nearly naked, through the Jerseys. "The commander-in-chief," says Marshall, "found himself at the head of a small force, less than 3.000, dis- pirited by their losses and fatigues, retreating almost naked and barefoot in the cold November and December, before a numerous and well-appointed and victorious enemy, through a desponding country much more disposed to obtain safety by sub- mission than to seek it by manly resistance." On December 8 Gen. Washiagton crossed the Delaware, and congi-ess immedi- ately took measures to retire from Philadelphia to Baltipaore. At this moment of peril, they ' ' Resolved, December 1 2, that the two companies raised in the town of Westmoreland, be ordered to join Gen. Washington, with all possible expedition." And the very same day adjourned to meet on the 20th, at Baltimore. Promptly obeying the order, the two companies hastened their march, and before the close of the month and year were with the lines, under the command of their beloved Washington. The people fully knew the dangerous sacrifice they were making, but not a moment faltered. This action of the patriots stands out prominently in the history of that long and terrible struggle. It was pledged to these men that as soon as conditions in the south should be relieved they would be allowed to return to the protection of their families. It is needless to say this promise was not kept. The imperative necessities of the army of Washington made it impossible, horrid as was the impending alternative. The people proceeded in the work of organizing every possible safeguard as well- as the work of perfecting the machinery for the new county of Montgomery Great jealousy between the east and west side of the river had long existed, and the ques- tion of locating the county buildings now arose in renewed intensity. After a warm contention Wilkes-Barre was chosen as the county seat— the chief rival had been Kingston-settled by the Connecticut authorities through appointed commissioners. Every hour brought additional evidence that there were secret enemies in their midst— Pennites, some of them, who had come and purchased Connecticut claims HISTOEY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 97 One, Adonijah Stansbury, had purchased Chapman' s mill and he soon developed into an enemy in disguise. Col. Butler and Maj. Judd were appointed a committee to investigate him. He was prosecuted and finally persecuted until he was com- pelled to sell his mill and leave the settlement. During the summer the people worked on the forts by detachments. The one in Wilkes-Barre occupied what is now the courthouse square. A system of scouts were sent regularly up the river to keep watch of the movements of the Indians. Lieut. John Jenkins in command of a scouting party extended his trip to Wyalusing, where he was taken prisoner by a band of Indians and tories. Three of his men were taken with him : Mr. York, Lemuel Fitch and old man Fitzgerald. All except Fitzgerald were taken to Canada. Jenkins was exchanged for an Indian chief and sent to Albany. These were the first prisoners taken from Westmoreland. Other scouting parties were constantly sent up the river. As about all the able young men were in the continental army they consisted mostly of old men and called themselves " Reformados. " Capt. William Hooker Smith, a physician, commanded the one from Wilkes-Barre. The two companies sent to Gen. Washington were for the first time under fire January 27, 1777, at the battle of Millstone. Durkee's and Ransom's "Independ- ent companies " were under Gen. Dickinson and met a detachment of Lord Corn- wallis' men and gained a splendid victory. The companies were at Bound Brook, Brandy wine, Germantown and Mud fort. Constant Matthewson, of Spalding's company, was killed by a cannon ball at Mud fort. Two brothers, Sawyers, died of camp disease, Spencer and Gaylord died and Porter was killed. Connecticut sent out a heavy tax levy on Westmoreland county for the year 1777 — " 2 shillings on the pound." In the face of this is the proceedings of a town meeting, December 30, 1777: " Voted, By this town that the committee of inspection be empowered to supply the sogers' wives and the sogers' widows and their families with the necessaries of life." In June, 1778, Gov. Trumbull appointed the following a committee to keep the peace in Westmoreland county: Nathan Denison, Christopher Avery, Obadiah Gore, Zera Beach, Zebulon Butler, William McKarrican, Asaph Whittlesey, Uriah Chapman, Anderson Dana, Ebenezer Marcy, Stephen Harding, John Franklin 2d, Joseph Hambleton and William Judd. Through the vigilance of this committee congress was kept closely advised of affairs on the headquarters of the Susquehanna. Indications strongly pointed to an invasion from the north. Congress again interposed and adopted the following: March 17, 1778, '^Resolved, That one full company of foot be raised in the town of Westmoreland, on the east bank of the Susquehanna, for the defence of the said town, and the settlement on the frontiers, and in the neighborhood thereof, against the Indians and the enemies of these States ; the said company to be enlisted to serve one year from the time of their enlisting, unless sooner discharged by congress." A scouting party was near Tunkhannock when a man named William Crooks approached the door of a house that had been occupied by John Seoord, a tory, when he was shot dead by Indians within. A skirmish occurred about four miles below Tunkhannock and Joel Phelps and Minor Robbins were wounded. Robbins died the next day. Phelps recovered. These ominous happenings were in May, and every day the arrogant demands of the Indian beggars and prowlers became more marked. All at once the scattered Indians in this section were recalled and their squaws came down the river, ostensi- bly begging, but as the people well knew to spy the condition of the settlers. The people now became almost frantic, and appeals were sent by wives and mothers to their husbands and sons to hurry back and protect them from the impend- ing massacre. But congress and the authorities held these men firmly and were apparently deaf to the piteous appeals. 6 98 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. Juae 23, only a week before the arrival of the Canadian army, congress resolved to consolidate Ransom's and Durkee's companies, as some had from sickness and other causes* returned, there was at that time only about sixty men left to the com- pany. Of this new company Simon fcJpalding was made captain and Timothy Pierce and Phineas Pierce lieutenants. They were permitted finally to march to the relief of their families, but as will be seen, too late to ward off the impending thunderbolt. The enemy was concentrating at Newton (Elmira) and Tioga Point (Athens). The latter was in Montgomery county, and here they were preparing their canoes to descend upon the helpless settlers. Two deserters from the British army, Pike and Boyd, had taken refuge in the valley. They were loyal to the Connecticut people and the latter was useful in drill- ing raw recruits. The settlers fled from their homes to the fort. The militia companies were called out and every possible preparation made. The only cannon was in the Wilkes-Barre fort; having no balls it was used as an alarm gun. Hon. Charles Miner estimates the invading army as about 400 of Butler's Rang- ers; a detachment of the Royal Greens, and several Pennsylvania tories, with 600 or 700 Indians. Butler, however, in his official report, says he had, all told, 500 men. They descended in their boats to the mouth of Bowman's creek, where the river makes a great bend, and by marching across this peninsula they traveled about twenty miles to the. western mountains, reaching that place June 29. At Fort Jenkins, a mile above Wintermoot, the uppermost fort, there were the families of John Jenkins, the Hardings and Gardiners. Not aware of the close presence of the enemy, on the morning of the 30th Benjamin Harding, Stukely Harding, John Harding, James Hadsell, James Hadsell Jr., Daniel Waller, John Gardiner and Daniel Carr, had taken their arms and gone up to Exeter to their work — three miles. Late in the afternoon they were attacked in the field. Waller, Gardiner and Carr were taken prisoners; James Hadsell and his sons James and Benjamin and Stukely Harding were killed. John Harding, a lad, jumped into the water and hid under the willows, merely keeping his lips above water, where he heard the dying groans of his friends near by. The Indians searched carefully for him, but did not find him. This was the opening skirmish of the coming battle. Col. Zebulon Butler by common assent assumed command of the Connecticut people. By a mere chance he was here on a furlough from the continental army, and had this man's counsel prevailed there is little doubt that this sad chapter in his- tory would have been differently written. July 1 he sent Col. Denison and Lieut. -Col. Dorrance with all his force to Exeter to the scene of the preceding day's tragedy. They found two Indians standing guard over the scalped and mutilated bodies of their victims. These were shot dead — one where he sat and other as he was in the river, fleeing to get away. Col. Zebulon Butler's force buried the dead at Fort Jenkins (now West Pittston), and returned to Forty fort. The invading army then came down and took possession of Port Wintermoot. The Wintermoots received the invad- ers kindly and even to the extent that one Daniel Ingersoll, who was in the fort as the enemy approached, began to make preparations to resist, when he was made a prisoner hy the tory Wintermoots. That evening a detachment was sent and capt- ured Port Jenkins; it originally had but seventeen old men to defend it. Pour were slain, three captured and the garrison capitulated. Early the next morning the prisoner, Ingersoll, under an escort, was sent to Forty fort to demand a surrender, not only of the fort, but of Montgomery camp. On the morning of Friday, July 3, Mr. Ingersoll was again sent, with two guides, a white man and an Indian. This was supposed a ruse on the part of the enemy to spy the *The truth is that when Ran'som and Dnrkee resigneil in order to get liorae, there were twenty-flve or thirty of the men wlio resolved they would, whether or no. also come to their families, and so they did. It was this oir- oumstancethat brought on the immediate consolidation of the two companies under Capt. Spalding. Grim necessity, it may be seen, caused in certain cases a laxness in military discipline unknown now in armies. HISTOEY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 99 condition of the defenders, under the mere pretense of demanding a surrender of all the forts and property. Col. Zebulon Butler immediately called a council of war; the question considered was whether to parley for delay in the hope that Spalding and his men would come, or whether to march out and attack the enemy whenever found. Butler, Denison and Dorrance favored delay; but others, led by Stewart, hotly favored going to meet the enemy at once. The latter argued tbat the invaders would cross at Pittston and capture the fort, in spite of Capt. Blanchard, and murder the inhabitants; that there was no certainty when Spalding would arrive; two forts had already surrendered and the murder of the Hardings was the bloody token of the enemy's intentions. There are many versions of this part of the unfortunate affair. All, however, seem to agree that Stewart was the wild and unreasonable leader of the motion to go out and attack. The command of the Hanover company had been turned over to him. Pennsylvania at that time was offering a reward for his arrest. The fort was bountifully supplied with whisky, and while it was certain that Capt. Spalding with his command was force- marching to reach them and would certainly arrive within forty-eight hours, yet the better counsels of Butler and all the most prominent men were fatally overruled. Some have laid most of the blame on Stewart, but it is enough answer to all this that he gave his life a saerifice to his judgments. He was killed at the head of his column. It is easy enough now to criticize the act, so it is of almost anything past. They were brave men, and patriots all; if there was any mistake, it was one not of cowards, but of patriots ready to seal their faith with their hearts' blood. The minority with extreme reluctance yielded to the majority. There were in the fort six irregular companies, mostly raw recruits and many of them old men — the following being the different commands: Capt. Dethic Hewitt's company, about forty men. Capt. Asaph Whittlesey's company, from Plymouth, consisting of forty men under Stewart after reaching the fort. Capt. William McKarrican's company, from Hanover, numbering about forty men. Being also the schoolmaster, and little used to war, though a brave, active, and valuable man, be gave up the command to Capt. Lazarus Stewart; Eosewell Franklin was his lieutenant. The Lower Wilkes-Barre company, commanded by Capt. James Bidlack, Jr., con- sisting of thirty- eight men. The Upper Wilkes-Barre company, commanded by Capt. Rezin Geer, smaller, but the number not known. The Kingston company, commanded by Capt. Aholiab Buck, Lieut. Elijah Shoemaker second in command. In addition to those in the trainbands, the judges of the court and all the civil officers who were near went out. Many old men — some of them grandfathers — took their muskets and marched to the field. For instance, the aged Mr. Searle, of Kingston, was one. Having become bald, he wore a wig. Taking out his silver knee-buckles, he said to his family, " If I fall, I shall not need them. If I come back, they will be safe here." Nothing could have been more incongruous, more pitiably unfit, than the mingling of such aged men in the rough onset of battle. Dire was the necessity that compelled it. The old gentleman had a number of grand- children. Several boys, from fourteen to sixteen, are known to have been on the field. There was a company at Pittston of thirty or forty men, under Capt. Blanch- ard, stationed at the fort, to guard the people gathered there. To leave them, and march to Forty fort, would be to expose them to certain destruction, for the enemy were in sight, on the opposite bank of the river. Capt. Franklin's company from Huntington and Salem had not arrived. The other companies of the regiment were at Capouse and at the " Lackaway " settlement, too far off to afford assistance; so that there were about 230 enrolled men, and seventy old people, boys, civil magis- trates, and other volunteers. 100 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. Every movement of Col. Z. Butler was watched by a vigilant and wary foe. No sooner had the march commenced than the news was communicated to Col. John Butler, at Wintermoot's, who immediately despatched a messenger up to Port Jen- kins, for the party there, who were destroying the defences, to hasten down, for the Yankees were coming out to battle. This was between 2 and 3 o'clock. A. few sentinels alone were left at Forty fort; and one of these by name of Cooper, more brave than obedieut to orders, said ' ' Our people need all their strength on the field. If defeated or successful, my being here will do no good." And he hur- ried off to join his neighbors. Miss Bennett (Mrs. Myers) was one of the crowd of women and children who had resorted to the Forty fort. After the troops had been gone about half an hour, three men were seen spurring their jaded horses up the road. As they came to the gate and dismounted, the sweat flowed from the panting flanks of their generous steeds. Two of them were Capt. Durkee and Lieut. Pierce. In a moment they learned the state of things. " We are faint — give us bread; we have not broken our fast to-day." Saoh provisions as were at hand were placed before them. Pierce was a lieutenant in Capt. Spalding's company, then about forty miles off, through the Great swamp. They had ridden nearly all night. Having snatched a morsel of food, they hastened to the field. Among many patriotic volunteers, justice requires that Anderson Dana should be particularly mentioned. He had just returned from duty as a member of the assembly at Hartford. It is impossible that any man could have conducted with a more cheerful spirit, or a more animating zeal. Christopher Avery, one of the justices of the court, who had filled many important stations, and possessed a large share of public confidence, though exempt by law, took post beside his neighbors. Many officers are mentioned, who strictly held no command. Capts. Durkee and Ran- som were in the battle, and no doubt were referred to, and obeyed by the militia officers, but they held no official station. As our troops approached Wintermoot's they perceived that the fort was in flames. The motive for setting it on fire is not yet understood, probably to prevent its sud- den assault and capture; probably to draw attention and conceal their number and movements. At this point there are two plains, the upper and the lower flats, divided by a steep bank of about fifteen or twenty feet in hight; the lower a rich, sandy loam; the upper a coarse gravel. The fort was on the bank dividing the two plains. Col. Z. Butler, on approaching the enemy, sent forward Capts. Ransom and Durkee, Lieuts. Ross and Wells, as officers whose skill he most relied on, to select the spot, and mark off the ground on which to form the order of battle. On coming up, the column deployed to the left, and under those officers every company took its station, and then advanced in line to the proper position, where it halted, the right resting on the steep bank noted, the left extending across the gravel flat to a morass, thick with timber and brush that separated the bottom land from the mountain. Yellow and pitch pine trees with oak shrubs were scattered all over the plain. On the American right was Capt. Bidlack's company, next was Capt. Hewitt's, Daniel Gore being one of his lieutenants. On the extreme left was Capt. Whittlesey's. Col. Butler, supported by Maj. John Garrett, commanded the right wing. Col. Denison, supported by Lieut. -Col. George Dorrance, com- manded the left. Such was the ground and such the order of battle. Everything was judiciouHly disposed and conducted in a strictly military manner. Capts. Durkee and Ransom, experienced officers, in whom great confidence was placed, were stationed, Durkee with Bidlack on the right wing. Ransom with Whittlesey on the Jeft. Col. Butler made a very brief address just before ho ordered the column to display. " Men, yonder is the enemy. The fate of the Hardings tell us what we have to expect if defeated. We came out to fight, not only for liberty, but for histoet: of luzeene county. 101 life itself, and what is dearer, to preserve our homes from conflagration; our women and children from the tomahawk. Stand firm the first shock and the Indians will give way. Every man to his duty." The column had marched up the road on which our right rested. On its dis- play as Denison led off his men, he repeated the expression of Col. Butler — " Be firm, everything depends on resisting the first shock." The left of the enemy rested on Wintermoot's fort, now on fire, and was com- manded by Col. John Butler, who appeared on- the ground with a handkerchief around his head. A flanking party of Indians was concealed behind some logs and bushes under the bank. From Wintermoot's fort to the river in a straight line was about eighty rods; to Monockasy island, over the low flats in a south direction, about a mile. The weather clear and warm. About four in the afternoon the battle began ; Col. Z. Butler ordered his men to fire, and at each discharge to advance a step. Along the whole line the discharges were rapid and steady. It was evident, on the more open ground the Yankees were doing most execution. As our men advanced, pouring in their platoon fires with great activity, the British line gave way, in spite of all their officers' efforts to pre- veot it. The Indian flanking party on our right kept up from their hiding places a galling fire. Lieut. Daniel Gore received a ball through the left arm. "Capt. Durkee," said he, "look sharp for the Indians in those bushes." Capt. D. stepped to the bank to look, preparatory to making a charge and dislodging them, when he fell. On the British Butler's right, his Indian warriors were sharply engaged. As the battle waxed warmer, that fearful yell was raised again and again, with more and more spirit. It appeared to be once their animating shout, and their signal of com- munication: As several fell near Col. Dorrance, one of his men gave way; " Stand up to your work, sir," said he, firmly, but coolly, and the soldier resumed his place. For half an hour a hot fire had been given and sustained, when the superior numbers of the enemy began to develop its power. The Indians had thrown into the swamp a large force, which now completely outflanked our left. It was impos- sible it should be otherwise; that wing was thrown into confusion. Col. Denison gave orders that the company of Whittlesey should wheel back, so as to form an angle with the main line, and thus present his front, instead of flank, to the enemy. The difficulty of performing evolutions, by the bravest militia on the field, under a hot fire, is well known. On the attempt the savages rushed in with horrid yells. Some had mistaken the order to fall back, as one to retreat, and that word, tKat fatal word, ran along the line. Utter confusion now prevailed on the left. Seeing the disorder, and his own men beginning to ^ive way. Col. Z. Butler threw himself between the fires of the opposing ranks, and rode up and down the line in the most reckless exposure. ' ' Don't leave me, my children, and the victory is ours. " But it was too late. Still on the fated left men stood their ground. "See," said Westover to George Cooper, "our men are all retreating, shall we go? " " I'll have one more shot first," was his reply. At that moment a ball struck a tree just behind his head and an Indian springing toward him with his spear. Cooper drew up his rifle and fired ; the Indian sprang into the air and fell dead. " Come," said Westover. "I'll load first," replied Cooper; and it is probable this cool audacity saved them, as the body of the savages had dashed forward after the flying, thus leaving them in the rear. On the right, one of his officers said to Capt. Hewitt, " The day is lost; see, the Indians are sixty rods in our rear, shall we retreat?'' " I'll be damned if I do," was his answer. "Drummer, strike up!" and he strove to rally his men; every effort was vain — thus he fought and there he fell! Every captain that led a company into the battle was slain, and in every instance fell on or near the line; as was well said, " They died at the head of their men." 102 HISTOEY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. Men never fought more bravely, every man did his duty, but they were overpowered by superior numbers, a force that was overwhelming. David Spafford, who had just married Miss Blackman, was fatally shot and fell into the arms of his brother, Phineas. " Brother," said he, "I am mortally hurt; take care of Lavinia." Stephen Whiton, a young schoolmaster from Connecticut, was also a bridegroom, married a daughter of Anderson Dana; son-in-law and father fell together. A portion of the Indian flanking party pushed forward in the rear of the Con- necticut line to cut ofE the retreat to Forty fort, and then pressed the retreatiug army toward the river. Monockasy island afFording the only hope of crossing the stream, the flight was toward the island across the fields. Cooper and those who remained near the line of battle saw the main body of the Indians hastening after the fugitives. At Forty fort the bank of the river was lined by anxious wives and mothers, awaiting the issue. Hearing the firing sharply continued, now, hopes arose; but when the shots came irregular and approached nearer and nearer, the hope sank in dismay. Among the most melancholy paragraphs in history are the after-battle reports told by fugitives who escaped from the bloody sacrifice. Pity it is now after the lapse of more than a century and all the parties to that sad day are long since rest- ing in the silent city, we can not know that the most and worst of the frightful tales of the battle of Wyoming were the imaginings of heated minds, strung to breaking in the horrid hour. Some were but too true, but time, with its covering pall of char- ity, has now given us the assurance that in some of the most revolting things that found their way into the accounts of the contemporary history of the times were errors. The Canadians and Indians won a signal victory, and when the settlers were flanked, instead of holding together and obeying their officers — the only place and mode of safety on such occasions — they fled, throwing away their arms, while the victors pursued and struck down many in a most merciless fashion. Had our people stood together under their commander it is now evident that the British com- mander would have respected a flag of truce and those lives that were so cruelly sac- rificed might have been saved. True, a part of Col. John Butler's command were Indians and when our people fled he could do little or nothing in restraining pur- suit, even had he tried. It is not known that he had tried to do so. The contrary was charged to be true at the time by the survivors. The battle of Wyoming first went into history as a cold-blooded and pitiless massacre; the post- prandial orgie being the curdling story of Queen Esther and the Bloody Rock, where prisoners of war were led out by Indians, stood arouad in rows and this she-monster walking along the line with a war club or tomahawk braining the poor fellows. The first stories that found their way into print were gleaned from the flying fugitives that found their way to the Delaware, when each one had told the other of the dreadful sights they had seen, and then the writers who listened to the narratives had allowed nothing to be lost in the transmission. There never was a battle but that the first flying reports that went out from the opposing aides differed widely on important facts. Night closed in on the dreadful scene of havoc. The pursuit of the flying sol- diers could not have been very long or rapid, as the enemy only approached Forty fort the next morning and demanded an unconditional surrender. Col. Zebulon Butler and seventeen of his soldiers had escaped to the mountains during the night. Col. Denison remained and was in command; in command of a lot of women and children and a few wounded and aged men ; this was not much to surrender — women, children and broken hearts. The victors granted terms of honorable capitula- tion; agreeing to respect private property and requiring the soldiers taken to pledge not again to take up arms against the king of England. These were not only hon- HISTORY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. 103 orable but, under the circumstances, very liberal terms. A fact that should not be lost sight of is, that in the articles of capitulation Col. John Butler had inserted the clause allowing the "suspects" that had been driven away by the Yankees, to return and live here in peace and quiet and to repossess their property. There is historical significance in this clause The observance of the terms of surrender was kept only so far as no further massacre or human life was taken. But private property was not fully respected. The beautiful valley was devastated — the torch applied to the homes and build- ings, and blackened waste took the place of the whilom pastoral scenes. Wilkes- Barre, where there were twenty-five buildings, was left with but three houses in the place — all else was in ashes. The Indians, drunk, engaged in plundering and destroying. The English commander, Butler, tried to restrain the red devils, but not to much purpose. And it is now believed this fact hastened his departure. The invading army remained in possession in the captured fort four days, or until July 8, when Col. John Butler called his army together and took up his return march northward. The women and children had fled the country; several- had floated down the river as soon as the news of the disaster on the night of the 3d of July was known. Many others fled across the mountains and through the terrible wilderness back to Connecticut. These were new widows and. freshly orphaned children mostly whose protectors lay dead and unburied on the fatal and bloody field. Here was the pitiful story that the century of years has but little modified. The ghastly details of each family in these dread days has not and never will be written. There were a few old men with these fleeing crowds of sufferers — so old and helpless mostly as to be like the infants, but an additional burden; children were born and children died on the long, terrible way. The heroes were dead — the greater heroines lived and hov- ered their helpless broods, baring their breasts to the elements and even the brutal savage in the protection of the young lives God had given. When we talk of war and its grim brutalities we think of strong, rough, brave men, but here were widows and young mothers tasting the bitterest dregs of woe — broken hearts and a forti- tude sublime. It is .estimated that about 160 were killed the day and evening of the battle and 140 escaped. This estimate is given by Hon. Charles Miner and we accept it as the nearest correct now ascertainable. Reinforcements. — On the evening of July 3, that had closed on the awful field of carnage, Capt. John Franklin arrived at Forty fort, with the Huntington and Salem co'mpany, about thirty- five men all told. He and Col. Denison consulted and determined to send to Wilkes-Barre for the cannon, call every possible aid to Forty fort and defend themselves to the last extremity. A messenger sent out early on the next morning reported the people flying and the scheme therefore wholly imprac- ticable. Following on the " Old Warrior's path," he reported seeing a fleeing crowd of 100 women and children and only one man with the fugitives. This was Sheriff Jonathan Fitch. It should be here mentioned that Capt. Blancbard surrendered the fort at Pitts- ton, Fort Brown, on the morning of the 4th to a detachment of Col. John Butler's command. When the fight occurred Capt. Spalding was only forty miles away and hurry- ing to Forty fort as fast as possible. With his and Franklin's men— thirty- five, who reached the fort during the fight— the invading army could have been success- fully repulsed, and, standing on the defensive in chosen localities, in time the English and Indians as an army destroyed in all probability. Capts. Durkee and Bidlack had ridden all night and were at the fort in time to go into the battle, where both died. Hence the patriots knew just where Spalding and his command were at the moment they so rashly marched oat to engage the enemy. 104 HISTOBY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. One of the theories that is read between the lines in this chapter of history is something like this: A number of families that had come to be known as anti- Yankee in sentiment had settled in the upper end of the valley. They had been driven out, some ordered to go, and others persecuted until they felt compelled to leave. These had taken ref age in northern New York and were eager to return to the val- ley and even up old scores. And it is said they suggested the expedition and some of these were in Col. John Butler's command, and that some of the darkest of the colors in the picture were the results of their presence. Col. Z. Butler, as soon as possible, wrote Gen. Washington an account of the bloody day, and solicited succor, in order that, if possible, a portion of the harvest standing in the fields might be saved. Joining Capt. Spauldiag early in August, he returned to Wyoming. A new stockade was built in Wilkes-Barre and put in the best possible defence*. A number of the settlers were now encouraged to return, among others John Abbott, who had been in the battle, and Isaac Williams, a young man, in attempting to harvest their wheat on Jacob's plains, were waylaid and both shot and scalped. The widow of Mr. Abbott, who had fled to Catawissa, with nine children (their house and barn having been burned, and all their property destroyed), set out on foot, a jour- ney of nearly 300 miles, and begged their way home to Hampton, Conn. About this time three Indians took prisoners on the Lackawanna, Isaac Tripp, the elder; Isaac Tripp, his grandson, and two young men, by the names of Keys and Hocksey. The old gentleman they painted and dismissed, but hurried the others into the forest (now Abington), above Leggett's Gap, on the warrior's path to Oquago. Resting one night, they rose next morning and traveled about two miles, when they stopped at a little stream of water. The two young Indians then took Keys and Hocksey some distance from the path, and were absent half an hour, the old Indian looking anxiously the way they had gone. Presently, the death- whoop was heard, and the Indians returned brandishing bloody tomahawks, and exhibiting the scalps of their victims. Tripp's hat was taken from his head, and his scalp examined twice, the savages speaking earnestly, when at length they told him to fear nothing, he should not be hurt, and carried him off as a prisoner. Luke Swet- land and Joseph Blanchard were taken prisoners, near Nanticoke, on August 24, and carried away captives to the Indian country. A garrison of about 100 men was in the Wilkes-Barre stockade — Capts. Garrison's and Spnlding's companies; these were the militia of Westmoreland town. Armed parties labored in the fields and on the hills around were placed sentinels. Late in the fall Isaac Inman was murdered in Hanover. He supposed he had heard some wild turkeys and went out to kill one. His scalped body lay under the snow and was not discovered until spring. On October 2 four of Capt. Morrison's men were attacked on the west side of the river, three of whom were killed, and one escaped. October 14 William Jame- son, returning home from Wilkes Barre, was shot near where the canal crossed the road below Careytown. Being wounded, he fell from the horse, and attempted to gain the woods, but was pursued, tomahawked and scalped. A valuable young man in the prime of life, being twenty-six years of age. He had been in the battle and escaped, and his scalp was therefore a doubly valuable prize to the Indians. November 7 Mr. John Perkins was killed in Plymouth; a victim also most grat- ifying to the revengeful savage, as Mr. Perkins had a son in Spalding's independent company. William Jackson aud Mr. Lester, taken from the mill at Nanticoke, were marched three miles up into Hanover and then shot down. An aged man, spoken of as "old Mr. Hageman," a prisoner, escaped with six wounds, and sur- vived. November 9 Capt. Carr and Philip Goss, in attempting to fly in a canoe, were shot below Wapwallopen and left, the latter dead, the other dying on the shore. , Robert Alexander and Amos Parker were, about the same time, found mur- dered in the lower part of the valley. HISTORY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. 107 A whole family was brutally massacred November 19, near Nesoopeck— John, Elisha and Diah Utley ; the first two shot down. Diah fled and swam the river, but as he came to the opposite shore was brained by an Indian, The savages then entered the house, murdered and scalped the aged mother, and in savage glee placed her body mockingly in a chair. March 21, 1779, Capt. James Bidlack and Josiah Rogers, both aged, were cross- ing the flats on their way to Plymouth. The savages suddenly sprang from ambush and attempted to ^ize their horses' bridles, but failing in this, a race ensued. The girth of Capt. Bidlack's saddle broke, he was thrown and made prisoner. Rogers was fired at several times, but escaped. Hardly had he carried the news to the fort when a large force of Indians was seen advancing over the Kingston flats toward the block-house; all this in full view of the Wilkes-Barre fort. They, however, made no determined attack, but did drive off considerable stock. Col. Butler at once sent out twenty-five men in pursuit and to succor those in the Kingston block-house, and the enemy was driven off; none of our people killed, ,but several wounded. The miserable affair of Maj. Powell and his regiment of nearly 200 men occurred on April 19. He had been ordered to report at Wilkes-Barre. Arriving at Bear creek, ten miles from this place, a halt was made to dress and come in the valley with an imposing array of fine feathers, arms burnished and ruffled shirts put on, and the music struck up. They resumed marching, when they were fired on from ambush; the Major hastily retreated. This action took place near the summit of the second mountain, by the Laurel run, about four miles from Wilkes-Barre. Capt. Davis, Lieut. Jones, a corporal named Butler, and three men fell. Maj. Powell soon after left the army. It should be here explained that Maj. Powell's regiment was the first of the gathering for Sullivan's expedition, soon to be followed by the First and Third New Jersey regiments, two regiments of New Hampshire, and Col. Proctor's artillery — all a part of the rendezvous at Easton. The year 1780 brought its renewal of troubles to the settlers. The sense of security and repose, so welcome to the wearied settlers after the distressing scenes of the two preceding years, they were not long permitted to cherish. Effectual as the punishment of the savages seemed, instead of subduing, it only appeared to have exasperated their thirst for revenge. Being confident that Sullivan had left in the whole Indian country nothing for them to subsist upon, it was not doubted but the savages were necessarily within the British lines at Niagara, beyond striking distance; and the settlers resumed their farming at Kingston, Hanover and Plymouth. The main settlement had block-houses built, in case of attack, wherein to seek shelter and make defence. In the latter part of March an alarm was given that the Indians were in the valley. On the 27th Thomas Bennett and his son, a lad, in a field not far from their house, in Kingston, were seized and made prisoners by six Indians. Lebbeus Hammond, who had been captured a few hours before, they found tied as they entered a gorge of the mountain. Hammond had been in the battle, and was then takenprisoner, but had escaped. On the night of the 28th the prisoners seized the opportunity, when their guard slept, rose upon them and slew all and triumphantly returned with their trophies to their friends. The same day Bennett and others were taken another roving band of Indians shot Asa Upson in Hanover. March 28 two men were making sugar eight miles below Wilkes-Barre; one was killed, the other taken prisoner. The next day Jonah Rogers, aged about fifteen, was taken prisoner from the lower part of the valley. In September a large party of Indians passing Wyoming, without giving the least alarm, crossed the Susquehanna, near the mouth of the Nescopeck creek, leav- ing Wilkes-Barre fort eighteen miles on the left. On advancing into the Scotch Valley, now known as Conyngham and Sugar Loaf, moving with cat-like wariness, 108 HISTOBY OF LDZEBNE COUNTY. they discovered a party of Americans entirely off their guard, some eating, others at play, for it was noon, and entertaining not the slightest apprehension of an enemy being near, they were reposing or sporting, after a forenoon march. On counting their numbers, the Indians found the Americans had thirty-three men, their own being thirty. Some were for making a bold attack; others, who had come for plun- der, preferred to retire. It was, however, agreed upon that they would all draw near and take a shot; if the Americans were not broken, but should rally with spirit, they would retreat to a designated place. The tire was as deadly as unex- pected. Our people who survived ran in the utmost confusion. Lieut. Myers, who commanded, did everything an intrepid ofiicer could do- to rally his men, seized his rifle, and vowed he would die before he would retreat. One or two ran to his aid, but it was too late. He was seized by the gallant Indian chief, wounded slightly, and made prisoner. Satisfied with their thirteen scalps, their prisoners, and all the booty brought out by the party, the Indians hastened their retreat, doing what mischief they could by burning the Shickshinny mills and all the grain stacks on their route. The second night Lieut. Myers contrived to make his escape, and came into the Wyoming fort with the melancholy tidings. On March 10 the savages made an attack on Samuel Ransom's house, in Ply- mouth, wounding him, though not severely. A spirited resistance was made, and one Indian left dead on the field. At the commencement of the war the proprietors, foreseeing danger, and the whole settlement being desirous that those beautiful and productive alluvial lands, consisting of a thousand acres of the richest river bottoms, should not be entirely neglected, and run to waste, made an agreement with several persons to give them the use of all the land they could cultivate during the war, if they would build blockhouses of sufficient strength to defend it and keep possession. Among those who associated for the purpose were Maj. Prince Alden, Alexander Jameson, Joseph Jameson, Abraham Nesbitt, Jonah Rogers, Samuel Ayers, Mr. Ransom, and others. Except at the general expulsion after the massa- cre in 1778, the lessees, some of whom were proprietors, held their ground; attacked, defending themselves, fighting, suffering, they still maintained their position. April 28, 1781, Capt. Spalding's company was ordered to march and Capt. Mitchell had been directed to assume command at this place in lieu of Col. Butler. It is supposed this action was at the instance of the Pennsylvania proprietaries, and was intended to get the Connecticut troops as much as possible out of the valley. On Sunday, June 9, a party of twelve Indians made an attack on a block-house at Buttonwood, in Hanover, three miles below the Wilkes-Barre fort. They met with a warm reception. The house was gallantly defended, the women aiding the men with alacrity and spirit. A party from the fort, on receiving the alarm, hastened down and found pools of blood, where Lieut. Rosewell Franklin had wounded, probably killed, an Indian. A terrible revenge followed. Scouts constantly on the alert, one going out as another returned, ascended the river from fifty to eighty miles, and sought the enemy in every direction. On Tuesday, the 14th, Lieut. Grain shot at and wounded an Indian within 600 yards of the garrison. The Rev. Mr. Johnson now returned with his family from their exile in Connecticut, having been compelled to fly after the massacre in 1778. In the autumn of this year Gapt. James Bidlack returned amid the rejoicing of the people from his captivity. He was accompanied by Mr. Harvey. Both had been paroled by the British. The ilfomement.—" The Wyoming Commemorative Association" was incorporated December 31, 1881. Incorporators: Charles Dorrance, Edmund L. Dana. Steuben Jenkms, Garrick M. Harding, Wesley Johnson, Abel Baker, L. D. Shoemaker, Harry Hakes, R. J. Wisner, Payne Pettebone, D. S. Bennett,- Stanley Woodward, Calvin Parsons. Officers: President, diaries Dorrance; vice-presidents, E. L. Dana, L. D. Shoemaker, Calvin Parsons, H. Hollister and Steuben Jenkins; treasurer, HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 109 Harry Hakes; secretary, Wesley Johnson; corresponding secretary, Abel Baker; librarian, D. S. Bennett. The approach of the centennial anniversary of the Wyoming battle stimulated the descendants of the heroes of that day to prepare for its suitable celebration. In the month of June, 1877, Steuben Jenkins and Calvin Parsons by chance met in Wilkes- Barre and coaferred upon the subject and agreed that immediate action should be taken in the premises. The preliminary work was at once entered upon. Steuben Jenkins and Wesley Johnson sent out special invitations to the living descendants to meet at the court-house in Wilkes-Barre, July 3, 1877. The first meeting was therefore held on the ninety-ninth anniversary of the battle. Among others at this meeting were Hon. Steuben Jenkins, Hon. Edmund L. Dana, Gov. Henry M. Hoyt, Hon. Lazarus D. Shoemaker, Col. Charles Dorrance, Dr. Horace HoUister, of Providence, Priestly E. Johnson, Calvin Parsons and Wesley Johnson. Gen. Dana presided. Dr. Hollister and Mr. Jenkins made addresses. A com- mittee of seventeen was appointed to report at a subsequent meeting — all of these were lineal descendants of the participants of the battle, as follows: Hon. Steuben Jenkins, Gen. Edmund L. Dana, Dr. Horace Hollister, Stewart Pearce, Col. Charles Dorrance, Hon. Lazarus D. Shoemaker, Ira Davenport, Jesse Harding, Col. Frank Stewart, Capt. Calvin Parsons, Dr. Andrew Bedford, Edward Wells, Steuben Butler, William Eoss Maffit, Wesley Johnson, Hon. Peter M. Osterhout, Elisha Blackman; chairman, Steuben Jenkins. The members of the committee corresponded with the "seventeen townships" — the Connecticut claim. Steuben Jenkins was a grandson of Col. John Jenkins, of colonial times. Judge Dana was a grandson of the chivalric Anderson Dana, who had hurried from the Hartford assembly to lay down his life for freedom. Calvin Parsons is a descendant of the Dana stock on the maternal side. Dr. Hollister was of the family of Hollisters who, lost their lives in the "First Massacre of Wyoming" in 1763. Stewart Pearce, author of a valuable history, Annals of Luzerne, was of the house of Lazarus Stewart. Col. Charles Dorrance, a grandson of Col. George Dorrance. Hon. L. D. Shoemaker was of the blood of Col. Denison and of Capt. Elijah Shoemaker. The latter was killed on the battle field. Jesse Harding, a representative of the Hardings, who were attacked in the field and killed by John Butler's men. Of the father and four sons only one, the grand- father of Jesse, escaped. Col. Frank Stewart, of the Lazarus Stewart blood. Edward Wells, a grandson of Matthias Hollenback. Hon. Steuben Butler was a son of Col. Zebulon Butler, who was in command of the patriot army. On the day of the meeting, except Mrs. Sally Abbott, daughter of Col. Nathan Denison, was the only living representative next in degree to the old patriots of the valley. Dr. Andrew Bedford's mother, Miss Sutton, was a girl ten years of age, in the fort. William Eoss Maffit was nearest of kin to the brave Eoss family, being a grand- son of Gen. William Eoss. The Davenports, of Plymouth, were among the early settlers of the valley. Wesley Johnson is a grandson of the pioneer preacher. Jacob Johnson was present, but was detailed to stay at the fort. He was the secretary in drawing the papers of capitulation. Since the above was in press, Wesley Johnson died in Wilkes-Barre, in the latter part of October, 1892. The Blackmans were prominent in the darkest of those dark days here. Judge Osterhout was of the Gen. Putnam stock. 110 HISTOKY OF LUZEKNE COUNTY. July 18 following the committee met, when Mr. Jenkins submitted a plan of organization, and a general meeting called for July 25. The association was organized at the meeting, July 25, 1877, and the wort of preparation for holding a suitable centennial was fully inaugurated and was actively advanced along all the different lines by the different committees. January 1, 1878, the centenary year of the battle, was marked by a large meet- ing of citizens assembling on the historic spot, at the call of the association. Dr. Harry Hakes delivered a discourse on the objects of the association and the approaching centennial meeting— the main purpose being to make July 3, 1878, the memorable day of Wyoming valley. Col. Samuel Bowman and Hubbard B. Payne also delivered short addresses. The "Old Sullivan gun" was brought out and several shots fired from it. It was broken off below the trunions and was examined with great curiosity. The gun had been brought over the mountains in 1779 by Gen. Sullivan from Easton and had been buried on the farm of the Denisons, as it was too heavy to carry on his trip up the Susquehanna. Constant meetings were now held by the executive committee, and from every hand came assuraoces that July 3 would be indeed a memorable day. The day came in fulfilment of all this preparation and the city and boroughs near the battle ground were decorated, and everywhere flags were fluttering and marching bands and music filled the air. Thousands of people were abroad, the streets and roads lined with the living masses and the railroad trains on every road were constantly arriving bearing their living human freight. A special train with the president of the United States and governor of Pennsylvania, their respective staffs and numerous honored guests reached Wilkes-Barre on the forenoon of the third. And the greatest day in the annals of Wyoming valley was inaugurated. The procession was an elaborate affair — representing even the earliest pioneer times with a band of genuine Indians brought here for the occasion; the industries of modern times were appropriately represented; many of the States were represented by their most prominent men; many buildings were handsomely decorated, and many poems and addresses were made on the grounds. It was estimated there were 50,000 people in attendance at the monument. Col. Wright made an appropriate address of welcome. The presidential and governor's party were welcomed by an address by Gov. Hoyt. At the monument a beautiful ode by Mrs. Waters ("Stella of Lackawanna") was read. The address of C. A. I. Chapman was an eloquent tribute to the illustrious dead. Rev. Charles Dana Barrows, of Lowell, Mass., read a poem — a tribute to the Massachusetts women of Wyoming. Then came the address of Judge Edmund L. Dana, whose grandparents- — Dana and Stevens — were killed in the Wyoming battle. The address had been carefully prepared, but the program extending over more time than had been anticipated, was not read. An ode, "Fair Wyoming," by Miss Susan E. Dickinson, set to music, was then sung. Jenkins' Address. — The crowning event of the first day, after short speeches by the president, governor, Hon. John Sherman, Senator Buckalew, Atty.-Gen. Devans and others, was the historical address by Steuben Jenkins — a scholarly man, the best equipped of the day to make the centennial historical address over the bones of the fallen heroes of Wyoming. He was among the last of the living immediate descendants of this Spartan band. He had made a careful and intelligent study of the subject all his life, and had in his possession the amplest possible mate- rials concerning the history of those early and trying times of the pioneers. A man ripe m learning, large in patriotism, and deep in devotion to his country and the liber- ties of its people, the hour and the man were admirably fitted to the important occasion, so much so that the act itself was historical. His heart and brain were profoundly stirred in the work of preparation of this address; he must have known that It was the crowning act of his long and useful life, and he rose to his highest HISTORY OE LUZERNE COUNTY. HI reach and condensed in a brief address an incomparable amount of the century's history of one of the supremest movements of mankind in all history and in all time. He commenced with a brief contrast in the conditions of the country then and now; an explanation that these defenders who fought and mostly fell were not sol- diers—not an army, but mostly aged men, youths and a few others not able to be in the active army in the field; that they were without any military organization and without the equipments of an army; a peaceful, pioneer, agricultural race of men, content to till the soil and feed their flocks, but a people who loved liberty and hated the tyrant, and therefore as soon as they heard of the battles of Concord and Lexington had called a town meeting and unanimously voted a genuine Declaration of Independence, and at the call of their country sent all their able-bodied men to Washington's army. In 1776 John Jenkins, representative from Westmoreland to the Connecticut assembly, had obtained the right to erect here a powder mill ; the town had voted a bounty of £10 to the " first man that shall make fifty weight of good saltpeter;" on the promulgation of the immortal Declaration of Independence a town meeting was called and it was voted to at once commence erecting forte; to raise two companies of soldiers, and forts were erected at Kingston, Upper Wilkes- Barre (Mill Creek) and at Wilkes-Barre proper; "Jenkins Port," in Exeter town- ship; West Pittston, Hanover and Plymouth (Stewart block house). The general campaign of 1777 opened amid gloom and despondency; Burgoyne with a powerful army was descending along Lake Champlain and the Hudson river and Howe was moving up the river to join him and they were rapidly taking the Indians into the British service and the people of the valley or Westmoreland county began to take the precaution of sending parties up the river to watch the movements of the Indians; the tories were now encouraged to open activity, and the people learned that constant communication was being carried on with the tories about Tunkhan- nock and the Indians above. February 13, 1778, Amos York and Lemuel Fitch were carried off as prisoners to Niagara. Richard Fitzgerald was captured by the same band, but was so old that he was discharged from custody; these prisoners were kept all winter at Niagara and reported seeing there many tories from the upper Susque- hanna; added to all the other calamities the small-pox raged in every district and the people were helpless against its attacks, yet in all these misfortunes and dis- couragements on D -cember 30, 1777, the people at a town meeting of Westmore- land voted to supply "ye sogers' wives and sogers' widows and their families with the necessaries of life. " The British policy, early in 1776, was to employ the Indians and tories in carry- ing on marauds and invasions on the unprotected frontiers and the people here well knew that a most inviting field for these pitiless forays was down the Susquehanna to the Wyoming settlement. Yet at the request of congress this people sent to the continental army Durkee's and Ransom's companies, which included about all the able-bodied young men in the settlement — patriotic, indeed! but as rash an act of devotion and self sacrifice as ever was performed by a people. When the war cloud began to gather in the north the people promptly informed congress and begged for the return of their two companies of soldiers, whose families and their helpless friends were menaced by the savages as well as the invaders. In the midst of these accumulating terrors suddenly appeared in the settlement Lieut. John Jenkins, who had escaped from his captors in Canada. York and Fitch, who had been captured with him, had been released at Montreal, and they had been put on board a transport to be sent to New England. Pitch died on board the ves- sel and York only lived to reach his friends in Voluntown, Conn., and died. Jen- kins arrived at home June 2, and brought information that a great number of tories from up the river had wintered at Montreal and threatened to return and punish their enemies in Wyoming. [This is italicized for the purpose of fixing it in the 112 HISTORY OF LUZEBNE COUNTY. reader's mind, as bearing on the theory, not much advanced, but believed by some, that Butler's invasion was at the suggestion of certain parties that had been sus- pected of being unfriendly to the Yankees and had been driven away.] The story of Jenkins confirmed the worst fears of the people. June 5 there was a general Indian alarm spread, caused by six white men (said to be tories) appearing at Tunk- hannock and taking prisoners Elisha Wilcox, Pierce and one or two others and they plundered several of the inhabitants. Hastening messengers were sent to Washington and to the soldiers in the army from the valley, telling of the gathering perils, and the inhabitants set to work strengthening the stockades and rude forts. June 1'2, 1778, William Crooks and Asa Budd went up the river and reached a point about two miles above Tunkhannock, and from the house of John Secord they were fired upon, and Crooks was killed. On the 17th a party of five went up the river from Jenkins' fort. The canoe in which were Miner Bobbins, Joel Phelps and Stephen Jenkins, was fired upon; Bobbins was killed and Phelps wounded. Capt. Hewitt, with a scouting party, went up the river June 30, and hastily retiring, reported a large body of the enemy coming. At Jenkins fort, about a mile above Wintermoot fort, were gathered the families of John Jenkins, Capt. Stephen Harding, the Hadsalls, John Gardiner, and others. On the morning of June 30, and before Capt. Hewitt's return, Benjamin Harding, Stukely Harding, Stephen Harding, Jr. , John Gardiner, and a lad named Bogers, aged eleven, James Hadsall and his sous James and John, and his sons-in-law Ebenezer Beynolds and Daniel Carr, together with Daniel Wallen and a negro named Quocko, a servant of William Martin — twelve in all, went up the river to Exeter to their farm labors. It is only known that Benjamin and Stukely Harding took their guns with them, though some of the others may have had theirs. The Hardings, with Gardiner and the boy Bogers, worked in the cornfield of Stephen Harding, Jr. ; the Hadsells and the others, part in Hadsall' s cornfield on the island, part in his tanyard, close at hand, on the mainland. Late in the afternoon two suspected tories approached these men at work and offered to stand guard for them. This aroused suspicions, and Stephen Harding at once went for the horses, and when he returned his companions had quit work and started homeward, and he followed. On the way down was a deep, narrow ravine. This spot is near the Baptist church, between that and the river. As they passed this spot they were fired on; Benjamin and Stukely Harding were wounded. The Indians now rushed upon them, and the men fought for their lives, but fell. Here John Gardiner, having no arms, was taken prisoner. The dead Hardings had left all about their mutilated bodies the abundant evidences of their unconquerable bravery. In the meantime another party of Indians had captured James Hadsall, his son-in- law Carr, and the negro, at the tannery. Those on the island came off in canoes, and as they ascended the bank were ambushed and fired upon, killing James Had- sell and wounding Beynolds, who fled with Wallen. The boy, John Hadsell, had remained at the canoe, and, on hearing the firing, fled to the woods. He was the first to arrive at the fort and give the awful news. The elder Hadsell, Gardiner, Carr and the negro were taken up the creek two miles to the Bailey farm, where Hadsall and the negro were put to death, horribly tortured to give an evening's entertainment. Stephen Harding Jr., Beynolds, Wallen and the boy Bogers fled through the woods, wandering all night and reached the fort the next morning. This sad story roused the people to a wild frenzy of apprehensions. John Gardiner, prisoner, was taken to near Geneva, N. Y., and put to death. His fellow prisoner, Daniel Carr, saw his mutilated remains the next day after he was tortured to death. This was the bloody prelude to the tar more terrible story of "Bloody Wyoming." On the morning of July 3, Col. John Butler sent a flag of truce to Forty fort HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 113 demaading aa uaconditioaal surrender. "Oa the afternoon of the 2d and the morning of the 3d," says Dr. Harry Hakes, ' 'councils of war were held in the fort to determine what best to do. Not only did the subordinate officers demand to be heard in the council, bat the men all seem to have had their say. Such a state of affairs could not and would not be tolerated in a regular army, but with this undisci- plined, unorganized force, assembled hastily together, made up largely of material that would be rejected by a regular army, the whole of it in a perfect frenzy of fear and full of dismil forebodings, perhaps not much else could be expected. The opinions of those who by profession, discipline and experience were best qualified to estimate the situation, went for no more than those of the inexperienced and un- tried. The real point to be decided resolved itself into this: Should they remain in fort for the present, until reinforcements should arrive, standing on the defensive, and endeavoring to find out the strength and position of the enemy; or should they go out at once and hunt him up and give him battle? The superior officers were in favor of the first proposition, while the large majority demanded to be led at once to battle. The forces that were expected wore the remainder of the Wyoming men with Washington, who had a few days previous been merged into one company under Capt. Spalding, and a company of thirty-five men from Huntington and Salem under the command of Capt. John Franklin. That Col. Zebulon Butler must have known to almost a certainty that these two bodies of men were near at hand is quite conclusively shown by the fact that Franklin and his men reached the fort a few hours after the battle, and Spalding's company was within one day's journey of the valley, although it retraced its march on hearing that the battle had taken place. The majority argued that the enemy would either besiege the fort or spread over the valley, carrying devastation and death. What the enemy's plans were, we do not certainly know; nor did our people. We can only judge by their acts. Two things are certain — our people decided to make an attack, and the enemy knew just when, and chose his own ground. The contention in the fort was angry and loud, if not logical. A single instance will suffice to show the order, or disorder, of the occasion. Capt. Stewart was in favor of immediate action, and told Col. Butler that if he did not lead them out at once to battle, he would take his company and go home. We must remember that this was a popular assembly, rather than an organized and disciplined army, where each man must know his place and duty. Like popular assemblies for civil purposes, the majority decided — a safe enough rule for most civil purposes, but in such a -case, brim full of danger. On the afternoon of the 2d, and again on the morning of the 3d, the British commander sent down under the flag of truce a demand for the surrender of the fort. This demand was in both cases refused. In that decision our men were unanimous. It may perhaps be doubted if the demand was made so much with any expectation of surrender as it was to thus safely get an idea of our strength, preparation and intentions. It answered both purposes. Between 2 and 3 o'clock in the afternoon of July 3, 1778, our forces marched out of the fort and started- up the valley in search of the enemy. Upon arriving about where the Agricultural Fair Grounds are now located, the enemy was first discovered already drawn up in line of battle, his left wing com- posed of his regulars under the command of Col. John Butler, resting a short dis- tance below Fort Wintermoot, which was in flames; bis center composed of tories, and his right composed of his Indians, thus extending the line nearly half a mile, and resting on the border of a dense swamp, a large portion of his Indians being entirely concealed in the swamp. The ground between the respective forces was nearly level, and was covered by a growth of shrub oaks, about four or five feet in hight, interspersed with a number of yellow pine trees. Extending from Fort Wintermoot northwardly, in the direction of the line of battle, there was a long and narrow clearing containing some two or three acres. The line of march up the val- ley by our army brought it in front of the enemy's left wing. Our forces were 114 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. then deployed to the left, to cover the British line. Before forming the line, Col. Zebulon Butler briefly addressed his men in a few encouraging and bold sentences, concluding: "Stand firm the first shock, and the Indians will give way. Everything depends upon standing firm the first shock. Now to your posts." Cols. Denison and Dorrance took charge of our left wing, and Col. Butler the right. At the word of command our men were directed to open fire along the whole line, and then steadily advance at each fire. "Eeady, aim, fire!" Our men gave them a volley of bullets, to which the enemy responded. Our men stand firm the first shock of the battle, and steadily advance, firing rapidly. The British left wing begins to fall back upon slightly elevated ground above Fort Wintermoot, and our right follows up the apparent advantage until it brings our men upon the cleared ground before mentioned. Up to this point our people felt confident of victory, and so far as they yet had any knowledge of the enemy, they had fair reasons for this confidence. On. the cleared ground they were, however, badly exposed to the British fire, and lost heavily. It is said their dead bodies lay there like sheaves of grain in a harvest field. On our left the greatest misfortune was that Col. Dorrance and nearly every captain had been killed. Throughout our whole line we had lost nearly all the offi- cers. In following up the supposed advantage, our right wing reached a bloody field, and our left had advanced so far along the side of the swamp that at this moment the Indians, who had been concealed in the swamp, raised their hideous war whoop, and, with tomahawk and spear, swarmed on our flank and rear. This was the climax and catastrophe of the battle. The enemy, in vastly superior num- bers, was now both in frort and rear. Our histories ssy that Col. Butler, on dis- covering the enemy's flank movement, sent an order to the left to "fall back (if so, it was with a view to change front so as to face the enemy), and Ihat this order was mistaken for an order to retreat. Unquestionably such a movement would (if possi- ble) give them the least chance to maintain the ground, but under the circumstances it could not be executed. In fact, veterans can not be held when thus surrounded, and it must not be expected of such a force as Col. Butler had. The battle is ended." Dr. Harry Hakes, and he is in accord with Jenkins and others, says that there were "100 tories" with the invaders. It should be kept in mind that those called "tories" included the men in the valley who did not take side with the Connecti- cut people; many of whom had been driven out of the country; many had been arrested and taken to Connecticut, and in alf cases of the kind set at liberty by the court as "without offence." Many of these "tories" were simply disloyal to the land claims of Connecticut, and there is no doubt but that some of them had been cruelly treated, and thereby inflamed with a spirit of revenge. An incident in the fort of transcendent importance should properly have been mentioned in the preceding paragraphs: In the discussion of the subject of going out to attack the enemy the Hanover company hwd become mutinous; Capt. Mc- Karrachen resigned in consequence thereof, and Lazarus Stewart was elected in his place. Col. Butler had placed Stewart under arrest for his incendiary con- duct, and he was only discharged when all were ready to march out and attack. Richard Inman, one of Stewart's men, as Jenkins says, "wearied with the long march and the burden he was carrying, lay down alongside of a fence, while they were halted, and went to sleep." Happily he was awakened in time to save the life of Col. Lazarus Butler, as he was following his retreating men, and an Indian was pursuing to kill him, when Inman rose on his knees, and at the command of Butler shot the red rascal. Another version has it that Kufus Bennett was saving himself m the race for the fort by holding on to Col. Butler's horse's tail, and that when he saw Inman sittmg up, rubbing his eyes, be called to him: "Is your gun loaded *"' Inman said, "Yes." "Shoot that Indian!" and Inman fired and killed the fore- most of the two pursuers, and the other turned back. "Inman's nap" is an inci- ^^^ /^V^v^i/^2W^ HISTOE-ii OF LUZEENE COUNTY. 117 dent worthy the muse of the Wyoming poets; it well illustrates the fact that in actual battle there is much of hap-hazard and accident. Mr. Jenkins says the retreat was not wholly confused — the men in squads moved sullenly and would turn on their pursuers. On the left a squad of a dozen or more, unconscious of the fatal state of affairs, as only one of their men, John Caldwell, had fallen, stood their ground and continued firing in this position until passed by the enemy, when they fled in an opposite direction; some of them were taken after- ward as prisoners, and, Mr. Jenkins says, were carried above the battlefield and massacred. After the surrender there is much conflict as to what really took place. The first accounts that went out to the world gave the most shocking details of the horrid orgies, the cruel butcheries and scalping of men, women, and even children; the story of the butchery of a brother by his brother captor, while on his knees begging for his life; of the wounded being, after incredible tortures, dragged to the camp- fire and thrown on the burning logs and held there with pitchforks, and many other nameless horrors, were given in sickening detail. There is but little doubt but that there was much plundering after the battle. Col. Denison says the enemy "plun- dered, burned and destroyed almost Everything that was valuable." William Gal- lup, under oath, said: " We were plundered of everything. They kept us three or four days, then told us to go. One hundred and eighty women and children, accompanied by only thirteen men, went together. * * * Two women were delivered on the way in the woods. * * * The savages burnt all our improve- ments. * * * The number of fugitives were about 2,000. * * * Many perished on the way for food, and many lost their way and were never heard of again. The dreary swamp was then called 'The Siiades of Death.' " Steuben Jenkins felt it imperative, on this centennial day of the Wyoming bat- tle, to tell something of the other side of the story. He realized that history must in time reach the cold bottom facts and lay them before the world. He quotes freely from Capt. Alexander Patterson's petition to the legislature, in which, among other things, he says : "In the year 1776 there were a number of inhabitants, settlers on the northeast branch of the Susquehanna, near Wyalusing, under the Pennsylvania title. Among these were two brothers by the name of Pawling, of a respectable family from the county of Montgomery. They had paid £1,000 in gold and silver for their farm at Wyalusing, unto Job Chilloway, a useful, well-informed Indian, who had obtained a grant for said land from the late proprietors of the State. Among the settlers were the Secords, Depew, Vanderlip, and many others, wealthy farmers. The Yan- kees at Wyoming being more numerous, and, though at the distance of sixty miles, insisted that the Pennsylvania settlers should come to Wyoming and train and asso- ciate under Yankee officers of their own appointment. As may be supposed the proposals were very obnoxious to the inhabitants of Pennsylvania, and very properly they refused, alleging they would associate by themselves and would not be com- manded by intruders, who had so repeatedly sacked the well-disposed inhabitants of Pennsylvania, and at the time bid defiance to the laws and its jurisdiction. This gave a pretext to the Yankees for calling them tories. They then went in force and tied the Pennsylvania settlers and brought them to Wyoming, with all their movables, and confined them in a log house, until the Indians, who lived in the neighborhood of Wyalusing, and loved the Pennsylvanians, and at the time were well affected to the United States, some of whom had joined our army, protested." He then proceeds to tell how the intervention of the Indians finally secured the releas*? of the prisoners, but the poor people, as they were returning, he says, were ambushed and fired upon by the Yankees, and that in many ways the Pennsylva- nians were so harassed by the intruders that they were driven to seek an asylum with the Indians, and at length retired to Niagara for protection. He says it was 7 118 HISTOB-Y OP LUZEBNE COUNTY. natural to imagine that the Pennsylvanians, who had been so cruelly deprived of their property, would endeavor to regain it, and he bluntly says their "moving address" induced Butler and Joseph Brant, the well-known Indians, to undertake thb expedition to the Wyoming to recover their property, goods and chattels, and then he gives this account of the battle: "The party arrived at a place called Abraham's Plains, about five miles above Wyoming. The Yankees were apprised of their being at that place, and must need go and fight them, led on by the old murderer, Lazarus Stewart, first having drank two barrels of whisky to stimulate their spirits. They marched in riot, with drums beatiag and colors flying. The result was that a number of them were killed. Those who asked quarter were humanely treated, nor was woman or child molested, only enjoined to leave the country to the rightful owners. Surely there was no pro- priety in calling that a massacre or murder. The wretches brought it on them- selves, and so be it. ' ' New York, September 10, 1778, Col. Guy Johnson to Lord George Germain said: "Your Lordship will have learned before this reaches you of the successful incursion of the Indians and loyalists from the northward. In conformity to the instructions I conveyed to my officers, they assembled their forces early in May, and one division under one of my deputies (Butler), proceeded with great success down the Susquehanna, destroying the posts and settlements at Wyoming, augmenting their numbers with many loyalists and alarming all the country; whilst another division under Mr. Brant, the Indian chief, cut off 294 men near Schoharie and destroyed the adjacent settlements, with several magazines, from whence the rebels had derived great resources, thereby affording encouragement and opportunity to many friends of the government to joia them." This is a little of the two sides of the story as given on the authority of Steuben Jenkins. Patent errors are to be seen on both sides, not only in the wide differences on material points, but on subjects where they are substantially agreed. This is one of the almost insuperable difficulties that meet the historian at every paragraph of his work. At the moment of an important occurrence the shield is seen from totally different sides; by highly excited minds, inflamed with opposing prejudices, and results are that all accounts are wholly irreconcilable. And the historian is left much to the task of blind guessing. There was a battle on the 3d of July, 1778, in which the Connecticut patriots were terribly slaughtered, the palpable result of a fearful blunder on their part, in which so many good men sealed their mistake with their lives. The source of the invasion was chiefly the preceding ill treatment of the Pennite settlers by the Yankees. Connecticut had cruelly abandoned its people after instigating them to come here and treat the Penn settlers as open enemies and finally as tories. And now after more than one hundred years have come and gone the impartial chronicler is justified in the anomolous conclusion : Both were right and both were wrong. The fallen heroes of that bloody field lay unburied from July 3 to October 22. When Lieut. John Jenkins, with a detail of men, gathered such as they could and gave them a common sepulture, none were recognizable. Those found on the battle- field were buried together and those found scattered at other points were buried where found. No index marked the spot where any were buried. And thus they slept in peace until July 4, 1832, when, after much vain searching, their bones were exhumed for the purpose of erecting a monument over the sacred ashes. The Monument— Nearly fifty years had elapsed after the Wyoming battle before any effective effort was made to erect the monument that now points the place where the heroes sleep. July 22, 1826, a meeting was called in Wilkes-Barre, followed by another meeting August 9 ; the latter was presided over by Gen. William Ross, Arnold Colt, secretary, in which resolutions were passed that in time led to the erection of HISTORY OP LUZERNE COUNTY. 119 the monument. A committee was appointed, of whom Col. John Franklin was a member, to solicit subscriptions; of the entire committee of seventy -five members, only three were living July 3, 1878, viz.: Henry Roberts, aged eighty- seven; Abram Honeywell, of Dallas, aged eighty-six, and John Gore, of Kingston, aged eighty-three. Steuben Batler, editor of the paper in which the proceedings were published of this first meeting, was then aged ninety. He died August 12, 1881. But little more was done to push the monument along until July 3, 1882, when a large meeting convened at the battle-ground to pay tribute to the heroes. Bev. James May delivered an address. Among other things he said: "The grave con- taining their bones is uncovered before you. You see for yourselves the marks of the tomahawk and scalping knife on the heads which are here uncovered, after hav- ing rested for more than fifty years." A part of his audience were some of the sur- vivors of the battle — fifty-four years preceding. Another speaker, Kev. Nicholas Murry ("Kirwan"), made a few remarks on the occasion and holding up a skull to the view of the audience, asked them to look at the cruel marks of the tomahawk and scalping knife on it, using this gruesome token as an incentive to help build the monument to the memory of the " murdered." July 3, 1883, was laid the corner-stone of the Wyoming monument with great pomp and ceremony. Hon. Chester Butler, grandson of Col. Zebulon Butler, deliv- ered an eloquent oration. The enterprise now lingered and but little was done to advance it until 1839, when a new committee, Gen. William Ross, Hezekiah Parsons and Charles Miner, went to Connecticut and asked the legislature to appropriate $3,000 to help com- plete the work. Their petition was favorably reported, bTit again that mother state failed to succor the memory of her choicest heroes. The monument and grounds remained in a neglected condition until 1842, when the matter was taken up by the "Ladies' Monumental Association," fairs were held, dinners given and in a short time a small fund was raised, and the stone work resumed and carried to comple- tion, but the grounds were still neglected. Nothing of importance was done until 1864. The " Wyoming Association " had been incorporated, and the matter was brought before the Historical and Geological society and subscriptions called for. And thus the funds to improve the grounds were secured. The stone column is sixty-two feet six inches high from the ground surface, rect- angular in form and is solid and graceful in appearance — four equal sides. The northwest face bears the appropriate inscription by Edward G. Mallery, the great- grandson of Col. Zebulon Butler: " Near this spot was fought. On the afternoon of Friday, the third day of July ,'1778, The Battle of "Wyoming, in which a small band of patriotic Americans, chiefly the undisciplined, the youthful and the aged, spared by inelHcency from the distant ranks of the Republic, led by Col. Zebulon Butler and Col. Nathan Denison, with a courage that deserved success, • boldly met and bravely fought a combined British, Tory and Indian force of thrice their number. Numerical superiority alone gave success to the invader and wide-spread havoc, desolation and ruin marked his savage and bloody footsteps through the valley. This Mostombnt, commemorative of these events and of the actors in them, has been erected over the bones of the slain by their descendants and others, who gratefully appreciate the services and sacrifices of their patriot ancestors." On the southwest and northeast sides of the monument are the names of the 120 HISTOEY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. slain so far as they could be ascertained at the time of the erection of the menu- meat.' Mach care and pains were taken in making the list; everyone was consulted whom it was supposed could throw any light on the subject. A list had been printed in Mr. Miner's history and for a long time, while it was known it was not complete, yet it was not believed that it could be added to. He had recovered 130 names and published this in the belief that it was all that was ascertainable, but when it was known that the names were to be engraved on the stone, public atten- tion was directed to the matter, the list revised and new names added. But the long list of the slain remained very incomplete, although to Mr. Miner's list were added forty-two names, making a total of 172, and yet it was well known the hon- ored roll was not complete. The difficulty arose from the fact that many of them had just rushed in and there was no time to attempt an enrollment. They hurriedly came and hurriedly shouldered a gun and took their places in the line, and only answered "present" at the roll call of the recording spirit of heaven, a melancholy evidence of the oft-repeated fact that this was in no sense an organized force, but mostly a gathering of the people to defend their homes and families. This fact should forever disarm all carping criticism; a trouble of some minds ignorant of essential facts, added to that wide disposition to adversly criticise all defeats, and brag on all victories. These people were defeated, no question now but that they erred in going out to give battle, but the numerical proportion they left starkening on the battle-field, with but few parallels in the history of wars, tells the answer more eloquently than human speech can ever utter. The committee to make a correct list for engraving on the stone performed their task laboriously, from which is copied the following, with such additions as it has been possible to obtain: Officers: Lieutenant-colonel, George Dorrance; major, Jonathan Waite Garrett. Captains: James Bidlack, Jr., Aholiab Buck, Robert Durkee, Rezin Geer, Dethio Hewitt, William McKarrachen, Samuel Eansom, Lazarus Stewart, James Wigdon, Asaph Whittlesey. Lieutenants: A. Atherton, Aaron Gaylord, Perrin Ross, Lazarus Stewart, Jr., Flavins Waterman, Stoddart Bowen, Timothy Pierce, Elijah Shoemaker, Asa Ste- vens, James Wells. Ensigns: Jeremiah Bigford, Silas Gore, Jonathan Otis, Asa Gore, Titus Hin- man, William White. Privates: Jabez Atherton, Christopher Avery, — Ackke, A. Benedict, Jabez Beers, Samuel Bigford, David Bixby, Elias Bixby, John Boyd, John Brown, Thomas Brown, William Buck. Joseph Budd, Amos Bullock, Asa Bullock, Henry Bush, Eson Brockway, John Caldwell, D. Denton, Anderson Dana, Conrad Daven- port, George Downing, James Levine, Levi Dunn, William Dunn, — Ducher, Ben- jamin Pinch, Daniel Finch, John Finch, Elisha Fish, Cornelius Fitehett, Eliphalet Follett, Thomas Faxon, John Franklin, Stephen Fuller, Thomas Fuller, Joshua Landon, Daniel Lawrence, William Lawrence, Francis Ledyard, James Lock, Con- rad Lowe, Jacob Lowe, William Lester, C. McCartee, Nicholas ManviUe, Nero MatthewBon, Alexander McMillan, Job Marshall, Andrew Millard, John Murphy, Robert Mclntire, Joseph Ogden, Josiah Carman, Joseph Gary, Joel Church, Will- iam Cofferm, Jrtmes CofEerin, Samuel Cole, Isaac Campbell, — Campbell. Robert Corn- stock, Kmgsley Comstook, — Cooks (three brothers), Christopher Courtright, John Courtnght, Anson Corey, Jenks Corey, Rufus Corey, Joseph Crocker, Samuel Crocker, Jabez Darling, Darius Spofford, James Spencer, Joseph Staples, Rufus Stevens, James btevenson. Nailer Sweed, Gamaliel Truesdale, Ichabod Tuttle, Abram Vangorder, G.orgeGore, — Gardner, — Green, Benjamin Hatch, William Hammond, Silas Harvey, Samuel Hutchinson, Cypria, Hebard, Levi Hicks, John Hutchins, James Hopkins, Nathaniel Howard, Zipporah Hubbard, Elijah Inman, Israel Inman, Sam- uelJackson, Robert Jameson, Joseph Jennings, Henry Johnson, John Van Wie, HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 121 Elihu Waters. Jonathan Weeks. Bartholomew Weeks, Philip Weeks, Peter Wheeler, Stephen Whiton, Eben Wilcox, Elihu Williams, Jr., Rufus Williams, Abel Palmer, Silas Parke, William Parker, John Pierce, Henry Pencil, Noah Pettebone, Jr., Jeremiah Eoss, Jr., Elisha Eichards, William Eeynolds, Elias Eoberts, Timothy Eose, Abram Shaw, James Shaw, Constant Searle, Abel Seely, Levi Spencer, Eleazer Sprague, Aaron Stark, Daniel Stark, Josiah Spencer, Eson Wilcox, John Williams, John Ward, John Wilson, William Woodring, Aziba Williams, — Wade, Ozias Yale, Gershom Prince (colored). Lieut. Boyd was executed by court martial by the British, after the surrender, as a deserter and spy. On the southeast face of the monument is inscribed the list of the known (sup- posed) survivors. It was ascertained, however, that there were names omitted that should have been inscribed. Mr. Jenkins' and the committee' s attention was called to this; it was intended to fill out these names on the monument, but so far it has not been done, and the omission is here as fully supplied as possible. Our attention was called to this by Mr. G. W. Gustin, of Plains, who kindly supplied the names as indicated over their insertion below. Colonels: Zebulon Batler, Nathan Denison. Lieutenants: Daniel Gore, Timothy Howe. Ensigns: Daniel Downing, Mathias Hollenback. Sergeants: Jabez Fish, Phineas Spafford, — Gates. Privates: John Abbott, Gideon Baldwin, Zera Beach, Eufus Bennett, Solomon Bennett, Elisha Blackman, Nathan Carey, Samuel Carey, George Cooper, Joseph Elliott, Samuel Finch, Eoswell Franklin, Hugh Forsman, Thomas Fuller, John ' Garrett, Samuel Gore, Lemuel Gustin, James Green, Lebbeus Hammond, Jacob Haldron, Elisha Harris, Ebenezer Heberd, William Heberd, Eichard Inman, David Inman, John Jamison, Henry Lickers, Joseph Morse, Thomas Neill, Josiah Pell, Phineas Pierce, Abraham Pike, John M. Skinner, Giles Slocum, Walter Spencer, Edward Spencer, Amos Stafford, Eoger Searle, Cherrick Westbrook, Eleazer West Daniel Washburn. List of killed on the approach of the invaders: William Crooks, Miner Bobbins, Benjamin Harding, Stukely Harding, James Hadsall, James Hadsall, Jr., William Martin, Quoco (colored). Prisoners from Wyoming: John Gardner, Daniel Carr, Samuel Carey, Daniel Wallen, Daniel Eosencrans, Elisha Wilcox and — Pierce. Reflections. — Time and calm investigation have punctured some of the blood- curdling stories that first went out to the world as eye-witnessed scenes of that day. It is pretty generally now conceded that the story of Queen Esther and the "Bloody Eock" were without foundation; that the "Queen " was not there at all. Curiously enough, while both sides, for a long time, asserted that the Indian Brant was there in command of the savages, yet he was not at the battle at all. Again, Steuben Jenkins concedes, indirectly, that there was no massacre of the surrendered, or in the fort; yet, in enumerating the number of scalps, he estimates many of them were taken from the murdered fugitives as they were fleeing toward the Delaware. Until recent years Col. John Butler was never mentioned, except with a shudder — a monster savage, fit only to lead just such a horde of brutes as was his army. Time has changed much of this high-colored picture. On this subject Dr. Harry Hakes has well said: " Before Col. John Butler took possession of the fort he learned that there was a large quantity of whisky there, and ordered Col. Denison to throw the whole of it into the river before his army should come down to the fort. It has already been remarked that soon after the battle and massacre monstrous falsehoods concerning some portions of the transactions became published and are handed down in some histories. While there is certainly enough of truth to make one of the blackest 122 HI8T0BY OF LUZEKNE COUNTY. pages in the history of modem warfare, it is doing but simple justice to put down the truth at this late day. To illustrate the manner in which indefinite ideas of the enormity of the crimes then perpetrated have gained an irresistible hold of those who have never carefully searched for the truth, or those who have felt them- selves interested or justified in coloring the account with too much red or black, I quote from a History of the United States, by S. G. Goodrich, edition of 1871, for use of schools and families, pages 245-6: "There was a beautiful settlement at Wyoming so thickly peopled, according to some statements, it had already furnished 1,000 men to the continental army. Early in July 400 Indians, with more than twice that number of tories and half-blood Englishmen, came upon the settlement and destroyed it. They were headed by Brant, a cruel half-breed Indian, and John Butler, a tory. The colonists, in their apprehension of what might happen, had built a few small forts, and gathered their families and some of their effects into them. The savages and savage-looking whites now appeared before one of the forts, which was commanded by a cousin of Butler, and demanded its surrender. They persuaded its commander to come out to a spot agreed upon in the woods, for the purpose, as they said, of making peace. He accordingly marched to the spot with 400 men, but not a tory or an Indian was to be found there. They pressed on through the dark paths of the forest, but still no one was to be found. At last they saw themselves suddenly surrounded by the enemy. The savages were in every bush, and sprang out upon them with terrible yells. All but sixty of these 400 men were murdered in the most cruel manner. The enemy went back to Kingston, and, to strike the Americans in the forts with as much fear as possible, hurled over the gates to them the reeking scalps of their brothers, husbands and fathers. The dis- tressed people now inquired of Butler, the leader of the tories, what terms he would give them. He answered only, "The hatchet!" They fought as long as they were able, but the enemy soon enclosed the fort with dry wood and set it on fire. The unhappy people within — men, women and children — all perished in the fearful blaze. The whole country was then ravaged, and all the inhabitants who could be found were scalped. ' This certainly is bloody enough to satisfy the most desperate tory hater or his remotest posterity ; but that such an account should be published as late as 1871 for instruction in schools and the edification of families, is an unmiti- gated, unpardonable outrage. The Hon. Stewart Pearce demonstrated, more than twenty years ago, that Brant was not in the .battle. The Hon. H. B. Wright, also, in his History of Plymouth, after a correspondence with the historian, Bancroft, says Brant was not in the battle. After the signing of the articles of capitulation there was no personal injury done any one. The Indians did plunder the women, and even the men, of some, if not most, of their clothing and provisions. The inhab- itants — men, women and children — fled from the valley in different directions and encountered very great suffering in their flight. The Indians roamed over the valley and burned nearly every hut not belonging to a loyalist or tory. The enemy took off horses and perhaps cattle that were left or abandoned by the inhabitants. The enemy left the valley by the Lackawanna path three or four days after the battle. The valley seems to have been entirely deserted by both friend and foe, and our dead lay unburied for four months on the battle-field. It will be observed that the terms of the capitulation were violated upon the part of the enemy, in plundering the people of clothing, provisions, in cattle and horse stealing, and in the burning of the dwellings. Col. Denison remonstrated with Col. Butler against the plundering, but Butler replied that it was not in his power to prevent it, and such has been gen- erally conceded. We soon had an armed force again in the valley, and under their protection the inhabitants began to return in the fall of the same year. The tories, however, never availed themselves of the terms of the capitulation " to be allowed to remain in undisturbed possession of their farms and to trade without molesta- tion." The undoubted fact is that for fifty years after the battle and until the stat- HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 123 ute of limitations had exterminated their titles, they could no more live here in safety than lambs in a fold of wolves. How a different termination of the war might have affected all parties in their civil rights it is not difficult to understand. No instance is recorded of any of the British regular troops being parties to the roassacre or violating the terms of capitulation. In a few instances the tories are said to have killed prisoners, but the conclusion is irresistible that they inaugurated the expedi- tion and directed the Indians in their work of fife and blood. As for the British government and its subordinate officers having taken the Indians into their confi- dence and employ, they must be held responsible for their conduct." In concluding this subject, it may be properly noticed that even among the people here, descendants largely of the Revolutionary sires, there are those who incline to take sides and make a material issue of the fact that there was whisky in the fort, and insinuate this had something to do with the calamities that struck these devoted people. Nothing could be more cruel and unjust to the memory of the illustrious dead. A century ago and now are times so radically different on the subject of whisky as to leave little or nothing to compare. It was a necessity, if not a virtue, then to make and use whisky. To convert their corn and rye into whisky was the only way to transport their farm products to market at all ; no other way could they have made a living here ; in the use of it there was no exception, both as a beverage and a medicine. A teetotaler or a prohibitionist here then would have been simply a species of monstrosity. Without 'arguing the proprieties, it is enough to say that the times justified the free use of whisky among the pioneers; it is doubtful indeed if the country could have been settled without it. These were not a drunken people. Men then got drunk of course, but they do far worse now in the stream of madmen, murderers, and the diseased in mind and body, that sicken the air of heaven with their debaucheries. The use and making of whisky by our pioneer fathers, if not a virtue, certainly was not a wrong. The average of mankind was then full of ignorant, superstition and unreasoning bigotry, to an extent that would be little short of criminal now, but it is not at all certain but that very fact was one of his mainstays in the hard struggle of life that lay before him. In many things he had to be a man of stern, blind faith — the rough, not the polished diamond, as the soldier must be a man who obeys orders without thinking at all. Therefore, in judging of then, the times and the circumstances must have first consideration. CHAPTER V. HARTLEY'S AND SULLIVAN'S EXPEDITIONS. Following the Battle Washington Okders Hartley and William Butler to Form an Expedition— Sullivan Reaches Wilkeb-Barre and Ascends the River— Extracts PROM Diaries op the Men in the Expedition— Importance op Sullivan's Movements — Indian Marauds in the Valley- Battle with the Indians at Frenchtown Mount- ain — King Nutimus. UPON the reception of the horrible tidings from Forty fort, Gen. Washington directed Col. Thomas Hartley to form a rendezvous, collect troops and move against the invaders. At the same time Col. William Butler, of the Fourth Penn- sylvania, was ordered from Fort Stanwix to go down and form a junction with Col. Hartley, at Tioga (Athens), and together operate against the enemy. 124 HI8T0EY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. The militia were called out and ordered to Sunbury. These were to be joined by Gapt. Spalding's company. A detachment from New York was given them, and under Col. Thomas Har-tley, of Pennsylvania, an expedition was set on foot up the west branch of the Susquehanna. Much delay in getting the expedition ready fol- lowed. Only in September had 200 men assembled at Muncy, of these 130 were from Wyoming under Capt. Spalding, sixty of whom were from thp Eleventh Penn- sylvania regiment. With this little band Col. Hartley set out for Tioga Point, Sep- tember 21. The road was a terrible one; the fall rains had raised the streams, and of the route Col. Hartley said: "I can not help observing that I imagine the diffi- oulties in crossing the Alps or passing up the Kennipeck could not have been greater than those our men experienced for the time." Four days was this journey, through the cold rains and wading streams frequently, and on the cold ground at night without tire, for fear of the enemy, and ynt these men never so much as mur- mured. The first of the enemy they discovered was near where is now Canton, in the southwest corner of Bradford county. September 26 Hartley's advance met a party of Indians, fired upon them, killed and scalped their chief, and the others fled. In the neighborhood of Le Roy they came upon a fresh camp where about seventy had spent the night previous, but had fled on Hartley's approach. The command pressed on as fast as possible to Sheshequin; here they rescued fifteen prisoners from the Indians, and recaptured quite a number of cattle. Col. Butler was to have joined Col. -Hartley at this point, but failing to do so, a small detach- ment was sent to Tioga, and Queen Esther's village was destroyed. No more dar- ing military movement was ever made with impunity than this of Col. Hartley's. He returned rapidly, the first day reaching Wyaluaing, where they halted and cooked the little beef they^ had as all the food left. The powerful enemy was rap- idly collecting to swoop down on his little band and exterminate them, and Hartley realized that he must move fast enough to keep ahead of any pursuers. They had hardly formed in the march out of Wyalusing when they met the enemy; these they soon dispersed, and in a short time again were attacked in front, but again beat ofi' their assailants. As they reached Indian Hill on the lower edge of Brad- ford county, a heavy attack was made on their left flank and rear; the rear guard gave way when Capt. Spalding went to its support. Col. Hartley skillfully hand- led his men, while those in the boats landed and came up in the rear of the enemy, when they, supposing they were about to be surrounded, precipitately fled. Hart- ley's loss was four killed and ten wounded. Col. John Franklin was in this expedition as captain of the Wyoming militia. In his diary is this entry : "The troops retook a great number of the Wyoming cattle, horses and other property, and returned with their booty October 1 ; they met many hazardous skirmishes, with the loss of several lives. Several Indians were killed. Col. Hartley and his men were warmly thanked on their return by the executive council of Pennsylvania. It was a blow in return upon the enemy, and though not a heavy one, was magnifi- cent and daring." The gathering accounts from the bloody Wyoming — the fateful July 3— it seems had now fully aroused the continental congress, and it set about determined and vig- orous measures of retaliation, to punish to the last extremity the Indians for their treachery and cruelty, as well as the white-Indians found consorting with them. Hartley's expedition had failed of the full measure of striking the common enemy of civilization such a blow as was imperatively called for under the circumstances; through no fault of the intrepid Hartley, or his brave men, but by the failure of the companion expedition to eifect a junction with him at Tioga. Congress advised with Gen. Washington and it was determined to send a strong force up the Susque- hanna and on to and through the Genesee valley, the heart of the powerful Iroquois nation and crush the haughty, savage and dangerous spirit of that people. It was Gen. Washington who advised this movement as the only way to strike effectually o^i^^r^ ^t^^^^^^^^^^ HISTOEY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 127 this dangerous enemy in the rear —more threatening than the army in front. The result was the organization of the Sullivan expedition. Washington's instructions for the commander bear date May 31, 1779. He ten- dered the command to Gen. Gates, who, on account of age, declined, and it was given to Gen. John Sullivan, who was directed to rendezvous a force of about 5.000 men at Baston, Pa., and march up the Susquehanna. At the same time, Gen. Clinton was ordered to move with his brigade of New York troops and pass down the upper Susquehanna and join Sullivan's forces at Tioga (now Athens), Bradford county. This was one of the important military movements of the Kevolutionary war — in results, perhaps, far exceeding any or all others. It was forced reluctantly upon Washington, who had forgivea one act of treachery after another on the part of the red men, after he and the American people had exhausted every means to keep terms of amity with the Indians, or at least to remain neutral in the rebellion against the mother country. There was nothing in the question between the two countries that should have caused the Indians to take sides. In their dense ignorance they knew not that they were by their folly not only forfeiting their rich possessions, but were periling their very existence as a tribe. Washington's military genius indicated to him the immediate results that must follow the success of Sullivan's expedition. The expedition was directed against the Six Nations, the most powerful body of savages this continent ever knew. Their seat of empire was along the Genesee valley by the lakes. They had trodden like the grass the other tribes of America, extend- ing their conquests to Florida and west to the Mississippi river. Their lands in New York were as rich and beautiful as any on the continent. They had progressed in agriculture until smiling fields of grain, corn and various vegetables were on every hand. They had comfortable huts, and in some cases rude chimneys to them. They helped strike the cruel blow upon the helpless frontier people, and thereby forfeited all their rich inheritance. In Gen. Washington's instructions to Sullivan and in his report to congress he says : " I congratulate congress on his (Gen. Sul- livan's) having completed so effectually the destruction of the whole of the towns and settlements of the hostile Indians in so short a time and with so inconsiderable a loss of men." ***** To the commander he said: " It is proposed to carry the war into the heart of the country of the Six Nations, to cut off their settle- ments, destroy their next year's crop, and do them every other mischief which time and circumstances will permit." And again, that there might be no misapprehen- sion, he said: " The immediate objects are the total destruction of the hostile tribes of the Six Nations and the devastation of their settlements and the capture of as many prisoners of every age and sex as possible." There could be no mistake here on the part of Gen. Sullivan. Not only the commander, but the civilized world, understood that here was the terrible answer back to the bloody Wyoming. This was war, not strictly in kind, but swift and terrible, and gave us empire from ocean to ocean. Strict neutrality would have left the Indians in peace, the possession of their homes, crops, ponies and cattle, but far greater than these their rich and boundless land possessions. Gen. Sullivan's expedition was at the same time supplemented — rather dupli- cated — by a similar expedition simultaneously carried on by Gen. George Eogers Clark, down the Ohio river and into the Illinois against the British forts at Kas- kaskia and Vincennes. The first was under the continental congress and Gen. Washington, while the other was under Virginia (Gov. Patrick Henry) and the " Hannibal of the Northwest " — Gen. George Eogers Clark. These military expeditions, conceived and executed at the same time, one by Washington and coQgress, the other by Gov. Patrick Henry and Gen. Clark, the movements of each unknown to the other, are two of the stupendous episodes in the annals of mankind. 128 HISTORY OP LUZEENE COUNTY. The question of the success of the American Eevolution, little as it was known by our great forefathers, was the very soul and being of the advance of the human race in liberty, in thought, and the higher civilization. We can now know the lib- erty gained by the Americans in its reflected influence spread over the world, even to the remotest corner of the British empire itself, after its long seven years of cruel war of attempted subjugation crowned even England with an aureole of liberty. The American tories — even these mistaken men, so fierce in opposing their own neigh- bors, and sometimes members of their own families— were among the beneficiaries of the heroic struggles of the noble sons of liberty. Until the hour of the con- ception of the Sullivan and the Clark expeditions, there was no thought among the fathers other than that of independence for the little fringe of territory that ran along our Atlantic shore. It was hardly more than individual liberty in their ideas, but these two expeditions were the beginning of our present wide empire: these numerous stars set in azure blue, now glinting upon 63, 000,000 of freemen, march- ing ever onward. These then were vastly more than local events. In results they were not only continental but world-wide and as enduring as the hills. They have touched the whole human race, and made millions of freemen where otherwise would yet have been bred only galley slaves — men, women and children yoked to the cruelest servitude. Sullivan's army took up its line of march from Easton June 18, 1779, reached Wilkes-Barre on the 23d, and spent three days here looking over the battle-field and fitting out, of which the journalists of the expedition gave many blood chilling accounts of the sights that here met their gaze; repeating all the wild stories that the poor flying people had told at the dreadful moment. The story of the killing of Henry Pensil by his brother is given in all its horrid details. From one of the several diaries is the following under date of July 2, 1779: Kode out this morning with Gen. Poor and Col. Dearbon about four miles, to view the ground where the battle was fought between the Savages and the people of Wyoming under Col. Butler, we saw a Stockade fort with a Covert Way to a fountain which our guide told us was built for a shew by some of the disaffected Inhabitants & given up to the Enemy immedi- ately upon their approach ; we examined the Trees where the line of Battle was formed, but found very few marks of an Obstinate Engagement; it appears indeed that the Enemy were superior in numbers to the Militia and soon after the Commencement of the Action turned their left Plank, this brought on a retreat, in which the savages massacred upwards of 200 Men — We saw more or less bones scattered over the ground for near two miles & several Sculls brought in at different times, that had been Scalped and inhumanly mangled with the Hatchet. A cap- tain's commission with 17 Continental Dollars was found in the pocket of the Skeleton of a man, who had laid above ground 12 months — Our guide shewed us where 73 Bodies had been buried in one hole, this place may with propriety be called Golgotha — All the houses along this riverbave been burnt; and the Gardens and fields, the most fertile I ever beheld, grown over with weeds and Biishes, exhibit a melancholy picture of Savage rage and Desolation. ThiH entry in the diary was made exactly one year after the battle. It conflicts in an immaterial point with Steuben Jenkins' account of the burial of the dead, as well as adding another enigma to the many accounts of the battle. At this point Gen. Sullivan's army, 3,500 strong, had a fleet of boats to be ready for them, and the expedition was divided and part by land and the other on boats proceeded up the Susquehanna river to Tioga (Athens). Here a junction of the two armies was effected. Fort Sullivan was built and the army marched up to Newton (near Elmira), met the enemy in force and gained a signal victory. Sullivan's entire force as he moved out from Tioga was 5,000 men. The defeated Indians fled to Canada; Sullivan divided his force and proceeded to devastate the Indian country. The Pennsylvania troops in Sullivan's army were under Gren. Hand, including the regiments of Col. Eichard Butler, Col. Hubley and Col. Hartley and the Ger- man battalion; Capt. Spalding's independent company; Capt. Schott's riflemen; Capt. John Franklin's county militia, and several sharpshooters in Morgan's rifle corps. Lieut. John Jenkins was the chief guide of the expedition. The Eleventh HISTORY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. 129 Pennsylvania and Capt. Spalding's company constituted the advance force that marched by land. The purpose of Gen. Sullivan's expedition was completely successful; the blow to the Iroquois was fatal, from which, as a people or tribe, they never recovered. The immediate results of the action of that people was the awful calamity to the community of this beautiful valley, to be followed by the stern retaliatioa of the Hartley and Sullivan expeditions. The ultimate and permanent results are now before us, blooming in all the splendors of this present wealth, universal prosperity, of a people of gentle blood, culture and refinement. Their rich and wide domains were the unequaled forfeit paid by stupid barbarians for their cruel folly. Their sins were grievous, and so were their sufferings. The bloody work of the savage at the Wyoming and Cherry valleys was the beginning of the end of the Indians on this continent. In the rush of significant events in the Revolutionary times, it is most remark- able that the important feat of Sullivan and his army almost escaped attention ; and in time from the chronicles of our Union, it hardly received a passing notice; if mentioned at all it was by some carping critic who denounced it, perhaps, as a use- less foray and slaughter of ' ' Lo, the poor Indian. ' ' At best to simply mention it as an incident, with no regard whatever to the tremendous results to follow, has been much the rule of writers on the subject of our independence. By act of congress, 1876, the several counties of the United States were asked to gather and publish their local histories. The historian of the locality of New- town, with much of the patience of love, wrote well of the Sullivan expedition and the battle of Newtown, and his publication called general attention to the subject. Under the auspices of the State of New York a centennial celebration of the battle of Newtown was held on the battle-field, August 29, 1879. It was the grandest celebration of that time of centennials. The day was hot and dry; the people assembled to the sum of 50,000, and most of the leading officials of the nation, together with other eminent men, were present. The elegant monument, standing so conspicuously on Sullivan Hill, on the battle-field, commanding a wide view of the surrounding country, was imveiled with imposing ceremonies, and from two stands addresses were delivered. Indian Marauds. — Comparative peace followed the brilliant exploits of Sullivan and Hartley. But the snake, though scotched, was not killed. March, 1780, a party of fifty or more Indians came down the river, and when near Wyoming they divided into bands for the purpose of striking the isolated set- tlers. One of these parties captured Thomas Bennett and his son, near Kingston, and added Libbeus Hammond to their capture, and started to Tioga and camped near Meshoppen. During the night the prisoners rose upon their captors, killed four, wounded another, and one fled, and seizing all the rifles of the slain returned home, March 27; another of these bands suddenly appeared at Hanover and shot and killed Asa Upson. Two days after they captured a boy, Jonah Eogers, and the next day Moses Van Campen; they killed and scalped Van Campen's father, brother and uncle; the same day they captured a lad named Pence. They then passed to Huntington and fell in with Col. Franklin and four of his men, two of whom were wounded but all escaped. They found in Lehman township, this county, Abraham Pike and his wife making sugar. They stayed all night with them and took the man and wife prisoners the next morning, having bundled the baby and thrown it on the cabin roof; during the day they released the woman, and she returned in all haste to her baby, which she found, and with it in her arms fled to the settlement. Pike,,was a deserter from the British army — a gallant Irishman, and made up his mind that it would be decidedly unpleasant to be carried into the British lines. The party with their captives, on the night of April 3, camped at the mouth of Wysox creek. Supposing they were now out of danger, they relaxed 130 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. somewhat their vigilance. Jonah Kogers, the boy mentioned above, aftervrard told this narrative: "In the af tampon of the day before we reached the place of encampment we came to a stream. I was tired and fatigued with the journey; my feet were sore and I was just able to proceed. Pike told the chief of the gang that he would carry me over on his shoulders. The old chief, in a gruff voice, said: 'Well.' Pike whispered in my ear aa we were crossing the stream: ' Jonah, don't close your eyes to-night. When they sleep take the knife from the chief and cut the cords with which I am bound. ' I was the only one of the prisoners who was not bound every night — ^the old chief took me under his blanket. The nights were raw and cold, and though protected in this way I thought I should perish. This much of the project was communicated by Pike to the other prisoners. Toward nightfall they halted, kindled a fire, partook of their evening meal, and were soon stretched on the ground. In a few minutes the old chief was asleep, and in the course of half an hour the savages were all snoring; but Pike knew his friends were awake, from the occasional half-suppressed cough. " Pike was the nearest to me and not over two feet in distance. It was a terrific effort for me to make up my mind to perform my part of the business, for I knew that instant death would be the penalty in case of failure. But, as time passed on, and the snoring of the savages grew louder and louder, my courage seemed to gather new strength. I had noticed where the old chief lay down; the knife in the belt was on the side next to me. I peered out from under the blanket, and I saw the embers of the fire still aglow and a partial light of the moon. I also saw the hands of Pike elevated; I thought the time had come, and these two hours of suspense I had passed were more terrible than all the rest of my life put together. I cautiously drew the knife from the scabbard in the chief's belt, and, creeping noiselessly out from under the blanket, I passed over to Pike and severed the cords from his hands. ' ' All was the silence of death save the gurgling noise made by the savages in their sleep. Pike cut the cords that bound the other prisoners. We were all now upon our feet. The first thing was to remove the guns of the Indians — the work for us to do was to be done with tomahawks and knives. The guns were carefully removed out of sight, and each of ua had a tomahawk. Van Dampen placed himself over the chief and Pike over another. I was too young for the encounter and stood aloof. I saw the tomahawks of Pike and Van Campen flash in the dim light of the half- smoldering flames; the next moment the crash of two terrible blows followed in quick succession, when seven of the ten arose in a state of momentary stupefaction and bewilderment, and then came the hand-to-hand conflict in the contest for life. Though our enemy were without arms, they were not disposed to yield. Pence now seized one of the guns, fired and brought one down; four were now killed and two dangerously wounded, when the others, with terrific yells, fled at the report of the gun. As they ran. Van Campen threw his tomahawk and buried it in the shoulder of one of them. This Indian, with a terrible scar on his shoulder-blade, I saw years after, when he acknowledged how it came there. ' ' Mrs. Jane (Strope) Whitaker told that Pike had visited her father often after the war, and she had heard him relate over and over again every detail of the episode. In June, 1780, Col. Franklin, and Sergt. Baldwin with four men had trailed a party from near Tunkhannock to Wysox, near where is the Laning farm. They dis- covered the camp smoke and crept upon them and captured four white men, bearers of dispatches to the British forces. One of them got away, and the others were taken to headquarters; they were Jacob and his son, Adam, and Henry Hoover. Among other trophies found on the prisoners was a beautiful spy-glass, now the property of Maj. W. H. H. Gore, of Sheshequin; it had been purchased by his father. Judge HISTORY OP LUZERNE COUNTY. 131 Gore. And Burr Ridgeway when a -very old man said that he had heard Col. Franklin say, on pulling out a silver watch, " I took that from one of the prison- ers." Fight. — A battle with the redskins in Luzerne (now Bradford county) took place at the Frenchtown mountain, opposite Asylum, April 10, 1782. A band of marauders had captured Roswell Franklin's family of Hanover. For some unknown cause this family was the especial object of attack of the Indians. A year before they had captured Franklin's son, Koswell, and his nephew, Arnold Franklin, whose father had been killed in the Wyoming battle, and they had burned his grain and driven off his stock. April 7, while RosweU Franklin was away, a band of eight savages rushed into the cabin and captured Mjrs. Franklin and her chil- dren: Olive, aged thirteen; Susanna; Stephen, aged four, and Ichabod, aged eighteen months, and hurried away with them, going north toward Tioga. The second day they were joined by five other Indians, making thirteen. In a few hours after they had gone, Franklin returned, and divining the affair hastened to Wilkes- Barre and the alarm guns were fired. The captives heard the gun and knew what it meant. Soon a party was in pursuit under Sergt. Thomas Baldwin, seconded by Joseph Elliott. The others of this party were: John Swift (afterward a general, and killed on the Niagara frontier, 1812), Oliver Bennett, Watson Baldwin, Gideon Dudley, Mr. Cook and a Mr. Taylor — eight men. The pursuers struck straight across the country to Wyalusing and reached that point ahead of the Indians, but, for the purpose of a more eligible place for a stand, they passed on to the French- town mountain, and erected a kind of defence works by felling some trees and placing brush in front of them. The Indians had proceeded so slowly that they awaited them two days and when on the point of concluding that they had gone by some other route they finally appeared and halted, and began to peer about with great caution. Mrs. Franklin thought they were looking for deer, as they were out of provision. As soon as one of the bucks came in range he was fired upon, and then a regular battle commenced. The women and children were compelled to lie flat on the ground, as they were -between the combatants and the bullets whistling close above them. A savage fell at Dudley's first shot, but when loading Dudley was wounded in the arm. A desperate fight now raged — each party behind trees. The next execution was Taylor's shot that killed their medicine man; he rushed up to scalp him and broke his knife, when two Indians started for him, but he cut off the Indian's head and ran with it and escaped. The fight raged several hours. Mrs. Franklin, anxious to know whether her husband was in the rescuing party, raised on her elbow to look; her daughter, Susanna, seeing an Indian approach, urged her to lie down; the next moment the Indian fired and killed Mrs. Franklin. Joseph Elliott saw the murder of the woman from his place, and creeping along the trunk of a fallen tree got an opportunity and shot the Indian dead. The children, now supposing all were to be murdered, jumped up and ran. They heard some one shout to them, and thought at first it was an Indian pursuing to murder them. Again they heard the voice saying: "Run, you dear souls, run!" And the poor, frightened children rushed into the arms of Elliott. The Indians now fled in terror. The whites remained behind their ambush until near sunset, lest it was a trap to get them out and murder them all. Mr. Swift had joined the party about the close of the fight and was hardly on the ground when he was favored by the opportunity and shot an Indian dead. Mrs. Franklin was buried near where killed, and years after the daughter, Olive, wrote the following: "Oar friends having found the tomahawks of"" the Indian along with their packs, cut dry poles to make a raft on which to float, and we dropped silently down the river, and at the dawn came to Wyalusing island. It was just a week since we were taken priHoners. Here we lay a whole day, fearing to go forward lest we should be discovered by the enemy, probably harking near the shore, and could single us out and shoot us down at their 132 HI8T0EY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. leisure. We were sixty miles from safety, and starving, and our friends gave the one remaining biscuit to the children, and fears were entertained that the little ones would die of hunger. The party reached Wilkes- Barre the Wednesday following. The youngest child of Mrs. Franklin was caught up by an Indian at the moment they fled, and carried off, and was never again heard of. " In March, 1778, as soon as the ice was clear of the river, Lieut. -Col. Dorrance with 150 men made his second trip up the river for the purpose of aiding the remain- ing whites to get out of ttie country. A raft was made of the old Moravian church, at Wyalusing, and the people and some of their effects loaded thereon ; among others the families of York, Kinsley, Benjamin Eaton, Fitzgerald, Jonathan Terry and Christopher Hurlbut. . Old man Van Valkenberg and three daughters and his two sons-in-law's families and the Strope family had not been molested, but had been assured by the Indians of their continued friendship and protection. But in time they became alarmed and Strope set out for Wyoming for aid to take his family down the river. Hardly had he left his family, May 20, when thirteen Indians rushed in and captured the inmates, burned the house and drove off the stock. The men captured at this time were sent to Niagara, but the women and children were kept until the war ended. Thus piece- meal the settlement was swept away. Seven in the Van Valkenburg family were captured; seven were killed by the enemy; one died in captivity, and another soon after his release; the total property of these people was destroyed, the cabins all burned, and the gloom and desolation brooded over the fair and once happy land, as if the angel of destruction had spread its wings and covered it in the shadow of death and utter ruin. C. F. Hill writes of the noted Indians : " Joseph Nutimus was a Delaware Indian and chief of the tribe known as the Fork Indians, and later in life was known as Old King Nutimus, who for many years was at the mouth of the Nescopeck creek, where the town of Nescopeck now stands. The term of his occupation of Nescopeck was between the years of 1742 and 1763. The earliest reference to him is made by James Logan, Esq., in a letter bearing date, Stenton, August 4, 1733, to Thomas Penn, Esq. , in which he speaks of an unexpected visit from Nutimus and his company, with a present, and" apprehends trouble, and closes by stating, "that they left a bag of bulletts last year." In a later letter, August 22, 1733, Logan acknowledges that Nutimus had lands in the forks of the Delaware and Lehigh river above Durham. The Lehigh river at that time was also known as the western branch of the Delaware river, and the tribes located on the lands between these two streams and where Easton now stands, were known as the Fork Indians. This was the original dominion of King Nutimus, where he held undisputed sway, subject only to such allegiance as he owed to the Six Nations, until the famous walking purchase took place in 1837, the history of which is too long for the purposes of this notice, and which, contrary to the expectations of the Fork Indians, extended far beyond their meaning of a day and a half walk and included the fork lands. Edward Marshall, a trained pedestrian, did the walking. Nutimus and his people were disappointed, chagrined and angry and were ready for retaliation. Settlers at once flocked in upon his lands and settled among his people, while they obstinately and with much insolence held their ground. After five years of unhappy dispute as to who should occupy these lands, com- plaint was made by the people of Pennsylvania to the Six Nations, which resulted in a council being called at Philadelphia July 12, 1842, at which Cannassatego, a sachem of the Six Nations, delivered his famous speech to the complaining Delawares, and cites to them deeds made by their fathers more than fifty years ago for these same lands and later deeds and releases made by themselves, several of which, in fact, were signed by Nutimus himself. Cannassatego was thoroughly disgusted with their action and told them they "should be taken by the hair of their heads and HISTORY OF LUZBENE COUNTY. 133 shaken until they have some sense; that their cause is bad and their hearts far from being upright, and that the land they claim has been sold and gone down their throats, and that now like children they want it again, ' ' and closed by delivering a peremptory order to leave at once and go to the Susquehanna. No doubt Nutimus was both reluctant and slow to obey; but in due time we find him and his people located at Nescopeck, which place, if he took the most convenient route, he reached by the path which led from the Lehigh gap, in the Blue mountain, across the Mauch Chunk mountain, crossing the Quakake valley and the Buck mountain west from Hazleton, near Audenried, passing near the famous Sugar-loaf in Conyngham valley, to the mouth of the Nescopeck creek, •where he settled on the present site of the town of Nescopeck, on a level fertile soil, the forest being of such a character as to yield readily to the Indian method of clearing land, by removing the small trees, and girdling the larger. Nothing occurred to bring Nutimus and his people to notice in their new home until the breaking out of the French and Indian war. A spirit of unrest and disquiet now came over the Delaware Indians on the Susquehanna. [It was now important to cultivate the friendship of the Dela wares. Accordingly Gov. Hamilton sent Conrad Weiser among them with conciliatory messages, who writes May, 1754: ' ' On April 30 I arrived at Shamokin, and sent my son Samuel and James Logan, Shikellimy's son, up the north branch with the message to Nutimus at Nescopeck. Upon their return they report old Nutimus was from home; but the rest of the Indians received the message very kindly, and said they would lay it before Nutimus and the rest of the Indians after they should come home."] Gen. Braddock was defeated by the French and Indians, July 9, 1757, on the Monon- gahela. Keports were numerous that the French were coming from Fort Duquesne to Shamokin, now Sunbury, to erect a large fort, and to carry the war into Penn- sylvania. Later Weiser writes that the author of the numerous murders of the people of Pennsylvania is Onionto [the French], and that they have prevailed upon the Delawares at Nescopeck, who had given their town as a place of rendezvous for the French, and had undertaken to join and guide them on the way to the English. About this time Weiser sent two spies — Silver Heels, and David, a Mohawk Indian — from John Harris' (now Harrisburg), to Nescopeck, to learn what was going on there. Upon their return they reported that they saw 140 warriors dancing the war dance, and expressed great bitterness against the English; and that they were preparing an expedition against them, and thought they would go to the eastward. At a council of the Delawares on the West Branch, and held at Shamokin, it was decided, in order to avoid an invading army from the French, to go to Nescopeck for safety. Tacknedorus, alias John Shikellimy, says: ' ' I went with them to Nescopeck and took my family with me. After awhile I found the Nescopeck Indians were in the French interest. I, with my brethren and others, then began to feel afraid, and returned to Shamokin." In November, 1755, occurred the burning and plundering of Gnadenhutten, now Weissport, and the slaughter of the Moravian missionaries, and the long list of murders that immediately followed, in this former home of King Nutimus, taken in connection with the circumstances given, and the close proximity of Nescopeck to Gnadenhutten, and the direct path betwixt the two places, forces the conclusion that Nutimus was largely, if not entirely, responsible for them. Edward Marshall, Who accomplished the great walk on which the walking purchase was based, lived at this time at or near the present village of Slate- ford. Marshall was not to blame for the walk, for he did it as a hired man, though he never received the 500 acres of land promised him. Still, the Indians remem- bered the part he had taken upon himself, and they determined to retaliate. They 134 HISTOBY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. surrounded his house when be was not at home, and shot his daughter as she was trying to escape, the ball entering her right shoulder and coming out below the left breast. Yet she got away from them and recovered! They took Marshall's wife, who was not in a condition to make rapid flight, some miles with them and killed her. In a former attack on his house they had killed one of his sons. Though thirsting for Marshall's blood for many years, yet they seemed to have always feared him, and usually undertook their bloody work when he was from home. He eventually died a natural death after attaining a good old age. In 1755 Fort Augusta (now Sunbury), one of the largest, if not the largest fort in the State, was erected; and in June, 1757, we find old Nutimus with his wife and sons and daughters making visits to Shamokin. He frequently came to the fort as a friend, having no donbt in the few preceding years abundantly revenged himself and people for the loss of the Fork lands. At one of his visits to Fort Augusta he complained bitterly to his old friend and long-time acquaint- ance, Capt. Jacob Orndt, formerly from Easton, and who was now in command at Fort Augusta, that the soldiers at the fort on a previous visit had debauched his wife and daughter by giving them whisky, and declaring that if such things were allowed that it would not be safe for a man to bring his wife and daughters to the fort again. His visits to Fort Augusta were made with the canoe. It is believed that he left Nescopeok with his family about 1763, and went to the Great Island, on the West Branch, and thence joined the Delawares on tlie Ohio. He had a son, Isaac Nutimus, who lived at Tioga, and was a warm friend of the English, and at last accounts, in 1759, was about joining an expedition against the French at Pittsburg. This is the brief history of old King Nutimus and the Nescopeok Indians, many of whose bones lie buried, and wliich the crumbling banks of the Susque- hanna have for many years exposed to view, and unearthed many curious and valuable Indian relics. W. H. Smith, attorney, at Berwick, has many curiosities gathered from the field once occupied by Nutimus and his people. It is said that near the town of Nescopeok, in the surface of a large boulder, is a mortar worked out, in which the Indians with a pestle ground their corn, and which now remains as the last vestige of old King Nutimus and his people. CHAPTEK VI. YANKEE AND QUAKEE. The Seventeen Townships*— Legal Aspects op the Subject— Addkess of Gov. Hott— cn Titles of Oonnecticot and Pennsylvania- Puritan and Qdaker— Jurisdiction and Soil Considebbd— A Long and Bitter Controvbrst— Both Were Right— Etc. IN a preceding chapter is some account of the part taken by the people of this county in the wars, marauds and massacres, commencing before the Eevolution, continuing through that bloody seven years, and yet followed by Indian ambush when the lives of none were spared if the skulking savage dared to risk his own cowardly carcass in a near approach. Si^rc/a^n°d^te^'^"'*"' ^''''"■^'*' ^"^'''"^^^^^^^ HI8T0BY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 137 The cruel circumstaaces of war were here doubly intensified by the fierce dispute among the whites over the possession of the soil. Luzerne county was the very heart of that bitter dispute; and upon the devoted heads of the Connecticut settlers came the double thunderbolt of the Indians and an invading foe, as well as the direct inflictions from the Pennsylvania authorities — a contention that was as bitter as it was long, where the people, miserably deserted by the Connecticut authorities, with ouly their naked hands and a courage and resolution sublime, stood every man to his post; and as though fate, too, had marked the fire-tried people, they in the end lost, and with the loss of everything except honor in the fierce contest, lost the world's sympathy in their cause — the fate of all people where they contend against legal authority and are finally overpowered. Had the Connecticut people succeeded, Pennsylvania would have presented a very different face on the maps to what it does now. The boundaries of that possi- ble State would have been: " Beginning ten miles east of the east branch of the Susquehanna river, on the one-and-fortieth degree of north, thence with a north- ward line ten miles distant from the said river to the end of the forty-second degree and to extend westward throughout the whole breadth thereof, through two degrees of longitude, 120 miles." This includes all of Bradford county except a little wedge of the northeast corner, as the east line bows to conform to the general bend of the river. The other three boundary lines are straight, the north line being the State line, and the south line being the south line of forty-one degrees. The other entire counties and parts of counties, as now formed, included in this described boundary, are as follows: Part of Susquehanna, Wyoming, Luzerne, Columbia, Montour, Northumberland, Union, Centre, Clinton, Clearfield, Elk, Cameron and McKean, and the whole of Potter, Tioga, Lycoming and Sullivan. What a solid little State this would have made — about the size of Connecticut! This would have been Connecticut's first-born territory, and eventually a State. What we may now regard as a close of this tremendous controversy, in its civic aspects, is the address of Ex-Gov. Henry M. Hoyt, delivered before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, November 10, 1879. We have given previously the con- tentions, the broils, battles and sieges as they occurred in the field. Gov. Hoyt was then in office; in his law practice he had been drawn into a careful study of the legal questions involved, and fortunately the society requested him to make an address on the subject. To the data he had professionally accumulated, he added such materials as the records and history gave, and delivered his able and eloquent address, and it may be now accepted as a full, complete and final summing up of the points involved, and dramatic as was that chapter in our country's history, the governor's "Syllabus," as he terms it, of the "Seventeen Townships," reads like the learned and impartial decision of the upright judge. The English discovered and possessed North America from latitude thirty-four degrees to forty-eight degrees, and called the provinces South Virginia, and North Virginia, or New England. James I. , April 10, 1606, granted the London Com- pany the right to plant a colony anywhere between thirty- four degrees and forty one degrees north latitude. Out of this grant came Virginia and the southern States. The same year the king granted similar right to Thomas Hanhaw, et al., between thirty-eight degrees and forty-five degrees. All these rights or grants extended entirely across the continent. America at that time was a kind of king's grab-bag. November 3, 1620, the king incorporated the council of Plymouth "for the planting, ruling, ordering and governing of New England," and giving to their care from forty degrees to forty-eight degrees, "Provided any portion herein named be not actually possessed or inhabited by any other Christian prince, or State." March 19, 1628, the council of Plymouth granted to Sir Henry Eoswell, et al, all that part of New England between the Merrimao river and Charles river on Massachusetts bay. The southern boundary of this grant, as all of them in that 8 138 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. day, was "from ocean to ocean," and it ran along the forty-two degrees two minutes latitude. [The north line of Pennsylvania runs on forty-two degrees.] This was conferred by King Charles, March 4, 1629. March 19, 1631, the council of Plymouth granted to Lord Say et al., "All that part of New Eogland which lies and extends, itself, from the Narragansett river, the space of forty leagues upon a straight line near the shore, toward the south- west, west and by south of west, as the coast lieth, toward Virginia, accounting three English miles to the league." As usual it ran west to the sea. Upon the wording of this grant arose the most of the coMroversy. President Clap describes it thus : "All that part of New England which lies west from Narra- gansett river 120 miles on the sea coast; thence in latitude and breadth aforesaid to the South sea. This grant extends from Point Judith to New York; thence west to the South sea; and if we take Narragansett river in its whole length this tract will extend as far north as Worcester. It comprehends the whole colony of Connec- ticut and much more. ' ' The grantees appointed John Winthrop their agent, who planted a colony at the mouth of the Connecticut river, and named it " Saybrook.'' April 20, 1662, Charles II. incorporated the Connecticut colony, and by letters patent made practically a new grant, the material or descriptive part of which is as follows: East by Narragansett river, commonly called' Narragansett bay where the said river falleth into the sea; and on the north by the line of Massachusetts, as usual running "from sea to sea. " In 1635, the Plymouth colony came to an end. The import of this charter has not escaped the great American historian, Ban- croft, who says, Vol. II, pp. 51, 54, 55: " It would be a serious blunder to belittle this charter by viewing it simply as a link in this chain of title. Under John Winthrop it became ' the beginning of the great things ' on this continent. ' They had purchased their lands of the assigns of the Earl of Warwick, and from Uncas they had bought the territory of the Mohe- gans; and the news of the restoration awakened a desire for a patent. But the little colony proceeded warily; they draughted among themselves the instruments which they desired the king to ratify; and they could plead for their possessions, their rights by purchase, by conquest from the Pequods, and by their own labor which had redeemed the wilderness. " The courtiers of King Charles, who themselves had an eye to possessions in America, suggested no limitations ; and perhaps it was believed, that Connecticut would serve to balance the power of Massachusetts. " The charter, disregarding the hesitancy of New Haven, the rights of the colony of New Belgium, and the claims of Spain on the Pacific, connected New Haven with Hartford in one colony, of which the limits were extended from the Narragan- sett river to the Pacific ocean. How strange is the connection of events! Winthrop not only secured to his State a peaceful century of colonial existence, but prepared the claim for western lands. " With regard to powers of government, the charter was still more extraordinary. It conferred on the colonists unqualified power to govern themselves. "Connecticut was independent, except in name. Charles II. and Clarendon thought they had created a close corporation, and they had really sanctioned a democracy." July 11, 1754, an interval of nearly 100 years, the next line in the Connecticut chain of title, was the purchase of the eighteen chiefs, or sachems, of the five nations, for £2,000, by the Susquehanna company, of the lands described above as the "seven- teen townships." In May, 1755, the assembly of Connecticut, after stating that these lands were within the limits of their charter, resolved, that "we are of the opinion that the peaceable and orderly erecting and carrying on some new and well regulated colony or plantation on the lands above mentioned would greatly tend to fix and secure HISTORY OF LUZEBNE OODNTY. 139 said Indian nations in allegiance to his majesty, and accordingly hereby manifest their ready acquiescence therein." Miss Lamed, in her valuable history of Windham county, Conn., says: " The marvelous richness and beauty of the Susquehanna valley were already celebrated, and now it was proposed to plant a colony in this beautiful region, and thus incor- porate it into the jurisdiction of Connecticut." In the colonial records is found a petition to the assembly of Connecticut, dated March 29, 1753, describing these lands, and " as we suppose lying within the charter of Connecticut," and among other matters they say that they desire per- mission to possess " a quantity sixteen miles square to lie on both sides of the Susquehanna river," to which they would purchase the Indian right honorably," etc. This constitutes the Connecticut chain of title to the "Seventeen Sections." The Penns' S^ide. —William Penn's charter from Charles II. bears date March 4, 1681, the metes and bounds as are nearly now the boundary lines of Pennsylvania, except one degree south on the north line; whereupon, in taking possession of his domain, he issued the following proclamation: My Friends : I wish you all happiness here and hereafter. These are to lett you know that it hath pleased God in his Providence to cast you within my Lott and Care. It is a busi- ness, that though I never undertook before, yet God has given me an understanding of my duty, and an honest minde to doe it uprightly. I hope you will not be troubled at your chainge and the King's choice; for you are now flxt, at the mercy of no Governor that comes to make his fortune. You shall be governed by laws of your own making, and live a free, and if you will, a sober and industrious People. I shall not usurp the rights of any or oppress his person. God has furnished me with a better resolution, and has given me His grace to keep it. In short, whatever sober and free men can reasonably desire for the security and improvement of their own happiness, I shall heartily comply with. I beseech God to direct you in the way of righteousness, etc. I am your true Friend, (Signed) Wm. Penn. October 11 and October 25, 1836, the Six Nations sold to William Penn the "entire country of Pennsylvania." Additional deeds were made to the Penns July 6 and July 9, 1754, and, finally, November 5, 1768, a deed to the Penns by the Six Nations conveys " all that part of the Province of Pennsylvania not heretofore pur- chased of the Indians. ' ' Up to 1768, there is no evidence that any settler under Pennsylvania had set foot in the disputed territory. * In 1768, as we have seen, the Penns had completed their purchase of these lands at Fort Stanwix. The general council, held then, had made treaties which promised relief from Indian troubles. We have now come to the miserable contest, known in the common parlance of the country as The First Pennamite and Yankee War. — ^It was a fair and beautiful and valuable prize, these magnificent valleys of the upper Susquehanna. Both sides prepared for the fray. In 1768, at Hartford, the Susquehanna company resolved "that five townships, five miles square, should be surveyed and granted, each to forty settlers, being pro- prietors, on condition that those settlers should remain upon the ground; man th eir rights, and defend themselves and each other, from the intrusion of all rival claim- ants." Five townships in the heart of the valley were assigned to these first ad- venturers : Wilkes-Barre, Hanover, Kingston, Plymouth and Pittston. Kingston, the first township occupied, was allotted to " Forty ' ' settlers. The lands were divided into rights of 400 acres each, "reserving and apportioning three whole rights, or shares, in each township for the public use of a gospel ministry and schools in each of said towns. " A stockade was erected on the river bank in Kings- *Gov. Hoyt here overlooks the tact that hy Penn's authority the whites had erected the first huUdlngs ever la what is now Luzerne county, in 1753, tor the use and occupation of the Indian chief Teedyescung. 140 HISTOEY OP LUZEKNE COUNTY. ton, called "Forty Fort." It became the central point of much of the history of the'reffioa. With these settlers came Capts. Butler, Ransom and Durkee, some of whom°had seen honorable service in the French war, and had shared in the cam- paign at Ticonderoga and Crown Point. They were not without the aid of bold adherents obtained in Pennsylvania — the shoemakers and McDowells, from the set- tlements on the Delaware, above the Blue Hills; and Lazarus Stewart and others, from Hanover, in Lancaster (now Dauphin) county, reinforced by some excellent Quakers from Rhode Island. The designated leaders of the proprietaries of Pennsylvania were Charles Stew- art, Capt. Amos Ogden and Sheriff Jennings, of Northampton county. They had able assistants in Capts. Clayton, Francis and Craig. The Penns had leased to Stewart, Ogden and Jennings 100 acres for seven years, on condition of "defending the lands from the Connecticut claimants." This lease was the flag they hoisted as the badge of title and possession. They arrived first upon the ground. This was in January, 1769. They took possession of the blockhouse and huts at Mill creek (about one mile above the present city of Wilkes Barre) which had been left by the massacred settlers of 1763. They laid out for the proprietaries two extensive manors : " Stoke,' ' on the east bank, and "S anbury," on the west bank of the Susquehanna, embracing the heart of the Wyoming valley. In February, 1769, the first forty Connecticut settlers arrived. Finding the block-house in possession of Ogden, they sat down, midwinter as it was, to besiege it and starve out the garrison. Ogden proposed a conference. "Propose to a Yankee to talk over a matter, especially which he has studied and believes to be right, and you touch the most susceptible chord which vibrates in his heart." It was so here. Three of their chief men went to the block house to "argue the mat- ter." Once within. Sheriff Jennings arrested them on a writ, "in the name of Pennsylvania." They were taken to the jail at Easton. Friends there bailed them, and they returned to Wyoming. Ogden then raised the p')sse of Northamp- ton county, stormed the Yankee fort and carried the whole forty to Easton. They were all immediately liberated on bail, and all immediately returned to Wyoming. In April, the quotas of four townships — 200 men — arrived. These with the others constituted a force of nearly 300 now on the ground. They erected "Fort Durkee" on the river bank, and thirty huts. [The fort stood at the lower end of the "river common" in Wilkes Barre, the town itself being laid out by Maj. Durkee, and named after Cols. Wilkes and Barre, two members of par- liament friendly to the colonies.] They had full possession now, and went vigor- ously at felling forests and planting fields. As the colony of Connecticut was as yet taking no part in this struggle, the Susquehanna company undertook to gain time and get delay by opening negotiations, but kept right on with the more rigor- ous preparations to recover the disputed ground. In September the indefatigable Ogden appeared before Fort Durkee with 200 men, the posse of Northampton, for so far all was done under civil process. A four- pound iron cannon had been brought up from Fort Augusta (Sunbury). Capt. Durkee was captured by the adroit Ogden, and under the persuasion of the dreadful four pounder, the whole garrison surrendered, and the Connecticut people were compelled to leave. This closed the year 1869, Wyoming remaining in the posses- sion of Pennsylvania. 0^ len, believiag he had made thorough work, disbanded his troops, and, leaving a small garrison in his fort at Mill creek, went to Philadelphia to enjoy his honors. In February Capt. Lazarus Stewart, of Hanover, Lancaster county, and hie "forty" settlers (mostly Pennsylvanians these, who had purchased the township which he named for his own home, Hanover), appeared in the valley. They ousted Ogden's men from his fort, and captured the "four-- pounder." This brought Ogden HISTOBY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 141 rapidly back from Philadelphia with fifty men, and he re-possessed his Mill creek fortress. In a sally made upon him here, the Connecticut people were repulsed, and lost one man, killed — the first bloodshed as yet. Ogden was obliged to surrender in April, and retired from the yalley. Planting time had come, peace reigned, and confidence began to prevail. Spring and summer came, and the harvests were ripening, and no foe. Pennsylvania, for some reason, had not crushed this dispute. In point of fact, the proprietaries having appropriated the best part of the valley to themselves, the people very generally sympathized with the settlers, and wished them success. However, with a new force, Ogden appeared once more in September, and by strata- gem, most of the inhabitants being in their fields, without arms, once more captured the fort, dispersed the settlers and destroyed their crops. For the fourth time he retired to Philadelphia, in the full belief that the contest was at an end. At the very close of the year, December 18, Capt. Lazarus Stewart, with thirty men, again swooped down upon Ogden' s garrison, and the year closed with the valley in posses- sion of the Yankees. Promptly with the opening of 1771, Pennsylvania again sent her forces to recapt- ure Fort Durkee and the fields of Wyoming. Capt. Ogden abandoned his fort- ress at Mill creek, and defiantly erected a new one. Fort Wyoming, within sixty rods of his adversary. Capt. Stewart commanded at Fort Durkee. It was Greek against Greek now. Ogden demanded the surrender of Fort Durkee. Stewart replied "that he had taken possession in the name and behalf of the colony of Connecticut, in whose jurisdiction they were, and by that authority he would defend it." Ogden assaulted, but failed, a number being killed and wounded in this afFair. In turn he was besieged. Escaping himself by a ruse, his garrison surrendered under formal articles of capitulation on the 14th of August, 1771. The government of Pennsylvania, finding that the Connecticut forces had strongly fortified themselves— that their numbers were rapidly increasing, and believing, from the boldness and confidence of the intruding Yankees, that the government of Connecticut was sustaining them, gave orders for the withdrawing of the troops, and left the Connecticut party in quiet possession of the valley. In answer to a letter from Mr. Hamilton, president of the council, to Gov. Trum- buU, of Connecticut, inquiring under whose authority " these violent and hostile measures" were prosecuted, Gov. Trumbull thus cautiously replies, October 14, 1771: "The persons concerned in these transactions have no order and direction from me, or from the general assembly of the colony, for their proceeding upon this occasion, and I am very confident that the general assembly, friends as they have ever been to peace and good order, will never countenance any violent, much less hostile, measures in vindicating the rights which the Susquehanna company sup- pose they have to lands in that part of the country within the limits of the charter of this colony." Connecticut had not yet " asserted its title " to the country. The inhabitants of Wyoming established a government for themselves. They laid out townships, formed settlements, erected fortifications, levied and collected taxes, passed laws for the direction of civil suits, and for the punishment of crimes established a militia, and provided for the common defense and general welfare of the "plantation." " Neither the Grecian nor Eoman States, in their proudest days of republicanism, could boast of a government more purely democratic than was now established at Wyoming. For the two years, 1772-3, peace and prosperity reigned. The " settlers " showed themselves competent to defend themselves, and their footing seemed securely established. In October, 1773, the general assembly of Connecticut " Resolved, That this assembly, at this time, will assert and, in some proper way, support their claim to those lands contained within the limits and boundaries of their charter, which are westward of the province of New York. " 142 HISTOKY OF LUZEBNE COUNTY. Commissioners were appointed, who went to Philadelphia, in December, to bring the controversy to an amicable conclusion. The case was there fully gone over on both sides, but the negotiation failed of results. It was conducted with the most stately courtesy and ability. A strong Pennsylvania advocate says of his adversary: "I should have been glad to have seen the excellent temper and abilities of their penman engaged in another cause." In January, 1774, an act was passed by the general assembly of Connecticut, erecting all the territory within her charter limits, from the river Delaware to a line fifteen miles west of the Susquehanna, into a town, with all the corporate power of other towns in the colony, to be called Westmoreland, attaching it to the county of Litchfield. As might have been expected, this greatly strengthened the settlers, and was hailed with much satisfaction. They were now under the law and protection of the ancient and high-standing colony of Connecticut. " A sense of security existed, a feeling of confidence ensued, which gave force to contracts, encouraged industry, and stimulated enterprise. " The Wyoming region was in Northampton county until the year 1772, when it went into Northumberland, according to the municipal division of Pennsylvania. On July 3-7, 1772, Col. Plunkett, of Northumberland county, under orders of the government, destroyed the settlements of Charleston and Judea (Milton), on the West Branch, which had been made under the auspices of the Susquehanna company, in which afCair some lives were lost. With about 500 armed men, in December, 1775, Col. Plunkett, with his train of boats and stores of ammunition, moved up the north branch to drive off the Connecticut settlers from the Wyoming country. About 300 of these settlers met him at Nanticoke and repulsed him, with some loss of life on both sides. At this point, congress interfered and " Resolved, * * * that the contending parties immediately cease all hostilities, and avoid any appearance of force until the dispute can be legally settled." It is evident that the dispute had widened into national importance. After Col. Plunkett's failure, all " appearance of force " did cease until after the decree of Trenton, in 1782. In 1775 the number of inhabitants of Wyoming was something more than 3,000 (a little less, Miner thought). In November, 1776, the town of Westmoreland was erected into a county of Connecticut, to be called Westmoreland, and thereupon its civil and military organ- ization was complete. Three companies of troops were raised there for the continental establishment, and were part of the Twenty-fourth regiment of the Connecticut line. The Decree of Trenton. —After the failure of Col. Plunkett's expedition, in 1775, we left the Yankees in possession. It required some considerable self-control and more patriotism in Pennsylvania to drop the controversy at that stage. But, under the request of congress, she did so. Promptly on the appearance of peace, after the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, the State, by petition of her pres- ident and supreme executive council, prayed congress to appoint commissioners "to constitute a court for hearing and determining the matter in question, agreeably to the ninth article of the confedieration." Connecticut asked for delay, "because that sundry papers of importance in the case are in the hands of council in England, and can not be procured during the war." Congress overruled the motion, and on the 28th day of August, 1782, issued commissions to William Whipple, of New Hampshire; Welcome Arnold, of Rhode Island; David Brearly and William Churchill Houstin, of New Jersey; Cyrus Griffin, Joseph Jones and Thomas Nel- son, of Virginia, or any five or more of them, to be a court of commissioners, with all powers, prerogatives and privileges, incident or belonging to a court, "to meet at irenton, m the State of New Jersey, on Tuesday, the 12th day of November next, to hear and finally determine the controversy between the said State of Penn- HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 143 sylvania and State of Connecticut, so always as a major part of said commissioners who shall hear the cause, shall agree in the determination." ' The commissioners, except Joseph Jones and Thomas Nelson, met and formed the court November 19, 1782. Messrs. William Bradford, Joseph Eeed, James Wilson and Jonathan D. Sergeant appeared as counsel for Pennsylvania; and Messrs. Eliphalet Dyer, William S. Johnson and Jesse Root, as counsel for Con- necticut. Upon the assembling of the court the agents for Connecticut, after reciting the possession and improvements of large numbers of persons holding under the Sus- quehanna company, moved that "the tenants in possession, holding as aforesaid, be duly cited to appear and defend." The court rightly overruled the motion " that the same can not be admitted according to the construction of the ninth article of the confederation." The commission under which they acted was founded on the second clause of the ninth article. The determination of the clainis of private property, or right in the soil, would have been ceram non judice, that jurisdiction being derived from the third clause of the article, the two jurisdictions could not be blended. Connecticut then moved an adjournment to procure evidence, especially "a certain original deed from the Indians of a large parcel of the land in dispute obtained from their chiefs and sachems, at their council in Onondaga, in A. T>. 1763, and now in England. The court did not grant the postponement. The agents of Pennsylvania set forth their claims as follows: 1. The charter of King Charles II. to Sir William Penn, dated March 4, 1681. 2. That said Penn and the succeeding proprietaries purchased from the native Indians the right of soil in some parts of the territory; and that the Indians had conveyed to Thomas and Richard Penn, particularly on the 25th day of October, 1736, ' ' The full and absolute right of pre-emption of and in all the lands not before sold by them to the said proprietaries, within the limits aforesaid." 3. They stated the limit of the said charter. 4. That by virtue of the Declaration of Independence the articles of confed- eration, and the act of the Legislature of 27th November, 1779, the right of soil and estate of the late proprietaries was vested in the State, and that "Pennsylvania was entitled to the right of jurisdiction and right of soil within all the limits aforesaid. " 5. The claims of certain settlers under title derived under Connecticut, and the assertion of title by the State of Connecticut. The agents for Connecticut exhibited a statement of the claim of that state, in which they deduced the title from the crown, through the Plymoth council, and the charter of Charles II., dated April 23, 1662, described the limits of that charter; set forth the exception of New Netherlands, afterward New York; alleged that in 1753, the state having located and settled their lands on the east side of New York, and being in a condition to extend their settlements in the western part of their patent, for that purpose permitted certain companies of adventurers to purchase large tracts of land of the native Indians, on the Susquehanna and Delaware, within the limits of their charter; " and in A. D. 1754, said companies proceeded and made settlements on said lands, so purchased, as aforesaid, and ever since have, though with various interruptions, continued to hold and possess the same, under the title of the colony of Connecticut, and the legislature have approved of the purchases and settlements of the adventurers aforesaid, and have actually erected and exercised jurisdiction in and over said territory, as part and parcel of said colony." The court was in session forty-one judicial days. On Monday, December 30, 1782, they pronounced the following judgment: We are of the opinion that the state of Connecticut has no right to the lands in controversy. 144 HISTOEY OF LUZEKNE COUNTY. We are unanimously of the opinion that the jurisdiction and pre-emption of all the territory lying within the charter boundary of Pennsylvania, and now claimed by the State of Connecticut, do of right belong to the State of Pennsylvania. All the public, corporate rights of Connecticut, as to jurisdiction and property in the land, were embraced within the jurisdiction of this court, and .this decree was final and conclusive between the States which were parties to the cause. That this determination did not touch the private rights of property not only appears by the record, but is placed beyond doubt by the written opinions of the members of the court that had dedided the case. The individual claims of those who had purchased of the Connecticut company, it was understood by the unani- mous court, were not effected by the decree. However, these facts were not given the public for a long time. After the decree at Trenton, a petition was presented to congress by Zebulon Butler and others, claiming the private right of soil under Connecticut, and praying for a court of commission to determine their claims. January 23, 1784, congress resolved to institute a court for the purpose. At length, however, the resolution was repealed, because the petition doth not describe, with sufficient certainty, the tract of land claimed by the said Zebulon Butler and others, nor particularly name the the private adverse claims under grants from the commonwealth of Pennsylvania." Congress seemed to have acted on the theory that each claimant should bring forward a separate petition, the land claimed, and name the adverse claimants with certainty. They do not seem to have entertained any doubt of the right to such special trials, independent of the decision at Trenton. But the settlers were poor, oppressed, and wasted by war; and by this time, 1786, the heavy hand of civil and military power was raised to crush them. Before another petition could be brought forward the new constitution was adopted, and as a matter of course the federal courts succeeded to all jurisdiction vesting in the special courts of commissioners. It has generally been considered that the decree of Trenton was made rather out of consideration of policy than right; that Connecticut had pre-arranged the case with Pennsylvania and congress, and that, out of the arrangement, she was to get the " Western Eeserve." The theory is based on a report on finances made in con- gress on January 31, 1783, a month after the decree, in which it is said, incidentally, ''Virginia and Connecticut have also made cessions, the acceptance of which, for particular reasons, have been delayed." These cessions came thus. At the close of the American Revol ution, the circumscribed States contended that all unlocated lands of the States which ran to the " South sea" should, beyond some reason- able bounds, belong to the United States in common, as a prize equally contended for by all. Congress recommended that this be done. Massachusetts, New York, Connec- ticut, Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia severally passed such sessions. In 1786 it was ' ' Resolved, That congress, in behalf of the United States, are ready to accept all the right, title, interest and claim of the State of Connecticut to certain western lands," etc. When the session was offered, the absolute acceptance of it was opposed by Pennsylvania, whose members in congress moved a proviso that it should not be con- strued or understood to affect th& decree of Trenton. This proviso was rejected. They then moved that congress should not accept the session, because it might virtually imply a sanction of what was not ceded; but if Connecticut would first relinquish to New York, Pennsylvania, and the United States, respectively, all her claims of jurisdiction and property west of the eastern boundary of New York, the United States would then release to Connecticut the property, but not the jurisdiction of a tract of land of 120 miles in extent, west of Pennsylvania. This resolution was neg- atived. A proviso was then moved, that the acceptance of any cession of western territory from any State which had been or might be made, should not be " con- HISTORY OF LUZEBNE COUNTY. 147 strued or understood as confirming or in any way strengthening the claim of such State to any sucji territory not ceded," which also received a negative. Again it was moved, to be accepted on this condition, that it should in no degree affect the claims of any State to any territory, ascertained by the decree of the Federal court, to be within the territory or jurisdiction of such State, or to injure the claims of the United States under acts of cession from any individual State. This was also negatived. At last the acceptance was passed in these unqualified terms: "Resolved, That congress accept the said deed of cession, and that the same be recorded and enrolled among the acts of the United States in congress assembled. ' ' This has been regarded as a substantial recognition of the Connecticut charter by the United States. By the deed Connecticut grants " all right, title, interest, jurisdiction, and claim to certain western lands, beginning at the completion of the forty-first degree of north latitude, 120 miles west of the western boundary line of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, as now claimed by the said commonwealth, and from thence by a line drawn north parallel to, and 120 miles west of said west line of Pennsylvania, and to continue north until it comes to forty-two degrees and two minutes of north lati- tude." This reservation, or rather tract not ceded, is (bounding it easterly by the west line of Pennsylvania) 120 miles east and west, and one degree and two minutes wide north and south, containing several millions of acres. This was called New Connecticut, or the Western Reserve — a goodly part of northeastern Ohio. "Whatever the motive, Connecticut promptly acquiesced in this decision at Tren- ton. Not so, however, the claimants under her. They held their case as still undecided. They admitted the retrospective operation of the decree as to the pub- lic rights of the immediate parties, that is, the two States, but contended that " the principle of relations does not retrospect so as to affect third persons." They cited the long line of precedents as to settlements between colonies contending about the lines of jurisdiction; that the grants of colonies made to subjects had been held sacred, whether within the line as it was after settled or not. Such had been the case between Rhode Island and Connecticut, between Massachusetts and Connecti- cut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, between New York and Connecticut. That had, been the case between Pennsylvania and Maryland, and between Penn- sylvania and Virginia. New York, indeed, attempted to infringe the rule in the case of New Hampshire grants in Vermont, but finally conformed to the justice of the general rule. And it is perfectly analogous to the doctrine respecting officers de facto, whose acts, so far as relates to the rights and interests of third persons, are effectual in law, notwithstanding the offices are found to belong of right to other persons. The vote of a sitting member in a legislative assembly is legal, though it may afterward be decided that he was not elected. The decision in such cases never operates retrospectively. By the former constitution of Pennsylvania, a year's residence was a requisite qualification to vote at elections. Within a year after the Trenton decree, twenty- four Wyoming settlers, who had lived a number of years on the contested land, attended in the county of Northumberland, and gave their votes for two members of the legislature and one of the executive council. The votes were received by the returning officer, and decided the election in all the three cases. But the elec- tions were contested, these votes set aside, and the elections declared in favor of the other candidates by the legislature and the council respectively, because the twenty-four persons had not resided a year in Pennsylvania, for that territory was Connecticut until the Trenton decree. This legislative and executive determina- tion proceeded upon the same great principle that the jurisdiction, decided by the 148 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. Trenton commissioners, does not go back and affect the preexisting rights or condi- tion of private persons. In this view the settlers determined to acquiesce cheerfully in the decree, accept their citizenship in Pennsylvania, but to listen to no terms which involved ' ' aban- donment of their possessions.'' From this time on, matters are to be conducted under the government of Penn- sylvania, and we are to go through the "second Pennamite war," but the happy outcome is to be under Pennsylvania statutes, and the decisions of Pennsylvania courts. The Confirming Act. — "The second Pennamite war." A bird's-eye view of Pennsylvania in 1783 will show: The Friends, possessed of a prosperous and thrifty metropolis, and rich fields in Philadelphia and the adjoining counties. The German, profitably and industriously settled along the eastern base of the Kittochtinny, or "Blue hills," from the Delaware to the Susquehanna, holding that rich agricultural territory, as he holds it yet. The Scotch- Irish, in the Cumberland Valley, and pushing up the Juniata, and winding around the spurs of the Alleghanies, into the then counties of Bedford and Westmoreland. The Yankee, seated in the valleys of the North Branch of the Susquehanna, The rest of the State, except some valleys of the West Branch, was an unbroken wilderness. The total population did not exceed 330,000. Of the Yaokee settlers, there were probably about 6,000. These were scattered, mainly, in seventeen townships in the county of Luzerne, then including the terri- tory of Wyoming, Susquehanna and Bradford. Their townships were five miles square, and extended, in blocks, from Berwick to Tioga Point, embracing the bot- tom lands along the river — Providence, the present site of Scranton, being on the Lackawanna. These townships were Huntington, Salem, Plymouth, Kingston, Newport, Hanover, Wilkes-Barre, Pittston, Providence, Exeter, Bedford, North- moreland, Putnam, Braintrim, Springfield, Claverack and Ulster. They contain a present population of 180,000 people. The inhabitants at once set about meeting the adverse effects of the proceed- ings at Trenton. A petition was drawn to the assembly of Pennsylvania, in which, after reciting at length the facts, they touchingly and pathetically close thus: "We have settled a country (in its original state), but of little value; but now cultivated by your memorialists, is to them the greatest importance, being their all. We are yet alive, but the richest blood of our neighbors and friends, children, husbands and fathers, has been spilt in the general cause of their country. * * * * We supplied the ' continental army with many valuable officers and soldiers, and left ourselves weak and unguarded against the attack of the savages and others of a more savage nature. Our houses are desolate —many mothers childless — widows and orphans multiplied— our habitations destroyed, and many families reduced to beggary, which exhibits a scene most pitiful and deserving of mercy. * * * * We care not under what state we live. We will serve you— we will promote your interests— will fight your battles; but in mercy, goodness, wisdom, justice, and every great and gonerous principle, leave us our possessions, the dearest pledge of our brothers, children, and fathers, which their hands have cultivated, and their blood, spilt in the cause of their country, has enriched. We further pray that a general act of oblivion and indemnity may be passed, * * * and that all judical proceedings of the common law courts held by and under the authority of the state of Connecticut be ratified and fully confirmed." Acting on this petition, the assembly, inter alia, "resolved that commissioners be appointed to make full inquiries into the case, and report to the house; * * that an act be passed for consigning to oblivion all tumults and breaches of the peace which have arisen out of the controversy. ' ' On March 13, 1783, an act was passed by the assembly. HISTORY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. 149 The garrison of continental troops had been previously withdrawn. Their places were now supplied with two companies of State troops, under Capts. Rubin- son and Shrawder. The presence of these troops was a cause of great anxiety to the settlers. On April 15 the commissioners arrived. In their first communication to the "committee of settlers," April 19, 1783, they made the ominous declaration: "Although it can not be supposed that Pennsylvania will, nor can she, consistent with her constitution, by any ex post facto law, deprive her citizens of any part of their property legally obtained, yet,'' etc. This was pretty fair notice of expulsion. Judge John Jenkins replied in behalf of the settlers, by a dignified but passionless recital of their rights and claims much more worthy of the sturdy settlers than the petition referred to. The " committee of Pennsylvania landholders," Alexander Patterson, chairman, now came forward with their terms of what they called •' the conditions of compromise." That the commissioners should have endorsed them is beyond belief. They were: " We propose to give leases with convenants of warranty for holding their posses- sions one year from the first day of April instant (April 22, 1783), at the end of which time they shall deliver up full possession of the whole, * * and if they have any opportunities of disposing of their hutts, barns, or other buildings they shall have liberty to do it. * * The widows of all those whose husbands were killed by the savages, to have a farther indulgence of a year, after the first of April, 1784, for half their possessions." Patterson was determined " to feed fat the ancient grudge he bore them.' ' Judge Jenkins replied the same day: "As w-e conceive that the proposals of the committee, which they offer as a compromise, will not tend to peace, as they are so far from what we deem reasonable, we can not comply with them without doing the greatest injustice to ourselves and our associates, to widows and fatherless children; and, although we mean to pay due obedience to the constitutional laws of Pennsylvania, we do not mean to become abject slaves, as the committee of land- holders suggest in their address of your honors." The commissioners divided Wyoming into three townships, the new ones being named Stokes and Shawanese. Justices of the peace were elected by Patterson and his associates without notice to or participation by the inhabitants, they not yet being freeholders and voters in Pennsylvania. The commissioners reported to the assembly which convened in August, 1783. They recommended to the families of those who had fallen in arms against the com- mon enemy, reasonable compensation in land in western Pennsylvania, and to the other holders of Connecticut titles who did actually reside on the land at the time of the decree at Trenton, provided they delivered possession by April 1, following. Now, Pennsylvania began to vacillate in her policy. The assembly approved all their suggestions. The division of Wyoming into three townships was also approved. The "act to prevent and stay suits" was repealed September 9, 1783. Two fall companies of soldiers, " who have served in the Pennsylvania line," were enlisted. Capt. Patterson, now a justice of the peace, returned full of zeal. He changed the name of Wilkes-Barre to Londonderry. For protesting against the lewdness and licentiousness of the soldiery, he arrested Col. Zebulon Butler, then just returned from service in the Revolutionary army. Him he sent to Sunbury, charged with high treason. In Plymouth he arrested many respectable citizens; feeble old men whose sons had fallen in the massacre — Prince Alden, Capt. Bidlack, Benjamin Harvey, Samuel Ransom, Capt. Bates and others— greatly beloved by their neighbors. They were kept in loathsome prisons, starved and insulted. They were dispossessed, and Patterson's tenants put into their places. The unhapp^ husbandman saw his cattle driven away, his barns on fire, and wife and daughters a prey to licentious soldiery. 150 HISTOEY OF LUZEBNE COUNTY. The people, outraged, petitioned the assembly. Ifc sent a committee to take testimony. Daniel Clymer, of Berks, one of the committee, rose in his place, and said, " there was evidence enough to show that Alexander Patterson ought to be removed. ' ' Gen. Brown, another member of the committee, said he " was certain no member of the house could imagine him ia the interests of thepeople of Wyoming, beyond the bounds of truth and the desire to do justice. He had visited Wyoming as one of the committee on the subject, and had heard all the evidence on both sides. The wrongs and sufferings of the people of Wyoming he was constrained to declare were intoler- able. If there ever was on earth a people deserving redress, it was those people." But Patterson was sustained by the assembly. At the opening of 1784 matters reached a crisis. I quote Chapman, writing in 1818, a trustworthy chronicler: " The inhabitants finding, at length, that the burden of their calamities was too great to be borne, began to resist the illegal proceedings of their new masters, and refused to comply with the decisions of the mock tribunals which, had been established. Their resistance enraged the magistrates, and on the 12th of May the soldiers of the garrison were sent to disarm them, and, under this pretence, 150 families were turned out of their dwellings, many of which were burned, and all ages and sexes reduced to the same destitute condition. After being plundered of their little remaining property, they were driven from the valley, and compelled to proceed on foot through the wilderness by way of the Lackawaxen to the Delaware, a distance of eighty miles. During the journey the unhappy fugitives suffered all the miseries which human nature seemed capable of enduring. Old men, whose children were slain in battle, widows with their infant children, and children without parents to protect them, were here companions in exile and sorrow, and wandering in a wilderness where famine and ravenous beasts continued daily to lessen the number of sufferers." In March, of that year, a flood in the Susquehanna had swept the lowlands, car- rying houses and fences all away. Patterson seized the opportunity, with land lines thus obliterated, to dispossess the occupiers, restore the lines of Pennsylvania surveys, and thus bring about the cruel and pitiful exodus just referred to. He shall tell his own story: "The settlements upon the river have suffered much by an inundation of ice, which has swept away the greatest part of the grain and stock of all kinds, so that the inhabitants are generally very poor. Upon my arrival at this place (Wyoming), the 15th instant (April, 1784), I found the people for the most part disposed to give up their pretensions to the land claimed under Con- necticut. Having a pretty general agency from the landholders of the behalf of my constituents, the chief part of all the lands occupied by the above claimants, numbers of them going up the river to settle, and filling up their vacancy with well- disposed Pennsylvanians, * * yet I am not out of apprehension of trouble and danger arising from the ringleaders of the old offenders," etc. (By " ringleaders " - he means such men as Butler, Koss, Denison, Dorrance, Shoemaker, Jenkins, Franklin, Slocum, Harvey, etc.) By the 1st of June he had made pretty clean work of it, and this without trial or verdict or other process of law. Wherever news of this outrage reached, indignation was aroused, and nowhere more generally than in Pennsylvania. The troops were ordered to be dismissed. Sheriff Aatis, of Northumberland county, which then included Wyoming, went to restore order. Messengers were dispatched to recall the fugitives. But they found Justice Patterson still flaming with wrath, and went into garrison near Forty fort. Two young men, Elisha Garrett and Chester Pierce, having been slain by Patter- son's men, while proceeding to gather the crops, the settlers rallied for serious hos- tilities. John Franklin organized what effective men he could find. He swept down the west side of the Susquehanna and up the east side, dispossessing every Pennsylvania family he found. He attacked the fort, to which they fled, was HISTORY OF LTJZEBNE COUNTY. 151 repulsed with a loss of several lives on each side, aad returned to the Kingston fort. Civil war now openly prevailed. (Forty of the Pennsylvania party were indicted at Sunbury, and subsequently convicted for their participation in expelling the inhab- itants. ) Other magistrates, Hewitt, Mead and Martin, had been sent to open nego- tiations. They demanded a surrender of arms from both sides. In their report to the president and members of the supreme council, under date of August 6. 1784, they say: " In obedience to instructions of council of July 24, we repaired to this place (Wyoming), and found the Pennsylvania and Connecticut parties in actual hostilities, and yesterday made a demand of the Connecticut party of a surrender of their arms, and submission to the laws of the state, which they complied with. We also made a demand of the same nature of the party in the garrison, but have received no direct, but an evasive answer. * * As to the pretended titles of the Connecticut party we have nothing to fear, and are convinced that had it not been through the cruel and irregular conduct of our people, the peace might have been established long since, and the dignity of the government supported. Again', under date of August 7 : " We have dispersed the Connecticut people, but our own people we can not. " The "party in the garrison" consisted of Patterson and such troops as had enlisted under him in the interests of the landholders, without any warrant of law. When Patterson refused to surrender, the Connecticut people were permitted to resume their arms. At this stage Cols. Armstrong and Boyd appeared with a force of 400 militia from Northampton county. By a piece of the most absolute treachery he procured the surrender of the Yankees, and marched them, sixty-six in all, bound with cords, and under circumstances of great cruelty, to jail at Easton and Sun- bury. The conquest was complete. " The only difficulty that remained was how to get rid of the wives and children of those in jail and of the widows and orphans whose husbands and fathers slept beneath the sod." Col. Armstrong was now confronted, to his surprise, by the censure of the State authorities. The ''council of censors'' looked into the case and took action. Fred- erick A. Muhlenberg was president. This body had just been chosen under the constitution of 1776, and it was their duty ' ' to inquire whether the constitution has been preserved inviolate in every part, and whether the legislative and executive branches of the government have performed their duty as guardians of the peojile, or assumed to themselves or exercised other or greater powers than they are entitled to by the constitution." • In September, 1784, they delivered a decision which was a solemn denunciation of the measures pursued against the Wyoming settlers. The executive council paid no heed to the censure nor to the advice of President Dickinson. A fresh levy of troops was ordered. The militia of Bucks, Berks and Northampton refused to march. Armstrong hastened to Wyoming with less than 100 men, in October. He promptly attacked the settlers in their fort at Kingston, without success. William Jackson, a Yankee, had been wounded. Capt. John Franklin seized Jackson's rifle, bloody from his wound, and swore a solemn oath " that he would never lay down his arms until death should arrest his hand, or Pat- terson and Armstrong be expelled from Wyoming and the people be restored to their rights of possession and a legal trial guaranteed to every citizen by the constitution, by justice and by law. ' ' G-en. Armstrong went on to dispossess the families who had returned to their several farms. All these proceedings led up to the passage of the act of assembly of September 15, 1784, entitled "An act for the more speedy restoring the possession of certain messuages, lands and tenements in Northumberland county to the persons who lately held the same," under which the settlers were once more let into some assurance. Armstrong and Patterson were recalled. " Thus ended the last expedition fitted 152 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. ' out by the government of Pennsylvania to operate against her own peaceful citi- zens," and "the second Pennamite war." The few real Pennsylvania improvers had a sufficiently unhappy life of it. They were subjected to great hardships, and, if you please, outrages, not forgetting the unfortunate encounter in Plymouth, in July; the lamentable affair at Locust Hill withMaj. Moore's command, in August; the indignity offered to Col. Boyd, a Pennsylvania commissioner, in September; nor the attack, on September 26, on the commissioners (disclaimed by Franklin and his party), nor the final attack on "the garrison," in which Henderson and Keed were shot. By October 1, 1784, the condition of affairs was deplorable, but " the thing was settled," and the agony over. " Two years have now elapsed since the transfer of jurisdiction by the Trenton decree. Peace, which waved its cheering olive over every other part of the Union, healing the wounds inflicted by ruthless war, soothing the sorrows of innumerable children of affliction and kindling the lamp of hope in the dark chamber of despair, came not to the broken-hearted people of Wyoming. The veteran soldier returned, but found no resting place. Instead of a joyous welcome to his hearth and home, he found his cottage in ruins or in the possession of a stranger, and his wife and little ones shelterless in the open fields or in the caves of the mountains; like the sea-tossed mariner approaching the wished-for harbor, driven by adverse winds far, far from shore, to buffet again the billows and the storm. It is true, and honorable to those who affected it, that the New England people were repossessed of their farms, but a summer of exile and war had left them no harvest to reap and they returned to their empty granaries and desolate homes, crushed by the miseries of the Indian invasion; mourners over fields of more recent slaughter, destitute of food, with scarce clothing to cover them through the rigors of a northern winter, while clouds and darkness shrouded all the future. Assuredly, the people of Wyoming were objects of deepest commiseration, and the heart must be harder and colder than marble that could look upon these sufferings and not drop a tear of tenderest pity." — [Miner.] We have had occasion to notice the failure of the claimants and the Susquehanna company to get a new tribunal appointed by congress to try their case under the articles of confederation. Col. Franklin had been active and untiring in his efforts to that end. Upon their failure he went to Connecticut to see his old friends and to stir them to some new and dangerous enterprise. He pointed out the richness and beauty of the valley of Wyoming; the wrongs of her people; the failure of Pennsyl- vania, with all her machinery, to oust a handful of settlers. " A chord was struck that vibrated through all New England. Franklin, in the spirit of his oath, infused his own soul, glowing with resentment and ambition, into the people with whom he conversed; and had not his schemes been counteracted by a timely and prudent change of policy on the part of her authorities, Pennsylvania had lost her fair northern possessions, or, by a new civil war, extinguished the Connecticut claim in blood." Mischief was in the wind. Justice David Meade was about the last Pennsyl- vania claimant left in possession, although he was one of the earliest Connecticut settlers. He was one of Patterson's justices, looked upon as a traitor from the Yankee ranks, and a spy on the people. Eising one morning, he found a dozen men mowing his meadows. Said one: "Squire Meade, it is you or us. Pennamites and Yankees can't live together in Wyoming. Oar lines don't agree. We give you fair notice to quit, and that shortly. " It illustrated the situation. He was the last Pennsylvania claimant on the Wyoming lands. The Susquehanna company was re-convened at Hartford on July 13, 1785. Its proceedings were significant, and embraced a substantial declaration of war. HISTOItY OP LUZERNE COUNTY. . 153 Pennsylvania had been a vigilant observer of events. On December 24, 1785, she passed " An act for quieting disturbances at Wyoming, for pardoning certain offenders, and for other purposes therein mentioned." A general pardon and indemnity was offered for offences committed in the counties of Northumberland and Northampton, in consequence of the controversies between the Connecticut claimants and other citizens of the State, before November 1, 1785, provided the persons having so offended surrendered themselves before April 15, 1786, and entered into bonds to keep the peace. It also repealed the act confirming the division of the townships of Shawanese, Stokes, and Wyoming into two districts for the election of justices of the peace, and annulled the com- missions granted. No great number of these settlers were in any humor thus to sue for pardon, and the law fell — a dead letter. The Susquehanna company met again in May, 1786. This time it rather chivalrously resolved to " effectually justify and support the settlers." In fact, the latter, while nominally under the laws of Pennsylvania, governed themselves. Sheriff Antis, of Northumberland coUnty, had wisely " pocketed " most of the writs he held against them, unexecuted. On September 25, 1786, the county of Luzerne was erected. It embraced the lands settled by the New England emigrants. It gave them representation in the council and the assembly, and proved to be a wise measure. But step by step, as Pennsylvania moved to close up the trouble, the Susquehanna company went for- ward with its scheme of revolution. On December 26, 1786, at its meeting in Hartford, it appointed the following ominous list of "commissioners:" Maj. Judd, Samuel Gray, Joel Barlow, Oliver Wolcott, Jr., Al. Wolcott, Jr., Gad Stanley, Joseph Hamilton, Timothy Hosmore, Zebulon Butler, Nathan Denison, Obadiah Gore, John Franklin, Zerah Beach, Simon Spalding, John Jenkins, Paul Schott, Abel Pierce, John Bartle, Peter Loop, Jr., John Bay, and Ebenezer Gray. These v?ere well-known names, and it was quite certain that what they responsibly undertook, would be done. They or any five of said commissioners " shall be a court with power, etc., * * * this power to determine whenever a form of internal government shall be established in that countiy." Gen. Ethan Allen was in the scheme, and actually appeared at Wyoming, in regimentals and cooked hat, with the Green Mountain boys, fresh from their victory over New York, in reserve, and in his honor was laid off AUensburg township, along the upper Wyalusing creek. This was a large grant to Ethan Allen. The purpose was to erect the Connecticut claim in Pennsylvania into a new State, and the action was as public and as bold as that of the Declaration of Independence, by brave and desperate men who stood at bay. They issued "half -share " rights in great numbers, and new faces, strangers to the "old settlers," began swarming into the valley. The old-time residents had no sympathy with all this. They knew it prolonged the unhappy situation, and depre- cated its effects. As a witness in Vanhorne vs Dorrance expressed it: " The half- share men and the old settlers were a distinct people, and as much opposed to each other as to Pennsylvanians." On December 27, 1786, an act was passed providing for the election of representatives, justices of the peace,- etc. , in Luzerne county. Timothy Pickering, Zebulon Butler and John Franklin were appointed in the act to notify the electors, take oaths of allegiance, etc. Franklin, as we have seen, had other views, and refused to act. Pickering had come as the special representative of the government of Pennsylvania. He was politic, and held to his definite pur- pose wisely. Col. Butler wished repose for his neighbors and himself. Col. Pick- ering, as the result of a previous visit (unofiGlcial) to this region, had reported to the State authorities "that the inhabitants expressed a willingness to submit to the ]^54 HISTOKY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. government of Pennsylvania provided they could have their lands confirmed to them .' ' He then consulted eminent legal authority as to the right of the State to cede the lands to the Connecticut people, and, thereupon, "he undertook the laborious, the difficult, and, in the minds of many, the hopeless task of conciliating the minds of the Wyoming people. With his utmost efforts, during a whole month's diligent application, he barely succeeded, and solely by the expectations he persuaded them to entertain that they be confirmed in their possessions .' ' With these assurances, the great majority of the people v?ere for submission. Three classes were opposed. A few, thoroughly imbued with the absolute rights of their case, filled with the glowing traditions of their struggles, wanted their posses- sions confirmed first, and submission afterward. Pennsylvania claimants of course resisted; such of the Susqaehanna company's grantees as were outside the lines of "the seventeen townships," and the new influx of "half-share men." Says Miner: "And now, for the first time, was presented the spectacle, equally gratifying to foes and painful to friends, of open and decided hostility among the Wyoming people. Whatever difference of op'inion may exist in respect to the justice of their claims, no liberal mind could have traced their arduous course through toil and privation, through suffering and oppression, through civil and foreign war, and observed the fortitude, fellowship and harmony among themselves that had pre- vailed, without a feeling of admiration for rare and generous virtues so signally dis- played. In an equal degree was the mortification at the spectacle now presented. It was no longer 'Pennymite and Yankee,' but the 'old settlers' against 'the wild Yankees' or 'half -share men.' " The election went forward. John Franklin was chosen the member of assem- bly, Nathan Denison, member of the supreme executive council, and Lord Butler, high sheriff. Thus the county of Luzerne was fully organized. Forthwith, a long petition was sent to the legislature then in session, setting forth that " seventeen townships, five mi^es square, had been located by the Connecticut settlers before the decree of Trenton," etc., and praying that " they might be con- firmed in them." On March 27, 1787, " an act for ascertaining and confirming to certain persons, called Connecticut claimants, the lands by them claimed within the county of Luzerne, and for other purposes therein mentioned," was passed. The preamble is in the words: "Whereas, before the determination of the claim of Connecticut, a number of its inhabitants, with their associates, settled upon and improved divers tracts of land, lying on and near the northeast branch of the river Susquehanna, and the waters thereof, and now within the county of Luzerne; and whereas, parts of the same lands have been claimed under titles derived from the late proprietaries of Pennsylvania, and those interfering claims have occasioned mach contention, expense and bloodshed, and this assembly being desirous of pat- ting an end to those evils by confirming such of the Connecticut claims as were acquired by actual settlers prior to the determination of said dispute, agreeably to a petition of a number of the said settlers, and by granting a just compensation to the Pennsylvania claimants," etc. It enacted: That all the said rights or lots now lyiag within the county of Luzerne which were occu- pied or acquired by Connecticut claimants who were actually settlers there, at or before the determination of the claims of the State of Connecticut by the decree aforesaid (" the decree of Trenton"), and which rights or lots were particularly assigned to the said settlers prior to the said decree, agreeably to the regulations then in force among them, be and they are hereby confirmed to them and their heirs and assigns. A great town meeting of the settlers was at once called to accept or reject this act. John Franklin prepared for a final rally against it. He literally preached against it from settlement to settlement, and from house to house. The assembly ^■ Uiy'— c7^ ^^-b-uA ^ HISTORY OP LUZEENE COUNTY. 157 was held at Forty fort — the first place the organized Connecticut settlers touched on their arrival, and, as it proved, the place where the last word was said. As might be supposed, the meeting was an excited one, and friend fell into wretched antagonism to friend. The act was accepted. Col. Jenkins asked, " What security have we, that if we comply, and put ourselves in your power, the State wouldn't repeal the law, and deal as treacherously as in the case of Armstrong?" His question proved to be a bitter prophecy. It was at this juncture that Gen. Ethan Allen appeared on the scene. Pickering well knew his object. Pickering and Franklin each permitted no movement of the other to escape notice. The time for decisive action had come. Regarded as the head of the conspiracy, John Franklin was, on October 2, 1787, arrested for high treason, under a warrant issued by Chief Justice McKean. As Col. Pickering had personally assisted in the arrest of Col. Franklin, he deemed it prudent to flee to Philadelphia. While there, the people chose him as a delegate of Luzerne county to the convention called to ratify the constitution of the United States. This was a cordial testimony to their belief in ultimate justice at the hands of the State. Having discharged that duty, he returned to Luzerne county, of which he was prothonotary, clerk of the peace, clerk of the orphans' court, register of wills and recorder of deeds. Franklin was cruelly treated, being ironed down in a cold, miserable dungeon, with insufficient food, no clothing except the light suit he had on when arrested, prohibited all communication with friends and all use of pen, ink and paper. Here he was kept nearly two years. His friends were desperately willing to do anything in their power to secure his release. June 26, 1788, they kidnapped Pickering, and proposed holding him as a hostage, or secure his influence for the release of Franklin. The kidnappers were pursued by Pickering's adherents, and were fired upon and serious wounds inflicted, when the pursuit was given over. This was the last time that blood was shed in the long and cruel contention. Pickering resolutely refused to yield to the demands of his captors, and was, after three weeks, released. The arrest of Franklin and the acceptance by the people of the "confirming law," no doubt arrested the movement for the new State, which had already gone to the extent of completing its frame of government, and Oliver Wolcott had drafted its constitution and arranged that Maj. William Juddj of Farmington, Conn. , should be governor and Col. Franklin lieutenant-governor. The following brief sketch of the greatest leader of his time in the settlement of northern Pennsylvania, was written by Edward Herrick, of Athens : " Col. John Franklin was born at Canaan, Litchfield county, Conn. , September 26, 1749; removed to Wyoming in the spring of 1774; was many years an acting magistrate under Connecticut; captain of an independent company during the Revo- lutionary war, and, while attached to Sallivan's expedition against the Indians, was wounded in the attack on Chemung; member of the assembly of Connecticut in 1781; in October, 1787, he was arrested on a charge of treason against the State of Penn- sylvania for ' endeavoring to subvert the government, and to erect a new and inde- pendent State in the room and stead thereof;' was confined in Philadelphia nearly two years, a great part of the time heavily ironed, released on bail, and never brought to trial; in 1792 he was elected high sherifE of Luzejrne county, while an indictment for treason was still hanging over him, was commissioned and served; in 1795, 1796, 1799, 1800, 1801, 1803, he was a member of assembly from Luzerne county; by the act of April 2, 1804, a small portion of Luzerne county, including his farm, was set off to Lycoming county; this act was avowedly for the purpose of keeping him out of the legislature, but in 1805 he again appeared in that body as a member from Lycoming; in 1789 he removed to his farm in Athens (then Luzerne, now Bedford county), which was laid out to him under Connecticut title, and there resided until his death, March 1, 1831. He never accepted nor recognized a Pennsylvania title, but after his death his heirs were required to purchase that title to his farm. B 158 HI8T0EY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. In the settlement of northern Pennsylvania he was the recognized leader, making annual pilgrimages to New England, and bringing back hosts of industrious settlers whose descendants to this day preserve the virtuous character of their puritan ancestry; the people whom he brought thither, he never forsook. Their battles he fought in the courts, the assembly, in newspapers and pamphlets, and, if necessary, with his strong right arm, with a zeal, persistency and fidelity which deserved for the cause he thought to be right, a better fate. The ' ' confirming act " failed of execution. The reasons therefor are best given in Col. Pickering's own words: " The conditions expressed in the contract (he refers to the act) were complied with on the part of the Connecticut claimants, as far as it was practicable, and they were not bound to perform impossibilities; that eight months from the time of passing the act were allowed them to get information of it, and to present their claims; that the commissioners appointed to receive and exam- ine those claims were required to meet, for that purpose, in Luzerne county, in two months next after the passing of the act; that owing to successive resignations of Gen. Muhlenberg, Gen. Heister and Joseph Montgomery, Esq. , those examinations did not commence till some time in August; that the seizure of John Franklin, on October 2, for his treasonable practices and designs, occasioned a sudden insurrec- tion of his adherents, of whom a very small number had any pretensions to land under the confirming law; that a few days before this arrest. Col. Balliot, one of the commissioners, had gone home to his family; that the subscriber, another of the commissioners, having personally, in the sight of the people, and with arms in his hands, assisted in securing Franklin and preventing any attempt to rescue him, and thus rendered himself obnoxious to the resentment and sadden vengeance of his partisans, was advised to retire to some secure place until their heat should subside; * * * that Col. William Montgomery, the other commissioner, seeing the storm gathering, immediately after Franklin was taken, had left the country to go home; * * * that, the commissioners having thus separated, never again assembled, the time limited for the presentation of the Connecticut claims expiring so soon after as November 28 following; * * * that, since this event (refer- ring to his own abduction), the county has remained in perfect quiet, the laws hav- ing as free and complete operation as in any other county." T'hen, arguing against the repeal of the act (this paper is written February 27, 1790): " That the people rely on the magnanimity and good faith of the State for the execution of the grants made to them by the confirming law; that in this expectation their indus- try is manifestly increased, they have begun to build more comfortable houses, to erect barns, and to extend the improvements on their lands; that a repeal of the law would check this rising industry, stop further improvements, revive ancient jealousies and animosities, and, perhaps, destroy the peace of the country. But, to say nothing of the attempt, as a breach of public faith, it may be worth while to inquire, ' whether such repeal be in its nature possible ? '" He goes on to treat the act as a " contract," or "treaty of peace." The landholders, however, were not without power in the assembly. Using the conduct of the people as a cause or pretext, the act was suspended on March 29, 1788. ^ Act Repealed. — The seal t(j this final act was prepared by the suspension act, through no fault, be it remembered, on the part of the Connecticut claimants. The cross purposes that had arisen among the people themselves and the clamor of the landholders, brought the pressure that resulted in its repeal, April 1, 1790. This act of crowning bad faith was strongly resisted by many leading men of Pennsyl- vania, and among others some of the most noted lawyers of Philadelphia. Col. Jenkms' anxious, prophetic question had. indeed at last been answered. Still the people went on quietly and hopefully. Although the law was repealed, by it Penn- sylvania had distinctly recognized their rights in the case, and they settled in the HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 159 conviction that somehow, at some time, their titles would be secured, and justice be done. The Susquehanna company proceeded actively with their operations. What is now Bradford county was at once laid out in townships, not continuous with any municipal subdivision of the State. By the year 1795, it is said that what is now the entire territory of the county was covered with the "claims" of these grautees, and at the same time by " warrants " from Pennsylvania on top of them. Intrusion Law.- April 17, 1795, a statute was passed enacting penalties and punishment against any person taking possession or intruding upon lands within the limits of Northampton, Northumberland or Luzerne counties, except by right obtained from the commonwealth. Section 6 excepts any claims of persons claiming under "the confirming act" March 28, 1787, etc. The exception took ' ' the seventeen townships " out of the effect of the act. Under this act John Franklin and John Jenkins et al. were indicted at August sessions, 1801, in Luzerne county, and a special verdict found against them. It was removed by certiorari into the supreme court. There the act was held consti- tutional, but the defendants were discharged on other grounds. Commonwealth vs. Franklin et al. , 4 Dallas, 255, 316. (The arguments of counsel as reported here are worthy of attention. ) It was held under this act ' ' that the contract in this case (for the sale of lands) is illegal, being founded on a breach of the law, and, of consequence, a void con- tract," Mitchell vs. Smith, 1 Binney, 110. ■ This act is known as the " intrusion law," and has been subjected to much harsh criticism. At length on April 21, 1795, the case of Vanhorn's lessee vs. Dorranoe, 2 Dallas, 304, came on to be tried in the circuit court of Pennsylvania district. It was eject- ment for a little tract of about twelve acres. Selected as a test, the plaintiff natu- rally brought it on the best title which could be produced. Jared Ingersoll, Jona D. Sergeant and William Tilghman appeared for the plaintiffs, William Eawle, William Lewis and Joseph Thomas appeared for the defendants. There was the fullest latitude in the testimony. All the charters and deeds hereinbefore referred to were put in evidence. The surveys and possessions of the tract in controversy were given. Col. Denison, for the defendant, detailed his entry upon the lot in 1770, and the incidents of the first Pennamite war. William Gallup gave in evidence an account of " the massacre." Col. Pickering narrated the events of the second Pennamite war, and of the reception of the confirming act. Robert Morris stated how, while a member of the assembly in 1786-7, he, at first, was in favor of calling out the militia, to expel the Yankees, but became an advocate for the act. The resolves of Connecticut — the records of the Susquehanna company — Smollett's history — acts of congress — the conduct of Patterson's and Armstrong's troops — Col. John Henry Lydius' deposition as to the execution of the famous Indian deed of July 11, 1754 (Mr. Tilghman hands this deed to court and jury, to show its suspicious face), were all put in evidence. It was such a case as had never been tried in Europe or America. It sufficiently appeared that the defendant had the earliest and a continued pos- session. The plaintiff claimed under a "warrant of survey," executed March 15, 1771. Judge Patterson gave the jury binding instructions, and made short work of the Connecticut title. 1. "The title under Connecticut is of no avail, because the land in controversy is ex -territorial; it does not lie within the charter bounds of Connecticut, but within the charter bounds of Pennsylvania. The charter of Connecticut does not cover or spread over the lands in question. Of course, no title can be derived from Con- necticut." 160 HISTOBY OF LUZEKNE COUNTY. The declaration that the land "does not lie within the charter bounds of Connecticut" is here, for the first time in the history of the controversy, judicially made. This was not decided by the court at Trenton— their decree was only that, at the date of it, the "iurisdiction" and "pre-emption" was in Pennsylvania as against Connecticut. This conclusion may have grown out of acts of " dereliction " or " estopel," since the date of charter, as well as out of a question of original " charter bounds." Nor did it follow that " of course, no title could be derived from Connecticut." The judge does not advert to the facts from which the court at Trenton made the distinction between " jurisdiction " and " private right of soil "—that the defendant's title had been created under another soverign actually exercising jurisdiction — that the jurisdiction had been recognized by the United States in various ways, notably by accepting the troops from Wyoming, the Twenty- fourth Connecticut regiment, as part of the continental line—by accepting, absolutely, the cession of western territory from Connecticut under the same title the defendant held— that (by sufferance or otherwise) Pennsylvania had permitted the de faeto government of Connecti- cut to be maintained at the situs of the land in dispute— and that in the origin and progress of the whole business there were such circumstanees as might give the defendant title, independ- ent of the will of Pennsylvania, previous to December 30, 1782. 2. The ' ' Indian deed ' ' was summarily dismissed as one " under which the Con- necticut settlers derive no title. ' ' 3. As to the title under the confirming act of 1787. An act calling upon an individual to surrender or sa.criflce his whole property for the good of community, without receiving a recompense in value, would be " a monster in legislation, and shock all mankind. The legislature, therefore, had no authority to make an act divesting one citizen of his freehold, and vesting it in another, without a just compensation." * * " The next step in the line of progression is whether the legislature had authority to make an act divesting one citizen of his freehold and vesting it in another, even with compensation. "The existence of such power is necessary; * * and if this be the case, it can not be lodged anywhere with so much safety as with the legislature. " Such a case of necessity, and judging, too, of the compensation, can never occur in any nation; * * even upon full indemnification, unless that indemnification be ascertained in the manner which I shall mention. * * Here the legislation must stop; * * they can not constitutionally determine upon the amount of compensation, or the value of the land." That can only be done — " by the parties " — " by commissioners mutually chosen by the parties " — or, "by the intervention of a jury." By the act, the Pennsylvania claimants are to present their claims to the " board of prop- erty," who are 1. To judge of the validity of their claims. 2. To ascertain, by the aid of commissioners, appointed by the legislature, the quality and value of the land. 3. To judge of the quantity of vacant land to be granted as an equivalent. " This is not the constitutional line of procedure. * * By the act, the equivalent is to be land. No just compensation can be made except in money. _ " It is contended that the legislature must judge of the necessity of interposing their des- potic authority. Be it so. Did there exist also a State necessity that the legislature or person solely appointed by them, must admeasure the compensation, or value of the lands seized and taken, and the validity of the title thereto? Did a third State necessity exist, that the proprie- tor must take land by way of equivalent for his land? And did a fourth State necessity exist, that the value of this land-equivalent must be adjusted by the board of property, without the consent of the party, or the interference of a jury? Alas! how necessity begets necessity. * * * 'Omnipotence in legislation is despotism.' In short, gentlemen, the confirming act is void; it never had constitutional existence; it is a dead letter, and of no more virtue or avail than if it had never been made." In its application to the exact facts of the case of Vanhorne vs. Dorrance, this exposition is undoubtedly correct. The act applied to this state of facts was unconstitutional for the rea- son stated. But at the time the confirming law was passed, the State was proprietor of a large portion of the lands which the settlers held. The State had the power and the right to give away her vacant lands (vacant as to her titles), and it is the better opinion that this law was bmdmg on the legislature in favor of an " actual settler, before the decree of Trenton," for whose land, at the date of the act, there has been issued no Pennsylvania title. In that respect the confirming law was "of no more avail than if it had never been made." Mr Eawle,in his dissentient, goes further and says: " But in no instance can the power of repealing laws affect their obligations while in force, and, consequently, if the effect of the law while in force IS permanent and perpetual upon the subjects to which it relates, a repeal, although it may destroy the law, can not diminish the effect it has already produced " HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 161 Judge Patterson proceeds as to the mode of executing the law: " The estate of the Pennsylvania claimants was not divested on the passing of the act; it was not divested on presenting the claim on the part of the Connecticut settlers. " The intention of the legislature was to vest in Connecticut claimants, of a particular description , a perfect estate to certain lands in the county of Luzerne; but then it was upon condition," which, of course, must be complied with. If the legislature had authority to make the confirming act, they had also the authority to suspend it. * * Of course, there is an end of the business. The parties are placed on their original ground — they are restored to their pristine situa- tion. This would not be accurate as to the class of Connecticut settlers just referred to. As to them, the grant by the act was a good one; for a sufficient consideration recited in the act, they had a right of title, which a subsequent legislature could not defeat. ' ' The intention ' ' the judge refers to had been executed, irrepealably as to them. Judge Patterson did not regard the repeating act of April 1, 1790, bad, either as "an ex-post facto law," or as " a law impairing the obligation of a contract." Yet he says himself: " If the property to the lands in question had been vested in the State of Pennsylvania, then the legislature would have had the liberty and right of disposing of or granting them to whom they pleased, at any time and in any manner." There were large quantities of such lands held by Connecticut settlers. Surely, as to such, the repealing law was "■ ex-post facto'' and " impaired the obligation of a contract," and as such, was contrary to the constitution of the United States. Judge Patterson closes pungently: 1. The confirming act is unconstitutional and void. It was invalid from the beginning, had no life or operation, and is in precisely the same state as if it had not been made. If so, the plain- tiff's title remains in full force. 2. If the confirming act is unconstitutional, the conditions of it have not been performed, and, therefore, the estate continues in the plaintifE. 3. The confirming act has been suspended; and 4. Repealed. All of which was perfectly true in its application to the facts of the case, and the verdict was properly for the plaintiffs. The case was appealed to the supreme court of the United States, and stricken from the dockets without trial. It was said Vanhorne fled the country, and process could not be served on him, and that Dorrance's attorney, Thomas, disappeared mysteriously with the papers in the case. Hence, but little or no results came of the case. It opened the courts whose records were soon burdened with cases where the Pennsylvania claimants hoped to gain possession of the disputed lands and rid the State of the burden of compensation ; and while many actions were brought in eight years, there were the barren results of this one .being partly tried. Compromise Act of 1799: — This was the beginning of the end. The law was passed April 4, 1799, "offering compensation to the Pennsylvania claimants of cer- tain lands within the seventeen townships in the county of Luzerne." The law fixes the status of the conflicting claimants, and appoints Isaac Wheelon, of Chester county; Thomas Boude, of Lancaster county, and General William Irvine of Cumber- land county, commissioners to examine all questions concerning claims to land in the seventeen townships, and divide the claims into four classes to be known as first, second, third and fourth class, and for paying damages according to the respective classes. The act is long and directory, and was intended as one of meditation on the part of the State between the conflicting claimants. The Pennsylvania claimants, refusing or neglecting to execute releases, were to 162 HISTOBY OF LUZEBNE COUNTY. be paid in land or money. The Connecticut claimants, with the memory of the repeal of the " confirming act" fresh in their minds, were little disposed to act or take the benefit of this law. April 6, 1802, an act was passed requiring the commissioners to survey, value and certify the whole of each tract claimed by Connecticut people, and turned the Pennsylvania claimant, who had not released, over to the mercy of a jury to award his compensation. In 1805 the Westmoreland county records were authorized to be deposited with the recorder of deeds in Luzerne county, and certified copies made evidence. April 9, 1807, Pennsylvania claimants, under title previous to the " confirming act," were permitted to release, and the commissioner in examining Connecticut claims " shall not require the same lands to ha,ve been occupied prior to the decree of Trenton, but the same landH to the several applicants certify, if under the rules and regulations of the Susquehanna company, at any time they should otherwise thereto be entitled." This commission was abolished March 28, 1808. These laws were executed with intelligence and fidelity. By October, 20, 1802, about 1,000 Connecticut people had exhibited their titles. All the lines in the seven- teen townships had been again surveyed, and certificates issued to the holders. These certificates were conclusive between Connecticut claimants, but did not con- clude a Pennsylvania claimant. Of the compromise act of 1799, in the case of Barney vs. Sutton, 2 Watts, 36 Scott, president judge of the Luzerne common pleas court sums up the whole thus: " At last the legislature adopted the expedient of acting as mediators between the Connecticut and the Pennsylvania claimants, for the purpose of putting a final end to the controversy. The act was strictly the act of mediation. It proposed terms of settlement and compromise to the parties, and the controversy was finally hap- pily settled. The judge then gives the following as pertinent history of the long- drawn-out contention: At the commencem,ent of the Revolution settlements had been effected in most, if not all, of the seventeen townships, and in many of them extensive improve- ments had been made. The settlers were a hardy, intelligent, brave and patriotic people. During the Revolutionary struggle neither the sufferings and privations which they endured nor the menace of the executive authority of Pennsylvania could drive them from their settlements, nor could the offers of British gold tempt them to abandon their country or the common cause of liberty and independence in which they were engaged. They had become so numerous that they furnished nearly 1,000 men for the regular service. They did still more. They sustained, single handed, for more than three years, a frontier war, during the most gloomy period of the Revolution, and successfully repelled an enemy " whose known mode of warfare spared neither age nor sex nor condition." On July 3, 1778, they were attacked by a numerous body of Indians, British and tories, and in one disastrous battle nearly the whole settlement were reduced to widowhood and orphanage. The feeble remnant that escaped soon mustered and returned to the settlement, and until the close of the war presented a barrier to the incursions of the savage foe. This is a mere skeleton of the early history of this settlement. It would require a volume to till it up. But enough has been noticed to satisfy any one not blinded by interest or prejudice of the equitable claims of these people. They came into possession under color of title, such a title, too, as they honestly believed to be good, and in which they were induced to confide by a government claiming juris- diction over the territory. Was this circumstance nothing as a ground of equity? Were the improvements and possession of the country nothing? Were the sacri- fices and sufferings and privations of the people in defence of the country and in the common cause nothing ? Are such a people to be considered outlaws ? To this last question I adopt the answer of the late chief justice in the case of Satterlee vs. HI8T0BY OP LUZERNE COUNTY. 163 Matthewson: "God forbid! They are not to be so considered." Considerations like these have uniformly been regarded as sufiScient in Pennsylvania to ground an equity. The principle has been carried further. Our statute books and the decisions of our courts furnish numerous instances where like considerations have been deemed sufficient grounds of equity in favor of those who had taken possession of lauds without title or color of title, and in favor of those who had taken possession in violation of the positive enactments of the legislature, as in the case of lands not purchased of the Indians. • "Half -share Men." — An act of the assembly, March 11, 1800, repealed the general act for the limitation of actions to be brought under the act of March 26, 1785, within the seventeen townships, or in any case where title is claimed under the Susquehanna company. April 6, 1802, an act was passed by the legislature, which the court, in the case of Irish vs. Scovell, 6 Binn, 57, fully explains when it says: " The manifest object of this act appears to have been to continue the kindness which had been extended to the seventeen townships, but to cut up by the roots the title of Connecticut in all other parts. ' ' And it thoroughly accomplished its purpose, but was attended with some unfort- unate circumstances, but of these it is necessary here to notice only such as were enacted within Luzerne county. The "half- share" men were often called the " Wild Yankees" — they realized that they were being ruthlessly outlawed — and Col. John Franklin, the Satterlees, Kingsburys and Spaldings were their friends, and in some respects their leaders. Acts of bloody violence were committed. Col. Arthur Erwin, an extensive land owner in the north part of the county, was shot dead while sitting in the door of Mr. McDuffie, of Athens; the Rev. Thomas Smiley, at that time living eight or ten miles up the Towanda creek, while acting as an assist- ant agent under the "intrusion law," was tarred and feathered. Col. Abraham Horn had been appointed by the Pennsylvania landholders to put the "intrusion law" in force, and at once entered upon his duties. In June, 1801, he went to Bradford county, but, apprehending danger from the violent oppression of the peo- ple, he stopped at Asylum. Rev. Thomas Smiley had written to the agent that nearly all the forty settlers on Towanda creek would renounce their Connecticut titles, and purchase of the Pennsylvania claimants. A conference was held at Asylum. Mr. Smiley was commissioned a deputy agent, and furnished with the necessary papers. July 7 he obtained the signature of nearly forty to their relinquishments and submissions, and started for Asylum. A meeting was held, and the "Wild Yankees" determined that the business must be stopped. About twenty men from Sugar Creek, Ulster and Sheshequin, armed and diguised, started in pursuit. Mr. Smiley, hearing the arrangements of the conspirators, went down to Joshua Wythe's, near Monroeton, where he remained until dark, and then stopped for the night at Jacob Granteer's. The parties followed him and brnke into the room wiere he was sleeping, captured his papers, burned them, and led him down to the creek, tarred and feathered him, and the leader giving him a kick told him to "go." John Murphy, David Campbell, Jacob Irvine, Ebenezer Shaw Stephen Ballard and Benjamin Griffin were presented to the grand jury for this, but no bill was found. Gov. Hoyt concludes with the following propositions: 1. In the form of law, Connecticut, with a title regular on its face, failed justly. 2. In the form of equity the Connecticut settlers, without other title than the possessio pedis prevailed rightly. This is the condensed story of the "seventeen townships," the "Connecticut claims" — the "first and second Pennamite and Yankee wars," as well as the story of the settlement of northern Pennsylvania and the unequaled bravery. 164 HISTORY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. patience and endurance of our distinguished forefathers. A chapter of deep interest to every student of American history; the central individual figure in it all was Col. John Franklin, the representative of Connecticut. To this day men in considering it are liable to confuse the two and only questions in it all into one question, and thereby bias their own otherwise better judgments. These questions should have been kept distinct, namely, right of jurisdiction and the right of soil, and in this light would have been easily settled. The actual settlers cared nothing as to the jurisdiction over them, and it must be conceded that on both sides pur- chasers bought good titles, that is, the individual acted in good faith, and the authorities on each side had good color of authority to dispose of the soil. In this view the judicial question for the courts should have been simply one of priority of claim, regardless of which faction either party belonged to or claimed under. When the Trenton decree was promulgated it was the plain duty of Pennsylvania to have promptly accepted that as a settlement of all questions in her favor of jurisdiction, and at once recognize every title of the Connecticut claimants, and this would have incorporated the colony as good and loyal citizens of the State, and have ended forever all dispute or bad blood. The' State erred in making itself a partisan in the question of soil, a mere agent or attorney, intent upon land-grabbing in behalf of its clients, regardless of all questions of equity or even justice, and it proceeded in a long course of evictions that were not only unjust, but utterly cruel. As seen above, in the end the State had to become a mediator — the very thing it should have done at first. It did this only when Connecticut ceased to trifle with the question, and set about in earnest a bold defence of its long-suffering people. After the thing had run on a hundred years or more, and the people had suffered an unbroken stream of wrongs to which they had been led by the promises of Connecticut, then it roused up and boldly said to its colonists, if you can get justice in no other way than by forming yourselves into a new and separate State, we will back you even to the bloody issue. This action of Connecticut brought here Ethan Allen and his followers, flushed with his successes in Vermont, and it is estimated that by the time the mediatory act of Pennsylvania, 1799, was passed, there were 10,000 people in the valley, ready to carve out with their sharp swords the new 'State; that these men, made desperate, could have defended themselves against the world. Many of the ablest and purest men of the State were now taking sides with the Connecticut claimants, and happily the authorities saw the gathering cloud and promptly, though now impossible of fairness and equity, took the only step it could take, and the end came. Nothing more fitting could conclude this chapter, which is a mere compilation from the historical lecture of Gov. Hoyt before the society, than the words of the same gentleman used in an address delivered at the base of the monument July 3, 1891. Of all men living perhaps not one is so well qualified to treat the subject so profoundly, judicially and understandingly as Ex-Gov. Hoyt, who for years investi- gated all sides of the question as a lawyer and student in cases in which he was engaged, where the cold, impartial truth alone could avail: The Wyoming massacre was a most deplorable episode. It had no necessary con- nection with the orderly development of history in this valley. It was an incident which happened to occur here, but which was produced by no local causes, and, as I think, was not inspired by local considerations. From 1769 to 1799 a controversv between the purchasers under the Susquehanna company and the State of Pennsylvania wore out one whole generation of men in itself. I myself have never seen any histor- ical connection between that controversy and the massacre. At the same time the partisans of one side of that controversy were the victims of the massacre, and hence the tendency to identify the controversy with the massacre. I think it well, here and now, to get right, historically, on this question, and to try and arrest the tide of resentment which is apt to arise against the State in which our ancestors / ;^, .dT^^UiTTL^ HISTORY OF LUZEKNE COUNTY. 167 finally concluded to make their homes. The descendants of those who fought are enjoying the fruits of those fields and mines over which it was waged. The pith and core of that conflict seems to be located on Abraham's Plains. It was a war to the knife on the broad arena of natural rights, law and politics. If it had arisen in the days of Pericles at Athens it would not have developed more self-poised and alert disputants. The 6,000 Yankees had not only purchased rights but had the pluck to stand for them with arms. We shall always preserve grateful and reverential memories of the men who fell here. But you, their descendants, are entitled to claim kin to the framers of Magna Charta and the Declaration of Independence. The massacre came at an interval when the controversy with Pennsylvania was not being waged. After the failure of the attempt under Pennsylvania by Col. Plunkett, in 1775, and up to the decree of Trenton in 1782, there was a suspension of hostilities here under the direction of congress. Then came the second Pennamite war, the passage of the confirming act of 1787, its repeal in 1790, and the uncertain but never hopeless expectation of final relief, which came under the compromise act of 1799. In the progress of these events a generation had come and gone. The most intelligent believed that their settlement was under a good title from Connecticut. As Justice Breckenridge said in Carkuff vs. Anderson, "they were not trespassers." That these isolated frontiersmen should have known and stood by their rights with intelligence and devotion, is to this day a wonder and amazement to the impar- tial student. Connecticut never protected or defended them. Their patient resist- ance outlasts the ill-timed and cruel attempts of the State, in 1784, to dispossess them — though the efforts of the State's agents was merciless and irresponsible. After the decree of Trenton the settlers expressed their willingness to observe the laws, but insisted on being confirmed in their possessions. The decree finding the land claimed by Connecticut belonged to Pennsylvania, did not affect the private possessions of individuals. Pennsylvania kept the equity of the settlers in abey- ance until April 4, 1799, when the legislature passed an act for offering compensa- tion to the Pennsylvania claimants of land in the seventeen townships. Then the possessions of the Connecticut settlers were confirmed and Pennsylvania claimants took their compensation. Thus closed the controversy. Some of the disputants in those various troubles have left their mark on other portions of the history of the country. Col. John Jenkins was the main spokesman and penman of the Connecticut people. His papers and addresses exerted a power- ful influence on his constituents. But he finally linked his fortunes to the "half share men. " Timothy Pickering, who came here as the agent for Pennsylvania and was prothonotary of Luzerne county on its first organization, was mainly instru- mental in passing the confirming law of 1787, and was a stanch adherent of the cause of the settlers. Gen. John Armstrong' s last act here, where he was wantonly harsh in attempting to dispossess the settlers, was a parting shot at the men he could not subdue, and he called the people vagrants and desperadoes. In view of the heroic life work of the men who stood up for their possessions, refusing to become abject slaves, and always willing to accept the provisions of a just govern- ment, we will accept the lineage he assigned to our predecessors. In Upham's Life gf Timothy Pickering he delivers a catholic judgment of Pennsylvania, refer- ring to her lenient course in the controversy, reflecting honor upon her wisdom and humanity. At different times she took many of the settlers prisoners and confined them at Easton, not executing upon them any military or judicial penalties; treating them, not as wicked, but as misguided men, and allowing them to be discharged. Such a course is entitled to commendation and honor. No conflict accompanied by so much provocation is so little stained by cruelty or has a better record for bravery and endurance then this over the Wyoming lands. The same author also presents a charitable view of the Connecticut settlers and the conditions which they felt. 168 HISTORY OF LUZEKNE COUNTY. They had built houses, barns and cultivated the soil. Naturally such a man will hold his own and fight for it against the world. And the possession becomes endeared by association, and consecrated by special experiences of blood and woe. Those who escaped the tomahawk and scalping knife had come back again from their refuge. The invincible, indestructible community persevered in the contest against all odds, and no power, civilized or barbarian, could root it out. With judicial impartiality he concludes thus : Upon balancing the facts and evi- dence we are brought not to the conclusion usually the result of a fair consideration of the whole subject in like cases, that both parties were in the wrong, but that both parties were substantially in the right. CHAPTER VII. WAE. Whisky Iksdbkbction — Thkeatbnbd French Wak — Row with England — Wab of 1813-15 — Mexican Wak — Civil War — Etc. IN 1756 the proprietaries of Pennsylvania imposed an excise duty on all distilled spirits, but the law being very unpopular, was soon repealed. The people of this colony, like all the pioneers of America, put their faith deeply in religion, and a little "suthen for their stomach's sake," whisky being their vernacular bever- age here, while rum held undisputed possession of New England. All agricultural products from this section were transported originally by pack-horses, and the transportation companies that were the forerunners of these long railroad trains that now go screaming over the hills and through the valleys, were men who had pumbers of pack-horses, that were manned by a crew of two men, one on a lead- horse and one in the rear. A horse could carry four bushels of grain; made into whisky he could carry the equal of twenty-five bushels, thus was saved the labor of five horses out of six. Distilleries were therefore among the first necessities of the pioneers. To be caught by a neighbor with the bottle empty was unpardonable; it was an article of common family use. In 1791, however, after the power to impose taxes, duties, imposts and excises had been delegated by the States to the federal government, congress established an excise duty or tax of fourpence per gallon on all distilled spirits. This law pro- duced open insurrection in western Pennsylvania, where large quantities of whisky were annually manufactured. The people of Washington, Fayette, Alleghany, and other counties viewed the law as an act of oppression. They stigmatized it as unjust, and as odious as those laws of England which led to the Eevolutionary war, and they considered them- selves justified in forcible opposition to its enforcement. But they did not discrim- inate between their duty and obligations as citizens of a free government, and their allegiance as subjects of the British crown. The excise officers of the government were arrested by armed parties, who were painted and otherwise disguised. Some were tarred and feathered; others were con- veyed into deep recesses of the woods, divested of their clothing, and firmly bound to trees. County meetings and conventions were assembled, inflammatory speeches were made, and denunciatory resolutions adopted. The dwellings, barns and dis- tilleries of persons who spoke in favor of the law, or exhibited the least sympathy for the govqiBment which enacted it, were consumed by fire; and even Pittsburg, HISTOEY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. 169 which did not take an active part with the rebels, was threatened with total destruction. In 1792 congress reduced the tax, but this did not satisfy the insurgents, the Monongahela whisky manufacturers, and the farmers who supplied them with grain. The country continued in a state of insurrection. After . all mild and dis- suasive measures had failed, in 1794, Washington being president, it was resolved to raise and equip an army for the purpose of quelling the insurrection. A force of 15,000 men was assembled, of regulars and volunteers, from the States of Pennsyl- vania, Virginia, Maryland and New Jersey. Gov. Lee, .of Virginia, had the chief command. Mifflin was governor of this State, and one of the commanders. All the governers and commanders were ordered to meet in Pittsburg, to hear com- plaints and take testimony, as the malcontents should be arrested and brought before them. Among the first to tender their services to the government were the Luzerne volunteers, Capt. Samuel Bowman; attached to a battalion of light infantry, under Maj. George Fisher. Capt. Bowman marched out September 1, 1794, reaching where is now Pittsburg, with fifty men. The Captain was an old officer of the army of the Revolution; brave and experienced, and in his company were some of his old soldiers. The following is the muster-roll : Captain, Samuel Bowman; lieutenant, Ebenezer Parrish; ensign, Arnold Colt; sergeants, John Alden, Daniel Spencer, John Freeman; corporals, Archibald White, Oliver Parrish, Robert Lewis, Thompson HoUiday; fifer, Peter Tarrington; drum- mer, John Wright; privates, Samuel Young, Solomon Daniels, John Cochran, Elihu Parrish, James Sitey, Thomas P. Miller, Peter Grubb, Arthur McGill, James Johnston, Joseph Headsdale, Daniel Alden, Simon Stevens, Warham Strong, David Landon, Gideon Underwood, Jeremiah Decker, James Eobb, Sale Roberts, Partial Roberts, Rufus Drake, Benjamin Owens, John Earl. Charles Bowes, Curtis Grubb, Thomas Jeayne, Joseph Grimes, Jesse Tompkins, William Harris, Jesse Coleman, John Talliday and Cofrin Boldwell. The gathered 15,000 troops spread terror among the "Tom the Tinker," as the whisky boys were called, and a general surrender soon followed, and "Johnny came marching home. " In suppressing this rebellion no precious Luzerne blood was spilled, but is was quite evident to the "rebels" that "Barkis is willin' " so far as the people of the county were concerned. From beginning to end the cam- paign lasted three months. French War, 1799. — France had materially helped the colonies in their struggle for independence, and in return France looked to the United States for aid and com- fort in its grapple with Europe and its long war with its arch-enemy, England. Americans were content to let France do her own fighting, and even became so friendly with England as to excite the jealously of the Gauls. France therefore adopted meas- ures openly inimical to American commerce; dismissed curtly the American minister at Paris, and licensed her ships of war to prey upon American merchantmen. The United States tried negotiations, and exhausted the means of pacification, and then openly prepared for war with France. In January, 1799, the American sloop-of-war "Retaliation" was captured by the French vessel "Insurgent" of forty guns. February following, the American frigate " Constellation," thirty-two guns, Capt. Truxtun, met the ' ' Insurgent,' ' engaged her, and compelled her to strike her col- ors. In a few days after the same American vessel engaged the French frigate "Vengeance," of fifty-four guns; the fight was severe and lasted from 8 in the evening till 1 the next morning, when the second French vessel struck colors, but this was not seen in the dark by Capt. Truxtun, and the Frenchmen and vessel escaped, but with terrible loss. The nation was now thoroughly aroused. President Adams requested Gen. Washington to again assume command of the army, and a call for troops was issued. In the call for volunteers Luzerne county as usual was prompt to hear and her men 170 HISTORY OF LUZEKNE COUNTY. turn out. In May, 1799, again the gallant Capt. Samuel Bowman, with seventy- five men, went to the front, and became attached to the Eleventh United States infantry, and marched to the Delaware and thence to Newburg, and were in the service until the latter part of the year 1800, when the war-cloud passed away happily, and the army was disbanded, immediately after Bonaparte became first consul of France. Trouble ivith England.— In 1807 the British frigate "Leopard," without cause or notice, fired on the American frigate "Chesapeake." Other insults were given the American flag, and the frequency of these outrages began to portend war. Luzerne county was again to the fore. The Wyoming Blues, Capt. Joseph Slocnm, Lieut. Isaac Bowman, Sergt. Benjamin Perry, in a letter breathing patriotism and war, tendered their services to President Jefferson. This tender must have mightily pleased the President, and in an autograph letter to Slocum, Bowman and Perry, he thanks them warmly. The letter concludes, after referring them to the State authorities : "I salute you with great respect, Th. Jefferson." War of 1812. — After a long series of taunts and insults, the United States was stung to a declaration of war against England. The ' ' Wyoming Matross," a volunteer company in Kingston, commanded by Capt. Samuel Thomas, with promptness offered their services to the government, and were accepted April 13, 1813, marching from Kingston to the Eddy, at the mouth of Shoop's creek, in Plymouth, where they embarked, numbering thirty-one men, and proceeded to Danville; thence overland to Bedford, where Capt. Thomas recruited thirty-seven men, recruiting twenty-seven more men in Fayette county, and reached Erie with ninety-five men all told. The following were the Luzerne county men: Captain, Samuel Thomas; first lieutenant, Phineas Underwood; second lieutenant, Ziba Hoyt; third lieutenant, Andrew Sheets; ensign, Edward Gilchrist; sergeants, John Carkhuff, Jacob Taylor, Absolom Roberts, Henry Jones, George W. Smith, John Bowman; corporals, Christopher Miner, Daniel Cochevour, Samuel Parrish, Ebenezer Freeman, John Blane; gunners, Stephen Evans, Isaac HoUister, John Prince, James Bird, Morris Crammer, Pestus Freeman, James Devans; drummer, Alexander Lord; fifer, Araba Amsden; privates, Daniel Hoover, John Daniels, James W. Barnum, William Pace, James Bodfish, Godfrey Bowman, Ben- jamin Hall, Solomon Parker, Ezekiel Hall, Sylvanus Moore, Hallet Gallup. This artillery company did fine execution in the cannonading at Presque Har- bor, firing no less than thirty shots into the hull of the brig "Hunter," and also cut away much of the rigging and injured the " Queen Charlotte." Preparatory to Perry's notable victory on Lake Erie, he had called for volunteers from the land forces. Among those who offered their services were William Pace, Benjamin Hall, Godfrey Bowman and James Bird, of the " Matross " company. They were sent on board the " Niagara," and all distinguished themselves eminently. James Bird fought almost by the side of Commodore Perry, was wounded, but when told to go below, refused, and continued in the battle. The State presented each of these volunteers a medal; but here comes a most sad and painful story. James Bird never received his more than thrice-earned medal, but instead, was shot kneel- ing on his cofiSa — as a deserter. News of the intended attack on New Orleans had reached the army on the lakes when Bird, fired solely with an ambition to be in the battle at New Orleans, one night when in command of the guards, marched off with several of his men to jom Jackson's forces, was arrested at Pittsburg, brought back, court-martialed and shot. Poor fellow! shot for an excess of bravery and patriotism. In behalf of the memory of Commodore Perry, it is said that poor Bird was dead before he heard of the affair, or otherwise he would have saved him. Hon. Charles Miner wrote and published a poem, telling graphically the pathetic story of James Bird. The "Matross" company was in Col. Hill's regiment, and under Gen. Harri- son; advanced from Erie to Cleveland and joined the main army September 27, HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 171 crossing into Canada, moving against Maiden, which the enemy deserted, after burning the public buildings. Advancing toward Sandwich, the Americans found that place also deserted. Thence they crossed the Detroit river to attack Gen. Proctor, who, with several hundred British troops and a large body of Indians under the celebrated chief Tecumseh, was, in possession of Detroit. Capt. Thomas' company was in the forward gunboats in the passage across the river, and, landing, planted the stars and stripes on the opposite bank. Proctor and his forces retreated, whom Gen. Harrison immediately pursued with the main body of his army, including the whole of the " Matross," except fourteen men, who were left with Capt. Thomas at Detroit. In the battle of the Thames the company was commanded by Lieut. Ziba Hoyt, and acquitted itself with credit, sustaining the reputation of Luzerne for good and true soldiers. In addition to the company of Capt. Thomas, Luzerne furnished a number of volunteers for the companies of Capt. John Baldy, of Columbia, and Capt. Robert Gray, of Northumberland counties. Among these were Job Barton, William Hart, William Brown, Henry Harding, Luther Scott, W. C. Johnson, and about thirty- others. These companies were attached to the Sixteenth regiment of infantry, known as the " Bloody Sixteenth." This regiment was commanded by Col. Crom- well Pearce. It was present at the engagements of Sackett's Harbor, Stony Creek, and of other places. At the battle of York, in Canada, when Gen. Pike was killed by the blowing up of the magazine. Col. Pearce, of this regiment, assumed the command of the army, and received the capitulation of the enemy. During the war there was a recruiting station established at Wilkes- Barre, and the names of Capts. Baldy, Gray and McChesney, of the infantry, and Helme of the cavalry are remem- bered. The infantry barracks were located on the bank of the river, opposite the residence of Col. H. B. Wright, and the cavalry barracks were located on Franklin street, on the site of the residence of the late Joshua Miner. At 4 o'clock A. M.,the drums beat the reveille, and drill oflScers with new recruits daily paraded in the streets. At short intervals one or more detachments were sent away to the regular army. In 1814, when the British threatened an attack on Baltimore, five companies of militia from Luzerne and adjoining counties marched under the command of Capts. Joseph Camp, Peter Hallock, Frederick Bailey, George Hidley and Jacob Bitten- bender. The Wyoming Blues, a volunteer company, assembled at Wilkes-Barre, with the intention of accompanying the militia, but, some difficulty occurring, the company broke up in a row. Several of its officers and privates entered the ranks of the militia, while eight or ten men, with drums beating, marched toward the seat of war, under the colors of the Wyoming Blues. On the arrival of these companies at Danville, they received intelligence of the gallant defence of Fort Henry, and the repulsion of the British forces. They consequently received orders to return to their homes — an order welcome, doubtless, to men of families, but bringing disap- pointment to others who were anticipating the excitements of an active campaign. Mexican War. — December 7, 1846, the Wyoming Artillerists, Capjt. E. L. Dana, left Wilkes-Barre for the seat of war in Mexico; going to Pittsburg by canal, where they were mustered into service; a part of the First Begiment Pennsylvania Volun- teers, to serve during the war. At this point First Lieut. Francis L. Bowman was elected major, and company " I " left Pittsburg, December 22 for New Orleans by steamboat, reaching there went into camp on Jackson' s old battle ground, about seven miles below the city, remaining there until January 16, 1 847, then sailed and were landed at the Island of Lobos (Wolf Island), which they reached February 1. .The passage to this point was stormy and tedious. The island where they landed is about twelve miles from the Mexican coast, and 120 miles north of Vera Cruz. It is about one mile in circumference, and was covered with a thick growth of chaparral ; and the water used by the troops for cooking was of a brackish character, being sea- , water filtered through the sand. * 172 HISTOBY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. March 3 the company left Lobos and sailed for Anton Lizardo, nine miles below Vera Cruz, where they arrived two days after. On the 9th of March a landing was effected on the Mexican coast, at a point three miles south of Vera Cruz. The fleet had hardly swung to its cables when Gen. Worth's division, with wonderful celerity, filled the surf-boats, and, at a signal from the ship of the commander-in- chief, darted for the shore amid the enthusiastic cheers of the army and of our gal- lant tars. By 9 o'clock of the night of that day, 12,000 men had landed without firing a gun, and were marshaled within two miles of the city. The army com- menced the next morning its march through the thick chaparral and sand-hills for the investment of Vera Cruz. The day was intensely hot, and many men were stricken down by coup de soleil. To add to their sufferings, they dare not drink of the water of the springs of the country; as a report was abroad that they wer« poisoned by the enemy. It was the fortune of the Wyoming Artillerists to receive the first fire of the Mexicans. Passing through the chaparral by a narrow path, along the base of a gentle declivity, the enemy poured their fire upon them, when the company was halted, and delivered their own with admirable coolness. The Greasers fled to the city. The company participated actively in the investment of the place and was engaged throughout the siege. The trenches were opened on the 22d, and after a terrible storm of iron had been blown on the city for a few days and nights, it surrendered to the American army on March 29, 1847. In April the volunteer division left the city for the interior, under the command of Maj.-Gen. Patterson. Having arrived at Plan del Rio, fifty miles from Vera Cruz, they found Gen. Twiggs with his division of regulars already there. The Mexicans, under Gen. San' a Ana, were strongly posted in the pass of Cerro Gordo. On the morning of April 18, the American army attacked the Mexican lines. The volunteer brigade formed the left wing, under the command of Gen. Pillow, to which the Wyoming Artillerists were attached. The brigade took a posi- tion within 200 yards of the Mexican batteries, wliich opened upon them .a tremen- dous fire of grape. The Wyoming boyssuffered but slightly; butthe Second Tennessee regiment, occupying more elevated grounds, suffered severely, and Gen. Pillow him- self was wouaded. In twenty minutes the line of attack was completed, and the brigade moved forward toward the batteries. The Mexicans now displayed the white flag from their defences, for their left wing had been completely routed by the forces under Gens. Twiggs, Shields, Worth and Quitman. The fruits of this victory were 3,000 prisoners, 5,000 stand of arms, forty-three cannon, the money chest of the Mexican army, containing $20,000, and a free passage for the army into the interior of the enemy's country. In this action David R. Morrison, of the Wyoming company, was killed, and Corporal Kitchen wounded. After the battle the volunteer force encamped three miles west of Jalapa, where they remained about three weeks. They were then ordered to Perote, a place about thirty-five miles west of Jalapa, on the main road to the capital. Here they took up their quarters in the celebrated castle of Perote, and formed its garrison. The period of their stay here was the most melancholy of the whole campaign, for the burial of the dead was the principal feature of their soldier life. Here those ravages of the army, diarrhoea and typhus fever, broke out and made fearful havoc in their ranks. For many weeks was heard, almost constantly, the melancholy strains of the dead march accompanying their messmates to lonely and forgotten graves. It was a joyful day when they received orders to leave the gloomy castle and dreary plains of Perote. About the 2d of July they marched for the city of Puebla. On the night of the 4th, when the soldiers had taken to their blankets, the camp was alarmed by an attack on the pickets, which were driven in. Satisfied with this, the enemy retired. Having reached El Pinal, or the Black Pass, Gen. Pillow anticipated a fight, for the enemy were posted there, prepared to dispute the passage. The Wyoming HISTOKY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 173 boys formed part of the stormiag party, and behaved gallantly; but when the light troops had scaled the bights commanding the gorge, the Mexicans abandoned their position and fled. On July 7 they approached the fine old city of Puebla. Here Gen. Scott by August 1 had concentrated about 11,000 men of all arms. On the 7th of that month the army left Puebla for the City of Mexico. The Wyoming company, with five others of the First Pennsylvania regiment, remained behind, constituting, with a company of United States artillery and one of cavalry, the garrison of Puebla. There were about 600 men under the command of Col. Childs, a~ brave and skillful officer. To this small force was entrusted the charge of 2,000 sick men, and an immense amount of government property. The population of the city was turbulent and warlike, and evinced an uncompromising hostility toward the Americans. The place now was besieged by the Mexicans, who harassed the garrison, day and night, with alarms and attacks. This continued for forty days; but our men, occupying strong and favorable positions, maintained their ground, and the enemy failed so far as not to succeed in driving in a single sentinel. In this siege John Priest was killed in an engagement with guerrillas, outside the city walls. Luke Floyd, a brave old soldier, who, with Priest, was a member of the Wyoming company, was severely wounded. The arrival of Gen. Lane with 3,000 men, on October 12, put an end to the siege. Li this arrival there were four companies of the First Pennsylvania regiment, which had been left in the garrison at Perote. They had participated in the fight at Hua- mantla, under the command of Maj. F. L. Bowman, of Wilkes-Barre, who led them up in gallant style. His conduct on this occasion was highly spoken of by all who witnessed it. Not long after the raising of the siege the regiment, now united, left Puebla, and on December 7, 1847, arrived in the City of Mexico, where they remained about two weeks. They were then quartered at San Angel, seven mile's from the city, until the treaty of peace in June, 1848. They now returned to their country at New Orleans, and passing up the Missis- sippi and Ohio to Pittsburg, they were honorably discharged at that place, and mustered out of service by reason of the expiration of the term of enlistment, July 24, 1848. The Columbia Guards, of Danville, Pa., constituting a portion of the Sec- ond regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, was composed of volunteers from Luzerne county, under Edward E. Leclere, of Wilkes-Barre, who was elected second lieutenant of the company. Among the names of privates who united with the Guards under Lieut. Leclero, we are able to give those of Norman B. Mack, Peter Brobst, Abram B. Carley, Randolph Ball, George Garner, Oliver Helme, Joseph H. Stratton, WiUiam Kutz and William White. Edward E. Leclere was appointed regiment quartermaster, November 8, 1847, and a few days later became first lieutenant of his company. Eoster of the First Independent company, Capt. Bobert Durkee, in Col. John Durkee's Connecticut regiment, at Morristown, August 8, 1777; enlisted September 17, 1776: Captain, Robert Durkee; lieutenants, James Wells, Asahel Buck; ensign, Herman Swift; sergeants, Thomas McClure, Peregrene Gardner, Thomas Baldwin, John Hutchinson; corporals, Edward Setter, Azel Hyde, Jeremiah Coleman, Benjamin Clark. Privates: Walter Baldwin, James Bagley, Eleazer Butler, Moses Brown, David Brown, Charles Bennett, William Buck, Jr., Asa Brown, James Brown, Jr., Waterman Baldwin, John Carey, Jesse Coleman, William Cornelius, Samuel Cole, William Davidson, Douglas Davison, William Dunn. Daniel Denton, Samuel Ensign, Nathaniel Evans, John Foster, Frederick Follet, Nathaniel Fry, James Frisby, Jr., Elisha Garret, James Gould, Titus Garret, Miimfred Gardner, Abraham Hamester, Israel Harding, Henry Harding, Thomas , Stephen Hard- ing, Oliver Harding, Richard Halstead, Thomas Hill, John Halstead, Benjamin 174 HISTORY OF LUZEKNE COUNTY. Harvey, Solomon Johnson, Asahel Jerome, John Kelly, Stephen Munson, Seth Marvin, Martin Nelson, Stephen Pettibone, Stephen Preston, Thomas Porter, Aaron Perkins, John Perkins, Ebenezer Phillips, Ashbel Kobinson, Ira Stevens, Elisha Sills, Ebenezer Shiner, Asa Smith, Kobert Sharer, Isaac Smith, Eobert Sharer, Luke Shetland, Shadrach Sills, Samuel Tubbs, William Terry, John Tubbs, Ephraim Tyler, Edward Walker, Obadiah Walker, James Wells, Jr., Nathaniel Williams, Thomas Wilson. Eoster of the Second Independent company, Capt. Samuel Eansom, three-year- men; enlisted January 1,1777: Captain, Samuel Eansom; lieutenant, Simon Spalding (captain, June 24, 1778); sergeant, Timothy Pierce (ensign, December 3,1777, and lieutenant, January 17, 1778); lieutenant, John Jenkins; sergeants, Parker Wilson, Joseph Pasco. Privates: Caleb Atherton, Mason F. Alden, Samuel Billings, Isaac Benjamin, Oliver Bennett, Asahel Burnham, Eufus Bennett, Benjamin Clark, Gordon Church, Price Cooper, Josiah Corning, Benja- min Cole, Nathan Church, Daniel Franklin, Charles Gaylord, Ambrose Gay- lord, Justin Gaylord, Benjamin Hempstead, Timothy Hopkins, William Kellog, Jesse Bezale, Jehial Billings, Lawrence Kinney, Daniel Lawrence, Nicholas Mans- well, Elisha Mathewson, Constant Mathewson, William McClure, Thomas Neal, Asahel Nash, John O'Neal, Peter Osterhout, Amos Ormsburg, Thomas Packett, Ebenezer Eoberts, Samuel Saucer, Asa Sawyer, Stephen Skiff, John Swift, Constant Searle, William Smith, Jr., Elisha Satterlee, Eobert Spencer, John Vangordon, Thomas Williams, Caleb Warden, Eichard Woodstock, Elija Walker, Zeber Williams. The part taken in the Ee volution by the people is given in the preceding account of the movements of the Connecticut settlers. They not only answered all possible demands made upon them by the colonial authorities, either in men or money, but bravely met the double troubles of the conflict with the Indians and the Pennsylvania proprietaries in the bitter struggle for the possession of the soil. In the darkest hours they resolved in town meetings most bravely. They were a band of heroes, isolated, as it were, from the world, weak in numbers, surrounded with the most appalling difficulties, and sometimes it almost seemed that not only the Indians and Pennsylvanians, but even the Connecticut authorities on one or two occasions seemed ready to pluck them much after the fashion of the others. Civil War. — The progress of mankind in the great highway of civilization, as anomalous as it may seem, has, as Buckle says, been largely propelled forward in its course, first by the invention of gunpowder and then by the different inventions in guns to use that powder in the awful work of destroying men' s lives. The glories of peace and the peaceful arts, letters and science advanced, as it seems, not by piety and prayers, but by the horrors of the bloody battle-field. Some philoso- phers have long held that man was a dreadfully lazy animal, given to dawdling and filth, in which, unless impelled by hunger or cold, he would sink in final rottenness; as we may figure the great oak trees would only send one straight root into the soil, if it were not for the storms that would soon come and lay it prone upon the ground. Is national life here again like that of the individual ? Is it a common necessity that those terrible travails of the ages must come to our race that they may be com- pelled to grow strong and heroic in order to live at all ? All lands and times have had their sword-storms — storm-swept with fire and sword, the people butchered, made captives and slaves; and much of the world's printed history as we get it is but the awful record of war and the unspeakable agonies of nations. Theoretically the great man is he who creates or invents something promotive of the good of his fellow-man — ' ' he who makes two blades of grass grow where only one would grow before" — but practically it is the great captains who make the great red gaps of war, who win victories, who slay and conquer the enemy the most successfully. To destroy the enemy in wholesale and detail, this is the great and honored hero; HISTORY OP LUZERNE COUNTY. 177 not the patient nurse that binds up the wounds, and ministers to the dying; the benefactors of mankind, it seems, amounts to precious little compared to the Napo- leons of destruction. War is a kind of school for half-civilized men. It picks up the rural clod, arrays him in a bright uniform, places him in the close crowded camp, where for the first time he mingles with men of the world and daily the ignorant lout becomes more and more of a cosmopolitan; he sees something of the world that is all new to him; is the butt end of practical jokes that fairly send him spinning along the highway of educatioa— real education; and mayhap he is fired by what he sees with a great ambition and he becomes a phenomenal man-slayer and then the band begins to play "See the conquering hero comes." And to crown all, on walls of palace and hovel may be seen flaming chromoa, with this adorable creature riding at the head of the shouting multitude that strew the road with flowers. When he has whipped all creation what is more natural than that all creation should crown and adore him ? The uniform le the soldier's open sesame to glory. One of the greatest industries of the race has been that of cultivating and encour- aging excellence in the art of human slaughter. Teaching youths to sigh for the glorious day when they can trig themselves out in a uniform and in lock-step march to the dreadful, ear-splitting fife and snare drum. Even our great government, " of the people, for the people and by the people," has provided for military schools, where a scholarship is a great prize in the lottery of life. We talk about our civilization, our churches and our universal schools, but we think evidently most earnestly about war and its fadeless glories. ' The fact is war is barbarous — brutal in inception and unspeakably cruel in execution; it is the pollu- tion of life and steeps the very soul in filth. Physical bravery is not the highest possible order that man can reach. Man can hardly hope to regain the old Spartan standard of stoicism and indifference to pain and death. In fact the bravest army that ever went out to slay in the matter of simple courage has never equaled any ordinary cocking-main, or a prize dog fight. Only death-bravery can be, with the order of animal life incapable of reflection. Man alone may possess a moral courage sublime, and there is little else in life in the way of courage that counts for aught. To a man of even tolerable intelligence the ridiculous attitude of the leading nations of the old world, that have simply made themselves vast military encamp- ments, each one under the horrid pretext that he is simply preparing himself to guard against the invasion of his neighbors, would be comical weire it not all quite so serious to the poor, overburdened people. There men and women, are encour- aged to breed children for powder food; educate all boys for the army, and when at the proper age, without any other ceremony, every young man is a soldier. Many of the young men to-day of Germany have come to this country and are good and industrious citizens who have fled from Fatherland to escape the military serv- ice; they have, however, left millions behind — all could not flee — and the great boast now among the nations of that kind is the number and eflSciency of their respective armies. Their emperors, czars, kings, queens and princelings are the scabs of civil- ization—nothing more than night birds and bloodsucking vampires ; a large con- tingent of them imbeciles and madmen — all scrofulous mentally and physically, and their great standing armies are eating up the unpaid-for substance of the people, and millions and millions are starving. Russia, the great military empire, is exploiting to-day the greatest famine among its people that the world has ever known. More than 20, 000,000 are perishing of famine, and apparently but one man in all that great empire has strength of mind enough to realize the cause of this awful condition of the people. The anarchist with his fuse says it is all the cruel czar's fault and is ready to throw at him his bomb; the American minister to that country thinks it is the thoughtless improvidence of the people and the failure of crops, while Tolstoi tells the truth, namely — taxed to death. In 1848 the failure of the potato crop in Ireland and the famine and starvation following were universally esteemed as cause 10 178 HISTOBY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. and effect, and Americans were then, as they are now, sending to Russia ships filled with corn. As usual the most of this charity fell into the hands of the undeserving —the same as is now going on in Russia — but to the little portion that found its way to those for whom it was given, it was the boon of life. The fact is in Russia to-day, as in Ireland in 1848, there was food and plenty in store, but the people had not the wherewith to purchase. They had been simply taxed out of their earnings until they had nothing to eat and nothing to buy with. Bad governments in this age alone can produce the starving millions of its people. It is only the fault of the people ever that they suffer, in so far as they tolerate and uphold their vile and rot- ten governments. Governments can only ruin their people by the power of the tax machine, and this is nearly always done in the name of protecting their empires and peoples from the invasions of their neighboring nations. War, actual or antici- pated, is the one pretext for taxing to death the people. It has been so in all time. Here is the secret of the decay and death of nations. Taxing to kill the hated for- eigner when they inevitably kill their own subjects in the end. The cause that brought the fearful baptism 'of blood and fire to our nation cer- tainly can not now be even intelligently discussed. Even the facts of record, the simple annals, are mostly yet matters of grave dispute. One of President Lincoln's wittiest jokes was that by which he proved that Jeff Davis had 3,000,000 of men under arms. He said he knew there were in the Union army 1,000,000 soldiers in the field; that the official reports of his commanders invariably observed that the enemy had three to one in every engagement; therefore, if he had 1,000,000 Davis must have 3,000,000. As gleaned from official records of both sides — records that are not absolutely, but substantially correct — the following summary may be kept in mind by the stu- dents of American history when they study the chapter of our Civil war: The seceding States in 1861 had, in round numbers, a population of 8,000,- 000, about 4,000,000 of which were slaves. The non-seceding States had a popula- tion of 24,000,000. This gave the Union side about three to one of the whole pop- ulation. The confederate States had a seaboard from the Potomac to the mouth of the Rio Grande in Texas, and, having no navy, they were exposed as much to attacks by sea as by land. During the war 600 confederate vessels stood sentinel along the confederate coast. The South had neither navy yards nor shops for the manufacture of cannon and small arms, and in the first battles her soldiers were often armed with shot-guns. There were enlisted in the federal army during the war 2,778,304 soldiers, which was about twelve per cent, of her population ; while, according to federal statis- tics, the enrollment in the confederate army was 690,000, which was about seventeen per cent, of the population. The confederates, on the estimates made by Gen. Wright, agent for the collection of confederate statistics, deny that they ever had 690,000 enrolled, as the Army of the Confederacy, "absent and present," was as follows for each year: January, 1862, 318,011; January, 1863, 465,584; January, 1864, 472,781; January, 1865, 439,675. (Vol. IV, "Battles and Leaders," p. 768.) Taking the federal enlistment at 2,778, 304, and the number of federals on the pay roll May 1, 1865, at 1,000,516, there would be about thirty-seven per cent, of the enlist- ment present. This would give on the same basis about 222,000 confederates under arms. This would preserve the ratio of 600,000 to 2,778,304 enlistments, and the general ratio of population, 8,000,000 to 24,000,000. The difference between the confederate reports of January 1, 1865— 439,675— and the number paroled after the surrender— 174,000— is accounted for by the heavy losses of the confederates by death and desertion between January 1, 1865, and the date of parole. The first gun was fired April 12, 1861; the last April 9, 1865, three days less than four years from the rising of the curtain on the greatest tragedy in the tide of time and ringing it down; putting out the lights, and dismissing to their homes the HI8T0EY OF LUZEKNE COUNTY. 179 2,000,000 of STin-buriied and the battle-scarred actors. The "boys" from the North had fattened many a new-made Southern graveyard. Never were such wide- spread angry passions so deeply stirred before; never was such a mad, pell-mell rush into the very jaws of death. The fires of discoid blazed athwart the heavens and aching hearts gathered around the hearthstones of millions of homes; then came the sad, but too late, reflections of the joys of peace. The life of a generation has come and gone since the hour that Fort Sumter was fired on, and the results to the two contending sections as now developed are curious figures to study. The North is now represented in the pension rolls by considerably more than 800,000 applicants for government bounty; the South had nothing' to give as pensions to a soul. The destruction of slavery has been the greatest boon that it was possible for the South to receive. The rapid development of communities. States, factories, railroads and splendid cities in those States is the most amazing fact in our history. Prom smoking ruins and utter desolation has risen the most marvelous progress ever witnessed. The sons and daughters, reared in wealth, and lolling out a butterfly existence upon the proceeds of slave labor, found themselves confronted with the solemn problem of struggling with bare hands for existence. And, not wasting a moment in idle despair, they went to work, and with a most wonderful self-reliance have carved their paths to extraordinary prosperity, and the end is not yet. The next hundred years can give no token yet of the strides of those once rebellious States, who in a mad hour staked all upon a cast of the die and lost all. The land that was fertilized with blood and ashes is now the blooming garden; and the people, whose good finally came from such ill winds, are happy in the enforced knowledge that the abolition of slavery and the preservation of the Union, the two very things that sent them headlong in their folly, are the supreme blessings they now enjoy. And further, those living, if any, who were instrumental in precipitating a war for a separation of the Union, fully realize now they could have had no calamity befall them at all equal to that of success in their dreadful enterprise. In many respects our Civil war has had no parallel in all history: Its vastness. Its duration. Its number of indecisive battles. The loss of life. Its money cost. The ebb and flow of victory and defeat. These are the surface facts. The broken hearts, ruined homes, the wide- spread demoralization among the people, are mostly the unknown quantities now. When the proclamation of the president was issued calling for 75,000 troops to defend the national capital and suppress the Rebellion, the patriotism of the people in Luzerne county found vent otherwise than in words. Several military companies at once offered their services to the government. The Wyoming Light Dragoons, the Wyoming Yagers (a German company), the Jackson Rifles (a company of Irishmen) and the White Haven Yagers were among the earliest to depart in response to the call. The recruiting of other companies for future exigencies was immediately commenced, and it was at once evident that, whatever had been the previous differences of opinion among the people in this country, when the time for action came patriotism triumphed over every other feeling; and here as elsewhere in the loyal North people of all parties vied with each other in their efforts to pro- mote measures for the defence of the country in its hour of peril. The first war meeting was held at the courthouse in Wilkes-Barre, on Friday, April 26, 1861. At this meeting Hon. H. B. Wright presided, and patriotic speeches made by several of the most prominent citizens. There were no politics here then for men to wrangle over. One universal purpose prevailed. " Go to warl" J^gO HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. was the watch cry and men stepped up to the enrolling officer in squads, platoons, companies, regiments and brigades. Eighth Regiment was organized for the three months' service. Companies C, D, F, G were from this county. A company of cavalry at Wilkes-Barre, Capts. Hoyt and Brisbane had been commanders, was filled by new recruits and became Company O. Company F had been an artillery company of the same place, under Oapt. Bmley, who became colonel of the regiment. Company G had been an organization known as the Wyoming Yagers; this joined with a Pittston company. The companies proceeded at once to Camp Curtin, where the regiment was organized on April 22, 1861, seven days after the president's proclamation calling for 75,000 men was issued. On the day of its organization the regiment was ordered to the vicinity of Chambersburg, where it was attached to the Third brigade, First division. June 7 it went to Greenville, and soon afterward to the vicinity of Will- iamsport, where it was posted to guard the forts of the Potomac. While here Lieut. - Col. Bowman crossed the river alone to reconnoitre, and was made prisoner by rebel scouts. Soon after the Union forces advanced into Virginia. ' Two companies of this regiment were detailed as an escort for Capt. Doubleday' s battery on its march to Martinsbnrg. On July 6 the regiment joined the brigade at Martinsburg; on the 17th it participated in a flank movement toward Charleston, and was sta- tioned at Keyes Ford during the night of the 20th. It returned about this time, via Harper's Ferry and Hagerstown, to Harrisburg, where it was disbanded. The field and staff officers of the regiment were : A. H. Emley, Wilkes-Barre, colonel; Samuel Bowman, Wilkes-Barre, lieutenant colonel; Joseph Phillips, Pitts- ton, major; Joseph Wright, Wilkes-Barre, adjutant; B. Dilley, quartermaster; Ben- jamin H. Throop, surgeon; H. Carey Parry, assistant surgeon; T. P. Hunt, chaplain. Company C. — Officers: William Brisbane, captain; Joseph Wright, first lieu- tenant; John B. Conyngham, second lieutenant; Lyman E. Nicholson, first ser- geant; William J. Fell, second sergeant; Beriah S. Bowers, third sergeant; Will- iam C. Eohn, fourth sergeant; Treat B. Camp, first corporal; Samuel B. Hibler, second corporal; Albert M. Bailey, third corporal; Edwin S. Osborne, fourth corpo- ral; Thomas J. Schleppy and Joseph W. Collings, musicians. Com,pany D. — Officers: Jacob Bertels, captain; Richard Fitzgerald, first lieu- tenant; Patrick Lenihan, second lieutenant; Michael Reily, first sergeant; John C. Reily, second sergeant; Michael Giligan, third sergeant; Joseph P. Byrne, fourth sergeant; Daniel McBride, first corporal; Daniel Shoolin, second corporal; Thomas Devaney, third corporal; John Ryan, fourth corporal; Bartholomew Lynch and John Batterton, musicians. Company F. — Officers: Edwin W. Finch, captain ; Butler Dilley, Isaiah M. Leach, lieutenants; Alpheus C. Montague, Charles B. Metzgar, Charles B. Stout; Oliver A. Parsons, sergeants; Benjamin F. Louder, John J. McDermott, William K. Eowntree and Paschal L. Hooner, <^orporaIs. Company O. — Officers: George N. Richard, captain; John N. Treffeisen and Gustavus E. Hahn, lieutenants; George W. Smith, Joseph Harold, Christopher Walther, Jacob Goeby, sergeants; Christian Treffeisen, Andreas Haussan, Henry Katzenbacher, John Marr, corporals. Eleventh Regiment, ninety days, organized April 26, 1861. May 27 it was ordered to guard the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore railroad. June 18 went to Baltimore, thence to Chambersburg and to Hagerstown. July 2 crossed the Potomac at Williamsport, and was in the battle of Palling Water, where three men of Company E (James Morgan, Daniel R. Stiles and Nelson Headen) were wounded. Then went to Martinsburg and Bunker Hill, and on July 17 to Charlestown. As the term of their enlistment was about to expire. Gen. Patterson had the Eleventh paraded and requested the men to remain some days beyond this term. He asked them to signify their willingness to do so by bringing their arms to a shoulder at the word. HISTOEY OP LUZERNE COUNTY. 181 "When the order was given every musket was shouldered. By arrangement the regiment was re-mustered for three years after its muster out and allowed to retain its number. The field and staff officers of the Eleventh regiment were as follows: Colonel, Phaon Jarrett; lieutenant-colonel, Richard Coulter;'! major, William D. Earnest; adjutant, F. Asbury Awl; quartermaster, William H. Hay; surgeon, William T. Babb; assistant surgeon, H. B. Buchler. Company E of this regiment was recruited at Pittston; mustered in April 21, 1861. Officers: John B. Johnson, captain; John B. Fish, first lieutenant; Thomas De Ketta, second lieutenant; William E. Sees, first sergeant; Samuel Hodgdon, second sergeant; William C. Blair, third sergeant; Francis C. Woodhouse, fourth sergeant; Jacob Fell, first corporal; George Cleaver, second corporal; Cornelius Vanscoy, third corporal; Charles F. Stewart, fourth corporal. The Fifteenth Regiment was organized at Camp CurtinMay 1, 1861. May 9 the regiment went to Camp Johnston, near Lancaster, where the men were well drilled and disciplined. June 3 they moved to near Chambersburg, and were assigned to Gen. Negley's brigade of Gen. Keim's division. June 16 the regiment with its brigade marched to the vicinity of Hagerstown. On July 2 it crossed the Potomac with the army and Negley's brigade, which followed a road that diverged from the main line of march, threw forward Company I with a company from another regi- ment as skirmishers. These suddenly came upon a battalion of Ashby's cavalry, disguised as Union troops, and before they suspected their true character, Lieut. John B. Hutchinson and a portion of Company I were made prisoners, the first ser- geant having been shot. They had even obeyed an order from Ashby to let down the fence between them, mistaking the cavalry for friends. Pursuit without cavalry was unavailing, and these men were hurried to Richmond, and thence through the south to New Orleans, where they were kept till that city fell into the possession of the federal troops, when they were sent to Salisbury and soon afterward exchanged. Six of their number, however, had died from exposure and hardship. On the 3d the regiment reached Martinsburg, where it remained till the 15th; then marched successively to Bunker Hill, Charleston, Hagerstown and Carlisle, where it encamped on the 27th, and was mustered out on August 7. Colonel, Richard A. Oakford; lieutenant-colonel, Thomas Biddle; major, Stephen N. Bradford; adjutant, John R. Lynch; quartermaster, Jacob Rice; sur- geon, A. P. Meylert; assistant surgeon, R. H. Little. Companies B and C were from Pittston and D and G from Wilkes-Barre. Company B. — Officers: Anthony Brown, captain: Andreas Frey, first lieuten- ant; George Dick, second lieutenant; Henry Teuf el, first sergeant; Charles Aicher, second sergeant; Joseph Kaiser, third sergeant; Leo Steur, fourth sergeant; Albert Feist, first corporal; Joseph Steur, second corporal; John Kolb, third corporal; Herman Kaapar, fourth corporal. Company C. — OEficers: Christian Robinson, captain; Frederick Weichel and Charles Robinson, first lieutenants; William Steim and John R. Jones, second lieutenants. Company D. — Officers: Solomon Strumer, captain; Daniel Dobra, Jacob C. Hohn, lieutenants; Marcus Bishop, John Gebhart, George Schaffer, Nicholas Smith, sergeants. Company G. — Officers: Thomas Mazorerrs, captain; Thomas A. Nichols, Alexander Phillips, lieutenants; John Eskings, Richard W. Jackson, George Z. Killhorn, Davis Garbet, sergeants. Twenty eighth Regiment was raised by John W. Geary, of Mexican war fame. He became colonel and finally promoted to major general; elected governor of the State in 1867 and 1870. There were fifteen companies in this regiment, of which 1^2 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. Companies A and N were from Luzerne county. July 27, 1861, the Colonel with ten companies moved rapidly to Harper's Ferry, leaving the other five companies to follow when filled. August 13 the regiment moved to Point of Rocks, and engaged in picket duty along twenty-five miles of the frontier, on the Potomac. The disloyalty of the inhabitants was such that a picket post was required every 400 yards, and the utmost watchfulness was necessary to prevent treasonable communications. In the latter part of September the rebels attacked Point of Eocks, but were repulsed. In October the Colonel with a part of the regiment crossed into Virginia to seize and carry away a quantity of wheat, and when about to return they were attacked by a large force and a spirited fight ensued. The enemy were repulsed with consider- able loss. In the latter part of the same month the command went forward to participate in the action at Ball's Bluff. During three months the regiment was on duty along the Potomac, and had frequent skirmishes with the enemy. In the lat- ter part of February, 1862, it crossed to Harper's Ferry, drove the enemy from Bolivar Heights, crossed the Shenandoah and drove the rebels from Loudon Heights; thed pushed forward to Lovellsville, Waterford and Leesburg, which Gen. A. P. Hill abandoned on the approach of Col. Geary's force, and which was occu- pied by the Union troops. From Leesburg the command advanced to Snickerville, XJpperville, Ashby's Gap, Eectortown, Piedmont, Markham and Front Royal. Re- turning to Snickerville the force was joined by a portion of the Twenty-eighth that had been left at Leesburg. They then marched successively, fighting occasionally, to Philemont, Middlebury, White Plains, Thoroughfare Gap, Greenwich, Catlett's Station, Warrentown, and White Plains; and for some time, till about May 1st, guarded and repaired the Manassas railroad. April 25 Col. Geary was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers, and was succeeded as colonel by Lieut. -Col. De Korponay. Maj. Tyndall was made lieutenant-colonel, and he was succeeded by Capt. Ario Pardee, Jr. The Twenty- eighth was soon afterward, or about May 17, attached to the command of Gen. Geary, and its subsequent history is so closely connected with that of his brigade that to give it fully would require a history of all the movements of that brigade. It was attached to the corps of Gen. Banks at the time of the retreat from Virginia, and was engaged in the battle of Antietam. It also took part in the battles of Chancel- lorsville and Gettysburg. In September, 1864, the Eleventh and Twelfth corps were ordered to join the Army of the Cumberland. From this time forward the Twenty-eighth was attached to the army of Gen. Sherman, and participated in many battles, which can not even be enumerated here for want of space. In November, 1864, with the rest of Sher- man's army, it made the famous "march to the sea." After doing duty about a month in Savannah, it started across the Carolinas, which was the severest part of the march from Atlanta. The surrender of Lee and Johnston concluded the fight- ing of the war and the regiment was mustered out of the service on July 18, 1865. During its service of four years it lost about as many men as were originally on its muster roll. It is said that it was as often engaged as any regiment in the service but that it never permitted any kind of property belonging to it to fall into the hands of the enemy. One major-general and three brigadiers were furnished by it; among the latter was Ario Pardee, Jr. The term of enlistment of this regiment was three years. All the members of Company N remaining in the service until October 28, 1862, were transferred at that date to Company C of the One Hundred and Forty-seventh Pennsylvania Vol- unteers. The first date given in the following roll is that of muster-in, and as the year is 1861, except in case of recruits, it need not be repeated. The regimental officers and men of Company A, where not otherwise mentioned, were mustered out with the regiment, July 18, 1865: HISTORY OF L0ZERNE COUNTY. 183 Field and Staff Officers. —Colonels: John W. Geary, June 28; promoted briga- dier-general United States Volunteers April 25, 1862; wounded at Bolivar, Cedar Mountain and Chancellorsville ; promoted major-general January 12, 1865. Gabriel De Korponay, June 28; promoted from . lieutenant- colonel to colonel April 25, 1862; discharged on surgeon's certificate March 26, 1863. Thomas J. Ahl, July 11; pro- moted from captain Company H to colonel March 15, 1863; resigned March 18, 1864. John Flynn, July 1; wounded at Gettysburg July 3, 1863, and at North Edisto river, S. C, February 12, 1865; promoted -lieutenant-colonel December 12, 1863; to colonel June 9, 1864; brevet brigadier- general May 13, 1865; discharged Novem- ber 3, 1865; veteran. Lieutenant-colonels: Hector Tyndale, June 28; promoted lieutenant-colonel April 25, 1862; wounded at Antietam, September 17, 1862; promoted brigadier- general volunteers November 29, 1862; discharged March 18, 1863. James Fitz- patrick, June 28; promoted major March 27, 1864; lieutenant-colonel August 9, 1864; wounded at Antietam September 17, 1862; at Mill Qreek Gap, May 8, 1864. Majors: Ario Pardee, Jr., June 28; promoted major November 1, 1861; lieuten- ant-colonel One Hundred and Forty-seventh regiment October 9, 1862. William Eaphail, July 3; promoted major July 1, 1862; resigned January 15, 1863. Eob- ert Warden, July 28; promoted major April 25, 1862; died at Winchester, Va., June 30, 1862. Lans'd F. Chapman, July 6; promoted major January 22, 1863; killed at Chancellorsville May 3, 1863. Jacob D. Arner, July 6; promoted major June 1, 1865. Adjutants: Samuel Goodman, October 15; promoted to adjutant November 13, 1861; discharged August 3, 1864; brevet captain, major, lieutenant-colonel and colonel, March 13, 1865. Henry Cheesman, July 11; promoted adjutant July 28, 1864; discharged February 8, 1865. William S. W^itham, July 2; promoted adju- tant June 1, 1865. Quartermasters: Benjamin F. Lee,-June 28; resigned September 10, 1862, to accept commission as captain and A. C. S. John F. Nicholson, June 28; promoted from commission sergeant to quartermaster September 10, 1862; brevet captain, major and lieutenant-colonel March 13, 1862. Surgeons : H. Ernest Goodman, July 23 ; transferred to United States Volunteers as assistant surgeon, to date February 26, 1864; brevet colonel and surgeon- in-chief Army of Georgia. William Altman, December 17, 1862; promoted surgeon May 8, 1864. Assistant surgeons: Samuel Logan, June 28; resigned October 3, 1862. Will- iam M. Dorland, August 1, 1862; resigned November 27, 1862. John H. Mullin, October 15, 1862; resigned April 17, 1863. William F. Smith, June 3, 1863; pro- moted surgeon December 23, 1864, and transferred to Seventy-third. Abin H. Light, May 23, 1864. Company A. — Mustered in June 28, 1861. Officers: Ario Pardee, Jr., captain, promoted major Twenty-eighth regiment, November 1, 1861 ; James Fitzpatrick, promoted captain, January 1," 1862, major, March 27, 1862; James Silliman, promoted from corporal to first sergeant July 1, 1861, second lieutenant January 1, 1862, first lieutenant July 1, 1862, captain August 16, 1864; Goorge Marr, pro- moted first sergeant July 12, 1863, fiirst lieutenant October 1, 1864; Second Lieutenant John Garman resigned and Isaac B. Eobinson promoted to the place, January 1, 1862, killed July 20, 1864, at Peach Tree creek, Ga. ; William Airey promoted corporal January 1, 1863, sergeant July 12, 1863, first sergeant October 1, 1864, second lieutenant June 1, 1865. Company N. — Officers: Captain — John Craig, August 30. First lieutenants — Patrick J. Hughes, August 20, resigned December 16, 1861; Calvin Pardee, August 30, promoted from second to first lieutenant December 20, 1861. Second lieutenants — Hugh Hyndman, August 30, promoted from corporal to second lieu- 184 HISTOKY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. tenant December 20,1861, died February 14, 1862; Nicholas Glace, August 20 promoted from first sergeant to second lieutenant February 17, 1862. Sergeants — David Bryan, August 20, promoted sergeant February 16, 1862; John Kindland, August 20, reduced January 1, 1862; John H. Kentz, August 26; Alexander Youngst, August 20; Samuel Henry, August 30, promoted from corporal to sergeant February 14, 1862. Corporals— John Grubb, John Lindsey, Owen McGovern, John O'Conner, Alfred Reiley and William T. West, August 20; Emmett Sayres, August 30, promoted to corporal January 1, 1862. The Thirty-sixth and Forty-first Regiments {Seventh and Twelfth Reserves). — The Seventh Reserve regiment was organized on June 26, 1861, and Eliwha B. Harvey, of Wilkes-Barre, was made colonel; Joseph Totten, of Mechanicsburg, lieutenant-colonel, and Chauncey A. Lyman, of Lock Haven, major. The regiment was ordered to Washington on July 21, and on the 27th was mustered into the service of the United States. On August 2 it went forward to the rendezvous of the Pennsylvania reserves, and was assigned to the brigade of Gen. George G. Meade. From this time till October it was engaged in drilling and picket duty. In the latter month it joined the Army of the Potomac. From this time till March, 1868, but little service beyond drill was seen. When the army moved forward to the peninsula in April the Seventh was retained, with other troops, for the defence of Washington. In June they went forward to the front and became a part of the Fifth corps, under Gen. Fitz John Porter. On June 26 the battle of Mechanicsville, in which the Seventh was engaged, was fought. The next day the battle of Gaines' Mill, in which the Seventh also participated, took place. Then followed some marching and skirmishing, in which the regiment was engaged til! the end of the " seven days" fighting. It then marched "by devious ways" to the vicinity of Groveton, where on August 29 and 30, 1862, the Seventh was engaged. Its next battle was at South Mountain, where it made an impetuous charge, in which Col. Bolinger was severely wounded. At the battle of Antietam it was actively engaged and lost heavily. After this battle it moved to the Potomac, aud thence, in the latter part of October, to Warrenton, Va. Thence, in the latter part of November, to the vicinity of Fredericksburg, where on December 11 it was desperately engaged. At this battle it made its mobt brilliant record; a gallant charge on the corps of Longstreot, in which it captured more than 100 prisoners and a battle-flag — the only one taken in this action. The losses of the regiment in this action were heavy. Daring the winter following, the Seventh remained in its camp near Belle Plain, with the exception of a short time spent on what is known as the " mud march." In February, 1863, it was transferred from the field to the department of Washing- ton, where it remained, in the discharge mostly of provost and guard duty, during more than a year. In this time several changes were made among the field officers, and Capt. L. G. Speese was promoted to the position of major. Iq the latter part of April it again took the field, and joined the army at about the commencement of the Wilderness campaign. In the course of the first action in which the Seventh was engaged, a large portion of the regiment was, by one of the caanalties of war, captured, and the men were sent to the prison pen at Ander- sonville, Ga. , where they were starved during nearly eight months. Out of about 250 privates who were taken, sixty-seven died in this prison, and many others afterward by reason of their hardships and exposure there. The surrender of the rebel armies to Grant and Sherman opened their Brison doors. Company F, of the regiment, whose achievements and sufferings have just been recounted, was recruited in Luzerne county. Below are the records of that com- pany as published by the State. The time of service was three years. The date of muster-in was June 13, 1861. Company F.~Omcers: Captains, Le Grand B. Speese, promoted major July HISTORY OF LTJZEENE COUNTY. 187 25, 1863. John Robiason, promoted sergeant July 26, 1861 ; first sergeant Novem- ber 12, 1861; second lieutenant August 1, 1862; first lieutenant March 1, 1863; captain July 20, 1863; brevet-major March 13, 1865; mustered out with company June 16, 1864. First lieutenants: Charles W. Garretson, resigned August 11, 1862. James S. Eobinson, promoted sergeant July 26, 1861; sergeant-major April 1, 1862; second lieutenant March 1, 1863; first lieutenant July 20, 1863; mustered out with company June 16, 1863. Second lieutenants: Charles A. Lane, resigned July 9, 1862. John B. Layeock, promoted sergeant July 26, 1861 ; first sergeant October 15, 1862; second lieutenant July 20, 1863; brevet first lieutenant March 13, 1865; captured May 5, 1864; discharged March 12, 1865. First ser- geants: Levi G. McCauley, promoted first lieutenant Company C, January 1, 1862. Forty-sixth Regiment, in which was Company I, a Luzerne company, with the following ofScers: Company I. — Captains: Richard Fitzgerald, October 31, 1861; discharged February 15, 1862. Patrick Griffith, September 16, 1861; promoted major August 1, 1863. John Care, October 31, 1861; promoted from first lieutenant to captain August 17, 1863; resigned June 10, 1864. Joseph Matchett, August 17, 1861; promoted from first lieutenant of Company C to captain July 17, 1864. First lieutenants: George W. Boyd, September 17, 1861; promoted adju- tant September 17, 1861. John H. Knipe, August 24, 1862; promoted from private Company B August 5,1863; died of wounds received at Resaca, Ga., May 15, 1864. Robert Young, October 31, 1861; promoted from sergeant to lieutenant January 15, 1863, to first lieutenant Nove'mber 12, 1864; mustered out May 15, 1865, by order of the war department. Second lieutenants: John Auglun, October 31, 1861; discharged February 15, 1862. Samuel Chambers, October 13, 1861; resigned January 22, 1863. Peter Van Kirk, July 27, 1864; promoted to sergeant October 10, 1862; to second lieutenant July 27, 1864. First sergeants: Lewis C. Eakman, July 14, 1863; drafted; promoted to corporal September 10, 1868; to sergeant September 1, 1864; to first sergeant June 8, 1865, commissioned first lieutenant July 15, 1865; not mustered. Fifteenth Regiment, in which was Company I of this county, with following officers: Captains: Samuel F. Bossard, resigned January 28, 1863. James H.Levan promoted from sergeant Company C to captain, November 26, 1864. First lieutenants : William Reynolds, mustered out September 29, 1864. Edward A. Wilbur, promoted from private to sergeant and then lieutenant, December 4, 1864. Second lieuten- ants: Alfred J. Huntzinger, promoted captain Company K, September 17, 1862. Richard Rahn, promoted from sergeant to second lieutenant, September 17, 1862. John Dennison, promoted fj'om private by regular grades to lieutenant, September 30, 1864; not mustered. This regiment saw as much and hard service, both in the Army of Potomac and in the West in and around Vicksburg, as any regiment in the service. Fifty-second Regiment. — Companies A, H and I were Luzerne men, Company F, composed of men from this and Bradford counties, and Company K, from Luzerne and Schuylkill counties. A call was issued by the president in July, 1861, for sixteen regiments, and under this call authority was granted by Gov. Curtin, August 1, 1861, to John C Dodge, Jr., to recruit this regiment. He was appointed colonel; Henry M. Hoyt, lieutenant-colonel, and John B. Conyngham, of Luzerne county, major. November 8, 1861, the regiment proceeded to Washington. It remained there, engaged in drill and camp duty, till March 28, 1862, when it was ordered to take the field. During this time it furnished ten volunteers for gunboat service at the West, most of whom were subsequently killed by an explosion. It marched to Alexandria, and thence went by transports to Newport News, where it debarked; and soon afterward it encamped near Yorktown, where the siege 188 HISTOEY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. was in progress. As the regiment marched to take possession of the deserted works on May 4, a torpedo exploded under Company F, killing one man and wounding six others. From Yorktown it moved forward with its brigade to Williamsburg, where it arrived just in time to support Hancock in his gallant charge, which resulted in driving the enemy from the field. The regiment arrived with its brigade at the Chickahominy on May 20. On the 24th it went on a reconnoissance toward Eich- mond, which lasted four days, and in the course of which a lively engagement occurred. In this reconnoissance a company of sharpshooters which had been selected from the regiment did excellent service. The regiment was engaged in the battle of Fair Oaks, which occurred on May 31, and out of 249 lost 125 killed and wounded, and four prisoners. Among the wounded officers were Capts. Davis, Lennard and Chamberlain, and Lieuts. Weidensaul and Carskaden. While the battle at Gaines' Mill was in progress, the Fifty-second, with other regiments of the brigade, was guarding the bridge across the Chickahominy; the men were often standing waist deep in the water of the swamp, and this duty con- tinued during several consecutive days. Soon afterward the regiment retired with the army to Harrison's Landing, and on August 20 to Yorktown, where circum- stances detained the brigade to which it was attached while a large part of the army went to the support of Gen. Pope. While occupying the fortifications at Yorktown the men were drilled in heavy artillery tactics. In December the Fifty-second, with other troops, went to Beaufort, and thence, in the latter part of January, 1863, to Port Royal, S. C. From there in April, 1863, it went on a transport up the North Edisto, to cooperate in an attack on the city of Charleston. The attack failed, and the regiment, after drifting among the Sea islands some days, and passing an uncomfortable night at sea, landed at Beau- fort. On July 1 1 it moved to Folly island, and on the 9th went up the Stone river with another regiment to make a diversion in favor of the attack on Morris island. It landed at James island at midnight, and in the morning attacked and drove in the pickets and cavalry of the enemy. The rebel force on the island was rein- forced, and on the 16th an attack was made by the enemy. On the night of the 17th the island was evacuated, and the Fifty- second returned to Folly island. The regiment participated in the siege of Fort Wagner during the perilous forty or fifty days that it lasted, when preparations were made for the final assault. It was formed ready to pass the fort and attack Fort Gregg, when intelligence was received that the works and the island were evacuated. During the operations against this fort the regiment suffered severely, but no exact record of its casualties can be given. In December many of the men in the regiment re-enlisted, and were granted a veteran furlough. When they returned the regiment was recruited to the maxi- mum and newly armed and equipped. It remained at Hilton Head till May 20, 1864, during which time it made occasional expeditions among the Sea islands. On the morning of July 4 the duty of surprising and taking Fort Johnson in the badly-planned attempt on the rebel works at Charleston harbor was assigned to the Fifty-second. Accordingly, just at daybreak, 125 men, under the command of Col. Hoyt, landed, took a two-gun battery, rushed forward, scaled the parapet of the fort and entered the works. Failing to receive the support which they expected, they were overpowered by superior numbers and made prisoners. Seven of the assaulting party were killed and sixteen wounded. Of the balance, who were made prisoners, upward of fifty died at Andersonville and Columbia, and the ofScers, after a period of confinement at Macon, were transferred to Charleston and placed under the fire of the Union batteries on Morris island. During the summer and autumn of 1864 the balance of the regiment was on Morris island, where the men did duty as heavy artillery. HISTORY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. 189 During the ■winter of 1864-5 they were engaged in picketing the harbor in boats, a duty that was anything but enviable by reason of the exposures and hard- ships which it involved. February 18, 1865, a boat crew under the command of Maj. Hennesy rowed across the harbor and landed near Fort Sumter. All was silent, and as the party cautiously entered the ruins they were not challenged. The fort was deserted; and they unfurled over it the flag of the regiment. The party at once proceeded to the city, which they entered before the last of the rebel soldiers had evacuated it. The regiment joined the army of Gen. Sherman as it marched north after cross- ing Georgia, and was with him when the rebel Gen. Johnston surrendered. A week later it returned to Harrisburg, where, on July 12, 1865, it was mustered out the service. The Fifty-second was composed of men who entered the service for three years. Those who remained in the regiment to the close of the war were mustered out July 12, 1865, except members of Company A, who were mustered out three days later. B'ield and Staff Officers. — Colonels : John C. Dodge, Jr. , August 1 , 1861 ; resigned November 5, 1863. Henry M. Hoyt, August 14. 1861; promoted from lieutenant- colonel to colonel January 9, 1864; brevet brigadier-general March 13, 1865; mus- tered out November 5, 1864. Lieutenant-Colonels: John B. Conyngham, September 28, 1861; promoted from major to lieutenant- colonel January 9, 1864; colonel June 3, 1865. John A. Hen- nessey, December 2: promoted from captain Company K to major January 5, 1865; lieutenant-colonel June 3, 1865; brevet colonel and brigadier-general March 13, 1865. Majors: Thomas B. Jayne, October 11, 1861; promoted from captain Company B to major January 9, 1864; mustered out November 5, 1864. George E. Lennard, August 16, 1861; promoted from captain Company A to major July 9, 1865. Adjutants: Nathaniel Pierson, August 15, 1861; promoted to captain Company G May 19, 1863. George H. Sterling, October 11, 1861; promoted from sergeant- major to adjutant May 19, 1863 ; transferred to Company K October 10, 1 864. Henry A. Mott, October 2, 1861 ; promoted from first lieutenant Company K to adjutant September 1, 1864; captain Company K December 6, 1864; not mustered. Quartermasters: Charles F. Dodge, resigned July 4, 1863; Charles P. Boss, promoted from sergeant to lieutenant to regiment quartermaster August 10, 1863; mustered out February 25, 1865 ; John W. Gilchrist, promoted from lieutenant Com- pany A February 26, 1865; commissioned captain Company A March 1, 1865; not mustered. Surgeons: William S. Wood, resigned April 20, 1863; J. B. Crawford, resigned May 30, 1864; John Flowers, promoted from assistant March 23, 1865. Compawi/ A. —Officers: Captain: George E. Lennard, resigned September 20, 1862; re-commissioned March 30, 1863; promoted major July 9, 1865. First lieutenants: Edwin W. Faich, resigned July 21, 1862. John W. Gilchrist, pro- moted from second to first lieutenant July 21, 1862, and to regiment quarter- master February 26, 1865. Second lieutenants: Eeuben H. Waters, promoted from sergeant July 21, 1862, to first lieutenant November 4, 1864, not mustered, discharged by special order February 1, 1865. Phillip G. Killian, promoted from sergeant July 3, 1865. Companj/S.— Officers: Captains: ErwinE. Peckens, August 22, 1861; resigned April 28, 1863. John B. Fish, August 31, 1861; promoted from first lieutenant to captain July 1, 1863; mustered out January 27, 1865. C. C. Brattenberg, November 4, 1861; promoted from first sergeant to second lieutenant June 3, 1864; first lieutenant June 3, 1865; captain June 24, 1865; veteran. First lieutenant: James G. Stevens, September 19, 1861; promoted from second to first lieutenant November 13, 1863; captured July 3, 1864; died at Blakley, Luzerne county, Pa., 190 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. April 7, 1865. Second lieutenant: David Wigton, November 4, 1861; promoted from sergeant to second lieutenant November 13, 1863; resigned March 23, 1864. Company I. — Officers: Captains: Beaton Smith, August 22, '1861; resigned May 11, 1863. Henry H. Jenks, August 22, 1861; promoted from first lieuteDant to captain November 1, 1863; absent, on detached duty, at muster out. First lieutenants: Frederick Fuller, August 22, 1861; promoted from second to first lieutenant November 1, 1863; transferred to signal corps January 11, 1862. Thomas Evans, September 23, 1861; promoted from corporal to sergeant February 5, 1862; first sergeant September 2, 1862; first lieutenant March 25, 1864; captured July 3, 1864; mustered out May 6, 1865. Second lieutenant: Edward W. Smith, Septem- ber 23, 1861; promoted from corporal to sergeant December 6, 1861; first sergeant November 6, 1863; second lieutenant October 24, 1864; commissioned first lieuten- ant June 8, 1865; not mustered. First sergeants: Frank Early, September 23, 1861; promoted from private to first sergeant November 1, 1864; commissioned second lieutenant June 8, 1865; not mustered; veteran. Benjamin F. Jones, Sep- tember 23, 1861; killed at Fair Oaks, Va., May 31, 1862. Fifty-third Regiment. — Of the field and staff were Luzerne men, and Company F was from this county. Officers of this company are as follows: Captains: Horace P. Moody, October 12, 1861; resigned September 17, 1862. Walter L. Hopkins, October 12, 1861; promoted from first lieutenant September 17, 1862; discharged January 16, 1863. Theodore Hatfield, October 12, 1861; promoted from sergeant to first lieutenant September 18, 1862; to captain February 21, 1863; discharged March 18, 1864. John J. Whitney, October 12, 1861; promoted from sergeant to second lieutenant September 6, 1862; to first lieutenant January 30, 1863; to captain April 23, 1864; killed at Spottsylvania May 18, 1864. James Patton, October 12, 1861 ; promoted from first sergeant to first lieutenant May 20, 1864; to captain June 6, 1864; mustered out October 6, 1864. Isaac A. Howell, October 12, 1861; promoted from sergeant to first sergeant; to first lieutenant June 6, 1864; to captain November 2, 1864; discharged March 18, 1865; veteran. Nathan N. Montayne, October 12, 1861; promoted from private to sergeant; to first sergeant June 6, 1864; to first lieutenant November 2, 1864; to captain April 16, 1865; mustered out with company June 30, 1865; veteran. First lieutenant: Lester Eace, October 12, 1861; promoted corporal; sergeant March 16, 1864; first sergeant November 2, 1864; first lieutenant April 16, 1865; veteran. Second lieutenant: Martin W. Anthony, October 12, 1861; resigned September 6, 1862. First ser- geant: George W. Thompson, October 12, 1861; promoted from private to sergeant; first sergeant April 17, 1865; commissioned second lieutenant June 1, 1865. Fifty -sixth Regiment. — Of this command was Company Gr from this county, offi- cered as follows: Captains: Joseph K. Helmbold, September 8, 1862; resigned March 15, 1863. David J. Dickson, December 3, 1861; promoted from first ser- geant to second lieutenant October 11, 1862; to first lieutenant October 26, 1862; to captain August 16, 1863; mustered out March 7, 1865. James N. Davenport, December 5, 1861 ; promoted from first sergeant to first lieutenant August 4,1864; cap- tain June 4,1865; veteran. First lieutenants: Daniel Dobra, resigned October 24, 1862. John W. Fike, December 5, 1861; promoted from sergeant to second lieutenant October 26, 1862; first lieutenant August 16, 1863; died October 18, 1863. Henry C. Titman, promoted from sergeant to first lieutenant December 6, 1863; killed at Wilderness May 5, 1864. Thomas W. Edwards, January 1, 1864; promoted from first sergeant to first lieutenant June 4, 1865; veteran. Second lieutenants: Henry J. Bashore, February 15, 1862; resigned September 28, 1862. Edward Phillips, January 1, 1864; promoted from sergeant to second lieutenant June 9 1865; veteran. First sergeants: William Briggs, January 1, 1864; promoted to sergeant January 1, 1865; to first sergeant June 9, 1865; veteran. John L. Blessing, December 19, 1861; discharged by special order April 16, 1862. HISTOEY OF LTJZEKNE COUNTY. 191 Fifty -seventh. — 'Company A of this regiment was mostly from Luzerne county. Company officers as follows: Captains: Peter Sides, December 4, 1861; promoted lieutenant-colonel September 15, 1862. Jerome R. Lyons, December 4, 1861; pro- moted from first lieutenant to captain September 15, 1862; discharged October 4, 1864, for wounds received in action. Henry H. Hinds, December 4, 1861; promoted from first sergeant to first lieutenant January 7, 1863; captain May 15, 1865; dis- charged May 15, 1865. James M. Darling, September 15, 1861; dismissed June 15,1864. Daniel W. Gore. First lieutenants: Edison J. Rice, December 4, 1861 wounded at Fair Oaks May 31, 1862; promoted from second to first lieutenant Sep tember 15, 1862; to captain Company E February 28, 1863. Franklin V. Shaw veteran. Second lieutenants: Jeremiah C. Green, December 4, 1861; promoted from first sergeant to second lieutenant January 7, 1863; wounded at Gettysburg killed at Spottsylvania Court-house May 12, 1864.^ George L. Arney, December 4, 1861; promoted from first sergeant to second lieutenant April -16, 1865; veteran. Sixty- first Regiment. — Some of the field and staff officers of this command were of Luzerne county, as well as the whole of Company D, with the following officers: Captains: Butler Dilley, resigned August 23, 1862. William W. Ellis, promoted from first lieutenant to captain July 23, 1862; transferred to V. R. C January 2, 1864. David J. Taylor, promoted from second to first lieutenant July 23, 1862; captain March 25, 1864; killed at Cedar Creek, Va., October 19, 1864. Oliver A. Parsons, promoted from first sergeant to second lieutenant April 19, 1864; first lieutenant October 1, 1864; captain November 30, 1864; major May 14, 1865; wounded at Spottsylvania Court-house May 12, 1864; veteran. Sylvester D. Rhoads, promoted from sergeant to second lieutenant December 1, 1864; first lieutenant January 6, 1865; captain June 3, 1865; veteran. First lieutenants: Smith D. Dean, promoted second lieutenant July 23, 1862; first lieutenant April 19, 1864; discharged August 10, 1864. Charles M. Cyphers, promoted from first sergeant to first lieutenant December 15, 1864; captain Company F January 6, 1865; veteran. William Lathrop, promoted sergeant-major; second lieutenant January 8, 1865; first lieutenant June 2, 1865; veteran. Second lieutenant: Sam- uel C. Fell, promoted from first sergeant to second lieutenant June 6, 1865; veteran. Sixty-fourth was represented from this county by Company M, with the follow- ing officers: Captains: Alfred Dart, October 30, 1861; resigned December 4, 1862. Alfred Dart, Jr., October 30, 1861 ; promoted from second lieutenant March 1,1863; discharged September 19, 1864. John C. Harper, September 6,-1861; promoted from first lieutenant, Company B, to captain December 13, 1864; to brevet major "March 13, 1865; killed at Hatcher's Run, Va., February 6, 1865. Samuel N. King, November 15, 1864; promoted first lieutenant January 8, 1865; captain March 7, 1865. First lieutenants: Henry S. King, October 18, 1861; pro- moted quartermaster August 18, 1862. Duncan C. Phillips, September 9, 1862; promoted captain Company F November 21, 1863. William R. Herring, October 30, 1861; promoted from first sergeaut to second lieutenant March 1, 1863; to first lieutenant May 20, 1864; discharged September 3, 1864. Charles E. Nugent, Jan- uary 1, 1864; promoted from first sergeant, Company L, to first lieutenant March 9, 1865; brevet captain March 13, 1865; killed in action March 31, 1865; veteran. Peter M. Burke, January I, 1864; promoted from sergeant to second lieutenant March 9, 1865; first lieutenant June 3, 1865. Seventy fourth, of which was Company A, Luzerne men, with the following offi- cers: Captains: Samuel J. Pealer, March 13, 1865; discharged May 8, 1865. John W. Beishline, March 13. 1865; promoted from first lieutenant to captain July 1, 1865. First lieutenant: John F. Miller, March 13, 1865; promoted from second to first lieutenant July 1, 1865. Second lieutenant: John Beikler, September 6, 1861; promoted from sergeant Company K to second lieutenant July 2, 1865. First sergeant: William Saunders, March 4, 1865. 192 HI8T0EY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. jSeven%-sta;i/i had Company H of this county. Officers: Captains: Arthur Ham- ilton, October 26, 1861 : killed at Pocotaligo, S. C. , October 22, 1863. Charles Knerr, October 26, 1861; wounded at Fort Wagner, S. C, July 11, 1863; promoted from first lieutenant to captain October 23, 1862; major January 1, 1865. Samuel W. Heller, October 26, 1861 ; promoted from first sergeant to second lieutenant February 14, 1864; first lieutenant September 5, 1864; captain January 3, 1865. First lieu- tenants ; William Miller, October 26, 186 1 ; promoted from second to first lieutenant, October 23, 1862; killed at Fort Wagner, S. C, July 11, 1862. William F. BIosb, October 26, 1861; promoted from first sergeant to second lieutenant October 23, 1862; to first lieutenant December 3, 1863; died at Hampton, Va., August 4, 1864, of wounds received at Petersburg, July 26, 1864. Second lieutenant: David Davis, October 26, 1861; promoted from first sergeant to second lieutenant April 24, 1865; first lieutenant July 1, 1865; not mustered; veteran. First sergeant: Peter Houser, February 1, '1864; commissioned first lieutenant June 1, 1865; not mus- tered; absent, sick, at muster out; veteran. Eighty-first Regiment, Company K and part of H recruited in Luzerne County. Officers Company H: Captains: Thomas C. Harkness, September 18, 1861; wounded at Charles City Cross Roads, June 30, 1862, and at Fredericksburg, Va., December 13, 1862; promoted major April 7, 1863; wounded at Chancellorsville, Va., May 3, 1863. Thomas C. Williams, promoted from first sergeant to second lieutentant July 1, 1863; to first lieutenant July 1, 1863; to captain May 1, 1864; discharged Septem- ber 21, 1864, for wounds received in action. First lieutenants: John C. McLaugh- lin, September 18, 1861; wounded at Fredericksburg, Va., December 13, 1862; pro- moted to captain Company A May 1, 1863. William J. Williams, promoted from sergeant May 1, 1864; discharged October 12, 1864; veteran. Second lieutenant: Thomas Morton, September 18, 1861; commissioned first lieutenant November 14, 1862; captain April 17, 1863; not mustered; discharged June 12, 1863. First sergeant: Aaron Henry, wounded at Charles City Cross Boads, June 30, 1862, and at Bristoe Station, Va., 1863; discharged. Company K. — Officers: Captains: Charles E. Foster, August 27, 1861; resigned July 9, 1862. Cyrus W. Straw, October 27, 1861; promoted from first lieutenant May 1, 1863; discharged June 20, 1863. James McKinley, October 27, 1861; pro- moted from corporal to second lieutenant September 1, 1863; to captain April 22, 1864; resigned June 4, 1865. First lieutenants: Alonzo E. Bennett, October 27, 1861 ; promoted from first sergeant July 13, 1863; transferred to veteran reserve corps October 12, 1863. Peter Dougherty, October 27, 1861; promoted from first sergeant to second lieutenant October 3, 1864; to first lieutenant October 30, 1864; discharged April 16, 1865; veteran. Second lieutenants: William Belford, October 27, 1861; discharged May 7, 1863. Emanuel C. Hoover, - October 27, 1861; pro- moted from sergeant June 6, 1864; killed at Ream's Station, Va., August 25, 1864; veteran. Washington Setzer, October 27, 1861 ; promoted from first sergeant Feb- ruary 18, 1865; resigned May 27, 1865; veteran. John Graham, September 24, 1861; promoted from first sergeant Company B June 16, 1865; veteran. First ser- geant, Alexander Kocher, October 27, 1861; promoted to sergeant November 1, 1864; wounded April 7, 1865; absent at muster out; veteran. Ninety-second Regiment. — Company D from this county and parts of Companies K and L. Officers of Company D as follows: Captains: Jacob Bertles; resigned August 7, 1862. Michael O'Reilly, promoted from first lieutenant August 8, 1862. First lieutenants: George Smith, promoted from second lieutenant Septembers, 1862; captain Company L September 1, 1863. Christopher Walthers, promoted second lieutenant from Company L May 30, 1864. Second lieutenants: Louis Praetorius, resigned October 31, 1862. David R. P. Barry, October 24, 1861; pro- moted from sergeant Company M May 22, 1863; resigned July 24, 1864. Frederick Smith, promoted from first sergeant May 19, 1865; veteran. First sergeant: Jacob Hassler, promoted from sergeant May 20, 1865; veteran. HISTOKY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 193 Ninety-sixth Regiment. — Part of Company E of this command from this county. Officers as follows : Captain : James Russell, September 23, 1861 ; mustered out with company October 21, 1864. First lieutenant: John S. Oberrender, September 23, 1861; discharged September 22, 1864. Second lieutenants: John F. Eobbins, September 23, 1861 ; resigned January 27, 1863. Thomas H. Reed, September 23, 1861; promoted from sergeant March 19, 1863; discharged September 27, 1863. Charles C. Russell, September 23, 1861; promoted from first sergeant September 28, 1864; transferred to Company B, Ninety-fifth Pennsylvania, October 18, 1864. One Hundred and Thirty -second Regiment (nine months men) of which were Com- panies I and K of this county. The colonel was Richard A. Oakf ord ; the lieutenant- colonel Vincent M. "Wilcox, both of this county. The regiment went into the battle of Antietam as fresh troops and most gallantly acquitted itself; thirty killed and 114 wounded. Among the killed was Col. Oakford. The regiment moved to Harper's Ferry after the battle, participated in two reconnoissances while encamped on Bolivar Heights, and moved with the army toward Fredericksburg 'on the last of October. From Falmouth, where it first encamped, it went to Belle Plain, and after a month returned to Falmouth. In the battle of Fredericksburg it was actively engaged and participated in a charge on Mary's Heights, where it displayed a coolness and brav- ery that would have done honor to veterans. Out of 340 men who went into action, the regiment lost 140. At the battle of Chancellorsville, though the term of a portion of the men had expired, all took part in the action. On the third day of the battle the regiment made a gallant bayonet charge in which a number of prisoners were taken. Its loss in this action was about fifty. It was relieved from duty on the expiration of the term of service, and was mustered out on May 11, 1863. Itis said two-thirds of the men entered the service again. Colonels: Richard A. Oakford, August 21, 1862; killed at Antietam, Md., Sep- tember 17, 1862. Vincent M. Wilcox, August' 26, 1862; promoted from lieutenant- colonel September 18, 1862; discharged on surgeon's certificate January 14, 1863. Charles Albright, August 21, 1862; promoted from major to lieutenant- colonel, Sep- tember 18, 1862; colonel, January 24, 1863. Lieutenant-colonel: Joseph E. Shreve, August 15, 1862; promoted from captain Company A to major September 18, 1862; to lieutenant-colonel January 24, 1863. Company I. — Officers. Captains: James Archibald, Jr., August 18, 1862; dis- charged on surgeon's certificate January 7, 1863. Philip S. Hall, August 18, 1862: promoted from second lieutenant January 14, 1863; wounded at Chancellorsville, Va., May 4, 1863; absent at muster out. First lieutenants: Robert R. Miller, August 18, 1862; discharged on surgeon's certificate December 19, 1862. Benjamin Gardaer, promoted from sergeant January 14, 1863. Second lieutenant: Michael Houser, promoted from private January 14, 1863. Compare?/ £■.— Officers: Captains: Richard Stillwell, August 18, 1862; dis- charged May 31, 1863, for wounds received at Fredericksburg, Va., December 13, 1862. Jacob B. Floyd, August 18, 1862; promoted from first lieutenant March 31, 1863. First lieutenant: Noah B. Jay, promoted from second lieutenant March 31, 1863. Second lieutenant: Sylvester Ward, promoted from sergeant to first ser- geant December 25, 1862; and lieutenant March 31, 1863. First sergeant: Fran- cis Orchard, promoted from sergeant, March, 31, 1863. One Hundred and Thirty-sixth Regiment. — (Nine months) Company B recruited in this and Tioga counties. Its officers were as follows : Captain: William N. Monies, August 2, 1862. First lieutenants: Nelson Doty, discharged on surgeon's certificate March 31, 1863. Frederick J. Amsden, August 26, 1862; promoted from second lieutenant April 1, 1863. Second-lieuten- ant: David Edwards, promoted from first sergeant Apnil 1, 1863. One Hundred and Forty -second Regiment. — Company K was from Luzerne comity, as was Maj. John Bradley. 194 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. Company K.—Ol&csrs: Captains: Charles H. Flagg, September 1, 1862; killed at Gettysburg, Pa., July 3, 1863; Joshua W. Howell, August 30, 1862; promoted from corporal to captain May 1, 1864. First lieutenant: Jeremiah Hoffman, Sep- tember 1, 1862; commissioned captain July 4, 1863; not mustered; discharged November 21, for wounds received at Gettysburg, Pa., July 1, 1863. John W. Dis- singer, September 2, 1862; promoted from sergeant September 21, 1864. Second lieutenant: Cyrus K. Campbell, September 1, 1862; commissioned first lieutenant July 4, 1863; not mustered; discharged March 9, 1863, for wounds received at Fred- ericksburg, Va., December 13, 1862. , One Hundred and Forty -third Regiment was, except Companies H and K, a Luzerne county regiment. Organized October 18, 1862. Colonel, Edmund L. Dana; lieutenant-colonel, George E. Hoyt; major, John D. Musser. CoL Dana was a veteran of the Mexican war, and his appointment was made without his knowledge. Soon after organization they moved to Harrisburg and to Washington. In February, 1863, went to Belle Plain, thence on the Rappahannock, below Fred- ericksburg. Next to Pollock's Run, where it was under fire while fighting was going on in Chancellorsville. On its way to the latter place was under fire on May 3 and 4. Went into camp on 8th at Falmouth. This command was in the first to reach Gettysburg, where it took up position July 1. Col. Dana soon was in com- mand of a brigade, and Col. Musser of the regiment. The position the regiment held at Gettysburg was a most severe one, sustaining repeated charges of the enemy, and was finally compelled to fall back. Among the killed in the three days' fighting here were Lieutenants Lee, D. Grover, Lyman R. Nicholson and Charles D. Betzinberger. Late in 1863 the regiment received 365 recruits. Lieut. -Col. Hoyt died in June, 1863, succeeded by Maj. Musser; Capt. Charles M. Conyng- ham became major. Early in May the regiment was sent to the Wilderness, and there Col. Dana was wounded and taken prisoner; Lieut. -Col. Musser was killed; Lieut. Michael Keenan was mortally wounded; Capts. Gordon and Little and Lieut. Kauff were taken prisoners. The regiment was in a severe action at Laurel Hill. Lieut. Charles H. Keelly was killed, and Maj. Conyngham wounded. The regiment was in the battle of Hanover Junction, crossed the James and marched for Petersburg ou June 16. On the 18th, in a general advance on the enemy's works, Lieut. E. L. Griffin was mortally wounded. Col. Dana returned from imprisonment about the middle of September and took command. October 1 the regiment was in the expedition on the Vaughn road, and soon quartered in Fort Howard, until the movement on Hatcher's Run. It was with its division in a charge on the enemy, and in skirmishing. Early in December was on the Weldon raid, and succeeded in effecting the destruction of about twenty miles of the rail- roads and its fixtures, as well as rebel stores and other property. On the return of the Qorps from this raid the. One Hundred and Forty -third was a portion of the rear guard, and was frequently attacked by the enemy's pursuing column. This was the last active service of the regiment during that year. Early in February, 1865, the regiment participated in a movement against the enemy at Hatcher's Run, where the rebels and the Union troops were alternately driven. Capt. Gaylord was killed in this fight, and the regiment suffered greatly. Soon after this, with three other regiments in the same brigade, went north. It was placed on duty at the rendezvous on Hart island, in the East river. New York, and remained there during the remainder of its term of service; mustered out on June 12, 1865, and on its return to Wilkes-BaVre was received with those marks of esteem to which its severe and efBcient service in the field entitled it. Col. Dana had suffered severely during his imprisonment, and was one of fifty imprisoned officers who were placed under the fire of the Union artillery at the city of Charleston. After his weturn, though holding the rank of a colonel, he was, during a long time, kept in command of his brigade. The officers of that brigade 4cvV.^-Ks^*«-^^^^^^ HISTOKy OF LUZEENE COUNTY. 197 drew up aad subscribed a memorial to the war department protesting against such injustice, and asking that he be promoted. This paper, from some cause, never reached the department, but on the facts of the case becoming known through other channels, he was brevetted a brigadier-general, and retained in the service on special duty till the following August. Field and Staff Officers. — Colonel: Edmund L. Dana, November 18, 1862; wounded and captured at Wilderness, Va. , May 5, 1864; brevet brigadier-general, July 26, 1865; discharged August 18, 1865. Lieutenant-colonels: George E. Hoyt, September 6, 1862; promoted from cap- tain Company D November 8, 1862; died at Kingston, Pa., June 1, 1863; John D. Musser, October 1, 1862; promoted from first lieutenant Company K to major November 8, 1862; to lieutenant colonel June 2, 1863; killed at Wilderness, Va., May 6, 1864; George N. Richard, August 27, 1862; promoted from captain Com- pany C June 8, 1865. Majors: C. M. Conyngham, August 26, 1862; promoted from captain Company A September 1, 1863; discharged July 26, for wounds received at Spottsylvania Courthouse May 12, 1864. Chester K. Hughes, October 18, 1862; promoted from captain Company I October 27, 1864; brevet lieutenant-colonel and colonel March 13, 1865. Adjutants: John Jones, Jr., December 18, 1862; discharged on surgeon's certi- ficate September 12, 1863. F. M. Shoemaker, October 81, 1863; discharged on surgeon's certificate, September 7, 1864. Charles H. Campbell, September 8, 1862; promoted from second lieutenant Company F, December 13, 1864. Quartermasters: Milton Dana, November 18, 1862; promoted to captain and assistant quartermaster U. S. Volunteers May 17, 1865; mustered out May 19, 1866. William D. Warfel, September 6, 1862; promoted from private Company E to quartermaster-sergeant October 1, 1863; quartermaster June 5, 1865. Surgeons: Francis C. Reamer, September 16, 1862; resigned February 3, 1865. C. E. Humphrey, May 25, 1863; promoted from assistant surgeon One Hundred and Forty-second Pennsylvania Volunteers March 22, 1865. Assistant surgeons: James Pulton, August 20, 1862; transferred from One Hundred and Fiftieth Pennsylvania Volunteers November 18, 1862; discharged April 8, 1864. David L. Scott, September 18, 1862; discharged April 8, 1864. I. C. Hogendobler, April 27, 1864; promoted to assistant surgeon U. S. Volunteers September 7, 1864; brevet major; mustered out December 8, 1865. Edward Brobst, December 27, 1864. Chaplain: Solomon W. Weiss, November 28, 1862; resigned April 30, 1863. Sergeant-majors: Jacob W. Burke, September 6, 1862; promoted from sergeant Company D May 16, 1865. Patrick De Lacy, August 26, 1862; promoted from sergeant Company A October 6, 1864; second lieutenant Company D May 24, 1865. John M. Conner, August 27, 1862; promoted from first sergeant Company C December 1, 1863; first lieutenant Company B September 18, 1864. Wesley M. Cooper, August 15, 1862; promoted from sergeant Compahy K; transferred to Com- pany K December 1, 1863. Alonzo S. Holden, August 26, 1862; promoted from sergeant Company A January 1, 1863; transferred to Company A July 1, 1863. Quartermaster- sergeant: Elhannan W. Wert, September 6, 1862; promoted from private Company E to commissary sergeant July 17, 1864; to quartermaster sergeant June 6, 1865. Commissary sergeants: Augustus Atherton, August 26, 1862; promoted from private Company B June 7, 1865. Myron S. Town, September 6, 1862; promoted from private Company H April 20, 1864; to quartermaster Forty-fifth U. S. C. T. July 21, 1864; mustered out November 4, 1865. Hospital steward: Josiah L. Lewis, September 6, 1862; promoted from private Company E October 1, 1863. II 198 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. Company A.— Oi&oers: Captains: C. M. Conyngham, promoted major Septem- ber 1, 1863. Oliver K. Moore, promoted from first lieutenant September 16, 1863; resigned January 24, 1864. Charles C. Plotze, promoted from second to first lieu- tenant September 16, 1863; captain February 1, 1864. First lieutenants: Ciiarles H. Riley, promoted from sergeant to second lieutenant February 5, 1864; to first lieutenant February 5, 1864; killed at Wilderness, Va., May 10, 1864. Barton M. Stetler, promoted from sergeant to second lieutenant April 21, 1864; first lieu- tenant September 25, 1864. First sergeants: Lee D. Groover, commissioned sec- ond lieutenant June 2, 1863; not mustered; killed at Gettysburg, Pa., July 1, 1863. William H. Bennett, promoted from corporal December 25, 1862; commissioned second lieutenant June 1, 1865; not mustered. Company B. — Officers: Captains: Joseph H. Sornberger, discharged February 1, 1863. William G. Graham, promoted from first lieutenant February 4, 1863; discharged October 26, 1863. Jacob M. Lingfelter, promoted from first sergeant to second lieutenant July 1, 1863; to first lieutenant February 9, 1864; to captain February 29, 1864. First lieutenants : Asher M. Fell, promoted from second lieu- tenant February 4, 1863; discharged December 3, 1863. Edward P. McCreery, September 6, 1862; promoted from sergeant Company I February 28, 1864; dis charged May 5, 1864. John M. Connor, August 27, 1862; promoted from sergeant- major September 18, 1864. Second lieutenants: Paul R. Barrager, promoted from sergeant to first sergeant August 15, 1863; second lieutenant February 15, 1864; discharged July 29, 1864. Martin Chandler, promoted from corporal to sergeant October 6, 1863; first sergeant June 3, 1864; second lieutenant September 25, 1864. Company C. — Officers: Captain: George^N. Reichard, promoted to lieutenant- colonel June 8, 1865. First lieutenants— Charles B. Stout, discharged on surgeon's certificate November 7, 1864. Rufus W. Marcy, promoted from sergeant to second lieutenant September 25, 1864; to first lieutenant November 28, 1864. Second lieu- tenants: John C. Cropp, killed at Wilderness, Va., May 5, 1864. Max Burkhart, promoted from sergeant December 3, 1864. Company D. — Officers: Captains: George E. Hoyt, promoted lieutenant-colonel November 8, 1862. Asher Gaylord, promoted from second lieutenant November 3, 1862; killed at Hatcher's Run, Va., February 7, 1865. Milton T. Bailey, promoted from sergeant to second lieutenant February 12, 1864; captain May 20, 1865; pris- oner from August 21, 1864, to February 22, 1865. First lieutenants: James A. Raub, resigned December 28, 1862. Hiram H. Travis, promoted from sergeant to second lieutenant November 3, 1862; first lieutenant August 22, 1863; resigned December 29, 1863. George A. Reese, promoted from sergeant to second lieutenant September 20, 1863; first lieutenant January 22, 1864; discharged March 30, 1865. Wilbur F. Rice, promoted from first sergeant May 24, 1865; prisoner from July 1 to September 29, 1863. Second lieutenant: Patrick De Lacy, August 26, 1862; promoted from sergeant-major May 24, 1865. First sergeant: George N. Foster, promoted from sergeant May 22, 1865'. Company E. — Officers': Captain: M. Lewis Blain. First lieutenants: Zebulon M. Ward, resigned January 14, 1863. Ezra S. Griffin, promoted from second lieutenant January 30, 1863; died July 11, 1864, of wounds. H. N. Greenslitt,/ promoted from first sergeant to second lieutenant December 13, 1864; first lieu- tenant April 4, 1864. Second lieutenants: William La France, promoted from first sergeant February 2, 1862; commissioned first lieutenant July 27, 1864; not mustered; discharged November 16, 1864. Levi B. Tompkins, promoted from sergeant April 4, 1865. First sergeaht: David C. Sterling, promoted from sergeant December 31, 1864. Company F.— Officers: Captains: Henry M. Gordon, September 13, 1862; pro- moted from first lieutenant May 8, 1865. William A. Tubbs, September 13, 1862; discharged on surgeon's certificate April 15,1864. First lieutenant: Robert P. HISTORY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. . 199 Crockett, September 13, 1862; promoted from second lieutenant June 23, 1864. Second lieutenants: Nathaniel J. M. Heck, September 13, 1862; promoted to sergeant December 1, 1862; to first sergeant; second lieutenant December 17, 1864. Charles H. Campbell, promoted from sergeant to second lieutenant July 1, 1864; adjutant December IB, 1864. First sergeants: Hiram Campbell, promoted from corporal to sergeant February 28, 1863; first sergeant, December 17, 1864; David P. Good, died at Wind Mill Point, Va. , June 7, 1863. Company G. — Oflacers: Captains: Edward W. Wendell, November 16, 1862; dis- charged November 19, 1868. Daniel J. Morton, September 18, 1862; promoted from sergeant to second lieutenant March 15, 1864; captain September 25, 1864. First lieu- tenant: George Collings, October 10, 1862; promoted from second lieutenant November 1, 1863; commissioned captain November 20, 1863; not mustered ;dise'harged August 8, 1864. L. E. Nicholson, September 18, 1862; died July 18 of wounds received at Gettysburg, Pa. , July 1, 1863. Second lieutenants : Alfred Groff, September 18, 1862 ; promoted from sergeant November 1, 1863; discharged May 8, 1864. Frank H. Montonye, September 18, 1862; promoted from private to sergeant June 22, 1863; first sergeant; second lieutenant December 2, 1864. Company I. — Officers: Captains: Chester K. Hughes, October 18, 1862; pro- moted major October 27, 1864; Harlow Potter, September 20, 1862; promoted from corporal to sergeant December 1, 1863; from first sergeant to first lieutenant Janu- ary 2, 1865; captain April 15, 1865. First lieutenants: Thomas Davenport, Sep- tember 20, 1862; discharged on surgeon's certificate October 21, 1864. William H. Blain, September 20, 1862; promoted from private to corporal November 1, 1863; sergeant February 29, 1864; first sergeant April 15, 1865. Second lieutenants: Samuel F. McKee, October 18, 1862; promoted adjutant One Hundred and Forty- seventh Pennsylvania December 6, 1862. C. W. Betzenberger, September 20, 1862 ; promoted from sergeant January 1, 1863; killed at Gettysburg, Pa., July 1, 1863. Jairus Kauflf, September 20, 1862; promoted from sergeant to second lieutenant September 1, 1863; commissioned captain October 15, 1864; not mustered; capt- ured; died at Columbia, S. C, October 31, 1864. Bticktail brigade. — There were several men in the Bucktail regiment — the One Hundred and Forty-ninth — from Luzerne county. One Hundred and Sixty-third Regiment contained several squads recruited from Luzerne. Que Hundred and Seventy -seventh Regiment also had a number of Luzerne men, though no one separate command or company. One Hundred and Seventy -eighth Regiment. — In this command was Company C, drafted new from Luzerne county. The regiment was organized in December, 1862. From which date it may be seen that drafting in this county occurred in the early part of the war. One Hundred and Ninety -fourth Regiment (100 days' men) was partly obtained from Luzerne; organized July 24, 1864. CHAPTER VIII. SUGAR LOAF MASSACRE. Dbsthtjotion of Forts Rice, Boslbt's Mills and Fort Jenkins — Capt. Klader's Com- pany Ambushed — Burial Party — John Ballibtt — The Walk Purchase — Chief NuTiMus — Peter Hess Massacred, etc. BY the kindness of C. F. Hill, Esq., of Hazleton, the following facts concerning this sad event are herewith given. The bloody day was September 10, 1780, near what is now the village of Conyngham, Sugar Loaf township, in this county. 200 HISTORY OF LUZEBNE COUNTY. Within the four days preceding this event was the attack on Fort Eice and the destruction of Bosley's mills, a fortified station near Washingtonville, and the destruction of Port Jenkins and surrounding buildings. These all occurred between the 6th and 10th of September. There was a small settlement, Friends, aad supposed tories, on the North Branch of the Susquehanna at a place called Cata- wissa and on Fishing creek. All other settlements in this region had been deserted, the inhabitants having fled to places of safety — the forts along the river. The set- tlement mentioned occupied their farms in apparent security^probably the chief cause of their being suspected. And it was said they gave the Indians information of the movements of the whites. The militia had lost several men who had strayed from the camps; Col. Hunter, the commander of Northumberland county, had been thus killed. Therefore Capt. Robinson was ordered to take his company and bring in these inhabitants. The authorities of Pennsylvania had considerable correspond- ence in regard to the people of Catawissa and Fishing creek as to their treasonable practices, and several were arrested, and supposed evidence of their giving aid to the enemy elicited. Col. Hunter had determined to make a demonstration against this tory settle- ment, and arranged with Capt. Klader, of Northampton county, to join him in the enterprise, but the enemy heard of the contemplated movement and proceeded to thwart it. Before Capt. Klader was to meet Col. Hunter, the enemy, it is said, 250 to 300 strong, on September 6, 1780, appeared at Fort Rice and made an attack, keeping up the attack until after nightfall, when they set fire to the near buildings and haystacks adjacent. The garrison from Fort Jenkins was sent to their relief. Col. Kelly, 100 men, and Col. Purdy from Juniata with 100 men reached the place, when the enemy broke into small bodies and retreated. One of these squads (said to be forty strong) went via Knob mountain, passing near the spot where Van Cam- pen' s father, brother and uncle had been slain the previous spring: thence by way of Cabin run to Fort Jenkins, which had been evacuated, and destroyed that fort and the buildings in the vicinity. They had destroyed Bosley's mills near Fort Eice. It ia now pretty well known that this party knew that Capt. Klader intended to join Col. Hunter in the expedition up the river. They therefore proceeded up the river to Berwick, crossed the river and followed the path a distance of about seven miles from Nescopeck, and there lay in ambush awaiting Capt. Klader and his com- pany. At high noon, September 1 0, while these unfortunate patriots were nooning, having stacked their arms and scattered about, many of them in the trees gathering grapes, they were surrounded, and, unaware of danger, attacked, and nearly all killed or taken prisoners. Capt. Klader was left dead where he fell fighting, and his lieutenant, John Moyer, was taken prisoner. The spot at that time where this occurred was known as Scotch Valley. Moses Van Campen afterward thus described the affair substantially as follows: The men had made a long and tire- some march and were nearing the end of their journey — it being only seven miles to Nescopeck Falls. When they reached what was the Scotch settlement, and entered upon the smooth, open fields, they were delighted, and they stopped to enjoy the scenery and refreshments, and many were engaged in innocent amusements and were scattered about over the meadow grounds. The Indians secretly hovering there saw their opportunity and swooped upon them. All were killed, it is said, by Van Campen, but three, who escaped and one other was taken a prisoner to Niagara — Ensign James Scobey. Soon after this Van Campen was selected by Col. Hunter to gather a force of men and visit the field of slaughter and bury the dead. Of this expedition he said: "Never shall I forget the impression made on my mind on coming in sight of the slain bodies of my countrymen. Several days had elapsed since the time they had met such terrible deaths, and the bodies had been exposed to beasts of prey and HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 201 vultures. * * It was a scene that could only be looked upon by those accus- tomed to the horrors of war." In after days several letters found their way into the chronicles of the day that dispute the statement of Van Campen as to his burial party, and claim that Col. Balliett was the one who conducted the expedition. Mr. C. F. Hill contends that the evidence is plain that both Balliett and Van Campen visited the ground; that they approached nearly at the same time from opposite directions — one from the Lehigh and the other from the Susquehanna, and this reconciles the apparent discrepancy. The Historical Record, by Dr. F. C. Johnson, published the following: "Local tradition furnishes us with many interesting incidents and reminiscences of early times in Sugar Loaf valley that are worthy of preservation, being illustrative of the hard- ships encountered and privations endured by the pioneers of that beautiful and fer- tile valley; and there are old persons still living who have seen and conversed with some of the 'seven months' men' who escaped the massacre of 1780, near the spot where Conyngham now stands. * * Many of our readers are familiar with the short accounts of the Sugar Loaf massacre in Miner's history and Pearce's Annals. Brief as these accounts are, they however differ materially from the true version of the affair, if we may credit the statements of a score of men still living who heard the facts as detailed by those who were living actors of the scenes of those days; and by those who helped to bury the dead. Mr. Miner's account was from the lips . of Abigail Dodson, a prisoner with the Gilbert family, who, as prisoners, were car- ried along the warpath which passed through the valley near Nescopeck. They were captured in April, 1780. The Sugar Loaf tragedy was in September of that year, and while Abigail was still a prisoner in Canada, where she got her account of the affair from prisoners brought in from this section. From these accounts it is learned that not one escaped, which at that time was generally believed. But the fact is that a great uncle of the present Engle brothers, of Hazleton, escaped across the Nescopeck mountain and fled to Fort Jenkins; that Abraham Klader, brother of the commander, concealed himself in the water of Little Nescopeck creek by clinging to a tree that had fallen across it, and was not discovered. Frederick Shickler also escaped across Buck mountain and finally reached the Lehigh settlement. A very old man, nearly eighty, affirms that he had often heard Shickler tell the particulars of his escape. These were not all that is known to have escaped, but it is all that can be named. Both Miner and Pearce make the mistake that the company was commanded by Myers [Ensign Moyer] instead of Capt. Klader, a man noted in the Revolutionary times for his valor in war, to be finally butchered and scalped. He and the most of his dead companions was buried where is now the farm of Samuel Wagner, about half a mile from Conyngham. Mr. Hill says : ' ' We visited Mr. Wagner's farm a few days since, in company with S. D. Engle, and were conducted by Anthony Fisher, whose locks are whitened by ninety years, and went to the spot where the noble Klader rests, but no trace of the grave can be seen. It was under an oak tree on which the initials "D. K." had been rudely carved, and that for a century stood sentinel and marked his resting place; but seven years ago the tree had been cut down, and even now the decayed stump is gone. Mr. Fisher informed us that many years ago he intimately knew John Wertz, who had been one of the burying party, and who had made the letters on the tree to mark the spot. Wertz told how Klader had fought and died; four dead Indians, some said seven, were prone at his side before he yielded up his life. " A subsequent issue of the Record says: "In a former number we gave some account of the massacre of 1780 in Sugar Loaf valley. John Balliett expected to accompany the party sent to bury the victims, but sickness in his family compelled him to remain at home. Upon the return of the party, however, Balliett was favorably impressed with their glowing descriptions of the valley and resolved to go 202 HISTOBY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. there and settle, which he did in 1784, locating on what is now known as the Beisel farm, about one mile from Drums. As there was no road for a vehicle he crossed the mountain, and, on his back, carried all his worldly goods. In the absence of other conveniences he fixed a couple of beegums to carry the children in, and these were swung across a horse's back and thus carried on the journey. It is related that on the way the cord broke and ' down came beegums, babies and all,' but after rolling and tumbling down the mountain side awhile they were again securely tied and across the animals back safely resumed the journey. When Balliett reached his chosen spot a residence was made by placing poles against and around a tree, over which branches and leaves afforded a protection. In time a real log cabin was put up, but after a year of comfort therein this was destroyed, and the contents were a total loss. ' ' The following is an official letter, dated September 20, 1780, and throws some light on the transaction — copied from the Pennsylvania Archives : I take the earliest opportunity to acquaint your excellency of the distressed and danger- ous situation of our frontier inhabitants and the misfortune happened to our volunteers sta- tionedatthe Gnaden Hutts; they having received intelligence that a number of disaffected persons live near the Susquehanna at a place called the Scotch Valley, who have been sus- pected to hold up correspondence with the Indians and the tories in the country. They sat out on the 8th inst. for that place to see whether they might be able to find out anything of that nature, but were attacked on the 10th at noon about eight miles from that settlement, by a large body of Indians and tories (as one had red hair). (Our men numbered 41; the enemy supposed twice that; other estimates placed them at 250 to 300.) * * Twenty out of forty- one have since come in, several of whom are wounded. It is also reported too that Lieut. John Moyer had been made a prisoner, and made his escape from them again and returned to Wyoming. On the first notice of the unfortunate event, the officers of the militia have exerted them- selves to get volunteers out of their respective divisions to go up and bury the dead. Their labors proved not in vain. We collected about 150 men and officers from Col. Giger's and my own command, who would undergo the fatigue and danger to go there and pay that respect to their slaughtered brethren, due to men who fell in support of the freedom of their country. On the 15th we took up our line of march (want of ammunition prevented going sooner). On the 17th we arrived at the place of action, where we found ten of our soldiers dead, scalped, stripped naked and in a most cruel and barbarous manner tomahawked, their throats cut, etc., whom we buried and returned without even seeing any of their black allies and bloody executors of British tyranny. I can not conclude without observing that the Cols. Kern, of the third battalion, and Giger, of the sixth, who is upwards of sixty years of age, together with all the officers and men, have encountered their many and high hills and mountains with the greatest satisfaction and discipline imaginable ; and their countenances appeared to be eager to engage with their tyrannical enemies, who are employed by the British court and equipped at their expense, as appeared by a new fuse and several gun barrels, etc., bent and broken in pieces with a British stamp thereon, found by our men. We also have great reason to believe that several of the Indians had been killed by our men, in particular, one by Col. Kern and another by Capt. Moyer, both of whom went voluntarily with the party. We viewed where they said they fired at them and found the grass and weeds remarkably beaten down; they had carried them ofE. * * Setphen Balliett, Lieutenant-colonel. The following extract from a letter written by Col. Samuel Eoy, dated Mount Bethel, October 7, 1780: Col. Balliet informs me that ho had given counsel a relation of the killed and wounded he had found and buried near Nescopeck. As he was at the place of action, his account must be as near the truth as any that I could procure, though since Lieut. ]\Iyers [Moyers], who was taken prisoner by the enemy in that unhappy action, has made his escape from the savages and reports that Ensign Sooby and one private was taken with him and that the party consisted of thirty Indians and one white savage; that they had thirteen scalps along with them; that several of them were wounded, and supposes some killed. It is difficult, impossible to reconcile the conflicting figures above given as to the number of our men in the expedition or the number of the enemy. In Col. Stephen Balliett's account it looks as if there were forty-one in the expedition, and twenty returned; but there were not that many is evident. So far only thirteenare accounted for, and yet others, supposed killed, finally returned, having escaped from the scene of slaughter. Altogether sixteen men are really accounted for— ten HISTOEY OF LUZ;ERNE COUNTY. 203 lay dead and this number were buried, and six escaped or were taken prisoners. Except Capt. Klader, who were these fallen heroes ? No names are now obtainable of the nine, beside the commander, whose dust is in the unmarked graves where they fell. Is it possible the burying party did hot know their names, and, there- fore, never gave the world the short, bloody list? They were a little band of volun- teers, not even enrolled, nor were there any company books or records from which we can transcribe the names for the bright immortality they so richly earned. Joseph Nutimus, king of Nescopeck, or chief of the Fork Indians, Mr. C. F. Hill informs us, was a Delaware. Toward the end of his life he was known as Old King Nutimus. Mr. Hill maintains he was the chief instigator and actor in the massacre of the Moravians in 1755. The Indians occupied Nescopeck between 1742 and 1763. One of the earliest references to Nutimus was in 1733, when Thomas Penn speaks of an expected visit from him, and expected trouble from him, as, he says, in their last year visit, they "left a bag of bullets." Nutimus and his tribe had the lands in the forks of the Delaware and Lehigh rivers above Durham, and the tribe made headquarters where Easton now stands. In this territory this chief was supreme, subject only to such restrictions as the Six Nations imposed on the subjugated Delawares. Nutimus and his tribe always claimed they were the chief sufferers in the land- trade swindle that has gone into history as The Walking Purchase by the Penns. The two sons of William Penn were the proprietaries, and it must be acknowledged that there was shrewd jockeying on their part whereby they got immensely the advantage of the Indians in that trade. And the bloody retaliation, as usual, fell upon the heads of innocent settlers. This Indian chief and his people watched the proceedings of that " walk " and denounced it at the time, and never ceased to proclaim their contempt for the whole thing, and when the settlers began to pour in upon these rich and coveted lands in the forks, the Indians obstinately, and with increasing insolence, held their grounds; they were very angry sft the white intruders, and prepared to give them the reception of " hospitable hands to bloody graves.'' After five years of contention, the Pennsylvanians appealed to the Six Nations to control or punish the insubordination of the Delawares, and a council was called in Philadelphia July 12, 1742, ^yhere Cannassatego, a chief of the Six Nations, delivered his famous address to the Delawares. He told them they had sold their lands, given several releases, and warned them that they deserved to be taken by the ears and shaken into some sense. He closed his bitter and taunting speech by peremptorily ordering them to move to the place provided for them at Nescopec, on the Susquehanna river. This order Nutimus and his tribe had to obey, and the Penns were again the winners. No further notice came from the tribe at Nescopeck until 1757, and the Franco-Indian war was on. Conrad Weiser was sent to Nutimus, and reported that his people were much inclined to side with the French, and Nescopeck was now a town where the enemy rendezvoused. Two Indian spies were sent up from Harrisburg, and they reported seeing 150 warriors at Nescopeck, busy painting and dancing war dances. Gnadenhutten was burned and the people massacred in November, 1 755. [Weissport is now built on that spot]. The slaughter of the inoffensive Moravians and the many murders about Nescopeck were simultaneous events largely, and showed an intimate connection with each other, and Mr. Hill has not much doubt but that Nutimus was fully cog- nizant, if not a participator, in the Moravian massacre. It is believed that Nutimus, with his family, left Nescopeck about 1763, and finally joined the Delawares in Ohio. John W. Jordan replied to Mr. Hill's communication in the Record in regard to King Nutimus. He contends that this chief was a true friend of the Moravians at all times, and that it was the Monseys that were engaged in the wanton massacre. He quotes from a diary of a trip down the river by Zeisberger, of date of October 204 HISTOBY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 10, 1744, an account of his party reaching Nescopeck and visiting Notimaes' [the correct name of Nutimus] cabin, where he was with his five sons and their wives; that the chief was not at home, but at work with his slaves [he owned five negroes] on hia plantation below Nescopeck. Passing down the trail, the party met the chief at Nescopeck creek, and had a cordial and friendly interview. Peter Hess was cruelly butchered by a band of Indians, said to have been led by TeedyuBCung, in November, 1755. The marauders had been south on the river, and had captured Peter Hess, Henry Hess, Nicholas Cileman, Leonard Wesser, William Wesser and others. Returning to Wyoming, they camped for the night on the Pocoho mountain. It was so cold they could not sleep, and they drank heavily and made a frolic of cutting Peter Hess literally in pieces, and tied the other prisoners to trees. To those of the prisoners who survived, it may well be said that nobody ever passed a more wretched night and survived. In April, 1756, the governor and supreme executive council declared war against the Delawares and offered tempting prices for the scalps of Indian bucks and squaws over twelve years of age. The Quakers and Moravians denounced the offer for scalps, but the frontiersmen warmly approved of it. This proclamation of war, after many pow-wows, was suspended and the war averted. Then followed a period of five years when these frontiers were exempt from Indian marauds. Teedyuscung had withdrawn his bold charges of fraud in all the land purchases by the young Penns, except those in reference to the " walking purchase." The anticipated blessings of peace after the last treaty at Easton-were of short duration. The Moravians re-established their missions at Gnadenhutten, Wyoming and Wyalusing and the frontiers soon recovered their former prosperity. In April, 1763, Teedyuscung's hut was set on fire and he was burned in it. The belief was spread among the Delawares that the whites had committed the deed. In June fol- lowing the Delawares and Shawnee murdered several families, and the Wyoming settlement was destroyed and scattered. These unprovoked and unexplained attacks excited the frontier settlers beyond all bounds. The Christian Indians at Conestoga were suspected of, and detected in, harboring hostile savages, and their removal or extermination was resolved upon. A number were killed by the exasperated men of Paxton; others were collected at Bethlehem, and, under the superintendence of David Zeisberger and Jacob Schmick, in April, 1764, they set out for Wyalusing, on the Susquehanna. They rested at Wyoming, and from this place proceeded by water to their place of destination, where they arrived after a journey of five weeks. Here they laid out a town, erected forty log houses and a meetinghouse, and named the place Priedenshutten — tents of peace. John Penn, one of the proprietaries of Pennsylvania, and grandson of William Penn, arrived in Philadelphia and entered on the duties of governor in the fall of 1763; and in July, 1764, ofEered the following rewards for Indian scalps: "For every male above ten years of age, captured, $150; forevery male above ten years of age, scalped, being killed, $130; for every female above ten years of age, scalped,being killed, $50." The war against the savages was now prosecuted with vigor by Gen. Gage, who sent several regiments of British troops into the western country and destroyed their towns. In November, Col. Bouquet had reduced them to a humili- ating submission. The Delawares, Shawnee, and other tribes delivered up at Fort Pitt and other points, 300 prisoners, most of whom were women and children. The Christian Indians at Wyalusing continued to increase, and, in 1767, erected a large and convenient church, with a cupola and bell. This bell was the first that ever sounded over the waters of the North Susquehanna. In 1769 they made an additional settlement at Sheshequin, thirty miles above Wyalusing; but the whites beginning to crowd into Wyoming and along the river, the Indians became dissatisfied with their location. With Zeisberger at their head they departed, in 1772, for the west, and were united to the Moravia-n Mission on the Muskingum. '/L^O'^^ £/Z/^7l/ HI8T0EY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 207 The " Walk" Treaty was one of the transactions of the sons of William Penn that was a bar sinister on the glorious escutcheon of their ancestor. It was down- right jockeying, and deserved the hot denunciations hurled at it by the outraged Indians and all fair-minded white men. It is an important part of the history of our early times — the prelude to much suffering by innocent men and women on the frontier, especially here along the Susquehanna river. This transaction is so often refen-ed to in preceding pages that it is not improper to here briefly explain it. William Penn died July 30, 1718, aged seventy-four years, leaving six children. He bequeathed Pennsylvania to the three sons of his second marriage — John, Thomas and Eichard. To the elder a double portion. John died in 1746, leaving his one- half to Thomas, who came here in 1732 and remained until August, 1741. Thomas Penn was a close-fisted trader who, according to Franklin, Thompson, Day and others, was not over-scrupulous in money transactions. While he had quite a little "patch" of land, enough to gratify any ordinary land-grabber, yet it seems he must have been the man who primarily wanted the earth. In nearly every one of his purchases of the Indians the fact on final survey would come out that Penn would get several thousand more acres than the Indians under- stood they had sold. This was frequent cause of complaint. Over the ' ' Walk " purchase, however, there was a mystery and continued secrecy as well as deception on all parties except Penn, it seems. In Penn's books the earliest reference made to this land trade is "April 12, 1735. Lewis Smith expenses on travelling ye Indian purchase, £5. " Penn proba- bly first negotiated to purchase of the Indians in the early part of 1735, and then adjourned the matter, after agreeing that the lands purchased should be so much as, commencing at a given point, would be within a day and a half's walk going in a certain direction. These very loose terms agreed to, then Penn set about to grab nearly everything in sight and claim it as in the purchase. He therefore hunted for the fastest walkers, and secretly provided for a trial walk, and sent his surveyors to pick out and blaze that route to be walked that would include all the best and coveted lands that lay in the forks of the Delaware and Lehigh rivers, where is now Easton and all the rich country surrounding. Timothy Smith went twice over this route to facilitate the movements as much as possible when the day came of walking off the line. The secret trial walk, after many investigations as to the best possible way, came off in May, 1735, and the Indian walk (that is, the walk agreed on) did not take place until September 20, 1737, and all this time Penn was figuring to his own advantage. In fact, there is now no serious doubt but that Penn had taken all these precautions before any treaty for the land had been effected with the Indians. This secret trial walk and the purchase walk, from the secrecy of the former, have puzzled historians in their account of the matter, and often confounding the two and thus making it impossible of any correct understand- ing of the matter. The walking purchase was finally consummated August 25, 1737, and the Indians in council confirmed the previous negotiations that had then gone over before at least two years, if not four or five. In the deed signed by the Indians the bound- aries are thus described: " Beginning upon a line formerly laid out from a Corner Spruce Tree by the River Delaware, .about Makeerickkitton, and from thence running along the ledge or foot of the mountains, west-southwest to a Corner White Oak marked with the letter P, Standing by the Indian Path that Leadeth to an Indian Town called Playwicky, and from thence extending westward to Nesha- miny Creek, from which said line the said Tract or Tracts thereby Granted doth extend itself back into the Woods as far as a man can goe in one day and a half, and bounded on the Westerly side with the Creek called Neshaminy or the most westerly branch thereof so far as the said branch doth extend and from thence by 208 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. line to the utmost extent of the said day and a half's journey, and from thence to the aforesaid Eiver Delaware, and from thence down the Several Courses of the said River to the first mentioned Spruce Tree." From the date of this instrument to the actual walk twenty-four days intervened. Penn published a notice and offered 500 acres of land and £5 in money to the man who could walk the farthest. Of many applicants three men, Edward Marshall, Solomon Jennings and James Yates were selected to walk. The Indians were invited to have young men to go with the walkers and see that all was fair. ^ Twenty years after the " walk" the British government closely investigated the transaction in its attempt to ferret out the cause of the preceding Indian wars that had been so destructive to the colony. It was well understood that one of the lead- ing causes of Indian outbreaks was this same "Walking Purchase " and therefore the authorities felt called upon to make a thorough investigation. As parties present and knowing about it the following persons were summoned before the board and gave testimony : Edward Mg,rshall (the man who walked the day and a half, distancing the other two, but who never got his reward of the promised 500 acres of land), Timothy Smith, Alexander Brown, Nicholas Scull, Benjamin East- burn, John Heider, Ephraim Goodman, Joseph Knowles, Thomas Furniss and James Steele. Their several accounts of the affair were taken down and are of record. Early Monday morning, September 19, 1737, an interesting group of men assembled at the starting point on the Durham road, near a large chestnut tree at the corner of John Chapman' s land, a few rods from Wrightstown meeting.house in Bucks county. Timothy Smith, sheriff, had charge of the walk in Penn's inter- est. The Indians had three of their young men present to go with the walkers. The traiaed racers, for that is what it turned out to be, started at exactly 6 o'clock in the forenoon. Smith had sent in advance on horseback ample provisions and every comfort for the walkers. Instead of going along up the river as the Indians understood to be the contract, the walkers followed a blazed route striking straight north-northwest, and so palpable was the cheat that by noon of the first day the Indians denounced it all and ceased to take any further interest in it. The walkers pushed each other to the utmost degree; one would forge ahead and then the others would run to catch up, and so hard was the struggle that before noon Jennings gave out and retired leaving Marshall and Yates. Keeping this due northwest course until fifteen minutes past 6 o'clock in the evening as the first day's walk; the last fifteen minutes in a hard run, so much so that the men were completely blown. The Indians had left in disgust long before nightfall. The next morning at 8 o'clock the race again commenced, pushing rapidly in the same course. In a few hours Yates gave completely out and Marshall alone continued the long run. At 2 o'clock in the afternoon the eighteen hours was up and the walk ended, at a point on the Pocono mountain. From this point the proprietary at his leisure ran a direct line in a northeast direction to the Delaware river. The line of the walk may now be described as commencing on the Chapman farm, on the Durham road in Wrightstown, or rather on the line between Wrightstown and Newtown township line. By way of parenthesis it may be here mentioned that there was always much confusion as to the real starting point. And it is said that in this matter Penn gained fully a mile in the matter of the agreed starting point. The walkers then passed where is now Centerville, Pipersville, Bucksville, Springtown, crossing the Lehigh river just below Bethlehem, through the Lehigh Water Gap and crossing the river near Mauch Chunk (where Yates gave out). Marshall proceeded about four and a half miles on Broad or Second mountain, where it terminated. The Indians realized before the first day's walk was over that it was the inten- tion to take from them the rich and coveted lands in the forks of the Delaware and Lehigh rivers, occupied by Nutimus and his tribe. And they protested vigorously HISTOBY OF LUZEBNE COUNTY. 209 but in vain. The end was Nutimus and his tribe were compelled to move to Nesoo- peck and give up their cherished home and hunting grounds. The Indians in their exasperation over the loss of their land in the rich Ninnisink country from protests proceeded to outbreaks and murders of the settlers, and the flames of war soon fol- lowed. While it perhaps can not be said that the Walk Purchase was the sole cause of what followed, yet there can be little doubt that it was one of the powerful incentives thereto. The Last Indian Massacre in this county occurred July 8, 1782. The Jamesons, Aldens and Hurlbuts, after the battle in which Robert Jameson had been killed, fled to old Hanover, in Lancaster county. John Jameson with his brothers, Alex- ander and Joseph, and mother, who carried her child Samuel in her arms all the way to Sunbury. Soon after the families were safely landed at Port Augusta (Sunbury), John Jameson returned to look after the farm and household and effects. The families did not return until 1780. July 8, 1782, John Jameson, with his youngest brother, Benjamin, and a neighbor, Asa Chapman, started from their homes in Hanover township to Wilkes- Barre, on horseback. Approaching open ground near the church in " Hanover Green," John Jameson noticed Indians ambushed, and exclaimed, "Indians!" and was instantly shot from his horse, three balls striking him. His horse with empty saddle fled, and Jameson was found where he fell, tomahawked and scalped. Asa Chapman and horse were both wounded; but the horse turned and carried his rider home, where he died in a few days. Benjamin's horse wheeled at first fire, and carried him safely away. John Jameson was at the time thirty-three years old. He had married Abigail Alden, a descendant of John Alden, who came with the Pilgrims in 1620 to Plymouth, Mass. This first John Alden married Priscilla Mullins or Molines, in 1623. This is the girl that Miles Standish sent his friend John Alden, to propose marriage. Capt. Standish was a widower. The father of the girl called her in, and bade Alden tell her his mission. He told her that Capt. Miles Standish wanted her for a wife. The blushing maiden listened to the story, and then very sensibly said: "Prithee, John, why do you not speak for yourself?" The result is known to the world. Priscilla and John were duly married. CHAPTER IX. LUZERNE COUNTY CREATED. "Witchcraft — Wbstmosbland Town Ebbctbd — Interesting Items from the Records — Townships Within the Town — Prices Regulated by Law — Punishment of Evil Doers — Oldest Laud Records — County Created — Courts and Lawyers — Resident Attorneys — Officials— Centennial, etc. THE preceding chapter tells of the first attempted settlement by the Connect- icut people in 1762, and then the first three years of the struggle for the possession of the soil of this locality that ended in 1771, leaving the Yankees in possession, and they turned their attention to opening little farms, building new forts and strengthening old ones; and the commencement of that herculean work of making this the fitting place for the wealth, comforts and civilization that we now see about us on every hand. There had passed nine years, almost every hour crowded with important events — nine years of blood and flame, of massacres, 210 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. battles, the swarming home-seekers and the dreary exodus through the "Shades of Death " — as was called the way through the wilderness back to the Delaware river. Nine years of bloody lawlessness — no schools, churches or law — save that of common defence against formidable outside enemies. It was an era of terrible education — the shorn lambs exposed to the untempered winter winds. These people, it must not be forgotten, were the immediate descendants of the super- stitious of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries — the time of witch burners and when charms and spooks and spells were playing fantastic tricks in nearly every household. Our fathers believed in witches; that the earth was flat; a hell of fire and brimstone, and a literal seven days' creation. They were fresh from a race full of the wildest and crudest superstitions. Pennsylvania at one time recog- nized as in full force and effect the British laws against witchcraft, as well as all those cruel laws administered by the old Bailey court, where human life was so cheap, and property was the one precious thing in the world. The records show that two Swedish women, Margaret Mattson and Yethro Hendrickson, were accused before Gov. Penn as being witches. Several witnesses testified respecting the strange conduct of certain cows, geese, hogs, etc., but, luckily, the court thought this was not enough direct evidence to convict the women. The jury returned a verdict: " They have the common fame of witches, but not guilty in the manner and form of the indictment." The governor, how- ever, required security of them for their good behavior the next six months. This was once Northampton or a part of that county. A number of persons were arrested and imprisoned as witches. Luckily, none were executed, as was common in New England. In what is now Luzerne county, the people hardly had time, from other and more serious foes, to war much on witch women. But many poor old women here "had the fame of witchcraft." Stewart Pearce, in his Annals, says: " Mrs. J , at W , bewitched the cattle of Mr. , and several died, in spite of the efforts of Titus, an old negro witch doctor. For several days Titus labored, using the ordinary remedies, one of which was a gun-barrel filled with a particular kind of liquid. But no effect was produced upon the witch, who continued, contrary to expectation, to exercise all her bodily functions. At length, a fine ox was taken sick, when a new remedy was applied to break the spell. Miller, the sexton of the old church on the public square, taking the church key, approached the ox, and, putting it in the animal's mouth, turned it about three times, repeating certain spell-breaking words known only to himself. The power of the witch was destroyed, and the ox recovered. Mrs. H , near Tunkhannock, frequently bewitched the hunters' guns, to remedy which a bullet was fired, from a gun not afl'ected by any spell, into the body of a tree. So soon as the bullet became covered by the growth of the wood, the witch would be seized by severe pain in certain parts of her body, from which she would find no relief until she removed the spell from the gun. Mrs. , in the village of P , bewitched the cows and hogs of Mr. . The cows twisted their tails upon their backs, threw up the earth with their feet, bellowed, and ran their hind legs up the trunks of trees. The pigs squealed night and day, frothed at the mouth, rolled over, and turned summersaults. Mr. and his wife were in a state of consternation, expecting they themselves would be seized with similar impulses for ground and lofty tumbling. Fortunately, a cele- brated German witch doctor arrived. Taking a gun barrel, he filled it with a cer- tain saline fluid, plugged up the muzzle and touch-hole, and placed it in the chimney corner. In a short time the husband of the witch came to the house, saying his wife was taken suddenly ill, and requesting Mrs. ■ to come and see her; but the request was not complied with, at the instance of the doctor, who represented that the effect of his remedy would be counteracted if the desire of the witch were HISTOEl OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 211 granted. The next day the witch sent again, urging the attendance of Mrs. who again refused to visit her. The husband then placed his wife, the witch, in a wagon and conveyed her to the house of Mr. . where she confessed she had bewitched his cattle, and implored the doctor to unstop the gun-barrel. This he did, and, as soon as the saline fluid began to flow from the muzzle, the witch was relieved, and the cows and hogs were cured. In 1772 the people were emerging from their severe conditions slowly, but mostly living in stockades. Charles Miner says the huts of Capt. Butler and Nathan Denison were adjoining each other, then came Mathias HoUenback's, the first man who brought merchandise to sell. Dr. Joseph Sprague opened the first boarding house. A samp mortar was used to pound grain for bread. Venison and shad were plenty, but salt was scarce. Dr. Sprague would load a horse and go two miles on the Delaware, at Coshutunk. Neither a chair, table nor bedstead was in the settle- ment except such as were made by the auger and axe. John Carey, who gave his name to Careytown, died in 1841, the last survivor of these people. The Indians had left the valley after the massacre of 1763, and were seen here- after only as marauding parties and small remnants of scattered tribes. A few friendly ones lived a mile above Mill creek. From the stockade the people, breakfasting early, taking with them a luncheon, went forth armed to their daily labor. The view here presented, with slight varia- tions, was exhibited in four or five different places in the valley. Stockades or block- houses were built in Hanover and Plymouth. The celebrated Forty fort in Kingston was occupied. Many returned to the east for their families, and new settlers came in. It was a season rather of activity than labor — moving and removing; surveying; drawing lots for land rights; preparing for building; hastily clearing up patches to sow with winter grain, the sad consequence of which was the harvests of autumn were not sufficient for the considerably augmented number of inhabitants. Until the conclusion of 1772 very little of the forms of law or the regulations of civil government had been introduced or required. Town committees exercised the power of -deciding on contested land rights. Thus: "Doings of the committee. May 22, 1772. " That Eoswell Franklin have that right in Wilkes-Barre drawn by Thomas Stevens. " That James Bidlack have that right in Plymouth drawn by Nathaniel Drake. "That Mr. McDowell be voted into the Forty town (Kingston). " That for the special services done this company by Col. Dyer, agreed that his son, Thomas Dyer, shall have a right in the Forty, if he has a man on it by the first day of August next. " That the rights that are sold in the six mile township, or Capouse, shall be sold at $60 each, and bonds taken," etc. It may be regarded as a transition year, full of undefined pleasure, flowing from the newness and freshness of the scene — a comparative sense of peace and security. The year happily passed without " justice or lawyers." The year 1773 was remarked as one when, from the influx of new settlers, pro- visions ran short and hunger threatened. Five persons were selected to go to the Delaware for provisions, a distance of fifty miles, and had to cross the Lehigh river. Ice was floating in the river; they stripped and swam across. These men on their shoulders carried back each 100 pounds of supplies. The opening of the shad season was looked forward to with great hopes, and they were not disappointed. The spring, too, was attended with sickness. Several deaths took place. Capt. Butler buried a son named Zebulon; and soon after his wife followed her boy to the grave. Both were interred on the hill, near where the upper street of the borough is cut through the rocks, as it passes from the main street to the canal basin. This picture of the early settlement, simple in its details, we could not 212 HISTOBY OF LUZEBNE COUNTY. doubt, would be agreeable to numbers now living, and not less so to readers in future years, when the valley shall become, as it is destined to be, rich and populous, not surpassed, if equaled in the Union. Among the first objects of general interest was the erection of a gristmill. This was undertaken by Nathan Chapman, to whom a grant was made of the site where Hollenback's old mill now stands, near the stone bridge on the road from Wilkes- Barre to Pittston. Forty acres of land were part of the donation. Mr. Hollenback brought the mill-irons in his boat from Wright's ferry, and the voyage was rendered memorable by the loss of Lazarus Young, a valuable young man, who was drowned on the way up. Immediately afterward the town voted: "To give unto Capt. Stephen Fuller, Obadiah Gore, Jr., and Mr. Seth Marvin all the privileges of the stream called Mill creek, below Mr. Chapman's mill, to be their own property, with full liberty of building mills and flowing a pond, but so as not to obstruct or hinder Chapman's mills: Provided they will have a sawmill ready to go by the 1st day of November, 1773, which gift shall be to them, their heirs and assigns, forever." And this was the first sawmill erected on the upper waters of the Susquehanna. The township of Wilkes-Barre had been surveyed in 1770 by David Meade, and received its name from John Wilkes and Col. Barre, members of parliament, and distinguished advocates for liberty and the rights of the colonies. " Wilkes and Liberty — North Britain — 45,' ' was then heard from every tongue. A final division was now made of the back lots among the proprietors. The town plot, now the borough, was laid out by a liberal forecast on a very handsome scale. On a high flat, on the east bank of the Susquehanna, above all fear of inundation, the position was chosen. Two hundred acres were divided into eight squares of twenty- five acres, and these into six lots each, containing, after the streets were taken off, about three and three-quarters of aniacre. A spacious square was allotted for public buildings. Main street was laid off to run in the general course of the river, northerly and southerly, two miles long, and was crossed by five streets at right angles. Two ferries were kept up, at Mill creek and at the foot of Northampton street. This point on Mill creek is now just beyond the northern limits of the city. Prior to the coming of the first settlers here distilleries had been erected on the lower Susquehanna. This circumstance had an important bearing on the move- ments of the people of what is now Luzerne county. The rich valley produced with slight labor an abundance of corn. One man who came to northern Pennsylvania on horseback alone had traveled in the wilderness until finally he came to a " wind- fall." The storm had blown down the forest over several acres, and here he alighted, built a pen large enough to sleep in, one end opened probably to allow his feet extended to his full length. He had seed corn in his saddle-bags, and the only agricultural implement he had was a shoe hammer. With this he planted his corn, and in the fall gathered forty bushels. As soon as the people here were left alone they commenced planting and sowing. The distillers from the lower district came as corn buyers and shipped in rafts and arks. This suggested the building distilleries here, which was promptly put in execution. There was probably not a settlement in all Pennsylvania but that one of the first public institutions was a distillery, and soon nearly every farm had one. Beading an ancient ' ' for sale " of a farm, and as a special inducement to purchasers, it was mentioned that there were '"two distilleries on the place." The first merchant here was Mathias Hollenback, and from his account book of 1773 is taken the following entries : One quart of whisky, |1.50; 2 quarts of apple brandy, $3.33^; 1 nip of toddy, 8 cents; 1 quart of rum, 41 f cents; i sling, 8 cents; 1 egg-nog, 22 cents; 2 bowls of toddy, 50 cents; 1 bowl of sangaree, 47 cents; 1 gill of rum, 6 cents; 1 dram, 6 cents ; 2 yards of tobacco, 4 cents ; 1 bushel of wheat, 83^ cents ; 1 elk skin, $4 ; 1 pound HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 213 of cofEee, 25 cents; 1 spelling-book, 58^ cents; 1 pound of loaf sugar, $1.14; 1 pound of sugar, 25 cents; 1 pound of tobacco, 47 cents; 1 ream of paper, 13.75; 20 bear skins, 30 cents each. In the year 1772 the people organized their local government. It was a pure and simple democracy. Town meetings were called and here legislation was enacted. Capt. Stephen Fuller was elected moderator. A resolution was adopted that anyone selling liquor to an Indian was to forfeit his goods and be expelled from the colony. They had good evidence that the massacre of 1763 was largely due to the Indians being drunk at the time. Disputes as to claims under the Connecticut title were beginning to arise, and a land office was established and a record made of all full and half-shares, where the title to 16,000 acres was at once put on record. John Jenkins was surveyor-general and Joseph Biles his deputy. June 2, 1773, the inhabitants of Connecticut met at Hartford and adopted a code of rules and laws for the government of the Susquehanna colony. This is now a historical document. Its preamble refers to the disputed claims of the country between Pennsylvania and Connecticut; professes loyalty to King George III., and refers all questions to the King's law counsellors. They pledge themselves to be peaceful, loyal and upholders of the laws ; agreed to choose for each settlement three able and discreet men to manage local affairs, suppress vice and preserve the peace of God and the King; provided for a general town meeting on the first of each month; the three directors to meet every three months to hear complaints and settle disputes; crimes enumerated were swearing, drunkenness, gaming, stealing, fraud, idleness "and the like." They agreed to banish all convicted of adultery, burglary, etc. An annual meeting of all males over twenty-one years of age on the first Mon- day in December, to choose directors, etc. A list of rateable estates and polls was to be made, taxes provided for, and all were required to come forward and subscribe to the articles. Under these articles the following directors were appointed: Wilkes- barre — Maj. John Durkee, Capt. Zebulon Butler and Obadiah Gore, Jr. Plymouth — Phineas Noah, Capt. David Marvin and J. Gaylord. New Providence — Isaac Tripp, Timothy Keys and Gideon Baldwin. Kingston — Capt. Obadiah Gore, Nathan Den- ison and Parshall Terry. Pittston — Caleb Bates, James Brown and Lemuel Harding. Hanover — Capt. Lazarus Stewart, William Stewart and John Franklin. Three years of peace and quiet industry now blessed tlie people of the "Happy Valley.'' Little by little they ventured more and more from the stockades. All looked upon the questions between the settlers and Pennsylvania as permanently at rest. These men felt first loyal to Connecticut, but if the proper authorities should decide that jurisdiction really belonged to Pennsylvania they were content. They had paid for the acres they possessed, and thrice a thousand times earned them in defending them from the bloody invaders. Local civil government was estab- lished; all males over twenty-one were equally authorized to go to the town meet- ings and vote their wishes. We can imagine that the exercise of such a franchise was to these good people like the noisy toy to the child. They learned to meet very often, and all regarded it as a sacred privilege and duty to be present. Around every fireside and camp the men talked of public questions of policy; the axe rang in the forests, and in the little clearings men, women and children planted and harvested bountiful crops. Places of worship were provided and schools instituted. A subscription paper was circulated to raise a sufficient sum to induce a physician to locate in the practice among them, and this brought Di;. Anderson Dana. Wool and flax were raised, and the hum of the wheel and the s'teady pounding of the looms in every cabin bespoke the abundance of clothing, as well as food for 'all. Steady industry, peace, happiness and content sang in every heart, and already they began to look back upon the recent bloody and cruel past as a necessary prepara- tion for their present fullness of happiness. 214 HISTOEY OP LUZEENE COUNTY. The Connecticut authorities that had looked on in ailence during the three years of the Yankee and Pennamite contention, now seemed to conclude that her people had proved their ability to maintain themselves, and therefore the home govern- ment would back them and assert itself in the premises. Accordingly three able and discreet men were sent to Philadelphia to confer with the authorities and adjust all disputes. They went and formerly presented their overtures. They were kindly received, but firmly refused acceding to their offered terms of settlement. The proprietaries regarded their title as clear beyond controversy, and it was a great misfortune to the pioneers that this view was not also taken by Connecticut. This information, had it been frankly given the settlers along the Susquehanna, would have saved much cruelties and great wrongs and injustices. The most important of the propositions made to Pennsylvania by Connecticut was, "To join in an application to his Majesty to appoint commissioners," to ascer- tain the rightful boundaries, etc. In 1774 Connecticut boldly assumed full jurisdiction oyer the colony of the Susquehanna. Then the good people here were overjoyed. They regarded the sore trials that had for five years hung their skies as with blackest pall now removed to the mother colony, and in future, instead of battles, seiges and exoduses across th'e ' ' Shadow of Death," it would be amicably settled by negotiations in which their rights and welfare would be fairly and fully cared for. Connecticut passed an act in January, 1774, erecting all the territory within her border, from the Delaware river to a line fifteen miles west of the Susquehanna river, into a town, with the same rights and powers of her other towns, to be called Westmoreland, and attaching it to Litchfield. Zebulon Butler and Nathan Denison were commissioned justices, and the town of Westmoreland was legally organized. The jurisdiction of Connecticut apparently fully established. The new town was about seventy miles square, and within its limits were several townships, five miles square each, and these divided again into lots which were drawn by lot by the settlers. A town meeting at that time meant calling together the people of all the different townships. Under Connecticut every town kept a regular record of elec- tion, orders, votes, etc. Nothing can be more interesting in this age than a few excerpts from these old records, for which we are indebted to Hon. Charles Miner, as given in his valuable History of Wyoming : "At a town meeting legally warned and held for Westmoreland, March ye Ist, 1774, for choosing town officers, etc. , Zebulon Butler, Esq. , was chosen moderator for the work of the day. Maj. Ezekiel Pierce was chosen town clerk. "March ye 1st. Voted that this meeting is adjourned until tomorrow morning at this place, at eight of the clock, in ye forenoon. "March ye 2d, 1774, this meeting is opened and held by adjournment. Voted, that ye town of Westmoreland be divided in the following manner into districts — that is to say, that ye town of Wilkesbarre, be one entire district, and known by the name of Wilkesbarre district: And that ye town of Hanover, and all the land south of Wilkesbarre, and west on Susquehanna river, and east on the Lehigh, be one district, by ye name of Hanover district; and that Plymouth, with all ye land west of Susquehanna river, south and west to the town line, be one district, by ye name of Plymouth district; and that Kingston, with ye land west to ye town line, be one district, by ye name of Kingston district; and that Pittston be one district, by ye name of Pittston district; and that Exeter, Providence, and all the lands west and north to ye town line, be one district, by ye name of ye North district; and that Lackaway settlement and'Blooming G-rovej and Sheolah, to be one district, and to be called by ye name of ye Lackaway district; and all ye settlements on Delaware be one district, and joined to ye other districts, and known by ye name of ye Bast district. Select men: "Christopher Avery, Nathaniel Landon, Samuel Eansom, Isaatt HISTORY OF LDZEENE COUNTY. ■ 217 Tripp, Esq., Caleb Bates, Lazarus Stewart, Silas Parke, were chosen selectmen, for ye year ensuing. Isaac Tripp, Esq. , refused to accept. John Jenkens was chosen selectman in ye room of Esq. Tripp. ' ' Town treasurer: Zebulon Butler, Esq., was chosen town treasurer. Constables and collectors of rates: Asa Stevens, Timothy Smith, Jonathan Haskel, Asaph Whittlesy, Noah Adams, Phineas Clark, William Smith, were chosen constables and collectors of rates. Surveyors of highways: Anderson Dana, Daniel Gore, Elisha Swift, Thomas Stoddart, Thomas Bennett, Perrin Boss, Rufus Lawrence, Samuel Eansom, Jona- than Parker, Isaac Baldwin, Zavan Tracy, Elijah Witter, John Ainsley, William Hibbard, James Lastl*, John Dewitt, John Jenkins, Jr. , Aaron Thomas, Anthony Chimer, Abraham Rusf, Benjamin Vancampen, Benjamin Harvey, were chosen surveyors of highways. Pence viewers: "John Abbott, William Warner, Ezekiel Pierce, AVilliam Buck, Nathan Denison, Esq., Thomas Stoddart, Frederick Eveland, John Baker, Charles Gaylord, Samuel Slaughter, Abraham Harding, Capt. Parrish, John Jamison, John Gardner, were chosen fence viewers for ye year ensuing." Listers: "Andersoij Dana, Daniel Gore, Elisha Swift, Eliphalet Follet, Perrin Boss, Nathan Wade, Jeremiah Blanchard, Zavan Tracy, Uriah Chapman, Gideon Baldwin, Silas Gore, Moses Thomas, Emanuel Consawler, John Jenkins and Phin- eas Clark, were chosen listers for ye year ensuing.' ' " Leather sealers : Elisha Swift, Ebenezer Hibbard and Capt. Silas Parke, were chosen leather sealers ye year ensuing. "Grand jurors: Jabez Sills, James Stark, William Buck, Elias Church, Phineas Nash, Thomas Heath, Barnabas Cary, Lemuel Harding, Hezekiah Bingham, John Franklin, Timothy Keys, were chosen grand jurors ye year ensuing. "Tything men: Philip Weeks, Elihu Williams, Luke Swetland, Justice Gaylord, James Brown, Isaac Parrish, Timothy Hopkins, were chosen tything men. " Sealers of weights and measures ; Jabez Sills, Captain Obadiah Gore, Captain Silas Parke, Captain Lazarus Stewart, were chosen sealers of weights and measures. " Key keepers: Daniel Gore, Jabez Fish, Timothy Pierce, Uriah Stevens, Thomas Heath, Jeremiah Blanchard, Jonathan Haskel, Zipron Hibbard, were chosen key keepers." Thus was the town organized by the designation of 100 of&cers. April 11 and 12, the second town meeting in Westmoreland was held. 206 persons took the freeman's oath, as required by law. A tax was laid of one penny in the pound, to purchase ammunition for the town's use, and other necessaries. Application to the assembly was directed for a court of probate, and the estab- lishment of a regiment. Pounds already built were pronounced lawful pounds. Eoads heretofore established were declared lawful highways, on which taxes might be laid out. • " Voted, That for ye present, ye tree that now stands northerly from Capt. Butler's house, shall be ye town sign post." This matter of the legal sign post is of weightier import than, without explana- tion, might be imagined. Newspapers in those days were little known, save in the larger cities. It had therefore been enacted that a sign post be established in each town, on which notices of public meetings, public sales, stray animals taken up, etc., should be nailed or placed, to render them legal. It is proper to add that, as an accompaniment of the sign post, which was also the legal whipping post, a pair of stocks was provided for a punishment of the guilty, and a warning to deter from crime. These monuments of civilization and law were derived from England, and brought over, nay, almost venerated, by our Puritan fathers. The ancient pillory and wooden horse first disappeared, the whipping post and stocks soon followed. A third meeting was holden April 28, 1774. "Capt. Butler was chosen moderator, for ye work of ye day. Voted, That Capt. 218 . HISTOEY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. Zebulon Butler, Capt. Timothy Smith, Mr. Christopher Avery and Mr. John Jenkins, be appointed agents in behalf of this company of settlers, to attend the meeting of the general assembly, to be holden at Hartford, in May next, etc." The same gentlemen were also appointed as agents to the Susquehanna company, which was to assemble at Hartford, on May 24. It is presumed that at this time the number of the members of assembly West- moreland would be entitled to, had not been designated. Thereafter two were or might be elected for each session, during the continuance of the jurisdiction of Connecticut. The John Jenkins named was the elder, and father of Col. John Jenkins, both distinguished patriots. j The fourth town meeting was held June 27, Zebulon Blitler, moderator. Votes were passed to form themselves into companies in a military way, each district in Westmoreland to be a company, and Zebulon Butler, Maj. Ezekiel Pierce and Mr. John Jenkins were appointed as a committee to repair to the several districts- and lead each company to a choice of officers, etc: On September 30 a fifth town meeting was held, Capt. S. Fuller, moderator. Capt. Butler and Mr. Joseph Sluman were chosen representatives to the next assembly, and these were the first persons admitted to the full participation of the rights of members, not as delegates from territories having a power to debate, but not a right to vote, but voting on all questions that arose, uniting in making laws for the rest of the colony, as the other members made laws for Westmoreland, and from henceforth Westmoreland was in all respects a part of Connecticut, as much so as Stonington or Saybrook, Hartford or New Haven. Voted, That Lieut. Elijah Shoemaker, Mr. Solomon Johnson, Mr. John Jenkins, Capt. Timothy Smith and Mr. Douglass Davidson, be a committee to meet such gentlemen as shall be appointed at or near Delaware, to mark out a road from that river to the Susquehanna. Up to this time, therefore, no road existed from any part of the inhabited country to Westmoreland. Bridle paths were the only avenues to the valley, except that by the Susquehanna river, on which boats brought from below, at great cost, heavy articles of indispensable necessity. The eighth and last town meeting called during 1774 was held December 6, at which: among a variety of other things, it was Voted, That Elisha Richards, Capt. Ransom, Perrin Ross, Nathaniel LandoUf Elisha Swift, Nathan Denison, Esq., Stephen Harding, John Jenkins, Anderson Dana, Obadiah Gore, Jr., James Stark, Rosewell Franklin, Capt. Stewart, Capt. Parkes and Uriah Chapman were chosen school committee for the ensuing year. Of those intruders who took land irregularly to the rights of the Susquehanna- company, it was then ordered that these men be removed from the settlement. It was further voted that Capt. Stephen Fuller, Robert Durkee, Asabel Buck, Nathan Denison, Capt. Samuel Ransom, John Paine, Abraham Harding, Roswell Franklin and John Jenkins, Jr., be a committee to make inquiry into and search after all sus- pected persons whom they may judge to be " unwholesome persons to the good set- tlers." They had power to expel all such people. These were nine of the most discreet persons in the town, and they held powers . of great importance. One fact should here be observed by the reader. The higher crimes were simply a cause for expulsion. This was their mode where now we send men to penal institutions and keep them under lock and key. In some States, in nearly every State in the Union the increase of criminals and penal institutions are the cause of most serious questions to the government. What to do with our con- victs ? is a serious problem that has come with our other social questions. There is something in the thought of the fathers, expel.them — promptly and with little cost. Penning up your criminals, putting them to work under strong guards, has brought in time, the other sides of the question, and our statesmen here seem to be at fault HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 219 in remedying glaring difficulties. A man adjudged a bad citizen was simply ordered to leave, and now when our land is dotted with buildings for the incarceration of suspects and criminals, and others to hold witnesses and to form schools for tender youths, we sometimes hear of certain persons being given so many hours to leave and not return under pain of being imprisoned. It is most singular how mankind adjusts itself to its surroundings. Mea have deliberately caused themselves to be returned to the penitentiary; men who had served there until they found their cherished dreams of liberty a burden they could not bear when it came. Authentic cases are related, among others, where a man had picked up a stone and smashed a plate glass window, in order that he might be arrested, saying that arrest meant a house to sleep in and something to eat. One of the ugliest features of our most modern life being our police courts and their machinery to be now found in daily session wherever a few hundred people are huddled in towns and villages. Visit these reeking pens and study the class of people who do most patronize them and then call the roll of the great fathers who laid the foundationf of this nation — the entire list of brave and hardy immigrants — and imagine one of those dear old homespun fellows ringing up the police when he had a quarrel with a neighbor! Rather he would seize the bad man by the ear and lead him to the good parson, who would smite him hip and thigh with the sword of the Lord. Imagine, if you can, that during the first three-quarters of a century here, there could have arisen a case recently brought to light in one of our cities, where a rich man found his daughter and a poor laboring young man making love, and finally, to effectually break it up, hired handy detectives, cooked up a case against the young man and railroaded him off to the penitentiary. Yet we tell our children that the pioneers were not so refined as we of to-day — " good enough, kind old people, but crude." Nature seems to demand the storm as well as the sunshine. The land records, the oldest in this locality, dated July 6, 1772. — "In the twelfth year of the reign of our sovereign lord, George ye Third King, etc." — recites that Silas Gore sold to Jonathan Stowell, of Ashford, Conn, for the consideration of £20, " one whole settling right in the township of Wilkes-Barre — said right contains the home or house, lot No. 28; the meadow lot No. 50 and the third division or back lot No. 44, as by the drafts of the said town may appear, together with all the after divisions which may yet be made." There had gathered in the year 1774 a total of inhabitants in the town of West- moreland of 1,922 souls, and the town at that time was considered large enough to erect into a separate county. An assessment of Wilkes-Barre township 1774, cor- rected in 1775, contains 120 names and the total assessment was £3,646; the total assessment of Westmoreland was £13,083. While this was the purest democracy, yet those were people, it must be remem- bered, who brought with them such ideas as were typified in the whipping post and stocks for the punishment of small offenders. They too believed in the paternal functions of government. They were loyal to King George and fully believed that a good king was the divine order for all government. They believed the "king could do no wrong," and under his beneficent laws there was "no wrong without a remedy. " They believed all governments were instituted on the old patri- archal plan, of a " wise father and his helpless children " — they were paternalists in all its purity; and never doubted that unless the government attended to man's pri- vate affairs all would go to chaos and confusion. Hence the following list of prices were among the early official acts of the authorities of Westmoreland town: Good yarn stockings, a pair 10 s. Laboring women at spinning, a week 6 s. Winter-fed beef, a pound ■. T d. Tavemers, for dinner, of the best, per meal 3 S. Metbeglin, per gal '^ s. '220 HISTORY OF LTJZEBNE COUNTY. Ox work, for two oxen, per day, and tackling 3 s. Good hemp seed, a bushel 15 s. Men's labour, at farming, the three summer months, pay day 5 a. 3d. Good check flannel, yard wide 8 s. Good tow and linen, yard wide 6 s. Good white flannel, do 5 s. The above to be woven in a 36 reed, etc. Tobacco, in hank or leaf, per pound 9 d. Taverners, for mug of flip, with two gills of rum in it 4 s. Good barley, per bushel 8 s. Making, and setting, and shoeing horse all round 8s.$l 33 Eggs, per doz 8 d. Strong beer, by the barrel 31. This paternal-goverament idea traveled westward with the settlement of the country to the Mississippi river; but through State by State as it slowly wended its way it grew less and less on the records. This form of paternalism and belief in witchcraft were somewhat companion pieces, both born of the idea that rulers ruled by divine authority, and the people were incapable as little children to make their own bargains. The size and price of a loaf of bread is still regiflated in republican Prance, the same as it was under the empire. The price of a drink of whisky is a curious thing for a great government to attend to; yet this paternal- ism once entered upon by rulers leads to this and other absurdities, and absurdities on the part of rulers ends in indescribable cruelties, destroying the manly quali- ties of the people and in the long time sapping their intelligence. The general assembly of the commonwealth, by act passed September 25, 1786, created the county of Luzerne of territory carved from Northumberland county. This was the first civil administration over Luzerne county, but not the first exer- cise of government dominion over this territory. One hundred and four years previously Pennsylvania (its boundary lines then indefinite), had been divided in its unknown or unsettled entirety into three counties — Chester, Bucks and Phila- delphia. William Penn was then settling his possessions, and by purchase of the Indians extending them in every direction, where the soil yet remained in the ownership of the savages. This pious and good Quaker possessed the secret of gaining and holding the confidence of the wild men of the forests, as well as the most remarkable executive abilities as the head of a strong colony to an extent hardly to be found in the history of the wonderful operation of transplanting a great nation from the old to the new world. Northampton county, from which this was taken, was formed in 1752, of territory taken from Bucks, one of the original three counties. This is the brief abstract of title to the civil authority now over Luzerne county. There is, however, a short eventful history of this valley, including the entire limits of Luzerne county, that out-dates the organization of the civil government under which we now exist. The Yankee was here before the Quaker, and in time these two cross-claimed this territory, and thence arose a conflict that in its progress was recorded in blood and the suffering of the innocent that is one of the sad chapters in American annals. The facts of those events are given in the impartial details of other chapters, and here it will only need a short recapitulation of the civil administration of affairs under the colony of Connecticut. This was made the " Town of Westmoreland,' ' and attached to the county of Litchfield, and subsequently it became the county of Westmoreland, Conn. It was defined as embracing 60x120 miles — containing over 7,000 square miles— the whole of Cameron, Lycoming, Potter, Sullivan and Tioga, and nearly the whole of Luzerne, and parts of eight other counties. This rich domain, had the effort of Franklin and his friends succeeded, would now be a great State of the Union. Westmoreland county raised three companies of troops for the continental army. HISTORY OF LUZERNE OODNTY. 221 They were a part of the Twenty-fourth regiment of the Connecticut line. In 1774 Zebulon Butler and Nathan Denison were commissioned under Connecticut as justices of the peace for the county of Litchfield, and they were authorized to organize the " Town of Westmoreland." Under this authority the people met in March, 1774, and organized said town, chose a selectman, treasurer, constables, tax-collectors, surveyors of highways, fence- viewers, listers, leather sealers, grand jurors, tything men, sealers of weights and measures and key keepers. (Certainly a heavy load of machinery for a small craft.) During the year eight town meetings were held. The claims to jurisdiction of Connecticut ceased with the close of the year 1782, in consequence of the Trenton decision. The following is the official list under Connecticut: 1774, representative to Hartford, Zebulon Butler, Timothy Smith, Christopher Avery and John Jenkins. 1775, Capt. Zebulon Butler, Joseph Sluman, Maj. Ezekiel Pierce. 1876, Col. John Jenkins, Capt. Solomon Strong, Col. Zebulon Butler and Col. Nathan Denison. 1777, John Jenkins, Isaac Tripp. 1778, Nathan Denison, Deacon John Hurlbut. 1780, John Hurlbut, Jonathan Pitch, Nathan Denison. 1781, John Hurlbut, Jonathan Fitch, Obadiah Gore and John Franklin. 1782, Obadiah Gore, Jonathan Fitch. Under Connecticut were the following justices of the peace: John Smith, Thomas Maifitt, Isaac Baldwin, John Jenkins, Zebulon Butler, Nathan Denison, Silas Parks, Bushnell Bostick, Joseph Sluman, John Sherman and Nathan Denison were judges of probate. John Fitch was commissioned sheriff of Westmoreland county, Conn., in 1776. The same year John Jenkins was appointed judge of the county. June 1, 1778, Gov. Jonathan Trumbull appointed the following justices for the county of Westmoreland, Conn: Nathan Denison, Christo^ pher Avery, Obadiah Gore, Zera Beach, Zebulon Butler, William McKarrican, Asaph Whittlesey, Uriah Chapman, Anderson Dana, Ebenezer Marcy, Stephen Harding, John Franklin (2d), Joseph Hambleton, William Judd; and Nathan Deni- son, Christopher Avery, Obadiah Gore and Zera Beach were appointed to assist the judges. Other justices appointed were: Caleb Bates, Zebulon Marcy, John Hurl- but, Nathaniel Landon, Abel Pierce, Hugh Fordman, John Franklin, John Vincent and John Jenkius. In 1781 Nathan Denison was judge of Westmoreland county. The records show there were here two lawyers, Anderson Dana and Mr. Bullock, both killed in the battle of Wyoming. Lieut. John Jenkins was, therefore, appointed by the court State's attorney. This comprises all of the acts and doings of the authorities under Connecticut that can now be reached. With these preliminaries disposed of we can now turn to the records proper of Luzerne county and give its civil side. A regular civil government was formed here while this was under Connecticut; laws and offices were created and filled. Hon. Steuben Jenkins furnished the fol- lowing items of history and list of officials. The justices of the peace in the order of appointment were' as follows, which list is brought down to the present: 1772, John Smith, Kingston; 4773, Thomas. Maffitt and Isaac Baldwin, Pittston; 1774, 1777, John Jenkins, Exeter; 1774, 1777, 1782, Zebulon Butler, Wilkes-Barre; 1774, 1776, 1781-2, Nathan Denison, Kingston; 1774, Silas Parks, Lackawanna; 1775, Bushnell Bostick, Joseph Sluman and Increase Moseley; 1774, 1777, 1779, Uriah Chapman; 1776, 1778-9, William Judd; 1777-8, 1782, Obadiah Gore, Kingston; 1777-8, William McKarrachan, Hanover; 1777-8, Christopher Avery, Wilkes-Barre; 1778, Asaph Whittlesey, Plymouth, and Caleb Bates, Pittston; 1779, Zerah Beach, Salem, Stephen Harding, Exeter, Zebulon Marcy, Tunkhannock, and John Hurlbut, 222 HISTOEY OF LUZERNE COUNTr. Hanover; 1782, Nathaniel Landon, Kingston; 1781-2, Abel Pierce Kingston, and Hugh Fordaman, Wilkes-Barre; 1780-2, John Franklin, Huntington; 1776, John Vincent. Also the following list of justices of the peace at Wyoming under Pennsylvania previous to the organization of Luzerne county; all of them appointed in April, 1783: Alexander Patterson, Robert Martin, John Chambers and David Mead, of North- umberland county; John Seely, Henry Shoemaker and Luke Brodhead, of North- ampton county; Nathan Denison, of Wyoming; his name was used without his consent, and he refused to act. Under the constitution of 1776 and the act of assembly approved on September 26, 1786, justices were elected in the county in the three districts formed by the aet erecting the county, to serve for seven years. The following were so elected: 1787, Mathias Hollenback and William Hooker Smith, first district; Benjamin Carpenter and James Nisbett, second district; Obadiah Gore and Nathan Kingsley, third district; 1788, Noah Murray, second district; 1789, Christopher Hurlbut, first district; 1790, Lawrence Myers, Kingston township. Under the constitution of 1790 the governor appointed the justices of the peace, to serve during good behavior, in districts to be made up of one or more townships. The following were so appointed : 1791, Lawrence Myers, Kingston township; Arnold Colt and William Eobs, Solomon Avery and John Phillips, Wilkes-Barre district; Guy Maxwell, Tioga dis- trict; Peter Grubb and Nathan Beach, Kingston district; Christopher Hurlbut, Wilkes-Barre district; Joseph Kinney and Isaac Hancock, Tioga district; Minna Dubois, Willi agboro township; John Paul Schott, Wilkes-Barre town and township. 1793, Moses Coolbaugh, Tioga township ; 1796 Asahel Gregory, Willing- boro township. 1797, Resolved Sessions, Tioga township. 1798, Noah Wad- hams, Jr., Kingston district; Oliver Trowbridge, Willingboro township; John T. Miller, Kingston district; James Campbell and Joseph Wright, Wilkes-Barre township. 1799, Charles E. Gaylord, Huntington township; Constant Searle, Provi- dence township; Matthew Covell, Wilkes-Barre township; Henry V. Champion, Wyalusing township; Elisha Harding, Tunkhannock township; David Paine, Tioga township. 1800, George Espy, Hanover, Wilkes-Barre, etc., townships; Jacob Bit- tenbender, Nescopeck, Wilkes-Barre, etc., townships; Benjamin Newberry, North- moreland, Tioga, etc., townships; Thomas Duane, Wilkes-Barre township; Asa Eddy, Willingboro township (revoked March 28, 1805); Jonathan Stevens, Brain- trim township; Guy Wells, Wyalusing township; Benjamin Carpenter, Kings- ton township; William Means, Tioga township; Zebulon Marcy, Tunkhannock; John Marcy and Thomas Tiffany, Willingboro township. 1801, David Barnum, Willingboro township; 1803, John Marsy, Nicholson, etc., townships; 1804, Bart- lett Hines, Rush, etc., townships. District No. 1, for which the first appointment was made in 1806, was composed of Huntington, Nescopeck, Salem and Sugarloaf townships until 1811; then of Huntington, Nescopeck and Salem townships six or seven years; then of Wilkes- Barre borough and township and part of Covington township till 1835, when it comprised only Wilkes-Barre borough and township; part of Covington township al.so belonged to it in 1836 and 1837. Justices for this district were commissioned as follows: 1806, Alexander Jameson; 1809, Abiel Fellows; 1810, George Drum; 1811, Wilham Baird; 1813, John Buss; 1819, Conrad Sax; 1820, John Myers and Eos- 7olV^^^^^' ^823, James Stark; 1826, Richard Drinker; 1831, Amasa Hollister, Jr.; 1833, Charles L. Terwilliger; 1835, Benjamin Perry; 1836, John Stark; 1837, Eleazer Carey. Di.strict No. 2 was at different times made up as follows: 1812, Wilkes-Barre, HISTORY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. 223 Hanover and Newport townships; 1816, Kingston and Plymouth townships; 1819, Kingston, Plymouth and Dallas townships; 1831, Kingston, Plymouth, Dallas and Lehman townships; 1832, Kingston, Plymouth and Dallas townships; 1836, Kings- ton, Plymouth, Dallas and Lehman townships. Justices commissioned as follows: 1806, Cornelius Courtright and Thomas Dyer; 1808, Jonathan Kellog; 1812, Christian Stout; 1818, Francis McShane; 1814, Isaac Hartzell; 1816, Samuel Thomas; 1817, Jacob J. Bogardus; 1819, Dr. John Smith; 1820, Benjamin Eeynolds; 1822, Alvah C. Phillips; 1825, John Bennett; 1826, Thomas Irwin; 1829, Eeuben Holgate; 1881, James Nisbitt and Simeon P. Kogers; 1832, Fisher Gay; 1833, Jared E. Baldwin and Watson Baldwin; 1835, Sharp D. Lewis; 1836, Jacob J. Bogardus; 1837, Caleb Atherton and John P. Eice; 1838, Peter Allen and Henderson Gaylord; 1839, Addison C. Church. District No. 3 was originally composed of Plymouth, Kingston and Exeter town- ships. Salem, Huntington and Union townships were made to compose this district in 1818, and Fairmount was added in 1835. Justices were commissioned as follows; 1808, James Sutton and David Perkins; 1809, WiUiam Trux and Moses Scovil; 1810, Stephen Hollister; 1813, Charles Chapman; 1818, Ichabod Shaw; 1821, Shadrach Austin; 1822, Christian Stout; 1823, John Dodson; 1824, Sebastian Seybert; 1827, Jonathan Westover; 1832, Andrew Courtright and Lot Search; 1835, Jacob Ogden and Newton Boone. District No. 4 consisted originally of Pittston and Providence townships (revoked March 27, 1820), and, after 1819, of Hanover and Newport townships. The justices appointed were : 1804, Joseph Fellows and Asa Dimock; 1806, William Slocum; 1809, Enos Finch; 1819, Jacob Eambach; 1822, Samuel Jameson; 1823, Bateman Downing; 1831, Thomas Williams; 1838, John Vandemark; 1839, John Forsman. In 1809 District No. 6 comprised Braintrim and Wyalusing townships; in 1816, Pittston, Providence and Exeter; in 1818, Pittston, Providence, Exeter, Northmore- land and Blakely townships; in 1833, part of Monroe township was added; in 1838, Carbondale township, and in 1839 Jefferson township. The list of justices for this district is as follows: 1806, Josiah Fassett; 1808, James Gordon and Charles Brown; 1809, Asa Stevens; 1815, James Connor; 1816, David Dimock and Isaac Hart; 1818, Peter Winter, Elisha S. Potter and Isaac Harding; 1820, Sherman Loomis and Deodat Smith; 1821, Ebenezer Slocum; 1822, Orange Puller; 1829, David I. Blanchard; 1830, Ziba Davenport; 1831, Moses Vaughn; 1832, Daniel Harding and Joseph Griffin; 1833, Thomas Hadley and Amzi Wilson; 1835, Erastus Smith and Elisha Blaokman; 1836, Samuel Hogdon and Sylvanus Heermans; 1837, James Pike; 1838, Judson W. Burnham, Gilbert Burrows and Elisha Hitchcock; 1839, John Cobb and Alva Heermans. Under the constitution of 1873, justices of the peace and aldermen were to be elected for five years, and under the act of assemby of March 22, 1877, commissions were to take effect from the first Monday of May, the governor having power to appoint to vacancies up to thirty days after the next municipal election. When this region, by the Trenton decree of 1782, finally came under the juris- diction of Pennsylvania, it became a part of the county of Northumberland (county seat Sunbury), which had been taken in 1772 from Northampton (county seat Easton), the latter covering a large section of the original county of Bucks, from which it was formed in 1752. "To extend to the remote settlement at Wyoming, the advantage of civil govern- ment in which they might participate affording them an opportunity to administer their local affairs by persons having the confidence of the inhabitants, chosen by themselves; to give the people an efficient representation in the council and assem- bly, so that their voice might be heard, their interests explained and their influence 224 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. fairly appreciated," a new country was formed on September 26, 1786, from part of the territory of Northumberland. It was named Luzerne, from the Chevalier de la Luzerne, a most popular minister from the French court during the Eevolution, and for many years afterward a prominent figure in the public eye, and was bounded as follows: " Beginning at the mouth of Nescopeck creek, and running along the south bank; thence eastward to the head of said creek; from thence a due east course to the head branch of Lehigh creek; thence along the east bank of said Lehigh creek to the head thereof; from thence a due north course to the northern boundary of the State; thence westward along said boundary until it crosses the east branch of Susquehanna; and thence along the said northern boundary fifteen miles west of the said river Susquehanna; thence by the straight line to the head of Towanda creek; thence along the ridge which divides the waters of the east branch of the Susque- hanna from those of the west branch, to a point due west from the mouth of the Nescopeck; thence east to the place of beginning." The act creating the county provided for an election on the second Tuesday of the following October, to choose county officers and representatives in the legisla- ture; and that Zebulon Butler, Nathaniel Landon, Jonah Rogers, Simon Spalding and John Phillips should be a commission to buy a site for the county buildings. In 1790 the county court divided the county into eleven townships. These retained the old names of Wilkes-Barre, Pittston, Hanover, Newport, Exeter, Ply- mouth, Kingston, Salem, Tioga, Wyalusing and Tunkhannock, but the territory of those townships which had existed under the Connecticut jurisdiction was extended. The commissioners named above, to procure a site for county buildings, made choice of the public square in Wilkes-Barre; and in 1791 there was erected a two- story hewn-log building, about sixty feet long and half as wide, of which the second story was the courtroom (approached by steps outside), and the lower floor was for the jail and the jailer. This structure gave way in 1801 for the building of a new courthouse on the same site. The old one was occupied, however, during the construction of the new, which was finished in 1804, when the log building became the Wilkes-Barre academy. The new courthouse, which was in the shape of a cross and had a low tower and a belfry in the center of the roof, cost $9,356.06, and was used more than fifty years. In the year after the commencement of its construction a jail was built on the corner of Market and Washington streets, and between 1809 and 1812 a fire- proof building for the county records, the three costing about 124,000. In 1835 the legislature authorized the erection of the present courthouse, and its corner-stone was laid August 12, 1856. Under the supervision chiefly of Benja- min P. Pfauts, William A. Tubbs and Silas Dodson it was completed and furnished at a cost of 185,000; builder, D. A. Fell. Provision is made in this building for the public offices, which formerly occupied a separate one. The jail begun in 1802 served until 1870, although long before that time it had proved inadequate to the demands upon it and was unworthy of the advanced posi- tion of the commonwealth in the matter of prison discipline. On April 2, 1867, the contract for the building of a new jail was awarded to Lewis Havens, at $189,575. On August 18, 1870, the sheriff was ordered to remove the prisoners to this jail, and November 4, in the same year, the building was accepted from the contractor. An expenditure of $18,500.98 above the contract price was incurred for additional and extra work. From a report furnished by the clerk of the county commissioners, it appears that the building and furniture cost $302,536.92. It is located above North street, between Eiver street and the Sus- quehanna. It is built of stone brought from Campbell's ledge, opposite Pittston, occupies a lot of five acres, and the building covers three-fourths of an acre. It is a fireproof structure, and is at the same time substantially and tastefully built and C ^ioAo.w: ^A^^w<^^^X^-^ HISTORY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. 227 elegantly painted inside. It has in both wings seventy-two cells, thirty-two of which are double, sufficient in all for 104 prisoners. The building is heated by three furnaces, and all the cooking and heating of water are done by them. It is ventilated by a fan, which is propelled by an engine — precisely as coal mines are ventilated. Under the old State system each city, borough and township maintained and cared for the poor within its limits. About the year 1858, the question of erecting a county poorhouse was submitted to the people in accordance with an act of assem- bly, and decided in the negative. By special legislation portions of the county were then erected into poor districts, each under a special act. In 1860, by an act of assembly, the township of Wilkes-Barre was made a poor district, and a farm was purchased in the township of Newport, about four miles below Nanticoke, on the east side of the river. In 1861 the central poor district of Luzerne county was incorporated. This district embraces the townships of Wilkes- barre, Plains, Kingston, Plymouth, Hanover and Newport, the boroughs of Kingston, Plymouth, Ashley, Sugar Notch and Nanticoke, and the city of Wilkes-Barre. In 1863 the first poorhouse was built on the farm purchased by Wilkes-Barre in 1860. It was a frame building, 35x74 feet, three stories in hight above the base- ment, which was finished for cooking and dining apartments. This, with the old farmhouse and a small kitchen, constituted the poorhouse up to 1879, when another building was erected. This was of brick, 35x76 feet, three stories in hight, with a finished basement, which is used as a laundry. The female paupers occupy this building, the old wooden structure being used exclusively for males. This was incorporated May 8, 1857, under the corporate name of " The Poor District of Jenkins Township, Pittston Borough and Pittston Township." The first directors were John D. Stark, Peter Winters, William Ford and Ebenezer Drake. The board of directors in 1857 purchased a farm of 1 60 acres in the township of Eansom, now in the county of Lackawanna. The farmhouse standing on this farm was used as a poorhouse till the year 1877, when the present fine brick structure was erected. This is three stories in hight above the basement, which is used as a kitchen and place of work. The building is capable of accommodating 100 paupers. Criminals convicted of capital offences have been executed at Wilkes-Barre as follows: July 1, 1779, Michael Rosebury, by order of Gen. Sullivan, for instigating desertions from thelatter's command; James Oadden, March 2, 1849, for the mur- der of Daniel Gilligan below Wilkes-Barre; Reese Evans, September 9, 1853, for shooting Lewis Reese on the Kingston flats in order to rob him; James Quinn, April 21, 1854, for the murder of Mahala Wiggins on the canal near Nanticoke dam; William Muller, April 30, 1858, for the murder of George Mathias, a few miles from Wilkes-Barre, on the Easton road. In the early history of political parties in this county, the federalists, who favored a strong national government, had a large majority. Within the memory of the present generation the democrats have oftenest had the ascendancy. Below will be found lists of the citizens who have administered the affairs of the county and represented it in various legislative bodies. In the spring after the formation of the town of Westmoreland Zebulon Butler and Timothy Smith, and in the autumn of that year Christopher Avery and John Jenkins, appeared before the assembly of Connecticut on behalf of the new town. Timothy Smith had attended the last three previous sessions, Joseph Sluman the last two and John Jenkins the last one. Capt. Butler and Joseph Sluman were the next representatives in that body. Butler was also a member in the autumn session of 1775, in which Maj. Ezekiel Pierce was his colleague, and in" the spring session of 1776 John Jenkins and Solomon Strong. Col. Nathan Denison was a member in the spring sessions of 1778-9, and the autumn sessions of 1776, 1778 and 228 HISTOEY OF LUZEBNE COUNTY. 1780. John Jenkins and Isaac Tripp were the assemblymen at both sessions of 1777; Anderson Dana in the spring, and Asahel Buck in the October session of 1787' John Hurlbut served in the spring sessions of 1779-80 and 1781, and the autumn session of 1780. Jonathan Fitch was a member in the spring sessions of 1780-1 and 1782, and the autumn session of 1782. Obadiah Gore and John Franklin Were the members at the spring session of 1781, and the former attended both sessions in 1782. John Sherman, of Westmoreland, was appointed judge of probate and justice of the peace for Litchfield county. Conn., in 1775. Up to 1860 this county belonged to a congressional district, which also included Berks, Bucks, Northampton, Northumberland and other counties. The first repre- sentative from Luzerne county, David Scott, of Wilkes-Barre, was elected in 1816. He resigned on being appointed president judge. Representatives from the dis- trict including Luzerne county have since been chosen as follows: 1818, 1820, George Denison and John Murray, 1820-32, Cox Ellis, George Kreamer, Samuel McKean, Philander Stephens, Lewis Dewart and A. Marr; 1832 (Luzerne and Columbia), 1834, Andrew Beaumont; 1836, 1838, David Petrekin; 1840, 1842, Benjamin A. Bidlack; 1844, Owen D. Leib; 1846, 1848, Chester Butler; 1850 (Luzerne, Wyoming, Columbia and Montour), 1854, Henry M. Fuller; 1852, Hendrick B. Wright; 1856, John G. Montgomery — died, and was succeeded the next year by Paul Leidy; 1858, 1860, George W. Scranton — died during his second term, and H. B. Wright was chosen at a special election in June, 1861; 1862 (Luzerne and Susquehanna), 1864, Charles Denison; 1868, George W. Woodard; 1872, Lazarus D. Shoemaker; 1876, Winthrop W. Ketcham; 1877, W. H. Stanton; 1878, Hendrick B. Wright; 1880, from Eleventh district. Robert Klotz, and from Twelfth district Joseph A. Scranton; 1882, Eleventh, John B. Storm; Twelfth, Joseph A. Scranton; 1886, Eleventh, Charles B. Buckalew; Twelfth, John Lynch; 1888, Edwin S. Osborn; 1890, George W. Shonk. Members of the upper house of the legislature have been chosen from the dis- trict, including Luzerne county, as follows: Council: 1787--89, Nathan Denison; 1789 (October 30), 1790, Lord Butler. Senate: 1790 (Luzerne, Northumberland and Huntington), William Montgomery; 1792, William Hepbnrn; 1794 (Luzerne, Northumberland, Mifflin and Lycoming), George Wilson; 1796 (same district), Samuel Dale; 1798, Samuel McClay; 1800, James Harris; 1801 (Luzerne, Northampton and Wayne), Jonas Hartzell; 1803, Thomas MoWhorter; 1805, William Lattimore; 1807, Matthias Gress; 1808 (Luzerne and Northumberland), Nathan Palmer; 1810, James Laird; 1812, Will- iam Ross; 1814 (Luzerne, Northumberland, Union, Columbia and Susquehanna), Thomas Murray, Jr.; 1816, Charles Frazer; 1818, Simon Snyder; 1820, Redmond Conyngham; 1824 (Luzerne and Columbia), Robert Moore; 1828-30, Jacob Drum- heller; 1832, Uzal Hopkins; 1836 (Luzerne, Monroe, Wayne and Pike), Bbenezer Kingsbury, Jr.; 1839, S. F. Headley; 1841, Luther Kidder; 1844 (Luzerne and Columbia), William S. Ross; 1847, Valentine Best; 1850 (Luzerne, Columbia and Montour), 1853, Charles R. Buckalew; 1856, George P. Steele; 1859 (Luzerne), Winthrop W. Ketcham; 1862, J. B. Stark; 1865, L. D. Shoemaker; 1868, Samuel J. Turner; 1871 (Luzerne, Mouroe and Pike). Francis D. Collins, Albert G. Brod- head; 1872, George H Rowland; 1874, D. H, Stanton, H. B. Payne; 1877, E. 0. Wadhams, J. B. Seamans; 1880, Ecldey B. Coxe, resigned and again elected in 1881; 1882, W. H. Stanton; 1884, Morgan B. Williams; 1886, M. D. Roche; 1888, William H. Hines. Members of the lower house of the legislature have been sent from the district, including or consisting of Luzerne county, as follows, the district comprising Luzerne, Bradford and Susquehanna, from 1814 to 1828, inclusive: John Paul Schott, 1787; Obadiah Gore, 1788-90; Simon Spalding, 1791-2; HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 229 Ebenezer Bowman, 1793; Benjamin Carpenter, 1794; John Franklin, 1795-6, 1799-1803; Eoswell Wells, 1797-8, 1802, 1804-6; Lord Butler, 1801; John Jenkins, 1803; Jonas Ingham, 1804; Nathan Beach, 1805-7; Moses Cool- baugh, 1806; Charles Miner, 1807-8, 1812; Benjamin Dorrance. 1808-10, 1812, 1814, 1819-20, 1830; Thomas Graham, 1809-11; Jonathan Stevens, 1811; Jabez Hyde, Jr., and Joseph Pruner, 1813 (Luzerne and Susquehanna); Putnam Catlin, 1814; Eedmond Conyngham, 1815; George Denison, 1815-16, 1827-30; Jonah Brewster, 1816-9; James Reeder, 1817-8; Cornelius Cortright, 1820-1, 1823; Andrew Beaumont, 1821, 1823, 1849; Jabez Hyde, Jr., 1822-3; Jacob Drumheller, Jr., 1822-4; Philander Stevens, 1824-6; G. M. Hollenback, 1824-5; Samuel Thomas. 1825-6; Garrick Mallery, 1826-9; Almou H. Reed, 1827; Isaac Post, 1828; Albert G. Brodhead, 1831-3; Nicholas Overfield, 1831; Chester Butler, 1832, 1838-9, 1843; Ziba Bennett, 1833-4; B. A. Bidlack, 1834-5; James Nesbitt, Jr., 1835; Henry Stark, 1836-7; William C. Reynolds, 1836-7; John Sturdevant, 1838; Joseph Griffin, 1839; Andrew Cortright, 1840-1; Hendrick B. Wright, 1840-2; Moses Overiield, 1842; William Merrifield, 1843-5; James S. Campbell, 1844-5; Nathan Jackson, 1846; George Fenstermacher, 1846; Samuel Benedict, 1847; James W. Goff, 1847; Henry M. Fuller, 1848; Thomas Gillespie, 1848; John N. Conynghan, 1849; James W. Rhodes, 1850-1; Silas S. Benedict, 1850-1; Truman Atherton, 1852-3; Abram P. Dunning, 1852-4; Gideon W. Palmer, 1854; Harrison Wright, 1855; Henderson Gaylord, 1855; Steuben Jenkins, 1856-7; Thomas Smith, 1856; Samuel G. Turner, 1857; P. C. Gritman, 1857-8; Lewis Pughe, 1858, 1860; Win- throp W. Ketcham, 1858; John Stone, 1859; Peter Byrne, 1859-60; Dyer L. Cbapin, 1859; H. B. Hillman, 1860; William S. Ross, 1861; R. F. Russell, 1861; H. V. Hall, 1861; S. W. Trimmer, 1862; Jacob Robinson, 1862-3; Peter Walsh, 1862-3; Harry Hakes, 1863-4; Anthony Grady, 1864-5; D. F. Seybert, 1864-5; D. S. Koon, 1865-6; William Brennan, 1866-7; James McHenry, 1866-7; Samuel F. Bossard, 1867-9; Daniel L. O'Neil, 1868-9; Nathan G. Wrestler, 1868-9; S, W. Keene, 1870-1; George Coray. 1870-1; JohnF. McMahon, 1870; Richard Williams, 1871-2; Patrick Delacey, 1872-3; Peter Quigley, 1872-3; B. D. Koons, 1872-3; •E. P. Kisner, 1873; Thomas Waddell, 1874; A. L. Cressler, 1874; T. W. Loftus, 1874; M. Crogan, 1874; Charles A. Miner, 1875-80; T. H. B. Lewis, 1875-6; J. J. Shonk, 1875-8; J. C. Fincher, 1875-6; James McAsey, 1875-6; F. W. Gunster, 1875-6; M. F. Synott, 1875-6; C. R. Gorman, T. W. Loftus, 1875-6; John B. Smith, 1877-80; Charles McCarron, 1877-8; George Judge, 1877-8; James A. Kiersted, 1877-8; D. M. Jones, 1877-8; A. I. Ackerly, 1877-80; S. S. Jones, 1877-8; W. H. Hines, 1879-80; George W. Drum, 1879-80; Dennis 6'Lenihan, 1879-80; John E. Barrett, 1879-80; T. D. Lewis, 1879-80; Thomas Mooney, 1879. 1880, first district, Herman C. Fry; second district, Philip H. Seeley; third district, James George; fourth district, George W. Drum; fifth district, Robert Timlin; seventh district, W. B. Hierlihy. 1882, first district, Herman C. Fry; secon'd dis- trict, Steuben Jenkins: third district, James George; fourth district, James A. Sweeney; fifth district, Robert M. Timlin; seventh district, James L. McMillan. 1884, first district, Charles D. Foster; second district, M. B. Hughes; third district, Henry C. Magee; fourth district, James A. Sweeney; fifth district, P. H. Durkin; seventh district, Nicholas C. Northup. 1886, first district, J. Ridgeway Wright; second district, M. B. Hughes; third district, P. F. Caffrey; fourtli district, D. M. Evans; fifth district, P. H. Durkin; seventh, William Rutlege. 1890, first district, C. Ben Johnson; second district, Elisha A. Coray; third district, James M. Fritz; fourth district, William R. Jeffrey; fifth district, John T. Flannery. The following will be found a correct list of all the sheriffs of Luzerne county from its organization up to the present. The year in which each was elected is given: Lord Butler, 1787; Jesse Fell, 1789; John Franklin, 1792; William Slocum, 230 HISTOEY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 1795; Arnold Colt, 1798; Benjamin Dorrance, 1801; James Wheeler, 1804; Jacob Hart, 1807; Jabez Hyde, Jr., 1810; Elijah Shoemaker, 1813; Stephen Van Loon, 1816; Isaac Bowman, 1819; Jonathan Bulkely, 1822; Napthali Hurlburt, 1825; Oliver Helme, 1828; Thomas Karkuff, elected in October, 1831, died in a few hours after he was sworn in, and Benjamin Eeynolds was appointed by the governor to the vacancy for one year or until the next election, when James Nesbitt was elected in October, 1832, and served until 1835; Thomas Myers, 1835; Caleb Atherton, 1838; George P. Steele, 1841; James W. Goff, 1844; William Koons, 1847; Gideon L Palmer, 1850; Abram Drum, 1853; Jasper B. Stark, 1856; Samuel Van Loon, 1859; Samuel Peterbaugh, 1862; Joseph S. Van Leer, 1865; James W. Ehoads, 1868; Aaron Whitaker, 1871; William P. Kirkendall, 1874; P. J. Kenny, 1877; William O'Malley, 1880; John S. Oberrender, 1882; Hendrick W. Search, 1886; Robert P. Robinson, 1889. The act for the formation of the county provided, that courts of common pleas and general quartersessions of the peace; the court of quartersessions shall sit three days and no longer, and shall be held at the house of Zebulon Butler in Wilkesburg until a courthouse shall be built. Section 9 provided: " That Zebu- lon Butler, Nathaniel Landen, Jonah Rogers, John Philips and Simon Spawlding are appointed trustees " for said county, to take assurance for a piece of land for a courthouse and a county goal, and thereupon erect a courthouse and goal. First court convened in Luzerne county met in Wilkes-Barre, May 27, 1787, one year after the county was created. The building where the court was held stood where now is Judge Woodward's house. The court had six judges — no president judge, as that office was not provided for until 1791, when Jacob Rush was the first appointee. Nothing in the way of a new building for the presence and temporary abiding place of the blind goddess could be more primitive than this court conven- ing. It was in the deep woods, in the "dark and bloody grounds" of the valley where the shadow of death had lingered so long, where the wild beasts lurked, the wild man has yet the smoking ruins upon the hillside and where was coming the sad and also bloody contention of white man against his fellow man over the soil in which they lived. Wilkes-Barre in those early days, we are told, while having at one time twenty-three cabin homes, had seen all of them destroyed by the foe except three and this foe was the "Pennamite" against the "Yankee." In 1801 in a carefully kept diary there were but six houses in the place and as late as 1808 there were added but four others, but they were cheap wooden ones — two stone and two brick. Of the latter,, the Perry house, on the cgrner of Northampton and Main and the Slocum residence. There were four attorneys at the first court, and it was many years after before this list was materially increased. The old-time law practice was different from now. Lawyers were ' ' circuit riders ' ' literally until modern times. They went in bands" on horseback from county to county over a wide range of country, as the counties were large and the distances long from court to court. In the crowd was the judge, and, while it was hard work and much exposure, they were a rare set of good fellows. A pair of saddle-bags contained their extra clothing and the few law books they had to have —the book of first importance then to a "circuit rider" being Chitty's Pleadings, the Pleadings being of first importance. If Jones owed Smith a note it was vitally important in the vast written pleadings informing the court of the facts in the case to know whether Jones had made a scrawl after his signature that could be called a "seal." If it had a "seal," then the action must be in " debt; " if no " seal,' ' then it must be in " assumpsit." Now, if you remem- ber, the "seal" as a signature came from the "divine," wise king, who could not write his name, and wore a great, vulgar gambler's ring, and made his royal mark by pressing the ring on the paper. In short, the practice of the law was far more a mere stream of technicalities 100 years ago than now. Good sense and HISTORY OF LUZEBNE COUNTY. 231 conscience, it seems, were secondary considerations, often were not considerations at all, and the lawyer or judge who could dig up the most learned technicalities, enough to drown all recollection of the original case in hand, was accounted the greatest judge or lawyer. To know the most subtle " learned technicalities of the law" was for a long time esteemed the acme of human greatness. If the poor clients and parties to suits had not been the helpless and unfortunate sufferers of this long-drawn-out illusion, this curious estimate of greatness, we might smile at it all. A hundred years ago there was hardly a contested case in courts where there were not climaxes from first to last in the curious mental quirks in its hunt for great lawyers and jadges, that are an index to the public men and education of the time, that it is hard for one now to fully realize. The lawyer is a curious product of every civilization, the ' ' licensed ' ' lawyer a perfected curiosity of the ages. By virtue of his "license" he is a quasi official, and by virtue of his mastery of "pre- cedent " and the nimble technicality of each case does he rise in the scale of honor and greatness. It is very edifying to dwell on the science of jurisprudence — the "garnered wisdom of the fathers," and all that — but it is the "case" lawyer that wiQs the doubtful case in court almost invariably. Law,theology and medicine are the three ' ' learned professions ; ' ' they are the sum total in the way of making a living that a "gentleman" could at one time think of following. All of them were schools of precedent. The members of the "learned professions" were never mere vulgar producers, rather, they were " cultured " consumers. In the scale of life they stood between the herd and the throne. Each a cult, a close corporation sometimes, and sometimes the doctors were a band of wrangling, brotherly-hating healers, and the whole world in agreement that all those who could not professionally talk in a kind of pigeon-Latin were but miserable, low-born "quacks." This condition grew threatening, when the happy thought came to " license " doctors as well as lawyers and preachers, and sores were now healed by making it a crime to save life except by sending for a man licensed to kill. There are comical things, dear reader, in high life as well as in the basement. The difficulty in the whole matter is that we grow up with scales over our eyes and go through life not only a little blind but cut bias, and we miss much "fun alive." The names of the first justices who met in Zebulon Butler's house: William Hooker Smith, Benjamin Carpenter, James Nesbitt, Timothy Pickering, Obadiah Gore, Nathan Kingsley and Mathias Hollenback. Lord Butler was sheriff, and about all the other county offices, including prothonotary and clerk, were filled by Timothy Pickering. Court crier was Joseph Sprague. The four attorneys sworn at this court were Ebenezer Bowman, Putnam Catlin, Koswell Welles and William Nichols (the last a non-resident). The first president Judge was Jacob Eush, who filled the office from 1791 to 1806. Thomas Cooper succeeded, and from August, 1806, to August, 1811, presided. Seth Chapman from 1811 to July, 1813. John Bannister Gibson from 1813 to 1817. Judge Gibson has a well-defined place in history as Pennsylvania's great and learned jurist. From president judge of the Luzerne court he went to preside in the State supreme court, and of all the brilliant men of the bar of the commonwealth there have been none greater, if indeed there has been his peer in the century. His slightes i-l-icium on the bench is to-day received in all the courts as unquestioned authority. The wording of his opinions is given verbatim, being as the finished Parian marble, and not capable of being condensed or taken in pieces. The law opinions of Judge vlibson are familiar to the courts of the civilized world. Thomas Burnside was judge from 1817 to 1818. David Scott became president judge in 1818, and filled the office over twenty years. 232 HISTOEY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. William jessup in 1838. He was twice, commissioned as judge of the court of common pleas, first in 1838 and next in 1848. A part of the time in the change in the districts, this county came within his circuit. By a compromise arrangement between Judges Jessup and Conyngham, and with the consent of the attorneys of Sus- quehanna and Luzerne districts, matters were so adjusted as to accommodate the two presiding of&cers, putting Luzerne in Conyngham's district and Susquehanna in Jessup's. John N. Conyngham, 1839, resigned in 1870, after serving thirty-one years. Garrich M. Harding, from July 12, 1870; resigned 1879. Charles E. Rice, present incumbent, since 1879. The second regular term of the court, September 5, 1787, presided over by Justices Obadiah Gore, Mathias Hollenback, William Hooker Smith, Benjamin Car- penter, James Nesbitt and Nathan Kingsley. For the full particulars of the first court and ofiicers and the four attorneys then admitted, see Vol. Ill, Families of the Wyoming Valley, by George B. Kulp. The constitution of 1790 vested the judicial powers of the State in a supreme court, courts of oyer and terminer, and jail delivery; courts of common pleas, orphans' courts, register court and court of quartersessions for each county, justices of the peace, and such other courts as the legislature may provide. Judges of the supreme court and courts, of common pleas to hold office during good behav- ior. The supreme court judges were ex-officio justices of oyer and terminer courts in the several counties; the governor to appoint for each county at least three and not more than four judges, residents of the county; the State divided into six judicial circuits, and a president of each circuit to be appointed. The president and any two of the lay judges to be a quorum; to hold courts of common pleas and oyer and terminer, and two of the lay judges could hold a court of quartersessions and orphans' court. At the next session of the legislature the State was divided into five circuits — Luzerne, Berks, Northampton and Northumberland, and composed the third circuit. The president judge was to be a person " skilled in the law." Act of 1851 provided for the election of judges of the several courts, and regu- lated certain judicial districts, and constituted the eleventh circuit out of the counties of Luzerne, Wyoming, Montour and Columbia. John N. Conyngham, elected president judge for a term of ten years; he was re-elected in 1861. In the meantime Montour county was annexed to the eighth district. In 1856 Luzerne county was made a separate district, Judge Conyngham presid- ing- By act June 27, 1864, Luzerne was authorized to elect an "additional judge," who, like the president judge, should be "learned in the law," to hold his office by the same tenure, have the same powers and jurisdiction, subject to the same duties, and receive the same compensation. The governor to appoint until the regular election. Under this law Hon. Henry M. Hoyt was appointed additional judge, and filled the office until December, 1867; succeeded by Edmund L' Dana, who was commissioned for ten years. Judge Conyngham resigned in 1870, and July 8 of that year Garnck M. Harding was appointed to fill the vacancy. He was elected in the fall of 1870 and commissioned for a term of ten ye^-s. The constitution of 1874 made some changes in the judiciary, among others pro- yidmg that counties containing over 40,000 inhabitants shall constitute a separate judicial district and elect one judge "learned in the law," and authorize the legis- lature to provide additional judges as the business of the respective districts may require. President Judge Harding and "additional" Judge Dana were in com- mission at the time of the adoption of the new constitution, of this Luzerne, the eleventh judicial district; and it was entitled to another additional judge. John Handley was elected to serve ten years from the first Monday in January, 1875. At the general election in 1877 William H. Stanton was elected successor to Judge Dana. At the time of the erection of Lackawanna, out "of the territory of Luzerne, HISTORY OP LUZERNE COUNTY. 233 Hon. Garrick M. Harding was president judge; Hon. John Handley and Hon. William H. Stanton were additional judges of the court of common pleas. The act of April 17, 1878, provided for the division of an erection of a new county out of any county containing 150,000 inhabitants, also providing that the judicial, representative and senatorial districts should remain and that the judges of said districts, or a majority, shall meet and organize the courts. Lackawanna county was erected under the provisions of this act and an election held August 13, 1878, and the final proclamation of the governor made August 21, 1878. The claim was at once made that as the new county had more than 40,000 inhabitants it became thereby a separate judicial district. Gov. Hartranft therefore appointed Benjamin S. Bentley, president judge, who opened the court. Judges Harding, Handle)', and Stanton declined to interfere, but in order to test the governor's action an application was made to the supreme court for a mandamus against the former judges to organize the Lackawanna courts. The supreme court holding that Bentley's commission was unauthorized, ordered the judges to organize the court. Judges Harding, Handley and Stanton thereupon opened the courts of Lackawanna county, October 24, 1878. Judge Stanton resigned February 25, 1879, and March 4, following, Hon. Alfred Hand was appointed and commissioned to fill the vacancy. The law authorized the governor in case of the division of counties where there were over 40,000 inhabitants in the new county to issue a proclamation and make it a separate judicial district. The president judge of th© old court now was directed to elect to which district he would be assigned and the other law judge or judges were to be assigned to the new district. If more than one law judge then the oldest in commission to be president. Judge Harding elected to remain in the old district of Luzeine, and Handley and Hand were assigned to the new — the forty-fifth district — the former president and the latter law judge, from March 27, 1879. This of course ended the service of Handley and Hand in Luzerne county. At the fall election 1879 Hon. Charles E. Rice was elected additional law judge of Luzerne — the eleventh district; commissioner December 4, 1879, for ten years from the first Monday in January following. Judge Harding resigned to take effect December 31, 1879. Judge Rice entered upon his office January 4, 1880, and on the next day, by reason of holding the oldest commission, he was commissioned as president judge for the term of ten years commencing the first Monday of January, 1880. Gov. Hoyt appointed Stanley Woodward additional law judge to fill the vacancy; his commission dated January 9, 1880. Judge Woodward was elected at the election following and December, 1880, commissioned" additional law judge to serve ten years from the first Monday in January, 1881. An additional law judge became necessary and Judge Lynch was appointed; he was elected to a full term in 1892, as will more fully appear in the list of present county officials elsewhere. Separate Orphans' Courts were authorized by the constitution of 1874 in counties containing 150,000 inhabitants. This was mandatory as to the above described counties and "may " established separate orphans' courts, under one or more judges " learned in the law." The same section register's courts, transferred the juris- diction to the orphans' court. The separate orphans' court of Luzerne was therefore. May 19, 1874, with one judge, and Hon. Daniel L. Rhone elected to preside. By law this office is now styled president judge of the orphans' court. The term runs ten years. There was no separate orphans' court in Lackawanna authorized by law. Judge D. L. Rhone was re-elected in 1884, and commissioned for a term of ten years from the first Monday in January, 1885. Many of the eminent men of Pennsylvania have come from the Luzerne bar. In the old time recollections are given an account of James McClintoek, the poetic, the brilliant, the great orator whose short career of much promise settled in such 234 HISTORY OP LTJZEENB COUNTY. hopeless gloom and a long life of blank imbecility. His first appearance at the bar, an unknown young man, as blushing and diffident as a girl, his latent powers as unknown to himself as to his casual acquaintance. At a court soon after his coming, by a strange chance, the briefless advocate was appointed by the judge to defend a little girl who had stolen a pair of shoes from the front of a store. The owner had readily recovered his property, but in a spirit of persecution, proceeded to inflict the heavy hand of the criminal law upon the child. The attorney' s speech to the jury in defence of that little girl as she sat in the prisoner's box gave him a wide fame as the first orator of the bar of northern Pennsylvania. It made him soon after a nominee for congress. Three candidates were before the people. And in those times the size of the districts and the slowness of getting news was such, that two weeks after the election it was not known who was elected. In the meantime McClintock had married, and Chester Butler gave a grand party to the newly married pair. That evening when the festivities had begun news came that con- vinced McClintock and his friends that he was elected, and then commenced the double congratulations on his marriage and election. Subsequently came the official news, and he was defeated by a small margin. Within the year his wife died of child-birth, the child was not saved, and in a few weeks poor McClintock was a raving maniac. He was sent to an asylum in robust physical health, his brilliant intellect like sweet bells jangled and out of tune, and from the fever of violence his remarkable mind settled into helpless and hopeless imbecility. The rising, flashing, brilliant meteor; the charred, blackened and burned stick; and cruel fate spun out the years of his darkened life to extreme old age — the dead mind in the living body. It has already been told how Judge John B. Gibson went from the Wilkes-Barre bench to that of the supreme court and fixed his immortal fame as a great judge. Among others of the bar from this place who were transferred to the supreme court, we note George W. Woodward and Warren J. Woodward. Henry M. Hoyt, ex-governor of the commonwealth, and at this time a practicing member of the bar of Wilkes-Barre. Henry M. Fuller was one of the brilliant and versatile lawyers of Luzerne — in many ways a remarkable man; a member of the legis- lature, twice elected to congress, was the whig candidate for State canal com- missioner, and in 1860 was presented for the nomination of candidate for vice- president, and died at the age of forty years. Death only could check a career that must have been phenomenal had not fate passed its shadow over it. This bar has furnished as attorney-general, Ovid F. Johnson and Henry W. Palmer. Hendrick B. Wright was speaker of the house, several times elected to congress, and was president of the convention that nominated Polk for president. Among other members who have been in congress from this bar were Charles Denison, Chester Butler, L. D. Shoemaker, E. S. Osborn and the present member-elect, Hon. George W. Shonk. In the recollections of the early bar, it is told that George Denison was one of the most powerful advocates that ever stood before a jury in the court. The great- est criminal lawyer of the old times was supposed to be Lyman Hakes. "Hal" Wright, as he was affectionately called by his friends, is remembered as a great lawyer, in the civil, criminal and equity courts — strong before a jury, eloquent before the court, wherein his statement of his case was the strongest presentation of law and fact that could be made. A curious incident of how our lives are shaped by trivial circumstances is found in the career of George Griffin, who was admitted to the bar in this county in the year 1800; a son of Maj. Jasper Griffin, and a descendant of the noted New England Pecks; born at East Haddam, Conn., January 14, 1778; graduated at Yale college; studied law; licensed in 1799 and came to Wilkes-Barre in 1800 and practiced law HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 237 until 1806; married Lydia, daughter of Col. Zebulon Butler. In the spirit of prac- tical joking he was voted for and elected high constable at the first borough elec- tion. Disgusted at the joke he left the place and went to New York city and became one of the most eminent men at the bar. Among his early eases there was a slander suit, wherein he appeared for the plaintiff, and his opening argument to the jury made his fame. Nearly the first sentence of which was the first in importance that made the case for his client: " the constant falling of the water drop will wear away the hardest stone, " and from, this he proceeded to show that though the evidence showed the words spoken did not at first blush seem so deeply injuri- ous, yet the frequent iteration of what the defendant had set in motion was calcu- lated to undermine the fairest reputation in any community. While in ordinary hands it would have been regarded as but a mild case of assault by words upon a man's character, yet in this case there was a verdict for $5,000, all of which was turned over to Mr. GrifiSn as his fee. He was in the active practice in New York fifty-two years. In the language of his biographer, George B. Kulp, " a profound scholar in every department of literature and science, but he was above all things a lawyer.' ' In 1822 and for some time Garrick Mallery was the acknowledged leader of the Luzerne bar. His superiority was not seriously contested so long as he remained in the active practice. He went to the bench, and that left an opening for a spirited rivalry among the other practitioners for the first place. In 1820 were here Ros- well Welles, Ebenezer Bowman, Garrick Mallery, George Denison and others, all men of high order of talent in the law. Judge David Scott was, on the bench, a man of great learning and probity, with the courage of his convictions, brave for the right, yet gentle and charitable in his decisions against the unfortunate law- breakers. John Nesbit Conyngham was admitted to the Luzerne bar in 1820; a young man who came here and located when the world was all before him ; a native of Philadel- phia; born December 17,1798; the son of David Hayfield Conyngham ; married Ruth Ann Butler, daughter of Lord Butler, the granddaughter of Col. Zebulon Butler, the old Revolutionary hero and patriot; to them were given seven children. Fifty years of his life were spent in the profession here — over twenty years in the prac- tice and thirty on the bench. No man who has ever sat upon the bench inspired more confidence in his decisions than Judge Conyngham; and the entire profession agree, after his long service that the ermine was as spotless when he laid it aside as when it was first placed upon his shoulders. In a preceding page are given the names of the four attorneys admitted and sworn in at the first court in the county in 1787. The next year was added Abraham Bradley; died May 7, 1838. Then for six years we can find no new name added to the roll of attorneys in the county. In 1794 two more were added: Nathan Palmer, died in 1843, and Noah Wadhams, died May 22, 1806. In 1798 came to the bar Thomas Graham, died April 26, 1814. In 1799 William Prentice, died October 6, 1806. This closes the list for the past century. The century year 1800 added the name of George Griffin, died in New York city, May 6, 1860. In 1802 Thomas Dyer, who died September 21, 1861, and Francis McShane, died in 1815. In 1806 Washington Lee, died September 10, 1871. In 1809, David Scott, died December 29, 1839. Garrick Mallery came in 1811, died July 6, 1866. In 1812 the name of Alphonso C. Stewart was added. He was here only about a year and went to Towanda on the organization of Bradford county, and was the first attorney enrolled in the new county; remaining in Towanda about four years, and in 1817 he removed to the then wild west — the territory of Illinois — and settled in Belleville, St. Clair county, the mother county of that State. Belleville, then next to Kaskaskia, was the important town in the territory, and here young Stewart was killed in a mock duel by a man named Bennett. The latter had 13 238 HISTORY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. taken deep ofEenoe against Stewart as the boys had, in the spirit of a joke, told him that Stewart intended to "cut him out," as it was phrased, with his girl. Bennett challenged him and the young men, in a spirit of fun, had him accept, and with guns loaded only with powder, go upon the "field of honor." In some way unknown Bennett slipped a ball into his gun and at the first fire poor Stewart fell mortally wounded, and in a short time died. Bennett fled, was followed to Texas brought back, tried, convicted and executed — The first legal hanging in Illinois and when "Bennett was hung" was for many years a reckoning day for events throughout all that part of the State. Only another bloody paragraph to history, the result of a silly practical joke. In 1813 Thomas B. Overton was admitted; died in 1819. Also George Denison- died August 20, 1832. 1814, Charles Catlin. 1815, Henry King; died July 13, 1861. 1816, Josiah H Miner; died March 14, 1818. Thomas Meredith; died April 22, 1855. Thomas Nesbitt was the first resident lawyer of Plymouth; followed by James A. Opp, H. C. Magee, C. W. McAlarney and George W. Shonk. James L Gordon of this place lived to be the oldest member of the bar in the county, and Hendrick B. Wright, the next oldest, was a resident of Plymouth. 1818, Edward Overton; died October 17, 1878. 1819, George Catlin; died December 23, 1872. Oristus Collins; died in 1884 Steuben Jenkins; died May 29, 1890. 1820, John N. Oonyngham; died February 23, 1871. James W. Bowman; died in 1834. Chester Butler; died October 5, 1850. Benjamin D. Wright; died April 28, 1875. 1821, Samuel Bowman; died August 23, 1861. 1822, Amzi Fuller; died September 26, 1847. James A. Gordon; died February 4, 1882. 1823, Joel Jones; died February 3, 1860. 1825, Benjamin Parke . Henry Pettebone; died May 5, 1851. B. A. Bid- lack; died February 6, 1849. 1826, James McClintock . 1827, George C. Drake; died June 27, 1878. 1828, Sylvester Dana; died June 19, 1882. 1830, Thomas E. Paine; died in 1843. George W. Woodward; died May 10, 1875. 1831, John Wurts; died November 4, 1836. O. F. Johnson; died in February, 1854. Volney L. Maxwell; died January 4, 1873. Henrick B. Wright; died Sep- tember 2, 1881. 1832, E. W. Sturdevant; died October 30, 1882. William Wurts; died July 15, 1858. 1833, Samuel F. Headley; died July 25, 1860. M. H. Jones; died June 1, 1883. Luther Kidder; died September 30, 1854. D. N. Latbrop; died October 8, 1887. 1834, David Wilmot; died March 16, 1868. 1835, Henry Hills Wells . 1836, Israel Dickinson . F. P. Mallery died in 1838. Jonathan W. Parker, 1837. J. J. Slocum; died February 27, 1860. 1838, John T. Robinson; died August 28, 1848. Charles H. Silkman; died March 8, 1877. Harrison Wright; died August 25, 1856. F. M. Crane; died January 8, 1877. 1839, John B. Mills; died October 22, 1889. Cyrenus M. Smith . 1840, W. E. Little . George H. Welles . Charles Denison; died June 27, 1867. E. E. Le Clerc; died August 11, 1845. HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 239 1841, E. L. Dana; died April 25, 1889. Lyman Hakes; died December 8, 1873. M. E. Jackson; died July 23, 1870. Horatio W. Niotolson; died June 16, • 1855. 1842, Henry M. Fuller; died December 26, 1860. James HoUiday . W. H. Miller; died in 1877. A. K. Peekbam; died March 22, 1865. Warren J. Woodward; died September 23, 1879. 1848^ Edward M. Covell; died September 8, 1864. Samuel Hodgdon; died January 17, 1865. E. G. Mallery; died May 27, 1852. C. P. Waller . S. S. Winchester; died June 26, 1881. Minor S. Blackman; died May 25, 1848. 1844, Nathaniel Jones . James K. Struthers; died May 8, 1885. 1845, Washington Lee; died March 26, 1883. Asher Miner Stout . Jacob Waelder. Charless Bennett; died August 6, 1866. 1846, Peter J. Byrne; died June 30, 1875. Milton Dana; died February 18, 1866. J. W. Myers; died November 25, 1847. George C. Waller; died December 4, 1888. 1847, Elisha B. Harvey; died August 20, 1872. E. S. M. Hill; died in 1874. Henry Metcalf; died December 23, 1864. David R. Randall; died August 31, 1875. 1848, G. B. Nicholson; died February 12, 1873. 1849, John B. Oonyngham; died May 27, 1881. 1850, Angelo Jackson; died in 1874. W. W. Ketcham; died December 6, 1879. A. C. Lewis; died September 22, 1861. Joseph W. Miner; died February 5, 1859. Daniel Rankin . Caleb F. Bowman; died January 25, 1874. 1851, Cromwell Pearce; died June 16, 1872. W. H. Beaumont; died June 19, 1874. 1852, Martin Oanavan . 1853, T. L. Byington; died June 16, 1888. Charles Pike; died September 12, 1882. Samuel Sherrerd; died June 21, 1884. 1854, George Scott; died September 26, 1861. James S. Bedford; died December 2, 1865. 1855, E. P. Darling; died October 19, 1889. S. P. Longstreet; died April 5, 1881. Lyman R. Nicholson; died July 13, 1863. 1856, L. D. Reynolds; died July 25, 1858. 1857; John Brisbin; died February 3, 1880. Ezra B. Chase; died February 15, 1864. George Sanderson; died April 1, 1870. Calvin Wadhams; died July 20, 1883. 1858, George D. Haughawout; died August 8, 1886. 1859, Isaac M. Cake; died July 2, 1888. 1860, C. B. Brundage; died January 27, 1871. John P. Craig; died February 21, 1862. Arthur Hamilton; died October 22, 1862. C. H. Wells; died March 24, 1888. Joseph Wright; died May 18, 1862. 1861, Albert Chamberlain ; died December 21, 1877. J. Holmes Ketcham . Ira D. Richards; died February 9, 1874. 1862, John L. Gore; died May 15, 1862. 1864, Edgar L. Merriman; died September 3, 1876. Conrad S. Stark; died March 26, 1880. Rufus F. Bell; died May 26, 1889. 1865, William F. Case . Philip T. Myers; died February 13, 1878. 1866, Isaac J. Post; died July 10, 1885. 1867, Joseph H. Campbell; died August 7, 1888. George T. Smith; died Sep- tember 4, 1871. 1868, R. M. Kidder; died December 25, 1874. 1870, Jabez Alsover; died December 2, 1878. 1871, Dennis A. McQuillan; died September 4, 1886. Wesley L. Wilwarth; died May 8, 1875. 240 HISTOEY OF LUZEBNE COUNTY. 1872, James Bryson; died in 1887. William V. Myers; died September 24, 1874 Ivan T. Euth; died November 19, 1878. 1874, E. W. Simrell . Harrison Wright; died February 20, 1885. H. B. Beardslee; died March 11, 1886. 1875, Henry C. Magee; died April 27, 1888. 1876, M. J. Flanagan; died February 1, 1880. W. J. Philbin; died August 29, 1882. 1877, Friend A. Wheelock; died November 24, 1880. D. S. Bennett; died September 16, 1884. 1878, W. R. Kingman; died August 23, 1884. 1879, Nathan Bennett; died June 1, 1889. 1880, A. J. Dietrick; died September 8, 1884. 1884, Ziba Mathers; died March 12, 1888. 1886, James B. Shaver; died April 1, 1887. 1888, Henry Clay Adams; died April 1, 1889. John I. Allen, admitted 1841; died . Resident Attorneys of Luzerne County. — The following is the chronological list of the attorneys of the county now residents, with the date of license to practice: A. T. McGlintook, August 3, 1886; Edwin I. Turner, November 5, 1839; Will- iam P. Miner, August 3, 1841; Samuel MoOarragher, November 7, 1842; L. D. Shoemaker, August 1, 1842; Wesley Johnson, April, 1846; F. J. Leavenworth, January 10, 1848 ; George Loveland, August 19, 1848 ; Asa E. Brundage, April .2, 1849; Francis L. Butler, April 6, 1849; C. I. A. Chapman, January 8, 1850; D. L. Patrick, August 5, 1850; Garriok M. Harding, August 5, 1850; Alexander Parn- ham, January 13, 1855; Stanley Woodward, August 4, 1856; Agib Rieketts, Janu- ary 6, 1857; John Eichards, April 5, 1858; Jerome G-. Miller, April 24, 1858; 0. F. Nicholson, April 24, 1858; E. H. Chase, Januray 4, 1859; E. C. Shoemaker, April 4, 1859; Alfred Darte, May 12, 1859; H. B. Plumb, November 21, 1859; Harry Hakes, January 25, 1860; Geo^e B. Kulp, August 20, 1860; T. H. B. Lewis, August 29, 1860; Gustav Hahn, February 18, 1861; E. S. Osborne, Febru- ary 26, 1861; D. L. Ehone, April 1, 1861; Charles D. Foster, April 23, 1861; Henry W. Palmer, August 24, 1861; Charles M. Conyngham, August 18, 1862; George E. Bedford, November 10, 1862; Hubbard B. Payne, August 20, 1863; William M. Shoemaker; September 3, 1863; D. L. O'Neil, April 4, 1864; Clarence P. Kidder, April 4, 1864; George Shoemaker, January 6, 1864; John Lynch, November 20, 1865; Charles L. Bulkley, January 8, 1864; Thomas J. Chase, November 12, 1866; D. J. M. Loop. December 1, 1866; William S. McLean, August 10, 1867; Andrew Hunlock, November 10, 1868; D. M. Jones, February 27, 1869; Elliott P. Kisner, August 16. 1869; Isaac P. Hand, November 15, 1869; Edmund G. Butler, November 17, 1869; Button Downing, November 19, 1869; Charles E. Eice, February 21, 1870; Benjamin F. Dorrance, August 20, 1870; L. W. DeWitt, December 17, 1870; George K. Powell, June 12, 1871; Sheldon Eeynolds, October 16, 1871; George S. Ferris, February 19, 1872; E. G. Scott, September 9, 1872; Gains L. Halsey, September 9, 1872; Ernest Jackson, September 9, 1872; Lyman H. Bennett, December 4, 1872; Malcom E. Walker, January 6, 1878; Michael Cannon, January 25, 1878; John A. Opp, February 24, 1878; John T. L. Sahm, April 23, 1873; William H. McCartney, September 12, 1873; Barnet M. E^py, September 20, 1878; William P. Ryman, September 20, 1878; John T. Lenahan, October 27, 1878; Francis M. Nichols, October 28, 1873; Emory Eobinson, Janu- ary 5, 1874; QuiQcy A. Gates, January 22, 1874; Franklin C. Mosier, February 26, 1874; J. Vaughan Darling, June 4, 1874; Allan H, Dickson, September 14, 1874 Joseph p. Coons, September 14, 1874; P. H. Campbell, September 14, 1874 George H. Troutman, September 16, 1874; Lewis B. Landmesser, April 5, 1875; Seligman J. Strauss, September 6, 1875; G. Mortimer Lewis, September 6, 1875; HISTOEY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 241 I George E. Wright, September 6, 1875; Edward A. Lynch, September 11, 1875; Charles H. Sturdevant, October 4, 1875; Frank C. Sturges, October 18,1875; John B. Reynolds, November 15, 1875; A. H. McClintock, January 20, 1876; Charles W. McAlarney, February 7, 1876; John McGahren, February 14, 1876; Thomas E. Martin, April 10, 1876; Oscar J. Harvey, May 16, 1876; Thomas H. Atherton, September 29, 1876; George W. Shonk, September 29, 1876; H. A. Fuller, Janu- ary 9, 1877; Clarence W. Kline, January 10, 1877; F. W. Sturdevant, June 11, 1877; Bernard McManus, November 19, 1877; E. H. Wright, May 22, 1878; P. V. Weaver, September 23, 1878; A. F. Derr, December 2, 1878; James L. Lenahan, January 28, 1879; Frank W. Wheaton, September 2, 1879; Emmett D. Nichols, September 16, 1879; Edwin Shortz, March 20, 1880; Jasper B. Stark, April 26, 1880; Martin F. Burke, May 10, 1880; William J. Hughes, June 7, 1880; Edward E. Hoyt, September 17, 1880; Robert D. Evans, November 15, 1880; William R. Gibbons, April 4, 1881; William R. Raeder, June 6, 1881; George H. Butler, June 6, 1881; W. H. Hines, June 6, 1881; John D. Haves, June 11, 1881; A. E. Chapin, October 19, 1881; Henry W. Dunning, June 5, 1882; George H, Fisher, June 5, 1882; James D. Anderson, June 5, 1882; William C. Price, October 14, 1882; Dennis O. Coughlin, November 20, 1882; Joseph Moore, November 20, 1882; John S. Harding, November 21, 1882; Cecil R. Banks, January 10, 1883; Cormac F. Bohan, March 15, 1884; Tuthill R. Hillard, June 6, 1885; Samuel M. Parke, June 9, 1885; Peter A. O'Boyle, July 27, 1885; Daniel A. Fell, July 27, 1885; John B. Woodward, September 7, 1885; John B. Hillard, September 7, 1885; Henry H. Welles, October 10, 1885; Moses W. Wadhams, October 10, 1885; Anthony L. Williams, October 12, 1885; John M. Garman, January 29, 1886; Lid- don Flick, June 2, 1886; George D. Hedian, June 4, 1886; John Q. Creveling, June 19, 1886; Peter A. Meixell, September 20, 1886; Charles E. Keck, October 18, 1886; Anthony C. Campbell, October 18, 1886; Thomas C. Umstead, December 4, 1886; James R. Scouten, January 6, 1887; James M. Fritz, January 29, 1887; George P. Loomis, January 31, 1887; Edward F. McGovern, June 6, 1887; George Urquhart, June 27, 1887; John F. Everhart, November 15, 1887; Frank W. Lamed, May 21, ;888; Darryl L. Creveling, June 18, 1888; Alexander Rick- etts, September 28, 1888, George B. Hillman, December 10, 1888; George W. Moon, December 10, 1888; W. J. Trembath, December 10, 1888; William H. Hibbs, March 11, 1889; James L. Morris, April 22, 1889; Thomas Darling, April 22, 1889. Later admissions: T. D. Garman, Granville J. Clark, Harry B. Ham- lin, Thomas D. Shea, Frederick L. Smith, Ralph H. Wadhams, Andrew M. Freas, Abner Smith, Paul J. Sherwood, John D. Farnham, TJ. C. Smythe, D. Ogden Rog- ers, Charles P. Bohan, Samuel S. Herring, Michael H. McAniil, Michael N. Don- nelly, E. F. McHugh, Bradley W. Palmer, Frank H. Bailey, George F. Nesbitt, S. W. Davenport, Sidney R. Miner, John F. Shea. The above is mostly taken by permission from George B. Kulp's Families of the Wyoming. In his account of the lawyers of the county he concludes as follows: "As to the gentlemen of the Luzerne bar, reviewing the list from the date of the organization of the Luzerne county courts, May 27, 1787, shows that up to April 22, 1889, there has been a total of 489 members, of whom 165 are deceased, 163 are non-residents, and 159 are still with us, a remarkably equal division. "Of the ten president judges eight are dead and two (Judges Harding and Rice) are still living. Of the six additional law judges only one is dead and five are living. The only separate orphans court judge we have had is still in service. Of the thirty-five lay judges one survives, all having been called to that higher court from whose decrees there is no appeal. The total of judges and lawyers, dead and living, 539. " Nine Luzerne lawyers have abandoned the profession to take places in the pulpit. Of these, four became Episcopal ministers, one rising to the bishopric, 242 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. three preached in the Methodist Episcopal church, one in the Presbyterian and one in the Baptist. Popular prejudice will stand surprised to find that a calling, the practices of which are so persistently ascribed to satanic influences, has contributed thus liberally to the noble army marshaled for the overthrow of its alleged patron. ' ' To the armies of the country the Luzerne bar has given more than her quota. She had two soldiers in the Kevolution, two in the war of 1812, and ten in the Mexican war. To the forces whose energies won in the Civil war of 1861-5 she contributed five generals, three colonels, one lieutenant-colonel, three majors, twelve captains, ten lieutenants, and twenty-three privates, while three others served in the navy. " In high civic offices she has had one United States senator, sixteen congress- men, two governors, two attorney-generals, one minister in the diplomatic service, four judges of the supreme court, two judges of the United States court, and eleven judges of common pleas courts in other counties or states, in addition to ten law judges she has furnished our own bench." A Judge Impeached. — Thomas Cooper was born in England, October 22, 1759; educated at Oxford and became eminent in chemistry and medicine. He was driven out of England for political offences and came to America in 1794, and soon after his arrival in this country commenced the practice of law. He was a strong Jeffer- sonian, and for a severe attack on President Adams, he was tried under the sedition law, fined $400 and imprisoned six months. But the democrats soon came into power and in 1806 Gov. McKean appointed Mr. Cooper judge of the court of common pleas for Northumberland, Luzerne and Lycoming counties. In his rules of the courtroom he was stern and severe and the people and lawyers soon came to dislike him. In 1811 he was summoned before the senate committee and put upon trial to answer the following charges: 1. Pining and imprisoning Constable HoUister in 1807 at Wilkes-Barre for whispering in court. 2. Pining and imprisoning John Hamah for wearing his hat in court. 3. For passing sentence of one year on a Wilkes-Barre horse thief and the next day learning he was an old offender, recalling the prisoner ajid sent him for three years. 4. Deciding important points in a case in which he had a pecuniary interest. 5. Setting aside the verdict of a jury in an intemperate and passionate manner. 6. Browbeating counsel and witnesses. 1, 2 and 3 he did not deny but defended, 5 and 6 he emphatically denied. There were other charges numbering to ten, but they were not very serious, even if true. Judge Cooper had able counsel and spoke four and one-half hours in his own defence, but the committee reported against him and he was turned out of office, He never again entered public life; quit the practice of law in a short time and became professor of chemistry and geology in Dickinson college and then in the University of Pennsylvania, and was made president of South Carolina college and became a citizen of the state, where he died aged eighty-one. County Commissioners: 1794, Jesse Fell, Alexander Johnson. 1795-6, John Phillips, John Jenkins, Thomas Wright. 1800-1, Lawrence Myers, E. Blacktnan, Thomas Wright. 1803, E. Blackman, Arnold Colt, Oliver Pettebone. 1804, Arnold Colt, Ezekiel Hyde, Oliver Pettebone. 1805, Oliver Pettebone, Benjamin Dorrance, E. Hyde, Eleazer Blackman. 1806, E. Blackman, Benjamin Dorrance, Elisha Harding. 1807, B. Dorrance, E. Harding, H. Tiffany. 1808, E. Harding, H. Tiffany, James Wheeler. 1809, H. Tiffany, J. Wheeler, Benjamin Perrv. Pelee Tracy was clerk of the board from 1804 to 1809. J s J- HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 243 1810, Benjamin Perry, Thomas Walles, Noah Wadhams, Samuel Bowman. 1811, B. Perry, N. Wadhams, Thomas Park. 1812, B. Perry, N. Wadhams, Abiel Fellows. 1813, Cornelius Cortright, Napthalia Hurlbut, Abiel Fellows. 1814, N. Hurlbut, C. Cortright, Benjamin Carey. 1815, C. Cortright, Benjamin Carey, James Eeeder. 1816, Benjamin Carey, James Eeeder, Lord Butler. From 1810 to 1816 Jesse Fell was clerk of the board. 1817, Lord Butler, James Eeeder, Isaac Hartzell. 1818, Lord Butler, Isaac Hartzell, E. Shoemaker. Arnold Colt was clerk 1817-8. 1819, E. Shoemaker, I. Hartzell, Cyrus Avery. 1820, E. Shoemaker, C. Avery, Joel Eogers. 1821, Cyrus Avery, Joel Eogers, Samuel Tost. 1822, Joel Eogers, Samuel Yost, Hezekiah Parsons. 1823, Samuel Yost, H. Parsons, Stueben Butler. 1824, H. Parsons, Steuben Butler, Elisha S. Potter. 1825, Steuben Butler, E. S. Potter, Deodat Smith. 1826, B. S. Potter, Deodat Smith, Arnold Colt. 1827, D. Smith. A. Colt, John Bittenbender. 1828, Arnold Colt, John Bittenbender, Isaac Harding. 1829, John Bittenbender. I. Harding, William Swetland. 1830, Isaac Harding, William Swetland, Cornelius Cortright. From 1819 to 1830 Jesse Fell was clerk. 1831, William Swetland, C. Cortright, Jacob Earn bach. 1832, Cornelius Cortright, J. Eambach, Luman Ferry. 1833, Jacob Eambach, Luman Ferry, Joseph Tuttle. From 1831 to 1 833, E. Carey, clerk. 1834, Luman Ferry, Joseph Tuttle, Sebastian Sybert. 1835, Joseph Tuttle, S. Sybert, Samuel Saylor. Thomas Myers, clerk, 1834-5. 1836, S. Sybert, S. Saylor, John Fassett. 1837, S. Saylor, John Fassett, William Koons. 1888, John Fassett, William Koons, Gorton Wall. 1839, William Koons, Gorton Wall, Philip Yost. 1840, Gorton Wall, Philip Yost, Nathaniel Cottrell. Chester Tuttle, clerk from 1836 to 1840. 1841, Philip Yost, N. Cottrill, Thomas Irwin. This year Chester Tuttle was clerk. He was succeeded in 1842 by Edward Dolph, who was in the office to 1844. Jared E. Baldwin was clerk from 1845 to 1850. 1842, N. Cottrill, Thomas Irwin, J. Bensootter. 1843, J. Benscoter, John Eosencranse, Jr., Thomas Irwin. 1844, J. Benscoter, J. Eosencranse, Jr.. E. Ohamberlin. 1845, J. Eosencranse, Jr. , E. Chamberlin, Charles Berry. 1846, E. Chamberlin, C. Berry, Philip Meixell. 1847, C. Berry, P. Meixell, Ira Branson. 1848, P. Meixell, Ira Branson, Eobert Eaton. 1849, Ira Branson, Eobert Eaton, Jacob Besicker. 1850, Eobert Eaton, Eowland Eichards, Isaiah Stiles. 1851, L. H. Litts, Isaiah Stiles, E. Hutchins. 1852, Isaiah Stiles, E. Hutchins, Peter Winter. 1853, E. Hutchins, Peter Winter, Abraham Smith. From 1851 to 1853 Chester Tuttle was again clerk. 1854, Peter Winter, A. Smith, Daniel Vail. 1855, A. Smith, D. Vail, Silas Dodson. 1856, D. Vail, S. Dodson, W. A. Tubbs. 244 HISTOEY OP LUZEBNE COUNTY. 1857, S. Dodson, W. A. Tubbs, Benjamin F. Pfouts. 1858, W. A. Tubbs, B. F. Pfouts, John C. Dunning. 1859, B. F. Pfouts, J. C. Dunning, John Blanchard. 1860, J. C. Dunning, J. Blauohard, Daniel Eambach. 1861, John Blanchard, Daniel Rambach, Samuel Vaughn. 1862, D. Rambach, S. Vaughn, Nathan Kocher. 1863, S. Vaughn, N. Kocher, Stephen Deveoport. 1864, N. Kocher, Stephen Davenport, Uriah A. Gritman. 1865, S. Devenport, U. A. Gritman, William Wolf. 1866, Uriah A. Gritman, William Wolf, William Franok. 1867, W. Wolf, W. Franck, W. W. Smith. 1868, W. Franck, W. W. Smith, Miohael Raber. 1869, W. W. Smith, M. Raber, B. F. Louder. 1870, M. Raber, B. F. Louder, G. W. Bailey. 1871, B. F. Louder, G. W. Bailey, Charles F. Hill. 1872, G. W. Bailey, C. F. Hill, A. J. Williams. 1873, A. J. Williams, C. F. Hill, R. Gersbacher. 1874-5, A. J. Williams, R. Gersbacher, N. Seibert. 1876-8, N. N. Dean, Samuel Line P#ter Jennings. 1879-81, L. C. Darte, Stephen Turnbach, James D. Harris. 1882-4, Thomas W. Haines, Casper Oberdorfer, Henry Vanscoy. 1885-7, Thomas W. Haines, Thomas English, Cyrus Straw. Cbiarles T. Barnum, clerk from 1855 to 1863. Steuben Jenkins, clerk from 1864 to 1869. Steuben Jenkins and George M. Nagle, clerks in 1870. George M. Nagle, filerk 1871 to 1873. P. F. Lynch, clerk 1874-5. H. C. Jones, clerk 1876. S. A. Whitebread, clerk 1877 to 1881. S. A. Whitebread and H. W. Search, clerks in 1882. H. W. Search, clerk 1883-4. Robert P. Robinson, clerk 1885. For list of present commissioners see elsewhere. County Boundary Line Established. — The uncertainty of the line in the separation of Lackawanna from Luzerne county was in the end settled by three commissioners, John P. Snyder, W. H. Sturdevant and W. A. Mason, who had been appointed for the purpose, and the boundary line they established is as follows: Beginning at a point on the Susquehanna river a little over a mile above the mouth of Falling Spring brook; thence south and east, crossing the Pennsylvania and New York canal and railroad company's track to a chestnut and two yellow pine trees, the line being all the way through improved lands; thence south to a small brook on the north side of public back road and to the left bank of the Lackawanna river, cross- ing the tracks of the Bloomsburg division of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western railroad, to the inersection of the Pittston back road with the Moosic road, to the branch railroad to the central breaker of the Pennsylvania Railroad company; thence to a cut-stone corner in Little Mill creek; thence up the center of the bed of the creek to a cut-stone corner; thence south and east crossing the track of the Delaware & Hudson railroad and the Erie & Wyoming Valley railroad at Pleasant Valley station, leaving the station on the right, crossing Spring Brook railroad and Spring Brook at cut stone on easterly side of wagon road leading up the stream; thence to the northwest corner of the Jasper Irving tract, and a corner of the Edward Kennedy tract and the corner of Spring Brook township near Covey swamp; thence south to the crest of the mountain sloping toward Spring Brook to a cut stone at the wagon road at the foot of the mountain, crossing Spring Brook 150 feet below the old Dolph sawmill; thence across Spring Brook railroad and Trout creek, to fte southeast corner of the Richard Gardner tract; thence across Monument creek, to 'the corner of Jacob Yoner and William Parker tract; thence on the line between these tracts, across the branch of Monument creek and Pittston road to a corner of Robert Gray and Joseph Lawrence tracts, thence along the line of the y~e^ce-'^^^^p'-->'vjt^^ HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 247 William Monee tract to a cut-stone corner of Keating' s field, and to a cut stone near the road; thence crossing John Christ's and MathiasBafE's tracts to a cut-stone corner in the northerly line of John Spohn tract; thence to a cut stone for a line in the road leading from Meadow run to Bear lake, to a corner in the left bank of Choke creek; thence down Choke creek along the center of its bed to the Lehigh rive*." This line, it may be understood, was to settle the dispute over a little fraction of land claimed by both counties and gave it to Luzerne county. County Oovernment, 1892. — Congress. — This county is the twelfth district; Hon. George W. Shonk, present member has declined a renomination. Legislature. — Senate, twentieth district, M. E. McDonald (D); twenty -first district, W. H. Hines (D), nominee for congress. House, first district, C. Ben Johnson (D); second, E. A. Coray (E); third, J. M. Fritz (D); fourth, W. E. Jeffrey (E); fifth, John T. Flannery (D); sixth, Thomas M. Moyles (D). President Judge, Hon. C. E. Eice (E). Additional law judge, Hon. Stanley Woodward (D), Hon. John Lynch (D). Orphans' court judge, Hon. D. L. Ehone (D). Court stenographers, J. F. Standish, Jr., S. F. Innes. Minute clerks, Michael Donnelly, John Shea. Treasurer, John S. McGroarty (D). Clerks, Thomas W. Hart, John Turnbach, Jr. Eecorder, Joseph H. McGinty (D). Deputy, J. J. Ferry. Clerks, P. P. Lynch, P. Shoemaker, W. H. Toole. Eegister of wills, Phillip V. Weaver (D). Deputy and assistant clerk of orphans' court, Charles P. Campbell. Clerk, Frank Needham. Coroner, Dr. W. F. Pier (D). Commissioners, Harry Evans (E), Thomas Smith (E), T. M. Dullard (D). Clerks, James M. Norris, T. E. Peters and Patrick Norton. District attorney, John M. Carman (D). Assist- ant, P. A. O' Boyle. County detective, M. P. Whalen. Sheriff, E. P. Eobinson (E). Chief deputy, John Eobinson. Assistant deputy, John Dougher. Pro- thonotary, J. C. Wiegand (E). Deputy, J. T. L. Sahm. Clerk of the courts, A. L. Stanton (E). Auditors, W. E. Bennett (D), J. J. Brislin (D), G. W. Eimer (E). Jury commissioners, Patrick Finn, John H. James. Prison commissioners — the county commissioners, exofficio, with Hon. L. D. Shoemaker (E), and W. P. Kirkendall (D). Warden of the county prison, Thomas W. Haines (E). Assistants, D wight Wolcott and Thomas Smith. Matron, Mrs. T. W. Haines. Physician, Dr. G. H. Kirwan. Mercantile appraiser, Thomas McGraw. County solicitor, Joseph Moore. County surveyor, James Crockett. Of the Luzerne county centennial, we learn from the Historical Record, as follows : "It was on the 25th of September, 1786, that Luzerne county was erected, and the centennial of that event was commemorated with interesting exercises. The celebration was very properly held in the courthouse, Judge Woodward adjourning court at 10 o'clock, out of compliment to the historic occasion. Luzerne county has had no less than three centennial celebrations— that in 1872, in honor of the laying out of Wilkes-Barre, in common with the National centennial, and in 1878, the one hundredth anniversary of the battle and massacre of Wyoming. This being the ease, the present centennial lacked the feature of novelty, and was permitted to pass without the pomp and circumstances usually incident to such occasions. The Wyoming Historical Society determined to not let the occasion go by unobserved, and a meeting was arranged for. Gen. E. L. Dana being the chief mover in the matter. , r t ■. i-n iu " The hour set was 10 o'clock, at which time Judge Woodward was still on the bench. He stated, that in view of the historic event, so important to tte county history, he had adjourned the court and ordered the fact to be spread upon the day s minutes as a perpetual record. The Judge then went on to give some historical data. He proceeded to read from the statute for erecting the county, which was an act of September 25, 1786. It provided that Luzerne county be set off from the 248 HISTORY OF LUZEENB COUNTY. northeru portion of Norfchumberlaiid county. He exhibited the first continuance docket or minute book of the county organized under the statute, from which it appeared that the first session of court was held May 29, 1787, in the house of Zebulon Butler. The first business was to organize. Dr. William Hooker Smith, Benjamin Carpenter, James Nesbitt, Timothy Pickering, Obadiah Gore, Nathan Kingsley, and Mathias HoUenbaok were sworn in as justices of the peace. Timothy Pickering — who might have served as a prototype for Grilbert & Sullivan's Poo Bah in the Mikado was made prothonotary, clerk of the peace and of the orphans' court, register of wills and recorder of deeds. Joseph Sprague was made court crier. Lord Butler, the first sheriff of the county, was instructed to take measures for the erection of a jail. " Judge Woodward exhibited the commission of Sheriff Butler, who was a grand- father of the Judge's wife. It bears the signature of Benjamin Franklin. The legal practitioners who were sworn in were Ebenezer Bowman, Putnam Catlin, Kosewell Welles and William Nichols. The speaker exhibited the first legal paper — a eapais, September term, 1787, Samuel Allen vs. Henry Burney — Catlin, attorney. At that time the county contained only 2,730 taxables, now the same territory has a population of nearly half a million. Having concluded his hasty retrospect. Judge Woodward said he would come down from the bench, and turn over the meeting to its proper custodian, the Historical society. " Judge Dana, president of the society, took the chair, and after a few appropriate remarks called upon Eev. E. Hazard Snowden, the oldest minister in the county, to open the exercises, and he addressed the throne of grace in language peculiarly adapted to the occasion. " Judge Dana read a brief but valuable paper by Dr. Hollister, of Providence, who was unable to attend, on the "Birth of Luzerne County." In it reference was made to the attempt to locate the county seat on the west side of the Susque- hanna, and of Ethan Allen's scheme to bring his Green Mountain boys here, and establish an independent government in Wyoming. " Hon. Steuben Jenkins, the veteran Wyoming historian, read a paper descriptive of the government of Wyoming prior to the erection of Luzerne county. It had to deal with the quartersessions, the speaker said, as Judge Woodward had with the common pleas. The troublous times were described, as also the local dissatis- faction with the new regime, which placed all the ofiices of profit in the hands of a single individual — Timothy Pickering — and he a Pennamite. The paper was a valuable contribution to local history. " Mr. C. I. A. Chapman took exceptions to the language of the act changing the boundary of the new county. He made the point that instead of changing the western boundary from west to north, one degree west, as provided by the act the change contemplated was from west to north, eighty-nine degrees west The latter represented the contemplated change of one degree, while the former implies a change of eighty-nine degrees, which was not contemplated. Mr. Jenkins replied of the a^^ ^^^""^ °^ ^^'^ technical error, but he could not change the language "rT!'^nT°^*r^^''i''fV°'^ scholarly paper was presented by Hon. E. L. Dana, on The Chevalier de la Luzerne,' from whom the country derived its name. Most of the subject matter was entirely new, having been obtained by the speaker's son from he unpublished archives of the French government. The paper revealed, 7nul7 ^Tfi' "'■" 7T °/' ^°^ ^"™ ^ f"«°d ^^-^'-^^ ^as to^th^e strrgling in Z« ' ' *^^!J"'"1"':'\ "'^ ?^^^^ ^y ^^"^ t° tlie American cause. Not the^!east mterestmg was the official advice to Luzerne of the naming of a county for him together with his reply, which was replete with words expfessive of his love fo^ America and for Pennsylvania, in which he had lived foi a time The assistance given by the Paxtang rangers to the Connecticut settlers at HISTOBY OF LUZEBNE COUNTY. 249 Wyoming, in their contest with the Pennamites, was graphically portrayed by Dr. W. H. Egle, of Harrisburg, who read an admirable paper on " The House of Lan- caster to the Rescue." Dr. Egle was probably the best reader of the day, and his portraiture of the hardy Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, who rallied to the standard of the Yankees in their struggle against what they believed to be the tyranny of Pennsylvania, was graphic in the extreme. Dr. Egle is one of the most exten- sive historical writers in the commonwealth, and the historical society was fortu- nate in securing his presence. His address was warmly received and generously applauded. " P. C. Johnson gave a synopsis of a paper now being prepared by him, present- ing what is virtually a chapter of unwritten history, referred to only by one his- torian, Miner, and disposed of by him in a sentence or two. The subject was ' The Proposed Exodus of Wyoming Settlers in 1783. ' In that year the Connect- icut settlers in Wyoming, discouraged by the decree of Trenton, which had decided the land controversy in favor of the Pennamites, determined to seek the friendly shelter of another State. A petition was drawn up and signed by 400 settlers, ask- ing the assembly of New York to grant a tract of land on the Susquehanna, begin- ning near the Pennsylvania line and continuing to Oquago, immediate settlement to be made. The memorial was taken to Albany by Obadiah Gore, on horseback, where he met the favorable action of both senate and assembly. The exodus never took place, as such, though some of the petitioners did seek a retreat along the waters of the upper Susquehanna. As time passed by, Pennsylvania rule was found less oppressive than had been anticipated and the Wyoming people remained on their possessions. The paper was interesting, as being made up of new material, the original petition, with signatures, having been furnished the speaker by the sec- retary of the Oneida Historical society, and most of the other matter having been found among the State historical records at Albany. "William P. Miner, fpr many years editor and proprietor of the Wilkes-Burre Record, read a most interesting paper on the progress of printing in Luzerne county. The paper began with an account of his trip on horseback from West Chester to Wilkes-Barre in September, 1832, having been promoted from the office of assistant ' devil ' in the West Chester Village Record to the position of imp of the ink balls in the office of the Wyoming Herald, printed and published by Asher Miner and Steuben Butler. Mr. Miner described the primitive method by which the Herald was printed on a Eamage press, inked with wool-stuffed buckskin balls held in each hand. Mr. Miner alluded to these papers in his possession — Wilkes- Barre Gazette, 1797 to 1800; Luzerne Federalist, 1801 to 1811; Gleaner, 1811 to 1818 — as well as many subsequent. " 0. I. A. Chapman was called upon and made some extempore remarks on the changes in the landmarks of justice, which he had witnessed in his life time— one, the incapacity of woman to possess property in her own right, the other, imprison- ment for debt, and his recollection, when a boy, of seeing Ruf us Bennett, the last survivor of the Wyoming massacre, in jail for a paltry debt of a few dollars. Mr. Chapman exhibited a drawing of the old public square, made by him twenty years ago from memory, and showing the buildings as they appeared about 1840. The picture excited general interest." 250 HISTOEY OF LUZBENE COUNTY. CHAPTER X. ROADS. Blazed Tracks— Express— Mails— Turnpikes— Stage Dkiveks— George Root and Con- rad Tbter— First Highway— River Navigation — Canals — Rafting — Railroads — Ship Btiilding—Bkidges— Storms and Floods— Etc. AS early as 1777 an express was established between the Wyoming settlements and Hartford. In Miner's history is an account of the accidental finding of "an old smoke-dried, torn and mutilated document, which was the subscription paper signed by all the prominent men of the valley, and agreeing to pay a stated amount toward keeping up the express trips." On the paper were over fifty names, not all legible, and this was but a portion of the whole. The messenger went once a fortnight, and his main object, it seems, was to bring on the papers, and, of course, he carried the chance letters passing back and forth. Prince Bry- ant was a I'ider of the express, it seems, for more than nine months. He removed from here to near Wyalusing, and from there to Tioga Point (Athens), and became one of the early and prominent men in the northern part of what is now Bradford county. In the list of names (all were not recovered) are legible those of Elijah Shoemaker, Eliaa Church, George Dorrance, Nathan Kingsley, Elisha Blackman, Nathan Denison, Seth Marvin, Obadiah Gore, James Stark, Anderson Doud, Jere- miah Ross and Zebulon Butler. This express simply followed the blazed trees that had pointed the way of the immigrants to Wyoming from the older settlements in Connecticut. Prior to the march of Sullivan's army up the Susquehanna river, through the county to Elmira, N. Y., there was nothing leading north and south more than the dim Indian trail. These trails were difficult for a man to pass along even on foot. Indians travel single file, and they had but one idea of a road — simply to get over it that time. Future travelers must look out for themselves. There was no trading among tribes, and infrequent communication, and they really had no imperative demand for good roads. The savage built neither house, bridge, nor road for future use. Sullivan brought his army across the mountain from Easton, and then followed the river to Elmira and returned by the same route. He had both land and water transportation. The men on land had transportation wagons and live stock, the wagons sometimes carried on the boats, but at other times his small cannon and wagons traveled by land. But some idea of the way he forced a passage through the country may be gathered from the fact that at "Breakneck," a few miles above Towanda, some of the cattle fell from the difficult trail along the mountain ridge and were killed. And it was quite a time after the first settlement when men would have to drive their oxen along the river, the family in a boat, and had to unyoke the cattle in order that they could thread the narrow passages. A sober man's life was often in danger if he attempted to go a considerable distance. The heavy timber, the steep gorges, the narrow ledges high in the hard rock, were the difficulties in the way of early travel or making roads. The Indiaiis used canoes and the white men found this the easiest way to pass up and down the river When canoes became insufficient, then rafts and "arks" were built, and every possible turn made to avoid land travel. But imperative necessity soon came, and wagon HISTOEY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 251 roads had to be made, not oaly along the river, but from settlement to settlement, as well as an outlet to markets. Communication with Philadelphia was an early necessity. For some time people would go to Eaaton, and then by the Lehigh river, instead of the long, cir- cuitous route down the Susquehanna and up the bay, or down the river and across to the city from the nearest opposite point. Those woodsmen who first came were experts in traveling through the trackless forests, and could find their way over wide stretches of country with astonishing facility. Nimble of body and quick of brain, they gave small heed to what now would simply appall the average man. It is now difScult to depict the original obstructions to travel that once con- fronted the pioneers at this place. For a long time, except by the rivers and conflu- ent streams, it was nearly impossible to go at all. For some time the mail, weekly, was carried on foot from Wilkes-Barre to Elmira (Newtown). Then the roads were worked in the early part of this century and it was quite a triumph to be able to carry the weekly post on ponies. The rider was justified in securing a tin horn to announce his approach to the postoffices on the route. We can readily understand that the pony mail's arrival was of far more public interest then than is now the arrival of a great palace- car train with the country's chief ofiicials on board. Every- one would rush- out to the road to see the horse and rider coming in triumph. In all that crowd there would not perhaps be more than one that was in reasonable expectation of getting a letter. There were no crowds around the office awaiting the opening of the mail. Rather, if a letter or paper came, the postmaster would put it in his hat and go out to look for some neighbor to send word there was a let- ter in the office. Postage was from 8 cents to 25 cents, according to distance and was prepaid at the option or ability of the sender — 25 cents then, too, was wealth to many people. Commerce, in its limited way, was mostly trade and traffic. And a notice from the office of a letter, postage unpaid, double postage if more than one sheet of paper, was often a serious family affair. The postmaster's salary would hardly justify him in assuming the payment of or credit- ing out many letters. In the year 1800 the state felt called upon to assist the peo- ple in opening public highways, both on the land and on the streams. That year a. " state road " was surveyed from Wilkes-Barre to the state line north following the river. The state did but little more than make the survey, yet the road was estab- lished and it was made in a way passable for vehicles within the next decade. In 1807 a company was incorporated to build a turnpike road from Berwick to- Elmira, N. Y. Work was commenced at Berwick and pushed northward. A con- siderable portion of the south end of the road was along the top of a high ridge until it reached the south line of Bradford county. The state had given about 400 acres of land to this enterprise, and the corpor- ators owned large bodies of land that the turnpike would be of great advantage to. It was not completed until about 1825 through to Elmira. But as early as 1810 it was the first good wagon road in this part of the state; it was passable and the large streams were bridged, and by rare chance you may yet meet an ancient stage driver, whose old eyes will again gleam and snap in recalling those halcyon days. " Yes, I druv stage over the old turnpike. Several times I was catched in the great snow storm on the mounting and it looked as though team and driver wuz about to be called to pass in checks, but we pulled through and wuz always ready to meet every foe the next day again. Oh, yes, them be glorious times; nawthin like it neow; things wuz d^fferent then and it nearly makes me sea-sick to think of getting into the kyars and lolling along over the country and see just no fun at all." There are but precious few— nfever were many— of these rare old Sam Wellers now left. A genuine one, when the canal boat came, went out behind the barn and nearly laughed himself to death. He talked about the "mule river boat," the "boss boat" a great deal to his horses and if his favorite only switched its tail, he took it 252 HISTOEY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. for granted that the animal agreed with him about the " one-hoss " affair through and through. It is one of the nicest points in our ancient history to determine of the three which was the greatest man — the stage driver, writing master or sing- ing-school teacher. This question should never have been raised, or if it had to come, it should have been when the stage-driver was here in all his glory. In the minds of all well-made boys of fifty and sixty years ago the man who drove the four- horse stage coach was the greatest man on earth. Before nor since nature has made no effort to parallel his splendors. Horace Greeley was flattered up with the idea that he was quite a somebody until he fell into the hands of overland stage driver "Hank" The real stage driver not only knew everything, but loved his horses and was awfully loved by the cooks at every stage-stand on his route. Slow and oracular of speech, stumpy in build ; in summer with a broad-brimmed hat, leather belt for suspenders, and his cheek bulged with his cud of tobacco, joking familiarly with the great or noted men of the land, this was the man off duty. But on the stage box, his tin horn and long whip, and, as he enters the village where obsequious hostlers change his team, when he disdainfully throws them the lines as he dashes up to the tavern door — the observed of all — then indeed it was he was not only a great man, but a great institution. This hero of the whip and horn went down only before the railroad. Nothing short of fire aud steam could conquer here, and, little as the modern boy may think it, nevertheless it is true he has missed wholly one. of the great things of this world by the silent passage from earth of the old stage-coach days. Of all the creations of Dickens' teeming brain the one that will linger in your recollection longest, that will bide with you closest, is Sam Weller — the old stage driver. The little old jaded two-horse bob- wagons that now carry the mails and truck to back townships are but a sad burlesque on the great old four-horse Concord coaches. Those we now have are not even starved shadows of the original. To see one of these present forlorn concerns come limping and reeling into town along a back alley, a well-grown boy with a frayed hickory withe pounding the poor, long- haired jaded horses, would surely produce a serious case of maniaapotuoa any old-time Sam Weller were he compelled to look upon the whole decrepit fossil. The biggest of us are but grown up children. A monotonous plethora of even the most desira- ble thmgs of life soon pall upon our senses and even worry us. Instead of rushing now down to see the great railroad train arrive; instead of everyone's heart boundmg with delight as the scream of the whistle announces its approach as once our fathers did at the sound of the stage horn, men build away from the depot fleeing from the clang and roar of busy commerce, and village councils are pass- ing ordinances against blowing ateam whistles in their limits. A boy now at the age of fifteen the average at one time of the first pair of trousers, is actually blas6 —wearied with all life s shows and pageants and its butterfly existence, as the little ^lu^ to-d^/'ith her twenty-dollar doll knows nothing of the exquisite joys of childhood of her grandmother with a stick and a rag for a doll A splendid imported, hand-painted set of toy dishes awakes no semblance of matronly jov and delight known and felt by little girls of the old time who had gathered up the broken remains of the old blue flowered potter's ware and with riotSgTmaginTtions prepared the covers for a royal feed under the blooming apple trees on the rare occasion of a visit from a distant cousin and her mother to spend the dav These were a hearty, healthy people, who had never heard of the fashionable "call" loE in a carriage and sending in a card by a footman. The boy then dreamed dream! of when he could ride a pony and by himself some day go to town. ' ■ Wait tUl the turnpike is finished-then I can find the way." I insist that of the two the poverty of means of pleasure is preferable to the excess of the same. The chUd hat bire v has enough to eat is more apt to have healthv fnr.^ o,.^ i . oarely one born to the other extreme. It L the cond^tbn ou, 1 T"'\ ^^^^^itution than stitutes the most exquisite enjoyment of life"n gaining ^^^^t "l'^ '' T *^"* ^°"- and generally, if nol always, We added eZTu.tT:o^:TJ'nCLXtSf^''''''' HISTOEY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. 253 Sam Weller is the immortal English stage driver. This dear old stub-and-twist, whose experience gave birth to the eleventh commandment, •' Beware of the vidders, Sammy," was in no way more deserving of everlasting fame than were George Eoot or Conrad Teter, the noted cracks of the whip of Wilkes-Barre. Then there was Philip Abbott, who drove Robinson & Arndt's coach in 1806. Root was on the box forty years and upward — the king of his trade many years. Conrad Teter was a heavy fat man and as jolly a soul as ever lived. He drove his own stage. He loved nothing better than getting a good subject on the box with him and entertain him all the way by pointing out the finest improvements on the roadside and explaining that was his and when he made all the improvements and how much they cost him. His innocent victims would conclude, and some of them wrote back to England that they had ridden with a great " duke in disguise," called Conrad Teter. The customs and habits of these people in the old roadless days were severely simple. Often they suffered for actual necessities, and we are apt to shudder when we are told the details. We forget that they too had their compensations, for Such are the dispensations of heaven. That in the end make all things even. The very first arrivals brought no wagons with them and they hardly needed a blazed way to follow. The emigrants of 1762-3 had crossed the Hudson near New- berg and pushed westward across the Delaware near its junction with Shohola creek, following the Indian path along Roaring brook to the Lackawana river and then by another trail to the place of destination. But the next wave of pioneers (1769) that followed the same route brought their carts, drawn by oxen, and they were com- pelled to cut a way, and this may be called the first wagon road in northern Penn- sylvania. In October, 1772, a common roadway that could be traveled had become important enough to cause a meeting of the people to be held, where a committee was appointed to collect funds to improve the road. At this meeting were Messrs. Jenkins, Goss, Carey, Gore and Stewart, who were the committee mentioned. Funds were raised and work performed the following November, and by 1774 they were proud to know the good work was completed, that is, a cart could pass. The road through Kingston, along the river, six rods wide, was laid out in 1770, Another road was laid out through Kingston fiats, crossing the Susquehanna at the head of Pish island, below Wilkes-Barre, which joined the road to the latter place near Gen. E. W. Sturdevant's residence. Another road was laid oiit from Wilkes- Barre to Pittston on the east side of the river. Sullivan's army in the march from Easton to Wilkesbarre, in 1779, opened the road to the Delaware. The people afterward for a long time used this old army road, and when Luzerne county was formed in 1786, appropriations were made to further improve this route, and it became the great highway to and from Philadelphia. In 1787 a road was laid out from Nescopeck falls to the Lehigh river, by author- ity of the commonwealth; completed in 1789, forming the third line of communica- tion betweeu the Delaware and Susquehanna. In 1788 the court of Luzerne appointed Benjamin Carpenter, Abel Pierce, Lawrence Myers, James Sutton, Benjamin Smith and John Dorrauce to lay out ad- ditional roads in Kingston township. It appointed as viewers for Hanover township, Christopher Hurlbut, Shubal Bidlack, Richard Inman, Conrad Lyon, John Hurlbut, Elisha Decker and Nathan Wartrop; for Plymouth township, Samuel Allen, Rufus Lawrence, William Reynolds, Luke Swetland, Hezekiah Roberts and Cornelius Atherton; for Salem township, Nathan Beach, George R. Taylor, George Smithers, Amos Park, Jacob Shower and Giles Parman. In 1789 John Jenkins, Stephen Harding, Peter Harris, David Smith, S. Dailey and J. Phillips were appointed to view and lay out additional roads in Exeter township. For Wilkes-Barre township, 254 HISTORY OF LUZEBNB COUNTY. the viewers were Zebulon Butler, J. P. Sohott, John HoUenback, Nathan Waller, Abraham Westbrook and John Carey. In 1790 John Phillips, John Davidson, J. Blanchard, Caleb Bates, David Brown and J. Rosin were appointed viewers for Pittston township. In 1791 the viewers appointed for Providence township were Daniel Taylor, John GrifPord, Gabriel Leggett, Isaac Tripp, James Abbott and Constant Searl. In 1792 William Jack- son, John Fairchild, Mason F. Alden, M. Smith, Daniel McMullin and A. Smith were appointed to view and lay out roads in Newport township. The surveyors who accompanied the committees and laid out the work were John Jenkins, Christo- pher Hurlbut and Luke Swetland. Turnpikes. — As the population, productions and wealth of the county increased, there was an urgent demand for better roads and easier communication between distant points. In 1802 a charter was procured for the Easton & Wilkes-Barre turnpike. It occupied a large portion of the old road, and it was chiefly through the exertions of Arnold Colt that the first twenty-nine miles, reckoning from Wilkes-Barre, were completed in 1806. Soon after, the whole distance from Wilkes- Barre to the Wind gap, forty-six miles, was finished at a cost of $75,000. During the embargo, in 1812 and 1813, the farmers of Northampton county were unable to procure plaster from the seaboard, and were compelled to use New York plaster, which was conveyed down the Susquehanna in arks to Wilkes-Barre, and thence in sleds and wagons over the turnpike. A turnpike mania now seized the people. The old Neseopeck & Lehigh road was made a turnpike under the name of the Susquehanna & Lehigh turnpike. The Susquehanna & Tioga Turnpike company was organized to build a road from Berwick, through Pairmount and Huntington townships, in this county, to Elmira, N. Y. At that time this was the most expensive improvement undertaken in this portion of the State. The State gave some aid in land, but the expense to the stockholders was great. It never paid the investors, but was a great improvement for the people, and in a few years it was abandoned as a toll road and opened to the public. The Wilkes-Barre & Bridgewater turnpike was built about this time, runnine north through Tunkhannock and Montrose. The Wilkes-Barre & Providence Plank-road company was chartered in 1851 and the first section to Pittston built, but never went further. The common roads were now much improved in keeping with the spirit of the times. Remembering that our government assumed control of our postal system in 1775 with Benjamin Franklin as first postmaster- general; that the system was a very small beginnmg. It could hardly be expected that it would amount to much to this frontier during the remaining years of the past century. Hence in 1777, all the mail facilities in Wyoming were private affairs and paid for by subscriptioAs. We have seen that the first post route here was a two weeks' pony rider from here to Hartford, ridden by Prince Bryant Daring the land troub Jail Tetters and com munications were by private hands. Mrs. Abigail Jamison, wife of Lieut John iTh^rtSri t^iy"X.fw^^' Psrerslntn 'if^y^^^^^^^^^ from home and hold importLt commun^icSn ^Ith Se' X'/rs-^^th^ltd'^tr: letters in her hair and when discovered, as she passed along in the night near Bear creek by CoL Patterson's men, who arrested her, but cofld finrnothinrwnT about her and she passed on in safety, and delivered her messages ^ ^ After the war, and the organization of Luzerne ponnf ^ o ™ i i -i warded between Wilkes-Bar?e and Easton In 1797 Sk 1^^^"'^ T'-?" informed the public, through the Wilkes Barre r-^tl/zl V/ I ^ ' *^® PO^t-rider, once a week to Easton, hf would also ea-y paTet^^^s" "^" good," at 12.50 each, during the same yeLThTS^st^Se^JntS^^^^^ ' HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 257 once a week, from Wilkes-Barre via Nanticoke, Newport, and Nescopeck to Berwick, returning via Huntington and Plymouth. The only authorized postoffice in the county was at Wilkes-Barre, and all letters and papers for Nescopeck, Huntington, and other places in Luzerne, were left at certain private houses designated by the Wilkes-Barre postmaster. In 1798 a mail was run once in two weeks between Wilkes-Barre and Great Bend, and in the following year a weekly route was opened between Wilkes-Barre and Owego, in New York. These routes were sustained chiefly, if not altogether, by private subscription, like those of the early settlers; the subscribers to newspapers paying as high as 50 cents per quarter to the mail carrier. Jonathan Hancock rode post from Wilkes-Barre to Berwick in the year 1800; and in 1803 Charles Mowery and a man named Peck carried the mail on foot, once in two weeks from Wilkes-Barre to Tioga (Athens). In 1806 Messrs. Kobinson & Arndt commenced running a two-horse stage, once a week between Wilkes-Barre and Easton, through in a day and a half. The stages from Easton to Philadelphia ran through in one day. In 1810 Conrad Teter contracted with the government to carry the mail, once a week, in stages, from Sunbury to Painted Post, by the way of Wilkes-Barre and Athens. He, however, sold his interest in the route from Sunbury to Wilkes-Barre to Miller Horton, but ran the other portion himself until 1816. In that year Miller, Jesse and Lewis Horton opened a new era in stage-coach traveling, and in carrying the mails in northern Pennsylvania. These enterprising brothers contracted in 1824 to carry the mails in four-horse coaches from Baltimore to Owego by way of Harrisburg, Sunbury, Wilkes-Barre and Montrose, and from Philadelphia to Wilkes- Barre, via Easton. They also contracted to carry the mails from New York city to Montrose, by way of Newark and Morristown, in New Jersey, and Milford in Penn- sylvania. Postoffices were established at Plymouth, Kingston, Pittston, Tunkhan- nock, Providence, and other places in the county; and comfortable and substantial four-horse coaches rolled daily and rapidly over the highways. River Namgation. — We, as is the nature of all mankind, adjust ourselves to sur- roundings. The people, while pushing forward facilities for overland travel were not indifferent to the temptations presented them by the Susquehanna river, winding its way from the richest valley in New York down to the bay and the ocean. In the first decade of the nineteenth century was born the idea of navigation by steam, and the people of the valley were abreast with even the foremost of mankind on the subject, made so by their surroundings. The attempts to navigate by steamboats the Susquehanna was a failure and almost a continuous tragedy. Fulton invented and launched his first steamboat on the Hudson river in 1809, and the wonderful story of propelling a boat against the stream by steam spread over the civilized world, and mankind, that had been toiling and pushing the old keel and Durham boats so painfully up all their long journeys, was now rejoiced. People went down to the banks of the clear and swift flowing Susquehanna and looked upon the steam with wholly new sensations; a providence of Grod truly, and the old-time slow and horrid work of carrying on the travel and commerce of the country would soon change — the steamboat was coming — the great factor and hand-maiden of civilization. Why not "sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea?" The good time coming is here; man's ingenuity has overcome the appalling difficulties, and the age of fire and steam has arrived . First it was canoes, flatboats or rafts, then rudely constructed "arks," and finally the " Durham" boats — so named because they were first built at Durham on the Delaware. The latter were about sixty feet long and shaped something like a canal boat, with a " running board " on each side the entire length, manned usually by five men — two on each side " setting poles " and one steering. The best would carry about fifteen tons. With good luck they would ascend the stream at the rate of two miles an hour. 258 HISTORY OP LUZERNE COUNT V. The provisional assembly of Peansylvania of 1771 declared the Susquehanna river a public highway and appropriated money to render it navigable. In 1824 a boat called the "Experiment" was built at Nescopeck and intended to be operated by horse power. Oa her trial trip she arrived at Wilkes-Barre July 4, 1824. A great jubilee was held over the arrival. The thing, however, proved a failure. ■ Necessity was pushing the people along this river. The Delaware river was being navigated successfully with steamboats, then why not the Susquehanna ? In 1825 three steamboats were built for the purpose of navigating this important river. The "Codorus," built at York, by Davis, Gordon & Co., sixty feet long and nine feet beam, launched, and with fifty passengers drew only eight inches of water, ten- horse-power engine, and was expected to make up stream four miles an hour. She started on her trip ia the spring of 1826 from New Haven. As she puffed along the people flocked in hundreds to the banks to see her. Arrived at Wilkes- Barre, April 12, where the town had an old-style jollification day of it. Capt. Elger invited the heads of the town and many prominent citizens to take an excursion to Forty fort. After a short stay the boat proceeded on its way and soon arrived at Athens, making frequent stops at way places. The Athenians, indeed the people for miles, even way up into New York, now realized their fondest dreams. The boat continued on to Binghamton and turned back and after a trip of four months reached its starting point. Capt. Elger was disappointed and reported to the company that it was a failure for all practical purposes. The next boat was the ' ' Susquehanna," built in Baltimore, eighty- two feet long, two stern wheels, engine thirty-horse power, intended to carry 100 passengers, loaded drawing thirty-two inches. The State appointed three commissioners to accompany the boat on her trial trip; several merchants and prominent business men were passengers, and these were continually added to at stopping points. It was hard moving against the current. The boat reached Nescopeck falls. May 3, 1826. This was considered the most diflScult rapids, and so the commissioners and all but about twenty passengers left the boat and walked along the shore. As she stemmed the angry current the thousands of people on shore cheered and cheered; reaching the middle of the most difficult part she seemed to stop, standing a few moments, then turned her course toward shore and struck a rock and instantly followed an awful explosion, and death and horror followed the merry cheers of the people. John Turk and Ceber Whitmash were instantly killed, William Camp died in an hour or so, Maynard, engineer, lived a few days. The fireman and William Fitch and Daniel Eose slowly recovered; Col. Paxton, C. Brobst and Jeremiah Miller were severely scalded, Woodside, Colt, Foster, Hurly, Benton, Benjamin Edwards and Isaac Loay were all more or less wounded and scalded. William Camp was the father of Mrs. Joseph M. Ely, of Athens, who was on his way home with a fresh stock of goods. The third boat was the "Pioneer," which was abandoned after an experimental trip on the western branch of ihe river. In 1834 Henry F. Lamb, G. M. Hollenback and Pompelly built at Owega " The Susquehanna," a strong, well-built boat, forty-horse power. Her trial trip was down the river to Wilkes-Barre, reaching that place August 7, 1735, traveling 100 miles in eight hours, and returned laden with coal. Her second trip she broke her shaft at Nantieoke dam, where she sunk and was abandoned. In 1849 the "Wyoming," was built at Tunkhannook, 128 feet long, 22 feet beam, stern wheel sixtf^en feet, to carry forty tons of coal. This was a coal boat ?Sri ™ m? *'''P^ ^^"^ Wyoming valley to Athens during the years 1849, 1850 and 1851 The arrivals of this boat were known all along the river, and the people were wont to crowd the landings to see the sight, and hearty cheers greeted itf They would lower their smoke-stacks, and at Athens land at the foot of Ferry street. The cargo generally was anthracite coal, and in return carried grain and farm products. ^ HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 259 The last steamboat for commercial purposes was built at Bainbridge, N. Y., by. a company, under the superiutendence of Capt. Gilman Converse, commander of the " Wyoming." She was named "Enterprise," ninety-live feet long, to carry forty tons — completed and launched in 1851, and the first season had a profitable carrying trade, as the river was high through the season, but in the fall she grounded and was left on the dry shore to rot, and this was the end of attempts to navigate the Susquehanna. Rafting at one time was the inviting stepping-stone to the young man of the country, strong, active and desirous of great fortune. The Arst wealth of northern Pennsylvania lay in her great pine trees that stood straight and tall in the valleys and on the hillsides. Logs were cut in the winter and in the snow were "snaked" to the water's edge and a raft was built and the spring rise in the river would float them away to market. Early in 1790 these were to be seen in the river and success had followers and there was a rapid growth of the industry until every little stream, in the country contributed to the swelling tide of rising commerce. It was a vast. work to denude these boundless forests and make merchandise of it, yet if there is " millions in it " there are few things man's energies are not capable of doing. For fifty years this work went on until at one time during twenty-six days of high water in 1849, 2,243 rafts floated by Wilkes- Barre, estimated to contain over 100,000,000 feet of lumber. Wheat was shipped down the river in arks first in the year 1800; taken to Port Deposit and in sloops from there to Baltimore. This, too, rapidly grew in impor- tance and in 1814 no less than eighty of these passed Wilkes-Barie, and in the fall rise of 1849, 268. Canals next became positively necessary after building the turnpikes, and steam- boat navigation had proved a failure. As early as 1824 the question of a canal along the Susquehanna river began to be seriously stirred. Remote neighborhoods were moved to its importance and engineers began to travel along the banks noting^ every advantage as well as obstruction. All over the State the movement for canals now commenced, and so quickly did this bear fruit that in 1826 the legislature enacted a general internal improvement law that soon after resulted in building the many miles of those water-ways within the commonwealth. The North Branch canal was commenced in 1828 and by 1830 completed to Nanticoke and immediately came the first boat ever in Luzerne county — the ""Wyom- ing," built at Shickshinny. The second boat, the "Luzerne," came in 1831. This was built on the docks on the bank opposite Wilkes-Barre, and that year made a successful trip to Philadelphia and return to Nanticoke dam. The canal was com- pleted as far as Lackawanna in 1834 and then this boat " Luzerne " made the flrst round trip between Wilkes-Barre and Philadelphia. Beyond the Lackawanna the work on the canal was suspended in 1832. It was a busy institution from the Lackawanna to the south f roin the day of its opening. It was the great outlet for the vast wealth rapidly developing in the valley, the outlet to the world's trade and commerce. It was twenty-two years after the completion of the canal through Wyoming, 1856. before the entire line was completed to a junction with the New York canal at Elmira. Those were two decades pregnant with important things to the civilized world, in some respects the most important era in the nation's history — the coming of the railroad. Within two years after the completion of the canal, a great work truly and one that had taxed human energies to the strongest tension,, the public mind had already advanced so far beyond the artificial water way that the State in 1858 sold the canal to the Sunbury &Brie Railroad company, and in turn this company at once sold the North Branch division, from Northumberland street in Wilkes-Barre, to the North Branch Canal company. This was the beginning of the end. The canal was hardly completed before its insufficiency for the acre became only too apparent. The State had put 140,000,000 in her public '260 HIHTOEY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. works, .mostly of this kind, the authorities following in the wake of the notable State internal improvement convention which met at Harrisburg in August, 1825, at which Nathan Beach and Jacob Cist were the representatives from Luzerne county. Garrick Mallery and George Denison, perhaps two of the most brilliant men in the county, were sent to the legislature in 1827, for the express purpose of hastening State action in reference to the North Branch canal. In the act pro- viding for it the commissioners were directed to place the North Branch division from Northumberland to the State line under contract and ground was broken at Berwick, July 4, 1828, where were crowds from Luzerne to witness the event. A great day! A great multitude were present. State officials, military drums and colors flying and the booming of cannon proclaimed that the ground was being broken, the canal was now coming. Nathan Beach held the plow, and the yoke of red oxen were owned and driven by Alexander Jameson. As stated the North Branch extension was slow to push the work and every legislature nearly would pass some act to assist or encourage builders. This portion of the canal, when sold by the State, had cost the commonwealth 14,658,491.12, It was November, 1856, before the first boat laden with coal departed from Pittston for Weston, N. Y. The boat was the " Towanda," commander, Capt. A. Dennis, carrying forty tons, from the mines of Mallery & Butler. In the sale by the State of the North Branch extension men- tioned above, the purchasers soon sold the portion from Northumberland town to Northampton street, Wilkes-Barre, to the Wyoming Canal company, retaining that portion from Northampton street to the State line, a distance of 104 miles. July 14, 1858, S. T. Lippincott left Pittston with five boats of coal and reached Elmira, and from there by New York canals to Buffalo, thence by steamboat to Cleveland, which he reached August 8, the first cargo of coal that ever passed beyond the mountains from Luzerne county. Railroads. — The first successful attempt in this State at what in time became a railroad, was in 1827 — the Mauch Chunk railroad, connecting the coal mines with the Lehigh river. The Mount Carbon railroad was commenced in 1829. In 1831 the State granted charters to twelve railroad companies and this may well be named as the date of the commencement of the great railroad era. The steam whistle suc- ceeding the pony express tin horn; the stage horn and then the canal big tin horn, all telling of the evolution^ — the transcendant strides of man's energy and ingenuity in bearing aloft the glories of civilization. There are left now but precious few to whose minds will come like far-off chimes of half-heard bells pealed from the king- dom of the dead yesterdays, the fading dreams, the old landmarks, where no more is heard the sounding horn of the packet boat, Capt. Wells commanding, as it plowed the " raging canal" triumphantly into "Port" Wilkes-Barre. When the way from Canal bridge to the public square was green fields and sweet blossoming apples, and which are now replaced with great solid business blocks, shops, factories and tall chimneys, filled with eager fire and the- roar and whir of heavy iron machinery and the spell, the charm, the day dream is gone— the dolce far niente flits as the silent sadow and the terrible struggle for life is on; wealth and splendors flash- ing m blinding colors from myriad facets; in the background— but— put out the lights— then put out the light. The Lehigh Navigation & Coal company, begun in 1839, and completed in 1841, the origmal Lehigh & Susquehanna railroad, from the public common at the foot of South street, Wilkes-Barre, to White Haven, then the head of slack water naviga- tion of that company. It was designed as a portage over which to transport boats between White J^^un'^'^y'/^®^-^^"®' "^•^ ^^"^^ *°^'"^ ^ ^^°-^ i» the connection between Buffalo and Philadelphia through the North Branch canal and the canals in New York on one side, and the Lehigh and Delaware rivers on the other. This portage over the mountain was accomplished by three inclined planes, having their foot at Ashley. HISTORY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. 261 The aggregate ascent which these planes make is about 1,150 feet. From White Haven the road was afterward built down the Lehigh to Mauoh Chunk, and thence to Baston. At first horse cars ran between Wilkes-Barre and the planes. These planes have been much improved, and more coal is taken over them than over any similar planes in the world. The ascent of the mountain is now overcome by a circuit to the northeast. This circuit was built about the year 1866. The same year the Lehigh & Susquehanna was extended to Green Eidge, above Scranton, where it connects with the Delaware & Hudson Canal company's road. The Nanticoke & Wanamie branch of the Lehigh & Susquehanna railroad con- nected with this road at the foot of the planes and extended northeastward a mile above Wilkes-Barre, to the Baltimore coal mines, and southwestward to Nanticoke village. It was built in 1861 by the Nanticoke Eailway company, which was com- posed of owners of coal lands along the route of the road. In 1866 or 1867 the Lehigh & Susquehanna company, which had purchased this road, built a branch from near Nanticoke to Wanamie, and an extension from the Baltimore mines to Green Kidge. Subsequently a connection was made between this extension and the Delaware & Hudson Canal company's road. Another branch by the Delaware & Hudson Canal company connects the Lehigh & Susquehanna at South Wilkes-Barre with the Bloomsburg branch of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western railroad by a bridge in the township of Plymouth, and thereby with the collieries on the west side of the river. • Another connection between the Lehigh & Susquehanna and the Bloomsburg branch is by a short track over the bridge across the Susquehanna at Nanticoke. This branch and bridge are owned by the Susquehanna Coal company. The Nescopeck branch was built by the Lehigh & Susquehanna company in 1867, between White Haven and Upper Lehigh. In 1871 this road was leased in perpetuity by the Central Railroad company of New Jersey. Lackawanna & Bloomsburg Railroad. — April 5, 1852, a charter was granted for a road between Scranton and Bloomsburg, fifty-six miles, with authority to extend the same to Danville. By a supplementary act passed March 3, 1853, a further extension of twelve miles to Northumberland or Sunbury was authorized, making a total length of eighty miles. The company was organized at Kingston, April 16, 1858, and William Swetland was chosen president, Thomas P. Atherton secretary, and Charles D. Shoemaker treasurer. The Lehigh & Eastern Railroad was chartered in 1889, intended as a line from Tomhicken to Port Jervis, N. Y. , tapping the Lehigh anthracite regions in the southern part of Luzerne county, and 106 miles in length, connecting at Port Jervis with the Erie railroad; thence over the Poughkeepsie bridge, making, when built, the shortest line by fifty miles between the anthracite region and New England; also connecting with the New York, Susquehanna & Western road at Gravelplace, and by tidewater to New York. Ten miles of the eastern end of the road is already built. Capital stock of the company, $10,000,000. Senator Hines and Liddon Flick are the Wilkes-Barreans actively in this enterprise. The charter originally was issued in 1869, and from that time on it has been in a sea of troubles — litigation has delayed the progress of the enterprise — that are now, it is hoped, all settled, and the road soon to be built, a matter of great importance to the county. The Wilkes-Barre & Williamsport Railroad is now an assured fact; was chartered November 26, 1889; W. P. Eyman, president. Directors: W. P. Eyman, George R. Bedford, Ira A. Hartrode, F. C. Sturgis, H. A. Fuller, George F. Nesbit, F. W. Wheaton, E. Troxell, A. S. Orr, Gustave E. Kissel and Joseph W. Ogden, a direct line from Wilkes-Barre to Williamsport. The assurances are that this road will be shortly finished. Wilkes-Barre & Eastern Railroad was chartered March 8, 1892. Officers and 262 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. chartered members: W. P. Eyman, president; De Witt H. Lyons, vice-president; Eoswell Eldridge, secretary and treasurer; H. A. Fuller, assistant secretary; J. W. Hollenback, G. E. Bedford, Ira E. Hartwell, George H. Buller, E. Troxell, P. C. Sturgis, Henry A. Fuller, Tuthill E. Hillard, Albert S. Orr, De Witt H, Lyons and Charles B. Copp. The entire line is under contract and much of the work com- pleted, ten miles being done early in the summer. This road starts on the west side, opposite Market street bridge, and crosses the river at the north limits of the city, through Plains township, and passes Yatesville toward the northeast and continues to Stroudsburg, where it strikes the New York and the Susquehanna & Western railroad, thus making a most important outlet from Wilkes Barre to tide- water. The Record of a recent date (October) announces that the Delaware & Hudson railroad has entered into a traffic arrangement with this railroad, and says that " near the Yatesville depot, at the Delaware & Hudson crossing, a connection is being constructed at an enormous expense, on account of the heavy grade. A satis- factory arrangement will give the Delaware & Hudson through trains to New York over the shortest route yet surveyed from this region. " This new line is therefore a promise of great things in the way of northern and western connections. Lehigh Cut-off is a freight road starting at Pittston, and, avoiding the "Planes" by nearly a straight line that runs to the east of Wilkes-Barre and the steep grades or long circuits in climbing the mountains south of the latter place, connects with the main line at Mountain Top. This was built in 1886-7, and is a great improve- ment in the road's facilities. Harvey Lake and Towanda Branch. — During the past season the Lehigh Valley has extended its branch road, recently built from Wilkes-Barre to the lake, and from the latter point to Pittston and to Towanda, making a direct line from Wilkes- Earre to Towanda via Harvey's lake. The first train over this road carrying official inspectors was in the early part of October, 1892. The Lackawanna & Bloomsburg Railroad was built chiefly through the exer- tions of Chief Justice Woodward, William S wetland, William C. Eeynolds and Samuel Hoyt. The work thereon was done in 1854. It was an extension of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western road from Scranton to Sunbury, and by a great mistake of supposed economy it ran on the west side of the river instead of the east side and through Wilkes-Barre, as the builders really desired. This was the first railroad extending through the county, and as its chief purpose with the projectors, it opened to the valley an outlet for both coal and lumber that was a matter of the most important consideration. It was not the first railroad in the county, but was very near it. Largely through the influence of Mr. William C. Eeynolds in 1837 the Lehigh Coal.& Navigation company were by law authorized to build a railroad to connect the head of navigation on the Lehigh river with the ISforth Branch canal at Wilkes- Barre. The bill was a compromise measure, releasing the company from the opera- tion of certain clauses of its charter bearing upon the extension of its system of slack-water navigation, but making obligatory the building of the railroad to Wilkes- Barre. Work was begun on the road in 1838 and completed five years later; the first railroad completed in this part of the State, the really great opening day of the anthracite coal fields in the valley, as well as the rapid development of one of the richest spots on the continent, that has so signally followed. Lehigh Valley Railroad was chartered in 1846 as the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuyl- kill & Susquehanna Eailroad company. In 1850 the route was surveyed from Easton to the mouth of Mahoning creek. In 1851 Asa Packer became a principal stockholder and to this circumstance largely is due the great railroad system now known as the Lehigh Valley railroad. In 1852 he secured Eobert H. Sayre (after whom the important borough of Sayre in Bradford county is named), as chief engi- neer. This year Mr. Packer commenced the building of a road from Mauch Chunk HISTOEY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 263 to Baston to connect with the New York and Philadelphia outlet. The name of tho corporation was changed in 1853 to the Lehigh Valley Eailroad company. The first train from Easton to Mauch Chunk passed over the road in 1855. In 1865 steps were taken to extend the road to White Haven and thence to 'Wilkes-Barre; this was built in 1867. Mr. Packer in the meantime had purchased the North Branch canal from Wilkes-Barre to the north State line and had a charter for the Pennsylvania & New York Canal & Railroad company, authorizing the building of a railroad the entire length of the canal and along the tow path. This was the most important extension of the Lehigh Valley system. The road was completed to Waverly in 1869. Between Wilkes-Barre and Lackawanna junction the road was leased by the Lehigh Valley company. To-day this is one of the rnost impor- tant railroad systems in northeastern Pennsylvania. Before this account appears in book form the Lehigh will have its own road pushed through to BufPalo. It is a double track and in many respects the best equipped and operated road in the country — one of the great trunk lines and the hourly rush of long trains day and night the year round are the tremendous evolution from the hundred-year ago •blazed way through the forest. A marked characteristic of the Lehigh valley's history is that from the time that Asa Packer took control, through his entire operations and the same under Robert A. Packer, the policy was to extend the lines in every direction; buying lines wanted when already built, or building new lines where there was a needed connection or a demand for a railroad, or a linkto fill in toward making the whole. In 1868 the stocks of the Hazleton Railroad company and the Lehigh & Luzerne Railroad company were absorbed into that of the Lehigh Valley road. Another feature of Asa Packer's management was for the company to obtain where possible an interest in the coal lands and accordingly they have large interests in the valua- ble coal lands through which the road passes. In crossing the mountain range south of Wilkes-Barre this road makes a sharp loop to the northeast around the base of the mountain, which is here nearly 1,200 feet high. The other road makes a similar loop to the west, and simply to look at the map that is only giving the true course of the road bed, these opposite loops facing each other at the mouth of the two funnels present a curious appearance. It is the engineer's way of clambering up a mountain — simply winding around the sides, gradually rising all the time. May 23, 1843, as stated, the first railroad train entered Wilkes-Barre over the Lehigh & Susquehanna railroad. Surely this was a great day in the valley, especially in the chief town, Wilkes-Barre. No people were ever iriore exultantly excited — the cannon was whirled out, unlimbered and belched forth the common joy; • flags fluttered, the people cheered and a great day had dawned. The new era was here and all felt it fully. The road was twenty miles in length when completed. It had three planes from the Susquehanna river to an elevation of 1,270 feet, and then it descended with a grade of 50 feet to the mile to White Haven. Up these planes the cars were drawn by stationary engines. All the early short roads were built with a view of transporting the coal found here; this was the prime incentive. Their builders perhaps little foresaw the limitless commerce of all kinds that would some day, as w6 now have it, flow in a never-ending stream over these iron tracks. The old strap rail and stationary engines over heavy grades would be Httle more than a provocation in this age; they were great things then and here as in all time our fathers " builded better than they knew." Ship Building was one of the many fruitless struggles of the people to advance themselves. The theory was broached that with our coal and timber so plentiful ships could be built here and floated out on high water to the bays and oceans and a profitable industry created. Messrs. Arndt & Philips, therefore, built a shipyard on the bank across from Wilkes-Barre and built and launched a twelve-ton sloop in 1803— "The John Franklin." This was floated out to tide- water in safety. This 264 HISTORY OF LUZEBNE COUNTY. encouraged the formation of a stock company, which commenced operations in 1811 and they built the first ship, a sixty-ton vessel. Far and near people came to look at the wonderful ship building, and soberest heads dreamed day dreams when the wide commons across the river would all be a vast shipyard and the all those river villages great cities. Lots and timber lands advanced in selling price rapidly and fortunate holders of stock in the shipyard were envied. April 6, 1812, the first ship was completed, and of her the Gleaner, of April 12, said: "Last Friday was the day on which the launch of the vessel on the stocks in this port was announced. A scene so extraordinary, 200 miles from the tide-waters of the river, raised the curiosity of every one. The old sailor and the inhabitants of the seaboard, whom the vicissitudes of fortune had settled in this sylvan retreat and to whom such scenes had once been familiar, felt all the interest so naturally excited. * * * * From Monday to Friday all was bustle and activity. Early on Friday people began to gather from all parts qf the country. The firing of the cannon on the bank at noon gave notice that everything was in preparation. A little after two repeated discharges announced that all was ready. The banks were lined far above and below with people, and a little after 3 the sound of axes, the bustle and noise about the vessel, indicated they were knock- ing away the blocks. It was a hundred feet to the water, and with flying colors thirty persons on board,, the great crowd standing nearly breathless, the last block was knocked away — and the vessel did not move. ' ' Stewart Pearce accounts for the stubborn boat's action by the fact that the news of the "embargo" had just come to town. And as there.was now no business on the ocean, why not lie idle on the docks? The thirty passengers were all at the bow; when she would not move they all ran to the stern, and then slowly the boat did move, the speed accelerating, and as gracefully as a swan the keel kissed and married the waves. As the boat and waves met, the usual bottle was broken on her prow, and the vessel was christ- ened " The Luzerne of Wilkes-Barre." The fate of this unhappy venture is soon told. In a few days she started down the river with clearing papers from the "port" of Wilkes-Barre, and reaching Conawaga falls, near Middletown, was dashed to pieces on the rocks. The vessel and the hopes of the company were wrecked together. A costly experiment — a severe lesson. But the eternally invin- cible man was but temporarily discouraged. When the vast timber found its way to tide-water in rafts, then came the far greater wealth, the coal of the incompar- able valley, and ways were found such as we are now blessed with for its transpor- tation to the world's markets. Bridges were a prime necessity after the first blazed roads were laid out. The ordinary streams were, for over twenty-five years from the first settlements, waded on foot or passed over in low water on 'horseback or in wagons. At first those that could not be forded were carried over in temporary rafts, where the wagons would be taken apart and the animals made to swim. After a while rope ferries were crossing the river, and these are yet spanning the stream in many places, but there are more iron bridges now over the Susquehanna than there were rope ferries in the opening of the century. An old yellowed scrap of paper that bears date June 6, 1794, was,rec6ntly recov- ered. A subscription paper, signed by James Wilson, Eobert Morris, G. Eddy, Timothy Pickering "and fifty others," as it says, collecting money to build bridges over Bowman's creek and the Mahoopany, on the road to Wyalusing. Perries were established at Kingston, Wilkes-Barre and Pittston in 1770. Yet there are old men to-day who can remember of crossing the river on horseback when they used to go courting in the neighborhood of Kingston, or to apple pearings, or to any of the other "bees" that once were "great times " for the young people Storms and Floods have come to Luzerne county. In 1784 occurred the great snow storm, when the level ground was covered to a depth of five feet, and in the HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 267 gorges it was in places hundreds of feet in depth, and for weeks all communication among the settlers was cut off. The soldiers in Fort Wyoming were cooped up until fuel getting threatened to became a serious question. The following March the snow passed off with heavy rains, and the great ice flood came rushing down the river. The streams were covered with thick ice, broken up by the rising waters, choking them at points, and the river overran its banks, carrying destruction in its course. At Nanticoke, where is an old dam, the ice remained firm, and on this the loose ice lodged until piled high. The plains all through the valley were submerged, and the people were driven to the hills. Maj. James Moore, writing from the fort at Wilkes-Barre, March 20, 1784, said: "The people in this country have suffered exceedingly from the late freshet. Not less than 150 houses have been carried away. The grain is principally lost, and a very considerable part of the cattle drowned. The water rose thirty feet above low- water mark. The water was so high in the garrison that some of the ammunition was injured." Some of the immense piles of ice left on the plains only melted entirely away late in the summer. The Pumpkin Flood occurred in 1786, getting its name from the quantities of these embryo pies seen floating on the waters. November 7, 1786, Col. John Franklin wrote about the flood to Dr. Joseph Hamilton: " The terrible rain fell, October 5, in twenty-four hours, that raised the river from six to ten feet higher than then known, sweeping away mills and denuding the farms, often digging the potatoes and carrying them away. Rev. Benjamin Bidlack, then a strong young man, was carried in his house down the river. He would, in the darkness, call to the people along the shore. The building lodged against the trees near Harvey's coal mine and he finally escaped. The widow Jamison, with her children, in Han- over, were taken from the second story in a canoe." In July, 1809, the Susquehanna rose sixteen feet above low-water mark, and inundating the lower flats, destroyed the grain. In January, 1831, the flats were again inundated; and again in May, 1833, the low lands were flooded by the high water. Arks and rafts, torn from their moorings in the smaller streams, came float- ing down the swollen flood without men to guide them. Stacks of hay floated by covered with living poultry. As they passed Wilkes-Barre the cocks crowed lustily, intimating to their brethren of the borough that their heads were still above water. In January, 1841, the weather suddenly changed from cold to warm, accompanied with rain, which rapidly melted the snow, and produced an inundation of the low country along the Susquehanna and Lackawanna. But its effects on the Lehigh were of the most terrible and destructive character. In 1842 and 1843 were very high waters. In the spring of 1846 the water stood three and one-half feet deep on the river bank opposite the old Phenix hotel. This was the highest to that time since the "Pumpkin flood," and caused far more dam- age, carrying away costly bridges on the Susquehanna and doing damage to the public improvements. The most destructive flood was that of September, 1850. In Luzerne the loss of life and property was greatest on the small streams. Solomon's creek rushed down the mountain's side with fearful impetuosity, destroying the public highway and the improvements of the Lehigh & Susquehanna company at the foot of the plane. The Wapwallopen, with its increased volume, dashed madly over the coun- try, sweeping away two of the powder-mills of Knapp & Parrish. The Nescopeck, undermining the dam above the forge of S. F. Headley, bore off to the Susquehanna on its turbulent flood the lifeless bodies of twenty-two men, women and children. These unfortunate people had assembled in one house near the forge. The house stood upon elevated ground, and was supposed to be the best place for safety. One man, fearing to trust to the stability of the house, took up his child in his arms, and calling to his wife, who refused to follow, rushed through the rising waters, and 268 HISTORY OF LUZEBNE COUNTY. gained the hillside. When he turned to look behind him, house, wife and friends had disappeared. All the low lands along the Susquehanna were covered with water, and, as usual on such occasions, the communication between Wilkes- Barre and Kingston was carried on by means of boats. At Tamaqua forty dwellings were swept away, and thirty-three persons were drowned, sixteen being members of one family, and the damage sustained at this place was estimated at $500,000. At Port Clinton twenty-six persons were drowned, eleven of whom constituted a family of father, mother and nine children. Wind Storms. — The first tornado known to carry havoc through the valley was in 1796. It passed over the country from west to east, unroofing barns and dwell- ings, and producing on the headwaters of the Lehigh what, among the old inhabit- ants, was called "The Great Windfall." The road leading from Wilkesbarre to Easton was completely barricaded with fallen trees, which required several months of labor to remove. Our county appropriated $250 toward the expense. In February, 1824, a most terrific hurricane passed up the Susquehanna river, prostrating fences, trees, barns and dwellings. Such was its power that it lifted the entire superstructure of the Wilkes-Barre bridge from its piers, and bore it some distance up the river, where it fell on the ice with a thundering crash. On July 3, 1834, a hurricane, sweeping from the northeast to the southwest, nearly destroyed the village, now the borough, of Providence. Tornado, August 19, 1890, swept over the western part of Luzerne and part of Columbia counties. People were attracted by the peculiar appearance of the clouds. Three distinct movements of the wind could be seen in the two strata of clouds and the motions of the air on the ground. It started in Columbia county, passing mto Luzerne in a northeasterly direction, entering this county at Huntington township, with a track about 600 yards wide, in a waving course, about fifteen degrees north of east, and near the road from Maple Grove to Cambra, and before it entered this county was marking its path by general destruction. Great harm was done the properties of Clinton Hughes and Cornelius White, near Cambra. The latter gen- tleman recalled a similar though not so severe storm that passed near the same track fifty-six years preceding. The kitchen and barn roofs of C. M. Callender's were taken ofE. George Smith's house was picked up, carried 200 feet and dropped over a ledge, a mass of ruins. His little son was reported as receiving a fractured skull. Ambrose Bonham s buildings were destroyed. At D. L. Chapman's place, near Harveyville, the doors of the parlor were burst outward, tearing out the paneling. At Harveyville the Methodist Episcopal parsonage was totally destroyed Mr K'^'f 1''™^^'^^ and library, with furniture and clothing, were destroyed, the Methodist church unroofed and the brick schoolhouse left a mass of rubbish A huH Txlnf Th"^"" ?f' '??' ^^t *"''"" ""^"S" ^^' destroyed, but no one seriously hurt except Thomas Brickla, who was killed. A. W. Harvey's store was badlv wrecked and his flouring mill moved from its foundations. One and one-Talf mOes east of Harveyville the schoolhouse was totally destroyed, Martin Gregory' sbmS STnd &d wl'n^" ' T ^*.-'^" '^ ^°°* ''^''''^ -"- along^S stores track, and Roland Wilkinson s buildings entirely destroyed. At Mallory Wolfe's place everything was converted into debris, Mr and Mrs Wolfp inW.^ = ^ /u ■ daughter, Mrs. Lodetia Wilkinson, killed James Turner'fhonJT' ''''V '.,' Mamie Burns, who had started for the celir was cauSt and Mled' "T'^'/"** HISTORY OP LUZEENE COUNTY. 269 mereaux' house was destroyed, his step-daughter, Lizzie Trace, severely hurt in the spine, but eventually recovered. The Leonard schoolhouae was moved from its foundations. The track of the storm gradually narrowed after it crossed Hemlock creek, and after passing Harvey creek about a quarter of a mile above Eice'a saw- mill it left only a partial track on Lehman Center, and here it gradually disappeared, having passed through Huntington, Union and Hualock townships into Lehman. Whether the terrible funnel cloud was lifted from the earth into midair and was instantly transferred across the hills and the river or whether its mate sprang into existence and started in its race along the east side of the river — in other words, whether it was all one or two distinct tornadoes or not, is not material. It was, with its awful whirl, racing along at the rate of a mile a minute. There was no visible track connecting the two, if they were distinct storms. About half a mile south of Nanticoke, on the top of Eagle's Nest ridge, a pine tree was blown down. A brisk gust of wind was noticed in Nanticoke. The whirl- ing wind blew down at the east end of the bridge, and, following the river from this point, the trees were marked by characteristic twisting; then there is no trace until Butzbach's landing, where the effects are strong, passing to the cemetery at Hanover Green and through the woods to the Catholic cemetery to Petty' s woods; then veered to the north and entered South Wilkes-Barre on the line of the D. & H. R. R., with a track about 100 yards wide, at the hour of 5:30 p. m. Striking Main street near its southern extremity, the storm swept northward' to Wood street, where it widened and struck Franklin street and the lower end of Dana place. At Academy street it turned to the east, and from here to Ross street the damage was confined principally to Main and Cinderella streets. At Ross street the storm turned again eastward and swept out Hazle and Ross streets to Washington and Canal, where it struck the Pennsylvania Railroad company's roundhouse and the Hazard Wire Rope works, and then turned northward up Washington, Pell and Canal streets. At Northampton street the storm turned to the east and swept out Northampton to the Central railroad of New Jersey. From here to North street the buildings on Canal street and along the railroads suffered most severely. At North street it again turned eastward up Bowman, Scott and Kidder streets to Five Points, where it left the city. Within the city limits the following is the list of the killed: Jacob Bergold, John Fritz, Mrs. James Henaghan, Mrs. Eliza J. McGrinley, Baby McGinley, Frank Olean, Eddie Schmitt, Nettie Thompson, Adam Frantz, George Hannapple, Joseph Kern, John McGinley, Evi Martin, Peter Rittenmeyer, Andrew Szobal and Berlin Vandermark. Seriously injured: Mrs. Barrett, Frank Fulrod, JohnHouseh, John Long, James McGinley, John McNulty, Frank Volkrath, George Fry, Miss Henaghan, Fred Linn, Mrs. Margaret McAvoy, Mary McGinley, Isaiah Newsbigle and Franklin Walsh. Unknown employe of D. & H. R. R. company. Thirty -five others were slightly injured. Two hundred and sixty buildings, residences, stores, schoolhouses, churches, factories, public and railroad buildings were more or less injured, some totally destroyed. The estimated damage to property, made carefully by the relief com- mittee, was a total of $240,000 in the city limits. After leaving Wilkes-Barre the storm did no serious damage, als its track was through a wooded region. Touching at Mountain park it crossed Laurel run and over the north end of Indian hill across John P. Lawler's farm and on to the northern side of Bald mountain, where it became diffused and left no distinct marks of its course. It seems evident, however, that this storm continued its course further on, as a clearly marked path passes about a mile to the east of Spring Brook, and an envelope which was doubtless blown from Wilkes-Barre, was picked up near Hamil- ton, Wayne county. , 270 HISTORY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. CHAPTER XI. COAL. Vast Deposits Oncb All Over the State— First Shipped Down the Riveb in 1807— Parties who First Mined and Transported It — Jesse Fell— Canal Opened — NiQHO Allen and Philip Ginter— Miner, Cist & Robinson Attempt to Mine and Ship Coal— Railroads and Transportation Companies — Value of Coal Lands — Eastern Middle Coal Fields- Coal Found— Ario Pardee- Eoklby B. Coxe— Superior Hard Coal— (Jhorge B. Marklb— Tunnels- Accidents, etc. IN a preceding chapter is something of the county of Luzerne as it appeared on its face when the white man came to possess and make these homes and all this luxuriant wealth that we now enjoy. As it came from the hand of God it was lovely to look upon. The keen- eyed pioneer beheld it, said it was good and here he would stick down his Jacob's staff and dw^ll forever. He heeded but little the obstructions that confronted him on every hand. The heavy forests that perpetually shaded the ground; the fierce and hungry wild beasts in the constant search of living prey; the gliding serpents spotted with deadly beauty, the countless birds of song and plumage and game; the fish disporting themselves and shining in the mountain brooks and in the beautiful blue river, and beyond and more impressive than all these were the warlike Iroquois Indians, savage and pitiless, cunning and thieving, great and good in his own estimation when covered with greasy war paint, or when adorned with many and fresh bleeding scalps of men, women or children, and performing his war dance around the camp fire, or recounting the bloody legends of his cannibal ancestors. The dauntless pioneer met these powerful enemies of civilization, and his steady eye never quailed; his nerves were never shaken, and with one and all his motto was supremacy or death. The Anglo-Saxon blood has prevailed here as well as pretty much now all over the world. The English language is one of all-conquering energy. There is much iron in the blood that is propelling the life that formed the articulate words — it prevails, whether matched with the savages of the woods, or the older and once stronger civilizations that in their day ruled the world. The language is a part and essence of the Anglo-Saxon's nature; it simply predominates regardless of what it comes in contact with. The Spaniard discovered this country; his ancient settlements and villages antedate the coming and permanent clutch of the English more than 100 years; the French made largely the first discoverer's claim and title to far the larger portion of what is now the United States. All these held prior claims to this wonder-land, and yet the first 100 years has left the bpaniard the possessor of an insignificant little corner of the continent, and the French not even so much that they can claim either part or parcel thereof. The clfnn Ann . ,V''^°''t"°ate black man of Africa, is now a free man and counts 8,000,000 of the over 63,000,000 of our people-the most cosmopolitan population in the world. The scientists tell us that the outcome of every civilization is a mere question of rocks and climate, the soil and water, with the sunshine; these are the lactors, they say m determining the ultimate story of every separate civilization, r.vi rr^ ^\i !T^^: ^^'^ ^'^ ^^'^'^ separate peoples thrown together and, save the problem of the African, the Anglo-Saxon has settled the'otheV questions. «;ll o^ • ?. some way the solution of the " color " question in tima In all these ethnic matters the statute laws have only a nominal effect; the resistless HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 271 forces of nature play with ceaseless activity, and the destiny of man and animal life appear to unthinking men to be that of fate. Modern thinkers tell us that ethnic life, the quality of every distinct civilization, is one almost entirely of soils and climate. There is no doubt that the surface and the immediate subsoil, together with the climate, has a powerful influence in shaping the animal and vegetable life that will spring therefrom. But clearly with these forces, and perhaps even in more power, are the laws of heredity, the transmitted blood that runs in the veins genera- tions after generations, and in the long lapses of time indicate the departing lines of different civilizations in their slow progress from savage to civilized life. Every page of the story of the Anglo-Saxon race tends to illuminate this fact. Swarming out from the inhospitable shores of the North Sea, strong and fierce savages, then bloody pirates and the most daring seamen, they raced around the world, trampling upon everything that stood in their way; with hair and skin bleached by the elements to whiteness, his strong animal nature conquering and destroying that he might build all anew; this wonderful creature transmitted his strong nature, planted his colonies, created his own language, hunted out dangers and obstacles and warred upon all and everything, and even upon one another, and fashioned the civilized world, and now at the close of the nineteenth century shows the astounding fact that he measures more brain surface than any other people the world has contained. And while modified markedly by different soils and climate, yet always and every- where he maintains his race supremacy. And in the meridian hour of his great- ness and glory, the canny Scotchman and proverbial scold, Thomas Carlyle said : ' ' The English nation consists of 40,000,000 of people^mostly fools. " And the more than 150,000,000 whom the taunt struck, have adopted the scold's words as an axiomatic truth. Here in this beautiful valley met the Dutch, the Palitinate, the Moravian, the Frenchman, Irishman and the native savages, and then the Anglo Saxon appeared. To-day everything is Americo-English. The Dutchman has transmitted only his name; his descendants are as purely Anglo-Saxon as the straightest English. And so of all others; absorbed and a part of the stronger stock, or extinct. This phe- nomenon holds over our continent, the process completed or in the rapid course of completion. Our language and our thought is dominating the world. It must be " all the one thing or all the other." The marvelous race has boxed the compass of triumphs and defeats — enslaving and enslaved — and when the Normans swooped down upon and captured the little English island, and took their property*- and made slaves of all the people, time effected the bloodless revolution, and the once slaves were again masters, the only race in the world's history that progressed on the road to enlightment as well in slavery as in conquering masters. The magnifi- cent proof that blood is stronger than any possible circumstance or accidental con- ditions—" wherever he sits is the head of the table." These observations are not inappropriate in considering the climatic and soil and water conditions of this section, coupled with the wealth down in the black- diamond caves that underlie a large part of the county, and this alone would make this one of the most favored spots of earth, even if there was little- or nothing of value on the broad surface. The historian and poet have exhausted the resources of the language in describing this land of the anthracite — the ' ' Happy Valley " of Dr. Johnson being the one most frequently used. One describes it as "The -Richest Dimple" in the Appalachian chain of mountains. Its wonderful wealth of anthracite has made this one of the best known spots on the globe. The entire coal fields, with thousands of other fertile acres, were bought of the Indians for $10,000 in silver, or £2,000 New York currency. Both parties, igno- rant of the hidden wealth beneath the surface, and fifty and seventy-five years after many a man sold his farm, nearly as ignorant as had been the Indians of its real value. With the other abundant riches of this spot, the immense deposits of 272 HISTORY OF LUZEKNE COUNTY. anthracite coal far exceed all others combined, an infinite source of wealth, of ■which the' reader can begin to approximate some idea when informed there are in the different veins as you descend ninety feet of coal, and of a market value of more than $40,000 in every acre after reserving the pillars. These coal deposits in the valley all lie in a basin apparently forming the bottom on which rests the super- incumbent rocks and soils, and reaching up on the sides only to the high table lands, a proof that at one time, in the long geological past, the entire country hereabouts, for hundreds of miles, covering the entire State and extending into other States, was all underlaid with the same strata of coal, which have been car- ried away from the uplands by the disturbances of the earth, and thus leaving for us only a very small portion of the once vast deposit. Goal was found in outcrop in the valley when the white man first came. Oba- diah Gore and others of the first blacksmiths in the county used it in their shops. During the Revolutionary war coal was shipped in arks and Durham boats to Car- lisle, in this State, where the continental authorities established an armory. Of course all this quarrying in the other century was from outcrops and strip mining entirely. These shipments continued through the war for independence, long enough to demonstrate that it was a merchantable article that the outside world wanted, and that possessed values that would repay transportation. The trade increased slowly after the close of the war, but by whom shipments were continued is not now fully known. Some of the chroniclers of the early times place the com- mencement of the coal trade down the river from this point as beginning in the year 1820, with a shipment that year of 365 tons. However, after this statement was published, John B. Smith published in the Record of the Times, October 27, 1874: "I see you make a statement in your daily that the coal business opened in 1820. Abijah Smith [his father] purchased an ark of John P. Arndt November 9, 1807, and ran it to Columbia from Wilkes-Barre, loaded with coal. From that date Abijah and John Smith ran several arks yearly to 1826, loaded with coal for the market. In 1811 and 1812 they ran 220 tons of coal to Havre-de-Grace, had it unloaded on the schooner "Washington," and sold in New York, the bills for which were rendered by the commission merchant in 1813.'' Some one has said that history is agreed fiction, and the history of the discovery and the use of coal here is certainly a verification of the fact that much fiction finds its way to the printing office. One of those has found its way into the last United States census report (1890) where, without stating it as a fact, the commencement of the coal trade is dated from 1820. Whereas the above shows that it was com- menced in 1807. Mr. George B. Culp, in an address before the Historical Society, June 27, 1890, not only confirms the above, but year by year gives the amounts shipped from the Wyoming region to 1820 as follows: Tons. Ti„„„ 1807 55 1814 ^7"oo 1808 150 1815 1000 1809 200 1816 i'ooo 1810 350 1817 I'V^o 1811 450 1818 S 1813 500 1819 .■:::::;: Ym ^81^ 500 1820 ..;:::.:::::::::: 2;55o Mr. F. E. Saward, in The Coal Trade for 1891, states that the northern anthra- cite coal field is the largest anthracite basin in the world. It has long been known as the Wyoming. Its coal production since 1860 is as follows: Tous I860 2,914,817 1880 lim^^Q ''™ ^'9'^4.666 1890 .:::.::::;::::l8:65?;694 HISTOEY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 273 To mine this coal requires the services of over 50,000 men and boys, and this number is steadily iacreasing rather than diminishing. Mr. Gulp curtly disposes also of the story of Philip Ginter being the discoverer of coal in the anthracite regions. In the legislature in 1891 a bill was introduced to appropriate $2,000 for a monument to Ginter as the discoverer of anthracite coal in Pennsylvania. The fact simply was Ginter discovered coal in Carbon county, but himself stated that he had "heard of it over in Wyoming" before finding it. In a foot note Mr. Gulp gives the following: " The Lehigh region is great in making claims. For instance, on April 23, 1891, in the senate of the State of Pennsylvania, Senator Eapsher, of Carbon, called up the following bill on third reading: "An Act appropriating the sum of $2,000 for the erection of a monument to the memory of Philip Ginter, the discoverer of anthracite coal in Pennsylvania. " Section 1, Be it enacted by the senate and house of representatives of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania in general assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, that the sum of 12,000 be appropriated toward the erection of a suitable monument to commemorate the memory of Philip Ginter, the first discoverer of anthracite coal in Pennsylvania, to be paid to the committee in charge upon the warrant of the auditor- general. " Senator Hines, from our own county, asked leave to strike out the words ' the first,' because Philip Ginter was not the first discoverer of coal. ' ' Senator Eapsher, in reply, said : ' Mr. President, the historians, like men, some- times differ on that particular point, as to whether Philip Ginter was the first dis- coverer or not, but I think all the historians agree that Philip Ginter was the first authentic discoverer of anthracite coal in what was then Northampton county, a hundred years ago the first of next September, and it was the inception of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation company, and was the beginning of the anthracite coal traffic in Pennsylvania, and because the anthracite coal interest was of so much importance to the State credit in our section, this could be granted without any great strain on our consciences. ' "Senator Green, of Berks where they have no coal, said: 'Mr. President, I think we ought to have a discoverer of coal, and we might as well have him now as at any other time, so whether it is Mr. Ginter or somebody else, makes very little difference to me. I am willing to concede to that gentleman that claim. I am willing to go further : I am willing to take the word of the senator from Carbon for it. If he thinks he is the discoverer of coal, I think so. ' ' ' Fortunately the bill was defeated in the house of representatives. Now, what was in this bill? First, to get $2,000 out of the State treasury to perpetuate a falsehood. This under false pretences. ' ' Second, To place on record the further falsehood that Philip Ginter was the (first) discoverer of anthracite coal in Pennsylvania. Mr. Ginter, himself, did not claim that he was the discoverer, because ' he had heard of stone coal over in Wyom- ing.' " Mr. Eapsher is certainly mistaken when he says that historians differ as to whether Philip Ginter was the first discoverer or not. No, they do not differ. All historians agree that Mr. Ginter discovered coal in what is now Carbon county, in 1791, and that he was not the first discoverer of anthracite coal in Pennsylvania. Ill-informed people may think he was, but intelligent people know better. Mr. Eapsher states that the discovery of coal a hundred years ago the first of next Sep- tember (1891), was the inception of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation company, and was the beginning of the anthracite coal traffic in Pennsylvania. The Lehigh Coal & Navigation company was incorporated February 13, 1822, and if its inception was in 1791, it took it a long time to be born— even thirty-one years. The beginning of the coal trade was not on the Lehigh, but was on the Susquehanna, and commenced 274 HISTORY OP LUZERNE COUNTY. in 1807. Do not let this be forgotten. Senator Green thinks ' we ought to have a discoverer of coal.' 'Whether it is Mr. Ginter or somebody else makes very little difference to (him) me.' Most noble senator, you certainly do not speak the vrords of truth and soberness. In a work gotten up by the Central railroad of New Jersey, in 1891, I read the following: ' Mauch Chunk is in the very heart of the anthracite coal regions, and is also the birthplace in America of the black diamonds.' Considering that coal was discovered on the Susquehanna in 1762, and on Bear mountain, nine miles west of Mauch Chunk, in 1791, Mauch Chunk is a queer kind of a birthplace. It goes on the principle, claim everything for Lehigh. "What surprises me, is that nothing in particular is claimed for the Schuylkill region. About all the worthies who make up tables and pyramids are Pottsville gentlemen, like Bannan, Daddow, Sheafer, et al. They are probably not familiar with the history of the State, and least of all, with the coal trade and its beginning in the Wyoming region. With a new generation of better informed gentlemen Wyoming will probably have justice done her in the future." Mr. Stewart Pearee says that Col. George M. Hollenback sent two four-horse loads of coal to Philadelphia in 1813, and that James Lee, during the same year, sent a four-horse load from Hanover to a blacksmith at Germantown. The blacksmiths of this region early learned the use of anthracite coal. Ob^- diah and Daniel Gore were smiths, who came from Connecticut as early as 1768 and became owners of coal lands near Wilkes-Barre. As a local fact it may here be parenthetically stated that Jesse Fell was the first to burn coal in the county in a grate as common house f ael, and the pioneers who came here and found the coal knew nothing of its history in other places and that so far as using it for domestic purposes or in grates, they made their own experi- ments, and in this line Mr. Fell was the successful leader. Mr. Culp, however, gives many reasons for his belief that it was first burned in grates in Wilkes-Barre by Jacob Cist. There are authentic letters showing that anthracite coal was suc- cessfully burned in grates in Philadelphia in 1802 and in 1803. He further says that it was burned in grates in Wilkes-Barre from 1803 by Mr. Cist, and continu- ously since. The prolonged and very uncertain controversy on the first discovery of coal in this section seems a matter of difficult settlement. In regai-d to the finds of Gin- ter and others, there are of course fictions always creeping in, and what is true and what is not is now difficult of ascertainment. The claim made for Philip Ginter is,' that being a poor pioneer hunter, by accident he discovered coal where a tree had been torn up by the roots in a storm, in the year 1791. It is said this was the first of its known existence in that locality near Mauch Chunk. This may all be true, but it is strange, to say the least. Obadiah and Daniel Gore had used coal in their smithy in Wilkes-Barre as early certainly as 1770, twenty years before Ginter' s find. They found this coal a fre- quent outcrop about the foot of the hills around Wilkes-Barre. It was well known there was plenty of coal here in the Wyoming valley as early as 1766, and it was known in Bucks county as early as 1760 — thirty-one years before Ginter' s discovery. The record evidence of its existence in Wyoming is in an official letter to the proprietaries, Thomas and Richard Penn, Spring Gorden, London, by James Tilgh- man, their agent at Philadelphia. In his letter to the Penns, after much other busi- ness he says: "He went up the northeast branch as far as Wyoming, where he says there is a considerable body of good lands and a very great fund of coal in the hills which surround a very fine and extensive bottom there. This coal is thought to be very fine. With his compliments he sends you a piece of the coal." " The bed of coal, situated as it is on the side of the river, may some time or other be a thing of great value. " This letter is still extant and in excellent preservation. To this Thomas Penn /iV/yCCn (fu, tc- V Ci^ . A^XJ^yy^ HISTORY OP LUZERNE COUNTY. 277 replies, dated Londoa, the following November 7, and says: "I desire you will return my thanks to Col. Francis for his good services, etc., and for the piece of coal which -^e shall have examined by some persons skilled in that article." The correspondence on the subject seems to have terminated just here, no doubt owing to the overthrow of the rigid denomination of the Penns about that time. Charles Stewart made a careful survey of this section in 1768, and on his survey he marks a large tract of land on the west side of the river opposite Wilkes-Barre, " stonecoal." Bituminous coal in Pennsylvania was discovered in quantity on the Conemaugh river below Saltzburg as early as 1750. John David Schoepf , in his Travels, mentions a visit in 1783 to a bed of brilliant black coal one mile above Wyoming, which on handling leaves no taint and burns without emitting an offensive odor. It is found here on both sides of the river and in various parts of the valley. He mentions in Jacob's plains, a spring on the sur- face of which floats a tenacious fatty matter, depositing a yellow sediment. He conjectured it came from the neighboring coal beds. Then William Sculls' map of the country where is now Pottsville, made in 1770, marks coal lands at this point. W. Penn Miner states it as a curious historical fact that one of the strong induce- ments to the early use of coal in the house was that the crude grates, often the open wood fireplace where coal was mixed and burned with wood, allowed much of the sulphur fumes to escape in the room, and this proved a remedy to the seven-year itch that prevailed quite common at that time. Soon after its first use it was observed that the luxury of scratching gave way to the coal burning, and suffer- ers were soon well, and to this day have remained so. Crandall Wilcox, as early as 1814, sold coal from his mine on Mill creek. Plains township, at $8.50 per ton in Marietta, Pa. His sons at a much later date sent coal in arks to market by the river, even after the canal was completed to Nanti- coke, in 1830. Col. Lord Butler owned that wonderful development of anthracite on Coal brook, a mile east of the borough, afterward known as the Baltimore mine, which supplied Wilkes-Barre in early times. The coal was quarried and delivered at $3 per ton. Col. Washington Lee sent several hundred tons from his mines in Hanover in 1820, which sold in Baltimore at $8 per ton. In 1823 Col. Lee and George Chahoon leased a mine in Newport, and contracted for the mining and delivery of 1,000 tons of coal in arks at Lee's ferry, at $1.10 per ton, the coal selling at Columbia at a loss of $1,500. In 1829 the Butler mine on Coal brook, near Wilkes-Barre, was piirchased for Baltimore capitalists, being originally incorporated as the " Baltimore & Pittsburg Coal company.' ' From this company the coal takes its name, which has given a wide reputation as one of the finest veins of anthracite in the region. It first shipped coal in arks. The Stockbridge mine in Pittston sent coal down the river in arks in 1828, furnishing about 2,000 tons in three years. Joseph Wright had shipped coal from Pittston in 1813. This was probably the son of Thomas Wright, who had a forge on the Lackawanna near the crossing of the main road to Providence, and well understood the value of coal and coal lands. The place is still known as "Old Forge." It was among the earliest tracts to change hands from original owners, having been sold by the heirs of Thomas Wright to a Mr. Armstrong, of Newburg, and Hon. Charles Augustus Murray, a gentleman from England. It was said that the location of Scranton hung in the balance at one time between "Old Forge" and " Slocum Hollow," the latter with its blast furnace and iron ore beds securing the prize. „ ,, ^ , ., xr , In its issue of April 26, 1837, the Kingston paper says of the trade: Up to April 17 fifty arks had been despatched from Plymouth, averaging sixty tons each. In 1824 the State provided for the survey of a canal route, or the exploring by 278 HISTORY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. commissioners of the coal lands on the route from Harrisburg to Pittsburg. About the same time the National road starting at Baltimore was commenced to make a national road west to St. Louis. Everything at that time was directed to the western trade, while the boundless wealth of this section slept, and was unknown and unheeded. In time with the awakening of systems of internal improvements would appear articles in the newspapers or pamphlets calling public attention to the north branch of the Susquehanna. In 1791 the legislature appropriated money to improve this river, and make it easily navigable. In 1792 an appropriation was made for a road from " Metchunk mountain to Nescopeck," and another from Wilkes- Barre to Wyalusing. But in the idea of the proposers of these improvements there is no hint that the coal of this section was wanted. The first lock on the canal was laid at Harrisburg in 1827, and three years later the canal was completed to Nanticoke dam, and Hon. John Koons, of Shickshinny, built the boat " Wyoming," towed it to Nanticoke, where it was loaded with ten tons of coal, and after a long, tedious and difficult journey landed its cargo in Philadelphia. On its return trip, with fifteen tons of merchandise, it was frozen up, and the goods had to be carried to Wilkes-Barre on sleds. The next year, 1831, the " Luzerne" was built opposite Wilkes-Barre, and with a cargo of coal proceeded to Philadelphia under Capt. Derrick Bird. This boat made the first successful round trip to Philadelphia, loaded each way, in 1834. At this time arose the serious question of shipping the coal northward from this point, and a struggle of twenty years finally ended in building the canal to the canal at Elmira, N. Y. In the fall of 1856 trade to New York was opened, and that year 1,150 tons were shipped, which in 1859 had increased to 52,000 tons. In 1840 the board of managers of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation company deemed it a matter of sufficient importance to order the publication of the history of coal in this section. In that account two different hunters, at different places but about the same time, discovered important outoroppings in the year 1790. [There is now little doubt that these outcroppings had been found before this date by pioneers. — Ed.] But the two hunters who were credited with calling others' attention to the find were Nicho Allen and Philip Q-inter — the former found his on Broad mountain and the latter on Bear mountain, nine miles west of Mauch Chunk. The account says Philip Ginter informed Col. Jacob Weiss of his find. When Col. Weiss received the pieces of coal from the hunter he took them to Philadelphia and submitted them to the inspection of John Nicholson, Michael Hillegas and Charles Cist, who authorized Col. Weiss to satisfy Ginter upon his pointing out the precise location of the coal. These gentlemen united with others in forming the coal mine company, but without a charter. Mr. Maxwell includes the eminent financier of the Revolutionary war, Robert Morris, among the active patrons of the early improvement of the Lehigh, but mention of his name does not occur in the early histories within reach. Jacob Cist, a gentleman of unusually solid and brilliant scientific attainments, who had in early life removed to Wyoming, was a son of Charles Cist. In 1813 he united with Charles Miner, editor of the Gleaner, aud John W. Robinson, all of Wilkes-Barre, in the lease on the Lehigh. Stephen Tuttle was a fourth. Isaac A. Chapman, afterward editor of the Gleaner, and author of an early history of Wyoming, was at one time associated in the enterprise. He was an engineer with Milnor Roberts and Solomon W. Roberts on the upper division of the naviga- tion under Cahvass White, and died at Mauch Chunk while in the company's service. A curious old contract of January 27, 1815, "between Charles Miner of the one part and Benjamin Smith and James Miars of the other part, witnesseth that the said Smith and Miars have agreed to haul from the great coal bed near the Lehigh, commonly called the Weiss bed, to the landing near the Lints place, sixty tons of stone coal by the first day of April, 1815." HISTORY" OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 279 There is also a memorandum, signed and sealed by Philip Heermans, agreeing to build arks in a workmanlike manner, ready to run by the first spring freshets in the Lehigh, ten arks for $400. "Said Charles to find all the materials on the spot; to haul the timber, board the hands, and to furnish them a reasonable quantity of whisky. Wilkes-Barre, November 23, 1814." A note added— "Mr. Heermans was a very clever fellow and had built the arks previously used." The company's history says: "Only |4 was paid for hauling the coal over the road before referred to, and the contractor lost money. The principal part of the coal which arrived at Philadelphia was purchased at |21 per ton by White & Hazard, who were then manufacturing wire at the falls of the Schuylkill. But even this price did not remunerate the owners for the losses and expenses of getting the coal to market, and they were consequently compelled to abandon the prosecution of the business, and of course did not comply with the terms of the lease. " The venerable James A. Gordon wrote from his home in Plymouth to the Wilkes- Barre Record of the Times, February, 1874, his recollections of this early Luzerne enterprise on the Lehigh: "On the 17th July, 1814, with Abail Abbott, Stern Palmer, Strange H. Palmer (another printer), Thomas P. Beach, Joseph Thomas, Chester Dana and Josiah Hor- ton shouldered knapsacks and tools for a march to the Lehigh to build arks for Messrs. Cist, Miner and lilillhouse (Hillegas?). ' ' Four arks were ready for loading by the first freshet. The estimated cost of fifty tons, one ark load of coal, was: Mining, $50; hauling from summit, $4.50 per ton, $225; cost of ark, $125; loading ark, $15. Total, $415. "Lehigh pilots were on hand. The fleet moved off with the rapid current, and in fifteen minutes brought up on a reef called 'Red Eocks,' half a mile below. One ark got through. In the ensuing December peace was declared, and coal went down to $6. The enterprise was a financial failure." Miner, Cist & Robinson made heroic endeavors to make mining coal a success, but their failure was complete and their time and money losses heavy. Their lease of coal lands expired by non iiser. The Lehigh Coal Mine company being wholly dis- couraged executed a lease to White, Hunt & Hazzard, for a term of twenty years. Li 1813 Mr. Miner was publishing The Gleaner in Wilkes-Barre; and in a long editorial article from his pen, under date of November 19 and the head of "State Policy," he urged with great zeal the improvement of the descending navigation of the Susquehanna and Lehigh rivers. He then said: " The coal of Wyoming has already become an article of considerable traffic with the lower counties of Pennsyl- vania. Numerous beds have been opened, and it is ascertained beyond all doubt that the valley of Wyoming contains enough coal for ages to come." He then goes on to speak highly of its quality, and says further: " Seven years ago our coal was thought of little value. It was then supposed that it could not be burned in a common grate. Our smiths used it, and for their use alone did we suppose it serviceable. About six years ago one of our most public spirited citizens made the experiment of using it in a grate, and succeeded to his most sanguine expectations. '' Again, in the same paper, issued on the 31st of December, 1813, in an article headed ' ' The Prosperity of Philadelphia," Mr. Miner wrote of the objects to be accomplished for her advantage: 1, The connection of the waters of the Chesa- peake and the Delaware — since accomplished; 2, The connection of the Schuylkill with the Swatara — since much more than accomplished by the Union canal; and 3, The opening of a communication from the Susquehanna to Philadelphia by a road or railway from Wilkes-Barre to Lehigh, and thence by that river to the Delaware, and thence to Philadelphia. "I have visited," he said, "Lausanne and a number of other places on the Lehigh, having particularly in view to ascertain the real situation of its navigation." . Then, in the next issue of the same paper there is another editorial by Mr. Miner, headed " Navigation of the Lehigh," and occupying two and a half 280 HISTOEY OF LUZEBNE COUNTY. columas of the paper. In it he wrote earnestly and at length as to the merits of our coal as well as to the improvement of the Lehigh. Upon this point he printed in italics the following sentence: "I say with great confidence, this is the course pointed out by Nature for the connection between the Susquehanna and the Dela- ware-" and experience has since verified its truth. He then urged upon the public the improvement in question, on the ground of the comparatively small expense it would require. He was too sanguine, as the event has proved. On the contrary, he then said: " Our public improvements must grow with our growth and strengthen with our strength. We can not expect in this young country, having so many points to improve, to equal the old and more populous countries of Europe. I appeal to the judicious men who have witnessed the failure of our grandest plans, if they have not miscarried because they were disproportionate to the necessity and the ability of the country;" and he closed this part of the subject by saying, "I hope our grandchildren may live to see a complete railway from this place to the Lehigh, and a canal from thence to Philadelphia." This is an interesting passage. It would be interesting to know just how many of Mr. Miner's readers understood at that day what a railway was. There was not then a railway in existence — save the "tram roads" in and about the mines of New- castle — and to those who understood this how much like the merest vagaries of the imagination must Mr. Miner's confident hope have seemed. And yet it has been more than realized. His grandchildren have indeed not only lived to see that very railroad and canal completed, but he lived to see it himself, finished and in use; and more than this— he lived to see not only that particular railroad and canal, but also eight other railroads and two other canals diverging from this valley to the great coal marts of the country ! But the result of Mr. Miner's investigations, and of his explorations of the Lehigh at that early day, was the hope that even then coal could be got down the Lehigh river to Philadelphia in arks from Mauch Chunk; and in December of 1813 he, in company with Messrs. Cist and Eobinson, of Wilkes-Barre, leased the mines at Mauch Chunk and made arrangements to try the experiment. Mr. Eobin- son withdrew early from their company. Mr. Miner for a number of years represented old Luzerne (then embracing all of northeastern Pennsylvania) in the legislature of the State. Subsequently he repre- sented Lancaster, Chester and Delaware counties in congress; having for his colleague James Buchanan. Jacob Cist, who was associated with him in their Mauch Chunk enterprise, was the son of Charles Cist, who with Robert Morris and others had formed the Lehigh Coal Mine company. He came to this valley in his youth, and commenced the mercantile business in Wilkes-Barre, bnt he was devoted to scientific studies and held a wide correspondence with scientific men. He understood better than any other gentleman of his day the geology of this region. Highly appreciating its coal, and clearly foreseeing its importance, he was ever ready to promote it appreciation abroad; and great reason have his respected descendants in this valley to bless his honored memory, his sound judgment and far-seeing forecast, verified in his short life by his wise and ample provision for them in the purchase of coal land. After many and varied experiences, generally marked by sad failures, but these came upon men of unconquerable purposes, at length, March 13, 1837, the company was chartered to build a railroad connecting the Lehigh na,vigation with the north branch of the Susquehanna. The Lehigh & Susquehanna railroad was completed in time for the shipment of 5,800 tons of coal from Wyoming in 1846. The Beaver Meadow railroad, chartered in 1830, was finished in 1836, extending from the Beaver Meadow coal basin, which is partly in Luzerne county, to its shipping point on the canal six miles below Manch Chunk, a distance of twenty-five miles to Parryville, the real opening of the Eastern Middle coal district — the rich mines in HISTOEY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 281 the mountainous regions lying on the south line of the county. These coal fields are distinct from those of the Wyoming valley. The Hazleton railroad, commenced in 1836, connected with the Beaver Meadov? road at Weatherly, half way to the Lehigh, and the Hazleton coal was shipped on the canal at Penn Haven. The old "planes" are seen as you pass the mouth of the Qaakake creek at Penn Haven, decaying relics of the past, in the midst of the progress bustle and active business rivalry of competing railroads of the present; instead of the lonely wilderness described by Josiah White in 1818, when with Erskine Hazard they "leveled the river from Stoddardsville to Easton, the ice not having all disap- peared, there being no house between the former place and Lausanne, obliging us to lie out in the woods all night." He further says there were but thirteen houses, including the towns of Lusanne and Lehighton, within sight from the river, and for thirty-five miles above Lusanne there was no sign of human habitation. At the close of the year 1873 the coal lands of the Lehigh company were leased to the Lehigh & Wilkes-Barre Coal company, which was formed by the consolida- tion of the Honeybrook Coal company and the Wilkes-Barre Coal & Iron company at a minimum rental of 1500,000, on a royalty of twenty-one per cent, of the price of coal at Mauch Chunk. This included lands in Luzerne as well as on the Lehigh. The great financial failure of Jay Cook & Co., in' 1873, forced the New Jersey Central railroad into the hands of a receiver; the canals were abandoned and the Lehigh coal lands reverted to the original owners. Asa Packer, native of Connecticut, a carpenter by trade, settled in Susquehanna county, whither he had traveled on foot from his eastern home, when a young man, found work upon the Lehigh, where his keen foresight had play and his great energy of character and indomitable will found material to work upon. He acquired coal prop- erty and projected a railroad to carry his coal to market from the Hazleton region. Following the river, his line absorbed the Beaver Meadow road, already in operation from Parryville to Penn Haven, where it received coal from the now abandoned planes. Crossing the Lehigh at that point, the towing path of the upper navigation occupying the west bank, his road followed on the east side to a point opposite White Haven, where by a substantial bridge it joined the Lehigh & Susquehanna railroad at its southern terminus, and thus had uninterrupted communication by rail with the great Wyoming coal field, and transportation without transhipment to tide water. All this was not accomplished without opposition, and when, after the disastrous flood of 1862, which swept away the upper division of its navigation, the Lehigh Coal & Navigation company decided to abandon the water and extend its Lehigh & Susquehanna railroad from White Haven along its towing path to Mauch Chunk, the head of its canal, competition between the companies developed into keen rivalry for room and right of way along the narrow passes where there had been scant room for a tow path. The Lehigh Valley company, crossing from the east to the west side above Mauch Chunk, occupied available space by numerous sidings to accommodate its growing trade from the Quakake branch at Penn Haven, and the Lehigh & Susquehanna road had to draw upon the east bank of the stream at low water for material to make room for its tracks in the channel, alongside its rival. The Lehigh Valley company met this new project by pushing the road north- ward from White Haven to Wilkes-Barre in 1866, competing with the Lehigh & Susquehanna road for through freight. A little incident, exciting at the time and now amusing, will show to what heat the friction of jarring interests had carried the immediate contestants. The Lehigh Valley road united with the Lehigh & Sus- quehanna road at grade, the bridge having been been built, of course, with a view to amicable trade. A long construction train of gravel cars crossed the bridge one evening, and was shunted upon the rival road with tools of all kinds, ready to begin operations on the new road, the high blufE on the White Haven side at the crossing 282 HI8T0BY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. precluding any other arrangement. In the early morning an energetic employe of the Navigation company observed this intrusion, and taking an old locomotive up the track with a full head of steam, he let it loose upon the innocently offending train, and butted it into the Lehigh, a heap of ruins. The immediate result is not remembered, but it is a curious fact, illustrating, perhaps, the admiration of Judge Packer for pluck and energy, that the chief responsible actor in that day's drama has almost from that time been in the service of the Lehigh Valley Eailroad company. The navigation company improved the planes at Solomon's gap, and for con- venience of returning trains of empty ears, light freight and passenger traffic, made a light track for locomotive power from the head of the planes north by the Laurel Run gap and back to the foot of the planes, a distance of thirteen miles, to overcome the steep mountain grade by the planes, some three miles. The steepest grade of the back track is ninety-six feet to the mile. It was considered by many to be an almost impossible feat in engineering, but it was successfully accomplished under the supervision of Dr. Charles F. Ingham, of Wilkes-Barre, an able and experienced engineer. In 1833 the legislature appointed Messrs. George M. HoUenback, Andrew Beau- mont, Henry F. Lamb, W. S. *Ross, Charles Miner, Samuel Thomas, Joseph P. Le Clerc, Elias Hoyt, Benjamin A. Bidlack, E. Carey, Bateman Downing, Ziba Bennett, Jedediah Irish, Thomas Craig, Azariah Prior, Daniel Parry, Lewis S. Coryell, Joseph D. Murray, John C. Parry, William C. Livingston, Benjamin W. Richards, Robert G. Martin, Joshua Lippincott and Lewis Ryan, commissioners of the Wyoming & Lehigh Eailroad company, who employed Henry Colt and Dr. C. F. lagham, civil engineers, to examine the route through Solomon's gap and report. The elevation of the summit above the borough of Wilkes-Barre was found to be 1,251 feet, and above the Lehigh 604 feet, and the distance between the two points about fourteen miles. Grading for a double track was recommended, with a single track at first. ■ The commissioners, in an address to the public, say: "Persons of intelligence and capacity to judge estimate that 200,000 tons of coal and 3,000,000 feet of lum- ber, at least, will pass along this road to New York and Philadelphia from the vicinity of Wilkes-Barre, which now remain undisturbed where nature placed them, and the great and increasing trade of the Susquehanna, which now goes to Balti- more, will be diverted to New York and Philadelphia." At that day, with rails of wood covered with a flat, strap-iron rail, operated by horse power, solid road beds were not so necessary as they are now. The Little Schuylkill railroad ran a light locomotive on such a track, but not with success. So, too, the Delaware & Hudson Canal company, with its first imported locomotive, a mere teapot in comparison with those of modern pattern, failed, because too heavy for the road. These estimates, ridiculous as they seem in the light of modem experience, were in accordance with the necessities of the times and the prospects they had qf accom- plishing a deliverance in that direction. The coal trade of the year preceding did not reach 300,000 tons from all the regions. The year before the company put their road under contract the trade was nearly 700,000 tons. From the beginning the course of the anthracite coal trade has seemed to baffle all calculations, and those who look back see many wrecks, while in danger them- selves of meeting the same fate, from want of faith in the future. The failure of a loan in England to meet the cost of improvements to make good Its loss of the upper navigation, arid the sums thrown away in useless opposition to its rival roads, overwhelmed the Lehigh Coal & Navigation company, and its works passed into other hands, to be resumed as already stated. A modicum of the good sense of tne early projectors might have shown them that there is room enough and market enough tor all, and that competition for the coal trade must be open for the benefit ot those most interested, the consuming millions scattered over the broad union of HISTOEY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. 283 States, from the great lakes to tbe gulf, and from the Atlantic far beyond the Mis- sissippi, even to the Pacific ocean. The Wyoming coal field is the largest and most northern anthracite basin of Pennsylvania. In area it is something under 200 square miles, or about 127,000 acres. It is about fifty miles in length and about an average of four miles in width, and extends from a point above Beach Grove, on the west side of the river Susque- hanna, having a course about northeast, to its terminus a few miles above Carbon- dale. Resting on the conglomerate rock of bright pebble stones cemented together, which lies in a cradle of red shale, its boundaries are easily traced along the out- croppings on the Kingston mountain on the west and the Wilkes-Barre mountain on the east, while the sinclinal axis or trough, dipping under the river, is carried deep below the rough hills of the lower townships, rising gradually with an irregular formation like solidified waves, until its measures thin out and disappear along the head-waters of the Lackawanna river, having the shape of a vast canoe. The Susquehanna forces its way through the western boundary at the middle of the basin, where it receives the waters of the Lackawanna, which have traversed the upper regions of the basin's trough, and together they leave it at Nanticoke, taking a western gorge to Shickshinny, where the stream curves and crosses the lower point of the coal formation on its course to the ocean. The cluster of small basins in the southern townships of Luzerne county, which are opened by the Lehigh improvements, belong to the second or middle coal field. While Josiah White, Erskine Hazard and other enterprising citizens of Phila- delphia were seeking the black diamond among the rugged hills of the Lehigh to its upper waters in Luzerne county, and were solving the problem of its value as a fuel, other Philadelphians were exploring the northeastern borders of the county for mineral coal, and the passes of the Moosic mountain to find an outlet by the waters of the Lackawaxen and Delaware rivers to eastern markets. Mr. William Wurts was the pioneer " who first conceived the idea of transporting coal of the Lackawanna valley to market by an eastern route." A note to an article on the Delaware & Hudson Canal company in The National Magazine, August 1845, for which acknowledgments are due to Mr. Charles P. Wurts, of New Haven, Conn., says: " With such views, as early as 1844, and while that valley was yet an unbroken wilderness, without road or bridle-path above Providence, he explored it and the passes of the Moosic mountain to find an outlet to the Lackawaxen and the Delaware rivers, selecting and purchasing such coal lands as were most eligibly situated in reference to that object." On March 15, 1823, Maurice Wurts and John Wurts, who had conceived the bold enterprise of constructing a railroad and canal to their coal lands on the Lack- awanna river in Luzerne county, procured from the legislature of Pennsylvania an act authorizing Maurice Wurts of Philadelphia, his heirs and assigns, etc., to enter upon the river Lackawaxen, or any streams emptying into the same, "to make a good and safe descending navigation at least once in every six' days, except when the same may be obstructed by ice or flood," from near Wagner's gap in Luzerne, or Kix's gap in Wayne county, to the mouth of the said Lackawaxen, " with a channel not less than twenty feet wide and eighteen inches deep for arks and rafts, and of sufficient depth of water to float boats of the burthen of ten tons." Certainly a modest beginning. Forty two days after this act of assembly was approved at Harrisburg the legis- lature of New York passed "an act to incorporate the president, managers and company of the Delaware & Hudson Canal company," for the expressed purpose of forming a water communication between the rivers Delaware and Hudson, so that a supply of coal might be obtained from large bodies of this valuable article belong- ing to Maurice Wurts, of the State of Pennsylvania. 284 HISTORY OF LUZEKNE COUNTY. By an act of the Pennsylvania legislature approved April 1, 1825, and an act of the New York legislature of April 20, 1825, the two companies were consolidated and reorganized in this state as the " President, Managers and Company of the Del- aware & Hudson Canal company;" with power to construct and maintain such railways or other devices as may be found necessary to provide for and facilitate the transportation of coal to the canal. Soon after the consolidation of the companies work was begun, and ground broken July 13, 1826. Parts of the New York section upon which work was first commenced were being finished when the contractor began work on the Pennsyl- vania section, which runs from Honesdale to the mouth of the Lackawaxen, a distance of twenty-five miles, at which point it is joined to the New York section by an aqueduct over the Delaware. The length of the canal from the Delaware to the Hudson is eighty-three miles, making the total length of canal from Honesdale to Eondout 108 miles. The act of assembly of April, 1825, at the same time authorized the company to assume all the rights originally granted to Mr. Wurts. The State had reserved the right to resume all the rights and privileges granted at the expiration of thirty years from the date of the law of March 13, 1823, without compensation to the company if the tolls received had already repaid the original cost of the canal, with six per cent, upon the capital invested. The sites of both Honesdale and Carbondale were in the natural state of our northern wilderness when ground was broken for these canal improvements. Carbondale in 1828 contained one log cabin, built to shelter Mr. Wurts in his early explorations. Honesdale has long been the county seat of Wayne county, a populous and flour- ishing borough. It was named from the first president of the company, Philip Hone, Esq. The Delaware & Hudson Canal company's trade at first was feeble, and anthra- cite as difficult to introduce in New York as it had been in Philadelphia. Mr. John Wurts, many years afterward president of the company, wrote to Mr. Charles Miner, of Wilkes-Barre, a long and interesting account of his efforts to introduce coal upon boats on the Hudson to generate steam as motive power where wood had been used as fuel. It seems strange at this time that a city having constant com- munication with Liverpool and Glasgow should have had such strong prejudices against coal, or so little knowledge of its use. True, improvements in making coke and the discovery of applying the hot blast to the hard coal of Wales were just beginning to revolutionize the iron trade in England. It was not till 1833 that the introduction of hot blast to the furnaces on the Clyde reduced the cost of pig iron more than one-half. Then, wood was still cheap in New York. Not a boat could be prevailed upon to give it a fair trial, or voluntarily to lose a day for the purpose of testing this stone coal. The greatest concession gained was permission to work at night, while the boat was lying idle, in fitting the furnace at the company's risk, and in furnishing coal for the experiment on one of the small day boats. This was at last accomplished, and the fact demonstrated that coal was good to generate steam. In 1835 it was deemed an experiment of enough importance to receive special mention in the New York Journal of Commerce under the head, " Steam by Anthracite Coal," that the new steam ferry, " Essex," had been fitted up with Dr. Nott's patent tubular anthracite coal boiler, to use Lackawanna coal. The boat contracted for all its coal at $4 a ton. The active competition between the Schuylkill canal and the Beading railroad, approaching completion in 1841, so reduced prices that permanent enlargement of the Delaware & Hudson canal was hastened to lessen cost of transportation and meet this competition. But it was not enough. Canals had their day and were out of fashion. The long, cold winters of northern climes, where the bright fires of anthracite coal are most needed to cheer the lengthened nights, render canals use- HISTORY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. '287 less more than half the year by their frosts, and the Delaware & Hudson canal com- pany, with an annual trade exceeding 3,000,000 tons, having reached the maximum capacity, controlled the trade on lines of railway leading from the heart of the Wyoming coal field to Canada, opening directly the very best prospective markets in the world, with numerous connections east and west at all important points along its route, insuring an almost unlimited demand for the products of its mines. Like an oasis in the desert, the Pennsylvania Coal company through all the mis- fortunes and depressions of the coal trade, maintained its position as a dividend- paying corporation, and held its stock above par. The reader will not confound this company with the Pennsylvania Eailroad com- pany, which is now enrolled among the coal-transporting companies in this region, operating under the charter of the Susquehanna Coal company on both sides of the river at Nanticoke, and which owns that portion of the old North Branch canal from Northampton street, Wilkes-Barre, south. The subject of this sketch was originally engrafted upon the Delaware & Hudson Canal company, the ambition of which was limited in extent of its landed posses- sions and powers of expansion by restrictive clauses in its charter. Two charters were procured from the legislature of 1838, both approved April 16. "The Washington Coal company" was probably organized first, and on April 1, 1849, was authorized to sell and relinquish its property to the Pennsylvania Coal com- pany, under which title the two were consolidated, and afterward absorbed the rights of the Wyoming Coal association, chartered February 15, 1851. Large tracts of land were purchased in certified Pittston township on the Sus- quehanna, and in Providence and Dunmore on the waters of the Lackawanna. A double track railroad was made, the cars propelled by stationary power and gravity by a series of inclined planes a distance of forty miles. Ground for this road was broken in 1847 and it was finished in 1850. The loaded track, as it is termed, or the track upon which the loaded cars are run, started two miles below Pittston, on the Susquehanna, with a plane upon which the coal from the Port Griffith mine was hauled, and a train of cars made up at the summit run by its own gravity to the town of Pittston, again to the foot of No. 3 at Pleasant Valley, and so on to Hawley, on the Hudson & Delaware canal, tapping in its course its mines in Luzerne, and on the Lackawanna, in the present county of that name. The return track carried the empty cars back to Port Griffith, dropping the proper proportion at the different mines in its westward course. As a coal company, looking to large markets and to profits on coal far beyond the capacity of its canal, it was wise to be seeking new markets and encouraging the trade by every opportunity which presented. This foresight has been of great service to the Pennsylvania Coal company. When coal sold at $2.50 at Eondout this company paid no tolls, but when the price was above the sum one-half the increase was charged as tolls on the Delaware & Hudson canal. This arrange- ment, with the favorable terms for transportation on the Brie road, has given the company important advantages over rival companies. Without the heavy cost of locomotive railroads, owned or leased, or large indebtedness to draw interest from its treasury, it has been able to make dividends which sent its stock up to two hun- dred and eighty per cent, while other stocks were below par in the markets. In 1850, the year the gravity railroad was opened, it was credited with 111,194 tons upon the Delaware & Hudson canal. Mr. William E. Griffith, a gentleman of wealth visiting Wyoming valley, became interested in its coal deposits, and was chiefly instrumental in promoting the organi- zation of the Pennsylvania Coal company, and in selecting its coal lands. The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western railroad was merged in the Lackawanna & Western Eailroad company, and the corporate name changed to the name, style and title of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western in 1851, and with other small 288 HISTOKY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. charters and connections, uniting like mountain rills with larger streams, this great ■work was enlarged until it has become a thoroughfare tojc coal tonnage and for gen- eral transportation of freight and passengers from New York city to the far West and Northwest. _ , , , , , , , It is not many years since the valley of Wyoiping was likened to that happy vale in the kingdom of Amhara, surrounded on every side by mountains, in which "Rasselas, prince o'f Abyssinia, was confined in a private palace, with the other sons and daughters of Abyssinian royalty, till the order of succession should call him to the throne." Col. William L. Stone, in the preface to his pleasant book. The Poetry and History of Wyoming, published in 1841, says: "The happy valley to which the illustrious author of Easselas introduced his reader in the opening of that charming fiction was not much more secluded from the world than is the valley of Wyoming. Situated in the interior of the country, remote from the great thoroughfares of travel, either for business or in the idle chase of pleasure, and walled on every hand by mountains lofty and wild, and over which long and rugged roads must be traveled to reach it, Wyoming is rarely visited, except from stern necessity. And yet the imagination of Johnson has not pictured so lovely a spot in the vale of Amhara as Wyoming." Col. Stone had a rough journey over the mountains in the stage coaches, comfortable as they were to the mountaineers, as those who read the notes of his visit in 1839 will remember. But he had the full benefit of the glorious vision which bursts upon the traveler who, after a tedious day's ride from the Delaware, over Pocono and through the " Shades of Death," reaches the summit of the mountains bordering the valley on the east. Sweet vale of Wyoming! whose Gertrude was once embalmed in every heart of cultivated Europe by the pen of Campbell, now deemed worthy of mention in modern guide books. Has the romance departed from it with the retiring red man? and even the Gertrude of Halleck, seen on the next field, with Love darting eyes and tresses like the morn, Without a shoe or stocking, hoeing corn, been driven out by flying trains of cars crossing its center on tracks leading north and south, east and west, from Baltimore to Boston, from New York to Niagara, and from PJiiladelphia to Saratoga and to Portland ? A mile east from the main road leading from Wilkes-Barre to Carbondale — not far from Providence Corners, then often called Razorville from the sharpness of its tavern keeper or of the winds which, sweeping the mountain gorges, occasionally blew his house and his sign post over — in a quiet nook on Roaring brook lay "Slocum Hollow," named from its proprietor, one of a large, respectable and influ- ential family of the valley, who had there his farm and mill, and it may be a small furnace. Mr. William Henry, a gentleman of experience in ores and metals, came through Cobb's gap from the iron lands of New Jersey on a prospecting tour, and finding iron ores and coal convenient began the manufacture of pig iron, the power of the stream furnishing blast for his furnace. George W. Scranton with his Yankee brothers had migrated from Connecticut and settled at Oxford, N. J. , when young, and there engaged in the iron business. He visited Slocum 'Hollow and, like Mr. Henry, whose daughter he had married, also became interested in these ore and coal beds; and soon perceived with prophetic eye what capital, energy and enterprise combined might produce from this wilderness. Of commanding presence, strong will and persuasive manner, with but a common-school education, his per- ceptions of business and of character were quick and clear. He went to New York and laid his plans before the money kings, and soon had capital at his locomotive wheels captive in the beech woods. The dam on Roaring brook was first too small and then too large. Then the furnaces became too large, andthe steam engine had power enough to provide blast for several furnaces; but as it is the coal trade and not iron that is the subject of this sketch, each reader will visit Scranton and note the result for his own satisfaction. HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 289 At the Delaware Water gap the railroad from Scranton united with the Warrea railroad, by which it reached the Central railroad of New Jersey at Junction in 1856, together forming the highway for Scranton coal to tide at New York. The Central railroad, feeling too independent with its immense tonnage, by insisting onv terms of renewal of contract, drove both the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western and the Lehigh Valley railroads from it; the one to the Morris & Essex road, which was continued toEaston, crossing it at Washington, N. J., and the Lehigh Yalley con- structing a new line from Phillipsburg to Elizabeth alongside of and in direct com- petition with the Central, which was compelled to join fortunes with the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company and the Lehigh and Susquehanna road of the Navigation company to gain its coal tonnage. It was short-sighted policy all round and led to disaster, but served ultimately to greatly increase the coal trade. In early days Cobb's gap on the east and Liggett's gap on the west smiled at each other over Providence and the Capoose meadows, a little north and east of Hyde Park and Slocum Hollow, both the prospective courses of possible grade for such small locomotives as were then constructed. Col. Scranton loved to tell of the look of incredulity which met his assertion that the time would come when the coal trade by these routes would reach hundreds of thousands of tons, and require so many loco- motives — not one-third the number employed when he told it. Upon the comple- tion of his line to New York Col. Scranton attended a meeting in Philadelphia for the first time to consult upon the prospects of the trade for the coming season. The estimated increase was about 400,000 tons. Mr. Scranton suggested in behalf of his company, just entering business, that a fair share of the prospective increase, at least at eastern points, should be conceded to it. Without vanity, he was a proud man, and met the uncalled-for assumption that with the heavy grades of his road through Cobb's gap he would not be likely to unsettle the trade with surplus of coal with a quiet determination to let them see what could be done; and their esti- mated increase was far exceeded, with a decided reduction in prices. The northern division of the road, through Liggett's gap, joined the Erie rail- road at Great Bend in 1851. Col. Scranton represented this district in the thirty-sixth congress. Re-elected to the thirty-seventh congress, he died in Scanton, March 24, 1861, aged fifty years, mourned by hosts of friends who honored and loved him. Slocum Hollow became Scrantonia, then Scranton, its forges and furnaces illu- minating the night, and the sounds of its hammers and rolling mills making vocal the air with their music. Now the seat of justice of the new county of Lackawanna, it remains a fitting monument to the memory of its founder. Among the oldest of the operators was Ario Pardee, of Hazleton. In the list of operators A. Pardee & Co., Pardee Sons & Co., C. Pardee & Co., Pardee Brothers & Co., Gr. B. Markle & Co., Coxe Brothers & Co., J. Leisenring & Co., Linderman, Skeer & Co. , all became widely known. The Hazleton district is geologically the eastern middle basin, and in the coal trade is the Lehigh district. In this district are the Grew Mountains, Black Creek, Hazleton and Beaver Meadow mining districts. Demand and Supply. — It will be noted by the intelligent observer of the coal trade as it has passed ' into history that with the opening of every new line for coal transportation to competitive markets they have been overstocked, and prices reduced below the point of fair profit, until the demand grew to meet the supply. Increasing consumption secured better prices, with failure of adequa,te supply and larger profits, until new mines were opened and increased transportation, furnished by the completion of new lines of roads or canals, repeated the experience. Through all the depression the consumption of anthracite coal fell little, if any, below 20,000,000 tons per annum. As the demand for manufacturing purposes failed new markets were found, and notwithstanding hard times and many reverses 290 HISTOBY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. the termination of each decade has registered a substantial increase. In 1830 the total amount of anthracite sold was 174,734 tons; in 1840, 364,384; in 1850, 3,358, 890; in 1860, 8,513,123; in 1870, 15,848,899; in 1879, 26,142,089. The increased trade was not wholly occasioned by the revival of manufacturing industries. The demand for domestic sizes of anthracite throughout the western States has been rapidly increasing, chiefly supplied from this region. The sales of the Delaware & Hudson Canal company in the West reached nearly half a million of tons in 1879. The Lehigh Valley railroad and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad company, with more direct communication over their main lines, must have equaled if not largely exceeded it. A revolution in this western trade was effected in the use of box cars of through freight lines for transportation of anthracite, the cars upon reaching their destination being swept out and loaded with grain in bulk for eastern markets or for exportation. With full loads each way transportation is so cheapened that anthracite is being used all through the West in competition with the bituminous coals which underlie any of the farms of those who use it. An important question presents itself: Are the anthracite coal fields approach- ing the maximum of production ? More than thirty years ago gentlemen conversant with the subject estimated the limit of anthracite production at from 25,000,000 to 30,000,000 tons per annum. But a very important change in the trade must be taken into the account since those estimates were made. Thirty years ago the size known as chestnut coal was not marketable. At auction sales in New York years ago that size commanded the highest price in the market. Then pea coal and other sizes smaller than chestnut could not be sold at cost of mining. There are eight large transporting companies dividing the anthracite coal lands. They are the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad company, the Lehigh Valley Railroad company, the Central Railroad company of New Jersey, the Del- aware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad company, the Delaware and Hudson Canal company, the Pennsylvania Coal company and the New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad company; the railroad companies operating under charters incor- porating coal companies controlled by them. There are few properties of any profitable size yet remaining not directly or indirectly at the mercy of these large corporations. The prices paid for coal lands in the northern or Wyoming coal field when the trade was small were very low, often less than 1100 an acre for those in choice posi- tions but yet undeveloped. The farmer who owned a large tract, from a few acres of which he succeeded in gathering a frugal subsistence with hard labor, felt rich if he could sell 400 acres for |20 or $30 an acre and buy a much better farm in the growing West for half the money. Much of course depended on the prospects of early development of the coal and the opening of ways to market. Few of them had much faith in the coal, which had never done any good to the neighborhood; and they only valued the surface as yielding fair returns for labor bestowed. With tew wants, the farmer out of debt was rich. w/^^" Pennsylvania Coal company purchased the greater part of its best lands forty years ago, at prices ranging from $75 to 1200 per acre, farms and all. When he ^nr.lT" T" ^^''^''^'l' f^b^bly 1300 per acre was paid to close and connect the surveys. Some years after, for small tracts from which they could take the coal pairwhic7wo:rr'\''"'''f T.^'^^- ^^'^^^ P^^- ^°- ^- -P-ted TtieXe when 7he c„«n« \ TTu\^^^ ''"'"P"'^^ ^""^""S ^^^ °°^1 ^^^^ «t onc^ than $200 when the coal lay untouched by the miner's pick or drill irom^heZll'Z^^^-^'lT" T^ ^' •?""'^ *" H^^^«^°° t,A, HISTORY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. 337 The death of his father, the losses and sacrifices in the Eevolutionary contest — for the savages and tories spared nothing of theirs when they swept the valley by fire and sword — left him poor at the close of the war, and imposed the necessity of con- stant industry. Children and grandchildren, among the most respectable in the valley, are living and growing up around him, and may be'proud to claim descent from such ancestors. Without being wealthy, he was comfortable in his old age. No one taking a livelier pleasure ia beholding the freedom and prosperity of his beloved country, the fruits of his father's and his own toils and sufferings. Eare indeed is the case presented of a son serving through the whole Revolutionary contest, and of his father serving several years and laying down his life in.the same noble cause. Verily the services and the blood of the Ransoms have been a portion of that seed from which have sprung up the independence, freedom and prosperity which make happy our favored land." To this account Mr. Miner added the following note: " 1845. Col. Ransom is still in the enjoyment of very tolerable health, except his lameness, though his age is eighty -two. A grandson, Greorge Palmer Steele, has just closed his term of office as sheriff of Luzerne. Capt. Ransom, his father, was born in Canterbury. He and Capt. Durkee had both been in the old French war. Durkee, at the time of his death, was fifty, Capt. Ransom forty-one.' Col. Durkee, an older brother, who is frequently spoken of, 1769, and afterward as colonel of one of the Connecticut regiments, died at Norwich, more than forty years ago, and was buried with extraordinary display." He died at his home in 1850, at the green old age of eighty-seven years. Sergt. Thomas Williams. — Of the descendants of this border hero was the late Ezra Williams, of Plains; his daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth A. Stewart, was the mother of Mrs. George B. Kulp, of Wilkes-Barre. Robert Williams emigrated to this country from England in 1637 and located in Roxbury, Mass. Ezra's grand- father, Thaddeus Williams, removed to W^yoming valley from Connecticut at an early day ; driven from here after the invasion in 1778, and his house and property destroyed. He afterward returned and settled in Wilkes-Barre. In 1790 he was a resident of Weston, Conn.; died April 11, 1796. His wife, Frances Williams, nee Case, of Hartford, Conn., died in August, 1815. Thomas Williams, son of Thaddeus, was born in Fairfield county, Conn. , Janu- ary 19, 1756. Fired by the love of liberty, participating with the patriotic spirits of that day, who were indignant at the encroachments of England upon the rights of America, he was among the first that joined the standard of his country at Wyoming when the recruiting banner was unfurled by order of the continental congress. Mr. Williams was in constant service till the end except when allowed to return on furlough (which was a frequent practice in the service), when a brother or friend took his place for a season. Thus at one time Mr. Williams' brother, Isaac, took his place for a month or two. The year of the massacre Isaac Williams and John Abbott were ambushed by the savages, and both murdered and scalped, near Mill creek. Isaac was only eighteen when he fell. He was fearless and active, ardent and patriotic. It is impossible, even at this late day, to think of his melan- choly fate without the most painful emotions. He fell in the bloom of youth, in the dream of a most promising manhood. But these were times of great trial and suf- fering. The deprivation of those nearest and dearest was a source of ordinary affliction. It was the common lot. In March, 1779, the spring after the battle, a large body of Indians came down on the Wyoming settlements. So broken were our people by that fatal invasion that they were few in number, weak and illy pre- pared for defence, although a body of troops was stationed in the valley for protec- tion. The savages were estimated to exceed 400 men. They scattered abroad over the settlement, murdering, burning, taking prisoners, robbing houses and driving away cattle. After doing much injury they concentrated their forces to 18 338 HISTOEY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. make an attack oq the fort in Wilkes-Barre, situated on the river bank, just in front of the present residence of Hon. Stanley Woodward. Thaddeus Williams, father of Thomas Williams, occupied a house not far from where the late Judge Fell lived (near the corner of Northampton and Washington streets), and who for many years kept a public house. The Indians deemed it important to take this house before the attack on the fort should be made, and a detachment of twenty or thirty was sent for that purpose. It happened that Sergt. Williams was then at home. His father was unwell in bed. A lad, a younger brother of twelve or thirteen, was the only other male person with them, so that the task of defending the house fell entirely on Sergt. Williams. The odds were fear- fully against him, the chances of success or escape desperate, but the call of duty to defend his parents from the tender mercies of the savages was imperious. He had been out in the service, and was familiar with danger. Naturally brave, being young aad ardent, he resolved to do his utmost, and he did his duty like a hero. There were three guns in the house, all charged. The lad was directed as he fired to reload the pieces as well as he could, which the little fellow faithfully did. The enemy rushed up to the door, but it was barricaded, so that they could not force it open. Sergt. Williams, aiming through the logs, fired, and one of the enemy fell, when they fled, with a hideous yell, dragging away the wounded Indian. But, rallying again, they rushed up, surrounded the house, and several found places through which to fire. The sick father received by a ball a severe wound in the side, but Sergt. Williams was not idle. He fired several times, was certain of bring- ing another down, and thought a third, when the party again retreated. The next time they came on with brands of fire, and the fate of the besieged seemed almost certainly sealed, but Mr. Williams, getting sight of the savage who had the brand, took deliberate aim and fired. The savage fell, and his companions, dragging him away, with terrible yells, withdrew, and Williams was victorious. There is no doubt that the lives of his parents and the whole family were preserved by his courage and spirit. It was a glorious afPair, and reflects on Mr. Williams the highest honor. How many he slew could not be known, as the Indians make it a point to carry off their dead, if possible. After the savages retired from Wyoming, Mr. Williams rejoined his company, and continued in the service till the close of the war. Thus, in the Revolutionary contest, the father was vyounded, a brother was slain, and Mr. Williams himself served in the regular army for several years, besides defending the house against a formidable attack. Thomas Williams married, in 1782, Elizabeth Robertson, of Bethel, Conn. He lived at Danbury, Conn., until the spring of 1790, when he removed again to Wyom- ing, living until his death in the present township of Plains, rearing a family of six sons and four daughters, of whom Ezra was the third son. The following obituary notice is from the Republican Farmer and Democratic Journal of November 20, 1839: "Died, at his residence iu the township of Wilkes-Barre (now Plains), on November 12, 1839, Thomas Williams, one of the oldest and most respectable inhab- itants of the valley. The whole life of Mr. Williams has been an eminent example of industry, sobriety, usefulness and patriotism worthy to be followed by all. He bore an honorable part in the Revolutionary struggle, and to the end of his life has manifested a live devotion to the cause of liberty, to which he devoted the prime of his days. He has reared a numerous and respectable family, wrho are justly esteemed for their intelligence and excellent moral character, and who on all occa- sions have shown an ardent zeal in support of the principles for which their father fought. He rests with his compatriots who have gone before him, whose memories are embalmed in the hearts of freemen. ' ' OA ^7m ™^°[^^^^« 'i native of Luzerne county, where he was born September ™' V i' ?f died September 21, 1844. He married in February, 1818, Mary Black daughter of Henry Black, of Bucks county. The maiden name of Mrs Black HISTOEY OF LUZEBNE COUNTY. 339 was Catharine Schattenger. Mrs. Williams was born February 27, 1792, and died July 10, 1869. The Dana Family. — Pre-eminent among the many noble and patriotic people of Luzerne the name is immortally linked with that of Wyoming. Here was a race of men and women that would have ennobled itself in any place or time by its imper- ishable works; to-day but few are better known throughout the land. Anderson Dana, Sr., was from Ashford, Windham county, Conn., a lawyer, the pioneer in the profession here, who, by his wise counsels, at once took a prominent place in the affairs of the people. A Puritan of the strictest sect, he was the strong friend and advocate of the church and school. He looked to the education of the young as of the first importance, and hardly had he cleared away the first trees around his cabin when he sent his eldest son, Daniel, to school at Lebanon to prepare for a regular col- lege course. He was sent by the people to the Connecticut assembly at Hartford, from which he hastened to his home at the threatened invasion, and at once mounted his horse and rode over the settlement, rousing the people to prepare for the impending attack. [Mrs. J. R. Coolbaugh, of Wilkes-Barre, one of the descendants, informs us that Mr. Mine^ is mistaken on this point; that he reached home after a long, hard ride from Hartford, only in time for a hasty repast, when he went to the battle-field in the line. — Ed.] By law exempt from military duty, as a citizen volun- teer he was the first in the bloody conflict where his noble life was a sacrifice to the great cause. With him, and who fell by his side, was his son-in-law, Stephen Whiton, the noble young schoolmaster who had been married but a short time. The widowed mother and daughter, even in that awful moment, had no time for despair. Mrs. Dana, with a thoughtfulnesS unequaled, knowing that, as her hus- band was much engaged in public life, his papers must be valuable, gathered up all she deemed most important, and, with her children, fled. Her husband's papers that she had hastily put in a pillowslip she carried on her back to Connecticut. Something of their value may now be known when it is told that these papers were the foundation title to much of the lands in the valley. These papers lost could never have been supplied, and the rightful owners of millions of dollars worth of these rich acres would have been cheated of their rights. Of these children was Anderson, a lad aged nine (thirteen ?) all the male protector they had. The poor, distressed fugitives eventually found their way to their former Connecticut home, where Anderson was apprenticed and Daniel was in time sent to college, the women and children by their labors paying therefor. Daniel Dana became a lawyer, set- tled in New York and became one of the most eminent in the State. Anderson Dana, 2d, completed his apprenticeship and returned to Luzerne to recover the patrimonial estate, and on the old homestead spent the remainder of his long and most honorable life. Prosperity, wealth and troops of friends were his. He made of the old Dana homestead one of the finest possessions in the county; the family mansion a landnjark, and, in time, near the north line of the farm was the "Dana academy." Through this property was built the canal, and, in time, the railroad; the growth and sj)read of Wilkes-Barre made the broad acres in demand for building lots. From his old family Bible, now in the possession or Mr. Clarence Porter Kid- der, of Wilkes-Barre, is taken the following as entered therein in the neat and exact hand of Mr. Anderson Dana: « "Anderson Dana, born August 11, 1765; married Sarah Stevens; their chil- dren: Amelia, Laura, Asa S. (father of Judge Edmund L. Dana), Sarah, Fran- cis, Louisa, Anderson, Eleazer, Sylvester, Mary and Charles. " Mary married Lyman Church Kidder. " Anderson Dana died June 24, 1851, aged eighty-six." The son above named, Asa Stevens Anderson, was the father of Edmund L. Dana. The latter was born January 29, 1817, and spent his life here. He was a 340 HISTORY OF LUZEBNE COUNTY. lawyer, and, while still a young man, rose to the head of his profession. He was made one of the judges of the common pleas court, succeeding Judge Henry M. Hoyt in 1867. For many years he was widely known throughout the country for the strength and legal acumen of his decisions, and the published reports were accepted by the bench and bar without question. He was married in 1842 with Sarah Peters, daughter of Ralph and granddaughter of Hon. Richard Peters, of Philadelphia. , , . ,, . , Sylvester Dana was another of the children that the heroic mother earned across the " Shades of Death." He devoted his life to the ministry of his beloved church; was the pastor in charge in Concord, N. H. Bleazer Dana was the youngest; became a lawyer and for many years practiced in Owego, N. Y. Hon. Amasa Dana, of Ithaca, N. Y. , a grandson, was in congress several terms during the forties. The posthumous daughter of Stephen Whiton was born several months after the flight from Wyoming; was married with Capt. Hezekiah Parsons, who was, during a long life, one of the prominent and influential men of the county. An account of the Parsons family is given elsewhere, but it may be hfere mentioned as a curious fact following in the long results of that awful day at Wyoming that Mrs. Heze- kiah Parsons, even late in her old age, could never hear the report of firearms with- out being thrown into the most painful state of nervous excitement. The Hardings. — "Remember the fate of the Hardings" was the inspiring cry of the patriots as they went out to battle on that historic day, July 3, 1778, and patriots died with these words on their lips, that will go ringing down the tide of history. ' ' The fate of the Hardings ' ' was a cruel one, indeed, but has left the oppressed of the world a watchword for all time and climes. There were nine of the Hardings who were here, and early and active partici- pators in the struggles of the day: Abraham Harding, Capt. Stephen Harding, Israel Harding, Henry Harding, Oliver Harding, Benjamin Harding, Stukely Hard- ing and Stephen Harding, Jr. The last named, though at the time but a lad, was in some of the bloodiest of the many of those dark days. To this long list of the family Mr. Miner adds that of Elisha Harding, who lived here to an advanced age, and of whom he, over his new-made grave, used this expression: "One of the very few who were left among us who shared in the scenes and sufferings of Wyoming in the Revolutionary war, his departure creates a painful chasm, and compels the remark: ' A few years more and none will remain who can say: "I was there." The Hardings came from Connecticut in 1770 and settled in old Exeter town- ship. The very women and babes of this family were sturdy pioneers and patriots. When the Wintermoots in the early times erected their fort, the Hardings and Jenkinses deemed it best to erect one near, but above it. Of the work Upon this fort, Elisha Harding, who was then a lad of thirteen, born in Colchester, Conn. , in 1763, and came with his family in 1770. Mr. Miner says: ' "Young Harding, then a boy too young to lift logs, had yet the true blood flow- ing in his veins; he could drive oxen; and he worked at the stockade with the spirit of youth and ardor of patriotism. This was in 1777. In November of that year John Jenkins, Jr., was taken prisoner by the Indians and carried to Niagara. A Mr. York aud Lemuel Fitch were taken off at the same time. An old man named Fitzgerald was also made cajftive. The enemy placed him on a flax-brake and gave him his choice — to die, or renounce his whig principles and swear alle- giance to King George. The reply is worthy of preservation in letters of gold: 'I am an old man— I can continue but a few years at most, and had rather die now, a friend to my country, than have my life spared and be branded with the na me of tory I ' He was a noble fellow. And they had the magnanimity to let him go. " The troubles, which may be said to have begun with the captivity of Jenkins, HISTOEY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 341 now thickened around the settlement. In May, 1778, William Crooks and Asa Budd went up the river and stopped at John Seoord's house, where Crooks was shot by the enemy, and Budd escaped. Was not the blood of Crooks the first shed at Wyoming? The people now repaired to the forts for safety. At Jenkins' fort were the family of that name, the head of which was John Jenkins, a man dis- tinguished in his day by intelligence, zeal for liberty, and extensive influence. In May, 1777, he had been elected a member of assembly to Connecticut, from West- moreland. He was the father of the Mr. Jenkins Avho was a prisoner; and after- ward through the war a brave and active officer. Here were Capt. Stephen Harding, Benjamin, Stukely and Stephen Harding, Jr., William Martin, James Hadsall, Sr. and Jr., Samuel Morgan, Ichabod Phelps, Miner Robbins, John Gardiner, Daniel Weller and Daniel Carr, with their women and children. " On June 30 the men left the fort and went up the river a few miles to work among their corn; they were ambushed by the savages, and six of them slain. Those who fell were Stukely Harding and Benjamin Harding, brothers of Elisha; Miner Robbins, James Hadsall, James Hadsall, Jr. , and a colored man named Mar- tin. The British Butler said our men fought as long as they could stand; when found their bodies were shockingly mangled — full of spear lioles — their hands and arms cut, as if an attempt had been made to take them prisoners, and they had resisted to the last. Daniel Weller, Daniel Carr and John Gardiner were taken prisoners. Mr. Harding, of whom we write, used to say that in all his life he never saw a more piteous scene than that of Mr. Gardiner taking leave of his wife and children. After the battle he was allowed to see and bid them farewell, when he was driven off, led by a halter, loaded almost to crushing with plunder. He seemed an object of particular spite, probably arising from the revenge of some personal enemy. ' Go — go, ' was the Indian's command. On the way, a few miles west of Geneva, he became worn-out — fell, and was given up to the squaws, who put him to death with cruel torture. " The day before the battle Jenkins' fort capitulated to a detachment under Capt. Caldwell, and young Harding was among the prisoners. As suspected. Winter- moot's fort threw open its gate to the enemy. On July 3, in the afternoon about 1 o'clock, word came up to Jenkins' fort that the Yankees were marching out to battle and all the warriors must go down to Wintermoot's to meet them. The issue is known. The next day young Elisha describes the savages as smoking, sitting about, and with the most stoical indifference scraping the blood and brains from the scalps of our people and straining them over little hoops to dry — a most soul- sickening sight. Among the expelled he sought his way to Norwich, Conn., bound himself to the blacksmith's trade, and despising idleness and dependence, nobly resolved to live above the world and want by honest industry. Married, settled, having an admirable farm, and he a first-rate farmer, comfort and independence flowed in upon him, crowned his board with plenty, and gave him the means of charitable usefulness in reward for early toils and present labor. "A man of strong mind and retentive memory, he read much and retained every- thing worth remembering. Shrewd, sensible, thoroughly understanding human nature, few in his neighborhood had more influence. A justice under a commission from Gov. Mifflin, he rendered useful service as a magistrate for a long series of years. Of a ready turn of wit, an apt story — an applicable Scripture quotation — a couplet of popular verse, always ready at command, rendered him a prominent and successful advocate in the thousand interesting conflicts of opinion that arise in life. A keen sarcasm — severe retort — an unexpected answer that would turn the laugh on his opponent, characterized him, but never in bitterness, ior he was too benevo- lent to give unmerited pain. Of old times he loved to converse, and his remarkable memory enabled him to trace with surprising accuracy every event which he wit- nessed or heard during the troubles here. He could describe every house and farm, 342 HISTORY OF LUZEKNE COUNTY. and name every farmer from the lower to the upper line living in Exeter before the battle, although but a lad of twelve or thirteen. " A very worthy, a very clever, a very upright man, he leaves the world respected and regretted. Thick set, not tall, but well knit together, he seemed formed for strength and endurance; of an excellent constitution, well preserved by exercise, cheerfulness and temperance, he had known but little sickness. A year ago, 1839, the last time I had the pleasure to see him, his mind seemed in full vigor, and he gave promise of many years of life and enjoyment." He died in August, 1840, the result of a sudden attack of apoplexy, at the age of seventy-five years. In a foot note Mr. Miner says: " There was not a family in the country more ardently devoted to freedom than the Hardings. Those who fell at Exeter were taken to the burying ground near Jenkins' ferry and interred. Over their graves Elisha Harding erected a monument. On it is this: 'Sweet be the sleep of those who prefer death to slavery." Thus, four of the Hardings were in the Exeter massacre — two of them killed — and four, namely, Henry, Stephen, Oliver and Israel, were members of Capt. Durkee's independent company. So prominent was this family in the history of the early days, that the- main facts are necessarily given in preceding pages. For later facts concerning the pos- terity the reader is referred to the biographical part of this work. Sills. — This family came to Wyoming in 1770, Mr. and Mrs. Sill and two young sons, EliBha Noyes Sill, aged nine, and Shadrack, younger. The family came from Lyme, Conn. Mr. Sill built the second house in Wilkes-Barre, where of late years has stood the dwelling of the late Col. Welles, and in this house was the first wed- ding — a sister of Mr. Sill with Nathan Denison, as related elsewhere. Another of Mr. Sill's sisters soon after married in the same house, Capt. John P. Schott. In 1776 Elisha N. Sill, then aged fifteen, enlisted in Capt. Durkee' s company, and soon after his brother Shadrack became a member of the same company. Hon. Charles Miner relates meeting Dr. E. N. Sill at Hartford in 1839, when he described the Millstone battle, in which the Sill brothers participated, correcting the current accounts of historians, or supplying any notice of that event as had most of the chroniclers of the day: "The two companies (Wyoming) which were there alone were out on parade, before sunrise ; we saw the British coming over a rise of ground from toward Brunswick, artillery and infantry. Their numbers being too great, our companies retreated about half a mile. The enemy came out with a train of wagons for flour. While retreating we met Col. Dickinson with the New Jersey militia; our troops wheeled and all now charged the enemy, and a short fight put the British to rout." The two Sills continued in the service in Spalding's company to the close of the war. Shadrack lost his health and was home on a furlough at the time of the Forty fort battle and fled with the exiles. In October, 1779, he removed to Connecticut with his father's family, became a physician, lived to an old age a useful and much respected citizen. Dr. Elisha Noyes Sill died at Windsor, Conn., May 24, 1845, aged eighty-four. Athertons. — There were two branches of this name that were among the earliest of the comers to Wyoming. The names of James and John Atherton are recorded as of the forty who came in 1762-3 and settled at Kingston. They were the first of the pioneers, and of those who, as Mr. Miner says, were double sufPerers. It seems that James Atherton returned after the massacre, and, undaunted, commenced again the work of clearing the wilderness. In the list of the slain of the Wyoming battle appears the name of Jabez Atherton. Their arms essayed with other patriots to defend their country; their blood enriched its soil, and, as Mr. Miner well says, it is right to record that their descendants are in the full' possession and enjovment of the fruits of their father's toil, enterprise, bravery and sufperings. " In passing HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 343 through Kingston not far above the residence of Col. Denison, looking to the left, you may see embosomed in trees in a most romantic situation a neat dwelling, the farmhouse of a beautiful plantation. Intermarried with a daughter of the late Gen. Koss, here resides a descendant of one of the early settlers. The farm extending from the river to the mountain yields abundance, and it is a pleasure to add that it is the seat of intelligence and hospitality." Jonathan Fitch was the first high sheriff of Westmoreland county, Conn., when that was the description of this part of Pennsylvania. He was the only man in the one large company of fugitives after the battle who fled across "The Shades of Death." He is mentioned here chiefly because he was one of the early and influen- tial colonists. He was four times chosen a member of the Hartford general assembly. He probably never returned to this place after he conducted the women and children in their flight. At all events, in 1789 he is known to have settled on Pitch's creek, near Binghampton, N. Y. He was a man of high culture and refinement; became in time one of the judges of the court of New York. The Durkees. — Maj. John Durkee had been in Col. Lyman's regiment at the taking of the "Havana." He is named in our annals as heading a party of the first emigrants in 1769-70. Arrested by Capt. Ogden and sent to Philadelphia, several months' imprisonment extinguished his ardor for the settlement of Wyoming, aod he returned to Norwich. His name stands on the old records as one of the original forty settlers in Kingston. On the breaking out of the Revolutionary war, Maj. Durkee entered zealously into the contest. A paper published September, 1774, announces, "On Sunday morning 464 men, well armed, and the greater part mounted on good horses, started for Boston, under the command of Maj. John Durkee." Subsequently, in a subordinate station, he was with Putnam in the battle of Bunker Hill. Commissioned a colonel of the Connecticut line, on the continental establishment, this "bold Bean Hill man," as he was sometimes called, "accompanied the army to New York, fought at Germantown,' ' and continued to serve with rep- utation to the close of the arduous struggle. He died in Norwich at his residence on, or near, Bean Hill, in 1782, aged fifty-four years. Military honors were accorded at his funeral, and the display on a similar occasion in that city had never been surpassed. It is evident he left property in Wyoming. Thomas Dyer, Esq. , many years afterward, took out letters at Wilkes-Barre, and administered upon his estate. That Robert Durkee, his brother, received a commission as captain of one of the independent companies; that when congress refused, notwithstanding its solemn pledge, to allow the soldiers to return to Wyoming, menaced as it was by impending danger, he, like Ransom, resigned his commission, and hastened home to defend his family; that he entered as a volunteer into the battle and fell, is all on record. His residence was in Wilkes-Barre on the main avenue, below Gen. Ross' farm. The ancient house is still standing — the property including the old stone wall near where the State road turns off. His widow married Capt. Landon, a respectable citizen of Kingston, and a surveyor. She died September 3, 1803, aged sixty-five. Amelia Durkee, a daughter, resided on the farm, and in August, 1804, married Philip Weeks (whose family were such terrible sufferers in the battle). Some years afterward they moved to Oquago, and so far as our knowledge extends the name in Wyoming has ceased to exist but in remembrance. He was the proprietor and founder of what is now the city of Wilkes-Barre — a place that for all time would have been signally honored to have borne his name. How striking it is in going over these ancient records that so few localities bear down to posterity the names and thereby the once green memories of those who were the actors, founders or creators of those very places or things that should most appropriately carry in their names the record of names that were not born to die. Gen. Simon Spalding is a name always familiar to those who know anything of 344 HISTORY OF LUZEBNE COUNTY. the early and trying days of Wyoming. A history of those troublous times are his record. In 1841 his son-in-law, Joseph Kingsbury, in a letter to Hon. Charles Miner, from Sheshequin, wrote of him as follows: "Gen. Simon Spalding was a native of Plainfield, Conn. He was born in 1741, inarried to Euth Shepard in 1761, and died the 24th of January, 1814, aged seventy- three. [I may add that, frequently visiting Sheshequin from 1800 to 1812, I often saw Gen. Spalding. He was a large man, of imposing and pleasing appear- ance. His merits and services deserve a much more extended memoir, and no one is more capable of doing justice to the subject than Col. Kingsbury. — Miner.] He was a captain in the Revolutionary war, and from good testimony, I have no doubt but that he was a brave officer. But Gen. Spalding, as a captain in the war, never had justice done to him. The affair of Bound Brook was a performance of his. He recovered the forage the British had gathered at the time, and took several prisoners. But just as the skirmish was over and victory secured, an officer of superior rank came up (I forget his name) and to him was the honor of the victory given, when he had no more to do with it than you or I had. Gen. Spalding first discovered this unjust account in Weems' little history of the Revolutionary war, and it morti- fied the real actor of the scene very much. "Gen. (then Capt.) Spalding was with Gen. Sullivan in his expedition into the Genesee country. In this tour he discovered and took a fancy to Sheshequin. On his return to Wyoming he made known his intention to settle at this place. In 1783, in company with his family and several of his neighbors at Wyoming, with their families, he removed from thence to Sheshequin. They arrived at this place on May 30. I have heard Gen. Spalding say that the Indian grass upon the flats at the time he came here, was aa high as his head when he sat upon a horse. These pioneers set fire to it, and such a fire was never seen before by any one present; it ran from one end of the intervale to the other, a distance of about four miles, and no doubt was very destructive to the animals which made their homes in its dense covers. " When the settlers took possession of Sheshequin there were a few Indian families resident upon Queen Esther's flats, and one family on this side of the river, but none of any note among them. These Indians proved very friendly, and the next year mostly moved off to the west. " Gen. Spalding was a man calculated to gain the love and esteem of even a savage. A better hearted man I was never acquainted with. He had a peculiar tact in pleasing the redskins and usually when passing through the place on treaty business to Philadelphia, he would set some sporting on foot. I remember of hearing it told of a feat performed by a couple of these redskins at a time when a large company of Indians were on their return from the city of Brotherly Love. They always made it a point to stop a night with their old friend, who never failed in providing them somethiDg to eat. At this time he selected two long-legged hogs and informed the chiefs that these hogs were a present for their supper and breakfast, on these condi- tions however: the Indians to select two of their fleetest runners, they to catch the hogs in a fair running race. This pleased the red men greatly. The young racers were stripped to leggins and clouts, armed with a scalping knife; the hogs turned loose on the flats and the sport began. Such ecstasy as the Indians and even the gathered pale faces were in at the rare sport, which lasted for nearly an hour. W„5°^' T/^ f^^lu^ *r T*^ ^°' *^"''" Pursuers. Once and a while the two- legged would ca ch the four-legged animals, when seizing them by the tail would be thrown sprawling or dragged a distance, and then on their feet again and the and ZT "' T •"' '^' f r*' "I '^^ «P««t«tors. Finally the hogs were killed, thrown on Z? ^'°^'\Z^\l°^^owed by the barbecue of the animals, which wer^ rnJ wir^ Z J^^^^r ''^•^ ^" " ^""^ ^^^"'y prepared for the royal feast. Capt. Wtlham McKeraohan was the first officer of the Hanover lompany. HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 347 Evincing at once a spirit of singular modesty and patriotism, he said to Capt. Stewart on the morning of the battle: "My pursuits in life have thus far been those of peace; you have been used to war and accustomed to command. On parade I can maneuver my men, but in the field no unnecessary hazard should be run; a mistake might prove fatal. Take you the lead; I will fight under you with my men as an aide or a private in the ranks. Your presence at the head of the Hanover boys will impart confidence." So it was arranged,, and they fell together. McKerachan was an Irishman, coming from Belfast in the summer of 1764, a young man; landed at Philadelphia, and taught school in Chester county at Nant- meal; thence to Bucks county, spent a year or two there and in New Jersey in teach- ing. He came and settled in Nanticoke in 1774, where for a period he taught school. In time he opened a store and purchased lands. A man much esteemed in his time; was commissioned a magistrate by the Connecticut authorities. He fell at the head of the column July 3, 1778, linking his name immortally with that of his adopted country as a noble sacrifice on the altars of its liberties. The Gores. — A family whose woes were a most important chapter in the suffer- ing and trials incurred in the establishment of a free country; a large family of big men, women and children, as patriotic and heroic as ever the sun shed light upon. Already much has been written of the different ones of the family in other portions of this book, but one can not refrain from here condensing into the briefest space what was written of them by Mr. Miner in the Traveller, and published in 1845: " Having given a sketch of the Bidlack family, it is proper to say that Bidlack's wife was a daughter of Obadiah Gore and a sister of Obadiah Gore, Jr., the latter so many years associate justice of Luzerne county. ' The family came from Norwich, Conn. At this time [1838] Mrs. Bidlack is eighty years old, but as 'active as at forty [she died soon after]; was twenty years of age at the time of the battle, and in the fort, and to the day of her death was considered the clearest authority on those things that came under her eyes at that bloody day." Then speaking of the terrible sacrifices, Mr. Miaersays: "Take the instance of the Gore family: The old gentleman was one of the aged men left in Forty fort for its defence. He was a magistrate under the Connecticut authority. His eldest son, Obadiah Gore, was lieutenant in the service and in the line before New York. In the battle of July 3, 1778, were his sons, Samuel Gore, Daniel Gore, Silas Gore, George Gore, Asa Gore — the father in the fort, and five sons marching out to the conflict! Nor was this all. John Murfee, who married a daughter of Mr. Gore, was also in the ranks; and Timothy Pearce, another brother-in-law, having ridden all night, came in and joined our army in the battle-field. Thus there were seven in the battle, while an eighth was in service with the regular army, and it proved a most bloody and disastrous day to the family. At sun setting five of the seven were on the field, mangled corpses. Asa and Silas were ensigns, and were slain, George was slain, Murfee was slain. Timothy Pearce held a commission in the regular army, but had hurried in. He also was killed. Lieut. Daniel Gore was near the right wing, and stood a few rods below Wintermoot's fort, close to the old road that led up through the valley. Stepping into the road, a ball struck him in the arm ; tearing it from his shirt he applied a hasty bandage. Just at that moment Capt. Durkee stepped into the road at the same place. "Look out! " said Mr. Gore; " there are some of the savages concealed under yonder heap of logs." At that instant a bullet struck Capt. Durkee in the thigh. When retreat became inevitable, Mr. Gore endeavored to assist Capt. Dur- kee from the field, but found it impossible; and Durkee said, " Save yourself, Mr. Gore — my fate is sealed." Lieut. Gore then escaped down the road, and leaping the fence about a mile below, lay couched close under a bunch of bushes. While there, an Indian got over the fence and stood near him. Mr. G. said he could see the white of his eve, and was almost sure he was discovered. A moment after, a 348 HISTOEY OP LUZEKNE COUNTY. yell -was raised on the flats below, the Indian drew up his rifle andfired^ and instantly ran o£E in that direction. Though the wave of death seemed to have passed over and spent itself, yet Lieut. Gore remained under cover till dusk, when he heard voices in the road near him. One said to the other, ' ' It has been a hard day for the Yankees." "Yes," replied the other "there has been blood enough shed." He thought one was Col. John Butler, but could not say for certain. After dark Mr. Gore found his way to the fort and met his brother Samuel, the only survivors of the seven. The distress of Mrs. Murfee was very great. She feared her husband had been tortured. When she learned he fell on the field, she was less distressed; and, begging her way among the rest of the fugitives, traversed the wilderness and sought a home in the State from which she had emigrated, having an infant born a few days after her arrival among her former friends. The mother of the Gore family survived to see her remaining childi-en highly prosperous. Born in 1 720, she lived until 1804, when she died at the house of her son in Sheshequin, aged eighty-four years. In another chapter is an interesting account given by Samuel Gore of his part in the battle, embodied in his petition for a pension. Maj. Ezekiel Pierce, whom Mr. Miner designates as the ready penman, who wrote all the early records of Westmoreland town when this was a part of Con- necticut, came with his five grown sons in 1771. The sons were Abel, Daniel, John, Timothy and Phineas. In June, 1778, when the two independent companies were consolidated under Capt. Simon Spalding, Timothy and Phineas were com- missioned first and second lieutenants, Timothy being one of the three who rode all night and the next day to hurry to the battle and death on that fatal July 3. John was also slain at the same time. Abel, the father of Mrs. Lord Butler, became a prominent citizen here. His son Charles was killed while yet a lad in the bloody struggles of civil strife, over the possession of the soil in the valley. A daughter becaime the wife and widow of Capt. Daniel Hoyt, and was living in Kingston in 1845. The Finch Family. — Three of the Finch family — John, Daniel and Benjamin — were killed at the time of the invasion — two in the engagement, one murdered by the Indians the day previous near Shoemaker' s mill. Thomas Brown. — The names of Thomas Brown and John Brown are in the list of slain. Thomas, in the retreat, had nearly crossed the river, another person being in company. Overtaken by the enemy he was induced or forced to return, and on reaching the shore was instantly speared and tomahawked. His companion witnessed the deed but escaped. The particulars of the fall of John we have not learned. Daniel Brown, a brother, was then a lad in Forty fort. He now resides (1845) very independently near the Wyalusing, a neighbor to the gallant and fortunate Elliott, who escaped from the fatal ring with Hammond, having also near him Mrs. Wells, who was a Ross, and several other of the ancient Wyoming people. One of the stockades at Pittston was called Brown's fort, that family having erected it on their own land. Though not named, it is evidently referred to in the dispatches of Col. John Butler as one of the three that capitulated. Asa and John Stevens. — Asa and John Stevens are named in the old records as inhabitants of Wilkes-Barre as early as 1772. Rosewell Stevens was one of the patriotic soldiers that entered the service in Eansom's independent company. Asa Stevens was an officer holding the commission of lieutenant in the milit'ia, and was slain in battle. Like the Danas they were particularly distinguished by their zeal for the establishment of free schools, and the advancement of learning This congeniality of sentiment led to the most intimate connection — Anderson Dana ^■^^ ^y^y^^*^'' J^^°» marrying sisters of the Stevens family. Removing from Wilkes-Barre, Jonathan Stevens settled in Braintrim, and afterward in Bradford county, where, on the organization of that county, having long exercised with HISTOEY OF LUZEBNE COUNTY. 349 intelligence and firmness the duties of a magistrate, he was appointed one of the associate judges. Nathan Beach, of Beach Grove, for many years one of the most distinguished citizens of Luzerne, furnished Mr. Miner a brief sketch of his life. Mr. Beach •was a magistrate for many years, and for a still longer time postmaster at Beach Grove. In 1807-8 Beach and Miner represented the county of Luzerne in the assembly, then sitting in Lancaster. Eoom-mates as well as colleagues, a friendly intimacy commenced, which never suffered the slightest interruption. Active, enter- prising, having a mind quick to perceive, a memory extraordinarily retentive, and a faculty to communicate with remarkable clearness and spirit the incidents occurring in his eventful life, a more pleasant or instructive companion, in respect to ancient affairs, could rarely be met with. Even at the age of eighty-two (1845), his graphic account of the surrender of Cornwallis possessed more interest than any we have ever read or heard. Fortune has smiled on his exertions, and the poor exiled boy is now able to ride in his carriage and pair, abounding in wealth, still blessed with health, and buoyant in spirits, esteemed by a large circle of friends and acquaint- ances. "In the year 1769 my father removed with his family from the State of New York to the valley of Wyoming, now Luzerne county, where he continued to reside vrithin the limits of said county, until the 4th day of July, 1778, the day after the Wyoming battle. When the inhabitants, to wit, all those who had escaped the tomahawk and scalping knife, fled in every direction to places of security, about the first of August following I returned with my father and Thomas Dodson, to secure our harvest which we had left in the fields. While we were thus engaged I was taken prisoner by the Indians and tories; made my escape the day fol- lowing. In the fall of the same year, 1778, my father and family went to live at Fort Jenkins. I was there employed, with others of the citizens, and sent out on scouting parties by Capt. Swany, commander of the fort, and belonging to Col. Hartley's regiment of the Pennsylvania line, continued at said fort until about the first of June, 1779, during which time had a number of skirmishes with the Indians. In May, 1779, the Indians, thirty-five in number, niade an attack on some families that lived one mile from the fort, and took three families, twenty-two in number, prisoners. Information having been received at the fort. Ensign Thornbury was sent out by the captain in pursuit of the Indians, with twenty soldiers; myself and three others of the citizens also went, making twenty -four. We came up with them — a sharp engagement took place, which lasted about thirty minutes, during which time we had four men killed and five wounded out of the twenty-four. As we were compelled to retreat to the fort, leaving our dead on the ground, the Indians took their scalps. During our engagement with the Indians the twenty-four prisoners before mentioned made their escape and got safe to the fort. The names of the heads of those families taken prisoners as aforesaid, were Bartlet Ramey, Christo- pher Forrow and Joseph Dewey; the first named, Bartlet Ramey, was killed by the Indians. Soon after the aforesaid engagement, in June, I entered the boat depart- ment. Boats having been built at Middletown, Dauphin county, called continental boats, made for the purpose of transporting the baggage, provisions, etc., of Gen. Sullivan's army — which was on its march to destroy the Indian towns in the lake country, in the State of New York. I steered one of those boats to Tioga Point, where we discharged our loading, and I returned to Fort Jenkins in August, where I found our family. The Indians still continued to be troublesome; my father thought it advisable to leave the country and go to a place of more safety ; we left the Susquehanna, crossed the mountains to Northampton county, in the neighbor- hood of Bethlehem; this being in the fall of 1779. In May, 1780, the Indians paid a visit to that country, took and carried away Benjamin Gilbert and family, and several of his neighbors, amounting to eighteen or twenty in all. Said Gilbert was 350 HISTORY OF LUZEKNE COUNTY. of the society called Quakers. It was then thought expedient to raise a certain number of militia men, and establish a line of block-houses north of the Blue mount- ain, from the Delaware river near Stroudsburg in Northampton county to the river Schuylkill in then Berks, now Schuylkill county, in which service I entered as sub- stitute for Jacob Eeedy. In May, 1780, was appointed orderly sergeant in Capt. Conrad Bather's company, in which situation I served that season six months, as follows: Two months under Capt. Bather; two months under Capt. Deal; during this two months the Indians made an attack upon our block-house, at which engage- ment some of the Indians were killed; and two months under Capt. Smeathers. During the winter it was considered unnecessary to continue the service. In May, 1781, the forces were reorganized at the block-houses, where I served four months. In September of the same year I entered the French service in Philadelphia as wagoner, with Capt. Gosho, wagon master, and was attached to the hospital depart- ment; arrived at Yorktown, Va., the last of September, about three weeks before the surrender of Lord Cornwallis. I remained with the army in the neighborhood of Yorktown until June, 1782, at which time the. French army left Virginia for Bos- ton; arrived at Providence, State of Ehode Island, about in November; remained there until the first of February, 1783, when the army marched to Boston, and embarked on board of their fleet. I then returned to Philadelphia, Pa. , was dis- charged, and returned home after an absence of about eighteen months. I was born, says our family register, July, 1763, near a place now called Hudson, on the North river, in the State of New York. Have continued to reside within Luzerne county from September, 1769, to the present time, excepting five years as before stated. The Inmans, a family conspicuous in the days that were so dark and troubled here for the number of its name that gave their lives as a sacrifice. Five brothers went to the battle of Wyoming— two lay dead on the ground, three escaped, but Eichard, from overheat and swimming the river, returned home only to die in a few weeks from disease thereby contracted. There were seven brothers; two remained at home that day because they could not secure arms; one, Isaac, was nineteen and the other a mere lad, both of whom would have been at the bloody sacrifice except for the fact stated. The parents were aged at the time, and it was doubly necessary for the two youths to be with them, as the fates turned the battle and caused the fol- lowmg exodus. Elijah and Israel Inman were killed in the battle. Richard Inman saved the life of Rufus Bennett in the retreat by shooting the Indian that was in hot chase after him. Isaac Inman, the lad aged nineteen, spoken of above, was ambushed and -killed by Indians the following winter. He was at home and thought he heard wild turkeys calling, and took his gun to find them. In a short time the ^family heard shots and the boy never returned. The family then knew that the turkeys were Indians, and they could only hope their boy was a prisoner f^lr V, ,; ^fj^^"" ^^^ 'P'^°^ '^^'^^^^ ^^^y t^« ^'low- l^i« mangled body was ?J^^ K fvf^ l^ / ^AT ^"'^'^^'•ed «^d scalped. Here were four of the seven brothers dead by the hands of the savages. Richard Inman had certainly killed one Indian, m numhe?« 1™^°''^ ^^t ^''"^ ^''' '° ^^'' ^^'^ ^'^ '^''^'^ ^P ^^^ the savage in numbeis slam, because they were not cowards. Col. Edward Inman in 1843 was thrfXe'r Eliiah'T '"'^ '?T °?.f'.^ «ld homestead south of Wilkes-Barre where the tather, Elijah Inman, had settled. The latter died in February 1804 'aged eighty^six, and his widow Susan Inman, died in 1809, aged eighty eTght' ^ Shoemaker Farmly.-We give the verbatim account of the above familv as we find it in Mr. Miner's publication in the Traveller: ^ from ^he "enuJ 17ZT' before this beautiful mansion. A double house, set in floTersandsZbhervin^l f °^/ .^P^^^o^^^ yard, lofty shade trees, fruits, cocrsm^adinrhtl^ldrr^^'^^ profusion, yet nothing crowded! See that pea^ coci. spreading his golden honors as he moves upon the velvet lawn. Upon my word, HISTORY OF LUZEENE COUNTY? 351 this would be thought handsome in New Haven itself. Yes, and possibly the pattern may have been taken from that fine city, for the owner was educated at Yale! And is he a descendant from an old Wyoming patriot? Ay, by both sides of the house. The Hon. Charles Denison Shoemaker, son of the late Elijah Shoemaker, formerly sheriff of Luzerne, who, it will be recollected, was the son of Lieut. Benjamin Shoemaker, so treacherously slain by Windecker on the day of the massacre. Benjamin married the daughter of the good old Cameronian Scotchman, frequently spoken of in preceding pages. That the alliance is cherished as it should be is show by ' McDowal ' being given as a middle name by Sheriff Shoemaker to one of his sons. Elijah Shoemaker had married a daughter of Col. Nathan Denison, whose name is itself an eulogy, and synonymous with every manly virtue. ' ' In respect to the two grandfathers, our annals are so full as to leave no details necessary here, further than to say that their plantation was the original allotment of Mr. Shoemaker when, as one of the forty, he came in on the first settlement of Wyoming. Elijah, the father, added to it several lots. Between the avenue and the mountain, he held a mile square, bounded on four sides by roads, and subject, when the crops became inviting, to the depredations of cattle. During those summer months, just at dawning of day, you might see him mounted, two strong and favor- ite dogs his companions, starting for a four-mile ride round that favorite portion of his place. The early and stirring activity of the master kept alive a similar spirit in all around him, and it required the abundant product of his large plantation to support his numerous family and meet the demands which his hospitality and his too greatly obliging disposition made upon him. Every one who wanted a favor was sure of an obliging answer, and almost certain of aid from his purse, his granary, or his name. "After finishing his studies and graduating at 'New Haven, C. D. Shoemaker returned, and was soon after appointed prothonotary of Luzerne, subsequently judge of the county, which he held several years. Among the active business men of the county, he has several brothers, all in prosperous circumstances." Gen. William Ross. — Mr. Miner, in his Hazleton Travellers, points out this man's house as the " white house on the right,' ' property that was once owned and occu- pied by Col. Pickering, the most prominent man sent here by the Pennsylvania proprietaries in the early settlements to save this land from the encroaching Yan- kees, the same man who was kidnapped by the people and carried off to the mountains in retaliation for the arrest and imprisonment of Col. John Franklin. •Capt. Eoss marched his company in pursuit to release Pickering, and, coming upon the guard of the prisoner, an engagement took place, in which Ross was wounded. The wound was so severe that for some time his life was considered in danger, but on his recovery the executive council of Philadelphia presented him an elegant sword. The inscription on the sword states that it is for his " gallant services of July 4, 1788." When Pickering left the valley he sold his land to Col . Eoss, on easy payments, and, during the lifetime of the purchaser, it became of immense value. Two of Gen. Ross' brothers, Perrin and Jeremiah, were slain in the Wyoming battle. At the flight the family were scattered, passing through the wilderness in great privation and suffering, by different routes, young Ross, with his mother, taking the lower or Nescopeck way. Soon after the coming here of Spalding and his command, they returned. Having a taste for military affairs, he soon rose by regular gradation from major to brigade inspector, and then general in the militia. For twenty years he held the commission of a magistrate, and during the last war, 1812, was chosen to represent the district composed of Northumberland and Luzerne in the senate of the State. A strong-minded man, he had studied human nature in the school of active life to great advantage, and performed the duties of all the various stations to which he was called with intelligence and integrity. He 352 ifiSTOEY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. was tall, straight, extremely active; he started early and he moved fast who ever got ahead of him. A zealous Democrat, of ardent temperament, he was among the most influential leaders of his party, and most feared by his opponents. In 1803 or 1804, having so far made his payment as to feel the full force of independence. Col. Eoss resolved, with natural pride, and not an incommendable spirit, to visit his birthplace in Connecticut. Mounted on a high-spirited and elegant steed, black as jet, with holsters and pistols, his dress elegant, though unostentatious, he visited New London county, his native home. William Sterling Boss, an only son, now (1845) occupies the seat of his father in the senate of the State. Gen. Eoss had established a family burying-ground, in which he had erected a tablet of marble to the memory of his brothers. Having lived to the good old age of eighty-two years, on August 9, 1842, he closed his active and honorable life. Every fitting demonstration of respect was paid to his remains, the court adjourning to attend the funeral. One incident was too remark- able not to be noted. A thunder cloud arose above the Northeast mountain, a most unusual place, as the procession moved, aud cast its dark shadow over the plains. For some time the repeated peals of thunder were regarded as minute guns from the cannon placed in some proper position. , The cloud passed away without rain, and as the train arrived at the mansion house the sun came out again in all its brightness. Bev. Benjamin Bidlack. — In 1846, Mr. Miner informs us, this gentleman, though past his four score years, was living in Kingston, erect and active, with dignity and much grace, moving among his people, beloved and respected by all; still full of energy, full of ardor, glowing with patriotism, much as in his youQg days when he entered the army of liberty and fought for independeuce. He was at Boston when Washington assembled the first American army to oppose Gage; afterward at the lines before New York. A brother, taken prisoner at Log island, whom it was said was starved to death in chains. When Benjamin Bidlack' s term of service was out, he joined his father's family at Wyoming in 1777, and here at once was in active duty. He was with Capt. Asaph Whittlesey in his scout up the river. After this expedition he entered the reg- ular service and was in the army till the close of the war. Besides other engagements, it was his good fortune to be present at Yorktown and the surrender of Cornwallis. James Bidlack, Jr., another brother, commanded the Wilkes-Barre company, which he led into battle on the fatal 3d. He died where he stood, at the head of his men. Only eight of all his company escaped. They were of the true blood,* the whole family of Bidlacks — ^mild in private life, remarkably clever and obliging. The social virtues in the peaceful circle seemed to find in them their happiest illus- trations; but called to arms and roused to action, they were, all and each, every inch the soldier. The day that Capt. James Bidlack led his men into action, his father, James Bidlack, Sr. , commanded a company of aged men and kept garrison in the fort at Plymouth. Father and sons — all of them were in the service, and two of them sealed with their lives their attachment to freedom. When the savages returned the following year in force to Wyoming, old Mr. Bidlack, the father, was surprised and taken prisoner, and carried into a deeply suffering captivity, from which he was only relieved by the return of peace. Bat he did return to the beloved valley, and lived to see his country rise into almost unhoped-for prosperity, the fruit of the services of the patriots of the Eevolution. It is nearly thirty years since (1845) the father was called, we trust, to a better world. The circumstances that occurred in many years of active life after the close of the war to Mr. Benjamin Bidlack, it does not belong to the purpose of these sketches to portray. Many years ago he became a preacher of the Methodist persuasion, and spoke as he had fought, with impressive earnestness and ardent sincerity. Indeed, the Bidlack family seem in their conduct to have kept the true end of life in view. HISTOEY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. 353 Mr. Miner adds this note: "May 1845 The worthy old patriot still lives, blessed with abundance, and the eveaing of life is cheered by the well-merited fortune of his son, the Hon. Ben- jamin Alden Bidlack, who has been the past four years member of congress from this district; and recently has been appointed minister to Grenada, carrying with him not only the approbation of his political friends, but the hearty good will of all his neighbors. " Noah^Pettebone emigrated from Hartford county. He had three sons and four daughters; the names of the sons were Noah, Stephen and Oliver. When the independent companies of Durkee and Eansom were raised, Stephen, the second son, enlisted, and marched, near the close of 1776, to join the army of Gen. Wash- ington, leaving Noah, the oldest brother, and Oliver, then a lad of fourteen at home with their father. ' When the alarm gun gave notice that the enemy was in the valley, Noah repaired promptly to the post of danger; was in the dreadful conflict that ensued, and was slain, leaving a young wife to mingle her tears with those of the aged father, for his loss. (In after years the widow intermarried with Amariah Watson.) Stephen, having come in with Capt. Spalding's company, was murdered the foUowing spring by a band of savages on the flats, a little beyond where the western abutment of the bridge terminates. Mr. Williams and Mr. Buck fell at the same time, and Mr. Follet was shot, pierced through several times with a spear, scalped and left for dead, but recovered. His own account of the matter was, that knowing they would strike while signs of life remained, summoning his utmost power he lay perfectly still, notwithstanding repeated wounds, pretending to be dead. The bold and daring deed being perpetrated in plain sight of Wilkes- Barre, the Indians, having brief space to effect their purpose, did not strike him with the tomahawk. Thus two of the old man's sons poured out their life blood, victims to Indian barbarity, martyrs in the holy cause of liberty and independence. The younger brother, Oliver, was in Forty fort at the time of its surrender. On the decease of his father the care of the family and estate devolved on him. He was tall, slender, but well made, of frank and agreeable manners. As com- missioner of the county, a vigilant and faithful officer, and as a private gentleman liberal and kind, ever assiduous to please. He was a man of perfect integrity and honor. Having lived to the good old age of seventy, he died in March, 1832. Such is the mingled, painful and pleasing record of one of the most pati;jotic families of Wyoming, and among the deepest sufferers. The plantation is now (1846),. owned by Noah (it is right to preserve the old family name) and his brother, the Hon. Henry Pettebone, in the possession of whose descendants we hope it may remain a thousand years. Judge H. Pettebone received that appointment in place of Judge Bennett, resigned.* In the family sketch on another page is a full account of the Pettebone family. It would appear that patriot blood ran warmly through the hearts of the whole Pettebone family, for our researches show us that those who remained in Connec- ticut, if less deeply sufferers, were not less active in the service of the country. In 1775 Col. Jonathan Pettebone assembled his regiment and addressed them. " The spirit was so generous," says the record, " that a number sufficient to form three companies, of sixty-eight men each, exclusive of officers, immediately enlisted, and were ready for any expedition on the shortest notice." *Col. Erastus Hill, who owns that very handsome seat, next above William Swetlands, married a daughter of Oliver Pettebone, and residing near the spot took great interest in the erection of the monu- ment. In his possession are a number of skulls and thigh bones taken from the pit, where they were first deposited. For several years not only the deep stroke of the tomahawk was visible, but marks of the accursed scalping knife were plain to be seen; while the rifle bullet hole in the thigh bone, smoothly cut, without the least splint or fracture, as with a sharp bit or gouge, excited mnoh interest. But they are fast crumbling on exposure to the air. 354 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. When the militia, two or three years afterward, was reorganized, Col. Pette- boue received the command of the Eighteenth regiment. A gallant enterprise was effected in 1777, in which Capt. Abel Pettebone, of Enos' regiment, and Capt. Levenworth and Ely, of Meigs' regiment, took the lead. Having, by great celerity, surprised the enemy at Horse Neck, they took six light-horse prisoners, a number of horses, cattle and arms, burned three vessels loaded with provisions for New York, and broke up a pestilent nest of cowboys; returning after traveling more than sixty miles, having been absent only ten hours. Dr. William Hooker Smith filled a large space in public estimation at Wyoining for nearly half a century. A man of great sagacity and tact as well as of an excel- lent education, his influence was extensively felt and acknowledged. For many years he held the first rank as a physician. Both the patriotic spirit and activity of Dr. Smith are shown by the fact that, while he was relied on as chief medical attendant, by the settlement, he yet accepted and exercised the post of captain, commanding in Wilkes-Barre the " old reformadoes. " Subsequently, when numer- ous troops were stationed at Wyoming, Dr. Smith was still the principal physician. After the war his enterprise led him to the establishment of mills at the old forge place, Pittston, wj^ere in 1800 he resided. While one of the most eminent of the physicians, as well as prominent in the stirring times of Wyoming, he found time to indulge in literary pursuits; writing and publishing an elaborate work on alchemy, which was published by Asher and Charles Miner. A daughter married Mr.' Isaac Osterhout, and after his decease, Fisher Gay, Esq., of Kingston. Mr. Gay resides near the monument, which is built on his plantation, and it is proper to record, to his honor, that he most liberally presented the ground on which the structure is erected. Besides the daughter named, Dr. Smith had a numerous family. William Smith, a third son, is now (1845) living in Windham, Wyoming county, at the advanced age of eighty-five years. A daughter, Sarah, married James Sutton, of Exeter. She died in 1834, aged about eighty years. Another daughter married Dr. Lemuel Gustin (whose name will be found appended as a witness to the capitulation of Forty fort). Dr. Gustin removed to the West, and an only daughter of theirs, who was in the fort at the time of its sur- render, married the Rev. Mr. Snowden, father of James Ross Snowden. The heart leaps more quickly, and the life current flows more kindly at the mention of his name, when we recollect that the late honored speaker of the house of representa- tives and present treasurer of the State, is the descendant of one of the Wyoming sufferers. A daughter, Mary, married Mr. Baker, of New York city; Elizabeth married Mr. Bailey, who died in the lake country. Two sons, John and James, resided and died in the State of New York. Dr. Smith died in the township of Tunkhanriock, July 17, 1815, aged ninety-one years, having been born in 1724. His heirs received from congress, in 1838, an appropriation of $2,400 as pay for actmg surgeon in the Revolutionary war. For many of these interesting facts we are indebted to the polite attention of Isaac S. Osterhout, grandson of the deceased patriot. The grant was just in itself, due to the services and honorable to the memory of Dr. Smith. The S'tarfcs.— Christopher, James and Henry Stark were all buried side by side m a cemetery a mile south of Pittston. These three were father, son and grandson, and the patrimonial estate in 1845 was occupied by James and John Stark, the sons grandsons and great-grandsons of the three first named. In 1845 James btark was aged fifty, and at that early day could point side by side to the three gen- erations of his ancestors. Miner thought at that time there was not another instance where there was a great-grandfather buried in the county. The Starks came in Q-Xxx'^s ©.Uci£ \\ HISTOBY OP LUZEBNE COUNTY. 357 1771, when Christopher Stark must have been a very aged man; both he and his son James died before the Wyoming battle, the former from old age and his son James a victim of the small-pox that scourged this country in 1777. Two of the Stark names appear in 1772 — Aaron and James; the former sold his land claim to James and settled in another part of the valley. Three brothers came from England, and a descendant of one of the brothers was the Gen. Stark of immortal fame — the hero of Bennington. James Stark, son of James and brother of Henry, was a member of one of the independent companies. In the Wyoming battle were three brothers — Daniel, Aaron and James ; the last named only escaped with his life. After the war a portion of the family settled on the Tunkhannock, and that name, it is supposed, was given by Daniel Stark. A grandson of the slain Aaron, John D. Stark, became a prominent citizen of Pittston. Samuel Carey was nineteen years of age at the time of the Wyoming battle. Mr. Miner relates of the Careys as follows : "Active, ardent and patriotic, he was enrolled in Capt. Bidlack's company; was out on several scouting parties before the invasion; was up at Wyalusing, and with our men at Exeter, aiding to bring away the remains of the Hardings and others, murdered by the Indians a day or two before the battle. On the fatal 3d he was at his post, aud marched with the brave Bidlack to the contest. Their position was near the right. The left wing was earliest pressed and retreated, being thrown into entire confusion before the center or right gave way; but retreat had become inevitable. Mr. Carey left the road and passed down on the low flats near where the monument is erected ; Zipperah Hibberd was nearest to him. Hibberd was in the prime of early manhood, six feet high, built at once for strength and activity; he was straight as an arrow, and moved with a light, elastic step. Of him it is told by several of the old settlers, that in their athletic sports Hibberd would take off his hat and shoes; let two companions hold a string extended so that in walking under it he could just touch it with his head; he would then step off a few paces till he got his proper distance, return on the spring, and leap over the string with the alertness of the bounding deer. His activity, and manly and social qualities, ren- dered him a general favorite. Mr. Hibberd was but recently married. Preparations for the engagement had been made the day previous. Fear was a stranger to his breast, but he was sensible and sagacious, and he saw from the unprepared state of our people, enfeebled by the two companies raised for our special defence being marched and kept away, and from the evidence of great force on the part of the enemy, that the chances were all against us. Perhaps, and it is thought there was a particular presentiment, that go the battle as it would, he should not survive. But listening to nothing but the dictates of patriotism and duty, he fitted himself for the field — went to the door — looked abroad to the bright heavens and the beau- tiful earth, then clothed in the rich robe of approaching harvest — gazed a moment — rested his gun against the door-post — hastened into the house and impressed one parting kiss on the pale lips of his trembling bride — spoke not a word, but tore him- self away; and the next hour there was not a soldier that marched to the field with more cheerful alacrity. He went to return no more. "Hibberd and Carey ran together toward the river, Hibberd in advance, break- ing a path through a heavy piece of rye. The obstruction, perhaps, proved fatal to him, for by the time they got through he was nearly exhausted, and showed signs of great fatigue. On coming near the river bank and leaving the rye field, Mr. Hibberd sprang to the sandbar, but was closely pursued by an Indian, who overtook him before he could gain the stream. As Hibberd turned to defend himself he received the accursed spear in his breast, and fell lifeless on the sand. "Mr. Carey got to the river lower down, and succeeded in swimming across, but the savages had crossed over before him, and he was instantly surrounded by sev- eral. One who seemed to have authority took charge of him, but a small Indian, 358 HISTORY OP LUZERNB COUNTY. pitted with the small-pox, and having lost an eye (as he stood naked, for Mr. Carej had stripped off all his clothes that he might swim), with a malicious smile, drew a knife up and down his breast and abdomen, about an inch from the skin, saying the- while, Te-te — te-te. They then made him swim back, bound his hands, and he was conducted to Wintermoot's. The fort had been set on fire by the enemy at the commencement of the engagement, and Mr. Carey saw the remains of one or two of our people, who had been thrown on the burning pile, but they were then life- less. That night he lay on the ground, bound, and without food. 'The next morn- ing an officer struck him on the mouth with his open hand. 'You are the fellow,' said he, 'that threatened yesterday morning you would comb my hair, are you ?' He then learned that the Indian who had taken him was Capt. Eoland Montour,, who now gave him food, unbound, and led him to a young savage who was mortally wounded. What passed he could not then perfectly comprehend, but afterward learned the purpose was to show him to the dying Indian, and ask if his life should be preserved and he be taken to the Indian's parents to be adopted instead of their lost son. He assented, and young Carey's life was saved. They then painted him,, and gave him the name of the dying Indian — Coconeunquo — of the tribe of Onon- dagoes. "When the enemy marched from the valley, Mr. Carey, carefully guarded, was taken with them, and when they reached the Indian country, was handed over to the family into which he had been adopted, where, if he would have conformed to sav- age customs, and have drunk so deep of the waters of forgetfulness as to cease to- remember country, connection and friends, he might have remained peaceable, if not happy; but beloved Wyoming, doubly dear from her sorrows, would rise to his slumbers, as it was ever present to his waking hours, and he sighed for liberty and home. He thinks the old Indian and squaw — his savage parents — saw that he could not mingle in spirit with them, for they used constantly to mourn for their lost boy. Just at day-breaking they would set up a pitiful cry— oh! oh! ho!— and at evening, as the sun was going down— oh! oh! ho! — and with all their stoicism their sorrows would not cease. At times, while here, he suffered much from hunger, having only a spoonful of parched corn a day for several weeks. He thought he should have famished; and in the severe winters, his sufferings from cold were extreme; but he shared like the rest of the family, and they evidently meant, after once adopting, to treat him kindly. "More than two weary years were passed in this way, when he got to Niagara, where he was detained, though with less suffering, until restored to liberty by the glorious news of peace and independence. It was on June 29, 1784 before the charmmg valley again met his sight, after having suffered six years of distressing captivity. ° "Mn Carey mentions the fact, stated by others, that Walter Butler, a favorite son of Col. John Butler, was killed by the Americans, near Mud creek, on returning from one of his excursions against our settlements on the Mohawk. He adds— what before I did not remember to have heard-that one of the Wintermoots was killed at the same time. Butler was shot by a rifle ball through the head, aimed at him from an extraordinary distance. "There was a Joseph Carey and Samuel Carey both killed in the battle, but it does not occur to my recollection whether they were relatives of the Mr. Samuel Carey of whom I now speak His brother, Nathan Carey, was in the engagement, one orhTd. "^ escaped. Their father's name was Eleazer Carey, a nam! held b/ one of his descendants, still known and highly respected in the valley. health hifl-nH ! r T^"^ ^^' °* Beventy-nine, Mr. Carey enjoys tolerable- health, his mind active and his memory sound. Though not rich, he is yet by the industry and frugahty of a long life, comfortable in hif declining days aS'hal the happiness of having sons and daughters settled around him, all welf to So, and afl HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 359 respectable— and some in very independent circumstances. His wife, Theresa, was the daughter of Capt. Daniel Gore; so that if the morning of life was crowded with sorrow and woe, his evening is calm and serene." Mr. Samuel Carey died in 1842, and was buried with military honors. Mrs. Myers.— Mr. Miner relates graphically a visit he made in company with Prof. Silliman to this lady, who, he says, was the mother of Sheriff Myers, in office, in 1845. Mrs. Myers was a Bennett, and was in the fort at the time of the battle— sixteen years old. This good woman talked long with the Professor, and told of those scenes she so vividly remembered — of the arrival of "Capt. Durkee, Lieut. Phineas Pearce and another officer. How "just at evening a few of the fugitives came rushing into the fort and fell down exhausted, some wounded and bloody; through the night, every hour, one or more came in; how the enemy marched in six abreast after the capitulation." She told, as she remembered seeing, of the inter- views between Col. John Butler and Col. Denison in reference to carrying out in good faith the honorable terms of capitulation, and asking that the outrages of the Indians be stopped. Butler acknowledged the wrongs, and after repeated promises finally told Denison that he had no power to restrain the savages. " The Indians, to show their entire independence and power, came into the fort, and one took the hat from Col. Denison's head; another demanded his rifle frock, a dress much worn by officers, as well as soldiers. It did not suit Col. Denison to be thus stripped, whereupon the Indian raised his tomahawk menacingly, and Col. Denison was obliged to yield; but seeming to find difficulty in taking ofE the gar- ment, he stepped back to where the young women were sitting. The girl who sat by Miss Bennett was one of Col. Denison's own family — she understood the move- ment, and took from a pocket in the frock a purse, and hid it under her apron. The frock was delivered to the Indian, and the town money (for the purse, containing a few dollars, was the whole military chest of Wyoming) was saved. " Mrs. Myers represents Col. Butler as a portly, good-looking man, perhaps forty-five, dressed in green, the uniform of Butler's rangers, with a cap and feather. Col. Butler led the chief part of his army away in a few days, but parties of Indians continued in the valley burning and plundering. Her father's house was left for a week; she used to go out to see if it was safe. One morning as she looked out from the fort, fire after fire rose, east, west, north and south, and casting her eyes toward home, the flames were bursting from the roof, and in an hour it was all a heap of ruins." The splendid farm half a mile above the Dorrance place was at the time Mr. Miner wrote the property and residence of a son of the boy, Bennett, who was a captive with his father, and escaped as related above (this was John Bennett). As stated, one of the sons of Mrs. Myers was sheriff; another wap for years a magis- trate; a daughter married Rev. Dr. Peck. In 1845 Mrs. Bennett, widow of the Bennett who was captured and escaped, was eighty -three years of age — blind — but her mental faculties, Mr. Miner says, were as clear as in her prime, and her recol- lections of the bloody days in the valley were full, and as told by her, remarkably interesting. She was an eye-witness of many Of most disastrous consequences — hair-breadth 'scapes. The Bennetts were conspicuous in the trials and sore tribulations of the early day in war and in peace, and several lineal descendants are now among the citi- zens of the county. Her father and brother, and Lebeus Hammond, were at one time all at work in the field, when they were captured by six Indians and hurried north. May 3, when they went into camp at night, the prisoners had made up their minds from certain indications that the Indians intended to massacre them the next day, and, pretending sleep, watched their opportunity, when Bennett killed the Indian on watch, and the three killed five of the captors, when the last one fled. Joyfully they returned to their friends, bringing the arms and scalps as trophies. 360 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. Joseph Elliott was in the battle of July 3, and of him has been handed down much of the blood-curdling stories that furnished the aftermath to the battle. He was one who, in after life, " oft shouldered the crutch and showed how " the wicked Brant and the yet more cruel Queen Esther breathed death and slaughter upon the prisoners who were bound and helpless. Joseph Elliott, in 1845, was living at Wyalusing at the age of eighty-nine years; born October 10, 1756; his father had died in 1809, aged ninety-seven years. A family of unusual longevity and large physical development. The family came from Stonington to Luzerne county in 1776. The next year Joseph Elliott, a mem- ber of a detachment of eighty men under Col. Dorranoe, which scouted up the river, ascending to Sheshequin. When the British and Indians invaded the valley, and the battle of July 3 followed, Elliott was in the ranks of the American army and fought in Gapt. Bidlack' s company. He was taken prisoner, and on his authority and oft repetition' of the story, even Mr. Miner was misled into the current stories of the time as to the Indian chief. Brant, and the presence here of the bloody Queen Esther. Elliott was wounded as he fled from the field, while swim- ming the river at Monocacy island, being struck in the left shoulder. His escape was remarkable and he reached the fort, and his wound dressed, and, no doubt, his life saved by the presence and skill of Dr. William Hooker Smith. He often told that he remembered seeing Jeremiah Ross, Samuel and Joseph Crooker, Stephen Bidlack and Peter Wheeler butchered on that day. ' No sooner was Elliott recovered, and his wounded shoulder sufficiently healed than he entered again upon acceptable services. On Sullivan's advance into the Indian country a line of expresses, to connect with Wyoming, was established, when Mr. John Carey and Joseph Elliott were selected to perform the duty. And, says Mr. Elliott, " after eighty days' constant service I was taken sick, and can not tell what should be the cause, unless too often sleeping out in the wet, overdone with fatigue and being vary hungry. ' ' Joseph Elliott was an actor in another trying scene — the making prisoners of all Kosewell Franklin's family by the Indians, 1782. His account of the affair, so far as he was concerned, was this: Several parties were marshaled to pursue the savages. One of these assembled at Mill creek, numbering nine persons. They chose Thomas Baldwin to be their leader, and himself to be second in command. Making their way up the river with all possible celerity, they were satisfied, when they reached the path on the mountain nearly opposite French- town, that the enemy had not passed. Taking up a position on the hill which was deemed most eligible, being out of provisions, two of the men, expert hunters, went out for venison, when the Indians, thirteen in number, with Mrs. Franklin, her babe, two little girls and a boy about four years old, as prisoners, were reported by the advanced sentinel to be near. To call in their scattered hunters was of course impossible. There they were seven to thirteen, and it was bravely resolved to give battle. The fire was sharp on both sides. Capt. Baldwin received a rifle ball in the hand which nearly disabled him, but Thomas Baldwin was every inch a soldier, and still exerting himself he led on and cheered his men. How near they were is evident from the children knowing the voices of our party, and with instinctive sagacity they ran from the Indians, and clung to the knees of their friends. Mrs. Franklin, who had been ordered to sit still, raised her head on hearing the joyous cry of her children, and the savages instantly shot her. Pressing forward, the Indians were compelled to retreat, leaving two or three of their number dead on the field. The infant was borne off in their flight, and its fate never known. The two little girls and younger boy were, after the burial of their mother, decently as cir- cumstances permitted, brought safely to Wyoming, and restored to the arms of their father. Mr. Franklin had been with another party in eager pursuit, but had failed to find the enemy. Gen. William Ross used to say the battle for Mr. Franklin's family was one of the best contested in Wyoming. HISTOEY OF LDZBENE COUNTY. 361 A pension of 165 a year has contributed to render the evening of the days of Elliott comfortable. Below the middle hight, he was well built, and of that cast best shown by experience to be adapted to endure fatigue. June 25, 1845, when we called on the old gentleman to hear his narrative, he was at work in his garden. In early life Joseph Elliott must have been handsome, for, except the loss of his right eye, he still looks well. His face is round and lighted up by a benevolent smile. Half his thin hair is still dark, and his manner mild and pleasing. But when he is in full tide, relating the events of battle — "when the Indians came down on us like so many raging devils," age is forgotten, and he is full of anima- tion. His habits have been simple, his life virtuous, his conduct in war meritorious as fidelity and bravery could render it. He lives universally respected, and it is hoped, may enjoy his pension these many coming years. With pleasure we add that his son was, at the last session, a member of assembly from Bradford county. Silas Harvey was one of the victims of that fatal field of July 3. He was a son of Benjamin Harvey, who came with his family from Lyme, Conn., an intimate friend, neighbor and confidant of Col. Z. Butler, not any in the old State before they came here, but in the trying times they passed in the valley. Benjamin Harvey had three sons; the eldest, Benjamin, joined the independent companies in 1776 and served under Gen. Washington and died in the army; Silas, mentioned above, died as stated. In December, 1780, the savages made an incursion and captured several prisoners, of whom were Benjamin Harvey and his youngest and only remaining son, Elisha. They were driven to Canada and during the winter their sufferings were intense. In 1784 Benjamin was cruelly imprisoned by the Pennites. Elisha Harvey married Rosanna Jameson. Their son, Jameson Harvey, was one of the earliest to make a fortune of the rich coal mines here. Phebe Young. — Her maiden name was Phebe Poyner. Her father was a Huguenot, who was compelled to leave Prance and come to this country, in conse- quence of persecution for. religious opinions. An active and intelligent man, he was a commissary in the old French war. The name of her mother was Eunice Chap- man, a native of Colchester, Conn., but married to Mr. Poyner at Sharon, Nine- partners, New York — where the subject of this notice was born, in 1750. Her father died of small-pox at Albany, and her mother married Dr. Joseph Sprague, a widower, who had several children by his first wife. The united families removed to Wyoming in 1770 — Mrs. Young being then twenty years old. There were only five white women in Wilkesbarre township when she arrived; Mrs. McClure, wife of James McClure; Mrs. Sill, wife of Jabez Sill; Mrs. Bennett, grandmother of Eufus Bennett, the brave old soldier, who was in the battle; another of the same name, wife of Thomas Bennett, mother of Mrs. Myers, and a Mrs. Hickman. At Mill Creek, just above the large merchant mills of Mr. Hollenback, a fort was erected— containing, perhaps, an acre. A ditch was dug around the area — logs, twelve or fourteen feet high, split, were placed perpendicularly in double rows, to break joints, so as to enclose it. Loop-holes to fire through with musketry were provided. There was one cannon in the fort, the only one in the settlement, until Sullivan's expedition in 1779; but it was useless, except as an alarm gun, having no ball. Within this enclosure the whole settlement was congregated; the men, generally armed, going out to their farms to work during the day, and returning at night. The town plot of the borough had been laid out, but not a house built. It was a sterile plain, covered with pitch pine and scrub oak. Mr. John Abbott (who fell by the hands of the savages, the father of Mr. Stephen Abbott of Jacobs Plains) put up the first house, on the southwest corner of Main and Northampton streets. Mr., afterward Col. Denison, and Miss Sill, were the first couple married at Wilkes-Barre. The wedding took place at the house where the late Col. Wells' house stands. Mrs. McClure gave birth to the second child born here— a son. But let us look in upon them. The houses, store and sheds were placed around against the 362 HISTORY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. wall of timbers. Matthias Hollenback, then about twenty, full of life and enterprise, had just come up the river with a boat load of goods, and opened a store of various articles exceedingly needed. On the left was the house of Capt. Z. Butler. Next on the right was the building of Dr. Sprague, the physician of the settlement, and who kept a boarding-house. Here Mr. Hollenback and Mr. Denison had their quarters. Capt. Eezin Geer, who fell in the battle, was here. For bread they used pounded corn; mills there were none; nor a table, nor a chair, nor a bedstead, except the rude manufacture of the hour. Dr. P. would take his horse, with as much wheat as he could carry, and go out to the Delaware to get it ground. A bridle path was the only road, and seventy or eighty miles to mill was no trifling distance. The flour was kept for cakes, and to be used only on extraordinary occasions. But venison and shad were in abundance. All were elate with hope, and the people for a time were never happier. But sickness came, Zebulon, a son of Capt. Butler, died — two daughters of the Rev. Mr. Johnson; two men, Peregrine Gardiner and Thomas Robinson; then Lazarus Young, a brother of Mrs. Young's husband, was drowned. Soon after Capt. Butler and Mr. Young, her husband, were taken prisoners by the Pennites and carried to Philadelphia. Dr. Sprague died in Virginia. A son fell in the Wyoming battle. Phebe Young's husband was at the Narrows with Col. Butler, July 1, and in the battle on the 3d, but escaped. Mrs. Young was at Hanover, with Mrs. Col. Denison and her two children (Col. Lazarus Denison and Betsey, the late Mrs. Shoemaker). These three, with Mrs. Sheriff Fitch, Mrs. Young and two children, entered a canoe, rowed by Levi Vincent, and fled down the river to Harrisburg. Mrs. Young was the last survivor of the port at Mill Creek. She died at the good age of eighty-nine years. Jamesons. — This family came here in 1776 from Voluntown, Conn. Robert Jameson, the father, was born in 3^714, and, consequently, was sixty-two years old when he came, bringing his sons, all grown, Robert, William, John, Alexander and Joseph. His one daughter married Elisha Harvey, and their daughter married Rev. George Lane, long and well known in this part of the State. Elisha Harvey was taken a prisoner and taken to Canada by the Indians. Robert and William Jameson were in Capt. McKerachan's company in the Wyoming battle. Robert was killed and William's gunlock was shot away. William Jameson was murdered near Careytown in the fall of 1778, as was John in 1782 near the Hanover meeting house. Thus three of the five sons fell victims of the savages. John Jameson, one of the killed, had married a daughter of Maj. Prince Aldeu, and left two children- son and daughter. Hannah, a third child, was born soon after his decease and married Elder Pearce, a distinguished minister of the Methodist Episcopal church. Polly was married to Jonathan Hunlock, and Samuel, the eldest child, resided at the original farm iq Hanover, where he died in 1845, having sustained the char- acter of an upright and amiable man. For several of the last years of his life he was a niember of the Presbyterian church. The two other sons of the old gentle- man resided on their beautiful plantation in Salem adjoining that of N. Beach,, hav- ing at their command and hospitably enjoying all the good things that could make lite pass agreeably. Joseph, one of the pleasantest and most intelligent men of our early acquaintance, chose to live a bachelor, the more unaccountable as his pleasing manners, cheerful disposition and inexhaustible fund of anecdote rendered him everywhere an agreeable companion. Alexander was for a number of years a mag- istrate. He was a man of active business habits. Both these brothers, besides the deep sutterings of their family, were themselves participators in the active scenes of the war and endured hardships that the present inhabitants can form no true eon- ceptioQ ot. itieir mother's maiden name was Dixon, of the family from which the T'\-^nQi ^''"^*°'' ^° congress from Rhode Island, was descended. Their father mecl in 178b, aged seventy-two. On the main road between Beach Grove and Ber- wick, a distance of six miles, in 1856 there resided the following named persons HISTORY OP LUZERNE COUNTY. 363 -who died at an advanced age: Alexander Jameson, ninety-five; Joseph Jameson, ninety-two; Elizabeth Jameson, eighty-eight; Mary Jameson, eighty-five; Nathan Beach, eighty-four; Mr. Hughes, ninety; two of the Messrs. Courtright, each about eighty, and Mr. Varner, ninety-one. Besides these there were a number who lived to an age exceeding seventy -five years. The Perkins Family. — "Among the many instances of Indian barbarity the mur- der of Mr. John Perkins has been narrated. He was from Plainfield, Windham ^ 1 **<■ HISTOEY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. 377 the whole amount appropriated for public education in this county for that year was 13,993.60 This was a creditable and flattering commencement. In the following year a tax of |3,000 was levied, and, with the exception of two or three townships, the excellent system of free education was permanently established. Hon. J. P. Wickersham, in his history of education in Pennsylvania, has this to say of Luzerne county: " This chapter can not be closed without some notice of the introduction into a portion of the State of a system of schools that had an important bearing upon sub- sequent educational history. We have reference to the system of free public schools brought by the Connecticut settlers into the valley of Wyoming. Pennsylvania as a province, of course, had nothing to do in establishing them; in principle they were an advance upon the schools then existing in Connecticut, and in most essential respects were similar in design and management to the public schools of the pres- ent day. " The first settlements in Wyoming valley were made under the auspices of ' the Susquehanna company, ' organized in ] 753, by some 600 citizens of Windham county, Conn., and approved the following year by an act of the colonial assembly. The surveyors of the company were sent out in 1755, and at that time and subsequently seventeen townships were laid out, each five miles square and containing fifty shares, each of 300 acres. They were located in blocks on the bottom-land along the rivers, and embraced territory now within the limits of Luzerne, Lackawanna, Wyoming, Bradford and Susquehanna counties. The names of these townships are Hunting- ton, Salem, Plymouth, Kingston, Newport, Hanover, Wilkes-Barre, Pittston, Provi- dence, Exeter, Bedford, Northumberland, Putnam, Braintrim, Springfield, Claverack and Ulster. " The first attempt to settle on the lands laid out by the company was made in 1762, and continued in 1763, but owing to the hostility of the Indians, no perma- nent settlement was effected until 1769. Constantly harassed by the savages, compelled to carry on a continuous struggle, amounting at times to open warfare, with rival claimants to the land on which they had built houses and established homes, almost annihilated by the terrible massacre of Wyoming during the Revolu- tionary war, these brave and hardy men of Connecticut still maintained their ground; and in 1783 the population of the seventeen "certified townships" is estimated to have reached 6,000. It has now swelled to 200,000. " The first action taken in regard to schools was as follows : 'At a meeting of the Susquehanna company, held at Hartford, Conn. , December 28, 1768, it was voted to lay out five townships of land within the purchase of said company, on the Sus- quehanna, of five miles square each; that the first forty settlers of the first town . settled, and fifty settlers of each of the other towns settled, shall divide the towns among themselves; reserving and appropriating three whole shares or rights in each township for the public use of a gospel ministry and schools in each of said towns; and also reserving for the use of said company, all beds and mines of iron ore and coal that may be within said townships.' " It was also voted to grant Dr. Eleazer Wheelock a tract of land in the easterly part of the Susquehanna purchase, ten miles long and six miles wide, for the use of the Indian school under his care; provided he shall set up and keep said school on the premises. " This proposed Indian school was never established, although it is stated that Joseph Brant and other Indians attended Dr. Wheelock's school at Lebanon, Conn. Instead of coming to Pennsylvania, Dr. Wheelock went to New Hampshire and became the founder of Dartmouth college. The directions of the company in other respects were carried into effect in all the townships as soon after settlement as possible. The 'three shares' in each township amounted to 960 acres; in a general way the whole was set apart for school purposes, but in a number of instances land 20 378 HI8T0BY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. was voted for the support of ministers of the gospel. The funds arising from the sale of these lands were not husbanded as they might have been, but in some towQ- ships they still exist, and are used for the benefit of the public schools. The schools as well as other local affairs were managed, as in New England, by a general town meeting. The mode of proceeding is thus described: 'A school meeting was called, by public notices posted in the district. The inhabitants of the district met, and elected in their own way, three of their number to act as school committee, which committee hired teachers and exercised a general supervision over the schools. The teacher was paid by the patrons of the school, in proportion to the number of days they had sent children to school. A rate bill was made out by the teacher and handed to the committee, who collected the money.' The general township fund was used to build schoolhouses and to pay teachers. ' 'A few scraps of history have been gathered up that will serve to show the interest taken in education by these pioneer settlers in a Pennsylvania wilderness. "At a town meeting held in Wilkes-Barre, August 23, 1773, a vote was passed ' to raise three pence on the pound, on the district list, to keep a free school in the several school districts in the said Wilkes-Barre.' 'A subsequent meeting,' says Charles Miner, in his history of Wyoming, 'especially warned, adopted measures for keeping open free schools, one in the upper district, one in the lower, and one in the town plot. ' "A town meeting in Kingston, held December 21, 1773, voted 'that Nathaniel Landon, Samuel Commins and John Perkins, are appointed committeemen to divide ye town into three districts, for keeping of schools.' " The other townships, without question, passed similar votes, thus recognizing at that early day the fundamental principles of all true systems of public instruc- tion — the common education of all classes; schools supported by a general fund or a tax on property; local management and responsibility. "A general county school organization seems to have been established, doubtless to give more efiSciency to the local management. At a general meeting of the whole settlement, held on December 6, 1774, it was voted : ' That Elisha Richards, Capt. Samuel Ransom, Perrin Ross, Nathaniel Landon, Elisha Swift, Nathan Denison, Stephen Harding, John Jenkins, Anderson Dana, Obadiah Gore, Jr., James Stark, Roswell Franklin, Capt. Lazarus Stewart, Capt. Parks and Uriah Chapman, be chosen the school committee for the ensuing year.' These were leading men from every part of the settlement, showing how important they considered the subject of education. Well may Miner say: ' It may justly be regarded equally honorable and extraordinary that a people just commencing a settlement- in a wilderness, wrestling steadily with the yet rude and unbroken soil for bread, surrounded by so many extrinsic difficulties and causes of alarm and disquiet, should be found so zealously adopting and so steadily pursuing measures to provide free schools throughout the settlement.' "This system substantially continued in operation in the Wyoming region up to the time of the adoption of the common school system in 1834, when, with little change and no disturbance, it was merged into it; and, as the nearest approach to our modern public schools of any class or schools then known in Pennsylvania, it had considerable influence in shaping the school legislation which culminated in the act of 1834. It was Timothy Pickering, of Luzerne, as will be more fully shown hereafter, who, in the constitutional convention of 1790, secured the adoption of the article on education upon which was subsequently based the whole body of laws relating to common schools in Pennsylvania, up to the year 1874; and by so doing saved the convention from the threatened danger of committing itself to a much narrower policy." As already mentioned, the Susquehanna company made all possible provisions for schools, in its allotment of its lands in this section. It granted large bodies of HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 379 land, and in all cases reserved a certain portion as a permanent school fund. Gener- ally this was wasted practically and but little benefits accrued. Unfortunately the school authorities were allowed to sell the land at discretion and it often happened that some friend or sometimes a member of the committee would want the school land and it was sold at a time when the price was merely nominal. Had these lands been given in perpetuity, without the right to sell or transfer except upon short leases, in that case the school fund of Luzerne county would now have sufficient income to rebuild all the school buildings in the county and pay the entire expenses of a far more liberal system than we now have. In short, the school would have been one of our richest institutions, without the levy of a cent of taxes. This same story may also be told of nearly every county in the country. The fathers in this respect were most unwise and imprudent. In the matter of education how important it is to be started right, otherwise it is misedncation and an incurable act of injustice that ruins all in its evil course forever. Those men builded the best they knew— they followed precedent and for a song fooled away a fortune that belonged to their children's children forever. But there is another side to the subject. Possibly both the school and the church should be always very poor to be the best good. A very rich church is not after the fashion of the world's Eedeemer. It is not an unmixed good to mankind. Three thousand years ago there was a university in Athens, and the entire insti- tution was not worth in cost a dollar. The president and all the professors of that immortal school were Epicurus. The school was in the gardens and groves and sometimes on the porches of the public buildings. The pupils were grown people and the teachings were conversations. To this school and to similar ones students repaired from the then known quarters of the world. Here was poverty in one respect, but immeasurable wealth in another. Then, 1,900 years ago the church, so far as property was concerned, was about as poor as it could be. Is it possible the great founder of the church ever dreamed that the time would come when a $6,000,000 house, wrung from the sweat and toil of the unpaid and often starving poor, would disfigure the earth in the name of Hfs holy region? A religious or educational institution clatching at the world's wealth is an anomaly in both education and religion. There is no royal road to education — this much is certain. The children of kings and emperors demonstrate this fact completely. There is infinite sadness in this prevalent idea fastened in the minds of our children that a teacher can teach them. Of the earliest attempts at schools in this part of the world, Mrs. M. L. T. Hartman contributed to Dr. F. C. Johnson's Historical Record a very interesting paper, which is briefly summarized. The subject of education came with the very first settlers. The people mostly were from Connecticut, itself then only a colony, and the ideas they came with were constantly engrafted upon as they would see progress in the mother colony. Therefore schools were not neglected, although books, paper and all had to be brought all the way from the old home. Hon. Charles Miner in his history relates as follows : ' ' Throughout the year 1777 schools engaged the greatest attention. They levied an extra penny to the pound for free schools. Each township was established a legal school district with power to sell the lands sequestered by the Susquehanna company therein for the use of schools, and also to receive of the school committee appointed by their town their part of the money according to their respective rates. In the settlement of Huntington were young men and women competent for teachers on their arrival; and, therefore, here at least, their rude log cabins had hardly more than been built until they built schoolhouse cabins as com- fortable as the best of the houses, and the supposition is that desks and seats made of planed boards were in use as early as 1800. She says her first recollection of a schoolroom was in 1822 in the old schoolhouse nearly opposite the site of the Har- veyville church, and then the desks and seats seemed to be old, but were made of 380 HISTOKY OP LUZERNE COUNTY. planed boards and were comfortable — the house a frame, one story 20x24; the writ- ing desks built along each wall. A large wood stove occupied the center and the teacher' s desk was movable. The door was near one corner and opened into the ante-room for hats and wraps. A respectful bow admitted a boy and a courtesy a girl. That summer, 1822, Caroline Turner was the teacher; Fannie Puller had taught a year previous. Many of the children came more than a mile, some more than two miles. All were instructed in spelling, reading and writing. Grammar and history were taught to any who wished to study them, or were well advanced in the others. Noah Webster's Easy Standard of Pronunciation and the dic- tiona,ry were our spelling books. John Roger'' s Primer, The English Reader, Columbia Orator, and American Preceptor were all used as reading books. DaboU's, Bennet's and Pike's were the arithmetics. Lindley Murray' s grammar was gener- ally used until superseded by Kirkham's about 1835. Thomas Patterson long held the most eminent place as an educator in Hunting- ton and Plymouth. Col. H. B. Wright, in his Sfcefcftes o/PZ^/'^^OMfft, awards great praise to Patterson. Other early teachers were Caroline, Ann and Fannie Turner, Anne and Catharine Half, George and Lydia Wadhams, Marietta and Haimah Bacon, E. Wadsworth, William Baker, Julius Pratt, Jonah and Joel Rogers, Delia Ann Preston and Romelia Chapin. Among other early teachers in the valley from Connecticut were Amos Frank- lin, Eaos and Amos Seward, Mrs. Margaret L. Trescott, Huldah Fuller, Cyrus Fel- lows and the sons and daughters of Capt. Thomas Stevens. It is not known that there was a schoolhouse built in Wilkes-Barre prior to- 1780, yet there was a school taught here prior to that. The first building stood on the east side of the public square, and later one was built on the plains near the Cortright residence. The third building was on Dr. Covell's farm, near the pres- ent railroad depot. The earliest teachers remembered were Godlove N. Lutyens, a German university graduate. In 1802 Asher Miner was a teacher, mixing this . diversion with his early experiences as publisher and editor. Prior to 1806 select schools had been successfully taught. Mr. Parmaly had opened a school in the old stillhouse on Main street. Another was on Bast Union street, by William Wright. This continued a prosperous school until the time of Mr. Wright's death, 1816. Mrs. Jabez Fish had a juvenile school, taught only in the summer. This was on the river bank at the lower end of the commons. It is said the chief purpose of her old-fashioned Puritan school was to teach the Westminster Catechism from the John Rogers Primer. The constitution of 1790 required provision to be made for the education of paupers or those too poor to educate themselves, and a list of this class of children was required by law to be made. The law was nearly a complete failure, as but few parents ever consented to put their children on the lists. During ten years in the entire county there was but $3,500 called for, and in Wilkes-Barre there were no paupers, it seems. Very much to the credit of the parents, some of whom were poor indeed. In 1864 there were but three schoolhouses, all one-story buildings, in the then borough, now city of Wilkes-Barre, and at these there were but 187 scholars in attendance, and this in a borough with a population at that time of from 6,000 to 7,000. In 1865 George B. Kulp was elected a school director, as were also Hon. Daniel L. Ehone, now president judge of the orphans' court of this county, and the late Rev. George D. Miles, of the Episcopal church. During that year, prin- cipally through the efforts of these three, the present large Washington school buildmg was erected. In 1866 Ex-Gov. Henry M. Hoyt and Ex-Atty.-Gen. Henry W Palmer became members of the board. This twain, seconding the progressive policy of the aforementioned trio, the handsome Franklin school building was soon m course of erection, and before the close of the year it was completed and ready HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 381 for occupancy. The number of scholars had now increased to 676, and at the con- clusion of Mr. Kulp's directorship this number had augmented to 1,716. The Conyngham school was also built during Mr. Kulp's membership in the board, which covered a period of twelve years' continuous service, ending in 1 876. This seems to have been the period — the turning point, so to speak — in the high- way of education of the splendid system of schools in Wilkes-Barre, and the credit therefore is due the gentlemen named above. And while it perhaps is not exactly proper to say that any one did more than another of these gentlemen, yet the truth is Mr. Kulp was the oldest member of them, and he was first in the breach, or in other words, had commenced the struggle, and in the nick of time was backed by these men, and, pulling together, they were strong enough to beat down opposition. The first public school in Wyoming valley was taught in Pittston. John Jen- kins is known to have taught a school near the Eavine colliery for several winters pridr to 1781. In 1810 a schoolhouse was built not far from the up-town brick schoolhouse, but on the opposite side of Main street. It was used for religious meetings, and was furnished with a loft and elevated pulpit. March 21, 1810, " at a meeting of the subscribers for building a schoolhouse near Jedediah Collins'," William Slocum presided, and John Phillips, William Slocum and Nathaniel Giddings were elected a committee to buy or lease a lot from said Collins and have a schoolhouse built. They sold the building contract by auction, at $215, to Miner Searle. An early school was taught by Mrs. Blakely Hall on " The Green," a portion of the present borough between the Lehigh Valley depot and Main street. This build- ing was purchased by the railroad company and used for a depot until it was dis- placed by their present depot building. The early school-teachers in what is now Franklin township were Amarilla New- berry, Ambrose Fuller, Miss Harris, William Calkins, George Ochmig, Susan Far- ver (Mrs. Daniel Lee), Henry Osborne, James Dickinson, Mr. Herring. The school building was erected in 1815, and was where now the village of Orange stands. The settlers of Plymouth, early recognizing the importance of education, estab- lished schools as soon as the country became quiet after the Revolution. Two sohoolhouses were built, one near the common field and the other near Ransom's creek. Jonah Rogers was one of the first teachers and commenced teaching about 1800. A Mr. Hamilton taught in the lower schoolhouse in 1806, followed by one Hazleton. The old academy was built in 1815. The early teachers in this build- ing were Jonah Rogers, Thomas Patterson, Dr. Thomas Sweet and Charles C. Cur- tis. " The languages were first taught in the old academy as early as 1829, by Benjamin M. Nyce. Nyce and Patterson taught three or four years, and then Mr. Seivers, the last teacher who taught the dead languages in the old academy. A school was established in a building which stood nearly opposite the residence of George Snyder, in Larksville, as early as 1825. This was afterward removed to the location of the present schoolhouse. Schools were kept seven months. The old academy is still used, and a fine brick building has been erected in the west end of the borough. The first schoolhouse in Nanticoke was built of logs, before 1820, on the site of the old Union church, in the east part of the borough. The first teacher was ' Eliphalet Buckley, and in 1820 Silas Alexander was the teacher. Among the men who sent children to Alexander's school were Col. Washington Lee, James S. Lee, Isaac Ripple, John Mills and Thomas Bennett. The first schoolhouse in Hazleton was built by the Hazleton Coal company in 1837. It was a frame building, and stood on the northwest corner of Church and Green streets. Miss Fannie Blackman was the first teacher, and among her imme- diate successors were N. D. Cortright and Isaac H. Baldwin. In 1843 Lewis Ketchum, afterward a member of the California senate, took charge of the school. 382 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. He was succeeded in 1845 by his brother, H. H. Ketchum. Previous to this and for some time afterward the school was kept open part of the year by private sub- scription. The first building for a private school was erected by A. Pardee in 1847. This school was kept about two years. The building stood on the south side of Broad street, between Wyoming and Laurel. The first public schoolhouse stood on the northeast corner of Cedar street and Spruce alley. In August, 1 853, the schoolhouse on the corner of Church and Green streets was burned, when the store on the southeast corner of Broad and Wyoming streets was rented for school purposes. The two-story brick school building on the north side of Green, between Church and Laurel streets, was opened in February, 1855, with Abel Marcy as principal. This was the first graded school in Luzerne county. While Mr. Marcy was principal four teachers were employed, and after 1866 the length of the school term was eight months. Mr. M. was elected superintendent of the county in 1860. In the spring of 1857 the borough elected the first school board. In 1859 C. L. Eynearson was elected principal of the schools and five teachers employed, and the school term increased to ten months. A noted Irishman, William Brandon, who was generally called " Priest " Brandon, as he sometimes preached previous 1;o 1800, was one of the teachers. The people of a neighborhood united and formed a school district (frequently pronounced " deestric"), and with a little help from the land set apart by the township, selected committees to attend to the schools and hire the teachers. These built the schoolhouses and ran the entire affair. In Black Creek township the first school was in the old Bittenhouse first log cabin, converted into such after he had built a better residence. It was burned, and then a school near where the brown church now stands was built. Mr. Tripp was the first teacher. The first schoolhouse in Dallas township (now in Dallas borough) was erected in 1816, built of hewn logs by William Honeywell, Philip Shaver, William Hunt and John Honeywell. In the year 1800 there was a log schoolhouse in Exeter that stood near George Miller's, and Josiah Beach was teacher and then John McMillen. In the latter part of the other century Exeter township voted a tax to support a short winter school. For fifteen years after the free school act of 1833, Exeter continued to support its schools by taxes. The first school in Sturmerville was in a log school- house in 1819, Rachel Goodwin was an early teacher. The pioneer schoolhouse in Plains was built in 1818, on the road between Johnson's and Miner's gristmills. It was of round logs, and was well ventilated. The first teacher was Sylvester Dieth, an eccentric Yankee and a good teacher. The old log schoolhouse was used summers till 1824 or 1825, when the school was kept in Mr. Parsons' house until 1829; then the little white schoolhouse was built. This was a frame building, 20x24 feet, lathed and plastered, and was at that time the best schoolhouse in this part of the country. Asahel P. Gridley, a graduate of the semmary at Cazenovia, N. Y. , was the first teacher. This building served until lab9, when a two- story house, 22x40 feet, was built. Something of the school efforts here fifty years ago as they relate to much earlier school efforts are given in a communication bv G. H. E. Plumb, to a recent issue of the Historical Record. Mr. Miner had published a letter in which he urgently appealed to the people not to let the "old academy" the Wilkes-Barre Female academy, go down forever. The fact of the publication of this appeal became in time the only authentic assertion that at one time in the long ago they had a female seminary here; another was the "Wyoming seminary," also for females. The latter was for a long time conducted by the Misses Perry. Here were two female and one male seminary, reared by the people so long ago that their posterity finally HISTORY OP LUZERNE COUNTY. 383 reached the degree of indifference to the subject as to allow all to go to decay. Dr. Thomas W. Miner's letter is dated April 20, 1836, published in the Republican Farmer, John Atherholt, printer. He asks, after telling something of its past glories: " Shall we let it goP " He appeals strongly for them to sustain an institu- tion "our fathers reared." He enumerates among its foster children a Scott, Mallery, Greenough, Dyer, Denison, Beaumont, Joseph and Joel Jones and C. Miner. An old prospectus states: " The department of education will be under the direction of Miss F. M. Woodworth. The seminary is delightfully situated on the banks of the Susquehanna. ' ' Of the schools in Newport township it is said that as early as 1803 there was a schoolhouse on the Middle road opposite the cemetery. There is no record of any of the early teachers, and no one now living can remember them. January 3, 1806, it was voted that the interest of the public moneys for the three years past be appro- priated to the benefit of the schools. Six trustees were appointed to divide the township into three school districts. The committee reported Jannary 6, 1806, that the north division had fifty-one children; the south division seventy-two, and the west division thirty-four. Schools were then established in each division. Wyoming Seminary. — This well known and justly popular institution of learn- ing, located in the classic valley of Wyoming, has a history well worthy of note. It was started in 1807 as the Wilkes-Barre academy, and in a few years the name changed to its present form. The friends of education in the old Oneida Methodist Episcopal conference, after establishing on a broad and permanent basis a seminary at Cazenovia, N. Y. , in the northern portion of their territory, determinedly entertained the project over fifty years ago, of providing for the increasing educational demands of the southern por- tion of the work. With a commendable foresight they devised measures for the erection of an institution of learning in northeastern Pennsylvania. At the session of the Oneida conference, held in Wilkes-Barre, August 9, 1843, the matter was fully discussed, and the necessary preliminary steps taken by the appointment of David Holmes, Jr. , Lucian S. Bennett, Thomas Myers, Madison F. Myers, Lord Butler, Sharp D. Lewis and Silas Comfort as " trustees of a contemplated seminary of learning, to be located either in Wilkes-Barre or Kingston," according to the amount of subscription obtained in each place within a given time. Kingston, pro- viding the largest subscription, was the chosen locality. At the first meeting of the board of trustees David Holmes was elected president, Silas Comfort, secretary, and Madison F. Myers, treasurer. The first building, a brick structure of three stories, 37x70, was erected and opened for students in 1844. The size of the chapel was 24x29; recitation room, 13x29, and room for primary department, 20x29, with some twenty rooms in all for students; cost of the building about 15,000. Such was the beginning of this educational enterprise — one building, two teachers, and fifty scholars. The trustees secured as their first principal Rev. Reuben Nelson, A. M. , then a young man, but who afterward abundantly demonstrated his fitness to inaugurate and carry forward such an enterprise to a successful consummation. Under such leadership, seconded by the energetic co-operation of a noble-minded and self-denying board of trustees and a corps of efiicient teachers, the institution attained a popularity and influence second to none of its class in the land. In half a dozen years after the erection of the first edifice, such was the patron- age obtained that an additional building was demanded. In the spirit of an unself- ish liberality, the late William Swetland volunteered to erect the projected addi- tional building at his own expense. The second building was named by the trus- tees Swetland hall, in memory of the respected donor. At the same time, Hon. Ziba Bennett contributed $1,000 as a foundation for a library. This was thereafter called, in honor of the donor, the Bennett library. 384 HISTOEY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. In the early spring of 1853 additional facilities were deemed essential, and the building of a wing or wings to the main building was contemplated, with a view to afford accommodation to a larger number of students. On March 15, 1853, the seminary buildings were burned. While the brick and stone and ashes were yet warm the trustees, with undaunted heroism, in their meeting on the day of the fire resolved that a committee of three be appointed to draw plans and specifications for the rebuilding of the seminary. This showed the stuff these men were made of. Again did the tried friend of the cause, William Swetland, come to the rescue, and he nobly undertook, at his own expense, the work of rebuilding and enlarging Swet- land hall. Through the liberality of Payne Pettebone, George Swetland, A. T. Smith, and Isaac 0. Shoemaker, a third building was erected about the same time, to which the name Union hall was given. Thus, through fire and disaster larger and better buildings were erected, and the three blocks; "Wyoming seminary" in the center, with "Swetland Hall" on the left and "Union Hall " on the right, stood a noble monument to the energy and liberality of the men of Wyoming valley. In a few years afterward the ladies' boarding hall was destroyed by fire. Then a fierce tornado swept over the place and unroofed the building. Then a flood did more or less damage to the seminary property. Yet with heroic spirit the board of trustees measured up to every exigency, so that repeated difficulties have been over- come, financial embarrassments removed, and the whole machinery kept moving without intermission and without a jar. The Civil war seemed for a brief period to interfere with the wonted success of the institution. Yet even with this temporary drawback the trustees projected other plans for the success of the school. A commercial department was added in 1863; Prof. W. S. Smyth, afterward principal of Oazenovia seminary, was secured to take charge of the commercial college, and under his efficient supervision it proved a decided success. Prof. L. L. Sprague was the head of this department for many years, and under his management it developed into an institution equal to the best schools of the kind in the country. At the close of the war it was found that the enlargement of the seminary was absolutely required. The three buildings had already been united by the addition of wings, yet this did n6t meet the demand for room. In the year 1866 it was determined to erect a memorial building, to be named "Centenary hall." This was com- menced in 1867 and completed in 1868, at a cost of about 125,000. The buildings are all under one roof, three and four stories high, with 350 feet frontage. The edifice, as a whole, is an ornament to the valley, and an honor to the country and the church. There are ample accommodations for 175 boarding students and 250 day scholars. At the general conference of the Methodist Episcopal church held in Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1872, Eev. Dr. Nelson, after serving as principal for a period of nearly thirty years, during which time he developed his skill as an educator and financier; was elected senior book agent at New York, and resigned his position as principal. He was succeeded by Rev. D. Copeland, A. M. , president of the Female college of Hills- boro, Ohio, a gentleman whose literary tastes and attainments, acknowledged abilities and extended experience as an educator, rendered him pre-eminently fitted for the important and responsible position of principal of an institution of this grade. Never was the institution more successful than now. The course of study IS most thorough and elevated. The curriculum will compare favorably with that of the highest institutions of its class. This time honored and deservedly popular institution receives its full share of patronage, and' under its present efficient management is destined to exert a still more potent influence in the education of the youth of our land. The system of instruction adopted is thorough, and designed to prepare the students tor the active duties of life or tor a course of professional or collegiate study. >e 'jLA.A.^ Ci t Evangelical Lutheran, Black Creek Church; built 18o4, half a mile west of Black White Haven St Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church, White Haven; organized 1864, by Eev. Hermonn Reif ; church built 1865. Pastors: Rev. H. Reif, G. F. W. Guenset, J. H. Schmidt, W. H. Lanbensten, G. T. Weibel and others. 442 HISTORY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. Baptist Church. — The Wilkes-Barre and Kingston Baptist church was formed at Forty Fort in 1842 through the labors of Rev. P. L. Post, of Montour. The first pastor, Rev. A. C. Hewitt, was called in 1845 to the congregation ministry in the old courthouse. In 1848 a church was erected on Northampton street, between Franklin and Main. It was of brick, with a marble slot inserted in the wall over the front door, with the inscription " Baptist Meeting House." In 1849 the Wilkes- Barre branch separated from the Kingston side and was known as the "Northampton Street Baptist," but it disbanded in 1873. The pastors were Rev. A. C. Hewitt, John Boyd, E. M. Alden, J. L. Andrews, D. E. Bowen, Charles A. Fox, J. D. Griebel. The Centennial Baptist Church, of Wilkes-Barre, was formed in the Northamp- ton street building July 16, 1874. The church was sold and a property purchased on South street, corner of Franklin, on which a handsome stone chapel was erected. Pastors, Rev. J. B. Hutchinson and Rev. Frear, D. D. Welsh Baptist, Wilkes-Barre, Pa. ; organized 1867, in Phoenix hall, through Rev. Frederick Evans, D. D. , of Hyde Park. In 1870 Rev. Theophilus Jones became the pastor; he was succeeded in 1876 by Rev. E. Edwards. The church building was erected 1874, on Harrison street. Baptist Exeter Township Church; organized 1798. Upper Lehigh Welsh Baptist; organized 1868; church built on Main street, 1873. Nanticoke Welsh Baptist; organized 1870; church built 1871. Pastors: Revs. Theophilus Jones, D. Davies, J. P. Harris, W. F. Davies. Baptist Church, Jackson Township; organized 1864. Lake First Baptist Church; organized 1856; church erected 1878. Pastors: Revs. G. W. Schofield, 1856-8; Benjamin Sheave r, 1858-60; E. N. Whitney, 1866-8; Benjamin Sheaver, 1868-70; Mark Parks, 1870-3; R. C. H. Catterall, 1876-9; E N. Whitney, 1879, etc. Huntsville Baptist Church; formed 1834. Pastors: Revs. Parker, Mott, Gray, Clark, Schofield, Frink, Shearer, Whitney, Parks, Breuster, Catterall, Gessner, etc. . First Baptist Church, Pittston; organized 1776, by Rev. William Benedict, from New York. The Wyoming massacre nearly broke up the church, which was reorganized in 1786. Until 1801 it was united with the Philadelphia Baptist asso- ciation, and from 1806 until 1833 with Abington Baptist church; in 1834 with Bndgewater association. For eighty-seven years this church worshiped in private houses; in 1875 the present church building was erected. Pastors: Revs. Benedict, Mott, Boyd, Leach, Francis, Thomas, Alder, Shanfelt, Thomas, Bliss, Bailey, Wilhfer, Finn, Bishop, Miller, Brown, Carey, etc. Parsons Welsh Baptist Church; organized 1869; church built 1871. Pastors: Rev. James Reese, Jonathan Nichols, David Davies, J. S. Jones, D. T. Phillips. First Welsh Baptist Church, Kingston; organized 1871; church built 1879. Pastors: Rev. Theophilus Jones, James R. Price. Jewish.— B'naiBHth Jewish Synagogue; organized Octoher, 1840. A church buildmg was erected on Washington street, 1849. This was enlarged or rebuilt in -— . The pastors have been Rev. Mans, October, 1848, to August, 1849; M. Strasser, August, 1849, to August, 1851; Isaac Thomas, August, 18517 to May, 1853; ?88T-91 ' ' ^ ^^"^^' ^^^'^ ^^^'°'' ^- ^^ 1^^2-6; N. Rundbaken, D. B., B'nai Jewish Synagogue ; organized r«bW ^?^ '^"f"' (Polish Hebrew); organized about 1885. Rev. Liman Salinger, rabbi; located on Welles street. corrS^ mI^*" Cterc/ies.--S<. PauVs German Evangelical Lutheran, Wilkes-Barre, W.n ^^'°/^ Luzerne Commandery, No. 41, P. O. S. of A., of Wilkes-Barre. Instituted May 10, 1888. Officers: William Eicke, C; E. W. Clark, V. C; M. B. Smith, J. V. C. ; W. H. Neyhard, Sec. ; W. S. Stark, Treas. ; P. H. Kunsman, P. Sec. Washington Camp, No. 408, P. O. S. of A., of Wilkes-Barre. Instituted Febru- ary 21, 1888. Officers: George D. Whitesel, P. Pres.; J. G. Long, Pres. : Charles B. Dana, V.-Pres.; D. Waller, M. of P. & C; A. E. Smith, C; H. E. Behee, Treas.; L. G. Swetland, P. Sec. ; J. H. Derby, Eec. Sec. Camp No. 287, P. O. S. of A., of Wilkes-Barre. Instituted January 23, 1888. Officers: Conrad Malkemes, P. Pres.; C. Mahoney, Pres.; A. J. Herman, V.-Pres.; B. C. Laubach, M. of P. & C; J. B. Houser, Eec Sec ; Peter Butz, P. Sec. ; Wil- bert Benning, Treas. ; Norton Houser, C. ; Adam Corps, Insp. Knights of Malta.— John Knox Commandery, No. 12, K. of M. , of Wilkes-Barre. Instituted August 21, 1890. Officers: Thomas Ealph, Sir Knight Com.; George E. Pancourt, generalissimo; E. A. Hance, Capt.-Gen.; L. L. Beisel, Eec; James H. Binney, Treas.; W. S. Arnold, Prel; past commanders: Thomas Worth, H. H. Har- ris, H. E. Ibach, H. A. Kline, James H. Binney, J. J. Beisel. 458 HISTOBT OF LTJZEKNE COUNTY. PriQce of Peace Commaadery, No. 69, K. of M., of Wilkes-Barre. Instituted August 22, 1890. Officers: James Love, Sir Kaight Com. ; Jesse Briggs, geaeralis- simo; Oliver A. R. Roth, Capt.-Gea. ; Charles B. Newhart, Rec. ; George Kechner, Asst.' Rec. ; T. J. Lawall, Treas. ; Robert Blatchford, Prel. Jr 0. U. A. ilf.— Columbia Council, No. 43, Jr. O. U. A. M., of Wilkes-Barre. Officers: John F. Miller, C. ; Charles Wiggins, V. C. ; W. W. Hon, A. R. S. ; S. G. Bobbins, F. S. ; C. Bart Sutton, C. B. Johnson, John F. Miller," trustees; I. V. Bobbins, R. S. Wilkes-Barre Council, No. 161, Jr. O. U. A. M., of Wilkes-Barre. Instituted May 30, 1877. Officers: Frank Mace, C. ; Oscar Dilley, V. C; Ed J. Hummell, R. S. ; J. W. Richards, A. R. S. ; Fred Brown, F. S. ; Hiram Mace, Treas. ; Jesse Briggs, Charles Williams, J. W. Richards, trustees; Cyrus S. Weiss, representative to grand lodge. Anthracite Council, No. 487, Jr. O. U. A. M., of Wilkes-Barre. W. K. Hoster, ■R. S. W. J. Byars Council, No. 282, Jr. O. U. A. M., of Wilkes-Barre. Instituted December 12, 1888. Officers: August Miller, C. ; H. A. Rittenhouse, V. 0. ; Joseph G. Pierson, A. R. S. ; T. W. Peters, F. S.; N. Fegley, Treas.; John Miller, J. G. Pierson, D. H. McCarty, trustees; B. H. Kilmer, R. S. 0. TJ. A. M. — Luzerne Council, No. 108, O. U. A. M., of Wilkes-Barre. Insti- tuted 1874. Officers: H. W. Leffler, 0. ; W. A. France, V. C; John H. Kreidler, R. S. ; W. A. Coyle, A. R. S. ; W. H. Snyder, F. S.; E. B. Trivley, Treas.; W. H. Rockwell, Ind. ; J. W. Simmer, Ex. ; H. W. Leffler, J. W. Simmer, W. H. Rockwell, trustees. Knights of Pythias. — Wilkes-Barre Lodge, No. 174, K. of P. , of Wilkes-Barre. Instituted September 7, 1869. Reorganized November 1, 1875. Number of mem- bers, 150. Officers: G. E. Grum, P. C. ; W. J. Williams, C. C. ; M. Gottfried, V. C. ; A. Cunningham, M. at A. ; J. M. White, Prel. ; Joseph McReynolds, M. of F. ; John Brent, M. of E. ; W. R. Kline, K. of R. & S. Eintracht, Lodge No. 272, K. of P., of Wilkes-Barre. Instituted November 8, 1870. Number of members, 115. Officers: August Filipski, P. C. ; Herman Zet- terberg, 0. C. ; John Miller, V. C. ; Moritz Schultz, Prel. ; Herman A. Wagner, K. of R. & S.; Otto Rauchle, M. of E.; Robert Meyer, M. of F. ; Herman Alten- hoff, M. at A. ; August Liese, O. G. Prospect Lodge, No. 490, K. of P., of Wilkes-Barre. Instituted June, 1883. Officers: Joseph J. Davis, P. C. ; David Joseph, C. C. ; John Bashin, V. C; Jacob D. James, M. E. ; William R. Jones, K. R. S.; David J. Williams, M. of F. Rolling Mill Hill Lodge, No. 87, K. of P., of Wilkes-Barre. Officers: John Jonah, P. C. ; Ben Davy, Jr. , C. C. ; Lewis Davis, V. C. ; John Wynne, M. of A. ; John Thomas, K. of R. S. ; Harry Spangleberger, M. of E. ; Harry Gardner, M. of F. ; Mahlon Van Norman, Herbert Brader and John E. Jones, trustees. A. O. K. M. C— Cryptic Castle No. 3, A. O. K. M. C, of Wilkes-Barre. Officers: Jesse Comstock, Com.; John Nott, V. -Com.; Theodore Rush, First Lieut.; John Symons, Rec. (38 Chester street); W. S. Solomon, Treas. ; A. F. Snyder, F. S.; John Nunes, C. of S. ; James Symons, A. C. of S. ; Mathew Broglin, Chap. ; S. Benney, George Freeman, Charles Olson, trustees. S. P. J:.— Golden Rule Conclave, No. 20; S. P. K., of Wilkes-Barre. Officers: George Gardner, Com.; Peter Dodson, V.-Com. ; William Gardner, Jr., herald. ; John Varlow, marshal; W. S. Solomon, Rec. ; R. G. Homer, Treas. ; W. Robinson, ensign; James Horn, Chap.; D. B. Williams, W. H. Chappell, Charles G. Smith, trustees. Royal Arcanum, Wilkes-Barre Council, No. 396, Royal Arcanum. Officers: James H. Hughes, regent; William Wasley, V.-R. ; B. G. Crawford, orator; H. G. Merrill, P. R.; J. G. Torborg, Sec; George W. Bachman, Col.; lorworth Jones, Treas.; H. E. Draper, Chap.; H. C. Mason, guide; S. C. Falk, warden; John Roderick, Sen. ; David Cottle, trustee for three years. HISTORY OF LUZEBNB COUNTY. 459 G. U. 0. of r.— Anthracite Lodge, No. 1629, G. U. 0. of T., of Wilkes-Barre. iMtituted Juue, 1873. Offljsra: Elijah Robertsoa, N. F. ; William Jackson, P. N. G. ; Fred Stevenson, N. G. ; G. C. Overton, V. G.; John Logan, Sec. ; Samuel Nor- man, Treas. World's Fair Auxiliary. — The Ladies' Auxiliary World's Fair Committee for Luzerne county is as follows: Mesdames Charles Parrish, Thomas H. Atherton, George S. Bennett, J. W. Hillman, H. J. Dennin, J. C. Powell, F. C. Johnson, J. Harris Jones, Fred C. Ahlborn, William L. Conyngham, all of Wilkes-Barre; Mrs. Daniel Edwards, Kingston. Woman's Relief Corps. — Conyngham Post. Instituted January, 1886. Officers: Mrs. Maria T. Wheaton, Pres.; Mrs. B. W. Marcy, Sr. V.-Pres. ; Mrs. Netta Hart- land, Jr. V.-Pres.; Mrs. MaryD. Hangerford, Sec. ; Mrs. Elizabeth Birbeck, Treas. ; Mrs. Elizabeth Boyd, Chap. Hancock Circle, No. 9, of Wilkes-Barre. — Instituted March 30, 1887. Officers: Mrs. J. D. Kline, Pres.; Mrs. N. Vosbiirg, Sr. V.-Pres.; Miss Estella Freeman, Jr. V.-Pres.; Mrs. J. Ney, Chap.; Mrs. E. Groff, Treas. ; Mrs. C. S. Gabel, Sec; Mrs. Steidinger, Asst. Sec. Daughters of Aimrican Rsvolution. — Wyoming Valley Chapter, D. A. R., of Wilkes-Barre. Instituted April 29, 1891. Officers: Mrs. Katheriue Searle McCart- ney, regent; Mrs. Sarah Richards Butler Woodward, V. -R. ; Miss Ella Munroe Bowman, Sec. ; Miss Mary A. Sharp, registrar; Miss Sallie Sharpe, Treas.; local board of managers, Mrs. Elizabeth Reynolds Ricketts, Mrs. Annie Buckingham Dorrance Reynolds, Mrs. Grace Goodrich Fuller Reynolds, Miss Emily Cist Butler; advisory board: Hon. Stanley Woodward, Hon. Charles E. Rice, Col. R. Bruce Ricketts, Gen. W. H. McCartney, Alexander Farnham and Sheldon Reynolds. Oratorio Society. — Wilkes-Barre Oratorio Society. Instituted 1886. Officers: Capt. C. Straw, Pres.; George P. Loomis, V.-Pres.; George A. Edwards, Sec; Alfred Hand, Fin. Sec. ; Dr. R. Davis, Treas.; board of trustees: John Welles Hol- lenback, Calvin Parsons, J. Ridgeway Wright, L. D. Shoemaker, Charles A. Miner, Joe C. Powell, Capt. C. Straw, D. J. J. Mason. Grand Army of the Republic. — There are in Luzerne county seventeen organ- ized posts, all of which are in a flourishing condition, and are enumerated as follows: No 20, Robinson, Hazleton, George T. Carpenter, Com.; No. 97, Conyngham, Wilkes-Barre, D. S. Clark, Kingston, Com.; No. 109. Capt. Asher Gaylord, Plym- outh, David A. Kline, Cjm. ; No. 113, Capt. D. J. Taylor, White Haven, William Buckalew, Com.; No. 147, Maj. C. B. Coxe, Freeland, Sandy Allen, Drifton, Com. ; No. 161, Lape, Nanticoke, Eugene N. Alexander, Com.; No. 186, Wilcox, Plains, William S. Stark, Com.; No. 213, J. Stewart Robinson, Huntington Mills, W. D. Fritz, Com. ; No. 245, W. G. Nugent, Pittston, Enos Williams, Com. ; No. 257, Lieut. C. B. Post, Shickshinny, Joseph H. Gross, Com. ; No. 283, N. T. Pennington, Fairmount Springs, Edward Ramaly, Com.; No. 339, Capt. John J. Whitney, Dal- las, O. L. Roushey, Com. ; No. 444, Keith, Wilkes-Barre, S. J. Patterson, Com. : No. 499, George F. Moore, Sweet Valley, Miles RosSj Com. ; No. 563, Lieut. Solomon Stair, Conyngham, John Cunioas, Drums, Com. ; No. 587, Lieut. Charles H. Riley, Wyoming, J. L. Shoemaker, Com. ; No. 593, E. L. Dana, West Nanticoke, William Winders, Com. Historical Society. — February 11, 1858, Dr. C. F. Ingham, Dr. W. F. Dennis, E. L. Dana, J. P. Dennis, G. P. Parish, William P. Miner, S. Woodward, H. M. Hoyt, G. B. Nicholson, C. E. Wright, W. H. Beaumont, S. Bowman, S. S. Win- chester, J. B. Conyngham, and others, met at the old Fell tavern, in Wilkes-Barre to celebrate, Stewart Peajce says, the fiftieth anniversary of the successful experiment of burning anthracite coal in a grate. The old grate, with which Judge Fell experi- mented, was procured and set up in the fire-place, and a bright coal fire was soon glowing, and warming the assembled company. At this meeting it was proposed to e.stablish a historical society, and the proposition meeting general approval, a com- 460 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. mittee was appointed to draft a constitution, to be presented at the next meeting, to be held at Templar hall. [This appears to be nearly an official recognition of the claim of Judge Fell to the discovery claimed. But on the other hand, it is said that even the "old grate" was apochryphal.— Ed.] , . , .^ " It is to be regretted that a historical and geological society was not formed in this county many years ago, while a number of the early settlers were yet living, and at a period when many curious relics of former ages, now beyond our reach, might have been procured and preserved among us. The writer collected, in Wyoming valley many years ago, a large number of Indian curiosities, which are now deposited in the British museum. There are numerous articles of interest in the Philadelphia, New York and New England cabinets, which were procured in Luzerne county." On May 10, 1858, the Wyoming Historical and Geological society received cor- porate privileges, and soon after rented a cabinet-room on Franklin street, Capt. E. L. Dana having been elected the first president. This room, it was supposed, would be sufficiently large for the wants of the society for many years to come. But, owing to the praiseworthy exertions of the cabinet committee, and to the liberal donations of many gentlemen and ladies in and out of the county, it is now full and overflowing with a great variety of rare and valuable specimens of minerals, shells, coin, Indian relics, etc. The society is in possession of the valuable collection of H. A. Chambers, of Carbondale, who spent twenty years in gathering valuable curiosities of ancient and modern times, especially coins and medals, of which he had upward of 3,000 pieces. The society is indebted to Gen. William S. Ross for his cabinet of rare curiosities, he having purchased the entire collection of Mr. Chambers for the sum of 12,000 and presented it to the society. The purposes of this society and the men into whose hands have rested its work have been an assurance that in time this will be one of the most valuable voluntary associations in this part of the state, as already it is one of the most prosperous and highly valued. Harvey's Lake Association. — About the beginning of the century an association giving itself the above name was formed of the young men of Wilkes-Barre and vicinity, the object being to meet at this beautiful lake every 4th of July and fit- tingly celebrate Independence day. This was royally kept up many years and on each recurring day a feast was prepared from the delicious fish in the lake and the game of the surrounding mountain forests. The Wilkes-Barre Debating Society was organized March 8, 1804, and was the first in the county of which we have any record. The proceedings, when deemed expedient by the society, were to be kept secret, and any member violating this provision of the constitution was severely dealt with. Absentees were fined 50 cents, and any member refusing to take part in the debate paid 25 cents into the treasury. This association was organized by Thomas Dyer, Charles Miner, John Evans, Arnold Colt, Nathan Palmer, Josiah Wright, Ezekiel Hyde, Thomas Graham, Thomas Wells and Roswell Wells. The first question for debate was as follows: "Is celibacy justifiable by the laws of God, or consistent with moral principles?" The discussion was animated and long drawn, but finally, of course, decided in the negative. In 1809 the name was changed and became the Wilkes-Barre Beneficial society — a secret organization. The Quincy Society or Tribe started in Wilkes-Barre in 1806, a debating society, and was kept up under various names until 1839, when the Wyoming Literary society was established. Many men, who afterward became eminent, participated in the establishment and proceedings of these associations. There were Denison, Griffin, Cist, Mallery, Scott, Bowman, Wright, Beaumont, Bidlack, Woodward, Butler, Conyngham, Lane, Burnside, Hoyt, Nicholson, Lee, Ross, Smith and many others who trained their faculties for debate in these societies. The Hon. Charles Miner and Thomas Dyer, Esq., two of the original members of the first debating society survived the other first members. In 1806 the Wilkes-Barre or Wyoming Library company was formed. Its object HISTORY OP LDZEKNE COUNTY. 461 was to procure a collection of valuable books, to be placed within the reach of all who desired knowledge. As is generally the case.with libraries in country towns, the books became scattered, and many were lost. In 1826 a search committee was appointed, to restore the collection as far as practicable. The remaining books were brought together, and were divided among the members of the company by lot. In 1839 the Wyoming Athenaeum was established; has a collection of books, numbering about 1,500 volumes. Ninth Regimev-t Infantry.— -Third Brigade, N. G. P. Field and staff. Col. Morris J. Keck; Lt.-Col., B. F. Stark; Maj., William C. Price; Adjt., John S. Harding; Q. M., E. G. Mercur; Surg., William R. Longshore, M. D. ; assistant surgeons, W. Stewart, M. D., W. G. Weaver, M. D.; Chap., Eev. William J. Day; inspector of rifle practice, Lieut. C. Bow Dougherty; volunteer aid, Capt. George W. Zeigler. Non- Commissioned Staff. Sergt-Maj., S. L. Barnes; Q. M. S., A. E. Collamer; C. S., W. E. Eenshaw; hospital steward, H. C. Tuck; principal musician, Jacob Batz. Wilkes-Barre City BaWaZion. —Company A., Wilkes-Barre. Capt., W. H. Brodhead; 1st Lieut., Charles L. Peck; 2d Lieut., Harry R. Williams. Company B, Wilkes-Barre. Capt., W. S. Marshall; let Lieut., Thomas Ohlman; 2d Lieut., E. G. Lorah. Company C, Pittston. Capt., J. W. Burns; 1st Lieut., J. F. J. Callahan; 2d Lieut., E. G. Gage.' Company D, Wilkes-Barre. Capt., Charles E. Connor; 1st Lieut., O. Hillard Bell; 2d Lieut., F. F. Turner. Company E, Parsons. Capt. George Wallace, Jr.; 1st Lieut., O. F. Sword; 2d Lieut, Eobert Wallace. Company F, Wilkes-Barre. Capt., Nelson Stranberg; 1st Lieut., D. Myers; 2d Lieut. , E. W. Newton. Company I, Plymouth. Capt., S. L. French; 1st Lieut., S. W. Davenport; 2d Lieut,, F. L. McKee. Wilkes-Barre Armory Association. — Col. M. J. Keck, Pres. ; Lt. -Col. B. F. Stark, V.-Pres. ; Maj. W. C. Price, Sec; Maj. J. Eidgway Wright, Treas.; board of control: Hon. C. A. Miner, chairman; Col. G. M. Eeynolds, Maj. Irving A. Stearns, Lt.-Col. B. F. Stark, Col. Morris J. Keck, Maj. William C. Price, Capt. Nelson Stranberg, Capt. W. H. Broadhead; Supt. of armory, Capt. G. W. Zeigler; armorer, Lieut. E. W. Newton. Ninth Eegiment Band, incorporated as Wilkes-Barre Musical association. Bandmaster, J. I. Alexander. Central Poor District. — Pres., Owen B. McKnight, Plains; Sec. and Treas., Abram Nesbitt, Kingston; Supt., Moses Eiohelberger; medical attendant, Charles Long, M. D. ; directors: Marx Long and William Dickover, Wilkes-Barre; Stephen B. Vaughn, Kingston; Owen B. MoKnight, Plains; Ira Davenport, Plymouth; E. N. Alexander, Nanticoke; Andrew J. Bellas, Newport; average number of inmates, 100; average number of inmates in insane asylum, 170. Young Men's Christian Association. — Pres., E. L. Ayres; V. Pres., Dr. F. C. Johnson; Treas., W. E. Preston; Eec. Sec, J. W. Eaeder; librarian, A. L. Williams; Gen. Sec, S. M. Bard; Asst. Sec, E. B. Buckalew; Phys, Dir., Walter E. Brown; managers: Christian Walter, J. W. HoUenback, Dr. H. N. Young, Dr. L. H. Taylor, L. E. Sterns, I. M. Thomas, J. T. Morgan, Dr. J. L Eoe, H. W. Dunning, H. A. Fuller; trustees: J. Vaughau Darling, Dr. G. W. Guthrie, D. P. Ayara, A. F. Derr, Col C. M. Conyngham, E.L. Ayers; medical examiners: Drs. J. I. Eoe, A. G. Fell. Their elegant building on North Main street was erected in 1891-2. Wyoming Historical and Geological Society was incorporated May 10, 1858^. Corporators: Henry Martyn Hoyt, Stanley Woodward, L. D. Shoemaker, Andrew 462 HISTOEY OP LUZEENB COUNTY. T. MoClintock, George Butler, Welding F. Dennis; attorney for the society, E. S. Dana. Officers: Pres., A. T. McCliutock, LL. D. ; vice-presidents, Eev. H. L. Jones, Hon. E. B. Ooxe, Capt. Calvin Parsons, Hon. L. D. Sho^aker; trustees: Hon. C. A. Miner, Edward Welles, S. L. Brown, Dr. L. H. Taylor, H. H. Harvey; Treas., A. H. McClintock; Eec. Sec, Joseph D. Coons; Cor. Sec, Sheldon Keynolds; librarian, Hon. J. E. Wright; Asst. librarian, F. C. Johnson; curators: Mineralogy and conchology, I. A. Stearns; paleontology, E. D. Lacoe; archseology, Sheldon Eeynolds; numismatics, Eev. H. E. Hayden; historiographer, George B. Kulp; meteorologist, Eev. F. B. Hodge, D. D. Osterhout Free Library. — Directors: Hon. H. B. Payne, Pres,; Sheldon Eey- nolds, Sec; Andrew H. McClintock, Treas.; trustees: Eev. F. B. Hodge, D. D., Eev. H. L. Jones, A. F. Derr, Maj. C. M. Conyngham, Dr. L. H. Taylor, H. A. Fuller; librarian. Miss H. P. James; assistants, Misses Myra Poland, Euth A. Nicholson, Lucy S. Faser, Eose Palmer, Margaret S. Camp. Circulation, 50,000; volumes, 14,440. Susquehanna Dental Association. — Dr. H. N. Young, Pres.; Dr. F. L. Hollister, V.-Pres. ; Dr. H. Gearheart, Lewisburg, Treas.; Dr. V. S. Jones, Bethlehem; Dr. J. C. Hertz, Easton, and Dr. T. W. Thomas, Wilkes-Barre, secretaries; Dr. C. S. Beck, Dr. G. W. Klump, Williamsport, and Dr. W. H. Hertz, Hazleton, executive committee. Conyngham Post Q. A. i?.— Com., D. S. Clark; S. V. Com., I. P. Long; J. V. Com., P. F. Welteroth; Q. M., H. Cohen; Chap., Eev. George Frear, D. D. ; Surg., Edward Conners; O. of G., J. H. Bates; delegates to department encampment: C. N. Metzger, Alfred Darte, Giles Eoss, Z. T. Moyer, B. W. Marcy, George Engle, C. H. Gresh, O. A. Parsons; alternates, J. E. Dickson, G. E. Lennard, H. Cohen, I. P. Long, George Deitrick, T. E. Conner, W. E. Doron, L H. Steidinger. Young Men's Hebrew Association. — Pres., Charles J. Long; V.-Pres., Lewis Cas- per, Fin. Sec, Felix Levy; Cor. Sec, Morris Levy; Treas., Alex Schwarz; libra- rian, Oosmer P. Long; trustees, Louis Schloss, A. B. Constine, A. Kline. St. Aloysius Society. — Membership, 600; Pres., Thomas Mack; V.-Pres., Den- nis Mackin; Fin. Sec, J. J. Dougher; Eec and Cor. Sec, Andrew Feldman; Treas., Charles J. Kelly; marshal, Edward McLoughlin; S. at A., Arthur Wilson; S. at L.. Anthony Toole; first district, Cornelius Corbin; second district, Thomas Ken- nedy; third district, Thomas Lally; delegates to diocesan convention, M. J. Keat- ing and J. F. McGinty. St. Mary's F. M. Society .—Ties. , M. J. Walsh; V.-Pres., John Fox; Eec. Sec, Charles Lavin; Fin. Sec, T. F. Fitzimmons; Treas., John Masterson; marshal, Lawrence McCarthy. The president, vice-president and the two secretaries consti- tute the board of trustees. Westmoreland CZm&. —Incorporated 1889. Eesident membership, 150; non- resident, 40. Pres., A. H. Dickson; V.-Pres., Dr. O. F. Harvey; Sec. -Treas., J. E. Edgar; Govs. : A. F. Derr, W. C. Price, J. S. Harding, Shepherd Ayars; mem- bership committee: A. H. McClintock and W. A. Lathrop; steward, N. L. Banks. Columbia CZm6.— Established 1890. Membership, 70. Pres., -John T. Lena- han; vice-presidents, Hon. D. L. O'Neil and Hon. George J. Stegmaier; Sec -Treas., A. C. Campbell; board of Govs., Joseph McGinty, Eoger McGarry, Dr. Kirwan and John A. Schmidt. ■" e, j, W. C. T. Z7.— Pres., Mrs. H. W. Palmer; vice-presidents, Mrs. E. W. Sturde- vant, Mrs. Hull, Mrs. A. Eicketts, Mrs. Loop, Mrs. Frear, Miss Briggs, Mrs. Dr. Gressler; Eec. Sec, Mrs. A. L. James; Cor. Sec, Mrs. Lance; Treas., Mrs. W. N. Jennings. Caledonian Society.~^&i\i?in Kelly, C. ; Peter McClosky, IstC; Gavin Burt, A^ ^' i ■' ^^''^a^ M. Graham, Sec. or 3d C; Thomas H. A.Ford, Cor. Sec. or 4th G. ; Eobert Aveny, librarian; James Blair, Chap. German Soc«e^ies.—Sftengerbund. Membership, 150. Pres., H. German; V.-Pres., S. Kraus; Dir., Prof. Schmidt. HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 463 Concordia. Membership, 200. Pres., John Eeinig; Sec, S. S. Chan; Fin Sec.,H. Bauman; Dir., Prof. A. Hansen. Liedertafel. Membership, 125. Pres., Nicholas Hower; Sec, B. Frank; Dir. Prof. Drippe. ' St. Conrad Verein. Pres., J. H. Schmidt; Sec, George Becker. St. Francis Pioneer Corps. Pres., B. Walther; Sec, J. Ruhl. St. Joseph Verein. Pres., Jacob Schappert; Sec, John Becker. St. Nicholas Verein. Pres., Anton Bndler; Sec, Thomas Keller. St. Peter's. Pres., Jacob Schmidt; Sec, D. Lauser. Young Men's Verein. Pres., Henry Rudenauer; Sec, Carl Glasser. Hermann Verein. Pres., David Laufer; Sec, John Becker. Wyoming Verein. Pres., Jacob Becker; Sec, Joseph Zimmerman: Treas., Ph. Blaum. The Wilkes-Barre Law and Library Association. —The Wilkes-Barre Law and Library association was organized June 18, 1850, with Hendrick B. Wright as Pres. ; Andrew T. McClintock, Treas., and George Byron Nicholson, Sec. The original members were John N. Conyngham, Hendrick B. Wright, V. L. Maxwell, Harrison Wright, Andrew T. McClintock, Horatio W. Nicholson, George Byron Nicholson, Henry W. Fuller, Warren J. Woodward, Jonathan J. Slocum, Charles Denison, L. D. Shoemaker, Asher M. Stout, E. B. Harvey. The successive presi- dents have been Hendrick B. Wright, Edmund L. Dana and Andrew T. McClin- tock. Present ofiBcers: Alexander Farnham, Pres.; Allan H. Dickson, Sec. and Treas. West Side Park Association. — Pres., W. J. Harvey; V.-pres., George H. Parrish; Treas., John Laning; Sec, George P. Loomis. Halls.— Grand Opera (built 1892), Music Hall (theater), Armory hall, Brod- hun's hall, Cady hall, Caledonian hall. Coal Exchange, Eiver and Market, Con- cordia hall, Forester's hall, German Odd Fellows hall, Germania hall, Hirsh'shall, Jeremy's hall, Landmesser's hall, Lawall's hall, Livingston's hall, Loomis Hall, McGreevy's hall. Masonic hall. Memorial hall. Mystic Chain hall. Odd Fellows hall, Osterhout Building hall, Red Men's hall, Saengerbund hall, Sr. O. U. A. M. hall, St. Aloysius hall, St. Conrad's hall, Stump's hall, Y. M. C. A. hall, Y. M. H. A. hall. CHAPTER XVIII. AGRICULTURE. Ik the Valley Originally it was only Fakmbes — Time has Beought the Change — Now IT IS ONLY COLLIEEIES — FaIR GbOUNDS AND ASSOCIATIONS — ThB BEGINNING AND EnD OP THE Story — Some op the Early MANUPACTtnRiNG Industries — Etc. HISTORICALLY this is not to be classed any more as an agricultural county. Yet it was these rich valleys and many productive hills that originally were the sole incentives that brought that peculiarly hardy and brave race of men whom it would seem were the only men then on the earth capable of finding their way to this remote and generally rugged region, and fight out the battles that they crowned with such signal victories. Forty years ago and now tell the story of agriculture in Luzerne county. The coal man and the manufacturer who naturally hunts for the cheapest fuel have nearly completed the change; but another century and then. The next fifty years will see one continuous city of the county with its heaviest artery along the valley ^g4 HISTOBY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. of the Susquehanna. In the famous long and wide Wyoming valley are the largest tracts of fruitful lands. Practically to-day all these are given over to the coal com- panies. And the urban population is growing at a tremendous pace, while the rural is disappearing at a nearly corresponding ratio. A vast city, made up possibly of many small towns, but that are linked so closely, in area as to occupy the available portion of the county. And wealth seeking out the lakes and the tallest mountains for " cottages." This is now almost as fixed as fate for Luzerne We are told that another 100 years will exhaust these great and finest coal fields in the known world. What then ? It is hardly possible that then the people will or can go back to the occupation of their ancestors and peacefully till the soil. Is the world wearing out? Here and there, but in the end, surely everywhere the agriculturist is to be driven from the fields. Forty- two years ago some of the leading men in the county met in Wilkes- Barre, realizing that agriculture was perceptibly declining, and proposed to make an effort to revive it. This meeting (1850) appointed delegates to the farmers' convention, to meet at Harrisburg; the meeting adjourned to meet again in January, 1851. At this last meeting it was resolved to act and the Luzerne County Agri- cultural society was formed. Able addresses were made by Judge Conyngham, George B. W. Sturdevant, S. F. Headley and others. April following officers were elected: Gen. W. S. Ross, president; S. D. Lewis, treasurer; George H. Butler, recording secretary, and Washington Lee, Jr., corresponding secretary; Charles Dorrance and William P. Miner, curators. Two hundred leading farmers became members. That was all there was of it. The chronicler of the day says the " coal speculation ended it." In 1858 another brave attempt was made to put on its feet another agricultural society, at a meeting in Kingston. Charles Dorrance, president; Gen. E. W. Sturdevant, Samuel Wadhams, Benjamin Harvey and 0. D. Shoemaker, vice-pres- idents. A constitution was adopted, and all was prepared to bold a county fair October 27 and 28, 1868, near the village of Wyoming. The fair was held and pronounced a success; owing to the exertion and influence of Col. Dorrance largely. In January, 1810, the Luzerne County Agricultural society, was first organized, in the old courthouse at Wilkes-Barre. Jesse Fell was chosen chairman, and Dr. R H. Rose secretary of the meeting. A constitution was adopted, and the follow- ing officers were chosen for the year: Jesse Fell, president; Matthias Hollenback, vice-president; Thomas Dyer, treasurer; Peleg Tracy, recording secretary; and Dr. Rose aad Jacob Cist, corresponding secretaries. The preamble to the con- stitution declared the object of the society to be for the improvement and advance- ment of agriculture, by introducing improved breeds of horses, cattle, sheep, swine, and the best grain, such as wheat, rye, corn, etc. , and the improvement of the soil by lime and manure. The prominent and efficient actors in this movement were Dr. Rose and Jacob Cist, both enterprising men, laboring for the advancement of useful knowledge, and possessing perhaps a greater share of scientific agricultural information than any other two gentlemen in the county. No proceedings of the society have been preserved other than a report made in 1811, on nineteen specimens of cloth, presented by Mr. Ingham, all of which were pronounced creditable. The pieces particularly noticed were those wrought by Miss Luckey, Raphael Stone, R. Ingham, A. Stevens, N. Stevens and Joseph Ingham. There is preserved also a list of premiums proposed in 1824, as follows: For the best field of wheat, less than thirty acres, $5; for the best field of corn and rye, $o; for the best field of oats or buckwheat less than 30 acres, |3; for the best acre of potatoes, |3; for the best half acre of flax, $4, etc. In this list of premiums there was not enough consideration given to the histo'ry of luzekne county. 467 women's department. All real life then was, as they supposed, in the tendency of the broad acres and the deft women who handled the spindle and the flax were considered hardly as secondary adjuncts to the men and their work. Nearly all the first settlers in Luzerne county were farmers, who handled the axe and the plow, who sowed the grain and gathered the harvest. Their wives and daughters did not scorn the labor of the kitchen; they prepared the rich milk, the delicious batter and cheese, and, when occasion required, assisted their husbands and fathers in the field. Their hands were familiar with the wash-tub and the doughtray, they spun flax, and wove cloth for the backs of the men, and carpets for the floors of their houses. Almost every house contained a loom, one or two spinning-wheels, and a dye pot. The men were agriculturists, aad the women were manufacturers. The young ladies of one neighborhood or township frequently vied with those of another in spinning, weaving, and coloring cloth. It was not uncommon for young l&dies to spin 100 knots in a day. Miss Mary Smith, of Pittston, frequently spun 120 knots in a day. In 1828 Miss Rachel Jenkins spun and reeled 135 knots in twelve hours, and Miss Selinda Jenkins spun 136 knots of filling in the same time. The farmers on the east side of the river contended with those on the west side, in raising wheat, rye, corn and vegetables, the most and best on a given lot of ground. It was the high ambition of the young men to become good farmers, and wed industrious and accomplished girls, such as Rachel and Selinda Jenkins. In such communities never comes congested wealth, nor the dawdling butterflies of society, nor the commonwealth of poverty and crime — those sub-cellars of social life reeking with filth, abomination and despair — these districts of uninvited famine of food and morals where souls are polluted and bodies worse than damned. In 1851 another Luzerne county agricultural society was organized, with Gen. William S. Ross president, Hon. John Goons and Hon. William Hancock vice- presidents; S.D. Dewis, treasurer; George H. Butler, recording secretary ; Washing- ton Lee, Jr. , correspondiifg secretary, and Charles Dorrance and William P. Miner curators. Although the society had 200 members and gave great promise of use- f nlness, its existence was brief, by reason of the speculation in coal lands which at about that time overshadowed almost every other interest. The third society was organized in 1858. Prom the records of this society the following facts concerning it are gleaned: On the 25th of September of that year a meeting of persons interested in farming and gardening was held in the "house of Mr. Wambold, " at Kingston. Rev. Thomas P. Hunt presided, and William P. Miner acted as secretary. Col. Charles Dorrance reported a constitution and by- laws for the organization then and there to be formed, which were adopted. The constitution named the association the Luzerne County Agricultural society; declared the object to be " to foster and improve agriculture, horticulture, and the domestic and household arts;" fixed the fee for annual membership at $1, and for life membership at |5; provided for a meeting on the third Tuesday in February of each year, at which should be elected a president, nine vice-presidents (of whom ' ' three- fourths ' ' should be practical farmers or horticulturists) to look after the interests and report the condition of agricalture, recording and corresponding secretaries, a librarian and an agricultural chemist and geologist; also a general meeting in connection with the. fair, and special meetings as called by the executive committee, which was to consist of the officers and five other members. At this meeting 136 men joined the society. They chose for president Charles Dorrance; corresponding secretary, Thomas P. Hunt; librarian, L. D. Shoemaker, and the following vice-presidents: Charles D. Shoemaker, Kingston; Samuel Wad- hams, Plymouth; E. W. Sturdevant, Wilkes-Barre; Benjamin Harvey, Huntington; William W. Bronson,Carbondale; David G. Driesbach, Salem; Clark Sisson, Abing- ton; Abram Drum, Butler, and Calvin Parsons, Plains. At a meeting of the execu- tive committee two days later Anson A. Church was elected treasurer, and Thomas P. Atherton recording secretary. 468 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUfjTY. James Jenkins ofPered fair grounds at Wyoming for four years free, fenced and provided with a trotting track, and the offer was accepted. Since the expiration of that time the grounds have been rented from several proprietors. In the summer of 1859 an exhibition building, 100 covered stalls and a secre- tary's office were constructed, and a well was dug. The expense of these improve- ments was 11,436.48. In arranging for the fair of 1859 it was voted that there should be no "shows or Jim cracks " on the ground. At the annual meeting held February 21, 1860, the number of vice-presidents was changed to twelve, and the time of meeting thereafter to the second Thursday in February. By invitation of this society the State Agricultural society held its fair on the Wyommg grounds in 1860. Additional sheds and stalls were built for the occasion, which were bought by the county society for $100. The proceeds of the fair of 1862 were appropriated to the aid of the families of soldiers engaged in the suppression of the Rebellion. November 14, 1867, it was announced that James Jenkins, J. B. Schooley and John Sharps, Jr. , wished to resume the occupancy of portions of the fair ground belonging to them, and arrangements for reducing it were made accordingly. On July 5, 1873, it was voted to reorganize the society on a stock basis, shares being offered at $10 each. August 16 the reorganization was completed by the election of officers, including John Sharps as president, and ten vice-presidents, of which John B. Smith, of Kingston, was " first vice-president." That officer and the president, secretary and treasurer were made the executive committee. At the annual meeting of 1879 it was voted to pay John Sharps $50 per year for the use of the fair grounds. The annual meetings, as well as the fairs of the society, have been held at Wyoming. Quarterly meetings of the executive commit- tee were held under the old regime. The presidents of the society have been as follows: Charles Dorrance, 1858-68; Payne Pettebone, 1869 — resigned September 11, and Peter Pursel was elected for the unfinished term and the next year; Ira Tripp, 1871; Steuben Jenkins, 1872-3; John Sharp, August 16, 1878, after the reorganization, and for the succeeding term; John M. Stark, 1875; J. B. Smith, 1876-9. In 1891 the grounds were plotted and laid off into lots, and are now a part of Wyoming borough. The fair association had dissolved previously, and the grounds had been deserted for fair purposes. This ended practically the struggle between agriculture and coal in the valley. The only representative of the agricultural interests now in the county, repre- sented by a fair association, is that of Dallas, and this is appropriately located in the north part of the county, the only portion that can longer be classed as exclu- sively agricultural. Concerning early industries in the country we take the following items from Stewart Pearce's Annals: In 1812 Messrs. Buckingham, Cahoon, Tattle & Parker erected a paper-mill on Toby's creek,in Kingston township,near the present flouring-mill of Col. Charles Dorrance, and the first paper manufactured was used in the printing office of the Gleaner during the same year. In 1829, when the mill was owned by Mathias Hollenback, four men, one boy and ten girls were employed, producing, when working on foolscap writing paper, eight reams per day; when on super royal, five reams; and when on wrapping paper, ten reams per day. The entire work, except preparing the rags, was performed by hand, and the annual sales of paper amounted to about $7,000. It was the first paper manufactory erected in this county. It was abandoned several years ago, but it manifested the spirit and enterprise of the people of that day. In 1778 John and Mason F. Alden erected a forge on Nanticoke creek, near HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 469 Col. Washington Lee's gristmill in Newport township. It contained a single fire and one hammer. This hammer was brought from Philadelphia, in a wagon, to Harris' Terry (Harrisburg) and thence up the Susquehanna in a boat. The iron ore of Newport produced about thirty-five per cent of metal, and was manufact- ured into bar iron, affording the only supply for the smith shops of that day. As to the quality of the iron, we have the testimony of several persons who used it, and who declared it to be of a superior sort,, equal to the best bar iron of Centre county. In 1828, a short time before the works were abandoned. Col. Lee, then owner, sold bar iron at $120 per ton of 2,000 pounds. In 1830 E. & J. Leidy erected a forge on the Nescopeck creek, in Nescopeck township, containing two hammers and three fires. They manufactured bar iron and blooms from the iron ore of Columbia county, and also from pig-metal. For several years Gen. Simon Cameron was connected with this forge, which finally passed into the hands of S. F. Headley, Esq., who enlarged the buildings, increased the number of fires and. conducted the business successfully. The works were in operatiop until 1854, since which time they have been unemployed. In 1811 Francis McShane erected a small cut-nail manufactory in Wilkes- Barre, and used anthracite coal in smelting the iron. He conducted" a successful business for several years, selling nails by wholesale or retail to suit purchasers. In 1836 G-eorge W. Little built a small charcoal furnace on Toby's creek, near the site of the old paper-mill. The wood for the charcoal was procured from the neighboring hills and mountains, and the iron ore was brought from Columbia county in boats to Wilkes-Barre, and carted thence to the furnace, about three miles, in wagons. Mr. Little and his successors, Benjamin Drake and others, found the business unprofitable, and after a few years the works were abandoned. In 1842 H. S. Renwick, of New York city, erected au anthracite furnace, operated by steam-power, at Wilkes-Barre, eight feet in the boshes. These gentlemen carried on the manufacture of pig-iron for about one year, after which the furnace was suffered to lie idle until 1854. It was then purchased by John McCauley and the Messrs. Carter, of Tamaqua, who enlarged it and put it in blast. The iron ore and limestone were transported by canal from Columbia county; and the works, under the direct management of Mr. McCauley, yielded six tons of iron per day. The establishment was consumed by fire in 1856, and has not been rebuilt. In 1847 Samuel P. Headley, Esq., and the Messrs. Wilson, of Harrisburg, erected a charcoal furnace of water-power, eight feet in the boshes, at Shickshinny, and for several years manufactured a considerable quantity of superior pig-iron from the Columbia county and Newport ores, which they mixed. The charcoal-iron of this furnace was sought after by the owners of foundries in Bradford and other counties, as being superior for stove purposes. In 1852 Messrs. Headley & Wilson sold this furnace to William Koons. Mr. Koons built another furnace on Hunlock's creek, 11^ feet in the boshes, and capable of manufacturing seventy-five tons of pig-metal per week. In 1840 Thomas Chambers, E. R. Biddle & Co., erected a large rolling-mill and nail factory at South Wilkes-Barre, about one mile from the courthouse, at a cost of $800,000. While these works were in operation, during a year or two, Wilkes- Barre increased in population and business; but the establishment becoming involved, it was finally sold on a debt due the Wyoming bank . It was purchased by the Montour Iron company and transported to Danville. It seems strange that our capitalists would allow these works to be sold for one-fifth their value, and to be conveyed away to a neighboring county. This circumstance will act as a discour- agement to others, who, looking to our location in the midst of a superior coal field, might be inclined to establish manufactories here. It is beyond all question that a superior qualityof iron can be profitably manufactured in Luzerne county by com- bining our ores with those of adjoining counties or States. What are essential to 470 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. success are intelligence, experience and prudent management. Surely, the day can not be very distant when the srnoke of scores of furnaces will ascend from the valleys of Wyoming and Lackawanna. The first engine constructed in the county for service was manufactured in Wilkes-Barre by Benjamin Drake and J. C. Smith, in 1836. Its cylinder was nine inches in diameter, with three feet stroke, and 15 horse power. It was placed in Smith's gristmill in Plymouth. CHAPTER XIX. CITY OF WILKES-BARRE. ■ The Peoud Qdben op the North Susquehanna — Founded by John Durkee — Fikst Settlers — First Improvements — First House was Abbott's, Corner of Main and Northampton Streets — Forts — Reminiscences of the Early People and Buildinos — Banks, Factories and Industries — City Improvements — Etc. THE important city and the first settlement in Luzerne county is the one descrip- tive phrase applicable to this city. A beautiful city, queen of the Susquehanna north of Harrisburg to its source : a crown- jewel on the east bank of the river and in the center of the far-famed Wyoming valley; the county seat of Luzerne county, the center and hub from where flows out in every direction by electric and steam rail- roads, her rich trade, and the daily and hourly ever swelling stream of visitors for business and pleasure; a city truly, a rich and beautiful city, now invested with all that you may find in the way of luxuries in the great metropolis, as well as the forest trees, the flowing peaceful river and the pure air that comes of a rural life; where is elegance, refinement and culture; where there are more families of great wealth, comparatively to numbers, than can be found in any other city in the United States. A city that never had a "boom" but that now is forging ahead at a marvelous step, and on every hand are suburban boroughs that are progressing rapidly. Here is the capital of a county that is of itself a rich and distinct empire. The settlement of Wilkes-Barre by whites began within the limits of the present town. According to a certified warrant many of Wilkes-Barre, which has been con- sulted, the land now embraced within the township limits was granted to the follow- ing named persons: Wilbur Bennett, Ebenezer Bowman, Samuel Bowman, Robert Bennett, Lord Butler, Hugh Conner, Aziel Dana, Anderson Dana, Amelia Durkee, Jabez ITish, Jesse Pell, Hugh Porseman, Matthias Hollenback, Rev. Jacob John- son, William Ross, Jonathan Slocum, Stephen Tuttle, Andrew Wickeizer, Conrad Wickeizer and Elizabeth Wigton. Prior to 1772 the small population being busily engaged in the pioneer steps of agriculture, there was no organized local government, nor was such needed under the existing circumstances. Owing to the unsettled condition of civil affairs, arising from disputed proprietorship, the local government was inseparable from that of the five townships as organized by the Susquehanna company in 1773; each of which was entitled to three representatives whose duty it was to meet in Wilkes-Barre every three months for the settlement of any disputes which arose from time to time. June 2, 1773, Maj. John Durkee, Capt. Zebulon Butler and Obadiah Gore, Jr., residents of Wilkes-Barre, were appointed to serve in such capacity until the first Monday of the following December. The laws were not elaborate, though sometimes enforced with undue zeal. They required that the people live orderly, soberly and peaceably, and they were im- partially executed. Idleness and disorder were punished at the whipping-post and HISTORY OF LTJZEENE COUNTY. 471 at the stocks. The more serious crimes of burglary and adultery were sometimes attended with exclusion from the community or forfeiture of property. Lands in "Wilkes-Barre, as the town was then bounded, were very cheap in the early days. From records of sales in 1772-3 it appears that lots brought the fol- lowing prices: July 6, 1772, Silas Gore sold to Jonathan Stowell of Ashford, Conn. , for £20, one whole settling right, which included " the home or house lot No. 28, the meadow lot No. 50 and the third division or back lot No. 44." August 21, 1772, Asa Stephens sold to Enoch 'judd for £43 one settling right, "being meadow lot No. 20, house lot No. 27, and back lot No. 8." February 22, 1773, Elijah Loomis, of Harrington, Litchfield county, Conn. , sold to Elisha Swift a whole right, including "town lot No. 2, meadow lot 28 and back lot No. 26," for £100. The old Wilkes-Barre burying ground with an area of nearly three acres, was purchased in 1772 for £9 lOd. ; and in that burial place were laid to rest many whose names will live in the history of Wyoming long after the monuments erected to their memory shall have cr ambled into dust — the fathers and mothers and defenders of the valley. At the first town meeting for the town of Westmoreland, held March 1 and 2, 1774, Wilkes-Barre was made a district of the said town, which included all of the settlements from the Delaware river to fifteen miles beyond the Susquehanna, and from the Lehigh north to Tioga Point. In 1776 a struggle occurred between Wilkes-Barre and Kingston for the county seat of Westmoreland, which, during that year, was created a county by the assembly of Connecticut. The contest terminated disastrously to the last-named settlement. The first court of the new county was held at Fort Wyoming, on the river bank at the foot of Northampton street. From 1778 to 1782, when the Connecticut juris- diction ceased, the courts were held in Fort Wilkes-Barre on the public square. In the measures taken by the authorities of the town of Westmoreland for the , public weal and progress, residents of Wyoming, the Wilkes-Barre district bore an important and conspicuous part, holding many offices; but the civil history of West- moreland, embracing so extensive a territory, can not be treated in an article relating to the township or city of Wilkes-Barre, which by a decree of the county court in 1790 became one of the eleven original townships of Luzerne ceunty. Those honored with positions of trust in the town of Westmoreland were Zebulon Butler, Anderson Dana and other residents of Wilkes-Barre. Capt. Butler was chosen moderator at the first and several succeeding town meetings. After a period of rivalry on the part of the citizens of Kingston, Wilkes-Barre was regarded as the most important point in the town, and there most of the public business was transacted. At the second town meeting, held April 1 and 12, 1774, it was voted "that for ye present ye tree that now stands northerly from Capt. Butler's house shall be ye town sign-post." This house stood on the corner of Northampton and Eiver streets, in the town plot, and the tree stood on the river bank. " This matter of a legal sign-post," says Miner, "is of weightier import than, without explanation, might be imagined. Newspapers were little known in those days, save in the larger cities. It had, therefore, been enacted that a sign-post be established in each town, on which notices of public sale, stray animals taken up, etc., should be nailed or placed to render them legal It is proper to add that, as an accompaniment to the sign-post, which was also the legal whipping-post, a pair of stocks was provided for a punishment of the guilty and warning to deter from crime. These (now abjured) monuments of civilization and law were derived from England, and brought over, nay, almost venerated by our Puritan fathers." That this tree had previously been used as a public sign-post is evident frota a notice dated November 18, 1772, which can be seen at the rooms of the Historical and Geological society.- It is a call for a town meeting of the proprietors, and shows the perforations of the tacks which held it to the tree. By the operation of the 472 HISTORY OF LUZEBNE COUNTY. Trenton decree of December 30, 1782, the jurisdiction of "Wyoming was transferred from Conneoticiit to Pennsylvania, and the town of Westmoreland ceased to exist. Upon the erection of Luzerne county a strife arose between Wilkes-Barre and Forty Fort, in Kingston, as to which should be the county seat town, which, for various reasons, was ultimately decided in favor of the former. From 1782 to 1786 no courts had been held at Wilkes-Barre, as under the Trenton decree Northumber- land was the seat of justice of what had been Westmoreland. The first court of the newly-created Luzerne county was held May 27, 1787, at the residence of Zebulon Butler, at the corner of River and Northampton streets, the site of the present resi- dence of Hon. Stanley Woodward. The public offices were in the building for sev- eral years, in charge of the celebrated Timothy Pickering, who performed the multi- farious duties of prothonotary, register, recorder and clerk of the courts. The civil history of Wilkes-Barre under the Luzerne county organization is even more difficult to trace than that of a prior date, there being no regularly kept records in existence. Wilkes-Barre township has been reduced as follows at the dates given: By the erection of Wilkes-Barre borough, March 17, 1806 ; by the erection of Covington town- ship in January, 1818; by the setting off of a portion to form part of Plains town- ship, November 10, 1851; by the erection of Bear Creek township, April 7, 1806; and by the erection of the city of Wilkes-Barre, May 4, 1871. As a matter of interest, the names of some of the early constables are appended, though it has been found impossible to complete the list. The successive constables elected by the combined vote of the township and borough, previous to 1819, were as follows: Josiah Lewis, 1806: Enoch Ogden, 1807; Jonathan Bulkley, 1808; Isaac Carpenter, 1809; Peter Yarrington, 1810; Joseph Vonsiok, 1811; Andrew Coget, 1812; John Hancock, 1813-5; Phineas Walker, 1816; James Gridley, 1818. The first high constable elected was George Griffin, a member of the Luzerne county bar. He did not qualify, for the reason that it was decided that the two positions were incompatible. A special election was ordered to fill the vacancy thus occasioned, and Peter Yarrington was elected and sworn in. The first constable elected by the voters of the borough for "Wilkes-Barre, county town," was Barnet Ulp, in 1819. John Hancock, son of Jonathan Hancock, was his deputy. The Wilkes-Barre town plot was surveyed and dedicated in 1772, by Col. John Durkee. It was near the center of the township north and south, on the river, and embraced 200 acres of land, laid out in eight squares, with a diamond (the public square) in the center. By the opening of Washington and Franklin streets these squares were afterward divided into sixteen parallelograms. March 17, 1806, the borough of Wilkes-Barre was duly incorporated, embracing the town plot and the public common bordering the river, according to the following survey : " Beginning at a stake at low water mark, on the south side of the northeast branch of the Susquehanna river, and running thence south thirty -four degrees forty minutes east, ninety-four perches, to a stake on the main street; thence on the south side of said street south thirty-four degrees forty minutes east, sixty-four perches and two-tenths of a perch, to the south corner of said town plot; thence on the southeast side of said back street, and continuing that course fifty-five degrees twenty minutes, four hundred and five (405) perches, to a post where that line intersects the north side of Jacob Johnson's lot; thence on the line of said lot north fifty-one degrees thirty minutes west, ninety-nine perches to a post; thence south fifty-five degrees twenty minutes west, one hundred and eighteen perches, to a post on thenorth side of North street; thence north thirty-four degrees forty minutes west, fifty- six perches, to an iron bolt in a rock at low water mark of the said Sus- quehanna river; thence down the said river the several courses thereof at low water mark to the place of beginning." By act of assembly approved March 13, 1847, the borough limits were changed as follows: ^ ^ HISTOEY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. 473 "That portion of the borough lying northeasterly of North street, whichruns southeasterly and northwesterly below the tannery of Bowman & Lewis in said borough is separated from the borough and attached to the township of Wilkes- Barre, and the upper or northeasterly side of said North street extending from the Susquehanna river to the southeasterly line of the borough shall be the north- eastern boundary, and the line between the borough and township of Wilkes- Barre." By an act passed in 1868 the limits were a second time changed, as follows : "Beginning at a point on the Susquehanna river, at low water mark, in line with the northerly side of North street; thence along North street to the road leading to Coal brook; thence along the northerly side of said road about twenty rods; thence by a line nearly parallel with Canal street to the southerly side of the towing path of the canal; thence along the southerly side of the towing path of the North Branch canal to a point in line with the division between lots number 22 and 23 of certified Wilkes-Barre; thence along that line about one hundred and fifty -three rods toward the river Susquehanna; thence by a line parallel with River street to a point on the river aforesaid, at low water mark; thence up the said river to the beginning." By an ordinance approved May 2, 1870, the following territory was added to the borough: " Beginning at the southwesterly corner of the borough, thence southwesterly by the prolongation of the southwesterly line of the borough to a point on the west- erly side of the Carey town road; thence southwesterly and along the westerly side of said road to a point opposite the division line of the lands of E. W. Sturdevant and of the estate of Mary Richards, deceased; thence southeasterly by the said division line and the prolongation thereof to a point on the easterly side of the roadway of the Lehigh & Susquehanna railroad; thence northerly along the east- erly side of said railroad roadway to the westerly bank of Coal brook; thence north- erly along the westerly bank of said brook to the southerly bank of Mill creek; thence westerly along the southerly bank of Mill creek to the Susquehanna river at low-water mark; thence southwesterly down the river at low water mark to the northwesterly corner of the borough; and thence by the northerly, easterly and southerly lines of the borough to the point of beginning." By an ordinance approved October 29, 1870, another addition was made to the territory of the borough, as follows : " Beginning at a point on the easterly line of the borough in the prolongation of the southerly line of Stanton street or road toward the borough lines; thence by said line and the southerly line of said Stanton street or road southeasterly "to the easterly side of the Empire road; thence northeasterly along the easterly side of said Empire road to the northerly side of Coal street; northwesterly to a point in the prolongation of the line between lands of Mrs. Ellen J. Wells and the Hollen- back Coal company; thence by said line northwesterly to a point on the easterly line of the borough in the line of the prolongation of the southerly side of Union street, and thence by the easterly line of the borough to the point of beginning." The act of creating the borough did not separate it from the township of Wilkes- Barre nor constitute it an independent election district, but left its citizens still inhabitants of the township, its voters being voters at the township elections for the township officers until 1818 or 1819, when the borough ceased to have any connec- tion with the township election and from that time forward elected its own constable under the somewhat lengthy title of "Constable of Wilkes-Barre County-town;" but it was not until 1835 or 1836 that the borough was made a separate election district and ceased to vote with the township at general election. The first men- tioned of the two changes above referred to was eflEected by an action of the voters in Wilkes-Barre township outside the borough limits, who took possession of the election board and ballot boxes and denied the right of any resident of the borough ^rj^ HISTORY OF LUMEBNE COUNTY. to vote for township officers; and at the succeeding session of the legislature the borough was empowered to elect its own constable, of which right the voters availed themselves as above stated. ... , . Jesse Pell was named in the act of incorporation as a commissioner to proclaim the first borough election, which was held May 6, 1806. There is no record of the number of votes polled, but it has been estimated at about sixty. As the result of that election Jesse Fell became the first burgess and Mathias Hollenback, Eoswell Wells Lord Butler, Arnold Colt, Nathan Palmer, Charles Miner and Samuel Bow- man constituted the first council. May 14, 1806, the first meeting of the borough council took place, and a more efficient board never met. They were all first-class men socially and in business life. Messrs. Hollenback and Butler were the principal merchants of the town. Messrs. Wells and Palmer were lawyers of ability. Charles Miner, the subsequent historian of Wyoming, was a printer and the editor of the Federalist, and a leader in borough affairs as long as he remained a member of the council. Arnold Colt, a blacksmith by trade, was a man of sterling qualities. Peleg Tracy was appointed clerk. Soon after organizing, the council adopted a series of rules for the government of its proceedings, the last of which imposed a fine of 25 cents upon the councilman for non-attendance at regularly authorized meetings. These regulations were thirty-two in number, and are said to have been drawn up by Charles Miner. Rule 32 first had application in the case of Col. Hollenback, who was absent at the second meeting of the council and was accordingly fined. Under an act of the legislature of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania for the reg- ulation of boroughs, passed in 1851, a new charter was granted to Wilkes-Barre borough at the April term of court in 1855, under which it existed until 1871. The city of Wilkes-Barre was incorporated by an act of assembly approved May 24, 1871, and included the borough of Wilkes-Barre and all of the township of Wilkes- Barre lying west of the Empire road, projected northerly to the township line of Plains and southerly to the township line of Hanover. It was divided into fifteen wards. The first municipal election resulted in the choice of the following officers: Ira M. Kirkendall, mayor; F. D. Vose, high constable; Isaac S. Osterhout, Adolph Voigt and J. A. Rippard, auditors. The following named gentlemen composed the first board of councilmen: J. E. Clarke, M. Regan, J. C. Williamson, H. B. Hillman, Hiram Wentz, William A. Swan, Walter C. Sterling, H. C. Fry, George H. Parrish, Charles A. Miner, C. P. Kidder, Joseph Schilling, Anthony Helfrich, C. B. Dana and John Gilligan. The following named persons have served successively as mayor: 1871-3, Ira M. Kirkendall; 1874-6, M. A. Kearney; 1877-9, W. W. Loomis; Thomas Brodrick 1880-6; C. B. Sutton 1886-92. Present mayor, F. M. Nichols, elected in April, 1892. In 1772 the population of Wilkes-Barre was so small that there were within its borders only five white women; but during the year several of the settlers went East to bring out their families. The whole number of buildings in 1778 was twenty-six, and twenty-three of these were burned by the Pennamites during that year. The population of the village in 1800 is not definitely known; but the entire number of taxables in the township, as then bounded, the previous year was 121. At the date of the incorporation of the borough (1806) the number of persons living within its limits is said to have been about 500, and there were only forty- eight houses between North and South streets. The borough had attained to a population of 732 in 1820. In 1830 it was 1,201; in 1840, 1,718; in 1850, 2,723; in 1860, 4,259. About this time the borough began that rapid growth which caused the number of its inhabitants to reach 10,174 in 1870 and to increase to 23,340 in 1880; 1890, 37,718, out of a total of 201\120 for Luzerne county; and from the different school censuses and other semi-official sources it is estimated that at present (October, 1892) the city has a population of over 45,000. HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 477 The history of the city of Wilkes-Barre has never been written. Those early events which have made its name and location famous to all readers of the pioneer history of Pennsylvania have been recorded from time to time in the various works relating to Wyoming and its tragic past, and isolated articles have appeared which treated of special elements in its growth and prosperity, while a few of the opera- tions incident to its earlier advancement have formed no uninteresting portions of the words above referred to; but the history of the city, as a fact, as a separate identity, remains to be unfolded. Of course, practically for half a century after the first settlement it had really no other history than that of the valley, of which it was a part and parcel merely. Even after it became a borough it was still a part of the township, and therefore it really had no distinct history of its own until it began to approach the importance of a city. Those events, which occurred within the limits of the present city subsequent to the first settlement of Wyoming, and during the trying periods of the Revolutionary and Pennamite wars, were so intimately related to others whose locale was up and down and across the river, in adjoining villages and townships, that it has been found impossible to consider them separately from those other events which, with these, formed the material for the thrilling history of Wyoming.. As a remarkable chain of tragic occurrences they have, in their entirety, excited remark from the pens of distinguished historians, poets and novelists on both sides of the Atlantic. They have taken their place in the annals of the commonwealth as without parallel for the many terrible elements which rendered the beautiful Wyoming valley an abiding place for horror, rapine and murder, and to the general history of the county the reader is referred for such record as they have seemed to deserve at our hands. The erection of Forts Durkee, Wyoming and Wilkes-Barre within the bor- ders of the town plot. Fort Ogden, just within the border of Plains and Fort Jenkins on the Wilkes-Barre mountain; the capture of John Franklin in 1787, and of Timothy Pickering, June^26, 1788; the zeal of Wilkes-Barreans in the Eevolu- tionary cause; the burning of the village, July 4, 1788; the capture of Frances Slocum by the Indians and her subsequent interesting story; the sojourn of the Duke of Orleans, the Duke of Montpensier and the Count of Beaujolais, French exiles, at Arndt's tavern in June, 1797, and other noteworthy occurrences, are most of them among those referred to above, and all help to form the events in a history as striking and as full of tragic interest as that of any part of the United States. Those events of which the forts mentioned were the centers would, if they could be written of as isolated occurrences, properly belong to the history of the township and present city of Wilkes-Barre. Those events and measures which have contributed to the growth and prosperity of Wilkes-Barre successively as a frontier settlement, a charming country village, a thriving borough and a busy city, it is designed to consider in the following pages. "The leading families of Wilkes-Barre," says Clark, "are nearly all direct descend- ants of the pioneers of Wyoming valley, and are cultured to an enviable degree. * * * A few of the familiar names may be cited as exhibiting the social status of the city. Here is the Ross family, historical as descended from Gen. William Ross; the Hollenbacks, tracing with pride to the old colonel, of whom every household in northern Pennsylvania has heard; the Butlers, from Gen. Zebulon Butler; the Dorrance family, from Col. Benjamin Dorrance; the Pettebones, from Noah Pette- bone, an old heroin the early struggles; the Johnsons, from Rev. Jacob Johnson; the Myers family; Shoemaker family; the Denisons, from Col. Nathan Denison; the Swetlands, McKeraohans and Careys; the Ransom and Jenkins families; Inmans, Ives and Abbotts; Blackmans and Starks; the Harding and Dana descendants, now prominent in local history; Beach, Jameson, Perkins, Searle and Gore; Young, Durkee, Sill, Fitch, Atherton, Harvey, Pierce, Gere, Gaylord, Miner, and a long line of others too numerous to mention." Mr. Steuben Butler, a son of the colonel commanding, and a daughter of Col. Denison (Mrs. Sarah Abbott) who was second 25 ^r-^g HISTORY OF LUZEBNE COUNTY. in command on the field of massacre, are the last living immediate descendants of that fated band of heroic men who fought so desperately on the plains at Wyoming in opposing the savage invaders of the valley in 1778. There were numbers of young men ready to embark in mercantile enterprises m the new territory to the full extent of their means, anticipating large return profits for their limited outlays. The first settlers brought their first year's supplies with them and a merchant would have found small resultant profits who depended upon the early settlers alone for his patronage; but here was a promising field for Indian commerce— a great volume of the peltry trade, extending from the Nanticoke falls up the Susquehanna river to Seneca lake and thence to Niagara, the central point of the Indian traffic in furs— both before and after the Eevolutionary struggle. It is pretty certain that there were Indian traders in Wyoming before the first advent of the Yankee colonists in 1763, and subsequently in 1769; but of these traders there is no record among the archives of the Susquehanna company, though it is a well established fact that John Jacob Astor visited the valley as early as 1775, and made the tour to Niagara with Matthias Hollenback as his guide and partner in trade. It was during this journey that Mr. Hollenback marked out his future program as a trader from Wilkes-Barre to Niagara. He came to the valley from Lebanon county, whither his father had come from Virginia, and another branch of the family had sebtled in Montgomery county. It is quite certain that Mr. Hollen- back kept a store on South Main street, just below the corner of Northampton, pre- vious to the battle of July 3, 1778; and this store was kept after the restoration of peace up to about 1820, when it was removed to the new brick store of George M. Hollenback. Mr. Hollenback was the first regular merchant of Wilkes-Barre, and one of only two merchants in Westmoreland in 1781. His business extended for many years after the war up the Susquehanna river to Niagara, with branches at Wysox, Tioga, and a fur trading house at Niagara, in which he had succeeded John Jacob Astor in 1783. After the peace of 1783 and the return of the fugitive settlers to Wilkes-Barre there was no lack of storekeepers. Among the first if not the very first was Lord Butler, on the corner of Eiver and Northampton streets. This establishment was continued up to 1820. About the same time John P. Schott opened a retail store on River street between Lord Butler's and South street, but did not continue long in trade. As early as 1795, or perhaps earlier, Thomas Wright and Thomas Duane opened a store in Wilkes-Barre, on the corner of the public square and North Main street, which in 1801 was removed to Pittston Ferry and made an adjunct of Wright's "Old Forge." lu 1800 Eossett & Doyle opened quite an establishment on the corner of Market and Eiver streets, which they continued to 1803 or 1804. They were succeeded by Jacob and Joseph L. Suitan, who in 1816 removed to the corner of Franklin and Market streets, where they flourished for many years on the ground where now stands the Wyoming bank. In 1803 Allen Jack came from the north of Ireland to Wilkes-Barre and opened a store on South Main street in the residence of Dr. M. Oovell, where he sold goods until his death, in 1814. In 1840 Benjamin Perry kept a small store on the corner of Northampton and Main streets, and on the opposite corner Nathan Palmer dispensed dry goods and groceries. Both these establishments were short-lived. Mr. Palmer sold out to Zebulon Butler, who discontinued the business after a brief period. Ziba Bennett came from Newton (now Blmira), N. Y. , in 1815, and began trade in company with Matthias Hollenback. In 1826 he embarked in business singly, on North Main street, where he continued in trade until his death, in 1878, having been connected with the mercantile business of Wilkes-Barre over sixty years, and having enjoyed the distinction of being recognized as the oldest merchant in Luzerne county. These were the principal storekeepers of that early period, when the goods were brought from Philadelphia to Harrisburg by wagons and shipped in Durham boats up the Susquehanna to Wilkes-Barre. HISTORY Of LDZEENE COUNTY. 479 From 1800 to 1802 Joseph Hitchcock was the leading builder, and was suc- ceeded by George Chahoon, who did a very large business up to 1816. In the early days hominy blocks were plenty in the township. The necessity for these rude appliances was done away with in 1782 by the erection of a grist- mill on Mill creek, near the river — the extreme northern city limits. The builder was James Sutton, who had previously erected mills in Kingston and" Exeter town- ships. In 1804 there were six distilleries in Wilkes-Barre township. A shipyard was established on the public common, and the construction of ships was begun in the hope that they could be navigated to the ocean by way of the Susquehanna, and there disposed of profitably. In 1803 a small ship named the "Franklin," in honor of John Franklin, was built and reached the ocean in safety. A stock com- pany was organized, and begun operations in 1811; and early in the following year a vessel named the " Luzerne," of between fifty and sixty tons measurement, was finished. The builder was Mr. Mack, but J. P. Arndt was the principal proprietor. It was launched early in April, and a few days later started on its voyage down the river, only to be dashed to pieces on the rocks at Conawaga falls, near Middletown. The loss of this vessel was a disaster, not only to its proprietor, but to many who had hoped to drive a profitable trade in timber, and to others who hoped to reap profit from the sale of lots when the ship-building interest should become perma- nently established. But like many another alluring project before and since, this had failed, and no more ships were built at Wilkes-Barre. A small cutl-nail manufactory was established by Francis McShane in 1811, and for several years a somewhat extensive wholesale and retail business was carried on. There were other enterprises, which were begun early and flourished for longer or shorter periods, leaving their impress on the advancement and prosperity of the village aod township, though the men who conceived them have long been dead. Abel Tarrington kept a house of entertainment, which was probably the first in Wilkes-Barre, on the ground now occupied by the Judge Conyngham homestead, on River street, at a very early period. In his journal John Franklin mentions hav- ing been at Mr. Yarrington's, February 28, 1789, and again in the following month. Mr. Yarrington removed to what was afterward the Wyoming hotel, on Main street, below the public square. Jesse Fell kept the "Old Fell house" before the beginning of this century, it having been erected in 1787 or 1788. Another old-time inn, and one that had historic associations, was the Arndt tav- ern, which stood on River street below Northampton, on the site of the residence of E. P. Darling. The proprietor was John P. Arndt, who, with his brother Philip, came from Easton at an early date and engaged in various business enterprises. Thomas H. Morgan succeeded Mr. Arndt, and he in turn was followed by Maj. Orlando Porter, whose stay was brief, he soon taking charge of the then new Phoenix, out of which has grown the Wyoming Valley hotel. The fame of the old tavern declined gradually, and it eventually became a dwelling-house. The old Arndt tavern sheltered the royal fugitives of France, princes of the Orleans- Bour- bon line, afterwards Louis Phillippe, king of the French, and his two brothers, the Duke de Montpensier and Count de Beaujolais, on their way to Bradford county, where Robert Morris bad pvirchased for them 1.200 acres of land lying on the Sus- quehanna river. This place is still known as Frenchtown. Another noted visitor at the old inn, which was pre-eminently the center of social gaiety, was the beauti- ful and accomplished wife of Herman Blennerhasset, so graphically described by William Wirt in the trial of Aaron Burr for treason. This visit was made subse- quent to Burr's conspiracy, which resulted in the ruin of the Blennerhassets. At a later date a hotel at the corner of Market and River streets was kept by a little round fat man named Richardson, and afterward by a widow Johnson. Thomas Duane, John Paul Scott, and afterward Jonathan Hancock kept a hotel 480 HISTOEY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. ■where the Luzerne house now is. The latter also kept open house at the corner of Market and Franklin streets. Archippus Parrish kept a hotel on the public square near the site of the Daily Record office. It was set fire to and burned down in warming it for a Washington's birthday ball. Mock's tavern, on the hillside just below South Wilkes-Barre, is well remembered by many of the present citizens of Wilkes-Barre. ' When Col. Durkee laid out the town plot of Wilkes-Barre he donated the public square and the common for "the use of the public forever," and they were succes- sively under the jurisdiction of the town of Westmoreland, the township of Wilkes- Barre and the borough and afterward the city of Wilkes-Barre. The original, boundaries of the common were probably the same as those of the present day. Years ago it was much wider than now, numerous floods having washed away a por- tion. "As I first remember this common," wrote Mr. James A. Gordon, "it was a beautiful lawn extending from South street along the river bank to North street. Between Union and North streets, along the base of Redoubt hill, was a low, wet marsh, very imperfectly drained, or rather not drained at all. Immediately at the northern base, of the redoubt, lived MoUie McCalpin, in rather a hard-looking shanty, built by herself with the aid of Job Gibbs, who was at that time reputed to be the laziest man in Wilkes-Barre. But Mollie was not the only trespasser upon these public grounds. " Mathias HoUenback's warehouse, and another, the property of John P. Arndt, stood on the common ; but both disappeared long since, and mother McCalpin' s shanty is seen no more. At various times enterprising or speculative business men have attempted to lease portions of the common for the erection of buildings in which to carry on commerce. . In 1808 an effort was made by cer- tain parties to drain that part lying between North and Union streets, the ulterior object being to obtain and hold possession of the land for the benefit of the proposed drainers; but that and all subsequent attempts failed, it having been decided that the borough had no authority to lease the common nor any portion of it; and it remains to-day the property of the public, a place much frequented by both resi- dents and visitors, and one of the most attractive spots in the city. Forts Durkee and Wyoming stood on the common, which, because of its historical associations, will long remain a point of interest. The early settlers were too poor to build a bridge between the settlements of Wilkes-Barre and Kingston, Taut they had recourse to a cheap and convenient means of crossing in the way of a ferry. When the borough of Wilkes-Barre was incor- porated the borough authorities were granted the exclusive right to maintain a ferry between the two localities, and, until it was superseded by the bridge, it was let annually to enterprising parties, who paid certain rentals into the borough treasury. The Wilkes-Barre Bridge company was incorporated in 1807. The bridge was completed in 1818, at a cost of 144,000, and they were two years engaged in its construction. In 1819 the pier nearest to Wilkes-Barre was undermined and two reaches of the bridge lost. The damage was repaired by the State at an expense of 113,000. In 1824 the entire bridge was lifted from the piers by a hurricane and deposited on the ice several f feet distant from its original location. Fifteen thousand dollars, to be devoted to its repair, was appropriated by the State, which by this added sum became possessed of |'28,000 stock in the concern, which was subsequently sold. The bridge, with occasional repairs and renewals of certain portions, existed until 1892, when the superstructure was replaced with the present iron bridge with its street-car track on the south side. The bell on the old courthouse was made in Philadelphia in 1805, and during the years that followed served to summon the inhabitants of the town to meetings of every kind common to such a community. It called the criminal to receive his sen- tence and the man who had not been proven guilty to receive his acquittal; it sum- moned the people to hear the preaching of the gospel and the eloquence of political advocates; it the people were to be assembled for any purpose the old courthouse HISTOBY OP LUZERNE COUNTY. 481 bell was generally brought iato requisition. Various were. the uses to which the courthouse was put, serving for all judicial and deliberative proceedings and as a public or town hall. It is said to have been utilized as a dancing academy and as a church, and it is authoritatively stated that a meat market was kept in the basement at one time, as Mistress Tuttle had, before its time, sold cakes and beer in the lower , story of the old log building. June 11, 1810, an ordinance was passed by the council of Wilkes-Barre ordaining that until a suitable market house could be erected the cellar of the courthouse should be used as a market place ' ' on and after July 13 next." Two days in the week were set apart as market days, Wednesday and Sat- urday being so distinguished, and the place was ordered to be kept open from 5 to 10 A. M. and the clerk of the market was authorized to erect one or more stalls, benches and blocks, and provide scales and other articles necessary to the traffic of the place. In 1777 a post route was opened between Hartford, Conn., and Wyoming. A postoffioe was established at Wilkes-Barre in 1794, with Lord Butler as post- master. It may easily be conceived that his official labor must have been the reverse of arduous, and that his office, at the corner of Eiver and Northampton streets, must have contrasted greatly with the city postofflce of the present day. But it was not until after the close of the Revolution, and the organization of Luzerne county in 1786, that provision was made for a weekly mail between Wilkes-Barre and Easton. Clark Behee was the postrider, but whether the first over the route does not appear, though there is evidence that he filled that position in 1897, during which year weekly mails were carried from Wilkes-Barre to Berwick via Nanticoke, Newport and Nescopeck, the return route being via Huntington and Plymouth. At this time Wilkes-Barre enjoyed the distinction of being the only regularly estab- lished post town in the county, and mail for residents of the township mentioned was left at certain houses within their limits chosen by the postmaster at Wilkes- Barre. A mail route was established between Wilkes-Barre and Great Bend in 1798, and another between Wilkes-Barre and Owego, N. Y. The mails were received by the former route once a fortnight and by the latter once a week. Both were sus- tained by private contributions chiefly, if not entirely, like those of the early settlers before the war. It is said that subscribers to newspapers had to pay at the rate of $2 a year to the mail carrier for the privilege of receiving them. In 1800 Jona- than Hancock was a post rider between Wilkes-Barre and Berwick. In 1803 Charles Mowery and a man named Peck carried the mails on foot between Wilkes-Barre and Tioga, making the trip once in two weeks. The history of the advance in mail facilities from this time forward is coincident with that of " staging," nearly all the stages having carried the mails. With the first railroad came added mail conveniences, which have been increased from year to year since, until the residents of the city in 1892 can have but a faint conception of the difficulties under which their forefathers labored in this respect one hundred or seventy-five or even fifty years ago. Fire Department. — W. P. Kyman contributed to the Historical Record concern- ing the early fire department; the borough of Wilkes-Barre was incorporated in 1806, thirty-seven years after the first house was erected and thirty-four years after the town was first laid out. Among the first things to occupy the attention of the officers of the new borough was the question of how best to protect it from fire, and the' first action taken was at a special meeting of the council called for this purpose March 31, 1807. There were present Mathias Hollenback, president pro tern. , Nathan Palmer, Charles Miner, Arnold Colt and Samuel Bowman. On motion of Miner it was " resolved to appoint a committee to obtain information as to the expense of a fire engine. " Messrs. Palmer and Miner were appointed as this committee, but they never made any report except to offer a resolution, which was adopted January 11, 1808, requiring all Jhouseholders to provide themselves with fire buckets. 482 HISTORY OF LUZEKNE COUNTY. April 12, 1808, a committee, consisting of Councilmen Ebenezer Bowman, Jona- than Slocum and J. P. Arndt, were appointed "to purchase the patent right of a water machine for the borough of Wilkes-Barre," and it seems the committee paid |8 for the same. The fire problem did not long stay solved by the " water machine." August 16, 1609, on motion of Mr. Sinton the borough council resolved " that a committee be appointed to endeavor to obtain opinion of inhabitants of the borough on the pro- priety of procuring a fire engine, to form an estimate of the expense and whether the funds of the corporation are sufficient to defray the expense." Thomas Dyer, Charles Miner and Joseph Sinton were made the committee. This committee did not make any report until June 18, 1810, when they delivered themselves as follows: " That they have considered the subject submitted to them; are of opinion that it is expedient to have an engine procured." At the same meeting Mr. Arndt, in behalf of committee, brought in a bill to pur- chase an engine. Nothing was done with this resolution, nor was any action ever taken on it afterward. After these efforts the council rested from its labors for nearly three years. Tuesday, March 16, 1813, council met. Present, Jesse Fell, president, and members Arndt, Bowman, Cahoon, Drake, Eobinson and Sinton. A petition was presented by Ebenezer Bowman, in behalf of himself and others, stating "they desired the council would take such measures as may be thought necessary to procure without delay a fire engine for the use of said borough.^' It was also resolved to appoint a committee of two, Messrs. Arndt and Sinton, ' ' to procure an engine as soon as the funds of the borough shall be sufficient to meet the expense." It was also at the same time resolved " that the sum of $700 be appropriated for that purpose." This committee was never heard of by report, or otherwise, afterward. Nothing more was done in the matter for three years next following. In the meantime there seemed to grow up a conviction that something more than resolutions and committees would be necessary to secure the fire engine. A petition was drawn with so much adroitness that it completely captured the county commissioners, and induced a grant of one-half of the entire cost, not only of the engine, but also of the hose and other fittings, when they supposed they were only contributing about one-third of cost of the engine alone. A petition was laid before the grand jury, and they made report that $200 be given by the county. This recommendation was approved by the court. Nothing more was done in relation to the fire engine until March 7, 1818, when the council resolved that the check drawn by the county commissioners of Luzerne county on the treasurer for |200 be received; also, resolved that Messrs. Beaumont and Ulp be appointed a committee to contract with John Harris, or some suitable person, to haul the fire engine from Philadelphia. April 18, 1818, it was " Eesolved, that Messrs. Dennis, Ulp and Beaumont be appointed a committee to cause to be built and prepared a suitable building to receive and preserve the fire engine and appendages belonging to the same, on the back of the academy lot, if the trustees of the academy will admit thereof." Also, " that an order be drawn in favor of Perkins & Co. for $300 on account of the fire engine, and delivered to the treasurer, who has advanced the said sum." May 13, 1818, new council was convened. Messrs. Dennis, Tracy and Miner were appointed to superintend the erection of the engine-house. John Barton was paid $40 for building an engine-house. A total of $34.48 was charged Mr. Harris for hauling the engine. December 27, 1819, Joseph Dennis contracted to dig a well. December, 1819 it was resolved to procure the hose, ladders, buckets and fire hooks, and Gen. W. S. Ross, Col. Bowman, Joseph Sinton and David Scott were appointed fire wardens. Wilkes-Barre, 1820, had a population of 782, and with the equipment and HISTOEY OF LUZEKNE COUNTY. 483 appropriation thus obtained there were no changes or improvements made in the fire department for the next ten years. Nothing more was done by the borough in *is matter until March 18, 1831, when the council resolved to appropriate |250 for the purchase of a fire engine. October 1, 1831, Mr. Davidge and Mr. Laird appointed committee to draw funds from county commissioners, and to make arrangements with Joseph P. Le Clerc, Esq., with respect to purchasing an engine and to give him instructions on the subject. October 21, 1831, it was resolved that an order be drawn for $650, being the amount appropriated for the purchase of an engine. November 5, 1831, the engine " Eeliance " was purchased. December 3, 1831, Dr. Christell, Mr. Davidge and Mr. Howe were appointed a committee to make any arrangements necessary to obtain the engine and to take charge of it when it arrived. Also the president and secretary authorized to draw an order on the treasurer for the freight bill for engine upon examination and ascertaining the amount. December 30, 1831, Mr. Morgan, Dr. Christell and Mr. Howe appointed com- mittee to locate engine-house and ascertain its cost, etc. February 21, 1832, resolved: " That when the funds in the hands of the treas- urer shall amount to f 100 the construction of the engine-house be commenced." Also resolved: "That Mr. Barnes be authorized to take such boards as may be used for roof boards of the engine-house and enclose a part of the market-house for the temporary reception of the engine." April 7, 1832, " The account of Gilbert Barnes presented for material labor fur- nished and done for the engine-house for 111. 90 J and an order drawn therefor." August 30, 1833, " A petition presented from very many of the citizens of the borough, soliciting the erection of an engine-house in connection with a set of weight scales. " September 27, 1833. — Matter of engine and weighhouses was called up and resolved " that the old engine-house be converted into a scalehouse, and that the scales be immediately built, or as soon as funds sufficient for the purpose shall have accu- mulated in the treasurer's hands." The committee on engine and weighhouse were continued, and instructed to obtain and prepare the lower room of the academy for the reception of the meetings of the town council and fire company during the com- ing winter. They also were instructed, if possible, to obtain a suitable site for an engine-house. August 2, 1834, a petition from many young men praying for privilege to have the small engine appropriated to their use as junior fire company, was read and accepted. Whereupon a committee was appointed to consult with the "Eeliance" Fire company and ascertain their views on the matter in question; Hugh Fell, A. C. Laning and W. S. Bowman, committee. Saturday, September 26, 1834, committee on small engine matter reported as follows : ' ' Whereas, The Eeliance Fire company have delivered to the town council the small engine, and a petition has been presented by a number of young gentlemen who are desirous that the town council should place said small engine in their hands: '^ Therefore, Resolved, That the small engine, 'Davy Crocket,' be placed under their control, and to be under the immediate control of a director selected by said young men from among the members of the Eeliance Fire company, who, in case of fire, shall be subject to the general control of the directors of the Eeliance Fire company. " Thus the long struggle for a fire engine and company was at last ended, and from that day to this the good work has gone on uninterruptedly. The city has a paid fire department, and it is accounted as efficient now as any similar service in the State. Four steamers, fully manned, numbered from one to 484 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. four inclusive; one hook and ladder company and three hose companies, with ample and suitable buildings so distributed over the city as to give the greatest facility in reaching conflagrations. • Fire Department. — The equipment and efficiency are equal to the best. There are thirty-one Gamewell non-interference alarm boxes, and four fine engine-houses, including the new one on Eoss street, finished March 1, 1892, costing $16,000; a new hosehouse, with stable on Barney street. There are constantly employed five hose-cart drivers, four stokers, four engine drivers, one hook and ladder truck driver and one tillerman. Chief engineer, T. S. Hillard; A. Constine and E. F. Roth, assistants; steamer foremen: No. 1, G. A. St. John; No. 2, Charles Sauermilch: No. 3, W. A. Eichards; No. 4, Gr. J. Stegmaier; hook and ladder. No. 5, C. Shiber; hose No. 6, J. G. Shuler; No. 7, D. E. Gates; No. 8, S. W. Barlleson; No. 9, Alex. Lendrum. The Historical Becord says: ' ' Eeference has already been made in these columns to an old pocket account book in the possession of H. B. Plumb, author of the History of Hanover Township, the same having been kept by his great-grandfather, Elisha Blackman. Not only is the book valuable as affording ideas of the manner and cost of living in those early days, but it is interesting as furnishing what is almost a directory of that time. How interesting would a complete directory be. The book mentions fully half the fam- ilies of Wilkes-Barre. The whole number of names in this account book is sixty- five. Of these, fourteen were killed in the battle and massacre of 1778; there were also in the battle six who escaped. Fifteen of them or their sons served in the continental or Revolutionary army during the war for independence. The accounts cover date from 1772 down to the battle and massacre, July 3, 1778, and Mr. Plumb has kindly furnished the Record with a list of the names, together with brief mention by himself of each one. Though the comment is brief it has required no little research by Mr. Plumb to cull the matter from published and unpublished sources. The original orthography of the names is given: Jonathan Avery: In Wilkes-Barre in 1775-6; nothing further known of him. Benjamin Baley lived in Wilkes-Barre in 1774-8; was a corpora.l in Capt. John Franklin's company of militia previous to 1782. Samuel Becket: In Wilkes-Barre, January, 1774-8; nothing further is known of him. James Badlock [Bidlaek] lived in Wilkes-Barre in 1775-7. As there was a James Bidlaek, Jr. , who was slain in the battle and massacre of Wyoming in 1778, it is uncertain whether this is father or son. The father was taken prisoner by the Indians on the flats opposite Wilkes-Barre in 1779, and carried into captivity. His son, Benjamin, was in Spalding's company in the United States army, after June 23, 1778. Elisha Blackman, Sr.: The owner of the account book in which these names appear lived in Wilkes-Barre from 1772 to 1778; the family fled to Connecticut after the massacre. He returned in 1787 to Wilkes-Barre, where he resided till his death in 1804. aged eighty-seven. Some of the descendants are still here. His sons Elisha, Eleazer and Ichabod left large families. +?^'^w ^^^°'^'^^'^' '^'^■- Son of the above, was eighteen years old at the time of the Wyoming battle and massacre in which he fought, and escaped with his life, and fled the next day with his father to Stroudsburg, the rest of the family having fled earlier in the day. While the family returned to Connecticut whence they came, he returned to Wyoming early in August with Capt. Spalding's men, helped to gather such of the harvests and crops as they could, helped to bury the dead on the fatal battle-field in October (and he always said thev were buried m two graves or trenches a half mile or so apart); and then enlisted 'in the active army la the held, and served to the end of the war. He received two pensions, one from the United States and one from Connecticut. His brothers were too HISTOBY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. 487 young to be in the army. His residence was in Hanover from 1791 till 1845 when he died, aged eighty-six. Joseph Blackman: In Wilkes-Barre, in January, 1778; but probably never lived here. Esquire Zebulon Butler: Lived in Wilkes-Barre in January, 1773, was a colonel in the United States army 1775 to 1783, was one of the first settlers in Wilkes- Barre, was in command of the militia in the battle of July 3, 1778, at Wyoming, being home on furlough at the time. He escaped the massacre, and served in the army till ttie end of the war. ^'- Carr: Was in Wilkes-Barre in 1778. Capt. Carr and Philip Goss were murdered by Indians below Wapwallopen in November, 1778. Daniel Carr was taken prisoner before the battle. Either of these may be the man. Uriah Chapman: Of the Lackawack settlement, was a mill owner, removed there from Norwich, Conn., in October, 1773. Mill irons carried to Minisink for him that year by Elisha Blackman, Sr. Dr. (John Corkins: Lived in Wilkes-Barre 1775 to 1778, was a noted surgeon in New London, Conn., came here in 1773. Many of the people desiring to have him establish himself here, drew up a petition and procured subscribers, the money to be laid out in a " lot for his benefit and use. " It is supposed the issue was favorable, for his name is found here as late as 1789. Joseph Crooker: Lived in Wilkes-Barre previous to 1778; probably kept the lower ferry at the foot of Northampton street, as he bid £10 10s. Od. for it; was killed in the battle and massacre. Anderson Dana: In Wilkes-Barre, 1774, to March 30, 1778; was slain in the battle and massacre; was a lawyer by profession. Descendants of his still live here. Clemans Daniel: In Wilkes-Barre in November, 1775; nothing further known of him except that he resided in Wilkes-Barre as late as 1789. Dugles Daveson: Lived in Wilkes-Barre in 1773; belonged to Capt. Durkee's company; in the army from 1776 to 1778; did not belong to Spalding's company in 1778; lived here long afterward. William Davison: In Wilkes-Barre in 1776; belonged to Capt. Durkee's com- pany in the United States army 1776 to 1778; did not join the consolidated com- pany of Capt. Spalding. Nothing more known of him. Col. [Nathan] Denison: In Wilkes-Barre in 1776 to 1778; escaped the massacre; was a colonel of the militia in the battle July 3, 1778; afterward judge of the court till 1782-3. Mathew Dolson : In Wilkes-Barre, ■ in January, 1776 ; nothing further known of him. Mr. [George] Dorrance: Lived in Kingston; 1776 collector of rates; lieutenant- colonel of the militia July 3, 1778, and was killed. Daniel Downing: Lived in Wilkes-Barre in November, 1775 to 1778; was in James Bidlack's company in the battle and massacre and escaped; returned to Wilkes-Barre the same fall, and afterward resided there as late as 1792. Afterward there is a Joel and a Reuben named. Capt. Robert Durkee: Lived in Wilkes-Barre in 1774 to May, 1777. He was commissioned captain of one of the two Wyoming companies, August 26, 1776; on the day of the battle of Wyoming, he with Lieut. Pierce came spurring their jaded horses to Forty fort, about a half hour after our men on foot about forty miles off, and had ridden in to assist their families and friends. " We are faint, give us bread .' ' Having snatched a morsel of food, they hastened to the field. Both were slain. Thomas Durkee: Lived in Wilkes-Barre in 1776-7. Nothing further is known of him. Thomas Ells [probably Ellis]: In Wilkes-Barre in 1773. His lot was put into Springfield. John Ewens: Lived in Hanover 1773-8, assisted by Elisha Blackman, Sr., to 488 HISTOBY OP LUZEENE COUNTY. move into Hanover in 1773 from Lancaster county, Pa., was a resident till the massacre, after which he lived in Lancaster county. Daniel Fine [or Finny, or Kinne, or Kinny]: in Wilkes-Barre in January and October, 1774. Nothing further is known of him. The name seems to be uncertain. Jonathan Fitch: In Wilkes-Barre in 1776, was sheriff of the county of Westmore- land till the very last; was an old man and probably one of the Eef ormadoes to guard the block-house in Hanover, in 1778 ; after the battle and during the flight he was the only man among 100 women and children to lead and direct them across the mount- ains in Hanover, along the Warrior path to Fort Allen [Weissport now], on the Lehigh. From 1780 to 1782 he was elected assemblyman to Connecticut four times. Mr. Forsids [Forsythe]: In Wilkes-Barre in 1776; lived in Hanover in 1779-80, and it is understood he lived there for many years afterward. John Franklin: Of Hanover, May 1773-8, was slain in the battle and massacre of July 3, 1778, together with his brother Jonathan. His brothers, Lieut. Eosewell Franklin and Arnold Franklin, escaped. Capt. Stephen Fuller: Lived in Wilkes-Barre, 1776; a private in the battle of Wyoming, July 3, 1778, and was killed; had been captain in the Wyoming militia in 1775. Jedediah Goor [probably Obadiah Gore, Jr.]: Came to Wilkes-Barre in 1769; was a resident of Wilkes-Barre in 1773; was in the United States army, lieutenant in the company of Capt. Weisner, 1776 to 1782. Afterward lived in Sheshequin; was an associate judge of Luzerne county; died in 1820. Mr. Gordon: In Wilkes-Barre, in 1776; was the surveyor of the town of Westmoreland; laid out the public roads in September, 1776; the roads had been laid out before by the townships, but it would seem from this they were not lawful roads or highways of the "town of Westmoreland." Benjamin Harve [Harvey]: Lived in Plymouth, 1774; belonged to Capt. Durkee's company in the United States army 1776, till his death in the service; unless, as is probable, this Benjamin is the father, who had another son, Silas, killed in the battle and massacre of Wyoming, and in 1780, in December, himself and only remaining son Elisha, were taken prisoners by the Indians and driven to Canada. They survived and were afterward released, and lived and died in Plymouth. Jonathan Haskel: Was one of the original settlers on the Delaware or Lacka- waxen in 1773; was assisted by Elisha Blackman, Sr. , in moving to the Minisinks, on the Delaware, from Connecticut in October, 1773. He was constable, collector of rates and key keeper for his district in 1774. Asel Hide: Lived in Wilkes-Barre in 1775-6; was corporal in Capt. Durkee's company in the United States army 1776 to June 23, 1778, when he joined Capt. Spalding's consolidated company as a private till 1782, the end of the war. John Hide: Lived in Wilkes-Barre in October, 1775; nothing further known of him. Simon Hide: Lived in Wilkes-Barre in 1775; nothing more known of him. John HoUenback: Lived in Wilkes-Barre in 1777 to 1794; mill owner on Mill creek; some of his descendants still reside in Wilkes-Barre. Mr. — Jenkins: Lived in Kingston in 1776; collector " for rates;" supposed to be John Jenkins. He was, in 1777, taken prisoner by the Indians and taken to Canada; was sent for exchange for what turned out to be a dead Indian chief ; he however, made his escape. He joined Capt. Spalding's company and was made lieutenant in 1778, and came into the valley with them in August; he was with the army which under Gen. Sullivan invaded and devastated the Indian country in New York in 1779; served in the United States army till the end of the war. He died in Kingston or Wyoming in 1827. Descendants of his still reside there. .,„„^^™°*^y ^y^^C^eys]: Lived at this time, October, 1772, in Wilkes-Barre; in 1775 was ensign in the Wyoming militia; afterward lived up the Lackawanna, and after the battle of July 3, 1778, early in the fall, or perhaps in August, he was taken HISTORY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. 489 prisoner by the Indians together with Isaac Tripp, Esq. , Isaac Tripp, his grandson, and a young man named Hocksey. The old man they let go, but up in Abington on the Warrior path to Oquago, they murdered Keys and Hocksey. Ebenezer Lain: WilkesBarre in 1776; nothing further known of him. "William Lisk: Was in Wyoming in 1775 to 1776; nothing further known of him. Alexander Lock: Lived in WilkesBarre in 1774-6; bought a quarter of a town lot No. 32, in the town plot of WilkesBarre of Elisha Blackman, Sr., March 28, 1774, for £2 14s. Connecticut currency — 19 in United States money of these times. A James Lock was killed in the massacre, probably his son. Daniel Mackmullen: Lived in Wilkes-Barre in 1778; was in the battle aad mas- sacre and escaped. Nothing further known of him by the writer. John Obed: In Wilkes-Barre in February 1777; nothing further known of him. Ebenezer Phillips: Lived in Wilkes-Barre in 1775-6; belonged to Capt. Durkee's . company in the United States army 1776-8 till its consolidation with Ransom's in June, 1778, under Capt. Spalding; nothing further known of him. Mr. — Porter: In Wilkes-Barre in 1774; a Thomas Porter was in Capt. Dur- kee's company in the United States army in 1776, and was killed by a cannon ball in battle. A Thomas Porter was in the lower Wilkes-Barre company in the Wyom- ing battle and escaped the massacre. They may be father and son. Jabez Post: In Wilkes-Barre in July, 1774; nothing further known of him. Mr. Prid [Pride]: In Wilkes-Barre in 1775-6; nothing more known of him. Mr. Sill [Jabez Sill]: Resided in Wilkes-Barre in 1776; was one of the first 200 settlers in Wilkes-Barre, 1769; had two sous in the United States army with Capt. Darkee, Elisha N. and Shadrack. On the consolidation of the two companies at Lancaster on June 23, 1778, Shadrack re-enlisted with Capt. Spalding, but Elisha N. came home. Another son, Jabez Sill, Jr. , belonged to Capt. Franklin's company of militia in Wyoming preyious to 1782, [after the massacre,] during the war. Elisha N. Sill after the war went to Connecticut, studied medicine there and prac- ticed, and died there a very old man. David Smith: In Wilkes-Barre in 1774: nothing further known of him. Isaac Smith: Lived in Wilkes-Barre in 1776. Belonged to Capt. Durkee's com- pany in 1776 and to Spalding's consolidated company to the end of the Revolution- ary war. Capt. Josiah Smith: Lived in Wilkes-Barre in 1776 or 1768; bid for the Upper ferry £6 6s. Od. This ferry was at the mouth of Mill creek, and Miner says yielded half as much as the Lower ferry. He says from $25 a year, the rent of the Lower ferry soon rose to $60; and the Upper to half that sum, until discontinued on the erection of mills in Kingston: In Connecticut currency — The Lower at £10 10 $35 00 The Upper at 6 60 3100 Total revenue at this sale per year $56 00 Derias Spaford: Lived in Wilkes-Barre in 1775; was killed in the battle and massacre; was a blacksmith; was son-in-law of Elisha Blackman, Sr., the proprietor of the pocket account book from which these names are taken. Dr. Joseph Sprague: Lived in Wilkes-Barre, June, 1872-7; was a physician by profession; he had come to Wyoming as a settler in 1770; he had a son killed in the battle and massacre, July 3, 1778; he died in Virginia; his step-daughter was the wife of William Young, of Hanover, and he was also in the battle, but escaped the massacre. Asa Stevens: Was in Wilkes-Barre, January, 1772, to April, 1778; was slain in the battle and massacre of July 3, 1778; was lieutenant in the lower Wilkes-Barre company. Mr. Stuart: Lived in Hanover, 1776; collector "for rates." 490 HISTORY OP LUZEENE COUNTY. Daniel Tracy: In Wilkes-Barre in 1774; nothing more known of him. Flebas Waterman: In Wilkes-Barre in 1776. This name and the one below, Flavill Waterman, are so nearly alike, and both so near Flavins Waterman, the lieutenant in one company of our little army in the battle of Wyoming in 1778, and who was slain there, as to make the names of both uncertain. Flavill Waterman : Lived in Wilkes-Barre in 1776 to 1777. [See Flebas Wat- erman above.] Elihu Waters: Lived in Wilkes-Barre in 1776-7; was killed July 3, 1778. Capt. Wigden [probably Capt. James Wigton]: Lived in Wilkes-Barre in 1778; was in the Wyoming battle and massacre as a private in 1778 and was killed; belonged to the lower Wilkes-Barre company of Capt. James Bidlack. Aaron Wilder [or Wildor]: In Wilkes-Barre in 1774; nothing more known. Mr. Woodworth, in Wilkes-Barre in 1775; a boarder; nothing further known of him. Abel Yereton [Yarington]: Lived in Wilkes-Barre in 1777; was in Capt. John Franklin's militia in Wyoming in 1782; lived in Wilkes-Barre as late as 1791. The following incident of the Wyoming massacre may not be without interest to your readers: "Mrs. William Miller was born January 1, 1760, and was, therefore, eighteen and a half years old at the time of the massacre, but, young as she was, she was a mother, living in the vicinity of the Old Forge, her hus- band being in the continental army. She was taken prisoner, with her child, by the Indians, and held for some time, just how long is not known. She wandered about with them, but at length they determined to release her, and, learning that her former home had been in Orange county, N. Y., they painted her face and that of her child and sent them thither under an escort. She walked and carried the child in her arms the whole distance. The painting was done, as their custom was, to show that they had been released, and that other Indians might not molest them; consequently when any met them they would say: " Jogee jun, jogee jun," meaning "Go on, Indian; go on, Indian." Her husband survived the war and joined her, after which they returned to Wyoming valley and lived for some time in the vicinity of Pittston. They subsequently moved to Clifford, in Susquehanna county, where her husband died in 1816, and after his death she came to live with her son, the late Jonathan Miller, in Pleasant Mount, where she resided until her death, which occurred June 23, 1845. The terrible scenes of the massacre and her captivity were ever present in her memory, and none the less so as age advanC. Yarington: "On the last day of February, 1825, 1 left my home in Wilkes-B^rre and walked to Dundaff. I had previously ma'de a contract with Col. Gould Phinny to work a year for him at my trade (blacksmith). I went up the turnpike from Wilkes-Barre through Pittston to Hyde Park, and while there I looked over to Capouse (now Scranton), and I saw the residence of Maj. Ebenezer Slocum, and eight or ten tenant houses in which his workhands resided, and there were apparently ten or twelve acres of cleared land where Scranton now is. Maj. Slocum had a forge there and manufactured what was called bloomer iron, and soon after the war of 1812 I used to go up with my father to purchase iron of Mr. Slocum, my father being a blacksmith. Where Scranton now is was then a dense wilderness with the exception of the few acres around his house. I went on up the turnpike through Greenfield and arrived at the Dundaff hotel about sundown. Then I found an old Wilkes-Barre friend and his family with whom I was acquainted, Archippus Parrish, whose horses I had shod from 1818 to 1822, at which time he had moved with his family to Dundaff. He ran the hotel there for a number of years and then moved back to Wilkes-Barre. I felt perfectly at home and boarded with the family a year, and I can positively say that it was one of the happiest years of my life. " I will now go back a few years with the occurrences of my boyhood at Wilkes- Barre. When I was ten years old (1813), my father carried on the blacksmith business. At that time there were no hardware stores in Wilkes-Barre, and no edge tools could be found in either of the four or five stores there, except now and then an old-fashioned one-bladed Barlow knife at a huge price. Such an article as a cast-iron plow or a cut nail was not known, but about the close of the war a man by the name of Francis McShane started a cut-nail machine, a very simple affair indeed, but himself and his helper (Shepard Marble, a Wilkes-Barre young man) could cut and head about twenty pounds daily, this caused a great excitement in town, hundreds of people from town and county came to see the nail factory. The price of wrought iron came down from 20 and 25 cents a pound to the price of 12J cents. Cut nails were sold at 10 cents. The three fires in my father's shop were used as follows: First, at his fire were made all the edge tools, including cradles and scythes, chopping axes and various kinds of carpenter's tools. At another fire nothing but the various kinds of wrought- iron nails were made, and the third fire was kept busy at the various kinds of customer's work as it was called for. During the War of 1812 the great ship "Luzerne" was built on the river bank in front of John W. Robinson's store. I saw the launch. A thousand or more people were present. The war spirit was rampant at that time, and the people of our town expected that the noble "Luzerne" was going to assist in bringing the " flag of Great Britain " down. A few days after the launch a sufficient flood arose and the ship was manned and started down the river toward the ocean, but in passing the Falls of Conawago she, ran on the rocks and lay there till the ice in the river broke up the next spring, when she was totally destroyed. John P. Arndt was one of the stockholders— probably the largest one— in the vessel. Several others, including my father, had from $3,00 to $500 of the stock. There was great excitement in Luzerne county about those days. The war spirit prevailed to a great extent. There were two recruiting stations at Wilkes-Barre and the recruiting officers were very busy for one or two years. Business of every description was brisk, and all kinds of provisions were high— wheat, 12.50 per bushel; corn, 11.25; pork, $18 to $20 per barrel, and everything else in the line of provis- ions proportionally high." Old houses like old people have to go: "That historic old residence corner of Franklin and Union streets, once occupied by Chief Justice John Bannister Gibson, '^K.y / * HISTORY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. 497 is now (1888) in process of demolition to make room for the block of six private residences to occupy the same lot extending from Union street to the old canal, now L. V. railroad track. This is an old structure, so old that perhaps no one living here remembers when it was built or by whom; the frame is yet stanch and sound, but the style of architecture is too antiquated for the present generation, and more than that, land is too scarce to allow a half acre to each dwelling here in the central portion of the city. The old frame building adjoining the Leader office is about to be removed to make room for two fine wholesale stores, though it may not be considered as among the " old landmarks," is not yet of very recent date. It was first used as a public house by Archippus Parrish, after the destruction by fire of his former hotel, which stood on the east side of the public square, about where Josiah Lewis' stores now are. The old tavern was burned on the night of February 22, about the year 1831. The sleighing was fine on that day, and there was to be a Washington's birthday ball at night. Bright fires had been kindled to warm up some of the upper rooms for the comfort of expected guests during the early evening, when at 9 o'clock a cry of fire was heard on the public square and fiames were seen shooting up through the shingles of the roof, and in half an hour the old hostelry was reduced to ashes. The new building was used but a short time, before Mr. Parrish removed to another hotel, corner of the public square and East Market street, which was also destroyed by fire many years ago. The following in substance was printed in Stewart Pearce' s Annals of Luzerne as he found it printed in the Federalist of March 30, 1810. It was probably written by some local wit, under the guise of a foreigner traveling through this part of the country, and was " takin' notes i' faith to print 'em." It is not material what the motive or who it was, it is something of a picture of the village eighty-two years ago. The writer, printer and all that were animate here then, are now gathered in "the silent city." A stranger in Luzerne is the heading and then follows: " Cloudy day — rain towards night — 4 o'clock, came in sight of a small town — a delightful and extensive valley, sufficiently watered by Susquehanna and its tributary streams. Set this county down rich — the soil undoubtedly will reward the labors of the husbandman with an abundant harvest. "Came down into the town (Wilkes-Barre) — found it regularly laid out — hand- some place, though too many small houses for beauty. Streets terribly muddy — almost impossible to get along. Wonder the inhabitants don't have a sidewalk, at least, so that foot-people may not have their legs pulled out by the roots. " Came down into the street — extends north and south — two men running horses! Mud knee deep. Well, they sputter it agoing bravely; they spout it around like Mount Etna in a fit of the colic. Huzza! there goes a man and his horse heels over head— spatter, dash, souse all over in the mud— a new way of dismounting. Walked up to the center of the place— saw a meeting-house — courthouse— an academy, I guess, with one end of it fenced in— a jail probably, by the high yard fence— four public buildings, religion, justice, knowledge, and iniquity— curious compound. Wonder what old, huge, antique stone building that is with new roof and windows— contrary to Scripture— put no new cloth upon an old garment. This is the first building that bears such strong marks of antiquity, and which appears to have been too rough for the devouring jaws of time, which I have seen in America. I can find no date upon it. Went a little further— found six great, strong, robust men playing cards without any concealment. Inquired if they had any laws in this State, or, perhaps their magistrates are blind, like Justice of old. Went down to the river— a delightful bank, save the mud, which for the purpose of brevity, I wish might always be excepted when this place is mentioned hereafter. A big house on the bank— foundation all gone from one end— a little more will tumble it down the bill. Saw a man drunk— he had business on both sides of the way (there was once an insurrection in this State on account of taxing whiskey). 26 498 HISTOBY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. Saw aaother man moving with great obliquity-made inquiry-found he was a candidate for sheriff. Do all sheriffs in Pennsylvania step quick two or three times and then with a long side -way stride? The river is wearing away the bank very rapidly-from appearance it seems to incline side-ways, like the man I saw ^"^'""two men rode up from the river— one horse kicked up and threw the rider head and heels in the mud-the people all flocked amund just as they do to see does fiffht-made inquiry and found the man was a Methodist minister. Well, if I remember right, this sect of Christians hold to falling. I went down a little further— saw a tavern, heard a bell ring and found there was a Methodist meeting. Went and found many people there. The minister delivered a forcible, impressive, eloquent and Scriptural sermon. , , , ''March 21 — Bose at 6— walked out upon the bank— saw only one man up and he from his looks, will be down before night. At 7 went to the store opposite the ferry found all closed and silent. Walked on— saw a new white house, very handsome situation-fence all gone around it. What! a printing office! Saw another store— found it open and doing business— good many people m it— inquire if this man does not tend his own store, of course, makes more money. Going back saw a man without a hat— his hair pointing to every quarter of heaven, his mouth open and both hands working daylight through his yet closed eyelids- hope he has a large patrimony to doze over. Returned to the tavern— found a good many men come to get their morning charge. After breakfast walked around town; at 11 o'clock went to the academy— steeple as big as an eel basket— saw a number of great tall boys gaping and leaning against the side of the house, and stretching as if for victory. , , . . , " Went on— saw things which I shall never forget — returned to my lodgings sick evening pleasant — many people came in, and as they poured down the whiskey they drowned out the politics. If they should drink less, talk less, and read more, won't they understand the subject better? Went up street— going by the courthouse heard a stamping, like that of a livery stable in fly time— made inquiry and found there was a dancing-school kept there." The Allen Jack brick storehouse, on Main street, was erected in 1813, and the G. M. HoUenback store and dwelling on the corner of Market and River streets, in 1816. Old Iron Mill. — That was a memorable time in Wilkes-Barre way back m 1842, when the town made a gala day of it to turn out and see the new rolling-mill start up. The canal then raged and the canal horn quickened the heartbeats of the people as the flying packet-boat, Oapt. Wells commanding, would proudly come into port. A distinguished mark of a heavy man about town then was to be able to rush on board, shake familiarly the captain's hand and indulge in one of the boat's gorgeous meals for the sum of 25 cents. It is now fifty years to a day since that memorable day, October 1, 1842, and the whole country gathered in to see the iron mill start. There were two engines, one 100-horsepower,the other sixty, and all else was in proportion. Mr. Ellis was superintendent, and Capt. John Y. Wren, of Plymouth, had the proud satisfaction of starting one of the engines. The engines moved all right. The blast was finally turned on, but then the imperfections became palpable. The flames instead of going to the iron blew out of many crevices. The furnaces were a sad failure. They were remodeled, but itnever would roll well; the rails being imperfect and badly finned and ragged all along. It was run, never to advantage, for some years and then dismantled. Capf. Wren thus speaks of his recollections of Wilkes-Barre fifty years ago: "Leaving the canal bridge toward the public square there were only green fields and blooming orchards. The two buildings that attracted the captain's eye especially were the armory of the Ninth regiment on Main, and Ely Post No. 97 building. He regards these as the two proud monumental buildings of the city. It is hardly necessary to state that Capt. Wren in the Historical Record gave the facts of the old mill. HISTORY OP LUZERNE COUNTY. 499 C. E. Wright contributed to the Historical Record his recollections of some of the leading business men of Wilkes-Barre, and pays the following glowing tribute to Jacob Cist, of whom he says the first time he ever saw him he was acting ing postmaster. He was busy writing and seemed to be annoyed at the interrup- tion. " No wonder," he says, " it was shameful that a man so far outstripping his fellow countrymen in science, art and philosophy, should be chained down to the routine of a menial clerkship. But he must make his bread like other men, though all the aspirations of his genius rose to the contemplation of grander things. * * * He should have been a companion of Humboldt in his voyages of scientific exploration; he was fitted for the task. From a bug or a butterfly up through the range of all the ologies to an iron mountain and the inauguration of the coal trade, he was in his proper sphere. When other men were groveling in the mud of De Witt Clinton's ditches and blocking the channels of our grand river with dams, Mr. Cist was foretelling the superior system of railroads as means of transportation. If the legislature had listened to him a great deal of blasphemy might have been saved to the raftsmen and our supply of shad escaped annihilation. But he knew and others did not. But a few months before his untimely death he made alSay's visit to my father's house. Such was the delight his courteous manner excited in my boyish heart, that I forgave him the coolness of the postoffice scene, and to this day I esteem it a great privilege to have thus intimately met the most cultured man of the North." Of the first merchants Mr. Wright rambles along, and in his delightful way, says that G. M. HoUenback ranks first. Along the whole bank of the Susquehanna no man was better known. His amenity of address and winning expression of face were remarkable. He dressed with more taste than any man in the county ; his manner was perfection. I was accustomed to regard Mr. HoUenback with an awe of deference and admiration never since bestowed on any man on earth. When I first knew the brick store on the corner at the bridge, Ziba Bennett was head clerk. He was certainly a model merchant. He was a paragon in the line of business, adopted in early life and continued through so many succeeding years. He was the idol of country customers for many miles around. Following Mr. Bennett came two other individuals who subsequently established successful careers — N. Butter and A. C. Laning. It was their good fortune to begin life under the influence of such a man as HoUenback. Then there was another merchant located further down the river, and this was Jacob Cist, above referred io_ * * * While less known was one of the great men that made Wilkes-Barre his home. First Brewery. — As an evidence that the teutonic element was well sprinkled among the early settlers is the fact that an attempt was made about 1823 to establish a brewery in Wilkes-Barre, by Thomas Ingham, on river below Union street. He carried it on, of course, in a most primitive manner, for some time, making what the few beer-drinkers then here swallowed and supposed it rough but the best they could do. In time he sold to Christian Reichard, who ran it until 1833, when he transferred it to Judge John Reichard, his cousin, who was fresh from Germany. When it is remembered everything about it, except the drinkers, had to be wagoned from Philadelphia, it is remarkable that he soon commenced enlarging the works and more than kept pace with the growing demands, and thus it was successfully operated with no very great changes until 1874, when the old building was dis- mantled, torn down, the machinery having been removed to the new and elegant plant. Here with all modern appliances and improvements it has continued to keep pace with a fast age. It is still in the possession and operated by Reichard & Co., composed of George N. Reichard and George Weaver. The Stegmaier brewery is a more modern build. Somewhere about 1825 Isaac A. Chapman, the first historian of Wyoming, erected on North River street, near Union street, what was at that time regarded 500 HISTORY OP LUZEENE COUNTY. as one of the finest residences in the town. Eleazer Carey married Chapman's widow and lived and died in the house. In course of time Caleb E. Wright pur- chased the property and occupied it many years, but a portion of the lot had been sold. Then Benjamin F. Dorrance became its owner and made his home here until he moved to his Kingston farm. The old place became then a cheap boarding house, until purchased by the Jonas Long estate, when the old landmark was torn down and the present elegant residence, in 1888, was erected. What memories are in the story of even the old dumb buildings. In 1888 the old building on North Main, near the Record office, where Ziba Bennett commenced business was torn down. This was immediately after he had withdrawn from his connection with George M. Hollenback. By a singular coin- cidence this building and the old Hollenback store were demolished to make room for better ones, at the same time. At the Bennett place were chopped down some trees that had been planted forty years preceding by Mr. Bennett, a maple measured twenty-nine inches, perfectly sound. Old Bridge. — The first river bridge at Market street which succeeded the ferry at Northampton street was built for the Wilkes-Barre Bridge company, incorpor- ated in 1807, at a cost of 140,000. It was two years in building, and was com- pleted in 1818. In 1819 the first .pier was undermined and the first span carried away. The same was repaired by the State at a cost of 113,000. In the winter of 1824-5 a violent hurricane carried the bridge ofP the piers and deposited it some distance above upon the ice. It was again rebuilt by the aid of the State which remitted |15,000 in State claims against the county by an act of the legisla- ture, and appointed G. M. Hollenback, Garrick Mallery and Calvin Wadhams com- missioners to rebuild the bridge. Andrew Beaumont was appointed by the com- missioners to collect the money and let the work. The State claims against the bridge now amounted to $28,000, which were taken up by the company in after years. The Hollenback storehouse was built to accommodate the river traffic in salt, plaster, grain, etc., which was brought down from York state in arks during high water in the river. The salt was in barrels and the plaster in bulk, which was deposited upon the bank and weighed out to farmers in quarter or half tons, as required. The same was true of the " Arndt stone house," which stood oppo- site the Darling property. John Arndt kept the tavern, which stood upon the site of the Darling property, adjoining which was his store. Thomas Morgan kept the Stage house there in 1830, from which the Troy coaches departed for New York, Philadelphia, etc. As money was scarce in those days, most of the business was barter of produce for goods, and farmers brought grain in wagons many miles to trade. This grain was also deposited in these storehouses, taken from the wagons to the shoulders of the clerks and carried up into the second story and deposited in the bms. It was in the Arndt stone house that "old Michael" lived alone for many years and died there. In the year 1846 John Myers, not being able to agree with the terms of the Bridge company, started a ferry immediately below the bridge and ran a flat and skiff until he brought the company to terms. The tolls were high, and many farmers and others tied up their teams on the west side and crossed on foot with light produce, and so many took advantage of the free ferry that it was kept going to its capacity. The trade in butter, eggs, etc., was never so great in the town. Butter was worth from 8 to 10 cents, and tons of it were brought in, showing what an advantage a free bridge would have been. Sev- eral attempts were made by our merchants to make the bridge free, but they never succeeded, except that they caused a reduction of tolls . J°~en«i^en, 1818, who were living in Wilkes-Barre. -For this list we are indebted to Dilton Yanngton, who wrote a letter in 1888 to the Historical Record and recalled the past when he was a well-grown youth. In his letter he gave as he Wnbi^ T^ T '., business men in the borough in 1818, omitting himself. William S. Eoss, Lord Butler, Jr., Charles Tracy, Washington Ewing, Jacob E. HISTOEY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. 501 Teetor, Chester A. Colt, David Conner, as he considered them only youths, not yet to be ranked among the "business men." Noah Wadhams and Joshua Green were not that year residents of the place. Eev. Ard Hoyt had gone as missionary to India and he did not mention the " great Indian fighter," AbramPike, as he was not then engaged in business. A man of whom Historian Miner said: "No man then living had rendered greater service to his country in time of her greatest need. ' ' With this explanation we give the following as a valuable directory of Wilkes-Barre business men in 1818: J. P. Arndt, shipbuilder. Philip Abbott, farmer. Abial Abbott, carpenter. Nathan Allen, carpenter. H. C. Anhiser, merchant. Lloyd Alkens, carpenter. William Apple, carpenter. Ziba Bennett, clerk. John L. Butler, coal dealer. Steuben Butler, printer. Chester Butler, lawyer. Zebulon Butler, farmer. Pierce Butler, farmer. Eleazer Blackman, farmer. John Bettle, bank cashier. Nathan Barney, farmer. Andrew BoUes, farmer. Stephen Bowles, book-keeper. Jonathan Bulkley, sheriff. Eliphalet Bulkley, clerk. Anthony Brower, tailor. Thomas Brown, farmer. William Brown, distiller. Brittania Barnes, merchant. Aaron Batty, painter. Moses Beamer, ferryman. Isaac Bowman, tanner. Samuel Bowman, farmer and tanner. William L. Bowman, tanner. Gilbert Barnes, carpenter. Alex. H. Bowman, IJ. S. cadet. Horatio Bowman. James W. Bowman, lawyer. Ebenezer Bowman, lawyer. Andrew Beaumont, postmaster. Henry Barrackman, farmer. Job Barton, carpenter. William and George Blane, farmers. Thomas Bartlet, school teacher. Josiah Brown, butcher. Miles B. Benedict, hatter. Gideon Bebee, ferryman. William Bolton, carpenter. Elisha Blackman, cabinet maker. Oristus Collins, lawyer. Edward Chapman. Jacob Cist, merchant. Thomas J. Carkhuff, sheriff. Samuel Colkglazer, plasterer. John and Peter Conner, carpenters. Thomas Dyer, lawyer. John and Robert Downer, soldiers. Chester Dana, river pilot. Reuben and Daniel Downing, farmers. Eli andAarbn Downing, farmers. F. Dupuy, confectioner. Jacob J. Dennis, gunsmith. John Davis, farmer. Putnam Catlin, lawyer. Charles Catlin, lawyer. George Chahoon, carpenter. A. O. Chahoon, merchant. Daniel Collins, silversmith. Mason Crary, M. D. Edward CoriU, M. D. Arnold Colt, justice peace. Henry Colt, surveyor. Harris Colt, United States soldier. John Carey, farmer. Eleazer Carey, J. P. George Clymer, merchant. William Cox, painter. John Covert, laborer. Richard Covert, stage driver. Joseph H. Chapman. Isaac A. Chapman, author. John Carkhuff. Daniel Colkglazer, school teacher. Hugh and Cornelius Conner, carpenters. George Denison, lawyer. James Dickens, soldier of Revolution. Anderson and Francis Dana, farmers. Jonathan and Bateman Downing, farmers. Jonathan and David Dale, shoemakers. Jesse Downing, farmer. James Decker, farmer. Thomas Davidge, shoemaker. Thomas Dow, farmer. Joseph Davis, carpenter. Louis Delamanon, merchant. Hiram Eicke, carpenter. John Ewing, court crier. 502 HISTORY OF LUZEBNB COUNTY. George Evans, lawyer. Samuel Fell, carpenter. Abel Flint, stone cutter. George Graves, laborer. Job Gibbs, carpenter. Gordon Groves, tailor. Dominick Germain, merchant. Mathias Hollenback, associate judge. Jonathan Hancock, landlord. William and John Hancock, farmers. John Hannis, farmer. George Hotchkiss, painter. William Hart. George Haines, county surveyor. Miller Harton, stage line. Mathias Hoffman, shoemaker. James C. Helmer, cabinet maker. Lewis Hepburn, lawyer. Jacob Hultz, hatter. Joel and Joseph Jones, teachers. Jehoida P. Johnson, miller. John M. Kienzle, constable. Jacob Kyte, laborer. Caleb Kendall, preacher. Gilbert and Grover Laird, shoemakers. James Luker, shoemaker. Lewis Du Shong, merchant. Benjamin Drake, blacksmith. George Eicker, teamster. Thomas, James and George Ely, stage line. Jesse Fell, associate judge. Edward Fell, blacksmith. Jabez Fish, farmer. James Gridley, constable. John Greenawalt, miller. Luman Gilbert, laborer. Hugh Gorman, laborer. G. M. Hollenback, merchant. James Hancock, farmer. Thomas Hutchins, harness maker. Joseph Hitchcock, farmer. Jacob Hart, sheriff. Abraham Hart, shoemaker. Isaac Hartsell, J. P. Jesse and Lewis Harton, stage line. Oliver Helme, landlord. Patrick Hepburn, saddler. Joseph Huckle, distiller. Lathan W. Jones, physician. Amasa Jones, manufacturer. John Jameson, Spring House hotel. Jacob Kithline, baker. Jacob Kutz, tailor. Lewis Ketcham, painter. George Lane, preacher. Jo'siah Lewis, surveyor. Elan Lawry, teamster. Peter P. Loop, merchant. Charles Miner, printer. Joshua Miner, stonemason. Garrick Mallery, lawyer. Shepherd Marble, nailmaker. William Miller, laborer. Felix McGuigan, laborer. Samuel MafFet, printer. Thomas Nutting, laborer. Thomas B. Overton, lawyer. Godfrey Perry, book-keeper. Titus Prime (colored). Nathan Palmer, lawyer. Archippus Parrish, landlord. Thomas Quick. William Ross, farmer. Francis Rainnow. Elijah Richards, farmer. Philip Rymer, cloth dresser. John Raymond, laborer. Peter and Jack RafEerty, laborers. David Scott, president judgq. T Jonathan Slocum, farmer. Henry and George Sively, farmers. Jacob and Joseph Suiton, merchants. Abram Tolls, wagon maker. G. W. Trott, physician. Henry Tillbury, farmer. Sidney Tracy, farmer. Henry F. Lamb, druggist. Washington Lee, lawyer. Thomas W. Miner, physician John Miller, sexton. Francis McShane, nailmaker. Thomas Morgan, hotel and stage. Joseph McCoy, cashier and poet. Abram Mock, landlord. Simon Monega, laborer. John Ogden. Abram Pike (Indian killer). Benjamin Perry, clerk H. of R. Thomas Price, cooper. Thomas Patterson, blacksmith. George Peck, preacher. William Russell, potter. A. H. Reeder, landlord. David and William Richards, farmers. George Root, stage driver. Samuel Raub, farmer. Joel Rogers, preacher. Jacob Rudolph, shoemaker. Joseph and Zebulon Slocum, blacksmiths. HISTOBY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 508 Zura Smith, druggist. Benjamin St. John. Jacob Sills, farmer. Conrad Teeter, first stage to Athens. Stephen Tattle, merchant. Peleg Tracy. Edwin Tracy, harness maker. Charles Taintor, painter. Edmund Taylor, harness maker. Philip Weeks, farmer. Andrew Vogle, hatter. Phineas Waller, farmer, distiller. Moses Wood, farmer. Asa C. Whitney, doctor. Thomas Wright, farmer. Joseph Wright, physician. Eosewell Wells, lawyer. Winthrop Wells, merchant. Peter and Luther Yarrington, black- smiths. Henry Young, gunsmith. Abram Thomas, merchant. Barnet Ulp, hatter. Mr. Van Zeek, physician. Sath Wilson, tailor. Lewis Worrell, potter. Isaac Williams, basket maker. Josiah Wright, printer and editor. William Wright, teacher. Daniel White, wagon maker. Ranselear Wells, blacksmith. Conrad Wickizer, farmer. As an appendix to this list, a correspondent, " W. J.," sent to the Record in 1887 the following items, of great interest concerning some of the parties named above : Philip Abbott's son Philip went to St. Paul, Minn. H. C. Anhiser, father of Joseph Anhiser and Mrs. F. Keorner. Ziba Bennett, his son George S. and daughter, Mrs. J. C. Phelps. John L. Butler, father of Prank Butler and Mrs. Judge Woodward Steuben Butler's children, 0. E. Butler, Mrs. Alexander Shiras, .... and the late William H. Butler. Pierce Butler, his son Pierce, .... daughter Mrs. Mary Reynolds, of Kingston. Zebulon Butler, of these there are no sons or daughters now living Jonathan Bulkley, his son C. L. Bulkley, daughter Mrs. A. E. Brundage Anthony Brower, daughter Mrs. W. S. Par- sons Isaac Bowman, son Col. Sam ; daughter Mary Bowman Andrew Beau- mont, his son Col. E. B. Beaumont, now retired officer of the United States army, and daughter Mrs. Julia Gloninger Job Barton, sons C. P. Barton and Lehman Barton Oristus Collins, son Eev. Charles Jewett Collins. George Chahoon, daughters Mrs. Josiah Lewis and Miss Anna Chahoon. Anning O. Chahoon, son Joseph Slocumb Chahoon Daniel Collings, daughter Mrs. Julia Dougherty, Mrs. J. N. Davidson and Eliza Henry Colt, son Henry Colt, of Allentown Isaac Chapman, his son C. I. A. Chapman of Pittston Jacob Cist, daughters Mrs. H. Wright and Mrs. C. T. McClintock. Frances Dana, daughters Mrs.' J. R. Coolbaugh and Mrs. William T. Rhoads Bateman Downing, son Reuben J. J. Dennis, son Capt. J. P. Dennis John Davis, his son John, and daughter Mary Ann, deceased. James Ely, son Thomas Ely of Kingston George Haines, daughter Mrs. V. L. Maxwell James Hancock, son Maj. E. A. of Philadelphia, and D. P. of Peoria, 111 George Hotchkiss, daughter Mrs. T. W. Robinson Dr. L. W. Jones, daughter Mrs. Thomas Wilson J. P. Johnson, son William P. of Dallas, and Wesley Johnson, J. P John Jameson, daughter Mrs. E. B. Collings, and Mrs. John Chahoon. Amasa Jones, sons Joel and Joseph of Philadelphia Lewis Ketcham, son W. W. Ketcham Gilbert Laird, sons J. D. and Grover, and Mrs. Joseph Easterline. Josiah Lewis, his son Josiah H. P. Lamb, daughter Mary Peter P. Loop, sons Edward Sterling and John Millard Loop. Charles Miner, son William Penn, and daughter Mrs. Jesse Thomas. Samuel MafEet, son W. R. Maffet Simon Monega, son C. B. , daughter Mrs. P. R. Johnson Benjamin Perry, daughters reside on North- ampton street. Archippus Parrish, sons Charles and George H., daughter Mrs. F. W. Hunt Joseph Slocum, daughter Mrs. Abi Butler, deceased. . . . George Sively, daughter Mrs. Judge Pfouts Abram Thomas, daughter Mrs. Washing- ton Lee E. Taylor, sons John, Thomas and Edmund; daughter Mrs. E. H. 504 HISTOHY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. Chase Phineas Waller, son Eev. David J. Waller of Bloomsburg Luther Yarington son Thomas 0. of Beading Peter Yarington, son Dilton Yaring- ton of Carbondale John P. Arndt and family removed to Green Bay, Wis., one son was drowned in the Susquehanna, another was shot by a fellow member, and died on the floor of the Wisconsin territorial legislature Amasa Jones, sons Joel and Joseph. Amasa had lost a leg, and as corks were not then known he was called " Peg Leg." He was a broom-maker. His son Joel became a distinguished judge of Philadelphia, and Joseph a distinguished preacher Jesse Fell (history given elsewhere.) .... Moses Wood, an Englishman, brought considerable money to this country, and a large family of sons. John G. and George B Wood are grandsons. David Scott, surviving descendants E. Green- ough Scott and Eev. Charles H. Skidder, grandsons George Dennison had two sons, Henry M. and George; one married a daughter of Pres. John Tyler Francis Du Puy of Pittston, is grandson of Ealph D. Lacoe. Anderson Dana, his grandson, Gen. E. L. Dana Joseph Davis, never married, became crazy, and shot and killed a man on Hazel street; spent the remainder of his days in an asylum. Barnet Ulp, grandfather of the Misses Alexander Gilbert Barnes, grandsons Stewart L. and Albert Barnes Abraham Pike, daughter Mrs. Hannah Porter Joshua Miner, grandson Dr. J. L. Miner Dr. G. W. Trott, grand- father of Judge Stanley Woodward. This correspondent says that in thefirstlist of the men of 1818 that in the upper part of Wilkes-Barre township there are many prominent names not mentioned. To the list he adds Benjamin Cortright, father of John M. and James Cortright; "Uncle Fritz" Wagner; near him James Stark, farmer and merchant; his sons, Henry and John M. Stark, of West Pittston; John Stark, of Mill Creek, father of John Stark, Mrs. G. M. Miller and Mrs. O. A. Parsons; Cornelius Stark, father of Col. B. P. Stark; Crandall Wilcox owned the place afterward the property of John Searl, and his son, Samuel Wilcox, worked in the mines. Then Thomas Williams owned the John Mitchell farm; his sons, Thomas, Ezra and George W. Williams. Then the next was Thomas Osborne, laborer, of ' ' Punkin Hollow. " He was great- grandfather of the Misses Wildoners, of Wilkes-Barre; Stephen Abbott, farmer, and his son, John Abbott, father of Cassie and Lucy Abbott; Benjamin Bailey, tan- ner and currier at the corners; Cornelius, or " Case," Courtright, shoemaker; Hiram Post, laborer; Thomas Joslyn, laborer. His son, Thomas, was the first man who lost his life in the mines in this region ; Thonias Wooley, farmer, and his large family of sons and daughters; Mathias HoUenback, miller, called " Crazy Matt," who was insane for years; George Dickover. mason and plasterer; his son, William Dick- over; Hezekiah Parsons, of Laurel Eun, farmer and manufacturer; his son, Calvin Parsons; Stephen Gould, on the Lehigh on the road above Mr. Parsons' place. C. E. Wright pleasantly tells of the great old-time dancing masters in Wilkes- Barre, as follows: " I doubt if anything makes a deeper impression on the young than the glory of the first dancing school. If any exception be taken to this asser- tion, all I can say in return is, I am speaking for myself. " The first teacher I had the honor of performing under was a sedate gentleman by the name of Tobias, from Lancaster. That city had produced some distinguished men, but in my view none were equal to Mr. Tobias. He was a man of good pres- ence, good manner, had the use of his heels and was a medium violinist. " I think it was in 1839 he opened his school at Morgan's, on the present site of Mr. Darling's dwelling in Wilkes-Barre, and another at Atherton's hotel in Plym- outh. To get all out of the thing that was in it, I attended both. It was an easy matter, on a good horse, to ford the river at Plymouth, pass up through the Inman and Lazarus flats, and thence on to Morgan' s. Dark nights or stormy ones, or even a slight freshet, was no hindrance to an ambitious youth of nineteen, in search of knowledge. All the young damsels of the county seat attended the school. This probably had some weight, for that class of young ladies has never been excelled. HISTORY OP LUZERNE COUNTY. 507 "After this, probably the outcrop of Mr. Tobias' labors amongst us, there was the anaual ball on February 22, at the Phoenix. To this came the notables of Ber- wick, Danville, Bloqm, Tunkhannock and other outlying cities. "Porter, the memorable landlord of the Phcenix, had what was called a spring floor. It was over the long dining-room and supported only at the sides of the apartment. The combined tramp of many feet, in time with the band, produced a vibratory motion, something like the teeter of a buckboard. It always seemed a wonder to me the whole affair didn't crash down with its live freight. "This short history, pertaining to the subject of the dance, would be deficient without mention of Messrs. Morton and Jones. They were the successors of Mr. Tobias. Their school, very large and successful, was at the Dennis hotel, where is now the National bank. "Mr. Morton, from Philadelphia, was a very polite gentleman, short of build, yellow-haired, florid complexion and frolicsome on his legs as a young colt. I never look at the picture of Pickwick, in his oratorical attitude, but it reminds me of Mor- ton. Mr. Jones, per contra, was a very slim young gentleman. Nature must have had a fiddler in view, when drafting the plans and specifications of his makeup. He had the most delicate of hands, with fingers like straws. How could he be else than a prime manipulator of the strings? " I suppose it would be proper to seek pardon for making reference to matters of su(3h minor importance, knowing that the cotillion has gone down with many other barbaric usages of our ancestors. Our more favored lasses of the present day will scarce thank me for calling off their attention from the german, the polka, the waltz and other matters coming in on the tide of reform." Mrs. Jesse Thomas, on the occasion of dismantling the old house at the corner of Franklin and Union streets, in 1887, gave her recollections of the building and times of nearly seventy-five years ago that are very interesting. The house was built by her father, Hon. Charles Miner, about 1811, and under its roof she and her brother, William Penn Miner, were born. Mr. Miner sold the house in 1817 to the distin- guished jurist. Judge Burnside, on the occasion of his removing to West Chester, to establish there the Village Record. The other corners of the streets, except the one afterward built on by Hon. Andrew Beaumont, were built upon prior to Mr. Miner's. The one on the southwest corner is the only one of the four left. This was the Evans house, its owner being quite a prominent citizen. On the northeast comer, where is now the Stickney block, was the old Palmer house, known latter as the "old Ked house." The Palmers were a large family, afterward removed to Mount Holly. The Beaumont b-^use was built in 'the approaching canal days and originally intented for a warehouse. She says when she can first remember, Frank- lin street ended at Union street and above Union it was called " Green lane " and was the favorite playground in the first and second decade of the century. The only house above Union was Capt. Bowman's, latterly the residence of Mrs. Col. A. H. Bowman. Mrs. Thomas' description of her father's printing ofB.ce, as well as her account of how in this old office her father had used wooden type to teach his blind daughter the alphabet and finally how to read, and when the child was sent to a blind school she was the first ever admitted who could read, how this blind daughter in time became her father's amanuensis and his great aid in writing his History of Wyoming. She had a remarkable memory and would accompany her father and listen to the old pioneers tell over their stories of the past and then so readily and accurately recall them when wanted by the writer as he progressed with his history. This valuable history is now out of print and in the interests, if nothing else of the libraries and schools of the world, a new edition should be printed, and the invaluable work pla6ed within the reach of all students of history. It will remain the history of Wyoming valley par excellence. Its correctness as history, its brilliance in every line, weaves the facts into a story of transcendent interest. If it has ever been 508 HISTORY OP LUZEENB COUNTY. criticised adversely, that criticism has never gone farther than the alleged fault that a careful reading would disclose the fact that the author was a federalist. Charles Miner was a native of Connecticut, born in 1780, and came to Wyoming in 1799, and located in Wilkes-Barre, where his brother, Asher (great-grandfather of the present Asher Miner), had established the iMzerne County Federalist in 1801, Vfhich time the Wilkes-Barre Gazette, by Thomas Wright, ceased publication. Asher Miner married the only daughter of Thomas Wright, and Charles Miner married Wright's grand-daughter, Letitia, daughter of Joseph Wright. In 1807 Charles Miner was elected to the legislature, re-elected the following year. In 1810 he sold the Federalist to his two apprentices, Steuben Butler and Sidney Tracy. He resumed the office in 1811, sold in 1816 to Isaac A. Chapman, then located in West Chester. In 1824 he was elected to congress, re-elected two years later. In 1825 he was joined by his brother, Asher, and they published the Village Record until its sale by them in 1834. Charles returned to the valley in 1832 and Asher in 1834, and they ended their days on adjoining farms at Miner's Mills. From old newspapers the following: " This line has commenced running regu- larly between Wilkes-Barre, Northumberland, Williamsport, Harrisburg and Phila- delphia and intermediate places. The boat leaves Wilkes-Barre daily at 2 o'clock p. M. , and arrives at Northumberland every morning at 7:30 o'clock and at Harris- burg the following evening at 9 o'clock, where passengers will remain over night and take the railroad oars next morning for Philadelphia, etc., through in 48 hours from Wilkes-Barre. Fare to Northumberland, $2; fare to Harrisburg, $4; fare to Philadelphia, $8. For freight or passage apply to P. McC. Gilchrist, Phoenix hotel, Wilkes-Barre, May 7, 1839." (In our days of "apprenticeship," cheap fuel and rapid transit such things seem very antiquated. Will the next half century bring the consummation, a new caloric and aerial yachts?) Runaway Apprentice. — In the Wilkes-Barre papers of that day such advertise- ments as the following appear, accompanied by a picture of a little fellow galloping off with a bundle tied to a stick and thrown over his shoulder: " Six Cents Reward. — Ran away from the subscriber on the 12th inst. , James Pringle, an indented apprentice to the farming business; he was about fourteen years of age, of light complexion ; he had on when he went away butternut colored pantaloons and frock coat. All persons are forbid harboring or trusting him on my account as no charges will be paid. Isaac Smith, Exeter township, April 9, 1836." Coal Fifty Years Ago. — (A card.) I am now ready to deliver coal to the citi- zens of Wilkes-Barre at the following prices, viz.: At the shute, lump coal per ton of 2,240 pounds, 11.25; broken coal and raked, $1.12; fine coal without screening, 75 cents; lime burner's coal, per bushel, IJ cents, and 25 cents per ton additional for hauling. The Wilkes-Barre and Wyoming Valley Traction Company. — President, B. F. Meyers ; secretary and treasurer, John Graham. With the beginning of the year 1891 there were in Wilkes-Barre horse-car street railways to Kingston and Luzerne, to Ashley and the suburban road, when some enterprising gentlemen came here, and, in connection with some of the citizens, formed a stock company and purchased the franchises of these lines, and consolidated them under the name given at the head of this paragraph. The company commenced the work of converting the new line into electric roads in October, 1891, and have built and completed the road to Pittston, pass- ing through Kingston, Dorranoeton, Forty Fort, Wyoming and on to West Pittston; also have extended their electric line to Plymouth, Nanticoke, Ashley and Sugar Notch. This is one of the most extensive street railway lines by electric power in this country and the system, when complete will have from forty-five to fifty miles of trackage, operating within the immediate suburbs of Wilkes-Barre, making the valley practically a part and parcel of this city of 120,000 people. The immense patronage of all these lines well demonstrate the long-felt want of this the most im- HISTOEY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. 509 portant improvement that has been added to the city in this generation, and the com- pany find that it is nearly impossible to build and stock the road to keep pace with the public demand. There is but little doubt that next season the line will be extended on the east side of the river to PittstoQ. The incorporators of the com- pany: John J. Patterson, John Graham, W. F. Sadler. G. Mortimore Lewis, Eobert Mcl^jteen, J. Howard Neeley. As an evidence of the capacity of these lines it is esti- mated that at the recent Columbus celebration in Wilkes-Barre their trains handled 45,000 people, and the entire system is not yet completed. Upper Wagon Bridge was built in 1877-8 and opened to the public, September 1, 1888. The company built in fact three bridges — two of them over culverts con- nected with the main iron bridge by a heavy grade macadam road. The entire improvement cost $141,000. John B. Reynolds, president; Pierce Butler, secretary; directors: Stephen B. Vaughan, C. E. Stegmaier, T. F. Rvman, Dr. Ed Gumpert, E. R. Troxell, P. M. Gilligan, Liddon Flick, John P. Warwick. Banks.— A branch of the Philadelphia bank was established in Wilkes-Barre in 1810. It was on River street in a building of late owned by Mrs. Ulp. It was run until 1820 and closed. Stewart Pearce said that the effect of this bank here was to drain the county of specie. At one time Steuben Butler and Col. Bowman, directors of the bank, took 140,000 in silver in wagons to Philadelphia. 'Philip Reed was the wagoner. After this bank closed the Wilkes-Barre and Easton turnpike issued "shin- plaster " notes, as much as $10,000 at one time being out. All received it, as this practically was the only money in the country. These convenient notes were signed by Lord Butler and Stephen Tuttle. This was an important recruiting station in 1812, and it is said that army officers issued their individual notes in $1 and $2 and these passed as money. In 1816 the Susquehanna Bank oiWilkes-Baire was incorporated; Joseph Sinton, president of the board. A wave of hard times, however, prevented the institution from ever opening its doors to the public. Wyoming National Bank was organized November 1 6, 1829, under its present name, except " National." Its charter is dated November 4, 1829. William Ross, Henderson Gaylord, John N. Conyngham, William Swetland, Isaac Bowman were commissioners to receive subscriptions. The directors were Benjamin Dorrance, William Ross, John N. Conyngham, George N. Hollenback, O. Collins, Ziba Bennett, William Swetland, H. Gaylord, James Nesbitt, Jr., Steuben Butler, Abraham Thomas and Miller Horton; officers: Col. Benjamin Dorrance, president; Ziba Bennett, secre- tary of the board until a cashier should be chosen ; Edward Lynch, cashier. Benjamin Dorrance resigned the presidency May 18, 1831, but was re-elected and served until May 30, 1832; again resigned and George M. Hollenback was elected and served until his death, November 1, 1866. Gen. William S. Ross elected president and served until he died, June 11, 1868; succeeded by Hon. Ziba Bennett; resigned May 9, 1878; succeeded by Col. Charles Dorrance, who continued in the office until his death, January, 1892, when the present incumbent was elected to the vacancy. March 17, 1861, the bank moved into its present home, corner of Franklin and Market streets, which, with the adjoining building on Market street, is owned by the bank. It became a national bank January 19, 1865. Capital, $150,000; surplus, $210,000. Officers: Sheldon Reynolds, president; Charles A. Miner, vice-president; George H. Flanagan, cashier; directors: Sheldon Reynolds, Charles A. Miner, Henry M. Hoyt, George S. Bennett, Charles D. Foster, B. M. Espy, F. A. Phelps, Andrew H. McClintock and Irving A. Stearns. First National Bank, organized April 14, 1863; chartered July 21, following, and opened its doors to the public August 8, with a capital of $51,500. The first pres- ident and cashier were James McLean and Thomas Wilson, respectively. The cap- ital has been increased and is now $375,000; surplus $130,000. Officers and directors: William S. McLean, president; H. H. Ashley, vice-president; P. M. Carhart, cashier; Samuel H. Lynch, M. W. Wadhams, C. Stegmaier, Jesse Beadle, Charles P. Hunt, George Loveland. 510 HISTORY OF LUZEKNE COUNTY. The Second National Bank, organized September 23, 1863, with a capital of 1250,000, which has been increased to $450,000, and having a surplus of 1145,000. First officers were Thomas T. Atherton, president; M. L. Everett, cashier; Present officers and board of directors: Abram Nesbitt, president; R. P. Walsh, vice- president; Isaac Everett, T. H. Atherton, E. T. Black, L. D. Shoemaker, E. H. Jones, George F. Nesbitt, John M. Ward; cashier, E. W. Mulligan. Anthracite Savings Bank. — Capital $100,000; surplus $19,000; deposits spe*cial and general, 1621,632.87. Officers and directors: Benjamin Reynolds, president; Andrew F. Derr, vice-president; C. W. Laycook, cashier; A. N. Eippard, assistant cash- ier; Benjamin Reynolds, H. A. Fuller, A. H. Dickson, George N. Reich ard, Andrew P. Derr, H. W. Palmer, Bernhard Long, William Stoddart, T. F. Ryman. Bankers. — F. V. Rockafellow & Co. , one of the oldest and most reliable banking institutions of Wilkes-Barre. The Miners' Savings Bank was incorporated by an act of February 13, 1868, and was the first savings bank in the city, the purpose being to establish a savings bank and loan company with powers to transact any other business done by banks in Pennsylvania, and to act as executor or administrator of any deceased testator or intestate. The capital stock is $150,000; the surplus over $50,000. The first officers chosen were: A. C. Laning, president; Ziba Bennett, Walter G. Sterling and A. T. McClintock, vice-presidents; J. A. . Rippard, cashier. Present capital, $150,000; surplus, $220,000; deposits, $1,560,465.99. Officers and directors: N. Rutter, president; David P. Ayars, cashier; N. Rutter, T. S. Hillard, A. H. Mc- Clintock, H. W. Palmer, Andrew F. Derr, W. L. Conyngham, William J. Harvey, Allan H. Dickson, John Laning. The Wilkes-Barre Deposit and Savings Bank was organized May 20, 1871, with an authorized capital of $300,000, $150,000 of which was paid in by the stockholders, and began business July 1, 1871. The first directors were Joseph Lippincott, C. L. Lamberton, Stanley Woodward, C. Brahl, J. McNeish, Jr. , W. W. Ketcham, J. P. Williamson, A. J. Pringle and F. J. Helfrich; president, Joseph Lippincott; cashier, J. P. Williamson. Present capital stock, $150,000; surplus, $115,000; deposits special and general, $1,098,538.52. Officers and directors: President, A. H. Van Horn; vice-president. Christian Brahl; cashier, J. C. Bell; A. H. Van Horn, Christian Brahl, Joseph Birkbeck, Morgan B. Williams, Fred . Ahlborn, W. W. Amsbry, Woodward Leavenworth, J. J. Roberts, Jr. The People's Bank was organized and commenced business July 1, 1872, with a capital of $250,000, with authority to increase the same to $1,000,000, $125,000 was called in immediately, and in 1874 the balance of the $250,000 was called in and paid up, since which time (with two exceptions), a regular semi-annual dividend has been declared and paid free of all taxes. This institution moved into its new quarters in the summer of 1892. Capital, $250,000; surplus, $160,134.46; deposits, $718,525.73. Directors: J. W. HoUenback, A. J. Davis, H. B. Hillman, Isaac H. Thomas, Edward Welles. O. B. Macknight, Calvin Parsons, F. J. Leavenworth, Isaac P. Hand, Thomas H. Atherton, A. A. Sterling; J. W. HoUenback, president; F. J. Leavenworth, vice-president; A. A. Sterling, cashier. The Wilkes-Barre Water Company was incorporated by act of the legislature February 12, 1850. The corporators were: George M. HoUenback, Samuel P. Collings, Henry M. Fuller, W. J. Woodward. Lord Butler, Thomas W. Miner, Peter C. McGilchrist, Harrison Wright. Calvin Parsons, Ziba Bennett, George P. Steel, Samuel Puterbaugh, Oliver B. Hillard, Edward M. Covell, Sharp D. Lewis, Francis L. Bowman and Joseph LeClerc; president, HendrickB. Wright; secretary and treasurer, Isaac S. Osterhout; managers, Alexander Gray, John Orquhart, William Wood, Charles Parrish, John Reichard and Samuel R. Marshall. The origmal capital stock was $40,000, with the privilege of increasing it to $80,000. By subsequent amendments it has been increased from time to time, and in 1879 amounted to $220,000. The company has about thirty-five miles of cement and HISTOBY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 511 wrought- iron pipe laid, the source of water supply being Laurel run and Mill creek. The Crystal Spring Water Company was chartered April 11, 1861. Its source of supply is a large pond of the same name in the northeast part of Wright town- ship, south of Wilkes-Barre, one of the sources of Big Wapwallopen creek. The company has $80,000 in capital stock, and bonds to the same amount. Officers: J. K. Maxwell, president; Walter Gaston, secretary and treasurer; Elmer Lawall, manager; leorworeh Jones, superintendent and engineer. Laflin Water Company. — Charles Parrish, president; W. 0. Allen, secretary; Walter Gaston, treasurer. Honey Brook Water Company. — J. R. Maxwell, president; E. W. Marple, sec- retary and treasurer; Elmer H. Lawall, manager. The Wilkes-Barre Gas Company was charted in 1854, and the works were con- structed in 1856. The present capital stock of the company is 1130,000. It has eighteen miles of main laid, and makes 20,000,000 cubic feet of gas per annum, furnishing gas for city lamps and lighting most of the leading business places and private residences. Officers: William S. Cunningham, president; A. A. Sterling, vice-president and treasurer; Marcus Smith, secretary and superintendent. Wilkes-Barre Electric Light Company. — The plant was built and started oper- ations in 1884, and the first arc light ever lit in the city blazed out on the night of April 1, 1884. Officers: Sheldon Reynolds, president; Isaac Long, vice-president; H. A. Fuller, secretary and treasurer; T. W. O'Brien, superintendent. The Wilkes-Barre City Hospital was opened for the reception of patients Octo- ber 10, 1872. There is also a board of visiting lady managers. Prior to the winter of 1874 the support of the hospital was derived entirely from voluntary contribu- tions made by the people of the city. Since that time appropriations have been made by the State as follows: In 1885 a lot containing about four acres, on River street, near Mill creek, affording an elegant site for a hospital building, was pre- sented by John Welles Hollenback. During the winter of 1875-6 the new hos- pital building was erected on this lot, and was occupied April 1, 1876, capable of accommodating from seventy-five to 100 beds. Officers: president, Hon. C. A. Miner; vice-president, J. W. Hollenback; treasurer, G. . Murray Reynolds; secre- tary, E. H. Chase; directors: J. Welles Hollenback, S. J. Strauss, Irving A. Stearns, George S. Bennett, G. M. Reynolds, Charles A. Miner, Richard Sharpe, Jr., C. M. Conyngham, E. H. Chase, A. T. McClintock, Liddon Flick; execu- tive committee: Messrs. Miner, Chase, Phillips, Reynolds and Sharpe; board of lady managers: Mrs, C. M. Conyngham, president; Mrs. J. V. Darling, vice- president; Miss E. W. Mayer, secretary; Mrs. S. L. Brown, Mrs. A. A. Sterling, Mrs. M. L. Driesbach, Mrs. A. J. Davis, Mrs. A. Farnham, Mrs. R. J. Flick, Miss Laura G. Brower; resident physician, Dr. H. C. Masland; attending physicians: Drs. Murphy, Fell, Shoemaker, Guthrie, Davis and Harvey; consulting physicians: Drs. Ross and Crawford; registrar. Dr. W. S. Stewart; ophthalmologist. Dr. L. H. Taylor. Cost of maintenance per year (approximately), 115,000. • Nearly 400 patients were treated during 1891; deaths, 20; 259 cured and 76 benefited. Of the whole number 245 were surgical cases. Less than one-fifth were pay patients. Home for Friendless Children is one of the noble charities of Wilkes-Barre. George B. Kulp, in his Families of the Wyoming Valley, expresses the fact that Mrs. Ziba Bennett (nee Priscilla E. Lee) was chiefly the originator and founder. She had given very largely to her church and in many ways shown a most liberal Christian spirit of charity. March 22, 1862, a number of ladies interested in benevo- lent works met at the house of Mrs. Bennett. This meeting had a purpose, and resulted in the first steps toward building the present "Home" on South Franklin street, between Ross and Academy streets. This elegant and spacious edifice is one of the interesting objects of the city, and has indeed been a "Home" to many a 5]^2 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. BOor orphan that otherwise would have been a waif upon the uncertain charity of the world At this meeting a board of lady managers was chosen and Mrs. Bennett was chosen treasurer, and the society was soon after incorporated. The manage- ment of this noble institution is in the hands of twenty-four women, who regularly meet once a month. For many years Mrs. Bennett has been the efficient president of the " Home," and to her guidance, council and aid much of its success is due. Officers- President, L. D. Shoemaker; vice-presidents, Richard Sharpe and J W Hoilenback; secretary, John C. Phelps; treasurer, Francis A. Phelps; trustees J W. Hoilenback, Richard Sharpe, Hon. L. D. Shoemaker, F. J. Leaven- worth John 0. Phelps, Edwin Shortz, Andrew T. McClintock, Francis A. Phelps, Marx 'Long, Hon. Stanley Woodward, 0. M. Conyngham, Charles Morgan, M. B. Houpt, A. H. Dickson, Isaac M. Thomas. . , , ,^ ^ „ Lady managers: President, Mrs. Ziba Bennett; vice-president, Mrs. E. G. Scott; secretary, Mrs. G. M. Reynolds; treasurer, Mrs. J. 0. Phelps; Mrs. A. R. Brunda^re, Mrs. R. J. Flick, Mrs. T. S. Hillard, Mrs. F. W. Hunt, Miss Mary Ingham" Mrs. George B. Kulp, Mrs. F. J. Leavenworth, Mrs. M. B. Houpt, Mrs. Fred Mercur, Mrs. T. C. North, Mrs. Thomas W. Brown, Mrs. Susan Beach, Mrs. F V. Rockafellow, Mrs. William H. Sturdevant, Mrs. Isaac M. Thomas, Mrs. Mathew Wood, Mrs. Stanley Woodward, Miss Hetty Wright, Mrs. Garrett Smith, Mrs. E. C. Wadhams, Mrs. J. C. Phelps. Average number of children, forty-five; a small annuity from an invested fund, about 1800 per annum from paid boarders, and the balance from private donations, make up the |4,000 annually necessary to maintain the home. Telephone. — This important addition to modern civilization first received the attentioQ of the people of Wilkes-Barre in the summer of 1877. Some of the good people had heard of the curious invention by which people could talk and distinctly hear each other, though a mile or more apart. A few had seen it in the city, but they were like the man's sign about touching it: "Don't monkey with the buzz-saw." But the movement was seriously set on foot by several of the enterprising men of the city, and it was resolved to establish the Wilkes-Barre Telephone exchange. William L. Raeder, aided by L. 0. Kinsly, proceeded to get subscribers to the new enterprise, and their efforts were soon crowned with success, and the exchange office opened February 1, 1880. After it was well established, in 1882, the company was consolidated with the Seranton company and formed the North Pennsylvania Telephone & Supply company. The long-distance telephone is now reaching out from Wilkes-Barre to all portions of the county, recently making con- nections to reach all the principal cities of the East and Chicago by the line just completed from New York to the latter place. Board of Trade. — The Wilkes-Barre board of trade, after the usual abortive attempts to establi&h such an institution, was permanently organized in 1884, when a charter was granted and the following officers elected: president, C. M. Con- yngham; first vice-president, S. L. Brown; second vice-president, Isaac Long; tr^surer, P. V. Rockafellow; secretary, George A. Wells. The only change in the officers were the late J. K. Bogert became president; he was succeeded by Col. G. Murray Reynolds. Mr. Wells was succeeded as secretary by Leo W. Long. A committee consisting of Hon. C. Ben Johnson, G. Mortimer Lewis and Maj. C. N. Conyngham was appointed when the interest in the institution began to lag, and they gave it a fresh impetus, and since then it has been quite successful. Hon. 0. Ben Johnson was made secretary, rooms fitted up, and the membership soon swelled to 300. Industries. — In 1810 there were in the township thirty-three hand looms, and during a year which included a portion of the one mentioned, 129 yards of cotton, 1,717 yards of woolen and 6,531 yards of linen cloth were manufactured. Francis McShane established a small cut-nail factory at Wilkes-Barre, using anthracite coal for smelting iron, and for several years conducted a successful wholesale and retail HISTOKY OP LUZEENE COUNTY. 513 business. There was in the early days of the borough the usual diversity of mechanics' shops, and the proprietors changed from time to time, rendering the tracing of the history of these common industries more than difficult. A large rolling-mill and nail factory was erected at South Wilkes-Barre by Thomas Chambers, E. K. Biddle and others in 1840, at a cost of $300,000. The firm became involved and the establishment was sold to satisfy a debt due the Wyoming bank; and, passing into the hands of the Montour Iron company, was removed to Danville, Montour county. In 1840 Lewis Le Grand opened a blacksmith and general jobbing, ironing and repair shop on South Main street. In 1859 he began the manufacture of wagons — his main shop having been erected in 1857. In 1871-3 D. B. Malvin was a partner in the concern. December 4, 1872, C. D. Le Grand, son of Lewis Le Grand, pat- ented the well-known buckboard wagon, since so extensively manufactured at this establishment. November 11, 1878, the patent was renewed to cover recently per- fected improvements. In 1842 H. S. & E. Eenwick, of New York, erected an anthracite furnace, operated by steam power, and carried on the manufacture of pig- iron for about a year; but the furnace was subsequently permitted to lie idle until 1854, when it was purchased by John McCanley and the Messrs. Carter of Tamaqua, who enlarged it and began business on quite an extensive scale. The iron ore and limestone were brought from Columbia county by canal, and the works, under the supervision of Mr. McCanley, yielded six tons of iron per day. In 1856 the estab- lishment was burned. Planing Mills. — In 1844 S. Y. Kittle established himself as a manufacturer of furniture on South Main street, below Ross. He introduced improved machinery from time to time, and putting in power planers about twenty years later, engaged quite extensively in the manufacture of planed lumber and moldings. He was the inventor of Kittle's patent carving machine. In January, 1854, Price & Wetzel established a planing mill at the corner of Canal and Union streets, where buildings were erected for that purpose. A year later the firm became Price & Haas. Ten years afterward C. B. Price became sole proprietor, and remained so until 1876, when the firm ■became C. B. Price & Son. About 1864 the original buildings were burnt and replaced by others, which were torn down in a dozen years, after the erection of the present commodious accomodations on Canal street, near Market. Operations at the planing mill on Canal street now the property of the estate of Stephen Lee, deceased, were begun about 1855. The establishment, after passing through the hands of several proprietors, became the property of Hamilton & Brew, of wUom the late Stephen Lee purchased it in 1867. Since his death, in 1874, the business has been conducted by his sons, Conrad and Samuel N. Lee, executors of his will, and builders, furnishers and dealers in aU kinds of lumber. Another leading establishment in this line of manufacture and trade, is that of J. E. Patterson & Co. , on Canal street at the corner of Jackson, which has an extended trade and reputation, having received the Centennial medal for its doors, etc. The Vulcan Iron Works. — The Vulcan Iron works, one of the most important manufacturing interests in the city, were founded by Richard Jones in 1849, and successfully conducted by him until 1866, when a stock company was formed and incorporated with a capital stock of $100,000, of which Richard Jones was president and superintendent, and Robert T. Block secretary and treasurer. The company began at once to increase the capacity of the works by building a substantial brick machine shop 75x100 feet, and equipped with the most modern tools, and a three- story brick pattern house. The constant demand for heavy machinery manufactured at these works compelled the company to further enlarge their manufacturing capacity by the erection of a new foundry and pattern shop, 80x165 feet, and a smith and boiler shop 66x130 feet, in 1873, when the capital stock had increased to 1200,000. During the progress of these improvements Mr. Richard Jones died. He was 514 HISTOBY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. succeeded by L. C. Paine as president, and E. H. Jones, son of the former president, became superintendent. The works cover an area of about eight acres, fronting 400 feet on Main street and extending 634 feet back. Tracts and sidings run into the shops from the Lehigh Valley railroad, with a turntable by which cars can be directed into any department of the establishment. The company have four large buildings and two more being erected, a boiler shop and a new smith shop. Their product is all kinds of machinery and boilers; number of employes 250; output $500,000. The Wyoming shops on Hazle street are a branch and belong to the same com- pany. They were built in 1872 ; employes 100, and the product is machinery and locomotives. Officers: E. H. Jones, general manager; Fred G. Smith, treasurer; H. B. Hillman, secretary. The charter members of this concern and directors were Bichard Jones, Henry B. Wright, Thomas P. Atherton, Lewis C. Paine, George W. Woodward, Stewart Pearce, Nathanial Butter, Stephen Bowles, Bobert T. Black, Joseph Stickney, Lewis Landmesser. The company also have extensive shops in West Pittston. Thus from the very humblest beginning this has grown to be one of the largest and most important industries in the city. • The Wyoming Valley Manufacturing Company. — In 1866 Jonathan Mooers & Son had a small foundry at the corner of Main and Dana streets. Mr. Milton Dana and others afterward becoming interested, the firm name was changed to Dana & Co. April 5, 1867, a charter was granted to William L. Stewart and others under the name of the Wyoming Valley Manufacturing company, and the following o£&cers were elected: E. W. Sturdevant, president; E. Bobinson, vice-presi- dent; F. Koerner, secretary and treasurer; Milton Dana, assistant secretary; William L. Stewart, superintendent. The company enlarged the capacity of the foundry and erected a frame machine shop, a car shop and other necessary buildings on the same location, but as the business increased it became necessary to secure more room. New brick buildings were erected on lands purchased of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation company, immediately adjoining the railroad and afEording increased facilities for receiving material and shipping manufactured articles. At these works are manufactured every description of light and heavy machinery, including steam engines for shafts, slopes, planes, coal breakers, blast and rolling mills; double and single acting pumps of every variety for mining and other purposes; mills for powder making, locomotives, flue, tubral and cylinder boilers, of the best Pennsylvania charcoal boiler plate; forging of all kinds, and iron and brass casting of every description. The wire rope machinery of the Hazard Manufacturing company was made at this establishment. The Hazard Manufacturing Company, manufacturers of iron and steel wire ropes, is the outgrowth of a business in the same line established by Fisher Hazard, of Mauch Chunk, at that place in 1848. The growing demand for such a manu- factory in the heart of the anthracite coal region led to its removal to Wilkes-Barre December 1, 1867. A stock company was formed, of which Fisher Hazard was elected president; E. B. Leisenring, treasurer, and T. C. North, superintendent and secretary. In 1868 the company was chartered, Charles Parrish, E. B. Leisenring and Fisher Hazard being the corporators. The ropes manufactured by this company are made of wire drawn at their own factory from the best brands of Swede and Norway iron and a superior quality of steel. All sizes of round and flat, coarse or fine, iron or steel wire rope, for the transmission of power and use on slopes, and capable of turning out 6,000 feet of three-inch wire rope in one piece. OflS.cers: Charles Parrish, president; C. M. Conyngham, vice president; Walter Gaston, secretary and treasurer; Thomas C. North, superintendent. In the spring of 1860 Fred Ahlborn began the manufacture of soap and chand- ler's ware. The present factory was erected in 1874. In 1876 the firm became Ahlborn Bros. They are extensive manufacturers of soap and -candles and dealers in tallow, sal soda and similar goods. HISTOEY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. 517 J. H. Brock began the maaufacture of wire screens on Canal street about 1874. In 1876 he sold the establishment to Mr. E. H. Hunt, who is doing an extensive • and constantly increasing business in the manufacture of woven wrought-iron screens for screening coal. C. A. Becker, manufacturer and dealer in all kinds of earthen ware, Rockingham and yellow ware, and a great variety of stove linings, terra cotta garden vases and flower pots, began business in 1874. Ladies' Underwear Factor y,\}y Galland Bros. & Co., was established in 1881. This lirm is one of the most extensive of its kind in the world. They make ladies' muslin underwear, and in addition to this plant has another in Pittston and a gen- eral office in New York. In the works here are 600 employes — using 400 sewing machines and an annual output of 90,000 dozen of their goods. Wilkes-Barre Pottery was established in 1873 by C. A. Becker, and is a strong and representative concern of the kind, having a two-story building 46x150. Terra cotta ware, stove linings and fire brick are among its specialties. Wyoming Brush Company was established in 1889. Their large two-story building is in South Wilkes-Barre and gives employment to over 100 hands. The proprietors are John Derby, Christian Walters and Grif. Lunger. Sheldon Axle Works were organized at Auburn, N. Y., 1867, by Sheldon & Co., as contractors of the Auburn prison convict labor. In 1885 the law of the State of New York prohibited the further employment of convicts. That year a company was formed in Wilkes-Barre and the business at Auburn was purchased and moved to Wilkes-Barre in 1886, the grounds purchased and the plant built that year, commencing operations in December. The company has fourteen acres of ground, about five acres of which are under roof and are supplied with 1,200- horse power steam engines and employs from 400, the minimum, to 700 workmen, being the largest concern of the kind in the world, the output being 350,000 sets per year, valued at about $1,000,000. The plant has a capacity of 1,800 sets per day, running at fall force ten hours, cutting thirty tons of steel and using fifty tons of coal per day. The chief product going mostly direct to carriage and wagon manufactories or of road vehicles. Their products consisting entirely of axles for carriages, wagons and road vehicles, making a few steel axles for mining cars. The pay-roll of the company runs from |15,000 to $30,000 per month. They recently added a forge shop 70x90 with 150-horse power Corliss engine; have their own track connecting with all railroads, giving them complete facilities for shipment. Their works are located in the north extremity of the city on Conyngham street, near the railroad. Officers — Charles L. Sheldon, president; N. P. H. Hugus, vice-president and general manager; C. H. Gillam, secretary and treasurer; directors: Charles L. Sheldon, William Brookfield, Edwin H. Jones, N. P. H. Hugus, Thomas H. Atherton, John W. Hollenbaek, George S. Bennett. Silk Factory. — By Hess, Goldsmith & Co. , silk manufacturers. Plant was built in 1885; the building being erected by the city and leased to the company at a nominal rent. The main building is 200x60, and two stories; the annex is 140x60, one-story; the engine building is 60x60, with a lOO-horse power engine. The company spin but a small portion of their thread for a special article; buying their material and weaving mostly dress goods; employ 275 persons. The members of the firm are Leon Hess, Max and Louis Goldsmith, H. J. Spillman, superintend- ent. The works are located in the extreme south end of the city. Wilkes-Barre Gun Company. — This institution was moved from Ithaca, N. Y. , to Wilkes-Barre and the works built here in 1891, and commenced operation on • January 14, 1892. In New York it was known as the " Perry Fire Arms company." The output is hammer and hammerless double-barrel-breech-loading shotguns. The building is 32x130, two-story. The engine-house, also two stories, is 15x80. Average employes, forty. It is a chartered company, and the officers and charter members are Isaac Long, president; George P. Loomis, secretary; Christ Walters, 27 518 HISTOEY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. treasurer; executive committee: Isaac Long, Jesse T. Morgan, Earnest Both, J. , W. Pattent and Moses M. Wadhams. Ttie works are situated just outside of the south line of the city. rr,, ' Keystone Roller Mill, M. W. Morris and R. F. Walsh, proprietors. This is a merchant mill, and is the largest of the kind in the city: has the roller process and all modern improvements.- The plant was built in 1854 by Horton & Richards, and came into the possession of the present owners in 1864. An addition was built in 1872 and many improvements added. Capacity, 125 barrels per day. Their engine is 125-hor8e power. Crescent File & Tool Company was built in 1889, having two buildings, each 150x25. Average employes, fifty. Makes exclusively files and rasps; has a capac- ity of 300 dozen pieces per day. The company was incorporated in 1889. P. S. Hillard, treasurer and manager; John Teasdale, president; and M. C. Andreas, secretary; Christian Henssler, superintendent; board of directors: John Teasdale, E. E. McCargo, Samuel J. Tonkin, T. S. Hillard, John A. Schmitt, C. E. Stegmaier. Wilkes-Barre Soap Company was organized and commenced operation in 1889. Employs fifteen men and two traveling salesmen. Officers: G. D. Harrington, president; S. C. Chase, secretary; E. H. Chase, treasurer; Mr. Troutman, superin- tendent. Sanson Cutlery Company (incorporated) manufacture table cutlery, knives, forks, etc. Capacity, 10,000 pieces a day. Works built 1887 and commenced busi- ness in March, 1888. Officers: Aaron I. Sanson, president; Josiah D. William, secretary; Abram Nesbitt, treasurer; Aaron I. Sanson, Jr., manager. The works are situated in the extreme south end of the city. Wyoming Boiler Company (limited). — A company formed and commenced opera- tions here in July, 1892. The building is now in course of erection, and as soon as this is completed they will increase their operations largely. The company are making a specialty on a new patent boiler, patented this year by James Pollock. The improvement being extending the heating surface of cylinder boilers. The company also build steam boilers on another patent granted to the same party in 1892. It is anticipated that from a small beginning this will soon grow to be one of our most important industries. The firm is John A. Schmitt, chairman; Woodward Leavenworth, secretary and treasurer; James Pollock, engineer and superintendent. Wilkes-Barre Lace Factory. — The first industry of the kind started in the United States — the largest and most complete of its kind in the world. It is a chartered company; work was commenced on the plant in 1885; at first but a small building — a wing with two machines operated. In 1887 a large addition was built, 60x193, four-story, for finishing work; in 1888 a dry house, 100x60, was added, and the same year another was added, also four-story, the last 130x30 feet. They com- menced with twenty-horse power, and now have 250-horse power. During the sum- mer work was commenced upon an addition, building 245x93 feet, four-story, and a new boiler-house, 93x45. This will give nearly 1,000 added horse power and require 250 more employes to their already 400 men and women. Their output estimated nearly 1,000,000 pairs (curtains) for 1892. Among other of the advantages of the new addition is that of being prepared to take the raw cotton in the bail and turn- ing out the perfect lace. Officers: President, L. D. Shoemaker; vice-president, J. W. Hollenback; treasurer, Clarence Whitman; secretary, H. A. Dunning; superin- tendent, John W. Doran. The Wilkes-Barre Paper Manufacturing Company. — This institution commenced the manufacture of superior grades of straw wrapping paper, gray wrapping paper, butcher's paper, baker' s paper, manilla paper, and all kinds of straw paper. It employs about twenty-five men, and is well equipped with first-class machinery, having two 800-pound beating engines, and one forty-eight-inch paper machine. Officers: J. R. Lines, president; J. G. Wood, treasurer, and J. Meeker, manager. Empire Brewery was started in 1885, by A. M. Bryden, on Canal street. A fine HISTOEY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. 519 four-story brick building with all modern appliances, and has already established an extensive trade, and is rapidly growing in public favor. J^immick<& Smith Manufacturing Company.— Capital, 110,000. The company occupies the old Charter house, on Hazle street. They manufacture as their spe- cialty the celebrated D. & S. Patent wrought-iron safety boiler for steam heating. Officers: A. M. Dimmick, president; George Loveland, treasurer; F. C. Sturgess, sec- retary. Robert Baur & Son. — Printers, publishers, stationers and binders. This has grown from a small country printing office in 1842 to be one of the oldest and lead- ing establishments of the kind in this section of the country. Robert Baur com- menced a small bindery here when Wilkes-Batre had less than 3,000 people, and his concern, extending itself into a printing office also; has grown with the growth of the city. Blank Book and Bindery. — By J. W. Eaeder. This is one of the largest insti- tutions of the kind, outside of Philadelphia, in the State, and has grown from the smallest beginning, in April, 1881, to its present mammoth proportion under the supervision of this gentleman, occupying an entire floor of the great Coal Exchange building. Business. — The classified business of Wilkes-Barre is indicated in the following: Amusements: Grand Opera house (completed in 1892), Music hall (theater), and Wonderland. There are in the city 18 bakeries, 5 cracker factories, 1 turkish bath, 2 basket makers, 1 bed-spring factory, 1 belting factory, 2 bird dealers, 26 black- smiths, 2 blank- book makers, 3 boiler makers, 11 stationers, 22 boot and shoe deal- ers, 2 shoe jobbers, 62 shoemakers, 3 shoe factories, 2 brass and copper foundries, 3 breweries, 2 brickyards, 1 brush factory, 2 bus lines, 12 carpet weavers, 10 wagon and carriage factories, 3 china and glassware dealers, 36 cigar factories, 3 wholesale tobacco, 17 clothiers and merchant tailors, 6 clubs, 15 coal mines and handlers, 3 coal screen manufactories, 1 coffee roaster, 6 commission merchants, 75 confection- ers, 3 wholesale confectioners, 20 dentists, 28 drug stores, 23 dry goods stores, 6 dyers, 4 dealers in electrical supplies, 3 engine and boiler factories, 2 engravers, 5 express companies, 10 fancy stores, 6 florists, 2 flour gristmills, 4 wholesale fruit dealers, 8 furniture stores, 3 galvanized cornices, 7 gents' furnishing, 37 general stores, 172 grocers, 9 wholesale grocers, 1 gun factory, 21 hardware stores, 8 har- ness and saddle shops, 5 hat and cap stores, 4 heaters and ranges, 52 hotels and res- taurants, 8 house furnishing, 2 ice companies, 6 installment stores, 1 lace factory; 1 dealer in ladies' furnishings, 11 laundries, ll9 lawyers, 2 leather and findings, 6 lime and plaster, 17 livery stables, 7 lumber yards, 3 mantels and tile, 4 marble and granite, 51 meat markets, 7 wholesale meats, 34 merchant tailors, 2 postal and messenger service, 16 milk dealers, 7 mill arid mine supplies, 8 millinery goods, 7 oil dealers, 1 overall factory, 1 paper manufactory, 116 physicians, 6 piano dealers, 4 planing mills, 13 printing offices, 10 produce dealers, 2 soap factories, 8 stone dealers, 7 tea and coffee, 12 undertakers, 2 upholsterers, 17 jewelers, 2 wire rope factories, 5 variety stores. City Government.— Oi&cers: Mayor, F. M. Nichols; president of council, W. H. McCartney; city clerk, Frank Deitrick; assistant clerk, Fred H. Gates; city treas- urer, F. V. Rockafellow; city attorney, W. S. McLean; city engineer and superin- tendent of sewers, W. V. Ingham; street commissioner, M. Crogan; sanitary officer, Evan L. Evans; engineer of sewers, J. Byron Dilley; high constable, John J. O'Donnell; meat inspector, William O'Reilly; chief of police, B. F. Myers; ser- geant of police, T. W. Farrell; house sergeant, James Hall; receiver of taxes, J. W. Gilchrist; chief engineer of fire department, T. S. Hillard; first assistant engineer and superintendent of fire alarm, E. F. Roth; second assistant engineer, A. Constiae; city auditors: Wesley Johnson, H. F. Mooney and J. F. Becker; councilmen: Timothy Theophilus, John G. Wood, J. W. Patten, Robert W. Will- iams, Edward Welles, David P. Ayars, Christopher C. Jones, James F. Marley, C. g20 HISTOKY OF liUZEENE COUNTY. E Stesmaier, I. M. Kirkendall, D. A.. Fell, Jr., John Giiinney, W. J. Harvey, Oscar Smith, Morgan B. Williams, W. H. McCartney, J. Gross Meyer, Fred Eeu- telhuber, W. W. Neuer, Luke French, W. F. GofE. Taxable property. —Total value $4, 821 ,888. The public streets and highways of the city are lighted by 82 electric lights, 205 gas lamps and 307 naphtha lamps, fur- nished respectively by the Wilkes-Barre Electric Light company, Wilkes-Barre Gas company and the Pennsylvania Globe Gas Light company. There are over twenty miles of paved streets, six miles of asphalt, two and a half miles of chestnut blocks, one-half mile cedar blocks, ten miles of cobble and one mile of red sandstone. In the year 1892 the main drainage on Market street was rebuilt and that street converted into asphalt pavement. City of Wilkes-Barre. — Incorporated as a borough, March 17, 1806; incorpo- rated as a city, May 4, 1871 ; area, 4. 14 square miles ; number of streets and avenues, 206; total length of accepted highways, 51.65; population, as per census 1890, on 71 Q ' Burgesses of the borough of Wilkes-Barre. — May, 1806-11, Jesse Fell; May, 1811-4, Lord Butler; May, 1814r-9, Jesse Fell; May, 1819-20, Matthias Hollen- back; May, 1820-3, Thomas Dyer; May, 1823-4, Ebenezer Bowman; May, 1824-7, David Scott; May, 1827-8, John N. Conyngham; May, 1828-9, Garrick Mallery; May, 1829-30, George Denison; May 1830-3, Josiah Lewis; May, 1833-4, Orlando Porter; May, 1834-8, John N. Conyngham; May, 1838-9, Hendrick B. Wright; May, 1839-41, Joseph B. LeClerc; May, 1841-3, Isaac Grey; May, 1843-4, Elea- zer Carey; *May, 1844-5, Augustus 0. Laning; May, 1846-8, Joseph B. Williams; May, 1848-9, Gilbert Burrows; May, 1849-50, Benjamin Drake; May, 1850-1, Sid- ney Tracey; May, 1851-2, Oliver Helme, Jr. ; May, 1852-3, Charles A. Lane; May, 1853-5, H. Baker Hillman; May, 1855-62, W. W. Loomis; May, 1862-5, C. Ben- nett; May, 1865-6, E. B. Harvey; May, 1866-8, J. B. Stark; May, 1868, to Sep- tember, 1870, David L. Patrick; September, 1870, to October, 1870, William S. Doran; October, 1870, to June, 1871, Ira M. Kirkendall. Mayors of City of Wilkes-Barre: June, 1871-4, Ira M. Kirkenhall; June, 1874, to February, 1877, M. A. Kerney; April, 1877-80, W. W. Loomis; April, 1880, to February, 1886, Thomas Brodrick; February, 1886, to April, 1893, C. B. Sutton; April, 1892, to , F. M. Nichols. Presidents of the Council: May, 1806-8, Lord Butler ; May, 1808-9, Ebenezer Bow- man; May 1809-10, Jesse Fell; May, 1810-11, Joseph Sinton; May, 1811-14, Jesse Fell; May, 1814-6, Col. E. Buckley ; May, 1816-8, Joseph Sinton; May 1818-9, Joseph Slocum;May, 1819-20, Ebenezer Bowman; May, 1820-3, Jesse Fell; May, 1823-4, George Dennison; May, 1824-5, Benjamin Drake; May, 1825-6, Joseph Sinton; May, 1826-7, Arnold Colt; May, 1827-8, John W. Eobinson; May, 1828-9, Arnold Colt; May, 1829-30, Joseph Slocum; May, 1830-1, William S. Ross; May, 1831-3,Thomas H. Morgan; May, 1833-4, Thomas Davidge; May, 1834-5, L. D. Shoemaker; May, 1835-9, E. W. Sturdevant; May, 1839-40, Thomas Davidge; May, 1840-1, E. W. Sturdevant; May, 1841-6, W. S. Ross; May, 1846-7, Joseph P. LeClerc; May, 1847-8, John Reichard; May, 1848-9, E. W. Reynolds; May, 1849-50, John N. Conyngham; May, 1850-1, D. John Smith; May, 1851-5, Lord Butler; May, 1855-6, John Reichard; May, 1856-7, Jacob Bertels; May, 1857-8, L. D. Shoemaker; May, 1858-9, William S. Ross; May, 1859-60, N. Rutter; May, 1860-6, William S. Ross; May, 1866-71, Charles Parrish. Presidents of the City Council: June, 1871, to April, 1874, Charles Parrish; April, 1874, to December, 1874, Charles A. Miner; December, 1874, to June, 1875, Herman C. Fry; June, 1875, to April, 1880, G. M. Reynolds; April, 1880-1, Daniel A. Frantz; April, 1881-2, E. W. Sturdevant; April, 1882-4, E. L. Dana; April, 1884, to February, 1885, H. H. Derr; February, 1885, to April, 1885, Lewis S. *In consequence of the neglect of officers whose duty it was to advertise time of holding borough election no election was held. Council of preceding year held over. HISTORY OF LUZEBNE COUNTY. 521 Jones; April, 1885-6, B. L. Dana; April, 1886-91, William J. Harvey; April, 1891 to , W. H. McCartney. _ J' f > Summarized.— Jj&st year a movement was made by the people, beaded by Con- gressman G. W. Shonk, for the building of a new postoffice and to contain all the federal offices that government may need at this place. Mr. Shonk presented the matter to congress, but in the multiplicity and confusion of lav?-making at the capital the measure failed, in the face of the overwhelming facts in the people's peti- tion, showing the urgent necessity for such improvements. The following may be said to be the substance of the grounds as made up by the people and presented to congress: The postoffice is now located in a rented building and is entirely too small for the purpose. The receipts of the office last year were over 142,000, an increase of 17,000 compared with the preceding year. The number of pieces of mail matter handled was 6,500,000, an increase of twenty per cent, over 1890. The internal revenue offices are widely separated and inconveniently located. The collections last year in Wilkes-Barre were $225,000, and in the district over $600,000. Wilkes-Barre is the center of the Wyoming coal field, the largest coal producing valley in the world, which in 1891 shipped over 23,000,000 tons of anthracite coal, or fifty-two per cent, of the total anthracite production of the world. There are over thirty -five coal companies, with a capital aggregating over 150,000,000. The production of anthracite coal in the Wyoming district has increased from 43,000 tons in 1830 to 23,000,000 tons in 1891. There was paid out as wages to employes in the mines of this valley, in 1891, over $30,000,000. The valley also now con- tains the largest tract of undeveloped anthracite coal in the country. This tract is now about to be developed, and within the next five years will be in operation, giv- ing employment to additional thousands of people. The city of Wilkes-Barre has six separate competing trunk lines of steam rail- roads, connecting with it the whole valley, and an important new one being rapidly built; six separate and competing lines of steamboats; numerous horse car and elec- tric street railroads; an electric street railroad, nearly completed, going up on one side of the Susquehanna river and down on the other, encircling the whole valley in a belt, with numerous cross connections, the capital of which road is $3,000,000. After enumerating the hotels, business houses and industrial establishments at Wilkes-Barre, it says: " By far the greater number of these industries have been commenced within the past three years, owing to the fact that the smaller sizes of anthracite coal, which have heretofore been considered worthless, have been found to be efficient and valuable steam producers, and can be obtained at the merest nominal figure, thus inducing manufacturers to locate in the Wyoming valley. As there are fully 50,000,000 tons of these small sizes of coal which were until recently worthless and now piled up in the said valley, there is enough to supply the needs of all new manufactories which may locate in the valley in coming years. " The 155 manufactories of Wilkes-Barre include the Hazard Wire Eope works, one of the largest in America; Nottingham Lace factory, the only one in the United States, and having a capital of $500,000, and the Sheldon Axle works, the largest in the United States, employing 800 hands, and the Vulcan Iron works with a capi- tal of $1,000,000." The official reports by the United States census authorities for the city of Wilkes- Barre for 1890 contains the following, giving the reports for 1880 and 1890, which show the increase of industries in the city in a decade: 1880, number of establish- ments, 89; capital, $1,146,500; hands employed, 645. 1890, number of establish- ments, 155; capital, $3,237,253; hands employed, 3,039. 522 HISTORY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. CHAPTER XX. HAZLBTON. The New City in the County — Its Founding and Growth — Its Sittjation — Oppicials— Eaely Settlers — Drtjmhellbr, Davenport, Pardee and Others — Its Industries AND Institutions. LUZEKNE, with its more than 200,000 population, has but two cities within its confines and in the order of age and size these are Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton. The latter is one of the thriving towns of the State and in her new garb of city as distinguished from a borough, is one of the youngest in the commonwealth, being only just now (April, 1892) fully equiped and organized a legal city, the burgess retired and the new mayor installed. The situation is commanding, beautiful and healthful; being about 1,700 feet above tidewater, on a plateau of Buck mountain in nearly the center of one of the finest coal deposits in the world. Under the city boundaries is an average of thirty feet of superior anthracite coal, and from the cool clear soft water mountain springs adjacent are as healthful waters as the world affords. Two different water works supply the place with the greatest abundance of the staff of life. Here are all the advantages of a health resort and cool and delightful summer residence combined with a pushing, growing and rich young city for opening nearly all varieties of manufactures. The name of the place is a natural sequence of that of the town- ship from which it was taken — Hazle, and this will readily be interpreted as a land when discovered that was noted as the place where that shrub flourished, as it at one time did along the banks of Hazle creek. While it is 1,700 feet elevation yet to the north and south on each side are ranges of hills still higher, and this was at one time reported as swamp land. In the coal district these basins between the ranges contain coal, that has been saved from the erosions of the glaciers that once moved with such resistless forces over this part of the continent. At a street crossing near the Lehigh depot the waters at the four angles of the crossing part and flow nearly in the four cardinal points of the compass and continue their course to the opposite outlets or large streams that pass through this portion of the State in a general northern and southwestern course. In this one called " swamp " the pinnacle is here, and no city in the State has better natural drainage. What a wild and rugged wilderness this was when the white man first came. The home of dark old forests that sheltered only the wild beasts and birds. The homeseeker would only ever see it by having to pass over it on his way to the invit- ing valley beyond. It seems almost incredible that any human, knowing only that be can sustain life by cultivating the soil, would, in his journeyings, stop here. He could know nothing of the wealth below the surface, and as for the heavy timber, that only seemed to him as so much obstruction that he must remove before the sun's rays could warm to vegetable life the soil. Even the most inveterate hunter real- ized that he must have a little fertile spot on which to grow a modicum of the neces- sities of food to mix with the meats that he could so readily gain with his old match- lock. Man's first visits to this spot then were in his travels destined for other local- ities; it was in the natural route and no doubt near here somewhere Capt. D. Klader and his little company of soldiers passed on their way to the slaughter they met near where is now the village of Conyngham. Others may have preceded them, but of this we can know nothing. This was in 1780—112 years ago. HISTORY OP LUZEENE COUNTY. 523 Toward the close of the eighteenth century the work of building the old Berwick turnpike was commenced, and about 1804 the "sappers and miners" of that force were at work perhaps along what is now Broad street, Hazleton. There was more or less work on every mile of the way, and it is quite probable the force camped, and made this point on the mountain a kind of temporary headquarters as they came, passed and built the road on northward on their way to Elmira, N. Y. The road passed west of Wilkes-Barre, crossed the river and became a great four-horse stage route. Neces- sity compelled the building of a stage road tapping this, and leading to Wilkes- Barre, then the principal town in this section. The Berwick turnpike was built by a private company for the purpose of opening the way to their timber lands, lying principally in what is Bradford county. The State aided the company with a grant of land, nearly 500 acres. Soon after the turnpike was completed to this place, necessity required a road from here to Wilkes-Barre, and one was built, intersecting within the city limits, and at a point known as " the old State house." A boarding- house was probably the first want here, and no doubt brought the first permanent settler. So far as we can now know Jacob Drum heller kept the first " stage stand," and this fact and the " forks " in the two highways, made this a prominent place on the turnpike. I have met none of the descendants of Drumheller that can, with any certainty, give the year of his coming. It has been said by passing writers he was here as early as 1809 with his hostlery. It was for many years nothing more than a stage stand, and this much is certain. Then, too, Jacob Drumheller may as well be the first landlord as some unknown who can not now be at all named. Nat- urally the next man to follow the old first tavern would be a blacksmith — one of the pioneers' first necessities — even before gristmills, because he could fix up his own samp mill in the near convenient stump of a tree. Here is another reason for Drumheller to come, because there is no doubt that he was the first blacksmith in the county south of the neighborhood of Wilkes-Barre. There are parties now liv- ing who saw the place as early as 1827 in passing through on the old turnpike, going up to look at the land or settle in Sugar Loaf valley. Conversing with one of these gentlemen, he expressed the belief that there was nothing more here then than the old wayside tavern. The only scrap of paper that bears the marks of authenticity, is the following extracts from the diary of Robert Miner, and is evidently the beginning of the vil- lage of Hazleton: "The Hazleton Coal company was incorporated March 18, 1836." "November 1, 1836. Came to Hazleton to be clerk for a company on trial ; no terms fixed. Board at the old Drumheller house tavern, kept by Lewis Davenport. The company's office is in the lower room of an addition built on the east end of the old house. Railroad located and contract just assigned. Village laid out." "November 10, 1886. Town lots were laid out and sold by company. Wages offered for 'good hands' are 116 a month with board on Sundays. Fresh pork is by the hog, 8c; corn meal, 1.1 2 J." 1837. First dwelling put up and occupied by Charles Edson, on lot No. 9, Sq. 11. Then by S. Tost, F. Santee, T. Peeler. Store and house by L. H. and J. Ingham, R. Miner, hotel." "4th of July (1837). Moved my family from Wyoming valley, Plaines, to Hazle- ton, in house I have just finished on corner of Broad and Poplar streets." "L. Davenport moved to hotel 23rd October, W. Apple taking the old house." "First birth of child in Hazleton, October 9 — W. Apple's; born in house at junction of old state road and turnpike — daughter; 2nd, child of F. Santee, blacksmith; 3rd, my son, John Howard Miner." "First corpse interred in graveyard was wife of Th. B. Worthington in the faUofl837." "Locomotive Hazleton first on the railroad." 524 HISTOKY OF LUZEKNE COUNTY. Uafortunately this is all of Mr. Miner's diary that refers to founding of the vil- lage of Hazleton, the coal industry, and the building to this place of a railroad. Mr. William Kisner came here in 1840 and says his recollection is that there were about ten houses then in the place. The company, in whose employ he came, was then working two mines — one in lower Hazleton and the other at Laurel hiU, or upper Hazleton. The place then had a daily stage running from Mauch Chunk, and one to Wilkes-Barre. From Mrs. A. M. Eby, daughter of Lewis Davenport, we learn that her father came here in 1832 and built the Hazleton house, standing at the corner of Wyoming and Broad streets; first living at the old Bird hotel, just below the present Lehigh station; house still standing. The "old State house" was where is now Dryfoos' residence, on Vine and Broad streets. This was where the ''State road" intersected the turnpike. She informs us that William Apple came soon after her father; he was a carpenter; then came John Megargell, who opened a store at the corner of Broad and Poplar. Ario Pardee's cultivated farm included the present line stone mansion of the Pardees. The first physician to locate here was Dr. Lewis Lewis. The toll-house on the old turnpike was in the southern part of the village. John Jacobs, uncle of Mrs. Martha E. Eby, nee Davenport, was killed in a runaway of the mail coach on the mountain about 1845. The first church was the old Pres- byterian, where the present building stands; the old one being torn down. The old schoolhouse, where the people held union church meetings, was burned. When Mrs. Eby first remembers the place as a little girl, there were strung along the turn- pike, Pardee' s house, then Markles' , Dr. Lewis', Blackwell' s, then the Hazleton tavern. There were a few houses on Mine street, occupied by Irish families mostly. The Irish were the first miners here, and in time have been succeeded largely by other foreigners. Lewis Davenport sold the Hazleton house and built where is now the residence of Stephen D. Engle. The Mansion house was built by Greenawalt. He and Dav- enport exchanged, and the latter kept the Mansion house some time. Hazleton simply commenced as a mining town, and in the remarkable advances in this line in the past forty years, it has led the van, and is now the capital o'f the middle coal field district. The old schoolhouse, built by the coal company, was near the graveyard. Here was the general union church meeting-house, free for all, as well as the ancient pedagogue. It was, unfortunately, burned, and the present frame, near the church, took its place. Mrs. Joseph Greenawalt (Eosanna Charles), who is now about seventy years of age, coming with her parents (John Charles) to Hazleton when she was "a little girl," and in addition to those named above, recalls Samuel Barenger, Thomas H. Worthington and John Hurst, all of whom lived near "the upper mine;" two Ger- man families (one was Heckroach), lived in the east part of town. Peter Stare kept the old toll-house, near where is now the foundry, on east Broad street. Anthony Fisher lived across the street from Davenport's hotel. The coal industry, though commenced here in 1837 by the Hazleton Coal com- pany, was an uncertain quantity until 1863-4. A few men never lost faith in ulti- mate success, but a great many looked upon it as a doubtful venture. That is, there was a doubt as to its ever successfully paying when carried through on a large scale. The coal company was composed of such men as Pardee, Miner and Hunt- dominated by Ario Pardee, whose faith and resolution never faltered, but who built the railroad that was the quick solution of the question, and then Hazleton was on the highway to the present form of city. From an old account book of Lewis Davenport, under date of October 23, 1837, is the following : " Moved to new house. " As reference is made to this above this fixes the date. There are entries in this book as far back as 1833. As he kept a hotel it is fair to presume that in this little old account book is very nearly a complete census of who were here during the thirties, as well as a correct report of the market prices ^^4K^:c HISTORY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. 527 of whisky and every family necessity at that time. It is a rare case when the liquid charges do not outnumber all the others on its pages. Page one appears John Andrews and the first item is "one gal. whisky, 31 cents." In this account is the following: " Old Gundy, $1." Who was that? Was it not a short way of saying "burgundy?" In this account are twenty-two items, all liquid except three — beef. The next is Jacob Drumheller's account, for coal mostly. Then is Lewis Comp- ton: " meals, oats, hay " and some liquids. Charles Edson is next: " shingles, sugar, Cofey, gal wk. Tobias Smith: nales, Cofey, shinglis"— no liquids. Then ap- pears a written order, signed by William Engle, for Mr. Davenport to pay for him to Henry Seybert 1150. Thomas Peler has a short account. John Jones has a long one; great variety of things; no liquids in this bill — "one bekfis, 25 cents " is one item. Looking a little further down the account is " one drink, 3 cents." This is given as it fixes the price at that time. " John Mickga- gins' " long account was crossed out. Oae of the largest accounts is that of Will- iam Apple, which amounts to over $1,000 — no liquids. Then comes Samuel Yost, Samuel Cox, David Eichards, George and Isaac Hughes, Dr. BoIb, Jonathan and G. Ingham, Samuel Dever, McCallum, Nathan Courtright, John Newbold, Jonathan Cooper, " Cooper and Suns," Sugar Loaf company, " Arow " Pardee, Henry Seybart, Pardee, Miner & Hunt, Nathan D. Cartright, Edward Vauxen, Jacob Hausneack, William Bronson, Mikel Grover, William Hunt, J. G. Fell, A. Foster. Coming along down in the forties it appears that the firm became Davenport & Jacobs; Mrs. D. was a Jacobs. Then appears the names of S. B. Markel, Hazle- ton Coal company, David T. Jones, Doct. Scot, George Fenstamacher, J. H. Bald- win, John R. Miller, Robert Nealy, Jonathan Moors, Jacob Hues, Lewis Ketchman, Joseph Greenawalt, Craig & Bro. , Samuel Colans, Kier Powell, Hanes & Miller, A. S. & E. Roberts, R. S. Weaver. Thomas Worthington, Norman Denis, Crarey & Bro. The book accounts come down to 1850. As they commenced aboat 1835 it is quite an account of the then population at this trading point. Mr. Davenport was a leading spirit of his time and stood here a very prominent figure in commercial and financial affairs. He had great opportunities to become one of the great coal barons, and abundant means to lead in that developing industry, but while he was a man of public spirit, he preferred to use his money as an accommodation to those who desired to develop the mines, rather than invest in coal lands on his own account. Mr. Daniel P. Raikes, one of the early settlers in this place, could recall all there were here in 1817 — two houses — and so unimportant was it supposed to be that until 1834 but two more houses were added. Thus, practically, in thirty years but three families had been added to the first settlement. Coal was found here in outcrop, tested and pronounced of superior quality in 1826, and then for some years invest- ors could see nothing in it as there was practically no easy transportation to markets. The Ingham brothers, merchants, built the first store here at the corner of Broad and Wyoming streets. They sold to Cooper, and Cooper sold to Pardee, Miner & Hunt. The Hazleton Coal company commenced operations in 1886-7, and then the village was laid out by the company and settlement of the place was rapid for that time. An act incorporating the borough of Hazleton was passed April 3, 1851, and a supplemental act April 22, 1856. But the first election in the borough, completing the organization, was March 27, 1857, at the hotel of Thomas Lawall, six years intervening, and the following officials were chosen: Abraham Jones, burgess; Joseph Hamburger, George Brown, John Schreck, Andrew Ringlebew, George B. Markle, councilmen; P. A. Whitaker, secretary; Charles H. Myers, treasurer; John Kahler, supervisor. August, 1857, was contracted a "lock-up" — a stone building at the corner of Mine and Cedar streets. 528 HISTOBY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. The limits of the village, as originally platted by the Hazleton Coal company, were bounded by what is now Chappel, Vine and Hunlock streets and the present eastern bounds of the city. The company added an addition in 1869. The Diamond addition, by the Diamond Coal company, was added December 10, 1885. In the order of their election after the one given above were the burgesses as follows: For 1858, Ezra C, Vincent; 1859, E. F. Eussell; 1860, Lewis Lubrecht; 1861, Ezra C. Vincent; 1862, Fredrick Knyrim; 1863, R. F. Eussell; 1864, Peter Breihoff; 1865-6, Thomas E. McNair; 1867, Thomas N. Smith; 1868, Peter Heidenreich; 1869, John A. Barton; 1870, Charles F. Hill; 1871, J. E. Ulman; 1872-3, Joseph P. Salmon; 1874, no record; 1875, Gotlieb Ulmer; 1876-80, John Pfoutz [As this was the first burgess who received any- compensation whatever for his services, this may account for his being so good an officer that he was kept in the place during the remainder of his life from the first election.]; 1881, Eeuben T. Kreider; 1882, John Knies; 1883, A. E. Longshore; 1884-5, Emanuel Dunn; 1886, A. E. Longshore; 1887, John Schwartz; 1888-9, A. E. Longshore; 1890, Philip Maue; 1891, N. L. Gavitt. In October, 1889, a resolution passed the council to take the preliminary steps to become a city. There was a hitch in this first resolution, but in October, 1890, a renewal was successful and the good work progressed vigorously. Clerk James B. MacCartney confesses guilty to being the main lever in bringing about the moulting of the borough and the budding and blooming of the city of Hazleton. An election on the question of putting on city airs was held in November, 1891, and carried in the affirmative by 700 majority, and the charter duly and formally granted December 4, 1891. Then followed the election for city officers, and resulted as follows: Mayor, N. L. Gavitt; select council: J. W. Bogle, T. D. Jones, F. Lauderburn, William Martin, Frank McHugh, H. C. Mills, James E. Eoderick, Anton Wagner; H. B. Casselberry, president; clerk, James B. MacCartney. Common council: Henry Bontz, Thomas Coburn, John W. Cooper, Peter Deis- roth, George J. Heyer, Andrew Houston, Henry Iffert, John F. Lemmerhart, Philip Lindemann, John H. Moyer, William L. Murphy, Clark Price, Anthony Eeilly, Andrew Einglaben, Oliver Einker, Josiah Smith, Andrew W. Wagner, Elliott P. Kisner, president; C. H. Lindemann, clerk; city clerk, James P. Gorman; city solicitor, George H. Troutman; city engineer, A. Brooks Celiax. Board of Health: C. E. Bombay, J. B. Brown, Dr. E. B. Fruit, Dr. W. E. McCombs, P. P. Boyle. Police: Chief, Ed Polgrean ; lieutenant, John Ferry; patrolmen, Eobert Wallace, John Wetterau, Taguo Gallagher and John Brill. To these are ten special police to be called on extraordinary occasions; janitor, Henry Eidan. No board of health yet appointed. Fire department: Two companies; first the Pioneer Steam Hose and Hook and Ladder company. No. 1, is the old company and was organized in 1873. Their engine and all their apparatus seem to be entirely too heavy for quick handling. The company has two steam engines, hook and ladder truck and jumper. The other company is the Diamond Hose and Hook and Ladder company; two hose jumpers. Until the Diamond Coal company erected their water works to sup- ply their addition, the only water company was that of the Lehigh Valley railroad, their works erected in 1862; the facilities they can furnish in case of fire are not adequate to the emergency that might arise. The two reservoirs have a capacity of over 7,000,000 gallons. ^ . i' J The present city building, a fine brick, two stories. No. 53 and 56 N. Wyoming street, is finished for " lock up," engine house, and the second floor for offices and council chamber. It was erected in 1868. The Diamond water works were erected in 1887. Already the demands require that they double their capacity, and at this time (June, 1892) work has commenced HISTORY OF LUZEBNE COUNTY. 529 enlarging their reservoir. The Hazleton Gas company was incorporated March 14, 1872. Commissioners named in the act: 0. Pardee, "W. A. M. Grier, Sylvester Engle, E. F. Eussell, John Bond and James James. Board of directors: president, 0. Pardee; secretary and treasurer, W. A. M. Grier. The works were built in 1872 and gas furnished customers in November of that year. Electric light plant is named " The Edison Electric Illuminating company of Hazleton;" was organized in the fall of 1882, and commenced furnishing its cus- tomers in February, 1883. The stock was subscribed for by the prominent men of the place. A fine brick building was erected on the corner of Wyoming and Green streets; original building was 40x80, and in 1890 enlarged to 60x95; have five engines; four boilers, and a total of 430 horse power; a Babcock & Wilcox and three return flues. Officials of the first organization: President, F. A. Lauderburn; secretary and treasurer, N. C. Yost; superintendent, George Markle. Present officers: J. G. Sayer, president; N. C. Yost, secretary and treasurer; J. G. Giles, manager. Banking. — Hazleton has three banks — two national banks, namely, Hazleton National bank and the First National bank, and the banking house of Markle Bros. & Co. The latter, on June 1, 1892, was changed into a stock company and organized under a State law and charter, and is now "The Markle Banking and Trust company of Hazleton," and is officered as follows: President, Alvin Markle; vice-president, Thomas S. McNair; cashier, N. C. Yost; trust officer, C. W. Kline, Esq. The directors are J. C. Haydon, Thomas S. McNair, John G. Seager, C. W. Kline, Frank McHugh. This was originally the banking house of Pardee, Markle & Grier; opened in May, 1867, and in 1872 built and occupied the present building. The Hazleton Savings bank was established May 23, 1871, with a capital of 130,000. Officers were: President, William Kisner; vice-president, W. R. Long- shore; cashier, N. H. Shafer. The Hazleton National bank succeeded by purchase the savings bank February 1, 1890. Capital $100,000; deposits average over 1900,000. Officers as follows: President, A. S. Yan Wickle; vice-president, Frank Pardee; cashier, A. M. Eby; directors : J. P. Pardee, A. S. Van Wickle, W. Lauderbaeh, Thomas D. Jones, J. E. Roderick, William Schwartz, E. A. Oberrender, Frank Pardee, E. L. Bullock, F. W. Cooper, H. B. Conahan, John E. Kern, Henry Knies, A. M. Eby, P. V. Weaver. First National Bank was organized in June, 1888; capital stock, 1100,000. Officers: A. W. Leisenring, president; David Clark, vice-president; John E. Leisenring, cashier; John B. Price, assistant cashier; directors: A. W. Leisenring, J. S. Wentz, S. B. Price, A. P. Blakslee, David Clark, Dr. J. E. Tweedle, Dom. F. Sweeney, J. E. Leisenring, P. J. Ferguson, Peter Heidenrich, Frank O. Stout, Fred Lauderburn, T. H. Williams. The bank is in temporary quarters on Wyoming street, having been driven from its old home on December 22, 1891, by fire. The fine " Brill block " now in course of construction in place of the burned build- ing, will, in a short time, be the new and permanent home of the bank. The banks and their depositors are a true index of the business and wealth of a • city. By this gauge Hazleton with a population of 12,000 shows remarkably well, the average deposits in its banking institutions being |2, 500,000. Hazleton Manufacturing Company was originally the Hazleton Planing Mill and Casket manufactory, built by Dryfoos, Grier & Youngman, and was made a joint stock company, enlarging and extending its business until now it is one of the largest concerns in south Luzerne county. It was incorporated in September, 1 886. The manufactory is a three-story building, 42x250 feet, a large mill, three stories high in the rear, storage rooms, sheds, lumber yard, etc. ; has an average force of employes of 100. Its capital stock, paid up, is $100,000, with the following officers : A. Markle, president; N. C. Yost, treasurer; E. S. Dodd, secretary; W. J. Collin- son, manager. 530 HISTORY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. HazletoQ Steam Peed mill, by George W. Bngle, established in 1880, near the Lehigh depot. , Railroad Shops of the Lehigh road, on the east border of the city, cover an area of 56,864 square feet. The dimensions are: machine shop, 50x450 feet; foundry, 56x104; car-wheel shop, 36x80. with wing 36x36; boiler shop, 52x102; forge or steam trip hammer shop, 50x50; blacksmith shop, 40x80; car shop, 50x95, with addition 63x95. These are exclusive of offices, round houses, etc. There are 250 hands employed, who receive an average total monthly pay of 19,500. The round house, nearly adjoining the shops, furnishes room for twenty-one locomotives. There are 110 hands employed on this division of the Lehigh Valley railroad, whose monthly pay constitutes an important factor in the business interests of Hazleton. Opera House, a very neat frame place of amusement, was burned in May, 1892, and steps have been promptly taken to rebuild a better brick edifice. The same fire that destroyed the opera house burned a portion of the Valley hotel, the stables, railroad building and the small frames and contents adjoining it on tlie west. Brewery of Arnold & Krell, on Mine street, is one of the growing important industies of the city. Broom factories are two in the city. Prof. Earnet's business college is a well established institution of the place. Two flouring mills; Pardee's, the oldest in the place, and that of the Hazleton Mercantile company on West Broad street. Hazleton Iron works was established by L. S. Allison, and recently made a joint stock company and its facility and capacity enlarged. Piano and organ factory by Peter Kelmer is on Chestnut street, near the iron works. Stephen D. Engle's watch and jewelry factory is quite a flourishing Hazleton institution. The Engle Spring Gun company is incorporated; was organized in 1886, by J. F. Barber, H. W. Hess and S. C. Wagenseller, and in 1889 enlarged, and W. C. Galey and M. P. Koenig were admitted under new charter in 1889. This company confines itself to the manufacture of specialties invented by Stephen D. Engle. In addition to manufacturing his own goods for his jewelry store he is engaged in making and putting on the market his own inventions, which include a wide range from the dust-proof watch case and dental plates, to the celebrated apostolic and astronomical clock, the latter pronounced by scientific men to be far more remarkable than tde celebrated Strausburg clock. Mr. Engle is one of the noted inventors of Hazleton and Luzerne county. And in the line of work in his own shop of jewelry of the most expensive and elegant description, there is no one factory in the State of more interest than his. The other classified industries are 6 carriage factories, 5 cigar, 5 dentists, 68 groceries, 16 dry goods and general stores, 4 drugs, 10 hotels, 8 lawyers, 8 newspa- per publications, 18 physicians. Hazleton Hospital is a splendid institution; erected in 1889, and was contributed to by the State to the amount of 160,000, and by liberal subscriptions of private citizens to the amount of 115,000; a spacious and elegant building on the hill east of the town; has two wards, twenty- four beds in each. Superintendent is Henry. M. Keller. Railroads. — Hazleton is the central attraction of the entire system of railroads that now fairly criss-cross the coal fields of this section. Ario Pardee, of the Hazle- ton Coal company, made many efi^orts to secure favorable results in the matter of transporting the coal to market. The main line of the Lehigh road was built along the Lehigh river after the destruction and end of the old canal that at one time furnished transportation from this section at Penn Haven. The old railroad had been built to Beaver Meadow, the nearest point to Hazleton. It crossed the different mountams by difPerent "planes," as it was then supposed engines could not be built to haul trains up steep grades. The first railroad built to Hazleton was from HISTOBY OF LUZEKNE COUNTY. 531 Weatherly to this point. The main line of the Lehigh road through this county runs twelve miles east of this place; and yet such was the importance of the busi- ness offered here that a line was soon completed from Penn Haven, from the main line, and it returned to the main track again at White Haven. Hazleton now is abundantly supplied with railroads to all points. The main road remains the first one— the Lehigh Valley, then comes the Pennsylvania railroad running out a spur to this place from its main line from Harrisburg to Wilkes- Barre. Then the Eeading found the place of sufficient importance to tap the place in connection with the Delaware, Susquehanna & Schuylkill railroad. The latter is Eckley B. Coxe's belt railroad that connects the mines of Coxe Bros. & Co. Thus, in fact, there are four railroads accessible here, though the recent "combine" of the Lehigh and Eeading roads makes them under one management. The results are that through all this coal-bearing region are the amplest railroad facilities that touch by main lines or spurs or junctions every point, especially where there is active mining going on. Every little stream hereabouts, and it should be remem- bered that near the depot is the high point, or rather the place from which the waters flow in the four cardinal directions, as said, all these drains and streams have been utilized by engineers as the guides to survey and build railroads along. Hazleton is, as you may be told by any well-posted railroad man, one of the best points on the line of the great Lehigh system of railroads, in point of paying busi- ness, both in travel and freight traffic. CHAPTER XXI. TOWNSHIPS AND BOROUGHS. ASHLEY BOKOUGH. WHEN a mere " Corners," or in the beginnings of this as a business place, it was known, far and wide, as " Scrabbletown," especially after Daniel Kriedler built his forge, a stone building, six or eight rods below the Back road, on Solomon' s creek. The old sawmill stood on this Back road, about thirty rods from the forge; it was a water mill, and was one of the early day important improvements, when people began to get ofE of dirt or split puncheon floors, and how happy the housewives were made as they swept and polished the real, smooth sawed-plank floors of their cabins. Indeed, then they could have real plank doors to the cabins, and no longer the old batten doors made of split boards, with a wooden pin for the fastening. The old mill stood about where is now the railroad company's house. In 1830 the mill belonged to the Huntingtons. The mill and the old stone forge both ceased operations about 1839. A little further up in Solomon's gap was Inman's tavern and a couple of cabins. This place was then called "Inman's tavero," and, no doubt, Inman and his friends intended the future borough should be there. But in 1840, when the building of the "planes" was going on, Inman's tavern went into "innoc- uous desuetude," and Inman sold out and went West, after Horace Greeley's advice to young men. A coal mine was sunk in 1851 at Ashley, and then the name of Scrabbletown, by general consent, was changed to " Coalville." This mine was where the Hartford breaker stood; the latter, built in 1856, burned in 1884. In 1856 a large breaker was built over the old shaft, and a " slope " was opened at the foot of the mountain on the " Baltimore vein," a seam of coal nineteen feet thick. A tunnel into the mountain was commenced near the mouth of the slope. After the first breaker was burned another was built, called the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre No. 6 (now called 532 HISTOBY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. No. 8). The Dundee shaft was sunk in 1857-9, passing to and through sixteen veins of coal. Nothing has been done at this shaft since 1859; the property was purchased by the Delaware & Lackawanna railroad. Chapman says that Eoss' mill at Ashley, on Solomon's creek, was built about 1830 and abandoned about 1850. One of the most important improvements consists of the "planes." In 1843 the Lehigh & Susquehanna railroad was completed from White Haven' to Wilkes- Barre, to facilitate the supply of coal to the New York and Philadelphia trade, then rapidly growing. At first, light trains for freight and passengers were hauled up the mountain by horses, the entire distance between Wilkes-Barre and White Haven, but in 1846 this mode of transportation stopped. The railroad was opened for full traffic only in 1847; even then, horses were used to haul trains everywhere except at the ' ' planes, ' ' or where gravity would do it. The trains were hauled up the mountains by stationary engines, and on the other side ran by gravity. From Ash- ley there are three long " planes " to reach the top of Big mountain — a total rise of 1,000 feet. Originally, says Mr. Miner, verified by Mr. Plumb, "straps" of soft steel, attached to a "truck," were used to pull the cars up or let them down; two sets of ' ' straps " to each of the three " planes," and at the top of each ' ' plane " was a stationary engine revolving a large drum to wind the "straps" on. These "straps" were discarded in 1850 for wire ropes, and then locomotives were put on instead of horses, and the "planes" became much as you can see them now, the great stationary engines hauling to the mountain top the long coal trains as they start from Ashley. The "planes" beginning at Ashley, made a necessity by the development of the coal industry, and these together have made it an important, busy and enterprising place. Our chronicler insists that Ashley has had a plethora of names; one time, even way back in the other century it was irreverently styled ' ' Skunktown,' ' then "Peestone," "Hightown," "Newton," " Hendricksburg, " " Scrabbletown," "Coalville';" "Nanticoke Junction" and "Alberts." All these before it became officially Ashley. Tradition gives no excuse for its never being called Wadetown, after its first settler — Abner Wade. Fritz Deitriek opened the first tavern, on the site of Payne & Conyngham's store. Samuel Pees (or probably Pease) then had a tavern, and this gave it the name of "Peesville." The present hotel is on the site. These two were log hotels, in the days when two rooms and the " loft " with a ladder, constituted an average hostelry. Samuel Black opened and ran the first frame tavern, situated on West Main street, where his widow resided many years after it had ceased to entertain guests; then Lewis Landmesser opened his hotel. Alexander Gray opened the first general coun- try store in the place. Railroad Shops of the New Jersey Central are located at Ashley, and are the most important institution of the place. The day these located here it made the place fairly jump out of its " Hardscrabble " clothes and put on the full regalia of an important, thriving borough. The postoffice name of Hendricksburg was changed to Ashley, and the office and center of the hamlet moved to about its present place. The works were thought to be great affairs at the first, but time and the growing enterprise of the road has shown itself as distinctly in their shops here as anywhere else. Additional buildings, and additions to the first ones, and increased capacity in every shop as well as numbers of employes have marked every department. Seven hundred men now find employment in the different shops. These skilled mechanics are of the best class of permanent residents of the place. The roar of the forges, the whir of the wheels, the pounding of many hammers, and the turning of the great lathes, are some of the songs of busy, happy and the well-paid and well-kept industrial world to be seen here. HISTOEY OF LUZEENE COUNTY. 533 Here is the foot of the "plane" — one of the remarkable concerns of the kind in the world. Here is seen the ingenuity of the mechanics in construction; the automatic movement of the "push truck" and the long ropes that pull great coal trains up the mountain side. At this foot are two tracks, and the way this " truck ' ' runs under trains, and is automatically changed from the front to the rear; the way it and its great steel wire rope seem to jump from track to track; the general move- ment of the whole machinery, with the stationary engine way off out of sight on the mountain side, are marvelous to the raw and uninitiated, as they were to the writer and his friend, as they stood on the old wooden bridge and watching, tried to com- prehend it all, and could not. [By the way, at that very moment men were at work replacing the old wooden bridge with a new iron structure, and in a few days the old will be gone and the people will be proud of the bridge over the track of the plane— July 30, 1892]. The "planes " were a necessity, and are one of the most valuable improvements in the county. The question will arise to the reader as it did to the writer, and as it has no doubt to nearly every one, " Why didn't they tunnel the mountain ?" For the best reason in the world, the tunnel, commencing, say, at the foot of the plain, would have to go to White Haven to find an outlet — fifteen miles, and all that long distance would have been from 1,000 to 1,700 feet below the surface. So, you see the " planes" were the only practical solution of the question. The charter of Ashley borough bears date December 5, 1870. The principal petitioners for its organization were J. C. Wells, E. L. Deifenderfer, C. T. Lohr, William J. Day, George Dunn, J. K. P. Fanner, Samuel Crow, A. T. Joslyn, E. C. Cole, J. W. Cole, William Powder, A. Le Bar and John White. First borough offices: Burgess, Jeremiah N. Gette; council: J. C. Wells, M. A. McCarty, E. L. Dief enderfer, John Campbell and A. D. Le Bar. Present officials: James K. P. Fenner, burgess; council: E. Lindermuth, president; John H. Eyer, treasurer; Peter Murphy, secretary; R. J. Carey, John Bowden, John Brenner and L. L. Newhart. The foreman of Rescue Hose and Engine No. 1, Thomas McDonald. A street car (horse) has rendered efficient service, but its capacity had long been insufficient for the enormous demand upon it, and in November, 1892, it was changed to an electric line, and became a part of the great traction company's system of roads. The place has ample railroad, telegraph and telephone facilities. But a short time ago Ashley was a small place, said to be three miles from Wilkes-Barre, and a generation ago the people would ride along the dusty road, through the heavy old forests to town to do a little shopping or some other small errand. Now you may ride on the railroad, or street cars from the remotest part of Ashley to the courthouse, and you can not tell there is a break in the city on any foot of the way. It is purely an imaginary line that divides Wilkes-Barre and Ashley. It is certainly one of the flourishing suburbs of the city. Its industries outside of its railroad and coal may be enumerated as: 5 bakers, 3 barbers, 1 shoe- maker, 3 druggists, 1 furniture store, 9 general stores, 10 grocers, 3 hardware, 3 hotels, 1 livery, 3 meat markets, 1 merchant tailor and 2 jewelers, AVOCA BOKOUGH, Formerly Pleasant Valley, is in the northern part of Pittston township, and is a flourishing borough. Settlement commenced here in 1871 and grew with the develop- ment of the collieries, and at this time has a population estimated at over 3,000. The name Avoca was adopted in 1889— changed from the old name of Pleasant Valley, under which it was incorporated to agree with the postoffice name. It has in the way of facilities for transportation four lines of railroads. There are four churches in the place, a board of trade and an excellent flre department. The town is well supplied with excellent water by the Spring Brook Water company; has telegraph and telephone communications with all the outside world. It has 1 clothing house. 534 HISTOKY OP LUMEENE COUNTY. 5 breakers, 3 confectioners, 2 druggists, 1 dry goods store, 2 furniture dealers, 5 general stores, 3 grocery stores, 2 hotels, 5 meat markets. BEAR CBEEK TOWNSHIP Is in territory the largest township in the county, that is just now principally celebrating its winding up of the sawmill industry of the great lumber king of Luzerne county — Albert Lewis. It was carved from the territory taken from Wilkes- Barre, Pittston, Bucks, Plains and Jenkins, in 1856. About the first thing ever known of this section of the country was in 1779, when Gen. Sullivan cut a highway for his army and marched from Easton to Wilkes-Barre. That is the unused wagon road to-day substantially from Wilkes-Barre to Easton, that was a turnpike and now used as neighborhood roads along its length. The first log cabin was built in 1786 on the Sullivan military road, about nine miles from Wilkes-Barre. The sec- ond one by Arnold Colt, on the site of the Jonathan Pursel tavern stand. Mr. Colt was engaged building the Easton & Wilkes-Barre turnpike. The first sawmill was on Bear creek, built in 1800 by Oliver Helme. The township contains sixty- seven square miles, and but a very small fraction of it is arable. Dense forests of hemlock and pine and much game constituted its natural resources. A store, tavern and many sawmills were its earthly possessions. The timber gone, its surface is a rugged mountain waste, that is inviting only to the immigrant farmers from the old world, who come in the pursuit of that high ambition to become land owners. A branch railroad was run from the Lehigh Valley road to the Meadow Run mills, and this has been the transportation to the immense quantities of lumber cut in the township, by the many mills it had at one time. The branch road is about seven miles in length. Bear creek rises in its northeast corner and turns south and runs south to the Lehigh river. Crystal Springs reservoir is a valuable body of pure crystal water, and here are several summer cottages, and Mr. Lewis has made a beautiful driveway from Summit Glen to his summer place. Bald mountain is 1,825 feet above tide water, and the Wyoming and the Lehigh mountains are very nearly as high. The only hamlet in the township was where the turnpike road crossed Bear creek, near the center of the township. Here were along the creek several saw- mills, and the amount of this trade can be understood when it tempted the railroad to build a branch of its line to it. It had in 1890 a population of 343, but this is on the slowly sliding scale, and 1892 would show a small decline from that figure. Looking at a map of Luzerne county, Bear Creek township arrests the eye at once; for two reasons, it is the largest in area and except the creeks and mountains it appears as the white virgin paper. BLACK CREEK TOWNSHIP Was taken from Sugarloaf August 8,1848, and gets its name from the creek that runs through it, which enters on the eastsouth line, flows west to Gowen and then turns north and falls into Nescopeck creek, near the north line of the township at a point where is a hotel and Shellhammer's residence. Across the range near the south line is Tomhicken creek that passes into Schuylkill county southeast of Gowen. The Nescopeck runs across the northeast corner of the township. As stated this was all a part of Sugarloaf township down to 1848. By examining the list of early setters of Sugarloaf will be found the names of all the early settlers of Black creek. East and West Buck mountains are divided by Black creek that cuts its way from the south to the north. The Buck mountains are rich in coal bearing. These lands are a part of the Tench Coxe purchase in 1795. The Danville, Hazleton & Wilkes-Barre railroad taps the collieries of Black creek and the Coxe road, the Delaware, Schuylkill & Susquehanna, also is now running regular trains to this place. HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 537 Barney Huntsinger came here as a surveyor in 1806, and for his services took land that in time became the Christian Benninger place. D. and J. Huntsinger lands are west of Old Falls run, now Rock Glen station. The Benninger farm is a short distance east of Mountain grove. The Huntsingers, Rittenhouses, Shelhammers, Shorts and Smoyers were of the pioneer settlers. Martin Rittenhouse and William Rittenhouse came in 1810, built the first saw and gristmill. It is near the center of the township, where the east and west wagon road crosses Black creek. A small hamlet grew up here, and a store and near it a tannery. Another sawmill was a short distance north of Rittenhouse. When the township was formed nearly all the settlers lived along the east and west wagon road. The three schoolhouses were on this road. The only other one being the Shelhammer schoolhouse in the northeastern portion of the township. The first schoolhouse was Rittenhouse' s old log cabin residence; he had built a frame soon after the sawmill was started; the first teacher was a man named Tripp. David Shelhammer and Stephen Turnbach both built brick houses in 1850. The first postoffice was kept by Rittenhouse in 1856 — mails once a week arrived from Conyngham, and Joseph Rittenhouse was the first mail carrier. The postoffice was removed to Rock Glen station in 1872. This -place was called Falls Run city until a postoffice was established, when it was changed to Rock Glen. Huntsinger in 1820 built a distillery on the Benninger farm. It was run suc- cessfully, but, like country carding mills, had its time and fell into " innocuous desuetude." John Barnes was an important early settler — because he was a black- smith. His place and shop were east of the Rittenhouse mill, on the wagon road. The place became J. I. Pegg's. Daniel Stiles opened the first store. This was quite a little settlement, on the road some two miles east of the Rittenhouse mill. Another store was north of the Nescopeck, near D. Shelhammer's place. Here also was a church and schoolhouse, and southeast of this was a sawmill. There was but a slow growth to the township during these early years; the farmers were clearing up their places, and the sawmills and lumbermen were busy cutting the forests of pine and hemlock. At the Rittenhouse hamlet was the first tavern, by George Klinger. The place became the property of the heits of Michael Smith. The first death in the township occurred in 1818 — Mrs. John Kittner, daughter of Huntsinger. Mountain Grove (formerly Wolf ton) is an important station just on the west line of the township. Here are the noted campmeeting grounds, a railroad station, post- office, a few dwellings and the permanent " camps ' ' of the people who flock there in the hot summer. It is a notable religious resort, and is under the German Re- formed church. * Fern Glen is a railroad station. Here the Coxes have their elegant summer- resort residence. This is known as Deringer, which is one of the company's mining towns. Gowen is another of their mining towns, and is a station on the railroad. The principal population of the township are at the mining places. BUCK TOWNSHIP Was formed from Covington in 1833, and derived its name from George Buck, who was one of its early settlers, and who kept the first tavern, afterward known as Terwiliger's. John Nagle was the first settler in Buck. He built his log cabin on the old Sullivan road, near the Lehigh, in 1782, fourteen miles from any human habitation. Conrad Sox, Justice Simonson, Samuel Wildrick and Thomas Tatter- shall settled here soon after. Mr. Simonson lived to be nearly one hundred years of age, and when far in the nineties had often walked to Wilkes-Barre, a distance of fifteen miles. The first sawmill was erected in 1806 by Hugh Conner on the site of Stoddarts- ville, and in 1816 the first church was built there by John Stoddart. 28 538 HISTOKY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. In 1810 the Great swamp, which extends over a considerable portion of Buck, was purchased by a company of Philadelphia speculators. A president and eight- een councilmen were elected; and the "City of Rome" was laid out, 100 miles from the seaboard, in a dark, gloomy swamp, called the ' ' Shades of Death " by those who fled through it from Wyoming after the massacre in 1778. Three or four shipbuilders and a number of artisans of various trades were actually induced to purchase lots and remove to the "city," where reptiles and wild beasts should alone have habitation. A respectable merchant of Philadelphia, meeting a citi- zen of Wilkes-Barre, seriously inquired, ' ' Will not the new and flourishing city of Rome become a dangerous rival to your town?" Hon. Charles Miner had con- siderable trouble, through his paper the Gleaner, to expose the fraud. The township originally contained fifty square miles and is in the southeast corner of the county; its east line is Lackawanna county and its south line is the Lehigh river. It once had an important population in the way of sawmills. The township was cut in two by the formation of Lackawanna county in August, 1878. The east and west sides are rough- and mountainous and all between these mount- ains is swamp. This was the " Shades of Death" to the Yankees as the poor fugi- tives often fled in terror toward the Delaware. As sparse as is and has always been its population, yet it has never been able to raise enough farm products for its own supply. Stoddartsville is its only hamlet. In the heyday of its prosperity it had forty houses, beside its mills, and a population, largely transient, of 200. The county line divides the place, so that a portion of the town lies in Carbon county. It was laid out by John Stoddart in 1815, when he erected the large stone grist and saw- mill, the ruins of which to this day show that it was built to defy the tooth of time. It was a great improvement at that time, perhaps the most expensive in southern Luzerne county, costing over |20,000. In addition to his mill he kept the first store and tavern, the first blacksmith wagon and cooper-shop. The town site was the prop- erty of Mr. Stoddart and Thomas Arnott. The era of prosperity of the place was from 1835-65. Here was the place of the crossing of the Lehigh river and the Wilkes-Barre Eastern turnpike, where Sul- livan and his army crossed on their way to Wilkes-Barre. The great freshet in the Lehigh river of 1865 swept away the old canal works along the river and with them went the hopes and prosperity of Stoddartsville. It now is very nearly the existing type of the "Deserted Village." BUTLER TOWNSHIP Bears the name of the immortal Col. Zebulon Butler, always the first historical and cherished name connected with that of Luzerne county. It has a superficial area of thirty-one square miles, and the larger part of, in fact nearly the entire section, is arable land — the land of plenty and the quiet of the prosperous farmer's life. It is principally a part of the Sugarloaf valley, once the name of the entire valley along the Nescopeck. Here for more than a century the farmer has gone afield and tilled the soil. Originally it was all upland and valley, covered with a dense forest, and was a prolific hunting ground; then the woodsman came and felled the trees, and the numerous early sawmills along the creek cut the tim- ber and it was carried away to market. Butler township was made from territory of Sugarloaf in 1839. A part of the south of the township was taken off and added to Hazle township in 1861. The belief of Stewart Pearce, who was a careful historian, and he is confirmed by Moses Compeer and others of Northampton county's Revolutionary authorities, is that John Balliett was the " solitary and alone " first comer to make a home in this beautiful valley. Pearce says he had been one of the burial party who came to bury the victims of the Sugarloaf massacre, and, seeing that place so soon after the troubles and dangers were over, came and located. But the truth is now known HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. 539 that Balliett had intended to be one of the party, but was prevented by sickness from coming, that he was deeply interested in the expedition, and when the party returned he spent much time with different members thereof and made close inquiries as to what they had seen on the trip. These described to him the valley in which they had buried the dead, the beautiful Nesoopeck, flowing nearly through its center, the lish, the game and the broad, smooth, level acres of land on each side, and this fired Balliett' s imagination, and very wisely he determined that he would seek it out and here make a home for himself and his posterity. The results of this determination, after more than a century, are with us to-day in the numer- ous descendants of John Balliett in this section of the county, who are and have always been among the prominent people of Luzerne county. Balliett, with wife and two children, came here from the south or Northampton county in 1784. His possessions were packed on the one horse he possessed, and the two small children, one of whom was probably Stephen Balliett, were in beegums strapped across the horse's back, while the husband and wife trudged afoot. In another place is given an account of the memorable voyage of this avant courier of the coming hordes of men, and the writer was shown by Mr. C. F. Hill the probable spot on the side of Buck mountain where the strap broke and the children in their respective " gums " went rolling about the mountain side. John Balliett, the first day after his arrival, built, put up, • erected or constructed, as you please, the first residence, home, castle or dwelling in the valley. The architecture was "simple and sublime " — poles leaned against a big tree and covered with brush and leaves — and here the family slept, the boys, no doubt, too tired to even have nightmare dreams that they were still fast in the " gums " and rolling and tossing about the steep mountain side. John Balliett and wife dreamed in sweet content of their future home and its abundance and happy content — brave, as were all the pioneers, as to their ability to meet and overcome the obstructions that lay in their way, the years of toil and loneliness and the inevitable deprivations and of the distance from the world's older settlements. John Balliett settled here in 1784. It has been asserted, and has so found its way into print, that Gr. H. Reip (sometimes written Eeab) came here as a settler in 1782, two years before Balliett; that he located on the Joseph Woodring place, and that he died in 1794 and was buried in the old German church cemetery. Those that followed Balliett, whether the same or the next year, is not certain, were Benner (Harry), Shobers, Dolphs, Hill, Bachelor and Spaides. There are now numerous descendants of these pioneers still here and in other parts of the county. The name of Spaide has been and is still spelled different ways. The early chroniclers generally spelled it S-p-a-d-e, but Spaide, Spaid, Spayd and Spayde are some of the many variations. Among the early set- tlers were Philip Woodring, Henry Davis, Andrew Mowery and George Drum. The latter's son, Abraham Drum, was high sheriff of Luzerne county at one time. His son, George, was father of Hon. G. W. Drum, of Conyngham. This was so long a part of Sugarloaf township that the reader is referred to the list of early setUers, as given in the account of 'that township, for the particulars of who were here up to 1835. Pearce says that Samuel Woodring as early as 1788 built the first saw and gristmUl on Nescopeck creek. Both were very small in their way; the gristmill had one set of stones, which were " home made." Other authorities say that Woodring put up his mill on tbe Big Nescopeck, on the mill site of Straw & Sons, in 1813. The latter is the more reasonable story, as Mr. Stephen Balliett remembers, when he was ten years old, of going to mill many miles, over to Lizard creek, to Sultz's mill. Some time after 1800 the ancient mill story might have been repeated of the settlers of Butler, where the man and ox team went to mill, and in the long way and long wait had eaten every grain of corn, the load that the cattle could haul, and had to return home for more to grind. In the meantime the wife and children, waiting and looking for the man' s return, were living along by calling "the fat part meat and the lean part bread." 540 HISTOBY OP LUZEKNE COUNTY. There were no " roller process " mills here in the other century, no more than was there a prevalence of gout or other diseases of the rich and fashionable Four Hun- dred. John Balliett located on the present John Beisel farm, about one mile from the village of Drums, west. For an account of the Indians that lived at the mouth of the N.escopeck from 1742 to 1763 and also a reference to the Scotch and Friends who settled in the lower end of the valley, see account of "Sugarloaf massacre." Two years after John Balliett had built the first log cabin in the valley, the house and contents were burqed. He rebuilt, and he was so energetic and prosper- ous that in a little time he built the first frame house put up in the valley. Little Nescopeck creek runs in the southwestern part of the township. Here Eedmond Conyngham — perhaps the most prominent man of the early settlers — in 1809 built his sawmill on the M. Beishline land. In 1814 he built at the same place, on the opposite side of the creek, his gristmill. In 1820 Eedmond Conyng- ham built a small gristmill on the Big Nescopeck, on the site of Straw's sawmill, Sawmills were one of the early necessities. The valley, in order to be made, farms had to be cleared of its heavy growth of timber, and it took many sawmills to do the work. John Cowley was one of the enterprising citizens in this line, as he had several mills along the creek. The necessary first carding-mill was built in 1810, on the Little Nescopeck, a short distance from where is now the "Mountain Scenery" house; the neighborhood was then called Ashville. The name is now unknown. The locality of the old cording-mill may be fixed in the mind by the information that it was on the Linder- man land. The first woolen-mill was put up in 1835, by Philip Drum, a short distance from the cardin-g-mill. The pioneer schoolhouse, built of logs, stood near what is known as the German church, and went to decay many years ago. John Balliett was the pioneer tavern keeper. The first merchant in this township was Henry B. Yost, in 1832, on the place now owned by D. W. Jenkins, Sr. Mr. Yost was also the pioneer postmaster. The mails were received once a week, and the name of the office was East Sugarloaf. This was previous to the formation of the township of Butler. George Hughes' sawmill, above Straw's, was built in 1833, and is still standing. The house where William B. Doud lives, owned by Mr. Straw, was built in 1812. The first weavers here were Michael Klouse, Elias Balliett and Jacob Schauber. They all lived a little southwest of Hughesville. The oldest graveyard in this town- ship is the one in the corner of the lot opposite the Methodist Episcopal church. At St. John's (Hughesville), called the latter name for George Hughes, Henry Benner built his sawmill in 1836, and in 1853 George Hughes built a gristmill, and in the spring of the year commenced to turn out a superior article of flour. It was for a long time known by no other name than Hughesville, situated about three miles north of Drums. Sheide & Werner opened soon after the first store in the place, and Henry Bermer a blacksmith shop; in 1868 J. W. Woodring opened a boot and shoe shop; in 1870 Stephen Krehns opened his tavern. The Germans built their St. John' s church here, and when it came to naming a postoffice, neces- sity compelled a change of the name from Hughesville, and so it became St. John's — quite a little trading point for the surrounding farmers. The St. John's church was organized in December, 1799. Brums is the principal village in Butler township. It is in the heart of a rich agricultural section and is on the old State road leading from Hazleton to Wilkes- Barre, about six miles from the former, its natural trading point, and betweenBig and Little Nescopeck. Honey Hole is the name of a hamlet in the east part of the township on the Nes- copeck, where is quite a pond near the junction of the forks of the creek. Quite a collection of houses here and a sawmill that was one of the mills of A. Pardee & HISTOBY OP LUZEKNE COUNTY. 541 Co. The road from Upper Lehigh passes northwest through Hell Kitchen on to Hovey Hole, and from there to St. Johns (Hughesville). The noted mine tunnel, described elsewhere, is dug through the valley to empty into the creek. It looks like a young canal, except there is a brisk current to its waters. The " Mountain Scenery " house is built on the mountain side, and from the upper portico is presented an entrancing view of the valley and the opposite hills. A view from this point richly repays the visitor. CONYNGHAM TOWNSHIP Is one of the young and small townships in the way of population. It was formed in 1 875, taken from Hollenback township, is thinly settled, and quite rough and hilly, less than one-third being arable land. The first settler was Martin Harter, who came in 1795 and made his improve- ment near the mouth of Little Wapwallopen creek. His immediate followers were James McNeil, James Santee, Philip Fenstermacher, John Andreas, Michael Weiss, John Fenstermacher and Jeremiah Hess. These came up from North- ampton county; were nearly all Germans, whose descendants are now the leading men in the township. The first white child born in the township was John Fenstermacher, Jr., a grandson of the first settler, Martin Harter; birth, 1804. The first settlers cut a road along the river, and this was the one com- mon outlet for all. In 1797 Martin Harter built the first frame house; his old home- stead went by descent to the heirs of Absalom Heller. In 1822 Philip Fenster- macher built the first brick house, which in modern times became the property of A. K. Harter. This descent of properties gives a correct idea of the intermarrying of the descendants of the early settlers. In 1829 George Fenstermacher built the first stone house on the old homestead of Martin Harter; afterward a frame addi- tion was added and a hotel opened in it, and was successfully run for several years. The first store was opened in 1805 by Philip Fenstermacher. It was not run a great while. In 1836 John Heller was the merchant. Jacob Romick, the first blacksmith, had his shop where was built the stone house. Romick' s successor was Peter Mauer, who had learned his trade with him. A widow, Mrs. Frances Lewis, built the first gristmill; it stood a short distance above the present Samuel Heller mill on Wapwallopen creek. Her title to the land is dated in 1806. When this was worn out and decayed a three-story stone mill took its place, built inl825by theMoPher- son brothers. Philip Fenstermacher built the first sawmill in 1811 on the small spring stream near A. Boyd's farm and residence. John Fenstermacher built an early-day distillery near by Romick's blacksmith shop. The first school was Ger- man, 1808, taught by a man named Kroll, in a building belonging to Martin Har- ter. In the course of time this temple of learnings became the pigsty of A. K. Harter. An English school was opened in 1811 in a house belonging to Michael Weiss. A schoolhouse was erected in 1813. Wapwallopen village is in the extreme south corner of the township. Its various names indicate much of the place's history; as, the " Glen," "Powder Glen," " Hellertown, " " Powder Hole," etc. The Dupont powder mills constitute pretty much all there is of the place. There are three different collections of houses, but all combined are Wapwal- lopen. The powder mills, as said, with a store and a merchant mill and a small cluster of houses, have been known as Hellertown. The railroad station is the main business center. About 300 hands are working in the powder mills, and this gives quite a population. Altogether there are 3 general stores, 1 hotel, 1 saddler shop and a blacksmith shop. G. P. Parish & Co. came here and built the powder mills near the mouth of the creek and operated the same until 1857, and sold to the Duponts — the largest powder manufacturers in the world. 542 HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. DALLAS BOEOUGH. The enterprising and liberal men of the township had bnilt.and organized a most excellent high school at the village of Dallas, and in the unfolding of events it became apparent that it would be necessarj to incorporate the place into a borough in order to protect the interests of the school. Therefore the court v?as petitioned and a charter granted April 21, 1879. The boundary lines are surrounded by Dallas township from which it was taken entire, being a little south of the center of the township. Dwight Wolcott was chosen first burgess; council: Jacob Kice, Ira D. Shover, William Snyder, Theodore Fryman, Charles Henderson, and Philip T. Eaub. Present oflScers: Parkerson Perrego, burgess; council: William Snyder, Jacob Rice (deceased), and his son, William Eice, is filling the vacancy; William P. Kirkland, H. H. Shover, George Heitsman and John Purgerson. The one continu- ous clerk since the organization is and has been Charles H. Cooke. The borough is beautifully located; is a station on the Harvey's lake branch of the Lehigh Valley railroad and noted as a good business point. On every hand are evidences of a healthy growth in building and business. The population now is estimated at 500. The business and thrift are indicated by the organization here by the leading citizens of the Dallas Union Agricultural society, April 24, 1884, leasing grounds of William J. Honeywell. In 1890, at a meeting of the directors at Eaub's hotel in the borough to purchase the grounds, eighty acres were pur- chased, the consideration being |5,000. The first officers of the fair were Chester White, president; Philip Eaub, W. J. Honeywell, Leonard Matchell, Levi HoweU, Jacob Rice, James Morrigan, A. D. Hay, I. D. Shaver, with Charles H. Cooke as first secretary. This has, especially in the past three years, given excellent agricult- ural exhibitions, said by competent judges to be the best ever in the county. While it partakes a little of the agricultural "hoss trot" yet there is only enough of this to give zest to the real agricultural and stock displays that have marked its annual meetings of 1890-1. Their eighty acres of ground have all the needed improvements — stables, stalls, shelters, and an amphitheater seating 1,500 persons. The I. O. O. F.'s have here an elegant hall. The Oneida, No. 327, was insti- tuted in 1849, and has at present a membership of thirty -five. Other societies meet in their hall. Albert Lewis, lumber king of this region, has here a saw and planing mill. Another large similar establishment is owned by A. Eyman & Co. There are in the place 3 general stores, 1 hardware store, an elegant hotel that is much patronized as a summer resort. Gregory & Heitsman's merchant mill is quite an institution of the place. In 1889 J. J. Eyman became the prime mover in establishing, here the broom factory; he is now president and general manager — a stock company known as the Dallas Broom company. This gives employment the year round to about thirty hands, with a capacity of seventy-five dozen brooms a day, in addition to a foot-mat made that has a popular sale all over the country. This factory offers strong inducements and pays the farmers of the surrounding country well for raising broom -corn. DALLAS TOWNSHIP Was formed in 1817 of territory taken from Kingston township, and embraces a portion of one of the "certified townships." Stewart Pearce says that Ephraim McCoy, a Eevolutionary soldier, built the first log cabin in 1797 near the site of old McClellandsville (Dallas borough). Some unknown party had years before built a small floorless cabin near the same spot, it is supposed for the purpose of camping and huntmg, but it had long been deserted before McCoy came. William Briggs was the next settler. The next settlers in 'the order of coming as is supposed were Daniel Spencer, John Wort and John Kelley (Eevolutionary soldiers), and Elam Spencer, J. Mears, John Honeywell, Sr., and Jr., William Honeywell, Isaac Mon- HISTORY OF LDZEENE COUNTY. 543 tague and two Ayers brothers. William Honeywell came in 1808 and purchased 50O acres of land and built a log house and the next year a frame addition— the first frame in the township. R. M. Duffy was the first house carpenter. Judge Baldwin built on Tobey creek, in 1813, his sawmill. In 1818 Christian Rice built his sawmill on the same creek. The place descended to his son, Capt. Jacob Rice. This mill was in use until 1875. The area of the township (less Dallas borough) is twenty-one square miles and is mostly cleared farm lands — the hill farms proving productive. Stewart Pearce says, in 1866 improved farms here were valued at $30 to $45 per acre; that there were eight sawmills and two stores at that time in the township. At that time he says many farmers were turning their atten- tion to dairying and the township was noted for the excellence of its butter. It is a tradition that the first clearing in the township with the intention of settling was made in 1777 or 1778, by Charles Harris and his father. They lived in the adjoining section of the country; started out prospecting and found a place that suited them and spent a day chopping and clearing; returned home, and, as soon after was the Wyoming massacre, their return was thus delayed a considerable time and they never were able to again find the spot, although they hunted faithfully for it. The township as stated is purely agricultural since the sawmills have cut most of the once heavy timber that prevailed all over it. But two mills now remain. An account of them will more fully appear in that of the borough. Kunkle Village has its origin and name from J. Wesley Kunkle, was thus desig- nated when it was made a postoffice and he was appointed postmaster. The place has a tannery and a grange hall. It is in the north part of the township and a mile from the railroad. DENISON TOWNSHIP Is a comparatively old township, yet it was taken from one much older, being carved out of the territory of the original Hanover township, in 1839. It at that time embraced a large area as it included what is now Foster and Bear Creek town- ships; the former taken off in 1855 and the latter in 1856. At one time this region was rich in its giant forest trees, that cast their deep shade upon the mountain tops, and their still darker shadows in the deepest gorges. The l^usy axmen have cut away the forests and made merchandise of their products, and with these gone there is precious little left to either bring immigrants or keep those who were lured here to engage in lumbering. There is but little arable land in the township; that is, it is poor when compared to even the poor districts in other and newer portions of the country. A quiet change in the population is going on. The timber men and the sparse farm improvements occupied by the trucksters are taking advantage of the arrivals of the foreign immigrants and who are tempted by the low prices, are investing in these waste lands and filling their long deferred fondest hope by becoming land owners — they are thus their own landlords and perhaps such has been their severe training in economy that more or less prosperity will crown their efforts. In the decade ending 1890 there had been a loss of three in the population of Denison township, or 976 in 1880, 973 in 1890. The lumber business has just been closed out and as this class go away it seems their places are taken generally by fresh arrivals from the old world. Perhaps at least one-half of the 973 people of the township are in the corner formed by the borough of White Haven and the Lehigh river — the most of them the overflow of the north borough line. This settlement is popularly called Jeru- salem — for a long time it was called Middleburg. The first settler in the township was Israel Inman, who came up Nescopeck creek from its mouth in 1833. Inman was no ordinary wandering nomad, or silent game stalker led by hunger to track the game through the lonely forests. He was a man of broad ideas and brave enterprise — able to lay the foundations for permanent 544 HISTOBY OP LUZERNE COUNTY. and prosperous settlements. He started on his voyage into the unknown at Nescopeok and followed the creek of that name in its eastward course to its head waters, and was no doubt pleased with the increase and density of the forests. He had passed over all its long and beautiful valley and only halted when he reached its end and the great forests of the hills. The spot he selected as his permanent stopping place, where he built his rude log house and in time his sawmill, is about a half mile below where the Lehigh and Susquehanna railroad crosses the Nescopeck, west of the tunnel. The first house and the first sawmill did not fill the ambition of this man in the wilderness. He, in a few years, built a forge, and "Inman's Works " were soon known of far and wide. He owned a large tract of land surrounding his improvements. He was master of the situation — " king of Denison " until White Haven sprung suddenly into existence, and by its "booms," its logging and rafting facilities and then its canal, slack water, bear- trap dams, and to crown all, its rail- roads, sapped the vitality of Inman's " diggings " and now desolation broods over the spot where he drove it away sixty years ago; twelve lustrums and the three short steps of birth, life and death have made the circle as forever circles matter in all creation. Thus we all — everything in the universe, reach the starting point, and it is but a tick of the watch in the difference in time and size of the circles, whether of adamant or flesh and grass. Such a man as Inman would draw his followers and in a short time he had caused quite a settlement about him. Through him the outside world came to know and covet the great forest trees that covered the township. John Linespand A. P. Childs settled in the southeast corner of the township, on the Lehigh river, in 1835, and in 1838 there was enough of a settlement here to call the place Middle- burg and a postoffice established there. This place was just above the upper dam. The postofiice was abolished and all went to White Haven as soon as an office was opened there. John and Frank Lynch kept the first tavern in Middleburg, and before the place was swallowed up by White Haven, there were several stores and trading places. These too went with the tide to White Haven. Perhaps it was the knowledge that " Jerttsalem is fallen" that changed the name of Middlebury to that of Jerusalem. The next party after Inman to cut any figure in Denison township was the Lehigh Navigation ^ Coal company. They " cut " a road through the entire town- ship in order to get to Wilkes-Barre, in 1887. It ran diagonally across the town- ship in a northwestern direction from the southeast corner of the township, just above White Haven; crossed the Nescopeck about a mile below "Inman's Works." This was the traveled route between Mauch Chunk and Wilkes-Barre. Starting from Wilkes-Barre in the morning and pushing rapidly to White Haven, where you could board the elegant and swift-sailing passenger packet "Washington" you could proceed in state to Mauch Chunk. This went on in much grandeur until 1868, when was commenced building the railroad from Mauch Chunk north to Wilkes-Barre and in 1865 the beginning of passenger coaches over the road was the knell of the staging days through Denison township. The two splendid lines of railroad now parallel and criss-cross each other as they leave the Lehigh river and start across the mountains. The last steam sawmill in the township was Braden & Brown's on the Nescopeck. Moosehead is a station on the railroad— a hamlet and a postoffice. The Luzerne Ochre works are now about the chief industry in the township. A branch railroad runs to the mill. The mills and quarry of this growing industry are in Denison township, but the most of the company's land lies in Bear Creek township. About two miles above White Haven is a branch of the Lehigh Valley railroad built to the rook quarry opened by John Dunaker in 1888, in a very small way, but has now grown to the extent that the concern ships daily five or six car loads of stone to market. It is a species of gray granite and flagstone, found valuable in building and street improvement. The supply of this valuable material seems to be inex- haustible and promises to grow with the public demand. ^^^1t^