USA > Connecticut > The history of Connecticut, from the first settlement of the colony to the adoption of the present constitution, vol. II > Part 29
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Captain Ogden, who appears to have been an adept in the arts of diplomacy, as well as a gallant military officer, sent a very polite and conciliatory note to the commander of the forty, respectfully soliciting a friendly conference on the sub- ject of their respective claims. This was readily acceded . to, and Messrs. Isaac Tripp, Benjamin Follett, and Vine Elderkin were selected as the representatives of the Con- necticut party. No sooner, however, had they entered the block-house, than Sheriff Jennings clapped a writ on their shoulders, saying-" Gentlemen, in the name of the common- wealth of Pennsylvania, you are my prisoners." The pris-
* Subsequent to the purchase of the Susquehannah Company, a second associa- tion was formed in Connecticut, called the " Delaware Company," who purchased of certain Indian chiefs, " all the lands bounded east by the Delaware river, with- in the forty-second degree of north latitude, west to the line of the Susquehannah purchase, to wit, ten miles east of that river." This company commenced a set- tlement at Coshatunk, on the Delaware river, which flourished for several years- having, in 1760, thirty dwelling houses, a block-house for defense, a grist mill and saw mill.
+ These officers were Captain Amos Ogden, the military leader of the company, Charles Stewart, surveyor, afterwards aid-de-camp to General Washington, and John Jennings, Esq., High Sheriff of Northampton county.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
oners were immediately conducted to Easton jail. They were closely followed by their friends, and no sooner was the key turned than bail was entered for their appearance, and they were set at liberty. On their return to Wyoming, they found themselves in the peaceable possession of the valley. This was the beginning of a contest between the settlers under the Connecticut claim and the government of Penn- sylvania, which continued for many years.
Sheriff Jennings appears to have been not a little chagrin- ed at the result of this attempt at negotiation with the set- tlers. He forthwith raised a posse in Northampton county, and, accompanied by several magistrates, repaired to Wyo- ming, stormed the fortification of the settlers, and captured nearly the whole of them. About thirty of their number were forthwith marched off to Easton jail-a distance of sixty miles, through a dreary wilderness, and in the depth of winter. They were all committed to jail, but were almost immediately admitted to bail, as their predecessors had been, and they once more returned to their homes on the Susque- hannah. Thus, in less than sixty days after their arrival in . the valley, some of their number had been twice arrested and nearly all of them, in going and returning from jail, had traveled at least two hundred and forty miles.
By the 10th of April, the little colony had been so rein- forced by emigrants from Connecticut, that two hundred and seventy able-bodied men assembled on the bank of the river where Wilkesbarre now stands. A new fortification was erected at that point, and called Fort Durkee, after the com- mander, and twenty or thirty huts were built in its immedi- ate vicinity. Having now a brief interim of peace, the set- tlers entered upon their agricultural labors with energy, and succeeded in breaking up the ground for the reception of the seed.
By the 20th of May, Captain Ogden and Sheriff Jennings again appeared upon the plains, with their forces recruited, and assumed a hostile attitude. After reconnoitering the position of the enemy, they withdrew to Easton. In his
335
FORT DURKEE SURRENDERED.
[1769.]
report to the governor, Jennings states that the intruders mustered three hundred effective men, and that he could not collect a sufficient force in the county to dislodge them. About a month later, Colonel Turbot Francis, at the head of a splendid corps from the city, visited the plains and made a similar examination of the fortifications of the settlers ; but retired to wait for reinforcements.
In June, 1769, Colonel Eliphalet Dyer and Major Jedediah Elderkin arrived in Philadelphia as agents of the Susquehan- nah Company, vested with full power to negotiate for the settlement of the controversy respecting the Wyoming lands. The Hon. Benjamin Chew was appointed agent on the part of Pennsylvania to confer with the gentlemen named. No terms for the adjustment of their difficulties could be agreed upon.
In the beginning of the autumn, a well-armed and well- equipped corps of two hundred men, under command of Cap- tain Ogden and Sheriff Jennings, began their march for the disputed territory. An artillery company, with an iron four- pound cannon, and a supply of ball and cartridges, constitu- ted a part of this force. Ogden soon siezed Captain Durkee, sent him in irons to Philadelphia, and there closely incar- cerated him. Fort Durkee shortly after surrendered. By the articles of capitulation, three or four of the leading men were to be detained as prisoners of war ; seventeen of the Connecticut people were to remain to gather the har- vests ; and all the others, without exception, were to leave the valley immediately.
These terms were strictly complied with on the part of the settlers ; but no sooner had the people left, than Ogden, in direct violation of his pledges, began to plunder the property that had been left behind. Cattle, horses, and sheep were driven off to market. The seventeen men who were to remain on the ground, being left without any means of subsistence, were compelled to follow their friends to Connecticut. Thus the close of the year 1769 found Wyoming in full possession of the Pennsylva-
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
nians-the Yankees* having been driven from the country for the third time, their homes made desolate, their property destroyed, themselves defeated and disheartened. So at least thought their enemies, who imagined that the people of Con- necticut would now desist from all further attempts to found a colony in the valley of the Susquehannah. Fully impressed with this belief, Ogden and Jennings, leaving a guard of ten men to take charge of the public property in the fort, repair- ed to Philadelphia, to while away the winter.
Early in February, a company of men from the adjacent town of Hanover united with a few Connecticut people, under Captain Stewart, entered the valley, drove off the guard stationed at Fort Durkee, took possession of the fort, provisions, and cannon, and quietly awaited the result. The news soon reached Ogden, who hastily mustered about fifty friends, and, marching to Wyoming, took possession of his old quarters at mill creek. Major Durkee, who had by this time escaped from prison, again took the command of the settlers. A collision soon occurred, in which one of the Connecticut party was killed. Durkee now determined to drive Ogden from his position. With his single cannon he commenced the siege, and carried it forward with such suc- cess, that on the 29th of April Ogden surrendered. By the terms agreed upon, all the Pennsylvanians were to leave the valley within three days, except six men who were to remain in possession of one of the houses.
Soon after the departure of Ogden, the commander of the settlers resolved to retaliate upon the previous conduct of that officer. He forthwith expelled the six unwelcome neigh- bors as spies, seized upon the property left in their posses- sion, and burnt the fort that had been vacated by Ogden.
Governor Penn at once issued his proclamation denounc- ing the " outrageous conduct " of the intruders, and offering large rewards for their arrest. Having in vain applied for assistance to General Gage, commander-in-chief of his
Yankees " and " Pennymites," were the names by which the two parties were long known in Wyoming.
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COMMISSIONERS APPOINTED.
[1773.]
majesty's forces, whose head-quarters were then in New York, the governor directed Captain Ogden to raise as many soldiers as he could, and dispossess the Yankees of the valley. The business of recruiting proceeded so slow, that it was late in September before he reached Wyoming. His force amounted to about one hundred and fifty men. His move- ments were conducted with such secrecy, that he surprised the fort and garrison, and took a large number of prisoners, almost without opposition. A few of the officers were sent to Philadelphia, while the others were taken to the jail at Easton. The valley was again deserted by the settlers.
The triumph of the Pennsylvanians was of short duration. On the 18th of December, the sleeping garrison was startled with a "Hurrah for King George !" and Captain Stewart with thirty men took possession of the fort in behalf of Con- necticut. Six of its inmates escaped half naked to the mountains, while the remainder were expelled from the valley without ceremony.
In January, the fort again fell into the hands of Ogden ; and on the 14th of August, after a vigorous siege, it was sur- rendered to Captain Zebulon Butler.
What is known as " the first Pennymite and Yankee war," was now ended, and the Connecticut settlers on the Susque- hannah began to enjoy the blessings of peace. During the autumn, many of them went to Connecticut and brought their families into the valley. Prosperity smiled upon the labors of the husbandman, and domestic and social happiness at last crowned the struggles and privations of the war-worn combatants. A church was formed, a minister settled, schools established, and a local civil government organized.
Connecticut now determined to extend a formal and positive jurisdiction over the Susquehannah Company's purchase. To this end, in October 1773, her Legislature appointed Eliphalet Dyer, William Samuel Johnson, and Jedediah Strong, commissioners to proceed to Philadelphia, to nego- tiate an amicable settlement of the controversy. In Decem- ber they presented their credentials to Governor Penn, and 54
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
commenced the business assigned to them. All their propo- sitions were objected to and declined by Governor Penn-as they doubtless anticipated would be the case-and the com- missioners returned to Connecticut. On receiving their report, the General Assembly, in January, passed an act "erecting all the territory within her charter limits, from the river Delaware to a line fifteen miles west of the Susque- hannah, into a town, with all the corporate powers of other towns in the colony, to be called Westmoreland, attaching it to the county of Litchfield." Zebulon Butler and Nathan Denison were commissioned justices of the peace for the new town. Governor Trumbull issued a proclamation forbidding any settlement within the limits of Westmoreland, except under the authority of Connecticut .*
Captain Butler and Mr. Joseph Sluman were chosen the first representatives from Westmoreland to the Legislature of Connecticut.
As may well be supposed, the spirit that had roused the people of the colonies to resist the oppressive acts of the mother country, met with a cordial response from the settlers of Wyoming. Long accustomed, as they had been, to resist oppression at home, they were among the first to protest against the encroachments of a foreign despotism. As early as August 1775, in town meeting, they passed a vote express ing their acquiescence in the action of the Continental Con- gress, and declaring that they would "unanimously join their brethren in America in the common cause of defending their liberty."
In the fall of 1775, the governor of Pennsylvania resolved to renew the war against the people of Wyoming, who had now enjoyed a period of four years of uninterrupted peace. Colonel Plunket, with seven hundred men in his train, returning from an expedition against the settlements at Judea and Charlestown, arrived at the mouth of Nescopeck creek,
* The governor of Pennsylvania also issued a proclamation about the same time, prohibiting any settlement on contested claims, " under pretended grants from Connecticut," or any other than the authority of Pennsylvania.
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INDIANS AND TORIES.
[1776-'7.]
on the 20th of December. Congress having been informed that an attack upon Wyoming was contemplated, interposed in behalf of the settlers-recommending "that the con- tending parties immediately cease all hostilities, and avoid every appearance of force, until the dispute can be legally settled."
This advice came too late to be of any avail. Plunket arriv- ed upon the borders of the valley on the 23d. As his force . was nearly double that of all the settlements in the valley, his appearance was the occasion of much alarm. Colonel Z. Butler, with the most strenuous exertions, succeeded in collecting together about three hundred men and boys ; but as there were not guns enough to supply them all, some of them appeared on the ground with scythes fastened upon handles. He selected his position and fortified it as well as circumstances would permit. On the 23d and 24th, Butler's fortification was attacked, two or three skirmishes took place, and several persons were killed. The expedition ended in the inglorious retreat of Plunket and his army .*
During the years of 1776 and 1777, few events occurred in the valley that need to be repeated here. As among the patriotic citizens in other parts of the country, strenuous efforts were made to raise and equip their quota of soldiers, to supply the families of the absent,t and to provide means for their own safety and defense. Occasionally the Indians and tories would make an incursion into their vicinity, and kill or take captive such objects of their hatred as might
* Mr. Miner, (Hist. of Wyoming, p. 180,) introduces evidence to show that Colonel P. was identical with the Dr. Plunket, an apothecary, who was concerned with James Maclean in several highway robberies committed on Hounslow Heath, England, in 1750, an account of which may be found in the London Gentleman's Magazine for September of that year. Among the persons assaulted by Maclean and Plunket, was Lord Eglington. It is stated that Colonel Plunket acknowl- edged that he was associated with Maclean in the robberies alluded to ; and that he was recognized in this country by persons who had known him in England.
+ Town Meeting, Westmoreland, Dec. 30th, 1777, " Voted by this town, that the committee of inspection be empowered to supply the soldiers' wives and the soldiers' widows, and their families, with the necessaries of life."
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fall in their way ;* but though war raged around them, the people of Wyoming dwelt in comparative quiet.
At the October session of the Connecticut Legislature, 1776, Westmoreland had been erected into a county. Jona- than Fitch, Esq., was commissioned as the first high sheriff of the new organization, and other county officers were soon after appointed.
It appears that sweet Wyoming was after all a part of Connecticut. Her sons were there with their good English names, shrewd sense, unostentatious home-bred tastes, habits of economy, schools, religion, laws, industry, and valor. Let us suppose that we too are there, and that it is early January of the eventful year 1778. Hill and glade smile as the morning sun glances over the mountain, to woo and melt at last the cold unsullied snow. The hale cattle, and the dainty sheep, nipping the hay that lies in heaps around the stack in the open meadow, while the farmer, who has just fed them, stands with his hands in his pockets regarding their growth with a complacent smile that is the outward sign of the promise that his heart has made to itself of thrift for his sons and marriage portions for his daughters, are additional features in the picture. Should he ask you to accompany him home and breakfast with him, you need not excuse yourself or hesitate lest his busy wife and pretty daughters whose com- plexions show that they once belonged to Litchfield county, should blush at the scantiness of the repast. They will set before you buckwheat cakes and venison, or it may be salt fish and the nice fragments of the wild turkey that flanked the loin of beef for yesterday's dinner. t
The whole family circle will have the questioning curiosity that belongs to their origin, and why should they not be
* In 1777, an old man, named Fitzgerald, was taken prisoner by the tories, who placed him on a flax-brake, and told him he must either renounce his "rebel principles," or die. " Well," said he, "I am old, and have little time to live any- how ; and I had rather die now a friend to my country, than to live ever so long, and die a tory !" They thought him incorrigible and let him go.
+ See Miner's Hist. 208-'9.
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A STORM GATHERING.
[1778.]
indulged ? These are revolutionary times. What is Wash- ington doing since the last Indian runner brought the news from the north ? What is Putnam doing at Reading since the last arrival of the post-rider from Hartford ? Well may they ask questions, for what new wonder is to follow the battle of Germantown and the capture of Burgoyne ?
It was in every sense a Connecticut settlement. Its electors had all taken the new oath of allegiance to her as a sove- reign state. On the 13th of April, one hundred and twenty- nine more were added to the number of self-taxing citizen electors-making in all two hundred and sixty-nine. They chose John Dorrance collector of the state tax, and Nathan Denison and Anderson Dana representatives to the General Assembly that was to meet at Hartford in May. On the 21st of the same month, the voters of Westmoreland held another meeting, and in obedience to the advice of his excellency, Governor Trumbull, and the recommendation of the Assem- bly, fixed the rates of labor and the prices of all produce and manufactured articles .*
Early in the year, it began to be whispered abroad that the Indians were gathering to make an attack upon Westmoreland. But the mothers and daughters of Wyoming, if they grew pale at the news, did not shrink from the hard duties that are impos- ed upon women in new settlements in times of war or threat- ened public calamity. They were already inured to dangers. While their husbands and lovers had been absent from home fighting the battles of their country against the British, Indians, and tories, they had made the hay, hoed the corn, husked it and gathered it home. At last, a little cannon had been brought
* Among these items were the following, viz : "Good yarn stockings, a pair 10s. ; laboring women, at spinning, a week, 6s. ; winter-fed beef, a pound, 7s. ; taverners, for dinner, of the best, per meal, 2s. ; metheglin, per gallon 7s. ; beaver skins, per lb. 18s. ; shad, apiece, 6d. ; beaver hats, of the best, 4l. ; for two oxen, per day, and tackling, 3s. ; good hemp-seed, a bushel, 15s. ; men's labor, at farming, the three summer months, per day, 5s. 3d. ; good check flannel, yard wide, 8s. ; good tow and linen, yard wide, 6s. ; good white flannel, yard wide, 5s. ; tobacco, in bank or leaf, per lb., 9d .; taverners, for mug of flip, with two gills of rum in it, 4s. ; good barley, per bushel, 8s ; shoeing horse all round, 88. ; eggs, per doxen, 8d. ; strong beer, by the barrel, 2l."
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
up the river to defend the settlement ; and so far were these good wives and daughters from running away and stopping their ears to keep out the sound of its sharp, spiteful voice, that they took up the floors of their humble houses, and dug up the earth from beneath them, leached it in casks, and then mixed the thin fluid with the ley of wood-ashes, and after having boiled them together, set the decoction away to cool, until the salt-petre rose to the top. Then they pulverized the charcoal and ground the sulphur, and mingling the home- made ingredients in due proportion, they made gun-powder to fill the horns of their husbands, and to gorge the black throat. of this fierce bull-dog that had come to keep guard over Wyoming.
From Niagara and the Indian country that skirted the town, it was rumored that the British and Indians were making ready to invade the valley. Not only did the patriot- ism of the inhabitants tempt such an invasion, but the very situation of this settlement-the only one of any importance above the Blue Ridge, and forming as it did a troublesome barrier between the savage tribes of the mountains and the German towns of the low country-pointed it out for destruction. After all the Indians in the valley and all the tories from that neighborhood, had begun to flock to the stand- ard of the enemy, Congress, on the 16th of March, passed the following resolution :
"Resolved, That one full company of foot be raised in the town of Westmoreland, on the east bank of the Susquehan- nah, for the defense 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 enlist- ing, unless sooner discharged by Congress."
As if to mock that brave people, a clause was added to the resolution, " that the company find their own arms, accoutre- ments and blankets."
A large proportion of the effective men of the settlement, under the command of Durkee and Ransom, were already
343
SCOUTING PARTIES AND SPIES.
[1778.]
absent with the army-scarcely a sufficient number being left at home to save the women and children from starvation, and to keep guard around their dwellings. The people had been taxed to their utmost capacity to arm and equip the soldiers who were already in the field ; and the additional burden now imposed upon them by Congress, was felt to be unnecessary and unjust. True, the company ordered to be raised, was in part designed for their own protection ; and so, as they had supposed, were the companies previously raised in the valley. What guarantee had they that the new recruits might not be wanted elsewhere, and that thus the settlement would be left without any other means of defense than such as the old men, women and children might be able to afford ?
In May, little scouting parties of the inhabitants of West- moreland began to meet those sent out by the enemy. The latter appeared to be keeping watch of the former, and though they did no acts of violence, yet they probably made it a principal part of their business to learn where the settlement was most assailable, and at the same time to cut off all com- munication between them and the upper country, so that they might remain in ignorance of the preparations that were going on there. A single man was shot by the Indians.
A few days afterwards, a scouting party of six persons was fired upon about four miles from Tunkhannock. Two men were wounded-one of them mortally-but they fled to their canoes, and dropped down the river.
Soon after this occurrence, two Indians, who had once lived at Wyoming, came down with their squaws, under pre- tence of paying a friendly visit. They were soon suspected to be spies, and were closely watched. At last, an old com- panion of one of them, who knew his weak points, invited him to drink, and repeated this agreeable act of hospitality so many times, that his guest was finally in a favorable mood to reveal secrets. He frankly confessed that his people were meditating an attack upon the place, and that he had visited it as a spy. This frightful intelligence drove the inhabitants
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
to the verge of despair. The people in the border districts took refuge in the forts, and the wives of the soldiers sent . message after message to their absent husbands, begging them as they loved them and their tender babes, to come home. Still, the Congress refused to let them go. This last piece of intelligence was so peculiarly startling, that every com- missioned officer from Wyoming, except two, resigned, and hastened homeward. Some of the privates also deserted. At this point, Congress was compelled to interfere. On the 23d of June they resolved, "that the two independent com- panies lately commanded by Captains Durkee and Ransom, which were raised in the town of Westmoreland, be united, and form one company." From the preamble of this resolve, it appears that the number of non-commissioned officers and privates remaining was eighty-six. The new company was ordered to march to Lancaster, and, soon after, when too late, to Wyoming.
By this time the enemy had concentrated themselves at Newtown and Tioga, (the latter being a part of the town of Westmoreland ; ) and every man capable of bearing arms was called into service and drilled. The assistance, in this depart- ment, of two deserters from the British army, named Boyd* and Pike, was called into requisition, and proved very accepta- ble. The women and children were gathered into the forts. The only cannon in the valley was in Wilkesbarre fort, and, having no ball, it could only be used as an alarm-gun. All was bustle and anxiety. It was soon ascertained that the force of the enemy consisted of Colonel John Butler's rang- ers, a detachment of Sir John Johnson's royal greens, a few tories from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York-in all about four hundred ; together with six or seven hundred Indians. Descending the river, they landed about twenty miles above the valley, and marched across the peninsula- arriving on the western mountain on the evening of the 29th or morning of the 30th of June.
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