USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Wilkes-Barre > A history of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania : from its first beginnings to the present time, including chapters of newly-discovered early Wyoming Valley history, together with many biographical sketches and much genealogical material. Volume V > Part 1
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Eng'd by Campbell NEVE
A HISTORY OF
WILKES-BARRE
LUZERNE COUNTY PENNSYLVANIA
FROM ITS FIRST BEGINNINGS TO THE PRESENT TIME; INCLUDING CHAPTERS OF NEWLY-DISCOVERED
EARLY WYOMING VALLEY HISTORY
TOGETHER WITH MANY BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES AND MUCH GENEALOGICAL MATERIAL
BEGUN BY
OSCAR JEWELL HARVEY, A. M.
AUTHOR OF "A HISTORY OF LODGE NO. 61, F. & A. M.", "THE HARVEY BOOK", "A HISTORY OF IREM TEMPLE", ETC.
AND COMPLETED BY
ERNEST GRAY SMITH, M. S., LL. B.
, PRESIDENT AND EDITOR OF THE WILKES-BARRE TIMES-LEADER
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A
ILLUSTRATED WITH MANY PORTRAITS, MAPS, FACSIMILES, ORIGINAL DRAWINGS AND CONTEMPORARY VIEWS
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VOLUME V BIOGRAPHICAL WILKES-BARRE, PA.
1930
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V& H34
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Contents of Volumes V and VI (See Index in Volume VI).
CHAPTER
PAGE
XLIX-Bench and Bar I
L-The Medical Profession 27
LI-Banks and Banking 43
LII-The Anthracite Coal Industry in its Modern Development 58
LIII-The Manufacturing Industries. 85
LIV-Education 90
LV-Mercantile Interests 99
LVI-The Press 104
LVII-The Townships of Luzerne County IIO
LVII-(Continued) The Cities and Boroughs of Luzerne County . 140
Biographical 173
CHAPTER XLIX. BENCH AND BAR.
From 1762, when Connecticut first attempted to settle the region of the Susquehanna, to the year 1771, when the physical strife between Connecticut and Pennsylvania ended in the ousting of Pennsylvania armed forces from the valley, little had been done to bring the forms of law and civil government into regular functioning. In 1772, with Connecticut's authority recognized, town committees began to take up matters of law-at least to the extent of deciding land rights. Apparently, they made fair decisions, for, it is recorded that the year happily passed without "justice or lawyers." Local government in that year was patterned, temporarily, after the customary New England plan of town government, the settlers gathering in town meeting and electing Captain Stephen Fuller as moderator. One of the resolutions adopted was to forfeit the goods of, or to expel, any settler who was found guilty of selling spirituous liquors to the Indians.
On June 2, 1773, a code of rules and laws for the government of the Susque- hanna colony was adopted by Connecticut, at a meeting in Hartford. The preamble of this historic document refers to the strife between Connecticut and Pennsylvania. As loyal subjects of King George III, the colony of Con- necticut pledged itself to refer all proper questions to the King's counsellors, and to be peaceful, loyal upholders of the laws. They 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."
Accordingly, in December of that year, male settlers who were of major age, met in the townships of the Susquehanna country, to choose town directors. Those first appointed were as follows :
Wilkes-Barre-Major John Durkee, Captain Zebulon Butler and Obadiah Gore, Jr. Plymouth-Phineas Noah, Captain David Marvin and J. Gaylord. New Providence-Isaac Tripp, Timothy Keys and Gideon Baldwin. Kingston-Captain Obadiah Gore, Nathan Denison and Parshall Terry. Pittston-Caleb Bates, James Brown and Lemuel Harding. Hanover- Captain Lazarus Stewart, William Stewart and John Franklin.
These, then, were the pioneer forces of law and orderly government within what is now Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. Fuller organization was effected in 1774, Connecticut then boldly asserting its right to the disputed territory in January, by legislative act which put all these settlements into one town- Westmoreland. Zebulon Butler and Nathan Denison were commissioned as justices, and with the subdivision of the township into districts, or precincts. corresponding in names and locations with the settlements already estab- lished, the Town of Westmoreland took regular Connecticut status, and full governmental dignity. No fewer than one hundred of the settlers were elected to town office, the list including selectmen, constables, collectors, surveyors, fence viewers, listers, leather sealers, grand jurors, tything men, sealers of weights and measures, key keepers. The grand jurors were Jabez Sills, James Stark, William Buck, Elias Church, Phineas Nash, Thomas Heath, Barnabas Cary, Lemuel Harding, Hezekiah Bingham, John Franklin, Timothy Keys.
In April, 1774, application was made to the Connecticut Assembly for a Court of Probate, and a tree near Captain Butler's house was designated as
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"ye town sign post." It was also the town whipping post, a pair of stocks being placed at that public spot. At one town meeting of that year nine of the most discreet and respected settlers were appointed as a committee "to make inquiry into the search after all suspected persons whom they may judge to be 'unwholesome persons to the good settlers,'" with a view to the expulsion of such undesirables from the town. Whether these suspected undesirables were only the settlers who had intruded without permission upon township lands, or were those apprehended for crimes more serious than those which could be expiated at the whipping post or pillory, is not clear.
In the first year of the Revolution, the Pennsylvania Government sought to end, by force of arms instead of by legal debate, the dispute with Connecticut over the Susquehanna lands. Colonel Plunkett, at the head of seven hundred Pennsylvanians, marched into the Wyoming Valley, but was countered by a resolute force of settlers under Colonel Butler, and again checked by Captain Lazarus Stewart's company. With the retreat of Plunkett, Connecticut seemed to be still further strengthened in jurisdiction of the Susquehanna country. At that time the population of the Town of Westmoreland was almost two thousand (1.922 in 1774), sufficient it was deemed to advance the town to county dignity. In 1776, therefore, the county of Westmoreland was organized, the districts now becoming townships. John Jenkins was appointed "judge of the county."
In 1782, a Federal Court sitting at Trenton decided that the land north of latitude 41° claimed by Pennsylvania, but settled by Connecticut, was rightly a part of Pennsylvania. Connecticut bowed to the decision; therefore, Con- necticut civil and judicial records of this part of Pennsylvania should have ended with the year 1782. Giving that part of the Civil List which has to do with Bench and Bar while the region was within the jurisdiction of Con- necticut, it seems that the following justices of the peace were judges of Probate of Westmoreland County, Connecticut: John Smith, Thomas Maf- fitt, Isaac Baldwin, John Jenkins, Zebulon Butler, Silas Parks, Bushnell Bostick, Joseph Sloman, John Sherman and Nathan Denison. On June I, 1778, Governor Jonathan Trumbull appointed justices for the county as fol- lows: Nathan Denison, Christopher Avery, Obadiah Gore, Zera Beach, Zebu- lon Butler, William McKarrican, Asaph Whittlesey, Uriah Chapman, Ander- son Dana, Ebenezer Marcy, Stephen Harding, John Franklin, 2d, Joseph Hambleton, William Judd. The first four named were appointed "to assist the judges." Other justices during the Connecticut period were: Caleb Bates, Zebulon Marcy, John Hurlbut, Nathaniel Landon, Abel Pierce, Hugh Fordman, John Franklin, John Vincent and John Jenkins. Nathan Denison was appointed judge of the county in 1781. The two pioneer lawyers were Anderson Dana and a Mr. Bullock. Both were killed at the Battle of Wyom- ing; whereupon, it seems, the court appointed Lieutenant John Jenkins as "State's Attorney."
Under Pennsylvania jurisdiction, the Wyoming Valley was within the bounds of the county of Northampton, which had been organized in 1752, out of Bucks County. But, of course, Northampton County exercised little author- ity in the disputed region. In 1772, Northumberland County was formed. With the termination of the dispute in 1782, Pennsylvania gave this other county-Northumberland-authority to administer the former Connecticut lands. Luzerne County was not created until the passage of the act of Septem- ber 25, 1786. During the Northumberland period, the following were justices of the peace at Wyoming, all appointed in April, 1783: Alexander Patterson, Robert Martin, John Chambers and David Mead, all recorded as "of North- umberland County"; John Seely, Henry Shoemaker and Luke Brodhead, recorded as "of Northampton County." Nathan Denison was also appointed, but he refused to act.
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The Act of Assembly, approved September 26, 1786, creating Luzerne County, organized the county into three election districts. In each of these districts four justices of the peace were to be elected. Votes were cast in the Third District (at Sheshequin) on April 19, 1787, and the following were elected : Obadiah Gore, Elijah Buck, Nathan Kingsley and Joseph Kinney. In the First District (Wilkes-Barre), election took place on April 26, the suc- cessful candidates being Mathias Hollenback, William Hooker Smith, Chris- topher Hurlbut and Ebenezer Marcy. The four justices for the Second Dis- trict were elected at Forty Fort on May 3, 1787. They were Benjamin Car- penter, James Nesbitt, Hezekiah Roberts and John Dorrance.
Commissioner Pickering left Wilkes-Barre on May 6, and four days later reported to the Supreme Executive Council, at Philadelphia, the results of the Luzerne County elections. Next day, May II, the Council chose from these twelve justices two from each district to serve as associate justices of the County Court of Common Pleas. The six chosen and commissioned, on May II, 1787, were: Mathias Hollenback and William Hooker Smith, of the First District ; Benjamin Carpenter and James Nesbitt, of the Second District ; Obadiah Gore and Nathan Kingsley, of the Third District.
These Common Pleas justices were to sit also, when needed, as judges of the Orphans' Court, and the Court of Quarter Sessions and Oyer and Termi- ner. Over the last-named court, however, none but judges of the State Supreme Court could preside.
On May 24, Colonel Anthony Pickering and Daniel Hiester, Jr., left Phila- delphia, to act as commissioners of the Confirming Law and to organize the courts of the new county. They reached Wilkes-Barre on Monday, May 28, and next day, May 29, the opening session of the first court of Luzerne County began. It was held in the house of Zebulon Butler, and from the entry which begins Minute Book No. I, of the Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace, it seems that there were present on that day only three of the six com- missioned associate justices of the Court of Common Pleas. They were Wil- liam Hooker Smith, Benjamin Carpenter and James Nesbitt. After High Sheriff Lord Butler had commanded "all persons to keep silence," the commis- sions issued by the Supreme Executive Council to the six local justices of Common Pleas were read, also the Dedimus Potestatum given by the Supreme Council to Timothy Pickering and Nathan Denison, to "administer the oaths to persons who were, or should be, commissioned in said county"; whereupon the justices present, Messrs. Smith, Carpenter and Nesbitt, "took the oaths of allegiance and of office, and Justices of the Peace, and of the County Court of Common Pleas for said County. ... before Timothy Pickering, Esq."
The court was then opened, and Dr. Joseph Sprague was appointed crier. Various commissions granted by the Supreme Executive Council to Colonel Pickering were also read. Among the many county offices to which he had been appointed were those of Prothonotary of Court of Common Pleas, Clerk of the Peace, Clerk of the Orphans' Court, Register for the Probate of Wills, and Recorder of Deeds. He held also a judgeship of Common Pleas, to facili- tate his work as prothonotary. This was customary, although only upon unusual occasions would a prothonotary sit on the bench.
The only business done in the first session of court seems to have been the administering of oath to four attorneys who applied for admittance to practice, and the hearing of petition presented by Lord Butler, "Esq.," relative "to the erecting of a jail." The four attorneys sworn were Ebenezer Bowman, Put- nam Catlin. Roswell Welles and William Nichols. In a letter to his wife, on May 29, Colonel Pickering refers to Attorneys Catlin and Welles as "two young gentlemen from Connecticut, who have been here a few months."
The oath of allegiance, as well as the oath of office as Justice of the County Court of Common Pleas, was administered by Colonel Pickering to Mathias
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Hollenback on June 2. 1787, and to Obadiah Gore and Nathan Kingsley a week later. The organization of the courts of Luzerne County was completed by the appointment of Obadiah Gore as "President Judge of the County Court," he being the unanimous choice of his associates on the bench.
The second term of court opened on September 5, 1787. Seemingly. the third term of court was not held until a year later. Then, as is shown on page 1613, a most important case was pending. Fourteen men were indicted as participants in "a riot, rout, unlawful assembly, assault and battery and false imprisonment of Timothy Pickering, for nineteen days." Twelve other resi- dents were implicated, and all were bound over in various sums to "appear personally before the Justices of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, at their next session of Oyer and Terminer, to be holden at Wilkesbarre." The ring- leader, Col. John Franklin, had already been arrested, and imprisoned in Philadelphia.
It was, indeed, a plot to "subvert the Government and to erect a new and independent State in the room and stead thereof." So it happened that the first session of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania held in Luzerne County had to decide one of the most serious major cases of Pennsylvania history-a charge of high treason, which held the attention of almost all Pennsylvanians.
On November 2, 1788, the Attorney-General, then at Easton, advised the Council that "The Judges set out for Luzerne tomorrow. John Franklin went forward this day under the custody of Sheriff Butler." In due course, the cavalcade approached and entered Wilkes-Barre. The impressive occasion has been well described on page 1621. And in due course, on November 4, 1788, Chief Justice Thomas Mckean took his seat as presiding justice of the first session of Supreme Court ever held in Luzerne County. Seated beside him was Associate Supreme Court Justice Jacob Rush. Present also was Edward Burt, Prothonotary of the Supreme Court. The proceedings are reported in detail, on page 1621, et seq., and are merely referred to here, because it would hardly be proper to omit altogether, from a survey of the Bench and Bar, all reference to an event of such unique importance.
In 1790 Pennsylvania adopted a new Constitution. By its provisions the judicial powers were vested "in a supreme court, courts of oyer and terminer and jail delivery ; courts of common pleas, orphans' courts, register court and court of quarter-sessions 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 behavior. The supreme court judges were c.r-officio justices of oyer and terminer courts in the several coun- ties ; the governor to appoint for each county at least three and not more than four judges of the county; the State divided into six judicial districts, 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 over and terminer, and two of the lay judges could hold a court of quarter sessions and orphans' court." Most of the judicial offices were appointive, and the Gov- ernor was restricted in his choice of president judges to those who were "skilled in the law."
The new judicial system undoubtedly raised the standard of judicial find- ings. Formerly, in local courts, the legal decision-in Common Pleas and lower courts-depended more upon the integrity and common sense of the lay judges, who constituted the bench, than upon their knowledge of law ;* but laymen were no longer expected to decide a complicated legal issue. The local justices were to be under the guidance of the professional judge, the president judge, much as under the English system the local lay justices are under the guidance of the professional member, the Stipendiary Magistrate. Neverthe-
*On June 25, 1787, after organizing the Luzerne County Courts, Colonel Pickering reported to the Supreme Executive Council that the Luzerne County justices were quite "destitute of the laws of the State."-See Vol. III, p. 1576.
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less. the lay judges were apt to be men of strong and independent minds. There are many instances in Pennsylvania judicial history of associate judges differing with the professional members of their court, much to the chagrin of the supposedly better judge of law, the president judge. Judge Rush, the pioneer professional judge in the Luzerne County judicial district, more than once excoriated the lay judges of his court for findings with which he, a pro- found student of the laws, could not agree.
Under the new State Constitution, justices of the peace became appointive officers, or at least those that were to sit in Common Pleas Court did. The old election districts were reorganized, Luzerne County, under the reorganiza- tion, having ten districts from which to draw justices of the peace. The rec- ords show appointment of justices as follows: 1791, Lawrence Myers, King- ston Township; Arnold Colt and William Ross, Solomon Avery and John Phillips. Wilkes-Barre District; Guy Maxwell, Tioga District; Peter Grubb and Nathan Beach, Kingston District; Christopher Hurlbut, Wilkes-Barre District : Joseph Kinney and Isaac Hancock, Tioga District: Minna Dubois, Willingboro Township: John Paul Schlott, Wilkes-Barre Town and Town- ship. This does not seem a complete record, but, such as it is, it is culled from Bradsby's "History of Luzerne County." Another local work, covering that part of Luzerne County which is now Susquehanna County, gives the follow- ing information : "Among these (ten) districts were the Sixth District, which was formed from Braintrim and Wyalusing, having two hundred and twenty-five taxables, who elected H. D. Champion, Jonathan Stevens and Guy Wells justices. The Ninth District was Rush, with one hundred and three taxables, who elected Isaac Hancock justice. The Tenth District, which was composed of Willingborough, Lanesville and Nicholson townships, with two hundred and eighty-six taxables, elected John Marcy, Thomas Tiffany and Asa Eddy justices."t
While it was from such groups of justices of the peace that the Governors usually appointed the associate judges of Common Pleas, it was by no means compulsory. Section three of the Act of April 13, 1791, reads: "In and for each of the said (judicial) districts, or circuits, a person of knowledge and integrity, skilled in the laws, shall be appointed and commissioned by the governor, to be president and judge of the courts of common pleas, within such district or circuit, and that a number of other proper persons, not fewer than three nor more than four, shall be appointed and commissioned judges of the courts of common pleas, in and for each and every of the counties of this commonwealth, which said presidents and judges shall, after the said thirty- first day of August next, respectively, have and execute all and singular the powers, jurisdictions and authorities of judges of the courts of common pleas, judges of the courts of oyer and terminer and general gaol delivery, judges of the orphans' courts and justices of the courts of quarter sessions of the peace, agreeably to the laws and constitution of this commonwealth." Not all jus- tices of the peace could sit on the bench of Common Pleas, but all local lay judges of that court could exercise the powers of the justice of the peace, "so far as relates to criminal matters." The judges of the Common Pleas Court could act as justices of Oyer and Terminer and General Gaol delivery, for the trial of capital and other offenders, except "when the judges of the Supreme Court. or any of them, shall be sitting in the same county."
Under the first constitution of Pennsylvania, the Supreme Court had held most of its sessions en banc in Philadelphia. By the new Constitution, how- ever, the justices were required to go on circuit duty regularly. Thus can it be said. beyond conjecture, that to the little "primitive temple of justice,"-a hewn log structure, more useful than ornamental, and only 25-50 feet-at Wilkes-Barre the highest judicial functionaries of the great Commonwealth
*"Centennial History of Susquehanna County, Pa.," by Rhamanthus M. Stocker, p. 70.
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would come in all their pomp and dignity-in their knee-breeches and buckled shoes, their periwigs and their togas, adding regal dignity to the judicial by their rattling scabbards and flashing sword-hilts. The populace would witness impressive ceremonies, and the majesty of the law was apparently not in the least belittled by the fact that the courthouse at Wilkes-Barre, in 1791, was merely the upper story of the jail and jailor's quarters. The august dignitaries of the highest court of the Commonwealth, as they solemnly passed Jailor Stephen Tuttle's front door and mounted the outside steps that led to the court room on the second story, would no doubt have noticed over the door the "cake and beer sign," which the jailor's good wife had nailed there. And, having noticed it, possibly other thoughts than that of an affront to the dignity of their court, would have come in their minds. In any case, they would hardly have ordered the sign removed, as likely to detract from the awe- inspiring majesty and impressive dignity that all citizens should see in the powerful arm of government of which they were the august custodians. They knew that conditions on the frontier could not all be patterned after those of Philadelphia, but at the same time they recognized that to forego any of the pompous ceremony of "court days" in the "back woods" would be harmful to the majesty of the law. Therefore, when such a high dignitary as Chief Jus- tice Thomas McKean went on circuit, the full glamour of the Supreme Court went with him; and whether the setting was in city or in frontier town, he was ever the impressive central figure. He had been Chief Justice under the old Constitution and had been continued under the new. His associate jus- tices on the Supreme Court bench, in 1791, were Edward Shippen, Jasper Yeates and William Bradford, Jr., all jurists of the highest professional stand- ing and aristocratic connection. Presumably, in their new circuit responsi- bilities, some or all of these Supreme Court judges would periodically visit Luzerne County and hold court in the Wilkes-Barre log courthouse; and, so, would give the Wilkes-Barre settlers some idea of the majesty of the law. Judge Conyngham, in 1856, at the corner-stone laying of the third courthouse at Wilkes-Barre, referred to the old-time pomp that surrounded the visiting judges. He said: "There were some ceremonies connected with the courts now entirely abrogated. At the opening of every term the sheriff, with his staff of office, attended by the crier of the court, and frequently by several con- stables, waited upon the judges at their lodgings, and then conducted them in formal procession to the courthouse. Justices Mckean, Smith and others, of the Supreme Court, always wore swords when they attended court, some bear- ing rapiers and other heavier weapons." Their tours were taken long before the time of the railroads, before that of canals, almost before the time of the stage coach, and in some instances even before the time of good wagon roads. The only comfortable mode of travel was on horseback. So these Supreme Court judges would start from Philadelphia on horseback, with their library in a pair of saddle-bags-at least as much of it as they could stow into the bags, though it must be inferred that they carried most of their law in their heads, for their saddle-bags would be needed for other things than books. They would depart usually accompanied by lawyers-for in those days the leading lawyers "rode the circuit" with the judges. At Easton, sometimes, more lawyers would join the cavalcade, and the journey would continue farther and farther from the long-settled parts of the State. The farther they went, the more primitive would be the accommodation. There was a log tav- ern in the backwoods of Pike County, on one of the old State roads. There, the court would sometimes stay overnight. Once, they did not reach the place until long after the tavern-keeper had retired to bed. He was awakened somewhat violently, it seems, and apparently did not like being disturbed. Opening his bedroom window, he yelled: "What do you want?" The tired judges, seated upon their horses, replied: "We want to stay here all night."
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