A history of Columbia County, Pennsylvania. From the earliest times., Part 36

Author: Freeze, John G. (John Gosse), 1825-1913
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Bloomsburg, Pa. : Elwell & Bittenbender
Number of Pages: 594


USA > Pennsylvania > Columbia County > A history of Columbia County, Pennsylvania. From the earliest times. > Part 36


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The Quartermaster's Department will furnish the necessary transportation.


By order of the President of the United States.


(Signed.)


E. D. TOWNSEND. Assistant Adjutant General.


Official,


R. WILLIAMS, Ass't. Adj't. General.


It will be observed that Kessler was to be sent home in charge of a guard, because he was incapable of taking care of himself. And yet he had undergone protracted imprisonment, under a se- vere and ignominious sentence, for an offence which, from the very nature of the case, he was incapable of committing !


THE CASE OF DYER L. CHAPIN.


This gentleman was, in 1864, a merchant and justice of the peace resident at New Columbus on the border of Luzerne county, and had previously represented that county in the Legislature. He was arrested and taken to Benton church. 31st August, 1864, and thence, with the other citizen prisoners, to Fort Mifflin on the Delaware, where he was detained until taken to Harrisburg for trial on the 19th of December following. On the 28th of December he was tried before the Military Commission and promptly and honorably acquitted. He was finally discharged from custody on Saturday the 31st of the same month and per- mitted to return home, having been precisely four months within the grasp of military power.


The following is the official announcement of the finding in his case, as approved by Maj. Gen. Cadwallader, in general orders No. 4, dated at head quarters, Department of Pennsylvania, Phil- adelphia, January 14th, 1865.


"Before a Military Commission which convened at Harrisburg, Pa., pursuant to Special Orders * and of which Brig. General


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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.


Thomas A. Rowley, U. S. Vols., is president, were arraigned and tried :" * *


"2nd .- Dyer L. Chapin, a citizen of Luzerne county, Pa., on the following charge and specification :


Charge :- Aiding and abetting resistance to the draft.


Specification :- In this ; that the said Dyer L. Chapin, did furnish, sell and deliver to one Francis M. Ikeler, gun caps and two pounds of lead, more or less, to be used against United States soldiers coming up the valley of Fishingcreek, in Columbia county, Pa., knowing the same were to be used for the purpose of resisting the said soldiers of the United States :


This done on or about August 14th, 1864, at or about the vil- lage of New Columbus, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania.


To which charge and specification the accused, Dyer L. Cha- pin, a citizen of Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, plead "not guilty."


Finding :- The Commission after mature deliberation on the evidence adduced, finds the accused, Dyer L. Chapin, a citizen of Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, as follows :


Of the Specification, Not Guilty.


Of the Charge,. Not Guilty.


And the Commission does therefore acquit him."


The accusation on which Mr. Chapin was tried appears almost farcical upon its face ; but slight and frivolous as it was, it was found to be unjust and false. Besides, it was either concocted some time after his arrest or made to take the place of more material matters of accusation which could not be sustained. It was first heard of, or produced in a formal manner, when Col. Albright came upon his expedition as an evidence hunter toward the end of September, but other matters of accusation, or a differ- ent form of the same accusation, would seem to have been bruited about before. We have heard that a bill or voucher of Mr. Chapin's for "2 Ibs of lead," was read or reported as "2 bbls. of lead;" the clear inference being that he was engaged in pro- curing or furnishing supplies for the so called "insurrection." Another wonderful statement made concerning him is ventilated in the correspondence which we subjoin. We submit it without remarks as it fully explains itself.


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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.


CORRESPONDENCE.


NEW COLUMBUS, PA. March, 2d, 1870.


MESSRS. P. C. WADSWORTH, AND JACOB FITZGERALD,-Dear Sirs ;- Will you do me the favor to reduce to writing a statement made in your presence by Gwynn Tyreman concerning a report that he had put in circulation about seeing my team hauling a cannon through Town Hill, the latter part of the summer of 1864 and oblige


Yours very respectfully


D. L. CHAPIN.


TOWN HILL, PA. March 3d, 1870. 5


HON. D. L. CHAPIN .- Dear Sir :- Your favor of the second in- stant is before us, and contents noted. In compliance with your request we annex the following statement.


About the time the military forces of the United States were marched up Fishingcreek, in the latter part of the summer of 1864, it was reported that Gwynn Tyreman had occasion to be up late one bright moonlight night, and had seen your team pass through Town Hill between midnight and daylight with a cannon which your team was hauling to Benton or Fishingcreek in Col- umbia county for the conscripts, who it was reported were congre- gating there in a large force to resist the draft. Subsequently we were in A. J. Hess' store in Town Hill, and heard him ask Gwynn Tyreman about seeing your team hauling a cannon to the con- scripts in Benton and Fishingcreek, in answer to which Gwynn Tyreman replied, that he had never seen your team hauling a cannon or anything of the kind and that he had started the report just to create an excitement.


Respectfully Yours, P. C. WADSWORTHI, JACOB FITZGERALD.


In the following letter received from Mr. Chapin, that gentle- man refers to certain papers and gives some interesting details of his case.


NEW COLUMBUS, March 7th, 1870.


C. B. BROCKWAY, EsQ.,-Dear Sir .- Enclosed find a letter to, and from Messrs. Wadsworth and Fitzgerald. I hardly know


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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.


what more to send you. I will, however, annex a brief sketch of my career for about 17 years previous to my arrest by the mili- tary. I moved to New Columbus, April Ist, 1847, and engaged in the mercantile business. In 1853 I was elected a justice of the peace, in Huntingdon township, and was re-elected again in 1858 in the same township, which was strongly republican, with- out opposition. In 1859, I was elected a member of the Legisla- ture from Luzerne county. In 1864, I was elected a justice of the peace again. Arrested August 31st, 1864, by the military, and transported with a rush to Fort Mifflin where I remained until the 19th of December, 1864, during which time I suffered severely with the ague and rheumatism, which disabled me to such an extent that I was obliged to use crutches for some time. On the 18th of December, 1864, an order came to Fort Mifflin for my removal to Harrisburg for trial, where I arrived on the evening of the 19th. and was marched up to Canterbury Guard House near the State Capitol Hotel, where I was kept with Dan- iel M'Henry and others. Daniel M'Henry's trial closed and mine was to come next. I was called for on Tuesday, December 27th, but the Commissiou was not ready. December 28th, was called for again ; this time the Military Commission was ready. I was arraigned before the Star Chamber and one witness, F. M. Ikeler, examined against me, and N. J. Hess was asked one question and my trial was over. It lasted about one hour. I did not call a witness. On Saturday an order came for my discharge and it appeared strange enough to be permitted to walk the streets of Harrisburg without a guard by my side. or in the rear. I arrived at home on the 2d of January, 1864. About the 12th of Decem- ber, 1864, Colonel Eastman, the commandant of Fort Mifflin, sent for me to come to his quarters, where, of course, I made my ap- pearance; when he inquired if I knew what I was arrested for, I answered, that I did not ; then I asked him the same question, and received for an answer that I was arrested for resisting the draft in Columbia county. I very pointedly informed hin I did not live in Columbi , county, which appeared to surprise him very much ; he then informed mc that he had a letter that my wife had written Governor Curtin, which he handed me to read. Gov- ernor Curtin had forwarded my wife's letter to the War Depart- ment and they had sent it to Fort Mifflin, whether to increase the


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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.


severity of my imprisonment, or relax the iron grasp of tyranni- cal despotism I knew not-she talked plainly to them at any rate. During my interview with Colonel Eastman, I told him I had nothing to regret, that I had never resisted the draft or advised others to do so, and if I had my life to live over again I did not think I would act differently from what I had since the war com- menced. I have not got a copy of F. M. Ikeler's evidence before the Military Commission. I think it can be had of A. J. Herr, Esq., who was my attorney before the Military Commission. It differed materially from the two affidavits, of his, I gave you, taken in Fishingcreek or Benton. Soon after my arrest in 1864, a report was in circulation that some of the intensely loyal in New Columbus were to be arrested, and in great haste they re- ported to Colonel Stewart at Benton, who, very generously, in- formed them that he would notify them when he wished to see them. * * *


I think this, with the other papers I gave you, gives a brief outline of my arrest and imprisonment, and you are at liberty to put it together in such shape as you may think best. Should you require any further information I will cheerfully give it, if in my power. Yours very Respectfully,


D. L. CHAPIN.


P. S .- I might remark here that it is not customary for mer- chants to ask their customers what they intend to do with their purchases. I had sold gun caps and lead for seventeen years, to any one of my customers who called for it and John Ikeler's chil- dren had been in the habit of coming to the store frequently.


D. L. C.


He was tried for resisting the draft, though he had been one of tlie most active men in his section in assisting to furnish soldiers for the war. In concluding his case we will ask our readers to peruse the following statement written by Mr. Chapin in prison Dec. 14, 1864, every word of which is indubitably true.


"FORT MIFFLIN, Dec. 14, 1864.


On or about the 7th of August 1862, Myron Fellows who was then living with me, made up his mind to enlist in the army and try and raise a squad of volunteers to entitle him to a Lieuten- ancy. I replied that I was very sorry to lose his services, but, if he had made up his mind to enlist, I would procure him all the


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assistance I could in procuring volunteers. In about one week we recruited between sixty and seventy men. On or about the twelfth of August, 1862, the company recruited were to rendez- vous at Town Hill preparatory to starting for the Rail Road De- pot at Shickshinny. James Tubbs and myself called the volun- teers up in line, Myron Fellows being unavoidably absent. I made out a roll and helped to get the recruits conveyances to transport them to Shickshinny, where they remained a few days when E. S. Osborne Esq. joined them with thirty or forty men.


Myron Fellows yielded his right to the position of Captain and accepted that of First Lieutenant. The Company was attached to the 149th P. V. Roy Stone was elected Colonel. A short time after in the same year C. K. Hughes began recruiting a com- pany to whom I furnished a spring wagon to haul his music and speakers to recruiting meetings, or as they were called war meet- ings, for nearly a month, and frequently went with him to aid in recruiting his company which when full was attached to the 143rd Regiment P. V.


SECOND .-- When the draft was made under the State law in 1862 the Borough of New Columbus in which I live was exempt. Our quota was 14, and we had in the military service. 18 volunteers leaving a credit for New Columbus Borough of four men after filling all calls made for volunteers. In 1863 New Columbus Boroughi was enrolled with Huntington Township, and our credit was absorbed in the deficiency in the township. The draft was ordered and the Borough being attached to the Township we could do nothing toward filling our quota with volunteers. Some six or seven were drafted who all reported and paid their commu- tation or went into the army except two, one of them was strick- en off, and the other belonged to the 143rd Regiment P. V. Un- der the next call in the winter of 1864, the quota of New Colum- bus Borough was two. A meeting of those liable to the draft was called. I offered a resolution that each one liable to the draft should pay twenty five dollars each to raise funds to pay local bounty of $275.00 to each volunteer, which passed. I drew up a subscription and signed twenty five dollars, subsequently increased it to $30.00, to make up the deficiency which was more than any one else paid. The men were procured and our quota filled.


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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.


Under the next call our quota was filled by my offering a reso- lution before the Town Council which was passed to levy a tax to pay bounty to volunteers, which was levied and enough collected to pay $300.00 local bounty to volunteers to fill our quota, the last of May 1864.


Under the next call for 500,000 the quota of New Columbus Borough was four. I offered a resolution before the Town Council, which passed, authorizing the council to issue Borough Bonds payable in one, two, and three years to raise money to pay $300,00 bounty to each volunteer. The volunteers were engaged and promised $425 local bounty each, leaving $500 to be raised among 15 or 20 men liable to the draft and some not able to pay anything. Here my efforts to fill our quota with volunteers were about to fail. I then proposed to those liable to the draft to get. the men ready to start to Scranton on Tuesday morning the 30th of August and raise all the money they could and I would ad- vance the rest. The day arrived and to make up the deficiency I paid six hundred and twenty-eight dollars. John Bogert and R. S. Bingham went to Scranton with the volunteers on the 30th day of August 1864 and returned with the Provost Marshal's re- ceipt the same evening before I left my office.


The next morning August 31, 1864, I was arrested and sent to Fort Mifflin where I am now confined a citizen prisoner, without knowing what great crimes I am accused of."


0 4


A CASE OF HANGING.


COLUMBIA COUNTY, SS.


Leonard R. Cole, of Jackson township, in said county, being duly sworn according to law, saith :


That he is a son of Ezekiel J. Cole of said township of Jack- son, and is sixteen years of age. That on Saturday afternoon November 5th, three soldiers came to his father's house and searched it. They then went to the barn and deponent started to the orchard near it to drive out the sheep to another field. One of the soldiers stopped him and took him to the stable in the barn. Two of them were there. They said they would make


*


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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.


me tell where my father was. I told them I did not know ; that he had gone on Monday week to the mountain, up West creek gap, to hunt, and told him the way there. During the examina- tion they put a rope around my neck, and threw it over a mow pole and drew on it. One of them held the rope and the other had a book to set down what I said. The one with the book di- rected the other to pull harder. He said my father had been there two hours before, there was no use denying it. I denied he had been there. The rope was pulled until iny heels were drawn off the floor, and I was blinded and unable to speak. My mother and Elizabeth Robbins approaching they took off the rope, and I staggered out of the stable. One of them had a rope with him and they obtained another piece in the stable and tied the two to- gether to draw me up. I had answered the questions they had asked me, and had not given them any uncivil language.


I do not know the names of the soldiers in the stable, but would know them upon seeing them. The third one was Ephraim Kline, of Benton township. He was at the corn crib between the house and barn.


LEONARD R. COLE.


Sworn and subscribed before me November 7th, 1864.


JESSE COLEMAN, Prothonotary.


THE FISHING CREEK CONFEDERACY.


The stale slanders about this subject have been so often and so thoroughly refuted that we seldom pay much attention to them. We copy, however, an article on the subject by the editor of the Shenandoah Herald, 1872, an Independent journal, which how- ever supports a portion of the Republican ticket. The writer was a member of the "Army of Invasion," and knows whereof he speaks :


So it is with the charge of fathering the "Fishing Creek Con- federacy" which is cast upon the statesman like shoulders of


BUCKALEW.


Yet we know this charge is false, for we were on the spot and took part in the celebrated campaign to crush it. Well do we re-


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member the heroic charge we made on the supposed battlements of the confederates after a fortnight's preparation, reconnoitering, scouting and picketing, and quite vivid is the picture still in our minds of the disgusted countenances of the one thousand braves as they reached the summit of the mount where we were taught to believe the Fishing Creek army was massed and which for one long month we had regarded with awe and expectancy, and found not a man, nor the meanest evidence that a man had ever been there. Such was our extreme disappointment that our sojourn in Columbia county was shortened none too soon and but a few days elapsed before not a soldier was to be seen where for six weeks all had been bustle, and activity. The Government was beautifully fooled by a few people who wanted to see the soldiers. In a word, impartial reader, let us inform you, that such a thing as a confederacy to resist the U. S. Government never existed in Columbia county, that the trouble that existed there during that interesting period of time when the draft was so severe, amount- ed to nothing more than what existed in this and other counties of the State, and that was the desertion of a few men that had been drafted and their refusal to appear when summoned in de- fence of their country. No open resistance, no organization in opposition to the federal authorities, nothing but the act of a few men who fled to cscape being forced into the army-and this is the history of the "Fishingcreek Confederacy."


0


CAPTAIN SILVERS' STATEMENT-COLONEL STEW- ART CONTRADICTED.


State of Pennsylvania, county of Columbia, ss .:


Personally appeared before me, a notary public, in and for the said county, Captain William Silvers, who, being by me first duly sworn, deposes and says that he has carefully read a lengthy article in the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, of Saturday, September 21st inst., about Mr. Buckalew and the so-called "Fishingcreek Confeder- acy," together with the affidavit of Colonel Charles Stewart making


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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.


charges against Mr. Buckalew. which are so false that I think it a duty as a citizen and a neighbor to correct them-not for any political result, but in justice to Mr. Buckalew, and with the as. surance that I know more about the draft troubles in this county than either the editor of the Bulletin or Colonel Charles Stewart, who was in this county but a short timnc. Deponent further says that after he was disabled and honorably discharged from the army he was appointed by Governor A. G. Curtin draft commis- sioner for Columbia county, and was subsequently appointed dep- uty provost marshal of the thirteenth district, which office he held until the close of the war, and therefore thinks he had better op- portunity of knowing the affairs of this county during the war than the editor of the Bulletin or Colonel Stewart. The latter asserts that he had received orders from General Couch to proceed to the Fishingcreek, Columbia county. and "to kill, capture, or drive these men out of the country." This is materially different from the orders given deponent as deputy provost marshal by either General Couch or Major R. I. Dodge, provost marshal of the State, both of whom were here. Deponent's orders from both were to be firm with the men charged with desertion, but to use no violence unless under compulsion. The statement of Colonel Stewart is false also in stating that Mr. Buckalew addressed the "Rantz mecting" on Sunday, August 14, 1864. I was informed of an intended meeting the Saturday night previous, and proceed- ed through the woods to watch the movement, but Mr. Buckalew neither addressed the meeting nor was he at any time present. At the trial of the arrested men at Harrisburg, nor since, until this campaign, was he accused of being there. Colonel Stewart states another falsehood when he says that he detailed Lieutenant Magee to arrest Mr. Buckalew, and that the latter absented himself, and that Magee could not arrest him. I could have arrested Mr. Bucka- lew at any time had I received orders so to do, either at his home or whilst Congress was in session. I further assert that Colonel Stewart while here, arrested alleged deserters and received money from them, giving them written discharges, but that the men were subsequently held to service ; and that I wrote to him asking his authority for so doing ; he replied by stating that "the Govern- ment wanted money and not men." Whereupon I reported the facts to the provost marshal- and he was immediately relieved


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from his command. I furthermore swear that in all my searches through Columbia and Sullivan counties I never found the least trace of earthworks or fortifications, nor did I have any knowledge of artillery to resist the draft or United States troops.


WILLIAM SILVERS.


Sworn to and subscribed before me, this 30th day of September, 1872.


[SEAL .. ]


W.M. PEACOCK, Notary Public


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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.


APPENDIX NO. 1. PLEA OF JOHN RANTZ,


To all the charges and specifications John Rantz, the prisoner, when in a court of proper jurisdiction will plead not guilty, but respectfully begs leave to file the following written plea to the ju- risdiction of this court ;


1. The charges involve high and infamous crimes, and the Constitution of the United States expressly provides that no per- son shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless on a presentment or indictment by a grand jury, ex- cept in cases arising from the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in active service in time of war or public danger. (Amendment Const. Art. 5.) And again : "In all criminal cases the prisoner shall enjoy the right of a speedy public trial by an impartial jury of the State and district where the crime shall have been committed." (Amendment to the Const. Art. 6.)


These provisions were adopted after the organization of the Government of the United States under the Constitution and for the purpose of placing the trial by jury entirely beyond the power of Congress and all other bodies of the Government. The Constitution, as originally adopted, contained the following pro- visions on the subject : "The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury ; and such trial shall be held in the State where such crime shall have been committed." (Art. 4, Sec. 2.) So jealous were the people of the right in question that they required the amendment quoted, notwithstanding the origi- nal provision.


The defendant is a citizen of the United States and of the State of Pennsylvania, not in the land or naval forces or in the militia in active service. He is therefore not within the exception of Article 5 of amendments above cited. That exception does not affect his rights any more than if it did not exist. The several


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provisions of the Constitution are absolute as to him ; and if any constitutional provision can protect a right it would seem that he ought to be protected from a trial not in conformity with them. It seems that he cannot, in fairness, be tried without being pre- sented by a grand jury, or tried without a petit jury of the dis- trict wherein the alleged offences were committed.


But it may be said that we are in a state of war ; that the writ of habeas corpus is suspended ; and the provisions in question are under similar suspension. But there is no provision for the sus- pension of any branch of the Constitution. The Constitution in- deed authorizes the suspension of the habeas corpus act-a law of the land, generally adopted in the States prior to the Constitu- tion. The right of trial by jury, however, is placed on a different and higher ground. It is secured by these several absolute pro- visions of the Constitution against all chances and under all cir- cumstances. The fiat that suspends it must be potent enough to abolish every principle of the Constitution, and all those primor- dial rights that existed before the Constitution and so far as hu- man foresight provide against their invasion, protected by plain constitutional provisions.


If it should be contended then, that the power necessary for the suspension of the habeas corpus involves in its exercise the sus- pension of the right of trial by jury, he begs leave to say that, in his opinion, it cannot, for the following reasons :




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