USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Wilkes-Barre > A history of Lodge no. 61, F. and A. M., Wilkesbarr?, Pa. with a collection of masonic addresses > Part 39
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About this time Schott applied for promotion. In a let- ter dated "Wyoming Garrison, November 26th, 1779," he refers to the matter as follows :
"When I was exchanged I got the command of that corps I now command. I made frequent application to the Honourable Board of War to grant me the rank of Major, and liberty to enlist men and raise that Corps [Ottendorff's] again to its former strength, by which I thought to have an opportunity to take satisfaction of the enemy in an honourable way, for the ill usage I received when a prisoner, which I would have done, or died in the attempt, but was always refused. Having had no opportunity to distinguish myself, I was even left out of the arrangement of the Line with the rest of the officers in this corps. I still thought that I was entitled to the benefit of the pro- vision made by your honours for the officers and soldiers in the Line, but sending Captain Selin to your Honours lately with a return of the state of the corps, you was pleased to write the following to the Honourable Board of War: That the more liberal the provision, the more necessary it was that it should be distributed with economy and prudence ; that your Honours could not think of settling the States with the support of officers who had but little more than nominal com- mands, but at the same time that you was willing to provide for us on a scale consistent with the public service. * * As for my own part,
* Capt. ANTHONY SELIN was commissioned by Congress December Ioth, 1776, and commanded company "No. 2" of Ottendorff's Corps, as originally organized. In the Journal of Congress, February 24th, 1784, he is referred to as "late Major 2d Canadian Regiment" ["Con- gress' Own"], and appears to have served to January Ist, 1783. He died at Selinsgrove, Snyder county, Penn'a, in 1792.
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I apply to Generals Sullivan, Hand, Maxwell * * * that I always had more than nominal command." * * [ Pennsylvania Archives (O. S.), VIII. : 24.]
In the Winter of 1778-'9 Selin's company was consoli- dated with Schott's, and the corps was variously known as Ottendorff's, Armand's, and Schott's, but generally as Schott's. Both officers remained with the corps, and Schott, as senior Captain, commanded it; but he was sent off on detached duty about the time that General Sullivan's expe- dition against the Indians of New York was determined upon.
April 4th, 1779, Brig. Gen. Edward Hand,* at Minisink, ordered Captain Selin to march with his command (Schott's Corps) to Fort Penn (now Stroudsburg, Penn'a) to join the German Regiment under command of Maj. Daniel Burchardt and proceed to Wyoming. . These troops reached the gar- rison at Wilkesbarré April IIth. Twelve days later General Hand directed Colonel Zebulon Butler, the commander of the Wyoming garrison, to "send a sufficient party under the command of a prudent, careful officer to Fort Jenkins to meet Captain Schott, who has the charge of a quantity of
* See "Pennsylvania in the Revolution," II. : 73.
EDWARD HAND was born in Ireland December 31st, 1744. In 1774 he accompanied the 18th Royal Irish Regiment to this country as Sur- geon's Mate, but resigned and settled in Pennsylvania in the practice of medicine. He served at the siege of Boston as Lieutenant Colonel in Gen. William Thompson's brigade. March 7th, 1776, he was com- missioned Colonel of the Ist Pennsylvania Regiment, Continental Line. April Ist, 1777, he was promoted Brigadier General ; January 8th, 1781, he was appointed Adjutant General of the army ; September 30th, 1783, he was promoted Major General.
He was a Member of Congress in 1784-'5, and a signer of the Penn- sylvania Constitution of 1790. He was a Free Mason, and was Master of Military Lodge No. 19 in 1781. (See page 26, ante). "Although he was of daring disposition, he won the affection of his troops by his amiability and gentleness."
He died near Lancaster, Penn'a, September 4th, 1802.
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stores for your [Butler's] post, to protect him and the stores from Fort Jenkins upwards." Schott reached Wilkesbarré about the Ist of May, and assumed command of his corps. Among the original papers preserved in the Wyoming His- torical and Geological Society is a "requisition" in the hand- writing of Captain Schott, in the following words :
"WYOMING, May 9th, 1779.
"SIR :- Please to essue candles for me and two offecers of my corps for one week and you will oblige
Your Most Obdt. svt. "JOHN P. SCHOTT Capt "Commander of Indep. Corps."
Upon the back of this requisition is the receipt of a ser- geant for 11/2 pounds of candles.
Sullivan's army marched from Wilkesbarré July 31st, 1779 .* The 3d Brigade, commanded by General Hand, above mentioned, comprised, among other bodies, the Ger- man Regiment and Schott's Corps, and it constituted the "light corps" of the army. It marched in three columns- "by the right of companies in files"-and kept about one mile in advance of the main body of troops. Captain Schott was placed in command of the right wing of this brigade, and Captain Selin commanded Schott's Corps, which in official orders was denominated "Schott's Rifle Corps." The 7th of the following October the army returned to Wyoming, where it encamped for a few days and then con- tinued its march to Easton. Captain Schott and his corps, however, were left behind, to assist in garrisoning the fort at Wilkesbarré. About this time Generals Sullivan and Hand recommended Schott to the Board of War for promo- tion ; but he did not receive it, principally because the lame- ness of his back-resulting from the wounds he received at Short Hills-incapacitated him for very active service.
* See pages 20 and 25, ante.
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During a part of the Spring of 1780, in the absence of Colonel Butler, the commandant at Wyoming, Captain Schott, being next in rank, was in command of the garrison. In March, 1780, Lieutenant Colonel Weltner, in command of the German Regiment, which was stationed on the frontiers of Northumberland county, Penn'a, desired the Board of War "to determine between Captains Schott and Selin, each claiming to remain in command of the company formerly Ottendorff's, and now to be incorporated with the German Battalion" or Regiment. The Board decided that if Colonel Weltner could not "settle the dispute," a board of officers should be convened to determine the relative rank of the two captains. The following paragraphs are from a letter written at Philadelphia, April 12th, 1780, by Assistant Paymaster General Burrall to the "Hon. Board of Treasury :"
"* * Captain Schott, who commands an Independent Corps stationed at Wyoming, is waiting in town for their pay, which is due from September last, and amounts to more than I have on hand. *
*
* * I should be glad of 20,000 dollars, which will be sufficient to pay him. I hope this last sum at least may be obtained, as Cap- tain Schott's returning without the money would occasion much un- easiness in the corps, who have six months' pay due; and the ex- pense of another journey from Wyoming would be considerable. * *
I think that shortly after this Captain Schott determined to make Wilkesbarré his permanent home, for I find that September 21st, 1780, he purchased from Phineas Pierce, for £50, "one-half share in the Susquehanna Purchase," and a week later he bought of Benjamin Bailey, for £50, "lot No. 33 in the town plot of Wilkesbarré." In the deed of conveyance he was described as "of Westmoreland." On the 18th of the following month he was married to Miss Naomi Sill* of Wilkesbarré, whose sister had married Col.
* Since the sketch of the Hon. George Denison in this chapter was printed, I have been afforded access to, and have carefully examined, some unpublished, old, original documents, and certain published
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Nathan Denison here in 1772. Miner, in his "History of Wyoming," says of Captain Schott's marriage : "The bans were published on Sunday, October 15th, and on Wednes- day, the 18th, they were married; the occasion being one of great joy and festivity in the garrison, and among the whole people."
In January, 1781, Capt. Alexander Mitchell, in command
pedigrees, which contain records and general information relative to early settlers and settlements in Wyoming; and I find that several statements which appear on page 243, ante, are erroneous. In writing those statements I presumed upon the correctness of, and unhesi- tatingly adopted, dates, etc., given by Charles Miner and other local historians who had before that time written about the "ancient people" of Wyoming.
The names of Nathan Denison and Jabez Sill appear in a "list of the proprietors of the five townships" in Wyoming, dated June 17th, 1770, but Denison did not come here until the Spring of 1772. Sill, however, was here in 1769, and was one of those driven away by the Pennamites in November of that year. He did not return until June, 1772, when he was accompanied by his son Shadrach, a boy of four- teen years. In November following he brought on the remainder of his family, and shortly after their arrival the marriage of Nathan Deni- son and Elizabeth Sill occurred. Following Miner ("History of Wyoming," page 138) I state in the foot-note on page 243, ante, that "in May, 1772, there were only five white women in Wilkesbarré, and one of these was Mrs. Jabez Sill." There may have been that number here at the time stated, but Mrs. Sill was not one of the number. Mr. Miner based his statement upon information received from the "ancient people" whom he had consulted, for, without doubt, he never had an opportunity to see the several official lists of "settlers at Wyoming on the Susquehanna," made in 1772, which I have lately seen-the ex- istence of any such lists not being known when he wrote his history. Nathan Denison was born January 25th, 1741, the son of Nathan and Anne (Carey) Denison of Stonington, Conn., and was a descendant, of the fifth generation, of the celebrated Capt. George Denison of Stonington, the youngest child of William and Margaret Denison, who settled at Roxbury, Mass., in 1631. Captain Denison returned to England in 1643 after the death of his first wife, and served under Cromwell in the army of the Parliament. He was wounded at the famous battle of Naseby, and while convalescing he formed the ac-
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of some troops of the New Jersey Line, came to Wyoming to relieve Colonel Butler of the command of the garrison, and the next month Captain Schott was ordered to march with his company to Fishkill, N. Y., to join Colonel Hazen's "Congress' Own" Regiment .; At this time his company, or "corps," consisted of only twenty-six men, including him- self, Captain Selin, and one lieutenant. Captain Schott joined "Congress' Own" about March 15th, but three months later, owing to the serious illness of his wife, he obtained
quaintance of Anne Borodel, the only daughter of an Irish gentleman of wealth. They were marrried, and came to America. He was one of the earliest settlers in Stonington, Conn. (see page 420, ante), and was the first Representative from that town in the General Assembly of the Colony. He died October 23d, 1694, at the age of seventy-six years, while attending the Assembly at Hartford.
Jabez Sill was one of twin sons born to Joseph and Phoebe (Lord) Sill of Lyme, New London county, Conn., August 4th, 1722. Joseph Sill was the son of Captain Joseph Sill of Cambridge, Mass., and Lyme, Conn., who was the son of John Sill -- the first of the name in America-who immigrated to Cambridge about 1637 from Lyme, Eng- land. Jabez Sill was a joiner and cabinet maker. December 28th, 1749, he married Elizabeth, daughter of Moses and Mary (Ely) Noyes of Lyme, Conn., and they resided in that place until they removed to Wilkesbarré. They were the parents of ten children, the eldest being Elizabeth, born November 22d, 1750, who married Nathan Denison. Naomi (the wife of Captain Schott) was the third child of Jabez and Elizabeth (Noyes) Sill, and was born at Lyme November 28th, 1754. Shadrach, the eldest son, was born August 12th, 1758. He was a soldier in Captain Durkee's Wyoming company, and served from 1776 to the close of the war. Elisha Noyes Sill, born January 15th, 1761, was also a soldier in Durkee's company. He was in Wilkesbarré, sick, at the time of the Wyoming massacre, but made his escape and went to Connecticut.
When, in the Summer of 1772, the Wilkesbarré lands were plotted, and apportioned by lottery among the shareholders and settlers of the township, Jabez Sill drew town lot No. I (lying at the north-east corner of the streets now known as River and South), meadow lot No. 22, and wood lot No. 35.
t See page 372, ante.
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leave of absence for an indefinite period and hastened to Wilkesbarré. Within a short time thereafter "Congress' Own" moved down the Hudson to the neighborhood of New York city, and early in September proceeded with other regiments to Virginia to take part in the siege of York- town. The war being virtually ended, by the surrender of Cornwallis, Captain Schott tendered his resignation and was honorably discharged from the Continental service in No- vember, or December, 1781.
In May, 1782, having purchased of his father-in-law for £6 the north-west corner of "Wilkesbarré Town Lot No. I" he built thereon what long afterwards was called "the old red house." It faced towards the river, and was about thirty rods distant from Fort Wyoming, which stood on the river bank near the corner of River and Northampton streets and was then occupied by the Wyoming garrison. Moving into this house in 1783 he kept there for a number of years a public inn, and later carried on a store in the same building.
What is known as the "Trenton decree" was announced December 30th, 1782, by the Board of Commissioners which had been appointed by Congress to determine the right of jurisdiction over the territory on the Susquehanna in con- troversy between Pennsylvania and Connecticut. News of the decision-which was adverse to the Connecticut settlers -reached Wilkesbarré January 4th, 1783, by express from Trenton, and two days later a meeting of the inhabitants of Wyoming was held at Wilkesbarré to advise on measures necessary to be taken. Captain Schott was appointed agent for the settlers, with directions to repair immediately to Philadelphia to consult with the agents from Connecticut, and to petition the Pennsylvania Assembly in such manner as should be thought most proper and beneficial for the Wyoming people. Captain Schott departed immediately for Philadelphia, where, after consultation with the Con- necticut agents, a petition, "in many points eloquent and
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touchingly pathetic," was drawn up, signed by Captain Schott as agent for and in behalf of the Wyoming settlers and presented by him to the Assembly January 18th .* During the period of struggles, controversies, and conflicts between the Yankees and Pennamites which followed the "Trenton decree," and which continued for nearly six years, John Paul Schott was, naturally and because of his environ- ment, a zealous and an active adherent of the Connecticut party. He had been for some time the associate and friend -in military camp and garrison, and in private life-of Col. Zebulon Butler,f Col. John Franklin,# Capt. Simon Spald-
* See Miner's "Wyoming," pp. 308-14, and Col. John Franklin's "Historical Sketches of Wyoming."
t See page 225, ante.
# JOHN FRANKLIN was born in Canaan, Litchfield county, Conn., September 26th, 1749, the third child and eldest son of John and Kezia (Pierce) Franklin. He was one of the two hundred settlers who came to Wyoming in 1769, and was the first white man to settle in the town- ship of Huntington, Luzerne county-whither he went solitary and alone in the Spring of 1775. In 1778 he commanded the Huntington and Salem company of volunteers ; and in the Sullivan expedition of 1779 he commanded a company of Wyoming militia, chiefly riflemen. In the attack on "Hogback Hill" he was severely wounded in the shoulder. For a number of years about this time he was Justice of the Peace. In 1781 he represented Westmoreland, or Wyoming, in the Connecticut Assembly. In September, 1787, he was arrested in Wilkesbarré on a charge of treason against the State of Pennsylvania, was confined in jail in Philadelphia for nearly two years-a great part of the time heavily ironed-and was then released on bail, and never brought to trial. In 1792 he was elected Sheriff of Luzerne county. In 1795-'6, and from 1799 to 1803, he was a member of the Penn- sylvania Assembly from Luzerne county.
"In the Yankee and Pennsylvania contest, whenever the rights of the Connecticut people were assailed, he stood ready for their defence, whether it was against the overbearing and haughty Patterson, or the treacherous Armstrong. In nothing was he more distinguished than in his wonderful versatility in devising means for the accomplishment of his purposes." Col. H. B. Wright wrote in 1871, relative to the diary
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ing, Maj. John Jenkins, and other prominent Yankee lead- ers ; his wife was the daughter of an early Connecticut set- tler, and the title to his home-lot had been derived from the Connecticut Susquehanna Company. Because of his es- pousal of the Yankee cause he aroused the enmity and en- countered the opposition of many of the principal adherents of the Pennsylvania party.
May 9th, 1785, Captain Schott, Colonel Butler, Colonel Franklin, and six others, forming a committee representing the Connecticut Wyoming settlers, addressed a letter to a committee of the State Assembly, calling attention to the unfortunate state of affairs existing in Wyoming. At a town meeting held November 15th, 1785, he was chosen a member of the committee "to regulate the police of the set- tlement." February 28th, 1786, he went to Philadelphia, bearing a petition and an address from the settlers to Benja- min Franklin, President of the Supreme Executive Council of the State. Under date of August 10th, 1786, Dr. William Hooker Smith, of Wyoming, wrote to Vice President Biddle of the Council as follows :
"We hear that Capt. Schoots is this day set out for Philadelphia, we expect in order to ask for protection for Corn'l John Franklin and Maj. John Jenkins, in order to attend the Assembly as Agents; We are at this time in great confusion, the conduct of Captn. Shoots is amasing to us, he appears of late to be on the side of Allin,* Frank-
of Colonel Franklin which had been loaned to him by its possessor, Steuben Jenkins, Esq .: "I have carefully perused it, and come to the conclusion that John Franklin was the leading controlling spirit of the Yankee settlers of Wyoming. The evidences spread out upon this, his diary, show that he was the general agent, adviser, repre- sentative, and the man of all others upon whom they looked for coun- sel and advice. The diary should be carefully preserved in the ar- chives of the Historical Society of this place."
Colonel Franklin died at his home in Athens, Bradford county, Penn'a, March Ist, 1831.
* Gen. ETHAN ALLEN of Vermont, who came to Wilkesbarré in April, 1786, and proposed to settle in Wyoming. He was granted a
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lin, Jenkins & associates, he has inlisted himself in proprietors wrights pritty Largely & is padling about with Franklin & Jinkins in the Land Jobing way. * * * Hellers, August 11th, 1786. The former part of this letter I wrote at Wioming ; I am on the track of Captn. Schoot, and this day at Hellers at wind Gap."
Captain Schott was one of a large number of well-known and responsible men, some of them residents of Connecticut and others of Wyoming, who were appointed December 27th, 1786, by the Susquehanna Company at its meeting in Hartford, Conn., commissioners to ascertain the rights of the proprietors in, and reduce to a certainty the claims of the settlers under, the said company.
On this same last-mentioned date the Pennsylvania As- sembly passed an act providing for the election of Justices of the Peace, Representatives to the Assembly, etc., in the new county of Luzerne, which had been erected in the so- called "Wyoming region," and established by an act passed September 25th, 1786. The first election was held Febru- ary Ist, 1787, and at the Fall election, in the same year, Captain Schott was chosen a member of the General Assem- bly. This body met and organized at Philadelphia October 24th, 1787. Captain Schott appeared as the only Repre- sentative from Luzerne county, and took his seat. The next day a committee of three members-Schott being one -was appointed to wait on the Council and inform it that the House was organized and ready for business. The same day Schott was appointed a member of the Committee of Ways and Means. In the Philadelphia Packet of Octo- ber 29th, 1787, a correspondent states that he is happy to find that the county of Luzerne is represented in the Assem- bly, and adds: "There is great reason to hope from the
large number of proprietors' rights by the Susquehanna Company, and May 17th was appointed with Colonels Butler and Franklin and Major Jenkins "a committee with full power to locate townships with- in the territory" claimed by the company.
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abilities and disposition of the new member that a perfect reconciliation will be accomplished between the government and that district, where everything remains at this time in the utmost tranquility."
Having purchased several rights or shares in Newport township, Captain Schott became an "early agent for ascer- taining the lines and proprietors in said town ;" and after the passage of the confirming law in 1787, the inhabitants of Newport appointed him, Prince Alden, and Mason Fitch Alden a committee to procure and furnish to the commis- sioners under the law information as to town lines, rights, etc. At this period Schott was continuing to act as agent of the Susquehanna proprietors.
In May, 1788, he raised in Wilkesbarré a "Troop of Light Dragoons," numbering forty-two men. He was elected Commander, Lord Butler First Lieutenant, Rosewell Welles Second Lieutenant, and Ebenezer Bowman Cornet. Among the members of this troop, in addition to those named above, were Eleazer Blackman, Ichabod Blackman, Benjamin Dor- rance, William Hyde, Jehoida P. Johnson, Jabez Sill, Moses Sill, Ebenezer Slocum, Henry Stark, and Asa Stevens. The Supreme Executive Council was immediately petitioned to accept and muster the troop as a part of the militia of the Commonwealth; but before final action upon the matter could be taken by the authorities, an important and unlooked for event occurred in Wilkesbarré, which postponed the favorable action of the Council.
It was well known in this locality at that time that Col. Timothy Pickering* had taken a very active part in Septem-
* Col. TIMOTHY PICKERING (born July 17th, 1745; died January 29th, 1829) was a native of Salem, Massachusetts, and was one of the most eminent men of the country in his day. During the Revolution- ary War he was for some time Adjutant General, and for four years Quarter Master General, of the armies of the United States. He came to Wilkesbarré in the latter part of 1786 as the special representative
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ber, 1787, in the arrest of Col. John Franklin, imagining that he was the life, soul, and body of the settlements here, and that if he could be got rid of the apparently interminable controversies between the Pennamites and Yankees could and would be settled. Therefore, certain Yankee partisans and adherents of Colonel Franklin determined to seize Colonel Pickering and carry him off as a hostage for the safety of Franklin, who was held in irons in Philadelphia ; and on the night of June 26th, 1788, Pickering was abducted from his home by a band of men, disguised and armed, who quietly and rapidly conducted him to a point about forty miles north of Wilkesbarré, where they held him captive in the midst of the wild forest for nearly three weeks, part of the time with iron chains fastened upon his limbs, and all of the time under the guard of armed men.
Immediately on the abduction of Colonel Pickering being known, vigorous measures were adopted for his rescue, and Col. Zebulon Butler, Lieutenant of the County, ordered out some of the militia to act as part of the posse comitatus
of the Government of Pennsylvania-he being at the time a citizen of the State and a resident of Philadelphia. Charles Miner says that he was selected to organize the new county of Luzerne, not only because of his great abilities and weight of character, but for the reason that he was a New England man.
He was commissioned by the Supreme Executive Council a Justice of the County Courts, Prothonotary of the Court of Common Pleas, Clerk of the Courts of Quarter Sessions and Oyer and Terminer, Clerk of the Orphans' Court, Register of Wills, and Recorder of Deeds in and for Luzerne county, and these offices he held from May 27th, 1787, till the Summer of 1791, when he was appointed by President Wash- ington Post Master General. This office he held until 1795, when, by appointment of Washington, he held the office of Secretary of War for a few months ; and then, until 1797, was Secretary of State.
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