A history of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, from its first beginnings to the present time; including chapters of newly-discovered, Vol. I, Part 64

Author: Harvey, Oscar Jewell, 1851-1922; Smith, Ernest Gray
Publication date: 1909-1930
Publisher: Wilkes-Barre : Raeder Press
Number of Pages: 734

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, Vol. I > Part 64

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* As I expect nothing Governor Fitch can say or do, or that my letter, will avail anything, I was thinking to write an account of this unhappy proceeding to General Amherst, ¿ and desire his interposition with the Colony of Connecticut."

Ten days later Governor Hamilton issued a proclamation requiring the settlers at Cushetunk to remove from the lands. He drew particu- lar attention, in the document, to the fact that "Teedynscung, the Dela- ware Chief, hath [had] made a very earnest and formal complaint and remonstrance" against the intruders, insisting that they be immediately removed by the Government, and declaring that if it were not done "the Indians would come and remove them by force."

It must be admitted that the Pennsylvania authorities-both the executive and the legislative-were very anxious to avoid doing or permitting to be done anything that would cause trouble with, or even uneasiness on the part of, the Indians. They went so far in this matter as to pass an Act in April, 1760, inflicting a penalty of £50 and twelve months' imprisonment on any inhabitant of the Province who should hunt, or follow, wild beasts, etc., beyond the limits of the territory purchased from the Indians by the Proprietaries. On the other hand, however, both Governor Morris and Governor Hamilton, in opposing the "pretensions and proceedings" of The Susquehanna Company and The Delaware Company with reference to their purchases within the Charter limits of Pennsylvania, did not have in mind so much the fact that these purchases gave offense to certain blustering and fault-finding Indians, as that the purchasers had violated the law of the Province, which, under the royal Charter, provided that "no person whatsoever had any right to purchase lands of the Indians within the limits of that Charter without a license first obtained from the Proprietaries."

April 6, 1761, Teedyuscung, several Delawares and two "Wapings"$ from Wyoming were received by the Governor and Council at Philadel-

* See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records, " VII : 571.

+ See "Pennsylvania Archives," Fourth Series, III : 51.

# See the last two paragraphs, page 297.

§ See page 385.

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phia. Isaac Still acted as interpreter at the interview, and Teedyus- cung spoke, in part, as follows* :

"You may remember that when I was here in the Fall I informed you that some New England people were settling the Indian lands near Cushetunk. *

* I have not heard anything from you since that time, and our people are become so uneasy at this new settlement that several of them are moved away to other places. Some of the Wapings were coming to settle at Wyoming, but being disturbed at what they hear, they have sent their King that they may hear what you have to say. So many stories were brought to Wyoming that I myself was almost ready to leave my house ; but I thought I would come and see you first and consult with you about it. About three weeks ago Robert White [Chief of the Nanticokes] came to our town, along with Thomas King [Chief of the Oneidas], and told us that they had been at Cushetunk among those people, and that Sir William Johnson had sent to warn them off, if they intended to settle there. They said they had bought the land from some Indians who were at the last treaty at Easton, and they would settle there. They said likewise, that in the Spring, when there would be plenty of grass, they would come and settle the lands at Wyoming, and that Thomas King had given them leavet to settle the Wyoming lands ; and if the Indians who lived there should hinder their settlement they would figlit it out with them, and the strongest should hold the land. Robert White added that they told him they should be 4,000 strong in the Spring, and would all come to Wyoming."

The Governor then told Teedyuscung what he had done in the matter, and the King expressed great satisfaction thereat. Then he asked the Governor what should be done if the New Englanders came to Wyoming. "Do not suffer them to settle," answered the Governor. "That is, collect the ancient and discreet men of your nation and go to the settlers in a peaceable manner, and endeavor to persuade them to for- bear settling those lands."

Capt. James Hyndshaw,# of Northampton County, who had been requested by Governor Hamilton to make a tour of investigation to and through the country roundabout Cushetunk, reported to the Governor on the 29th of April that he had found Moses Thomas to be the chief man of the settlement. He was erecting a mill for grinding corn, and when Hyndshaw was there Thomas had just issued a call for a meeting of the inhabitants to elect a inagistrate and other officers. The people claimed to be settlers "under a Connecticut Riglit." A number of houses were already erected, and a block-house was being built. Hynd- shaw was informed by some Indians whom he met at Cushetunk "that the Connecticut people had been marking trees for twenty miles from the Delaware in the way towards the Susquehanna" ; and he was told by "Nathan Parkes, one of the new settlers at Cushetunk, that they had also laid out lots for a town at a place called Lackawaxen§ [within the bounds of a tract of land purchased from the Indians by the Proprie- taries of Pennsylvania], and they intended to settle it in like manner under the Connecticut Right."

At Norwalk, Connecticut, under date of May 7, 1761, Governor Fitch of Connecticut replied to the communication which he had received some time previously from Governor Hamilton. After devoting con- siderable space to references to The Susquehanna Company he wrote|| :

"Thus, Sir, you see that the Assembly have been so far from making a grant of those lands that they rather disclaim them, and leave those who have any challenges by pur- chase, or former grants, to conduct and manage as they think proper. This Government, as such, has no concern in those affairs, nor has it any inclination or disposition to interest itself in any dispute about those lands ; and, although the purchasers may, most of them, live in Connecticut, yet, as they act in a private capacity, and even out of the Govern- inent, we can do nothing only by advice relative to their conduct under another jurisdic-

* See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," VIII : 595.

+ See page 396.

¿ See pages 254 and 280.

§ On the Delaware River, within the limits of the present Pike County, Pennsylvania. See "Map of a Part of Pennsylvania," in Chapter XI.

See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," VIII : 626.

most Sincerely yours

COL. ELIPHALET DYER. Photo-reproduction of a portrait in the possession of The Connecticut Historical Society.

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tion. * * * I have lately heard that there is another set of purchasers, called The Delaware Company, but I know but little about them, but am ready to think that the families you mention are under that Company."

Immediately upon receipt of this letter Governor Hamilton wrote to General Amherst, in very much the same strain that he had written to Sir William Johnson three months previously .*

At Windham, Connecticut, February 25, 1761, The Susquehanna Company met for the first time in almost six years-if we may judge by the records of the Company.+ In the interim there had been many shares disposed of and new "proprietors" admitted to the Company by its Executive Committee. At the meeting just referred to Col. Jonathan Trumbull, Col. Samuel Talcott, Col. Eliphalet Dyer, John Smith, Esq., Capt. Uriah Stevens and others were appointed a committee to inquire into the expediency of joining with The Delaware Company in making an application to the King for either a grant of, or a confirmation of the title to, the lands purchased by the respective Companies from the Indians. It was also voted to send an agent to the Court of Great Britain to repre- sent the Company in its business with the Crown ; and, at a meeting held on the 9th of the next April, Col. Eliphalet Dyert was appointed such agent, with a salary at the rate of $150 per annum.

* See "Pennsylvania Archives," Fourth Series, III : 80.

+ See page 317, ante.

Į ELIPHALET DYER was born September 14, 1721, at Windham, Connecticut (mentioned on page 249). He was the second child and only son of Col. Thomas Dyer by his first wife Lydia, second daughter of John and Mary (Bingham ) Backus of Windham, to whom he was married October 24, 1717. The other children of Col. Thomas and Lydia ( Backus) Dyer were: (i) Mary, born January 31, 1719 ; married in 1741 to stephen White; died May 27, 1802. (iii) Lydia, born July 12, 1724; married to Samuel Gray tsee page 292) (iv) Eunice, born June 5. 1727. Mrs. Lydia ( Backus) Dyer died October 25, 1751, and Col. Thomas Dyer was married (2d) to Mehetabel Gardner, October 10, 1752. She died November 1, 1753, and Colonel Dyer was married a third time, in October, 1754, or '55. to Sarah Walden. Colonel Dyer, who was a native of Weymouth, Massachusetts, had settled in Windham about 1715. He was often elected to rep- resent Windham in the General Assembly of Connecticut. He died May 27, 1766

ELIPHALET DYER entered Yale College in 1736 at the age of fifteen, and was graduated a Bachelor of Arts in 1740, in a class numbering twenty-one. Three years later the degree of Master of Arts was con- ferred upon him by his Alina Mater, and in 1714 he was given the same degree by Harvard College. In 1787 the degree of LL. 1). was conferred upon him by Yale College. After leaving college he studied law at Windham, and was admitted to the Bar there in 1746. The same year he was appointed a Justice of the Peace by the General Assembly. He was already Town Clerk of Windham, and these two offices he held for a number of years-being succeeded as Town Clerk in 1755 by his brother-in-law Samuel Gray (see page 292). He was elected an Assistant (a member of the "Upper House" of the General Assembly of Connecticut ) in 1762, and by successive re-elections was continued in that office until 1784 He was ap- pointed and commissioned a Captain in the Connecticut Militia in 1745, and was promoted Major of the Fifth Connecticut Regiment in May, 1753. In August, 1755, he was promoted "Lieutenant Colonel of the Third Connecticut Regiment, and Captain of its second Company, to go in Sir William Johnson's expedi- tion against Crown Point." (See page 297, ante. ) This regiment at once joined the forces at Lake George, and did good service during the remainder of the campaign. In March, 1758, Eliphalet Dyer was com- missioned Colonel of the Connecticut regiment sent against Canada. (See page 297, ante )

In August, 1763, Colonel Dyer went to England as agent of The Susquehanna Company. He failed in his mission-as will be shown more fully hereinafter-but while in London he received from the Com- missioners of Customs of the Crown the appointment of Comptroller of Customs at the port of New Lon- don, Connecticut. He appointed a sub-agent in London to look after the affairs of The Susquehanna Company. and, depositing the documents of the Company in his hands in the custody of that gentleman. Colonel Dyer returned home in October, 1764. In September, 1765, he was the first named of the three commissioners from Connecticut to the Stamp Act Congress. In 1774 he was Lieutenant Colonel of the 5th Regiment, Connecticut Militia. In December, 1775, he was appointed Brigadier General of the Militia of the Colony, but declined the appointment. As noted on page 283, ante, he was one of the original mem- bers of the Connecticut "Council of Safety, " and his connection therewith continued until the close of the war. December 18, 1776. Colonel Dyer was appointed with others a committee on behalf of Connecticut to meet committees from the other States of New England at Providence, Rhode Island, on the 23d of December, to consult as to raising an army for the defense of the New England States against a threatened invasion by the British

In July, 1774, Colonel Dyer, Silas Deane and Roger Sherman were appointed by the General Assembly of Connecticut delegates to the First Continental Congress, which met at Philadelphia in September, 1774. (See page 354.) These delegates were present, and took part in the proceedings of the Congress. Colonel Dyer was chosen in November, 1774, a delegate to the Congress of 1775, and in October, 1776, was chosen to attend the Congress of 1777 This last appointment he declined. however, in the following letter ad- dressed to the General Assembly of Connecticut (see American Archives, Fifth Series, III : 475) : "Hart- ford, November, 1776. Conscious as I am of my utmost exertions for to promote the interest of the United States, as well as of this State in particular. in every department in which this Assembly has been pleased to entrust me with, yet the approbation with which my conduct in the General Congress of the United States has met with, in their reappointing me a member of that respectable body, gives me the greatest satisfaction Yet, considering my ill state of health, as well as some others of my family, the present particular sitnation of my affairs-occasioned principally by my long and almost constant absence for years past from my family, on public service-obliges me, though with great reluctance, to decline a service to which I was appointed at your sessions in October last-attending the General Congress at Philadelphia ; and which I flatter myself will not be disapproved, as it is the first instance of my ever declining any trust, post of danger or trouble to which I have been appointed by this State." Colonel Dyer was elected a Representative to each of the Congresses from 1778 to 1782, but did not attend the sessions of 1778 and 1780.

From 1774 to 1793 Colonel Dyer was a Judge of the Superior Court of Connecticut-being Chief Judge during the last four years of this period. He withdrew from public life with his resignation from the

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Bench in 1793 ; but his mental powers continued with unusual vigor until his death. John Adams, in his caustic sketches of the members of the Congress of 1775, wrote : "Dyer is long-winded and roundabout, obscure and cloudy, very talkative and very tedious-yet an honest, worthy man, who means and judges well." Charles Miner, in his "History of Wyoming" (page 81), has this to say of Colonel Dyer : "This gentleman was one of the most eminent lawyers of Connecticut. Of good form, of pleasing address, an ardent advocate of the Connecticut claim [to Wyoming]. A countryman hearing him plead before the Court went away and said : 'No man need ever speak again'-meaning he could not be surpassed. On one occasion, when, in the Connecticut Assembly, he was endeavoring to awaken the House to strenuous efforts in behalf of their Wyoming settlement, a wit penned this impromptu :

Canaan of old, as we are told. Where it did rain down manna, Wa'nt half so good, for heavenly food, As Dyer makes Susquehanna.'

His voice was a fine tenor, which he modulated with art, and he was an agreeable and effective debater." Colonel Dyer was married May 9, 1745, to Huldah (born 1730), daughter of Col. Jabez and Huldah Bowen of Providence, Rhode Island, and they became the parents of five children, as follows : (1) Thomas, born November 22, 1747. (2) Amelia, born November 25, 1750; married (Ist) to Col. Joseph Trumbull-a sketch of whose life will be found hereinafter-(2d), in 1785, to Col. Hezekiah Wyllys, fourth child of Col. George Wyllys, mentioned on page 282, ante. (3) Benjamin, born October 1, 1753. He became a physi- cian, was married in 1783 to Mary Marsh, and had ten children. (4) Oliver, born December 22, 1755 ; died June 6, 1778. (5) Jabez, born December 24, 1757 ; died July 30, 1779.

Col. Eliphalet Dyer died at Windham May 13, 1807, and his wife died there February 12, 1800.

East side of South Main Street, viewed from near the corner of Public Square, in 1858.

(1) Thomas Dver (born November 22, 1747) became a member of The Susque- hanna Company in 1768, and in 1769 and '70 was at Wilkes-Barré with the other members of the Company who were endeavoring to gain a foot-hold here. In 1775 he was appointed and commis- sioned by Governor Trumbull a Captain in one of the Connecticut regiments in "the Continental service. In the Sum- mer of 1776 he was promoted Major, and iu December of that year was on duty near the headquarters of the army op- posite Trenton, New Jersey. He was married May 6, 1771, to Elizabeth Rip- ley, and their second child was Thomas Dyer, Jr., who was born at Windham January 21, 1773. In the Summer of 1798 he came to Wilkes-Barré to look after the affairs of the deceased Col. John Durkee (see post for a sketch of his life), and on October 6th of that year he was appointed by the Orphans' Court of Luzerne County administrator of Durkee's estate. Returning to Wind- ham County within a short time he remained there until 1800, when he came back to Wilkes-Barré and located here permanently. He was then in the twenty-eighth year of his life, and for the remaining sixty-one years of it he lived here-for the most of the time on the east side of South Main Street, some four or five doors south of Public Square. His house stood back from the street, with a garden in front and in the rear. In the accompanying picture the front fence of the Dyer property is seen just beyond the elevated one-story struc- ture. Mr. Dyer was greatly interested in horticulture, and his garden was always an attractive one. He is credit-

ed with having been the first person in Wyoming Valley to cultivate the love-apple, now so universally known as the tomato. Until the early part of the last century-say about 1820-this now so-much-used vegetable was but little cultivated either in England or America, and then only for the sake of its pretty colors or as being good food for pigs !

Upon locating in Wilkes-Barré Mr. Dyer became a school-teacher, at the same time taking up the study of law. He was admitted to the Bar of Luzerne County in 1802, and shortly thereafter gave up his school. In 1806 he was appointed a Justice of the Peace, and by successive re-appointments held the office for more than forty-five years-during all of which time and thereafter he was commonly known and spoken of as "Squire" Dyer. He was noted for his almost-indecipherable hand-writing, and many amusing tales have been told by lawyers and officers of the County Court of earlier days concerning Squire Dyer's inability, upon occasions, to read what he himself had some time previously written. The original of the accompanying facsimile was written by him in 1810, and the words are : "Rec'd pay in orders & cash. Thos. Dyer."

Squire Dyer was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Wilkes-Barre Academy from 1807 to 1838, and for seven years was President of the Board. In 1810 he was its Treasurer. In February, 1811, he was appointed by the Com- missioners of Luzerne County Treasurer of the County. In the Autumn of 1842 a Mr. Dubois, a portrait painter temporarily located in Wilkes-Barré (and whose studio was on South River Goth Street, next door to the Phoenix Hotel), painted, on the order and at the expense of the inen- bers of the Luzerne County Bar, a portrait of Squire Dyer-then "the oldest living member of that Bar." Upon the completion of the portrait Samuel P. Collings, Esq., of Wilkes-Barré, wrote as follows concerning it: "Any one acquainted with the original (and that em- braces every person who has ever lived in Wilkes-Barré) will recognize at once the striking truthfulness of the likeness. The design is most excellent. The old table-the well-worn and oft-thumbed books-

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In 1758 Jared Ingersoll, a prominent lawyer of New Haven, Con- necticut (of whom fuller mention is made hereinafter), went to England. Before going a copy of the Act of the Connecticut Assembly relative to The Susquehanna Company was given to him by Judge Daniel Edwards (mentioned on page 282), who asked him to inform himself, in the best manner he could, "of the sentiments of people in power, and others in England, upon the matter." "This," wrote Mr. Ingersoll,* "I took care to do, and upon my return home in 1761 I communicated to the Company, by letter, fully and frankly what I had met with ; and as everything I had to communicate wore a very discouraging aspect, I took the liberty to advise them to give up early a project which I thought in the end must prove abortive. This step brought upon me a suspicion, among many of the adventurers, that I had been bribed in England by Mr. Penn." The discouraging letter of Mr. Ingersoll, thus referred to, reached The Susquehanna Company about the time of its selection of Colonel Dyer as agent.

the bundle of papers-and even the horn-headed cane, are all to the life, and as much a part of the portrait (to those who are familiar with the peculiar habits of Squire Dyer) as the face. The exhibition of shrubbery from the open window is also extremely àpropos, as illustrative of the well-known fonduess of the subject for the cultivation of fruits and plants." This portrait has hung for many years, now, in the Court House at Wilkes-Barré, and is still in a good state of preservation.

About 1823 Thomas Dyer was married to Elizabeth (Sayers)-born in Edinburgh, Scotland, April 6, 1779-widow of Silas Jackson of Wilkes-Barre. She died April 9, 1849. The Squire died at Wilkes-Barre September 21, 1861, aged eighty-eight years and eight months. His remains lie in Hollenback Cemetery, and npon his grave-stone the date of his birth is given as "January 21, 1771." This is an error, as the public records at Windham, Connecticut, give "1773" as the year. Besides, on January 21, 1856, Squire Dyer celebrated at his home in Wilkes-Barré the eighty-third anniversary of his birth. (See The Record of the Times, Wilkes-Barré, January 23, 1856.)

The following memorial, written by Edmund L. Dana, Esq., at the time of Squire Dyer's decease, was adopted by the Bar Association : "When professional men of distinction are removed by death, it is eminently proper that surviving professional friends should record the event and give to their memories the tribute of a respectful notice. On Saturday, the 21st inst., THOMAS DYER, Esq., having attained the advanced age of ninety [sic] years, ceased from the labors of a long and honored career as a lawyer, ex- tending through a period of more than half a century. He was probably the oldest, and in the maturity of his powers was one of the ablest, lawyers in northern Pennsylvania. Ever a diligent and persevering student, endowed with a singularly tenacious memory, his knowledge of law was comprehensive in extent, and in degree accurate and profound. Uniting a vigorous mind with a strong and healthy physi- cal organization, he encountered fearlessly and successfully the most intricate branches of his favorite science.

"Although he had for some years prior to his decease withdrawn from active professional effort, he continued to enact and exemplify the maxim of his favorite author-'nulla dies sine linea' : nor were his habits of reading and annotation suspended until loss of sight disabled him from the pursuit of his favorite study. The margins of the books in his well-worn library are crowded with his notes and refer- ences, and wherever important subjects are discussed the text for pages is covered with a synopsis of all the authorities, ancient and modern, concurrent as well as dissenting, until the identity of the original treatise is lost, the usual relation reversed, and the reader has become the author. A rigid and systematic economist of time, he found leisure for an enlarged course of general reading, giving, in his selections, especial prominence to metaphysical science and theology. Of the Bible he was a diligent and earnest student, and in addition to its religious uses-in which his friends believe he attained a saving interest-lie was fond of tracing to its precepts, as to the fountain-head, all the broad and leading principles of the law.

"For many years he held, by successive appointments under different Governors of this State, and, upon the adoption of the amended Constitution, by election, the office of a magistrate in this borough, and brought to the discharge of its duties a degree of ability, integrity and industry which would have adorned our highest judicial station. Holding in such esteem and reverence the law and its mission, he could not and did not suffer its process, under his hands and administration, to be debased into mere litigation, or to be made the instrument of covert malice, or to be used successfully for any other purpose than the assertion of right and the restraint and punishment of the wrong. Without dissent, without exception, the public have accorded to him the character of an able, impartial and conscientious officer."

The following was written by the Hon. John N. Conyngham (for many years President Judge of the Courts of Luzerne County) upon the occasion of the death of Squire Dyer : "There are but few now here who can speak of his earlier days from personal knowledge. The writer of this notice looks back upon an acquaintance of upwards of forty years. Even then the early frosts had begun to sprinkle the head which later years had shown so thoroughly whitened. He can personally tell of his intellectual ability, his unwearied industry, the kindness of his heart and the warmth of his affections. It was only to those who were intimately acquainted with him that the true nature of his character was well known. * * * Familiarly known among the lawyers as the 'Chief Justice' he was often, from his great experience, con- sulted by his brother Justices, and even by Judges on the Bench, for his practise under and construction of certain Acts. His duties as a Justice prevented his giving much attention to the practise of the law : yet he was a sound and thoroughly read lawyer. * * His wonderful memory made him in truth a living index and tahle of the law, open to the inquiry of every one who in a proper spirit sought for legal information.

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A history of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, from its first beginnings to the present time; including chapters of newly-discovered, Vol. I, Part 64

Author: Harvey, Oscar Jewell, 1851-1922; Smith, Ernest Gray Publication date: 1909-1930 Publisher: Wilkes-Barre : Raeder Press Number of Pages: 734

Author: Harvey, Oscar Jewell, 1851-1922; Smith, Ernest Gray
Publication date: 1909-1930
Publisher: Wilkes-Barre : Raeder Press
Number of Pages: 734