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 79
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103
JOSEPH TRUMBULL, the eldest child of Gov. Jonathan and Faith Trumbull, was born at Lebanon March 11, 1737. He was graduated at Harvard College a Bachelor of Arts in 1756, and three years later received the degree of A. M. Some time after leaving college he became connected with his father's mercantile business, and later became a partner in the business. In 1763, 1764, and probably later, the firm was Trumbull, Fitch and Trumbull-composed of Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., Col. Eleazar Fitch (men- tioned on page 448) and Joseph Trumbull-and they carried on an extensive business, trading with the West Indies and elsewhere, and having warehouses at Lebanon, Norwich and other places in eastern Connecticut. Joseph Trumbull's sojourn in London in 1763 and '64, as noted on page 441, was in relation to the business of his firm. He was not, however, at that time, as erroneously stated hereinbefore, an attorney-at-law. In May, 1763, he was established and commissioned by the General Assembly of Con- necticut Captain of the Ist Company in the 12th Regiment of the Colony. In 1767, '69, '70, '71, '72 and '73 Captain Trumbull, with his brother-in-law William Williams, previously mentioned, represented Lebanon in the General Assembly. Early in 1768 he again made a business trip to London, returning to Lebanon in December of that year, as hereinbefore noted. Having been for some time engaged in the study of law, he was admitted to the Bar of Windham County in the Summer of 1769. The following is a copy of the original certificate of his admission-now preserved among the unpublished papers of Joseph Trumbull in the collections of The Connecticut Historical Society.
"WINDHAM, SS. County Court. June Term, 1769.
"This Court being properly and fully satisfied of the integrity and good understanding of Mr. Joseph Trumbull of Lebanon, in Windham County, and of his skill in the law : upon his motion do admit said Joseph Trumbull an Attorney-at-Law, and the said Trumbull appeared in this Court and was sworn accordingly. Witness the seal of the County hereunto affixed.
"Teste-SAMUEL GRAY, Clerk."
In October, 1770, Gurdon Saltonstall and Joseph Trumbull were appointed by the General Assembly to collect all the public letters and other papers relating to the affairs of the Colony of Connecticut-which properly belonged to the Colony-and arrange and file the same. In May, 1771, Col. William Williams and Captain Trumbull were appointed by the Assembly "to collect all such evidences and exhibits as may be found of consequence for ascertaining the boundary-line between Massachusetts and Connecticut." In 1774 Captain Trumbull was appointed an alternate delegate to the First Continental Congress (see page 354), but Roger Sherman-who was also an alternate-performed the duties of the office. At that time Captain Trumbull was located at Norwich, Connecticut, in the practise of his profession. July 19, 1775, he was appointed and commissioned by the Congress Commissary General of Issues of the Continental army, with the rank of Colonel. In this office he served until June, 1777, when he resigned and was suc- ceeded by Col. Charles Stewart, as mentioned on page 459. November 27, 1777, Maj. Gen. Horatio Gates, Col. Joseph Trumbull, and Richard Peters, Esq. (mentioned in the note on page 262), were elected by Congress members of the new "Board of War." Maj. Gen. Thomas Mifflin and Col. Timothy Pickering were the other members of this Board, whose province it was to manage certain military affairs now en- trusted to the War Department. Colonel Trumbull performed the duties of this office until April, 1778, when, on account of ill health, he resigned and went to Lebanon, where he died July 23, 1778. Colonel Trumbull was married in March, 1777, to Amelia, only daughter of Col. Eliphalet Dyer. (See page 394.) No children resulted from this union.
* See the original letter among the unpublished papers of William Samuel Johnson in the possession of The Connecticut Historical Society.
[Seal]
472
appointed to superintend and manage the affairs of the "Forty" (see page 469), had enlisted forty proprietors who agreed to proceed, either personally or by hired substitutes, to the inuch-coveted Wyoming lands. About the 20th of January the nucleus of the party, composed largely, if not entirely, of residents of the counties of Windham and New London, set out on horseback from the town of Windham. Their course lay to Hartford and thence through Litchfield County, Connecticut, into Dutchess County, New York, where they were joined by Simeon Draper and William Walsworth of Beekman Precinct, William Buck of Amenia Precinct, and perhaps some others. Continuing their journey they passed through Goshen, in Orange County, New York, where they were joined by Thomas Bennet. Striking the Delaware River in the vicinity of the present town of Milford, Pike County, Pennsylvania (see map in Chapter XI), they journeyed down along the river, through the "Mini- sinks" (see note, page 189), to the locality where dwelt the Shoemakers, McDowells and De Puis, and there, being joined by Benjamin Shoemaker, Sr., and his son Elijah, the "Forty"-being now complete in number- journeyed in a north-westerly direction, over the various ranges of moun- tains described on pages 44 and 45, till they struck the Lackawanna River a few miles, above its mouth.
During the past eighty or ninety years there have been published various lists of names purporting to be those of the "First Forty" Wyo- ming settlers of 1769. Owing to the dissimilarity of those lists, and to the fact that it has been claimed for a number of early Wyoming settlers whose names are not in the lists referred to that they, also, were among the "First Forty," there has been much doubt for many years as to just who composed that little band of pioneers. Of all the published lists which the present writer has seen the one that is nearest completeness and correctness is a copy of an original "True list, or roll, of the Forty first settlers on the West Side of the Easterninost Branch of the Susquehanna River." This list is dated June 28, 1770, and is signed by "Andrew Metcalf, clerk to said Forty." The original document was in the pos- session of the late Steuben Jenkins, Esq., and the copy just referred to was furnished by him in 1886 for publication in Dr. F. C. Johnson's Historical Record, I: 70, where it may be seen. This list, however, is not a list of the "First Forty," but-as its title states-of the "Forty first settlers" who, in 1770, claimed to be the proprietors of the town- ship of Kingston, or the "Forty Township" as it was then called.
Some of the original "Forty" were, as previously intimated, the hired substitutes of bona fide proprietors in The Susquehanna Company, and by the year 1770 their principals had stepped into their places. Also, by that time, some of the original forty proprietors had assigned their rights in the "Forty Township" to new-comers, who were on the ground in 1770 and were recognized as proprietors in the township. To illustrate : In the list of 1770 printed in the Historical Record appear the names of Zebulon Butler, Nathaniel Wales, Andrew Metcalf and Parshall Terry. None of these inen was of the "First Forty." According to an original account-book kept by Zebulon Butler, and now in the possession of The Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, he sailed in his sloop Anne from his home in Lyme, Connecticut, for the Island of Antigua just about the time that the "First Forty" arrived in Wyoming Valley ; and he did not return from this voyage until early in
473
April, 1769 .* The reasons for the appearance of the names of Nathaniel Wales and Andrew Metcalf in the aforementioned list are given in Chapter XI, post, in certain extracts from the recorded proceedings of "a meeting of the Committee of Settlers on the Susquaha Lands July 19th 1770." Parshall Terry, in his affidavit mentioned on pages 403 and 404, states : "That he went [to Wyoming], in company with more than 100 others, some time the last of April or beginning of May [1769]; that upon their arrival at Wyoming they found near fifty of The Susquehanna Company who had gone on early the same year ; that the deponent was admitted as one of the first forty."
With much care, and at a cost of considerable time and patience, the present writer has compiled from original authentic records the fol- lowing list of the "First Forty" settlers of 1769, which lie believes to be accurate.
Atherton, Asahel
Elderkin, Vine
Roberts, Elias
Belding, Ezra
Follett, Benjamin
Shoemaker, Benjamin-Sr. .
Bennet, Thomas
Frink, Joseph
Shoemaker, Elijalı
Bingham, Silas
Gardner, Steplien
Smith, Oliver
Brockway, Richard
Gaylord, Samuel
Smith, Timothy
Buck, Elijah
Hall, Joshua
Tripp, Henry Dow
Buck, Willianı
Harding, Stephen
Tripp, Isaac
Comstock, John
Harris, Peter
Vanorman, Rudolph Brink
Davis, Reuben
Jearum, Zerubbabel
Walsworth, William
Dean, Jonathan
Jenkins, Jolın
Westover, Theophilus
Denison, Nathan
Jenkins, Stephen
Wightman, Allen
Draper, Simeon
Lothrop, Cyprian
Yale, Benjamin
Dyer, Thomas
Peirce, Timothy Pendleton, Benajah
Yale, Job
About the beginning of February, 1769, Sir Henry Moore, Gover- nor of New York, transmitted to Governor Penn of Pennsylvania a detailed accountt of the proceedings of The Susquehanna Company at its December meeting ; and on February 6th Charles Stewart and Jolin Jennings, at Wyoming, wrote to Governor Penn as follows :
"We have received information that upwards of 100 New England men were last Saturday at Nicholas Depue's? ; that they were to set off from thence this [Monday] morning for this place, with intent to turn us out of possession. * * * We have not learned the names of any of them except William Buck, who was formerly liere, withi those who were killed by the Indians. * At present we have only ten men here ; the others are returned home after building their houses. We still flatter ourselves this affair will end without blows, as we have certainly weakened their party in this County by getting the Van Canipens and Shoemakers to take lands in the manors [of Stoke and Sunbury].'
At Easton, Pennsylvania, under date of February 7, 1769, Lewis Gordon, || lawyer and Justice of the Peace, wrote to Governor Penn as followsT :
"A few hours ago I received a letter by express from Messrs. Stewart and Jennings, now at Wyoming, intimating that they had intelligence from the Minisinks that a large body of New England men were to set off from thence for Wyoming, in order to take forcible possession of those lands. * * This moment the Constable of the Minisinks is come down to me, and informs there are at least between forty and fifty New England men
* For a more detailed account of this voyage of Captain Butler to Antigua, see "The Harvey Book," page 615.
+ See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," IX : 569. # See ibid., 573.
¿ Nicholas De Pui, who lived at "The Minisinks," is here referred to.
|| LEWIS GORDON was a native of Aberdeen, Scotland, who, after the battle of Culloden, in 1746, im- migrated to Philadelphia, where he practised law and served as a clerk in the office of William Peters, mentioned in the note ou page 262. The new county of Northampton (see note, page 251) liad hardly been erected when Lewis Gordon removed to Easton from Philadelphia, and was the first attorney to be ad- mitted to practise (June 16, 1752) in the Courts of Northampton County. He was Clerk of the Courts and a Justice of the Peace for many years at Easton ; he also followed surveying, and served as land-agent for the Proprietaries. He died at Easton in 1777. His eldest daughter, Elizabeth, became the wife of James Taylor, son of George Taylor of Easton, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
T See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," IX : 572.
474
in his neighborhood, on their journey to Wyoming ; and that they have a great many friends amongst them [that is, amongst the inliabitants at the Minisinks]. I shall, as soon as I can learn any of the New England people's names, issue a warrant against them."
Governor Penn having laid the three last-inentioned cominunica- tions before the Provincial Council that body advised the Governor to write forthwith to Gov. William Pitkin of Connecticut, which he did on the 13th of February, in part as follows* :
"I have received certain advice that, in consequence of resolutions entered into by a society of people in your Province, a number are set out with a design to enter upon and settle a part of the River Susquehannah. When I consider that like atttempts have been made heretofore, and how often the same wild scheme has been disavowed by your predecessors, *
* I cannot give credit to the report that the adventurers have the countenance of your Government. * * *
"These purchases were always looked upon by the Six Nations as private and fraud- ulent, and inconsistent with their prior engagements to the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, and accordingly the settlements made by the people of your Province at Wyoming were highly resented and complained of by the Indians, who, at length, proceeded to the most fatal extremities. * * So that, in whatever light the matter is considered, it is against these rash and inconsiderate people, who, by their lawless intrusion, would again disturb the peace and tranquillity of this Government. You may well imagine that, after the Proprietaries have paid so large a consideration for this country-so evidently within the limits of their Charter-and have settled a number of people upon it ( which I must inform you is truly the case), this Government cannot be tame spectators of an illegal forcible possession, taken by people who have not the least color of right.
"The consequence, therefore, of these deluded people's persisting in their un- warrantable designs, must be a scene of violence and confusion, which all good men would wish to avert, and which it is the peculiar duty of those who are in public stations to prevent. I cannot suppose that the Government of Connecticut would encourage a procedure so unreasonable and illegal, and big with mischievous consequences, which I would rather hope they would use the utmost of their power to prevent ; and it is under this expectation that I now apply to your Honor, requesting you to enquire into the matter, to place it in a proper light to the people of your Colony and to use your power and influence to prevent the many fatal consequences which must flow from their pursuit of any illegal or violent measures."
A few days subsequently to the despatching of the foregoing letter the Pennsylvania Assembly passed and the Governor approved an Act- with a preamble similar to that in the Act of February 3, 1768 (see page 447, ante)-providing for the punishment, by a fine of £500 and twelve months' imprisonment, of any person or persons who, singly or in com- panies, should presume to settle upon any lands within the boundaries of the Province of Pennsylvania not purchased from the Indians; or who should make, or cause to be made, any survey of any part thereof ; or who should mark or cut down any trees thereon, with design to settle or appropriate the same to his or their own use or that of any other per- son. This Act, being without limitation, would expire only on the ex- tinguishment of all the Indian titles.
Five days after the enactinent of the abovementioned law the Sec- retary of the Provincial Land Office issued an official advertisement to the effect that on the 3d day of April, 1769, the Land Office would be opened "to receive applications from all persons inclinable to take up lands in the new Purchase, upon the terms of £5 sterling per hundred acres, and one penny per acre, per annum, quit-rent." It was stated, further, that no person would be "allowed to take up inore than 300 acres, without the special license of the Proprietaries or the Governor." The surveys upon all applications were "to be made and returned within six months, and the whole purchase money paid at one payment." All persons were "warned and cautioned not to apply for more land" than they would be able to pay for within the time given for that purpose.
* See "Pennsylvania Archives," Fourth Series, III : 406.
475
Returning now to the "First Forty" pioneers of 1769, whom we left a short while since near the confluence of the Susquehanna and the Lackawanna, we find that they proceeded down the left bank of the Susquehanna to Mill Creek, where they arrived in the afternoon of Wednesday, February Stlı. Much to their surprise they found that, on or near the site of the old block-liouse erected by the New England settlers of 1762-'63, the Pennsylvanians had built a new building (as 111entioned on page 460); that in the vicinity several small cabins had been erected, and that Charles Stewart, Esq., John Jennings, Sheriff of Northampton County, Nathan Ogden, a brother of Capt. Amos Ogden, Capt. Alexander Patterson,* of Northampton County, and some six or seven other men were in possession of these improvements. The "Forty" were in doubt as to what they should do in the circumstances, but they finally decided to retrace their steps a short distance and encamp for the night. This they did. Here we will introduce some extracts from an original affidavit, never before published. This affidavit, which is in the handwriting of Col. Jedidiah Elderkin, was sworn to October 20, 1782, before Hezekiah Bissell, a Justice of the Peace in Windham County, Connecticut, by "Lieut. Col. Thomas Dyer" and "Capt. Vine Elderkin," previously mentioned. The document itself is now among the "Trumbull Papers" referred to on page 29, ante, paragraph "(6)."
"That towards the end of January, 1769, they [the deponents], with about thirty- six other persons, set off from Windham-being proprietors in the Susquehanna Purchase under the Government of Connecticut-with instructions from the Committee of The Sus- quehanna Company (so called) not to fight or contend in arms with any that might be sent against them from the Government of Pennsilvania ; but with a purpose and design to begin a settlement at a place called WYOMING MEADOWS. That in the month of Feb- ruary following they arrived on said lands at a place called Mill Creek, and, before they had opportunity even to settle themselves for the first night after their arrival, they received a letter from the Sheriff of Northampton County addressed to ISAAC TRIPP, Esq., BENJAMIN FOLLETT aud VINE ELDERKIN-all of whom were of said company [of forty] -in which said company were required to make their reasons known to said Sheriff why they should undertake to possess those lands, &c.
"Whereupon said Tripp, Follett and Elderkin went down to the trading-house, so called, where they met said Sheriff, sundry Justices of the Peace and a large number of people with them. That said Sheriff and Justices informed said Tripp, &c., that, unless they would engage and undertake that said company of settlers should immediately depart and leave said lands, they should be arrested and imprisoned in Easton Gaol. Said Sheriff, &c., being informed by said Tripp, &c., that they could not engage for said company that they should depart, said Sheriff proceeded to threaten, insult, and, with language, to abuse said Tripp, &c .- as was supposed, to terrify and affright said settlers. And also, with and by force of a writ in the hands of said Sheriff, by him said Tripp, Follett and Elderkin were taken and carried off for imprisonment in Easton jail ; and the residue of said company of settlers retired off said lands to the Delaware River.
"Said Tripp, Follett and Elderkin being arrived with said Sheriff at Easton, pro- posals were made them by said Sheriff and one Lewis Gordon, Esq., to procure bail for their appearance at a future Court, which being done, that they should be set at liberty. Said Tripp, &c., informed said Sheriff and Justice that they were altogether strangers in ·that part of the country, and did not suppose it possible for them to procure bail to auy considerable amount. To which they were answered, that if they did not procure bail they the said Tripp, &c., must and should go into prison-which gave them much trouble and perplexity. At length, for their relief, one Mr. WILLIAM LEDLIE of Easton inter- posed, offering himself as surety, and became recognized in the sum of £300, lawful money, for their appearance at the then next Quarter Sessions-which was in March fol- lowing. Upon which said prisoners, after four days' confinement, were released, and returned to Lower Smithfieldt upon the Delaware, where they again joined their former companions ; and [having], upon consultation and consideration, concluded that at said March Sessions there would be a fair tryal of said cause, and the Title of the lands be made the main question, [they] determined to proceed, and wait the event of said suit-
* See various references to him in subsequent chapters.
t Lower Smithfield Township in Northampton County, now, wholly or in part, Smithfield Township, Monroe County, Pennsylvania. The locality referred to in the above affidavit was the one (mentioned on page 432, ante) where the refugees of 1763 congregated-about thirty or thirty-five miles north of Easton.
476
and accordingly went on and settled themselves at a place called Lackawanuck, which is at the entrance of the creek known by that name into the Susquehanna River (then about the 1st March, 1769)." * * *
The path or trail over which the "Forty" traveled from the Dela- ware to the mouth of the Lackawanna was the same over which they had journeyed some three weeks previously. Having reached their des- tination they hastily built two or three rude log cabins for their accom- inodation, purposing to occupy them until the 200 other settlers should come on in the Spring. (These cabins stood within the present limits of the city of Pittston.) News of the arrest and dispersal of the New Englanders at Wyoming was carried to Governor Penn at Philadelphia by Charles Stewart; but while the latter was still in Philadelphia a messenger arrived from up the Delaware with information that the New Englanders had set out from Lower Smithfield for Wyoming. By direction of the Governor Edmund Physick, Receiver General of the Province, paid on March 2d the sum of &64, 19s. 8d .* to Charles Stewart, on account of expenses incurred and to be incurred in removing the New Englanders from Wyoming. Stewart was instructed to proceed to Easton and notify Sheriff Jennings and Justice Gordon to raise a suffi- cient force of men to proceed with them to Wyoming to arrest the intrud- ing "Forty."
On the 8th of March Joseph Shippen, Jr. (see page 361), Secretary of the Provincial Council, paid £100 to Thomas Apty, who was to "deliver the same to Lewis Gordon, Esq., at Easton, to be applied by him in defraying the expences of hiring men, &c., on an expedition to Wyo- mning to remove the New England intruders on the lands there."t Gordon received this money at Easton on the 9th of March, and the next day he, Henry Hooker and Aaron De Pui (three Northampton County magistrates), Sheriff Jennings, Capt. Alexander Patterson and Capt. Amos Ogden set off for Wyoming at the head of over 100 armed inen. On the 11th and 12th of March Charles Stewart purchased stores and provisions at Easton and hired men and horses to convey the same to Wyoming for the use of Sheriff Jennings' posse comitatus.] Stewart and his supply-train left Easton in the afternoon of Sunday, March 12th.
The Jennings-Gordon party reached the mouth of the Lackawanna on the 13th of March, and found that the New Englanders (who had been apprized of the approach of the party) had shut themselves up in their cabins. The next day the Pennsylvanians invested, beseiged and overcame the New Englanders, and on March 15th Justice Gordon issued a warrant and mittimus directed to the "High Sheriff of the County of Northampton, or his Deputy, and to the Keeper of the com- inon Goal of the said County"-the document being worded, in part, as follows§ :
"WHEREAS Isaac Tripp, Benjamin Follett, Vine Elderkin, Elijah Shoemaker, Thomas Dyer, William Buck, John Jenkins, Elijah Buck, Samuel Gaylord, Joseph Frinck, Rudolph Brink Vanorman, Job Yale, Richard Brockway, Asa Atherton, Joshua Hall, Nathan Denison, John Comstock, Timothy Smith, Silas Bingham, Zerubbabel Jerom, Benajah Pembleton, Thomas Bennet, Simeon Draper, Oliver Smith, Ezra Belding, Reuben Davis, Stephen Harding, Timothy Peirce, Elias Roberts, Allen Whitman and Cyprian Lothrop and divers others, evil disposed persons to me unknown, were, in my presence, riotously, routously and unlawfully assembled ; and being so assembled did,
* See the "Penn-Physick Manuscripts," III : 89, in The Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
+ See original document among "Wyoming Papers" in The Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
Į See the "Penn-Physick Manuscripts," IV : 227, in The Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.