A history of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, from its first beginnings to the present time; including chapters of newly-discovered, Vol. I, Part 82

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 82

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About that time Arnold, having performed conspicuous and hazardous services and been wounded during the Quebec campaign, was promoted by Congress a Brigadier General. For the vacancy thereby created in the Colonelcy of the 20th Regiment there were two applicants : Lieutenant Colonels John Dur-

BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. After the painting by John Trumbull (mentioned on page 471).

kee and David Waterbury. Under date of June 10, 1776, Col. Eliphalet Dyer, at Windham, wrote to Col. Joseph Trumbull (see page 471) as follows; "Since I last saw you at New York the Governor wrote General Washington in favor of Colonel Waterbury to be appointed Colonel of Durkee's regiment. Waterbury will not accept unless he can have his Continental commission of ye date he ought to have had one when in Canada, to give him his proper rank. He is at present appointed to command a regi- ment raised by the Colony, stationed at New London, which he accepts till he hears from Congress ; and if they give him his former proposed commission then he will leave New London and repair to New York and take the command of Durkee's regiment. If he should not, I have strong solicitations to use my small influence for Durkee. It is said in his favor that he has gained his health ; is much more alert than he used to be ; that his regiment-both officers and soldiers-are very fond of him, and that there is no one will give so good satisfaction as he will. * * * Let me hear from you whether Durkee will do- whether he can be promoted or not. If he will do I should be willing to help him forward. I will own I feel myself a little interested in the affair, as probably Capt. Thomas [Dyer] may stand a chance for the Majority."

A week later Colonel Dyer wrote from Hartford to Colonel Trumbull as follows: "The Assembly have appointed Colonels Waterbury and Wadsworth the two Brigadier Generals for these new raised battalions. * * Waterbury is now out of the question for Arnold's regiment. Durkee is much recom- mended to me by many of his officers, and that the regiment would be better satisfied with him than any other they can think of, except Waterbury." At the city of New York, July 29, 1776, General Washington wrote to the Continental Board of War as follows (see "American Archives," Fifth Series, I : 641): "For the 20th Regiment (then-June 27th-late Arnold's) there were two competitors, to wit : Colonel Durkee, the present Lieutenant Colonel, who has had charge of the regiment ever since the first establishment of it, and Lieutenant Colonel Tyler of Parsons' regiment." In an order issued front "Headquarters, New York, August 12, 1776," General Washington announced : "Lieutenant Colonel Durkee is appointed Colonel of the regiment late Arnold's, and Major Knowlton Lieutenant Colonel of said regiment." A few days later

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Capt. Thomas Dyer, just mentioned (see, also, page 391), was promoted Major of the 20th Regiment, which, ahont the same time, was put in a new brigade-to be commanded by Brig. Gen. Samuel Holden Parsons of Connecticut-forming part of the division under the command of Maj. Gen. Joseph Spencer of Connecticut.

August 27, 1776, the battle of Long Island was fought, ending disastrously for the American forces. General Parsons' brigade took part in this engagement, being stationed on the spot now known as "Battle Hill" int Greenwood Cemetery. Many of Parsons' men were killed and more were captured. Moreover, it was at this battle that Maj. Edward Shippen Burd (mentioned on page 361) was captured by the British, and Col. Philip Johnston (mentioned on pages 159 and 488) fell at the head of his New Jersey regiment. 'Three days later occurred Washington's skillful retreat to the New York side of the East River, and with it began the series of perplexities and reverses which so distressed the American army in that critical campaign. Immediately after the retreat from Long Island Durkee's 20th Regiment was stationed in the entrenchments at Pattlus' Hook, on the New Jersey shore nearly opposite Cortlandt Street, New York. On the 6th of September, at a council of war convened in New York, it was decided that the city should be held by the American forces; but six days later a council reversed this decision and con- cluded that New York should be evacuated on September 15th. Durkee's regiment was then withdrawn from Paulus' Hook and marched up along the New Jersey shore of the Hudson to Fort Lee, on the Pali- sades opposite Harlem Heights. There the regiment remained doing garrison duty during the next two months. November 13, 1776, according to an official "return of the forces encamped on the Jersey shore, commanded by Major General Greene," Durkee's regiment comprised 494 men fit for duty, including one Colonel, one Major, six Captains, seven First Lieutenants, eight Second Lieutenants and eight Ensigns.

By direction of General Washington, within a few days after the battle of Long Island, there had been organized a corps of about 130 officers and soldiers selected from four of the Connecticut regiments and one Massachusetts regiment in service at New York-Durkee's 20th Continental Foot, one of these five regiments, furnishing the largest number of men. Brave and experienced fighters with unblemished records, these men were detailed "to scout between the lines, feel the enemy's position and report directly to the commander-in-chief," and were to return to their respective regiments when no longer needed for this special service. Lieut. Col. Thomas Knowlton of Durkee's regiment was assigned to the command of this detachment, which became known as "Knowlton's Rangers." Among Knowlton's officers was young Capt. Nathan Hale-the patriot-spy-of the 19th Continental Foot, who, captured by the British, was hanged two days afterwards (September 22, 1776) near the corner of the present Forty-fifth Street and First Avenue, New York. On the 16th of September, on the ground now covered by the buildings of Columbia University, was fought the battle of Harlem Heights. "Knowlton's Rangers" took part in this battle-as well as in the preliminary skirmish on Harlem Plains-and in the hottest part of the engagement on the "Heights" Lieutenant Colonel Knowlton, while bravely leading an attack, was shot through the head, and survived only an hour. In General Orders the next day General Washington announced : "The gallant and brave Colonel Knowlton, who would have been an honor to any country, having fallen yester- day while gloriously fighting, Captain Brown is to take command of the party lately led by Colonel Knowlton." Stephen Brown, Captain of one of the companies in Durkee's regiment, was the officer thus assigned to the temporary command of the "Rangers."

After the battle of White Plains, October 28, 1776, and the surrender of Fort Washington on Manhat- tan Island on the 16th of the following November, Washington, who was then at Fort Lee, ordered the abandonment of that fort on the 20th of November and the withdrawal of the American army to the west side of the Hackensack River. Durkee's regiment and the other troops that formed the garrison of Fort Lee evacuated the fort so hastily that they left their mess-kettles on the fires, and 1.000 barrels of flour, 300 tents and a number of mounted cannon fell into the hands of Cornwallis. By the 22d of November the whole American army had fallen back to Newark, New Jersey, and on the 28th, as Washington was leaving Newark at one end of the town, Cornwallis entered at the other. About the Ist of the following December Dnrkee's regiment was transferred to the brigade commanded by Brig. Gen. Hugh Mercer (mentioned on page 361), and December 22, 1776, according to the official "return of the forces encamped and in quarters on the banks of the Delaware, in Pennsylvania, under command of General Washing- ton," the 20th Continental Foot of Mercer's brigade had 465 mien, including Colonel Durkee, present for duty.

In The Connecticut Gazette of February 14, 1777, there was printed a letter from an army correspondent which contained the following paragraph : "Durkee's regiment covered the retreat from Fort Lee to Delaware River, which regiment, both officers and men, behaved with great spirit and bravery, to the entire satisfaction of the General [Washington], and was with him in the action at Trenton." The battle of Trenton was fought December 26, 1776. In the morning of Christmas-day General Mercer had issued the following order to Colonel Durkee (see Stryker's "Battles of Princeton and Trenton," page 379): "You will order your men to assemble, and parade them in the valley immediately over the hill on back of McConkey's Ferry, to remain there for further orders. In forming the brigade, Colonel Durkee takes the right." On that day there were thirty commissioned officers and 283 enlisted men of Durkee's regi- ment present, and "217 men absent, sick, on extra duty, or on furlough." It was at McConkey's Ferry, in the night of Christmas-day, that Washington. with 2,400 troops, including Durkee's regiment, crossed the Delaware-the swift current of the river filled with cakes of floating ice, and a driving storm of snow and sleet pelting the poorly-clad troops. Six days later the term of service of the regiment expired, but, at the urgent request of Washington, Colonel Durkee, nearly all the other commissioned officers and a con- siderable number of the enlisted men of the regiment, continued in service for about six weeks longer, and on January 3, 1777, they participated, as part of Mercer's brigade, in the battle of Princeton-described in the note on page 362. Three days after this event Washington went into Winter-quarters at Morris- town, New Jersey.

At the session of the General Assembly of Connecticut held in October, 1776, John Durkee was "ap- pointed Colonel of one of the eight battalions now ordered to be raised in this State." (See "Records of the State of Connecticut," I : 13.) These battalions, or regiments, were to be raised for the new Conti- nental Army-to serve through the war. Durkee having accepted the appointment made by the Assembly was commissioned Colonel of the "4th Regiment, Connecticut Line." January 1. 1777. Returning home some weeks later the recruiting of the regiment was proceeded with, mainly in the counties of Windham and New London. Early in March the regiment-a mere skeleton in numbers-went into camp at Peeks- kill, New York. Under date of March 223, 1777, General Washington, at Morristown, wrote to Governor Trumbull of Connecticut as follows (see the "Trumbull Papers," previously referred to): "I wish you may not have been deceived in the forwardness of your regiments, for I can assure you the returns fall far short of what was given out. Chandler's, Swift's and Charles Webb's, by General Parsons' letter of the 6th inst., had onty eighty men each, though the latter (Webb) sent his son down some weeks ago and drew 400 stand of arms, assuring me that his father had as many men ready. None of the other regi- ments were half full. Durkee's had only 140 men." The first Adjutant of the 4th Regiment was Lieut. Elihu Marvin, a native of Lyme, New London County, Connecticut, and a graduate of Yale College in the class of 1773. After leaving college he taught school and studied medicine in Norwich, Connecticut, and left there in June, 1777, to join Durkee's regiment.

In September, 1777, the 4th Regiment was ordered to join Washington's army in Pennsylvania, and it marched from Peekskill in the Connecticut brigade commanded by General McDougall. October 4, 1777, the regiment was engaged in the battle of Germantown, Pennsylvania, on the left flank of the army, and suffered some loss. Later it was assigned to Varnum's brigade, and a detachment of the regiment continued the brave defense of Fort Mifflin on the Delaware from the 12th to the 16th of November, 1777. during which Capt. Stephen Brown, previously mentioned, was killed and several of the enlisted men of the detachment were either killed or wounded. The regiment spent the never-to-be-forgotten Winter of

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1777-'78 at Valley Forge, and June 28, 1778, was closely engaged in the battle of Monmouth, New Jersey. Colonel Durkee, who was in command of Varnum's brigade on that occasion, received a severe wound in his right hand, whereby it was permanently disabled. Later the 4th Regiment encamped with the main army at White Plains, New York, until ordered into Winter-quarters at Redding, between Danbury and Bridgeport, Connecticut. Assigned to the 1st Connecticut Brigade, commanded by Brig. Gen. Samuel H. Parsons, the regiment was engaged in the movements and operations on the east side of the Hudson during the campaign of 1779. In the Winter of 1779-'80 it was with the Connecticut division of the army stationed on the outposts at and near Morristown, New Jersey. In the campaign of 1780 it was with the main army in its operations on both sides of the Hudson-spending the Winter of 1780-'81 in the camp "Connecticut Village," above Robinson's farm, on the east side of the Hudson, opposite West Point.

Beginning with January 1, 1781, a new formation, or a consolidation, of the "Connecticut Line" went into effect, which continued till the end of the war. The non-commissioned officers and privates of the 3d and 4th Regiments of the old "Line" (the formation of 1777-'S1) were consolidated into a new regiment designated the "Ist," with Colonel Durkee in command. June 21, 1781, the 1st Regiment, with other regi- ments, marched from "Connecticut Village" down along the Hudson to Peekskill. Later they moved down to Camp Phillipsburg, near Dobbs Ferry, where Durkee's regiment was stationed near the river, on the extreme right of the first, or advance, line of the division. During the Summer and Autumn of 1781, the "Ist" guarded certain outposts in the Highlands on the Hudson against predatory parties of the enemy sent out from New York, and about the last of November the regiment went into Winter-quarters again at "Connecticut Village." Some weeks later Colonel Durkee, who had long borne up under what a fellow officer described as "a slender and debilitated constitution," went to his home at Norwich on sick-leave, turning over the command of his regiment to Lieut. Col. Thomas Grosvenor.

Colonel Durkee died at Norwich May 29, 1782, in the fifty-fourth year of his age, "from exhaustion induced by the service." Brig. Gen. Jedidiah Huntington of the Connecticut Line, who was then at his home in Norwich on leave of absence, sent news of the death of Durkee to "Connecticut Village," and some weeks later received from Lieutenant Colonel Grosvenor a letter containing the following reference to the occurrence : "By your letter to Dr. Ellis we are informed of the death of Colonel Durkee. It is a soldier's maxim not to repine at Fate, and a Christian virtue to hold ourselves conformable to the dispen- sations of Providence. I am happy to hear that the Colonel possessed his mind with its usual firmness and composure to his final exit. It highly indicates the soldier and man of worth." (See "Connecticut in the Revolution," page 315.) Colonel Durkee's will (which had been executed at Norwich October 18, 1780, in the presence of Joshua Abell, Jr., Capt. Richard Lamb and Uriah Waterman) was probated at Norwich June 4, 1782. By it the Colonel devised to his wife Martha all his estate except twenty shillings, which he bequeathed to his "worthy friend Isaac Abell," who, with Mrs. Martha Durkee as executrix, was appointed executor of the will. The inventory of the estate contained the following items: One silver watch ; one blue, one red and one brown regimental coat ; one white, one buff and one green cloth and one corduroy waistcoat ; six pairs of breeches-white, green, and buff cloth, corduroy, leather and linen ; gold sleeve buttons ; silver buckles ; ivory-headed cane ; saddles and bridles ; a goodly supply of household furniture and utensils and a number of books; dwelling-house, valued at £230; orchard, at £50; several small lots of land ; four "Treasurer's Notes" for £116, 8s. 11%d. each. Total amount of in- ventory, £1,264, 4s. 4d. Charles Miner says ("History of Wyoming," Appendix. pages 27 and 49) that Colonel Durkee was buried at Norwich "with extraordinary display. * * Military honors were accorded

at his funeral, and the display on a similar occasion in that city had never been surpassed." Miss Caul- kins, writing some years later than Miner, stated : "On the grave-stone of Col. John Durkee is the follow- ing : 'In memory of Doct !. Dominie Touzain who was lost in a hurricane in March 1782 in ye 31st year of his age.'" It is presumed, of course, that the foregoing was in addition to an inscription relating to Colonel Durkee. Who Dr. Touzain was we have been unable to learn.

Col. John and Martha ( Wood) Durkee were the parents of the following-named children, all born at Norwich : i. Anna Durkee, born October 23, 1753. Subsequently to July, 1774, she became the wife of - Delongpres. Subsequently to 1793 and prior to 1812, her husband having died, she was married (2d) to - Young. When, in March, 1812, she applied to Congress for "the seven years' half-pay of a Colonel, to which Durkee himself would have been entitled had he lived and served to the end of the war"-as provided for in the Resolve of Congress of August 24, 1780-it was set forth that the widow of said Durkee was dead, and that the petitioner, Anna (Durkee) Young, was "the daughter and sole heir of Col. John Durkee, deceased." (See "American State Papers," XIX : 72, 417). She was, therefore, the last survivor of her father's family. When and where Mrs. Young died, and whether or not she left any descendants, we have been unable to learn.

ii. John Durkee, Jr., born September 23, 1757. In 1775, in the eighteenth year of his life, he served from May till December as a private in the 3d Company of the 3d Connecticut Regiment in the campaign against Boston, described on page 484. In 1776 he served through the New York and New Jersey campaign as an Ensign in the 20th Continental Foot commanded by his father. January 1, 1777, when only three months past his nineteenth birth-day, he was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the 4th Regiment, sub- sequently commanded by his father. July 31. 1777, he was promoted First Lieutenant, and October 26, 1780. was promoted Captain. He served in this regiment until its consolidation with the 3d Regiment to form the Ist Regiment, as previously described, and then he served as Captain in the last-mentioned regi- ment until the close of the war. In 1783 he became a member of the Connecticut Society of the Cincin- nati. He was alive and residing at Norwich, Connecticut, in June, 1785; but how much longer he lived we are unable to state.

iii. Phineas Durkee (named for Colonel Durkee's old friend and commander, Gen. Phineas Lyman, previously mentioned), born August 27, 1762. From May to December, 1775 (being then in his thirteenth year), he served as one of the fifers of the 3d Company (his father's) in the 3d Connecticut Regiment, in the campaign against Boston. In the campaign of 1776 he served in the same capacity in the 20th Continental Foot, commanded by his father. March 15, 1777, at the age of fourteen and a-half years, he enlisted as a private in Captain McGregier's company of the 4th Regiment, Connecticut Line, previously mentioned ; and May 6, 1782-three weeks before his father's death-he was promoted Sergeant. (See "Connecticut in the Revolution.") The time and place of his death we are unable to state.

iv. Barré Durkee (named for Col. Isaac Barré, referred to at length in Chapter X), born October 21, 1767. It is presumed that he died in early youth. There was, however, in 1792, a certain Isaac Barré Durkee living at or near Norwich, who was a sea-captain and commanded the sloop Betsey.

Colonel Durkee was the owner of two or more rights in The Susquehanna Company. In addition to his share in the general "Purchase" of the Company, by reason of his ownership of these rights, he also became one of the proprietors of Wilkes-Barre (one of the five "gratuity" towns) in virtue of being one of the 200 settlers provided for by the votes of the Company. (See page 465.) In the distribution of the lands of Wilkes-Barre-in the manner fully shown hereinafter-Colonel Durkee became the owner of "Town Lot No. 4" (see "The Original Town-plot of Wilkes-Barre" in Chapter XI), at the north-east corner of Northampton and River Streets-said lot extending in length, or depth, from River Street to the center of the present Franklin Street, and in width, or breadth, from Northampton Street to a line parallel there- with and distant 335+ feet therefroin. Within the original bounds of this lot are now erected the First Presbyterian Church, the Osterhout Free Library building, the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society's building, the residences of Dr. Lewis H. Taylor, Col. R. Bruce Ricketts, Benjamin Reynolds, Mrs. Sheldon Reynolds, William P. Billings and a number of others. Colonel Durkee received also, by allotment, "Meadow Lot No. 5," "Wood Lot, or Back Lot, No. 6" and "5-Acre Lot No. 14" in the different divisions of the town of Wilkes-Barre. "Back Lot No. 6" was located on Jacob's Plains, and contained 253+ acres. Durkee's interest in this lot was sold in 1799 to Cornelius Conrtright. Colonel Durkee owned also 113 acres in the township of Capouse, or Providence, granted to him "as a sufferer for a right in

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RESIDENCES OF COL. R. B. RICKETTS, MR. BENJAMIN REYNOLDS, AND DORRANCE REYNOLDS, ESQ., REFERRED TO ON PAGE 486. From a photograph taken in 1901.

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and, although only a few months past forty years of age, had had con- siderable experience as a soldier in time of war and as a man of affairs in time of peace.

In the latter part of April about 110 men rendezvoused at Norwich, whence they set out for Wyoming on horseback, in command of Major Durkee. They journeyed by way of Wallingford, Woodbury and New Milford, Connecticut, and Beekman, Fishkill, New Windsor and Goshen, New York, and were joined en route by other men who had been previ- ously enrolled by the committee. Passing through the northern section of Sussex County, New Jersey, they crossed the Delaware River and entered Pennsylvania at Wells' Ferry, now Dingman's Ferry. In that locality they were joined by those of the "First Forty" who, after their release from custody at Easton in March, had not returned to Connec- ticut but had tarried at the Minisinks. From the Delaware the course of the company lay through the central part of what is now Pike County, on through Salem Township in Wayne County into Jefferson Township, Lackawanna County. There they passed through Cobb's Gap in the Wyoming-Moosic range of mountains (mentioned on page 44), and within a short time arrived at Capouse Meadows on the Lackawanna (see page 467) .* Along this trail, or within a short distance of it, throughout its whole length from Wells', or Dingman's, Ferry to Capouse Meadows, and thence to Wilkes-Barré, a road was subsequently built, which was in use for a good many years. It is indicated on the map of "North-eastern Pennsylvania in 1791," in Chapter XXIII, reproduced from an original map of the State published by Reading Howell in the year mentioned. By a reference to this map it will be seen that at "Shohola H." (about twelve miles north-west from Wells' Ferry) the road was joined by a branch road starting from the Delaware at the mouth of Big Bushkill Creek, at the north-eastern corner of the present Monroe County, some fourteen miles down the river from the ferry.

Major Durkee and his company reached Capouse Meadows in the evening of Thursday, May 11, 1769, and there they encamped for the night. Leaving them there and turning to the Manor of Stoke, we find in the little settlement at Mill Creek Charles Stewart, Capt. Amos Ogden, his brother Nathan Ogden and some eighteen or twenty other men of the Pennsylvania party. John Anderson, the trader, and two land-surveyors, having gone up the river from Stoke about the Sth of May to survey lands at Towanda and above Sheshequin, t have not yet returned.

We learn that on the 3d of April warrants had been issued by the Provincial Land Office to Peter Miller, George Miller, John Patton, Abraham Slack, James Treadwell and James Martin for six lots of land in Wyoming Valley, aggregating 1,974 acres, which within a short time thereafter were surveyed and laid out to them in what was denominated "Nanticoke Township"-lying and being situate south-west of and adjoining the Manor of Stoke. On the same date warrants had been issued to David Johnson, Cornelius Stark, William West, Patrick Sav-

Kingston." June 9, 1777, he sold this to Timothy Keyes, formerly of New Marlborough, Berkshire County, Massachusetts. In January, 1774, at Norwich, Colonel Durkee sold to Jeremiah Ross of New London, Connecticut, for £6, one-half of an original right in the Susquehanna Purchase ; and in the following July, at Norwich, the former conveyed to his daughter Anna, by gift, one right in the Susquehanna Purchase. Twenty years later she conveyed all her interests in and under that right to Elisha Hyde and Elisha Tracy of Norwich for £60.

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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 82

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