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 84
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Upon the completion of their stockade early in June the New Eng- landers named their fortified group of cabins "Fort Durkee," in honor of their leader, Maj. John Durkee.
Concerning the exact site of this primitive fort there have been somne differences of opinion in recent years. Chapman (see page 19), writing in 1818, stated in his "Sketch of the History of Wyoming"- page 76-that the settlers "built a fort a short distance from the bank of the river by the side of a small stream which flows through the plain.
Near the fort they erected about twenty log houses, which were provided with loop-holes. *
* Their fort consisted of a strong block- house surrounded by a rampart and entrenchment, and being guarded by the river on one side, and a morass extending along the brook on another, afforded a very secure place of refuge.". Contemporaneously with the writing of his history Chapman drew a map of Wyoming Valley, which he intended should be published with the history. The original inap is now in the possession of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, and upon it is indicated the brook mentioned above, as well as the site of Fort Durkee. William L. Stone (see page 19), writing in 1839, said in his "Poetry and History of Wyoming"-page 163-"their [the settlers'] first work was to build a fort upon a convenient site, protected by the river on one side and a creek and morass upon another. It was a regular military defense, consisting of a strong block- house, surrounded by a rampart and entrenchinent. In the immediate neighborhood of the fortress * they erected about thirty log houses, with loop-holes." Charles Miner, following Chapman and Stone in point of time, states in his "History of Wyoming" (page 109): "270 or 280 able-bodied men in all assembled on the river banks, where Wilkesbarre now stands, on the 10th of April [1769]. The block-house at Mill Creek was too remote from the flats near the old town of Wywa- mick, where large fields, long since cleared, invited cultivators. A new fortification, called Fort Durkee, after the new commander, was there- fore erected on the banks of the river at Fish's Eddy (near the lower line of the borough) and twenty or thirty [huts] were built in its in- mediate vicinity."
The brook, or creek, referred to in two of these quotations, was the little stream which formerly emptied into the river at Fish's Eddy, and which is described on page 59 .* What Chapman and Stone refer to as a "morass" was, without much doubt, a ravine-as indicated on the sketch reproduced in Chapter XVIII-through which the aforemen- tioned brook flowed.
In the foregoing statements of Chapman, Stone and Miner are the following well-ascertained errors: (1) There are in existence certain letters, reports and affidavits written and executed in Wyoming Valley and elsewhere in the years 1769-'71 (we shall quote from some of them hereinafter), which show conclusively that, excepting the small block- houses hastily and rudely built early in March at the mouth of the Lackawanna, the New England settlers neither erected nor occupied at Wyoming in 1769 any other houses than the twenty odd huts or cabins
* See, also, in connection therewith : On page 455, "A Plot of the Manor of Stoke" ; on page 516, "Plot of the Original Township of Wilkes-Barre"; in Chapter XVIII, a reproduction of "A Sketch of the En- campment at Wyoming in 1779," and in Chapter XXIII, a "Map of Wilkes-Barré and its Suburbs in 1872."
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which we have described as being surrounded by a stockade, and which constituted Fort Durkee. (2) There were 110 New England settlers in Wyoming in April, 1769, as stated by Miner. Durkee and his company did not arrive here until May 12th, as we have previously shown. (3) " The block-house at Mill Creek," referred to by Miner, was the small block-house erected carly in January, 1769, by Captain Ogden, and occupied by lin as a trading-house. There was no intention shown or effort made on the part of Major Durkee to oust Ogden and take posses- sion of his block-house. The objective point of the New Englanders was the locality near Ogden's abandoned store-house, at the bend of the river, and it was there, and nowhere else, that they halted, encamped and, a few days afterwards, erected their log cabins-later incorporated into Fort Durkee.
In referring to the erection of Fort Wyoming in 1771, on the river bank below Northampton Street, Wilkes-Barré, Chiarles Miner states ("History of Wyoming," page 126): "Ground was broke and a fortifi- cation commenced on the bank of the river, sixty rods above Fort Dur- kee." The site of Fort Wyoming (which fort is fully described herein- after) was well known to Mr. Miner. In fact, when in 1800 he came to Wilkes-Barré to reside, "the remains of this fort were in tolerable preser- vation," as he himself has stated ; but all traces of Fort Durkee had then disappeared. The positive statement of Mr. Miner, that these two forts were only sixty rods (or 990 feet) apart, seems to have been accepted by all subsequent writers of Wyoming history as an absolutely correct statement ; and in consequence the generality of people in this com- munity have come to understand that Fort Durkee was located where now stands the residence of Mr. William L. Conynghan, at the south- east corner of South Street and West River Street. Supposing this to be a certainty, then it cannot be true that the fort stood "on the banks of the river at Fish's Eddy"-as Mr. Miner has also stated-for that locality is distant 200 yards or more from the Conynghamn residence ; nor was it possible for the fort to stand-as stated by Chapman and Stone-on or near the bank of the little brook which emptied into Fish's Eddy, and at the same time occupy the ground now covered by the Conyngham residence. The fact is, unquestionably, that Mr. Miner's positive state- ment as to the distance between Fort Durkee and Fort Wyoming was based upon a guess.
To the present writer it seems very clear that Fort Durkee stood a fere rods south-west of the intersection of the present West River Street and Ross Street-being only a short distance from the river and near the right bank of the ravine through which ran the brook previously mentioned. The evidence upon which the writer bases his judgment is as follows :
(1) The location referred to was a desirable one, because, in the first place, it was in a measure protected against the near approach of would-be assailants-on one hand by the river, and on the other by the ravine ; in the second place, clear and unobstructed views of the upper and lower reaches of the river could be had from that point, and the approach of boats up and down the river could be seen for some distance ; in the third place, the ground just there had been for some years almost entirely cleared of trees, they having been cut down and utilized in building the houses and fences required for Teedyuscung and his Dela- wares, and in building Ogden's store-house (see pages 371 and 444); in
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the fourth place, it was contiguous to the extensive plain-treeless, stoneless and fertile (now known as the Wilkes-Barré Flats, and described on page 50)-which had been in part cultivated by the Indians, and which the New Englanders purposed using in their agricultural operations ; in the fifth place, it was at, or in close proximity to, the intersection of the much-traveled trails running from Tioga Point down along the river and from Easton and Bethlehem over the mountains to Wyoming-as described on page 445.
(2) Isaac A. Chapman, the author of the first published history of Wyoming, was a skilled surveyor as well as a practised writer, and in his history and on the manuscript map previously mentioned (both of which were prepared in the year 1818) he located the site of Fort Dur- kee near the nameless brook to which we have so frequently referred- at a considerable distance south-west of South Street.
(3) In the Spring of 1830 George Jones, A. M., then a Tutor in Yale College, spent some time in Wilkes-Barré in company with Prof. Benjamin Silliman of Yale, and while here drew a "Map of the Wyo- ming and Lackawanna Valleys, principally from a map constructed by Col. John L. Butler of Wilkesbarre." This map was published in The American Journal of Science and Arts for July, 1830 (No. 2 of Volume XVIII), and the site of "Fort Durgee" is thereon noted near the con- fluence of the aforementioned little brook and the river, at the elbow of the river some distance below South Street.
(4) As previously mentioned, Miner states in his "History of Wyo- ming" (page 109) that Fort Durkee was "erected on the banks of the river at Fish's Eddy." The location of this eddy is described on page 59, ante.
(5) In 1850 there was published a "Plan of the Town of Wilkes- barre from original surveys by J. C. Sidney of Philadelphia," and on that "plan" the "site of Fort Durkee" is indicated as being 450 feet north-west of the junction of Ross Street with South River Street ; which would make the site about 150 feet west of the intersection of the present West River Street and Ross Street-the former street having been laid out, and the latter street having been extended to intersect it, since the "plan" referred to was published. (See in Chapter XXXVI a reduced facsimile of the abovementioned "plan.")
(6) In 1895 Mr. Amos Stroh, an aged citizen of Wyoming Valley, wrote an account of an incident that occurred in 1835 or 1836 with rela- tion to the sites of some of the old Wyoming forts. Several Wyoming Valley survivors of the Revolutionary period were gathered together one day on the site of Fort Wyoming, and with them were Col. John L. Butler (born at Wilkes-Barre in 1796) and Mr. Stroh, then a youth. The latter, in his account, says (see Johnson's Historical Record, V: 163):
"Mr. Butler stated that those places [the fort-sites] should be marked by permanent stones, for in a few years the exact spots would be unknown. Some one remarked that the 'records' would tell. Mr. Butler replied : 'Years ago everybody was a surveyor, and did it [surveying] with a squint of the eye; and when the eyesight told him it was so many rods, it was so recorded. But the time is coming when the rising generation will
demand locations, lines and courses by the fraction of an inch.' * * The party then went to the location of old Fort Durkee, which was in the westerly side of an orchard, below the Common, near the bank of a small stream that flowed to the river at Fish's Eddy."
The orchard referred to above was that of Jabez Fish. Where the residence of William L. Conyngham, previously referred to, is now located, forinerly stood, for many years, the frame dwelling-house of Jabez Fish, an early Wyoming settler. He owned forty-six acres of land extending
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along the river bank from South Street, Wilkes-Barre, to the "Meadow Road" (now the "Old River Road"), and having a frontage on the river of 174 rods. Mr. Fish's orchard stood east of the ravine previously referred to, in the locality where now West River Street and Ross Street intersect ; and, according to an advertisement published in February, 1806, the orchard contained "200 trees, producing from sixty to eighty barrels of cider annually." In the orchard was "a never-failing spring of water"-perhaps the selfsame spring from which the inmates of Fort Durkee obtained their water-supply.
(7) In the Summer of 1770 Samuel Wallis, an experienced sur- veyor, was in Wyoming Valley assisting to survey The Susquehanna Company's lands (see Chapter XI), and from observations which he made at that time he found the latitude of Fort Durkee to be 41º 14' 27" northi. (See F. C. Johnson's Historical Record, I: 121 and III : 70.) As previously mentioned (see page 44), the latitude of Wilkes- Barré's Public Square is 41º 14' 40.4" north, which was ascertained with great care by the Pennsylvania Geological Survey in 1881, and is recorded on a monument erected at that time in the Square. It is evi- dent, therefore, that the difference in latitude between this monument and the site of Fort Durkee, according to the observations of Wallis, is 13.4," or about eighty rods. On the map facing page 456 the respective latitudes of these two points are indicated by two east and west lines, or parallels of latitude ; and on an inspection of the more southerly of those lines it is apparent that where that line intersects South River Street is the point in the line nearest to Fish's Eddy-due north of the "Ice Pond," indicated on the map. It may be safely presumed, however, that the instruments used by Samuel Wallis in making his obervations were of a simple-perhaps primitive-char- acter, and that he neither attempted nor deemed it necessary to be abso- lutely accurate in his reckoning. Allowing, therefore, for supposed errors and probable inaccuracies, we may confidently conclude that Fort Durkee stood a few rods south- west of the intersection of the present West River Street and Ross Street.
In June, 1899, Wyoming Valley Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, of Wilkes- Barré, erected on the River Com- inon-a few feet from the north side of South Street, at the corner of West River Street-a monument marking the site of Fort Durkee .* A tablet of bronze let into the 111011- olith bears this inscription :
"FORT DURKEE was built 82 feet south- west of this Stone in 1769 by the Connecticut FORT DURKEE MONUMENT. settlers as a defence against the Indians. It became a military post in the contest over the jurisdiction and title to the Wyoming lands between the settlers and the Proprietary Government.
"Erected by the Wyoming Valley Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revo- lution, June 14, 1899."
* For an account of the dedicatory exercises see Chapter I,III.
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In locating the site of the fort "82 feet south-west" of their monu- ment the "Daughters" simply fixed upon the spot-the ground now occu- pied by the residence of William L. Conyngham-which has generally been understood heretofore to have been the site.
A few scraps of information relating to certain features of Fort Durkee-additional to those already mentioned-have been gleaned from various letters and other documents written in the years 1769-1771 by men familiar with the structure. The fort occupied about one-half an acre of ground and was of quadrangular form. At the north-west corner, facing the river, there was a gate, and at the south-east corner there was another one. The buildings within the stockade were chiefly on the north, east and south sides of the quadrangle. Near the middle of the stockade forming the westerly side of the fort there was an elevated sentry-box, and it is probable that there was a second one on the opposite side-overlooking the plain on which the town-plot of Wilkes-Barré was subsequently laid out.
This plain was almost entirely covered with a growth of Common Pitch Pine (Pinus Rigida) at the time of the coming of the Yankee settlers in 1769. Referring to that period seventeen years later, Col. Timothy Pickering wrote (see his "Life," II : 256): "Wilkesbarre was a pitch-pine plain, though pretty fertile ; yet by no means comparable with the flats before described [in the extract on page 50, ante]. Its surface is considerably higher than that of the flats, and being of a drier, firmer soil, is a more suitable plat for a town." Chapman, writing in 1817, stated* that the plain on which Wilkes-Barré was built was "twenty-eight feet above the common surface of the river."
In many natural features Wyoming Valley resembled at that time central and eastern Connecticut, and this fact helped to make the former region attractive to the natives of the latter sections of country. There was a "great" river-very similar to the Connecticut River, and in some respects quite like the Thames-flowing into which were a smaller river and numerous creeks; there were lowlands and uplands, "dark- some gorges" and sunlit plains ; there were rocks and crags a-plenty, and vast forests of splendid timber. But to the men from Connecticut there was nothing so desirable or attractive among all the features of this new country as the several thousand acres of stoneless and treeless flats, more arable and fertile than the richest fields in New England. As soon as the settlers under Major Durkee had made their log cabins habitable they proceeded to clear and break up for cultivation land on the flats south-west of their settlement, and by the first of June they had 200 acres planted with Indian corn, turnips and pumpkins, "which were tended well and were very promising of good crops." The portion of the flats which was put under cultivation was shut in on the land side by rail fences.
In the meantime, while the work of building and planting was going on, the number of settlers was being gradually increased from time to time by arrivals from New England and elsewhere. The local committee, called the "Committee of Settlers," for the management of the affairs of the settlement and its government, was early organized in conformity with the several resolutions passed by The Susquehanna Company, and Major Durkee was chosen as the head of this committee,
* See Hazard's Register of Pennsylvania, V : 34.
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with the title of "President of the First Settlers." The community was governed and managed in very much the same manner as a military camp in an enemy's country would be regulated and commanded. Scouts were sent out and sentries were posted each day and night; no stranger was allowed to come into the settlement to tarry unless lie bore proper credentials from the authorized representatives in New England of The Susquehanna Company-except he should receive permission from the "Committee of Settlers" on the ground ; no member of the community was permitted to leave the settlement at any time without a furlough or written pass granted by President Durkee. The latter's office was an important one, for his duties were executive, judicial and military in their character.
May 24, 1769, in pursuance of the directions lie liad received some days previously from Governor Pen11 (see page 489), Sheriff Jennings of Northampton County arrived in Wyoming. In a deposition made by him before James Biddle, Esq., at Philadelphia, June 1, 1769, the Sheriff described liis experiences here, as follows* :
"The next day [May 25tli], having given notice to the people settled there of his [the Sheriff's] intention, the said intruders, to the number of 150 or thereabouts, assembled together, and this deponent read to them with a loud voice a proclamation published by the Governor May 16th. That previous to liis reading the same Major Durkee, one of the intruders, told him they would permit him to read the proclamation, but were deter- mined not to obey it, for that those lands were in the Colony of Connecticut and not in Pennsylvania. That after the said deponent had finished reading the said proclamation a gun was fired over his head, and the said deponent immediately retired [in company] with the said Major Durkee. That the said intruders have built about twenty very strong log houses, with loop-holes to fire through, and they constantly carry their fire-arms on all occasions. And this deponent further saith that he doth believe it is impossible for him to raise a sufficient force within the said County to dispossess and arrest the said in- truders-they being, as 'tis said, upwards of 300 able-bodied men, and in daily expecta- tion of being joined by 200 more."
The following list of 195 names, copied from a list made up by the Clerk of the Committee of Settlers on the 2d of June, 1769, shows who were actually on the ground in Wyoming, under the auspices of The Susquehanna Company, at that date. In addition to the men here named the twenty men of the "First Forty," who had been conveyed as prisoners to Easton and released on bail (as described on page 478), are to be considered as having been settlers in May and June and fully en- titled to participate in the allotment of lands in the "Forty" township ; although, observing the terms of the recognizances into which they had severally entered at Easton, they had not returned to Wyoming.
Allen, Noah
Briggs, Peris
Draper, Simeon
Angell, Daniel
Brown, Daniel
Draper, Thomas
Avery, Christopher
Buck, Elijah
Draper, Willianı
Avery, Elisha
Buck, Jonathan
Dean, Capt. Ezra
Ashley, Benjamin
Budd, Benjamin
Dean, Josiah
Atherton, James-Jr.
Buell, Ezra
De Long, John
Ayers, Peter
Carey, Eleazar
Dingmans, Jacob
Alden, Capt. Prince
Carrington, Jonathan
Dorchester, Benjamin
Arnold, Joseph
Cass, Daniel
Dorrance, Lemuel
Barton, Rowland
Clark, Joh11
Dunkin, James
Baker, John
Chesebrough, Sylvester
Durkee, Andrew
Badger, Samuel
Coleman, Naniad
Durkee, Maj. John
Babcock, Elisha
Comstock, John
Evans, James
Bradford, Peris Bennett, Isaac
Colt, Abrahanı
Fellows, Ephraim
Bennet, Thomas
Cooke, Jabez
Ferlin, Thomas
Corey, Jenks
Fish, Jabez
Beach, Nathan Bingham, Abisha
Churchill, William
Frisbie, Zebulon
* See "Pennsylvania Archives," First Series, IV : 342.
Comstock, Peter
Franklin, John
Arnold, Ephraim
Carvan, Morgan
Dorrance, John
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Forsythe, James Fuller, Stephen Gallup, William Gardner, Christopher Gaylord, Joseph
Kenyon, John
Shaw, John
Knight, Thomas
Stearns, Ebenezer Sterling, John
Lawrence, Asa
Lawrence, Gideon
Stevens, Phineas
Lampher, Joshua
Sweet, Samuel Smith, Abel Smith, James
Green, Job
Lee, Joseph
Smith, John-Esq.
Green, Job-Jr.
Lee, Noah
Smith, Lemuel
Gore, Daniel
Leonard, Jesse
Smith, Oliver
Gore, Obadiah-Jr.
Leonard, William
Gore, Silas
Lewis, Elijah
Goss, Comfort
Lothrop, Cyprian
- Slocum, Joseph Stone, Ebenezer Story, Samuel Strong, Henry
Haines, Daniel
Marvin, David
Harris, Peter
Marvin, Samuel
Squier, Zechariah
Harrod, Asher
Marvin, Uriah
Hawksey, Zebulon
Matthews, Benjamin
Hebbard, Ebenezer
Maxfield, Joshua
Hebbard, Moses
May, James
Hebbard, Moses -- Jr.
Mead, David
Hewitt, Benjamin
Metcalf, Andrew
Terry, Parshall
Hewitt, Benjamin-Jr.
Miles, Stephen
Thomas, Elias
Hewitt, Gershom
Millington, Samuel
Vorce, Timothy
Hillman, Joseph
Mitchell, John
Wall, Henry
Hinsdale, Stephen
Mock, Abijah
Wallworth, Thomas
Hopson, Gurdon
Morgan, Samuel
Wallsworth, John
Hopkins, Robert
Morse, Joseph
Hopkins, Timothy
Murdock, Daniel
Walter, Aaron
Hotchkiss, Samuel
Murphy, John
Watson, Nathaniel
Hull, Diah,
Nesbitt, James
Wybrant, Samuel
Hull, Stephen
Northrop, Ebenezer
Webster, Joseph
Hungerford, Stephen
Norton, Ebenezer
Weeks, Philip
Hunter, Robert
Olcott, Thomas
Weeks, Thomas
Hurlbut, Reuben
Orms, Jonathan
Westover, Theophilus
Hurlbut, Stephen
Orton, Samuel
White, Caleb
Jackson, Robert
Parks, Elias
White, William
Jenkins, Stephen
Park, Silas
Whitney, Joshua
Jeorum, Zerubbabel
Peirce, Abel
Whittlesey, David
Jewell, Eliphalet
Perkins, John
Wightman, Zerubbabel
Johnson, Edward
Post, Oliver
Wiley, John
Johnson, Solomon
Read, Noah
Wise, Frederick
Jolley, John
Roberts, Jabez
Witter, Elijah
Knapp, Hezekiah
Savage, Abraham
Yale, Enos
Kenne, Cyrus
Satterlee, Benedict
Vale, Ozias
From the journals* of the Moravian missionaries at the Indian town of Friedenshütten (see page 443) we glean :
"May 25, 1769 .- A white family from Schoharie, in two bateaux, put to shore in distress, having lost their most valuable effects by the bateaux upsetting when yet on the lake [Otsego]. They had buried a child of three years on the journey. Wyoming is their destination, and the father intends to erect a shop and do blacksmithing."
On or about the 7th of June Charles Stewart and John Anderson, with three assistants, went from Ogden's block-house at Mill Creek, Wyo- ming, to Friedenshütten (where they arrived June 10th) "for the purpose of surveying Wyalusing for one William Smith of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. They desisted, however, on hearing from the Indians the assurance given them by the Governor in March [1769] that Wya- lusing would, at all hazards, be reserved for their use."+
While Deputy Surveyor Stewart and his companions were at Frie- denshütten "a white man with his wife and six children, on their way
* See "Transactions of the Moravian Historical Society," I : 202.
+ Immediately after this visit from the Pennamite surveyors the Wyalusing, or Friedenshütten, Indi- ans again memorialized Governor Penn on the subject of the lands then occupied and cultivated by them, and in his reply the Governor said, among other things: "One thing I want to tell you-that I expect you will not give encouragement to the New England people who have taken possession of the Proprietaries' land at Waiawamick [Wyoming]."-"Transactions of the Moravian Historical Society," I : 204.
Gray, Thomas Gerold, Duty
Lee, Asa
Lee, John
Sill, Jabez Shoemaker, Benjamin-Jr.
Goss, Nathaniel
Goss, Philip
McClure, Thomas Manvil, Nicholas
Taylor, Preserved Thayer, Zephaniah Tracy, Isaac Teed, Zophar Tennant, Caleb
Wallsworth, William
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to settle at Wyoming," arrived (June 12th) in a couple of canoes at Frie- denshütten and spent a few hours there. In May, 1769, one Richard Smith was engaged, with others, in surveying lands in the vicinity of Lake Otsego, New York. On the 31st of the month, at the house of one Yokum, on the Susquehanna, several miles below the lake, Smith and his party "met with one Dorn, a Dutchman, with his family from Canajoharie, going to settle at Wywomoc [Wyoming]." "He informs us," wrote Smith in his journal* at the time, "that 130 families from his neighborhood on the Mohawk River have actually bought there [at Wyoming] and are about to remove." It is quite probable that Dorn and liis family were the travelers who tarried at Friedenshütten for a few hours, as mentioned above.
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