A history of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, from its first beginnings to the present time; including chapters of newly-discovered, Vol. II, Part 38

Author: Harvey, Oscar Jewell, 1851- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Wilkes-Barre [Raeder press]
Number of Pages: 683

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. II > Part 38

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Mr. Trumbull subsequently stated (in his "History of Connec- ticut," II: 479) that when he wrote the aforementioned letters he was "wholly unconnected with The Susquehanna Company and uninterested in it," but that having "made a large collection of papers and docu- ments relative to the Company," he wrote the letters "merely for quieting the people and maintaining the peace of the Colony." The Rev. Dr. Smith was not to be quieted, however, by the letters of Benjamin Trumbull, for almost immediately following the publication of the first letter he prepared a long and carefully-written article entitled "The Examiner, No. 1," which was printed anonymously in The Pennsyl- vania Gazette. It read in part as follows :

"When I first undertook to state and examine the late claim set up by the Colony of Connecticut to part of the Province of Pennsylvania, I determined to treat the subject with all that candor, gravity, and fairness of argument which seemed requisite. I am engaged in no scheme inimical to the people of Connecticut, or to their civil Consti- tution. If it be a Constitution that pleases them, and they will not disturb their neigh- bours with it, I am content they should enjoy it, although it be not such a one as I would have made my choice to live under. Nay! further, if they are straitened in their bounds, and want more land for their growing numbers (which I believe to be the case), I could even be pleased with their success in any application they may make for ungranted lands, to be settled by them under their own or some other civil Constitution.

*The original manuscript of this pamphlet is now owned by Mr. James Terry, of New Haven, pre- viously mentioned.

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"But if, instead of pursuing this method, they will violently invade our rights in Pennsylvania-who, in a few years, will be as much straitened for room as themselves -they must expect from us every species of opposition in our power. They must not be surprised if we endeavour to shew the weakness of their claim, and expose the rotten parts of that Charter which they want to stretch over us and so great a part of His Majesty's lands on this Continent ! With this view the pamphlet intituled 'An Examina- tion of the Connecticut Claim'* was drawn up, and I flattered myself that whatever abilities might be on the side of that party in Connecticut-who have instigated so un- righteous an encroachment upon a neighboring Province-would be called forth in answer to the pamphlet and in defence of their proceedings. But great was my astonish- ment to find that, although the Connecticut newspapers for months past have been filled with pieces written about their claim, yet they are so miserably defective in argument, as well as common English, that, in commiseration of the authors, I shall let them rest in obscurity, and confine myself to what is given as their Masterpiece, namely: certain papers published in The Connecticut Journal [sic] and subscribed Benjamin Trumbull.' "I am the more willing to enter the lists with this gentleman because, being nephew to the Governort-the great patron of The Connecticut Susquehanna Company-he may be presumed to have been fully possessed of all the arguments which they have to offer in support of their claim. Let me now tell him-what may perhaps be yet a secret to the Colony in general, that those very lawyers whose opinions have been so much bandied about in Connecticut, viz .: Mr. Thurlow, Attorney General, Mr. Wedderburn, Solicitor General, and Mr. Dunning,; are retained by the Honorable the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania to defend the Charter rights of this Province before His Majesty in Council, whenever the Connecticut claimants can be dragged to that equitable tribunal."

At Philadelphia, under the date of April 11, 1774, Governor Penn wrote to Governor Trumbull as follows :§

"Sir: I have your letter of the 24th March by the post. My sentiments of exercis- ing the jurisdiction of this Government in every part of the Province, and the impropriety of extending your jurisdiction within our bounds before you have laid your claim before His Majesty, are so plainly expressed in the several letters I have wrote you, and in those which passed between your commissioners and me, that they need not be repeated; and I cannot but think it strange that you should persist in attempting to support a possession gained from the people of this Province in a course of absolute hostility, before your Government had made any claim to the lands within the bounds of this Province. It appears to me that your taking latitudes at or beyond the Delaware within the bounds of this Province is premature; and, that no Act of your Assembly can authorize any such proceeding. I therefore cannot concur in that step; but, on the contrary, must protest against it, and desire it may not be done, lest it should produce effects which may be injurious to the public peace.

"I am with due regard, your most obedient and humble servant,

[Signed] "JOHN PENN."

April 25, 1774, Governor Trumbull wrote to Thomas Life, Esq., the Agent of Connecticut in London, and enclosed a copy of the foregoing letter of Governor Penn. Referring to that letter Governor Trumbull said :

"Please to note the manner of his writing, and to observe a copy of my letter to him, which enclosed a copy of a letter addressed to me from a committee of The Susque- hanna Company dated March 27, 1771 |-which was sent to you, with the state of our case, for advice of counsel. Therein you may find a detail of the proceedings of that Company, together with the treatment of the settlers under them, after they had taken possession of the lands they claimed; and see what color he hath to think it strange that we should persist in attempting to support a possession gained from the people of his Province in the course of absolute hostility. Who had the right? Who first purchased the title of the Indians? Who took the first possession? And who began the course of absolute hostility? Hath he not had decent and open treatment? How can it be in- jurious to the public peace to take the latitudes at and beyond the Delaware? Is it not the duty of the Governor and Company, in faithfulness to the trust reposed in them, to assert and support the rights of Connecticut and its inhabitants? Are they chargeable with any fault for their exercise of jurisdiction over the people who inhabit land they have good reason to think themselves intitled to, lying within the limits and expressed in the Royal Charter to Connecticut?"

* See page 782, ante.

t Benjamin Trumbull was not a nephew of Jonathan Trumbull; but the latter and the father of the former were cousins.

¿ See pages 141 and 609, Vol. I.

§ See the original letter among the "Trumbull Papers " mentioned on page 29, Vol. I.

( See page 684, ante.

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Turning our attention, now, in the direction of Wilkes-Barré, we find that on Monday, April 11, 1774, a town-meeting of the inhabitants of Westmoreland, "legally warned," was held at Wilkes-Barre, Capt. Zebulon Butler being " chosen Moderator for ye work of ye Day." The freeman's oath was taken by 206 of the inhabitants, and then the meeting was adjourned until the next day, at the same place, at nine o'clock in the forenoon. The following is a copy of the minutes of the meeting then held-the original record being in the handwriting of Maj. Ezekiel Peirce, Town Clerk.

"April ye 12th 1774 this meeting is opened and Held by an adjornment.

"l'oted-that this town Does now Grant a tax on ye rates and rateable Estate of the Inhabitants of this town on ye list that shall be given in In September next one penney on ye Pound and to be paid into the town Tresurer by ye first Day of December Next and to be Improved by ye Selectmen of sd town to furnish ye town with a stock of ammuni- tion and other Nesessarys for ye towns use. .

"Voted-that this town shall make application to ye General Assembly to be Holden at Hartford on ye 2nd Thursday of may Next to Have a Court of Probates erected in this town-and also that this town be Devided into three District towns-and also to be a Rigement [regiment-i.e., a regiment of militia organized] Here in town.

"Voted-that Zebulon Butler Esq., and Capt Timothy Smith, Christopher Avery and John Jenkins* be appointed agents for the town of westmoreland to lay our circum-

*JOHN JENKINS, who was fourth in descent from John Jenkins who was settled at Sandwich, Massa- chusetts, as early as 1655, was born February 6, 1728, at East Greenwich, Rhode Island. John Jenkins of Sandwich was the first of the name in this particular branch of the American family of Jenkins. His wife's name was Susanna, and they were Friends, or Quakers. In 1658 he was " distrained " £19, 108h. for attending Quaker meeting, contrary to law. Zechariah Jenkins, born in 1651, was a son of John and Susanna Jenkins. He was married at Sandwich December 11, 1686, to Abiah (born December 10, 1666; died April 10, 1712), daughter of Francis and Mary (Barlow) Allen of Sandwich. About 1708 Zechariah and his family removed to East Greenwich, Rhode Island, where, about January 1, 1723, Zechariah died. John Jenkins, son of the last-mentioned, was born April 5, 1697, and died in 1742. His second son was JOHN JENKINS-the first of this name mentioned above-who, in 1750, removed from East Greenwich to Colchester in New London County, Connecticut, where, later, he became a school teacher.

This John Jenkins paid to Samuel Gray, Esq., at Windham, Connecticut, October 8, 1758, " two dol- lars towards ye Susquehannah affair," and thereby became a member of The Susquehanna Company which had been organized in the previous March, as noted on page 249, Vol. I. Mr. Jenkins' name does not appear among the names of the grantees in the Indian deed of July 11, 1754, but the name "John Jenkes" is there (see page 272, Vol. I), and without much doubt that was intended for the name of John Jenkins. About the year 1762 Mr. Jenkins began to take an active part in the affairs of The Susquehanna Company. as is fully shown in the preceding pages of this work. He was one of the company of settlers who in 1762 and 1763 attempted to establish themselves on the banks of Mill Creek, just north of the present city of Wilkes-Barre; and he was there, undoubtedly, at the time of the massacre of October 15, 1763, when the settlement was broken up and those who escaped the fury of the savages fled to their for- mer homes. In February, 1769, John Jenkins was one of the " First Forty" settlers-another of whom was his brother, or cousin, Stephen Jenkins, of Rhode Island. (See pages 473 and 512, Vol. I.)

Among those settlers who were occupying Fort Durkee when it was captured by the Pennamites in September, 1770, was John Jenkins, and upon his release from the Easton jail (see page 671, ante) in the following October he repaired to his home in Connecticut. Judging from the various original records in existence it seems that Mr. Jenkins did not return to Wyoming Valley until the middle of June, 1772. His eldest son, however, was here in the early Spring of 1772. When the lands of Kingstown, or the "Forty," Township were allotted to the proprietors thereof, in the Spring of 1772, John Jenkins drew "House Lot No. 14" (which contained some four acres, and lay about where the Forty Fort Cemetery is located), as well as his share of lots in the other divisions of the township. As noted on page 467, Vol. I, he was one of the original proprietors of Exeter Township (laid out in November, 1772), and there he settled with his family. He erected his dwelling-house within the present limits of West Pittston, upon the top of the high bank overlooking the Susquehanna River, about ten or twelve rods above the north- west end of the present Pittston Ferry bridge. From that period, until about the time of his death, John Jenkins filled a leading position in the public affairs of the Wyoming settlements, and his name is frequently mentioned in the following pages. He was one of the two Representatives from the town of Westmoreland present at the sessions of the General Assembly of Connecticut held in May, 1776, and in May and October, 1777. From June, 1777. till June, 1778, he held, by appointment of the General As- sembly, the office of Chief Judge of the Westmoreland County Court. During the Autumn of 1778, and again in the Spring of 1788, he acted as Clerk of the Probate Court of Westmoreland. Early in 1779 Judge Jenkins joined his family (all save his eldest child, John. Jr.) in Connecticut, and remained there with them until the Autumn of 1782, when they all returned to Exeter, in Wyoming Valley. When in May, 1784, several hundred Yankees were expelled from Wyoming by the Pennamites as described hereinafter-Judge Jenkins and his family were among those who were thus outraged, and they fled to Goshen, Orange County, New York. Col. John Franklin, referring in his diary to this expulsion, says : " Two aged gentlemen, John Jenkins, Esq., and a Mr. Gardner, who were cripples, were obliged to hob- ble through the dismal road with crutches." Judge Jenkins died in November, 1784. and was buried at a place called " The Drowned Lands," in the Minisink region, not far from Goshen, New York.

John Jenkins was married August 1, 1750, to Lydia (born March 20, 1727), daughter of Stephen and Frances (Congdon) Gardner, mentioned in the note on page 254, Vol. I. Mrs. Lydia (Gardner) Jenkins died in Exeter Township, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. October 22, 1804. The children of John and Lydia (Gardner) Jenkins were as follows-all born in New London County, Connecticut : (i) John, born November 27, 1751; died March 19, 1827. (ii) Stephen, born February 2, 1753; died September 20, 1808. (iii) Benjamin, born July 18, 1754; died in March, 1787. His wife was Affa Baldwin, who, after his death, became the wife of John Harding (q. v.). (iv) Amy, born January 12, 1757; married to Asahel Atherton, one of the " First Forty " Wyoming settlers; died March 24, 1884. (v) Thomas, born January 19, 1761; died April 22, 1812. (vi) William, born October 80, 1764; died November 1, 1846. (vii) Wilkes, born July 18, 1767; died April 1, 1838.

(v) Thomas Jenkins removed with the other members of his father's family from Connecticut to Wyoming Valley in 1772; was in Jenkins' Fort when it was surrendered to the British, July 1, 1778; fled to Connecticut with his mother, brothers and sisters after the surrender of Forty Fort; returned in 1782

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to Exeter Township, whence he was again driven, by the Pennamites, in May, 1784. Returning to Ex- eter in the Autumn of 1784, or early in 1785, Thomas Jenkins resided there until his death. Judge John Jenkins died seized of 1,200 acres of land in Exeter Township, and when his estate was divided among his children Thomas received that portion of it which included the site of the old Jenkins Fort. He also came into possession of the ferry across the Susquehanna at the foot of what is now Exeter Street. West Pittston, and which was known as Jenkins' Ferry. About 1800 Thomas Jenkins was Captain of one of the companies in the Second Regiment, Luzerne Brigade of Militia. He died at his home in Exeter April 22, 1812, and was survived by his wife Eleanor (Shontz)-who lived until April, 1842-and the following-named children : Benjamin, Ada (born May 21. 1794; married March 5, 1817, to Peirce Smith, mentioned in the last paragraph on page 719, ante; died at Commerce, Michigan, August 24, 1866), Mehetabel (born March 18. 1796; married in 1814 to Dr. John Smith, mentioned in the last paragraph on page 719, ante; died at Wilkes-Barre July 6, 1862), Mary (married to Joseph Shaw). David. Thomas, Fanny (who was married to Beach Tuttle), Catharine (born November 29, 1808: died December 9, 1890; married October 8. 1826, to Daniel Jones-born May 30, 1807. and died in October, 1876-and had the fol- lowing-named children : Frances, Esther Ann, Elizabeth, Thomas, Merritt, Susannah, Helen Mar, Daniel Webster. Stephen, Elvira Augusta, Hiram and E. Louise) and John.

(i) John Jenkins, eldest child of John and Lydia (Gardner) Jenkins, came to Wyoming first in the Spring of 1772, as previously noted, being then in the twenty-first year of his life. Beginning with the year 1776 he was closely identified with the public life of Wyoming for many years, and as his name appears often in the subsequent pages of this work it will not be necessary to give a detailed sketch of his life in this note. In October, 1775, he was appointed by the General Assembly of Connecticut, and commissioned, Ensign of the 7th, or Exeter, Company of the 24th Regiment, Connecticut Militia. In October, 1776, he was appointed by the General Assembly of Connecticut one of the Second Lieutenants for the eight battalions of troops then ordered to be raised by the State. It would seem, however, that Ensign Jenkins did not accept this appointment, and was not commissioned by the Governor, but con- tinued to hold his rank and commission as Ensign in the 24th Regiment, and to remain in Wyoming Valley. At that time he was one of the Listers for the town of Westmoreland, and in May, 1777, was appointed by the General Assembly "Surveyor of Lands for the County of Westmoreland."

In November, 1777, having been sent by Colonel Denison of the 24th Regiment up the Susquehanna in command of a scouting party of militia, Ensign Jenkins was captured near Wyalusing by a band of Indians and Tories, and carried off to Fort Niagara. In the Spring he was taken to Montreal. At that time, says Miner (" History of Wyoming," Appendix, page 27). "an Indian chief of some celebrity was a prisoner to the Americans in Albany, and Col. John Butler sent Mr. Jenkins, under an escort of Indians. to be exchanged for the chief. Arrived at Albany, the chief for whom he was to have been ex- changed had just died of small-pox." The Indians then proposed to take Mr. Jenkins to Kanadasaga (" Old Castle Town"), to be disposed of at a Grand Council of Seneca Indians to be held there. On the way he escaped, and, after enduring great fatigue and suffering much from hunger, he reached home June 2, 1778. At the May session of the General Assembly of Connecticut in 1778, the following resolu- tion was passed (see " Records of the State of Connecticut," 11 :34) : "Upon the representation of the town of Westmoreland by Nathan Denison and Anderson Dana, Esquires, showing to this Assembly that John Jenkins, Jr., Constable and Collector of the State taxes on the List of said town for August, 1776, was made prisoner by the savages, by which means the greatest part of said tax remains uncol- lected : Resolved by this Assembly, That the said town of Westmoreland have liberty, and liberty and authority is hereby granted to said town, to appoint some suitable person to collect the remaining part of said taxes in the same manner as the said Jenkins was authorized and empowered to do."

During the battle of Wyoming, July 3, 1778. Forty Fort was garrisoned by a small detail of militia commanded by Ensign Jenkins. The latter left the valley after the surrender of the fort, and joined Captain Spalding's company at what is now Stroudsburg, being given the provisional appointment of Lieutenant, and serving as such prior to and after the arrival of the command at Wilkes-Barre in the following August. In September, 1778, he took part in Colonel Hartley's expedition to Tioga Point- more fully mentioned hereinafter. At Wilkes-Barre, under the date of March 81, 1779, Col. Zebulon Butler wrote to Brig. Gen. Edward Hand, at the Minisinks, relative to Lieut. John Jenkins, Jr., as fol- lows (see the original letter in the possession of George H. Butler, Esq., of Dorranceton) ; " The situa- tion of Mr. Jinkins. He was a militia officer here. Captain Spaulding had no subaltern officer in his Company. Mr. Jinkins entered as a volunteer in Captain Spaulding's Company and has done Lieuten- ant's duty for eight months past." Subsequently Mr. Jenkins was commissioned Lieutenant by Con- gress and regularly attached to Captain Spalding's Company.

In 1779, when the Sullivan expedition took place, Lieutenant Jenkins was selected, says Miner, " for his activity. zeal, and knowledge of the country, for one of the guides. The arduous and responsible duty he performed in a satisfactory manner. Lieutenant Jenkins was in the decisive battle of Newtown, and among the most efficient and useful officers of his grade in that campaign." After the Sullivan ex- pedition Lieutenant Jenkins remained at Wilkes-Barre with his company, forming part of the garrison of Fort Wyoming under the command of Colonel Butler. At the session of the General Assembly of Connecticut held in May, 1780, Lieutenant Jenkins was appointed and commissioned one of the Justices of the Peace in and for the county of Westmoreland. February 25, 1781, Captain Spalding and his com- pany (including Lieutenant Jenkins) began their march from Wilkes-Barre for New Windsor (mentioned on page 745, ante), to join the main army under General Washington. Lieutenant Jenkins was with the American army at the surrender of Cornwallis, October 17, 1781, and, returning to New York, spent the ensuing Winter with his company in camp on the banks of the Hudson. March 1, 1782, he resigned from the service, and returned to Wyoming Valley.

In November, 1785, after the jurisdiction of Connecticut over the Wyoming region had ceased, and before the county of Luzerne had been erected by the Pennsylvania Legislature, The Susquehanna Company's Wyoming settlers organized among themselves a militia regiment, and elected John Franklin Colonel and John Jenkins, Jr., Major. In the Spring of 1788 Major Jenkins was elected Lieutenant Colonel of the " Second Battalion of Luzerne County Militia."

The following paragraph is from Turner's "History of the Pioneer Settlement of Phelps and Gor- ham's Purchase " (Rochester, New York, 1852), page 878: " In the Winter of 1788-'89 John Swift and Col. John Jenkins purchased Township XII, R. 2, now Palmyra [ Wayne County, New York], and com- menced the survey of it into farm lots, in March. Jenkins being a practical surveyor, built a camp on the bank of Ganargwa Creek, about two miles below the present village of Palmyra. His assistants were his nephew, Alpheus Harris, Solomon Earl, -- Baker and Daniel Ransom. One morning about two o'clock, the party being asleep in their bunks their fire giving light enough to show their several positions-a party of four Tuscarora Indians and a squaw stealthily approached, and the Indians, putting their guns through the open spaces between the logs, selected their victims and fired. Baker was killed, Earl, lying upon his back, with his hand upon his breast, a ball passed through his hand and breast, mutilated his nose, and lodged under the frontal sinus between his eyes. Jenkins and Ransom escaped unhurt. and encountering the murderers-Jenkins with his Jacob's-staff and Ransom with an ax-drove them off, capturing two of their rifles and a tomahawk. In the morning they buried their dead com- panion, carried Earl to Geneva and gave the alarm. The Indians were pursued, and two were captured on the Chemung River. They were tried-by what would be called in these days a . Lynch Court'-and executed, with the tomahawk, at Newtown, now Elmira."

In 1786 Athens Township (adjoining the New York-Pennsylvania boundary-line) was surveyed and laid out by John Jenkins, Jr., and in March. 1787. he was employed to survey and lay out Putnam Town- ship-both these townships being within the bounds of the Susquehanna Purchase. In 1796 Colonel Jenkins was styled " Superintendent of Surveys" of The Susquehanna Company, and was also one of

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the Commissioners of the Company, then in the days of its decadence. In 1797 he was one of the Com- missioners of Luzerne County, and in 1808 was elected one of the two Representatives from Luzerue County to the Pennsylvania Legislature. Some years subsequently to the Revolutionary War Colonel Jenkins became the owner of a large tract of land in Exeter Township which had formerly been in the possession of the Tory family of Wintermute, and upon which Wintermute Fort stood at the time of the battle of Wyoming. Upon the site of this fort Colonel Jenkins built a frame dwelling-house, which he occupied with his family until his death. Portions of the stone fire-places, chimney and cellar walls are now the sole remains of the old building.

June 23, 1778-which was ten days before the battle of Wyoming and twenty-one days after the re- turn from captivity of John Jenkins, Jr .- the latter was married in Jenkins' Fort, Exeter Township, by the Rev. James Benedict, to Bethiah (born in Salem, Connecticut, September 14, 1752), eighth child of Jonathan and Rachel ( Otis) Harris. Jonathan Harris (born January 15, 1706; died September 12, 1761) was the fourth child of Lieut. James Harris of New London, Connecticut (born in Boston April 4. 1678; died February 10, 1757), and his first wife Sarah (born in 1676; married in 1606; died November 13, 1748), daughter of Samuel Rogers of New London. Lieut. James Harris was the third child of James and Sarah ( Denison) Harris, originally of Boston, who, about 1800, came to New London, where they lived till their respective deaths-he dying in 1715, and she later. Rachel Otis, the wife of Jonathan and the mother of Bethiah Harris, was born December 1, 1713; was married July 2, 1785; died September 21, 1761. She was the youngest child of Joseph Otis, Esq., of the North Parish of New London, to which place he had removed in 1722 from Scituate, Massachusetts, where he had been Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Plymouth County, 1708-'10, Representative in the General Court, etc. His wife was Dorothy Thomas of Scituate, by whom he had twelve children.

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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. II, Part 38

Author: Harvey, Oscar Jewell, 1851- [from old catalog] Publication date: 1909 Publisher: Wilkes-Barre [Raeder press] Number of Pages: 683

Author: Harvey, Oscar Jewell, 1851- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Wilkes-Barre [Raeder press]
Number of Pages: 683