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 7
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On Saturday, April 28th, Major Durkee sent under a flag of truce a note to Captain Ogden, requesting a conference. Ogden accordingly waited upon the Yankee commander, whereupon a cessation of hostilities until the next day (Sunday), at twelve o'clock, was agreed upon. On Sunday Major Durkee sent to Captain Ogden, in a friendly way, an in- vitation to dine with him at Fort Durkee. In his affidavit (previously mentioned) Captain Ogden states that he "went accordingly and dined with him [Durkee], and after dinner was acquainted by Capt. [John] Collins of Connecticut that he, the deponent, was not to leave the fort till matters were settled and the deponent's works given up." Articles of Capitulation were thereupon immediately drawn up, which were "agreed to and signed by Captain Ogden in behalf of himself and his party, and Zebulon Butler for himself and his party." The Articles were as follows :
"1st. Captain Ogden agrees that the fort [at Mill Creek] shall be delivered to Captain Butler.
"2dly. All the men with Captain Ogden that has not effects on the ground, to de- part the 1st of May next.
"3dly. Six men of Captain Ogden's party to continue to take care of the effects belonging to Ogden and his party until June 1st next, and then to depart with all the effects belonging to said party.
"4thly. The people of Ogden's party have the privilege of selling their wheat that is in the ground.
"5thly. Ogden's party to keep one house for the six men, with two fire-arms, to take care of his effects.
"6thly. The people that have stock on the ground, and have not made sufficient provision for said stock, shall pay all the damages done by said stock to the men that suffer by them."
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Captain Ogden further deposed (at Philadelphia, May 25, 1770, as previously noted) "that, after the capitulation, having reason to think that the other party had designs of confining him, he took the first fair opportunity of leaving the place; and that he is informed that after he left the people in the fort took possession of all his effects and burnt his house." Nathan Ogden remained in Wyoming for several days after his brother the Captain had departed, and then he too left, and at Phila- delphia, on May 25th, he made an affidavit before Governor Penn in which he corroborated the facts stated by Captain Ogden in his affidavit, and in addition thereto detailed the happenings that had occurred in Wyoming from the 1st to the 5th of May. The original affidavit sworn to and signed by Nathan Ogden is now "No. 115" of the "Penn Manu- scripts," described on page 30, Volume I, and no part of the same has ever been printed heretofore. The following paragraphs from the doc- ument are interesting and important : * * * "That he [Nathan Ogden] remained at Wioming about four days after his brother Amos Ogden had left the place, as in his deposition made this day is mentioned. That on the 1st day of May last a party of the New Englanders and Pennsylvanians set fire to Joseph Ogden's house, situate on the Proprietary tract of land there, and burnt it to the ground. That on the 2d of May inst. Capt. John Collins, with a party of the same people, broke the locks of the said Amos Ogden's store-house and robbed the same of several hundred deer-skins and a number of other articles, and then demolished the house. That on the 3d May Captain Collins, Lazarus Stewart, Lazarus Young and others of the New England party broke the locks of the said Amos Ogden's dwelling-house and shop, took away all the goods in them and a large quantity of furs and some hundred deer-skins, and then set fire to the house, which was soon consumed.
"The deponent further saith that the said New.England party at several times made prisoners of several of the people settled on the said Proprietary manor under the Pro- prietaries, turned their families out and destroyed the houses and effects ; and when he left Wioming he saw several of them, to wit : Martin Tidd, Robert Duchee, Michael Hendershute, John Murphy and Thomas Neal, confined in a gaol* in a miserable condi- tion. And that one of them who had been confined, of the name of Patrick White, he saw lying dead in the said gaol ; who (he heard amongst the people of the fort) had been taken out of the said gaol by the said Connecticut party in good health, and by them bled in both his arms till he died, after which he was brought back dead within an hour, and thrown into the gaol amongst the rest of the prisoners-but he knows not the truth of this information.
"This deponent further saith that when he left the fort at Wioming on the 5th day of May last past he believes there were upwards of 200 people belonging to it ; and that the persons named in the list hereunto annexed are of the party. The names of any others of them he has not been able to learn. This deponent further saith that he has frequently heard the leaders and many others of the said New England party declare that they would dispossess the inhabitants of Pennsylvania who would not join them, as low down as the Blue Mountains-which inhabitants are esteemed to consist of about 300 families. * * * "Namest of Connecticut people and Pennsylvanians in the Connecticut fort at Wioming :
Ashley, Benjamin
Gaylord, Samuel
Phillips, Nicholas
Beach, Nathan
Gaylord, Timothy
Ray, James
Bidlack, James
Gillow, Francis
Ray, William
Brockway, Richard
Goss, Nathaniel
Robinson, John
Buck, Elijah
Grimes, James
Robinson, Thomas
Buck, William
Hibbard, Ebenezer
Simpson, John
Cochran, John
Hibbard, Jonathan
Smith, Oliver
Collins, John
Holley, John Holley, Samuel Hungerford, Stephen
_ Stewart, James
Ellis, William
Johnson, Edward Jones, Crocker Kidd, Peter
: Stewart, William
Espy, Joseph
Ludington, Asa
Follett, Benjamin
Mead, David
Weeks, Thomas Woodworth, Douglas
French, Thomas
Morse, Joseph
Young, Lazarus
Frink, Joseph
Nisbitt, Samuel
Young, Robert
Fuller, Stephen
Young, William"
* Undoubtedly the guard-house attached to, or forming a part of, Fort Durkee.
t Fifty-three in number, and alphabetically arranged by the present writer.
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Smith, Timothy
DeLong, John
Solley, John
Durkee, John
Espy, George
Espy, John
Stewart, Lazarus - Stewart, Lazarus-Jr.
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From the journals of the Moravian missionaries* at Friedenshütten (Wyalusing)-see Volume I, page 443-under the date of May 1, 1770, we glean the following :
"A white man, who had been held prisoner by the New England men at Wyoming upwards of three weeks, was brought by Job Chillaway.t From him we learned of the calamity that had befallen Captain Ogden and his brother."
It will be recalled that the fight at Golden Hill, in the city of New York, and the Boston Massacre had taken place, respectively, in January and March, 1770. (See Volume I, page 594.) Those events aroused throughout the American Colonies much bitter feeling and no end of sharp comment, which the Sons of Liberty took good care should not die down or become dulled. It was well known to the Pennsylvania authorities who were familiar with the events of that period that Maj. John Durkee-then the leader of the Yankees in Wyoming-was promi- nent in the ranks of the Sons of Liberty ; and so, when news came to Governor Penn at Philadelphia April 4, 1770, concerning the happen- ings at Wyoming on March 28th, he and his Councilors concluded that Pennsylvania, just as New York and Massachusetts, was about to become the scene of general disorder and a hotbed of disloyalty to the King. To those officials it seemed, indeed, as if "lurid flames of threatening war shot up from every point of the surrounding horizon." Without delay, therefore-a formal meeting of the Provincial Council having first been held-Governor Penn wrote to Major General Gage (see pages 508 and 599) on April 6th, as followst :
"It is now about a year since a number of people of the Colony of Connecticut, assisted, as I am informed, by some of Pendergrass' Gang, in a riotous and forcible man- ner took possession of a large body of land on the River Susquehanna. * * The in- truders were at first removed without much difficulty by due course of law. They soon returned, however, with a formidable armed force; took possession of the lands and, setting the laws at defiance, built a large stockaded fort, in which they have since planted cannon ; appointed their own officers ; erected, as I am informed, mock Courts of Justice, and had the daring insolence-without the least warrant or authority in law-to arrest one of our people, upon whom they inflicted a very severe corporal punishment. * *
"They have at length prevailed on a number of profligate and abandoned people on our frontiers (many of whom have been concerned in the late Indian murders and dis- turbances) to join them in their unlawful enterprise, and they now not only openly resist the execution of the King's process, and set Government at naught, but have lately gone so far as to attack and fire upon a party of our people who had several of their associ- ates under legal arrest, which obliged them to return the fire ; and it unfortunately hap- pened that one of the rioters was killed and another wounded, so that it is no longer safe to attempt executing the process of the Government against these atrocious offenders. Not having any militia in the Province, I find myself under the disagreeable necessity of applying for the aid of the military to support the civil power."
Under the date of April 15th General Gage replied to Governor Penn, in part as follows§ :
"The troops in all the Provinces have orders, in general, to assist the civil power when they shall be legally called upon ; but the affair in question seems to be a dispute concerning property, in which I can't but think it would be highly improper for the King's troops to interfere. * * I shall immediately lay before His Majesty's Minis- ters the requisition you have been pleased to make, and wait His Majesty's commands thereupon."
About the time Governor Penn received the foregoing letter Gov- ernor Trumbull of Connecticut received a letter written by Dr. William Samuel Johnson (see Vol. I, page 504) at London under the date of February 26, 1770, and reading, in part, as follows|| :
*See "Transactions of the Moravian Historical Society," I: 202.
t An Indian friendly to the white people. His name is frequently mentioned in these pages. See page 456.
# See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," IX : 664. ¿ See ibid., page 665.
| See the "Trumbull Papers", mentioned in paragraph "(6)", page 29, Vol. I.
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"The grants we are searching for, if discovered, will give some light in the Susque- hanna affair, and may be necessary to give a complete opinion upon the subject ; but, as thus advised, I have a very good opinion of the legal right of the Colony [of Connecti- cut] to those western lands, notwithstanding the settlement with New York [as to the New York-Connecticut boundary], and know not how it could be avoided upon a fair trial at law. Those lands are plainly within the words of the Charter, and that settlement [with New York ] ought not to preclude the title to the remainder. The opinion, how- ever, that in general prevails here, founded upon some decisions of the Lords of the.Coun- cil, is, that all the ancient Charters and Patents in the Colonies-being vague in their descriptions, drawn by persons often unacquainted with the geography of the country, and interfering frequently with each other-must be limited by the actual occupation, or other efficient claim, evidenced by overt acts of the early settlers.
"It seems plain, therefore, that such claim would not be very highly favored here, and will probably give much offense if made by the Colony. Whatever opinion I have, therefore, of the legal right (and though I wish extremely well to The Susquehanna Com- pany, and have great reason to do so), yet, in faithfulness to the Colony, I must say that I think it by no means advisable for them to interfere at all in the affair at this critical conjuncture. * *
* With regard to The Susquehanna Company, for whose interests, as I have said, I am enough solicitous, it does not appear to me that a grant to them is at all necessary from the Colony to enable them to defend against Mr. Penn. He must make out his own title, and recover in his own strength. They are in possession, and that possession is good against him until he establishes a clear title-both under the Crown and from the Indians-which he can never do while it appears that the lands were granted to the Colony of Connecticut in 1662. * * I should think it perfectly right to give them a release of the Colony title when the controversy is over ; but to do it now, while the dispute is on foot, will seem to be taking some part in the controversy.
* I doubt the wisdom of setting up such a claim at present, or of interfering in the dispute of The Susquehanna Company at this time."
In October, 1769, the General Assembly of Connecticut directed Governor Trumbull and George Wyllys, Secretary of the Colony (see page 282, Vol. I), to collect all the documents relating to and bearing upon the Royal grants to the Colony of Connecticut, and to report to the Assembly concerning the same. These gentlemen having made their report at the session of the Assembly held in May, 1770, it was determined to transmit "a State of the Case to counsel learned in the law in England," and the same gentlemen were appointed to prepare the necessary papers. The original draft of the "Statement of the Case," prepared in pursuance of this vote of the Assembly, is now among the "Trumbull Papers," previously mentioned. It contains a number of com- ments and suggestions made by Governor Trumbull, and concludes with the following "queries":
"(1) Whether the said Governor and Company of the Colony of Connecticut have not the full and clear right and title to the purchase [from the natives] and full enjoy- ment of the lands lying within the limits and boundaries described in their Charter, lying westward of the Province of New York, and to extend their jurisdiction and government over the same-the claim and challenge of the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, or any other, notwithstanding ?
"(2) What manner of proceeding, to settle and prevent all differences and disputes relative to the same, is most expedient and unexceptionable?
"(3) What is legal and best for the Governor and Company of the Colony of Con- necticut to do and act on the whole state and circumstances attending this cause?"
At London, under the date of May 21, 1770, William Samuel John- son wrote to Governor Trumbull :
"You will see by the copy of Mr. Penn's petition against The Susquehanna Com- pany, which I have forwarded to Colonel Dyer, that they are determined if possible to involve the Colony in that controversy."
A month later Dr. Johnson writes to the Governor that he has had several conferences with the agent of the Penns, who asserts that "he knows the Colony [of Connecticut] do take part in that business-no matter what I [Johnson] or anybody else can say to the contrary."
An important meeting of The Susquehanna Company was held at Hartford, Connecticut, June 6, 1770, Maj. Elizur Talcott acting as Mod-
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erator. The principal business transacted-other than receiving a full report relative to the happenings and conditions at Wyoming-was as follows :
"Voted, That Ozias Yale on Benjamin Yale's right, and John Jolly on Job Yale's right-settlers on the lands on Susquehanna River-be of the number of the First Forty settlers, and entitled to their rights in the township that shall be laid out to the said Forty ; and that [Henry] Dow Tripp be excluded from the number of the said Forty and any right in the township which shall be laid out for them. The said Yale and Jolly for the future to do and perform their duty as settlers on said lands, according to the votes of said Company.
"Voted, That the five townships of land granted by this Company for the incourage- ment of the first 240 settlers, shall be laid out according to Mr. David Mead's survey made last Fall ; and as our Paxton friends that have come on to settle with us have agreed to take the township called the Nanticook Township, we now grant the same to them according to the number of them that have complied with the proposals made to them by the Standing Committee. The remainder of said town to be filled up out of ye 200 settlers, under the same regulations and with the same reserves made in the other townships granted to the settlers, in fulfillment of ye engagements of the Committee of this Company with our said Paxton friends in their letter to them by Captain Butler and Mr. Ebenezer Backus. And that a township six miles square be laid out at a place called Lackawanna, or on the south of said Nanticook Township, adjoining thereto, in lieu of said Nanticook, for the fifty settlers which the said Nanticook Township would have belonged to-upon the same conditions and with the same reserves made and received in the other townships granted to the settlers ; and if neither of the said places shall suit to lay out the last-mentioned township, that then the same shall be laid out by the direction of Major Durkee and Captain Butler so as to do justice to said settlers and the Company.
"Voted, That there be at present but one trading-house set up in our Purchase on Susquehanna River for trading with and accommodating the Indians with such neces- saries as they from time to time shall want ; and that those persons that shall trade and deal with the Indians shall be under the direction and control of Major Durkee, Captain Butler and Deacon Timothy Hopkins, who are hereby authorized to take care of and over- see the trade and deal with the Indians, and see that justice is at all times done to them. "Voted, That the Standing Committee, as soon as they can with conveniency, pro- cure some able and orthodox minister of ye gospell to repair to our settlements at Wyo- ming and remain with them for one year in the Discharge of his Ministerial office among them ; and that the said Committee shall Draw their order on Capt. Zebulon Butler for such part of the whole of ye money in his hands as they shall Judge Necessary for the support of said minister.
"Whereas, It is probable that many proprietors not included in the 240 first settlers have repaired and will repair to join our settlement on our Purchase on Susquehanna River, in order to settle themselves and families on said lands-in part of their general rights in part of said Purchase-it is now Voted, That the committee that shall hereafter be appointed to oversee and direct the whole settlement on said land shall-and they are hereby authorized and empowered-at the cost of those that apply for the same, to lay out townships five miles square for such proprietors within said Purchase * * ; each of which townships to be divided into fifty equal parts, or shares, for quantity and quality -three of which rights, or shares, to be reserved for the public benefit of said township, in the same manner and for the same purposes as the reserved rights in the townships heretofore granted to the first 240 settlers.
"Voted, That Capt. Z. Butler, Isaac Tripp, Benjamin Follett, John Jenkins, Timothy Hopkins, David Marvin, William Buck, Benjamin Shoemaker, John Smith, Thomas Dyer, Ebenezer Gray, Jr., Obadiah Gore, Stephen Fuller, Robert Young and Nathaniel Wales, 3d, be and are hereby appointed a committee to assist Major Durkee in ordering and directing in all the affairs relating to the well government of said settlers, and in directing the settling of said lands-till otherwise ordered by the Company."
By the 10th of May, 1770, Wyoming was again in the undisturbed possession of the Yankees, who, apparently, were masters of the situ- ation. Peace reigned. Hope, joy and confidence began to prevail. Planting time had come, and not only was a large quantity of corn planted, but many new improvements were projected, and preparations were begun for distributing the proprietor-settlers throughout the five "settling" towns. As explained on page 515, Vol. I, those towns, or townships, had been located and their boundaries surveyed by David Mead* and his assistants in the Autumn of 1769. The Susquehanna
* See a subsequent chapter for a sketch of his life.
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Company having accepted the surveys and directed that the townships should be "laid out" according to them (see page 652)-that is, that each township should be laid out in divisions, which in turn should be subdivided into lots-it was necessary that that work should be done before any individual allotments of land could be made.
In order to expedite the work Major Durkee procured the services of Samuel Wallis,* a skilled and experienced surveyor from Philadel- phia, who, with his half-brother Joseph Jacob Wallis, had effected in 1769 a settlement on a tract of land on the West Branch of the Susque- hanna, within the bounds of The Susquehanna Company's Purchase- although surveyed under a warrant issued from the Provincial Land Office. About the middle of May, 1770, Samuel and Joseph Jacob Wallis were at Shamokin, or Fort Augusta, en route from Philadelphia to their plantation, "Muncy Farm," on the West Branch, and in response to a request from Major Durkee they came up the East Branch of the river to Fort Durkee. It was then that Samuel Wallis ascertained the latitude of the fort, as noted on page 495, Vol. I. (See, also, note below.)
Early in June, 1770, the "town-plot" of Wilkes-Barre was planned by Major Durkee, and under his direction was surveyed and plotted by Samuel Wallis, assisted by Joseph Jacob Wallis and others. The plot was laid out on the level stretch of land, comprising some 200 acres, lying just north-east of Fort Durkee. The plot was in the form of a
* SAMUEL WALLIS was of Quaker origin, and was born in Elkton, Maryland, about 1730. He received a good general education, and later, having studied surveying, became interested in land speculations. Prior to 1767 he settled in Philadelphia-his residence being in the "North Ward" in 1769, and in the "Middle Ward" in 1774. Early in 1768 he was employed with other surveyors in making surveys along the Juniata River in southern Pennsylvania. Soon after the "Fort Stanwix Treaty Line" was established (see Vol. I, page 451) he surveyed for himself, under a Provincial land-warrant-as mentioned above-a tract of land located three miles west of the present borough of Muncy and ten miles east of the present city of Williamsport, in what then was Berks County, later was Northumberland County and now is Lycoming County. There, early in 1769, he began the erection of a large and substantial stone dwelling- house, which was nearly completed in September of the same year and was then occupied by Mr. Wallis and his brother. This building, increased in size and modernized, was still standing a few years ago -the oldest house in Lycoming County-and probably is in existence now.
Meginness, in his "History of the West Branch Valley" (1 : 844), says: "Among the noted pioneers of 1769 was SAMUEL WALLIS, who became the most extensive landowner of that time. He was aggressive and venturesome, and acquired one tract after another until he owned over 7,000 acres in one body in Muncy Valley alone. His famous plantation, known as 'Muncy Farm,' figures more in history than the balance of all his possessions. * * He was constantly on the lookout for other lands. There is in existence an ancient draft showing the outlines of a tract of 5,900 acres including the ground on which Jersey Shore, in Lycoming County, is built. This was surveyed in 1778 on 'orders of survey' issued in April, 1769."
Samuel Wallis was married March 1, 1770, to Lydia, daughter of John Hollingsworth of Philadelphia. Mr. Wallis continued to reside in Philadelphia until the Spring of 1775, spending, however, a considerable portion of his time at "Muncy Farm," where his brother Joseph Jacob lived continuously from 1770 till the Spring or Summer of 1775, when he vacated the plantation and Samuel and his family established themselves there permanently. In April, 1774, Pelatiah Webster of Philadelphia wrote to Silas Deane at Wethersfield, Connecticut, as follows (see Johnson's "Historical Record," III : 70): "Fort Augusta, half a mile south-east of the conflux of the East and West Branches of the Susquehanna, is, by exact observa- tion, in latitude 40°, 59', 82"; Fort Durkee at Wyoming is in 41º, 14', 27"; Buffalo Creek, in 41º, 1'-as taken by Mr. Samuel Wallis, a gentleman of good merit and well known to the Wyoming people, who is now going up with very accurate instruments to take the latitude of 42º, in order to ascertain how far north you extend." (The boundary-line between New York and Pennsylvania was supposed to be coincident with the 42d parallel of latitude, and the northern boundary of the Connecticut claim was understood to lie there-as previously explained, and as shown on the map near the end of this chapter.)
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