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 early Wyoming Valley history, together with many biographical sketches and much genealogical material. Volume I > Part 3
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"They are surely right who think that every city and town should have its history written with some detail for use in its schools. Such a local text-book should contain a clear statement of the location of the place ; something as to its topography, geology and botany ; the history of settlement ; the establishment of its churches and schools ; its military history ; its industries and railroads ; its charitable institutions ; something of the noted men and women who were born or have lived or visited there.
"Such a study would awaken interest. A child loves to read and talk about places with which he is familiar, as we older people are more interested in anything about countries we have visited than about those we have never seen. The local history and geography are the easiest for the child to grasp, and lie will learn other history and the geography of remote countries much more readily as a result of this study. * * * Teach him of the self-denials and achievements of those who moulded the character of the life with which he is in immediate contact ; get his enthusiasm aroused by the actors in scenes that are comparatively near and familiar, and he will be ready for a broader outlook and a wider vision. To know all that pertains to this little corner of creation in which we live, is to know much of the reality and romance of life."
The valley of Wyoming is indeed classic ground. Its history is full of interest, and many of its truthful tales, in the strangeness of their circumstances, far exceed the fictions of romance. Colonel Stone, in his "Poetry and History of Wyoming" previously mentioned, said :
"All that is fierce and brutal, selfish and unrelenting, bitter and vindictive, in the passions of men embroiled in civil strife, has been displayed there [in Wyoming]. All that is lofty in patriotism-all that is generous, noble and self-devoted in the cause of country and liberty, has been proudly called into action there. . All that is true, confiding, self-denying, constant, heroic, virtuous and enduring in women, has been sweetly illustrated there."
Some years later another well-known writer asserted :
"There is no spot of ground within the limits of the old thirteen States, not except- ing Lexington, Bunker Hill or Groton, that awakens such tender and deep emotions of sympathy throughout the land as this bloodstained valley of Wyoming."
The Hon. Stanley Woodward, President of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, in an address before that society February 11, 1896, said :
"Certain it is, that no portion of American history is richer in its lights and shadows, its romantic adventures and its eccentric departures from the ordinary and the commonplace, than that of this beautiful valley of Wyoming, where we are so fortunate as to live. * * * It is therefore wise to pause occasionally in the grand march of present progress, and take a backward look."
In an address before the Wyoming Commemorative Association July 3, 1901, President E. D. Warfield of Lafayette College said :
"What a wonderful story is the story of this valley ! The men and women who came here had many vicissitudes. The region is singularly marked by the folly, the meanness, the passion of men. *
* There are names of warning as well as cheer in * the thrilling story. But after every allowance is made, the impulse given here by the pioneer is the impulse which has borne fruit in the wide farms, the populous cities, the noble people of this beautiful region."
The story of this valley is, beyond all question, the record of end- less feats of arms, and of victory and defeat in a ceaseless strife waged against wild nature and wild man ; a record of men who greatly dared and greatly did ; a record of hardy, resolute men who, with incredible risk and toil, laid deep the foundations of the civilization that we inherit. Every incident connected with the early history of the valley, in which the valor of our forefathers was so signally displayed, comes down to us with all the interest of self-love, and all the freshness of romance. We love to dwell, for reasons better felt than explained, on the deeds of our
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sires and the times that tried their souls; and there is something hallowed in the associations which gather around us-a feeling almost of devotion-while reflecting on those instances of ardent zeal and chivalrous patriotism which distinguished their lives.
In an address delivered July 3, 1896, before the Wyoming Com- memorative Association, Sidney G. Fisher, Esq., a member of the Bar of Philadelphia, and well known as an author, said :
"You people of Wyoming are more interested in State history than all the other people of our Commonwealth put together. You have studied the history of this valley with a thoroughness of detail and described the events with a vividness of language which have made it known to the whole English-speaking race. I know of no other episode in the history of any of our States that has been done so completely and well. I am not, therefore, obliged to begin by attempting to arouse your interest in history ; for it is already as strong as my own. If all the people of Pennsylvania had been always in the same degree interested in the State's history, we should, I think, have a more homo- geneous and united Commonwealth and would stand first instead of second in the Union.
"I have often wondered exactly why it was that the Connecticut people were able to make this valley that they had discovered in Pennsylvania so celebrated in America and England that the English poet Campbell should write of it his 'Gertrude of Wyoming,' a most sympathetic work of genius, less than thirty years after the Revolution had closed, and when we were on the eve of the War of 1812. It may have been that clear cut power of expression which is common in New England, and is the result of New England education or of the life, or climate, or something in that land. The New Englanders have written the history of the whole country and forced their ideas on the world,* while we modest Pennsylvanians, with equally good ideas and equally good history, have remained unsung and unhonored because we were not nimble with our tongues. I am inclined to think, however, that you Connecticut people, with your instinctive mastery of the aptest language, had a comparatively easy task with Wyoming. The story of Wyoming was in itself essentially interesting and fascinating. It was a story-we naturally call it a story rather than a history-and whatever possesses the essential elements of a story is sure to charm."
Yes, much has been written of Wyoming in both prose and verse ; but "there are many historical periods and episodes which may be reconsidered again and again, and always with interest, when they pertain to places and things which concern ourselves." On the other hand, our history has been investigated and written about by our own people so much from the spread-eagle and glorification point of view, that one can find very few among us who can talk about it in any other vein.
All history-which is made, like the sea, from many sources-is necessarily a selection of facts ; and a writer who is animated by a strong sympathy with one side of a question, or an earnest desire to prove some special point, will be much tempted in his selection of facts to give undue prominence to those that support his view. It has been said that "history is read, not with our eyes but with our prejudices." The development of the public mind, however, has made acceptable and necessary in these days new and unprejudiced methods of historical research, in which the value of the author is to be judged by his editorial skill and candor in arranging contemporaneous data which speak for themselves. Modern history must necessarily, to a large degree, be compilation ; but it is the duty of the compiler to examine well the sources of his information, and to study critically and impartially the information itself. When a writer, dealing with facts, is too careless to acquaint himself with the accessible and incontrovertible truth, but
* In this same strain Charles A. Hanna has written in his "The Scotch-Irish ; or, the Scot in North Britain, North Ireland and North America" (New York, 1902). He undertakes to show that American history, written, as it has been, chiefly by New Englanders, is one-sided if not actually perverted in its conclusions.
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"splashes gaily along," trusting to his memory or calling upon his imagination, it may be safely assumed that he has no ambition to be esteemed first-rate, and that he will be taken at his own valuation.
For a good deal of the information that Chapman, Stone, Miner and Peck-previously mentioned-incorporated in their several histories of our valley they were, in a measure, dependent upon the recollections of the old people of Wyoming who were alive when these authors wrote. (I have often thought how much it is to be regretted that those who made history a century and more ago did not write it out. But it seems that the people of that period rarely realized how common, everyday events would become uncommon and valuable in the lapse of years.) Owing to the lack of facilities for, as well as the expense of, gathering information during the period from 1800 to 1850; ignorance at that time as to the existence of many interesting and important letters, diaries and official documents and records ; the proneness of early chroniclers of historic events here to rely too much upon the oral testi- mony of their contemporaries who had been present in our valley when, many years previous to the giving of that testimony, the events then related and recorded had taken place, our principal historians perpe- trated, and their successors in the field have assisted in perpetuating, some very inaccurate and misleading statements relative to the early history not only of Wyoming, but of Wilkes-Barré. Although some of these errors have been corrected and refuted over and over by later writers, yet they continue to be propagated and palmed upon the reading public, and seem to be imperishable. Then again, mention of many important matters has been entirely omitted from the published histories, either through design or lack of knowledge of facts; while in several instances statements concerning certain interesting facts are either obscure or indefinite.
Believing that the history of Wyoming, as well as that of Wilkes- Barré, had long waited for consecutive and full narration, in an ab- solutely unbiased manner and with modern methods of historical research and treatment applied to the subject, the writer of these pages determined some four years since to attempt the task of preparing for publication a history of Wilkes-Barré; and during the time that has intervened he has labored constantly and diligently to accomplish his purpose. Further than this, it has been from the first his aim and hope to produce a work worthy of publication-one that will be a inedium of authentic and authoritative information to those who read books and wish to become better acquainted with the past life of this interesting locality-a history that will be honorable to his native town and a credit to himself, so that, departing, he may leave behind him "footsteps on the sands of Time."
"Many books are but repetitions and many writers mere echoes; and the greater part of literature is the pouring out of one bottle into another," wrote a well-known librarian of this country not long ago. The present writer begs to assert that, although there may be many defects and shortcomings in the work now offered to the public, it is not a compound or concoction of the Wyoming and Luzerne histories hereinbefore referred to. In other words, this history has not been brought into being by a simple pouring from the bottles of Chapman, Stone, Miner, Peck, Pearce and other local historians into a little bottle
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of the writer's own. He carefully went over the same ground traversed by the historians mentioned-using freely of the stores of material accumulated by them in their respective works. In addition, however, he made various expeditions into territory previously unthought of and untraveled by investigators of Wyoming's past life; and thence he brought back, from long-undisturbed resting-places, much invaluable historical data in the shape of letters, diaries, military and other reports, public records, etc., relating to the life of Wilkes-Barré and Wyoming prior to the year 1800. He gleaned widely and, he hopes, wisely and well.
In preparing his material for publication the writer endeavored, so far as possible, to refrain from glittering generalities, rhetorical rhap- sodies and fulsome flatteries ; and, as the writing of the work was not undertaken with a view either to asperse or to build up the reputation and character of any person or family, an attempt was made to be par- ticularly careful and accurate in preparing the numerous biographical notes and sketches that are scattered throughout the following pages. (Neither bouquets nor brickbats have been thrown at the subjects of these little biographies-except in two or three well-deserved cases.) Endeavors, also, were made to avoid the interjection of purely personal opinion into the narrative, as well as the introduction of doubtful tales based solely upon family traditions and tea-table tattle.
In seeking out material for a work of this kind, covering a period of a century and a-half, it must be obvious to the reader that the task was attended with many difficulties ; the chiefest of which arose from the fact that many valuable public and private records that would not only have greatly facilitated the task, but made the results more com- plete and interesting, were a long time ago either lost or destroyed. Nearly all the town and county records of Westmoreland (the name by which the Wyoming region was entitled while it was under the juris- diction of Connecticut),* the earliest town records of Wilkes-Barré, the early Church records and the private papers and documents of families generally were either utterly destroyed or widely dispersed at the time of the British and Indian invasion in July, 1778. Later, during the Pennamite-Yankee difficulties, other public and private records of the New England settlers were destroyed by the Pennsylvania party. No special-certainly no strenuous-effort was ever made in early days by the people of Wyoming to gather up, renew or replace these dispersed and lost records, except at the beginning of the last century, when the commissioners under the Compromise Law of 1799+ were at work settling the land-title disputes.
Very full minutes of their proceedings were kept by these com- missioners ; which minutes, contained in four large manuscript volumes (the whereabouts of which cannot now be ascertained), the present writer carefully examined some seven years ago. From them he learned that in July, 1801, the following original records and documents were produced by their then custodians before the commissioners, and, having been duly identified and authenticated by various witnesses, their con- tents were accepted by the commissioners as evidence in support of the claims of Connecticut land-holders :
* See Chapters XI and XIII.
t See Chapter XXVI.
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(i) A number of manuscript maps, original drafts of surveys and lists of lot-holders.
(ii) One volume of "Westmoreland Probate Records"-containing more than 100 pages of records, largely in the handwriting of Obadiah Gore, Jr.
(iii) One volume, containing upwards of seventy pages, entitled "Wilkesbarre Town Votes, No. 1."
(iv) One volume of original "Records of the Town of Westmore- land," marked "Vol. I-paged from 1 to 622."
(v) One volume of original "Records of the Town of Westmore- land," marked "Vol. II-paged from 623 to 1033."
(vi) One volume of original "Records of the Town of Westmore- land," marked "Vol. III (containing the earliest records)- paged from 1034 to 1397."
(vii) One volume of original "Records of the Town of Westmore- land," marked "Vol. IV (chiefly in the handwriting of Obadiah Gore, Jr.)-paged from 1 to 170."
In addition to the foregoing there were filed with the commissioners, during the progress of their work, hundreds of depositions of witnesses, containing much important information relative to early Connecticut settlers and settlements in the Wyoming region.
Of the records mentioned, "(iii)" was in the years 1801-'5 in the custody of Jesse Fell, Esq., the then Town Clerk of Wilkes-Barré- having come into his hands in 1796 ; while "(iv)," "(v)" and "(vi)" were in the custody of Lord Butler, Esq., with whom they had been deposited in 1792 by his father, Col. Zebulon Butler, in whose hands they had been for many years. It appears that early in 1805 Messrs. Fell and Butler- influenced probably by the desires of many landholders under the Con- necticut title-declined* to deliver the record-books in their custody into the hands of the commissioners, previously mentioned, who were then nearing the end of their labors.
By an Act of the Pennsylvania Legislature passed April 4, 1805, the "Westmoreland records" were authorized to be deposited with the Recorder of Deeds of Luzerne County, and certified copies of the same were to be accepted as evidence as occasion might require. Whether or not these records were ever deposited in the office of the Recorder of Deeds cannot now be ascertained ; but it is certain that they are not now there, nor have they been there during many years past. March 28, 1808, the Legislature passed an Act suspending all the powers of the commissioners under the Act of April, 1799, and its supplements, and requiring them to deposit their books, records, papers, etc., with the Secretary of the Land Office of the Commonwealth. Under date of March 28, 1896, the Secretary of the Department of Internal Affairs of Pennsylvania (which department now comprehends the Land Office) informed the writer hereof that the books, etc., referred to were not then among the records of the department, and, so far as could be learned, had never been deposited there. And yet, in the published "Report of the Public Archives Commission, of the American Historical Asso- ciation," made in 1900 (see page 285, Vol. II, of said report), we find this paragraph :
* See The Luzerne Federalist of January 19 and 26, and February 9, 1805.
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"When, a few years since, the office of the Bureau of Railroads was created and attached to the Department of Internal Affairs, the room in which the 'Nicholson Land' papers and 'The Seventeen Township (Wyoming)' papers had been kept was required for its use. Accordingly, these extremely valuable papers, largely unpublished, were boxed and stored in the cellar of the building, where they are of course inaccessible, and exposed to destruction in event of serious accident to the water-pipes."
No one living in Wyoming during the first decade of the last century seems to have then realized that the records and documents of Westmoreland and of the Compromise Law commissioners had any historical value or were of even the least importance. Without doubt they were allowed to be kicked about from pillar to post during a number of years. From 1813 to 1816 the Hon. John B. Gibson was President Judge of the Luzerne County courts, and resided in Wilkes- Barré. Later, for many years, he was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Commonwealth. He deposited with the American Philo- sophical Society, Philadelphia, May 11, 1819,* "a copy of the Susque- hanna Company's survey, t together with an ample collection of scarce documents, made by Judge Cooper when one of the commissioners to carry out the Compromise Law." Having recognized the value of these documents, Judge Gibson had determined that they should be placed where they would be preserved. Whether or not he had gathered them up during his residence in Wilkes-Barré, or, later, had obtained them from his friend Judge Cooper, is not now known ; but this fact is known, viz .: that the documents in question remained hidden away in the vault of the Philosophical Society, apparently unknown to, and certainly un- seen by, a single writer of Wyoming history until the year 1897, when the present writer was permitted by the society to examine them and make copies of such as he desired.
About 1832 or '3 Charles Miner found "a bound volume containing the old Westmoreland records" in possession of a resident of Wilkes- Barré, "who had used the blank leaves" of the book.} Mr. Miner secured possession, and in his historical labors made use, of this book, which, in the judgment of the present writer (in the absence of an identi- fying description of the same by Mr. Miner), was either the record-book "(iii)" or "(vi)" mentioned on page 26. If it was "(vi)," it may now be seen in the collections of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, "tattered and torn and all forlorn" and bearing a title-"The Town Book of Wilkes Barre"-attached to it since the year 1802 by some unknown scrivener. If, on the other hand, the book mentioned by Mr. Miner was "(iii)," then the writer is unable to locate its present resting-place.
In a communication from a local writer relative to certain historical matters-printed in the Wilkes-Barre Advocate, November 27, 1850- the following paragraph appeared :
"There are in the possession of one who claims no right to them, the old West- moreland records, worth their weight in gold, preserved and furnished by Mr. Joseph Slocum ; and the valuable records of the old Susquehanna Company, obtained by a vote of Assembly? by Senator [Luther] Kidder and Mr. Speaker [Hendrick B.] Wright."
* See Sergeant and Rawle's Pennsylvania State Reports, VI : 99.
+ It is a manuscript map, which was, unquestionably, made at some time between the years 1795 and 1800, and was used by the commissioners while executing the Compromise Law. A photo-illustration and a full description of the map will be found in Chapter VIII.
Į See Miner's "History of Wyoming," Introduction, page v.
¿ This was in the year 1843, when strenuous efforts were being made to complete the erection of the Wyoming Monument.
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Dr. H. Hollister, in the first edition (published in 1857) of his "History of the Lackawanna Valley," in referring to the old Westmore- land records, said (page 62) :
"These old records, which deserve a more honored place than the musty coop* they occupy in Wilkes-Barré, are the records of the doings and laws of the colony at Wyoming while the authority of Connecticut was acknowledged here. * * We know of no other ancient manuscript whose publication would afford more interest and insight of other days than the three or four written volumes of Westmoreland records which are now so rapidly passing to decay."
In the second edition of his history, published in 1869, Doctor Hollister said (page 114) concerning these volumes :
"These old records which once occupied a musty coop in Wilkes-Barré could not be found a few months ago, when the writer sought for them through a clever and prom- inent official. * * If they can be exhumed, they should be printed. The Historical Society of Wilkes-Barré, if not able or disposed to print, ought to be their custodian."
As early as 1873 Steuben Jenkins, Esq., of the borough of Wyoming, in the valley of Wyoming, was "industriously at work on a new history of Wyoming, which, it was claimed, would contain many new facts in relation to the early settlement of the valley." Mr. Jenkins worked on his history as he felt inclined, or as opportunity was offered, during a period of inany years, and, in a careful, painstaking way, gathered together a large amount of valuable material. But, before he was able to put this material in shape for the printer, he died (May 29, 1890). In 1885 Mr. Jenkins very kindly permitted the writer of this to examine and make extracts from a few of the original records and documents, and some of the other historical data, in the former's possession. Among the original record-books then examined were those referred to on page 26 as "(v)" and "(vii)." These are now, presumably, in possession of the representatives of the estate of Mr. Jenkins ; but since his death permission to examine these public records has not been granted to any one.
In the course of his labors the writer carefully examined and made full extracts from the following described original, unpublished docu- inents and records, in addition to those previously mentioned and others to be referred to hereinafter. Without doubt none of these was ever seen by Chapman, Miner, Stone, Peck or Pearce, inasmuch as when they wrote this material was not known to be in existence ; or, if known, was not accessible :
(1) Full and complete records of the transactions of the Connecti- cut Susquehanna Company were kept by its officers from 1753 till 1802. Col. John Franklin became Clerk of the company in 1786, and from that time until his death in 1831 the records of the company were in his possession. In 1801 he produced the minute-book-a book of 170 pages, covering the years 1753-'86-before the commissioners under the Compromise Law, who made a copy of the same for their use. Afterwards for many years the whereabouts of the original records of the Susquehanna Company was not generally known (the reference to them in the quoted paragraph on page 27 the writer is unable to ex- plain) ; but in July, 1862, twelve manuscript volumes of them were presented to The Connecticut Historical Society, at Hartford, by Edward Herrick, Jr., Esq., of Athens, Pennsylvania, with the information that they had been "found among the papers of the late Col. John Franklin."
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