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 4
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* Without doubt either the old Luzerne County Court House or the "Fire-proof," that stood in the Public Square and were torn down in 1858, is here referred to.
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Some years before his death Dr. Charles J. Hoadly of Hartford, for many years State Librarian of Connecticut and President of the Historical Society, informed the writer that the books of the Susquehanna Com- pany were sent by Mr. Herrick to Mr. C. Hosmer, Secretary and Librarian of the Historical Society, who kept in Hartford "a sort of general curiosity-shop (what you could not find anywhere else you would usually find at Hosmer's shop)." Upon receiving these books Mr. Hosmer laid them aside in his shop, and there, shortly afterwards, Doctor Hoadly saw them. Some years later the latter, desiring to examine the books, looked for them at the hall of the Historical Society, but could not find them. Finally they were found in Hosmer's shop, covered up with various articles. They were then removed to the hall of the Society ; but, in time, Hosmer, who was then an aged man, for- got where he had stored them. Doctor Hoadly again made a thorough search for them, when they were found in various out-of-the-way corners, littered over with newspapers, pamphlets, etc. They were then collected and placed in the fire-proof vault of the Society, where they now are.
(2) The "Wolcott Papers," "Trumbull Papers," "Dr. Wm. Samuel Johnson Papers" and other valuable manuscripts in the collections of The Connecticut Historical Society.
(3) Some 200 original petitions, memorials, letters, certificates, etc., either from or concerning the early settlers at Wyoming under the Connecticut Susquehanna Company. These documents are arranged in a volume entitled "Susquehannah Settlers, 1755-1796, Vol. I," preserved in the Connecticut State Library, Hartford.
(4) Two small volumes of 163 pages of original minutes of the proceedings at Wilkes-Barré in the Summer of 1787 of the commis- sioners (Col. Timothy Pickering, Stephen Balliett and William Mont- gomery) under the Confirming Law .* These records are now in the possession of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society.
(5) A large number of letters, military reports, rough drafts of minutes of town-meetings in Wyoming, lists of early settlers, etc., in possession of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society.
(6) A large collection of original manuscripts known as the "Trumbull Papers," in possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society, at Boston. These papers were derived from descendants of the Hon. Jonathan Trumbull, for many years Governor of Connecticut, and a shareholder in the Connecticut Susquehanna Company.
(7) The "Pickering Papers," also in the possession of the Massa- chusetts Historical Society. These papers-consisting of letters written to and by Col. Timothy Pickering, t diaries, military reports, etc .- are comprised in fifty-eight folio volumes, and among them the writer of this found over 1,000 manuscript pages containing much interesting and valuable matter relating to the history of Wyoming and Wilkes- Barré prior to the year 1800. Colonel Pickering (who resided in Wilkes-Barré from 1787 to 1791) was not only a remarkably able and well-informed man, but a voluminous writer, and he seems to have kept a copy or rough draft of every letter and document he ever wrote. We of Wyoming owe him a debt of gratitude for having written and pre- served so many interesting pages concerning the people and the happen- ings in this valley.
* See Chapter XXV.
t See Chapter XXIV.
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(8) The "Penn Manuscripts," in possession of The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, at Philadelphia. In 1870 a large number of original letters, manuscript documents, charters, grants, etc., relating to William Penn and the Pennsylvania Proprietary family were offered for sale in England. They were purchased, and in 1873 were presented to The Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
(9) A large collection of miscellaneous legal and other public documents, private correspondence, etc., relating to Wyoming, and bearing dates earlier than 1805. In possession of The Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
(10) A small but very interesting and valuable collection of original letters, reports and other manuscripts relating to the Connecti- cut Susquehanna Company and Wyoming affairs prior to 1790. In possession of Mr. James Terry, a well-known archæologist and collector of New Haven, Connecticut.
(11) "Stevens' Facsimiles of Manuscripts," various manuscript volumes entitled "American Loyalists" and a number of original, unpub- lished documents owned by the New York Public Library (Lenox Branch).
(12) Through the friendship and kindly interest of the Hon. Whitelaw Reid, Special Ambassador from the United States to the Cor- onation of King Edward VII in 1902, the writer was enabled to procure from certain government archives in London complete copies of many original, unpublished letters, military reports, etc., written by British officers in New York and Canada during the years 1777-'83 relative to military and Indian affairs on the upper Susquehanna and at Fort Niagara near Lake Ontario, also concerning the British and Indian incursions upon Wyoming, as well as other important matters that transpired during the years mentioned. The writer of this is confident that no other American writer-early or recent-on the subject of the warfare waged by the British and their Indian allies along the frontiers of New York and Pennsylvania during the Revolutionary period, ever utilized these interesting and valuable documents.
In addition to the various unprinted records and documents just enumerated, the writer carefully examined, and extracted much valu- able material from, the following-mentioned printed records-many of which were published subsequently to the writing of Stone's and Miner's histories of Wyoming :
(1) The "Pennsylvania Colonial Records"-sixteen volumes.
(2) The "Pennsylvania Archives"-seventy-five volumes in four series.
(3) "American Archives"-nine volumes.
(4) "American State Papers"-thirty-eight volumes.
(5) "The Public Papers of George Clinton." In 1853 the Legis- lature of New York purchased forty-eight folio volumes of original docu- ments that had belonged to George Clinton, Governor of New York 1777-'95 and 1801-'4. These papers are being edited by Hugh Hastings, State Historian, and thus far six Svo volumes have been published.
(6) "The Journals of the Sullivan Expedition." (7) A series of a dozen or more articles written by Col. John Franklin over the pseudonym "Plain Truth," and published in the years 1801-'5.
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(8) An extended account of the battle of Wyoming and occur- rences immediately following ; written by Col. John Franklin, and pub- lished in 1828 in the Towanda Republican.
(9) Over 15,000 pages of newspapers published in Boston, Massa- chusetts ; Hartford, Norwich and New London, Connecticut ; New York City ; Philadelphia, Wilkes-Barré and Kingston, Pennsylvania, and covering the years from 1753 to 1875. Few things are less valued than newspapers not of the current date-unless they happen to bear a date that is very far from current. In that case they have a curious interest and no little worth. But few people appreciate how much that is of interest and value to the historian may be found in the columns of old newspapers. "Apart even from their value to the historiographer and the antiquary, few relics of the past are more suggestive or interest- ing than the old newspaper. It is, in mercantile phrase, a book of original entry, showing us the transactions of the time in the light in which they were regarded by the parties engaged in them, and reflecting the state of public sentiment on innumerable topics-moral, religious, political, military and scientific." A year or two ago a writer in a London periodical said : "One of the functions of a public library is to take care of the printed records of the locality, and there is no better conspectus of local history than a 'long set' of the chief newspaper. Even the advertisements become of value in time. Research into the history of towns, and even of villages, has become so popular of late years that we cannot afford to neglect such valuable sources of infor- mation."
On the ceiling of the dome over the reading-room in the splendid National Library at Washington appears, among other inscriptions, this from an unknown author : "We taste the spices of Arabia, yet never feel the scorching sun which brings them forth." Those who are fond of reading history, but are too ready to criticize unfavorably the work of the historian, should bear in mind this anonymous saying. The writing of history is not easy-for on more than a few points the writer is likely "to displease many and content few ;" but harder yet is the labor of gathering material for the work. Tom Moore, the poet, once said that there was no fool's paradise so beautiful as the conceiving of a poem, and no treadmill so laborious as the writing of it. It is a pleasant thing to be an author-after one's book is printed !
Dr. Samuel Johnson, in the preface to his dictionary, said : "I look with pleasure on my book, however defective, and deliver it to the world with the spirit of a man that has endeavored well." The author of this present book would fain make use of those words in offering these results of his labors to the sons and daughters of Wilkes-Barré- both at home and abroad in the world.
CHAPTER II.
THE NORTH BRANCH OF THE SUSQUEHANNA RIVER-THE VALLEY OF WYOMING-LOCATION AND DESCRIPTION- POETRY AND LEGEND.
"Oh ! could I flow like thee, and make thy stream My great example as it is my theme ; Though deep, yet clear, though gentle, yet not dull, Strong without rage, without o'erflowing, full !" -Denham's "Cooper's Hill."
"Oh ! beautiful vision of Summer delight ! Oh ! marvelous sweep of the circling hills ! Where sunshine and shadow contend on the height, And a deeper green follows the paths of the rills As they leap to the valley, whose gold and green Add the finishing charm to the exquisite scene." -Susan E. Dickinson.
In the northern part of Otsego County, in eastern-central New York, lies Lake Otsego, which, although not so large* as some of the many other lakes lying in that State, is nevertheless much larger than any lake within the bounds of the adjoining State of Pennsylvania. Lake Otsego was not known by this name to the Indians of early days. In Governor Dongan's time they called it "the lake whence the Susque- hannah takes its rise." Cadwallader Colden (sometime Surveyor General of New York, and in 1760 and later years Lieutenant Governor) in his "History of the Five Indian Nations," first published in 1727, referred to it in similar terms. In 1745 the Mohawk chief Abraham described to William Johnson certain lands as lying "at the head of Sus- quehannah Lake." On the reduced reproductiont of a "Map of the Eastern Part of the Province of New York" shown on the following page (this map was first published in 1756 in The London Magazine), the lake in question is indicated, but without a name. "In letters written from the lake in 1765 missionaries called it Otsego Lake, which is perhaps the earliest use of the name on record," says Francis W. Halsey in "The Old New York Frontier" (page 22).
In the same county of Otsego, six miles west of the northern end of Lake Otsego, and 1,750 feet above sea-level, lies a smaller body of water, now called Canadurango Lake. On the accompanying map it is noted
* It is nine miles in length, from north to south.
+ Photographed from an original copy in possession of Dr. Charles S. Beck, Wilkes-Barré.
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as ""Caneaderaga Lake" ; but on another map published in 1756, and referred to by Mr. Halsey in "The Old New York Frontier" (page 124), it appears as "Canadurango." On a "Chorographical Map of the Prov- ince of New York," compiled by order of Maj. Gen. William Tryon, and first published in London January 1, 1779, "Caniaderaga Lake" and "Otsega Lake" are thus indicated. About the year 1822-and without doubt earlier-the first-mentioned lake was sometimes referred to as "Canadarque."* Inasmuch as it lay within the bounds of the
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patent obtained in 1755 by David Schuyler it was for many years called "Schuyler's Lake," and in some of the most modern cyclopædias and geographies is so named. Within recent years, however, its ancient name of "Canadurango" has been restored to it.
The two lakes mentioned-whose outflows unite three miles south of Cooperstown, lying at the southern end of Lake Otsego-are the principal sources of the North, or Main, Branch of the Susquehanna River, which, flowing generally in a south-westerly direction to the Penn- sylvania State line, receives in its course in New York the Unadilla River and several smaller tributaries. Crossing the Pennsylvania boundary, near the extreme north-east corner of that State, the river flows around the base of a spur of the Allegheny range of mountains, in the townships of Harmony and Willingborough, Susquehanna (formerly a part of Luzerne) County-forming, in this grand sweep, what for many years has been called the Great Bend of the Susquehanna. Re- entering New York the river flows in a north-westerly direction to Binghamton, whence-having received there the waters of the Chenango River-its course is west by south till it again makes an entrance into Pennsylvania in northern-central Bradford County. Then, running
* See The Susquehanna Democrat (Wilkes-Barré), November 15, 1822.
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34
about six and a-half iniles in a south-westerly direction, it receives its principal affluent, the Chemung, or Tioga, River .*
The peninsula lying between, or at the confluence of, the Susque- hanna and the Tioga (it is a broad and nearly level plain, extending northward to the State line) bore in early times the name of Diahoga
TIOGA POINT IN 1900.
or Tyogat ; but for more than a hundred years now the locality has been known as Tioga Point. Near the southern end of this peninsula stands the town of Athens, laid out in May, 1786, under the auspices of the Connecticut Susquehanna Company, and incorporated as a borough in March, 1831.
From Tioga Point the Susquehanna pursues, with many windings, a mean south-easterly course in Pennsylvania as far as the city of Pittston in the north-eastern corner of Luzerne County ; receiving on the way numerous small tributaries. Just at the northern boundary of Pittston -having entered Wyoming Valley through a precipitous gap-it is joined by the Lackawanna River, once a limpid stream of considerable volume and value, but now, for the most part, no more than a sluggish, unsightly creek. Three-quarters of a mile below the mouth of the
* The Tioga River rises in the south-eastern part of Tioga County, Pennsylvania. Flowing north- ward in this county it receives the waters of several creeks and small rivers, and then, crossing the New York State line, it is joined by the Chemung River and flows south-easterly (for a considerable distance in New York, where it is called the Chemung River) to the Susquehanna at Tioga Point. On Lewis Evans' map of Pennsylvania, published in March, 1749 (see Chapter IV), this river is indicated as the "Cayuga Branch" of the Susquehanna-"near as large as Schuylkill [River]." On the map on page 33, and on a "Map of the Province of Pensilvania" first published in 1756 (see Chapter V), "Cayuga Branch" is shown, with the Tioga tributary noted as "Tohiccon." On a map of Pennsylvania and part of New York by Reading Howell, published in 1791 (see Chapter XXIII), "Tyoga River" is thus indicated, both in New York and Pennsylvania.
t On Evans' map of 1749 (see Chapter IV) the Indian town at that point is indicated as "Tohiccon." Evans had visited the locality in 1743.
"Tyoga" is said by some writers to be derived from an Indian word "Teyaogen, meaning an interval, or anything in the middle of two other things." Other writers have stated that the parent-word means either "meeting-place" or "the meeting of the waters."
Morgan, in his "League of the Iroquois" (edition of 1851, page 48), says that the parent-word is Tä-yó-ga, meaning "at the forks."
For further and more interesting details concerning Diahoga and Tioga Point see Chapter IV.
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1166985
Lackawanna the Susquehanna turns sharply to the south-west, and having flowed about seven miles reaches Wilkes-Barré. Continuing some nine miles farther, in a sinuous course, it rushes over the dam at Nanticoke Falls and leaves the valley, and then flows, generally in a south-westerly direction, to Northumberland in eastern-central Pennsyl- vania, where it is joined by the West Branch of the Susquehanna (which is more than 200 miles in length). From this point, increasing in width and volume as it receives other affluents, the river flows south, and then in a winding course south-east, 153 miles to its mouth at the head of Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.
From Otsego Lake to Chesapeake Bay the Susquehanna flows a distance of a little more than 400 miles, and in its course passes through many wide-rolling, cultivated fields, tall, beetling cliffs, low-lying, rich meadows, bold, craggy and picturesque mountains and beautiful, pro- ductive valleys. From its source to its mouth the scenery along its banks is unsurpassed for variety, charm and grandeur. The North Branch is of no great width, although forty and more years ago it was of much greater width and depth-particularly in north-eastern Penn- sylvania-than it is now .* It is a shallow, meandering stream, "that gladdens every eye that once has known it and then comes back to see its face again."
Some distance below Tioga Point the precipitous hills-from 300 to 600 feet in height-which bound the river valley on each side, approach so closely in several places that the river flats are quite narrow and subject to overflow in the annual Spring freshets. Farther on the river valley is broad, and the ancient flood plain is many feet higher than any freshets have been in modern times; then the shores of the river become frequently rugged and mountainous, with only occasional strips of alluvial land. Just above the mouth of the Lackawanna the. Susquehanna breaks through the mountain-as previously men- tioned-that forms the north-western boundary of Wyoming Valley. At Nanticoke Falls it breaks out through the same mountain, and about eight miles lower down again overcomes it. It is difficult to account for this singular and apparently useless freak of the otherwise dignified and onward Susquehanna. It looks like the mere wantonness of conscious strength-a sort of Sam Patch ambition to show that some things may be done as well as others.
Many green islands stud the Susquehanna throughout its whole length, while here and there gentle rapids, or riffles, and falls of no great height diversify the otherwise unruffled current. The most con- siderable falls in the North Branch of the river prior to the year 1830 were those at Nanticoke at the lower end of Wyoming Valley, where the river breaks its way through the mountain, as just noted. But these falls had nothing of a cataract character, and in times of high water could easily be passed over by arks and rafts. On the plot of the Manor of Sunbury (referred to on page 51), and on William Scull's maps of Pennsylvania published in 1770 and 1775, these falls are noted
* According to measurements carefully made in September, 1809, the channel of the river was 894 feet in width from the top of the bank at the foot of Northampton Street, Wilkes-Barre, to the top of the opposite bank. As it was then a time of low water, and the elevation of the bank at Northampton Street was twenty-seven feet above the river's surface, it is probable that the stream at that time and place was at least 800 feet in width.
In April, 1902, when the water was not at its lowest level, the width of the stream was measured at the Market Street bridge by an employe of the United States Geological Survey, and was found to be 710 feet.
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as "Wyoming Falls"; but their name was changed to Nanticoke Falls after the New Englanders had become established in the valley. Along the line of these natural falls the Nanticoke dam was erected in 1830, in conjunction with the North Branch Canal .*
On the drafts of some of the earliest surveys made in Wyoming Valley, and on early manuscript and lithographed maps comprehending north-eastern Pennsylvania (for example, the map by Reading Howell mentioned in the note on page 34), "Wyoming Falls" are indicated at a point in the river a short distance above the mouth of Mill Creek.t Presumably these falls were of a more extensive and formidable char- acter a century and a-quarter ago than they are at this time. They are now-particularly in times of low water-no more than ordinary riffles or rapids, extending the full width of the stream and a short distance in its course, and are caused by the many boulders and irregularly-shaped
NANTICOKE DAM IN 1899, FROM THE WEST SHORE OF THE RIVER.
rocks which lie in the bed of the stream at that point, over which the shallow water swirls and eddies. In times of high water the stream flows much more swiftly there than elsewhere in the vicinity of Wilkes- Barré, while the swirling noticeable at other times is then not so apparent. The head of these riffles or rapids is situated less than half a mile north of the city of Wilkes-Barré, nearly opposite the present Prospect Colliery of the Lehigh Valley Coal Company, or about midway between the bridge of the Wilkes-Barré and Eastern Railroad and that of the Bowman's Creek Branch of the Lehigh Valley Railroad.
On the Wilkes-Barré side of the river, just below where the Dor- rance Colliery of the Lehigh Valley Coal Company now stands, there were rapids of moderate extent some twenty-five years ago and more. To the Wilkes-Barréans of those days they were known as "The Riffles." When, at this point, the construction of a fairway-intended to be of material aid to river navigation-was attempted by the Federal Govern-
* See Chapter XLVIII.
t See Chapter VII for a facsimile of a plot of the Manor of Stoke, made in December, 1768, whereon these falls are noted, but without a name ..
VIEW OF THE SUSQUEHANNA FROM THE WILKES-BARRE CITY CEMETERY IN 1902. The "new" island above the North Street bridge, as described on page 37, is here shown.
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ment, by the erection of a line of timber cribs,* the character of "The Riffles" was considerably changed ; and within recent years, beginning near the foot of these rapids and extending almost to the North Street bridge, quite a sizable island has gradually risen up from the gravelly bottom of the river. In midsummer, or at other seasons when the stream is unusually low, this island is united to the west, or Kingston, shore by the dwindling away of the current on that side; and all the water that then passes Wilkes-Barré in the river's bed, from North Street bridge to Toby's Eddy (see page 52), comes down through the narrow channel on the Wilkes-Barré side, at "The Riffles."
"WYOMING FALLS," IN TIME OF HIGH WATER, OCTOBER, 1903.
The Susquehanna was noted in earlier days for the clearness and purity of its waters. As late as February, 1860, in a communication to the Record of the Times (Wilkes-Barre) relative to the North Branch of the river, Charles Miner, the historian of Wyoming, wrote :
"Is there in the wide world-we make no exception, not one, from Pison to Euphrates-a river or stream purer than the Susquehanna, that flows right by our doors ? Is it not so limpid, so clear, that floating down in a skiff or canoe you may see every- where, however deep, the sands at the bottom and mark the fish as they glide by and play around your boat ? Is there in all its extent of 200 miles to Otsego a single stagnant pool? On the contrary, is it not in its utmost length constituted by running brooks-living springs leaping from the mountains, no where on the wide earth sur- passed in salubrity ?"
In these present days, owing to the diminution of the stream from various causes, the discharge into it not only of sewage matter from many towns, but of "the viscous oozes of the Lackawanna" and vast quantities of turbid and polluted water pumped from the coal-mines and coal-washeries located in and near Wyoming Valley, the North Branch of the Susquehanna, from the head of Wyoming Valley southward for some distance, is no longer the absolutely pure and limpid stream that historians were wont to describe with delight and poets to rhapsodize.
* See Chapter XLVI.
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When the Susquehanna River first became known to white men they found that it was called by that name by the Indians who were familiar with it. Ever since then it has been known by the same name -slightly modified in its spelling, however, at different periods, as for example : "Sasquehannock", "Saosquahanunk", "Susquehannock", "Sas- quahanu", "Sasquahanough" and "Sisquehannah." The name is gener- ally spelled "Susquehannah" on many drafts of surveys and maps, and in official documents and other papers, executed or published between the years 1730 and 1790.
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