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 65
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From 1774 to 1793 Colonel Dyer was a Judge of the Superior Court of Connecticut-being Chief Judge during the last four years of this period. He withdrew from public life with his resignation from the
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Bench in 1793 ; but his mental powers continued with unusual vigor until his death. John Adams, in his caustic sketches of the members of the Congress of 1775, wrote : "Dyer is long-winded and roundabout, obscure and cloudy, very talkative and very tedious-yet an honest, worthy man, who means and judges well." Charles Miner, in his "History of Wyoming" (page 81), has this to say of Colonel Dyer : "This gentleman was one of the most eminent lawyers of Connecticut. Of good form, of pleasing address, an ardent advocate of the Connecticut claim [to Wyoming]. A countryman hearing him plead before the Court went away and said : 'No man need ever speak again'-meaning he could not be surpassed. On one occasion, when, in the Connecticut Assembly, he was endeavoring to awaken the House to strenuous efforts in behalf of their Wyoming settlement, a wit penned this impromptu : 'Canaan of old, as we are told, Where it did rain down manna, Wa'nt half so good, for heavenly food, As Dyer makes Susquehanna.'
His voice was a fine tenor, which he modulated with art, and he was an agreeable and effective debater." Colonel Dyer was married May 9, 1745, to Huldah (born 1730), daughter of Col. Jabez and Huldah Bowen of Providence, Rhode Island, and they became the parents of five children, as follows : (1) Thomas, born November 22, 1747. (2) Amelia, born November 25, 1750; married (1st) to Col. Joseph Trumbull-a sketch of whose life will be found hereinafter-(2d), in 1785, to Col. Hezekiah Wyllys, fourth child of Col. George Wyllys, mentioned on page 282, ante. (3) Benjamin, bor11 October 1, 1753. He became a physi- cian, was married in 1783 to Mary Marsh, and had ten children. (4) Oliver, born December 22, 1755 ; died June 6, 1778. (5) Jabez, born December 24, 1757 ; died July 30, 1779.
Col. Eliphalet Dyer died at Windham May 13, 1807, and his wife died there February 12, 1800.
East side of South Main Street, viewed from near the corner of Public Square, in 1858.
(1) Thomas Dyer (born November 22, 1747) became a member of The Susque- hanna Company in 1768, and in 1769 and '70 was at Wilkes-Barré with the other members of the Company who were endeavoring to gain a foot-hold here. In 1775 he was appointed and commis- sioned by Governor Trumbull a Captain in one of the Connecticut regiments in the Continental service. In the Sum- mer of 1776 he was promoted Major, and in December of that year was on duty near the headquarters of the army op- posite Trenton, New Jersey. He was married May 6, 1771, to Elizabeth Rip- ley, and their second child was Thomas Dyer, Jr., who was born at Windham January 21, 1773. In the Summer of 1798 he came to Wilkes-Barré to look after the affairs of the deceased Col. John Durkee (see post for a sketch of his life), and on October 6th of that year he was appointed by the Orphans' Court of Luzerne County administrator of Durkee's estate. Returning to Wind- ham County within a short time he remained there until 1800, when he came back to Wilkes-Barré and located here permanently. He was then in the twenty-eighth year of his life, and for the remaining sixty-one years of it he lived here-for the most of the time on the east side of South Main Street, some four or five doors south of Public Square. His house stood back from the street, with a garden in front and in the rear. In the accompanying picture the front fence of the Dyer property is seen just beyond the elevated one-story struc- ture. Mr. Dyer was greatly interested in horticulture, and his garden was always an attractive one. He is credit-
ed with having been the first person in Wyoming Valley to cultivate the love-apple, now so universally known as the tomato. Until the early part of the last century-say about 1820-this now so-much-used vegetable was but little cultivated either in England or America, and then only for the sake of its pretty colors or as being good food for pigs !
Upon locating in Wilkes-Barré Mr. Dyer became a school-teacher, at the same time taking up the study of law. He was admitted to the Bar of Luzerne County in 1802, and shortly thereafter gave up his school. In 1806 he was appointed a Justice of the Peace, and by successive re-appointments held the office for more than forty-five years-during all of which time and thereafter he was commonly known and spoken of as "Squire" Dyer. He was noted for his almost-indecipherable hand-writing, and many amusing tales have been told by lawyers and officers of the County Court of earlier days concerning Squire Dyer's inability, upon occasions, to read what he himself had some time previously written. The original of the accompanying facsimile was written by him in 1810, and the words are : "Rec'd pay in orders & cash. Thos. Dyer."
Squire Dyer was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Wilkes-Barré Academy from 1807 to 1838, and for seven years was President of the Board. In 1810 he was its Treasurer. In February, 1811, he was appointed by the Com- missioners of Luzerne County Treasurer of the County. In the Autumn of 1842 a Mr. Dubois, a portrait painter temporarily located in Wilkes-Barré (and whose studio was on South River Street, next door to the Phoenix Hotel), painted, on the order and at the expense of the mieni- bers of the Luzerne County Bar, a portrait of Squire Dyer-then "the oldest living member of that Bar." Upon the completion of the portrait Samuel P. Collings, Esq., of Wilkes-Barre, wrote as follows concerning it : "Any one acquainted with the original (and that em- braces every person who has ever lived in Wilkes-Barré) will recognize at once the striking truthfulness of the likeness. The design is most excellent. The old table-the well-worn and oft-thumbed books-
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In 1758 Jared Ingersoll, a prominent lawyer of New Haven, Con- necticut (of whom fuller mention is made hereinafter), went to England. Before going a copy of the Act of the Connecticut Assembly relative to The Susquehanna Company was given to him by Judge Daniel Edwards (mentioned on page 282), who asked him to inform himself, in the best manner he could, "of the sentiments of people in power, and others in England, upon the matter." "This," wrote Mr. Ingersoll,* "I took care to do, and upon my return home in 1761 I communicated to the Company, by letter, fully and frankly what I had met with ; and as everything I had to communicate wore a very discouraging aspect, I took the liberty to advise them to give up early a project which I thought in the end must prove abortive. This step brought upon me a suspicion, among many of the adventurers, that I had been bribed in England by Mr. Penn." The discouraging letter of Mr. Ingersoll, thus referred to, reached The Susquehanna Company about the time of its selection of Colonel Dyer as agent.
the bundle of papers-and even the horn-headed cane, are all to the life, and as much a part of the portrait (to those who are familiar with the peculiar habits of Squire Dyer) as the face. The exhibition of shrubbery from the open window is also extremely àpropos, as illustrative of the well-known fondness of the subject for the cultivation of fruits and plants." This portrait has hung for many years, now, in the Court House at Wilkes-Barré, and is still in a good state of preservation.
About 1823 Thomas Dyer was married to Elizabeth (Sayers)-born in Edinburgh, Scotland, April 6, 1779-widow of Silas Jackson of Wilkes-Barre. She died April 9, 1849. The Squire died at Wilkes-Barre September 21, 1861, aged eighty-eight years and eight months. His remains lie in Hollenback Cemetery, and upon his grave-stone the date of his birth is given as "January 21, 1771." This is an error, as the public records at Windham, Connecticut, give "1773" as the year. Besides, on January 21, 1856, Squire Dyer celebrated at his home in Wilkes-Barré the eighty-third anniversary of his birth. (See The Record of the Times, Wilkes-Barré, January 23, 1856.)
The following memorial, written by Edmund L. Dana, Esq., at the time of Squire Dyer's decease, was adopted by the Bar Association : "When professional men of distinction are removed by death, it is eminently proper that surviving professional friends should record the event and give to their memories the tribute of a respectful notice. On Saturday, the 21st inst., THOMAS DYER, Esq., having attained the advanced age of ninety [sic] years, ceased from the labors of a long and honored career as a lawyer, ex- tending through a period of more than half a century. He was probably the oldest, and in the maturity of his powers was one of the ablest, lawyers in northern Pennsylvania. Ever a diligent and persevering student, endowed with a singularly tenacious memory, his knowledge of law was comprehensive in extent, and in degree accurate and profound. Uniting a vigorous mind with a strong and healthy physi- cal organization, he encountered fearlessly and successfully the most intricate branches of his favorite science.
"Although he had for some years prior to his decease withdrawn from active professional effort, he continued to enact and exemplify the maxim of his favorite author-'nulla dies sine linea' ; nor were his habits of reading and annotation suspended until loss of sight disabled him from the pursuit of his favorite study. The margins of the books in his well-worn library are crowded with his notes and refer- ences, and wherever important subjects are discussed the text for pages is covered with a synopsis of all the authorities, ancient and modern, concurrent as well as dissenting, until the identity of the original treatise is lost, the usual relation reversed, and the reader has become the author. A rigid and systematic economist of time, he found leisure for an enlarged course of general reading, giving. in his selections, especial prominence to metaphysical science and theology. Of the Bible he was a diligent and earnest student, and in addition to its religious uses-in which his friends believe he attained a saving interest-he was fond of tracing to its precepts, as to the fountain-head, all the broad and leading principles of the law.
"For many years he held, by successive appointments under different Governors of this State, and, upon the adoption of the amended Constitution, by election, the office of a magistrate in this borough, and brought to the discharge of its duties a degree of ability, integrity and industry which would have adorned our highest judicial station. Holding in such esteem and reverence the law and its mission, he could not and did not suffer its process, under his hands and administration, to be debased into mere litigation, or to be made the instrument of covert malice, or to be used successfully for any other purpose than the assertion of right and the restraint and punishment of the wrong. Without dissent, without exception, the public have accorded to him the character of an able, impartial and conscientious officer."
The following was written by the Hon. John N. Conyngham (for many years President Judge of the Courts of Luzerne County) upon the occasion of the death of Squire Dyer : "There are but few now here who can speak of his earlier days from personal knowledge. The writer of this notice looks back upon an acquaintance of upwards of forty years. Even then the early frosts had begun to sprinkle the head which later years had shown so thoroughly whitened. He can personally tell of his intellectual ability, his unwearied industry, the kindness of his heart and the warmth of his affections. It was only to those who were intimately acquainted with him that the true nature of his character was well known. * * * Familiarly known among the lawyers as the 'Chief Justice' he was often, from his great experience, con- sulted by his brother Justices, and even by Judges on the Bench, for his practise under and construction of certain Acts. His duties as a Justice prevented his giving much attention to the practise of the law ; yet he was a sound and thoroughly read lawyer. * * His wonderful memory made him in truth a living index and table of the law, open to the inquiry of every one who in a proper spirit sought for legal information.
"Mr. Dyer was a home man. He rarely for many years went abroad. Occasionally he had been accustomed to attend the sittings of the Supreme Court, and became well acquainted with the old Judges on the Bench, and they, we know, honored the honesty of his character and the depth of his legal learn- ing. * * A disease of the eyes, brought on by his continued reading many years since, finally ended in his total blindness. He was so deaf, too, that nothing but the accustomed voice of warm affection could be heard-yet he complained not. His burden was lightened and his affliction lessened by the constant care and devoted affection of an adopted daughter, who, with singular devotedness, in connexion with her husband, ministered unto the aged and soothed the weary and declining days of an old man's pilgrimage."
* See his letter in The Connecticut Courant, March 15, 1774.
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July 29, 1761, Governor Hamilton informed the Provincial Council that some time previously he had received belts from a very large num- ber of Indians of the Six Nations and their dependents who, at the time they despatched their messenger to him with the belts, had progressed as far as "Wyomink" on their way to Easton to hold a treaty, "in con- sequence of an invitation from this Government." The Indians desired that the Governor should meet them at Easton, but that, first, he should send them "wagons, provisions and paint." The Governor further in- formed the Council that he had just been notified that these Indians had arrived at Easton. Within the next day or two the Governor, certain members of the Council and a number of citizens proceeded from Phil- adelphia to Easton, where, on Monday, August 3d, a conference was begun-and was continued, with various adjournments, till August 12th -with deputies from the Onondaga, Cayuga, Oneida, Mohegan, Tutelo, Delaware and Nanticoke-Conoy tribes-men, women and children to the number of about 400, increased later to near 500 .* Teedyuscung was there with an imposing retinue of 100 Wyoming Delawares. The principal speaker of the conference was "Seneca George," who repre- sented himself as speaking "in behalf of seven nations, and all their cousins, captains and warriors.". Tokahaion, a Cayuga chief, was also one of the speakers. Referring to the land on the Susquehanna River the latter said :
"We have heard that this land has been sold, but we do not know for certain by whom. The Six Nations have not sold it, and never intended it as yet. Whoever has sold the land stole it from us, and only did it to fill their pockets with money. We have heard that two Tuscaroras, one Oneida and one Mohawk-four straggling Indians- have sold it, unknown to the Six Nations. Thomas King, an Oneidan, was one of those who sold the land."+
When it came the turn of Teedyuscung to speak he said :
"My uncles, the Seven Nations, that sit here now, desire me to leave Wyomink, for fear. I answer I will not leave it so suddenly ; but if I should see any danger I will endeavor to jump out of the way of that danger. My uncles have now put some tobacco in my pouch. They tell me I must steadily look towards the mountains, and if I see English brethren coming over the mountains I must light my pipe and come to them (the Mingoes), and they will receive me. It is about three years ago that I desired my uncles would give me a deed for the lands at Wyomink, but as they have not done so I believe I shall get up and leave. Uncles, you may remember some years ago at our council-fire you took me by the hairs of my head and shook me and told me to go and live at Wyomink, for you gave me the land there, where I might raise my bread and get my living .¿ Now again you desire me to move off from thence, and would place me somewhere else. The reason why I complied with your first request was because I thought you would give me the lands at Wyomink in the room of some of our lands you had sold the :English."
To Teedyuscung's speech the Governor responded :
"I shall be very sorry if you remove from Wyomink. This Province has cheer- fully and at considerable expense assisted you to build houses and make your settlements there commodious to you as long as you live. There you will always find us disposed to assist you."
From Easton Teedyuscung and five other Delawares, King "Last Night" and six others of the Nanticoke-Conoys, "Seneca George," and a dozen or more Indians went to Philadelphia, where, on the 26th of August, they had a conference with the Governor. Among other things they asked that Joe Peepy and Isaac Still should be stationed at Wyo- ming, in order that they could, at any time, accompany messengers sent by the Government to the Six Nations. Various other requests were
* See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," VIII : 629. t See pages 392 and 400.
¿ Teedyuscung here spoke of himself in a representative capacity-he, the King, standing for his tribe. It was not he who was taken by the hair of the head and shaken at the Indian conference of 1742. but Nutimus, the then principal chief of the eastern Wanamies. See page 199, ante.
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inade. "Last Night" asked that a deed might "be drawn for the lands [at Wyoming] to Joe Peepy and Isaac Still, not for themselves, but for the Delawares, that they may take it and get it signed by the Six Nations ; for we are afraid those lands may be taken from us by the New England people lately come to Cushetunk."
In a report made to the Provincial Assembly relative to the Easton conference just referred to, Governor Hamilton stated* :
"Being conscious that no such invitation [to attend a treaty] had been given them by me, I was uncertain what to do. But, on considering the ticklish situation of our affairs with those people, together with an information I had just before received that a dissatisfaction was prevailing among them on account of some supposed neglect from the English, * I decided to meet them."
In a lettert dated Philadelphia, August 15, 1761, Secretary Richard Peters gave General Monckton a brief account of the "grand meeting" at Easton at which Governor Hamilton and the authorities of Pennsyl- vania had been "amusing themselves" with an assemblage of Indians. Peters then continued as follows :
"The Connecticut settlement was spoken of, and the Pennsylvania dignitaries gave to the Indians their views in reference to that settlement. This was related to them in its naked truth ; and they were, moreover, told that those vagrants settled those lands under color of Indian purchases, and they were asked if they had sold the lands to the New England people. They denied it, and mentioned that some private Indians had taken upon them to sell it. A string was given them to carry to the Onondaga Council, and to request that, in full Council, they would reprove their young men and declare those sales void. In short, presents were made as usual, and a large number of Quakers attended and were as busy as ever."
Under date of September 16, 1761, Governor Hamilton issued a second proclamationt against the New England settlers at Cushetunk, enjoining upon them to "immediately depart and move away from said lands"; and setting forth that Teedyuscung had "made a very earnest and formal complaint and remonstrance" against the intruders. Also, that "the chiefs of the Six Nations who where present at the treaty held at Easton did, in the most earnest manner, renew the said complaint and remonstrance, and insist that this Government should afford them its aid in obliging the said intruders to remove."
October 1, 1761, Teedyuscung, "Nimeham, or Nunetiam, Chief of the Opies,"§ Gootameek (the Mohegan sachem mentioned on page 373) and Isaac Still (acting as interpreter) had a conference with Governor Hamilton at his residence, "Bush Hill," in Philadelphia. Nunetiam claimed to be Chief of the Wapings, and produced a certificate issued by Governor Clinton of New York relative to the good behavior of those Indians towards the English in 1745; also another document (on parch- ment) of the same character issued in 1756 by Sir Charles Hardy, then Governor of New York. Teedyuscung, addressing Governor Hamil- ton, said || :
"These Chiefs of the Mohickons and Opies are come to settle at Wyoming, and I have taken them by the hand. * * They are willing to live at Wyoming, and I have told them not to mind any disturbances which have happened of late, for it often happens that when children play together they fall out and quarrel !"
Ten days later the Governor received the abovementioned company of Indians at "Bush Hill" again, when he gave them an answer to their speeches delivered at the previous interview. He saidT :
* See "Pennsylvania Archives," Fourth Series, III : 107.
+ See "Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society," Fourth Series, IX : 300-440.
Į See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," VIII : 663.
§ The Wapings, or Wappingers, mentioned on page 384.
| See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," VIII : 668.
( See "Pennsylvania Archives," Fourth Series, III : 112.
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"You tell me that the Chiefs of the Opies and Mohickons, with many of their nations, hearing of the kindness of this Government to all the Indians, are desirous to come and settle at Wyoming, where you have taken them by the hand and bid them welcome. I have heard a good character of the Opies and Mohickons, and am, therefore, well pleased at their coming to settle with you at Wyoming, and I bid them welcome. * * * Brother Nunetiam, you tell me that you are come to join yourself to Teedyus-
cung, and place yourself with him at Wyoming, and will agree to all that he and I shall agree upon. I am glad to hear that you will settle at Wyoming. I therefore take you by the hand and bid you heartily a welcome, and you may be assured of being always used with kindness by this Government while you behave well. Having seen your cer- tificate from the Governor of New York, I acknowledge you to be Chief of the Opies."
Early in March, 1762, David Zeisberger (see page 220) was em- ployed to carry certain letters from Sir William Johnson and Governor Hamilton to Teedyuscung at Wyoming, informing the latter that Sir William proposed to hold a conference at Easton, Pennsylvania, in the coming Summer with Teedyuscung and other chiefs living on the Sus- quehanna. Zeisberger set out from Christiansbrunn on horseback March 16th, and by nightfall had reached the north side of the Blue Moun- tains, where he found a large encampment of Delawares and Nanticokes. "His heart was strangely stirred as he sat again by a camp-fire in the wilderness, with members of that race around him to convert whom was the exalted mission of his life." The next morning he proceeded on his journey, but was obliged to employ one of the Delawares at this encampment "to show him the way to Wyomink, as the whole country was covered with snow, and the weather was the severest he ever knew."* After three days of hard and perilous riding in forests obstructed by great drifts and through snow banks from which it was almost impossible to extricate the horses, Zeisberger and his guide arrived at Teedyuscung's house in Wyoming. Having delivered the letters which he bore to the King, he turned his attention to the former Moravian converts whom he found at Wyoming. The most of them had not heard the gospel preached since the breaking out of the war. More than one backslider was reclaimed-among them George Rex, or Augustus (previously mentioned), Teedyuscung's brother-in-law, who, on the occasion of a subsequent visit to Nain, near Bethlehem, was re- admitted to the Church. While at Wyoming Zeisberger met, also, ten Onondaga warriors on their way south to resume hostilities against the Cherokees-the prosecution of which had been interrupted by the French and Indian War. Teedyuscung complained to Zeisberger of the con- siderable expense he was under at Wyoming in "entertaining passing Indians." He said they "ate him out of house and home, and that he thought of leaving and settling at Wapwallopen." Zeisberger returned to Bethlehem March 24th, and went thence to Philadelphia with Tee- dyuscung's answer-receiving £10 for his services. He passed through Wyoming again, and made short visits here, twice in May, once in June and once in July, 1762, on his way to and from Papoonhank's town at Wyalusing-mentioned on page 389.
In May, 1762, Teedyuscung went to Philadelphia, where he was told that if he would withdraw his charges against the Proprietaries relative to fraud in connection with the "Walking Purchase," there "was £400 in it for him. Teedyuscung then came into conference, say- ing what he had been saying for five years-that he did not want Sir
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