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 76
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Academy
st.
41º 14 27
1400
LUZERNE POWDER CO
BEAR
Latitude
ELĐẠI
ignallo
Frankly
ANTICOR
RICHARD'S ISLAND
H
ANOVER
-
WILKES-BARRÉ CITY AND TOWNSHIP IN 1873. 000000000000 represents a portion of the boundary-line of the old Manor of Stoke (1768). See page 516, post.
KINGSTON
bocce
1580
PLYMOUTH
Latitude 41º 14 40.4 NOWE
St.
Shot
457
THE "OLD OPENING" OF THE BALTIMORE COAL COMPANY. From a photograph taken in 1867.
the "Old Opening" of the Baltimore Coal Company was located. From this point the line ran seven miles and sixty rods in a south- westerly direction- along the foot-hills lying at the base of Wilkes-Barré Moun- tain, passing (about one- half mile to the south- west) the present site of the "Empire" Colliery, and then on through the present Borough of Ashley to a point in what is now Hanover Township, about three- quarters of a mile west of Warrior Gap (shown inthe illustrationfacing page 232). Thence the line ran, north-west,
two and a-half miles to a point on the river bank nearly opposite the lower extremity of the "Shawnee" Flats (described on page 50), and thence along the south-eastern margin of the river to the place of begin- ning. Parts of the present townships of Wilkes-Barré and Hanover and a very small corner of Plains lie within the old bounds of the Manor of Stoke. The approximate location of the boundary-lines of "Stoke," with reference to the pres- ent bounds of the city of Wilkes-Barré, is shown, in part, on the map of "Wilkes- Barré City and Township in 1873," facing page 456.
Very shortly after re- turns of the surveys of "Sunbury" and "Stoke" had been filed in the Pro- vincial Land Office, Gov- ernor Penn executed a lease for a term of seven years to THE "EMPIRE" COLLIERY. From a photograph taken by the author in October, 1901. Capt. Amos Ogden,* John Jenningst and Charles Stewart (all previously mentioned) for one hundred acres of land, lying within the bounds of the Manor of Stoke at Wyoming, upon condition that the lessees should establish a trading-
* AMOS OGDEN was born in 1732 (see "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," IX : 674) in "East Jersey," or, what is now northern New Jersey, and was probably the son of John Ogden. At that time, and for many years later, the Ogden family of New Jersey was an extensive one, and many of its members were promi-
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nent and influential citizens. During either the French and Indian War or Pontiac's War (both previ- ously referred to) Amos Ogden served in the English Colonial forces and attained the rank of Captain. After the last war he became an Indian trader, and when (1765) he set up his trading-house in Wyoming Valley he was only thirty-three years of age. In 1768 or 1769 he was married to Margaret, daughter of Samuel and Margaret (Thomas) Treadwell. At that time Captain Ogden's domicile was in Morris County, New Jersey, and it continued to be there until his death. In February, 1769, he was commis- sioned by Governor Penn, by and with the advice of the Provincial Council, a "Justice of the Peace and Justice of the County Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace in and for the County of Northampton, Pennsylvania," and the duties of this office he exercised-so far as possible-for the next two or three years, during his several sojourns in Wyoming Valley.
In the Summer of 1763 a number of gentlemen-chiefly New Englanders-"dissatisfied at the expla- nation of the King's proclamation granting tracts of land to the officers and soldiers that served His Majesty in the late American War," met at Hartford, Connecticut, and organized "The Company of Military Adventurers." The members each paid two dollars into the treasury of the organization at that time, and the next year three dollars each. At the first meeting Maj. Gen. Phineas Lyman (mentioned on page 281) was desired to "repair forthwith to the Court of Great Britain to solicit a grant of lands from the Crown, in some part of the conquered lands in America." A few weeks later General Lyman went to London (see page 440). Early in August, 1764, the "Military Adventurers" received intelligence from General Lyman that he had "the greatest assurance of success in behalf of said Company." Whereupon, in response to public notice, a meeting of the Company was held at Hartford, Connecticut, on the 22d of August, and it was voted "that any persons" in Connecticut or any of the neighboring Colonies who from the Crown." "incline to become 'Adventurers,' may avail themselves by this opportunity of obtaining grants of land A number of collectors were then appointed, who were "to take in subscriptions at the usual rate of three dollars each subscriber." In The New London Gazette of August 31, 1764, there was printed a formal advertisement of the doings of the "Adventurers" at the meeting just referred to, which was signed by Nathan Whiting, Eleazar Fitch, David Baldwin, John Durkee and Moses Park. The "Adventurers" met again in September, 1764, and at long intervals during subsequent years. Gen- eral Lyman prolonged his stay in London, "where he tarried with close attention and application and very great expense, soliciting as aforesaid, under many and various fruitless promises and Ministerial disappointments, till the Spring of 1772, when the King saw fit to make, 'both to General Lyman and His Majesty's disbanded Provincial officers and soldiers,' a grant of a large tract of land, bounded west on the Mississippi River, north to the River Yazoo, between the 32º and 34° of North Latitude." (See The Con- necticut Courant, October 20, 1772. )
Early in the Autumn of 1772 a general meeting of the "Military Adventurers" was "warned" by Maj. Gen. Lyman, Col. Israel Putnam (of Pomfret), Maj. David Baldwin (of Milford), Capt. Hugh Ledlie (of Hartford), Capt. Robert Durkee, Dr. Alexander Wolcott, Capt. Daniel Bull, Col. Ebenezer Silliman (of Fairfield), Capt. Roger Eno, Ralph Pomeroy, James Church, David Bull, Jonathan Wadsworth and others to take place at Hartford November 18, 1772. At that time and place a large number of the "Adventur- ers" assembled, and General Lyman was chosen moderator and Joseph Church, Jr., clerk of the meeting. Among other matters of business then transacted it was voted that Capt. Roger Eno, Lieut. Samuel Hawkins, Maj. John Durkee, Col. Israel Putnam, Mr. Thaddeus Lyman, Lieut. Rufus Putnam and Lieut. James Smith "be a committee to proceed to the River Mississippi and explore and reconnoitre the land contained in the grant obtained by General Lyman." The members of this committee were to be allowed eight shillings per day for their services, and "a vessel and a navigator," to convey the explorers to their destination, were to be provided at the expense of the Company. It was also voted that four "able and handy young men" be employed to go with the committee of explorers. It was further resolved "that Major Durkee, Captain Eno, Captain Wadkins and Lieutenant Smith, four of the com- mittee, be desired and directed to go to the Mississippi by land, by way of the Ohio; and that two of the young men to be employed as aforesaid, go with and assist them-the carriage and expense of this committee to be paid by the Company."
A schedule of fees to be paid by those desiring to join the Company was then adopted, as follows : "A field officer of the army to pay £10 on his becoming a proprietor in the Company; a Captain, £6 * * and a private soldier three dollars. Those private gentlemen who were not in the army shall pay six dollars." Various "Receivers of money for The Company of Military Adventurers" were then appointed-among then1, Capt. William Thomson of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Joseph Clarkson and Clem- ent Biddle of Philadelphia, and a number in Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut. Capt. Hugh Ledlie was elected Treasurer of the Company, and it was resolved that the transactions of the meeting be printed in six of the newspapers of Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New York and Massachusetts. This was duly done.
The New York City papers of January 18, 1773, printed the following : "Sunday [January 17th], at eleven o'clock, sailed from this harbor the sloop Mississippi, having on board a committee appointed to explore all the lands lately granted by the King to Major General Lyman and The Company of Military Adventurers. * * The gentlemen of the Company who are gone to view, etc., are Col. Israel Putnam, Capt. Roger Eno, Thaddeus Lyman and Lieut. Rufus Putnam. The vessel was armed with four brass cohorns and four swivel-guns and a good supply of small arms and ammunition. In her way to the Mississippi she is to touch at Pensacola." On the return voyage the Mississippi lay to, for a short time (February 17, 1773), off the west end of the Island of Cuba.
Rufus Putnam (who was a cousin of Israel) was the Surveyor of this expedition, and chiefly upon the favorable report made by him several hundred families emigrated from the North and settled in the new territory-within the bounds of which are the present cities of Vicksburg, Jackson and Yazoo City, Mississippi. General Lyman was one of those who went thither, late in 1773 or early in 1774 ; but he died soon afterwards near the present city of Natchez. Capt. Amos Ogden, attracted by the efforts being made to settle the territory lying along the Lower Mississippi, proceeded there from Morris County, New Jersey, with his brother John Ogden, about the time that General Lyman went down ; and May 6, 1774, Captain Ogden was granted a patent for 3,000 acres of public lands lying on the River Homochitto, in the south-western corner of the present State of Mississippi. Leaving his brother there, Captain Ogden returned to his family in Morris County, where he died in the Autumn of 1774. He was survived by his wife, Margaret, and one son, John, who was born in 1770 and died in 1805.
+ JOHN JENNINGS was born about 1730, probably in the southern part of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. His parents were Solomon and Eleanor Jennings, who, in the Spring of 1736-before the Indian title to the Lehigh Valley was extinguished-settled on a 200-acre tract of land lying on the south bank of the Lehigh River (upwards of a mile west by south from the present borough of Bethlehem), then in Bucks, later in Northampton, but now in Lehigh County. In 1737 Solomon Jennings was one of the three men employed by the agents of the Proprietaries to perform the walk preliminary to the "Walking Purchase" referred to on page 194. He was a man of powerful frame and great muscular strength, but he "and two of the Indian walkers gave out before the end of the first day, being unable to keep up with the others." In October, 1755, Solomon Jennings was elected one of the County Commissioners of Northampton County, and in 1755-'56, during the Indian depredations in eastern Pennsylvania, he was Captain of a company of Provincial volunteers in active service. He died at his home February 15, 1757.
In the Autumn of 1756 John Jennings "set up for the Sheriff's office of Northampton County, being then, according to Major Parsons of Easton, a sober, well-behaved young man; much the fittest of the candidates, having had some experience of the office." He was defeated, however ; but, in the Autumn of 1762, and again in 1768, he was elected to the office-"approving himself an efficient officer and a man of good metal." At that period he was residing on his farm on the left bank of the Lehigh, nearly opposite his father's old place. Further mention of him is made in succeeding pages.
COL. CHARLES STEWART.
From a portrait in the possession of one of his descendants.
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Į CHARLES STEWART was born March 9, 1729, at Gortlea (near Londonderry), in the county of Donegal and province of Ulster, Ireland. He was the son of Robert Stewart, whose father, Charles, was a native of Scotland, of the Galloway Stewarts, and was an officer of dragoons in the army of William and Mary. Charles Stewart, last mentioned, distinguished himself and was wounded at the battle of the Boyne in 1690, and after the victorious royal army was disbanded he received the estate of Gortlea as the reward for his services. Puritan ideas and a love of liberty impelled his grandson, Charles, to immigrate to America in 1750, and he landed at Philadelphia shortly after his twenty-first birthday. His mother's brother, Dr. John Ewing, had, but a short time before, settled in this country.
Young Stewart, not long after his arrival in Philadelphia, removed to Hunterdon County, New Jersey. Some years before 1768 he was appointed by Daniel Smith, Surveyor General of New Jersey, Deputy Surveyor for the West Division of the Province ; and later, by appointment of Governor Colden of New York, he assisted in surveying a portion of the New York-Pennsylvania boundary-line. It was he who made the detached surveys in the Wappasening Valley before the Revolution. At a meeting of Gover- nor Penn and the Pennsylvania Council in February, 1769, a special commission was issued appointing Charles Stewart a "Justice of the Peace and Justice of the County Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace in and for the County of Northampton, Pennsylvania." This was shortly after he had identified himself with the Proprietaries' affairs at Wyoming-which locality was considered to be within the bounds of Northampton County. 'That he endeavored to perform the duties of this double-barreled office in Wyo- ming Valley, as occasion offered, is shown in the following pages.
The Provincial Congress of New Jersey, composed of many of the leading citizens of the Province, met at Trenton in August, 1775. The delegates from Hunterdon County were Charles Stewart (who resided at Lansdown, near Hampden) and Daniel Hunt. The members of this Congress took a bold and decided stand against the Crown, and upon Stewart's return home he called a meeting of his fellow-citizens at Abram Bonnel's tavern, when and where a regiment of minute-men was raised-probably the first in the Province. In 1775-'76 he was a member of the New Jersey Council of Safety. Many distinguished Loyalists were among his friends, who made every effort to retain him on the King's side, but in vain.
On the commencement of hostilities the command of the 2d Regiment of the New Jersey Line was tendered to Charles Stewart-that of the 1st being given to Lord Stirling (mentioned on page 288). February 15, 1776, the former was appointed and commissioned Colonel of a battalion of New Jersey minute-men. June 18, 1777, Colonel Stewart was commissioned by the American Congress Commissary General of Issues of the Continental army, with the rank of Colonel, to succeed Col. Joseph Trumbull ; and in this position he served till the end of the war. He was much of the time at General Washing- ton's headquarters-at Monmouth, Yorktown, and other places. After the war Colonel Stewart returned to Lansdown, where he owned a valuable estate, including a handsome mansion-which was still stand- ing a few years ago. General Washington and his wife, during their residence in Philadelphia, frequently visited Colonel Stewart and his family at Lansdown. October 29, 1784, Colonel Stewart was appointed by the Governor of New Jersey a delegate to the General Congress of the United States, and served in that body in 1784-'85. Upon the organization of the General Government he was offered by President Washington the office of Surveyor General of the United States; but he declined the appointment, chiefly because of his desire and intention to occupy his time in prosecuting what he believed to be the legal and equitable claims of himself and his friends to large tracts of valuable lands in the Wyo- ming region.
A few years before his death Colonel Stewart removed to Flemington, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, where he owned a large farm which extended to Coxe's Hill. There he died June 24, 1800, in the seventy-second year of his age, and was buried in the church-yard of Bethlehem Presbyterian Church. His life-long friend, Chief Justice Smith of Trenton, wrote his epitaph in these words : "He was an early and decided friend to the American Revolution, and bore the important office of Commissary General of Issues to universal acceptance. His friendships were fervid and lasting, and commanded both his purse and his services. His hospitality was extensive and bountiful ; the friend and the stranger were almost compelled to come in."
"Colonel Stewart was of medium height, spare in flesh, with keen, blue eyes, expressing intelligence, kindness, bravery and firmness." In 1755 he was married to Mary Oakley Johnston, one of the seven children of the Hon. Samuel Johnston of Sidney, Hunterdon County. She is said to have been "the best read woman in the Province of New Jersey." Samuel Johnston, who was a native of Scotland, settled about 1740 at what is now Clinton, Hunterdon County. He owned there a tract of 1,200 acres of land, and for thirty years prior to the Revolution he held the office of county magistrate. His house was the most stately mansion in the northern part of West Jersey, and on Monday morning of each week court was held in its broad hall. Judge Johnston's eldest son, Col. Philip Johnston, was associated with his brother-in-law, Colonel Stewart, in many patriotic measures during the Revolutionary period, and was a conspicuous man.
Colonel Stewart's eldest daughter, Martha, became the wife of Robert Willson, a young Irishman of education who came to this country and, soon after the battle of Lexington, volunteered in the Conti- nental army. He attained the rank of Captain, and was wounded and taken prisoner at the battle of Germantown, Pennsylvania. He died at his home in Hackettstown, New Jersey, in 1779, at the age of twenty-eight years. Mrs. Martha (Stewart) Willson was distinguished for beauty and for a brilliant and cultured mind. Mrs. Ellet, in her "Women of the American Revolution," devoted a chapter to Mrs. Willson. At the session of the Pennsylvania Legislature held in January, 1808, the Hon. John Sergeant, a Member of the Lower House from Philadelphia, presented a petition from Mrs. Martha (Stewart) Willson, administratrix of the estate of Col. Charles Stewart, deceased, "stating that said deceased, at the time of his death, was seized of four several tracts of land in the townships of Hanover and Newport, in the County of Luzerne, containing in the whole 1,282 acres; that the Commissioners under the Act of April, 1799, valued the said land ; that the said deceased released his title thereto, for which neither the petitioner nor the said deceased ever received any compensation-wherefore the petitioner prayed for relief." The petition was referred to a committee consisting of Representatives John Sergeant of Phila- delphia, Nathan Beach of Luzerne County and - - Boileau of Northampton County. Up to the time of his death Colonel Stewart had been persistent in pushing his Wyoming land-claims.
Mrs. Martha (Stewart) Willson died some fifty years ago at the home of her daughter, Mrs. John M. Bowers, Sr., near Cooperstown, New York. John M. Bowers, a leading and well-known member of the Bar in the city of New York at this time, is a grandson of Mrs. Willson and a great-grandson of Colonel Stewart.
Colonel Stewart left but one son to survive him-Samuel Robert Stewart, a resident of Flemington, New Jersey-and he died in 1802, leaving two sons. One of these sons, Charles, was graduated at Prince- ton College in 1815, in the same class with Charles Hodge-later eminent as a theologian, teacher and writer. Charles Stewart first studied law and afterwards theology, and then went as a missionary to the Sandwich Islands ; but from there he returned in 1825, on account of his wife's ill health. In 1828 he was appointed a Chaplain in the United States Navy, in which position he continued until 1862, visiting all parts of the world. He wrote and published several books relating to his foreign travels. He died at Cooperstown, New York, in 1870, at the age of seventy-five years. A son of his-Charles Seaforth Stewart-born at sea in 1825, was graduated at the West Point Military Academy in 1846, in the same class with George B. Mcclellan and "Stonewall" Jackson, and received a commission as Second Lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers. At the breaking out of the Civil War he held the rank of Captain, and during the war he served his country faithfully. March 3, 1863, he was promoted Major, and two years later was breveted Colonel. Having been promoted Colonel in the permanent establishment June 30, 1882, he was placed on the retired list September 16, 1886, at his own request, after forty years service. He is now residing at Cooperstown, New York.
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house on the land for the purpose of carrying on trade with the Indians. In addition they were to defend themselves and those who might go on the land under them-as well as their possessions-"against all enemies whatsoever." As we have previously shown (see page 444) Ogden had already been established for a number of years in Wyoming as a trader.
About the first of January, 1769, Governor Penn addressed to Messrs. Stewart, Ogden and Jennings, aforementioned, the following communication (see "Pennsylvania Archives," First Series, XII : 51):
"There being occasion, as soon as may be, to settle the Proprietary manors at Wyo- ming, on both sides the East Branch of the Susquehanna-which you have signified your inclination to undertake-you may give such settlers, as you may think proper to invite there, the strongest assurances that each shall have a lease for seven years of 100 acres of bottom-land, with wood-land sufficient to support their plantation, upon paying the acknowledgment of an ear of Indian corn per annum-if the same be demanded. And at the end of the term, if the Proprietaries incline to sell the lands, the settlers shall have the refusal-in case they incline to give as much as other people ; and if the Proprietaries do not incline to sell, but to rent, the said settlers shall have the preference of others-in case they will give as good a rent as others offer.
"And the said settlers, on their parts, must undertake to defend their possessions against all persons as shall unlawfully and without authority intrude upon the said manors or any other of the Proprietary lands in their neighborhood ; and shall do their utmost, and give their best assistance to magistrates and others, in a lawful manner to exclude and remove such unlawful intruders or settlers from off the lands of the Proprie- taries, or others, on which they shall so unlawfully intrude or settle. That they shall build upon, and improve in the best manner they are capable, their said plantations ; and at the end of the term shall deliver up their plantations to the said Proprietaries, their officers or agents, in good repair."
Captain Ogden, who was already on the ground in Wyoming, at his trading-house, was soon joined here by Charles Stewart and John Jen- nings, accompanied by a number of men from the south-eastern part of Northampton County and the Province of New Jersey whose intention it was to become lessees, or tenants, of some of the Proprietary lands at Wyoming. Stewart, Ogden . and Jennings selected their 100 acres (which they were to occupy and improve under a Proprietary lease, as previously noted) at the mouth of Mill Creek-lying within the Manor of Stoke, at its north corner, and being a part of the land occupied and im- proved by the settlers under The Susquehanna Company in 1762 and 1763. There-on, or very near, the site of the block-house which had · been erected by the New Englanders and destroyed by either the Indi- ans or the troops under Major Clayton, as we have previously shown- these men proceeded to erect a small block-house, which was soon ready for occupancy, and to which, from the old store-house near the bend of the river (see page 445), Captain Ogden removed his goods and other belongings.
Preparations were then made, as expeditiously as possible, to survey and lease, to the various persons deemed desirable and "proper," hundred- acre lots on the flats, or plains (see pages 49 and 50), in what are now the townships of Wilkes-Barré, Hanover, Kingston and Plymouth ; to- gether with "wood-lots" in other localities within the bounds of "Stoke" and "Sunbury"-according to the regulations and terms laid down by Governor Penn in his letter to Stewart, Ogden and Jennings. And, in order that the business of land-lotting at Wyoming might be facilitated, Charles Stewart was soon appointed by Surveyor General Lukens a Deputy Surveyor of the Province. There were many applicants for the rich and fertile Wyoming lands, and by the end of January, 1769, a con- siderable number of leases had been duly executed, and the lessees had "manned their rights." Col. Timothy Pickering stated in 1798 (see
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Miner's "Wyoming," page 106) that he had "seen among the Proprie- taries' papers a list of forty or fifty [men] who purchased on the express condition of defending, in arms, the possession of these [Wyoming] lands from the Connecticut claimants."
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