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 8

Author: Harvey, Oscar Jewell, 1851-1922; Smith, Ernest Gray
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Wilkes-Barre : Raeder Press
Number of Pages: 720

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 8

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"From the fair glory of her girdling hills, To Flora's inmost fane, on fair Wyoming Lingers a grace of outline fine, which fills Brimful the sense of beauty !"

* See page 42, quotation from Heckewelder.

Charles Miner, who had come to Wyoming in the year 1800, and who lived here for the greater part of his life thereafter, wrote of the valley in 1845 (see his "History of Wyoming," pages xiii and xiv) :

"The valley, itself, is diversified by hill and dale, upland and intervale. Its character of extreme richness is derived from the extensive flats, or river bottoms, which in some places extend from one to two miles back from the stream, unrivalled in expansive beauty ; unsurpassed in luxuriant fertility. Though now generally cleared and culti- vated, to protect the soil from floods a fringe of trees is left along each bank of the river -the sycamore, the elm and, more especially, the black-walnut ; while here and there, scattered through the fields, a huge shellbark yields its Summer shade to the weary laborer, and its Autumn fruit to the black and gray squirrel or the rival plough-boy.

"Pure streams of water come leaping from the mountains, imparting health and pleasure in their course, and all of them abounding with the delicious trout. Along those brooks and in the swales, scattered through the uplands, grow the wild-plum and the butternut, while, wherever the hand of the white man has spared it, the native grape may be gathered in unlimited profusion. I have seen a grape-vine bending beneath its purple clusters, one branch climbing a butternut tree, loaded with fruit, another branch resting on a wild-plum tree, red with its delicious burden ; the while growing in their shade the hazlenut was ripening its rounded kernel.

"Such were common scenes when the white people first came to Wyoming, which seems to have been formed by Nature a perfect Indian paradise. Game of every sort was abundant. The quail whistled in the meadow ; the pheasant rustled in its leafy covert ; the wild-duck reared her brood and bent the reed in every inlet ; the red-deer fed upon the hills, while in the deep forests, within a few hours' walk, was found the stately elk. (Several persons now living delight to relate their hunting prowess in bringing down this noblest of our forest inhabitants. ) The river yielded at all seasons a supply of fish- the yellow-perch, the pike, the cat-fish, the bass, the roach and, in the Spring season, myriads of shad."

The Rev. Edmund D. Griffin, a grandson of Col. Zebulon Butler, and at the time of his death in 1830 a member of the faculty of Columbia College, New York, wrote as follows in 1817 (when he was only a youth) after a visit to Wyoming :

"When we had ascended the second mountain we went a short distance from the road upon a ledge of rocks *- and what was it first struck my sight? Was it a darkly frowning wilderness beneath me? Did a rushing, foaming cataract pour its streams along ? No ! a scene more lovely than imagination ever painted presented itself to my sight-so beautiful, so exquisitely beautiful, that even the magic verse of Campbell did not do it justice. The valley extends far and wide, beautified with cultivated fields, and interspersed with beautiful groves. The Susquehanna meanders through it, now disap- pearing and losing itself among the trees, now again appearing to sight, till it is at last entirely hidden among the mountains. * *

"Farewell, Wyoming ! perhaps farewell forever, thou that art beautiful enough to be called the elysium of the ancients, or the promised paradise of Mahomet. Thy groves might be the recesses of departed sages ; thy forests, those of the forgotten Druids of antiquity ; thy cultivated fields, the product of the amusement of those who during life loved rural scenes and employment ; thy open areas, the places where the shades of youth exercised themselves in warlike sports; thy Susquehanna, the bathing-place of nymphs and naiads, and thy houses, the dwellings of those who had formerly been dis- creet housewives."

Prof. Benjamin Silliman of Yale College, who spent a number of days in Wyoming in the Spring of 1830, wrote as follows under date of May 24, 1830 :

"It [the valley] is bounded by grand mountain barriers, and watered by a noble river and its tributaries. The first glance of a stranger entering at either end, or crossing the mountain ridges which divide it (like the happy valley of Abyssinia) from the rest of the world, fills him with the peculiar pleasure produced by a fine landscape, combining richness, beauty, variety and grandeur. From Prospect Rock near the rocky summit of the eastern barrier, and from Ross Hill on the west, the valley of Wyoming is seen in one view as a charming whole, and its lofty and well-defined boundaries exclude more distant objects from mingling in the prospect.

"Few landscapes that I have seen can vie with the valley of Wyoming. Excepting some rocky precipices and cliffs, the mountains are wooded from the summit to their base; natural sections furnislı avenues for roads, and the rapid Susquehanna rolls its powerful current through a mountain gap on the north-west and immediately receives the Lackawanna, which flows down the narrower valley of the same name. A similar pass

* Prospect Rock, described on page 49.

A VIEW OF WYOMING VALLEY, LOOKING SOUTH-WEST FROM WILKES-BARRE MOUNTAIN AT SUGAR NOTCH, IN HANOVER TOWNSHIP.

between the mountains, on the south, gives the Susquehanna an exit, and at both places a slight obliquity in the position of the observer presents to the eye a seeming lake in the windings of the river, and a barrier of mountains, apparently impassable.

"From the foot of the steep mountain ridges, particularly on the east side, the valley slopes away with broad, sweeping undulations in the surface, forming numerous swelling hills of arable and grazing land ; and, as we recede from the hills, the fine flats and meadows covered (as I saw them in May, 1830) with the richest grass and wheat, complete the picture by features of the gentlest and most luxuriant beauty.

"An active and intelligent population fills the country. Their buildings and farmns bear witness to their industry and skill. Several villages or clusters of houses give variety to the scene, and Wilkesbarre, a regular and well-built borough having 1,000 or 1,200 inhabitants, with churches, ministers, academy, able teachers and schools, and with many enlightened, moral and cultivated people, furnishes an agreeable resting-place to the traveler. In a word, splendid and beautiful in the scenery of its mountains, rivers, fields and meadows ; rich in the most productive agriculture ; possessed by the still sur- viving veterans and by the descendants of a high-minded race of men ; full of the most interesting historical associations, and of scenes of warfare, where the precious blood of fathers, husbands and sons so often moistened their own fields, the valley of Wyoming will always remain one of the most attractive regions to every intelligent and patriotic American.

"Mining districts are rarely rich in soil-the sterility of the surface being compen- sated by the mineral treasures below. Seldom are both advantages combined ; we see it occasionally in some of the coal districts of Britain. In this respect the valley of Wyo- ming is particularly happy. It is rich in soil and in the best agricultural productions. Its extensive meadows are unrivaled in fertility and beauty, and its undulating surface, between the meadows and the mountains, is a fine region for grass and wheat."

In line with the idea set forth in the last paragraph is the follow- ing, extracted from a "Report on the Coal Trade" made by a committee of the Pennsylvania Senate March 4, 1834 (see Hazard's Pennsylvania Register, XIII : 209) : * *

* "The beautiful and fertile valley of Wyoming, one of the most productive and excellent agricultural districts in Pennsylvania. Alike rich in its agricultural pro- ductions as abundant in its mineral treasures, the same acre of land may furnish employ- ment for both the agriculturalist and the miner. While the farmer is occupied upon the surface, at the handles of the plough, in preparing the rich soil for its seed ; or the field, waving with rich luxuriance, bends before the sickle, the miner, like the antipodes of another region, may be actively engaged in the interior, beneath his feet, in mining and bringing forth the long-hidden treasures of the earth. The different branches of industry, therefore, may here. not only be placed side by side, but literally one on top of the other."

The Rev. Nicholas Murray, D. D., was pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Wilkes-Barré from 1829 to 1833, and about that period he wrote in the following terms relative to Wyoming Valley :

"As the traveler reaches the brow of the eastern mountain a scene of surpassing loveliness spreads itself beneath him, and he feels that if peace has not utterly forsaken our world, its residence must be there. The valley seems as if expressly made for the home of the Indian ; and for moons beyond the power of his arithmetic to calculate, the red man fished in that river and planted his corn in that rich bottom and sought his game upon the mountains. And before he could be compelled to yield it, he made the white man feel the power of his anger in many a dreadful surprise.

"It has been my lot to wander upon foreign shores. I have gazed upon Italian skies and scenes ; I have wandered over the mountains and vales of Switzerland ; I have traversed the Rhine, the Rhone, the Clyde ; I have gazed upon most of the beautiful scenery of Britain, and yet I turn to Wyoming as unsurpassed in quiet beauty by any vale that I have ever seen.

"'A valley from the river shore withdrawn ; * * * * %

So sweet a spot on earth, you might, I ween,

Have guessed some congregation of the elves,

To sport by Summer moon, had shaped it for themselves.' "

William L. Stone-mentioned on page 19-wrote as follows of Wyoming after his visit here in 1839 (see his "Poetry and History of Wyoming," pages iii, 77 and 367) :

"The 'Happy Valley' to which the illustrious author of 'Rasselas' introduces his reader in the opening of that charming fiction, was not much more secluded from the world than is the valley of Wyoming. Situated in the interior of the country, remote

from the great thoroughfares of travel, either for business or in the idle clase of pleasure, and walled on every hand by mountains lofty and wild, and over which long and rugged roads must be traveled to reach it, Wyoming is rarely visited, except from stern necessity. And yet the imagination of Johnson has not pictured so lovely a spot in the vale of Amhara as Wyoming.

"The first glance into the far-fanied valley of Wyoming, traveling westwardly, is from the brow of the Pokono mountain range, below which it lies at the depth of 1,000 feet, distinctly defined by the double barrier of nearly parallel mountains, between which it is embosomed. There is a beetling precipice upon the verge of the eastern barrier, called 'Prospect Rock,' from the top of which nearly the entire valley can be surveyed at a single view, forming one of the richest and most beautiful landscapes upon which the eye of man ever rested. Through the center of the valley flows the Susquehanna, the wind- ing course of which can be traced the whole distance. Several green islands slumber sweetly in its embrace, while the sight revels amidst the garniture of fields and wood- lands ; and to complete the picture, low in the distance may be dimly seen the borough of Wilkesbarré-especially the spires of its churches.

"The hotel at which the traveler rests in Wilkesbarré is upon the margin of the river, the waters of which are remarkably transparent and pure excepting in the seasons of the spring and autumnal floods. * From the observatory of the hotel a full view of the whole valley is obtained-or rather, in a clear atmosphere, the steep, wild moun- tains by which the valley is completely shut in, rise on every hand with a distinctness which accurately defines its dimensions ; while the valley itself, especially on the western, or opposite, side of the river presents a view of several small towns, or scattered villages, planted along, but back from, the river at the distance of a few miles apart- the whole intervening and contiguous territory being divided into farms and gardens, with fruit and ornamental trees. Comfortable farm-houses are thickly studded over the valley, among which are not a few more ambitious dwellings, denoting by their air, and the disposition of the grounds, both wealth and taste. Midway through the valley winds the river, its banks adorned with graceful and luxuriant foliage, and disclosing at every turn some bright spot of beauty. On the eastern side, in the rear of the borough, and for a few miles north, the dead level of the valley is rendered still more picturesque by being broken into swelling elevations and lesser valleys, adorned in spots with groves and clumps of trees, with the ivy and other creeping parasites, as upon the river brink, clinging to their branches and adding beauty to the graceful foliage. * [The * * mountains] are in general yet as wild as when discovered, and are clothed with pines, dwarf oaks and laurels, interspersed with other descriptions of woods, deciduous and evergreen. * * *

"Wyoming is indeed a lovely spot, which, had Milton seen it before the composi- tion of his immortal epic, might well have suggested some portions of his gorgeous descriptions of Paradise. The lofty and verdant mountains, which shut the valley from the rest of the world, correspond well with the great poet's

* *

enclosure green,

* Of a steep wilderness ; whose hairy sides * * x *

With thicket overgrown, grotesque and wild, Access denied ; while overhead up grew Insuperable height of loftiest shade. Cedar and pine and fir and branching palın, A sylvan scene ; and as the ranks ascend, Shade above shade, a woody theatre Of stateliest view.'

"Wyoming is larger, by far, than the Thessalian vale which the poets of old so often sang, though not less beautiful. If its mountain-barriers are not honored by the classic names of Ossa and Olympus, they are much more lofty. Instead of the Peneus, a mightier river rolls its volume through its verdant meadows; and if the gods of the Greek Mythology were wont to honor Tempe with their presence in times of old, they would prove their good taste and their love of the romantic and beautiful in these modern days, by taking an occasional stroll among the cool shades and flowery paths of Wyoming."

Thomas Campbell, the Scottish poet, was the first writer of renown to embalm Wyoming in verse, which he did in his "Gertrude of Wyo- ming," given to the public early in 1809. The first two of the ninety- two stanzas of this poem are as follows :

"On Susquehannah's side, fair Wyoming ! Although the wild-flower on thy ruin'd wall, And roofless homes, a sad remembrance bring Of what thy gentle people did befall,

A VIEW OF WYOMING VALLEY, LOOKING NORTH-WEST FROM WILKES-BARRE MOUNTAIN AT SUGAR NOTCH, IN HANOVER TOWNSHIP. From a photograph taken in August, 1904.

Yet thou wert once the loveliest land of all That see the Atlantic wave their morn restore. Sweet land ! may I thy lost delights recall, And paint thy Gertrude in her bowers of yore, Whose beauty was the love of Pennsylvania's shore !

II.

"Delightful Wyoming ! beneath thy skies The happy shepherd swains had naught to do But feed their flocks on green declivities, Or skim perchance thy lake with light canoe,

From morn till evening's sweeter pastime grew, With timbrel, when beneath the forests brown Thy lovely maidens would the dance renew ; And aye those sunny mountains half-way down Would echo flageolet from some romantic town."

There is no great scope in the story of this poem, but it contains passages of exquisite grace and tenderness, and others of spirit and grandeur. The Wyoming of Campbell is, and always will be, a creation lovely to the heart and imagination of mankind ; but the poet has given to the world a creation that is only imaginary. His Wyoming is not the Wyoming of prosaic reality, nor is the tale to which he has married it in accordance with the facts of history. As Campbell had never been in America, and his knowledge of Wyoming and its history was- according to his own statements-derived from Adolphus' history, Jefferson's "Notes on Virginia," and other books of a similar character, the poem abounds in improbabilities, misdescriptions and anachronisms that are very glaring to the reader familiar with the real Wyoming and its history.

"And yet, O Wyoming ! Campbell Hath linked thy name with fancy's dreams, And thrown a magic charm around Thy purple hills and winding streams, And made thy valley classic ground."

In 1854 it was proposed by admirers of Campbell to erect a memorial statue to the deceased poet in "Poets' Corner," Westminster Abbey, London. The fee required to be paid to the authorities of the Abbey for this privilege amounted to £200, and it was deemed proper to appeal to the people of the United States to contribute this sum. Rela- tive to this matter The Evening Post of New York printed the following in September, 1854 :

"A marble obelisk, inscribed with the poet's name, on some spur of the woodland mountain range which overlooks the vale of Wyoming ( the scene of his poem ), conspic- uous from the banks of the river at a distance either way, would be a far more signal testimony of the esteem in which his writings are held than an effigy in tlie 'Poets' Corner' of the great monumental church of England."

The following brief paragraph by Charles Miner on this subject was printed in the Record of the Times, Wilkes-Barré, September 27, 1854 :

"Until the monument erected by the ladies of Wyoming, in memory of the lieroes who fell in the massacre, is completed and rendered an ornament instead of a dreadful eyesore, it would do us no credit to aid in erecting a monument to Campbell. Wlien one is finished, let us unite to honor the author of 'Gertrude' by placing on Prospect Rock a marble obelisk inscribed with the poet's name."

Alexander Wilson, the celebrated ornithologist, was the next writer of note following Campbell to praise in verse the valley of Wyoming and its noble river. In the Autumn of 1803 he traveled on foot from Philadelphia to Niagara Falls, and later he wrote a poem entitled "The

Foresters," which was descriptive of his journey, and was first published in July, 1809, in The Portfolio (previously mentioned). The author refers therein to his first impressions of our historic vale, in the follow- ing lines :

"And now Wiomi opens on our view, And, far beyond, the Allegheny blue Immensely stretch'd ; upon the plain below The painted roofs with gaudy colors glow, And Susquehanna's glittering stream is seen Winding in stately pomp through valleys green. Hail, charming river ! pure, transparent flood :

Unstain'd by noxious swamps or choking mud, Thundering through broken rocks in whirling foam, Or pleased o'er beds of glittering sand to roam, Green be thy banks, sweet forest-wandering stream. Still may thy waves with finny treasures teem ; The silvery shad and salmon crowd thy shores ; Thy tall woods echoing to the sounding oars. On thy swol'n bosom floating piles appear, Fill'd with the harvests of our rich frontier ; Thy pine-crown'd cliffs, thy deep, romantic vales, Where wolves now wander and the panther wails, In future times (nor distant far the day) Shall glow with crowded towns and villas gay. Unnumber'd keels thy deepen'd course divide, And airy arches pompously bestride ; The domes of Science and Religion rise, And millions swarm where now a forest lies.

* * * ×

* By Susquehanna's shores we journey on, Hemmed in by mountains over mountains thrown, Whose vast declivities rich scenes display Of green pines mix'd with yellow foliage gay. Each gradual winding opening to the sight New towering heaps of more majestic height, Grey with projecting rocks, along whose steeps The sailing eagle* many a circle sweeps."

In 1826 or '27 Fitz Greene Halleck, t a poet of much geniality and tender feeling, visited Wyoming, "led by his admiration of the poetry of Campbell, the author of 'Gertrude.' " In memory of this visit Halleck wrote his very spirited and entertaining poem "Wyoming," which he handed to his friend and fellow-poet William Cullen Bryant, by whom it was first published in 1827 in The United States Review (New York), at that time conducted by Mr. Bryant. Since then this poem has appeared in all editions of the collected writings of Halleck, and is as follows :

"Thou com'st, in beauty, on my gaze at last, 'On Susquehanna's side, fair Wyoming !' Image of many a dream, in hours long past, When life was in its bud and blossoming, And waters, gushing from the fountain-spring Of pure enthusiast thought, dimmed my young eyes, As by the poet borne, on unseen wing, I breathed, in fancy, 'neath thy cloudless skies, The Summer's air, and heard her echoed harmonies.

II.

"I then but dreamed ; thou art before me now In life, a vision of the brain no more. I've stood upon the wooded mountain's brow, That beetles high thy lovely valley o'er ;

* "The white-headed, or bald, eagle .- A. Wilson."

+ Born in Guilford, Connecticut, July 8, 1790 ; died there November 19, 1867.

A VIEW OF WYOMING VALLEY.

From the Lehigh Valley Railroad, near the Summit of Wilkes-Barré Mountain, 1899. This plate used by courtesy of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company.

And now, where winds thy river's greenest shore, Within a bower of sycamores am laid ; And winds, as soft and sweet as ever bore The fragrance of wild flowers through sun and shade,

Are singing in the trees, whose low boughs press my head.

III.

"Nature hath made thee lovlier than the power Even of Campbell's pen hath pictured ; he Had woven, had he gazed one sunny hour Upon thy smiling vale, its scenery

With more of truth, and made each rock and tree Known like old friends, and greeted from afar. And there are tales of sad reality, In the dark legends of thy border war,

With woes of deeper tint than his own Gertrude's are.

IV.

"But where are they, the beings of the mind, The bard's creations, moulded not of clay, Hearts to strange bliss and suffering assigned - Young Gertrude, Albert, Waldegrave-where are they ? We need not ask. The people of to-day Appear good, honest, quiet men enough, And hospitable too-for ready pay ; With manners like their roads, a little rough,

And hands whose grasp is warm and welcoming, though tough.

"Judge HALLENBACH,* who keeps the toll-bridge gate And the town records, is the Albert now Of Wyoming ; like him, in Church and State, Her Doric column. And upon his brow The thin hairs, white with seventy winters' snow, Look patriarchal. Waldegrave 'twere in vain To point out here, unless in yon scare-crow That stands full-uniform'd upon the plain,

To frighten crows and black-birds from the grain.

VI.

"For he would look particularly droll In his 'Iberian boot' and 'Spanish plume,' And be the wonder of each Christian soul As of the birds that scare-crow and its broom. But Gertrude, in her loveliness and bloom, Hath many a model here ; for woman's eye, In court or cottage, wheresoe'er her home, Hath a heart-spell too holy and too high

To be o'erpraised even by her worshipper-Poesy.

VII.

"There's one in the next field-of sweet sixteen -- Singing and summoning thoughts of beauty born In heaven-with her jacket of light green, 'Love-darting eyes, and tresses like the morn,' Without a shoe or stocking-hoeing corn. Whether, like Gertrude, she oft wanders there, With Shakespeare's volume in her bosom borne, I think is doubtful. Of the poet-player The maiden knows no more than of Cobbett or Voltaire.

VIII.

"There is a woman, widowed, gray and old, Who tells you where the foot of Battle stopped Upon their day of massacre. She told

* Reference is here made to Judge MATTHIAS HOLLENBACK of Wilkes-Barré. He was never, how- ever, either toll-collector at the Wilkes-Barré bridge or keeper of the town records. He was the first President of the bridge company, and held this office in 1826 and "27. At that time Judge JESSE FELL was Town Clerk of Wilkes-Barre town and township.

Its tale, and pointed to the spot, and wept, Whereon her father and five brothers slept, Shroudless, the bright-dreamed slumbers of the brave, When all the land a funeral mourning kept. And there, wild laurels planted on the grave By Nature's hand, in air their pale-red blossoms wave.

IX.

"And on the margin of yon orchard hill Are marks where time-worn battlements have been, And in the tall grass traces linger still Of 'arrowy frieze and wedged ravelin.' Five hundred of her brave that valley green Trod on the morn in soldier-spirit gay ; But twenty lived to tell the noonday scene- And where are now the twenty ? Passed away. Has Death no triumph hours, save on the battle-day?"

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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 8

Author: Harvey, Oscar Jewell, 1851-1922; Smith, Ernest Gray Publication date: 1909 Publisher: Wilkes-Barre : Raeder Press Number of Pages: 720

Author: Harvey, Oscar Jewell, 1851-1922; Smith, Ernest Gray
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Wilkes-Barre : Raeder Press
Number of Pages: 720