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 83
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Col. John and Martha (Wood) Durkee were the parents of the following-named children, all born at Norwich : i. Anna Durkee, born October 23, 1753. Subsequently to July, 1774, she became the wife of Delongpres. Subsequently to 1793 and prior to 1812, her husband having died, she was married (2d).to - Young. When, in March, 1812, she applied to Congress for "the seven years' half-pay of a Colonel, to which Durkee himself would have been entitled had he lived and served to the end of the war"-as provided for in the Resolve of Congress of August 24, 1780-it was set forth that the widow of said Durkee was dead, and that the petitioner, Anna (Durkee) Young, was "the daughter and sole heir of Col. John Durkee, deceased." (See "American State Papers," XIX : 72, 417). She was, therefore, the last survivor of her father's family. When and where Mrs. Young died, and whether or not she left any descendants, we have been unable to learn.
ii. John Durkee, Jr., born September 23, 1757. In 1775, in the eighteenth year of his life, he served from May till December as a private in the 3d Company of the 3d Connecticut Regiment in the campaign against Boston, described on page 484. In 1776 he served through the New York and New Jersey campaign as an Ensign in the 20th Continental Foot commanded by his father. January 1, 1777, when only three months past his nineteenth birth-day, he was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the 4th Regiment, sub- sequently commanded by his father. July 31, 1777, he was promoted First Lieutenant, and October 26, 1780, was promoted Captain. He served in this regiment until its consolidation with the 3d Regiment to form the Ist Regiment, as previously described, and then he served as Captain in the last-mentioned regi- ment until the close of the war. In 1783 he became a member of the Connecticut Society of the Cincin- nati. He was alive and residing at Norwich, Connecticut, in June, 1785 ; but how much longer he lived we are unable to state ..
iii. Phineas Durkee (named for Colonel Durkee's old friend and commander, Gen. Phineas Lyman, previously mentioned), born August 27, 1762. From May to December, 1775 (being then in his thirteenth year), he served as one of the fifers of the 3d Company (his father's) in the 3d Connecticut Regiment, in the campaign against Boston. In the campaign of 1776 he served in the same capacity in the 20th Continental Foot, commanded by his father. March 15, 1777, at the age of fourteen and a-half years, he enlisted as a private in Captain McGregier's company of the 4th Regiment, Connecticut Line, previously mentioned ; and May 6, 1782-three weeks before his father's death-he was promoted Sergeant. (See "Connecticut in the Revolution.") The time and place of his death we are unable to state.
iv. Barré Durkee (named for Col. Isaac Barré, referred to at length in Chapter X), born October 21, 1767. It is presumed that he died in early youth. There was, however, in 1792, a certain Isaac Barré Durkee living at or near Norwich, who was a sea-captain and commanded the sloop Betsey.
Colonel Durkee was the owner of two or more rights in The Susquehanna Company. In addition to his share in the general "Purchase" of the Company, by reason of his ownership of these rights, he also became one of the proprietors of Wilkes-Barré (one of the five "gratuity" towns) in virtue of being one of the 200 settlers provided for by the votes of the Company. (See page 465.) In the distribution of the lands of Wilkes-Barré-in the manner fully shown hereinafter-Colonel Durkee became the owner of "Town Lot No. 4" (see "The Original Town-plot of Wilkes-Barre" in Chapter XI), at the north-east corner of Northampton and River Streets-said lot extending in length, or depth, from River Street to the center of the present Franklin Street, and in width, or breadth, from Northampton Street to a line parallel there- with and distant 335+ feet therefrom. Within the original bounds of this lot are now erected the First Presbyterian Church, the Osterhout Free Library building, the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society's building, the residences of Dr. Lewis H. Taylor, Col. R. Bruce Ricketts, Benjamin Reynolds, Mrs. Sheldon Reynolds, William P. Billings and a number of others. Colonel Durkee received also, by allotment, "Meadow Lot No. 5," "Wood Lot, or Back Lot, No. 6" and "5-Acre Lot No. 14" in the different divisions of the town of Wilkes-Barre. "Back Lot No. 6" was located on Jacob's Plains, and contained 253+ acres. Durkee's interest in this lot was sold in 1799 to Cornelius Courtright. Colonel Durkee owned also 113 acres in the township of Capouse, or Providence, granted to him "as a sufferer for a right in
RESIDENCES OF COL. R. B. RICKETTS, MR. BENJAMIN REYNOLDS, AND DORRANCE REYNOLDS, ESQ., REFERRED TO ON PAGE 486. Drom a nhatorennh tolran in. 1001
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and, although only a few months past forty years of age, had had con- siderable experience as a soldier in time of war and as a man of affairs in time of peace.
In the latter part of April about 110 men rendezvoused at Norwich, whence they set out for Wyoming on horseback, in command of Major Durkee. They journeyed by way of Wallingford, Woodbury and New Milford, Connecticut, and Beekman, Fishkill, New Windsor and Goshen, New York, and were joined en route by other men who had been previ- ously enrolled by the committee. Passing through the northern section of Sussex County, New Jersey, they crossed the Delaware River and entered Pennsylvania at Wells' Ferry, now Dingman's Ferry. In that locality they were joined by those of the "First Forty" who, after their release from custody at Easton in March, had not returned to Connec- ticut but had tarried at the Minisinks. From the Delaware the course of the company lay through the central part of what is now Pike County, on through Salem Township in Wayne County into Jefferson Township, Lackawanna County. There they passed through Cobb's Gap in the Wyoming-Moosic range of mountains (mentioned on page 44), and within a short time arrived at Capouse Meadows on the Lackawanna (see page 467) .* Along this trail, or within a short distance of it, throughout its whole length from Wells', or Dingman's, Ferry to Capouse Meadows, and thence to Wilkes-Barré, a road was subsequently built, which was in use for a good many years. It is indicated on the map of "North-eastern Pennsylvania in 1791," in Chapter XXIII, reproduced from an original map of the State published by Reading Howell in the year mentioned. By a reference to this map it will be seen that at "Shohola H." (about twelve miles north-west from Wells' Ferry) the road was joined by a branch road starting from the Delaware at the mouth of Big Bushkill Creek, at the north-eastern corner of the present Monroe County, some fourteen miles down the river from the ferry.
Major Durkee and his company reached Capouse Meadows in the evening of Thursday, May 11, 1769, and there they encamped for the night. Leaving them there and turning to the Manor of Stoke, we find in the little settlement at Mill Creek Charles Stewart, Capt. Amos Ogden, his brother Nathan Ogden and some eighteen or twenty other men of the Pennsylvania party. John Anderson, the trader, and two land-surveyors, having gone up the river from Stoke about the 8th of May to survey lands at Towanda and above Sheshequin, t have not yet returned.
We learn that on the 3d of April warrants had been issued by the Provincial Land Office to Peter Miller, George Miller, John Patton, Abraham Slack, James Treadwell and James Martin for six lots of land in Wyoming Valley, aggregating 1,974 acres, which within a short time thereafter were surveyed and laid out to them in what was denominated "Nanticoke Township"-lying and being situate south-west of and adjoining the Manor of Stoke. On the same date warrants had been issued to David Johnson, Cornelius Stark, William West, Patrick Sav-
Kingston." June 9, 1777, he sold this to Timothy Keyes, formerly of New Marlborough, Berkshire County, Massachusetts. In January, 1774, at Norwich, Colonel Durkee sold to Jeremiah Ross of New London, Connecticut, for £6, one-half of an original right in the Susquehanna Purchase; and in the following July, at Norwich, the former conveyed to his daughter Anna, by gift, one right in the Susquehanna Purchase. Twenty years later she conveyed all her interests in and under that right to Elisha Hyde and Elisha Tracy of Norwich for £60.
* See "Map of a Part of Pennsylvania," in Chapter XI.
+ See "Transactions of the Moravian Historical Society," I : 202.
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age and others for fifteen tracts of land-averaging about 300 acres each -on Abraham's Plains (see page 50); to David Frazier for 277 acres near Tunkhannock ; to John Maxwell, Sr., for a tract north of Abraham's Plains; to Samuel Johnston (Charles Stewart's father-in-law) for 326 acres at Capouse Meadows; to Elizabeth Gardey for 357 acres on the Lacka- wanna River, and to a number of other persons for tracts in different localities in and near Wyoming. In addition, Stewart, Ogden and Jen- nings, in pursuance of their agreement with Governor Penn, had been diligently disposing of leasehold interests in Stoke and Sunbury to a number of prospective settlers. By the 10th of May the surveys of nearly all the tracts of land just mentioned-as well as the division of Stoke and Sunbury into lots-had been accomplished by Charles Stewart aided by Philip Johnston (his brother-in-law), Daniel Leet, Jacob Ten Eyck and Robert Willson; the last named a young man then about eighteen years of age, who, a few years later, became Stewart's son-in-law.
In the morning of Friday, May 12, 1769, Major Durkee and his company broke camp at Capouse Meadows and took up their line of march down along the Lackawanna and the left bank of the Susque- hanna, past the settlement of the Pennsylvanians at Mill Creek, to the locality where stood the deserted store-house of Captain Ogden, which was (as mentioned on page 445) near the bend of the river. There they encamped. Later in the day Charles Stewart wrote and despatched to Governor Penn at Philadelphia a letter reading in part as follows* :
"This afternoon about three o'clock 146 New England men and others, chiefly on horseback, passed by our houses and are now encamped on the east side of the river. Among them is Benjamin Shoemaker and John McDowell, with several of their neigh- bors. I spoke to McDowell, who informs me that at least as many more are on their way and will be here to-morrow, and I have other intelligence that they will in a few days be 500 strong. If this be true, we can only act defensively until reinforced. At present we are but twenty-four men. On my way up the river from Shamokin, on Wednesday even- ing last, I was hailed by a man at the mouth of Fishing Creek, named James McClure, who told me that he and four others was an advance party of 100 going to join the New England men, and that they would chiefly be from Lancaster County, and that he would be at Wyoming as soon as us ; but he is not yet come.
"From the view I had of those gentry, in their procession by our houses, they ap- pear to be-at least an equal number of them-of the very lowest class, but are almost all armed and fit for mischief. I am of opinion that, unless a party of His Majesty's forces are sent up to remove them, it will be difficult for the Sheriff to raise men enough in North- ampton County to effect it ; and every day will add to their strength and give them more spirits to persevere in mischief. On conversing with Captain [Samuel] Hunter, Doctor [William] Plunket and others at Shamokin, they declared their willingness to come here, if wanted, and bring a party to assist us. Your Honor will consider whether this will be of service. I think it would at least put a stop to the people of Lancaster County, &c., to join the Yankys, t and prevent their getting to the West Branch-which is their design, as soon as they can establish a possession here. I have enclosed a list of the names of as many of them as I could possibly collect in so short a time."
The list referred to by Mr. Stewart contained the following thirty- six names : Benjamin Shoemaker, Benjamin Shoemaker, Jr., John McDowell, John McDowell, Jr., Samuel Weyburn, John Lee, Stephen Lee, Joseph Lee, Daniel Haines, Asher Harrod, William Leonard, John Leonard, Elijah Holloway, Thomas Bennet, Samuel Marvin, David Marvin, Reuben Hurlbut, Benjamin Follett, John Comstock, Samuel Clark, John Gardner, John De Long, John Smith, Esq., Timothy Smith, Abel Smith, Joseph Morse, Ezra Dean, John Wheet, John Wharburt,
* See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," IX : 583.
+ This is the first time, in all the correspondence and other documents, records, etc., relating to the New Englanders in Wyoming, that the latter are referred to as Yankees. This sobriquet, soon after this date, came into general use among the New Englanders as well as the Pennsylvanians-who, by the way, were called by the former, Pennamites.
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Jacob Welch, Jabez Cooke, Ebenezer Northrop, - Chambers, Oba- diah Gore, Jr., Elisha Babcock and - Wright.
A few days after the arrival at Wyoming of Major Durkee's party they were joined by another detachment of settlers from New England, numbering nearly 150 men, who brought with them a few head of cattle, and some pack-horses loaded with provisions, farming utensils, etc.
To Charles Stewart's letter Governor Penn replied on the 16th of May, in part as follows* :
"I received yours of the 12th instant by express, and am sorry to hear those rash and inconsiderate people of New England still persist in their design of settling on the Susquehanna, and that their numbers are such as nothing less than a military force can remove. As to any attempts to remove them immediately by civil authority, it seems im- practicable, and I would not have you attempt it. The most you can do for the present is to keep your possessions as well as you can. I have wrote to the Sheriff of North- ampton to proceed to Wyoming. *
* I have also wrote to Colonel Francis, and the officers on the Susquehanna, to give you their aid, if necessary, to secure your settle- ments. * * At the same time that I approve of your intentions of holding your pos- sessions, by all lawful and prudent measures, I would not have you attempt impossibili- ties or expose your persons in resisting even a lawless superior force, who may be mad and wicked enough to remove you at all events."
On the same day the Governor wrote and despatched to Sheriff John Jennings, at his home near Bethlehem, the following communicationt :
"I suppose Mr. Stewart has wrote you the bad state of our affairs at Wyoming. You will receive herewith a proclamation, with which I desire you will immediately pro- ceed to Wyoming, with a few reputable people to accompany you, and there publish it to the Connecticut people in a peaceable and quiet manner. If they should carry the matter so far as to attempt removing our people by force, their numbers, I am afraid, are too great to resist, and that they will be obliged to give way for the present rather than run a hazard of shedding blood without a probability of success. I desire you will reduce all you know of the proceedings in the affair, from the beginning, to an affidavit. * * This will be necessary to send to England, in order to institute a proceeding there against these rash intruders, and to lay before General Gage."
The proclamation issued by Governor Penn, and referred to in the foregoing letter, was dated May 16, 1769, and was printed in the shape of a broadside. It set forth the fact that the New Englanders had in- truded upon the lands at Wyoming in violation of law and right, and closed by "strictly enjoining and requiring, in His Majesty's name, all and every person and persons already settled or residing on the said lands, without the license of the Proprietaries or authority from this [the Pennsylvania] Government, immediately to evacuate their settlements, and to depart and remove themselves off and from the said lands with- out delay."
A few days later Governor Penn wrote as follows§ to Col. Turbutt Francis,|| "at the Forks of the Susquehanna" (Shamokin) :
* See "Pennsylvania Archives," Fourth Series, III : 411. + See ibid., page 410.
# An original copy of this broadside is now in the possession of The Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
¿ See "Pennsylvania Archives," Fourth Series, III : 412.
| TURBUTT FRANCIS was the eighth and youngest child of Tench and Elizabeth ( Turbutt) Francis. Tench Francis, though of English parentage, was born in Dublin, Ireland, and was the great-grandson of Philip Francis, royalist Mayor of Plymouth, England, in 1644, during the Civil War. Sir Philip Francis (born at Dublin in 1740), the author of the celebrated "Letters of Junius," was a son of Philip, brother of Tench, Francis. About the year 1700 Tench Francis immigrated to Maryland and established himself as a lawyer in Kent County. There, in 1724, he was married to Elizabeth Turbutt, and soon afterwards they removed to Philadelphia, where he became the leading lawyer of his time. He was counsel for the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania from 1740 to 1744; Attorney General of the Province from 1744 to 1752 and Recorder of Philadelphia from 1750 to 1754. He died at Philadelphia August 14, 1758.
Tench and Elizabeth ( Turbutt) Francis were the parents of eight children, some of whom were : ii. Anne Francis (born in 1727), who became the wife of James Tilghman, Secretary of the Land Office of Pennsylvania in 1769 and other years. Two of their children were (1) Tench Tilghman, a Colonel on the staff of General Washington during the Revolutionary War, and (2) William Tilghman, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania from 1806 till 1827. iii. Mary Francis (born in 1729), who became the wife of William Coxe. iv. Tench Francis (born in 1730; died in 1800). He was attorney in 1784 for John Penn and John Penn, Jr., "lately Proprietaries of Pennsylvania." His wife was Anne, daughter of Charles and Anne Willing of Philadelphia. vi. Margaret Francis (born in 1735), who became the wife of Edward Shippen, Jr., and the mother-in-law of Benedict Arnold-as mentioned on page 360.
TURBUTT FRANCIS was born at Philadelphia in 1740. During Pontiac's War he served as an officer in the Pennsylvania forces and rose to the rank of Colonel. In 1769 he seems to have been stationed at Fort
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Augusta, or Shamokin, in command of a small body of Provincial troops. During the next few years he made his home at or near Shamokin, and when the county of Northumberland was erected in March. 1772, he was commissioned by the Governor one of the first Justices of the Courts of the new county. Turbutt Township in Northumberland County was named for him. In June, 1772, about one-half mile below the site of Fort Augusta, the town of Sunbury was laid out and named, and in January, 1773, Tur- butt Francis became the original warrantee of Lot No. 69 in the town-plot. Later, warrants were issued to him for several thousand acres of land surveyed in the townships of Muncy, Buffalo and Wyoming, in Northumberland County ; part of the lands lying within the territory claimed by The Susquehanna Com- pany. In I773 Colonel Francis took up his residence in Philadelphia.
The Continental Congress resolved, July 12, 1775, "That the securing and preserving the friendship of
the Indian nations appears to be a subject of the utmost moment to these Colonies ; * * that there be three Departments of Indian Affairs, * * the Northern to extend so far as to include the whole of the Indians known by the name of the Six Nations." Commissioners were to be appointed to look after the affairs of each Department, and it was resolved that these Commissioners should "have power to treat with the Indians in the name and on behalf of the United Colonies, in order to preserve peace and friendship with said Indians, and to prevent their taking any part in the present commotions." It was also resolved that the Commissioners should "have power to take to their assistance gentlemen of influence among the Indians, in whom they can [could] confide." As Commissioners in and for the Northern Department Congress appointed Col. Turbutt Francis and the other gentlemen named on page 285, ante. At the same time Congress also recommended that these Commissioners should "employ the Rev. Samuel Kirkland [mentioned on page 449, ante] among the Indians of the Six Nations, in order to secure their friendship."
About the middle of August, 1775, the Commissioners for the Northern Department held their first meeting at Albany, New York. All were present, and they were attended by the Rev. Samuel Kirkland, Thomas Fulmer, of German Flats, Tryon County, New York, an Indian interpreter, and Dean, another Indian interpreter. A large delegation of Six Nation Indians visited Albany at this time in response to an invitation from the Commissioners, and spent several days in holding conferences with the latter. Under date of September 4, 1775, at Albany, Colonel Wolcott wrote to General Schuyler (who had found it necessary to leave Albany before the close of the conferences) as follows: "They [the Indi- ans] have in appearance very cordially accepted the tender of our friendship, and have given every assur- ance that they will observe the strictest neutrality, and during the negotiation have discovered a great deal of pleasantry and good humor. * * Colonel Francis went away [about September 1st] not very well. The Indians went out of town almost all this morning."
On August 31st, during one of the conferences with the Indians, Taokogwando, an Onondagan chief, made some references-unexpected, irrelevant and injudicious-to the Susquehanna lands and the claims of the New Englanders concerning them. Very little attention was paid to the incident by the majority of the Commissioners, but later they were led to believe that one of the Board-Colonel Francis-had taken advantage of his office and the occasion of the Albany conference to stir up this matter with the Indians. These Commissioners, knowing that Francis was a friend and an adherent of the Pennsylvania Proprietaries, that he was a lessee under them for large bodies of Pennsylvania lands (as hereinbefore noted) and that in his political sentiments he inclined to Toryism, resolved to investigate the charge of duplicity made against him. On the 14th of the following December the Commissioners-with the excep- tion of Colonel Francis-again gathered at Albany, for the purpose of holding a treaty with the Six Nations. Among the unpublished papers of Oliver Wolcott in the possession of The Connecticut Histori- cal Society is an "abstract" from the original journal of the transactions of the Indian Commissioners at their meeting in December, 1775; and from that "abstract" the following information has been derived.
"Resolved unanimously, by the Commissioners present, that it is a duty we owe our constituents, our country and ourselves that inquiry should be made into the truth of a suggestion that so much of what Taokogwando, the Onondaga chief, delivered in his speech to the Commissioners on the 31st of August last, as related to the Susquehanna lands now unhappily in' controversy between the Colonies of Penn- sylvania and Connecticut, was not in consequence of any instructions that he had in charge from the Six Nations ; and to lay the result of such inquiry before the Continental Congress. Resolved, That the chiefs of the nations as are now in town be requested to meet us this evening. * * * The Commis- sioners being met in the evening proceeded to the inquiry, and, having deliberately gone through the same, resolved that a letter be wrote to the Continental Congress stating the reasons of the inquiry and containing Dean's and Kirkland's information, together with that of Taokogwando." Then follows a draft of a letter dated Albany, December 14, 1775, addressed to the Hon. John Hancock, President of Congress, and signed by Messrs. Schuyler, Douw and Edwards. It reads in part as follows :
"Conscious that it is a duty we owe our respectable constituents, our country and ourselves not to permit any doubts or suspicions to exist relative to or concerning any transactions of ours, when it is in our power to eradicate them ; and reports prevailing that what Taokog wando delivered at the conference (held here in the months of August and September) respecting the Susquehanna lands, * * was not
in consequence either of directions from his particular nation or the result of the united councils of the Six Nations, * * Messrs. Dean and Kirkland [have] agreed in the following information : That im- mediately after Taokogwando had delivered his speech a murmur ran through the assembly, as at a mat- ter not only unexpected, but improper ; and that some of the sachems, after the rising of the assembly, spoke to them [Dean and Kirkland] on the subject, expressing their astonishment at such a speech, of which no notice had been given to the Six Nations. Mr. Fulmer, another interpreter, was then called before us, and as, in the information which he gave, Colonel Francis' name was mentioned, we have thought proper to take his [Fulmer's] deposition.
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