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 88
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NORTH
Stoke
1768.
2300
or
HAMON
1497
SCALE OF PERCHES
750
250
PERCHES
Original
OFGI
ASAM
N2005
OF
600
516
of
O
Wilkesbarre, 1769.
Town of
517
None of these townships was square, as the Company, by its reso- lutions, contemplated they should be; and none of them contained exactly twenty-five square miles of land. The metes and bounds of "Wilkesbarre" were as follows: Beginning at a point on the river bank, in the locality of the present village of Plainsville ; thence south, 61° east, 1,497 perches (4.67+ miles) to a point beyond the crest of Wilkes-Barré Mountain; thence south, 44° 30' west, 1,950 perches (6.09+ miles); thence north, 51° 30' west, 1,554.5 perches (4.85+ miles) to the river, and thence, along the eastern margin of the river, to the place of beginning. The township thus contained nearly twenty-nine square miles of territory, and, as is shown by the plot on page 516, in- cluded nearly one-half of the Pennsylvania Proprietaries' Manor of Stoke. Further, the island at the bend of the river, now called Fish's Island, was (as noted on page 51) annexed to and considered a part of this township, and for many years thereafter was known as "Wilkes- Barré Island."
It cannot be doubted, apparently, that the name which Major Dur- kee coined and bestowed upon this town was "Wilkesbarre"-or, written so as to indicate the correct pronunciation of the name, "Wilkesbarré." The Major's original design or intention was, clearly, to make of two proper names a new word-"Wilkesbarré," a name sui generis ! This idea may have been-indeed, probably was-suggested to him by the name of Saybrook, an ancient town within the borders of his native Colony and situated only about twenty-five miles from his birth-place ; a town whose name, it was well understood, had been compounded of the names of two men-as mentioned on page 240, ante. Moreover, it was the common custom at that time, in America as well as in England, to write and print as one word the name of a town or place formed either of two nouns or of an adjective and a noun. Thus, in England there were then "Easthamstead," "Newhaven," "Westfield," "Newbourn," "Newcastle," "Newmarket" and "Kingswood"; while in America there were, in addition to "Saybrook," "Halfmoon," "Easthampton," "Marble- head," "Northampton," "Westchester" and "Newhaven"-the name of the well-known Connecticut city being at that period written "New- haven" as often as "New Haven." Major Durkee was no dullard ; he had seen something of the world, and the abovementioned facts were undoubtedly known to him. At any rate, from an examination of the various known and accessible examples of Major Durkee's handwriting, in which the name of our town appears, we find that he invariably wrote it "Wilkesbarre." He may have done this ignorant of the fact that Colonel Barré, in writing his name, used "é" and not "e"; or, knowing the fact, may have mistakingly looked upon the diacritical mark over the "e" as unnecessary.
Uninformed as to the etymology of the name, and having heard it mispronounced in a variety of ways, many persons in the early days of the town wrote the name "Wilksborough." Examples of this form written in 1771 and 1774 are still in existence. In the Act of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania erecting the county of Luzerne, passed September 25, 1786, the name of our town was printed "Wilkes- burg"; but in a supplement to the Act passed in 1788 the name was printed "Wilkesborough." Colonel Pickering, for a short time after he took up his residence here in 1787, used the form "Wilkesburg," but
518
later he wrote the name "Wilkesborough"-these being the two forms used in the Legislative Acts mentioned. Afterwards, having discovered what the real name of the town was-"as originally given to it by the New England people"-Colonel Pickering wrote the name always "Wilkesbarre"; some times, however, writing the diacritical mark over the final "e." In January, 1789, he brought the matter of the name of the town to the attention of President Mifflin of the Supreme Executive Council of the State, and in a resolution passed by the Council in March following, relating to certain affairs in Luzerne County, the name "Wilkesbarre" appeared for the first time in the official records and en- actments of the State of Pennsylvania.
In many of the records of the Courts of Luzerne County for the years 1788 and 1789-writs, records of convictions, Sheriff's returns, etc .- "Wilksborough" and "Wilkesborough" appear, as written by attorneys and the officers of the county. "Wilksburg" appears on a map of Pennsylvania published in The Columbian Magazine for January, 1788 ; also on the map accompanying Weld's "Travels through the States of North America," first published in 1798-although in the body of the book the author uses the form "Wilkesbarré." In the twenty- fourth edition of Webster's "Spelling Book," published at Boston in 1802, there is a list of the various counties in the United States, with their chief towns, and "Wilksburgh" is given as the county-seat of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. "Wilksbury" was another form that the name early took when written by some of the local scribes. We find this spelling in some of the minutes of town-meetings held in 1771, and in the records of The Susquehanna Company for the year 1773. It was used as late, even, as 1789 in certain deeds. Judge Matthias Hol- lenback used the form "Wilksberre" in an acknowledgment to a deed in December, 1789. "Wilksbarry" was the manner in which Ezekiel Peirce, clerk of a town-meeting in 1772, spelled the name. Col. Nathan Denison wrote "Wilksbarra" in February, 1789. This same form was used by Lord Butler, Sheriff of Luzerne County, in a deed written and executed by him in September, 1789; but in 1793, in writs issued by him as Pro- thonotary of the county, he used the form "Wilksbarre." Col. John Franklin sometimes used the form "Wilksbarra" prior to 1785, but after that year he invariably wrote the name "Wilksbarre." The Rev. Jacob Johnson used the form "Wilksbarre" in the years 1772 to 1779, and per- haps in later years. His son, Jehoiada P. Johnson, used the same spelling as late as 1804. On Reading Howell's map of Pennsylvania, published by authority of the State in 1791, "Wilksbarre" appears *; as it does also on an engraved map of the State in Proud's "History of Pennsylvania," published in 1798. From original letters among the "Pickering Papers" (mentioned on page 29) we learn that in 1789 Judge Richard Peters used the form "Wilkesbarre"; in 1788 Tench Coxe wrote "Wilkesborough" and William Montgomery "Wilksborough."
The separation of the name into two parts, and the use of "B" in- stead of "b" in writing the last half of the name, was of very infrequent occurrence in early days. The first known instance of the use of this form is shown in the document reproduced on page 508. In February, 1770, Zebulon Butler wrote "Wilks Barry," and in the following April he wrote "Wilkes Berry" and "Wilks Barre." After 1771 or 1772 he
* See Chapter XXIII for a reproduction of a portion of this map.
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invariably wrote the name "Wilks Barre"; which same form was some- times used-in early years, at least-by John Jenkins, Sr. The use of the diacritical mark over the final "e" seems, from the beginning, to have been observed by very few persons. Colonel Pickering, who was an exceedingly well-informed man, and who was careful and particular in matters of detail, used the form "Wilkesbarré" in his diary in Feb- ruary, 1787, and subsequently to 1791 he used it frequently. "Wilkes- barré" was the form generally used by Judge Thomas Cooper, a man of wide information and much culture ; and in all the certificates issued by him and the other commissioners under the Act of April 4, 1799, for lands in this township, the name of the township was printed "Wilkes- barre" and written "Wilkesbarré."* In 1816 a work on "Gas Lights," written by Judge Cooper, was printed at Philadelphia, and the name of our town appears therein "Wilkesbarré." Throughout the various editions of Stone's "Poetry and History of Wyoming," mentioned on page 19, "Wilkesbarré" is the form used.
It is very evident, from a patient and painstaking examination of a large number of original letters, town minutes, legal documents, Court records (transcribed in dockets) and many newspapers, books and pam- phlets, that, for at least the first fifty years of the life of this town, its name was written and printed "Wilkesbarre" by more than a great majority of the people who had occasion to use it. It would be im- practicable to give here, in support of this statement, many illustrations from the sources mentioned-in fact, it seems unnecessary to do so. But, as recording a matter of history, it is deemed desirable to give some of the most substantial evidences of the prevailing use of this form dur- ing, and subsequently to, the period mentioned.
In numerous deeds executed prior to 1810 "Wilkesbarre" is the usual spelling. In the original records of the township-entitled "Votes of the town of Wilkesbarre"-from 1791 to 1805, inclusive, the form here given is used. On a neatly engraved map in Judge Cooper's "Some Information Respecting America," published at London in 1794, and at Dublin in 1795, the town of "Wilkesbarre" on the Susquehanna is noted. The same appears on a map of Pennsylvania by D. F. Sotzman, published in 1797. In Morse's "American Gazetteer," published at Boston in 1797, there is a map of the United States engraved from an original drawn by Abraham Bradley, Jr., formerly of Wilkes-Barré but then a clerk in the General Post Office at Washington. In the descriptive part of this "Gazetteer" Wilkes-Barré is referred to as "Wilksbarre, or Wilksburg, a post-town of Pennsylvania." There is, in the first volume of the Duke de la Rochefoucault-Liancourt's "Travels through the United States of America" (published at London in 1799), a carefully engraved map of the United States and Canada, upon which "Wilkes- barre" is noted. In June, 1804, a large map of the United States was published, the drawing of which was the work of Abraham Bradley, Jr., previously mentioned. "Wilkesbarre" is the form in which the name of our town appears thereon ; and in the same form it appears on a map of Pennsylvania published in 1811 by Reading Howell.
In legal documents and other papers written in the years 1790 to 1796 we find that Putnam Catlin and Rosewell Welles, leading mem- bers of the Luzerne Bar, and Robert Traill, a well-known lawyer of
* See a photo-reproduction of such a certificate in Chapter XXVI.
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Easton, Pennsylvania, wrote the name of Luzerne's county-seat "Wilkes- barre"; and in like form it was written in 1802 and '03 and later years by Thomas Wright, Ebenezer Bowman, William Ross, Lord Butler and Dr. Robert H. Rose-as is shown by original documents in the col- lections of The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Jacob Cist, a learned and cultured man, and for some years Postmaster of this town, wrote its name "Wilkesbarre" for many years until, at least, 1824. Garrick Mal- lery thus wrote it in 1830, and likewise Steuben Butler in 1829. Judge Jesse Fell, who was appointed Town Clerk of Wilkes-Barré in 1796, and held the office for a number of years, and who was Secretary of Lodge No. 61, F. and A. M., for twenty-five and a-half years, was an elegant penman, and he wrote the name of our town always "Wilkesbarre." The same form was used in 1806 and later years by Thomas Graham, who was Recorder of Deeds in and for Luzerne County at that time. Capt. Andrew Lee in 1807, and his son, Col. Washington Lee, in 1821, wrote the name "Wilkesbarre." In a similar way the Rev. Nicholas Murray, a very able and intelligent man, pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Wilkes-Barré, wrote the name in the years 1829-'33, and perhaps later.
March 17, 1806, the Act of Assembly was passed which erected the "town-plot of Wilkesbarre" and its vicinity into "a body politic and cor- porate in law, by the name and style of the Burgess and Town Council of the Borough of Wilkesbarre." However, in the earliest recorded minutes of the Borough Council-which are in the handwriting of Joseph Wright and Peleg Tracy-the name of the borough is written "Wilkes Barre." On the printed bill-heads used by the Wilkes-Barré Academy in 1812 "Wilkesbarre" was the spelling. The name appeared in the same form on the "shin-plasters," or substitutes for money, emitted in 1816 by the Easton and Wilkes-Barré Turnpike Company and by the Wilkes-Barré Bridge Company. (See reproductions of some of these "shin-plasters" in subsequent chapters.) "Wilkesbarre" is the form in which the name is printed on Reading Howell's map of Pennsylvania published in 1817. In that year Isaac A. Chapman, author of the first history of Wyoming Valley, wrote as follows to Hazard's Register of Pennsylvania (see V : 34): “Wilkesbarre * * was laid out about the year 1775 [sic] by Col. John Durkee, from whom it received its name, in compliment to Wilkes and Barre." * *
On a map of Pennsylvania published by Carey & Lea at Philadel- phia in 1820 "Wilkesbarre" appears ; as, also, it does many times in Hazard's Register during the years 1828-'33, and without doubt in later years. The name appears in this form on the map published in 1830 in Silliman's Journal, and referred to on page 494, ante. The present writer has seen numerous letters written by Wilkes-Barré people in 1821 and 1822 and mailed at Wilkes-Barré. They were all postmarked-in the handwriting of the Postmaster-"Wilkesbarre," followed by the date of posting. "Wilkesbarre" is the only form in which the name appears on an engraved map accompanying "A History of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company" (published in 1839); in Sherman Day's "His- torical Collections of the State of Pennsylvania" (published in 1843); in Miner's "History of Wyoming" (published in 1845); on a map accom- panying a "Report on the North Branch Canal" (issued in 1847); on the engraved "Plan of the Town of Wilkesbarre" (published in 1850,
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and reproduced in Chapter XXXVI, post); on the map accompanying a "Report of the Superintendent [W. R. Maffet of Wilkes-Barre] of the North Branch Canal for 1855"; in the three editions of Peck's "Wyo- ming," mentioned on page 20, ante ; in Rogers' "Geology of Pennsyl- vania," printed in 1858 ; in both editions of Pearce's "Annals of Luzerne County," mentioned on page 20, ante; in Appleton's "Hand-book of American Travel," edition of 1872, and in the official publications of the Tenth and Eleventh Censuses of the United States.
The earliest issues of a Wilkes-Barré newspaper now known to be in existence are some copies of the Gazette, published in 1799, and the name of our town appears therein only in one form-"Wilkesbarre." In The Luzerne Federalist, published here, "Wilkesbarre" was the in- variable form in which the name appeared during the years 1802 to 1810, inclusive. An examination of the files of The Gleaner, published here, shows "Wilkesbarre" in use during 1811, but in 1812 "Wilkes- Barre" and "Wilkesbarre" were both used-one form about as frequently as the other ; while in 1813 and 1814 "Wilkes-Barre" was used almost exclusively. In The Susquehanna Democrat (published in Wilkes- Barré) "Wilkesbarre" and "Wilkes-Barre" were used-one as often as the other-during the years 1810 to 1812; but in 1814 "Wilkesbarre" was used almost wholly, and was used exclusively in 1821, 1822 and 1823. In The Wyoming Herald (published here) "Wilkesbarre" was invariably used during the years 1818-'27. In The True American, published at Philadelphia August 24, 1816, was an advertisement of Isaac A. Chapman, dated at "Wilkesbarre"; while in the next column was an advertisement of Catlin, Overton & Co., dated at "Wilkes-Barre."
In The Republican Farmer and Democratic Journal for the years 1838 and 1839 the form "Wilkesbarre" was almost invariably used ; and in the same paper, as late as 1848, "Wilkesbarre" appeared in many of the advertisements and items of local news. In The Luzerne Demo- crat for 1847 and 1848 "Wilkesbarre" was the single form used ; but in 1849 "Wilkesbarre" was printed at the head of the local and editorial columns, and "Wilkes Barre" in the title, or heading, on the first page. In the body of the paper one form of the name appeared as often as the other. A similar use of the name is to be found in the files of the same paper for 1852. As late as 1849 and 1850 "Wilkesbarre" often appeared in the advertisements and news items of The Wilkes-Barre Advocate ; and in The True Democrat for 1852 and 1853 "Wilkesbarre" was often used in editorials, advertisements and news items. "Wilkesbarre" frequently appeared in advertisements and local items in the Record of the Times as late as 1853.
We have already mentioned the few instances that have come to our notice of the use of "B" instead of "b" in the writing of Wilkes- Barré prior to 1800, and have incidentally referred to some similar instances which occurred subsequently to 1805-about which period, or a few years later, an earnest effort seems to have been made by some of the local newspaper writers-or, perhaps, printers-and a few others to displace "Wilkesbarre" by "Wilkes-Barre." In the records of the office of the Register of Wills of Luzerne County we find "Wilkesbarre" used almost uniformly prior to 1800 ; but about 1805 "Wilkes-Barré" is found in places. In The Susquehanna Democrat of August, 1815, we find "Wilkesbarre" heading the column of local news, but in the various
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advertisements we find "Wilkes-Barre" as often as we find "Wilkesbarre." In 1829 Judge John N. Conyngham, an educated man familiar with the history of this town-although then a new-comer here-wrote "Wilkes Barré." In 1840 George W. Woodward wrote "Wilkes-Barre," and Harrison Wright and Charles Denison each wrote "Wilkes Barre." In The Wilkes-Barre Advocate during the years 1836 and 1839 "Wilkes- Barre" and "Wilkesbarre" both appeared-the latter form the more frequently, however.
In the "United States Official Postal Guide" for 1886, published by authority of the Post Office Department, the name of our town appeared in four different places, and in each instance was printed "Wilkes Barre." For a number of years preceding the year mentioned, and for four or five years following it, the name was printed in the "Guide" in that same form; while in contemporary publications of other Depart- ments of the Government the name was printed "Wilkesbarre," "Wilkes- Barre" and "Wilkes-Barré." At the same time, in the same publica- tions, many other towns throughout the country were having their names served up in like varied style. Finally, in September, 1890, the "United States Board on Geographic Names" was created by order of the President of the United States, for the purpose of securing uniformity of geographical nomenclature in Government publications. This Board consists of ten officials in the Departments at Washington, and, as we have previously intimated, the creation of the Board was the result of the confusion in the various Bureaus and Departments of the Govern- ment due to different spellings and pronunciations of geographic names. Indeed, even among the publications of the same Bureau the spelling of many words was not uniform.
From the beginning the Board agreed that in general the name which was in common use should be adopted. "Even where the present name is a changed or corrupted one, if it has become firmly established, the Board keeps its hands off. But where a choice is offered between two or more names for the same locality-all sanctioned by local usage -the opportunity to secure the most appropriate and euphonious one is improved." Among many other matters the Board discourages the use of diacritical marks over letters, and hyphens between parts of names. Where a name consists of more than one word, it prefers to combine the parts into one. Hence, applying these two last-mentioned principles, we have Newhaven for "New Haven," Santafe for "Santa Fé," Fair- haven for "Fair Haven," Whiteplains for "White Plains," Whitehaven for "White Haven" and Wilkesbarre for "Wilkes-Barré."
It is well understood that "Wilkesbarre" is the form approved and adopted by the abovementioned Board to be followed in writing and printing the name of our town in Government correspondence and pub- lications ; and yet, although the recommendations of the Board are obligatory on the various Departments of the Government, there is still a lack of uniformity of usage shown by certain officials. I have before me as I write an official letter written to me by the Fourth Assistant Postmaster General in April, 1901, in which is used the form "Wilkes- Barre"; and the same form appears in letters written to me by two different officials of the Department of Agriculture in 1903, while "Wilkesbarre" was the form used in the same year by an official of the Department of the Interior. The various cyclopædias of names, gazet-
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teers and encyclopædias, and the metropolitan newspapers quite generally, published in this country, use the form "Wilkesbarre." Relative to this use a writer on the staff of The New York Herald stated in that paper June 1, 1902 :
"Wilkesbarre newspapers cannot understand why many of the metropolitan papers insist upon spelling the name of their city in one word, whereas they invariably divide it in two. The name of the city is peculiar, and no person unfamilar with the circumstances understands why there is a division. Two officers in the Revolutionary army went to the Wyoming Valley, with their followers, after the surrender of Cornwallis, and founded a settlement on the banks of the Susquehanna. Their names were Wilkes and Barre, and local custom has never sanctioned the union into a single word."
Here was certainly a very praiseworthy effort to explain why the Wilkes-Barréans of to-day prefer "Wilkes-Barré" to "Wilkesbarre"; but the writer's zeal was more than counterbalanced by his ignorance of facts. It is true, nevertheless, that at least ninety-nine-one-hundredths of the citizens of this town (including the publishers of all our newspapers and periodicals) have for many years now preferred the form "Wilkes-Barre" to any other form of writing or printing the name of our town ; and the desire to see this come into general use is constantly growing and strengthening. The principal reason for this is the very laudable wish to keep Isaac Barré in memory-to honor him equally with John Wilkes. But why stop half-way ? Why be satisfied to use the hyphen and "B" and not use "é"? Not only did Isaac Barré use the diacritical mark over the final "e" in writing his surname-therefore making it a part of his surname-but the use of this mark shows, exactly and pre- cisely, the pronunciation of the last syllable of the name. Often, in recent years, the present writer has heard in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts the name of this town pronounced Wilks-bär-"ä" having the sound of "a" in "far." No educated or well-informed person would ever pronounce the name in that way if "é" were used instead of "e" in writing or printing the last syllable.
It is unquestioned, as previously stated, that John Durkee named this town "Wilkesbarre"; which form of the name was recognized and confirmed by the Legislature of Pennsylvania in 1806 in erecting the "town-plot of Wilkesbarre" into the "borough of Wilkesbarre," thus giving legislative authority to a name which custom had then sanctioned for more than thirty-five years. There is, therefore, the very best author- ity for using the form "Wilkesbarre," or, more correctly written-in view of the etymology of the name-"Wilkesbarré." But, on the other hand, we have in opposition to this a form which has been in almost general use here in Wyoming Valley for fifty years, or more, through a desire on the part of our people, as stated above, "to keep Isaac Barré in memory." "Barré" was his name, and "WILKES-BARRÉ" should be, and is, the name of our town !
As to the pronunciation of this name. Seemingly there is no end to its varieties ; and in producing and perpetuating some of the varieties our own people are as careless and slovenly as the most skillful word- twisters among those not "to the manner born." The name-a com- pound word of three syllables-is pronounced neither Wilks-bär, Wil- kes-bär, Wilks-bāre-ry nor Wilks-bāre-eh as so often heard, but Wilks“- bă-rā-with a slight accent on the first syllable; "i" in the first syllable being sounded as "i" in "pin," "a" in the second syllable as "a" in "mat" and the final "é" as "a" in "mate." The French "e" with the "close" accent has the sound last noted.
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In "The Century Cyclopedia of Names" (New York, 1894) the pro- nunciation of the surname of Isaac Barré is given as "Bä-rā" ("ä" hav- ing the sound of "a" in "far"); and it is stated that "his name forms a part of the name of Wilkes-Barré, now Wilkesbarre, in Pennsylvania." If the name of Barré was ever pronounced in this manner (which is very doubtful) it is quite certain that the last two syllables of the name of our town are not, and never have been, thus pronounced.
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