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 II > Part 10
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The following is a copy of the original minutes* (in the handwrit- ing of Ebenezer Gray, Jr., mentioned on page 292, Vol. I) of a meeting held at Fort Durkee. These minutes are now printed for the first time.
"Att a meeting of the Committee of Settlers on the Susquaha Lands July 19th 1770 at WILKESBARRE.
"Present-Maj. John Durkee, President ; Capt. Zebn Butler, Isaac Tripp, Esqr., Capt. David Marvin, John Jenkins, Timothy Hopkins, Benjn Follett, William Buck, Stephn Fuller, Thomas Dyer, Ebent Gray, Junr., Committee of Settlers.
"Voted that Nath! Walest hath not any right in the Forty Township on account or by reason his Laying out sd Township.
"Voted that Nathan Walsworth on Benajah Pendleton's right in the Forty Town- ship be precluded any right in said Township, because sd Pendleton hath not performed the service & condition of the Grant of sd Township to sd settlers, but hath been absent since the Two Hundred first settlers came on the Land, until this June.
"Voted that Allen Whitman's right in said Forty Township be vacant & forfeit ac- cording to the vote of the settlers on sd land last Octobr
"Voted that Doct! Andrew Metcalf'st right in sd Forty Township be vacant & for- feit in sd Township on the same account that Wales was excluded. §
"it appeared to this Committee that Douglass Woodworth refused to pay 13 Dollars, according to the vote of the settlers, on account of Allen Whitman's right, and said that if he must Purchase he would purchase on his [own] account.
"Meeting per adjournment, July 20th, [1770].
"It is the opinion of this Committee that Ozias Yale on Benjn Yale's Right & John Jolly on Job Yale's right, on supposition that the vote of the Proprietors relative to their right in the Forty Township at their meeting at Hartford in June last had never been, are not Intitled by anything that they have done to any right in the Forty Township.||
"Voted that John Holley be admitted [and] John Holley be accepted on Zeruble Jearum's right in the 40 Township.T
"Voted that Maj. John Durkee, Mr. John McDole [McDowel] and Eben! Gray, Junr., be and they are hereby placed & put into the Forty Township and be Intitled to their equale rights & Shares in sd Township as fully as any others in sd Township, being on the vacant rights of the Forty." **
In London, July 13, 1770, Lord Hillsborough and others, compos- ing the Board of Trade, reported to the Right Honorable the Lords of the Committee of the Council for Plantation Affairs that, pursuant to their Lordships' orders of May 25, 1770, they had taken into considera- tion the petition of Thomas and Richard Penn, Esquires. They stated furthertt :
"The request contained in the Proprietaries' petition that the Governor and Com- pany of Connecticut be ordered to set forth their claim (if they have any ) to the lands in question appears to us to be a very proper one, and to contain the only matters neces- sary for His Majesty's consideration in the case to which their petition refers. *
* We are clearly of the opinion that the forcible intrusion alleged by the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania is a matter entirely within the jurisdiction of this Province, and that it would be both unnecessary and improper for His Majesty to interpose his authority in a · case where there is not the least colour of a plea that the Charter of the Province of Penn- sylvania does not contain the powers necessary to the decision of any suits which may be brought into the Courts there, in cases where the title to lands may be in question ; nor that the state of the Province does not afford the means to support the execution of the laws, preserve the public peace and enforce the legal process of the magistrates and Courts of judicature."
A copy of this report was sent to Henry Wilmot, Esq., Bloomsbury Square, London, the solicitor of Thomas and Richard Penn, and after a consultation with his clients he forwarded the copy in question to the
* In the possession of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society.
+ NATHANIEL WALES, 3d, mentioned in a note on page 640, ante.
# See F. C. Johnson's "Historical Record" (Wilkes-Barré, 1887), I: 70.
¿ On this resolution Messrs. Butler, Follett, Tripp, Jenkins, Buck and Dyer voted " Yea," and Messrs. Hopkins and Gray voted "Nay."
| On this "opinion," or declaration, Messrs. Jenkins, Butler, Buck, Fuller, Follett, Tripp, Dyer, Dur- kee and Gray voted " Yea"; Marvin voted "Nay" and Hopkins "said nothing."
[ On this resolution Messrs. Dyer, Gray, Marvin, Fuller, Hopkins, Follett, Butler and Durkee voted "Yea," and Messrs. Buck, Jenkins and Tripp voted "Nay."
** On this resolution Messrs. Fuller, Gray, Dyer, Hopkins, Buck and Follett voted "Yea"; Durkee voted "Nay" and Tripp "said nothing."
It See an original contemporaneous copy-never heretofore printed-among the collections of The Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
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agents of the Proprietaries at Philadelphia, together with a letter dated August 13, 1770, in which he wrote, among other things, the following* :
"The Lords of the Council have made no further report, and the Lord President is out of town, so that nothing further will be done by their Lordships till the Winter. There is not the least doubt but that their report to His Majesty will be conformable to this of the Board of Trade, and the dispute not being between Colony and Colony the Pro- prietaries will be left to get rid of these intruders as they can. The Proprietaries, there- fore, must get rid of them as they can, at any expence ! They are settled in Pennsyl- vania, and the laws of that Province must remove 'em ! Will the Assembly, upon an ap- plication to them, do nothing to assist? May not the publication of the report of the Lords of Trade, shewing that Connecticut disavows any right, and that no assistance can be expected from them, be of use with some of the most rational of the intruders ? Will it be of use to offer them the lands they have at the usual rents, or even at less ? In * * short, you who are upon the spot are the best judges what steps are to be taken."
At London, August 20, 1770, Dr. Samuel William Johnson wrote to Governor Trumbull of Connecticut as follows :
* * * "We are, I trust, happily delivered from any apprehension of further trouble from Mr. Penn's petition to the Crown relative to the Susquehanna lands. * * We received a summons to attend the Board of Trade. I attended with our solicitor, Mr. [Thomas] Life, and their Lordships were pleased to give me an opportunity to state to them at large the claim of The Susquehanna Company, their proceedings from the begin- ning, the ground of their title, the part the Colony had taken in the affair, etc."
During June and July the settlers at Wyoming made and stacked a large crop of hay ; early in August they began to harvest a bountiful crop of wheat from the sowing of the previous Autumn (see page 628); the corn which had been planted in May was growing finely, and health, happiness and feelings of gratification and of comparative safety pre- vailed among the settlers. About the middle of August Major Durkee, accompanied by Elisha Avery,t a surveyor, and two or three members of the Committee of Settlers, left Fort Durkee on horseback for the West Branch of the Susquehanna-in what is now northern North- umberland County.# There, as is shown by the following extracts from original records, rights were disposed of, and lands were surveyed within the bounds of, the Susquehanna Purchase. The following is a copy of a receipt recorded on page 176, Book "B," of The Susquehanna Com- pany's records (mentioned on page 28, Vol. I):
"West Branch Susgh August 27, 1770. Received of WILLIAM SPEEDY £6 Lawful money, which intitles him to one half-right or -share of land in the Susquehannah Purchase so called.
"Teste, JOHN DURKEE."
August 29, 1770, Major Durkee received from Daniel and Isaiah Old their note for £6, in return for one half-right. The following para- graphs are extracts from page 1,288 of "The Town Book of Wilkes Barre," described in the third paragraph on page 27, Vol. I.
"28th August, 1770. These certifie that as Mr. MARK HULING, JR., has in times past done signal services to ye Susquehannah Company, do give unto ye sd Mark one- quarter of a Right or Shair of Land in ye Susquehannah Purchase so called. By order of sd Company. [Signed] "JOHN DURKEE, President of setlers."
"A survey of a tract of land lying on ye River & up Lime Stone Run, § known by that Name. Done by order of Maj. John Durkee for MARCUS HULING. Sd tract con- tains 374 acres & 87 Perches-which survey was made ye 22d Day of Septr., 1770. [Signed] "ELISHA AVERY, Surveyor."
About the last of August Capt. Lazarus Stewart and a number of the Lancastrians left Fort Durkee for Lancaster County, intending to return with their families in November. A few days later Major Dur- kee and some of his companions returned from the West Branch.
* The original letter, heretofore unprinted, is now in the possession of The Historical Society of Penn- sylvania, and appended to it is the following memorandum made by the Proprietaries : "We do approve of the contents of this letter, and desire all legal means may be used for the removal of these Intruders."
+ Undoubtedly a member of the Avery family of New London County, Connecticut. See note, page 662. Į See, farther on in this Chapter, the "Map of a Part of Pennsylvania as it is to-day."
¿ Limestone Run is in what is now Turbutt Township, Northumberland County.
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Although the Colony of Connecticut did not at that time claim jurisdiction over the Wyoming region, yet a large majority of the settlers then at Fort Durkee were citizens of Connecticut and familiar with the laws of that Colony and the methods of their enforcement. It is not surprising to learn, therefore, that at an early date in the history of the settlement certain Connecticut laws were introduced here for the good of the community, and were duly enforced by officers of the law who had been appointed by the General Assembly and commissioned by the Governor of Connecticut to exercise their. respective offices in their several home towns. One of the earliest evidences of this fact now in existence-so far as the present writer can learn-is an original writ in the possession of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, and reading, in part, as follows :
"To WILKS BARRE COUNTY Sheriff, His Deputy or the Constable of said Wilksbarre -Greeting : In His Majesty's name you are hereby commanded to summon JOHN HENRY VANDEGOR of said Wilksbarre to appear before JOHN DURKEE, Esqr., one of his Majesty's Justices of the Peace for sd county at his dwelling-house at Wilksbarre within sd county on the 14th day of Sept! inst. *
% to answer unto ELEAZAR CARY of sd Wilksbarre in an action of the case. * * Dated at Wilksbarre the 7th day of Sept! 1770. [Signed] "SILAS PARK, Justice of the Peace."
It seems (according to the testimony adduced in this case) that Eleazar Carey, who was a proprietor in The Susquehanna Company, had in his house in Wilkes-Barré in September, 1769, "six bushels of Indian corn worth 24 shillings ; 50 feet of split plank of oak, well secured and laid for the use of a floor overhead in his said house, for his own use-worth 12 shillings." Sometime in the month of January or Feb- ruary, 1770 (while Fort Durkee-of which Carey's "house" formed a part -was in the possession of the Pennamites), "said corn and plank, by means to him [the said Carey] unknown, came into possession of the Defendant, who converted the same to his own use." The defendant, Vandegor, was either a New Jerseyman or a Pennsylvanian, who, prior to June, 1770, had been admitted as a settler by the New Englanders.
From the journals* of the missionaries at Friedenshütten (Wyalu- sing) we glean, under the date of September 8, 1770 :
"The English clergyman residing at Anohochquage, t with his interpreter-a lock- smith by trade-called on his way to Wyoming and spent a day with us. His name is Mosell.# October 1st he returned, and stated that he had been at Bethlehem."
The first note of discord among the Yankee settlers at Fort Durkee -so far as we can learn-was sounded in a petition§ to The Susque- hanna Company, dated "at Fort Durkee in Wilkesbarre, September 10, 1770", and signed by Richard Brockway, Samuel Gaylord, Oliver Smith, Asahel Atherton, Elias Roberts, Thomas Bennet, Elijah Buck, Elijah Harris, || Peter Harris, Ezra Belding and Reuben Davis. These petitioners set forth that they had been admitted, by the committee ap- pointed for the purpose, "settlers in the first five townships according to the vote at a meeting in December, 1768, and thereby, by virtue of the aforesaid vote, intitled each to the sum of £5 bounty given by said Com- pany to each of the forty first settlers." Continuing, the petition recites :
* See "Transactions of the Moravian Historical Society," I : 203.
t Oghwaga, mentioned in the note on page 257, Vol. I.
¿Perhaps the Rev. Richard Moseley, a missionary employed about that time by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, located at Litchfield, Connecticut.
¿ See the original among the unpublished papers of Dr. William Samuel Johnson, in the possession of The Connecticut Historical Society.
| ELIJAH HARRIS was not one of the "First Forty" (see Vol. I, page 478), but prior to June 28, 1770, had been "accepted on Peter Harris' right."
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"That the Committee appointed to regulate and manage the affairs of said settle- nient was to receive and pay to each of said Forty the said bounty money, and did receive the same for that purpose ; but until this time have neglected and refused to pay the same to us the subscribers, or in any manner to settle the same, although we have repeatedly requested them to do the same. And whereas there was more than forty shillings granted to bear the expenses of some of us that was bound over to Easton Court, and paid to the aforesaid Committee, which money hath never been paid to those of us for whose use it was granted. We have great reason to believe that some of the Com- mittee of said Forty have imbezzled the Company's money Intrusted with them, and con- verted the same to their own use ; and we have sufficient evidence and can fully prove that some of the aforesaid Committee have admitted sundry persons into said number of Forty Settlers on condition that they would not require the bounty of £5 granted, and would permit said Committee to retain the same in their hands, and would not admit theni without."
The petitioners also declared, further, that the committee had required payments of money from some men for the privilege of being admitted as settlers. In conclusion they (the petitioners) asked "to have said committee of the Forty render an account, and order the pay- ments due to be made."
At the Northampton County Court of Quarter Sessions, held at Easton about the middle of September, 1770, the Grand Jury made a presentment* setting forth that Daniel Angell, Christopher Avery, Conrad Baker, Conrad Baker, Jr., Nathan Beach, Thomas Bennet, Asa Buck, William Buck, Ezra Buell, Zebulon Butler, Jonathan Car- rington, Aaron Clawson, John Collins, John1 De Long, John Donnel, Valentine Doran, John Dorrance, Ichabod Downing, Oliver Durkee, George Espy, Joseph Espy, Roasel Franklin, Jabez Fish, Thomas French, Benjamin Follett, Stephen Fuller, John Gardner, Peregrine Gardner, Samuel Gaylord, Daniel Gore, Obadiah Gore, Silas Gore, James Grimes, Daniel Haines, Ebenezer Hibbard, William Hibbard, Ichabod Hyde, Matthew Holliboy [Matthias Hollenback], John Jenkins, Palmer Jenkins, Solomon Johnson, John Jolley, Crocker Jones, Jesse Kenney, Peter Kidd, Robert Kidd, John Laird, Asa Ludington, John Lyons, Thomas McClure, David Marvin, Samuel Marvin, Uriah Mar- vin, Darius Mead, David Mead, Eli Mead, Joseph Morse, Silas Park, Abel Peirce, John Peirce, Gideon Pelton, Nicholas Philipson, James Ray, William Ray, Robert Ross, Andrew Seiffers, John Skeels, Lazarus Stew- art, Lazarus Stewart, Jr., William Stewart, John Simpson, Oliver Smith, Timothy Smith, Nathaniel Solomon, Parshall Terry, Isaac Tripp, Samuel Uplinger, Ebenezer Vernon,t Levi Vernon, t Reuben Vernon, t Cornelius Vincent, Isaac Warner, Philip Weeks, Thomas Weeks, Peter Welker, Thomas Williams, Zophar Williams, Douglass Woodworth, David Young, Robert Young and William Young (ninety-one in number), "and divers other persons as yet to this Inquest unknown, on the second day of May, 1770, at Wyoming, in the County aforesaid, with force and arms, and with an intention the peace of the King to disturb, * * the close and dwelling-house of Amos Ogden, Esq., then and there did break and enter" and carry away goods and merchandise of the value of £100, current money of Pennsylvania.
Forthwith the Hon. George Taylor, Judge of the Court, issued a warrant containing all the names set forth in the foregoing presentment, with the exception of those printed herein in italics. The warrant was made returnable "to the next Court of Sessions of the Peace, to be held March 19, 1771," and was directed to the Sheriff of Northampton
* See a fragment of the original document in the collections of The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. t Intended, without doubt, for FARNUM.
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County, who was commanded to arrest all the persons named in the writ. The Sheriff immediately endorsed the warrant* as follows :
"I deputize and appoint NATHAN OGDEN, JAMES LAWSON and JOHN SEELY to ex- ecute this Process or Writt (with such others as they call to their assistance ) upon all or any of the persons within named. [Signed] "PETER KACHLEIN, | Sheriff."
The warrant is endorsed also as follows : "First plea issued, return- able June, 1771"; and so on thereafter, from time to time, till the "eigh- teenth plea" was issued, returnable in September, 1775.
With this warrant in his hands, and his authority strengthened and his intended mission to Wyoming popularized by the Governor's procla- mation of June 28th (see page 664), Nathan Ogden, aided by his Lieu- tenants Lawson and Seely, and by his brother Amos, Alexander Patter- son, Capt. Thomas Craig and Capt. John Dick, raised without much difficulty a force of about 140 armed men in Northampton County, and on the 19th of September set out for Wyoming. The expedition began its inarch at Fort Allen, on the Lehigh (see page 339, Vol. I), and took the old and then little-used "Warrior Path" described on page 237.
Theretofore the Pennamites from New Jersey and southern North- ampton County had always traveled to and from Wyoming over the "Pennamites' Path" (described on page 646), and therefore, to guard against a surprise by hostile invaders, that path alone was being watched by the Yankee sentinels. Ogden, doubting that his strength was suffic- ient to permit him to attack the Yankees openly and boldly, determined to overcome them by strategy. Having arrived in sight of Wyoming Mountain the Pennamites left the path for greater safety, and in the evening of September 21st encamped on the head-waters of Solomon's Creek. Kindling no fires, creating no smoke, giving no alarm, the ex- pedition spent the night there. Early the next morning Ogden and a few of his companions ascended to the top of the mountain, whence, by the aid of a telescope, they observed the settlers leave Fort Durkee in detached parties to pursue their various occupations on the flats and up- lands throughout the valley. It was decided to attack the settlers in that situation, and accordingly Ogden divided his force into several detachments, each being placed in charge of one of his trusty aids-Craig, Patterson, Dick and others. They were directed to make their way into the valley quickly, quietly and simultaneously, by different routes, and, as nearly as possible at the same time, to pounce upon the Yankees in the fields and hurry off with them to a designated place of rendezvous in Solomon's Gap. This plan worked admirably, and many mnen were taken prisoners ; a number, however, succeeded in eluding the Penna- mites and reaching Fort Durkee. Among the first of the Yankees to be captured was Maj. John Durkee, who, only a few days previously, had returned from his trip to the West Branch.
As the day drew to a close Ogden and his men retired from the val- ley to Solomon's Gap, and thence, with their Yankee prisoners, to the spot on the mountain where they had bivouacked during the preceding night. There was gloom and confusion in Fort Durkee at nightfall on
* The original writ is now in the collections of The Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
+ PETER KACHLEIN, mentioned on page 507, Vol. I. (His surname is indiscriminately spelled Küch- lein, Kuechlein, Kechlein and Kachlein on original documents and records in Northampton County.) Having previously been Sheriff of that County he had again been elected to the office, as the successor of John Jennings. May 22, 1776, he was commissioned Captain of the Easton company in the Pennsyl- vania Associators (Militia) ; July 17, 1776, he was promoted and commissioned Lieutenant Colonel of the Northampton County Battalion of Associators, and March 3, 1780, he was appointed and commissioned County Lieutenant of Northampton County.
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Saturday, September 22d. The position and number of the invaders were unknown, while on the other hand it was certainly known that a considerable number of the most effective men of tlie settlenient had been captured. A consultation of the principal men in the fort was held, and it was concluded that, as they had in hand provisions and ammunition sufficient to last some time, they would send messengers to the friendly settlement at Cushetunk* on the Delaware for assistance. Four men were thereupon selected for this purpose, and shortly before midnight they departed on their mission. Taking it for granted that the "Upper Road to the Delaware" and the "Pennamites' Path" would be guarded by Ogden's men, the messengers determined to travel over the old "Warrior Path." Scarcely had they ascended the mountain, however, when they found themselves prisoners in the hands of the men they had expected to elude. From tliese reluctant captives Ogden learned of the confused condition of affairs at Fort Durkee, where there were only a few men with a considerable number of women and children.
Ogden's whole force-with the exception of the men detailed to guard the prisoners-was immediately put in motion, and before day- light (on Sunday, September 23d) had noiselessly arrived within a short distance of Fort Durkee. A storming party, under the command of Captain Craig, t having been detailed to begin the attack on the fort, the Captain stepped lightly forward in advance of his men, and, speak- ing in a low tone, as a friend, to the sentinel at the gate of the stockade, threw him off his guard, knocked him down, and rushed into the en-
* See pages 336, 390 and 391, Vol. I.
t THOMAS CRAIG, (JR.), was born in 1740 in what is now East Allen Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania. His father was Thomas Craig, Sr., who was born near the close of the seventeenth century- probably in Philadelphia-the son of a Scots-Irish immigrant from Antrim in the North of Ireland. In 1728 Thomas Craig, Sr., his brother William, their sister Jane and her husband John Boyd, accompanied by the father of the Craigs, went from Philadelphia to the Forks of the Delaware and settled at the springs of Caladaque Creek, about four miles from the present borough of Bath in East Allen Township, abovementioned. During the next few years they were joined by a number of other Scots-Irish families. At first this locality-extending from Menakasy Creek on the east to Hokendauqua Creek and the Lehigh River on the west-was known as "the Craig Settlement." Later it became known as "the Irish Settle- ment," and for many years Thomas Craig, Sr., William Craig and Hugh Wilson (a native of the North of Ireland) were the most influential men there.
When, in March, 1752, the Act of Assembly creating the county of Northampton was passed, Thomas Craig, Sr., was one of the four commissioners named in the Act to purchase a site and erect thereon a county court house and prison. He was also appointed a Justice of the Peace in and for the new county in May, 1752, and served in the office for a number of years. William Craig was also appointed a Justice of the Peace in May, 1752, but later in the year he was elected the first Sheriff of Northampton County. It was he who visited Wyoming Valley in December, 1753, as noted on page 256, Vol. I. In 1752, or earlier, a tract of land near Easton, containing 500 acres, was surveyed and laid out for Thomas Craig. In 1755 and '56, during the progress of the Indian hostilities in eastern Pennsylvania (as described in Chapter V, Vol. I), Thomas Craig, Sr., was Captain of one of the Northampton County military companies in the service of the Province. (See Egle's "History of Pennsylvania," page 988.)
The first connection of THOMAS CRAIG, JR., with Wyoming affairs occurred, perhaps, in 1769, when he was employed by Charles Stewart to summon men to go to Wyoming-as mentioned in the foot-note on page 514, Vol. I. In 1770 he was known as "Captain" Craig ; but we have been unable to learn how or whence he derived this title. In December, 1775, the Continental Congress authorized the raising of the 2d Pennsylvania Battalion, to serve one year in the American army. January 5, 1776, Thomas Craig, Jr., was commissioned Captain of a company enlisted principally in Northampton County and assigned to the 2d Pennsylvania Battalion, whose commander was Col. Arthur St. Clair. September 7, 1776, Captain Craig was promoted Lieutenant Colonel of this Battalion. In December, 1776, the 3d Pennsylvania Regiment, Continental Line, was organized on the basis of the Second Battalion, aforementioned, and Thomas Craig was commissioned Lieutenant Colonel. August 1, 1777, he was promoted Colonel of the regiment, and in that rank he served until January 1, 1783, when he was retired.
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