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 108

Author: Harvey, Oscar Jewell, 1851-1922; Smith, Ernest Gray
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Wilkes-Barre : Raeder Press
Number of Pages: 680

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 108

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At Fort Jenkins, under the date of April 25, 1779, Capt. Isaac Sweeny, of the 8th Company, 11th Pennsylvania Regiment, wrote to Colonel Butler informing him that Commissary Stewart had left Sun- bury on the preceding day with a large boat-load of stores for Wyoming Garrison. He stated further :

"This day a party of fifty or more Indians canie within one-fourth of a mile of the Garrison [Fort Jenkins], and took three families prisoners. I sent out thirty men with Lieut. [William] Lemmon and Ensign [Francis] Thornbury. The savages discovered the party, left their plunder, and took to the woods. A smart skirmish took place, and two men of the Garrison party were killed, four wounded, and one missing. In the meantime the prisoners escaped from the Indians. I expect your stores here next Wednesday [April 28th], where they will remain till you send a guard for them, as I am too weak here tofurnish one."

At Sullivan's Stores (Brinker's Mills), under the date of May 6, 1779, Capt. Alexander Patterson wrote to Colonel Butler at Wilkes- Barré as follows* :

"Dear Sir : Iniediately upon the receipt of your Letter of the 4th Inst. I Dispatched an Express to Col. Spencer in Easton to enquire what time he would March for your Post. he Returns Me for answer that he believes he will March in Two or Three Days and will take the amunition &c. on with him. I have sent the same Men back who caine down- hope they will arrive safe at your Place.

" We have at this time six officers at this Place waiting to go in [to Wyoming], and perhaps 20 men, but as there Certainly will a body of Men march very soon for Wyo- ming think it is best to run no risks. I am extreamly sorry for the misfortune of Major

* The original letter is in the collections of The Wyoming Historical and Geological Society.

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Prowells party as also for the poor people on Fishing Creek and the West Branch. I should have sent you Inteligence after the receipt of your first letter after Major Prowels arrival, but could not get any Person to venture to go. Dont be discouraged, there will a large body March your way shortly. I am ordered not to communicate a word to the wise.

"My complements to the Gentlemen in general. If you think it necessary, send the Express down again. Do you certify for them, I will pay them. Dont let Publick Service suffer for a trifling expence.

" I am, Sir, your real Friend and Very Humble Sert, [Signed] "ALEXR PATTERSON."

"Col. ZEBULON BUTLER.

"N. B .- Cols Malcolms & Spencers Regts are joined togather in this new arrange-

ment. There is a Disatisfaction about it which has impeaded thier March. [Signed] "A. P -_ "

General Sullivan arrived at Easton, Pennsylvania, and established his headquarters there, May 7, 1779. The next day he wrote to Gen- eral Washington :

" I will do everything in my power to set the wheels in motion, and make the necessary preparations for the army to move on. * * The expedition is no secret in this quarter. A Sergeant of Spencer's [regiment] who was made prisoner at Mohacamoe and carried to Chemung, has just returned. He says they [the enemy] know of the expedition, and are taking every step to destroy the communications on the Susque- hauna. * * I think the sooner we can get into the [Indian] country the better."

" This last sentence," says Dr. Craft, " was in allusion to the verbal instructions of Washington not to hasten the march from Easton until it was known what would be the future movements of D'Estaing, then in the West Indies, who was expected soon to sail north, and with whom the Commander-in-Chief wished to be ready to co-operate in striking some decisive blow upon the enemy." General Sullivan had also been directed so to time his movements as to be able to destroy the crops of the Indians before they could gather them ; and at the same time to do this so late in the season that the crops could not be replanted. On May 11th Sullivan wrote again to Washington, complaining of his ina- bility to procure wagons and horses necessary for forwarding from Easton to Wyoming the stores, etc., required for the Expedition.

The next day after Sullivan's arrival at Easton Brig. General Hand reached Wilkes-Barré from Sunbury, and formally assumed command of Fort Wyoming and all the troops stationed in Wyoming Valley and at Fort Jenkins and elsewhere on the Susquehanna. On May 15th he wrote to President Reed, at Philadelphia, with reference to the ravages committed by Indians on the frontiers of Northumberland County in the previous April, and stated : " We have at present about 400 rank and file for duty here, and 100 at Fort Jenkins."

At "Brinker's Mills, May 14, 1779," Capt. Alexander Patterson wrote to General Hand at Wilkes-Barré as follows* :

"Dear General: I am glad to hear of your safe arrival at Wyoming. * * I am sorry that I could not comply with your request respecting the rum, as there is not any arrived yet at this Post. I am in hopes Colonels Courtland and Spencer will soon make a road, so as we shall be able to supply you by hogsheads. Captain Spalding will adver- tise you of the approach of the party marching with the baggage of the German Battalion, Prowel's, Armang's and Schoot's cores [corps]. * * How the horses will live that are necessary to be upon the road while making, I cannot conceive, as we have not one handful of grain for them. I foresee many other difficulties. Would point them out, but might be deemed impertinent."

On May 23d Captain Patterson wrote from Brinker's Mills to Col- onel Butler : "Never was inan more hurried. The troops all coming on, and everything wanting."

During the Winter of 1778-'79 the 2d New York Regiment, Conti- nental Line, commanded by Col. Philip Van Cortlandt, was quartered

* The original letter is in the collections of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

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at Wawarsing, in the south-western part of Ulster County, New York. In pursuance of orders to join the Sullivan Expedition, this regiment broke camp May 4, 1779, and marched across the country to what is now Port Jervis, on the Delaware River. Thence they proceeded down along the New Jersey shore of the river to Decker's Ferry (see the map in Chapter XXIII), at the mouth of Big Bushkill Creek, and some thirteen miles from Fort Penn (Stroudsburg). Crossing the river at Decker's they marched to the fort, where they arrived in the evening of May 11th. There they remained until the afternoon of May 14th, when, in obedience to orders received from General Sullivan, they marched in a north-westerly direction from Fort Penn a distance of about five miles, into the woods, and bivouacked for the night. Early the next morning the regiment proceeded to Learn's Tavern (mentioned on page 1167) and encamped in the fields near by, where, on Sunday, May 16tlı, they were joined by the 5th New Jersey Regiment, Conti- nental Line, commanded by Col. Oliver Spencer. This regiment had marched from Easton, having been encamped there for a week or ten days.

The men of these two regiments-numbering in all about 500- began, forthwith, the work of building a military road fromn "Learn's" to Wilkes-Barré. The course of this road-which came in time to be called the "Sullivan Road," and which followed very closely the old bridle-path known for a number of years previously as the "Lower Road to the Delaware," and frequently referred to hereinbefore-was carefully surveyed, measured and plotted by Lieut. Benjamin Lodge, " Geographer " (Topographical Engineer) to the Sullivan Expedition, and his assistants. (Colonel Van Cortlandt, who was in immediate command of the forces engaged in laying out and building the road, was himself a practical surveyor; having followed land-surveying as an occupation for several years before entering the army.) In the collec- tions of the New York Historical Society there is now preserved a con- siderable number of the original manuscript maps which were plotted by Lieutenant Lodge and his assistants while making the surveys from Easton to Wilkes-Barré for the " Sullivan Road." Some of these maps are drawn on a scale of two inches to one mile, and others on a scale of one inch to two miles. They are all in a fairly good state of preserva- tion, and appear to have been made with care. The present writer has recently studied these maps with mnuch interest, and, while unable to print herein a reproduction of any one of them, is able to give a satis- factory description of the course which the road followed, the principal localities through which it passed, and the measured distances between those various localities.

The Sullivan Road started in Easton near where the present Third Street bridge spans Bushkill Creek. It ran along the left bank of that stream a short distance westward; then took its way around the north shoulder of the hill on which Lafayette College now stands, and then ran over that hill in a northerly direction to Chestnut Hill. A portion of the road on College Hill was known in the writer's student-days as " Lovers' Lane." It is now called Sullivan Street .* From Chestnut

* Alongside this street, on a huge rock near the residence of Prof. Francis A. March, Sr., of Lafayette College, a bronze tablet was placed by George Taylor Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, in June, 1900, with appropriate ceremonies. The tablet bears the following inscription: "This stone marks the road over which Gen. John Sullivan marched June 18, 1779, to quell the Indian insurrection and avenge the Wyoming massacre. Erected by the George Taylor Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, June 18, 1900."

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Hill the road ran north by west to "Heller's" (twelve miles from Easton) ; tlience about a mile and a-half to and through the Wind Gap; thence to Brinker's Mills (about nineteen miles from Easton). Some three and a-quarter miles beyond "Brinker's" a road leading to Fort Penn branched off to the right. (This was the road which had been used for several years by persons traveling from Wyoming to Fort Penn, and to the Delaware River a few miles farther on.) The distanceto"Learn's" from where the Fort Penn road branched off was six and a-quarter iniles ; or, as pre- viously noted, twenty-eight and a-half miles from Easton.

Six milesbeyond "Learn's" the road crossed White Oak Run at what waslatercalled "Rum Bridge." This was near the west line of the present Pocono Township, Monroe County. Atthethirty-seventh mile- post the road entered the Great Swamp (previously described here- in), and about two and a-half miles VIEW OF LAFAYETTE COLLEGE HILL FROM MT. JEFFERSON, IN 1871. farther on crossed Tunkhanna Creek, near which was a locality known as "Indian Field." At exactly the forty-first mile-post the road crossed Tobyhanna Creek, over which a bridge was constructed, not far from the present hamlet of Tompkinsville in Tobyhanna Town- ship, Monroe County. The forty-fifth mile-post was at Locust Hill, or Locust Ridge-so called because the elevated ground at that point was covered with a growth of small locust trees. The forty-seventh mile-post was at the western end of what the surveyors called the "Great Swamp"-Locust Hill lying within the territory covered by this swamp. Passing this locality the road descended a mountain diagonally to the Lehigh River, which it crossed at or near what is now Thornhurst, in Lehigh Township, Lackawanna County. At the place of crossing the water was shallow and the river bottomn smooth and solid. No bridge was necessary. From the Lehigh onward, for three miles, the country was of a rolling character, covered with very heavy timber and with an almost impenetrable growth of laurel. Boulders, too, of great size, were scattered apparently in all directions. In order to avoid this stretch of bad lands the road was turned in a slightly more westerly direction, and at the entrance to a small swamp-which the surveyors named " Shades of Death "-the fifty-first mile-post was set, while the fifty-third mile-post marked the farther border of this swamp. At the fifty-fifth inile the road entered " Bear Swamp," passing through it for a distance of one mile, and crossing, a little more than midway, Bear Creek-which the surveyors designated " a Branch of Schuylkill." From Bear Swamp the road ran in an almost straight course two and three-quarters miles to Nathan Bullock's property-passing his house and clearing on the south. At sixty miles the road passed through a notch, or gorge, in what the surveyors called " Moosic Mountain " (now known as Wyoming Mountain, as explained on page 44, Vol. I) ; and at sixty-one and three-quarters miles Laurel Run-along the right bank

VIEW OF BEAR CREEK FROM "TOP-KNOT" COTTAGE.

10/11

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of which the road ran for a mile or more-was crossed, at a point where the creek turned towards the north-east, to continue its course along the south-eastern base of Wilkes-Barre Mountain. On this mountain (called by the surveyors " Susquehanna Mountain ") the sixty-second and sixty-third inile-posts were set-the former on the south-eastern slope of the mountain (not far from where Captain Davis and Lieuten- ant Jones and their companions had been massacred), and the latter on the north-western slope of the mountain, a full quarter of a mile west by south from the bold, jutting ledge known since that day as Prospect Rock. (See page 49, Vol. I.) From this point the road continued on down the slope of the mountain, and then over the foot-hills in a course almost north-westerly, until it terminated in Northampton Street in the town-plot of Wilkes-Barre. At the sixty-fifth mile from Easton the road crossed the small creek described on pages 58 and 59, Vol. I, and from that point to Fort Wyoming, via Northampton Street, the distance was half a mile-making the total distance from Easton to Fort Wyoming by this new route sixty-five and one-half miles; being from one and a-half to two miles shorter than by the route leading from "Bullock's" to and through Solomon's Gap, and thence in a northerly direction to the Wilkes-Barré town-plot.

The late Hon. G. M. Harding of Wilkes-Barre, in a paper entitled " The Sullivan Road," read before Wyoming Valley Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, and published in 1899, states :

"Contemporaneous with the orders given to Colonels Courtlandt and Spencer for opening a road from Larner's [Learn's] westward toward the Susquehanna, orders were also issued to Col. Zebulon Butler, who was in command of the fort at Wilkes-Barré, to open a like road front the latter place easterly, over and beyond what was then known as the ' Three-Mile Mountain' [Wilkes-Barre Mountain]. No particular or definite point was indicated for the meeting of the two divisions of the contemplated through road. Both divisions were to be pushed forward with all possible despatch-each in its proper direction-until a meeting was had, no matter where. Colonel Butler was aware that a road constructed on the line of the bridle-path (already described ) from the level land below, up by 'Prospect Rock' to the top of the 'Three-Mile Mountain,' would be too rough and too steep for the safe passage downwards of the artillery and the supply trains of the coming army. He at once selected a more feasible route. Competent engineers, and a force of road-builders consisting mostly of the then necessarily idle settlers in the Val- ley, entered vigorously upon the work. The road started at the westerly foot of the mountain, near a spring known as 'Bowman's Spring,' and not far from the present breaker of the Franklin Coal Company. The course up the mountain was generally easterly, along the mountain side, though in places it followed depressions, and was here and there somewhat circuitous. Reaching the summit, it passed on for a considerable distance. *

* It descended the easterly side of the mountain to a point within about fifty yards westerly from the [Laurel Run] station of the Central Railroad of New Jersey. From this point the road continued directly up Laurel Run for a mile and a-quarter."

In the foregoing statement there are several important errors, due, chiefly, to the undoubted fact that Judge Harding never saw the origi- nal maps, or plots, of the surveys made by the topographical engineers of Sullivan's army-which maps are more fully referred to on pages 1099 and 1172. As previously stated, the entire course which it was intended the "Sullivan Road " should follow from11 " Learn's " to Wilkes- Barré was surveyed and marked out by the engineers, who worked in advance of the road-builders proper. The engineers followed pretty closely the old bridle-path, known as the "Lower Road," up to a point a short distance beyond where it crossed Laurel Run, and near where Captain Davis and Lieutenant Jones had been murdered. Tliencefor- ward, instead of following that path* down along the south-eastern base

* The bridle-path, or "Lower Road," did not run over the crest of Wilkes-Barre Mountain, and down "by Prospect Rock," as stated by Judge Harding.

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of Wilkes-Barré Mountain to and through Solomon's Gap, the engi- neers went diagonally up the face of the mountain, passed over its crest, and continued down the other side-at first, diagonally (passing in the rear of Prospect Rock), and then in a zig-zag course. Having reached the foot of the mountain, the course of the proposed road was run in a north-westerly direction, over the foot-hills, till it terminated at the head of Northampton Street in the town-plot of Wilkes-Barre. In other words, the present Northampton Street, from Pennsylvania Avenue (formerly Canal Street) south-east to the city line, and continuing thence as a township highway through "Georgetown," past Prospect Rock, and on over the mountain to Laurel Run (forming what was once a sec- tion of the Easton and Wilkes-Barré Turnpike), follows a course almost identical with that of the old " Sullivan Road " for the same distance.

The section of the " Sullivan Road " extending from "Bullock's" to- Northampton Street was not built in its entirety by the men of Colonel Butler's command (as stated by Judge Harding on page 17 of his pam- phlet), but only that stretch of it lying between the crest of the moun- tain and Northampton Street-as is shown by the "journals " of the Sullivan Expedition. And, as a matter of course (the whole line of the pro- posed road having been surveyed), in opening up this Wyoming section of the road, a " particular, or definite, point was indicated for the meeting " of this section with the section which was being constructed under the direction of Colonel Van Cortlandt.

The road which Judge Harding mentions as having "started at the westerly foot of the mountain near a spring known as Bowman's Spring," was not the "Sullivan Road " or any part of it, but was a public road which was constructed in 1788 or '89 to supersede that portion of the "Sullivan Road " which passed up and over the mountain in the neigh- borhood of Prospect Rock. This " Bowman's Spring " road is referred to more fully in a subsequent chapter.

The troops under the command of Colonel Van Cortlandt having completed the construction of the road from "Learn's" to White Oak Run (a distance of about six miles), removed their camp early in the morning of May 17th to the west side of this little creek-giving the name " Rum Bridge " to the locality. There the camp remained until Sunday, May 23d, the men working meanwhile on the road in front, although the weather was either foggy or rainy every day. In the morn- ing of the 23d tents were struck, and the camp was removed some six miles to a point in the Great Swamp between Tunkhanna and Toby- hanna Creeks. In the evening of the saine day a Sergeant and five men were sent forward to Wilkes-Barré with letters from General Sullivan to General Hand. They reached Wilkes-Barre safely, and returned to camp in the evening of May 26. The troops remained at the camp last mentioned exactly one week, working industriously on the road in front, and also building a substantial bridge across the Tobyhanna, together with a connecting causeway-the whole being 115 paces in length. While stationed there Colonel Van Cortlandt wrote to Gover- nor Clinton of New York, dating his letter May 26, 1779, at "Great Swamp Wilderness, of the Shades of Death, 25 miles from Wyomen." The letter reads in part as follows* :

" By an officer passing to your State [I] have just time to inform you of the good health and spirits of the officers and men under my command. I have, in a letter sent * See the "Public Papers of George Clinton," IV : 851.

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by Lieutenant Livingston, informed you of the nature of the command I am ordered upon, which is to make a road to Wyomen for the transportation of artillery, which is coming in with General Sullivan, and is now at Easton. * * I just received a letter * from General Hand, who is at Wyomen. Things go on well in that quarter. Provisions are transported up the Susquehanna, and meet with no obstruction as yet from the sav- ages ; although small parties are very frequently seen near the fort, and have been on the path from this [point] to Wyomen, but have not as yet attempted anything to the prejudice of my party. ** * The danger will be when I advance beyond the swamp."

On May 29th, while in camp near Tobyhanna, two soldiers of Col- onel Van Cortlandt's detachment were tried by a drum-head court- martial for stealing rum from the commissary stores. Both men were found guilty, and were sentenced, one to receive seventy-five lashes and the other fifty lashes-which sentence was executed immediately. In the evening of that day General Sullivan, accompanied by Maj. Adam Hoops, one of his aides-de-camp, arrived at the camp from Easton. They remained there over night, and set out early the next morning on their return to Easton, where, on May 31st, in general orders, General Sullivan extended " his most sincere thanks to Colonels Van Cortlandt and Spencer, and to the officers and soldiers under their command, for their unparalleled exertions in clearing and repairing the road to Wyo- ming." In conclusion he declared :

"He [Sullivan] cannot help promising himself success in an expedition in which he is to be honored with the command of troops who give such pleasing evidence of their zeal for the service, and manifest so strong a desire to advance against the inhuman mur- derers of their friends and countrymen."

At the same time General Sullivan wrote to President Reed of Pennsylvania as follows :

"I yesterday returned from the Great Swamps. I find the road in such forward- ness that I shall march the army for Wyoming this week. I have already sent on 500 men to strengthen that Garrison, as I find Colonel [John] Butler is on his march down- ward with 900 men."

Meanwhile, by order of General Sullivan, the 1st New Hampshire Regiment (commanded by Col. Joseph Cilley)-which had arrived at Easton on May 18th and taken up its quarters "in the Court House and other spare buildings "-had marched from Easton on May 28th to join Van Cortlandt's detachment. The latter broke camp at Toby- hanna on May 30th and removed five or six miles to Locust Hill, where, on the 31st, the men of Colonel Cilley's regiment arrived, pitched their tents, and went to work on the road. On the next day a detachment of 200 men, selected from the three regiments then at Locust Hill, marched forward to Wilkes-Barré under the command of Lieut. Col. William S. Smith of the 5th New Jersey Regiment. This detachment was accom- panied onward from Locust Hill by the 1st New Jersey Regiment (Mat- thias Ogden, Colonel, and David Brearly, Lieut. Colonel), which had just marched up from Easton on its way to Wilkes-Barré. Here, on June 3d, these combined bodies arrived and went into camp on the bank of the river, erecting " bush huts " for their shelter. (The baggage and camp equipage of the 1st New Jersey Regiment had been left at Easton in charge of one of the companies of the regiment, by which it was brought on pack-horses to Wilkes-Barré on June 12th.)

At his headquarters in New Jersey, under the date of May 31, 1779, General Washington issued his instructions to General Sullivan relative to the campaign against the Indians for which preparations were then being made. The immediate objects of the Sullivan Expedition, declared Washington, were the total destruction and devastation of the settle-

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ments of the Six Nations, as well as of their adherents and associates, and the capture of as many persons as possible, of every age and sex. Having established somne central post, Sullivan was directed to detach parties " to lay waste all the settlements around, with instructions to do it in an effectual manner, that the country may be not merely overrun, but destroyed." Until this should be thoroughly done, he was not to listen for a moment to any proposals of peace. He was ordered to "make, rather than receive, attacks, attended with as much shouting and noise as possible." If, after he had thoroughly destroyed their settlements, the Indians should show a disposition for peace, Sullivan was to encourage it, on the condition that they should give "some decisive evidence of their sincerity" by delivering up into the hands of the Americans "some of the principal instigators of their past hostility-Butler, Brant, and the most mischievous of the Tories " that had joined thein.

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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 II, Part 108

Author: Harvey, Oscar Jewell, 1851-1922; Smith, Ernest Gray Publication date: 1909 Publisher: Wilkes-Barre : Raeder Press Number of Pages: 680

Author: Harvey, Oscar Jewell, 1851-1922; Smith, Ernest Gray
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Wilkes-Barre : Raeder Press
Number of Pages: 680