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 13
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"That presently after this examinant heard that Nathan Ogden was killed and some others wounded. Upon which this examinant, being uneasy, desired that he might be permitted to go out with a flag [of truce] to the Sheriff, which said Lazarus Stewart, the elder, and others refused, and said that if he attempted it they would fire on him ; but that if he would stay till night they would go out of the fort in a body and fire on the Sheriff and his people and then go off. Which he refusing to comply withi, they locked him up among the five prisoners that were confined ; and further, this examinant saith that through the cracks of the house where they were confined they saw the said Lazarus Stewart and the rest leave the fort about the dusk of the evening, except about ten who remained behind in or near the fort."
Thomas Bennet, in his affidavit referred to on page 675, deposed concerning the occurrences of January 19th-21st, as follows :
"That on Saturday the 19th inst. [January, 1771] the Sheriff of Northampton County came up to the fort and demanded entrance, but that Lazarus Stewart refused to admit him till he had an answer to the petition he had sent to the Governor of Pennsyl- vania. That on the Monday morning following Nathan Ogden, as this examinant heard, came up to the fort, having been desired by the people of the fort to come, together with Charles Stewart and some others, to converse with them. That soon afterwards this ex- aminant heard a gun go off, but did not know who fired, but heard his wife say that Nathan Ogden was shot-she having heard him, immediately on the guns being fired, groan. This examinant further saith, that the only reason of his ever appearing in arms at the said fort was to keep sentry sometimes in his turn, when they were under apprehen- sions of being attacked by the Indians-a number of them being then there, who appeared very angry and painted, and threatening to roast a hog in the fort and have a dance, and that the said Indians carried off a hog. And further, that he this examinant knoweth not where said Lazarus Stewart and liis company went, but believes he and his followers went to Hanover Township [in Lancaster County], or to New England ; only he heard Stewart say that though their number was small now, yet they had friends enough in Virginia, Maryland, New England and other places who would enable them to visit them again1."
Parshall Terry, in his affidavit mentioned on page 403, Vol. I, refers to the events of January, 1771, in these words :
"The Ogdens appeared again on the ground with a large party of about 150, as was said, accompanied by one Kachlein, a sheriff, as lie was called. They surrounded our block-houses and demanded a surrender, which was refused by our party. They com- menced a heavy fire upon us. They were ordered to withdraw, but still crowded upon us. The fire was returned from our block-houses. Nathan Ogden was killed. The party then withdrew. That the evening following Captain Stewart, and a small party with him, retired and left the deponent and about ten or twelve others, with their families ; that the next morning following the deponent and the others, about ten or twelve as aforesaid, were all taken prisoners by Charles Stewart and others, robbed of all our prop-
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erty, and our families drove off. The deponent and the others taken with him were sent under a guard to Easton. The deponent and three others were confined in Easton goal, and the others were sent to Philadelphia goal, as was said. The deponent, about six weeks after, broke goal and made his escape and went to Goshen, New York. * * That he does not know who killed Nathan Ogden, but his belief is that John McDonald killed him."
Shortly after Nathan Ogden had breathed his last, and his corpse had been removed to Fort Wyoming, Justice Charles Stewart summoned a jury of inquest, composed of the following Pennamites-who were members of Sheriff Kachlein's posse comitatus : Jacob Brinker, Casper Dull, Daniel Shoemaker, Michael Raub, Peter Ealer, James Lawson, John Seely, Bernard Gritz, Joseph Wheeler, Robert Duchee, Daniel Bloom and Beniah Mundy. After due inquiry the jury found* that "a certain Lazarus Stewart did present his gun through a loop-hole in the fort, and, saying he would shoot the said Nathan Ogden, did fire his rifle ; and the bullet entering on the right side of the body of the said Nathan Ogden, was the cause of his death instantly ; and that the said Lazarus Stewart is guilty of the horrid and wilful murder of the said Nathan Ogden." This finding of the jury, together with the letters and deposi- tions prepared by Justice Stewart-as previously mentioned-were im- mediately forwarded to Governor Penn by an express. Accompanying the documents was a list (forty-eight names) of the "Rioters in the fort at Wioming, January 21, 1771, when Nathan Ogden was murdered." The following is a copy of the listt :
"Lazarus Stewart, the murderer, Lazarus Stewart, the younger, William Stewart, James Stewart, apprehended and escaped, John Simpson, Peter Kidd, Thomas Robinson, James Robinson, John Robinson, Robert Kidd, Simeon Draper, Asa Ludington, William Young, Silas Gore, James Ray, Parshall Terry, Robert Hopkins, John Stephens, Jesse Kinny, Daniel Angell, Ebenezer Staens, Isaac Warner, Jedidiah Olcutt, John Franklin, Nathan Denison, Silas Hopkins, Richard Cook, Henry Coland, Matthias Hollenback, William Speedy, Philip Avic, John Donnell, Thomas Bennet, John Cochran, Abel Peirce, William Grimes, Joshua Bennet, Jacob Anquish, George Walterberger, Peter Dance, Jesse Weeks, Timothy Smith, Asa Lyons, Isaac Bennett, James Biggar, John Pearce, Gideon Pillar and Daniel Gore."
Leaving a garrison of about thirty Pennamites at Wilkes-Barré in charge of Fort Durkee and Fort Wyoming, Sheriff Kachlein, Captain Ogden and Justice Stewart, with their associates, marched from the valley about the 23d of January and made their way to Easton as ex- peditiously as possible. Of the ten or twelve prisoners who were taken when Fort Durkee was captured (as detailed by Parshall Terry), Maj. Simeon Draper, Asa Ludington, Daniel Gore, Thomas Bennet and Wil- liam Speedy were sent to Philadelphia and committed to the City Jail, where Major Durkee and Captain Butler were still languishing, while Parshall Terry and the remaining Wyoming prisoners were locked up in the Easton jail. The majority of the inen who had retired from Fort Durkee with Lazarus Stewart in the evening of January 21st repaired to their several homes in Lancaster County and elsewhere, but Captain Stewart and six other Hanoverians made their way to Connecticut. Thus was consummated the fifth expulsion of the Yankees from Wyo- ming by the Pennamites.
February 4, 1771, at Philadelphia, Charles Stewart, Esq., and Capt. Amos Ogden were paid by Edmund Physick, Esq., Receiver General of the Province, £100 on account of "Wyoming expenses";} and on the same day Governor Penn sent a message to the Provincial Assembly, in
* See "Pennsylvania Archives," First Series, IV : 385. + See ibid.
# See Vol. III, page 89, of the "Penn-Physick Manuscripts," previously mentioned.
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which he gave an account of the arrest of Lazarus Stewart by the Sheriff of York County and the escape of the prisoner from the Sheriff's deputies ; who, stated the Governor, were "not altogether free from sus- picion" in permitting the escape. "The same Lazarus Stewart," con- tinued the Governor, "far from being awed by the proceedings of Gov- ernment against him, has since his escape put himself at the head of a number of people of his neighborhood, of the same lawless disposition with himself, and with an armed force has taken possession of the lands at Wyoming." The Governor then referred to Sheriff Kachlein's ex- pedition to Wyoming and to the happenings here, and declared that Lazarus Stewart, "in cool blood, and in the most treacherous manner, inurthered Nathan Ogden, * and wounded several others."
On February 8th a message was sent to the Governor by the Assembly, signed by the Hon. Joseph Galloway, the Speaker, and con- taining the following paragraph* :
"The outrages arising from the confederacy of so many desperate ruffians, who have at length perpetrated in a most treacherous manner, and with an audacious contempt of Government, the murder of a person acting in obedience to the laws, too plainly evince the dangerous tendency of such licentious proceedings, and the necessity of pursuing these daring offenders. We therefore request the Governor to issue a proclamation offer- ing a reward of £300 for the apprehension and delivery of Lazarus Stewart to the Sheriff of Philadelphia County, and £50 for the apprehension and delivery of each of his ac- complices, viz .. James Stewart, William Stewart, William Speedy, John Simpson, Wil- liam Young, John McDaniel, alias Donnel, and Richard Cook."
In pursuance of this authorization the Governor issued on February 9th a proclamation in which the rewards namned by the Assembly were offered. The proclamation was published in the newspapers, and 300 broadsides were printed and distributed throughout the Province.
In February and March, 1771, the following advertisement was published in The Connecticut Courant at Hartford, and in other news- papers.
"WHEREAS our settlers at Wyoming on Susquehanna River are unjustly and by force and arms drove off from their settlements, and it is judged necessary that some. effectual measures be come into soon, to put an end to the dispute : These are therefore to warn all the proprietors in the Susquehanna Purchase to meet at the Court House at Windham 13th March next to take said matters into consideration, and to come into such measures as shall be judged best for said Company.
[Signed] "ELIPHALET DYER, "SAMUEL GRAY, "JEDIDIAH ELDERKIN, "EBENEZER BALDWIN, "GERSHOM BREED,
Committee."
Early in March, 1771, printed petitions were prepared and circulated throughout the various towns in Connecticut for the signatures of the inhabitants of the Colony not proprietors in The Susquehanna Company. These petitions, which were addressed to the General Assembly of Con- necticut, prayed that the "distressed case of the settlers at Wyoming" might be taken into consideration, and that they and the territory they claimed "might be erected into a County" by the General Assembly.
Agreeably to notice The Susquehanna Company inet at Windliam on March 13th-Maj. Elizur Talcott acting as Moderator, and Samuel Gray as Clerk. The following preamble and resolution were adopted :
"Whereas, our settlers are again unjustly and inhumanly drove off from their set- tlements at Wyoming, and robbed of their effects by a gang of lawless and wicked men, and it is judged best and necessary for the interests of this Company to regain and liold possession of our settlements at Wyoming ; and in order thereto it is now
"Voted, That the 240 settlers, together with those settlers to whom the township of Hanover is granted, shall, as soon as may be, repair to Wyoming and take possession of * See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," IX : 715.
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our settlements there, and hold them for said Company ; and in case any of said settlers shall neglect or refuse to go and take and hold possession of said lands according to the former votes of this Company, that then any other person or persons that shall go and re- gain and hold possession of said land, according to the former votes of this Company, shall each be entitled to one settler's right. And for a further encouragement, each set- tler shall at his setting off be paid out of the Treasury of this Company five dollars ; and that Ezekiel Peirce, Esq., Capt. Zebulon Butler,* Edward Mott, Robert Durkee, John Smith, Esq., John Jenkins, Elizur Talcott, Jeremiah Angell, Eliphalet Lester, Christopher Avery, Benjamin Follett, William Gallup, Seth Smith, William White of Stafford, Gad Stanley, Capt. Eliphalet Whittlesey of Kent, Benjamin Stephens of Canaan, Increase Moseley, Esq., Daniel Lyman, Esq., Jonathan Pettibone and Obadiah Gore be a com- inittee to take the names of such persons as shall engage to go forward." * * *
Under the date of March 20, 1771, Governor Trumbull wrote to the Standing, or Executive, Committee of The Susquehanna Company as followst :
"Governor Penn's letter to me, dated the 7th inst., inclosing a Proclamation and a copy of a Riot Act issued and passed in consequence of repeated disturbances raised by sundry persons within the Government of Pennsylvania, I have committed to the care of the Hon. Matthew Griswold .¿ It is said that the disorders which have occasioned these proceedings are the undoubted effect of a pretended claim set up by a Company in this Colony to the lands on the Susquehanna in Pennsylvania. You being a committee of that Company, I have desired his Honor to communicate the same to you, that you may have opportunity-if you think fit-to obviate the grievous complaints, viz .. 'That you chuse to prosecute your claim by the most unwarrantable violence rather than by law, and much disturb the peace of that Province, and so involve many of their people that it becomes necessary for the Assembly to introduce the Riot Act to prevent such outrages for the future.'
"This communication is made in confidence of your hearkening to and showing me your readiness to see justice [done] in legal ways only, to discountenance all lawless pro- ceedings, and to preserve the peace of both that Government and this."
Under the date of March 27, 1771, Col. Eliphalet Dyer, Maj. Jedidiah Elderkin, Samuel Gray, Esq., and Nathaniel Wales, Jr., Esq., members of the Standing Committee of The Susquehanna Company, replied to the foregoing communication in a long and carefully-prepared statement§, in which they gave a résumé of the doings of their Com- pany from its beginning. In conclusion they wrote :
"In what a surprising and unheard of manner, in an English Government, has been the treatment of Major DURKEE-who never has been present or active where any affray has happened-to be forcibly taken captive and carried down to Easton ; the most exces- sive bail required, and when he appeared to save his bail, could have no trial, but in- creasing bail required, and to appear in another county than where the facts were pre- tended to have been done ; and upon his appearance a further and additional bail required, and no trial could be had. At last, by the excessiveness of the bail required, he was obliged to sink under the weight and be committed to the gaol in Philadelphia, there to be kept on bread and water with many others his companions-depending solely for their support upon the good Providence of God and the help of some compassionate friends ; and so hath continued from last September [1770] until this time, without any trial or deliverance."
April 4, 1771, The Susquehanna Company met at Windham pur- suant to adjournment, when the, action of the Company taken at its meeting held on March 13th was discussed, and a report was received from the committee appointed "to take the names of such persons as would agree to go upon said lands at Wyoming." Whereupon the fol- lowing was adopted :
"Whereas, The major part of said committee have made their report in the premises, and it appears from said report that it is the general opinion of the proprietors so far as they have been consulted-which extends to a very considerable part of said Company-
* Shortly before this Captain Butler had been released from the Philadelphia City Jail-presumably under bail-and had returned to Connecticut. Alexander Patterson, the Pennamite, in his "Petition" mentioned in the note on page 626, ante, stated that "after a long confinement Judge Allen gave him [Captain Butler] money and clothes, on his promising never more to disturb the Province, and discharged him." This statement, like a score of the other statements contained in Patterson's "Petition," is un- doubtedly untrue.
f See "Pennsylvania Archives," First Series, IV : 394.
# Then Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut.
§ See "Pennsylvania Archives," First Series, IV : 401.
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that it is desirable to defend our possessions on Susquehanna River with life and spirit ; and they appear universally willing to extend what [aid] shall be necessary for that pur- pose, and seem determined to prosecute our claim to those lands in every Constitutional way that can be devised, until the same shall be in some legal way determined. Yet, it is judged by many of the proprietors that-as we have now a petition lying before the General Assembly, praying them to take into consideration the general claim of this Colony to those western lands (which it is expected will be acted upon at the next ses- sion); and as it seems almost impossible but that the Assembly, on consideration of the Colony's title, will judge the same good and claim the same accordingly (which deter- mination may be of great advantage in defending our particular right); and that we may pay a due deference to the laws of the land-it is most prudent actually to delay going on to said lands, according to said votes, until opportunity [has been had] to know the
minds of the Assembly. * * Therefore, it is unanimously agreed and voted to suspend entering on said lands according to said votes passed the 13th of March last, until the adjourned meeting to be held at Hartford on the 15th of May next.
"Whereas, Maj. John Durkee and several others of the proprietors of the Susque- hanna Purchase are confined in the common goal in the Province of Pennsylvania, and are there destitute of friends and money-which renders their situation extremely dis- tressing and affecting to all who have any just ideas of their sufferings-and application having been made at this meeting for some relief, this meeting, taking this matter into serious consideration, Votes, That the sum of £50 be immediately raised and sent to Major Durkee and the others for their relief ; and as there is no money now in the Treasury it is voted that the following provision shall be made for raising the aforesaid sum, viz .: That proper persons be appointed to apply forthwith to the proprietors in the several towns, and advise them of the distressed situation of the said Major Durkee and his companions, and request the proprietors to pay such sums as they may think them- selves in duty bound to advance ; and that the Treasurer repay to such proprietors the several sums they shall so advance, as soon as the same can be collected out of the debts due to said Company. And if sufficient sums shall not be collected in the above method, then if any of the friends of the persons confined shall procure in whole or in part the above sum, and send the same to be distributed among them, * * then in that case the same shall be refunded out of the Treasury aforesaid-provided the sum so raised do not exceed to Major Durkee £34, and either of the others-viz .. Simeon Draper, Daniel Gore, Asa Ludington and Thomas Bennet-the sum of £4 each, which makes the said sum of £50 .*
"Voted, That Ebenezer Backus, Capt. Silas Park, William Hurlbut, Ebenezer Bald- win, William Gallup, Increase Moseley, Elizur Talcott, Joseph Eaton, Robert Durkee, Zebulon Butler, John Perkins, Ezra Buell, John Jenkins, Nathaniel Loomis, Jeremiah Angell, Jonathan Pettibone, Gad Stanley, John Smith and Obadiah Gore be a committee to make application to the proprietors in order to collect the above sum of £50.
"Whereas, There are seven (7) persons belonging to Pennsylvania Government now residing among us in this Colony who were obliged to depart our settlements at the Susquehanna by reason of the forcible proceedings of Amos Ogden and others his ac- complices against them, while defending our possessions there ; which persons, by nieans of leaving their estates, families and business there seem justly to deserve some assistance of the Company here for their support-which persons have been some time supplied in part by Ebenezer Backus of Windham, and will stand in need of further assistance for necessary support, both as to provisions and some articles of clothing-it is therefore Voted, That the cost already arisen for their support since they came into this Colony (including what they expended in this Colony on their journey to Windham, as well as since), and what shall be needful for their comfortable support until the 15th day of May, f next, shall be paid to those who shall so support them, out of the Treasury of said Company.#
"Voted, That the Standing Committee forthwith send, or procure to be sent, the £50 in money voted to be sent to Major Durkee and his companions, in the most safe, ex- peditious and prudent manner they can-to be distributed by said Major Durkee accord- ing to said vote."
The Company then adjourned, to meet at Hartford on the 15th of the following May, at which time and place the General Assembly of
* As previously noted Captain Butler had been released from the Philadelphia jail in January or Feb- ruary, 1771, and later William Speedy was released under bail. In the latter part of June, 1771, Major Draper was released from confinement, and joined his family in Dutchess County, New York. About the same time Messrs. Gore, Ludington and Bennet were also released, and returned to their respective homes. t At which time the General Assembly of Connecticut would be in session, and, it was hoped and believed by the members of The Susquehanna Company, would take some favorable action in their interest.
# The seven refugees from Pennsylvania thus provided for were Capt. Lazarus Stewart and his six associates who had fled from Fort Durkee on January 21st. Two years later the following certificate was issued (see The Susquehanna Company's Record Book "B," page 213): "Whereas Capt. Lazarus Stewart, William Stewart, and sundry others their associates, repaired into this Colony in 1771, being driven from our settlement at Susquehanna River, and while here became indebted to Nathaniel Olcutt of Hartford, for their support, in the sum of £6, 7s. 6d. lawful money. In consideration thereof, by and with the other committeemen, these presents doth intitle the above-named Nathaniel Olcutt to one half-right or -share in the lands in the Susquehanna Purchase, in full discharge of said debt.
[Signed] "SAML. GRAY, one of ye Comtee." "Dated in Hartford June 2, 1773.
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Connecticut would be in session. Having convened then and there ac- cording to adjournment, the Company appointed its Clerk, Samuel Gray, Esq., to "attend the General Assembly and assist in preparing the Susquehanna Case for a hearing." An adjournment then took place until May 23d, at Hartford, when a further adjournment to June 12th, at Windham, was voted. Towards the end of May the General Assembly of Connecticut, after some debate, took the following action : "Resolved, That the lands west of the Delaware, and in the latitude of that part of this Colony eastward of the Province of New York, are well contained within the boundaries and descriptions of the Charter granted by King Charles II in 1662.". This, of course, related to the lands claimed by The Delaware Company (see page 293, Vol. I) and by The Susquehanna Company, and lying between the forty-first and forty-second parallels of latitude. (See "Map of a Part of Pennsylvania," farther on in this chapter.)
Turning our attention, now, in the direction of Wyoming Valley, we find that from about the 23d of January, 1771, the Pennamites were exclusively in possession of the valley. About the first of March the men who had been garrisoning the two forts at Wilkes-Barre were joined by a number of Pennsylvanians and Jerseyinen with their families, as
FORT WYOMING, WILKES-BARRÉ, 1771-'74. From an old drawing.
well as by Capt. Amos Ogden and Charles Stewart, Esq. Fort Wyo- ming was thereupon enlarged and strengthened, and all the Pennamite settlers and others on the ground dwelt therein-Fort Durkee being abandoned and dismantled and, it is quite probable, demolished in part. During the next four months and more peace and quiet reigned in Wyo- ming, and the Pennamites here, who numbered about eighty effective men, were nearly all engaged in agricultural operations at various points within hail of Fort Wyoming. During a considerable part of that time, however, Charles Stewart-who was still a Deputy Surveyor of the
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Province-was energetically occupied with a corps of surveyors and assistants in resurveying the subdivisions of the Proprietary Manors of Stoke and Sunbury (which had been originally surveyed in 1769),* and in laying out to various persons-under warrants issued from the Pro- vincial Land Office-tracts of land in various sections of the Wyoming region outside the Proprietary Manors.
April 6, 1771, sundry freeholders of Northampton County presented to the Provincial Council a petitiont setting forth that the prosperity of the settlement at Wyoming greatly depended on the making of a road "from the old frontier improvements to the Susquehanna, as the diffi- culty of traveling on horseback from either of the above places to the other," by way of the path then in use (the "Pennamites' Path" described on page 646), was "sensibly felt" by all who attempted it. The peti- tioners further set forth that the work "must be attended with a great expense" before the road could "be made passable for carriages ; without which the removing of families, and husbandry," could not be well effected. The Council ordered Aaron De Pui, Peter Kachlein, Daniel Shoemaker, John Van Campen, Beniah Munday, Philip Johnston, John Seely and Michael Raub "to view and lay out a road from the north side of the Blue Mountain to Wyoming, as nearly on a direct line as possible, and make report to the Provincial Secretary's office within six months." It is doubtful whether these comninissioners ever performed any part of the duty confided to them.
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