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 3
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"Voted, That Gershom Breed* and Capt. Ebenezer Baldwin, both of Norwich, be added to the Standing Committee.
"Voted, That the Standing Committee be directed to proceed-in what [manner] they esteem best for the interests of the Company-to keep and maintain possession of our Purchase on Susquehanna River.
"Voted, That Capt. Robert Durkeet and Capt. Zebulon Butlert be added to the Committee of Settlers, to take care of the Company's interests and effects at Susquehanna ; and that they receive their advice and instructions from the Standing Committee."
* GERSHOM BREED, one of the grantees named in the Indian deed of 1754 (see page 272), was the original owner of one share, or right, in the Susquehanna Purchase. He was the tenth child of John Breed of Stonington, Connecticut, who was a grandson of Allen Breed, who immigrated to this country about 1630 and settled at Lyn11, Massachusetts. Gershom Breed settled in Norwich, New London County, Con- necticut, about 1750, and was a merchant there as early, at least, as 1765. In May, 1774, he was established Captain of the 9th Company in the 3d Regiment of the Connecticut Militia.
+ See Vol. I, page 481, third paragraph.
# ZEBULON BUTLER was born in 1731 at Chebacco (now the town of Essex), in the town of Ipswich, Essex County, Massachusetts. He was the eldest child of John and Hannah ( Perkins) Butler, and the grandson of Lieut. William Butler of Chebacco. William Butler, unquestionably of English descent, was born about 1650, presumably in New England, and prior to 1668 settled in Ipswich. October 11, 1682, he was admitted a freeman. In the course of his life he owned considerable real estate in Ipswich and the adjoining town of Gloucester, and in the various conveyances which were executed to and by him, as well as in his last will and testament, he was described as a "yeoman." During the progress of Queen Anne's War-which was waged between the New England Colonies and the Canadian French and Indians for several years following the accession of Queen Anne in 1702-William Butler served as a Lieutenant in the company of Massachusetts militia commanded by Capt. John Wainwright of Ipswich.
Lieutenant Butler was thrice married. First, about 1675, to Sarab -, believed to have been the seventh child (born about 1654) of Robert Cross, Sr., and Sarah his wife, of Ipswich. The children of this marriage were four sons and five daughters. One of the daughters became the wife of John Bayley of
Newbury, Massachusetts ; one, Hannah, was married to - - Andrews ; another became the wife of Josiah Burnham, a cooper in Chebacco, and another was the wife of Job Giddings, a tailor in Chebacco. Lieutenant Butler was married (2d) July 21, 1703, to Mary Ingalls of Ipswich, who bore him Mary (born 1704), Samuel (born 1706) and John (born 1708). Lieutenant Butler was married (3d) October 3, 1713, to Abigail, daughter of Thomas and Abigail Metcalf of Ipswich. No children resulted from this marriage. Lieut. William Butler died at Chebacco August 2, 1730, and was survived by his wife Abigail and eight of his children. His will was probated on the 18th of the same month, and the inventory of his estate amounted to £1,379, 17s. 6d.
John Butler (born at Chebacco in 1708), third and youngest child of Lieut. William and Mary ( Ingalls) Butler, grew to manhood in the town of Ipswich, where he was married in January, 1730, to Hannah Perkins. In 1732 John Butler and his wife and their only child, accompanied by James Perkins-a brother of Mrs. Butler-removed from Ipswich to Lyme, New London County, Connecticut,
Lyme, which was originally a part of Saybrook, 110w covers some seven or eight miles square of ter- ritory, bounded on the west by the Connecticut River and on the south by Long Island Sound. As origin- ally laid out the town of Lyme extended eastward to the bounds of the town of New London. It was settled in 1666, largely by inhabitants from the Say brook town-plot-an active, sensible, resolute and blue- blooded people. Lyme to-day embraces a number of villages and hamlets scattered throughout its terri- tory-among thein being Lyme, Lyme Street or Old Lyme (for the village is known by all these names ), South Lyine, Bill Hill, Hamburg and North Lyme. (See notes on pages 246 and 248.) Lyme and South Lyme lie in the southern part of the town near the Sound, while Hamburg and North Lyme are distant, respectively, about eight and ten miles, by the public highway, from the coast-being in that
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part of the town which formerly was designated as the North Quarter, North Society or Third Society of Lyme. Through the north-west corner of Lyme flows a sinall stream known as Eight-Mile River, which empties into an arm of the Connecticut River. This arm, or inlet, was known in early days as Eight- Mile River Cove, but now is called Hamburg Cove from the village near by. It is at the head of tide- water. Another small streamn, called Falls River, flowing from the east in a zig-zag course, empties into Hamburg Cove just south of the village.
John Butler and James Perkins settled within the bounds of the North Society of Lyme, not far from the present village of Hamburg, and later Mr. Perkins became a Deacon in the Congregational Church there. At the time of their settlement they jointly purchased 290 acres of land back of Mount Archer, in the direction of the district known as Joshuatown-the north-westernmost section of Lyme, which has, from the first, borne this name, derived from Joshua, the third son of Uncas the noted sachem of the Mohegans (mentioned on page 193), who was once the lord and tenant of that rough and romantic region. About 1736 Messrs. Butler and Perkins bought in common other lands in Lyme, and in January, 1739, they made an amicable division of all their Lyme lands. In the Spring or Summer of 1755 John Butler died at Lyme, being survived by his wife, Hannah, and nine children, the youngest of whom was only three years of age. The inventory of John Butler's estate-the bulk of which was in lands- amounted to £6,403, 8sh., in "money of the old tenor" (see note "*", page 252), and the debts footed up to £3,154, 17sh. 5d.
The names of the children of John and Hannah (Perkins) Butler were: (i) Zebulon, (ii) Mary, (iii) Isaac, (iv) John, (v) Houghton, (vi) Samuel, (vii) William, (viii) Nathaniel and (ix) Sarah. (ii) Mary Butler was born at Lyme in 1738, and between May, 1756, and May, 1761, she was married to Ebenezer (born at Lyme October 15, 1731), son of William and Prudence ( Pratt) Brockway-Prudence Pratt being the daughter of William Pratt. William and Ebenezer Brockway were descendants of Wolston Brock- way, who was born in England about 1638, and as early as 1659 settled in Lyme near the Sound. In 1697 he deeded. to his son Wolston certain lands on the Connecticut River at Joshuatown in Lyme. In May, 1724, the General Court, or Assembly, of Connecticut granted to the abovementioned William Brockway and William Pratt (who lived on the west bank of the river) the right to keep a ferry at Joshuatown --- which is known to this day as "Brockway's Ferry." During the eighteenth century there resided in Lyme many persons bearing the surname Brockway, all, presumably, descendants of Wolston Brock- way. Richard Brockway, of Lyme, was an early settler in Wyoming under The Susquehanna Company. He died at Lackawanna, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, in May, 1807, aged about 100 years. Ebenezer Brockway, abovementioned, was for the most of his life engaged in the fishing business and in sailing a trading-sloop-as is more fully mentioned hereinafter-and he was commonly known as Captain Brock- way. Samuel Butler, writing to his brother Zebulon from Saybrook, Connecticut, in August, 1790, said : "Captain Brockway's fishing business is very profitable in the season. He farmis, &c., the rest of the time. His sons Zebulon and Ebenezer Brockway own a vessel and follow coasting, and make money." Capt. Ebenezer Brockway died at Lyme May 9, 1812, and was buried in the grave-yard at Joshuatown. Mrs. Mary (Butler) Brockway died there November 29, 1811, in the seventy-fourth year of her age.
(iv) John Butler was in Wyoming in 1770. (vi) Samuel Butler was married about 1771 to Hester - (it is quite probable that she was Hester Brockway, a sister of Capt. Ebenezer Brockway), and prior to 1787 they had become the parents of six daughters. In 1786 the eldest of these children died. In 1774 Samuel Butler was in Wilkes-Barre, and for some months was engaged in teaching school. In the Winter of 1774-'75 he taught school at "Puttapogue Woods," evidently in Lyme ; and in the Summer and Autum11 of 1775 he was again in Wilkes-Barre. In 1790 he and his family were settled in Saybrook, Connecticut, where, for some time then, he had been "employed Summer and Winter in the small business of keep- ing school"-as he wrote his brother Zebulon. (ix) Sarah Butler was in February, 1779, the wife of Gideon Pratt of either the county of New London or of Middlesex, Connecticut.
ZEBULON BUTLER, the eldest child of John and Hannah (Perkins) Butler, was, as previously stated, born in 1731 in the town of Ipswich, and accompanied his parents thence to Lyme, where he grew to man- hood. In paragraphs five and six on page 297, six 011 page 481 and five on page 304, Volume I, we refer to the beginning of the French and Indian War in 1754, to Braddock's defeat in July, 1755, and to the vigorous but ineffective prosecution of the war on the part of the English in 1756. I11 April, 1755, Governor Shirley of Massachusetts and his staff passed through New London, Connecticut, on their way to meet General Braddock. News of Braddock's defeat came to New London the 22d of July following, and of the battle of Lake St. Sacrament (now Lake George) the 16th of September. Recruiting officers were busy in Con- necticut from March till October, 1755, and at some time within that period-as shown by an original inuster-roll now on file in the State Library at Hartford, Connecticut-Zebulon Butler, then twenty-four years of age, became Ensign of Capt. Andrew Ward's company in the battalion commanded by Lieut. Col. William Whiting, which fornied a part of the Connecticut regiment commanded by Col. David Wooster. For the campaign of 1756 Captain Ward's company was mustered in April of that year, and, from about the middle of May until October or November following, was with Lieut. Colonel Whiting's battalion "in camp at Fort William Henry, for the campaign at Crown Point"-as shown by original muster-rolls in the Connecticut State Library. Before leaving home with his company Ensign Butler con- veyed to his sister Mary at Lyme, May 12, 1756-as shown by an original document in his handwriting, now in the possession of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society-certain beds, bedding, curtains, etc., of the value of £60, "with the following reservation : that is, if by the blessing of God I [he] shall live to return, then she shall resign the possession of said goods."
In the campaign of 1757 (see paragraph 7, page 481, Volume I) Zebulon Butler served thirty-seven weeks and five days (from February 23d to November 13th) as Ensign of Capt. Andrew Ward's company in Lieut. Col. Nathan Whiting's battalion, receiving therefor the sum of £30, 12sh. 11d. November 14, 1757, he became Ensign of Capt. Reuben Ferris' "Company of Rangers," and served in that capacity until May 15, 1758-a period of twenty-six weeks-for which he received a bounty of £3, and £21, 2sh. 6d. as pay. (See original muster-rolls in Connecticut State Library.) In March, 1758, Zebulon Butler was appointed by the General Assembly of Connecticut Ensign of the 11th Company (commanded by Capt. Timothy Mather of Lyme) in the 3d Connecticut Regiment, commanded by Col. Eleazar Fitch. (See paragraph 8, page 481, Volume I.) However, Ensign Butler continued to serve with Ferris' "Rangers" until May 15th, as noted above-Wells Ely serving as Ensign of Captain Mather's company. May 27, 1758, Ensign Butler was promoted Lieutenant of this company, and joined the same at "Camp Fort Edward, Lake George," early in June. Soon thereafter he was detailed to serve as Quartermaster of the 3d Regiment. A "Mem- orandum Book for stores belonging to the Colony of Connecticut," which was used by Lieutenant Butler in July and August, 1758, is now in the possession of The Wyoming Historical and Geological Society. October 4, 1758, Lieutenant Butler set out from Fort Edward with a scouting party ; "marched to Saratoga ; crossed the Hudson, and returned to Fort Edward about October 18th." At the muster of Captain Mather's company at Fort Edward on October 19th, the rolls and certificates were signed by Lieutenant Butler. He served in this campaign until November 22nd. (See original muster-rolls in Connecticut State Library.)
Early in March, 1759, Zebulon Butler was appointed by the General Assembly of Connecticut First Lieutenant of the 9th Company in the 4th Regiment of the Colony's troops (see paragraph 2, page 482, Vol. I); but before the first of the following May he was promoted Captain of the company, which, on the 2d of May, at Lyme, was mustered and inspected by Col. Eleazar Fitch. Sixty-seven effective ment of the total strength of the company were present. (See original muster-roll in the Connecticut State Library.) In the possession of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society is a small pass-book containing the original receipts given to Captain Butler at Lyme between the 15th and 30th of May, 1759, by sixty-two of the privates and non-commissioned officers of his company, for their "bounty, back pay and month's pay." Captain Butler and his company participated with the 4th Regiment in the campaign of 1759. ·
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At that period of his life Captain Butler was engaged-when not soldiering-in farming and, in a small way, as a trader and shop-keeper in Lyme. In March, 1760, he was appointed by the General Assembly Captain of the 10th Company in the 4th Connecticut Regiment for the ensuing campaign (see paragraph 3, page 482, Vol. I), and in his private account-book-now in the possession of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society-we find this charge : "Captain Butler's company Dr. to provisions on the passage to Albany, May, 1760-2 bbls. Pork, 640 1bs. bread, 11 bus. potatoes, &c., £19, 9sh. 6d." Soon after his return home at the close of the campaign of 1760 Captain Butler was married at Lyme (Decem- ber 23, 1760) by Samuel Ely, Justice of the Peace, to Anne (born April 4, 1736), daughter of John and Han- nah ( Rogers) Lord of Lyme. John Lord (born at Lyme about 1704) was the second son of Lieut. Richard and Elizabeth ( Hyde) Lord. His father gave him 300 acres of land on Eight-Mile River in North Lyme, where he settled and lived until his death-which occurred January 7, 1776. His wife Hannah (to whom he was married November 12, 1734) was born in 1712, the daughter of Lieut. Joseph and Sarah Rogers of Milford, Connecticut, and she died December 25, 1762. The graves of John and Hannah ( Rogers) Lord are in close proximity to those of the present writer's paterual great-great-great-grandparents, in what is known as the Marvin burial-ground, about half-way between the villages of North Lyme and Hamburg. April 16, 1761, John Lord, "for and in consideration of the love and good-will" he bore to his "loving son- in-law Capt. Zebulon Butler," granted and conveyed to him a piece of land in Lyme.
In March, 1761, Zebulon Butler was appointed and commissioned Captain of the 8th Company in the 1st Regiment of Connecticut troops : and in March, 1762, by vote of the General Assembly he was reap- pointed to the command of the same company. (See "Colonial Records of Connecticut," XI : 485, 619.) Captain Butler's company numbered ninety-one men, to whom "a bounty of £7 per head was paid." The company was in service from March till December, 1762, and took part in the fatal expedition against Havana (see paragraphs 4 and 5, page 482, Vol. I)-losing twenty-six men by death from disease. With the coming of the year 1763 Captain Butler seems to have relinquished all connection with military affairs and to have earnestly settled down to farming and trading. At that time-and, indeed, until he finally removed from Lyme some nine years later-he lived near Eight-Mile River, on the eastern bank of which, not far from the cove previously mentioned, was his "landing-place," or wharf. His immediate neigh- bors were Capt. Elisha Marvin and Benjamin Harvey-the latter the present writer's great-great-grand- father.
Beginning at an early day quitea trade was carried on between the towns on the Connecticut River and the West Indies, and during the forty years that Zebulon Butler lived in North Lyme several of the residents of that locality owned sloops which sailed between Eight-Mile River Cove and various ports in the West Indies-in particular, St. John on the island of Antigua. In 1765 Captaiu Butler and his brother- in-law Capt. Ebenezer Brockway owned the sloop Polly (named for Mrs. Brockway), and a few years later the Anne (named for Mrs. Butler), of which Captain Brockway was Master. Frequent voyages were made to Antigua in one or the other of these vessels during the years 1765-'69, and miscellaneous cargoes consigned by residents of Lyme were carried and disposed of, either for cash or West Indian products. The following information, gleaned from an original account-book of Zebulon Butler, is printed in order to give the reader an idea as to the nature of the traffic carried on by the people of Lyme with the Antiguans prior to the Revolutionary War. March 20, 1765, these consignments were stowed on board the Polly at Captain Butler's landing : "100 bbls. fish, 8 bbls. meat, 1,100 hoops, 1,400 red-oak staves, 500 white-oak staves, 139 bus. oats, 2712 bus. corn, 312 tons hay, 9 horses, 9 oxen, 23 sheep, 11 hogs, 15 geese, 4 turkeys and 214 dung-hill fowls"-the last-mentioned being common, everyday chickens.
In December, 1765, Captain Butler was chosen one of the Surveyors of Highways in and for Lyme.
March 12, 1760, Captain Butler purchased from Gershom Breed (previously mentioned) for fifty-four shillings one-quarter of a share in the Susquehanna Purchase. Later he acquired other rights. Having returned early in April, 1769 (see page 472), from what proved to be his last voyage to Antigua, he made preparations to join The Susquehanna Company's settlers at Wyoming. He arrived here-so far as known, for the first time-in the latter part of June, 1769, and from that time until within four or five years of his death (a period of twenty-one years) "the life of Zebulon Butler is the history of Wyoming. Almost every letter of our annals bears the impress of his name, and is a record of his deeds"-as Charles Miner puts it (in his "History of Wyoming," Appendix, page 61). Captain Butler did not bring his family to Wyoming until December, 1772. In the meantime, however, he made frequent visits back to Lyme. Thus, as shown by his diaries, letters, etc., he was there in April and again iu September, 1772. As previ- ously noted one of his near neighbors and intimate friends in Lyme was Benjamin Harvey, Sr , who. in the Autumn of 1772, was making arrangements to remove his family to Wyoming. Captain Butler at that time had no oxen, horses or vehicles in Lyme with which to convey his family and effects to Wyoming, and so he made arrangements to have the work done by Benjamin Harvey, who, being a farmer, had what was needed for making such a long and rough journey.
Early in December, 1772, Benjamin Harvey, Jr., his brother Elisha, their sisters Lois and Lucy, and the wife and three young children of Captain Butler set out from North Lyme. The effects of the two families were loaded upon sleds drawn by teams of oxen, which were driven by Benjamin and Elisha Harvey and Lord Butler (then but eleven years old), while Lois and Lucy Harvey rode horseback and guided a small flock of sheep and a few cows. Mrs. Butler, her son Zebulon (five years old) and her daughter Hannah (not quite three years of age) rode on one of the sleds. They journeyed to New London, distant sixteen miles, and there boarded with their effects a small coasting-sloop, the master of which had contracted to transport them to New Windsor on the Hudson River, in Orange County, New York. The voyage, including a stay of one day at the city of New York, occupied ten days, and was terminated December 20th at New Windsor. There the party was met by Captain Butler, who had come from Wyoming on horseback, and the next day, in the afternoon, they began their toilsome overland journey of about 120 miles. The road from the Hudson to the Delaware River was fairly passable at that time ; but from the Delaware to the Susquehanna there was the roughest kind of a cart path, ascending mountains, running down into valleys, traversing swamps, crossing streams and winding through almost unbroken forests. According to Captain Butler's diary (in the possession of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society) the stopping places of the party on their journey from New Windsor to Wilkes-Barré were the following : Tilford's (at or near Goshen, Orange County, New York); Owens', or Owengo (in the northern part of Sussex County, New Jersey, near the New York State boundary); Welles' (in Sussex County, New Jersey, four miles east of the Delaware); Chambers'-whence they "went in the night to Esquire Van Campen's" ; Christmas-day they "crossed the Delaware and went to Shaw's," at Shohola ; the next day they proceeded to Parksbury (at Lackaway, in what is now Palmyra Township, Pike County, Pennsylvania); Sunday, December 27th, they "went to the Indian Spring," aud the next day arrived at Wilkes-Barre.
At that time a number of the principal inhabitants of the township of Wilkes-Barre were still occupy- ing the block-house at Mill Creek, of which they had taken possession some time previously (as is ex- plained hereinafter), deeming it more secure than either Fort Durkee or the fort erected by the Penna- mites on the river bank in 1771, and its situation more advantageous. Captain Butler was one of those who occupied the Mill Creek block-house, and to it he took his family upon their arrival. There, in the early Spring of 1773, died Captain Butler's younger son, Zebulon, and some weeks later-before May 27th -his wife died. (See Miner's "Wyoming," page 142, and Appendix, page 47.) In Captain Butler's diary we find the following entries: "1773, September 17-Wilks Barre-this day moved out of the Fort at Mill Creek down on to my Lot in Wilks Barre Town Plott. * * Wilks Barre 4 January, 1774, this Day
moved into my New House in this Town."
The lot above referred to was "No. 3" in the town plot ; it contained three acres and 103 perches, and was located at the south-east corner of the present River and Northampton Streets. (See page 655, post.) Within the original bounds of that lot now stand the residences of John N. Conyngham, the Hon. Stanley
THE WOODWARD RESIDENCE, REFERRED TO ON PAGE 637. From a photograph taken in 1902.
RESIDENCE OF MR. JOHN N. CONYNGHAM, MENTIONED ON PAGE 636. From a photograph taken in 1902.
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Woodward, J. Butler Woodward and one or two others. The "new house," mentioned in Captain Butler's diary, was a commodious two-story structure of logs, which he erected in1 1773 on Lot No. 3. It stood some distance back from River Street, and was occupied by Zebulon Butler and his family until 1792 (as shown by an affidavit made by Lord Butler July 3, 1801, and recorded on page 15. Volume I, of the minutes of the Commissioners under the Compromise Law of 1799-referred to on page 25, ante), when Zebulon Butler re moved to his farm-house on Coal Brook, within the limits of the present Second Ward of Wilkes-Barre. Ir 1793 Lord Butler had this log building moved to the part of Lot No. 3 near the site of the present resi- dence of John N. Conyngham, and at the north-west corner of the lot he erected in 1793-'94 a hand- some frame residence, facing River Street. (See pages 5 and 6 of the published copy of the address delivered by the Hon. John N. Conyngham at the laying of the corner-stone of the Luzerne County Court House, August 12, 1856.) The Lord Butler building, which was torn down in March, 1867, to make way fo. the present residence of the Hon. Stanley Woodward (which was completed in December, 1868), is re- ferred to more at length in subsequent chapters.
RESIDENCE ERECTED BY LORD BUTLER IN 1793-'94. From a lithograph after a photograph made in 1866.
When in May, 1775, the 24th Regiment of Connecticut Militia was established by the General Assembly of the Colony (see Chapter XII), Zebulon Butler was appointed and commissioned Colonel of the same. In August, 1775, at Wilkes-Barré, Colonel Butler was married (2d) to Lydia (born in 1756), daughter of the Rev. Jacob and Mary (Giddings) Johnson (see page 449); and to them was born in May, 1776, a son, to whom the name Zebulon was given. Early in September, 1776, Colonel Butler was appointed by the Con- tinental Congress Paymaster and Commissary for the two companies then being raised in Wyoming for the Continental service (see Chapter XIII); and October 11, 1776, he was appointed and commissioned by the Congress "Lieutenant Colonel in the army of the United States of America." January 1, 1777, he was commissioned Lieutenant Colonel of the 3d Regiment, Connecticut Line, in the Continental service- which regiment was commanded by Col. Samuel Wyllys of Hartford (mentioned on page 283), and had as its Paymaster Lieut. Samuel Richards of Farmington, Connecticut. This regiment went into camp at Peekskill, New York, in May, 1777, and formed a part of the brigade commanded by Brig. Gen. Samuel Holden Parsons of Connecticut (see page 658, post), which served under Maj. Gen. Israel Putnam along the Hudson until January, 1778, when the brigade took post at West Point and later began the erection of permanent works there. In the Summer of 1778 the 3d Regiment was encamped at White Plains, with Washington's main army.
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