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 44

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 44

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

1 old great coat

1 old streight bodyed coat

6 -

One old linnen do.

4 Napkins

5 pillow Cases at 1 /3 each

1 feather bed 1 bolster & 1 pillow

2-10

1 coverlid & sheet

1- 0-

1 pr. hand Irons

1 Workd. pocket book

1 Anvil

5-10

1 vice

1-10

1 cow

1 heifer yearling

1 -10 - 0

1 coat lined and lappeld

12 -

1 bedstead

5- 0

" Westmoreland

Sept. 1st, 1780.

"Jonathan Fitch \ Apprisers under " Simon Spalding § oath."

"The within Inventory recorded in the probate Records for the Destrict of Westmoreland pages 65, 66. 67.

" Fees for Administration 3s. 6d.

For receiving probate & recording 7s. 3d.

10s. 9d."

Mrs. Hannah (Parke) Gore, widow of Capt. Obadiah Gore, died at the home of one of her sons in Sheshequin, then in Lycoming, now in Bradford, County, Pennsylvania, August 14, 1804, in the eighty- fourth year of her age.

The children of Capt. Obadiah and Hannah ( Parke) Gore were as follows : (i) Obadiah, born April 7, 1744; died March 22, 1821. See hereinafter. (ii) Daniel, born March 13, 1746; died September 3, 1809.

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One back lot No. 18 containing 80 acres at 40s.

One grant of lands by order of Susqh. Company in lieu of Two rights in Plymouth Destrict

0 6

One note of hand against James Legget for 25 bus of ry

One do. against James Finn dated July 1777

10 12

One do. against John Ewing

One do. against Capt. Fuller for 20 sheep and 251b of Wool

1 puter bason

1 old pr. of Leather breeches

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4- 0- 0

" pr. nie OBADH. GORE, Clerk."

£670-16-11

160

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(iii) Silas, born December 28, 1747; killed at the battle of Wyoming. See hereinafter. (iv) Asa, born February 28, 1750; killed at the battle of Wyoming. See hereinafter. (v) Hannah, born May 28, 1752. See hereinafter. (vi) Lucy, born May 28, 1754; died September 30, 1820. See hereinafter. (vii) Sarah, born November 23, 1756; died May 20, 1841. See hereinafter. (viii) George, born in Septem- ber, 1759; killed at the battle of Wyoming. (ix) Samuel, born May 24, 1761; died May 2, 1834. See hereinafter. (x) John, born February 25, 1764; died August 4, 1837. See hereinafter.

(i) Obadiah Gore, Jr., was born at Nor- wich, Connecticut-as mentioned on page 831. He learned the trade of a blacksmith, and settled in his na- tive town. He was married March 27, 1764, to Anna (born December 18, 1744), third child of Rich-

ardson and Sarah

(Plumb) Avery of Groton, New London County, Connecticut. (For a sketch of Rich- ardson Avery and some of his descend- ants, see a subsequent chapter.) In the Au- tumn of 1762 Obadiah Gore, Jr. (then in the nineteenth year of his life), and his younger brother, Daniel, came with the original New England settlers to Wyoming (see page 403, Vol. I) as the representatives of their father, a mem- ber of The Susque- hanna Company; and it is quite probable that the two youths were here at the time of the massacre de- scribed on page 430, Vol. I. In the Spring of 1769 Obadiah- accompanied by his brothers Daniel and Silas-again came to Wyoming; this time in the company of set- tlers led by Major Durkee. He was here OBADIAH GORE, JR. during the ensuing Summer (see pagcs 498 and 509, Vol. I), again in 1770, and in 1771 took part in the siege and capture of Fort Wyoming. For this last-mentioned service he was admitted as a proprietor in the town of Wilkes-Barre September 24, 1771; and when the final distribution of the Wilkes-Barre lands took place in 1772 he drew House Lot No. 6, as well as lots in the other divisions of the town. (See pages 713, 728 and 655.) Prior to 1778 he acquired, also, House Lot No. 5, which he continued to own until March 20, 1786, when he sold it to Aaron Cleveland for £15. Lot No. 6 he continued to own until 1787, or later.

During the first few years subsequently to his second comning (1769) to Wyoming Obadiah Gore, Jr., worked at his trade. He and his brother Daniel were two of the small number of blacksmiths to be found among the New England settlers in the valley at that time; and these two were undoubtedly the first men, not only in Wyoming but in the world, to use "stone-coal," or anthracite, for fuel-they hav- ing used it as early as the year 1769 in the fires of a smithy or forge at Wilkes-Barre. As evidence that, as early as 1774, at least, Obadiah Gore, Jr., appreciated the fact that anthracite coal had some value, the following paragraph is here introduced, taken from an original letter written in May, 1774, by Mr. Gore to The Susquehanna Company, and now in the possession of the present writer. "There is a large quantity of good stone coals on said tract, which is valuable and the very best I have seen on Susque- hannah-as I profess to be judge of that." The tract of land here referred to lay in the lower end of what is now Plymouth Township, near Harvey's Creek, and in later years the Harvey coal-mine was opened on it and successfully worked for a long period. Concerning the connection of Obadialı Gore, Jr., with the early burning of anthracite coal, further and fuller references are made in Chapter LI, post.

`As early as June, 1772, Obadiah Gore, Jr., was a member of the Wyoming Committee of Settlers (see page 735), and thenceforward, for more than thirty years, he was prominent and influential in the affairs of Wyoming. His name is frequently mentioned in the following pages. From February to July, inclusive, in 1772, he was Town Clerk of Wilkes-Barre. In October, 1772, he was sent by the Wyoming settlers to the General Assembly at New Haven to present an important memorial. (See pages 750 and 751.) In 1775 he was surveying lands in the Wyoming region for some of the Susquehanna proprietors.

Miner ("History of Wyoming," page 192) says: "During the Summer [of 1776] Captain Weisner, from New York, was sent to Wyoming to enlist part of a rifle company for the Continental service. Obadiah Gore, Jr., * + received the commission of Lieutenant and raised about twenty men, with whom he marched to headquarters. Soon after, however, it being deemed proper that, as they were enlisted in Connecticut, they should be credited to her, and not to the New York Line, they were trans- ferred to the regiment of Colonel Wyllys." At the session of the General Assembly of Connecticut held in October, 1776, Obadiah Gore, Jr., was "appointed to be First Lieutenant in one of the eight battalions" then ordered to be raised (see "Records of the State of Connecticut," I:14); and according to "Connecticut in the Revolution" (published at Hartford, Connecticut, in 1889) Obadiah Gore, Jr., was commissioned January 1, 1777, First Lieutenant in the Third Regiment, Connecticut Line, com- manded by Col. Samuel Wyllys. He (Gore), according to this book, was "on duty at Westmoreland; was in Sullivan's expedition, and was retired from service January 1, 1781, by reason of the consoli-

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dation of the 3d Regiment with the 4th Regiment, Connecticut Line." Craft, in his "History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania," says (page 360): "In 1776 he [Obadiah Gore, Jr.] entered the Continental army in a regiment commanded by Col. Isaac Nichols, and served six years; was commis- sioned First Lieutenant by John Hancock, October 11, 1776, and by John Jay, March 16, 1779." The present writer will not attempt to reconcile these different accounts of the military commissions and services of Lieutenant Gore, but will simply state that there is indisputable evidence at hand to prove that Obadiah Gore, Jr., was a Lieutenant in the Continental forces in the years 1776 to 1780.

Lieutenant Gore was not in Wyoming at the time of the battle of July 3, 1778, but was with the army under General Gates, at White Plains, New York. About the 18th of July he joined Colonel Butler at Fort Penn (now Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania) and was sent by the latter "as express to head- quarters"-as is shown by an original document in the handwriting of Colonel Butler, now in the collections of The Wyoming Historical and Geological Society. (See, also, "Proceedings and Collections of The Wyoming Historical and Geological Society," VII : 131, 146.) In August, September and October, 1778, and in March, 1779, Lieutenant Gore was on military duty at the Wyoming Post in Wilkes-Barré-and presumably was here during the Winter of 1778.'79. According to "Connecticut in the Revolution" (page 267) Lieutenant Gore and the following-named men of the Third Regiment, Connecticut Line, were at the Wyoming Post November 11, 1779. Asa Chapman, Sergeant, Thomas Park, Corporal, Deliverance Adams, Turner Johnson, Ebenezer Park, John Oakley, Benjamin Potts, David Shaw, Lemuel Whitman, Crocker Jones, John Platner and Joshua Farnum. In May, 1779, Lieu- tenant Gore was appointed by the General Assembly of Connecticut, and duly commissioned, a Justice of the Peace in and for the county of Westmoreland (Wyoming) for the ensuing year; and to this office he was reappointed and recommissioned in May, 1779, May, 1780, May, 1781, and May, 1782. From 1779 to 1783, inclusive, Lieutenant Gore was Clerk of the Probate Court and of the County Court, and Recorder of Deeds, in and for the county of Westmoreland, and many pages of the original record-books described on page 26, Vol. I, are in his handwriting. In December, 1779, be was elected Town Clerk of Wilkes-Barre, and in 1782 was Treasurer of the county of Westmoreland. He was one of the two Representatives from Westmoreland who sat in the General Assembly of Connecticut at the sessions held in October, 1781, and in May and October, 1782. In February, 1783, he was the bearer to the Legislature of New York of an important memorial from a large number of Wyoming inbabitants. (See Chapter XXI, post.)

In the latter part of 1784 Lieutenant Gore removed from Wilkes-Barre to a section of the Susque- hanna region which subsequently formed a part of Luzerne, later was in Lycoming, but now is in Bradford, County, Pennsylvania. He located first in what is now Ulster Township, but the next year removed to what is now Sheshequin, on the left bank of the Susquehanna. (In the note on page 443, Vol. I, we refer to the original Sheshequin as being on the left bank of the river. This is an error, inasmuch as it was on the right, or west, bank, within the limits of the present township of Ulster. August 28, 1775, The Susquehanna Company granted to Elijah Buck-who in 1802 was living in Tioga County, New York-Aholiab Buck, William Buck, Asahel Buck, Thomas McClure, Matthias Hollen- back, Obadiah Gore and others a township called "Ulster," containing twenty-five square miles of territory and located on the west side of the inain branch of the Susquehanna at and above Tioga Point. Owing to the breaking out of the War of the Revolution no survey or allotment was made in pursuance of the aforementioned grant, nor was any attempt at settlement inade. July 21, 1786, after Lieutenant Gore and others had settled in that locality, The Susquehanna Company-by a committee consisting of Zebulon Butler and John Franklin-issued a new grant for the township of Ulster, which included territory on both sides of the river, but took in only a small part of the territory covered by the original grant. This new township was surveyed in 1786 by Lieut. Obadiah Gore, "Agent and Surveyor" for the following-named grantees-as shown by the original records of The Susquehanna Company, Book I, page 25. Simon Spalding, William Buck, William Judd, Timothy Hosmer, Obadiah Gore, Elijah Buck, Thomas Baldwin, Henry Baldwin, Joseph Kinney, Joseph Kinney, Jr., Joseph Spalding, John Spalding, Reuben Fuller, "Widow" Hannah Gore, Samuel Gore, Abraham Brokaw, Avery Gore, Joseph Eaton, Joshua Dunlap, Lockwood Smith, Aholiab Buck's beirs, John Shephard, Stephen Shephard, Nathan Denison, Joshua Jewell's heirs, Hugh Foresman, Isaac Baldwin, Chester Bingham, Adviel Simons, Zerah Beach, Lebbeus Hammond, Benjamin Bailey, Lawrence and Sarah Myers, Nehemiah Defries, Abner Kelly and Benjamin Clark. This township of Ulster was merged in the township of Tioga in 1790 by a decree of the Luzerne County Court, but some twenty years later it became one of the original townships of Bradford County, and existed under the name of Ulster until 1820, when the township was divided-the portion west of the river retaining the name Ulster and the portion east of the river receiving the name Sheshequin. It was in this last-mentioned Sheshequin that Obadiah Gore lived. )

Craft states in his "History of Bradford County" that Obadiah Gore built in 1787 the first framed house in what is now Sheshequin Township, and that he also had the first distillery in the township. From 1791, at least, until 1821 be conducted a store there-probably the first one in Sheshequin. In 1786 Lieutenant Gore was employed by the Boundary Commissioners of Pennsylvania (one of whom was David Rittenhouse, mentioned on page 792) to assist them, in conjunction with the Commissioners of New York, in running the boundary-line between the two States. As shown by an original MS. in tbe handwriting of Obadiah Gore, now among the papers of The Susquehanna Company in the posses- sion of The Connecticut Historical Society, "Little Beard," "Big Tree," and other chiefs of the Seneca and Cayuga tribes of the Six Nations, leased to Simon Spalding, Obadiah Gore, Elijah Buck, John Shepard, Matthias Hollenback, and fifteen others, under the date of March 5, 1787, a large tract of land on the Susquehanna and Tioga Rivers, in the "Connecticut Gore region." The consideration paid was £1,600, New York currency, and the lease was to run for a long term of years.

May 11, 1787, Lieutenant Gore was commissioned by the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsyl- vania one of the two Justices of the Peace in and for the Third District of Luzerne County, and one of the seven original Justices of the Court of Common Pleas of the county. (See Chapter XXIV.) He served as a Justice of the Court of Common Pleas until August 17, 1791, when, under the new Constitution of the State (adopted in 1790), he was appointed and commissioned an Associate Judge of the Courts of Luzerne County, to serve during good behavior. In this office he served until April, 1804, when Sheshequin, Ulster and other of The Susquehanna Company's townships in the northern section of Luzerne County were set off and annexed to Lycoming County.

Craft (in his "History of Bradford County") says of Judge Gore: "He was a man of superior mind, and benevolent in the fullest sense of the word. His name was a household word among the settlers in the backwoods for a long time, and they ever found in him a friend who would assist them from his ample stores as their necessities required." Mrs. Perkins (in "Early Times on the Susque- hanna") says: "He [Judge Gore] was a man of dignity of character, and pleasing in his address. He was a man of much taste, and cultivated a great variety of fruit. He also planted the mulberry tree and raised silk-worms to some extent. He was at one time a merchant, and opened a store of goods in his house on the hill, where he always lived, and at the same time carried on farming quite extensively. There was much in his beautiful situation to comfort his family and attract his friends." He was a man of fine appearance, as is indicated by tbe photo-reproduction on page 833 of bis portrait, painted when he was about forty years of age. That he wore a wig as early as 1787 (when he was forty-three years of age), is shown by the following extract from a letter written at Philadelphia in November, 1787, by Col. Timotby Pickering to his wife at Wilkes-Barré. "I have desired Mr. Burkett to purchase a wig for Esquire Gore, but he has not yet found one ready-made. The peruke-makers ask eight dollars to make one.

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The following verses from Alexander Wilson's poem, "The Foresters," referred to on page 65, Vol. I, describe the poet's visit to Judge Gore's home at Sheshequin in the Autumn of 1803:

" 'T'is now dull twilight; trudging on we keep Where giddy Breakneck nods above the steep, And down the darkening forests slowly steer,

Where woods, receding, show a dwelling near-

A painted frame, tall barracks filled with hay, Clean, whitewashed railings raised along the way. Young poplars, inixed with weeping willows green, Rise o'er the gate, and fringe the walks within; An air of neatness, pleasing to the eye and mind,

Bespeaks that courtesy we so quickly find. The aged Judge, in grave apparel dressed,

To cushioned chairs invites each weary guest ;

O'er the rich carpet bids the table rise,

With all the sweets that India's clime supplies;

And supper served, with elegance, the glass In sober circuit is allowed to pass. The reverend sire, with sons and grandsons round,

Ruddy as health, by Summer suns einbrowned, Inquires our road and news with modest mien; Tells of the countries he himself has seen,

His Indian battles, midnight ambuscades,

Wounds and captivity in the forest glades; And with such winning, interesting store Of wildwood tales and literary lore Beguiles the evening and enthrals each heart,

That, though sleep summons, we are loath to part;

And, e'en in bed reposed, the listening ear Seems still the accents of the sage to hear. The morning comes. (Ye gods! how quickly hies

To weary folks the hour when they must rise!)

Groping around, each fixes his particular load, And, full equipped, forth issues to the road."

Judge Gore died at his home in Shesliequin March 21, 1821, and his wife died there April 24, 1829. The children of Obadiah and Anna (Avery) Gore were as follows: (1) Avery, born January 10, 1765. (2) Welthea Ann, born August 10, 1767; married to Col. Jolin Spalding, son of Gen. Simon and Ruth (Shepard) Spalding of Sheshequin. (3) Hannah, born September 8, 1769; married October 8, 1788, to Elisha Durkee (born January 6, 1764), said to have been either a nephew or a cousin of Col. John Durkee mentioned on page 480, Vol. I. Elisha and Hannah (Gore) Durkee removed to Scipio, New York, where the former died August 21, 1819, and the latter died April 6, 1855. (4) Anna, born February 8, 1772; married June 3, 1790, as his first wife, to John Shepard (born at Plainfield, Con- necticut, April 17, 1765), for many years a prominent resident of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, where he died May 15, 1837. His wife Anna (Gore) died September 7, 1805. (5) Sally, born Septem- ber 22, 1774; married to Isaac Cash of Ulster (born August 12, 1766; died April 12, 1813). She died March 23, 1813.

(1) Avery Gore was associated with his father, Judge Matthias Hollenback and Elijah Buck in heavy land speculations in the State of New York, near the Chemung River and elsewhere. Avery Gore was commissioned Ensign of the 3d Company, 2d Battalion of Luzerne County Militia, May 1, 1789, by the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania. He was commissioned by Governor Mckean Second Lieutenant of the 2d Troop of Cavalry, 2d Brigade, 9th Division, Pennsylvania Militia, August 2, 1800; First Lieutenant, January 28, 1802, and Captain, May 26, 1806. He was Postmaster at Sheshequin in 1804 and for several years thereafter. He was married December 12, 1793, to his cousin Lucy (born September 2, 1773; died March 23, 1866), second daughter of (iii) Silas Gore, mentioned hereinafter. She was nearly five years old at the time of the battle of Wyoming, and during its progress was in Forty Fort with her mother and two sisters. After the capitulation of the fort they fled from the valley, going down the river in a canoe. Avery and Lucy (Gore) Gore were the parents of eleven children, as follows: Calista (born November 30, 1794), Alfred (born September 18, 1798), Matilda (born Novem- ber 6, 1800), Welthea A. (born March 6, 1803), Henry (born March 20, 1805), Edwin (born Septem- her 18, 1807), Obadiah (born October 10, 1809), Ralph (born September 21, 1811), Silas P. (born December 12, 1814), Charles (born October 25, 1816), George (born September 7, 1820).

Capt. Avery Gore died at Sheshequin July 30, 1847.

(ii) Daniel Gore, second child of Capt. Obadiah and Hannah (Parke) Gore, was born at Norwich, Connecticut, March 13, 1746. In his seventeenth year he came to Wyoming with the original New England settlers, as noted on page 833. Later he learned at Norwich the trade of a blacksmith, and came again to Wyoming in the Spring of 1769, as previously noted. He assisted in the erection of Fort Durkee, and was one of its inmates when, in November, 1769, it was surrendered to the Pennamites and the Yankees were required to depart from the valley. He returned to Wyoming in 1770, and at the original allotment of lands in the town-plot of Wilkes-Barre he drew Lot No. 20. (See pages 655 and 662.) When, in January, 1771, Fort Durkee was captured a second time by the Pennamites, Daniel Gore was one of the Yankees who were taken prisoners and sent to Philadelphia, where they were kept in confinement for several montlis. (See page 682, and note on page 685.) Returning to his home in Connecticut in June, 1771, Daniel Gore immediately marched for Wyoming with his brothers Obadiah, Silas and Asa in the company of Yankees cominanded by Captain Butler, to besiege the Pennamites in Fort Wyoming-as described on page 694, et seq. When, in 1772, the final distribution of Wilkes-Barre lands was made Daniel Gore drew, among other lots, Meadow Lot No. 38. Subsequently he acquired the adjoining lot, No. 37. These two lots contained upwards of sixty-six acres, and lay along the river, on Jacob's Plain, in what is now Plains Township, nearly opposite the site of Forty Fort. (The site of the ancient Indian earthwork described on pages 174 and 175, Vol. I, is located on this land.) Here, subsequently, Daniel Gore established his home, and lived-except when driven away by the Indians or the Pennamites-until his death.

In October, 1775, Daniel Gore was established by the General Assembly of Connecticut, and subse- quently commissioned by Governor Trumbull, Lieutenant of the 6th Company, 24th Regiment, Connecti- cut Militia-hereinafter more fully referred to. With his company he took part in the battle of Wyoming, and Miner (in his "History of Wyoming," Appendix, page 46) has recorded the following concerning him on that occasion. "Lieut. Daniel Gore was near the right wing, and stood a few rods below Wintermoot's Fort, close to the old road that led up through the valley. Stepping into the road a ball struck him in the arm. Tearing it from his shirt he applied a hasty bandage. Just at that moment Capt. [Robert] Durkee stepped into the road at the same place. 'Look out!' cried Lieutenant Gore. At that instant a bullet struck Captain Durkee in the thigh. When retreat became inevitable Lieutenant Gore endeavored to assist Captain Durkee from the field, but found it impossible, and Durkee said: 'Save yourself!' Lieutenant Gore then escaped down the road, and leaping a fence about a mile below lay crouched close under a bunch of bushes. * After dark he found his way to the fort." Escaping from the valley with other fugitives Lieutenant Gore returned to Wilkes-Barre in August, 1778, and,

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taking command of a small remnant of the militia company of which he was an officer, formed a part of the force at Fort Wyoming under the command of Lieut. Col. Zebulon Butler. (See "Proceedings and Collections of The Wyoming Historical and Geological Society," VII : 128, 129.) He continued in the military service at Wilkes-Barre as Lieutenant until the Sullivan expedition set out for New York, when he accompanied it; returning to Wilkes-Barre with it in October, 1779. In November, 1787, he was elected Captain (and subsequently commissioned) of the Upper Wilkes-Barre Company in tbe Battalion of Luzerne County Militia commanded by Lt. Col. Matthias Hollenback.

In 1809 Captain Gore was an applicant for a pension from the United States, and at Wilkes-Barre, under the date of May 22, 1809, he wrote the following letter to Col. Timothy Pickering, formerly of Wilkes-Barré, but then a United States Senator from Massachusetts. (See original letter in the "Pickering Papers," XLIII : 251, described on page 29, Vol. I.)

"I have this day forwarded by the mail a niemorial to the House of Representatives for a pension or half-pay (accompanied with the proper documents), for my actual services in the Revolutionary War as a First Lieutenant. I was wounded in the arni in the memorable battle fought at Abraham's Plains in this county on the 3d day of July, 1778, between the troops of the United States and the savages under the command of Butler and Brant [sic]. I should not have called on my country for assistance at this late hour, but necessity obliges me so to do, for feeling the pain of the wound more sensibly at my advanced age in life, and in a particular manner in the Winter season, and obliged to work very hard and he exposed to the weather, to gain a support for [my] family. And obliged to pay the State of Pennsylvania a sum of money for my little landed property in this county-which I am unable to perform, unless that I receive a compensation from my country in whose cause I spent my best days."

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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 44

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