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 51
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* It need hardly be said that when the Colonies revolted against the authority of Great Britain there were still many Americans who remained firm in their allegiance to the Crown, and even took up arms against their former friends. They were the so-called "Tories." Others, again, with fully as much sym- pathy for the royal cause, were deterred from openly aiding it through cowardice, because of religious principles-as was the case with many of the Quakers-or for various other reasons. These reasons, however, did not prevent many of the Loyalists from giving secret aid and information to the enemy- thus rendering themselves even more dangerous and difficult to deal with than those who had openly taken up arms. They were but wolves in sheep's clothing.
The following definition of a Tory was given at Philadelphia in 1775 by one of the former "Paxtang Rangers," mentioned on pages 426 and 641. "A Tory is a thing whose head is in England and its body in America, and its neck ought to be stretched."
The following "Ode to Tories" was printed in Towne's Evening Post in 1776.
"Ye Tories all, rejoice and sing - Success to George, our gracious King! Ye faithful subjects, tribute bring, And execrate the Congress.
" Prepare! Prepare! My friends, prepare For scenes of blood-the field of war. To th' royal standard we'll repair, And curse the haughty Congress.
" O goddess, hear our hearty prayers ! Con found the villains by the ears, Disperse th' plebeians, try the peers, And execute the Congress!"
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Miner states (in his "History of Wyoming," page 189) that this measure of establishing a Committee of Inspection "became the more pressingly necessary, as, with the breaking out of the war, and the pro- hibition on the part of Connecticut of any further emigration to Wyo- ming, there had come in strange families of interlopers from the Mini- sinks*, from Westchester, New York, from Kinderhook, and the Mohawk, connected with neither Pennsylvania nor Connecticut, and between whom and the old settlers there was neither sympathy in feel- ing, nor community of interests-Wintermutes, Van Gorders and Van Alstynest. A path of communication was opened by the disaffected be- tween New York and [Fort] Niagara}, to strike the Susquehanna twenty miles above Wilkes-Barré. Some of those new and unwelcome settlers soon inade their sentiments known, and disclosed their hostility to the American cause, while others for the time reinained quiet, though subsequent events showed the purpose of their emigration to the Sus- quehanna. This view is attested by the fact that in January, 1777, Mr. Hageman, being examined before the Committee of Inspection, said, ' that riding with Mr. S-§ they spoke of the people coming in up the river to join the enemy-as a familiar and well-understood matter. He, Hageman, observed that the Yankees would go up and take their arms from them. S- replied [that] he was the man, if it were done, who would see that they were returned to them.' "
"John Secord," says Miner, "who had settled up the river near thirty miles above the Valley, was known to harbor suspicious persons, and was suspected of acting as a spy, and giving intelligence to the enemy. Several British prisoners confined at Lebanon, Connecticut, had made their escape, viz .: Captain Hume, Lieutenants Richardson, Hubbage and Burroughs, with their servants. Having a pilot, they struck the river twenty miles above the Valley, and were supposed to have been directed to and entertained by Secord, furnished with pro- visions, and aided in their flight to Niagara. The Committee caused him to be arrested; but he petitioned Congress, complaining of the outrage on his rights, and by their order was liberated. *
0* Two of the Van Gorders-Philip and Abraham-were taken by the Committee and sent to Litchfield for trial. Andrew Adams, Esq., was employed to conduct the prosecution, but the issue we have not been able to learn. About the same time eight or ten persons were arrested and sent to Hartford for trial, but were dismissed. Doubts have been expressed whether there was not more zeal than discretion in these proceedings. With the faint lights before us it is impossible to form an opinion upon the sub- ject entirely satisfactory. Certain it is, such an influx of strangers was deemed, and not without reason, extraordinary. Some of them, it is known, immediately opened communications with the enemy. The issue showed that they were all enemies in disguise. We are not prepared to say, therefore, that the people were to blame in taking the inost ener- getic measures to remove or overawe the more avowedly disaffected -especially when the recommendations of Congress are considered."
* See page 189, Vol. I.
+ Craft, in his "History of Bradford County," states (page 62): "In 1776 there were living in the neighborhood of Standing Stone three or four brothers by the name of Van Alstyne, who were connected by marriage with the Wintermutes of Wyoming. * * * Near them was John Pensil, whose reported inhumanity, in murdering his own brother Henry in cool blood at the battle of Wyoming, has given him the name of 'the Fratricide,' and covered his memory with infamy."
# See page 298, Vol. I.
§ ADONIJAH STANBURROUGH.
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At Wilkes-Barré, January 6, 1776, there was held an adjourned town-meeting of the inhabitants of Westmoreland, at which Col. Zebu- lon Butler acted as Chairman and Solomon Strong as Clerk. Among the several resolutions adopted at that time was the following, relating to the Pennamites settled some thirty or forty miles above Wilkes- Barré.
"Voted, That Solomon Strong and Robert Carr and Nathan Kingsley be a com- miittee to proceed up the river immediately and let the people know that the inhabitants of Westmoreland are not about to kill and destroy them and take any of their effects, as is reported; but that they may keep their effects, and continue in peace on reasonable terms-provided they conform to the laws of the Colony of Connecticut and the Resolves of the Honorable Continental Congress, and confirm their intentions by signing the sub- scription-paper for that purpose that said committee will produce."
The meeting then adjourned to January 10th, at 10 o'clock in the morning, at the dwelling-house of Solomon Johnson-which was in the town-plot of Wilkes-Barré.
The Westmoreland records do not contain any account of the re- sults of the visit of the committee directed, as abovementioned, " to pro- ceed up the river" to interview the Pennamites residing there ; but in a petition by Capt. Alexander Patterson of Northampton County (a very active Pennamite, and always more than unfriendly to the New Eng- landers at Wyoming),* presented to the Pennsylvania Legislature in 1803, and printed at Lancaster in 1804, we have a very positive and vigorous statement relative to this matter. There are some misrepre- sentations therein, and it is quite probable that the whole account is exaggerated. It reads as follows :
"In the year 1776 there were a number of inhabitants settled near Wyalusing, un- der the Pennsylvania title; among them, two Pawlings, Secords, Depew, Vanderlip, and others. The Yankees at Wyoming, sixty miles distant, being more numerous, insisted that the Pennsylvania settlers should come to Wyoming and train and associate under Yankee officers of their own appointment. As may be supposed, the proposal was very obnoxious to the inhabitants of Pennsylvania, and [they] very properly refused, alleg- ing that they would associatet by themselves, and would not be commanded by intrud- ers, &c. This gave a pretext to the Yankees for calling them Tories. They therefore went in force, tied the Pennsylvania settlers and brought them to Wyoming, with all their movables, and confined them in a log house, until the Indians who lived in the neighborhood of Wyoming, and who loved the Pennsylvanians, came to Wyoming and requested that the Pennsylvania people should be released, declaring that they would complain to Congress if they were not. They were released, and on their return without property were ambushed and fired upon by the Yankees. The event of all this was that the Pennsylvania people were so harassed by the [New England] intruders that they were driven to seek an asylum with the Indians, and at length to retire to Fort Niagara for protection."
At Philadelphia, under the date of January 19, 1776, the Hon. Roger Sherman wrote to Col. Zebulon Butler at Wilkes-Barré concern- ing the fight at "Rampart Rocks" and the reported doings of the com- mittee sent up the river to interview the Pennamites. The letter read in part as follows§:
"We have had an account of an attack on our people by some of the Pennsylvan- ians|, who were repulsed with the loss of two men killed; but we have heard nothing from the Connecticut people relative to that action, or whether they sustained any loss. There is a report here that your people have given some disturbance to the settlers under Pennsylvania. I should be glad of a particular account from you of the situation of affairs relative to that unhappy controversy, which tends to weaken the Union of the Colonies at the present alarming crisis. I hope you will do all in your power to prevent
* See page 854.
+ That is, attend muster and drill as "associators," or militia.
# At Sheshequin and Tioga Point.
§ From the original draft of the letter in the handwriting of Mr. Sherman, now in the possession of
Mr. James Terry of Connecticut, and heretofore unpublished.
| The Plunket expedition.
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any disturbances being given to the settlers under Pennsylvania by our people, and that the resolutions of the Congress be duly observed. You will observe that the Assembly of Connecticut have shortened the western limit of Westmoreland. I would advise that no jurisdiction be exercised over the settlers under Pennsylvania within the limits of said town, if any one be contrary to their mind. * * *
" You will observe that the Congress have recommended that all the effects taken and detained front any persons on the controverted lands be restored. It will be proper to apply to the magistrates, who took cognizance of that matter, for restitution; or to the Sheriff who had the goods in custody. And if they are not restored, that the case be represented to the Congress."*
In February, 1776, the authorities of Northumberland County, headed by Colonel Plunket, were still smarting because of their defeat at and humiliating retreat from "Rampart Rocks"; and, at a ineeting of the Committee of Safety of Northumberland County, held at North- umberland February 8th, it was resolved that it was the opinion of the committee "that a petition be presented to the Honorable Assembly of the Province, setting forth the late murder of two of the Sheriff's posse, near Wioming, for attempting to act in conformity to the laws." ; At a subsequent meeting of the Committee, held February 26th, the forin of the petition to the Assembly, "relative to the Connecticut intruders," was approved, ordered to be copied, and circulated for signatures. t
In the Pennsylvania Assembly, March 6, 1776, the following docu- inents were received and read and ordered to be laid on the table. "A representation from John Secord, in behalf of himself and other inhab- itants of Pennsylvania at or near Wyoming; a memorial from a number of inhabitants of the county of Northumberland, respecting Wyoming disputes; and sundry other papers relative to that subject." On March 15th the Speaker laid before the House "an extract of a letter from Zebulon Butler, Esq., of Westmoreland, dated February 28, 1776, to- gether with depositions of Jeremiah Bickford and John Schufeldtt, rel- ative to the late disturbances at Wyoming; which were read and ordered to lie on the table." A week later a imemorial from John Secord-in behalf of himself and a number of other settlers on the Susquehanna above Wyoming, § and accompanied by an affidavit made by John · Salınon||-was received by the Continental Congress, read, and referred to a committee. Taking into consideration on April 15, 1776, "the report of the committee on the petition of Jolin SecordT, Congress Resolved, That a certified copy of said petition be transmitted to the Governor of Connecticut; that he be requested to cause inquiry to be
* This last paragraph refers to the seizure by the Pennamites of the personal effects of some of the Yankees at Warrior Run in September, 1775, as previously detailed; which effects had not yet been re- turned to their owners or accounted for in any way.
+ See "Pennsylvania Archives," Second Series, XIV : 339.
Į He resided in Wilkes-Barré, and was a son or brother of Peter Schufeldt, who, in 1770, came, it is probable, from Schoharie, New York, and settled on the Susquehanna at what is now Asylum, Bradford County. In 1776 or '77 Peter Schufeldt sold out to James Forsythe and removed to the West Branch, where he was killed by Indians in June, 1778.
§ See page 867. | Mentioned on page 645, ante, and elsewhere.
" According to Craft (in his "History of Bradford County") John Secord made his first home in West- moreland on the west side of the Susquehanna, nearly opposite the mouth of Tunkhannock Creek, in what is now Wyoming County. Of his early history of place of emigration nothing definite is known. I11 1777 he removed to Tioga Point, where he cleared seven or eight acres of land immediately at the "Point", erected a small house and a barn, and in 1778 had a small stock of cattle. There he remained most of the time until after the battle of Wyoming, when he removed to New York State. Subsequently to 1785 he is said to have emigrated to Canada. "In the Spring of 1778," says Craft, "his son James, lead- ing a band of Tories and Indians on an expedition for plunder as far as Wyalusing, sent forward his father to reconnoiter the village and see if any Yankee soldiers were there. Entering the house in which Mrs. [Amios] York was living he asked for something to eat. While she was getting the food in readiness her son reported that three men were approaching on horseback. Secord, in aların, begged Mrs. York to secrete him, which she did, and after the inen had crossed the river Secord informed Mrs. York of the approaching expedition, but said: 'Mrs. York, you have saved me, and I will save you.' He returned to his son and reported a strong force of Yankees in the settlement, and the hostile party beat a rapid retreat." In June, 1785, John Secord was living in New York, at which time he sold to Matthias Hollenback his title and interest in and to the land at Tioga Point where he had formerly dwelt. There are some further references to John Secord in Egle's "History of Pennsylvania," pages 430 and 495.
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made into the truth of the facts therein stated, and, if found true, that it be recommended to him to cause restitution to be made to the peti- tioner."
A large number of men from the different districts of Westmore- land assembled at Forty Fort, in the Kingston District of the town, on March 6, 1776, when the following document was drawn up and signed *:
"Whereas the inhabitants of this town have of late been invaded by a large num- ber of Tories, which, by the blessing of God we have repulsed; but, notwithstanding, are threatened with another invasion. And as we are also a frontier town, and liable to be attacked by the Indians if a war should be commenced between them and us, we do think that it is our duty to be in readiness at an hour's warning, if an invasion should happen, to engage our enemies, invaders or intruders ; and we, the undersigners, do free- ly and with cheerfulness engage in the common cause as soldiers in the defence of liberty, under the direction of the honourable Continental Congress, or Colony to which we belong; and do freely and of ourselves inlist to go with TIMOTHY SMITHt and Lieut. LAZARUS STEWARTĮ as officers over us; and we will submit ourselves to be ruled, gov- erned, and ordered by them as officers, when they shall receive commissions for that pur- pose, either from our Governor or the honourable Continental Congress, and we receive such bounties and moneys, clothes, &c., as shall be allowed to us as soldiers.
Mason Fitch Alden,
Obadiah Gore, Jr.,
Constant Matthewson,
Caleb Atherton,
Silas Gore,
Elijah Matthewson,
Thomas Baldwin,
Dethick Hewitt,
John Murphy,
Rufus Baldwin,
Ezekiel Hamilton,
Asahel Nash,
Stephen Burritt,
Thomas Hill,
Thomas Park,
Oliver Bennet,
Lebbeus Hammond,
Josiah Pascoe,
Elijah Brown,
Oliver Hammond,
Phineas Peirce,
Nathan Bradley,
Ebenezer Heberd,
Elisha Satterlee,
Nathaniel Church,
James Hopkins,
Constant Searle, Jr.,
Gideon Church,
Francis Hopkins, Jr.,
James Smith,
Nathan Cary,
Thomas Heath,
Timothy Smith,
Peleg Cook,
Eglon Hatch,
Jedidiah Stephens, Jr.,
Benjamiu Cole,
Abraham Hamester,
Lazarus Stewart, Jr.,
Ezer Curtis,
Israel Inman,
Heman Swift,
John Cary,
Richard Inman,
Samuel Tubbs,
Robert Dorrance,
William Jackways,
John Tubbs,
David Darling,
Benjamin Jenkins,
Elijah Walker,
William Davidson,
Josiah Kellogg,
Isaiah Walker,
Samuel Ensign,
William Kellogg, Jr., Stephen Whiton,
Daniel Franklin,
Job Kelly,
Asaph Whittlesey,
Elisha Fish,
Daniel Lawrence,
William Welch,
Justus Gaylord, Jr.,
Edward Lester,
James York."
The foregoing and the two following documents were sent without delay to the Continental Congress, where they were read on March 12th and ordered to be laid on the table.
"WESTMORELAND, March 8, 1776.
"Hon. JOHN HANCOCK, President of Congress. "Sir: The inhabitants of this town being sensible of the blessings of liberty, and desirous of taking a share in defence thereof by risking their lives and fortunes in the service of the honourable Continental Congress; it seems they could think of no better way of testifying their attachment to the common cause than by meeting together this day and making choice of us as their officers-desiring at the same time we should ap- ply immediately to the honourable Continental Congress for commissions, that we may be in readiness to march, if your Honours call for us, at the shortest notice. If your
* See "American Archives," Fourth Series, V: 127, 128. The names of the signers have been arranged alphabetically by the present writer.
t See page 718, also note "#" on page 759.
Į LAZARUS STEWART, 2D, or, most commonly, "JUNIOR," was born in 1741, the son of John and Fran- ces Stewart of Hanover Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He came to Wyoming in 1770 in the company of settlers headed by his cousin, Capt. Lazarus Stewart, mentioned on page 640. Lazarus Stewart, 2d, was married in 1776 to Dorcas, daughter of Timothy and Jemima (Scovill) Hopkins of Ply- mouth District in Westmoreland, and they settled in Hanover, on what is now known as the "Old River Road," not far from the present Wilkes-Barre and Hanover boundary-line. In 1776 Lazarus Stewart. 2d, was Lieutenant of the 5th Company, 24th Regiment, Connecticut Militia. (See page 857.) He took part with this company in the battle of Wyoming, July 3, 1778. and fell on the field. He was survived by his wife Dorcas (who died subsequently to 1802) and one child, Frances (born December 12, 1777), who was married in 1812 to George Sively (born in 1789; died in 1854), and died October 3, 1855. The original inven- tory of the estate of Lazarus Stewart, 2d, made November 25, 1780, by John Franklin and Jonathan Fitch, and aggregating £515, 12s. 8d., is now preserved in the collections of The Wyoming Historical and Geo- logical Society.
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Honours please to honor us with commissions-as the people were pleased to choose us their officers-we will use our utmost skill and ability, in conjunction with the other troops in the Continental service, to subdue the enemies of American liberty.
"We have, therefore, despatched Mr. WILLIAM STEWART with copies of the instru- ment to which we have subscribed and bound ourselves by, with a list of the names of those who made choice of us, and by whom the honourable Congress will please to send such commissions, and instructions how to draw sustenance, money, clothes and arnis and ammunition for the men.
"We are, Sir, with due regard to truth, your Honour's obliged humble servants, [Signed] " LAZARUS STEWART,
" TIMOTHY SMITH,
" DETHICK HEWITT,
" PHINEAS PEIRCE."
"TO THE HONORABLE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS, AT PHILADELPHIA:
"We certify that a company of men met together in Kingston District, in the town of Westmoreland, on Susquehannah River, and in the Colony of Connecticut, and there chose Lieut. LAZARUS STEWART their Captain, Messrs. TIMOTHY SMITH, First Lieuten- ant, DETHICK HEWITT, Second Lieutenant, and PHINEAS PEIRCE*, Ensign; and they have obliged themselves by an instrument in writing, to which they have signed their names, with the men who chose them officers, to march at the shortest notice to any part that your Honours or honourable Assembly of the Colony of Connecticut (to which they belong) may direct, to defend the liberties and privileges of America; and [we] do think them suitable persons to officiate in that station in which they have been chosen, and do accordingly recommend them to your Honours.
"Given under our hands, this 8th day of March, 1776.
[Signed] "NATHAN DENISON, } "JOHN JAMESON,¿ "WILLIAM STEWART.§"
It is quite probable that the signers of the last of the three forego- ing documents composed the Westmoreland Committee of Inspection then in office.
At that time the attention of Congress was being particularly directed to the preparations required for the defense of the seaboard, and it became necessary for the town of Westmoreland to take steps to provide its own munitions of war. Accordingly, "at a town-meeting legally warned, and held in Kingston District March ye 10, 1776," it was unanimously voted " that ye first man that shall inake fifty weight of good saltpeter or niter in this town shall be entitled to a bounty of £10 lawful money, to be paid out of ye town treasury." At the same meeting it was voted " that ye Selectmen be directed to dispose of ye Grain now in ye hands of ye Treasurer or Collector, in such way as to obtain powder and lead to ye value of £40, if they can do ye same." While the men were thus making preparations for warfare the women of West- moreland were not inactive. They "fanned the spark of freedom into a flame by their approving smiles," and with their own hands-just as their sisters in another part of Litchfield County were doing at that very time||-assisted in the manufacture of needful ammunition. They took up the lower floors of their houses (where there were no cellars), dug out the earth, put it into casks and ran water through it (as ashes are leached). Then they put wood-ashes into another cask and inade lye,
* See the last paragraph of the note on page 711, ante.
t See page 788.
# See a subsequent chapter for a sketch of his life.
¿ WILLIAM STEWART (born in 1739; died in Hanover, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, July 14, 1803) was an elder brother of Capt. Lazarus Stewart, previously mentioned. Coming to Wyoming in the company of Hanoverians led by the latter, he acquired an original share in the ownership of Nanticoke -later Hanover-Township, as previously described. (See pages 644 and 677.) In1 August, 1778, he was appointed by Col. Zebulon Butler "Commissary of Purchases and Issues for the Wyoming Garrison." This office he held until September 20, 1780, when he was succeeded by Hugh Foresman. In May, 1781. William Stewart was appointed by the General Assembly of Connecticut "an Assistant Commissary of Purchases for the county of Westmoreland," and this office he held till the close of the year 1782. Then, or a few years later, he removed from Wyoming Valley to Hanover, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. His name appears often in these pages. In 1793, being the owner of Lot No. 27, Ist Division, of Hanover Township, Luzerne County, Mr. Stewart had the same surveyed and plotted into streets and town1-lots, and sold thirty-six of the lots. He named the town-site "Nanticoke," to commemorate the original name of the township in which the land lay (see page 515, Vol. I), and thus the present flourishing borough of Nanticoke had its beginning. | See page 285, Vol. I.
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which they mixed with the water that had been run through the earth. This mixture they boiled and set aside to cool, when saltpeter rose to the surface. This was pulverized with sulphur and charcoal, and gun- powder resulted. Yes, the hearts of the women of Westmoreland bnrned with the same pure flame which animated the bosoms of their brothers, their husbands, their fathers and their sons! And subse- quently, when Congress called for the severance of their domestic rela- tions by ordering away the military companies raised here for their defense,
" The wife whose babe first smiled that day, The fair, fond bride of yestereve, And aged sire and matron grey, Saw the loved warriors haste away, And deemed it sin to grieve."
At Wilkes-Barré, under the date of March 27, 1776, Christopher Avery, Samuel Ransom, George Dorrance, John Jenkins and Solomon Strong, Selectmen of the town of Westmoreland, wrote to the Hon. Roger Sherman at Philadelphia relative to the troubles which the Westmorelanders had recently had with the Pennamites, and declared that they were "not yet over." Continuing, the Selectinen stated *:
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