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 58
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At Bound Brook, under the date of May 27, 1777, General Lincoln issued the following order to Lieut. Colonel Butler :
"Sir -- It is His Excellency, General Washington's orders, that you inarch immedi- ately with the three detachments from Connecticut regiments, and the two companies of Wyoming men, to Chatham, there to take General Stephens' orders, if there-if not, you will send to headquarters for directions."
At Chatham, Morris County, New Jersey, under the date of May 29, 1777, Lieut. Colonel Butler wrote to General Washington as followst:
"Pursuant to orders received from your Excellency by the hand of Major General Lincoln, I have marched with the detachments froin the Connecticut regiments, and a few of the Westmoreland Independent Companies, and expect more of them will join me this day, and am now encamped upon the heights between Chathanı and Springfield .; I find General Stephens has gone from this place, and no orders can be obtained from him as I expected. My Quartermaster waits on your Excellency, by my directions, to know · your Excellency's pleasure concerning my detachment.
"Many soldiers in the Independent Companies have received no clothes since they entered the service, and are almost naked. Many of their arms are useless, and some of them lost. They are also destitute of tents, and every kind of camp equippage. I hope your Excellency will give special directions how they are to be supplied with those articles."
On May 28th Washington, with the greater part of his army, had marched from Morristown to Middlebrook, New Jersey, and taken po- sition behind the Raritan River, about ten miles from New Brunswick. His force then numbered 7,000 Continentals, and early in June Lieut. Col. Zebulon Butler was ordered to march his command to Morristown and go into camp there. About that time there was a good deal of sick- ness among the soldiers in New Jersey-a disease called " camp disten1- per " being prevalent. Following this, those soldiers who had not had
* See "Collections of The Wyoming Historical and Geological Society," IX : 221, 222.
t See Miner's "History of Wyoming," page 203.
In Union County, New Jersey; and near it, at Short Hills, the Americans were defeated in a fight June 26, 1777.
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sinall-pox were inoculated for it. From one or the other of these ills many soldiers died at Morristown in the early Summer of 1777. Of Ransom's company, Charles Gaylord died July 5th, and Asa Sawyer, Samuel Saw- yer and Robert Spencer died about the same time. Of Durkee's com- pany, Mumford Gardner died June 12th, John Perkins, Jr., died July 6th, James Frisbie, Jr., died July 22d, Asahel Jearoms died July 31st, and Ebenezer Phillips and Robert Sharar were discharged for disability July 5th. About the middle of July, 1777, Lieut. Colonel Butler joined his regiment-the 3d Connecticut-on the Hudson. Captain Durkee still commanded the Westmoreland battalion, which was kept in constant service-wherever there was danger to be met or honor to be won-dur- ing the eventful and severe campaign of the Summer and Autumn of 1777. The battalion remained at Morristown until about the middle of August, when it joined the main body of the army in Pennsylvania.
Washington having put his army in motion, crossed the Delaware with his vanguard July 30, 1777, and encamped along Neshaminy Creek, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, about twenty iniles north of Philadelphia. On August 22d the whole army marched in good order through Philadelphia and proceeded to Wilmington, Delaware, to oppose the advance upon Philadelphia of the British under General Howe. But Washington could not withstand the latter, and retired into Chester County, Pennsylvania, where, on September 11th, the battle of the Bran- dywine was fought and the Americans were defeated. The British took possession of Philadelphia on September 27th, but were hardly settled there before Washington attacked them again, at their outpost at Ger- mantown, "in the thick mist of the morning of the 4th of October, and would have taken the place had not the mist confused and misled his own troops." The Westmoreland battalion participated with great credit in both these battles.
After the battle of Gerinantown Washington made an effort to com- m11and the Delaware River below Philadelphia. On Mud Island, near the right bank of the river, just below the mouth of the Schuylkill, was Fort Mifflin. It was invested by the British fleet November 10, 1777, and some heavy guns were also brought to bear upon it from a neighboring island. Lieutenant Colonel Smith of Baltimore, who com- manded at Fort Mifflin, tenaciously held his ground against the over- whelining fire from the enemy's shipping. But exhaustion and a wound compelled him to retire ; and it also became necessary to relieve the greater part of the overworked garrison. The Westmoreland Indepen- dent Companies were at that time posted near the Delaware at Woodbury, Gloucester County, New Jersey, south of Philadelphia, and other Con- necticut organizations-among them the 4th Regiment of the Line, with Col. John Durkee in command-were stationed near by. On November 12th a detachment inade up of men from the 4th and Sth Connecticut Regiments, together with a squad of Westinorelanders from Captain Ransom's company under Lieutenant Spalding, went to the relief of the Fort Mifflin garrison in command of Lieut. Col. Giles Russell of Durkee's regiment. The reinforced garrison made a determined fight so long as there was any liope of repelling the assailants. But it was impossible to hold out long against the heavy cannonading of so many vessels, sur- rounding the fort at so short a distance that hand-grenades could be thrown over the walls from their decks, and sharp-shooters in their tops
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could pick off the gunners as fast as they could inan the guns. The fight was not given up, however, until the principal officers were dis- abled, and 250 men out of tlie 400 of the garrison were either killed or wounded. On November 16th, further resistance being out of the ques- tion, the fort was evacuated at night, the mien taking refuge in Fort Mercer on the other side of the river. The Connecticut detachment under Russell, which bore the brunt of the bombardment of Fort Mifflin, suffered seriously. (See the last paragraph on page 485, Vol. I.) Constant Matthewson of Ransom's company was blown to pieces by a cannon-ball.
December 4, 1777, Washington's army (including the Westmore- land Independent Companies) encamped at White Marsh, about twelve miles from Philadelphia. A few days later they moved to Valley Forge, and their march over the frozen ground "might have been tracked, from the want of shoes and stockings, from White Marsh to Valley Forge by the blood of their feet." At the latter place they went into Winter-quarters, where we will leave them for a time while we return to Connecticut and take up the thread of events there.
October 10, 1776, the General Assembly of Connecticut convened at New Haven, and was in session for upwards of two weeks. As Rep- resentatives froin the town of Westmoreland, Col. Zebulon Butler and Lieut. Col. Nathan Denison were in attendance, and they filed with the Assembly a certificate dated October 4, 1776, and signed by Nathan Denison, Justice of the Peace, setting forth that John Jenkins, Jr., Wil- liam Williams and John Perkins had been chosen Listers in the town of Westmoreland for 1776. They also filed a return setting forth that the sum total of the list of the polls and rateable estate of the town of West- moreland for 1776 (the "Grand List, made on the August List for 1776 ") amounted to £16,996 and 13s .; which was £6,476 and 7s. greater than the "Grand List " for the previous year. (See page 865.) This return for 1776 was certified by Anderson Dana, Elisha Swift, John Jenkins, Jr., Nathan Kingsley, William Williams, William Stark, William Hibbard, Aaron Gaylord and John Perkins, Listers.
Early in the session the Assembly passed an Act assuming the functions of a State. The important section of the Act was the first, as follows :
" That the ancient form of civil government, contained in the Charter from Charles II, King of England, and adopted by the people of this State, sliall be and remain the civil Constitution of this State, under the sole authority of the people thereof, independent of any king or prince whatever. And that this Republic is, and shall forever be and remain, a free, sovereign and independent State, by the name of the State of Connecticut."
Within a few days after the passage of the aforementioned Act, the following important measure was passed by the Assembly without any inaterial opposition.
" BE IT ENACTED by the Governor, Council, and Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the Authority of the same, That the Town of Westmoreland, lying on the West side of the River Delaware in this Colony, shall be a distinct County, and be called the COUNTY OF WESTMORELAND,* and shall have and exercise the same Powers, Priviledges, and Authorities, and be subject to the same regulations, as the other Coun- ties in this State by Law have, and are subject unto, except in the Cases limited by this Act. " That there shall be annually held in and for said County two County Courts; one on the last Tuesday of March, and the other on the second Tuesday of November. That said Court shall have Cognizance of all Criminal matters not extending to Life. That, for the tryal of Criminal Cases extending to Life, the Superior Court shall be held in said County at such Times as shall be specially Ordered by the Chief Judge of said Court;
* For the bounds of the county, see the map facing page 790.
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which Court, when sitting, may also hear and determine any other Criminal Cases by Law Cognizable before said Court.
" That the Judgments of the County Court in said County shall be final in all Civil Cases, from which no appeal shall be allowed; but errors in Law in any of the Judgments of said County Courts may be corrected by the Superior Court on Writ of Error, which may be brought to the Superior Court either in the County of Fairfield or Litchfield, in which case the Superior Court shall proceed to final Judgment, as has been usual in other Cases of like Nature.
" That no Inhabitant of said County of Westmoreland shall be liable to be sued, or called to answer in any Civil Action, before any County Court, Assistant, or Justice of the Peace in any other County in this Colony; nor shall any Person dwelling in any of the other Counties be liable to be sued or called to Answer in any civil Action in said County of Westmoreland.
"Provided, That nothing in this Act shall prevent any action being brought in the County where the Plaintiff is, when the Defendant is present, and his person Arrested in said County; or, being an absconding Debtor, hath Estate; or, [is] an Agent, Factor or Trustee in the County where the Plaintiff dwells.
"Provided, also, That no Criminals shall be sent from said County of Westmore- land for punishment, or Confinement, to New-Gate Prison* in the County of Hartford; but another prison shall be erected in the County of Westmoreland instead thereof."
The Assembly having passed the foregoing Act, resolved :
"This Assembly do appoint Increase Moseleyt, Esq., to be Judge of the County Court of Westmoreland until the first day of June next.
" This Assembly do appoint Andrew Adamst, Zebulon Butler, Nathan Denison and William Judd, Esquires, Justices of the Quorum? of the County Court for the County of Westmoreland until the first day of June next; and Zebulon Butler, Nathan Denison, William Judd, John Jenkins and Uriah Chapman to be Justices of the Peace for the County of Westmoreland until June 1st next-their power and authority as Justices of the Peace for the County of Litchfield in the meantime to cease."
The Assembly also appointed Nathan Denison to be Judge of the Court of Probate of the district of Westmoreland until June 1, 1777, as the successor of Judge Joseph Sluman, who had died a short time pre- viously. Douglass Davidson|| of Wilkes-Barré was appointed Surveyor of Lands in and for Westmoreland County, and the following officers for the 24tlı (or Westmoreland) Regiment, Connecticut Militia, were "estab- lished" and subsequently commissioned : John Garrett, promoted from Lieutenant, to succeed Stephen Fuller, resigned, as Captain of the First, or "Lower Wilkes-Barre," Company ; Asa Stevens, Lieutenant of the same company, to succeed John Garrett, promoted ; Daniel Downing, Ensign of the same company, to succeed Christopher Avery, resigned; Dethick Hewitt, Ensign of the Second, or "Kingston," Company, to succeed Asahel Buck, commissioned Second Lieutenant in the 1st (Dur- kee's) Westmoreland Independent Company; Frethias Wall, Lieutenant, and John Franklin, Jr., Ensign, of a new company (the "Tenth") located in Huntington and Salem.
At this same session of the Assembly the following memorial was presented. (The original is now to be seen in the volume entitled "Susquehannah Settlers, 1755-1796 ", mentioned on page 29, Vol. I.
* In October, 1773, the Colony of Connecticut having purchased the copper mines at Simsbury, in Hartford County, enacted: "That the subterraneous cavernis and buildings in the copper mines at Sims- bury, with such other buildings as may hereafter be erected and made in said caverns, or on the surface of the earth at or near the mouth of the same, shall be, and they are hereby, constituted and made a pub- lic Goal and Work-house, for the use of this Colony; and shall be called and named New-Gate Prison, and shall be kept and maintained at the expence of this Colony."
+ See note on page 412, Vol. I. It is doubtful if he ever came to Westmoreland.
# ANDREW ADAMS was a well-known lawyer of Litchfield County, Connecticut.
§ As to the prerogatives and duties of Justices of the Quorum, see Chapter XXXII.
| DOUGLASS and WILLIAM DAVIDSON (presumably brothers) of Worcester County, Massachusetts, came to Wilkes-Barre, first (so far as known), May 14, 1774 (see page 732), and four days later purchased of Timothy Keyes, originally of New Marlborough, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, but later of Provi- dence Township in the Susquehanna Purchase, a half-right in the Susquehanna Purchase which he had bought of Joseph Bird. Douglass and William Davidson were mustered into the Continental service September 17, 1776, as privates in Captain Durkee's company.
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" To the Honorable the General Assembly of the Governor & Company of the State of Connecticut, to be Convened at New Haven in and for said State on the second Thurs- day of October A. D. 1776:
" The memorial of NATHAN DENISON, Esqr, ELISHA SWIFT and PARSHALL TERRY, all of the District of Kingston in the Town of Westmoreland & the rest of the Inhabit- ants of said District humbly sheweth, that there is no Eclesiastical Society established in said Westmoreland by authority of your Honours; that the aforesaid District of Kings- ton is a tract of country scituate on the western side of the River Susquehannah & con- tains twenty five square miles and is comodiously scituated to make an eclesiastical Society; that said District is £4,000 upon the General List & contains 480 Inhabitants, who are Desireous of being Incorporated into an Eclesiastical Society with the usual Powers of such society's &c.
" The Memorialists thereupon humbly move your Honours would Incorporate the said District into an eclesiastical Society (with all the Powers Priviliges and Immuneties of any other eclesiastical Society in this Colony or State), as the same is butted to the Eastward upon the River Susquehannah, South upon the District of Plymouth, North upon the District of Exeter, and West upon the Wilderness, that the means of Grace may be extended to this Wilderness Land in common with the other parts of this State whose example both in Church and State is the greatest of our happiness to pursue; and the Memorialists as in duty bound will ever pray.
" Dated at Westmoreland the 2nd Day of October Annoque Domini 1776.
[Signed] " NATHAN DENISON, Committee in be-
" ELISHA SWIFT, half of said District
" PARSHALL TERRY, of Kingston."
According to the "Records of the State of Connecticut " (I : 48) the Assembly forthwith took the following action on the foregoing memorial :
"Resolved by this Assembly, That that tract of land situate on the West side of the Susquehanna River, bounded east on said Susquehanna River, south on the district of Plymouth, north on the district of Exeter and West on the Wilderness, containing twenty-five square miles, be, and the inhabitants living within said limits are constituted, a distinct ecclesiastical society, with all the powers, privileges and immunities which other ecclesiastical societies by law enjoy; and said society sliall be called and known by the name of the Society of Kingston."
The Churches of Connecticut, at the time of which we write, were Congregational. In other words, they held that the right to choose and settle its own minister, discipline its own members, and perform certain judicial functions, was vested in each individual Church. Moreover, at that period the Congregational Church was, in a sense, an Established Church in Connecticut. The statute law then in force there was : "The inhabitants of any town, or society, or parish, constituted by this Assem- bly, who shall be present at a town or society meeting, legally warned, shall have power, by the major vote of those met, to call and settle a minister among them, and provide for his support. * And all such towns and societies shall annually grant a tax for the purpose of paying the salary of the minister." All persons were obliged by law to con- tribute to the support of the Church as well as of the Colony (and later the State). All rates respecting the support of ministers, or any ecclesi- astical affairs, were to be made and collected in the same manner as the rates of the respective towns. The story of the Church is the story of the town in Connecticut, until the disestablishment of Congregational- ism in 1835-as is shown more at length in a subsequent chapter.
It would seem, in the light of the foregoing memorial from the inhabitants of Kingston, that the Churches then existing in Wilkes- Barré and Plymouth under the ministry, respectively, of the Reverends Jacob Johnson and Noah Wadhanis, had not been "established " in the usual form of law. Furthermore, so far as can now be learned, these particular ministers were supported, and the churches which they occu- pied had been erected, by the voluntary contributions of the inhabitants of their respective localities. It is doubtful whether the Kingston
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Society, authorized by the Connecticut Assembly, was ever organized, owing to the stress of the times during and immediately after the War of the Revolution.
Representatives Butler and Denison returned to Westmoreland from New Haven about November 1, 1776, bringing the joyful intelli- gence that the town had been promoted to the position and dignity of a county-which was a condition of affairs that the leading inhabitants of Wyoming had labored unceasingly (almost from the very beginning of the New England settlements in the Valley) to have established. Al- though, by the terms of the Act of Assembly, the town of Westmore- land was erected into a county, yet the town-its bounds coincident with those of the county-continued to exist, at least in a legal sense, and the freemen thereof proceeded annually to elect their town-officers, and to send their Representatives to the General Assembly of Connecticut. It was a unique commixture of conditions. Wilkes-Barré, possessing among other advantages the largest population of all the villages in Westmoreland County, became the shire-town, or county-seat.
About that time a fortnightly post between Hartford and West- inoreland was established at the expense of some of the inhabitants of the latter town. Miner, writing about the matter in 1844, said (see his "Wyoming," page 198):
"A more pleasing matter demands a passing notice. Surrounded by mountains, by a wide-spreading wilderness, and by dreary wastes, shut out from all the usual sources of information, a people so inquisitive could not live in those exciting times without the news. Fortunately an old, torn, smoke-dried paper has fallen into our possession, which shows that the people of Wyoming established a post to Hartford, to go once a fortnight and bring on the papers. A Mr. Prince Bryant was engaged as post-rider for nine months. More than fifty subscribers remain to the paper, which evidently must have been more numerous, as it is torn in the center. The sums given varied from one to two dollars each. In the list we find: Elijah Shoemaker, Elias Church, George Dorrance, Nathan Kingsley, Elisha Blackman, Nathan Denison, Seth Marvin, Obadiah Gore, James Stark, Anderson Dana, Jeremiah Ross, Zebulon Butler.
"Payment for the papers was of course a separate matter. It may well be ques- tioned, whether there is another instance in the States of a few settlers, especially as those at Wyoming were situated, establishing at their own expense a post to bring them the newspapers from a distance of 250 miles."
At the special sessions of the General Assembly of Connecticut hield at Hartford in November and December, 1776, Westmoreland was not represented. At the former session the election of Jonathan Fitch* of Wilkes-Barre to the office of Sheriff of Westmoreland County having been reported, he was duly commissioned as such on November 28th ; and at the latter session Samuel Gordont of Kingston was appointed
* JONATHAN FITCH served as Sheriff of Westmoreland County for five years, according to Miner's "History of Wyoming." He was also one of the Representatives fromn the town of Westmoreland to the General Assembly of Connecticut in 1780, 1781 and 1782. About 1789 Mr. Fitcb removed to what is now Binghamton, New York, and settled on the banks of a creek which subsequently received his name. "He was a man of considerable native talent, had mingled much with men of information, and was polished in his manners. He was the first Representative to the New York Legislature from the county of Tioga, and subsequently was Judge of the County Court."
SAMUEL GORDON was born near Ballebay, county of Monagban, Ireland, in 1740. He was of Scottish descent, and of good family, education and property. According to information received from the Rev. David Craft, Samuel Gordon, his brother James (who subsequently settled at Standing Stone, Pennsylvania), another brother, and a young man named John Gillespie immigrated to America from Ireland on account of some difficulties at home which resulted in their properties being confiscated. For a time, then, Samuel Gordon followed the sea, after which he settled in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where he was married to Mrs. Jane Gillespie, the widow of his late fellow-immigrant. About 1774 he settled in the township of Kingston, in Wyoming Valley, and in May, 1775 (as noted on page 824), he was appointed one of the Surveyors of Lands in and for Litchfield County. In 1777 he was Clerk of the Westmoreland Court of Probate. After the battle of Wyoming (July 3, 1778) Mr. Gordon went to New Jersey, where he continued until 1782, when he returned to Wyoming Valley. At Wilkes-Barre, September 9, 1787, he was appointed and sworn by the Commissioners under the Confirming Law of 1787 (see Chapter XXV, post) as their surveyor in and for the county of Luzerne.
The Rev. Dr. Craft, previously mentioned, states: "The Susquehanna Company, ever anxious for the welfare of the settlers, offered a township of land to the one who should build the first mill in Springfield Township. [In what is now Bradford County. This township is shown on the map facing
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Surveyor of Lands in and for Westmoreland County. At the December session the following important Act relative to tlie Connecticut Militia was adopted .*
" Whereas, in and by the Acts and Laws heretofore made and now in force for regulating the militia, certain orders of men are exempt from common and ordinary trainings, and not liable to the same duty with those on the present militia rolls, and many who have been commissioned and non-commissioned officers in the militia * * ; and whereas the present situation of this State calls loudly for the whole force and aid of
its inhabitants, *
* *
" It is therefore Enacted: That all male persons from sixteen (16) to sixty (60) years of age, not included in that part of the militia called the train-band, or exempted from common and ordinary training, shall constitute an ALARM LIST in this State (ex- cepting members of the Council, of the House of Representatives, and American Congress, for the time being; the Treasurer and Secretary of the State; Ministers of the Gospel; the President, Tutors and students of Yale College for the time being; and negroes, In- dians and mulattoes). And if of sufficient ability, in the judgment of the Selectmen of the town where they have their usual place of abode, shall respectively provide for and equip themselves with such arms and accoutrements as by law is directed for those train- bands in the Militia; and shall, in case of an alarm, or orders given, be under the com- mand of such officers as by this Act is directed. Provided, That no person above fifty (50) years of age shall be compelled to march out of the State. * * *
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