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 59
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"And that all such persons belonging to the Alarm List may be forined into com- panies, the Captain or commanding officer of the several militia companies shall take an exact list of the number and names of such as are of the Alarm List, and deliver the same to the Colonel of the regiment to which they belong; and said Colonel, and the other field-officers, shall thereupon, as soon as may be, divide and set off the same into companies, to consist, as nearly as can conveniently be, of sixty-four (64) privates-each company to choose one Captain, one Lieutenant and one Ensign, who shall be commis- sioned by the Governor. The Captain of every such company shall, on the first Monday of May and October, annually, muster and call forth said company, and examine their arms and accoutrements."
The county of Westmoreland was not excepted from the operation of the foregoing Act, as it had previously been excepted in respect of certain other military legislation.
About this time " the regiments of the militia within the State of Connecticut " were organized into six brigades, and the 24th Regiment was assigned to the 6th Brigade, composed of the following regiments: The 14th (formed of companies in the towns of Cornwall, Sharon, Salis- bury, Canaan and Norfolk), 15th (formed of companies in the towns of Farmington, Harwinton and New Hartford), 17th (formed of companies in the towns of Litchfield, Goshen, Torrington and Winchester), 18tli (formed of companies in the towns of Simsbury, New Hartford, Cole- brook and Hartland) and 24th (of companies in the town and county of Westmoreland). January 17, 1777, the Hon. Oliver Wolcottt of Litch- field (then a member of the Continental Congress) was appointed by the General Assembly of Connecticut and commissioned by Governor Truni- bull Brigadier General in the State Militia, and assigned to the com- mand of the 6th Brigade.
In November or December, 1776, following the return of Colonels Butler and Denison from the Connecticut Assembly, it was voted at a Westmoreland town-meeting " that Colonel Butler, Colonel Denison and Major Judd be a committee to write to the Connecticut Delegates [in
page 468, Vol. I.] This offer was accepted hy Samuel Gordon, who in 1793 huilt his mill * * on the Wyalusing [Creek], ahout three miles from the river. * This mill consisted of one run of home- * made stone, without holts, and was huilt under great difficulties, arising from the scarcity of money in the settlement and the want of experienced workmen; while all of the iron used in its construction was transported from Wilkes-Barre at much trouble and expense. The mill heing completed, on the 1st of May, 1795, the township of Walsingham was surveyed to Mr. Gordon according to previous stipula- tion. He was also one of the proprietors of Stephenshurg; hut, owing to the invalidity of Connecticut titles in these townships, he failed to receive any advantage from these possessions. Even the mill, which had cost him so much, was lost through the same defect in the title. * * On the organization of Wyalusing Township Mr. Gordon was appointed Town Clerk. He died in Wyalusing in 1810."
* See "Records of the State of Connecticut," I : 92.
See page 285, Vol. I.
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Congress], and give them a true character of Adonijah Stansbury,* and the measures he has heretofore taken for the destruction of this settle- ment." It is presumed that the foregoing committee performed the duty assigned to it, and was in due time instructed as to what course should be pursued, for we find that on January 1, 1777, the following "citation" was served on Adonijah Stanburrough and two other inhabit- ants of Westmoreland. (See Miner's "Wyoming," page 198.)
"To ADONIJAH STANSBURY and * * , all of Westmoreland:
" You and each of you being suspected of Toryism, and subverting the Constitu- tion, and endeavouring to betray the inhabitants of this town into the hands of their en- emies, etc., You and each of you are hereby required, without any manner of excuse, to make your personal appearance before the COMMITTEE OF INSPECTION for the town of Westmoreland, at the house of Solomon Johnsont, inn-holder in said town, on Wednes- day the 3d of instant January, at 10 o'clock in the morning, then and there to answer unto divers complaints whereof you are suspected as above. Hereof fail not, as you will answer the contrary at the peril of the displeasure of the public.
"By order of the Chairman.
[Signed] '. ANDERSON DANA, Clerk."
"To any indifferent person to serve and return.'
* ADONIJAH STANBURROUGH (for thus he wrote his name in the years 1774, 1788 and 1800) came in 1774 from what was then Tryon County, New York, to Wilkes-Barre, accompanied by his father (Josiah), mother, and sister Elizabeth. At that time he described himself as a yeoman, but later he became a surveyor-of-lands.
Early in 1772 a grant had been made by the proprietors of Wilkes-Barre Township, to Nathan Chapman (who is said to have come from Goshen, New York), of a mill-site of forty acres of land on Mill Creek-thirty acres on the north side of the creek and ten on the south side, just east of the road (known later as the "Middle Road," and now as the continuation of North Main Street) running from Wilkes-Barre to Pittston. The same year, before October, a grist-mill and a saw-mill were built by Mr. Chapinan on the portion of the abovementioned site lying north of the creek, and the grist-mill was the first one erected in Wyoming Valley. (See references to "Chapman's Mills" on pages 745, 813 and 814.) Chapman ran his mills from their completion until October 24, 1774, when, in consideration of £400 "to be paid," he conveyed to Adonijah Stanburrough the forty acres of land, the two mills, dwell- ing-house, etc. Stanburrough then took charge of the mills and ran them. Miner ("History of Wyo- ming," page 197) says: "It became soon apparent that Stansbury [sic] was a disguised enemy. Intel- ligent, plausible, active, he laughed at the pretended Connecticut claim openly as a folly, and derided it more secretly to some as an imposition. The good people had no other mill to grind for them, and the nuisance became insupportable and dangerous. Stansbury had violated no law, but except through the law there was no way to reach him." Early in 1776, finding that he had made himself obnoxious to the people of Westmoreland, he transferred his Mill Creek property to his father Josiah.
In the Summer of 1777 Adonijah Stanburrough left Wilkes-Baire for the vicinity of Philadelphia, where he still was in the following September when the British took possession of that city.
Adonijah having failed to pay the consideration money for the property at Mill Creek to Nathan Chapman, the latter sold the same November 16, 1777, to Josiah Stanburrough the father, who was in possession. These mills were destroyed by the invading enemy in July, 1778, and, according to an official report made by the Selectmen of Westmoreland in 1781, Josiah Stanburrough's losses by the British and Indian depredations of July, 1778, were appraised at £603 14 sh. With a single exception this was much the largest amount of loss reported by the Selectmen as having been sustained by any one of the Westmoreland sufferers. About 1781 or '82 new mills were built at Mill Creek by Josiah Stanburrough, who ran them-except for a short time in 1783 and again in 1784-until February, 1787, when, for £300, hc conveyed the whole property to his daughter Elizabeth, wife of John Hollenback of Wilkes-Barre. -
We next learn of Adonijah Stanburrough at Philadelphia, where, February 14, 1788, describing liimself as then "or late of the county of Northumberland, Pennsylvania," and having "lawful right and absolute authority" to sell and grant 300 acres of land lying on the waters of Tunkhannock Creek (in what is now Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, but was then in Luzerne County), he conveyed the same for £80 to John Young, Jr., a merchant in Philadelphia. This tract was part of a larger tract of 36,000 acres which had been surveyed on warrants issued by the Pennsylvania Land Office to and for Robert Wilson, who, in or about August, 1774, had sold the tract to Benjamin Chew, Andrew Allen, Samuel Meredith, Edward Shippen and Joseph Shippen of Philadelphia.
In Sussex County, Delaware, August 13, 1788, Adonijah Stanburrough, describing himself as a "surveyor, late of Orange County, New York," executed to Rhoad Shankland of Sussex County (who was also a surveyor) a deed for the aforementioned forty acres of land at Mill Creek, in Wilkes-Barre Township, together with the rights of the stream, "and the grist- and saw-mills on part of said lots"; the consideration being "5,000 American silver dollars." (See Luzerne County Deed Book, VIII : 197.) In December, 1800, Adonijah Stanburrough, then living in Sussex County, Delaware, conveyed to William Jones of the same county-in consideration of one dollar, and "in virtue of certain powers" in him (Stanburrough) "for that purpose vested"-certain lands in the "seventeen townships" (laid out by The Susquehanna Company, and lying in the then county of Luzerne, Pennsylvania), "actually set- tled and particularly assigned to the several settlers thereon before the Decree of Trenton"-q. v. There were 13,500 acres conveyed by this deed, including "the one equal one-third part of the lower saw-mills on Mill Creek, with the privilege to build mills," &c .; which mill-site had been "settled by Setlı Marvin, Stephen Fuller and Obadiah Gore."
In July, 1802 (at which time the Commissioners under the Compromise Act of 1799 were at work in Luzerne County examining the contested land-claims), there was recorded in the Recorder's Office of Luzerne County a power of attorney executed by Rhoad Shankland, previously mentioned, which set forth, among other matters, the following (see Luzerne County Deed Book, VIII : 201) : "Whereas a certain lot of land * was granted by Nathan Chapman October 24, 1774, to Adonijah Stanbur- rough, who was in legal and peaceable possession of the same until his services in the Revolutionary War obliged him to rent, lease and leave the same; * * the which premises he afterwards sold to me. And whereas I now have reason to believe that other persons are got into possession of the said houses and mills, lands, &c., under the contrivance of the tenant [Josiah Stanburrough] who the said Adonijah left in possession thereof, and under a corrupt deed which the said Chapman is pretended to have made many years after he had sold to Adonijah."
# He lived at that time in the village of Wilkes-Barre, on the west side of South Main Street, on Lot No. 18 (see page 655), between Public Square and Northampton Street, where he kept an inn.
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At the hearing before the Committee of Inspection on January 3d Garret Brinkerhoof deposed: That "some time after Stansbury bought the mills of Chapman he said he did not intend to pay any more for said mills, and he would go to Pennsylvania and make it appear that Chap- man had no right to the lands." The testimony of other witnesses was heard by the Committee (that of Mr. Hageman is referred to on page 867), but we have no record of the Committee's action in the case. Miner says that "Stansbury disregarded the vote [of the town-meeting held in December, 1776]. More energetic measures became necessary, and as he owed no man in the town, an Indian from Oquago brought suit against him for a sum of money charged as being due on book, grow- ing out of an ancient trade in horses. Active officers and a willing Court found a heavy balance owing to the Indian. Suits accumulated. A whole people had taken the law of him, and he found his position too warmly assailed to render it endurable, and *
* he retired from the settlement." In this statement there are some errors: Stanbur- rough was indebted to Nathan Chapman (as mentioned in the foot-note on the preceding page), while the suit of the Indian against Stanbur- rough was not brought till after the latter had left Westmoreland for Philadelphia-in the Summer or Autumn of 1777. Reference to this suit is made in a petition to the General Assembly of Connecticut printed in Chapter XV. As shown in the foot-note on page 912, Ado- nijah Stanburrough was closely identified with some of the principal Pennsylvania land-claimants in their speculations relative to lands with- in the bounds of Westmoreland. From the beginning of his connec- tion with Westmoreland affairs his sympathies were with the Penna- mites and not with the Yankees. By the latter, therefore, he was con- sidered to be a Pennamite; and, as we have previously remarked (on page 866), at that period all Pennamites were regarded as Tories by a majority of Westmorelanders. In other words, Stanburrough was in reality a Pennamite, and not a Tory. (See page 923.)
Early in January, 1777, the Continental Congress received informa- tion* " that certain tribes of Indians living in the back parts of the country, near the waters of the Susquehanna, within the Confederacy and under the protection of the Six Nations, the friends and allies of the United States," were, led by friendly and peaceable motives, on their way to Easton, Pennsylvania, for the purpose of holding a confer- ence or treaty with the General Government. Congress thereupon appointed a commission, consisting of the Hon. George Taylor of Easton (as Chairman), George Walton, and others, to purchase suitable presents for the Indians and conduct a treaty with them. Thomas Paine (see page 875) was appointed by the Council of Safety at Philadelphia Sec- retary to the commission, and it was understood that the object of the Congress in providing for a treaty was that efforts inight be made to detach the powerful Confederacy of the Six Nations from the British, or at least secure their neutrality. $1,000. was appropriated by the Congress for paying the expenses of the treaty, and purchases were inade of large quantities of black and white wampum, silver brooches and ear- bobs, and other things, to be used as presents for the Indians.
About the 7th or 8th of January there came down the Susquehanna to Wilkes-Barré a small company of Indians, couriers, or messengers, to
* See "The Journals of Congress," III : 36.
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announce the coming of a larger body en route to Easton. Having received on the 9th of January the following letter* from the Westmore- land Committee of Inspection, addressed to the Easton Committee, the messengers proceeded on their way over the mountains to Easton.
"GENTLEMEN : The Bearers hereof are Part of a Large Body of Indians belong- ing to the Six Nations, who have expressed their friendship for the United States of America at a Council held in this Place this day. They also Inform us they are upon a Journey to Philadelphla to speak with the Congress (if returned). Otherways, [they] in- tend to see General Washington. They have desired us to write to you and beg that they may be pointed to Places to Escape the small-pox and other Pestilential Disorders (if such there be among you). This is wrote upon their Particular Desire, to give you In- formation of the approach of the Body of Indians, which consists of about 200 Men, Women and Children; and they further desired us to request of you Your Influence that their Proposed treaty might be at Eastown, if it be possible at this time, for fear of the Dis- orders, &c., mentioned as above. We Doubt not but you will Pay due attention to these People at this time, when their favours will be more Eligible than their Frowns.
" We beg leave, Gentlemen, to subscribe Ourselves your friends and very Humble Servants,
[Signed] " NATHAN DENISON,
" WILLIAM JUDD, "CHRISTOPHER AVERY."
Along about the middle of January the main body of the Indian delegation reached Wilkes-Barré. There were seventy men and about a hundred women and children in the party, and among the chiefs were the following : Taasquah, or " King Charles," of the Cayugas ; Taw- anah, or " The Big Tree," of the Senecas ; Mytakawha, or " Walking on Foot," and Kaknah, or "Standing by a Tree," of the Monseys; Ama- tincka, or "Raising Anything Up," of the Nanticokes; Wilakinko, or "King Last Night," of the Conoys, and Thomas Green (who was mar- ried to a Mohawk squaw), Interpreter. They remained here for a couple of days, held an informal conference with the authorities of Westmore- land-fron whom they also received some provisions-and then proceed- ed to Easton. The treaty was begun there on January 30th, in the new First (German) Reformed Church, on North Third Street ; and, while the organ was played, the members of the Commission and the Indians shook hands with each other and drank rum, before proceeding to busi- ness. In an official report of the treaty, subsequently made to the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, it was stated : " The Indians seem to be inclined to act the wise part with respect to the pres- ent dispute. If they are to be relied on, they mean to be neuter. We have already learnt their good intentions."
At Wilkes-Barre, under the date of March 14, 1777, the following letter was written to the Honorables Roger Sherman and Samuel Hun- tington, Delegates from Connecticut in the Continental Congress then sitting at Philadelphia. The letter was carried to that city by - Kellogg, and was received by Mr. Sherman on April 7th. The original lettert is in the possession of Mr. James Terry, previously mentioned, and is now printed for the first time. It reads as follows :
"HOND SIRS-You may remember that sonie time the last year there was two con1- panies of men raised for the defence of this settlement, and for some time was stationed here, but the exigencies of affairs have since called them forth to join the army under the command of his Excellency General Washington, contrary to the expectation of almost every person in this County. But as the occation of their going was then very urgent, the officers and soldiers went, without repining, for the service of their country; fully expecting that when that particular emmergency was over they should be returned to their former station.
"I have since learnt that there are gentlemen, either through their inimical dispo- sition to this country or to serve their own selfish designs, laying plans to get the sol-
* See "Pennsylvania Archives," Second Series, XVIII : 620.
+ It is in the handwriting of an unknown person, but the signature is that of Colonel Denison.
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diers that went from here joined to the standing army, which is a matter of very great uneasiness to the soldiers and people in this settlement in general. We are in a new country, and to what difficulties, dangers and hardships we have been exposed since we came upon this ground, you are not a stranger. There are in the settlement of any new country great obstacles to surmount; but in this there have been more than in any coun- try, perhaps, upon the Continent. The long war that has been carried on with the Penn- sylvanians-the people being so often ejected from their possessions, and so often plun- dered of everything they had, has made then poor to what they would have otherwise been. Our part of the burden of this war with Great Britain we are willing chearfully to bear, but more than that we think the Honble Continental Congress will not put upon us.
" When the inlisting orders came out, the officers, to induce the men freely to in- list, told them : That they never should be called from this settlement, but were to be stationed here only for the defence of the same against the savages that are contiguous to us. By this means many inlisted that would not otherwise have done so, and have left their families in a very poor and miserable condition. We are not without fears that the Indians will molest this country, as we daily hear of their threats; which, if it should be done, we must inevitably suffer very much.
"It is by the desire of some of the principal officers and soldiers that belong to this settlement, and likewise the people in general, that I now trouble you with a letter, and earnestly request of you that if there should be anything moved in Congress for annexing the two companies to any regiment, whereby they shall be kept during the war, that you will use your influence to oppose it, as it must be a very great damage to this infant set- tlement. And if there can be any way whereby they may be returned to their former station with honour to themselves and the country, I should earnestly intreat you to have it accomplished; and, if it shall not be thought neadful by the Hon. the Continental Con- gress to keep men for the defence of this country, to have them disbanded, that they may return to their families, who are very desirous to liave them do so. Which favors, if you will endeavor to obtain [them], will much oblige this settlement in general and me in particular-who have the honor to be your friend and humble servant,
[Signed] "NATHAN DENISON."
That this straightforward and earnest appeal was based on reason- able grounds, will be the better understood when it is known that, for three or four months previously to the writing of the appeal, the enlist- ing of recruits for the Continental army had been going on in West- moreland. At the October, 1776, session of the Connecticut Assenibly Solomon Strong, Captain of the 4th (or Pittston) Company, and John Jameson, a private in the 5th (or Hanover) Company, of the 24th Reg- iment, had been respectively appointed Captain and Ensign of a coin- pany "in one of the eight battalions now [then] ordered to be raised " in the State. (See page 900 ; also " Records of the State of Connecti- cut," I: 14, 16.) January 1, 1777, Captain Strong and Ensign Jameson were duly commissioned by Governor Trumbull, and assigned to the 5th Regiment, Connecticut Line (Philip B. Bradley, Colonel), which was then being organized. In the meantime they had been recruiting men in Westmoreland for their company, and about the middle of Jan- uary, 1777, the officers and inen marched from Wilkes-Barré for Danbury, Connecticut, the regimental rendezvous. About the same time Capt. (formerly Major) William Judd marched with a number of recruits from Wilkes-Barré for the headquarters of the 3d Regiment, Connecticut Line. (See the last paragraph on page 824.) Mention is made on page 833 (in the last paragraph) of the men raised at Westmoreland for the Continental army in the Summer of 1776 by Lieutenant Gore. Furthermore, he came home from the front in the Spring, and again in the Summer, of 1777 on recruiting service, and succeeded in enlisting and taking back with him a number of able-bodied Westmorelanders for his regiment- the 3d Connecticut.
Concerning the soldiers from Westmoreland in the Continental army, Col. John Franklin (whose knowledge of the facts was indisput- able) wrote inore than a hundred years ago as follows (see liis original
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MS., unpublished, in the collections of The Wyoming Historical and Geological Society) :
"In September, 1776, two full companies were raised at Westmoreland under the command of Captains Durkee and Ransom (to serve during the war), called the Wyo- ming Independent Companies. About sixty others enlisted under Captains Strong and Judd and joined the main army. *
* That upwards of 230 from Wyoming were in the actual service. of the United States at the same time-furnishing themselves with arms- which left the settlement weak and unguarded against the savages and those of a more savage nature. These companies were afterwards considered as part of the Connecticut quota of troops, and settled with by that State. (See 'Journals of Congress,' VII : 230.)"
In the circumstances it would seem that Colonel Franklin's esti- mate of the number of men belonging to Westmoreland, who were soldiers in the Continental army in 1777, should have been about 275 instead of "upwards of 230." Including Lieut. Col. Zebulon Butler, there were thirteen commissioned officers from Westinoreland in the Continental service at that time; the Westmoreland Independent Com- panies had marched away with 172 enlisted men; Captains Judd and Strong and Lieutenant Jameson took "about 60" men with them, while Lieutenant Gore enlisted thirty or thirty-five mien in all, probably. This was an unexpectedly and unreasonably large number of able-bodied and resourceful men to have withdrawn, in time of war, from an ill- protected frontier settlement which included several thousand acres of cultivated and productive lands, and which contained a population of only about 3,000 souls; and Colonel Denison had good reasons for believing that, if the Indians should "molest " the inhabitants of West- moreland, the latter " must inevitably suffer very much."
CHAPTER XIV.
THE LOYALISTS OF WESTERN NEW YORK AND NORTH-EASTERN PENN- SYLVANIA-" BUTLER'S RANGERS"-SIX NATION INDIANS IN THE SERVICE AND PAY OF GREAT BRITAIN- FORT NIAGARA ON LAKE ONTARIO.
"Our groaning country bleeds at every vein; New murders, rapes, fell massacres, prevail, And desolation covers all the land ! Who can hear this and not, with patriot zeal, Nobly step forth to guard their wives and children, And sheathe a dagger in the villain's heart Who'd rob us of our peace, our all, our honor!" -"The Pennsylvania Evening Post," Philadelphia, January 7, 1777.
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