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 6
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Lazarus Stewart was married in Hanover Township, Lancaster County, about 1766 or '67 to Martha (born 1747), fourth child of Josiah and Elizabeth ( Crain) Espy. They settled on a farm in Hanover which Captain Stewart had owned for some years and was cultivating. The children of Captain Lazarus and
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to Wyoming. Within a few days thereafter Butler and Backus, in company with Captain Stewart and his band, departed northward. At some distance from Wyoming they were joined by eight or ten men who had been among those who were forced from the valley at the time of the surrender of Fort Durkee. On Sunday, February 11, 1770, the Hanover and Connecticut men quietly entered the valley .* At that time Fort Durkee was garrisoned by a band of ten Pennamites; Sheriff Jennings and his posse comitatus had returned whence they came ; Amos Ogden was temporarily in New Jersey and Charles Stewart was in Phil- adelphia. With scant ceremony Captains Butler and Stewart and their followers ousted the Pennamites who were in possession of the fort, and took up their quarters there.
Captain Ogden, at his home in New Jersey, having been notified of the happenings at Wyoming, hastened hither with a number of his adherents and found, upon his arrival, that the block-house at Mill
E
LAZARUS STEWART'S BLOCK-HOUSE.
Martha (Espy) Stewart were : (i) James Stewart, born in 1768, prior to August ; md. June 20, 1799, to Han- nah (born September 17, 1782), daughter of John and Abigail (Alden) Jameson ; died February 15, 1808. (ii) Margaret Stewart, born in 1770; md. in 1791 to James (born in 1766), son of John and Jane (Stewart) Campbell of Lancaster County ; died in November, 1832. (iii) Priscilla Stewart, born in 1771 ; md. before 1793 to Joseph Avery Rathbun, and in November, 1802, they were living in Steuben County, New York. (iv) Josiah Stewart, born in 1772 ; md. to Mercy Chapman, and in November, 1802, was living in Wyoming Valley. (v) Mary Stewart, born in 1774; md. in 1792 to the Rev. Andrew Gray (born January 1, 1757, in county Down, Ireland), pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Hanover, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania ; in 1796 removed to "the Genesee Country," later Steuben County, New York; Mary (Stewart) Gray died in Livingston County, New York, March 10, 1847, and the Rev. Andrew Gray died there August 13, 1839. (vi) Elizabeth Stewart, born in 1777; md. May 5, 1796, to Alexander (born September 10, 1764), eleventh child of Robert and Agnes (Dixson) Jameson of Voluntown, Connecticut, and Hanover Township, Wyo- ming Valley ; died in Salem Township, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, August 20, 1806. (vii) Martha Stewart, born July 2, 1778 ; died in 1796, unmarried.
When Captain Stewart marched with his company from Hanover (in Wyoming Valley) July 2, 1778, he left in his block-house, previously mentioned, his wife and children-the eldest child being only ten years of age-together with a number of their neighbors who had gathered there for shelter and protec- tion. That same day a daughter was born to Lazarus and Martha ( Espy) Stewart, and two days later, when news came to Mrs. Stewart of the disastrous ending of the battle of July 3d on Abraham's Plains, and of the death there of her husband (see Chapter XV), she, with the aid of friends, placed her seven children, together with some provisions and a few of her most valuable belongings, in two canoes lashed together side by side, and in them floated down the Susquehanna. Arriving at what is now Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, where her sister Mrs. James McClure resided, Mrs. Stewart and her children tarried there for awhile, and then proceeded on down the river to McAllister's, near the present Harrisburg, ac- companied in canoes by the McClures, who fled from their home dreading a general incursion of the savages. Mrs. Stewart went to her old home in Lancaster County, where she remained with her chil- dren until the latter part of 1780 or early in 1781, when they all returned to their former home in Hanover in Wyoming Valley. In a "true list of the polls and estate of Westmoreland [Wyoming], ratable by law the 20th August, 1781," Mrs. Martha Stewart is assessed at £36, 10sh. For other interesting items concern- ing Lazarus Stewart and his family, see subsequent pages in this history; also "The Harvey Book," previously mentioned.
* In the collections of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society is an original account rendered to the "Susquehanna Proprietors" in 1770 by Zebulon Butler. Two of the items thereof are as follows : "To 24 days' journey of myself and horse from Lyme [in Connecticut] to Hanover, Pennsylvania, and from thence to Wyoming, at 10 shillings per day. To expenses on the above journey, 5 shillings and 6 pence per day."
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Creek, a mile and a-half north-east of Fort Durkee, had been broken into by The Susquehanna Company's party and the formidable Fort Augusta 4-pounder, with all the ammunition appertaining to it, had been transferred to Fort Durkee. Ogden and his companions took pos- session of the Mill Creek block-house and prepared to oppose the en- croachments of the Yankees and their Lancastrian allies. The story of the few weeks following the arrival in Wyoming of Captains Butler and Stewart and their adherents has been told by Captain Ogden, in an affidavit which he made before Gov. John Penn at Philadelphia, May 25, 1770. The original document is now in the possession of The His- torical Society of Pennsylvania, and reads in part as follows :
"About the 14th of February last, the deponent being absent in Jersey, news was brought him that a number of people from Lancaster County had arrived at Wyoming, and in a warlike manner, in support of the Connecticut right, had taken possession of the fort and had broken open one of the deponent's houses and taken thereout one piece of small cannon, and several other effects ; and thereupon he went over to Wyoming and found said account to be true. The party from Lancaster was commanded by Lazarus Stewart and Lazarus Young* ; and the people in the fort, both Pennsylvanians and New Englanders, were commanded by Zebulon Butler. That on or about February 23d an armed party from the fort, about thirty in number, commanded by Lazarus Stewart, broke open in a violent manner the house of Captain Salmont (who was settled on the said Proprie- taries' tractį by lease under the said Proprietaries), pulled the same down and destroyed all the effects of the said Salmon. That on February 26th the said Captain Butler and Lazarus Stewart came to the house of this deponent, and demanded of him that he and all the settlers under Pennsylvania-then about ten in number-should leave the ground by the 28th following ; telling them that if they refused to go they must abide by the consequences. On the said 28th of February a party of forty or fifty men, headed by Lazarus Stewart and Lazarus Young, armed with guns, pistols and tomahawks, attacked the house of Charles Stewart, Esq., pulled it down and destroyed all his effects."
Early in March, 1770, at Easton, a warrant§ was issued by Justice Lewis Gordon upon an information setting forth :
"That Lazarus Stewart, William Stewart, Lazarus Young, Robert Young, William Young, Asa Ludington, Joseph Billings, Simeon Draper, Peregrine Gardner, Frederick Spyer, Felty Deran [Valentine Doran], Nicholas Philipson, Thomas French, Thomas Robinson, John Simpson, John Grimes, Lodowick Shillmar, James Robinson, James Stewart, Jedidiah Olcutt, John Stephens, Adolph Diehl, Felix Diehl, Thomas Bennet, James Forsyth, Jacob Clark, James Grimes, Jr., John Butler, Samuel Hotchkiss, George Espy, John Espy, John Hopple, Jacob Fulk, Reuben Shilman, Nathan Beach, Peter Walcker and Henry Hopple did, on or about the 23d day of February last, riotously, routously and unlawfully assemble themselves together at a place called Wyoming, in the said county of Northampton, and the dwelling-house of John Salmon, the dwelling- house of Charles Stewart and the dwelling-house of Thomas Osburn did deface and pull down, etc." * *
Under date of Sunday, March 11, 1770, Major Durkee wrote to "Capt. Z. Butler at Wilkesbarre," as follows|| :
"I this moment heard that you're safe as yet. I have been much concerned, but can't steer towards you. Mr. [Jacob] Brinker is coming to you with some men and some provisions. If you are in want, send me word ; I and friends will supply you if possible. Take all that comes in your way that are not friends, and send them home with a striped jacket[-and Stewart, ** if possible. If you can send me word how it is with you, I may
* He was a first cousin of Lazarus Stewart, was from Hanover, Lancaster County, and had been at Wyoming in the Summer of 1769. See page 512.
+ JOHN SALMON, who had located about two and a-quarter miles south-west of Fort Durkee, near the mouth of Moses' Creek (see Vol. I, page 56), to which stream his name was subsequently given. Many years later, through the careless speech of the people, the name "Salmon" becaine corrupted into Solo- mon-by which name the creek has since been known. In September, 1787, when Timothy Pickering. William Montgomery and Stephen Balliet were attempting to carry out at Wilkes-Barre the provisions of the "Confirming Law" (see Chapter XXV, post), they received and examined a claim for lands made by "Joseph Salmon, in behalf of the heirs of John Salinon, deceased ; lying in Nanticoke, or Hanover, about two miles and a-half below the town of Wilkesburgh" (which would be two and a-half miles below the present South Street, Wilkes-Barre). The lands in question consisted of 212 acres, "including an island called Buttonwood Island." (See "Pennsylvania Archives," Second Series, XVIII : 669.) The island thus referred to is the one described on page 52 as "Fuller's", or "Richards' ".
# The Manor of Stoke. See pages 455, 456 and 516, Vol. I.
¿ The original writ is now in the possession of The Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
| See "Pennsylvania Archives," First Series, IV : 364.
[ In other words, give theni a beating or whipping. ** Charles Stewart, Esq.
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do as much good as though I was with you. Let the Paxton Boys know that they shall be rewarded in the best manner. * * I have desired Mr. Brinker to bring you some flour and some rum, &c."
Jacob Brinker, mentioned in Major Durkee's letter, was settled as early as 1755, at least, in Lower Smithfield Township, Northampton County, at what is now Sciota, in Hamilton Township, Monroe County, Pennsylvania, about seven miles south-west of Stroudsburg. In 1779 the place was known as Brinker's Mills. Close by Brinker's ran the old Indian trail (mentioned on page 445) from Teedyuscung's town (near the site of which Fort Durkee had been erected) to the Wind Gap. This trail had become, by the year 1770, a well-beaten path (for foot- travelers and horsemen) from Wyoming to the Wind Gap, from which point to Easton ran a passable wagon-road. At or near Brinker's a path branched off from the main path and ran in a north-easterly direction (through what is now Stroudsburg) to the Delaware River, and thence along the western bank of the river to Wells' Ferry, mentioned on page 487. This path from Fort Durkee to the Delaware, via Brinker's; was known to the Yankee settlers at Wyoming as the "Lower Road to the Delaware"-the road from Wilkes-Barre to the mouth of the Lacka- wanna, thence to Capouse Meadows, thence over the mountains and through what are now the counties of Wayne and Pike to Wells' Ferry, being called the "Upper Road to the Delaware." (See page 636, ante.) However, early in 1770 the "Lower Road" began to be called also "the Pennamites' Path" by the Yankees, inasmuch as the Pennamites from lower Northampton County and New Jersey traversed this path in their frequent journeys to and from Wyoming.
When Major Durkee wrote to Captain Butler the former was wait- ing at Brinker's, or somewhere in that neighborhood, to be joined by a number of New Englanders, with whom he purposed marching to Wyo- ming to reinforce the Yankees and Lancastrians in Fort Durkee. About the 20th of March Major Durkee and the men for whom he had been waiting quietly entered the valley and proceeded to Fort Durkee. They brought along a goodly supply of provisions and ammunition, and their coming was hailed with delight by the occupants of the fort. About the same time Dr. Hugh Williamson, a representative either of Governor Penn or of the Proprietaries' agents, arrived at Ogden's block-house from Lebanon and Hanover in Lancaster County where, as he wrote Governor Penn, "several of the rioters were just arrived from Wyoming for recruits of men and provisions." They made no recruits, he stated, "except among the Germans." Under date of March 24, 1770, Dr. Williamson wrote to Governor Penn as follows* :
"On my arrival at Wyoming I found the Messrs. Ogden in possession of the field. The rioters had closed themselves up in the fort, and in a few hours the people who had taken lots in the Manor [of Stoke] being assembled with their friends, were determined to storm the fort. I, with great difficulty, prevailed on a number of men, driven almost to desperation, to desist from their intended attack. An accidental event yesterday morning convinced me that I had not been mistaken concerning the temper of the rioters. A few of them passing Captain Ogden's house, through the woods, were discovered and suspected to be a party of New England adventurers. A party went to examine them, and were immediately fired on by the rioters, though this was not necessary in self defense, as they were so near the fort they could not then possibly be taken prisoners. I once more, with great difficulty, restrained the inhabitants from attempting to burn the fort.
"The day before yesterday evening Captain Ogden and company took eight ad- venturers from New England and New York Government ; and last night three German lads, seventeen, or eighteen years of age, late recruits from Hanover [in Lancaster * See "Pennsylvania Archives," First Series, IV : 366.
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County], were made prisoners, having mistaken Captain Ogden's for the fort. * * * The prisoners go down [to Easton] to-day under a small guard-some of them [the guard] being [seven] Hanover men who were apprehended* some days ago by the con- stables between this [place] and Easton and permitted by Charles Stewart, Esq., to come up here, having made oath that they would aid the Government. * * It seems prob- able that in a few days the fate of this place may be determined. * * I wish the people who keep possession of the Manor under the Government had express orders to leave the ground, or had such instructions as might enable them to conduct themselves without any breach of law. * * *
"Since I wrote the above the seven Hanover men who had been suffered to come here under promise of attempting to dissuade their friends from their design of keeping possession of the ground, and were immediately to set off as a guard to the prisoners, having gone down to the fort to speak with their friends, are there detained, or said to be detained.
"P. S .- The Hanover men above mentioned have this instant, by a messenger, declared themselves in favor of the rioters, and threatened to rout Captain Ogden in a few days."
Under date of April 2, 1770, Charles Stewart, Esq., wrote froin Easton to Governor Penn as followst :
"The New England men, accompanied by a number of Germans, appeared [on the 28th of March] before the houses at Wyoming possessed by people under the Proprie- taries, whooping, yelling, and swearing they would have the prisoners who had been taken from them ; and after expressing much abusive language they began to fire upon the people in the houses, who immediately returned the fire, by which one of the Ger- mans was shot dead, and thereupon the New England men returned to the fort."
The man of the Fort Durkee party who was killed was Baltzer Stager,¿ and his was the first blood shed in the memorable Pennamite- Yankee contest for the possession of Wyoming. Chapman, in his history of Wyoming, says: "Which party commenced the firing [in which Stager was killed] is not known, as each accused the other of doing it. The party from the fort finding that Ogden and his party in the house were armed and could fire at them without being exposed (his house being a well-built block-house fitted for a siege), returned to Fort Dur- kee to devise means of expelling Ogden and his party from the settle- ment before reinforcements could arrive-each party being too strong in its fortification to be taken by storm with the forces the other pos- sessed." Captain Ogden, in his affidavit mentioned on page 645, ante, relates the happenings at Wyoming in April, 1770, in the following words :
* The following items taken from an account rendered to the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania in 1770 by Garrett Brodhead (previously mentioned), for services performed by himself, have some connection, undoubtedly, with the incidents above described. "To sixteen days at Beamy's, to oppose and apprehend the Hanover men and Yankys, £8. To taking and bringing down two prisoners, £6." (See "Pennsyl- vania Archives," Second Series, XVIII : 614.)
The following items are contained in an account against the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania for services rendered, etc., in 1769 and 1770 by James Logan, a mulatto residing in Northampton County-probably in the neighborhood of Easton. "To carrying flour to Wyoming with horses and one man, £2; my expenses in going to assist the Sheriff, £1, 10sh .; assisting in three expeditions, man and two horses, and finding our own provisions, &c., £10; my servant taken prisoner for six months and three days, £12; six times carrying prisoners to Easton, £6 ; the use of several horses on different expresses for nearly three years, £10; assisting to take the Hanover men out of Jacob Brinker's and going to Wyoming with them, and one man with me, £4; riding express to Philadelphia for Mr. Brodhead on said business, £3." Relative to this account Charles Stewart, Esq., stated June 9, 1772: "I do not know of his [James Logan] being paid. He was very active in apprehending the rioters over the mountain, and had no land granted him." (See "Pennsylvania Archives," Second Series, XVIII : 613.)
+ See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," IX: 663.
# Miner erroneously states ("History of Wyoming, " page 116) that the name of this victim was "Wil- liam Stager." The following items relative to the inan in question have been extracted from the minutes of the Commissioners under the Confirming Law, mentioned in paragraph "(4)", page 29, Vol. I.
Jacob and Frederick Stager claimed (in 1787) a right in the township of Hanover, and produced the following : "Wilkesbarre, August 25, 1769. Rec'd of ADAM STAGER 20 dollars & 3 which entitles him to one whole right or share of land in the Susquehanna Purchase, he paying 19 dollars more. [Signed] JOHN DURKEE, President." Also the following : "This may certify that ADAM STAGER and his sons Butcher and Jacob Stager's rights are in the township commonly called and known by the name of Nail- ticook Township, on Susquehanna River. Wyoming. June 30, 1770. Teste, JOHN DURKEE, ZEBULON BUTLER, Committee." Col. Zebulon Butler testified before the Commissioners in 1787 "that the aforesaid Frederick and Baltzer Stager came into this settlement in company with Lazarus Stewart and others from Paxton and Hanover in Pennsylvania and were originally entitled to a settling right, &c., but does not know that any particular right was ever assigned to thein. The latter of them was killed in an engage- ment on the ground." There was a William Stager in Wyoming in 1787. His wife was Margaret, daughter of John Comstock, then deceased.
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"2d April a party from the fort commanded by Lazarus Stewart came to the house of deponent in which one Osburn lived as a tenant, turned Osburn and family out and pulled down the house and destroyed the goods of the family, after which they shot several of the cattle, and took out of the stable a young horse of the English blood belonging to Nathan Ogden. 9th April the Connecticut people began to build a block- house on the other side of the river, and on the 13th they fired a cannon-ball at the de- ponent's house."
Chapman (see page 19, Vol. I) refers as follows to the bombard- ment of Ogden's block-house at Mill Creek :
"In pursuance of the resolution agreed upon in full council at Fort Durkee, the Connecticut party on the 9th April commenced the erection of a block-house on the west side of the river opposite Ogden's block-house, which they fortified in a strong manner, and in which they mounted the 4-pounder which they had taken from Ogden. With this piece they commenced a cannonade upon Ogden's house, which was renewed at intervals for several days; but finding that it did not force Ogden to surrender, and their shot nearly expended, they resolved upon a different manner of attack."
In the morning of April 23d a large armed party from Fort Durkee, in command of Major Durkee, advanced towards Ogden's block-house "with drum beating, and Indian shouts," declares Amos Ogden in his affidavit previously mentioned; "and coming near the house they · separated into three divisions, and each division immediately began to inake breastworks, declaring they would soon have the deponent's party out of their houses." The breastworks were completed about noon the same day, whereupon the Yankees opened fire upon the block-house from each of the breastworks. The Pennamites returned the fire, and a mutual firing was carried on at intervals during the ensuing five days. On April 25th, the third day of the siege, a detachment from the Con- necticut party advanced from one of the breastworks, under a brisk fusil- lade from the block-house, and set fire to one of Ogden's store-houses, which was consumed with its contents-a considerable quantity of goods and provisions.
On Saturday, April 28th, Major Durkee sent under a flag of truce a note to Captain Ogden, requesting a conference. Ogden accordingly waited upon the Yankee commander, whereupon a cessation of hostilities until the next day (Sunday), at twelve o'clock, was agreed upon. On Sunday Major Durkee sent to Captain Ogden, in a friendly way, an in- vitation to dine with him at Fort Durkee. In his affidavit (previously mentioned) Captain Ogden states that he "went accordingly and dined with him [Durkee], and after dinner was acquainted by Capt. [John] Collins of Connecticut that he, the deponent, was not to leave the fort till matters were settled and the deponent's works given up." Articles of Capitulation were thereupon immediately drawn up, which were "agreed to and signed by Captain Ogden in behalf of himself and his party, and Zebulon Butler for himself and his party." The Articles were as follows :
"1st. Captain Ogden agrees that the fort [at Mill Creek] shall be delivered to Captain Butler.
"2dly. All the men with Captain Ogden that has not effects on the ground, to de- part the 1st of May next.
"3dly. Six men of Captain Ogden's party to continue to take care of the effects belonging to Ogden and his party until June 1st next, and then to depart with all the effects belonging to said party.
"4thly. The people of Ogden's party have the privilege of selling their wheat that is in the ground.
"5thly. Ogden's party to keep one house for the six men, with two fire-arms, to take care of his effects.
"6thly. The people that have stock on the ground, and have not made sufficient provision for said stock, shall pay all the damages done by said stock to the men that suffer by them."
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Captain Ogden further deposed (at Philadelphia, May 25, 1770, as previously noted) "that, after the capitulation, having reason to think that the other party had designs of confining him, he took the first fair opportunity of leaving the place ; and that he is informed that after he left the people in the fort took possession of all his effects and burnt his house." Natlian Ogden remained in Wyoming for several days after his brother the Captain had departed, and then he too left, and at Phila- delphia, on May 25th, he inade an affidavit before Governor Penn in which he corroborated the facts stated by Captain Ogden in his affidavit, and in addition thereto detailed the happenings that had occurred in Wyoming from the 1st to the 5th of May. The original affidavit sworn to and signed by Nathan Ogden is now "No. 115" of the "Penn Manu- scripts," described on page 30, Volume I, and no part of the same has ever been printed heretofore. The following paragraphs from the doc- ument are interesting and important : *
* "That he [Nathan Ogden] remained at Wioming about four days after his brother Amos Ogden had left the place, as in his deposition made this day is mentioned. That on the 1st day of May last a party of the New Englanders and Pennsylvanians set fire to Joseph Ogden's house, situate on the Proprietary tract of land there, and burnt it to the ground. That on the 2d of May inst. Capt. John Collins, with a party of the same people, broke the locks of the said Amos Ogden's store-house and robbed the same of several hundred deer-skins and a nuniber of other articles, and then demolished the house. That on the 3d May Captain Collins, Lazarus Stewart, Lazarus Young and others of the New England party broke the locks of the said Amos Ogden's dwelling-house and shop, took away all the goods in them and a large quantity of furs and some hundred deer-skins, and then set fire to the house, which was soon consumed.
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