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 III > Part 102
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THE OLD FORTY FORT MEETING HOUSE.
· returned to the valley. Here, in addition to his week-day labor in the smith-shop, he appointed Sunday prayer meetings to be held at his own house, when he exhorted the people to seek the salvation of their souls. The seed, thuis sown by a plain and uneducated but pious and zealous blacksmith, took root, sprang up, and began to bear fruit. Similar meetings, at which Mr. Owen exhorted, were held at Jonathan Smith's, in Newport; at the widow Jameson's in Hanover; at Captain John Vaughn's at Old Forge, in Lackawanna; at Lucas', on Ross Hill, in Kingston; at the widow Coleman's, in Plymouth, and at other places in the valley. In 1791, this region of country was taken into the Methodist Conference, and attached to the New York District, under the name of Wyoming. That district then embraced Newburgh, New York, New Rochelle, Long Island, and Wyoming. The Rev. Robert Cloud was that year made presiding elder of the district, and the Rev. James Campbell was appointed to the Wyoming Circuit. When Mr. Camp- bell arrived at his new field of the itinerancy, he found 100 professors of religion, the fruit of the labors of Anning Owen, and of others. A class was formed in Hanover, and Stephen Burrett was appointed leader. It met once a week, at the house of Aaron Hunt. Another was formed. with James Sutton as leader, to meet at the house of Captain Vaughn. There was also a class in Kings- ton, one in Plymouth, one in Newport, and one in Wilkesbarre. At all of these places Mr. Camp- bell preached, sometimes in private dwellings, sometimes in barns, and at other times in the open air. One of the first Quarterly Meetings was held in a barn, in Hanover, belonging to the widow Jameson, and was attended by Methodists from Briar Creek, in Columbia, then Northumberland county, and from other parts of the country thirty and forty miles distant.
*ANNING OWEN, the founder of the Forty Fort Meeting House, died at Ulysses, Cayuga County, New York. April 14, 1814, aged 63 years.
+The Owen house stood uutil about the year 1895, ou the east side of Wyoming Avenue, near where the Lehigh Valley railroad tracks cross that thoroughfare.
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"Anning Owen was received into the conference in 1795 as a traveling preacher, and was efficient and acceptable until 1813, when he became superannuated.
"According to the regulations of the Methodist Episcopal Church, their preachers itinerate, or pass from one circuit to another every year, or every two years. Therefore, in 1792, Mr. Camp- bell was succeeded by the Rev. William Hardesty.
"In July, 1793, Bishop Asbury visited Wyoming and other portions of the district. At a glance his great knowledge of human nature and of the world enabled him to comprehend the char- acter of the people, and the conditions of the country. At the Conference, in August following, he appointed the Rev. William Colbert, and Rev. Anthony Turck, on Wyoming circuit. During this conference year the membership increased from 100 to 183. In 1794, James Paynther traveled Wyoming circuit, and was succeeded by the Rev. A. White, in 1795, who remained two years.
"In 1796, a new distriet, called the Susquehanna district, the Rev. Thomas Ware, P. E., was formed, extending from Philadelphia to Western New York, and divided into nine circuits. Wyoming was included in it.
"In 1797, the Rev. Roger Benton travelled Wyoming, and in 1798 he was followed by the Rev. William Colbert. In 1799, the Rev. William M'Lenahan was presiding elder, and Wyoming and Northumberland circuits united were traveled by the Reverends James Moore, Benjamin Bidlak, and David Stevens.
"In 1800, Rev. Joseph Everett was presiding elder, and Ephraim Chambers, Edward Larkins, and Asa Smith, were the preachers. In 1801, Ephraim Chambers and Anning Owen, and in 1802 Ephraim Chambers and William Brandon were the preachers.
"In 1803, James Smith became presiding elder of the district, and James Polemus and Hugh McCurdy were appointed preachers
INTERIOR VIEW OLD FORTY FORT CHURCH.
"In 1804, Morris Howe and Robert Burch were the preachers, and the Susquehanna district was transferred from the Philadelpha to the Baltimore Conference. During this year the member- ship increased from 300 to 446. About this time, the Presbyterians and Methodists in Kingston united and built what is now the old church at Forty Fort.
"This was the first finished church in the county in which religious services were held; for though the church in Hanover* erected by the Paxton Presbyterians, was commenced before this, yet it was never completed."
That Pearce was incorrectly informed of the date of building this church we now know. A union service was held there June 15, 1888, in commemoration of the centenary of Methodism at Wyoming and the eightieth anniversary of the erection of the meeting house. At the celebration, Hon. Steuben Jenkins spoke of the church from the standpoint of its Presbyterian ancestry, and Rev. Jonathan K. Peck related its traditions and history from the standpoint of Methodism. Data which was available to Mr. Jenkins and used in connection
*The history of the Hanover Church is referred to in Chapter XXXV.
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with his reference to the building itself, is substantiated by all the present writer has been able to find on the subject, and is as follows:
"This building in which we are now assembled, known to the present generation as 'The Old Forty Fort Church,' from the best authority we have upon the subject was projected and subscriptions made for its building, in the year of 1806; and during the winter of 1806-7 the stone for the foundation and the timber for the superstructure were brought upon the ground.
"During the summer of 1807 the timber was framed and the general building completed, so that the interior finish of the pews, pulpit, etc., was completed during the winter of 1807-8, and the whole edifice was ready for occupancy about the first of June, 1808, or as near as maybe eighty years ago. Whether there was any formal dedication of it to the worship of Almighty God I have been unable to learn, but the supposition and natural inference would he that there was such dedication. This was the first finished church edifice in which religious services were held, not only in Wyoming but throughout all Northeastern Pennsylvania.
"The architect and builder was Joseph Hitchcock, a New Haven name, father of Platt Hitch- cock, who was Treasurer of Luzerne County, and subsequently Treasurer of Clinton County, Pa., at Lock Haven. Hitchcock was considered a very skillful mechanic. He laid out and framed the building by what was known among builders as the square rule, which was thought to be, in those days, a wonderful feat of skill. Gideon Underwood, a cabinet maker and first-class carpenter, made the pulpit.
The building committee consisted of Benjamin Dorrance, Daniel Hoyt, Elijah Shoemaker, Lazarus Denison and Luke Swetland. The lime used in its walls was hauled with teams from Lime Ridge. The quaint style of construction and arrangement of pulpit, pews and gallery is peculiarly noticeable, and suggest the inquiry as to whence came this style of architecture. That the style is antique and that but few specimens of it now remain there is no doubt. There is a church of this style and finish in Wickford, at the head of Narragansett Bay, R. I., another in Newport, R. I., and one in Richmond, Va., and beyond these, I know of no other."
NOTE. The "Old Forty Fort Meeting House" may be visited during daylight hours by application to the sexton of the Forty Fort cemetery. Traction cars stop directly at the eutrauce. The Association has taken excellent care of the building, restoring part of the exterior and foundations and treating the wood work of the interior so as to preserve it in its original unpainted condition. The pulpit, approached hy a spiral staircase, is ou a level with the broad balcony which surrounds it on three sides. The main floor, on either side of the entrance isle, is boxed off into pews, each seating eight persons, the rear pews being slightly elevated. Brackets for candles or the old fashioned whale oil lamp are attached to the gallery supports and the church today has no means of lighting except by candle or lamp. It is most fortunate that this interesting building, like the Pickering House at 120 South Main Street, Wilkes-Barre, which antedated it by some twenty years in construction, has fallen into appreciative hands. From present indi- cations the old meeting house, under normal conditions, should survive for another century as a shrine for those who appreciate its history.
The summary by Mr. Jenkins suggests that the style of pulpit and pews was antique. But it was not rare, for many of the churches built at that period in this country had the identical features of high pulpits and boxed pews. The style came from England and the Continent.
CHAPTER XXXVIII
EVENTS OF THE EARLY YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY-JEFFER- SON'S ELECTION CELEBRATED-PARTISANSHIP OF THE PERIOD-ECHOES OF LAND DISPUTES-THE IDEA OF PERMANENCE OF THE COMMUNITY GAINS GROUND-BUILDING OF THE SECOND COURT HOUSE-THE STONE JAIL-EASTON AND WILKES-BARRE TURNPIKE-THE BOROUGH OF WILKES-BARRE INCORPORATED-FIRST OF- FICERS OF THE BOROUGH-THE STONE "FIRE PROOF" -THE WILKES-BARRE ACADEMY-VARIOUS SOCIETIES FORMED.
He sighed for the days of his early youth, "Those good old days of yore," But he was forced to ride all day in a stage And thought it a beastly bore.
He lauded the innocent times of old, The pleasures of long ago, But he went to an old-time singing bee And voted it beastly slow.
He longed for the days when he was young, When everything was just right, But he kicked when the electric lights went wrong, And he had to use candle light.
He exalted the youth of by-gone days, And fired an employe Who was so old-fashioned he couldn't com- pete With modern energy.
He boarded his modern private car, And sped to the salty sea; He sat on the deck of his modern yacht, And dreamed of the used-to-be. -St. Paul Dispatch.
The Presidential election of 1800, had witnessed the defeat of Federalists, generally, throughout the country, and the vote of the electoral college had been a tie between two Republicans, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. Thrown into the House of Representatives, Jefferson had finally, on the 36th ballot, emerged with the required votes. Burr, under the rules then obtaining, became Vice President.
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Pennsylvania had cast her electoral votes for Jefferson, and its House membership had likewise voted for the country's leading exponent of democracy. The election proved a bitter blow to conservatives, and members of the defeated party at Wilkes-Barré, as elsewhere, were outspoken in their prognostications of national disaster to follow. It happened that while a contributor to the Pennsylvania Magazine, XII: 484, was recording some impressions of Wilkes- Barré, in the latter part of 1800, and the early months of 1801, local adherents of Jefferson celebrated his accession to the presidency. The account is rather amusing in its tinge of partisanship:
"Dec. 5, 1800. Arrived at Wilkes-Barre about 2 P. M. It is now in agitation to build a turnpike from here to Easton, sixty miles, and should this be effected, Philadelphia will be the market via this route, which will shorten the distance one hundred miles from what it is by the Lancaster road. The inhabitants emigrated chiefly from Connecticut. There are a number of gentlemen of education residing here, chiefly professional characters of the law, and this being the county town of Luzerne, has rendered it populous. An elegant church with a spire has been built, and during the year a court house will be erected. Some gentlemen are possessed of a large property to the amount of £20,000, and more. A stranger has no reason to complain of the want of friends, or friendly assistance, who falls among them. The Sabbath is observed with great decency.
"Information was received on Tuesday last, that Mr. Jefferson was elected President of the United States. The Democrats are making preparations to rejoice on Wednesday next, the 4th March, when an ox will be roasted whole, cannon will be fired, and probably some whiskey will be drank. They feel important, go with their heads up, assume a new language, are busy in the streets.
"March 5, 1801. Yesterday was celebrated by the Democrats in this place with festivity and rejoicing, that Thomas Jefferson, the infidel, was raised to the Presidential chair. They in- troduced the French flag and cockade; they stopped and insulted the mail, attacked and abused travellers, and committed many outrages. There are some Democrats of this place possessed of large property, they will do well to keep a good lookout, for they have many brethren who have none at all, and who comfort themselves with the idea of an equal distribution to be made in a short time. This is their glorious millenium, the reign of Liberty and Equality!
"March 12-The inhabitants of Wilkes-Barre are a mixture of good and bad-Lord Butler, Rosewell Wells, Matthew Covil, Putnam Catlin, Ebenezer Bowman, Arnold Colt, Capt. Samuel Bowman, Jesse Fell, George Griffin and others are Federal in heart and conduct. They are men of property, character and morals, and there is a frank, open and friendly appearance in all their conduct. There are others of a different complexion, all Democrats, and consequently are rebels against God and man! I never saw Democratic enmity expressed and acted out in such lively colours as it is in this place.
"The ladies of Wilkes-Barre might perhaps, consider themselves neglected, should I pass them by in silence. Their circle is not large, yet they are a number, who have personal charms and other accomplishments, which render them engaging. Some in a fancy dress, with easy agreeable airs, have appeared to the best advantage, and were highly delightful. Their manners are easy, but not sociable in conversation.
"March 17-This morning my hostess was frying eggs without lard. They stuck to the pan, nor could she turn them without breaking the yolks. She wondered what was the matter. Her husband told her it was because there was no lard in the pan. She said that she knew better, that it portended something very awful that was coming on the Democrats for celebrating the 4th of March, with a roasted ox.
"March 24-Concluding to view the country up the river, I this day left Wilkes-Barre in company with Col. Hollenback. We passed thro' Kingston, and near its northern extremity, he showed me the ground where the Indian battle was fought, in which we lost three hundred men. Col. Hollenback was in the action, and one of the few who escaped."
If a stranger reflected the partisanship of the times, in referring to the community, it might naturally be expected that Federalists at home, voiced their chagrin and rancor whenever opportunity offered. The Wilkes-Barre Gasette, republican in policy, published a glowing account of the celebration on the court house grounds in its issue of March 9th. The next edition of the op- posing Federalist took exception to its rival's description, in the following emphatic terms:
"In the Wilkes-Barre Gazette of the 9th instant, is published a very extraordinary account of the proceedings of the (self-stiled) republicans in this town, in consequence of the election of Mr. Jefferson as President of the U. S.
"Lest the credulous should be deceived, and led to suppose that 'Order, hilarity and good humor,' (as expressed in that piece) are really meant to convey the ideas generally appropriated to them; we think it our duty to represent facts as they were.
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" "The day was announced by the discharge of artillery and martial music.' This probably might have been the case. But so great has been the noise among them ever since the news of Mr. J's election arrived in town, that it was impossible to distinguish this grand annunciation. If every discordant thump upon a drum can be called 'martial music', we acknowledge ourselves indebted for a sufficiency of it.
" "The procession began to move in the following order.'
" 'Two respectable farmers' ! !
"One of these 'respectable farmers' we do not know, but the other is a foreigner who makes it his glory and boast that he is not a citizen of America!
" "The company consisting of about 500 persons then regaled themselves upon an ox roasted whole.'
"By what rule 200 men (including women and children) can make 500, we are unable to determine; but conclude by the same process that a raw bull is made a roasted ox.
" 'Not a single circumstance occurred to interrupt the festivity of the day.'
"Was not the mail of the U. States stopped and the carrier abused?
"Was not a boy abused and struck with a club by one of the leading republicans, merely because he wore a Federal cockade?
"Was not the 'festivity interrupted' when among these 500 respectable republicans, only an average of 6 cents could be mustered towards defraying the mighty expense?
"We will not ask whether it was an 'interruption' to have a peaceable citizen drove from the public ground by brandishing two or three drawn swords over his head ;- neither will we en- quire, why the proceedings of this republican assembly were sent to Gov. Mckean.
"To have observed the proceedings of some of this assembly after the procession was dis- missed and they had convened at their rendezvous :- decency would have blushed; and he who, unprejudiced, could have viewed every occurrence of this day, would have exclaimed in the lan- guage of the most sublime writer of our age ---
"Ye gods! what havoc has democracy made among us!"
Bitter as were the political differences of the early years of the nineteenth century, they were no more acrimonious than were echos of land controversies, which raged in Luzerne County in the same period.
It is not the intention to reopen the subject of these controversies, except for passing comment, as they were discussed at length in Chapter XXXIV of this volume. In fact, neither residents of Wilkes-Barré nor of the territory of the seventeen townships, formerly of Connecticut, were involved in these latter day controversies, only insofar as they held wild lands outside the area of those districts, whose titles were being quieted under the amended Compromise Law of 1799. Thomas Cooper, Esq., Gen. John Steele and William Wilson, Esq., were sitting as a final commission on the settlement of these claims at Wilkes- Barré, July 1, 1801. They made encouraging progress in their work, as they re- ported from time to time to Governor McKean. But at Athens and neighbor- ing points along the Susquehanna, the spirit of turbulence was still rife. Wyoming was drawn into the controversy at this time, largely because it was still the county seat of the whole area, and secondly, because it possessed the only newspapers, through whose columns contributors voiced their sentiments in no uncertain terms. The Gazette advised its readers to assist the Commissioners in hurrying forward their business. The Federalist, on the other hand, sided with the Franklin party. Over the pseudonym of "Plain Talk," Colonel Franklin began, in May, 1801, to use the columns of the latter publication in a series of fervid articles, which covered the whole range of Connecticut claims, and were to continue in serial form for several years to follow.
The Pennsylvania land claimants conducted their answers to Colonel Franklin, from the safe distance of the columns of the Lancaster Journal.
Tench Coxe, Secretary of the Land Office, and a large claimant to dis- puted lands of the Commonwealth, upheld the Pennsylvania partisans with tranchant pen. In its issue of July 13, 1801, the Federalist, in a burst of heated argument, referred to Mr. Coxe as a "tape-worm," besides casting other aspersions upon his character. Asher Miner, publisher of the Federalist, was
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thereupon arrested by Col. Abraham Horn, a special officer of the Common- wealth, and placed under bond for appearance at the following term of court.
Thinking, doubtless that Mr. Miner would be intimidated by his arrest, and that the columns of his paper would in future reflect to a less emphatic extent the attitude of the Franklin party, Colonel Horn and his deputies filled the calendar of the November, 1801, term of court to overflowing, with the names of adherents of Colonel Franklin, whose arrests had been caused under the Intrusion Act.
Such results, if anticipated, did not follow. The newspaper retaliated, with less use of personalities, perhaps, but with finer logic, and the cases against Franklin, et al, as has been seen, were eventually dismissed on grounds of the unconstitutionality of the Act.
Hoping for assistance from Congress in their claims, the Franklin party prepared a lengthy petition, signed by some thirteen hundred land claimants outside the seventeen townships, introduced before the House, by Representa- tive Calvin Goddard, of Connecticut, January 5, 1802. The matter, being referred to a special committee, was dismissed on the grounds that the Decree of Trenton had given courts of Pennsylvania jurisdiction of claims, and the whole affair was therefore no business of Congress.
Rebuffed by the supreme law making authority, discouraged by the grad- ual desertion from their ranks of those who were securing their warrants from the commissioners, and feeling that further opposition to Pennsylvania was useless, the year 1802 began that disintegration of the Franklin party in the northern Susquehanna districts, as had followed three years before in the neigh- borhood of Wilkes-Barré.
On September 6, 1802, Judge Cooper announced that he would visit the up-river districts for the first time, and would be absent from Wilkes-Barré some six weeks. That his visit met with encouragement, is evidenced by a letter to Governor Mckean, written October 20, 1802, in part as follows :*
"Every claim of every Connecticut claimant under the Law of 1799, and the supplements thereto, has been examined and decided upon, except the cases of townships rejected, and appeals from my jurisdiction. The townships of Bedford and Ulster were not able to make out a title to my satisfaction, under the Susquehanna Company and the law of 1799. I rejected, therefore,
every applicant within those townships. * * * In Ulster live Franklin, the Satterlees, and Spaldings, the Binghams, and all the decided and leading characters among the half share men. In that thownship, and there alone will opposition rise, if at all."
By way of further explanation of the situation, the Commissioner wrote again in November of the same year, on this score:
"I cannot be far wrong when I state the utmost force of the Wild Yankees as they are called, at 200 men.
"These are for the most part poor and ignorant but industrious settlers, thinly scattered over a wild country (Wyalusing, Wysox, Tioga, Willingborough and Rindaw), incited and mis- led by about half a dozen leaders, living chiefly in the township of Ulster, viz: Franklin, Satterlee, Spalding, Bingham, Flower, Kingsbury, John Jenkins of Exeter, and Ezekiel Hyde of Willing- borough. In fact, all the active opposition is confined to 3 or 4 miles above and so much below Tioga Point and about a dozen miles East and West of it. * *
* Except John Jenkins and Ezekiel Hyde the leaders live near each other, with establishments and families, and in case of necessity might easily be reduced."
In the minds of residents of the settlement, in and about Wilkes-Barré, there seems to have lodged at this time, an idea of the permanence of their community. Nearly all of them had verified their rights to the title of lands upon which they lived, and had accepted from the Pennsylvania Commissioners a certificate, which evidenced that title. They had begun the erection of a com-
*See "Pennsylvania Archives," 2nd series, XVIII: 487.
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modious church, which, by reason of its dependency upon private subscriptions had not then been completed. But the county was rapidly acquiring new resi- dents, its taxables were increasing, and the need of a new public building, with facilities for the housing of valuable records, was imperative. The rude log structure, two stories in height, unpainted and unadorned, had outlived its usefulness as not merely a court house and jail, but a place of general service to those who had occasion to use it. On September 26, 1801, the then County Com- missioners, Thomas Wright, Lawrence Myers and Eleazer Blackman took the initiative in proposing a new structure for county use, and authorized advertising that they "would receive proposals for furnishing stone, brick, lime, scantling and boards for building a court house." Before taking this action, however, the Commissioners very wisely sought light on the question as to who owned the lands of the Public Square, on which the proposed building was to stand. Accord- ingly, a town meeting was called, the minutes of which sum up the action taken as follows:
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