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 104
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There was much correspondence between men of like minds in Easton and Philadelphia, and many trips to be taken by pioneers in the venture, before the preliminaries of incorporation were arranged.
By an Act approved February 11, 1803, a start was made. In its title, the Act purported "To enable the Governor of this Commonwealth to incorporate a company for making an artificial road by the best and nearest route, from the borough of Easton to the town of Wilkes-Barre." The act, in its lengthy terms, named Henry Drinker, Benjamin R. Morgan and Thomas Allibone of Philadelphia; Samuel Sitgreaves, John Herster and Daniel Wagener of Easton; and Lord Butler, Lawrence Meyers and Thomas Wright of Wilkes-Barré, Commissioners of the highway. They were instructed to open three books for the sale of the twelve hundred shares of capital stock of the Easton and Wilkes-Barré Turnpike, at a par value of fifty dollars per share.
The book at Philadelphia, was to be opened for the sale of four hundred of such shares; the Easton book was to be complete when two hundred shares were subscribed. while Wilkes-Barré was given the major task of selling six hundred shares, before its book was closed. The Act further provided that, when any stretch of ten miles of completed highway between Easton and the Wind Gap was thrown open, toll gates might be erected, and the following sums collected for each five miles of travel over the completed portion:
"For every score of sheep, 4 cents; for every score of hogs, 6 cents; for every score of cattle, 12 cents; for every horse or mule, laden or unladen, 3 cents; for every sulkey, chair or chaise with one horse and two wheels, 6 cents; with two horses, nine cents; for every chair, coach, phaeton, chaise, stage, wagon, coachee or light wagon with two horses and four wheels, 12 cents; for every sled or sleigh, 2 cents for every horse drawing same."
There were numerous other charges permitted for vehicles having certain widths of tires. The act specified that, for any similar stretch of completed high- way between the Wind Gap and Wilkes-Barré, the cost of construction of which was, of course, far heavier, "double the above rates might be charged."
Numerous provisions of the Act, conferred upon the Commissioners the right to condemn property; certain police powers for the collection of tolls and the protection of its property, and other powers essential to carrying into effect the purposes of the Act.
In June, 1803, the Wilkes-Barré commissioners published in local newspapers appeals to subscribe for stock then being offered. As a special inducement, the announcement mentioned that "due bills of subscribers would be accepted."
From the fact that in September, 1803, the Commissioners admitted in announcements, that they would not be able to get the required number of sub- scribers at Wilkes-Barré, and then resolved "to attend and open books," at various points up the river, it can be gathered that the going was difficult. In the latter months of 1803, subscriptions, while coming in slowly, seemed to jus- tify the Commissioners in completing the organization of the company by calling a meeting for the election of officers. This was accordingly done, naming the court house, at Easton, as the place of meeting and February 1, 1804, as the date. At this meeting, Samuel Sitgreaves of Easton was elected president, Thomas Allibone of Philadelphia, treasurer, and the following were named on the board of twelve managers: Ebenezer Bowman, Lord Butler, Arnold Colt, Matthias
1762
Hollenback, Lawrence Myers and Williams Ross of Wilkes-Barre; William Barnett, John Herster, Nicholas Kern, John Ross, Peter Snyder and Daniel Wagener of Northampton County.
The year 1804, was a trying period for incorporators of the venture. Money was scarce, times were none too auspicious, individual credit was a matter of speculation, and the sales of stock in the three communities, where permanent stock books were designated, moved discouragingly. Arnold Colt* was the one man at Wilkes-Barré, who ap- pears to have stuck doggedly at the task of promotion. The time he gave to the un- dertaking, coupled with his acceptance of unremunerative con- tracts for constructing parts of the highway in ensuing years, involved his finances heavily. . But the road was to go through in spite of hardships imposed upon individuals. The spring of 1805 con- vinced officers of the company that unless construction proceed with what funds were then on hand, public confidence in the enter- prise would probably fail, and the company's franchise would revert to the state. In the Federalist of June 8, 1805, is found the en- couraging news of work ARNOLD COLT. actually begun. To this announcement, the editor lent what argument he could to further the financial affairs of the company in the following article:
"The Easton and Wilkes-Barre Turnpike Road, we have the pleasure to state, is rapidly progressing-more than 150 men are now employed upon it, and there is no doubt but the worst part will be completed this season,-and the residue next summer. The advantages of this im- provement to the People on the northern waters of the Susquehanna, and the Gunessee country,
*ARNOLD COLT was a native of Lyme, New London County, Connecticut, where he was born September 10, 1760 His father. Capt. Harris Colt, was in Wyoming Valley at various times prior to the Revolutionary War, and, as a member of The Susquebanna Company, was one of the original proprietors of the township of Wilkes-Barre. In 1786. Arnold Colt came from Lyme to Wilkes-Barre, where he located, and was married the next year to Lucinda, daughter of Abel Yarington, one of the early Wyoming settlers from Connecticut. In March, 1790, Mr. Colt became Town Clerk of Wilkes-Barre, and in 1791, he was appointed and commissioned a Justice of the Peace in aud for the township of Wilkes-Barre, to hold office during good behavior. In November, 1798, he was elected Sheriff of Luzerne County for a term of three years, and upon his retirement from this office he served as Commissioner of the county for three years. From June, 1826, to May, 1827, and from May, 1828, to May, 1829, he was President of the Town Council of Wilkes-Barre. He held other local offices, and was for some time an iun-keeper at Wilkes-Barre, at Tioga Point, and then at a point on the Easton and Wilkes-Barre Turnpike, near Stoddartsville. He died in Wilkes-Barre. Sep- tember 21, 1832.
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1763
as well as to Phila., by turning the channel of conveyance, from the dangerous course of the Sus- quehanna to the secure path of a good road, will be incalculably great.
"In the course of one day last spring, 12,000 bushels of wheat besides large quantities of flour, pork, furs, etc., are computed to have passed this town on the river for the market, but owing to the badness of the water below, considerable quantities were lost.
"Above this place, to the very head waters of the branches of the Chemung, and the main river, the water is safe and good. And many Arks have been built, loaded, and come safely down from streams so small that they had not room to turn round in them.
"The water below this place furnishes striking contrast to the water above,-falls, rocks, and other obstructions threaten the lives and property of the boatman every few miles below Wilkes- barre. Easton and Philadelphia furnish excellent markets for our produce. Every inducement is therefore offered to invite the merchant and farmer, to the, use of this valuable improvement, and added to the public benefit, that will result from it, we believe the holders of shares will soon find their stock productive of a handsome interest.
In the same publication, under date of September 7th, is found an adver- tisement of Arnold Colt for fifty more men to "work the turnpike."
The route of the road, as its sections reached out from Wilkes-Barré to the Wind Gap, followed substantially the trail of the Sullivan road as outlined in Volume II: 1176, excepting that beyond Bear Creek, the new road kept to the right of the last mountainous ridge approaching the Lehigh, instead of turning left through the major portion of the "Shades of Death" swamp as did the old road. In its new course the road crossed the Lehigh at Stoddartsville, just above the "Great Falls" instead of about three miles south of Thornhurst as the Sullivan road had done.
Beyond the Lehigh, difficulties of transportation of materials and an in- ability to secure proper quarters for men employed, slackened the progress of construction materially in the year 1806. However, the Federalist again comes to the rescue with another enlightening description of advancement in its Novem- ber 21st issue of that year, as follows:
"We are enabled to congratulate the country on the completion of the most difficult and important part of the Easton and Wilkesbarre Turnpike Road. Twenty four miles of this road commencing at the Town of Wilkesbarre and ending at the Tunkhanna river and covering the whole of the distance which passes over the heretofore impracticable district, emphatically called "The Swamp," are finished; and, as we understand from the report of the Managers who have recently returned from a journey of inspection, the work is executed in a manner quite satisfactory and such as to assure an excellent and permanent road through a wilderness which until very lately has been deemed almost impassable. Here, too, the effects of the public spirited enterprise of the projectors are already visible, valuable improvements are already begun at different stations on the road, and the traveller will soon be as well accommodated on this dreary route as in the most populous parts of the country. We are informed that Commissioners have been appointed by the Governor to view that portion of the road which has been completed and when their report, which cannot be otherwise than favourable, shall have been made the citizens who have advanced their money as Stockholders in this very useful undertaking, will, we trust, be rewarded by abundant tolls, for their public spirit. It is proper to add that the ascent of Pokono Moun- tain is nearly finished in a most masterly manner and that much work has been done on the Broad mountain in the interval distance. The whole road as far as Mehruveins in Chestnut Hill Township, will without doubt, be completed the ensuing Summer,
The spring of 1807 witnessed the finishing touches to the first twenty nine miles of completed highway from Wilkes-Barré, to a point on what is now called "Effort Mountain," where the Sullivan road was considered in fair shape for travel. Arnold Colt proudly set the milestone where operations were to tem- porarily cease. It is recorded that in May, practically the entire population of Wilkes-Barré turned out, equipped for gratuitous effort, in making the descent into the Wyoming Valley over "Giant's Despair" or Wilkes-Barré mountain, much more safe and convenient than it had originally been. The toll gate at the Wilkes-Barré end was erected at Georgetown, some two hundred feet east of where the Central railroad tracks now cross the thoroughfare.
Here it was, after the voluntary efforts of residents had ended, that the highway was declared open to traffic, no further formal dedication of the enter-
1764
prise, being of record. That traffic was ready for the road, is disclosed by the fact that on August 1, 1808, a dividend of $1.25 per share, was enthusias- tically declared by officers of the company, and paid to share- holders. In 1809, the finished stretches paid shareholders a most encouraging return of $2.60 on their investment. In the fall of 1810, through sales of stock made possible by the fact that the enterprise was on a paying basis, the remainder of the high- way in its forty six miles to the Wind Gap was finished, at which point it joined the more easily built section to Easton. The whole undertaking had cost over sixty thousand dollars.
EASTON AND WILKES-BARRE TURNPIKE TOLLGATE, At Georgetown
It is not the intention at this time, to undertake a descrip- tion of the turnpike, the hospi- tality of its taverns, its rollocking stage drivers and the heyday of its use. The first decade of the nineteenth century was a period of construction, rather than of enjoyment of the fruits of sacrifice. In proper sequence, all this will be mentioned. At present, we have much to do with the orderly process of events which were to place the community in readiness for development ahead. Next in order, comes the incorporation of Wilkes-Barré proper as a borough, thus to distinguish it at last from Wyoming, as a region, and from the huge acreage of the township of the same name, which then extended from the Susquehanna to the Lehigh rivers.
The population of Wilkes-Barre-particularly of the village, or "town-plot" -increased slowly; but by the beginning of 1806, nearly thirty-seven years after the township had been located and named, the village, in the judgment of its foremost men, had arrived at such a stage of importance and worthiness in its onward progression as warranted its erection into a borough. Thereupon the Hon. Rosewell Welles, in 1805 and 1806, one of the two Representatives from Luzerne County in the Pennsylvania Legislature, introduced a Bill in the House of Repre- sentatives providing for the incorporation into a borough of the "town-plot of Wilkes-Barré, together with the adjacent River Common and a strip of land ad- joining the north-east boundary of the "town-plot." This bill was enacted into a law, approved by the Governor, March 17, 1806, the legal title of the new "body politic and corporate" being declared to be "The Burgess and Town Council of the Borough of Wilkesbarre." The Hon. Jesse Fell of Wilkes-Barre was named in the Act of Incorporation as a Commissioner to issue the proclamation for holding the first election for borough officers.
Under the date of April 25, 1806, Judge Fell issued his proclamation, which was printed in The Federalist of April 25th and May 2d. The qualified electors of the new borough were therein notified to meet at the court house on
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1765
Tuesday, May 6, 1806, between the hours of twelve o'clock noon and six o'clock in the evening, to vote for one person to serve as Burgess, seven per- sons to serve as members of the Town Council, and one person to serve as High Constable, during the ensuing year. The electors having assembled at the time and place appointed, and the proper officers for conducting the election having been chosen and duly sworn and affirmed, the votes (less than a hundred in number) were cast, with the following results: The Hon. Jesse Fell was
rough of Mithes Barre
Be vistere of Authority to me woven, by une liste The General Ofsembly
entitled sor Bets " Jouret the Tocane Pht of tithes - Barre and its misirity in the Gonosti ojednucome into a Beranglas- . Salice is tribu geven that. Denovos voitested de rate for erasinthere of the dégustation who have resided hedder months previously to the Shetion within the fireits of the savit Brought. to meet at the fourth these are Missing the 6 "age of clay nextand then auch there aleet Se bation between the heroes of 10 4. 6 tisil. sacde any one reputable cities residencia here in the Burgess ofthe Browngh , and steen
activer as high Consto ble for the answers
wertes of socie Stortings.
Apric 95, 1816
PROCLAMATION FIRST BOROUGH
chosen Burgess; Col. Matthias Hollenback, the Hon. Rosewell Welles, Lord Butler, Arnold Colt, Esq., Nathan Palmer, Esq.,* Capt. Samuel Bowman
*As Nathan Palmer is the only member of the first council of the borough, a sketch of whom has not appeared, as can be found by reference to the index, the following brief outline of his activities is here appended :
NATHAN PALMER was born at Plainfield, Windham County, Connecticut. in 1769. Having been admitted, io 1791 or 1792 to practise law before the Supreme Court of Connecticut, he removed, in 1793, to Pennsylvania, and the next year located in Wilkes-Barre, where he was soon admitted to the Bar of Luzerne County, In 1795 and 1797, he was Clerk to the Commissioners of Luzerne County, and in January, 1800 he was appointed by Governor McKead, Clerk of the Orphans' Court and of the Court of Quarter Sessions, Prothonotary, Register of Wills and Recorder of Deeds of Luzerne Couaty for the term of three years, to succeed Lord Butlet. In 1806, and for several years about that time, he was engaged in mercantile business in Wilkes-Barre, and from 1808 to 1810 he represented Luzerne County in the Senate of Pennsylvania. In December, 1812, he was appointed Treaurer of the county. About 1819 he removed from Wilkes- Barre to Mount Holly, New Jersey, where, until about the time of his death (which occurred July 28, 1842), he edited the Mount Holly Mirror.
1766
and the Hon. Charles Miner were chosen members of the Town Council; George Griffin, Esq., was chosen High Constable.
Saturday, May 10th, the Town Council was organized at the court house, Lord Butler being elected President of the body for the ensuing year, and Capt. Peleg Tracy*, being appointed Clerk.
In announcing in his paper (the Federalist) of May 9, 1805, the result of the first borough election, Charles Miner stated: "The person elected High
This the subscribers burges of the Dictiont Lies on the sixth đây of hay Sh 1800 at the
of dieting the officers of the Borough of Withes Basse, agreeably to the Laux, pased for that purpose March 17, 1806 do certify That the following persons have been elected fice the offices to where Their neured ale 1 atixetued To wits
Berg 's of the Baranyh. defre Fece. Town Council
Nord Buster
Charles dinner
High Constable_
Station
RETURN OF FIRST BOROUGH ELECTION
Constable is absent, and it is not known whether he will accept the office." As previously mentioned, George Griffint had been elected High Constable,
*CAPT. PELEG TRACY, the first "Town Clerk" of the borough nf Wilkes-Barre, and ex officio Secretary of the Town Council, was born in 1775 at Norwich, New London County, Connecticut, whence he removed to Wilkes-Barre about 1803 or '04. In February, 1806, he was appointed Clerk to the Commissioners of Luzerne County. He served as Clerk of the borough from May, 1806, until some time in 1809, when he was succeeded by Sidney Tracy. In August, 1806, he was one of the organizers of "The Wilkes-Barre Library Company," and was its first Secretary, Treasurer and Li- brarian. He was Secretary of the Board of Trustees of the Wilkes-Barre Academy in 1808, '09 and '10. In 1818 he was Secretary of the Eastnu and Wilkes-Barre Turnpike Company. Captain Tracy died at his residence at the north- east corner of Union and Franklin Streets, Wilkes-Barre, March 12, 1825.
"The election of Mr. Griffin to the office of High Constable was intended by his fellow-citizens as a practical-joke. He was a graduate of Yale College, in the class of 1797, and in 1806 was a busy and successful lawyer, having been admitted to the Bar of Luzerne County in 1800. He had been married, in 1801, to a daughter of Col. Zebulon Butler. In the latter part of 1806 Mr. Griffin remo ved with his family to the city of New York, and it has been stated that the immediate cause of his leaving Wilkes-Barre was the perpetration of the abovementioned joke. In the course of a few years Mr. Griffin became one of the most eminent and successful lawyers at the New York Bar. In 1830 the degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by Columbia College. ' He died in New York, May 6, 1860-"the Nestor of the Bar; eloquent learned and painstaking," as he was described by David Dudley Field, himself a great lawyer.
1767
but upon his return home from a temporary absence he promptly and indig- nantly refused to accept the office. Whereupon, dite notice having been given, a special election for High Constable was held June 28, 1806, and Peter Yarington a blacksmith, and a brother-in-law of Arnold Colt, was chosen.
The original rules and regulations adopted by the Town Council for its government provided that its regular meetings should be held at the court house on the first Saturday of each month, at nine o'clock in the morning; and that a member should be fined two dollars for an absence from a regular meet- ing, and one dollar for an absence from a special meeting. At the second meeting of the Council, held May 12th, Mr. Miner moved the adoption of the following: "Resolved, That it will be an accommodation to the public to have two ferries established, one of which shall be from the Center street (Market street) of the borough." Action on this resolution was "postponed," but the following, introduced by Mr. Welles, was adopted: "Voted, That the ferry to be kept by the corporation over the Susquehanna, within the limits of the borough, shall be kept opposite Northampton Street." This was the location of the ferry from earliest times.
At the third meeting of the Town Council, held May 14, 1806, a design for a seal for the borough was submitted by Mr. Miner, and the same was adopted. At this same meeting, Mr. Miner submitted the following resol- ution, which was adopted: "Resolved, That a committee be appointed to endeavor to obtain from the township a release or conveyance to the cor- poration of the public lands within the limits of the borough; and to stip- ulate on behalf of the corporation that the borough will expend the avails of it to the security of the bank from the inroads of the river, and making such other improvements as may be found necessary."
List of Burgesses and Presidents of Council of the Borough, later the City of Wilkes-Barré, from 1806 to 1840.
BURGESS
PRESIDENT OF COUNCIL
Jesse Fell,
elected
1806,
Lord Butler,
elected May, 1806,
Jesse Fell,
1807,
Lord Butler,
May, 1807,
Jesse Fell,
1808,
Ebenezer Bowman,
"
May, 1808,
Lord Butler,
May,
1809,
Jesse Fell,
May 6, 1809,
Lord Butler,
May,
1810,
Joseph Sinton,
May 14, 1810,
Lord Butler,
May,
1811,
Jesse Fell,
May 15, 1811,
Lord Butler,
10
May,
1812,
Jesse Fell,
May 6, 1812,
Lord Butler,
May,
1813,
Jesse Fell,
June,
1815,
Jesse Fell,
=
May 7, 1816,
Joseph Sinton,
May, May 14, 1816,
Jesse Fell,
=
May 6, 1817,
Thomas Burnside,
May 9, 1817,
Jesse Fell,
May 5, 1818,
Joseph Slocum,
May 13, 1818,
Matthias Hollenback,
May 4, 1819,
Ebenezer Bowman,
May 6, 1819,
Thomas Dyer,
= May 2, 1820,
Jesse Fell,
May 4, 1820,
Thomas Dyer,
=
May, 1822,
Jesse Fell,
May 20, 1822,
Ebenezer Bowman,
May 6, 1823,
George Denison,
June 7, 1823,
David Scott,
=
May 4, 1824,
Benjamin Drake,
May, 1824,
David Scott,
May,
1825,
Joseph Sinton,
May,
1825,
David Scott,
May,
1826,
Arnold Colt,
June,
1826,
John N. Conyngham,
..
May,
1827,
John W. Robinson,
May, 1827,
Garrick Mallery,
May,
1828,
Arnold Colt,
May 26, 1828,
George Dennison,
elected May 5, 1829,
Joseph Slocum,
elected May, IS29.
Josiah Lewis,
May,
1830,
Wm. Ross,
May,
1830,
Josiah Lewis,
May 3, 1831,
Thos. H. Morgan,
May,
1831,
Josiah Lewis,
11
May,
1832,
W'm. Ross,
May, 1832
Jesse Fell,
May,
1814,
Col. Eliphalet Bulkeley,
May 4, 1814,
Jesse Fell,
=
May 2, 1815,
Col. Eliphalet Bulkeley,
May 2, 1821,
Jesse Fell,
=
May 21, 1821,
Thomas Dyer,
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BURGESS
PRESIDENT OF COUNCIL
Orlando Porter,
May, 1833,
Thos. Davidge,
May, 1833,
John N. Conyngham,
May 6, 1834,
Chas. D. Shoemaker,
May,
1834,
John N. Conyngham,
1835,
E. W. Sturdevant,
May,
1835,
John N. Conyngham,
May, 1836,
E. W. Sturdevant,
May, . 1836,
John N. Conyngham,
May, 1837,
E. W. Sturdevant,
May,
1837,
Hendrick B. Wright,
=
May, 1838,
E. W. Sturdevant,
May,
1838,
Joseph P. Le Clerc,
$ 6
May, 1839,
Thomas Davidge,
=
May,
1839,
Joseph P. Le Clerc.
May 5, 1840.
E. W. Sturdevant,
May,
1840.
It can be seen, from these early activities of the Borough Council, that the community of Wilkes-Barré was now in a direct line for rapid progress, insofar as its government was concerned. The cumbersome plan of township control had not opened the door to this. Jealousies and conflicting interests of out- lying districts, had often interfered with legislation of benefit to the major center of population. Now it was free to legislate for itself.
Many matters of civic improvement are to be noted in connection with an age of constructive development which manifested itself with this turn of affairs. Social and educational activities shares this development, as can be seen by consulting newspaper files of the times. On November 18, 1801, a pub- lic ball was held in the "long room" of the Fell tavern, at which tickets of ad- mission, at one dollar each, were sold to some forty subscribers. July 4, 1802, falling on Sunday, the following day was observed as the nation's birthday by members of the Federal-Republican party when, if the account published in the subsequent issue of the Federalist can be taken as a criterion, and the length of a list of toasts as a measure of the entertainment, the event must have ex- ceeded expectations. A portion of the published account is quoted:
"The Federal Republicans of this town (conformahly to previous arrangements) con- vened on Monday the 5th inst to commemorate the Anniversary of our Independence. Their table was the earth, their canopy the heaven; the weather was favorable, the repast plentiful; mirth, harmony, and sobriety reigned through the day.
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