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 31
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Gen. Robert Brown, of Northampton County, then arose and said he was certain that no member of the House could imagine him to be in the interest of the people of Wyoming beyond the bounds of truth and a desire to do justice. He reminded the House that he had visited Wyoming as a member of the Com- mittee of Inquiry, and had heard all the evidence on both sides. "The wrongs and sufferings of the people of Wyoming," he emphatically declared, "are in- tolerable! If there ever on earth was a people deserving redress, it is those people. Let the depositions lying on the table be read, and the House afforded an op- portunity to judge." Speaker Gray, somewhat irregularly, stated from the chair that Justice Patterson had returned to Wyoming from Philadelphia, that he could not be prosecuted without being present, and that the session was drawing to a close and important business was pressing, which would have to be laid over if the Wyoming affair was taken up by the House.t
*See' "Pennsylvania Archives" Old Series X: 557 558.
¡The following interesting account of the manner in which business was transacted in the General Assembly of Pennsylvania in 1784, as observed by Dr. Johann David Schopf, is taken from the journal of his travels:
"The Assembly of Pennsylvania, which, as I have mentioned, was at this time in session, held its sittings in a large room in the State House. The doors are open to everybody, and I had thus the pleasure of being several times in attend- ance; but I cannot say that, in the strict sense, I saw them sitting.
"At the upper end of the room the Speaker, or President, of the Assembly sits at a table, in a rather high chair. He brings forward the subjects to be considered, and to him and towards him the speakers direct themselves when they open their minds regarding questions pending. He calls the Assembly to order when he observes inattention
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Col. John Franklin, in his "Brief," heretofore mentioned, states that while the petitions of the Wyoming settlers and the report of the Assembly Committee of Inquiry were in the hands of the special committee of the House, the Yankees at Wyoming enjoyed a fair degree of peace and quiet. This condition of affairs continued until about April 10, 1784, when, as Franklin states, "the neglect of the Legislature to hear or redress the grievances of the settlers, encouraged the Pennsylvania claimants, as well as the Justices and the officers of the Garrison,, to take the most cruel measures to distress the settlers.
"The soldiers were set at work removing the fences from the inclosures of the inhabitants, laying fields of grain open to be devoured [by stray cattle]; fencing up the highways, and between the houses of the settlers and their wells of water, so that they were not suffered to procure water from their wells, or to travel on their usual highways. The greatest part of the settlers were in the most distressed situation, numbers having had their houses and property swept away by the uncommon overflowing of the river Susquehanna in March; numbers were without shelter, and in a starving condition, but they were not suffered to cut a stick of timber or make any shelter for their families. They were forbid to draw their nets for fish, and their nets were taken away from them by the officers of the Garrison. Settlers were often dragged out of their beds in the night season by ruffians, and beaten in a cruel manner."
We learn something further concerning the condition of affairs at Wyoming at this period from a letter written here April 27, 1784, by a Yankee settler, addressed to a friend in Connecticut, and published in The Connecticut Journal June 2, 1784, in The Boston Gazette of June 7, 1784, and in other New England newspapers. The letter reads in part as follows:
"I sit down to give you a description of the distresses of the inhabitants of this place, tho they are beyond expression. The late flood was such as stripped the greatest part of them o houses, clothing, provisions and stock; but it being at this season of the year, and hopes of the produce of the earth, kept them in some spirits until about ten days ago. They are forbid making any improvements, even in their own gardens, and the soldiers have sent and took away the garden fences, and have fenced in the town-plot [of Wilkes-Barré] into large fields, and have forbid any inhabitants going into them on their peril. Sentries are placed with such orders that no one dare to go into where their own gardens were. It is the same in general through the fields -the people all at a stand.
"In several instances, where the inhabitants went to get some logs to make them a hut to cover their poor distressed wives and children after their houses and cattle were driven away by the flood, have been sued for trespass, and are bound over to Court. Patterson has forbid any one hauling a seine to catch fish, upon their peril, so that people will fall short of their support which God and Nature allows them; and at this time, when they have lost their meat by the flood, it is most shocking.
"The soldiers made a fence on the well-sweep that supplies the most of the inhabitants near the fort with water, and swore that if any one moved a rail of the fence the sentry would shoot them, which made some obliged to make use of the muddy water in the river. Two young men, passing by the fort the other day, were taken up and carried into the fort and whipped, for no other reason than that they had some feathers, or a cocade, in their hats. In short, I do not think that history or the memory of man can afford another such scene (except the taking of life) of barbarous and cruel treatment as the poor, distressed inhabitants of this place have daily.
"And their daily insults are beyond anything that could be believed. The soldiers walk about with what they call shillalahs, and say they have orders that if any inhabitant gives them a wry word, to knock him down and beat him as they please. The insults and abuses are too numerous to repeat; and these abuses are all done by order and under the eyes of the military officers and some of the civil."
or talk that is disturbing, and he puts the question when the matter before the House has been sufficiently discussed pro and contra, and is now to be decided by a majority of the votes.
"The members sit in chairs at both sides of the [Speaker's] table and of the room, but seldom quietly, and in all manner of postures; some are going, some are standing, and the most part seem pretty indifferent as to what is being said if it is not of particular importance or is for any reason uninteresting to them. When the votes are to be taken those in the affirmative arise, and those in the negative remain sitting. The members of German descent (if, as is sometimes the case, from a lack of thorough readiness in the English language they do not properly grasp the matter under discussion, or for any other reason cannot reach a conclusion) are excused for sitting doubtful until they see whether the greater number sits or stands, and then they do the same, so as always to keep with the larger side, or the majority."
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Chapman, speaking of conditions in Wyoming Valley in March and April, 1784, says, in his "History of Wyoming": "The freshet created so great a scarcity of provisions that the prospect of approaching want produced the most gloomy apprehensions among the inhabitants; and the soldiers, in order to provide sufficient stores for themselves, became more ungovernable than before in their acts of indiscriminate plunder upon such property as the more merciful elements had neglected to destroy."
On April 20, 1784, President Dickinson wrote to Colonel Moore, at Wilkes- Barré, directing him, in pursuance of the resolutions of the General Assembly (hereinbefore mentioned), to make such arrangements that the garrison could be "entirely withdrawn from Wyoming on or before June 1, 1784." Continuing, President Dickinson said: "The cannon, arms and military stores we wish to have deposited at Sunbury, in some proper place and under the care of some suitable person. It may be advisable to consult General Potter and William Maclay, Esq., on this subject. * * The removal should begin so early that the troops, after being discharged, may reach the respective places of their residence by the first day of June, to which time they are to be supplied with rations, and their pay to be continued."
Congress was in session at Annapolis, Maryland, in April, 1784, and on the 24th of that month resolutions were introduced by Brig. Gen. Edward Hand, one of the Delegates from Pennsylvania, which read in part as follows:
"Resolved, That the resolution of the 23d day of January last, directing the institution of a Court for determining the private right of soil within the territory formerly in controversy between the States of Connecticut and Pennsylvania, and appointing the fourth Monday in June next for the appearance of the parties before Congress, or a Committee of the States, be, and it is hereby, suspended, until Zebulon Butler and the other petitioners, claimants as afore- said, exhibit to Congress, or a Committee of the States, schedules particularizing their claims. "Resolved, That the parties, claimants as aforesaid, be informed that their appearance by agents before Congress, or a Committee of the States, as specified by the resolution of Congress of the 23d of January last, will not be necessary until the further determinations of Congress, or a Committee of States, in the premises, be made known to them."
After some discussion a motion was made that these resolutions be "com- mitted," and, a vote being taken, the motion was carried by twenty-one ayes to four noes .*
At Wilkes-Barré, under the date of April 29, 1784, Alexander Patterson wrote to President Dickinson, in part as followst :
"The settlements upon the River have suffered much by an Innundation of Ice, which has swept away the Greatest part of the grain and stock of all kinds, so that the Inhabitants are Generally very poor.
"Upon my arrival at this Place the fifteenth Inst. I found the People for the most part Disposed to give up their Pretentions to the Lands Claimed under Connecticut. Having a Pretty General Agency from the Land-holders of Pennsylvania. I have availed myself of this Period, and have Possessed in behalf of my Constituents the Chief part of all the Lands occupied by the above Claimants. Numbers of them are going up the River to settle. In this I give every Incouragement in my power, and Take care to fill up their Vacancy with well Disposed Pennsylvanians. I think it is right to Dispose of the others in such a manner as will be most Conducive to the Peace of the state, by granting them Leases and settling them remote from each other; yet, notwithstanding this situation of affairs, I am not out of apprehension of Trouble and Danger arising from the ring-leaders of the old offenders, who still stand out and are coun- tenanced and Incouraged by their friends down the River.
"They are waiting untill the troops are discharged, when they expect to have recourse to their former factious practices. In the mean time there is no doubt but that they will Endeavour to spread every Vileanous report that Malice can Suggest, to Endeavour to prepossess the minds
*It may be stated in this connection that, when the fourth Monday in June, 1784, came around, James Wilson and William Bradford, Jr., Esquires (wbo had represented Pennsylvania in the trial before the Court of Commissioners at Trenton, in November and December, 1782), appeared at Annapolis as agents and counsellors for Pennsylvania Finding that Congress had adjourned on the 3d of June, that a quorum of the Committee of the States was not present, and that neither the petitioning settlers at Wyoming nor the authorities of the State of Connecticut were present in person or by agents, Messrs. Wilson and Bradford returned to their homes. In consequence, the "Wyoming case" lay in a quiescent state-so far as either Connecticut or Congress was concerned.
¡See "Pennsylvania Archives", Old Series, X: 574.
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of the Publick against our Proceedings. Experience has taught us that they are bnt too apt to succeed in those cases; but I hope their Base designs will appear so Conspicuous to all public Bodies and the People in General, that they will no longer become Dnpes to their Artifice.
"My Coadjutors, with myself, have no new Claim to a Citizenship in this State, I there- fore Humbly hope (if any Dangerous or Sedicious Commotion should arise in this Country so Remote from the seat of Government) that it may not be Construed a Want of Zeal or Love for the Commonwealth if we should, through dire Necessity, be obliged to do some things not strictly consonant with the Letter of the Law! I call Heaven to wittness that nothing shall Induce me to do one single Act but what I conceive will tend to the good of the State and the Happiness of its faithful Citizens; and it shall be my study to have all my actions to harmonize with its Peace and safety, so as to Merit the aprobation of Government.
"If the Troops were to be settled with and Discharged here it would answer a Valuable Purpose, as a good many of them would incline to stay at this place."
Two days after the foregoing letter was written, a petition to Congress was prepared* and signed at Wilkes-Barré by Col. Zebulon Butler, Col. Nathan Denison, John Jenkins, Sr., Obadiah Gore, Hugh Forseman, James Sutton, Phineas Pierce, Benjamin Bailey and Ebenezer Johnson-all early and prominent settlers at Wyoming under the auspices of The Susquehanna Company. With a considerable number of changes in spelling and punctuation, the petition reads in part as follows: *
* "We would crave leave to say that in the Fall of the last year, and soon after the Justices, who were appointed and commissioned and set over as without our choice or knowledge, had come to this place, we, by our peaceable demeanor and ready submission to Government, duly submitted to every requisition, whether civil or military; yet the most tyrannical and arbitrary proceedings were introduced by the said authority to add to our distress, so that numbers of families were forcibly turned out of their houses and possessions without the least regard to age or sex, widows or fatherless children, in sickness and distress. Many of the inhabitants had their grain and other effects forced from them; others were taken in numbers by a military force, drove to the fort by the soldiers with fixed bayonets, and accompanied by Justices Patterson and Seely, when and where the said inhabitants, by order of the said authority, were forced into a guard- house in the fort, where they were confined in a dismal prison unfit for Human creatures to lay down in-some confined six and others nine days, when they were turned out without any crime being laid to their charge.
"That while in Confinement they received the greatest abuse and insults from the Justices, officers and soldiers; and in the meantine their families were turned out of doors and their property forced from them and never returned. Others were taken by orders of the authority under the pretense of some crime (though none was alleged against them) and confined in the said guard- house; from thence sent to Sunbury to be committed [to jail], and, laid under large bonds, per- mitted to return home; taken a second time by the said authority for the same pretended crime, and confined in the said guard-house, when offers were made them by the Justices, that, if they would take leases (from the Pennsylvania land-claimers for the Wyoming lands they were occupy- ing and tilling], they should be released from their bonds and confinement. Some were actually forced to take a lease in order to gain their liberty-and all this barbarous treatment was inflicted upon the inhabitants of this settlement without Law or even the colour of Law or Justice.
"In order to obtain some redress and respite from their tyrannical proceedings, we petitioned the Honorable Assembly of this State for, and in hopes of, some mitigation of our intolerable sufferings and insupportable insults which we the inhabitants were continually receiving from the authority aforesaid, as well as from the Pennsylvania land-claimers; and the Assembly, by a resolve passed the 9th of December last, appointed the Members from Northampton County a committee to enquire into the facts as stated in our petition, who met about the 29th of the same month at the house of Capt. John P. Schott, innkeeper in this place. To the immortal honor of that committee we can with Justice say that their enquiry was made with the strictest Justice and impartiality ; but alas! to our great surprise and mortification, after keeping an agent at the Assembly near three months, the Petition was shuffled from committee to committee, and finally was postponed to the next session, and nothing done for our relief.
"After the Resolve of Congress our agent petitioned the Assembly of this State to be quieted in our possessions until the trial of the right of soil should be determined; but alas! all to no purpose. Our prayers and intreaties were rejected and contemned, and we are now left to the tender mercies of the wanton and avaricious wills of the land-claimants, whose tender mercies are cruelty in the abstract. And we would further observe, that the civil and military authority who are set over us here lay claim to large interests in lands in this place under the Pennsylvania claim, and those [who compose] the civil authority were our most vindictive enemies.
"The land-claimants still say that the whole was determined by the Decree of Trenton, and they are at this present time introducing a Banditti of men, together with the Soldiers (who have no right or claim to any land here under any State), to take our lands and possessions by force; and the said banditti and Soldiery are now wantonly, without either law or right, pulling down our fences, laying our fields and grain open to the wide world, fencing across our highways,
*The original document is now in the possession of The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. It is in the hand" · writing of Col. Zebulon Butler.
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securing our wells of water from our houses, inclosing our gardens and home lots for their own use, so that we are deprived the privilege of passing in our publick highways; the privilege of taking water from our wells, improving our gardens and home lots and other lands, is also denied us; and that upon our peril many of our inhabitants, that have attempted to improve in our gardens, have been drove out by a band of Soldiers armed with clubs.
"And we are not only threatened of being beat and abused with Clubs, but are often threat- ened to be shot and put to immediate Death. Many of our houses, lots, wells and gardens lie near the Garrison and under cover of their cannon; by which means we are continually receiving the greatest abuses and insults from some of the Justices as well as from the officers and soldiers. The said soldiers are continually walking the streets, and through every part of our settlement that is any way near the Garrison, as well by night as by day-some armed with Guns and Bay- onets, and others with Clubs, insulting and assaulting whomsoever they please. Some of the inhabitants have been met in the street by this Banditti, and been beaten with Clubs until their lives were despaired of. Others have been taken and carried into the fort, and there beat with Clubs by the officers and Soldiers in a most Cruel manner, and then dismissed.
"One of the inhabitants, of a respectable character, a few days since made application to one of the Justices for a warrant against Alexander Patterson Esq., in order to get redress in law for an assault and Battery made upon him by the said Patterson. The Justice to whom applica- tion was made, living near the Garrison, a party of soldiers, armed with Clubs and other weapons, were immediately sent in pursuit of this Inhabitant. Their pursuit continued for two days, waylaying his house, field and the highways, &c., and on the night of the 30th of April a party of armed soldiers, waylaying the house, took him by force and carried him near the Garrison, when they beat him severely with clubs. This man made immediate application for redress to one of the Justices, but was referred to the commanding officer [Lieut. Col. James Moore], to whom he also made the same application-but not any redress could be obtained.
"Some of the Justices, together with the officers and soldiers, and others of their banditti of men, are threatening to pull down our houses and turn our distressed families out of doors. The inhabitants who have lost their houses and all their effects by the late inundation of the waters, are forbid cutting a stick of timber in order to make a shelter for their families, or even to repair their houses that were wracked in pieces by the water and Ice. Some have been taken before the Justices by a warrant, and laid under large Bonds, for cutting timber on their own possessions for the purpose of Building. Others are laid under Bond for cutting a stick of fire-wood. We are also forbid to draw our seines in the river for fish, which will add greatly to our Distresses- having lost most of our provisions by the inundation of water; and to add to all our distresses the soldiers are Continually Plundering the inhabitants, taking from them the little provisions they had left them, and killing our cattle, sheep and swine which escaped the flood.
"Repeated application has been made by the inhabitants to the authority here, in hopes to obtain redress for the abuses and insults which we are daily receiving, but we can get no redress. * * * Yet notwithstanding all this these Barbarous men still 'oppress the afflicted in the gate.' Our blood and treasure has been Expended in our Country's canse-we have stepped forth & fought for the golden tree of Liberty, which, as a Country, we have obtained. We have suffered every Danger this side of Death; many of our nearest and tenderest Connections have bled and fallen.
"It fills our hearts with grief when we take a serions view of our unhappy situation-that we, who have stood forth in our country's cause, must now continue under the Iron Rod of Tyranny and Oppression, and by those who should have been first to step forth for our protection and safe- guard; and now-while others are enjoying the inconceivable Blessings of peace and plenty, and set under their own fig tree, and have none to make them afraid, but are singing a Quietum to all their troubles-we are under the galling yoke of Despotism, and the cruel, malicious and tyrannical proceedings had against us, and which we are continually receiving from the Civil and Military authority as well as from the common soldiers.
"The merciless and mercenary Land Claimants have drove us almost to Desperation, and unless we can have some speedy relief we are inevitably ruined, and we must fly from this place with our Distressed families, leaving our all bebind us, our children crying for bread, and we shall have none to give them.
"We would further observe, that while this was being written, and but a few minutes since, a number of the inhabitants have been Drove from their labours by the soldiers and beat with clubs from house to house in a most cruel manner.
"Therefore, we do, with deference and humility, lay this our distressed situation before your Honorable Body, praying your Honors seriously to take our unhappy circumstances into your wise and equitable Consideration, and weigh the Justice of our Complaints, and grant us relief or mitigation; and that we may be quieted in our possessions until we can have a fair and impartial trial for the right of soil. * * *
"N. B .- This day the only grist-mill in the settlement was taken by force from the in- habitants by the Soldiers, with Large Clubs."
This petition was placed in the hands of Col. John Franklin, and the next day, (Sunday, May 2, 1784) he set out from Wilkes-Barré for Annapolis, Mary- land, where the Congress was then sitting *. Having been formally presented
*From the following extracts from Colonel Franklin's "Journal" we learn something about the route he traveled, and the amount of time occupied by him, in journeying from Wilkes-Barre to Annapolis.
May 2, 1784, I set out for Annapolis with a petition to Congress; May 3d, went to Middletown; 4th, left my canoe at Conewago Falls, and traveled hy land afoot twelve miles below Little York [the present city of York, York County, Pennsylvania]; 5th went within six miles of Baltimore; 6th, went on board a schooner at Baltimore; 7th, arrived
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to that body by the Hon. Roger Sherman, one of the Delegates from Connecticut, the petition was duly referred to a committee of which the Hon. Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, was Chairman.
Chapman, writing about the occurrences in Wyoming, in March and April, 1784, says (in his "Sketch of the History of Wyoming") that "the inhabitants finding at length that the burden of their calamities was too great to be borne, began to resist the illegal proceedings of their new masters, and refused to comply with the decisions of the mock tribunals which had been established. Their resistance enraged the magistrates, and on May 12th the soldiers of the garrison were sent to disarm them, and under this pretense 150 families were turned out of their dwellings, many of which were burnt, and all ages and sexes were reduced to the same destitute condition."
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