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 46
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"That about an hour after, the said Alexander Patterson & his party, about ten in all, came near to this deponent's dwelling, Patterson stopping at about twenty rods therefrom; that about ten men came up to this deponent's house & forcibly turned this deponent, the said Agnes Jameson, Rosanna Jameson & the said Hannah Jameson out of the same, & threw out at the same time this deponent's household & other goods; that one of the men who thus ousted this deponent as aforesaid, shut the doors & nailed them up; that the said Alexander Patterson, who acted as the director of the said party of men coming to the said House, threatened this deponent that her said house would be demolished over her head in case she went into it & lived there again, & ordered this deponent to look for other quarters; that the said Agnes Jameson was at the time, when the said forcible dispossession was made, very sick & a-bed, &, by the terror of the riotous proceedings aforesaid, was driven into an hysteric fit; & that the said Agnes, in this distressed condition, was carried out of the said house, & placed in the dwelling-house of John Cressy , whose abode was near to this deponent's; that this deponent, the next day after the dis- possession aforesaid, complained thereof to General Armstrong, who denied that the same had been done by his orders, or that his men had done it, but did not interfere or do anything to relieve this deponent."
[Signed]
Abigail Jameson
Upon the foregoing information a warrant was issued for the arrest of Captain Patterson, and a few days later he was arraigned for a preliminary hearing before Justice Bryan at Easton. Abigail Jameson, who was present in Court as pro- secutrix, was asked by the Judge: "Who is your lawyer?" "May it please your Honor," she answered, "the Aldens are all lawyers. I will attend to my own case." She did so, and as a result of the hearing Alexander Patterson was held in £250, and William Smith, Jr., and James Moore were each held in £125, under the condition "that Alexander Patterson keep the peace and behave, and appear at the next Court of Oyer and Terminer to be holden in Easton." Abigail Jameson was held in the sum of £50 "to appear and give evidence."
At Wilkes-Barré, under the date of October 25, 1784, General Armstrong wrote to President Dickinson as followst:
"The enclosed letter from Lieut. Colonel Murrayt will inform your Excellency and Council of the very shameful delinquency of the Bucks County militia. Those of Berks, though more obedient, were late in coming, and brought it down to the 14th inst. before I could take a single step from the place of rendezvous. I then found myself at the head only of forty men. With these, however, I got into march, and arrived at this place on Sunday following, without any other injury or interruption than such as arose from the difficulty of the route by which we moved.
*See "Pennsylvania Archives", Old Series, X: 688.
tSee "Pennsylvania Archives", Old Series, X:686.
#See page 1443.
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"I must now beg leave to state some of the circumstances which followed the assault of September 28; the situation in which I found the country, and the more important facts which have since happened.
"The first event was immediately succeeded by the expulsion of such of the Pennsylvania claimants as were settled on the west side of the river-some of whom, quitting the country entirely, fell down the river as low as Shickshinny, where they have been since pursued and stript of the little which, in the first instance, they were permitted to carry with them. The others found a more secure refuge in the remains of what was the Fort [Dickinson].
"During these transactions the magistrates (Messrs. Seely, Mead and Shoemaker) were not idle, and did everything in their power to call forth a spirit of exertion among the neighbor- ing people; but, such was their distrust of themselves and each other, that few, if any, could be assembled. They wrote also to the Lieutenant of the County, entreating the immediate interposition of such an armed force as he could afford them; but volunteers could not be found, and in the present unorganized state of the militia no order of his could reach them.
, "Witnesses of this immediate inefficiency of the Government, and becoming stronger in the assurance of a growing superiority, the insurgents began now to extend their outrages to this side of the river, and obliged the greater part of its inhabitants to such a division of the grain as gratified at once their licentiousness and their wants. What the latter spared, the former, in many instances, destroyed, and nothing was to be seen upon my arrival but insolence and ra- pacity, wretchedness and submission.
"Small as my party was, it produced a temporary change in the conduct of both. The insurgents were obliged to circumscribe their limits, and the Pennsylvania claimants were en- abled to gather in some part of their scattered harvest. It is, however, to be regretted that its influence upon both has been less permanent than I could wish, for the moment that my force was found to be unequal to offensive operations, that moment I was attacked by the one and, in a great degree, deserted by the other.
"In a little recounter which took place a day or two ago [October 18], and which was brought on by an attempt to cover the labors of some poor people (who had been much and early distressed in this late disturbance), the insurgents sustained some loss, and were driven into a cluster of log houses, which my leading platoon-mistaking their orders-attempted to storm, but without effect. In this affair I had two men slightly wounded.
"I need scarcely observe to your Excellency that four log houses, so constructed as to flank each other, became a very formidable post, and set all attempts of near musquetry at de- fiance. I had no cannon, and the only alternative left me-a close investment-became imprac- ticable from a want of numbers. I was obliged, therefore, to relinquish the position I had taken, and with it the happy prospect of exterminating this banditti at once. Their whole force was stated at this point of time at seventy men.
"Among my informers on this subject is Matthew Terrel, whose deposition is enclosed, and who, with some others of a more timid or peaceable disposition, have come and thrown themselves upon me for protection. This I have extended to all such without exception, and have only to regret that there are so few of them. This, however, cannot be either new or surprising to your Excellency after the frequent evidence which the people called Connecticut Claimants have given of intended violence, and can only beget a further assurance in the Government that they have long since ceased to deserve anything of it but its resentment.
"Whatever reluctancy I may feel in becoming the minister of these, I cannot but offer it as my most serious opinion that they should be soon and vigorously exerted. The detachment now here, completed to its original number with 100 additional troops, would be very sufficient for this purpose. A less number would be much exposed to disaster, if not to defeat."
The next day, (October 26th). General Armstrong sent the following informa- tion to President Dickinson by an express:
"I must beg leave to refer your Excellency to Captain Armstrong for a relation of some facts which have taken place here to-day. They seem to be a consequence of a reinforcement brought down the river by [Capt. John] Swift. The treatment of the Lackawanna people has been ex- cessively cruel. Since my packet of yesterday was made up, I have heard that there are a few men upon their march from Bucks County. Should they join me my whole number will not exceed fifty ; and to suppose that half of these are to be depended upon in a moment of trial, would be a great stretch of credulity."*
The Rev. George Peck, D. D., in his Wyoming sketches, gives an interesting account of some of the doings of Armstrong and his men during their stay in Wyoming, in October and November, 1784. Mrs. Deborah (Sutton) Bedford, who, as a young girl of eleven years, was in Wyoming at that time, narrated to Dr. Peck, many years later, the following:
"Armstrong and Patterson commenced a series of efforts to drive the Yankees out of the country. One of their schemes was to burden the settlers with their men. They quartered their soldiers around among the people, and gave some one of them charge of the house. Six of Arm-
*At a meeting of the Supreme Executive Council held February 17, 1785, the pay-roll of Captain Friece's company of Bucks County militia (see letter of County Lieutenant Murray on page 1444,) from October 14, to December 5, 1784, was read and approved, and an order was drawn on the Treasury for the pay-it being for services in the Wyoming campaign. (See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records", XIV: 361.)
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strong's men were quartered upon us, and the meatiest one of the lot was put in charge of the house. He swelled and swaggered, and gave out orders with the authority of an absolute mon- arch. * * Armstrong had a very bad felon, and applied to Dr. [William Hooker] Smith * for medical treatment. The Doctor told him that he would not go into the fort to attend to his case, but that if he would take board among the citizens he would do what he could for him. It was finally arranged that he should meet the Doctor at our house. We gave him all the com- forts which the house afforded, and his felon was soon cured.
"When the Yankees were all ordered off, Armstrong came to our house and said to my mother: 'Mrs. Sutton, you will not like to go with the rabble; you may stay a day or two, and then go at your leisure.' * * * Mother was about to be confined, and father was gone up the river, and she told Armstrong she could not go. 'Oh!' said he, 'you must go; but we will make it as agreeable for you as possible.' Soon after a file of armed men came in and ordered mother to clear out. When they left they said she might have fifteen minutes to leave in. She told them she could not go at all. Soon after they returned, and found mother lying on a bed on the floor. They told her to get up and be off immediately. She flung the bed-clothing off, and rising up, said, 'Here I am, take my life as soon as you please!' A ruffian pointed his bayonet at her and swore he would kill her, taking a step toward her as though he would execute his threat, when one of them stepped up and turned his gun away, saying, 'Come along, and let the woman alotie.' "
The following extracts from affidavits* made before Justice John Seely at Wyoming early in November, 1784, by a couple of Pennamites, will give the reader an idea as to the manner in which some of the Yankees here were conducting themselves about that time.
"Joseph King, being duly sworn, doth depose and say that on Wednesday, the 3d inst., being at his labor in Shawina [Shawanee] Township with four others threshing buckwheat, they were surrounded by a number of armed men and made prisoners. Benjamin Bidlack and Elisha Satterlee commanded the party of robbers. They marched the said deponent with the others up to their place of rendezvous, and on the road abused the said deponent very much by jabbing their guns in his sides. When they arrived near their quarters they tied a rope around the de- ponent's neck, and beat and abused the said deponent without mercy. John Franklin, commander of said body of robbers, made the deponent promise to quit the country and never lift arms again; which if he did, and they could lay their hands on him, they would take his life. Upon these promises they let him go. The deponent says that he is not yet able to lift a pail of water on account of the bruises he received of the said robbers."
"Hannah Hillman, Spinster, of the said County, being duly sworn, doth depose & say: That on Thursday, the - instant, being at the house of Cornelius Van Horn, in the Township of Shawana, she there saw John Franklin & a number of other armed men-she supposes about forty-who, approaching the house on different sides, surrounded it, with an intention (as they said) of cutting off a party of the militia which had been stationed there, & which had been that morning withdrawn to the Fort. That Franklin, swearing in a most profane manner, declared that he would be revenged of some of them, & particularly of Wm. Simms who was with the said party; adding that within a night or two he would set fire to his (Simms) house & burn him up alive. He talked a great deal, & much of his language was to the same purpose."
During the week of October 25-30, 1784, the Justices of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania were holding a Court of Oyer and Terminer at Easton, as here- inbefore noted, and Col. Zebulon Butler (who had come on from Fishkill, New York), Robert McDowel and other influential members of the Susquehanna Company were there to look after the interests of the eleven Wyoming men who were in the Easton jail awaiting the action of the Court in their case. A bill of indictment charging them with the murder of Jacob Everett, at Locust Hill, August 2, 1784, was framed and laid before the Grand Jury, but on October 29th, the bill was returned "ignoramus." Thereupon the Court directed that the prisoners should be discharged upon the payment of certain jail fees and costs (amounting to the sum of £6, 16s. 4d. for each), and upon entering into a recog- nizance, with one surety for each individual, to keep the peace for one year.
The prisoners were without money, but Messrs. Butler and McDowel and Samuel Decker furnished the full amount needed, receiving from the eleven men, respectively, their notes, or due-bills,t payable on or before March 1, 1785. On October 30th, having entered into their recognizances and received "passes,"
*See "Pennsylvania Archives", Old Series, X: 691, 694.
+The due-hills of Benjamin Jenkins, John Platner, Thomas Read and John Hurlbut, at that time given, each for £6, 16s. 4d., and dated at Easton, October 29, 1784, are now preserved in the collections of The Wyoming His- torical and Geological Society.
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or permits, enabling them to return to Wyoming without let or hindrance, they set off for home. One of the passes given at that time has been preserved*, and it reads as follows:
"NORTHAMPTON COUNTY, SS:
"Upon application to Robert Levers, Esquire, one of the Justices of the Peace in and for the said County, by John Hurlbut (who hath this day entered into recognizance, with one surety, for his peaceable behaviour towards all the subjects of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for one year from the date hereof), for a pass, that he may have liberty to go to Wyoming on his Lawful Business; These are to permit the said John Hurlbut to pass from hence to Wyoming, and it is recommended to all whom it may concern not to molest the said John Hurlbut on his passing and repassing as lawful business may occasion-he behaving himself as becometh a good citizen of Pennsylvania.
"Give under my hand and seal the thirtieth day of October, 1784.
[Signed] "ROBERT LEVERS." [L. S.]
At Sunbury, during the week of November 8-13, 1784, Chief Justice Thomas McKean and Justices William Augustus Atlee and George Bryan held a Court of Oyer and Terminer. Bills of indictment against the forty-two Yankees, who had been arrested at Wyoming and jailed at Sunbury in August, 1784 (see pages 1423 and 1424), were framed and laid before the Grand Jury, but the several bills were returned "ignoramus" by the Jury. Colonel Franklin, in his "Brief," states: "Large bills of costs were made out against each of said persons, viz .: £2, 4s. on each bill; and not any one had less than two bills laid against him, and several had three or four."
At this same term of Court Lieut. Col. James Moore and the various other Pennamites who had been indicted in June, 1784, and bound over for their appearance at this term, were tried, with the following results: Andrew Hen- derson and Blackall William Ball, "gentlemen," were tried for an assault and rescue, and were acquitted; Hamilton (?) Armstrong and Andrew Henderson, "gentlemen," were tried for an assault and battery, and were acquitted; Blackall William Ball, gentleman, indicted for assault and battery, "submitted," and was fined twenty shillings.
The several persons whose names follow were tried on an indictment for riot, and were convicted. Whereupon the Court passed the following sentences, to wit: Lieut. Col. James Moore and Capt. Henry Shoemaker, a Justice of the Peace, were each fined £100, and were required to pay the costs of prosecution and give security in the sum of £500 each for their peace and good behavior for twelve months. Capt. William McDonald was fined £75, and was ordered to pay the costs and give security, as in the cases of Moore and Shoemaker. Blackall William Ball was fined £25, and was ordered to pay the costs and give a bond in the sum of £200. Ezekiel Schoonover and Elisha Cortright were each fined £15 and the costs, and were required to give bonds in the sum of £50 each. Abraham Van Cortright and Samuel Van Gorden were each fined £10 and the costs, and required to give bonds of £50 each. Ebenezer Taylor, Preserved Cooley, William Brink, Beniah Munday, Nicodemus Travis and Obadiah Walker were each fined £5 and the costs, and required to give bonds in the sum of £50 each. Peter Taylor, Lawrence Kinney, Daniel Swartz, Ben- jamin Hillman, Joseph Solomon and James Grimes were each fined £3 and the costs, and required to give bonds in the sum of £25 each. Jacob Tillbury was fined twenty shillings, and was required to give a bond in the sum of £50.
Miner, referring ("History of Wyoming," page 348) to the trials of these men, states: "The majesty of the laws was nobly vindicated. The charge of *See F. C. Johnson's "Historical Record." III: 9.
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the Judge was long remembered for its just sentiments, its deep feeling, and the impressive manner in which it was delivered."
On December 23, 1784, the General Assembly of Pennsylvania having received from Edward Burd, Clerk of the Court of Oyer and Terminer and General Gaol Delivery of the Commonwealth, a certificate to the effect that Henry Shoe- maker, Esq., a Justice of the Peace in and for the County of Northumberland, had been convicted of a riot committed by him and many others on May 13, 1784, the Assembly resolved "that the said Henry Shoemaker, for his mis- conduct as aforesaid, be removed from his office of Justice of the Peace."
January 10, 1785, Lieut. Colonel Moore, for himself and the several other convicted Pennamites named hereinbefore, petitioned the Supreme Executive Council and prayed for "a respite of the collection of the fines imposed" as afore- mentioned. The Council, by resolution, "suspended" the collection for a period of six months, but before the six months had expired Moore and his associates petitioned for a further extension of time. Finally, on January 12, 1786, the Council remitted the fines entirely.
A few days before the convening of the Court at Sunbury, General Armstrong proceeded thither from Wilkes-Barré, and on November 8th, Justice John Seely wrote to him from Wilkes-Barré as follows *:
"Yesterday I had a conference with the three persons mentioned to you; this day at 11 o'clock I received their answer. They have agreed that upon sufficient assurances from under your hand & seal that all processes for their former transactions being stopt, and that they may have free Liberty of passing through the country unmolested, they will lay down their arms and never take them up again in opposition to the State of Pennsylvania. They Likewise say they must have one hundred Guineas to purchase themselves clothes, &c.
"Your Proposition of an act of Government to stop all suits ag't them I have promise should be done. The Guineas I have not yet engaged them, but think it will save great Expence to the State to let them have them.
"Also agreed that all Hostilities shall cease, & no more Distresses made on the Inhabitants untill they have a meeting with you, which they request may be as soon as possible; and desire the same may be kept a profound secret from both parties, which if known may occasion them to take up arms again-I mean untill the matter is properly settled between you & them. They also say they will occasion the whole party to Disperse."
Who "the three persons" were who are referred to in this letter we have no means of knowing, and it would be a very difficult matter to imagine, with any sort of satisfaction, who they were.
At Sunbury, under the date of November 15, 1784, General Armstrong wrote to President Dickinson, at Philadelphia, as followst :
"I had some time since the honor of stating to your Excellency & Council the situation in which I found the insurrection at Wyoming, and some of the more important facts which had taken place upon my arrival. * * *
"Unable to attempt anything offensive I therefore took a resolution to come hither & consult the Judges of the Supreme Court upon the further measures which in this situation ought to be taken. It was their opinion that a line of mere defensive conduct on the part of the State held out a promise of sooner bringing about the objects of Government than one of a more active nature. This, however reluctantly, I was obliged to observe from the first moment I enter'd the Country, and am not sanguine in expecting any better consequence than we have already seen & felt from an adherance to it. Every measure which supposes that farther Unity will produce better conduct, will be found unavailing; but untill Government be so well assured of this truth as I ever have been, the milder expedients of forgiving & forgetting may be pursued.
"Col. Johnstonet who has been at Wyoming since I left it, will explain the appearances which presented themselves to him. They were such as begat but few hopes of being able by gentle methods to extinguish a flame which has extended itself to a whole people, composed as they are of vagrants & desperadoes.
*See "Pennsylvania Archives", Old Series, X: 692. ¡ See ibid., page 694.
#COL. FRANCIS JOHNSTON. He was commissioned January 4, 1776, Lieut. Colonel of the Fourth Pennsylvania Battalion, commanded by Col. (later General) Anthony Wayne, and September 27, 1776, was promoted Colonel of the Fifth Pennsylvania Regiment, Continental Line. He was retired from the service January 1, 1781, and in the following April was appointed Receiver General of Pennsylvania, which office he held for a number of years -- nine or ten, at least. In September, 1783, the Pennsylvania Assembly resolved unanimously that the Supreme Executive Council be authorized and empowered to appoint Commissioners to hold a meeting with the Indians claiming "the unpurchased territory within the acknowledged limits of the State, for the purpose of purchasing the same, agreeable to ancient usage." In pursuance of this resolution the Council, in February, 1784, appointed as Commissioners Col. Francis
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"I shall remain here for a few days, untill I find myself better able to encounter the rough- ness of the roads & the season, & shall then sett out for Philad'a, after directing such a disposition of the few troops which desertion has left me, as will best promote the objects for which they were sent."
Instead of going to Philadelphia from Sunbury, General Armstrong returned to Wilkes-Barré.
At Philadelphia, on Saturday, November 27, 1784, President Dickinson wrote to General Armstrong as follows:
"We should be glad that you would return to Philadelphia as soon as will be convenient, in order that, upon the fullest information, we may take such ulterior Measures as the situation of the affairs in Northumberland County may render proper."
But before this message could be conveyed to Wilkes-Barré, Armstrong had set off for Philadelphia, he and Captain Patterson and their militia and a majority of their myrmidons, with bag and baggage, having evacuated Fort Dickinson at eleven o'clock on the night of the 27th and marched out over the Sullivan Road in the direction of Easton. Thus the Pennamitish horde vamosed from Wyoming, never again to return with force and arms! Three days later nearly all the Yankees in Wyoming assembled on the River Common at the foot of Northampton Street, Wilkes-Barré, and, roused and incited by spontaneous enthusiasm and pervaded by a spirit of grim earnestness, promptly razed Fort Dickinson to the ground.
The destruction of the Fort (which, in the opinion of the Yankee inhabitants of Westmoreland, had stood for some time then only to harbor a horde of myr-
Johnston, William Maclay, Esq. (see note, page 759, Vol. I), and Col. Samuel John Atlee of Pequea, Lancaster County, who, in March, 1780, had been elected County Lieutenant of Lancaster, and, in October, 1783, had been elected a member of the Supreme Executive Council from Lancaster.
As noted on page 164, Vol. I, Congress had appointed Commissioners to hold a treaty with the Six Nation Ind ians at Fort Stanwix, New York, in October, 1784, and at that time the Pennsylvania Commissioners named above repaired tbitber. On October 23rd, at Fort Stanwix, the representatives of the Six Nations, by a deed under their hands and seals, or totems, conveyed to the State of Pennsylvania the territory desired by the State-the bounds of which extended from Tioga Point to the western boundary of Pennsylvania, and from the New York State line to the West Branch of the Susquehanna, the lower Allegheny and the Ohio. In consideration of this conveyance the Commissioners agreed to deliver to the representatives of the Six Nations "goods, wares and merchandise to the amount of one thousand dollars", the same to be turned over to them at Tioga Point. The Commissioners also agreed to present to Capt. Aaron Hill of the Mohawk tribe and Capt. John O'Bail ("Cornplanter") of the Seneca tribe "two good rifles of neat workmanship, one for each of them,
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