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 49
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"Until your honors shall condescend to draw a line for our future conduct it is impossible for us to know what course to steer. We are at present destitute of any civil authority in this place. Esquire Mead has refused to grant any precept these six weeks past. Therefore the sooner we can have the privilege of electing our own officers, civil and military, agreeable to the Cou- stitution of this State, the sooner happiness, peace and good order will be restored to this set- * tlement. * * And in the intermediate space, while we have no authority in this place, we have thought it most advisable to form ourselves in some order for our mutual defence and safety, and to act as near the laws of this State as possible, until we shall have a constitutional establishment of the same.
"And we most heartily pray for your Honors' exertions to establish peace and good order in this distracted and infatuated place; for we think that the political salvation of this settlement depends upon your assiduity and exertions in this respect, as well as the happiness and safety of this State, which, we insist on, we have always strove for since the decree at Trenton, and have endeavored to demean ourselves in such an equitable line of conduct that we are justly intitled to all the immunities of Free Citizens & Freeholders. And we will pray that the benedictions of Almighty God may rest upon your Honorable Body, and that your Honors may have wisdom as the angels of God, to direct you at all times. And that your Honors may be enabled at all times to consult the happiness of this State in such manner that your names may be sacred in the an- nals of history, and generations yet unborn, when they come ou the stage of action, may call you blessed-is the sincere prayer of your humble Petitioners. And we as in duty bound will ever pray.
"Alden, Mason F. O
McDowell, Robert
Johnson, Jacob (Rev.)
Ayres, Samuel
Minor, John
Johnson, Ebenezer
Alden, Prince
McClure, Thos.
Jenkinson, Danl.
Bennet, Ishmael
Northrop, Nehemiah
Kellog, Eldad
Bidlack, Benj.
Nash, Phineas
Pierce, Abel
Brockway, Richard
Parrish, Ebenezer
Pell, Josiah
Bennet, Thos.
Peirce, Phineas
Platner, John
Bailey, Benj.
Pierce, Daniel
Roberts, Hezekiah
Butler, Zebulon
Park, Thomas
Read, Thos.
Burnham, Asel
Atherton, James
Stewart, Martha
Baldwin, Thos.
Atherton, Asahiel
Spencer, Walter
Corey, Jonathan
Gaylord, Ambrose
Slocum, Giles
Campbell, Obadiah
Hurlbut, John
Spalding, Simon
Cook, Reuben
Hibberd, Wm.
Smith, Silas
Corey, Jos.
Harvey, Benjamin
Smith, Wm. Hooker
Cady, Manasseh
Harvey, Elisha
Slocum, Wm.
Corey, Gabriel
Holly, Dan'l.
Shoemaker, Jean
Cook, Nathaniel
Hover, Saml.
Styles, Job
Drake, Elisha
Hover, Henry
Tubbs, Lebbens
Devenport, Nathan'l
Hurlbut, Christopher
Tubbs, Saml.
Elliott, Jos.
Hurlbut, Naphtali
Terry, Jonathan
Eveland, Fredk.
Harding, Abraham
Thomas, Joel
Franklin, John
Hyde, John
Van Fleet, Josh.
Frisbie, James
Inman, Richard
Wade, Nathan
Fuller, Stephen
Inman, John
Westbrook, Abm.
Gore, Daniel
Inman, Elijah
White, Jeremiah Westbrook, Leonard
Gaylord, Justus
Jenkins, John
Jameson, Abigail
Woodworth, Jonathan
Kingsley, Nathan
Jones, William
Woolley, Jon.
Kellogg, Josiah Kenny, Joseph Lee, Sarah
Jameson, Alex.
Westbrook, Richd.
Jameson, Robert
Warner, W'm.
Lines, Conrad
Jackson, Win.
Yarington, Abel"
[Total, 96.]
Just about the time that the foregoing petition was prepared, forty-five Pennamites residing in the neighborhood of Easton, in Northampton County, signed a petition addressed to the General Assembly and reading in part as follows :*
"Your memorialists can't see without anxiety the present Anarchy prevailing in Wyoming, as they become daily sufferers by it. The cruelties exercised by one styling himself Colonel *See Johnson's "Historical Record", II : 88.
.
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[Ebenezer] Johnson-leader of a banditti in Wyoming *- upon the loyal people of Pennsylvania are of a nature no longer to be suffered by a free and independent people. The cries of the help- less and naked families that are daily drove out of Wyoming by the above villains-destitute of every support for life, and with whom we are encumbered unless we suffer them to perish by mere want-claim our commiseration, and soon must claim our interposition if your Honorable House doth not take proper measures to suppress the growing evil.
"We imagine it needless to state before your Honorable House the unwarrantable conduct of those rioters. Fully convinced that it has been already exposed, we shall confine ourselves in informing you that there is not a day going by that some Pennsylvania families are not enter- ing our settlements, stripped and robbed of every property. * *
* Praying that you will take such proper and effectual measures as will restore civil government to that part of the State by smothering the fire of Anarchy in its birth, your humble petitioners will ever pray, &c."
This memorial was forwarded to Philadelphia, and was read in the House of Assembly, March 4, 1785.
Of course Justice David Mead soon learned about the petition of the Wyom- ing Yankees dated February 20th; and in order, if possible, to counter-balance in some measure any weight that the document might have with the authorities at Philadelphia, and in order also, to bolster up the petition of the Northampton County Pennamites, he procured the depositions of several Wyoming Penna- mites, the same being sworn to and subscribed before him, as "one of the Justices of the Peace in and for Northumberland County", at his home in Wyoming Valley, on March 25, 1785.
On March 30th, Justice Mead forwarded to President Dickinson, by anexpress, the foregoing depositions accompanied by a letter from himself reading as follows :t
"Inclosed I transmit a few Depositions for your Perusal, relative to the most deplorable situation of this part of the State. Council I suppose are so well informed that I need say nothing on the subject, but I am more and more surprised at the Tardyness of Government. Time is Precious! However, if it's possible to suppose that the want of Energy in Pennsylvania is such as not to support its Dignity, I must beg for immediate Information, in order to remove from a State of Anarchy!"
These papers were duly received in Philadelphia, and were read in Council April 4, 1785; whereupon it was ordered "that they be transmitted to the Honor- able the General Assembly." By that body the matter was referred to a com- mittee, which reported to the House without delay; whereupon, on April 8th, after due consideration of the report, the House took the following action:
"Resolved, That the Hon. John Bayard,# Esq., Col. Persifor Frazer§ and George Smith,|| Esq., be and they are hereby appointed a committee, instructed to proceed to Wyoming as soon as may be and there make such inquiry as to them, or any two of them, shall appear necessary for the peace and good order of the people and the regular administration of justice, and report thereon to this House in their next session; and that the said committee, before they proceed to Wyoming, confer with the Supreme Executive Council and, in the meantime, as early as may be, report to the Council the state of the inhabitants respecting the disputes and disorders ex- isting there."
*Colonel Franklin was at this time in Connecticut, as narrated on page 1462.
*See "Pennsylvania Archives", Old Series, X: 707.
#JOHN BAYARD was a descendant, in the fourth generation, of Petrus Bayard, who was the eldest son of Samuel Bayard (of French Huguenot extraction) and bis wife Anne Stuyvesant, a sister of the noted Peter Stuyvesant, director- general, or Governor, of New Netherland, later New York. Petrus Bayard came with his mother, two brothers aud a sister, in May, 1647, to New Orange (now New York), and he died there in 1699. Samuel Bayard, eldest son of Petrus was born in 1675 at what is now the corner of Exchange Place and Broadway, New York City. About 1698 he was married to Susanna Bouchelle, and they removed to Bohemia Manor, Cecil County, Maryland. His wife Susanna dying some years later, Samuel Bayard was married (second) to Elizabeth Sluyter, and they became the parents of (i) James, (ii) Samuel, (iii) Peter and (iv) Mary Ann Bayard. Samuel Bayard, the father, died in Cecil County Nov- ember 23, 1721.
(i) James Bayard was married to Mary Asheton, and they became the parents of twin sons-John Rubenheim and James Asheton Bayard, born at Bohemia Manor August 11, 1738-and a daughter.
(The first-named of James Bayard's twin sons, altho baptized "John Rubenheim", seems to have completely discarded bis "middle" name after reaching man's estate, and was known thereafter simply as "John Bayard.")
Having completed his studies, John Bayard went to Philadelphia in 1756 and entered upon a commercial career. In the course of a few years he was recognized as one of the prosperous and leading merchants of the city. He early became a member of the Sons of Liberty (see page 585, Vol. I1, and subsequent pages), and was among the first to raise his voice in opposition to the attempt of Great Britain to unjustly tax and oppress the American Colonies.
He was a Deputy to the Provincial Convention of Pennsylvania, July 15, 1774, and a Delegate to the Convention held January 23, 1775. In the Spring of 1775, he became Chairman of the Inspection Committee of the county of Philadelphia, and in June, 1776, was a member of the Provincial Conference held at Carpenters' Hall. Bancroft in his "History of the United States", refers to him as being at that period "a patriot of singular purity of character and disinterestedness; personally brave, earnest and devout."
After the fights at Lexington and Concord John Bayard was elected and commissioned Major, and later was promoted Colonel, of the Second Battalion of infantry organized in Philadelphia. He was in active service at the
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According to Miner, Colonel Franklin returned to Wilkes-Barré from Conn- ecticut, after an absence of about two months, on Sunday, April 24, 1785, and two or three days later, a town-meeting was held, and the people who attended . it were given to understand that movements in behalf of the Wyoming Yankees might "be expected from abroad." On April 30th Franklin, in company with Ebenezer Johnson and Phineas Peirce, warned Van Gorden, one of battles of Brandywine, Germantown, Trenton and Princeton; and his battalion was a part of the force led by Washing- ton in person at Princeton to resist the attack on General Mercer's demoralized brigade.
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Colonel Bayard was appointed a member of the Pennsylvania State Board of War in March, 1777, at which time he was a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly. He was made Speaker of the Assembly November 6, 1778. In 1779, he commanded the Fourth Battalion of Philadelphia militia. At that period, and for some years later, his home was on a farm in Plymouth Township, on the Schuylkill River, about eighteen miles from Philadelphia. In October, 1781. he was chosen a member of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, and on October 25, 1784, was elected Speaker of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania to succeed George Gray. In the Autumn of 1785, he was elected a Delegate from Pennsylvania to the United States Congress.
In 1788, Colonel Bayard removed to New Brunswick, New Jersey, where he built a handsome residence. He entertained there, at various times, Washington, Kosciusko, Talleyrand, Elias Boudinot, Gilbert Stuart, and other persons of note and distinction. He occupied a high social position, and was "a consistent Federalist and somewhat of an aristocrat." In 1778, he was elected a Trustee of the College of New Jersey (Princeton), and continued as such for thirty years. For nearly forty years he regularly attended, as a delegate, the meetings of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. In 1790. he was elected Mayor of New Brunswick, and a few years later was appointed Presiding Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Somerset County, New Jersey.
In 1759, at the age of twenty-one years, John Bayard was married to Margaret Hodge, eldest child of Andrew and Jane (McCulloch) Hodge of Philadelphia, and an aunt of the Rev. Charles Hodge, S. T. D., LL.D., for many years a professor in the theological seminary at Princeton. She died in 1780, and the next year Colonel Bayard was married to Mary, widow of John Hodgden of Charlestoo, South Carolina She died in 1785, and two or three years later Colonel Bayard was married (third) to Johanna White, a sister of Gen. A. W. White of New Brunswick.
Colonel Bayard had five sons and three daughters-all by his first wife who grew to maturity. The second child was Andrew Bayard, who for many years was President of the Commercial Bank of Philadelphia. The fourth child was Samuel Bayard (born January 11, 1767), who in 1791 was appointed Clerk of the United States Supreme Court. In 1794, he was appointed Agent of the United States in prosecuting American claims before the British Ad- miralty courts, and in that capacity lived for four years in London. He was the author of various legal and other works.
Colonel Bayard died January 7, 1807, and was buried in the yard of the First Presbyterian Church of New Bruns- wick. The following is a portion of the inscription on his tombstone. "Benevolent, Liberal, Patriotic. He was chosen by his country to fill her first offices. His integrity and zeal justified the choice. Generous in his temper, sincere in his friendship, eminent for every social virtue, he possessed the esteem of all who knew him. * *
* Devoted to the religion of Christ, he was long a distinguished member of his Church." * *
§PERSIFOR FRAZER, was born August 9, 1736. near Newtown Square, Chester (now Delaware) County, Penn- sylvania, the soo of John Frazer, who was born in Ireland, of Scottish parents and came to Philadelphia in 1735. A few years after the birth of Persifor the family located in Philadelphia, where John Frazer became a West India ship- ping merchant. When Persifor grew up he settled in Thornbury Township. Chester County, and hecame an iron manu- facturer. Io January, 1765, he was a member of the Provincial convention which protested against the further im- portation of negro slaves; and in the following October was one of the signers of the non-importation resolution ; adopted at Philadelphia. He was one of the ten delegates from Chester County to the Provincial convention which met in Philadelphia January 18. 1775.
By authority of a resolution of Congress, passed December 9, 1775, the Fourth Pennsylvania Battalion was re- cruited, principally io Che ter County. Anthony Wayne was commissioned Colooel, January 3, 1776, and two days later Persifor Frazer was commissioned Captain of the first of the eight companies which composed the battalion. While in service at Ticonderoga, September 24, 1776, Captain Frazer was promoted Major of the "4th". The term of service of this battalion expired in January, 1777, and in that month the Fifth Pennsylvana Regiment, Continental Line. was organized. Persifor Frazer was commissioned Leutenant Colonel of this regiment March 12, 1777.
In the retreat of his regiment from the battle of Brandywine, in September, 1777, Colonel Frazer was taken prisoner by the British. conveyed to Philadelphia and confined in the city jail. He escaped from confinement March 17, 1778 and returned to his regiment. At the battle of Monmouth, New Jersey, he was in command of a brigade. During the Sullivan Expedition (see Chapter XVIII, Vol. II ) he served as Deputy Commissary General, with the rank of Lient. Colonel, on the staff of General Sullivan. He resigned from the service October 9, 1779, was appointed Commissioner for the purchase of army clothing for Chester County April 1, 1780, and was commissioned Brigadier General of the Pennsylvania Militia May 25, 1782. In 1781, '82 and '84 he was elected a member of the General Assembly of Penn- sylvania. April 7, 1786, he was appointed by the Assembly Register of Wills and Recorder of Deeds in and for Chester County, and in 1790, he was reappointed to this office for a second term.
Colonel Frazer was a member of Lodge No. 8. Ancient York Masons, which was warranted by the Provincial Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania June 24, 1766, to meet in the vicinity of Valley Forge. This Lodge was dishanded in 1789 or '90. and in December, 1790, Colonel Frazer and seven other Brethren who had been members of "No. 8" peti- tioned the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania for a warrant for a Lodge (No. 50) to be held at "the sign of the White Horse" in Chester County. The warrant was duly granted, and the Lodge thus constituted was located at the "White Horse" tavern until 1807, when it was removed to West Chester.
Persifor Frazer was married October 27, 1766, to Mary, daughter of John and Sarah (Worrall) Taylor of Chester County. Colonel Frazer died April 24, 1792, being survived by his wife. Their son Robert was a lawyer and in 1795 a member of the Pennsylvania Legislature from Chester County. His son, John Fries Frazer, Ph. D., LL. D., (born July 8, 1812; died October 12, 1872) was for twenty-eight years Professor of Natural Philosophy and Chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania, and for thirteen years of that period was Vice Provost of the University. Upon his death he was succeeded in his professorship by his son Persifor (born in Philadelphia July 24, 1844), noted as a scientist and an author.
Gen. Persifor Frazer Smith, U. S. A., and the Hon. Persifor Frazer Smith of West Chester, Pennsylvania (who was for many years the official reporter of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania), were grandsons of Col. Persifor Frazer.
|GEORGE SMITH was appointed Captain of one of the companies of the "Flying Camp" voted to be raised by the Philadelphia County Committee July 15, 1776; he was appointed and commissioned Sub Lieutenant of Philadelphia March 12, 1777, and July 23, 1778, was appointed by the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania one of the three agents "for the seizing and disposing of the forfeited estates, according to law." Between the last-mentioned date and October 28, 1778, he seems to have attained the rank, or acquired the title, of "Colonel." In December, 1779, he still held the office of "Agent for Forfeited Estates." In 1780 he was Lieutenant Colonel commanding the First Battalion, Philadelphia County Militia.
In 1784 Colonel Smith was elected a member of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania. At that period he was probably a resident of the section of Philadelphia County which the Legislature in September, 1784, erected into the county of Montgomery. By the Act creating the new county. Colonel Smith and four others, named, were authorized to purchase a tract of land and erect thereon a court-house and a prison for the county. Colonel Smith was named as Master in the warrant issued December 14. 1789, by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. Ancient York Masons, for Lodge No. 31, to be located at Norristown, Montgomery County. He was still a member of this Lodge in March 1793
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the few Pennamite settlers remaining in Wyoming Valley, to "quit the land." On Monday, May 2nd, a meeting of the proprietors of the township of Wilkes- ' Barré was held, and on the second day following, according to the "Brief" of Colonel Franklin, Messrs. Bayard, Frazer and Smith, the Committee of the Assembly, arrived at Wilkes-Barré and took up their quarters at the inn of Capt. John Paul Schott, on River Street above South Street.
On May 5th the Committee sent a message to Col. Zebulon Butler (who only a few months previously had returned to Wilkes-Barré from New York), requesting him to call upon them. This he did, without delay, and informed them that he, Capt. John Paul Schott, Ebenezer Johnson, Lieut. John Jenkins, Jr., Capt. John Franklin and Christopher Hurlbut had been selected by the Wyoming Yankees to represent them before the Committee. Later in the day these men and the Assemblymen met together at Captain Schott's, and after a lengthy conference it was agreed that the business in hand should be trans- acted in writing. In the morning of May 6th, therefore, the Assemblymen trans- mitted to the Committee of Settlers, a letter reading as follows :*
"WYOMING, May 6th, 1785.
"Gentlemen :- In conformity to our promise made to you in the Conference held yesterday afternoon, We now propose to you the following Queries, which we wish you seriously to consider & favor us with your answer as soon as convenient.
"1st .- Is it the Wish & determination of the People you represent, called the Connecticutt Claimants, to submit to & support the Laws & Constitution of this State. 2d .- Will they support & countenance the civil Officers in the regular administration of Justice & oppose all Illegal & unconstitutional measures that may be taken by any persons contrary thereto. 3dly. -As the Legislature have fully evinced their determination to protect the Citizens in every Part of the State in the full enjoyment of Life, Liberty & Property- and as you are well acquainted with the measures that have been taken to punish those who in a Lawless manner dispossessed a number of Settlers last May-We wish to be informed by what authority a number of People who were peaceable Inhabitants have, during the Course of the Winter & Spring, been dispos- sessed of their Property & ordered to remove from this place; and whether the persons assuming and Executing such authority are supported & Countenanced by the people you represent.
"We sincerely wish for a satisfactory answer to the above Queries, which may tend to the restoration of Peace & good Order to all the Inhabitants of this unhappy settlement.
"We are, Gentlemen, your very Humble servants, [Signed] "JOHN BAYARD, "PERSR. FRAZER, "GEO. SMITH."
"Messrs. ZEBULON BUTLER
& Others, a Committee appointed
to Confer with the Committee of Assembly."
To this letter Colonel Butler and his colleagues responded the same day, in part as follows:t
"Answer to Question Ist .- 'T'is the wish and desire of us, and the people whom we represent, to support the Constitutional laws and the Constitution of the State of Pennsylvania, and has been ever since the Decree at Trenton.
"In answer to your second question: We assert, and are able to maintain, that there have never been any civil officers according to the Constitution of the State of Pennsylvania elected in this settlement since the Decree of Trenton. Let us have constitutional civil officers-that is, men elected by us at an open and general election, warned according to the laws of this State. Such civil officers we will support in the full and regular administration of justice with our lives and fortunes.
"In compliance with your wish of information by what authority a number of peaceable inhabitants have, during the course of the Winter and Spring, been dispossessed of their property and ordered to remove from this settlement, we answer in the categorical style, and affirm, that no peaceable inhabitants-as you call them-in this settlement have ever been ordered to remove off, or been dispossessed of their property in any respect whatever by us or those whom we repre- sent; and we, the Committee, never countenanced the ordering of any peaceable inhabitant off their settlement. Gentlemen, if you have had any complaints of such a nature as you represent in your billet, we would wish to know the complainants of such falsehoods, and that they should be brought before you and this committee.
"Gentlemen, we would wish to ask the following questions, and desire your solution. Ques- tion: Whether those persons who came into this settlement under the patronage of Alexander Patterson a year ago last Fall, and took violent possession of lands and houses, and still retain
*The original draft of the letter is in the possession of the present writer.
tSee Johnson's "Historical Record", II: 87.
.
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the same (which were justly held by the Connecticut claimants, who were in the peaceable posses- sion of those houses and lands)-whether those rioters, if now in possession of those lands and houses, can, according to the laws and Constitution of this State, be called peaceable inhabitants? Question 2d: In what point of light do the Legislative body of this State view us?"
The Assembly Committee replied to this communication the same day, in part as follows :*
"We have just received your answer to ours of this morning, and were pleased in reading the first paragraph, wherein you consider an amicable compromise as near at hand. We assure you we shall esteem ourselves happy in accomplishing so important and salutary a measure. "Your answer to our first Query is somewhat satisfactory, but to the others, not so. Your answer to the second is that there never has been any Civil Officers, 'according to the Constitution of the State of Pennsylvania', elected in this settlement since the Decree of Trenton. We are sorry to differ from you on this head, and although we believe that many who were not Free- holders did vote, yet we must contend that there were Frecholders who did vote, and that the said election was in conformity to the Constitution, as appears by the proceedings of the committee who were with you at that time and reported to the Assembly; which [body], therefore, established the election by a Law passed September 9, 1783, in which the Justices of the Peace are particularly named. We therefore think you are bound, as citizens of this State, to support them in the due exercise of their authority until you can make it appear, by a regular process before the proper tribunal, that their appointment is contrary to the Constitution. * * * *
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