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 51
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"Rising one morning, Mr. Mead beheld a dozen men mowing his meadow, and all orders to desist or requests for explanation were equally disregarded. They went on openly and carted off the hay. A warrant was forthwith issued, and several were arrested on a charge of riot and brought before Justice Mead. Evasive answers to his questions were given by those whom he knew and first interrogated. 'And who are you, Sir,' said he to one whom he was not acquainted with, 'and what have you to say for yourself?' 'My name,' said the fellow with affected simplicity, 'is Oliver Harmless, and if I ever did you any good in the world I am sorry for it.' A burst of laughter followed this sally, when Mason F. Alden spoke up and said: 'Squire Mead, it is you or us; Pennamites and Yan- kees can't live together in Wyoming. Our lines don't agree. We give you fair notice to quit, and that shortly.' Mead immediately called to his aid thirty or forty men, and, having garrisoned his house, resolved to defend himself."
Justice Mead's letters were read in Counc 1 Saturday, July 9, 1785 and on the following Monday the members of the Council and the Judges of the Supreme Court of the State held a conference, after which the Council took the following action :*
"Resolved, That the Judges be requested forthwith to take the deposition of William Wilson, t the person sent down by David Mead; to issue warrants against the rioters, and to proceed by way of attachment against the Sheriff of Northumberland County for misbehavior."
On July 12th an order on the State Treasury for £6 was drawn in favor of William Wilson, and one for £3, 15s. in favor of Joseph Van Norman, "for de- fraying their expenses from Northumberland County and return, on public business." The same day President Dickinson wrote to John Henry Antes, Esq., Sheriff of Northumberland County, as follows:#
"At a Conference yesterday with the Honorable the Judges of the Supreme Court, they produced several Depositions representing your Conduct as very extraordinary & detrimental to the Peace of your County. We therefore think it our duty immediately, & in the strongest manner, to enjoin your instant & effectual Execution of any process against offenders at or near Wyoming that has or shall come to your hands; & that for this purpose, and also to enforce due Obedience to the Laws of the State, you forthwith repair to that Place, where, We understand, many persons are collected in a riotous manner, having injured several peaceable Citizens & threatened further to injure them.
"Your own prudence will dictate to you how interesting your Behaviour on this occasion must necessarily be to yourself as well as to the State."
On the same day (July 12, 1785) President Dickinson wrote to Justice Mead as follows:
"We have received your Letters of the sixth & seventh Instant, & have examined William Wilson the person by whom you sent the last. Yesterday a Conference was held with the Judges
*See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records". XIV: 497-499.
tLieutenant of the County of Northumberland.
#See "Pennsylvania Archives", Old Series, X: 482.
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of the Supreme Court, and thereupon every Measure has been adopted that was thought most proper for enforcing a due Obedience to the Laws."
On the day following the writing of the foregoing letters, The Susquehanna Company held a meeting at the City of Hartford, Connecticut, Colonel Franklin being present to represent the Wyoming share-, or right-, holders and settlers. The proceedings at this meeting were significant, and embraced a substantial declaration of war against all opponents of the Company and its claims. The minutes of this meeting read in part as follows:
"At a meeting of the Proprietors, Purchasers and Settlers of the land on the Susquehanna River under ye countenance and title of ye State of Connecticut, legally warned and held at Hartford July 13, 1785, the meeting taking into consideration the situation of their claims, the large sums of money expended in the purchase, settlement and defense of the same, and the justice of their claim to said lands, do Resolve:
"'(1) That the purchase they made of the Indian native proprietors of said land was fair, bona fide, and for a valuable consideration paid previous to any other purchase of said land from said Indians.
"(2) That at the time of making said purchase there was not, nor ought there ever to have been, a doubt respecting the right of Connecticut to the jurisdiction and preemption of that Territory-the Charter and Letters-patent of Connecticut being in fact eighteen years prior to the patent to Sir William Penn, and which in terms most Explicit did cover said land.
"(3) That in Confidence in the Charter of Connecticut (which they judged to be sure and sacred as the Solemn acts of any public body can be), and with the Countenance and approbation of the Colony of Connecticut, they made the purchase and Settlement aforesaid, and have, at vast Expense of blood and treasure, purchased and defended their possessions against the Common enemy, to the great emolument and Security of the United States.
"(4) That although the Court, constituted to determine the right of jurisdiction between the States of Connecticut and Pennsylvania, have astonished the world with the decision in favor of Pennsylvania, yet our right to those lands in possession is founded in law and Justice, is Clear and unquestionable, and we cannot and will not give it up.
"(5) That the Conduct of the State and people of Pennsylvania towards the proprietors of the lands on the river Susquehanna, in consequence of the Decree of Trenton in A. D. 1782, was impolitic; unjust and tyrannical, and has a tendency to interrupt the harmony of the States.
"Voted, That this Company will support their claim and right of soil to all lands lying on the waters of the river Susquehanna included in their deed of purchase from the Six Nations of Indians, native owners and proprietors thereof, and confirmed to said Company by the Legis- lature of the State of Connecticut, agreeably to the laws of said State; and that the Committee of said Company be, and they are hereby, authorized to dispose of the rights of all non-resident delinquent proprietors who have neglected or shall neglect to pay their taxes agreeably to the votes of said Company-taking the previous steps pointed out in the Act of Assembly [of Conn- ecticut] regulating the same.
"Voted, That this Company will support the proprietors, owners, Settlers and Claimants of the Country aforesaid in their new application to Congress* for a trial of the right of Soil, agreeably to the 2d paragraph of the IXth Article of the Confederation of the United States of America; and that we will protect our Settlers in said country from all lawless outrage, unjusti- fiable and wanton depredations of property, or personal abuse whatsoever, under countenance of Law or otherwise, until such right [of soil] is judicially determined.
"Voted, That every able-bodied and effective man (not being a proprietor), approved by any one of the Company's Committee, that will repair to Wyoming, submit himself to the orders of this Company and their Committee at this place, shall become a half-share proprietor in said Com- pany, entitled to all the benefits of any proprietor thereof that has paid his full taxes to this time; provided he remains in said Country for the Space of three years, and does not depart therefrom without the permission of such Committee; and also provided that such half-share proprietors do not exceed 400; and provided they arrive by the first day of October next.
"Voted, That Col. Ebenezer Gray, Col. Thomas Dyer, Ralph Pomeroy, Esq., Timothy Edwards, Esq., Mr. Moses Sherrard, Joseph Hamilton, Esq., Zerah Beach, Esq., Col. Zebulon Butler, John Franklin, Esq., Ludwig Updike, Esq., Obadiah Gore, Esq., and Capt. Samuel Street be, and they are hereby, appointed a Committee in addition to the Standing Committee of the Company.
"Voted, That the standing Committee be, and they are hereby, fully authorized to dispose
of 600 rights in said general tract of country, for the use of said Company. * * *
"Voted, That this Company will circumspectly conform themselves to all decisions on their claim constitutionally had; but at the same time cannot omit despising the treatment this State met with upon a former trial-the secretion of material papers by our opponents until after the trial was over. * * *
"Voted, That the Hon. William Samuel Johnson; and William Juddt, Esq., be and they are hereby appointed agents in behalf of this Company in all matters wherein this Company is in-
*See page 1460. +See page 478, Vol. I.
#See page 824, Vol. II.
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terested, before Congress or elsewhere; and that the Clerk of this Company be and he is hereby authorized to make out a proper power of attorney, fully authorizing the said William Samuel Johnson and William Judd, Esq., for the purpose aforesaid. * * **
" l'oted, That the Clerk of this Company advertise in the public prints that any person claiming a right in this Purchase shall send in the evidence of his title to the Clerk of the Company by the first of November next, or be forever excluded from any right in the purchase.
" l'oted, That any three of the Standing Committee here have authority to call a meeting of the Company whenever the exigency of the case may require the same.
"Voted, That a tax of one dollar or each whole share, and half a dollar on each half-share, be immediately paid to the Treasurer of this Company, or to any of the Standing Committee."
Miner states that, as a result of the complaints made by Justice Mead to the State authorities at Philadelphia, Mead and Sheriff Antes of Northum- berland County were cited before the authorities in the latter part of July, 1785, and Capt. John Paul Schott was summoned to appear at the same time and place as a witness. At Philadelphia, August 1, 1785, Mead presented the fol- lowing memorial* to the President and Supreme Executive Council:
"Gentlemen: The address and Petition of the subscriber, a Citizen, a Member of the Society, and servant of the Commonwealth, most respectfully sheweth:
"That his singular situation is such that in the fullest Confidence of the Benefit and Pro- tection of the Laws of the State he has legally Possessed himself of and cultivated his Property under the Authority, Title and Protection of your Government. Much of his goods is taken from him by Violence, his House reduced to the nature of a Garrison by a Lawless Banditty. He has taken Process against many of the Offenders, tho to no purpose, and has applyed for the Relief and support of Government-as yet without success.
"Therefore your Petitioner, a Member of the Community always ready to contribute his Proportion towards the expense of Government or yield Personal service when required, once more Begs your immediate Interposition for his relief, agreeable to the Laws of the Land; or devise such other Measures as in your Wisdom may be thought most Proper to put him on a footing with your other Citizens, save his house from becoming a Sacrifise to Villins, reimburse him for his expenses [in] furnishing entelligence, sending expresses, &c.
"And your Petitioner as in Duty bound will Pray. [Signed] "DAVID MEAD."
On the return of Justice Mead to Wilkes-Barré, states Miner, "the cannon, that terrible four-pounder, was paraded before his house, and on Monday, August 8th, he retired with his men from the valley, leaving, it is believed, no Pennsylvania claimant on the Wyoming lands." Miner further states that a considerable tract of land in what is now Crawford County, Pennsylvania, was allotted to Justice Mead "as an indemnity for his losses at Wyoming." On September 22, 1785, the Pennsylvania Assembly passed an Act, providing, "in consideration of the fact that David Mead, Esq., was requested to continue there at Wyoming as long as possible-by which means he was subjected to heavy expenses in giving information to the Government, and in other matters -that the Supreme Executive Council be, and they are hereby, authorized to draw an order on the Treasurer of the State for the sum of £67, 3d., the balance due him."
Immediately on the return of Colonel Franklin to Wyoming, from Hartford, some days after the close of the meeting of The Susquehanna Company, he called the inhabitants of Wilkes-Barré together and explained to them, in detail, what had been done at Hartford. Then he crossed over into Kingston Township, and at Forty Fort addressed on the same subject a gathering of Kingstonians. "Proceeding to Plymouth," says Miner, "the settlers were there called together ; from thence he [Franklin] crossed over to Nanticoke, or Hanover, and thus journeying from town to town, public meetings were holden, contemplated measures, as far as politic, explained, and the people prepared for action. Ad- venturers were invited to enlist, or accept half-share rights, on the terms pro-
*See "Pennsylvania Archives", Second Series, XVIII: 654.
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posed, and numbers received the bounty, Colonel Franklin being engaged several days in issuing certificates."
About this period, or probably six months earlier, a number of men who were not residents of the Wyoming region acquired "rights," or shares, in The Susquehanna Company. These men were unquestionably land speculators, and under their "rights" large bodies of land were allotted to them by the officials of the Company. Chief among these speculators were Dr. Joseph Hamilton and Dr. Caleb Benton of the State of New York.
The records of The Susquehanna Company show that a very considerable number of half-share certificates were issued by the representatives of the Com- pany-chiefly by Colonel Franklin-in the Autumn of 1785 and during a number of the ensuing months. Many certificates were issued to men who were not only on the ground, but had been living in Wyoming for several years. Not a few of these men were the sons or brothers of some of the earliest land-owners and settlers under The Susquehanna Company. Half-share certificates were issued, also, to numbers of people who were induced to emigrate from New England, New York, New Jersey and elsewhere and settle throughout the Wyoming region, with full faith in the validity of The Susquehanna Company's title.
The following copies of originals indicate the several forms in which half- share certificates were issued.
(1) "I hereby certify that SAMUEL GORE is admitted a half-share proprietor in the Sus- quehanna Purchase, entitled to all the benefits of any half-share proprietor in said Company, agreeable to a vote of the Company at their meeting held at Hartford July 13th, 1785-Provided that he remains in said country for the space of three years, and conforms himself as is directed y said Resolve.
"Given under my hand at Wyoming September 10th, 1785.
[Signed] "JOHN FRANKLIN Comtee."
(2) "Certificate No. 109. These witnesseth that MARTIN SMITH of Colchester is intitled to one-half right in the Susquehanna Purchase, on condition that he doth, by the Ist of October next, repair to Wyoming, submit himself to the orders of The Susquehanna Company and their Committee at that place, and shall remain there for the space of three years and not depart therefrom without the permission of said Committee-agreeable to a vote of The Susquehanna Company at their meeting at Hartford July 13th, 1785.
"Windham, August 25th, 1786.
[Signed] "SAMUEL GRAY, one of the Committee."
(3) "No. 264. These certify all Persons whom it may concern, that MATTHIAS HOLON- BACK of Wyoming, in the State of Pennsylvania, is intitled in one half share in the Susquehanna Purchase of Lands, according to the vote of said Company for the disposal of Rights in said Purchase, at their meeting held at Hartford July 13th, 1785. Certified
[Signed] "SAM'L GRAY, Clerk."
The names of some of the Wyoming Yankees and a few of the outsiders to whom Colonel Franklin issued half-share certificates in September and October, 1785, and early in 1786, were as follows: Avery Gore, "Capt. Stephen Tuttle (of Fishkill, N. Y.)," Abram Nesbitt, Nathan Carey (certificate "No. 1"), Waterman Baldwin, Ishmael Bennet, Jr., Elisha Matthewson, Ira Stephens, Eldad Kellogg, Richard Halstead, Isaac Baldwin ("of Shohola"), John Swift, Justus Gaylord, Jr., Prince Alden, Jr., Moses Roberts, William Ransom, John Wooley, Jehoiada Johnson, Jeremiah Shaw, Capt. Elisha Satterlee, Nathaniel Allen (of Catskill, Albany County, N. Y.), Jehiel Franklin, Nathan Abbott, Thomas Allington, Daniel Ayers, Moses Atherton, "Capt. Thomas Baldwin (Sheshequin)," Abner Beach, Alexander Beach, Joseph Beach, Oliver Bigelow, Zebulon Cady, Thomas Coleman, Jepthah Earl, Joseph Earl, Daniel Earl, Sr., Thomas Heath, John Hurlbut, "John Hollenback (of Wyoming)," "Capt.
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Benjamin Jenkins," Joseph Kenney, "Capt. Peter Loop, Columbia County, N. Y.," John Platner, Enos Tubbs, Joshua Van Fleet and William Williams, Jr.
"Half-share rights were issued in great numbers", declares Governor Hoyt in his "Brief of a Title in the Seventeen Townships," "and new faces-strangers to the 'old settlers'-began swarming into the valley. The old-time residents had no sympathy with all this. They knew it prolonged the unhappy situation, and they deprecated its effects. *
* * The half-share men and the old settlers (with some exceptions) formed two distinct parties, and were as much opposed to each other as to the Pennsylvanians.
It may be noted here that in the course of a short time the grantees, or holders, of the half-share certificates issued by the representatives of The Sus- quehanna Company under the resolution of July 13, 1785, began to be character- ized by the Pennsylvania land-claimers and their friends as "Half-share Men," "Wild Boys" and "Wild Yankees."
CHAPTER XXVII.
GENERAL ETHAN ALLEN ESPOUSES THE CAUSE OF THE CONNECTICUT SET- TLERS AND COMES TO WILKES-BARRE-UNWARRANTED PROCEEDINGS OF THE SUSQUEHANNA COMPANY - WYOMING, WITHOUT THE BENEFITS OF LAW, ESTABLISHES AN EXPERIMENT IN SELF GOVERNMENT-A NEW STATE PROPOSED BY ALLEN AND KINDRED SPIRITS-THE SETTLERS DIVIDE ON THE ADVISABILITY OF THIS SCHEME-MANY SET- TLERS SUBSCRIBE TO ERECTION OF A NEW COUNTY- PENNSYLVANIA AROUSED.
"So here, beneath this old gray stone, Lies hid the light that brightest shone Upon our green clad mountains, when Were 'tried the souls' of patriot men. Beneath this soil, from tyrants won, Repose the ashes of her son, The hero of her day of gloom, Who made the land (a dreary waste While under Slavery's minions placed) Like Eden's garden bloom. * * * Sir Guy* said tomb would never hold A chief so restless and so bold As thou full oft didst prove thyself! That thou wouldst make its cerements start By some infernal Yankee art, And spurn the bonds of Death himself."
Rufus W. Griswold (1815-1857), an American editor and author of note, wrote the above lines on visiting the grave of Allen in 1840.
Immediately upon the adjournment of the Susquehanna Company, in July, 1785, a number of its mnost radical members, particularly those who had only recently become shareholders in the Company, conceived the idea of calling *Sir Guy Carleton
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upon Gen. Ethen Allen,* of Vermont, to aid them in their contest against Penn- sylvania. General Allen had been very active in organizing the State of Vermont, and at that period was laboring with others of his fellow citizens to have Ver- mont admitted to the Union of States, notwithstanding the strenuous oppo- sition of the State of New York. In the latter part of July, 1785, therefore, a committee of Susquehanna proprietors repaired to Bennington, Vermont, where they interviewed General Allen on the subject of Wyo- ming affairs. In consequence, under the date of August 15, 1785, at Bennington, General Allen wrote to Dr. William Samuel Johnson (see note, page 478, Vol. I) at Stratford, Connecticut-he being at that time a Delegate from Connecticut in the Continental Con- gress, and also one of the regularly appointed agents and legal advisers of the Susquehanna Company. The original letter of General Allen is preserved among the "Dr. William Samuel Johnson Papers" in the collections of The Connecticut Historical Society, and it reads as follows:
"SIR-I have agreed with the Committee of the Sisquehanna Proprietors to spedily repair to Wyoming with a small detachment of green Mountain Boys to vindicate (if it appears to me practicable) the right of soil of those proprietors to that teritory whatever may be the legal decision relative to the jurisdiction, and shall be very glad of your intelligence Concerning the interested connection of the State of Pennsylvania as such to defeat the title of the said proprie- GEN. ETHAN ALLEN tors in order to establish their own, or whether the quarrel (amit- Photo-reproduction of the marble statue erected by au- thority of the Legislature of Vermont in Statuary Hall, in the Capital, at Washington. ting the late decision of jurisdiction) relative to the property of those lands does not lie between certain gentlemen of wealth and influence in that State and the said proprietors and if so, how far it is pro- bable that the State will interfere in the quarrel, or whether at all. "Whether at the public expense they will raise troops to dis- possess the Connecticut settlers and if not, how far it is probable that the land jobbers will be able to carry their influence in the legeslature and what number of men they can bring into the field at their own expence, in fine, I wish to know your Judgment what the State would do respecting the raising and supporting troops to dispossess the Connecticut settlers, and if they do nothing in this matter at the public expence what it is probable that the land scheming Fra- ternity would be able to do in the hostile way against me.
"My policy will be to publish propositions of amity with the government provided the Legeslature will guarentee to the settlers and proprietors of the Sisquehannah purchaise their right of soil to the disputed teritory which I know they will not do, good offers is apt to make friends in Pensylvenia and divide them and give me a better plea in the Eyes of the world to op- pose the exercise of their oppresive government in dispossessing the settlers with the sword. "Mr. Levi Allen will receive your answer which I wish to be in writing. "I am Sir with due respect your humble sert."
General Allen was unable to visit Wyoming as soon as he had promised and purposed. Meanwhile, however, the Executive, or Managing Committee of The Susquehanna Company allotted to him certain shares, or rights, in the Susquehanna Purchase. The fact that Allen had espoused the cause of the
*ETHAN ALLEN, who has been styled "the Robin Hood of Vermont", and who was certainly one of the conspic- uous and noteworthy historical characters of the period of the American Revolution, was the eldest child of Joseph and Mary (Baker) Allen, of that section of Connecticut which, in 1751, was erected into the county of Litchfield.
Joseph Allen (wbo was a descendant in the fourth generation of Samuel Allen of Braintree, England, 1588, who emigrated to New England in 1632) was married to Mary Baker, at Woodbury, Connecticut, March 11, 1736. Im- mediately, or very soon thereafter, they located in the comparatively new town of Litchfield, some fourteen or fifteen miles north of Woodbury. The town of Cornwall, about ten miles north-west of Litchfield, was incorporated in 1740, and in that year, or the previous year, Joseph Allen removed thither from Litchfield with his little family, and contin- ued to reside there until his death. in 1755. He was survived by his wife, six sons and one daughter.
At that time Levi and Ira Allen, brothers of Joseph, were residing in Salisbury (incorporated as a town in 1741, in the northwest corner of Connecticut, in what, ten years later, became Litchfield County), and at some time between April, 1763, and December, 1771, the children of Joseph and Mary Allen removed from Cornwall to Salisbury-at which time, undoubtedly, their mother was dead.
Joseph Allen was an original member of The Susquehanna Company, his name appearing in the list of grantees in the Indian deed of 1754, printed on page 271. Vol. I. The right, or share, in the Susquehanna Purchase standing in his name was conveyed by his children to Ephraim Baker of Woodbury, Connecticut, January 13, 1772, for £15.
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The children of Joseph and Mary (Baker) Allen were as follows: (i) Ethan, (ii) Heman, (iii) Heber. (iv) Levi, (v) Zimri, (vi) Ira, (vii) Lucy. Ethan, having once boastingly ohserved of himself, his brothers and sister, that "there were never seven other such born of any woman", was told: "Mary Magdalene was delivered of seven just like them!"
(ii) Heman Allen, secoud child of Joseph and Mary (Baker) Allen, was born at Cornwall, Connecticut, October 15, 1740. He was a merchant in Salisbury, Connecticut, as early as 1772, and was still in business there when the Revolutionary War broke out. He commanded a company in the regiment of "Green Mountain Bnys" in their ex- pedition to Canada; was a delegate from Rutland, Vermont, to the convention of January, 1777, that declared for freedom, and in August, 1777, tonk part under Gen. John Stark in the battle of Bendiagtou, Vermont. He died in May, 1778.
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