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 57
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In 1797 and '98, Dr. Beaton was a Representative in the New York Assembly from Columbia County. In 1802, one of the earliest and most important turapikes in the State of New York-the Catskill and Susquehanna Turnpike- was completed, and soon became a famous highway to Central New York and the navigable Susquehanna, and so remained for more than a quarter of a century. Ja 1804, Dr. Beaton, then living at Catskill, was President of the cor- poration which owned and operated this road-he, his brother Stephen and John Livingstone having been among the original incorporators of the turnpike company. Stephen Benton, brother of Caleb Beaton, was a well-to-do merchant for many years at Unadilla, New York, having come there from Sheffield, Massachusetts, in 1804.
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April 28; but only seven or eight persons responded to the notice. Consequently on May 4, 1786, Dr. Smith wrote and issued the following :*
"A SERIOUS ADDRESS TO THE INHABITANTS OF WYOMING."
"Gentlemen :- Two reasons induced me to address you in the following manner, viz .: The first Reason is because my interest is connected with yours. The second Reason is my ap- pointment by you in a public character.
Gentlemen and neighbors, what have we been doing ever since the Decree of Trenton, which determined the Jurisdiction in favor of Pennsylvania? I answer, petitioning repeatedly the Legislature for their Laws in a Constitutional line, and to admit us as free Citizens of the State-which is now about to be done. Our former conduct has the approbation of every good man in this and neighboring States. Pennsylvania has fixed to us Terms of admittance, namely, that we shall take the Oath of fidelity to the State, and some of us be recognized.
"Does not Pennsylvania now hold out to us their Constitution, and desire us to take hold of it? I answer, Yes! They have marked out a Road for us to walk in, in order to a full admit- tance. They have sent to us a magistrate, who attended to recognize the people ; who recommends it to the people to apply for a free election. That is now the thing wanting, namely, application, as there is a necessity of Constables to be elected in the first place-for when a warrant is granted for an election it must be directed to a Constable, who must warn, attend and direct the Election.
"As Captain Schott and myself are the only Directors that are willing to act at this time, we did warn a meeting for the twenty-eight ult. at Kingstown, which was attended only by seven or eight persons. What can be the reason of this conduct? Do you intend to prove to the world that you have been hypocritical from first to last? God forbid! It has ever since the Trenton Decree, been my sincere desire to embrace the Laws and Constitution of Pennsylvania, if I could have them on honorable Terms. This I also expected was the desire of the people-a few excepted. Nothing but a sincere desire to do good to the people and myself in this line induced me to act in a public capacity. If I have misunderstood the people, I am sorry. This is a critical hour. Pray rouse, act judiciously, candidly and consistently! and as a warning will be put up for a meet- ing on the West side of the River, I do earnestly desire the people to consider whether it is not for their interest to attend.
[Signed] "WILLIAM HOOKER SMITH"t
*See "Pennsylvania Archives," First Series, XI : 105.
+WILLIAM HOOKER SMITH was born in the city of New York, March 23, 1725, the eldest child of the Rev. John and Mehitabel (Hooker) Smith. The Rev. John Smith was the third of the four sons of Thomas and Susannah (Odell) Smith, and was born at Newport-Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, England, May 5, 1702.
Thomas Smith born at Newport-Pagnell, September 19, 1675, was the sixth and youngest child of William and Elizabeth (Hartly) Smith. William Smith, who had been a soldier under Oliver Cromwell, was married, September 4, 1661, to Elizabeth Hartly, and they settled at Newport-Pagnell.
Thomas and Susannah (Odell) Smith and their family of three sons (the fourth and youngest bad died in infancy) sailed from London for America May 24, 1715, and landed at New York the 17th of the following August. They located in New York City but some years later removed to Smith's, or Woodbury Cove, in Orange County, New York, a few miles down the Hudson River from West Point. There Thomas Smith, the fatber, resided until his death, which occurred November 17, 1745, at the age of 70 years, 1 month and 28 days. The date of the death of his wife has not been recorded.
William Smith, the eldest child of Thomas and Susannah (Odell) Smith, entered Yale College, from which he was graduated in 1719-subsequently becoming a tutor in the institution. Later he located in New York City, where he became a lawyer of prominence, and served as a member of the King's Council of the Province and as a Judge of the Court of King's Bench. He died at New York, leaving a numerous family.
Thomas, the second child of Thomas and Susannah Smith, was a farmer at Woodbury Cove, where he died, leav- ing a large family.
In the winter of 1722-'23, while Jonathan Edwards was preaching in New York City, he is reported to have been on terms of intimacy with the Smith family and to have made their house his home. This intimate friendship un- doubtedly influenced John Smith to enter the ministry some twenty years later. He was graduated at Yale College in 1727, and subsequently practised medicine in New York and in Guilford, Connecticut.
According to Dexter's "Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College", 1: 359, the history of John Smith "for some years after his graduation is obscure; he studied medicine as well as theology, and the record of his children shows that one died in New York in September, 1729, and another in Guilford a few weeks later. He probably prac- tised medicine in both places." According to an original manuscript written by William Hooker Smith about the year 1796, and now in the possession of The Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, John Smith practiced his profession at Milford. New Haven County, Connecticut, from 1739 till 1742, when he "got a license to preach the gospel as a Presbyterian minister, and had a call to Rye and there settled as minister."
At the desire of the people of Rye, Westchester County, New York, the Eastern Convocation of Ministers of Fairfield County, Connecticut, met at Rye December 30, 1742, according to Dexter, and ordained John Smith to the gospel ministry and installed bim as pastor of the Church at Rye. Here Mr. Smith (or Dr. Smith, as he was commonly called, in recognition of his useful labors as a physician) continued to preach until the close of his life. In 1752 he join- ed the Presbytery of New York After a residence of some years in Rye he removed to White Plains, distant six or seven miles, in the northern part of the same township; but he continued to preach at Rye on alternate Sabbaths- riding to and fro on horseback. In 1763, be added to his other labors the care of the Presbyterian Church at Ossining, eight or ten miles distant, where he occasionally preached during the next five years.
The Rev. John Smith was married May 6, 1724, to Mehitabel (born May 1, 1704) daughter of Judge James and Mary (Leete) Hooker of Guilford, Connecticut. Judge Hooker (born in Farmington, Connecticut, October 27, 1666) was the first Judge of the Court of Probate of Guilford He was a grandson of Thomas Hooker, the great Puritan reformer and founder of Hartford, Connecticut. Mrs. Mary (Lecte) Hooker was the daughter of William Leete, who was a signer of the Plantation Covenant, 1639; Assistant of New Haven Colony, 1643-'58; Deputy Governor of the Colony 1658-'61; Governor, 1676-'83, and original founder of New Haven Colony.
The Rev. John and Mebitabel (Hooker) Smith were the parents of four sons and eight daughters. The second daughter became the wife of the Rev. Benjamin Tallmadge, a graduate of Yale College in 1747. The Rev. John Smith died at White Plains, February 26, 1771, and was buried in the churchyard adjoining the church in which he had labored. The inscription on his tombstone refers to him as the "first ordained Minister of the Presbyterian persuasion in Rye
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and the White Plains," and states that, "worn out with various labors, he fell asleep in Jesus." The house in which he lived at White Plains was still standing in 1885, about one-half mile from the churchyard where his remains lie. His wife died September 5, 1775.
William Hooker Smith. the eldest child of the Rev. John and Mehitahel (/looker) Smith, as previously noted, came with his parents to Rye, Westchester County, in 1742. According to the Historical Society manuscript, pre- viously mentioned, he had gone from New York City to Guilford, Connecticut, at the age of nine years, and lived there with his mother's father, James Hooker, until he was fourteen years of age, when he joined his parent; at Mil- ford and lived there until the family removed to Rye. During all that period-1734 to 1742-he declares he "never had one day's schooling." "After I came to Rye", he states, "I studied Physick under my father, who was a practical physician." IQ 1748 or '49 William Hooker Smith removed to White Plains. In February, 1763 (according to an official record on file in the Court House at White Plains), he was engaged in mercantile business in Rye. In 1768 he was residing at White Plains, engaged in the practice of medicine, as is indicated by the following advertisement which appeared in The New York Journal of March 2, 1769, and in previous issues:
"Whereas, the Rev. John Smith, Minister of the Gospel in Rye and White Plains, is possessed of a Piece of Skill for the help of distracted Persons, and has been for many years successful in the cure of them-but being advanced in years and very infirm-has.therefore communicated his Skill to his son, WILLIAM HOOKER SMITH, who hereby informs the Public that he lives at the White Plains, and is ready to serve in such cases, on reasonable terms; any Persons whose Friends or Relations may stand in need of his Relief and Help in so deplorable a Case, either at his own House or elsewhere. And as my Father has relieved a Number of persons who have been given up as incurable, who have been - under the Direction of the ablest Physicians in New York and elsewhere, and as this is a peculiar Piece of Skil, heside the common practice; shall be obliged to any Person of the Faculty that will recommend.
"I would further inform the Public that I can almost infallibly determine the curable Persons by an examination of the Age, Inclination, Constitution, Shape and Make of the head, &c. For particulars, any Person desirous may inquire of Mr. Isaac Rykeman, in New York. "WILLIAM HOOKER SMITH."
"White Plains, September 29, 1768 "
Dr. Smith came from North Castle, Westchester County, New York, to Wyoming in 1772, joining here his son - in-law, James Sutton, who had come hither from North Castle only a short time previously. At Wyoming, October 4. 1771, James Sutton paid to Zebulon Butler, of the Committee of Settlers of The Susquehanna Company, "£12- lawful money of Connecticut, for one Right in the Susquehanna Purchase." (See page 1257, "The Town Book of Wilkes-Barre.") Smith and Sutton acquired lands under a Susquehanna Company title in Exeter Township-which as mentioned on page 467, Vol I. was laid out by The Susquehanna Company in November, 1772. On May 11, 1774, William Hooker Smith and James Sutton conveyed to Solomon Strong about 300 acres in Exeter-"being a lot sur- veyed to John Depew"-in consideration of a lot of land in Exeter surveyed to James Flint, "with a saw-mill thereon, belonging to said Solomon Strong". (See "The Town Book of Wilkes-Barre", page 1321.) On the 28th of the follow- ing July Dr. Smith purchased of Joseph Sprague, for £100, "Meadow Lot No. 46 on Jacob's Plains, in the First Division of Wilkes-Barre", which lot had been originally drawn by said Sprague.
In 1776, Dr. Smith was a taxpayer in Kingston Township, and in 1777 and '78 in Wilkes-Barre -- living in what is now Plains Township. In May, 1777 (as mentioned on page 922) he was established, and was subsequently com- missioned, Captain of the "2d Alarm List Company" of the 24th (Westmoreland) Regiment of Connecticut Militia.
On page 1650, Vol. III of "Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania", published in 1911, the fol- lowing paragraphs will be found: "Dr. Willliam Hooker Smith enlisted at Wyoming May 15, 1775, in the Third Com- pany of the 1st Regiment of Connecticut, raised in the Wyoming Valley at the first call for troops, and served with it at the siege of Boston. He marched with this regiment from Boston to New York in the latter part of June, where they were encamped until September at Harlem. About September 28, 1775, the regiment, under General Schuyler .. marched to the Northern Department, New York, and took part in the campaign along Lakes Champlain and George and assisted in the rediiction of St. John in October.
"Doctor Smith left this regiment in December, 1775, and enlisted in the 10th Continental Regiment of Connecticut under Colonel Parsons in 1776, and marched under General Wasbington to New York City, taking part in the battle of Long Island August 27, 1776. In 1777 Doctor Smith was commissioned Captain in the 24th Connecticut Regi- ment. May 27, 1778, he was commissioned Surgeon of the regiment and served in this capacity during the remainder of the Revolutionary struggle. He assisted in the building of Forty Fort, but was away with the army at the time of the [Wyoming] Massacre."
There is very much more of fiction than of truth in the two foregoing paragraphs, No enlistments whatever took place at Wyoming in May, 1775, "at the first call for troops". Moreover, at that time Doctor Smith was not only beyond the military age, as fixed by Connecticut statute law (see pages 826 and 827, Vol. II), but was exempt from military service by reason of the fact that he was a practising physician.
The writer of the paragraphs in question undoubtedly consulted, before writing them, the book entitled "Con- necticut in the Revolution", which was compiled by authority of the General Assembly of Connecticut, and published at Hartford in 1889. Therein will be found the records of service and, so far as they have been preserved, the rosters of certain companies of the 1st and 10th Connecticut Regiments. The name "William Smith", appears in the roster of private soldiers of the Third Company of the Ist Regiment in 1775, and in 1776 the same name appears in the roster of Captain Gallup's company of the 10th Continental Regiment of the Connecticut Line. But this "William Smith" was not Wl'illiam Hooker Smith. The latter, as shown by existing legal documents and other manuscripts, always- from as early at least, as the year 1763, until his death-'was particular to use his full name when he had occasion to write it in husiness and other transactions. In consequence, it is fair to presume that had he enlisted as a soldier he would have seen to it that his correct name should appear in the records of his Company.
Furthermore, Doctor Smith was in Wyoming during the years 1775, 1776 and 1777, as is evidenced hy authentic records of that period which have been preserved; and, what is an equally interesting fact, there is not in the rosters of the two Connecticut Companies mentioned above the name of a single Wyoming man!
When, in May, 1777, Doctor Smith was appointed and commissioned Captain of one of the "Alarm List" Com- panies of the Westmoreland Regiment, he was in the fifty-third year of his life, and could not, therefore, under the then law of Connecticut (see page 911, Vol. II), be "included in that part of the militia called the train-band".
The writer of the paragraphs, which we have extracted from "Colonial and Revolutionary Families" states that on May 27, 1778, Doctor Smith" was commissioned Surgeon of the [24th] Regiment, and served in this capacity during the remainder of the Revolutionary struggle. He assisted in the building of Forty Fort, but was away with the army at the time of the [Wyoming] massacre.'
Forty Fort was built in 1772, before Doctor Smith came to Wyoming.
The present writer has been unable to find anywhere any authentic record to the effect that Doctor Smith was ever appointed, or ever served as, Surgeon of the 24th Regiment. The existence of the regiment ended, practically, with its defeat and rout at the battle of Wyoming, July 3, 1778. At the time of that battle and the subsequent mass- acre Doctor, or Captain Smith was not "away with the army", but was at Fort Wilkes-Barre in command of the slen- der garrison.
After the surrender of this fort to the enemy and their destruction of it, Captain Smith repaired to Forty Fort, where he remained until about July 18th, when he set out for Fort Penn. He seems to have been at Catawissa (on the Susquehanna, about forty miles south-west of Wilkes-Barre) at some time between July 22nd and July 30th. He was at Fort Penn on July 30, (as noted on page 1060), but a few days later returned to Wilke :- Barre in the detachment of militia commanded by Colonel Butler. (See page 1095.) From that time until the Summer of 1780 he was in the mil- itary service at the Wyoming Post, Wilkes-Barre, in command of a small company of Wyoming militiamen, except during a brief period in 1779, when he accompanied the Sullivan Expedition in the capacity of an Assistant Surgeon or Surgeon's Mate.
In the Summer of 1780, Doctor Smith was appointed a Surgeon's Mate in the Pennsylvania Line, and was stationed at Fort Wyoming, Wilkes-Barre. in the performance of his duty until the close of the war. With reference to his ser- vices at this period the following paragraphs have been extracted from an official document entitled "Revolutionary Claims", issued by the United States Government in 1838.
"December 22, 1837. The Committee on Revolutionary Claims [of the House of Representatives], to which was referred the petition of the heirs of William Hooker Smith, report. It appears from the te timony in this case that William Hooker Smith was appointed a Surgeon's Mate in the Pennsylvania Line, on the Continental Establishment,
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at an early period of the Revolutionary Contest, and continued in service to the end of the war. It further appears from the depositions of Thomas Williams, George P. Ransom, Rufus Bennet, Elisha Blackman and Gea. William Ross that, from July 3, 1778, until the close of the war, Doctor Smith acted as surgeon at the post of Wilkes-Barre, Wyoming Valley, and that he was the only officer of the medical staff attached to that post during that period. The garrison consisted of two companies of regulars, and the militia of the Valley.
"These facts sustain, in the opinion of the Committee, the claim of the petitioners to commutation on account of the services of the said Doctor Smith, and a Bill is accordingly reported."
"Act of Congress allowing commutation to representatives of William Hooker Smith passed during the Second Session of the XXVth Congress. Approved July 7, 1838."
The amount of money appropriated, and subsequently paid, to the heirs of Doctor Smith, under this Act of Con- gress, was $2,400.
Relative to the aforementioned grant by Congress the Wyoming Republican and Farmer's Herald (Wilkes-Barre) of June 6, 1838, printed the following: "By the proceedings of Congress we see that a Bill has passed the House of Representatives granting to the heirs of the late Wm. Hooker Smith compensation for his services at Wyoming in the Revolutionary War. Dr. Smith acted in the capacity of Surgeon and Captain. The grant is just. His services were of a highly meritorious character. We are glad to see claims for Wyoming Services and sufferings recognized at Washington."
Upon the organization of Luzerne County, early ia 1787, Doctor Smith was elected a Justice of the Peace in and for the First District of the new County, and was also commissioned one of the seven "Justices of the County Court of Common Pleas in and for said County". His commission, dated May 27, 1787, was signed by Benjamin Franklin, President of the State. Judge Smith took the oaths of allegiance and of office at Wilkes-Barre May 29, 1787, and ex- ercised the duties of his office until 1791, when the new Constitution of Pennsylvania, adopted in 1790, effected general and important charges in the Courts of the Commonwealth.
Dr. Horace Hollister, in his "History of the Lackawanna Valley, Peonsylvania" (the first edition of which was published in 1857), makes the following references to Doctor Smith. "One of those unusual characters, who give color and shape in a great measure to the community around them, was Dr. William Hooker Smith. Having a win- ning and superior tact, he was enabled to take hold of the affections of the inhabitants of Wyoming Valley, which he retained as the chief physician for a long period of years. He was a citizen of influence and property. * * * His remarkable acuteness of perception is exhibited nowhere so boldly as upon the Luzerne County records, where are recorded his purchases of the right 'to dig iron ore and the mineral called stone-coal, or any other mineral, as he the said Smith may think proper to dig or raise."
"These purchases, considered then so visionary by the inhabitants who knew nothing of the nature nor the ex- istence of coal, were made between the years 1791 and 1798. in the townships of Exeter, Plymouth, Pittston, Provi- dence and Wilkes-Barre. The first was made July 4, 1791, of John Scott of Pittston, who, for the sum of five shill- ings, Pennsylvania money, sold one-half of any mineral, or ore of iron, or other metal, which he the said Smith, or his heirs or assigas, may discover on the hilly land of the said John Scott by the red spring, or adjacent, with free liberty to dig and raise any ore ou said lands, to dig and carry off any ore or mineral, without interruption.
[Some of the other grantors to Dr. Smith, of rights and privileges similar to the foregoing, were: Isaac Benjamin, Plymouth, 1794; Martin Smith, Newport, 1792; Luther Jones, Wilkes-Barré, 1799.]
"While these purchases were the result of the superior foresight of Smith, stone-coal and iron-ore lands possessed so little value here that their owners were glad to exchange them for a mere nothing. Io 1850 these old claims passed jato the hands of George P. Steele [of Wilkes-Barre], and the same year to their present owner, J. Ross Snowden of Philadelphia.
"After the Sullivan Expedition Doctor Smith located on the Lackawanna River near the place subsequently designated as Old Forge [then in Pitt-town Township], where first in the valley [of Lackawanna] the trip-hammer sound reverberated along its banks. The forge stood immediately below the rapids, or falls, in the Lackawanna, and was erected (npon the site of the grist-mill spoken of before) by Doctor Smith and James Sutton in the Spring of 1789. Two fires and one trip-hammer furnished about 400 pounds of iron in twelve hours, from ore procured from the neigh- boring hills."
Relative to the mineral rights acquired by Dr. Smith, as mentioned above, the following paragraphs appeared in The Record of the Times, Wilkes-Barre, in the Summer of 1859. "J. R. Snowden vs. The North Pennsylvania Coal Co. In Special June Court, 1859. Colonel Snowden claims, under one of the old Dr. Wm. Hooker Smith reservations, some 200 acres of land purchased by and in the possession of the Company. This is a pioneer suit in the Smith claims, which, if successful, will cause considerable trouble among purchasers of coal lands, the Doctor having obtained reservations of all the minerals under a great portion of the Wyoming and Lackawanna Valleys."
At some time between 1788 and 1795 Dr. Smith removed from Jacob's Plains in Wilkes-Barre Township to Old Forge, previously mentioned. In 1796, he was still residing in Pittston Towaship. Subsequently he removed to the north-western corner of Luzerne County, in what is now Windham Township, Wyoming County. A few years later he removed thence to Tunkhannock Township, in what is now Wyoming County, where he continued to reside until his death.
Peck, ja his "Wyoming" (edition of 1872, page 206), says: "Dr. Smith, during his latter years, was known to be somewhat skeptically inclined. The idea of a warning from the spirit of his departed wife proves that at the time he had strong convictions of the existence of disembodied spirits. Whether the serious circumstances by which he was then surrounded for the time dissipated his doubts, or the sense of personal security which supervened in after years overcame the convictions of earlier life, we are not prepared to say." He was undoubtedly a believer in dreams, visions and omeos.
Prior to 1809 Dr. Smith wrote a treatise on alchemy. Under the date of September 1, 1809, he enclosed the MS of this treatise, together with other MSS, (all in his own handwriting), in an envelope, upon which he wrote the fol- lowing directions: "Let the papers which are wrapped up with this book be kept with this book until Isaac Smith Osterhout, son of Isaac Osterhout and my daughter Suzanaah Osterhout, comes of age. Then the papers and this book I wish to be delivered to him. I am very sick, and expect to dye in a few days, & I dye in the full belief of the art of Transmutation. [Signed] WM. HOOKER SMITH."
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