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 70
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On March 2, 1787, Col. Nathan Denison, Councilor-elect from Luzerne County, attended a meeting of the Supreme Executive Council at Philadelphia, took the oaths of allegiance and office, and was seated as a member of the Council. Three days later he transmitted to the General Assembly the petition from the residents of Luzerne County, previously mentioned, accompanying it with a letter from himself which had been written by Colonel Pickering, and read in part, as follows:§
"I have the honour to enclose a petition from sundry inhabitants of the County of Luzerne, praying for a confirmation of their titles to certain lands in that County, which, through the medium of The Susquehanna Company, were derived from the Colony and State of Connecticut. As that petition has not been generally signed, I think it a duty which I owe to my constituents,
*See pages 1334 and 1335.
+It seems that when Colonel Pickering departed for Philadelphia from Wilkes-Barre, he left in the hands of some of his trusty adherents here, copies of the petition to the Assembly, which were to be signed by as many of the inhabi- tants of Wyoming, as could be reached, and prevailed upon to sign, within a short time; after which the documents were to be forwarded to Philadelphia, At "Jacob's Plains, Wyoming, February 21, 1787," Dr. Wm. Hooker Smith wrote to Colonel Pickering, informing him that Colonel Franklin had returned from Connecticut to Wyoming; that "numbers of the inhabitants" had signed the petitions to the Assembly, when, through the influence of Franklin and others, "the petitions were publicly burned," and Franklin declared that he "had rather see human blood run as deep over the land as the waters did last Fall in the great flood, than to have seen so many signers to that petition!" (See the "Pickering Papers," LV11 : 138.)
#See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," XV : 167.
§See the "Pickering Papers," LV11 : 146.
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and a matter of information proper to be laid before the General Assembly, to mention the other classes of people in the County who claim under titles in like manner derived from Connecticut. * *
* If it shall please the Assembly to appoint a committee to attend to this business, which, in behalf of my constituents, I pray maybe done, I shall be happy to attend and communicate, &c."
The petition was immediately referred to a committee, which, on March 10th, submitted to the House, the following report :*
"The Committee report, That, conceiving it of importance to the subject, they first state to the House that, during the former session, and in conference between the committee of the House and the agents-John Franklin and John Jenkins-of the Connecticut claimants, the agents were explicitly told that every case would be considered specially; and that no claims, unless urged in behalf of individuals and for particular occupancies, would be received.
"The agents, admitting the propriety of this restrictive mode, doubted not of a conformity to it on the part of their constituents, when next they should make application to the House. But the present petition, on the contrary, advances claims collectively, and is made for entire and extensive districts. From this circumstance the House might well waive any present deliber- ations on the subject of the claims; but, in consideration of the peace of the County of Luzerne, as well as to testify our satisfaction at the submission at length paid to the laws by the petitioners, the committee recommends to the House, notwithstanding, to proceed to establish the principles on which they will quiet the possessions and occupancies of the petitioners, and others of that County in a like predicament; and, also, those on which they will make compensation to such proprietors under titles from this State, as may in consequence be deprived of their lands.
"The committee, in connexion with the subject, refer the House to a printed paper accom- panying this report-dated at Hartford, Connecticut, December 26, 1786, and signed 'Joel Barlow' -as worthy of their animadversion. This paper, purporting to be resolutions of The Susquehanna Company, reviews their pretended title to a large territory within this State-including in it the land of the Connecticut settlers-directs a mode of distribution, and intimates a design of erecting it into a Government, independent of the authority of this State!t
"The committee recommend to the House: That such of the people called Connecticut claimants, their heirs and assigns, as were the actual possessors or occupants of lands within the County of Luzerne at and before the date of the Decree at Trenton, be quieted and confirmed in their several possessions and occupancies. That compensation in lands, equivalent in value, to be made therefor to proprietors under the rights of this State. That commissioners be appointed to carry these resolutions into execution."
This report was laid on the table until March 17th, when it was taken up, read a second time, and then adopted. Colonel Pickering, in a letter to his son, referring to the action of the Assembly at this time, wrote:#
"The committee were directed to bring in a. Bill accordingly. The committee put their report into my hands, and requested me to draw the Bill. I made a draught, which was necessarily long, to provide for the various matters incident to the quieting and confirming of the Connecti- cut claims. The principal difficulty arose out of the claims of a considerable number of persons [Pennamites] who had received grants of the best parts of the same tracts of which the Connecticut settlers were possessed-grants made prior to the Revolution, under the authority of the Penn Proprietaries, to whom, as heirs of William Penn, the original patentee of the whole Province, belonged all the vacant land in the State. If the lands purchased of the Proprietaries were to be taken from the purchasers, to quiet the Connecticut settlers, justice required that those pur- chasers should receive an equivalent.
"If, at that time, the State of Pennsylvania had been possessed of adequate funds, those purchasers might have been indemnified out of the public treasury; but the State had no money, and the State certificates, like those of the United States, were then worth only four or five shillings in the pound. It was in the power of the State, however, to give a complete indemnity without increasing its financial burthens. There were some millions of acres of new, unappropriated lands, of which the Indian title had three years before been extinguished. These were at the disposal of the State. I therefore introduced into the Bill a section to provide for an equitable appraisment of the tracts claimed by the Pennsylvanians in the Wyoming territory, and, in lieu thereof, auth- orizing them to locate, where they pleased, in the great body of vacant lands, such quantities as would be equivalent to those lost at Wyoming-not acre for acre, but value for value."
At Philadelphia, on March 20, 1787, Colonel Pickering wrote to Capt. Aaron Cleveland§, in part, as follows:
"Having been appointed to some public offices in the County of Luzerne in this State (which County comprehends the Wyoming lands), I was authorized by the General Assembly, in conjunction with Colonel Butler and Mr. Franklin, to hold an election there. Franklin was
*See the "Pickering Papers," LVII : 147.
+See page 1540.
¿See Upham's "Life of Timothy Pickering," II : 265.
§He was a native of Connecticut, and, as early at least as 1774, was a proprietor in The Susquehanna Company. At Wilkes-Barre, on March 20, 1786, "Obadiah Gore of Wilkesharre" conveyed to Aaron Cleveland of "said Wilkes- barre" for £15, his house-lot, so called, consisting of 3}2 acres"-being Lot No. 5 in the town-plot, and "adjoining the house-lot lately belonging to Col. John Durkee, deceased, on the north-east side thereof." Lot No. 5 in the town- plot fronted on the present River St., half-way between Market and Northampton Streets. See page 655 , Vol. II.
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absent, but Colonel Butler joined me, and with much labor and difficulty we persuaded the people to elect a Councillor, Representative, &c. The Councillor, Colonel Denison, has taken his seat in Council, but Mr. Franklin has stayed at home, dissatisfied (as I am well informed) at their having been an election; and he may probably continue his opposition to the measures pursuing by Gov- ernment for giving peace to that unhappy country.
"However, I am disposed to believe that peace is not far distant, for I think those meas- ures will give general satisfaction. I shall, in consequence, move up to that country with my family. When there last Winter I was informed that you owned a town-lot in Wilkesbarre, and that you would probably be willing to sell it. If so, and you will inform me of the terms-or authorize any friend of yours here to sell it-and we agree as to the price, I will purchase it. "You may perhaps recollect me. I think I saw you at Salem, Massachusetts, where I then lived. I believe it was at your relation's, Mrs. Higginson. On the ground of that connection I will ask your friendship to assist me in bargaining for one-half the right in Wilkesbarre which belonged to Colonel Durkee, and which was sold by his son John to Captain Spalding and (as I am informed) Mr. Jedidiah Hyde of Norwich. When at Wyoming, I bought Spalding's half (viz., half the meadow-lot, half a five-acre lot, and half the back-lot) for £65, Pennsylvania cur- rency (or 173} dollars). * *
* I now beg the favor of you to see Mr. Hyde, and in my * * behalf, to treat with bim for his interest aforementioned." *
The Bill drawn up by Colonel Pickering, as hereinbefore related, was approved by the committee of the Assembly, and without delay, was reported to the House. After some debate the House agreed, by a small majority, on March 27, 1787, that, with some slight alterations, the Bill should be enacted into a law. Among the thirty-six Representatives who voted in favor of the Bill were the following-named: Robert Morris, Thomas Fitzsimons, George Clymer, and Jacob Hiltzheimer of the City of Philadelphia; Isaac Gray and George Logan of Philadelphia County; Adam Hubley and George Ross of Lancaster County; Daniel Clymer of Berks County; Peter Trexler, Jr., of Northampton County. Among the twenty-three Representatives who voted against the Bill were the following-named: Robert Whitehill of Cumberland County; Robert Brown and Peter Burkhalter of Northampton County; Frederick Antes and Samuel Dale of Northumberland County; William Findley of Westmoreland County. The majority of the negative votes came from Representatives living in the then western Counties of the State.
On the same day that the vote on the Bill was taken, Colonel Pickering, at Philadelphia, wrote to his brother John, in Massachusetts, in part, as follows:
"I have so far accomplished a business of great moment as to bring the Wyoming people to consent to receive the laws of Pennsylvania, provided their old possessions could be confirmed to them; and this day the General Assembly have agreed to a law for quieting them, on the prin- ciples I held out to the people. So peace and good government will be introduced into a settle- ment with which Pennsylvania has been contending these seventeen or eighteen years. The result of the measure will oblige me to go to Wyoming (now called the County of Luzerne) in
a few days. *
*
* I thus consider myself as fixed for the remainder of my life in this State,
* and here I should wish to concentrate my interest. * * I have bargained for several par- cels of land at Wyoming-containing in the whole about 700 acres-for which I shall have to pay about 500 dollars in the course of five months, and nearly 500 more in a year." * * *
On March 28, 1787, the aforementioned Bill, having been duly engrossed, was signed by Thomas Mifflin, Speaker of the Assembly, and thus became a law of the Commonwealth. It was entitled: "An Act for ascertaining and con- firming to certain Persons, called Connecticut claimants, the Lands, by them claimed within the County of Luzerne, and for other purposes therein men- tioned." In Pennsylvania history it has been, and is known, as "The Con- firming Law of 1787."
The preamble (Section 1) of the Act, after referring to the "unhappy dispute," which for years had subsisted between Pennsylvania and Connecticut -"which dispute was finally terminated by the decree of the Court of Commis- sioners at Trenton"-reads, as follows:
"Whereas, Before the termination of the said claim of Connecticut, a number of its inhabit- ants, with their associates, settled upon and improved divers tracts of land lying on or near to
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the North-east Branch of the River Susquehanna, and the waters thereof, and now within the County of Luzerne;
"And Whereas, parts of the same lands have been claimed under titles derived from the late Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, and these interfering claims have occasioned much contention, expense and bloodshed; and this Assembly being desirous of putting an end to those evils by confirming such of the Connecticut claims as were acquired by actual settlers prior to the termin- ation of the said dispute, agreeably to the petition of a number of the said settlers, and by grant- ing a just compensation to the Pennsylvania claimants;
"And Whereas, the lands aforesaid, claimed by the Connecticut settlers, have usually been assigned to them in rights, or lots, of about 300 acres each-which rights, or lots, have either been entire or in two or more divisions;
"Therefore, Be it Enacted, * * * That all the said rights, or lots, now lying within the County of Luzerne, which were occupied or acquired by Connecticut claimants who were actually settlers there at or before the termination of the claim of the State of Connecticut by the decree aforesaid, and which rights, or lots, were particularly assigned to the said settlers prior to the said decree (agreeably to the regulations then in force among them), be and they are hereby, confirmed to them and their heirs and assigns.
"Provided, That all the claimants, whose lots are hereby confirmed, shall, * within eight months next after the passing of this Act, prefer to the Commissioners hereinafter mentioned their respective claims to the lots aforesaid; therein stating the grounds of their claims, and suffi- ciently describing the lots claimed (so that the same may be known and ascertained), and sup- port the same by reasonable proofs.
"Section 3. *
*
* Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that Peter Muh- lenberg, Timothy Pickering and Joseph Montgomery,* Esquires, be and are hereby appointed Commissioners for the purposes hereinafter expressed and declared; and in case of death, absence, or refusal to serve, of any or all of the said Commissioners, the Supreme Executive Council are hereby authorized and required to supply the vacancy or vacancies occasioned thereby. * * * "Section 4. * * * The said Commissioners shall repair to the County of Luzerne within two months next after the passing of this Act, and at such place within the same County, and at such time as the said Commissioners shall appoint, to meet together for the purpose of receiving and examining the claims of all persons to the lots intended by this Act to be confirmed; * * *
and that all persons interested in the said lots may be duly notified to make and support their claims thereto, within the time prescribed by this Act, the said Commissioners shall cause it to be published in one or more of the newspapers printed in Pennsylvania and Connecticut, with an advertisement subjoined expressing the time and place proposed for their first meeting; and copies of this Act, and of the said advertisement, shall also be posted up at sundry places within the said County, for the information of the inhabitants." * * *
Then follow, in Sections 5, 6, 7 and 8 of the Act, certain conditions on which the lands were to be "certified" to the owners. The Commissioners were authorized to appoint surveyors to survey the lots of the Connecticut claimants; and a clerk, to record the proceedings of the Commissioners. The Commis- sioners were to receive for their services, twenty shillings each, per day; the clerk was to receive fifteen shillings per day; and the Commissioners were to fix for the surveyors, chain-carriers and markers, a "reasonable compensation," which was to be paid by the claimants whose claims to the lands in question, should be admitted. Pennsylvania claimants were provided for as follows:
"Section 9 .- And Whereas, the late Proprietaries and divers other persons have heretofore acquired titles to parcels of the lands aforesaid, agreeably to the laws and usages of Pennsylvania, and who will be deprived thereof by the operation of this Act; and as justice requires that compen- sation be made for the lands of which they shall thus be divested; and as the State is possessed of other lands in which an equivalent may be rendered to the claimants under Pennsylvania; and as it will be necessary that their claims should be ascertained by a proper examination;
"Be it therefore Enacted, That all persons having such claims to lands which will be affected
by the operation of this Act, shall be, and they are hereby, required, *
*
* within twelve months from the passing of this Act, to present the same to the Board of Property, therein clearly describing those lands, and stating the grounds of their claims, and also adducing the proper proofs. * * * And for every claim which shall be admitted by said Board, as duly supported, the equivalent by them allowed may be taken either in the old or new Purchase, at the option of the claimant; and warrants and patents, and all other acts of the public offices relating thereto, shall be performed free of expense." * * *
In compliance with the mandate contained in Section 4, of the foregoing Act, the Act itself, with a "subjoined advertisement," was printed in the Penn- sylvania Packet (Philadelphia) of April 12, 1787, and in certain newspapers in Connecticut. As Commissioner Montgomery was not in Philadelphia at that time (he was living in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania), the advertisement was signed *See "Pennsylvania Archives," X : 751.
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by, and appeared over the names of, the other two Commissioners only. The following is a facsimile of it.
Philadelphia, April 2d, 1787. IN purfuance of the foregoing A&
of the General Affembly of Pennfylvania, we hereby give Public Notice. That the Commiffioners thereby appointed, will meet at the houfe of Col. Zebulon Butler, in Wilkef- borough (otherwife called Wilkefbarre) in the county of Luzerne, on Monday the twenty eighth day of May next, to receive and examine the Connecticut Claims to Lands in that county, and to perform the other duties required of them by the faid act.
PETER MUHLENBERG, TIMOTHY PICKERING,
Commillioners.
Copies of this were, in due time, distributed freely throughout the Wyoming settlements.
At Philadelphia, on the same date as that of the Commissioners' adver- tisement, Colonel Pickering wrote to Colonel Butler, at Wilkes-Barré, in part, as follows :*
"I think it a little extraordinary that some people at Wyoming should not have patience enough to wait for the result of the late session of the Assembly before they proceeded to execute the unwarrantable resolves of The Susquehanna Company. Such precipitation serves to confirm the opinion that certain characters (notwithstanding all pretences to the contrary) do not desire peace with this State on any reasonable terms. "Tis, nevertheless, a satisfaction to the real lovers of peace, to reflect that a great majority of the settlement are disposed to accept of such terms as Pennsylvania has granted. They are terms which give entire satisfaction to the Connecticut gentlemen in town with whom I have conversed, and go to the full extent of what the Connecticut Delegates in Congress expected or desired, or, rather, I believe, beyond their expectations! All the lands prayed for in the petition are confirmed-and freely, without price! * * *
"I trust the prudent part of the settlement will have spirit enough to maintain their own rights, and pay no regard to the extravagant claims, or wild, impracticable schemes, of men who have not the true interest of the settlement at heart."
At Philadelphia, on April 11, 1787, President Benjamin Franklin, of the Supreme Executive Council, forwarded to Lord Butler, at Wilkes-Barré, his commission as "High Sheriff of Luzerne County", together with printed copies of the Confirming Law, and a personal letter (now printed for the first time) reading, in part, as follows:t * * * "The spirit of condescension and goodwill of the Legislature towards those settlers, manifested by this Act, in attending so readily to their petitions, and in giving them so. fair an opportunity of establishing their claims and quieting their possessions for themselves and their posterity, will, we are persuaded, have its proper effect on the prudent and reasonable majority, who can set a just value on the blessings of peace and good government; and we hope, therefore, that the endeavours of a few restless individuals-if such should remain-who may expect to find their own private and separate advantage in public troubles, will not have any effect in disturbing this commencement of harmony, which, in its completion, will secure to the inhabi- tants not only the lands that have been in question, but the additional advantage of our excellent Constitution, and the protection of one of the principal States in the Union! You may assure the people that the good disposition of the Council towards them is not inferior to that which has been manifested by the General Assembly."
Colonel Pickering returned to Wilkes-Barré from Philadelphia about April 10, 1787, and upon his arrival here found that Colonel Franklin and his adherents were actively engaged in arousing among the inhabitants a sentiment of hostility to the Confirming Law. According to Miner ("History of Wyoming," page 409),"Franklin, with characteristic industry, visited from town to town, from
*See the "Pickering Papers," LV1I : 153.
+See the "Pickering Papers," LVII : 158.
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settlement to settlement, and from house to house, kindling by his burning zeal, the passions of his adherents, to resist the laws, not by open violence, but by avoiding to commit themselves by taking the oath of allegiance, or participating in any measure, that should seem to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the State, unless some law more comprehensive, liberal and specific should first be enacted to quiet the settlers in their lands."
That Franklin, at this time, was not only refusing to recognize the change in jurisdiction from Connecticut to Pennsylvania, but also the fact that the County of Luzerne had been erected, is shown by original documents of that period, now in existence. For example: the present writer has in his possession a deed, in the handwriting of Colonel Franklin, executed at "Wilkesbarre" April 10, 1787, whereby, "Frederick Eveland of Plymouth, in the Susquehanna Purchase", conveyed to Benjamin Harvey of Plymouth, certain lands on "Shaw- anese Flat." The acknowledgment of Eveland, the grantor, appears in the following form:
"Wyoming, ss .: Wilkesbarre, April 10th, 1787, personally appeared Frederick Eveland, signer and sealer of the above written instrument, and acknowledged the same to be his own act and deed, before me.
[Signed] "JOHN FRANKLIN, Director."
As noted, it had been decided, before Colonel Pickering left Wilkes-Barré, early in February, that the election for Justices of the Peace should be held in the three districts of the County, on April 19, 1787. Upon his return to Wilkes- Barré, however, Colonel Pickering decided that, in consequence of the very unsatisfactory conditions then prevailing throughout the greater part of the County (but particularly in the central portion), the date for holding the election in the First District (which comprehended Wilkes-Barré) should be changed to April 26th, and the date for the Second District (which comprehended Kingston and Plymouth Townships) should be changed to May 3rd. Accordingly, on April 13th, Colonel Pickering gave official notice to the freeholders of the First District to meet on Thursday, April 26th, "at 12 o'clock, at the house of Col. Zebulon Butler in Wilkesbarre, in said County, to elect four Justices of the Peace for the said District." At the same time, notice was issued to the freeholders of the Second District to meet at Forty Fort, on May 3rd, to elect four Justices of the Peace. Notice had already been issued with respect to the Third District, fixing April 19th as election-day.
About this time, Colonel Pickering learned of two matters which vexed and disquieted him considerably: (1) A remonstrance against Joseph Mont- gomery's serving as a Commissioner under the Confirming Law, had been for- warded to the Supreme Executive Council, signed by a number of Wyoming inhabitants, and setting forth that when Montgomery was in Wyoming in April, 1783, as "Chairman of the Board of Commissioners, appointed by the Assembly, he was partial and prejudiced." (2) Copies of a printed address intended for certain of the inhabitants of Wyoming, were brought into the settlements and secretly distributed among the known adherents of Colonel Franklin. One of these copies fell into the hands of Colonel Pickering, and is now preserved (prob- ably the only one in existence) among the "Pickering Papers" (LVII : 167). It is a broadside, about 12x20 inches in size, and was printed at Hudson, New York, by Ashbel Stoddard. It bears no date, but is endorsed on the back, in the handwriting of Colonel Pickering: "Major Judd's* address to the inhabitants
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