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 73
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As soon as possible after the Courts had been organized, Colonel Picker- ing arranged to have a County Seal designed, and a brass die of the same
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cut. The work was done by James Trenchard, of Philadelphia, who, July 9, 1787, was paid £3 for the job.
"Thus Luzerne", says Miner ("History of Wyoming", page 409), "being politically organized, Courts established, and the laws introduced under the auspices of Colonel Pickering, he, sustained by OUN the Confirming Law, proceeded with wisdom and promptitude to conciliate the goodwill of the people, OF LUZERNE to assuage passion, to overcome prejudice, to inspire confidence. If Franklin was busy, Pickering was no OF less active. Without, in the slighest degree, lessen- ing his dignity by unworthy condescension, he yet rendered himself familiar-talked with the farmers about corn and potatoes, and with their wives about the dairy; maintaining his own opinions with zeal, I786 THE SEAL yet listening to others with respect. 'He was no way a proud man', was the general expression of the Facsimile of a drawing of the original seal. ancient people; but they thought he farmed rather too much by books, and they smiled to see him cart into his barn damp clover, to cure by its power of generating heat in the mow.
"To show his entire confidence in the faith of the State, and the bene- ficial effects to be expected from the Confirming Law, Colonel Pickering im- mediately purchased several tracts of land of Connecticut claimants. * * How entirely he sought to conform to the simple habits of the people, is shown by the record in his own handwriting, that Timothy Pickering and some other citizens 'were elected fence-viewers and overseers of the poor.' "
About the middle of June, 1787, Colonel Pickering returned to Phila- delphia from Wilkes-Barré, in order to make arrangements to remove his family and household effects to his new home. At Philadelphia, on June 25, 1787, he wrote to President Benjamin Franklin, in part, as follows :*
"The Justices of the Peace for the County of Luzerne are destitute of the laws of the State. It seems that heretofore Justices of the Peace have been furnished with the laws at the expence of the State, and the Justices of Luzerne have expressed their hopes that they may be supplied in the same way, and requested me to make the application in their behalf. I beg leave to express my hopes, also, that they may be so furnished; otherwise I fear they will, for the most part, remain unprovided & the laws unexecuted .; At the same time it is proper that I should add, that there was manifested a general disposition to conform to the laws with great punctuality, and many were solicitonsly enquiring what were the laws in particular cases, that they might not transgress them."
As previously related, Daniel Hiester, Jr., was elected on May 22nd, by the Supreme Executive Council to succeed General Muhlenberg as a Commis- sioner under the Confirming Law. On June 1, 1787, the Hon. Stephen Balliet, was elected to succeed Joseph Montgomery, who, on account of the opposition against him manifested at Wyoming, declined to serve as a Commissioner. At Philadelphia, on June 29, 1787, Commissioners Pickering, Hiester and Balliet addressed to President Benjamin Franklin a communication reading, in part, as follows:
"As the examination of the Connecticut claims to lands in the County of Luzerne will be of several months' continuance, and we may not return hither until the business shall be ac- complished, we are desirous of receiving some part of our pay in advance; and if this shall be
*See "Pennsylvania Archives", Old Series, XI : 159.
+That copies of the desired laws were sent from Philadelphia following this request appears from a letter written by Vice President Biddle to Samuel Dale under date of Sept. 26, 1786. It reads in part .- "You will proceed as soon as possible to Wyoming and there distribute as many of the laws that are passed erecting the County (of Luzerne) as you may think necessary."
See "Pennsylvania Archives," Old Series XI: 159.
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thought proper by Council, we request such grants may be made to us and Mr. [Griffith] Evans (whom we have appointed our Clerk), as Council shall judge expedient.
"The law for confirming the lands of the Connecticut claimants required that it should be published in the newspapers of Connecticut. But there are divers claimants under Connecticut who live in the State of New York; and other claimants under Pennsylvania who live in New Jersey. We submit to the consideration of Council whether it is not expedient to cause the law to be published in one of the newspapers of each of those States. It may supersede applications which may hereafter be made for allowing further time to make their claims, under pretence that they were not informed of the law."
That Col. Pickering fully appreciated the necessity of a change of policy on the part of Pennsylvania, and that delay in the execution of duties of the Commission would lead to further suspicion and dissatisfaction on the part of the settlers, is evidenced by the following letter to his friend Hodgdon at Phila- delphia.
Wilkesburg, Aug. 9, 1787.
"I am glad Wm. Montgomery is appointed in Heister's* stead, as Mr. Hollenback says he is rightly disposed. * * * Tis of highest importance that examination of the claims should be begun and til then the laws will operate faintly. If Montgomery comes up, we shall not wait an hour on Balliet. People are growing more and more uneasy and their jealousies are increasing lest they should at last be deceived. Yesterday I received good information that Franklin, on his last returni from Connecticut, came down the Susquehanna and that about Unadilla (in York state) and at other places along the river, told the people to be under no apprehensions about their lands-that he had a commission from the Governor of Connecticut to erect a separate and independent State in those parts of the country.
This information I have from Esq., Gore, Pres. of the Ct. of Common Pleas. A number of Franklin's adherents are making a considerable settlement at Newtown (New York). They have met and chosen a Committee to govern them, with powers similar to those formerly given to a Committee of Directors here. It would seem, from all that I hear, that this is to be a place of retreat of Franklin's partisans when forced to quit Pennsylvania."f
*Daniel Hiester, seems to have had no other part in the affairs of Wyoming than such duties as transpired during the time of his first and only visit there and in the detail of such activities by subsequent report. In July, 1787, shortly after reaching Philadelphia from Wilkes-Barre he resigned and William Montgomery was appointed in his stead.
tSee the "Pickering Papers" LVII : 245.
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CHAPTER XXXI.
INFLUENCES OF THE FRANKLIN PARTY IN WYOMING AFFAIRS - WILD SPECULATION IN SHARES OF THE SUSQUEHANNA COMPANY -- HATCHING THE PLOT FOR FRANKLIN'S ARREST-THE STORY OF HIS VIOLENT AP- PREHENSION-RETALIATORY MEASURES AGAINST COLONEL PICK- ERING - PICKERING'S EXILE AND RETURN TO WYOMING - SUSPENSION OF THE CONFIRMING LAW -PENNSYLVANIA'S DUPLICITY-THE ADMINISTRATION UNDER PICKERING.
"Souls made of fire and children of the sun, With whom revenge is virtue."
Young.
"Dissentions, like small streams, are first begun, Scarce seen they rise, but gather as they run: So lines that from their parallel decline, More they proceed the more they still disjoin." Sir Sam'l Garth.
"He who hath most of heart knows most of sorrow." Bailey.
However sturdy was the character of Col. John Franklin, and however sincere were his motives in continuing opposition to the Confirming Law, as well as to the enforcement of other regulations intended by Pennsylvania to amicably settle the Wyoming troubles, it is certain that during the summer and early fall of 1787, he was engaging in various intrigues calculated to keep alive old animosities and to engender new. His friends and neighbors at Wyoming were, with some notable exceptions, inclined to attend to their own prospering affairs. But his restless energy, coupled with a sense of Pennsylvania's injustice, which continued with him to the very end of his life, urged him on. His frequent visits to Connecticut, and the power of his personality exercised over share- holders of the Susquehanna Company, no less than over those not early identi- fied with Wyoming affairs, whose land hunger impelled them to seek homes in .
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the wilderness, caused deep anxiety in the minds of those entrusted with public affairs of that State.
Connecticut had at no time, in the earlier disputes between herself and Pennsylvania over the Wyoming lands, openly avowed the acts of the Susquehanna Company. The Decree of Trenton, after its promulgation, estopped any lawful connection with these claims. Rather than disavow subsequent actions of that Company, which it had chartered, the State maintained an aloofness from the whole matter, fearing intermeddling with even unwarranted measures, might seem to further becloud the undetermined title of its settlers to the soil. The hopes of the Franklin party, which had centered for a time in having Congress set aside the Decree, and thus open the whole subject to a rehearing, proved, as has been seen, without avail.
In refusing to acknowledge the duly constituted authority of Pennsylvania, Colonel Franklin and his adherents were driven to an unique alternative of bas- ing their activities on duly authorized resolutions of the Company itself. At its meeting in December, 1786, which proved to be the last aggressive action of its long career, the Susquehanna Company, as before mentioned, gave full authority to a committee to sell shares, confer titles and in fact, to act within certain limita- tions, as the Committee's judgment dictated for the interests of the corporation. Colonel Franklin and his friends quite naturally controlled the destinies of this committee.
In pursuance of these broad powers, the Franklin party sent surveyors out in every direction, and sold and transferred rights in the Company. Indeed, whole share rights and half share rights became a medium of lively speculation, not alone in Connecticut and Pennsylvania, but in New York and New Jersey. Titles almost forgotten through the years of turmoil and uncertainty, were produced from their places of repose and either entered and surveyed by their owners or sold to speculators. A constant stream of population was entering Luzerne county and spreading itself over the Susquehanna basin, especially to the north.
To these newcomers, as well as to a coterie of the older inhabitants of the territory, Colonel Franklin was the guiding genius. He was pointed out where- ever he went, as the "Hero of Wyoming."
It is not to be imagined that these activities, hostile in their nature to its jurisdiction and laws, were unnoted or disregarded by Pennsylvania. Colonel Franklin's movements during the summer of 1787, were closely reported by Colonel Pickering, not alone to the Supreme Executive Council at Philadelphia, but to his friends in private correspondence.
On August 26, 1787, he wrote from Wilkes-Barré, to his partner, Hodgdon, in part as follows:
"Franklin, however, with some other members of the Susquehanna Company and a few other desperate men at Hudson (New York) and its vicinity may, like the madmen of Mass- achusetts, attempt measures that may disturb the peace of both Pennsylvania and New York. Report says that Livingston and another from the York government were in a conspiracy* and actually came to Tioga on their way to Niagara, but that the information received there induced them to return. I think it will be expedient to organize the militia of this County and make Col.
*The "conspiracy" mentioned in the preceding letter relates to the hair-hrained design of Livingston and kindred malcontents of New York and adjacent states, to seek the aid of Great Britain in erecting a new state from parts of Massachusetts and of New York and Pennsylvania, adjacent to Canada. It has never heen shown that Colonel Franklin had anything to do with this desperate and disloyal plan, although Colonel Pickering intimates that such may have been the case. The Livingston project must not he confounded with the proposed "State of Westmore- land" mentioned elsewhere, although it appears to have been thus confused in the minds of certain Pennsylvanians. The fact that Livingston and his followers turned back from Tioga, where many of Colonel Franklin's followers had surveyed claims and were residing at that time, is indicative of the fact that the advice of radical Connecticut claim- ants, if not of Colonel Franklin himself, wholly disproved and discouraged any disloyal measures.
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Zebulon Butler, County Lieutenant. He is an old officer of experience and bravery in the field and will in that line be respected, notwithstanding a failure which you have heard me mention, I think also that we cannot too soon be furnished with a few chests of arms and ammunition to be lodged in this place."
As if to amend for its lack of activity in earlier months, the Pennsylvania Commission appointed to put into effect the terms of the Confirming Law, again reached Wilkes-Barré, about the middle of August, 1787. The arrival of the Commission seemed a signal for other active measures, intended by the Common- wealth to counteract the constant activities of the Franklin party. Lest Colonel Pickering might feel that what appeared to be an impending crisis in Wyoming affairs was viewed with indifference at Philadelphia, Dr. Rush wrote him the following encouraging letter:
"Philada. Aug. 30, 1787.
"Dear Sir : "I have only time to assure you that you will meet with the steady support of your friends in executing the late law of the State of which you are appointed a Commissioner.
"Perhaps a short visit to Phila. during the approaching session of the Assembly might be useful. Keep a good heart and put a bold face upon things. All will end well.
"The new Federal Government, like a new Continental wagon, will overset our State dung- cart, with all its dirty contents (reverend and irreverend), and thereby restore order and happiness to Penna." * *
* "Benjamin Rush.
"To Colonel Pickering, Wilkesbarre .* "
All of the recommendations made in the Pickering letter seem to have been promptly carried into effect. Four days later, August 30, 1787, a Com- mission was issued at Philadelphia, by Thomas Mifflin, acting for Benjamin Franklin, (then sitting in the Constitutional Convention) as President of the Council, directed to Col. Zebulon Butler, at Wilkes-Barré, naming him Lieutenant of the County of Luzerne, thus placing him in command of the militia of the County.
Colonel Pickering seems to have taken a diplomatic advantage of the arrival of Colonel Butler's Commission at Wilkes-Barré. He wrote of the inci- dent in his characteristic way to President Franklin, of the Council, as follows:
"Wilkesborough, Sep. 5, 1787.
"I was honored with a letter from Council enclosing a commission for Col. Butler, whom they have been pleased to appoint Lieutenant of the County. It arrived opportunely. The Col. accepted the commission which, by permission, I read in the County Court in the hearing of the grand and traverse juries and spectators. In open court I also administered to him the oath of allegiance and of office and read the Council's letter, repeating with emphasis, that part in which the aid of Government is promised in support of the peaceahle inhabitants of the County."
Another recommendation, contained in the letter of Colonel Pickering, as to organization of the militia of the County, seems likewise to have followed promptly. From an original document among the papers of Zebulon Butler, now preserved in the files of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, at Wilkes-Barré, and in the handwriting of Colonel Butler himself, is "A List of the Company Officers elected in the Lower Battalion commanded by Lt. Col. Matthias Hollenback, in the County of Luzerne. Returns made to me by the Inspectors and sworn according to law, Wilkesbarre, 12th November, 1787."t
"Upper District of Wilkesharre, 4th Company. Daniel Gore, Captain; George Cooper, Lieutenant; Cornelius Courtright, Ensign.
Lower District of Wilkes-Barre, 3rd. Company. Wm. Ross, Captain; David Richards, Lieutenant; Wm. Hyde, Ensign.
Upper District of Hanover, 2nd Company. Wm. Hibbard, Captain; Edward Inman, Lieutenant; James Stewart, Ensign.
*From "Life of Pickering," 11 : 301.
+On the day preceding the above return of Colonel Butler, as to the Militia of the County, the Council, over the signature of Benjamin Franklin, its President, transmitted a "letter of Instructions to the officer Commanding the Mil- itia in the County of Luzerne," the original of which is in possession of the editor and a photographed copy of which is reproduced on the opposite page.
JAG change in our Viate Government, has fo intimately connected the reputation and facefs of the Executive Authority, with a diligens and able difcharge of the duties impofed upon the various officers, who are employed in the administration of the public affairs, that, independent of the respect that I owe to the station, in which the confidence of my fellow citizens has placed me, I feel a strong personal interest, in the establishment of order, energy, and economy, in every fulordinate department.
I am perfuaded, Sir, that the office, to which you are appointed, will be conducted with an honourable view to those effential points ; and therefore, it may be Superfluous to add, that, while, on the one hand, I shall be hap- py to encourage, as far as my jurisdiction extends, the seal and fidelity of every public officer; no inducement will ever prevail upor me, on the other hand, to overlook the least appearance of delinquency for the per- nicious effects of negligence, in the execution of a public trust.
-
In order to enfure a proper degree of confidence, and to advance the means of useful information, I invite you, Sir, to a candid corre pon- aonce, at all times, upon the business of your appointment: buty I parti- cularly request, that, at least, once, in the course of every three months, you will tranfmit to me a statement of your official transactions, as far as . it is neceffary that they should be communicated ; with fuch remarks on the defects in the laws, or ufages, by which your precedings are regulated, and fuck hints for improvements, as your experience shall enables you to fuggest.
1
an Sir, Lebelin Buther berg?
Your most obedient forvant, Luitenant ofthe Courty.
ofLuzerne. The Onlythen
PHOTOGRAPHED COPY OF LETTER OF INSTRUCTION TO COL. ZEBULON BUTLER
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Lower District of Hanover, Ist Company. Mason Fitch Alden, Captain; Shubel Bidlack, Lieutenant; Silas Smith, Ensign.
Upper District of Kingston, 7th Company. Benj. Smith, Captain; Philip Meyers, Lieu- tenant; Andrew Bennet, Ensign. Lower District of Kingston, 8th Company. Robt. McDowl, Captain; Thos. Drake, Lieu- tenant; Elisha Atherton, Ensign.
Plymouth District, 6th Company. Geo. Palmer Ransom, Captain; Abraham Nesbitt, Lieutenant; Prince Alden, Jr. Ensign.
Salem District, 5th Company. Giles Parman, Captain; Robert Dunn, Lieutenant; Zebulon Lee, Ensign."
A troop of horse was recruited earlier in the year than the date of Colonel Butler's report, and doubtless was not enumerated by him at the time because it was more or less a free lance organization, not a part of the foot Battalion. In a letter sent by John Paul Schott from Wilkes-Barré, to Vice President Muhlen- burg, of the Council, under date of May 29, 1787, the following mention of the undertaking is made:
"I have undertaken to raise a Troop of Light Dragoons and have got 42 of the very best young gentlemen of the County and true supporters of the law. I have 37 of them together last Monday, the 26th inst. and proper inspectors appointed to elect their officers. The whole troop is to equip themselves. * * I hope the Honorable Council will send us commissions as your honors will find this troop very serviceable in this County."
In a subsequent letter to the Council, dated at Wilkes-Barré, October 20, 1787, Captain Schott, who was previously commissioned with the others mentioned, makes "A true return of officers and privates belonging to Troop of Light Dragoons for the County of Luzerne, who did not attend in the Troop at the formal muster yesterday."
The delinquents seem to have been Rosewell Welles, 2d. Lieut, and Privates Wm. Smith, Nathaniel Walker, Benjamin Duane, John Marcy, John Hawkins, John Inman and Lemanuel Gaylord.
The final recommendation of Colonel Pickering as to munitions for the re- cruited militia seems also to have been acted upon. On October 5, 1787, the minutes of Council record that "50 stands of arms, 100 wt. powder and 300 wt. lead be forwarded to Colonel Butler at Wyoming, to be put into the hands of such persons as he and the Commissioners may be of the opinion are best affected to the State."
On August 31st, Samuel Hodgdon, who seems to have been a trusted inter- mediary between the Philadelphia Council and Colonel Pickering, wrote the fol- lowing to the latter:
"I am happy to hear the Commissioners are present and proceeding on the business assigned them. The greatest firmness is become necessary to stop the complaint that has and will prevail from delay. Some of the gentlemen have much to answer for on this score. If they think so they will now exert themselves. Col. Zebulon Butler is this day appointed County Lieu- tenant and the militia is to be immediately arranged. The spirit of the people is up and govern- ment at all hazards will now be supported. * * * Livingston's scheme is well understood here. He is not alone in it-many considerable characters in York State and in his British Majesty's Province of Canada are in the secret and joined in the business, but here it is thought harmless from the coloring given. You can best judge of their designs by the movements they make. That country, in all events, will be settled, and the present commotions may facilitate what all wish."
How or when the plan to prefer charges of high treason against Colonel Franklin originated, is not clearly shown by any records at the command of the writer, but events were shaping themselves inexorably against him. Colonel Franklin was indicted at the September, 1787, term of the Court of Common Pleas of Luzerne County, on two counts, but no suggestion of the major offense was contained in this proceeding.
Two sentences contained in the letter of Colonel Pickering, written in 1818, to his son, descriptive of his career at Wyoming, which letter has been
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previously mentioned, states positively that the commissioner himself never knew who originally preferred these charges. See "Life of Pickering," II, p. 302. The passages referred to are:
"John Franklin, a shrewd and resolute man, the prime agent of the Susquehanna Com- pany, and the chosen commander of the militia, had been for some time visiting all the settle- ments, to stir up the people to an open and forcible opposition to the government of Pennsylvania. * *
* Evidences of these practices having been communicated (I know not by whom) to Chief Justice Mckean, he issued a warrant for the arrest of Franklin, on the charge of Treason against the State."
Indeed, the fact that Colonel Pickering was not in sympathy with the purposes of the grand jury, and therefore was not the real instigator of the charges, is evidenced by the following letter to his friend Hodgdon:
"Wilkesburg, Sept. 6, 1787.
"We have had a peaceable court. Col. Franklin is still at Tioga. The grand jury found two bills against him for breaches of the peace and for the felonious stealing and carrying away another man's grain and hay. But I suspect in the latter's case the point of law has been mis- taken and that it had been better not to have meddled with it."
But more influential forces than those centered at. Wilkes-Barré, seemed resolved that Col. John Franklin should bow to the will of Pennsylvania.
That others were at Tioga, with Colonel Franklin, about this time and that the Council was informed of the fact, is evidenced by the following communi- cation, addressed by President Franklin, to Governor Clinton, of New York, on September 22, 1787 :*
"There are a number of disorderly people collecting near the line that divides our two states, who are impatient of the regular Government and seize upon and presume to dispose of lands contrary to and in defiance of laws. Their numbers are daily increasing by vagabonds from Shays' late partisans and propose defending their proceedings by force of arms. Your Ex- cellency will be sensible with us of the Mischief such a body of banditti may be capable of occasioning both our states. The vicinity of the boundary line affording them a present and imaginary security, since, if pursued by the authority of one state, they can easily step over into the other."
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