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 79
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GIVEN in Council, under the Hand of the Honorable PETER MUHLENBERG, Efquire, Vice-Prefident, and the Seal of the State, at Philadelphia, this eighth day of July, in the year of our Lord one thoufand feven hundred and eighty-tight
PETER MUHLENBERG.
ATTEST CHARLES BIDDLE, SECRETARY.
Pennficanica, ff. Bon Dem Bice prafidenten und dem Soben Diath der Republif pennfylvanien,
oclamation.
achcem es aus Denen gefesmapig aufgenommenen Huffagen ethellet, Das berichtes Dene ibelgefinte Perfonen fim mit cinnader vereiniget, Die Quetubrung der Sefene in der Cauns to Sugerne au verhindern, und fich auf cine gewaltfaine Art Der Perfon oes Eimothy Cute ring, Cfa. ance Beamten der Regierung, bemachtiget, und mit fie fortgeführt , welchen tie ned Jeer als einen Gefangenen ben fib haben, und cars für Die Burga difer Republit von Der steğe ten Wichtigrejt uf, Das folche fohandlich? lebelthater Bur arrdienten Strafe gebracht werden Afo haben mit für nothing und billig erachtet, anzubieten, und bieten hierint an, eine öffentliche Be= lohnung von Drephundert Thaler ver Ergreifung wad . Sefangennebnging ges Sehr Seutine - Drenhundert Thaler bor Ergreifung und Befangeauchinung des John Dode, und Die Summe ben Ein Dundert Thaler vor Ergreifung und Grfangeanchinung eines jeden Der tuer namentlich felgenpen Perfoneit, namk Danicl Gart, Benjanua Gart, - Caen, Billie Sintine, Genph Ducher, Bitten Duden, David Woodward, Sohn Whitcomb, Timothy Suburac, und Thomas Rinnen, coer ver EErgreifung und Gefangennchinung irgend ciner anderen Perfon, welche uberführt mer: Den tan, dos fie ben Der Begführung obenbenantes Eunethy Putering einige bulfrethe Dand oder Benfiand geleiftet- Die Belebung vor Grgrchung und Ocfangennehmung einer der vorherbe= namaten Perfonen foll, ben Abiteferung derfetben is das Befugnis Der Caunty Northampton, anes gezabict iverden; Desgleichen wird allen Berichteperfonen, Briedenerichtera, Etberufs und Confta= bele bicimit aufgegeben, und fie erfuchet fleißigr Rachfuche und Radfrage anzutreffen, und fic als Ien Steif zu geben berberbenannte Licbelthater zu ergreifen und gur gefanglichen Daft au bringen camit wider bicfelbe nach Denen Ocfeten verfahren werden fount.
Gegeben im Rath, unter ber Land dee Achtbaren Peter mustenberg, Giquire, Bice:Prå= ffent, und Dem Giegel tes Staats, ju Philadelphia, Den Arbrea Zag ors Monate Sului, int Gahr uufere SErrn Gln Znufend Giebca Dundert und Scht und Abigg.
Attefilet Charles Biddle, Getsetair. peter Muhlenberg.
1609
Before any of the Continental troops were actually set in motion toward Wyoming, word was received by the Council of Colonel Pickering's release. Whereupon the Council imparted to Delegates in Congress the following infor- mation :
"In Council, Philadelphia, August 6th, 1788.
"Gentlemen ; "By direction of the board, I have the honor to inform you, that we have this morning, by express, received letters from Colonel Pickering and the other officers of Government in the County of Luzerne. From these it appears that matters have taken a more favorable turn than was at first apprehended. Colonel Pickering was liberated by the insurgents on the 16th of July, and the men who carried him off, are now by their petition, praying Council to grant them a pardon. The proclamation issued by the board has produced the desired effect. Two of the rioters are now confined in Easton jail, and some others in that of Luzerne. Several have been wounded, and Dudley, one of the most notorious, died in Luzerne jail of the wounds he received. Those of the rioters who still remain, are dispersed, and seeking refuge on the lakes.
"From this change of affairs, and the accounts from the western waters, which seem to indicate that the troops of the Union will be wanted in that quarter, as well as from the shortness of the time limited, for which the troops can possibly be spared, and the consideration that the chief end for which the application was made is already answered, the board are induced to request you will be pleased to inform the honorable the Congress of the United States, that we gratefully acknowledge the favor conferred on this State, by so readily granting the assistance requested. But as the emergency has ceased, and as the State will now have time to act deliberately, and as circumstances shall in future direct, we further request that the troops of the Union may now be directed to continue their route, agreeably to their first destination. The board have, in the mean time, directed a Commissary to proceed to Easton, to provide for the subsistence of the troops until further orders."
The Delegates at New York appear to have brought this reassuring news of the safe return of Colonel Pickering to the attention of Congress. An entry on the journal of that body seems to have finally disposed of the matter of sending Continental troops to Wyoming. The entry, under date of August 12, 1788, is as follows: "ordered that the above letter be referred to the Secretary of War, to take orders."
While the Council at Philadelphia, and the Congress at New York, were taking such action as the circumstances at Wyoming appeared to warrant, there was no lack of prompt measures undertaken at Wilkes-Barré, looking to the same purpose. To the call of Council for militia, four local companies re- sponded. Of the Wilkes-Barré company, William Ross had but recently been commissioned Captain. Hanover township furnished another Company under command of Capt. Rosewell Franklin. Major Lawrence Myers commanded the Kingston unit, and a troop of Light Dragoons, with Capt. John Paul Schott in command, had been recruited from various settlements of the Wyoming Valley. Lord Butler, High Sheriff of the County, promptly organized a posse comitatus and to his command was attached the militia units, in order that the whole rescuing force might serve under one directing head.
"What a change!" exclaims Miner in recording this expedition: "Captain Ross and Sheriff Butler, as violators of the law at Laurel (should be Locust) Hill, sent in irons to Eastou, were now the effectual vindicators of the violated laws."
That New York was making common cause with Pennsylvania in appre- hending the abductors, is manifest by a warrant issued by Chief Justice Richard Morris, of that State. It was dated July 17, 1788, directed to the Sheriff's of several counties of the State, and called for the arrest of the men named in the Pennsylvania Proclamation hereinbefore noted. It declared that the rioters "will probably attempt to pass into New York in order to elude justice." At the same time, Governor Clinton issued a circular letter to all civil and military
1610
officers of the State, commanding them to aid and assist in the execution of the warrant.
While movements of the abductors are not difficult to trace, owing to the painstaking collection of records found among the "Pickering Papers", the plans, progress and attainments of the rescuing forces were never summed up in a single document, but must be gathered from various letters, and miscel- laneous data, copies of which were preserved and later published in the "Penn- sylvania Archives", from which those that follow were selected .*
By ten o'clock on the morning of June 27, 1788, about one hundred and forty militia were assembled on the River common, at Wilkes-Barré. Captain Schott, with a detachment of eighteen mounted men of his troop of Light Dragoons, acting as scouts, immediately moved up the river in search of the abductors. At nine o'clock the next morning, June 28th, the Hanover Company, under Capt. Rosewell Franklin, set off. That evening, Captain Schott returned to Wilkes-Barré, with the horsemen, after advancing within six or seven miles of the party of captors. On June 29th, the first detachment of militia returned to Wilkes-Barré with two prisoners. July Ist., the Wilkes-Barré Com- pany, under command of Captain Ross and accompanied by Maj. Lawrence Myers, moved up the east bank of the Susquehanna.
Commissioners Balliet and Armstrong, neither of whom were present at Wyoming at the time of the abduction of their fellow Commissioner, set out from Philadelphia, upon learning of the occurrence, in order to render any assis- tance within their power, to secure Colonel Pickering's release.t
On the 9th of July, they joined, in a letter from Wilkes-Barré to President Franklin, in the following account:
"We have the honor to inform you we arrived at this place on the 1st inst. and found the whole settlement in motion on account of Col. Pickering being carried off a few days before, by a banditti here called the "Half Share Men", or "Wild Boys." The detachment commanded by Captain Ross consisting of 18 men, who had six suspected persons under his care, fell in with the insurgents. Mrs. Pickering received a letter from the Colonel on the 3rd inst. informing her that he is well."
From a letter also dated at Wilkes-Barré, July 9th, addressed to the President of the Council, signed by Col. Zebulon Butler and William Hooker Smith, Justices of the Peace, and by Lord Butler, Sheriff, additional informa- tion is obtained of activities of the searchers:
"The militia under the command of the Sheriff repaired near the place where the rioters were posted, and after the scheme was agreed upon, Capt. Ross, with a party of 12 or 14, began luis march and first after daylight the next A. M. met the rioters, gave them battle and obliged them to leave the ground. In the attack, Capt. Ross behaved with much intrepidity and calmness, but had the misfortune of receiving a wound through his arm and another through his body. They are not mortal. * *
* After this small engagement, the militia soon returned. The place of the rioters' resort is so situated that, after mature deliberation, it was concluded a smaller body of men would much better effect this reduction. Their number does not exceed 18, and it is generally thought that many of them are much dissatisfied with the impudence of their conduct and some of them have left the County. * *
* The fathers of most of the rioters we have in custody. Some or all of them have advised to the nefarious plan and afforded comfort to the rioters since their appearance in arms for which proceeding, we think their liberty ought to be restrained. They appear to be much affected by their confinement and seem willing to acknowledge that they have embarked in a most glaring enterprise. * * The militia have done their duty with cheerfulness and stand ready for the second tour." *
It was brought out by testimony in the course of subsequent trials, that this action occurred at Meshoppen, and that Gideon Dudley, who was in command
See "Pennsylvania Archives," XI : 330-351.
+Commissioner Balliet had not been present for duty at Wyoming for several months prior to the abduction, having returned to his home shortly before the arrest of Col. John Franklin Commissioner Montgomery, after hav- ing been openly insulted the day following Colonel Franklin's arrest. left quietly for Philadelphia, where he remained until recalled by the Pickering episode.
1611
of the abducting party, was wounded in the hand. He, however, escaped at this time. The only other encounter between forces of the Sheriff and those commanded by Dudley, occurred on July 26th, ten days after Colonel Pickering had been released. Captain Franklin's command engaged the remnant of the band at Wysox creek. Joseph Dudley was again wounded-this time seriously. The severity of his wound being realized by his captors, they immediately placed him in a canoe and brought him to the jail at Wilkes-Barré where he died three days later.
A letter from Colonel Pickering, to President Franklin at Philadelphia, throws further light on the final incidents of the abduction. It is dated at Wilkes-Barré, July 29th, and reads as follows :*
"This morning, Jos. Dudleyt was brought hither badly wounded. This day, a woman whose son lives with John Jenkins, informed me that he had sent down to his wife to prepare to move with her family immediately to the Lakes. By the last accts. it appeared that Jenkins has engaged lands in that country for the York lessees.
"In the expedition in which Capt. Ross was wounded, divers elderly men, fathers of families, were made prisoners and brought down to Wilkesbarre on suspicion that they were abettors of the party who took me. Stephen Jenkins, brother of John, has been apprehended, and now is in jail at this place, in consequence of the evidence against him in B. Earl's deposition.
"Dan'1. Earl also told me that Stephen J. was as deeply concerned in the plot, as any one. Gideon Church has not been apprehended, because good policy seemed to require that a door should be left open for repenting sinners. He went out with the first three parties to apprehend the offenders and rescue me.
"By the last company of volunteers, he was chosen their Captain, and conducted with such spirit and judgment as pleased the whole of them. Old Benjamin Harvey (who lived at the lower end of the Shawnee flat) fled a few days after I was taken, and sd. (as I have heard) that some others wd. be obliged to follow him. Yet the hint in the examination of Wm. Carney (one of the arrested rioters) is the only evidence, wh. has yet appeared agt. him. His flying, joined with his former conduct, affords a strong presumption of his guilt.
"Eveg. 11 o'clk. This moment, the jailer here applies for a winding sheet, informing that Jos. Dud'ey is dead."
As soon as suspects in the abduction were brought to Wilkes-Barré by parties sent out by the Sheriff, or otherwise encouraged by the hope of reward for their efforts, they were arraigned before the most conveniently assembled Justices, who made proper disposition of their cases. The first to appear of record as thus arraigned, were Ira Manvil and Benedict Satterlee of Plymouth.
On July 19, 1788, they were brought before Justices Smith and Carpenter, charged with "aiding in the abduction," and plead guilty.
The same day, they were committed into the hands of Sheriff Butler to be conveyed to the jail at Easton, pursuant to a special Act of Assembly passed for the purpose.
Through various agencies, the hunt for participators in the abduction continued well into the month of August, and in all some forty alleged partici- pants or their advisors were apprehended.
On July 23rd, the Council at Philadelphia seemed to have been placed in such a cheerful mood by the change in affairs at Wyoming, as to offer congratu- lations to County Lieutenant Zebulon Butler, in the following terms:
"The Council express their entire approbation of the officers of Government in Luzerne relative to the rioters. Council are so well assured that everything possible will be done by you that they have hitherto postponed the raising and marching of troops to your assistance until circumstances shall otherwise direct."
On July 29th, Colonel Butler responded to the overtures of the Council and addressed, what appears to be a final official report, dealing directly with the incident :#
*See "Pennsylvania Archives." XI : 359.
tCol. Pickering was in error in the first name of the wounded man. Subsequent court records disclose that it was his brother Gideon who died
#See "Pennsylvania Archives," X1 : 356.
1612
"The people at Tioga Point are mostly under arms, and are now in pursuit of the remainder of the rioters, and in all probability have before this, either drove them from the county or made them prisoners.
"A full determination seems to be in every one's mind to crush and disperse all those who have been active in the riot. It gives me singular satisfaction to find that an attachment to Govt. very universally prevails among the people. Any force necessary to the free circulation of law, or to quell similar disturbances to the one lately taken place, we can raise at any hour. Never before this, could I determine with much precision, what defense, for the support of law, would be made by the people of the Co. if necessary. But I may now assert that the advocates for Govt. are so numerous that we never shall again be disturbed with such tumults and dissension as we have been in times past. By the concession of all those whom we have now in custody, they have been most grossly deluded by a very few designing characters, in whom by woful experience they find no kind of confidence ought to be placed. Indeed, not only they, but others on whom we have ever looked with a jealous eye, are now of the same opinion."
Miner, in his "History of Wyoming", (p. 431) narrates a story in connection with the abduction which must have been current among the older generation in 1845, when the History was written. It is an interesting sideline of the in- cident, and seems worth recording here:
"At Osterhout's, a few miles above Keeler's ferry, they [the militia] made a halt to take refreshments; when a guard of two or three men, placed by the river side, observed a boat with three persons on board, to push out suddenly as in haste, from beneath a bunch of willows. Re- fusing to answer, a shot was fired, and they changed their course. Another bullet struck near, when two men threw themselves into the river, and swam to the opposite shore, while a boy hove the canoe about and surrendered. 'Who are you, and who were those in the canoe?' in- quired Sheriff Butler, who had come down to the spot. 'None of your business" said the boy, with great apparent indignation. 'Tell us who you are, and where you are going?' 'I wont- you are all a pack of rascals not to let honest men go to the mill in their own boat, but they must be shot at as if they were wolves.' Finding they could get no information from the fellow, amused with the spirit displayed, and respecting his faithfulness to his friends, Mr. Butler took him to the house, gave him a good dinner, and then told him to go tell 'the boys' the whole country was in arms against them, and they had better give up Col. Pickering. The story of young Hillman, for that was his name, may as well be concluded here. He was arraigned with others, and it was in proof that he was for some time one of Pickering's guard. When Chief Justice M'Kean was about to pass sentence, Col. P. with great magnanimity, rose and said: 'The boy had evidently been misled by older persons. That though in error, the spirit and faithfulness exhibited, in what he probably thought was right, showed that he was no ordinary character. He might yet under better advisement, become a useful member of the community, and it was his desire that the lad should receive as mild punishment as the law would admit.' Of course Hillman was permitted to escape under a very mitigated sentence. We have sought to learn his subsequent fate, but he is lost to us."*
Several incidents which indicated that even with almost the whole of the County arrayed against them, the Franklin cause still lived in the minds, and doubtless the hearts, of many of his followers, is recorded by Colonel Pickering in a letter to the Council, in part, as follows:
"Wilkesbarre,t August 9, 1788.
"A few days after young Dudley was buried, some people were for digging up the body to expose it to a Coroner's inquest; for they said he was murdered by the party which took him. And I find, that in the beginning of this week while I was absent, attending my wife on her way to Phila., a number (8 or 10) of the old settlers from Nanticoke and Shawnee, came to Wilkesbarre warmed with the same zeal for digging up the body of Dudley; but the Shff. and some other gentle- men talked with them, and partly by reason and partly by threats, checked their zeal and sent them home cool.
"A disposition to murmur at every correcting measure of Govt. and act of the magistrate, necessary for the establishment of good order, and strictly legal, prevails among great numbers of the people. I beg leave to notice the late elections of militia officers in the upper battalion. John Jenkins and John Swift were chosen Lt. Col. and Major by a great majority, and Martin Dudley, Jos. Kilborn, and David Woodward (all names now familiar to Council) were chosen Capt., Lt., and Ensign of each of the Companies. Divers similar elections of disaffected characters took place in the same battalion. It would seem to have been an object with a majority of the electors to choose such men, not for the purpose of supporting, but, in proper times, of opposing the Govt. of Penna.
"I have to observe that the whole country is at present in peace; all the insurgents who have not surrendered themselves or have not been taken, having fled into the neighboring States.} *
At the September, 1788, session of the Court of Quarter Sessions, held at Wilkes-Barré, at which the name of Mathias Hollenback appeared for the first *The name of this boy of fifteen, was not Hillman, but Aaron Kilborn. He was one of those tried in November, 1788, during the visit of the Supreme Court to Wilkes-Barre.
"This is the first occasion the writer can discover of where Colonel Pickering spelled the name Wilkesbarre. Heretofore, in all his correspondence, it has been referred to, as Wilkesborough.
įSee "Pennsylvania Archives," X1 : 367.
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time on the list of Justices, sitting en banc,* a special Grand Jury was impaneled to make inquiry into affairs concerned with the abduction.t
This Grand Jury was composed of Lawrence Myers, foreman; William Trucks, Benjamin Bailey, Jabez Fitch, Solomon Avery, Elisha Blackman, Daniel Downing, Jacob Partrick, Thomas Bennet, John Dorrance, Philip Myers, Samuel Dailey, Stephen Harding, Isaac Allen, Elijah Sillsby, Samuel Miller, John Scott, Benj. Jones, Joseph Wheeler, Leonard Westbrook, Justus Gaylord and Jos. Elliott.
The Court record discloses that: Ira Manvil, Benedict Satterlee, John Hyde, Jr., David Woodward, Daniel Earl, Gideon Dudley, Joseph Dudley, Solomon Earl, John Whitcomb, Daniel Taylor, Timothy Kilborn, Frederick Budd, Wilkes Jenkins, and Zebulon Cady were indicted as participating in "a riot, rout, unlawful assembly, assault and battery and false imprisonment of Timothy Pickering, for nineteen days."
Noah Phelps, Nathan Abbot, Jr., Benjamin D. Abbot, William Carney and Aaron Kilborn were not held for sharing in the actual abduction, but for afterward joining the captors. Martin Dudley, Joseph Kilborn, Thomas Kinney, Nathan Abbot, Jr., Ephraim Tyler, Stephen Jenkins, Darius Parks and John Jenkins were likewise indicted "for advising and assisting the rioters" of the two preceding indictments.
These, with the others, were bound over in various sums to "appear per- sonally before the Justices of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, at their next session of Oyer and Terminer, to be holden at Wilkesbarre."
In addition to those indicted, the following important witnesses were placed under bonds to attend the same session: Anna Dudley, Garret Smith, Uriah Parsons, William Griffith, Benjamin Earl, Elizabeth Wigton, James Smith, and Joseph Wheeler. Among the latter, were several of the actual abductors who had turned state's evidence.
From his uncomfortable quarters in the jail at Philadelphia, Col. John Franklin must have followed with interest, the affairs of Wyoming. It was in retaliation for his treatment at the hands of Pennsylvania that the abduc- tion of Colonel Pickering took place. With indictments standing against some of his followers and former associates, because of this retaliatory measure, with his own trial approaching at the same time that the cases of these would be heard, and with a conviction that further opposition to the authority of the Commonwealth was without purpose, Colonel Franklin addressed a letter to the House of Assembly. He had then been in prison almost a year. Being recog- nized as the leader of those who had consistently endeavored to maintain Connecticut jurisdiction over the disputed territory, even in face of the Decree of Trenton, and failing in this, being regarded as one, if not chief of those irreconcilable spirits who had endeavoured to set up a new state, em- bracing such territory; his declaration "that I was fully determined to return to
*The fall election of 1788, resulted in the election of the following Justices of the Peace :- Mathias Hollenback, William Hooker Smith, Benjamin Carpenter and Nathan Kingsley. Nathan Carey was elected Coroner. The following Constables were likewise elected: John Ryan, Nathan Beach, Thomas Park, Oliver Dodge, David Brown, Jesse Gardner, Tunas Dolson and Gideon Osterhout.
+Search, in 1922, for records of this, the third session of the Courts of the County of Luzerne, revealed a rather amusing lack of appreciation of their value. Docket No. 1 of the Court of Oyer and Terminer contains records of the Court only from the year 1800 to 1802. Even delving through the vault of the present Court House where many old records are kept, disclosed nothing earlier. At the suggestion of the assistant Clerk of Courts, the author then began a search through every volume on the back of which the figure one appeared.
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