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 82
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"To his Excellency the President and the Honorable the Supreme Executive Council, of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
"The Petition of Steven Jenkins, a distressed languishing Prisoner in the Jaol of the County of Luzerne, most humbly showeth,
"That your Petitioner since the month of November last, has been confined within the walls of this cold and uncomfortable Prison, conformably to a decree made, and passed by the Court of Oyer and Terminer and General Jaol delivery, in the month and County aforesaid on conviction of a Riot, assault and Battery, and false imprisonment of the Person of Timothy Pickering, Esquire.
"Soon after which sentence your Petitioner, (with others under like circumstances) presented his prayer to your consideration desiring the interposition of Council in remitting all or such part of your Petitioner's sentence as to your honorable Board should seem proper, But your Petitioner has found no relief .- He is still confined and wasting a constitution which he wishes to preserve for the use and support of a large and helpless family.
"These with other motives excite your Petitioner, however unsuccessful he was in his former Petition to address your honorable Board again for relief in the premises.
"Your Petitioner as he stated in his former Petition, was so early apprehended in the last season on suspicion of aiding the Riot, that he had no time in which he could make any provision for his familys subsistance, either for this winter or the ensuing summer, in consequence of which they are in uncomfortable circumstances.
"Your Petitioner would further suggest that should he be obliged to languish out the six months in confinement, in obedience to the sentence of Court, that the spring season will be so far elapsed as to preclude the possibility of his making any arrangements that might be con- ducive to his own or his familys convenience.
"Your Petitioner would beg leave further to observe, that before the date of the proclamation offering a reward to those who should secure any Person in the Riot concerned-he was in the custody of the authority and was assured by the same, on his pledging his honor that he would come any time at their desire, that he never should be harrassed with men under arms, or be brought from his family by the force of the same-Consequently he remained at home on his parole, until a party by the authority of the proclamation, brought him down and confined him in the Jaol aforesaid. Upon Councils conviction of the truth of this, your Petitioner thinks those who make pretensions to the reward are not entitled to it, nor are Council obliged to give it them. This being tried, your Petitioner most earnestly implores the mercy of Council in re- mitting the fine as also the confinement. Thoroughly convinced that the end of punishments is to reclaim, and that it is not the wishes of those in power, to continue severity when this end is answered-your Petitioner with humble confidence flatters himself after taking into consideration his truly deplorable condition and his sincere penitence of the crime for which he stands committed, that Council will rigidly extend relief to him in the premises.
"And as in duty bound, your Petitioner will ever Pray, "STEPHEN JENKINS."
"Wilkesbarre Jaol, Jany. 24th, 1789.
The business of the Supreme Court having been finished at Wilkes-Barré, the jurists and their retainers returned by leisurely stages to Philadelphia. Colonel Franklin appears to have been given nearly two weeks at his disposal in Wyoming, before his departure for Easton, pursuant to sentence of the Court. There was no jail worthy the name at the Luzerne County seat, hence Colonel Franklin, on parole, mingled with his friends and went about his affairs under nominal super- vision. On November 15, 1788, Captain Ross had recovered sufficiently from his wound to be delegated the task of accompanying Colonel Franklin to his
*See "Pennsylvania Archives," XI. 5
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place of confinement, and then proceeding from Easton on to Philadelphia, where his friends hoped he was to merit something at the hands of the Council.
Colonel Pickering started them both off with the following letter to the President at Philadelphia .*
"Wilkesbarre, Nov. 15, 1788."
"This will be presented to your Excellency by Capt. Ross. He takes with him, Jno. Franklin to deliver to the Shff. of Northampton County after which he proposes to go to Phila. Zebn. Cady, another of the rioters and a notorious villain, was seized by two sons of Esq. Smith and Mr. Oehmnig during the sitting of the Ct. of O. & T. before which he was brought. His captors broke open his house in the night, and took him with his arms in his hands, standing upon his defense. The Atty. Geul. said he would write to Council to propose the revocation of the Proclamation. I wish that the revocation may be soon published here, for I am apprehensive of collusion between the remainder of the rioters and their friends for the purpose of getting the rewards. It would seem to me expedient to except John Jenkins from the revocation, but to reduce the reward to $100. or even to $50. This man was a prime instigator of the plot, and has gone hand in hand with Franklin, altho the County Jury did not find evidence to indict him of high treason. He has been indicted of the riot on the clearest evidence, and the continuance of the offer of a reward will either insure the taking him, or keep him in York State, where he now is, and where, for the good of this settlement, it might be well if he shd. ever remain."
In another letter, Colonel Pickering informs the Council that:
"Capt. Wm. Ross is in town [Philadelphia] and has been waiting since Friday for an op- portunity of presenting orders for the rewards offered for apprehending the rioters. Ira Manvil and Benedict Satterlee were 2 of the 15 men present at the taking me off.
"Captain Ross, since the Ist introduction of the laws of this State into the County of Luzerne, has manifested a uniform zeal to support the Govt. of Penna., and a readiness to expose himself to any hazards which the welfare of the State could demand of a spirited and faithful citizen. "Besides the loss of time occasioned by the wounds he recd. in pursuing the offenders, he has incurred an expense of upwards of £11, which his surgeons have chgd. for their attendance on him. He, by these wounds, is probably rendered an invalid for life. It would seem to merit the consideration of Council whether a reward should not be given him, not only as due for his exertions and consequent sufferings, but as an exemplary encouragement to other spirited and faithful citizens to engage in hazardous enterprises when the peace and welfare of the State shall demand it."
Captain Ross appears to have concluded his business with the Council satisfactorily. In fact, that body established a precedent in his favor, apparent from the following resolution :+
23rd. Sept., 1788.
"Resolved that Council enter- tain a just sense of the good conduct of Capt. Wm. Ross, and the officers and privates under his command, in oppos- ing the late rioters in the County of Luzerne, and endeavoring to restore order and good government in the said County. Resolved, that the Secretary be directed to procure a sword, at the expense of the members now present [Peter Muhlenberg, V. Pres., and 12 members, including N. Denison, pres- ent] and present the same to Capt. Wm. Ross, as a mark of the favorable opinion this Council entertain of his merit, and that the following inscrip- tion be engraved on it :- 'Captain William Ross, the Supreme Executive Council present this mark of their ap- probation, acquired July the fourth, 1788, by your laudable firmness in sup- port of the Commonwealth.'"
GEN. WILLIAM ROSS
Moreover, two days later, the Council turned over to Captain Ross, who was about to return to Wilkes-Barré, the sum of One Hundred and Twelve
*See "Pennsylvania Archives," XI : 424. +See "Colonial Records," XV : 543.
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Pounds, twelve shillings, to be divided among the captors of the Pickering abductors as follows :
"$100 to Capt. Church and his party for apprehending Benjamin Earl; $100 to Capt. Ross and his party for Thomas Kinney; $100 to Capt. Rosewell Franklin for Jos. Dudley. Seventy-five pounds was ordered also to be paid to Captain Ross for the apprehending Ira Man- vil and Benedict Satterlee -- Ross to pay same to the proper parties."
What remains to be told of the Pickering episode, may be summarized by a brief which, like the final rejoinder of counsel in an important cause, is left to command the mature and unhurried consideration of the jurist whose decision must follow. It is called "The Sequel" and concluded the narrative of events at Wyoming which Colonel Pickering wrote for his son in the year 1818. The bias that must have been his, in the narrow theatre of local affairs, has given place to a breadth of vision to be expected of a man who afterward succes- sively served his country as Post Master General, Secretary of War, Secretary of State and Senator from Massachusetts.
No longer harrassed by that fate which led him to spend some of the stormiest years of his life at Wyoming, Col. Timothy Pickering throws the mantle of charity over events as he saw them in perspective. That it was an important era in the development of his character, no one may doubt. That he left an impress of this character upon his contemporaries at Wyoming, no less than he was moulded in appreciable measure by the sturdy, rugged calibre of the settlers with whom he came in contact, there can be no question. All of which may be gathered from a careful perusal of "The Sequel:"
"Without waiting the result of their petition to the Executive Council, most of the actual perpetrators of the outrage upon me fled to the northward, to escape into the State of New York. On their way as they reached Wysock's Creek, they encountered a party of militia under the command of Captain Rosewell Franklin, and exchanged some shots. Joseph Dudley was very badly wounded. The others escaped. Dudley was put into a canoe, and brought down to Wilkes- barre, a distance of perhaps sixty or seventy miles. The doctor who was sent for had no medicine. I had a small box of medicines which had been put up under the care of my good friend Doctor Rush. Of these, upon the application of the physician, I furnished all he desired. But Dudley survived only two or three days. On his death, his friends sent to your mother to beg a winding sheet, which she gave them.
"In the autumn, a court of oyer and terminer was held at Wilkesbarre, by M'Kean, Chiel Justice, and Judge Rush. A number of the villains had been arrested; were tried and convicted; fined and imprisoned in different sums, and for different lengths of time, according to the aggra- vations of their offence. The poor creatures had no money to pay their fines, and the new jail at Wilkesbarre was so insufficient, that all of them made their escape, excepting Stephen Jenkins, brother to Major John Jenkins. Stephen was not in arms with the party; but was concerned in the plot. He might have escaped from jail with the others, but chose to stay; and in consequence received a pardon, after about two months confinement.
"The fate of Captain Rosewell Franklin, a worthy man whom I have mentioned on the preceding page, I sincerely commiserated. Wearied with the disorders and uncertain state of things at Wyoming, he removed with his family into the State of New York and sat down on a piece of land to which he had no title. Others had done the same. The country was new, and without inhabitants. They cleared land and raised crops, to subsist their families and stock. In two or three years, when all their crops were harvested, their hay and grain in stack, and they anticipated passing the approaching winter comfortably, Governor George Clinton sent orders to the sheriff of the nearest county, to raise the militia, and to drive off the untitled occupants. These orders were as severely as promptly executed; and the houses and crops all burnt. Reduced to despair, Captain Franklin shot himself. This, as well as I recollect, was in the autumn of 1792. "Governor Clinton was distinguished for energy of character. Had like prompt and de- cisive measures been taken at the beginning, with the Connecticut settlers at Wyoming, it would have been happy for them and for Pennsylvania; the actual sufferers would have been few in number; but the unstable, and generally feeble, measures of that government, instead of intimi- dating, rather encouraged hardy men, destitute of property, to become intruders; and thus, eventually, a great many families were involved in calamities
"John Franklin, so often mentioned, having been indicted on the charge of treason, for which he had been arrested, remained a good while in jail. At length, he was liberated on giving bonds, with a large penalty. And, finally, all opposition to the government in Luzerne County ceasing, he was fully discharged. The people of the county afterwards chose him to represent them in the State legislature, where, in the House of Representatives, he sat, I believe, for several years. During this period, chance, once or twice, threw him in my way. He was very civil, and I returned his civilities."
CHAPTER XXXIII.
THE FIRST COURT HOUSE OF LUZERNE COUNTY-SOME UNUSUAL CASES TRIED -THE MILITIA PROBLEM-EARLY ROADS-INFANT INDUSTRIES-THE NEW CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA -COLONEL PICKERING'S CONFERENCE WITH THE SIX NATIONS-HE BECOMES POST MASTER GENERAL-EARLY AGRICULTURAL DIFFICUL- TIES - PARDON OF COL. JOHN FRANKLIN-TWO HEROIC FIGURES LEAVE WYOMING NEVER TO RETURN.
"No man e'er felt the halter draw With good opinion of the law."
Trumbull.
"How calm, how beautiful comes on The stilly hour, when storms are gone."
Moore.
"He loved the twilight that surrounds The border land of old romance; Where glitter hauberk, helm, and lance, And banner waves, and trumpet sounds, And ladies ride with hawk in wrist,
And mighty warriors sweep along, Magnified by the purple mist, The dust of centuries and of song."
Longfellow.
Events concerned with the fortunes of the two antagonistic leaders of the County of Luzerne held the stage and engaged the sentiments of residents of Wyoming, until the close of the year 1788. Other activities however, are evi- denced then, and in years immediately ensuing, in meager records of the time still available to the historian.
The first Court of the newly erected County of Luzerne, as has been noted, was held in the fall of 1787, in the home of Col. Zebulon Butler. The necessity of another and more suitable building for this, as well as other public purposes, then became apparent.
An Act of Assembly, erecting Luzerne County, named Zebulon Butler, Jonah Rogers, Simon Spalding, Nathaniel Landon and John Phillips, as trustees to locate and erect a Court House and Jail. The earliest record of activity shows
1627
1628
that the settlers were divided on the location of the necessary buildings. Among the "Butler Papers" now a part of the collection of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, is a letter to Colonel Butler, dated July 30, 1787, signed by Simon Spalding, as follows:
"I was appointed with you and some other gentlemen, a trustee to appoint some suitable place for a court house and goal in the District of Wilkesborough. Some persons are of the opinion that a most suitable place is in the District of Kingston. But I am of the opinion that by Act of Assembly we, the trustees, have no right to prefix any other place but Wilkesborough."
There stood on the Square, at the time of this letter, two log buildings, which were a part of Fort Wilkes-Barré, erected in 1778. Other evidences of the fort had largely disappeared, most of the buildings having been burned after the Battle of Wyoming, but the thrifty Connecticut people had main- tained these in some repair and had used them as a Court House, Town Meeting place and Jail in the transitory period of Wyoming affairs. The same site having been selected as most suitable for the new structures, the old buildings were
THE FIRST LUZERNE COUNTY COURT HOUSE. It was completed in 1791 and later became, in part, the Wilkes-Barré Academy
demolished, the last traces of the fort removed and construction was begun in 1788, on a modest structure of hewn logs, the lower floor of which was intended for jail purposes and the upper chamber as a Court room. The building itself was about twenty-four by thirty feet in dimensions, as can be gathered from the appended drawing, made in 1804, when the building was moved to another part of the Square and devoted to the use of the Wilkes-Barré Academy.
Court houses, jails and other public structures, however, are not built in a day, as later generations can testify, and thus we find from the same "Butler Papers", that the process of actual construction occupied somewhat more than three years. First, in chronological arrangement is an order for labor, in the handwriting of Colonel Butler as follows:
"Sir: Please to pay or discount 12 shillings of the County taxes to Mr. Henry Harding for labor done at the Court House by Mr. Gideon Church.
"Wilkes-Barre, 16 January, 1787.
"ZEBULON BUTLER, Trustee.
"Mr. Abel Varington, Treasurer."
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Secondly appears a bill of Colonel Butler for various interesting services in connection therewith, in which but little seems to have been overlooked :*
Under a caption "Proposals for Building a Goal in this County" to which no date is affixed, (but undoubtedly 1788) is the following: "Proposals for building the gaol in this County.
"Messrs. S. Allen and C. Hurlbut agree with the Trustees (no date mentioned) That they will become obligated to raise the body of the building, cover the roof, lay the floor under the prison part, lay all the sleepers and beams for the other floors, and cover the gabel ends, by the first day of May next, for the sum of £80, Pennsylvania Currency.
"And the building for breadth, length, and height shall be 24 by 30 feet from outside to out- side, and 16 feet wall upwards, not less than 7 inches thick."
On October 24, 1788, Colonel Butler entered into an agreement with "Ebenezer Farnham and Ebenezer Skinner for building a chimney at the Court House, * *%
* to make three fire places below-two corner fire- places in the inside and one large one on the outside. The Court room fireplace to be built of brick. Said contrac- tors to be paid twenty pounds and the Trustees to furnish stone and other articles for building the chimney, to be delivered at the Court House."
Evidently the building dragged dis- couragingly. The next record of its construction likewise appears among the "Butler Papers," in the following entry, which seems to have led to its completion :
*"Col. Z. Butler's (Trustee)
Bill against the Court House." (No dates) but evidently 1788.
MRS. PHOEBE (Haight) BUTLER Wife of Col. Zebulon Butler.
"To 1 day to meet the Trustees at Kingston 7/6
' Wilkesharre 7/6
" " to vendue the bldg. of the Court House 7/6 1 day myself counting and preparing boards.
2 days myself attending taking out aud measuring boards.
4 days myself collecting men and attending them at work at the jail.
' 3 days myself attending carpenters etc. at Court House.
" 2 days myself looking up masons and agreeing with them.
" 1 day of 4 oxen, man, and cart to draw stone 15 my flatt to carry and fetch teams across the river to draw stone for the Court House. " 3 days myself giving directions to masons aud others at work at the Court House. = 1 day purchasing brick and going to Buttonwood to see them. = man and team to fetch plank for jail doors, stairs, etc.
1 day spent iu appraising the work done.
To going to Millers Mill to get boards and siding.
"April, 1789. "June, 1789. myself and one man attending and taking account of boards and siding for the Court House, and taking them out of the water-5000 feet.
"6 August, 1789. To fetching 5000 feet hoards up the bank to keep them from going adrift-myself and 3 men.
"Sept., 1789. To 1 day spent going to Shawnee etc., to consult with the Trustees about going on with the work of the Court House.
"Jau., 1790. To 1 day spent with Trustees to have a consideration whether or not Mr. Hollenhack would go on. "To 4 days spent in attending the joiners, giving the directions, and attending masons, aud getting brick for hearth.
"To 5 days spent in giving orders to pay for labor done in the Court House."
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"1790, January 21 .*
" Agreement between Zebulon Butler, Simon Spalding and Nathaniel Landon (Trustees appointed by Act of Assembly to build a Court House and Gaol in Wilkes-barre, Luzerne County) of the 1st part and John Hollenback of said Wilkesbarre of the other part. * It is agreed * * that Hollenback shall finish and complete the Court House and gaol (already began in said County ) that is, he shall lay two floors, the boards to be planed ou one side, ploughed aud groved, he shall weather board the whole building. The boards on the front and on the ends to be planed. He shall seal (sic.) the lower rooms and the Court room. Shall make seven windows and glaze them, complete-two in the lower room uniform, and 5 in the Court room, uniform, with plain shutters to each window, well hinged. Shall make a pair of good stairs leading to the 3rd loft, shall case the same, shall make a door and hang the same completely. Shall make two windows in the gaol, four panes of glass in each, and sufficient iron grates to the same. Shall make a partition equally dividing the gaol room, of good oak planks, 4 inches thick, and shall make a strong and sufficient floor of oak planks, six inches thick, over the gaol rooms. The trustees agree to furnish boards for the said Hollenback, sufficient to complete the above work, and to pay him £89/6."
As if in audit of accounts of the Trustees, up to the time of a final building award to John Hollenback, a solitary record is found in the handwriting of Rose- well Wells, undated, but evidently in 1789:
"The charges of expenditures described in the following are those which have accrued from the beginning of the Court House down to the day of contract with John Hollenback to finish said Honse.
"Hurlbut and Allin-as per their agreement-£82/0. Allin, for finding timber and building the stoop and stairs to said House £13/14/3.
"Farnam and Skinner for building chimney-
"Then follow several items for boards-Bates 5000 feet and 7 or 8000 more from different ones; MI. Hollenback, for a stove £6 10; Benjamin Bailey £5/19/11 for blacksmith work at different times; Jabez Sills for making the doors and casings windows, £3/15. July 7, 1788. John Hollenback for 6 gallons whiskey for the use of the Court House, £1/16; July 15, 1788 1 quart ditto (and other charges at other times); June 4, '88, Hugh Connor 3 days making benches £1/1.
"Total of the account is £196/12/6.
"This primitive temple of justice" says Pearce in his Annals, "was completed in 1791, and Stephen Tuttle, whose good wife placed her cake and beer sign over the door of the first story, was appointed first jailor."
While the new Court House was in process of construction, the various Justices of the Peace seem to have attended to such cases as the marchi of events brought before them. Not unlike similar hearings today, the Justices appear to have dealt with every variety of law violation. The high cost of swearing is manifest in an entry on the docket of Justice Smith:
"Be it remembered that on the 29th day of October, 1788, Joseph Sprague of the county of Luzerne, mason, is convicted before me, one of the Justices of the Peace, etc., of swearing seven pro ane oaths, by the name of God, and I do adjudge him to forfeit for the same and for each oath, the sum of 5 shillings.
"To the gaol keeper of the County of Luzerne: You are hereby required to take the body of Joseph Sprague and keep in close custody the time appointed by an Act of this State intitled an Act to prevent vice, immorality etc., dated in 1786, unless he the said Sprague shall pay the several sums, with the cost to wit-5 shillings for each oath."
"WM. HOOKER SMITH. [L. S.] "Justice of the Peace."
The services of the Coroner, then as now, were in demand. The pathetic case of Dingo is the first of record of the return of a Coroner's Jury:
"To any Constable of the County of Luzerne,-Greeting-Whereas an inquisition was held before me Nathan Cary, gentleman, Coroner of the County of Luzerne on the 29 day of February last by Lawrence Myers and others a jury of 13 good and lawful men of the said County on the view of the body of a certain negro man named Dingo, then and there found, and the said jury after viewing the said dead body and examining the witnesses produced did on their oaths declare that they were fully of the opinion that the said negro (who while alive was in the care of a certain Justus Jones, Yoeman)t came to his end by the neglect of the said J. Jones, by depriving said negro of the necessaries of life. Von are therefore commanded * forthwith to take the * * body of the said J. Jones and him commit to the common gaol of the County of Northampton ; and the keeper of the said gaol is hereby alike commanded to receive and safely keep the said
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