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 90
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108
* * In ascertaining individual titles the Commissioner has first resorted to the lists of owners of lots according to the draughts by lot- tery made under the votes of town meetings. * * * In the case of refugee settlers who left the country during the War and took sides with the British, the Commission has always supported any title derived under them, if made when they had a right to make it, and before desertion. But it has constantly rejected every title made by deserters to the British if made after desertion; for this would have been a manifest canse of forfeiture under the Rules and Regulations of the Susquehanna Company. * * * Where deeds could not be shown, depositions have been re- quired of their loss or destruction; after which the records of Westmoreland and Luzerne have been referred to, and the records of the deeds accepted. For this purpose an index has been made to the Westmoreland Records without which nine-tenths of the claimants would have sought in vain to trace their title. Where the record is contained in the office of the Recorder of Luzerne Co. an office copy has always been insisted on. * *
* Much difficulty has arisen in the production of deeds, from the universal practise in this part of the Country, of permitting the documents of title to remain in the possession of each grantee. The grantees being satisfied with the notoriety of title and possession in the persons from whom they purchased. * * * It has been thought necessary to state these preliminary facts and observations, that the general course of proceedings in taking the subsequent titles may be understood by those to whom it is a duty, and who have the right, to inquire into the conduct of the Commissioners."
"THOS. COOPER."* "1802"
While all the Commissioners labored to execute their duties with intel- ligence and fidelity, Judge Cooper distinguished himself, in particular, by a display of initiative and ability which might appear to have merited a more considerate treatment at the hands of Luzerne County than he subsequently received. He visited in person all of the townships. Under his direct super- vision, all the original surveys of the Susquehanna Company were re-run. Upon him fell the task of issuing most of the Certificates to those adjudged owners of Connecticut claims. Upon presentation of these Certificates to the Land Office, together with the payment of acreage and other fees prescribed by the Compromise Act, a Pennsylvania patent issued, conclusive as between rival Connecticut claimants, Daily vs. Avery, 4 S. and R. 281, but it did not conclude a Pennsylvania claimant under certain conditions. Enslin vs. Bowman 9 Binn. 462.
By October 20, 1802, about one thousand Connecticut claimants had exhibited their titles. In all, as their records indicate, the Commissioners issued
*THOMAS COOPER, M. D., LL. D., was born in London, England. October 22nd, 1759. He was educated at Oxford. and afterwards studied law and medicine. He was admitted to the Bar and traveled the Circuit for a few years when, with Watt, the inventor, he was sent by the Democratic Clubs of England to those of France, where he sided with the Girondists. Called to account for this by Mr. Burke in the House of Commons, Cooper replied with a violent pamphlet. While in France he had learned to make chlorine from common salt, and he became a bleacher and calico printer in Manchester, but was unsuccessful. In 1795, at the suggestion of his friend Dr. Joseph Priestly, he established himself as a lawyer in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, where Priestly had located just one year before Unit- ing himself with the Democratic party, Mr. Cooper violently attacked President Adams in a newspaper in 1759, was tried for libel and sentenced to six months' imprisonment and a fine of $400. He was admitted to the Bar of Luzerne County, in 1796.
In 1801, Judge Cooper was appointed one of the Commissioners to execute the "Confirming Laws" relative to lands within the "seventeen towuships."
The business languished in the hands of several sets of Commissioners, and fears were entertained that the project, from its magnitude and the difficulties with which it was surrounded, would entirely fail. But owing to the extra- ordinary energy and ability of Judge Cooper, the last Commission cut its way through all impediments, and the great work was finally accomplished.
In 1806, Judge Cooper was appointed President Judge of the 11th Judicial District of Pennsylvania, which included Luzerne County, and he heid his first Court at Wilkes-Barre, in August of that year.
He was exceedingly stern and severe as a Judge, and after he had occupied the Beach for three or four years, many of the attorneys and suitors who had business in the Courts over which Judge Cooper presided, grievously com- plained of his tyrannical conduct while on the Bench. These complaints ulitmately led to the impeachment of Judge Cooper for tyranny, and he was removed from his position and succeeded by the Hon. Seth Chapman, of Northumber- land. who held his first court at Wilkes-Barre, in August, 1811.
Judge Cooper was an efficient supporter of the administrations of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe.
He successively occupied the Chair of Chemistry in Dickinson College, in the University of Pennsylvania, and in Columbia College, South Carolina, of which last named institution he became President, in 1820. On his retirement from the office, 1834, he was appointed to revise the State Statutes, four volumes of which he had completed when he died at Columbia, South Carolina, May 4, 1839.
He was a Free Mason, having been initiated into Sunbury Penna. Lodge, No. 22, February 11, 1797.
He was a man of great versatility and extensive knowledge, displaying, as a lecturer, great erudition, and admirable powers as a talker. In philosophy, he was a materialist, and in religion, a free-thinker. He was a voluminous writer and publisher. Among other things, he published, in 1801, "The Bankrupt Law of America, Compared With That of England;" in 1812, a translation of the "Institutes of Justiniao;" in 1819, a work on "Medical Jurisprudence." He also published "Observations on the Writings of Priestty," and "An Essay on the Constitution of the United States,
1672
1745 Certificates, embracing 288,532 acres of land .* One hundred and ninety seven Pennsylvania claimants gave deeds of release to the Commonwealth.f
The form of a Certificate issued by the Commission is familiar to those who have searched the early titles of Luzerne County, but, by way of information to others interested, a copy of one of these documents, in the possession of Gen. Hoyt at the time of writing his "Brief of Title," is reproduced : A CERTIFICATE OF TITLE.
Fourth Division.
N. 12 E.
N. 2 E. 28.5
No.
No.
26.1 P.
DRAFT of a Tract of Land situate in Kingston one of the Seventeen Townships in the County of Lu- zerne; being Number Fifteen in the Third Division of the said Township and containing Eighty Seven Acres and Sixty Four perches and the usual allow- ance of Six per centum for Roads: Re-surveyed the Teoth day of September One Thousand Eight Huit- dred and Two for Daniel Hoyt by order of the Com- missioners duly appointed for putting in execution an Act of the General Assembly of the State of Penn- sylvania, passed the Fourth day of April, One Thon- saod Seven Hundred and Ninety Nine, entitled, "An Act offering Compensation to Pennsylvania Claim- ants of certain Lands within the Seventeen Towoships of the County of Luzerne, and for other purposes therein mentioned." and the Supplement thereto.
To SAMUEL COCHRAN Esq. Surveyor General. THOS. SAMBOURN
Surveyor to the Said Commissioners December 1st 1802.
CERTIFICATE.
WE the undersigned Commissioners, duly ap- pointed for putting in execution an Act of the Gen- eral Assembly of the State of Pennsylvania, entitled "An Act for offering compensation to the Peansyl- vania Claimants of certain Lands within the seven- teen Townships in the County of Luzerne, and for other purposes therein mentioned," passed the 4th day of April 1799, and the Supplement thereto passed the 15th day of March, 1800, and the further Supple- ment thereto passed the 6th day of April, 1802, DO CERTIFY, That Daniel Hoyt is the Owner as a Con- . necticut Claimant of Eighty-seven Acres and Sixty four perches of Land in the Township of KING- STON, one of the before mentioned seventeen Town- ships; being Lot Number Fifteen, in the Third Division in the said Township; WHICH Lot Num- her Fifteen was occupied and acquired by a Connec- ticut Claimant, an actual Settler there before the time of the Decree of Trenton, and was particularly assigned to such actual Settler, prior to the said De- cree, agreeably to the regulations then in force among such Settlers. The said Land (a Draught of Survey whereof is hereto annexed) is included in the application of Daniel Hoyt, under the provi- sions of the acts aforesaid: of which application an official transcript has been transmitted to us from the Land Office of the Commonwealth of Pennsyl-
vania. THOMAS COOPER JNO. STEELE
November 10th, 1803.
*These claimants were distributed among the seventeen townships in acreage claimed as well as Certificates issued as follows
Acres.
No. of "cer- tificates."
Wilkes-Barre,
14,375
186
Kingston, .
Newport.
Salem,
Huntington,
19,479
176
Hanover ..
18,268
131
Exeter ..
26,382
83
Pittston,
20,502
123
Claverack
17,713
29
Springfield
28,679
82
Northmoreland,.
17,200
69
Braintrim .. .
17,379
65
Providence,
16,730
85
Putman
22,859
69
Plymouth,
18,159
256
Ulster
112
-
Bedford.
None.
Total,
288,532
1,745
¡These were distributed through the townships, as follows:
Kingston,.
.24
Providence ..
7
Pittstoo ...
6
Newport,
14
Hanover,.
18
Putman ..
10
Braintrim,
10
Wilkes-Barre,
12
Springfiekl ..
11
Huntington ...
4
Northmoreland ..
14
Exeter,
q
197
Bedford ..
35
Plymouth.
24
560 Ps -
Hoyt.
As. Ps.
87
G4
North 34.30 West
27 P.
North 41.30 East.
Road.
No. 15.
14. 5.85.55
16.
Daniel
North 34.30 West
17,390
152
17,869
133
15,428
105
Many of these were non-residents, who held large blocks of "wild lands."
1673
The penning of the foregoing Chapter has proved a difficult task. Yet one of the first questions asked by a student of local history, and by far the most difficult to answer, has almost invariably related to the quieting of titles, many of them now of immeasurable value, as to lands long in contro- versy between two independent states. This settlement, as has been seen, was engulfed in legislation, Court decision and the patient adjudication of Commis- sions, for a period of nearly twenty years. If the writer has neglected important available evidence of this settlement, the omission has followed rather from a desire to hold the Chapter within bounds of comprehension of the average reader, than to deal too much at length with legal technicalities which naturally surround it.
CHAPTER XXXV.
EVENTS OF THE LAST DECADE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY-SHAD FISH- ERIES-HUNTERS AND HUNTING OF THE PERIOD-INDUSTRY OF THE 'WOMEN-THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION-CAPTAIN BOWMAN'S COMPANY-BEGINNING OF THE RENAISSANCE IN WYOM- ING AFFAIRS-REAPPORTIONMENT OF TOWNSHIPS -THE COUNTY'S FINANCES-VISIT OF JEM- IMA WILKENSON-EARLY PREACH- ERS AND DOCTORS-WILKES- BARRÉ'S EARLIEST NEWSPAPERS
"Faith is the subtle chain Which binds us to the Infinite: the voice Of a deep life within, that will remain Until we crowd it thence." Elizabeth Oakes Smith.
"Truth comes to us from the past, as gold is washed down from the mountains of Sierra Nevada, in minute but precious particles, and intermixed with infinite alloy, the debris of centuries." Bovee.
It can be said that much of the charm peculiar to the early history of Wilkes-Barré and its environs ended with the last decade of the eighteenth century. It is true that the quieting of land titles spread its process well over into the first decade of the twentieth. But the community itself was gradually adapting itself to a change in administrations of the Commonwealths which had governed it; was desperately tired of conflict and turmoil, and was being led to believe that Pennsylvania had adopted a course of governmental meas- ures, in the management and regulation of its affairs, which would lead to ultimate justice for all. It was a backward, hesitant community, however, which was recovering from the effects of nearly half a century of bickerings, political dis- cord and bloody strife.
1674
1675
In spite of the widely heralded beauty of its surroundings and the admitted fertility of its soil, the Wyoming Valley had not been a magnet, as had other districts of the Commonwealth, and the valley and lake regions of New York, for the flood of immigration which had followed the Revolutionary War. Those who were coming to the infant United States from war torn countries of central Europe, from England and the isles of the sea, desired, above everything else, the peaceful possession of lands and the chance to work out'that destiny for themselves which the great, new country seemed to promise. Wyoming lay under the shadow of intersectional political differences and a cloud of unde- termined rights to its soil.
It has been seen, in a previous Chapter, how uncertainties arising from such conditions so adversely affected the life and prospects of the entire settlement. That rich deposits of anthracite were known, is not to be questioned. But no industrial development could then follow discovery. Of roads, only the merest traces existed. Agricultural pursuits enlisted only the crudest instrumentali- ties for the prosperous cultivation of the soil.
Connecticut had brought its instincts for the establishment of churches, schools and stable government. Indeed, in earlier times, all three of these in- fluences had flourished. Uncertainties of a later day, however, held these and other creative instincts in abeyance.
The homes of the pioneers furnished but few of the comforts of life and not all of its very essentials. One may imagine that in the original migration of these people to a wilderness, many articles of convenience, if not of beauty and re- finement, dating perhaps, back to homes in England, were brought over the mountains in crude ox carts, which served as a sole means of transportation. Few of these reminders of a happier existence remained at the period mentioned. The tomahawk, the flint of the incendiary, flood, and the covetousness of the invader, had left but little of these possessions at Wyoming. A library had not come into existence. The times were too precarious for even the weekly newspaper, which has had a habit of following settlements as they were pushed out in the conquering of the American frontiers.
Peace, the certainty of established government and the security of property rights, might restore confidence in the future and encourage refinements of life. But the period with which this Chapter begins marked merely a promise of bringing to Wyoming those requisites of body, mind and spirit for which the community yearned.
That shad fishing was the great digression, if not the main business of the populace along the river, in the spring, is a matter of record. An early men- tion of shad, in the Susquehanna, is to be found in "Moravians and the Indians". In a Chapter devoted to the Wyalusing mission it is stated that 2,000 shad were taken at that point in May, 1768. As early as 1772, a seine for catching shad was brought from Connecticut to Wyoming, and was held as the common property of all the settlers. In 1790, there is an account of these fish being sold at from one to three pence each, according to size, in a market established on the River common.
As domestic cattle were few in numbers, and those available for slaughtering still more scarce, the shad fisheries yielded no small portion of the food supply for the settlers. Those not consumed during the "run", when the entire river seemed alive with the fish, were salted and thus preserved for the future.
.
1676
Salt, with which to cure the enormous catches, was extremely scarce, having to be brought in by wagons and river from New York State, or laboriously worked up the river in boats. Many times large quantities of splendid fish went to waste for the lack of salt, and at times a bushel of the commodity would bring in exchange 100 shad. It is remarked, on one occasion, that the entire salt supply of the river villages became exhausted, whereupon an expedition of volunteers was delegated to visit Philadelphia with as much expedition as pos- sible, and return with a fresh supply before the fishing season ran its course.
In later years these shad fisheries became sources of considerable revenue to their owners and a lucrative business in the salted variety was built up with communities in outlying districts. Usually, about ten men would form a com- pany to operate a fishery; the women folk would spin the flax into twine and the men would each knit a section of the seine, which was usually from sixty to eighty yards long, and would receive a share of the fish caught in it, accord- ing to the number of yards he owned. A common method of division was to separate the catch into as many piles as there were rights in the seine; one of the number would then turn his back to the piles, and while a second would point to a pile, the one whose back was turned would name the man to whom the pile should go. This method lasted for many years.
In the "Sullivan Journal", page 245, mention is made of shad at Wilkes- Barré and of the numbers of wild turkeys which were hunted by members of that Expedition during their encampment there.
In a letter to the American Daily Advertiser of Philadelphia, under date of May 6, 1800, its Wilkes-Barré correspondent states the following:
"In our last we mentioned a draught of 9,290 shad being taken at Nanticoke, four miles below this town. A few days previous to that, 6,963 were taken at a draught and frequently in the course of a season, from 1,500 to 4,000 are taken daily at the same fishery."
In the report of the State Commission of Fisheries, 1894, appears the following distinctive description of early shad fishing dictated by Gilbert H. Fowler, in his eighty-seventh year. Mr. Fowler lived near Berwick:
"The first run or the first great schools that made their appearance in the early spring were the male shad-no female ever accompanied them. In about eight or nine days after the male had ascended the river, then followed the female in schools, heavily loaded with eggs or roe. Those were much the largest and finest fish, and commanded the highest price. Those shad that were successful in eluding the seine and reached the hatching ground at the head waters of the Susque- hanna, after depositing their eggs, returned again in June or July, almost in a dying condition, so very poor were they, many died and were found along the river shore. The young shad would remain at their hatching place till late in the fall, when they would follow the old shad to the salt water; during the summer they would grow from three to four inches long.
"The Susquehanna shad constituted the principal food for all the inhabitants. No farmer, a man with a family, was without his barrel of shad the whole year round. Besides furnishing food for the immediate inhabitants, people from Mahantongo, Blue Mountains, and in fact, for fifty miles around, would bring salt in tight barrels and trade it for shad. They would clean and sort the shad on the river shore, put them in barrels and return home. The common price of shad was three and four cents each.
"Besides shad, there were many other kinds of food-fish. The most noted among them was the old Susquehanna salmon, weighing as high as fifteen pounds. These salmon were considered even superior to the shad and commanded a higher price. They were caught in seines, on hooks and lines, and were the sport of the gigger at night. Nescopeck falls, directly opposite Berwick, near where the Nescopeck empties into the river, was a noted place for Salmon fishing with hook and line. Men standing on the shore with long poles and lines often in drawing out the fish, would lodge them in the branches of the trees, giving them the appearance of salmon producing trees.
"The shad fisheries, which I have referred to, were not common property. The owner of the soil was the owner of the fishery, and no one was allowed to fish without a permit. The owners of the fisheries also had the seines, and when not using them they would hire them out to others and take their pay in shad; the seiner's share was always one-half the catch. At the Webb fishery I have known eleven and twelve thousand shad taken at one haul. Those fisheries were always considered and used as a source of great pleasure, value and profit, and everybody
1677
depended on them for their annual fish and table supply. It was considered the best and cheapest food for all.
"Immediately after the erection of the river dams the shad became scarce, the seines rotted, the people murmured, their avocation was gone, and many old fishermen cursed Nathan Beach for holding the plow and the driver of the six yokes of oxen that broke the ground at Berwick for the Pennsylvania canal."
Pearce, in his "Annals of Luzerne County", page 500, mentions the largest of these fisheries at Berwick and Nescopeck, one at Beach Haven, one at Fish Island, opposite Wilkes-Barré, (which island was removed in 1912, to become part of the filling for the Wilkes-Barré Connecting Railroad) one on the. Wilkes- Barré Common, one at Plymouth and others at Stewart's, Kingston and Forty Fort. The same historian states that he learned from an eye witness of a haul of 10,000 shad being made at Stewart's. the seine being so heavy that it could not be drawn ashore. The fish, according to this authority, were thereupon shoveled into boats and thence conveyed by wagons to the fishery.
From "Recollections of the Life of John Binns", published in the year 1854, the following relates to shad fisheries on the lower Susquehanna:
"In 1801 there were many and valuable shad fisheries on the Susquehanna and on its branches above, below and at Northumberland. In many of these, thousands of the finest shad were nightly caught. They used then to sell at the Northumberland fisheries at six dollars per hundred.
"The coming of the shad was usually late in April or early in May, varying according to the height and warmth of the river water. Their arrival was preceded by what was called the shad fly, which was a long, thin, dark brown colored fly, in shape something like a horse-fly, but larger. All these fisheries have been destroyed by dams and canals and the promotion of trade and intercourse."
Charles Miner, in the Record of the Times of May 9, 1855, gives the fol- lowing graphic account of what shad fishing meant to those of a little later period of Wyoming's history :
"The N. Y. Evening Post says shad are plenty and purchaseable at reasonable prices. How it makes one's mouth water. Can't the schutes at all the dams be so changed, without injury to the navigation that fish can come up? Take a sketch of old fashioned fishing.
"About the latter part of May in the glorious old days before the Susquehanna was dam'd up, the shad-fishing here was in its prime. It was high-holy days with all hands-seines were run- ning at Nanticoke. There was Blackman and Inman-Campbell and Jameson-Steele and Espy -the Bennets from under the mountain-the Jackson's, Sarver, Lutzys, and Fairchilds from Newport-the Wadhams, the Harveys, the Turners; indeed, half Shawney, with their hands; some, as owners of the land shore, some the boats and seines, some fishing on shares; and a great many looking on enjoying the sport.
"So too, at Monacacy, where Capt. Blanchard took the lead. But our business is with the capital old Kingston fishery ground, just above the bar, opposite the mouth of Mill Creek. On a fine day, the village of Wilkes-Barre would be half depopulated. Lawyers ripe for fun, Printers, Justices, Doctors, Mechanics, Merchants-indeed everybody who loved shad and relished a frolic, who could get a skiff, canoe, or any craft to take them over .- Pettebone and Dorrance, all spirit and cheerfulness, would come down to the river where the boys hauled out, and gave them a share of the fish caught, you would find overlooking the exciting scene. The vast canoe, half as big as Columbus' first ship, with the long seine on board, is just starting up, hugging the western shore. The word of Capt. Bennett is law supreme, for he is the best fisherman on the river, he stands in the bow holding the brail, and, keeping the hands silent as possible, gives directions. Coming to the falls, (the present 'riff' above the North Street bridge at Wilkes- Barre) the canoe is laid straight across to the eastern land with all possible swiftness; the seine being cast in as she goes; Now the canoe, hugging the eastern shore, descends slowly, carefully- while the party on the Kingston side, march down with the rope flapping on the water to keep the fish in the middle of the stream. Suddenly you hear Capt. Bennett's command -'Pull away'
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.