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 91
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-the canoe darts over to the landing place,-the boys jump into the water to take the rope ashore -'Haul in steadily'- The Buoys (not boys) that hold up the top of the net are seen for many a rod bobbing up and down on the surface 'Mind the lead line!'-'Steadily !- Haul in.' Presently the shad fins begin to appear as the semi-circle of the seine contracts and approaches. 'See, See,' the water is all alive with them! A shout goes up! Hurrah, boys !- Lawyers, Printers, Doctors, are, in an instant, some on their knees, some to their arm-pits in the river holding down, or hauling in the lead line. 'Haul over hand, never mind the brail-Capt. Bennett manages that.'
"How their bright scales glitter in the sun, as they are cast ashore! 'Don't fling so high, you bruise them.' 'You go to grass!'-'You are careless there'-'They will half escape-keep down the lead line'-"Teach your granny to lap ashes!' The beach is lined with the beautiful flapping things. 'A thousand'-'Six hundred, at least.' The excitement verges to the line of
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exuberant pleasure. 'Ship the seine, boys-don't stand gaping there as if you never saw a shad before.' Dripping wet, we must have a little to keep the cold out, and these Wilkes-Barre fellows are as dry as Buck-wheat straw-give them a pull. Haul after haul is made, evening approaches. As many heaps are formed as there are shares, one extra, and one or more each for Capt. Pette- bone and Col. Dorrance. A man turns his back, while another asks-'Who shall have this?' 'Who shall have that?' So the shares are allotted generally with great fairness; but as now and then there would be a bouncer of a shad, or a better than the average heap, some suspicion would arise that a peculiar manner of putting the question, as, with emphasis 'Now who shall have that heap?' indicated its superiority and it was awarded to the minister or some favorite. 500, 1000 to 1,500 a day were not infrequently taken.
"All divided; some from our village purchased with money. Lawyers and Doctors received willing portions for fees due; the Printer for his paper. The widow and the poor were never forgotten. Half a century ago every family calculated on putting up a barrel of shad-many with great care; and so fat and rich were they, that an epicure might regard them a luxury.
"'Ah,!' cried the old People, still chewing on the past, 'what times when we were young and shad were plenty; the present generation knows no such happiness.'
Hendrick B. Wright whose "Historical Sketches of Plymouth" were pub- lished in 1858, and who shared in the excitement and profit of fishing at about the same time referred to in the Miner narrative, throws additional light on this early occupation:
"When the State of Pennsylvania commenced the building of her public canals, it put an end to the shad fisheries. It became necessary to use the large rivers for the purposes of feeders; and the erection of dams to accomplish this, created a barrier which totally interrupted the annual ascent of this delicious fish up the Susquehanna. Before that, this stream had become famous for its shad fisheries, and, in fact, this product was one of the chief staples of food in the early settlement of the country. The system of internal navigation commenced in 1825; since then the fisheries have been abandoned. It was in one sense a public calamity, for the people along the shores of the Susquehanna looked forward with as much interest to the fishing season as to the time of their harvest. The crop, indeed, was quite as important to them. Many poor families the fisheries supplied with the chief article of their food, for at least a third of the year. By a reference to Franklin's diary, it will be seen that one of the causes of the wrongs inflicted upon the Plymouth settlers by Wilkes-Barre magistrates, as far back as 1784, and of which he complains, was the destruction of their fishing-nets and seines.
"From that time down to 1825, a period of thirty nine years, the shad crop was relied upon by the people as one of the utmost importance. Large numbers of the people of Plymouth were shareholders in the shad fisheries. Those who were not, were supplied at a mere nominal price. Previous to 1800, the price probably did not average more than two cents a piece, and from that period up to 1825, when the dams were put in the river, the highest price did not exceed eight or ten cents apiece. Thus a laboring man, who had no interest in the fisheries, could lay in his year's supply for the receipts of a week's wages.
"And while the whole population along the Susquehanna were exceedingly anxious to have the canal, they indulged in feelings of deep regret at the idea that it would result in the total destruction of their fisheries. The great advantages they contemplated from the inland navigation, overbalanced the consequent loss of the fisheries. They submitted, but a great many of the old settlers could hardly reconcile their minds to the exchange. They did, however, but with ex- treme reluctance.
"The day of railroads had no existence forty years ago. 'De Witt Clinton and the grand canal,' were the watchwords of progress. New York led off, and the other states followed in her wake. The motto was interwoven upon handkerchiefs and vest patterns. I well remember of wearing a vest with these words interwoven all over it. And so with the ordinary water pitchers; they would be decorated with the profile likeness of Washington, Lafayette, Decatur, Lawrence, Perry, or Scott, so that every time the old pioneer brought the cider mug to his mouth, he had looking him in the face some one of the land or marine heroes of the country. A good reminder! It may be said these were days of primeval simplicity. I would they could return to us again. Particularly if they would bring along with them those habits of honest rusticity, when jails were tenantless, and the scaffold a thing of the imagination only.
"But our subject is not to theorize, but to jot down facts and things connected with the past, and blended with the lives and transactions of our ancestors.
"Plymouth was noted for its good shad fisheries. There were three of them. The Mud Fishery, nearly opposite the old Steele ferry. The point of 'hauling out' was on the west bank of the river, and probably a half mile below Garrison Hill, called also a 'night fishery.' They never drew the seine in the daytime. I have taken part in the work here a great many nights, in years gone by, and have shared as many as a hundred shad for the labor of a night.
"Another fishery was located at Fish Island, sometimes called Park's Island. Its last name came from the residence of an old rheumatic man who hobbled on two crutches, one under each armpit, with a bag slung over his shoulders, in which he carried herbs. He was an herb doctor, and was known far and wide as Dr. Parks. Some time about the year 1835, he made a voyage to Washington, D. C., in his canoe. He went for a pension, and he got it. He came back with his canoe by the way of the Chesapeake and Delaware canal; thence up the Dela- ware to Easton, and then up the Lehigh navigation to White Haven, within twenty miles of
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his home. Canoes in past days were an important river craft. I have already stated that this was the vessel Colonel Franklin navigated when he went on his mission from the Valley to Annapolis, to present the settlers' petition to Congress. He informs us that he left his canoe at Conawago Falls, near Harrisburg, and proceeded the rest of his journey on foot, by land.
"Dr. Parks being unable to walk, or with very great difficulty, passed through the falls and landed at the warves on the Potomac at Washington. The doctor gave a circumstantial and interesting account of his voyage on his return, and exhibited his pension certificate; as to the propriety of granting it, the people of the valley generally entertained very grave doubts. And I believe it never has yet been ascertained, and probably never will be, for what particular military service this bounty was granted. He said 'it took him just two months to make the voyage; and the rheumatics almost killed him, too; the tide water seemed to baffle the vartu of all his yarbs, and at one time he nearly give in.'
"Dr. Parks had a slab hut some ten feet square, and six feet high, on Fish Island. This was his domicile and home, except during high floods, and when these occurred, the doctor, along with the exodus of his friends and neighbors, the muskrats, would seek refuge on the main land. His cabin was fastened by a cable to a huge sycamore hard by.
"The old name of Fish Island became partially obscured; the long residence of the root doctor attaching to it his own patronymic. Before the erection of the dam immediately below, this island was much larger than it is now, the back flow of the water has submerged probably two-thirds of the original surface.
"This was a day fishery, and in early times there were some most extraordinary hauls made. One of them, somewhere between 1790 and 1800, tradition informs us, yielded 'nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine shad.' I have been informed by persons who were present, that this haul was made on a Sunday morning; that in bringing the seine to, on the point of the island, it soon became apparent that the twines of the meshes would not withstand the pressure of the load, and that two other nets were put around it, and in this way only a part of the immense catch was secured. That the number of fish taken at this haul was nearly or quite ten thousand, there is no question. I have heard the relation of the story from the months of credible persons who were present at the time.
"The third was known as the Dutch Fishery, located at the lower end of the narrows below Nanticoke, the upper end of the Croup farm was the point of hanling out. The fishing was done most generally here during the night, though occasionally they dragged their nets in the daytime. My father said that his share at one night's catch, at this fishery, was nineteen hundred. He was the owner, however, of the seine, and drew a fifth of the product.
"I think that it may be fair to estimate that these three fisheries, in ordinary season, would yield not less than two hundred thousand shad. The state, therefore, in closing up the natural channels of the Susquehanna, did an immense injury to the people along its shores. The policy, however which caused it may have made a full equivalent for the damage in other ways. The generation, however, who immediately preceded us, could not forget the annual luxury which the shad fisheries of the Susquehanna had afforded them. With them it was ever a subject of regret, that they had exchanged their fisheries for the canal.
"An attempt has been made within the few past years to so arrange the chutes of the Sus- quehanna dams that the shad may pass up them; but the result thus far has been almost total failure. The people of this valley will probably never have the satisfaction of seeing the river stocked with this delicious fish, so long as the waters are made contributory for feeders of the canal. The shad fisheries, therefore are among the things of the past.
"The Susquehanna, but for its shad, was not remarkably celebrated for its fish. Eels were pretty abundant in the fall of the year, but the season for taking them was very short; and its waters contained but few other specimens, and those comparatively insignificant in number. The Oswego bass, however, were common in its waters, and sometimes obtained a large size. I have seen them of fourteen pounds weight."
The ax of the settler had not bitten so deep into the forest, at this period, as to interfere with an abundance of game, for those who preferred the pleasures of the chase to the more monotonous call of husbandry. The names of many local hunters have come down to later times by tradition and otherwise. Deer was plentiful, as it is in wooded districts of the county today. For those who desired more dangerous sport, the panther offered a challenge. These animals are mentioned in all the early correspondence of Wyoming. They were colored a brownish red, with small patches of a deeper tint, the throat and jaws being white. When full grown, they weighed as much as one hundred and fifty pounds and sprang upon their prey with deadly cunning.
From 1808 to 1820, during which years a bounty was paid for the scalp of each "painter" brought to the Court house, the sum of $1,822 was paid to hun- ters of this animal, representing an average kill of fifty per year, even in those later times.
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The depredation of wolves was an early and constant source of complaint on the part of settlers even in the more thickly populated districts. In 1798, the County Commissioners were forced to offer a small bounty for each wolf scalp produced. Under this resolution, the Commissioners paid out the sum of $393.79 for scalps, in 1799; the sum of $247.42 in 1801; $619.91 in 1802; $306.47 in 1803 and $528 in 1805.
In March, 1806, the Legislature of Pennsylvania offered a bounty, in addition to those offered by counties, of $8.00 for each wolf head exhibited "to encourage the killing of wolves in the state" Under this act, the Commis- sioners of Luzerne, in the same year, paid for seventeen heads the sum of $136.00 on the State's account.
The Susquehanna Democrat, of September 9, 1814, published the following, under the caption of "Wolves:"
"These destructive animals have lately made a great havoc amongst the Flocks of Sheep in Kingston, Exeter, Plymouth and vicinity.
"To remedy so great and destructive an evil, a number of the inhabitants of said township have agreed to meet at the house of Nathan Hurlburt, in Kingston, on Wednesday the 14 inst. at 2 o'clock P. M. to devise means to secure themselves against like devastations in future.
"Our fellow Citizens of Wilkesbarre, Hanover and Pittston, are respectfully invited to attend, as we consider them in a degree interested, and will cheerfully do a like good turn to them for the favor when a like evil presents itself at their door.
"It is contemplated if deemed expedient at the meeting, that the people generally turn out for one day and scour that part of the country where the animals are supposed to conceal them- selves."
As late as 1822, the incursion of the wolf had by no means reached its end. In the same publication, under date of December 22nd, an account of a wolf hunt appeared :
"A few days since the citizens of the Plains discovered the tracks of several wolves leading into a swamp between the main road and the river, and immediately rallied for a hunt, to the number of 50 or 60. They formed themselves into two companies under the direction of Capt. Blanchard and C. Cortright, Esq., and surrounded the swamp. Almost at the first onset the com- pany engaged a wolf, and while the animal was fighting one of their dogs, Capt. Blanchard caught it by the hind legs and cut its ham-strings with his knife. The swamp was thoroughly invaded, and after considerable sport, three wolves were caught. It appears the citizens were quite col- lected and cool, for there was no random shooting to endanger the lives of any concerned. The wolves had previously killed a number of sheep in that neighborhood-and it is supposed there are several others prowling about, which it is hoped will eventually share the fate of those above mentioned."
While the wild turkey was a subject of frequent mention, from the earliest settlement of Wyoming, the wild or passenger pigeon does not appear to have excited much comment until after the year 1800.
Audubon advanced the theory that the wild pigeons formed one great colony. This seemed to be borne out by the fact that sometimes, in one part of the country, they would cover an area of woods more than ten miles square, for their nesting and roosting places, while they would be seen in other parts of the country simply as isolated flocks, on swift wing, all flying in the direction of the great nesting ground. But while the wild pigeons might have been one great colony of birds, they usually arranged to nest in several great divisions, in dif- ferent parts of the country-the beech woods of New York and Pennsylvania, Canada and Northern Michigan, being their favorite resorts-according to the condition of the feeding grounds.
Proximity to beech woods was the chosen spot, always, for the annual pigeon roosts. One of the greatest of these was in Sullivan County, New York, and the beech woods of the adjacent Counties of Wayne and Pike, in Pennsyl- vania. The last appearance of any wild pigeons as far east as that, however, was in 1876, when they occupied the beech woods by the million.
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In the deep weeds, falling leaves protected an enormous quantity of beech- nuts throughout the winter. The tree is uncertain in its yield, however, and Audubon is authority for the statement that pigeon scouts were sent out in the fall, to determine the yield in different localities. When spring came, the main flocks set out as early as February, for the most promising feeding grounds.
In the Documentary History of New York, Vol. III, page 632, is a statement by Gideon Hawley that the continental flock appeared in the Mohawk Valley in 1753. The feeding grounds may have been elsewhere in years before the opening of the nineteenth century or the Susquehanna Valley was the route of only isolated outguards of the main body. But in later years the Susquehanna country saw the main floeks in their migrations, much to the wonderment of all concerned. The first local newspaper mention of the mysterious appearance of these flocks is found in the Wilkes-Barre Gleaner, March 8, 1815. From that time until 1860, the subject commands important space in newspaper columns during the periods of flight.
The passage of wild geese seems likewise to have won at least an annual spring notice. In a paper read before the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, December 11, 1885, by William P. Ryman, and published in Vol. VI, page 143, of the "Proceedings" of that Society, a description of how the wild pigeon was hunted in the neighborhood of Dallas would apply to other districts covered by their flight :
"A practical benefit from raising buckwheat was that, in gathering it, a large quantity of it shook off and was scattered over the fields. This afforded a most attractive pigeon food, and during the fall and spring seasons, and often during much of the winter, pigeons would flock in countless numbers all over the country. They came in such quantities that it would be diffi- cult to exaggerate their numbers. When a boy I used to see flocks that extended as far as the eye could reach, from end to end, and these long strings or waves of birds would pass over so closely following each other that sometimes two or three flocks could be seen at once, and some days they were almost constantly flying over, and the noise of their wings was not unlike the sound of a high wind blowing through a pine woods. They cast a shadow as they passed over almost like a heavy cloud. Often they flew so low as to be easily reached with an ordinary shot gun. The skilled way of capturing them in large quantities, however, was with a net. William, or "Daddy" Emmons was a famous pigeon trapper as well as fisherman. He used decoy pigeons. They were blind pigeons tied to the ground at some desired spot, and when they heard the noise of large flocks flying overhead, they would flap their wings as if to fly away. Attracted by this the flock would come down and settle near the decoys, where plenty of buckwheat was always to be found. When a sufficient number had settled and collected on the right spot, Mr. Emmons, who was con- cealed in a bush or bough house near by, would spring his net over them quickly and fasten them within. After properly securing the net, the work of killing them began. It was done in an instant by crushing their heads between the thumb and fingers. Hundreds were often caught and killed in this way at one spring of the net. Pigeons were so plenty that some hunters cut off and saved the breast only, and threw the balance away. Pigeon trapping in Dallas twenty-five and thirty years ago was almost if not quite a parallel with the great shad fishing days in the Susquehanna."
Bear, likewise, was abundant, but that actual damage done by these · animals was not as pronounced as that charged to wolves is surmised by an absence of bounties offered by either county or state, for their destruction. As an article of commerce, however, the value of a bear skin offered an inducement to hunters. Items of expense and profit, in the accounts of Judge Matthias Hollenback, at Wilkes-Barré, and points further northward on the Susquehanna, indicate that these pelts furnished no small part of the return cargo of the Durham boats he owned and which, as will later be mentioned, plied between Middletown and the upper Susquehanna, in trade with Philadelphia.
That Judge Hollenback had opposition in this particular matter of business is indicated by an advertisement which appeared in the Luserne Federalist, of June 23,. 1803. Under the heading of "Wanted" is the following:
"1,000 bearskins of good quality and for which the highest prices in cash will be paid. "ROSSETT AND DOYLE, Wilkes-Barré."
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While much of tradition surrounds the prowess of individual hunters and trappers of this period, and stories of large bags of game, as well as exciting en- counters between the solitary woodsman and his dangerous prey, may have grown with the telling, these traditions of the early hunting days of Luzerne are quite as thrilling as pertained to any county of the Commonwealth. The proverbial outfit of the hunter was "a quarter of powder, a pound of shot, a pint of rum and a flint."
The names of Ishmael Bennett, of Wilkes-Barre; Wheaton, of Wyalusing; John McHenry, of Fishing Creek; George Sox, of Bear Creek, and Fred Arnold, of Hanover Township, stand out among the rest, as commanding attention at those rare intervals when they were in a story telling mood of their hunting days.
With the men engaged mainly in agriculture, and with hunting and fishing at hand for their leisure hours, it is not to be imagined that the women folk of their families were idle. Almost every home contained a loom, one or two spin- ning wheels and a dye pot. They spun flax, wove cloth for clothing and carpets by way of adornment of their homes.
The "spinning bee" was not uncommon, and a rivalry existed among the settlements as to who could turn out the largest production of standard cloth per day. It is narrated that Miss Mary Smith of Pittston, frequently spun and reeled one hundred and twenty knots, between daybreak and twilight. Thus did agriculture and manufacture go hand in hand at Wyoming.
The first statistics of records in 1810, as to the quantities of different grades of cloth manufactured by the women of Luzerne, presents an interesting table:
TOWNSHIP
LOOMS
YARDS OF LINEN
YARDS OF WOOLEN
YARDS OF COTTON
Kingston
25
6135
1827
93
Plymouth
42
7847
1762
91
Pittston
28
5740
1690
59
Wilkes-Barré
33
6531
1717
129
Exeter
31
3771
1394
80
Abington
39
2485
1429
34
Providence
36
5643
1430
147
Hanover
25
5369
1291
60
The first carding machine, for the use of the public, seems to have been that owned in 1805, by Nathan Hurlburt, who then lived at Old Forge. Here wool was picked and carded for eight cents per pound. Azor Sturdevant established a fulling mill, at Kingston, in the same year, where he advertised that "London brown, chrome color and federal blue, would be given to cloth, in the best style."
That the manufacture of whiskey, from extensive rye crops raised along the river flats, was a common matter among the settlers, but merely emphasized a custom of the time. Reasons for this need little explanation. Whiskey was considered a thing of household use, to be proffered friend or stranger, with the hospitality of the home. Moreover, the horse which carried five bushels of grain to a local distiller, could return with twenty-five gallons of spirits, for which lat- ter there was always a ready market, either for cash or in exchange for tea, coffee, salt, sugar, nails and other staples.
Of the early distilleries of the county no records are available. For a number of years surplus grains from Wyoming were shipped by river to Sunbury, in which district a number of stills had been established, prior to the Revolution. In 1775, there is record of purchasing agents from Northumberland visiting the
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settlement for the purpose of securing rye, in particular, of the settlers for dis- tilling purposes. A report sent to the fall session of the Court at Wilkes-Barré in 1804 states that six distilleries were then in operation in Wilkes-Barré town- ship and thirteen more in other parts of the county. This account, however, did not take into consideration spirits manufactured in numerous private stills.
Taverns kept in the county, in 1789 and 1790, are disclosed by Court records to have been those of Jesse Fell, John Paul Schott and Abel Yarington, at Wilkes- . Barré; Lawrence Myers and Philip Myers, at Kingston; Jonah Rogers, at Ply- mouth ; Waterman Baldwin, at Pittston; James Lapley, at Hanover; Gideon Oster- hout, at Putnam; Isaac Handcock, at Springfield and Thomas McCheer, at Tioga Point.
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