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 94
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Asher Miner was married first at Wilkes-Barré, May 19, 1800, to Mary, only daughter of Thomas Wright and his wife. Mary (Dyer) Wright. Mrs. Mary (Wright) Miner died in January, 1830, and in 1835 Mr. Miner was married to Mrs. Thomasin H. Boyer of West Chester.
*CHARLES MINER the youngest son of Capt. Seth and Anna (Charlton) Miner, was born at Norwich, Connecticut February 1, 1780. His school days ended when he was seventeen years old, and then he went to New London, Con -
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made any reference to it. In February, 1808, Judge Jesse Fell made in Wilkes- Barré his successful experiments with respect to burning anthracite coal in an open grate, without a forced draft. Undoubtedly the principal people of the town learned all about these experiments immediately, but the Federalist never printed a line of information or comment on the subject.
The Act of Assembly, incorporating the Borough of Wilkes-Barré, was approved March 17, 1806, but no mention of the fact was made in the Federalist until April 11, 1806, when the Act of Incorporation was printed without any comments upon it or other references concerning it. The Act of Assembly establishing the Wilkes-Barré Academy, was approved March 19, 1807, but no reference to the matter was made in the Federalist until May 22, 1807, when the Act was printed without comment.
In fact, one who searches the files of the early newspapers of Wilkes-Barré for information upon which to base a historical record, will turn away from the task puzzled and disappointed.
necticut, where he served two years as an apprentice to the printing trade in the office of The Connecticut Gasette and Commercial Intelligencer, published by Col. Samuel Green.
In 1799, Mr. Miner came to Pennsylvania, where he spent some time in what is now Susque- hanna County. In the Spring of 1800 he came to Wilkes-Barre, where he made his home with his newly-wedded brother, Asher. In the fol- lowing Autumn he began to teach school in a small log house on the hill near the present Vulcan Iron Works.
The first literary efforts of Charles Miner were published in the Federalist. In later years, speaking of these "first efforts", he said: "My first attempt at writing was in my brother's paper. He published my essay with a good deal of dis- trust; but I well remember the pride and satis- faction excited hy the article being promptly copied by The United States Gazette of Phila- delphia."
Upon his retirement from the printing busi- ness in Wilkes-Barre in 1816, Mr. Miner was engaged in newspaper work in Philadelphia for a few months. Later, in the Summer of 1817, he located in West Chester, Chester County, Penn- sylvania, where he founded, edited and published The Village Record, from 1825 until 1832 in part- nership with his brother Asher. 1n 1832, Mr Miner returned to his old home in Wyoming Valley, where be was joined, in 1834, hy his brother Asher, The Villige Record having been disposed of to Henry S. Evans in that year.
While living in West Chester, Charles Miner was elected (in 1824) to Congress from the district composed of the counties of Chester, Delaware and Lancaster. His colleague, or co-represent- ative, from that district was the Hon. James Buchanan-then a high-toned Federalist, later the very pink of Democracy, and still later Presi- dent of the United States.
Mr. Miner was re-elected, in 1826, for a second term, and served until the first inauguration of President Andrew Jackson.
CHARLES MINER.
After his return to Wyoming, Mr. Miner began the writing of his "History of Wyoming," an 8vo volume of 593 pages, which was published in 1845. It is hy this work that Mr. Miner is now best known.
Charles Miner was married, at Wilkes-Barre, January 16, 1804, to Letitia Wright, daughter of Joseph Wright, and a niece of Mrs. Asher Miner. Mrs. Letitia Miner died in February, 1852, and Charles Miner died October 26, 1865. (For extended and interesting accounts nf the life and doings of Charles Miner, and further references to Asher Miner, see Oscar J. Harvey's "History of L'odge No. 61, F. and A. M.," published in 1897; and "Reminiscences of the Hon. Charles Miner," in Vol. XIV of the "Proceedings and Collections of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society."
CHAPTER XXXVI.
THE FOUNDING OF ASYLUM BY FRENCH REFUGEES-SOME OF ITS DISTIN- GUISHED RESIDENTS-ROBERT MORRIS, THE "FINANCIER OF THE REVO- LUTION" CONNECTED WITH THE VENTURE-THE "QUEEN'S HOUSE" BUILT TO RECEIVE MARIE ANTOINETTE-ITS SCENES OF GAYĘTY AND BRILLIANT RECEPTIONS-VISITS OF TALLEYRAND AND 4 THE DUKE OF ORLEANS, AFTERWARDS LOUIS PHILIPPE, KING OF FRANCE, WITH HIS TWO YOUNGER BROTHERS- THEIR STAY IN WILKES-BARRE-FINANCIAL RE- VERSES OF THE COLONY AND ITS FINAL ABAN- DONMENT-PREPARATIONS FOR WAR WITH FRANCE-CAPTAIN BOWMAN'S COMPANY AGAIN MUSTERED INTO SERVICE- WAR AVERTED BY A CHANGE OF FRENCH POLICIES.
"Gaul's exiled royalists, a pensive train, Here raise the hut and clear the rough domain; The way-worn pilgrim to their fires receive, Supply his wants, but at his. tidings grieve. Afflicting news, forever on the wing-
A ruined country and a murdered king! Peace to their lone retreats, while sheltered here.
May these deep shades to them be doubly dear, And Power's proud worshippers, wherever placed (Who saw such grandeur ruined and defaced),
By deeds of virtue to themselves secure
Those inborn joys that spite of kings endure-
Though thrones and states from their foundations part-
The precious balsam of a wounded heart."-Alexander Wilson.
I wonder what the racket means, A cutting of such capers The Parson says the French are mad,
He read it in the papers.
CHORUS: Heigh ho! Billy Bow, I b'lieve the war's a comin, 'N' if it does, I'll git a gun Soon's I hear them drummin.
An I heard 'em say, a trainin day,
That Washington's a goin'; An Cap'n Toby swears they'll fall,
Like grass when he's a moorin.
He said that once, in t'other wars,
He run right at the bullets And never minded grenadiers
No more 'an we do pullits.
But, dence, I'd rather stay at home A makin wall and hayin, An' so had Capen too I guess But s'pose there'll be no stayin. -Brother Jonathan's New Song. (Wilkes-Barre Gasette, September 18, 1798.) -
Of all romantic, if not dramatic, Chapters in the history of Luzerne County, that relative to the founding of Asylum commands an unique place.
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It differed from other Chapters dealing with a portion of the Susquehanna Purchase in that it had no connection with the territorial claims of states. The life of the experiment was less than a decade. But it transplanted to the middle Susquehanna country a touch of the old world: its language, its customs, its philosophy and its tragedy.
The first rumblings of the French Revolution in 1789, brought fear to the hearts of royalists in general. Upon them the terror finally vented its hideous wrath. Leaving their King a virtual prisoner at NEHS ER the hands of a hungry, bloodthirsty Parisian mob, they found in flight the IOGA POINT only avenue of escape which separated them from violent death. It has been TOWANDA ANDING STONE IM HOMETO FERRY estimated that some seventy thousand NE O WYALUSING LAD of the nobility and no less number of USHORE APORTE loyalists escaped through the French OWILKES-BARRE BRANCH frontiers, some to England, many to the French colony on the island of Hayti and O CATAWISSA still others, as ships were available, to the O NORTHUMBERLAND United States. Those who found refuge in America had learned much of the country and its friendliness for France, through French officers who had offered andsns PHILADELPHIA HARRISBURG their swords to General Washington DELAWARE and the cause he represented in the stir- RIVER ring days of the American Revolution.
Two of the most distinguished of these refugees were destined to share in the founding of Asylum and, by what seemed a strange turn of fate, were to concern themselves with the Susquehanna country.
MAP OF UPPER SUSQUEHANNA Showing Location of Asylum. (Courtesy of Louise Welles Murray.)
Viscount Louis Marie de Noailles* and Antoine Omer Talont had reached Philadelphia in 1792, and together laid plans for taking care of those of their countrymen already here, as well as those who might seek refuge on our shores, by providing an asylum wherein those who suffered a common fate, might work out a destiny in keeping with the best traditions of France. It was not until the arrival, late in the same year, of John Keating}, an Irishman by birth, but a former officer of the French army, forced to leave San Domingo as were other colonists there, by the uprising of the blacks, that these plans began to mature. One of Keating's companions, the Marquis de Blacons, acquainted the two emigres with Keating through the medium of a letter of introduction from Rochambeau, under whom de Noailles had served in an earlier revolution. Talon was a man of considerable means, and the three negotiated with Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolution, and John Nicholson, a merchant of Philadelphia, for the sale of lands suitable to the enterprise.
Together the five afterwards secured warrants of survey to almost a mil- lion acres of land, stretching from the west bank of the Susquehanna in the
*The VISCOUNT DE NOAILLES, called, getterally, by his American neighbors, "The Count," born in Paris, April 17. 1756, was the second son of Philippe de Noailles, Duke of Mouchy, a Marshal of France and soldier of some renown, guillotined, June 27, 1794. The Viscount, whose wife was sister to the wife of General Lafayette, was bred to the pro- fession of arms, and was remarkable for his knowledge of military tactics, and the high degree of discipline acquired
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neighborhood of Standing Stone, southwesterly through what are now Bradford and Sullivan counties, into Lycoming.
In the fall of 1793, two agents of the promoters, Charles Felix Bui Boulogne and Major Adam Hoops, then residing at Westchester, were sent forward to select a location for the colony. The party reached Wilkes-Barré August 27, 1793, and immediately called upon Judge Matthias Hollenback, to whom Robert Morris had addressed the following letter, under date of August 8th, at Phila- delphia :
"Should Mr. Boulogne find it necessary to purchase provisions or other articles in your neighborhood for the use of himself and his company, I beg that you will assist him therein, or should you yourself supply him, and take his drafts on this place, you may rely that they will be paid, and I hold myself accountable. Any services it may be in your power to render this gentleman or his companions, I shall be thankful for."
From Wilkes-Barré northward, the country was familiar to Major Hoops, who had been an officer in the Sullivan Expedition four years before. Opposite the mouth of Rummerfield creek, about midway between Wyalusing and Standing Stone, on the west bank of the river, was a plain containing some two thous- and acres, then known as "Shewfeldt's Flats." The soil was fertile and with the bending river sweeping majestically along two sides of it, the place was one
by the troops of his command, so that he was considered one of the best colonels of his time. He came to the United States under Rochambeau, in 1780, and was among the most distinguished of the young French officers in the army of Washington, by whom he was, a number of times, complimented for his bravery in Gen- eral orders. At the battle of Yorktown, 1781, he was commissioned to receive, on the part of the French, the surrender of Cornwallis, and negotiate the terms of capitulation.
On the conclusion of peace he returned to France, where, as a reward for his services, he was offered a promotion which he refused. At the epoch of the Revolution he accepted its principles, and was counted among the most zealous defenders of the popular cause. He was a deputy of the nobility to the States General, May, 1789, from the bailiwick of Nemours, and subsequently a member of the National Assembly, where, on the 4th of August, that year, he proposed those cele- brated acts by which the whole Feudal sys- tem, with its long train of ahuses and privi- leges, was abolished. He exerted a powerful influence in military affairs, and was active in the re-organization of the army and Col- onel of the regiment of the Chasseurs d'Alsace, and Field Marshal commanding at Sedan. At length, in common with all true Republi- cans, be fell under the displeasure of Robes- pierre, by whom he was condemned to death and his property confiscated. He resigned his command May, 1792, and fled to Eng- land, thence came to the United States, and took up his residence in Philadelphia, where his former active service in the Ameri- can Revolution brought him into intimate relation with the leading men of the country. From recently discovered correspondence of de Noailles with the family of "Quaker Town" Robinson, in whose home he was quartered during his stay at Newport, as re- corded in Bulletin 42, Newport Historical Society, October, 1922, a letter written in the fall of 1793, gives the following interesting data on the venture at Asylum :-
LOUIS MARIE, VICOMTE DE NOAILLES. (Courtesy Louise Welles Murray.)
"Since my arrival in this country I have made a purchase of 500,000 acres of land in the state you have adopted (Pennsylvania). I have not purchased such an immense quant ty of uncultivated land to make a speculation on it and resell with advantage. My intention has been to prepare an exile to those of my countrymen who, disgusted of the horrid scene which took place in France, will forever abandon the theatre which has produced it. My expectation has so well succeeded that we now are settling 40 French families in easy circumstances and 50 German. Had we accepted everybody who have offered, should have not found land enougb, but we avoid to receive in our society every people of violent disposition, who, always discontented in society, indispose the people they live with. Our manners will be soft, our conversation animated, our labor active, we will be the French you have known at Newport and not the present nation."
De Noailles never returned to France after the abandonment of Asylum, He lived at Philadelphia until 1803, from which point he re-entered the French service with the rank of Brigadier General and accepted a command under Rochambeau in San Domingo. He was mortally wounded in an engagement with a British corvette off the coast of Cuba, January 4, 1803. His soldiers, by whom he was dearly beloved, encased his heart in a silver box which they attached to their colors.
HOMER TALON was born in Paris, January 20, 1760, of one of the most illustrious families of the French magis tracy. At the age of sixteen he was accepted as an advocate, and was civil-lieutenant, or advocate-general, at the
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of considerable natural beauty. This site was chosen as most suitable for the purposes in mind .* The Susquehanna Company had previously made a survey of both sides of the river at this point, and the territory desired was found in possession of those who held Connecticut titles to the soil. In order to avoid title disputes, then so common throughout the district, it was deemed advisable to have Judge Hollenback secure deeds from the Connecticut settlers, while Mr. Morris undertook to secure the neces- sary titles from Pennsylvania claimants.t
In October, 1793, most of the transfers of property desired had been made to the promoters and, under direc- tion of Mr. Boulogne, pre- parations were at once begun toward shaping the tract in readiness for the oncoming refugees. A town plot was surveyed after the elaborate fashion of French engineers, and the name Asylum, which · is still retained, was given the
JOHN KEATING (Courtesy Louise Welles Murray.)
Chatelet when the revolution of 1789 broke out, and where he did his duty as a just and courageous magistrate, and was distinguished for his fearless and unflinching defence of the royal prerogative. For this he was accused and im- prisoned, but the accusations against him could not be sustained and he was discharged. He was appointed deputy substitute from Chartres to the National Assembly, but never took his seat. The next year he was compromised in the flight of Louis XVI, arrested and imprisoned for a month, when he was released. He then became one of the faithful advisors of the king. with whom he held frequent conferences, always at night, and labored earnestly to attach powerful and influential friends to the royal cause. It is known that the unfortunate monarch contemplated appointing him keeper of the Privy Seal, but was so bitterly opposed by some who were in close alliance with the crown that he desisted. The king, however, as a mark of personal friendship and confidence, presented him with a diamond studded box with his portrait on the lid and with this autograph inscription: "Given by the King to M. Talon, Sept. 7, 1791." He wasagain compromised by a letter found in the famous "Iron Chest," and ordered to be arrested by the Revolutionary Assembly. He managed to keep himself secreted from the police for several months, part of the time in Paris and part of the time at Havre.
At this time he became acquainted with Bartholomew Laporte, who had been a prosperous wine merchant in Spain. A decree of the Spanish government, banishing all French subjects and confiscating their property, had left Laporte penniless and anxious to make his way to America, as Talon proposed to do. At last, having an oppor- tunity to embark in an English merchantman, at Marseilles, Laporte concealed Talon in a wine cask, carried it on board and stowed the cask in the hold of the vessel, covering it with charcoal, Suspecting that Talon was on board, soldiers searched the vessel, but without success. On reaching England, Talon secured passage to America for himself and Laporte, the latter becoming Taloo's confidential agent and trusted land steward in extensive American ventures.
In Philadelphia, Talon kept open house for his distressed countrymen, and when the settlement at Asylum had been determined on, he became one of its active promoters, and the general manager of the business there. He re- turned to France under the Directory, when, in 1804, he was engaged in a royalistic plot, for which he was transported to the Isle St. Marguerite, and did not obtain his liberty until 1807. His mind began to fail under the pressure of re- peated privations and disappointments, and he died at Grez, August 18, 1811, in the fifty-second year of his age.
#See "Keating and his Forbears", Records American Catholic Historical Society; Vol. XXIX, p. 4, December, 1918.
*Please do not ignore the fact as always stated by Bartholomew Laporte, Sr., that the incentive to this purchase was to provide an asylum for Marie Antoinette. Recently I have learned that at this period Capt. Swan, a Nova Scotia sea capta in, well acquainted in Paris, brought to the Coast of Maine a ship load of furniture and draperies from the Tuileries for the use of Marie Antoinette, if she escaped. She was beheaded about the time he landed. He built a house at Docchula "in imitation of one he had seen in France, furnishing his parlor with the Queen's belongings causing a facetious wag to make this sad puu-the guillotine got their heads and Capt. Swan got their trunks." From a footnote added to the original MSS. by Mrs. Louise Welles Murray.
¡Those who claimed Pennsylvania titles to the property, under pateots of 1775, as discovered by abstracts of title made recently by John Biles, were the following :- Archibald Stewart, William Nicholson, David Liasay, Robert Stevens and John Bowm or Boehm.
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carefully plotted acreage .* The original plot of Asylum was lost for many years, and without its tracings as a guide, inuch of error had crept into the writings of those whose pen had from time to time been tempted with depictions of the strange colony which became so closely associated with the history of Wyoming.
A study of the text of the map, which with other cuts relative to Asylum, is reproduced by courtesy of Mrs. Louise Welles Murray, author of "The Story of Some French Refugees and Their Azilium," second edition published 1917, indicates that the width of five intersecting streets of the plot were sixty-six feet, while a main avenue, one hundred feet in width, extended eastward to the river through a market place, marked in 1916 by a boulder and tablet suitably inscribed.
At the river entrance to the main street was a ferry to the Sullivan road, on the opposite bank, and wharves for the loading and unloading of Durham boats, which furnished a means of transportation to Wilkes-Barré.
While these streets are now mere boundaries between farms, the Rev. David Craft was able to identify the location of the "Queen's House", the com- munity brewery and other buildings associated with the enterprise, prior to reading a second paper on the facinating history of Asylum, before the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, November 14, 1902, and recorded in Volume VIII, pages 46-86 of the records of that Society.
On the plot were surveyed some four hundred "house lots" each a half acre in extent, while toward the mountains, as was the case in the original survey of Wilkes-Barré, were plotted outlots, varying in extent from three to forty acres. Resembling the Wilkes-Barré survey also, a strip of land along the river front, was left to common use, as was a square or market place, of some two acres in the center of the plot.
Mr. Boulogne, who seems to have acted as general manager of the enter- prise at the start, remained on the ground through the fall of 1793, and the work of construction of new homes proceeded well into the winter, so as to be ready for arrivals in the early spring of 1794.
A large number of masons, carpenters and laborers were taken from Wilkes-Barré for the task. Trees were felled, clearings were made, cellars dug and walled and two story houses of hewn logs with shingle roofs were erected along the plotted streets. The drain on the finances of Judge Hollenback, who was called upon from all sides for assistance, was admitted by that gentleman to be considerable. He financed the purchase of lands to an extent of more than $2,000 and furnished such construction supplies as were needed by boat; some five days being necessary for the voyage up the river. Years later, after Robert Morris had become bankrupt by reason of this and other similar speculations on a large scale, Judge Hollenback still held claims amounting to several hundred dollars against the then deserted colony, which he sought to have liquidated by the sale of lands whose title remained in the Company.
*This map had been traced to the possession of the late C. L. Ward of Towanda, Pa., whence nothing further could be ascertained. The library of Mr. Ward had come into the possession of Lafayette College, his personal effects sold at public auction, and it was supposed the old map was irretrievably lost. Its recovery is due to the persistent energy of Mr. John A. Biles of Homet's Ferry, Pa., a land surveyor and civil engineer, and an antiquarian of no incon- siderable ability. Mr. Biles, having occasion to call upon Col. John A. Codding, of Towanda, the conversation turned upon historical matters, when Col. Codding remarked that he had a hook-case bought at the auction of C. L. Ward's personal property. This led to a more careful examination of the contents of the desk, and lo! at the bottom of a drawer was found the long lost and much sought for French map of Asylum, with the inscription written across the back of it: "Original map of the old French Town of Asylum, from Hon. John Laporte, 1861." See Kraft's "The French at Asylum."
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The arrival of some of the refugees in November, when they were least expected and when no preparations had been made to receive them, did not contribute to furthering the work, nor did it improve the temper of Mr. Boulogne.
On the 30th of November, Mr. Boulogne wrote: "Mr. Dupetit Thouar* with all his hands arrived here yesterday, and also Mr. Periault." Of how many
ARISTIDE AUBERT DUPETIT THOUAR (Courtesy Louise Welles Murray.)
the party consisted we are not told, but that the houses were not ready for them is certain, for in a letter to Mr. Hollenback, he is asked to send up a number of
*ARISTIDE AUBERT DUPETIT THOUAR, or the "Admiral," the name by which he was most frequently known by the people about Asylum, was in many respects the most remarkable man in the settlement. He was born in 1760, edu- cated in the military school of Paris, and became Post Captain in the French army. Of a frank and generous disposition, and fond of adventure, he was very popular with his companions at school and in arms. He was in the French naval service during a war with England, and after the peace, was engaged in cruises to England and elsewhere. Later he became greatly interested in the fate of the missing navigator, La Perouse, and at great personal expense and sacrifice he fitted out an expedition to find the unfortunate adventurers. He sailed in September, 1792, hut had hardly began his voyage when a fatal malady broke out among his men and carried off a third of them, which determined him to put into the nearest harbor-the island of Ferdinand de Noronha. Here the Portuguese seized his vessel, arrested and sent him a prisoner to Lisbon, where he underwent a captivity of some duration. Immediately on his release he came to America, where, being acquainted with M. de Noailles, he was induced to come to Asylum. His fine spirit, genial temper. benevolent disposition and chivalrous bearing, made him heloved and respected by all who knew him. None of the French people are so well remembered, and of none are so many anecdotes related as of the "Admiral." While at Asylum he was the guest of Mr. Talon. Disdaining to be the idle recipient of his host's bounty, at his request a lot of four hundred acres of land, where the present borough of Dushore now stands, was assigned to him. Single handed literally (he had lost an arm in an attack upon a pirate ship) and alone, several miles beyond any other clearing, in a dense unbroken wilderness, near what has since been called the "Frenchman's spring", he built a rude shelter and com - menced his clearing. A number of years afterward, the late Hon. C. F. Welles. of Wyalusing, in company with Mr. John Mozier, the owner of the tract, discovering his clearing, and knowing the history of this remarkable man and his courageous enterprise, suggested "Dushore," the common pronunciation of the Admiral's name by American's, as an appropriate name for the new village then just springing up, a name which it has ever since horne.
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