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 97
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"God Save the United States!"
1716
Samuel Erwin and John Milroy, of Northampton County, Pennsylvania, were appointed, respectively, First and Second Lieutenants of the company. In July, 1799, thirty men,* under command of Lieutenant Erwin were marched to camp, in New Jersey, and later they were joined by Captain Bowman and Lieutenant Milroy, with the remainder of the company. They were ordered to Union Camp, New Jersey, and there were attached as the 3d company to the 11th Regiment, U. S. Infantry, commanded by Lieut. Col. Aaron Ogden,t of Elizabethtown, New Jersey.
Pennsylvania's quota of the 80,000 troops raised for the war, under an Act of Congress passed in 1798, was 10,684, the number of troops apportioned to Luzerne County being 166. Major General Thomas Craig, of Montgomery County commanded the second division of Pennsylvania's quota, Major General John Gibson, of Allegheny county, the third division and Major General William Irvine, of Cumberland County, commanded the first division and was also Com- mander-in-Chief of the state's forces.
It was to the latter division that Luzerne's quota of troops was assigned.
Captain Bowman's# company remained in camp until September, 1780, when owing to a change in the attitude of France, and the resumption of diplo- matic relationships between the two countries, the provisional force was dis- banded, and the company returned to Wilkes-Barré for muster out.
*Captain Bowman furnished a list to the Wilkes-Barre Gasette of the men of his Company who marched from Wilkes-Barre, in August, 1799, under command of Ist Lieutenant Samuel Irvine. This list, published August 13th, is as follows:
Ampfurt, Geo.
Curtis, David, Sr. Clair, Francis
Langley, William
Baley. James
Davis, Jonah
Millar, Samnel
Barns, Low
Downing, Aaron
Owen, Benjamin C.
Crosier, Renben
Ford, Isaac
Perino, Peter
Cuthbert. John
Gallentine, George
Staples, James
Conklia, Jonathan
Holleaback, John
Trusdale, John
Curtis, David
Harris, Asa
Vorace, John
Conaway, Chas.
Hayne, Thomas
White, Ephraim
Cameron, Archibald
Haynes, David
Weissenfeltz, John
A muster roll of the Company, hearing date of June 14, 1799, contains the following names not mentioned by Captain Bowman as original members of the Company who left Wilkes-Barre:
Mervy. Joho
Tompkins, Ichabod .
Manning, Solomon
Fiske, Thomas
Agerston. James
Browa, Steven
Landon, David
Stark, Joha
Bayley, Steven
Horton, Samuel
Holdren, Joseph
Evans, Samuel
Nash, Azos
Melntire, James
Wigton, Samuel
Hazzard, Benjamin
Charles, Joho
Point. Thomas
Hullet, Benoni
Webber, Jonathan
Hadgins, Thomas
Jenings, Benjamin
Ellis, Joha
Quick, Thomas
Bowles, Charles
Gale, Israel
Walterman, Thomas
Ayer. David
Harris, James
Wright, Thomas
Hathaway, David
Lewis, James
Jane, David
Shaw, John
Curtis, David
Lake, James
Sage, Daniel
Cownover, Jacob
Kingsley, Wareham
Farman, Daniel
Weeks, Luther
Robison, Walter
Thompson. Elias
Thomas, Moses
Tullte, William
Clarke. George
Hunter, Phillip
Ritchey, William
Deshler, George
Andre, Peter
Walker, James
Trucks, George
Underwood, Phineas
Wickiser, Isaac
Perry, Godfrey
Williams, Peter
Evans, Joha
Hunter, Henry
Buck, Renben
Wheeler, Jacob
Sumerlaio, Hugh
Harris, Samuel
Moreover the muster roll indicates that the following aine men who left Wilkes-Barre were not members of the Company on June 14, 1799:
Ampfurt, George Barns, Low Conaway, Charles
Curtis, David, Sr.
Clair. Francis
Cameron, Archibald
Cuthbert, John Millar, Samuel Weissenfeltz, John
TAARON OGDEN, was hora at Elizabethtown, N. J., December 3rd, 1756. He graduated from Princeton College in'1773. In the Spring of 1777, he received a commission in the First New Jersey regiment. In 1779 he was a Captain in[this regiment, which was commanded by his brother, Col. Matthias Ogden, and he accompanied General Sullivan's expedition to the Wyoming Valley and southern New York as an aid to General Maxwell. He served in many staff positions during the war, with Generals Maxwell and Lord Sterling, received great commendation for services at the siege of Yorktown and was, after the war, a United States Senator and then Governor of New Jersey. He died in 1839.
+"SAMUEL BOWMAN was born at Lexington, Massachusetts, December 2, 1753, the eighth child of Capt. Thaddeus Bowman. He was one of the minute-men on Lexington Common, April 17, 1775, when they were fired upon by the British troops. The next month, as a drummer in Capt. John Parker's Lexington Company of Massachusetts militia, he was in service five days at Cambridge by order of the Committee of Safety. In June, 1775, as a private in the same company, he was again in service at Cambridge.
"Early in 1776, Samnel Bowman eulisted as a private in Capt. John Bridge's Company of Col. Eleazar Brooks' regiment of Massachusetts infantry in the Continental service, and in March, 1776, was stationed with his company at Roxbury, Massachusetts. His term of service in this organization expiring in the latter part of 1776, he immediately enlisted in Capt. Abraham Watson's company in the 3rd Massachusetts Regiment, Continental Line, commanded
Parker, William
Allan, William
Decker, William
Lovell, John
Blakesly, Amaziah
1717
by Col. John Greaton. Soon thereafter he was promoted Sergeant, and some months later was appointed Sergeant Major. "Upon the recommendation of Col. Greaton, Sergeant Bowman was commissioned Ensign by the Massachusetts Council March 4, 1780, and was assigned to Capt. J. Summer's Company of the 3d Regiment
"In September, 1780, Ensign Bowman was with his regiment in camp at Tappan, on the Hudson River. On the 23rd of September, Major John Andre, the British spy, was captured aud brought into the American camp at Tappan Having heen tried, convicted and sentenced to be hanged on October 2, 1780, Major Andre met his fate at Tappan on that day. During the last twenty-four hours of Major Andre's life Ensign Bowman was one of his special guards and was one of the two officers who marched arm in arm with him to the place of his execution. A year or two before his death Samuel Bowman wrote an interesting account of the last hours of Major Andre.
"April 22, 1782, Easign Bowman was promoted to a lieutenancy in the Ist Massachusetts Regiment, Continental Line, commanded hy Col. Joseph Vose, which promotion was approved by the Massachusetts Council July 2, 1782. Lieutenant Bowman became a member of the Society of the Cincinnati soon after its organization, May 13, 1783. "Upon the conclusion of peace between the United States and England, and the disbanding of the Continental army, Lieutenant Bowman returned to his home at Lexington, where he remained until the latter part of 1786, when he removed to the Wyoming Valley, and settled on a tract of land just northeast of the Village of Wilkes-Barre, which still bears the name of Bowmau's Hill. Th s tract or plot, which contained between three and four acres of land, lay at the northwest corner of the present North Main and West North Streets in the City of Wilkes-Barre. Originally it formed a part of what was denominated the "50-acre lot" in the Susquehanna Company's survey of the lauds lying within the bouads of the township of Wilkes-Barre. Ia 1773, this four-acre plot was set apart by the proprietors of the township for a public burial ground, but was used as such for only a short time.
"Near the northeast corner of this plot, on the northwesterly side of Main Street, about four hundred and thirty feet from North Street, Lieutenant Bowman erected a modest frame house for his occupancy, and to it, in November. 1787, he brought his bride, Eleanor Ledlie, daughter of William and Elizabeth Ledlie, of Philadelphia. A few years later Lieutenant Bowman became the owner of some five hundred acres of land lying near his home-lot chiefly on the easterly side of Main Street-and in 1810-1811, he huilt a new dwelling house on his home lot, some two hundred feet nearer North Street than his original house stood.
"In 1794, during what is known in Pennsylvania history as the "Whiskey Insurrection," Samuel Bowman raised a company of light infantry at Wilkes-Barre, and marched thence in command of the same, about October Ist, to join the corps of Pennsylvania militia which had been organized and ordered into service by direction of the Governor of the Commonwealth to quell the "Insurrection."
"In the year 1797, the difficulties between the United States Government and France, reached a point a little short of war. In 1798 additions were made to the regular army of the United States, and further additions were provision- ally authorized. General Washington was appointed Commander-in-Chief.
"January 25, 1799, Samuel Bowman was commissioned by President Adams, a Captain in the Provisional Army of the United States, and immediately he set about enlisting recruits and organizing a company to be attached to "Maj. John Adlum's hattalion of the 11th Regiment of Infantry."
"In July, 1799, Captain Bowman was ordered to march his company to Union Camp, New Jersey, where it was attached-as the 3d Company-to the 11th Regimeat, U. S. Infantry, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Aaron Ogden, Captain Bowman and his company remained in camp, in New Jersey until September, 1800, when, satisfactory arrangements having been made with France, the Provisional Army was disbanded. During the last two months of his military service, Capt Bowman was detached from his company and served as au aide on the staff of General Hamilton, who, on the death of General Washington in December, 1799, had succeeded to the command in chief. General Hamilton was at that time President of the Society of the Cincinnati, and, Capt. Bowman being a member of the Society a close friendship sprang up between the two officers, which ended only with the untimely death of Hamilton in 1804.
"Captain Bowman returned to his home and family at Wilkes-Barre, in September. 1800, and from that time forward until the day of his death he lived quietly on his farm ou North Main Street, except from 1807 until the latter part of 1811, when he occupied a small farm which he owned south of the horough of Wilkes-Barre. During this period he huilt his new home on North Main Street, and to it he removed in the latter part of 1811. There he died Juge 25, 1818.
"Capt. Samuel and Eleanor (Ledlie) Bowman were the parents of nine children, six of whom grew to maturity; and of these, two became prominent-one in the Church and the other in the Army. The fifth child was Samuel Bowman, Jr., bora at the old homestead in Wilkes-Barre, May 21, 1800. At the age of nineteen he began the study of law at Wilkes-Barre, and was admitted to the Bar of Luzerne County, August 8, 1821. Very shortly after his admission to the Bar he began the study of theology under the direction of Rt. Rev. William White, D. D., of Philadelphia, the first Protestant Episcopal Bishop of the diocese of Pennsylvania. He was admitted to the order of Deacons by Bishop White at Christ Church, Phila- delphia, August 30, 1823, and was ordained Priest, December 19, 1824
"In 1825, Mr. Bowman became Rector of Trinity Church, Easton, Pa., where, May 18, 1825, he was married to Susan, daugh- ter of Samuel Sitgreaves, Esq., of that town. In 1827 he removed to Lancaster, Pa., and became Assistant Rector of St. James' Church, succeeding to the Rectorship three years later. In 1847 he declined the bishopric of the Diocese of Indiana, to which he had been elected About that time Hobart College conferred upon him the honorary degree of S. T. D. In May, 1858, he was elected Assistant Bishop of Pennsylvania (of which diocese the Rt. Rev. Alonzo Potter, D. D., was then Bishop), and was consecrated at Philadelphia, August 25, 1858.
"Bishop Bowman died very suddenly. in Western Pennsylvania, August3, 1861. Hisremains were conveyed to Lancaster, where they now lie interred in St James churchyard. Nearby are two pine trees brought hy Dr. Bowmau from his father's old home in Wilkes- Barre, and plaated by him in the churchyard. A few years ago they were considered the largest of their kind in Lancaster County. "Dr. Bowman was twice married, his second wife being Harriet Rum ey Clarkson, a daughter of the Rev. Josepli Clarkson, Rector of St. James parish from 1799 till 1830. A daughter of Dr. Bowman became the w fe of the Rt Rev. Thomas H. Vail, the first Protest- ant Episcopal Bishop of Kansas.
BISHOP SAMUEL BOWMAN
"ALEXANDER HAMILTON BOWMAN, born at Wilkes-Barre March 30, 1803, was the sixth child of Capt. Samuel and Eleanor (Ledlie) Bowman He became a cadet at the United States Military Academy, West Point. July 1. 1821. and was graduated July 1, 1825, third in a class of thirty-seven. Among his classmates were: Alexander Dallas Bache (a great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin), who subsequently became President of Girard College, Philadelphia; Robert Anderson, who commanded Fort Sumter at the breaking out of the War of the Rebellion, and subsequently obtained the rank of Major General in the United States Army; Charles F. Smith, who subsequently became a Major Gen- eral in the U. S. Army.
"Immediately upon his graduation, Alexander H. Bowman was promoted Second Lieutenant in the Corps of En- gineers, and was detailed to serve at the Military Academy as Assistant Professor of Geography, History and Ethics, which position he held until June 15, 1826. During this period Jefferson Davis (class of 1828) and Robert E. Lee (class of 1829) were cadets at the Academy.
"Lieutenant Bowman spent the summer and autumn of 1826 at his home in Wilkes-Barre, and was then ordered to report for duty as Assistant Engineer in the construction of the defenses, and of the improvements of harbors and rivers, along the Gulf of Mexico. In this service he was engaged until 1834, when he was detailed as Super-
1718
intending Engineer of Military Roads from Memphis, Tenn., to the St. Francis River, Arkansas, and also of the improvements of the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers.
"Having been promoted First Lieutenant, Corps of Engineers, January 21, 1835, he was promoted Captain, July 7, 1838, and a few days later was detailed as Superintending Eogioeer of the construction of Fort Sumter, and repairs of the fortifications for the defense of the barbor of Charleston, South Carolina, and the preservation of their sites by the building of jetties, etc. In the performance of these duties Captain Bowman was actively engaged until the spring of 1851; meanwhile, in 1847, serving as a member of a special Board of U. S. Engineers appointed to devise means for protecting the site of Fort McRee, in Pensacola harbor, Florida.
"From May, 1851, to June, 1852, Captain Bowman was commandant of the corps of Sappers, Miners and Pon toniers at West Point, and Instructor of Practical Military Engineering in the Military Academy. During the latter half of the year 1852 and the greater part of 1853, he was Superintending Engineer of the improvements of Charleston harbor, and in charge of the survey of the harbor of Georgetown, South Carolina. At the same time be was a member of the Commission appointed to devise a project for the improvement of the Savannah River, Georgia.
"In 1853, he was appointed Chief Engineer of the Construction Bureau of the U. S. Treasury Department, and Superintending Engineer of the elaborate and extensive additions and improvements hcing made to the Treasury
COL. A H BOWMAN From original oil portrait at West Point.
Building in Washington The important dut es of theve offices occupied his time until early in 1861. Meanwhile. on January 5, 185", be was promoted Major in the Corps of Engineers, and during the years 1857-59 served as a member of the Light House Board of the Treasury Department.
"Major Bowman was appointed Superintendent of the Military Academy, West Point, early in 1861, with the rank and pay of Colonel. This office he filled until July 8, 1864, when he was relieved by order of Secretary of War Stanton. (He had been promoted Lieutenant Colonel in the Corps of Engineers March 3, 1863.) From August 5, 1864. to February 11, 1865, he was a member of the Naval and Engineer Commission for selecting a site for a U. S. naval es- tablishment on one of the western rivers; and from June 20, to November 11, 1865, he was a member of the Board of Engineers appointed to carry out in detail the modifications of the defenses in the vicinity of Boston, Mass.
"Colonel Bowman died at his home on 'Bowman's Hill,' Wilkes-Barre, November 11, 1865, in the sixty-third year of his age, being survived by his wife, two sons, and three daughters. His wife, who, at the time of her marriage in 1835, was Miss Marie Louise Colin, of Pen-acola, Florida, died in Wilkes-Barre, October 4, 1889 "
See, "The Story of Bowman's Hill" hy Major General C. Bowman Dougherty.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
BEGINNINGS OF SUSQUEHANNA RIVER COMMERCE-WAREHOUSES AND BOAT YARD ON THE RIVER COMMON-LAUNCH OF THE "JOHN FRANKLIN"- DURHAM BOATS AND RAFTING -EARLY GRIST-MILLS-HISTORY OF THE MINER-HILLARD MILL-ERECTION OF "THE MEETING HOUSE ON THE SQUARE"-FUNDS TO COMPLETE THE STRUCTURE RAISED BY THE WILKES-BARRE MEET- ING HOUSE AND BANK LOTTERY-THE LOT- TERY BRINGS FINANCIAL DISASTER- BELL OF "OLD SHIP ZION"-"OLD MICHAEL" THE SEXTON.
"Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity there are a hundred who will stand adversity."-Carlyle.
"Beautiful and salutary, as a religious influence, is the sound of a distant Sabbath bell, in the country. It comes floating over the hills, like the going abroad of a spirit; and as the leaves stir with its vibrations, and the drops of dew tremble in the cups of the flowers, you could almost believe that there was a Sabbath in nature, and that the dumb works of God rendered visible worship for his goodness. The effect of nature alone is purifying; and its thousand evidences of wisdom are too eloquent of their Maker not to act as a continual lesson; but combined with the instilled piety of childhood, and the knowledge of the inviolable holiness of the, time, the mellow cadences of a church bell give to the hush of the country Sabbath a holiness to which only a des- perate heart could be insensible."-Anonymous.
About the beginning of the nineteenth century and for many years there- after, the Susquehanna was to play an important role in affairs of the Wyoming Valley. In the Connecticut regime, the bateau of the more adventurous settler made lengthy trips along the river, either as a means of securing information of the enemy, or in the pursuit of trade limited to essentials of life. As relation-
1719
1720
ships with Pennsylvania became more firmly cemented, due to the gradual settlement of those disputes which had so often interrupted the commercial, as they did the social, life of the community, this trade began to take on new vigor. The Provincial Assembly of Pennsylvania had recognized the importance of the Susquehanna as early as 1771. In that year the river was declared a navigable stream, and certain sums from the provincial treasury were added to contri- butions volunteered from individuals and riparian settlements, to be devoted to the removal of snags, the clearing of sand bars and the opening of a channel ·which could be used during periods of low water.
The river, from Columbia to Wilkes-Barré, felt the beneficial results of appropriations under this act.
These early bateaux were of a nondescript class. The canoe was a favorite for rapid transportation, but was lacking in cargo space. The dugout or hol- lowed log was more substantial in structure. Frequently two of these dugouts were held together by a deck of hewn timber, thus permitting added space for crew and load. A skeleton of hickory, covered with skins, was not an uncommon form for the early Susquehanna boat. The development of the "Durham boat", so called from its being built at Durham, on the Delaware, marked an important incentive to commerce on inland rivers. According to Mr. J. A. Anderson of Lambertville, N. J., who published, in 1912, much information on the subject,
DURHAM BOAT ON THE SUSQUEHANNA.
under the title of "Navigation on the Upper Delaware", the first "Durham boat" was built in 1750. The standard boat of this type was some forty feet in length, eight feet beam and two feet deep. Both bow and stern of the Durham pattern were sharp pointed, and at each end were erected small decks for the steersmen.
Running boards for the polemen ran the length of the vessel on each side. A removable mast with two sails could be adjusted to secure the help of favor- able winds. These boats carried a crew of five men, four of whom, two on each side, manned the setting poles, one end of which placed securely on the bottom, the other resting against a shoulder of the pole man, gave a forward impetus to the boat as the four men walked along the running boards. The fifth man steered the craft from the after deck. When loaded, these boats carried about fifteen tons of freight and drew some twenty inches of water. Against the current,
1721
when the pole men bent to their tasks, the boat made an average headway of about one and a half miles an hour.
From the "Diary of an Old Susquehanna Settler," reprinted in the Springfield Republican, in September, 1901, is the following :
"The trip down the river on one of these Durham boats was full of excitement and interest. Sometimes the boat was allowed to drift at night with the current, and at other times it was sent down on a 'white ash breeze.' The men on the boat did not like the balmy zephyrs of this 'breeze,' as the chief part of it consisted of long ash poles. One end of the pole was shod with an iron cap. This was planted on the bottom of the river and the other end was placed under the arm of the man and he was invited to push. In this way the boat was poled along."
Just when the first of this type of boat appeared on the Susquehanna is a matter of conjecture. Wright states that Benjamin Harvey, Jr., was the owner of a Durham boat, in 1775, and that it made frequent trading trips on the lower river. As no roads then existed to Delaware river points over which any- thing on the order of a boat could be transported, it is probable that Mr. Harvey constructed his own boat along ideas secured from Delaware builders. Mr. Anderson suggests that some of the boats, among the several hundred which constituted the fleet attached to the Sullivan Expedition, in 1779, may have been brought over from Easton to Wilkes-Barré by ox teams. The water transport of General Sullivan was classed merely as "boats" in journals and diaries of officers of his army, and it was doubtless made up of any form of craft that could be built at Wilkes-Barré, or secured by other means, from Sunbury and other river points.
Whoever may have built the first boat of the Durham pattern on the Susquehanna, it can be set down that Philip Arndt* and his son John P. Arndt, were the first to engage in boat building on an extensive scale.
They, with Jacob Arndt, a cousin of Philip Arndt, had removed from Durham Cove to Easton, sometime previous to 1790, and established themselves in the mercantile business at that point. Through the extension of their trade, they became acquainted with possibilities of the Wyoming country and John . P. Arndt, at least, was a resident and tavern keeper at Wilkes-Barré in 1797. In 1800, he constructed a building on the northerly side of the tavern for use as a general store and about the same time built a large warehouse on the river bank, opposite the tavern.
This was the second warehouse that stood, on what is now the River Common, (in the early days of development of river traffic) and was a larger and more com- modious structure than the one owned by Judge Matthias Hollenback, which had been erected five years before and stood almost opposite the present Coal Exchange.t
In 1801, John P. Arndt was engaged in the boat building business with his father, the boat yard being located on the river bank, above Northampton street. In 1803, their business of boat building led to an ambitious experiment which induced many to believe that ship building, on a large scale, could be at- tempted at points far removed from tidewater. In July of that year they launched the "John Franklin", a schooner of about twelve tons, which successfully reached
PHILIP ARNDT, the only son of Abraham and Catherine (Reed) Arndt, was born near Soudertown, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, January 27, 1754. He later became a resident of Durham Cove, near Easton, where he was interested in boat building. About 1790, he was interested in the mercantile business at Easton with his cousin. Jacob Arndt and son John Penn Arndt until the latter's removal to Wilkes-Barre in 1797. Phillip Arndt followed his son to Wyoming in 1801, and superintended the hoat yard of Arndt & Arndt until his death, in 1804, at Wilkes-Barre. On November 3rd, of the latter year, records of Luzerne County indicate that William P. Arndt became adminis- trator of his father's estate.
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