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 IV > Part 38
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"He suggested that an association be formed to be known as "The Jenkins and Harding Cemetery Association,' and offered to transact all the legal business if Mrs. Richart would inake the copies of the papers. Thereupon a meeting of interested persons was held and money sub- scribed to build a fence. That was in 1865. Funds to the amount of $40 had been previously given toward the ground in the will of Jabez Jenkins but as the will stipulated that the fence must have a ground wall of brick and the new fence was of wooden pickets set on stone, with iron rods in the posts, the money so willed was not used. The picket fence is replaced by a substanial iron one, the expense of which was paid from a fund presented through the will of Mrs. Mary, widow of Col. Harris Jenkins, son of Col. John; excepting that portion of the fence on Linden street, which was paid for in part from the same fund and in part by contributions from Mrs. Garman and Mr. John S. Jenkins, a great-grandson of Judge John.
"The gift of this plot was made prior to the time of the battle, incorrectly called the" Wyo- ming Massacre" and is one of the few old cemeteries left undisturbed by the march of improve- ments in this section. The incorporators of the old 'Jenkins and Harding Association' are: G. M. Richart, Peter Polon, J. E. Myers, N. M. Breese, William Love, A. Polon, W. S. Holmes, J. J. Breese, John Jenkins, John J. Hyde, G. M. Harding and C. K. Corman.
Later in point of dedication, but first used at practically the same period as the Jenkins and Harding plot, was the private burial ground of the Hollen- back family, located on North Main Street in Wilkes-Barré along the opposite side of the road from the present cemetery of that name. In this were buried the first members of the Hollenback family who reached Wyoming, in addition to other relatives and friends.
This plot was surrounded by a picket fence and was kept in order by the family until all the bodies possible of identification were re-interred in the present Hollenback cemetery. Another family plot which was preserved until the present Hollenback cemetery was opened, was the Ross Burial ground, situate on a part of the William Ross farm. This plot, as described by Charles Miner, in 1837, "was on the right of the road as you came down the hill into Wilkes-Barré over the Hazleton turnpike."
The same writer in recording events in the year 1857, made this observation as to other private burial plots which came under his observation:
"From the center of Wilkesbarre within eight miles towards Pittston, there are no less than eight public and private places for the deposit of the de- parted. If there is one of the number where neglected spot is not written in legible characters, it has not been my fortune to see it."
One of these mentioned by Mr. Miner and still remembered by older resi- dents, was the Gore family burial grounds at Port Bowkley, near the present Henry Colliery.
As late as 1904 traces of it remained, but gradually the encroachments
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of mining have almost completely obliterated the plot. Most of the bodies were, however, re-interred in other cemeteries before its fate was sealed.
Still another of the older burying grounds, first dedicated as a family plot and later opened to public use, has been described by Mr. Tillotson in his Sunday Independent sketches as follows:
"The Baldwin Cemetery which is located in Exeter Township, is outstanding because of the great length of time over which its use has extended Interments were first made at the very start of the nineteenth century. At the present time, more than one hundred years later, it is still the burial ground for the people of that section.
"It lies along the river road in Exeter Township about two miles above Ransom Ferry. It is situated on the right hand side of the road when traveling up the river, on the land which slopes down toward the water and about a quarter of a mile from it.
"The grave stones are in an excellent state of preservation. This is partly due to the fact that there are but few trees there to collect moisture and shade the stones and also the continual use of the ground has brought constant care. The cemetery is fronted along the road by an ex- cellent brick wall. On the other sides, the cemetery is surrounded by cleared farm lands. It has been named after the Baldwin family, the earlier settlers of the section."
To the fact that it was a churchyard and that a church building has been maintained on a portion of the plot from earliest times, is due the preservation of the old Hanover Green Cemetery in Hanover Township as well as the Forty Fort burial ground in the Borough of that name.
Both of these have been mentioned on previous pages. A more unkind fate befell the churchyard of St.Stephens in Wilkes-Barré which, while not a rival of either of the others mentioned in point of early occupancy, was never- theless, a place of burial of many of the earlier settlers of Wyoming. One of the earliest burials recorded in this plot was that of Capt. Samuel Bowman, June 25, 1818. The march of progress and the gradual encroachment of an ex- panding building line in the business districts of the Borough combined to cause the abandonment of the St. Stephens plot, just as the same combination wrought the conversion to other purposes of the site of the Borough's first "grave yard" as it was officially called, and mention of which will follow in order.
In each of these plots, abandonment meant the removal of only a portion of the bodies interred. Many unknown and unmarked graves were untouched when the major removals were effected and their later discovery in excavation for buildings have startled the community upon more than one occasion.
When the parish building of St. Stephens was erected in 1828, it was upon a portion of the old burying ground. All unclaimed remains which were discovered during the work of excavating for the foundations were removed to a common lot in the City Cemetery, in North Wilkes-Barré. Such remains as were claimed by relatives were removed and buried in family lots, but some graves were evi- dently overlooked. There was no record of the burials in the churchyard other than that furnished by the stones then standing, which were as follows:
"Amos Sisty, Feb. 16, 1847; Samuel D. Bottle (or Bettle), Nov. 10, 1832; William R. Bottle (or Bettle), Dec. 21, 1847; Peleg Tracey, March 15, 1825; Dominique Germaine, Feb. 27, 1827; Mary W. Denison, Aug. 19, 1842; George B. Denison, March 11, 1843; Caroline B. Denison, July 1, 1853; Lucy E. Miner, May 15, 1842; Ebenezer Bowman, March 1, 1829; Horatio F. Bowman, Dec. 21, 1847; Esther Ann Bowman, July 21, 1848; Samuel Bowman, Jan. 25, '48; William B. Norton, July 20, 1842; James D. Eichelberger, Oct. 5, '52; John Ellsworth, March 10, 1823; Hannah Tracy, Sept. 28, '46; Ralph Peters, Nov. 11, '42; Thomas Davidge, Nov. 25, '49; Hannah Mcclintock, 1833; Ann E. Myers, May 27, 1848; Martha A. Myers, April 29, '38; John Myers, Jan. 25, '50; Elizabeth M. Emily, April 29, '37."
Again in 1897, when further excavations were made in the plot for the enlargement of the church edifice, numbers of other bodies were uncovered,
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and still again in 1924, when an addition to the parish house was in progress of construction, additional remains were discovered. So unmindful of the history of the church plot proved the generation of press chroniclers of the last named year, that one in particular, penned a rather lurid account of the discovery of the remains of Indians in the city's business district.
In the original town plot of Wilkes-Barre, surveyed in 1770 by Samuel Wallis at the direction of Major Durkee, no provision was made for a public burying ground within the surveyed limits. As has been seen (page 655) the original fifty "town lots" laid out at this time were all subsequently allotted, number 45 being drawn by Ichabod Downing. This lot, like all the others, with the exception of pentagonal shaped tracts which conformed to the peculiar shape of the "diamond" or Public Square, was rectangular in form and contained approximately four acres. Lot 45 extended along Center (now East Market) Street from Back Street (now Pennsylvania Avenue) to a point which is now the center of Washington Street.
In a northerly direction it followed the line of Pennsylvania Avenue to a point about half way to Union Street and then paralleled Market Street to the present Washington Street. This particular lot, after changing hands several times in the course of earlier years, finally reverted to the Susquehanna Company and by it was dedicated as a public burying ground.
The use of a major portion of Back Street (Pennsylvania Avenue) as a bed for the canal urged forward the Borough Councll to action in opening a new street in the long block stretching from Main Street eastward, just as the business development of West Market Street had demanded the opening of Franklin Street through an equally long block which extended westerly from Main Street to Front (now River Street.) By action of the council under date of April 25, 1842, it was ordained "that Washington Street commence at a post on the north side of South Street, on the lands of Gen. William Ross, equi- distant from Main and Back Streets, thence running parallel to said streets, crossing Northampton, Main and Union Streets and the Pennsylvania canal, and terminate on the south side of North Street in the lands of John Myers, said street being forty-nine feet in width and have sidewalks corresponding with Franklin Street."*
Thus were the boundaries of the public "grave yeard" finally and definitely fixed. Here it was that the earliest burials of the community were made, that of Zebulon Butler, Jr. a boy of six, being recorded in the Spring of 1773.
Aside from the burial plots of St. Stephens Episcopal Church and in later times, a small Jewish cemetery in North Wilkes-Barré, this was the exclusive
*It may be added in passing that a lack of foresight on the part of earlier councils in failing to establish additional intersecting cross town streets to break up the thousand foot blocks which parallel the Susquehanna, has resulted in imposing upon a later generation in 1925 some of the most difficult traffic problems which confront any city of Pennsylvania.
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public cemetery of the Borough until the organization of the Hollenback Ceme- tery Association in 1855. On June 4th of that year the corporators of this Associ- ation met and elected the following: George M. Hol- lenback, president; Isaac S. Osterhout, secretary; John N. Conyngham, H. M. Ful- ler, 7iba Bennett, W. J. Woodward and A. T. Mc- Clintock, managers.
The original area of this cemetery was fifteen acres, the same being a gift of Col. George M. Hollen- back with a single limitation that "a lot in same should be reserved for family use." To this acreage, the late John Welles Hollenback in 1887, added an additional five HOLLENBACK CEMETERY ENTRANCE acres by way of gift to the Association. By an advertisement in the Record of the Times on December 13, 1855, it was announced that the cemetery was open for the "choice and selection of lots." The first burial therein was that of the remains of George F. Slocum, March 26, 1856.
On May 21st of the same year, minutes of the Association record the issuance of one hundred twenty-nine permits for burial, the rather astonishing number being due to the abandonment of private plots for the purpose and the assembling of ancestoral dead in this more appropriate spot.
The "new" cemetery was the product of what had provoked years of dis- cussion as to the fate of the "old." The coming of the canal and its location along the easterly boundary of the common burying ground had turned the trend of building and business development eastward from the Square. The cemetery, cornering as it did at the intersection of two principle streets of this new develop- ment, impeded a natural progress in that direction and occupied a major portion of four acres of land whose value was much enhanced with the years. As early as 1849 the subject of the "grave yard" was a matter of printer's ink as well as of much oral discussion. The Advocate of February 14th of that year plunged squarely into the controversy. "Ought not" inquires this journal, "interments in the present common burying ground to be suspended as early as a new ceme- tery can be procured. Ought not suitable grounds in the outskirts of the town, where buildings and population are least likely to extend, be obtained either by a company or the public, to be laid out with convenience and taste? Would not the unoccupied portion of the present lot sell for money sufficient to purchase one twice or thrice as large?"
Council, by resolution dated July 2, 1856, provided "that on and after the first day of October, 1856, no burials shall be made in the public graveyards of any person, except the deceased be a resident of the Borough, and on and after
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January 1, 1857, no burials shall be made within the Borough limits." The municipality's neglect in caring for the abandoned plot then came in for a share of editorial attention and for the slurs of press contributors. The absence of a fence, the breaking of headstones by mischievous boys, the tendency to stray cattle to work further damage in the thien unsightly grounds all suggested elo- quent appeals to the Borough fathers from those accuated by sentiment.
These appeals, however, seem to have fallen upon deaf ears. Council- manic minutes of the time frequently record discussions as to the propriety of removing the bodies interred therein to some more suitable location, but fail to disclose the appropriation of public funds for the upkeep of the then existing grounds. In the summer of 1857, a committee of interested citizens felt im- pelled to solicit funds by popular appeal and the Record of the Times records the successful culmination of the task in its edition of July 29th as follows: "Our citizens will be pleased to learn that a neat fence now encloses the old grave yard. Great credit is due to those who have labored to accomplish it, and to the con- tributors. Now let the Borough put it in good order."
But the Borough did not seem inclined to "put it in order" then or later nor, if a brief reference in the same journal at a later date is worthy of notice, did the contributors to the fence project voluntarily settle with the contractor for the job of fence building. On August 4, 1858, Editor Miner rather caustically refers to the fact that H. B. Dennis, contractor, "has given written notice of offering for sale the new fence around the grave-yard to satisfy his claims of building it."
The ensuing ten years give every evidence of bickerings on the part of the public, perversity on the part of the Borough council and much detail of a controversy over the troublesome"grave-yard" that ended more or less happily, during the aftermath of the Civil war in removing all ex- ternal traces of the cemetery from the heart of a growing city.
Finally in December, 1868, the Borough council announced that it was negot- iating with Francis W. Hunt for somewhat over eleven acres of land adjoining the Hollenback burial ground A price of fifteen hundred dollars per acre was agreed upon for the plot and the purchase completed January 19, 1869.
Council, by subseque- quent legislation, provided a burial lot in what was offic- ially termed the City ceme- tery for each holder of title to a lot in the abandoned
LOOKING DOWN THE RIVER FROM SITE OF CITY CEMETERY, 1855
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plot and agreed to conduct the removal of remains, the erection in place of head- stones and, in effect, to restore in its newly acquired possession as well as possible, the arrangement and sequence of graves as they had formerly been known to exist in the long neglected Market Street enclosure. Lot holders in the latter, in their turn agreed to permit the Borough to take title to whatever equities still existed in their names. The Borough thereupon set about the task of the removal of some one thousand bodies which in 1870 still remained in the old burial place, some six hundred removals having been effected to Hollenback and other cemeteries before that time. The work consumed the greater part of two years, being practically completed when Wilkes-Barré was to take upon itself the added dignity of becoming a city of the Commonwealth.
On March 3, 1903, in referring to the death of Andrew Heim, the first sexton of the City cemetery, the Wilkes-Barre Record made the following in- teresting reference:
"The departure of Andrew Heim from the concerns and cares of this world removes from the service of the city its oldest servant. For more than a third of a century he had charge of the city cemetery, or since the opening of this burial ground in 1871. Every person about the city hall who came in contact with Mr. Heim has a kind word for him, as he was one of those public servants who attended strictly to the duties assigned him and never gave his superiors a chance to find fault w th the manner in which he performed his work. The burial permit book in the office of city clerk Gates gives silent evidence of the great amount of sorrow that Mr. Heim was in the presence of during the thirty-two years he spent as superintendent of the cemetery.
"In that time 11,613 burial permits have been issued for the cemetery It is hard to realize what a long silent caravan the souls represented by this number of permits would constitute. Of this number about 1,600 were for removals, leaving 10,000 as the number whose remains have found their last resting places in the City Cemetery. It is certainly a city of the dead, its popula- tion being almost as large as any of the cities in the county outside of Wilkes-Barre."
Events preceeding the outbreak of the Civil War have, insofar as they apply to the scope of this History, been chronicled. A narrative of some of the more general local activities that were coincident with the great struggle and were permanent rather than merely temporary in their effect seems in place at this point, reserving for another Chapter the story of the mighty conflict itself.
Among many war activities of the year 1862, the first organized charity of local scope was to come into existence.
The Home for Friendless Children was founded March 22, 1862. A society was organized by a few ladies at a meeting in a private parlor. They were instructed and encouraged by Miss Mary Bowman, sister of Bishop Bowman of Lancaster, who had founded a similar home in that city. A small frame house on South Street was offered the society rent free, by Mr. William C. Gildersleeve. A small amount of money was raised and a call made upon the public for contributions of anything that could be turned to account. Gifts of money sufficient to cover the salary of the matron for a year were received, and applications for admission were so numerous that at the end of three months the building, insufficient to accommodate any more inmates, was enlarged, the expense being met by private contributions. On April 11, 1862, the legislature legalized the proceedings of the institution and incorporated it under the name of "The Home for Friendless Children for the Borough of Wilkesbarré and the County of Luzerne."
The first board of trustees included: George M. Hollenback, president; Samuel R. Marshall and James D. L. Harvey, vice presidents; Agib Ricketts, secretary; William S. Ross, treasurer; Andrew T. McClintock, solicitor *; Dr. Edward R. Mayer, D .. Lathan Jones, Robert C. Shoemaker, Volney L. Maxwell,
"ANDREW TODD MCCLINTOCK was born in the town of Northumberland, County of Northumberland, n this State, on the second day of February, 1810, and was consequently nearly 82 years of age at the time of death. January 14, 1892. Hi- father, Samuel MeClintock came to America when eighteen years of age, having been born in County
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William M. Lewis, William Wood, Nathaniel Rutter, Sharp B. Lewis, William Swetland, Joseph Lippincott.
The first board of lady managers included: Mrs. W. C. Gildersleeve, directress; Mrs. James L. Blake, second directress; Mrs. V. L. Maxwell, secre- tary; Mrs. Ziba Bennett, treasurer; Mrs. G. M. Hollenback, Mrs. J. N. Conyng- ham, Mrs. A. T. McClintock, Mrs. S. D. Lewis, Mrs. Theron Butner, Mrs. J. Lawrence Day, Mrs. E. R. Mayer, Mrs. W. S. Ross, Mrs. Joseph Lippincott, Mrs. H. B. Wright, Mrs. S. E. Parsons, Mrs. C. E. Wright, Mrs. W. F. Dennis, Mrs. J. B. Stark, Mrs. J. D. L. Harvey, Miss Eliza B. Covell, Miss Harriet M. Waller, Miss Augusta L. Rutter, Miss Harriet N. Jones and Miss Hetty Wright.
Donegal, Ireland. He was followed several years later by his father and both lived and died in Northumberland, The father of deceased died in 1812, when thirty-six years of age. The inother of A. T. Mcclintock was Hannah . daughter of Col. Andrew Todd of Traffe, Montgomery County, who served in the Revolutionary War.
Mr. MeClintock was educated in the public schools and in Kenyon College, Ohio, of which Bishop Mellvaine was then president. Among his fellow students was Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War during President Lincoln's administration. He was a close student and made a brilliant record in the institution, from which he came thoroughly equipped with the most formidable weapon that has yet been suggested with which to battle through life. Stepping from college life with his diploma, he entered the law office of James Hep- burn, Esq., in Northumberland, where he took the first step in an occupation which he so honorably and success- fully pursued in Luzerne County, an occupation for which he seemed pecul- ilarly fitted. A year later he came to Wilkes-Barré and completed his law studies in the office of Hon. George W. Woodward. On August 8, 1836 he was admitted to the bar of this county upon the recommendation of the late Judge Conyngham. of Chester Butler and Volney L. Maxwell, who then con- stituted the examining committee, after having passed a highly creditable ex- amination. Mr. Mcclintock entered into a law partnership with his tutor and the firm prospered for two years. In 1839 Attorney General Ovid F. Johnson appointed him district attorney for Luzerne County, but public life was not to the liking of Mr. Mcclintock, and one year later he resigned the office and resumed his private practice, which. on account of the recognized ability of the man, was constantly growing. He was often importuned by his friends to run for office, but he courteously refused all offers of assistance in a political way and refused to allow his name to be used at any of the con- ventions.
In 1867, when Luzerne County was first granted an additional law judge, the unqualified choice of the people seemed to be A. T. McClintock. He was looked upon as a lawyer em- inently fitted for the position, one who would carry from the bar to the bench all the qualities that go to make a de- sirable judge. The following corres- pondence explains itself :
Wilkes-Barré, Pa., April 8, 1867: We, the undersigned members of the Democratic party of Luzerne County, are very desirous that Andrew T. McClintock, Esq., should become ad- ditional law judge of the Eleventh Judicial District, and we urge upon him to accept the position, should it be tendered him. We have the fullest confidence that he will be the choice of the Democratic party beyond all question, and we shall do all that may be necessary for us to do to secure his nomination
HON. ANDREW T. MCCLINTOCK, L. L. D.
It is simply unnecessary to speak of Mr. McClintock as a man and as a lawyer. He is known to every one. and he is without reproach, whilst his professional ability is acknowledged with profound respect here and elsewhere Stanley Woodward Howard Ellis D. R. Randall T. H. B. Lewis D. Rankin D. C. Cooley John Lynch George B. Kulp A. R. Brundage Gustav Hahn Charles Pike O. F. Nicholson Hendrick B. Wright D L. O'Neill Rufus J. Bell E. K. Morse C. F. Bowman Stephen S. Winchester Charles L. Lamberton G. R. Bedford
G. B. Nicholson E. L. Merriman
M. Regan C. L. Bulkeley
A number of leading lay Democrats and others also signed the petition.
A similar letter from Republicans was drawn up April 10 and was signed by Henry M. Hoyt. W. W. Lathrope. Andrew Hunlock, Garrick M. Harding, A. M. Barily, E. B. Harvey, V. L. Maxwell, W. W. Ketcham. W. P. Miner.
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During the war an arrangement was made with the state government by which soldiers' orphans were placed temporarily in the Home. The remuneration for their care enabled the managers to enlarge their corps of helpers and lay by a small sum annually, to form a nucleus to an endowment fund. In 1864 the Home became so crowded with soldiers' orphans that a larger building became an absolute necessity. A subscription book was opened and application made to the Legislature for an appropriation. The State promised $2,500 provided double that sum could be raised by subscription. At once four of the trustees, Messrs. G. M. Hollenback, W. S. Ross, William C. Gildersleeve and V. L. Max- well, subscribed $1,000 each. Others gave $500 each and many added smaller sums, thus securing the State appropriation and making it safe to commence building. The lot was offered at a very low price by Mr. Charles Parrish and Dr. E. R. Mayer, and the latter added as a gift an adjoining back lot for a garden. The building, a large brick edifice with ample grounds, on South Franklin Street, was completed and occupied in the autumn of 1866.
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