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 V > Part 18
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In 1926 the supervisors of Exeter Township were: L. B. Dymond, Ed. L. Brown, and W. J. Lewis. Number of taxables: 524. Assessed valuation : $381,886. President of school board: Archibald Kitchen. Four teachers, common school only.
Fairmount Township, which lies in the extreme northwestern part of Luzerne County, was part of Huntington Township until 1834. It is a farm- ing country, and has enjoyed a steady growth. Its population was 594 in 1840, 1,085 in 1880, and in 1900 it was 1,070. In the last decade, however, it has fallen back.
The first settler was probably Jacob Long, who came in 1792 and built a homestead in the south part of the township. The first settler at Fairmount Springs was Joseph Potter. Other early settlers were Charles Fritz, George Gearhart, Peter Boston, Joseph Moss. The first tavern-keeper was Gad Seward, who opened a public house, in 1818, at Fairmount Springs. In the days of stage-coaching along the Tioga Turnpike, his was a famous hostelry. Shadrach Lacock established a foundry in Fairmount Township in 1830, and there made the Lacock plow, which was so much in demand in its day. The first post office was at Fairmount Springs; it was opened in 1835, with J. C. Pennington as postmaster.
There are several villages in Fairmount Township. At the foot of North Mountain, which rises more than 2,000 feet from the Susquehanna Basin, is Red Rock. Mossville is the center of a prosperous farming group; so also is Fairmount Springs. Rittenhouse has about one hundred inhabitants and Kyttle about twenty-five.
In 1926, the supervisors of Fairmount Township were: C. W. Dohl, Har- vey Marshall, and C. H. Marshall. Number of taxables : 629. Assessed valu- ation : $296,105. President of school board: C. A. Dohl. Eight teachers. common school only.
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Fairview Township, which was created in 1889, is the youngest township of Luzerne County. It was taken from Wright Township, and its history spans more than a century and a quarter. Conrad Wickeiser, the pioneer settler, came with his ox-team in 1798. James Wright settled soon afterwards. As was usually the case, the pioneer years were spent mainly in lumbering, the necessity of clearing the land making lumbering the principal industry. There were many sawmills in the township, but James Wright's was probably the first. He was also the first tavern-keeper. Other early settlers were : Harvey Holcomb, Samuel B. Stivers, William Vandermark, John Hoffman. A schoolhouse was not built until 1840, and that was of logs. Charles Fine was the first teacher. Stephen Lee was the pioneer blacksmith and also the first storekeeper ; his place was near the Stivers' homestead in the northwest part of the township.
Fairview is aptly named. From Mountain Top, the principal village, one is able to get a perspective of enchanting beauty and inspiring industry. The natural beauty is not harshly marred by the artificial evidences of Pennsyl- vania's main industry : "in the distance is the valley, Wilkes-Barre, Ashley, Plymouth, Kingston, Dorrance, Bennett, Luzerne, Wyoming, Forty Fort, and the great coal breakers and their ever-ascending columns of steam."
Mountain Top is to all intents a railroad center. The incline coal road from the Wyoming Valley to the mountain top has its terminus at Mountain Top. Also, for many years, the two main lines, Lehigh and Jersey Central, have been forced by natural conditions to make their stations-Fairview and Penobscot-at Mountain Top to all intents terminal points, for, in ascending the steep gradient from the valley, all trains have to have extra power. These extra engines are uncoupled at the Top, and the journey continued under nor- mal power. The village of Mountain Top accounts for about four-fifths of the population of Fairview Township, and most of the inhabitants gainfully employed are railroad employees.
In 1926, the supervisors of Fairview Township were: Howard W. Snyder, John J. Roberts, Herman Weiss. Number of taxables: 699. Assessed valua- tion, $493,631. President of school board: F. H. Arbogast. Principal: B. L. Clark. Seven teachers, high and grade schools.
Foster Township, originally a part of Denison, owes its entity to the min- eral wealth that counterbalances a surface poverty. Its poor land would yield mneagre return for agricultural effort, but Asa L. Foster, who in 1854 began to explore below the surface of this barren region, found such encouraging evidences of coal deposits that mining machinery was quickly installed, and within a year 2,000 tons of coal had been mined.
Foster's operations were in the southwestern part of the township, at a place now known as Eckley; but the first settlements in the township were in the northeastern part. John Lines, the pioneer settler at Whitehaven, came in 1824. Thomas Morrison settled about three miles southeastward of him in 1840. The hamlet that took his name was at one time of greater importance than Whitehaven. Morrison operated saw and gristmills on Pond Creek, and employed much labor in lumbering. Joseph Birkbeck was the first settler in the Freeland District. He came in 1844, and built a house just north of the Freeland Borough line. His tract extended northward, and when mines were opened at Upper Lehigh, Mr. Birkbeck platted a village, which he called South Heberton. Upper Lehigh has absorbed most of the pioneer village. The former is a "company town"; it was platted in 1865 for the mining company, and the Upper Lehigh Company kept it almost wholly for its employees. A "company store" was opened in 1866, in which year actual production of coal began. Three years later the company built the Upper Lehigh Hotel. The
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village has about one thousand inhabitants. The Upper Lehigh Coal Com- pany still directs its industry, and the "company store" is still running.
There are several other active mining villages in the township. Near Jeddo, which is a borough of three hundred and sixty-four inhabitants, is the mining town of Eckley. It is a larger village than Upper Lehigh and owes its prosperity to the enterprise of the Coxe Brothers Company. Freeland is a borough within the bounds of Foster. Near Jeddo is Foundryville, where Merrick had his foundry; it passed from iron to coal, from a group of iron- workers to a mining community. Highland is a mining town of Markle inter- ests. Drifton, a community of more than two thousand, was the headquarters town of the Coxe interests. Mines, machine shops, railroads of the company had their directing impetus in or from Drifton. Sandy Run is another mining village.
In 1926, the supervisors of Foster Township were: Joseph Wargo, Peter Shambura, and John Jurballa. Number of taxables: 2,489. Assessed valuta- tion : $2,633,122. President of school board: William Bachman. Principal : H. E. Hoffman. Forty-one teachers, including five for high school.
Franklin Township, organized as such in 1843-from Kingston, Exeter, and Dallas townships-has a settlement history which reaches back to pre- Revolutionary years. The township is named in honor of Colonel John Franklin, one of the outstanding military figures of this region during the Revolution and the Pennamite troubles. Gideon Bebee is believed to have been the first settler, though this family soon moved away. Another aban- doned clearing was that of the Pease family. It adjoined that of Bebee, in the northeastern part of the township, and both families are believed to have been here before the Revolution began. Other early settlers include Ezra Olds and Michael Munson, who came in 1782; Captain Artemadorus Ingersoll, a veteran of the Revolution ; Abel Hall, Elisha Rogers, Elijah Brace, William Brace, Benjamin Chandler, James Hadersal, Thomas Mann, Alexander Lord, David O. Culver, Oliver Lewis, Josephus Cone, Amos Jackson, Robert Moore, Jacob Halstead, Benjamin Decker, Jona Wood. As settlement developed, the prominent families included the Winter, Badle, Corwin, Seward, Hallock, Durland, Casterline, Longwell, DeWitt, and Wintz. Walter Munson built the first sawmill on Sutton Creek, in 1808. About the same time Elisha Brace built the first and only gristmill, nearby.
The township center has always been at the village latterly known as Orange. Jacob Drake was the pioneer settler, and the hamlet was known as Draketown. As a post office it took the name of Unison. When Franklin Town- ship was organized, the village name became Franklin Center. The village of Orange has a population of about two hundred, and has always had a good general store, the trading place of a wide farming circle. The first tavern- keeper was Peter Hallock; the first physician was Dr. Skeels.
In 1926, the supervisors of Franklin Township were: Shay Lewis, David Emanuel, Fred Dymond. Number of taxables: 310. Assessed valuation : $351,005. President of school board: Robert Fink. Four teachers, common schools only.
Hanover Township has a larger population than any other, excepting Plains ; and, like Plains, Hanover is possessed of most interesting history. It was one of the original Connecticut townships, and its early history, inter- woven as it is with some of the most stirring incidents of Wyoming Valley life of pioneer days, is largely covered in the volumes written by Mr. Harvey, the talented historian who, in his devotion to Wilkes-Barre and the Wyoming Valley, conceived and began this work. And Plumb's "History of Hanover Township," published in 1885, will give the searcher far more Hanover history
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than could be logically attempted in any general Luzerne County work such as this is. Hanover Township is worthy of more space here, but the space is not available, so brevity must govern this review.
The pioneers in Hanover Township had already made history in southern Pennsylvania. Among the settlers were strong-minded self-reliant men of Scotch-Irish antecedents, men who, in the time of Indian unrest that followed the French and Indian War, had relied more upon themselves than upon the government for protection. The "Paxton boys," of Lancaster County, had dealt so sternly with the Conestoga Indians in 1763 that there was peace on the Conestoga, and that part of the Susquehanna, for many years after. Cap- tain Lazarus Stewart and his company of forty-most of whom were "Paxton boys"-moved from Lancaster County into the Wyoming Valley in 1770, and fought for Connecticut against the Penns. Fort Durkee was stormed. It was retaken by the Penn forces, but the determined "Paxton boys," led by Captain Stewart, again recaptured the fort in December, and expelled the Penn forces from the valley. For their services to Connecticut, Captain Stew- art and his followers were granted the tract of land which became Hanover Township. The township area embraced all that lay between Wilkes-Barre Township and the Lehigh River-an area of five square miles, including most of the land now within Hanover, Wright, Fairview, Bear Creek, Buck, Deni- son, and Foster townships.
The tract, under township organization, was divided into three parts, each part, or division, having thirty-one lots of four hundred and thirty acres each. Twenty-eight of the lots in the first division were granted to Captain Stewart and his men; the other three lots, as was the custom in New England, were reserved for public use. In the Wilkes-Barre records are the minutes of a town meeting held October 19, 1772, at which it was voted: "That Captain Lazarus Stewart and William Stewart are deserving the town of Hanover, agreeably to the votes passed at the general meeting of the proprietors of the Susquehanna Company, held at Windham, January 9, 1771." The lands were surveyed, and the first division allotments made in 1771 or 1772. The second division was made in 1776 and the third in 1787.
The first allotment, or division, established eighteen men as the original proprietors, the allotments being made as follows: Captain Lazarus Stewart, lots 1, 2, and 3; Lazarus Stewart, Jr., 4 and 5; John Donahow, 6; David Young, 7; Captain Lazarus Stewart, 8; William Graham, 9; John Robinson, IO; James Robinson, II; Thomas Robinson, 12; Josias Aspia, 13: Hugh Caffion, 14; John Franklin, 15; Robert Young, 16; John Young, 17; William Young, 18; William Stewart, 19; Thomas Robinson, 20; James Stewart, 21 ; William Young, 22; Captain Stewart, 23 and 24; William Stewart, 25 ; Charles Stewart, 26; William Stewart, 27; Silas Gore, 28. The Stewarts, therefore, were granted thirteen of the twenty-eight lots. John Franklin and Silas Gore were from Connecticut, but the others were Lancaster County men.
Captain Stewart and his Hanover company performed prodigies of valor in the battle of Wyoming, July 3, 1778. The intrepid leader fell, with one- fourth of his men, battling heroically against enormous odds. All the houses of the settlement at Hanover were put to the torch. It is not surprising. therefore, that the township records for the first years have never since been found. Township records for 1776 are available, and show the second division of land. In addition to the "proprietors" already named in the first division, there were also in Hanover Township in 1776 several other families, the latter including the Hopkins, Campbell, Caldwell, Spencer, Bennett, Hibbard, Jame- son, Inman, Wade, Lasley, McKarrican, Espy, Line, and Pell families.
In 1796, Hanover had ninety-one taxables. This would indicate a total population of about four hundred and fifty to five hundred, in the region
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between Wilkes-Barre Township and the Lehigh River. Reduction of the territory of Hanover came in 1839 and a further reduction in 1853.
Mills were erected in Hanover, and on Mill Creek, about 1775. In 1789, the town voted that half of Lot 29 be given to Elisha Delano for sawmill pur- poses, and the other half to Frederick Crisman for tavern purposes. Both of these public conveniences were established.
Early in the nineteenth century roads were cut through the township, and in 1807 the Easton and Wilkes-Barre Turnpike was completed. Transporta- tion was by wagon road or by river until 1843, when the "iron horse"-the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad-crossed Hanover, from Wilkes-Barre to Whitehaven.
A postal service was begun in 1797, a postboy passing through Hanover weekly between Wilkes-Barre and Berwick. In 1820 Hanover had a popula- tion of eight hundred and seventy-nine. There were then in the township "120 dwellings, 4 gristmills, I clovermill and 16 unmarried men; 13 non- naturalized foreigners; 135 engaged in farming; 30 manufacturing, and one merchant." The Bloomery forge, then valued at $600, employed two men and used one hundred and fifty tons of bog ore-presumably in a year. The forge was built in 1775 or 1776, and was a profitable enterprise until about 1830, when it was possible to bring in iron ore by canal. In 1840 Holland "built his railroad from his mines at the mountain to the Hanover Canal basin." The Garrison Sterling and Shoemaker properties, sold to Samuel Holland in 1838, were the first tracts ever sold or bought in Hanover for mining purposes. The sale price then was $25 an acre; in 1850 coal lands had an average market value of twice as much, and the farmers were delighted to think that they were able to sell their stony farming acreage at so high a price. The farmers moved westward and the coal operators began their ventures-enterprises rudely shaken by the financial panic of 1857.
Hanover Township may be said to have gained its second breath in 1860, by which time the country was beginning to recover from the panic. There- after, coal mining became the mainstay of the people of Hanover. In 1878 "there were nine breakers in Hanover, Sugar Notch, Ashley, and Nanticoke, within the old township lines." Five years later, there were ten coal breakers. "Lands about the mines and their neighborhood for a distance of half a mile or more are generally uncultivated and thrown open to commons," wrote Henry Blackman Plumb in 1885. "In the whole township and the three boroughs, with a population of more than 12,000 in 1884, it is doubtful whether there are more than four blacksmith shops not connected with the mines or railroads, while in the early times it took one blacksmith to every 100 people, old and young." . . "Indeed, there is almost nothing made here now and nothing produced except coal. But of coal the production is very large and overshadows everything else." Historian Plumb bemoaned the probability that Hanover's "future history, while the coal lasts, will be merely statistical -the amount of coal she produces, number of men employed, wages, persons injured or killed in the mines, or the capital invested." Taxes forty years ago were so high that, as Plumb says, "no farmer can now own the back land and make a living on it and pay the taxes, insurance and repairs." Unfortunately, taxes now are higher, but there can be no doubt that the prosperity of this coal region is far greater than when it was a farming district.
Hanover is one of the four first-class townships of Luzerne County. It was promoted to this class on Febrautry 24, 1911. In 1926, the township com- missioners were : Joseph Fela, Thomas Finnegan, Harold Henry, John Manley, Frank Balasieszus, Reese Walters, Earl Rescora. Number of taxables: 8,923. Assessed valuation : $73,051,581. Supervising school principal: F. W. Nyhart. One hundred and forty-one teachers, including fourteen in senior high,
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eighteen in junior high, and seven special. President of school board, 1926: P. J. Lenahan.
Hazle Township was formed in 1839 from Sugarloaf Township, and was increased in area, at the expense of Butler, in 1856. It is the most southerly township of Luzerne County.
Probably the first settlement made in Hazle was a surveyor's camp, in 1804. when the turnpike road, part of which is now Broad Street, Hazleton, was being surveyed. The camp was within the borough limits of Hazleton. The earliest settlers in the township were: Anthony Fisher, Joseph Fisher, Casper Thomas, Conrad Horn, and Adam Winters, at what became known as Horn- town, just beyond West Hazleton. The first internal improvement was a sawmill erected on High Creek in 1810. Lumbering was good, but the land was not ideal farming acreage. The development of Hazle Township, there- fore, may be dated from 1836, when coal mining began.
By reason of its coal deposits, Hazle Township quickly advanced into sec- ond place in the county. The surface evidences of mining are not objects that enchant the nature lover, but the breakers and culm-piles that crowd the sky line of Hazle Township are impressive evidences of great industrial enter- prises. And wherever surface mining works confront the viewer, he may be sure of finding nearby a substantial active mining village. Jeanesville, about two miles south of Hazleton, is a place of thirteen hundred people. The vil- lage development followed the development of the Spring Mountain collieries. The winning of the coal was begun in 1845, when William Mullins opened the slope. The "father of the coal industry in the Hazleton District" was Ario Pardee, but one of the outstanding pioneer operators was J. C. Hayden, who took charge of the Spring Mountain Coal Company's mining operations in 1865, and subsequently leased them, building two new breakers. The com- pany, however, eventually sold the mines to the Lehigh Valley Railroad, and thereafter Jeanesville became to all intents a "company town." At that place are some large machine shops. Lattimer is a village of about two hundred people. Lattimer mines are still operated by the Pardee family, and these pioneers of mining still exercise a proprietary interest in the village. Sugar- loaf is a mining village developed by the Diamond Coal Company ; the village of Japan grew around Oakdale colliery. Harleigh is another mining town that grew with the mining at this point of the Big Black Creek Improvement Com- pany. The collieries are now owned by the Markles, who have had such prominent place among the operators of that region during the last half cen- tury. Beaver Brook, on the southern county line, Cranberry, Crystal Ridge, Stockton, Humboldt, Hollywood, Milnesville, Foundryville, Ebervale, and Drifton are all mining towns, some small, some of more importance. Stockton is a place of about one thousand inhabitants; Ebervale, like Foundryville, is a Markle town, and Drifton is the home of the Coxe family, so long identified with the coal mining industry in this district.
In 1926, the supervisors of Hazle Township were: James Julian, Andrew McNamee, and Leo Conohan. Number of taxables: 5,307. Assessed valua- tion : $), 127,053. President of school board: William Hale: School super- intendent: Joseph B. Grabris. Teachers: Ninety, including sixteen for high school.
Hollenback Township was settled in 1789, by a few German farmers who came from Northampton County. In 1796 the region, which was still part of Nescopeck Township, could count only ten taxables ; and these applied them- selves more to lumbering than to farming. Seventy years later, the townsmen were still employed mainly in lumbering. No less than six sawmills were then in constant use. The first sawmill was built on the Shortz place by a man
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named Craig. The first gristmill stood near the site of the du Pont Powder Mills (upper) on the Big Wapwallopen Creek. A tannery was built by Sam- uel Snyder on the creek, near where John Harter, in 1848, built the first frame house. The pioneer storekeeper was Amasa Shoemaker, who opened in 1825. In the same year Peter Goode opened a tavern-the first at Hobbie. He was the pioneer settler at Hobbie, which dates from 1815. This village is the township center. It became a post office town in 1852, with Henry Grover as postmaster. Hobbie has a population of only about one hundred, but it is an active trading center, having two stores, a hotel, a couple of mills, a garage, and a smithy. The Moyer and Hoch families operate stores, gristmill and hotel.
The supervisors of Hollenback Township in 1926 were: F. L. Eroh, E. F. Peters, and Arthur Peters. Number of taxables: 395. Assessed valuation : $232,824. President of school board: H. E. Bittenbender. Four teachers, common schools.
Hunlock Township was formed on January 8, 1877, from Union and Plym- outh townships. The pioneer settler, Boggs, found that Indians lived in the region, and that they had cultivated some of the open land. Boggs is supposed to have been a soldier of the Revolution, and it is believed that while he was away, his family was massacred by Indians, the friendly tribe of the neighbor- hood sharing the same fate. The second attempt by whites to settle the region was made in 1778 by Jonathan Hunlock and Edward Blanchard, at the mouth of the creek now known as Hunlock's. About 1790 Frederick and John Croop, also the Sorber family. Both families built mills, and had leading parts in subsequent lumbering. Other early families were the Miller, Case, Davenport, Cragle, Deit, and Brader. They were typical hardworking Germans. The Dodson family came in 1797, from the Plymouth settlement. Frederick Hart- man built a flouring mill in 1843, Leonard Ritchie a saw and feedmill in 1850. The Croop family still own the milling business that was the pioneer industry, and the Whitsells still own the general store at Hunlock Creek. At Hunlock Creek the large power plant of the Luzerne County Gas and Electric Corpora- tion was built in 1925-26.
The supervisors of Hunlock Township, in 1926, were: K. I. Lanning, W. W. Benscoter, and B. L. Sutliff. Number of taxables: 590. Assessed valua- tion : $240,514. President of school board: George E. Minimier. Seven teachers, common schools.
Huntington Township was one of the seventeen "certified townships" laid out by the Susquehanna Company, and confirmed by Acts of Assembly in 1799. In the Connecticut title, previous to 1776, it was known as "Blooming- dale Township," the name being changed to Huntington in 1799, in honor of Samuel Huntington, a native of Windham, Connecticut, who was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
The first settler was John Franklin, a person of note in the affairs of the Susquehanna Company under the Connecticut claim. He came in the spring of 1775, locating on Huntington Creek, below Huntington Mills. Because of the outbreaking of war, however, he returned to Connecticut, with his family, before the summer was spent. In 1776, other Connecticut settlers came, Levi Seward settling in the northern part of the township, and Nathaniel Goss, the latter on a tract of three hundred and thirty-four acres at Huntington Mills. In 1782 or 1783, Abraham Hess settled near the headwaters of Fishing Creek. He was from New Jersey. Other early settlers. included: Stephen Kings- bury, who helped to make the original survey of the township ; Reuben Culver, in 1795, one of whose descendants is W. B. Culver, of Red Hill ; Abel Fellows, Stephen Harrison, Samuel Franklin, Amos Franklin, all of whom settled in
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