USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Annals of Luzerne County; a record of interesting events, traditions, and anecdotes > Part 9
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CAPTAIN LAZARUS STEWART.
and children, to return on foot to New England. A few days before this event, Stewart was arrested by a posse in Lebanon, under the proclamation of the governor, but seizing an axe-handle, he knocked down the constable and one or two of his aids, and forced his way into the street. The town was in an uproar; the authorities called on the people to aid in his arrest, but they refused. At this juncture Stewart's comrades, who had heard of his danger, rode impetuously into the village, and bore away their leader in triumph. About the last of October fol- lowing Stewart crossed the Susquehanna with a span of horses, at Wright's Ferry, into York county, where he was going on business. He was immediately arrested by the sheriff of York and his posse, and thrown into the county prison. Fearful of a rescue, he was hurried away, pinioned and handcuffed, early the next morning, to be carried to Philadelphia, to answer for his offence in acting against his native state in favor of the Connecticut settlers. He was in charge of the sheriff, accompanied by three assistants. No sooner had the "Paxton Boys" heard of his arrest, than they proceeded in great haste to York, but they arrived too late. The sheriff was one day in advance of them with his charge. They, the prisoner and escort, tarried for the night at Finley's, many miles on the road towards the city. The night was cold, and the three guards, with Stewart, lay down before a large fire in the bar-room, the prisoner being fastened to one of the men, to prevent his escape. The sheriff slept in an adjoining room, dreaming, doubtless, of his success, and his reception at Philadelphia, with a captive whom Gov- ernor Penn had declared to be the most dangerous man in the province. But Stewart was wide awake. At the dead of night he cautiously unloosed the rope which bound him to the snoring guard, and with noiseless tread
8
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made his way, unobserved, into the open air. Hand- cuffed, and without coat, hat, or shoes, he traveled through the woods and unfrequented thickets to Paxton, where he arrived on the following day. His presence brought great joy to his sorrowing wife and children, and exultation to his rangers.
Tidings of the arrest and escape of Stewart had scarcely reached the ears of Governor Penn, before he was in- formed of another serious offence committed by him. At three o'clock in the morning of the 18th of December, 1770, Stewart, at the head of his men, had made a rapid descent on Fort Durkee, and captured it a second time from the Pennsylvania party. A new warrant was now issued for his arrest by Thomas Willing, a Judge of the Supreme Court, and directed to Peter Hacklein, slieriff of Northampton county, who raised an armed force, and proceeded to Wyoming. Arrived at Fort Durkee, Janu- ary 18th, 1771, he demanded admittance. "Stewart informed him from the parapet that none but friends should be admitted ; that Wyoming was under the juris- diction of Connecticut, and that he should recognise no authority whatever in any persons acting under commis- sions from the government of Pennsylvania." Captain Ogden, who had accompanied Sheriff Hacklein, now attacked Fort Durkee, and his fire being returned by Stewart's party, Nathan Ogden, the captain's brother, was killed, and three others wounded. Stewart soon per- ceived his position was untenable. He was short of pro- visions, and the number of his men was much less than that of the enemy. It was impossible to hold out against a siege, and consequently during the night, with the Pax- ton men, he left for the mountains. Governor Penn issued another proclamation, offering a reward of three hundred pounds for the arrest of Lazarus Stewart, and
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fifty pounds each for the arrest of James Stewart, Wil- liam Stewart, John Simpson, William Speedy, William Young, John McDaniel, and Richard Cook. But Captain Stewart had marched through the country, and united his forces with those of Captain Butler, who had been released from prison, and these leaders were now prepar- ing for another effort to regain their lost possessions. In April, 1771, Butler and Stewart, at the head of one hun- dred and fifty men, marched into the valley, and finding Ogden strongly entrenched in a new fortification, which he called Fort Wyoming, they besieged it. Reinforce- ments, sent from Philadelphia, were defeated, and their supplies were cut off. The fort at length surrendered, and the Yankees were once more in possession of the much-coveted prize.
STEWART'S BLOCK-HOUSE.
Stewart owned a large farm in Paxton, and he had married Martha Espy, the daughter of one of the most respectable and wealthy citizens in Lancaster county. But his interests, as well as those of his associates, being
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now identified with the Yankees, they removed their families to Wyoming. He had obtained five tracts of land in Hanover, and he now proceeded to erect a large dwelling or block-house on the river bank, a short dis- tance below the present residence of General E. W. Stur- devant. Emigrants from New England multiplied, and a suitable form of government was established, under which Stewart occupied some important positions. Farm- houses were generally erected, and the entire settlement, unmolested by the Pennamites, was prosperous and happy for a period of nearly three years.
In December, 1775, Colonel Plunket, with seven hun- dred men from Northumberland county, invaded Wyo- ming, and was met at Nanticoke by Colonel Butler, with two hundred and fifty settlers. Butler stationed his forces behind a breastwork formed of rocks and logs, near the present residence of Jameson Harvey. As Plunket approached Butler's position he exclaimed, "My God, what a breastwork !" He was greeted by a blank volley from the guns of the Yankees, as the intention was to. frighten, not to kill at the first fire. Plunket then sent a detachment to the other side of the river, purposing to enter the valley near the present residence of Colonel Washington Lee. Here the force came in conflict with a party under the command of Captain Stewart. Stewart had unbounded confidence in a volley of bullets, which were poured into the advancing enemy with fatal effect. One man was killed and several wounded. The rest rapidly retreated. Colonel Butler was equally successful on his side, but not until he had resorted to something more effective than blank volleys. Plunket ingloriously returned to Northumberland, and this was the last effort until after the Revolution, on the part of Pennsylvania, to regain possession of Wyoming.
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When news reached the valley that an invasion was contemplated by the British and Indians, a company was formed in Hanover, and placed under the command of Captain McKerachan, a most estimable and valuable citizen, who, on the morning of the 3d day of July, 1778, when Wyoming was called on to defend herself against an overwhelming force of British, Tories, and Indians, surrendered his company to the charge of Cap- tain Lazarus Stewart in these words: "My pursuits in life have thus far, been those of peace; you have been used to war, and accustomed to command. On parade I can manœuvre my men; but in the field no unnecessary hazard should be run; a mistake might prove fatal. Take you the lead; I will fight under you, with my men, as an aid, or a private in the ranks. Your pre- sence at the head of the Hanover boys will impart con- fidence."
The whole force which could be mustered in the valley to resist the enemy amounted to about three hundred men and boys. On the morning of the battle they were assembled in "Forty Fort," when a council of officers was convened to decide on the propriety of marching out to meet the foe. Colonel Butler and others deemed it advisable to remain in the fort. Captain Stewart was prominent among those in opposition, who contended for a prompt and speedy conflict with the invaders in the open field. The debate became animated, and was marked with warm words. Stewart contended that the enemy were increasing in numbers, that they would plunder the settlements of all their property, that they would burn the dwellings and destroy the crops and leave nothing for subsistence during the coming winter, that there was now no hope of reinforcements on their own side, and that if the savages should carry the fort by storm, when
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they were wasted by fatigue and famine, they would all, together with their women and children, perish in an indiscriminate slaughter. A large majority were in favor of marching out to encounter the enemy. Who shall say this was not the better policy ? True, it resulted in a most disastrous overthrow. But who will dare to say the issue, though protracted, might not ultimately have been even more bloody if the settlers had remained in the fort and awaited the furious onset of the savage foe ? Stewart fell in the battle. When last seen he was surrounded by Indians, his high and daring spirit scorning retreat. Wounded and dying, on bended knee, with unquailing eye, he was repelling the attack of the savages, as seen by the narrator, who was hurrying before the rapid pur- suit. It is supposed he was recognised by the savages as one of their old foes during the French war. It is possible they were striving to take him alive that he might be tortured. But the probability is, he died in the fight.
His daughter, Martha, was born two days before the massacre, and when the dreadful news reached his wife, with the aid of friends, she placed her seven children in a small boat and floated down the river to Harrisburg. She afterwards returned with her family to Wyoming, where she died about the year 1791.
The names of her children were James, Josiah, Eliza- beth, Mary, Priscilla, Margaret, and Martha.
James married Hannah Jameson.
Josiah Mercy Chapman.
Elizabeth " Alexander Jameson, Esq.
Mary Rev. Andrew Gray.
Priscilla Avery Rothborn.
Margaret " James Campbell, Esq.
· Martha died unmarried.
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This sketch is written not to glorify Captain Stewart and his descendants, but to defend his character from the calumnies uttered against him by his cotemporaries, and which have come down to us unanswered. It is not pre- tended that he was the great hero, and defender of Wyo- ming. But he was a prominent and efficient actor among the early settlers, and contributed in no small degree to the protection of the settlement, its good order and pros- perity. He was a practical man, sober, enterprising. brave, kind, and generous. He died gloriously struggling to drive back the ruthless invader from the soil whence we draw our sustenance, and on which our firesides are erected. Let us do justice to his memory.
CHAPTER IV. THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
" Should a conqueror tread on our forefather's dust, It would wake the old bones from their graves."
NEWS of the ever-memorable battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill had scarcely reached the wilderness-girt vale of Wyoming, before the patriots assembled in town meet- ing at Wilkesbarre, August 1st, 1775, and unanimously resolved to "join their brethren in America in the com- mon cause of defending their country." The whole popu- lation inhabiting the territory, now embraced within the counties of Luzerne, Wyoming, Susquehanna, and Brad- ford, then Westmoreland county in the state of Connecti- cut, numbered about two thousand five hundred souls. Of these, according to a list found among the papers of Colonel Z. Butler, sixty-one afterwards proved to be tories, chiefly from New York. Only three of them were front Connecticut. Among these tories six were of the family of the Wintermoots, four of the Secords, three Paulings, three Lannahays, four Van Alstyns, the remainder being laborers, hunters, and trappers.
In 1776, several forts and stockades were commenced, and in August of the same year it was voted by the town meeting " That the people be called upon to work on the forts without either fee or reward from the town." At this time, the Wintermoots, not yet objects of suspicion, erected a fort, which, no doubt, was intended for the occu-
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pation of the enemy, with whom they and others were in secret communication.
On the 23d of the same month, Congress resolved to raise two independent companies in Westmoreland, osten- sibly for the protection of the frontier, but, in reality, if necessary, to be withdrawn and embodied in the army under Washington. Robert Durkee and Samuel Ransom were appointed captains, the first to recruit on the east and the latter on the west side of the river. In a few weeks, both companies were full, numbering eighty-four men each .*
In November following, Captain Weisner, of the New York line, came to Wyoming to recruit for a part of a rifle company. Obadiah Gore was appointed lieutenant, and carried away with him twenty enlisted men. About the same time, Captain Strong commenced recruiting for the Connecticut line ; John Jameson was appointed lieutenant, and marched away about twenty men.
Washington was now retreating with his bleeding and destitute, but brave soldiers, through New Jersey, before the British under General Howe, and on the 23d of De- cember, Congress ordered the two independent companies, under Durkee and Ransom, to leave the valley, and join the American army. These patriotic soldiers, with their knapsacks on their backs, with rifles in their hands, and with tears in their eyes, bade farewell to wives and to little ones, to fathers and to mothers, and, with a quick but firm tread, marched away to the battle-field.
" The wife whose babe first smiled that day, The fair fond bride of yester eve, An aged sire and matron gray, Saw the loved warriors haste away, And deemed it sin to grieve."
For list of names, see Appendix, D.
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Some of these brave fellows perished before the can- non's mouth, some died of lingering disease, while others, returning in haste to defend their firesides, and without time to look upon the faces of the loved ones, fell in Wyoming's bloody fight. What a fatal error had been committed ! Upwards of two hundred young and vigor- ous men, the bulwark and hope of the valley, in time of war, in time of imminent danger, absent from their de- fenceless homes !
The two independent companies, with the detachments of Weisner and Strong, were united to the Connecticut line, under Colonel Zebulon Butler and Colonel John Durkee. They were in the battles of Bound Brook, Brandywine, Germantown, Millstone, and Mud Creek.
At Millstone, in company with a body of militia, in all about three hundred men, under General Dickenson, they attacked four hundred British troops, captured forty wagons, one hundred horses, three field-pieces, a large quantity of provisions, nine prisoners, and killed and wounded several of the enemy. The Americans had several wounded, and Captain Ransom had one of his men, named Porter, killed. Captain Ransom sent one of the wagons to his farm in Wyoming, and Lieutenant Jameson sent home a fine English brood mare, taken in the engagement, from which sprang an excellent stock of horses, well known, many years ago, in Salem township.
At Mud Creek these troops stood firm under a heavy fire, where one man, Constant Mathewson, was torn to pieces by a cannon-ball, and several were wounded.
The handful of able-bodied men left at Wyoming, with the old men and boys, garrisoned the stockades and forts. They sent out scouting parties to watch the movements of strolling bands of Indians, who were occasionally seen during the time that General St. Leger was besieging
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Fort Stanwix. Several persons suspected of being tories were arrested and sent to Connecticut, but being liberated for want of sufficient proof, they immediately joined the Tory Rangers, under Colonel John Butler, at Niagara. They, no doubt, acquainted him with the defenceless condition of affairs at Wyoming. A small scouting party, under Lieutenant John Jenkins, were taken prisoners near Wyalusing, by a band of tories and Indians. An old man of the party, named Fitzgerald, was told he must join the king or die. He replied, he would rather die than desert his country. They let him go, but took Jenkins, York, and Fitch away to Canada, where they were liberated. These were the first prisoners taken from Wyoming.
In the summer of 1777 the Six Nations of Indians, who had thus far taken no active part in the war, declared against the colonies. England, to her eternal disgrace, offered rewards to the merciless savage for the scalps of our ancestors, her own children, and with it commenced a border warfare, for butchery and blood, almost unparal- leled in the annals of any other country .*
In December, 1777, the town meeting voted that the Committee of Inspection should be empowered to supply the wives and widows of soldiers and their families with the necessaries of life. In the spring of 1778, scouting parties of savages began to hover along the frontiers. Messages were sent to the absent companies, Congress
* The number of Indians engaged by England during the war was, accord- ing to Campbell, twelve thousand six hundred and ninety warriors. Of this number one thousand five hundred and eighty belonged to the Six Nations, five hundred Delawares, three hundred Shawanese, one hundred and fifty Monseys, and sixty Mohicans. Of scalps, the Senecas alone, four hundred warriors, took one thousand and fifty-two in three years, two hundred and ninety-nine being women, and twenty-nine infants. They were sent to the governor of Canada, to be sent as a present to the king of England.
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was apprised of the threatening danger, and was requested to order the return of the soldiers, but instead of this, that body resolved to raise a third company in Westmore- land, and commissioned Captain Dethick Hewitt for that purpose, with a view to protect the frontier settlers. Captain Hewitt collected about forty old and young men, with an imperfect supply of arms; but, it is manifest, this was no addition to the force of the settlement.
In May, the first man was killed in Westmoreland by the Indians. William Crook, coming out of a house near Tunkhannock, which had been deserted by a tory named John Secord, was shot dead and scalped. In a few days thereafter a scouting party was fired into below Tunk- hannock, and Miner Robbins and Joel Philips were wounded. They escaped over the river in a canoe, but Robbins died the next day. To lull the unprotected inhabitants of Wyoming into confiding security, and to spy out the land, two Indians and their wives were sent down the river in a canoe. They made great professions of friendship, but being suspected, an acquaintance treated one of them so well that in drunken confidence he re- vealed the true object of their visit. The two savages were confined in Forty Fort, but the squaws were per- mitted to depart.
Messages were again despatched to the absent compa- nies at Morristown. Congress and Connecticut were again urged to adopt immediate measures for the defence of the valley, but messengers and petitions implored in vain. Durkee and Ransom, with about thirty privates, most of them married men, with or without leave, stepped from the ranks and hastened away to meet the invaders, and to defend their firesides. The two companies thus reduced were, on the 23d of June, nine days before the massacre, merged into one company, and placed under
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the command of Simon Spaulding, second lieutenant in Ransom's company. Colonel Zebulon' Butler, who com- manded one of the Connecticut regiments, procured leave of absence, and arrived in Wyoming just in time to take command of the American forces, and to prepare for the engagement.
On the 30th of June Colonel John Butler, with his Tory Rangers, a detachment of Sir John Johnson's Royal Greens, and five hundred Indians, chiefly Senecas and Cayugas, in all eight hundred men, descended the rive. and landed on the west side, a short distance below the mouth of Bowman's Creek, in Wyoming county. They marched thence into Exeter township, encamping about three miles north of Fort Wintermoot. On the same day his Indian scouts attacked eight persons, who, not aware of the enemy's approach, had gone to work in a field not . far from Fort Jenkins. James Hadsell, James Hadsell, Jr., Daniel and Stukely Harding were killed, John Gard- ner, Daniel Weller, and Daniel Carr were taken prison- ers, and John Harding, a boy, escaped. On the 1st of July the enemy advanced through a pass or gap in the Kingston Mountain, and took possession of Fort Winter- moot, the tories who bore that name now displaying their true colors. From this point they sent out scouts and parties to collect cattle and provisions. A flag was then sent down demanding the surrender of Forty Fort, which was promptly refused.
On the morning of the 3d of July, the British Butler was informed that the Americans were preparing to ad- vance and to give him battle. Whereupon he laid aside his regimental dress for a less conspicuous suit, and wrap- ped a black handkerchief about his head. He now pro- ceeded to make ready for the conflict, and by two o'clock in the afternoon his forces were regularly stationed. His
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left wing extended from Fort Wintermoot, resting on the river bank, and was composed of his own rangers and the Royal Greens, commanded by himself. His right wing, composed of Indians and tories, occupied a swamp, and was led by GUCINGERACHTON, He who goes in the Smoke. Thayendanegea, alias Joseph Brant, the celebrated Mo- hawk chief, was not in this engagement.
The plain, upon which the battle was fought, was sparsely covered with shrub oaks and yellow pine trees, among which were the British regulars, while in the thickets of the swamp, close to the ground, lay the bands of savage warriors, and the more savage tories, like so many blood-thirsty tigers, eagerly watching for their prey. .
We proceed, now, to a brief statement of the condition, position, and numbers of the Americans. Fort Jenkins, which was nothing more than a single dwelling-house, enclosed by stockades, was occupied by three old men and a few women and children. The Pittston stockades contained all the women and children of that neighbor- hood, with about thirty men, under Captain Blanchard, for protection and assistance, in case flight should become necessary. In Wilkesbarre there were many women and children, with only a handful of men. Hanover and Ply- mouth were in the same situation. Those of Kingston had been assembled at Forty Fort, with the great body of fighting men, in whom centered the affections and hopes of aged fathers and mothers, and of hundreds of wives and children.
Forty Fort stood a short distance below the site of the Forty Fort Church, about eighty feet from the river. It covered half an acre of ground. It shape was that of a parallelogram, fortified by stockades, which were logs set in the ground five feet deep, and extending twelve feet
FORTY FORT. 1778.
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ARTCR. LENOX VOUNAT ONO
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above, sharpened at the top. Its joints were covered by other stockades, which rendered the barrier of nearly double thickness. There was a gateway at each end, and a sentry-box at each corner.
The whole American force consisted of about three hundred, and were divided into six companies, as follows :-
1st. Captain Dethick Hewitt's company, composed of forty men (regulars).
2d. Captain Asaph Whittlesey's company, from Ply- mouth, forty-four men.
3d. Captain Lazarus Stewart's company, from Hanover, forty men.
4th. Captain James Bidlack's company, from Lower Wilkesbarre, thirty-eight men.
5th. Captain Rezin Geer's company, from Upper Wilkes- barre, thirty men.
6th. Captain Aholiab Buck's company, from Kingston, forty-four men.
In addition to these were those in the train bands, the judges of the courts, and all the civil officers, old men and boys, to the number of about seventy.
A council of war was assembled at Forty Fort, to decide upon the policy of meeting the enemy in the open field. One party, with the hope of being reinforced, advocated delay. The reinforcements they expected, or rather hoped for, were Captain Spaulding, with the remainder of the independent companies, and Captain John Franklin, with about twenty-five men, from Hunt- ington.
The other side favored prompt action, declaring the enemy would besiege the fort with their regulars, and as their provisions were short, an early surrender would be inevitable. In the meanwhile, the Indians would sweep over the valley, murder the women and children, drive
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off the cattle, destroy all the grain, and burn all the buildings. The better course appeared to be to march out and meet the foe, hand to hand, in the open field, and such was the decision of the council.
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