USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Families of the Wyoming Valley: biographical, genealogical and historical. Sketches of the bench and bar of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, vol. I > Part 42
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latter was born in Philadelphia in 1824. She married Rev. H. S. Dickson, D.D., in 1845, as above stated. They had four children, two daughters and two sons. The eldest daughter, Elizabeth, married the Rev. Samuel T. Lowrie, D. D., son of Judge Walter Lowrie, of the Pennsylvania Supreme court. The second daugh- ter, Ellen, married Col. W. P. Wilson, of Potter's Mills, Centre county, Pa. He was a grandson of Hugh Wilson, who was one of the founders of the Irish settlement at Bath, Northampton county, Pa., and a son of Dr. William Irvine Wilson, whose won- derful energy, courage and devotion in the practice of medicine throughout Penn's Valley during its early history, and whose cheerful and profuse hospitality at his home, at Potter's Mills, made him famous and beloved by all of his many friends and acquaintances. He died at Bellefonte, on September 22, 1883, in his ninetieth year. Col. Wilson served throughout the war on the staff of Gen. W. S. Hancock, and remained in the regular army until 1870, when he resigned his commission and has since been engaged in business. The eldest son, Frederick Stoever Dickson, married Helen Hickman, daughter of John Hickman, whose record as member of congress in the fierce, and bitter polit- ical struggle which preceded the resort to arms in 1861, is mat- ter of well known history. Mr. Dickson is the author of Dick- son's Blackstone, an analysis of Blackstone's Commentaries, and Dickson's Kent, an analysis of Kent's Commentaries. The youngest son is Allan Hamilton Dickson, who was born November 14, 1851, at Utica, N. Y. He was prepared for col- lege at Wyer's preparatory school at West Chester, Pa., and entered Yale College in September, 1868. He remained there until February, 1870, when an attack of sickness caused him to leave college. From March until December of the same year he spent in New Mexico as the guest of his brother-in-law, Colonel Wilson, who was there, and assigned to duty as an Indian agent. In January, 1871, he again entered Yale and remained there until July, 1871, passing his sophomore annual examination and then received an honorable discharge from the junior class. Soon thereafter he went to Germany and remained in Heidelberg for five months, learning the language, and then went to Berlin, where he took lectures in the University. He then travelled
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through Switzerland and Italy and returned home at the close of 1872. In January, 1873, he came to Wilkes-Barre and entered the office of ex-Governor Henry M. Hoyt, as a student at law, although he had previously entered his name as a student in the office of Wayne McVeagh at West Chester. He was admitted to the Luzerne county bar September 14, 1874.
. The wife of Mr. Dickson, whom he married November 12, 1874, is Catharine Swetland Pettebone, daughter of Payne Pette- bone, of Wyoming, Pa. Mr. Pettebone is a descendant of John Pettebone, of French extraction, who emigrated from England during the turbulent time of Oliver Cromwell, and was registered as a landholder in Windsor, Hartford county, Conn., in 1658. On February 16, 1664, he married Sarah Eggleston, by whom he had nine children, three born at Windsor and six at Simsbury in the same county, where he removed about the time of the birth of his son Stephen, which occurred October 3, 1669, loca- ting on lands now in possession of some of his descendants. The name of Noah Pettebone is found attached to a petition to the assembly of Connecticut, dated March 25, 1753, for permission to buy lands of the Indians on the Susquehanna at Wyoming. In 1745 he married Huldah Williams, by whom he had eight children, all born in Connecticut. He was first at Wyoming in 1769 with his three sons, Noah, jun., Stephen and Oliver. In 1772 he settled on meadow lot number twenty-two, where his descendants have continued to reside in regular succession to the present. Sometime after the massacre of July 3, 1778, he re- turned to Connecticut and Massachusetts, where his married daughters resided, but after a year or two returned to the home- stead at Wyoming, where he died March 28, 1791. Among the children of Noah Pettebone, all born at Simsbury, were Noah Pettebone, jun., born in November, 1751, married Lucy Scott, May, 1778, and was killed in the battle of Wyoming, July 3, 1778 ; Stephen Pettebone, born in September, 1755, was in Sul- livan's army and honorably discharged, and after returning to Wyoming was killed by Indians February 10, 1779, on Kingston flats ; and Oliver Pettebone. He was the youngest son of Noah Pettebone, born May 13, 1762, and was but a boy of six- teen at the time of the massacre, and was with others in
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Forty Fort. He counted the force as it went out, and made the number three hundred and eighty-two. The second day after the massacre he returned to Connecticut, but re- moved to Amenia, N. Y., where, on December 21, 1783, he married Martha, daughter of Barnabas Paine, M. D. He settled on Livingston manor where three children were born, Oliver Pettebone, jun., Esther Pettebone, and Payne Pettebone. He returned to Wyoming in 1788, and purchased the lot adjoin- ing his father's homestead, both of which lots are owned and occupied by his descendants. After his return to Wyoming ten additional children were born to him, and all except two, who died young, raised large families. He was a prudent, industrious and systematic farmer, and died March 17, 1832. From 1802 to 1805 he was one of the commissioners of Luzerne county. His wife died December 25, 1833. Payne Pettebone, son of Oliver Pettebone, was born January 24, 1787. He married Sarah Tut- tle, a granddaughter of Henry Tuttle, who was a native of Basking Ridge, Somerset county, N. J. He was born Novem- ber 24, 1733, and removed to Wyoming in 1785, and settled near Forty Fort. He bought of Col. Nathan Denison a mill property and farm on Abraham's creek, at a point since known as Tuttle's mill, where the settlers on their way to the battle of Wyoming stopped for deliberation. Mr. Tuttle represented his father as being of English and his mother of Scotch nativity or parentage. Joseph Tuttle, the son of Henry Tuttle, and the father of Mrs. Pettebone, was born in Rockaway, Morris county, N. J., Janu- ary 19, 1772, and removed with his father to Wyoming in 1785. He was of active business habits as farmer, miller, drover, butcher and merchant. The last named business he carried on several years in connection with his son, Joseph B. Tuttle, at Tunkhan- nock, Pa. Though of limited education, he took an active part in public affairs, held various town offices, and from 1832 to 1835 was one of the commissioners of Luzerne county, and was highly esteemed as a citizen. He married September 26, 1792, Mary, daughter of Jesse and Sarah (McDowell) Lee, who was born at Stroudsburg, Pa. Her parents removed to Wyoming before the massacre, July 3, 1778, and settled on the farm on which the Wyoming Monument, erected over the common grave of the
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slain settlers, now stands. Jesse Lee was from Connecticut. His wife, Sally McDowell, was a daughter of John McDowell, a Scotch- Irishman, who came to this country in 1735, and Miss De Pui was a descendant of Nicholas De Pui, a Huguenot refugee, who settled in the Minnisink region in 1725. Payne Pettebone, (father of Mrs. Dickson,) son of Payne Pettebone, was born in Kings- ton, December 23, 1813. When but eight months of age his father died and he was left to the care of his maternal grand- father, Joseph Tuttle, where he remained until he was fourteen years of age, doing the varied and almost ceaseless work of a farmer's boy, and attending the winter school in the old school house with slab benches, located near the residence of R. C. Shoemaker, his studies being limited to Webster's spelling book, Daboll's arithmetic, the old English reader and the rudimentary principles of Murray's grammar. He subsequently became a clerk, and at the age of twenty-one a partner of William Swet- land in his store at Wyoming, which continued until the death of Mr. Swetland in 1864. With the various local interests of the town in which he lives, Mr. Pettebone has always been closely identified, and all enterprises having in view the education, evan- gelization and general advancement of his fellow men have always found in him a willing and liberal supporter. He has never held public office, except those of a local character. In 1844 he was appointed a member of a committee with General William S. Ross and J. J. Slocum by the state authorities, for the sale of the Delaware division of the Pennsylvania canal, and aided ma- terially to effect the sale of the same to the city of Philadelphia. From 1854 to 1863 he was treasurer of the Lackawanna & Bloomsburg Railroad Company, during the trying years of the financial embarrassment of that corporation, and the construction of the road. During that period there occurred the severest strain and pressure of his business life, and he retired from his position only when safety from loss was assured to the managers of the road, who were chiefly neighbors and friends of his. He was subsequently elected a director of the railroad company and continued in that office until the Lackawanna & Bloomsburg Railroad was consolidated with the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Company. Mr. Pettebone has been promi-
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nently concerned in various other businesses and many benevo- lent, scientific, and educational enterprises, representing several as president. Among them may be mentioned the old Pittston Bank, the Wyoming Shovel Works, of which himself and son (Robert Treat Pettebone) are sole proprietors, the Wyoming Terra Cotta Works, board of trustees of the Wyoming Semi- nary, Wyoming Bible Society, Wyoming Camp-meeting Associ- ation, Forty Fort Cemetery Association, and Wyoming Historical and Geological Society. He is a director of the Washington Life Insurance Company of New York, the First National Bank of Pittston, the Wyoming National Bank and Miners' Savings Bank of Wilkes-Barre, and was also president and director of the Wilkes-Barre Savings Bank. He is a trustee of the Drew Theological Seminary, and resigned the trusteeship of the Wes- leyan University at Middletown, Conn., from inability to attend the meetings of the board. Until 1864 the Wyoming Monu- ment grounds remained in a neglected condition. At a meet- ing of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society that year, it was resolved "that Payne Pettebone. Hon. William S. Ross, and Col. Charles Dorrance be a committee to collect funds to defray the expenses of finishing the Wyoming Monu- ment, and enclosing and improving the grounds of the same." His duties on the committee Mr. Pettebone discharged with his accustomed ability, energy and success. In 1878 he was chair- man of the committee on finances of the Centennial Memorial As- sociation and to his management was the success of the enterprise in no small measure due. A pleasant incident connected with this event was the entertainment, at the residence of Mr. Pettebone, of President Hayes and his family and cabinet, Governor Hart- ranft and his wife and suite, and many other prominent men of the state and nation. To the varied employments above men- tioned, which have demanded his time, personal attention and financial support, from time to time, have been added the care of interests in coal mines, farming operations, and an extensive sugar plantation in Louisiana. Mr. Pettebone connected himself with the Methodist Episcopal Church at the age of thirty-five years, and as a member of the church since that time has been continu- ally in the official board, serving in the several departments as
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leader, steward, trustee, Sabbath school superintendent and dele- gate to the general conference. The Wyoming Methodist Epis- copal Church, which was dedicated July 18, 1883, was the gift of the Pettebone family to that society. It is a beautiful edifice, costing $25,000. Of this sum Mr. Pettebone and wife contributed four-fifths and his mother-in-law, Mrs. Swetland, one-fifth. Henry Pettebone, who was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, August 3, 1825, and who was Prothonotary, Clerk of the Orphans' Court, clerk of the Quarter Sessions and Oyer and Terminer from 1830 to 1836, and one of the associate judges of Luzerne county, from 1845 to 1850, was an uncle of Payne Pette- bone. The wife of Payne Pettebone is Caroline M. Swetland, eldest child of the late William Swetland, of Wyoming. Mr. Swetland was a decendant of Luke Swetland, one of the Connecti- cut settlers of Wyoming, and one of the proprietors under the Con- necticut claim, who signed the agreement dated June 20, 1776, and by the advice of the proprietors committee "pitched" on land some thirty miles above Wyoming, near Mehoopany, where the family settled after returning from their old home in Kent, Litchfield county, Conn., where they had taken refuge during the war. In the winter of 1777, Luke Swetland was a member of Captain Durkee's independent company of patriots encamped at Morristown, N. J., having enlisted while a resident of the valley, . September 17, 1776. At the time of the battle of Wyoming on account of some disability, he was in Forty Fort, and did not participate in the engagement. On August 25, 1778, he was captured with a neighbor, Joseph Blanchard, by the Indians at the mouth of Fishingcreek, and remained for a considerable period a prisoner at different Seneca villages in the state of New York. In 1800, he removed with his family from Mehoopany to the old Swetland farm at Wyoming, where he died, January 30, 1823. "In later days," wrote Charles Miner, "I knew and could not but esteem the good old man. His taste and pride took a right direction and were of much value to the settlement. I refer to his establishment of a nursery for fruit, and his introduction from New England of various kinds of apples, selected with care. He was born January 16, 1729, in Lebanon, Windham county, Conn. and married Hannah Tiffany, of that place, April 1, 1762. She
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died January 8, 1809. Belding Swetland, the eldest son, was born January 14, 1763, and was with his father in Forty Fort at the time of the battle of Wyoming. He married Sally Gay, in Sharon, Conn., in 1787, and died at Wyoming, July 22, 1816. William Swetland, the oldest child of Belding Swetland, was born in Sharon, Litchfield county, Conn., June 26, 1789. He accompanied the family to Kingston, thence to Mehoopany and thence to the Swetland homestead in Wyoming, where his early life was passed as a farmer's son with very limited opportunities for education. About 1812, he engaged as assistant in the store of Elias Hoyt, in Kingston, doing odd jobs and making himself generally useful. In 1815, Mr. Swetland erected the old portion of the stone building on the homestead, and engaged in trade on his own account with a capital limited to $300. About a year later his father died leaving twelve children and the farm to Wil- liam, with provision for the support of his brothers and sisters dur- ing their minority and the payment to each of a specific sum upon their arrival at majority, a responsibility which, while it was cheer- fully assumed as a duty by the young merchant, could not have been otherwise than onerous. Continuing in the mercantile business, which was from time to time enlarged and extended at the old stand, he had as a partner from 1830 to 1832 David Baldwin, and from 1834 to the time of his death, Payne Pettebone. On Abraham's creek, in the notch of the mountain, on the road from Wyoming to Northmoreland, Mr. Swetland had a grist mill, a saw mill, and a distillery, the products of which were sent by teams to the localities of improvements and business operations in all directions, commercial relations having been established by Mr. Swetland with various portions of Luzerne, Wyoming, Lack- awanna, and Wayne counties. The distillery was closed about 1840; the mills were exchanged for coal lands on the Lacka- wanna in 1846. The customers at his store for many years came from Mehoopany, Meshoppen, Skinner's Eddy, and other points in Wyoming county, from various parts of Luzerne county, and to a considerable extent from the valley of the Lackawanna. At different dates during his business life Mr. Swetland was engaged . in other important enterprises. In the early period of the history of the Lackawanna & Bloomsburg railroad he was president of
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the board of managers for several years, joining with others in pledging large sums in aid of the enterprise during days of great financial uncertainty. He was president of the Pittston Bank, established under the old state banking laws, and subsequently a director of the First National Bank of Pittston. He was efficient in the organization of the Forty Fort Cemetery Association, and was chosen its first president. Mr. Swetland was reared in the democratic school politically, and was an earnest and generous contributor to the success of that party, giving largely towards the establishment of the Republican Farmer in Wilkes-Barre, a once prominent advocate of democracy. From 1828 to 1831 he was one of the commissioners of Luzerne county. In conjunction with Andrew Bedford, M. D., and George W. Woodward, he repre- sented Luzerne county in the constitutional convention of 1837; but becoming impatient at the slow progress of the deliberations of that body, he resigned before the close of the session, and E. W. Sturdevant was elected to fill the vacancy. He voted the democratic ticket until 1860, when he became a republican. At the age of fifty-nine he connected himself with the Methodist Episcopal church, and was ever afterwards an active and liberal member of the church of his choice, and most of the time an official, having served as trustee and steward, and in other capac- ities, and as president of the Wyoming Bible Society. In his will he provided for the repair and painting of the old Forty Fort Methodist Episcopal church. This was the first church erected in the Wyoming Valley, and was completed about 1807. When Bishop Asbury visited Wyoming in that year he preached in a grove near the site of the church, and the timber for which was already on the ground. A liberal contributor to all benevolent objects, he took a deep interest in Wyoming Seminary, and be -. came a trustee of that institution. Becoming acquainted with Rev. Reuben Nelson, D. D., then principal, and noting the zeal, in- dustry, and business sagacity with which he was managing the affairs of the seminary under adverse circumstances, Mr. Swet- land's sympathy was aroused, and he became one of the most thoughtful and generous friends of the institution. When the buildings burned down in 1853 he decided to erect one of the halls (now known as Swetland Hall) at his own expense, and he
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made many other very considerable contributions towards the re-erection of the buildings, and the payment of the indebtedness of the institution thus incurred ; and at the time when the bur- den of financial obligation which had so long and so grievously oppressed it was lifted, he gave the sum of five thousand dollars, one-half the sum required for that purpose, the check for the same being the last to which he ever signed his name. Mr. Swetland married, September 28, 1819, Catharine Saylor, daugh- ter of Peter Saylor, M. D., of Northampton county, Pa., who bore him four children. He died September 27, 1864. Mr. and Mrs. Dickson have one child living, Dorothy Ellen. Mr. Dickson
is one of the ablest of the younger members of the bar. A liberal education, long and close association with older men of established legal reputation, a natural aptitude for logic, and good general abilities have combined to fit him for any profes- sional test to which he chooses to subject himself. His cases have always been marked by careful preparation and accurate legal knowledge. He is a republican, but not always in harmony with the dominant power in the party, as was instanced in his support of John Stewart, the independent republican candidate for governor in 1882, and upon other occasions. He threw him- self into the campaign mentioned with a vigor born of a sincere conviction that if an independent candidate could not succeed, his party needed the chastening of a defeat, and much of the suc- cess of that movement was due to his diplomacy and exertions. He has gone into local conventions for the sole purpose of pre- venting nominations he esteemed to be obnoxious to the best ele- ments of the people, and though not always successful, has fought with a spirit and determination that, of themselves, evinced his sincerity. In all this he has not been himself an aspirant for any political office, though he is a member of the city council ; and in that body he has been vigilantly watchful of the interests of his constituents and of the people of the city generally. He is a cultured man, fond of books, active in society and in various local charitable and other organizations, and in every other par- ticular a good and useful citizen.
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JOSEPH DAVID COONS.
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JOSEPH DAVID COONS.
Joseph David Coons was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., June 14, 1852. He was educated at the Wilkes-Barre Academy and at the Central High School in Philadelphia, from which he gradu- ated in 1870 in the same class with Robert E. Pattison, governor of Pennsylvania. After graduation he spent a year in the count- ing-house of a large manufacturing establishment to fit himself more thoroughly for his profession. He then came to Wilkes- Barre and entered the office of Stanley Woodward as a student at law. He was admitted to the Luzerne bar September 14, 1874. After his admission he went into partnership with Mr. Wood- ward, which continued until the latter was elevated to the bench. For a number of years Mr. Coons has been the solicitor of the Wilkes-Barre Home for Friendless Children, and also one of the trustees. The father of the subject of our sketch was David Coons, a native of Giebelstadt, Bavaria, Germany. He emigrated to America in 1840, located in Wilkes-Barre, and was one of the early Jewish settlers of this city. He was in business until 1861, when he removed to Philadelphia, and there died in 1875. His brother, Captain Joseph Coons, a resident of this city, preceded him to this country and also located in Wilkes-Barre. The mother of J. D. Coons is Helena Long, a daughter of the late Isaac Long, of Pretzfelt, Germany. She is the sister of Marx Long and Simon Long, and of Mrs. John Constine, and cousin of Isaac Long and the late Jonas Long, of Wilkes-Barre. She was a native of Pretzfelt, in the kingdom of Bavaria, and was the sister of the late Martin Long, who is believed to have been the first Jewish merchant of this city. In an article written in 1883, by C. Ben Johnson, for the Democratic Wechter on the Ger- mans of Luzerne county, he speaks as follows of the Coons and Long families :
" Martin Long soon entered into business and quickly became a leading citizen. He was at one time first lieutenant of the Wyoming Artilerists, and died only a few years ago, not yet, by
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any means, a very old man. Marx Long, his brother, is still in business on the square, on the same spot where the two first opened forty-one years ago. He has been a worthy citizen in every respect. He was many years an active fireman, has been a trustee of the Home for the Friendless, and in connection with the humane efforts in behalf of the employment and care of the poor, taken from time to time, has always performed a foremost part. The Longs, Jonas and Isaac, who are brothers, and Simon, who is a brother to Marx, have been among the most successful of our merchants, and owe that success to habits which would win it even amid much less auspicious opportunities than have attended them here. They are public spirited citizens as well, ever ready to aid by their counsel and means, all proper schemes for the improvement of the city and advancement of its people. Jonas is now in the city council.
" Captain Joseph Coons is known to every Wilkes-Barrean, and always had a penchant for matters military. He was active in the formation of the old Wyoming Jaegers, and remained with them until their disbandment. He is still a hearty man and works every day in his store as vigorously as any of his sons. The Wyoming Jaegers was one of the earliest, and for many years most prominent, of German organizations in Wilkes-Barre. It came into being in 1843, and at the first meeting John Reichard was chosen captain. There were less than a score enrolled at that meeting, but recruits came in quite rapidly, and in a few years the roll included from forty to forty-five names. Some of these men are still living and those who are gone are well and kindly remembered. Of those living Captain Coons was among the closest and most enthusiastic adherents of the organization. At the first meeting he was made second corporal, and he went from that humble position on up, through the regular gradations, until he became captain, which office he held acceptably for many years. Many of the Jaegers served in the Mexican war in Captain E. L. Dana's company, which was made up about half and half of Jaegers and old Wyoming Artillerists. Jacob Waelder was the first lieutenant. This organization participated in all the principal engagements of that war, comporting them- selves gallantly upon every occasion. Several were killed (among them private John Hahn, whose wife is still living in Wilkes- Barre), and a number were more or less seriously wounded. In 1861, when President Lincoln's call for seventy-five thousand three months volunteers was emitted, the Jaegers were among the first to respond. In a few days the company was on its way to Harrisburg, eighty-five strong, under command of Captain Coons. Arriving there the captain was compelled on account of
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