USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Families of the Wyoming Valley: biographical, genealogical and historical. Sketches of the bench and bar of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, vol. II > Part 12
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626
ZIBA MATHERS.
Luzerne county March 15, 1884. Mr. Bohan is an unmarried man and a democrat in politics.
He comes to the profession equipped with a first class educational training, and the advantage of having read under a tutor who has been successful both in pleading and administering the law, and, being a young man of good habits, industry, and sound discre- tion, there is every prospect that he will reap the full measure of benefit from such auspicious coaching.
ZIBA MATHERS.
Ziba Mathers was born in that part of the township of Kingston which is now the borough of Luzerne, October 25, 1858. His grandfather, James Mathers, was a native of Ireland, and when about twelve years of age came to this country with his parents and settled in Wellsboro, Pa. He afterwards removed to near Philadel- phia, and there married Mary Walton, and subsequently removed to this county. From 1835 to 1840 he was engaged in the manu- facture of paper at Mill Hollow. His son, John Mathers, was born in 1813, in Kingston township. He is a millwright and far- mer. The wife of John Mathers was Ann, daughter of Henry Stroh. He was born at Chestnut Hill, near Stroudsburg, Pa., in 1792. His father came from Germany and settled in Monroe county and there married Christina Stroud. Henry Stroh served in the war of 1812 as a sergeant. He removed to Hanover town- ship and there married. His first wife was Ann Petty. She was the grandmother of the subject of this sketch. The family is of German descent, and came to this country prior to the revolu- tionary war. Ziba Mathers was educated in the public schools of his native county, and during a portion of the years 1881, 1882, 1883, and 1884 was engaged in teaching. He read law with Geo. B. Kulp, and was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county June 2, 1884. In 1882 he was elected the first burgess of the newly organized borough of Luzerne. He is now the clerk of the town council, and in 1885 was appointed postmaster of the borough. He is a democrat in politics and an unmarried man.
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EDWARD EVERETT HOYT.
For a young man Mr. Mathers, as will be seen, has had many and quite important trusts, and it is only fair to say that he has discharged them all with entire acceptability to all concerned. Diligent in the prosecution of his profession he will lose no cases for want of the application necessary to familiarize himself with all the details, and the relation thereto of the law in all its phases. In other words he prepares his cases with great thoroughness. What has been aptly termed " the business feature of a lawyer's capacities," as distinguished from his professional knowledge, and which depends more largely upon his character as a man than anything else, is of far greater importance than some lawyers and many people seem to consider it. Good, general business qua- lifications, with a little less knowledge of the law, are more likely to bring success than a more familiar acquaintance with legal maxims and statutes, and no such general qualifications. These latter Mr. Mathers possesses in a remarkable degree, and the road is open for the attainment by him of a prominent place at the bar.
EDWARD EVERETT HOYT.
Edward Everett Hoyt was born in Kingston, Pa., January 22, 1859. He is a descendant of Simon Hoyt, who was the first member of the Hoyt family who emigrated to New England, and whose arrival there was on or before 1629. Daniel Hoyt, the great-grandfather of E. E. Hoyt, removed from Danbury, Conn., to Wyoming about 1795, and was the first Wyoming emigrant of that name. His first wife was Anne Gunn. His second wife was Sylvina Pierce, daughter of Abel Pierce, of Kingston. He had no children by her. Rev. Ard Hoyt, who was born in Dan- bury October 23, 1770, was a brother of Daniel Hoyt. He became pastor of the Presbyterian church in Wilkes-Barre in 1806, and remained in that position until 1817. He then retired from this position and became a missionary among the Cherokee Indians. His first position was at Brainard, Cherokee Nation. He remained there for six years, then removed to Willistown, now
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EDWARD EVERETT HOYT.
in Alabama, where he died February 18, 1828. Lieutenant Ziba Hoyt, son of Daniel Hoyt, was the grandfather of the subject of this sketch. He was a native of Danbury, Conn., and removed with his father to Wyoming. He married January 23, 1815, Nancy Hurlbut, a daughter of Christopher Hurlbut, of Arkport, N. Y. He was a descendant of Lieutenant Thomas Hurlbut, a native of England, where he was born about 1615, and immigrated to New'England in his early manhood. He was a soldier in the fort at Saybrook, Conn., in 1636, under Lyon Gardner, was wounded in the Pequot war, was one of the first settlers in Weathersfield, Conn., was voted a tract of land in 1671 for his services in the Pequot war, was a member of the Assembly in 1640, married and died in Weathersfield. He had, among other children, Samuel, who had a son Stephen, who had a son John, who had a son John, known as Deacon John Hurlbut, who was born in Groton, Conn., March 12, 1730. His wife was Abigail Avery, a native of the town of Preston, Conn. Deacon Hurlbut was a farmer and lived many years in Groton, probably always lived there until he left for the Wyoming Valley. He was an active man and a useful citizen, and was of much aid to his fellow townsmen in the early years of the Revolution. He visited the valley of the Susquehanna as early as the spring of 1773, having purchased an interest in the "Susquehanna Company." In the autumn of the years 1775 and 1777 he was also there temporarily. Selling his farm in Groton in 1777 he, with his family, stock, farming implements, etc., set out in the spring of 1778 for the valley of promise. Deacon Hurlbut was taken sick on the way, a young daughter also was attacked with a prevailing sickness, and she died in Lackawaxen. These misfortunes delayed the progress of the family in their journey, but it was spared the massa- cre of that year in the valley. They arrived in the following year, however, and experienced the hardships incident to the settlers of that period. Deacon Hurlbut was a member of the Connec- ticut Assembly in 1779, 1780, and 1781. He was also one of the justices of the peace at Wyoming, under the state of Connecti- cut. He was the great-grandfather of Henry Blackman Plumb of the Luzerne bar. As a religious man Deacon Hurlbut was prominent, and in the absence of a regular preacher he often
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EDWARD EVERETT HOYT.
officiated by reading or preaching a sermon. He died in Hano- ver, at the Stewart place, in Buttonwood, March 10, 1782, and was buried on his own farm, west of the house, near an orchard he had set out with his own hands. His widow died at the home of her son, Naphtali Hurlbut, in Pittston, Pa., November 29, 1805.
Christopher Hurlbut, son of Deacon John Hurlbut, and father of Mrs. Ziba Hoyt, was born in Groton, Conn., in 1757, came to Wyoming in 1770, was a soldier in the Revolution from 1776 to the end, was at Harlem, N. Y., White Plains, N. Y., through New Jersey to Pennsylvania, thence in New Jersey again in the battle of Princeton, was discharged at Chatham, N. J., resided in Hano- ver till 1797, married Elizabeth Mann, died in Arkport, N. Y., April 21, 1831. After the close of the Revolution he officiated as surveyor in the Wyoming Valley. The Christopher Hurlbut named in Miner's history as a surveyor, being there in the year 1770, is an error. It should, without doubt, have been written, Stephen Hurlbut, an uncle of Christopher, who was in the valley in 1773, and very likely earlier. Naphtali Hurlbut, brother of Christopher, was sheriff of Luzerne county from 1825 to 1828, and was also for three years one of the commissioners of the county. He was a soldier in the Revolution, as was his elder brother John, who was a sergeant in Captain Franklin's company, in the Fifth Regiment of Connecticut militia.
The father of E. E. Hoyt is John Dorrance .Hoyt, of Kings- ton. He is a retired farmer and has always resided in that place. Henry M. Hoyt, an ex-governor of Pennsylvania, is an uncle of E. E. Hoyt, being a brother of John D. Hoyt. The wife of John D. Hoyt is Elizabeth Goodwin, daughter of the late Abraham Goodwin, of Kingston. The Goodwin family is of New England extraction. Abraham Goodwin was an associate judge of Bradford county from 1841 to 1844. The wife of Abra- ham Goodwin was Sally Myers, daughter of Philip Myers. The father of Philip Myers removed with his family from Germany in the year 1760, and settled in Frederick, Maryland. He had four sons-Lawrence, Philip, Henry, and Michael. The two former served the country in the revolutionary war, in the Maryland line, and were in the battle of Germantown. Lawrence had come to Wyoming and married Sarah Gore, daughter of Obadiah Gore,
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EDWARD EVERETT HOYT.
and became identified with the New England settlers. She was of the patriotic family that sent five brothers and two brothers-in- law into the battle. Lieutenant Lawrence Myers was ever a favorite. His large, round face seemed radiant with benevolence and cheerfulness. Besides several offices in the militia, he was for thirty years a magistrate, and from 1800 to 1803 a commis- sioner of the county. The plan of the old court house that was located on the public square, a cross, was introduced by him, taken from that at Fredericktown, which doubtless owed its origin to the Roman Catholic settlers of Maryland under their liberal and tolerant founder: The delight of his life was to talk of Frederick, and anything that existed or came from there was an object of his special regard. Owning one of the noblest plantations on the Kingston flats, adjoining the Plymouth line, though he did not personally labor, he caused it to be highly cultivated, the produce of which yielded a liberal support. In winter the large and elegant cloth cloak, in those early days an article of dress too fine and costly not to be rare, gave to his noble person an imposing appearance. He died at the age of fifty years, leaving, as he had no children, his fine estate to Mrs. Myers and his brothers. Philip Myers came to Wyoming in 1785, and was married to Martha, daughter of Thomas Bennett, July 15, 1787, he being aged twenty-seven and she twenty-four years. Thomas Bennett gave his son-in-law a town lot on the north line of old Forty Fort. On this he erected a comfortable house, constructed of yellow pine logs, hewed, and pointed with lime mortar, and limed on the inside. Mr. Myers purchased a lot of one hundred and forty acres, extending from Forty Fort to the top of the mountain. He cleared up his farm, and also raised a large family of children. For many years he kept a public house. His house being situated on an eddy in the Susquehanna, it was a great place of resort for the lumbermen, bringing their pine lumber from the upper part of the Susquehanna and its tributaries and taking it to the Baltimore and Philadelphia markets. The consequence was that Mr. Myers' house was thronged for weeks by the hardy "raftsmen " every spring. He died April 2, 1835. His widow subsequently married Rev. Benjamin A. Bidlack, as his second wife.
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EDWARD EVERETT HOYT.
Mrs. Myers was born in Scituate, Rhode Island, January 15, 1763. The same year in which Martha Bennett or Mrs. Myers was born a settlement of Connecticut people was commenced in Wyoming, and Mr. Bennett rented a valuable property in Rhode Island, and removed to the Delaware, near Stroudsburg. He took quarters there with a company of people in a store house which was fortified and called a fort. Mr. Bennett's object was ' to settle in Wyoming, and accordingly he visited that famous locality, but finding the Indians surly, he for the time abandoned the project. The next year Mr. Bennett removed to Goshen, N. Y., and rented a farm for six years. He set his sons at work upon the farm, and took his gun, his axe, and hoe and visited the much coveted valley. Two attempts to effect a settlement in Wyoming were unsuccessful because of the hostility of the Indians, Mr. Bennett, losing all his labor, but more fortunate than some of the early settlers, escaping with his life. In Feb- ruary, 1769, Mr. Bennett joined a company of New England people, forty in all, who built a fort on the west bank of the Susquehanna, which, in honor of the forty hardy adventurers, was called Forty Fort. This fort was designed as a place of secu- rity against the Indians, but withal was to be a Yankee fortifi- cation, where, if need should require, the New England settlers would be able to take refuge from the Pennamites. Mr. Bennett selected a situation on the flats about a mile above the fort, and, clearing off a portion of it, put in some seeds. The following year, 1770, Mr. Bennett united with a new recruit of settlers and paused at the mouth of the Lackawanna, where they built a block house. Here they were all taken into custody by John Jennings, sheriff of Northampton county, Pennsylvania. As Sheriff Jen- nings was proceeding with his prisoners to Easton, at Wyoming, probably Wilkes-Barre, Mr. Bennett managed to escape, and returned to the east, as he was there in the month of September. His escape was made in the summer, and in September Mr. Bennett made arrangements to remove his family to Wyoming. He had examined the ground; he understood all the hazard of the enterprise; his courage was equal to the danger, and the question was settled. As to property he had now but little to lose, for he had sold his farm in Rhode Island on personal secu-
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rity, and both the purchaser and security had failed, and the whole was lost. What by industry and economy had been saved in Goshen was now put into as compact a condition as possible and loaded upon pack horses, and the family commenced their march towards "the land of promise." The country now presented a striking contrast with the picture of Wyoming which was formed in the imaginations of Mr. Bennett's family. The grasshoppers had destroyed all the vegetation, and the aspect was one of utter desolation. They wound their way over the mountains and through the vales until they came to Shehola, on the west side of the Delaware, and here they were hospitably entertained by a Quaker by the name of Wires. The next morning " friend Wires " accompanied the miniature caravan as far as the "little meadows," where they took refreshments. Mrs. Bennett was boiling some chocolate over a fire made by the side of a log. She seemed unusually sad. "I don't know," said she, "what I am about to meet. I think something pretty heavy." It was not long before several men came up from Wyoming- one bleeding from a wound made on his head by a club-and reported that the Pennamites had taken possession of the fort, and were resolved upon driving off all the New England settlers. A consultation was now held upon the proper course to be pursued. Mr. Bennett was a man of cool courage, and he had made up his mind to try his fortunes upon the fertile soil of Wyo- ming, and he was not to be turned aside from that purpose by anything but stern, invincible necessity. He was bent upon going on. But what would he do with his family ? Mrs. Ben- nett, who was not easily intimidated, said : " If it were not for the children I would go along." "Friend Wires" said: "Leave the children with me ; I will take care of them." Stimulated by the courage of Mr. Bennett and his wife, two men who had fled from the country resolved to return and try their luck again.
Mr. Bennett was a great hunter, and the wild woods had more attractions for him than the old settled country at the east; for himself, he could live anywhere in the Susquehanna mountains by the aid of his rifle and hunting knife. Mrs. Bennett was not so cool as her husband, but was equally firm in her purposes and unterrified by danger. The company thought to find shelter for
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the time being with a Mr. Chapman, who had built a mill at Mill Creek, and who had been a neighbor and a friend of the family in Goshen. When Mr. and Mrs. Bennett reached Wyo- ming they found that the dispute between the New England and Pennsylvania settlers had already ripened into open war. Captain Ogden, the Pennamite leader, had built a block-house, which was called a fort, at the mouth of Mill Creek, and had in his company Sheriff Jennings. Mr. Bennett was a peaceable man, and did not enter at once into the war, but took possession of a small log house he had previously built on the flats just above Forty Fort. The grain he had put in, before his return to Goshen in the spring, presented a most delightful prospect of an abundance of provisions for the following winter. The Yankees-that is the fighters-invested the block-house, when Ogden proposed a par- ley. But no sooner had the besiegers entered the block-house to hold a conversation with the besieged, than Jennings served a writ on them in the name of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. They were thirty-seven in all, and they were all taken to Easton, a distance of sixty miles, to jail. They obtained bail and imme- diately returned. Again they were captured and sent off to jail; and again they were released on bail and returned. A re-enforce- ment of two hundred and seventy or two hundred and eighty Yankees, under the command of Captain Durkee, came on and built a fort where Wilkes-Barre now stands, which they named, in honor of their leader, Fort Durkee. The Yankees now held the ground and proceeded to the work of clearing farms and building. 'The children " were brought on from Shehola, and Mr. Ben- nett was comfortably ensconced in his log cabin with his family.
But a few months of quiet had passed before the Pennsylvanians came on with an augmented force, under the command of Ogden and Patterson, the latter bringing up the river, in a boat, a four- pounder. Ogden captured Captain Durkee and put him in irons, and took possession of the fort. The Yankees were now pillaged, and, as far as possible, driven from the country. The house and premises generally belonging to Mr. Bennett were robbed ; grain, cattle, and everything movable which could be found were taken from him, but he did not leave the valley. The Pennsylvanians now considered their victory complete. Ogden went to Phila-
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delphia, leaving a few men in the fort. In the mean time Captain Lazarus Stewart came on with forty brave fellows and drove out the small guard from the fort, took possession of the cannon, and turned the tide once more in favor of the Yankees. Mr. Bennett now took up quarters in Fort Durkee, both as a measure of safety and of comfort. In the winter of 1771 Ogden again made his appearance and invested Fort Durkee. His brother Nathan was killed by a shot from the fort, Mrs. Bennett witnessing the event. Stewart, finding himself unable to hold out against the superior numbers of the Pennsylvanians, managed to steal away when the Pennamites took possession. Captain Ogden was terribly enraged by the death of his brother, and, seizing several prominent Yankees who happened to be in the fort, sent them to Philadelphia in irons, charged with being concerned in the mur- der. Mr. Bennett did not belong to Stewart's party of fighting men, but had taken shelter in the fort with his family when he considered their lives in imminent peril. Stewart, with his men, left the fort, and Mr. Bennett fell into Ogden's hands; and he, without the slightest reason, excepting that he was in the fort at the time, was one of the suspected parties, and was obliged to endure the sufferings and disgrace of a suspected felon for five months in jail in Philadelphia. The explanation of this affair is to be found in the fact that an "inquisition " was held over the body of Nathan Ogden by Charles Stuart, January 21, 1771, by which it was found that said Ogden was shot by "a certain Lazarus Stewart." But on the back of the report of the inquest is found "a list of the rioters in the fort at Wyoming when Nathan Ogden was killed." There were forty-seven of these "rioters," embracing nearly all the respectable Yankee settlers then in the country. Thomas Bennett was among these so-called " rioters," and was taken up as a party to the murder. The same evil befell several other individuals, and might have befallen any of the number upon the list. Fort Durkee was now in the hands of the Pennamites, and every few weeks they were running over the valley and giving the Yankees who had the courage to remain at their homes infinite trouble and vexation, not being particularly courteous even to the women, who had the assurance to stick to the " stuff" when their husbands were driven off or sent to prison.
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EDWARD EVERETT HOYT.
Under these circumstances Mrs. Bennett gladly accepted an offer made her by the wife of Captain Manning to reside with her on what is now known as Scofield's Island, near the head of the valley. The two families pushed up the stream in company and arranged their scanty catalogue of furniture and fixtures in a rude cabin. The Bennett boys had managed to save some grain, which they concealed at the head of the island.
In the mean time Mr. Bennett had been discharged, and had returned worn out with his tedious imprisonment, and badly dis- couraged. Captain Zebulon Butler had come on with a new recruit of Yankees, and had shut up Ogden in the fort at Mill Creek and cut off his supplies. This was in the spring of 1771. Ogden found it necessary to communicate with the Pennsylvania officials at Philadelphia, and, not willing to run the risk of send- ing a messenger, who would probably fall into the hands of the Yankees, resolved upon an ingenious and daring enterprise. He made his clothes into a bundle, and fastened his hat on the top of it, then tied to it a small cord some twenty feet long. Taking up his bundle he walked out into the current, and floated down on his back ahead of his hat and clothes. Of course this enter- prise was undertaken in the night. The Yankee sentinels saw the suspicious looking object and riddled the hat with bullets, but Ogden escaped unhurt and soon reached Philadelphia. - He dashed about, and soon raised a quantity of provisions and a new company of recruits, commanded by Captain John Dick. They stealthily entered the valley, and eagerly awaited a favorable opportunity of throwing themselves, with their pack horses loaded with provisions, into the fort. David Ogden, a brother of the captain, was one of the company, and, learning that Thomas Bennett had returned from Philadelphia and was with his family on Lackawanna (now Scofield's) island, set off with a small posse in pursuit of him. The capture or murder of Bennett would be a clever little adventure while they were waiting for a few hours for a favorable opportunity to elude the besiegers and get into the fort. Ogden knew the ground perfectly, and easily eluded observation until he found his way to the bank of the river over against the island. The Mannings had received the intelligence of the arrival of Captains Ogden and Dick in the neighborhood
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EDWARD EVERETT HOYT.
of the fort, and of David Ogden's intended visit to the island. When Ogden and his friends showed themselves upon the beach Mrs. Manning said: "David Ogden is coming over the river. Bennett, thee must clear out or be killed." Mr. Bennett replied : " I may as well die one way as another. I have been in jail until I am worn out ; they have robbed me of all I have in the world, and now let them kill me if they will." The women, however, roused him from his deep despondency by seizing him by the arms and shoving him out of the door just in time to make his escape. He hid himself in the thick undergrowth while Ogden entered the cabin with the words, "Is Bennett here?" The answer was, "No." Mrs. Bennett asked, " What do you want of him ?," adding, " If you should find him you would do no harm to him." " Where is he?" demanded Ogden in an angry tone. Mrs. Manning replied, "He is not here." Ogden repeatedly swore that if he could find him he would shoot him. He went out and scoured the woods but with no success. After informing Mrs. Manning that they intended to enter the fort the next morning before daybreak, and after satisfying their hunger with the good things of the cabin, they departed, but did not imme- diately leave the island. Judging rightly that Mr. Bennett would soon come forth from his concealment, they hid themselves within gunshot of the cabin. When it was supposed that Ogden and his men had crossed the main branch of the river, Mr. Bennett's sons went out and called him, and he came in. He sat down in a sad state of mind, and Martha (afterwards Mrs. Myers) seated herself in his lap, and flung her arms about his neck, and com- menced carressing him and condoling with him in view of his troubles and dangers; and the sympathy of the child in this instance was a substantial good for it actually saved the life of the father. Ogden afterward said he intended to have shot Bennett and should have done it but for the fear of killing the child. The judgment of charity is, that it was not merely as a Yankee that Ogden had formed the deliberate purpose to take Mr. Bennett's life, but as an accessory to the death of his brother. But Mr. Bennett was in no way connected with that deed; its perpetrators afterwards fell in the Indian battle, as several affidavits to be found in the archives of the state abundantly prove.
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