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 14
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upon these prisoners, who were obliged to listen to the recital without the slightest expression of sympathy for their brave com- panion and friend.
The prisoners were now free, and no time was lost. They supplied themselves with good moccasins from the feet of the dead and dying Indians, and took guns and ammunition for defense and blankets for their protection from the cold, and fif- teen minutes from the moment the last blow was struck they were on the line of march for their homes and friends. Lieuten- ant Boyd's sword was brought away by Hammond, and was afterwards presented to his brother-Colonel John Boyd. Mrs. Myers said : "We remained under cover of the fort for another year. Solomon married the widow Upson; her maiden name was Stevens. Her husband was killed by the Indians. Upson with another man and boy were in the woods making sugar. When the boy was out gathering sap he saw the Indians come up slyly to the camp and pour boiling sap into Upson's mouth, while he lay fast asleep on his back. The other man they toma- hawked, and made a prisoner of the boy." In the spring of 1781 Mr. Bennett, his son Solomon, and old Mr. Stevens each built a small log house on the flats, near where Mr. Bennett's home stood before the massacre. They raised fine crops, and had abundance until another calamity overtook them, which was the ice flood in the spring of 1784. Mr. Bennett's house was taken down the stream some distance and lodged against some trees near the creek, and they lost seven head of young cattle. Mr. Ben- nett now hastily put up a temporary cabin, constructed of boards and blankets. Mrs. Myers said: "For seven weeks we lived all but out of doors, doing our cooking by a log before our miser- able cabin. After this we occupied our new, double log house, and by slow degrees was improved so as to be comfortable." Mr. Bennett had just removed his family into his new house, while it was without chimney or chinking, when the old troubles between the two classes of settlers were revived. Armstrong and Van Horn, under the authority of the legislative council of Pennsylvania, had come on with a company of armed men, took possession of the fort at Wilkes-Barre, and proceeded to drive the New England people from the country by force and arms.
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Many families were driven from their houses; among them the widows Shoemaker and Lee, near neighbors of Mr. Bennett. The first named was the grandmother of Lazarus D. Shoemaker, and Mrs. Lee was her sister. They were daughters of John McDowell, of Cherry Valley, Northampton (now Monroe) county, Pa. Mrs. Lee was the great-grandmother of Kate S. (Pettebone) Dickson, wife of Allan H. Dickson, of the Luzerne bar. In vain did they plead that their husbands had been slain by the tories and Indians, and they were helpless and defenseless widows, and they could not leave their homes and take a long journey through the wilderness. Go they must, and they made the best of the necessity. They left a portion of their goods with Mrs. Bennett, and were taken to Wilkes-Barre, and thence with Lawrence Myers, Giles Slocum, and many others, were hurried on towards "the swamp." At Capouse (Scranton) Myers and Slocum escaped ; but the great mass of the persecuted people had no remedy but to submit to their fate. Mr. Miner says : "About five hundred men, women, and children, with scarce provisions to sustain life, plodded their weary way, mostly on foot, the roads being impassable for wagons ; mothers, carrying their infants, literally waded streams, the water reaching to their arm-pits, and at night slept on the naked earth, the heavens their canopy, with scarce clothes to cover them.". Mr. Bennett and Colonel Denison escaped and went up the river to Wyalusing.
Mrs. Bennett stuck by the " stuff." She had never yet left the valley for the Pennamites, and she had made up her mind that she never would. She was not left, however, in the possession of her home without an effort to drive her away. Mrs. Myers says : "Van Horn and his posse came up, having pressed a Mr. Roberts with his team to carry off our goods. Van Horn ordered mother to clear out, but she finally replied that she was in her own house, and she would not leave it for him or anybody else. He ordered Andrew and me to put things upon the wagon, a service which we refused to render. Some of the men went out to the corn house, where there was a quantity of corn; but mother seized a hoe, and, presenting herself before the door, declared that she would knock the first man down who touched an ear of corn. They looked astonished and left her." The Pennamite and Yan-
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kee war was finally terminated on the principle of mutual conces- sion, but not without great difficulty. At the close of the revo- lutionary war the "Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania" petitioned congress for a hearing in relation to the Connecticut claim, " agreeable to the ninth article of the Confederation." Con- necticut promptly met the overture. A court was constituted by mutual consent which held its session in Trenton, N. J. The decree was awarded December 30, 1782, in favor of the jurisdic- tion of Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvanians, of course, were pleased, and the greater portion of the New England people made up their minds to submit to the decision.
Solomon Bennett, son of Thomas Bennett, is supposed to have Wo removed to Canada after the perilous times were over in Wyo- ming. Andrew Bennett, the other son, married Abbie Kelly, and lived and died in Kingston. The late John Bennett, of Forty Fort, was a son. For a number of years he was deputy surveyor of the county of Luzerne, receiving his first appointment in 1814. The late Charles Bennett, who was admitted to the bar of Luz- erne county April 7, 1845, was a son of John Bennett. The late Daniel Strebeigh Bennett, of the Luzerne bar, was a great- grandson of Thomas Bennett. We are indebted to the late George Peck, D. D., author of "Wyoming ; its history, stirring incidents, and romantic adventures," a son-in-law of Philip Myers, for many of the facts relating to the Bennett and Myers families, here inserted. The late Philip T. Myers, who was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county January 6, 1865, and William V. Myers, who was admitted to the Luzerne county bar February 13, 1872, were grandsons of Philip Myers. Philip Myers, of Chicago, Ill., who was admitted to our bar August 8, 1855, and his brother, George P. Myers, of Williamsport, Pa., who was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county April 25, 1870, are also grandsons of Philip Myers. Thomas Myers, now of Chicago, their father, is still living at the age of eighty-four. He was sheriff of Luzerne county from 1835 to 1838. This was while Wyoming county was yet a part of Luzerne county. He is a life director of the Wyoming Seminary, at Kingston, Pa., and contri- buted towards its erection, in 1844, one-fourth of its cost.
Edward Everett Hoyt was educated at the Wyoming Semi-
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nary, Kingston, and at Lafayette College, graduating from the latter institution in the class of 1878. He read law with Dickson (A. H.) & Atherton (T. H.), and was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county September 17, 1880. He was on the board of the last seven years auditors, and has been a director of the pub- lic schools of Kingston for the past three years. Henry Martyn Hoyt, of Spokane Falls, Washington Territory, who was admit- ted to the bar of Luzerne county September 7, 1885, is a brother of E. E. Hoyt. Mr. Hoyt is an unmarried man and a republican in politics. As will be seen, he springs from a family whose several branches have afforded this state and county many wise and useful men and women. To be born of such stock is a great advantage to a young man possessing the receptive faculty, since it gives him the benefit of associations from which he must needs draw both understanding and inspiration. Mr. Hoyt appears to have the faculty named, and to be withal a lover of his profession, and an assiduous student and worker in its ranks. He is but in the beginning of his career, of course, but has already developed a force of character and instinctive appreciation of the funda- mental principles of the law that bespeak a flattering ultimate success.
WILLIAM CARROLL PRICE.
William Carroll Price was born in St. Clair, Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, March 2, 1858. He is the son of the late William Price, who was a native of Stalverah, Glamorganshire, Wales, where he was born April 15, 1815. His parents were Rees and Anna Price. William Price emigrated to this country in 1833, and settled in Pottsville. He afterwards removed to St. Clair, near which place he began business as a coal operator, and in which occupation he was engaged at the time of his death, April 9, 1864. The mother of William Carroll Price is Rachel Price (nee Webb). She is the daughter of the late Henry Webb and Abagail Pike Webb, and was born in Northmoreland, Luzerne, (now Wyoming) county, Pa., April 24, 1825. She now resides
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at Eddington, on the Delaware river. The ancestors of Henry Webb came to this country in the seventeenth century, and settled in Braintree, Mass., and afterwards removed to Windham, Conn. Henry Webb, son of Joel Webb and Caroline Webb (nee Wales), was a native of Windham, and in his young man- hood removed to Northmoreland, and subsequently to Blooms- burg, Pa., where he became the editor and proprietor of the Colum- bia Democrat, which had been in existence about a year at the time of his purchase. The mother of Abagail Pike Webb was Rachel Dorrance, a daughter of James 'Dorrance, son of Rev: Samuel Dorrance, who emigrated to this country from Ireland about 1723, and settled in Voluntown, Conn. James Dorrance was a brother of John Dorrance and Lieutenant-Colonel George Dorrance, who was one of the participants in the battle and mas- sacre of Wyoming, and who was slain in that engagement. The latter was the great-grandfather of Benjamin Ford Dorrance, of the Luzerne bar. Rachel Dorrance married Peter Pike in October, 1794. He was the father of Hon. Gordon Pike, of Wyoming county, and grandfather of the late Charles Pike, of the Luzerne county bar.
William C. Price was prepared for college at Exeter (N. H.) Academy, and in 1875 entered Harvard University. He remained there two years. In 1879 he entered the law office of George M. Dallas, in Philadelphia, and was admitted a member of the Phila- delphia county bar in June, 1881. He made a visit to Europe the same year, traveling generally on the continent and Great Britain, returning home in August, 1882. He then came to Wilkes-Barre, and was admitted a member of the Luzerne county bar October 14, 1882. Mr. Price is an unmarried man, and a republican in politics. He is prominent in military circles, and is now first lieutenant of company D, Ninth regiment, of the Na- tional Guard.of Pennsylvania. With the advantages of a collegiate education, travel in foreign lands, and a tutor in the law of the emi- nence of George M. Dallas, Mr. Price should be able to achieve success in his chosen calling. He is an unusually hard worker in his profession, and industry together with an earnest devotion to study-essential in the cases of even those best equipped- should give him a paying practice.
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ANTHONY LAWRENCE WILLIAMS.
ANTHONY LAWRENCE WILLIAMS.
Anthony Lawrence Williams was born October 10, 1862, at Ebervale, Luzerne county, Pa. He is the son of the late Richard Williams, a native of the parish of Llandybie, Carmarthanshire, Wales, where he was born February 22, 1815. He came to this country in 1855, first locating in St. Clair, Schuylkill county, Pa. He subsequently removed to Hazleton and its vicinity. During the years 1871, 1872, and 1873 he represented Luz- erne county in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. He introduced the bill incorporating the city of Wilkes-Barre. In 1874 he removed to Audenried, Carbon county, where for five years he was a justice of the peace. He died January 30, 1883, at Audenried. The mother of A. L. Williams is Mary, daughter of the late Walter Thomas, of Pembrokeshire, Wales. Mr. and Mrs. Williams were married in their native country. Anthony Lawrence Williams was educated at the Millersville (Pennsyl- vania) State Normal School, graduating in the class of 1881. During portions of the years 1881, 1882, and 1883 he taught school, and was principal of the Jeansville school and also of the Beaver Brook school. He studied law with Alexander Farnham, and was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county October 12, 1885. He is an unmarried man, and a republican in politics.
Mr. Williams shares many of the characteristics of his deceased father, who, though born in humble life, and pursuing an humble avocation, was large-minded and keen-witted, and successful in many things in which men who had had far greater advantages, and who were of apparently far greater attainments, proved lamentable failures. He had a ready, native intelligence that stood him in good stead upon all occasions, an inexhaustable stock of good common sense, and a capacity of reading men and understanding them that gave him great influence with them whenever he chose to exert it. As a leader in the early days of the old miners' union, he had the thorough confidence of his fellow workmen at all times, as well as the respect and esteem of the employers. He could endorse without playing the lickspittle,
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FRANK WOODRUFF WHEATON.
could condemn without offending. There was that about him that convinced all with whom he came in contact of his entire sincerity and honesty. He was conservative in temperament, and made that important element of his character count quite frequently to the mutual advantage of employer and employed. He enjoyed the confidence of both to the day of his death. His son is very similar in temperament and capacity to the father, and, being both industrious and devoted to his books, has, if he shall have reasonably good luck, a bright future before him.
FRANK WOODRUFF WHEATON.
Frank Woodruff Wheaton was born in Binghamton, Broome county, N. Y., August 27, 1855. He is a descendant of Robert Wheaton, who came from England to Salem, Mass., in 1636, being at that time about thirty years of age, and there married Alice, daughter of Richard Bowen. In 1645 he removed to Rehoboth, where he died in 1696. From him was descended Moses Whea- ton, of Richmond, New Hampshire, who married Sarah, daughter of Rev. Maturin Ballou and sister of Rev. Hosea Ballou. In Burke's " Life of President Garfield," whose mother was a Ballou, reference is made to some of the early members of the Ballou family, as follows: "Early in life this man [Abram Garfield] married Eliza Ballou, a near relative of Hosea Ballou, the great apostle of American Universalism. She became the mother of General Garfield, and thus he is allied to that distinguished family, which has given so many eloquent preachers and eminent divines to liberal theology, and for two centuries has left such deep and abiding traces on the scholarship, religion, and jurisprudence of this country." The Ballous are of Huguenot origin, and directly descended from Maturin Ballou, who fled from France on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and, joining the infant colony of Roger Williams, settled in Cumberland, Rhode Island. There Maturin Ballou built a church, which is still standing, and still known as the "Elder Ballou Meeting- house," and there,
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during a long life, he taught the purest tenets of the French Reformation with a fervent eloquence that was not unworthy of the great French reformers. They were a race of preachers. One of them (the father of Sarah (Ballou) Wheaton), himself a clergyman, had four sons who were ministers of the gospel. One of these sons had three sons who were ministers, and one of these had a son and a grandson who were also clergymen. But it is not only as preachers that the members of this remarkable family have been celebrated. As lawyers, politicians, and soldiers some of them have been equally distinguished. One of them was the eminent head of Tuft's college, and a score or more were officers or privates in the Revolution, and, nearer our day, another-Sullivan Ballou-the distinguished speaker of the Rhode Island House of Representatives-fought and fell at Bull Run. As a race they have been remarkable for an energy and force of character that are equal to the highest enterprises, and altogether undaunted in the face of what would be to others insurmountable obstacles. For this trait of character they are especially known.
Rev. Maturin Ballou, the father of Sarah (Ballou) Wheaton, was born in Providence, R. I., October 30, 1722, and was the son of Peter Ballou 2d, who was the son of John Ballou, who was the son of Maturin Ballou Ist. One of the most distinguished members of this family was Hosea, youngest son of Rev. Maturin Ballou. He was born at Richmond, N. H., April 30, 1771, and died at Boston July 7, 1852. At the age of nineteen he joined the Baptist church under his father's care, but, having declared his belief in the final salvation of all men, he was excommunicated. He began to preach at the age of twenty-one, and in 1794 was settled at Dana, Mass. In 1801 he removed to Barnard, Vermont, and in 1804 he wrote his " Notes on the Parables " and " Treatise on the Atonement." In 1807 he became pastor of the Univer- salist church in Portsmouth, N. H. In 1815 he removed to Salem, Mass., and in 1817 to Boston, where he became pastor of the Second Universalist church, in which location he continued for thirty-five years. In 1819 he commenced the "Universalist Magazine," and in 1831, in conjunction with his grand-nephew, also named Hosea Ballou, he began the publication of the " Uni- versalist Expositor," to which he continued to contribute until
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his death. Among his published works, besides those mentioned, are twenty-six "Lecture Sermons," twenty "Select Sermons," an " Examination of the Doctrine of Future Retribution " (1846), and a volume of poems, mostly hymns, many of which are em- bodied in the "Universalist Collection," edited by Adams and Chapin. He preached more than ten thousand sermons, none of which were written till after their delivery. Two of his brothers-Benjamin and David-also became Universalist preach- ers. Two memoirs of him have been published, one by his son, M. M. Ballou, and the other by Thomas Whitemore (1854). From Benjamin Ballou were descended Hosea Ballou 2d, D. D., President of Tuft's college (1853); Judge Martin Ballou, of Princeton, Ill; and Maturin and George William Ballou, the eminent bankers.
Moses Ballou Wheaton, son of Moses Wheaton and Sarah, his wife, was born at Richmond, N. H., September 9, 1790, and died in Jackson, Pa., December, 1860. His wife's name was Mary Aldrich. In 1815 he came to Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, bringing with him his wife and two children and his aged mother. They were among the first settlers in the town of Jackson. Thomas J. Wheaton, son of Moses Ballou Wheaton and Mary, his wife, was born in Jackson March 29, 1826. He attended the district and select schools of his neighborhood, and Harford Academy, an institution of considerable reputation in its day, then under the charge of Rev. Lyman Richardson, a distinguished educator. He studied medicine with his brother, W. W. Wheaton, M. D., of Binghamton, N. Y., attended lectures at the Eclectic Medical College, of Rochester, and was a practicing physician from 1849 to 1858 in the counties of Bradford and Susquehanna and at Binghamton, N. Y. During the war of the Rebellion he was an engineer on the iron-clad "Dictator," the flag ship of Commodore Rodgers. Since 1858 he has been a dentist, and for the past twelve years a resident of Wilkes-Barre. He married, April 10, 1851, Maria T., daughter of Lewis H. Woodruff, of Dimock, Pa.
Lewis H. Woodruff was born February 25, 1798, at Litchfield, Conn., and died June 25, 1875, at Wilkes-Barre, Pa. At the age of seven years he removed, with his father's family, from Litch-
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field to Lisle, N. Y. . He was educated at Hamilton College, and was married, March 21, 1830, to Almeda Hutchinson, of Lerays- ville, Bradford county. Soon after his marriage he located at Dimock, Pa., where for more than forty years he was an enter- prising and influential citizen. He built the first academy in the town, was largely instrumental in securing a church building for the Presbyterian congregation, donating the land for that purpose, and in many ways contributed to the prosperity of the place and the welfare and happiness of his fellow citizens. He was the son of Andrew Woodruff, who was born in 1759, married to Miranda Orton, and died at Livonia, N. Y., March 27, 1847. He was the son of Deacon Samuel Woodruff, of Litchfield, who was born June 13, 1723, married to Anna Nettleton, and died in 1772. He was the son of Samuel Woodruff, " cordwainer," who was born at Milford in 1677, married Mary Judd, and died November 27, 1732. He was the son, by his second wife, of Matthew Wood- ruff, who was born in Farmington in 1646, married (1) Mary Plum, of Milford, and after her death (2) Sarah, daughter of John North, and died November, 1691. He was the son of Matthew Wood- ruff, of Hartford, and Hannah, his wife, who was the first settler. He removed from Hartford to Farmington about 1640, and was one of the original proprietors of the town. He was freeman in 1657, and died in 1682, his will bearing date September 6 of that year, and was probated in December following.
Frank Woodruff Wheaton, son of Thomas J. Wheaton and Maria T., his wife, was educated in the public schools at Bing- hamton, N. Y., and graduated at Yale college in 1877. He read law with E. P. & J. V. Darling, and was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county September 2, 1879. He married, May 16, 1878, L. Maria Covell, of Binghamton, N. Y. She is a native of Tol- land, Conn. Mr. and Mrs. Wheaton have no children. In 1884 Mr. Wheaton was elected a member of the city council of Wilkes- Barre. During the year 1885 and the present year he has served as chairman of the law and ordinance committee of the city council.
Mr. Wheaton, it will be seen, carries in his veins some of the best blood of that new England which was the pioneer of western civilization and progress. He is a not unworthy scion of a
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paternity marked for its learning, its energy, and particularly for its labors in the spread of advanced and liberal ideas. At the bar he is noted for a quiet and unobtrusive demeanor, for care in the preparation of his cases, and for a plain, matter-of-fact method of statement that often succeeds where mere eloquence and elabo- ration would fail. In the city council he takes a foremost part in the debates, particularly in such as arise from reports of the important committee of which he is the chairman. He is a most useful and universally respected member of that body. He is a republican in politics, active in forwarding the interests of his party. He has every prospect of a bright future before him.
CHARLES BOONE STAPLES.
Charles Boone Staples was born in Stroudsburg, Pa., November 24, 1853. He is a descendant of John Staples, a native of the county of Kent, England, who came to this country, when a lad of eighteen years of age, on one of the vessels that brought tea into Boston harbor in 1774. During the Revolutionary war he served as a soldier in the patriotic army and fought for the inde- pendence of the colonies. He subsequently settled in Monroe county, Pa., where his son, William Staples, was born. Richard S. Staples, son of William Staples, was born near the Delaware Water Gap, in Monroe county, January 29, 1818. He is still living, and is a prominent citizen of that county. During the years 1872 and 1873 he served as a member of the state legislature for the counties of Carbon and Monroe. The wife of Richard S. Staples, and the mother of Charles B. Staples, was Mary Ann, daughter of John D. Thompson, M. D., of Mauch Chunk, Pa. Her mother was a granddaughter of Colonel Jacob Weiss, the founder of Weissport, Carbon county, Pa. Charles B. Staples was edu- cated in the common schools of his native county and at Dick- inson college, Carlisle, Pa., graduating from the latter institution in the class of 1874. He read law with William Davis at Stroudsburg and was admitted to the bar of Monroe county May
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26, 1876, and to the Luzerne county bar June 1I, 1884. In ISSo he was a delegate to the democratic national convention which was held at Cincinnati, Ohio. On May 16, 1885, he was appointed United States collector of internal revenue. He took charge of the office June 8, 1885. His district embraces the counties of Bradford, Carbon, Centre, Clinton, Columbia, Lacka- wanna, Lycoming, Luzerne, Montour, Monroe, Northampton, Northumberland, Pike, Potter, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga, Union, Wayne and Wyoming. Mr. Staples married, March 7, 1878, Althea Williams, a native of Stroudsburg. She is the daughter of Jerome S. Williams, of the same place. They have two children, Richard Somerville Staples and Jennie Williams Staples.
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