Genealogical and family history of the Wyoming and Lackawanna valleys, Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 18

Author: Hayden, Horace Edwin
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 988

USA > Pennsylvania > Genealogical and family history of the Wyoming and Lackawanna valleys, Pennsylvania, Volume I > Part 18
USA > Wyoming > Genealogical and family history of the Wyoming and Lackawanna valleys, Pennsylvania, Volume I > Part 18

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other states, which imposed a heavy tax on the people of the poorer classes of this state. Mr. Miner advocated the encouragement of wool growing ; he helped to originate and warmly sup- ported that scheme of internal improvement which ultimately led to the construction of the North Branch canal ; he was the author of and introduced a bill to promote the comfort of the poor, which exempted from levy and sale on ex- ecution certain articles of personal property of the debtor ; he advocated the improvement of de- scending navigation of the Susquehanna and Le- high rivers, in connection with the grand scheme of internal improvement which at that time was being seriously considered at each legislative session, but which was not carried into effect until about twenty years later.

From 1806 to about 1810 Mr. Miner was a member of the military organization known as the "Wyoming Blues," and in 1808 was first lieutenant of the company. In 1810 he assisted in taking the third federal census, and at the same time he had a contract for carrying the mails between Wilkes-Barre and Northumber- land, Tunkhannock, and other towns interme- diate and more distant. In May, 1809, Mr. Miner transferred the Federalist to Sidney Tracy and Steuben Butler, but in September, 1810, resumed the editorial chair, then being partner with Sten- ben Butler. This partnership was dissolved in 1813, and Mr. Miner conducted the paper (then called The Gleaner) alone until 1816, when he sold out and went to Philadelphia to become ed- itor and part owner of The True American, where he gained a wide reputation as a writer and occupied a high position in social and politi- cal circles in the city. During his editorship of The Gleaner he published a series of articles under the nom de plume of "Poor Robert, the Scribe," which were afterwards published in book form, and obtained considerable celebrity. This work is now very rare. In the early part of 1817, on account of a long and serious ill- ness, he severed his connection with The Truc American and returned to Wilkes-Barre, but in the same year he purchased The Chester and Delaware Federalist, and soon afterward took up

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his residence in West Chester. The paper was published as the Federalist until 1818, when the name was changed to The Village Record. It soon became as popular for its good taste and del- icacy of humor as the Gleaner had been afore- time. Poor Robert of the Gleaner here wrote under the nom de plume of "Poor Robert, the The young Yankee printer, ridiculed by the De- mocracy of Chester county as a "Yankee tin ped- dler," won his way to the esteem and confidence of the plain and practical Quakers, then, as now, powerful and influential in that old county. He was beloved while he lived among them with an unusual affection, only less if possible than that kindly regard in which he was held by the people of Wyoming.

In 1820 Mr. Miner was the federal candidate for a seat in congress, but was defeated in the election by his Democratic opponent, Dr. Will- iam G. Darlington. In 1824 he was again a candidate and was elected, the district he was chosen to represent comprising the counties of Chester, Delaware and Lancaster; and his col- league in the house was a man who afterward at- tained a distinguished prominence in our national history. James Buchanan, of Lancaster county. In 1826 Mr. Miner was re-elected and served until the first inauguration of President Jackson. In Washington and its social and political circles Mr. Miner was the friend and associate of sev- eral distinguished men, among whom was Henry Clay, who regarded the representative from the interior as one of the ablest supporters of his measures for internal improvement, and the es- tablishment of a United States bank. His ac- quaintance and intercourse with Webster was familiar and pleasant ; he was the warm friend of John Quincy Adams, and in later years Edward Everett was his friend and correspondent, as was also the historian, George Bancroft. Presi- dent Tyler once said of Charles Miner "that he was the most able man he had ever met with from Pennsylvania."

At the end of his service in congress Mr. Miner returned to West Chester and continued to edit The Village Record. In 1832 he deter- mined, on account of deafness and increasing

age, to return to Wyoming valley, where his lit- erary career had been begun, and where he had ever hoped to pass the evening of his days. Here then he came, laying aside editorial honors and political preferments. He took up his residence on a farm which his wife had inherited from her father, and which was situated in Wilkes-Barre township, in what now is the borough of Miner's Mills. He called his new home "Retreat," and there on one occasion he entertained Bancroft, the historian, his valued friend. But even in re- tirement Mr. Miner's busy mind must find some- thing to work upon and his ready pen some sub- ject upon which to expend its energies. This was found in earnest efforts-begun in 1833- to obtain "all the facts which obliterating time and relentless death had spared. relating to the history of Wyoming. During the next two or three years he visited and conversed with "thirty or forty of the ancient people who were here at the time of the expulsion," and he carefully stud- ied and examined all accessible records and doc- uments relating to Wyoming. The earliest re- sults of his efforts were recorded in "The Hazle- ton Travellers," a series of historical and bio- graphical sketches, written for the Wyoming Republican and Farmers' Herald, Kingston, the first appearing in 1837. Subsequently these ar- ticles were included by Mr. Miner in his "His- tory of Wyoming," in a series of letters to his son, William Penn Miner, Esq., published in 1845. This history was the last great effort of his life, and the work ivas well done. The his- tory has always been considered authentic and reliable.

Charles Miner died at his home in Plains township, October 26, 1865. in the eighty-sixth years of his life. His good life had conformed to the laws of his being, and he died because he was very old. Among his papers was found a memorandum requesting that his body be buried in the old graveyard in Wilkes-Barre (corner Washington and Market streets) where the mould was "soft and pleasant," and where he would be "surrounded by dear friends" who had gone before. His request was complied with, but subsequently his remains were removed to the

THE WYOMING. AND LACKAWANNA VALLEYS.

Hollenback cemetery. Charles Miner married, at Wilkes-Barre, January 16, 1804, Letitia Wright, born June II, 1788, died in Plains town- ship, February 27, 1852, daughter of Joseph Wright. Their children were:

Ann Charlton, born October 24, 1804, mar- ried March 3, 1824, Dr. Isaac Thomas, born Sep- tember 16, 1797, died May 16, 1879; his wife died March 23, 1832.

Sarah K., born June 4, 1806, died January- 14, 1874. She was blind from early childhood. Her father taught her to read by having her learn the shape of large wooden job-type, in his printing office. When sent to an institution for the blind, her parents were informed that she was the first child ever admitted who was able to read. She was a gifted woman, her depriva- tion of vision being counterbalanced by a mar- velous memory. When her father was collect- ing data for his "History of Wyoming." she ac- companied him, listened closely to all that was related, and repeated the stories to him when he wrote them at home. He often referred to her as his "literary guardian."

Mary S., born July 16, 1808, died October 27, 1860. She married Joseph J. Lewis, who died in April, 1883. Mr. Lewis was a promi- nent attorney and during the administration of President Lincoln was commissioner of internal revenue. Their children were: Charlton Thomas, a graduate of Yale, A. B., 1853, M. A. 1859, Ph. D., University of the City of New York, 1877 ; he was a scholar, lexicographer, editor and successful man of affairs. (Extract from "Who's Who in America," 1901-1902, page 680). Charl- ton Miner Lewis, son of Charlton Thomas Lewis, received from Yale the title of A. B., 1886, LL. B., Columbia, 1889, Ph. D., Yale, 1898, and has served as professor of Yale since 1899. Wayne MacVeagh, minister to Turkey, 1873, United States attorney general, 1881, later embassador to Italy, married as his first wife a daughter of Joseph J. and Mary S. (Miner) Lewis.

Charlotte, born June 30, 1810, died July 8, 1859. She married Stephen Fuller Abbott, born July 14, 1809, died February 11, 1856. The late Rev. William P. Abbott, D. D., of the Methodist

Episcopal Church, was their son. (See Abbott family.)

Ellen Elizabetlı, born August 14, 1814, mar- ried June, 1838, Jesse Thomas, born October 27, 1804, died February 14, 1876.

William Penn, born September 8, 1816, died April 3, 1892. He was educated at West Ches- ter, read law with his brother-in-law, Judge Lewis, admitted to practice in Chester county in 1840, and in Luzerne county in 1841 ; elected prothonotary, 1846, for three years; was clerk of the courts of Oyer and Terminer and Quarter Sessions, and of the Orphan's court. He resumed the practice of law at the expiration of the three years, April 19, 1853. He purchased the Wilkes- Barre Advocate changing the name to The Rec- ord of the Times. The daily edition of the Record of the Times was started by him October 5, 1870, and still continues. It was sold to a stock company in 1876, and in 1883 came into the hands of the present proprietors-Dr. F. C. Johnson, ( see Johnson family), J. C. Powell (see Powell family), and C. B. Suyder. This paper has ever been a clean paper, "and an evidence of the highest type of journalism." (Kulp). It has always given every possible encouragement to the coal trade, and in that as in other ways it has greatly accelerated and added materially to the growth and prosperity of Wilkes-Barre and the county generally. He was the author of a remarkably exhaustive and interesting article on the "History of the Coal Trade in Luzerne and Lackawanna Counties in 1880," and other papers. He was a member of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society from 1858 until his deatlı, and was its first corresponding secretary in 1858. He married Elizabeth Dewart, daugh- ter of John Liggett, of West Chester, and their children were: I. Emily Remington, born April 5, 1845. 2. Caroline Thomas, born February 5, 1847. 3. Anna Lewis, born June 17, 1852. 4. William Beatty, born July 20, 1854, died 1905, was admitted to bar January 11, 1881, learned the trade of printer under his father, became a partner with him under the firm name of William P. & Son, subsequently went to Wisconsin and became editor of the Grant County Herald. In

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1889 he married Mrs. Katherine B. McComb, who had by her first marriage one child, Marie Louisa McComb; two children were born of the second marriage, as follows: Ellen Elizabeth, born April 19, 1891 ; and Charles, born July 21, 1893. 5. Letitia Wright, born February 25, 1859, married. November 17, 1897, John Mortimer Miner, and they are the parents 'of one child, Emily Elizabeth, born April 29, 1902.

H. E. H.

ROSS FAMILY. The ancestor of the Ross family, who were among the early settlers in the Wyoming valley, was Joseph Ross (I), of Ips- wich, Massachusetts, whose wife was named Mary, born 1646. They were of English ances- try, but the exact date of the Ross emigration to America is not clear. There was a John Ross at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1640, and also his brother Thomas Ross, and there was also a John Ross in Ashford in 1711. Joseph Ross and Mary, who was born in 1646 and died in Wind- ham, Connecticut, November 5, 1725, had three sons-Jonathan, Joseph and Daniel.

Joseph Ross (2) second son of Joseph Ross, of Ipswich, and Mary his wife, was born in 1683 and was one of the proprietors of Ashford in 1716, a land surveyor, and owner of several val- uable town lots. He married. September 16, 1716, Sarah Utley, born September 15, 1697, the daughter of Samuel Utley, of Scituate, Massa- chusetts. The name Utley was variously ren- dered in early colonial times, one of the first of the name being Samuel Utley, of Scituate, Mas- sachusetts. Savage suggests that the name may be identical with that of the Uxleys of Taunton, which seems improbable, as the latter are ac- counted for from the time of immigration. Sev- eral Utleys were in the Revolution-two Jere- miahs, John, Philip. Samuel, Daniel, Jacob and Thomas-all were privates. Jeremiah was "of- ficer. for public affairs," and surveyor. James signed the covenant in Canada parish, Windham county, 1725. Joseph and Sarah (Utley) Ross had ten children : their third son.

Jeremiah Ross (3), was probably the pioneer of the family in Pennsylvania. He was born

July 26, 1721, and died in Wilkes-Barre, Penn- sylvania, February 8, 1777. He married, Octo- ber 31, 1744, Ann Paine, born February II, 1720,. died at Wilkes-Barre, March 22 1813, aged nine- ty-three years. Ann Paine was the daughter of Samuel Paine (4) and Ruth Perrin; Samuel Paine (4) was a son of Samuel Paine (3) and wife Anna Peck who owned the finest house in Woodstock and were counted wealthy ; Samuel Paine (3) was a son of Stephen Paine (2) and wife Anne Chickering ; and Stephen Paine (2) was the son of Stephen Paine (1),"the emigrant," from Great Ellingham, a parish in the hundred of Shropham, near Hingham, county Norfolk, England. He was a miller and came to New Eng- land with a large party of emigrants in 1638 in the ship "Diligent.""' He settled first at Hing- ham, was made freeman in 1639, deputy in 1641,. was granted permission "to sit down at Sea- cunk" (Sea Ronk) in 1641-42, and the new set- tlement was soon afterward called Rehoboth. Jeremiah Ross and wife Ann Paine had the fol- lowing children : 1. Aleph. 2. Ann. 3. Perrin (or Peran), who was a lieutenant in the army,his commission being in the Twenty-fourth Regiment of Infantry, sometimes called the "Westmoreland. Regiment ;" he was killed in the massacre at Wyoming. 4. Sarah, married Giles Slocum. 5. Diana. 6. Mary. 7. Lucy married Dr. Davis. 8. Jeremiah, who was killed in the Wyoming mas- sacre. 9. William, see forward. 10. Elizabeth,. who married John Gore. All the sons of Jere- miah Ross were participants in the dreadful scenes of the Wyoming massacre.

William Ross, ninth child of Jeremiah and Ann (Paine) Ross, was born in Scotland par- ish, Windham county, Connecticut, March 29, 1761. At the age of thirteen he came with his. father and family from Montville, New London county, Connecticut, some time in the early part of 1774, to Wyoming. He marched with a party of nearly four hundred under the command of Colonel Butler, July 1, 1778, from Forty Fort to Exeter, the scene of the massacre of the Hard- ings, which occurred June 30, 1778. On July 3 .. being without arms. (his two older brothers Per- rin and Jeremiah, both of whom were killed in

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THE WYOMING AND LACKAWANNA VALLEYS.

the battle, having taken them), he remained in the fort. On receiving word of the defeat he and all his family fled. He and his mother and sister, Sarah Slocum, wife of Giles Slocum, took the Nescopeck path through Fort Allen to Stroudsburg, where they met their sisters, Aleph and Polly, (who had gone down the river to Harris Ferry, now Harrisburg, thence via Read- ing to the rendezvous), and the other four sis- ters. All except his mother and sister Sarah re- turned with Captain Spaulding to Wyoming in the following August. He was one of twenty- nine non-commissioned officers and privates under command of a lieutenant who marched October 22, 1778, to Forty Fort to guard the expedition and to bury the dead. They settled down again in the Wilkes-Barre fort, William being now the head of the family. He kept his fodder about half a mile from the fort and al- ways went armed when he fed his cattle. In- dians made frequent incursions into the neigh- borhood, burning the hay or driving off the cat- tle of the settlers. Two hundred and fifty In- dians attacked the fort, March 23, 1779, but were repulsed with the help of the only cannon the settlers possessed.

William Ross took part in the Pennamite and Yankee wars, and in July, 1784, marched with twenty-nine picked men under Captain John Swift to meet an armed force of Pennamites un- der command of Major Moore, who were re- ported to be at Larner's on their way to attack the Yankee settlers. They met on Locust Hill, in Northampton county, near Stoddartsville, Au- gust 2, where one of the Pennamites was killed and several wounded on each side. On the ar- rival at Wyoming, August 8, of John Armstrong, · secretary of the supreme executive council, and Hon. John Boyd, a member of the same, Mr. Ross and the other men who had been in Swift's company, by Armstrong's order were arrested on the charge of murder at Locust Hill, although he had promised on his good faith as a soldier and his honor as a gentleman that they should be protected. They were bound with cords, thrust into the guard house and threatened with instant death if they attempted to escape. Later they

were handcuffed in pairs right and left, all bound together, and each couple tied to two sol- diers with ropes, and sent to Easton under a strong guard, Colonel Armstrong giving the or- der as they were about to start that if any one of the prisoners attempted to escape the whole number were to be put to death immediately, adding that the government would indemnify them for so doing. Going up the mountain, some hung back and contrived to loosen their hands and cut the cord. Two escaped at Larner's. Mr. Ross, "by superior activity took leave at Hell- er's." The rest reached Easton and were lodged in jail.

Later, in more peaceable times, Mr. Ross joined the militia of Pennsylvania, and in July, 1788, was captain of a company located at Wilkes-Barre. This company with three others, including a troop of cavalry under Captain John Paul Schott, were ordered out June 27, when Colonel Pickering was abducted, for the purpose of rescuing him. In the pursuit Captain Ross, with fifteen of his company, in ascending the east bank of the Susquehanna, near Meshoppen, en- countered a party of Yankees under the lead of Gideon Dudley. In the action which ensued Cap- tain Ross was hit by a ball which passed through his body and lodged in the skin of the opposite side. He was removed to Wilkes-Barre, where he slowly recovered. In recognition of his ser- vices on this occasion he was presented by the supreme executive council of the commonwealth . with a handsome sword engraved with the fol- lowing inscription : "Captain Wm. Ross, The Supreme Executive Council present this mark of their approbation acquired by your firmness in support of the laws of the Commonwealth on the 4th of July. 1788. Charles Biddle, Sec'y."

In 1789-90 William Ross was captain of the Third Company of the First Battalion of Lu- zerne County Militia, commanded by Lieut. Col. Matthias Hollenback. In 1790 he was elected one of the first justices of the peace for the sec- ond district of Luzerne county, composed of Wilkes-Barre. Hanover and Newport townships, and September I, 1791, was appointed for the dis- trict of Wilkes-Barre in the county of Luzerne.

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His commission from Governor Mifflin is re- corded in the recorder's office in deed book No. I. page 409. He continued in the office for twenty years or more. He was appointed brigade inspector of Northumberland, Lycoming and Lu- zerne counties, April 25, 1800, to hold said office for the term of seven years from the date of his commission from Governor Mckean, which is recorded in deed book No. 6. page 537. The same day lie was appointed brigadier-general of the same brigade, which office he still held in 1812. "Having a taste for military affairs he arose by regular gradations from major to brigade in- spector and general in the militia. He was tall, straight. and extremely active." (Miner's "Wyoming," appendix, page 4). He was what was known in those days as a Democrat. In 1812 he was chosen senator to represent the district composed of Luzerne and Northumberland coun- ties. "In 1814 when the British threatened an attack on Baltimore, five companies of militia from Luzerne and adjoining counties marched." a detachment of the 35th Regiment, P. M., on the roll of which his name appears as a private. On their arrival at Danville, they heard of the repulse of the British and were ordered home. He was appointed postmaster of Wilkes-Barre in 1832 and held the office until 1835. In 1839 he acted as secretary of a meeting of the Luzerne bar, and in 1842, when he died, the court ad- journed to attend his funeral. He died August 9, 1842, and was buried in the Ross private bury- ing ground at the corner of South Washington and Hazel streets, and his body afterwards was removed to the Hollenback cemetery. He mar- ried, October 10, 1790, Elizabeth Sterling, of Lyme. Connecticut.

In 1652 David Sterling came from Hertford- shire, England. to Charlestown, Massachusetts. His son, William Sterling, moved to Lyme, Con- necticut. His son. Daniel Sterling, born 1673, died 1747, married Mary Ely Fenwick, widow of Richard Ely who was born 1675, died October 16. 1744. Their son Joseph Sterling, born 1707. married Sarah Mack, who was born 1706, died 1762. Their son, Samuel Sterling, born 1732, married. December 2, 1756, Elizabeth Perkins,

born October 14, 1737, died March 18, 1777. Their daughter, Elizabeth Sterling, born Novem- ber 3, 1768, married. October 10, 1790, Gen. William Ross, and died at Wilkes-Barre, May 16, 1816.

William Ross and Elizabeth Sterling had the following children :

Sarah Sterling, born August 25, 1793, mar- 'ried Dr. Edward Covell, and died July 8, 1864.

Eliza Irene, born August 25, 1794, married Peter Loop ..

Caroline Ann, born February 24, 1797, died August 18, 1885. She married (first), May 14, 1815, Samuel Maffet, born July 7, 1789, died Au- gust 14, 1825, and they were the parents of one son, William Ross Maffet. She married (sec- ond) February 3, 1828, Elisha Atherton, born in Wyoming, May 7, 1786, died April 2, 1853, son of James Atherton and his wife Lydia Wash- burn. They were the parents of one daughter Eliza Ross Atherton, who married, January 19, 1853. Charles Abbott Miner, of Wilkes-Barre.

William Sterling, born August 11, 1802, in Wilkes-Barre. He acquired his preparatory ed- ucation in the schools of his native city, and this was supplemented by attendance at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) from which institution he was graduated. During his long and prosperous life he followed the useful calling of agriculture, which occupation was best suited to his temperament and disposition, and by practical and progressive methods he produced excellent crops. Early in life he conceived a fancy for military affairs, and passed through all the official grades from that of a captain of vol- unteers to that of a brigadier-general. For a period of three decades he was the acknowledged head of the volunteer system in Luzerne county, and his word on military affairs was ever re- garded as an authority. At his drills he always wore the sword which the executive council of Pennsylvania had presented to his father as a re- ward of merit. He was commissioned associate judge of the courts of the county in 1830. which office he retained until 1839, the time of the adop- tion of the amended constitution of the state. For a number of years he was a member of the bor-

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ough council and generally its presiding officer. He represented the Luzerne district in the senate of this state during the sessions of 1845-46-47. being speaker of that body during the last named year. He was also elected to the general assem- bly for the session of 1862. For many years down to 1840 he was a director and general manager of the Easton and Wilkes-Barre Turn- pike Company, the only great thoroughfare lead- ing easterly to the seaboard from the Susque- hanna. He was for many years a director in the Wyoming Bank, and at the time of his death the president. He was also the president of the Wyoming Insurance Company at his decease, and was also a director in the Wilkes-Barre Water Company and the Wilkes-Barre Bridge Company, and a trustee of the Wyoming Histor- ical and Geological Society and the Home for Friendless Children. He was also a member of the vestry of St. Stephen's Church. He was a man of rare ability and unblemished integrity. of charitable impulses, and those who appealed to him in trouble and adversity almost always met with a liberal response. His donations to the Home for Friendless Children, including the bequest of his last will, amounted to ten thousand dollars, and his gift of the "Chambers" collection of coins and other curiosities to the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society cost two thousand dollars. He also contributed gen- erously when treason walked abroad in the land and threatened the overthrow and destruction of the Federal Union, he being among the first to rise up in its defense.

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Genealogical and family history of the Wyoming and Lackawanna valleys, Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 18

Author: Hayden, Horace Edwin Publication date: 1906 Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Lewis publishing company Number of Pages: 988

Author: Hayden, Horace Edwin
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 988