Genealogical and family history of the Wyoming and Lackawanna valleys, Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 40

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 40
USA > Wyoming > Genealogical and family history of the Wyoming and Lackawanna valleys, Pennsylvania, Volume I > Part 40

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

I. Kate S. Colby, a graduate of the normal school in Trenton, New Jersey, was daughter of Aaron Colby and wife Lydia Van Dyke Van de Veer, her father be- ing by occupation a teacher. He enlisted in 1861 under the first call for volunteers, being then fifty years old. His father was John Colby of Amesbury, Massachu- setts, and his grandfather Eliott Colby (and his son Stephen) were revolutionary soldiers. The American ancestors of this Colby family was Antonie Colbie, who sailed from England and settled in Boston, 1630, and afterward, 1664, in Amesbury, Massachusetts, died 1661. Aaron Colby died in Kingston, New Jersey, November 24, 1883. His wife's full name was Lydia Van Dyke Van de Veer, and she was a daughter of Cornelius Van Dyke, of Rocky Hill, New Jersey, and his wife Catherine. The American ancestor of this family was Cornelius Janse Van de Veer who came from Alckmaar, in North Holland, to America in 1659, in the "Gilded Otter," and settled in Flatbush, Long Island. He married F. Gillis de Manderville: was magistrate, 1678-80; and his name appears in Governor Dongan's land grant, 1685.

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plundered of most of his movable property.

This Jonathan Hunlock was the founder of the Hunlock family in Pennsylvania, and its pio- neer both in the valley of the Delaware and of the Susquehanna. He died in 1779 and his es- tate was administered by his wife Margaret, who survived her husband many years and whose body was finally buried beside that of her hus- band, on what is known as Blanchard's hill, near Hunlock creek. Jonathan and Margaret Hun- lock had children : Jonathan, born at Hunlock's creek. June 23, 1777 ; and Hannah, born at same place, July II, 1779, married, in 1800 Dr. Sam- uel Jameson, an early physician in the Wyoming region.

Jonathan Hunlock, son of Jonathan and Mar- garet Hunlock, spent his life near the place of his birth. He built soon after his marriage a large stone house, within whose hospitable walls he kept an inn for the entertainment of travelers ; and he also acquired large tracts of land, became owner of a valuable millsite within nine miles of Wilkes-Barre, and was regarded as a man of substance in the county. He died at the Hun- lock homestead in October, 1861. He married. 1800, Mary Jameson, sister of Dr. Jameson, mentioned above; she died September 13, 1878. They had four children: John, born September 12, 1801 : Andrew, born July 13, 1803, married Fanny Millard, who died without issue : Samuel. born February 6, 1805, died July 2, 1876, mar- ried Nancy Fuller, and had two sons and three daughters ; Jameson, born at Hunlock's creek, in Huntington (afterward Union and now Hun- lock) township, and died May 6, 1887, in Frank- lin township, Luzerne county, at the home of one. of his sons.

Jameson Hunlock (3), fourth son of Jona- than and Mary (Jameson) Hunlock, married, December 28, 1836, Ann Maria Royal, daughter of George Henry Royal and his wife Eleanor Holgate. Jameson resided for many years after his marriage in Kingston township, Luzerne county, where he engaged in farming and other business pursuits. His wife died there May 6, 1875, and he died 1887. Jameson and Ann Maria (Royal) Hunlock had six children: Andrew, born May 1, 1839, of whom later ; George R., born October 2. 1840: Helen M., born Septem- ber 17, 1843, deceased; Frances A., born June 21, 1845: John G., born November 25. 1847 ; Thomas B., born September 27, 1850; Edward R., born October 9, 1855.

Andrew Hunlock. eldest son of Jameson Hunlock and his wife Ann Maria Royal, was born in the village of Kingston, May 1, 1839. He

acquired his early education in the public schools. and Wyoming Seminary, after which he began the study of law in the office and under the direc- tion of Lyman Hakes, of the Luzerne bar. He- was admitted to practice in November, 1868, and since that time has resided in Wilkes-Barre, de- voting himself to his profession and attending to the various important business interests in which he is concerned. Mr. Hunlock is unmarried. He is interested in the welfare of the city and its prosperity, yet has never taken an active part in its political affairs, having no ambition in that direction. In February, 1876, he was active in organizing the Anthracite Savings Bank of Wilkes-Barre, now one of the solid financial in- stitutions of Luzerne county, and was its first president. This office he held until April, 1881, when he disposed of his stock in the bank. He is one of the owners of the costly and handsome Hotel Sterling in Wilkes-Barre. For more than thirty years he has been a member and attendant of the congregation of the Memorial Presbyte- rian Church, and of his means has contributed liberally to its support. He has always been a generous donor to the various charitable and other useful institutions in Wilkes-Barre which are dependent upon the public for their support. No worthy charity ever appealed to him in vain, and yet his gifts have been so disposed as not to attract attention to the donor. He is a life mem- ber of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society of Wilkes-Barre.

The Jameson family from whom Mr. Hun- lock descends is thus mentioned in Kulp: Mary Jameson was the daughter of John Jameson, a descendant of John Jameson, who in the year 1704 left the highlands of Scotland, of which he was a native, and sought a new home in Ire- land. He settled in the town of Omagh, county of Tyrone, where he married Rosanna Irwin. He continued his residence in Ireland until 1718, when he emigrated with his family to America, landing after a long and dangerous voyage in Boston, in the colony of Massachusetts Bay. He removed to Voluntown, Windham county, Con- necticut. 1725, where he purchased a tract of land upon which he lived for many years and died. He had two brothers, Robert and Henry, both of whom emigrated to America, and landed at Philadelphia in the year 1708. John Jame- son was a man of strong will and prejudices. It is said he never yielded until fully convinced of error.

His son. Robert Jameson, was born in the town of Omagh, Ireland, December 25, 1714, and was four years of age when his parents came to

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America. He married November 24, 1748, Ag- nes Dixson, who was also born in Ireland, and came to America when quite young with her father, Captain Robert Dixson, and settled in Windham county, Connecticut. Robert Dixson was one of the committee of the Susquehanna Company, as shown by the following receipt :

"Voluntown, March 30 day, A. D., 1768.

"Then received of Robert Jameson, of Vol- uptown, in Windham county, as he is one of the company of the purchasers of the Susquehanna Lands so called, the sum of nine shillings law- ful money, in full complyance of the voat of said company at their meeting held at Wind- ham by adjournment on the sixth day of Janu- ary last, for one whole right or share in s'd pur- chase. I say rec'd by me.

"ROBERT DIXSON, "One of the com'tee for s'd company."

Robert Jameson and his wife, Agnes, with all their sons and daughters (except John, who had preceded them) bade farewell to their old home in Voluntown and set out for Wyoming, on the Susquehanna. They brought with them a few articles of household furniture and an agricul- tural implement or two, which they conveyed in a large cart drawn by three yoke of oxen. The sons walked alongside, driving the oxen and helping the cart over new and badly opened roads. The daughters, clothed in homespun, travelled afoot and drove thirty head of sheep. The journey was performed in about three te- dious weeks. John, who had gone before to pre- pare a home, met them at Lackawaxen, and con- ducted them to their homely dwelling in Han- over township. Mr. Jameson, before leaving Connecticut, obtained the following passport :

"Windham. November 4, 1776.

"The bearer hereof, Mr. Robert Jameson, has been for many years an inhabitant in the town of Voluntown, in the county of Windham, and state of Connecticut, and is now on his journey with his wife and family and family furniture, to remove to the town of Hanover, on the Susque- hanna river, and is a friend to the United States of America, and has a right to remove himself and family as above.

"SAM'L GRAY,

""Jusctice of the Peace and one of the committee of s'd Windham."

Robert Jameson lived nine or ten years after his removal to Hanover, where he died in the seventy-second year of his age, of consumption, and was buried in the graveyard of the old Han- over Presbyterian Church. His wife Agnes died

in Salem township, September 24, 1804, and lies buried in the Beach Grove cemetery.

John Jameson, son of Robert Jameson, born June 17, 1749, preceded his father to Wyoming, where he arrived in 1770. He located on a tract of land in Hanover township on the public road leading from Wilkes-Barre to Nanticoke, where he cleared several acres and enclosed a comfort- able log house containing two rooms, and a half- story loft accessible by means of a ladder. The fire-place was constructed without jambs, on the Dutch plan. The windows were of small size, with six panes of light and glass-oiled paper was used as a substitute for glass. The structure compared favorably with the dwelling places of neighboring settlers, and, indeed, as the logs were hewn, the edifice was considered superior to anything in the neighborhood. It was to this place he welcomed his father's family in 1776. The same year he married Abigail Alden, child of Captain Prince Alden, who came to Wyoming with her father in 1773. In 1776, before the fam- ily of his father arrived in Wyoming, he enlisted in a company under Captain Strong, and June, 1777, was elected ensign. The company was united with the Connecticut troops and marched to New Jersey to unite with the army under Washington. On the morning of July 3, 1778, he, in company with his brothers, William and Robert Jameson, and a man named Coffrin, who worked for him, left home with their rifles and joined the devoted band who encountered the invading English Tories and Indians in the cele- brated battle or massacre of Wyoming. Robert Jameson and James Coffrin were killed in the battle. William had the lock of his gun shot away and was wounded. John Jameson escaped barely with his life. Hastening to his home he found his aged father and mother, with his wife and sisters and younger brothers, anxiously awaiting news of the battle. "What news, John?" inquired the father. "We are defeated," was the reply ; "Robert and Coffrin are dead, and William is wounded ; the Indians are sweep- ing over the valley, spreading fire and death in every direction, and we must fly for our safety." The Jamesons, Aldens, Hurlbuts, and other fam- ilies set out at once for old Hanover, in Lan- caster county. The old men, women and chil- dren were placed in boats and sent down the Susquehanna river. John Jameson, with his brothers, Alexander and Joseph, and his mother, who carried her son Samuel in her arms, per- formed the journey on foot to Fort Augusta, now Sunbury, Pennsylvania. They undertook

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drive the cattle before them, but owing to their haste and to the thick underwood and the almost unpassable roads or paths they lost almost all of them. One yoke of oxen strayed into North- ampton county, but were afterwards recovered. As soon as the families were safely landed in old Hanover, John Jameson returned to look after the farm and household goods. He occa- sionally visited Lancaster county, but the fam- ilies did not come back to their homes in Wyom- ing until 1780. On July 8, 1782, Mr. Jameson, with his youngest brother Benjamin, and a neighbor, Asa Chapman, started from his home in Hanover for Wilkes-Barre. Riding on horse- back on the public road and approaching the open ground of the old church at Hanover green, John Jameson observed Indians in the thickets on his right. He exclaimed "Indians!" and im- mediately fell dead, pierced by three balls. His horse fled and left his rider on the ground, where he was afterwards found, scalped, tom- ahawked, and murdered. Chapman and horse were both wounded but escaped. Mr. Chapman died a few days after. Benjamin Jameson's horse wheeled at the first fire and carried him home in safety. They were the last men killed in Wyoming by Indians. Thus died John Jame- son in the thirty-third year of his age. He possessed perseverance and great powers of en- durance, and was in every respect a thorough- going pioneer. He was buried in the graveyard of the Hanover church near the spot where he was killed. We have already stated that the wife of John Jameson was Abigail Alden. She was descended from John Alden, the first of the American families of that name, and who was one of the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in the year 1620. He was at that time about twenty-two years of age, conse- quently was born in 1598. He married Pris- cilla Mullins (or Molines) in 1623.

Captain Jonathan Alden, son of Hon. John Alden, settled in Duxbury, Massachusetts, on the ancient homestead. He married Abigail Hallet, daughter of Andrew Hallet, also of Dux- bury, December 10, 1672. His wife died Au- gust 17, 1725. aged eighty-one years. Captain Jonathan Alden died February 15, 1697. and was buried under arms, and a funeral discourse was delivered by the Rev. Ichabod Wiswell, which was printed. Andrew Alden, son of Captain Jonathan Alden and his wife Abigail, married Lydia Stamford, February 4, 1714. Prince Alden, son of Andrew Alden and Lydia his wife, married Mary Fitch, of New London, Connecti-

cut. The first settlement in Newport township was made by Major Prince Alden in 1772, near the borough of Nanticoke. Their daughter Abi- gail married John Jameson. After the death of John Jameson, Mrs. Jameson managed her af- fairs with prudence and economy, and 1787 took Shubal Bidlack as a second husband. He was a grandson of Christopher Bidlack, who settled in Windham, Connecticut, in 1722, where he died. His son, Captain James Bidlack, married Abigail Fuller, and came with his family to the Wyoming Valley in 1777 from Windham. Cap- tain James Bidlack, one of his sons, commanded one of the Wilkes-Barre companies at the battle and massacre of Wyoming, and there lost his life.

Benjamin Bidlack, a brother of James, was a famous soldier in the Revolutionary war, and afterwards a noted Methodist minister of the old schoool. He was the father of Benjamin Alden Bidlack, who represented the county of Luzerne in the legislature of Pennsylvania, 1834-35. He was elected a member of congress as a representative of Luzerne and Columbia counties in 1840, and re-elected in 1842. He was. appointed by President Polk minister to the re- public of New Granada, where he died. His widow, who subsequently married Thomas W. Miner, M. D., is still living. Shubal Bidlack was the fourth son of Captain James Bidlack, senator. On one occasion during the Pennamite and Yankee war, Mrs. Bidlack left Wyoming for Easton, where her father, Major Prince Alden, with upwards of twenty other Connecticut set- tlers, were confined in jail. She took a number of letters intended for the prisoners, which were carefully folded and concealed in her roll (the hair in those days being carefully done up in a roll) on the top of her head. As she passed along. the Indian path at night she was discovered and arrested near Bear Creek by Colonel Patterson, the Pennamite commander. The letters in her roll escaped the suspicious Pennamite, and she was permitted to pass without further molesta- tion. She arrived safely in Easton and com- municated the state of affairs at home to her father and other prisoners. She was a member of the first Methodist class formed in Hanover, and the house of the Widow Jameson was a home for the early Methodist ministers. William Jameson, a brother of John, who was wounded at the battle of Wyoming, was murdered by the In- dians in the lower part of the present city of Wilkes-Barre, October 14, 1778, and was buried in the old Hanover graveyard. The mother of

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THE WYOMING AND LACKAWANNA VALLEYS.

Andrew Hunlock was Anna Maria Royal, daughter of the late George Henry Royal, of Germantown, Pennsylvania. The Royal fam- ily is of English descent, and emigrated from New England to Philadelphia, where the grand- parents of Mr. Hunlock resided for many years. H. E. H.

MYERS FAMILY. Among the early set- tlers in the Wyoming Valley who braved the hardships and perils of those days may be men- tioned the Myers family, which furnished a number of the heroes and patriots of that time. Since then members of the various generations have acquitted themselves equally as creditably in the various walks of life.

The founder of this branch of the Myers family came from Germany to America in 1760, and settled at Frederick, Maryland. He had four sons : Lawrence, Phillip, Henry, Michael.

Lawrence Myers, born 1754, and his brother Philip, born 1760, eldest sons of the founder of the family, entered the American army during the revolution and did valiant service for a num- ber of years. They were soldiers of the Mary- land line, and their lives were closely inter- twined, as the history of one is practically the history of the other. Lawrence was a private in Captain Mantz's company, Frederick county militia, July 13. 1776, and lieutenant in the Mary- land line 1781. He was also a major of Penn- sylvania militia in 1788, in command of men dur- ing the Pennamite troubles ( Miner, 483). Philip was a private soldier in the same militia, 1781. They were with General Washington during his military operations in the province of Pennsyl- vania, and afterwards shared in the battle of Ger- mantown which preceded the British occupation of Philadelphia. After that disaaster the Myers brothers came to the valley of the Susquehanna. They were well pleased with the locality, soil, general conditions and the determined spirit of the Yankee settlers. Upon returning to Mary- land they tried to induce their father to remove with his family to the Wyoming Valley, but were unsuccessful. Lawrence and Philip, how- ever, returned to the Valley, which had charmed them. Lawrence settled at Kingston, where he built and occupied the large stone house which is still standing, but in a dilapidated condition ; it was for many years known as Myers' "cocked hat." He married, January 3, 1782, Sarah Gore, and died in Kingston, Pennsylvania, March 27, 1810, aged fifty-six years.

Philip Myers second son of the founder of the family, was born 1760, died April 2, 1835.

He located in Forty Fort, 1785, and there after his marriage he built his house, just north of this historic fort, the land having been given him by Thomas Bennet, his father-in-law. He after- wards bought one hundred and fifty acres of land. He was a man of influence in the community. He married, July 15, 1787, Martha Bennet, born January 15, 1763, daughter of Thomas and Martha (Jackson) Bennet, two of whose sons were victims in the massacre of Wyoming. (See Peck's "History of Wyoming"). Philip and Martha (Bennet ) Myers had : I. John, of whom later. 2. Lawrence. 3. William, removed to Sun- bury, Ohio, where he owned a large tract of land, of which he later gave one-half of what was needed for a public square and the site for the court house. 4. Thomas, a conspicuous figure in the early history of Luzerne county, where he spent his life. He was the first clerk of the county commissioners, sheriff of the county, 1835-38, and later paymaster on the north branch division of the old state canal. Governor Packer induced him to remove to Williamsport, where he lived for a time and where he married the sis- ter of the governor's wife, a daughter of Peter W. Vanderbelt. Afterward he removed to Kingston, where he engaged in mercantile busi- ness. He took an active interest in education, and contributed to the Wyoming Seminary, Kingston, one-fourth of its cost. 5. Harriet, mar- ried Madison F. Myers, her cousin. 6. Betsey. 7. Sarah.

Thomas Bennet, father of Mrs. Philip Myers, came from Rhode Island to the Delaware valley in Pennsylvania, 1763, and settled near Strouds- burg, where his family with others occupied a barricaded house built of stones and called a fort. His purpose had been to settle in the Wyoming valley, which he visited, but finding the Indians unfriendly to the whites, he tempo- rarily abandoned his idea. In 1769 he joined a company of New England people, came again to the valley, and was one of the hardy pioneers who built for protection both against the In- dians and the Pennamites the historic Forty Fort. In 1770 he helped in the work of build- ing a fort at the mouth of the Lackawanna, and there with others was taken into custody by the Pennsylvania authorities. While at "Wyoming" (probably Wilkes-Barre) en route to the North- ampton county jail at Easton. Mr. Bennet es- caped and returned to New England. In the fall he returned to the Wyoming valley, occupy- ing a small house he had previously built above Forty Fort. . He was one of the most courage- ous defenders of the Connecticut claimants in the

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region, and his life for the next few years was an important part of Pennsylvania history. His daughter Martha, who married Philip Myers, possessed many of her father's traits and had inherited much of his brave spirit. Her life is also a matter of state history, and her narrative of the troublous period of the Revolution and the Pennamite-Yankee war is interwoven with every published account of the events of that time. It is probably through her that the historic table on which the capitulation of Forty Fort, 1778, was written, is still preserved in the Myers fam- ily. Thomas Bennet was a son of Samuel Ben- net (3), who was a son of Samuel Bennet (2), who was a son of Samuel Bennet ( I), who was a son of Edward Bennet, of Weymouth, Massa- chusetts, a freeman in that town in 1636, one of the original proprietors of Rehoboth, Massachu- setts, where he died in 1646.

John Myers, eldest son of Philip and Martha (Bennet) Myers, was born at Forty Fort, Penn- sylvania, February 17, 1791, died in Wilkes- Barre, Pennsylvania, January 25, 1850. He was a man of considerable influence, having been jus- tice of the peace and notary public for forty years. He lived on Franklin street just north of Market street. He married, May 2, 1813, Sarah Stark, born July 20. 1793, died May 9, 1868, daughter of Henry Stark, who was driven from the valley at the time of the Wyoming massacre, but later returned and became the owner of a large tract of land in what is now Plains town- ship. Henry Stark was the son of James Stark, who was the son of Christopher Stark, who came from the Connecticut valley to that of Wyoming i11 1769. Christopher Stark was a son of Will- iam Stark, who was a son of Aaron Stark, of Hartford, Connecticut, 1639. David and Aaron Stark, sons of Christopher, were killed in the massacre at Wyoming, July 3. 1778. The chil- dren of John and Sarah (Stark) Myers were : I. Elizabeth, born October 31, 1815, died April 29, 1837 ; married, March 27, 1836, Colonel An- thony H. Emley, a banker and broker of Wilkes- Barre, Pennsylvania, and a soldier and officer during the Civil war. 2. Jane, born April 26, 1817, died unmarried. 3. Lawrence of whom later. 4. Martha, born April 10, 1820, died April 26, 1838. 5. Mary S., born September 16, 1821, died March 24, 1822. 6. Harriet, born June 20, 1823, married Michael Eichelberger, and died in Texas. 7. John, born October 7, 1824, died No- vember 25, 1847, of fever contracted as a soldier during the war with Mexico; he was a lawyer. 8. Henry P., born June 1, 1826, married October 6, 1853, Lucinda Reese Church, resides in

Wilkes-Barre. 9. Charles born Octcler 25, 1827, married, March 29, 1853, Martha Pettibone, and lives in Peoria, Illinois. 10. Sarah J. born October 31, 1829, married, June 25, 1853, Herman G. Muller : both deceased. II. James M., born April I, 1831, died October 7, 1864. He was in the army during the Mexican war. 12. Ruth Ann, born November 8, 1832, married, June 2, 1857, Benjamin Turner, and resides in Toulon, Il- linois.

Lawrence. Myers, third child of John and Sarah (Stark) Myers, was born October 22, 1818, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and was at the time of his death, June 14. 1905, one of the oldest men in Wilkes-Barre hamlet, village, borough, and city. He began the real work of life at an early age, and as his capital increased bought and sold land and any other property that promised a fair return. Later he disposed of some of his minor business interests and began a brokerage business on the public square near its northwest corner. He was the first man in Wilkes-Barre to take out a broker's license, and afterward, as long as the commodity was han- dled in the open market, his lettered sign "Gold and Silver Bought to Day" was regularly dis- played on his door-post. From this he merged into a regular banking business conducted on the same plan as the large banks. In addition to this he later invested judiciously in coal lands. He was prudent in his investments, fair in all his dealings, and won and kept the confidence of the business community. He continued in active business in the same locality for upwards of fifty vears as a banker, broker, and dealer in real estate. The result of his business efforts was the accum- ulation of a large fortune, which he enjoyed, and the respect of the community in which he had for so long a time been an influential citizen. He was a life member of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society. He married. 1844, Ann Elizabeth Eichelberger, by whom he had one child, Georgiana Myers, died July 24, 1866. He married (second). October 10, 1854, Sarah Sharps, who died March 12, 1864. Their chil- dren: 1. Rollin Sharps, living in Carbondale, Pennsylvania. 2. Eugene Oscar, living in Dor- ranceton, Pennsylvania. 3. Mary Margaret, of whom later. 4. Fannie S., married Samuel Townend. 5. Stella Elizabeth, died August 2, 1861.

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Genealogical and family history of the Wyoming and Lackawanna valleys, Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 40

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