Genealogical and family history of the Wyoming and Lackawanna valleys, Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 7

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 7
USA > Wyoming > Genealogical and family history of the Wyoming and Lackawanna valleys, Pennsylvania, Volume I > Part 7

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).

Gaius Leonard Halsey married, April 17,

1882, Sarah Elizabeth Levan, daughter of John W. Levan, of White Haven. Their children are : Anna Catharine, now in Vassar College. John Richard, a student in Yale College. Jean Louise, Ruth Alice, Joseph Gaius.

H. E. H.

REYNOLDS FAMILY. The progenitor of the Reynolds family of Wyoming valley was William Reynolds (I), who was born near the close of the seventeenth century at Kingstown, Rhode Island. He was fourth in descent from William Reynolds, who is presumed to have been originally of Gloucestershire, England, and then of Bermuda, whence he immigrated about 1629 to Salem in the new Puritan colony of Massachu- setts Bay. He was a member of the First Church in Salem under the ministry of its aged pastor Samuel Skelton, and of his successor Roger Williams ; and subsequently was associated with the latter in the early settlement and founding of the colony of Providence Plantations. In August, 1637, William Reynolds the immi- grant and twelve others, "desirous to inhabit in the town of Providence," signed a compact in which they promised to subject themselves "in active or passive obedience to all such orders or agreements" as should be made for the public good of their community. In July. 1640. an agreement for a form of government was signed by William Reynolds and thirty-eight others at Providence, and nearly four years later a royal charter was granted to them and their associates for the incorporation of the colony of Providence Plantations. Mr. Reynolds was prominent in the affairs of the little colony, and was the possessor of a considerable amount of land within its bounds. A portion of his original "home" lot is now owned by Brown University. In 1646 he executed a deed which closed out his landed property at Providence, and about that time he removed to Kingstown (at what is now North Kingston, Washington county, Rhode Island), and there some years later died. He was sur- vived by his son James, and probably other chil- dren, who had removed with him to Kingstown. (II) James Reynolds, son of William, above

THE WYOMING AND LACKAWANNA VALLEYS.

mentioned, was born about 1625. He took the oath of allegiance at Kingstown May 20, 1671, and in the same year was chosen constable. In 1677 and subsequent years he took an active part in connection with the boundary conflicts between the colony of Connecticut and that of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, and in the course of the series of provocations and reprisals between those inharmonious neighbors-"so fatal to the prosperity" of the latter colony-James Reynolds, in company with several other Rhode Islanders, was carried off forcibly, in May, 1677, by a number of the Connecticut party, and im- prisoned at Hartford for some time. In 1687 he was overseer of the poor at Kingstown, and in 1690 was chosen by the colonial assembly as conservator of the peace for the town. He owned a considerable amount of land in Kings- town and in East Greenwich, some of which he deeded to his sons prior to 1700. The residue of his estate he disposed of by his last will, of which his son James was executor. He died at Kingstown in 1702. His wife was Deborah -, and they had the following children, born Kingstown :

I. John, born October 12, 1648: killed by the Indians in 1675, during King Philip's war.

2. James, born October 28, 1650, of whom later.

3. Joseph, born November 27, 1652; died 1722.

4. Henry, born January I, 1656; died 1716. 5. Deborah, born 1658; died 1716; married John Sweet.

6. Francis, born 1662: died 1722; married Elizabeth, daughter of James and Deliverance ( Potter) Greene, of Warwick, Rhode Island.

7. Mercy, born 1664.

(III) James Reynolds, son of James and De- borah Reynolds, was born at Kingstown, Rhode Island, October 28, 1650. In 1679 he was one of the signers of a petition to the King, praying that he would put an end to the difficulties then subsisting between Rhode Island and Connecti- cut, as previously mentioned. In April, 1684, James Reynolds received from his father one hundred acres of land in East Greenwich, Rhode

Island, and February 19, 1685, he was married to Mary, born September 8, 1660, daughter of James and Deliverance ( Potter)* Greene, and granddaughter of John and Joan (Tattersall) Greene of Warwick, Rhode Island. James and Mary (Greene) Reynolds had: I. James, born February 20, 1686. 2. William, of whom later. 3. Elizabeth.

(IV) William Reynolds (of James, of James, of William) was born near the close of the sev- enteenth century, probably in 1698, at Kings- town, Rhode Island. He was married Septem- ber 18, 1729, to Deborah, born after 1700, daugh- ter of Benjamin and Humility (Coggeshall) Greene ** of East Greenwich, Rhode Island, and they settled in West Greenwich. There they

*Deliverance Potter was a daughter of Robert Potter of Lynn and Roxbury, Massachusetts, and War- wick, Rhode Island. Of Lynn, 1630; freeman, 1631 ; of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, 1638; signed compact, 1639; assistant, 1648, and deputy to the colonial as- sembly, 1645, 1650, 1652 and 1655. In 1652 the assembly . convened at his house.

* * Benjamin Greene was the son of John Greene. He was a deputy in the assembly in 1698, 1700, 1701, 1703; surveyor of highways, 1701; member of town council, 1701, 1703, 1704; rate-maker, 1702. He was married in 1687 to Humility Coggeshall, and they had five sons and seven daughters. Benjamin Greene died January 7, 1719. His wife survived him. She was the daughter of Joshua and Joan (West) Coggeshall, of Newport and Plymouth, Rhode Island. Joshua was the son of John and Mary Coggeshall, who, with their chil- dren John, Joshua and Ann, came to America in 1632 in the ship "Lion." They settled in Boston, where John Coggeshall, Sr., was made a freeman in 1634. He was a member of the First Church, 1634, and afterwards a deacon : deputy to the general assembly, 1634, and againz. in 1637, when he was deprived of his seat for affirm- ing the innocence of Mr. Wheelwright. In 1638 he was one of the signers at Portsmouth for a plantation and a separate church, and in 1639 he signed the Newport compact. He was an assistant of the colony of Rhode 'Island, 1641-44; moderator, 1644; president of colony, 1647. Joshua, son of John Coggeshall and father of Humility (Coggeshall) Greene, was of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, 1654; deputy, 1654-68, 1670-72; assistant 1669, 1670, 1672-1676; commissioner to treat with the Indians to prevent drunkenness among them, May 7, 1673. Having embraced Quakerism he was seized, his horse was taken away and sold, and he was imprisoned, in 1680.

THE WYOMING AND LACKAWANNA VALLEYS.

lived until 1751, when, Mr. Reynolds having pur- chased an estate in Coventry, Rhode Island, they removed thither with their children.

About the year 1750 or 1751 a spirit of emi- gration began to pervade the Connecticut Rhode Island borderland, and within the ensuing ten Years many of the inhabitants of that region re- moved to western Connecticut and to "The Ob- long," "The Great Nine Partners," "The Little Nine Partners" and other districts in New York, now comprehended in the counties of Dutchess and Orange. In 1759 William Reynolds disposed of his Coventry estate for £1,000, and about that time removed to eastern New York with all his family except his two eldest children, who were married and settled in Connecticut. Upon the organization in Connecticut in 1753 of the Sus- quehanna Company, and the purchase by it from the Six Nation Indians in July, 1754, of the Wyoming lands on the Susquehanna river, many of the inhabitants of Dutchess and Orange coun- ties, New York, bought "rights" in this "Sus- quehanna Purchase." In February, 1769, the company renewed its attempts (originally begun in 1762 and suspended in 1763) to settle the Wy- oming region ; and a few months later Benjamin Reynolds, the fifth child of William and Deborah (Greene) Reynolds, then in the twenty-ninth year of his life, came as a settler to Wyoming. in company with many other men from New England, New York and elsewhere. At Wilkes- Barre, August 29, 1769, he was one of 169 sign- ers of a petition to the general assembly of Con- necticut praying that body to "erect and estab- lish a county" out of the Wyoming region .* Early in the ensuing September, William Rey- nolds joined his son Benjamin at Wilkes- Barre, and on the 12th of that month, in com- pany with twenty-five others-all "inhabitants of the Province of New York"-signed at Wilkes- Barre a petition to the Conecticut assembly praying that they might be granted by the as- sembly "a township of six miles square of lands

* It is not probable that Benjamin Reynolds re- mained in Wyoming for any great length of time, as his name does not appear later than 1771 in any of the few original "lists of settlers" now in existence.

lying westward of said Susquehanna lands." Shortly after that David Reynolds, third child of William and Deborah (Greene) Reynolds, joined his father and brother at Wilkes-Barre.

When, in the autumn of 1771, the settlers in Wyoming valley, under the Susquehanna com- pany were distributed among the five "gratuity" (or settling) townships, William Reynolds was assigned to Plymouth ; and when, in the spring of 1772, the lands in Plymouth were allotted to the several proprietor-settlers of the township, William Reynolds drew his share, and about that time established his home within what are now the bounds of the borough of Plymouth. Later he acquired by purchase other lands in the same township, and at the time of his death he owned a considerable amount of real estate, much of which proved to be very valuable later. He re- sided in Plymouth from 1772 till July 3, 1778, when the battle of Wyoming. was fought. In 1777, although nearly eighty years old and con- siderably beyond the maximum age fixed by Connecticut law for military service, William Reynolds was enrolled in the "Alarm List" at- tached to the Third or Plymouth company, com- manded by Capt. Asaph Whittlesey, of the 24th Regiment. Connecticut militia, the members of which regiment were all inhabitants of the Con- necticut county of Westmoreland, erst the Wy- oming region. With the Plymouth company. William Reynolds and his youngest son, William, Jr., took part in the battle of Wyoming, on Abraham's Plains, in Exeter township .* When the retreat of the Americans began, William Reynolds escaped from the bloody field in com- pany with a friend and fellow-soldier. They fled, together with other Wyoming refugees, over the mountains to Bethlehem, on the Lehigh river: thence to Eaton, and thence to Fort Penn (now Stroudsburg), where, July 26, 1778, they joined a detachment of the 24th Regiment under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Zebulon Butler. With this body they marched to Wilkes-Barre, where they arrived August 4. (See Harvey's

* William Reynolds, Jr., fell on the field of battle, and his name is recorded in the list of the slain.

THE WYOMING AND LACKAWANNA VALLEYS.

"History of Wilkes-Barre," chapter XVI), and where they were on October Ist with the 170 or more Continental soldiers and Wyoming militia there engaged in scouting, gathering throughout the valley crops which had escaped destruction at the hands of the savage invaders in the prev- ious July, and in erecting Fort Wyoming on the river bank below Northampton street.

Mr. Reynolds remained at Wilkes-Barre dur- ing the autumn and winter of 1778 and through the year 1779, and in January, 1780, owing to the unsettled and generally unsatisfactory conditions in Wyoming, he, (as many other settlers did), re- tired from the valley with his family to a more peaceful and secure locality, presumably to his former home in New York. According to exist- ing records it would seem that William Reynolds did not return to Wyoming and to his property in Plymouth, until about 1785.

Scarcely had the Revolutionary war come to an end when what is known in Pennsylvania history as the "Second Pennamite-Yankee War" was begun in Wyoming. It lasted until 1784, and eight months later the Susquehanna Com- pany, at a meeting held in Hartford, Connecticut, adopted various measures relative to its affairs in Wyoming, first formally declaring: "Our right to those lands in possession is founded in Law and Justice-is clear and unquestionable- and we cannot and will not give it up." A plan was then adopted by the Company whereby numbers of people were shortly afterwards induced to emi- grate from New England, New York, New Jer- sey and elsewhere and settle throughout the Wyoming region. It was then (peace being as- sured and comparative prosperity seeming to be in sight) that William Reynolds and his son David and their families returned to Wyoming and to their property in Plymouth. William Reynolds died at Plymouth in 1791, and, under his will, (probated January 6, 1792), his property was divided among his six surviving children. His wife had died a number of years previously. The children of William and Deborah (Greene) Reynolds were :

I. Sarah, born March 31, 1730; married 1751, Benjamin Jones.

2. Caleb, born June 21, 1731 ; married Sarah Anderson, at Voluntown, Connecticut, January 23, 1755.

3. David, born June 17, 1734 ; of whom later.

4. Griffin, born June 11, 1737.

5. Benjamin, born October 25, 1740.

6. James, born August 21, 1748.

7. William, born about 1754 ; killed at battle of Wyoming, July 3, 1778.

(V) David Reynolds (of William, of James, of James, of William) was born in West Greenwich, Rhode Island, June 17, 1734, the third child of William and Deborah (Greene) Reynolds. As previously noted, he came to Wyoming Valley in the early autumn of 1769, and in November was present at the surrender of Fort Durkee to the Pennamites by the Yankees- being one of the witnesses who signed the "Arti- cles of Capitulation." (See Harvey's "History of Wilkes-Barre," p. 628). Expelled from the valley with the other Yankee settlers, David Reynolds made his way to either New York or New England, and, in common with many of those settlers, did not return to Wyoming until about 1773, when he repaired to Plymouth and took up his residence with his father. His name appears in the Plymouth tax-lists for 1777 and 1778. He was in the valley at the time of the battle of Wyoming, and took part with all the other able-bodied men on the ground in defend- ing the settlement against the enemy, but owing to the meager records and incomplete data now in existence, it is impossible to state just what service he performed. Escaping from the valley after the surrender of Forty Fort, he returned thither late in the autumn of 1778. He sus- tained at the hands of the enemy, during their brief occupancy of the valley. a loss of property valued at f94, 2s., as shown by a report made to the general assembly of Connecticut in October, 1781. In 1779 David Reynolds married ( second ) to Mrs. Hannah (Andrus) Gaylord, born in Connecticut in 1746, widow of Charles Gaylord, formerly of Plymouth, who died in July. 1777, while a soldier in the Continental army. In the latter part of January, 1780, David Reynolds and his wife accompanied William Reynolds and

THE WYOMING AND LACKAWANNA VALLEYS.

others in their departure from Wyoming, for the reasons previously mentioned. During their toil- some and distressful journey-which was made through an almost deserted country shortly after one of the severest snow-storms that had been experienced in the course of many years in Penn- sylvania, New Jersey and New York-a son was born to David and Hannah (Andrus) Reynolds. As previously related, David Reynolds and his wife, with the several children of their respective marriages, returned to Plymouth about 1785 ; and there David and his wife resided for the re- mainder of their days. He died July 8, 1816, and she died October 7, 1823. By his first wife David Reynolds had two children-Joseph, died without issue ; and Mary, who became the wife of Levi Bronson. The only child of David and Hannah (Andrus) Reynolds was

Benjamin Reynolds, born February 4, 1780. He was brought by his parents to Plym- outh about 1785, and there spent the sub- sequent years of his life. About 18II he formed a partnership with Joseph Wright and Joel Rogers, of Plymouth, for carry- ing on a general mercantile business there under the firm name of Wright, Rogers & Company. This partnership was dissolved by mutual consent May 6, 1814, and shortly thereafter Joel Rogers (of the late firm) and Henderson Gaylord (only son of Dr. Charles E. Gaylord, Benjamin Rey- nolds' half-brother) formed a partnership and carried on a mercantile business for about two years. Then Benjamin Reynolds, Henderson Gaylord and Abraham Fuller (Mr. Reynolds' brother-in-law) formed a partnership and car- ried on business under the firm name of Rey- nolds, Gaylord & Company until the death of Mr. Fuller, December 21, 1818. In January, 1832, owing to the death of the sheriff of Luzerne county, the governor of the commonwealth ap- pointed Benjamin Reynolds to fill the vacancy in the office until the qualification of his succes- sor, to be chosen at the next election. Mr. Rey- nolds performed with great acceptability the du- ties of sheriff, and retired from the office Jan- uary 7, 1833. In October, 1832, there were five candidates voted for for the office of sheriff,

and according to the returns Benjamin Reynolds stood fourth in the list, having received eight hundred and forty-six votes. James Nesbitt, of Plymouth, who had received the largest num- ber of votes (one thousand five hundred and seventy-two), was commissioned sheriff. In 1832 the anti-Masonic political party was almost at the zenith of its power in Luzerne county as well as in other parts of this country, and James Nesbitt, who was elected and commissioned sheriff, had been the candidate of that party. Benjamin Reynolds, on the contrary, was a Free Mason, having been initiated into Lodge No. 61, F. and A. M., at Wilkes- Barre, January 4, 1819. His half-brother and one of his brothers-in-law had prev- iously become members of that lodge, and later another of his brothers-in-law, two of his sons and one of his grandsons united with the same lodge. . For many years, by appointment of the governor, Mr. Reynolds held the office of jus- tice of the peace in and for the township of Plym- outh, and for nearly half a century was one of the representative and substantial men of Plym- outh. During his long and useful life he did much for the promotion of religion and educa- tion in his community.

Benjamin Reynolds was married (first) March 22, 1801, to Lydia, born November 5, 1779, in Kent, Litchfield county, Connecticut, second child of Joshua and Sybil (Champion) * Fuller. Joshua Fuller, born in Kent, July II, 1753, was the eldest child of Joseph Fuller (born in 1723 at Colchester, New London county, Con-

* Sybil Champion, married to Joshua Fuller in 1776, was born July 18, 1755, at Salisbury, Litchfield county, Connecticut, eldest daughter of Daniel and Esther Champion. Daniel Champion was of East Had- dam, Salisbury and Sharon, Connecticut, and was born about 1721, the third child of Lieutenant Henry Cham- pion, of East Haddam. The latter was a grandson of Henry Champion, a native of England, who was settled at Saybrook, Connecticut, as early as 1647, and some years later became one of the original settlers of Lyme, New London county, Connecticut. Daniel Champion was a soldier in the company commanded by Captain Sam- uel Durham, of Sharon, in 1757, during the French and Indian war.

HG. Sanford.

THE WYOMING AND LACKAWANNA VALLEYS.

necticut), fifth in descent, from Edward Fuller, one of the "Mayflower" Pilgrims. Both Joseph and Joshua Fuller were Revolutionary soldiers, Joseph being a captain in the Eighteenth Con- necticut Regiment. In 1794 or early in 1795, Captain Fuller sold his land in Kent, and with his son Joshua and other members of the Fuller fam- ily, removed to Wyoming Valley. Joshua set- tled in Kingston township, within the present limits of the borough of Dorranceton (his name is in the Kingston tax-list for 1796). but within a short time thereafter he removed to what is now Lehman (formerly Dallas) township, Luzerne county, and there died May 16, 1815, and was buried in the graveyard at Huntsville, Jackson township. Mrs. Lydia AFuller) Reynolds died in Plymouth, August 29, 1828, and February 23, 1830. Benjamin Reynolds was married (second) at Kingston to Ruey, (born in Danbury, Con- necticut, February 14, 1786), fifth child of Daniel and Anne (Gunn) Hoyt, first of Danbury, Con- necticut, and then of Kingston, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Ruey ( Hoyt) Reynolds died, leaving no is- sue, August 26, 1835, and Benjamin Reynolds was married (third) at Wilkes-Barre. February 16, 1837, to Olivia M., born in Litchfield, Con- necticut, September 3, 1791, daughter of Samuel Frost, and widow of Major Orlando Porter, born in Waterbury, Connecticut, May 8, 1787, died at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, January 1, 1836, who was burgess of the borough of Wilkes-Barre 1833-34. Benjamin Reynolds died in Plymouth, February 22, 1854, and his wife Olivia M., died there April 2, 1862, leaving no issue. Benjamin and Lydia (Fuller) Reynolds had :

I. William Champion, born December 9, ISO1 ; of whom later.

2. Chauncey Andrus, born December 31, 1803 : died November 23, 1868.

3. Hannah, born October 22, 1806; married February 18, 1827, Dr. Andrew Bedford ; died August 21, 1845.

4. Clara, born in 1811; died May 1, 1876, unmarried.

5. Elijah Wadhams, born January 18, 1813; died September 25, 1869.

6. Joshua Fuller, born April 5, 1814; died May 1, 1874.

7. George, born May 29, 1817 ; died June 25, 1835, unmarried.

8. Abram H., born July 14, 1819; died De- cember 4, 1890.

9. Emily Elizabeth, born April 21, 1822; married February 14, 1847, Dr. Robert Hamilton Tubbs ; died June 11, 1896.

WILLIAM CHAMPION REYNOLDS. (of Benjamin, of David, of William, of James, of James, of William), eldest child of Benjamin and Lydia (Fuller) Reynolds, was. born in what is now the borough of Plymouth, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, December 9, 1801. In the days of his youth the people of Plymouth. were, with very few exceptions, engaged in agri- cultural pursuits, and he, according to the com- mon custom of those days, worked upon his. father's farm in the summer-time and in winter attended a primary school in Plymouth, and later the academy there under the principalship of Thomas Patterson. In 1819, '20, and '21 he was a student in Wilkes-Barre Academy, then in charge of Joseph H. Jones, and deemed the lead- ing educational institution in northeastern Penn- sylvania. There he was fitted for the sopho- more class of Princeton College, but his health failing about that time, he abandoned his. purpose of pursuing a collegiate course. Dur- ing one winter thereafter he taught school, and for the remainder of the time engaged in out- door employments in Plymouth until he had re- covered his health, when, in 1824, he became the- business partner of Henderson Gaylord, his cousin, previously mentioned. During the next ten years, under the firm names of Gaylord & Reynolds, and Henderson, Gaylord & Company, they carried on an extensive and a profitable bus- iness, having one store in Plymouth and a sec- ond one in Kingston. They engaged largely (for the times) in the mining and shipping of coal, lumber, grain, and general farm products. About 1830 Mr. Reynolds removed from Ply- mouth to Kingston to take charge of the business.

THE WYOMING AND LACKAWANNA VALLEYS.

interests of his firm there. By mutual consent the partnership of Messrs. Gaylord and Rey- nolds was dissolved in 1835, when the former purchased the interest of the latter. For the en- suing eighteen or nineteen years Mr. Reynolds was actively and successfully engaged in mining and shipping coal, and in looking after other im- portant business interests. In October, 1836, and again in 1837, he was elected one of the two representatives from Luzerne county to the state legislature.

"At that time the question of internal im- provements was one of the chief subjects that engrossed the attention of the people. The de- velopment of the natural resources and the com- mercial interests of the state by means of ave- nues of intercommunication-the system of ca- nals, slackwater navigation and turnpikes-had been undertaken by the state government nearly a score of years before, and the benefits which were expected to accrue to this section by the extension and completion of this work made it a question of the highest importance to the people here. Mr. Reynolds' business experience had made him well acquainted with the need of the proposed improvements and the great purposes they might subserve, and he assumed the duties of the office to which he had been chosen, well fitted to represent the interests of this district. He advocated all measures relating to the plan of internal improvements, and labored to bring about its extension throughout this section of the State. Among the important bills he introduced having relation to this subject, was one granting authority to the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company to build a railroad to connect the head of navigation on the Lehigh river with the North Branch canal at Wilkes-Barre. The bill was a compromise measure, releasing the company from the operation of certain clauses of its char- ter bearing upon the extension of its system of slackwater navigation, but making obligatory the building of the railroad to Wilkes-Barre. Work was begun on the road in 1838 and com- pleted five years later. It was one of the first railroads built in this part of the state, and its completion was looked upon with great satisfac-

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Genealogical and family history of the Wyoming and Lackawanna valleys, Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 7

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