History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 9

Author: Craft, David, 1832-1908; L.H. Everts & Co
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia : L. H. Everts
Number of Pages: 812

USA > Pennsylvania > Bradford County > History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 9

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The Susquehanna company, which had intermitted its meetings during the Revolutionary war, and seemed para- lyzed by the Decree of Trenton, was aroused to new life through the efforts of Col. Franklin and by the sufferings of the Wyoming people. A meeting was held in Hartford, July 13, 1785, at which the company resolved to support its claim to its purchase, to protect its settlers, to grant four hundred half-share rights, then equivalent to three hundred acres, to settlers who should go and remain on the land for three years, and sell six hundred full shares or rights for

IIISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

the use of the company in defending their claim. This was the beginning of that speculation in Susquehanna lands which ultimately proved so disastrous to many who were engaged in it, and led to the distinction between "old settlers"-that is, those who had purchased in good faith for the purpose of settlement-and the " half-share men," wild Yankees, who were mere speculators, adventurers of all sorts, who came taking the risk of making or losing on the issue of the controversy. As this distinction was sub- sequently made prominent, attention is called to its origin.

By this time all New England was ringing with the story of Yankee sufferings and Pennsylvania oppressions. Wyoming, her sacrifices and her heroism, the Indian mas- sacre, Patterson's brutality, land-holders' rapacity, and the soldiers' lawlessness were themes familiar in every house- hold, and hundreds were ready to rush to the suceor of their suffering friends. Agents of the Susquehanna com- pany were sent through New England and eastern New York, who sold rights and townships, gathered recruits for the conflict and settlers for the purchase. Says Col. Frank- lin, in his account of this period, " In the month of Novem- ber the settlers got to be numerous. A meeting was ealled ; about four hundred were present. A regiment was formed and officers appointed. A form of government was also established by the authority of the people, to remain in force until law could be established on constitutional prin- ciples. A committee of directors was also appointed to regulate the affairs of the settlement, agreeable to the form adopted. Upwards of four hundred subscribed their names to support the committee or directors in the execution of the important trusts committed to them."

In April, 1786, Gen. Ethan Allen, of Fort Ticonderoga celebrity, visited the valley, and proposed to settle on the purchase and bring with him a number of his Green Moun- tain boys to aid the settlers in maintaining their elaim. A large number of rights, and the township of Allensburg, located on the Wyalusing ereek, a tract about three miles wide by eight in length, were given to aid the project. The Susquehanna company was stimulated to renewed efforts by the hearty response with which its appeals were met.

At the formation of the company it was contemplated to erect its purchase into a separate colony ; now it was deter- mined, as the only means of securing the claims of the company, to form a new State out of the contested territory in defiance of Pennsylvania. Prominent men in New England lent their influence to the scheme. A constitu- tion was drafted and approved by the company. It is said that Gen. Allen boasted that with his Green Mountain boys he had made one State and could make another.

Nor was sympathy for the settlers wanting in Pennsyl- vania. Many prominent men throughout the State were loud in their denunciations of the odious legislation and the tyrannical acts of the authorities. They declared the meas- ures instituted against the Connecticut people to be a dis- grace to a free and Christian State; that the interests of a score of men in a few acres of land were allowed to blacken the good name of the commonwealth and imperil the public peace. The legislature, though moved neither by appeals for justice or mercy from the settlers, could not be deaf to the voice of censure raised within as well as without the

State, and, appalled by the danger which now threatened the integrity of the commonwealthi, at once began to adopt measures of conciliation.

The first movement in this direction was an act, passed September 25, 1786, erecting the county of Luzerne out of the northern part of Northumberland, with the following boundaries : Beginning at the mouth of Nescopeck creek and running along the south bank thereof eastward to the head of said ereek, thence a due east course to the head branch of Lehigh creek, thence along the east bank of Lehigh creek to the head thereof, thence a due north course to the northern boundary of the State, thence along the said boundary line to a point fifteen miles west of the east branch of the Susquehanna river, thence by a straight line to the head of Towanda creek, thence along the divide of the waters of the two branches of the Susquehanna to a point dne west from the mouth of Neseopeek creek, thence to the place of beginning. This included the present counties of Luzerne, Wyoming, Susquehanna, and Bradford, except a triangle in the northwestern part of the latter, which re- mained attached to Northumberland.

Col. Timothy Piekering, a native of Massachusetts, who had been quartermaster-general during the Revolutionary war, and held in high esteem throughout the country, a man of consummate skill and great ability, was appointed to organize the new county and endeavor to quiet the Wyoming disturbances. Promises were freely made that the settlers should be quieted in their possessions if the laws of Penn- sylvania were allowed to be put in operation. At the sug- gestion of Col. Pickering, a petition setting forth that seven- teen townships, each five miles square, in which lots, averaging three hundred aeres each, had been specifically set off to settlers by the Susquehanna company, previous to the Trenton Decree, and praying that these might be eon- firmed to the present owners, was signed by a large number of the old settlers and forwarded to the legislature; whereupon the assembly, March 28, 1787, passed what was called the confirming law, in which it was provided "that all rights or lots lying within the county of Luzerne, which were occupied or acquired by Conneetieut claimants who were actual settlers there at or before the termination of the elaim of the State of Connecticut by the decree aforesaid, and which rights or lots were particularly assigned to the said settlers prior to the said decree, agrecably to the regu- lations then in force among them, be and they are hereby confirmed to them, their heirs and assigns." Provision was also made for compensating the Pennsylvania elaimants out of the unappropriated lands of the commonwealth, for the appointment of commissioners, the exhibition of elaims, and whatever appeared to be necessary to carry into effect the provisions of the law.

While the objects contemplated in this aet were not effected by it, the law is important because it was the first unqualified acknowledgment on the part of Pennsylvania of the Connecticut claimants, and also because it exhibits the poliey of the commonwealth in adjusting the elaims of the' settlers by making a distinction between the " old settlers," whose titles originated previous to the Trenton decree, and the half share men and others, whose titles were acquired by grants of the Susquehanna company subsequent to July

HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

13, 1785, treating each claimant as an individual whose claim was to be adjusted according to the rules of the company, refusing otherwise to recognize the companies as having any legal existence or any claim, as companies, against the State, and making compensation to the Pennsylvania claimants.

The Susquehanna company had granted four townships within the territory of Bradford County previous to the Trenton decree. The Long township, extending from Standing Stone to Mehoopany, being disapproved by the committee, " upon the application of Anderson Dana, Na- than Kingsley, Amos York, James Wells, and others, their associates, proprietors in the Susquehanna purchase, made

the Old Misiseum on the east side of the river, Quick's Bend, Sugar Run, and Terrytown on the west side.

The township of Standing Stone included the lowlands of Rummerfield, Standing Stone, Frenchtown, and Mace- donia, and though granted as early as 1774, for some reason was not confirmed by the committee until many years after, and was not included in the petition for the confirmation of titles.

On the 4th of June, 1778, the committee on the peti- tion of Col. John Lydius, Capt. Abraham Lansing, Bal- tiaser Lydius, and Peter Hogeboom, granted the township of Claverack to Lansing, Hogeboom, and Capt. Solomon

RAIVER

STATE LINE

ATHENS

ULSTER

The Susquehanna Company's grant of the Township of Ulster was in 1775, and laid out on the map by the lines The first alteration was in 1785, marked on the map by the lines - . The second alteration was in 1786 (as it now stands), marked by continued lines as the other Townships. It received the present form for the accommodation of the Township of Athens, which extends from its northern boundary as now acknowledged, to, or near to, the State line.

Copy March 11, 1874.

WYSAUK

S. JENKINS.

CLAVERI, ACK

UNNYH30OSAS

STONE

STANDINO

RIVER

WVALUSING

CERTIFIED TOWNSHIPS IN BRADFORD COUNTY.

SPRINGFIELD

to the committee of said company in the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven, praying for a grant of a township, agreeable to the regulations of said company, the said committee, in pursuance thereto, did grant to the said applicants and their associates a certain township of land described in a survey made by Samuel Gordon, October twenty-second, one thousand seven hundred and seventy- seven, bounded as follows: etc., ... which said town is known and described on the plan of said purchase as Springfield." This grant is signed by " John Franklin, Elisha Satterlee, and John Jenkins, committee."

This township, whose centre was near the mouth of the Wyalusing creek, included the flat lands at Wyalusing, and

Strong. This township embraced Wysaukin, Towanda, Sugar creek, and the Lower Sheshequin flats.

The township of Ulster, or Old Ulster, as it was subse- quently called, was granted to Asahel Buck, agent for the proprietors, August 28, 1775. This township was located on the west side of the Susquehanna, and covered the flats of Queen Esther and Athens. Owing to the breaking out of the Revolutionary war soon after, no survey nor allot- ment of the township was made. This was superseded by a secord grant made Sept. 12, 1785, which was also super- seded by two grants,-one of Athens, made May 9, 1786, and the other of Ulster, July 23, 1786. The accompany- ing map shows the location of these several townships. It

HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

will be observed that the lines of these townships are so run as to include nearly all the flats along the river, and to avoid, as far as possible, the high and inaccessible hills.

The act establishing the county of Luzerne and the con- firming law occasioned heated discussions among the Wy- oming people. On the one side it was claimed that at length Pennsylvania was disposed to recognize their rights, and securing to them courts, officers, a representation in the legislature, and clear titles to their lands acquired before the Trenton decree, was all that could reasonably be demanded. On the other side, it was urged that no confidence could be placed in Pennsylvania ; they had been repeatedly deceived by her promises, and might be again ; that the law ignored the right of the Susquehanna company to the soil ; that there were many who had expended large sums of money, whose husbands, brothers, or fathers had been slain in the war, who had not been assigned their lands until after the Trenton decree, but whose title ought to be as good as any of the old settlers'; and then the half-share men had come to them in their distress, relied upon their promise, aided them in their conflict with the Pennsylvania authorities, whom now to forsake would be the most wicked treach- ery.

A public meeting was called for the purpose of discuss- ing the provisions of the law, and determining what course the settlers should pursue with reference to it. Says Mr. Miner (p. 411), " So great a gathering had not been known in the valley for years. Matters of the highest moment were to be discussed and decided. Indeed the future fate of Wyoming seemed to rest on their deliberations and the decision of that day. Little less than war or peace appeared to be involved in the issue. All felt the magnitude of the question to be resolved. But Wyoming was no longer united. Discord had reared its snaky crest; malign pas- sions were awakened. Brother met brother, and friend confronted friend, not with the all-hail of hearty good-will, but with beating heart, knit brow, and the frown of anger and defiance. Col. Pickering, sustained by the Butlers, the Hollenbacks, the Nesbits, and the Denisons, appeared as the advocate of law and compromise. Col. Franklin, supported by the Jenkinses, the Spaldings, and the Satter- lees, came forth the champion for the Connecticut title." The meeting ended in riot and confusion, although a vote was taken to support the laws and accept the compromise.

These measures completely thwarted the plans of Franklin and his party, and the new State scheme was utterly anni- hilated. Again the whole country was in confusion. It was no longer Yankee against Pennamite, but old settlers against the half-share men. With the exception of perhaps a dozen families, the people of this county were all either half-share men or in their interest. The Satterlees, the Spaldings, the Kingsburys, the Terrys, ardent personal friends of Cols. Jenkins and Franklin, were ready to carry into effect every plan for opposing any compromise which did not include the half-share men. Franklin was especially busy. His journal for this period discloses the fact that not a day was he idle, but writing letters, addressing meetings, riding from place to place, persuading the settlers to avoid the commissioners and ignore the law, he was to the utmost fanning the fury of the storm.

In the mean time, the commissioners provided by the confirming law to examine the titles of such settlers as might apply, and grant certificates to such as by the law should be confirmed in their possessions, met at Wilkes- barre, and decided upon a number of claims ; being threat- ened with violence, however, they adjourned in the month of August.

In order to frustrate the efforts of Franklin to unite the people against the confirming law, Pickering determined to get rid of him for a time, at least. A writ was obtained, intrusted to competent hands, and Franklin, unsuspecting the plot, was suddenly arrested and conveyed to Philadel- phia jail, in the latter part of September, on the charge of high treason. News of his arrest and abduction spread through the country as fast as couriers could carry it. The northern part of Luzerne, including our own county, was swept with a whirlwind of excitement. Here the half-share men were principally settled. The blow which struck down Franklin was aimed at them. He had fallen in defense of their rights. He was their leader, counselor, and friend. They felt that their interests were at stake, and quietly de- termined that Pickering, for whom they could find no lan- guage strong enough to express their contempt, should suffer for this assault upon their beloved leader. Pickering, apprised of his danger, fled to Philadelphia, where he re- mained an exile for several months. Nothing, however, but the release of Franklin could appease the tempest. In January, 1788, Pickering returned to Wilkes-Barre, under the impression that the storm had subsided, and he could remain at home with safety .* "On the night of the 26th of June following, being in bed, he was seized by Franklin's friends, and conveyed up the river into what is now Wyoming county. Here he was kept prisoner, wan- dering from place to place through the woods, with a chain about his body, by which he was secured to a tree during the night. Sheriff Butler, with four companies of militia, made pursuit in order to effeet a rescue. A conflict between the opposing parties ensued at Meshoppen." Captain Ros- well Franklin, then living on Franklin's flats, nearly oppo- site Towanda, was in command of another of the sheriff's party, and attempted to apprehend a party of the wild Yankees who were reported as fleeing towards New York. Colonel Pickering, who had been released the 16th of July, thus reports the affair to the president of the common- wealth, under date of July 29, 1788 :+

" The party mentioned in my letter of yesterday, worn out with continual watching and fatigue, had dropped their pursuit, save one, whose name was John Tuttle. He went farther up the river, and informed a Captain Rosewell Franklin that a number of the offenders were making their escape up the river. Captain Franklin immediately col- lected a party of fourteen, and on further information from one or two other persons well attached to government, that the offenders were at a certain time at Standing Stone, on their way up the river, hie concluded to lie in wait for them at Wysox creek. The offenders advanced according to the information. But it was expected, as the creek was

# Pearce, Annals of Luzerne County, p. 9.

t Pennsylvania Archives.

HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

much swollen with rains, that they would have called to the house on the other side for a canoe, when it was intended that one of Captain Franklin's party should go over for them, but on his return overset his canoe; and by thus wetting all their arms and ammunition, render the capture of them easy, without hazard of shedding blood on either side. But three of the offenders, Joseph Dudley, Nathan Abbott, and Benjamin Abbott, came first to the creek, and forded it. Captain Franklin ordered them to surrender, when Dudley called out Don't fire, yet immediately raised his rifle to his face, on which several of Captain Franklin's men fired, and wounded Dudley and one of the Abbotts. But they all attempted to make their escape. Dudley ran four hundred yards and dropped, and while Tuttle and another pursued him, the Abbotts did escape. The rest of the offenders took to the woods." Colonel Butler says there were nine in the party who were making their escape. Dudley died from the effects of his wound in a few days.

The great majority of the half-share men were the sons or other relatives of the old settlers, but were in open sym- pathy with the party who captured Colonel Pickering, and frankly avowed their hostility to the confirming law, and all other acts of the Pennsylvania government. Pickering, in a letter to Peter Muhlenberg, vice-president of the council, dated Aug. 9, 1788, says, " At this moment great numbers of half-share men are in actual possession of lands allotted to them by Franklin and Jenkins, from Tunkhannock to Tioga . . . and swear vengeance against any who shall attempt to dispossess them of their half-share rights." He describes them as smarting under the injuries they had formerly received from the State, jealous of their power, despising her authority, distrustful of her policy, taking advantage of her indecision respeeting their lands, " many also being willing to hazard everything rather than trust to the honor, faith, and generosity of the State," and urges the importance of establishing a military post at Tioga. The correspondenee which has been preserved between the leading men in the half-share interest discloses the same facts. They believed their titles to their lands to be founded on justice and right, and every measure designed by the government to dispossess them was met with an uncompro- mising hostility. It was like the old conflict, renewed with all the bitterness of former years, between Yankee and Pennamite. The half-share men were resolute, daring fellows. Many of them had come here with the express understanding that they might expect to fight for their lands, but they were without a leader. Franklin was yet in prison, Colonel Jenkins was surveying lands in the State of New York, no good had come from the capture of Pick- ering, but the breach had been widened between the old settlers and the new. Many determined to leave the State, and sought homes in central and western New York, which the narrow policy of Pennsylvania peopled with the hardy yeomanry who would have made her deserted valleys to blossom as a garden.

In November, 1788, a court was ordered to be held at Wilkes-Barre for the trial of Franklin and the rioters. Chief- Justice Mckean presided. Franklin's strong frame was bowed and weakened by sickness and thirteen months' im-

prisonment, and his spirit broken. "The lion was tamed." He was indicted for high treason, but the trial was never called on, and Franklin was admitted to bail.

Twenty-five persons engaged in the abduction of Picker- ing were indieted, several fined or imprisoned, but from poliey the sentence was never fully carried out. Pickering wisely judged that, while the people should be taught that the laws of the State could be enforced and offenders pun- ished, it was far better to conciliate the disaffected than to punish the guilty.

The confirming law was suspended March 29, 1788, and finally repealed April 1, 1790, having been declared uncon- stitutional by the legislature.

Efforts had been made from time to time, both by the settlers and by the State of Connecticut, to bring the ques- tion of the right of soil before Congress for the appoint- ment of a court, under the ninth artiele of the Confedera- tion, to determine the case, but the Pennsylvania delegates were successful in thwarting the measure. On the 30th of April, 1789, the Federal government went into operation, and at the first session of the first Congress an act was passed organizing the supreme court, which, by the eonsti- tution, had jurisdiction over cases arising between citizens claiming lands under grants of different States. To this court therefore the Connecticut settlers determined to earry their case. Opportunity was speedily offered. Cornelius Vanhorne, a Pennsylvania lessee, brought suit against John Dorrance at the April term of 1795, in the circuit court of the United States for the district of Pennsylvania, at which the jury, under charge of the court, brought in a verdict for the plaintiff. An appeal was at once taken to the supreme court of the United States, but owing to an informality in the notice, a non pros was entered. Neither party considered this suit as deciding the question in con- troversy. Several other cases involving the same questions were then pending, but for some reason none of them were brought to an issue. At various times the respective parties agreed to make up a case which should be submitted to the courts, but always failed to agree on the details, and so the matter ended.

Under the proprietary government land was disposed to whom, on what terms, in such quantities, and such locations as the proprietor or his agents saw proper. The unoccupied lands were never put in the market, nor their sale regulated by law. Every effort made by the assembly to seeure uni- formity in the sale and price of land was resisted by the proprietor as an infringement upon his manorial rights. After the commonwealth beeame vested with the proprietary interests, a law was passed, April 9, 1781, for establishing the land-office, for the purpose of enabling those persons to whom grants had been made to perfect their titles. July 1, 1784, an act was passed opening the land-office for the sale of vacant lands in the purchase of 1768. The price was fixed at £10 per 100 acres, or 33} cents per acre, in addition to the warrant, survey, and patent fees, and the quantity in each warrant limited to 400 acres and the six per cent. allowance. The purchase of 1784 having been completed and confirmed by the treaty at Fort McIntosh, January, 1785, the land-office was opened for the sale of lands in the new purchase, Dec. 21, 1785, at which the

CHEMUNG

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PAVER ATHEN Z

Wahpusening!

South

SEELEYS:

DURKEE

LITCHFIELD HALESTOWN

MARTELL

: BOR QUGH

arcuits

Creek .

CABOT

MINDEN

SMITHFIELD

UL MITPER

WATERTOWN

LOCK

GRAHAM

MURRAYSFIELD

KINGS STREET

ENSURANCE

RIVER

Wysox

AUGUSTA

JUDDSBURGH Creek

Little

STANDINGSTONE

BURLINGTON

BACHELORS: ADVENTURE

ASYLUM

ALBA

FULLERSVILLE

BLOOMING: DALE

SPRINGHILLE

Towanda

Schraeder Branch

South

SPRINGFIELD

WINDSOR

ENFIELD

ALBANY

D Branch

BRISTOL Sugar Run

BATH

JAY

LEFFERTS TOWN

(N.BARRING: .TON

HEXHAM

HANCOCK

NEW HAVEN

ALLENSBURG

huscunha Creek

LOUISA

Creek

BARTLES

Rummer fields

FAIR FIELD

CLAVE

FRANKLIN

1/Line of Susquehanna Company

OBLONG

NNWHandsAS

Creek

COLUMBIA

Ng sox

Oreck

Sugar

Wyatasing

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History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 9

Author: Craft, David, 1832-1908; L.H. Everts & Co Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Philadelphia : L. H. Everts Number of Pages: 812

Author: Craft, David, 1832-1908; L.H. Everts & Co
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia : L. H. Everts
Number of Pages: 812