USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Nanticoke > History of Hanover Township : including Sugar Notch, Ashley, and Nanticoke boroughs : and also a history of Wyoming Valley, in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania > Part 10
USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Ashley > History of Hanover Township : including Sugar Notch, Ashley, and Nanticoke boroughs : and also a history of Wyoming Valley, in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania > Part 10
USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Sugar Notch > History of Hanover Township : including Sugar Notch, Ashley, and Nanticoke boroughs : and also a history of Wyoming Valley, in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania > Part 10
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40
KILLED.
Capt. J. Bidlack, Lieut. A. Stevens, Sergeant D. Spafford, E. Fish, P. Weeks,
ESCAPED. Sergeant D. Downing, S. Carey, J. Garrett, Jo. Elliot, G. Slocum,
*See Second Part of this work.
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
B. Weeks,
E. Blackman,
J. Weeks,
J. Fish,
P. Wheeler, (or Weeler)
P. Spafford,
T. Brown,
Daniel McMullen,
S. Hutchison,
Thomas Porter,
and one other,
S. Cole,
T. Fuller,
Solomon Bennett.'
E. Sprague,
C. Avery,
J. Williams,
James Wigton.
The list of escaped has J. Garrett, Jo. Elliot and G. Slocum, who belonged to his company and escaped; but the penciled names do not include "McMullen, Thomas Porter and the one other." They are found in Miner's "Blackman family;" and are put in this list because it is a list of the escaped of the company. James Wigton was killed, the writer puts his name at the bottom, and of escaped, Solomon Bennett.
Early in the morning after the battle Col. John Butler sent across the river to Pittston, and Capt. Blanchard surrendered Fort Brown on fair terms of capitulation. And the Indians marked the prisoners with black paint on the face, telling them to keep it there so they should not be hurt. Tom Turkey, Anthony Turkey, David Sing- sing and Anthony Cornelius, Indians formerly residents of the valley, and known to the inhabitants, were among these Indians. Squaws followed, hideously smeared with brains and blood, bringing strings of scalps, of which they would smell and exultingly exclaim, "Yankee blood!" It is some comfort to know, that in a raid these Indians made the next spring, Anthony Turkey, the leader, was shot on the Kingston flats and killed. These were Delaware Indians. The British Col. Butler also sent to Forty Fort to Col. Dennison to come up and agree on terms of capitulation. Col. Zebulon Butler was then in Forty Fort, but before the surrender he, with the remains of Hewitt's company, left and went down the river to Shamokin.
Col. Dennison met the British Col. Butler at Wintermoots and agreed upon a surrender. All the military stores, prisoners, forts and arms were to be surrendered. The inhabitants were to remain
* Peck, page 160 says, Solomon Bennett was in the Wilkes-Barre company.
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WYOMING.
in the valley unmolested, provided they did not take up arms again. The conditions of the capitulation were entirely disregarded by the British and tories. They killed no person after the surrender it is true, but they plundered all the houses and then set fire to them. They drove off up into the Indian country all the horses, cattle, and sheep, and destroyed the crops and every thing they could not carry away. They stripped the people (of the upper part of the valley, who had not yet fled on the 4th) of their coats, and hats, and bonnets, and shoes, and any garment anyone had on that they chose to covet. Everything was broken open and rifled. In short, what- ever people remained here at the surrender, were compelled, by increasing outrages, to fly from the valley. When Col. Butler was remonstrated with, as he was repeatedly by Col. Dennison, his final reply was, "I can do nothing with them."
The British Col. Butler with his regular forces, and all whom discipline could control, left the valley on the 8th, seemingly in a hurry and in retreat. Was he afraid of his Indian and tory allies?
At the time the British left the valley, there was, probably, not a single white person in it alive, except the tories. By that time there was hardly a house or building left standing from Nanticoke to Pittston. ' All the lower end of the valley, from Wilkes-Barre down was abandoned by the settlers on the morning of the 4th in the greatest haste. Some went down the river, and some crossed the mountain by the Warrior's Path in Hanover, the way to Bethlehem.
Neither the Indians, tories, nor British seem to have spared any prisoners. "Only two persons, Samuel Carey and one other taken prisoners in the battle and pursuit, as far as known, escaped death."* Mr. Miner says also, "about one hundred and sixty of the Connecti- cut people were killed that day, and one hundred and forty escaped." Mr. Miner was probably much too low in his estimate of the number killed. Two hundred and twenty-seven scalps were paid for by the British, and there must have been many lost in various ways-in the river and in other ways-whose scalps were never delivered to the British.
The people all over the valley fled to the woods and mountains
*It is now understood that two or three other prisoners were taken away alive, and their names have been procured by some one in the valley, but the writer never had them.
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
and left everything. In the confusion and horror the only hope seemed to be in flight. Few were thoughtful enough even to take provisions for the journey to other settlements, sixty miles off. The greater part were destitute. On the old Warrior Path in Hanover, there were in one company about one hundred women and children, with but a single man, Jonathan Fitch, Esquire, sheriff of the county, to advise or aid them. By the evening of the fourth of July there was scarcely a white person left on the east side of the river. All had fled. Their houses, furniture, household utensils, crops, flocks and herds, farming implements, provisions, books, papers, clothing, bedclothes, horses, wagons, harness-everything left be- hind. And it was all utterly destroyed, or carried off by the Indians and tories. It is supposed to be understood that a "tory" was a friend to the British government and rule here, and an enemy to the independence of the United States and the people that favored it, being at the same time a native, born in the country, or a foreigner whose residence and home had long been here. Most of the fugitives lived to get to the German settlements-" Pennsylvania Dutch"-on the Delaware. About two hundred died on the way. There they were treated with the utmost kindness; fed and clothed, and such as chose to go on to Connecticut were sent on their way fully provided for the journey. All this has been remembered by the Yankee settlers with gratitude, and they and the Pennsylvania Dutch have always been the best of friends.
Extract from an address delivered at the "Centennial" of Wyoming at Wilkes-Barre, July 4th, 1878, by Sylvester Dana of New Hampshire:
"My father often described to me how at the Wilkes-Barre fort, on this very spot, on the 3d of July, 1778, he anxiously listened to the rattling of musketry upon yonder battle-field; how, on the day after the disastrous result, being nine years old, he fled with his mother and the family towards Connecticut; how the party of some twenty wearily pursued their march into the night and into the morning, lest they should be overtaken by the Indians; how the only man in the party followed behind the exhausted children, freely applied the rod to them when they faltered and fell asleep in their tracks; how they suffered from hunger, the loss of shoes and other privations as they crossed the mountains before reaching the
. III
WYOMING.
Hudson; how they were once aroused from their welcome repose in the wilderness by howlings which were supposed to emanate from a band of ferocious and blood-thirsty savages, but which, on investi- gation gave them the comforting assurance that they were only uttered by a less ferocious and less blood-thirsty pack of wolves. And how at length they 'reached Connecticut, where, scattered among friends, they passed the remaining days of childhood, and in after years not a few of them (including my father and two of his brothers) returned to this desolated valley and commenced life anew."
There is no list of the names of those who went to the battle from Hanover, except the one the writer has made, which will be found in the second part of this work.
The officers names we have here introduced. They were all killed except Lieut. Rosewell Franklin. There were officers of the militia that held commissions from the Connecticut Assembly of 1775, but the most of them held other commands in the battle, or were privates. Captain McKarrican held such a commission as captain in the Hanover militia, but when it came to war in fact, he surrendered the command to Captain Lazarus Stewart, and 'served under him, saying he would do well enough for a time of peace, but in time of battle one accustomed to command should command, and he would serve under him: There were three men who had served in the militia as ensigns that were in the battle, two were killed and one escaped.
Captain, Lazarus Stewart-Commanded. Lieutenant, Rosewell Franklin. Ensign, Silas Gore. Captain, William McKarrican. Lieutenant, Lazarus Stewart, jr.
These were the officers of the Hanover men as they went to battle. This was the fourth company. The officers were all killed except Rosewell Franklin, and probably thirty of the forty-three men in the company. We do not know how many exactly, went in, nor exactly how many were killed.
Capt. Lazarus Stewart was a prominent figure in the affairs of Wyoming Valley, and now with him gone-we seem lost, even at this
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
late day in telling the story. How much he might have done for the fugitive inhabitants by his energy and foresight, had he remained to them! He left descendants, but it is believed there are none of them now living in Hanover.
This was the sixth time that the Connecticut settlers had been totally expelled from the valley, and their improvements and property destroyed.
Capt. Spalding with his men met part of the fugitives and, of course, learned the result of the battle. He advanced to the top of the mountain where the valley could be seen and the smoke rising. from the plains in all directions. He relieved such of the fugitives as he met on the way, and seeing that he was of no use in the valley he returned to the Delaware. Early in August he marched into the valley and occupied the site of Wilkes-Barre.
Some of our men that escaped the massacre, and some others that were not here at the time of the battle, returned in August with Capt. Spalding's company to save some of the harvests if possible, -as of course the fugitives would soon return again to their homes here-and it would take more time than the Indians would spare to destroy the crops entirely. The west side of the river was not much visited at first, and for two months after the return the dead still lay unburied on the field. But now, "Camp Westmoreland, October 21, 1778-Ordered, that there be a party consisting of a lieutenant, two sergeants, two corporals, and. twenty-five men, to parade to-morrow morning with arms, as a guard to those who will go to bury the remains of the men who were killed at the battle, at and. near the place called 'Wintermoot's Fort.'"-Miner.
On the 22d, therefore, the bodies were collected, a large hole or grave dug, in which they were thrown, constant alarm from the enemy preventing a more ceremonious or respectful inhumation. But few of them could be recognized. They had lain on the ground through the summer heat nearly four months. Nothing but bones remained, and they were frequently found scattered by animals and birds of prey. According to the writer's recollection of what he has heard from one that assisted in burying them, there were two holes dug for the bones, some distance apart. Only one of these holes was afterwards found, and it contained eighty-three skeletons. These bones were gathered up, and in 1833 the corner stone of a
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WYOMING.
monument over them was laid near or in the village of Wyoming in Kingston township.
The Rev. Joshua Peterkin, D. D., of Richmond, Va:, "visited Wilkes-Barre in 1868, on which occasion he composed the following patriotic tribute!"-
Here let me rest, by fair Wyoming's side, Where Susquehanna's placid waters glide, While sparkling streams 'mid meadows rolling free, , Pay willing tribute to the distant sea.
Upon this spot where ninety years ago The patriot settlers met their savage foe In vain defense, and dyed the shrinking flood With rich libations of their patriot blood,- Amid these scenes my fancy roams afar
And brings me back anew the din of war. I hear the war-whoop as it rolls along The vale made famous by the poet's song,
The shriek, the shout, the yell, the dying groan, All sounds discordant mingled into one. Old Albert too, and Gertrude now arise, And Waldgrave's manly form to greet my eyes, And Outalissi, with his descant wild Sung amid sobs, as for an only child. But these all vanish, and I stand alone Beside a simple monument of stone, Raised to commemorate their deeds and tell The passing stranger how they nobly fell Defending altars, homes and cultured sod- The cause of man, of freedom and of God. 'Tis well-such monuments there ought to be To keep in mind the thought of Liberty- To warn the invader, whencesor'er he comes With fire and sword to desolate our homes, That though his stronger arm may now succeed, And virtue sink o'erwhelmed by force and greed, Though might 'gainst right may for a time prevail, Despite the widow's tear, the orphan's wail- Yet future ages will redress the wrong, Embalm the patriot in the poet's song, Collect with pious care each mouldering bone, And grave its record on th' eternal stone. Meanwhile the proud oppressors name shall be Sunk, with their crime, to lasting infamy- To stern contempt and bitter scorn consigned As foes to peace, to God and to mankind.
-
Of course, it must be understood that the reference in these lines to Old Albert, and Gertrude, and Waldgrave and Outalissi, is to names contained in the poet Campbell's Gertrude of Wyoming.
The monument was not finished until 1843. "It is sixty-two feet and six inches high from the surface of the ground. It is rectangular in form, and of proper proportions to render it graceful and of architectural propriety, with four equal sides. The base
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
rises three steps from the foundation, in which is a chamber con- taining the bones of the victims, so far as the bodies were re- covered." **
Early in August the settlers that still remained alive began to return, and reoccupy their plundered farms. But there was no peace for them. Indians lay in ambush and every few days some settler would be killed or carried away captive. On August 24, 1778, Luke Swetland and Joseph Blanchard were taken prisoners at Nanticoke, where they had gone to mill, and carried into the Indian country. Swetland was rescued by Gen. Sullivan's army the next year, 1779. In Plymouth-across the river from Han- over-"three men were killed October 2d. October 14th, .William Jameson, returning home from Wilkes-Barre, was killed near where the canal crosses the road below Careytown."-Miner. (There is a railroad there now (1884) in place of the canal.) Mr. Jameson was one of the Hanover men in the battle, and had escaped. "Novem- ber 7th, John Perkins was killed in Plymouth. William Jackson and Mr. Lester taken from the mill at Nanticoke, marched three miles up into Hanover and then shot down. An aged man, spoken of as old 'Mr. Hageman,' a prisoner, escaped with six spear wounds, and survived, although the food he took oozed from a spear wound in his side. Nov. 9, Captain Carr and Philip Goss, in attempting to fly in a canoe, were shot below Wapwallopen, and left, the latter dead, the other dying on the shore. Robert Alexander and Amos Parker were, about the same time, found murdered in the lower part of the valley-Hanover. Late in the fall, Isaac Inman was murdered in Hanover."-Miner.
These and many others in other places in the valley not in Hanover, were killed the same fall of the year 1778 after the mas- sacre.
On March 2Ist, 1779, Captain James Bidlack,-the father of the Captain Bidlack of the Wilkes-Barre company, that was slain in the massacre-was taken prisoner in Plymouth. And so it went on until they finally got bold enough to attack the village of Wilkes-Barre as near as within seventy or eighty rods of the fort.
Extract from the journal of Col. Adam Hubley, of Gen. Sulli- van's expedition into the Indian country in 1779 :-
*Johnson's Wyoming Memorial.
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WYOMING.
"Wyoming, July 30th, 1779 .- Wyoming is situated on the east side of the east branch of the Susquehanna, the town consisting of about seventy houses, chiefly log buildings; besides these buildings there are sundry larger ones which were erected by the army (Sul- livan's army) for the purpose of receiving stores, etc., a large bake and smoke house. .
"There is likewise a small fort erected in the town, with a strong abatta around it, and a small redoubt to shelter the inhabitants in case of an alarm. This fort is garrisoned by 100 men, drafted from the western army, and put under the command of Col. Zeb'n Butler. I cannot omit taking notice of the poor inhabitants of the town; two-thirds of them are widows and orphans, who, by the vile hands of the savages, have not only deprived some of tender husbands, some of indulgent parents, and others of affectionate friends and acquaintances, besides robbed and plundered of all their furniture and clothing. In short, they are left totally dependent on the public, and are become absolute objects of charity.
"The situation of this place is elegant and delightful. It com- poses an extensive valley, bounded both on the east and west side of the river by large chains of mountains. The valley, a mere garden, of an excellent rich soil, abounding with large timber of all kinds, and through the center the east branch of the Susque- hanna."
This river is now called the north branch.
The expedition of General Sullivan into the Indian country from Wyoming or Wilkes-Barre, up the river, gave the Indians some taste of the kind of treatment the white people had re- ceived in Wyoming from them :- their houses and crops, and fruit trees and vines, were destroyed, and country laid waste .* The work was done during a part of August and September, 1779. It is believed the Indians never recovered from the blow. They did
*About twenty-five towns and villages were destroyed, numbering from five or six log houses each to one hundred and seven in their capital town, Genesee. The whole number of houses destroyed was between five and six hundred; probably half as many as the Indians had destroyed of ours here. Their houses were built of logs, and some of them of hewed logs. These log houses had probably been built for them in each of their towns by the British government. The Oneidas were on our side and the army did not go into their country at all. The whole number of Indians inhabiting these destroyed towns may have been six or seven thousand.
.
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
not cease, however, from waylaying and murdering about the valley of Wyoming and the neighboring settlements till the end of the war of independence.
Mr. Miner says in a note, page 275: "In 1790 Big Tree, an Indian of the Seneca nation, being one of a delegation at Phila- delphia, addressing General Washington, thus feelingly refers to Sullivan's destruction of their settlements :- 'Father-When your army entered the country of the Six Nations, we called you the town destroyer; to this day when your name is heard our women look. behind and turn pale, and our children cling closer to the necks of their mothers.' Big Tree joined the American army under Wayne in 1793, but committed suicide."
"A mill on the borders of Hanover and Newport-at Nanti- coke-was guarded by a few men, and three or four families ven- tured to reside in its vicinity."-Miner.
The Hurlbut family came into the valley this year and settled . on the flats below the "Red Tavern." April 12th, 1779, Colonel Nathan Dennison and Deacon John Hurlbut were chosen members of Assembly to meet at Hartford in May.
In the winter of this year town-meetings "legally" warned" began to be held regularly again at Wilkes-Barre, and all the officers necessary for the conducting of the government were again elected and entered upon their several duties.
In 1780 constant reports of murders committed and prisoners carried away by the Indians came in. "A band shot Asa Upson in Hanover where the bridge crosses the canal' below Careytown, where Jamison was killed in 1778."-Miner. Another band took Thomas Bennett and Lebbeus Hammond prisoners; but a few days or nights afterwards, they rose upon their captors, slew some, wounded others, so that only one escaped unhurt, and came home with the spoils. Other escapes of the same kind occurred.
April 20, 1780, "John Franklin, Esqr., Lieutenant Rosewell Franklin and Ensign John Comstock were appointed a committee to advise with the inhabitants of this town about contracting their improvements to a smaller compass, and more defensible situation against the savages, and to adopt measures for the security of their stock, and make their report to the commanding officer of the gar- rison as soon as possible."-Miner.
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WYOMING.
Finally about one hundred and twenty men of the old Wyoming companies from the army, including a detachment from a German regiment (Pennsylvania Dutch), were stationed at Wilkes-Barre. The militia entire consisted of one company, under the command of Captain John Franklin. "On July 29th, 1780, there were twenty- nine on the roll; at Hanover, to guard a mill, one lieutenant, one sergeant and ten privates; at Kingston, one sergeant and fourteen men; and two on the sick-list."-Miner.
Small detachments were frequently made for scouting parties,- the utmost vigilance being indispensable. Skirmishes were frequent with the Indians, and sometimes with tories. Prisoners and "plunder" would sometimes be captured by our men, and brought to Wilkes-Barre. So the year passed with murders, alarms, scouts, skirmishings, and through it all very difficult to raise food enough to live on. The comforts of life were not looked for. The bare necessaries were all that could possibly be got. All were satisfied if they could get barely sufficient food to sustain existence.
They sent a petition to Hartford asking for an abatement of taxes for the year. There were but few people, but they kept up their county and town organization. A Town Clerk, Treasurer, Listers, Constables, Surveyors of Highways, Fence Viewers, Col- lectors, Leather Sealers, Grand Jurymen, etc., etc., were duly chosen,
On December 6th, the last ambush and surprise of the year took place in Plymouth, and seven prisoners were carried away. There were nineteen white men and five Indians in the hostile party. One of the white men deserted from them and came into Wilkes-Barre. Thus passed the year 1780. Many estimable citizens had been torn from their homes and families and carried into captivity, and several valuable lives had been lost; and still those who remained clung to their homes. The winter of 1780-81 passed without any incident of note.
In March the Indians attacked Samuel Ransom's house in Ply- mouth. He was wounded, but he killed one Indian and they left.
"In 1781 less than two hundred acres of land were cultivated in the whole valley."-Miner.
An assessment . of property made in November, 1780, the first after the massacre, was two thousand three hundred and fifty-three pounds. It will be remembered that the one made in January, 1778,
:
1
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
before the massacre, was twenty thousand three hundred and twenty- two pounds seventeen shillings. The total valuation now, was two thousand three hundred and fifty-three pounds-at six shillings to the dollar, Connecticut currency, $7,843.33; in 1778, $67,742.84. One sixth of it in Hanover == $1,307.22, property in 1780.
Rumors of Indians on all sides of the settlements were rife. . Om Sunday, the 9th of June, 1781, a party of twelve Indians made an attack on the block-house at Buttonwood in Hanover, three miles below the Wilkes-Barre fort. They met a warm reception. The house was gallantly defended, the women aiding the men with bravery and spirit. A party from the 'fort at Wilkes-Barre, on re- ceiving the alarm, hastened down and found pools of blood where Lieutenant Rosewell Franklin had wounded, probably killed, an Indian. A terrible vengeance followed. On September 7th, 1781, a band of Indians made an attack on the Hanover settlement and took away Arnold Franklin and Rosewell Franklin, Jr., the sons of Lieutenant Franklin who had shot the Indian the preceding June. Several horses were taken and much grain in stack consumed by fire .* A detachment of men went in pursuit, but the Indians eluded their pursuers.
In April following, on the 7th, 1782, the Indians burning with revenge, still bent on further retaliation, rushed into Lieutenant Franklin's house in his absence, took his wife and four remaining children, one an infant, set fire to the house which, with the furni- ture not plundered, was consumed to ashes, and escaped to the woods. Parties went in pursuit, and overtook them near Wyalusing. Fight was at once commenced. The whites, afraid of injuring Mrs. Franklin and the children, had to use great caution and care. In the midst of the fight the two little girls and the boy escaped to the whites. Instantly the savages shot Mrs. Franklin and retreated. The Indian chief caught up the infant and shielded himself with it as he escaped. The whites buried Mrs. Franklin's remains, and brought the three children to their father.
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