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 11
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 11
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 11
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*This is taken from Miner's Wyoming, but is probably incorrect, as Rosewell Franklin lived near the present or old Hanover basin, and it was on these flats below Steele's Ferry where the horses were stolen and the grain burned. Christopher Hurlbut calls the Flats where the grain was burned Nanticoke Flats, and he lived there himself then, and afterwards for sixteen years.
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CHRISTOPHER HURLBUT'S JOURNAL.
"In the fall of 1778 the Indians took Swetland and Blanchard at the Nanticoke Mill and burned the mill. Early in November the Indians killed Jackson, Lester and Franklin, and wounded Haga- man; they took prisoners Pell, and Lester's wife and daughter-a little girl-from Nanticoke in December.
In 1779-"On March 22d-Wilkes-Barre was attacked as also Stewart's house, and all the cattle that were on that side (of the river) were driven off; and all the remaining buildings on both sides of the river that were not near the fort, or Stewart's block-house, were burned.
In 1781-"In September the Indians took Franklin's boys with five horses, and burned all the grain-perhaps 1200 bushels of wheat and rye-on Nanticoke flats.
"In 1782 some men began a saw-mill in Hanover. They raised the building on Saturday, in April. The next morning Franklin's family were taken prisoners, and his house burned. Baldwin with nine others, went up the river and got ahead of the Indians, and on the Frenchtown mountain they had a severe engagement of six or seven hours. Bennett was wounded, also Baldwin himself, but none were killed. They retook three of the family, the woman and a small child being killed. In July Jameson and Chapman were killed in the road in Hanover, near where the meeting-house was afterwards built. Peace took place in the winter following."
The above quotations are extracts from the journal of one who resided in Hanover at the time the occurrences he mentions hap- pened. The story has been told in previous pages, but it seems to indicate that Rosewell Franklin's house or block-house was on the lower flats.
Hanover was the scene of another bloody deed on the 8th of July, 1782. "John Jameson and a lad, his brother, (Ben- jamin) accompanied by Asa Chapman, were riding up from Nanti- coke their residence, near the mill, on horse-back to Wilkes-Barre. As they came opposite to where the Hanover meeting-house now stands, the Hanover "Green" cemetery, Jameson suddenly exclaimed, "there are Indians!" Before he could turn his horse there were three rifle balls fired into his body and he fell dead to the ground.
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Chapman being behind him-(they seem to have had only paths yet)-had time to draw rein and turn, but before he could escape he was shot and mortally wounded. Clinging to the saddle his fright- ened horse ran and bore him beyond their reach. The lad being in the rear, escaped unhurt. Chapman lingered several hours, sent for his wife and took an affectionate leave of her. Franklin cut out the bullet, but it had done its work and he presently expired," at the house of Deacon John Hurlbut, near the creek, below where the "Red Tavern" now stands. He fell off his horse there, and tried to crawl to the creek for a drink. The Hurlbuts saw him, and took him into their house, where he died.
This same month, the 12th of July, Daniel McDowell was taken prisoner at "Shawney "-Plymouth-across the river, and taken to Niagara; and on the 27th, George Palmer Ransom, one of the seven prisoners taken from there to Niagara two years before, returned home, having escaped from captivity.
CHAPTER VII.
PEACE.
ORNWALLIS' surrender at Yorktown, October 19th, 1781, had virtually ended the war between Britain and America, in favor of the Americans and independence. On the 27th of February, 1782, it was moved in the House of Commons in England :- "That it is the opinion of this House, that a further prosecution of offen- sive war against America, would under the present circumstances, be the means of weakening the efforts of this country against her European enemies, and tend to increase the mutual animosity so fatal to the interests of both Great Britain and America;" which was carried against the strenuous opposition of the ministry. But the ministry did not resign.
On the 4th of March following :- "That the House will consider as enemies to His Majesty and the country, all those who should advise or attempt a further prosecution of offensive war on the con- tinent of North America." Then the ministry resigned. The new ministry commenced negotiations for peace.
Nov. 30, 1782, provisional articles of peace were signed; Janu- ary 20, 1783, hostilities ordered to cease; April 19, 1783, proclama- tion of peace issued by Gen. Washington; Sept. 3, 1783, Great Britain acknowledged the independence of the United States.
The number of lives actually lost in Wyoming during the war, it is impossible to estimate with certainty. Miner says "probably three hundred ; being one in ten of all the inhabitants; or exceeding one-third of the adult male population at the commencement of the war."
Steuben Jenkins, who later had a better opportunity of estimat- ing them correctly, puts the number of lives lost from the massacre and flight alone at five hundred, not counting the losses in the army and the murders here after the massacre and until the end of the war.
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
At the conclusion of the war in 1782, Congress appointed a . court to hear and determine the controversy between Pennsylvania and Connecticut as to the jurisdiction over the territory here in dis- pute. The commissioners constituting the court met at Trenton in New Jersey, November 12, 1782.
This court as it met and organized the "Court of Commis- sioners" was composed of five persons,-William Whipple, Wel- come Arnold, David Brearly, W. C. Houston and Cyrus Griffin, They were in session forty-one days; and on December 30, 1782, they pronounced judgment as follows :- "We are unanimously of opinion that the State of Connecticut has no right to the lands in con- troversy.
"We are also unanimously of opinion that the jurisdiction and pre-emption of all the territory lying within the charter boundary of Pennsylvania, and now claimed by the State of Connecticut, do of right belong to the State of Pennsylvania."
The next day after this decree four of these judges wrote a letter to the governor and his council of Pennsylvania saying, among other things, that the individual claims of the people or claimants in Wyoming could in no instance come before them, not being in the line of their appointment. They then beg leave to assure "your Excellency" that they think "the situation of these people well deserves the notice of the government." That a proclamation of the proper kind issued by him would keep matters and things in the present peaceable posture "until proper steps can be taken to decide the con- troversy respecting the private right of soil," etc. *
This letter was kept a carefully guarded secret for twelve years, till 1795. Shortly after the discovery of this letter (1796), the fifth member of this court wrote a letter, in which he says :-
"Before the Commissioners determined that important contest between Pennsylvania and Connecticut, it was agreed :-
'Ist. That the reasons for the determination should never be given.
'2d. That the minority should concede the determination as the unanimous opinion of the court."
And he goes on to say, "that the Commissioners were unani- mously of opinion that the private right of soil should not be affected by the decision." Further, "we recommend very strongly, derived
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from legal and political grounds, that the settlers should be quieted in all their claims, by an act of the Pennsylvania Assembly." "And that the right of soil, as derived from Connecticut, should be held sacred."
Before this court the matter had been argued in full on both sides, and their' evidence displayed; and these judges knew what they were asking the government of Pennsylvania to do.
It will be seen, of course, from the above, that this court never for a moment considered that they had decided anything at all with regard to the individual ownership of the land in Wyoming, or the seventeen townships.
It must be understood that from 1773 up to 1783 twelve other townships, making seventeen, had been settled under Connecticut Susquehanna Company titles.
Immediately after the Decree of Trenton the citizens of the seventeen townships petitioned the government of Pennsylvania for protection, in which they say, among other things :- "We are sub- jects and free citizens of Pennsylvania, and have now to look to your honors as our fathers, guardians and protectors-entitled to every tender regard and respect as to justice, equity, liberty and protection." This was Jan. 18, 1783, nineteen days after the Decree at Trenton. This was presented to the Legislature and read 21st January and ordered to lie on the table.
As soon as the General Assembly had received notice of the Decree of Trenton, they appointed a committee to confer with the Executive Council, who reported in February. Commissioners were immediately appointed to go to Wyoming, view affairs there and report. They came, staid nine days, saw, reported April 15, 1783 :- That a reasonable compensation in land should be made to the families of those who had fallen in arms against the common enemy, and such others as had a proper Connecticut title and, "did actually reside on the land at the time of the Decree at Trenton, provided they immediately relinquish all claim to the soil where they now inhabit, and enter into contract to deliver up full and quiet pos- session of their present tenures by the first of April next."
So it seems Commissioners-Judges-acting for the State, de- termined, by the short view they took of the situation, that the several thousand persons, men, women and children, widows and
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orphans, old and young, of all the seventeen townships, should be driven out of the State of Pennsylvania, and their houses, barns, lands and improvements should be given up to somebody else. Why could not a court of justice be established somewhere in the valley, and the parties that claimed the land have a fair trial, and the one whose claim proved the best have the land; and if there was no one to claim it but the Connecticut claimant and the State of Pennsylvania, then let the claimant pay the State for it as others did? Who knows why the government of the commonwealth forgot, in this case, or closed its eyes, to legality and justice?
The townships known and designated as the "seventeen," were Salem, Huntington, Newport, Hanover, Plymouth, Wilkes-Barre, Kingston, Pittston, Exeter, Providence, Braintrim, Northmoreland, Bedford, Putnam, Springfield, Clarverack and Ulster. The four latter ones are within the present territory of Bradford and Susque- hanna counties.
Immediately on the promulgation of the Trenton Decree, Con- necticut withdrew her jurisdiction, and the county and town of Westmoreland ceased to exist, except as its memory was preserved in the records of the past. The few soldiers that had lately been stationed here were, by orders of Congress and the commander-in- chief, withdrawn, and their place was supplied by troops from Pennsylvania, sent to "protect" the inhabitants.
A comparative handful of people remained, the broken remnants of the war; a great portion of those who had been expelled after the massacre remaining in exile, especially the young, growing up to manhood, the natural hope and stay of the settlements, who, being left orphans had been bound out to mechanics and farmers, and whose apprenticeship had not yet expired. Thus situated they applied to Pennsylvania for protection, pardon and mercy. But a set of unprincipled land speculators, and others perhaps still worse,-say persons seeking vengeance,-forced on them another "Pennamite War." The attempt was made to force them to leave their possessions, and they would not. They would fight first, and defend themselves to the last-and they did.
One is forced to wonder at this day, why the government of Pennsylvania did not at once quiet them in their possessions, on the ground, if for no other reason, that no better settlers could be found
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anywhere-none more industrious, more economical, more perse- vering, more brave, more enduring, more law-abiding, more deserv- ing on account of their sufferings and losses in a cause waged for the common good.
Captains Shrawder and Robinson with two companies of rangers came to Wyoming 21st and 24th of March and took pos- session of Wyoming fort and gave it the name of Fort Dickinson. Two justices of the peace accompanied the troops, to hold tribunals "for the adjudication of all questions under the civil authority." Alexander Patterson was one of these Justices. He had been here before, in the first Pennamite and Yankee war, and was known to the settlers. With him in authority they had no hope of any ar- rangement.
Patterson at once assumed the authority of the viceroy of a tyrant king. The soldiers obeyed him in all things. They arrested men in all directions, without any warrant, but simply by the orders of Patterson, and imprisoned them till directed by the same authority to turn them loose. He took care that most of his orders should be verbal and not written ones. And this was the protection the State gave the settlers. Col. Butler returned from the army 20th August. Patterson issued a writ for his arrest for high treason, it was said, and on Sept. 24 he was taken, and, surrounded by a guard of soldiers, was conveyed to the fort and treated with great indignity. He had "sworn his soldier's oath, 'set fire to 'em,' they shall not stop me." That was enough. The next day, under a military guard, the gallant veteran was sent to Sunbury, a distance of sixty miles. When they got there with him there was no mittimus. The sheriff would not receive him. Two other justices for Wyoming had that day taken the oath of office at Northumber- land, and they made out a mittimus directing Sheriff Antis to de- tain the prisoner until more accurate documents could be procured from Patterson. Butler soon gave bail and was set at liberty.
On the Ist of October Capt. Franklin was arrested for trespass, for farming his own land. Brought before Patterson he plead title; demanded a trial before a court and jury. This not agreeing with Patterson's policy he dismissed the case. Oct. 31st, Shawney was invaded by the military headed by Patterson. Eleven persons were arrested, two of them feeble from old age, and suffering from disease.
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
This was nothing to Patterson. Benjamin Harvey was among them. " Ah hah," cried Patterson, "you are the jockey we wanted; away with him, to the guard-house with old Harvey, another damned rascal." Is this the language of a civil magistrate? Are soldiers the officers to serve civil process? Nobody was resisting. These were the people who had just petitioned for the mantle of protection of the State to be thrown over them. The State had sent magistrates and soldiers to protect them !
Protection ! The protection of the wolf to the lamb. These were driven to the fort, confined in a room with no floor but the ground, and that all wet and soft, no food, little fire. They were sitting around the little fire they had; that was considered too com- fortable and they were ordered to lie down, and the Captain in com-, mand of the guard ordered that anyone who raised himself up, should be shot by the guard. The old men's canes were taken from them and burnt. After ten days they were all dismissed without arraign- ment or trial, and they never were told what they were arrested for. But when they were released, they found their families had been turned out of their houses and creatures of Patterson had been put in. Persons were arrested for pretended crime and told by the jus- tice that if they would take a lease for their land they would be set at liberty. Widows and fatherless children, in a sickly condition, were turned out of their houses and sick-beds, and driven off in a storm. No redress could be had when applied for to the justices. Armed soldiers in the presence of the justices, took the husbands into custody and turned their wives and families out of doors. The possession of a grist-mill was taken away from the owner and given to another man, and when redress was asked at the hands of the justices, it was denied. Locks and doors were broken open when the families were from home, under the pretence of quartering soldiers in the house upon the family, while public buildings were standing vacant ready to be used.
These things were made known by the inhabitants, by petition, to the Pennsylvania Assembly, to the Connecticut Assembly, and to the U. S. Congress. The Pennsylvania Assembly hurried to send a committee to Wyoming to investigate. The committee arrived December 29th, and proceeded to take depositions for about ten days. They returned to the Assembly and reported by simply
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handing in the depositions. A committee was appointed to take charge of the matter, and reported 23d January, 1784, briefly that there was nothing proved that might not be remedied by process of law, and that there was no evidence that the irregularities were authorized or sanctioned by Justice Patterson !
1784. And now that the spring of 1784 had arrived, it seemed as if the very elements had conspired to destroy the hopes and lives of the Yankee settlers.
The winter had been unusually severe, and the ice in the river had been frozen thicker than ever before known. "About the mid- dle of March, the 13th and 14th, the weather became suddenly warm, rain fell in torrents, melting the deep snows throughout all the hills and valleys in the upper regions watered by the Susque- hanna." "The following day," says Chapman, "the ice in the river began to break up, and the stream rose with great rapidity. The ice first gave way at the different rapids, and floating down in great masses, lodged against the frozen surface of the more gentle parts of the river, where it remained firm. In this manner several large dams were formed, which caused such an accumulation of water that the river overflowed all its banks, and one general inundation over- spread the extensive plains of Wyoming. The inhabitants took refuge on the surrounding heights, and saw their property exposed to the fury of the waters. At length the upper dam gave way, and huge masses of ice were scattered in every direction. The deluge bore down upon the dams below-which successively yielded to the insupportable burden, and the whole went off with the noise of con- tending storms. Houses, barns, fences, stacks of hay and grain, were swept off in the general destruction, to be seen no more. The plain on which the village of Wilkes-Barre is built, was covered with heaps of ice, which continued a great portion of the following summer."
The waters. suddenly fell, but the most of the horses, sheep, hogs and cattle were drowned. Only one human life is known to have been lost. The loss of provisions, clothing, cattle, hay, houses, and furniture-such as it was, left numbers a prey to extreme sufferings, which their neighbors were in no condition to relieve.
With the opening of spring the soldiers began to remove "the fences from the inclosures of the inhabitants-laying fields of grain
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open to be devoured-fencing up the highways, and between the houses of the settlers and their wells of water-that they were not suffered to procure water from their wells, or to travel on their usual highways. The greatest part of the settlers were in the most distressed situation-numbers having had their horses swept off by the uncommon overflowing of the river in the month of March preceding, numbers were without a shelter, and in a starving con- dition; but they were not suffered to cut a stick of timber, or make any shelter for their families. They were forbid to draw their nets for fish-their nets were taken from them by the officers of the garrison.' The settlers were often dragged out of their beds in the night season by ruffians, and beaten in a cruel manner. Complaints were made to the justices, as well as to the commanding officers of the garrison; but to no purpose-they were equally callous to every feeling of humanity."-Franklin.
On the 13th and 14th of May the soldiers were sent forth, and at the point of the bayonet, dispossessed a hundred and fifty families; in many instances set fire to their dwellings, avowing their intention to utterly expel them from the country. The people implored them for leave to remove either up or down the river in boats, because with their wives and children, in the bad state of the roads, it would be impossible to travel. They were met with a stern refusal, and they were directed to take the way east to the Lackawaxen, the most direct way to Connecticut. There were sixty miles of woods, with scarcely a house along this way, and the road had never been repaired since the commencement of the revolutionary war. But no matter, that way they must go, more than five hundred men, women and children, with scarcely provisions enough to sustain life, mostly on foot, the road being impassible for wagons. Several of the unhappy sufferers died in the wilderness, others taken sick from excessive fatigue, died soon after reaching the settlement. A widow whose husband had been slain during the war, had one child die on the way. She buried it as she could beneath a hemlock log, probably to be disinterred from the shallow covering, and be devoured by wolves. The legislators began to realize that other people, besides themselves and Patterson, were interested in the doings in Wyoming valley, when the news of the Wyoming suffer- ers came to them in hot speed from thousands of disinterested
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people, residing along both sides of the Delaware for fifty miles in extent. Humanity cried out from end to end of Pennsylvania; other States were agitated, inquiry was made whether a great wrong had been done and humanity outraged; and feelings of indignation were awakened and expressed, too emphatic to be disregarded. No part of the Union was more aroused than the good people of Pennsylvania herself.
The influence brought to bear on the government produced the instant dismissal of the troops, and the two companies were dis- charged. Justice Patterson forthwith, by his own authority, re-en- listed for the Pennsylvania land claimants about one-half of the most desperate, on whom he could rely and set at once both the settlers and commonwealth at defiance. The sheriff of Northumber- land hastened to Wyoming to restore the reign of law. Messengers were sent after the exiles along the Delaware who were invited to return and were promised protection. Assisted by the never-failing benevolence of the people of New Jersey and Pennsylvania along the Delaware, the settlers returned, but they found the sheriff was powerless against the desperate forces of Patterson.
No homes opened their doors to receive them for they were in possession of others, so they encamped on the mountain and called the place Fort Lillope or Lillo-pe. The sheriff could do nothing and returned to Northumberland. The settlers came down from Fort Lillo-pe on the mountain after being there about a month, and took possession of Forty Fort. They were now armed, and they prepared to defend themselves and gather whatever crops they could from the ground. But they had to fight for it.
At the first attempt to gather the crops a fight took place and the Yankees had two men killed, and Patterson's men several wounded. John Franklin then gathered about forty effective men and twenty old men, and went down the river on the west side from Forty Fort, threw out every Pennsylvania or New Jersey family (they seemed to be mostly from New Jersey), except the men they had wounded the day before, crossed the river at Nanticoke and passed up through Hanover, turning out every family not holding under the Connecticut claim, and driving them before him to the fort at Wilkes-Barre. Of course, civil war and bloodshed now openly prevailed. The same day Patterson burnt
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twenty-three houses in Wilkes-Barre which he could not hold. The fort mounted four pieces of cannon and was too strong to be captured by the Yankees. The Yankees took possession of the mill at Mill Creek-Miner says the only one in the settlement-and kept it running night and day, to provide flour for themselves and friends for future emergencies, as well as their present wants. Captain John Franklin was entrusted with the command of all the Yankee forces. This John Franklin resided in Huntington township.
Forty of the Pennsylvania party concerned in the expulsion of the inhabitants, including Justice Patterson, were indicted by the grand jury at Sunbury, and Sheriff Antis was sent to Wyoming to arrest them; but secure behind their ramparts they set his authority at defiance.
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