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 7
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 7
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 7
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James Atherton, jr., Oliver Smith,
Job Green, jr., Fred Wise, Stephen Jenkins,
Zacheriah Squier,
Henry Wall, Simeon Draper,
Peter Harris, Abel Smith, Elias Parks, Joshua Maxfield, John Murphy,
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
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Only two of these-Silas Gore and John Franklin-belonged to the "Associates" with Capt. Lazarus Stewart, to whom Hanover was granted, but all those marked with a star (*) were Hanover proprietors -seven of them in 1769.
Block-houses, or forts, were built in each township. The block- house is generally a square building of heavy hewed logs. When raised to the height of one story the timber used for joists or beams is projected over every side six or eight feet. The second story is built up of lighter logs placed on the ends of these projecting timbers, the whole roofed over, of course, with boards, shingles or bark. Loop-holes are formed through which to fire on an approach- 'ing enemy. The purpose of making the upper story larger than the lower is to enable those who defend the block-house to throw down stones, or boiling water, or other missiles on the heads of the assail- ants who should attempt to force the door, or set the building on fire. The first block-houses were built in a hurry, and were probably not of hewed logs. The defence of such a block-house when well peopled, armed with rifles-when cannon were not used-with plenty of food, water and amunition, was not to be despised. The one afterwards built on Solomon's Creek at the Stewart place was more than once defended against the Indians by severe fighting and loss of life to the assailants.
The fort was a mere palisade, but was built of heavy logs, fifteen to eighteen feet long, set close together on end in a trench three or four feet deep. The inclosure is generally square, except at the corners, where flanking towers are projected. The size was generally from a half acre inclosed up to several acres. The logs were some- times set double to break joints. A ditch on the outside four feet from the upright timbers, and dug several feet wide, was made, the dirt being thrown up against the timbers. Usually there were two gateways, opposite to each other, strongly barricaded. Around the inside against the timbers huts were built for the accommodation of families or messes. Loop-holes at proper distances, for firing rifles or small arms, finish the work within. Sometimes a covered way was dug to the water, and not unfrequently wells were sunk within the enclosure.
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The name of Hanover was given to the township in honor of one of the most prominent and conspicuous leaders in the settle-
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WYOMING.
ment of Wyoming Valley-Lazarus Stewart. It was the name of his native town, Hanover, near the Susquehanna, in Lancaster county then, but now in Dauphin, a daring leader among the Yankees, though he, of course, was not a Yankee, as then under- stood (a New Englander), but a Pennsylvanian. The New Eng- landers alone were then called Yankees, but whoever sided with, and adhered to them, were considered and called Yankees.
Captain Ogden, with Sheriff Jennings, recruited forces and ap- peared on the plains on the 20th of May. After reconnoitering the position of the Yankees he considered it too strong for him and they withdrew to Easton, and the sheriff informed the governor that there were three hundred able-bodied men there.
"In the delightful season of spring, nature unfolding her richest robes of leaf and flower, the Susquehanna yielding boundless stores of delicious shad, a brief hour of repose seemed only to wed the Yankee immigrant more strongly to the valley, or to the ground he was cultivating. The beautiful lowlands, where scarcely a stone impeded the plow, contrasted with the rock-bound shores of New England and her stone-covered fields, was a prospect as inviting as the plains of Italy of old to its northern invaders."
Now, on the 20th of June, another-Col. Turbot Francis-came, with music playing and colors flying, in full military array, all the way from Philadelphia, and sat down before Fort Durkee. Finding the Yankees too strongly fortified he retired below the mountains to wait for reinforcements.
Capt. Ogden, with Sheriff Jennings of Northampton county, and about two hundred well armed and equipped men, started for the valley in the beginning of September, and, to enable the sheriff more effectually to enforce his peaceful instructions, "not to strike, fire at, or wound, unless he was first stricken, fired at, or wounded," he brought along a part of an artillery company with a four-pound cannon and a supply of cartridge and ball-the first piece of ordnance ever seen in Wyoming.
Ogden and Jennings descended into the valley and displayed themselves in formidable array before Fort Durkee. Their imposing force, but especially that terrible four-pounder, destroyed every hope of victory in the breasts of the Yankees. Articles of capitulation were entered into and the Yankees surrendered. Three or four of
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
the leading men were detained as prisoners; the rest, men, their wives and little ones, with such of their flocks and herds as could be speedily collected, with aching hearts, took leave of the fair plains of Wyoming. The Pennamites agreed to let seventeen men stay and guard the Yankees' property till it could be taken away; but no sooner were the main body of the settlers gone, than Ogden expelled the seventeen men and seized all the Yankee property left, and cattle, horses and sheep, were driven to market on the Delaware. This was now the third time the Yankees had been totally expelled from the valley. Thus closed 1769. Ogden left ten men to guard the valley and went to Philadelphia.
Early in February, 1770, the Yankees under Captain Lazarus Stewart, with his forty settlers, mostly Pennsylvanians, *. came, drove out the men left by Ogden in the fort at Mill Creek, captured the "four-pounder," and carefully transferred it to Fort Durkee. Late in February Ogden heard of this and hurried back to the valley. He quietly took possession of his old quarters at Mill Creek with. the fifty men he brought with him.
The Connecticut people, who had been acting as civilians hereto- fore, now began to assume a more martial aspect. They besieged Ogden and obliged him to surrender and leave the valley, though one of the Yankees was killed. . The settlers rebuilt their burned houses, and commenced plowing and farming again. Peace reigned and confidence began to prevail. Spring and summer came, and the harvests were ripening, and no foe. The surveyors were again busy surveying lots.
Pennsylvania for some reason had not crushed the dispute. In point of fact, the Proprietaries having appropriated the best part of the land to themselves, the people very generally sympathized with the settlers, and wished them success. The poorest lands only were left for actual settlers by the Penns everywhere, and this was much disliked by the people of the province in general, and caused them to favor the Connecticut settlers wherever they had a chance.
It had become so difficult to raise troops that the governor, after immense difficulty, was not able before September to place a military force again under Capt. Ogden and another sheriff of Northampton county.
*The Pennsylvanians that came with Stewart were mostly the descendants of Scotch- Irish settlers in Lancaster county.
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There were three paths into the valley from the east. The old Warrior Path by way of the Lehigh Gap and Fort Allen, coming into the valley at Hanover. One by way of Cobb's Gap at Lacka- waxen, entering the valley where Scranton now stands; and the third from Easton through the Wind Gap, near the line of the old Easton turnpike into Wilkes-Barre. This last was the path usually taken by the Pennamites on their expeditions into the valley.
September 21, 1770, Capt. Ogden took the Warrior Path, and thus came in without being discovered, with one hundred and forty men. The Yankees were all the while watching the Wilkes-Barre path, but neglected to watch the others and so were taken by sur- prise. While the farmers were at work in the fields on the river flats in parties of from three to six, Ogden divided his force into parties of ten men, each under a chosen leader, directed them to hasten to the different fields noiselessly and secretly, and seize upon the laborers. The plan succeeded to a turn; and thus a consider- able portion of the settlers were captured and at once sent to the Easton jail. After this Ogden had but little trouble in capturing the remainder of the settlers and their fort. The Yankee leaders he sent to Philadelphia-this time to prison, but the others were sent to jail at Easton.
All the Connecticut people's possessions were now, as in the preceding autumn, abandoned, and the whole labor of the summer fell into the hands of their Pennamite foes. The property lost was by no means inconsiderable, and the soldiers of the successful party were richly rewarded with plunder. This was the fourth total expulsion of the Yankee settlers.
A small garrison of twenty men was left in the valley, for it was not to be supposed that these pestiferous Yankees, after this fourth expulsion, would ever come back again, and the Proprietaries thought they were secured in the peaceful possession of the valley forever, and persons to whom the Proprietaries had leased the land were expected to come out in the spring and erect suitable build- ings to open trade with the Indians. But :-
On the 18th of December, suddenly, without the slightest previous notice, a "Hurrah for King George" startled the sleeping garrison, too confidently secure to keep a sentinel on guard, and Captain Lazarus Stewart with thirty men took possession of the
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fortification they occupied in behalf of the Colony of Connecticut. The garrison were expelled from the valley as unceremoniously as had been the previous Yankee tenants. The expelled garrison themselves carried the news of their expulsion to Captain Ogden and the Proprietaries; and the Yankees were again in full posses- sion, and at once went to work on their farms. It being in the depth of winter their women and children had not been brought with them.
In less than thirty days from the expulsion of the Pennsylvania party the Proprietary government had a force of more than a hundred men displayed before Fort Durkee in Wilkes-Barre. Now, Ogden built a fort near Fort Durkee and called it Fort Wyoming. Suffice it to say that the Yankees were driven off or captured by the end of January, 1771, and again imprisoned in the Easton jail. Some severe fighting and loss of life occurred before all this was accomplished, Ogden's brother being one of the slain.
This was the fifth total expulsion of the Yankees, but their families and flocks and herds and other property not being with them, their expulsion this time. was not so severely felt. The Easton people always bailed them out of jail.
Early in April a party of armed Yankees, one hundred and fifty strong, entered the valley and forthwith laid vigorous siege to the Pennsylvania party in their Fort Wyoming.
Although the most of the events related above took place in Wilkes-Barre, settlers of Hanover took a leading part in them, Stewart being the most active among the leaders of the Yankee party, and being a Hanover settler. This last party of Yankees was led by Captain Zebulon Butler, with Captain Lazarus Stewart as second in command. This was not the first nor second appear- ance 'of Captain Butler here by any means, but we have not had special occasion to mention his name but once before. Captain Butler pushed on the siege and with true Yankee providence directed that at the same time the labors of the field should not be intermitted; and the flats, though with imperfect cultivation, yet from their extreme fertility soon produced a waving sea of luxuriant corn; and summer fruits were in abundance, all a valuable prize for the party that should be victorious.
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News had been carried to the Proprietary government in Phila- delphia, and strenuous exertions were made to raise a body of men in the shortest time to relieve the besieged Pennsylvanians in the Wyoming fort. But no sufficient reinforcement was able to reach them in time, and they were starved out and had to surrender,-after some severe fighting and some fatal casualties on both sides,-on 14th of August, 1771.
Thus foiled in every attempt to establish a post on the disputed lands; becoming daily more and more unpopular, as the difficul- ties between the Colonies and Great Britain, which were now going on, increased, the Proprietary government left the Susquehanna Company in undisturbed possession of the ground, who forthwith proceeded with all practicable celerity to increase their settlements and consolidate their power.
This closes the first Pennamite and Yankee war. It commenced in January, 1769 and continued till September, 1771, nearly three years, during which time the Yankee settlers were totally expelled five times, with the loss each time of nearly their whole property. But still they returned again and again and fought it out to final victory. But the final victory was not yet.
Very little has been said about killed or wounded, because there was no real reason for it; it is enough to say that blood had been flowing pretty freely, and many valuable lives had been lost.
CHAPTER IV.
1772-4.
FTER the massacre in 1763 the Indians generally left the valley of Wyoming, but a number had returned, not as a tribe but scattered remnants of tribes. Some of them had been partially civilized by the Moravians; a small number who were friendly and good neighbors, lived on the flats above Mill Creek. The men were good hunters and supplied vension and other wild game to such as could give something satisfactory to the Indian in exchange for it. Others lived at Maughwauwama, and Shawnee; and Nanticoke.
The inhabitants would leave their fortification after an early breakfast, taking a lunch with them and go armed to their daily labors in the fields. Stockades, or block-houses were built in Han- over and Plymouth. Forty Fort, in Kingston, was occupied. Many families returned that had not before come back, from some one or other of their expulsions, and new settlers came in from the East. Moving and removing, surveying, drawing lots for land-rights, building and preparing for building, hastily clearing up patches for sowing with winter grain,-these were the matters of importance now.
Great activity prevailed everywhere, but with all their industry and energy, the harvests in the fall of 1772 were not sufficient for their greatly augmented numbers. Then men were forced to hunt and fish for a living. But all were filled with exultation from having come off victorious, and their comparative sense of security, and the pleasure of frequently meeting old acquaintances from Connecticut, or Lancaster county, who having been neighbors there were to be neighbors here; and then, to listen to and to tell of adventures and hair-breadth escapes! These were delights to be enjoyed even on a hungry stomach! The old settler of eighteen or eight months had long stories to tell to the newcomer.
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The supplies were so nearly exhausted by February, 1773, that parties were sent from the settlements to the Delaware near Strouds- burg for provisions. There were no wagons, or wagon roads, nor horses to be had to carry the supplies on. They had to go on foot and carry the loads on their backs; and they were in danger also of falling into the hands of the hostile Pennsylvanians. But they found friends in the settlements there, and were secretely supplied and sent on their journey homeward. Never was an opening spring or the coming of the shad looked for with more anxiety, or hailed with more delight. "The fishing season dissipated all fears of further famine, and the dim eye was soon changed for the glance of joy and the sparkle of pleasure, and the dry, sunken cheek of want assumed the plump appearance of plenty and health."-Miner.
A grist mill was built this year, 1773, at Mill Creek. The mill irons were brought up the river in a boat, pushed up with poles in the hands of the crew, from Wright's Ferry, opposite Columbia below Harrisburg. On the same Mill Creek below the grist mill, a saw mill was built during the summer. This was the first grist mill and first saw mill built in the Valley of Wyoming. Schools, and churches, or "meeting-houses" as they were called, were also. provided for. Military organization was not neglected. Following the order then existing in New England, discipline was enforced as indispensible to the existence of the settlement. In each township a company was enrolled, and officers chosen and commissioned. "They had no splendid uniforms, no glittering bayonets, no impos- ing band of many instruments of music, at their training, but there were sturdy men there, with the strong banded old French musket, the long duck shooting piece, and, more efficient than all, the close drawing rifle, little known in New England, but becoming familiar among the settlers on the Susquehanna."-Miner.
The percussion cap and lock were then unknown; nothing but the flint-lock was used on a gun. Probably many men of to-day never saw a flint-lock gun-certainly none of that day had ever seen a percussion lock. But such arms as they had were not to be despised at that day. They were well taken care of, too, for there was no knowing when they might be desperately needed by these pioneer settlers of a small colony pushed away out sixty miles beyond any other settlers, into the Indian country; and such whites
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as were their nearest neighbors owning a jurisdiction inimical to them.
They had not much law, but such law as was necessary for self protection they made for themselves in town-meeting, and they enforced it. Among these was one, that "Any person selling liquor to an Indian," was to forfeit his goods and be expelled the colony.
In June, 1773, the Susquehanna Company met at Hartford and adopted twelve articles for the government of the settlement. These were in the nature of a constitution, as we would now term it. · Every township procured a copy, and entered it at large in a book provided for the purpose. All the male inhabitants of the age of twenty-one years had to personally subscribe it with his own proper name or mark, and strictly abide by and fulfill it, and such persons as came in afterwards had to do the same; and such as neglected or refused to subscribe and abide by it, were not permitted to remain, nor admitted as settlers on the lands .*
THE TWELVE ARTICLES OF GOVERNMENT.
"Ist. We do solemnly profess and declare true and sincere allegiance to His Majesty, King George the Third, and that no foreign prince, person, prelate, state or potentate, hath, or ought to have any jurisdiction, power or authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual, within the realm of England.
"2nd. We do solemnly promise and engage, that we will, so far as lieth in our power, behave ourselves peaceably, soberly and orderly towards each other in particular, and the world in general, carefully observing and obeying the laws of this colony, as binding and of force with us equally in all respects, as though we actually resided within one of the counties of this colony" (of Connecticut).
"3rd. For the due enforcing such laws, as well as such other orders and regulations as shall, from time to time, be found necessary to be come into by said settlers and Company, we will immediately within each town already settled, and immediately after the settlement of those that may be hereafter settled, choose
*This was in 1773. The present book containing the Hanover records was com- menced in 1776, and does not contain a copy of these articles of agreement. The copy here introduced is from Miner's History of Wyoming, copied by him from the Westmore- land Records.
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three able and judicious men, among such settlers, to take upon them, under the general direction of the Company, the direction of the settlement of each such town, and the well ordering and govern- ing the same, to suppress vice of every kind, preserve the peace of God and the King therein, to whom each inhabitant shall pay such and the same submission as is paid to the civil authority in the several towns in this colony; such inhabitants shall also choose, in each of their respective towns, one person of trust to be their officer, who shall be vested with the same power and authority, as a con- stable, by the laws of this colony is, for preserving the peace and apprehending offenders of a criminal or civil nature.
"4th. The Directors in each town shall, on the first Monday of each month, and oftener, if need be, with such their peace officers, meet together, as well to consult for the good regulating thereof, as to hear and decide any differences that may arise, and to inflict proper fine or other punishment on offenders according to the general laws and rules of this colony, so far as the peculiar situation and circumstances of such town and plantation will admit of; and as the reformation of offenders is the principal object in view, always proffering serious admonition and advice to them, and their making public satisfaction, by public acknowledgement of their fault, and doing such public service to the plantation, as the Directors shall judge meet, to fines in money, or corporal punish- ment, which, however, in extreme cases, such Directors shall inflict, as said laws direct.
"5th. The Directors of each individual town or plantation, shall, once every quarter, or three months, meet together to confer with each other on the state of each particular town in said settle- ment, and to come into such resolutions concerning them as they shall find for their best good, as also to hear the complaints of any that shall judge themselves aggrieved by the decision of their Directors in their several towns, who shall have right to appeal to such quarterly meeting.
"6th. No one convicted of sudden and violent breach of the peace, of swearing, drunkenness, stealing, gaming, fraud, idleness, and the like before the Directors of the particular town in which he lives, shall have liberty of appeal to such quarterly meeting, from the sentence of such particular Directors, without first procuring 6 -
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good security, to the satisfaction of such Directors, for his orderly and sober behavior until such meeting, and for his submitting to and complying with the sentence of such meeting. No one, in matters of private property, shall have liberty of appeal from such particular Directors, to such quarterly meeting of Directors where the controversy is not more than twenty shillings." ($3.337/3).
"7th. Such quarterly meeting of the Directors shall appoint an officer, statedly, to attend them as their clerk, who shall care- fully register their proceedings, also an officer in the character of general peace officer, or sheriff, who shall attend them, and to whom the inhabitants of the whole settlement submit in the same manner as the inhabitants of any county within this colony, by law are obliged, to their respective High Sheriff.
"8th. All persons within such settlement accused of the high handed crimes of adultery, burglary and the like, shall be arrainged before such quarterly meeting, and if convicted, shall be sentenced to banishment from such settlement, and a confiscation of all their personal effects therein, to the use of the town where such offense is committed, and should there still be the more heinous crime of murder committed, which God forbid, the offender shall be instantly arrested, and delivered into the hands of the nearest civil authority in Connecticut, and shall any person or persons be accused of counterfeiting the bills or coins of any province on this continent, and be thereof convicted before such quarterly meeting, the colony whose bills are thus counterfeited, shall have liberty to take such offender and punish him, he shall be instantly banished the settlement, and his personal effects be con- fiscated as aforesaid, and all persons convicted of any heinous crime in any province on this continent, and shall fly from justice, the inhabitants shall, as well directors and peace officers, as others, aid and assist their pursuers in apprehending them, that they may be duly punished in the Government where they have offended.
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"9th. No appeal shall be from the doings of such quarterly meeting, or their decrees, to the Susquehanna Company in general, save where the property of land is disputed, in which case the appellant shall first secure the appellee for his costs, if he make not his appeal good before the Company.
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" Ioth. The inhabitants of each town, to wit :- All the males of twenty-one years and upwards, and a proprietor in one of the said towns, shall annually meet, on the first Monday in December, and choose Directors for such town, with their peace officers, and other officers. that shall be found necessary for the ensuing year, and the Directors, etc., that now may be chosen, shall have authority until new are chosen and no longer.
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