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 9
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 9
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 9
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
95
WYOMING.
Our two companies in the army were not idle. They were in battle the first time at Mill Stone, and lost some men killed. They were in action at Bound Brook, at Brandywine, at Germantown, and at Mud Fort.
The State tax on the assessment of 1777 was two shillings* on the pound, amounting to two thousand and thirty-two pounds, five shillings and eight pence, lawful money, with all additions thereto. The assessed value of the whole town or county of Westmoreland was twenty thousand three hundred and twenty-two pounds, seven- teen shillings. This assessment in dollars and cents, at six shillings Connecticut currency to the dollar, amounts to sixty-seven thousand seven hundred and forty-one dollars and sixteen cents; and the tax to six thousand seven hundred and seventy-four dollars and a frac- tion. The proportion falling upon Hanover would be about six hundred and seventy-eight dollars, not counted in depreciated paper. It will be noticed that this is ten per cent. of the total valu- ation. Consider also the value of labor then. A day's work of a skilled hand was 3s .= 50 cents. Compare it with the present price, $2.25 to $2.50 per day. To equal that now, it would be $40 or $58 State tax on every man. This was a State tax alone. There were now probably not more than fifty or seventy families, if so many, or seventy full grown men in all Hanover, and they poor immigrant families, struggling to make a living out of the soil, building forts and block-houses without pay, to protect themselves and families from a public enemy, farms not yet cleared up, stumps still standing in the fields that were cleared, and the fields but small for want of time since they had last fought the Pennamites,-how were they to . pay something like nine or thirteen dollars per man State tax alone. After this came the county, road, poor, and school taxes in ad- dition! Well, a war for independence was going on, and these. people-the Puritans-were then, as they always have been since, among the most patriotic, liberty-loving people in the world. They
*A dollar in sterling money is four shillings and six pence. But the price of a dollar rose in New York to eight shillings, in New England to six shillings, in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland to seven shillings and six pence, in Virginia to six shillings, in North Carolina to eight shillings, in South Carolina and Georgia to four shillings and eight pence. This difference, originating between paper and specie, or bills, continued afterwards to exist in the nominal estimation of gold and silver .- Franklin's Miscellane- ous Works.
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
were willing to serve their country with their personal service and their means,-always their full share. They were mostly descend- ants of those mentioned in the following quotation:
"The emigrants, or as they deservedly styled themselves, the 'Pilgrims,' belonged to that English sect, the austerity of whose principles had acquired for them the name of Puritans. Puritanism was not merely a religious doctrine, but it corresponded in many points with the most absolute democratic and republican theories. It was this tendency which had aroused its most dangerous adver- saries. Persecuted by the government of the mother country, and disgusted by the habits of a society opposed to the rigor of their own principles, the Puritans went forth to seek some rude and un- frequented part of the world where they could live according to their own opinions and worship God in freedom. All, without a single exception, had received a good education, and many of them were known in Europe for their talents and for their acquirements. These men possessed, in proportion to their number, a greater mass of intelligence than is to be found in any other European nation of our own time."-Detocqueville's Democracy in America.
Under the circumstances one would suppose nothing would have been asked from them for State purposes. What has Connecticut ever done for them in return for all this? Let it be remembered also that their own Assessors-Listers they called them-elected from among themselves by themselves, put the valuation on their property. Let us show one more picture of these people during the year 1777. At a town-meeting, legally warned, December 30th, "Voted by this town, that the Committee of Inspection be em- powered to supply the 'sogers'' wives, and 'sogers"' widows and their families, with the necessaries of life." These Inspectors were not "Overseers of the Poor," but a committee appointed to see that the families of our absent soldiers should not suffer for food, nor become paupers. The townships each separately took care of their own paupers and the usual method of providing for them was to call the people together by advertisement to a public auction by a "crier," and they were "sold," as it was termed, to the bidder who would keep them-the paupers-for a year at the lowest price. The next year the same thing would occur, and so on as long as there was a pauper. The pauper was sometimes a weak-minded
97
WYOMING ..
person, but otherwise strong, and more or less able and willing to work, and they did not always cost the township anything.
Hanover does not now-1884-dispose of her paupers in that way. Hanover, together with four other townships, in 1862, bought a farm in Newport township to put their paupers on, and procured a charter of incorporation for it as the "Central Poor District of Luzerne County." There our Poor House is erected. The next year they were joined by Kingston, and the second year by Wilkes- Barre borough.
How the other townships in the county provide for their paupers it is not necessary to state in a history of Hanover.
After the Declaration of Independence a law was passed requir- . ing a new oath of allegiance to the State of Connecticut instead of the king. Up to the spring of 1778, in the several town-meetings the oath of fidelity had been administered to two hundred and fifty- nine freemen in the county. This would seem to indicate that the estimate on a preceding page was too large for Hanover, and it probably was thirty instead of fifty or seventy, unless many had not taken the oath.
"Justice demands a tribute to the praiseworthy spirit of the wives and daughters of Wyoming. While their husbands and fathers were on public duty they cheerfully assumed a large portion of the labor, which females could do. They assisted to plant, made hay, husked and garnered corn. As the settlement was mainly depend- ent on its own resources for powder, Mr. Hollenback caused to be brought up the river a pounder and "the women took up their floors, dug out the earth, put it in casks and ran water through it,-as ashes are leached,-took ashes in another cask and made lye, mixed the water from the earth with weak lye, boiled it, set it to cool, and the salt-peter rose to the top. Charcoal and sulphur were then used, and powder produced for the public defense."
"The statement of Mrs. Bertha Jenkins, at the age of eighty- four, giving an account of the process of obtaining salt-peter, shows that it was a familiar and common transaction. We have been more particular in the quotation, as the fact is remarkable, showing that even powder was not furnished them."-A foot-note in Miner.
7
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98
HISTORY OF HANOVER.
The writer has heard the same description of the method of obtaining salt-peter from the old soldier and settler heretofore mentioned in these pages. 1
1778 is the year of the Wyoming Massacre. The two companies in the army had been obliged to find their own arms and equip- ments, and had taken the most of the fire-arms, and all of the best ones, with them. The people had not sufficient arms such as they were, even of poor ones, to fully arm themselves, and affairs at the north among the Indians and the British at Niagara, began to look very threatening.
March 16, 1778, Congress authorized "one full company of foot to be raised in the town of Westmoreland on the east bank of the Susquehanna, for the defense of the said town, and the settlements on the frontiers and in the neighborhood thereof, against the Indians . and enemies of the States;" and "that the company find their own arms, accoutrements and blankets." Is there any use of comment here? They could do all this without any authority from Con- gress. There was no help, no assistance in this. This seems almost like an insult! Wyoming was doomed by selfishness, or thought- lessness, or pig-headedness. A frontier like this, away off in the advance, with their men and their arms taken away for service else- where, and not returned when imminent danger threatened, and Congress knew it all when the above-mentioned company was authorized to be raised March 16, 1778. We need not enumerate the petitions and letters to Congress, and to Connecticut, with re- gard to the matter, but they were both fully informed of the con- . dition of things here, that the Indians and British were preparing to attack us. Finally our soldiers, or such of them as were left in Washington's army were organized into one company, on June 23, (ten days before the battle and massacre), and sent to Lan- caster, and soon after to Wyoming-but too late! They could not get here in time by forced marches!
In the month of May our scouts began to meet parties of the enemy. Occasionally shots were exchanged. The settlements were found to be watched from all directions. The people in the outer settlement's fled to the forts, the wives of the soldiers sent messages to their husbands calling upon them by every tender tie
WYOMING. 99
to come home and protect them. Congress and Connecticut would not let them go. At last they let them go, but 'twas too late! They had not time to get here-though they made forced marches-till 'twas all over! Well, was anything ever done for us afterwards on account of this wrong? -
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:
CHAPTER VI.
THE BATTLE AND MASSACRE OF WYOMING.
ANOVER had a company of forty men or more in the battle. Captain William McKarrican was the commander of the militia company. "He was a school-teacher, little used to war, though brave and active, a valuable man, he gave up the com- mand to Captain Lazarus Stewart."-Miner. Lazarus Stewart, Jr., a cousin of the captain, was lieutenant. Silas Gore was ensign. Both captains, the lieutenant and the ensign were killed in the Wyoming Massacre.
The enemy numbering about four hundred British Provincials, consisting of Colonel John Butler's Rangers, a detachment of Sir John Johnson's Royal Greens, the rest being tories from Pennsyl- vania, New Jersey, and New York, together with six or seven hundred Indians, descended the Susquehanna from Tioga Point- now Athens-landed below the mouth of Bowman's Creek. about twenty miles above the valley; securing their boats they marched by land, arrived on the western mountains on the evening of the 29th of June, or the morning of the 30th.
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"All our men, six companies of about two hundred and seventy- five men, gathered into Forty Fort, in Kingston. Many old men, some of them grandfathers, took their muskets and marched to the field, so that the whole number, militia-men, old men, and boys, were about three hundred."-Miner.
The companies as they went into battle July 3, 1778, were as follows :-
Ist-Captain Dethic Hewitt's-called regulars-from the valley. 2d-Captain Asaph Whittlesey-from Plymouth.
3d-Captain Wm. McKarrachan-Hanover-command given up to Capt. Lazarus Stewart, Rosewell Franklin was lieutenant.
4th-Captain James Bidlack, Jr .- Lower Wilkes-Barre.
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IOI
WYOMING.
5th-Captain Rezin Geer-Upper Wilkes-Barre.
6th-Captain Aholiah Buck-Kingston.
Our home militia companies were organized before the Wyoming Massacre (1775) as follows :-
Ist Company-Capt. Stephen Fuller, Lieut. John Garrett, Ensign Christopher Avery.
2d Company-Capt. Nathaniel Landon, Lieut. Geo. Dorrance, Ensign Asahel Buck.
3d Company-Capt. Samuel Ranson, Lieut. Perrin Ross, Ensign Asaph Whittlesey.
4th Company-Capt. Solomon Strong, Lieut. Jonathan Parker, Ensign Timothy Keys.
5th Company-Capt. Wm. McKarrachan, Lieut. Lazarus Stewart, - Jr., Ensign Silas Gore.
6th Company-Capt. Rezin Geer, Lieut. Daniel Gore, Ensign Matthias Hollenback.
On the 3d of July they marched out of Forty Fort and up about four miles where they met the enemy.
"It was about four o'clock when the order to advance to the attack was given. The men having been told off into odds and evens, were ordered to advance alternately by numbers, five steps, then halt and fire, when the then rear file would again advance and fire in their turn. For awhile the firing was rapid and steady along the American line, and was returned in an equally spirited manner. The enemy's left being hard pressed by Captain Hewitt's company on our right, began to recoil, and a shout ran along the line that the British were being driven back. At this critical moment the greatly superior number of the enemy enabled the Indians on our left to outflank the Americans at that end of the line, and while Capt. Whittlesey was hotly engaged in front, a large number of Indians had penetrated the swamp and were emerging from the thicket some distance in his rear. Seeing this movement Col. Dennison ordered Whittlesey's command to change front and form a line facing the enemy in that direction.
"The battle had now raged for over half an hour and was becoming hot and furious. The savages rushed in with fearful yells; still our men stood firm, returning shot for shot without thought of giving way before the furious onslaught, but when the order was
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
given by Capt. Whittlesey for his command to wheel backward from the left with a view of forming a right angle with the original line, the order was understood by the men to be to retreat, and they at once became demoralized and broke and fled in the wildest confusion. It was in vain that Col. Butler strove to rally his men by recklessly exposing his own life as he passed along the line between the two fires; but it was too late; a panic had seized upon these raw militia which the assuring words of no general could allay, and they broke and fled as the yelling savages doubled up our line by their onward rush from the left flank. The right stood its ground with desperate heroism. One of Capt. Hewitt's officers said to him, 'we are beaten, the Indians have gained our rear, shall we retreat?' 'No! I'll be d-d if I do while a man stands by me," was the heroic reply, and he died at his post pierced by a shot from the British Rangers. Thus ended the battle of Wyoming, but not THE MASSACRE.
"A portion of the Indians, who had thus flanked the American left, did not stop to give the finishing blow to this doomed band of patriots, but pushed forward to the rear of the defeated army, to cut off its retreat to Forty Fort, thus completely hemming in those who sought to save themselves by flight, the river forming one side of the enclosure. Being thus surrounded on all sides, consternation reigned supreme, with men running hither and thither impelled by a sudden fear, the slaughter went on while a man was left within the fatal enclosure. Some were taken prisoners by the Greens and Rangers of Col. John Butler, (the British commander), but these were sub- sequently massacred in the most cruel and revolting manner by the Indians on the night of that dreadful day. Seventeen were slaugh- tered by that semi-savage Hecate, Queen Esther, on a flat rock a short distance above the battle ground. Groups of other dead bodies were found in the vicinity, showing that they had been murdered in the most shocking manner after they had been taken prisoners."- Wesley Johnson.
Our people fled towards the river; some on the left got through the line of Indians and ran down towards Forty Fort. A few of them reached the fort; but the old men and young boys were over- taken and killed. Of those also, principally from the right of our line, that ran towards the river, the weak or slow, the old men and the young boys were killed or captured on the way. The most
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WYOMING.
vigorous alone, that were not shot on the way, reached the river ahead of the Indians. Then, as they were only a few rods off in the river when the Indians reached the bank, the Indians tried to coax them back by promising them their lives. Some went back, but as soon as they got out of the water they were tomahawked or speared. Those that could not be coaxed back swam across the river, or to Monocony island, opposite which many of the fugitives reached the river. Some were shot in the river as they swam; but such as reached the island had a little rest before swimming across to the other shore. The island was covered with brush and small trees, and some of the fugitives hid there. The Indians soon came over to the island, at least by the time it began to get dark, and killed all they found there. Some, however, were securely hidden and escaped. On this island that night, a tory, with his own hand killed his patriot brother. Their name was Pencil.
The island is probably one hundred and fifty or sixty rods long and twenty rods wide. It is called Monockonack, Monocony, and Monocosy.
Steuben Jenkins says, "there were about four hundred of our men altogether, including the six companies, and the old men and boys; and that about three hundred of them were killed. And that in the flight of the women and children and the few men that escaped, through the mountains, woods and swamps to the east, about two hundred perished. Many of those who escaped with their lives to the east never returned. The orphans that lived were bound out to tradesmen and farmers. Many of these returned after they grew up."
The grandfather of the writer, on his mother's side, who was in the battle and escaped, belonged to Captain Bidlack's company, in which there were thirty-eight men. Of these only eight escaped according to Miner (but there were eleven in fact, that escaped). And yet he was on the right of the battle, and was nearer the river, and it might be supposed therefore, that more of these escaped in the flight, in proportion, than of those further to the left. The writer possesses the names of those that escaped of Bidlack's com- pany, written down by this old veteran's own hand.
Col. Wright in his Sketches of Plymouth says that in 1837, he carefully wrote down the narrative of Samuel Finch, one of the sur-
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
vivors of the battle, and in that interview Mr. Finch told him :- "That he, with another soldier, was stationed at the gateway of Forty Fort by Colonel Butler to count the men as they passed out to battle; and that including the regulars and militia, there were four hundred and eighty-four men." If, then, the killed was the same throughout, as in Capt. Bidlack's company, the killed would number more than three hundred and eighty, and the survivors would number one hundred and four or less. Miner says one hundred and forty escaped.
The following is a list of the killed in the battle and massacre, so far as persons could be recollected. The names are mostly from Miner's History of Wyoming :
FIELD OFFICERS.
Lieut. Col. George Dorrance, Major John Garrett.
CAPTAINS.
Robert Durkee,
Dethick Hewitt,
James Bidlack, Jr.,
Asaph Whittlesey,
Aholiah Buck, Rezin Geer,
Wm. McKarrican,*
Lazarus Stewart,* Samuel Ransom.
LIEUTENANTS.
James Welles,
Timothy Pierce, Flavius Waterman,
Aaron Gaylord, Asa Stephens, A. Atherton,
Lazarus Stewart, Jr.,* Elijah Shoemaker,
Perrin Ross, Stoddard Bowen.
ENSIGNS.
Asa Gore, Jeremiah Bigford,*
William White, Titus Hinman,*
Silas Gore,* John Otis.
PRIVATES.
Christopher Avery, Jabez Atherton, - Acke,
William Buck,
Robert Bates,
Samuel Bigford,*
Henry Bush,
Samuel Carey,
Samuel Cole, --- Coe, Joseph Crooker,* John Cortright, John Caldwell,* Josiah Carmen,
Samuel Crooker, William Coffrin,* Joel Church, Joseph Corey,
Stephen Bidlack, A. Benedict, Silas Benedict, Jabez Beers,
Elisha Bigsbee, Thomas Brown, Amos Bullock, Asa Bullock,
Three Cook, Cook, Cook,
Brothers.
Isaac Campbell .* James Campbell, James Coffrin,* ChristopherCortright,
105
Robert Comstock,
Jenks Corey,*
· Kingsley Comstock, ' Rufus Corey, Elijah Inman,* Israel Inman,*
Anson Corey,
Elias Roberts,
Robert McIntire, Samuel Jackson,
Robert Jameson,* William Jones,*
Joseph Jennings, Henry Johnson,
Joseph Staples,
Conrad Davenport,
Daniel Lawrence,
Thomas Fuller,.
Rufus Lawrence,
Daniel Stark,
Stephen Fuller,.
Josh Landon,
Darius Spafford,
Elisha Fish,
Jacob Larose,
Joseph Shaw,
Eliphalet Follet,
Conrad Lowe, James Lock,
James Shaw,
Daniel Finch,
W.m. Lawrence,
Rufus Stevens,
John Finch,
Wm. Lester,*
Constant Searle,
Cornelius Fitchet,
A. Meeleman,
Nailer Swede,
Thomas Foxen,
C. McCartee, Job Marshall,
James Spencer,*
Jonathan Franklin,*
Nicholas Manvil, John Murphy,
Levi Spencer,* Eleazer Sprague,
Green, Gardner,
Andrew Millard,
Josiah Spencer,* Abel Seeley,
Samuel Hutchinson,
Thomas Neil,*
Gamaliel Truesdale,
James Hopkins,*
Jonathan Otis,
Ichabod Tuttle,
Silas Harvey,
Joseph Ogden,
John Van Wee,
William Hammer,
Abel Palmer,
Abram Vangorder,
Levi Hicks,
William Parker,
James Wigton, Peter Wheeler,
Cyprean Hibbard,*
ohn Pierce,
Jonathan Weeks,
Nathaniel Howard,
Silas Parke,
Philip Weeks,
Benjamin Hatch,
Gershone Prince (col- ored),
Bartholomew Weeks. Elihu Waters,
Elihu Williams, Jr.,
Henry Pencil,
John Williams,
Azibah Williams,
John Ward,
Parker Wilson,
John Wilson,
Nathan Wade,*
Esen Wilcox,
· Total, 174.
Joseph Budd,
Stephen Whiton,
Those marked with a star (*) were Hanover men.
Below is a list of the names of all that were known to have been in the battle and escaped the massacre of July 3, 1778.
7*
WYOMING.
John Brown, David Bigsbee, John Boyd, Anderson Dana, - Dutcher, Jabez Darling, William Dunn, D. Denton, . Levi Dunn,
James Divine, George Downing,
Francis Ledyard,
Reuben Staples, Aaron Stark,
Abraham Shaw,
Benjamin Finch,
James Stevenson,
John Franklin,*
George Gore,
Nero Mathewson,
John Hutchins,
Noah Pettebone, Jr.,
Rufus Williams,
Wm. Woodward, Ozias Yale.
Elisha Richards, Timothy Rose, Christopher Reynolds Enos Rockway, Jeremiah Ross,
106
HISTORY OF HANOVER.
OFFICERS.
Col. Zebulon Butler,
Ensign Daniel Downing,
Col. Nathan Dennison, Lieut. Daniel Gore, Lieut. Timothy Howe,
Ensign Matthias Hollenback, Ensign Jabez Fish,
Sergeant Phineas Spafford,
Sergeant
Gates.
PRIVATES.
John Abbott,
Samuel Gore,
M. Mullen, Daniel Owen,
Gideon Baldwin,
Lemuel Gustin,
Zerah Beach,
James Green,
Josiah Pell, Jr.,*
Rufus Bennett,*
Lebbeus Hammond,
Thomas Porter,
Solomon Bennett,
Jacob Haldron,*
Phineas Pierce,
Elisha Blackman,
Elisha Harris,
Abraham Pike,
Nathan Carey, - Coe,*
Ebenezer Hibbard,*
John N. Skinner, Giles Slocum,
Samuel Carey,
William Hibbard,*
Walter Spencer,*
George Cooper,
Richard Inman,*
Edward Spencer,*
Joseph Elliot,
David Inman,*
Sebastian Strope,
Samuel Finch,
John Jameson,*
Roger Searle,
Rosewell Franklin,*
William Jameson,*
James Stark,
Arnold Franklin,*
Henry Lickers,
Gamaliel Twiesdale,
Hugh Forsman,
Joseph Morse (or
Cherrick Westbrook,
Thomas Fuller.
Morris),*
Eliezer West,
John Garrett,
Thomas Neil,*
Daniel Washburn,
William Young .*
Those marked with a star (*) at the end of the name were Han- over men.
The following list contains the names of the Hanover men that "are known to have been Hanover men and been in the battle of July 3d, 1778. The first column contains those known to have been slain; the second column those known to have escaped:
KILLED.
ESCAPED.
Capt. Lazarus Stewart,
Rufus Bennett, Coe,
Capt. William McKarrican,
Lieut. Lazarus Stewart, Jr.,
Rosewell Franklin,
Arnold Franklin,
Ensign Silas Gore, . Ensign Titus Hinman,
Ebenezer Hibbard,
Ensign Jeremiah Bigford, Samuel Bigford, Coe,
William Hibbard,
Jacob Haldron,
Richard Inman, David Inman,
William Coffrin,
Daniel Hewitt,
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WYOMING.
James Coffrin, Isaac Campbell, Jenks Corey, John Caldwell, Jonathan Franklin, John Franklin,
John Jameson, William Jameson,
Joseph Morse (or Morris), Thomas Neil,
Josiah Pell, Jr.,
Walter Spencer,
James Hopkins, Zipron Hibbard, Elijah Inman, Jr.,
Edward Spencer, William Young.
Israel Inman, Robert Jameson, William Jones, William Lester,
James Spencer, Levi Spencer,
Josiah Spencer, Nathan Wade.
Of the nineteen names of persons who drew the lots in the second division of Hanover in 1776,* only five appear on the above list. There would be eleven of them if the four sons of Inman and two of Coffrin were counted. It is quite certain that more of them were in the battle, and were killed. We never see nor hear their names again in Hanover, nor any where else.
The following names were found written in pencil on a blank leaf of an old account book of Elisha Blackman and appear to be in his handwriting. These are the names of the men in his company that he could remember who were in the battle and massacre of July 3, 1778. The list includes, in separate columns the names of the killed and those that escaped. They were all in the lower Wilkes- Barre company. There were about half as many old men and boys in the battle that did not belong to the militia company as there were men in the company; and this was the case with each of the com- panies. They went along as volunteers, not enrolled.
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