History of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 27

Author: Bradsby, H. C. (Henry C.)
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Chicago : S. B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1532

USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > History of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections > Part 27

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Fence viewers: "John Abbott, William Warner, Ezekiel Pierce, William Buck, Nathan Denison, Esq., Thomas Stoddart, Frederick Eveland, John Baker, Charles Gaylord, Samuel Slaughter, Abraham Harding, Capt. Parrish, John Jamison, John Gardner, were chosen fence viewers for ye year ensuing."

Listers: "Anderson Dana, Daniel Gore, Elisha Swift, Eliphalet Follet, Perrin Ross, Nathan Wade, Jeremiah Blanchard, Zavan Tracy, Uriah Chapman, Gideon Baldwin, Silas Gore, Moses Thomas, Emanuel Consawler, John Jenkins and Phin- eas Clark, were chosen listers for ye year ensuing."

"Leather sealers: Elisha Swift, Ebenezer Hibbard and Capt. Silas Parke, were chosen leather sealers ye year ensuing.

"Grand jurors: Jabez Sills, James Stark, William Buck, Elias Church, Phineas Nash, Thomas Heath, Barnabas Cary, Lemuel Harding, Hezekiah Bingham, John Franklin, Timothy Keys, were chosen grand jurors ye year ensuing.

"Tything men: Philip Weeks, Elihu Williams, Luke Swetland, Justice Gaylord, James Brown, Isaac Parrish, Timothy Hopkins, were chosen tything men.

"Sealers of weights and measures; Jabez Sills, Captain Obadiah Gore, Captain Silas Parke, Captain Lazarus Stewart, were chosen sealers of weights and measures.

"Key keepers: Daniel Gore, Jabez Fish, Timothy Pierce, Uriah Stevens, Thomas Heath, Jeremiah Blanchard, Jonathan Haskel, Zipron Hibbard, were chosen key keepers." Thus was the town organized by the designation of 100 officers.

April 11 and 12, the second town meeting in Westmoreland was held. 206 persons took the freeman's oath, as required by law. A tax was laid of one penny in the pound, to purchase ammunition for the town's use, and other necessaries.

Application to the assembly was directed for a court of probate, and the estab- lishment of a regiment. Pounds already built were pronounced lawful pounds. Roads heretofore established were declared lawful highways, on which taxes might be laid out.

"Voted, That for ye present, ye tree that now stands northerly from Capt. Butler's house, shall be ye town sign post."

This matter of the legal sign post is of weightier import than, without explana- tion, might be imagined. Newspapers in those days were little known, save in the larger cities. It had therefore been enacted that a sign post be established in each town, on which notices of public meetings, public sales, stray animals taken up, etc., should be nailed or placed, to render them legal. It is proper to add that, as an accompaniment of the sign post, which was also the legal whipping post, a pair of stocks was provided for a punishment of the guilty, and a warning to deter from . crime. These monuments of civilization and law were derived from England, and brought over, nay, almost venerated, by our Puritan fathers. The ancient pillory and wooden horse first disappeared, the whipping post and stocks soon followed.

A third meeting was holden April 28, 1774.

"Capt. Butler was chosen moderator, for ye work of ye day. Voted, That Capt. 12

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HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

Zebulon Butler, Capt. Timothy Smith, Mr. Christopher Avery and Mr. John Jenkins, be appointed agents in behalf of this company of settlers, to attend the meeting of the general assembly, to be holden at Hartford, in May next, etc." The same gentlemen were also appointed as agents to the Susquehanna company, which was to assemble at Hartford, on May 24.

It is presumed that at this time the number of the members of assembly West- moreland would be entitled to, had not been designated. Thereafter two were or might be elected for each session, during the continuance of the jurisdiction of Connecticut.

The John Jenkins named was the elder, and father of Col. John Jenkins, both distinguished patriots.

The fourth town meeting was held June 27, Zebulon Butler, moderator. Votes were passed to form themselves into companies in a military way, each district in Westmoreland to be a company, and Zebulon Butler, Maj. Ezekiel Pierce and Mr. John Jenkins were appointed as a committee to repair to the several districts and lead each company to a choice of officers, etc:

On September 30 a fifth town meeting was held, Capt. S. Fuller, moderator. Capt. Butler and Mr. Joseph Sluman were chosen representatives to the next assembly, and these were the first persons admitted to the full participation of the rights of members, not as delegates from territories having a power to debate, but not a right to vote, but voting on all questions that arose, uniting in making laws for the rest of the colony, as the other members made laws for Westmoreland, and from henceforth Westmoreland was in all respects a part of Connecticut, as much so as Stonington or Saybrook, Hartford or New Haven.

Voted, That Lieut. Elijah Shoemaker, Mr. Solomon Johnson, Mr. John Jenkins, Capt. Timothy Smith and Mr. Douglass Davidson, be a committee to meet such gentlemen as shall be appointed at or near Delaware, to mark out a road from that river to the Susquehanna. Up to this time, therefore, no road existed from any part of the inhabited country to Westmoreland. Bridle paths were the only avenues to the valley, except that by the Susquehanna river, on which boats brought from below, at great cost, heavy articles of indispensable necessity.

The eighth and last town meeting called during 1774 was held December 6, at. which: among a variety of other things, it was

Voted, That Elisha Richards, Capt. Ransom, Perrin Ross, Nathaniel Landon, Elisha Swift, Nathan Denison, Esq., Stephen Harding, John Jenkins, Anderson Dana, Obadiah Gore, Jr., James Stark, Rosewell Franklin, Capt. Stewart, Capt. Parkes and Uriah Chapman were chosen school committee for the ensuing year.

Of those intruders who took land irregularly to the rights of the Susquehanna company, it was then ordered that these men be removed from the settlement. It was further voted that Capt. Stephen Fuller, Robert Durkee, Asabel Buck, Nathan Denison, Capt. Samuel Ransom, John Paine, Abraham Harding, Roswell Franklin and John Jenkins, Jr., be a committee to make inquiry into and search after all sus- pected persons whom they may judge to be " unwholesome persons to the good set- tlers." They had power to expel all such people.

These were nine of the most discreet persons in the town, and they held powers. of great importance. One fact should here be observed by the reader. The higher crimes were simply a cause for expulsion. This was their mode where now we send men to penal institutions and keep them under lock and key. In some States, in nearly every State in the Union the increase of criminals and penal institutions are the cause of most serious questions to the government. What to do with our con- victs ? is a serious problem that has come with our other social questions. There is something in the thought of the fathers, expel them -- promptly and with little cost. Penning up your criminals, putting them to work under strong guards, has brought in time, the other sides of the question, and our statesmen here seem to be at fault.

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HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

in remedying glaring difficulties. A man adjudged a bad citizen was simply ordered to leave, and now when our land is dotted with buildings for the incarceration of suspects and criminals, and others to hold witnesses and to form schools for tender youths, we sometimes hear of certain persone being given so many hours to leave and not return under pain of being imprisoned. It is most singular how mankind adjusts itself to its surroundings. Men have deliberately caused themselves to be returned to the penitentiary; men who had served there until they found their cherished dreams of liberty a burden they could not bear when it came. Authentic cases are related, among others, where a man had picked up a stone and smashed a plate glass window, in order that he might be arrested, saying that arrest meant a house to sleep in and something to eat. One of the ugliest features of our most modern life being our police courts and their machinery to be now found in daily session wherever a few hundred people are huddled iu towns and villages. Visit these reeking pens and study the class of people who do most patronize them and then call the roll of the great fathers who laid the foundations of this nation-the entire list of brave and hardy immigrants -- and imagine one of those dear old homespun fellows ringing up the police when he had a quarrel with a neighbor! Rather he would seize the bad man by the ear and lead him to the good parson, who would smite him hip and thigh with the sword of the Lord. Imagine, if you can, that during the first three-quarters of a century here, there could have arisen a case recently brought to light in one of our cities, where a rich man found his daughter and a poor laboring young man making love, and finally, to effectually break it up, hired handy detectives, cooked up a case against the young man and railroaded him off to the penitentiary. Yet we tell our children that the pioneers were not so refined as we of to-day -- " good enough, kind old people, but crude." Nature seems to demand the storm as well as the sunshine.

The land records, the oldest in this locality, dated July 6, 1772 .-- "In the twelfth year of the reign of our sovereign lord, George ye Third King, etc." -- recites that Silas Gore sold to Jonathan Stowell, of Ashford, Conn. for the consideration of £20, " one whole settling right in the township of Wilkes-Barre-said right contains the home or house, lot No. 28; the meadow lot No. 50 and the third division or back lot No. 44, as by the drafts of the said town may appear, together with all the after divisione which may yet be made."

There had gathered in the year 1774 a total of inhabitants in the town of West- moreland of 1,922 soule, and the town at that time was considered large enough to erect into a separate county. An assessment of Wilkes- Barre township 1774, cor- rected in 1775, contains 120 names and the total assessment was £3,646; the total assessment of Westmoreland was £13,083.

While this was the purest democracy, yet those were people, it must be remem- bered, who brought with them such ideas as were typified in the whipping post and stocks for the punishment of emall offenders. They too believed in the paternal functions of government. They were loyal to King George and fully believed that a good king was the divine order for all government. They believed the "king could do no wrong," and under his beneficent laws there was "no wrong without a remedy." They believed all governments were instituted on the old patri- archal plan, of a " wise father and his helpless children"-they were paternalists in all its purity; and never doubted that unless the government attended to man's pri- vate affairs all would go to chaos and confusion. Hence the following list of prices were among the early official acts of the authorities of Westmoreland town:

Good yarn stockings, a pair 10 s.

Laboring women at spinning, a week 6 s.

Winter-fed beef, a pound. 7 d.

Taverners, for dinner, of the best, per meal. 2 s.

Metheglin, per gal. 7 8.

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HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

Ox work, for two oxen, per day, and tackling 3 s.

Good hemp seed, a bushel 15 s.

Men's labour, at farming, the three summer months, pay day 5 s. 3d.

Good check flannel, yard wide 8 s.

Good tow and linen, yard wide 6 s.

Good white flannel, do. 5 8.

The above to be woven in a 36 reed, etc.

Tobacco, in hank or leaf, per pound 9 d.

Taverners, for mug of flip, with two gills of rum in it 4 s.

Good barley, per bushel 8 8.

Making, and setting, and shoeing horse all round 8s.$1 33

Eggs, per doz.

8 d.

Strong beer, by the barrel

21.

This paternal-government idea traveled westward with the settlement of the country to the Mississippi river; but through State by State as it slowly wended its way it grew less and less on the records. This form of paternalism and belief in witchcraft were somewhat companion pieces, both born of the idea that rulers ruled by divine authority, and the people were incapable as little children to make their own bargains. The size and price of a loaf of bread is still regulated in republican France, the same as it was under the empire. The price of a drink of whisky is a curious thing for a great government to attend to; yet this paternal- ism once entered upon by rulers leads to this and other absurdities, and absurdities on the part of rulers ends in indescribable cruelties, destroying the manly quali- ties of the people and in the long time sapping their intelligence.

The general assembly of the commonwealth, by act passed September 25, 1786, created the county of Luzerne of territory carved from Northumberland county. This was the first civil administration over Luzerne county, but not the first exer- cise of government dominion over this territory. One hundred and four years previously Pennsylvania (its boundary lines then indefinite), had been divided in its unknown or unsettled entirety into three counties - Chester, Bucks and Phila- delphia. William Penn was then settling his possessions, and by purchase of the Indians extending them in every direction, where the soil yet remained in the ownership of the savages. This pious and good Quaker possessed the secret of gaining and holding the confidence of the wild men of the forests, as well as the most remarkable executive abilities as the head of a strong colony to an extent hardly to be found in the history of the wonderful operation of transplanting a great nation from the old to the new world. Northampton county, from which this was taken, was formed in 1752, of territory taken from Bucks, one of the original three counties. This is the brief abstract of title to the civil authority now over Luzerne county.

There is, however, a short eventful history of this valley, including the entire limits of Luzerne county, that out-dates the organization of the civil government under which we now exist.

The Yankee was here before the Quaker, and in time these two cross-claimed this territory, and thence arose a conflict that in its progress was recorded in blood and the suffering of the innocent that is one of the sad chapters in American annals. The facts of those events are given in the impartial details of other chapters, and here it will only need a short recapitulation of the civil administration of affairs under the colony of Connecticut.

This was made the " Town of Westmoreland," and attached to the county of Litchfield, and subsequently it became the county of Westmoreland, Conn. It was defined as embracing 60x120 miles-containing over 7,000 square miles -the whole of Cameron, Lycoming, Potter, Sullivan and Tioga, and nearly the whole of Luzerne, and parts of eight other counties. This rich domain, had the effort of Franklin and his friends succeeded, would now be a great State of the Union. Westmoreland county raised three companies of troops for the continental army.

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HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

They were a part of the Twenty-fourth regiment of the Connecticut line. In 1774 Zebulon Butler and Nathan Denison were commissioned under Connecticut as justices of the peace for the county of Litchfield, and they were authorized to organize the "Town of Westmoreland." Under this authority the people met in March, 1774, and organized said town, chose a selectman, treasurer, constables, tax-collectors, surveyors of highways, fence-viewers, listers, leather sealers, grand jurors, tything men, sealers of weights and measures and key keepers. (Certainly a heavy load of machinery for a small craft.) During the year eight town meetings were held.

The claims to jurisdiction of Connecticut ceased with the close of the year 1782, in consequence of the Trenton decision. The following is the official list under Connecticut:

1774, representative to Hartford, Zebulon Butler, Timothy Smith, Christopher Avery and John Jenkins.

1775, Capt. Zebulon Butler, Joseph Sluman, Maj. Ezekiel Pierce.

1876, Col. John Jenkins, Capt. Solomon Strong, Col. Zebulon Butler and Col. Nathan Denison.

1777, John Jenkins, Isaac Tripp.

1778, Nathan Denison, Deacon John Hurlbut.

1780, John Hurlbut, Jonathan Fitch, Nathan Denison.

1781, John Hurlbut, Jonathan Fitch, Obadiah Gore and John Franklin.

1782, Obadiah Gore, Jonathan Fitch.

Under Connecticut were the following justices of the peace: John Smith, Thomas Maffitt, Isaac Baldwin, John Jenkins, Zebulon Butler, Nathan Denison, Silas Parks, Bushnell Bostick, Joseph Sluman, John Sherman and Nathan Denison were judges of probate. John Fitch was commissioned sheriff of Westmoreland county, Conn., in 1776. The same year John Jenkins was appointed judge of the county. June 1, 1778, Gov. Jonathan Trumbull appointed the following justices for the county of Westmoreland, Conn: Nathan Denison, Christo- pher Avery, Obadiah Gore, Zera Beach, Zebulon Butler, William McKarrican, Asaph Whittlesey, Uriah Chapman, Anderson Dana, Ebenezer Marcy, Stephen Harding, John Franklin (2d), Joseph Hambleton, William Judd; and Nathan Deni- son, Christopher Avery, Obadiah Gore and Zera Beach were appointed to assist the judges. Other justices appointed were: Caleb Bates, Zebulon Marcy, John Hurl- but, Nathaniel Landon, Abel Pierce, Hugh Fordman, John Franklin, John Vincent and John Jenkins. In 1781 Nathan Denison was judge of Westmoreland county. The records show there were here two lawyers, Anderson Dana and Mr. Bullock, both killed in the battle of Wyoming. Lieut. John Jenkins was, therefore, appointed by the court State's attorney.

This comprises all of the acts and doings of the authorities under Connecticut that can now be reached. With these preliminaries disposed of we can now turn to the records proper of Luzerne county and give its civil side.

A regular civil government was formed here while this was under Connecticut; laws and offices were created and filled. Hon. Steuben Jenkins furnished the fol- lowing items of history and list of officials. The justices of the peace in the order of appointment were as follows, which list is brought down to the present: 1772, John Smith, Kingston; . 1773, Thomas Maffitt and Isaac Baldwin, Pittston; 1774, 1777, John Jenkins, Exeter; 1774, 1777, 1782, Zebulon Butler, Wilkes-Barre; 1774, 1776, 1781-2, Nathan Denison, Kingston; 1774, Silas Parks, Lackawanna; 1775, Bushnell Bostick, Joseph Sluman and Increase Moseley; 1774, 1777, 1779, Uriah Chapman; 1776, 1778-9, William Judd; 1777-8, 1782, Obadiah Gore, Kingston; 1777-8, William McKarrachan, Hanover; 1777-8, Christopher Avery, Wilkes-Barre; 1778, Asaph Whittlesey, Plymouth, and Caleb Bates, Pittston; 1779, Zerah Beach, Salem, Stephen Harding, Exeter, Zebulon Marcy, Tunkhannock, and John Hurlbut,

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HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

Hanover; 1782, Nathaniel Landon, Kingston; 1781-2, Abel Pierce Kingston, and Hugh Fordsman, Wilkes-Barre; 1780-2, John Franklin, Huntington; 1776, John Vincent.

Also the following list of justices of the peace at Wyoming under Pennsylvania previous to the organization of Luzerne county; all of them appointed in April, 1783:

Alexander Patterson, Robert Martin, John Chambers and David Mead, of North- umberland county; John Seely, Henry Shoemaker and Luke Brodhead, of North- ampton county; Nathan Denison, of Wyoming; his name was used without his consent, and he refused to act.

Under the constitution of 1776 and the act of assembly approved on September 26, 1786, justices were elected in the county in the three districts formed by the act erecting the county, to serve for seven years. The following were so elected:

1787, Mathias Hollenback and William Hooker Smith, first district; Benjamin Carpenter and James Nisbett, second district; Obadiah Gore and Nathan Kingsley, third district; 1788, Noah Murray, second district; 1789, Christopher Hurlbut, first district; 1790, Lawrence Myers, Kingston township.

Under the constitution of 1790 the governor appointed the justices of the peace, to serve during good behavior, in districts to be made up of one or more townships. The following were so appointed:

1791, Lawrence Myers, Kingston township; Arnold Colt and William Ross, Solomon Avery and John Phillips, Wilkes Barre district; Guy Maxwell, Tioga dis- trict; Peter Grubb and Nathan Beach, Kingston district; Christopher Hurlbut, Wilkes-Barre district; Joseph Kinney and Isaac Hancock, Tioga district; Minna Dubois, Willingboro township; John Paul Schott. Wilkes-Barre town and township. 1793, Moses Coolbaugh, Tioga township ; 1796 Asahel Gregory, Willing- boro township. 1797, Resolved Sessions, Tioga township. 1798, Noah Wad- hams, Jr., Kingston district; Oliver Trowbridge, Willingboro township; John T. Miller, Kingston district; James Campbell and Joseph Wright, Wilkes-Barre township. 1799, Charles E. Gaylord, Huntington township; Constant Searle, Provi- dence township; Matthew Covell, Wilkes-Barre township; Henry V. Champion, Wyalusing township; Elisha Harding, Tunkhannock township; David Paine, Tioga township. 1800, George Espy, Hanover, Wilkes-Barre, etc., townships; Jacob Bit- tenbender, Nescopeck, Wilkes-Barre, etc., townships; Benjamin Newberry, North- moreland, Tioga, etc., townships; Thomas Duane, Wilkes-Barre township; Asa Eddy, Willingboro township (revoked March 28, 1805); Jonathan Stevens, Brain- trim township; Guy Wells, Wyalusing township; Benjamin Carpenter, Kings- ton township; William Means, Tioga township; Zebulon Marcy, Tunkhannock; John Marcy and Thomas Tiffany, Willingboro township. 1801, David Barnum, Willingboro township; 1803, John Marsy, Nicholson, etc., townships; 1804, Bart- lett Hines, Rush, etc., townships.

District No. 1, for which the first appointment was made in 1806, was composed of Huntington, Nescopeck, Salem and Sugarloaf townships until 1811; then of Huntington, Nescopeck and Salem townships six or seven years; then of Wilkes- Barre borough and township and part of Covington township till 1835, when it comprised only Wilkes-Barre borough and township; part of Covington township also belonged to it in 1836 and 1837. Justices for this district were commissioned as follows:

1806, Alexander Jameson; 1809, Abiel Fellows; 1810, George Drum; 1811, William Baird; 1813, John Buss; 1819, Conrad Sax; 1820, John Myers and Ros- well Wells; 1823, James Stark; 1826, Richard Drinker; 1831, Amasa Hollister, Jr. ; 1833, Charles L. Terwilliger; 1835, Benjamin Perry; 1836, John Stark; 1837, Eleazer Carey.

District No. 2 was at different times made up as follows: 1812, Wilkes-Barre,

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HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY. .

Hanover and Newport townships; 1816, Kingston and Plymouth townships; 1819, Kingston, Plymouth and Dallas townships; 1831, Kingston, Plymouth, Dallas and Lehman townships; 1832, Kingston, Plymouth and Dallas townships; 1836, Kings- ton, Plymouth, Dallas and Lehman townships. Justices commissioned as follows:

1806, Cornelius Courtright and Thomas Dyer; 1808, Jonathan Kellog; 1812, Christian Stout; 1813, Francis McShane; 1814, Isaac Hartzell; 1816, Samuel Thomas; 1817, Jacob J. Bogardus; 1819, Dr. John Smith; 1820, Benjamin Reynolds; 1822, Alvah C. Phillips; 1825, John Bennett; 1826, Thomas Irwin; 1829, Reuben Holgate; 1831, James Nisbitt and Simeon F. Rogers; 1832, Fisher Gay; 1833, Jared R. Baldwin and Watson Baldwin; 1835, Sharp D. Lewis; 1836, Jacob J. Bogardus; 1837, Caleb Atherton and John P. Rice; 1838, Peter Allen and Henderson Gaylord; 1839, Addison C. Church.

District No. 3 was originally composed of Plymouth, Kingston and Exeter town- ships. Salem, Huntington and Union townships were made to compose this district in 1818, and Fairmount was added in 1835. Justices were commissioned as follows;

1808, James Sutton and David Perkins; 1809, William Trux and Moses Scovil; 1810, Stephen Hollister; 1813, Charles Chapman; 1818, Ichabod Shaw; 1821, Shadrach Austin; 1822, Christian Stout; 1823, John Dodson; 1824, Sebastian Seybert; 1827, Jonathan Westover; 1832, Andrew Courtright and Lot Search; 1835, Jacob Ogden and Newton Boone.

District No. 4 consisted originally of Pittston and Providence townships (revoked March 27, 1820), and, after 1819, of Hanover and Newport townships. The justices appointed were:

1804, Joseph Fellows and Asa Dimock; 1806, William Slocum; 1809, Enos Finch; 1819, Jacob Rambach; 1822, Samuel Jameson; 1823, Bateman Downing; 1831, Thomas Williams; 1838, John Vandemark; 1839, John Forsman.

In 1809 District No. 6 comprised Braintrim and Wyalusing townships; in 1816, Pittston, Providence and Exeter; in 1818, Pittston, Providence, Exeter, Northmore- land and Blakely townships; in 1833, part of Monroe township was added; in 1838, Carbondale township, and in 1839 Jefferson township. The list of justices for this district is as follows:

1806, Josiah Fassett; 1808, James Gordon and Charles Brown; 1809, Asa Stevens; 1815, James Connor; 1816, David Dimock and Isaac Hart; 1818, Peter Winter, Elisha S. Potter and Isaac Harding; 1820, Sherman Loomis and Deodat Smith; 1821, Ebenezer Slocum; 1822, Orange Fuller; 1829, David I. Blanchard; 1830, Ziba Davenport; 1831, Moses Vaughn; 1832, Daniel Harding and Joseph Griffin; 1833, Thomas Hadley and Amzi Wilson; 1835, Erastus Smith and Elisha Blackman; 1836, Samuel Hogdon and Sylvanus Heermans; 1837, James Pike; 1838, Judson W. Burnham, Gilbert Burrows and Elisha Hitchcock; 1839, John Cobb and Alva Heermans.

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History of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 27

Author: Bradsby, H. C. (Henry C.) Publication date: 1893 Publisher: Chicago : S. B. Nelson Number of Pages: 1532

Author: Bradsby, H. C. (Henry C.)
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Chicago : S. B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1532