History of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 46

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

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ings printed at Hartford. His taste and pride took a right direction, and were of much value to the settlement; I refer to his establishment of a nursery for fruit, and his introduction from New England of various kinds of apples, selected with care. It is long since he was withdrawn from life. The contrast between the suffer- ings of the grandsire and the prosperity of his descendant, leads to agreeable reflec- tions. I can not close this very brief notice without a passing tribute to the memory of William Swetland and Belding Swetland, sons of the old gentleman, who in early life were the attached, the respected friends of the writer. Though in a position remarkable for general health, they were both taken away in the midday of activity and usefulness. Peace to those who have departed; prosperity and honor to the living! "

The Searles .- William Searle's daughter, Abagail, was married with Stephen Abbott, as mentioned in Abbott's sketch. William's father was Constant Searle, who was in the Wyoming battle, a man of advanced age at the time, and grand- father of several children. With this man in the battle was his young son, Roger Searls, and his son-in-law, Capt. Dethic Hewett, in command of the third company raised at Wyoming by order of congress. Three, therefore, were in the fight, and the fourth, William Searle, was not, because confined to the house by a wound from a rifle shot inflicted when with a scouting party a few days previous. Young Roger Searle was only eighteen; his venerable father wore a wig. By the side of young Searle was the yet younger lad, William Buck, who was killed when only fourteen years of age. William Searle, Mrs. Abbott's father, went out of the valley with the fugitives, having twelve women and children in his charge. Charles Miner quotes from a diary of his of that time:

"Battle of Westmoreland, July 3, 1778.

" Capitulation ye 4th.

" Prisoners obtained liherty to leave the settlement ye 7th.

" We reached Stonington ye 25th."

Constant Searle, who was in the battle, died at Providence, August 4, 1804, aged forty-five years. Four of the Searle name, to wit, Roger, William, Constant and Miner Searle, settled on the Lackawanna, where in the early part of this century they became prominent citizens.

Lucy Ives, nee Williams, wrote Charles Miner, when he was publishing his series in the Traveller, and briefly tells the following: "Had two brothers and a brother-in-law in the battle; brothers killed and brother-in-law severely wounded. Father and family retreated through the swamp, but he returned in the fall in the hope of securing a portion of his crop, and in his field was killed by the Indians. When the battle occurred the family had resided here five years. After Mr. Williams was massacred, the widow, with the children, returned to Connecticut, where they remained until peace was made. The five children were Esther, Desire, Martha, Lucy and Darius. The father was Elihu Williams, and the two brothers killed in the battle were Rufus and Elihu. The only son left was Darius, who at the time was an infant. The struggle and poverty that followed this poor woman and children was a hard inheritance to be added to the bloody visitations that were theirs."

The Abbotts. - John Abbott and family came as early settlers to the valley, his family being wife and nine children, the eldest a boy eleven years old. He shoul- dered his gun and went forth to battle, leaving his ten dependents to fate. He escaped in the general massacre of July 3; fled and crossed the river at Monocacy island; then fled with his family to Sunbury, leaving his whole possessions behind. In the face of the certain dangers, he returned to secure his crops. With a man named Williams he was at work on the flats, and near a ravine, on the Hollenback farm, above Mill Creek, when they were ambushed, massacred and scalped.

Mrs. Abbott's maiden name was Alice Fuller, and now, broken-hearted and utterly

John Websahen

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hopeless, she started with her nine children on the dreadful journey through the wilderness to the former home in Hampton, Conn., a distance of nearly 300 miles. Imagination will try in vain to recall the picture of this family, stripped of their protector and of every vestige of their property, facing such unequaled trials. They reached, finally, the old home, destitute, sore and broken- hearted, but the little toddlers at once commenced to help the mother in providing food, nearly all the children finding temporary homes among the adjacent farmers. In time the boys had grown to lusty youths, when the family returned to claim their once father's lands and rebuild the burned cabin. Soon the family was once more united, and glints of the sweet sunshine once more brought life and hope to these poor people. The widow intermarried with Stephen Gardiner. A son, Stephen Abbott, married Abigail Searle (a family mentioned elsewhere). He finally settled on the patrimonial property and became a prominent and wealthy citi- zen-past seventy years of age when Mr. Miner wrote of him as the "little boy who, in the exodus, was pattering barefoot by his mother's side on the way to Connecticut." Stephen Abbott's second wife was. a daughter of Col. Denison.

John Abbott, the name mentioned in the first paragraph of this article, built the first house in what is now the city of Wilkes-Barre, which stood at what is the corner of Main and Northampton streets.

The Blackmans .- Of this family Mr. Miner wrote in 1838:

"Maj. Eleazer Blackman is the son of Elisha Blackman, who died in September 1804,in Wilkes-Barre, aged eighty-seven. I believe I have mentioned that com- panies of old men, out of the trainband, were formed, called 'The Reformadoes,' to defend the forts and do garrison service, while the younger portion performed the more active duties. Thus the fort in Plymouth was kept by a company, of which old Mr. Bidlack was captain. The fort at Pittston was kept by a company, of which old Mr. Blanchard, father of the late Capt. Jeremiah Blanchard, was captain. Jenkins' fort, above Wintermoot's, was commanded by Capt. Harding, father of the Hardings slain at Exeter; Esq. Jenkins was his lieutenant. And at Wilkes-Barre the 'Reformadoes' were commanded by William Hooker Smith, Elisha Blackman being his lieutenant.

"In conversation with Maj. Eleazer Blackman, who, though only about thirteen years old at the time, is yet, from his clear mind and extraordinary memory, very intelligent in respect to all that happened at that early day, he informed me that neither the continental congress, nor colony of Connecticut expended a penny in building those forts. The people of Wyoming built them all, in the language of a resolution of the town of Westmoreland, 'without fee or reward.' He, too young to go out to battle, worked at the fort at Wilkesbarre, drove oxen to haul in timber, dug in the trenches, and labored constantly until it was finished. This fort stood where the courthouse now stands, and embraced from a quarter to half an acre. It was square, built by setting yellow pine logs upright in the earth close together, fifteen feet high, surrounded by a trench. The corners were so rounded as to flank all sides of the fort. The gate opened toward the river, and they had one double fortified four-pounder for defence and as an alarm gun to the settlement. All the forts were built on the same plan, except, in some cases, there were double rows of logs set on end in the ground, thereby strengthening the defences. The day pre- ceding the battle Maj. Blackman's father and two brothers, Elisha aud Ichabod, were with the party up at Exeter. Elisha Blackman, the brother, was eighteen at the time of the engagement. The family was from Lebanon, in the State of Con- necticut, and removed to Wyoming in 1773. He belonged to Capt. Bidlack's com- pany, and when they marched up to battle there were thirty-two men. Of these only eight escaped; himself, Sergt. Daniel Downing, Jabez Fish, Orderly Sergeant Phineas Spafford, M. 'Mullen, Samuel Carey, Tom Porter, drummer, and one other; all the rest were slain.

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"Bidlack's company was near the right, being next to Capt. Hewitt's. Bidlack, brave man, would not retreat, though the left was broken and retreating, and he died at the head of his men. Darius Spafford, brother-in-law of Elisha and Eleazer Blackman, who had married their sister Lavina only two months before, was shot, and fell in the arms of his brother Phineas and died simply saying, 'Take care of Lavina.' Old Mr. Blackman would not leave the fort, believing with Dr. Smith, it would give the best protection, while Eleazer, his mother and widowed sister, and his sister Lucy and Phineas Spafford, fled with the other flying fugitives. Elisha Blackman, Jr., returned with Spalding's command." Mr. Miner wrote in 1838: "Elisha aged seventy-eight; Eleazer aged seventy-three, the first in Hanover, the other in Wilkes-Barre, each on his own farm and with a liberal competence." Then a note is added: "Eleazer Blackman died in 1844, aged seventy nine. Elisha still living (1844), it is said, is one of the survivors of the Wyoming battle."

The Marcys .- Zebulon and Ebenezer Marcy were brothers. The painful cir- cumstances connected with the flight of the wife of Ebenezer are elsewhere related. The case of the wife of Zebulon was still more distressing. She fled with an infant six weeks old in her arms, at the same time leading a child two years older. The oldest died in the wilderness, and as there were no means to bury it decently, they covered it with moss and bark as well as they could, and hurried on, leaving its remains to the beasts of prey. The infant daughter, Mrs. Whitmore, formerly Mrs. McCord, is now (June, 1845) living in Wyoming county. Zebulon Marcy, after the war, established himself on a fine farm, on the Tunkhannock, where he exercised the duties of a magistrate for many years. On the 11th of September, 1834, he closed his eventful life at the advanced age of ninety years.

The Gaylord Family emigrated at an early day to Wyoming, from Norwich. Justus Gaylord commenced a settlement in Springfield, on the Wyalusing, before Indian hostilities began; but was obliged to remove down the river to the more densely populated country. When the independent companies were raised, two of his sons, Justus and Ambrose, enlisted in that of Capt. Ransom, and served during the war. On the restoration of peace, the old gentleman and his son Justus resumed their possessions at Wyalusing; while Ambrose established himself at Braintrim.

"Aholiab Buck, captain of the Kingston company, about a year before the battle, had married Miss York, born in Stonington. The (subsequently) Rev. Miner York was her brother. Mrs. Buck was in Forty fort, having in her arms an infant daughter, a few weeks old, when her husband led his men to the field -- no more to return. Their flight, their sorrows, their deep sufferings, so similar to those of hundreds of others, it would seem like repetition to relate. At the conclusion of the war, Justus Gaylord, Jr., and Mrs. Buck were married by the Rev. Mr. John- son. The author waited upon her, June 25, 1845, and found the good old lady, now eighty-eight years of age, in fine health and spirits, the profusion of lace upon her cap speaking of habitual fondness for dress, her round, full face, and cheerful smile indicating in early life, remarkable personal beauty. She had walked up a mile to visit Mrs. Taylor, wife of Maj. John Taylor, the daughter we have spoken of as being on her nursing bosom in July, 1778. Mrs. Gaylord never had but that one child. But, Mrs. Taylor has counted seventeen, and nearly forty grandchildren, besides seven or eight great-great-grandchildren. So that, although the name of Capt. Buck is not perpetuated, yet his descendants are now numerous, and well to live."

In 1806 Justus Gaylord, Jr., was on the ticket for assembly. Luzerne then embraced Wyoming, Susquehanna and Bradford, except the Tioga district set off to Lycoming. The votes stood: Justus Gaylord, Jr., 333; Justus Gaylord, 38; total, 371; Moses Coolbaugh, 364. So that if the votes given without the Jr. were added to his list (his father being a very old man and not a candidate), he was

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chosen. But the place had not charm enough to induce the old soldier to contest the election, and Mr. Coolbaugh took the seat. The incident is mentioned to show the respect in which he was held, as well as to show the fact less than 400 votes chose a member of assembly. The old gentleman removed with a son to the Ohio, where, at a very advanced age, he died. Justus died May, 1830, aged seventy-three. Ambrose, who settled in Braintrim, married Eleanor Comstock, daughter of John Comstock, who came from Norwich west, farms. Mr. Gaylord died June 12, 1844, and had he lived to November, he would have been ninety-five. His country had not entirely forgotten him, for his old age was chcered by a pension of $80 His good wife Eleanor (June, 1845) is eighty-two years of age, of sound mind and memory. She states that her father and two brothers were in the battle, she living in Forty fort. Her two brothers, Kingsley and Robert, were killed. Her father, exhausted in the flight, threw himself beside a fallen tree. Presently two Indians sprang upon it, intent on those at a distance, and, on stepping down to pursue, bent the bushes so as to brush him. When night came, he found his way to the fort. Another branch of the name settled in the lower part of Wyoming. The father of the late Charles E. Gaylord, of Huntington, died while in the service, hav- ing been a member of Capt. Durkee's company. Lieut. Aaron Gaylord, one of the officers who fell in the battle, was his brother.

Dr. Charles Gaylord studied medicine after the war with Dr. Henderson, a dis- tinguished physician of Connecticut, in compliment to whom he gave that name to his son. Dr. Gaylord died in 1839, aged sixty-nine years. Four, therefore, bore arms for their country, one of whom died in the service and one fell in battle. Josiah Rogers removed with his family to Wyoming, and settled at Plymouth in 1776. After the massacre, with his family he fled, taking his course down the Sus- quehanna two days' journey; thence across the mountains toward Northampton of Berks. Exhausted by fatigue, and heart-stricken with terror, Mrs. Rogers fainted upon the journey; and notwithstanding the utmost aid was administered their poor means afforded, she died in the wilderness, many miles from any human habitation. This was July 9, 1778. Husband and children gathered round to look upon the pale face of one who in life they had loved so fondly. It was a scene of inexpress- ible sorrow. A broken piece of board that lay in the path was used for a spade, and in a hollow where a fallen tree had upturned its roots, a shallow grave was dug, and her remains were buried with all the care and respect their distressed condition would allow. On the board placed over the grave, this inscription was written with a piece of charcoal:

" Here rest the remains of Hannah, wife of Josiah Rogers, who died while fleeing from the Indians after the massacre at Wyoming."

Frail memorial of reverence and love! yet how slightly more endurable, having reference either to time or eternity, are the costliest monuments that ostentatious pride, or heartfelt grief, have ever erected, to perpetuate what the inexorable law of nature has prescribed shall be forgotten! The deceased was aged fifty-two years. Her maiden name was Hannah Ford.

Lieut. James Welles is on the record of the honored patriots who fell in that disastrous battle, which filled Wyoming with lamentation and woe. The family were the earliest settlers in Springfield, on the Wyalusing, from which on danger of the savages becoming imminent, they removed to the more densely settled part of the country in the valley. Resuming the occupation of their property on the resto- ration of peace, the family became prosperous, and among the most respectable and independent inhabitants of that beautiful place, formerly, it will be remembered the residence of the Moravian missionaries and Christian Indians.

Corey and Bullock .- Of the Corey and Bullock families, no longer residents of Wyoming, we have been able to learn much less than from their sacrifices and suf- ferings could have been wished. Amos and Asa Bullock were killed in the battle.

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One of the name, probably one of the brothers who fell, was a lawyer; the father resided at the meadows, six miles on the Easton road from Wilkes-Barre, where the night and day after the massacre, from the rushing in and departure of the fugi- tives, images of sorrow and despair, the dreadful uncertainty of the fate of his boys, the scene was inexpressibly distressing. Nathan Bullock, probably the father, was two years afterward taken by Indians a prisoner to Canada.

Three of the Corey family were among the victims of the rifle and tomahawk- Jenks, Rufus and Anson. The former was one of the original proprietors of Pitts- ton. It may be noted as extraordinary that three of the younger branches of the name came by melancholy accident to untimely deaths. One being shot by a neighbor, mistaken for a deer; one lumbering some years ago on the Lehigh, the other in the far western country, to which the remainder of the family had emigrated. The father died long since in Kingston, and his remains are buried on or near the spot where the tavern stood on the northeast corner at New Troy.

The Church Family came from Kent, Litchfield county. "An abstract of the second independent company raised in the town of Westmoreland, commanded by Capt. Samuel Ransom," dated October 7, 1777, contains the names of Nathaniel Church, John Church and Gideon Church. The farm on the Kingston flats, oppo- site Mill Creek, was owned by, and the residence of Gideon, and the property belongs to his son, William Church. The reader familiar with old Indian wars will remember the gallant and successful Capt. Church, who was scarcely less distin- guished than Mason, the hero of the Pequot conquest. There is no reason to doubt that the families were of the same original stock that in a very early day emigrated from England.

In the list of slain in the battle furnished by Col. Franklin is the name of Joel Church, who was also a brother of Gideon. With many other Wyoming people, attracted by alluring accounts of the richness of western lands, several of the family removed to Ohio. The Gere family was from Norwich, descended from one of the oldest families of that place. A Mr. Rezin Gere is named in its annals as living 200 years ago. Capt. Gere was aged forty years at the time of his death. Stephen Gere, of Brooklyn, Susquehanna county, is the only son living (June, 1845).

Capt. Rezin Gere commanded the Second or upper Wilkes-Barre company on the fatal 3d. He left three sons, the eldest only five years of age, to the care of his widow. Driven with her orphan children from the valley, their house and all their paper were consumed by fire. Too young to know their rights to return and repossess their farm, the title papers being destroyed, the land of course went into other hands. Capt. Jeremiah Gere, a highly respectable citizen of Susquehanna county, recently deceased, was one of the sons. The other brothers not long since visited Wyoming. " We are becoming old and poor," said they; "our father fell, a commissioned officer, fighting the enemies of liberty and his country-we lost everything, even the land. Is there no redress? Is there no aid to be obtained from the government of the country ?" Their case seems one of great hardship. Is there one instance in a hundred in which congress has granted lands or pen- sions where the claim was so strong as this?

Mrs. Lucy Carey, of Scott township, whose maiden name was Mckay, was in Forty fort at the time of the massacre, and, if now (1865) living, is one hundred years of age. She was alive one year ago.

Gershom Prince, though but a humble negro here when this was more intensely slave territory than was ever Virginia, is entitled-well entitled-to take his place among the immortals whose lives were a noble sacrifice to the liberty of mankind. Prince went out in the line and, bravely fighting, fell, and was with the silent heroes whose bones were left so long to bleach on the spot thus consecrated by the blood of heroes. It is supposed Prince was born in New England about 1733, and became a soldier in Capt. Israel Putnam's company, where he came to know Capt.

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Durkee (a lieutenant then), and came with him to Wyoming. He was a soldier in the English army in 1762 in the war against Spain, and when the Revolution broke out he joined Col. Christopher Green's colored regiment, of Rhode Island. He was in the engagement at Red Bank in 1777, and soou after this came here with Durkee, it is supposed somewhat as a servant. He came post haste with Durkee, and at once went into the battle, and by his side died. On his body was found his powder horn, and his hand had carved carefully the following: " Prince negro his hornm." In another place, "Garshom Prince his hornm made at Crown Point Sept. ye 3rd day 1761." A caution is carved in a third place, "Steal not this hornm." He has, besides, given a view of six buildings on his horu, one of which hangs out the swinging sign. He has endeavored also to represent a water craft, but fearing it would not be recognized as such, has carved over it the word "vesel."

Stephen Abbott .- [Mr. Miner, in 1845, thus wrote of this family:] "On the other side of the river, opposite Forty fort, lives Stephen Abbott, a respectable and independent farmer. His father, John Abbott, was an early settler in Wyoming. There was one cannon, a four-pounder, in the Wilkes-Barre fort, and it had been agreed upon that, when certain information came that the enemy was danger- ously near, the gun should be fired as a signal. At work on the flats, with his son, a lad eight or nine years old, he heard the terrific sound come booming up. Where or how near the enemy might be, of course he could not tell, but loosening the oxen from the cart, he hastened to the place of rendezvous. He was in the battle and fought side by side with his fellows to defend their homes. It makes my heart bleed to recur, as in these sketches I am obliged to do so often, to the retreat of our people. Again and again I aver there was no dishonor in it. I do not believe a braver or more devoted set of men ever marched forth to battle; but remember a greater part of the fighting men, those first for war, raised for the defence of Wyoming, were away defending the country, to be sure, fighting in the thrice glori- ous' cause of liberty and independence, most certainly, but leaving their own homes wholly exposed, so that our little army was made up of such of the settlement as was left who could carry a gun, however unfit to meet the practiced and warlike savage, and the well-trained rangers of the British Butler. Mr. Abbott took his place iu the ranks. He had a wife and nine children (the eldest boy being only eleven) depending on his protection, labor and care. If a man so circumstanced had offered his services to Washington, the General would have said, 'My friend, I admire your spirit and patriotism, but your family can not dispense with your serv- ices without suffering; your duty to them is too imperious to permit you to leave them even to serve your country.' Such would have been the words of truth and soberness. But the emergency allowed no exemption. In the retreat Mr. Abbott fled to the river at Monocacy island, waded over to the main branch, and now being unable to swim, was aided by a friend and escaped. In the expulsion which followed, taking his family he went down the Susquehanna as far as Sunbury. What could he do? Home, harvest, cattle, all hope of provision for present and future use were at Wyoming. Like a brave man who meets danger and struggles to overcome it, like a faithful husband and fond father, he looked on his dependent

family, and made his resolve. Mr. Abbott returned in hopes to secure a part of his excellent harvest which he left ripening in his fields. I am somewhat more par- ticular in mentioning this my friend, for I wish, as you take an interest in this mat- ter, to impress this important fact upou your mind-that our people, though sorely struck, though suffering under a most bloody and disastrous defeat, did not lie down idly in despair without an effort to sustain themselves. No; the same indomitable spirit which they had manifested in overcoming previous difficulties, still actuated them. Mr. Abbott came back, determined, if possible, to save from his growing abundance the means of subsistence. He went upon the flats to work with Isaac Williams."

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History of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 46

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