History of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 5

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

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HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

Tidings of the arrest and escape of Stewart had scarcely reached the ears of Gov. Penn, before he was informed of another serious offence committed by him. At three o'clock in the morning, on December 18, 1770, Stewart, at the head of his men, had made a rapid descent on Fort Durkee, and captured it a second time from the Pennsylvania party. A new warrant was now issued for his arrest by Thomas Willing, a judge of the supreme court, and directed to Peter Hacklein, sheriff of Northampton county, who raised an armed force and proceeded to Wyoming. Arriving at Fort Durkee, January 18, 1771, he demanded admittance. Stewart informed him from the parapet that none but friends should be admitted; that Wyoming was under the jurisdiction of Connecticut, and that he should recog- nise no authority whatever in any persons acting under commissions from the government of Pennsylvania. Capt. Ogden, who had accompanied Sheriff Hacklein, now attacked Fort Durkee, and his fire being returned by Stewart's party, Nathan Ogden, the Captain's brother, was killed and three others wounded. Stewart soon perceived his position was untenable. He was short of provisions, and the number of his men was much less than that of the enemy. It was impos- sible to hold out against a siege, and, consequently, during the night, with the Paxton men, he left for the mountains. Gov. Penn issued another proclama- tion, offering a reward of £300 for the arrest of Lazarus Stewart, and £50 each for the arrest of James Stewart, William Stewart, John Simpson, William Speedy, William Young, John McDaniel and Richard Cook. But Capt. Stewart had marched through the country and united his forces with those of Capt. Butler, who had been released from prison, and these leaders were now preparing for another effort to regain their lost possessions. In April, 1771, Butler and Stewart, at the head of 150 men, marched into the valley, and, finding Ogden strongly entrenched in a new fortification, which he called Fort Wyoming, they besieged it. Reinforcements, sent from Philadelphia, were defeated, and their supplies were cut off. The fort at length surrendered, and the Yankees were once more in possession of the much-coveted prize.

Stewart owned a large farm in Paxton, and he had married Martha Espy, the daughter of one of the most respectable and wealthy citizens in Lancaster county. But his interests, as well as those of his associates, being now identified with the Yankees, they removed their families to Wyoming. He had obtained five tracts of land in Hanover, and he now proceeded to erect a large dwelling or block-house on the river bank, a short distance below the residence of Gen. E. W. Sturdevant. Emigrants from New England multiplied, and a suitable form of government was established, under which Stewart occupied some important positions. Farmhouses were generally erected, and the entire settlement, unmolested by the Pennaamites, was prosperous and happy for a period of nearly three years.

In December, 1775, Col. Pinnket, with 700 men from Northumberland county, invaded Wyoming, and was met at Nanticoke by Col. Butler, with 250 settlers. Butler stationed his forces behind a breastwork formed of logs and rocks, near the late residence of Jameson Harvey. As Plunket approached Butler's posi- tion he exclaimed: "My God, what a breastwork!" He was greeted by a blank volley from the guns of the Yankees, as the intention was to frighten, not to kill, at the first fire. Plunket then sent a detachment to the other side of the river, purposing to enter the valley near the residence of Col. Washington Lee. Here the force came in conflict with a party under the command of Capt. Stewart. Stewart had unbounded confidence in a volley of bullets, which were poured into the advancing enemy with fatal effect. One man was killed and several wounded. The rest rapidly retreated. Col. Butler was equally successful on his side, but not until he had resorted to something more effective than blank volleys. Plunket ingloriously returned to Northumberland, and this was the last effort, until after the Revolution, on the part of Pennsylvania to regain possession of Wyoming.

ParquePettibone

HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

Capt. Lazarus Stewart was in command of the Hanover company, the command being turned over to him by Capt. McKarachan on the morning of the battle, saying, "Take you the lead, I will fight under you."

Capt. Stewart died, as would a brave soldier, gallantly fighting at the head of his command, in the Wyoming battle, July 3, 1778. His daughter, Martha, was born only two days before the battle. When the awful news was conveyed to the widow and mother, she took her seven children and a small craft and floated down to Harrisburg. After the war she returned to this county, where she died about 1791.

Forty Settlers .- Preparations for a recommencement of the settlement of the Connecticut people on the Susquehanna, after the massacre and expulsion of 1763, were commenced at Hartford by a meeting of the Susquehanna company in 1768, where it was resolved that five townships, to wit: Wilkes-Barre, Hanover, Kingston, Plymouth and Pittston, each five miles square, should be surveyed and granted each to forty settlers, on condition that they remain upon the ground and maintain their rights against the intrusion of rival claimants. Forty were to set forth without delay, and others to the amount of 200 (for the five townships) were to follow the succeeding spring. To these 200 must be added all those other settlers who had immigrated on settlers' rights. These were mostly sturdy farmers who came to the five townships, and of them were soldiers who had served their country bravely and well in the then late Franco-Indian war. The additional 160 settlers to complete the possession of the five townships arrived the next spring, 1770. Added to these were others that had come, some of them from Pennsylvania south of this place. Assembled at what is now Wilkes-Barre, April 10, 1770, were 270 or 280 able- bodied men. The block-house at Mill creek was too remote from the cleared fields of the old town of Waughwawic (Wyoming), the flats of south Wilkes-Barre, where were cleared fields ready for cultivation. These people built Fort Durkee at

Fish's eddy, in the sonth part of the city.

Having now complete possession, the Connecticut people entered with alacrity upon their agricultural pursuits, while their surveyors were employed in running out the five townships allotted to the actual settlers. But no one supposed that peace and security were finally yielded them by their alert and powerful opponents. Every breeze from the southern mountain awakened fears of an approaching enemy. Capt. Ogden with the civil magistrate, Sheriff Jennings, though absent, had not been idle, but having recruited their forces, appeared on the plains on the 20th of May. After reconnoitering the position of the Yankees, finding it too strong, and their number too large to be attacked with a rational prospect of success, they with- drew to Easton; and Sheriff Jennings, in his report, informed the Governor that the intruders mustered 300 able-bodied men, and it was not in his power to collect suffi- cient force in Northampton to dislodge them. 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 emigrants more strongly to the valley. The beautiful lowlands, where scarcely a stone impeded the plow, contrasted with the iron-bound shores of New England, and her rock-covered fields, was a prospect as inviting as the plains of Italy of old to its northern invaders. But another force was threading the paths of the wilderness to attack them. Col. Turbot Francis, commanding a fine company from the city, in full military array, with colors streaming and martial music, descended into the plain, and sat down before Fort Durkee, about the 20th of June; but finding the Yankees too strongly fortified, returned to await reinforcements below the mountains.

Early in September following, Sheriff Jennings, of Northumberland county, with the indefatigable Ogden, again descended upon the settlers with nearly 300 men and an iron four-pound cannon-the first piece of ordnance ever in what is

HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

now Luzerne county. This cannon had a terrifying effect on the people. Capt. Durkee was arrested and taken in irons to Philadelphia and the people with their leader gone, capitulated. The articles of surrender provided that only seventeen settlers be allowed to remain to attend to the crops and all others should at once leave the country. The third sad exodus commenced, and who can now draw upon the imagination a picture of the sad hearts that turned their faces back toward the East!

Capt. Lazarus Stewart and his followers, as already related, made the attack on Ogden's forces, in which William Stager, of Connecticut, was killed and several wounded-the first blood shed in the controversy between the settlers and Penn- sylvania authorities.

The Yankees had captured the cannon and now they proceeded to capture Ogden, who was shut up in Fort Ogden. These farmers could not do much more with a cannon than make a noise, but they fired away two days and seemed to do no harm to the enemy within the fort. After quite a siege the fort surrendered, April 29, 1770, and Capt. Ogden retired from the scene of war and left the settlers in peaceable possession. The fort was burned and the property of the Pennsylvania people without much ceremony confiscated; in return, it was claimed by Durkee, for the bad faith on Ogden's part, who took everything when he had driven out the settlers, and the seventeen men left to care for the crops were simply turned out in the wilderness to starve.

Gov. Penn now called on Gen. Gage, in command of the royal troops in America, to assist in expelling the Yankees. But the English commander curtly replied that he thought it "highly improper for the king's troops to interfere in a matter of property merely between the people."

Planting time again had come; peace reigned and the indefatigable Yankees were in peaceful possession. The toothsome shad again came up the river in count- less numbers, and from the rigors and famine of the camp and the march and siege these farmers turned with glad hearts to the huts of peace, the hunt of game and catching the fish in the river. New settlers began to arrive. Capt. Butler and his followers came now and were received with shouts of joy. Settlements commenced on the west side of the river. Old Forty fort was commenced and pushed to completion, with perhaps not a dream that its name was to become as historic as any spot on the continent. David Mead and Christopher Hurlbut, sur- veyors for the Susquehanna company, again were following the compass and locating townships to actual settlers. A peaceful and prosperous summer came with all its blessings, and time had lulled the vigilance of the people to a degree.

But the fourth time Capt. Ogden swooped down upon the settlers with an army, but under the civil authority this time of Sheriff Aaron Van Campen, Jen- nings' term having expired. He arrived September 21, by an unexpected route, and the meu were mostly in the fields at work. He divided his force in squads of ten and seized the men in the fields and marched them to his camp, and at night retired to his mountain bivouac. The people were thrown in the utmost confusion at the dreadful news. They supposed a very large armed force had arrived. Durkee sent for aid, but his envoys were captured and carried to Ogden, from whom he learned the confusion prevailing, when he at once put his army in motion and stormed Fort Durkee, and after a short and severe struggle captured it. Capt. Butler was wounded and carried to the cabin of Mr. Beach near by. Butler, Spalding and a few of the leaders were sent to Philadelphia as prisoners, and the others to Easton. Again the settlers were driven off; their crops, abandoned, fell into the hands of the victors. Mr. Beach started in the night with his family down the river; stopped temporarily at what is Beach Grove, and finally located there.

The Pennsylvanians now retired, confident that this signal overthrow of the Yankees would permanently settle matters, and that the contest was at an end; leaving only a small garrison of twenty men to hold the fort.

HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

But the Yankees were much like the ancient Crusaders. The war of con- tention had now gone on two years. Suddenly, on December 15 following. the sleeping garrison was roused with the cry "King George, Hurrah!" and Capt. Lazarus Stewart and thirty men took quick possession of the fort in behalf of the Connecticut settlers. Six of the garrison, nearly without clothing, escaped to the mountains and the others were expelled from the place with little ceremony. This closed matters and brings us to the situation in the opening of the year 1770.

Again Capt. Amos Ogden fitted out another expedition to capture the Yankees. This was about the 15th of January, 1770, when, with 100 men, in the dead of winter, he invested the fort, and to protect his nien he built a fort as his old position on Mill creek was in ashes; this new fort was on the bank of the river within sixty rods of Fort Durkee. This expedition was ostensibly under Sheriff Hacklein, who demanded a surrender. Stewart defiantly replied in the name of the Connecticut Colony.

The new fort was called "Wyoming," and after the investment by Ogden every nerve was strung to add to its defences. On January 20 Ogden sallied out to attack. Another demand to surrender and refusal, and a brisk fire was opened. At the first volley Nathan Ogden, a young brother of Capt. Ogden, was killed and several wounded. The attacking party withdrew to their fort. The night following Capt. Stewart, knowing the vengeance in store for him by the Pennsylvania authorities, with his brave thirty followers, quietly left and fled to the mountains, leaving about twenty men-those the least obnoxious to the enemy. The next morning Ogden took possession and sent the captured to the Easton jail.

An additional reward was offered for Stewart and from the following extract from the New York Gazette, November 11, 1771, the temper of the authorities may be gathered somewhat:

" Philadelphia, November 4 .- At the supreme court held here on Tuesday last William Speddy was arraigned and tried for the murder of Lieut. Nathan Ogden, who was shot from the block-house at Wioming, while it was in the possession of Lazarus Stewart and company; and after a long and important hearing the jury gave in a verdict ' not guilty.' "

Capt. Ogden now devoted himself assiduously to rendering Fort Wyoming impregnable, so far as his means would admit; to any force the Yankees could mus- ter to assail it. February and March passed away without the slightest interrup- tion, or even note of alarm. Too wary to be again so caught, Ogden this time, less assured that his conquest was safe, had remained with his men, to defend what they had purchased at, to him, a price so dear. It was well, though in vain, he did so, for early in April Capt. Zebulon Butler, with Capt. Stewart as an assistant, accompanied by 150 armed men, entered the valley, and forthwith laid vigorous siege to Fort Wyoming. Three redoubts were thrown up, one on the opposite side of the river, chiefly with a view to cut off all access to water ;- one on the river bank, between Forts Durkee and Wyoming; the other on the hill, known ever since as " The Redoubt," by the old canal basin, at the upper part of the town of Wilkes- . Barre. The cannon, which had been carefully hid by the Yankees, too precious to be exposed to capture by a sortie, was placed on this elevation, and with skilful gun- ners would have completely commanded Ogden's position. But distance and want of skill rendered it in a very slight degree effective.

Again the Yankees rallied their men, this time under Capt. Butler, and once more swooped down upon what might now be called the Dark and Bloody Valley. In this invasion appeared the Gores-father and son, Obadiah and Daniel, black- smiths. They made a cannon by boring out a log and strongly hooping it with iron bands. It was fired once successfully, but the second charge burst it into splinters as a matter of course.

Capt. Ogden was destined to meet his match in Capt. Butler. Such had

HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

been the secrecy and celerity of Butler's movement that the fort was completely sur- rounded before the presence of the enemy was suspected, and all chance of com- municating the news to Philadelphia was cut off. The place was regularly besieged and the process of starving out commenced. Finally Capt. Ogden determined to escape and carry the news to the authorities. In the darkness of the night he took off his clothes, made them into a bundle and tied his hat on the clothes and these he attached to his arm with a long string and let himself gently into the water and swimming on his back deep in the water so that his lips were above. His clothes were seen and fired at by the sentinel, and volley after volley at the moving bundle, while he was not seen and he made the shore far below and dressed himself in his wet clothes and hastily made his way to Philadelphia, where his story created the greatest commotion. He reached the city the third day after his escape. Capt. Dick was hastened to the relief of the fort with a convoy of thirty men and pack horses with provisions. Capt. Morris and his company were directed to follow with little delay. Capt. Butler knew of Ogden's escape and guarded strictly against the relief he knew would be sent. Capt. Dick and escort reached the val- ley the last of July. He was ambushed near the fort, the provision captured and his men rushed to the fort as they were allowed to, as this would the sooner eat the stores on hand. Ogden returned with Dick and found himself again in the fort and besieged. Ledlie was now started from Philadelphia with a company to hurry on and join Morris and Clayton. In the meantime Butler knew of the coming relief and began vigorous attacks on the fort. The gallant Ogden was severely wounded and Lieut. William Redgard had been shot dead while in the act of halting his leader, Ogden, when he was wounded. Negotiations were opened and the fort sur- rendered to Butler, and they started to return to Philadelphia and on the way met Ledlie and his force, who came on to the brow of the mountain and halted, awaiting orders from Philadelphia. After a short time he was ordered to return.

Thus closed the first Pennite and Yankee war-lasting from January, 1769, to September, 1771. These two facts are now prominently brought to the fore. The proprietaries realized that the people of the province sympathized with the Connecticut settlers, or had grown tired of the profitless contention. On the other hand Con- necticut had not kept faith in backing her people in their claims to the land that she had induced them to settle on.

The following is a list of the 200 first enrolled to come here and possess the five townships and man their rights. Those marked with a star were the first forty who came, and were followed the next spring by the others. Every name deserves a sacred remembrance-they were unequaled heroes:

David Whittlesey, Job Green, Philip Goss, Joshua Whitney, Abraham Savage, Ebenezer Stearns, Sylvester Chesebrough, Zephaniah Thayer, Eliphalet Jewel, Dan- iel Gore, Ozias Yale, *Henry Wall, Rowland Barton, Gideon Lawrence, Asa Law- rence, Nathaniel Watson, Philip Weeks, Thomas Weeks, Asher Harrot, Ebenezer Hebbard, Morgan Carvan, Samuel Marvin, Silas Gore, Ebenezer Northrop, Joshua Lampher, Joseph Hillman, Abel Pierce, Jabez Roberts, Jonathan Corrington, John Dorrance, Noah Allen, Robert Jackson, Zebulon Hawksey, James Dunkin, Caleb Tennant. Zerobable Wighitman, Gurdon Hopson, Asa Lee, Thomas Wallworth, Robert Hunter, John Baker, Jonathan Orms, Daniel Angel, Elias Roberts, Nicholas Manvil, Thomas Gray, Joseph Gaylord, William Churchell, Henry Strong, Zebulon Frisbee, Hezekiah Knap, John Kenyon, Preserved Taylor, Isaac Bennett, Uriah Marvin, Abisha Bingham, Moses Hebbard, Jr., Jabez Fish, Peris Briggs, Aaron Walter, James May, Samuel Badger, Jabez Cooke, Samuel Dorrance, *John Com- stock, Samuel Hotchkiss, William Leonard, Jesse Leonard, Elisha Avery, Ezra Buel, Gershom Hewit, Nathaniel Goss, Benjamin Hewit, Benjamin Hewit. Jr., Elias Thomas, Abijah Mock, Ephraim Fellows, Joseph Arnold, Ephraim Arnold, Benja- min Ashley, William White, Stephen Hull, Diah Hull, Joseph Lee, Samuel

HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

Wybrant, Reuben Hurlbut, Jenks Corah, Obadiah Gore, Jr., Caleb White, Samuel Sweet, Thomas Knight, John Jollee, Ebenezer Norton, Enos Yale, John Wiley, Tim- othy Vorce, Cyrus Kenne, John Shaw, James Forsythe, *Peter Harris, Abel Smith, Elias Parks, Joshua Maxfield, John Murphy, *Thomas Bennet, Christopher Avery, Elisha Babcock, John Perkins, Joseph Slocum, Robert Hopkins, Benjamin Shoe- maker, Jr., Jabez Sill, Parshall Terry, John Delong, *Theophilus Westover, John Sterling, Joseph Morse, Stephen Fuller, Andrew Durkee, Andrew Medcalf, Daniel Brown, Jonathan Buck, David Mead, Thomas Ferlin, William Wallsworth, Thomas Draper, James Smith, *James Atherton, Jr., *Oliver Smith, James Evans, Eleazer Carey, *Cyprian Lothrop, James Nesbitt, Joseph Webster, Samuel Millington, Ben- jamin Budd, John Lee, Josiah Dean, Zophur Teed, Moses Hebbard, Dan Murdock, Noah Lee, Stephen Lee, Lemuel Smith, Silas Park, Stephen Hungerford, Zerobable Jerorum, Comfort Goss, William Draper, Thomas McClure, Peter Ayers, Solomon Johnson, Phineas Stevens, Abraham Colt, Elijah Buck, Noah Read, Nathan Beach, Job Green, Jr., Fred Wise, Stephen Jenkins, Daniel Marvin, Zachariah Squier, Henry Wall, Simeon Draper, John Wallsworth, Ebenezer Stone, Thomas Olcott, Stephen Hinsdale, Benjamin Dorchaster, Elijah Witter, Oliver Post, Daniel Cass, Isaac Tracy, Samuel Story, John Mitchel, Samuel Orton, Christopher Gardner, Duty Gerold, Peris Bradford, Samuel Morgan, John Clark, Elijah Lewis, Timothy Hopkins, Edward Johnson, Jacob Dingman, Capt. Prince Alden, Benedict Satterlee, Naniad Coleman, Peter Comstock, John Franklin, Benjamin Matthews, John Dur- kee, William Gallop, Stephen Hurlbut, Stephen Miles.

Very few of the settlers had yet brought out their families; and in May, 1772, there were only five white women in Wilkes-Barre: Mrs. McClure, wife of James McClure; Mrs. Bennett, grandmother of Rufus Bennett (who was in the Indian battle); Mrs. Sill, wife of Jabez Sill; another Mrs. Bennett, wife of Thomas Ben- nett, mother of Mrs. Myers, and Mrs. Hickman, with her husband; Mrs. Dr. Sprague, and her daughter, Mrs. Young. The second white child born in the set- tlement was a daughter of Mrs. McClure.

Not until the year 1772 had there been any attempt to establish any form of police government. Stewart Pearce says that "each individual acted as his own sense of propriety, or his notion of right, might dictate. Even the salutary influ- ence of woman, exercised over man in civilized society, was wanting. In May, 1772, there were only five women in Wilkes-Barre township. But in this year quite a number of settlers went east for their families. Lands were surveyed and assigned to claimants, and block-houses were erected on both sides of the river. Many new faces appeared in the settlement, men gathered their relatives about them, and marriages were celebrated. The township of Wilkes-Barre was surveyed in the year 1770 by David Meade, and within its limits the struggles for possession of the valley mostly took place. The union of the names of John Wilkes and of Col. Barre, two Englishmen, the latter a brave and accomplished soldier, well known in America, and both celebrated as distinguished advocates of the rights of the col- onies against the encroachments of the crown, formed the name Wilkes-Barre. But the village or borough of Wilkes-Barre was not laid out until 1772. This was the work of Col. Durkee, who formed the town plot on grounds immediately adjoining Fort Wyoming, which, as has been already stated, was situated on the river bank near Northampton street. During that year the people were so busily engaged in preparing to live that there was no time to think of a regular form of government. When difficulties arose in respect to land rights, the dispute was decided by town committees. Those were halcyon days, for there was order without law, and peace without the constable-that was the golden age of Wyoming. Ferries and mills were provided for the people, and finally, toward the close of this year, as soon as prac- ticable, that is, December 11, 1772, provisions were made for the permanent sup- port of the gospel and of schools. Nor was there an exhibition of religious intoler-

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History of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 5

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