History of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 79

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

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The morning of July 4, 1778, after the surrender of Forty fort to the British officer Butler, he sent a detachment across the river to Pittston and demanded the surrender of Fort Brown, commanded by Capt. Blanchard. The fort was capitulated on fair terms. Mr. Miner says the Indian captors marked the prisoners "with black paint on the face, telling them to keep it there, and if they went out each should carry a white cloth on a stick, so that, being known, they would not be hurt." It is related elsewhere how the two Butlers, with Obadiah Gore, Dr. Gustin and Col. Denison, met in the ruins of Wintermoot fort, and there the articles of capitulation were agreed on and signed for the surrender of Forty fort.

From Stewart Pearce's Annals we take the following, as the settlers of Pittston who were assessed in 1796. In this list, of course, is nearly every one of the first settlers. The descendants of these are to-day among the prominent family names in this part of the county:

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HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

James Armstrong, Enos Brown, David Brown, Elisha Bell, Waterman Baldwin, Jeremiah Blanchard, John Benedict, Ishmael Bennett, A. Bowen, James Brown, Jr., Anthony Benschoter, R. Billings, Conrad Berger, J. Blanchard, Jr., Samuel Cary, John Clark, George Cooper, James Christy, Jedediah Collins, John David- son, David Dimock, Asa Dimock, Robert Faulkner, Solomon Finn, Nathaniel Gid- dings, Isaac Gould, Ezekiel Gobal, Joshua Griffin, Daniel Gould, Jesse Gardner, Richard Halstead, Isaac Hewitt, Daniel Hewitt, John Honival, Joseph Hazard, Abraham Hess, Jonathan Hutchins, John Herman, Lewis Jones, Joseph Knapp, Samuel Miller, William Miller, Samuel Miller, Jr., Ebenezer Marcy, Jonathan Marcy, Isaac Miles, Cornelius Nephew, John Phillips, James Scott, John Scott, William H. Smith, Rodger Searle, William Searle, Miner Searle, James Stephens, Elijah Silsby, Elijah Silsby, Jr., Comfort Shaw, Jonathan Stark, James Thompson, Isaac Wilson, John Warden, Crandall Wilcox, Thomas Wright.

The settlers on this side of the river in 1778 bore then part in the common defence, for we find records and traditions of at least two forts or stockades here, one near Patterson's lumber-yards and the other not far from the stone gristmill at the ferry bridge.

Dr. Nathaniel Giddings was the first physician in the settlement. He came from Connecticut in 1787, and practiced medicine here until his death, in 1851. He set one of the first orchards in the township on his farm, near the Ravine shaft. About the time he came Z. Knapp, grandfather of Dr. A. Knapp, located in that vicinity. William Searle came from Connecticut before the massacre, and occupied a farm near those just mentioned. Rodger Searle's first house stood where the Ravine shaft is, but in 1789 he moved to Pleasant Valley. David Brown, mentioned. as assessed in 1796, had settled the D. D. Mosier place as early as 1790. Some of the trees he set for an orchard on his farm are still standing, and mark the spot where he lived. His son, Richard Brown, settled Thomas Benedict's farm. Samuel Miller's farm was in this immediate vicinity. His date is 1789. Elijah Silsbee was here in 1778. His residence was on the north side of Parsonage street, opposite James L. Giddings. William Slocum lived where Edward Morgan now does, and the Benedict family lived near Mr. Morgan's stone-quarry. One of the first clear- ings, in what is now the lower part of Pittston borough, was made where the depot and the Farnham house now are. One of the early orchards was here. Another was set by Mr. Benedict near where the Pittston knitting-mill stands, and Rodger Searle set another at the same time on his place.

For sixty years after the settlements were begun in Pittston, the Yankee element predominated in the population of the township, but with the discovery of coal began the great influx of the various European nationalities that make up the heter- ogeneous population as it is found to-day. The Scotch came in large numbers in 1850-5, although many of the most experienced miners came to America before coming to Pittston, attracted by the gold mining of California. The inroad of the Welsh was more gradual, as they had previously come to the older mines at Car- bondale, and came down the valley as the coal fields were developed.

The coal interests soon became the largest source of wealth in the township, although there is some valuable farming land in the small valleys and on the hill- sides within its boundaries. Col. James W. Johnson was one of the pioneers in the mining and shipping of coal. He sent considerable quantities down the river in "arks" when this was the only mode of transportation. These " arks" were built during low water and floated off in high water, much in the manner of rafting. Col. Johnson sold his coal works to William R. Griffith and his associates, who also purchased the franchise of the Washington Railroad company, and by a consolida- tion of charters formed the Pennsylvania Coal company and became a large operator in mines and mining. The first shipment of coal ever made to the West was from this point. The humble beginning of what is now a never-ending stream. The Erie Railroad company became the proprietor of what is known as the Hillside Coal

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HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

& Iron Company colliery at Pleasant Valley, now known as Avoca. The Pittston Coal company was organized in 1875, by parties who had purchased the old Pitts- ton & Elmira company, and operate the Seneca Slope, the Ravine shaft and The Twins. The Columbia mine, by Grove Bros., was opened in 1862; it stands at what was the head of the canal. Near them is the Phoenix Coal company. J. M. McFarlane & Co. sunk the Eagle shaft at Tompkins' colliery in 1850. They were succeeded by Alvah Tompkins in 1855.

The old Butler mines were opened as early as 1835 by John L. and Lord Butler. Their brother-in-law, Judge Mallory, of Philadelphia, became a partner, and their canal shipping point came in time to be called port Mallory, and this name was applied to the old hotel at that place.

The first sawmill in the township was built near the mouth of the Lackawanna, in 1780, by Solomon Finn and E. L. Stevens.

In 1790 the strong necessity for highways and river crossings brought in action a board of authority in the premises with authority to lay out public highways in the township. The board was as follows: John Phillips, David Brown, J. Blanchard, Caleb Bates, John Davidson and J. Rosin.

The settlement on the Pittston borough side of the river dates as far back as 1770. In 1772 John Jenkins, Isaac Tripp, Jonathan Dean and others established a ferry to connect these settlers with the settlement at Wyoming and Exeter. This was the old rope ferry, now supplanted by the two elegant wagon and foot bridges that span the river.

The next year James Brown, Lemuel Harding and Caleb Bates were constituted directors of the township, with authority to assess and collect taxes.

The first bridge was built in 1850 by the Pitts Ferry Bridge company. This took the place of the rope ferry. This bridge was replaced in 1864 by a covered wooden bridge, which was destroyed by the ice flood of 1875. The next year, 1876, was built the present elegant iron bridge-a toll bridge by the King Iron Bridge company-and now belongs to the Ferry Bridge company.

The present elegant depot bridge was built in 1874, partially destroyed in 1875; rebuilt the same year. The railroad bridge was erected in 1874.

McCarthyville (popularly Corklane) is a mining town or collection of houses in Pittston township; joins Pittston on the east extending eastward a short distance beyond the D. & H. C. Company railroad and on the north reaches to Hughestown borongh line and south to Browntown, and is separated from the latter by a line extending from Fairmount breaker to Market street, Pittston. There are 900 inhabitants in McCarthyville; 140 dwellings. The community is engaged in the collieries. Has a new school-building of four rooms, 163 pupils; 2 hotels, 2 stores and 1 coal breaker; it is reached by the D. & H. railroad and the Central of New Jersey.

Browntown is a mining place in Pittston township, on Pennsylvania coal company leaseholds. It joins Pittston on the east and extends toward the D. & H. Canal Company railroad; bounded on the north by a line from Fairmount breaker to Market street and on the south by an extension of Swallow street to the D. & H. Canal Company railroad. It is supplied with water by the Pittston Water company; has an estimated population of 1,000, in 200 dwellings, engaged in the mines.

PITTSTON BOROUGH.

The first settlement made in the place was in 1770, and possibly a short time before that, as the exact date can not be ascertained, David Brown and J. Blanchard were well settled here with others and there were enough people on this side the river by 1772 to warrant the establishing a rope ferry to connect them with the settlers in Wyoming on the opposite side and lower down the river.

The borough is on the east side of the Susquehanna river and a short distance below the junction of the Lackawanna with the Susquehanna river. Coming down

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HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

the latter river it is the open door to the wonderful and famed Wyoming valley. It is just below where the river breaks through the mountain range and enters the broad valley and passing nearly through the center of this, with the winding hills on the right and the left, again cuts a gap through the mountains at Nescopeck and passes on in its course to the sea. It is one of the richest and most important towns of this portion of the State. It stands midway between Scranton and Wilkes-Barre and is in the very heart of one of the most productive of the anthracite coal-bearing regions. Across the river is the rich valley, and it has taken more than a century to feed the lumber-mills the great forest trees that were on every hand. There were combined here the forests, the rich valleys, and the far richer coal fields, and at first the only possible highway with the outside world was on the waters of the Susque- hanna river. All in all as it came from the hands of nature, one of the truly favored spots of earth. The rivers pointing in the three directions that are now the three great artificial highways of commerce and travel. Where Pittston is is the point that the travelers down the river along the Lehigh Valley railroad will be told to look out for the magnificent scenery now coming in view. In front is the valley, to his right will be pointed out Campbell's ledge, and from this point until you pass Mauch Chunk, a distance of more than fifty miles south, it is one continuous unfold- ing panorama-scenery much of it that has aptly been called the Switzerland of America. Travelers informed of the favorable routes through this state for enjoy- able scenery frequently arrange to travel over the Lehigh Valley railroad from Buffalo to New York and Philadelphia and vice versa. Here have gathered the busy feet of men, wealth and luxury, education and refinement, all the modern comforts as well as the elegance and ease that is capable of evolving the best types of civilization.

A splendid type of an enterprising, pushing and thrifty people. Mr. T. P. Robinson, in his biennial directory, is compelled to say of Pittston and vicinity: " Youthful and vigorous, its growth is marked by an increase from 11,378 names in 1890 to 13,073 names in 1892. There are 5,489 dwellings, 500 of these recently added to the number. Pittston has what few other postal points in the world possess, a free mail delivery of thirteen daily mails distributed to over 30,000 patrons. The free mail delivery from Pittston extends to and includes West Pittston, Exeter and Hughestown boroughs. The new factories and concerns of various kinds, as well as the increase in mining operations, are more than running parallel with the increase of population, and the number of new dwellings that have been and are being built.

The present population of Pittston borough, as carefully enumerated recently by T. P. Robinson for his directory, is 13,714, showing a rapid increase over that of the census of 1890.

The most important enterprise of modern times, affecting not only Pittston but the entire valley, is the work now [July, 1892] being rapidly pushed to completion of building and extending the Wilkes-Barre & Wyoming Valley Traction com- pany's electric railway, at present commencing at Wilkes-Barre, and a track in good time on each side of the river to Pittston, where they join and proceed to Scranton. The Electric Railway company has purchased the street railroad now running the entire length of Main street, Pittston, and this is, in time, to be a part of the track coming up on the east side of the river from Wilkes-Barre, the two to join north of Pittston and proceed to Scranton. There is no doubt but that in a very short time it will be extended down the river to Nanticoke. This will be street railway service on both sides of the river from Wilkes-Barre to Pittston, and in single lines to Scranton; and also south from Wilkes-Barre to Nanticoke-nearly thirty miles of street car service along the river and through practically a continuous town. No country of such scope in the world is more progressive and prosperous.

For reference as to the first settlers the reader is referred to the account of the township. These people came long before this became a separate borough and spent the remainder of their lives here.

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HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

As a sympton of the present awakening to a realization of the future that is draw- ing near we clip from a current issue of the Wilkes-Barre Record the following interesting summary:

The progressive and thoughtful citizens of Pittston are awakening to the fact that for some reason the town and its interests have stood still,' while Scranton on the north and Wilkes-Barre on the south have made gigantic strides onward and upward, cutting a wide swath on the map of the State as important centers of wealth and population. Neither of these cities can point to any natural advantages that Pittston does not possess. Neither of these cities was stronger than Pittston is to-day when they extended their limits and donned the dignity of municipalities. "Natural barriers," says one, "prevented the coming together of the people of this town." Evidently he had never been to Scranton, the lobster town of the universe, pro- jecting a claw here, a mandible there and feelers to the right and left reaching over stretches of farming lands, swamps, streams, forests and glens, but holding under each outstretched tentacle a town, a hamlet, a few mining shanties, but all containing the grand desideratum of cities-human population. Wilkes-Barre, of course, in the start had nature on her side in being handsomely situated on a level plain, but she, too, has taken to the hills and threatens to roost on their topmost rocks. Indeed it is not certain that "natural barriers " do not help instead of retarding the growth of cities. It is certain that want of unity of purpose, love of home and one's neighbors are the greatest "natural barriers" in the way of the growth of towns and cities, for when a people are united and move with a singleness of purpose, what river is too wide to span, what mountain too high to scale or ravine too deep to be filled up.

Talking with H. G. Thompson, who is a cool-headed man of business as free from enthusiasm as a fire-cracker is of maple sap, he said: "Certainly I am in favor of making a city of Pittston and I may also say that I have found few people here who have given the matter consideration who do not favor the project. What way can you look at this question that the view does not carry conviction that to erect our contiguous boroughs into a city is the proper thing to do. Do we want a State appropriation for a hospital we ask for $100,000 or more. Do we want a govern- ment building we ask a like sum, and having a city of 30,000 population to second our demand, what statesman or government could refuse it? No one doubts that it would improve the character of most of our schools could we bring the different school districts under one management. The only objection that can be raised by anyone is the fear that it will increase our taxes, but then, people who refuse to take this view refuse to see the broad fact spread all over the history of our neighbor cities, that for every mill spent for city improvements property is advanced in value from 6 to 25 mills. One has only to go to Wilkes-Barre now and ask the price of real property and compare the amount demanded with the prices paid ten or fifteen years ago. Or, for the matter of that, you may go to any city in this part of the State and the result will be the same-the improved streets, having water, light and pavements, have enhanced the value of all contiguous property."

"Have you made an estimate of how much territory you would embrace within the new city ?"

"Yes, taking our postoffice for a center, and I wish to state that our mail service extends now almost to the lines I am about to mention. On the east side, a strip six miles long, three miles north of the postoffice, and three miles south, and extend- ing two miles east from the river; and on the west side a strip four miles long extending to line of Wyoming borough and from the river west two miles would embrace a population of over 27,000 on a territory of sixteen square miles and made up from census of 1890 as follows: Pittston borough, 10,302; part of Pittston town- ship, 3,000; Pleasant Valley borough 3,300; Hughestown borough, 1,454; part of Marcy township, 2,000; Yatesville borough and part of Jenkins borough, 2,600; West Pittston borough, 3,906; part of Exeter borough, 1,100. You will see, there- fore, that in the territory mentioned, making allowance for the increase of popula-

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HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

tion since the census year, that we have a sufficient population to make three cities of 10,000 each in the proposed city of Pittston. Compared with Scranton in 1871, when she became a city, we have more population, for, according to the census of 1873, Scranton had a population of 35,092 and an area of twenty-two square miles. On sixteen square miles Pittston city would have, according to the census of 1892, 27,393.

"Moreover, the proposed city would stand next in line in population to Williams- port, which would place us the twelfth city in the State, putting Philadelphia at the head with over a million population."

A. B. Brown, Pittston's leading dry goods merchant, was the next one spoken to, and he was glad to know that the Record was interested enough to take a hand in the good work of booming Pittson city, " It would be a great thing for us all," said Mr. Brown. "We must wake up. Electricity will compel us to bestir our- selves or see our borough gobbled up by some of our enterprising neighbors. The cost of the city will be as nothing compared to the advance it will make in the value of property. It needs no argument. I am for it all the time and will do anything I can to help the good cause along."

The first attempt at tavern-keeping at Pittston was made about 1799, by Col. Waterman Baldwin, on the lower side of Main street. Under the huge antlers that surmounted the bar, Miner Searle, Jacob Bedford, John Sax and Calvin T. Rich- ardson have stood and ministered to the demands of thirsty travelers. The Balti- more house was the next; it stood on the east side of Maine street. Beginning with 1805 the landlords of old times were Peter Decker, Eleazer Cary, Asaph Pratt and William Hart. The Bull's Head was built by John Benedict, Sr., near Edward Morgan's stone-quarry. Thomas Benedict's father kept it for several years, and finally it was occupied by John C. Doty as a dwelling. The Stockbridge hotel was built in 1830 by Calvin Stockbridge. The Butler Coal company became the owners, and Judge G. Mallory, a partner in the company, named the hotel Port Mallory. Subsequently a large swan was displayed as the sign, and it came to be known as the Swan hotel. George Lazarus kept it until 1848, when he built the Eagle hotel, now kept by G. Snyder. James D. Fonsman next kept the Swan, and subsequently Mrs. Ehret the Farmers' hotel. Mr. Fonsman in 1849 built the Butler house. The principal hotels now are the Eagle, the Sinclair, by Le Bar Bros .; Wyoming Valley house, by J. Curt; St. Charles, Windsor and Valley house, with a number of res- taurants and eating-houses.

When the weekly mail route was established, in 1799, between Wilkes-Barre and Owego, the mail for Pittston was distributed from the houses of William Slocum and Dr. Giddings, and this irregular arrangement continued until 1810 as a sort of branch, by way of the ferry, from the regular mail route, which was on the opposite side of the Susquehanna. In 1811 a postoffice was established, and Eleazer Cary was appointed postmaster. A route from Scranton to Wilkes-Barre supplied the

office with a weekly mail. Deodat Smith and Zephaniah Knapp were the mail car- riers on this route until about 1821. Zephaniah Knapp, the second postmaster here, caused the removal of the office to Babylon, and soon afterward the Pittston Ferry postoffice was established, with John Alment as postmaster. Alment was an Irish Quaker, blind in one eye and deaf in one ear. He had kept an early store in a log house near the Hughestown cemetery. The boys had robbed him and made his business quite unprofitable, so he bought a frame building on Parsonage street and moved it to the site of Pugh Bros.' store, on Main street. In this building he kept the postoffice, and at that time it was the most southerly building but one on Main street.

There is but little question that the ink of these pages will hardly be dry when old Luzerne will enumerate her third city - third in number, but a very close second in size, wealth, and as a supply and distributing point. THE CITY OF PITTSTON will sound well; will look well in print, and better on the new State maps. One of the important and richest little internal cities of this continent.

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HISTORY OF LUZERNE COUNTY.

There are three banks only in the town; their average deposits are nearly $2,000,000. This tells a part of the story of the immense wealth the country has produced here.

The two common bridges that span the river are the main arteries that make the twin boroughs one. On the one side is the natural field for factories, and every variety of industries, and on the west is the people's natural place of residence.

January 5, 1853, the grand jury of Luzerne county was petitioned by a majority of the freeholders to incorporate a portion of Pittston township as a borough. The judgment of the grand jury was favorable to the petitioners, and April 11, 1833, the court confirmed the judgment of the grand jury, and the borough was organ- ized, and the following year the boundaries were extended.

Although several of the earliest settlements of the township were within the present borough lines, yet in 1828 there were but fourteen heads of families living within the present limits of the borough. These were John Alment, Calvin T. Richardson, Calvin Stockbridge, John Stewart (who kept a hotel), Nathaniel Gid- dings, John Benedict, Jacob Lance (who came from New Jersey in 1820), Samuel Miller, Solomon Brown (a blacksmith), Adam Belcher, Amos Fell, Ishmael Bennett (a blacksmith), and Frank Belcher.

When the borough was laid out there was a deep ravine crossing Main street, near the present office of the Pennsylvania Coal company. This was bridged by a trestle forty or fifty feet high, and since then, after at least one stage load of passengers had been precipitated through it, the whole ravine has been graded in, and a well-paved street and substantial buildings cover the spot. When the Pittston & Wilkes-Barre plank road was built, in 1851, a large trestle work was put in near Patterson's lumber-yard, to straighten the street by crossing the ravine. Grading here too has since taken the place of the trestle. Parsonage street, by the way of Hughestown, was the old original Scranton road. The formation of the municipal government was completed on the 30th of April, 1853, by the election of John Hosie, burgess; J. V. L. Dewitt, H. P. Messenger, George Daman, Theo- dore Strong and James McFarlane, councilmen; John Kelchner, constable; D. P. Richards, John Sax and Ralph D. Lacoe, assessors; Smith Sutherland, Valentine Rowe, overseers of poor; Alvah Tompkins, Nathaniel Giddings, James M. Brown, Levi Barnes, J. A. Hann, John Love, school directors; Jesse Williams, C. R. Gor- man, H. S. Phillips, auditors; Nathaniel Giddings, Joseph Knapp, Michael Reap, inspectors of election.

The following is a list of burgesses as the imperfect condition of the borough records can furnish: E. B. Evans, 1854; William Furgeson, 1855; Charles R. Gor- man, 1856-7; J. B. Fisher, Abram Price, M. Reap, 1861-5; James Brown, P. Sheridan, 1867; John B. Smith, 1868; James Walsh, 1869; Andrew Law, 1870; J. P. Schooley, 1871; James L. McMillan, 1872; James McKane, 1873; Michael Reap, 1874-6; Joseph Cool, 1877; Patrick Henery, 1878; James O'Donnell and L. B. Ensign. The following are the present borough officials:

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History of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 79

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