History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 22

Author: Mathews, Alfred, 1852-1904. 4n
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co.
Number of Pages: 1438

USA > Pennsylvania > Monroe County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 22
USA > Pennsylvania > Pike County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 22
USA > Pennsylvania > Wayne County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 22

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1 Apropos of this scheme, the following petition for the erection of "HEBRON" County is of interest. It is un- dated) :

"To the honourable the Legislature of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in General Assembly now sitting.

"The Petition of the Subscribers, Inhabitants of the northeastern parts of Luzerne County, that adjoins the County of Wayne, most humbly sheweth :

"That your Petitioners are greatly agrieved with the distance they have to travel to the Seat of Justice at Wilkesbarre, in which distance the Roads are very rough and mountainous, being also intersepted with the two large Streams of Tunckhannunk and Lackawana, over which there is no Bridges erected ; that the said Streams, unless in times of very low Water, are not fordable, by which reason your Petitioners, if Summoned to Court as Suitors, Witnesses or Jurors, cannot attend at times of high Water, and are thereby debared the Priveledge of the Courts of Justice.

"And iuasmuch as we understand that the Six upper Townships of Wayne County, as they are seperated from their Seat of Justice by an extensive Barren from thirty to forty Miles wide, are about praying your honourable Body to redress their Grievances by erecting the said six Townships north of the Barrens into a seperate County, that they may have their Seat of Justice in a central Situ- ation, --

"We, therefore, most humbly pray your honourable Body that we may be annexed with the said six upper Townships of Wayne County into a seperate County, by a : Line begining where the Road from Sheholy to Lackawana crosses the County Line, & runing thence North forty-five Degrees West, untill it strikes the State Line, may be the division Line between us and Luzerne County, and that the new County may be called Hebron, and that George Palmer & Daniel Stroud, Esqrs, of Northampton County, and Samuel Preston & Thomas Sheilds, Esqrs, of the County of Wayne, and John Tyler, of Luzerne County, may be the Commissioners appointed by Law to perform the customary duties of establishing the Seat of Justice, &c., &c.

"And your Petitioners, in duty bound, shall ever pray."

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and had expended in improvements and the construction of public buildings over $4500. The Legislature . was convinced it would not be right or constitutional to make the perma- nent removal which had been asked for ; but, on the 5th of April, 1802, an act was passed providing for a temporary removal, viz., that the seat of justice should from that date be transferred from Bethany to Milford, and the courts held at Milford " for three years, and no longer?'

. While this act nominally removed the courts from Bethany, it really removed them from Wil- sonville, for none had been held at the former place, owing to the refusal of the judges to go there, as has been heretofore stated.

Three of the judges resided near Milford, and the re-location of the scat of justice there was not displeasing to them. The May term of the courts in 1802 was held there. By the terms of the act of April 5, 1802, the act of April 1, 1799, by which the seat of justice was located at Bethany, was suspended for three years, and thus the trustees were prevented from making any more sales of lots during that time, to raise funds for reimbursing them- selves for what they had ad vanced or had procured from others to put the buildings in readiness for occupancy. They and their friends suffered considerable embarrassment. To relieve them in sonie measure from their unfortunate, but not blamable, predicament, the Legislature passed an act February 11, 1803, authorizing the county commissioners to settle the accounts of the trustees and pay them whatever balance was found due to them, and also to receive a conveyance from them of all the unsold lots in Bethany and to sell the same for the benefit of the county. In accordance with this provision, the trustees, on the 9th of May, 1803, exeented a decd conveying to the commissioners one hundred and twenty honsc-lots and sixty-two out- lots in Bethany, being all not previously sold. From this time the powers of the trustees were vested in the commissioners, who sold at various times, for the benefit of the county, all of the lots conveyed to them except those reserved as church and school lots, eight in all, which, on September 10, 1810, were conveyed in trust to

trustees to serve as sites for a house of worship and a school-house.

The residents of the northern part of the county and those who had purchased lots and built in Betliany indulged the hope that at the expiration of the "three years and no longer " for which the courts were removed to Milford, they would be transferred to the place prepared for them without further opposition. They were removed, but not till after the friends of Milford had made a strong struggle to retain them. In the winter of 1804-5 the opponents of Bethany's interests made another application to the Legislature, asking that the courts should be continued permanently at Milford. This was again strongly remonstrated against by the resi- dents of the northern part of the county and the friends of Bethany, and so many members of the Assembly were convinced that it would not only be unjust, but unconstitutional, that the measure was defeated by a large majority.

The " three years and no longer " having ex- pired, before the time for the May court in 1805, that term was held in Bethany on the 6th of the month, and was the first court ever held there. Judges Biddis and Brink occupied the bench. As the carpenters were engaged in fin- ishing some details of their work in the court- room, the courts were held for the first day in the large east room, in the house of Jason Tor- rey, but after that the court-room was used. The progress of affairs was now smooth enough for about four years. Then the people of the lower part of the county made another effort to wrest away little Bethany's pride and prop. They applied to the Assembly to have the seat of justice removed to some locality near the territorial centre of the county. This was op- posed not only by the citizens of the northern townships, but by many at and near Milford, but their opposition availed nothing, for on the 19th of March, 1810, an act was passed, entitled " An act for the removal of the seat of justice of Wayne county from Bethany to a place at or near the centre of said county."1

Under authority of this act, the Governor ap- pointed as commissioners, to fix on the exact

1 Smith's Laws, Vol. v. pp. 125-127.

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location, Jeptha Arrison, James Clyd and Abra- ham Levan. These commissioners made their report, dated August 21 and 22, 1810, in which they say they " have fixed on the cleared field west of the house commonly called ' Bloom- ing Grove House,' and situated on a tract of land called 'Blooming Grove Farm,' owned by Nicholas Kern and Henry Spering, as a fit, proper, central and convenient place for the site of the seat of justice for the county of Wayne." They also reported that they had received from Kern and Spering a conveyance to the com- missioners, in fcc-simple, of thirty seven town- lots, including the site for the court-house, in the town of Blooming Grove, laid out on the cleared field alluded to; and also a bond for the payment, to the commissioners, of the sum of four hundred dollars-one-half to be paid when the court-house should be under roof and the other half when it should be finished. The place thus selected was where the old road from Milford to the Paupack settlement crossed the Blooming Grove Creek, and is within the present limits of Pike County.

The location was unsatisfactory to a large majority of the citizens of the county, and ar- rangements were made to give a distinct expres- sion to their dissatisfaction at the general elec- tion the next October. The opponents to re- moval put in nomination for county commis- sioner Abisha Woodward, known to be opposed to the removal, and the advocates of such re- moval put in nomination a candidate known to be in its favor. The campaign was ener- getically conducted on both sides, and resulted in a victory for the opponents of the removal scheme, by a very large majority. 1

The commissioners met on October 30, 1810, Moses Thomas and George W. Nyce, of

the old board, being present, and Abisha Wood- ward, the new commissioner elected to succeed Dan Dimmick, Esq., whose term had expired, being sworn in, a full board was effected. Ap- plication was made urging the board to levy a tax for a building fund to erect public buildings at Blooming Grove, and claiming that by the provisions of the act providing for the removal of the seat of justice they were required to do so. After deliberation they adopted and placed on their record the following carefully prepared minute and resolution in answer to the applica- tion :

" At a full meeting of the board they proceeded to examine the act of Gen1 Assembly passed at last session for the removal of the seat of Justice from Bethany to Blooming Grove, & after carefully and attentively perusing the whole Act, they cannot find any provision therein which, by positive expression or fine construction, enjoins on them a duty to levy a tax upon the County at the present time & under the present circumstances, for the purpose of erecting public buildings at B1 Grove.

"The com's believe that the Act was passed by the Leg. under a reliance upon the sufficiency of grants which would be made to the County to cover all, or at least a principal part, of the expenses which would occur to the Co. in consequence of a removal of the seat of Justice. They believe that the duties en- joined on them by the 4th Sec. of the Act have a special allusion to an appropriation of the monies to be divided under the provisions of the 2d and 3d Sections ; and that the liberty granted by the fifth Sec. to levy a tax for the purposes therein mentioned was mainly intended as a provision against any casual deficiency of the other funds, and to secure a means of fulfilling engagements which might be made in ex- cess of funds to discharge them. But they cannot believe that it was the intention of the Leg. that, in case of a general failure of the provisions of the 2d 3d & 4th Sections, that the liberty granted in the 5th Sec. should be construed as a mandate, and that the rate of taxation which has been so much complained of as grievous, and which has so frequently produced a severity of treatment to Treasurers, Collectors & Commissioners, should be increased by an addition of { of its amount, and be continued until the excess shall produce a fund adequate to the expense of the public buildings. This opinion the Com's consider to be strongly supported by the whole tenor of the Act as well as by a reference to otlier acts for fixing the seat of Justice in new counties. The Comm's believe that if the finances of the County were in a condition to warrant the measure, they might with legal pro- priety proceed to the levying and collecting of monies as a fund for erecting public buildings, and as soon as

1 Jason Torrey, in a letter to his parents, dated October 14, 1810, says : " The strife in our election for a commis- sioner just held, was especially governed by the opinion of the people respecting the seat of justice. The county elec- tion has just been canvassed and the result declared, show- ing that we succeeded by a majority of more than two to one in electing a commissioner opposed to the removal-hence we feel safe that no public money will be spent for erecting public buildings at that place "-i.e., Blooming Grove, which he writes "has been the solitary residence of a single family, in a poor log house, for over thirty years."

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a sufficient fund should be thus collected, that they might proceed to the application thereof to that pur- pose ; but while the County is annually subjected to a heavy tax, without being able to discharge its just and necessary expenditures, which, after the most vigorous exertions in collecting taxes, there remain many orders on the treasury unpaid, while the poor juror and laborer is compelled from his necessities to sell his hard-earned wages to some speculator at a discount of from twelve to twenty-five per cent. ; while the traveler is put in jeopardy by the failure of bridges the Co. wants funds to repair ; and while, with the best efforts and the strictest economy, the Comm's are able but gradually to retrieve the credit of the County, they cannot consider that there are any existing circumstances or advantages to the County which would result from forcing a fund for the erection of public buildings at B. Grove which would bear any comparative weight in counterbalanc- ing the evils which would necessarily follow a pursuit of the measure.

" Therefore, RESOLVED that they do not lery a tar the ensuing year for the purpose of erecting public buildings at Blooming Grove."

AFFAIRS OF WAYNE AND PIKE. - No effort of any moment was made to remove the county-seat from Bethany to the southern part of the county, after the foregoing action of the commissioners ; but those who had been in favor of Milford began to urge in a more friendly manner those who had stood by Beth- any to consent to a division of the county as a measure which would accommodate each section with a county-seat, and put an end to further contest and rivalry between them. In 1813 many of the friends of Bethany, after consider- ing the matter, assented to having application made at the next session of the Assembly for a division of Wayne County and the erection of a new county from its southern portion. It was agreed that if the people of Milford and the surrounding region should ask for such new county, to be bounded northerly by the Lacka- waxen River, to the mouth of the Wallenpan- pack Creek and up that creek to the forks of the west and south branches thereof, and up the west branch thereof (which now divides Salem and Sterling townships) to the line of Imzerne, the inhabitants of the region remaining in Wayne would not oppose the application for division. But before the time for the Legisla- ture to act had arrived, the advocates of the new

county and of Milford's interests desired a change in the proposed boundary, so that a new county should extend up the Delaware to the " Big Eddy," and then be bounded by a straight line to the mouth of the Wallenpan- pack Creek and thence up that stream, as before proposed. They argued that such increase of river-front would leave Milford equidistant, in direct lines, from the northern and southern boundaries of the new county, while by going no further np the Delaware than to the Lackawaxen River, Dingman's would be very nearly equi- distant from these boundaries, and that place might be advocated as the site of the county-seat. The men acting for the northern part of Wayne consented to having the new county extend up the Delaware to Big Eddy, provided the divi- sion line should follow the south branch of the Wallenpanpack to the North and South road, and thence extend west to the line of Luzerne County.

This differed from the boundary first proposed in that it gave to Wayne all of Sterling town- ship, as that township was originally erected, in exchange for that part of Pike County lying north of the Lackawaxen, and, considering the quality of the lands, it was then considered an exchange advantageous to Wayne, though it made the form of Wayne rather too long for its breadth.

The Assembly, on March 26, 1814, passed an act, containing twenty-three sections, entitled " An act erecting a part of Wayne County into a separate connty." Some of the provisions of that act which pertain directly to Wayne County are here given .- 1

Section 1 provided " that all of that part of Wayne County lying south and east of a direct line from the lower end of Big Eddy, on the Delaware River, to the mouth of the Wallenpaupack Creek, and thence np the same to the main forks thereof, thence up the south branch to where the most sontherly branch crosses the North and South road, and from thence due west to the line of Luzerne County, be, and the same is hereby declared to be erected, into a. new county, henceforth to be called Pike."

Section 5 provided that taxes heretofore levied on property in Pike, and unpaid, may be collected by the commissioners of Wayne County.

1 For the full text of the act, see History of Pike County, Chapter I.

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Section 6 required the commissioners of Wayne to make out a statement by the second Monday of No- vember (1814), showing the amount due on taxes theretofore levied, and the amount of money in the treasury, and from the sum of these to deduct the amount of debts owing from the county, and to pay one-half of the surplus thus found to the treasurer of Pike County, the payment, however, to be made no faster than the taxes should be collected.

Section 9 authorized John K. Woodward to run and mark the line between the two counties, com- mencing on the second Monday of September, at the Big Eddy, and running from thence according to the true intent and meaning of the act. His com- pensation was fixed at three dollars per day, with the necessary expenses, to be paid out of the treasury of Wayne County.

Section 10 enacted that where the division line divided a township, the part thereof which remained in Wayne should be a separate township, and the part in Pike a separate township, each to retain its original name until altered by the court.

Section 14 required the Governor, after the 1st of June following, to appoint three commissioners to fix on a site for a seat of justice for Pike County, as near the centre as circumstances would allow.

" Provided, however, that if the inhabitants of Mil- ford, and others, shall, before said 1st of June, sub- scribe and pay in, or give security for payment thereof, to the commissioners of Wayne County, a sum not less than $1500 for the use of the county of Pike, for the purpose of erecting public buildings, then the 'Centre Square' in the town of Milford shall be the site for the seat of justice ; and, in that case, the com- missioners aforesaid shall not be appointed."

Section 15 provided that in order that the county of Wayne shall, as nearly as may be, bear one half the expense of erecting public buildings in Pike, equal to those in Bethany, the commissioners of Wayne should direct their treasurer to pay over to the treasurer of Pike, in four equal instalments, the sum of $1750.

Sections 19, 20 and 21 authorized and required the sheriff of Wayne to keep the Pike County prisoners for three years, or until a jail should have been erected in Pike County.

Section 22 required the commissioners of Wayne to deliver to the commissioners of Pike all maps, charts, records and papers which, of right, belonged to Pike.

The first section of the act, which defines the boundaries of Pike County, was in accord with the understood wishes of the citizens of both counties, but the provisions of the fifteenth sec- tion requiring Wayne to pay to Pike, to cover one-half the cost of erecting as good public buildings in Pike as those at Bethany, the sum

of one thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars (estimating the value of the old court-house and jail at three thousand five hundred dollars), was considered by intelligent people of Wayne as very unjust. They agreed that, even if the buildings had been wholly erected with funds raised by taxation, of which the citizens and property of Pike had paid one-half, the sum of one thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars, as an estimate of one-half their present value, was unreasonable, because the old shell of a court- house and log jail did not originally cost any- thing like the value (three thousand five hun- dred dollars) now put upon them, although erected when there was great difficulty in trans- porting materials, and that better buildings could then (1814) be erected cither at Milford or Bethany for one thousand dollars. And they argued further, that the buildings were origin- ally erected in Bethany without the use of any funds voluntarily contributed by residents of the new county of Pike, or of funds raised by taxation, of which Pike, as an integral part of Wayne, had paid her full share, but that the entire cost of those buildings had been derived directly from property donated as a considera- tion for having the seat of justice established at Bethany, and, therefore, the people of the new county had no equitable claim to any part of the present value of those old buildings. This reasoning did not prevent the passing in Assem- bly of the manifestly unjust clause of the act, and Wayne was required to pay the one thou- sand seven hundred and fifty dollars.

The statement of assets and liabilities of the original Wayne County, required by section six of the act, as made by the commissioners of Wayne, showed a balance of assets in excess of liabilities of $6960. One-half of this sum, de- ducting losses and expenses of collection, was to be paid to Pike, and that county received, as fast as collected, $2950.

The injustice of the financial provisions of the new county enactment are illustrated by the fact that, in addition to the foregoing $2950, Wayne was obliged to pay Pike $1750, thus providing her with a fund of $4700, and being left with $2950, less $1750, or only $1200, including taxes levied but not yet collected, to

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pay the expenses of the county until the taxes for 1815 could be collected.1

That portion of the division line between the counties, exclusive of that constituted by the Wallenpaupack, was run and marked by Jolm K. Woodward in September, 1814, as provided for in section nine of the act. He first ran a line, without marking it, from the mouth of the Wallenpaupack to the Delaware, at Big Eddy, to enable him to calculate the true bearing between the two designated points, and then commenced at the lower end of Big Eddy and ran and marked a line on a course of S. 31° 45' W., a distance of ten miles and twenty-three rods to the mouth of the Wallenpaupack. Then he ran a line from where the old North and South road 2 crossed the most southerly affluent of the south branch of the Wallenpanpack in what was then called "the twelve mile woods," and ran and marked a line on a course due west, a distance of seven miles and ninety-two rods, to the Lehigh Creek, which was there the boundary between Luzerne and Wayne Counties.

The erection of Pike took from Wayne all of the townships of Middle Smithfield and Upper Smithfield, and all of Delaware except what afterwards became the south half of Ster- ling, nearly all of Lackawaxen and the larger part of old Palmyra and Salem, the line so dividing these two townships, however, as to leave sufficient territory in each county for a separate township, and they retained their orig- inal names in accordance with section ten of the act. The part of Lackawaxen left in Wayne contained about six thousand acres, all unseated land. This was attached to and became a part of Dyberry township. There was also a small triangle of about two thousand acres of unseated land taken into Pike from the southeastern corner of Dyberry and attached to Lackawaxen in Pike. The portion of Delaware left in Wayne was attached to Salem.

The arca of Wayne was thus reduced from

about 1350 square miles (the estimated arca as originally erected) to about 722 square miles, its estimated present area.3

The population of the original Wayne County in 1810 was 4125, and in 1820, with Pike off, it was 4127, while that of Pike was 2849.4

The valuation of Wayne after the ercction of Pike, including land and other ratable prop- erty, as ascertained from the tax-list, was $529,788.50. The average value of land was, according to the assessment of 1814, $1.11 per acre.

The public buildings at Bethany had fairly well served the purposes for which they were intended, but in less than a year after the sever- ance of Pike, Wayne County was left without a prison, the old log jail being burned on Janu- ary 23, 1815-Monday of court week. The immediate provision of a temporary prison was nceessary, and arrangements were therefore made with D. Wilder to have two small rooms strongly partitioned off, adjoining and in the rear of the bar-room in his public-house, to use as a prison until a better could be provided. Prisoners were kept in the " Wilder Jail," as it was commonly called, until some time in the following year. On January 25th (two days after the fire) the commissioners met the grand jurors and consulted them as to the propricty of building a new court-house, also of build- ing a jail to supply the loss of the old one. It was decided that one juror from each town- ship should meet the commissioners the next day, to consult further on that matter, but the minutes do not show that they did so. On the 31st of January, Commissioners Spang and King were appointed a committee to visit Montrose, and procure a sketch of the building erceted there in 1813, comprising a court-house, county offices, jail and residence for the jailer's family (the cost of which, as stated in the " His- tory of Susquehanna County," was $4500.

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History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 22

Author: Mathews, Alfred, 1852-1904. 4n Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co. Number of Pages: 1438

Author: Mathews, Alfred, 1852-1904. 4n
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co.
Number of Pages: 1438