USA > Pennsylvania > The Wyoming Valley in the nineteenth century > Part 16
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21
The first departure from an agricultural life was the running of arks and rafts down to tide. The young man went out into the world and the old pastoral life was invaded. The opening of the canal made boatmen of many of the farmers and opened up a market for our coal: The first railroad in the valley was the "Underground Railroad."
Mr. Gildersleeve, a friend of the slaves, was ridden on a rail after being blacked by his democratic neighbors. Later a slave owner shot a slave as he was swimming the river. The
.
AH. COL
LOUISENSTOR DEL
APO MALLEY
กู
اكلتك
الك أضافة
78
אר
i
٢٤٩
111
THE WYOMING VALLEY.
wounded man succeeded in getting to the shore, crawled upon the bank and lay there. The sight so wrought up the patriotic citizens that the southern gentlemen dare not afterwards hunt slaves in the valley. The northern rebel or Copperhead like the Tory traitor before him looked with contempt upon the man who was fighting for the preservation of the Union. Like the Tory they were largely represented by the aristocracy, if I may apply that title to an American citizen which we reserve for the landed aristocracy of Virginia and the lords of Europe. The Copperhead and the Democrat were the two ends of one party. The latter were patriots. When the call to arms rang through the valley like a trumpet blast, party lines were lost and all classes responded to the call to arms. The One Hundred and Forty-third Regiment was principally recruited from Luzerne county. Later there were several companies recruited and sent to the front. The first company that marched across the Kingston flats on their way to establish Camp Luzerne was Company A, commanded by Charles M. Conyngham and Lieutenant O. K. Moore. This was on July 29, 1862. Cap- tain George N. Reichard and Lieutenant Jobni C. Kropp started on the following day with about thirty recruits. This was Company C. Later Captain George E. Hoyt and Asher Gaylord arrived at the camp with twenty-five men each. George E. Hoyt was chosen Captain and a few days later was elected Lieutenant Colonel. A number of other companies came later from different parts of the county, making the muster roll on the thirtieth of August nearly one thousand men.
The ground on which the camp was established was given rent free with the use of the farm barn for storing tents and clothing, by the widow of Charles Bennet. Mrs. Bennet was known at camp as the "Mother of the Regiment." The Regiment broke camip No- vember 7, 1862, and left Kingston in cattle cars during a severe snow storm. -
The Regiment was engaged in the following battles: Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Wilderness, Laurel Hill, Spottsylvania Court House, Cold Harbor, Bethesda Church, Petersburg, Weldon Railroad, Dabney's Mills and Hatch's Run. There were killed in action ninety-three, died of wounds ninety-six, died of diseases eighty-two, died in prison fifty-two, the total number of deaths three hundred and twenty; discharged prior to mustering out two hundred and sixty-eight; total wounded one hundred and ninety- nine; fifteen were never heard from. Among this number were Captain Gaylord and Timothy Powell who were supposed to have been blown to pieces by a shell ; deserted one hundred and three, most of these came back to the Regiment when President Lincoln made the proclamation that all deserters who returned to the ranks would be pardoned. With the ninth company that was added to the Regiment it numbered all told fifteen hundred and seven. Six hundred men returned home at the close of the war. The Regiment suffered severely at Gettysburg, out of four hundred and sixty-five men the Regiment lost two hundred and fifty-three. E. L. Dana went out as Colonel of the Regiment and at the battle of Gettysburg when his superior officer was wounded he assumed command of the Brigade.
The Regiment erected a tablet at Gettysburg to mark the spot where they made what is called the "Glorious Stand," where the Regiment charged and saved their colors. The tablet represents Ben. Crippen, of Scranton. the standard bearer, who gave his life to save the colors of the Regiment. Colonel R. Bruce Ricketts commanded Battery F, First. Pennsylvania Artillery, at Gettysburg and his bravery in saving his Battery made him one of the heroes of that battle. General Osborne made a splendid war record.
112
NINEETENTH CENTURY.
When the "Boys in Blue" returned they found an enemy more malignant than the gen- tleman aristocrat of the South, that menaced both life and property. This enemy was fresh from Europe. They marched through our streets to terrorize the public ; they mur- dered their victims in the dark; they tied up the railroads and coal mines; they nailed a death notice on the door of the men who controlled public works; they controlled one of the political parties and insurrection paralyzed every interest. In 1877 the United States Government was called upon to protect us and seven thousand soldiers, eleven hundred of which were regulars, were sent into the valley. The tramp of armed men, the rifle and gatling gun, struck terror to these cut throats and anarchists and the mobs dispersed. Then the secret service ferreted out many of the murderers and they were hanged.
The change brought about by the war and the presence of a host of emigrants struck a spur into the old stock and rode ruthlessly over their standards and ideals. The mining of coal and the building of railroads made money plenty. Charles Parrish was the great leader in the industrial world and called into life great corporations.
To give an inventory of our industries or the history of their development is not my purpose. The prominent men of our past and those who are influential at the present time will be briefly noticed with other matter relative to our history and present development.
The later emigration represents three-fifths of our population. Nevertheless the soil is to-day as much the possession of the Yankee as any portion of the Nutmeg State. He owns and controls all but a small part of the wealth and industries of the valley and his standards and ideas are becoming supreme. Be not deceived. The old stock is the rock and the new comer the wave that breaks its foaming crest over it and falls into the trough of the sea.
We are in a stage of transition ; the moulding forces and mellowing charms of Chris- tianity, education and human intercourse are shaping into beauty our daily life, awakening our latent forces and hanging in our hearts a gracious light. The church is winning the youth to the moral side of religion, at least, by providing for his social nature; winning him by the personal touch of noble souls and helpful influences. The daily paper brings the thought of the world to nearly every home. The electric cars are making our population a unit and we are becoming cosmopolitan. As we grow wiser we become more practical, less emotional. Oratory has given place to the press; the individual is less potent and our ac- cessions in mechanical lines are putting all men more on a level. Education and association are bringing about what we aspire to-unity. We have too much crude human nature and ignorance ; a great deal of prosperity ; we are submerged by the yellow Tiber of material well-being.
At the present time the people are twice as well off as they were forty years ago. The amount of education and general knowledge has doubled; we need twice as much to supply our wants; we get twice as much for our labor and for our money, and give less labor for our wages. The proportion of our church membership has increased more than fifty per cent. We can with propriety ask "If as a people we are to become mongrel"? It does not seriously disturb us as we are inclined to favor intermixing, regarding it as one of the econ- omies of nature in perfecting the race. Doubtless the national distinctions will continue to show as marked as the colors of a rainbow.
The boast and desire of many Americans in the valley is to be identified as descendants of the Mayflower Pilgrims. But before we emblazon our heraldry to furnish a coat of
113
THE WYOMING VALLEY.
arms, let us be careful or we may run across a Penal Colonist. We delight to call our- selves Anglo-Saxons, but why should we? Were they not made slaves by the Normans (French) and many of them driven to the mountain fastnesses of Wales? Why do we deny our Norman blood ? We ignore the fact that the Romans occupied Britain for four centuries, longer than the Angles or Saxons and before them or the Normans. Are we not the fellow citizens of Casar and Napoleon? Do we not go back to the Tiber and the Seine? Have we not the unconquerable and dominating spirit of the Romans? The American is more a Roman than anything else.
The present population of the county is over two hundred thousand, mostly added in the last ten years, which have centered in the vicinity of the inines. We are five hundred and forty feet above the tide, and the height of our mountains ranges from seven to fifteen hundred feet. We go down through one hundred feet of anthracite coal, separated into fourteen well defined veins, and in some places the coal deposit is five miles wide. If you wish to see the geological formation, lock at the face of Campbell's Ledge.
The Susquehanna enters the valley through a magnificent gateway in the mountain at the north side. After crossing the valley three times and traveling twenty miles it flows out through the southern gateway. The valley is one vast plain reaching from mountain to mountain, composed of drift, probably washed in this great synclinal when the Atlantic poured in its tide. Its beauty can never be described ; the pathetic history of its frontier period cannot be written ; its wealth cannot be computed nor its future foretold. It has no ancient history. Two hundred years ago it was unknown to civilized man. Behind its history stands the savage, and the sound of his receding footsteps finds a pathetic echo in our hearts. He was not our enemy but our victim ; we told him we were his friend but he was too sagacious to put himself in our power er trust us. As long as the long grass grows on the sandy bottom lands and the groves stand in their primitive beauty by the river's edge the spirit of the savage will be there waiting for the vision of civilization to disappear.
This is one of the most famous valleys on the globe. An insignificent fight lasting less than half an hour, where but a few hundred were engaged, so touched the heart of humanity that it made it impossible for the mother country to continue the war. A poem gave it a place in the imagination of mankind and stamped it there forever. Poetically, pathetically and exquisitely beautiful, its mineral wealth has turned the footsteps of the poor and . oppressed of all lands to this valley. Our history is not made manifest in ancient ruins nor crumbling towers ; we are not the legatees of noble titles or of royal blood ; we have but few historical shrines and no graves of historical interest. No genius nor hero who has writ- ten his name on the pages of the world's history has honored us by being born in our midst.
Our forefathers built a beautiful monument at Wyoming over the bones of their unfor- tunate ancestors. This shaft is chaste and elegant. This generation have as yet done nothing to preserve and mark historical localities nor to perpetuate and proclaim any event of our past history. It would become us to rear a few historical shrines where our pride at least would be proclaimed. The spot of ground at Sturmerville where the massacre took place should be marked by a tablet ; the place where the men who fell there lay buried, until they were removed to the monument plot, should be adorned by a column, and when the Court House is removed from the centre of the Public Square it is to be hoped that a , statue may be placed there in honor of the " Boys in Blue." We of this age are not dis- posed to erect ornamental monuments, for we are past the heroic and poetical period, our hero worship has faded into practical wisdom.
114
NINETEENTH CENTURY.
We have a Monumental Association that on the third of July, each year, meets at the monument to echo echoes and build historical shrines in the July sunshine, while the loca- tion of the Fort at Forty Fort is not discernible and Queen Esther's Rock is marked only by a cow shed. The monuments this generation have built are of brick and mortar.
The statue of Reuben Nelson, D. D., the founder of Wyoming Seminary, does not adorn the grounds of that institution nor his bust the chapel, but in accord with modern sentiment Nelson Memorial Ilall was erected to fiil a double mission-a servant of the liv- ing and a monument to the dead. Nesbitt Science Hall, a gift to the Seminary, will make the name of Abram Nesbitt as well-known and honored in the twentieth century as it is in the nineteenth. The Osterhout Free Library and Historical Building, the Memorial Church, Harry Hillman Academy and the Memoriai Hall of the Grand Army testify to the intelligence as well as the good taste and liberality of our citizens who have erected memorials.
The most economical and lasting monuments we have in the valley are the names given to the natural features, municipal divisions and geographical boundaries. These names when regarded collectively give us a brief history of the people. The Indian names possess beauty and individuality, stamping forever the only original poetry of this continent on this locality, and give our life a background of savage poetry. Our forefathers imported their names, which proclaim their English parentage. Kingston, Plymouth, Hanover and Troy suggest a British Province. The name of our county hints of our past relations to France. Nanticoke and Shawnee locate two Indian tribes. The name of our river and the valley possess as much beauty, character and poetry as any names in our language., The Indian names are responsible to a large degree for the Parnassian stamp which has g.ven this valley to fame. All the names which were not borrowed or inherited by us either proclaim our lack of intelligence or taste. We have Gabtown, Whiskey Hill, Skunktown, Yellow Wash, Poke Hollow, Goose Island. Blindtown and the like. The descriptive names are Plains (which is a hill), Pittston, Ashley, Buttonwood, Pleasant Valley (that is neither pleasant nor a valley), Edwardsdale and Avondale, both mining towns built on a bare hillside. Our city perpetuates the names of two men of little interest to us; we spell it with a big Band a hyphen. For the rest of our names we have taken the surname of some citizen.
Our historical names are Zebulon Butler, who commanded the little band at the massa- cre ; Francas Slocum, who was taken from her home in Wilkes-Barre by a band of Delaware Indians when but a child and spent her life among them, she is called "the Lost Sister of Wyoming"; George Catlin, the painter of the aborigines of America; Count Zinzendorf, an early Moravian missionary, and Queen Esther, a coarse, intemperate and brutal squaw from Tioga Point, who murdered the prisoners the night after the massacre in a dramatic manner ; these have a place in our history. The name of Brant probably falsely is asso- ciated with the atrocities at Wyoming ; then there is Butler, who commanded the British forces ; and Campbell, the author of the once popular epic, "Gertrude of Wyoming"; for him it would be a nice exhibition of poetic sentiment and justice on our part if we should rear his statue in payment of the advertisement he gave us and the poetic luster he attached to Wyoming Valley. We are a little proud that Louis XIV put up at a hotel in Wilkes- Barre and that King James I made this classic valley over to the Council of Plymouth incidentally with a tract of land extending to the South Sea (Pacific) in 1620, and that Charles II, to liquidate an old debt he owed to the father of William Peifn, gave to the im-
·
115
THE WYOMING VALLEY.
portunate William the same territory in 168s, all of which gives a background of royalty to our history. We have the satisfaction of laying on a King the responsibility of being obliged, after suffering untold miseries, to accept the Decree of Trenton, that gave the land to the hated Hessians who had hired themselves to the British to help conquer us and then had the effrontery to remain.
There are many names that the dust of years has not hidden on the pages of our local history. The most prominent private citizen of all our history was Matthias Hollenback. He was a monopolist, as he monopolized nearly all the business in northeastern Pennsyl- vania and central New York, and owned enough land if combined to make a State. The two great Judges, George W. Woodward and John N, Conyngham, stand fixed stars in our firmament. Hendrick B. Wright with his Gne imposing figure and glowing oratory cannot be lost sight of. Father Hunt (Rev. Thomas P.), the great temperance lecturer of his day, with his long white beard and bent form demands our notice. Reuben Nelson, D. D., the founder of the Wyoming Seminary, we could not forget if we would. Our historians have made their fame secure.
No one at the present day is clamoring to be remembered in the future. It is a vain query to ask if any name among us will survive a century. If we have not served and hung a lamp in the hearts of mankind we should be forgotten.
The amount of wealth in the possession of the people of this valley is enormous. We do not know how many millionaires we have. John Welles Hollenback and Abram Nesbitt are millionaires, and Lawrence Myers, Charles A. Miner, W. L. Conyngham and Daniel Edwards reputed millionaires. The last two gentlemen, the first by selling coal and the second by mining, acquired their wealth. The very wealthy people of the valley are Thomas Ford, Ralph Lacoe and Scott Stark, of Pittston ; George S. Bennett, Baker 1Iill- man, Richard Sharpe, Thomas Atherton, Andrew Derr, W. D. Loomis, John G. Wood, Edward S. Loop, George C. Lewis, George Parrish, James Sutton, Robert Baur, Richard Walsh, Alexander Van Horn, S. L. Brown, Charles Parrish, Edward Welles, Andrew Hun- lock, Nathaniel Rutter, Garrick M. Harding, A. J. Davis, William and H. H. Harvey. George Loveland, Sheldon and Benjamin Reynolds, E. W. Sturdevant, Marcus Smith, Charles D. Foster, Barney Burgunder, John C. Haddock, Morgan B. Williams, Charles Stegmaier, Mrs. A. T. McClintock, Mrs. John Phelps, Mrs. Samuel Turner, the Misses Bennett, Mrs. H. H. Derr, Mrs. Priscilla Bennett, Mrs. B. G. Carpenter, Miss Lucy Abbott, Mrs. Josiah Lewis, and the estates of H. B. Wright, Charles Dorrance, E. L. Dana. George W. Woodward, John Reichard, C. B. Price, Thomas Lazarus, Jonas Long, E. Maxwell, R. J. Flick, Reuben Downing, Richard Jones and Mrs. Emily Wright, all of Wilkes-Barre; Calvin Parsons, of Parsons ; H. B. Plumb, of Plumbtown ; Mrs. Frank Turner and George Davenport, of Plymouth ; Mrs. Payne Pettebone and Robert T. Pettebone. of Wyoming ; William Loveland, John D. Hoyt and Mrs. Samuel Hoyt, of Kingston, and many others.
This valley in the past was rich in noble men. The line has not died out. We have a goodly number left who are enjoying that beautiful pause betwen sunset and twilight that life takes as if to prolong its delights. Rev. E. Hazard Snowden, D. D., was born in 1799 and is sitting contentedly on the shores of time waiting to see the dawn of the twentieth century. Nathaniel Rutter was born in 1806, though slightly bent is strong, grand and vigorous. Calvin Parsons carries his splendid proportions with the grace of a young man, yet he was born in 1815. Draper Smith and John J. Shonk, of Plymouth, were born in
.
116
NINEETENTH CENTURY.
1815; Charles Morgan was born in 1814 ; Christian Brahl and Rev. Miner Swallow were born the same year; Frank Helme in 1816; Ira Tripp in 1817; Lawrence Myers and Lewis LeGrand in 1818; John B. Smith, John D. Hlost and William Dickover in 1819; Squire Eno and George Parrish in 1820; William Loveland and John Sharp Pettibone in 1821 ; George Davenport in 1823; Rev. H. H. Welles, George Loveland, Rev. J. K. Peck and Edward S. Loop in 1824; Daniel E. Edwards, P. A. Reeves and Robert Baur in 1825 ; A. C. Laycock, John Welles Hollenback, Dr. J. B. Crawford and Simon Long in 1827; A. R. Brundage, Esq., in 1828; II. B. Plumb in 1829; Charles A. Miner, Garrick M. Hard- ing and C. B. Sutton in 1830; Abram Nesbitt and Morgan B. Williams in 1831; Stanley Woodward in 1833; Isaac Long, George Reichard and J. Bennett Smith in 1834; E. H. Chase, Esq., in 1835 ; Rev. Theophilus Jones in 1810. The list if made complete would be a very long one.
We miss from our streets the many remarkable men who have passed away during the last few years. We look in vain on the streets of our city for face and form of Judge Dana, William P. Miner, Colonel Dorrance, L. D. Shoemaker, Dr. E. R. Mayer, A. T. McClin- tock, Reuben J. Flick, E. P. and J. Vaughn Darling, H. B. Payne, W. R. Maffet, C. F. Ingham, John C. Phelps, B. G. Carpenter, W. W. Loomis, Allen Dickson, General Mc- Cartney, and at this writing Charles M. Conyngham is lying dead at his home in Wilkes- Barre. The list if complete would show a line of men that we regard with affection and reverence.
Many of the old historic families are dying out, in this locality at least. Such as the Abbott, Bidlacks, Blackman, Dana, Dennison, Fell, Franklin, Gore, Hollenback, Inman, Jameson, Jenkins, Mallery, Pierce, Perkins, Ransom, Ross, Scarles, Slocum, Stewart, Swetland, Tuttle and Wright. The most historic family of the valley is the Butler family. The great men of this family were Colonel Zebulon Butler, our greatest soldier, and Gen- eral Lord Butler, one of the most prominent private citizens of our past history ; E. G. Butler and C. E. Butler are descendants. The Dennison family shine on the pages of our history ; the most famous name is Colonel Nathan Dennison, who commanded the left wing of the men who were slaughtered at the massacre ; his marriage to Miss Sill was the first white marriage in the valley, in 1769; their son Lazarus is supposed to be the first white child born in this section ; Colonel Dennison was one of the first Judges of the county. George, his son, served in the Legislature. The Dorrance family has stood as one of the first families of the valley; Colonel Benjamin Dorrance was in the fort when it surrendered, being but a lad ; Lieutenant-Colonel George Dorrance was killed at the massacre; Rev. John Dor- rance was pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Wilkes-Barre, many years; Colonel Charles Dorrance, of Dorranceton, was one of the foremost private citizens of Wyoming Valley, died 1892 ; the family is represented by his four sons and his daughter, Mrs. Sheldon Reynolds. The Hollenback family were the wealthiest in this part of the State; the famous head of this family in the valley was Matthias; he was in the massacre but escaped by swimming the river; his son, George M., inherited his father's wealth and his great genius for business. The Jenkins family begins with John Jenkins, who presided at the first meeting of the patriots to vote on striking for independence ; he was a noted surveyor and his capture by the Indians makes one of the interesting narratives of our history ; the late Steuben Jenkins, the historian, was a descendant. The Dana family in Wyoming fully maintained the prestige of that great name; Anderson Dana was a pioneer lawyer and an advocate of education and
117
THE WYOMING VALLEY.
religion ; he fell in the massacre and his widow and children fled to Connecticut ; Mrs. Dana carried her husband's papers in a pillow-case and thereby saved her title to the Dana estate; her son Anderson settled on the Dana estate and was a prominent man ; the late Edmund L. Dana was his grandson ; E. L. Dana served with distinction in the Mexican and civil wars; rose to the rank of General; was one of the Judges of our Court, and a cultured man. The Harding family were the first to yield then blood in the early struggles in the valley ; two were killed in the Exeter massacre and four were members of Captain Durkee's com- pany ; Judge Garrick Harding represents the family. Major John Durkee was one of the forty settlers ; Robert Durkee fell at the massacre; he was a captain in the Continental army and had resigned to come home to defend his family ; the Durkee family were the founders of Wilkes-Barre and they denie! themselves immortality by not baptising their offspring "Durkee." General Simon Spalding, made famous by the affair at Bound Brook, was also with General Sullivan in his raid on the Indians. The history of the Gore family is a tale of blood ; the elder Gore was a magistrate under the Connecticut authority and was one of the old men left in the fort July third ; in the battle were five sons and two sons-in-law and five of them were slain. The Pierce family furnished victims for the butchery at Wyoming; Ezekiel was a major. The Inman family is known to history mainly because Richard imbibed more whiskey than he could carry on the morning of July third and lived to save the life of Rufus Bennett by shooting an Indian that was chasing him ; this family had four members killed by the Indians and in consequence the family became known as Indian hunters. The wealthy and influential Shoemaker family have given the valley a line of lawyers, legislators and worthy citizens; L. D. Shoemaker, Esq., lately deceased, ranked first at the Bar and as a representative of the people; Robert Shoe- maker, Esq., and Dr. Levi, are conspicuous Shoemakers at the present day. Colonel Pick- ering was the most prominent man sent here by the Pennsylvania claimants and was kid- naped by the Yankees for arresting Colonel John Franklin. Two of the Ross family were slain at Wyoming; the family had a taste for military affairs and public life; the two famous names of the family are General William and William Sterling, his son ; both were members of the State Senate; Edward Sterling Loop. has the sword that the elder Ross was presented with by the Executive Council at Philadelphia; Doctor Ross of South Wilkes-Barre is the only male representative of the family left. The Bidlack family were soldiers, full of patriotism ; James was captain and led his company to action while his father, who was an old man, was in command of a company of old men in the fort at Plymouth ; the Rev. Benjamin Bidlack, of Kingston, made the fame of the family by singing the "Swaggering Man" to entertain his captors and swaggered himself over the fence. The Pettebone family are old settlers and soldiers; a large number of the descendants live at Forty Fort. Doctor William Hooker Smith was a very prominent early physician and also an author. The name of Stark is among the early settlers, and some of them were killed at the massacre ; the Pittston and Plainsville branches are well and favorably known to this generation. Samuel Carey was a captive for six years with the Indians, having been captured after the massacre, on Wintermoot Island. and adopted by an Indian family who had lost a son. The Myers family has an honored place in our affections as well as in our history ; Mrs. Myers, who was in the fort, furnished George Peck, the historian, with much matter for his history; B. F. Myers, of Kingston, represents the family. The Harvey family begins in our history with the name of Benjamin, who was an intimate friend of Zebulon Butler ; the family has a creditable Revolutionary War record ; they are an old
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.