USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Wilkes-Barre > Wilkes-Barre (the "Diamond city") Luzerne County, Pennsylvania; its history, its natural resources, its industries, 1769-1906 > Part 3
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"It was Greek against Greek now. Ogden demanded the surrender of the fort [Durkee]. Stewart replied that he had taken possession in the name and
FROM OSCAR J. HARVEY'S FORTHCOMING " HISTORY OF WILKES-BARRE !! COPYRIGHTED.
FORT WYOMING, WILKES-BARRE, 1771-'74.
behalf of the Colony of Connecticut, in whose jurisdiction they were, and by that authority he would defend it." During this parley Nathan Ogden (a member of the Pennamite force, and brother of Captain Ogden) was killed by a shot fired from Fort Durkee. Perceiving that the Pennamites far outnum- - bered his men, Captain Stewart, accompanied by thirty or forty of his most trusty adherents, quietly retired from Fort Durkee and from the valley during the ensuing night. About ten or twelve families, who were believed to be the least obnoxious to the Pennamites, were left in possession of the fort, but the next day the men-ten or twelve in number-were all taken prisoners and sent to the Easton jail, while the other members of these families were driven out of the valley. This was the fifth expulsion of the Yankees from Wyoming by the Pennamites. "The killing of Nathan Ogden was regarded by the authori-
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ties of Pennsylvania as the greatest outrage that had thus far marked this most singular and obstinate contest, and a reward of £300 was offered for the appre- hension of Lazarus Stewart-but he was not taken."
About the 1st of March, 1771, the men who had been garrisoning the two forts at Wilkes-Barre were joined by a number of Pennsylvanians and Jersey- men with their families, as well as by Capt. Amos Ogden and Charles Stewart, Esq., previously mentioned. Fort Wyoming was thereupon enlarged and strengthened, and all the Pennamite settlers and others on the ground dwelt therein-Fort Durkee being abandoned and dismantled and, it is quite probable, demolished in part. During the next four months, and more peace and quiet reigned in Wyoming, and the Pennamites here, who numbered about eighty effective men, were nearly all engaged in agricultural operations at various points within hail of Fort Wyoming. The members of The Susquehanna Company were not idle, however, during this time, for in March, April and June, 1771, largely-attended meetings of the Company's shareholders were held at Windham, Connecticut, and plans were made for retaking possession of their settlement at Wyoming. A report having been made at the first meet- ing that the Company's settlers had been "again unjustly and inhumanly drove off from their settlement at Wyoming, and robbed of their effects, by a gang of lawless and wicked men," it was resolved that it was "desirable to defend our [their] possessions on Susquehanna River with life and spirit," and that the claim to those lands should be "prosecuted in every constitutional way that can be devised." A committee was appointed "to take the names of such as shall engage to go forward"; and it was voted that each man "at his setting off be paid out of the treasury of the Company five dollars."
In pursuance of these resolutions upwards of seventy men (nearly every one of whom was a shareholder in the Company, and had been at Wvo- ming at some time previously) were enlisted to go forward to the much-coveted valley under the command of Capt. Zebulon Butler.# Each man armed and equipped himself, and towards the end of June Captain Butler and about fifty of his men set out from eastern Connecticut for Wilkes-Barre. Before reach- ing here they were joined by Capt. Lazarus Stewart and some twelve or fifteen of his followers, and on the 9th of July this combined band of spirited men appeared with startling suddenness in Wyoming Valley and deployed before the wooden walls of Fort Wyoming to "prosecute the claim" of The Susque- hanna Company. By July 21st Captain Butler's force had been increased to ninety-eight effective men by the arrival of re-enforcements. Several redoubts were thereupon erected, and the investment of Fort Wyoming was completed 'oy the besieging party-all communication with the surrounding country, either by land or water, being entirely cut off. After a siege of twenty-six days,
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. Zebulon Butler was a native of Ipswich, Essex County, Massachusetts, where he was born in 1731; but at an early age he removed with his parents to Lyme, New London County, Connecticut. His military service began in the Summer of 1755, when he became Ensign of a company in the Connecticut regiment commanded by Col. David Wooster. He was in active service as an officer in each of the campaigns in the years 1755-'61 during the French and Indian War, and in 1762, as Captain (having been promoted to that rank in 1759), he took part in the fatal expedition against Havana. He came to Wyoming first in June, 1769, and from that time until within four or five years of his death (a period of twenty-one years)"the life of Zebulon Butler is the history of Wyoming." From September, 1776, till June, 1783, he was in active service as an officer of the Continental Army-first as Lieutenant Colonel and then as Colonel. From 1,57 till 1792 he was " Lientenant of the County " in and for the new county of Luzerne. He died at his home in the township of Wilkes-Barre, July 28, 1795.
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FROM OSCAR J. HARVEY'S FORTHCOMING " HISTORY OF WILKES-BAPRE."". COPYRIGHTED.
THE OLD CANAL BASIN, AS SEEN FROM THE "REDOUBT", ABOUT 1875.
$
VIEW OF RIVER COMMON, NORTH FROM THE ROOF OF HOTEL STERLING, APRIL, 1906.
during which the forces of the combatants were largely increased in numbers, the Pennamites were compelled to evacuate their fort and depart from the valley, leaving the Yankees in full and quiet possession.
At last the Wyoming settlement under the auspices of The Susquehanna Company was beginning to flourish ; new settlers-men, women and children --- from Connecticut and elsewhere were coming to the valley nearly every week ; town-meetings were being frequently held at Fort Wyoming by the qualified "proprietors" of the whole settlement, at which affairs of common interest and public good were discussed and acted upon. In every respect the people showed that they were competent to defend themselves, and their footing seemed securely established. In the early part of the Winter of 1771-'72 Fort Wyo- ming and the Mill-Creek block-house were enlarged and strengthened, and in the Spring of 1772 the settlers, with very few exceptions, were still living in those strongholds-being about equally divided between the two. With the coming of Spring many of the settlers departed for their old homes in New England and elsewhere, and soon returned with their wives and children, their live stock and their personal and household effects. The surveys of the five "settling" townships were perfected, and on or about April 30, 1772, a re- distribution of the lots in the town-plot of Wilkes-Barre was made to the fifty proprietors of the township; and to them, then and later, an original distribu- tion was made, by means of a lottery, of the 150 lots in the three other divisions of the township.
At the time of the allotment of the Wilkes-Barre lands what was called the town-plot was still "a sterile plain, covered with pitch pine and scrub oak." However, within a very short time the first house within the bounds of the town-plot was erected, a well was dug, and other improvements were made by Capt. Stephen Fuller on his lot at the south-west corner of Main and North- ampton Streets. The carpentry was done by John Abbott, Captain Fuller's brother-in-law. The remains of the old fireplace of this house were to be seen as late as 1812-the building itself having been burned down either in 1778 or 1784-while the well on the premises was in evidence, and perhaps in use, as late as 1830.
In January, 1774, the General Assembly of Connecticut erected the Wyo- ming territory-including of course the village and township of Wilkes-Barré -- into the town of Westmoreland, and annexed it to the county of Litchfield, Connecticut, with all the corporate powers of other towns in the Colony-in- cluding the right of representation by two deputies, or representatives, in the General Assembly of Connecticut. ( The county-town of Litchfield was distant . from Wilkes-Barre nearly 200 miles by the most direct route through north- eastern Pennsylvania and across south-eastern New York. ) March 1 and 2. 1774, the freemen of Westmoreland assembled in town-meeting at Wilkes- Barré, and the new town was formally organized by the transaction of certain matters of business and the election of ninety-nine town officers-Clerk, Treas- urer, Selectmen, Constables, Collectors of Rates, Surveyors of Highways, Fence Viewers, Listers, Grand Jurors, etc. Some months later certain courts of justice were established, representatives from Westmoreland to the General
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FROM OSCAR J. HARVEY'S FORTHCOMING " HISTORY OF WILKES - RARRE ... COPYRIGHTED.
LOOKING DOWN THE SUSQUEHANNA FROM TILLBURY'S KNOB, NEAR NANTICOKE FALLS, SOME EIGHT MILES SOUTH-WEST OF WILKES-BARRE.
Assembly were elected, and in May, 1775, the organization of the 24th Reg- iment, Connecticut Militia (to be constituted of Westmoreland men), having been authorized by the General Assembly, its field officers were "established" and duly commissioned-Zebulon Butler being Colonel, Nathan Denison Lieu- tenant Colonel and William Judd Major.
In December, 1775, the long period of peace and quiet which Wyoming had been enjoying was broken by an incursion of a body of some 600 or 700 well- armed and equipped men from Sunbury and its neighborhood, in Northum- berland County, Pennsylvania, under the command of Dr. William Plunket, a Justice of the Peace, and a Colonel in the Pennsylvania militia. This expedi- tion had been organized in pursuance of orders issued by John Penn, Governor of Pennsylvania, and the armed force was denominated "the posse comitatus of Northumberland." Ostensibly it was the body-guard of Sheriff Cook of North- umberland County, whose business at Wyoming, it was claimed, was to arrest on civil writs two or three of the leading Yankees here. In reality, however, the object of this expedition was to drive The Susquehanna Company's settlers out of their peaceful valley. The organization of the 24th Regiment having been completed in October, 1775, Colonel Butler called out six of the nine com- panies composing it, and with this force-aggregating about. 400 men- he suc- cessfully repelled the invaders, fighting a battle at "Rampart Rocks" near Nan- ticoke Falls on Christmas-day. Several lives were lost on both sides, and thus was ended the "First Pennamite-Yankee War."
Notwithstanding their own peculiar situation, and the fact that they felt themselves to be under the necessity of constantly watching and guarding against their near-by foes, the Pennamites, the people of Wyoming were prompt to espouse the cause of their country upon the breaking out of the War for Independence. As early as August 8, 1775, in town-meeting assembled, they voted : "We will unanimously join our brethren in America in the common cause of defending our liberty." At the first news of the conflicts at Lexing- ton and Concord in April, 1775, some of the young men of Wyoming had hastened to join the Continental forces near Boston, and some of them arrived in time to take part in the battle of Bunker Hill.
Four months prior to the signing of the Declaration of American Inde- pendence sixty-six inhabitants of Westmoreland, "being sensible of the bless- ings of liberty, and desirous of taking a share in defense thereof," organized themselves into a military company and offered their services to the Conti- mental Congress "to engage our [their] enemies, invaders, or intruders." Con- gress did not, however, accept the offer of these "associators" : but five months later (in August, 1776), Independence having been declared, Congress re- solved that two military companies "on the Continental establishment" should be raised in the town of Westmoreland, and forthwith appointed and commis- sioned the necessary officers for the same. These companies were duly raised, and were mustered into the Continental service at Wilkes-Barre September 17, 1776. They were credited to Connecticut, and were known as the "Wyo- ming Independent Companies" and as the "Independent Companies of West- moreland". Numbering in the aggregate 180 officers and men they marched
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early in January, 1777, from Wilkes-Barre to Morristown, New Jersey, where they joined the forces of General Washington. During their whole term of service they were on active duty, and were brave and efficient soldiers.
At a town-meeting held at Wilkes-Barre August 24, 1776-less than two months after the Declaration of Independence-it was voted by the inhabitants of Westmoreland "that it now becomes necessary for the inhabitants of this town to erect suitable forts, as a defense against our common enemy." Colonel Butler, Lieutenant Colonel Denison and Major Judd were then appointed "a committee to fix on proper sites for the forts, lay them out, and give directions how they should be built." Shortly afterwards this committee recommended to the people that they "proceed forthwith in building said forts without either fee or reward from ye town." This recommendation was adopted by the citi- zens, and within a short time wooden forts, or stockades, were erected in the districts of Plymouth, Exeter, Pittston and Wilkes-Barre. In the district of Kingston Forty Fort, which had been erected about three miles north of the
FORTY FORT, 1772-1778. Photo-reproduction of the picture in Pearce's "Annals of Luzerne County".
village of Wilkes-Barre by the inhabitants of Kingston in 1772 (not in either 1769 or 1770, each of which has been mentioned often heretofore as the year of its erection ), was enlarged and strengthened. Fort Wilkes-Barre was built in the Autumn of 1776 on the southern half of the Public Square, being located about where now stands the monument set up in 1881 by the Pennsylvania Geo- logical Survey to indicate the latimde and longitude of Wilkes-Barre.
The General Assembly of Connecticut, sitting at New Haven, passed an Act October 10, 1776, declaring that thenceforth that Colony should "forever be and remain a free, sovereign and independent State, by the name of the State of Connecticut"; and later in the same month, by enactment of the same Legislature, the town of Westmoreland was erected into "Westmoreland County
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of the State of Connecticut", with a complete civil and military establishment, and with Wilkes-Barre as the county-town.
The Year 1778 brought great distress and fear to the inhabitants of West- moreland, for it became known that the British military authorities had decided to employ the Six Nation Indians to aid in carrying on a campaign of desola- tion against the frontier settlements of New York and Pennsylvania. The people of Westmoreland, or Wyoming, were known to be, in a measure, defense- less ; and, although they had not been annoyed by Indians for several years, they felt that now they would be among the first to be attacked. Theirs was in truth a frontier settlement, located on the very borders of the Six Nations. Beyond the reach of succor in case of sudden attack, deprived of many of its natural protectors, and without sufficient arms and ammunition, the situation of Wyoming was indeed desperate. Not only were the two "Wyoming Inde- pendent Companies" with Washington's army, but nearly two score more Wyo- ming men had enlisted in other military organizations and were in active service , far from their homes. It was very evident to the inhabitants that they would have to rely on themselves for any defense necessary to be made against an invading enemy. .
Early in the Spring of 1778, in pursuance of orders from Sir Guy Carleton, Captain General and Governor of Canada, and Commander-in-chief of His Majesty's forces in Canada and on its frontiers, preparations were begun at Fort Niagara. on the southern shore of Lake On- tario, for an expedition having as its main object the extermina. tion of the Wyoming settle- ments. Maj. John Butler, com- manding a battalion of Provin- cial troops known as "Butler's Rangers", with headquarters at Fort Niagara, was appointedi to the command of this expedi- tion ; and largely through his in- fluence Sayenqueraghta. a lead- ing and noted chief of the Sen- eca nation, was induced to join the expedition with several hun- dred of his warriors. Major Butler was in supreme command of the combined force, which numbered some 1,100 "Ran- gers" and Indians. The in-
FROM OSCAR J. HARVEY'S FORTHCOMING " HISTORY OF WILLES. BAPRE. "" COPYRIGHTED.
VIEW IN 1878 OF A PORTION OF THE BATTLEFIELD OF WYOMING ; SHOWING IN THE DISTANCE THE OLD JENKINS HOUSE. BUILT ON THE SITE OF FORT WINTERMUTE.
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vaders reached the confines of Wyoming Valley June 30, 1778. "They made no attempt at a surprise. They seemed to know that the Wyoming men were the easiest people in the world to find, and that they would not have to chase them. They may even have thought that the more slowly and openly they ad- vanced the richer would be their reward; for the Wyoming soldiers in the Con- tinental army would hurry home to defend their families."
When the alarm was sounded the able-bodied defenders of Wyoming-about 400 men and boys-rendezvoused at Forty Fort. In the afternoon of July 3d nearly the whole of this small force marched out of the fort under the com- mand of Lieut. Col. Zebulon Butler (who chanced to be in the valley on leave of absence from his regiment in the Continental army), and advanced some three miles north-east, where the enemy was encountered and the battle of Wyoming was fought on Abraham's Plains, within the present limits of the borough of Exeter. The story of this battle and the subsequent massacre -- so dreadfully disastrous to the inhabitants of the valley-has been told so often by poets and historians, that any extended reference to it here is un- necessary. * On July 4th the Wyoming patriots surrendered to the victorious invaders, and under the terms of capitulation the various garrisons and forts in the valley were to be demolished. Not only was this de- struction accomplished without delay, but in addition the enemy plundered nearly all the inhabitants of Wy- oming of their personal belongings, and ruthlessly de- stroved their homes and growing crops. "Numeri- cal superiority alone gave success to the invader, and wide-spread havoc, desolation and ruin marked his say- age and bloody footsteps through the valley." In the village of Wilkes-Barre the fort and all other buildings, with the exception of three or four, were burned to the ground, and the residents, in common with all who dwelt in the valley, were forced to flee either down the river or over the mountains to places of refuge far distant. In very truth Wyoming was desolated and de- populated !
But in just one month thereafter Col. Zebulon But- ler marched to ruined and deserted Wilkes-Barre from what is now Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, in command of a force of one hundred and odd men, consisting of forty of the Westmoreland militia whom he had gath- ered together, and Capt. Simon Spalding's Continental company composed of the remnants of the two "Wyo- ming Independent Companies" previously mentioned. A log house which had escaped the 4th of July conflagra-
WYOMING MONUMENT.
* Within the present limits of the borough of Wyoming, not far from where the battle and massacre of July 3. 1778, took place, a monument has been erected " commemorative of these events, and of the actors in them." This monument, which was dedicated July 3, 1846 ( its corner-stone having been laid July 3. 1833), "was erected over the bones of the slain by their descendants, and others, who gratefully appreciated the services and sacrifices of their patriot ancestors."
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tion, and which stood on Main Street near Northampton, was taken possession of and fortified by a stockade of logs set up around it. This served as quarters for the men while they were engaged in scouting, in harvesting the slender crops and gathering together the few straved cattle which had not been destroyed or carried off by the enemy, and in erecting a new Fort Wyoming on the River Common near Northampton Street, on the site of the former Fort Wyoming (see page 26) which had been demolished by the proprietors of Wilkes-Barre in the latter part of 1774. This second fort was destroyed by the inhabitants of Wyoming in November, 1784, and its site is now marked by a stone monn- ment, bearing a suitably-inscribed bronze tablet, erected in June. 1899, by Wyo- ming Valley Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, of Wilkes- Barré.
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Gradually-beginning in August, 1778, as previously mentioned-the exiles from Wyoming returned to their ruined homes and devastated fields, and attempted as best they could to re-establish themselves in the valley they loved ' so well. But as they were often harassed by Indians-who sneaked down to Wyoming from western New York, and upon several occasions took the lives as well as the property of some of the in- habitants-they were mainly obliged to live in garrisons ( particularly in Wilkes-Barre, Kingston and Plymouth ) for more than two years after the resettlement of the valley had been begun. During this period there occurred in the neighborhood of Wilkes-Barre many dramatic incidents and tragic catas- trophes, the best known of which, and the one that has always excited the mnost interest in the minds of those familiar with Wyoming history, is the episode of the taking away into Indian captivity of Frances Slocum. She was a child of five years when, in November, 1778. she was seized by a band of hostile Delaware Indians and carried off from the home of her parents in the town-plot of Wilkes- Barre, near the western corner of the present North Street and Pennsylva- nia Avenue. Before her whereabouts FRANCES SLOCUM could be ascertained by her surviving relatives fifty-nine years had passed by, and then she was found living near Pern, Indiana, the widow of a Miami Indian chief and the mother of two married daughters.
AT THE AGE OF SIXTY-SIX YEARS. AFTER A PORTRAIT PAINTED FROM LIFE IN 1839.
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The work of rebuilding ruined habitations and making other improve- ments in Wyoming in 1779 and 1780 progressed slowly, for the people had few horses and cattle, fewer tools and implements with which to work and no money to use in buying new supplies. For the protection of the people a small garrison of Continental troops was maintained at Fort Wyoming, Wilkes- Barré, from the Autumn of 1778 until February, 1783-Col. Zebulon Butler being in command for the greater part of this time, during which the fort was officially known as "Wyoming Post" and "Wyoming Garrison." With the close of the War for Independence, and with the disappearance of danger from Indians on the frontier, Connecticut and some other New England States began to send forward to Wyoming large num- bers of emigrants, men of character and experience and of some means. Unfor- tunately for Wyoming, however, its troubles did not all come to an end with the close of the Revolution. During the war both parties to the Pennamite- Yankee controversy had refrainel as well from a discussion of their dif- FROM OSCAR J. HARVEY'S FORTHCOMING " HISTORY OF WILKES-BARRE ** COPYRIGHTED. ficulties as from active hostilities; but promptly on the appearance of the Angel of Peace above the horizon after the surrender of Cornwallis at York- town, the Yankees in Wyoming began to experience gloom and darkness in- stead of clearing skies, and disquietude instead of tranquillity.
The old Hollenback store and residence, South Main Street, below Northampton. Reproduced from a picture made in 1858. This is the oldest structure now standing in Wi'kes-Barre, it having been erected in 1782.
The Government of the Pennsylvania Proprietaries having been abolished at the beginning of the Revolution, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania took up . the matter of the Wyoming controversy early in 1782, and petitioned Congress to constitute a court to hear the parties and determine the question of jurisdic- tion. Commissioners were accordingly appointed, who met and organized at Trenton, New Jersey, November 19, 1782. After a session of forty-one days this court, on December 30, 1782, pronounced judgment in favor of Pennsylvania. This judgment, known in Wyoming history as the "Decree of Trenton", was to the effect that Connecticut had no right to the lands in controversy, and that the jurisdiction and pre-emption of all the territory lying within the charter limits of Pennsylvania, and then claimed by Connecticut, belonged of right to Penn- sylvania. Thus, for the first time since it was founded, more than thirteen years before, Wilkes-Barre, as a part of the controverted territory, was formally declared by unbiased, competent authority to be actually and legally within the jurisdiction of Pennsylvania.
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