USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Wilkes-Barre > Wilkes-Barre (the "Diamond city") Luzerne County, Pennsylvania; its history, its natural resources, its industries, 1769-1906 > Part 4
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The people of Wyoming viewed the proceedings and findings of the Tren- ton court with comparative indifference, assuming that the question at issue before it was one of jurisdiction only. But soon they were confronted with the fact that their private rights of soil were being questioned by the Pennsyl- vania authorities, and later they realized that the General Assembly of the Commonwealth was taking steps to eject the holders of Connecticut titles from the territory which they had labored so hard and so long to hold and to improve. Then "the settlers were left, single-handed, to manage their own case. The State of Connecticut had never, in fact, done anything for the Wyoming settlers. They recognized them, but in such a way that the recognition cost noth- ing. They levied large taxes upon them, but they returned nothing for their defense. They dropped them, incontinently, after the Decree of Trenton." In fact, this "Decree" disposed of the right of jurisdiction only; the title to the soil-which, to the actual participants in the controversy, was an issue of vastly greater importance-remained practically undecided. Therefore, for almost six years following the "Decree", Wyoming was the scene of a series of struggles, controversies and conflicts between the Yankees and Pennamites, the character and intensity of which it is almost impossible now to realize or de- scribe. "Peace, which waved its cheering olive branch over every other part of the Union, healing the wounds inflicted by ruthless war, soothing the sorrows of innumerable children of affliction, and kindling the lamp of Hope in the dark chamber of despair, came not to the broken-hearted people of Wyoming."
During the latter part of the year 1783 and throughout nearly the whole of 1784 the "Second Pennamite-Yankee War", as it has been called by historians, was waged in Wyoming. Many lives were lost, much valuable property was spite- fully destroyed, and the deepest misery and most undying hatred were engen- dered among the participants in this "war". Soldiers in the pay of Pennsyl- vania, garrisoned at Fort Wyoming ("Fort Dickinson" it was called by the Pennsylvanians at that particular period, in honor of John Dickinson, the then President of the Supreme Executive Council of the State), aided the civil authorities who had been sent to Wilkes-Barre to dispossess the Yankees and drive them from their homes and possessions. Upon two days in May, 1784. · the families of 150 Yankees, aggregating more than 500 persons, were evicted at the point of the bayonet, driven from the valley into the wilderness beyond the mountains, and ordered never to return. In many instances dwelling- houses were set on fire by the Pennamites after the occupants had been dis- possessed.
In the early part of July, 1784, the militia who had been garrisoning Fort Dickinson, or Wyoming, having been discharged from the service of the State, more than a hundred evicted Wyoming Yankees, who had obtained a supply of arms and ammunition, quietly and secretly returned to the valley and took pos- session of and fortified some vacant houses within the present limits of the borough of Forty Fort. On July 23d they crossed over the river to Wilkes- Barre, surrounded Fort Dickinson-then occupied by about one hundred Pen- namites-and began an unsuccessful siege which lasted four or five days; in the course of which several lives were lost, and twenty-three houses in the village
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were set on fire by the Pennamites and burnt to the ground. About ten days later Col. John Armstrong# rode into Wilkes-Barre from Easton at the head of 400 militia-men "to repress violence from whatever quarter, to establish order and restore the reign of law." Soon thereafter, by means of false promises and unfair dealing on the part of Colonel Armstrong and his coadjutors, eighty odd of the most active and belligerent Yankees were disarmed at Wilkes-Barre, taken into custody by the militia, formed in two companies and marched-in irons and under guard-the one company to Easton and the other to Sunbury, Pennsylvania.
In November, 1784, the Pennsylvania Legislature ordered that the Connecti- cut settlers in Wyoming should be restored to their possessions. Armstrong and his militia, having been recalled from the seat of war, evacuated Fort Dickinson Saturday, No-
- vember 27th, an hour before midnight, and quietly marched out of the valley en route to Easton. Three days later nearly all the Yankees in Wyoming as- sembled on the River Com- mon, Wilkes-Barre, and roused and incited by spontaneous enthusiasm and pervaded by a spirit of grim earnestness, promptly razed Fort Dickinson to the ground. The destruction of this fort (which, in the opin- ion of the inhabitants of West- moreland, had stood for some time then only to harbor a horde of myrmidons whose unjust and hateful acts had made the lives of the inhabitants unhappy and their property unsafe) marked the close of the "Second Pennamite-Yankee War."
Throughout this war, as well as during the ensuing twenty years, one of the foremost, and perhaps the most active and FROM USCAR J HARVEY'S FURTHC. W MS "'- STORY OF MILKES.BARE " COPYRIGHTED. zealous, of the Yankees in Wy- COL. JOHN FRANKLIN. oming who were battling for their rights, was Captain, later Colonel, John Franklin. He was a native of
* In the following October he was appointed Adjutant General of the Pennsylvania militia, with the rank of Brigadier General. During the Revolutionary War he had been an officer iu the Continental army, and was the author of the famous "Newburg letters." A number of years later he was United States Minister to Spain, and afterwards to France. During the War of IS12 he was Secretary of War.
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Canaan, Litchfield County, Connecticut, and was the first white man to settle (in 1775) in the present township of Huntington, Luzerne County, Pennsyl- vania.' In 1780 and 'S1 he was in command of a company of militia in the service of the United States at Wilkes-Barre; and for several years following this service he resided in this town and was a Justice of the Peace. In 17S1 he represented Westmoreland in the Connecticut Assembly. In October, 1787, he was arrested in Wilkes-Barre on a charge of treason against the Common- wealth of Pennsylvania (growing out of the Pennamite-Yankee troubles in Wyoming), was confined in jail at Philadelphia for nearly two years, and was then released on bail, but never brought to trial. He was elected Sheriff of Luzerne County in 1792, and in 1795-'96 and from 1799 to 1803 he was a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly from Luzerne County. He died at his home in Athens, Pennsylvania, March 1, 1831.
Eight months after the close of the "Second Pennamite-Yankee War" The Susquehanna Company held a meeting at Hartford, Connecticut, and adopted various measures relative to its affairs in Wyoming-first formally declaring, after a brief reference to the "Decree of Trenton": "Our right to those lands in possession is founded in Law and Justice -- is clear and unquestionable-and we cannot and will not give it up." A plan was then adopted by the Company whereby numbers of people were shortly afterwards induced to emigrate from New England, New York, New Jersey and elsewhere and settle throughout the Wyoming region. Thus it was that the Yankees held possession of Wilkes- Barré and the country round about: but for more than fifteen years after the close of the "Second Pennamite-Yankee War" they were either harassed by liti- gation or hampered by legislative enactments instituted and carried through by their indefatigable enemies the Pennsylvania land-claimants. Genuine peace did not reign until after the Compromise Act of April, 1799, and its several sup- plements, had been passed by the Pennsylvania Legislature and been executed by the commissioners appointed for the purpose. The Act referred to was strictly one of mediation, and was adopted for the purpose of putting an end to the controversy that had been going on for so long. The purpose was accomplished. Peace was as- -ured and prosperity became a cer- tainty to the long-suffering New Englanders in Wyoming. The rights or claims of the settlers were ascertained and duly certified, and then all titles to lands in the Wyo- ming region were fairly settled and established.
Just as soon as the grounds for further combats, or even bicker- ings, had been removed and de- stroved, and true prosperity had come to Wyoming, the popula-
FROM OSCAR J. HARVEY'S FORTHCOMING " HISTORY OF WILKES-BARRE. " COPYRIGHTED.
The Myers House, built near Forty Fort in 1788. It was a typ- ical Wyoming Valley farm-house of that period, and stood for some eighty or ninety years.
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tion not only of the valley but of the contiguous territory began to be increased by hundreds of desirable people who came from various parts of the country attracted by the accounts which they had heard as to the fertility of the soil, the healthfulness of the climate, and the general resourcefulness of the region along the Susquehanna River. The renown of this region extended even over seas, and during the closing years of the eighteenth century many people came from foreign shores to settle along the shores of the broad, winding river.
Thus was the Wyoming of to-day ( whose hub is Wilkes-Barre, the "Dia- mond City"# and the oldest town in north-eastern Pennsylvania) born, and started on the highway to the plain of wonderful richness and prosperity which it has now occupied for many years-exquisitely beautiful in scenery, and in- vested by the history of the past and the Genius of Poesy with attractions not less strong or enduring. The Genius of Civilization has despoiled Wyoming of many of its natural beauties and charms, but it is still "an island of beauty in a sea of billowy mountains."
"Oh! beautiful vision of Sumner delight ! Oh! marvelous sweep of th' encircling hills! Where sunshine and shadow contend on the height, And a deeper green follows the paths of the rills As they leap to the valley, whose gold and green Add the finishing charm to the exquisite scene."
By an Act of the Pennsylvania Legislature passed September 25, 1786, Lu- zerne County was erected out of the county of Northumberland-which had been formed in 1772 from portions of Northampton, Berks, and other counties, and included the Wyoming region. Seventeen of the townships (Wilkes- Barre among the number) which had been laid out in the Wyoming region by The Susquehanna Company, and had been more or less settled under the auspices of that Company, were comprehended in the new county of Luzerne. and "Wilkesburg" (Wilkes-Barre being meant) was named as the county- town in the Act of Assembly previously mentioned.
In a supplement to this Act passed in 17SS the name of the town was spelled "Wilkesborough": and during 17ST and 1788 it seems to have been . written and printed indiscriminately, by various persons, "Wilkesborough", "Wilkesburrough", "Wilkesboro" and "Wilkesbury": Col. Timothy Pickering, for a short time after he took up his residence in Wilkes-Barre in 1787, used the form "Wilkesburg", and then for awhile he wrote the name "Wilkesborough": but later, having ascertained what the real name of the town was, he wrote it always "Wilkesbarre". Concerning the matter of the name he wrote in January, 1789, to President Mifflin of the Supreme Executive Council of the State as follows: "I find the name originally given to it by the New England people, and which appears in their records, is 'Wilkes Barre', by which name they designate not only the town, but the township of five miles square."
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* Why "Diamond City"? "Because the Public Square in the center of the town is diamond-shaped- having been originally surveyed in that form. Because the town is entirely underlaid with a vast wealth of black dia- monds, and is overlaid with hospitality, cultivation and beauty-qualities which, like the chief characteristics of the diamond, are distinctive and attractive."-Harvey's "History of Wilkes-Barre."
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THE ROSS HOUSE, ON SOUTH MAIN STREET.
Next to the oldest structure in Wilkes-Barre. In its original form (considerably smaller and much less pretentious than it is at present) it was erected by Col. Timothy Pickering, in 1787-'88.
Col. Timothy Pickering, a native of Massachusetts, but for several years prior to 1787 a resident of Philadelphia, was for some time Adjutant General and for four years Quartermaster General of the armies of the United States
FROM OSCAR J. HARVEY'S FORTHCOMING " HISTORY OF WILKES. BARRE."" COPYRIGHTED.
Residence erected by Lord Butler in 1793-'94, corner of River and Northampton Streets.
during the Revolutionary War. In 1791, upon his removal from Wilkes-Barre ( whither he had come from Philadelphia in 1787, as hereinafter related), he was appointed by President Washington Postmaster General. Later he was Secre-
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, Fir RAUDON. . .
** *
NORTH RIVER STREET, BETWEEN MARKET AND UNION.
.
VIEW SOUTH FROM ROOF OF CROCKER BUILDING.
tary of War, then Secretary of State of the United States, then Senator and later Representative from Massachusetts in the Congress of the United States.
Colonel Pickering came to Wilkes-Barre early in 1787 as the special repre- sentative of the Government of Pennsylvania to organize the new county of Luzerne. Under his supervision an election was held on February 1st for a Councilor (a member of the Supreme Executive Council of the State), a Repre- sentative to the General Assembly, a Sheriff, a Coroner and six Justices of the Peace for the county. The election took place at the dwelling-house of Col. Zebulon Butler. This was a log building, which stood at the south-east corner of River and Northampton Streets, Wilkes-Barre, from 1773 till 1793, and then gave way for the frame residence (herein pictured) erected by Gen. Lord Butler, which was demolished in 1867 to permit of the erection of the present residence of Mrs. Stanley Woodward-a great-granddaughter of Col. Zebulon Butler.
FRUW OSCAR J. HARVEY'S FORTHCOMING " HISTORY OF WILKES.BAPRE "! COPYRIGHTED.
VIEW ON SOUTH RIVER STREET, NEAR NORTHAMPTON STREET, ABOUT 1861. Showing the Lord Butler, Jonathan J. Slocum, and John W. Robinson houses.
Nathan Denison was elected to represent Luzerne County in the Supreme Executive Council. He had been Lieutenant Colonel and then Colonel of the 24th Regiment, Connecticut Militia (see page 31), and from 1776 till 1783 was Judge of the Court of Probate for "Westmoreland. The men who were elected
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EAST MARKET STREET.
1
n
VIEW NORTH-EAST -FROM ROOF OF CROCKER BUILDING.
Justices of the Peace were duly commissioned as such by the Supreme Exec- utive Council, and also-together with Colonel Pickering -- were "assigned" and commissioned "Justices of the County Court of Common Pleas in and for the county of Luzerne." Colonel Pickering was also appointed and commis-
FROM OSCAP J. HARVEY'S FORTHCOMING "" HISTORY OF WILKES . BAPRE '* COPYRIGHTEC.
LIEUT. COL. MATTHIAS HOLLENBACK.
One of the original Justices of the Luzerne County Court; the first Treasurer of Luzerne County; a survivor ot the battle of Wyoming; Lieutenant Colonel (commissioned in 1787) commanding the first organized battalion of Luzerne County militia; a member of the first Towu Council of Wilkes-Barre; Burgess of the borough of Wilkes Barré, 1819-'20.
sioned Prothonotary of the Court of Common Pleas, Clerk of the Orphans' Court and the Court of Quarter Sessions, Register of Wills and Recorder of Deeds in and for Luzerne County. May 29, 1787, the first Luzerne County Court (a Court of Common Pleas) was held at the dwelling-house of Col. Zebulon Butler, previously mentioned.
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WEST MARKET STREET.
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L
VIEW OF BOWMAN'S HILL-FROM ROOF OF CROCKER BUILDING.
Col. John Franklin (see page 38), who had been elected February 1, 1787, to represent Luzerne County in the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, declined to accept the office; whereupon, in the following October, a new election for Representative was held and Capt. John Paul Schott of Wilkes-Barre was chosen. He took his seat in the Assembly at Philadelphia on the 24th of the same month. Captain Schott was born in Berlin, Prussia, in 1744. Having served for several
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FROM ESCAP J. HARVEY'S FORTHCOMING " HISTORY OF WILKES-BARRE." COPYRIGHTED.
CAPT. JOHN PAUL SCHOTT. The first Representative from Luzerne County to sit in the Pennsylvania Assembly.
years as a Lieutenant in the Prussian army, he came in 1775 to America, where he offered his services to the Continental Congress, and by that body was com- missioned a Captain in the Continental Army in September, 1776. Captain Schott came to Wilkes-Barre first in May, 1779, as an officer in Sullivan's expedition against the Six Nation Indians. He was stationed at "Wyoming
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Post" (see page 36) from October. 1779, till March, 1781-during a part of which time he was commandant of the post. Early in 1782, having resigned from the Continental service, he settled in Wilkes-Barre, and during the ensuing twenty years he was, as inn-keeper, shop-keeper, a militia officer, and the holder of various public offices, quite prominent and influential in the affairs of the community. In 1804 he removed to Philadelphia, where, for many years, he was an Inspector at the Custom House.
According to official returns made in the Autumn of 1787 to Colonel Butler, Lieutenant of the County of Luzerne, "all the men in the county [at that time] between the ages of eighteen and fifty-three fell short of 700." This would indicate a total population of about 3,500. According to the official United States Census of 1790 the population of Luzerne County in that year was 4,904. including eleven slaves. The records of the Census Bureau do not set forth the popula- tion of Wilkes-Barré in 1790, but in 1800 it (the township) contained a population of 835, while that of the county numbered 12,839. In 1790 the Luzerne County Court divided the county into eleven townships (of which Wilkes-Barre was one), regardless of the township divisions which had been estab- lished and the names which had been bestowed upon them while the Wyoming region was under the jurisdiction of Connecticut. In consequence, the territory of the Wilkes- Barré of 1790 was not only larger than that of the original Wilkes-Barre, but was very much larger than the combined areas of the present city and township of Wilkes-Barre.
The population of Wilkes-Barre-particu- larly of the village, or "town-plot"-increased slowly; but by the beginning of 1806 (nearly thirty-seven years after the township had been located and named) the village, in the judgment of its foremost men, had arrived at such a stage of importance and worthiness in its onward progression as warranted its erec- telse Till tion into a borough. Whereupon the Hon. Rosewell Welles (a resident of Wilkes-Barré, a member of the Bar, a former Associate Judge of the Luzerne County Courts, and in 1805 and 1806 one of the two Represent- atives from Luzerne County in the Pennsyl- 'vania Legislature) introduced a Bill in the House of Representatives providing for the incorporation into a borough of the
FROM OSCAR J. HARVEY'S FORTHCOMING " HISTORY OF WILKES-BARRE " COPYESTO.
THE FIRST BURGESS OF WILKES-BARRE.
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"town-plot" of Wilkes-Barre, together with the adjacent River Common* and a strip of land adjoining the north-east boundary of the "town-plot." This bill was enacted into a law (approved by the Governor March 17, 1806), the legal title of the new "body politic and corporate" being declared to be "The Burgess and Town Council of the Borough of Wilkesbarre." The Hon. Jesse Fell f of Wilkes-Barre was named in the Act of Incorporation as a commissioner to issue the proclamation for holding the first election for borough officers.
Under the date of April 25, 1806, Judge Fell issued his proclamation, which was printed in The Luzerne Federalist (Wilkes-Barre) of April 25 and May 2. The qualified electors of the new borough were therein notified to meet at the Court House on Tuesday, May 6, 1806, between the hours of twelve o'clock noon and six o'clock in the evening, to vote for one person to serve as Burgess, seven persons to serve as members of the Town Council, and one person to serve as High Constable, during the ensuing year. The electors having as- sembled at the time and place appointed, and the proper officers for conducting the election having been chosen and duly sworn and affirmed, the votes (less than a hundred in number) were cast, with the following results: The Hon. Jesse Fell was chosen Burgess: Col. Matthias Hollenback, the Hon. Rosewell Welles, Brig. Gen. Lord Butler, Arnold Colt. Esq., Nathan Palmer, Esq., Capt. Samuel Bowman and the Hon. Charles Miner were chosen members of the Town Council; George Griffin, Esq., was chosen High Constable.
Saturday, May 10th, the Town Council was organized at the Court House, Lord Butler being elected President of the body for the ensuing year, and Capt. Peleg Tracy being appointed Clerk,
As to the personnel of the first Town Council of Wilkes-Barre: Colonel Hollenback (see page 45) was an early settler in Wyoming Valley, and for many years prior to his death ( which occurred at Wilkes-Barre February 1S, 1829) was the leading merchant and the wealthiest citizen in north-eastern
* Originally dedicated to the common and public uses of the proprietors of the township of Wilkes-Barre. See page 23.
t Jesse Fell, whose parents were members of the Society of Friends, or Quakers, was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, April 16, 1751, and died at Wilkes-Barré August 11, 1830. With his wife and four children he settled in Wilkes-Barré in the latter part of 1785, and from 1785 until his death he kept an iuu at the sign of the " Buck ". at the north-east corner of the present North- ampton and Washington Streets. For many years after his death the building - then considerably modernized-was kuown as the"Old Fell House." Jesse Fell was Sheriff of Luzerne County from October, 1789, till January, 1792, when he was appointed and commissioned Lieutenant of the County to succeed Col. Zebulon Butler. In this office he served till April, 1793, when he was com- missioned Brigade Inspector of the "Luzerne Militia Brigade." In February, 179S, he was commissioned by Goveruor Mifflin one of the Associate Judges of the Courts of Luzerne County, and this office he filled with dignity and credit for a period of thirty two and a-half years, ter- minated only by his death. As previously noted, he was the first Burgess of the borough of Wilkes- Barré. Subsequently he served five consecutive terms as Burgess, to wit: from May, 1514, to May, FROM OSCAR J. HARVEY'S FORTHCOMING " HISTORY OF WILKES-BANRE. " COPYRIGHTED. 1819. He was a member of the Town Council for JESSE FELL'S INN, AT THE SIGN OF THE "BUCK." many years, and served as its President from May, 1809, to May, 1810, May, 1811, to May, 1511, and May, 1820 to May, 1823. He held various other offices of trust and importance in the community.
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Photo-reproduction of the return made by the Judges of the first borough election, as recorded by the Town Clerk in the original minnte-book of the borough.
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Photo-reproduction of Commissioner Fell's proclamation, as recorded by the Town Clerk in the original minute-book of the borough.
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Photo-reproduction of the oaths of office of the first election-board, as recorded by the Town Cletk in the original minute-book of the borough
Pennsylvania. At the time of his election to the Town Council he was one of the Associate Judges of the Courts of Luzerne County, and this office he held for a period of thirty-eight years and over.
The Hon. Rosewell Welles is mentioned on page +S.
Arnold Colt was a native of Lyme, New London County, Connecticut, where he was born September 10, 1760. His father, Capt. Harris Colt, was in Wyoming Valley at various times prior to the Revolutionary War, and, as a member of The Susquehanna Company, was one of the original proprietors of the township of Wilkes-Barre. In 1786 Arnold Colt came from Lyme to Wilkes-Barre, where he located, and was married the next year to Lucinda. daughter of Abel Yarington, one of the early Wyoming settlers from Connec- ticut. In March, 1790, Mr. Colt became Town Clerk of Wilkes-Barre, and in 1791 he was appointed and commissioned a Justice of the Peace in and for the township of Wilkes-Barre, to hold office during good behavior. In Novem- ber, 1798, he was elected Sheriff of Luzerne County for a term of three years, and upon his retirement from this office he served as Commissioner of the county for three years. From June, 1826, to May, 1827, and from May, 1828. to May, 1829, he was President of the Town Council of Wilkes-Barre. He held other local offices, and was for some time an inn-keeper at Wilkes-Barre,
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