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Gc 974.801 L97 jo 1676954
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01205 2376
Women of
ميلك
JOHNSON
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016
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THE
Pioneer Women
of Wyoming,
AN ADDRESS BEFORE THE WYOMING VALLEY CHAPTER, D. A. R.,
By FREDERICK C. JOHNSON, M. D.
Member of the Wyoming Historical Society, New England Genealogical Society, Moravian Historical Society, Minisink Valley Historical Society, etc.
WILKES-BARRE, PA., 1901.
--
Gift of author
1676954 The Pioneer Women of Wyoming.
The part woman plays in the establishing of a new set- tlement is not much dwelt upon by the historian. This fact does not imply that her work is unappreciated, but being domestic in character it does not often furnish material for the chronicler.
There is no field where woman's share of labor and suffering has been greater than in the pioneer community, and this has been pre-eminently true of Wyoming. She has borne the burden and heat of the day as bravely and uncom- plainingly as ever her husband did, and there have even been times when she has shouldered the musket and wielded the woodman's ax. She has gone into an almost pathless wilderness infested with cruel savages, she has helped estab- lish a home there, children have come to gladden her life and she has seen happy days there even in the forest.
Of her devotion to her family, of her self-sacrifice, of her undaunted courage, yes, of her heroism, we cannot say too much.
Women have seen husbands and sons murdered before their very eyes, have had their little children torn from their arms and carried away, their homes and possessions given to the flames and some of these pioneer mothers of Wyoming have themselves been tortured and killed or carried into a captivity worse than death.
Not only have they suffered every hardship at the hands of blood-thirsty barbarians, but they and their little ones have been driven from their homes again and again by foes of their own race and blood, almost as cruel as the savages themselves. Yet the pioneer mother of Wyoming was will- ing to undergo all these privations and many more that she might lend her help in building up a home for those depend- ent on her, who were dearer to her than her own life.
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FIRST MASSACRE.
The women of Connecticut were early in Wyoming to share the perils and privations with their husbands and to do their part in making a home in a wilderness which was infested with wild animals and with even more savage human foes. You all remember that the first attempt at set- tlement was made in 1762, the Wyoming region being claimed by the Susquehanna Company under Connecticut. No women so far as I know accompanied these first settlers, who in that year went to Wyoming from Connecticut and in the fertile flat lands along the Susquehanna, which re- quired not the woodman's ax, planted their crops. In the following spring they returned with the purpose of making permanent settlement. Some twenty families brought with them all their farming utensils and household possessions, their wives and children as well. Thus in 1763 did our pioneer mothers first see this fair valley, though it would have been better if their advent had taken place a few years later, for hardly had their crops been gathered than the infant settlement was laid waste by the savages. Unpre- pared for resistance, about twenty men fell and were scalped. Even the women did not escape the cruelty of the savages.
Parshall Terry's narrative gives us the names of two of the women who were killed: Mrs. Daniel Baldwin and Zuriah Whitney. The atrocity of the savages is learned from the following, appearing in the Pennsylvania Gazette for November, 1763:
"Our party under Captain Clayton has returned from Wyoming, where they met with no Indians, but found the New Englanders who had been killed and scalped a day or two before they got there. They buried the dead. nine men and a woman, who had been most cruelly butchered; the woman was roasted and had two hinges in her hands, sup- posed to be put in red hot and several of the men had awls thrust into their eyes, and spears, arrows and pitchforks
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sticking in their bodies. They burnt what houses the In- dians had left and destroyed a quantity of Indian corn. The enemy's tracks were up the river."
The attack was a surprise, the New Englanders having found no savages in the valley, although Teedyuscung was living there quietly with a few of his people. It has been claimed by some that the destruction of the settlement was at the instigation of the Pennsylvania authorities, but it is now certain, as Dr. Egle has shown, that "the infamous transac- tion was conceived and carried out by those infernal savages from New York, the Cayugas and Oneidas," who had repudiated the sale of Wyoming to Connecticut in 1754 and were now carrying out their threats of vengeance upon the "intruders." It is true that Governor Hamilton of Penn- sylvania had previously issued proclamations warning the Connecticut people not to incur the displeasure of Pennsyl- vania and the Indians by taking possession of the Wyoming lands, but there is nothing to indicate that the Pennsylvania authorities had the slightest connection with this first mass- acre of Wyoming.
Immediately after the fearful blow was struck, the women and children joined in wild flight to the mountains. As Charles Miner says, "language cannot describe the suf- ferings of the fugitives as they traversed the wilderness, destitute of food or clothing, on their way to their former homes."
PERMANENT OCCUPANCY.
So complete was the destruction of the settlement in 1763, that six years elapsed before a further attempt at occupying Wyoming was made. Meanwhile the Indians, who had years before sold the Wyoming lands to Connecti- cut, repudiated the sale of 1754 and at a council held at Fort Stanwix, New York, in 1768, sold the disputed region to Pennsylvania. And now commenced an internecine strug- gle between Pennsylvania and Connecticut, which was waged throughout the rest of the century, and which was never interrupted, except during the Revolutionary war,
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when by common consent both parties suspended their local strife and joined in a common defense against the growing oppressions of Great Britain.
The year 1769 marked the next attempt at the settle- ment of Wyoming and the pioneer mothers were not left behind. The first Connecticut settlers -- 40 in number- arrived in the dead of winter, the month of February. They had been provided by the Susquehanna Company with land and farming utensils, they agreeing to defend the valley against the claimants under Pennsylvania. They were led by Col. Zebulon Butler, a veteran of the French and Indian wars. But the Pennsylvania claimants were ahead of them, having arrived the month previous.
Adopting tactics similar to those of Connecticut, the Pennsylvania proprietaries had executed a lease of certain lands in Wyoming Valley to Stewart, Ogden and Jennings for seven years, upon condition that they should establish an Indian trading house there and defend the valley from encroachment. I will not dwell upon the conflicts between the rival claimants during this first year of the settlement, other than to say that the Connecticut people were three times expelled Each time they returned, but finally they surrendered and agreed to withdraw from the valley. I quote from Miner :
"Taking up their melancholy march, men, their wives and little ones, with such of their flocks and herds as could be collected, with aching hearts took leave of the fair plains of Wyoming."
During the second and third years of the settlement hostilities were carried on with great vigor. The Connecti- cut people were expelled again and again, only to return when least expected, and some lives were lost on both sides. The valor and persistency of the Connecticut people were rewarded, and by September, 1771, the Proprietary Government had to admit that it was beaten. Connecticut now became master of the situation, but only for a time. It was only a truce, for while the Connecticut people had obtained possession of the valley they could not
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hope to retain it long, for Connecticut was making a mild disavowal to Pennsylvania of her responsibility for any hostile measures of the Susquehanna Company.
Now that the war-called the First Pennamite War --- was believed to be over, and the Connecticut settlers were confident Pennsylvania would not renew the attack, prepara- tions were made for a permanent settlement.
During the two years that followed Connecticut receded from her vacillating policy in regard to the Wyoming settle- ment, to the extent that she officially recognized the settle- ment and formally established jurisdiction-certainly a great advantage for the settlers who had fought so hard for pos- session during the First Pennamite War.
"The stern alarms of war having been succeeded by the sweet songs of peace," as Miner so gracefully puts it, the brave pioneer woman again made her appearance in the Susquehanna settlement. Up to 1772 there were never more than one hundred and thirty men in Wyoming at any one time and in May of that year there were only half a dozen women in Wilkes-Barre. These were: Mrs. James Mc- Clure, Mrs. Bennett, Mrs. Jabez Sill, Mrs. Thomas Bennett, Mrs. Hickman, Mrs. Dr. Joseph Sprague, and the latter's daughter, afterwards Mrs. Phoebe Young.
Pioneer life was fraught with many perils and owing to the danger from the Indians, the settlers sought the shelter of the rude forts.
Let us see how they lived at Wilkes-Barre. The stock- ade was constructed of a wall of upright timbers set in the ground side by side.
FIRST WOMAN PHYSICIAN.
All around in the inside, against the wall of upright logs, were one-story huts. Mrs. Dr. Joseph Sprague kept boarders, but she must have been hard pressed for supplies in that early day. There was no mill nearer than the Dela- ware and it was necessary to use corn meal as a chief article of diet. This was made in a mortar, that is, a stump hollowed out by burning, and operated by a pestle attached
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to a spring pole. In this could be made a rude flour of corn, or wheat, or rye. Whether the labor of operating this primi- tive device fell on the men or the women, history does not tell. Sometimes Mrs. Sprague's husband (who was the first physician in the young settlement,) would saddle his horse and go by the bridle-path to the mill on the Delaware and bring back some wheat flour, which was held in great store and devoted to the making of dainties for a wedding or other gala occasion. On such trips he would also bring back spices, rum and other articles which helped make merry when opporunity offered or occasion required. Mrs. Sprague's table was well supplied with vension and shad, but salt was scarce. There were some friendly Indians in the valley, converts of the Moravian missionaries, and they sup- plied the fort with game. Her table and chairs and beds were all of home construction, for as yet little or no furniture had been taken into the settlement. Mrs. Sprague's house, small at best, was the largest in the stockade. The little houses of Captain Zebulon Butler and Col. Nathan Denison, both young men, adjoined one another. Next was the store of Matthias Hollenback, then a young man of twenty, who had brought a small stock of goods from Lancaster and who was destined to become an important factor in developing the commerce of the Susquehanna River.
The Wilkes-Barre Advertiser, of April 15, 1814, notes that Mrs. Eunice Sprague died on the 12th, aged 82 years, but beyond the mere statement that she was one of the first settlers of this place, gives no particulars as to her interest- ing career. Her maiden name was Eunice Chapman, and she was a native of Colchester, Conn. Dr. Hollister thus describes her in his history: "She was a worthy old lady, prompt, cheerful and successful, and at this time (1785) the sole accoucheur in all the wide domain now embraced by Luzerne, Lackawanna and Wyoming Counties. Although of great age, her obstetrical practice as late as 1810 surpassed that of any physician in this portion of Pennsylvania. For attending a confinement case, no matter how distant the journey, how long or fatiguing the detention, this sturdy
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and faithful woman invariably charged one dollar for ser- vices rendered, although a larger fee was never refused if any one was able or rash enough to offer it."
By an earlier marriage at Sharon, N. Y., Mrs. Sprague was the mother of Phoebe Poyner Young. The latter was one of the fugitives from the massacre of Wyoming, and was one of a party of seven women and children who escaped down the river to Harrisburg in a canoe. Mrs. Young died in 1830 at the age of 89 years. Her recollections were largely used by the earlier historians of Wyoming Valley.
I quote from a newspaper article written a few years ago by the late Wesley Johnson :
"Mrs. Sprague was in all probability the first female doc- tor to practice medicine in these parts. I do not myself remember her, but often when I was a small boy, heard the old people speak of 'Granny Sprague' as a successful practi- tioner of midwifery and of the healing art among children. Mrs. Dr. Sprague's residence and office, which I well remember, was a one-story log house on the corner of Main and Union streets, then known as Granny Sprague's corner, where the Kesler block now stands. The old log house was demolished long years ago, but the cellar was plainly to be seen up to the time of erecting the present block of brick buildings. Mrs. Sprague was the mother of 'Aunt Young,' who lived in a small one-story frame house on Canal street, still standing, a short distance below Union street, who used to tell us boys how she often listened to the cry of wild cats and wolves in the swamp in front of her place, about where the line of several railroads pass up the valley."
AN EARTHLY PARADISE.
Miner says that 1772 was "a transition year, full of un- defined pleasure flowing from the newness and freshness of the scene, a comparative sense of security, the exultation of having come off victorious, and the influx from Connecticut, when the beautiful valley must be shown to the new come wives and daughters who had been told so much of its loveli-
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ness. The year passed without civil suit or crime and may be considered as a season of almost unalloyed happiness."
Amid such joyous scenes what more natural than that our pioneer mothers should love and be loved. The first to require the services of the new pastor who had come to Wilkes-Barre, was Miss Betsey Sill. The happy groom was Nathan Denison, a young man who was destined to play an important part in the settlement.
But the gladness and plenty in 1772 was to be followed by scarceness and sorrow in the succeeding year. The win- ter (of 1773) had made sorry inroads into the supply of provisions and in February men had to cross the mountains, fifty miles, to the Delaware for supplies. There were only rude roads and no bridges and the sufferings of those who had volunteered for the journey were intense.
The straitened housewife welcomed the arrival of spring, for she could abundantly supply her table with shad when the fishing season came. The spring brought food, but with it came a pestilence that filled the homes of some of the pioneer mothers of Wyoming with bitter anguish. Col- onel Zebulon Butler lost his wife and his little son. They were both laid to rest on the Old Redoubt hill. This was his first wife, Miss Anna Lord of Lyme, Conn., whom he had married in 1760.
Who can tell the joy the women of the settlement must have experienced when in 1773 a grist mill was erected. Up to this time they had been restricted to the use of home-made flour and meal, ground from wheat or rye or corn in primi- tive mortars. The only milled flour they had was laborious- ly brought over from the settlement on the Delaware. The enterprising settler to whom the women owed so much was Nathan Chapman, who built a mill at the mouth of Mill Creek. The crude machinery was brought up the river in one of Mr. Hollenback's boats. Up to this time the women had no furniture except that which was chopped out of tim- ber. The habitations were constructed of logs, for there was as yet no lumber in the settlement. But now a saw mill was erected and henceforth the good housewife could have tables
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and shelves, floors and many other things which her pioneer heart yearned for. The saw mill was erected on Mill Creek, just below Chapman's mill and it was the first saw mill whose hum had ever been heard on the upper Susquehanna. This was in the fall of 1773.
A TORY ROMANCE.
This old Chapman mill had a little romance that entitles it to a place in a consideration of the pioncer women of Wyoming. Chapman sold his mill property to one Adonijah Stanbury, a Delaware man, whose course was such as to create suspicion that he was no friend to the Connecticut claimants, in short that he was an enemy in disguise. Our forefathers had the faculty of making things too hot for Tory suspects and they accordingly resorted to all sorts of annoyances to get rid of him.
At this juncture a young man, true to the Connecticut interest, fell in love with Stanbury's daughter, married her and bought the mill, the only one in Wyoming, from his father-in-law, who then made everybody happy by leaving the settlement.
In this year, 1773, the women of the little colony had an accession to their number in the person of the wife of the minister, Rev. Jacob Johnson. Her husband had come on the ground the year previous and in August, 1773, he was formally invited by the Wilkes-Barre settlers to locate among them as a preacher of the gospel. He came from Groton, Conn., his wife being Mary Giddings, who was of the same family as J. R. Giddings, the noted anti-slavery congress- man. He was accompanied from Connecticut by his daugh- ter, Lydia, who became the second wife of Col. Zebulon Butler.
Not only did the settlers provide for a gospel ministry, but the pioneer mothers were not compelled to see their chil- dren, even on this distant frontier, grow up in ignorance, for free schools were established, to be maintained at the public expense. As Miner says: "These votes, thus carly in the settlement, passed in the midst of poverty and dangers, may
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be referred to by the descendants of these pilgrim fathers, [and I will add pilgrim mothers] with honest pride. They will remain to all enduring time monuments of religious zeal, and their earnest desire to advance the intellectual and moral conditions of their children."
Two years of repose, ( 1772-1773) says Miner, present- ed no event more exciting than the ordinary occurrences of peace, domestic prosperity, unalloyed joy and gladness. Early in 1774 Connecticut assumed jurisdiction and Wyo- ming now became the town of Westmoreland, attached to the County of Litchfield, Conn. Advocates of law and order every one of them, this friendly action of the mother state filled them with enthusiasm. It stamped all their former claims as legal and right and they looked forward to a secure and happy future.
Miner says the state of pleasurable excitement of this period tinges the whole with romance. Contrasted with the ills that awaited them the lines of Gray recur :
"Fair laughs the morn, and the soft zephyr blows, While proudly rowing o'er the azure realm, In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes. Youth on the Prow and Pleasure at the helni, Regardless of the sweeping whirlwind's sway, That hushed in grim repose, expects his evening prey."
The year 1775 witnessed a continuance of prosperity. The housewife was no longer handicapped by the pioneer methods of earlier days. Her husband, thanks to his in- dustry and a prolific virgin soil, was able to furnish an abundance of food and there was plenty of wool which she might spin and weave into garments, not very ornamental, but strong and serviceable, sufficient for her family's needs. Cattle and sheep grazed on the hillsides and there was plenty of milk, butter, cheese, beef and mutton. Her children now had schools provided and on Sunday-a strictly Puritan Sab- bath, --- she and her husband and little ones could attend the preaching services. But as yet there were prowling savages on the mountains and the men must perforce carry their fire- arms, whenever they ventured away from home.
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The rigid Puritanism of that early day is well shown by the fact that a pioneer woman, Mary Pritchard, is recorded on the court dockets, as having been taken before a magis- trate (1782) and compelled to pay a fine of 5 shillings for the offense of going unnecessarily from her domicile on the Lord's Day. Verily the times have changed.
The strictness of the New England Sabbath was the subject of considerable satire elsewhere. In an old poem it was said that God had thought one day in seven sufficient for rest, but in New England men had improved on this and set apart a day and a half :
" And let it be enacted further still,
That all our people strict obey our will ; Five days and half shall men and women too Attend their business and their mirth pursue. But after that no man without a fine Shall walk the streets or at a tavern dine. One day and a half 'tis requisite to rest From toilsome labor and a tempting feast. No barber, foreign or domestic bred,
Shall e'er presume to dress a lady's head ; No shop shall spare, half the preceding day, A yard of riband or an ounce of tea. Henceforth let none, on peril of their lives, Attempt a journey or embrace their wives."
OUTBREAK OF THE REVOLUTION.
The outbreak of the Revolution was the signal for a patriotic response on the part of the settlers at Wyoming and in town meeting. It was voted to propose a truce with the Pennsylvania claimants, that both sides might join in the common defense of their country. We can rest assured that the pioneer women of Wyoming had a part in urging this patriotic step and in joining their husbands in preparations for war against the oppression of the mother country.
In 1775 the women of Wyoming had their attention drawn from their own troubles to the distress of other women less fortunate than themselves. The olive branch which the Connecticut settlers had offered to the Pennsyl- vania claimants, in order that both might join for the defense of their common liberty, resulted to a large extent in a sus-
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pension of hostilities, but did not do so entirely. A proprie- tary expedition under Plunkett had been sent to destroy the settlement of Connecticut people on the West Branch. The expedition accomplished all that was hoped. The buildings were burned, the spoils divided among the captors, the men imprisoned at Sunbury jail, while the women and children made their way through the forest as best they could to the nearest settlement, which was Wyoming. And there the fugitives received that succor of which they so much stood in need. The hospitality of the women of Wyoming was un- stinted and these poor creatures, whose homes were destroy- ed and husbands imprisoned, had their sufferings mitigated in a manner that brought great cheer to their aching hearts.
Plukett next turned his attention toward the North Branch and in the dead of winter sent an expedition to sub- due Wyoming. Congress sought by a resolution to put a stop to the movement, as the common safety was imperiled, but Plunkett was so flushed by his victory on the West Branch that he could not be dissuaded from advancing. It need only be said that the Wyoming settlers were ready for him, and having entrenched themselves three hundred strong in the rocks of the Nanticoke Gap, Plunkett's expedition was ignominiously defeated and driven back down the river in utter confusion with loss of life on both sides.
Just how many were widowed or orphaned by this en- gagement is not recorded, but there were several widows who were left in such straightened circumstances that funds had to be raised by public subscription for their assistance. These were the widows Baker, Franklin and Ensign. There may have been others whose circumstances were such that they would not require public aid. Miner thinks our people had six or eight killed and thrice that many wounded. The sorrow in the homes of the women of Wyoming, thus caused by this heartless invasion in the interest of the Pennsylvania land owners, can be better imagined than described.
We, who enjoy the blessings of immunity from the small-pox through so simple a measure as vaccination, can
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have little conception of the horror of the situation when that dreaded malady became epidemic in the Wyoming set- tlement, as it did in the summer of 1777. The women had to fight the disease at a disadvantage, being deprived of the assistance of their husbands and sons, who were away in the Revolutionary service. A citizen of tlie valley, Jeremiah Ross, had become exposed to the disease in Philadelphia and his sickness, after his return to Wilkes-Barre, was speedily fatal. From this one case the disease became epidemic and pesthouses were established, half a mile from traveled roads. To these houses all who were to be inoculated had to repair and remain there until recovery. To what extent the dis- order prevailed there is no way of knowing, though the prompt measures employed and vigorously enforced pre- vented its serious spread ..
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