USA > Wyoming > Wyoming; its history, stirring incidents, and romantic adventures > Part 26
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A claimant of a still different character obtruded himself upon the attention of Colonel Jenkins, who was summarily disposed of.
One of the descendants of the Wintermoot family, who formerly owned his farm, came to see Jenkins in regard to title, etc. Wintermoot was quite inquisitive, and asked a good many questions about the land and title before he made himself known. As soon as he said that his name was Wintermoot, Jenkins raised a chair, and threw at him with such violence as to break it in pieces; but Wintermoot made good his escape. Jenkins told him to leave, or he would put him in possession of his land in short time.
Colonel Jenkins died March 19, 1827, aged seventy years and almost four months. A large circle of his descendants live in Wyoming and Exeter. The old place at Wintermoot's Fort is still in the family, and the antique residence is still in a good state of preser- vation. The glorious old spring, from which the Win- termoots, and Colonel John Butler, and his Tories and Indians, slaked their thirst on the memorable 3d of July, is there yet, and there will doubtless remain till time shall be no more.
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WYOMING.
OLD JENKINS HOUSE.
Colonel Jenkins had his share of the sufferings and misfortunes of Wyoming. The great "ice-flood" car- ried away his house and furniture, he recovering little except "bed and bedding," which were found lodged in the tops of the trees below Toby's Eddy.
In person Colonel Jenkins was of medium height, stout, well - proportioned, framed for strength, endur- ance, and activity combined; extremely hospitable, remarkably clever, yet grave almost to austerity when in thought. When animated in conversation, there was a pleasing expression on his countenance. His style was brief and sententious. Like Atreus's son, "He spoke no more than just the thing he ought."
(See Miner, App., p. 29.)
405
JOURNAL OF CHRISTOPHER HURLBUT.
XXI.
ORIGINAL JOURNAL OF CHRISTOPHER HURLBUT.
THE following brief record of the events of the wars in Wyoming was kindly furnished us by Samuel Hoyt, Esq., of Kingston, and it is published, not so much for its incidents, as for the confirmation which it affords of the leading facts to which reference has been made in the preceding pages. It is the testimo- ny of a witness and an actor in the scene. Mr. Hurl- but was a man for the times, of more than usual ed- ucation-a good mathematician, and a practical sur- veyor. His plots of large tracts of lands surveyed by him in the county of Luzerne are acknowledged data. His field-books, plots, bearings and distances, are all executed with great skill and accuracy.
"Blood hath been shed, ere now, i' th' olden time, Ere human statute purged the gentle weale : Aye, and since too, murthers have been performed Too terrible for the eare."-SHAKSPEARE-Macbeth.
" REMEMBRANCE OF WYOMING WARS.
" First, of the Indian War .- In the year 1777, the Indians and Tories up the river went with the British army to besiege Fort Stanwix, and, failing in their ob- ject, they returned home in the fall of the year. Late in the fall, Colonel Denison went up the river with a considerable body of men, and took several Tories, and wounded an Indian that attempted to run away from them. The same fall the Indians took York and Kingsley prisoners from Wyallusing, and carried them to Canada.
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WYOMING.
"Early in the spring, Colonel Denison, with about one hundred and fifty men, went up to Wyalusing to assist a number of families in removing from the place. I was in the company. We made rafts of old houses, and took on the people, with their effects, and went down the river. This spring a company was raised to garrison Forty Fort and to scout. Some time this spring three Indians came to Forty Fort, doubtless as spies. They were put in prison. The last of June I went out to Lackawaxen to meet my father's family, who were moving into the country, and was there un- til the result of the battle was known.
" On Tuesday, the last day of June, the Indian army was discovered. On Wednesday the settlers collected the men and went up to Sutton's Mills, where they found that the people had been killed and the houses burned .* It appeared that the Indian army had gone into the woods, and proceeded over the mountain to Kingston, and by that means the two armies did not meet there. On the same day the Indian army took Jenkins's and Wintermoot's Forts.+ The alarm was given, and the men assembled at Forty Fort.
" The next morning-the 3d of July-and toward night, they joined battle with the Indians, and were
This was the place where the Hardings were killed, and Gardner made a prisoner.
t According to Mr. Gardner, Jenkins's Fort could not have been taken on that day. He says it was the day after the battle that the fort in which he was-the one opposite Pittston, which was Fort Jen- kins-was entered by the Indians. Mr. Hurlbut was not on the ground, and might be mistaken. Mr. Gardner was in the fort, and must know whether it was surrendered before the battle or afterward. The theory which we have adopted elsewhere is, that the agreement to surrender the fort was entered into two days before it was actually. entered by the enemy ; but this was not on the last day of June, but on the 2d of July.
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JOURNAL OF CHRISTOPHER HURLBUT.
entirely defeated; only sixty escaped out of the battle. The next day was spent in negotiating a capitulation, and on Sabbath the fort was surrendered, when an in- discriminate plunder took place, and nearly all the buildings in the settlement were burned. The people escaped, none being killed excepting two, Mrs. Leech and St. John.
"The beginning of August, Colonel Butler, with Spaulding's company of the Wyoming soldiers, and a few of the settlers, returned and took possession of the place, and built a fort at Wilkesbarre, driving off what few Indians were there. Shortly after the Indians kill- ed John Abbott, and some others, above Wilkesbarre.
"In September, 1778, Colonel Hartley went, with two or three hundred men, by the West Branch, over to Towanda and to Sheshequin, and collected a con- siderable number of cattle, and drove them down the river. When he had got below Black Walnut Bottom, he was fired upon by the Indians, and at Tuscarora Creek a considerable action took place : some few were killed on both sides. The next day after they arrived at Wilkesbarre, the Indians killed two or three of his soldiers at the lower end of Kingston Flats.
"In the fall the Indians took Swetland and Blanch- ard at the Nanticoke mill, and burned the mill. Ear- ly in November the Indians killed Jackson, Lester, and Franklin, and wounded Hagaman ; they took pris- oners Pell and Lester's wife and daughter-a little girl -from Nanticoke, in December. Tripp, Slocum, and Kingsley's son were killed in Wilkesbarre, not far from the fort, and a little girl carried off prisoner in Febru- ary, 1779. Buck, Williams, and Pettibone were kill- ed, and Follett scalped on Kingston Flats, and an In- dian was killed in an attack on the block-house. On
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WYOMING.
the 20th of March Bidlack was taken, the block-house attacked, and all the cattle and horses on that side of the river driven off by a large party of British, In- dians, and Tories. On the 22d Wilkesbarre was attack- ed, as also Stewart's house, and all the cattle that were out on that side driven off; and all the remaining buildings on both sides of the river that were not near the fort, or Stewart's house or block-house, were burned.
"Shortly after the attack on Wilkesbarre, a consid- erable body of troops-the advance of General Sulli- van's army-arrived at Wilkesbarre, and early in April another detachment coming in, two officers and five soldiers, that were in advance of the main body, were killed at or near Laurel Run, in the mountain. Some time that summer, Sherwood, at Huntington, was wounded by the Indians while hunting, but escaped.
"Sullivan's army penetrated the Indian country as far as Genesee River, and in October returned to Wilkesbarre, and so back to join the main army, leav- ing a garrison in Wilkesbarre.
" After Sullivan's expedition my father's family moved into the country, and went on to his farm in Hanover. The settlers were now getting on to their farms, in expectation of not being farther troubled by the Indians.
"The last of March, Hammond, Bennet, and son went to plow on Kingston Flats, above Forty Fort, and were taken by the Indians. Near the same time, Upson was killed and Jonah Rogers taken prisoner below Nanticoke Falls. Another party of Indians took Van Campen, Pence, and a boy, and killed sev- eral on Fishing Creek. On Harvey's Creek they took Pike, but dismissed his wife. The same week Ham-
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JOURNAL OF CHRISTOPHER HURLBUT.
mond and Bennet rose on the Indians, and escaped and came in. Three or four days after Van Campen and company came in, having killed the Indians who took them prisoners.
" After this no Indians appeared about Wyoming until December, when twenty British soldiers and five Indians came into Plymouth in the evening, and took all the families which were there prisoners. Selecting some men, that they carried off, they dismissed the women and children. The last of March, 1781, a num- ber of families had begun to build houses, intending also to build a fort on Shawnee Flats, where they were attacked in the night by the Indians. Ransom was wounded; one Indian was killed, and the rest fled. In September the Indians took Franklin's boys, with five horses, and burned all the grain-perhaps twelve hundred bushels of wheat and rye-on Nanti- coke Flats.
" In 1782 some men began a saw-mill in Hanover. They raised the mill on Saturday, in April. The next morning Franklin's family were taken prisoners, and his house burned. Baldwin, with nine others, went up the river and got ahead of the Indians, and on the Frenchtown Mountain they had a severe engagement of six or seven hours. Bennet was wounded, also Baldwin himself, but none were killed. They retook three of the family, the woman and a small child be- ing killed. In July Jamison and Chapman were kill- ed in the road in Hanover, near where the meeting- house was afterward built. Peace took place the win- ter following. The next spring, in 1783, Baldwin and Garnsey were carried off by the Indians from near Black Walnut Bottom, but no other mischief was done by the Indians, as they were sent to take a prisoner
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WYOMING.
by whom they might ascertain whether peace was re- ally made, as they had only heard a rumor of it at Niagara. They were dismissed soon after their arri- val."
THE PENNAMITE WAR.
"In December, 1782, the Decree of Trenton was passed, adjudging the right of jurisdiction and pre- emption to Pennsylvania. The next spring peace took place between England and the United States, and the garrison was removed from Wilkesbarre, and a company of Pennsylvania state troops took posses- sion of the fort. What pretense there was for contin- uing the garrison after peace, I know not. All was peace that summer, and numbers of people moved in from Pennsylvania and New Jersey, mostly persons of no property or respectability. Toward fall it ap- peared that a number of Pennsylvanians met secretly in the settlement and proceeded to elect justices of the peace; and in September the Assembly of Pennsyl- vania passed a law authorizing the President and Council to commission those persons so unlawfully elected; and they soon began to execute the laws by suing every Yankee that they could by any means bring a charge against, and very soon the most violent proceedings took place. Men were imprisoned by the aid of the military, and sundry persons whipped with gun-rods, and otherwise most shamefully abused. A number of respectable men were confined in an old house without a floor, and mud shoe deep. In cold weather in the winter they were obliged to lie down in the mud on pain of being shot. If three Yankees were seen together, they were sure to be imprisoned and otherwise abused.
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JOURNAL OF CHRISTOPHER HURLBUT.
" At last, as our situation was no longer to be borne, a number of us determined to draw up a petition to the Legislature, then in session, stating our usage, and begging for protection. As not more than two of us dare be seen together, the difficulty was to confer to- gether. Our object was effected by going around and notifying a meeting in the evening; and, in order to prevent suspicion, the meeting was appointed within forty rods of the fort, where a number got together and darkened the windows, and then drew and signed a petition, and engaged a man to carry it to Philadelphia. Upon the receipt of this petition, the Assembly ap- pointed a committee to repair to Wyoming and inquire into the cause of the complaint. The committee came to Wilkesbarre, and by testimony we established all that we set forth in our petition, and much more. The committee returned and reported, but nothing was done to afford us redress.
"In March was 'the great ice-flood,' which nearly ruined the people, drowning their cattle and horses, and sweeping away their houses, as they were nearly all built on the flats for safety against the Indians. Most of their breadstuffs was also destroyed. In May, after the ice had melted away, and the people begun to put up their fences, the Pennamites, with the sol- diers, went through the settlement in considerable bodies, and took all the good guns, and the locks from others, from every Yankee who had one, and direct- ly after this they turned all Yankee families into the street, taking them under guard. A few only werc able to flee up or down the river; all the rest were forced to go out east by the Lackawaxen. Thus the Pennamites got full possession of the country. Short- ly after this the soldiers were discharged, but many of
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WYOMING.
them continued in the country, and the Pennamites kept up a garrison in the fort.
" The last of June the Yankees began to assemble in the woods, in order, if possible, to regain their posses- sions. It should be remembered that all along, from the first beginning of the outrages, applications had been made to the legislative, executive, and judicial authorities of the state for protection and redress, but none was obtained. Also let it be understood that those pretended justices before referred to as having been unlawfully appointed, headed by Alexander Pat- terson, a man of considerable abilities, but bold, dar- ing, and completely unprincipled; aided by D- M-, insinuating, plausible, and flattering, covering his enmity by pretended friendship-a most designing enemy to the Yankees; and J- S- - , with just information enough to act out the villain without dis- guise, had no idea of doing justice to the Yankees, but their object was to compel them to leave the country.
" About the 15th of July, a party of Pennamites and another of Yankees, both armed, met in a piece of woods in Plymouth unexpectedly to both parties. They fired on each other; two were killed, and several wounded; the Pennamites fled, and were pursued to the fort; the fort was immediately invested, and hostilities were continued for several days. When information was received that a party of men was coming in to relieve the besieged Pennamites, twenty-seven Yankees went out and met the party at Locust Hill. They fired upon them, and they retreated to a house, and, as they appeared sufficiently frightened, the Yankees left them and returned. The party then left the house and fled back. They had one killed and several wounded. Of the Yankees, only one slightly wounded.
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JOURNAL OF CHRISTOPHER HURLBUT.
" In the mean time, several justices and the sheriff of Northumberland County came to Wilkesbarre to try to put a stop to the fighting. After considerable negotiation, both parties agreed to stop. The Penna- mites remained in the fort, and the Yankees returned to their deserted homes. In two or three days a body of two or three hundred men came in, headed by the famous John Armstrong and a Mr. Boyd, two mem- bers of the Senate of Pennsylvania. The Pennamites, in part, pretended to surrender, when they called on the Yankees to surrender, as they said they were de- termined to disarm both parties, so that there should be no farther resort to violence, but an acknowledg- ment of the supremacy of the laws. When the Yan- kees laid down their arms they were made close pris- oners, and Pennamite sentinels set to guard them. Those who were at Locust Hill were sent, under a strong guard, being first ironed, to Easton jail, the others to Sunbury ; those who went to Sunbury were speedily admitted to bail, and returned home; those at Easton were kept close prisoners five or six weeks, when they broke jail, and about half of them escaped ; the remainder were kept until October, when the Su- preme Court was held at Easton; then the grand jury found no bill against them for murder, and they were discharged, after paying jail fees and other expenses to the amount of twenty-five dollars each.
" In the mean time, those who had escaped, with a few others-about twenty-headed by John Franklin, had obtained arms, and kept together until about the 18th of October, when a body of men came into the. settlement and proceeded to make prisoners of such as they chose. They had taken seventeen and confined them in a corn-house, which they kept well guarded;
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WYOMING.
but they failed to take Franklin and his party, who continually gained in numbers until after the company returned home. After this the Yankees attacked the fort in the night, and killed two officers. Shortly after the fort was evacuated, and all the Pennamites who had been fighting the Yankees were obliged to leave the settlement.
" When they got out into the country they made a loud outcry about the cruelty of the Yankees, and as to how they were plundered of all they possessed, and by this means prevailed with a number of the in- habitants of Northumberland County to petition the Legislature in their behalf. The Legislature then ap- pointed three of their number to go to Wyoming and endeavor to put a stop to farther disorders. In the beginning of May they came in, and, after conferring with the Yankees, returned. Nothing was done ef- fectually until the fall of 1786, when a law was passed erecting the disputed territory into a county, which was called Luzerne. A time was appointed for hold- ing an election for county officers, with justices of the peace. The election was held in July, 1787, and from that time law reigned and peace was fully restored."
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THE UMBRELLA-TREE
417
THE UMBRELLA-TREE.
XXII.
MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES.
THE UMBRELLA-TREE. *
THE umbrella, round-top, or signal-tree, is situated on the mount- ain west of the Valley, about four miles from its head. It is of the variety Pinus rigida, or pitcli pine ; is about ninety feet high, and two and a half feet in diameter at the base. It is apparently, at a dis- tance, on the summit of the mountain, and surrounded by woods ; but it is about forty rods from the apex, and stands in the centre of a ten- acre field, on the estate formerly owned by Mr. Pierce Smith, now by the Kingston Coal Company.
My imagination had pictured the tree to be something immense, and, from the misconception, I was somewhat disappointed, as it is not as large as one would be led naturally to suppose, judging of its ap- pearance at a distance, its longevity, etc. ; but it is more remarkable for conspicuity of position than for size or height.
Many are the traditions in regard to this old stand-by, and per- haps nothing in our early history is more vague and unsatisfactory than the reports in circulation concerning it. Its conspicuity from the east and northeast made it a landmark through the unbroken wilderness to this land of promise, and we can hardly imagine the joy that its prospect lent, when at its sight the weary traveler con- sidered himself almost home. It is said that its lower branches were clipped or hewn off, to render it more observable at a greater dis- tance ; and one tradition, or rather a more late fiction, says that they were cut off as a signal of battle, and ominous of the dire fall of our little army.
* Here is a group of interesting objects. "Tuttle's Creek" passes through the culvert which appears on the right of the foreground. The house partly con- cealed by the shade of the trees is the veritable house erected and long occupied by Colonel Denison, now occupied by his grandson, Hiram Denison, Esq. Last sea- son-1857-it exchanged its original red covering for a new white one, and, but for its antique form and large chimney, would now exhibit quite a modern appearance. The house on the left was the residence of the late Mrs. Tuttle, only sister of Mrs. Myers. This is the spot where stood the four block-houses from which " the Yan- kee Boys" fired the last shot at the Pennamites and killed Captain Bolen. The road which crosses the Creek here is the old road on which the little army marched to attack the Tories and Indians. The umbrella-tree is seen in the distance, upon the mountain's height.
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WYOMING.
We think that any other view than that it is just as God made it would rob him of some of his due glory, and detract from it much real beauty, as being remarkable from nature rather than art. This view is substantiated by almost every physical sign, and the fact that, upon close inspection, it bears no appearance of having had its branches cut off. It has some dead limbs, which show no sudden fracture, as would be the case if they had been hewn off, but, on the contrary, extend several feet from the shaft ; and, besides, it has sev- eral large limbs, unperceivable at a distance, about half way up. Im- mediately under the top there is a space of ten or fifteen feet looking quite smooth, showing no abrasion of knife or hack of hatchet. Its top is rather small for the shaft to be compared to an umbrella, and looks more like a delicate parasol put on a large umbrella handle. It is the only tree in a large field, and, although the woodman has cut down all around it, he has paused with a praiseworthy venera- tion to humble its proud crest in the dust. There it stands nearly as it was a hundred years ago; there it stands erect as God made it; there let it stand till He, in his wisdom, sees fit to fell it. We re- luctantly turned our back upon this old pine, and left it "alone in its glory."
PROSPECT ROCK
is situated on the eastern mountain, directly back of Wilkesbarre, and about midway between the two extremes of the valley. From its prominent position may be distinctly seen both sections of the val- ley, above and below. It is a steep ledge of light conglomerate, com- posed of strata four or five feet thick, resting at about an angle of forty-five degrees in position. Its eastern verge is quite precipitous, showing an abrupt fracture from the plane of the strata below, which was caused in its upheaving to its present position. The western surface is convex, and more continuous with the slope of the mount- ain. A few small pines stand upon it here and there, and dip their roots into its crevices, deriving their nourishment from an almost im- perceptible and inconceivable source. The upper section of the val- ley of Wyoming appears to be an extended plain ; the lower a series of hills, undulating up higher and higher until they reach the Nan- ticoke Mountains. Above, it seems continuous with the Lackawanna Valley, and the gray front of Crag Campbell marks the entrance of the Susquehanna; below the mountains curve gracefully as the bow in the clouds for the egress of the river.
To get a proper appreciation of the view from this rock, you should
PROSPECT ROCK. 419
spend a night at one of the hotels a short distance below, arise with the sun, with the mental energies fresh and unimpaired with the toils of ascent. It was in the month of July that I made my visit, and all nature was dressed in her most varied and pleasing garb .- Spread out beneath were the fields of every shade of green and of gold. There were the shock-dotted fields, where the farmer had been gath- ering together into convenient heaps his means of subsistence and profit; fields of still waving grain, interspersed with meads of fresh- springing grass from newly-mown hay-fields. Black lines mark the course of fences dividing possessions and fields, showing a beautiful simile to the checkered scenes of life, where every man is moving for his own advantage. Immediately beneath is the borough of Wilkes- barre, with its small houses and tiny spires, as though contrived for the habitation of Liliputians. Directly across from it is the village of Kingston, below which are the scattered houses of Plymouth, and above, toward the head of the valley, is the village of Wyoming, still more diminutive in the distance. Here and there are scattered throughout the country habitations and public works, showing the insignificance of puny art in such a vast area of beautcous nature. "Oh, pigmy man, how small thy workings are! Thy boasted rule has not the power to even mock at heaven, for who could mountains make, or paint a scene like this?" These are naturally the feelings of an observer and student of nature when impressed with the power of the magnificent and sublime; he pauses in a reverie of inexpress- ible delight, and is forced to admit the inability of language to con- vey his thoughts to others. This rock has the advantages of position in presenting to the view nearly all parts of the valley, neither ren- dering it dim by too great distance, nor unpicturesque by being too near. A large area is here placed before the vision, concentrated into one grand conception, subject to one contemplation. In the west are the horizon, scalloping hills, giving glimpses here and there between them of the country beyond. The Susquehanna is occasion- ally visible, and the three islands here seen seem like " Arks of na- ture's make floating on to join the sea."
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