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CENTENNIAL HISTORY
OF
^TJSOUEHAm COTINTT.
TENNSYLVA NTA.
BY
RHAMANTHUS M. STOCKER.
TEID
jU
ijli Id 3u, h
PIIILADELPIirA: n. T. PECK & CO. 1887.
A4
374. 83 5
Copyright^ 1887,
By R. T. peck & CO.
All Rights Reserved.
PRESS OF
JAS. B. RODGERS PRINTING COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA.
1153997
i
PUBLISHERS’ PREFACE.
After more than a year, the history which we undertook to publish has been prepared by careful writers. The book is larger, by several hundred pages, than was advertised in the announcement.
The engraving and mechanical execution of the work have been in the hands of capable artists.
Early in the preparation of this volume, arrangements were made by the publishers with Miss Blackman, whereby any facts in her work could be used by the compilers of this history, by giving her due credit for the same. Miss Blackman’s book has been particularly valuable in preparing pioneer history in the several localities, some of the matter having been obtained by her from persons now dead, facts that could not easily be duplicated. We cheerfully make this acknowledgment to the general value and accuracy of Miss Blackman’s work.
The compilers are indebted for courteous treatment and assistance to the county, town- ship and borough officials, the clergy, the press, members of the bar, many school teachers, Hon. F. C. Bunnell and hundreds of others whose names are sometimes mentioned in con- nection with the information given by them. Especially are we indebted to the aged people of Susquehanna County (of whom there are many on her healthful hills) for the cheerful manner in which they have contributed of their knowledge of events happening in their childhood days ; and some of the pleasantest reminiscences of the compilers will be the remembrance of the aged men and women who have contributed to these annals.
Among those who have thus assisted in this work, it may not be invidious to mention Rev. A. L. Benton, Rev. E. A. Warriner, Captain H. F. Beardsley, Superintendent B. E. James, Professor S. S. Thomas, Professor C. T. Thorpe, E. A. Weston, Esq., Deacon E. T. Tiffany, James T. Du Bois, Elder William C. Tilden, James C. Bushuell, Mrs. S. B. Chase and Mrs. H. D. Warner. Others who have contributed are mentioned in connection with the matter furnished. John L. Rockey, of Lebanon, Pa., wrote many of the townships and boroughs, and the whole work, in a comprehensive sense, has been under the editorial charge of Rhamanthus M. Stocker, Esq., of Honesdale, Pa.
The Publishers.
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EDITOR’S PREFACE.
Susquehanna County belongs to that northern tier of counties that was claimed by Connecti- cut; consequently the pioneer settlers were largely from Connecticut and other New England States. Settlements were begun in Susquehanna County one hundred and sixty-seven years after the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, and soon after the close of the Revolutionary War in 1787. In presenting this Centennial History of the county to the public, we have endeavored to trace the history of the aborigines who inhabited or roamed over this region ; also the treaties between them and the whites, and the battles finally terminating with Sullivan’s victory over the Six Nations, which forever destroyed the power of those confederated tribes over the territory embraced in this history. Although no part of Susquehanna County was engaged in the Pennamite War, yet it was a portion of the territory contended for, and the early settlement of this county was made largely by Revolutionary soldiers under the impulse of the Connecticut claimants, as represented by the Delaware and Susque- hanna Companies ; hence a brief history of the contentions between Connecticut and Pennsylvania for dominion, and lastly by individuals of those States for right of soil, have been given. While the dominion of Pennsylvania was established by the Trenton decree in 1782, the rights of individual owners to the soil which they had improved, was a subject of controversy for many years thereafter; and individuals claiming under Connecticut title in Susquehanna County were prosecuted under the Pennsylvania Intrusion laws, and compelled to pay Pennsylvania owners for their lands.
Realizing that the pioneer settlement of this county constitutes its heroic age, the compiler has endeavored to obtain the names of all the pioneers possible, with such incidents connected with their settlement as are deemed worthy of preservation in a history of the people, within the limits under- taken by the publishers of this volume. In so doing we do not claim to give every incident of interest that has happened in the many families of Susquehanna County ; to do that would require many volumes the size of this, and the details would become too burdensome for the general reader ; but it is our intention to give sufficient details of the privations, sufferings and hardships of the pioneers and subsequent settlers, with biographical sketches of men, in many cases accompanied by portraits, and such chapters on general history as shall make a very full and complete history of the county. To that end one chapter is devoted to the Legal, another to the Medical Profession. The Press and Authors, Education, Customs and Manners of the Pioneers and Military matters are considered in separate chapters. These general chapters, together with the borough and township histories, are intended to be sufficiently comprehensive to include all that is desirable to preserve for the general reader of the history of Susquehanna County.
The New England States are justly proud of their history, and have preserved with religious care every incident obtainable in connection with the Pilgrim Fathers, but their pioneer history is that of foreign colonists settling their States. They were sturdy men and true, with a high conception of
V
VI
EDITOK’S PREFACE.
liberty for their age, but with some of the spirit of intolerance and persecution which they had learned from their adversaries characteristic of that time ; but Susquehanna County is a child of liberty, settled after freedom’s battle had been fought, largely by heroes who helped gain our independence. In 1787 Susquehanna County was a vast wilderness, unbroken and untrodden by any one save the Indians, and perchance an occasional hunter or trapper of the white race. In that year commencements were made at Great Bend, Harmony, Oakland and Brooklyn, and from those rude pioneer beginnings the settle- ment of Susquehanna County has proceeded until it now contains a thriving population of forty thousand or more inhabitants. The Federal constitution was adopted in 1787, so that the county had its growth and development under the American form of government ; and her citizens have ever been tolerant in religion, progressive in education and liberty loving. During the anti-slavery contest, Montrose was the home of the fugitive slave, and in the temperance reform Susquehanna County has ever taken an advanced position. Her farming population are among the most intelligent in the State, and she has produced a large number of teachers, lawyers and doctors, and her full share of authors, statesmen, judges and clergymen. In the late war Susquehanna, true to her Revolutionary ancestry, contributed at least three thousand of her sons to preserve the Union. Surely this county has reason to preserve her history, and teach it to her children ; and it is believed that the perusal of these pages will increase a love of home and native land, and a veneration for the pioneer fathers who wrested homes from the wilderness and planted the school-house and the church side by side, and established a healthful condition of society which should be perpetuated and improved as knowledge and light increase from generation to generation.
If anyone thinks that his ancestors or his family have not received the notice they deserve, let him
I
remember that
“One Csesar lives, a thousand are forgot;”
that there are no ten men in Susquehanna County or out of it that would agree as to the relative merit of the different individuals in it ; that doubtless many facts of interest have escaped the closest scrutiny of the compiler and his assistants. It has not been our intention, however, to omit any person or fact that deserves notice in this work. Our thanks are due, and are most heartily extended, to all that large number of persons who have encouraged and assisted us in the preparation of. this history.
R. M. Stocker.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I. PAGES
Aboriginal Inhabitants — Lenni Lenape — Six Nations — Extin- guishment of Indian Title— Historical Map of Northeastern Pennsylvania 1-5
CHAPTER II.
Charles II. Charters— Connecticut, Susquehanna and Delaware
Indian Purchases — Pennamite War — Westmoreland County, 6-11
CHAPTER III.
Battle of Wyoming — General Sullivan’s March — General Clin- ton at Great Bend — Defeat of the Six Nations — An Indian Claim — Adventures of Hilborn 11-20
CHAPTER XV. PAGES
General Education — Pioneer Schools— Public Schools — Acad- emies— County Institutes — Superintendents and Teachers . 189-196
CHAPTER XVI.
Agriculture — Granges — Stock Breeding 196-210
CHAPTER XVII.
Revolutionary Soldiers — Militia — Soldiers of 1 812 210-216
CHAPTER XVIII.
War of the Rebellion — Companies and Rosters of Soldiers —
Sanitary Work 213-264
CHAPTER IV.
Connecticut Claimants — Trenton Decree— Second Pennamite War — Erection of Luzerne County — Act of 1795 — Drinker’s
Letters — Bartlet Hinds Mobbed 20-26
CHAPTER V.
Land Titles — Warrantee Map — Names of Warrantees 26-37
CHAPTER VI.
Topography — Geology, Forests, Zoology 38-43
CHAPTER VII.
Lines of Travel — Indian Trials — Pioneer Roads — Turnpikes —
Stage Routes — Railroads 43-61
CHAPTER VIII.
Erection of Susquehanna County —County Map— Erection of Townships and Chartering of Boroughs— Census— Court-
House— Civil List 61-70
CHAPTER IX.
Bench and Bar — Personal Sketches 70-101
CHAPTER X.
The Press — Editors 101-116
CHAPTER XI.
Authors, Productions of 116-130
CHAPTER XIX.
Grand Army Republic Posts — Women’s Relief Corps — Monu- ment Association — Sketches of Officers — Sons of Veterans —
Colored Volunteers 264-264^
CHAPTER XX.
Borough of Montrose 265-321
CHAPTER XXI.
Bridgewater Township 321-352
CHAPTER XXII.
Jessup Township 352-366
CHAPTER XXIII.
Dimock Township 366-388
CHAPTER XXIV.
Springville Township 388-417
CHAPTER XXV.
Auburn Township 417-436
CHAPTER XXVI.
Rush Township 436-453
CHAPTER XXVII.
Middletown Township 453-463
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Apolacon Township 463-470
CHAPTER XII.
Medical History and Dentistry— Early Reminiscences — Medical
Society — Personal Sketches 130-179
CHAPTER XIII.
Manners and Customs of the Pioneer Fathers and Mothers . . 179-184 CHAPTER XIV.
Temperance— Early Societies — Woman’s Christian Temperance
Union 184-189
CHAPTER XXIX.
Choconut Township 470-479
CHAPTER XXX.
Forest Lake Township 479-496
CHAPTER XXXI.
Friendsville Borough 496-499
CHAPTER XXXII.
Silver Lake Township 499-507
vii
CONTENTS.
viii
|
Liberty Township . . |
CHAPTER XXXIII. |
PAGES . . . 507-514 |
Lathrop Township . . |
CHAPTER XLIV. |
PAGES |
|
Franklin Township . . |
CHAPTER XXXIV. |
. . . . 514-528 |
Hopbottom Borough |
CHAPTER XLV. |
|
|
Great Bend Township |
CHAPTER XXXV. |
. . . . 528-538 |
Lenox Township . . . |
CHAPTER XLVI. |
|
|
Great Bend Borough . |
CHAPTER XXXVI. |
Harford Township . , |
CHAPTER XL VII. |
||
|
Hallstead Borough . , |
CHAPTER XXXVII. |
. . . 546-554 |
Gibson Township . . . |
CHAPTER XLVIII. |
|
|
Oakland Township . . |
CHAPTER XXXVIII. |
Jackson Township . . |
CHAPTER XLIX. |
||
|
CHAPTER XXXIX. Harmony Township and Lanesboro’ |
Clifford Township . |
CHAPTER L. |
|||
|
Susquehanna Borough |
CHAPTER XL. |
Dundaff Borough . . |
CHAPTER LI. |
. . . . 806-813 |
|
|
New Milford Township |
CHAPTER XLI. |
CHAPTER Lir. Herrick Township and Uniondale Borough ..... |
|||
|
New Milford Borough |
CHAPTER XLII. |
Ararat Township . . . |
CHAPTER LIII. |
||
|
Brooklj'n Township . |
CHAPTER XLIII. |
. . . . 648-676 |
CHAPTER LIV. Thomson Township and Borough |
.... 837-846 |
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Page
Adams, A. J 735
Adams, James W 669
Ainey, Dr. D. C 160
Avery, S. C 825
Bailey, Amos 653
Bailey, Obadiah 654
Bailey, Frederick 655
Bailey, Henry L 656
Baker, I. P 387
Barnes, Amos 580
Barnes, S. H 582
Beardsley, Albert 404
Beardsley, Captain H. F 264j7
Beebe, Bradley 560
Beebe, Charles 661
Bell, Elisha 689
Bell, Truman 690
Blackman, Miss E. .C 122
Blakeslee, Dr. E. L 97
Blakslee, B. F 393
Blakslee, L 394
Bloxham, J. B 831
Booth, William 490
Boyd, William H 289
Boyle, Judge John 634
Bradshaw, John 486
Brandt, H. W 584
Breed, R. F 661
Brewster, Horace 333
Brush, Calvin 564
Brush, B. L 384
Brush, Samuel 558
Bunnell, Kirby 352
Bunnell, William 388
Burdick, Philip 791
Bush, M. K 348
Callender, J. M 798
Cargill, James 774
Chase, Hon. S. B 188
Churches, Montrose Presbyterian 309
Montrose Baptist 305
Montrose Episcopal 316
Great Bend Methodist Episcopal 544
Harford Congregational
Susquehanna Catholic 605
Coach, Old-Time Stage 50
Cook, Judge J. H 592
Page
Corse, Lieutenant A. D . 781
Court-House ' 65
Curtis, C. J 339
Curtis, Gaylord 596
Dayton, Frederick 366
Dimock, Eider Davis 306
Dixon, C. B 534
Doctor, Olden Time 130
Du Bois, J. T 115
Easterbrook, W. W 783
Estabrook, S. H 567
Ellis, Hon. C. H 820
Falkenbury, Hon. Samuel 694
Fargo, Frederick 372
Fitch, Hon. L. F 89
Fordham, D. C 291
France, J. M 428
French, Myron 264fc
Follet, Elkanah T 732
Gardner, L 342
Gardner, J. F 344
Gardner, Dr. P. H 143
Gerritson, A. J 108
Gillet, J. L,, 750
Gray, A. W 447
Griffis, Byron 356
Grimes, J. K 563
Grow, Hon. G. A 702
Guile, S. B 724
Hall, Major Martin 771
Hallstead, John 794
Halsey, Dr. C. C 148
Handrick, H. F 484
Harding, William 625
Hartley, M. J 697
Harvey, W. S 489
Head-Dress (Lady, 1776) 181
Hinds, Major D. D 324
Hine, Dr. E. P 158
Hillis, J. S ' 445
James, B. E 195
Jeffers, Watson 728
Jessup, Hon. William 77
Jewett, Rodney OGO
Johnson, John 684
Jones, H. M 723
Jones, William II 208
IX
X
LIST OF ILLUSTKATIONS.
Kent, H. J
Ivent, A. W
Kent, David
Kistler, Stephen
Lake, J. L
Lamb, Dr. F. D
Lamb, C. W
Larrabee, Hon. M. J
Lathrop, Dr. I. B
Lathrop, Benjamin
Lathrop, Azur
Leslie, John
Little, Ralph B
Loomis, Samuel
Loomis, G. 0
Lowry, J. W
Lyons, B. K
Lyons, S. A
Lyons, David
McCollum, Hon. J. B
Maps Northeastern Pennsylvania
Warrantee
County
Marsh, Kirby
Merriman, J. L
Messenger, E. K
Newton, J. M. . . .
O’Beiily, Very Eev. J. V
Oakley, Millbourn
Oakley, D. K
Old Log School'House
Peck, Levi K
Penn’s Tea Service
Pickering, Jotham
Pickering, John D ...... .
Post, Isaac
Post, David
Post, Wiliiam M
Pratt, Ezra A
Prichard, OiTin
Kichardson, Rev. Lyman . . . .
Richardson, Dr. W. L
Riley, Rev. Henry A
Riley, Minot
Rogers, Dr. William
Sarteil, Rev. N. P
Saunders, Lyman
Schlager, Jacob
School Building, Susquehanna . .
Searle, Daniel
Searle, D. W
Searle, E. S
Sherer, Samuel
Sherman, H.K
Sherwood, W. H
Smiley, John
Page . 346 . 571 . 658 . 642 . 384 . 156 . 565 . 95
. 154 . 329 . 284 . 734 . 85
. .532 . 705 . 795 . 281 . 579 . 577 . 81 . 5
. 33
. 63
. 510 . 520 . 843 . 666 . 606 . 725 . 727 . 784 . 730 . 180 . 778 . 768 . 269 . 270 . 91
. 638 ■ 207 . 741 . 146 . 310 . 407 , 159 . 836 . 685 . 586 . ooi . 51
. 93
. 201 . 374 . 395 . 443 . 758
Smith, Dr. L. A . . . . Smith, Dr. E. N . . . Smith, R. W . . . Streeter, Dr. J. B . . . Strickland, Ezra . . .
Strickland, P
Strickland, Ira A ... . Stoddard, Chester . . .
Stone, 0. W
Stephens, Benjamin .
Stephens, J. B
Squier, Albert . . . . Sweet, Captain A. T . . Sweet, Lorenzo . . . .
Tarbell, J. S
Taylor, James P . . . Taylor, Jacob . . . . Taylor, David .... Tewksbury, Samuel . . Tewksbury, John . . . Tewksbury, Franklin . Thorpe, C. T . . . ; .
Tiffany, E. T
Tiffany, E. M
Tiffany, M. L
Tilden, Elder W. C . . Tingley, Norman . . . Tingley, Deacon F . . Titus, Leonard . . . . Turrell, Hon. W. J . .
Turrell, Abel
Turrell, H. F
Vail, Dr. J. D
Van Cott, Janies . . .
Very, Zerah
Walker, George . . . . Walker, Sarah M . . . Warrantee Map . . . . Washburn, Oscar . . . Watrous, Spencer . . .
Watrous, D. S
Wells, E. C
Westfall, Levi . . . .
Weston, E. A
Wheaton, N. P . . . . White, William . . . . Whitney, F. M . . . . Whitney, M. T . . . . Williams, Hon. W. W Williams, Dyer . . . . Williams, John . . . . Wilson, Mason S . . . Woodward, George . . Wright, Dr. Samuel , Wright, Myron B . . .
Page . 140 . 139 . 618 . 136 . 398 . 400 . 401 . 845 . 360 . 411 . 801 . 412 . 264d . 682 . 294 . 105 . 675 . 676 . 425 . 426 . 652 . 603 . 715 . 692 . 693 . 494 . 626 . 720 . 718 . 87
. 282 . 292 . 163 . 642 . 721 . 376 . 264 . 33
. 747 . 350 . 667 . 327 . 657 . 650 . 522 . 427 . 776 . 840 . 748 . 680 . 766 . 279 . 764 . 174 . 593
HISTORY
OF
SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
CHAPTER I.
ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS.
Lenni Lenapo — Six Nations — Extinguishment of Indian Title.
When the territory now comprised in the county of Susquehanna was first known to the white man it contained no Indian settlement, but was a wilderness waste, occupied temporarily by the hunting parties of the Six Nations or Iroquois, who held dominion to the northward, and the Lenni Lenape, who lived on the south. The Lenni Lenape, or original people, as they called themselves, were one of the noblest tribes of Indians in North America. When Henry Hudson rode at anchor on the majestic river which bears his name, just above the Highlands, in the ship “Half Moon,” September 16, 1609, he was met by the Lenni Lenape. “Full of simple sublimity and lofty poetry was the con- ception these savages first formed of the strange, white-faced men, in dress, bearing and speech different from their own, who came in the winged canoe to their shores.” They welcomed them as superior beings sent to them as messen- gers of peace from the abode of the Great Spirit, and honored them with sacrificial feasts and with gifts.
Hudson recorded that above the Highlands
“they found a very loving people, and very old men and were well used.” The Lenni Le- nape claimed that they had existed from the be- ginning; that they were the original people. “The Miamis, Wyandots, Shawanese and many others admitted their antiquity and called them grandfathers.” They have a legend that centu- ries before the white man came to their shores their ancestors, who lived beyond the “Father of Waters” — the Mamaesi Sipu or Mississippi — near the wide sea where the sun sank every night, traveled eastward in search of a fairer land, of which their prophets had told them. That near the Mississippi they met the Mengioe or Lroqmis. They journeyed eastward together, neither in warfare nor friendship, until it be- came necessary for them to unite their forces against the Allegwi, whom they finally defeated and nearly exterminated, “sweeping them for- ward as the wind does the dry leaves of the forest.” Both tribes wandered eastward until the Mengtoe struck the Hudson and the Lenni Lenape the Delaware or Lenape Wihittuck (the river or stream of the Lenape). Plere, in the beautiful Minisink Valley, they established their council-fire, and made it the central seat of their power, being satisfied that this was the fiur land of which their prophets had told them. Con- sidering their faith in these traditions, which made this the loved home of the Lenni Jjenape,
2
HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA,
can we wonder at the resentment which these simple and peaceable Indians felt, when they saw the pale- faces, whom they had befriended, defraud them out of this very home by the un- fair construction wdiich they put upon the Walking- Purchase.
The Lenape were divided into three tribes — the Turtle or UiUDiiis, the Turkey or Unalaeldgo, who inhabited the coast from the Hudson to the Potomac, settling in towns, on the streams and river flats, which their women sometimes culti- vated, under chiefs wdio were subordinate to the g-reat council of the nation. The 3Iinsior Wolf division of the Lenape, called by the English “IMonseys,” were the most warlike of these tribes. “'They dwelt in the interior, forming a barrier between their nation and the Mengwe. They extended themselves from the IMinisink on the Delaware, where they held their council- seat, to the Hudson on the east, the Susquehan- na on the southwest, the headwaters of the Del- aware and Susquehanna Riv^ers on the north, and to that range of hills now known in New Jersey by the name of the Muskenecum, and by those of Lehigh and Conewago in Pennsyl- vania.” Many tribes proceeded from these and obtained local names. Such, probably, were the Shaw'anese, Nanticokes and Susquchannas. The Six Nations occupied the country extending from the Upper Hudson to the St. Lawrence and the great lakes. They consisted of the Mohawks, Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas and Oneidas, and the Tuscaroras from the Carolinas, who came north and joined the Five Nations about 1712. In process of time, according to the tradition of the Lenni Lenape, there were wars between them and the Mengwe, in which the former wei’e generally successful. As Susquehanna, AVayne and Bradford Counties were on the bor- der line between these powerful tribes, it is not unreasonable to suppose that there may have been many a savage conflict within the borders of what is now Susquehanna County.
It is known that they had paths or Indian trails through the county. At Great Bend there was an old ^Tuscarora town, and Indian trails
1 Egle’s “ History of Pennsylvania.”
2 John Lulten’s “Report of Surveys.”
led from this town to the Lackaw'anna and Wy- oming Valleys, another led more easterly to Easton and Philadelphia, and one led east through Mt. Pleasant, Wayne County, to the Delaware River. At the time when the whites flrst knew of the territory embraced in the pre- sent county of Susquehanna, it was a hunting- ground, but was not occupied by any tribe. The Delawares were under subjection to the Six Na- tions and were not permitted to travel on these trails without their eonsent, for the Iroquois had finally triumphed over their old enemies, the Delawares, by shi’ewdly inducing them to culti- vate peace and abandon war, until they became like women, as the Delawares allege. Whether the Delawares’ account of the matter is correct or not, it is certain that the Iroquois, who have been called the Romans of North America, had gained control over them, and parties of the Iroquois occasionally occupied the Lenape coun- try and w-andered over it at their will. Brant, the Mohawk chief, was occasionally in Susque- hanna County. There have been some eviden- ces of former Indian occupancy discovered. Among these were the Painted Rocks, — “ ^About two miles above the village of Great Bend the Susquehanna River is quite narrow, with high rocks on each side of the stream. This roman- tic locality was known to the early settlers as the Painted Rocks, from the fact, that, high upon the face of one of these cliffs, and far above the reach of man, was the painted figure of an Indian chief. The outlines of this figure were plainly visible to the earliest white visitors of the place, but long after the outlines had faded, the red which predominated still re- mained, which led the inhabitants to call the place ‘Red Rock,’ and by that name it is known to this day.”
There was once an island a short distance above Great Bend, whieh has been washed away by the floods until it has become a mere sand- bar. The Indians used to meet at this island and race around it in their canoes, the victor be- coming temporary chieftain, whom all the hunt- ing, or picnic party, as it might be termed, had to obey. There are further traces of the In-
3.J. Du Bois.
ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS.
S
dians in a number of the townships, especially along the rivers, where they undoubtedly fished for the speckled front which once abounded in these mountain streams, and where they hunted the deer and bear. “ * In the vicinity of Apala- con and Tuscarora Creeks numerous arrow- heads have been found; and, in otlier localities, other implements of the Indians.” Two of the most noted salt s])rings in the county were worked by the Indians. A legend lias been preserved in relation to the one near Silver Creek by a writer in the Volwnteer.
It is not within the scope of this work to give a detailed account of the conflicts which led to the expulsion of the Indians from North- eastern Pennsylvania, but a brief account of the “Walking Purchase,” and the dissatisfaction of the Indians which followed, will be traced, un- til the final overthrow of the Six Nations. The first relea.se of title by the Indians in the Pro- vinee of Pennsylvania was made in 1782, be- fore Penn’s arrival, by his Deputy-Governor, William Markham. It embraced all the terri- tory between the Neshaminy and the Delaware, as far up as Wrightstown and Upper Wakefield — about the centre of the present county of Bucks. In 1683 and 1684 Penn him.self made other purchases. On the 17th of September, 1718, the Lenni Lenape made another treaty, confirming their sales heretofore made, and ex- tending them from the Delaware to the Susque- hanna. This last-named .sale was confirmed 11th October, 1736, by twenty-three chiefs of the Six Natioirs, who presumptuously laid claim to this land also. They pretended to sell all the lands on both sides of the Susquehanna, eastward to the heads of the branches or springs flowing into the river, northward to the Kit- tochtinny Hills, and westward to the .setting sun. This indefinite we.stern boundary really extended to the Susquehanna River, and the northern boundary was the Conewago Hills, South Mountain and Ijehigh River.
In 1736 the Iroquois relea.sed their a.ssumed claim to a belt of country lying north of the former purcha.se and south of the Blue Moun- taiiLS, and extending .southwesterly from the
Delaware to and beyond the Susquehanna, in- cluding the northern parts of the present North- ampton, Lehigh and Berks, and the whole of several counties farther we.st.
The Lenni Lenape grew restive under these a.ssumptious of the Iroquois, and after consulta- tion with the j)ro[)rietaries they agreed, August 25, 1737, that a former alleged purcha.se, which had Ijeeu made from the Delawares, should be de<“ided in a novel manner. The proprietaries were to receive such portion of the Indian terri- toi'y as should be included within a line drawn northwesterly from a point in or near Wrights- town, as far as a man conld walk in a day and a half, and a line drawn from his .stopping- pi ace straight to the Delaware, which was the eastern boniidary. It is said that a preliminary walk was had, and that the trees were blazed along the route in 1735, in order that no distance should be lost in wandering out of a straight line. Edward Mar.shall, James Yeates and Solomon Jennings, noted walker.s, were chosen to make the walk. They started at a large chestnut tree near the Pennsville and Durham roads. Yeates led, with a light step, followed by Jennings, and Marshall brought up the rear, carele,ssly swinging a hatchet. Jennings and Yeates both gave out before the walk was fin- ished. Jennings was injured for life by his over-exertion, and Yeates died three days after. Marshall went on and completed the walk, at noon the second day. He threw himself on the ground and reached to a sapling, which was taken as the point fi’om which the line was run to the Delaware. The Indians who accompan- ied the walkers, to .see that everything was done fairly, frequently called out for them to stop, not to run, and finally left in disgust before the walk was completed. They had expected that the walk would be conducted in a leisurely manner, that they would stop, and talk, and smoke, like Onas (Penn) did, but the over-reach- ing policy of Penn’s descendants began to mani- fest itself, and the Indians saw that they were losing their lands. Instead of running the line directly to the Delaware River at the nearest point, Eastburn ran the line at right angles with the path taken by Marshall, which caused the line to strike the Delaware near the mouth
1 BliK'knian'H ‘ History.*’
4
HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
of the Shohola. This included the Minisink, the chosen home and conncil-seat of the Lenni Lcnape. The Indians luurnuired at this unfair treatment, but the proj)rietaries had sold ten thousand acres of these very lands to William Allen, and he in turn was selling them to settlers as early as 1733, or four years before the “walk- ing purchase.” Thus it appears that the pro- prietaries had determined to ignore the Lenape and their claims, and in order to make their humiliation more complete, the Governor com- plained to the deputies of the Six Nations, and Canasatego, one of their chiefs, repaired to Philadelphia, accompanied by three hundred warriors, in 1742, where a great council was held, at which the injured Delawares were also represented.
The Penns had applied to the Six Nations to compel the Delawares to surrender their ancient home, and Canasatego stood up and made a very insulting speech, calling the Delawares women, and upbraiding them for presuming to sell the lauds. Said he, “ You deserve to be taken by the hair of yonr heads and shaken till you re- cover your senses and become sober. We have seen a deed signed by yonr chiefs above fifty years ago, for this very land. But how came you to take upon yourselves to sell land at all ? We conrpiered you ; we made women of you.” After talking for some time in this strain, he commanded them to remove from the land in- stantly, and gave them their choice to go to Shamokin or Wyoming. He then gave them a belt of wampum and ordered them to leave the council. These arbitrary orders they dared not disobey. They were between two great powers, — the rapacious whites whom they had welcomed to their shores as messengers of peace, on the one hand, and the powerful Six Nations, their old enemies, on the other. They left their wig- wams on the Delaware and sadly took their march westward. A portion of them went to Shamokin, where Sunbury now is. A few of them settled on the Juniata, near Lewistown, but the greater number of them, under Tademe, \vent to Wyoming, below Wilkes-Barre, where they built a village in 1742. The Monscys oc- cupied the Lackawanna Valley under their chief, Capoure.
Thus was the power of the once proud and warlike Lenni Lenape broken forever. True, Teedyuscung rallied a remnant of this once powerful race in 1755, and tried to expel the pale-faced intruders from their old home, but it only resulted in their committing a great many ravages in Monroe and Northampton Counties, particularly in the vicinity of Stroudsburg and Smithfield. Teedyuscung gained such promi- nence that the chiefs of the Iroquois were jeal- ous of him. He participated in several great councils in Philadelphia and Easton, and ably championed the cause of his people.
Just twelve years after the unfortunate “Walking Purchase” was made, and while the contention in regard to it was still carried on, a portion of the territory which it covered and very much more was secured from the Del- aware, or Lenape j and the Six Nations by pur- chase, the consideration being £300 “ lawful money of Pennsylvania.” This purchase inclu- ded a belt of country stretching from the Dela- ware to the Susquehanna ; having as its south boundary the Blue Mountains. In this scope of country thus obtained, lies the whole of the present Monroe County, the greater part of Pike, a very small portion of Wayne (the ex- treme tip of its southern pan-handle), the whole of Carbon and Schuylkill and parts of Lacka- wanna, Luzerne, Columbia, Northumberland, Dauphin and Lebanon.
The treaty was consummated August 22, 1749, at Philadelphia, the parties being Edward Warner, Lynford Lardner, receiver-general of the province, William Peters, Richard Peters, secretary of the province, and others, and the sachems and chiefs of the Six Nations, Dela- ware.s, Shamokin and Shawanese Indians. After the treaty of 1749 another purchase of lauds was made from the Indians in 1768. The treaty was made between the representatives of Thomas and Richard Penn and the sachems of the Six Nations, at Fort Stanwix (now Rome, N. Y.), and concluded Nov. 5, 1768. By its terms the Indian title was released from an im- mense belt of country, northwest of the lands ceded by the treaties of 1749, 1754 and 1758, and extending diagonally across the entire pro- vince from the Delaware River, in the north-
EARLY SETTLEMENTS.
5
eastern corner, to the boundaries of Virginia on the west, and of Virginia and Maryland on the south.
All of the territory of the present Wayne Comity, except a very small fraction of its sonthern extremity, was included in this cession, which embraced the whole of Susquehanna, Wyoming, Sullivan, Alontour, Green, Wash- ington, Fayette, Westmoreland, Somerset and Cambria, and parts of Lackawanna, Luzerne, Columbia, Northumberland, Union, Snyder, Bradford, Ijycoming, Clinton, Centre, Clear- field, Indiana, Armstrong, Allegheny and Bea- ver.
In the deed from the Six Nations, the terri- tory of the purchase was described as follows :
“ All that part of the Province of Pennsylvania not heretofore purchased of the Indians, within the said general boundary line, and beginning in the said Boundary line on the east side of the east Branch of the River Susquehanna, at a place called Owegy, and running with the said boundary Line down the said Branch, on the east side thereof, till it comes opposite the mouth of a Creek called by the Indians Awandac (Tawandee) and across the River, and up the said Creek on the south side thereof and along the range of hills called Burnett’s Hills by the English and by the Indians^ — on the north side of them, to the head of a creek which runs into the West Branch of the Susquehanna; then crossing the said River and run- ning up the same on the South side thereof, the sev- eral courses thereof, to the forks of the same River which lies nearest to a place on the River Ohio® called Kittanning, and from the said fork, by a straight line to Kittanning aforesaid, and then down the said Ohio by the several courses thereof, to where the western Bounds of the said Province of Pennsylvania crosses the same river, and then with the same western Bounds to the South boundary thereof, and with the South boundary aforesaid to the east side of the Alle- gheny hills, on the east side of them to the west line of a tract of Land purchased by the Said Proprietors from the Six Nations, and contirmed October 23, 1758, and then with the Northern bounds of that Tract to the River Susquehanna and crossing the River Susquehanna to the Northern Boundary line of another tract of Land purchased of the Indians by
1 At a subsequent treaty at Fort Stauwix (October, 1784), the Pennsyl- vania Commissioners imiuired of the Indians wlnit was their iiamo for the ran^e called by the English “ Ihirnett’s Hills,” to which they re- plied that they know them by no other name than the “ Long Moun- tains.” Ah to the creek called by them “ Tiudaghton,” they explained that it was the same known by the whites us Pine Creek, which flows into tlio West Brunch of the Susquehanna from (he northward.
2 Meaning the Allegheny, to which the Tndiansalways gave the name of Ohio.
Deed (August 22, 1749), and then with that northern Line, to the River Delaware at the North side of the mouth of a creek called Lechawachsein, then of the said River Delaware on the west side thereof to the intersection of it by an east line to be drawn from Owegy aforesaid to the said River Delaware and then with that east Line, to the beginning, at Owegy afore- said.”
CHAPTER II.
EARLY SETTLEMENT, S.
Charles IT. Charters — Connecticut, Susquehanna and Delaware Indian Purchases— Pennamite War — Westmoreland County.
Susquehanna County was included in Westmoreland County, and attaelied to Litch- field County under the Connecticut claim, which afterwards led to difficulties, under the opera- tion of the Intrusion Laws, in respect to land titles. Although the territory comprising the county of Susquelijinna was not settled until after the Trenton decree in 1782 had declared that “Connecticut had no right to the lands in controversey,” it was chiefly settled by men from the New England States, and the descend- ants of the Wyoming settlers under Connecti- cut title ; hence it is pertinent to our sulqect to briefly examine the conflicting claims between the proprietaries of Pennsylvania and the colony of Connecticut.
“To begin with, it must he stated that the contest for the possession of Northern Pennsylvania had its origin in the ignorance or indifference of the British monarchs concerning American geography, and con- sequent confusion in the granting of charters to the several colonies, several of them overlapping, and thus causing conflicts of authority over ownership and possession.
“ The charter of Connecticut w.as granted by Charles II. in 1602, and was confirmatory to the charter granted by .lames I. to ‘the Grand Council of Plymouth for planting and governing New England in America’ in 1620, and also to a deed given in 16)31 by the Earl of Warwick, then president of the Plym- outh Council, to Lord Say and Seal, Lord Brooke and others, by which was conveyed to them that j)art of New England afterwards purchased by the colony of Connecticut. The charter granted to the colony all the lands west of it, to the extent of its breadth, from sea to sea, or ‘ from Narragansett River, one hundred and twenty miles on a straight line, near the
6
HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
shore towards the southwest, as the coast lies towards Virginia, and within that breadth from the Atlantic Ocean to the South Sea.’ ' This measurement would bring the southern line of Connecticut Jiearly or quite to the forty-first degree of north latitude (upon or near which Stroudsburg, Monroe County, is lo- cated), and thus had the claim been maintained, Penn- sylvania would have been diminished to the extent of over two-fifths of its present territory. The charter included an exception of lands ‘then actually pos- sessed or inhabited by any other Christian prince or State,’ and under this exception the Dutch posses- sions of New York, or the New Netherlands, extend- ing to the Delaware, were exempted from the ‘ sea to sea ’ charter of Connecticut. The lands of the Dutch were never vested in the British crown until the con- quest of 1664, and in 1650 articles of agreement re- specting their eastern line had been made between them and Connecticut. On the conquest of the Dutch by the English — their lands having been given to the Duke of York (afterwards James II., brother of Charles II.) — the line established in 1650 was agreed upon as ‘ the western bound of the Colony of Connec- ticut,’ as it was the eastern of the Duke’s lands — a statement which was afterwards taken advantage of by Pennsylvania and construed into a relinquishment by Connecticut of all claim to lands west of the Delaware, although they had been distinctly included in the charter of 1662.”
By the charter granted to William Penn in 1681 by Charles II., he was invested with the ownership of a vast province — greater than the present State — having the end of the forty- second degree of north latitude, or the beginning of latitude forty-three degrees north for a north- ern boundary, and thus overlapping by one de- gree the grant made to Connecticut by the same sovereign nineteen years before. The Pennsyl- vania charter also included a portion of the lands before granted to Lord Baltimore, just as Lord Baltimore’s patent had covered lands long vested in Y’^irginia, and thus there was error all around. The King, however, undoubtedly acted in good faith, if in ignorance. YVhen the Quaker j^etitioned for his charter it was referred to the attorney-general of the crown. Sir William Jones, who reported that “ the tract of land de- sired by Mr. Penn seems to be undisposed of by His Majesty, except the imaginary lines of New England patents, which are bounded west- wardly by the main ocean, should give them a
real, though impracticable right to all of those vast territories.”
The Connecticut-Susquehanna Company was formed in 1753, and consisted at first of eight hundred and forty persons, including a large proportion of the leading men of the colony. Afterwards the number of proprietors was aug- mented to twelve hundred. “Their adion,” says Miner, the historian of Wyoming, “ may be regarded as an unofficial popular movement of the colony itself.” ^ Their purpose was to purchase the Indian title within the charter limits of the colony of Connecticut on the waters of the Susquehanna, and this they did at a council held with the Six Nations Indians in Albany, in July, 1754. The treaty was con- cluded and a deed executed on the 11th of the month. The consideration for and the bound- aries of the purchased lands were given in the deed. After describing the grantors as “ the chiefs, sachems and heads of the Six Nations and the native proprietors of the land,” and setting forth that the same lies within the limits of the royal charter to Connecticut mentioning the application of the grantees being subjects of King George the Second, and inhabitants of Connecticut, and expressing the good under- standing which had mutually subsisted between the parties, their wish for its continuance and the benefits which would result from a settle- ment, the deed contains these words : “ Now, therefore, for and in consideration thereof, and for the further, full and ample consideration of the sum of two thousand pounds of current money of the province of New York, to us, to our full satisfaction, before the ensealing hereof, contended and paid, the receipt whereof, to our full content, we do hereby acknowledge, there- upon do give, grant, bargain, sell, convey and confirm to,” etc. (here follow the names of the grantees), “which said given and granted tract of lands is butted, bounded and described as followeth, viz. : Beginning from the one and fortieth degree of north latitude at ten miles distance east of Susquehanna River and from thence with a northerly line, ten miles east of the river, to the forty-second or beginning of the forty-third degree of north latitude, and to
1 Tlie vaguely-known Pacific was then so called.
2 Miner’s “History of Wyoming,” p. 68.
EARLY SETTLEMENTS.
7
exteucl west two degrees of longitude, one hun- dred and twenty miles, and from thence south to the beginning of the forty-second degree, and from thence east to the aforementioned bounds, which is ten miles east of the Snsquehanna River.” These boundaries did not include Sus- quehanna County, but they included the beauti- ful Wyoming Valley and a great extent of territory extending westward to the headwaters of the Allegheny River.
The Delaware Company, subsequent to the Susquehanna Company’s purchase, bought with less formality the Indian title from certain chiefs of all the land bounded east by the Dela- ware River, within the forty-second degree of latitude, west to the line of the Susquehanna purchase, viz., ten miles east of that river. This purchase included Susquehanna County ; and it was under the auspices of this company that the first settlement of the Connecticut claimants was made at Cushutunk, on the Dela- ware River, in 1757. The amount of land in- cluded in the two purchases, according to Miner, embraced territory about seventy miles wide by one hundred and twenty miles long, or some five million acres.
Both purchases were immediately made known to the Pennsylvania authorities, and, in fact, commissioners from the province were pre.sent at the Albany council. The Governor at once wrote Sir William Johnson, requesting him, if possible, to induce the Indians to deny the regularity of the purchase, and he took various other means to defeat the Connecticut .scheme.
The Su.squehanna Company, having com- pleted its purchase, concluded to divide the land into shares, which were to be distributed, and called a general meeting, to be held at Hartford, for that purpose. They had very shrewdly endeavored to interest Pennsylva- nians, especially those of the frontier settle- ments, in their enterpri.se, and had succeeded in some measure.
The territory purchased of the Six Nations formerly belonged to the Ijenni Lenape, and it became politic for the proprietary Governors to cultivate friendship with this unfortunate l)eople again, but they were precluded by their
own acts from claiming any title through the Delawares, for it will be remembered that they called on the Six Nations to enforce the unjust Walking Purchase, thereby acknowledging their dominion over this very territory.
The first .settlement at Wyoming was made in the spring of 1762 — if, indeed, .settlement it could be called in which the men, after plant- ing, and, perhaps, securing some of their crops, retired to their Connecticut homes for the winter. In the following spring, however, they came back prepared tp establish themselves permanently, bringing their stock, household goods and, it is probable, all that they pos- sessed. But their hopes were doomed to early and sudden blight.
The Delaware Indians, who claimed the lands on the Susquehanna and Delaware, em- braced in the Connecticut charter, averred that they had never sold any of their possessions on the former river, though they admitted that some of their lesser chiefs had, in an irregular way, granted a title to those on the Delaware, and they complained bitterly of the presence of white men upon these lands, which, they as- serted, had been “ bought from under their feet ” of the Six Nations. The provincial au- thorities were constantly beset with applications to have the trespa.ssers removed, and there were not wanting evidences that the Indians would take the matter in their own hands if the au- thorities did not intervene. Such was the con- dition of the Indian mind when Teedyuscung, king of the Delawares, was burned to death in his cabin on the night of April 19, 1763. While this deed was un(|uestionably committed by his Indian enemies, either by or thi-ough the influence of the Si.x Nations, Indian cun- ninv ascribed the murder to the New En2:land people. The people of the dead chief now be- came clamorous for the removal of the settlers, and several times importuned the government to drive them from the valley.
The Governor having, in June, 1763, re- ceived fresh complaints from the Indians at Wyoming that the Connecticut trespassers wen* still obstinately pro.secutiug their settlement on the lands there and at Cirshutiink, thought proper, on the 2d of that month, to issue a
HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
third prodamatiou requiring those intruders forthwith to remove from the lands. He also appointed James Burd and Thomas McKee, Esqs., justices of the peace, and gave them written instructions to proceed to Wyoming, and having convened the people settled there, publicly to read his proclamation to them ; to use the utmost endeavors, by expostulations and arguments, to prevail on them to relin- quish their scheme of settling the lands there, and to depart peaceably without delay; other- wise to cause some of its principals to be appre- hended and carried to the “Goal” at Lancaster.
Hon. James Hamilton, Esquire, Lieutenant- Governor and commander-in-chief of the prov- ince of Pennsylvania and the counties of New- castle, Kent and Sussex upon the Delaware, issued three pi'oclamatious forbidding “all his Majesty’s subjects to intrude upon any Land within the Province not yet purchased of the Indians.” “And hereby strictly charging all Shei-ifts, Magistrates, Peace Officers and other people within this province to exert themselves to bring to justice and condign punishment all Offenders in the Premises.”
Th is proclamation was issued ostensibly in the interest of “ the Delaware and other tribes of Indians, and also the Six Nation Indians ” who, according to the proclamation, “ have re- peatedly made complaints and Remonstrances to me against the said Practices and Attempts, and insisted that the Intruders be removed by the Government to which they belonged, or by me, and declared that otherwise they would remove them by force and do themselves Jus- tice, but desired that the Intruders might be pi-eviously acquainted therewith.” This pro- clamation was either intended as a filendly warning to the so-called intruders or it was a shrewd bid for Indian support. Doubtless the Governor would have been well satisfied if the settlei’s had left peaceably, but he did not lose sight of Indian friendship and assistance in his shrewd proclamation.
This proclamation, like those directed exclu- sively against Cushutunk, availed nothing. The few Connecticut people at Wyoming unfortu- nately did not heed it. The Indians were sullen. A storm was portending, and upon the 15th
of October (1763) it suddenly broke. The In- dians, without the slightest warning, raised the war-w'hoop and fell with fury upon the defence- less village. About twenty men were killed and scalped, and those who escaped a horrible death — men, women and children — fled to the mountains, and after long wandering in the wilderness, destitute of food and almost desti- tute of clothing, found their way to older settle- ments and eventually to their Connecticut homes.' This was the first massacre of Wyo- ming— not a part of the Pennamite War, but an example of Indian ferocity in the resentment of real or imagined wrong. The government sent soldiers to the scene of the massacre, but they found the valley de.serted by the Indians.
After this terrible experience no attemjjt was made by the Susquehanna Company to settle Wyoming until 1769. In the meantime the proj)rietary government had fortified itself with a deed from the Six Nations and other Indians of all that portion of the province, not before bought, which lay in the limits of the Connecti- cut claim. This was procured at the treaty held in 1768.^ And now commenced in earnest the strife, foot to foot and hand to hand, for the occupation of the lovely valley of Wyoming and, practically, for the possession of that part of Pennsylvania between the forty-first and forty-second parallels of latitude — the struggle known in history as “the Pennamite War.” To give an adequate history of this long, event- ful contest between the Pennsylvania and Con- necticut immigrants would alone require a volume, and, for that reason and the fact that the leading events of the war occurred on terri- tory of which it is not our province to treat in this work, we attempt only such a brief analysis of important general movements as is necessary to a proper understanding of local events which come within the field which is our subject.
Each party, at the opening of the year 1769, was pretty well prepared to assert and defend its claims. Thei’e had been action upon each side something like that of two armies in the field as they prepare to meet for a stubborn cam- paign. Of the Susquehanna Company’s party
> Miner’s “History of Wyoming,” p. 54.
2 See Cliapter I.
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EARLY SETTLEMENTS.
9
which determined to eflPect the planting of a colony at Wyoming, Captain Zebulon Butler, a hero of the French and Indian War, was by common consent regarded the leader, if not actually clothed with official power. There were a number of other strong characters among the Connecticut adventurers, and they were not wanting in friends and adherents within the limits of Pennsylvania.
Among these were Benjamin Shoemaker, of Smithfield, and John McDowell. ^ The propri- etary leaders were Charles Stewart, afterwai’ds an efficient officer of the Pennsylvania Line ; Captain Amos Ogden, the military leader; and John Jennings, Esq., high sheriff of North- ampton County, civil magistrate. “ These three constituted the Chief Executive Directory, to conduct the proprietaries’ affairs at Wyoming. To these a lease had been executed for one hun- dred acres of land for seven years, upon condi- tion that they should establish an Indian trading- house thex’eon, and defend the valley from en- croachment.” These three men were first on the ground, having arrived in January, 1769. They repaired the block- house and huts located a mile above Wilkes-Barre, on the Susquehanna, at the mouth of Mill Creek, that had been aban- doned by the settlers of 1763. On the 8th of February the first forty of the Yankee detach- ment arrived, and, finding their expected shelter in the hands of the Pennamites, commenced to besiege the block-house by cutting off communi- cations with the surrounding country. They also erected a small block-house across the river at Kingston, afterwards called Forty Fort. Captain Ogden, seeing that something must be done, requested a conference. Messrs. Elder- kin, Tripp and Eollett repaired to his quarters in accordance therewith, and were arrested by Ogden in the name of Pennsylvania and taken to Easton jail, accompanied by their thirty-.seven associates, where they were released on bail given by William L. Ledley. This event clearly shows the naturally peaceful character of the pioneer Wyoming .settlers, and their respect for civil procc.ss. After being liberated they immediately returned to Wyoming, whei’e thir-
1 Miuer, p. lOG.
ty-one of them were again arrested by Ogden and Jennings, who returned with a large foree and took them to Easton, and they were again released on bail, and again returned to the dis- puted territory. In April one hundred and sixty more Y^ankees arrived, and erected a fort on the river-bank near Wilkes-Barre, which they named Eort Durkee, in honor of their leader. Colonel Dyer and Major Elderkin went to Philadelphia about this time, with full powers to adjust all matters in dispute peace- ably ; but they accomplished nothing. On the 24th of June Colonel Erancis, with an armed force, demanded the surrender of Eort Durkee, which was refused. Governor Penn in.structed Sheriff Jennings to raise a sufficient force to oust the Y^ankees without bloodshed, if possible. Ogden seized a few prisoners who were in their houses, among them Major Durkee. Sheriff Jennings, with two hundred men, was joined by Captain Patterson, from Fort Augusta, with an iron four-pounder. This, together with the lo.ss of their commander, so appalled the garrison that thev surrendered. Three or four leadiup; men were detained as prisoners ; seventeen Con- necticut men were to remain and gather the ripening harve.st ; all others were to leave the valley immediately, and private property was to be respected.^ Taking up their sad march, with their wives and little ones, the.se exiles made their way back to Connecticut. Their suffer- ings were great during this march, and Chap- man says that one woman I’oasted and fed her dead child to her surviving children to keep them alive.
Captain Ogden, to his disgrace as a man and a soldier, plundered the seventeen who had been left to gather the crops of all means of subsist- ence, driving away the cattle, horses, sheep, etc., to the settlements on the Delaware, where he sold them. The seventeen, having been plun- dered in violation of the terms of surrender, were compelled to follow their exiled comrades. Thus clo.sed the first campaign in the Penna- mite War. The Y’^ankees were three times ex- pelled, and finally (lompellod to abandon the settlement.
Miuc‘1-.
10
HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
The Yankees, however, were not long inac- tive. In February, 1770, in connection with a number of people from Lancaster, they again appeared upon the ground, and they easily took possession of the fort, which had only a small garrison. Ogden remained at the place with a number of his men, fortified in a block-house, which was besieged, and he was obliged to capitulate, and, with his followers, depart from Wyoming, after which his house was burnt in retaliation for the deeds he had committed the year before. This was in April, and in Septem- ber following, after Governor Penn had issued a proclamation warning the Yankees to depart from Wyoming, Ogden led an armed party against his late victors, took several of them prisoners as they were engaged, unprotected, at their farm-work, and finally captured the fort, after killing a number of their garrison. Cap- tain Butler himself would have been bayoneted by the attacking party after they had gained an entrance had it not been for Captain Craig, who commanded a detachment of Ogden’s men. During this siege the Wyoming men attempted to send me.ssengers to Cushutunk, but the paths were watched by Ogden’s scouts, who captured them.
In the fall of 1771 the Penuamites, who then had possession of the garrison, were com- pelled to surrender, having been reduced to a starving condition by the Yankees, who had cut off all supplies from the surrounding country. By the terms of surrender, the Pennsylvania troops were to withdraw, twenty-three of them bearing arms. The men having families were given two weeks in which to remove, with the privilege of taking their effects. Thus ended the first Pennamite War, which had been waged with varying success as a half civil and half military movement. The loss of life was not great, but the constant annoyance and distress caused to these hardy pioneers cannot now be fully appreciated. This was one of the first contests waged against monopoly in this country. On the one hand was the rich proprietor, who would only rent lands for a term of years to his adherents, for maintaining his cause in the valley, while on the other hand wa9 the actual settler. From this time forth the Yankees
began to pour into the valley, causing it to blossom as the rose.
“'In 1773 the government of Connecticut, which, up to this time, had left the Susquehanna and Dela- ware Companies to manage their own affairs, now de- cided to make its claim to all the lands within the charter, west of the province of New York, and in a legal manner to support the same. Commissioners appointed by the Assembly proceeded to Philadel- phia ‘ to negotiate a mode of bringing the controversy to an amicable conclusion.’ But every proposition offered by them was declined by the Governor and Council of Pennsylvania, who saw no way to prevent a repetition of the troubles in Wyoming, except by the settlers evacuating the lands until a legal decision could be obtained.
“In the meantime the people had accepted articles, framed by the Susquehanna Company, at Hartford, Conn., June 2, 1773, for the government of the settle- ment, and acknowledged them to be of force until the colony of Connecticut should annex them to one of its counties, or make them a distinct county ; or until they should obtain, either from the colony, or from ‘His gracious Majesty, King George the Third,’ a more permanent or established mode of government.
‘ But his majesty soon had weightier matters to decide with his American subjects, which were settled by his acknowledgment of their Independence.’
“ On the report of the Commissioners to the Assem- bly of Connecticut, after their return from Philadel- phia, decisive measures were adopted by the Assem- bly to bring the settlement on the Susquehanna under their immediate jurisdiction. An act was passed early in January, 1774, erecting all the territory within her charter limits, from the river Delaware to a line fifteen miles west of the Susquehanna, into a town with all the corporate powers of other towns of the colony, to be called Westmoreland, attaching it to the county of Litchfield. The town was seventy miles square, and was divided into townships five j miles square, though those townships comprised within the Connecticut Delaware purchase were, for the most part, six miles square.”
Susquehanna County was included in tliis vast township and was divided into townships. Hibernia, Peru, Waterford, Ruby, Review, Cunningham, Julian, Abbas, Huniades, Dan- dolo. Manor, Chebai’, Bidwell, Dundee, Kings- bury, Newry, Monmouth, St. Patrick and Simo are names of townships that lay wholly or in part within the present Susquehanna County.
1 Blackmail’s “ History.”
INDIAN DEPEEDATIONS,
11
The following is a list of
' MEMBERS FROM WESTMORELAND TO CONNECTICUT ASSEMBLY.
April, 1774, Zebulon Butler, Timothy Smith ; Sep- tember, 1774, Christopher Avery, John Jenkins ; April, 1775, Captain Z. Butler, Joseph Sluman ; Sep- tember, 1775, Captain Z. Butler, Major Ezekiel Pierce; May, 1775, John Jenkins, Solomon Strong; October, 1776, Colonel Z. Butler, Colonel Nathan Denison ; May, 1777, John Jenkins, Isaac Tripp ; May, 1778, Nathan Denison, Anderson Dana; October, 1778, Colonel N. Denison, Lieutenant Asahel Buck ; May,
1779, Colonel N. Denison, Dea. John Hurlbut; May,
1780, John Hurlbut, Jonathan Fitch; October, 1780, Nathan Denison, John Hurlbut; May, 1781, John Hurlbut, Jonathan Fitch ; October, 1781, Obadiah Gore, Captain John Franklin ; May, 1782, Obadiah Gore, Jonathan Fitch; October, 1783, Obadiah Gore, Jonathan Fitch.
MEMBERS FROM LUZERNE COUNTY TO PENNSYL- VANIA ASSEMBLY.
Council.
1787, 1788 and 1789, to the 9th of October, Nathan Denison ; 30th of October, 1789, to 20th of December, 1790, Lord Butler.
On the 20th of December, 1790, the Council closed its session. The State was organized under the Constitution of 1790, and a Senate took the place of a Council.
As Susquehanna County was associated with Luzerne in choosing legislators, previous to 1829, the following table of Senators and Rep- resentives to 1811, the year following the or- ganization of the county, will be profitable for reference :
Senate.
1790 (with Northumberland and Huntington), William Montgomery; 1792, William Hepburn ; 1794, George Wilson (with Northumberland, MitHin and Lycoming); 1796, Samuel Dale (with Northumber- land, Mifltin and Lycoming) ; 1798, Samuel McClay ; 1800, James Plarris ; 1801, Jonas Hartzell (with
Northampton and Wayne); 1803, Thomas Mewhorter; 1805, William Lattimore; 1807, Matthias Gross ; 1808, Nathan Palmer (with Northumberland); 1810, James Laird.
House.
• (Year of election given.)
1787, John Paul Schott ; 1788, 1789 and 1790, Oba- diah Gore; 1791 and 1792, Simon Spaulding; 1793, Ebenezer Bowman ; 1794, Benjamin Carpenter ; 1795 and 1796, John Franklin ; 1797 and 1798, Roswell Welles; 1799 and 1800, John Franklin; 1801, John
Franklin, Lord Butler ; 1802, John Franklin, Ros- well Welles; 1803, John Franklin, John Jenkins; 1804, Roswell Welles, Jonas Ingham ; 1805, Roswell Welles, Nathan Beach; 1806, Roswell Welles, Moses Coolbaugh ; 1807, Charles Miner, Nathan Beach; 1808, Charles Miner, Benjamin Dorrance; 1809 and 1810, B. Dorrance, Thomas Graham; 1811, Thomas Graham, Jonathan Stevens.
CHAPTER III.
INDIAN DEPREDATIONS.
Battle of Wyoming— General Sullivan’s March — General Clinton at Great Bend — Defeat of the Six Nations — An Indian Claim — Ad- ventures of Hilborn.
We have briefly given the overtlirow of the Lenni Lenape who lived south of Susquehanna County, and visited it as a hunting-ground. It is pertinent to our inquiries to notice the overthrow of their powerful neighbors on the north, who were at last compelled to submit to the same power that they had assisted, only a few years before, in removing the Delawares from their loved home. During the Revolu- tionary War the inhabitants of Wyoming were very patriotic, and two huudrgd men were en- listed and joined the army to help fight the battles of Liberty and Independence. This took many of the bravest men from Westmore- land County, which then contained about two thousand five hundred inhabitants ; and left the .settlement in an unprotected condition, an opportunity which the Indians, Tories and British were not slow to improve.
On the 3d of July, 1778, occurred the world- famous massacre of Wyoming. The confeder- ated Six Nations, who had been induced by the British in 1777 to take the war-path against the Americans, committed great ravages in New York during that year, and in the folloiv- ing they determined to make a murderous foray into Pennsylvania, with the especial object of .striking the settlements on the two branches of the Susquehanna, which were left in an almost defenceless condition througli llie departure of their patriotic men for the army.
The Wyoming settlement was very naturally
1 Blackman’s “ History of Susquehanna County.”
12
HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
the object of the Englishmen’s esj)ecial hatred, because of the devotion its people had shown to the cause of liberty ; and it was easily accessible by the North Branch of the Susquehanna. Late in June there descended that stream, under the command of Colonel John Butler, a force of eleven hundred men, four hundred of whom were Tory rangers and regular soldiers of Sir John Johnson’s Royal Greens, with seven hun- dred Indians, chiefly Senecas. Jenkins’ Fort capitulated, and Wintermoot’s (which, as was afterwards learned, was built to aid the incur- sions of the Tories), at once opened its gates to the invading host. At Wyoming were several so-called forts, mere stockades, in no one of which was there a cannon or an adequate gar- rison, the arms-bearing men nearly all being absent, as has heretofore been stated. Colonel Zebulon Butler, who happened to be at Wyo- ming, took command by invitation of the peo- ple, and the little band, consisting chiefly of old men and boys, with a handful of undisci- plined militia, against whom eleven hundred warriors had marched, made as heroic a stand as the world ever saw.
And so upon that fatal 3d of July they marched out to meet and fight the enemy, for a safe retreat with their families was impossible, and surrender seems never to have been thought of. It is beyond our province in this work to describe the uneven battle and the slaughter which ensued. Suffice it to say that the brave defenders, about four hundred in number, were defeated by the assailing force, outnumbering them by nearly three to one. Then followed the horrible massacre — a carnival of murder and torture performed by fiends. But who is there who knows not Wyoming? Who that does not shudder at the recall of that name ? Of four hundred men who went into battle, but sixty e.scaped the fury of the Indians. That bloody day made one hundred and fifty widows and six hundred orphans in the valley.
And now the Wyoming Valley is a scene of pastoral quiet and loveliness, as if, in recom- pense for the dark deeds done, the Creator had breathed upon the bosom of nature there the benison of eternal peace.
The mas.sacre of Wyoming thrilled the world
with horror. What, then, must have beeu the feelings of those people who had reason to think they might at any hour meet with the same fate which had extinguished the lives of the four hundred settlers of the beautifnl valley ? The whole border was filled with the wildest alarm, and a fever of fear took posse-ssion of the people even as far down the country as Bethlehem and Easton.
Flight was the only recourse for the few ter- ror-stricken survivors. Vain efforts w'ere made to concentrate the settlement at Forty Fort, but the tide of panic had already set in, and by night of the day of battle fugitives were flying in every direction to the wilderness. It was a wild, chaotic, precipitate hegira. All w'as con- fusion, con.sternation, horror. The poor, terri- fied people, men, women and children, scarcely thinking or caring whither their trembling footsteps led, if they could only escape the sav- age enemy and cruel death, fled onward into the wilderness aud night. The general direction pursued was towards the Delaw^are and the Stroudsburg .settlement. Every passage into the forest was thronged. On the old Warrior’s Path there were, says Miner, in one company, nearly one hundred women and children, with but one man, Jonathan Fitch, to advise or aid them. The terrified fugitives fled through the Dismal Swamp or Shades of Death, aud the Great Swamp to the w^est and soutlnvest. Children were born and children died in that forced march through the wllderue.ss. Some wandered out of the way and were lost, others died from wounds and starvation, but the great- er number reached the settlements about Strouds- burg and along the Delaware, wliere the Ger- man settlers treated them kindly, and some found their w^ay back to Connecticut. Miner says : “ In addition to those in train band, the judges of the court and all the civil officers who were near, went out. Many old men- — some of them grandfathers — took their muskets and marched to the field. For instance, the aged Mr. Searle, of Kingston, was one. Having become bald, he wore a wig ; taking out his silver knee-buckles, he said to his family : ‘ If
I fall I shall not need them ; if I come back they will be .safe here.’ He w'as killed, and the
INDIAN DEPREDATIONS.
13
Indians kept the wig as a trophy. His son Roger fled to Connecticut, but afterwards re- turned to Wyoming. His sons Daniel, Leon- ard and Raselas became residents of Montrose. Reuben Wells’ father was also killed in that battle. His widow fled to Connecticut, where they remained until 1797, when they returned to Frenchtown, and in 1812 Reuben settled in South Montro.se. Elisha William.s, grandfather of W. W. William,s, was one that escaped. Perry Gardner, grandfather of Ijatham Gard- ner, and his son Jonathan, then only twelve years old, were there. Probably many more of the residents of Su.sqnehanna County are de- scendants of ancestors who were in that battle.”
It is not within the .scope of this work to notice all the barbarities practiced upon the Wyoming settlers by Tories and Indians who had been hired by the British agents to do this dastardly work. But the hour of punishment came at last. General Washington determined to .send a sufficient force into the Indian eountry to break up their savage haunts. To this end General Clinton, with sixteen hundred men, was ordered to advance from the Hudson to Tioga Point, and General Sullivan was ordered to rendezvous at Easton. From this point he .sent a German regiment of three hundred men to reinforce Colonel Butler, and on the 19th of April Major Powell arrived at Wyoming with an additional force of two hundred and fifty men. This force was fired upon by ambushed Indians, and a number of them were killed. On the 18th of June, 1779, General Sullivan left Easton with two thousand five hundred men. He went by way of the Wind Gap, Pocono Creek, White Oak Run and Birch Hill. Arriving at Mud Run, they encamped on a knoll which they named Hungry Hill. Flere they encamped for a few days waiting for pro- visions from Easton. From this point they cut a road through the Dismal Swamp around Lo- cust Ridge, thence westwardly seven miles across the Lehigh to the Old Shupp road to Wvominsr.
On the 31st of July, at the head of some three thousand men, General Sullivan broke camp at Wyoming and began his march up the Siiscpiehanua. Accompanying the troops were
three hundred boats laden Avith provisions, cannon and munitions of war. They marched up the river in good order. Following in the train Avere many hundred pack-houses laden with one month’s provisions. On the 11th of August Sullivan arrived at Tioga Point and halted for General Clinton to come up.
“ ‘ When General Clinton arrived at the head of the river, Otsego Lake, he found the water very Ioav, and the navigation of the Sus- quehanna on rafts, as intended, impracticable. In order to raise the Avater, it was decided to build a dam at the foot of the lake, which some of the soldiers, under the directions of the officers, proceeded to do, Avhile others were de- tailed to construct timber rafts below, upon Avhich the army Avas to descend the river. When the dam was completed, the rafts being ready, and a sufficient quantity of water having accumulated in the lake, the flood-gates Avere opened, aAvay sped the fleet of rafts, Avith their noble burden, amid the loud cheers of the soldiers.
“ Very soon ncAv troubles arose, for not one of these sixteen hundred men knew anything about navigating the Susquehanna. The Indian canoes only had heretofore broken the stillne.ss of its waters; consequently some of the many rafts were at almost every turn brought to a stand-still by the bars and shalloAVS of the river. These ‘ shipAvrecks,’ as the soldiers called them, produced shouts of mirth and laughter from those Avho were more fortunate in drifting clear of the shoals ; but, as the water Avas rapidly rising from the great supply in the lake above, the.se stranded rafts were soon afloat again, and very soon were passing some of tho.se rafts which had first passed them, and from whose crews came shouts of derisive laughter, and noAV Avere stranded in like manner. Both officers and men enjoyed this novel campaign on rafts down the beautiful Su.sqehanna (to use the officer’s Avord) ‘ highly.’ He said that, notwithstanding they had to keep a sharp look- out for the ‘ Red !8kins,’ it did not in the least mar the great enjoyment of the sports of this rafting expedition; fishing, frolic and fun AVcrc
1 Blackman'H “ History.*’
14
HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
the order of the day. Nothing worthy of mention happened to the expedition on their way to this place, and here, on a bright summer day in 1779, they landed to pass the night, and to allow some of the dilatory rafts to come up, and here at Great Bend, on the Flats near the ‘Th ree Indian Apple Trees,’ General James Clinton’s army encamped, and here, for one night at least, brightly burned the camp-fires of sixteen hundred of the soldiers of the Revolu- tion. The officer in his diary says of the three Indian Apple Trees which they found here, that they then bore the marks of great age. There were no Indians seen here by them, although there was every indication of their having only recently left. The next day they went on board of their rafts and proceeded down the river ” until they arrived at Tioga Point, where they rested with General Sullivan, and together moved up the river and gave the Indians battle at Newtown, near Elmira, New Y^ork. There was not so great loss of life in this battle, the whites losing thiily killed, but the victory over the Six Nations Avas complete. Their wigwams and teeming fields of corn Avere laid waste Avith rigid severity, and their peach orchards Avere ruthlessly cut down. The fell blow broke the power of the Six Nations for- ever.’ There are remnants of this once power- ful confederacy on reservations in the State of New York. They occasionally visit the valley, over which they once held despotic sway, Avith curious bead-work which they have for sale. An Indian woman Avho sells these articles Avill usually sit apart from the rest and murmur, “ Me poor Indian,” “ Me lone Indian,” until some one Avill come along and half out of pity buy her trinkets. And this is all that remains of the once proud lords of the soil, Avhose friend- ship was courted by the French and British, the Governors of New Y^ork and of Pennsyl- vania, and the United Colonies at the time of the Revolution. The Indians occasionally visited Susquehanna County after the pioneer settlers came here. David Rittenhouse and Andrew W. Ellicott, on the part of Pennsyl- vania, and James Clinton and Simeon De Witt,
1 These ludians have adopted the ways of civilization and liave culti- vated farms.
on the part of New York, ran the dividing line between the two States in 1786. During the survey Ellicott AATote to his wife from the “'Banks of the Susquehanna,” under date of August 6, 1786, that he had “ just returned from attending divine service of the Indians in their camp. This Avill appear no doubt strange to you, but stranger yet Avhen I assure you that I haA"e found more true religion among them than Avith the Avhite inhabitants on the frontier. They are of the Church of England, and have the service complete in their own language. They sing psalms to admiration. . . . Pray do not fail to inform Dr. West of this circum- stance. The Indian town of ^ Shanang is about twelve miles from our present position. The head sachem, Avith his family, hav^e been Avith us many days — he has a daughter by the name of tially and a niece Avho lives Avith us, and share in all our amusements, such as cards and draughts, commonly called checkards. Com- missioner De Witt has taken a picture of the daughter, Avhich I intend to have copied large by. Billy West.”
Miss Blackman has recorded some incidents Avritten by J. Du Bois, from which the folloAV- ing is taken :
“The writer, anxious to learn something about the Indians that once lived in this valley, concluded to question the doctor.^ I again visited the Log Tavern. I found the doctor reclining on the grassy slope of the bank of the Susquehanna, near the Indian Apple Trees. Armed with a pipe and tobacco, I approached him and presented them, retreated to a respectable distance and sat down, and watched him as he drew forth the steel, the flint, and striking fire, proceeded to test the quality of the Indian weed. Boy-like, I at once commenced to question him, and as he re- mained silent, I piled question upon question, without even waiting for an answer, not knowing at that time that an Indian never answered a question immedi- ately, but first smokes, then thinks, and then answers. After almost exhausting my list of inquiries, I re- mained silent. The Indian, after puffing away at the pipe for some time, said, ‘Boy want to know much, Indian tell him some. When ahoy, I lived here, many Indians lived along this valley of the Susquehanna, we belonged to the Confederate Five Nations, after-
2 “ Boundaries of the Stale of New York,” Vol. I.
3 Binghamton stands where Shanang formerly stood. Colonel Gere thinks that this letter was written from Little Meadows, Susquehanna County.
I An Indian Doctor.
INDIAN DEPREDATIONS.
15
wards called the Six Nations.’ He then proceeded to state in his own language that this valley was for a long time the frontier of the Confederacy. At that time the Delaware Indians claimed all the lands up to the Susquehanna River, at the same time the Confed- eracy claimed to the Delaware River, and land lying between these two rivers was disputed ground, and many were the conflicts between the hunters on this disputed territory. After a while the Six Nations conquered the Delawares, and extended their authority as far south as the Chesapeake Bay. During the War of the Revolution the Indians quietly withdrew' from this valley, and all of them, except the Oneidas, joined the British and were nearly all exterminated in the battles which followed. Before the Revolution the Indians raised great crops of corn along these river flats.
“ ‘All over yonder,’ said he, pointing to the hills on the south side of the river, ‘ elk, elk, deer, too, plenty, very plenty, fish in this river very plenty, Indian lived well.’ I asked the doctor where the Indians buried their dead; he pointed toward Dimon’s flats, saying, ‘ there we bury our dead.’ I then told the doctor, that when the workmen were excavating the ground for the northern abutment of the first Great Bend Bridge, they discovered the skeleton of what they supposed to be a large Indian (as it was found in the sitting posture). I asked him how this Indian came to be buried there. After puffing away at the pipe as if in deep thought, he replied, ‘The Delaware Indian, he die in his canoe, we bury him there.’ I asked him by what death did he die, but received no answer. Not being willing to give it up so, I told the doctor that this Delaware Indian, as he called him, had a large hole in his skull, to which he replied, ‘ Delaware bad Indian.’ Pursuing my inquiry in another direc- tion, I asked him if a hostile Indian was detected as a spy, if by their laws it was death ; he answered yes. And upon inquiring, he said that they never bury those belonging to another tribe with their own dead. He further said that the Three Apple Trees was the rallying point and headquarters for all the Indians in the neighborhood. Here councils were held, marriages celebrated, feasts observed, war-dances performed, and the fate of prisoners decided.
“ An Indian Claim. — Jonathan Dimon was one of the early white settlers of this valley. He settled on the farm now owned and occupied by Mr. Carl. When Jonathan Dimon left the valley of the Hudson River, and removed to this, then called wilderness. West, his son, Charles Dimon, had not completed his education, and did not come on to his father here until some years later. A few days after his arrival his father told him to go upon the flats and plow up an old ‘ Indian burying-ground.’ (This burying- ground was located about the centre of the lately- talked-of fair ground, and proposed race track, and on each side of what now remains of an old hedge.) More than thirty years ago the writer had
this narrative from our late and much -esteemed fellow-townsman, Charles Dimon. He said that he felt many misgivings about thus disturbing the burial- place of the dead, and asked his father what he should do with those curious stones that marked the last resting-place of the Indians. His father told him that when he plowed up near enough to these stones to loosen them, to carefully take them up and pile them up by the fence. He said that with a heavy heart he proceeded to do as his father bade him, but would much rather have plowed elsewhere. After working awhile, his oxen needed rest; at this time he was very near the bank of the river, and was sit- ting on his plowbeam with his back towards the river. He said that, in spite of himself, his thoughts would run on about the red men who once inhabited this valley. True, his father had told him that no Indians had been here for a long time, they had long since removed to other ‘hunting-grounds,’ or had fallen in battle before the superior arms of the white man. He thought, and could not help thinking, what would be his fate if the Indians should happen to come along and find him plowing up the graves, and removing the stones that they had set up to mark the last resting-places of their ‘ fathers? ’ While these thoughts were troubling him, he heard a low guttural, yet musical sound, or combination of sounds, which came from the river behind him. It w’as different from anything that he had ever heard. He turned his face toward the river ; a screen of willows partly hid from his view objects on the river nearest to him, and as these strange sounds came nearer, he peered through the bushes and — said he to the writer — ‘ imagine, if you can, my feelings and surprise, when I tell you that I saw close to me a large canoe full of Indians, and this had barely passed the opening before another canoe full of Indians came in sight. I immediately unhitched the oxen and hurried out of that field, and away to the house. Being somewhat excited at what I had seen, I said to father, that I thought it very unsafe to plow in the Indian burying-field while the Indians were about. Father told me to explain ; I did, by telling what I had seen. He told me to go down to the ferry, and see if the Indians landed. I went to the ferry, which then occupied the present site of the Great Bend Bridge across the Susquehanna River. And there, at the Log Tavern, which then stood on the site of the two-story house opposite to and near the toll-house, I found the Indians, about twenty in num- ber.’ A crowd of the curious soon collected, and an ‘inquisitive’ Yankee soon learned from the Indian interiireter, that they had come to claim all that strip of land lying north of the Sus(piehanua River, and south of the forty-second parallel of latitude, declar- ing that they had never sold it, and that they wanted to meet the settlers and have a talk. This declaration of the interpreter caused the crowd to disperse in every direction to notify the settlers, and when these messengers told the settlers that a large party of
16
HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
Indians were at the Log Tavern, and claimed their lands, they, too, left their plows and wended their way to the Log Tavern, and as they came together on the way thither, they saluted each other after this manner, ‘ What now, what next? here we have been trembling about our titles; Pennsylvania claims us, Connecticut claims us, and now, after all, here come the aborigines themselves, to claim our lands, and, if we should refuse, perhaps will take our scalps.’
“ By evening a number of settlers had collected, and, as they had no speaker among them, they chose one for the occasion ; he was a kind of backwoods lawyer of those days (his name, as well as many other inter- esting incidents of this meeting, have, I am sorry to say, gone from the memory of the writer). Among those early settlers that were named as having attended this meeting, and were interested therein, I can only remember the following : Captain Ichabod Buck, Captain Jonathan Newman, Jonathan Dimon, Sylva- nus Hatch, Josiah Stewart, David Buck, Noble Trow- bridge and James Newman. After all were seated in the old Log Tavern, the speaker for the settlers arose, and told the Indian interpreter that all were now ready to hear the talk of their chief.
“Many eyes were now turned toward the central figure of a group of noble-looking Indians. But at this time some of the whites present were whispering to each other, and at the same time, wondering why the chief rose not. After a while the interpreter arose, and gave these inattentive whispering whites a just and well-merited rebuke. ‘Friends,’ said he, ‘I perceive that you do not understand the character of the red men, when assembled in council. No Indian will rise to speak until there is perfect silence and attention, and there is nothing he more dislikes than a whispering, inattentive audience.’ After this rebuke from the interpreter, silence reigned. The chief, a man of great stature and noble bearing, soon arose, and spoke in the Indian dialect, which was well interpreted, sentence by sentence, in good English, and was, as near as the writer can remember, as follows: ‘Friends and brothers, once our fathers had their wigwams on these beautiful banks of the Sus- quehanna; once they chased the elk, the deer, the bear, over the beautiful hills that surround us; once we had full possession of this valley, and no one disputed our right. Moon after moon rolled on, and our fathers left the valley for better hunting-grounds, north and west, but before they left, “good Father Onas” (William Penn) made a treaty with our fathers, by which they sold him a large piece of land, which is called after William Penn — Pennsylvania — he gave our fathers a copy of the treaty^ — large paper — which, I am sorry to say, is lost. Now our learned young men tell us, that in this treaty with good father Onas, the northern line of his purchase here was the Sus- quehanna River, and not the forty-second parallel of north latitude, as laid down on the “paper pictures” — maps — of the whites. Now, brothers, we come to
you as the representatives of our nation to claim this land. We believe we have never sold it. We come not to take it from you, but to sell it. Our good father Onas — William Penn — always dealt fair with the red man. We would never claim anything that was wrong of the children or friends of Onas if we knew it. When famine came upon the early friends of Onas, did not our fathers supply the wants of the starving friends of Onas, by hunting and fishing for them, and when bad hostile Indians troubled them, did not our fathers place the white feather of protec- tion over the doors of their log wigwams. And while we acknowledge that bad Indians, many bad Indians, did take the king’s money and fight with the king’s men, our brothers will witness, and your history of the war will witness, that the nation, or that part of the nation that we represent — the Oneidas — never raised the war-cry against our brothers. And now, if we have a good right to this land, we have great con- fidence in our friends, the children of our great and good father, William Penn, that they will do right and just by us. We vvait your answer.’
“ The speaker for the settlers, after a few words in an undertone with them, made a low bow to the chief and to the other members of the delegation who sat on each side of their chief, in the form of a semi- circle, and said : ‘ Friends and brothers, we are pleased with the words of the noble chief who has so elo- quently spoken. The settlers, who now surround me, have chosen me to ansvver the chief. They desire me to thank him, and the other braves who sit before us, for the kind and pacific manner in w’hich their great chief has set forth their claim to this part of the land we occupy, and upon which we have built our wigwams. They also desire me to say, that they are not ignorant that those that you represent were ahvays the friends of our good father, William Penn, and have always proved true to his friends, and shall always cherish in remembrance those kind offices of our red brethren in times past. And here, almost under the shade of the three “Old Indian Apple Trees,” planted by your fathers, we pledge ourselves anew to our red brothers, that nothing arising out of your present claim shall mar the peace or lessen the friendship that has so long existed between us. We are very sorry, however, to inform you that our “ head man,” Judge William Thomson, is away on a long journey, and as to your rights to this land, w'e must confess that we are ignorant. We settled here holding the titles to our lands under the charter of William Penn, never doubting his knowledge as to the extent of his j:>urchase of your fathers. IVhen our “head man” returns, and it should prove that our good father, and your good father, Onas, was mistaken, and that your fathers never parted witu this land, we pledge ourselves, as the honest descendants of the good William Penn, to buy of you these lands, on which we have settled and built our wigwams. If our brothers will tarry with us until our “head man”
INDIAN DEPREDATIONS.
17
returns, which will be in eight or ten days, the hospi- talities of this Log Tavern shall be yours, without cost to you, and in the mean time you can amuse yourselves, perhaps, in hunting the deer on these beautiful hills, where once your fathers trod. And if our brothers desire it, we will join you in the chase. But if you cannot gratify us in this, but must sooner return to your own people, then we pledge ourselves again, that you shall hear from us when our head man returns.’
“The interpreter of the Indians, after consulting with the delegates, said, that, in behalf of his com- panions, he returned many thanks for the very kind answer, and for their pressing invitation to remain and enjoy the hospitalities of their friends; ‘but,’ said he, ‘we are compelled to deny ourselves this great enjoyment. Business at the Council-House of the Six Nations demands our return, where among our own people they would await a letter from our head man, and there would invoke their Great Spirit — your Great God — to shower blessings upon the head of the friends of William Penn.’
“The next day these Indians left for their homes in Northern New York. When Judge Thomson returned, the settlers soon acquainted him with this new claim to their lands. Judge Thomson sent to the capital of the State for a certified copy of William Penn’s^ treaty with the Indians. In due time the Judge received a fac-simile copy of said treaty, and many of our citizens of that day had the pleasure of seeing and examining this copy of Penn’s treaty with the Indians, before the Judge forwai'ded the same to the Council-House of the Six Nations. This copy was described to the writer, as a great curiosity. The names of all the chiefs were plainly written out, and at the termination of each name was the sign manual or mark of the chief; at the end of one name was a bow, another an arrow, another a bow and arrow crossed, another deers’ horns, another a deer’s head and horns, another the form of a new moon, etc., etc., each name having a different mark representing their implements of war, hunting, game, trophies, etc.
“This treaty plainly fixed the northern boundary of our State on the forty-second parallel of north latitude, thus dissipating the fears of the settlers. This copy of Penn’s treaty Judge Thomson forwarded to the address left by the Indians, since which time neither our fathers, nor we of the second or third generation, have heard anything more about the Indians’ claim to these lands.”
The capture and escape of Jolm Hilborn formed one of the most notable occurrences of the Indian War of the Rev^olutionaiy period. Of this we give quite a minute account, partly because Mr. Hilborn afterwai’ds became one of
the pioneers^ of Susquehanna County and partly because of its intrinsic and illustrative interest.
“ ^ Mr. Hilborn and his few scattered neighbors had, in their isolated condition, become apprehensive of the danger of a sudden attack by the Indians, and had agreed to keep each other informed on what was taking jrlace, by communicating as frequently as pos- sible. Among these neighbors was John Price, a relative of Hilborn’s, who lived seven miles above, on the north branch of the creek.
“ One morning in the early part of June, 1779, an old woman came running down the stream in great distress, saying that her son’s family were all killed or taken prisoners by the Indians, herself only escaping. This family resided on the west branch of the creek, though I am unable to give the name.
“ Mr. Hilborn set out immediately to give the warning to John Price. On his way, after ascending a hill, he saw the house in flames from which the family had been captured. Proceeding in the direc- tion of Mr. Price’s, and when about one mile from the burning dwelling, on ascending another hill, he found himself suddenly surrounded by five Indians, all armed with guns, who demanded his surrender ; seeing no possibility of escape, he felt that he must submit to whatever conditions they might be disposed to exact, and resolved to do it with as good grace as possible. They then informed him (as they all spoke tolerably good English) that if he would give a sol- emn promise not to attempt to escape, they would spare his life ; if not, they would kill him on the spot. He made the promise, and, as will appear, kept it faithfully during the entire period of his captivity. They then bound a heavy burthen on his back and ordered him to march. Soon after they passed in sight of John Price’s house, where a halt was made. The Indians questioned Hilborn closely as to who lived there, what sort of a man he was, whether he was rich, etc., and also whether he kept a gun. He answered truthfully all their questions; that Price was a peaceable, quiet man, that he was not rich, that he kept a gun, as every one did, to supply himself with game, that he took no part in the war, etc. Af- ter an exciting talk of considerable length they con- cluded to pass by the house of Mr. Price and spare him for the present, to the great relief of Mr. Hilborn. He discovered that all the family whose house they had burned were in company except one little boy, who, on account of his loud cries — as he some time af- ter learned — was killed at the house. They made rapid marches all the way to the North Branch of the Susquehanna, crossing many streames of considera- ble depth, which they were obliged to wade, and
2 See Harmony township.
3 The sketcli is contributed hy Luke W. Brodhead, wlio derived it from Paul S. Preston, wlio, in turn, luid the facts from tho journal of his father, Samuel Ih-eston, of Stockport, Wayne County, written in 17S7.
J Treaty at Fort Stanwix, 17GH. See Chapter I.
2
18
HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
proved a cause of much suffering to the women and children, who became greatly fatigued and at times nearly exhausted. They crossed the Susquehanna above the mouth of the Tioga, and found the former deep and difficult of passage, so much so that two of the young girls were only saved from drowning by the extraordinary efforts of Mr. Hilborn. He seems to have had great sympathy for this captive family, con- sisting of the mother and four or five children, af- fording them all the relief possible in their tiresome journey, and encouraging them, whenever opportu- nity afforded, with comforting words ; and they were greatly endeared to him, confirming our observations of all similar experience in life, that community of suffering makes the sufferers kin. After crossing the Susquehanna the Indians seemed to feel themselves out of danger of pursuit, and their marches were thereafter much easier. A little girl of the captive family became a great favorite with all the Indians, and was treated with much kindness, they doing ev- erything possible for her comfort on the journey, promising her many things on their arrival at their home in Shenango, telling her many times that she should have plenty of milk, etc. But what seemed very remarkable, in view of the care and consideration bestowed on this child, was the fact that they fre- quently showed her the scalp of her little brother, killed at the house, the sight of which caused her to weep bitterly.
“ After crossing the river, a few short marches brought them to the place where their canoes were tied up ; why they were not left on the opposite side of the river on setting out with their expedition, Mr. Hilborn could not understand. They placed him in one of the canoes with the larger portion of the party, and under guard, ordered him to pole it up the stream, which he did the whole distance to Shenango. They frequently went ashore, and on one occasion the old Delaware Indian, who seemed to act the part of a chief, went out hunting and killed a large buck. On his return he ordered two Indians, young men, with Mr. Hilborn, to go and dress the deer and bring it in. One of these Indians was a Delaware, a large, coarse man, the other a genteel young Mohawk, who had on several occasions before shown kindness to Mr. Hil- born. The Delaware was surly and overbearing and ordered the young Mohawk to dress the deer, which he undertook, but not succeeding very well, they soon engaged in a quarrel in their own language and finally in a desperate fight. The Mohawk, though the younger, was the more active and proved the con- queror, compelling the Delaware to finish dressing the deer.
“ On the arrival of the party at the Indian settle- ments at Shenango, Mr. Hilborn found himself quite ill from exposure, and nearly exhausted. He was compelled to perform a great amount of severe labor for the Indians, and imposed an additional amount on himself in his efforts to relieve his fellow-captives.
In this condition he learned to his horror that he was required to undergo the severe ordeal of running the gauntlet.
“ The arrival of the party seemed soon to be gener- ally known at the different Indian towns near, as a ■ large and jubilant crowd was soon collected, composed mainly of women and children, who were to be Mr. Hilborn’s tormentors, and who seemed eager to en- gage in the sport of lashing the poor captive- Two long lines were formed, composed of women and children armed with whips and clubs, through which Mr. Hilborn was to pass. The young Mohawk, of whom mention has been made, stood by silently watching with evident displeasure the preparations for this humiliating method of torture, so universally prevalent among his people, feeling that the prisoner in his present condition was unable to endure the punishment. Mr. Hilborn was ordered to start at a given signal ; he attempted to run as well as he could, but he had proceeded but a few paces when the brave and generous young Mohawk broke in the ranks and arrested its further progress ; the confusion that ensued lasted but a moment, as he boldly announced his determination, and right from custom, to offer himself to run in place of the sick captive. He was accepted, and ran the whole course ; notwithstanding his remarkable agility, he was severely punished, but he endured it without a word of complaint and ap- parently with stoical indifference. The young Mo- hawk continued the friend of Mr. Hilborn through- out his captivity and was always kind and consider- ate towards him.
“ During his stay at Shenango the Indians received intelligence of General Sulliv'an’s intention of com- ing up the Susquehanna to destroy their towns and growing crops ; this information produced the wildest excitement, and on the part of some of the warriors, exhibitions of violent rage.
‘‘They had a large body of the best of land under cultivation, with the prospect of an abundant harvest of Indian corn, beans, etc., and the thought of having it destroyed was a natural cause of anxiety.
“ About the time of receiving intelligence of the movements of General Sullivan they were holding a council in reference to an expedition to the settle- ments on the West Branch of the Susquehanna, to be commanded by the celebrated Capt. Brandt and Capt. Montour. Hilborn was informed of this contemplated expedition by his friend, the young Mohawk, who seemed to be privy to all that was taking place. He expressed his fears for the fate of Hilborn should this expedition be attended with unfavorable results, and also in case General Sullivan’s army should make its appearance. The prisoners in either case would be treated badly. Hilborn now for the first time made efforts to obtain for himself and his companions re- lease from captivity, and for this purpose had an in- terview with the old Delaware chief who took him 2)risoner. He made no attempts at misstatement, for
INDIAN DEPKBDATIONS.
19
he found the old man exceedingly shrewd and any efforts to deceive him would be fruitless. He told him that he was a Quaker, that he had taken no part in the war, that it was against his religious principles to fight, etc., and that the women and children could do them no harm ; but all his arguments were in vain ; (: the only reply was that, ‘all the Yankees have the
l| same story.’ Yet they treated him with more con- I sideration after this interview. His employment was now, and had been for some time, to attend to the cultivation of the growing corn. (As is well known. General Sullivan in a few weeks from this time ren- dered desolate this whole region of country, destroy- ing forty villages, some of them containing as many as a hundred houses, together with 160,000 bushels of corn, leaving scarce a trace of vegetation on the sur- face.)
“Mr. Hilborn, now finding that he could not pur- chase his freedom by entreaties, laid a plan for his escape. He concluded to take a canoe at night and quietly push down the Susquehanna until morning, and then hide the craft in the mouth of some creek, while he watched from an elevated position to ascer- tain if he was pursued ; if so, to take his chances by land, and if not, to again take the canoe and at night make his way down the stream. In planning his es- cape his mind became greatly exercised, for notwith- standing the promise made on the day of his capture was not voluntary, having been extorted from him at the peril of his life, and therefore not strictly binding, yet when he came to make the trial, he could not with a clear conscience disregard the pledges he had given and falsify his word ; yet the plan of escape was deemed practical, and he had many opportunities for putting it in execution. On one occasion he was sent some distance for water ; a strong impulse to re- gain his freedom suddenly took possession of him, and he dropped his camp-kettle and began to run. After going about half a mile he again thought of the promise on which his life had been spared, and as speedily returned to the camp with the water.
“ Capt. Brandt was arranging now for his intended expedition against the settlements on the West Branch of the Susquehanna.
“ Hilborn heard from his Indian friend his opinion of the high character of the Mohawk chief, whom he described as the greatest man among the Indiaji na- tions ; that he had been educated in New England, had since been in London in company with Guy Johnston, and now held a commission under the crown, and that he was noted as much for his humanity as for his bravery. Mr. Hilborn now resolved to call on Brandt and state his case as well as he could. He found him in his tent, seated at a table, writing, and dressed in a calico wrapper. He was received with great politeness, and Capt. Brandt acted towards him more like an English gentleman than an Indian chief. He listened attentively to what Mr. Hilborn had to say, and seemed to have much sympathy for him, but
finally told him that as he was a prisoner of the Del- awares, he could not interfere for him, as he was a Mohawk. Yet Hilborn believed that the interview was of service to him, for it was ordered soon after that he should be sent to Niagara and delivered to the English there.
“ After bidding farewell to his generous Indian friend, he was conducted through the Genesee coun- try, where he saw large bodies of beautiful land un- der cultivation by the Indians.
“From Niagara he was ordered on board a vessel to be sent to Quebec. In passing down the St. Law- rence the water was exceedingly rapid and the navi- gation appeared dangerous. - The vessel was con- ducted by a Frenchman with much skill, and he arrived safely in Quebec in just two months from the time he was taken prisoner. Here he was under no restraint and seemed to be left to take care of himself. He was now hungry, moneyless and almost naked. In this extremity he applied to an Irish colonel in the British service for relief. The colonel listened to the relation he gave of himself, and, to Hilborn’s sur- prise, loaned him money enough to purchase a toler- ably decent suit of clothes and something to eat.
“ He now made effort to obtain employment, by which he might support himself for the present and discharge his obligation to the generous colonel. Happening to mention to him that he w’asa miller by trade, he at once sent him to a mill of his own on the opposite side of the river, to work fora time on trial. In this new situation he did everything in his power to show his gratitude by furthering the interests of his employer. He made several alterations, re-dressed the stones, etc., and after a little time had the mill doing better than it had ever done before. The col- onel was greatly pleased and soon after made him superintendent of the whole business of purchasing grain, selling the flour, as well as attending to its manufacture, the sale of flour amounting to about £100 per w’eek. He remained in this situation over a year, but with constant longing to return home ; yet no opportunity was afforded. He at length made known his desire to the colonel, who seemed very re- luctant to part with him, and offered to give him whatever wages he might in reason ask, if he would remain.
“ But seeing he had his heart set on getting to his home, the colonel generously procured a passage for him in a transport about to sail for New York. They sailed by the Newfoundland fisheries, when, the cap- tain receiving information of a French fleet lying off the coast, they j)ut into Halifax. He remained in Nova Scotia a considerable time, when he again took passage and was finally landed in New Jersey, some- where near Amboy, from which place he walked to his father’s house, in Makeficld, and from thence to his home on Brodliead’s Creek, having been away just two years fi-om the time of his capture.”
20
HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
The family captured with Mr. Hilborn were all released and returned safely home, excepting one of the children, who died at Niagara.
CHAPTER IV.
CONNECTICUT CLAIMANTS.
Trenton Decree — Second Pennamite War — Erection of Luzerne County — Act of 1795 — Drinker’s Letters — Bartlett Hinds Mobbed.
Fifteen days after the surrender of Lord Cornwallis a petition was presented to Con- gress “ from the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, stating a matter in dispute be- tw'een the said State and the State of Connecti- cut, re.specting sundry lands lying on the east branch of the river Susquehanna, and praying a hearing in the premises, agreeable to the ninth article of the Confederation.” Arrange- ments to this effect were made, and one year later, November 12, 1782, a court composed of five commissioners — Messrs. Whipple, Arnold, Houston, Griffin and Brearly — convened at Trenton, N. J. Messrs. Bradford, Reed, Wil- son and Sergeant appeared as counsel for Penn- sylvania, and Messrs. Dyer, Johnson and Root were the agents from Connecticut. The court declined to order notice to be given to the settlers at Wyoming claiming the land, as that question did not come before them, the ques- tion they were empowered to decide being solely that of jurisdiction. After sitting forty-one judicial days, in which the parties, represented by their counsel, had proceeded with their pleas, they gave their decision in these few words :
“We are unanimously of the opinion that Con- necticut has no right to the lands in controversy.
“We are also unanimously of opinion that the juris- diction and pre-emption of all the territory lying within the charter of Pennsylvania, and now claimed by the State of Connecticut, do of right belong to the State of Pennsylvania.”
It is generally conceded by those who have investigated the subject, that this decision was political and had reference to the future welfare of the States. The War of the Revolution being over, the States found it necessary to unite in
one general government, without loosing their autonomy as States however. Had the decision been in favor of the Connecticut claimants, it would have made a State composed of two parts, separated by New York. In placing the dis- puted territory under the jurisdiction of Penn- sylvania, it made one compact State of contiguous territory. Geographically considered, then, the decision was correct; but legally considered, the Connecticut claim was far the stronger. The Connecticut charter was first, her Indian pur- chase was first and she was first by occupancy. This certainly made a strong case. The com- missioners only decided the question of jurisdic- tion. It would have been wise and just had the Pennsylvania government shown proper respect for the rights of the hard-working pioneers who had braved every danger and suffered untold hardships to make improve- ments in an inhospitable, waste, howling wilder- ness. Had Pennsylvania presented every one of these hardy pioneers with a deed for the land he occupied, it would have been both politic and just. The unoccupied lands were increased in value by the improvements made by these settlers, so that the land speculator need not have lost anything. The Pennsylvania Legislature vacillated from one course to another, but eventually fell into the hands of the land speculator altogether and proceeded to eject the Connecticut claimants by force.
With the close of 1782, and the Trenton decree, the jurisdiction of Connecticut ceased. Before that decree the court had expressly stated that the right of soil did not come before them, and thus the settlers were content to be transferred from one State to the jurisdiction of another ; but events soon made it ap- parent that expulsion, or the entire abandonment of their possessions, was to be preliminary to any adjust- ment of existing difficulties. The land had been purchased by Pennsylvania speculators,'* while it was occupied by those who held it under title from the Susquehanna Company ; and the Legislature of Penn- sylvania, by its commissioners appointed in 1783, to inquire into the circumstances of the Wyoming in- habitants, expressly declared : ‘ It cannot be supposed
1 Blackman’s “History.”
2 The landholders who stimulated the Assembly to unjust measures agaiust the Wyoming peojde were generally claimants under leases from tlie proprietaries, or warrants of 1784. The landholders under wan-auts of 1793 and 1794 — the Tilghmans, Drinkers, Francises, etc. — are in no re- spect imiilicated in the censure.— ilfmer.
CONNECTICUT CLAIMANTS.
21
that Pennsylvania will, nor can she, consistent with her constitution, by any ex post facto law, deprive her citizens of any portion of their property legally ob- j tained.’ This, of course, implied the loss to the Con- f necticut settlers of all they had paid to the Susqiie-
i hanna Company, in favor of prior ‘ citizens ’ of Penn-
ii sylvania who had ‘ legally obtained ’ possession of the I land. This was the origin of the second Pennamite
War, which fortunately extended over only one year — 1784 — and resulted in the restoration to the ‘Yan- kees ’ of the lands from which they had been cruelly driven during the spring of that year.”
The decision at Trento-n left the Wyoming settlers but two alternatives : either to submit to the jurisdiction of the State of Pennsylvania or openly rebel and organize a State of their own. Connecticut had evidently abandoned her chil- dren, acquiescing in the the decree at Trenton. She was afterward amply compensated by re- taining over three million three hundred and sixty-six thousand acres of land in the “ West- ern Reserve ” in Ohio, for which the State of Connecticut realized one million nine hundred thousand dollars. But the Wyoming settlers were not so easily appeased.
The years 1785 and 1786 did not exhibit any abatement of the controversy between the rivals. Col. John Franklin became the leading spirit among the Connecticut claimants, and Col. Timothy Pickering appeared as the chief champion of the Pennsylvania cause. A plan was formed for carving a new State from Penn- sylvania, to include the old county of West- moreland and all of the territory claimed by Connecticut, and thus wrest Wyoming from the jurisdiction of Pennsylvania. Col. Ethan Allen, of Vermont, appeared upon the scene as one pledged to furnish means and men for the dis- memberment of Pennsylvania.
Col. Franklin would not take the oath of fidelity to Pennsylvania nor accept (at that time) a post of official importance to which he had been chosen with a view to conciliatins: him.
The erection of Luzerne County from North- umberland, Sept. 25, 1786, was intended to conciliate the Yankee settlers by giving them an opportunity to liave a direct representation in the A.ssembly and to state their grievances, and, in a large measure, shape their own affairs. This county included all of the Connecticut set-
tlers, except those at Lackawack or Wallen- paupack and the few on the Delaware, princi- pally at Cushutunk.
■ It extended one hundred and twenty miles north and south, or from the mouth of the Nescopec to ■ the north line of the State, on which its extent was from the sixth mile-stone to a point fifteen miles west of the Susquehanna River where it enters the State a second time.
In March, 1787, the inhabitants proposed a compromise, in effect that if the commonwealth would grant them the .seventeen townships which had been laid out, and in which settle- ments had been made prior to the “ Trenton decree,” they would relinquish their claim to all other lands within the limits of the Susque- hanna purchase ; what were known as the “ certified townships ” were thus secured to the settlers ; but while most of the inhabitants were within these townships, there were others scattered here and there who had bought rights of the Susquehanna and Delaware Companies and made improvements upon their locations. There were quite a number of this class within the present limits of Susquehanna County.
Another class dissatisfied with the compro- mise were the Pennsylvanians, to whom the State had previously sold a portion of the lands, and who did not wish, very naturally, to be dis- possessed of them. Such was the effect of the opposition that the next year the compromise act was suspended and afterwards repealed. The conflict was continued.
In 1795 ‘Ahe Intrusion Law” was passed, warning off all settlers not applying for land under a Pennsylvania title. On April 4, 1799, an act for offering compensation to the Penn- sylvania claimants of certain lands within the “certified townships” was passed and was known as the compromising law. On February 16, 1801, an act supplementary to the “Intrusion Law” of 1795 was passed, authorizing the Governor to issue a proclamation, forbidding all future intrusions and requiring all who had intruded to ])eaceably withdraw.
The State had, in 1799, appointed commis- sioners to adjust the conflicting claims of the Pennamites and “ Yankees,” to examine all of the claims, fi.x the amount ('ach Connecticut
22
HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
settler should justly pay the State to perfect his title, and, ou the other hand, the sum that the State should pay to those who were compelled to reliiKpiish the lands they had bought from the State. The commission performed its duties fairly, but many persons were dissatisfied. Ou April 6, 1802, an act of Assembly provided “ that no conveyance of land within the counties of Luzerne, Lycoming and Wayne shall pass any estate, where the title is not derived from this State or the proprietaries, before the 4th of July, 1776.” The law was promulgated by proclamation of the Governor May 1, 1802, and from that time whatever ‘Light” Connec- ticut claimants may have had, it was the veriest folly to defend it. But many persons still scorned all overtures from the State and firmly believed in the validity of the Connecticut title. They proposed to hold their claims in spite of all. Public feeling ran high. The newspaper controversy was heated and it seemed as if armed conflict must again occur. In fact, the Governor again contemplated calling out the militia of the State to enforce obedience ; but milder methods finally prevailed, and the long- vexed question was eventually settled by amica- ble means.
Much of the credit for the peaceable solution of the problem and the adjustment of difterences by bloodless means was due to the Quakers, or Friends, who were among the largest land- owners under the Pennsylvania title in the dis- puted territory.
The enforcement of the Intrusion Law pro- duced some difficulty in Susquehanna County. The act of Assembly was passed April 1 1, 1795, and was designed “ to prevent intrusions on lands within the counties of Northampton? Northumberland and Luzerne.” The first sec- tion reads, —
“If any person shall, after the passing of this act, take possession of, enter, intrude, or settle on any lands” within the limits of the counties aforesaid, “ by virtue or under color of any conveyance of half- share right, or any other pretended title, not derived from the authority of this commonwealth, or of the late proprietaries of Pennsylvania, before the Revo- lution, such persons upon being duly convicted thereof, upon indictment in any Court of Oyer and Terminer, or Court of General Quarter Sessions, to he
held in the proper county, shall forfeit and pay the sum of two hundred dollars, one-half to the use of the county, and the other half to the use of the informer ; and shall also be subject to such imprisonment, not exceeding twelve months, as the court, before whom such conviction is had, may, in their discretion, direct.”
The second section provides that every person who shall combine or conspire for the purpose of conveying, possessing or settling on any lands within the limits aforesaid, under any half-share right or pretended title, as aforesaid, or for the purpose of laying out townships by persons not appointed or acknowledged by the laws of this commonwealth, and every person that shall be accessary thereto, before or after the fact, shall, for every such offense, forfeit and pay a sum not less than five hundred nor more than one thon- sand dollars, one-half to the use of the county, and the other half to the use of the informer ; and shall also be subject to such imprisonment at hard labor, not exceeding eighteen months, as the court in their discretion may direct. The third section provided that in case of conviction the sheriff “should expel and eject all and every the person or persons thereon intruded as aforesaid,” and the Governor is to call out the militia if necessary.
This act went no further verbally than to make intrusions punishable — prohibition being only implied. An act supplementary to this, passed February 16, 1801, authorized the Gov- ernor (section xi.) to issue his proclamation,
“Forbidding all future intrusions, and enjoining and requiring all persons who have intruded contrary to the provisions of the act to which this act is sup- plementary, to withdraw peaceably from the lands whereon such intrusions have been made ; and en- joining or requiring all officers of government, and all good citizens of the Commonwealth, to prevent, or prosecute by all legal means, such intrusions and in- truders,” etc.
April 6, 1802, an act of Assembly provided that “ no conveyance of land within the coun- ties of Luzerne, Lycoming and Wayne shall pass any estate where the title is not derived from this State or the proprietaries before the 4th of July, 1776.” It imposed a penalty upon any judge or justice for receiving proof of, or recorder for recording, a deed of different
CONNECTICUT CLAIMANTS.
23
description. “No person interested in the Connecticut title to act as judge or juror, in any cause where said title may come in ques- tion,” etc. An exception was made in favor of the inhabitants of the seventeen townships, only as far as related to judges, sheriffs or jurors. This law was required to be made known by proclamation from the Governor, and took effect May 1, 1802, as before noticed. But the Yan- kee settlers were persistent ; they had left home and kindred in many instances, and put all their fortune and labor into their Pennsylvania homes. They had come into an unbroken wilderness, and commenced to make homes for themselves and their children, under a title which they supposed to be good. They were willing to yield to the jurisdiction of Pennsyl- vania, but it did seem like a hardship to be expelled from their lands by civil process sim- ply to enrich a few land speculators who lived in Philadelphia. Viewing it from their stand- point, it is not singular that they resisted the enforcement of this act. The Luzerne Federalist of January, 1803, stated that
“ In the district of Rindaw (Rush) one hundred and fifty persons not only avowedly, but firmly and positively, believe in the Connecticut title and no other. In Willingboro, (Great Bend) perhaps thirty. But in all the districts nearer two thousand than one thousand could be found who would risk their all in defence of the Connecticut title, if Pennsylvania ever attempts to drive them oif by force of arms.”
The following letter from Ezekiel Hyde to Colonel Jenkins shows the persistence of the Yankees as late as 1800 :
“ Norwich, Feb. 14, 1800.
“ Dear Sir, —
“We have heard nothing from you since I left Rindaw, which was about the 20th of last month. My uncle Jabez and family all started for Rindaw the day before yesterday. The gang consisted of ten horse sleighs and two ox-teams — three other families besides my uncle’s. I went with them seventeen miles and left them in high animated spirits, deter- mined to reach Rindaw within seven days. Jabez, his mother and sister in one sleigh, my uncle and Stephen in another ; Seril Peck, the young man that you saw at the store, drove another sleigh, and seve- ral others that you never saw — all determined to settle. What they will do with the horses and oxen after they get there, God knows. When I came from there I directed Robinson to purchase all the hay that he
could obtain, but I have now sent on four more horses of my own that are good ones, and ought to be well kept. I have given Jabez particular directions about them, and am not in any fear of their suffering if there is any forage to be found on the waters of the Wyalusing. There has a number of good families gone from Litchfield County into Usher and the Ma- nor Delaware purchase. They have taken along some of the rhino to purchase cows, etc., and they have taken with them some of the best working oxen that ever I saw. In short, there have more than fifty families gone into the Delaware purchase within the last two months; ten families from Long Island. Colonel, you will recollect what I mentioned to you respecting Seril Peck, and the vacant laud adjoining Victory and New' Milford in the Susquehanna pur- chase. I must depend upon all that there is vacant, for Peck has gone on determined to settle on them, and I am of opinion that his father and a family of eleven children will all be there within two years, and he is one of the most respectable men in the town of Franklin. I wish you to keep this request among your daily memoranda.
******
“ Please to inform citizen Palmer and family that their friends are generally well. Mr. Charles Miner will call on you and give the particulars.
“ I am, sir, your friend and fellow'-citizen,
“ Ezekiel Hyde.
“Colonel Jno. Jenkins.”
Settlers on the Wyalusing. — Charles
Miner’s list of settlers upon the upper waters of the Wyalusing, with several corrections made by Miss Blackman :
Memorandum (dated April 29, 1800) of the inhabitants upon the Wyalusing waters, above the Forks, the time of their settling in the country, the number of their families, etc. :
Rindaw.
Isaac Brownson & family . 8 1704 Jabez Hyde and family . 5 1799 Daniel Ross and sister . . 2 1796
Total 15
Usher.
Daniel Metcalf and family. 1798 Joab Picket and family . 3 1799 Miner Picket, born.
Wm. Lathrop and family . 3 1799 Ingram Lathrop, born March 21, 1800.
Nathan Tupper and family 6 1799 James Carroll and family . 5 1800 Abher Griffis and family . 9 1790 Eb. Whipple and family . 7 1799 Ezra Lathrop and family . 4 1799 Holden Sweet and family . 7 1800 Eben Ingram and family . 2 1799 Samuel Lewis and family .5 1800 Samuel Main and family . 7 1798 Fanny Main, born in 1800.
Meacham Main & family . 3 1800
Charles Miner 1 1799
Total G4
Manor.
Jno. Reynolds and family and sister 6 1800
Daniel Foster and family . 5 1800 Jer. Meacham and family. 9 1799 Nehem. Main and family . 3 1799 Ezek. Main and family . 7 17i)9 Ozem Cook and family . 9 1800 Samuel Coggswell .... 1 1800 Robert Day 1 1800
Total 41
Dandolo.
Steph. Wilson and family ..5 1799 Capt. Bartlett Hines and
family 6 1800
Cap. J. Sabins and family 10 1790 Jo. Chapman and family . 2 1800 A. Tracy? Es(|., and fam- ily 10 1799
24
HISTOliY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
B. Melbourne, motlier and sisters 6 1797
Total 39
Locke.
Andrew Canfield.
Ira Brister.
Albert Camp.
Joseph Ross.
Silas Beardsley.
Benjamin Abbott.
Bidwell.
Capt. Peleg Tracy and
family 5 1799
Wm. Harkins and family. 6 1794
Sami Howard 1 1799
Thos. and Henry Park and family 3 1796
^ Newspaper controversy upon the subject was particularly rife that year, but extended over a much longer period.
The following letters of Henry Drinker, of Philadelphia, a large holder of lands in this section, under title derived from the State of Pennsylvania, reveal the intrusion on his
Capt. Charles Geer and
family 3 1800
Capt. Jos. Chapman and
family 6 1798
Edward Goodwin and
family 3 1801
Jeremiah Spencer and
family 10 1800
Tlios. Giles and family . 3 1799
Total 39
Auburn.
Myron Kaseon and family 3 1799
Cyril Peck 1800
Lloyd Goodsell 1799
[Wm. Harkins is put too early by one or two years at least. — E. C. B.]
tp3.cts *
“ Philadelphia, 5 mo. 22d, 1801.
“ Eespected Friend,
“ Abram Horhe, Esq.
“ There are in the hands of Timothy Pickering, Esq., two maps, one of them of a considerable body of lands situate on the waters of Tunkhannock Creek
and extending to the head-waters of Salt Lick Creek; the other represents lands bounding on the State line between this State and New York, and to the east- ward of the Susquehanna — -these maps Col. Pickering has promised to deliver thee when called for.
“ I now deliver herewith a map of a large body of lands, principally on and near the waters of Meshoppen Creek, and including branches of Wyalu- sing, Tuscarora and Tunkhannock.
“ The townships laid out by the companies (Con- necticut) are distinguished by dotted lines, which may be of some use to thee in traversing that country. I have also obtained the names of about 50 settlers I'rom Connecticut, etc., and the parts they are settled on : tho’ there may be some variation as to the par- ticular tracts they occupy, yet I presume the follow- ing statement may be nearly right, viz : —
Town of XJsher.
Ebenezer Whipple Abner Grilfith . .
No.
157
156
Solomon Griffith .... 15G, 107
Holden Sweet 156
James Carl (Carroll ?) . 158
Samuel Maine 107, 108
Mecom Maine 107, 108
Ezekiel Maine 107, 108
Nathan Tupper .... 204
William Lathrop . . . 208
Erastus Bingham . . . .204, 205 Eli Billings 205, 206
No.
Ezekiel Hyde (an improve- ment) 207
Dan. Metcalf 242
Auburn.
Lloyd Goodsell.
Myron Kasson.
Charles Morey.
Ezekiel Morey.
John Passmore.
John Robinson.
Dnndoloe.
Eldad Brewster .... 53
Elias West 52, 54
Crocker 50, 51
Joseph Chapman .... 40
Manor.
Jeremiah Mecom .... 63, 105
Otis Robinson ditto
David Harris 66
Ozem Cook 67, 68
Henry Cook 67, 68
Amos Perry 67, 68
George Morey lOO, 101
Ichabod Halsey 104
Nehemiah Maine .... 104
Otis Robinson 104
Ezekiel Maine, Jr. ... 106, 107
107, 108
Foster.
David Dowd, southerly part of Manor.
Andrew Lisk, southerly part of Manor.
Ckebur.
Thomas Parke, 1 perhaps in Bid- Harry Parks, j well.
Martin Myers.
Capt. Joseph Chapman.
Ezekiel Morey.
New Milford.^
John Hussey 214, 264
Daniel Kinney, Jr. . . . 215
Lyman Kinney 234
Victory.
Spencer, agent for
the claimant.
Avery.
Gore.
Cyril Peck.
Josiah Bass, between tho Gore and Auburn.
Rindaw.
Capt. Joab Pickett . . . 240, 242 Daniel Roswell, deaf and dumb 240, 242
“ There is one Isaac Brunson settled in the forks of Wyalusing Creek, just to the westward and adjoining my bounds of lot No. 239. He is on a tract survey’d to Thomas Dundas. This man has always conducted well and deserves to be kindly treated ; being Town Clerk, he can give all the names of settlers in New Milford.
“Thy Friend,
“ Henry Drinker.”
March 24, 1802, Henry Drinker writes to Ebenezer Bowman, of Wilkes-Barre, —
“ I am concerned in an extensive tract, and in the general of an excellent quality, situate principally on the waters of Meshoppen Creek, and including parts of Wyalusing, Tuscarora and Tunkhannock Creeks, in the whole near 100,000 acres, which, on receiving part payment and undoubted good security for the re- mainder, I would sell together at two dollars pr. acre, though I believe it cheap at double that price. There are parts, however, picked pieces, which have been intruded on, that are of very superior value, and if separately sold, must be at a very different price. I care nought about relinquishments ; all that I require is pay and undoubted security, when a clear title will be made under grants from this State.”
In one of his letters Drinker speaks of Jere- miah Spencer, and discusses the propriety of commencing prosecutions against him and oth- ers. A number of the settlers were indicted for intrusion, and finally all had to make settlement with the Pennsylvania land-holders and obtain title from them.
There was some mob violence used in this
2 The reader will be careful to distinguish this from the Pennsylvania township of the same name. The Kinneys were just below the south line of Rush.
1 Blackman’s “ History.”
CONNECTICUT CLAIMANTS.
25
county, the most notable case being the assault on Bartlett Hinds in 1802. Captain Hinds came to Pennsylvania under Connecticut title in 1800 as the agent of ex-Governor Huntingdon. In 1801 he and Ezekiel Hyde, John Robinson, Charles Geer, Josiah Grant, Elisha Lewis, Amolo Balch, Ichabod HalseV*, John Reynolds, Jeremiah Meachem, Otis Robinson, Elias West and others were indicted at Wilkes-Barre for intrusion.
The Rev. A. L. Post, grandson of Captain Hinds’ wife, relates the following :
“In 1801, while on a road- view between his log dwelling and Lawsville, near the place of Joseph Williams’ subsequent settlement, he met, much to the surprise of both parties, his old friend and fellow- officer of the Revolution, Colonel Timothy Pickering, afterwards one of the most prominent men in the Union, who was surveying lands which he had pur- chased under the Pennsylvania title. It was about noon, and so, after the ‘ How do you do?’ Colonel P. said, ‘Captain Hinds, will you take dinner with me?’
“ The latter replied, ‘I don’t care if I do, colonel, if you can treat me to a fresh steak.’
“‘That will I do,’ the colonel replied, ‘if you will go with me to my cabin, half a mile away ; ’ and he conducted him thither, and entertained him in true soldier style.
“ After recounting some of the scenes of the war in which they had taken part, the colonel explained to Captain H. the whole matter of jurisdiction and land title after the decree at Trenton ; told him of his own purchase, which he was then surveying, and satisfied him of the probability that the Pennsylvania title must hold good. He (Hinds) thereupon went to Philadelphia; subsequently fully satisfied himself that Colonel Pickering was correct ; found the owners of the land upon which he had settled ; made his purchase, and returned. He was the first person in this section who became convinced of the validity of the Pennsylvania title, and yielded to its claims. He was to ‘ Manor,’ as to its civil polity, what Colonel Hyde was to ‘ Usher ’ — the prominent man ; and this fact accounts for the indignation that was visited upon the former after the step just mentioned. This was natural, and is not here referred to by way of repro.ach to any of the parties.
“ It was probably late in 1802 that, under pretence of some kind, he was summoned before a justice in Rush. His brother, Abinoam Hinds, and Isaac Peck- ins (who settled here that year) went with him, expecting foul play. Whilst there a mob gathered and surrounded the house ; but the three barricaded the door as best they could, and prepared for defence. The defences were forced away, and the mob entered, a number of them to be piled in an uncomfortable 21
and bruised heap upon the floor. Isaac Peckins was a large, bony and powerful man. Failing to break out one of the posts of an old-fashioned chair, he wielded the whole of it with great success against the intruders.
“ But, overpowered by numbers, the trio had to yield. A sort of sham trial resulted in the decision that Hinds should leave the country ; but he refused to submit to the decision.”
Mason Wilson says he was burned in effigy, and, he thinks, compelled to leave for a short time ; but he was too good a man for the settle- ment to lose, and he returned and was a prom- inent man afterwards - in the affairs of the county. The Connecticut claimants were angry at being deserted by their leader, and accused him of receiving compensation from Pennsylva- nia for yielding to her claims.
“ ^ His enemies believed him leagued with the Pennsylvania land-holders, and said (though without reason) that he received five acres from them for every settler he induced to come in under their title, and he had succeeded in bringing in about one hundred. But the fact that he had acknowledged the Pennsylvania right by repaying for his own land was exert- ing an influence that embittered against him all who denied that claim.”
Eighteen persons engaged in this disgraceful affair pleaded guilty to an indictment for riot and assault.
“ Five were imprisoned for the space of three months without bail, one of whom had to pay ten dollars, and four of them twenty dollars each ; and also to pay the costs of prosecution, and stand committed until the whole was paid. Nine were to pay a fine of thirty dollars each, and the court further ordered ‘ that they enter into recognizances each in the sum of five hun- dred dollars, with one good freeholder in like sum, conditioned for their good behavior for the space of one year ; and that they severally pay the costs of prosecution, and stand commit- ted till the whole sentence be complied with.’ ”
“ One would suppose this had been enough to deter others from further assaults upon the per- son of B. Hinds, on account of his loyalty to Penn.sylvania; but as late as 1808 another case occurred, in which he again came ofi‘ conqueror.
1 Blackinnn's “History.”
26
HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
“ Anecdotes are told to this day of the perils and adventures within our own vicinity which those encountered who came still later to take possession in the name or under the sanction of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
“‘A surveyor in the employment of Dr. R. LI. Rose, while tracing a boundary line through tiie woods, placed his hand high on a tree to mark where the ax-man, who followed, should strike out a chip as an evidence of the line that had been run. The surveyor had scarcely taken his hand from the tree, when the sharp crack of a rifle rang through the forest, and the spot where the hand had been laid was “ chipped ” by a leaden bullet — a hint that sufficed to stay all proceedings for the rest of that day. On one occasion, to such extremities had matters proceeded, the “Yankees’’ had resolved to take the life of Dr. R., and information was brought to him that a meeting would be held at a particular place on a certain day named, to organize their measures. He determined at once to face the danger ; and, riding boldly to a small clearing, which had been described to him as the scene of the intended meeting, he found the plotters in actual consultation on the subject. The very boldness of the step pro- cured him a hearing. He rehearsed to them the history of the claims of the two States, and of the grounds of the final settlement; re- minded them it was governmental, not individ- ual action ; that he had bought of the legal claimant ; that he felt sorry for them, and wished to lighten their load in every possible way, and repeated his offers, which he said were final. He told them he was aware of their de- signs, but added : “ Why shoot my surveyors ? It is bright moonlight, and I shall ride slowly to my camp by such a track — but let whoever follows take a sure aim ; he will not fire twice ! ” Soon one of the leaders advanced to- wards him, and renewed the conversation re- specting the disputes that existed ; the matter was freely discussed ; a better temper sprang up, and from that moment may be dated the negotiations that produced the happy termina- tion to which all the troubles arising from the conflicting claims of the two States were subse- quently brought.’ ’’
CHAPTER V.
LAND TITLES AND WARRANTEES.
Land Titles — Warrantee Map — Names of Warrantees.
The royal charter from Charles the Second to William Penn bears date at Westminster, March 4, 1681, in the thirty-third year of the reign of that King. The extent and limits of the territory granted are therein defined. It were needless at this late day to question the validity of royal charters. A principle had obtained among the European nations that a new discovered country belonged to the nation whose people first discovered it ; and all Chris- tian princes were deterred from intruding into the countries discovered by other nations, or from interrupting the progress of their naviga- tion and conquests. But William Penn, although clothed with powers as full and comprehensive as those possessed by the adventurers from Spain and Portugal, was influenced by a purer morality and sounder policy. His religious pilnciples did not permit him to wrest the soil of Penn- sylvania by force from the people to whom God and nature gave it, nor to establish his title in blood ; but, under the shade of the lofty trees of the forest, his right was established by treaties with the natives, and made sacred to the Indians by incense smoking from the calumet of peace.
By force of the royal charter, William Penn and his successors, as proprietaries, were un- doubted lords of the soil. They stipulated, however, with the purchasers under them, to extinguish the aboriginal right of the natives. They alone had that power. No individual without their authority was permitted to pur- chase of the Indians ; and the Legislature aided them in enforcing this principle. The tenure by which the charter was held was that species of feudal tenure called socage, by fealty only, in lieu of all other services. By the abolition of quit-rents all estates derived immediately from the commonwealth are unconditional fees- simple, with a reservation only of a fifth part of gold and silver ores at the pits’ mouth. Every grant of land under the proprietary government was nominally declared in the patent to be held as of some certain manor.
LAND TITLES AND WAKRANTEES.
27
“ The General Assembly of Pennsylvania, on the 27th clay of November, 1779, passed ‘an act for vesting the Estate of the late Proprie- taries of Pennsylvania, in this Commonwealth;’ in the preamble whereto it is set forth, ‘ that the claims heretofore made by the late Proprie- taries to the whole of the soil contained within the charter from Charles II. to William Penn cannot longer consist with the safety, liberty and happi- ness of the good people of this Commonwealth, who, at the expense of much blood and treasure, have bravely rescued themselves and their pos- sessions from the tyranny of Great Britain and are now defending themselves from the inroads of the savages.’ The act did not confiscate the lands of the Proprietaries within the lines of manors, nor embrace the purchase-money due for lands sold lying within surveyed manors. The manors, in legal acceptation, were lands surveyed and set apart as the private property of the Proprietaries.
“ The titles to all lands sold and conveyed by William Penn or his descendants were confirmed and made valid. But the title to all lands in the Commonwealth, which had not been sur- veyed and returned into the Land-Office, on or before the 4th of July, 1776, was by said act vested in the State. This act provided that the sum of one hundred and thirty thousand pounds, sterling money, should be paid out of the treasury of this State to the devisees and lega- tees of Thomas Penn and Richard Penn, late Proprietaries, and to the widow and relict of Thomas Penn, in such proportions as should thereafter, by the Legislature, be deemed equi- table and just, upon a full investigation of their respective claims. No part of the sum was to be paid within less than one year after the ter- mination of the war with Great Britain ; and no more than twenty thousand pounds, nor less than fifteen thousand pounds, should be payable in any one year. The Land-Office was begun by William Penn, and many features of the office, as it was in his day, remain to the present time.” A Land-Office, by and under the act of 9th of April, 1781, was created under the common- wealth, its officers consisting of a secretary of the Land-Office, receiver-general and surveyor- general. By the act of the 29th of March,
1809, the office of receiver-general was abol- ished, and his duties were discharged by the secretary of the Land-Office ; and by the act of the 17th of April, 1843, this latter-named office was discontinued, and the duties pertaining thereto were performed by the surveyor-general. By the Constitution of 1874, this office is now under charge of the Secretary of Internal Affairs.
An act for opening the Land-Office and for granting and disposing of the unappropriated lauds within this State passed April 1, 1784, providing “ that the Land-Office shall be opened for the lands already purchased of the Indians on the 1st day of July next, at the rate of ten pounds for every hundred acres, with the usual fees of granting, surveying and patenting, ex- cepting such tracts as shall be surveyed west- ward of the Allegheny mountains, &c. Every applicant shall produce to the Secretary of the Land-Office a particular description of the lands applied for, with a certificate from two Justices of the Peace of the proper county, sj)ecifying whether the said lands be improved or not, and if improved, how long since the improvement was made, that interest may be charged accord- ingly. The quantity of land granted to any one penson shall not exceed four hundred acres.” The prices of unimproved land were different under various periods under the several pur- chases made of the Indians. From the 1st of July, 1784, to April 3, 1792, the price of un- improved wild lands was $26.66f per hundred acres in Wayne, Pike, Susquehanna and other counties. By act of April 3, 1792, the price of unimproved land was fixed at $6.66§ per hun- dred acres. The latter-named act was repealed by act of 29th of March, 1809, since which time the price of lands in the above-named counties has been $26.66f per hundred acres. The laws passed relative to State lands were numerous. Under said laws the surveyor- general, or the officer acting in that capacity, was authorized to appoint a deputy-surveyor in each and every county. The following are the ‘ deputy-surveyors who probably located the warrants in Susquehanna County :
* From lion, J. SimpHuii Afrioii, Secretary of Iiiteruul AflUira.
28
HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
Charles Stewart was commissioned March 31, 1769. His district was in the purchase of 1768. William Gray appears as a deputy-surveyor as early as March 26, 1782, and located a number of surveys along the New York line in 1784. He was re-commissioned April 22, 1785, for all that part of the county of Northumberland lying on the east side of the Susque- hanna River. Anthony Crothers was commissioned April 14, 1792, for a part of Luzerne County. Thomas Sambourne was commissioned April 25, 1800, for the county of Luzerne. George Haines w'as commissioned December 6, 1805, for the county of Luzerne. Jona- than Stevens was commissioned July 8, 1809, for the county of Luzerne, and re-commissioned May 11, 1812, for the counties of Luzerne, Susquehanna and Bradford.
“ The person who obtained a warrant was called the warrantee. Upon paying the Stale treasurer the legal price of the land, and the office fees, $4.50, the warrant was sent to the county surveyor, whose busi- ness it was to survey the land within six months, make a draft and description, and, upon being paid for his services, make a return to the land department. Then the warrantee, upon paying $10 to the land de- partment, w'ould receive a patent for his land. Then, if he had the first warrant, the first survey and the first patent, the title was secure. The land depart- ment, for many years past, has required the applicant for a warrant to make oath before a justice of the peace, of the proper county, touching the condition of the lands, as to its improved or unimproved state, and proving the same by a disinterested witness, on his oath made before two justices of the peace. The act of April, 1850, provided for the election in that year, and every third year thereafter, of one compe- tent person, being a practical surveyor, to act as county surveyor.”
Among the large land-holders in Susquehanna County were Henry Drinker, Tench Francis, Thomas B. Cope, Dr, Robert H. Rose, Caleb Carmalt, Timothy Pickering, William Poyntell, William Wallace and a few others. Henry Drinker was a large land-holder in several coun- ties. In a letter he spoke of owning one hun- dred thousand acres in the section that was occupied by Yankee intruders. He had a large quantity of land in this county. Thomas B. Cope purchased about twenty thousand acres of him in Auburn, Rush and Jessup. Tench Francis liad about one hundred thousand acres of land in the county. He owned all of Silver Lake township, consisting of two hundred and forty-eight tracts of four hundred acres each. Dr. Rose purchased this land February 18, 1809, of Anne, widow of Tench Francis, who
bought it of Elizabeth Jervis and John Peters, whose patent was obtained from the State in 1784. In 1829, Caleb Carmalt purchased one- half of the Rose lands for one dollar per acre. Timothy Pickering owned lands in the vicinity of Snake Creek, and William Poyntell owned a large quantity of land along the Tunkhan- nock. James C. Biddle married Sally Drinker, and, together with Henry Drinker, his brother- in-law, and grandson of ^ Henry Drinker, the elder, who became a resident of Susquehanna County, acted as 'agents of the Drinker estate. In 1841 Mr. Biddle died in Philadelphia, leaving Henry Drinker sole agent of the estate until he died, in 1862, when he was succeeded by William H. Cooper, who acted as agent un- til he was shot, June 14, 1884. Hon. William H. Jessup has been agent of the estate since that time.
Hon. William Jessup was agent for Hon. Charles S. Cox, and in 1849 he became trustee of the Dr. Robert H. Rose estate. In 1853 Hon. William H. Jessup was associated with him, and is now surviving trustee. In 1824
1 HENRY DRINKER, THE ELDER.
Henry Drinker, at the time of his decease one of the largest land- holders in Pennsylvania, was the second son of Henry Drinker, of Phil- adelphia, and Mary Gottier, of Burlington, N. J. He was born 21st of February, 1734 (old style). When twenty-five years of age, he em- barked for England, returning in the following year. Letters written by him during this tour are still extant among his descendants, and they bear evidence to the fact that he was a man of observation and graphic powers of description. Soon after his return, on the 13th of January, 1761, he was married to Elizabeth Sandwith.
The lands of Henry Drinker were located in Wayne, Luzerne, Wyo- ming, Centre, Clearfield, Indiana, Cambria, Bradford, Tioga and Sus- quehanna Counties, in Pennsylvania, and in Montgomery and Delaware Counties, New York.
He was a stanch member of the Society of Friends, and, for this rea- son, was not brought so much before the public as he, in all probability, otherwise would have been ; the members of this denomination not be- ing in the habit of taking an active part in public affairs. He was for many years a member of the firm of James & Drinker, shipping and impoi’ting merchants, of Philadelphia ; they w'ere very successful in their business previous to the Revolution.
One of the cardinal doctrines of the Society of Friends is opposition to war in every form, and a firm aud decided refusal to bear arms in support of any cause, however just. In consequence, he, with nineteen other persons, seventeen of the number being Friends, w'ere arrested and taken, first to Staunton, Va., and afterwards to Winchester, Va., where they were kept in partial confinement nearly eight months, with- out provision being made for their support.
His first speculations in lands were in the purchase of farms in the settled counties, principally adjoining Philadelphia County, in which transactions he was very successful, and this led him into his large pur- chases of wild lands. He >vas a man of great business ability. He resided in Philadelphia, and died in 1808.
The late Esquire Raynsford, of Montrose, and Hosea Tiffany, were the first purchasers of any of his land in Susquehanna County, under the Pennsylvania title. They walked to Philadelphia to obtain their deeds. — Blackman.
LAND TITLES AND WAKRANTEES.
29
Isaac Post, David Post and William Jessup bought all of the Timothy Pickering unsold lands, bonds and mortgages; also S. S. Mul- ford and William Jessup bought the Wallace lands in Brooklyn and Bridgewater. In 1884 Hon. William H. Jessup bought the balance of the Thomas B. Cope lands of William D. Cope, and is now agent or trustee for all the lands remaining unsold of the old estates.
The Nicholson Lands. — Next in import- ance to the long disquiet occasioned by the Connecticut settlers resisting the enforcement of the intrusion laws “ ^ was that to which set- tlers on the Nicholson lands were subjected for a period of nearly twenty years ; firstly, by an alleged lien of a Philadelphia corporation, and afterwards by one of the State on the Hopbot- tom tract, as well as on that called ‘ Drinker’s Meshoppen tract.’ John Nicholson was comptroller of Pennsylv’auia from 1782 to 1794, and during that period was owner of about three million seven hundred thousand acres of land in the State. In 1785 he, with Dr. Barnabas Binney, purchased from the State sixty tracts, including a considerable portion of the township of Brooklyn, and paid to the State the full amount of the purchase-money. In 1789 he commenced a settlement upon the lands which, by the partition between him and Dr. Binney, had been allotted to him. In 1795 he borrowed from the Widow’s Fund Corpora- tion of Philadelphia, thirty-seven thousand one hundred and sixty-six dollars, and secured the payment by a mortgage upon thirty-five tracts in Brooklyn. The mortgage fell due in 1799. No part of the money was paid to the corpora- tion, and Nicholson died insolvent.
“ In 1805 th(i mortgagees foreclosed the mortgage and bought the lands and contracted the same to John B. Wallace. The purchase- money was to be paid in fifteen years from March, 1806, with interest payable annually. Mr. Wallace paid the interest for several years, and continued to sell the lands until 1823 or 1824, when he had sold about two thousand two hundred and fifty acres — the best part of the land — and for which he had received pay- ment.
1 lilackmul).
“In 1823 the state of the title and the inter- est which the corporation held in the land, be- coming known to the settlers, excited much anxiety among those who had paid Wallace, but who, as was then ascertained, had received no title.
“Some went to Philadelphia and requested that the business might be closed. A cori’e- spondence was continued between them until 1826 or 1827, when a committee for the corpo- ration came and met the settlers at Mr. Breed’s, in Brooklyn ; but nothing was or could be efPected with those who had not paid, until the question of the corporation’s title was settled.
“ William Jessup, Esq., had seen the officers of the corporation in Philadelphia, and ob- tained the assurance that no settler who had •paid Mr. Wallace should be again called upon to pay for his land. He wrote to some of the settlers, and had a meeting at his office, when it was agreed that he should bring a suit upon the lot on which Jeduthan Nickerson lived in order to settle the question in Brooklyn. Those present assured him that counsel should be em- ployed, the cause fairly tried, and thus the title might be settled. But counsel was not em- ployed. Afterwards, another suit was brought against some settlers in Bridgewater, who doubted the corporation’s title. Messrs. Case and Read examined the papers, and pronounced the title good. Obadiah Green employed Mr. Wurts, who pronounced the title bad. Those settlers who were satisfied with the decision of Messrs. Case and Read agreed to contract for their lands, having ten years in which to pay for them ; but Mr. Wurts entered a plea for Green. The issue was duly tried, and a verdict was rendered for the corporation.
“Another cause was also tried, and the right by law of the corporation to call upon those who had paid to Wallace, to pay again, was fully established. But Mr. Jessup urged that the title of the settlers, as made by Wallace, should be confirmed, and that thus the fears and anxieties of those who had honestly paid their money should be quieted. In the fall of 1832 he succeeded in getting instructions which au- thorized him to make releases in all cases in which tlie settlers had paid Mr. Wallace.
30
HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
“ The foregoing refers to that part of the cor- poration’s lands not interfered with by what are called the Allen surveys.
“ In 1775, Benjamin Chew, Andrew Allen and others took up a large quantity of land, a portion of which lay upon the Hopbottom Creek. By the attainder of Andrew Allen, in 1778, his part of those lands was confiscated to the State, and by a decision made subsequently by the Supreme Executive Council, the share belonging to the State was located in Brooklyn, on what was called the Chew and Allen war- rants. When the surveyor located the Nichol- son warrants, he laid them upon part of the lands confiscated to the State.
“ The State having received pay from Nichol- son, it was supposed that the titles of those who held under him were good as against the State, and that the State never would claim the land from those who had paid their full price ; until the decision was rendered in the case of Wallace vs. Tiffany (Amos ?), by which it was decided by the Supreme Court that the title passed by the officers of the Land-Office to Nicholson was irregular, saying, also, that legislative action would he necessary to regulate the title.
“Mr. Joseph Chapman was partly on the Allen lands, and through the procurement of Mr. Jessup, and with the assistance of Messrs. Read and Jones, an act from the Legislature was passed confirming the title of any settler who held under the Nicholson title — on application to the Legislature. But with the great body of the Allen lands Mr. J. had nothing to do, as they were covered by the Mary M. Wallace warrants.”
Nicholson Couet. — “ Thus far all that has been said refers to events prior to November, 1834. We pass on now to the panic of 1841. By an act of Legislature a year previous com- missioners had been appointed to hunt up and settle the claims of the estate of John Nicholson to lands formerly purchased by him in various parts of the State. These commissioners had given notice through the papers that they would be in Montrose on a given day to adjust the respective interests of the State, the heirs and creditors, and also of the settlers of any such lands in this county. ,
“ The streets of Montrose on the day speci- fied (in August) were thronged, but the com- missioners failed to appear; and they did not make their appearance until about the middle of November following, when, for two or three weeks, they exhibited at McCollum’s Hotel their papers and maps, and drew the attention of crowds. Even those who had no personal interests in the Nicholson lands began to feel insecure against unexpected claimants to their lands, which they had long owned and occupied with a confidence not less than their more un- fortunate neighbors. Several townships were in a panic.
“ In order to allay the excitement, Benjamin T. Case, Esq., contributed to the same journal three pertinent articles, giving the result of his own investigations for many years as counsel for persons interested in those lands. He was in- duced to this step by the fact that the uncer- tainty in respect to titles was having a tendency adverse not only to his own interests, but to those of the county, as new-comers declined to purchase and settle where there was so little appearance that they could remain in quiet pos- session. Mr. Case stated that the Nicholson claims presented themselves in three points of view, —
“ 1. The claims of the heirs, which were barred by the statute of limitations.
“ 2. The claims of the creditors ; but there was no mortgage upon the records of the county, and, if there were, it is presumed to be paid, in law, after twenty years, and a judg- ment is lost after five years.
“ 3. Commonwealth liens, and of these there were three — those of December, 1795 and 1796, and of June, 1800. The statute of lim- itations does not extend to a debt due the State ; but Mr. C. was not aware of any lands in this county so situated as to raise the ques- tion about their being barred by the lapse of time. ‘ To us citizens of Susquehanna County it is a mere matter of speculation. To Binney’s share of the sixty warratits issued to him and Nicholson, neither Nicholson’s heirs, creditors nor the State can have claim. As to the residue (thirty-five tracts, called the Hopbottom lauds), John Nicholson mortgaged them, Jan-
LAND TITLES AND WARRANTEES.
31
uary, 22, 1795 — eleven months before the State- obtained her first lien — to the Widow’s Fund Corporation, to secure the payment of thirty- seven thousand one hundred and sixty- six dol- lars,’^ which settles the question; for in the event of the State lien being prior to the mort- gage, only the money arising from the sale could be claimed, not the land ; even if a judg- ment be reversed for error after a sale on it, the purchaser’s title on it is not disturbed.’
“ In March, 1842, the ‘ Nicholson Court ’ de- cided that ‘ the Nicholson claim to the corpora- tion lands in Brooklyn and Bridgewater is good — FOR NOTHING ! ’
“ It was estimated that two hundred persons in Susquehanna County paid five dollars each to the commissioners ; but in Wayne, Pike and Monroe Counties they failed to raise such an excitement as they did here.”
Drinker’s Meshoppen Lands. — “ A part of this was in Auburn and Springville. John Nicholson took out one hundred and sixty- eight warrants of four hundred acres each of land included in what was then Luzerne County, seventy-eight of which interfered with prior surveys of Samuel Wallis, from whom Henry Drinker purchased, and were on the south end of the Meshoppen tract. Both Wallis and Nicholson paid the State for the land, but as Wallis’ surveys were of an earlier date, the Board of Property decided in his favor. Nicholson appealed to the Supreme Court, and the decision was again in favor of Wallis. In view of these facts, B. T. Case, Esq., stated, ‘ Patents regularly issued to Drinker, who bought of Wallis, and the purchasers under him on those lands, hold under this title, and what is to disturb them ? ’
“ Henry Drinker, George Clymer and Samuel Meredith held one hundred and sixty-eight warrants, of dates 1790, ’91, ’92 and ’93, paid for and patented. It was to these John Nichol- son laid claim by virtue of other warrants, dated August 17, 1793, a date subsequent to all the warrants issued to the above, and for more
1 On tlio 1st of January, 1790, with interpatabniially. The money not being paid, the njortgugo wus duly forocloHed in Lnzpriie (^niity, the land sold at slierirt’s sale, and the lueaejit owners now hold that title. (H. T. Case.)
than forty years the matter had been supposed to be settled by tlie Supreme Court ; and in a report made by Mr. Kidder, of the Senate of Pennsyl- vania, March, 1842, after a second investigation of the subject, it was stated that the ‘Judiciary Committee cannot discern even the shadow of a claim, either in law or equity, that the Nichol- son estate has upon the Drinker lands in Su.s- quehanna and Luzerne Counties.’ ”
Samuel Ewing’s Lands. — “ Ten of these tracts lay on the Lackawanna Creek, in the eastern part of the county, and were purchased from Ewing by Nicholson; but Ewing con- tinued to hold the title in his own name, as a trustee for Nicholson. Those who purchased of Ewing without notice of a trust took the land discharged of the trust. A mortgage, August, 1795, by Nicholson to Ewing, was duly fore- closed, and sold at sheriff’s .sale, by Ewing. Thus, in the opinion of one of Susquehanna’s ablest lawyers, ‘ There is no land in the county covered by the State’s liens, or to which the heirs and creditors of John Nicholson have had any valid claim, and if those who compromised with the commissioners persist in claiming to hold exclusively under those contracts, law- suits are sure to follow.’ Happily, the Nichol- son claim to the widow and orphans’ fund and the Drinker tracts was, as stated previously, decided against them by higher authority, and from that time Susquehanna County land-own- ers have had ‘ peace.’
“ Henry Drinker was the owner of what are called the Westtown school lands in Lenox, and Fields and Collins were also holders of lands in the same township. Wm. Hartley bought the Fields title; C. L. Ward, the Col- lins lands ; and these were all settled and sold to the settlers at fifty cents per acre, which quieted the titles in this portion of the county. The titles of one-half the lands in the township were in dispute for twenty-five years.”
The Nine Partners’ lands were surveyed with lines running northeast and southwest. The Meredith lands were surveyed in the same way. Perhaps one-third of the lauds in the county are surveyed north forty-five degrees west. These lands lie mostly in the ea.stern part of the county. The Wallis lands, which in-
32
HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
eludes the Nicholson tract, were run north three degrees west. The variation since 1785 has been four degrees toward tlie west, so that these lines are north one degree west. The Drinker lands were run subsequently and re- quire greater variation. Previous to 1800, for some years the magnetic needle was moving east; then it began to move west again, and has been moving west ever since. Most of the lines now run north one degree east.
^ Warrantee Land Map. — This is a copy (reduced in size) of the old map in the county commissioner’s office, which was drawn, about 1837-8, by John and Issachar Mann, assisted by George Walker, a surveyor of much experience (now nearly ninety years old), who had re sur- veyed many of these lands.
Inaccuracies are known to exist in the origi- nal, owing to the difficulty of adjusting conflict- ing surveys and vacant strips, and of correctly connecting streams ; and the proportions are not always in keeping with the amount of land given. But the map is the most authentic gen- eral one now obtainable without the very great expense of connecting the separate surveys on file in the State Department. Many of the war- rantee names have become illegible on the old map ; but most of these, except the lots then va- cant, have been supplied from other sources. The township boundaries are not the modern ones as now established.
In Brooklyn, parts of Lathrop, Dimock and Bridgewater (“ Wallace lands”) the lines were run (about 1785) north, three degrees west, and so on to make rectangles. The Drinker Me- shoppen tract was laid out (about 1792) mostly north and south, etc., and most of the lands in the west half of the county were first sur- veyed upon nearly the same plan, while in the east half the prevailing direction was north- east, etc. I’liese lines were run according to the magnetic meridian, which then deviated about three degrees to west of north, and now about .seven and a quarter degrees, the variation beino; a little srreater in the east than in the west part of the county, and very slightly greater in the north than in the south part.
Among the prominent land-holders of the
1 Bi' E. A. Weston.
county were Thomas and John Clifford and their successors, Thomas W. Morris, in Clifford, Herrick, etc. ; Samuel Meredith, in Clifford, Lenox, Harford, etc., and also in Bridgewater and Middletown ; Edward Shippen, in Lenox, Gibson and Jackson ; Henry Drinker and his succes.sors, Samuel A. Law, Ephraim Kirby, David Welch, Rufus Lines, Jacob Tallman and Robert Bound, in Liberty (Lawsville), Great Bend and New Milford ; Henry Drinker, “school lands” in Lenox and Clifford, and other lands in Harmony, Oakland, and in almost every township in the county ; Henry Drinker and his succe.ssor, Thomas P. Cope, twenty- five thousand acres in Auburn, and part of Springville, Dimock, Jessup and Rush ; Jo.seph and William Lee, William Poyntell and Benjamin Chew (George Walker, agent,) in Clifford, Herrick, etc. ; Andrew Allen, in Harford and New Milford ; John Field and Wm. Hartley, his successor, in Lenox ; Timothy Pickering, in Bridgewater, Franklin and Lib- erty, and in Harmony ; John Nicholson and Dr. Barnabas Binney, and their successors, “ The Widow and Orphan’s Fund” corporation, and John B. and Mary M. Wallace (Putnam Catlin, agent), in Brooklyn, Bridgewater, Dimock, etc. ; John W. Robinson and Thos. B. Overton were also owners of remnants of these last-named lands ; Tench Coxe and Nicholas Biddle, in Liberty, Bridgewater, etc.; Abraham Dubois, in Oakland ; Elizabeth Jervis and John Peters and their successors, Ann, widow of Tench Francis, and afterward Robt. H. Rose, one hundred thousand acres in Silver Lake, Cho- conut. Rush, Middletown, Great Bend, Bridge- water, etc. ; and Caleb Carmalt and Samuel Milligan, successors of R. H. Rose; Tench Francis also had lands in Liberty and Frank- lin ; C. L. Ward, Collins lands in Lenox ; George Clymer, in Bridgewater; Samuel Ew- ing, in Herrick, etc. ; Thomas Cadwallader, in Ararat and Herrick, and Bridgewater ; Thomas Mitchell, Brown & Ives, and Samuel Wilcox, in Middletown, etc. Janies C. Biddle, Wm. D. Cope, Seku Meylert, Wm. Thomson, Joshua W. Raynsford and Wm. C. Ward were also agents for various lands.
The following are the warrantee names, the
T
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LAND TITLES AND WARRANTEES.
33
numbers being arbitrary and merely referring to the place of the lots on the map :
|
Acres |
Acres |
||
|
80 |
2? William |
||
|
2. John Ashmear |
... 4391^ |
23. Daniel Humphreys... |
.... 415 |
|
3. Joseph Ashmore |
... 42414 |
24. Sami. Jervis |
.... 415 |
|
4. Geo. Ashmore |
70 |
25. Thos. Willing |
.... 411 |
|
5. Benedict Ashmore... |
... 200 |
26. Win. Gray |
... 415 |
|
6. Benjamin Town |
... 200 |
27. Chas. Jervis |
... 395% |
|
7. Benjamin Thorn |
... 261 |
28. Mordecai Lewis |
.... 414 |
|
8. Edward Westcot |
... 230 |
29. John Brown, Jr |
.... 424% |
|
9. David Hawes |
... 400 |
b John Wilson |
.... 429% |
|
400 |
355 |
||
|
10. Samuel Langdale |
... 401^ |
30. David Cooper |
.... 424% |
|
11. Joseph Langdale |
.... 308M |
31. Joseph Backertraw... |
.... 424% |
|
12. Herman Langdale |
... 414 |
32. John Swanwick |
... 414 |
|
13. Solomon Ashmore |
... 42414 |
33. Andrew Caldwell |
.... 435 |
|
14. Thos. Ashmore |
... 359 |
34. Joseph Gray |
.... 427% |
|
15. Jonathan Gan ley |
... 466 |
35. Robt. Towers |
415 |
|
16, Roger Gartley |
... 472% |
36. Josiah Haws |
... 415 |
|
17. John Brown |
... 418% |
37. June Humphreys |
.... 415 |
|
.... 424% |
.... 415 |
||
|
19. Michael Hillegas |
... 414 |
39. Hannah Willingsworth. 415 |
|
|
20. Matthew Clarkson.... |
.... 433% |
40. Andrew Caldwell |
.... 415 |
|
21. Janies Langdale |
.... 360% |
||
|
ARARAT AND HERRICK. |
|||
|
Acres |
Acres |
||
|
1. Henry Foster |
.. 482% |
39. Joseph Rink |
.. 501% |
|
2. Roger Foster |
432 |
40. Joseph Wharton |
342 |
|
3. Peter Foster |
.. 473% |
41. Judah Foulke |
342 |
|
4. Peter Dobbs |
..491-120 |
42. Sami. Richards |
344 |
|
6. Henry Dobbs |
.. 451-51 |
43, Peter Rink |
.. 555% |
|
6. Samuel Foster |
.. 551% |
44. James Rink |
.. 480% |
|
7. Joseph Betz |
.. 462-32 |
45. Sami. Rink |
.. 480% |
|
« |
|||
|
9. John Betz |
.. 483% |
47. Wm. Wiley |
478 |
|
10. Frederick Betz |
.. 462-32 |
48. Solomon Rink |
.. 480% |
|
11. Lambert Cadwalader. |
290 |
49. Andrew Pyle |
477 |
|
12. Andrew McCoimel.... |
. 309-38 |
50- Sami. Meredith |
|
|
13. John Sargeant |
..301-120 |
51. Sami. Meredith |
... 326% |
|
14. Chas. Harrison |
.301-120 |
62. Sami. Meredith |
301 |
|
15. Conrad McHousland.. |
53. Chas. Wharton |
334 |
|
|
16. Alexander Newland.. |
. .301-1 20 |
54. Wm. Jones |
342 |
|
17. Wm. Forbes |
..3' 1I-I2O |
55. Jas. Wharton |
342 |
|
18. John Cadwalader |
56. Chas. Stewart |
342 |
|
|
19. Henry Hill |
.. 323% |
57. John Cox |
34 i |
|
20. Paul Betz |
.. 452-59 |
58. Isaac Cox |
342 |
|
21. Sami. Wiley |
478 |
59. John Nesbit |
200 |
|
22. Roger Wiley |
478 |
a Grace Newport |
80 |
|
23. Roger Betz |
.. 433% |
60. Jesse Newport |
100 |
|
24. Christopher Betz |
61. Wm. Fishbourne |
200 |
|
|
25. Dr. T. Cadwalader... |
320 |
62. Bartler Shec |
.. 271% |
|
26. Sami. Meredith |
.. 301% |
63. John Shec |
.. 271% |
|
27. Alex. Nesbit |
. 301-1 0 |
64. John Whit© |
309 |
|
28. Geo. Campbell |
65. John Shaw |
302 |
|
|
29. Joseph Rees |
..334-120 |
66 Isaac Wharton |
.. 280% |
|
30. Jas. Rees |
1(10 |
67. Sami. Meredith |
301 |
|
31. Jasper Newport |
68. Sami. Mereditli |
... 352% |
|
|
32. Jonathan Nesbit |
347 |
b Sami. Meredith |
... 326% |
|
33. Chas. Wharton |
322 |
69. Thos. Wharton |
... 320% |
|
34, John Van Reed |
342 |
70. Sami. Meredith |
|
|
35. Isaac Wharton |
.. 320 (?) |
71. Ann Bober |
2il0 |
|
36. Joseph Van Reed |
72. Jane Bober |
200 |
|
|
37. Peter Moore |
.. 326% |
73. Phebe Boher |
200 |
|
38. Win. Wharton |
342 |
||
|
AUBURN. |
|||
|
Acres |
Acres |
||
|
1. Aaron Gwinipp |
6. Martin Hughs |
...42?-143 |
|
|
256 92 |
|||
|
3. Moses French |
..433-153 |
8. Geo. French |
4411 |
|
396-3() |
|||
|
5. Chas. Fields |
10. Paul Craft |
11. Solomon Craft 432-50
12. Peter Craft 432-50
13. Peter Holland 493
14. Solomon Rogers 439-lUO
15. Jas. Rogers 439-100
16. Peter Rogers 439-lUO
17. Roger Boggs 439-lUO
18. Henry Boggs 439-100
19. Hugh Boggs 438-lUO
20. Ann Paschal
21. Silas Smith 150
22 Sami. Buck 309-40
23. Henry Buck 438-lu5
24. Peter Buck 438-105
25. Robert Buck 438-105
26. Sanil. Horner 438-105
27. Joseph Crocket 438-105
28. Hugh Rogers 438-105
29. Jas. Whitecar 440-40
30. Andrew French 432-50
31. Joseph French 432-50
32. Peter Grice 433-153
33. Sami. French 432-50
34. John Whitecar 432-50
35. Peter Rogers 418-37
36. John Crocket 418-37
37. Jas. Horner 418-37
38. Geo. Warful 418-37
39. Thos. Warful 418-37
40. Joseph Warful 418-37
41. Sami. Warful 418-37
42. Jas. Warful 140-173
43. Geo. Holmes 220
44. Hugh Prichard 440-112
45. Andrew Prichard 440-112
46. Peter Prichara 440-112
47. John Weaver 440-112
48. Pawl Weaver 440-112
49. Jas. Johnston 440-112
50. Arthur Johnston .440-112
51. Peter Whitecar 439-120
62. Roger Whitecar 432-50
63. Chas. 'Whitecar 439
54. Sami. Whitecar 439
55. Jesse Clark
56. Andrew Thompson 420-40
57. Patrick Thompson 420-40
58. Sami. Thompson 420-40
59. Henry Thompson 420-40
6u. Geo. Thompson 420-40
61. Joseph Thompson.. . 420-40
62. Henry McWilliams 420-44
^3. Peter Holmes 280
64. Sami. Holmes 426-40
65. Jas. Holmes 426-40
66. Robt. Holmes 426-40
67. Philip Holt 426-40
68. Sami. Holt 426-40
69. James Holt 426-40
70. Geo. Holt 426-40
71. Jas. McWilliams 426-40
72. Peter Clark 295-122
73. Roger Boggs 412-16
74. Henry Boggs 412-16
75. Patrick Boggs 412-18
BRIDGEWATER.
Acres
1. Abraham Marcoe 425
2. Peter Baynton
3. Rohet Morris 4"3-158
4. John Montgomery 439-135
5. Thos. Wliarton 375
6. Chas. Wharton 301-120
7. Daniel Reed 301-120
8. Geo. Towson 415
9. Conrad Ditmar 415-27
10. JohnVicai'y 301-120
11. Isaac Wharton 3ul-120
12. Wm. McMoultrie 440-80
13. Peter Brown 425
14. Goveriieur Morris 4'5
15. Win. Montgomery 425
16. John Morril 425
17. Geo. Roberts 425
18. Israel Wheeler 425
19. Henry Whysic 425
20. Godfrey Twelle 425
21. Isaac Franks 425
22. Jos. Bullock 285-120
23. Jas. Cummings 370
24. Lydia Goodwin 301-120
25. John Allen 301-120
26. Jas. Coburn 301-120
27. Geo. Goddard 417
28. Joshua Ilewes 301-120
29. Wm. Gough 301-120
30. Stephen Wilson
31. Dr. Thos. Cudwallader301-120
32. Job Brady 163
33. Jesse Waterman 410%
34. Isaac Harris 435
35. Geo, Dunimcre 439-80
36. Luinbert Cadwallader..301-120
37. John Cadwalhuler 301-li.0
Acres
38. Wm. Allen 301-120
39. Geo. Latimer 408-103
40. Benedict Dorsey 425
41. Jas. Read 425
42. Chas. French 425
43. Jas. Fisher 425
44. John Frouiharger 425
45. Leonard Dorsey 425
46. John Baker 424
47. Peter Lohra 398-40
48. Jas. Allen 301-120
49. Jas. Wilson 80
50. Andrew Allen 301-120
51. John Wilson 300
52. John Scott 327}^
53. Susanna Razor 4o7J4
54. Benj. Jordan 4o734
55. Jacob Anguish 4o7J4
56. Jas. Logan 407%
57. Joseph Abor 407%
58. Catharine Coleman 407%
59. Susannah Colliday 60
60. Joseph Anthony 425
61. David Lenox 425
62. Henry Holland 426
63. John Donaldson 425
64. Henry Pratt 425
65. Geo. Eddy 380
67. John Pringle
68. Edward Shippen,
69. Sami. Nicholson
70. l^Iary Martin 50
71. John l\U'Kinney 4(<7%
72. Jos. Thompson
73. Abram McKiniwy 407%
74. Jus. Valliunt
34
HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
BROOKLYN.
|
Acres |
Acres |
|||
|
1. |
Surah Morrison |
19. John Sutton |
. 407-80 |
|
|
2. |
Robt. Wilson |
20. Ann Manning |
. 407-80 |
|
|
3. |
John Wharton |
21. Richard Manning |
407-80 |
|
|
i. |
Win. Morrison |
22. John Nicholson |
. 407-80 |
|
|
5. |
Jas. Torbit |
23. Dr. Barnabas Binney. |
. 407-80 |
|
|
6. |
Jos. Torbit |
24. John Dunlap |
. 407-80 |
|
|
7. |
Jas. Craig |
25. Susanna Woodrow' |
407-80 |
|
|
8. |
David Torbit |
26. Susanna Lear |
. 407-80 |
|
|
9. |
Elizabeth Jackson.... |
.. 407-80 |
27. Neal BlcCoy |
. 407-80 |
|
10. |
Leonard Woodrow... |
.. 407-80 |
28. Robert King |
. 407-80 |
|
11. |
Henry Jackson |
... 407-80 |
29. Robt. Lyon |
. 407-30 |
|
12. |
Jas. Dunlap |
.. 407-80 |
30. Jos. Sahler |
407-80 |
|
13. |
Chas. Lear |
31. Sarah Stover...' |
. 4o7-80 |
|
|
14. |
Sami. Jackson |
.. 407-80 |
32. Capt. Jas. Stover |
. 407-80 |
|
15. |
Wm. Shaw, Esq |
.. 407-80 |
33. Wm. Colliday, Jr |
. 407-80 |
|
16. |
Jas. Logan |
... 407-80 |
34. Wm. Colliday |
. 407-80 |
|
17. |
Jos. Abor |
35. Jas. Valliant |
. 407-80 |
|
|
18. |
Abm. McKinney |
.. 407-80 |
||
|
CHOCONUT. |
||||
|
Acres |
Acres |
|||
|
1. |
Geo. Simpson |
.. 437>4 |
18. Jos. Anthony |
418 |
|
2. |
Henry Hill |
.. 424^ |
19. Christopliei'Irig |
414 |
|
a |
Thos. Shoemaker |
317 |
20. Wm. Jones |
.335-120 |
|
3. |
Jas. Mase |
.. 424!4 |
21. Mary Jarvis |
415 |
|
4. |
John Swanwick |
414 |
22. Jacob Barges |
415 |
|
6. |
Alex. Nesbit |
23. Chas. Cooper |
415 |
|
|
6. |
Andrew Caldwell |
435 |
24. Chas. Smith |
415 |
|
7. |
Jos. Gray |
... 427^ |
25. Geo. Nelson |
415 |
|
8. |
Robt. Towers |
415. |
26. Jas. Collins |
|
|
9. |
415 |
27. Wm. Sheaf |
415 |
|
|
10. |
Andrew Caldwell |
415 |
28. Sami. Nicholas |
415 |
|
11. |
Sami. Coates |
415 |
29. Benj. Skull |
. 377-40 |
|
12. |
John Peters |
3,55 |
30. Israel Morris |
414 |
|
13. |
Elizabeth Jervis |
414 |
31. Chas. Willings |
.389-120 |
|
14. |
Robt. Irwin |
.. 439^ |
32. Anthony Kern |
477 |
|
15. |
Peter Crim |
.. 42414 |
33. Jacob Lowensyker |
|
|
16. |
Edward Price |
.. 451'4 |
34. Henry McSwine |
|
|
17. |
Peter Miller |
.. 424X |
CLIFFORD.
|
Acres |
Acres |
|||
|
1. |
Paul Harris |
400 |
31. Wnlter Stewart |
... 3il% |
|
2. |
Henry Harvey |
32. Alex. Nesbit |
... 311% |
|
|
3. |
Sami. North |
.... 371-^ |
33. Christr. Irwin |
347 |
|
aa |
Peter North |
.... 345'4 |
34. Nicholas Young |
347 |
|
4. |
Jas. North |
.... 474% |
35. Jas. Trimble |
317 |
|
5. |
Sami. Harvey |
.... 471% |
36. Andrew Chapman... |
...400-100 |
|
6. |
.... 474% |
‘^7 - |
||
|
7. |
Peter Hart |
«4% |
38. Sami. Meredith |
.... 329% |
|
8, |
Joshua Harvey |
474% |
39. Sami. Meredith |
|
|
9. |
Joseph Noble .. |
474% |
40. John M. Nesbit |
.... 376-90 |
|
10. |
Jas. Noble |
.... 433% |
41. John M. Nesbit |
.... 311% |
|
11. |
Henrv Noble |
.... 469% |
42. John M. Nesbit |
150 |
|
12. |
John Boyd |
346 |
43. .John M. Nesbit |
150 |
|
13. |
Wm. Gray |
326 |
44. John M. Nesbit |
.... 389% |
|
14. |
260 |
.. 3'H |
||
|
15. |
John Higher |
120% |
46. Sami. Meredith |
.... 329% |
|
16. |
....311 120 |
|||
|
a |
J. Dowd |
48. Sami. Meredith |
.... 329-13 |
|
|
17. |
Andrew Syphart.... |
....311-120 |
49. Sami. Meredith |
.... 326% |
|
18. |
Peter Noble |
467 |
50. Sami. Meredith |
.. 352% |
|
19. |
Peter Harvey |
474% |
51. Sami. Meredith |
|
|
20. |
Roger Hart |
.... 474% |
52. Sami. Meredith |
....332-130 |
|
21. |
Andrew Pyle |
477 |
63. Sami. Meredith |
... 329% |
|
22. |
. |
30l |
||
|
23. |
Henry Chapman.... |
400 |
55. Jas. M. Nesbit |
... 289% |
|
24. |
Geo. Noble |
56. Nathan Severing .... |
200 |
|
|
25. |
Wm. Donald |
.... 311% |
57. Sami. Meredith |
.... 347% |
|
26. |
Geo. Fullerton |
.... 311% |
58. Sami. Meredith |
.... 329% |
|
27. |
Eliza Harris |
59. Sami, Meredith |
....332-130 |
|
|
28. |
Wm. Harris |
150 |
60. Sami. Meredith |
.... 301% |
|
29. |
Sami. Harris |
150 |
61. Sami. Meredith |
|
|
30. |
John Reed |
62. Chas. Jervis |
... 301% |
|
63. |
Thos. Wharton |
320% |
71. Sami. Beach |
|
|
64. |
Sami. Meredith |
398 |
72. Sami. Beach |
|
|
65. |
Sami. Meredith |
73. Jas. Beach |
430 |
|
|
66. |
Sami. Bleredith .... |
339-ino |
74. John Beach |
. 481-22 |
|
67. |
Sami. Meredith |
75. Philip Beach |
300 |
|
|
68. |
Chas, Hunt |
342-40 |
76. Jos. Beach |
342 |
|
69. |
Sami. Bleredith |
332-120 |
77. Peter Beach |
200 |
|
70. |
Chas. West |
100 |
78. Geo. Porter |
200 |
|
DIMOCK. |
||||
|
Acres |
Acres |
|||
|
1. |
Peter Philips |
4.0-44 |
25. Jas. Bacon |
|
|
2. |
Joseph Philips. ... |
420-44 |
26. Philip Snyder |
. 417-33 |
|
3. |
Geo. Morris |
420-44 |
27. Abel Holmes |
.. 417-33 |
|
4. |
Andrew Morris. ... |
420-44 |
28. John McPhail |
.. 417-33 |
|
5. |
Peter Morris |
29. Jas. Engle |
.. 417-33 |
|
|
6. |
Hugh Morris |
.. .. 420^4 |
30, John Lockhart |
.. 417-33 |
|
7. |
Joseph Morris |
420-44 |
31. Thos. Miller |
. 417-33 |
|
8. |
Peter White |
420-44 |
32. John Scott |
. 417-33 |
|
9. |
Andrew Mason |
411-13 |
33. Christopher Hoot |
.. 404-80 |
|
10. |
Jas. Mason |
411-13 |
34. Jas. Warner |
.399-120 |
|
11. |
Robt. Mason |
411-13 |
35. John Ditmar |
|
|
12. |
Hugh Mason |
.. .. 411-13 |
36. Jeremiah Sullivan.... |
|
|
13. |
Peter Mason |
411-13 |
37. Wm. Rinder |
.. 425-10 |
|
14. |
Joseph Kunkle |
411-13 |
38. Joseph Haines |
.. 439-80 |
|
15. |
Peter Kunkle |
411-13 |
39. Sami. Haines |
..438-150 |
|
16. |
John Kunkle |
411-13 |
40. Sami. Lock |
.261-120 |
|
17. |
John Thompson.... |
415-27 |
41. Wm. Sharp |
|
|
18. |
Geo. Reed |
42. Sami. Miller |
.. 363-80 |
|
|
19. |
Wm. Knox |
415-27 |
43. Jas. Craig |
|
|
20. |
N. Sley (or Loyd).. |
415-27 |
44. John Wharton |
|
|
21. |
Nicholas Schultz.., |
415-27 |
45. Wm. Morrison |
|
|
22. |
Philip Roth |
415-27 |
46. Sarah Morrison |
|
|
23. |
Francis Trimner... |
415-27 |
47. Jacob Anguish |
.. 407-80 |
|
24. |
Geo. Christhilf |
48. Benj. Jordan |
.. 407-80 |
|
|
FOREST LAKE. |
||||
|
Acres |
Acres |
|||
|
1. |
Peter Marble |
20. Elizabeth Matlock.... |
358-115 |
|
|
2. |
Jas. Crawford |
21. Paul Cooper |
||
|
4. |
Geo. Sickler |
23. Deborah Dawes |
||
|
5. |
Jas. Peale |
24. Sami. Wetherill |
||
|
G. |
Jos. Anthony |
25. John M. Nesbitt....... |
309 |
|
|
7. |
Stephen Pascliall... |
388% |
26. Cornelius Barnes |
431 |
|
8. |
Wm. Gray |
27. John Montgomery.... |
||
|
9. |
Sami, Wetherill |
28. J. Nexh(it) or Nesbit. |
306 |
|
|
10. |
Donald McDonald.. |
388-80 |
29. Robt. Morris |
..403-159 |
|
11. |
Battis Clymer |
388-80 |
30. Jno. Dunlap |
|
|
12. |
Chas. W. Peale |
388-80 |
31. Peter Baynton |
425 |
|
13. |
Reynold Keene |
388-8U |
32. Abraham Marcoe |
426 |
|
14. |
Sami. Morris |
33. Wm. Dawes |
. 380-40 |
|
|
15. |
Solomon Blavechie. |
34. Jas. Starr |
410 |
|
|
16. |
Geo. Meade |
35. Susannah Fisher |
425 |
|
|
17. |
Joseph Casson |
36. Jas. Bryson |
||
|
18. |
Patrick Moore |
411-120 |
37. Garret Cottringer |
425 |
|
19. |
Wm, Murray |
....371-120 |
38. Thos. Afflick |
|
|
LIBERTY AND FRANKLIN. |
||||
|
1. |
Sami. Powell |
416 |
19. Joseph Howell, Jr |
. 386-40 |
|
RR1 |
||||
|
3. |
Solomon De Melt... |
41 1 |
a Richard Butler |
|
|
4. |
Peter Denton |
413-120 |
21. Tlios. Palmer |
|
|
5. |
Paul Denton |
22. |