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THE STORY 
 
 OF 
 
 WYOMING VALLEY 
 
 BY 
 a R. SMITH 
 
 Author of the Wyoming Valley in the 1 9th Century, 
 Daniel North, Sec. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
 Published by S. R. Smith, Kingston, Pa., 
 1906. 
 
UBR^RY of CONGRESS 
 Two CoDies Rfwelved 
 
 FEB 6 >90o 
 
 n CopyrisM Entry ^ 
 
 I 3 ^ ^ Ci 
 
 COPY B. 
 
 COPYRIGHT 
 
 BY S. R. SMITH, 
 
 KINGSTON, PA, 
 
 190S. 
 
 IROLD L FERNSLEfl 
 
 pniNTERS, 
 1..KES-BARRE. PA. 
 
 L ' H-^ ^^ 
 
®If^ #tora nf lianitttng Balbg. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 I HE HISTORY of Wyoming Valley epit- 
 omized in this little story is one of the 
 saddest and most dramatic ever acted. The 
 place in which it was acted is an amphitheatre 
 fashioned by the hand of the Almighty. The 
 
 arena is a plain, the walls are the blue hills and in the 
 
 place of silken canopies, the fathomless sky. 
 
 Any stranger looking down on this plain from the 
 mountain would feel that in the past men fought with 
 the wild proprietor and with each other to make this 
 secluded portion of the earth their own. We are busy 
 with the fleeting phantom called life, and so fully ab- 
 'sorbed that the eartii beneath and the' sky above has 
 faded as completely as the dreams of our vanished youth. 
 These fields and encircling hills are beautiful, and the 
 short history of the white man since he first came here 
 is more than an idle tale told to occupy an idle hour. 
 
 Men and women often have lacked bread for them- 
 selves and their children, often shivered with cold and 
 trembled with fear ; hardly a home during all the years 
 of struggle but furnished an Indian with a scalp, hardly 
 a mother who was free from the expectation that sooner 
 or later the torch and tomahawk would come and leave 
 
4 '^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 only smoking embers and mutilated forms. Thus was a 
 courage born and a manhood developed so splendid as 
 to demand our attention and admiration. The faith of 
 our fathers makes for us a fadeless page from which we 
 learn how to live, for behind the deeds of daring with 
 all the parts of the drama acted, we see plainly something 
 better than the deeds. 
 
 A dissolute king brought disaster to honest people by 
 giving the land on which we live to two classes of his 
 subjects. Before any one secured a good title years of 
 blood-shed had to pass. The rival claimants fought as 
 only men will fight when they are fighting for property 
 to which they have a legal right. Then the Indian, with 
 the title that possession gives, spilt blood freely and there 
 is no apology' due from him. England was not slow to 
 maintain order in this part of her domain, and there is 
 no apology due from her for doing so. Everybody was 
 right and all of them were wrong. They fought it out 
 and the Yankee conquered the entire combination. When 
 the struggle was ended this valley was his and his heirs'. 
 The state was obliged to give him a valid title to the 
 land and no one has owned an acre of the soil without 
 purchasing it from him. 
 
 This continent was divided up among the nations of 
 Europe. The Yankee owned only a strip ; he enlarged it 
 until it covered what is now the United States. The en- 
 tire nation is Yankeeized. Lands across the Atlantic are 
 catching the American spirit, the far east is trying to be- 
 
'^he Story of Wyoming Valle\). 5 
 
 come inculcated. The great army of strangers from many 
 lands do not materially change anything in our ways of 
 life. The principles on which our national life rests are 
 eternal as the hills ; the shore alone on which the tide 
 plays is marked by wreck and debris. The fittist survive, 
 the rest die. There is a reason why the Yankee survived ; 
 he alone championed human rights and had the strength 
 to establish them. 
 
 Puritan and Yankee are synonymous and when we 
 say New England settler we mean usually the same man. 
 The Puritan means to us a very religious man, one big- 
 oted in the extreme. The truth is he was better than 
 religious, he was better than a church-man simply. All 
 the man was expressed in the principle of religious and 
 civil liberty — he would not wear a 3^oke. It was a blessed 
 day for humanity when a man was born with courage 
 sufficient to protest and fight against every form of bond- 
 age that had oppressed mankind in all the years of the 
 past. His was the first voice that had spoken with real 
 emphasis for freedom. Thank God he made it prevail. 
 
 Probably it was necessary and expedient that the church 
 and state should be despotic until humanity were able 
 to think and act without a master. There came a time 
 when men needed a new dispensation, when they had man- 
 hood sufficient to demand that no man put a bit in their 
 mouth. The desire for freedom, the strongest desire of 
 man, would assert itself. It did, and every throne since 
 has been insecure. 
 
6 '^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 The men named Puritan protested, not against the 
 reHgion of the established church and the Roman Cath- 
 oHc Church ; they protested against the first because it 
 was a rehgious monarchy, and the second because it was 
 a rehgious despotism. They protested against the state 
 because they were through with every form of bondage. 
 It was time that men should shout, "Give me liberty or 
 give me death." Every noble soul the world over re- 
 sponded. 
 
 Courage and blood were the coin that purchased the 
 pearl so desirable. England was smeared with blood, roy- 
 alty was trodden under foot, Cromwell fought and Mil- 
 ton wrote. 
 
 Neither England nor the Puritans discovered America. 
 Spain alone had a claim to the continent. A claim is not 
 enough in this world, it is necessary that the claim be 
 defended, and a stronger power than Spain was needed 
 to resist the long arm and the grasping hand of England. 
 It may be true that only English men could have suc- 
 cessfully unpinned the English yoke. 
 
 We call our fathers rebels, bigots and heretics. Read 
 the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of 
 the United States to be convinced that they were splendid 
 infidels. Every paragraph is a cutting loose from creeds 
 of all kinds and of oppression of every kind. These doc- 
 uments declare for freedom for the whole people. The 
 men who formed and established this government were 
 not sectarians. Thomas Jefferson, James Hamilton, George 
 
^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 7 
 
 Washington, Thomas Paine — in fact nearly all of them like 
 Lincoln trusted in God and their own power without con- 
 sulting any creed or asking the sanction of any denomi- 
 nation. Emerson was a deeply pious man. In his attitude 
 towards the teaching and the authority of the church he 
 was a typical Puritan. It is easy reading to spell out the 
 reason why this government endures and resists ; why it 
 gathers under its protection men of all nationalities and 
 religious beliefs. 
 
 The colonists from England that settled in the south 
 were not Puritans. They were English aristocrats, they 
 established an aristocracy. We learned when they tried 
 to dissever this nation that they were not patriots. No 
 wonder that England aided them and rejoiced in the pros- 
 pect that the Yankee was to be conquered and stripped 
 of his power. The fool and the knave at home and abroad 
 have learned the folly of striking and attacking the guard- 
 ians of our rights and contending against the principles 
 this government embodies. 
 
 There never lived a man more interesting or more 
 worthy of our admiration than the Puritan. Every inhab- 
 itant of this valley, be he Catholic or Protestant, is in- 
 debted to him for civil and religious liberty and to^ some 
 extent for the prosperity he enjoys. Any one who reads 
 the history of this valley will marvel at and admire the 
 perseverance of the saints and recognize the hand of God 
 in our history. 
 
 The thread of red that is woven in our history is 
 blended in the background giving a sinister effect to the 
 
8 '^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 picture as well as an unmistakable attractiveness that awak- 
 ens within us a feeling akin to admiration. The Indian 
 worshiped the moon and threw tobacco in the fire for in- 
 cense. We are a little shocked at the way he was treated 
 and perfectly satisfied with the result. 
 
 The Moravian missionaries were the first white men 
 to come here. The settlers that came after them were not 
 missionaries to the Indians in any sense. They built more 
 distilleries than churches, they gave the savage the bottle 
 and not the Bible. 
 
 To a limited extent we are interested in the Indian. 
 The fragrant memories of childhood that linger in the 
 recesses of our minds have a wild charm due to the tales 
 told us of the spectacular red man by the royal enter- 
 tainers of our youth. We can recall the Indian as we then 
 beheld him in our vision. We were told how wild and 
 wicked he was but we thought differently and the opin- 
 ion of those days still dominates us. Consequently when 
 we read how black he was we persist in leaving him red 
 with the addition of war paint and his picturesque en- 
 vironment. We are not complimentary and rarely just 
 when we discuss a heathen. The Indian probably rated 
 the white man more astutely than lie was rated, at least, it 
 is evident, that the red man knew on which side to stand 
 during the war between the English and the French and 
 later how to stand by the enemy of the settlers. He sold 
 the land when he could no longer hold it and for most of 
 it received as much as it was worth at that time. The 
 
'^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 9 
 
 leaders could hold their own in council with all the talent 
 and culture arrayed against them. They fully realized 
 the size of the white man's foot and the strength of his 
 arm. 
 
 The Indian problem is about disposed of. Civiliza- 
 tion had no mission for him, or designed to have, that 
 would benefit him. It is not proven by any means that he 
 could not have made a consistent Christian and a reputable 
 citizen. The Five Nations or the Six Nations as they be- 
 came later on, carried the science of government to a 
 point that awakens our admiration. This federation of 
 nations was as unique and complete in its way as any we 
 have read of in the history of the world. Their form of 
 government was despotic with supreme power centered 
 in a council made up of representatives of the tribes that 
 formed the confederation. Tioga Point, near what is now 
 Athens, was the headquarters of the Indians in this sec- 
 tion. Here all the renegades, as well as the Tories of the 
 region adjoining, congregated. Here they built towns and 
 planned their raids upon the whites. Here Queen Esther 
 had her village and from this point came the force that 
 effectually effaced the Yankee from the valley for a time. 
 
 A large number of the families of this locality removed 
 to different points between here and the state line and in 
 many ways our history reaches out to the Chemung River 
 and beyond, as well as down the river to Sunbury where 
 Fort Augusta was erected and served both as a prison and 
 a defence. 
 
lo '^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 The Indians of the valley were mostly Delawares, com- 
 pletely under the rule of the Six Nations. Tliere were 
 not many Indians in the valley after the settlers came 
 and it was mainly after the massacre that they were a 
 real menace to the people. Without warning they would 
 sweep in and massacre a family, probably take one or 
 more of the children with them and vanish, not often oc- 
 cupying more than a few minutes to complete their work. 
 It was rarely that a pursuit proved successful. In the 
 state there were over three hundred children returned 
 from captivity after peace was declared. Some wished 
 to remain with the captors. A sad feature of their re- 
 turn was that in many cases no relatives could be found to 
 claim them. Orphans and widows were seeking protec- 
 tion and help in every direction. Notwithstanding the 
 impoverished condition of the people most of the time and 
 the constant plundering and destruction of crops, the help- 
 less found bread and shelter, even to the sharing of the 
 last meal. And yet these people would come back every 
 time they were driven out and hold on to their beautiful 
 domain with the patience of death. These strenuous times 
 make our strenuous lives appear only child's play, and' our 
 poverty plenty and to spare. 
 
'^he Story of Wyoming Valley. ii 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 |UR VALLEY, as we behold it, is beautiful 
 and picturesque ; as the first band of settlers 
 beheld it, it was wild and sublime. Few 
 of us have looked over a valley like ours 
 covered with primeval forest. The picture 
 staggers the most powerful imagination. Of the life 
 the Indians lived where we have found a place of abode 
 and the splendor and beauty of their haunts under the 
 deep shade of the yellow pine, the maple, oak and button- 
 wood, we have no conception. 
 
 The fame of this inviting spot had spread all over the 
 colonies and was being taken across the sea by every vessel. 
 The New Englander wanted to turn his back upon the 
 stony soil and the chilling winds that swept over the hills 
 from the sea, and make himself a home between these 
 blue hills where God had performed His master stroke, 
 where the soil was waiting to bring forth abundantly 
 and nature was lavish with her gifts. 
 
 At Hartford, Connecticut, The Susquehanna Company 
 was formed in the year 1754. They purchased land along 
 the Susquehanna of the Six Nations for two thousand 
 pounds. The territory is described as being over one hundred 
 and twenty miles in length and sixty in breadth. They had 
 a charter granted by King George the Second, dated April 
 23, 1662, granting them that portion of his domain ly- 
 ing between the 41st and 42nd degrees of latitude and ex- 
 tending across what they supposed was a narrow continent. 
 
12 '^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 The proprietors of Pennsylvania had also a charter for 
 the same territory g'ranted by the same sovereign, given 
 to William Penn in 1681. These claimants prepared to 
 resist the claims of the Yankee, a thing which they did for 
 over forty years. 
 
 We now come to the original shove ; all the rest will fol- 
 low. In the Nutmeg State a number of families were ready 
 to stake life and fortune on a bold venture. The body of men 
 forming what is known as the Susquehanna Company 
 wisely commissioned some they thought competent to go 
 and view the promised land. These agents viewed the 
 land and tried to conciliate the Indians in advance to 
 the invasion of their choice hunting ground. These men 
 returned and reported favorably. In the interval before the 
 little company reached the valley the state claimants, hav- 
 ing learned what was taking place, hastened to send troops 
 to the valley assume military occupation. 
 
 The story of the first attempt to settle the valley by 
 the people from Connecticut is a fitting prelude to what 
 took place afterwards. These adventurers doubtlessly 
 shouted with joy as they beheld this garden in the wilderness 
 for the first time and considered themselves fortune's favor- 
 ites. They were not favorites, — quite the reverse. They 
 were to be the first victims of the host that afterwards 
 would suffer and die in securing a permanent home on these 
 lowlands between these hills. 
 
 It was not necessary for them to clear land, for on the 
 flats on the east side they found soil ready for the plow. 
 
^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 13 
 
 They built log- houses, and planted crops. Their friends 
 in the east heard only glowing reports from them until 
 a message came that the entire settlement had been wiped 
 out by the Indians, some of the settlers having escaped to 
 tell their friends of the sad tragedy. 
 
 The experiences of some of the men who escaped 
 massacre would please a lover of stories of adventures. 
 One man crawled into a hollow log to hide from the In- 
 dians that were following him. An Indian came and sat 
 on the log. Finally he looked in the end and seeing a 
 cobweb stretched across the opening he was certain that his 
 intended victim was not there. This cobweb story has 
 a flavor of age about it ; that nevertheless does not make 
 it impossible for history to repeat itself. 
 
 The people in the east considered they had a valid ti- 
 tle to the land that a king had deeded to them and orna- 
 mented with his great seal. They were eager to migrate to 
 the beautiful valley on the Susquehanna of which they had 
 heard so many glowing accounts. They proposed to come 
 prepared to defend themselves and make a permanent set- 
 tlement. 
 
 The war between the French and English had just 
 closed, the French having ceded the northern portion of 
 the continent to the English. Tlie Indians, now that they 
 were not helping foreigners to fight each other, began 
 fierce warfare against the whites. The West Branch was 
 settled and the Indians plundered, burned and murdered 
 without mercy along this tributary of our river as well 
 as in other sections of the states. 
 
14 '^he Story of Wyoming Valle\). 
 
 The English and Germans had settled along the Del- 
 aware and were the other owners of the coveted territory. 
 When they learned of the preparations going on in the 
 east to attempt settlement here a second time they leased 
 this valley to three men, Ogden, Stewart, and Jennings, 
 for seven years, divided it into two manors, and military oc- 
 cupation was declared. 
 
 The Susquehanna Company divided this section into five 
 townships, five miles square, and then subdivided a portion 
 of it into forty shares as a free will offering to the forty 
 pioneers. Two hundred pounds were given them to pur- 
 chase farm implements with which to cultivate the land. 
 The forty came here in February, 1769, and two hundred 
 followed the next spring. 
 
 To round out our story we will consider the state of 
 affairs in the colonies. The second settlement of the val- 
 ley was six years before Paul Revere took his famous ride 
 and the first shot of the Revolution was fired. One of the 
 worst sovereigns of modern times, sat on the English throne, 
 and parliament which twelve years before, had begun to 
 impose taxation without representation, proposed, when 
 the war between France and England closed in 1762, to pay 
 the enormous war debt by imposing additional tax upon the 
 colonies. The Declaration of Independence that Patrick- 
 Henry had voiced was stirring men's hearts. As they had 
 never seen a king, were dissenters in religion and republicans 
 in politics, for six generations had governed themselves, 
 bad been shown by the French and Indian war that they 
 
^he Story of Wyoming Valley. iS 
 
 could defend themselves, when the Stamp Act of 1765 was 
 passed the flaming fire of independence blazed fierce. 
 Added to this was the inherited character of the colonist 
 and we might add the knowledge that when the French 
 king signed the treaty with England after the war and 
 ceded Canada to their conquerors, it was to make it possi- 
 ble for the creation of a republic in the west that would 
 trample the standard of St. George in the dust. The im- 
 perative necessity to secure subsistence as well as the En- 
 glishman's desire for property and the innate desire, com- 
 mon to all men for liberty, prompted the breaking away 
 from the monarchial government under which for gener- 
 ations their ancestors had lived where the monarch seldom 
 regarded the rights and the welfare of his subjects with any- 
 thing less than contempt. All these things combined, 
 prompted the strong men of the colonies to come to this 
 valley, and they at first established a democracy as untram- 
 meled by outside authority as that enjoyed by the American 
 savage. These men had iron in their souls and muscles 
 of steel ; they had not outgrown the superstition of the 
 past. They believed in witches as their progenitors had 
 believed the world to be flat. It is no slander to say they 
 were chiefly concerned and occupied in looking after their 
 own interests and that they enjoyed strife. Before they 
 left New England they drew up laws to govern them and 
 made the town meeting the center of authority. 
 
 When they reached the valley Ogden, Stewart and Jen- 
 nings, the lessees, occupied the land under military protec- 
 tion of the state. They had erected forts and block-houses 
 and were trying to make settlements in the valley. They 
 
l6 '^he Story of Wyoming Valle\). 
 
 lived mostly in the forts they had erected and compelled 
 the New Englanders to fight constantly to protect them- 
 selves. 
 
 The five townships allotted to the settlers were surveyed, 
 and Kingston township, the first that was occupied was 
 allotted to the favored forty. Mbst of the lowlands were 
 free from trees and covered with rank grass. The soil was 
 very rich, consequently large crops could be raised with 
 little labor. With the river full of shad, in their season, and 
 other fish in great abundance wild meat always within reach, 
 they were secure from want. The winter having passed 
 they were ready to put in their crops. 
 
 They built Fort Durkee near Fish Eddy, the fort at 
 ■Mill Creek, built by the first settlers, being too remote, as 
 they were cultivating the flats below the present site of 
 Wilkes-Barre. By May they numbered 280 able-bodied 
 men. The eyes of the new-comers were opened to the 
 beauty and wealth of their possessions. 
 
 The state authorities sent a force to the valley, but 
 after they had beheld the means of defence and the number 
 of the enemy they were sent to wage war against, they 
 returned to Easton. There was a small force in the Penna- 
 mite forts, and the three Pennsylvania proprietors, Ogden, 
 Stewart and Jennings were absent, Jennings was a civil 
 magistrate. The governor sent a company from Philadel- 
 phia to drive the Yankees out. This company encamped 
 at Fort Durkee, but not daring to make an assault they 
 removed to a safe place and awaited reinforcements. This 
 
iBffnrr tltf Wi}\U Mm\ ramp. 
 
'^he Story of Wyoming Valle}). 17 
 
 was in June. In September, the prince of trouble makers, 
 Ogden, with Sheriff Jennings, came with three hundred 
 men. They arrested the leader of the settlers, Captain 
 Durkee, and took him in irons to Philadelphia. With so 
 large a force against them, their leader a captive, and the 
 terrifying boom of a small cannon ringing in their ears, the 
 besieged men surrendered. All were ordered out of the 
 country except the seventeen men to look after the crops, 
 these were ordered out later. With their dream shattered 
 and their prospects blighted the bold pioneers turned their 
 faces to the east. Then the brave and bold Lazarus Stew- 
 art appeared on the scene. He captured that awful cannon. 
 The victorious Ogden retired to Fort Ogden only to sur- 
 render and defeat. The farmers burned the fort and con- 
 fiscated all the enemey's property to make good the loss they 
 had sustained when they were driven out. 
 
 The men who had left the valley against their will came 
 back full of fight. They were in possession and before their 
 blood had come to cool off, the governor, a great grandson 
 of the splendid American and friend and favorite of royalty, 
 William Penn, but who lacked all the glorious perogatives 
 of his great grandfather, called upon General Gage, com- 
 mander of the Continental troops, to drive the awful Yankees 
 back to the Nutmeg State. The General promptly replied 
 that it would be highly improper for the King's troops to 
 interfere in a matter of property between the people. 
 
 Peace reigned again, a prosperous summer followed, 
 the Forty Fort was builded. Then Ogden came back by an 
 
1 8 '^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 unguarded route, seized the men in the field unarmed at 
 their work. This was in September. Ogden captured fort 
 Durkee and its defenders, sent Captain Zebulon Butler and 
 Spalding, with other leaders, to Philadelphia as prisoners. 
 The men were taken to Easton. 
 
 The Pennamites supposed they were through with the 
 Yankee. Consequently they left only a handful of soldiers 
 to defend the forts. Lazarus Stewart was on the war trail. 
 In December he swept down on the forts and the garrison 
 fled, most of them protected only by the one garment they 
 had on when Stewart's men disturbed their dreams. 
 
 In 1770, Ogden came in the dead of winter with one 
 hundred men. He built a fort sixty rods from Fort Durkee 
 and called it Wyoming. Then he demanded the surrender 
 of tlie enemy. In the attack on Fort Durkee, Ogden's 
 brother was killed, and Ogden retired. Stewart knowing 
 hoiw highly he was prized bv the state authorities retired 
 in the night to the mountain, leaving a few men in the fort. 
 These Ogden sent to Easton as prisoners, after which he 
 strengthened his position and wondered doubtless where 
 that awful Stewart was. A child never feared the dark 
 or a culprit the lash as Stewart was feared, and the state 
 authorities at this time doubled the reward they had offered 
 for his arrest. They would wipe the settlers nearly out of 
 existence and then this brave and bold cavalier would ap- 
 T^ear with the Paxton boys, and Ogden and his followers 
 would scatter. 
 
 The next time the curtain rises on the stage we see Capt. 
 Zebulon Butler, whom we supposed a prisoner of war in 
 
'^i^e Story of Wyoming Valley. 19 
 
 Philadelphia, and Lazarus Stewart with one hundred and fifty 
 men cooping Ogden up in Fort Wyoming on the river 
 bank. Butler and Stewart built a fort a short distance 
 below Fort Wyoming. To-day two granite blocks, properly 
 inscribed, rest on the river bank to point out where they 
 were. Then some fortifications were erected across the 
 river and something of the kind on the Redout where the 
 new court house stands. That terrible cannon was mounted 
 upon this elevation and probably made the shad in the 
 river jump out of their bed. Ogden wanted help and he 
 wanted it very bad, so he performed an act that is the only 
 clever thing recorded in his career. He rolled up his clothes, 
 placed his hat on them, tied a cord to the bundle, and with 
 this he floated down stream a short distance keeping his nose 
 out of the water and hanging on to the end of the string. 
 As he passed the sentinels they riddled his hat with bul- 
 lets. Thus he escaped, going on foot to Philadelphia. Later 
 on he is back again with reinforcement. These Butler am- 
 bushes. Ogden goes back over his tracks, and the men are 
 allowed to find refuge in the fort of their friends to help 
 eat up the food of the besieged who are soon obliged to 
 capitulate. 
 
 Thus ends the first Pennamite war which lasted three 
 years and brings us now to September, 1771. 
 
20 '^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 E HAVE come to the days that are the 
 most beautiful in our history when peace and 
 prosperity were enjoyed. The men built 
 homes and removed their families from the 
 east. Every man was the dictator of his own 
 acts and had no master except his own will. A Utopian con- 
 dition of human existence was realized that was better 
 than Plato's dream. Block houses were erected on both 
 sides of the river, and territory surveyed and assigned to 
 the settlers. People began to flock here from every direc- 
 tion. They were so well occupied that they had no time to 
 think of a regular form of government, settled their dis- 
 putes by a town committee. They had order without law 
 or a constable. There was, strange to say, religious toler- 
 ance more than we find among them at an earlier day. 
 Ferries were erected, mills and distilleries built and roads 
 made. As soon as the people had provided for their main- 
 tenance they brought teachers and preachers here and pro- 
 vided for the support of the churches and the school. By 
 1773, by the increase of the population and conflicting inter- 
 ests it became necessary to have a form of government. To 
 meet this need the Susquehanna Company adopted a code of 
 laws and means to enforce them. 
 
 At this time the Connecticut people tried to open nego- 
 tiations with the Pennsylvania claimants to settle the dis- 
 pute over the territory. These offers were spurned. 
 
 It 1774 all the territory from the Delaware to fifteen 
 miles beyond the Susquehanna was erected in a town, called 
 
'TThe Story of Wyoming Valley. 21 
 
 Westmoreland, and attached to Litchfield county. This was 
 seventy miles square and was divided into townships, then 
 into lots that were sold or assigned to the settlers by draw- 
 ing lots. The governor of the state forbade the settlers 
 settling on the land and claimed the territory. The popula- 
 tion at this time was about 3,000. The people met and 
 elected officers, their government being under the protection 
 of the colonists, while they waited the pleasure of the 
 crown.. Their form of government was an independent 
 democracy. Up to this time every man was a soldier, paid 
 or unpaid, and worked with a gun swung over his back. 
 
 Let us imagine a walk through the valley on a pleasant 
 day at the time of which we are writing. The people we 
 would meet would be variously clad, in keeping with a 
 period emerging from the most primitive state. Yet some 
 things would not be so strange to us. We would see the doe- 
 skin dandy and the home-spun dude, the artful maiden 
 anxious to make an impression, and the lady of fashion as 
 artificial proportionately as we have to-day. The typical 
 hunter's dress would be seen and evidences of military life 
 and customs. 
 
 The whipping post and the stocks would be there while 
 the one-story log cabin would be the most conspicuous order 
 of architecture to be seen. We would perceive that young 
 Matthias Hollenback had opened a store, the first and prob- 
 ably the only merchant. The name of nearly all the 
 persons you meet would be familiar notwithstanding the fact 
 that they lived over four generations ago. There will be no 
 streets worthy of the name and no side-walks. From any 
 
22 '^ke Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 part of the town you could look north, south and east right 
 into the wildest woods you ever saw and see the river by 
 looking towards the flats. The most interesting objects seen 
 will be the forts. We will go down to what is now the river 
 common, between South and Ross streets, where we will 
 find a fort tlie most interesting in the valley, and as we 
 have just read of some events that transpired there we are 
 aware that it is Fort Durkee. It was built of hewn logs, 
 is about half-acre in extent and is surrounded by ramparts 
 and intrenchments. Near it we find some twenty houses 
 with loop-holes. Later on it became the headquarters for 
 General Sullivan, when he came here after the Revolution 
 to drive out the Indians. We will take a look at Fort 
 Wyoming, a little more than a rifle-shot away, built by Og- 
 den to aid him in fighting the Yankee. We will go up to 
 Mill Creek where the people have built a mill to grind their 
 grain. Here we will find a fort named after the creek. 
 Within we will see huts that the settlers lived in most of 
 the time during the three bloody years just passed. 
 At the Redout we will find a fortification mounted with the 
 famous cannon that Ogden frightened the inhabitants with 
 a few years before. These forts are interesting yet we 
 remember they never were atacked by the Indians or were 
 the scene of much bloodshed. Forty Fort interests us more 
 for it is larger, incloses an acre of ground, and is made of 
 two thicknesses of logs twelve feet above ground, with a 
 watch-tower at each corner. Inside we find barracks and 
 huts built along the wall so that the soldiers could stand 
 on the roofs to fire at the enemy. We go down through a 
 sunken passage to the edge of the river where there is a 
 
*C7ie Story of Wyoming Valley. 23 
 
 spring. By going up to what is now Sturmersville we see 
 Wintermute fort. We do not find friends for they are 
 mostly Tories. We go to the Jenkin's fort, nearly a mile 
 above on the river bank. By ferrying across the river 
 we look at Fort Pittston, composed of thirty-five log houses, 
 built in a triangle and connected at the upper story. From 
 this fort the people who had gathered there during the in- 
 vasion of the Indians, British and Tories, witnessed the 
 battle and the awful scene in the evening when Queen 
 Esther wrote her name blood red in history. This fort sur- 
 rendered the day after and, as at the other forts, the Indians 
 appropriated everything they wanted. The Indians smeared 
 black paint on their prisoners' faces to protect them from 
 harm. We will go back down the valley. We can follow 
 an Indian trail or take a canoe. 
 
 We want to see the public buildings of Wilkes-Barre. 
 We find the jail and all the municipal buildings in a fort 
 standing on what is now Public Square. This fort is called 
 Wilkes-Barre. Here once stood an Indian village called 
 Wyoming. There is a block-house that is situated down 
 towards Nanticoke. When we say it is Lazarus Stewart's 
 property and is near his home it is certain that any one who 
 loves a hero would walk the distance to visit this land buc- 
 caneer. If we had the making of monuments, and the erect- 
 ing of memorials, this favorite of ours would have one 
 worthy of the man and the deeds he performed. He fell 
 in the battle of Wyoming. His compatriots, Zebulon Butler 
 and Colonel Durkee, the hard fighter, proved impervious 
 to bullets and the hemp noose designed for them by their 
 
24 '^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 enemies, and died peacefully in their beds long after the 
 war dogs and the wolves had ceased to howl in the valley. 
 On our way down we will see where the cabin stood that 
 the Pennamites built for the notable Delaware chief Tede- 
 uscung. This friend of the white people awakened the jeal- 
 ousy of the Six Nations, who sent a party here to put him 
 out of the way, an end they accomplished by burning him in 
 his cabin in the night. Some claim that he was sleeping off 
 the effects of liquor which the visitors had given him while 
 his guests, and pretending to be his friends. 
 
 There are many old families living here and there in 
 this end of the valley. It is apparent that the population of 
 the country is being provided for as most families have from 
 ten to fifteen children and often more. At this time the log 
 school house and the teacher that boards around has not 
 become one of the institutions of the valley to any extent. 
 It was not expensive to raise a family. As bears and deer 
 would come poking about within rifle range from the cabin 
 door to investigate their neighbors it was easy to keep a 
 barrel of wild meat on hand and fresh meat on their table 
 all the year round. There were no game laws and the men 
 were good marksmen. Down in this neighborhood that 
 terror of the Indians, the famous Inman family lived. We 
 wonder what became of the old rifle that old Inman talleyed 
 by a notch every Indian he shot. 
 
 We go down to the gorge in the mountain where the river 
 leaves the valley. Here the Nanticokes reared their teppe 
 while up the river on the other side the Shamokins had a 
 village. It was to these Indians that Count Zinzendorf 
 
'^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 25 
 
 preached. This missionary is associated in our minds with 
 the legend, or snake story in which history pictures him 
 reading his Bible in his tent by a fire. Two red faces and the 
 gleam of a knife are seen in the opening in the tent. The 
 Indians observe a snake, evidently thawed out by the fire, 
 crawling over the count's garment as it made its way out. 
 The story may be only a story yet it reveals the danger this 
 saint was exposed to in his work. The Indians thought the 
 preacher was one clothed with divine power, he having a 
 poisonous reptile for his companion. The superstition of 
 these would-be murderers served a better purpose than usual, 
 as the proposed tragedy did not take place. 
 
 We follow along a well-worn Indian trail over which 
 the Senecas, Cayugas and Oneidas as well as other tribes 
 have traveled, for the great Indian' highway between the 
 north and south was through this valley. There is no doubt 
 that Cornplanter, Red Jacket, Brant (the Mohawk chief, 
 who was a British ofiicer in epulets and an educated man), 
 and other noted chiefs passed this way. Away back in 1739 
 Conrad Weiser, the noted interpreter who spread the fame 
 of the valley far and wide, doubtless traveled this road. 
 
 Here in this end of the valley in 1775 occurred a conflict 
 that gives us considerable satisfaction, although it was de- 
 signed to disturb the peace and prosperity that reigned. 
 Colonel Plunket came up the river with a force of seven 
 hundred men. Butler and Stewart went to Nanticoke to 
 receive him. Stewart took the west side and Butler the east, 
 where he erected breast works. The defending force num- 
 bered only two hundred and fifty men. Butler, out of the 
 
26 *Tr/?e Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 kindness of his heart, fired a blank volley. Then Plunket 
 went over to Stewart's side of the river. Stewart, with 
 charasteric unkindness to a foe, fired bullets. The balls 
 came so rapid and straight that Plunket changed his mind, 
 and decided that Northumberland was a safer place than 
 Nanticoke. 
 
 Wherever we go it is evident the people are on the verge 
 of war with the mother country. When the Declaration of 
 Independence was declared in 1776, the whole section was 
 as wildly aflame as any part of the country. 
 
 It is interesting to come on a cabin in the woods for the 
 family as well as the dogs give you a boisterous welcome. 
 Public opinion was not shaped by the press and a newspaper 
 like we read would have created more of a sensation than a 
 visit from the king. The tongue was mighter than the 
 pen, and every traveler was expected to stop, tell the family 
 the news from the outside world, be treated to all the 
 whiskey he wanted and depart with the knowledge that he 
 had called upon those who were very glad to see him. A 
 family would have felt humiliated to the last degree if they 
 were caught without liquor in the house. These people 
 loved to talk, they loved to gossip as well as we do. They 
 would get together and tell more interesting things than we 
 read in the paper. Every man bragged about himself and 
 blowed about the villainy of the despised foe. The aw- 
 ful stories the women would tell about witches, spooks, 
 warnings and the omens of their dreams were believed. The 
 children would listen to them as eagerly as to the words of 
 
■^i^e Story of Wyoming Valley. 27 
 
 the Bible. They would jump at any unusual sound and .s^ape 
 in wonder. The young men did not know how to tie a four- 
 in-hand, yet it must be born in mind they knew how to court 
 a girl and marry her without delay. 
 
 The men wearing a queue and knee breeches causes us 
 to realize how differently we dress as well as that our style 
 of apparel can not compare with theirs in picturesqueness. 
 The moccasin did not have high heels, neither did it warn 
 the wild animals of the approach of the hunter, nor was it 
 liable to produce corns. We may as well envy as pity the 
 pioneer. They had great times, the food they ate as we con- 
 sider their bill of fare, makes us wish we could make them 
 a visit. They had plenty of the best meat a man ever ate. 
 Corn cake, which is not bad eating, roast beans, and the great 
 fruit of our forefathers, the pumpkin, wild grapes and wild 
 berries as well as cider and nuts. Of course we prefer 
 steam heat yet the great open fire place where the family 
 and neighborly neighbors, told better stories than we hear 
 and as true, blazed hospitably. They were the heroes of all 
 the yarns they spun. The men still wore their hair long. 
 It was not until Burgoyne, with his last ship load of British 
 soldiers left Philadelphia for home, that the queue went the 
 way of other things that were discarded at this time. They 
 had the real Yankee drawl, their talk sounding as queer as 
 their writing reads. Their food and their fun we can com- 
 prehend, but how they could set at table with a few pewter 
 platters and iron knives and forks, get along without wooden 
 floors and nothing better than stools and benches to sit on, 
 is more than we can understand. These people were mostly 
 
28 ^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 aristocrats with the best manners and breeding. The old 
 men could bow to a lady elaborately, and the wives and 
 daughters could courtsey to perfection. The attempt to 
 imitate the manners of royalty was evident in all their social 
 life. Their loud hearty laughter made it apparent that 
 nature was the teacher that guided tliem to a very great ex- 
 tent. It should be born in mind how, in their birth and 
 breeding, as well as in contact with life, that they were not 
 common or inferior — quite the reverse. No men had better 
 blood in their veins or more creditible history. They were 
 the flower of New England and the full bloom of the great- 
 est people in the world. It is safe to say they were not pro- 
 vincial to any extent or so cut off from the world as to confine 
 their interest and outlook to their surroundings. 
 
 As we travel around among them, even in our imagina- 
 tion it is not easy to forget how soon these happy homes are 
 to be only a memory, the people murdered, their habitations 
 destroyed, and themselves driven back east stripped of every- 
 thing, even of the necessities of life. 
 
 We say "Milly me," thankful our fate is more fortu- 
 nate. We do not forget how many men of character and 
 brains, and lovely women have hated, fought, suffered, loved 
 and died between these mountains. How many admirable 
 traits these transplanted and transformed Puritans pos- 
 sessed. We are proud of our history as well as of our pro- 
 genitors. Now we will devote our attention to the most 
 dramatic part of the history of Wyoming Valley. 
 
^Ae Story of Wyoming Valley. 29 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A 
 
 ^ NEW NATION is about to be born, a new 
 flag is to spread out its beautiful folds over the 
 freest nation in the history of the world ; one 
 to become the greatest. England is preparing 
 for war and the colonies have raised the cry, 
 "Liberty or death." The people are divided, many deter- 
 mined to be loyal to the crown and to cast their fortune with 
 the strongest force. The Indian, to strike his dangerous 
 enemy who was crowding him out of his old haunts, was 
 ready to spill blood and apply the torch if he was paid and 
 protected. The people in the valley were ready to do their 
 share of fighting against the three powerful opponents to be 
 pitted against them. 
 
 The claim of an exercise of arbitrary government by 
 Great Britian was the principal cause of the revolution, 
 for since 1748, when England began to enforce her claim 
 the revolution had been brewing. France had constantly 
 excited a spirit of resistance in the colonies. These men 
 had not forgotten the circumstances under which their an- 
 cesters had left their homes. The growth of the spirit of 
 independence had led them to believe that complete separ- 
 ation from England was desirable and possible. The thick- 
 headed and narrow George the Third, who sat on the throne 
 for sixty years, and his bigoted and incompetent ministers, 
 widened the breach that finally became so wide that nothing 
 could hold the two countries together. After the Stamp 
 Act was passed in 1765, the Sons of Liberty was organized. 
 
30 ^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 The colonist refused to purchase EngHsh g;oods. The Bos- 
 ton massacre took place, and in 1773 the Boston tea party 
 was held. In 1774 the second colonial congress met in Phil- 
 adelphia and the result was that General Gage was sent 
 across the sea with a fleet and ten thousand soldiers, Paul 
 Revere and his famous ride and the War of the Revolution 
 was on. George Washington was appointed commander-in- 
 chief of the Federal troops, numbering fourteen thousand 
 five hundred volunteers. On July the fourth, at two o'clock 
 in the afternoon, 1776, the Declaration of Independence 
 was adopted, the King's Arms was torn down and burned 
 in the streets of Philadelphia. 
 
 The dark war cloud threw its shadow across these hills 
 and over this plain. It reached even to the most solitary 
 home, causing the most intense excitement and awakening 
 the spirit of patriotism in every heart. Men gathered to- 
 gether to discuss the news and to pick up every scrap of 
 information from the coast. There were few men in the val- 
 ley who were inexperienced in the trade of war or wished 
 to be away from the scene of conflict. After the first blow 
 was struck it was necessary that the war must be fought to 
 the end. Trouble rarely comes alone. At this time it ap- 
 pears as if all hades was let loose upon this isolated spot 
 unprotected by outside selp. Consequently the Connecti- 
 cut authorities acted a contemptible part. The old enemy 
 over the southern mountain sent Plunket with an army that 
 outnumbered the able-bodied men in the valley, and the 
 savages at Tioga Point became a menace. It is evident 
 that every man was needed at home, as there was trouble, 
 
'^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 31 
 
 and serious trouble looming' up in every direction. That 
 reptile of the revolution, the Tory, was spawned — the worst 
 and last pestilence to be contended with. 
 
 It is understood the Tories were settlers who came here 
 from New York, mostly settling- at the upper end of the 
 valley, probably compelled to, do so. It is supposed that they 
 persuaded John Butler to come here and strike the settle- 
 ment. 
 
 The ofifence that Connecticut committed against the peo- 
 ple was to forbid emigration here at the time of the great- 
 est need. 
 
 At this time, 1776, orders were given to form the 24th 
 regiment of Connecticut militia in Westmoreland. During 
 this year, the people invited the Indians to come here and 
 hold a council. Captain John spoke for the Indians and 
 Butler for the whites. The Indians proposed that they 
 come here and live with their white brother in peace. That 
 the savages wanted to put themselves in position to murder 
 the inhabitants was understood. 
 
 It became absolutely necessary that the people have 
 protection, and Congress stationed two companies here. 
 These companies were raised here, and were stationed one 
 on the west and the other on the east side of the river. 
 Among those who enlisted a squad of men was Matthias 
 Hollenback. Before the year was out Howe had driven 
 Washington out of New York into New Jersey. Washing- 
 ton was obliged to send for the Westmorland companies, 
 
32 '^he Story of Wyoming Valle}^. 
 
 presumably for only a short time. The people strengthened 
 their forts and sent scouts up the river to watch the In- 
 dians, under the charge of Lieut. John Jenkins, a surveyor 
 and the moderator of the great town meeting held previous 
 to this. He was captured by the Indians. The story of 
 his release by an Indian he contracted a friendship with 
 is interesting. During this period the people on the east 
 and west side contended to see if the public buildings for 
 the county should be located in Kingston or Wilkes-Barre. 
 The people on the east side won. 
 
 Vagabond Indians came prowling through the valley, the 
 squaws begging. These were supposed to be spies. A 
 man was shot up the river. All indications pointed to an 
 invasion from the north. The women petitioned and prayed 
 for the return of their natural protectors all in vain, for 
 the Continental army was in awful straits. These were 
 the darkest days and the most trying days in our history. 
 No one could see anything ahead except a final catastrophe, 
 when the wave beaten raft on which the seekers after liberty 
 were clinging would be torn apart, leaving the victims to the 
 mercy of what they feared as much as death itself. From 
 this distance it is evident how securely they were riding a 
 treacherous tide to the realization of more than the sur- 
 mounting of the difficulties that confronted them. Faith in 
 God was the rock on which the Puritan and his descend- 
 ants stood. This enduring faith was where the arm of 
 flesh raised against them failed and proved ineffectual. 
 
 The battle and massacre of Wyoming stands out in our 
 nation's history as one of the most important and unique 
 
all]p iBattlr m\h Massarrp nf UuimiiuQ. 
 
^he Story of Wyoming Valle}^. 33 
 
 events on record. The reason it has (gained so much fame 
 and Ulster is principally because the Yankee was astute 
 enough to make it advertise to the world the awful results 
 that came from the employment of savages to murder and 
 burn white people and practice their terrible methods of 
 warfare. The opportunity was not unimproved. It could 
 not have been used better by the expert advertisers of the 
 present. No similar attempt has met with such success. 
 All through the history of this country the press has served 
 the contestants as effectually as the armies in the field, and 
 often more so. If we had the accounts that were written 
 by these slick Yankees, and first published in Poughkeepsie, 
 and read them, we might fully comprehend how clever the 
 writers were. The awful story of our wrongs were read 
 all over the civilized world with pity and horror. The En- 
 glish people hung their heads in shame. Parliament refused 
 to appropriate money to continue the war. This fact places 
 the little fight up above Wyoming as one of the most im- 
 portant events of the War of the Revolution. 
 
 The Indian struck the individual and his battle-field was 
 the settlers' cabin. He was not a soldier, and that is why 
 his name is held as a synonym of all that is hateful to civi- 
 lized man. The crimes he committed here were no worse 
 than what he was guilty of all over the colonies. The 
 story that made such a sensation had an appropriate back- 
 ground that made the picture complete. 
 
 Looking over the names of the officers who commanded 
 the men at Wyoming we conclude they did not lack exper- 
 ience or ability. In fact the force was well officered. 
 
34 '^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 Zebulon Butler and Lazarus Stewart were experienced 
 men. They had fought in the war that had just closed and 
 Butler was here on furlow from the storm center of the 
 war that was being' waged for independence. Durkee and 
 Ransom, who reached the valley just in time to go into the 
 fight had also come here from the seat of war. Lieut. Col. 
 George Dorrance, Colonel Denison, and Major Garret, were 
 able officers. It must not be inferred that all the able-bodied 
 men were ofif to war. Nearly every one of the old families 
 of the valley was represented by one or more members. 
 By looking over tbe list of the men that were slain or that 
 escaped, this fact becomes apparent. 
 
 When it became known that Col. John Butler was up 
 near the state line preparing to make a descent upon the 
 settlers, companies were formed and the raw recruits drilled. 
 Every preparation was made and the people warned to 
 flee to the forts for protection. The enemy came down the 
 river to Bowman's Creek, then across the mountain to Fort 
 Wintermute. Here were the Jenkins, Harding, and Gard- 
 ner families. On June 30th the Harding massacre occurred. 
 Eight, men not aware of the presence of the enemy, had 
 gone to Exeter to work on their land. The Indians found 
 and attacked them. Wallace, Gardner and Car were taken 
 prisoners, two of the Hardings were killed and two of the 
 Hadsells. John Harding, a boy, hid in the water under the 
 bushes and escaped. Word of this tragedy came to the 
 valley on the first of July. Colonel Butler sent Lieut. Col. 
 Dorance and Colonel Denison with their companies up to 
 Exeter. They found two Indians on guard, whom they 
 
'Vhe Story of Wyoming Valley. 35 
 
 shot. Colonel Butler buried the men at Fort Jenkins, which 
 is now West Pittston. After Colonel Butler had returned to 
 Forty Fort the invaders took possession of Fort Winter- 
 mute. At this fort we have the record of one man, David 
 Ingersoll, who tried, unassisted, to fight the foe. The Tories 
 captured and bound him. In the evening- John Butler sent 
 a force up to fort Jenkins to capture it. There were seven- 
 teen old men to defend it. After four were killed and three 
 captured the rest surrendered. 
 
 On the morning of the second, John Butler sent his 
 prisoner, Gardner, with an escort to Forty Fort, to demand 
 that the fort and camp be surrendered. These demands 
 were refused. Friday, the third, the day of the fight, 
 Gardner with another white man and an Indian were again 
 sent. The settlers suspected the Indian and the white man 
 who escorted Gardner came to ascertain the strength of 
 .the fortification and the number of the defenders. 
 
 It is the blood-red letter day of our history. The fa- 
 mous cannon is booming at Fort Wilkes-Barre to warn the 
 settlers of the impending storm. There was a strange sight 
 witnessed that morning and the previous. Little and big 
 groups were hurrying from their homes hidden in the nooks 
 and corners, with bundles of provision and little else, to the 
 forts. Some probably brought a cow to supply the chil- 
 dren with milk, with now and then a horse to bear the 
 aged and sick. We refuse to let our thoughts dwell on the 
 scenes that occurred as each family left all they possessed. 
 The unwritten history of the past was enacted, and we care 
 not to reproduce it. All the families did not come, many 
 
36 '^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 of them lived in the lower end and off alon^ the foot of the 
 mountains. After the surrender of the fort, these families 
 went down the river in boats. Some of them may have re- 
 mained, or taken to the woods. At all the places of defence 
 a few old men and boys remained. Captain Blanchard was 
 at the fort at Pittston with a small company. Spauldin^ who 
 was cominis;' with help from the seat of war was forty miles 
 away. 
 
 We wish we had a good picture of the council that 
 Colonel Butler held, the mornino- of the third, with his 
 officers. By invitation he had assumed command. There 
 were several army officers at this council and in the fight 
 that served as privates. Bii;tler and Stewart appear to 
 have had the most authority. Butler counciled staying in 
 the fort and Stewart vigorously insisted going to meet the 
 enemy. Denison and Dorrance advised waiting, hoping 
 Spaulding would come. Stewart had the majority with 
 him, while the most level-headed were with Butler ; but the 
 latter, against "his better judgment consented to lead the 
 men out. As we can not tell what the outcome would have 
 been if they had remained in the fort, we cannot pass judg- 
 ment on the decision. 
 
 There were six irregular companies in the fort. These 
 were from Hanover, Plymouth, Wilkes-Barre and Kings- 
 ton, mostly raw recruits. There were 230 men enrolled, 
 the rest being civil magistrates, old men, boys, and other 
 volunteers. This force marched out to engage the enemy 
 five miles away, late in the afternoon. Half an hour after 
 
^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 37 
 
 they departed, Captains Diirkee and Pierce came riding up 
 to the fort, having left Spaulding in the swamp, when they 
 learned that the men were on their way to meet the enemy. 
 They hurried to join them and were killed. 
 
 As the little army approached Wyoming they saw the 
 flames ascending from Fort Wintermute. Colonel But- 
 ler sent four of his officers ahead to select a spot and mark 
 off the ground on which to form the order of battle. The 
 spot selected was on the upper flat, the steep bank on the 
 right and the swamp on the left. We infer that the place 
 was more or less open. The beautiful afternoon sunshine 
 flooded the place, the repose of a summer's day making the 
 scene as peaceful and sweet as a child's sleep. The men 
 were formed in battle lines, the companies of Gore and 
 Hewitt on the right. Colonel Butler, Colonel Bidlack and 
 Major Garret supported this wing. Colonel Denison, sup- 
 ported by Lieut, Col. George Dorrance, commanded the 
 left wing with Captain Whittsley on the extreme left. But- 
 ler made a brief address. He said : "Men, yonder is the 
 enemy. The fate of the Hardings tell us what we may ex- 
 pect if we are defeated. We came out to fight, not only for 
 liberty, but for life itself, and what is dearer, to preserve 
 our homes from conflagration and our women and children 
 from the tomahawk. Stand firm the first shock and the In- 
 dians will give way. Every man to his duty." Colonel 
 Butler ordered his columns to display. They marched up to 
 the right. The left of the enemy's forces rested on Fort 
 Wintermute, which w'as in flames. 
 
 Col. Zebulon Butler ordered his men to fire and then 
 take a step ahead. Then the inspiring and blood-stirring 
 
38 '^he Story of Wyoming Valley^. 
 
 report of guns rang- out all along- the line. Blood began to 
 flow and the cold hand of death began to claim its victims. 
 A continuous stream of lead was poured into the columns of 
 men before them. They could not face the fire and began to 
 fall back. Behind the steep bank on the right, between 
 the upper and lower flats, a party of Indians were pouring 
 into our exposed men a destructive fire. The indians on the 
 left began firing. The fight grew fierce, the indians started 
 their fearful yell which was answered by the Indians on the 
 other side. This appeared to be a signal for a rush. The 
 fight had continued for a half-hour. From out of the swamp 
 the Indians came with a yell. On they came like fiends, 
 rushed into the left wing of their foes and cut them ofif. 
 Every soldier knew that the battle had ended and a hand to 
 hand struggle for life was before them. An attempt of 
 Denison to turn the left wing to face the red men in the 
 rear completely failed. The primitive, one-man fight, 
 was on. Colonel B'utler recklessly rushed up and down in 
 front of his men urging them to stand firm. It was useless. 
 The officers on the right knew the day was lost, as they 
 could see the Indians sixty rods in their rear and the awful 
 havoc they were creating. The drummers were ordered to 
 strike up and the officers refused to give the order to re- 
 treat. Soon every captain had fallen. The rear of the 
 army broke away, the Indians after them. As they could not 
 g:o down the valley they moved towards the river, fighting 
 and falling as they went. The main body followed them. 
 The fight continued as they retreated and was fierce and 
 bloody in the extreme. Many escaped toward Monockasy 
 Island. The flight across the lower flats made that place 
 
'Vhe Story of Wyoming Valley. 39 
 
 the scene of an aopalling- horror. Nearly two hundred men 
 fled down the valley. The rank .^rass was stained with 
 blood axid many fell and were scalped. The men that 
 reached the river plunged in, some of them to be shot from 
 the shore. 
 
 This part of our history is not clear. We learn that 
 Colonel Butler and seventeen men escaped to the mountains, 
 that fourteen men were taken prisoners by the Indians to 
 be the victims of the bloody O'ueen in the evening. Where 
 were the rest? The next day we find Colonel Denison 
 surrendering the fort to John Butler. Then we have all the 
 rest left to our disposal. Just what hapened the main force 
 after they began the retreat we can only imagine, as they 
 were behind the Indians, they could escape. We are told 
 they fled instead of wiselv surrendering to the Canadians. 
 Out of 300, some authorities say, only 165 were found to 
 be killed or missing. We have the impression in reading the 
 account of the flight across the lower flats to the river that 
 the whole force was flying with the Indians after them 
 and striking the most of them down. This was not so. 
 We also read that with the one hundred women and children 
 fleeing over the mountain there was only a few old men. 
 During all the journey through the swamp, there is no indi- 
 cation that any of the nearly two hundred men who had 
 escaoed had joined them. Where were they? 
 
 The upper and lower flats are strewn with dead, and dead 
 bodies are floating down the river in sight of the people on 
 the bank. 
 
40 '^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 Men hid under the bushes in the water; some swam 
 down the river with bullets striking around them, others 
 crawled under rocks and in hollow logs, some ran as long 
 as their legs would carry them. They went across the moun- 
 tains, down the valley, anywhere to escape. They 
 were desperately frightened, as well they might be, for 
 all who did not speedily put themselves out of reach of 
 the Indians' spears, tomahawks, and scalping knives, were 
 murdered without mercy. The individual tragedies on the 
 river and island were as fearful as those on the plain, while 
 those taken prisoners had to face and suffer a fiendish death. 
 
 The picture we have of the scene at Wyoming in the 
 evening epitomizes the manner in which the Indian gratified 
 his revenge and hatred of the white man. It may be exag- 
 gerated, but it is quite probable that it fails to convey to our 
 mind an adequate conception of what occurred. The numer- 
 ous assaults that were made upon the scattered homes of 
 the valley and in other sections, were as fearful and similar 
 only on a smaller scale. We refuse to turn this picture with 
 its face to the wall. It is indelibly engraven on the minds 
 of the civilized world and will remain. 
 
 The Indians planned to celebrate the victory they had 
 won. Not a victory for the British, but for themselves. 
 They had more scores to settle than their white friends. 
 They always celebrated their victories with a dance, when 
 they tormented and tortured their victims. This was a 
 natural way, all humanity having the same instinct and a 
 proclivity to do it in the same manner. 
 
^Ae Story of Wyoming Valley. 41 
 
 A fire was built on the level plain. The prisoners were 
 brou.8:ht within the center, where they could witness the de- 
 light and feel the hatred of their tormentors. They knew 
 how to get up a dramatic scene of the most fearful and spec- 
 tacular character. The one at Wyoming was complete in 
 every particular. The Indian was dressed for the occasion. 
 The scalps were gloated over. They struck up their awful 
 music and performed their grotesque dance. They shouted, 
 whooped and grinned, the scene becoming a wild carnival 
 that filled the hearts of the savages with delight. They knew 
 that on the morrow they could turn themselves loose and 
 plunder and burn without restraint. They come to the val- 
 ley for revenge and plunder, and their day had come. They 
 were wild men and this was their reward. Let us pass over 
 the fate of the victims that sufifered and were left mutilated 
 and lifeless when the orgie was over. Queen Esther had 
 presided and the death maul had done its work. The men 
 who escaped at that time give us a good description that 
 leaves little for the imagination. 
 
 The man that was held in abhorance and designated by 
 the settlers a Tory, was sipping the honey of revenge. No 
 words can describe how he was hated, and history does not 
 give us a record of what he sufifered or of the wrongs he 
 endured. This valley was not a paradise for him. He was 
 an enemy, an enemy that had no place to live unmolested 
 unless he left this region. He was often helped to leave, 
 and the hands that helped him are liable to handle him 
 roughly. It is said that seventy of them were in the center 
 of Capt. John Butler's line of battle. There is every reason 
 
42 
 
 "^i^e Story of Wyoming Valle}). 
 
 to believe that those who had gone to Canada instigated 
 the invasion and that those at Tioga joined the company and 
 came back to see and help annihilate their enemy. They 
 thought after the fight pleasant thoughts and planned to re- 
 turn, with interest, all that the settlers had coming to them. 
 Everybody at the upper end of the valley were overjoyed 
 except the men hiding in the forest. 
 
^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 43 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 jHEN THE SHADES of evening fell the old 
 repose rested over the plain. The longest day 
 will pass and become only a memory. There 
 could be no repose for the people at the fort. 
 The Indians do not leave their victims to 
 suffer or to survive to drag out a miserable existence. 
 The men stretched out on the flats were sleeping secure 
 from the ills of life. At the fort there was no rest. In the 
 evening Capt. John Franklin arrived with a company of 
 thirty men from Salem and Huntington. Men had escaped 
 from the fight with fearful tidings of the conflict. These 
 had eager listeners to their tale of woe. The women must 
 be protected, they proposed to defend themselves. This con- 
 clusion was as impracticable as their plan to bring the cannon 
 from Wilkes-Barre. It might have made a noise, but as 
 they had no ball for it, it could not serve any other purpose. 
 
 Every woman was wondering if her husband, son, 
 brother or father was alive or dead. No one could know 
 whether they had occasion to weep or rejoice. After all 
 they had passed through, this night must have dragged its 
 length intermainably long, as they bitterly thought of the 
 morrow. Evil news has swift wings, for when the morning 
 began to cast a glow in the east men who had come in and 
 reported that the people who were not in the fort were 
 getting ' ut of the valley as fast as possible, down the river 
 and acr. s the mountain. The next thing before them was 
 to wait r John Butler and put up with what followed. 
 
44 '^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 John Butler and Colonel Denison met that morning in 
 the Myers homestead, near the fort, and agreed upon the 
 terms of surrender. Life and property were to be respected 
 and the Tories were to be allowed to return and peacebly 
 occupy their land. John Butler was a portly, good-natured 
 man about forty-five. He admitted that he could not re- 
 strain the Indians from burning and plundering. The In- 
 dians began at once to show their independence of author- 
 ity by helping themselves to everything they wanted and 
 even commanding Colonel Denison to part with some of his 
 belongings, which they coveted. Nearly every home became 
 a torch. We will refer to an account, written in 1828, by 
 Col. John Franklin, and published in the Towanda Repub- 
 lican. 
 
 This writer informs us that all the able-bodied men were 
 not at Valley Forge with Washington, and that all the 
 women and children went over the mountain through the 
 shades of death. The awful pall that we find enshrouding 
 all the other accounts is missing, for we feel the presence of 
 live, vigorous men. Our histories are so melancholy that 
 when we read them an old ghost moons about in our imag- 
 ination like a lost soul in nowhere land. Colonel Franklin's 
 account of the reasons why the men met the enemy makes it 
 evident that it was feared that the invaders would burn the 
 homes and drive off the stock and leave the valley without 
 any opposition. The version he gives of the Queen Esther 
 episode is irreconcilable with the standard story. He says 
 a body of men, numbering fifteen or twenty, had rushed 
 into the river after the fight. The Indians and Tories ap- 
 peared on the bank and promised that if they would return 
 
*^/je Story of Wyoming Valley. 45 
 
 they would not be harmed. They swam back. Tliey were 
 placed in a circle with an Indian behind each man, then 
 Queen Esther went around the circle with an Indian death 
 maul and brained them all except one or two men, who 
 broke away and escaped. He repeats the assertion that the 
 opposing- force outnumbered our men more than two to one, 
 that there were 700 Indians, 400 Canadian troops and 70 
 Tories, yet it is more than likely that John Butler's official 
 report was correct, in which he states that his force all told 
 did not number over five hundred men. Colonel Franklin 
 tells that a large number of the soldiers surrendered on the 
 battle field and were afterwards inhumanly murdered. 
 When he states that Col. John Butler did not stay long at 
 Forty Fort, but crossed over the river with his men, went 
 down to Wilkes-Barre, and in a few days left to draw the 
 savages out of the valley, as they were burning up the homes 
 in every direction, as well as driving off the cattle, it is 
 evident he knew personally some facts in his statement. 
 
 The well-worn road leading from the valley to Strouds- 
 burg, a distance of seventy miles, at that time led through 
 a dense forest and dangerous swamps, very appropriately 
 called the "Shades of Death." This was the highway to 
 the east. After the disaster at Abram's Plain, the women 
 and children began their long and toilsome journey over this 
 road for home. They may have all gone together or they 
 may have gone in separate companies. In all the forts there 
 were men and women with a guard of some kind. All may 
 not have sought refuge or went far away at the time of the 
 exodus. The large number of men that escaped from the 
 field undoubtedly hunted up their families as soon as 
 possible. 
 
46 '^i^e Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 The picture we have of the fli^^ht is one that represents 
 the Hmit of human suffering and fortitude. If the victims 
 were not women and children we could appropriately call 
 it hades. The hardships of frontier life had hardened them, 
 otherwise they could not have accomplished the journey 
 and endured the hardships. They had left all they had 
 behind them, yet they were of that race that nothing daunts, 
 that nothing can subdue. 
 
 The old pewter dishes were buried by the people before 
 they left their homes, and other objects of value. This in- 
 dicates that they expected to return. When the exiles 
 reached New England, most of them hired out until they 
 could return. They were real aristocrats maintaining them- 
 selves by their own exertion, and fighting their own battles. 
 As the long procession winds its way through the gloomy 
 forest, we like to think them cheerful, and that they sympa- 
 thized with each other. They were neighbors and friends. 
 These things went a long way and helped to keep their cour- 
 age up. 
 
 The environments and the circumstances are so unfamil- 
 iar to us as to make it impossible for us to picture the 
 pathetic incidents of the journey. A mother carrying her 
 dead child for miles, births and deaths under the circum- 
 stances, and the hardships of the forced march are things 
 that appear to us only indistinct and blotted pictures. 
 
 Spaulding and his men turned about when news reached 
 them of the defeat of their neighbors, and Franklin returned 
 to his home. The dead lay where they fell, wet by the dew, 
 
'^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 47 
 
 and fanned by the breeze, until September. The summer 
 days went by without a thought of v;hat was taking place 
 or of the bloody tragedy of the near past. John Butler went 
 back north to wear the laurels he had won, the Tories to 
 hug themselves for joy as they thought how secure they 
 were in the advantage they had gained. Alas, they did not 
 know the stony and thorny path they had traveled would 
 be a flower-strewn way in comparison to the path before 
 them. The Indian strutted before the admiring squaws 
 as he exhibited the scalps he had taken and the goods he 
 had brought back. He probably had not heard the name of 
 Sullivan. He would hear and feel him in the future. Their 
 beautiful villages would be wiped out. They would be 
 hunted out of the country and in a few years take up their 
 long journey towards the setting sun. The men who had 
 fled in every direction on the fatal day were rounding them- 
 selves up ; they were hunting up their families and planning 
 to come back and come to stay. Those who stick, win. 
 
 The crops are growing without their care-takers to cul- 
 tivate or gather them ; the rabbit plays around the charred 
 remains of the homes and the summer breezes carry the 
 sweet odors across the man-deserted fields. 
 
 We think about the poor frightened people out in the wil- 
 derness — visions of the mother, gathering her brood about 
 her in the lonely forest at night, trying to bind up their sore 
 feet, quiet their fears and make them comfortable as they 
 stretch out their tired bodies to sleep. How fearfully tired 
 they must have been. It is a satisfaction to think of them 
 out of reach of the enemy they held in unspeakable dread. 
 
4^ '^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 It is quiet in the valley now. Here and there a stray animal 
 is wandering- about unheeded, or a rooster crowing on a 
 shed and wondering what is the matter. A strange land 
 was this, the Indians gone, and the white man vanished. 
 No wonder that a masterless hound howls in his lonliness 
 with something akin to a human voice wailing in dispair. 
 
 Never mind mother, never mind little one without 
 enough to eat, you will come back over this road some sweet 
 day. You, mother, will watch your children play about your 
 house in the beautiful valley, for the Father of us all has 
 you in the hollow of his hand and is working out human 
 destiny for the highest ends. The bleaching bones will be 
 gathered up and decently buried before the snow falls. In 
 the future many will honor their memory and pity the 
 sufiferers. The hidden lives you lead and your sad story will 
 be told and a wreath of immortals will be woven for you. 
 
 Evening has fallen over the fields. The evening star 
 shines bright and beautiful over Ross Hill, the moon is ris- 
 ing over the Pocono. Lovely night you hide from our sight 
 the cruelty of man to man. 
 
(ipitpptt lEstltpr. 
 
^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 49 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 NUMBER OF the old settlers had experiences 
 as interesting^ and as unusual as any we find 
 in the novels that captivated us v^hen we 
 reveled in tales of adventures and stories 
 reeking- with blood. There are a great many 
 such tales historically true in which members of old fami- 
 lies were the actors. 
 
 The incident known as Inman's nap has two or more 
 versions. The most popular one is the following : "Richard 
 Inman started with the Hanover company up the valley the 
 day of the battle. At every house they stopped they im- 
 bibed liquid refreshments. Inman filled a bottle so that 
 he could have something between visits. The old man could 
 not carry his load, so he lay down. The battle was fought 
 and lost and men were getting out of harm's way. Lazarus 
 Butler was urging his horse along when he came upon 
 Rufus Bennet, who was pursued by an Indian. Bennet 
 caught on to the tail of the Colonel's horse, and away they 
 went. The fleet footed savage had nearly overtaken them 
 when Bennet saw Inman sitting up, rubbing his eyes. 'Sboot 
 that Indian !' Bennet cried. The old hunter swung his rifle 
 to his shoulder without getting up and dropped the Indian 
 as quick as he had often shot a deer on the run. 
 
 Four of Richard Inman's brothers were in the battle ; 
 two were killed. One swam the river in his flight, and being- 
 overheated, died. Two much whiskey probably saved the 
 life of Richard as well as that of Rufus Bennet. Another 
 
50 '^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 brother the next winter thought he heard the call of a wild 
 turkey. He took his gun and went after it. The next spring 
 his body was found scalped by the Indians that had deceived 
 him. The Inmans became known as Indian killers and 
 squared up with them with interest. One of the Inmans 
 had notches in the stock of his rifle to tally the number he 
 kihed. 
 
 Roswell Franklin hated the Indians and was feared and 
 hated by them. First they came and carried away his son 
 and a nephew, after destroying his crops. A year later, 
 when he was away, they came and carried away his wife 
 and four children and went up the river with them. Frank- 
 lin hurried up from Hanover to Wilkes-Barre, secured the 
 assistance of eight men, and cut across the mountains and 
 came to their route in advance of the party. They hid and 
 waited. A fierce fight followed. The wife and the chil- 
 dren lay flat on the ground and the fighting was done over 
 their heads. Mrs. Franklin raised up and. was shot. Finally 
 the children got up and ran to the rescuing party. Most of 
 the Indians were killed. History speaks' of "Franklin's 
 oath," for he swore vengeance upon his enemies then and 
 there. 
 
 Mrs. Zebulan Marcy started across the mountains with 
 the refugees with a babe six weeks old in her arms, and a 
 little child just able to walk, that she led. The infant died 
 on the way. One account says she covered it with leaves 
 and left it, and another account that she carried it many 
 miles to the first settlement, near Stroudsburg, where the 
 people did everything they could to provide for their com- 
 fort. 
 
^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 51 
 
 It is interesting' to note the fact that a colored man by 
 the name of Gerson Prince fell at the battle of Wyoming. 
 He was born in slavery and had served as servant of an 
 ofificer. We are not to forget that this section was at one 
 time more intensely slave territory than Virginia. 
 
 The story of Stephen Abbott is typical of very many 
 others. He had nine small children. He went to the battle 
 and escaped, taking his family down the river, as many of 
 the men who escaped did. Later on he came back to see 
 if he could secure any of his harvest. While getting his 
 grain in, with the assistance of another man, they were 
 ambushed and killed. 
 
 ]\Irs. Abbott went back east, traveling the nearly three 
 hundred miles depending on the exhausted charity of the 
 people along the way. When the children grew up they re- 
 turned and claimed the patrimonial land at Mill Creek. The 
 mother also lived to return. Many of the settlers secured 
 more or less of their crops. 
 
 Samuel Carey was captured after the battle by some In- 
 dians under a chief known as Capt. Roland Monttire. He 
 was taken to Fort Mintermute where a young Indian, who 
 was mortally wounded, was dying. Young Carey was given 
 an Indian name, painted and dressed as a savage, taken to 
 the Indian country and adopted by the family. They tried to 
 make the stranger take the place of their dead son, and found 
 little consolation for their loss in that way. There was often 
 a lack of food and much suffering from the cold. Two 
 
52 '^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 years later Carey returned home, as peace had been declared. 
 The Indians carried many captives from here to Niagara, 
 as they could find a market for them there. 
 
 The story of Frances Slocum is unmatched in history in 
 a few particulars. It might be called classic. This won- 
 derful little story of a life throws a false glamor over the 
 Indian and blinds us to the real misfortune of this white 
 woman who became an Indian in every particular except in 
 race. Her neatness and cleanliness, we claim, indicated her 
 origin, yet the Indian is very neat in all that he fashions 
 for personal adornment. We have a picture of the Indians, 
 the morning after the battle, at Fort Wintermute, scraping 
 the scalps they had taken and stretching then on hoops. 
 Little Frances was taken the second of November, the mas- 
 sacre having occurred in July. As there were only twenty- 
 three houses in the town before the Indians burned all but 
 three, the Slocums had but few neighbors. The people were 
 coming back from every direction and depended upon the 
 forts for shelter and protection. John Slocum's house, we 
 gather, had stood the storm. As the Indians had considered 
 him their friend, they had promised him protection. He 
 was a member of the Society of Friends. When they learned 
 that one of his sons was in the battle and was killed, and 
 that he had taken in the family of a neighbor that fell in the 
 fight, they regarded him as a traitor. A month after they 
 had taken the daughter, they returned and killed him. Mr. 
 Slocum was absent when the visitors came. On the porch 
 they killed the boy that was staying there. Then they en- 
 tered without knocking, for even a friendly Indian walks hi 
 
'^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 53 
 
 unannounced. They took into custody a young son who 
 was lame, then they picked up the pretty little red-headed 
 Frances and stalked out. They also took a little colored boy. 
 We have the scene of the mother pleading for her child 
 as the little one reaches back for her mother to take her. The 
 curtain drops for sixty years. The father and mother are 
 long since dead. The scrap in a paper sent by a trader is 
 read by relatives in Wilkes-Barre, and they go out to In- 
 diana. The Indian village they come to is not a cluster of 
 teppes, the houses are log, and the Indians living quite like 
 white people, and associating with them. Frances is an old 
 squaw, her family married, one of her daughters the wife 
 of a protestant preacher. Civilization had come her way too 
 late. All they found dififerent than in any other squaw were 
 the family features and a few recollections of her childhood. 
 The old woman wisely said no to all their entreaties, saying 
 "I am an old tree and cannot be transplanted." They 
 brought an artist who painted her picture. She sits dressed 
 Indian-fashion, and makes a very striking picture. It is 
 certain there is no painting in the valley that is more inter- 
 esting. We are told that she came to the station with her 
 visitors, and while waiting for the train, rolled herself in her 
 blanket, lay down on tbe platform and went to sleep. It 
 is also told that the chief that stole her made a pet of her on 
 the journey up the river, provided her with Indian play- 
 things and decorated her as he would a favorite daughter. 
 This is the story given by our various writers. 
 
 The story of the capture of Frances Slocum, as told by 
 Mrs. Bethia Jenkins, a friend and neighbor of Mrs. Slocum, 
 is as follows, and contributed by Mrs. Mary Reichart of 
 
54 '^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 Florida : "Frances and her mother were standing in a door- 
 way, when an Indian came along with a little boy on his 
 shoulder. The boy was Mrs. Slocum's son (Joseph, I be- 
 lieve), and was lame. Mrs. Slocum pushed Frances behind 
 the door, bidding her to stay there, and accosted the Indian, 
 asking him to give her the boy, 'See, he is lame,' she said, 
 'he will be of no use to you, give him to me.' Tliis pleading 
 went on for some time, and in the meantime the mother, in 
 her anxiety to rescue her son, quite forgot Frances, who, 
 in childish curiosity, had come from behind the door and 
 stood a little back from beside her mother, and so was un- 
 perceived by her. After a time of parleying with the Indian, 
 he suddenly set the boy down by his mother and in the same 
 moment took Frances upon his shoulder and carried her 
 away. Mrs. Slocum, in realizing this, would weepingly say, 
 'If only the boy had been taken instead of Frances, how 
 much better I could bear it.' Her thought was that a boy's 
 fate in captivity would be less pitiable than that of a girl." 
 
 The adventure of Benjamin Bidlack, another Kingston 
 man, is the first touch of humor in the story of the valley, and 
 this was serious humor. The Bidlacks have left a fine record 
 behind them. To jumble up a foolish song we might say: 
 "They could fight and they could pray, and were the bright- 
 est and best men of their day." Ogden captured Benjamin 
 and made him a prisoner in the fort at Sunbury. Benjamin 
 like Paul and Silas, sang in prison. He sang so well that 
 he was brought out to amuse the officers. They did not 
 know Beiijamin or they would not have given him all the 
 room he wanted to act his song of "The Swaggering Man." 
 
"^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 55 
 
 The sing-er swaggered and sang until he had enlarged his 
 circle sufficiently to bring him near the stockade that encir- 
 cled the yard. Then he shouted, "Here goes the swaggering 
 man." Over the fence he went, leaving a lot of silly looking 
 officers to swear at each other for their stupidity. Very 
 often old ladies in their white caps and old men around the 
 open fire place have told these stories to the rising gener- 
 ation. There is one other story that has all the elements in 
 it that delights the imagination of youth and quickens the 
 pulse of any who have warm blood in their veins. Philiy) 
 Hunter went hunting with an Indian. He suspected that 
 the Indian was planning to kill him. They agreed to meet 
 at a certain time. Hunter returned to the tree before the 
 time and hung his hat on a stick and put it so it would de- 
 ceive the Indian. When the savage returned he saw what 
 he supposed the head of his companion, and put a ball 
 through the hat. Hunter stepped out and leveled his rifle 
 at the would-be murderer's breast. The savage threw open 
 his hunting jacket to indicate he was ready to have justice 
 meted' out to him. 
 
 The following incident is the finest of the lot to the mind 
 of most boys. Several men and a boy were captured and 
 were being taken away. The party encamped for the night, 
 the men were securely bound, the boy was put under the 
 blanket of a chief, and slept by his side unbound., An In- 
 dian sat on a log to act as a guard while the rest slept. The 
 boy could see out from under the blanket that the guard was 
 fast asleep ; he could hear the rest of the party snoring. 
 The chief's knife was next the boy. This he withdrew cau- 
 
56 '^he Story of Wyoming Valle\). 
 
 tionsly and cut the cords of the man next to him. This man 
 freed the rest of the prisoners. After they removed the 
 guns from the sides of the Indians, they each stood over an 
 Indian and all at the same time struck an Indian's skull. 
 The Indians that were not killed jumped up, one was shot, 
 the rest ran away. As they ran one of the men threw a 
 tomahawk and buried it in the back of an Indian. Some 
 years afterwards an Indian was seen at a gathering^ of the 
 whites who had a lame back. He was asked how he hurt 
 his shoulder, and replied that a white man struck him with 
 a tomahawk. 
 
 There are enough stories of adventures to make a large 
 book. The men, women and children taken into captivity 
 suffered cold, hunger, as well fatigue of long forced 
 marches. Many of them were sold at Niagara, after suffer- 
 ing the most cruel abuse at the hands of the Tories at that 
 place. Some escaped, having a hard time to get back. Very 
 often they died of exposure or were overtaken and killed. 
 
 Artist Shuscell, former president of the Philadelphia 
 Academy of Fine Arts, painted a picture that represents a 
 scene not unusual. A young woman is bound to a tree, the 
 young Indians are shooting arrows to see how close they can 
 come to her without hitting her. A few old squaws are 
 gathered about her, gloating over her sufferings, and the 
 children stare at her with their dark eyes in which there is 
 no pity. The old Indians sit around smoking and the war- 
 riors stand watching their victim, pleased with the spectacle. 
 The fire to burn her is already blazing. This burning at the 
 
'^he Story of Wyoming Valle}). 57 
 
 stake was not a mode of torture learned from the whites, 
 we believe it to be an old practice. There are methods of tor- 
 ture the white man could have taught them more horrible. 
 The Indian was an economist, for he endeavored to do as 
 much harm as he could with the least exposure. Conse- 
 quently he generally waited until the men were out of reach, 
 then he could attack the women and children, knowing in 
 this way he could bring the worst possible suffering to his 
 enemy. There are some things, in their treatment of their 
 captive women, that they were never guilty of, and the In- 
 dian deserves credit for this. Old Chief Mintum com- 
 plained, when he came to Fort Augusta with his children, 
 that the white people debauched them. He was not the only 
 Indian who had reason to complain. The Indian holds the 
 marriage relation sacred, and is not as immoral as a bad 
 white man. The whiskey the white man taught him to 
 drink proved to be as fatal to him as the white man's rifle. 
 
 On the road down the valley below our city there is a 
 memorial to mark the spot where the two Jameson brothers 
 and Ash Chapman were attacked by the Indians. They were 
 going from their homes in Hanover township on horseback 
 to Wilkes-Barre. Near the Hanover Green John Jameson 
 was shot, being hit by three balls. Ash Chapman and his 
 horse were both wounded. The horse turned and went 
 home. Chapman died the next day. Benjamin Jameson's 
 horse carried him out of danger. John Jameson had just 
 married Abigal Alden, a descendent of the John Alden who 
 tried to court Priscilla Mullin by proxy away back in the 
 early days. There is a large oil painting in the Historical 
 
58 'Tjhe Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 rooms representing- this scene. It was painted by George 
 Porter, artist, preacher, and writer, a man of genius and one 
 of the greatest in the history of this valley. 
 
 Within the last few days a monument lias been erected 
 to honor the memory of John Abbott and Isaac Williams 
 at Parsons. William Penn Abbott, a decendant, became one 
 of the ablest preachers of the country. We can consider 
 him as one of the greatest men this valley has among those 
 we are to hold in remembrance. 
 
 All tbe forts and other spots where a tragedy took place 
 on the great battle field that covers the entire valley have 
 been marked by monuments erected by Daughters of the 
 American Revolution. There are many old families who 
 need to have some visible evidence placed in view to declare 
 to the world the service they rendered in the past. A build- 
 ing is a valuable memorial, yet the direct memorial should 
 be placed. There is little doubt that in the course of time all 
 those who deserve public and permanent recognition will re- 
 ceive it. 
 
 Tradition tells us that Toby's cave, named after an In- 
 dian chief of that name, was the refuge of some men fleeing 
 from the Indians. The cave entrance is so small that the 
 defenders could brain any who dared to crawl in. 
 
 Campbell's Ledge has a tradition tbat a horseman named 
 Campbell rode ofif this high precipice to escape the Indians 
 that were pursuing him. In late years much interest is be- 
 ing manifested toward everything that pertains to the his- 
 tory of this region. 
 
'^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 59 
 
 Some have traced the road that General SulHvan cut 
 through the forest. The historical rooms are the repository 
 of many things of interest. This scribe does not know what 
 became of the one cannon that was so much in evidence and 
 boomed out the dreaded summons of the settlers to fly to the 
 forts for protection. 
 
 Hardly one of the old log houses is left, and the old flint 
 .lock has become scarce. We have many Indian relics, 
 spears, tomahawks, scalping knives and arrow heads, as 
 well as pottery. It may occur to the reader to ask, how 
 could the Indians manage to handle a spear, a rifle and a 
 tomahawk at the same time ; they evidently used all these 
 weapons at the battle of Wyoming. The man without a gun 
 may have carried the spear. 
 
 The Frenchman would fraternize with the Indians and 
 live among them. The Englishman was more particular 
 about his company. It is evident that many of the Indians 
 became well acquainted with the whites, and there was more 
 or less familiarity of a social character. We recognize the 
 fact that after the battle Indians were a constant menace to 
 every family, and many sufifered at their hands. A bounty 
 was put on the scalp of an Indian, and Indian scalps became 
 of commercial value. It is not pleasant to think of our 
 fathers raising hair for a living. 
 
 The following was furnished by Miary Culver Evans : 
 
 "The true story of James Bird. Before the battle of 
 Lake Erie, James Bird called on a drafted man, and found 
 
6o '^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 his wife and children crying around him. Bird told him 
 that he would take his place. He joined the Wyoming vol- 
 unteers under Captain Thomas. When wounded and or- 
 dered by Perry to 'leave the deck,' Bird refused and kept on 
 fighting until victory had been won. For his bravery Bird 
 was honored among the soldiers, which excited the jealousy 
 of a young lieutenant. The war was ended, Perry had gone. 
 Bird was tired of inaction, and he and„ a young man named 
 Rankin left to join Jackson in New Orleans, they were pur- 
 sued, brought back, court martialed and sentenced to be shot, 
 the lieutenant doing all he could to hasten on the execution. 
 Parties had gone on horseback to the governor for a re- 
 prieve, obtained it, and were riding back, and were within 
 hearing distance, when Bird and Rankin were shot. Hence 
 the song of the late Hon. Charles Miner, 'Spare him; hark! 
 O God! they've shot him,' etc. After their execution the 
 lieutenant was afraid to stay in his room at night for fear of 
 Bird's ghost, and ordered a guard to stay with him. The 
 second night he committed suicide. I have the story from 
 the late James A. Gordon, who visited Lake Erie shortly 
 after the execution, and saw the three graves, those of Bird, 
 Rankin and the lieutenant." In this connection the follow- 
 ing verses may be of interest. It is entitled: 
 
 THE WYOMING VOLUNTEERS. 
 
 BY ALE^XANDER LORD, DRUMMER (1815). 
 
 'Twas when the flames of cruel war 
 Consumed our brethren in the West, 
 
 Wyoming felt the cruel scar 
 
 Which long had stung her tender breast. 
 
'^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 6i 
 
 She cried, "are all our heroes slain ? 
 
 Are there none left my heart to cheer ?" 
 Yes, there's a brave, heroic band 
 
 Will be Wyoming Volunteers. 
 
 Wyoming shed a gracious smile, 
 
 To find she had true partiot blood, 
 Who dare brave danger, war and toil. 
 
 Their only aim their country's good. 
 She gladly sees them gathering 'round 
 
 Their manly *chief, whom they revere, 
 Saying, "We will surely grant relief 
 
 Or die, Wyoming Volunteers." 
 
 Then quick they form their march in line, 
 
 And bend their course o'er Ross' Hill, 
 In martial splendor, neatly shine. 
 
 And. rattling music loud and shrill. 
 Now view them in the western clime, 
 
 Paraded in the front of war ; 
 Through marshy fens, o'er boisterous lakes, 
 
 Mingling with true Columbian tars. 
 
 They drive the savage from his hold. 
 
 And cause proud Albion's host to fear; 
 Do mighty deeds, with courage bold. 
 
 Like brave Wyoming volunteers. 
 When they returned to tread the soil 
 
 Of sweet Wyoming, happy rest ! 
 She hailed them with a gracious smile, 
 
 And felt herself supremely blest. , ^ 
 
62 '^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 Yet missed she one unhappy youth, 
 
 Thoug^h brave as war's hard fate severe, 
 Unia^ratefully erased his name 
 
 From the roll of life and the Volunteers. 
 In desperate strife the foe he faced, 
 
 His dauntless deeds, his name endears ; 
 And never shall his name be 'rased 
 
 From the memory of the Volunteers. 
 
 No, never will Bird be forgot, 
 
 By the Drummer of the Volunteers. 
 *Capt. Thomas. 
 
 Some places of interest in the valley are : 
 
 MONOCKONOCK ISLAND. 
 
 On the west side of the Susquehanna. It was here 
 that the Tory John killed his brother, Henry Pencil, who 
 had fled to this island from the savages. John afterwards 
 went to Canada, and was killed by wolves. The Indians 
 said, "He bad man, killed his brother." 
 
 toby's eddy. 
 Named for an Indian, of that name. Toby's Creek 
 empties into the Susquehanna on the west side. Toby's cave 
 is in the vicinity. It is a beautiful spot, but by the Delaware, 
 Lackawanna and Bloomsburg Railroad passing through it, 
 its old-time beauty was destroyed. 
 
 ZINZINDORF HILIv. 
 
 Lies in Plymouth, opposite the railroad bridge. Count 
 Zinzendorf was said to be the first white man that entered 
 the valley. He came as a missionary to the Indians. 
 
^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 63 
 
 THE TWIN ELMS. 
 
 On the right-hand side of the road leading from Kings- 
 ton to Wilkes-Barre, stand these two trees, a landmark of 
 long standing. Now the town of Westmor covers a once 
 farming country. 
 
 DIAL ROCK. 
 
 Or Campbell's Ledge, just above Pittston, on the east side 
 of the river, is said to have once noted the time of day, when 
 the sun touched the crest it was noon. The Dial Rock Chap- 
 ter, Daughters of the Revolution, take their name from this 
 rock. 
 
 THE UMBRELLA TREE. 
 
 On the west side of the Susquehanna river, opposite 
 Wyoming on the mountain, stood a tree high up above all 
 the others, called the Umbrella Tree, on account of its re- 
 semblance to that article. It was also called the council 
 tree. It is said it was a spot where the Indians used to 
 meet in their councils. Some supposed that treasure was 
 hidden there, and some persons dug around the roots of 
 the tree until it was killed. Canes were made of it and sold 
 in 1878 at Forty Fort. 
 
 QUEEN Esther's rock. 
 
 This rock is situated at the southeast of the village of 
 Wyoming. Here Queen Esther, with a death maul, dashed 
 out the brains of the prisoners. Most of the rock has been 
 carried away by relic hunters. It is now protected. 
 
64 ^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 lESTINY, AS well as the men who had de- 
 serted this paradise in the wilderness, willed 
 that the descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers 
 should people this valley and make it the 
 Mecca of the oppressed of all lands. Before 
 their harvest had wasted they were back to harvest it. They 
 came in spite of Indian, Tory, Pennamite or the foreign 
 foe. They were built that way and Providence appeared to 
 see to it that the fittest should occupy the land. 
 
 The men from this section with the army at the front, who 
 had come within forty miles, and returned when they heard 
 of the defeat that had taken place — these men, and all from 
 here, must have had their patriotism put to the supreme test. 
 They probably found the suspense they endured, as they 
 were thinking of their families sufifering hunger and hard- 
 ships of every description, more than the danger and the 
 privations they were facing. Postage at that time was often 
 a serious afifair to those who were destitute, consequently 
 many found it difficult to communicate a message to their 
 friends. 
 
 There are so many extravagant stories told of the wreck 
 and ruin left in the trail of the Indians as they overran the 
 valley that we cannot tell just what to believe. One writer 
 states that there were one thousand homes burned and all 
 the grain destroyed; that one thousand men had gone from 
 here to fight with the Continental army. Accepting Charles 
 Miner's statement, that the population was less than three 
 
u>bf IGost ^tstrr nf Hyttintng. 
 
*^Ae Story of Wyoming Valley^. 65 
 
 thousand before the battle, and the facts we have of the 
 figures given as to the number of men who were in the 
 different companies, as well as the knowledge that men came 
 back early in the fall and gathered grain that they found 
 uninjured, we think the statements unreliable. Many titles 
 to property were burned. This, it is apparent, did not prove 
 as serious as it might at this time. The title that possession 
 and the ability to defend themselves gave, appears to have 
 served them better than any other claim. They must main- 
 tain by force against the other claimant until it was possible 
 to secure a title for their land that would be valid. 
 
 This valley north, south and west was fringed with set- 
 tlements that suffered little from the invasion of John But- 
 ler. The low lands were filled with malaria, which caused 
 many to go up or down the river or over the western 
 mountain. 
 
 Captain Spaulding evidently came to the valley within a 
 few weeks after the expulsion. The men under his com- 
 mand were settlers. It was military occupation, at least, they 
 occupied the forts or a fort. They did not bury the men that 
 were left at Wyoming. The people began to come back 
 from every direction and were to suffer to the limit of human 
 endurance from the state authorities, the Indians and the 
 gaunt wolf of hunger. From this time on for many years 
 there is no correct census of the people handed down to us. 
 
 Although the outlook was dark, the clouds were begin- 
 ning to lift. They could hang out that flag of freedom and 
 
66 '^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 no one would pull it down. The standard of St. George had 
 disappeared forever from this valley. No more foreign tax- 
 ation would be levied and no hand could hinder them from 
 manufacturing what they willed. The long years of the 
 Revolution were drawing to a close so that men might devote 
 their energies at home and look after their own interest. 
 The Indians would be soon forced to start on their long 
 journey to the west, and to extinction as well. The Tory 
 would drink his cup of gall to the last bitter dregs. He 
 found that a traitor was despised the world over. No one 
 wanted him. Many went to England to be rewarded for 
 their loyalty. Royalty raised its chin and gave them a good 
 vievv of its back. 
 
 Before we refer to the two expeditions sent to annihilate 
 the Indian, some facts in reference to the rendezvous 
 of the Indians will be in order. Early in the eighteenth 
 century the Five Nations formed their league, after which 
 they included the Indians of North Carolina and became the 
 Six Nations. Parts of the Delawares occupied the two 
 branches of the Susquehanna under various names. The 
 Moravian missionaries labored among them, there were pow- 
 erful revivals of religion, and many converts. The mission- 
 aries were considered friends of the red men. It has been 
 proven that all the characteristics common to humanity can 
 be ascribed to them ; that when thev were enlightened and 
 Christianized they are humane, sensible and reliable. In 1802 
 they removed to Oneida Lake. In 1824 they went to Fox 
 River. In 1830 the Oneidas sold much of their land to the 
 state. There is an interesting description given us of the 
 
'^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 67 
 
 final departure of the Delawares for their new home. With 
 the sick, infirm and the children, with their relics and scanty 
 furniture loaded on wagons, the strong going on foot, they 
 were accompanied by the music of violins and their mourn- 
 ful chanting. The missionaries began their work in 1740 
 in New York. They were so persecuted by the whites that 
 they were obliged to remove to Bethlehem. Later they built 
 their town called "The Tents of Grace" at Mahomeny 
 Creek, on the Lehigh River. Later on the whites became 
 so merciless that they removed to what is now Wyalusing, 
 and built a town of forty log houses with an Indian name 
 meaning the "Tents of Peace." They built a chapel and 
 cultivated 280 acres of land. Great numbers were added 
 to them and they prospered until the whites introduced rum. 
 After seven years the Iroquois were prevailed upon to sell 
 all their land east of Ohio. They left their beautiful village 
 on the Susquehanna and started on their long journey, 
 two hundred and fifty in number. Near Tioga Point Queen 
 Esther had her village, composed of some seventy rude 
 houses. The history of that section claims that on the tes- 
 timony of an aunt of the Durkees, Queen Esther led the 
 Indians at Wyoming, presided at the tragedy at the rock and 
 slew twelve or more prisoners, to avenge, it is supposed, 
 the death of her son. The account states that most of the 
 men tried and a few succeeded in escaping. George Gore 
 was overtaken and murdered. After the horrors of Wy- 
 oming Washington sent two expeditions to the Indian coun- 
 try. The First was under Colonel Hartley in September. 
 Captain Spaulding was with him. Butler with his Royal 
 Greens had just fled from Tioga. Colonel Hartley, after 
 
68 '^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 burning Queen Esther's town and palace, as well as the 
 other towns in his way, returned to Sunbury. He secured a 
 large amount of stock taken from the valley. 
 
 Queen Esther is supposed to have derived her Jewish 
 name from the missionaries. This full-blooded Indian 
 squaw, who has gained more fame than any woman of her 
 race, is often confounded with the wife of a Senaca chief, 
 Catharine Montour, the daughter of a governor of Canada. 
 
 The second expedition to the Indian country was occa- 
 sioned by the indignation of the American people. Congress 
 took action and Washington placed three thousand five bun- 
 ded men under the command of General Sullivan. He was 
 to remove from Wvoming to Tioga and be joined by James 
 Clinton with two thousand men. They were ordered to treat 
 the Indians with great severity. This force was nearly one- 
 third of Washington's army. Thev beg-an to move to the 
 north where Bxitler, Johnson and Brant were prepared to 
 meet them. There were two battles, one at Chemung and 
 the other was at Baldwin. The enemy was defeated, many 
 of them killed, their villages destroyed and their fruit trees 
 cut down, as well as their crops being destroyed. The army 
 returned to Tioga and in a few days began their march to 
 the heart of the Indian country. Some years ago the writer 
 visited the home of the Six Nations. It appears as if nature 
 had planned this place for an Indian paradise, and created 
 the Indian to enjoy it. The expedition was successful, the 
 Indians were driven out and everything belonging to them 
 destroyed. This expedition was one of the most important 
 and successful of the Revolution. It occupied less than two 
 months and the loss of men was less than forty. 
 
'^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 69 
 
 It is the last straw that breaks the camel's back. What 
 was laid upon the backs of the people of the valley when 
 they came back was more than a straw, yet it did not break 
 their backs. War is inspiring- and respectable. A fight for 
 property between relatives and neighbors is the meanest 
 thing in the world. The cruelties and atrocities afflicted by 
 the savage are tame in comparison. The Pennamites came 
 back under Patterson, and marks the beginning of the sec- 
 ond Pennamite war. The Friends possessed the thrifty 
 metropolis of Philadelphia and the surrounding country. 
 The Germans settled from the Delaware to the Susquehanna. 
 The Scotch-Irish on the Juniata and in the Cumberland Val- 
 ley. There were a few settlers up the West Branch. The 
 Yankee settled the North Branch of the Susquehanna. The 
 rest of the state was an unbroken wilderness. The popula- 
 tion of the state was 300,000. The Yankees numbered about 
 6,000, and were scattered from Berwick to Tioga Point. 
 This was in 1783. 
 
 In 1776 the town of Westmorland was erected into the 
 countv of Westmorland belonging to Connecticut. 
 
 After the Yankees had gained possession of the territory 
 in 1775, Congress prevailed upon all parties to drop tlie con- 
 troversy. After the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, 
 and peace was declared, the state petitioned Congress to 
 appoint a commission to dispose of the dispute over the land. 
 Congress did this and Connecticut asked for delay. This 
 was refused, and the commission selected from the different 
 states, met at Trenton the 12th day of November, 1778. The 
 court was in judicial session forty-one days. 
 
70 '^he Story of V/yoming Valley. 
 
 The decision was that the State of Connecticut has no 
 right to the land in controversy. This decision did not effect 
 the individual claims of those who had bought their property 
 of the Susquehanna Company. This fact was not made 
 known until long afterwards. After the decree of Trenton 
 Zebulon B-utler presented a petition, for the people, to Con- 
 gress, asking that a commission be appointed to determine 
 their rights. This was not granted. 
 
 The new constitution was adopted and the federal court 
 succeeded to all the jurisdiction vested in the special court 
 of commissioners. It is conceded that Connecticut wanted 
 concession of western lands, and to secure them made con- 
 cessions to the rival claimants. The people in the valley had 
 the state troops straddled on them. They robbed, outraged 
 the women, and acted more hellish than the Indians ever 
 had. The people were poor and lived in huts. They were 
 trying to raise crops and to provide themselves with clothes. 
 
 A petition was presented to the Assembly of Pennsyl- 
 vania for a righting of the wrongs they were enduring and 
 for the appointment of a commission. This was granted. 
 The commission of land-owners were appointed with Alex- 
 ander Patterson as chairman. They came and virtually de- 
 cided that the settlers could have one year to dispose of their 
 huts and then get out. The commission divided Wyoming 
 in three townships, tlie new ones being Stokes and Shaw- 
 anese. Justices of the peace were elected and the Yankees 
 were not permitted to have anything to say in the elections. 
 The commission reported that the settlers holding land under 
 the Connecticut title before the d£cree of Trenton would 
 
^/?e Story of Wyoming Valley. 7^ 
 
 receive compensation for their land provided they deHvered 
 up possession before April the first, 1783, that is, the next 
 spring. This meant expulsion. Patterson returned with two 
 companies of state troops, assumed full authority, and 
 changed the name of Wilkes-Barre to Londonbarry. Col. 
 Zebulon Butler protested against the lewdness and licen- 
 siousness of the soldiers. He was arrested for treason with 
 several prominent citizens of Plymouth, taken to Sunbury, 
 put in a loathsome prison, starved and insulted. Patterson's 
 tenants were put on their property and their stock driven 
 off. The people had their barns burned, their cattle seized, 
 and their wives and daughters the victims of the licentious- 
 ness of the soldiers. Patterson was bent upon driving the 
 settlers out. Mock trials were held and decisions were given 
 that became unbearable. They resisted. Patterson made 
 this an excuse for the last act of cruelty in the calendar of 
 crime. One hundred and fifty families were stripped of all 
 they possessed and once more driven from the valley. They 
 went by the way of the Lackawanna, sixty miles to the Del- 
 aware. This was the flight through the Shades of Death. 
 
 Modern theology is elminating hell. We all hope there 
 is one and that Patterson and his ilk are in it, whatever hap- 
 pens to us. 
 
 Patterson seized the property and a great flood in March 
 obliterated all the boundary lines. 
 
 The news of this outrage flew over the land and the peo- 
 ple were indignant, nowhere more than in this state. The 
 state troops were ordered to disband. The sheriff of North- 
 
72 '^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 umberland, then included in Wyoming, was sent to restore 
 order. The fugitives were sent for. Patterson was mad 
 clear through and went in defense at Forty Fort, and pre- 
 pared for war. Two young men, named Elisha Garrett 
 and Chester Pierce had been slain by Patterson while gather- 
 ing in grain. Now the settlers proposed to hunt Patterson 
 and the Pennamites he had put in possession of their land. 
 John Franklin organized all the men he could find. He 
 swept down the west side and up the east, and the Penna- 
 mites were routed out. Then he attacked the fort and was 
 repulsed. Civil war now openly prevailed. Forty of the 
 settlers were indicted and taken to Sunbury. Then the au- 
 thorities of the state sent officers to dispossess both sides, 
 and demanded the arrest of all. Then four hundred militia 
 came from Northampton county, and by treachery they se- 
 cured sixty-eight of the setlers, bound them and carried them 
 to jail at Easton and Sunbury, The next difficulty was to 
 get rid of the women and children. 
 
 At this ■ point Colonel Armstrong was confronted with 
 the censure of the state authorities. A counsel of censure 
 was appointed, which reported that the settlers had been 
 greatly wronged. 
 
 The executive counsel paid no attention to the decision 
 and Armstrong came here with one hundred men and at- 
 tacked the settlers without success. William Jackson was 
 wounded. Franklin seized the rifle, covered with the blood 
 of the wounded man, and holding it up swore that he would 
 never lay down his arms until death arrested his hand or 
 Patterson and Armstrong be expelled from the valley, and 
 the people be restored to their rightful possessions. 
 
'^he Story of Wyoming Valle}). 73 
 
 General Armstrong began an attack upon the homes of 
 the people. This led up to the passage of an Act of As- 
 sembly that gave the people in the valley some assurance 
 of peaceable possesion of the land. 
 
 Patterson and Armstrong were recalled, and this ended 
 the second Pennamite war in 1784. The agony was over. 
 The people were in a desperate state of poverty. Winter 
 was coming, they had no harvest to gather and no houses 
 to shelter them. 
 
 The last Pennsylvania claimant to leave the valley was 
 Squire Mead. One morning he found the Yankees mowing 
 his meadow. They told him, "It is you or us ; we give you 
 fair notice to quit, and that shortly." This was virtually a 
 declaration, of war against Pennsylvania. The authorities 
 of this state took the hint. A general pardon for offenders 
 was offered, the law dividing the townships was annulled 
 and all the people were required to swear to keep the peace. 
 They did not comply and that part of the law fell dead. 
 
 The people, while nominally under the laws of the state, 
 virtually governed themselves. 
 
 On September the 25, 1786, the county of Luzerne was 
 erected. It gave them representation in the council and the 
 Assembly. 
 
74 '^he Story of Wyoming Valle}). 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 I EN BECAME tired and dis.s^usted witli tryin£]f 
 to^ establish titles to the soil by force. It had 
 taken them a long time to realize how futile 
 it was to ravish the land, shut up good men 
 in foul prisons for nothing and burn the homes 
 over the heads of helpless women and children. When they 
 were ready to let the courts settle their disputes a new 
 danger appeared. Connecticut being suspicious of any set- 
 tlement made by the state authorities conceived the idea 
 of forming a new division, that is, cut ofif from the state 
 that portion and form a body politic independent of Penn- 
 sylvania. This scheme split the people in two. The wise 
 heads were as suspicious of Connecticut as Connecticut was 
 of the State of Pennsylvania. The new plan made a great 
 stage play for a time. The Green Mountain Boys with 
 Ethen Allen, came to the valley. Half-share rights were 
 issued in great numbers and strangers flocked here. Ethen 
 Allen arrested John Franklin and a very unpleasant chapter 
 of our history was endured. 
 
 This trouble proved a blessing, as the governing author- 
 ities were obliged to step in, and in disposing of the ambi- 
 tious Connecticut schemes, the titles over which blood 
 was shed were settled for all time. 
 
 In 1787 the Confirming Act was passed. This act con- 
 ceded the land to the Connecticut settlers. The Pennsylva- 
 nia claimants were to be justly compensated. 
 
'^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 75 
 
 When the state authorities began to be just and g'enerous 
 they did not stop at their first act. In 1790 they repealed the 
 act that obHg^ed the occupants of the valley to make any 
 compensation to holders of the charter that a king had given 
 William Penn to liquidate a gambling debt that the sov- 
 ereign owed young William's father. When the controversy 
 ended most of their troubles were over. Washington was 
 in his grave and the government was steering out into the 
 open sea. Napoleon was at the top of his unparalleled career 
 and the Goddess of Liberty smiled upon a free people. 
 There are many things of interest to consider at this time 
 before we stop to inquire the meaning of military activity 
 among the citizens of the little sleepy town of Wilkes-Barre 
 and in the neighboring villages. The fighting was not all 
 done yet, as elsewhere the trade of war was carried o^n. 
 
 By this time the Indian trails over which the advance 
 guards had pushed their way had become the highway of 
 civilized man. Matthias Hollenback had furnished the peo- 
 ple with about everything they could not provide themselves 
 with. The hunter began to till the soil and the people began 
 to be self-dependent. To us it appears wrong that they 
 should convert most of their corn into whiskey for the 
 market. Whiskey was more than a beverage, it was as good 
 as the coin of the country, for they could transport corn in 
 liquid form to the distant market cheeper than the corn 
 itself. The only thing they could manufacture for the 
 market was whiskey. They must produce something they 
 could sell for cash. Distilling whiskey was an occupation 
 that was a source of wealth to every family able to build a 
 
76 *^Ae Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 distillery. They called it "liquid sunshine." They made it 
 pure and were able to drink it straight. There were no 
 temperance societies and the pulpit favored it as much as 
 the congregation. Later on the government undertook to 
 tax it and a three months' war followed. 
 
 For some reason every movement to provide means for 
 educational purposes by taxation failed and most of the 
 teacbing was imparted in paid schools. It must be re- 
 membered, our fathers believed in education and considered 
 the church and school house indispensible. It is common to 
 consider our coal as a source of wealth of which the settlers 
 were ignorant. This is not true. We find that the Susque- 
 hanna Company, in 1763, in granting land reserved the 
 coal. During the Revolution coal was mined and sent to 
 Carlisle for the forges of the United States army. We have 
 indications that coal was used by the people who preceded 
 the Indians. It was not believed, however, that the coal 
 went deeper than a short distance beneath the surface. By 
 1820 digging coal to be carried down the river in arks 
 became a source of revenue. In 1807 coal was shipped to 
 Havre de Grace and sold for eight and nine dollars per 
 ton. Many experiments were made to burn it in grates, and 
 the people could hardly be persuaded that stone coal could 
 be used as fuel for domestic purposes. 
 
 Col. George Shoemaker sent nine wagon loads from 
 Pottsville to Philadelphia. Some he sold and the rest he gave 
 away, and was arrested for swindling the people. The 
 coal was put in a furnace to test it. They blew into it from 
 
'^he Story of Wyoming Valh^. 77 
 
 the open door, but it would not burn. They shut the door in 
 disgust and went to dinner, and when they returned the 
 furnace was red hot. The draught problem was soon solved 
 and coal came into general use. It is quite certain coal was 
 used for domestic purposes from 1803. 
 
 The population in 1800 in Wilkes-Barre was probably 
 not more than three hundred. The social life was one of 
 perfect equality. The standard of intelligence was equal to 
 that of New England. Agriculture was the chief employ- 
 ment. 
 
 In 1 791 our Congress imposed a duty on distilled liquor 
 of four pence per gallon. War followed. The excise officers 
 of the government were arrested and tarred and feathered. 
 After mild measures had failed to enforce the law, Washing- 
 ton, in 1794. raisd an army of 15,000 men. Capt. Samuel 
 Bowman, with the Luzerne Volunteers, joined the main 
 army, which soon struck terror to "Tom the Tinker," as the 
 whiskey boys were called, and the insurrection ended. 
 
 In 1799 the French war began. The French were at war 
 with the civilized world and considered they were entitled to 
 some assistance from this country. It was not given and 
 w-ar was declared. Capt. Samuel Bowman, with seventy-five 
 men went to the front. This war cloud faded and then we 
 soon had trouble with England. That country came back 
 for one more kick and was accommodated. In 1813 Capt. 
 Samuel Thomas, at the head of the Wyoming Matross, left 
 Kingston and embarked at Toby's eddy with thirty-one men. 
 
yS '^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 Luzerne furnished other men who volunteered. Recruit- 
 ing stations and barracks were located in Wilkes-Barre. 
 In 1814, when Baltimore was threatened, Luzerne furnished 
 some companies that did not go farther than Danville, as 
 their services were not needed. 
 
 In 1846 the Wyoming Artillerists left for the Mexican 
 war under Capt. E. L. Dana. There was a great celebra- 
 tion when they returned, covered with glory and scars. 
 
 At the beginning of the Civil War, the first war meeting 
 was held in Wilkes-Barre in 1861, Hon. H. B. Wright pre- 
 sided. Eight regiments were organized for the three 
 months' service. The 143rd Regiment M^ent out under Col. 
 E. L. Dana. Many men from the valley served in the war. 
 Col. R. Bruce Ricketts performed distinguished service at 
 Gettysburg, and Gen. E. S. Osborne made a record. Camp 
 Luzerne was located back of Luzerne Borough. 
 
 We will bid adieu to the call to arms and consider what 
 belongs to our history apart from the outside world. 
 
 Some one, with a nice idea of fitness, has called our city 
 a queen and a jewel. We agree, thinking of our wealth and 
 culture. It is, poetically speaking, tlie hub of the valley, a 
 center where many of our own and other lands find a home, 
 and prosper. One John Durkee was its creator and 
 dedicator, in 1772 It included two hundred acres of 
 land and twenty or thirty houses that we would not use for 
 stabling stock, three forts, and a small population reputed 
 to be our peers. We can measure them by the law they 
 
*^/ie Story of Wyoming Valley. 79 
 
 passed that rated idleness the chief crime in their calendar of 
 offences. As the town or village increased in numbers the 
 fathers enlaro"ed their boimdaries, this was done several 
 times. They certainly were advocates of peace for the consta- 
 ble appears to have ranked as the most important man among 
 them. March 17, 1806, is next in importance to July 3, 
 1778, for then they assumed the dignity and the burden of 
 being an incorporated borough. The to-be-great and fa- 
 mous offspring grew in stature and favor. It waded in mud 
 and thrived on malaria and its antidote. The first borough 
 election was held and sixty voters elected Jessie Fell burgess 
 and Messrs. Hollenback, Butler, Wells, Colt, Palmer, Miner 
 and Bowman councilmen. Every absentee of a regular meet- 
 ing was required to pay a fine of twenty-five cents. As a 
 fact of history it is mentioned that Matthias Hollenback 
 paid the first fine. As he w^as a millionaire, the man who 
 controlled the trade w^ith Indians and whites from the bor- 
 ough to Niagara, the most Courtly as well as the best 
 dressed gentleman in our early history, no comments are in 
 order. At this time there were some forty-eight houses 
 and five hundred inhabitants. The greatest local event prior 
 to this time was the sojurn of a number of visitors at Arnet's 
 tavern. They were royalty out of a job, but one of them 
 afterwards became king of France. These visitors were 
 here 1797. 
 
 Before the borough was created a number of men em- 
 barked in the seductive enterprise of building ships on the 
 river bank. They were poor sailors, so thev were satisfied 
 after they had come to grief in trying to float their sloop out 
 into the open sea. 
 
8o '^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 Kingston, as it is at the present time, was the Eden where 
 the finest fruits of aristocracy, wealth and culture flourished 
 in perfection. The citizens of Wilkes-Barre could not afford 
 a bridge to get over into the promised land, and as they must 
 needs go over they established a ferry They felt humiliated 
 in going down to Northampton street and being carried over 
 like cattle, so they went down in their pockets and built a 
 bridge at the end of West Market street in 1807, that cost 
 forty thousand dollars. We wonder where they borrowed 
 the money. They were eleven years building it. Nature ob- 
 jected to being spanned. Tlie next year one of the piers 
 refused to shoulder longer the burden put upon it. The 
 state was appealed to for assistance. The bridge, after it 
 was repaired, tried to butt against a hurricane, but the at- 
 tempt was a failure. Consequently in the winter of 1825 
 the people had to go over the river on the ice. The state, 
 wishing to help the east-siders over into paradise across the 
 river, furnished more money. This money was only loaned, 
 and our honest and fore'handed forefathers repaid it. The 
 debt was twenty-eight thousand dollars. Money was scarce 
 and eggs were more current than coin. 
 
 The court house did not cut as much of a figure as the 
 court house bell. The people sent to Philadelphia and had one 
 brought here at considerable expense, a year before the bor- 
 ough was erected. About all public proceedings and pri- 
 vate acts were regulated by the ringing of this bell. The 
 court house served every conceivable purpose, and next to 
 the taverns, was the center religiously, politically, officially, 
 criminally and socially. 
 
®l|r Ballpy frmit (HampbpU's ICpiJgc. 
 
'^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 8i 
 
 The second year after the people had incorporated them- 
 selves they made an attempt to form a fire department. 
 Eight dollars they voted to purchase suitable fire extin- 
 guishers. They failed to make the purchase. This attempt 
 to supply the town with a fire engine led to the purchasing 
 of a patent fire extinguisher in 1808. Every year until 1818 
 it was voted that a fire engine be purchased, and then the 
 grand jury helped them out with two hundred dollars for an 
 engine, and forty dollars for the erection of an engine 
 house.. 
 
 Court convened for a time in Kingston, but Wilkes-Barre 
 wanted it transplanted to their center, and as they had that 
 wonderful bell, they secured the court of justice, so called. 
 
 Before 1800 Wilkes-Barre had two newspapers. Our 
 first historian, Isaac A. Chapman, being the editor of one of 
 the early weeklies. 
 
 Our city is located on the beautiful strip of land on the 
 east side of the Susquehanna. This matter is being adjusted 
 in a natural way. The west side is gradually becoming the 
 center of wealth, population, and industrial activity. 
 
 Wilkes-Barre became a city in 1871. We will go about 
 the old town when nearly all the families were to the manor 
 born. 
 
 Rev. Rufus Lane is preaching in the old church on the 
 Square. Isaac Osterhout is accumulating the money that 
 built the library and Historical Society building. Anthony 
 Brower and Barnet Ulph are familiar figures on the street. 
 
82 '^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 Daniel Conines is postmaster, Jonathan Buckley is the 
 sheriff, George P. Steel is the proprietor of one of the 
 famous hotels. Lord and John Butler have a steam grist 
 mill, Jude Kidder and Lawyer Nicholson have law offices on 
 the Square. Dr. Boyd has his office near by. Up at the 
 corner lives Judge Scott and near bv is the tavern of Arch- 
 ippus Parrish, a sort of Westmoreland club-house. A 
 brother of Frances Slocum lived on the south side of the 
 Square. Near by Oliver Helm had a cabinet shop. Samuel 
 Howe had a tin shop near the corner. Conrad Teeter, the 
 old stage driver, lived in Rag Row, where he could hear 
 the ring of the hammer of Mr. Lanning on his anvil. Gen- 
 eral Isaac Bowman lived on that side of the Square. Up 
 Main street was Buzzard Row, where Alderman Gilbert 
 Burrows had his office. Above this Benjamin Drake had 
 his blacksmith shop. Oliver Hillard and Dr. Jones lived up 
 this way. Up a short distance we find the original Myers, 
 John. The fine residence of Ziba Bennett was on Main 
 street, and just beyond the Square, Lawyer Winchester had 
 his office. Farther up George Dennison, Dr. Jackson, Sharp 
 D. Lewis, Gilbert Barnes and Dr. Thomas Miner lived, and 
 Air. Gilchrist had "his shop. On West Market street we find 
 Ebenezer Bowman, Gilbert Laird, Abram Thomas, Thomas 
 Hutchings, Mrs. Nancy Drake. Jacob Sinton, Sidney Tracy 
 and Col. H. B. Wright. On the corner of Franklin and 
 Market there were some beautiful Lombardy populars. The 
 old jail was on East Market street. Some of the other resi- 
 dents were Geo. M. Hollenback, Orlando Porter, Judge 
 Shoemaker, Andrew T. McClintock, Judge John N. 
 Conyngham, William C. Reynolds. These men lived on 
 
Vhe Story of Wyoming Valley^. 83 
 
 River street. The most famous man in town was a DutcTi- 
 man or German, that the people puffed up with praise. He 
 was town janitor, and was known as Old Michael. 
 
 Up above Wilkes-Barre we find the Miner, Wilcox, 
 Abbott, Courtright, Blanchard, Parsons, Johnson and the 
 Stark families. The ancestreal estate of the Stark family 
 was at the Plains and, like so many of the old families they 
 came from Connecticut. The first to come here dates back to 
 1734. Mrs. Elizabeth Stark is his great granddaughter. 
 Like the record of most of the old families the pioneer mem- 
 bers served under Washington and suffered and fought in 
 the early days. She married Charles, the son of Jacob 
 Shoemaker. David Scott Stark represents the family at 
 the present time. 
 
 It is quite impossible to turn away from our past without 
 mentioning the old familiar names. 
 
 Down in old Shawnee there was the bluest blood, real 
 men, noble and true. The old families were the Nesbitt, 
 Smith, Davenport, Wadhams, Gaylord, Van Loon, Turner, 
 Atherton, Reynolds, Fuller, Gabriel, Ransom, Wright Prin- 
 gle, Harvey, Bangs, Rogers, Shoemaker, Rimus, Shonk, 
 Eno and Garrahan. 
 
 The old families of the west side were Gore, Pettebone, 
 Bonham, Mathers, Laphey, Bowman, Hancock, Blakesley, 
 Cramer, Snyder, Carpenter, Holegate Raub, Bennet, Ather- 
 ton, Shoemaker, Smith, Tuttle, Denison, Buskirk, Tripp, 
 Hunt, Swetland, Bay, Perkins, Breese, Mjiller, Schofield, 
 
84 '^he Story of Wyoming Valle}). 
 
 Larnard, Hice, Goodwin, Jenkins, Sharps, LaFrance, Cow- 
 der, London, VanScoy, Jones, Jacobs, Polen Carpenter, 
 Capin, Slocum, Lewis, Pettebone, Snowden, Underwood, 
 Myers, Church, Reese, Dorrance, Barkers, Thomas, Strohs 
 and Bryant. These are the families between Goose Island 
 and Abram's Plain, not including Kingston. The families of 
 that town were the Gallup, Curtis, Barnes, Hoyt, Reynolds, 
 Myers, Buckingham, Parker, Loveland, Bidlack, Gates Rob- 
 erts, Covert, Payne, Skeers, MacFarland, Rice, Jaquish, Kel- 
 ler, Devans, Snyder, Taylor, Butler, Pringle, Owens, Sealey 
 and Belding. This takes in everything to Blindtown and 
 Poke Hollow. 
 
 The following families lived in and below Wilkes-Barre, 
 most of them names familiar in the early times. The faces 
 of many members of these families are as familiar to us as 
 the face of the court house clock. The names are Quick, 
 Nagle, Inman, Fisher, Downing, Ruggles, Blodgett, Dilley, 
 Horton, Garringer, Mills, Lee, M'affett, Ross, Cady, Stew- 
 art, Dana, Dyer, Covell, Dennis, Perry, Ross, Collins, Wurts, 
 Hakes, Greene, Lynch, Whitney, Howe, Mallery, Dupuy, 
 Morse, Gildersleeve, Gaboon, Davis, Vernett, Laird, Babb, 
 Sturdevant, Horton, Hartzell, Jamison, Learn, Lazarus, 
 Sivley, Spencer, Espy, Thomas, Minnich, Kocher, Hurlburt, 
 Franklin, Pell, Chapman, Pierce, Rummage, Askam, De- 
 trick, Deerhammer, Shoemaker, Fisher, Bennett, Hoover, 
 Marcy, Metcalf, Hyde, Blackman, Shafer, Sorber, Rine- 
 himer, Keithline, Lines, McCarragher, Dow, Young, Kidder, 
 Fredrick, Bergold, Ritter, Brown, Landmesser Pease, 
 Keizer, Cook, Preston, Carey, Knock, Sterling, Bunny. 
 
'^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 85 
 
 I have built a bridge to span a hundred years. My for- 
 mer treaties on Wyoming Valley spanned the years of the 
 nineteenth century. During the first years of the twentieth 
 century we have had to fight the savage, the Tories and the 
 enemies of civil liberty over again. Our breakers and 
 culm banks may seem blotches on the landscape. I rather 
 regard them as brooches, pinning our beautiful valley to the 
 blue fringe of the hills, with a diamond luster. We go to 
 the top of Prospect Rock, Campbell's Ledge, Penobscot, 
 Tillbury Knob or Fairview, and find there is enough natural 
 beauty remaining to content us. The song of the prosperous 
 present is just as sweet to our ears as the song of the har- 
 vesters and the sad music of the winds in the pines to the 
 former owner of this delightful region. Those who follow 
 in our tracks will not find diamonds under their feet as we 
 find them to-day. 
 
 This production is an artist's picture of the past. A pic- 
 ture of the present time would be, if well painted, a mag- 
 nificent frescoe, representing cosmopolitan life, enjoying a 
 degree of prosperity and opportunity for development such 
 as the masses have never known before. Everything that 
 the world has to offer is here in abundance within the reach 
 of all classes. The poor and ignorant become informed and 
 prosperous, while ability is in demand and compensated. 
 Our life is not spectacular, dramatic or picturesque ; it is 
 industrial, domestic and material. Men devote their ener- 
 gies to establish and maintain a home and educate their chil- 
 dren, consequently we have a condition that is making the 
 best things in life common property. 
 
86 '^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 The men of the greatest usefulness avoid pubHcity. The 
 officials of our churches, of the many societies organized for 
 specific ends, such as the Historical Society, the United 
 Charities, the Board of Trade and many other organizations 
 are composed of those who serve the public without reward 
 or comment. 
 
 There are seventy-five breakers, more or less, that send 
 a million tons of coal, more or less, each, to the market every 
 year. Four or five great railroads run through our valley, 
 which, with numerous large manufacturing plants, form 
 the foundation or our prosperity. 
 
 We have a model modern mayor, and Board of Trade 
 president. Fred. E. Kirkendall, our mayor, like W. L. Rae- 
 der, the president of our Board of Trade, is identified with 
 nearly every interest and movement, charitable, social and in- 
 dustrial. Our men of means erect large business blocks, and 
 public institutions, as they are needed and invest capital in 
 industries that are worthy of support. 
 
 Our leading merchants are Jonas Long's Sons, The Bos- 
 ton Store, Beneschs, Weitzenkorn, Phelps, Lewis & Bennett, 
 Isaac Long, Josepli Coons, Kaschenbach, Carpenter, Voorhis 
 & Murray, Lazarus, the Globe, Simon Long, Bee Hive, 
 Hance, Walters, Miller and others. J. L. Raeder, Robert 
 Baur & Son and the Yordy Co. have large printing estab- 
 lishments. There are two morning and two evening daily 
 papers of a high order. 
 
'^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 87 
 
 Among the many we mio^ht mention that are before the 
 pubhc are Lyman Howe, of movino^ picture fame ; Sadie 
 Kaiser, the singer; Daniel L. Hart, dramatist and wit; Ar- 
 nold Lohman, violinist; Father Murgus, inventor, Wesley 
 E. Woodruff, writer, lecturer and critic, and C. Bow Dough- 
 erty, colonel of the 9th Regiment. 
 
 Prominent citizens who have died within the last score 
 of years are Nathaniel Rutter, Calvin Parsons, W. W. 
 Loomis, Garrick M. Harding, Charles Miner, R. J. Flick, 
 J. C. Powell, F. B. Hodge, Allan Dickson, C. M. Conyng- 
 ham, R. C. Shoemaker, Charles Dorrance, Sheldon Rey- 
 nolds, B. G. Carpenter, C. F. Ingham, W. P. Miner, A. T. 
 McClintock, E. L. Dana, L. D. Shoemaker, E. P. Darling, 
 Vaughn Darling, P. M. Carhart, H. B. Hillman, R. D. 
 Lacoe, Richard Sharpe, Lawrence Myers, W. S. Parson, 
 C. Brahl, George Parrish, G. A. Wells, M. B. Williams, H. 
 H. Wells, Isaac Tripp, John B. Smith, Draper Smith, 
 George Shonk, M. B. Houpt, G. M. Reynolds, I. R. Wright, 
 E. R. Mayor, W. R. Maphet, J. C. Phelps, C. S. Morgan, 
 Isaac Long, E. S. Osborne, T. P. Ryder, Thompson Derr. 
 Frederick B. Mjyers, Joseph K. Bogert, Jonathan K. Peck, 
 John T. Doyle, E. A. Niven, Alfred Dart. 
 
 Kingston. — The Wyoming Seminary is located here. It 
 is an old town, the center of the west side, and promises to 
 become a manufacturing center. It is not cosmopolitan in 
 its population as are most of the towns in the valley. It is 
 a school and church town. Rev. F. Von Krug, the pastor of 
 the Presbyterian church, has served that congregation for 
 many years acceptable. The present pastor of the M. E. 
 
88 ^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 Church is Rev. J. W. Nicholson, who is hig-hly esteemed. 
 The other churches are stron^^ and are doin^ good service. 
 Rev. T. C. Edwards, D. D., is pastor of the First Welsh 
 Congregational Church of Edwardsville. He is one of the 
 best known men of his nationality in this country. The 
 presiding elder of the Wyoming District lives here, Rev. 
 L,. C. A^lurdock, He is one of the ablest ministers in the 
 Conference. W. G. Payne and T. L. Newell are successful 
 coal operators ; R. P. Brodhead, Charles Laycock, R. B. 
 Howland, D. H. Lake, J. R. Davis, W. N. Multer, N. D. 
 Safiford, W. P. Thomas, E. Strouse and many others are 
 active churchmen, and C. O. Tburston, the naturalist, The- 
 ron G. Osborne, the poet, and A. D. W. Smith, the geologist, 
 are west side men. The president of the town council, J. W. 
 Marcy, has carried on his wagon business for many years. 
 The burgess of Kingston is C. W. Chapin. W. H. Van 
 Horn is a justice of the peace. Both were formerly business 
 men. C. W. Boughton, tax collector, made wagons for our 
 fathers, and Frank E. Wright has continued the business. 
 Edwards & Co. conduct the largest store in town. A. J. 
 Roat is the oldest and most successful merchant. The old 
 businesses are N. G. Pringle, Dymond & Lewis, James Case, 
 Geo. Carr, Myron Evans, W. F. Church, C. Bach, Chester 
 Wilcox, Albert Miller, C. W. Turpin and J. A. Burton. 
 
 Isaac Jones, the grocer, M. Pooley, Bersch and Frantz 
 have been here nearly as long. Later comers are Cecil Ste- 
 vens, Millard & Scureman, S. M. Boyd, Doron and Son, and 
 Richard Cronin. Bolton G. Coon and Richard Rosser are 
 successful contractors. 
 
'^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 89 
 
 Mill Hollow is where the old mills of the valley were 
 located. As Luzerne, it still follows the old business with 
 many additions, being a more general trading center than 
 the other towns of the west side excepting Plymouth. Dor- 
 ranceton is the newest and most progressive town of the 
 west side, containing the finest residences and the greatest 
 extent of paved streets. The newly paved roadway between 
 Kingston and Wilkes-Barre was opened to the public on 
 Christmas Day, 1905. Forty Fort is no longer a place of 
 residence only. Large factories are being erected there. 
 Wyoming, formerly Troy, is the location of the monument, a 
 beautiful granite shaft, erected in the middle of the last 
 century to the memory of those who fell in the battle of 
 Wyoming, by their descendants. 
 
 East and West Pittston, the latter a beautifully sit- 
 uated residence town, both lying at the head of the 
 valley, form a business and mining center second only 
 to Wilkes-Barre. Plymouth, formerly Shawnee, the home 
 of many of the old families, has at the present time a large 
 foreign population rapidly becoming Americanized. Nanti- 
 coke is a city, except in name. Edwardsville is a large and 
 r)rosperous mining town. Ashley, Miner's Mills, Parsons 
 and Plains are thriving places that should become a part 
 of Greater Wilkes-Barre. 
 
 All our cities and towns are growing rapidly in extent 
 and population, and if the wealth accummulating from our 
 present enterprises is devoted to enlarged and diversified 
 industries, the time is not far distant when the entire valley 
 from Nanticoke to Pittston will be one vast and continuous 
 city. 
 
90 '^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 The once familiar things have passed away. The sound 
 of the ax, the crack of the rifle, the hearty laugh, the stage 
 driver's horn and the bob white's whistle. Familiar sights 
 have not even a place in our memory — the old grand- 
 mother in the corner, with her pipe, the wood pile, 
 the bars for a front gate, bare feet, the fiddle and the fire 
 place, tallow candles, bare floors and white-washed walls. 
 Every young man does not go to see his sweetheart on Sat- 
 urday night, and sparking as our fathers practiced is only 
 a legend. There are some things we get on without. 
 Such as shouting in meeting, taking snuff, dancing all night 
 and going home with the girls in the morning. Killing pigs 
 is not the event of the year nor gossiping the chief pastime 
 of the population. 
 
 We are not deceived. There is not essentially any differ- 
 ence between us and our forefathers. Of course the dried 
 apples do not hang in strings from our rafters, we do not 
 hold the plow or give quilting parties. We do the same 
 things, it may be, in a less crude way. We worship God, 
 eat the same food, breathe the same air, and look upon the 
 same sights. We are able to provide for ourselves what 
 they had to go without, or have but in part. We, like them, 
 live the old sad, sweet lesson of life, and are thankful that 
 Providence ordained that it should be here in the valley that 
 we love. 
 
^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 91 
 
 HALL OF FAME. 
 
 John Jenkins. 
 
 Surveyor and prominent man in the early days. 
 
 Lazarus Stewart. 
 
 A military hero before the battle of Wyoming. 
 
 Zebulon Butler. 
 
 Commander of the settlers on the third of July, 1778. 
 
 George Dorrance. 
 
 A soldier of rank and a man of influence in his day. 
 
 Nathan Denison. 
 
 A military leader who surrendered the fort and the men 
 to John Butler after the battle of Wyoming. 
 
 John Franklin. 
 
 One of the leaders in the conflict with the Pen.namites. 
 George P. Ransom. 
 
 A hero of the early days with a notable record. 
 
 Benjamin Bidlack. 
 
 A prominent soldier and citizen. 
 
 John Durkee. 
 
 One of the forty settlers and a leader. 
 Robert Durkee. 
 
 Founder and proprietor of Wilkes-Barre. 
 
 Matthias HollEnback. 
 
 The greatest leader in the industrial life of the valley in 
 our history. 
 
 Charles Miiner. 
 
 The greatest historian of our frontier period. 
 
92 '^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 Obediah Gork. 
 
 A conspicuous member of a family of early martyrs. 
 
 EusHA Harding. 
 
 One of the first of that notable family to appear in our 
 history. 
 
 Richard Inman. 
 
 A noted Indian fighter. 
 
 Thomas Bennett. 
 
 One of the members of one of the most prominent fami- 
 lies in the early days. 
 
 Samuel Carey. 
 
 A represntative member of a large and influential family. 
 
 William Ross. 
 
 Soldier and influential man. Other members of this fam- 
 ily appear with an honorable record. 
 
 Benjamin Harvey. 
 
 Representative member of a notable family. 
 
 Jacob Johnson. 
 
 The writer of the articles of capitulation after the battle 
 of Wyoming. 
 
 Simon Spaulding. 
 
 A military hero of our history. 
 
 James Wells. 
 
 One of the early martyrs. 
 
 Elisha Shoemaker. 
 
 One of the first of that noted family to appear on the 
 pages of our history. 
 
TT/ie Story of Wyoming Valley. 93 
 
 Libbe;n Hammond. 
 
 A victim of Indian warfare. 
 
 Elisha Blackman. 
 
 The father of Major Eleazer Blackman. This family 
 acted a notable part in the early days. 
 
 Isaac Tripp. 
 
 He was painted and killed by the Indians. 
 
 John Jameson. 
 
 Victim of the last Indian massacre. 
 
 James Bird. 
 
 Shot at Lake Erie for desertion. A brave soldier and 
 martyr. 
 
 Jacob Cist. 
 
 He was a scientific man, an editor, engineer and one of 
 the most scholarly men in our annals. 
 
 John Abbott. 
 
 A prominent citizen and a victim of the Indians. 
 
 Jesse Fell. 
 
 The first man in this county to burn anthracite coal in 
 a grate. 
 
 William Hoker Smith. 
 
 A noted physician and citizen. ^ 
 
 Francis Slocum. 
 
 The lost sister of Wyoming. 
 
 Andrew Beaumont. 
 
 He filled with distinction positions of great responsibility 
 in the county, state, and nation. 
 
94 '^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 John N. Conyngham. 
 
 Was judge of the court of Luzerne county. No man in 
 our history inspired more respect and admiration. 
 
 Amzi Fuller. 
 
 Prominent man. 
 
 George Woodward. 
 
 Father of Hon. Stanley Woodward. He was one of the 
 most notable men of the state. 
 
 Henry M. Hoyt. 
 
 Governor of Pennsylvania. He wrote a valuable work 
 on political economy. 
 
 Edmond L. Dana. 
 
 Hero of two wars, jurist and scholar. 
 
 Thomas P. Hunt. 
 
 Temperance lecturer, known all over the nation. 
 
 Wesley Johnson. 
 
 Secured the erection of the Wyoming monument. 
 
 Hendrick B. Wright. 
 
 Historian, Congressman and orator. 
 
 Charles Parrish. 
 
 The greatest captain of industry since Matthias Hol- 
 lenback. 
 
 Reuben Nelson. 
 
 The most noted educator of the valley. The first presi- 
 dent of Wyoming Seminary. 
 
 George Peck. 
 
 Historian and preacher. 
 
'^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 95 
 
 Andrew T. McClintock. 
 Influential citizen. 
 
 H. Baker Hileman. -> 
 
 Erected the Harry Hillman Academy. 
 
 Isaac Osterhout. 
 
 Founder of the Osterhout Library and the Historical 
 Society building. 
 
 F. B. Hodge. 
 
 The honored and loved pastor of the First Presbyterian 
 Church for thirty-five years. 
 
 Daniel Edwards. 
 
 The most prominent and successful man in mining coal 
 in the valley. 
 
 Edward R. Mayer. 
 
 Prominent Physician. Donated the Home for the 
 Friendless and a large contributor to its support. 
 
 John Welles Hollenback. 
 
 Influencial and prominent citizen. 
 
 Abram Nesbitt. 
 
 Prominent citizen. Donated Nesbitt Hall to Wyoming 
 Seminary. 
 
 R. Bruce Ricketts. 
 
 Hero of the battle of Gettysburg. 
 
 Henry W. Palmer. 
 
 Congressman and lawyer. 
 
 Charles D. Foster. 
 
 Legislator and lawyer. 
 
96 ^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 L. L. Sprague. 
 
 President of Wyoming Seminary since 1882. 
 Henry L. Jones. 
 
 Rector of St. Stephen's Church since 1874. 
 John B. Reynolds. 
 
 Builder of the first electric road and the North street 
 bridge. 
 George B. Kulp. 
 
 Author of the Families of Wyoming Valley. 
 
 Miss Edith Brovver. 
 
 Organizer of the Town Improvement Society and writer. 
 
 Mrs. Rosamand L. Rhone. 
 Author and artist. 
 
 Miss Susan E. Dickinson. 
 Talented writer. 
 
 Fredrick C. Johnson. 
 
 Historical writer and editor of the "Historical Records." 
 
 Horace E. Hayden. 
 
 Historian and secretary of the Historical Society. 
 
 Oscar J. Harvey. 
 Historical writer. 
 
 H. B. Peumb. 
 
 Historian of Hanover Township. 
 
 D. L. Rhone. 
 
 Writer on law and political economy. 
 
 Harry A. Fuller. 
 
 Prominent speaker and lawyer. 
 
^he Story of Wyoming Valley. 97 
 
 George S. Bennett. 
 
 Prominent in finances and church work. 
 
 Frederic Corss. 
 
 Physician and scientist. 
 
 Mrs. Caroline Pettebone. 
 
 Donated a gymnasium to Wyoming Seminary. She 
 also left memories that remain like the fragrance of 
 a sweet flower after the blossom has faded. 
 
 Miss Martha Bennett. 
 
 Erected Bennett Chapel. That was only a small part of 
 what she gave. She had greater gifts than money to 
 bestow. 
 
 Mrs. H. W. Palmer. 
 
 Organizer of the B. I. A. No woman in our history 
 has conferred so much direct benefit.. Few women 
 in the nation have performed so great service for hu- 
 manity. 
 
 Miss Hannah P. James. 
 
 First librarian of the Osterhout Library. No woman has 
 exerted a wider personal influence for the intellectual 
 life of this valley or was held in higher esteem. 
 
 Mrs. Katharine Searles McCartney (Mrs. W. H.). 
 Formed the first Chapter of the Daughters of the Amer- 
 ican Revolution in the State of Pennsylvania, and the 
 Wyoming Chapter, through whose inspiration all of 
 the forts in this vicinity have been marked.