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/ 
 HISTORY 
 
 LACKAWANNA VALLEY 
 
 BY 
 
 H. HOLLISTER, M. D 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 SIXTH EDITION. 
 
 REVISED AND ENLARGED. 
 
 PRINTED AND BOUND BY 
 
 THE TRIBUNE PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
 
 SCRANTON, PENNSYLVANIA. 
 1903 
 
Lil 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S69, 
 
 By H. HOLLISTER, M.D., 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern 
 District of New Yorii. 
 
 Copyright, 1885, by H. Hollister, M.D. 
 
 By TransfeT. 
 
 6-^3^7 ^^'^ 
 
PREFACE 
 
 TO TIIR FIRST KDITION. 
 
 In presenting to the public tliese " Contributions," it seems 
 proper to state that the collection ot'tlie embodicl facts was more 
 the result of the love possessed by the writer for sucli incidents and 
 history, than the hope of either a pecuniary reward, or a literary 
 reputation. 
 
 Becoming familiar with a few features in the history of the 
 Lackawanna Valley, the writer was induced, by the solicitations 
 of his friends, to put them into a shape whereby their publication 
 might possibly awaken an interest, or perhaps elicit new and more 
 connected material from a i-egion where nothing yet had been 
 done in the way of gathering its local history. 
 
 From the absence of a proper and continued record — from 
 indistinct and often conflicting memories — and from the death of 
 all who were familiar with its earliest settlement, it is very proba- 
 ble that events narrated are sometimes given in an imperfect, and 
 even in an inaccurate manner. It would not be surprising if such 
 was the fact ; but the reader must bear in mind that not oidy the 
 personal, but tiie general history recorded hei-e was written while 
 the author was engaged in a large practice, and harassed by all 
 the continual anxieties occurring in one of the most exhausting 
 and thankless professions in the country. 
 
 While the author asks no indulgence from this circumstance, 
 yet he apprehends that a practice of twelve years, with its too 
 often accompanying annoyances— compelled to view human nature 
 
4 FKEFACE. 
 
 ill every possible light, and encounter it in its most humiliating 
 aspect — eminently fits him to bear the murmurs of those ^vho 
 suppose that a volume can be as easily written as read. 
 
 None of the Sketches are arranged in chronological order ; 
 many are necessarily brief, meager, and unsatisfactory, owing to 
 the great dearth of material ; while some, it is possible, do better 
 justice to the subject. 
 
 It would have given pleasure to the writer, to have presented 
 a genealogical view of the original families in the valley ; but as 
 this contemplated feature would necessarily have enlarged the 
 volume beyond its intended limits, without adding much to its 
 general interest, it was abandoned. 
 
 The obligations of the writer are due to all his friends, w^ho 
 have, by their liberal subscriptions to the volume, manifested 
 such an interest in its Avelfare. 
 
 H. HOLLISTEU. 
 
 Providence^ Pa., 1857. 
 
 The volume, of which a second edition is now published, has 
 been so thoroughly modified and revised in its general outline, as 
 to present the features of a different, and, I trust, a better work 
 than the preceding one. Very many pages have been wholly 
 obliterated ; the remainder re-written and radically changed, while 
 a number of pages of interesting historical matter— sought after 
 from trustworthy records and testimony with an earnestness that 
 possibly may deserve expressions of approbation and success- 
 have been added thereunto. 
 
 In my former volume, I gave but a general recognition of the 
 favors of my friends, who, in various ways, contributed toward 
 its successful development. In this, I desire to return especial 
 thanks to several persons whose manly sympathies and generous 
 aid lay me under a grateful obligation and remembrance. 
 
PREFACE. 5 
 
 For materials drawn from the Pennsylvania Archives and Colo- 
 nial Records, and other authorities, appropriate acknowledgment 
 appears in its proper place. In addition to these sources of infor- 
 mation, fully noted and credited, I would return thanks to G. B. 
 NiCHOLSOx, Esq., for access to the AVestmoreland Records ; to 
 B. H. Theoop, M. D., for valuable suggestions in regard to the 
 volume; to Selden T. Scranton, of Oxford Furnace, N. J., for 
 acts of friendship which characterize his desire to make every man's 
 ])athway blossom with the rose ; to S. B. StuPvDevant, M. D., for fa- 
 vors which were given in so cheerful a manner as to greatly enhance 
 their value ; to the Rev. Dr. Peck, lor the biographical sketch of 
 the late Hon. George W. Scranton ; to Hon. Steuben Jenkins, 
 whose antiquarian knowledge promises to the world an invaluable 
 documentary history of Gen. Sullivan's celebrated Wyoming 
 I'xpedition in ] 779 ; to Stephen Rogers and D. Yarington, for 
 papers concerning the settlement of C'arbondale ; to N. Ork & 
 Co., of New York, and Eugene Frank, of Wilkes Barre, for 
 their skillful execution of the cuts adorning the work, and to 
 Harper & Brothers, for the sale and use of electrotypes, ilUis- 
 t rating scenes in the Lackawanna Valley. 
 
 The author of the following pages, who was not born ujjun tlie 
 banks of the Lackawanna, but was nurtured among her mountains, 
 would do injustice to his own feelings did he not gratefully 
 acknowledge the kind, yet undeserved, encomiums of the editorial 
 fraternity, and the favorable reception the community gave his 
 *' Contributions" in 1857. May he not indulge in the hope that the 
 young valley is not now less athletic and friendly than then? 
 
 H. Hoi. lister. 
 I^ovidence, Pa., 1869, 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, 
 
 PAUS 
 
 Slocum Hollow in 1840, - - - Frontispiece. 
 
 Campbell's Ledge, - - - - - - 26 
 
 Indian Map of Capoose, - - - - 31 
 
 Bald Mount, - - - - - - - 65 
 
 Ira Tripp, - - - - - - - 125 
 
 MoNoCASY Island, - - - - - - 169 
 
 Bloody Rock, - - - - - 170 
 
 John B. Smith, - - - - - - 209 
 
 Nay-auc; Falls, - 212 
 
 The Old Slocum House, - - - - - 219 
 
 Wm. Henry, - - 225 
 
 SeLDEN T. ScU ANTON, - - - - - 241 
 
 Joseph H. Scranton, - - - - - 245 
 
 B. H. Throop, M. D., ----- 249 
 
 Scranton in 1860, - - - - - - 261 
 
 First Baptist Church in Carbondale, - - - 299 
 
 First Locomotive run in America, - - - o54 
 
 Thos. Dickson, - - - - - - 361 
 
 Delaware Water Gap, . . . - . 389 
 
 Hon. John Brisbin, - - - - - - 391 
 
 Hon. George W. Scranton, .... 405 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Henry Roberts, M. D., 
 
 H. HuLLISTER, 
 
 L. A. Watres, 
 
 Dr. Silas B. Kobinson, 
 
 Lewis Pughe, - 
 
 The Eiot in Scranton, 
 
 Archbald in 1844, 
 
 Wm. Merrifield, 
 
 E. Merrifield, 
 
 PAOE 
 
 - 411 
 
 - 418 
 
 - 445 
 
 - 459 
 
 - 467 
 
 - 475 
 
 - 491 
 
 - 495 
 
 - 515 
 
CONTEXTS 
 
 INDIAN HISTORY OF WYOMING. pao« 
 
 Traditions regarding a great tyrant on tiie Susquehanna in HOC — Tlie Five 
 Nations controlling the war-paths in the valley in \(>-iO — Tlie extent of 
 their sachemship — The Monseys stroll along the Lacliawanna about 1700 — 
 Teedyuscung and iiis Delaware tribe ordered to Wyoming — Visit of Count 
 Zinzendorf to Wyoming — Dr. Gill's account of his visit — Journey of Conrad 
 Weiser to " Woyamocli " in 1754 — "Spies" reported here — The Delawnre 
 Indian Village of Asserughney, near Campbell's Ledge — Adjouqva — A fort 
 to be built at Adjonqua (mouth of the Lackawanna) at the request of the 
 Six Nations in 1756 — Interesting scrap of hisrory 17-29 
 
 INDIAN VILLAGE OF CAPOOSE. 
 'Capoose, a contemporarj^ of Teedyuscung, sells liis lands in New Jersey, 
 migrates to liie Lackawanna and makes his "smoke" upon its bank — Is 
 visited in 1742 by Count Zinzendorf — Hunting and planting grounds at 
 ("apooae — Alienation of the Delaware and Monsey tribes after Braddock's 
 defeat — Gnaddenhutten burned, and Broadhead's plantation on the Dela- 
 ware laid waste — ^Indian Congress held in Easlon, in October, 1758 — Log- 
 linuses built at Wyoming for Teedyuscung, by Gov. Penn — Major Parson's 
 description of ihe Great Sachem while he was "brightening the chain of 
 friendship " at Kaston at this time 29-39 
 
 LACKAWANNA RIVER AND VALLEY. 
 Iroquois and Delaware diversity of names, now corrupted into Lackawanna — 
 Beauty of the stream and vaUey — The union of the Lackawanna with the 
 Susquehanna portrayed by the late Mrs. Sigourney 40-43 
 
 WAS WYOMING ONCE A VAST LAKE? 
 The Kittatinny Mountain now serrated with gaps, forming a dam for the 
 reception of the waters of the Chemung, Chenango, Delaware, and Sus- 
 quehanna — Ridges crossing the great rivers — Interesting views of the 
 celebrated C. F. Volney, Schoolcraft, and Professor Beck — A singular large 
 rock at Pittston out of place — Opinion of the late Hon. Charles Miner and 
 Judge Packer — Debris of ocean-life upon the Pocono 2,000 feet above tide 
 water — Probable ancient course of the Susquehanna — Veins of coal oblit- 
 erated by the agency of water favor the theory — Notches in the Moosic 
 range near Scranton 43-49 
 
 WAR-PATILS. 
 Prom Asserughney Village to Capoose — One trail lends to the Delaware — 
 The other diverges to Oquago (now Windsor, N. Y.) 49-5C 
 
 INDIAN SPRING UPON THE MOOSKJ MOUNTAIX. 
 Whites killed by its side in 1778 50-51 
 
1 CONTENTS. 
 
 INDIAN llELTCS AND FORTIFICATIONS. paor 
 
 Along the Susquehanna — At tlie mouth of the Lackawanna — Upon the 
 Moosic — Mound opened at Capoose in 1795 — Another found in Covington 
 in 1833, containing vast deposits — P'ormer neglect of scientific men in 
 gathering and preserving Indian implements 51-59 
 
 INDIAN APPLE-TREE. 
 Orchard at the wigwams of Capoose a century ago — A single tree still pcen 
 by the roadside, bringing forth its fruit .59-61 
 
 BEACON FIRES. 
 Traces of ancient signal fire-places upon the higher points of the Moosic 
 Mountain, used by the red men at the time of their occupancy of the 
 Lackawanna Forest GI-63 
 
 SILVKR MINE ON THE LACKAWANNA. 
 
 The whites charged by the Indians with carrying ofif sih'er ore from 
 "Wyoming in canoes, in 1766 — Interesting revelation of an old Oneida 
 chief — Three salt springs, and three mines, respectively of silver, gold, and 
 lead, reported by him to be located within the boundaries of Wyoming. .63-64 
 
 GOLD MINE. 
 Bald Mount — A gold mine supposed to be located at its base — Singular 
 report of a captive concerning it 64-07 
 
 SALT SPRINGS. 
 Their location 67-6S 
 
 LKAD MINE. 
 Tuscarora Creek — An item of its local history — A reminiscence of Gen. 
 Sullivan's march up tlie Susquehanna into the Indian empire in 1779.. . .CS-70 
 
 GENERAL HISTORY. 
 Wyoming, in its general signification, embracing not only the entire Lack- 
 awanna Valley, but all the territory within Provincial limits purchased by 
 the Yankees — Reports of these lands reaching Connecticut, lead to the 
 formation of the Siw^quehanna Company in 1753 — Men who were sent out 
 to explore Wyoming are tracked and watched by the Proprietary Govern- 
 ment of Pennsylvania — Beauty of the inland settlement — Incipient strife 
 for its possession — Its primary purchase of the Indians in 1754 by the 
 Susquehanna Company and the Delaware Company — Pennsylvania, cha- 
 grined at the success of Yankee diplomacy, attempts to intimidate people 
 from New i'higland — Men and women to be shipped to Philadelphia, " meu 
 to be imprisoned or compelled to enlist in the Indian War on the Ohio " — 
 Cayuga Indians also threaten the Yankees with savage greeting- if they 
 settle at Wyoming — The Moravians fraternize with the Indians at Wy- 
 alusing — Preaching at " Waioraing and Lecka-we-ke " (Lackawack) in 
 1755 — Reward offered for Indian scalps — Cochecton settled — Charles 
 Tomson and Christian Frederick Post visit Wyoming and " Lee-haugh- 
 hunt" in 1758, by order of Governor Penn — Backsino.sa with 100 war- 
 -iors at Lee-liaugh-hunt — Country visited and described in 1758 by two 
 Indian interpreters, Moses Titamy and Isaac Hill — Teedyuscung complains 
 of the Yankees along the Delaware — Settlement inaugurated in Wyoming 
 
in 17t)2 — Teedyuscung again complains to tlie Governor, who makes fair 
 promises — Fruits of the interview — Murder or expulsion of every white 
 person from Wyoming in 1763 — Evident complicity of Pennsylvania 
 ofBcials in the massacre — Atrocious butchery of friendly Indians at Lan- 
 caster by the whites — John Anderson opens a store at Wyoming in 1760 — 
 Original grant of lands to Connecticut and to Wm. Penn — Trenton De- 
 cree 70-105 
 
 GENERAL HISTORY (continued). 
 Purchase of Wyoming lands by Pennsylvania in 1768 — Preparations of the 
 Susquehanna Company to make a permanent settlement upon their pur- 
 chase — Occupancy of the territory by Pennsylvanians — Block-house 
 erected at the mouth of the "Lamawanack " in 1769 — Settlers taken pris- 
 oners — Names of persons in Pittston " fit for mischief" in 1769-1772 
 — The Lackawanna paths guarded by Pennymites to prevent the Yan- 
 kees from escaping capture — Westmoreland Records-, where are they? — 
 Clearings extended up the Lackawanna — Settler's rights voted — Zebulon 
 Marcy's cabin — Flints and cartridges carried to Wyoming by the Penny- 
 mites to tranquilize the "wrangling" inhabitants — Providence settled — 
 General expulsion of the Yankees from the valley by Pennsylvania sol- 
 diers 105-121 
 
 ISAAC TRIPP. 
 Emigrates to Wyoming, where he plays a prominent part in its history — 
 Taken prisoner at Capoose — Ira Tripp 12 1-1. TO 
 
 WESTMORELAND. 
 Officially recognized by Connecticut as a portion of its Colony 130-1.'?2 
 
 WALLENPAUPACK SETTLEMENT. 
 Within the jurisdiction of Westmoreland — Its history — Fort erected — Alarm 
 of the inhabitants — They flee from the savages 132-134 
 
 JAMES LEGGKTT. 
 Civilization slowly carried up the Lackawanna — Vote of Congress regarding 
 Wyoming difficulties 1 3-4-137 
 
 FIRST WAGON ROAD FROM PITTSTON TO THE DELAWARE. 
 Three shiUings per day given men for working upon the road — Importance 
 of the thoroughfare 137-139 
 
 MILITARY ORGANIZATION. 
 Rigid disciphne essential to the existence of the young settlement — The 
 inhabitants compelled to train every fourteen days — Ear-raarks for cattle 
 running at large 139-141 
 
 RELIGION, MORALITY AND STILL-HOUSES 
 First church erected in the central portion of the vaUey — Bundling — Indians 
 forbidden to have whisky because of the murderous agitation it caused 
 in the forest — Yet stiU-houses are encouraged by the whites — Eight still 
 or beer house? in Providence iu 1798 — Recreation of the inhabitants — A 
 committee meet in Wilkes Barre " at six a Clock in yeformoon '" to consider 
 the province of ''Liekquor " — Causes of its c-ommercial importance.. . .141-148 
 
12 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAOR 
 
 MILLS UPON THP: LACKAWANNA 148-149 
 
 DR. JOSEPH SPRAUGE. 
 The first physician iu the Lacl<awanQa Valley — "Granny Sprauge '' 150-151 
 
 DR. WILLIAM HOOKER SMITH— OLD FORGE. 
 Great surgeon in Gen. Sullivan's Expedition — First purchase of stone-coal 
 recorded in Luzerne County, in 1791 — Old Forge as described by the late 
 Hon. Charles Miner in a letter to the writer 151-154 
 
 THE SIGNAL TREE 154-155 
 
 THE WYOMING MASSACRE. 
 Its cause, character, and consequences — Interesting version of events trans- 
 piring immediately before the battle, by a witness still living — But a single 
 habitation left standing in the entire Lackawanna Valley — General Sul- 
 livan's Expedition in 1779 — " Dried scalps of women and children " found 
 in the wigwams by Col. Hartley — Proposition made to hunt the Indians 
 with horses and dogs — Extraordinary adventure and escape 155-171 
 
 GENERAL HISTORY— (resumed). 
 Connecticut and Pennsylvania renew the struggle for Wyoming with in- 
 creased bitterness — The Lackawanna people, turned out of their houses by 
 armed bands urged on by land-jobbers, are treated " excessively cruel " — 
 Every New England emigrant carried to prison and fed on bread and 
 water — Liberated, they return and defy the Pennymites— A bold project 
 ot('ol. Ethan Allen, John Franklin, and other shrewd Yankees to form a 
 new State out of Wyoming, annihilated by the simple formation of Luzerne 
 County in 1786 — The various compromising laws give tranquillity to the 
 settlement 177-1 SG 
 
 PROVIDENCE TOWNSHIP AND VILLAGE. 
 Tlieir general history — Rich lands of Capoose reluctantly vacated by their 
 tawny occupants — Exeter, Providence, and the country north, made into 
 one election district in 1774 — Indian apple-tree at Capoose designated as 
 " Ye Town Sign-post " — Meeting of settlers under its branches in 1775, 
 to draw for lots in Putnam Township (now Tunkhannock) — Taxables of 
 Providence Township for the year 1796 — Dr. Silas B. Robinson — The 
 "great blow" of 1834 186-205' 
 
 DUN MORE. 
 Causes which led to its settlement and expansion — Source of its prosperity — 
 John B. Smith 206-211 
 
 HISTORY OF SCRANTON. 
 The first log-structure erected iu Deep Hollow (Scranton) — Philip Abbott 
 gives expression to the necessities of the farmers at Capoose by the 
 erection of a grist-mill upon Roaring Brook in 1788 — Unique character of 
 the mill — First bridge across the Lackawanna in 1796 — Hyde Park cleared 
 and settled — Dolphs — Dr. Joseph Davis — The Slocums acquire tlie property 
 and inaugurate iron-ivorks — Still-iiouses and general prosperity around 
 Ca|ioose — The old landmark of Slocum Hollow — Post-alfice established — 
 Pri-ividential escape of Mr. Slocum, iu 1808, from a frightful death — Th& 
 
CONTENTS. 13 
 
 PAOB 
 
 obliteration of the forge and still in 1826, temporarily suspends the life of 
 Slocum Hollow — Four piominent gentlemen early agitating the interests 
 of the valley — William and Maurice Wurts, Henry W. Drinker, and Wm. 
 Meredith — Their plan to resuscitate tlie Hollow — A brighter aspect strug- 
 gling its way into the settlement — Primary impulse toward a village in 
 Scranton, given by the Drinker railroad project — Wm. Henrj' — Acqui- 
 sition of the Slocum Hollow property by Messrs. Scrantons, Grant, and 
 Mattes — Inauspicious attempt to start a furnace in Scranton in 1841 — 
 Dark period in the history of die iron-works, 1842-3 — Joseph H. and E. C. 
 Scranton — Sketch of the different churches in Scranton, from 1841 to the 
 present time, with the names of the pastors — Unfaltering energy of Col. 
 Scranton — Nail factory built below the falls of Nay-aug — Village of Har- 
 rison laid out in the woods — Selden T. Scranton — Failure to get a post- 
 office re-estabhshed — The year 184G auspicious in the history of Scran- 
 ton — Bankruptcy only averted b}' the Trail — Lively times in the town- 
 ship — Dr. Throop builds a cottage near the swamp — Organization of the 
 iron company — Difficulty of reaching a market for iron — Post-office again 
 established in Scrantonia — Conception of a hicomoiive road westward, by 
 Colonel Scranton — Wyoming House and hotels — Tiirifc of Scranton — Its 
 newspapers — Description of the ironworks — List of physicians who 
 have lived and practiced their profession within tlie city limits of Scranton 
 — Its lawyers — Its industrial enterprises — Fouuderies — Machine-shop? — 
 Capouse Works — Sash and blind factory — Stove manufactories — Dickson 
 Manufacturing Company 21 1-J68 
 
 BLAKKLKY. 
 Its name and general history^Second church in the vaUey built within its 
 limits 269-273 
 
 YAXKEK WAY OF PULLING A TOOTH 274 
 
 THOMAS SMITH 275 
 
 SETTLEMENT OF ABINGTON. 
 The former danger and wildness of Leggett's Gap — Names of settlers.. .275-282 
 
 THE GREAT HUNTER. EIJAS SCOTT. 
 His encounter with a bear — Great destruction cf rattlesnakes 2S2-2S4 
 
 "DRINKER'S BEECH "—(JVozj; Covington). 
 Its earliest history — 25,000 acres of land purchased by Mr. Drinker in 1788, 
 upon the Pocono — Ascending the narrow Lehigh in a batteau to its upper 
 waters — Names of the first settlers — Drinker's Turnpike 284-283 
 
 SETTLEMENT OF JEFFERSON. 
 Its border traversed by the Yankees — Asa Cobb — .\ wolf killed by Mrs. 
 Cobb with a pitchfork — Imaginary shire town and county 288-291 
 
 CHASED BY A PANTHER. 
 Perils of the forest thirty years ago 291-293 
 
 DUNNING. 
 Pleasant Valley — Barney's Ledge — Hon. A. B Dunning 293-295 
 
14 CONTENTS. 
 
 CARBONDALE. vac,* 
 
 Rns:<rf>d Islands — Capt. Geo. Rix — The ''big flats" chopped and logged off — 
 Unique attire of a woodman — Christopher E.Wilbur — 1802-1814 — Ex- 
 plorations by Maurice and Win. Wiirts — Dundaff laid out by Mr. Conyng- 
 ham in 1822 — Coal-mine opened — A village emerging from the Carbondale 
 glen — First frame-house erected — Sled-loads of coal drawn twenty miles 
 to the Paupack 295-300 
 
 LACKAW.\NNA VALLEY IN 1804. 
 Klcier John Miller — A general retrospective glance of its inhabitants and its 
 appearance as given by him — Zephaniah Knapp — Development of the 
 valley 300-310 
 
 FORMATION OF TOWNSHIPS; PRIMITIVE MINISTERS. 
 Rev. Jacob Johnson, the first minister in Wyoming — Curious letter — Rev. 
 Wm. Bishop — Hyde Park log church — Habits of the people 310-314 
 
 PROPRIETORS' SCHOOL FUND AND PRIMITIVE SCHOOLS. 314-316 
 PATHS AND ROADS. 
 Journey from Connecticut to Pittston in 1793 — Little Meadows — Visited In 
 1793 by Bishop Asbury 317-322 
 
 THE RISE OF METHODISM IN THE VALLEY. 
 Anning Owen — Two distinctive impulses given its development — Rev. Dr. 
 Geo. Peck — Methodist ministers 322-326 
 
 SMELLING HELL 326-328 
 
 FORMATION OF ANTHRACITE COAL. 
 
 Its vegetable character 328-329 
 
 ORGANIC REMAINS FOUND IN THE COAL STRATA, 
 Their abundance in the Lackawanna Valley 329-331 
 
 MINERALS AND MINING 331-332 
 
 COAL LANDS FIFTY YEARS AGO. 
 Worthlessncss of stune-coa,\ in Slocum Hollow fifty years ago 332-333 
 
 THE DISCOVERY AND INTRODUCTION INTO USE OF ANTHRA- 
 CITE COAL. 
 
 General prejudice against its use — Difficulty of giving coal away, and the 
 danger of attempting to sell it — Hon. Charles Miner — Jacob Cist — Triuniplis 
 of stone-coal — Used up the Lackawanna as a fuel in 1812 — Details of in- 
 terest 333-343 
 
 WILLIAM AND MAURICE WURTS. 
 Their explorations in the coal-fields of the Lackawanna — A trivial incident 
 favors Wm. Wurts in purchasing the wild lands where Carbondale now 
 stands — Hon. Paul S. Preston — First load of coal ever drawn from the 
 Lackavvanna shipwrecked in the turbid waters of Jones's Creek — New York 
 and the Lackawanna Valley linked together by the social genius of canal, 
 railroad, and river — Delaware and Hudson Canal Compan)' — Tiie first loco- 
 motive-engine in America runs a short distance from Honesdale, in 1828 — 
 Achievements of this great '.-ompany — Thos. Dickson 343-363 
 
CONTENTS. 15 
 
 FALLING IN OF THE CARBONDALE MINES. pagk 
 
 Appalling tomb — One mile of slato and rock between tlie miners and the 
 outer world 363-3r,7 
 
 EARLIEST MAIL ROUTE THROUGH THE VALLEY. 
 Letter carried to Toedyuscuiig in 1 762 367-369 
 
 THE PENNSYLVANIA COAL COMPANY. 
 The entrance of this gravity coal-road into tlie valley vehemently opposed 
 by iatriguing meu — Its final success 369-372 
 
 FROM PITTSTON TO HAWLEY. 
 Fine views from Cobb Mountain — Local history — Cobb's Gap. . . 372-379 
 
 DELAWARE, LACKAWANNA, AND WESTERN RAILROAD. 
 Historical summary of the Susquehanna and Delaware Canal and Railroad 
 Company — The Leggett's Gap Railroad ; now merged into the Delaware, 
 Lackawanna, and Western Railroad — A brief detail of the early struggles 
 of energetic men to connect the Laclcawanna with the Delaware — Henry 
 W. Drinker, William Henry, Col. Geo. W. Scranton, John Brisbin, Samuel 
 Sloan 379-393 
 
 LACKAWANNA AND BLOOMSBURG RAILROAD, 
 dossing Wyoming battle-grounds — Wyoming scenery — Jas. Archibald.. .393-396 
 
 SKETCH OF THl-; EARLY HISTORY OP THE LEHIGH AND 
 SUSQUEHANNA RAILROAD. 
 
 Indian civili/.ers at Gnaddenhutten (now Weissport) in 174R — Casual dis- 
 covery of anthracite near Maucii Chunk, gives foetal life to the Lehigh Coal 
 and Navigation Company, and tames the wild waters of the Lehigh — 
 Slackwater navigation — The jealous interest of Wyoming, represented by 
 Hon. Andrew Beaumont, inimical to the Lehigh Coal and Navigation 
 Company — Jealousies allayed and harmony promoted by the company 
 agreeing to build a gravity railroad over the mountain from White Haven 
 to Wilkes Barre — Appalling flood upon the Lehigh in 18G2 — Locomotives 
 descend from the mount into Wyoming — Grandeur of the mountain view 
 — John Leisenring — John P. Ilsley 39G-403 
 
 HON. GEORGE W. SCRANTON. 
 A sketch of his life, and an estimate of his moral character, by Rev. Dr. 
 Peck 403-410 
 
 LEHIGH VALLEY RAILROAD. 
 The high ridge separating the Lehigh from the Lackawanna, receives another 
 diadem of iron — Hon. Asa Packer — The commercial greatness and impor- 
 tance of this thoroughfare, fraternizing with the Delaware, Lehigh, and 
 upper Susquehanna 410-41 7 
 
Hi 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 I. PAGE 
 
 Indian relic controversy — Wyoming fair 419-442 
 
 II. 
 
 The Lackawanna Valley fifty years ago and now 44:5 
 
 The churches of Scranton 444 
 
 Our school system 448 
 
 Health of the valley 449 
 
 Our charities — The Lackawanna and Moses Taylor Hospitals 449 
 
 Deaf and Dumb Institution 45(t 
 
 Home of the Friendless 451 
 
 Board of Trade 452 
 
 Our water 452 
 
 The lakes of the county 45:i 
 
 Precipices 453 
 
 Building development 454 
 
 Fire department 455 
 
 Mayors and the judiciary 455 
 
 Our physicians 458 
 
 The Delaware and Hudson Canal Company 45S 
 
 Coal waste and coal-breakers 4(52 
 
 Henry Roberts, M.D 465 
 
 Hon. Lewis Pughe 4(>6 
 
 The strikes 470 
 
 The Thirteenth Regiment 477 
 
 An industrial point 479 
 
 The industries of Scranton — The Dickson Manufacturing Company 4S0 
 
 Scranton Brass- and File-Works 484 
 
 Scranton City Foundry 4S4 
 
 Planing-mills — Providence 4S5 
 
 Scranton Stove- Works 485 
 
 (Jreen Ridge 486 
 
 Scranton Glass Company 487 
 
 Green Ridge Iron-AVorks 487 
 
 Up the valley — Carbondale 488 
 
 Soldiers' Monument — Van Bergen <fc Co. 's Works H89 
 
 Jermyn — Jermyn CotBn- and Casket- Works — Moosic Powder- Woiks 490 
 
 Archbald in 1844 491 
 
 Knitting-Factory 492 
 
 Winton 4 92 
 
 Peckville 49:! 
 
 Olyphant 49.S 
 
 Price — Dickson City 494 
 
 The inception of Lackawanna County (97 
 
 Laying of the Corner-Stone 501 
 
 Speech of Alfred Hand 502 
 
 General History, by E. Merrifield 507 
 
 The Banquet: Gentlemen present — Speeches of Judge Woodward, Judge Jessup, 
 Colonel Boies, J. F. Connolly, A. B. Dunning, W. AV. Scranton, J. E. Barrett, 
 E. P. Kingsbury, T. H. Dale, R. H. McKune, F. J. Fitzsimmons, Chas. Scran- 
 ton, J. J. Albright, John Jermyn, I.^aac C. Price 511-547 
 
 The Scranton Poor-House 64S 
 
HISTORY OF THE LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 
 
 INDIAN HISTORY. 
 
 The Indian's side of liistory can never be written, be- 
 cause traditions running back through centuries, and 
 cherished only by the red man whom they concerned, 
 peiished with tlie race that knew them. We shall read 
 of licmes reddened by the tomahawk or charred by the 
 fagot, but not of the wrongs urging the wild man to 
 defend the spot where his wigwam stood. When the 
 plain cabins of the Dutch first rose on the banks of tlie 
 Hudson, all the Indians "on the Connecticut, Hudson, 
 Delaware, and Susquehanna rivers, were in subjugation to 
 tlie Five Nations,"^ whose capital near the placid waters 
 <'f the Onondaga Lakes, lay but a day's walk or two from 
 the head -springs of the Lackawanna. 
 
 In 1827, Cusick published traditions of the Tuscaroras 
 running from " twenty -five hundred winters before Colum- 
 bus's discovery of America" down to the days of Ma- 
 homet. " About the time of Mahomet's career in 602, a 
 great Tyrant arose on the Kaunaseh, now Susquehanna 
 ilivei", wlio waged war with the surrounding nations, from 
 which it appears that while in Africa, Europe, and Asia 
 revolution succeeded revolution, empires rose on the 
 luius of empires, that in America the same scenes were 
 acting on as great a scale — cultivated regions, populous 
 cities and towns, were reduced to a wilderness, as in the 
 other countries."^ 
 
 ' Sraitli's History of Xew YorK. "American Antiquities, sec. ed., p. 349. 
 
 2 
 
18 HISTOKY OF THE 
 
 The Mohawks, asserting sovereignty over the proud 
 Pequots and Narragan setts, numbering many hundred 
 warriors, and exacting tribute from all the New England 
 tribes as late as the sixteenth century, claimed the wildei- 
 ness from the Connecticut to Wyoming. Massasoit, the 
 ever warm friend of the Pilgrims, and Ids son Philip, 
 afterward celebrated as King Philip, had frequent con- 
 flicts with this haughty, powerful tribe. The Dutch gave 
 tliem the name of Maquos} The French, between whom 
 war was almost perpetual, called them Iroquois.^ 
 
 When Captain John Smith was carried prisoner to the 
 castle of Powhatan, in 1607, he learned that the " Sas- 
 que-sah-ha-noughs" (Susquehanna Indians), living upon 
 the river by this name, "are a Gyant like people and are 
 thus atyred," giving in his work a graphic illustration of 
 a chief "atyred" in all the gorgeous style of the wild 
 man. 
 
 The Confederation known as the Six Nations, foi-nx^d 
 by the union of Mohawks, Senecas, Onondagos, Oneidas, 
 Cayugas, and the Tuscaroras, was not only formidable in 
 the number of its warriors, but so democratic in the char- 
 acter of its organization, and so terrible in the exercise of 
 its power, that few new settlements, made along the fron- 
 tier, acquired either growth or age without harm or appre- 
 hension. Its power was absolute and unquestioned ; its 
 government a limited monarchy. This was vested in a 
 Great Sachem or Chief, directed by a Council of Braves 
 and aged warriors noted for wisdom and bravery. Its 
 ever-burning Council Fire blazed from the plains of 
 
 ' This word, derived from moho. signifies to eat. — Roger Williams. Or Mo- 
 hawks signifies cannibals or man-eaters, among other tribes of Indians. — Trum- 
 bull, Q. S., pp. 1-4 ; Hutchinson, vol. i., p. 405. This tribe was situated along the 
 Mohawk, and from it took its name, and was one of the powerful Five Nations 
 who in 1713 were joined by the Tuskaroras, a large tribe from North Carolina, 
 and thence known by the name of Six Nations. — Williamson's North Carolina, 
 vol. i., p. 202. Hon. De Witt Clinton, in N. Y. Hist. Soc. Col., vol. ii., p. 48, says 
 that the Tuskaroras joined the other nations in 1712. 
 
 ' X. Y. Hist. Col., vol. ii., p. 44. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 19 
 
 Oh-na-qu-go, while the edicts and wislies of the assem- 
 bled sachems, carried to Manhattan's shore by runners, 
 were known and respected even in the far-off region of 
 the magnolia and palmetto. With a dialect whose strange 
 intonations ])ewildered the ear of the white man, and 
 whose tongue, destitute of labials, was so diverse and 
 €orrupted from the parent language, that many of the 
 tribes living on the same stream could only converse 
 through an interpreter ;^ with neither books nor charts, 
 with no history but the wigwam's lore, no guide but the 
 moon's gray twilight, no valley was sunk too far away in 
 the mountains, no stream stretched its tranquil length 
 through grounds too remote from the war-path to escape 
 the notice of men clad in skins, who occupied and gave 
 them a name. 
 
 Charles Miner, in his really unequaled and chai'ming 
 History of Wyoming^ remarks, with truth, that, "in un- 
 raveling the tangled web of Indian history, we found our- 
 selves in the outset extremely embarrassed, especially 
 when reading the pages of Heckewelder and other writers 
 of the United Brethren. The removal of tribes or parts 
 of tiibes to the valley ; their remaining a brief })eriod and 
 then emigrating to some other place, without any apparent 
 motive founded in personal convenience, consistency, or 
 wisdom, perplexed us exceedingly, as we doubt not it has 
 others," 
 
 The forest between the Hudson and Lake Huron con- 
 stituted the sachemship of the Iroquois, or Five Nations, 
 whose "smokes" ascended from the mountains of Ver- 
 mont to the head-waters of the Delaware, Susquelianna, 
 and tlie Ohio. The number of their warriors in 1600 was 
 estimated by Chalmers to have been twenty-two huiidivd, 
 while Bancroft puts the figure at ten thousand. Their 
 language, spoken by the Pequods, the Narragansetts, the 
 Mohawks, and Delawares, was the mother-tongue that 
 
 ' Jefferson. 
 
20 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 welcomed tlie Pilgrims^ and plead for Smith on tlieCliick- 
 ahominy, through the fervid lips of Pocahontas. Be- 
 tween the Delaware and the Susquehanna, in the narrow, 
 green plateau of the Lackawanna, dwelt a division of the 
 Lenni-Lenape — the Minsi or Monsey clan, which, like the 
 tribes at AVyoming, stripped of their glory by the Iro- 
 quois, melted away into other tribes strolling through the 
 wilderness as conquerors. The Senecas and Oneidas, 
 two of the radest, most vindictive, as well as energetic 
 members of the confederated Nations, took the most 
 prominent part in the affairs of Wyoming. Their villages 
 were strung around the lesser lakes feeding Ontario, 
 while their seat of government was located at Onondaga, 
 now Syracuse, 
 
 "The Onondagos," writes Miner, "were eminent as 
 counselors, distinguished for eloquence, perhaps revered, 
 like the tribe of Levi, as the priesthood of the confedera- 
 cy, to whose care was committed the keeping or kindling 
 the sacred fire around Avhich their most solemn delibeia- 
 tions were held." After the Sene*"as and Oneidas, whose 
 camp-tires gave a savage cheer to Wyoming as early as 
 1640,- had removed to the land of the Iroquois, feebler 
 tribes, w^hicli had lost favor with tlie civil sachems or the 
 great war chiefs, were concentrated in this lovely region 
 under the immediate eye and reach of royal prerogative. 
 
 Thus came the ShaAvnees from southern everglades, 
 whose names are yet affixed to the lower portion of 
 Wyoming Valley, and thus the Nanticokes, in 1748, came 
 from the Chesakawon on the Chesapeake, and found 
 shelter on the Susquehanna until their removal to Onon- 
 daga in 1755. The Delawares, of whom Teedyuscung 
 was long the leading sachem, playing an important part 
 in the history of AVyoming, taunted as women and treated 
 as vassals, were ordered by the Six Nations, in the most 
 imi^erious manner, into this valle}^ in 1742. 
 
 ' Bancroft. ' Miuer. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKY. 21 
 
 At a great Council held at Philadelphia, July 12, 1742, 
 where over two hundred warriors were assembled to talk 
 with the Governor of Pennsylvania, in regard to the 
 transgressions of the Delawares, who had sold lands on 
 the river Delaware fifty years before, and who had re- 
 fused to remove from the same, Canassategoe addressed 
 them thus : — 
 
 "Cousins, you ought to be taken by the hair of your 
 head and shak'd severely till you recover your senses 
 and become sober. Our Brother Onas"' case is very just 
 and plain and his Intentions to preserve friendship ; on 
 the other Hand your Cause is bad, your Heart far from 
 being upright, and you are maliciously bent to break the 
 Chain of friendship with our Brother Onas. But how 
 came you to take upon you to Sell Land at all? We 
 conquered You, we made Women of you ; you know you 
 are Women, and can no more sell Land tlian Women. 
 You have been furnished with Cloaths and Meat and 
 Drink by the Goods paid you for it, and now You want 
 it again like Children as you are. Did you ever tell Us 
 that you had sold this Land in the Dark '. did we ever 
 receive any Part, even the Value of a Pipe Shank, from 
 you for it ? You have told Us a Blind Story that you 
 sent a Messenger to Us to infoi'm Us of the Sale, but he 
 never came amongst Us, nor we never heard any thing 
 about it. This is acting in the Dark, and very different 
 from the Conduct our Six Nations observe in tlieir Sales 
 of Land. On such Occasions they give Publick Notice 
 and invite all the Indians of their united Nations, and 
 give them a share of the Presents they i-eceive for their 
 Lands. This is the behaviour of the wise United Na- 
 tions, but we find you are none of our Blood. Y^ou Act a 
 dishonest part not only in this but in other Matters. Y^our 
 Ears are ever Open to Slanderous Reports about our 
 
 ' Peun received from the Indians the name of Onas — i. e., quill or pen, from 
 the fact that he governed by these instead of guns. 
 
22 HIbTOUY OF THE 
 
 Brethren. For all these we charge You to remove i7i- 
 stantly. We don't give you the liberty to think about it. 
 You are Women ; take the Advice of a AVise Man and 
 remove immediately. You may return to the other side 
 of the Delaware where you came from, but we don't know 
 whether Considering how you have demean' d yourselves, 
 you will be permitted to live there, or whether you have 
 not swallowed that Land down your Throats as well as 
 the Land on this side. We, therefore. Assign you two 
 Places to go to — either to Wyomin or ShamoJcin. You 
 may go to either of these Places, and then we shall have 
 you more under our Eye, and shall see how You behave. 
 Don't deliberate, but remove away and take this Belt of 
 Wampum,"^ 
 
 This peremptory command, given in such a haughty 
 and offensive manner, admitting of no evasion or appeal, 
 was obeyed b}' the Delawares, who at once repaired to 
 the Wyoming hunting-grounds. "Such," says Chap- 
 man, "was the origin of the Indian town of Wyoming. 
 Soon alter the arrival of the Delawares, and dui-ing tlie 
 same season (the summer of 1742), a distinguished for- 
 eigner. Count Zinzendorf, of Saxony, arrived in the Valley 
 on a religious mission to the Indians. This nobleman is 
 believed to have been the lirst white person that ever 
 visited AVyoming. He was the reviver of the ancient 
 church of the United Brethren, and had given protection 
 in his dominions to the persecuted Protestants who had 
 emigrated from Moravia, thence taking the name of 3Io 
 ravians, and who, two years before, had made their 
 first settlement in Pennsylvania. 
 
 "Upon his arrival in America, Count Zinzendorf mani- 
 fested a great anxiety to have the Gospel preached to the 
 Indians ; and although he had heard much of the ferocity 
 of the Shawanese, formed a resolution to visit them. 
 With this view he repaired to Tulpehoclien^ the residence 
 
 1 Col. Rec, vol. iv., pp. 579-SO. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKY. 23 
 
 of Conrad Weiser, a celebrated interpreter and Indian 
 agent for the Government, whom he wished to engage 
 in the cause, and to accompany him to thn Shawanese 
 town. 
 
 " Weiser was too much occupied in business to go 
 immediately to Wyoming, but he i'urnislied the Count 
 with letters to a missionary of the name of Mack, and 
 the latter, accompanied by his wife, who could speak the 
 Indian language, proceeded immediately with Zinzendorf 
 on the projected mission. 
 
 " The Shawanese appeared to be alarmed on the arrival 
 of the strangers, who pitched their tents on the banks of 
 the river a little below the town, and a council of the 
 chiefs having assembled, the declared purpose of Zinzen- 
 dorf was deliberately considered. To these unlettered 
 children of the wilderness, it appeared altogether improb- 
 able that a stranger should have braved the dangers of a 
 boisterous ocean, three thousand miles broad, for the sole 
 purpose of instructing them in the means of obtaining 
 happiness after death, and that, too, without requiring 
 any compensation for his tiouble and expense ; and as 
 they had observed tiie anxiety of the white people to 
 purcliase land of the Indians, they naturally concluded 
 that the real object of Zinzendorf was either to procure 
 from them the lands at Wyoming for his own use, to 
 search for hidden treasures, or to examine the country 
 with a view to future conquests. It was accordingly re- 
 solved to assassinate him, and to do it privately, lest the 
 knowledge of the transaction should produce a war with 
 the English, who were settling the country below the 
 mountains. 
 
 " Zinzendorf was alone in his tent, seated upon a bun- 
 dle of dry weeds, which composed his bed, and engaged 
 in writing, when the assassins approached to execute 
 their bloody commission. It was night, and the cool air 
 of September had rendered a small fire necessary to his 
 comfort and convenience. A curtain foinied of a blanket 
 
24 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 and hung upon pins, was the only guard to the entrance 
 of his tent. 
 
 "The heat of his fire had aroused a large rattlesnake 
 which lay in the weeds not far from it ; and the reptile, 
 to enjoy it more effectually, crawled slowly into the tent, 
 and passed over one of his legs undiscovered. "Without, 
 all was still and quiet, except the gentle marmur of the 
 liver at the rapids about a mile below. At this moment 
 the Indians softly approached the door of his tent, and 
 slightly removed the curtain, contemplated the venerable 
 man, too deeply engaged in the subject of his thoughts 
 to notice either their approach, or the snake which lay ex- 
 tended before him. At a sight like this, even the heart of 
 a savage shrunk from the idea of committing so horrid an 
 act, and quitting the spot, they hastily returned to the 
 town, and informed their companions that the Oreat 
 Spirit j^rotected the white man, for they had found him 
 with no door but a blanket, and had seen a large rattle- 
 snake crawl over his legs without attempting to injure 
 liini. This circumstance, together with the arrival soon 
 afterward of Conrad Weiser, procured Zinzendoif the 
 friendsliip and confidence of the Indians, and probably 
 contributed essentially toward inducing many of them, 
 at a subsequent period, to embrace the Christian reli- 
 gion. 
 
 "TIk' Count having spent twenty days at AVyoming 
 i-etuined to Bethlehem, a town then building by his 
 Christian brethren on the north bank of the Lehigh, 
 about eleven miles from its junction with the Dela- 
 ware.''^ 
 
 In the recently published life of Count Zinzendorf, by 
 Dr. Gill, of London, this visit, as well as the character 
 of the Indians at Wyoming, are thus described. "The 
 Count as missionary to give these Indians a ])rarti cable 
 insight into the religion lie came to teach, by simply lead- 
 
 ' Miner's Vryoming, p. M9. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. '25 
 
 iiig a Christian life amongst them, and when favorable 
 impressions had thus been made and inquiry was excited, 
 he preached the leading truths of the gospel, taking care, 
 not to put more things into their heads than their hearts 
 could lay hold of. His mode of approaching them was 
 carefully adapted to their distinctive peculiarities ; his 
 last tour, in the autumn of 1742, after crossing the primeval 
 forest, he pitched his tent a short distance from 'Wayo- 
 mick ' the capital of the Shawanos, and remained there 
 three weeks, observing the habits of the people, and con- 
 versing with them, so as to make himself familiar with 
 their ideas, before he proceeded more directly with the 
 special object of his mission. He found this tribe to be one 
 of the most corrupt and most opposed to the truth. They 
 soon concerted violent measures to get rid of him, and 
 would have killed him and his companions, but that his 
 interpreter, in w^hose absence tlie murder \vas to have 
 been committed, returned unexpectedly and discovered 
 the plot. Such was the form in which these poor sav- 
 ages manifested their hatred to a man whose motives 
 they could not comprehend, and whom they looked upon 
 as an intruder." 
 
 When Conrad Weiser, a celebrated Indian inteipietei-, 
 visited Wyoming in 1754, he reported that he found but 
 three Indian towns between Shamokin and Wyoming— 
 Os-k )-ha-ny, Nis-ki-beck-on (Nescopeck), and Woya- 
 mock.^ He also reported that the Indians on the Susque- 
 hanna had seen some of the New England men that came 
 "as spies to Woyamock last fall, and they saw them 
 making draughts of the land and rivers."- The Dehi- 
 wares had built '' Woyamock, and tw^elve miles higher U]> 
 the river a town called Asserughney. where about twenty 
 Indian Dela wares, all molently against the English"^ 
 were found at this time. 
 
 This village stood between the bold preci})ice, famed 
 
 iCol. Rec, vol. vi., p. 35. "Ibid. 'Ibid, p. G6. 
 
2<> 
 
 HISTOKY OF THK 
 
 the world over as CampbelV s Ledge, and tlie month of 
 the Lackawanna, on the eastern bank of the Susi]ue- 
 
 hanna. ^ This, like all their villages, was small, as hunt- 
 
 ' Tachneckdorus, a fiiendl}' Delaware chief, informed the Governor of Pennsjl- 
 
LACKAWANNA VAF.LKY. 27 
 
 iiig and fishing were the main sources of supporting the 
 })opulation, naturally averse to labor. This high ledge, 
 affording an uninterrupted look-out over the valley be- 
 low, was used by the Indians not only thus to guard 
 their wigwams, nestled along the river, but to kindle their 
 beacon-fires at the evening or midnight hour, as they were 
 Avont to be kindled on the Scottish highlands in the days 
 of Wallace and Bruce, to show those who watched the 
 portentous flame the presence of danger, or signal the 
 movements of an enemy. 
 
 While Asserughney was the Indian name of the town, 
 Adjouqua was applied to the lower portion of the Lack- 
 awanna Valley. This castle, or encampment, was the 
 upper one of the Delawares in Wyoming. It was a point 
 of importance because of its favorable location for trading 
 purposes. The great wai'-path from the inland lakes of 
 New York to Wyoming and the South, and the trail down 
 the Lackawanna from the Minisink homes on the Dela- 
 ware, passed thi-ough it. Fur-parties, and dusky chiefs, 
 with their captives, alike followed the solitude of its pas- 
 sage tlirough these true Indian lands. 
 
 Capoose village, up the shallow Lackawanna, eight 
 miles from Assf^rughney, was built a few years previous 
 to tliis, and occupied by the Monseys, who, like the more 
 numerous Delawares, paid tribute to the Tartars of the 
 western world at Onondaga. These villages w<-re con- 
 structed in piimitive fashion, from green bark, boughs, 
 and weeds. As the war-paths passed through them, they 
 
 vania in Febninrv, 175(5, -'that Ne^hcopeckon is deserted upon a rumor that pre- 
 vailed among them of j'our coming up wiih a large number of men to cut them 
 oflf, and they, the Delawares, fled to Assarockney and higlier up, having there a 
 big hill on one side and the Sasquehannah on the other side of the present town." 
 Colonial Records, vol. vii., p. 52. The number of warriors at .\sserughney was 
 estunated at two hundred. 
 
 In an old map of the country of the Six Nations, made by Guy Johnson in 1771, 
 and found in the Documentary History of New York, vol. iv.. p. 1091, a stream 
 is put down in the place of the Lackawanna as Mac-ha-pon-da creek. Whether 
 it had reference to Meshoppen or Lackawanna is difficult to determine from tlie 
 map; probably tlie former. 
 
28 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 were alike threatened by nomadic tribes, espousing the 
 interests of the English or the French. This led the Six 
 Nations, in June, 1756, to depute Og-ha-gha-cJ islia, a 
 chief of the Iroquois, living on the north branch of the 
 Susquehanna, to ask the Provincial Council of Pennsyl- 
 vania to build a fort at the mouth of the Lackawanna. 
 At a Conference held at the camp at Armstrong's, June 
 10, 1756, between Col. William Claphan and Og-ha-gha- 
 disha, the chief thus addressed the colonel : — 
 
 "My Brother: The Iroquois have sent me as a repre- 
 sentative of the whole nation to treat with you (producing 
 a belt of wampum), and will ratify all my contracts. 
 Brother: they agreed to your building a fort at Shamo- 
 kin, but are desirous that you should also build a fort 
 three days' journey in a canoe higher up the Nortli 
 Branch in their country, at a place called Adjouquay, 
 and this belt of wampum is to clear the road to that 
 ])iace. Brother: If you agree to my proposal in behalf 
 of ni}^ nation, I will return and immediately collect our 
 Avhole force to be employed in protecting your people 
 Avliile you are building a fort in our country at Adiou- 
 quay, where there is a good situation and tine soil at the 
 entrance of a deep cretdc on a level plain five miles ex- 
 tending, and clear of woods. Adjouqua is fourteen miles 
 above Wioming,^ and old women may carry a heavy pack 
 of skins from thence to the Minisink and return to Ad- 
 jouqua in two nights. My Brother : The Land is troubled, 
 and you may justly apprehend danger, but if you grant 
 our request we will be together, and if any danger liap- 
 ])ens to 3'ou, we will share it with you. My Brother 
 (laying down a belt of wampum folded in the middle) : 
 
 ' No allusion has ever been made to Aljouquay by Wyoming historians. As- 
 sarughney and Adjouquay are botli spoken of by different Indians as being ten, 
 uvelve, and fourteen miles above Wyoming. This apparent discrepancy arose, 
 not from the fact that miles were measured by loalkts, but that Wyoming was 
 located either at the Delaware, Shawnees, or Xanticoke towns, all crouched along 
 the river hetow the present location of Wilkes Barre. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 29 
 
 this describes your patli to Shamokin ; iiiifolding the belt 
 and extending it to its full length, this is your road to 
 Adjouquay.'" Governor Morris thanked the chief for 
 his kind speech, and in his reply said : " Brother : I am 
 desired to build another fort fourteen miles above Wio- 
 ming, at a place called Adjouquay. I have agreed to this 
 request, and am taking measures to do it out hand, about 
 which I shall want to consult you." - 
 
 A line of forts, some twenty miles apart, stretched 
 along the frontier from the Potomac to the Delaware in 
 1756-58. Stroudsburg, the pretty shire town of the 
 county of Monroe, although taking its name from Colonel 
 Jacob Stroud, who commanded Fort Penn at this point 
 during the Revolutionary war, received a definite step 
 toward a settlement from the presence of one of the most 
 eastern of these outposts, erected in 1757— Fort Hamilton. 
 
 IXDIAN VILLAGE OF CAPOOSE. — TEEDYUSCUNG. 
 
 The low, ricli bottom on the western bordei' of the 
 Lackawanna, between Providence and Scj-antoiL was 
 known to the earliest explorers as " Capoose Meadow"— 
 a name probably given to perpetuate tlie memory of a 
 civil chief, Capoose, excelling in the art of agriculture and 
 peace. The Monseys, or a prominent branch of tliat tribe, 
 left the Minisink and diffused through the Lackawanna 
 Valley, as early as any authentic history comes down to 
 the white man from the Lenni-Lenapes. As this village- 
 was visited in 1742 by Count Zinzendorf, who named the 
 county Saint Anthony's Wilderness,' its date and occu- 
 pancy must have been considerably anterior to this. This 
 tribe, rudely gashing the margin of the Lackawanna for 
 the reception of maize as early as 1700, appears originally 
 to have been an off-shoot of the Delawares. Their liistoi-'v 
 
 ' CoL Rec, vol. vii., pp. 157-8. 'Ibid, p. 159. 
 
 » Evens' Map of 1747, in Ebling's History of Pennsylvania. 
 
30 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 and habits are so assimilated as to indicate a common 
 origin. Botli spoke the Algonquin language of the Iro- 
 quois — a language abounding in vowels and fertile in 
 dialect — obeyed laws emanating from the same source, 
 and both are intimately associated in colonial and pro- 
 vincial history. The Monseys, like every tribe, scattered 
 along the Susquehanna and its branches, acknowledged 
 the supremacy of the Onondaga head, and were so noma- 
 dic in their habits, that the Pennsylvania archives often 
 refer to Mousey warriors from Wickalousin (Wyalusing), 
 Chokonot (Cochecton), and from many other places along 
 the rivers of the Province. When the Delawares moved 
 to Ohio, the Monseys accompanied them, and ultimately 
 dissolved into that conquered nation. Vast tracts of land 
 was claimed by the Monseys and Delawares, who jointly 
 occupied New Jersey, the Schuylkill Basin, and the licli 
 valley of the Delaware in 1646. ^ January 30, 1743, 
 Capoose gave to Moses Totomy, a Delaware of some local 
 influence, power of attorney- to sell these lands to tlie 
 whites, or transact any other business with tlie Govern- 
 ment relating to lands chiimed by him. The greater 
 portion of these domains were thus sold by Capoose to 
 Governor Penn in October, 1758. Thus the upper border 
 of Adjourqiiay, exquisite in the beauty of woods veined 
 with springs and creeks, whose waters ran to t^e sea 
 unruffled save by rock or deer, rich in game and fish, easy 
 of conquest, was selected by Capoose for his home after 
 the English began to encroach upon forest-lands east of 
 the Hudson. The hunting-grounds of Capoose extended 
 down the Lackawanna and Nay-aug, and up the river to 
 its very head-waters. The Scranton race-course is within 
 the ancient border of Capoose ; the Diamond mines open 
 upon its western border. 
 
 Their burial-place, long since smoothed down by the 
 plow, lay on the high bank of the Lackawanna, a quarter 
 
 ' Bancroft. " Peunsylvania Archives, 1758, p. 341. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 
 
 31 
 
 of a mile above their town, where vast quantities of relics 
 liave been found heretofore by the antiquarian. Although 
 the Avhole valley was familiar with the tawny cabin dwell- 
 
 ers, long before the blankness of their lives were marked 
 by the intrusion of the pale-face, ignorant even of the 
 topography of the country, this clearing oi- meadow of 
 
32 IIISTOKY OF THE 
 
 Capoose, was the main one found in the valley by the 
 pioneer, where the wigwam stood on a cultivated spot. 
 And even here, as the men were too la/y to [)lant the corn, 
 or secure the scanty harvest, the labor fell upon the more 
 submissive squaws. The Indian artisans were skilled in 
 the art of manufacturing, from flint and stone, implements 
 for agriculture and the chase, elegant arrow-heads and 
 spear points ; the rude pebble, and sometimes the rai-er 
 silex were shaped into pipes and ornaments of symbolic 
 meaning, while bowls were fashioned from dried clay with 
 an ingenuity never equaled by the white man within the 
 stone period. While their war-path ran along under the 
 sycamore and vine fringing the bank of the Lackawanna, 
 the waters of the stream, sometimes wild in its uprisings, 
 opened a favorite highway for their canoes descending 
 with the silent w^arriors to the plains of Wyoming. 
 
 In accordance w^ith the usual habit pi-acticed by tiie 
 Indians, of annually burning over their huntiiig-giounds 
 with a vieAv of destroying the smaller trees in the way of 
 securing game, there was remaining, when the whites ap- 
 peared, little underbrush to interfere in the chase around 
 Capoose, now known as Tripp's Flats. The forest around 
 it was stocked with game. The pheasant whirred from 
 the brake in conscious security, the duck rode in the 
 stream as if it were its own, the rabbit squatted in the 
 laurel in diowsy attitude, the moose and elk stood among 
 the pines or thundered through them like the tread of 
 cavalry ; the deer browsed daintly upon the juicy leaf, 
 whih.' the Moosic slope, unshorn of its foliage, offered to 
 the panther and bear but little shield from the quick 
 poised arrow of the woodsman. The beaver, muskrat, and 
 otter, enlivened the stream in whose waters fish swam in 
 schools. Perch, pike, and even shad, filled the Lacka- 
 wanna, while every joyous brook from the mountain was 
 spotted with tiout. Hooks, constructed with singular 
 ingenuity from bone, or nets woven from the inner bark 
 of trees, or even the stone-tipped spear. whi(di thev threw 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLICY. 33 
 
 with admirable adroitness at a distance of thirty feet, 
 while the fish were moving rapidly, never failed to sup- 
 ply the wigwam with food. 
 
 Capoose himself was a contemporary of Teedyusciing 
 of the Delawares, but so diverse in chaj-acter and temper- 
 ament, that while the latter was ambitious for distinction, 
 and prominent in council gatherings, where he Jointly 
 looked after the interests of the Monseys and his own 
 tribe, Capoose, undecked with the emblems of war, lived 
 in amity Avith the whites, encouraged the culture of the 
 soil, and left behind him a name untarnished with either 
 blood or carnage. 
 
 Long after the occupancy of this region by Capoose, 
 the Moravians indented a settlement in the Province above 
 the Blue Mountain. On the wild wateis of the Ma-ha- 
 noy, where it joins the Lehigh, eighteen miles above 
 Bethlehem, these Indian civilizers encamped in 1743. 
 " Except the erection of the fort,'' says Miner, " this was 
 the first settlement in a northeast direction in Pennsyl- 
 vania, above the Kittatinny Ridge or Blue Mountain/' 
 This was about forty miles from Wyoming, and the only 
 road intervening was the narrow path of the wai-rior. 
 
 Easton, the shire-town of Northampton County, admir- 
 ably located for agricultural purposes or trafiic with tlie 
 men w^ho patrolled the forest, laid out for a village in 
 1750, and Lower Smithfield, on the Delaware, above the 
 present village of Stroudsburg, had but a few clearings 
 opened in 1751, occupied by Charles Broadhead, Samuel 
 Dupue, John McMichael, John Carmeckle, John Ander- 
 son, James Tidd, Job Bakehoin, and Henry Dysert. 
 These were held under proprietory auspices. No attempt 
 had yet been made to settle Wyoming or LackaAvanna. 
 The hunter and trapper coveting furs, more bold than the 
 emigrant, unwilling to risk his life for a doubtful home, 
 had ventured hither, but the French and Indian wars of 
 this period arrested explorations, and sent alarm into 
 every inland settlement within the Province. 
 
o4: HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Braddock's defeat in 1755, disastrous especially to 
 western Pennsylvania, illuminated the whole frontier 
 with burning cabins. The French, promisino; large re- 
 wards for scalps to those they assured should again be 
 reinstated upon lands already sold the English, readily 
 won over the red-men, of whom tliirty were reported at 
 Wyoming, November 9, 1755, and "much larger bodies 
 up the river and branches.'" ^ 
 
 The Indians, never slumbering, but ever ready to sway 
 to and fro, as success alternated with either party, in- 
 dulging in the hope that the English might be expelled 
 from their former plains, entered into an alliance with the 
 French with extraordinary zeal and readiness. Gnadden- 
 liutten was burned in 1755 by "a band of Indians coming 
 from Wyoming,"- and the plantations of Mr. Broadhead, 
 some twenty-five or thirty miles from Bethleliem, of 
 Frederick Heath on Pocho Poclito Creek, and Mr. Calvers, 
 McMichael's, and "houses and families thereabouts were 
 attacked by the Indians at daylight and burnt down by 
 them."^ Mr. Broadhead estimated the number of war- 
 riors at two hundred. This attack upon the settlement 
 was marked by the same atrocity characterizing much of 
 the border warfare.^ As all the Susquehanna and Lacka- 
 wanna Indians except the Mousey s were disposed for 
 peace in the spring of 1757, '^ Mr. Miner concludes that 
 the Oneidas and Senekas from the lakes formed the war 
 party. Hostilities had been suspended against tlie Dela- 
 wares living "on the east side of the northeast biancli 
 of the Susquehanna,"" when they were complained of 
 as being the most troublesome, and of whom Conrad 
 Weiser reported in December, 1755, as being alienated 
 from the English and living at Schantowano (Wayomack) 
 in a town called Nescopeckon. 
 
 Had not the Wyoming Indians caught the war spirit 
 
 ' Col. Rec, vol. vi., p. 752. ' Christian Library. ' Col. Rec, vol. vi., p. "752. 
 * Ibid., p. 759. ' Ibid., p. 506. ' Pennsylvania Archives, 17-tS-175i;, p. 663. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALI.KY. S5 
 
 at the war-dance, there certain]}' would have been no 
 necessity for desiring peace on one side, or tlic sus- 
 pension of liostilities on the other. Instead of being 
 the above-named tribes ak)ne, it is probable that the 
 Delawares, exasperated by the sale of Wj^oming lands to 
 Connecticut people, or the Monseys, not yet desiring p(\ice', 
 issuing from the wigwams of Capoose, wei-e jointly guilty 
 of this niurdeious breach of good faith toward the United 
 Brethren. 
 
 In 1757, Teedyuscung, the proud, jealous head of the 
 Delawares, requested the Governor of Pennsylvania to so 
 tix and deline his land around his village on tlie Susque- 
 hanna that "his children can never sell or yours ever 
 buy them," and to remain so forever. He also asked the 
 Proprietary Government to assist him in building houses 
 at Wyoming before corn-planting time. Ten log houses, 
 "twenty feet by fourteen in the clear, and one twenty- 
 four by sixteen, of squai-ed logs, and dovetailed,'" were 
 l)uilt for him in 1758. To check or crush the ambitious 
 ])rojects of New England men about forming a colony at 
 AVyoming, intluenced their erection by Pennsylvania 
 quite as much as any especial regard for the Delaware 
 sachem.- One of the masons was killed and scalped by 
 six hostile Indians while engaged at this labor. 
 
 A treaty of peace was held at Easton, November 8, 1756, 
 with great pomp and ceremony, when the conflicting in- 
 terests of either party were long talked over and lifar- 
 moniously adjusted amid the clattering of tongues and 
 the smoke of the calumet. To cripple the French, against 
 whom the English had formally proclaimed war in 1756, 
 <>v rather to render the treaty of any practical vahie, the 
 Iroquois, proud of their strength, never wielded in vain, 
 and conscious of the wrongs of their fathers, they were 
 impatient to redress, had first to hi? reconciled and con- 
 sulted. '"The influence of Sir WLlliam Jolinson/' ^<\vs , 
 
 ' Pa. Arel'.., 1758, p. 8. " Col. Rec, 1754, p. CO. 
 
36 HISTORY UF TUli 
 
 Miner, ''agent of Indian affairs, was invoked to hiiiii!; the 
 Six Nations to a new Congress. JSTeithei- presents nor 
 promises were spared, and in October, 1758, there was 
 opened at Easton, one of the most imposing assemblages 
 ever beheld in Pennsylvania. Chiefs from the Six 
 Nations were there, namely, Mohawks, Oneidas, Onon- 
 dagas, Cayiigas, Senecas, and Tuscaroras. There were 
 also present embassadors from the tributary tribes of 
 Minisinks, Mohicans, Wapingers, and Shawanese. Both 
 the Governors of Pennsylvania and New Jersey at- 
 tended ; with Sir AVilliam Johnson and George Crogan, 
 Esq., sub Indian agent, a deputation from the Provincial 
 Assembly at New Jersey, and a large concourse of eminent 
 citizens from Pliiladel2:)hia and the neighboring counties. 
 Teedyuscung on the way to the conference having fallen 
 in company with the chief who had commanded the ex- 
 pedition against the Gnadenhutten and Fort Allen, high 
 words arose between them, when the king raised his 
 tomahawk and laid the chief dead at his feet. Fi'om this 
 moment, though vengeance might slumbe]", he was a 
 doomed man, a sacrifice alike to policy and revenge. At 
 the Congress Teedyuscung, eloquent and of imposing ad- 
 dress, took at first a decided lead in the debates." But 
 one of the chiefs of the Six Nations, says Chapman, '-on 
 the other side, expressed in strong language his resent- 
 ment against the British colonists, who had killed and 
 imprisoned one of his tribe, and he, as well as other chiefs 
 of those nations, took great umbrage at the importance 
 assumed by Teedyuscung, whom, as one of the Dela- 
 wares, they considered in some degree subject to their 
 authority. Teedyuscung, however, supported the higii 
 station which he held, with dignity and firmne s, and the 
 different Indian tribes at length became ivconciled to each 
 other. The conference having continued eighteen days, 
 and all causes of misunderstanding between the English 
 and Indians being removed, a general treaty of peace Avas 
 concluded on the twenty-sixtli day of October. At this 
 
LACKAWAXXA VALLEY. 3( 
 
 treaty the boundaries of the dittVivnt purchases nuid(^ from 
 the Indians were more particularly described, and they 
 received an additional compensation for theij- lands, 
 consisting of knives, hats, caps, looking-glasses, tobacco- 
 boxes, shears, gun-locks, combs, clothes, shoes, stock- 
 ings, blankets, and sevei-al suits of hiced clothes for their 
 chieftains, and when the business of the treaty was com- 
 pleted, the stores of rum were opened and distributed to 
 the Indians, who soon exhibited a scene of brutal in- 
 toxication." 
 
 Although for many years aftei'ward, the tomahawk 
 hung over the Lackawanna and Susquehanna settlements 
 like a shadow over the mountain, the decline of the 
 Indian empire in America can be dated from the last- 
 mentioned treaty, while the power of the hitherto victori- 
 ous French, then marching through the forest with General 
 Forbes to attack Fort Du Quesne, was so suddenly 
 shaken by the desertion of their allies, as to i-esult in 
 their defeat in this expedition, and their final oveillii-ow 
 in Northern America. 
 
 Daring this year, many of the Dela wares and Mousey s, 
 and most of the Shawanese removed fi-om tlie valley 
 westward. 
 
 When Teedyuscung visited Easton, in July, 1756, Major 
 Parsons was requested to keep a written memoranda of 
 the general behavior and conversation of the king, from 
 which it would seem that the high position assumed and 
 maintained by Mm in Council, was hardly comy)atible or 
 consistent with his ordinary life. ''The king and his 
 wild company were perpetually drunk, very much on 
 Gascoon, and at times abusive to the inhabitants, for they 
 all spoke English more or less. The king was full of 
 himself, saying frequently, that which side soever lie took 
 must stand, and the other fall ; repeating it with insolence, 
 that he came from the French, who had pressed him 
 much to join them against the English, that now he was 
 in the middle between the French and English, quite 
 
38 HISIORT OF THE 
 
 disengaged from botli sides, and whether he joined with 
 the English or Frencli, lie would publish it aloud to thw 
 world, that all nations might know it. That he was 
 born among the English, somewhere near Trenton, and m 
 near fifty years old. He is a lusty, raw-boned man, 
 haughty, and very desirous of respect and command ; he 
 can drink three quarts or a gallon of rum a day, without 
 being drunk ; he was the man that persuaded the Dela- 
 wares to go over to the French, and then attack our fron- 
 tiers, and he, and those with him, have been concerned in 
 the, mischief done to the inhabitants of Northampton 
 County. Some of the Indians said, that between forty or 
 fifty of their people came to Drahoga, from one of the lakes, 
 about the time they set out, in order to fall upon our in- 
 habitants, and addressed Teedyuscung to liead them, but 
 he told them he was going to the Governor of Pennsyl- 
 vania to treat with him concerning a peace-, which the 
 Mohocks had advised him to do, and therefore he ordered 
 them to sit still till he came back again to them. The towns 
 people observed that the shirts which the Indian women 
 had on weie made of Dutch table-cloths, which it is sup- 
 posed they took from the people they murdered on our 
 frontiers. The king, in one of his conversations, said, 
 that only two hundred French, and about eighty Indians 
 were at the lake, where most of the English are, and that 
 he could bring the most or all of them off. The Gover- 
 nor invited Teedyuscung and the Indians to dine with 
 him, but, before dinner, the king, with some of them, 
 came to the Governor, and made the Governor four 
 speeches, giving four strings of wampum, after the Indian 
 manner: one to brush thorns from the Governor's legs, 
 another to rub the dust out of his eyes to help him see 
 clearly, another to open his ears and the fourth to clear 
 his throat that he might speak plainly. Teedyuscung 
 claimed to be king of ten nations. Being asked what ten 
 nations, he answeivd, the united Six Nations : Mohocks, 
 Onondauocs. Oneidas, Senecas, C3"ugas, and Tiiscaroras; 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKT. 39 
 
 and fjour others, DelaAvares, Shawanees, Mohickons, and 
 Mnnsies, who wonld all ratify what he should do. He 
 cariied the Belt of Peace with him, and whoever would, 
 might take hold of it. But as to them that refused, the 
 rest would all join together and fall upon them. 
 
 "All the Indians, in short, would do as he would have 
 them, as he was the great man. The Grovernor used the 
 same four ceremonies to Teedyuscung, accompanied with 
 four strings of wampum, after which the Governor and 
 Indians went to dinner, escorted by a detachment of the 
 First Battalion of the Pennsylvania Regiment."^ Conrad 
 Weiser, the interpreter, was first introduced to Teedyus- 
 cung at this time, who, after watching his movements a 
 single day, reported to the Council ' ' that the king and 
 the principal Indians being all yesterday under the force 
 of liquoi", he had not been favored with so good an 
 opportunity as he could liave wished of making himself 
 acquainted with their history, but, in the main, he 
 believed Teedyuscung was well inclined; he talked in 
 high terras of his own merit, but expressed himself a 
 friend to this Province."" Teedyuscung, at this council, 
 Avas alleged to have been the instigator of the Indian 
 outrages upon the whites in 1755, by sending large belts 
 of wampum to various tribes on the war-path ; but the 
 shrewd informer or negotiator, with a view of personal 
 advantage and emolument, informed Governor Morris 
 that, as Teedyuscung had brought on the war, he was 
 the only person that could effect a peaceful solution of all 
 Indian affairs. To do this, ''Teedyuscung must have a 
 belt of wampum at least five or six feet long and twelve 
 rows broad ; and besides the belt, he must have twelve 
 strings to send to the several chiefs, to confirm the words 
 that he sends.'' " 
 
 » Pa. Arch., 1756, pp. 724-6. » Ibid., 1756, p. 727. ' Ibid., 1748-'56, p. 730. 
 
40 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 LACKAWANNA RIVER AND VALLEY. 
 
 The Indians, ever having an extraordinary appreciation 
 of the beauties of nature, have given to their rivers and 
 hikes, their mountains and valleys, names really rich and 
 expressive. The transposition, however, of many of 
 these names from one language to another, has so cor- 
 rupted and changed their primitive expression, that much 
 of tlieir beauty is partially lost or wholly destroyed. 
 
 In the Algonquin or Iroquois vernacular, the valley was 
 called Ad-jou-quay ; ^ in the harsher dialect of the Dt4a- 
 wares, where no adjectives were known, spoken by all 
 intervening clans, from the Minisinks, on the Delaware, 
 to Shamokin, it was known as Lee-lia-ugh-hunV- or Lee- 
 haw-hanna, pronounced Lr-hr-hr-nr (Lar-har-har-nar), 
 the letter a either being silent, or in the Indian guttural 
 having the sound of r. In succeeding years, the modifi- 
 cations and construction of the word became so great as 
 to become at length a matter of provincialism. 
 
 Although in 1759 the stream was designated as Lee-ha- 
 ugh-hunt by the Mouseys and Delawares living upon its 
 banks, who complained of the intrusion of the whites at 
 its mouth, the original map of Westmoreland (Wyoming), 
 showing the Connecticut surveys in 1761, records it as 
 Lack-aio-na. In 1762 the stream was known as Lec-ha- 
 wa-nock / ^ in 1771 as Lam-aw-ioa-nak ; ^ in 1772 as Lock- 
 o-worna ;Mn 177-1, Lackawanna and Lock-a-warna ;'' in 
 1778 as iyac- u-wanack ; "' in 1790 as LaJc-u-wanuJr ; ^ in 
 1791 as Lackawanny. From 1791 down to about 1837-'8, 
 it was recognized both in private and official parlance as 
 Lack-a-wannoclc. '' Wannock" lopped off by gradual 
 
 ' Col. Rec, vol. vii., p. 157. ^ Pa. Arch., 1759, p. 421. 
 
 ^ Col. Rec, vol. Lx., p. 7. * Pa. Arch., 1771 d- 392. 
 
 * Westmoreland Records. " Ibid. 
 
 ' British Articles of Capitulation of three forts at Lacuwanack, July 4, 1778. 
 
 * Luzerne County Court Records, l"9ii. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 4] 
 
 habit at tliis time, became obsolete, and wanna took its 
 place, thus adopting, as far as the idioms of language 
 would permit, tlie original name as transmitted to us from 
 Teedyuscung. Lackawanna is a corruption of the Indian 
 "Lee-ha-ugh-hunt," or "Leo-haw-hanna f' Lee-haw, ov 
 Lee-Tia, the prefix, signifies the forks or point of intersec- 
 tion ; hanna, as in Susquehanna. Toly-hanna, Toppa- 
 hannock, Rappa-hannock, Tunk-hannock and Tunk- 
 lianna, implies, in Indian language, a stream of water. 
 Hence the name, Lar-har-har-nar, or Lackawanna, the 
 meeting of two streams— a name highly poetic and sweet 
 sounding. 
 
 The valley of the Lackawanna, picturesque and salu- 
 brious to a delightful degree, watered by a stream from 
 which it derived its name, lies about one hundred and 
 thirty-eight miles northwest of New York in a direct line. 
 It is about thirty-five miles in length, runs south and 
 southeast, and in its general topographical configuration 
 is nothing moi-e or less than a continuation, or rather 
 extension, of the northern right arm of the classic and 
 celebrated Valley of Wyoming cut in twain by Campbell's 
 Ledge. The most northerly deposit of stone or anthra- 
 cite coal found in America, enriches its entire border 
 from the head of the Lackawanna, among the grand old 
 beech and maples, down to its very moutlh The valley 
 is, in fact, a gem carved out of a mountain of coal. 
 Rimmed on either side by the coal and iron-clad Jfooslc,^ 
 beautiful in its midwinter or summer foliage, wrapping 
 its jewels in harmonious beds, it reposes like a rough 
 cradle or canoe, tapering off at its upper extremitj^ in a 
 narrow unimportant intervale. A few miles above Carbon- 
 dale, the valley, already narrowed before, is more suc- 
 cessfully interrupted by a succession of bowlders or hills, 
 facetiously termed " Hog's Back," from their sharp, bris- 
 
 1 This mountain, a low ramification of the great Appalachian chain, takes its 
 name from the Moose inhabiting it at the time of the earliest explorationa by the 
 whites. 
 
42 HISTORY OF TlIK 
 
 tling appearance. Now and then the raountain cleft for a 
 trout brook, elbows against the stream, giving its waters, 
 too swift and shallow for navigable purposes, graceful 
 and gradual fall. 
 
 The Lackawanna River rises principally in Susque- 
 hanna County, but one considerable branch emerges from 
 the same marshy region in Wayne that sends out the 
 Starucca, Lackawaxen, and Equinunk to join the Dela- 
 ware, which, after many counter and diverse movements 
 for a distance of at least fifty miles, pours its gentle 
 volume into the Susquehanna at Pittston. Along its 
 banks, shorn of the fairest portion of timber by the lum 
 berman, the landscape is singularly fine, with slope, field, 
 and village, while the stream itself offers to the eye every 
 variety of smooth water, pool, and rapids. Here its 
 margin, rock-bound and abrupt, is carved from the low- 
 browed cliff", and there the alluvial meadow or cornfield 
 ready for the husbandman, attests the luxurious character 
 of the soil. 
 
 Along the central and lower portion, coal of the finest 
 quality is found in profusion, interstratified in many 
 places with iron-ore of the most desirable and productive 
 character. 
 
 The conffuence of the Lackawanna and Susquehanna 
 is described in the following beautiful lines by the late 
 Mrs. Sigourney : — 
 
 THE SUSQUEHANNA. 
 
 ON ITS JUNCTION WITH THP: LACKAWANNA. 
 
 BY MRS. 8IG0UKNEY. 
 
 Rush on, glad stream, in thy power and pride 
 
 To claim the hand of thy promised bride, 
 
 For she hastes from the realms of the darkened mine, 
 
 To mingle her murmured vows with thine : 
 
 Ye have met, ye have met, and your shores prolong 
 
 The liquid tone of your nuptial song. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALM:V. 4? 
 
 Methinks ye wed as the white man's son 
 
 And the child of the Indian King liave done. 
 
 I saw the bride as she strove in vain 
 
 To cleanse her brow from the carbon stain ; 
 
 But she brings thee a dowry so rich and tr 
 
 That thy love must not shrink from the ta .y hue. 
 
 Her birth was rude in a mountain cell, 
 
 And her infant freaks there are none to ' -"J ; 
 
 Yet the path of her beauty was wild and free. 
 
 And in dell and forest she hid from thee ; 
 
 But the day of her fond caprice is o'er, 
 
 And she seeks to part from thy breast no more. 
 
 Pass on, in the joy of thy blended tide. 
 Through the land where the blessed Miquon died. 
 No red-man's blood with its guilty stain, 
 Hath cried unto God from that broad domain ; 
 With the seeds of peace tliey have sown the soil, 
 Bring a harvest of wealth for their hour of toil. 
 
 On, on, through the vale where the brave ones sleep, 
 
 Where the waving foliage is rich and deep. 
 
 I have stood on the mountain and roamed through the glen, 
 
 To the beautiful homes of the Western men ; 
 
 Yet naught in that region of glory could see 
 
 So fair as the vale of Wyoming to me. 
 
 WAS WYOMING ONCE A VAST LAKE? 
 
 The Kittatinny, or Blue Ridge, which skirts along Penn- 
 sylvania and Virginia, is probably one of the most even 
 ranges in the world. At its base it rarely exceeds a mile, 
 while its summit, covered with perpetual foliage, preserves 
 an uniformity of height that distinguishes it from all other 
 mountains stretched across the country. 
 
 At some period in the world's history, tiiis ridge doubt- 
 less was the margin of a vast lake into which ran the 
 waters of the Chemung, Chenango, Delaware, and the 
 Susquehanna, and over mountain, moor, and valley, 
 rolled one common wave. Evidence of this is written upon 
 rock and mountain around us, while the earth from the 
 
4 t HISTOKY OF THE 
 
 hill-side mine, disdains to conceal its share of the water 
 spoils. The vast quantity of petrified shells, alluvials, 
 and strata of shale and clay and organic remains, found 
 along the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Susquehanna, and 
 many other valleys, and the character of these rivers, all 
 running in a transverse or cross direction, have been 
 compelled to wash out by slow and triumphant progress, 
 or rupture the obstructing heights to find their way to 
 the sea, suggests the inquiry. Were they not once the 
 bottoms of immense lakes ? And did not the finny tribes, 
 the huge serpent, and the whale, sport in these inland salt 
 waters in times of yore 'i 
 
 No one can carefully examine the strata of the moun- 
 tains of the United States, especially, the Alleghanies or 
 Blue Eidge, or even glance at the map, without finding 
 a fact existing in no other part of the world, that all their 
 principal ridges cross the great as well as the lesser rivers, 
 instead of running parallel with them. The Delawaiv, 
 Susquehanna, Potomac, and Shenandoah, all issue from 
 the steep mountains of the Blue Ridge. 
 
 One of the most distinguished authors and eminent 
 naturalists, C. F. Volney, who visited Harper's Ferry in 
 1796, and who gave the subject great attention and re- 
 search, believed that " the chain of the Blue Ridge in its 
 ejitire state, completely denied the Potomac a ])assage 
 onward, and that then all the waters of the upper part of 
 the river, having no issue, formed several considerable 
 lakes, which spread themselves between the Blue Ridge 
 and the chain at Kittatinny, not only to the Susquehanna 
 and Schuylkill, but heyond the Schuylkill, and even to 
 the Delaware. It is obvious that the lakes flowing oft' 
 must have changed the whole face of the lower country. 
 Several branches having at once or in succession, given a 
 passage to the streams of water now called James, Poto- 
 mac, Susquehanna, Schuylkill, and Delaware, their 
 general and common reservoir was divided into as many 
 distinct lakes, separated by the risings of the ground that 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKY. 4-5 
 
 exceeded this level. Each of these lakes had its particular 
 drain, and this drain being at length worn down to the 
 lowest level, the land was left completely uncovered. 
 This must have occurred earlier with the James, Susque- 
 hanna, and Delaware, because their basins are more 
 elevated, and it must have happened more recently with 
 the Pototnac, for the opposite reason, its basin being the 
 deepest of all." 
 
 How far the Delaware then extended the retlux of its 
 waters toward the east, he could not ascertain ; " however, 
 it appears its basin was bounded by the ridge that ac- 
 companies its left bank ; and which is the apparent con- 
 tinuation of the Blue Ridge and North Mountain. It is 
 probable that its basin has always been separate from 
 that of the Hudson, as it is certain that the Hudson has 
 always had a distinct basin, the limit and mound of whicli 
 is ahove West Point, at a place called the Highlands." ^ 
 
 Schoolcraft and Professor B^ck, and other eminent 
 writeis. also subscribe to this theory. The basin of the 
 L:»ckawanna, viewed from the summit of the mountain 
 back of Scranton, or from one of the more elevated points 
 farther up the valley, exhibits the internal appearance and 
 form of a lake so plainly, that the idea of the ancient ex- 
 istence of one here is indubitably forced upon the observer. 
 Other circumstances tend to confirm this impression, as 
 the lieaps of detached rock strewn below many of the 
 gorges, especially at the Delaware Water Gap, where the 
 waters were held back until the great embankment gave 
 way before^ the Aveight of the vast body of water above, 
 or by attrition, convulsion, or glacier action, and brought 
 down all that stratum of earth and mud which now gives 
 such agricultural strength and value to the shores of the 
 lower DelaAvare. 
 
 A few yards above the bridge, across the Susquehanna 
 at Pittston, can be seen a large rock of many thousand 
 
 ' American Antiquities, pp. 352-37?.. 
 
46 HISTOKV OF THE 
 
 tons in weight, of wliicli Mr. Cliarles Miner thus writ<\s : 
 "Standing on the hank of the river, a little below the 
 mouth of the Lackawanna, and looking northward, it ap 
 pears as if by some power little short of omnipotent, the 
 solid rock^ had been cloven down near a thousand feet 
 to open a passage for the water. Being on the river- bank 
 twelve years ago, with the able and lamented Mr. Packer, 
 then chairman of the senatorial committee, to view the 
 coal region of Luzerne, he pointed to a huge mass of bro- 
 ken and contorted rock, evidently out of place, which 
 now lies at Pittston Ferry, between the canal and river, 
 and expressed the decided and not improbable opinion, 
 that in the convulsion of nature which separated the 
 mountain above us, this mass must have been torn away 
 and borne b}^ the rushing flood to its present resting- 
 place. Twenty miles below, where the Susquehanna 
 takes leave of the plains, the mountains are equally lofty 
 and precipitous. In many places the rocks distinctly ex- 
 hibit the abrasions of water many feet above the highest 
 pitch to which the river has ever been known to rise, 
 going to show, that at some very remote period, this had 
 been a lake, and indicating that there had been a chain 
 of lakes probably along the whole line of the stream. 
 Banks of sand-hills, covered with rounded stone, mani- 
 festly worn smooth by attrition, similar stones being 
 found wherever wells are sunk, tend to confirm the opin- 
 ion. The soil is chiefly alluvial, and the whole depth and 
 surface, so far as examined, show great changes by the 
 violeiit action of water.' "^ 
 
 The existence of this lake or lakes, made by the inter- 
 vening hills, explains the appearance of the several stages 
 or flats ol)served along the Wyoming plains and the 
 Lackawanna, and even at Cobb's Gap, where the roaring 
 brook flees from the Pocono, as if the water once had a 
 greater volume than now, or was higher at one period 
 
 ' Campbell's Ledge. " Miner's History of Wyoming, p. 12. 
 
LACKAWANNA VAI.LKY, 4» 
 
 than at anothei-, and by some means was drained off in 
 sQcli a manner that tlie receding wave made a new mark 
 of embankment, indicating the original height of the shore 
 of these lakes and rivers. 
 
 On the very summit of the Pocono^ Mountain, about 
 twenty miles east of the Lackawanna, lies a broad marsh, 
 elevated many hundred feet above the Delaware Water 
 Gap, 1,969 feet above tide-water, covered in a few places, 
 as can be seen from the passing cars, with a deep strata 
 of sand, similar to that found on the sea-shore, which, in 
 spite of the drainage of the water around it by these great 
 breaks in the mountain, has maintained its sedentary and 
 original position, while the subsiding waters hollowed 
 out the valleys and formed cascades of beauty, which 
 marked and enlivened the wild landscape long after the 
 Noachian deluge. 
 
 Mr. Schoolcraft, well known to the reading public as 
 one of the most accurate and entertaining writers and ex- 
 plorers in American antiquities, corroborates this theory, 
 and asks the question, " May we not suppose tiiat the 
 great northern lakes are the remains of such an ocean f '- 
 If not so, the}' were probably the mere remnant of a great 
 inland sea. 
 
 The weight of the accumulated waters, coming from the 
 north, assisted perhaps by volcanic agency, possibly made 
 the various gaps in the mountains, and as the liberated 
 waters took up the line of march to the sea, the whole 
 geological features of the lower country acknowledged 
 the power of the water}* plowshare. Whether this abyss 
 boiled with a heat far beyond the temperature of white- 
 hot iron, from the immense furnaces below over the seams 
 of liquid coal, or at what period this watery or eruptive 
 
 * Pocono is the name given by the wliite people to the mountain dividing the 
 Delaware from the Susquehanna, after the Indian name of the stream that flows 
 from it, called by them Poco-hanne, wliich signilies a stream issuing from a moun- 
 tain. " Hanne "' means flowing water ; Tunk-hanne, the smallest among other 
 streams in the same locality. Tope-hanne (ToJyhannah), alder creek or stream. &c 
 
 * American Antiquities, p. 367. 
 
48 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 conquest transpired, lies so far beyond the earliest times 
 of any written or traditional history, that no explanation 
 or data is known other than that found written upon the 
 terraced rock along the sides and bottoms of these ancient 
 mountain lakes. 
 
 Contemporary with these phenomena, or in more pre- 
 Adamic times, it is evident that the topographical charac- 
 ter of the Lackawanna Valley was essentially changed. 
 The geological conformation of the country along the 
 stream ; the character, form, and direction of the Alle- 
 ghany range thrown across southern New York ; its mean 
 altitude near the Great Bend of the Susquehanna River 
 being but little if any greater than at Tioga Point ; the 
 comi:)arative freshness and shape, as well as the confu- 
 sion of all the strata of earth, stone, and coal, along the 
 Lackawanna, with the general appearance of the country 
 traversed by the Susquehanna and Lackawanna, afford 
 abundant evidence of the correctness of this conclusion. 
 
 Instead of breaking off so abruptly from its apparent 
 course at this point, and cautiously feeling its way far 
 along the border of the mountains, until it reached Tioga 
 Point, and then canying its current through a passage 
 ruptured through successive ridges, until, with all its 
 beauty and boldness, it opened into the slackened waters 
 of Wyoming, it probably struck boldly down into a 
 channel now closed by some great upheaval or disturb- 
 ance in the geological world, and sought the valley where 
 now the Lackawanna mingles with the waters of the 
 Susquehanna. 
 
 Trace up the Susquehanna, step by step, to the High- 
 lands of New York, or down through its narrow passage 
 to Wyoming, and not a single vein or spar of coal is visi- 
 ble ; go up to the Lackawanna, modest in its volume, to 
 the iiid'cated point, and more than midway from the 
 mouth of the stream, coal deposits, grand in their charac- 
 ter and exhaustless in their creation, everywhere appear ; 
 all of which confirms the theory, that, whatever local 
 
LACKAWA^•KA VALI.KV. 49 
 
 causes or convulsions once effected the niineralogical fea- 
 tures of the valley, the wave of the ocean, or the waters 
 of a much larger stream than tlie Lackawanna once occu- 
 pied its place. 
 
 No less tlian five veins of coal have been washed away 
 from the eastern side of the Lackawanna, a mile above 
 Scranton, by the propelling flood of olden time, and their 
 crushed and blackened deposition found in the alluvial 
 banks below. The city of Scranton, or the old village 
 proper, embracing the sand banks, stands upon such a 
 singular deposit. 
 
 Very many of our mountain notches appear like vol- 
 canic outlets. The evidence of subterranean or oceanic 
 volcanic fires exists to-day in the ocean, and now and in 
 .1 _ " "lamor, make food of coasts and cities. Their 
 
 existence explain why the carboniferous and even the 
 granitic strata of rock are inclined to the horizon in angles 
 of foi'ty-five degrees and upward in so many of the moan- 
 Tain i-anges throughout the coal basins of Pennsylvania, 
 and whicli is so especially noticed and delineated in the 
 huge ledge of rocks thus sloping in distinct lamination or 
 layers in the well-known notch of the mountain between 
 Providence and Abington, about two miles northwest of 
 Scranton, called "Leggett's Gap." 
 
 WAK-PATIIS. 
 
 One of the three long-trodden patlis of the Avarrior lead- 
 ing out of Wyoming, led eastward to Coshutunk (Co- 
 checton), a small Indian settlement upon the shore of the 
 upper Delaware. Leaving the valley at Asserughney 
 village, standing at the mouth of the stream, it followed 
 the eastern bank of the Lackawanna uj) to Springbrook, 
 Stafford Meadow, and Nayaug or Roaring Brook, cross- 
 ing the last two named ones a short distance below the 
 present location of Scranton, and passed into the Indian 
 town of Capoose. Here one path led off to Oquago, New 
 
50 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 York (how Windsor), aLout forty miles distant, through 
 Leggett's Gap and the Abingtonian wilderness, while the 
 other, diverging from Capoose in an easterly direction, 
 plunged boldly into the forest, passing along where Dan- 
 more now stands, up the mountain slope to its very sum- 
 mit. This foot-path crossed the Moosic range near the 
 residence of the late John Cobb, Esq., and thence through 
 Little Meadows, in Salem, and the low Wallenpaupack 
 country beyond. This trail seldom ran through the gaps, 
 but it generally, like many of their war-paths, kept the 
 higher ground, or where the woods were less dense, because 
 the warriors, agile and quick-sighted on the march, pre- 
 ferred climbing ODer a considerable elevation, to the laoui 
 of cutting a trail through more level ground, or deer 
 wooded ravines, with their stone hatchets; besides Tn- 
 overlooking points were chosen invariably, so that upon 
 entering or leaving a valley, they could better discover 
 the approach or presence of an enemy. Of this narrow 
 trail, worn to the depth of several inches in many places 
 on the mountains where roots and rocks offered no resist- 
 ance to passing moccasins, few indeed, are the remaining 
 traces where the warrior and the war-song enlivened the 
 way but a little over a century ago. Near the mountain 
 spring, liowever, this old Indian patli for seveial hundred 
 yards to tlie east of it, was so deeply itidented as to show 
 its depth and general outline even to-day. 
 
 'Yh^ first rude wagon-road cut out and opened from tlie 
 Hudson River to Wyoming Valley, for the pack-horse or 
 wlieels, followed this track the greater portion of the way, 
 because of its being the most direct route from Connecti- 
 cut to the backwoods of Lackawanna and Wyoming, then 
 called Westmoreland by the Yankees, who began to peo- 
 ple it. 
 
 INDIAN SPRING. 
 
 iVlmost upon the very summit of the Moosic Mountain, 
 between the valley and Cobb's settlement, by the side of 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 51 
 
 this old trail, bubbles from the earth a large spring, called 
 the " Indian Spring." No matter how parched the lips 
 of mother-earth — how shrunken tlie volume of streams 
 elsewhere, this spring, indifferent to drought or flood, in 
 summer or winter, is ever filled to its brim with cold pure 
 water. 
 
 Away from the world's hot pulse ; hemmed in by tlie 
 pine whose waving tops give partial entrance to the noon- 
 day sun, and once gave shelter to rovers of the wilderness 
 strolling from tribe to tribe witli friendly or avenging 
 tomahawk, and lifting its fountain as it does almost from 
 the very top of a high vertical ledge, running nearly a 
 mile before it opens into Cobb's Gap. this spring from its 
 peculiar location, has much to render it attractive and 
 romantic to the visitor. It forms one of the lesser tribu- 
 taries of Roaring Brook, from whence Scranton is sup- 
 plied with water. 
 
 In July, 1788, two persons were killed at this point. 
 Fleeing from Wyoming Valley resounding with the exult- 
 ant shout of the tories and their red auxiliaries, and the 
 faint cries of tlie captives reserved for ransom or tortuie. 
 tliey bent over, thirsty and exhausted, for the invigorating 
 draught. They never rose from their knees. The hatchet 
 of the savage, intently watching the victims, flew fi-om the 
 ambush ; the stony knife dripped through their scalps, 
 and the wolves at night made long and loud tlieir carnival 
 over the unresisting dead. 
 
 A large red rock rims one side of this spring, whose 
 crimson color tradition imputes to the blood of the victims 
 thus immolated. 
 
 IXDIAX RELICS AND FOKTIFICATIOXS. 
 
 No evidence is found of Indian forts along the Lacka- 
 wanna, altliough there existed one or more a few miles 
 below its mouth, one of which is thus described by Chap- 
 man in his History of Wyoming : — 
 
"In the valley of Wyoming, there exist some iN^naiiis 
 of Indian fortifications, which appear to have been con- 
 structed by a race of people very different in their habits 
 from those who occupied the place when first discovered 
 by the whites. Most of these ruins have been so much 
 obliterated by the operations of agriculture, that their 
 foi'ms can not now be distinctly ascertained. That which 
 remains the most entire was examined by the writer dur- 
 ing the summer of 1817, and its dimensions carefully as- 
 certained ; although, from frequent plowing, its foint 
 had become almost destroyed. It is situated in the town- 
 ship of Kington, upon a level plain on the north side of 
 Toby's Ci-eek, about one hundred and fifty feet from its 
 bank, and about a half mile from its confluence Avith the 
 Susquehanna. It is of an oval or elliptical form, having- 
 its longest diameter fi-om the northwest to the southeast, 
 at right-angles to the creek, tliree hundred and thirty- 
 seven feet, and its shortest diameter from the northeast to 
 the southwest, two hundred and seventy-two feet. On 
 the southwest side, appears to have been a gateway about 
 tAvelve feet wide, opening toward the great eddy of thc^ 
 river, into which the ci-eek falls. From present appear- 
 ances, it consisted, probably, of only one mound or ram- 
 part, which, in height and thickness, appears t • nave been 
 the same on all sides, and was constructed of -<irth ; the 
 plain on which it stands, not abounding in stoi.-^. 
 
 "On the outside of the rampart is an intrenchment or 
 ditch, formed, probably, by removing the earth of which 
 it is composed, and which appears never to have been 
 walled. The creek, on which it stands, is bounded by a 
 high steep bank on that side, and at ordinary times is suf- 
 ficiently deep to admit canoes to ascend from the river to 
 the fortification. When the first settlers came to Wyo- 
 ming, this j^lain was covered with its native forest, con- 
 sisting principally of oak and yellow pine ; and the trees 
 which grew in the rampart and in the intrenchment, are 
 said to have been as large as those in any other part of 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY, 53 
 
 the valley ; one large oak, particularly, uj)ori being cut 
 down, was ascertained to be seven hundred years old. 
 The Indians had no traditions concerning these fortihca- 
 tions, neither did they appear to have any knowledge of 
 the purposes for which they were constructed. They 
 were, perhaps, erected about the same time with those 
 upon the waters of the Ohio, and probably by a similar 
 people, and for similar purposes.'' 
 
 Another fortification existed on Jacob' s Plains, or the 
 upper flats in Wilkes Barre, Its situation is the highest 
 part of the low grounds, so that, only in extraordinary- 
 floods, is the spot covered with water." ^ This fort seems 
 to have been of about the same in form, shape, and size, 
 to that described by Chapman, and in its interior, near the 
 southern line, the ancient people all concur in stating that 
 there existed a well." 
 
 At the continence of the Lackawanna with the Susque- 
 hanna, Indian graves and remains of wigwam life were 
 found in great abundance sixty years ago. Skeletons ex- 
 humed by the waters of the spring freshets; lay in such 
 numbers along the banks of the rivers, and so familiar 
 had they become to the thoughtless passer, that boys were 
 often seen with a thigh-bone in each hand drumming 
 Yankee Doodle upon the whitened skulls, thus found 
 upon the plain around them. Some of these were doubt- 
 less the remains of the warriors who fell in the battles of 
 the valley, as bullets corroded and white, and sometimes 
 broken arrow-heads, were found wedged in the bones, in 
 dicating the precise manner of their death. 
 
 Others, crumbling the moment they were uncovered, or 
 only furnishing a dark and peculiar deposit, bore evi- 
 dence of greater age in their burial. Bowls and jDOts of 
 the capacity of a gallon or more, ingeniously cut fi-om 
 soap-stone, and ornamented with rich designs of beauty 
 to the Indian's eye, were often found preserved with the 
 
 ' Miner's History. - Ibid. 
 
5-i HISTORY OF THE 
 
 remains, xls none of tliis soap-stone is found nearer this 
 place than Mary hind or New Hampshire, it would seem 
 to indicate the migratory as well as the commercial char- 
 acter of the tribe once possessing them. Hard, highly 
 polished, and handsomely dressed stones, five or six inches . 
 in length, fitted for the hand, and used, probably, for skin- 
 ning deer and other animals, hatchets, beads, and the silent 
 calumet, here and there intermingled with the remains. 
 
 On the brink of the western range of the Moosic, in 
 Leggett' s Gap, between Providence and Abington, an In- 
 dian grave was found in a very singular manner a number 
 of years ago. A quick-footed deer, fleeing from his pur- 
 suer, leaped upon the end of a gun-barrel projecting from 
 the ground, and brought it to the hunter's view. A little 
 excavation exposed a large quantity of silica or flint stones 
 worked into arrow and spear heads, a stone tomahawk, a 
 French gun-l)arrel, an iron hoe, and some human bones, 
 much decayed. The skeleton lay on its right side, with the 
 knees drawn up, the head re(;lining toward the east, while 
 immediately over reposed the implements and weapons of 
 the deceased. The hoe and the gun. both much corroded, 
 were prol)ably obtained from the French, while theii- 
 burial with the warrior upon this rugged spur of the 
 mountain would indicate the time of their deposit as a 
 period of peace. In his lap were found the arrows, made 
 from one to two inches in length. Nearly a hundi<'d 
 small snail-shells, all fitted for stringing, and which had 
 probably been used for belts or beads, lay immediately 
 under the arrows. There was also a pipe, made from dark 
 stone, one end of it being shaped for a stopple, and couhl 
 be used for a whistle to gather the tribe from afar doAvu 
 the ravine, and the otluT for a scoop or spoon. This sin- 
 gular contrivance, if not used for a whistle, probably 
 achieved great usefulness in ponidge or broth. A small 
 quantity of mineral, resembling black-lead, intended, 
 doubtless, U)v medicine, had also been deposited in this 
 ir^ohited grave, beside the departed hunter. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 00 
 
 A portion of tli<'s(% and a vast quantity of other inter 
 esting relics of the red-man, in a fine state of preservation, 
 are now in the possession of the writer, open and fi-ee to 
 all who choose to visit tliem. 
 
 Upon the western bank of the Lackawanna, in the 
 upper portion of Capoose Meadow, in Providence, oppo- 
 site the residence of the late Dr. Silas B. Robinson, slopes 
 off a gentle mound, where, in 1795, a number of Indian 
 graves were discovered and exhumed by a party of set- 
 tlers in search of antiquarian spoils. As one of the 
 mounds seemed to have been prepared with especial 
 attention, and contained, with the bones of the warrior, a 
 great quantity of the implements of the deceased, it was 
 supposed, erroneously no doubt, to have been the grave 
 of the chieftain Capoose. These graves, few in number, 
 perhaps pointed to the last of the group of Mousey war- 
 riors who had offered incense and sacrifice to the Great 
 Spirit at Capoose. The strings of wampum and their war 
 instruments — for which this mound was disturbed — bore 
 them company as they lay piled over with the gray sand 
 of the meadow, and were protected and comforted on 
 their long journey by these rude, yet cherished, amulets. 
 Tliese graves, endowed with no utterance but that of 
 uncertain tradition, have been so obliterated by i\u^ 
 operations of agriculture that little or no trace of them 
 now appears to the unpracticed eye. 
 
 Arrows, stone vessels, tomahawks and knives, stone 
 mortars and their accompanying pestles for pounding corn 
 into nas-ump, or samp, and other curious relics of Indian 
 times, are occasionally found in the valley, and although 
 time has robbed them of much of their original beauty 
 and usefulness, they have not lost, nor never can lose, 
 their savage interest. 
 
 To the antiquarian, however, nothing could provoke 
 more inquiry and interest than the remains of an ancient 
 Indian mound or encampment, found in Covington, Lu- 
 zerne County, near the line of the Delaware, Lackawanna, 
 
56 HISTORY OF Till': 
 
 and Western Bailway, which to all appearances were as 
 old as those existing in Wyoming Valley. These remains 
 were discovered in 1833 by Mr. Welch, then a draughts- 
 man in the Land Office at Washington, while he was hunt- 
 ing along Bell-meadow Brook, a small tributary of the 
 Lehigh, on the Pocono. The accidental discovery of a 
 piece of pottery among the loose pebbles on the bank of 
 the brook, so different in its character to any thing he had 
 ever seen before, naturally awakened his curiosity, and led 
 to the subsequent excavation of a vast quantity of sharp 
 and flinty arrow and spear heads, a large stone hatchet, 
 bowls of immense capacity, fashioned and baked from 
 sand and cla}'. These bowls were indented upon their 
 sides with deep hnger prints, and some w^ere tastily orna- 
 mented with characters original and unique. 
 
 The late Richard Drinker, Esq., of Scranton, a gentle- 
 man eminent in his day for genial philosophy and social 
 abilities, to whom the writer was indebted for the above 
 facts, was present at the time of their discovery, and de- 
 scribed the pottery thus found as being enormous in quan- 
 tity. An elegant short pipe, belonging probably to a 
 squaw, was also found immediately under the tomahawk, 
 in so perfect a state of preservation that it was to all 
 appearances, as lit for the consumption of their favorite 
 weed as when first fashioned into shape. A huge pile of 
 elk bones and teeth were also found, but the bones crum- 
 bled to dust the moment they were exposed to the touch 
 or air. Underneath them all, lay the remains of a great 
 camp-lirf^, which was probably hurriedly deserted, and as 
 hurriedly smothered with sand and stone to the deptli of 
 twelve or fourteen inches. Ashes, coals, and half-burned 
 brands, one of which still bore the marks of a hatchet dis- 
 tinctly upon it, were spread over a surface of at least 
 fifteen feet. 
 
 The most singular article exhumed, was a number of 
 flat, delicately smoothed stone, somewhat resembling a 
 carpenter' s whetstone in shape and size, each one bored 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKT. rH 
 
 'with two or three small circuhii- holes near the extremity 
 or the center. Whether these had been drilled and used 
 for weaving fish-nets from wood or hemp, constructing 
 belts of wampum, or for other mechanical or ornamental 
 purposes, is a matter of inquiry or conjecture. 
 
 Trees of Norway girth have grown upon the edge of 
 this brook since this camp-fire went out forever, and 
 almost upon these remains, one immense hemlock, green 
 in its foliage, has defied the storms of centuries as it stands 
 like a Roman sentinel of old, over this ancient sepulcher 
 of the forgotten savage. 
 
 The absence of iron and copper utensils among the 
 ■debris, furnished abundant proof that these relics had 
 been deposited by the red-men in the stone period, long 
 before their knoAvledge of the European race, but why 
 they were thus left isolated from their war-paths, or the 
 purpose or the cause of their sraotheied fire, the learned 
 antiquarian can only conjecture. 
 
 Tlie beaver, caught more for its furs than its casto- 
 reum — now a considerable medicinal agent — once held their 
 court in a low marsh or meadow adjoining this camp, from 
 which the Indians evidently obtamed sand for their pot- 
 tery. 
 
 In fact the Lackawanna, and the wilder waters of the 
 Le-Tir (Lehigh), were inhabited by the beaver at the time 
 of the first settlement of the valley by the whites. Across 
 these streams, especially the upper Lehigh, they built 
 their '' beaver dams" upon the most scientific principles 
 of the engineering art, living upon ash, birch, poplars 
 and the softer wood, of which they were particularly 
 fond.' In the deepest part of the pond they built their 
 houses, resembling somewhat the wigwam of the Indian, 
 with a floor of saplings, sloping tow^ard the water like an 
 inclined plane. Here, secure in their moated castle, they 
 
 ' There are mauy places jilong all the streams of thecouutry, originally stripped 
 ■of all their growth by the industrious and engineering beaver. 
 
58 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 slept with their tails under water, ascending the floor witb 
 the rise of the stream. Rafting, when tlie rivers were 
 swollen, destroyed their dams, and drove the beaver to 
 creeks more quiet and remote. In 1826 there came from 
 Canada an old trapper in search of the coveted furs, who 
 caught Avith his traps all of these industrious animals hut 
 a single one lingering along the Lehigh and the Lacka- 
 wanna ; this lonely beaver by sharpened instinct, defied 
 the trapper's cunning for a year or two, when, wandering 
 down the swifter waters of the Alanomink in search of his 
 lost companions, he was killed near Stroudsburg. 
 
 Is it not a little curious that with all the romantic ancient 
 history of the Wyoming and Lackawanna valleys, so little 
 attention until recently has been given toward gathering 
 and preserving the various Indian implements once used 
 in peace or in war? The writer has a passion for the 
 old— not the old hills covered with forests, through whose 
 hoary locks centuries have rustled unnumbered and 
 unsung — but the lingering relics of a race, the bravest the 
 world ever knew, which convey at once to the mind the 
 ideal, the strife, the passions, the achievements, and the 
 glory of another day and another race. These links and 
 landmarks of remote antiquity ; the rarer implements of 
 copper sometimes found in their ancient graves ; the rude 
 inscriptions which mark the first impulses of the wild-men 
 toward letters or written legend ; the stone battle-ax or 
 tomahawk once flung or brandished by the brave exulting 
 over his fallen foe ; the knife whose scalping edge gleamed 
 alike over the victim in the cradle or the field ; the keen 
 edged arrow twanged upon its fatal mission, or the calu- 
 met cherished afar for its silent and subduing power, 
 once smoked around the forest encampment— all are so 
 associated with by-gone times, that as the plow now and 
 then up-turns some little memento of the warrior' s life, it 
 astonishes the antiquarian to learn, that, aside from the 
 rt^ally valuable and magnificent collection of Hon. Steuben 
 Jenkins of Wyoming, and those possessed bj' the writer. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALI.EV. OL) 
 
 SO few of these memorials have been treasun'd up in the 
 valley to-day. Such a group of Indian relies, embracing 
 every variety able to illustrate the life, religion, and 
 character of the former occupants of the country, long be- 
 fore the aggressions and repeated wrongs of the white man 
 had become a great national reproach, and had turned 
 tlie simple savage into a western heathen, compelled to 
 fight for a standing-place, or starve with plenty around 
 him and yet beyond his reach, could not fail to be invalu- 
 able as years rendered their possession difheult or quite 
 impossible. ' 
 
 Whatever might have been the former character of 
 Indian warfare in the earliest history of Wyoming, or 
 however much the infant settlements tliroughout the 
 country may have suffered from the fagot and the knife — 
 when the cries of helpless womanhood and the innocence 
 of cliildliood plead alike in vain — it is established by 
 indubitable evidence of government officials,- and else- 
 where, that in the more recent wars the Indians have not 
 been the aggressors. We know, by living testimony, that 
 they have been crowded, inch by inch, southward and 
 westward by the constant incursions and shameful en- 
 croachments of the Caucasian race, until, from being a 
 great, proud, and powerful nation, respected for their 
 virtues and feared for their strength, extending immense 
 influence over the Western world, they have been r*^- 
 duced to a mere handful of lurking wai-riors, rendered 
 desperate by maltreatment and impoverished by misfor- 
 tune. 
 
 INDIAN APPLE-TKEE. 
 
 In a description of New Netherland (New York), pub- 
 lished at Amsterdam, in 1671, the appearance of the New 
 Netherlanders (Indians of the Island of New York), are 
 thus described, and will answer every description of the 
 
 ' See Appendix. " See Mr. Bogy'.s Report on Indian Affairs. 
 
60 HISTORY OF THh 
 
 Lackawanna Indians: — "This people is divided into 
 divers nations, all well-shaped and strong, having pitch- 
 black and lank hair, as coarse as a horse's tail, broad 
 shoulders, small waist, brown eyes, and snow-white teeth ; 
 they are of a sallow color, abstemious in food and drink. 
 Water satisfies their thirst ; high and low make use of 
 Indian corn and beans, flesh meat and fish, prepared all 
 alike. The crushed corn is daily boiled to a pap, called 
 by them sappaen. They observe no set time for meals. 
 Whenever hunger demands, the time for eating arrives. 
 Beaver's tails are considered the most savory delicacy. 
 Whilst hunting, they live some days on roasted corn, 
 carried about the person in a little bag. A little corn in 
 water swells to a large mass. Henry Hudson relates that 
 he entered the river Montaines in the latitude of forty 
 degrees, and there went ashore. The Indians made 
 strange gambols with dancing and singing; carried ar- 
 rows, the points of which consisted of sharp stones, 
 fastened to the wood with pitch ; they slept under the 
 blue sky, on little mats of platted leaves of trees ; suck 
 strong tobacco ; are friendly, but very thievish. Hudson 
 sailed up thirty miles higher, went into a canoe w^ith an 
 old Indian, a chief over forty men and seventeen women, 
 who conducted him ashore. They all abode in one house 
 well built of the bark of oak-trees." ^ 
 
 The domestic habits of the Monsey tribe, when not 
 engaged in warfare, were extremely simple and lazy. 
 Patches of open land or '"Indian clearings" early were 
 found in the valley, where onions, cantaloupes, beans, and 
 corn, and their favorite weed, tobacco^ were half cultiva- 
 ted by the obedient squaw. 
 
 On the low strip of land lying upon either side of the 
 street railroad, midwa}^ between Scranton and Provi- 
 dence, and near the cottage built some years since by 
 Dr. Throop, now know^i as the "Atlantic Garden." there 
 
 ' Documentary History of New York, vol. iv., p. 124. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 61 
 
 was found by the first white explorers into the valley, a 
 permanent camp-place which had, to all appearances, 
 long been used for tillage and a dwelling-place. Within 
 this ancient clearing the passer can hardly fail to observe 
 an apple-tree standing on the east side of the road, crag- 
 ged and venerable, even if some of its limbs betoken the 
 approach of age or the presence of neglect. Its precise 
 location can be seen upon the Indian map of Capoose 
 Meadow. This is the Indian ajiple-tree, of great age, 
 thirteen and a half feet in circumlerence, and possibly 
 was planted by the friendly hand of Capoose, more than 
 a century ago. By arms selfish and rude, this old tree, 
 which deserves a protecting fence to honor its memory, 
 was bereft of its mates many years ago, because their 
 wide-spread branches threw too much shade upon the 
 inclosiivg meadow ! A few sprigs of grass probably re- 
 paid for the destroying act. This single tree now stands 
 ah^ne as a relic of primitive husbandry at Capoose, 
 affording in the summer months, by its green foliage, as 
 ample shade to the lolling ox or idle boy as it once gave 
 to the squaw or her lord when he skimmed along the 
 La-ha-ha-na in his own canoe. In one of the apple-trees 
 thus cut down, in 1804, were counted one hundred and 
 fifty concentric circles or yearly growths, thus dating the 
 tree back to a time long before the reports of the trapper 
 or the story of the Indians came out of the valley to the 
 whites. Seventy years ago a large wild-plum orchard, 
 [Standing in a swale adjoining this clearing, hung with 
 millions of the juicy fruit, while the grape, with almost 
 tiopical luxuriance, purpled the intermingling tree-tops. 
 The vines, none of which now remain, as Avell as the 
 apple-trees, were no doubt the result of Indian culture. 
 
 BEACON-FIRES AND INDIAN LEGEND. 
 
 Every gorge or up- shooting point in the range diversi- 
 fying the valley is enriched with its tradition and story. 
 In the Indian wars, the Moosic or Cobb Mountain, afi'ord- 
 
62 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 ing as it did an admirable view of the entire valley, and 
 a wide scope of countij toward the Wallenpaupack and 
 Delaware, was long used by the forest men for tlie 
 location of their beacon fires. Campbell's Ledge, I'roni 
 its sharp altitude, so located as to overlook both valleys 
 aa far as inhabited by them, was held in corresponding 
 in\portance from this fcict. 
 
 So well were these evening lights understood by them, 
 that the warriors could be collected to any given jioint 
 wHh rare speed and certainty. Should any thing on tlieir 
 part demand hasty action, fire after fire would spring up 
 with wonderful rapidity on every height and plateau, at 
 intervals of a few miles, upon the mountain-tops ; and as 
 they successively gleamed their lurid light to the sky, 
 they conveyed a meaning to the savage mind well known 
 as if their native guttural had told it in the valley. Once 
 lighted, these beacon-fires, around which the warriors 
 danced and sang in their wild joy, or prepared meals 
 after the march of the day, could be seen for a great dis- 
 tance. No language was more silent or expressive to the 
 inhabitant of the forest ; none awoke greater danger to 
 the pioneer than tlieir appearance. 
 
 No matter how sudden or swift the pursuit, when the 
 fireplace was reached the red chieftains had vanished, 
 leaving nothing behind them but expiring brands. Along 
 many of the higher peaks of the mountain, generally 
 upon the eastern border of the Lackawanna, can yet be 
 seen faint traces of these ancient beacons. Huge, gray 
 stones, partially cracked by the heat of the fire whose 
 location it marked, have been visited by the writer, upon 
 an eminence distinguished at Spring Brook, near the resi- 
 dence of our hospitable and humorous friend, Edward 
 Dolph. This peak is one of the prominent ones, where 
 this primitive manner of telegraphing carried dismay or 
 hope to many a watching woodsman down in the valley. 
 These places faced the valley, and this one, unlike the 
 others visited, appears not to have been disturbed in its 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 63 
 
 solitude since the brand of the sachem expired a century 
 ago. 
 
 FeAV portions of country afford a broader scope for 
 legendary research than that along the Susquehanna and 
 Lackawanna. Here, immured in the foi'est, marked only 
 by paths and streams, and surrounded by every element 
 of simplicity and beauty, the river clans smoked the 
 peace-pipe or danced the war-dance, with whoops and 
 halloos, and went forth with ^oaint and sharpened weapon 
 to gather the scalps of the spoilers of their threshold. 
 
 SILVER MINE ON THE LACKAWANNA. 
 
 Of the value of precious metals the Indians knew little 
 or nothing until taught it by the whites, and then, learn- 
 ing to their dismay how fatal to their narrowing hunting- 
 grounds were the aggressions of the expanding settle- 
 ments, they practiced every possible caution in concealing 
 all knowledge of mines and minerals in every portion o;' 
 the wilderness. The Indian who, in thoughtless or 
 drunken mood, betrayed the secret of their location, paid 
 the penalty of his guilt by sudden death or lingering tor- 
 ture. Yet about one hundred years ago the whites 
 learned by treachery, and lost by misfortune, knowledge 
 of a silver mine located about two miles up the Lacka- 
 wanna from its mouth. 
 
 In 1766 the Six Nations complained to tlie Proprietary 
 Government at Philadelphia of white persons who liad 
 dug into a silver mine, twelve miles above the Delaware 
 town of Wy-wa-mick^ and carried away in canoes three 
 loads of ore. An Indian trader named Anderson, who 
 had brought a few goods up the river, was suspected of 
 being the transgressor. 
 
 John Teal, a German, who died some years ago at an 
 advanced age, threw some additional liglit upon the loca- 
 tion of this hidden silver mine. He had lived long 
 enough with the wild tribes to understand their dialect. 
 
6i HISTORY OF THE 
 
 and enjoy the confidence of an aged chief of the Oneidas, 
 residing in western New York, who had assisted to efface 
 every outward and visibh^ evidence of the existence of 
 this mine. When the chieftain saw that his days were 
 few, he called his friend Teal to his wigwam, to intrust 
 him with secrets of no longer consequence to the Indian. 
 He informed him that there were three salt springs, one 
 sllrer, one gold, and one lead mine in the vicinity of 
 Wyoming, and all used by them while in possession of 
 the country. The silver mine, long known to the scat- 
 tered tribes, was on the northeast side of the Lacka- 
 wanna, above a high ledge or mountain, half an hour's 
 walk from the River Susquehanna, twelve miles above 
 Wyoming. After the first Wyoming massacre, in 1763. 
 the dwellers in wigwams, hoping to retain occupancy for- 
 ever of the rich plains, coveted by triple parties, used 
 this mine to their advantage ; but when the intrudei-s 
 again made their appearance in such formidable numbei's 
 as to annihilate the long-cherished hope, the mine was so 
 artfully concealed from the whites that none yet have 
 found the spot yielding the precious metal. 
 
 Traditions, treasured up by old settlers half a century 
 ago, tell of an excavation in the bank of the Lackawanna, 
 between Old Forge and the Barnum farm, similar to that 
 described in the Pennsylvania Archives of 1766. 
 
 That a silver mine was known and worked by the abo- 
 rigines in tills vicinity, is unquestionably proved by the 
 fact that official complaint was made by them of the 
 depredations of Anderson, but its precise location remains 
 at present in great doubt. 
 
 GOLD MINE. 
 
 The chief described the gold mine as being under a 
 ledge of rocks, a few miles above Wyoming Valley, at a 
 point where a rock of the height of an Indian covered a 
 spring. 9 
 
LACKAWANNA VAI.LtY. 65 
 
 Five miles westward from Scranton, in a direct line, on 
 the western side of the mountain forming the boundary 
 between the townships of Providence and Newton, rises 
 a long ledge of rock known as Bald Mount, which, from 
 its altitude, offers, when the day is clear, so wide a view 
 of field, forest, and lake, that, in spite of the steep, zig- 
 zag way of approaching it, has become, during the sum- 
 mer hours, a popular resort for parties loving the romance 
 
 TOP OF BAI 
 
 of mountain life. At its very base lies the village of 
 Mihvaukie, watered by a stream turned to good mill 
 account before it enters the Susquehanna, five miles 
 below. Eight or ten villages can be seen from the mount, 
 which, shorn of its larger trees by the force of the wind 
 sometimes sweeping over it Avith great fury, is left com- 
 paratively bald, and thus given it a name. One large 
 rock, prominent in position, is perforated with numerous 
 holes of the capacity of from a quart to a gallon, as shown 
 by the preceding illustration of Bald Mount. These were 
 probably used by the Indian women for pounding their 
 
t)(5 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 corn into samp. The large number of stone pestles found 
 near it many years ago favor this theory. 
 
 Under this precipice can be seen one large conglomerate 
 rock, evidently removed some distance down the moun- 
 tain by the natives to conceal the real origin of the spring. 
 In the removal of this rock the trees, bent at the time, 
 grew up with a very perceptible inclination toward it. 
 From beneath its honest features emerges a spring, sur-' 
 passed in the purity of its waters by no other in the 
 world, where many metallurgists and others have sup- 
 posed the gold mine was located. Explorations hitherto 
 made upon every side of Bald Mount have failed to 
 satisfy expectations naturally awakened by these tra- 
 ditions. 
 
 In 1778, a young man who had been captured by the 
 savages in Wyoming Valley, was carried to the to}) of a 
 mountain where the Wilkes Barre settlement could be 
 seen in the distance. Here they built their camp-fire. A 
 transaction took place at this time which, from its novel 
 character, excited the surprise and ever afterward im- 
 pressed the mind of the young, unharmed captive. A 
 venerable chief, to whom the young man owed his safety, 
 and subsequently his release, removed a large fiat stone 
 covering the spring. The Avaters of this were so conveyed 
 by a subterranean conduit, constructed for the purpose, as 
 to deceive the men strolling through the wilderness in 
 regard to the real source of the spring. At its mouth a 
 roll of bark, forming a spout, was placed in such a man- 
 ner as to direct the current into a handkerchief held under 
 it by two of the Indians. For some moments the chief, 
 reverently attended by the warriors, arrayed with bow 
 and arrow, and forming a circle around him, stirred up 
 the spring with a conscious knowledge of its gainful 
 results. After an hour had elapsed, every stone pre- 
 viously disturbed was restored to its former condition ; 
 earth and leaves were left as if never tou(*hed, and no one, 
 without ocular knowledge, would suspect the existence 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKY. 07 
 
 of a water-course. The handkerchief, covered with 
 yelh)w sediment, was now lifted from the spout. The 
 glittering product thus gathered by the chief was 
 placed in a stone vessel with great care. After the fire 
 was extinguished, and certain incantations performed 
 with ceremonial exactness, the Indians left the spot in 
 charge of the wild rock surrounding it, and resumed 
 their march toward their land of maize among the 
 lakes. 
 
 Six days' walk led tlie party to Kingston, New York, 
 where the treasures of the mountain, thus artfully 
 obtained, were exchanged with the whites, for such 
 articles as want or caprice suggested to the occupants of 
 the forest. 
 
 In after years the returned liero often related the inci- 
 dent to his family and friends, some of whom thoroughly 
 traversed every portion of Bald Mount and Campbell's 
 Ledge without discovering the secret channel or the 
 golden spring. 
 
 SALT SPRINGS. 
 
 The three salt springs were respectively located, one 
 at Martin's Creek, one in the mountain gap between 
 Providence and Abington, the other on the Nay-aug, 
 about live miles from the junction of this stream with the 
 Lackawanna at Capoose. The last-named one, manip- 
 ulated by the Indians to come out of the bed of the 
 brook, was considered by the wild tribes as the richest, 
 as it yielded the largest quantity of salt with the least 
 labor. When a knowledge of this spring first came to 
 the white man, deer came hither in herds. Sometimes 
 there were hundreds in a drove around these salt licks ; 
 and it was rare during the spring or summer months not 
 to find the buck or fawn cropping the wild grass growing 
 luxuriantly around these briny places. In the upper 
 part of Leggett's Gap, in the mountain west of Providence, 
 there was a salt spring strongly impregnated with saline 
 
68 HISTORY OF THK 
 
 properties. When the white adventurer first songlit the 
 valley for his home, and found no luxury hut steak 
 from the bear or haunch from the deer, and heard no 
 voice but that issuing from the throat of the rihe, 
 the waters of this spring were often sought to obtain 
 the scarce and necessary salt. The warriors' patli 
 from Oquago salt spring to Capoose passed by its 
 waters. Much of the salt for the earliest settlers of 
 the Lackawanna and Wyoming valleys was granulated 
 here. 
 
 Mr. Blackman, who was taken captive from Wyoming, 
 relates of the Indians, that when salt became scarce, they 
 went up the Lackawanna and returned the next day, 
 loaded with the desired article, which was sometimes 
 warm. From a knowledge of this spring, advantage was 
 early taken by the hunter and trapper, for in such num- 
 bers deer frequented this fountain to lap its waters, that 
 they easily and often fell a ti'ophy to the woodsman's 
 gun. 
 
 A hunter of seventy winters tells the writer that, in 
 his younger days, deer were so tame in the vicinity of 
 this spring, that he has killed and dressed during his 
 lifetime one hundred and forty-seven deer at this place 
 alone ! 
 
 That the natives frequented this place for the purpose^ 
 of killing deer and curing venison, is satisfactorily proven 
 by the quantity of warlike and domestic Indian relics- 
 found immediately around it at an early day. 
 
 LEAD MINE. 
 
 Tuscarora Creek, a wild, clear, rapid stream, retaining 
 its original Indian name, and lying between Meshoppen 
 and Wyalusing, puts into the east side of tlie Susque- 
 hanna, about thirty miles above the Lackawanna. Half 
 a mile from its mouth, under a cliff leaning gloomily over 
 a sharp bend of the stream, where the rocks go down 
 
LACKAWANNA VAIXEV. 69 
 
 into the waters here deeper tli.iii at any other point, a 
 lead mine was worked by the Indians lor making "bullets, 
 after they had been tanglit the use of the rifle by the 
 English and the French. Tlie Oneida chief informed 
 Mr. Teal, that not only were the Wyoming Indians sup- 
 plied with lead from this Tuscarora mine, but the French, 
 while in harmony with the Iroquois, drew largely 
 upon it. 
 
 The Indian, in his wild dream of future hope, imposed 
 silence so effectually upon the rock along the Tuscarora, 
 that although several companies have exhausted large 
 sums of money in attempting to discover the lost mine, 
 no knowledge of its location is had other than that com- 
 ing from Indian tradition. 
 
 Tuscarora Creek has a sera]) of history of its own. 
 The great war-path from Tioga down to Wyoming, 
 crossed the mouth of this stream. It was in the certified 
 townslii]) of Braintrim and county of Westmoreland. In 
 1779, Gen. Sullivan, with his army, crossed the Tuscarora 
 at this point. When his i-ear-guard had reached the 
 south bank, wlierv a large mountain, covered with oak, 
 with little or no underbrush intervening to obstruct the 
 view for a great distance, conies down to the very stream, 
 a body of savages were seen stealing down its side for 
 the purpose of securing a few prisoners. Familiar with 
 the mode of Indian warfare, the guards leaped behind the 
 trees, affording them partial shelter. The Indians, niorr 
 skilled in the art and advantage of woodside encountei-, 
 as quickly betook themselves to the oak, which concealed 
 even their presence, when the skirmish began. 
 
 Soldiers fell, wounded or dead, without knowing from 
 what particular quarter bullets issued. At length Mr. Elea- 
 zer Carey, who saw his fellow-soldiers fall one after another, 
 simultaneously with the crack of the rifle near by where 
 he was standing, espied the dusky form of a Avarrior cau- 
 tiously peering out from behind a tree not fifty yards from 
 where he was standing, with his well -aimed u'un in liis 
 
70 HISTORY OF 'J'HE 
 
 hand, bring down a soldier at each discharge of his weapon. 
 After the Indian had reloaded, Carey, who had resolved 
 to kill him if Dossible when he should attempt to shoot 
 again, watched with intense solicitude tlie warrior's 
 rifle as it was again brought beside the tree. No sooner 
 had the slight projecting cheek and eye of the Indian 
 come out so as to be discerned by Carey, when the aveng- 
 ing bullet was sent forthwith into his brain. He gave 
 one high leap, uttered one deep yell, and fell to rise no 
 more. The Indians ran, caught up his body, and fled 
 into the forest. 
 
 So much for mines and springs, which some day may 
 possibly have more interest than that given them by 
 rumors and vague reco] lections of tradition. 
 
 GENERAL HISTORY. 
 
 The earliest history of the Lackawanna Valley is so in- 
 terwoven with that of Wyoming, that, to present a faith- 
 ful picture of one, material must be largely drawn upon 
 the otheri In fact, while Wyoming in its limited sigiiiti- 
 cation now gives a name to a valley unsurpassed for the 
 beauty of its scenery or the romance of its history, it was 
 formerly used in a more enlarged sense to designate all 
 the country purchased by the New Enghmd men of the 
 Indians in 1754, lying in what is now known as Luzerne, 
 AX'yoming, Susquehanna, and Wayne counties. Thus 
 the inhabitants of Providence, Salem, and Huntington, 
 all comparatively remote from Wyoming Valle}-. were 
 designated as " Wyoming Settlers,"^ and came under the 
 disputed jurisdiction of Connecticut. 
 
 In 1752, the cabin of no white man had broken the 
 Wyoming forest. After a casual reconnoissance along its 
 eastern border by the hunter, made with indefinite knowl- 
 edge of the character of the plain occupied by Teedyus- 
 cung and Backslnosa^ a Monsey chief at Capoose, and 
 
 ' Miner. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 71 
 
 reported witli glowiiiii; exaggeration to adventurous men 
 living in Hartford desiring to develop the western por- 
 tion of their possessions, ''a number of persons, princi- 
 pally inhabitants of Connecticut, formed themselves into 
 a company for the purpose of purchasing the Susque- 
 hanna lands of the Indians, and forming a settlement at 
 Wyoming. This association was called the " Susquehan- 
 na Company^ and during the same j^ear, 1753, they sent 
 out commissioners to explore the contemplated territory, 
 and to establish a friendly intercourse with such Indian 
 tribes as should be found in possession of it."^ These 
 facts, carried to Philadelphia by Indian scouts and inter- 
 preters, alarmed the Proprietar}- Government of Pennsyl- 
 vania, which also claimed this wild tract yet unlocked by 
 any Indian treaty, grant, or title to any party. Daniel 
 Broad head and William Parsons, two justices of the 
 peace in Lower Smithfield Township, Northampton Coun- 
 ty, on the war-path from Connecticut to Wyoming, were 
 instructed by Pennsylvania to watch all persons and par- 
 ties going hither either to explore or begin a settlement. 
 
 In fact no inland point within the province was watched 
 with greater solicitude or devotion through many years 
 of strange vicissitude than was Wyoming. The deep, 
 broad Susquehanna coming down through the magnificent 
 highlands and mountains from the wood-rimmed lakes of 
 New York, carrying its flood sometimes rudely over its 
 banks where the cabin-dwellers roamed in no doubtful 
 security, gave to a valley naturally beautiful all the 
 needed charms to captivate the Indian or allure the eye 
 of the white man. Alive with moose, bear, and deer, 
 fluttering with the wild turkey or the more gentle quail, 
 the woods expanded into forest far extending in every 
 direction of the compass, while water-fowl, and fish of 
 every hue and variety— especially the shad- animated 
 the river and all its winding tributaries. 
 
 ' Chapmnii, p. 51. 
 
72 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Its possession was a prize as earnesLy sought aftvr by 
 one party as it was sternly resisted by the other. Al- 
 though no actual settlement had been instituted hei-e by 
 the NeAv England people, yet it did not prevent the pro- 
 vincial authorities of Pennsylvania from exhibiting extra- 
 ordinary vigilance and exertion to prevent even a pur- 
 chase or survey of a valley so rich in agricultural pros- 
 pects. James Hamilton, "Governor of Pennsylvania 
 under the Proprietaries, having been informed of the in- 
 tentions of the Susquehanna Company, considered it 
 proper that immediate measures should be taken to defeat 
 those intentions, and to purchase the land for the use of 
 the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania,"^ as the Attorney- 
 General of Pennsylvania, to whom it had been referred, 
 had decided " that this tract of land (Wyoming) had not 
 yet heen purchased of the Six Nations (Indians), but has 
 hitherto been reserved, and is now used by them for their 
 hunting-grounds."- Sir William Johnson, his Majest\"s 
 Indian agent for the colony, residing at Albany, in a let- 
 ter dated March 20, 1754, was informed of the contem- 
 plated purchase, and requested to see "that nothing may 
 be done with the Indians by the Connecticut agents, or 
 any other in their behalf, to the injury of the Proprieta- 
 ries of this Province." ^ 
 
 It should be understood by the general reader, that all 
 lands claimed by the English in America were sold oi- 
 granted to one or more persons with an understanding 
 that the right, or rather the necessity still existed of re- 
 purchasing the same territory of the Indian tribes having 
 ownership, before it could safely be occupied by the 
 whites. Thus a portion of the land granted to William 
 Penn by King Charles II., March 11, 1681, was repur- 
 chased by him of the native tribes in a manner so explicit 
 and satisfactory to them that ever afterward his inter- 
 
 1 Chapman, p. 52. ^Opinion, French Francis, March 18, 1754. 
 
 ' Penusylvaaia Arcliives, 1754. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 73 
 
 -course witli all the aborigines was marked by a constant 
 and unvarying friendship unknown in modern times. To 
 thus purchase Wyoming lands/ as well as to conciliate 
 the good-will of the Indians, already excited by the 
 bloody drama alternately played by the English or the 
 French, "orders were received from England directing 
 the colonies to hold a general treaty with the Indians at 
 Albany in 1754, and to form, if possible, such an alliance 
 with them as would insure theii- friendship and the safety 
 of his Majesty's possessions in AmeiHca."" By runners 
 and messengers, young, swift, and ambitious, the wish 
 of his Majesty's Government was announced to the vari- 
 ous tribes interested and remote, and all assembled at 
 Fort Stanwix (now Rome), in July. 1754. 
 
 As there was no known printed copy of any charter 
 in America,^ the real boundaries of the royal grant Avas 
 understood by few or none, yet the authorities of Penn- 
 sylvania, believing at this time that Wyoming was within 
 her territorial limits, anticipated and resisted the efforts 
 of the Connecticut people, or the Yankees as they were 
 termed, by every art of diplomacy and every mode of 
 warfare. 
 
 John and Richard Penn, Isaac aS'orris, and Benjamin 
 Franklin, were appointed by Pennsylvania as Commis- 
 sioners to represent the interests of the Province, and 
 true to their instructions from Governor Hamilton, these 
 eminent gentlemen held private conferences with the Six 
 Nations, with a vieAv of securing Wyoming lands, in 
 whicli they failed. 
 
 July 11, 1754, for a consideration of two thousand 
 pounds. New York currency, the "chiefs, sachems, and 
 heads of the Five Nations of Indians, called the Iroquois, 
 and the native proprietors of a large tract of land on, 
 about, and adjacent to the River Susquehannali, and 
 
 ' When Wyoming is spoken of in relation to lands, Adjouqua or Lackawanna 
 Valley is of course included within its meaning. 
 
 ''Chapman, p. 51. ' 'Trumbull. 
 
74 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 being within the limits and bounds of the charter, and 
 grant of his late Majesty, King Charles 2nd, to the Colo- 
 nys of Connecticutt," sold to the Susquehanna Company 
 Wyoming lands bounded as follows: "Beginning from 
 the one and fortieth degree of north latitude, at ten 
 miles east of the river to the end of the forty-second or 
 beginning of the forty-third degree of north latitude, 
 and so to extend west two degrees of longitude one 
 hundred and twenty miles, and from thence south to- 
 the beginning of tlie forty-second degree, and from 
 thence east to the aforementioned boundrie, which is 
 ten miles east of Suskahanna River, together with all 
 and every the mines, minerals, or ore, &c." ^ All the ter- 
 ritory lying between this line ten miles east of the Susque- 
 hanna and the Delaware River, was purchased by the 
 Delaware Company, so that the lands of the Lackawanna 
 Valley were embraced respectively in the purchases of 
 the two companies. The townships of Pittson, Lacka- 
 wanna, Providence, Newton, and a portion of Abington, 
 were thus embraced within the Susquehanna purchase ; 
 while Covington, Springbrook, Madison, Jefferson, Scott, 
 and Blakeley, Avitli their vast array of thrifty villages, 
 and the neighboring counties of Wayne and Pike, Sus- 
 quehanna, and a portion of Monroe, were alike included 
 by the Delaware Indian purchase. 
 
 The Proprietary Government, astonished and chagrined 
 at a purchase it failed by the ingenious persuasions of 
 her ablest representatives to thwart, began to suggest 
 measures of practical severity to rid the valley of the 
 Yankee intruders, should they venture upon their new 
 purchase. It was not enough that the wolf crouched 
 along the pathway to Wyoming, or that the savage, 
 homeless and enraged, crossed the westward path where 
 the French and Indian wars had strewn the dead to appall 
 the adventurer. 
 
 ' See Pa. Arch., 1748-1756, pp. 147-158, for original copy of deed, with names, 
 of purchasers. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKV. ib 
 
 Early in February, 1754, a few iiiontlis previous to 
 this sale, Wm. Parsons, of Lower Smithfield, notified 
 Governor Hamilton that "some of his near neighbors had 
 accompanied tliree gentleman-like men to Wyomink, 
 who produced a writing undei- a large seal, empowering 
 them to treat and agree with such persons as were dis- 
 posed to take any of these lands of them."^ He also 
 informed the Governor " that it may be tlie means of 
 occasioning very great disorder and disturbances in the 
 back parts of the province." Persons living in Lower 
 Smithfield Township, near Strondsburg, holding lands 
 under the Proprietary direction and authority, looked 
 so favorably on the proposed settlement of Wyoming 
 lands, that Daniel Broadhead, Esq., then prominent in 
 the history of Northampton County, as the name is yet 
 in that section of country, wrote to Governor Hamilton, 
 February 24, 1754, that "there has been and is, great 
 disquietude amongst the people of these parts, occasioned 
 by some New England gentlemen, to such a degree 
 that they are all, or the majority of them, going to quit 
 or sell their lands for trifles, and to my certain knowl- 
 edge, many of them have advanced money on such 
 occasions, in order that they might secure rights from 
 the New England Proprietaries, which right I suppose 
 is intended to be on Sasquehannah at a place called 
 Wyomink."^ 
 
 The Provincial Council of Pennsylvania recommend- 
 ed Governor Hamilton to write to the Governor of 
 Connecticut, "to stop the departure of their people on 
 a dangerous enterprise as this," and "forthwith dis- 
 patch Conrad Weiser to the Six Nations and those at 
 Wyoming, to put them upon their guard against those 
 proceedings."^ Governor Fitch replied that he "knew 
 nothing of any thing being done by the Government 
 to countenance such a proceeding as you intimate, and 
 
 1 Col. Rec, vol. v., p. 73G. ' Ibid., p. 757. " Ihid., p. 758. 
 
76 HISTORY or thk 
 
 as I conclude, is going on among some of our people.'' 
 Mr. Armstrong reported to the Government, "that the 
 people of Connecticut are most earnestly and seriously 
 determined to make a settlement on the Susquehanna, 
 within the latitude of the province, relying on the 
 words of their grants, which extend to the 8outh 8ea^ 
 provided that tliey can succeed in a purchase of these lands 
 from the Six Nations, which they are now attempting 
 hj the means of Colonel Johnson and Mr. Lydias of 
 Albany, having subscribed a thousand pieces of eight 
 for that purpose, each giving four dollars for what they 
 call a Right." ^ 
 
 Under date of December 2, 1754, five months after 
 the successful negotiations for Wyoming. James Alex- 
 ander wrote to Governor Morris that he believed tliat 
 "more vigorous measures will be wanting to nip this 
 affair in the bud, than writing to governoi's and magis- 
 trates, or employing a few rangers, as I before proposed. 
 I question if less will do, than a superior number to the 
 Connecticut men, women, and children, that come, andbn'/iy/ 
 ihem to PhiladelpMa ; the women and children to ship off 
 to Governor Fitch, the men to imprison till hailed or list 
 for Olilo,^ this done tioice or tJirice will terrify others 
 from coming ; and one or two thousand pounds laid 
 now out in this service, may save scores of thousands 
 that it may afterwards cost. I doubt not, Connecticut 
 will amuse and give good words till a great number 
 be settled, and then bid defiance."^ 
 
 Every movement in Hartford, where the interests of 
 these two companies were discussed publicly and freely, 
 was watched by persons employed by Pennsylvania 
 to do so, who, in December, 1754, reported the pros- 
 pects and development of the organization to Governor 
 
 ' Col. Rec, vol. v., pp. 773-4. 
 
 " A very humane way to dispose of peaceful settlers, to have them enlist \u the 
 French and Indian war on the Ohio 1 
 ' Col. Rec, vol. vi.. p. 267. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. « i 
 
 Murris, thus: "There was a great iiireting about a fort- 
 night ago in Hartford, of the people concerned in the 
 design' d. The original shares are six hundred. The 
 sclieme stood thus. They made a purse, each man pay- 
 ing four dollars towards the purchase, &c., but since 
 that they have [been] obliged to pay five more, so that 
 the original shares of the purchase 'tis nine dollars a 
 man. These sharers engaged to go themselves, or to 
 procure one to go in their stead to the Sasquehannah, 
 and there to make a settlement, build a building, clear 
 so much land, &c., on their respective lots in a given 
 time. The grand emigration does not propose to go forth 
 till all be quietly settled, but in the mean time, 'tis said 
 there will be some individuals going. "^ 
 
 In spite of talks and treaties, W}'oming, full of natives 
 reluctant to yield possession of their plain to the spoiler 
 of their heritage, remained unpeopled and untouched 
 by the whites. Even some of the Cayuga Indians, 
 seduced into French interests, inimical to the English, 
 hearing that "a lot of people from New England had 
 formed themselves into a body to settle the lands on 
 Susquehanna, and especially Sea-hau-toioano (Wyoming) 
 threatened, if they done so, to first kill all their creatures, 
 and then if they did not desist, they themselves would 
 all be killed, without distinction, let the consequence s 
 be what it would."^ This threat of " Tachnechdorus, the 
 chief of Smamockin, of the Cayiuker," was carried into 
 execution at Wyoming a few years later, when the first 
 settlement here was destroj^ed, the emigrants shot and 
 scalped by the same band that murdered Teedyuscung in 
 his Susquehanna wigwam. 
 
 The colony of Connecticut, aware of the extent of their 
 original grant, and conscious of the integrity of the 
 Indian purchase of Wyoming by the Susquehanna Com- 
 
 ' Col. Rec, vol. vi., pp. 207-8. 
 
 ' Pennsylvania Archives, 174S-1756, pp. 259- 
 
78 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 pany, gave consent to establish a settlement here. In 
 the summer of 1755 the company "'sent out a number of 
 persons to Wyoming, accompanied by their surveyors 
 and agents, to commence a settlement. On their arrival, 
 they found the Indians in a state of war with the English 
 colonies ; and the news of the defeat of General Braddock 
 having been received at Wyoming, produced such an 
 animating effect upon the Nanticoke tribe of Indians, 
 that the members of the new colony would probably 
 have been retained as prisoners had it not been for the inter- 
 ference of some of the principal chieftains of the Delaware 
 Indians, and particularly of Tedeuscund, who retained 
 their attachment to their Christian brethren of the Mora- 
 vian church, and their friendship in some degree for the 
 English. The members of the colony, consequently, 
 returned to Connecticut, and the attempt to form a set- 
 tlement at Wyoming was abandoned until a more favor- 
 able opportunity."^ 
 
 The efforts of the Moravian missionaries from Gnaden- 
 hutten and Bethlehem, to introduce Christian influences 
 along the foliage of the Indian forest, were not altogethe 
 in vain. At Machwihilusing (Wyalusing)^ a settlement 
 had been made by these zealous and determined German 
 brethren, under the pastorship of the Rev. David Zeis- 
 berger, which flourished through all the intermediate In- 
 dian wars and massacres up until 1770, when, as the 
 territory occupied by them had been sold to the Connec- 
 ticut people, the Moravians removed to Ohio, to whither 
 the Dela wares had preceded them. Living on the great 
 canoe-route and war-path from Onondaga to Wyoming, 
 these heroic missionaries, who had sacrificed every social 
 comfort for the stern incidents of border life, with no 
 ambition but the good and welfare of the race they sought 
 to elevate, were left unharmed by the warriors desolating 
 the country around them. 
 
 ' Chapman, p. 65. * Heckewelder. 
 
l-ACKA WANNA VALLEY. 79 
 
 The Colonial Records give an account of a council held 
 July 11, 1760, with a large number of Minisinks. Nanti- 
 cokes, and Delawares, "from an Indian town called Mlcli- 
 alloasen or Wighalooscon, about fifty or sixty miles above 
 Wyomink, on the Susquehannah,"^ but while it was visited 
 by these missionaries, previous to this it was iwt chosen 
 by them for a permanent abode until May 9, 1765. 
 " Having fixed on a convenient spot for a settlement, they 
 immediately began to erect a town, which, when com- 
 pleted, consisted of thirteen Indian huts, and upward of 
 forty houses built of wood, in the European manner, 
 besides a dwelling for the missionaries. In the middle of 
 the street, which was eighty feet broad, stood a large and 
 neat chapel. The adjoining lands were laid out into neat 
 gardens ; and between the town and the river, about two 
 hundred and fifty acres were divided into regular planta- 
 tions of Indian corn. The burying-ground was situated 
 at some distance back of the buildings. Each family liad" 
 its own boat. To this place they gave the name of Frie- 
 denshuetten (Huts of Peace). This new settlement soon 
 assumed a ver}^ flourishing appearance."^ 
 
 The Wyalusing Indians exhibited toward the whites 
 with whom they came in contact a conciliatory and Chris- 
 tian disposition. At a council held at the State House in 
 Philadelphia, September 17, 1768, John Curtis spoke for 
 the Wyalusing Indians as follows : — 
 
 "Brothers : — After the treaty, two years ago, as the In- 
 dians were returning home, a Delaware was killed. As 
 soon as the news reached the Indian country, some of his 
 relations were so exasperated, that four of them immedi- 
 ately set ofl" and came down Avith an intention to kill some 
 of the white folks. On their way they called at Wigha- 
 lousin and stopt there. When they informed us of their 
 design, the Indians of Wighalousin, men, women, and 
 children, did all in their power to dissuade them from it, 
 
 ' Col. Rec. vol. viii., p. 484. ' Christian Library. 
 
80 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 and joined in a collection of wampum^ and delivered it 
 to them to pacify them, on which they returned home."" 
 
 Nor was the Lackawanna part of Wyoming without its 
 spiritual advisers as early as October 26, 1755. At the 
 request of the friendly Indiaas living on the Susquehanna 
 and Lee-Tcaugh-Tiunt (Lackawanna), the Moravian mis- 
 sionaries of Bethlehem visited Wyoming at this time 
 (to use the Indian's own phrase), "to speak words to them 
 of their God and Creator as often as they desire it."^ 
 
 They remained six days at " Waioming, the Shawanese 
 town, and at LecJcaweTce, the Minising town." They 
 preached twice at LecTcawelce,* where they found the 
 natives enjoying their yearly thanksgiving harvest-feast 
 with song and dance, interpolating their songs with an 
 occasional yell or war-whoop, secure in their corn-fields 
 and "well affected towards the English,"^ to whom they 
 gave every outward assurance of friendship. Twenty- 
 eight days after this, Gnadenhutten was devastated, 
 and no white settlement in Pennsylvania, above Bethle- 
 hem, escaped wholly from the uplifted tonialiawk. The 
 Indian town of Nescopicken (Nescopick), one day's jour- 
 ney from Wyoming, became tlie head-quarters of the 
 French and Indians.^ Not a single white person lived in 
 either of the valleys of Wyoming or Lackawanna. The 
 Indians, won over by the shrewdness of tlie French, bent 
 on conquest and carnage, went even below the Blue Moun- 
 tains to the Tulpehocking, within thirty miles of Philadel- 
 
 ' Wampum or Wanipon, called also Wampampeag; a kind of money in use 
 among the Indians. It was a kind of bead made of shells of the great conch, 
 muscle, &c.. and curiously wrought and polished, with a hole throiigli them. They 
 were of different colors, as black, blue, red and white, and purple ; the last of 
 which were wroujfht by the Five Nations. Six of the white, and three of the 
 black or blue passed for a penny — TrLunbuU's IT. S., vol. i., p. 23. In 1667, Wampon 
 was made a tender by law for the payment of debts, "not excee<iing 40 shillings, 
 at 8 white or 4 black for a penny; this was repealed in 1671." — Douglas, vol. i., 
 p. 437. 
 
 ^ Pa. Arch., 1760. ' Ibid.. 1755, p. 492. 
 
 ' Either Aasarughney, Capoose, or an Indian town at the Lackawack. 
 
 ' I'a. Arch., 175.5, pp. 159-60 •Ibid.. l^SB, p. 558 
 
LACK AW ANN* VALLEY. 81 
 
 pliia, unresisted. Along the Delaware, from Easton to 
 Broadhead' s, the country was absolutely deserted. Broad- 
 head' s place was attacked, and bravely defended by the 
 courageous inmates. In fact;, Lower Smithfield, where 
 Broadhead' s clearing was located, was so constantly 
 threatened by the arrowed warriors, that Benjamin Frank- 
 lin, in July, 1756, ordered a company of foot to be raised 
 '•of fifty able men to protect the inhabitants while they 
 thresh out and secure their corn," and scout from time 
 to time for one month, and " for pay, to receive six dollars 
 per month, and one dollar extra for use of gun and 
 blanket." The men were notified that if they should kill 
 any Indians while thus ranging, "forty dollars will be 
 allowed and paid by the Government/o/' each scalp of an 
 Indian so killed."^ This is the first recorded instance 
 where a premium was offered for scalps in the vicinity of 
 Wyoming.- No fortunes, however, where made by scalp 
 gatherers. 
 
 xifter Braddock's memorable defeat in July, 175o, the 
 whole frontier of Pennsylvania was left so destitute of 
 protection, that several friendly Indim chiefs of the Sus- 
 quehanna tribes visited Philadelphia, and urged upon the 
 Government the importance of building such places of 
 defense, which if they failed to do all the tribes now 
 peaceably inclined, would raise the hatchet as auxiliaries 
 of the exultant French. This prudent advice, however, 
 was not taken until after the Lehigh village of Gnaden- 
 hutten had been obliterated by the torch, when a chain 
 of simple forts or block-houses were erected along the 
 Susquehanna and Delaware. It is impossible at the pres- 
 ent day, to ascertain the exact location of these forts. 
 "Those west- ward of the Sasquehana," the Pennsylvania 
 Archives inform us, "are about twenty miles asunder, 
 and those between Sasquehana and Delaware about 
 
 ' Pa. Arch., 1756, p. 516. 
 
 ' As early as 1689, in the beginning of King Philip's war, one hundred pound* 
 was oflFered for Indian scalps by New p]ngl;ind oflBciaJs. 
 
82 HISTOKY OF THE 
 
 ten." The fort at Shamokin was built in July, 1755, from 
 logs huge and liewn. Fort Allen, at Gnadenhutten, was 
 built in January, 1756. The fort at Wyoming and the one 
 asked for at Adjouquay by the Iroquois chiefs were erect- 
 ed the same year.^ These forts were strongly built, stock- 
 aded, and of ample capacity to accommodate the sparsely 
 settled places around them in any exigency. From 
 twenty to fifty men were stationed in these protecting out- 
 posts, until after the treaty of 1758 fulfilled the expecta- 
 tions of peace, when many of them were abandoned. The 
 warriors at Tioga and Wyoming and Lackawanna weiv 
 estimated at this time at seven hundred, fifty of whom 
 were Monseys, at Capoose. 
 
 Ciishietunck (Cochecton), on the upper Delaware, was 
 settled by the Delaware Company in 1767, which place, 
 in spite of colonial feuds, or Pennymite resistance, pros- 
 pered in its aspirations and development. Cochecton, 
 like Wyoming, was claimed by Pennsylvania as "lying 
 in the upper part of Northampton County, opposite the 
 Jersey Station Point," and the same vexatious measures 
 employed in one place were also used in the other to 
 expel the New England comers. 
 
 A mere glimpse of this section of country as it appeared 
 to Charles Tomson. and Christian Frederic Post, who 
 journeyed toward Wyoming and Lee-haw-hanna in 1758, 
 by order of the Governor of Pennsylvania, and at the 
 request of the Indians, is interesting in an historical light, 
 as reflecting the shadows of one hundred and ten years 
 ago. These Indian civilizers left Philadelphia, June 7, 
 1768, and in two days reached Fort Allen, on the Lehigh, 
 where they engaged Moses Tetaniy and Isaac Still, and 
 three other Indians, to accompany them. 
 
 "On Sunday morning we set forward pretty early, and 
 by 12 o'clock reached the Nescopekun Mountain, within 
 fourteen or fifteen miles of A¥yoming. Here we met nine 
 
 » Pa. Arch.. 1748-1756. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKY. 83 
 
 Indians traveling down to Bethlehem. They had left 
 Wyoming the day before, and had been six days fi'ora 
 Chenango, a Town of the Nanticokes on Susquehanna, 
 about half way between Owegey and Ossewingo. There 
 was one Nanticoke, one Monsey Captain, one Delaware, 
 four Mawliiccons, and two Squaws. Upon meeting them, 
 we stopped and inquired the news, and from several 
 questions asked, we learned that Teedyuscung was well 
 and at Wyoming, that all was quiet among the Nan- 
 ticokes, that their principal men were at the Council at 
 Onondaga, which was not yet broke up ; that Back- 
 sinosa was at Lee-liaug?i-?iunt (Lackawanna), but that he 
 was pre paling to go somewhere, he said to his own 
 Country. Being informed of our going to Wyoming with 
 good news to all the Indians, they told us that they 
 thought it was by no means safe for us to proceed ; that 
 strange Indians were thick in the woods about Wyoming; 
 lh It a party was seen but four days ago whose Language 
 none of the Delawares there undei'stood, nor did they 
 know of what Nation they were. This alarmed our In- 
 dians, they pressed us to turn back with this Company-, 
 iind make all haste for Fort Allen, and two of them would 
 go and invite Teedyuscung to come to us there. Tliis we 
 objected to, on account of losing time, so we proposed to 
 go forward to the Wyoming Hills, and there Avait till two 
 of our Company went forward and informed Teedyuscung 
 of our coming, and know of him whether it would be 
 safe to go to the Town, The Indians we met thought it 
 dangerous to proceed any farther, as they had seen fresh 
 Tracks crossing the Path in two or three places between 
 this and Wyoming, and at one place not half a mile from 
 where we then were. Upon this it was proposed and 
 agreed upon, to go back to the east side of the Hills, and 
 there lodge to-night, till two of our Indians went and 
 invited Teedyuscung to come to us. Next day Teedyus 
 cung came to us.''^ After a long talk and dinner with 
 
 • Pa. Arch., 1758. pp. 412-22. 
 
84 HISTORY OF THK 
 
 Teedyuscung and otlier chiefs, fi-ora the valley, they were 
 made familiar with all the news, rumors, and complaint-; 
 of the Indians, and sent back, as Teedyuscung assured 
 them that it was absolutely unsafe for them to venture 
 farther. They also reported that "Backsinosa, with 
 about one hundred men, lives yet at Lee-haugh-hunt" ^ 
 'Lackawanna), at Assarughney, a place of so much import- 
 .,^oe that a friendly Indian who passed there a few days 
 previous, " saw four Canoes made of bark, and two Floats 
 there hid in the bushes,"" which he learned had just been 
 used by a party coming from Broadhead's, by the way of 
 Lee-haugh-hunt and Capoose 
 
 After the purchase of Wyoming lands in 1754 by the 
 Connecticut Susquehanna Company, Pennsylvania awak- 
 ened to the importance of cultivating more intimate rela- 
 tions with the Indians. Teedyuscung was informed by 
 the Provincial Council, that '•^hls continuance at Wio- 
 ming is of great service." ^ The natives being too lazy or 
 too little skilled in agricultural affairs to supply their 
 Avigwams with vegetable food, brought it in canoes from 
 Fort Augusta, sixty miles below, thus often exhausting the 
 supply around Sunbury and Northumberland. In May. 
 1755, the Indians on the Susquehanna were reported 
 starving because of the scarcity of deer.* To obviate this, 
 as well as to carry out the policy instituted by Pennsyl- 
 vania, "fifty or sixty Carpenters, Masons, and Laborers, 
 were sent to Wyoming to build and plant for the Indians. 
 After a very fatiguing march they arrived at Wyoming on 
 the 22d May, 1758, and put the hands to work the next 
 day. As the Battoes did not arrive from Fort Augusta. 
 <e time appointed, we were brought to very short 
 allowance in provisions, «&c. For several days we had no 
 oread at all, which created no little uneasiness among the 
 ^nen. We kept working until the 27th, when Joseph 
 
 ' Pa. Arch., 1758, p. 421. ' CoL Rec, vol. viii., p. 127. 
 
 * Ibid., p. 138. * Pa. Arcli., 175S, p. 310. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALI.KY. 00 
 
 Croker, one of our masons, was killed and scalped by six 
 of the enemy Indians ; this misfortune made our men 
 uneasy. The next day, the Battoes arrived with provi- 
 sions, which enabled us to carry on the work and finish 
 ten houses. We also plowed some ground for them to 
 plant in, and split some rails to fence it ; after which they 
 thought it proper to let us know that it was late in the 
 season, and the grass grown very high, so that the ground 
 when plowed was not fit for planting but in a few places, 
 such as old Towns and the like, we might return until a 
 more favorable time, which we complied with on Fridaj', 
 the 2d June, and got safe Tuesday evening following."^ 
 
 On the same day that this pai'ty returned to Fort 
 Augusta, Moses Tetamy and Isaac Still, both Indian inter- 
 preters, left Philadelphia to visit tlie Monseys at Mini- 
 sinks, for the Government. The fourth day's journey b}- 
 the way of the warriors' path over the Lehigh Mountain, 
 brought them to Wyoming, where they were welcomed 
 and treated with great consideration as public messengers. 
 After staying all night at Wyoming, they left early in the 
 moi-ning on horseback, and at night "came to Tenkgha- 
 nake (Tunkhannock), about as far above Wyoming us 
 from Wyoming to Fort Allen. This is an old Town, no- 
 body lives there, but over the river we saw some Minisink 
 Indians, Hunters, who called to us, and when Ave Avent 
 over treated us kindly, and gave us some Bear meat and 
 venison. The road from Wyoming to Tenghanaoke is 
 broken and billy. ""- 
 
 The Western Indians held a great council over the Ohio 
 in June, 1760. Frederic Post and John Hays attempted to 
 accompany Teedyuscung thither, but the two interpreters 
 were denied passage through the Seneca country. A descrip- 
 tion of their journey through Wyoming, as given in the 
 words of their journal, can not fail to interest very many : — 
 
 "Saturday, May 10. — Heassie Avetlier : Sett off from 
 
 • Col. Rec, vol. viii., pp. 134-5. ' Pa. Arcli., 1756, p. 509. 
 
86 HISTOKY OF THE 
 
 fort Allen at Eight o'Ch^ck, and traveled till it was Late 
 through a vast Desei-t ; Lodged in the Woods. 
 
 "Sunday, 11th. — Sett to the way Early and Arived at 
 Wioming in the Evening, where we were Informed that 
 Teedyuscung was Set off on his Journey this Morning, 
 but they sent for him Imediately on our Coming. 
 
 ''Monday, 12th. — Teedyuscung Came home About 
 Eleven o' Clock, and we had several Conferences with him 
 this Day. 
 
 -'Tuesday, 13th.— Wrought at Makeing Belts and 
 Sti'ings of our Wampum, was used very Kindly, and 
 talked of Going Next Day. 
 
 " Wed'y, 14th. — Very Eainy Wether, so that we 
 Could not set out, So we followed our old Business of 
 Belt making. 
 
 " Thursday, 15th.— AVether the Same: Made Belts. 
 
 "Friday, 16th. — Designed Going, but Teedyuscun<; 
 would not Go until he had a field of Corn ]3lanted first, 
 and we all asisted him and planted it this Day. 
 
 " Satturday, 17th. — Set of Early and traveled smartly. 
 Crossed a Large Creek about one o' Clock, called Ah-la- 
 lion-ie (Lackawanna?), and so followed Our Coui'se up tlie 
 East Side of the Sisquhana River till Night, and Set up 
 our tents in an Old Indian Town called Quelooiaino. Be- 
 ing fourteen in Number in all. 
 
 "Sunday, 18th, — Wet Weather, Nevertheless wh trav- 
 eled Smartly Cross a very Large Creek called Wa^h-co- 
 k'nig (Meshoppen), Lodged on the Banks of Sisquhana, 
 and had a very Wet Night of it. 
 
 "Monday, 19th. — Set off Early, tho wet, and Arived at 
 a town called Qui-ha-loo-sing (Wyalusing), the Gov- 
 enours Name Wampoonham, a very Religious Civilized 
 man in his own way, and Shewd us a great Deal of 
 Kindness, and we held a Conference with him this 
 Evening, and when over, Mr. Post Gave us a Sermon, at 
 tlieir Request. 
 
 "Tuesday, 20th. — They Called us to Council, and 
 
LACKAWANNA VALI-EY. 87 
 
 seemed to be very friendly, and Delivered to Teedynscung 
 three prisoners By a string and promised to bring 
 them Soon down ; this town is Situated on Sisqnhana, 
 East side, about twenty Houses full of People, Very Good 
 Land, and Good Indian Buildings, all New ; had Sermon 
 this Evining again. 
 
 "Wednsday, 21st. — They told us there was another 
 prisnor in this town, but the man that had hir would 
 not Consent to Give hir Up yet, but if he Did not 
 he Should Leave their town ; We Set off about Eleven 
 o'clock, and Crossed Qui-ha-loo-sing Creek about a mile 
 above the town ; We traveled Through Swamps, Rocks, 
 and Mountains about 15 Miles, then came to the River, 
 and took up Lodging on the Bank." 
 
 Thursday and Friday they visited Diohaga, Snake Hole, 
 and Asinsan. At the last-named place "the Indians 
 Beuan to Sacrifice to their God, and Spent the Day in 
 a very Odd manner. Howling and Danceing, Raveling 
 Like Wolves, and Painted frightfull as Divels. 
 
 "Monday, 26th. — The Indians, Haveing Got Rum, Got 
 Drunk, all in General, Except some old men ; and Teedy- 
 nscung Behaved well on this Occasion, for when his Sone 
 brought in the Kegg of Rum, he would not taste it ; we 
 were very much Abused and Scolded by the Indians, and 
 thretened Often to Host us. They Bid us Welcome to this 
 town, but if we came any farther they would Rost us in 
 the fire. 
 
 " There was a great Sacrifice of a hogg, which gathered 
 a Great Number of them together, and after their Sacrifi- 
 cial Rites were over, they Encouraged us to Go on, But 
 we Could not See it Clear, for the old father Mingo always 
 Sent us word not Go, but that Teedynscung and his In- 
 dians Might Go, but that we should not Go, noi- any 
 White man Should pas through their Countiy." 
 
 After visiting various Indian towns, witnessing deer 
 sacrifices, and holding councils witli the Delawares, Won- 
 amies, and Monseys, they conclude! to leturn home, as 
 
88 HISTOUY OF THE 
 
 the old Indian ''agreement was that no white man Should 
 ]^as throw their Country, for fear of Spyes to see their 
 Land." 
 
 The fertile meadows now extending at certain intervals 
 along the river from Binghamton to Tunkhannock, they 
 describe as "an Ordinary Country, Nothing but Moun- 
 tains and Rocks and pine timber, save the Small Low 
 lands the Indians plants their Corn on." 
 
 On the ninth day of the homeward journey, interlined 
 by many vexations and delays, and lodging in the woods, 
 where " the Knates Bit so hard," they approached Wyo- 
 ming. ' ' About Eleven o' Clock we came to a narrow 
 pass where the horses, with Hight of the River, was 
 obliged to Swime a considerable way, and had to all get 
 in the Canoo, then took our horses again and had to Swim 
 another Large Creek and Climbe many a hill, but at 
 Lenth we Got to Weoming, thank God. 
 
 " Saturday, 28th. — Set of from Weoming and traveled 
 Over the Mountains, and Lodged in the Woods, and had 
 very wet Weather," &c., &c.^ 
 
 In April, 1761, before the snow-drifts had melted from 
 the cold gorges of the mountain, the route had been sui'- 
 veyed by a party which " marked trees for twenty miles 
 from the Delaware in the way toward Snsquehannah, 
 and laid out lots for a town at a place called LeigJiwack- 
 son, or Lackervak, about eight miles westward from 
 Casheitunck."" Teedyuscung himself visited Philadel- 
 phia during this month, to express to the Governor his 
 uneasiness about this settlement, which he reported was 
 so unsafe for his pale brother "that they (the Connecti- 
 cut men) Kept continual watch for fear the Indians would 
 shoot them."' 
 
 In August, 1762, the adventurous spirit of New England 
 emigration began to move toward Wyoming with greater 
 success than ever before. A few miles below the village 
 
 ' Pa. Arch., 1760, pp. 735-41. ^ Col. Rec, vol. viii., p. 614. ^ Ibid., p. 595. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 89 
 
 of Assariighney, and a mile or two above the Indian 
 town at Wyoming-, runs into the Snsquelianna a short, 
 sluggish creek, celebrated afar by the name of Mill Creek. 
 
 Two hundred persons from the colony of Connecticut 
 began a settlement on the shaded margin of this stream at 
 this time. " They found the valley covered with woods, 
 except a few acres in the immediate vicinity of the Shaw- 
 anese and Wyoming towns, which had been improved by 
 the Indians in the cultivation of their corn, and which 
 was still in part occupied by them."^ A few acres of land 
 was cleared and sown with wheat and rye, after which the 
 emigrants concealed their agricultural implements in the 
 ground and returned to Connecticut to winter, returning 
 in the spring. 
 
 Teedyuscung, jealous of his plains yielding Avith the 
 simple tillage of the squaws, again visited Philadelphia, 
 Nov. 19, 1762, and sought a private interview with the 
 ■Governor, to complain of the settlement upon Lec-ha- 
 wanock Creek. The Govei-nor desired Teedyuscung to 
 ^peak nothing but the honest truth, which he promised to 
 do, and then addressed him as follows : — " Brother : You 
 may remember that some time ago I told you that I should 
 be obliged to remove from Wyomink on account of the New 
 England people, and I now acquaint you that soon after 
 I returned to Wyomink from Lancaster, there came 150 
 -of those people, furnished with all sorts of Tools, as well 
 for building as Husbandry, and declared that they had 
 bought those Lands from the Six Nations, and would set 
 tie them, and were actually going to build themselves 
 Houses, and settle upon a creek called Leckmoan.oclx., 
 about seven or eight miles above Wyomink. I threatened 
 them hard, and declared I would carry them to the Gov- 
 ernor at Philadelphia ; and when they heard me tlireaten 
 them in this manner, they said they would go away and 
 consult their own Governor ; for if they were carried to 
 
 ' Chipman. 
 
dO HI6T0KY OF THE 
 
 Philadelpliia, they might be detained there Seven Years, 
 and they said further, that since the Indians were uneasy 
 at this purchase, if they would glde tliejii hack the money 
 it had cost them, which was one or two Bushels of Dol- 
 lars, they would give them their Lands again. Ten days 
 after these were gone, there came other fourteen men, and 
 made us the same speeches, declaring that tliey expected 
 above three thousand would come and settle the Wyo- 
 mink Lands in the Spring, and they had with them a Saw 
 and Saw-Mill Tools, proposing to go directly and build a 
 Saw-Mill about a mile above where T live, but upon my 
 threatening those in the same manner I did tlie former 
 Company, they went away, and, as I was told, buried 
 their tools somewhere in the Woods. These people desired 
 me to assist them in surveying the Lands, and told me 
 tliey would reward me handsomely for my trouble, but I 
 refused to have any thing to do with them. Brother : 
 Six days after these were gone there came eight other 
 white men and a mulatto, and said the very same things 
 to me that the others had said, and immediately I got 
 together my Council, and as soon as we had linislied our 
 Consultations, I told these people that I actually would 
 confine them and carry them to Philadelphia and deliver 
 them to the Governor there, upon which they went away, 
 saying they would go to their own Governor, and come 
 again with great numbers in the Spring. Some of these 
 people stole my Horse that I bought at Easton, but they 
 gave me another Horse and five pounds in money, in 
 satisfaction for my Horse. Brother : Tho' I threatened these 
 people hard, that I would confine them and carry them 
 down to you, yet I did not mean actually to do it, remem- 
 bering that you charged me not to strike any White Man, 
 tho' they should come, but to send you the earliest 
 notice of their coming that was in my power. Brother : 
 Before I got up to Wyomink from Lancaster, there had 
 come a great Body of these New England People with 
 intent actually to settle the Land, but the Six Nations 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKY. 91 
 
 passing by at that time from Lancaster, sent to let them 
 know that they should not be permitted to settle any of 
 these Lands, and on their expressing great resentment 
 against them, and threatening them if they persisted, they 
 went away. This I was told by Thomas Iving, who was 
 left behind at Wyomink by the Six Nations, to tell me 
 that they intended to lay this whole matter before the 
 great Council at Onondagoe, and that they would send for 
 me and my Indians to come to Albany in the Spring, 
 where thpy are to have a meeting with the New England 
 people, and desired that I would be quiet till I should 
 receive their Message, and then come to Albany. On 
 this speech of Thomas King's we met together iu Council, 
 and agreed not to give him any promise to come to 
 Albany, but to advise the Governor of Pennsylvania of 
 this, and take his advice what to do, and if he will go 
 with us and advise us to go, we Avill go in case we are 
 sent for in the Spring. Brother : Surely as you have a 
 General of the King' s Armies here, he might hinder these 
 people from coming and disturbing us in our possessions. 
 Brother : About six days after I left Wyomink I received 
 a Belt, which was broiiglit me by the Indian man Com- 
 pass ; it came first to Nutimus, and from him to me. By 
 that Belt, Beaver desired that I and the Delawares, the 
 Wapings, and Mohickons, settled at Wyomink. would 
 remove thence and come and live at Allegheny. Brother : 
 I have one thing more to say, and I shall have finished 
 all I have to say at this time. Brother : You may remem- 
 ber that at the Treaty at Easton we were piomised that a 
 Schoolmaster and Ministers should be sent to instruct us 
 in religion, and to teach us to read and write. As none 
 have yet been provided for us, I desire to know what 
 you intend to do in this matter. I have now done." * 
 
 The Governor, in reply, informed Teedyuscung, that as 
 Wyoming lands had never yet been purchased from the 
 
 ' Col. Rec, vol. ix., pp. 6-8. 
 
ya HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Six Nations, he liad sent a messenger to warn the Connec- 
 ticut people away from Lechawanock Creek, who mei 
 them returning because of the rough manner spoken to 
 by the Indians. After commending Teedyuscung for his 
 fidelity and good behavior, the Governor said, "Brother: 
 You know that your Uncles, the Six Nations, have kin- 
 dled a fire for you at Wyoniink, and desired you would 
 stay there and watch, and give them notice if any White 
 people should come to take away the Lands from them, 
 and that you would not suffer them to do it. Be assured 
 that this winter, measures loill he taken to prevent these 
 troublesome people froiti coming to disturh you. On 
 these considerations T desire you to remain quiet where 
 you are, and not move away, as you seem to have no 
 inclinations to go away only on account of these New 
 England disturbers. Tlie times have been so unsettled, 
 that there has been no opportunity of sending Ministers 
 and Sclioolniasters among you. Now there is a likeli- 
 hood of a general peace being soon established, if you 
 determine still to continue at Wyomink, I shall consider 
 of this matter and send you an answer at a proper 
 time." ^ 
 
 The complaints of Teedyuscung, nor the threats of 
 Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton, were hardly necessary, as 
 the next year (1763) witnessed the murder of the king 
 of the Delawares, in his simple cabin by the river side, 
 and the fliglit or massacre of the defenseless yeomanry at 
 Wyoming. Wlieu Teedyuscung sank the tomahawk into 
 the skull of the o lending Iroquois warrior on his way to 
 Easton, in 1758, unavenged and apparently unnoticed at 
 the time, he wrote his own death-warrant in the blood of 
 the fallen chief. Indian revenge slumbers only to in- 
 crease its intensity. Under the garb of friendship, he was 
 visited at his village by some warriors of the Six Nations 
 from the upper branches of the Susquehanna, plied boun- 
 
 1 Col. Rec, vol. ix., p. 9. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 93 
 
 tifully with liquor, of which lie was passionately fond, 
 andwhile thus inebriated in his wigwam, helpless, asleep, 
 and alone, the celebrated and venerable chieftain perish- 
 ed in the flames, on the night of April 19, 1763. His own 
 dwelling, and twenty others surrounding it, had been set 
 on fire simultaneously, by these emissaries from the Six 
 Nations, who thus sought and found revenge upon the 
 unforgotten and unresisting offender. 
 
 Some four months previous to tliis the Yankees had 
 returned to the valley witli their families, bringing along 
 cattle, sheep, hogs, and grain sufBcient to last them until 
 the coming harvest. Traffic and fur-trading had sprung 
 up with the surrounding tribes, Avith whom the most 
 friendly and harmonious relations had hitherto supposed 
 to have existed, when suddenly, on the afternoon of the 
 fifteenth of October, while the fai-mers were hard at work 
 in the field, unsuspicious of approaching danger, they 
 were surrounded by "a party of Indians, who massacred 
 about tAventy persons,' took several prisoners, and hav- 
 ing seized upon the live stock, drove it toward their 
 town. Tiiose who escaped, hastened to their dwellings, 
 gave the alarm to the families of those who were killed, 
 and the remainder of the colonists — men, women, and chil 
 dren — fled precipitately to the mountains, from whence 
 they beheld the smoke arising from their late habitations, 
 and the savages feasting on the remains of their little 
 property. They had taken no provisions with them, 
 except what they had liastily seized in their flight, and 
 must pass through a wilderness sixty miles in extent 
 before they could reach the Delaware River. They had 
 left brothers, husbands, and sons to the mercy of the sav- 
 ages ; they had no means of defense, in case they should 
 
 ' The following persons were amono: the killed: — "Rev. Wm. Marsh, Thoa. 
 Marsh, Timothy Hollisler, Timothy HoUister, Jr., Isaac Hollister, Nathan Terry, 
 Wright Smith, Daniel Baldwin and wife, Isaac Wiggins, Zeruah Whitney. Mr. 
 Shepherd, and a son of Daniel Baldwin, were taken prisoners."' — Annals of Lu- 
 zerne. 
 
94 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 be attacked, and found tliemselves exposed to the cold 
 winds of autumn without sufficient raiment. With these 
 melancholy recollections and cheerless prospects did the 
 fugitives commence a journey of two hundred and fifty 
 miles on foot." ^ 
 
 Thus by one stroke, seldom surpassed in suddenness 
 or atrocity, by the same savages that slew Teedyuscung 
 and then attempted to fix the ignominious crime upon the 
 New England men, having no knowledge of its inception 
 or no part in its execution, every living white person was 
 swept from Wyoming in an hour, and the valley again left 
 in the sole occupancy of the Indian. Their removal or de- 
 struction at this time, if more vindictive and cruel, was no 
 more certain than that vouchsafed them by the Provin- 
 cial Government, had a few more days of quiet husbandry 
 have been allowed them by the Indians. On the Tuesday 
 before the first massacre, October 17, 1763, Major Clayton 
 marched to Wyoming' to carry out the instructions of the 
 Provincial Government, already anticipated by the fire- 
 brand and hatchet. He "met with no Indians, but 
 found the New Englanders who had been killed and 
 scalped a day or two before they got there. They buried 
 the dead, nine men and one woman, who had been most 
 cruelly but(diered ; the woman was I'oasted, and had two 
 hinges in her hands, supposed to have been put in red 
 hot, and several of the men had awls thrust into their 
 eyes, and spears, arrows, pitchforks, &c., sticking in 
 their bodies. They burnt loliat houses the Indians had 
 left, and destroyed a quantity of Indian corn. The 
 enemy's tracks were up the river toward Wighaloe- 
 sing." ^ 
 
 On the 20th October, Governor Hamilton ordered 
 Colonel James Bard to Wyoming as a commissioner, not 
 to look after the warriors thus arrayed for murder and 
 
 ' Chapman. ' Pa. Arch., 1763, p. 125. 
 
 ' See Letter from Paxton, Lancaster County, dated Oct. 23, 1763. 
 
LACKAWANNA VAI.LKT. 95 
 
 Tniscliief, but "to require and command tlie Inhabitants, 
 in His Majesty's l^SiXwe, forthwith to desist from tlieir said 
 undertaking, and to depart and remove from thence,'" &q} 
 
 It is hardly possible that news of the massacre carried 
 by the slow canoe-route, or narrow foot-path, could have 
 reached Philadelphia at tliis time, as no allusion is made 
 to it until October 25, 1763, when the Rev. Jolin Elder, 
 -of Paxton, captain of two Lancaster companies, wrote as 
 follows to Governor Hamilton: "Sir, In a Lett'r I writ 
 to your Hon'r the 17th Inst., I acquainted 3'Ou that it 
 then was impossible to suspend the Wyoming Expedition, 
 The party is now returned, and I shall not trouble your 
 Hon'r with my account of their proceedings, as Major 
 Claj^ton informs me that he transmitted to you, from Fort 
 A.ugusta, a particular journal of their transactions from 
 their leaving Hunters till they returned to Augusta." The 
 mangled Carcases of these unhappy people presented to 
 on r Troops a melancholy Scene, which had been acted not 
 above two days before their arrival ; and by the way the 
 Savages came into the Town, it appears they were the 
 same party that committed the Ravages in Northampton 
 County, and as they set off from Wyoming up the same 
 Branch of the River, towards Wiliilusing, and from sev- 
 eral other Circumstances, it's evident, that till that 
 Branch is cleared of the enemy, the frontier settlem'ts 
 will be in no safety." ^ 
 
 Nothing Avhatever was done by the authorities of Penn- 
 sylvania toward punishing, or even rebuking, the authors 
 of this preconcerted destruction of life and property, made 
 more atrocious by the fact that settlers living in North- 
 ampton County uttered no complaint, and interposed 
 neither inquiry nor remonstrance at this or any other 
 time. 
 
 ' Col. Rec, vol. ix., p. 61. 
 
 'No such Report appears either in the Pennsylvania Archives or Rec- 
 ords. 
 
 ' Pennsylvania Archives, 1 760-7 G, p. 127. 
 
96 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 In fact so great and so apparent was this stoic indiffer- 
 ence exhibited toward the welfare of a feeble but ener- 
 getic colony, struggling alike with starvation and savage 
 treachery, that Governor Amherst of New York wrote to 
 Governor Hamilton tlmt, " I can not help repeating my 
 surprise at the infatuation of the people in your Province, 
 who tamely look on while their brethren are butchered 
 by the Savages, when, without doubt, it is in their power, 
 by exerting a proper spirit, not only to protect the settle- 
 ments, but to punish any Indians that are hardy enough 
 to disturb them." ^ 
 
 While there seems to have been no complicity, either 
 charged or suspected, between the provincial authorities 
 of Pennsylvania and the disaffected portion of the Six 
 Nations in regard to the annihilation of the young settle- 
 ment at Wyoming, no one can peruse the Pennsylvania 
 Archives or the Colonial Records of Pennsylvania, em- 
 bracing as they do, the earliest written history of Wyo- 
 ming, without reflections not flattering to the magnanimity 
 either of the Province or the State. 
 
 In the earlier history of the valley, barbarities were 
 sometimes practiced, both by the red and the white man, 
 upon the weaker party. Conrad Weiser, after visiting 
 Wyoming, in 1755, describes the capture of an Indian, 
 who ''begged his life, but (shocking to me) they shot him 
 in the midst of them, scalped him, and threw his body 
 into the river.'" Two months after the Connecticut set- 
 tlers were slaughtered and first expelled from Wyoming, 
 the Conestogae Indians — the remains of a tribe of the Six 
 Nations — were massaci-ed in Lancaster by the whites. On 
 the 14th of December, 17G;3, these Moravian Indians, who 
 had lived under the faith of the Government for sixty 
 years, were shot and clubbed in cold blood, and every 
 indignity practiced upon the women and children, whose 
 age and sex plead alike in vain to the avenging hand of 
 
 ' Col. Rec. vol. ii., p. 62. « Ibid., vol. vi., p. 763. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKY. 97 
 
 the Paxton men. " They surrounded the small village of 
 Indian huts, and just at break of day broke in upon them 
 all at once. Only three men, two women, and a young 
 boy, were found at home. These poor, defenseless crea- 
 tures were immediately fired upon, stabbed, and hatch- 
 eted to death! The good Shehaes, who was very old, 
 having assisted at the second treaty held with Mr. Penn, 
 in 1701, was, among the rest, cut to pieces in his bed ! The 
 Magistrates of Lancaster sent out and collected the remain- 
 ing Indians, promised them protection, and put them in 
 the work-house, a strong building, as a place of greatest 
 safety. On the 27th of December, these cruel men, armed 
 as before, broke open the door, and entered with the ut- 
 most fury in their countenances. When the fourteen poor 
 wretches saw no possible protection nor escape, and being 
 without the least weapon of defense, they divided their 
 little families, and children clinging to their parents ; they 
 fell on their faces, protested their innocence, declared 
 th(4r love to the English, and that in their whole lives 
 they had never done them injury ; and in this position 
 they all received the hatchet ! Men, women, and children 
 Avere every one inhumanly murdered in cold blood." ^ 
 
 This ferocious transaction, the authors of which, 
 although w^ell known in the community, ever remained 
 unpunished, created among the Indian tribes through- 
 out the country a profound sensation, and for months 
 awakened no little solicitude in the head of the Govern- 
 ment of Pennsylvania. Governor Penn, justly indignant, 
 an I conscious of the great wrong intiicted upon the 
 Indians, w4iom the official men of the province had sworn 
 to protect, fearing its deplorable effect upon the usually 
 stoical but ever-vindictive savage, promptly and boldly 
 denounced the guilty party as "villainous and murder- 
 ous," and issued warrants for their arrest ; and yet, al- 
 
 ' See Prout's History of Pennsylvania, vol. i., pp. .'52G-8; also, Col. Rcc. vol. 
 ix., pp. 102-5, 107, 112-13. 121-3, 125, 127-f), 132, 137, 142, 170, 409. 
 
98 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 though they were living within the county, they were 
 never reprimanded, arrested, nor punished. 
 
 The property of these tomahawked natives, consisting 
 of "three horses, two belts of wampum," a number of 
 deeds, treaties, and documents, written on parchment, 
 and signed by Wm. Penn, in 1701, and Logan and others, 
 were subsequently returned to their relatives in the 
 Indian country. 
 
 This wanton and wicked breach of faith on the part of 
 citizens of Lancaster and Paxton, contributed to influenc-e 
 the Moravian Indians at Wyalusing and elsewhere along 
 the Susquehanna to remove westward, and had very 
 much to do henceforth toward inspiring a spirit of war- 
 fare and revenge along the border, as well as to palliate 
 and excuse the treatment of tlielr captives taken from 
 the whites. 
 
 In a message to Gov. Penn from the Assembly, in 
 Feb., 1768, a portion of these outrages are thus enumer- 
 ated : "In the year 1763, the cruel Massacre of Twenty 
 Indians, chiefly of the Six Nations, were perpetrated at 
 Conestago and Lancaster. In the same year a Delaware 
 Chief met with the same fate between Sherman' s Valley 
 and Juniata. In 1765, a Chief of the Six Nations was 
 murdered near Bedford. In the year 1766, a principal 
 warrior of the Delawares was killed between Red Stone 
 creek and Cheat river ; and three Delaware Chiefs were 
 robbed and murdered near Fort Pitt, by two inhabitants 
 of this Province. An Indian was lately murdered in 
 Northampton County ; besides the late barbarity com- 
 mitted by Frederic Stump and his servant on ten Indians 
 at Middle Creek. And not one of those murderers have 
 heert brought to punislimerd.'"^ England and France 
 having concluded a definite peace in 1763, hostilities 
 ceased throughout the colonial settlements. 
 
 In September, 1766, an adventurous trader, named John 
 
 ' Col. Rec, vol. i.\., pp. 478-9. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLIiY. 99 
 
 Anderson, bad a store ol" goods at Wyoming, for traffic 
 with the red men, and was comphiined of by the Nanti- 
 coke, Conoys, and Mohickons, from the Council Fires at 
 Chenango, in the following manner to John Penn : — 
 "Brother: As we came down from our Country we 
 stopped at Wyoming, w ere we had a Mine in two places, 
 and we discovered that some white People had been at 
 work in the Mine, and had filled three Canoes with the 
 Ore ; and we saw their Tools with which they had dug it 
 out of the ground, were they had made a hole at least 
 forty feet long, and five or six feet deep. It happened, 
 formerly, that some white People did now and then take 
 only a small bit, and carried it away, but these People 
 have been working at the Mine, and have filled their 
 canoes. We desire you will tell us wliether you know any 
 thing of this matter, or if it be doiie by your Consent. We 
 are informed that there is one John Andei'son, a Trader, 
 now living at Wyoming, and we suspect that either he or 
 somebody employed by him has robbed our mine. This 
 Mail lias a Store of Goods there, and it may happen, when 
 the Indians see their Mine robbed, they will come and 
 take away his Goods." ^ 
 
 Governor Penn replied that he knew nothing of the 
 mine or Anderson, who had settled in the Indian country 
 without his knowledge or wish. ''But you know," 
 addressing the chief, "that notwitlistanding all our Care, 
 as it is such a Distance, People may go there and we 
 know nothing of it."- The knowledge of this silver 
 mine perished with the race that knew it. 
 
 For six years, aside from the intrusion of these ex- 
 plorers and traders, Wyoming was left in its native soli- 
 tude, and as the intei'vening years make no history for 
 the valley then in dispute between Pennsylvania and 
 Connecticut, a brief synopsis of the different charters 
 and grants relating to the disputed territoi-y claimed 
 
 ' Col. Rec, vol. ix. pp. .•!29-30. " Ibid , p. 332. 
 
100 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 by the respective parties, and a mere outline of tlie claim 
 and controversy arising from the same, will not only be 
 expected by the intelligent reader, but it is indispensable 
 to a proper appreciation of the history of the LackaAvanna 
 Valley, then within the contested limit. In fact, the earli- 
 est history of the valley, could not be complete nor 
 understood without such a general exposition of grants 
 and charters, running along down into the Connecticut 
 claim, from the first grant of land in America, in 1606, by 
 the English Government. 
 
 As early as 1606, King James of England, jealous of the 
 ambitious French, advancing to traffic on the Indian shore 
 of tlie western continent, divided that pan of North Amer- 
 ica, lying between the 34th and 45th degrees of latitude, in- 
 to two portions. The northern part he granted by patent 
 to Thomas Hanham and others, who associated themselves 
 for the purpose of opening a trade with the Indians for 
 skins, furs, and tobacco. Forty noblemen, knights, and 
 gentlemen were incorporated, March 3, 1620, by King 
 James, into a company known as " The Councils estab- 
 lished at Plymouth, in the County of Dei^on, for the 
 Planting, Ruling, and Governing of New England, in 
 America,'"^ to whom and their assigns were granted all 
 "That part of America, lying and being in breadth from 
 the forty degrees of the said Northerly latitude from the 
 Equinoctial line, to forty-eight degrees of the said North- 
 erly latitude, inclusively, and in length of and within all 
 the breadth aforesaid, throughout the mainland from sea 
 to sea," &c." While the governing poAvers and privileges 
 of this Plymouth corporation were being exercised in 
 England, the laws and regulations of the body were to 
 extend over NeiD England, which thus derived its name 
 from this grant. Originally embracing all of New Eng- 
 land, portions of this vast territory were divided and 
 subdivided, as to subsequently form the New England 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKY. 101 
 
 States. Each sale and division of pr()})erty thus effected, 
 had to be ratified by tlie legislative power in England to 
 make it valid and binding. 
 
 A portion of the territory of the Plymouth Company 
 was sold in 1628, and subsequently became the State of 
 Massachusetts. Another ])ortiou, now^ forming the State 
 of Connecticut, was transferred to the Earl of Warwick in 
 1630, who, in March, 1631, sold the same territory to Lord 
 Gay and fifteen others. It embraced "all that part of 
 New England, in America, which lies and extends itself 
 from a river, there called Narragansett river, the space 
 of forty leauges upon a straight line near the shore, to- 
 Avards the southwest, west and by south, or west as the 
 coast lieth, towards Virginia, acounting three English 
 miles to the leauge ; and, also, all and singular the lands 
 and hereditaments whatsoever, lying and being within the 
 lands aforesaid, north nnd south in latitude and breadth, 
 and in lengtli and longitude, of and within all tJiehreadth 
 aforesaid, throughout the main lands there, from the 
 western ocean to the south sea.'"'^ 
 
 By virtue of this royal grant, a small band of energetic 
 men made the first settlement on the bank of the C(ui- 
 u'jcticut River, in 1633. This last-named grant was sold 
 in 1662 to the Free Planters of the Colony of Connecticut 
 for 16,000 pounds sterling. King Charles the Second 
 confirmed the charter to the Connecticut colon v, of "all 
 that part in our dominion in New England, in America, 
 bounded on the East by Naragansett Bay, Avhere the said 
 river falleth into the Sea, and on the North by the line of 
 the Massachusetts plantation, on the South hy the sea, and 
 in longitude as the line of the Massachusetts Colony run- 
 ning from East to West (that is to sa}-) from the Naragan- 
 sett Bay on the East, to the South sea on the West part." 
 
 These several instruments, taken as a whole, open a full 
 view of the ancient territorial limits of Connecticut.- 
 
 ' Trumbull. -■ Chapman. 
 
102 IIISIORY OF THE 
 
 Forty leagues (120 miles) along the coast from Narra- 
 gansett Bay toward Virginia, would terminate very 
 nearly on the fortieth degree of north latitude, fixed as a 
 boundary in the original grant to the Plymouth Company 
 and would embrace the comparative little territory of 
 both Wyoming and Lackawanna valleys. 
 • The original charter of William Penn, wliicli granted 
 to him so many of the coal and iron-clad valleys and 
 mountains of Pennsylvania, and which subsequently 
 developed the Pennymite war in Wyoming, dates back to 
 March 4, 1681. " Out of a commendable desire to enlarge 
 our English Empire," &c., Charles the Second granted 
 to William Penn, "all that tract or parte of land in 
 America, with all tVie Islands therein conteyned, as the 
 same is bounded on the East by the Delaware river from 
 twelve miles distance, Northwarde of New Castle Towne 
 unto the three and fortieth degree of Northern latitude, if 
 the said River doth extend soe farre Northwards. But 
 if the said River sliall not extend soe farre Northward 
 then by the said River soe farre as it doth extend, and 
 from the head of the said River the Easterne bounds air 
 to bee determined by a meridian line, to bee drawn ir(jm 
 the head of the said River unto the three and fortieth 
 degree, the said land to extend Westwards, five degrees 
 in longitude, to bee computed fj-om the Easterne Bounds, 
 and the said lands to bee bounded on the North by the 
 beginning of the three and foi-tieth degree of Northern 
 latitude," &c.^ 
 
 The opposing claims of Pennsylvania, as set forth by 
 its agents, Messrs. Bradford, Read, AVilsoii, and Sargeant, 
 before the Court of Commission assembled at Trenton, 
 New Jersey, in November, 1782, to finally determine the 
 controversy between Pennsylvania and Connecticut re- 
 garding Wyoming, will be found in ample detail in the 
 Pennsylvania Archives, 1782-3. They claimed Wyoming 
 
 ' See Col. Rec, vol. i.. pp. 17-20, for copy of original cliarter. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKY. 103 
 
 "by virtue of the royal purchase of Mr. Penn, Avho with 
 succeeding proprietaries had negotiated with the Indians 
 for the full and absolute right of pre-emption for all the 
 lands in dispute. They also claimed " that the Northern 
 bounds have always been deemed to extend to the end 
 of the forty-second Degree, where the ligures 428 are so 
 marked on the map ; the River Delaware being found to 
 extend so far North and ftirther ; the said River, pursu- 
 ing the East or main Branch thereof, above the Forks at 
 Easton, hath been ever deemed to be one Boundary of 
 Pennsylvania from twelve miles above New Castle, on 
 the said River," &c.^ 
 
 The northern part of the territory granted to William 
 Penn, spread over a part of the western lands before 
 granted to the colony of Connecticut, equal to one degree 
 of latitude through the whole breadth of said grant. 
 
 The collisions, running through thirteen years of crim- 
 son austerities between Pennsylvania and Connecticut for 
 jurisdiction and right of soil in Wyoming, originated 
 either in great want of knowledge of the topography of 
 America by the Englisli Government, or an unpardonable 
 careless exercise of it in regard to this charter to William 
 Penn, which thus interfered with and overlapped lands 
 already sold to Connecticut. Of this interference, Mr. 
 Penn had notice at the time of his taking out his patent 
 for those lands.* 
 
 The Indian title to the wilderness overshadowing the 
 Schuylkill and '' Lechhaiy Hills'' (Lehigh) had been 
 extinguished as early as 1732 ; and the land about the 
 mouth of the creek called Lechawaclisein (Lackawaxen) 
 was purchased of the Indians by the Provincial Govern- 
 ment of Pennsylvania in October, 1756 ;^ but Wyoming, 
 more isolated in its sylvan solitude, liad been reserved by 
 the tribes controlling it, for hunting-grounds or a retreating 
 place long after their intercourse began with the whites. 
 
 ' See Pa. Arch., 1782, p. 701. = Ibid., p. 707. ' Ibid.,, p. 722, 
 
104 HISTOKT OF THE 
 
 It was first sold by tliem, July 11, 1754, as before related, 
 to the Connecticut Susquehanna Company. 
 
 It will be readily seen that the charter of Connecticut, 
 embracing Wyoming, was given nineteen years anterior 
 to that of Pennsylvania, possessed and settled by Connecti- 
 cut with her strong and sturdy sons, and yet, after a delib- 
 eration of over five weeks in 1783, the adjusticating 
 commissioners at Trenton, gave an opinion in the matter 
 as follows, that astonished the citizens of both States with 
 its brevity and its Mas : — " We are unanimously of Opin- 
 ion that the State of Connecticut has no Right to the Lands 
 in Controversy. We are also unanimously of Opinion 
 that the Jurisdiction and Pre-emption of all the Territory 
 lying within the Charter Boundary of Pennsylvania, and 
 now claimed by the State of Connecticut, do of Right 
 belong to the State of Pennsylvania."^ This decision, 
 known as the "" Ti^enton Decree,^'' from which there was 
 no possible appeal or redress, while it decided the ques- 
 tion oi jurisdiction only, indicated the selfish and illib- 
 eral spirit that would and that did ultimately inspire a 
 judicial opinion in regard to the right of soil already held 
 by Connecticut by every essential condition giving valid- 
 ity to a title, viz. : grant from the king — purchase of the 
 soil from the Indian owners, and actual occupancy of the 
 same. 
 
 Generations have been born and buried since our hill- 
 sides and villages, now exulting and expanding in their 
 thrift, knew no tranquillity but that given for an liour 
 by the stronger wielded bayonet of one rival party or 
 the other, struggling for mastery of the valley ; and even 
 while the Indian wars smote down a father or a son with no 
 shroud but the gloom of the forest, and no grave but some 
 friendly rock yet full of the farewell whispers of the dead ; 
 or even when the Revolution came with its burden borne 
 cheerfully and valiantly even here, the Connecticut set- 
 
 ' Pa. Arch., 1783, p. 732. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 105 
 
 tiers had hardly a moment's respite from officious sheriffs, 
 and their often brutal posses, sent out by Pennsylvania 
 to annoy, imprison, or expel the naturally quiet people 
 of Wyoming. 
 
 The Connecticut controversy and the Pennymite conten- 
 tion for Wyoming, which had all the grand features of an 
 epic poem, has long ceased to occupy the public mind as 
 it did prominently for a half a century, because less occa- 
 sion for its existence was known after the jinal compro- 
 mising law of 1799 established kind and harmonious 
 relations between the contending parties ; but no one can 
 peruse the able works of Peck, Miner, Chapman, or 
 Pearce, or wade through the voluminous official papers 
 of the State, giving such vast variety and abundance of 
 documentary evidence pertaining to this matter, without 
 feeling that the early emigrants from Connecticut who 
 sought out and settled the lands of the Susquehanna and 
 Delaware companies at Wyoming and Wallenpaupack in 
 the best faith, were shamefully robbed and wronged by 
 unprincipled persons acting by and with the authority of 
 Pennsylvania. The bad spirit evinced by either party, 
 as far as it relates to the history of the Lackawanna Val- 
 ley, will be briefly noticed in a future page. 
 
 GENERAL HISTORY — CONTINUED. 
 
 To obviate trouble with a portion of the Indians ren- 
 dered dissatisfied with the sale of Wyoming lands by the 
 representations of the Penn interests inimical to the sale, 
 the English Government, through its agents in America, 
 held a treaty at Fort Stanwix, near Oneida Lake, in the 
 fall of 1768, with the Six Nations ; at which time and place 
 the most friendly assurances were given and received by 
 both parties, and the lands on the Susquehanna were 
 ceded to the English. At the same general treaty, some 
 of the chiefs of tlie Six Nations. willino;to sell their lands 
 
106 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 to as many parties and as many times as pay would be 
 forthcoming, gave the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania a 
 deed of Wyoming lands which had been sold nineteen 
 years previous to the Susquehanna Company. 
 
 Immediately after the close of this Indian Congress, the- 
 Susquehanna Company held a meeting at Hartford, and 
 voted to settle Wyoming at once. It was also "voted 
 that forty Persons, upwards of the age of twenty-one 
 years, Pi'oprietors in said Purchase, proceed to take pos- 
 session of said land by the iirst day of February next, 
 and that two hundred more of the age aforesaid join the 
 said forty as early in the Spring as may be." ^ For the 
 purpose of encouraging the self-reliant men who were 
 expected to encounter many a repelling wave as they 
 went into this Indian land, the sum of two hundred 
 pounds was appropriated to purchase " proper materials, 
 sustenance, and Provisions for said forty." Five town- 
 ships, each five miles square, were to be laid out for "the 
 said forty and the said two hundred persons, reserving and 
 appropriating three whole Rights or Shares in each Town- 
 ship for the Public use of a Gospel Minister and Schools 
 in each of said Towns, and also reserving for the use of 
 said Company all Beds, Mines, Iron Ore, and Coals." ^ 
 John Jenkins, Isaac Tripp, Benj. FoUett, Wm. Burk, and 
 Benj, Shoemaker, were appointed a committee to exer- 
 cise a general superintendence over the affairs of the 
 forty settlers, and to lay out and prepare a road through 
 the wilderness to Susquehanna River. Fifty pounds, 
 Connecticut currency ($167), was voted this committee to 
 build this, the first road opened from the East to Wyo- 
 ming. This trail or public road followed the warriors' 
 path, and, unbridged for swamps and streams sometimes 
 formidable indeed, was simply widened for the saddled 
 horse. 
 
 A road had been opened to Teedyuscung's village from 
 
 1 Col. Rec, vol. ix., p. 570. « Ibid. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 107 
 
 Sharaokin in 1759. Wyoming, wliicli lay in serene 
 grandeur amid her mountain shades, had been watched 
 by Governor Penn with an extraordinary appreciation of 
 its importance and relations to his own Provin(;e. Not 
 only this, but the fear of a new Colony oi- Pi-ovinc^e, dis- 
 tinct from that of Pennsylvania or Connecticut, and com- 
 paratively independent of either, to embrace Wyoming 
 and Lackawanna valleys, Wallenpaupack, and Cochecton 
 within its boundary, contributed mucli toward inspiring 
 the unyielding opposition of Penn to any movement of 
 men aiming to develop the backAvoods of Wyoming. 
 After the Proprietaries' purchase of these lands in Novem- 
 ber, 1768, Governor Penn proceeded forthwith to lease 
 one hundred acres for seven years to Messrs. Ogden, Jen- 
 kins, and Stewart, ostensibly to establish an Indian trad- 
 ing post, but really to baffle the efforts of the Susque- 
 hanna Company to colonize and settle the territory, and 
 to retain possession himself. "These lessees," says 
 Chapman, ''with several other adventurers, removed to 
 AVyoming in January, 1769, and took possession of the 
 improvements made by the Connecticut people, fi'om 
 which they had been driven by the Indians in 1763." 
 The forty persons sent out by the Susquehanna Company 
 from Hartford, arrived on the ground, February 8, 1769. 
 '' On their arrival at the place where they had built a log 
 house in 1763, they found Captain Amos Ogden, an Indian 
 Trader, and others Avith him, had entered into their s"d 
 house. Our Settlers, not willing to use any force to regain 
 the s'd house from him or them, set themselves to build 
 a number of Log Houses, or rather Huts, for their shelter, 
 and went quietly about their lawful business in the peace 
 of God and the King." * The forty settlers at Mill Creek 
 were taken prisoners by the Ogden party, carried to 
 Easton jail, seventy miles away, promptly released on 
 bail, and as promptly sought their Wyoming cabins. 
 
 ' Pa. Arch, 1771, p. 404. 
 
108 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 In the month of March following, being joined by some 
 one hundred and fifty others from Connecticut and Lan- 
 caster County, Pennsylvania, who, finding their comrades 
 at Mill Creek under bonds to appear at Easton Court dur- 
 ing this month, stopped at the mouth of the Lackawanack, 
 where they erected some rude log structures for 
 dwellings and defense. When the first party of New 
 England men were on their way to Wyoming in January, 
 1769, Thos. Bennett, of Goshen, New York, was induced 
 to accompany the party hither. Immediately after the 
 capture and partial dispersion of the settlers at Mill 
 Creek, he went with some "New England men to a place 
 called Lamawanak, and there built a Blockhouse,"^ for 
 the purpose of resisting the aggressions both of the 
 Pennymites and the hostility of the surrounding Indians. 
 After Bennett's arrest by the Pennsylvania authorities, he 
 endeavored to exculpate himself from censure by affirm- 
 ing "that the only reason of his ever appearing in arms 
 at the Fort was to keep Centry sometimes in Ids turn, 
 when they were under apprehensions of being attacked 
 by the Indians, a number of them being then there, who 
 appeared very angry and j)aint(^d, and threatening to 
 roast a Hog in the Fort and have a dance ; and that the 
 said Indians carried off a Hog.'' - 
 
 "Nothing," says Bancroft, "could restrain the Ameri- 
 cans from peopling the wilderness. To be a freeholder was 
 the ruling passion of the New England man. Marriages 
 were early and fruitful. The sons as they grew up, 
 skilled in the use of the ax and the ritie, would, one 
 after another, move from the old homestead, and with 
 a wife, a yoke of oxen, a cow, and a few husbandry tools, 
 build a small hut in some new plantation, and by tasking 
 every faculty of mind and body, win for themselves 
 plenty and independence. Such were they who begaji to 
 dwell among the untenanted forests that rose between the 
 
 ' ra. Arch., 17GO-177G, p. 391. Mbid., 1771, p. 392. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 109 
 
 Penobscot and the Sainte Croix, or in the New Hamp- 
 shire grants, on each side of the Green Mountains, or in 
 the exquisitely beautiful Valley of Wyoming, where, on 
 the banks of the Susquehanna, the wide and rich meadows, 
 shut in by walls of wooded mountains, attracted emi- 
 grants from Connecticut, though their claim of right 
 under the charter of their native colony was in conflict 
 with the territorial jurisdiction of the Proprietaries of 
 Pennsylvania." ^ 
 
 Of the forty adventurers plunging into the forest thus 
 disputed, to be greeted only with writs and arrests by 
 the Pennymites, apprised of their coming by swift-footed 
 couriers from the Delaware, none chose to stop and settle 
 at Caqjoose^ yet watched with boAV and battle-ax. Hun- 
 ters and trappers had achieved rare sport along its bor- 
 ders, trodden by game easily secured, but the emigrant, 
 hopeful and heroic as he came from liis home, passed by 
 the wigwams, and went with the main body down to the 
 mouth of the stream. 
 
 The names of the five original townsliips laid out li(Me, 
 were Wilkes Barre, Hanover, Plymouth, Kings-town, 
 and Pitts-town ; Providence, or " Sixth Town of ye Ca- 
 poose Meadows," being laid out and added in 1770. 
 Lackawannock was then applied to the country in th(- 
 immediate vicinity of the mouth of the stream, embracing 
 the village of Asserughney, occupied by the swarthy 
 aborigines. It was in the new laid-out township of Pitts- 
 town, and as its banks were clear of wood for Jive miles^ 
 it promised economy of labor in cultivation, and was 
 chosen for a settlement partly for this reason, and partly 
 because of the unfriendly occupancy of the Mill Creek 
 clearing, a few miles below it, by the Pennymites. 
 
 Although all persons from the "Colony of Connecticut 
 attempting to settle upon a Large Tract of Land, within the 
 Limits of this Province, lying at and hetween Wyoming, on 
 
 ' Bancroft's History United States, vol. v., p. 105 
 
110 iJISTOKV OF THE 
 
 the River Susquehanna, and Cushietunk, on the River 
 Delaware, ' ' were notified at this time by Governor Penn, 
 whose eye was sleepless upon the distant valley, to leave 
 the settleiaents forthwith, the solitude of the Lackawanna, 
 interrupted only by the low babbling of brooks, or the 
 dull sounds from the Indian clearings, began to attract the 
 emigrant, who came liither with all the industrious quali- 
 fications belonging to the New England character. In 
 fact, civilization was never carried westward into the 
 wilderness l>y a more gallant and deserving body of men, 
 than those who formed the vanguard of this frontier 
 settlement. Descending from the same stock of determined 
 pioneers, that wrought out a colony amid the vales and 
 hills of Connecticut, they entered with equal zeal into 
 this new acquisition, hoping to achieve greater conquests 
 with the plow and hard-swung ax, and, if need be, lay 
 the foundation for a grand commonwealth, as other 
 provinces had been laid out before. 
 
 In May, 1769, Charles Stewart. Esq., writes from 
 " Manor of Stoke, "^ that he had but twenty-four men to 
 oppose the New England men, of whom, "one hundred 
 and forty-six, chiefly on horseback, passed by our 
 houses this afternoon (Ma}^ 16, 1769), about three o'clock, 
 and are now encamped on the East side of the River. From 
 the view I had of those Gentry, in their procession by our 
 Houses, they appear to be at least an equal number of 
 them of the very lowest class, but are almost all armed 
 and fit for mischief.'' ^^ 
 
 Such was the language, and such the bitterness of the 
 reception meted out to the new-comers from Paxton, 
 entering the valley. 
 
 It was thus amidst king's writs, posses, and arrests, as 
 will be seen, and all the exacting severities incident to 
 
 ' In 1769, Wyoming was laid out into two vast manors by Pennsylvanna sur- 
 veyors, viz. : "Manor of Stoke," embracing the east side of the Susquehanna, 
 and "Manor of Sunbury," extending over the west side. 
 
 * C. Stewart's Letter, Mav, I7»i9. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 
 
 Ill 
 
 the backwoodsmau's life a century ago, that the Paxton 
 boy forgot his fruitful intervale, and the Yankee forsook 
 his stone-clad homestead in Connecticut, for the inhospi- 
 table plains of Wyoming. 
 
 Thirty-five of the persons thus described by Mr. 
 Stewart, located near Pittston. Their names were : — 
 
 ' Benj. Slioemaker, 
 John McDowell, 
 Samuel Weyburn, 
 John Lee, 
 Joseph Lee, 
 Thomas Bennett, 
 Benj. Follett, 
 
 Cornstack, 
 
 Daniel Hains, 
 John McDowell, Jr.. 
 Benj. Shoemaker, Jr., 
 Asher Harrod, 
 
 William Leonard, 
 
 John Leonard, 
 
 Samuel Marvin, 
 
 Marvin, 
 
 Rheuben Hulhurt, 
 
 Samuel Clark, 
 
 John Gardner, 
 
 John De Long, 
 
 John Smith, Esq., & h 
 
 two sons, 
 
 and Smitl 
 
 Joseph Moss. 
 
 Smith 
 
 Azariah Dean, 
 John Wheat, 
 John Wharburt, 
 Jacob Welch, 
 Jabez Cook, 
 Ebenezer Nultrip, 
 
 Chambers, 
 
 • Gore, 
 
 i ■ Babcook, 
 
 Wright." 
 
 Although many of these men subsequently settled in 
 the more central or lower townships, they at this time 
 located on the belt of ground running in such exquisite 
 beauty from Campbell's Ledge down to the outlet of the 
 Xiackawanna. 
 
 This so aroused the indignation of John Jenkins, Esq., 
 sheriff of Northampton County, to whom was intrusted a 
 general supervision of the Proprietaries' interest at Wyo- 
 ming, that he assembled a posse to arrest or drive away 
 the settlers into the cold hospitality of the woods. He 
 "went to Lacknawanak^ near Wyoming, on Susque- 
 hanna, in the County of Northampton, where the intrud- 
 ers had built their two houses, One of which was a Strong 
 Log house built for Defense ; that the said Intruders 
 betook themselves to their said Houses, and declared they 
 would not give up the Possession of the said Lands, but 
 would maintain the same as their own, and put to Death 
 any persons that attempted to dispossess them ; that the 
 said Justices, after long and fruitless expostulation, 
 recorded the forcible Detainer, and this Deponent, by their 
 
112 
 
 EUSTORY OF THE 
 
 Orders, prepared to take tlie said Intruders, and received 
 two Blows from some of tliem, but having forced into one 
 of the houses, and taken those that were tlierein, the rest 
 surrendered, and the whole thirty taken into Custody,"' 
 and carried over the mountain to Easton jail, with the 
 exception of those who escaped from the sheriff while on 
 the way.^ 
 
 This was in 1769. Having friends in Pennsylvania, 
 they readily obtained bail, and immediately returned to 
 Lacknawanak. 
 
 The summer of this year, now agitated and then paci- 
 fied by the alternation of strength of the respective par- 
 ties, left the Pennymites in the possession of the valley. 
 During the year 1770 the intestine feud, from which the 
 inhabitants had hoped to be exempt, resulted in the tem- 
 porary expulsion of the Yankees. The following is "a 
 list of Lackawany who drew in 1770,"'' and were thus 
 expelled : — 
 
 Topez Williams, by 
 P. Williams, 
 
 Silas Parks, 
 Prime Alden." 
 
 In 1771 the following persons 
 awanny" : — 
 
 drew lands in Lack- 
 
 Jacob Anguisli, 
 Peter Daman, 
 John Osborn, 
 John Depeiw, 
 Levi Green, 
 Peter Mathews, 
 James Hesdale, 
 David Sanford, by 
 Jenks Corey, 
 
 David Brown, 
 Martin Weilson, 
 Elipolet Stevens, 
 Dan'l St. John, 
 Elizar Fillsbury, 
 Stephen Wilkox, 
 Richard Woodward, 
 Sam'l Slaughter, 
 
 Ebenezer West, 
 Samuel Stubbs, by 
 
 Austin Hunt, 
 Ebenezer Marcy, by 
 
 Isaac Allen, 
 Caleb Bates, by 
 
 Wm. Hopkins. 
 
 In the AVestmoreland Records, from whose musty pages 
 the foregoing list of names is taken, is the following 
 entry : — 
 
 ' Pa. Arch., 1760-76, p. 343. 
 
 '•' See Miner's Wyoming; also Pa. Arch., 1763, pp. 401-8. 
 
 ' Westmoreland Records. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY, 113 
 
 "N. B. On the north side of Lackawun, drawd lots, 
 1772. 
 
 Jeremiah Blancliard, Samuel Sla*.er, Joseph Fish, 
 
 Abram Harden, John Corey, Ebenezer Bachus. 
 
 Richard West, Daniel Haller, 
 
 "Lotts on the South side of the Lackawan river. 
 
 Johnathan Corey, Stephen Harding, Capt. Bates, 
 
 Ebenezer West, Ebenezer Marcy, David Brown, 
 
 David Sanford, Augustin Hunt, James Fledget." 
 Abraham Utter, 
 
 Blood having been shed in the winter of 1771, and both 
 parties having fresh accessions, the contest was renewed 
 with redoubled violence. Men were i-aised by Captain 
 Ogden "to reduce the Rebells at Wioming." In August, 
 1771, he "moved on to the Forlvs of Lahawanak and 
 Wyoming paths." ^ He captured the fort by stratagem, 
 sent the Yankees to Easton jail, plundered the cabins, 
 devastated the ungathered crops, and intimidated and 
 suppressed every sentiment friendly to the Connecticut 
 people thus stigmatized as rebels. 
 
 In a spirit of vague Christianity he sent "a party of six 
 men to lay on the Shelioley road from Wioming to Dela- 
 ware, to preterit expresses going that way to N. Eng- 
 laiuV ^ after relief. 
 
 Dr. Ledlie, under date of August 16, 1771, writes to 
 Governor Hamilton, that " we w^ere just sending off Flour 
 by way of Lackawanack, and that we shall keep the 
 Shehole and Minisink Paths Guarded to prevent more 
 People, &c., coming to them." This Shehole path was 
 the warriors' trail up the Lackawanna to Paupack and 
 the Delaware. 
 
 When the Yankees again returned from jail, they made 
 a temporary camp-place above Pittston. Here a spy, 
 "named Jas. Bertrong, was taken prisoner by a party 
 
 ' Letter, John Van Campen, August 16, 1771. 
 ' Pennsylvania Archives, 1771, p. 429. 
 
114 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 of Men at Laclmwanack," wIjo reported that fifty or sixty 
 men under Lazarus Stewart and Zel^ulon Butler, were 
 then defying the authorities of Pennsylvania. 
 
 While this strife sacrificed much of the social relations, 
 and retarded the industrious tendency of the settlement, 
 it was not wholly fatal to its growth. 
 
 The immediate head or seat of the democratic colony, 
 originally claimed and disputed for by the settlers at 
 Kings-Town, was finally located in Wilkes Barre, where, 
 in or around the fort, the people gathered at stated inter 
 vals and held council together ; discussed its affairs gen- 
 erally, and settled abstract principles of public right and 
 good relating to the interests of Wyoming, with a fairness 
 and freedom that harmonized well with the liberal charac- 
 ter of the settlers from Connecticut. The proceedings of 
 these meetings, kept through all the years of peace and 
 war, until Connecticut lost jurisdiction over Westmore- 
 land, were recorded in a written book called the West- 
 moreland Records} 
 
 Settlers were permitted ' ' to make a pitch' ' ^ or settle in 
 none of the up or down river territory only by the con- 
 sent or vote of the inhabitants at these meetings ; and 
 even then only upon certain stipulated conditions. 
 
 "At a meeting of ye Inhabitants of ye townships at 
 Wyoming, in Wilksbury, legallj^ warned and held, 
 Dec. 7, 1771, Capt. Zebulon Butler was chosen mod- 
 
 ' These old records, which once occupied a musty coop in Wilkes Barre, could 
 •not be found a few months ago, when the writer sought for them through a clever 
 and prominent official, are the most curious literary fragments of antiquity yet 
 remaining amongst us. These meetings, which gave birth to these Records, were 
 called " Yemeetuig of ye proprietors," where all had an equal voice in the de- 
 liberations. A '-moderator," and "clerk" were chosen at each meeting. This 
 book recorded all deods of land, &c., and was commenced in 1770, and terminated 
 only with the expulsion of Connecticut jurisdiction at Wyoming, in 1782. We 
 know of no other ancient manuscript, whose publication would link together and 
 afford more insight into ancient times than the throe or four volumes of West- 
 moreland Records, if they can be exhumed. The Historical Society of Wilkos 
 Barre, if not able or disposed to print, ought to be their custodian. 
 
 ■■' The homes or clearings of the settlers early took and long retained tills name 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKY. 115 
 
 erator for ye day," it was voted "that tliis Corapany 
 is to take in Settlers on ye following Considerations: that 
 those that take up a Settling Riglit in Lockaworna^ shall 
 pay to this Company Forty dollars, and those that take a 
 Right in Wilksbury or Plynionth, shall pay Fifty Dol- 
 lors ; and those that take a Right in Kingstown, shall pa}' 
 Sixty Dollors, all for ye use of this Company, etc." - A 
 committee was also appointed to take bonds from those 
 who should be admitted as settlers. 
 
 Lackawanna, or Lockaworna as then designated, being 
 more remote from tlie main settlement, protected by block- 
 houses or forts, and from its very isolation, up in the 
 narrow valley, more exposed to wild beasts and Indians, 
 than either Wilkes Barre or Kingston, although enjoying 
 the same federative government, was offered to persons 
 whose courage overreached their means, upon terms ap- 
 parently more advantageous and easy. Of the original 
 number of tw^o hundred and forty, who emigrated to 
 Wyoming in 1763— all of whom w^ere male — only thirty- 
 five were located along the LackaAvanna. In regard to 
 these, who lived within reach of the block-house at Pitts- 
 ton, it was voted, April 25, 1772, by the Susquehanna 
 Company, ''tliat those 35 men that is now in ye town- 
 ship of Lockow^orna, shall be entitled to all ye Com- 
 pany es Right to sd. township." 
 
 With a view" of imparting to the colony a healthy moral 
 stamina, a committee of five persons were appointed at 
 the same meeting, "to admit settlers into ye six mile 
 township. But for no one of the committee to admit in 
 settlers unless ye major part of said Committee be present 
 to admit," and then to allow only "such as good, whol- 
 som inhabitants" to settle. " 
 
 December 17, 1771, "this meeting is opened and held 
 by adjournment, voted, that Joseph David Sanford, Bar- 
 nabas Cary, Elezer Cary, jun., Arter French, John Fra- 
 
 ' Westmoreland Records. ^ Ibid. 
 
116 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 zier, Timothy Reine, Juii., Stephen Harden, and Caleb 
 Bates, have each one a Settling Right in ye township.'" 
 
 Not only had morality its defenders and advocates 
 among the early settlers, but indiistry was considered 
 such an essential qualijfication to the prosperity of the neAv 
 settlement, that at a meeting of the inhabitants held in 
 AVilkes Barre Fort, in December, 1771, it was voted "that 
 Frank Phillips be admitted to Purchoys a settling Right 
 in Lockaworna, Provided he pntsan Able Bodyed man on 
 sd. Right, and Due Duty Equal to ye Rest of ye Settlers.'' 
 
 April 29, 1772, voted "that Samuel Slougher is admit- 
 ted in as a Settler, in Room of Mortin Nelson, in ye town- 
 ship of Lockoworna/' and in January 13, 1772, voted 
 "that David Carr is admitted in as a Settler in Locka- 
 worna, and hes Given His Bond for Forty Dollors." 
 
 By the old roadside in Pittston township, on the right 
 as you descend the valley, about three miles up from 
 Pittston, could be seen a few 3'ears since the debris of a 
 chimney of one of the earliest cabins of the white man erect- 
 ed in the valley in 1770. It was built by Zebulon Marcy, 
 wdio emigrated from Connecticut in the spring of this 
 year, in the twenty-sixth year of his age. He was brother 
 of Ebenezer, who came into possession of this rustic dwell- 
 ing some time afterward. 
 
 Choosing this spot for his residence, upon the warriors' 
 path, from its inviting soil and convenient location, his 
 hut, formed from logs in the stern simplicity of the times, 
 subsequently became famous for its genial liospitality. 
 
 At the time of the Wyoming massacre, eight years after 
 locating here, Ebenezer Marcy was engaged with his com- 
 rades below in the defense of Wyoming from the ravages 
 of the merciless Indians, Tories, and British, when the 
 news that the brave defenders had retreated before the 
 pursuing and mongrel horde, tiew through the settlement 
 with astounding effect and rapidity. Hurriedly snatch- 
 
 ' Westmoreland Records. 
 
LACKAWANNA VAT-LKV. 117 
 
 ing her children from the house, and securing a loaf of 
 bread for the supperless fugitives, she lied from the val- 
 ley on the evening of July 3, 1778, across the mountain 
 to Stroudsburg, in company with all her neighbors thus 
 left feeble and defenseless. "She was," says Miner, 
 " taken in labor in the wilderness. Having no mode of 
 conveyance, her sufferings were inexpressibly severe. 
 She was able to drag her fainting footsteps but about 
 two miles that day. The next day, being overtaken by a 
 neighbor with a horse, she rode, and in a week's time 
 was more than 100 miles with her infant from the place 
 of its birth." The child born at this time, and subse- 
 quently married twice, died a short time since in Wyo 
 ming County. 
 
 Marcy himself was a man of some local prominence in 
 his day, and was chosen the first constable of Pittstou, in 
 Januaiy, 1772. 
 
 Barnabas Carey, Avhose right to settle in the townsliip 
 was voted in 1771, pitched farther up the valley, wheic, 
 from the fallen tree and the fresh-peeled bark, he fasii- 
 ioned a cabin to afford him protection from the storms and 
 the wolves. This was the first one erected by the white 
 man ahote the Falls of the Lackawanna, and the honor 
 of the achievement belongs to Carey. The next year he 
 sold his claim to "the eight meadow Lott in ye Township 
 Lockaworna to Jeremiah Blanchard for thirteen pounds 
 and four shillings," ^ 
 
 Constant Searles and John Phillips Avere among the 
 Yankee emigrants who located in the valley in 1771. 
 Frank Phillips, who was voted a settling right in "Lock- 
 aworna" in December, 1771, was the fatiiei- of John, 
 only fourteen years of age, and settled in the "gore," 
 or wedged-like shape of land, lying between Pittston and 
 Providence. 
 
 Six 3^ears later, Phillips's farm was sold to his son, 
 
 ' Westmoreland Records, 1771. 
 
118 HISTORY OF TIIK 
 
 John, for thirty pounds, current money. Among the 
 five commissioners chosen to purchase land, whereon to 
 erect the necessary public buildings, at the time of the 
 formation of Luzerne County, in 1786, was John Phillips. 
 
 After the Trenton Decree authorized a re-survey of the 
 prolonged disputed lands in the seventeen old certified 
 townships, Pennsylvania sent to Wyoming "200 flints 
 and 2 Boxes of cartridges," because the inhabitants were 
 reported "wrangling."^ At this time the Pennsylvania 
 soldiers, excited and brutal with rum, and under the 
 command of Captains Shrawder and Christie, began to 
 lay open fields of grain for common pasturage, destroying 
 every thing belonging to the Yankee settlers, while estab- 
 lishing the boundaries of Pennsylvania, regardless of 
 those of Connecticut. 
 
 Phillips and his family were among those driven from 
 their farms in 1784, in a manner so graphically desciibed 
 by Hon. Charles Miner in his History of Wyoming : — 
 
 "On the 13th and 14th of May the soldiers were sent 
 forth, and at the point of the bayonet, with the most higli- 
 handed arrogance, dispossessed one hundred and fifty 
 families ; in many instances set fire to their dwellings, 
 avowing the intention utterly to expel them from the 
 country. Unable to make any effectual resistance, the 
 people implored for leave to remove either up or down 
 the river, as with their wives and children, in the state of 
 the roads, it would be impossible to travel. A stern 
 refusal met this seemingly reasonable lequest, and they 
 were directed to take the Lackawaxen road, as leading 
 most directly to Connecticut. But this way consisti^d of 
 sixty miles of wilderness, with scarce a house ; the roads 
 were wholly neglected during the war, and tliey then 
 begged leave to take the Easton or Stroudsburg route, 
 where bridges sjianned the larger streams, still swollen 
 by recent rains. All importunities were vain, and the 
 
 ' See Pennsylvania Archives, 1784. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 119 
 
 people lied toward tlie D(-la\vare, objects of destitution 
 and pity that should have moved a heart of marble. 
 About five hundred men, women, and children, with 
 scarce provisions to sustain life, plodded their Aveary 
 way, mostly on foot, the roads being impassable for 
 wagons, mothers carrying their infants, and pregnant 
 women literally wading the streams, the water reaching 
 to their armpits, and at night slept on the naked earth, 
 the heavens their canopy, and scarce clothes to. cover 
 them. A Mr. John Gardner and John Jenkins, both aged 
 men and lame, sought their way on crutches. Little 
 children, tired with traveling, crying to their mothers for 
 bread, which they had not to give them, sunk from ex- 
 haustion into stillness and slumber, while the mothers 
 could only shed tears of sorrow and compassion, till in 
 sleep they forgot their griefs and cares. Several of the 
 unfortunate sufferers died in the wilderness, others were 
 taken sick from excessive fatigue, and expired soon after 
 reaching the settlements. A widow, with a numerous 
 family of children, whose husband had been slain in the 
 war, endured inexpressible hardships. One child died, 
 and sh.e buried it as she could beneath a hemlock log, 
 probably to be disinterred from its shallow covering, and 
 be devoured by wolves." 
 
 A small mound, sheltered by a friendly hemlock, lies 
 by the roadside in Wayne County, where the little one 
 was buried. 
 
 "One shocking instance of suffering is related by a 
 survivor of this scene of death ; it is the case of a mother, 
 whose infant having died, roasted it by piecemeal for the 
 daily subsistence of her suffering children." ^ 
 
 Elisha Harding, who formed one of this party, says that 
 "the first night we encamped at the Capouse, the second 
 at Cobbs, the third at Little Meadows (Salem), cold, 
 hungry, and drenched Avith rain— the poor women and 
 
 ' Chapmau. 
 
 ■■■' '-^-'^^ 
 
120 HISTORY OF TFiE 
 
 children suffering much. The fourth night at Lacka- 
 waxen, fifth at Bloomington, sixth at Shehola, and seventh 
 on the Delaware, where the people disbanded — some going 
 up and some down the river." 
 
 Pennsylvania repudiated this ferocious conduct of the 
 soldiers, and at once indignantly dismissed the respective 
 comj)anies engaged in proceedings so infamous.^ 
 
 After the Compromising laws had pacified the valley, 
 Phillips returned and took possession of his former farm. 
 
 Timothy Keys, Andrew Hickman, and Mr. Hocksy 
 settled in Providence Township in 1771. Keys was 
 chosen constable of Providence, June 30, 1772. Among 
 the first five women coming to Wyoming was the wife of 
 Hickman. 
 
 The Westmoreland Records inform us that "Augustine 
 Hunt, one of ye Proprietors in ye Susquehanna Purchois 
 has made a pitch of about one hundred and fifty aci-<'s of 
 Land in Lockaworna township in 1772." 
 
 John Taylor, with no companions but his ax, his rifie, 
 and his faithful dog, early made a pitch in Providence on 
 the elevation below H^^de Park, aftbrding such views of 
 village and valley, and known throughout the valley as 
 the "uncle Jo. Griffin farm." Mr. Taylor subsequently 
 became a man of more than ordinary usefulness in the 
 colony. He was a prominent member of a number of 
 committees, which received their existence with the ex- 
 pansion of the settlement, and he took an active pait in 
 the social and political organizations of the day. 
 
 Pitts-town, which was named in honor of the distin- 
 guished advocate and defender of American interest, Wm. 
 Pitt, as was Wilkes-Barre from the united names of two 
 bold and eloquent champions of American rights in the 
 British Parliament, was one of the original townships laid 
 out by the Proprietors of the Susquehanna Company, 
 and extended from Wilkes Barre to Providence. 
 
LACKAWAWA VALLKY. 121 
 
 Among the early families here, were the Browns, 
 Bennetts, Benedicts, Blanchards, Careys, St. Johns, 
 Marcys, Sawyers, and Silbeys. One of the Pittston forts 
 being erected on the farm of Brown, was named in honor 
 of him, and was at the time of the Wyoming massacre 
 occupied by a small company of men commanded by 
 Captain Blanchard. 
 
 This block-house was built in 1772. At a meeting of 
 the proprietors and settlers held in Wilkes Barre, May 
 20, 1772, it was voted "that ye Proprietors Belonging to 
 ye town of Pittston Have ye Liberty to Go into their 
 town, and there to fortytie and Keep in a Body Near 
 together and Gourd by themselves until further notice 
 from this Committee." ^ 
 
 Samuel Harden was chosen collector for Pittston, and 
 Solomon Johnson "for ye town of Providence," in 
 December, 1772. 
 
 Meadow lot. No. 13, in Lockawarna, was sold to Jere- 
 miah Blanchard, in May, 1772, by Dr. Joseph Sprauge, 
 -one of the proprietors of the town, and the first physician 
 who practiced medicine in the valley. 
 
 John Stevens was a proprietor in "ye township called 
 ye Capouse Meadow." In May, 1772, he conveyed to 
 John Youngs a settling right at Capouse Meadow, merely 
 for the "consideration of ye Love, Good will and 
 .affections I Have & Do Bare towards my Loving Son 
 in Law, John youngs, son to my wife Mary."- 
 
 IsAAC Tripp. 
 
 At Capoose Meadow, where the rude bearing of 
 Indian life had been modified by whites friendly in 
 their intercourse and gaudy Avith their presents, acres 
 •of rich woodlands had been surveyed and purchased 
 for a few shillings in Connecticut currency, but no one 
 
 ' Westmoreland Records. " Ibid. 
 
122 HISTOKY (IF THE 
 
 was willing to encounter its dangers or share attractions 
 until Isaac Tripp, a man of five and tliirt}^, built for hiir/i 
 self a shelter among the pines in 1771. 
 
 Emigrating to the broader plains of Wyoming with the- 
 original pioneers of 1769, and, finding the block-house at 
 Mill Creek in possession of the Pennymites, prejjared, 
 Avith a body of men commanded by Capt. Ogden, to dis- 
 pute and enforce jurisdiction over the valley, Tripp and 
 his companions, looking for no such chilly reception even 
 amid tlie snows of winter, made preparations to recapture 
 a prize of such vital importance to their existence as a 
 part of a company or colony, "Isaak Tryp," was one 
 of the Proprietors of the Susqehanna Company. He had 
 seen some service in the French and Indian wars previous 
 to this, while a few of his companions had been schooled 
 in the raw exercises of the militia of Connecticut. All, 
 however, who had adventured thus far into Wyoming, 
 yet filled with the sullen redskins, were familiar with tlie 
 use of the rifle, never failing in the hands of the woods- 
 man, robust and self reliant, versed in the achievement 
 of hook and line, and more skilled in securing the deer 
 and tracking the bear, than in the more deceptive art of 
 diplomatic cunning. 
 
 With all their conceptions, however, of military disci- 
 pline learned in the warfare of border life or practiced in 
 the parks of their native inland villages, they were now 
 completely outwitted by the superior tact of the Ogden 
 party secure in the occupancy of the block-house. Ogden, 
 says Miner "having only ten men able to bear arms, one- 
 fourth only of his invading foe, determined to have recourse 
 to negotiation. A very polite and conciliatory note was 
 addressed to the commander of the forty, an interview 
 respectfully solicited, and a friendly conference asked on 
 the subject of the respective titles. Ogden proved him- 
 self an accomplished angler. The bait was too tempting. 
 Propose to a Yankee to talk over a matter especially 
 which he has studied, and believes to be right, and you 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKY. 123 
 
 touch the most susceptible clioid that vibi-atos in liis 
 heart. That they could out>-talk the Pennymites, and con- 
 vince them the Susquehanna title^was good, not one of 
 the forty doubted. Three of the chief men were deputed 
 to argue the matter, viz. : Isaac Tripp and Benjamin 
 Follet, two of the executive committee, accompanied by 
 Mr. Vine Elderkin. No sooner were they within the 
 block-house, than Sheriff Jenkins clapped a writ or their 
 shoulders. — 'Gentlemen, in the name of the Common- 
 wealth of Pennsylvania, you are my prisoners !' ' Laugh 
 when we must, be candid when we can.' The Yankees 
 were decidedly outwitted. By common consent the pris- 
 oners were transported to Easton jail, guarded by Captain 
 Ogden ; but accompanied in no hostile manner, by the 
 thirtj'-seven remnants of the forty." 
 
 Tripp was promptly liberated from jail by his friends, 
 and returning again to the valley, was an efficient contrib- 
 utor to the public weal, and an intelligent actor in the 
 long, embittered dispute betAveen the Provincial authori- 
 ties of Pennsylvania and those of the Colony of Con- 
 necticut for AVyoming, before its peaceful and final 
 solution. 
 
 Upon the Westmoreland Records his name, or that of 
 " Esq. Tripp,'- as he was familiarly called, often appears. 
 At a meeting of the Susquehanna Company, held at 
 Hartford, Ct., June 2, 1773, for the purpose of electing 
 officers for the AVestmoreland Colony, Gideon Baldwin, 
 Timothy Keys, and Isaac Tripp, were chosen Directors 
 or Proprietors of Providence. 
 
 The first recorded purchase of land in Providence by 
 Tripp was made in 1774. This purchase embraced lands 
 where stood the wigwams of Capoose. n])on the flats sub- 
 sequently known as "Tripp's Flats." As this old deed 
 possesses some local interest it is inserted entire. 
 
 " To all People to whom these Presents shall come. 
 Know ye that I Daniel Adams of west-morel and, in ye 
 
124 IIISTOKY OF THE 
 
 County of Litchfield and Colon}^ of Connecticutt, in New 
 England, for and in Consideration of Ninety pounds Cur- 
 rant money, of Connectiputt, to me in hand, Paid Before 
 3^e Ensealing hereof to my full satisfaction by Isooc Tripp, 
 Esq., of ye same town, County, and Colony, aforesaid, ye 
 Receipt whereof I am fully sattisfyed and contented and 
 Do therefore freel}', fully, and absolutely Give, Grant, 
 Bargain, Sell, alienate. Conva3^ and Confirm unto him, ye 
 said Isooc Trypp, His Hairs, Exec ors. Admin ors. and as- 
 sighns, for Ever all and singular one Certain Lott of land, 
 Lying and Being in je township of Providence, Known 
 by No. 14, Lying on the west side of Lockawarna River, 
 and Butted and Bounded as follows : abuting East on sd. 
 River ; west on sd. town Line, North and South on Land 
 Belonging to sd. Tripp, and Contains b}^ Estimation 37i5 
 acres, be ye same more or Less, Reference being had to 
 ye Survay ( "f sd. town for ye more perticulerraents. Bounds 
 thereof to be and Remain unto him ye sd. Isooc tripp, and 
 to his heirs, Execu — ors, or Admin — ors, or assigns for 
 Ever free and clear from me, ye sd. Daniel Adams, or any 
 Heirs, Execu — ors, or Admin — ors, or assigns, or any 
 other Persons by from or under me or au}^ part thereof, as 
 witness, my hand this 7th Day of July, in ye year of our 
 Lord, 1774, and in ye 14th year of his majosties Raign. 
 
 "Signed, sealed, and Delivered In Presence of 
 
 Danl. Adams. 
 "Nathan. Denison and 
 "Saml. Slatek, Je. 
 
 " Received ye above Deed to Record July ye 8tli, a. d. 
 1774, and Recorded By me. 
 
 "EzEKiEL Peikce, clerk."^ 
 
 At the time that Tripp located upon the Indian clearing 
 already awaiting culture. Providence was designated in 
 the ancient records as the "sixth town of ye Capouse 
 Meadows. ' ' 
 
 ' Westmoreland Records, \71-L 
 
[RA TRIPP. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 127 
 
 These once beautiful flats, now rooted into mines, and 
 robbed of their natural beauty by tall coal work, with 
 their accompanying culm or waste coal si)read over many 
 a fair acre, perpetuate the names of their first white oc- 
 cupants, and bring them down through generations into 
 the hands of Ira Tripp, Esq., a gentleman of wealth, en- 
 titled to no little consideration for those frank, popular 
 attainments and social qualifications which mark, in the 
 public mind, the rulings of the hour. 
 
 The Scranton court-house, standing on the original 
 farm of Ira Tripp, overlooks the ancient abode of Capoose, 
 pointed out by a single tree. 
 
 Isaac Tripp, the grandson of Isaac Tripp, Sen., came 
 into the valley in 1774, and chose this inviting spot fur 
 his residence.^ 
 
 In October, 1773, Maj. Fitch Al(l«^n purchased of John 
 "Stevens, of Wilkes Barre "one Certain Lott of Land Ly- 
 ing in ye township of Providence, on ye North side of 
 Lockaworna River ; sd. Lott is knoAvn by Number two 
 -and Contains 870 acres." Fifteen pounds lawful cur- 
 rency was the price given — about $4o. 
 
 Provisions were so scarce in all the settlements, from 
 
 ' The following note, regarding Isaac Tripp, appears in the History of the 
 Abington Baptist Association, a small volume, compiled a few years since by Rev. 
 Edward L. Baily, A. M. : "This Isaac Tripp was in early life a resident at 
 ' Oapouse Meadows,' in the Lackawanna valley. In the eighteenth year of his 
 age, and soon after the Wyoming massacre, he was taken captive by the Indians, 
 and with others marched to Canada. On the way he experienced the most ex- 
 cruciating sufferings from the gnawings of hunger and cruel treatment of the 
 savages, who bound his hands behind him and compelled him to run the gauntlet. 
 At Niagara he mot his cousiu, Miss Frances Slocum, who was also a captive from 
 the Wyoming valley. They planned their escape, but their intentions being dis- 
 •covered by their captors, they were separated, never more to meet on earth, and 
 young Tripp was sold to the English and compelled to enter their service, in which 
 he reluctantly continued until the close of the revolutionary war. He now re- 
 turned to his early home and resumed the peaceful pursuits of the farm. He 
 moved to Scott, Luzerne county, and finally settled in ihe Elkwoods, in Susque- 
 hanna county. Hib wife died in Clifford, May lOtli, 1816, aged 67 years. He fol- 
 lowed her to the grave April loth. 1820, aged 60 years. The remains of both now 
 repose in the burj'ing ground ne (r Clifford corners." 
 
128 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Wyoming to Capoose, in the winter of 1773, that a party 
 of persons, among whom was John Carey, were sent to 
 Stroudsbiirg to obtain them. The distance was fifty 
 miles through the forest, where all the intervening streams, 
 being unbridged, had to be crossed upon ice, or forded, 
 or swam. The party went the entire journey on foot, and 
 returned to their half-ftimished friends with the needed 
 flour. 
 
 Neither Fitch, Youngs, nor Stevens made any improve- 
 ment on their lands, still unchopped and unoccupied in 
 1773. Fitch sold his purchase in J 774 to John Alden for 
 eighty pounds, New York currency. It must be borne 
 in mind that, after the original survey of the Connecticut 
 Indian Purchase of the Susquehanna Company, all the 
 land thus embraced was laid out in shares and half shares, 
 many of which lay for years beyond the sound of the 
 ax-stroke, while others, more favorably located, were 
 sold by the proprietors of each town for a trifle, and re- 
 sold by the purchaser to any one having the courage to- 
 risk life or sacrifice any social relation among panthers, 
 Indians, and wolves. 
 
 Isaac Tripp, the grandson of Isaac Tripp the elder, was 
 "taken prisoner in 1778, and two young men by the name 
 of Keys and Hocksey ; the old gentleman the}^ (the In- 
 dians) painted and dismissed, but hurried the others into 
 the forest (now Abington) above Liggitt's Gap, on the 
 warriors' path to Oquago. Resting one night, they rose 
 the next morning, traveled about two miles, when they 
 stopped at a little stream of water. The two young In- 
 dians then took Keys and Hocksey some distance fiomi 
 the path, and were absent half an hour, the old Indian, 
 looking anxiously the way they had gone. Presently 
 the death -whoop was heard, and the Indians returned, 
 brandishing bloody tomahawks and exhibiting the scalps 
 of their victims. Tripp's hat was taken from his head, 
 and his scalp examined twice, the savages speaking 
 earnestly, when at length they told him to fear noth- 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKY. 129 
 
 ing — he should not be hurt ; and carried him off ])ris- 
 oner." ^ 
 
 The Indians, finding Tripp disposed to yield gracefully 
 to his new position without concern or restraint, painted 
 his face with war-paint, as a protective measure against 
 any warriors chancing to meet him, and sent him back to 
 his home, at Capoose, where the next year he was shot 
 by a party of savages from tlie lakes, while at work 
 in the field, unconscious of danger. 
 
 In the spring of 1803 two skulls, Avhite as snow, and 
 some human bones, porous and weather-beaten by the 
 storms of quarter of a century, were found in Abington, 
 by Deacon Clark, upon the edge of a little brook passing 
 thr<nigh Clark's Green, and were at this time supposed to 
 be, as they probably were, the remains of Tripp's toma- 
 hawked companions. 
 
 Isaac Tripp, Sen., was shot near Wilkes Barre Fort, in 
 1779, under the following circumstances : In the Revolu- 
 tionary War, the British, for the purpose of inciting the 
 savages to more murderous activity along the frontier and 
 exposed settlements, offered large rewards for the scalps 
 of Americans. As Tripp Avas a man of more than ordinary 
 effi('i(^ncy and prominence in the colony, the Indians were 
 often asked by the British why he Avas not slain. The 
 unvarying ansAver Avas that "Tripp was a good man." 
 He Avas a Quaker in his religious notions, and in all his 
 intercourse Avith the Indians his manner had been so kind 
 and conciliatory, that when he fell into their hands as a 
 prisoner the year previous, at Capoose, they dismissed 
 him unharmed, and coA^ered him Avith paint, as it was 
 their custom to do with those they did not wish to harm. 
 
 Rendering himself inimical to the Tories by the energy 
 Avith Avliich he assailed them afterAvard in his eff'orts to 
 protect the interests of the Wyoming Colony at Hartford, 
 Avhither he had been sent to represent its grievances, a 
 
 ' Miner's History, p. 240. 
 
130 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 double reward was offered for liis scalp, and, as he had 
 forfeited their protection by the removal of the war-paint, 
 and incurred tlieir hostility by his loyal struggles for the 
 life of the Republic, he was shot and scalped the first time 
 he was seen. 
 
 WESTMORELAND. 
 
 Up until this time (1774) the Susquehanna Company, 
 struggling against every element adverse to its existence, 
 had hoped that Wyoming might, by special authority from 
 the king, be erected into a separate colony of its own, but 
 the remonstrances of the Proprietary Government, inflexi- 
 ble in its purpose to expel all power and people from the 
 valley but- its own, combined with the war-feeling every- 
 where generated and cherished throughout the American 
 Colonies against the British Government, easily defeated 
 a measure fraught with equal consequence to both of the 
 contending parties. 
 
 Under these circumstances, Connecticut, not forgetting 
 that, by virtue of its charter, its possessions extended in- 
 definitely to the West — even to the Pacific — yielded to the 
 appeals repeatedly coming over the mountain from Wyo- 
 ming, to extend official and parental protection to the set- 
 tlement, assailed from within and without, passed through 
 its General Assembly, in January, 1774, the following 
 act: — 
 
 "It is enacted that the Inhabitants dwelling within the 
 Bounds of this Colony, on the AVest Side of tlie River Del- 
 aware, be, and they are hereby made and constituted a 
 distinct Town, with like Powers and Priviledges as other 
 Towns in this Colony by Law have, within the following 
 Bounds and Limits, viz' : Bounded East by Delaware Riv- 
 er, North by tlie North Line of tliis Coloii}^, West by a Norrh 
 and South Line across the Colony at fifteen miles distan h 
 from a Place on Susquehanna River called Wyoming, and 
 South by the South Line of the Colony, which Town is 
 hereby annexed to the County of Litchfield, and shall be 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 131 
 
 called by the name of Westmoreland : That Zebulon But- 
 ler and Nathan Denison, Esquires, Inhabitants of said 
 Town, are appointed Justices of the Peace in and for the 
 County of Litchfield ; That the former is authorized and 
 directed to issue a Warrant, as soon as may be, to notify 
 the Inhabitants of the said Town of Westmoreland in said 
 County, to meet at such Time and Place as lie shall ap- 
 point, within said Town, to choose officers, and to do any 
 other Business proper to be done at said Meeting ; and 
 
 "That the Governor of this Colony is authorized and 
 desired to issue a Proclamation, forbidding any Person or 
 Persons wiiatsoever taking up, entring on, or settling any 
 of the Lands contained or included in the Charter of this 
 Colony, lying Westward of the Province of New York, 
 without Liberty first had and obtained from the General 
 Assembly of this Colony. 
 
 "These Acts are made and passed by our Assembly, 
 for the Protection and Government of the Inhabitants 
 on the Lands mentioned, to preserve Peace and good 
 Order among them, to prevent Hostilities, Animosities, and 
 Contentions among the People there, to promote public 
 Justice, to discourage Vice and Iniquity, and to put a 
 Stop to Intruders entering on those Lands. 
 
 "I am, with great Truth and Regard, Sir, 
 "Your most Obedient, 
 
 "Humble Servant, 
 
 "JON™- TRUMBULL. 
 
 "Honorable John Penn, Esquire."^ 
 
 This act on the part of Connecticut gave a fresh impetus 
 and marked out a new" era for the inland settlements. 
 Wyoming, thus ceasing to exist as a distinct republic,' ac- 
 knowledged only the laws and jurisdiction of Connecticut. 
 The inhabitants of the valleys, always favoring peace and 
 good order, naturally expressed a hope that their griev- 
 ances, hitherto vexatious and fatal to their thrift, might be 
 
 ' Col. Rec, rol. x., pp. 151-2. " Chapman. 
 
132 HISTORY OF THK 
 
 lessened somewhat, if not entirely removed, by this affilia- 
 tion. The Revolution, however, gave a different and more 
 patriotic direction to the spirit of independence early in- 
 herited: else these intrepid sons, wielding alike the ax 
 and the musket in either hand, would not have battled so 
 long in vain for rights so stoutly upheld and denied them. 
 
 WALLENPAUPACK SETTLEMENT. 
 
 One of the most sluggish streams gathering its waters 
 from the roof of the mountain dividing the Delaware and 
 the Susquehanna, is the Wallenpaupack in Pike County, 
 some thirty miles eastward of the Lackawanna, crossed 
 by the solitary Indian path leading from the Delaware to 
 Wyoming. Along this creek, the first permanent settle- 
 ment began in 1774, and although miles of forest and 
 mountain intervened, the earliest settlers, for many years, 
 traveled over forty miles to Wilkes Barre, to election, 
 court, and public meetings of great importance. "Some 
 time between the years 1750 and 1760," says Hon. War- 
 ren J. WoodAvard, Esq., in Miner's History of Wyoming. 
 " a family named Carter settled upon the Wallenpaupack 
 Creek. This is supposed to have been the first white ftini- 
 ily that ever visited the neighborhood. The spot upon 
 which the house was built is in view of the road leading 
 from Sterling, in Wayne County, to the Milford and 
 Owego turnpike, seven miles southwest from Wilsonville. 
 The old Indian path, from Cochecton to Wyoming, crossed 
 the Wallenpaupack about thirty rods below the house oT 
 the Carters. During the French and Indian war, which 
 commenced in 1756, the members of the family wore all 
 murdered, and the house was burned by a tribe of Indians 
 in the service of the French. When the emigi-ants from 
 Connecticut arrived on the banks of the Wallenpaupack, 
 the chimney of the house and a stone oven alone were 
 standing. 
 
 "When the first Wyoming emigrants from Connecticut 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 133 
 
 reached the Wallenpaupack, tlie main body halted, and 
 some pioneers were sent foi-ward, iji a westerly direction, 
 to procure intelligence of the position of the country on 
 the Susquehanna. The pioneers followed the Indian path 
 before alluded to, leading from Cochecton in New York, 
 across the Leckawaxen, to the point on the Wallenpau- 
 pack below the Carter house, where there was an ' Indian 
 clearing,' and thence to the 'Indian clearings' on the 
 Susquehanna. This path crossed 'Cobb's Mountain.' 
 The pioneers attained the summit, from which the Sus- 
 quehanna was in view, in the evening, and Iniilt up a 
 large fire to indicate to the settlers the point to which 
 the}^ should direct their course. The next morning, the 
 emigrants commenced their journey, building their road 
 as they proceeded. That i-oad, leaving the Sterling road 
 before mentioned about a mile down tlie creek below tlie 
 site of the Carter house, is the one which is now con- 
 stantly traveled between \Vilkes Barre and Milford. It 
 is said to have been most judiciously located. The point 
 on which the lire was built on Cobb's Mountain, was 
 near the present residence of John Cobb, Esq., and is 
 pointed out by the people residing on the Wallenpaupack 
 to the present time. 
 
 "At some period, shortly before the Revolutionary Wai-, 
 a settlement was commenced at Milford, on the Delaware, 
 now the capital of Pike County. The settlers were all 
 Pennsylvanians. This was the only inhabited pai't of 
 what now constitutes Wayne and Pike counties, except 
 the Connecticut colony planted on the AVallenpaupack. 
 The emigrants to the latter left Connecticut in 1774. 
 Within a year after their arrival, two townships were 
 erected under the names of Lackaway and Bozrah. The 
 settlement extended four miles and a half along the creek. 
 The farms still remain of the same size as originally fixed, 
 and with two exceptions they still remain in the possession 
 of the descendants of the settlers in 1774. 
 
 " One of the first labors of the settlers after thi^r eini^-ra- 
 
134 HIS TOBY OF THE 
 
 tion, was the erection of n fort. This fort, which was 
 probably somewhat primitive in its construction, was a 
 field containing about an acre, surrounded by a trench, 
 into wliicli upright pieces of hewed timber were firmly 
 fixed. The spot was selected from the circumstance of 
 its containing a living spring. The fort was erected on 
 the eastern side of the Sterling road, almost immediately 
 opposite the point where the road leading through Salem, 
 over Cobb's Mountain, and along the Lackawanna to the 
 Wyoming settlements, called the 'Old Wyoming road,' 
 branches off from the Sterling road. It is six miles south- 
 west from the handet now marked on the maps as Wilson- 
 ville. Within the inclosed space was a block-house, also 
 built of squared pieces of hewed timber, upon the top of 
 which was a sentry-box, made bullet-proof. There was, 
 besides, a guard-house, standing just east of the block- 
 house. The defenses were so constructed that a ritle-ball 
 fired from the high ground on the east into the fort, would 
 strike the palisades on the opposite side above a mini's 
 head. After the rumors of the Indian troubles on the 
 Susquehanna reached the Wallenpaupack, the settlers 
 constantly spent the night in the fort. The spring, whose 
 existence and situation governed the colonists in theij- 
 selection of a stronghold, still bubbles by the way-side, 
 and nothing but a pile of loose stones indicates to the 
 traveler the formidable neighboihood to which it has been 
 exposed " 
 
 JAMES LEGGETT. 
 
 The loose-tongued tributary of the Lackawanna com- 
 ing with shout and foam through the deep notch in the 
 mountain between Abington iind Piovidence, tAvo miles 
 north of Scranton, known as "Leggett's Creek," derived 
 its name from James Leggett who emigrated from "ye 
 Province of New York," in 1775, and erected his rude 
 bark cabin at the mouth of the creek, still bearing his 
 name. In the original draught of the township of 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKY. 185 
 
 Providence by tlie Connecticut Siisquelianua Company 
 tlie wild land where Leggett cleared, had been allotted 
 to Abraham Stanton. This was in 1772. In 1773 lie 
 transferred his right to John Staples. By a vote of the 
 Susquehanna Company, Staples' s claim to this forest- 
 covered part of the township, was declared forfeited be- 
 cause of some dereliction of duty. It was next granted 
 to David Thayer in 1774. Like preceding owners, neither 
 of whom had cut a tree or cleared a foot of land, h(i 
 escaped from ownership without becoming either richer 
 or poorer by selling this and several tracts of land along 
 upper Capoose to James Leggett in June, 1775, who was 
 the first white man to make a clearing above Providence 
 Village. 
 
 A little distance above the grist-mill of the late Judson 
 Clark, Esq., in Providence, Leggett cleared a small spot 
 to show the fertility of the soil, where he built his cabin 
 on the bank of the creek in 1775 ; but the exciting aspect 
 of border life, often rendered appalling by the howl of 
 the wolf, or the whoop of th(^ red-man reluctant to depart 
 from a valley he had loved and lost, contributed so little 
 U) charm the solitude of his domestic life, that he aban- 
 doned his stumpy new land and retired to White Plains, 
 New York. 
 
 After the close of the Revolutionary struggle, in which 
 he took an honorable part, he 'returned to liis clearing 
 in Providence, and erected upon this creek tlie first saw- 
 mill clattering in this portion of the Lackawanna. 
 
 Benjamin Baily purchased a lot from Solomon Strong, 
 below that of Leggett' s, in 1775, selling it again the next 
 year to Mr. Tripp "for a feAV furs and a hint gun."^ In 
 1777, Mathew Dalson bought 375 acivs of land on "ye 
 Capous River so called," bounded on the north by 
 " Lands belonging to one Loggit'"- This purchase in- 
 cluded lands now known as "Uncle Josh Griffin's farm.*' 
 
 ' Westmoreland Records, 1777. ' Ibia. 
 
136 IlISTOKT OF J HE 
 
 While the pioneers up the Lackawanna were thus one 
 by one stretcliing the boundaries of the settlement with 
 vigorous stroke and handspike, Wyoming, feverish with 
 the sanguinary and intermitting character of the contest 
 alternating now with success and then with the expulsion 
 of one party or the other, received from the young, but 
 giant American Congress, the following resolution, dated 
 ill Congress, Dec. 20, 1775 :— 
 
 "Whereas, a Dispute Subsists between some of the In- 
 habitants of the Colony of Connecticut, Settled under the 
 Claim of the Said Colony on the Lands near Wioming, on 
 the Susquehannah River, and in the Delaware Country, 
 and the Inhabitants Settled under the Claim of the pro- 
 prietaries of Pennsylvania, which Dispute it is appre- 
 hended will, if not Suspended during the present Troubles 
 in these Colonies, be productive of pernicious Conse- 
 quences which may be very prejudicial to the common 
 Interest of the united Colonies — therefore, 
 
 "Resolved, That is the Opinion of this Congress, and it 
 is accordingly recommended tliat the contending parties 
 immediately cease all Hostilities and avoid every Appear- 
 ance of Force untill the Dispute can be legally decided : 
 that all property taken and detained be restored to the 
 original Owners, that no Interruption be given by either 
 party to the free passing and repassing of persons behav- 
 ing themselves peaceably throngli said disputed Tei-ri- 
 tory, as well by land as Water, without Molestation, either 
 of person or property ; that all persons seized on and 
 detained on Account of said Dispute, be disinissed, and 
 permitted to go to their Respective Homes, and that all 
 things being put in the Situation they were before the 
 late unhappy Contest, they continue to behave themselves 
 peaceably on their respective possessions and Improve- 
 ments untill a legal Decison can be had on said Dispute, 
 or this Congress shall take further Order thereon. And 
 nothing herein done shall be construed in prejudice of 
 the Claims of either party. 
 
LACKAWANNA VAI.LKY. 137 
 
 " December 21st. 
 '' Ordered, that an autlientic Copy of the Resolution 
 passed yestei-day, relative to the Dispute between the 
 people of Connecticut and Pennsylvania be transmitted 
 to the contending parties. 
 
 " Extract from the Minutes. 
 
 "CHAS. THOMSON, Sec''."^ 
 
 This resolution, by its temporary suspension of the 
 authority of the land-jobbers of Pennsylvania, gav»- 
 partial repose to Wyoming and Lackawanna even in the 
 midst of Avar, while the inhabitants, long harassed by 
 fratricidal warfare, hoped to witness gleams of approach- 
 ing peace. 
 
 FIRST ROAD FROM PITTSTON TO THE DELAWARE. 
 
 During the year 1772, the first road from Pittston to the 
 Delaware Avas made by the inhabitants. Previous to this, 
 the Governor of Pennsylvania, at an official intervieAV with 
 Teedyuscung, in March, 1758, suggested to him the pro- 
 priety of opening a great road from the head- waters of 
 the Susquehanna down through Wyoming to Shamokin, to 
 which the shrewd chief, from motives of interest, objected. - 
 
 The nearest point from the Westmoreland Colony to the 
 settlement on the DelaAvare in the vicinity of Stroudsburg, 
 was about forty miles. From this the valle}^ was separated 
 by a country whose general features partook strong] }' of 
 the sternness of the times, Avhile the wilderness from Ca- 
 poose eastward, swarming Avith beasts and savages, had 
 through it no other road than that built with difficulty by 
 the first party of emigrants to Wyoming, in 1769. 
 
 This followed the Avarriors' trail, which was simply 
 widened by the felling of large trees and the removal of 
 a few troublesome stones for the passage of a Avagon. 
 
 ' Col. Records, 1775. " Col. Rec. vol. viii., p. 55. 
 
16b HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Paths through the forest, made by the Indian centnriea 
 before, and trodden by the race that greeted the Pilgrims 
 from the Mayflower' s deck, or trees marked by the hunter 
 or ax-man scouting far away from his rocky homestead, 
 furnished the only guidance along the forest profound in 
 the depth and extent of its solitude. 
 
 This natural privation to every frontier settlement in the 
 earlier history of the country — the absence of roads — and 
 the necessity of better communication with the parent 
 State, or the nearer villages toward the Hudson, induced 
 the proprietors and settlers holding their meeting in 
 Wilkes Barre, October 2, 1772, to vote "that Mr. i)ur- 
 kins of Kingstown, Mr. Carey of Lockaworna, Mr. Goss 
 for Plymouth, Mr. Danl. Gore for wilkesbarre, Mr. Wil- 
 liam Stewart for Hannover, are appointed a com tee to 
 Draw subscriptions & se what they Can Git sighned hy 
 ye adjourned meeting for ye making a Rode from Dille- 
 ware River to Pitts-town." 
 
 At the adjourned meeting, held October 5, 1772, it 
 was " voted that Esq. Tryp, Mr. John Jenkins, Mr. Phil- 
 lip Goss, Mr. John Durkins, Captain Bates, Mr. Daniel 
 Gore, Mr. william Stewart are appointed Comtee-meii to- 
 mark out ye Rode from Dilleware River to Pitts-town,'' 
 etc.i 
 
 This committee were to act until the completion of the 
 road, October 19, 1772, "voted that Esq. Tryp is ap- 
 pointed to oversee those persons that shall from time to 
 time be sent out from ye severall towns to work on ye Road 
 from Dilleware River to this & so that ye work be Done 
 according to ye Directions of ye Com'^'^'', that was sent out 
 to mark ye Road."' 
 
 This road, then considered no usual achievement, was 
 commenced in November, 1772 ; every person owning 
 a settling right in the valley, or on "ye East Branch 
 of the Susquehanna River," from the Indian village of 
 
 1 Westmoreland Records, 1772. ^ Ibid. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKY. 13'J 
 
 Capoose to tlic niontli of the stream, assisted toward its 
 construction. 
 
 Wages paid tlien would liaidly tempt tlie sluggard of 
 to-day from his covert, for it was " voted, that those Per- 
 sons that shall Go out to work on ye Rode from Dilleware 
 River to ye westermost part of ye Great Swamp' Shall Have 
 three sillings ye day Lawfnll money for ye time they Avork 
 to ye Exceptance of ye overseors ; and from ye Great 
 Swamp this way. Shall Have one shilling and sixpence pr. 
 Day and no more."- 
 
 Isaac Tripp being appointed to oversee the work, was 
 allowed "Five Shillings Lawfull money pr. Day." TJiis 
 rough, hilly road, quite if not more important in its con- 
 sequence to the people of the inland settlement of that day 
 than any other pike or railroad subsequently has been to 
 the valley, was at length completed, and it is said to have 
 been judiciously located. 
 
 MILITARY OUGANIZATION. 
 
 When this road was built, times were indeed perilous. 
 Ninety-live years ago the settler fought against foes more 
 savage and exasperated than the yellow panther or the 
 beai-. People in our day, familiar onl}^ with the smooth 
 current of rural life, can hardly estimate the exposure and 
 insecurity of that period. The pioneer, as he toiled on th<^ 
 plain or in the narrow clearing, kept closely at his side liis 
 sharpened knife and loaded musket, expecting every rustle 
 of the leaf, every sound wafted by the gale springing uj) 
 from the west, to mnounce th(^ approach of the savage. 
 And even when they slept within their lonely cabins, 
 their arms stood freshly primed beside them awaiting the 
 appearance of the foe. 
 
 In 1772, it was voted that eacii and erery settler should 
 provide himself with a flint-lock and ammunition, and 
 
 ' This is now known as tlie "Shades of Death." ^ Westmoreland Record^. 
 
140 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 continue to guard around the threatened plantations until 
 furtlicr notice. 
 
 In fact, the existence of all the settlements, as Connecti- 
 cut settUments, on the Lackawanna or Susquehanna, be- 
 came so doubtful at times, from the persistent assaults of 
 the Pennymites, and the incursions of the savages, more 
 stealthy yet k-ss feared, that the settlers, occupied with 
 thoughts of their common safety, met QYevy fourteen days 
 to practice military discipline and tactics. 
 
 At a meetins of the inhabitants and proprietors held 
 March 22, 1778, it was voted "that the Com tee of Set- 
 tlers be Desired to send to the several towns or to their 
 Comtee Requiring them to Call all the Inhabitants in Each 
 of ye said towns to meet on Thursday Next at five a 
 Clock in ye afternoon on sd. Day in some Convenient 
 place in sd. town, and that tliey then Chouse one Person 
 in Each of sd. towns as an officer to muster them & so that 
 all are oequipt according to Law w^ith fire arms and am- 
 munitions, & that they Chuse two Sergants & a Clerk, & 
 that the sd. Chieff offic(n- is Hereby Commanded & Directed 
 to Call ye Inhabitants together once in 14 Days for ye 
 future until this Company orders otherwise, & that in 
 Case of an allarm or ye appearance of an Enemy, he is 
 Directed to Call ye sd. Inhabitants together & stand for 
 ye Defense of ye sd. towns & settlements without any 
 further order." ^ 
 
 Order and discipline were not only observed in a mili- 
 tary point of view, but were carried into every social. 
 commercial, and domestic arrangement. 
 
 Thus by paying a trifle, settlers had voted to them an 
 ear marh for cattle and sheep. The Records tell us that 
 "Joseph Staples, his Earmark a square Hole through ye 
 Left Ear.'' "Job Tryp ye 2nd, His Ear mark— a smooth 
 Cross of ye Left Ear, & a Half penne ye fore side of Each 
 Ear/ ' ' ' William Ray nold, his Ear mark a swallow' s tail 
 m ye left Ear & a Half Cross on ye Right Ear. 
 
 ' Westmoreland Records. 
 
LACKAAVAN.NA VALLKY. 141 
 
 "Entered Ai)ril 28tli, 1774, pr. rr.e Ezekiel Pierre, 
 Clerk." 
 
 John Pliillip's ear mark was "a smootli cross of ye 
 Right Ear & a Half penney ye fore side ye same." 
 
 Swine, too, had rigid laws imposed upon tliem. 
 
 A Avandering one having intruded or broken into Mr. Ru- 
 fus Lawrence's field of oats, " back in the woods," dama- 
 ging thereby 15 bushels of oats, '^ August ye 23d, 1777, 
 then ye above stray Hog was sold to ye Highest Bidder, 
 & Simon Hodds was ye Highes Bidder, and Bid her of at 
 
 D. 1 3 3 
 
 Constable fees for Posting tlie Hog 2 3 
 
 And travil to Kingstown District () 13 
 
 Selling ye Hog 3 
 
 Clerk's Fees for Entiring, &c 10 
 
 1 10 i) ■■ 
 
 KKLTGIOX, TP:MPERANCE, AND STILL-HOUSES. 
 
 As there are no Colonial nor private records to l)*^ found 
 of the early cliurch movements in the Lackawanna Val- 
 ley, even if any were made at the time, it is extremely 
 difficult, if not quite impossible, to form any thing like a 
 correct estimate of the moral and religious standard of 
 the settlers at that day. 
 
 For religious purposes alone, the old Christian church 
 standing in Hyde Park, was, with three exceptions, the 
 first one erected in the valley. This was built in 1836. 
 Some seven years previous to this, a church had been 
 erected in Carboudale ; in 1832, one was erected in Blake- 
 ley ; in 1834, one was raised in Providence, and blown 
 down the same year. The plain, substantial school-house 
 or log- cabin, standing by the road-side, furnished hospi- 
 table places where meetings were held, without display 
 or restraint, for very many years. 
 
 The French and Indian war, running from 1754 to 1763. 
 impeded religious advancement throughout the entiie 
 Colonial dependencies, while the Indian troubles subse 
 
142 HISTOKT OF THE 
 
 quent to that period, the E evolutionary struggle, as well 
 as the intestinal warfare in Wyoming, all seem to have 
 been alike fatal to morals and life. 
 
 " Bundling," that easy but wicked habit of our grand- 
 fathers, ajjpears to have been wonderfully prevalent at 
 an early date along the valley, as well as in many other 
 portions of the country, and was not unfrequently at- 
 tended with consequences that might naturally have been 
 expected by a philosopher. Besides this, there is every 
 reason to believe that the current morals of the day liad 
 the greatest liberty of standard, and that one prominent 
 and almost universal characteristic of the people Avas the 
 love of ichislii/^ which was as terrible then as now. As 
 early as 1757, it was found that giving an Indian half a 
 gill of whisky, was attended with bad consequences.^ 
 
 The sale of whisky to them was wholly stopped and 
 forbidden by the authorities, in 1765, as it was perceived 
 that much of the murderous agitation in the forest was 
 caused by rum.- 
 
 At Capoose or Wyoming, Indians were not permitted to 
 drink the inspiring "tire- water," as can be seen by a vote 
 of " the Propriators and Settlers Belonging to ye Susque- 
 liannah Purchase Legolly warned and Held In Wilkes- 
 barre, December 7th, 1772. V^oted that Asa Stevens, 
 Daniel Gore, and Abel Reine are appointed to Inspect 
 into all ye Houses that Sell or Retail Strong Drink on 
 forfiture of his or their Slettling Right or Rights, and 
 also forfit ye whole of ye Remainder of their Liquor to 
 this Company, and that ye Com*'''' above are appointed to 
 take care of ye Liquoi- Immediately." 
 
 The Yankee-like and aureeable provision of having the 
 liqu<»r forfeited, and the immediate care that was doubt- 
 less directed to it by those to whom it was intrusted, did 
 not prevent its sale to the thirsty warriors, who were tur- 
 bulent and dangerous when under its influence. Their 
 
 ' Col. Kec. vol. viii., p. 11. ' Ibid., vol. ix., p. 500. 
 
LACKAWANNA VAI,r,EY. 143 
 
 squaws, during tlieir drunken frolics, were often cruelly 
 beaten, and sometimes badly wounded. 
 
 Measures still more stringent and severe were adopted 
 b}' the inhabitants afterward to prevent access to it by the 
 neighboring savages. It was "voted that no Person or 
 Persons, settlers or forrinors Coming into this place shall 
 at any time hereafter Sell or Give to any Indian or Indians 
 any Spiritous Lickquors on ye forjUures of all such 
 Lickors and ye whole of all their Goods and Chattels, 
 Rights, and Effects that they Have on this Purchase ; and 
 also to be voted 'out of this Company, unless upon some 
 extraordinary reason, as sickness, etc., without Liberty first 
 had and obtained of ye Comtee of Settlei's, or Leave from 
 ye Com'" that is appointed to Into them affairs."^ 
 
 In 1772 there was but one licensed house in the valL^y 
 to sell spirituous liquor. This committee, composed of 
 Avery, Tripp, and others, met in Wilkes Barre, in June. 
 1772, '•'■at six a Clock in ye forenoon.^- where, in the 
 simple language of the day, they resolved that, " Whereas 
 there is and may be many Disorders Committed by ye 
 Retailing of Spiritons Lichquor in Small Quanteties to ye 
 Indian Natives, which Disorders to prevent it is now 
 Voted, that there shall be but one Publick house to Retail 
 Speriteous Lichquors in small Quonteties in Each of the 
 first towns, and that Each Person for ye Purpose of Re- 
 tailing, as aforesd. shall be appointed by tlie Comtee they 
 Belong ; and that they and each of them shall be under 
 the Direction of sd. Comtee, by whom they are appointed. 
 Not Repugnant to ye Laws of the Colony of Connecticutt, 
 and that such Retailors that shall not Duly observe such 
 Directions and Restrictions as the}^ shall severally receive 
 from sd. Comtee, shall on Complaint made to this Com- 
 pany, shall see Cause to Inflict, Not Exceeding his or 
 their Settling Right, Regard being Had to ye Nature and 
 agrevation of ye offence. "" 
 
 ' Westmoreland Records, 1772. » Ibid. 
 
144 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 At this time there was no stUl-house in the colony. An 
 embargo was, for a short time, laid upon the transporta- 
 tion of grain. Dec. 18, 1772, it was voted at the town 
 meeting, " that no Person or Persons Now Belonging to 
 the Susquhannah Purchase, from the 18th Day of this 
 present December, until ye first Day of May Next, shall 
 sell to any person or Forrinor or Stranger any Indian 
 Corn, Rye, or AVheat to Carry Down the River out of ye 
 Limits of this Purchase." 
 
 In fact, the amount of grain then raised both in Wyo- 
 ming and Lackawanna, was so scanty and limited, that 
 within all the country now embraced by Luzerne County, 
 no TtaJf bushel measure was required until 1772. It was 
 then voted " that this Company shall at ye Cost & Charge 
 of this Company as soon as may be, send out to ye Neai- 
 est Connty town in ye Coloney's, & Procure a Sealed 
 Half Bushel & a peck measure & one Gallon pot, Quoi t 
 pott, point pot. Half point & Gill measure, for a Standard 
 and Rule for this Company to by soon as may, and al^o 
 sutable weights as ye Law Providedes, etc.'' 
 
 Nothing, how^ever, contributed so much toward estab- 
 lishing still-liouses here than the absence of a market for 
 the grain raised upon the lowlands in great abundance. 
 Whisky had a commercial and an accepted importance, 
 superior to the depreciated Continental currency, besides it 
 had the virtue of always being ready and practical in its 
 application. One gallon of whisky, being worth fifteen or 
 twenty cents, was deemed equivalent to a bushel of rye. 
 Wheat was carried in huge wagons to Easton, a distance 
 of nearly seventy miles through the wilderness, and ex- 
 changed for large iron kettles for boiling maple sap into- 
 sugar. The journey generally took a week, and the wheat 
 brought from seventy to eighty cents per bushel. The 
 kettles were hired out to persons having maple woods ;. 
 one pound of sugar per year being given for each gallon 
 held by the rented vessel. The maple sugar, run into 
 cakes of every conceivable variety and size, was worth 
 
LACKAAVANNA VALLEY. 145 
 
 Jive cents per pound, and was for a long time the only 
 kind used in the settlement. 
 
 The isolated condition of the settlers, stern and somber 
 in many respects, was not without its gleams of sunshine. 
 When the wool was gathered from the sheep, or the well- 
 dressed flax ready for the spindle, the young and bloom- 
 ino- girls, according to the custom of the people, assem- 
 bled at some point in the neighborhood, generally under 
 the shade of some tree, with their •' spinning-wheels ;" 
 where, in a single afternoon, knot after knot of yarn came 
 from their nimble hands, which afterward was woven and 
 whitened into sheets for the coming bride. Dressed in 
 red-dyed fabrics, manufactured by their own tidy hands, 
 they brought with their simple gear and glowing clieeks 
 more pleasure, and gave more artless charms to the 
 maiden not ashamed to toil in field or house, than all the 
 daubs of to-day bestow upon the thoughtless wearer. 
 
 In tlie clear, crisp edge of an evening in autumn, came 
 troops of boys from remote i)arts of the valley, on foot or 
 on horseback, as was the custom to travel from place to 
 place ; if women rode, it was behind the man upon the 
 horse's back. As tlie spinning or husking ceased, the 
 enjoyments of the evening began. The supper-table was 
 now spread by clean hands, with rye-bread, pumpkin- 
 pies, " Jonny-cake," and dough-nuts, whisky, and rich 
 milk, and when all were gathered around it, many were 
 the good wishes and sweet words whispered behind a 
 j)ile of dough-nuts or friendly bowl. Some boisterous 
 games closed up the amusements of the evening, when in 
 the soft light of an autumn moon, the "gals" — as all 
 women at that day were called — wended their way 
 slowly homeward with their beaus. 
 
 In accordance with the New England habit, Saturday 
 night, if any, was observed instead of Sunday evening. 
 With the sunset of Saturday night all labors closed until 
 the following Sunday at sundown. The youth went to 
 see his sweetheart on Saturday evening, as it then was 
 
146 HisTOJRY OF thp: 
 
 considered the regular time for courting. As "many 
 bands make light work" the older people often met for 
 a "logging bee," — a way of destroying logs, by rolling 
 them in heaps and burning them ; which was at one 
 time the only mode of getting rid of some of the finest 
 timber growing in a new country, before railroads, with 
 their iron nets caught up the products of the forest from 
 the spoiler's handspike. 
 
 The coarser grain being turned into the still-house, 
 made whisky so cheap that no " husking," "raising," or 
 "logging bee," nor any public business or social meet- 
 ings of the inhabitants took place without this abun- 
 dant product of the still. 
 
 The negative spirit of morality prevailing in all the 
 settlements as early as 1773, not coming up to the rigid 
 standard of New England proprietary, led the better class 
 of inhabitants, at a meeting of the Proprietors held at 
 Wilkes Barre, Feb'y 16, of this year, even in the midst 
 of commotion, to appoint a committee composed of 
 William Stewart, Isaac Tryp, Esq., and others " to draw 
 a plan in order to suppress vise and immorality that 
 abounds so much amongst us, and carry ye same before 
 ye next meeting."^ 
 
 Twenty-five years later, the progressive measures of 
 public morals are recorded in the following curious deed 
 of land, bearing date August 15, 1798, from Messrs. Bald- 
 win and Faulkner to Joseph Fellows : — 
 
 " Know all Men by these Presents, that we Waterman 
 Baldwin & Robert Faulkner, both of Pittstown in the 
 County of Luzerne, in the State of Pennsylvania, being 
 desirous to promote the interest and general Welfare 
 of said Pittstown, and to encourage and enable Josepli 
 Fellows of the said Town, County and State, To erect 
 a Malt-house and Beer-house, lohlch we conceloe will 
 prove of general utility to our neiglihorhood, as also in 
 
 ' Westmoreland Records, 1773. 
 
LACKAWANXA VALLEY. lit 
 
 consideration of i^//% c<^n^s to each of us paid by the 
 said Joseph FelloAVS to our full satisfaction, &c., sell to 
 said Fellows a certain piece of land for the purposes 
 just named." 
 
 In 1800, eight still or beer houses stood along the Lack- 
 awanna from its mouth to the upper border of Capoose, 
 in prosperous operation, located as follows : Asa Dimock 
 and Joseph Fellows, each had one never idle in Pittston ; 
 Mr. Hubbuts, another in Lackawanna ; Benjamin and 
 Ebenezer Slocum owned two in Slocum Hollow ; Captain 
 John Vaughn and Mr. Stevens operated one in upper 
 Providence (now Blakeley), while Stephen and Isaac 
 Tripp each ran with vigor their separate stills upon 
 Tripp's Flats ; all distilling the cheap and surplus corn and 
 rj'e into a beverage finding a ready market. Located as 
 it were almost before every man's door, these institutions, 
 looked upon with favor hy the yeonuuiry of the valley, 
 <lrew from the ripened grain the bewildering draught, used 
 fioui tlie cradle to the grave. Children put to sleep by 
 eating bread soaked in Avliisky and maple sirup, gave no 
 tiouble to mother or nurse, as they grew rapidly in stature 
 and good-nature. And yet popular as was this beverage 
 everywhere in Pennsylvania, striking tlie brightest intel- 
 lects or narcotizing the feeblest conceptions, its adultera- 
 tion was so well understood by Daniel Broadhead. com- 
 mander of Fort Pitt in 1780, who, when officially informed 
 that a requisition for 7,000 gallons of whisky had been 
 made for the troops in th ■ District of Westmoreland, 
 indulged in the hope that " we shall yet be allowed some 
 liquor which is lit to driuk.'" ' 
 
 If the morals of the community a century ago, took some 
 romantic strolls to suit the taste or conditio.i of the pio- 
 neers, they were in a great measure vindicated by the 
 necessities which instituted them. But little gold or 
 silver found its way into the settlement, bank ])ills were 
 
 ' Pa. Arcli., IT SO, p. (UL 
 
148 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 unknown, and as the Bevolutionary Scrip, treasured by 
 few, had but indifferent value, the commercial agency of 
 whisky was recognized in all the laws of trade Avitli tin- 
 same uniformity and force that the Indians in their ]M)lit- 
 ical economy acknowledged the currency of zeaioant or 
 wampum. Property changed hands, and many a settler 
 acquired a peaceful title to wild domains by the exchange 
 of a few gallons of whisky. 
 
 These still-houses were well patronized, and brought 
 incipient fortunes to their possessors, because they were 
 thus sustained by men who prized and practiced the 
 largest latitude of liberty. 
 
 In 1788, the only person recommended to the Supreme 
 Executive Council of Pennsylvania as suitable to keep a 
 house of entertainment in Pittston, was Waterman Bald- 
 win. The next year he was indicted for keeping a tip- 
 pling-house, and lined live pounds. The next person in 
 the Lackawanna Valley receiving a license from tiie 
 Governor of Pennsylvania to open a tavern^ in 1791, was 
 Johnathan Davies. 
 
 SAW AND GRIST MILLS. 
 
 Logs rolled up in their rough state into a log-house, 
 with every crevice chinked with mud, or bark peeled 
 from the tree and shaped by the aid of young saplings 
 into a wigwam-like cabin, rude and diminutive in out- 
 line, formed the only dwelling of the pioneer a century 
 ago. Ash-trees ungracefully split by the beetle and 
 wedge into thin layers, or the more readily prepared 
 bark, aiforded roofing, whose special purpose seemed to 
 be to let in every unwelcome element, without regard to 
 economy or comfort. 
 
 As the settlement expanded up the rich and narrow 
 valley, the need of a saw and grist mill became so urgent, 
 that in the summer of 1774, one of each was built by the 
 township of Pittstown below "Ye Great Falls in the 
 
LACKAWANNA YAI.LKV. 140 
 
 Lackawanna River." ^ Tlie same year, tbe}^ were both 
 purcliased by Solomon Strong, and iVom him tliey passed 
 into the hands of Garrit Brinkoikoof, July 6, 1775, They 
 were the first mills erected on tlie bank of the Lacka- 
 wanna. After doing good service to the settlement, both 
 mills were destroyed, eitlier by the spring freshets or the 
 torch of the Tories and Indians, leaving in 1778 but a sin- 
 gle dwelling unharmed along the entire Lackawanna — that 
 of Ebenezer Marcy. The waterfall here was so admirably 
 adapted to mill purposes, and the straight pine, green 
 with its foliage, running from creek to mountain, seemed 
 so easy of conquest, that Solomon Finn and Elephat L. 
 Stevens were induced to build a saw-mill at this point 
 in 1780. Down the steep bank, oppositi^ the upper end 
 of Everhart's Island in Pittston, half a mile above the 
 depot of the L. & B. R. R., tottei- the walls of a fallen 
 grist-mill, once standing upon tlie foundation of this old 
 saw-mill. The song of its jarring saw, sent far up and 
 down the wooded glen in olden times, long since has 
 ceased to tell the story of its former usefulness and 
 gloiy^. 
 
 In 1798, Isaac Trip]) and his son Stephen, built a ^mall 
 grist-mill on Leggitfs Creek, in Providence, but the dam, 
 thrice built and thrice washed away, owing to defect! \e 
 construction, proving a failure, the mill was abandoned. 
 The next grist-mill built upon this stream still farther up 
 in the Notch, was erected in 1815 by Ei)hraiui Leach. 
 
 A saw-mill was built upon the Lackawanna, in Blakele}' 
 Township in 1812, by Moses Vaughn ; in 1814, Timothy 
 Stevens, a mill-wriglit of some character, erected a grist- 
 mill above this point ; in 1816, Edmund Harford began 
 another upon one of the fairest of the upper tiibutaries 
 of the Wallenpaupack, in Wa}ne County, a few miles 
 above the ancient Lackawa settlement. 
 
 'Westmoreland Records. 1774. 
 
150 IIISTOKY OF THK 
 
 DR. JOSEPH SPEAUGE. 
 
 With the first pai-ty of adventurers coming into Wyo- 
 ming, there came no physician, because tlie invigorating 
 character of exercise and diet enjoyed by the pioneer, 
 whose daily life, enlivened, by the choir of fidling trees 
 or the advancing ax, knew the want of no medical repre- 
 sentative, until Dr. Joseph Sprauge came from Hartford 
 in 1771. 
 
 Of the yet uninhalnted forest, called in the ancient 
 records, "Ye Town of Lockaworna," whose upper 
 boundaries extended nearly to the present village of 
 Scranton, Dr. Sprauge was one of the original proprie- 
 tors. To dispose of lots or pitches to the venturing 
 woodsman, probably contributed more to bring him 
 hither than any expectation of professional eniolimients 
 or advantage in a wilderness, making, in the hands of the 
 Indian, a materia W(?(^'/c'« which no disease could gainsay 
 or resist. 
 
 His first land sales were made in May, 1772.^ Fo]- a 
 period of thirteen years, with the exception of the sum- 
 mer of 1778, Dr. Sprauge lived near the Lackawanna, 
 between Springbrook and Pittston, in hap])y seclusion, 
 fishing, hunting, and farming, until, with the other Yan- 
 kee settlers, he was driven from the valley, in 1784, by 
 the Pennymites. He died in Connecticut the same yeai'. 
 
 His widow, known throughout the settlement far and 
 near, as " Uranny Sprauge," returned to AVyoming in 
 1785, and lived in a small log-liouse then standing in 
 Wilkes Barre, on the southwest coiner of Main and Union 
 streets. She was a worthy old lady, prompt, cheeriul, 
 successful, and, at this time, the sole aceouchtur in all 
 the wide domain now embraced by Luzerne and Wyoming 
 counties. Although of great age, as late as 1810 her ob- 
 stetrical practice surpassed that of any physician in this 
 
 ' See Westmoreland Records, 1772 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 151 
 
 portion of Pciins^ylvaiiia. For attending a rase of ac- 
 couclienieiit, no matter Iioav distant the journey, Iioav long 
 or fatiguing tlie detention, this sturdy, faithful woman 
 invariably charged one dollar for services rendered, 
 although a larger fee was never turned away, if any one 
 Avas able or rash enough to offer it. 
 
 DK. WILLIAM HOOKER SMITH AND OLD FORGE. 
 
 If the Lackawanna Valley owes its earliest explora- 
 tions and settlement wholly to Moravian fugitives, who, 
 to escape persecution, fled from the banks of the Neckar 
 and the Elbe to the yet untroubled plateau above the 
 Blue Mountains, in 1742, it owes to the memory of the 
 late Dr. William Hooker Smith, whose mind flrst rec- 
 ognized and faintly developed its mineral treasures, its 
 grateful acknowledgments. 
 
 He emigrated from "ye Provin(;e of New York," ^ and 
 located in the Wilkes Barre clearing in 1772, where he 
 ])urchased land in 1774. 
 
 The Doctor's father was a Presbyterian clergyman liv- 
 ing in the city of New York, and the only minister there 
 of this denomination in 1732; and such was the feeble- 
 ness of his congregation, that he preached one-third of his 
 time at White Plains." 
 
 As a surgeon and physician, his abilities were of such 
 high order that he occupied a position in the colony, as 
 gratifying to him as it was honorable to those enjoying 
 his undoubted skill and experience. With the exception 
 of Dr. Sprauge, Dr. Smith was the only physician in 
 1772 living between Cochecton and Sunbury, a distance 
 of one hundred and flfty miles. 
 
 The formation of Luzerne County created positions of 
 trust and honor, among which was the magisterial one ;. 
 and although the doctor was a Yankee by birth, habit, 
 and education, such confidence was reposed in his capacity 
 
 ' Westmorelanrl Records, 17772. ' Hist. Col.. N. Y. 
 
152 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 and integrity, that he was chosen the first justice in the 
 fifth district of the new county. His commission, signed 
 by Benj. Franklin, tlien President of the Supreme Execu- 
 tive Council of Pennsylvania, bears date May 11, 1787. 
 
 In 1779, he marched with the troops under General Sul- 
 livan into the Indian country along the upper waters of 
 the Susquehanna, and by his cheerfulness and example 
 taught the soldiers to endure their hardships and fatigues, 
 taking himself an earnest part in that memorable expedi- 
 tion which brought such relief to Wyoming and such 
 glory to the American arms. 
 
 Nor did Congress, prompted by noble impulses, forget 
 his services as acting surgeon in the army, when, in 1838, 
 $2,400 was voted to his heirs. 
 
 That his mind, active, keen, and read3^ looked beyond 
 the ordinary conceptions of his day, is shown by his pur- 
 chased right, in 1791, to dig iron ore and stone coal in 
 Pittston, long before the character of coal as a heating 
 agent was understood, and the same year that the hunter 
 Gunther accidentally discovered "black-stones" on the 
 broad. Bear Mountain nine miles from Maucli Chunk. 
 
 These purchases, attracting no other notice than general 
 ridicule, were made in Exeter, Plymouth, Pittston, Provi- 
 dence, and Wilkes Barre, between 1791-8. The first was 
 made July 1, 1791, of Mr. Scot, of Pittston, who, for the 
 sum of five shillings, Pennsylvania money, sold "one 
 half of any minerals, ore of iron, or other metal which he, 
 the said Smith, or his heirs, or assighns, may discover on 
 the hilly lands of the said John Scot by tlie red spring." ' 
 
 Old Forge derived its name from Dr. Smith, who, after 
 his return from Sullivan's expedition, located himself per- 
 manently here on the rocky edge of the Susquehanna, 
 beside the sycamore and oak, where first in the valley the 
 sound of the trip-hammer reverberated, or mingled with 
 the hoarse babblings of its water. The forge was erected 
 
 ' Luzerne County Records. 
 
l.ACKAWAXXA VAI.LEr. 153 
 
 by Dr. Smith and James Sutton in the spi-ing of 1789, for 
 converting ore into iron. It stood immediately below the 
 falls or rapids in the stream, about two miles above its 
 mouth, and not far from the reputed location of the silver 
 mine before spoken of. Before the erection of these iron- 
 works none existed in Westmoreland except those in New- 
 port, operating in 1777. 
 
 "My recollections of Pittston and Old Forge," wrote 
 the late Hon. Charles Miner, in a letter to the writer, twelve 
 3' ears ago, "are all of the most cheerful character. I 
 have, at the old tavern, on the bank of the river above 
 the ferry, seen the son of Capt. Dethic Hewit, the gallant 
 old fellow, who, in the battle, when told, ' See, Capt. 
 Hewit, the left wing has given away, and the Indians are 
 upon us ; shall we retreat V answered to his negro drum- 
 mer. Skittish Pomp, 'No, I'll see them damned hrst,' and 
 fell. His son was at the house, and sang with the spirit 
 his father fought — 
 
 " ' So sweetly the horn 
 
 Called me up in the morn,' &c., &c. 
 
 " But to the Forge. 
 
 "The heaps of charcoal and bog ore, half a dozen New 
 Jersey firemen at the furnace ! What life ! What clat- 
 ter ! And then at the mansion, on the hill, might be seen 
 the owner. Dr. Wm. Hooker Smith, now nearly super- 
 annuated, Avho, in his day, was the great physician of the 
 valley during the war, and if, perchance, the day was 
 fine, and his family on the parterre, you might see his 
 daugliters, unsurpassed in beauty and grace, whose every 
 movement was harmony that Avould add a charm to the 
 proudest city mansion." 
 
 The doctor was a plain, practical man, a firm adheivnt 
 of the theory of medicine as taught and practiced by his 
 sturdy ancestors a century ago. He was an unwavering 
 phlebotomist. Armed with huge saddle-bags rattling with 
 gallipots and vials and thirsty lance, he sallied forth on 
 
154 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 horseback over tlie rough country calling for his services^ 
 and many were the cures issuing from the unloosed vein. 
 No matter what the nature or location of the disease, 
 how strong or slight the assailing pain, bleeding promptly 
 and largely, with a s} stem of diet, drink, and i-est, was 
 enforced on the patient with an earnestness and success 
 that gave him a wide-spread reputation as a physician. 
 
 The forge prospered for years — two fires and a single 
 trip-hammer manufacturing a considerable amount of iron, 
 which was floated down the Susquehanna in Durham 
 boats and large canoes. The impure quality and small 
 quantity of ore found and wrought into iron, with 
 knowledge and machinery alike defective ; the labor and 
 expense of smelting the raw material into ready iron in 
 less demand down the Susquehanna, where forges and 
 furnaces began to blaze ; the natural infirmities of age, as 
 well as the rival forge of Slocum's, at Slocum Hollow, all 
 ultimately disarmed Old Forge of its fire and trip-ham- 
 mer. 
 
 After leaving his forge, he removed up the Susquehan- 
 na, near Tunkhannock, where, full of years, honor, and 
 usefulness, he died in 1815, among his ft-iends, at the gocd 
 old age of 91. 
 
 THE SIGJNAL TREE. 
 
 As the emigrant from Connecticut found himself, after a 
 long journey, on one of the peaks of the Moosic Moun- 
 tain, five miles northeast from Scranton, overlooking the 
 fertile plain of Wyoming, twenty miles aw^ay, he could 
 discover, by the naked eye, when the day was clear, 
 looming up from the surrounding trees, covering the moun- 
 tains northwest of Wyoming, a pine-tree, majestic in its 
 height, its trunk shorn of its limbs almost to its very top, 
 ■ resembling, from the marked umbrel spread of its foliage, 
 a great umbrella, with the handle largely disproportioned. 
 This is the tree known as the signal tree. Over the deep 
 foliage of trees surrounding, this one floats with an air of 
 
LACKAWANNA VAI-LKY. IT'S 
 
 a monarch, catching, as the sun sinks away in the west, 
 the latest glimpse of its rays. " Tiittle's Creek," famous 
 for its Pennymite history and local interest, leads its 
 sluggish way through Kingston, from which this grand 
 pitch-pine is plainly visible. Tradition tells that at the 
 time of the battle, an Indian was stationed in the top of 
 the tree, so that when the defeat of the ^vhites was an- 
 nounced by the louder peals of the war-whoop, he com- 
 menced to cut off the limbs of the tree, and as this could 
 be seen many miles from every diivctioii, parties of In- 
 dians were thus informed to watch the i)aths leading out 
 of the valley and prevent the escape of the fugitives. 
 This, however, is mere tradition. A more reasonable in- 
 terpretation of the matter is this : Some years ago one of 
 the knots of this tree was removed, and from the con- 
 centric rings or yearly growths indicatt'd by them, the 
 lopping of the limbs was dated back to 1762— the first 
 }ear a settlement was commenced here by the whites— 
 thus showing quite clearly that the tree had been trimmed 
 previous to the massacre, and that it had been used by the 
 emigrating parties from Connecticut as a guiding tree to 
 the Wyoming lands, where a colony, with no roads but 
 the warriors' pathway, and but little knowledge of a re- 
 liable character of the locality of the new country, crossed 
 the frowning mountains, mostly on foot, and made a per- 
 manent residence in 1769. 
 
 Evidence of fracture, made by the ax or hatciiet, a 
 century ago, upon the limbs, has been so obliterated by 
 intervening years, that the indifferent and unskilled ob- 
 server looks in vain for the cause of the absent limbs. 
 
 THE WYOMING MASSACKK. 
 
 The summer of 1778, momentous in the history of th(> 
 Lackawanna Valley, witnessed either the slaughter, ca])- 
 ture, or flight of every white person within its border. 
 There is no data to determiiK^ \\n' ••xact population of 
 
156 III.-TORY OF THE 
 
 the Lackawanna portion of the Wyoming pc ssessions 
 in 1774. Westmoreland, embracing all the settlements 
 on the Susquehanna from Athens to Wyoming, and from 
 Wallenpaupack to the mouth of the Lackawanna, had 
 about 2,300 inhabitants at this time. Of this number, 
 Wyoming, with its broad productive acres, had a large 
 proportion, because of the greater protection of its shelter- 
 ing block-houses. Seventy-five or about one hundred 
 persons, probably enumerated the whole united popula- 
 tion of the Lackawanna Valley at the commencement of 
 the American Revolution. These shared in the deliber- 
 ations and dangers of their brethren along the Susque- 
 hanna. 
 
 Although the people of Connecticut met at Hartford in 
 September, 1774, to devise measures of resistance to 
 British wrong, her j^oung colony at Wyoming, just formed 
 into the town of Westmoreland, absorbed with the Pio- 
 A'incial conflict, now interrupted and then resumed, had 
 <!one notliiiig in the way of building forts, or preparing 
 for the bloodier wrestle for independence, until it liad 
 actually begun. At a toAvn meeting, ''legally warned 
 and held in Westmoreland, Wilkes Barre district, Aug. 
 *24th, 1776," it was unanimously voted that the people 
 erect forts in Hanover, Plymouth, Wilkes Barre, and 
 Pittston at once, at points deemed most judicious by the 
 military committee, "without either fee or reAvard from 
 ye town." ^ 
 
 This was done so generally, that before the battle on 
 Abraham's Plains, July 3, 1778, there stood eight forts in 
 Wyoming Valley, constructed principally of logs. 
 
 On the high bank of the river, nearly opposite Pittston, 
 where a large spring of water emerges from the plain, 
 there had settled a Tory named Wintermoot, who, after 
 clearing sufficient land, erected a rude stockade or fort, 
 known as Wintermoof s Fort. Although this simple fact 
 
 ' Westmoreland Records. 
 
LACKAWANNA VAI-LEV. 157 
 
 afforded no evidence of Tory proclivities, its erection at 
 this point, at this exciting period, justly aroused the sus- 
 picions of the loyal element in the neighborhood, and led 
 to the erection of another a mile above Wintermoot's, 
 where lived the acknowledged patriotic; families of the 
 Hardings and Jenkinses. It stood in tlie narrow defile in 
 the mountain nearly opposite CanipbelTs Ledge, a mile 
 above the mouth of the Lackawanna. 
 
 To meet some of the demands of war, Congress called 
 upon Connecticut, in August, 1776, to raise two companies 
 of eighty-four men each for the defense of Westmoreland. 
 Wyoming promptly furnished them. No sooner, however, 
 was the number complete, than Congress, itself in jeop- 
 ardy, and yet unremitting in its efforts to raise troops, 
 saw with concern the critical and gieyter needs of the 
 country elsewhere. The American army, of about 14.000 
 men, under General Washington, had been driven from 
 Long Island and New York by the British army, iiumber- 
 ing 25,000. Forts Washington and Lee, on the Hud- 
 son, had fallen. Witli only 3,000 brave men. General 
 Washington retreated to Newark, and was driven from 
 camp to camp with his half-fed, ill-clothed, yet unswerv- 
 ing soldiers, crossing the Delaware as the victorious 
 British approached Philadelphia. At this dark moment 
 in the nation's history. Congress, which had hastily ad- 
 journed the same day from Philadelphia to Baltimore, 
 hardly appreciating the perils menacing Wyoming, or- 
 dered the two companies raised for its defense to join 
 the commander-in-chief ^'"with all possible expedition.^^ 
 This being done, Wyoming was left comparatively de- 
 fenseless. 
 
 Events of vast importance began to develop in many 
 parts of the country, and excite apprehension in the mind 
 of the patriot. Burgoyne, with victorious trooyjs, was 
 sweeping down from the Canadian frontier, accompanied 
 by his red and white skinned auxiliaries, ready for pillage 
 or revenge. Ticonderoga had fallen into his hands, and 
 
158 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 while General Howe was crowding up vi(;tory after vic- 
 tory in New York and New Jersey, the Indians living 
 along the upper branches of the Susquehanna and Che- 
 nango, restless and joyous with the hope held, out by 
 Brant and Butler of regaining their lost Wyoming, be- 
 came unanimous and sanguinary allies. Parties of them 
 were seen, here and there, emerging from the mountain 
 forest into the valley, shedding no blood, destroying no 
 property, but securing a captive at every possible oppor- 
 tunity. The whole settlement saw and felt the coming 
 danger. Scouting parties of bold, experienced woodmen, 
 were sent out daily from the valley to watch the three 
 great war-paths radiating from it, while drillings or train- 
 ings were held every fourteen daj^s, when the old and 
 young, the feeble and the strong, drilled side by side in 
 tlieir country's service ; expecting every bark of the 
 watch-dog, or click of the rifle, to give note of the 
 ^ipproach of the exasperated bands. 
 
 The colony, now (1778) nine years old, liad, out of its total 
 ])opulation of about 2.000 persons, 168 in the main army 
 under General Washington, Avlien tlie meditated attack 
 on Wyoming came to the knowledge of the inliabitants. 
 A large body of Indians and Tories had assem])led at 
 Niagara and at Tioga for this purpose ; the Indians being 
 under the command of the famous chief of mixed blood, 
 named Brant, or Gl-en-gioahtoh.' The time of attack was 
 ]>i'obably suggested by the Tories expelled from AV3^oming, 
 M'ishing for the bloodiest revenge upon the settlement, 
 known to be almost without soldiers or tire-arms. 
 
 From the lower Susquehanna, the Delaware, the far-off 
 Lackawaxen, from the few low wigwams serving the wild 
 men o\\ i\u- Lackawanna, the Indians were summoned by 
 the Great Chieftain to Oh-na-gua-ga, to join the enter- 
 prise, while tlie Tories throughout Westmoreland simul- 
 taneously repaii'ed to the enemy. 
 
 ' " He who goes in the smoke." — Col. Stone. 
 
LACKAWANNA VAULKY. 159 
 
 Early in the spring of 1778, Conuicss had heen apprised 
 Ty General Schuyler of the threatened attack, but so 
 engaged was this body in this all-absorbing struggle for 
 national existence, that nothing was, or could be done for 
 the safety of Wyoming until March 16, 1778, when it was 
 resolved "that one full conipan}' of foot be raised" here 
 for its defense. This really furnished no assistance, as 
 the men were compelled "to find their arms, accoutre- 
 ments, and blankets" from the exhausted resources of 
 the interior. 
 
 Congress has been censured by the historian in no flat- 
 tering terms, for not recalling to Wyoming the absent 
 soldiers under Captains Durkee and Ransom ; but it must 
 be remembered that the remnant of Washington's army 
 was i-etreatiiig before the superior and exulting forces of 
 the British, and had not its exhausted strength been 
 invigorated sufficiently by re-cnfoi-ceraents to clieck and 
 drive l)ack the invaders, it is impossible to estimate the 
 consequences to the countiy to-da}'. Independence would 
 liave been ivtarded, and possibly postponed forever. 
 
 In May, 1778, the first life was taken in Westmoreland, 
 near Tunkhannock, by the Indians, who each day became 
 moi'e defiant and numerous. A day or two afterward, a 
 scouting party of six persons were fired upon, a few miles 
 farther down the river, by a body of savages lurking 
 along the war-path ; two whites were wounded, and one 
 fatally, when, springing into their canoe, they escaped 
 down the Susquehanna, Alarm spi-ead throughout the 
 entire settlement. Persons living along tlie Lackawanna 
 at Capoose, apparently remote from danger reaching even 
 the outer towns, either deserted their homes and sought 
 protection in the forts, or fled to the parent State for 
 greater security. The terror of the inhabitants, already 
 wrought up to a fearful pitch, was still increased by an 
 event simple in its character, yet tragic in its meaning. 
 
 "Two Indians, formerly residents of Wyoming, and 
 acquainted with the pe()])le, came down with their sipiaws 
 
160 HISTORY or THE 
 
 on a visit, professing warm friendship; but suspicions 
 existed that they were spies, and directions were given 
 that they should be carefully watched. An old compan- 
 ion of one of them, with more than Indian cunning, pi'o- 
 fessing his attachment to the natives, gave his visitor 
 drink after drink of his favorite rum, when in the con- 
 fidence and the fullness of his maudlin heart, he avowed 
 that his people were prepared to cut off the settlement ;, 
 the attack to be made soon, and that they had comedown 
 to see and report how things were. The squaws were 
 dismissed, but the two Indians were arrested and confin(^d 
 in Forty Fort." ^ 
 
 Men heard this intelligence with lips compressed and 
 determined, and at once prepared to receive those with 
 whom they were so soon to converse from the throyt 
 of the musket. Every instrument of death was examined 
 and fitted for immediate use. Guns were repaired and 
 fitted with new fiints, bayonets were sharpened, ballets 
 molded, powder made and distributed, and every man 
 and boy able to shoulder a musket, fell into the ranks of 
 a new militia company formed by Captain Dethic Ilewit, 
 or joined the daily train-bands, expecting the latest mes- 
 senger to herald the approach of the invaders. Two de- 
 serters from the British army, one by the name of Pike, 
 from Canada, and the other a sergeant named Boyd, from 
 Boston, Miner relates, " were particularly useful in train- 
 ing the militia." 
 
 While these preparations were being made along the 
 excited valley, beyond succor offered by Connecticut, 
 and withheld by Pennsylvania, the Indians, Tories, and 
 British, darkened the waters of the Susquehanna at 
 Ta-hi-o-ga with a fleet of rafts, river-boats, and canoes,, 
 preparatory to a descent upon the " Large Plains." 
 
 In all the wide expanse of territory, within the limits 
 of Westmoreland — about seventy miles square — there was 
 
 ' Minei's History. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKY. 161 
 
 no larger field-piece than the old flint musket, with the 
 exception of a single cannon at the Wilkes Barre Fort. 
 This was a four-pounder, of no use, as no suitable lialls 
 were in the settlement, and had been brought into the 
 colony merely for an alarm-gun in the Yankee and Pt n- 
 nymite war. The force of the Americans, without appio- 
 priate arms, discipline, or strength, amounted to about 
 four hundred persons, to resist the attack of nearly four 
 times their number. 
 
 The enemy, numbering about four hundred British 
 provincials, six or seven hundred Seneca and Mohawk 
 Indians, in paint and war-costume, familiar with every 
 part of Wyoming, a large body of Tories gathered from 
 afar, commanded by ColonelJohn Butler, a British officer, 
 and accompanied by the notorious Brant, an Iroquois 
 chief, left their rendezvous on Tioga River, descended 
 the Susquehanna below the mouth of Bowman's Creek, 
 near Tunkhannock, about twenty miles above the head 
 of the Valley of Wyoming, where they landed on the 
 west bank of the river. Here, in a deep, sharp curve 
 in the river, they moored their boats, marching across a 
 rugged spur of the mountain, thus shortening the distance 
 a number of miles. On the 30th of June, just at the edge 
 of the evening, they arrived on the western mountain, a 
 little distance above the Tory fort of Wintermoot's. This 
 fort, standing about one mile below Fort Jenkins, prob- 
 ably owed its inception to some ulterior design of the 
 British and Tories, whom it served so well. From Fort 
 Jenkins, eight persons having neither notice nor suspicion 
 of the proximity of the enemy, had gone up the valley 
 into Exeter to work upon their farms, a little distance 
 from the fort, taking with them their trusty and ever- 
 attending weapons of defense, with their agricultural 
 utensils. WHiile unsuspectingly engaged at their work, 
 which they were about closing for the day, they were 
 surrounded by a portion of the invading army, with a 
 view of making them prisoners, so that the British But- 
 
162 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 ler might learn the actual state and strength of the Wyo- 
 ming people. 
 
 Surprised but not intimidated by the fearful odds 
 against them, they chose to die by the bullet rather than 
 risk the hatchet or the torturing scalping knife brandished 
 before them. They fought for a short time, killing five 
 of the enemy, three Tories and two Indians, when four 
 of their own number fell, and were hacked into shreds 
 by the exasperated savages ; three were taken alive, 
 while a single boy leaped into the river, and, aided by 
 the gray twilight of evening, was enabled to escape, amid 
 a hundred pursuing bullets. One of the slain was a son 
 of the barbarous Queen Esther, who accompanied the 
 expedition Avith her tribe, and whose cruelties at the 
 bloody rock, inspired with greater atrocity from the recent 
 loss of her offspring, forever connects her name with 
 infamy. 
 
 Two Indians who were watching the mutilated remains 
 of the dead, for the purpose of killing or capturing the 
 friends who might seek the bodies at night, were shot by 
 Zebulon Marcy, from the Lackawanna side of the river. 
 For several years, Mr. Marcy was hunted and watched by 
 a brother of one of the Indians swearing that he would 
 have revenge.^ Although Marcy' s house was the onl}^ 
 one left standing along the Lackawanna in 1778, from 
 some unexplained Indian freak, he was never harmed by 
 them . 
 
 Foit Jenkins, thus bereft of its protectors, capitulated 
 the same evening to Captain Caldwell, while the united 
 forces of Butler and Brant bivouacked at the friendly 
 Tory quarters of Fort Wintermoot. No sooner did the 
 dull report of musketry, echoing from under Campbell's 
 Ledge down the valley, denote the presence of the foe, 
 than the real critical position of the settlement at the 
 mercy of the coming wave, was appreciated in all its 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 163 
 
 sternness. Men not accustomed to sconr the woods for 
 miles in the vicinity of their liomes to discover Indian 
 trails, and give warning to their neighbors and families of 
 suspicious approach or retreat, would have shrunk from 
 the fierce-coming struggle with dismay ; but these self- 
 reliant men left the scythe in the swath, the plow in the 
 furrow, and, gathering up the weak and weeping ones, 
 hurried them to Forty Fort. This fort stood on the west 
 bank of the river, below Monockonock Island, and three 
 miles above Wyoming Fort, where, in a short time, were 
 collected the principal forces of Wyoming Valley, con- 
 sisting of three hundred and sixty-eight men, very indif- 
 ferently armed and equipped. On the Lackawanna side 
 of the river, at Pittston, nearly opposite Wintermoot' s, 
 Fort Brown had been erected ; this was garrisoned by 
 the settlers from the lower portion of the Lackawanna 
 and Pittston, numbering about forty men, under the com- 
 mand of Captain Blancliard. Another company was at 
 (Jiipoose. 
 
 By the aid of spies, full of stratagem and daring, co:i- 
 tinnally reconnoitering the unharvested plains upon 
 either side of the river, Col. Jolin Butler learned how 
 completely at his mercy was the entire valley, unless re- 
 enforcements lioped for by the Connecticut jieople, and 
 expected from the main army, should arrive and drive 
 back his mongrel horde. Already Avere the two upper 
 forts in his possession, with all the canoes and means of 
 crossing the river, but not wishing to bring his Indians 
 into the excitement of a general battle, where, becoming 
 infuriated and ungovernable alter a victory, scenes of 
 torture and bloodshed might be enacted too revolting to 
 witness, and yet too general and wide-spread to check, he 
 sent one of the prisoners taken in Exeter to Col. Zebulon 
 Butler, on the morning of the day of battle, accompanied 
 by a Tory and an Indian, demanding the immediate sur- 
 render, not only of the fort he commanded, but of all 
 others in the valley, with all the public jiroperty, as well 
 
164 HISTORY OF THK 
 
 as the militia coiripany of C'apt. Hewit, as prisoners of 
 war. It can be said to his credit that lie also suggested 
 to the commander of Forty Fort the propriety of destroy- 
 ing all intoxicating drinJcs, provided these considerat(.' 
 terms were rejected; "for," said the British Butlei-. 
 "drunken savages can't be controlled." The acceptance 
 of these apparently exacting, but really liberal terms, was 
 urged by some, in hopes that the tide of slaughter might 
 be stayed; the majority opposed it, and the messengt r 
 was sent away with this decision. 
 
 A council of war was immediately held in the foit. 
 While a few hoped that the absent military companies 
 would arrive, and furnish re-enforcements able to offer 
 battle and expel the enemy from AVyoming, if a few days 
 intervened ; others more rash and impulsive replied that 
 the force concentrated in the fort could march out upon 
 the plains, where the enemy Avere encamped, and, being 
 familiar with the ground, could surprise and possibly 
 capture them ; that many of their homes already lit by 
 the torch, their crops destroyed — that the murder of the 
 Hardings at Fort Jenkins was but the prelude to the 
 drama about to redden Wyoming, unless interrupted by 
 prompt offensive measures, and that tJiey were anxious 
 and determined to tight. Unfortunately this counsel pre- 
 vailed. 
 
 With the colonial development in Westmoreland had 
 grown the love of rum} So fixed, so general, in fact, had 
 become this pernicious and unmanning habit — so essential 
 was whisky regarded in its sanative and conunercial 
 aspect, that one of the first buildings of a public character 
 erected in the colony, after a stockade or fort, was a still 
 or brew house. The almost universal custom of drinking 
 prevailed at this time to an alarming extent, not only 
 throughout the Lackawanna and Wyoming settlements, 
 but along the whole frontii^r ol upper Pennsylvania. 
 
 ' In 1783 the Pennsylvania troops stationed at Wyoming were supplied with "2^ 
 Gill of Liquor" to one pound of bread. — Pennsylvania Arcliives, 1783, p. 118. 
 
I.ACKAWAXXA VALLKY. 165 
 
 "It being known that among tlie stoivs there was a 
 quantity of whisky, Col. Butler desired it might be de- 
 stroyed, for he feared if the Indians became intoxicated he 
 could not restrain them. The barrels were rolled to the 
 bank, the heads knocked in, and the liquor emptied into 
 the river.'" ^ 
 
 The venerable and yet intelligent Mrs. Deborah Bedford, 
 one of the last survivors of the W3'oming massacre, in- 
 formed the writer in 1857 tliat, ''in accordance with the 
 request of Col. Butler, all the liquor in the fort was rolled 
 out and emptied into the Susquehanna, with the excep- 
 tion of a single barrel of whisk}-, spared for medicinal 
 purposes. The head of this was knocked in during the 
 council of war;'' and as "the debates are said to have 
 been conducted with much warmth and animation,"^ it 
 is more than possible that the inspiring influence of this 
 barrel contributed, to a certain extent, toward the result 
 of the deliberations. '' A liaicl fight was expected up the 
 valley," continued the reliable lady, from whose young, 
 anxious eye nothing escaped in the fort, "and as the 
 drum and flf(:» struck up an animating air, while the 
 soldiers marched out the fort one by one, a gourd-shell, 
 floating in the inviting beverage, was filled, and passed to 
 each comrade, and drank." 
 
 Motives, alike natural and delicate, have hitherto suj)- 
 pressed evidence showing that if some of the soldiers, 
 brave as they might have been, and were, had not "taken 
 a little too much," ^ their ideas of their own strength were 
 singularly confused and exalted. However pleasant it 
 might be to pass by this great error of the times — an error 
 which rendered certain and merciless the fate of AVyoming 
 — with the same studied silence and charity observed by 
 others, justice to the living, uttering no censure, and to 
 the dead, needino; no defense, demands a [niiliful record. 
 
 Miner's History of Wyoming, p. T.Vl. 
 'Chapman's History of Wyoming, p. 122. = Peclvs Wyoming, pp. 364- 
 
166 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Col. George Dorraiice, an officer whose prudent counsels 
 to remain in the fort were disregarded, was taunted with 
 cowardice because of his counter-advice against this death- 
 march up the valley. 
 
 The forces of Brant and Col. John Butler were at 
 Wintermoot' s Fort, opposite Pittston. To silently reach 
 this point, and, protected by the large pine-trees shelter- 
 ing the plain, spring on the enemy unawares, was the 
 plan finally adopted. The little band, on the afternoon 
 of the 3d of July, numbering about 350 of the sturdiest 
 remaining settlers, under the command of Colonel Zebulon 
 Butler, left the fort amid the prayers of dear and devoted 
 kindred. Old men, whose hands were tremulous and 
 unsteady ; young ones, unskilled in years — marched 
 side by side to the place of conflict. So great the emer- 
 gency at this time, so much to be won or lost by the 
 coming battle, that none remained in the fort save women 
 and children. Rapidly up along the west bank of the 
 river, Col. Z. Butler cautiously led his forces within half 
 a mile of Wintermoot' s. Here he halted a few minutes, 
 and sent forward two volunteers to reconnoiter the position 
 and strength of the enemy ; these were fired upon by the 
 opposing scouts, who, like the main body of the British, 
 were not only apprised by Indian runners of the depait- 
 ure of the Yankees from Forty Fort, but were prepared 
 to give them a murderous welcome. As the Americans 
 approached the British soldiers and painted savages, 
 Wintermoot' s Fort, which had served its intended mis- 
 chievous purpose, was set on fire by the Tories for reasons 
 unknown. The British colonel promptl}^ formed liis 
 forces into line of battle ; the Provincials and Tories bt-ing 
 placed in front toward the river, while the morass at the 
 right concealed vast numbers of the dusky warriors under 
 Brant and the drunken Queen. 
 
 Among the tall pines unmelted from the plain, Colonel 
 Zebulon Butler placed his men so as better to resist the 
 first attack of the enemy, preparing to begin the strife. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKY. 167 
 
 Colonels Butler and Dormnce each urged the soldiers to 
 meet the first shock with firmness, as their own lives and 
 homes depended on the issue. Hardly had the words 
 laiig along the line, before the bullets of the enemy, pour- 
 ing in from a thousand muskets, began to thin the ranks 
 of the Connecticut party. 
 
 " About four in the afternoon the battle began ; Col. Z. 
 Butler ordered his men to fire, and at each discharge to 
 advance a step. Along the whole line the discharges 
 were rapid and steady. It was evident, on the more open 
 ground the Yankees were doing most execution. As our 
 men advanced, pouring in their platoon fires with great 
 vivacity, the British line gave way, in spite of all their 
 officers' efforts to prevent it. The Indian flanking party 
 on our right, kept up from their liiding-places a galling 
 tire. Lieut. Daniel Gore received a ball through the 
 left arm. 'Captain Durkee,' said he, 'look sharp for the 
 Indians in those bushes.' Captain D. stepped to the 
 bank to look, prepai'atory to making a charge and dis- 
 hjdging them, when he fell. On the British Butler's right, 
 liis Indian warriors were sharply engaged. They seemed 
 to be divided into six bands, for a yell would be raised at 
 one end of the line, taken up, and carried through, six 
 distinct bodies appearing at each time to repeat the cry. 
 As the battle waxed warmer, that fearful yell was renewed 
 again and again, with more and more spirit. It appeared 
 to be at once their animating shout, and their signal of 
 communication. As several fell near Col. Dorrance, one 
 of his men gave way ; ' Stand up to your work, sir,' said 
 he, firmly but coolly, and the soldier resumed his place. 
 
 "For half an hour a hot fire had been given and sus- 
 tained, when the vastly superior numbers of the enemy 
 began to develop its power. The Indians had thrown into 
 the swamp a large force, which now completely outflanked 
 our left. It was impossible it should be otherwise i that 
 wing was thrown into confusion. Col. Dennison gave 
 orders that the company of Whittlesey should wheel back. 
 
168 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 SO as to form an angle with the main line, and thus pre- 
 sent his front instead of flank, to the enem}-. The diffi- 
 culty of performing evolutions, by the bravest militia, oir 
 the field, under a hot fire, is well known. On the attempt 
 the savages rushed in with horrid yells. Some had mis- 
 taken the order to fall l)ack^ as one to retreat^ and that 
 word, that fatal word, ran along the line. Utter confu- 
 sion now prevailed on the I'eft. Seeing the disorder, and 
 his own men beginning to give way, Col. Z. Butler threw 
 himself between the fires of the opposing ranks, and rode 
 up and down the line in the most reckless exposure. 
 
 " 'Don't leave me, my children, and the victory is 
 ours,' But it was too late." ' 
 
 When it was seen that defeat had come, the confusion 
 became general. Some fought bravely in the hopeless 
 conflict, and fell upon the battle-ground bayonet-pierced ; 
 others fled in wild disorder down the valley toward 
 Forty Fort or Wilkes Barre without their guns, pursued 
 by Indians whose belts were soon reeking with warm 
 scalps. 
 
 " A portion of the Indians' flanking party pushed for- 
 ward in the rear of the Connecticut line, to cut ofi" retreat 
 from Forty Fort, and then pressed the retreating army 
 toward the river. Monockasy Island aff'ording the only 
 hope of crossing, the stream of flight flowed in that direc- 
 tion through fields of grain." ^ The Tories, more vindic- 
 tive and ferocious if possible than the red-men, hastened 
 after the fugitives. 
 
 Mr. Carey and Judge Hollenback were standing side 
 by side when the victorious forces of the enemy appeared 
 in view ; Carey ran with the speed of a deer, while 
 Hollenback, throwing away his gun and stripping to the 
 waist, followed him toward Wilkes Barre. Being thus 
 divested of his clothing he was enabled to leave his 
 weaker comrade in the rear, swam the river in safety, and 
 
 ' Miner. ' Ibid. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 169 
 
 was the first to tell the tale of defeat to the village of 
 Wilkes Barre, then consisting of twenty-three houses. 
 Carey fled to the I'iver, where, under its deep-worn bank 
 he found shelter, as he sank too exhausted to swim, still 
 retaining his musket. He heard the quick footsteps of 
 the fugitives, and as they were plunging in the water to 
 reach Pittston Fort, saw the swift-sent tomahawk over- 
 take many a neighbor sti'uggling in the river in vain. 
 Upon the bank below him, three soldiers were clubbed to 
 death by the Tories. His own musket he grasped still 
 more firmly, determined to sell his life as dearly as possi- 
 ble, if require! ; escaping detection, he swam the river at 
 night and escaped. 
 
 ^^e^:^^^fe "s^"' 
 
 
 MONOOAST ISLAND. FROM THE EAST BANK OP THE SL'SQITEHANNA. 
 
 Of the cruelties practiced ]\y the Tories and Indians 
 after the battle, one instance will suffice to illustrate. A 
 little below the battle-ground there lay, and still lies, in 
 the divided waters of the Susquehanna, an island green 
 with Avillows and wild grass, called "Monockonock 
 Island." As the path down the valley swarmed with 
 warriors, few of the fleeing settlers pursued it, but 
 scattered through the fields. Others fled to this island 
 for refuge. This was perceived by the Tories, ruthless in 
 pursuit, who reaching the island deliberately wiped their 
 guns dry to finish the murderous drama. " One of them, 
 with his loaded gun, soon passed close by one of these 
 men who lay concealed from his view, and was immedi- 
 ately recognized by him to be the brother of his com- 
 
170 
 
 HISTORY or THE 
 
 panion who was concealed near him, but who being a 
 Tory, had joined the enemy. He passed slowly along, 
 carefully examining every covert, and directly perceived 
 his brother in his place of concealment. He suddenly 
 stopped and said, ' So it is you, is it V His brother, finding 
 that he was discovered, immediately came forward a few 
 steps, and falling on his knees, begged him to spare his life, 
 promising him to live with him ajid serve him, and even 
 to be his slave as long as he lived, if he would only spare 
 
 his life. ' All this is 
 mighty good,'' re- 
 plied the savage- 
 hearted brother of 
 the supplicating man, 
 ' hut you are a d — d, 
 reheV and deliber- 
 ately presenting his 
 rifie, shot him dead 
 on the spot."^ The 
 name of the fratricide 
 Tory was John Pen- 
 cil, and the miserable 
 wretch, shunned by 
 the Indians whom he accompanied to Canada, was after- 
 ward killed and devoured in the Canadian forest by 
 wolves.^ Such was the spirit of the Wyoming massacre, 
 and such was the doom of the fratricide. 
 
 After the pursuit of the fugitives had ceased, scenes of 
 torture began. Opposite the mouth of the Lackawanna, 
 and ahnost under the shadows of "Campbell's Ledge," 
 a band of Indians, wild with exultation, had gathered their 
 prisoners in a circle, stripped of their clothing, and with 
 sharpened spears drove them into the flames of a large 
 fire, amidst their agonizing cries and the yells of the infuri- 
 ated savages. On the battle-ground, was cleft each seal] >• 
 
 SLOODT KOCK. 
 
 Chapman's History, pp. 12-78. * See Dr. Peck's Wyoming, pp. .37-15. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKY. 171 
 
 of the dying and the dead, before tlie bloody work was 
 carried to "Bloody Rock." ''This celebrated rock is 
 situated east of a direct line Ix.'tween the monument and 
 the site of Fort Wintermoot, on tlie brow^ of the high 
 steep bank which is supposed to have been tli(^ ancient 
 bank of the river. The rock- is a bowlder, and it is a 
 sort of conglomerate, principally composed of quartz."* 
 It formerly rose some two feet above the earth but 
 the constant attrition of the frequent visitor desir- 
 ing a fragment of the interesting bowlder to carry 
 away as a relic, has scalped or shorn it almost even 
 with the ground. Around the rock, standing distinctly 
 out on the plain, othervdse smooth and rockless, some 
 eighteen of the prisoners who had been taken under 
 the solemn promise of quarter, were collected and sur- 
 rounded by a ring of warriors under the command of 
 Queen Esther. In the battle she had led her column with 
 more than Indian bravery, and now around the fatal ring 
 was she to avenge the loss of her first-born, slain in the 
 ("ucounter with the settlers, at tlie head of the valley, a 
 day or two before. Swinging the war-club or the merci- 
 less hatchet, she walked around the dusky ring, and, as 
 suited her whim, dashed out the brains of the unresisting 
 prisoners. Two only escaped by superhuman efforts. The 
 bodies of fourteen oi- fifteen were afterward found around 
 this rock, scalped and shockingly mangled. Nine more 
 were found in a similar circle some distance above.- 
 About 160 of the Connecticut people perished in the 
 battle and massacre ; 140 escaped. The surviving settlers 
 tied toward the Delaware. Before them frowned the 
 foodless forest, since known as the " Shades of Death ;" 
 behind, save the low wail of the scattered fugitives, 
 clambering up the mountain side by the light of tlieii' burn- 
 ing homes, all was silence and desolation.' The forest- 
 dwellers had cruelly revenged their wrongs ; the Tory by 
 
 ' P.eU'8 Wyommg, p. 284. ' Miner 
 
172 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 liis c'liil) and bayoiu t liad surpassed the wild man in fero- 
 cious instinct — tlie British soldier, led hither by command, 
 turned from the unsoldier-like scenes of the day and night 
 with aversion, and all sank exhausted on the grounds of 
 the old Indian empire for repose. 
 
 The Pittston forts surrendered to Colonel J. Butler 
 early on the morning of the fourth, upon the following 
 terms : — 
 
 " Articles of Capitulation for three Forts at Lacuwan- 
 ack, 4th July, 1778. Art. 1st.— That the different Com- 
 manders of the said Forts do immediately deliver them 
 np, with all the arms, ammunition, and stores, in the said 
 forts." "2d. — Major Butler promises that the lives of 
 the men, women, and children be preserved intire," ^ 
 
 These terms were honorably complied with, and not a 
 person in Pittston was molested by the Indians ; all the 
 prisoners in the foi-ts were marked with black war-paiiit, 
 which exempted them from immediate harm. Forty Foit 
 was surrendered the same day to Major John Butlei'. 
 
 Five da3'S after the battle. Colonel Butler i-etired fi'om 
 Wyoming with his forces, so elated with his success tiiat 
 he reported to his government that he had "taken 227 
 scalps and only five prisoners," "taken eight palisades, 
 (six) forts, and burned about orie tlioiisand dwelUng 
 houses^ all their mills, etc.," having, "on our side one 
 Indian, two Rangers killed, and eight prisoners wounded." 
 " We have also killed and drove off about one thousand 
 head of horned cattle, and sheep and swine in great num- 
 bers." - 
 
 After Butler had gone noithward, a party of rangers 
 and Indians whom he had sent, went "to the Delaware 
 to destroy a small settlement there, and to bring off pris- 
 oners." ^ These, after remaining a few days at W^yoming 
 for scalps and plunder, visited the Lackawanna Valley 
 
 ' Copied from Her Majesty's State Paper Doc. in London. Miner. 
 "See Butler's Report. Peck's Wyoming, pp. 52-6. ' Ibid. 
 
LACKAWANNA VAI.LKT. 173 
 
 on theii* way to the Paupack and Delaware. Wyoming, 
 with the exception of a few houses around Wilkes Barre 
 fort, was depopulated, and presented one dark picture 
 of conflagration and waste. Up the Lackawanna, every 
 house and barn, Avith the single exception of Marcy's, 
 was burned to the ground, and every family that could 
 escape fled on foot toward Stroudsburg for safety. 
 
 Six miles up the Lackawanna, a small stream called 
 Key's or Kieser's Creek, emerges from a long line of wil- 
 lows, where the savages overtook and shot and scalped 
 two men by the name of Leach and St. John, who were 
 removing their families with ox-teams from the smoking 
 valley below. "One of them," says Miner, "had a 
 child in his arms, which, with strange inconsistency, the 
 Indian took up and handed to the mother, all covered 
 with the father's blood. Leaving the women in the wagon 
 unlnii't, they took the scalps of their husbands, and de- 
 parted." At Capoose, Mr. Hickman, attending to his 
 crops, unconscious of danger so near, was murdered by 
 the same band, as were his wife and child. His log cabin 
 was burned to the ground. 
 
 Isaac Tripp, a Mr. Hocksey and Keys were captured 
 and cari-ied fi-om the Capoose into the forest of Abingtou 
 at this time. Tripp, who had hitherto, in his intercourse 
 with the Indians, shown them kindness, was painted and 
 released, while his two companions were led out of the 
 path, tomahawked, and left unburied in the woods near 
 Clark's Green. 
 
 No white person was left alive in the entire valley in 
 1778, after the massacre, nor did any settlers venture to 
 return to the Susquehanna or the Lackawanna to bury 
 the dead or gather the crops, until some three months 
 afterward. 
 
 In September, Colonel Hartle}^ was sent up into the 
 Indian country to chastise them, while the grain was being 
 secured. He arrived at Wyalusing, September 28, with 
 his men worn down, and his "Whiskey and Flour all 
 
174 
 
 HISTOKY OF THK 
 
 goiie/'^ "111 lonely woods and groves we found the 
 Haunts and Lurking Places of the Savage Murderers who 
 had desolated our Frontier. We saw the Huts where 
 they had dressed and dried the scalps of the helpless 
 women & Children who had fell in their hands. "" 
 
 In October, " Three persons w^ere killed near Wyoming, 
 and another was sent in with his life, scalped to his Eye- 
 brows almost."' 
 
 No single massacre in America during the Revolution, 
 awakened throughout the whole land a sensation so uni- 
 versal and profound as did this. General Washington, 
 jiained by the sanguinary blow struck at Wyoming, or- 
 dered General Sullivan, in 1779, to visit and lay waste 
 the Indian country along the northwestern frontier, from 
 whence much of its force had come. The expedition, 
 however, being retarded for a time from various causes, 
 and the numerous massacres being still unavenged, a 
 proposition was made to the authorities of Pennsylvania, 
 April, 1779, by William McClay, to hunt the Indians out 
 of the Lackawanna and Wyoming valleys with horses 
 and dogs. He says "that a single troop of Light Horse 
 attended by dogs, would destroy more Indians than five 
 thousand men stationed in forts along the Frontiers."* 
 Tills system of warfare, liowever, was never adopted 
 here. 
 
 Gen. Sullivan proceeded to the very heart of the Indian 
 empire around the lakes in July, 1779, and after burning 
 eigliteen of their villages,^ destroying a large number of 
 warriors, and a vast quantity of corn, peach orchards, &c., 
 returned to Wyoming, October 7, with the loss of only 
 forty men. 
 
 "The army marched to Lackawanna, distant 9 miles 
 from Wyoming. (Wilkes Barre.) This place contains 
 two hundred acres of excellent level land, and beautifully 
 
 ' Pa. Arch., 1778, p. 5. Ibid. ' Ibid., p. 16. 
 
 * Ibid., 1779, p. :',57. 'See Pennsylvania Archives, 1779, p. 709. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 175 
 
 situated, having a fine creek bordering on the east side of 
 the river in front, and a large mountain in tlie rear, which 
 forms this pkice a triangular form/' ^ 
 
 The following account of an extraordinary adventure 
 and escape of a messenger, coming from Sullivan' s camp 
 to Easton, illustrates how little pleasure there was in 
 traveling then, even in the rear of his army : — 
 
 Sunday Morning. 
 
 Sullivan's Stores, Y' July, 1779. 
 
 ■s^ 
 
 This will inform you of the most singular event that 
 perhaps you ever met with. — One of my Expresses, (Viz*,) 
 James Cook on his return from Wejoming this day, about 
 the middle of the afternoon, in the Swamp was fired upon 
 by the Indians & Tories — he supposes between Thirty & 
 Fifty Shot. One Shot Avent thro' his Canteen, one thro' 
 his Saddle, one thro' his Hunting Shirt, one was shot into 
 liis Horse. Two Indians or Tories being yet before him, 
 both discharged their Pieces at him, threw down their 
 Firelocks with a determination to Tomahawk him — ad- 
 vanced within Eight Yards of him, at which Time he, 
 with a Bravery peculiar to liimself, fired upon them, 
 killed one of them on the spot i{nd wounded the other, 
 notwithstanding he threw his Tomahawk at the Express, 
 missed him, but cut the Horse very deep upon the 
 Shoulder. He got hold of Cook, tliought to get him from 
 his Horse, tore his Shirt, which is stained much with the 
 Indian's Blood; the Horse being fretted by his Wound 
 raised upon his hind Feet, Tiampled the Indian or Torie 
 under liim, who roared terribly, at which time Cook got 
 •clear ; the other Indians on seeing him get off, raised the 
 Whoop as if all Hell was broke loose. He supposes he 
 rode the Horse afterwards near four Miles, but by the 
 loss of Blood began to Staggei-, when he alighted, took 
 
 ' Bftport of Geo. Grant, Serg. Maj. to ye 3d Reg. of N. J., uuder M;ij. Sullivan, 
 in 1779. 
 
176 HlhTORT OF THE 
 
 off his Saddle & Letters, ran about a Mile on foot, where 
 he fortunately found a stray Continental Horse, which he 
 mounted & rode to this Place. 
 
 It is easy to account for his getting the Horse as there 
 are numbers of them astray about the Swamp. M' Cook's 
 Firelock was loaded with a Bullet & Nine Buck shot, & 
 the Indians being close together when he tired is the 
 reason why the one might be killed and the other 
 Wounded. 
 
 From a Perfect knowledge of the mans Sobriety, In- 
 tegrity and Soldierism, no part of this need be doubted. 
 I am sir, 
 
 Your most ob* Humble serv\ 
 (Copy.) ALEX'R PATTERSON. 
 
 Directed, — To His Excellency Joseph Reed, Esq', Present. 
 
 Smarting under the chastisement given by General 
 Sullivan, bands of Indians, which had returned, dexterous 
 and wary, prowled around the cabin of the valley hus- 
 bandman, and their tomahawks sti uck alike the laborer 
 in the field and the child in the cradle ; and yet, in spite 
 of such adverse danger, besetting every hour with blighted 
 hopes and ruined prospects, the settlement began to till 
 up with many of the former returning occupants. 
 
 In the fall of 1778, the region of Capoose, depopulated 
 so completely of every white inhabitant, began to receive 
 back some of the more resolute of its former denizens. A 
 small portion of the fall crop, escaping destruction by mere 
 accident or caprice, was thus secured, which, by the aid 
 of bear-meat and venison, easily obtained, as every 
 pioneer was a Imnter, enabled them to pass through the 
 winter with comparative comfort, unmolested by Tories 
 or Indians. In March, however, 1779, the last predatory 
 band, hoping for conquest, yet rejoicing in the ruin they 
 had wrought, after attacking Wilkes Barre in vain, turned 
 up the old Lackawanna to the settlement at Capoose. 
 Isaac Tripp was shot in his own house on the fiats, and 
 
LACKAWANNA V ALLEY. 177 
 
 three men, named Jones, Avery, and Lyons, were carried 
 away in the forest, and never heard of afterward. 
 
 GENERAL HISTORY RESUMED. 
 
 Instead of the repose hoped for by the inhabitants of 
 Wyoming at the close of the American Revolution, the 
 temporarily suspended animosities between Pennsylvania 
 and Connecticut, gathering strength by the intervention 
 of the Great War, broke out afresh with all the venom 
 and violence begotten by a dispute involving every im- 
 pulse of passion and every consideration of selfishness. 
 
 Connecticut, through its General Assembly, "holden at 
 Hartford, Oct. 9, 1783, asserted its undoubted and exclu- 
 sive right of jurisdiction & Pre-emption to all the Lands 
 lying West of the Western limits of the State of Penn- 
 sylvania, & East of the Mississippi River, and extending 
 throngoiit from the Latitude 41° to Latitude 42° 2 north, 
 by virtue of the Charter granted by King Charles the 
 second to the late Colony of Connecticut bearing date the 
 25 day of April, A. D. 1662," ' while it relinquished all 
 claim to Wyoming after the unexpected decision of the 
 Commissioners at Trenton. 
 
 Soon after the promulgation of the Trenton Decree, 
 "two boxes of musket cartridges, and two hundred rilie- 
 fiints" were ordered to Wyoming with Northampton 
 militia, to look after persons not readily acquiescing in a 
 decision known to be adverse to every principle of com- 
 mon, sense and equity. Because the inhabitants refused 
 to be ground into ashes unmurmuringly, they were re- 
 ported "wrangling" and full of a - Letegious Spirit."' 
 
 Toward the Lackawanna people, more defenseless and 
 exposed, because fewer in number, proceedings were in- 
 stituted by the Pennymites more tyrannical and oppress- 
 
 > See PenQsylvania Archives, 1783, p. 116. ' Ibid., pp. 47-9. 
 
178 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 ive than elsewhere, simply from the fact that this weak- 
 ness could offer no resistance. Families were turned 
 forcibly out of their houses, regardless of age or sex ; 
 the sick and the feeble, the widow and the orphan, were 
 alike thrust rudely from their sheltering homes, while 
 fields of grain, and all personal property, were stolen or 
 destroyed by a band of men armed with guns and clubs, 
 in the interest of the Pennsylvania land-jobbers.^ 
 
 The decision of the Trenton court, looked upon as a 
 simple question of jurisdiction only, without affecting the 
 rlgJit of soil, was accepted in good faith by the people 
 generally. " We care not," said they in an address to 
 the General Assembly, "under what State we live in, if 
 we live protected and happy." 
 
 The land-jobbers, in their passion for self-aggrandize- 
 ment and emolument, not content to allow an interpreta- 
 tion of this decision favorable to the settlers, yet so foreign 
 to their own selfish purposes, urged troops upon Wyo- 
 ming, upon the arrival of which " the inhabitants suffered 
 little less than when abandoned to their most cruel and 
 savage enemies. The unhappy husbandman saw his 
 cattle driven away, his barns on fire, his children robbed 
 of their bread, and his wife and daughters a prey to li- 
 centious soldiery."- Memorials and petitions, couched 
 in respectful tone and language, sent repeatedly to the 
 Assembly, met with open derision or contemptuous silence. 
 It was well for Wyoming, feeble yet unshrinking, to 
 stand alone in the war-path in time of massacre and blood- 
 shed, and grapple with the blows otherwise aimed at tlie 
 lower inland settlements of Pennsylvania, but not to cji- 
 joy even the desolation of wild-woods without insult and 
 disfranchisement. "The inhabitants," says Chapman, 
 " finding at length that the burden of their calamities was 
 too great to be borne, began to resist the illegal proceed- 
 
 Z. Butler's Petition to Congress, 1784. 
 Chapman's History of Wyoming-, p. K!8. 
 
LACK.VWANNA VALLKY. 179 
 
 ings of their new masters, and refused to comply witli tlie 
 decisions of the mock tribunals Avhich had been estab- 
 lished. Their resistance enraged the magistrates, and on 
 the 12th of Ma}' (1784), the soldiers of the garrison were 
 sent to disarm them, and under this pretense one hundred 
 and fifty families Avei-e turned out of their dwellings, many 
 of which were burnt, and all ages and sexes reduced to 
 the same destitute condition. After being plundered of 
 their little remaining property, they were driven from the 
 valley and compelled to proceed on foot through the 
 wilderness by way of the Lackawaxen to the Delaware, 
 a distance of about eighty miles. During^ this journey 
 the unhappy fugitives suffered all the miseries which 
 human nature appears to be capable of enduring. Old 
 men, whose children were slain in battle, widows with 
 their infant children, and chilcben without parents to pro- 
 tect them, were here companions in exile and sorrow, and 
 wandering in a wilderness where famine and ravenous 
 beasts continued daily to lessen the number of the suiferei-s. 
 One shocking instance of suffering is related by a survivor 
 of this scene of death ; it is the case of a mother whose 
 infant having died, roasted it by piecemeal for the daily 
 subsistence of her remaining children !" ' 
 
 Elisha Harding, Esq., who was one of the exiles, says 
 *'it was a solemn scene; parents, their children crying 
 for hunger — aged men on crutches— all urged forward by 
 an armed force at our heels. The first night we encamped 
 at Capoose, the second at Cobb's, the third at Little 
 Meadows so called, cold, hungry, and drenched with i-ain, 
 the poor women and children suffering much." 
 
 In fact, the mutual hatred of each party, clunished from 
 Capoose to Wyoming with every expression of bitterness, 
 was so intense and general, and the settlei's up the lesser 
 valley shown so little clemency by the nomadic hordes 
 of Pennymites sent up from Sunbury and elsewhere, that 
 
 ' Chapman's History of Wyoming, p. 13S. 
 
180 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 even Brigadier- General Armstrong, afterward Scci-etary of 
 War, harsh and covetons himself, reported to President 
 Dickenson in October, 1784, that "the treatment of tlie 
 Lackawany people has been excessively cruel."' ' Vol- 
 untary evidence so explicit from such a quarter, needs no 
 corroborative testimony to give it weight. 
 
 No person suspected of being a well-wisher of the Yan- 
 kees, remained in the settlement unharmed and unmo- 
 lested. Nor was the rude expulsion of the inhabitants, 
 who, thus dragging themselves along, out of the valley, 
 too weak and despairing to offer resistance, until they 
 sank to the ground from hunger and exhaustion, to await 
 the coarse instincts of their pursuers, more merciless than 
 the savages' wild woi"k six years before with brand and 
 battle-ax. 
 
 Thus for \\\Q fifth and last time was every New England 
 emigrant expelled from the Lackawanna within twelve 
 years, to find a home in the vacant wilderness with their 
 perishing children and wives, or journey on foot to the Del- 
 aware, beyond the reach of their pursuers, if not carried 
 to Easton jail. No portion of the American frontier in the 
 early history of the country so wantonly and perennially 
 inflicted sorrows upon the peaceful adventurer as did the 
 Lackawanna from 1763 to 1784. 
 
 While this ferocious conduct on the part of Pennsylva- 
 nia soldiers was repudiated and condemned by the State, 
 the authorities, chagrined at the indignation her rash and 
 incompetent instruments had evoked throughout the con- 
 federation, it had the effect, indirectly, of creating the new 
 count}^ of Luzerne two years afterward. 
 
 After being released from jail, whither nearly all the 
 male portion of the inhabitants had been dj-iven, charged 
 with no crime that could be sustained, and jet compelled 
 to live on water and bread in a dismal prison,' they 
 returned to their desolated homes after their release. 
 
 ' rennsylvania Archives, 1784, p. 688. ' Ibid., p. 614. 
 
la(;katvanxa vaij.ey. 181 
 
 The farmers up the Lackawanna, far away from their 
 native hills, thus irritated and interrupted in their labors 
 by the Pennymites, and occu]ued wholly with thoughts 
 of their wrongs, sent Mr. Benjamin Luce the folloT\dng 
 notice ■ — 
 
 "Lackawanv. Oct. 8, 1784. 
 ''Sir 
 
 We understand that you are obstinate and treat the 
 Yankees ill ; therefore this is to warn you in the name of 
 the Connecticut Claimants to dt']>ai-t and leave the house 
 of Richard Hollsted, in 12 hours in peace, or expect 
 trouble. If we are obliged to send a party of men to do 
 the business you must abide the consequences. 
 
 EBENEZER JOHNSTON, 
 WATERMAN BALDWIN." ' 
 
 Thus passed the summer and winter of 1784. The 
 spring of 1785 developed no healthier sentiment nor kind- 
 lier feelings. 
 
 One or two affidavits, taken from a large number of a 
 similar character in the Pennsylvania Archives of 1785, 
 serve to illustrate the spirit in which this struggle for 
 Wyoming was carried on. In March of this year, a con- 
 stable named Charles Manrow affirmed, 
 
 '' That Gangs of the Connecticut Party are daylay gow- 
 ing through the Wioming Settlen)ents distressing, the few 
 Families yet in the place who are attached to Government, 
 by Robing, Plundering and Turning them out of Doors 
 in a most naked and Distressed situation, that yesterday 
 was a day set for all those People who had not actually 
 been Throwed out of Doors by Violence, to be goan that 
 they had Received the Last notice without Distress. That 
 on the Twenty Second Instant, Six of them came to the 
 Hous of this Deponant at about the sun Setting, and 
 Turned his Family all out of Doors, Throwed his goods all 
 out and Considerable part broke to pieces, Took his Grain. 
 
 • Pa. Arch., 1784, p. G79. 
 
1S2 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 meet, salt, and many otlier things, tliat his Children had 
 no Shoes, and little Ch)athing, Thretning if they Return 
 into the Hous, they would burn it down with them in it, 
 when this deponant asked the officer of the party, what 
 authority he had for such Conduct who Produced his 
 Precept Signed Ebenezer Johnson their Col. or Command- 
 ing Officer." ' 
 
 ''Daniel Swarts, being duly sworn doth depose and 
 say, that on the Twenty Second Instant a Gang of Twelve 
 of the Connecticut Claimants came to the house of this 
 Deponant with arms Thretning the Family so that his 
 wife is in a situation, that her life is almost despaired of, 
 ordering them Immediately out of Doors, That he has 
 been Plundered of the most of his Effects so that his Fam- 
 ily is almost naked, himself much beat and abused and 
 hailed out of Doors by the hare of his head." *' 
 
 Upon the other hand, every usurpation aiming to oblit- 
 erate AVyoming as a Connecticut colony — every scheme 
 having for its object the destruction of the industrious 
 element, which, amidst wars,' massacres, expulsions, im- 
 prisonments, and every intolerant artifice, had brought 
 blooming fields out of the wild acres from Nanticoke to 
 Capoose, was tried in vain by the Pennsylvania land 
 speculators. Diplomacy, the weapon of subtle men, paci- 
 hed and accomplished in a short time, what all else had 
 failed to do. 
 
 On the 25th of September, 1786, Luzerne County' was 
 erected out of that part of Northumbei-hmd County ex- 
 tending from Nescopeck Falls to the noithern boundary 
 of the State. Within its area, it included all the Yankee 
 or New England Colony west of New York, except a few 
 settlers along the Delaware and Paupack. It comprised 
 within its boundaries all of Susquehanna, Wyoming, 
 Columbia, and Lycoming, the greater ])art of Bradford, 
 and a fractional portion of Sullivan and Montour. 
 
 ' Pa. Arch., 1785, p. 708. ' Ibid., p. 709. 
 
 " Named from the French minister, Chevalier de la Luzerne. — Chapman. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEV. 183 
 
 The year of 1786 marks an important era in upper 
 Pennsylvania. The removal of Indian tribes, the peace- 
 ful solution of the Connecticut-Pennsylvania contro- 
 versy, made many an upland clearing in tlie edge of 
 the forest rejoice with the returning emigrant or new 
 settler. 
 
 "Deep Hollow" (now Scranton) resounded with the 
 stroke of the advancing ax ; — the Lehigh and Lackawaxen 
 were each explored by Pennsylvania to learn their navi- 
 gable capacity,^ while separating this territory into a new 
 county, gave hope and impulse to many a brave heart 
 shrinking from no danger, but longing for the unrestrained 
 and uninterrupted quiet of rural life. 
 
 The formation of Luzerne County, while it tranquilized 
 a contest unparalleled in reciprocal bitterness and perti- 
 nacity, also annihilated a bold project of a few of the 
 more ambitious Yankee occupants of Wyoming, led by 
 Col. John Franklin, John Jenkins, and Solomon Sti-ong, 
 of forming a new and independent State oat of the 42d 
 Degree of Latitude, through Pennsylvania and a poilion 
 of Jlew York, with Wilkes Barre as the capital. 
 
 John Franklin, Solomon Strong, James Fin, a Baptist 
 minister, John Jenkins, and Christophei- Holbert conceived 
 the scheme. Tlie celebrated Col. Ethan Allen of Ver- 
 mont, who was twice visited by Strong, and urged to throw 
 the strength of his unbounded popularity into the move- 
 ment, finally espoused the cause of the Connecticut claim- 
 ants against Pennsylvania.^ By the aid of Col. Allen, 
 Vermont had been carved from the rough borders of 
 New York in spite of remonstrance or force, and why 
 could not an independent Republic be established at 
 Wyoming in deliance of the wishes and power of a State, 
 dishonoring its robes by harsh intercourse with a young 
 border colony which had stood for years in blood for its 
 defense, like a Roman sentinel on the outer wall 1 Six 
 
 • Col. Rec, vol. XV., p. 65. » See Pa. Arch , 1783-G, pp. 7(Jl-i-6. 
 
184 HI8TOKV OF 'lUE 
 
 hundred men, mostly Yankees, were here, which witli 
 the invincible Green Mountain Boys, obtained by asking, 
 and tlie Connecticut party from the West Branch of th*^ 
 Susquehanna, whither Mr. Fin had been sent to develop 
 and strengthen the enterprise among the inhabitants, it was 
 reasonably supposed that a body so formidable in num- 
 bers, commanded by a colonel so renowned and brave as 
 he was known to be, having the right and possession of the 
 valleys and all roads to and from them both by land and 
 water, would be able not only to repel all opposing force, 
 extinguish the claim and grasping avidity of Pennsyl- 
 vania, but triumphantly assert and achieve independence. • 
 The appearance of Col. Allen at Wyoming at this time, 
 clad in his Revolutionary regimentals, while the public 
 mind down the Susquehanna and up the Lackawanna, 
 favorably discussed the contemplated project, gave to it 
 still greater importance. 
 
 The creation of the new county of Luzerne, which was 
 originally intended merely as an instrument to defeat 
 these wronged yet patriotic schemers— and nothing more 
 — introduced elements and authority into the Lacka- 
 wanna and AVyoming domain, Avhicli the quick, keen eye 
 of Col. Allen saw it would be folly, if not treason, to op- 
 pose. The colonel soon afterward returned to Vermont. 
 Aside from a collision necessarily renewed and long- 
 continued between the respective States concerned b}- 
 fostering the design with arms, it is impossible foi- 
 the broadest calculator to-day to estimate the conse- 
 quences resulting to the country, especially to the Lacka- 
 wanna and Wyoming portion of it, had the projected 
 State, with the hero of Ticonderoga as its Governor, been 
 wrought into being. 
 
 Col. Franklin, the offending front and acknowledged 
 head of the Connecticut party, was afterward arrested, 
 thrust into a Philadelphia prison, loaded with chains, 
 and fed in the dark, damp cell upon bread and water ; and 
 yet after he was released, in October, 1787, upon his own 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY, 185 
 
 parole,- he returned to the valley, and althougli, like all 
 the settlers, adverse to the broad, bold usurpations of the 
 Provincial speculators, who had been shamefully wronged, 
 he smoked the pipe of peace, and sought with persistent 
 steadiness and honesty to aid the operations of the various 
 compromising laws. 
 
 The questions at issue, aequiiing importance at the 
 expense of the interests of the settlements, being no 
 longer known, men of peaceful nature but public enter- 
 prise began to project highways in the county among 
 which was a public road or turnpike, from the Delaware, 
 near Stroudsburg, to the incipient village of Montrose, tlien 
 in Luzerne. In March, 1788, five commissioners, con- 
 sisting of Henry Drinker, Tench Coxe, John Nicholson, 
 Mark Wilcox, and Tench Francis, were elected for 
 this purpose." The route, surveyed at the expense of 
 the State, remained unbuilt for years. In May following, 
 commissioners were appointed by Pennsylvania, to visit 
 Luzerne County and examine tlie quantity and quality 
 of land within the seventeen certified townships, for 
 the purpose of enabling the House to tix upon a prop- 
 er compensation to be paid the owners thereof. Two 
 townships, viz. : Pittston and Providence, embraced all 
 the domain settled in the Lackawanna Valley. The latter 
 being five miles square, contained 16,000 acres and ran 
 from the township of Lackawa, east of Cobb Mountain, to 
 the Moosic elevation separating Exeter from Providence. 
 Capoose, rich in agricultural resource and intrenched in 
 the shade of pines, boundless and beautiful in their ex- 
 pansion, was the principal point, inhabited by three or 
 four families. 
 
 A number of settlers in the Lackawanna had bought 
 and paid both the Susquehanna Comj^any and the State 
 of Pennsylvania for their lands, but in order to restore 
 harmony, and give full operation to the compromising 
 
 ' Col. Rec, vol. XV., p. 304. " Ibid., p. 425. 
 
186 mSTOKY OF THE 
 
 law, they surrendered tlieir titles again to the State for a 
 mere nominal consideration, and purchased their own 
 lands again at the appraisement of the Commissioners 
 appointed by the State. 
 
 Such land, according to its quality, was divided into 
 four classes : — 
 
 "As soon as forty thousand acres should be so released 
 to the State, and the Connecticut settlers, claiming land to 
 the same amount, should bind themselves to submit to 
 the determination of the Commissioners, then the law 
 was to take effect ; and the Pennsylvania claimants, who 
 had so released their land, were to receive a compensation 
 for the same from the State Treasury, at the rate of five 
 dollars per acre for lands of the first class, three dollais 
 for the second, one dollar and fifty cents for the third, 
 and twenty-five cents for lands of the fourth class. Tlie 
 Connecticut settlers were also to receive patents from the 
 State confirming their lands to them, upon condition of 
 paying into the Treasury the sum of two dollars per 
 acre for lands of the first class, one dollar and twenty 
 cents for lands of the second class, fifty cents for lands 
 of the third class, and eight and one-third cents for 
 lands of the fourth class — the certificates issued by the 
 Commissioners to regulate the settlement of accounts in 
 both cases. Thus, while the State was selling her vacant 
 lands to her other citizens at twenty-six cents an acre, she 
 demanded of the Connecticut settlers a sum which, upon 
 the supposition that there was the same quantity of land 
 in each class, would average ninety-four cents an acre.''' 
 
 PROVIDENCE TOWNSHIP AND VILLAGE. 
 
 The Lackawanna, from the two Indian villages of Ca- 
 poose and Asserughney, was explored in 1753 ; it was 
 laid out into two townships in 1770, viz., Pittstown and 
 Providence— the first, named after the celebrated Pitt. 
 
 ' Chapman, p. 1G9. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 187 
 
 the British Commoner; the hittor after Rhode Island's 
 capital, as thirty of the Susqueliauiia Com])aiiy, owiiiii*; 
 the wild lands, came from the ''Colony of Rhod-island." 
 Pittstowii embraced tlie first five miles of the valley ; 
 Providence extended its boundaries still tive miles farther 
 up. Both toAvnships unrolled an area of six thousand 
 acres, divided into lots of 300 acres each, called shares. 
 For greater convenience and availability, lots were some- 
 times subdivided into half lots or shares. Providence, 
 originally surveyed five miles square, was the sixth town- 
 ship formed ; was designated in the Westmoreland Rec- 
 ords as "Ye 6''' Town of Capoose," because Capoose, 
 cleared of its timber, lay on the ])ath which brought 
 emigrating parties into the Monsey town, wiiere they 
 w^ere fed on venison and fish, and kindly treated by the 
 bow^ and oar's men inhabiting it. These Indians, roaming 
 over the territory for twenty years after the original sale 
 of the lands, were skilled in the use of the bow and toma- 
 hawk, Avhich the French, by lavishing gifts with prod- 
 igality, adroitly turned upon the English in 1755-6. At 
 the Indian Treaty, held at Easton in the fall of 1758, this 
 tribe "brightened the Chain of Friendship and cleared 
 the blood from the Council Seats" ever afterAvard. 
 
 Being some ten miles away from Pittstown block-house, 
 settlers were less readily prepared to encounter the greater 
 danger apparent in this township, than to labor in clear- 
 ings more favorably located on the Susquehanna. 
 
 Timothy Keys and Solomon Hocksey, two young men 
 from Connecticut, struck the first blow into the woods of 
 the new township in 1771. With gun and ax they pene- 
 trated the wallowed glen now known as Taylorsville, 
 where they built their cabin by the side of the brook 
 named from Mr. Keys. One vast park, lilled with deer, 
 stood between this creek and Capoose, marked by a single 
 foot-path. 
 
 Capoose lands originally fell into the hands of Capt. 
 John Howard, from the Susquehanna Company, a gentle 
 
188 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 man unacquainted witli their precise location or their 
 wonderful fitness for immediate culture. As there was 
 no disposition to settle them, for the prudential reasons 
 already named, he interested with him in the lands Chris- 
 topher Avery and '' Isooc Trypp of west-moreland in ye 
 County of Litchfield & Colony of Connecticutt in New-Eng- 
 land," ^ both bold Yankees, seeking fortune in Wyoming 
 as early as 1769. The hxtter, more fearless and determined 
 than his felloAvs, could not overlook the garden, where 
 orchard and vineyard, cared for no longer by tlie strolling 
 braves, enraptured the eye with blossom and promise. 
 Near the vacated wigwams he shaped his cabin in 1771, and, 
 without clearing a foot of land, planted and raised a crop 
 of corn, tlie first season, on the j^lantation deserted but a 
 short time previous. Mr. Tripp being neither scalped 
 nor endangered daring the winter, others, reassured and 
 emboldened by his good luck, sprinkled their cabins 
 along the stream, giving an air of comfort to the wilder- 
 ness, here and there eruptive Avith stump. 
 
 A lot "in ye Township of New-Providence, alious Ca- 
 poose," surveyed to Col. Lodwick Ojidirk, passed into 
 the hands of Jolmathan Slocum, in 1771, "on account of 
 Doeing ye Duty of a settler," for Ojidirk. This tract, con- 
 taijiing 180 acres, was sold to James Bagley, April 29, 
 1778. Bagley' s Ford, near the mouth of Leggetf s Creek, 
 took its name from this old resident. 
 
 Among the pioneers who purchased lots or shares of 
 the Connecticut Susquehanna Company, in the township, 
 between 1772-5, the Westmoreland Records mention John 
 Dewit, Andrew Hickman, Fred. Curtis, Isaac Tripp, Jr., 
 Solomon Johnson, Thos. Pukits, Benj. Baily, Mathew 
 Dalson, Ebenezer Searles, James Leggett, Gideon Bald- 
 win, John Stevens, Johnathan Slocum, Maj. Fitch, John 
 Aldren, Christopher Avery, and Solomon Strong. Solo- 
 mon Strong, identified in 1785-6 Avith Col. Ethan Allen, 
 
 ' Westmoreland Records. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 189 
 
 John Jeakins, and the brave Jolin B>anklin, in the at- 
 tempted formation of a new, distinct State out of West- 
 moreland, like Fitch, Searles, Aldren, Stevens, and Oji- 
 dirk, had no interest in the township other than a specu- 
 lative one ; this was trifling, as Baily acquired his 300 
 acres of woodland from Strong, for a " few furs and a 
 flint gun."^ 
 
 Land was cheap, and, when purchased for a few shil- 
 lings an acre, excavations in the great woods over it were 
 only made by hard, patient labor, and, after the trees had 
 paid reluctant homage to the ax, their removal and de- 
 sti'uction gave infinite trouble and work. Instead of leav- 
 ing the fallen timber to season for a year, and then, when 
 favored by a long dry spell, apply the torch for a good 
 burn, making "logging" barely necessary, the pioneer, 
 pressed by the wants of his family, drew the green trees 
 into log-heaps where they were roasted and burned into 
 ashes. And even after the new land was tlius prepared 
 for tlie reception of seed, the corn, promising reward to 
 the toiling husbandman, must be defended against tlic 
 vigilant raccoon and squirrel, before the husking bp(^ 
 secured the crop in the garret, away from its nimble 
 enemies. 
 
 The houses, beginning to gladden the waste places, had 
 but a single story, were built from green logs up-rolled 
 and chinked with mud, to protect the inmates from cold, and 
 gave one-third of this space to huge stone chimneys. Ther(^ 
 was not in the entire township, in 1775, so strange a feature 
 as three houses in a cluster, or two within sight of eacli 
 other. Every farmer was his own carpenter, and thus 
 every style of architecture became popular. Doors wei-e 
 made without boards ; windows, without glass. The rich 
 skin of the fawn easily obtained, or the bushy robe 
 snatched from old bruin while visiting the barn-yard, 
 brought comfort and ornament to the cabin, warmed in 
 
 'Westmoreland Records. 
 
100 IJISTOEY OF THK 
 
 winter by piles of fire-wood, and illuminated at niglit witli 
 pine-knots everywhere abundant. 
 
 The township had neither physician nor lawyer for a 
 long time afterward, nor does it appear that any physical 
 or material interest suffered from their absence ; for what 
 tonic can equal hard work and coarse food in the field or 
 forest, and what law compare Avith common honesty, 
 blended with common sense ? 
 
 No newspa])ers entered their cabins, for none were 
 l)iinted in the country ; almanacs, selling for a shilling 
 a-piece, supplied the settlement with the news of the year. 
 Falling and burning the giant timber gave recreation to 
 the settlement, disturbed by no breach of the social 
 relations. 
 
 Nothing exhibits the New England character in a light 
 more favorable and philanthropic, than the fixed organic 
 rule of the proprietors of each township, of setting apart 
 and reserving forever certain lots for gospel and school 
 purposes before others were offered to the settler. In 
 <^very township one lot of three hundred acres was thus 
 reserved for the first minister of the gospel in fee — one for a 
 parsonage — ^one for the support of a school ; three were 
 reserved as public lots, subject to the future disposition 
 of the town. Nearly 2,000 acres of land were thus held 
 in Providence Township. Paths cut through the woods 
 — over hills instead of around them — were more bridle- 
 ways than roads, wliile fallen trees or friendly ford-ways 
 served for stream-crossing. 
 
 "The town of Westmoreland legally incorporated for 
 civil purposes, was about seventy miles square, and 
 could only be established by Supreme Legislative author- 
 ity. Within this limit a number of townships of five or 
 six miles square, were laid off by the Delaware and Sus- 
 quehanna Companies, divided into lots, which were 
 drawn for by Proprietors, or sold. These townships 
 had power to make needful laws and bye-laws for their 
 i nterior regulation, the establishment of roads, the care or 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLFA'. 191 
 
 disposal of vacant lots, and other matters entirely local. 
 Of tliese, there already existed Wilkes Barre, Hanover, 
 Plymouth, Kingston or the Forty, Exeter, Pittston, and 
 Caponse or Providence ; more were from time to time 
 added. A town meeting, tlierefore now when ' legally 
 warned,' called together all the Fi-eemen, in all the town- 
 ships or settlements, from tlie Delaware to fifteen miles 
 beyond the Susquehanna, and from the Lehigh north to 
 Tioga Point." '^ At the first town meeting legally warned 
 and held in Westmoreland, "at eight of the clock in ye 
 forenoon, March je 20th, 1774." for the purpose of choos- 
 ing town officers, all this vast territory, sparsely occu])ied, 
 was divided into eight separate districts. Wilkes Bai-re, 
 Plymouth, Hanover, and Kingston, made four districts. 
 Voted, "thatPittson be one district by ye name of Pitts- 
 ton district ; and that Exeter, Providence, and all the 
 lands west and north to ye town line, be one district, b}^ 
 ye name of ye North District ; and that Lackaway settle- 
 ment and Blooming Grove, and Sheolah, to be one 
 district, and to b;^ called by ye name of ye Lackaway 
 district ; and that Coshutunk, and all ye settlements on 
 Delaware, be one district, and joined to ye other districts, 
 and known by ye name of ye east district.''- From the 
 Lackawanna portion of the town, or "ye North District,'' 
 Isaac Tripp, Esq., who declined serving, was chosen 
 Selectman for the ensuing year, John Dewit of Capoose 
 chosen of the Survei/ors of 7iighioaf/s, John Abbot, one of 
 the Fence- Viewers, Gideon Baldwin, one of the Listers^ 
 Barnabas Gary and Timothy Keys, two of the Grand 
 Jurors, and James Brown one of the TijtMng men. 
 These pers(.ns, the old records informs us. were "all 
 loyal subjects of His Gracious Majesty King George tlie 
 Third." 
 
 August Hunt and Frederick Vanderlip, two residents 
 of New Providence, were expelled from the township at 
 
 'Miner's Wyoming, p. 154. " Westmorelanl Records, 1774. 
 
192 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 this meeting, because they were men " that have, and now 
 do so conduct themselves by spreading reports about ye- 
 town of Westmoreland, much to ye disturbance of ye 
 good and wholsome inhabitants of this town, and by their 
 taking up and holding land under ye pretention of ye 
 title of Pennsylvania."^ "Voted tliat Hunt be expelled 
 this purchase, and he be, as soon as may be, removed out 
 of ye town by ye committee at ye cost of this Company,. 
 in such way as ye Committee shall think proper."- 
 
 "Voted that ye Indian apple Tree, so called at Capooso,. 
 shall be ye Town Sign Post for ye town of New Provi- 
 dence."^ Each township had a prominent tree as a Town 
 Sign Post, which, in the absence of press, newspaper, or 
 almanac, made a public point where all notices of a public 
 character had to be affixed to be legal. Such tree notices, 
 always written — for all the inhabitants could read and 
 write — made a meeting legally warned. This apple-tree, 
 venerable in its broad branches, as if arrayed in the 
 foliage of its youth, planted more than a century and a 
 half ago, yet blooms and bears its fruit by the road-side, 
 between Providence and Scranton, a few hundred feet 
 above the site of the ancient village of Capoose. 
 
 In the winter of 1775, there was a meeting of the settlers 
 under this apple-tree, to dispose of land on the Susque 
 hanna at the site of the present village of Tunkhannock, 
 as can be seen by "a list of men's names that drew for 
 lots in the township of Putnam (now Tunkhannock), in 
 Susquehannah, Dec. 20th, 1775, at Providence." ■* Among 
 persons thus drawing lots appear the names of Isaac and 
 Job Tripp, William West, Paul Green, Job Green, Zebu 
 Ion Marcy, and John Gardner, 
 
 An unsuccessful effort was made at this time to change 
 the name of Providence for that of Massassoit^ as is 
 shown by the old surveys and maps preserved among the 
 archives of the county. The few savages remaining in 
 
 ' Westmoreland Records, 1774. * Ibid. 'Dud. ■• Rjid., 1775. 
 
LACKAWANNA VAI.LKY. 193 
 
 the valley in 1776-7, as they could not preserve their 
 neutrality despite the tempting offers of the Tories 
 and British in 1778, left charred and crimson traces of 
 tlieir presence. Settlers fled to Stroudsburg with their 
 affrighted loved ones, or removed temporarily to Wyo- 
 ming, where the muttering of the savages hissed down 
 through the forests from the upper lakes. Isaac Tripp, 
 Timothy Keys, James Hocksey, and Andrew Hickman, 
 with his wife and child, alone remained. These few, 
 having dispute only with wolves, panthers, and bears, 
 around the rich intervale of Capoose, living amicably with 
 the hand preparing to strike, gave no thought of the 
 danger of ambush or encounter with a foe until it came. 
 And even when the Senecas, dancing the war song in 
 prospective triumph, ready to sting with their arrows, 
 poisoned and loaded, hastened from their wild parks into 
 the flood of canoes moored for Wyoming, these settlers, 
 conscious of no wrong done by themselves, cherished the 
 liope that their frail cabins, isolated and remote, would be 
 spared by the bands which had promised neutrality or 
 friendship. 
 
 After the Wyoming massacre, it took but a few quick 
 strokes of the hatchet to do the work of depopulating the 
 entire Lackawanna Valley, leaving it a waste, where 
 the camp fire again gleamed upon the roaming con- 
 querors. 
 
 A few months after the massacre, the inhabitants re- 
 turned to Wyoming to bury the dead and secure the 
 remnant of the crops ; but not until after Gen. Sullivan, in 
 the summer of 1779, had carried fire and bullet through 
 the Indian lodges along the upper Susquehanna, did the 
 few former occupants of Providence lands venture back to 
 the ashes on their farms, where their cabins once were 
 standing. These few persons, influenced by the objective 
 attitude of the Pennymites, were able to enlarge the range 
 of agriculture in the township but little, if any. 
 
 In 1786, Isaac Tripp, 3d, emigrated from Rhode Island 
 
 13 
 
194 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 with his son, Stephen, then ten years old. He brought 
 with him at this time no other member of his family, and 
 it was not until 1788 that his residence at Capoose became 
 permanent. 
 
 Miner informs us that a company of soldiers were at 
 Capoose at the time of the Wyoming massacre, but, as all 
 the valuable papers having reference to the history of the 
 township's affairs at this particular time were destroyed, 
 it is impossible to tell the precise time they retired before 
 the savages ascending the Lackawanna. 
 
 The pacification of the valleys in 1786-8, by measures 
 long delayed, imparted new impulse to every interest by 
 removing all barrier to agricultural progress and pros- 
 perity. Men began to enjoy a conscious security, denied 
 them till now, which expanded into measures of public 
 good. 
 
 The route for a public highway across Luzerne had 
 been surveyed in 1778 by legislative autliority, the com- 
 missioners of which reported "that Providence, situated 
 favorably between two mountains, would be of vast im- 
 portance to the road."' These facts being promulgated, 
 had their influence with men willing to wrestle with the 
 forest for slight reward and secure homes. 
 
 Aside from the structure at the mouth of Leggett's 
 Brook, put up unframed by Mr. Leggett in 1775, to be 
 abandoned soon afterward, the first house erected upon the 
 site of the present village of Providence was a low double 
 log affair, built in 1788 by Enoch Holmes. The single 
 apple-tree, standing near the northeast corner of Oak and 
 Main streets, marks the precise location of his cabin. 
 Along the terraced slope of Providence, the heavier wood 
 had been cleared away, either by Indian husbandmen or 
 b)'' whirlwinds, such as in later years disturbed the 
 equanimity of the young village, thus rendering necessary 
 but little intrusion upon the thickets to fit the land for 
 
 ■ Commissioners' Report, 1778, p. 10. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 195 
 
 planting oi- pasturage. He remained liere two years with 
 his family, pounded his maize and prepared his hominy, 
 subsisting upon venison, bear meat, and the varied prod- 
 ucts of his clearing, in peaceful solitude. 
 
 In the winter months he constructed brooms, baskets, 
 and snow-shoes from the laminated ash and basswood, 
 carrying them, on foot to Wilkes Barre to exchange foi- 
 the most needed commodities. With no capital but a 
 large family, increasing with each succeeding year, he 
 toiled upon his hill-side opening until 1790, when he 
 removed north of Leggett's Creek. 
 
 Daniel Waderman, of Hamburg, Germany, was the 
 second settler. While visiting London in 1775, he was 
 seized by the British press-gang, and forced into unwill- 
 ing service. He was present at the battle of Bunker 
 Hill, followed the fortunes of the British until 1779, when 
 lie was taken prisoner on the Mohawk. Taking the oath 
 of allegiance, he enlisted in the American service, and, by 
 his faithful de])ortment as a soldiei- during the remainder 
 of the war, proved himself an unquestioned patriot. 
 Under the shadows of the bluff, deepened by foliage 
 extending down to the edge of tlu^ Lackawanna, this 
 scarred veteran, in 1790. brought forth his cabin. The 
 house of Daniel Silknian now occupies its site. For a 
 period of twenty-one years Mr. Waderman lived here in 
 comparative thrift and contentment, acquiring, by fru- 
 gality, means to purchase wilder lands farther up the 
 valley, where he died in 1835. 
 
 Preserved Taylor, Coonrad Lutz. John Gifford, Constant 
 Searles, John House, Jacob Lutz, Benjamin Pedrick, 
 Solomon Bates, and the Athertons, settled in the township 
 in 1790, while John Miller, afterward famous for minis- 
 terial achievements and other good works, unbosomed the 
 uplands of Abington. During this year alterations were 
 made in the township lines.' 
 
 While townships, as surveyed under Connecticut juris- 
 diction, retained the name originally given them, their 
 
190 HI8T0KY OF THE 
 
 boundaries were purposely extinguished, or so radical!}' 
 altered by Pennsylvania landholders as to lose in a great 
 measure their former identity and relation. 
 
 In March, 1790, Providence townshij) line, defined 
 twenty years previous by Connecticut settlers, was ob- 
 literated by the Luzerne County Court, which divided the 
 county into eleven townships, one of which, Lakawanak, 
 extended over the Lackawanna Valley. 
 
 The people of the old upper township of Providence, 
 or Capoose, readily acquiescing in arrangements inaugu- 
 rated by Pennsylvania, were thus compelled to transact 
 all business of a public nature at Pittston, some ten or 
 twelve miles away from their homes. 
 
 The inhabitants asked for a restoration of Providence 
 township, because "the Town of Providence," says their 
 petition, "labor under great disadvantages by reason 
 of being annexed to Lackawanna, that the inhabitants 
 live remote from the place where the Town meets on pub- 
 lic occasions, and that they have a very bad river to cross, 
 which is impassible at some times." In 1792 the petition 
 was granted. 
 
 The first bridge across the Lac.'kawanna was built in 
 1796. Until this time there were three public fords across 
 tlie stream above Pittston, viz.: Tripp's, Lutze's, and 
 Baggley's. Along the stream, where the banks were k)w 
 and the waters shallow, a place was selected for a ford- 
 way, which, in the absence of a horse ora tree, was crossed 
 on foot alike by heroic women and men. The abrupt 
 character of the bank of the stream at Providence village, 
 and for quarter of a mile below it, allowed of no crossing 
 in this manner, nor was the Lackawanna at this point span- 
 ned by a bridge until the Drinker Turnpike rendered one 
 necessary in 1826. 
 
 The two- wheeled ox-cart, drawn at a snail' space, ovei 
 roads filled with stones, obstructed by hills, served the 
 purposes of the settlement during the summer months, 
 while the cumbrous snow-shoe or the wooden sled, bent 
 
LACKAWANNA YAI.LEV. 197 
 
 from the oak or beech, brought happiness to many a home. 
 Oxen were generally used both for fanning and traveling. 
 In 1792 there were in Providence township but ten horses, 
 twenty-eight oxen, and tifty-two cows. 
 
 The original Griffin in Providence was Stephen, who, in 
 1794 left Westchester County, N. Y., to battle with Penn- 
 sylvania forests. He located near Lutze's ford way. 
 Thos. Griffin became a resident of tlie valley in 1811, 
 James in 1812, and Joseph and Isaac in 1816. The far- 
 seen hill, below Hyde Park, crowned on its western edge 
 by a noble park reserved for deer, is known throughout 
 the valley as "Uncle Joe Griffin's" place, where he 
 lived for half a century. He tilled the office of justice 
 of the peace for many years. In 1839-40, conjoined with 
 the late Hon. Chester Butler, he represented the interests 
 of the county in the State Legislature with credit. With 
 the exception of Isaac; Tripp, Sen., sent to Connecticut 
 from Westmoreland, in 1777, Jos. Griffin, Esq., was the 
 first man thus honored by the people of the valley. 
 
 The taxables of Providence township, embracing t]i<' 
 entire settlement from Rixe's Gap to Pittston, numbered 
 in 1796 ninety persons, sixty-one only of Avhom resided 
 ^v'ithin its boundaries, as will be seen by the following 
 "Providence Assessment for the Year 1706." 
 
198 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 N.inips (if Inhabitants. 
 
 i 
 
 o 
 
 c5 
 
 CB 
 
 Ocoupation or Profession. 
 
 Residence. 
 
 Tax. 
 
 Atlierton Corn's. 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 Farmer. 
 Farmer. 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 Innkeeper. 
 
 do 
 Preacher of the Gospel. 
 Tailor. 
 Farmer. 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 Farmer. 
 
 Spinster. 
 Farmer. 
 
 Farmer. 
 
 Physician. 
 Farmer. 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 do 
 do 
 do 
 do 
 do 
 do 
 do 
 do 
 
 do 
 do 
 
 Providence. 
 do 
 do 
 do 
 
 do 
 do 
 do 
 do 
 do 
 do 
 do 
 do 
 Wilkes Barre. 
 
 Providence, 
 do 
 do 
 
 Providence. 
 
 Wilkes Barre. 
 Providence. 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 Rhode Island 
 Providence. 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 New York. 
 Providence. 
 
 do 
 Stockbridge. 
 Providence. 
 Connecticut. 
 Nantacook. 
 Providence. 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 Pitts ion. 
 
 8G 
 
 Atherton, .fohn. . . . 
 
 
 1 51 
 
 Atherton, Klezcr. 
 
 
 1 29 
 
 Atwater, Benj 
 
 
 1 26 
 
 Abbott, Philip i. . 
 
 0'! 
 
 
 ■>, 
 
 
 2.G5 
 
 
 
 
 4.69 
 
 Bishop, Wm. 
 
 
 1 00 
 
 
 
 
 ■2 
 
 .16 
 
 Bagley, James ... 
 
 2 
 
 3 34+ 
 
 Brown, Benj 
 
 90 
 
 Bagley, Asher 
 
 
 
 
 ] 56 
 
 Bagley, Jesse 
 
 
 .07 
 
 
 
 .75 
 
 Bid well, David 
 
 
 
 
 1.25 
 
 
 
 
 .1 
 
 .06 
 
 
 
 
 1.01 
 
 Corey, Phebe 
 
 2 
 
 9 
 
 2.26 
 
 Coo-well, William. 
 
 32 
 
 Cobb, Asa 
 
 2! 4 . . 
 
 1 56it 
 
 Carey, John 
 
 
 
 1 .20 
 
 
 25 
 
 Clark, William 
 
 
 
 
 .72i 
 .65 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 35 
 
 Dolpli, Aaron 
 
 Dolph, Charles 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 
 .71 
 1.77 
 
 Dolph Moses 
 
 
 7(» 
 
 Dolph, Joimathan 
 
 Dean, Johnathan 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 
 1 .99 
 1 1(1 
 
 Goodrido-. Wm 
 
 2 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 I 
 1 
 
 
 1 .4 1 
 
 Gardner, Stephen 
 
 Gififord, John 
 
 2.55^ 
 
 .2-1 
 
 
 .T> 
 
 How. John 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 ■2 
 
 1.14 
 1.14 
 
 Hoyt, Ransfbrd 
 
 
 .3:! 
 
 Hardv, Wm. 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 .07^ 
 1.26 
 .65 
 
 Holmes, Enock 
 
 Hall. Nathan 
 
 
 
 
 2.00 
 
 Flalstead, John 
 
 Halsiead, Jonar. 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 .06 
 .20 
 
 
 
 
 1..33 
 
 Fellows. Joseph. 
 
 
 
 
 .30 
 
 Howard, James 
 
 
 
 
 .60 
 
 Hibbert, Ebenezer 
 
 
 
 .40 
 
 Lutz, Coonrad 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 1.44 
 .16 
 
 
 
 1 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 .62 
 
 Lewis, James.. . .... 
 
 4 
 
 2.27 
 
 Lntzs, Mich 
 
 .50 
 
 Lutz, Jacob 
 
 1.07 
 
 
 2 
 
 3.03 
 
 Miller, Christopher 
 
 Miller, Samuel 
 
 .07 
 .30 
 
 .MacDaniel, John 
 
 
 
 
 1.05 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY 
 
 199 
 
 Names of Inhabitants. 
 
 ti 
 
 O 
 o 
 
 1 
 
 
 Occupation or Profession. 
 
 Eesi.lence. 
 
 Ta.x. 
 
 MilH John 
 
 Farmer. 
 
 do 
 do 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 do 
 do 
 
 Farmer, 
 do 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 d.) 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 Merchant. 
 Spinster. 
 Farmer. 
 
 do 
 
 Pittston. 
 Rhode Island. 
 Providence. 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 Wilkes Barre 
 
 Providence. 
 
 New York. 
 
 Providence. 
 
 do 
 
 Providence. 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 Lonenburg. 
 
 Providence. 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 Pittston. 
 Providence. 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 Connecticut. 
 
 .77 
 
 (Ibedike, Lodwick 
 
 Park, Ebenezer 
 
 2 
 2 
 
 
 .60 
 1.69 
 
 
 .25^ 
 
 Pedrick. Ben 
 
 2.07i 
 
 Potter David 
 
 .60 
 
 
 
 
 
 1.10 
 
 
 
 
 
 .55 
 
 f>ot?« Natban 
 
 
 
 
 1.72^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 .IH 
 
 Kozel John 
 
 
 3.00 
 
 Smith Thomas 
 
 2 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 1.G2 
 
 
 .6t; 
 
 
 
 1 70 
 
 Siinral Wm 
 
 
 
 
 .75 
 
 
 1 
 
 .79 
 
 Searles Constant . . 
 
 1.14 
 
 Sill'' Sliadrick 
 
 
 1.10 
 
 
 
 
 
 .60 
 
 Stanion Wni 
 
 2 
 2 
 2 
 
 I 
 
 
 .85 
 
 i'aylor, Daniel 
 
 Taylor, John 
 
 Tavlor, Preserved 
 
 Taylor, AbndiMni 
 
 Tripp, Isaac. Jr 
 
 1.71 
 .88 
 
 1.82 
 .56 
 .44i 
 
 1. 00 
 
 Tripp Isaac 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 15.89 
 
 Wright Thoma"^ 
 
 2 12 
 
 Washburn, Elizabetii. . . 
 ("a rev Barnabas 
 
 
 
 
 .45 
 
 Tompkins Ben. 
 
 
 
 
 .89 
 
 Lewis James 
 
 
 
 .10 
 
 Gavlor, 
 
 
 
 
 .00 
 
 Town Meetings were first held in Providence at the 
 house of Stephen Tripp, in 1813. The entire vote of the 
 township, then extending jurisdiction over the subse- 
 quent toAvnships of Lackawanna, Covington, Jefferson, 
 Blakeley, Greenfield, and Scott, numbered eighty-two, as 
 follows: — 
 
 
 46 
 
 47 
 
 
 .36 
 
 1814. 
 
 
 3G 
 
 1815. 
 
 51 
 
 
 
 44 
 
 1828. " " . .. . 
 
 55 
 
 
 
 5j. 
 
 As late as 1816, wild game thronged the thickets around 
 Slocum Hollow. Benjamin Fellows, Esq., a hale old 
 gentleman, informs the writer that he has often seen 
 fiftv turkevs in a flock feed i no; on the stubble in his 
 
200 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 father's field, in Hyde Park, while deer tramped over the 
 plowed land like herds of sheep. In 1804, in company 
 with other hunters, he killed both panthers and bears in 
 the woods between Hyde Park and Slocura Hollow. 
 
 The general history of the township contains little of 
 general interest. Roads w^ere few and rugged, and the 
 inhabitants, priding themselves in assiduous labor and 
 frugality, lived and died contented. They enjoyed nei- 
 ther churches nor school-houses, for none had yet emerged 
 from the clearings ; were annoyed by few or only light 
 taxes ; and yet kindness and hospitality were so blended 
 with their daily toil on farms rendered fertile by a good 
 burn or unvaried cultivation, that the social relations of 
 the residents of the township were rarely, if ever, dis- 
 turbed by sectarian partiality or political asperities. The 
 general health was good, with no prevailing sickness until 
 1805, when the typhus fever, or "the black tongue," as it 
 was termed, carried its ravages into settlements just begin- 
 ning to feel the impulse of prosperity, along the borders of 
 the Susquehanna and the Lackawanna. Drs. J osepli Davis 
 and Nathaniel Giddings, the latter of whom settled in 
 Pittston in 1783, became the healing Elishas to many a 
 needy household. H. C. L. Von Storch settled in Provi- 
 dence in 1807. A German by birth, he inherited the 
 habits of industry and economy characterizing the people, 
 which in a few years enabled him to unfold the field from 
 the forest, and gather about him a competency. 
 
 The main portion of Providence village stands upon land 
 which came into possession of James Griffin in the winter 
 of 1812, who moved with his ftiraily into the solitary log- 
 house vacated by Holmes. The labor of destroying the 
 large trees upon the new land for the reception of seed 
 not always rewarding the husbandman with the yield ex- 
 pected, owing to the occurrence of frost and the presence 
 of wild animals, was so slow, that the settlement of the 
 township, encouraged only by a lumber and agricultural 
 interest, made tardy advancement. As late as 1816, three 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEV. 201 
 
 settlers only lived in the immediate vicinity of the Borough, 
 Daniel Waderman, James and Thomas Gi'iffin. The next 
 year a clearing was commenced in the Notch by Levi 
 Travis. 
 
 The land originally reserved in Providence exclusively 
 for school purposes, owing to the prolonged Wyoming 
 dispute and cliange of jurisdiction, lay idle. Forty - 
 eight years elapse after the settlement of the valley 
 before a school-house was erected within its limits. The 
 iirst school-house, diminutive in proportion, but yet sufR- 
 €ient for the demand upon it, was built, a few rods below 
 the Holmes house, in 1818. It is still standing b}- the 
 road-side and used as a dwelling. Previous to this, 
 schools were kept in private houses, and sometimes under 
 the shade of a tree in summer, and some, if taught at all, 
 were taught to read, write, and cipher by the fireside 
 at home. In the upper portion of the village, near the 
 terminus of the Peoples Street Railway, stands an old 
 brown school-house, erected in 1834, known as the Heer- 
 man's or "Bell school-house." The bell giving the 
 house its name, costing tifteen dollars, paid for by sul)- 
 scription, hung in the modest belfry for forty-live years, 
 when it was transferred to the Graded School building. 
 It was the first bell ever heard on the plains of the Lack- 
 awanna, and as its animating tones rang out on the air, 
 and were borne by the breeze over hill and valley, it 
 awakened a pride that was ever cherished by the older 
 inhabitants until its sudden and vandalic removal a few 
 years since. The bell is yet sound and sweet in its vibi-a- 
 tions, and serves to call the unwilling urchin to school as 
 in days of yore. A partisan spirit was introduced into 
 the school, which so embittered the relations of the neigli- 
 borhood as to result in the erection of a new scliool-house 
 across the river in 1836 under Democratic auspices. 
 
 Dr. Silas B. Robinson came into the townsliip in 1823, 
 where he creditably practiced his profession nearly forty 
 years. So long had he lived in the township, and so well 
 
202 
 
 HISTOKY OF THK 
 
 was he known for his blunt manners, bhimeless life, and! 
 kind heart, even with all his pardonable eccentricities, 
 that his presenct^ was welcome everywhere, and his sud- 
 den death in 1860 widely lamented. 
 
 Nothing tended to give a vigorous direction to Provi- 
 dence toward a inllage more than the Philadelphia and 
 Great Bend Turnpike. This highway, well known as the 
 "Drinker Turnpike," promised as it passed through the 
 village with a tri-weekly stage-coach and mail, to land 
 passengers from the valley in Philadelphia after two days 
 of unvarying jolting. This road, chartered in 1819, com- 
 pleted in 1826, was the first highway through Cobb's 
 Gap. The Connecticut road, long traversed by the emi- 
 grant, casting a wishful look into the valley, passed over' 
 the rough summit of the mountain, here cut in twain by 
 Roaring Brook. The Luzerne and Wayne County turn- 
 pike built this year, intersected Drinker's road at Piovi- 
 dence. 
 
 As the village from these causes, and from its ceiitial 
 position began to grow into importance, Slocum Hollow, 
 shorn of its glory by the abandonment of its forge and 
 stills, was judged by the Department at Washington as. 
 being too obscure a point for a post-office, as the receipts 
 for the year 1827 averaged only $3.37|- per quarter. The 
 office was removed the next year to its thriftier rival, 
 Providence. 
 
 ' The change that a third of a century brings our race, can bo readily appreciated 
 by a glance at "The hstof Letters remaining in Providence Post OfiBce, July 1, 
 1335 " as copied from the Northern Pennsyloanian, a weekly paper printed in 
 Carbondale, by Amzi Wilson. Of the persons thus addressed but a single oua 
 sur /ives, — the venerable Zephaniah Knapp of Pittston. 
 Rlezor H. Atlierton. Henry Pepper, 
 
 .Tohn Lurne, 
 Hannah Van Stork, 
 Barney Carey, 
 Aug. Jenks, 
 Zephaniah Knapp, 
 Maria Chase, 
 Joseph Lance, 
 William G. Knapp, 
 
 Francis Mead, 
 John Morden, 
 Wm. C. Green, 
 Thos. T. Atherton, 
 John Bilson, 
 David Krotzer, 
 Michael Agnew, 
 
 Amasa Cook. 
 David Patrick, 
 Stephen Tripp, 
 Alva Dana, 
 Selah Mead, 
 
 P. C. , 
 
 Samuel Stevens, 
 Oliver PhilUps, 
 
 Louisa Fore^-t. 
 David S. Ri'-e. 
 Oomer PhUlips, 
 Roberta Hury, 
 Phineas Carman. 
 Samuel Wadermaa,, 
 Isaac Searles, 
 W. Whitlock. 
 
 JOHN VAUGH^i, .Jii. P. M. 
 
LACKAW.VNNA VALLKY. 203 
 
 On what is now the southwest (corner of Market and 
 Main streets, Elisha S. Potter and Michael McKeal in 
 1828 inaugurated a country store upon the popular princi- 
 ple of universal credit, and they were so successful in 
 establishing it, that some of their dues are yet outstanding. 
 The late Elisha S. Potter, and our townsman Nathaniel 
 Cottrill, looking forward to the future value of the idle 
 acres surrounding " Razorville,'' as the village was long 
 called, purchased fourteen acres of the Holmes tract in 
 1828, including the fine water privileges, for $285 per acre. 
 Mr. Cottrill shortly afterward came into possession of 
 the entire interest of Esq. Potter, and (^rected a grist-mill 
 upon the premises. The village has been visited by three 
 tornadoes since its settlement. The most fearful one, or 
 the "great blow," swept away a great portion of the vil- 
 lage on the 3d of July, 1834. During the afternoon of 
 that day, which was one of unusual warmth, the thunder 
 now and then breaking from the blackened sky, gave 
 notice of the approaching storm. It came with the fury 
 of a ti-opical whirlwind. A strong northwesterly^ current 
 of air rushing down tiirough Leggett's Gap, met the main 
 body as it whirled from the more southern gap, contig- 
 uous to Leggett's, and concentrating at a point opposite 
 the present residence of Mr. Cottrill, commenced its wild 
 work. As it crossed the mountain, it swept down trees 
 of huge growth in its progress, leaving a path strewn 
 with the fallen forest. 
 
 At Providence seems to have been the funnel of the 
 northwest current, which, as it arrived at the Lackawanna, 
 was turned by that from the southwest to a northeast 
 direction. Before dusk the gale attained its height, when 
 the wind, accompanied with clouds of dust, blew through 
 the streets, lifting roofs, houses, barns, fences, and even 
 cattle in one instance, from the earth and dashing them to 
 pieces in the terrible exultation of the elements. 
 
 Nearly every house here was either prostrated, dis- 
 turbed, or destroyed in the course of a few seconds. A 
 
204 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 meeting-liouse, partly built, in the lower part of the vil- 
 lage, was blown down and the frame carried a great 
 distance. The house and store of N. Cottrill, standing 
 opposite the tavern kept by him at this time, was raised 
 from its foundation and partly turned around from the 
 west to the northwest, and left in this angular position. 
 The chimney, howevei-, fell, covering up a cradle hold- 
 ing the babe of Mrs. Phinney, but being singularly pro- 
 tected by the shielding boards, the child, when found in 
 about an hour afterward, was laughing and unharmed. 
 
 Some large square timber, lying in the vicinity, was 
 hurled many rods : one large stick, ambitious as the bat- 
 tering ram of old, passed endwise entirely through the 
 tavern-house, and was only arrested in its progress by 
 coming into contact with the hill sloping just back of the 
 dwelling, into which it plunged six or seven feet. In its 
 journey — o\ forcible entry ^ as lawyers might term it — 
 it passed through the bedroom of Mrs. Cottrill, immedi- 
 ately under her bed. 
 
 Gravel-stones were driven through panes of glass, leav- 
 ing holes as smooth as a bullet or a diamond could make, 
 while shingles and splinters, with the Heetness of the feath- 
 ered arrow, were thrown into clapboards and other wooden 
 obstructions, presenting a strange picture of the fantastic. 
 
 The office of the late Elisha S. Potter, Esq., standing in 
 the lower part of the village, was caught up in the screw- 
 like funnel of the whirlwind, and carried over one hun- 
 dred feet, and fell completely inverted, smashing in the 
 roof; it was left in its half-somerset position, standing on 
 its bare plates. The venerable and esteemed old squire 
 and Mr. Otis Severance, who were transacting business in 
 the office at the time, kept it company during its aerial 
 voyage, both escaping with less injury than fright. 
 
 The embankment of the old bridge across the Lacka- 
 wanna, from its south abutment, was sided with large 
 hewn timbers, remaining there for years, and well satu- 
 rated with water. On the lower side these were taken 
 
l.ACKAWANNA VALLEY. 205 
 
 entirely from their bed, and j)itched quite two hundred 
 feet into the adjacent meadow. An old aspiring fanning- 
 mill, standing at the front door of the grist-mill, upon the 
 ground, took flight in the whiilwind, and was carried in 
 the door of the second story of the mill, without being 
 broken by the power so rudely assailing. 
 
 Along the eastern side of the road leading to Carbon- 
 dale, in places where the focus of the current dipped or 
 reached the earth, all was wreck and disorder. Young 
 hickory-trees left standing by the settlers for shade or 
 other purposes, and apple-trees bending with the ripening 
 apple, fell like weeds, and the remaining branches and 
 roots, twisted, torn, and uprooted, revealed to the passer- 
 by the strength of the blow. 
 
 At the present thriving and appropriately -named Ca 
 poose works, owned by Mr. Pulaski Carter, there lay a 
 strip of meadow upon the bank of the Lackawanna, where 
 was standing a small carding-machine. This building was 
 quickly demolished, the wool and rolls being spun along 
 the fields and woods for miles. Some were carried in an 
 oblique direction to CobVs Pond, on the very summit of 
 the Moosic Mountain. 
 
 One of the most singular incidents, however, in the phe- 
 nomenon of the hurricane, occurred to a young woman 
 living half a mile from the village, on the route taken by 
 the whirlwind. Like many timid ones of the town, trem- 
 ulous at the approach of the lightning and thunder, she 
 sought refuge in bed. While smothering in the feathers 
 under the covering of the quilt, the bed on which she was 
 lying was whirled from the house, just unroofed, and car- 
 ried along by the force of the black current of air several 
 rods, and landed safely in the meadow adjoining, before 
 she was aware of her aerial and unjolting flight. 
 
 In 1849, Providence village was incorporated into a 
 borough ; in 1866, consolidated into the city of Scranton, 
 forming the flrst and second wards of this young metropo 
 lis of the Lackawanna valley. 
 
206 HISTOKY OF THE 
 
 DUNMORE/ 
 
 Like Scranton, Hyde Park, Green Ridge, Dickson, 
 Olyphant, Pecktown, and Petersburg, Dunmore is one of 
 numerous villages which sprang from the original township 
 of Providence. Purcliased of the natives in 1754 by the 
 whites, long before the tomahawk was Hung over the 
 Moosic, the territory now embracing this village offered 
 its solitude in vain to the pioneers seeking a home in the 
 wilderness between the Delaware and the Susquehanna 
 until the summer of 1783. At thistime, William AUswoitli, 
 a shoemaker by trade, who had visited the Connecticut 
 land at Wyoming for the purpose of selecting a place for 
 his home the year previous, reached this point at evening, 
 where he encamped and lit his fire in the forest where 
 Dunmore was thus founded. 
 
 The old Connecticut or Cobb road, shaded by the giant 
 pines extending from the summit of the mountain to 
 Capoose, had no diverging pathway to Slocuni Hollow. 
 No. Six, or Blakeley, because neither of these places had 
 yet acquired a settler or a name. From the '' Lackawa " 
 settlement, on the Paupack, some four and twenty miles 
 from the cabin of Allsworth, there stood but two habi- 
 tations in 1783, one at Little Meadows, the other at Cobb's, 
 both kept as houses of entertainment. The need of more 
 places of rest to cheer the emigrants toiling toward 
 Wyoming with heavy burdens drawn by the sober team 
 of oxen, induced Mr. Allsworth to fix his abode at this 
 spot. While he was building his cabin from trees fallen 
 for the purpose of gaining space and material, his covered 
 wagon furnished a home for his family. At night, heaps 
 of logs were kept burning until long after midnight, to 
 intimidate wolves, bears, wild cats, and panthers inhab- 
 iting the chaparral toward Roaring Brook and Capoose. 
 Deer and bear were so abundant for many years, within 
 
 ' Named frcnn the Earl of Dunmore. 
 
LACKAWANNA VAI.I.KV. 207 
 
 fiight of his clearing, that liis raniily never trusted to his 
 rifle in vain for a supply of venison or the substantial 
 haunches of the bear. In the fall and winter months, 
 wild beasts made incursions Avitli such frequency, tliat 
 domestic animals at night could be safely kept only in 
 palisaded inclosures. These Avere a strong stockade made 
 from the well-driven sapling, and generally built contig- 
 uous to the dwelling, into which all kinds of live stock 
 were driven for protection after nightfall. Every farmer 
 in the township of Providence, unwilling to see his home 
 invaded and occupied by the common enemy at the dead 
 of night, took this precaution less than eighty years ago. 
 And even then they were not exempt from depredation at 
 Mr. Allsworth' s. At one time, just at the edge of evening, 
 a bear groped his w^ay into the pen wliere some of his 
 pigs were slumbering, seized the sow in his brawny paws 
 <ind bore the noisy porker hurriedly into the woods, 
 where it was seen no more. The affrighted pigs were left 
 uiihai-med in the pen. At another time, during the 
 absence from home of Mr. Allsworth, a large panther 
 came to his place befoi-e sundown in search of food. This 
 animal is as partial to veal as the bear is to pork. A calf 
 lay in the unguarded inclosure at the time. Upon this 
 the panther sprang, when Mrs. Allsworth, alarmed by 
 the bleat of the calf, seized a pair of heavy tongs from the 
 tire-place, and, with a heroism distinguishing most of the 
 women of that day, drove the yellow intruder away 
 without its intended meal. The same night, however, the 
 calf was killed by the panthei-, which in return was 
 •captured in a trap tlie same week, and slain. 
 
 The house of Mr. Allsworth. famed for the constant 
 readiness of the host to smooth by his diy jokes and kind 
 words the ruggedness of ever}- man's daily road, became 
 a common point of interest and attraction to the emigrant 
 or the wayfarer. The original cabin of Mr. Allsworth 
 stood upon the spot now occupied l)y the brick stoie of 
 John D. Boyle. 
 
208 HISTOKY OF THE 
 
 The descendants of Mr. Allsworth have filled many 
 places of trust and usefulness in the county, and adorned 
 the various walks of social life. For twelve years this 
 pioneer had no neighbors nearer than those living in 
 Capoose or Providence. In the summer of 1795, Charles 
 Dolph, John Carey, and John West began the labor of 
 clearing and plowing lands in the neighborhood of Buck- 
 town or the Corners^ as this place was long called after 
 the first foot-path opened from Blakeley to the Roaring 
 Brook crossed the Wyoming road at Allsworth' s. 
 
 Edward Lunnon, Isaac Dolph, James Brown, Phili]) 
 Swartz and Levi De Puy, purchased land of the State be- 
 tween 1799-1805 and located in this portion of Providence 
 Township. 
 
 The old tavern, long since vanish (^dwith its round, 
 swinging sign and low bar-room, one corner of which, 
 fortified with long pine-pickets, extending from the bar 
 to the very ceiling, in times of yore, was owned success- 
 ively by Wm. Allsworth, Philip Swartz, Isaac Dolph, 
 Henry W. Drinker, and Samuel De Puy, before its- 
 destruction by fire, a number of years ago. 
 
 The external aspect of Dunmore, somber in appearance 
 and tardy in its growth, with a clearing here and there 
 occupied by men superior to fear or adversity, promised 
 so much by its agricultural expectations in 1813, that Dr. 
 Orlo Hamlin with his young wife, was induced to settle 
 a mile north of Allsworth. He was the first physician 
 and surgeon locating in Providence. This locality, fresh 
 with hygiene from the forest, offered so little compensa- 
 tion to a profession without need or appreciation among 
 the hardy woodmen, that the doctor the next year 
 removed to Salem, Wayne County, Pennsylvania. 
 
 The population of Dunmore and Blakeley, doubling in 
 numbers and increasing in wealth, warranted Stephen 
 Tripp in erecting a saw and grist mill in 1820, on the 
 Roaring Brook half a mile south of the village, the 
 debris of whose walls, forgotten by the hand that reared 
 
.-f--^. 
 
 "■^ -vii^" ■> 
 
 JOHN B. SMITH 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 211 
 
 them, are seen at No. Six, favoivd with no thought of theii 
 former value to tlie connnuuity. 
 
 A store was opened at the Corners in 1820 under tlie 
 auspices of the Drinker Turnpike ; but the village, consist- 
 ing of but four houses, had but a negative existence until 
 the Pennsylvania Coal Company, in 1847-8, turned the 
 sterile pasture-fields around it into a town liberal in 
 the extent of its territory and diversified by every variety 
 of life. 
 
 The immense machine-sliops of this company, concen 
 trating and fostering a vast amount of superior mechani 
 €al skill, are located at No. Six, and serve to give Dunmore 
 additional note and character as a business village. In 
 fact, Dunmore can congratulate itself not so much upon 
 the internal wealth of its hills, as upon the vigor of the 
 men who furrowed them out, and thus encouraged a town 
 at this time deriving its daily inspirations wholly fi-oni tliis 
 source. While Gen. John Ewen, President of the Penn- 
 sylvania Coal Company, especially looks after its affairs in 
 New York with a zeal assuring his courage and fidt^ity, 
 t!ie general superintendence of the entire works in Penn- 
 sylvania has been exercised by John B. Smitli, ot\ Dun- 
 more, through an administratioa of nearly twenty years, 
 ill a manner so discreet, popular, and yet withal so modest, 
 as jointly to advance the interests of the comjjany, impart 
 strength of development to Pittston, Dunmore, and Haw- 
 ley, and change the circumstances and fortunes of a large 
 class of men employed along the line of tlie road, who 
 looked and trusted to industry for reward. 
 
 Dunmoi'e is now an incorporated borough, is connected 
 with ScrantoiK Hyde Park, and Providence by a street- 
 railroad, and enjoys an aggregate population of about 
 five thousand souls. 
 
 IIISTOIIY OF SCKANTOTS^. 
 
 Nay-aug^ or Roaring Brook, linked together by suc- 
 cessive rapids and falls for many miles, emergens from the 
 
212 
 
 HISTORV OK THE 
 
 water-shedding crest separating the Delaware from the 
 Susquehanna, and forms the noisiest tributaiy of the 
 Lackawanna, whicli it enters at Scranton, one mile beloA\ 
 the ancient village of Capoose. The woodland along the 
 brook, unbroken on its gorgeous surface save by the 
 achievements of tlie beaver, whose dams and villages 
 deepened many a curve, had no fixed tenantry but beasts 
 of prey until 1788. 
 
 lAI ALO FA 
 
 Across the Lackawanna, the skin- clad savages had 
 vanished from their wigwams with a sigh, leaving theii 
 fertile meadows to be tilled by men efficient in industry, 
 yet indifferent to fear, who used the jungle now marked 
 by Scranton, to return the visits of the wolf and the bear 
 coming often to them unannounced. Although the great 
 war-path from the Indian villages on the Delaware to tlie 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKY. 213 
 
 tribes strolling over Wyoming, intelligence of Avliicli 
 had been early gained of the wandering bowmen, entered 
 Capoose at the eddy affording niooiage for the warrior's 
 canoe, no one looked upon the tamarack swamp, now hid 
 in the interior of Scranton, as suitable for a dwelling-place, 
 while the richer lands west of the Lackawanna, more 
 easily cared for, invited occupancy and tillage. 
 
 Philip Abbott was the first settler in "Deep Hollow," 
 as this place was designated from 1788 until 1798, when it 
 took the name of Slocum Holloic. AVhile the month of 
 May charmed the glen with its foliage^ and fragrance, Mr. 
 Abbott marked out his clearing. On a ledge of rocks, 
 washed by the brook whose w^aters it overlooked, near 
 where stands the old Slocum House, rose from the up- 
 rolled logs the first cabin in the Hollow\ It was simply 
 a log hut or pen covered with boughs, formed but a single 
 loom, occupied in great part by a huge iire-place four or 
 live feet in width and as many in depth, filhnl in the long 
 evenings of Avinter Avith great sticks of Avood before a 
 back-log, which furnished both light and warmth to the 
 liardy inmates. Philip was a native of Connecticut, had 
 (^migrated to AYyoraing Valley w^ith the Yankees before 
 the Revolution, owned propert}^ under the Connecticut 
 title, Avhich he transferred to his brother James, both of 
 whom were expelled by the Tories and Indians in 1778. 
 
 The settlers in Providence Township in 1788 were lim- 
 ited in numbers, yet their necessities sometimes pressing, 
 found expression in the settlement of Deep Hollow. Corn 
 and rye raised in the valley, had to be carried twenty 
 miles to mill in Wyoming Valley, or half cracked by the 
 pestle and mortar, and eaten almost whole. The wants of 
 the inhabitants, multiplying gradually by the devel- 
 opment of the settlement, and other causes wonderfully 
 productive here in the wild woods, suggested to the prac- 
 tical mind of Mr. Abbott the erection of a grist-mill upon 
 the Roaring Brook. Its waters were ample in volume and 
 power ; a dam easy of construction along its rocky 
 
214 HISTOKT OF TIIK 
 
 grottoes. The Lackawanna, spanned by no bridge, could 
 generally be forded during the summer months, unless 
 swollen by rains ; in winter an ice-bridge favored com- 
 munication with the farmers living across the stream. 
 
 The construction of the mill was marked by strong sim- 
 plicity. One millstone wrought from tlie granite of an 
 adjoining ledge, slightly elevated by an iron spindle, 
 revolved upon its nether stone as rudely and firmly ad- 
 justed upon a rock. A belt cut from skin, half wrapped 
 on the drum of the water-wheel, passing over the spin- 
 dle with a twist, formed the running gear of a mill ful- 
 filling the expectations of its projector, and the hopes 
 of those encouraging its erection. The mill building, 
 upheld by saplings firmly placed in the earth, was roofed 
 and sided by slabs hewn from trees and aflixed by wooden 
 pins and withes. Nails comprised no part of its con- 
 struction, nor did tlie sound of the mallet and chisel 
 take part in the triumph of its completion. No por- 
 tion of the mill surpassed its bolt in novelty. A large 
 deer-sJcin, well tanned and stretched upon poles, perfora- 
 ted sieve-like with holes, made partial separation of tln^ 
 flour from the coarser bran. The strong arm of the millt^r 
 or the customer worked the bolt. An old gentleman, now 
 deceased, informed the writer many years ago, that when 
 he was a mere lad "he often went to Abbott's mill wit'i 
 his father, and that while the coin was being ground 
 the old man and the miller got jolly on whisky punches 
 in the house, while he was compelled to stay in the mill 
 to shake the meal through tlie bolt." So primitive and 
 unique was the construction of this corn-cracker, without 
 tools or machinery, that it simply broke the kernels of 
 corn into a samp-meal, which made a kind of food very 
 popular in the earlier history of the valley. 
 
 Tlie grist-mill, maintainins; and even increasing its im- 
 portance among the ^^eomanry scattered along the river, 
 needed additional capital and labor to arrange and enlarge 
 its capacity. These requirements came with James Abbott, 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 215 
 
 in October of this year, and with Reuben Taylor in the 
 spring of 1789, both of whom, with Philip Abbott, became 
 • ■qnal partners in the mill. Mr. Taylor built a double log- 
 liouse on the bank of the brook, below the cabin of 
 Abbott, which was the second dwelling erected in the 
 Hollow. Owing to the want of glass, its high, small win- 
 dows, like all the cabins of the frontierman, gave place 
 to skins from the forests. Doors, beds, and blankets, and 
 sometimes clothes, were made from the same rich untanned 
 material. The forest trees in the forks of the two streams, 
 yielding to the united assaults of ax and firebrand, opened 
 a strip of land for the reception of wheat and corn, bring- 
 ing forth its maiden crop in 1789. John Howe and his 
 unmarried brother Seth, animated by the liope that inde- 
 pendence would come from a life of honesty and labor, 
 purchased the rights and good-will of the former owners, 
 ;ind moved into the thatched dwelling vacated by Mr. 
 'J'aylor. On the uplands known throughout the valley 
 as the ''Uncle Joe Grifhn farm,'' Mr. Taylor, after rescu- 
 ing a few acres from tlie woodlands, disposed of his place 
 for a trifle because of its seeming worthlessness. 
 
 Tlie first saw-mill built in Providence Township was 
 planned on Stafford Meadow Bi-ook, half a mile below 
 Scranton, in 1790, by Caj^t. John Staflbrd, from whom the 
 stream derived its name. 
 
 While the farmers living around Capoose enjoyed the 
 prosperity and rustic comforts they themselves had created, 
 little or no progress toward enlarging the settlement at the 
 Hollow had been made. No building of a public charac- 
 ter, neither school nor a meeting-house had yet been fos- 
 tered within the limits of Capoose, Providence, or the 
 Hollow. The Lackawanna led on its way, unvexed by 
 dam or bridge. In 1796, Joseph Fellows, Sen., a man of 
 great resolution and intelligence, who had just gained a 
 residence on the Hyde Park hill-side, aided by the farm- 
 ers of Capoose, placed a bridge across the river, with a 
 single span. The plank used upon it was the first pro- 
 
216 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 diiction of Stafford's mill. It was located on the flats, 
 where the slackened waters are still crossed by the 
 throng. 
 
 That part of the certified Township of Providence 
 now occupied by Hyde Park, originally reserved by 
 tJie Susquehanna Company for religious and school pur- 
 poses, was settled in 1794, by William Bishop, a Baptist 
 clergyman of some eccentricity of character, whose log- 
 quarters, fixed on the parsonage lot overlooking Capoose, 
 in its rural simplicity stood where now stands Judge 
 Mej-rifield's dwelling. Most of the land about the central 
 portion of this thrifty village was cleared by the Dolphs. 
 In 1795, Aaron Dolph rolled up his small log-house upon 
 the present site of the Hyde Park hotel ; his brother 
 Jonathan then chopped and logged off' the Washburn 
 and Knapp farm, while the lands at Fellows Corner were 
 brought to light and culture by Moses Dolph. The earli- 
 est house of entertainment or tavern in Hyde Park was 
 opened and kept by Jonathan Dolph. In 1810, Philij) 
 Heermans, influenced by the community, which required 
 a public point at which to hold town meetings and enjoy 
 the largest liberty of franchise, turned his house into a 
 tavern., where the spirit of frolic sometimes mingled with 
 the more sober duties of the assemblage. Elections have 
 been held at this place ever since. On the cold soil and 
 bleak hill north of Dunmore, Charles Dolph, anothei- 
 brother, moved into the forest, where lie sowed and 
 reaped in due season. 
 
 The joint and double advantage of water-power and 
 timber everywhere found along the Roaring Brook from 
 its mouth up to its head-springs amidst the evergreens of 
 the Pocono, could neither be overlooked nor resisted by 
 Ebenezer and Benjamin Slocum, who purchased of the 
 Howes, in July, 1798, the undivided land of Slocum Hol- 
 low. The father of the Slocums was Ebenezer Slocum, 
 Sen. He had emigrated to Wyoming Valley ])revious to 
 the massacre, was shot and scalped by the Indians, near 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKY. 217 
 
 Wilkes Barre Fort, in Decembei-, 1778, with Isaac Tripp, 
 Sen. 
 
 A domestic tragedy, casting a spirit of melancholy over 
 the Lrook-side cabin, hastened and impelled the ti-ansfer 
 of the property. Lydia, the eldest born of John Howes, 
 depressed by some disappointed visions of girlhood, was 
 found dead in her chamber, having hanged herself with a 
 garter attached to her bedpost. The effect of this suicide 
 ^the first in the valley — removed every speculating con- 
 sidei-ation or cavil from a trade which placed the mill and 
 the wild acres around it into the hands of the Slocums. 
 
 Benjamin was a single man ; he afterward married Miss 
 Phebe La Fronse. Ebenezer married a daughter of Dr. 
 Joseph Davis, one of the most eccentric medical men ever 
 known in the Lackawanna Valle}^ "ZTe teas not,'''' in the 
 language of an octogenarian familiar with his oddities five- 
 and-sixty years ago, "a great metaphysical doctor but a 
 wonderful sargant doctor." Dr. Davis died in Slocum 
 Hollow in 1830, aged 98 years. 
 
 Tliere were now but two houses in the Hollow, and only 
 that number of grist-mills from Nanticoke northward to 
 the State line. 
 
 The Slocums, young, strong, and ambitious, infused 
 new elements into the settlement. They named the place 
 Vnionville, but the name, having no descriptive interpre- 
 tation or bearing to the glen, readily gave way to that of 
 Slocum' s Hollow, or Slocum Hollow. In 1799, after the 
 mill, necessarily rugged in its interior and external fea- 
 tures, had been improved, enlarged, and a distillery added 
 thereto, Ebenezer Slocum and his partner, James Duwaiii, 
 l)uilt a saw-mill a little above the grist-mill. A sniitli 
 shop, built from faultless logs, rose from the mnrgin of the 
 creek, and the sound of the anvil, carried afar, blended 
 Joyfully with the song of the noisy water. Two or three 
 additional houses, built for the workmen, the saw and the 
 grist mill, one cooper shop, with the smith shop and the 
 distillery, formed the total village of Slocum Hollow or 
 
218 HISTOKY OF THE 
 
 Scranton in 1800. Both dams were swept away by tlie 
 spring freshet of this year, exhausting the coui-age of Mi". 
 Duwain, who forthwith retired from partnership ; Benja- 
 min Slocum taking his place. 
 
 The interests of the community suffered but littk% as 
 the dams were promptly built by the aid of a bee^ which 
 called together every farmer in the township. The grist- 
 mill was patronized far and near. Farmers twenty miles 
 away sometimes sought the mill with their grists, and 
 when the work was pressing on the farm at home, the}' 
 tarried and toiled while the wife, heroic and devoted, went 
 to mill on horseback, with no equipage grander than th^ 
 pillion. 
 
 The Pittston division of the valley owes no more kind 
 remembrance to Dr. Wm. Hooker Smith for his vigorous 
 efforts to extract iron from its hills, than the Scranton por- 
 tion of it concedes to the elder Slocum brothers for the 
 erection of the original iron -forge in the Hollow in 1800. 
 Low down on the bank of the brook, beside the waterfall 
 and yet above the flood, grew up the forge and trip-ham- 
 mer, which, fed with ore gathered from gullies, brought 
 forth the molten product in abundance. 
 
 The old landmark of» Slocum Hollow, cherished with 
 pride by the old settler, is the old "Slocum House" yet 
 standing by the creek, with its stone basement and broad 
 long stoop, as proudly as in days of yore. It is the oldest 
 structure in Scranton, was built in the fall of 1805 by 
 Ebenezer Slocum, well preserved even to its capacious 
 hearth where the fagot blazed and reflected back the 
 light of smiling faces half a century ago, where the jest 
 and the song went around and the old hall rang to the 
 very roof. The second. /7Ycw^e house in the Hollow was 
 built by Benjamin Slocum. Facing the brook, with its 
 low porch extending along its entire front, it offered an 
 admirable view of the forge and the sturdy artisans around 
 it. With all these improvements along a narrow strip of 
 clearing, Slocum Hollow was yet comparatively a wilder- 
 
LACKAWAI^NA VALLKV. 
 
 219 
 
 ness. Deer, bear, and even pantli<'is were hunted and 
 killed here as late as 1816. Lands now occnpied by th(.' 
 massive Round House and the l)ei)()ts of the Delaware, 
 Lackwanna, and Western Railroad, were cleared of the 
 fallen tree and sown with wheat in ISl'u Six years 
 previous, a chopping had been made where Lackawanna 
 Avenue runs, but the wolves issuing from their fastnesses 
 in the tamarack jungle adjoining, ])revented the Slocums 
 from keeping sheep for their mucli-needed wool. 
 
 SLOCUM HOUSE. 
 
 Elislia Hitchcock, a young mill- wright from New Hamp- 
 shire, made his way into Slocum Hollow in 1809. He 
 repaired the mill, married Ruth the daughter of Benjamin 
 Slocum in 1811, an excellent lady who still survives him. 
 Mr. Hitchcock was an honest man, who never wronged 
 his fellow, and beloved by all for his exemplary qualities ; 
 he died a few years since. 
 
 A second still was put into operation in 1811. The 
 tranquil succession of abundant liarvests throughout 
 Capoose — the absence of an approachable market for the 
 grain, thrashed out by the flail— the frequent calls for 
 whisky coming from Easton, Paupack, Bethany, Mon- 
 
220 HISTORY OF THK 
 
 trose, and the high banks of Berwick, abating none of its 
 value and inspirations as a commercial agent, served to 
 welcome the accession of the new still as a publio 'bene- 
 faction worth}' of the unhesitated and active patronage 
 and favor accorded to it by every member of society. 
 
 Luzerne County, as now bounded, had but two post- 
 offices in 1810— Wilkes Barre and Kingston. In 1811 
 four were established, viz. : at Pittston, Nescopeck, Abing- 
 ton, and Providence. The Providence office was located 
 in Slocum Hollow, and Benj. Slocum appointed post- 
 master. The inhabitants of the valley working hard for 
 coarse food and rustic homespun, sometimes had leisure 
 to visit and reflect, but few books or papers to peruse. 
 Scattered through Blakeley or over the mountain, they 
 enjoyed no mail facilities other than those offered by this 
 office, until the establishment of another one in Blakeley 
 in 1824. The Slocum Hollow office was removed to 
 Providence in this year, and John Vaughn appointed 
 postmaster. The same year William Merrifield was com- 
 missioned postmaster of a new office established at 
 Hyde Park. The mail was carried once a week on horse- 
 back from Easton to Bethany by Zephaniah Knapp, Esq. , 
 xia Wilkes Barre and Providence ; the entire mail 
 matter for the Lackawanna settlements bore no compari- 
 son, in quantity, to the amount that very many business 
 firms in the same vicinity are now daily the recipients of. 
 
 Frances Slocum, who was taken captive by the Indians 
 in Wyoming Valley, in 1778, and whose subsequent his- 
 tory has been made familiar by Dr. Peck and Miner, was 
 a sister of Ebenezer and Benjamin, When she was cauglit 
 up in the arms of the savage that had just scalped a lad 
 with the knife he was grinding at the door, a painted war- 
 rior rushed into the house of Jonathan Slocum "and took 
 up Ebenezer Slocum, a little boy. The mother stepped 
 up to the savage, and reaching for the child, said : ' He 
 can do you no good ; see, he is lame.' With a grim smile, 
 giving up the boy, he took Frances, her daughter, aged 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKY. 221 
 
 about five years, gently in liis arms, and seizing the 
 younger Kinsley by the hand, hurried away to the moun- 
 tains.'"^ His release from the fickle savage, through the 
 adroitness of his mother, was no more providential than 
 his escape from as horrible a death in 1808. Losing his 
 foothold while clearing the mill-race of drift-wood, he fell, 
 and was carried by the rushing impulse of the current 
 down the stream between the buckets of the water-wheel 
 before he was rescued by his ftiithful negro. Mr. Slo- 
 cum's weight exceeded two hundred, and yet, through this 
 vise-like space, measuring scant six inches, he was forced 
 with so little injury that he resumed his wonted labor 
 within a week ! Of such material, plastic yet withe-like, 
 was made the men who carved and nursed the valley in 
 its infancy. 
 
 In the manufacture of iron, no advantage was taken of 
 the coal ramparts by the creek, because no knowledge of 
 its use for this purpose had reached the public mind until 
 1886. Charcoal, made in the turf-clad ])its by tlie wood- 
 side, everywhere at the furnaces asserted its prerogative 
 as the heating agent. In fa(;t, the timber about Scrantou 
 in the eailier part of the century was swept away, more 
 especially to supply the charcoal demand of Slocum's 
 forge, than for any remunerative gain its soil promised 
 to the cultivators of the country. 
 
 Iron forges and furnaces having sprung up in various 
 sections of country where Slocum Hollow iron, famous for 
 its superior texture, had been favorably know^n and used ; 
 the dilapidated state of the works in use for six-and- 
 twenty years ; the cost of transporting ore over miles of 
 roads sometimes rendered impassable by fallen trees or 
 deepened ruts ; all contributed to extinguish the forge-fire. 
 The last iron was made by the Slocums in June, 1826 : 
 the last whisky distilled a few months later. Up to this 
 time these primitive iron- works were, in the hands of 
 
 'Miner's History, p. 247 
 
222 HISTOUY OF THE 
 
 these unobtrusive men, yielding tlieir conquests and dif- 
 fusing a spirit of enterprise amidst accumulative diffi- 
 culties, in a valley having no outlet by railroad, ^o 
 navigable route to the sea other than shallow waters long 
 skimmed by the Indian's canoe. 
 
 Ebenezer retired from business in 1828 ; in 1832, full of 
 years, peaceful, trusting, he went to his grave, as a shock 
 of corn fully ripe cometh in, in its season. 
 
 Joseph and Samuel Slocum, full of youthful enthusi- 
 asm, began to carry on farming and mill interests with the 
 same spirit of earnestness distinguishing the elder Slocums. 
 
 The obliteration of the still and forge abridged the im- 
 portance and checked the growth of the village. Three 
 roads, or rather two, cut through the woods, too narrow 
 for wagons to pass each other only in places prepared for 
 turn-outs, diverged from the Hollow : one from Alls- 
 worth's, at Dunmore, led to Fellows' Corners; while the 
 other crossed the swamp, along what is now Wyoming 
 Avenue, on fallen logs, and found its way by Griffin's 
 Corners to the acknowledged political center of the valley 
 — Razorville village. Upper and Lower Providence, Ab- 
 ington, Blakeley, Greenfield, Scott, and Drinker's Beech, 
 offering choice wild lands to all seeking a competency by 
 a life of frugal industry, became the home of men whose 
 hardihood, hospitality, and stanch virtues, carried culti- 
 vation and thrift into the borders of the forest, while Slo- 
 cum Hollow, strangely intermingled with rock and morass, 
 offered little to the husbandman, and nothing to the new- 
 comer. 
 
 An effort was made in 1817 to improve the navigation 
 of the Lackawanna, and a company incorporated at the 
 time for this purpose ; nothing more was done. In 1819, 
 the late Henry W. Drinker — than whom no man surpassed 
 in readiness to aid the needy pioneer or develop the 
 resources of the country — explored the mountains and 
 valleys from the Susquehanna at Pittston to the Dela- 
 ware Water Gap, with a view of connecting the two 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 223 
 
 points by a i-ailroad to be operated over the Leliigh Moun- 
 tain by hydraulic power achieved from the waters of 
 Tobyhanna and tlie Lehigh. 
 
 While the Slocum Hollow settlement, being on the line 
 of the proposed road, was expected to acquire some in- 
 creased activity mutually advantageous, the interests of 
 Drinker's Beech, watched carefully by Mr. Drinker, were 
 more especially aimed at by the projectors of the road. 
 A charter was granted in March, 1826 ; simultaneously a 
 charter was obtained by Wm. Meredith, for a railroad to 
 run up the Lackawanna to the State line from Providence 
 village. Both were projected upon the plan of inclined 
 planes. 
 
 The four pioneers obtaining lailroad charters in the 
 Lackawanna Valley were Wm. and Maurice Wurts, Henry 
 W. Drinker, and Wm. Meredith. The first two gentlemen 
 banded the mountain' s brow with the flat rail ; the last, 
 owing to needless antipathies wiiich aroused every im- 
 pulse of selfishness, and embittered even the calm hour of 
 triumph with its remembrance, were not able to infuse 
 into charters easily obtained, advantage to themselves or 
 to the places they sought to enrich and develop. These 
 men were powerful in the day of first railroads ; polished, 
 opulent, and educated, and had there been united and 
 harmonious action among them, the valley would hardly 
 have been so reluctant in yielding the wherewithal to 
 gladden the firesides of the land. Drinker, averse to a 
 sti-ife fatal to his cherished projects, shared none of the 
 prejudices against the men who had rendered practicable 
 an eastern outlet from the valley. 
 
 The North Branch Canal, fed by the idle waters of the 
 Lackawanna, was begun in Pittston in 1828 by the State, 
 and looked to as the great commercial avenue to the sea. 
 The citizens of old Providence Township, restrained by 
 the mountain's wall from all hope of public intercourse 
 with Philadelphia or New York by a continuous railroad, 
 withal too modest to expect a canal at the expense of the 
 
224 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 State, asked the Legislature, having but a negative repre- 
 sentation from the valley, to build ^''W\q feeder of this 
 canal, or some other improvement up the valley as far as 
 would be thought of service to our citizens and the 
 Commonwealth. ' ' 
 
 This scheme naturally excited the public mind, because 
 its prosecution under any circumstances would reach out 
 benefits to every husbandman jealous of his own rights, 
 yet taught by invidious men to distrust the power of 
 "incorporated companies." ^ 
 
 The coal-clad slopes enjoyed repose. The cesarean 
 drill had not yet fallen into the strong arms of the skillful 
 miner. Up in the Carbondale glen, under the shelter of a 
 ledge of rocks forming the western bank of the Lacka- 
 wanna, a few hundred tons of surface coal had been mined 
 by the Wurts brothers as an experimental measure. Thf- 
 operations of these weather-beaten, persecuted, yet hope- 
 ful men, were not recognized by the inhabitants of th<^ 
 lower townships as of any practical utilit}/ to any one 
 but the miners themselves. Wood Avas abundant, and 
 every hill-side offered fuel to the woodman who chose tc^ 
 gather it without cost. Coal had neither domestic value 
 nor sale at home ; no market abroad. A brighter aspect at 
 length struggled its way into the valley, and ^the solitude 
 of Slocum Hollow was gone. 
 
 " About 1836," says Mr. Joseph J. Albright, in a note 
 to the writer, "at the suggestion of Geo. M. HoUenback 
 I made the trip to Slocum Hollow for the purpose of 
 examining the iron ore, coal, &c., with a view of pur- 
 chasing from Alva Heermans the property (now 
 Scranton) for $10 per acre. I took a box of the iron ore 
 on top of a stage to Northampton County, where I was 
 engaged in the manufacture of iron, and I contend that I 
 shook the first tree, if I failed to gather its fruit. I believe 
 the box of ore thus transported was the means of attract- 
 
 ' See " Wilkes Barre Advocate," December 9, 183S 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKY. 227 
 
 ing the attention of Messrs. Henry, Scranton, &c., to this 
 tract. These facts are known and recognized by S. T. 
 Scranton ; had I been successful in persuading Dr. 
 Philip Walter and others to join me in its purchase, I 
 might have gathered ample reward." 
 
 Drinker s route for a railroad from the Delaware to the 
 Susquehanna, surveyed in 1831 by Maj. Beach, awakened 
 neither interest nor inquiry among the yeomanry having 
 scarcely means to meet the yearly taxes or support families 
 generally large and needy, and yet, strange as it may 
 appear, the initial impulse toward a village at Slocum 
 Hollow came from the friends of this project, William 
 Henry,^ one of the original commissioners named in the 
 charter, was especially enthusiastic and active in his 
 effoi'ts to build up a town at this point for the purpose of 
 advancing the interests of this unattractive; project. His 
 knowledge of the country was too thorougli and general 
 
 'A tradition in the "Ilcnry" family exists, wliere the Indian chaiacter 
 appears in a more amiable light than that exhibited on the Western plains. "My 
 grandfather.' writes William Henry in a note to the aullior, " William Henry, 
 i.nte of Lanoa.^ter. Po.. in 1765 was an officer serving under General Washington, 
 ;it General Braddock's defeat near Fort Pitt ; he there saw a well-made, athletic 
 Indian in jeopardy of his life, and by extraordinary effort and means, saved him ; 
 ill the recognition, names were exchanged, and a friendship established : parting 
 soon after they never met afterward, and nothing was known of the Indian until 
 the commencement of the Revolution in 17 7-1, when the rescued man called and 
 made the acquaintance of my father, at Ciiristiau Spring, Northampton County, as 
 the Chief Eillbuck. whose life, he stated, was saved by Maj. Henry, relating all 
 the incidents attending the disastrous battle-field, remarking that while ordinarily 
 he did not expect to live many more years, but that ' Indian never forgets,' his 
 own people and family would know how to pay a debt of irratitude. 
 
 "In the year 1794 my father and other gentlemen were commissioned by the 
 U. S. Government to locate a quantity of lands donated to the ' Society for 
 propagating the Uospel among the Heathen' in what then was Indian country 
 and a wilderness ; fortunately <^e;re resided the descendants of Chief Killbuck. 
 The surveying party not knowing this, however, were the grateful recipients of 
 bear's meat, venison, and other game, through the instrumentality of the Chief 
 ' White Eye,' who sulisequently made himself known as the leading successor 
 of the Sachem Killbuck and his gratitude toward the son, whose father saved the 
 life of his chief; about three months were occupied in the woods on the banks of 
 the Muskingum in safety. A fuller detail and historical account, agreeing in 
 evary particular with the above, was given by the Indian family, now in Kansas, 
 to Col. Alexander, late the editor of a paper at Pittston. then resident in Kansas ; 
 
228 HISTORY OK the 
 
 to be without its stimulating iutiuence, and yet tliis 
 acquaintance of the mineralogical cliaracter of the westerji 
 terminus of the route only enabled him to give decided 
 expression to views neither adopted nor accepted by his 
 friends. 
 
 Messrs. Drinker and Henry, undismayed by the cold, 
 solemn avowal of the inhabitants occupying the valleys 
 of the Delaware and the Susquehanna, that no such road 
 was possible or necessary to their social condition, taking 
 advantage of the speculative wave of 1836, called the 
 friends of the road to Easton at this time to devise a prac- 
 tical plan of action. Repeated exertions in this direction 
 had hitherto yielded a measure of ridicule not calculated 
 to inspire great hopes of success. At this meeting, pro- 
 longed for days, Mr. Henry assnred the members of the 
 board that if the old furnace of Slocum' s at the Hollow 
 could be reanimated and sustained a few years, a village 
 would spring up between the unguarded passes of the 
 Moosic, calling for means of communication with the sea- 
 board less inhospitable and tardy than the loitering stage- 
 coach. This novel plan to achieve success for the road, 
 although urged with ability and candor, met the approval 
 of but a single man. This was Edward Armstrong, a 
 gentleman of great benevolence and courtesy, living on 
 the Hudson. In the acquisition of land in the Lackawanna 
 Valley, or the erection of furnaces and forges upon it, he 
 avowed himself ready to share with Mr. Henry any re- 
 
 by him a friendly message from them was received in remembrance of their and 
 our fathers ; conchisively to show that an 'Indian does not forget.' 
 
 " The appellation of ' Henry ' is at this day the middle name of every member 
 of the family, to wit: — 
 
 Moses Henry Killbuck. 
 
 Joseph " " 
 
 William " 
 
 Josephine " " 
 
 Sarah " " 
 
 John " " 
 
 Rachel " " 
 
 " These are all well-known persons in the West to the ' Moravian Missionaries.' " 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 229 
 
 sponsibilit3\ profit, or risk. During the spring and sum- 
 mer of 1839, Mr. Henrj^ examined every rod of ground 
 along the river from Pittston to CobV s Gap to ascertain 
 the most judicious location for the works. 
 
 Under the wall of rock, cut in twain by the dash of the 
 Nay-aug, a quarter of a mile above its mouth, favoring 
 by its altitude, the erection and feeding of a stack, a place 
 was well chosen. It was but a few rods above the debris 
 of Slocum's forge, and like that earlier affair enjoyed 
 within a stone's throw every essential material for its con- 
 struction and working. 
 
 After the decease of Mr. Slocuni, the forge grounds 
 changing hands repeatedly for a mere nominal consider- 
 ation, had fallen into possession of William Merrifield, 
 Zeno Albro, and William Ricketson of Hyde Park, and had 
 relapsed into common pasturage. Mr. J. J. Albright was 
 offered 500 aci-es of the Scranton lands for $5,000 upon a 
 long credit in 1836 ; tor auch land that figure was consider- 
 ed too high at that time. 
 
 In March, 1840, Messrs. Henry and Armstrong pur- 
 cliased 503 acres for $8,000, or about $16 per acre. The 
 fairest farm in the valley, under-veined with coal, had no 
 opportunity of refusing the same surprising equivalent. 
 Mr. Henry gave a draft at thirty days on Mr. Armstrong, 
 in whom the title was to vest ; before its maturity, death 
 came, to Mr. Armstrong, almost unawares. He had im- 
 bued the enterprise, by his manly co-operation, with no 
 vague friendship or faith, and his death, at this time, was 
 regarded as especially disastrous to the interests of Slo- 
 cum Hollow. His administrators, looking to nothing but 
 a quick settlement of the estate, requested him to forfeit 
 the contract without question or hesitancy. Thus baffled 
 ill a quarter little anticipated, Mr. Henr}- asked and ob- 
 tained thirty days' grace upon the non-accepted draft, 
 hoping in the interim to find another shrewd capitalist 
 able to advance the purchase-money and willing to share 
 in the affiurs of the contemplated furnace. The late 
 
230 IIISTOKY OF THE 
 
 lamented Colonel Geo. W. Scranton and Selden T. Scran- 
 ton, both of New Jersey, interested by the earnest and 
 enthusiastic representations of Mr. Henry regaiding the 
 vast and varied resources of the Lackawanna Valley, of 
 which no knowledge had reached them before, proposed 
 to add Mr. Sanfovd Grant, of Belvidere, to a party, and 
 visit Slocum Hollow. 
 
 The journey from Belvidere to the present site of Scran- 
 ton took one day and a half hard driving, and was well 
 calculated to test the self-reliance and vigor of the inex- 
 perienced mountaineer. The Drinker Turnpike, stretch- 
 ing its weary length over Pocono Mountain and morass, 
 enlivened here and there by the arrowy trout-brook or 
 the start of the fawn, brought the party on the 19th 
 of August, 1840, to the half-opened thicket growing over 
 the tract where now Mr. Archbald's residence is seen. 
 Securing their horses under the shade of a tree, the party, 
 amazed at the simple wildness of a country where green 
 acres were looked for in vain, moved down the bank 
 of Roaring Brook to a body of coal whose black edge 
 showed the fury of the stream when sudden rains or 
 thaws raised its waters along the narrow channel. None 
 of the party except Mr. Henry had ever seen a coal-bed 
 before. Assisted by a pick, used and concealed by him 
 weeks before, pieces of coal and iron ore were exhumed 
 for the inspection of the party about to turn the minerals, 
 sparkling amid the shrubs and wild tiowers, to some more 
 practical account. The obvious advantages of location, 
 uniting water-power with prospective Avealth, were exam- 
 ined for half a day without seeing or being seen by a 
 single person. 
 
 The village of Slocum Hollow, in 1840, yielded the palm 
 to the surrounding ones. The Slocum house and its hum- 
 ble barn, three small wooden houses, and one stone 
 dwelling, outliving the days of the forge, stood above its 
 debris ; a grist-mill, owned by Barton Mott, a seven-by- 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 231 
 
 nine school- house squatting on the ledge, and a clattering 
 saw-mill, made up the village twenty-nine years ago. 
 
 The exterior features of the Slocura property were any 
 thing but attractive, yet, after some question and hesi- 
 tancy, it was purchased at the price already stipulated. 
 Lackawanna Valley achieved its thrift and fame from this 
 comparative!}^ trifling purchase of but yesterday, and 
 Scranton dates its incipient inspirations toward acquiring 
 for itself a place and a name from August, 1840. 
 
 The company, consisting of Colonel George W. and Sel- 
 den T. Scranton, Sanford Grant, William Henry, and 
 Philip H. Mattes, organizing under the lirm of Scrantons, 
 Grant & Co., began forthwith the construction of a fur- 
 nace, under the superintend ency of Mr. Henry, whose 
 family immediately removed from Stroudsburg to Hyde 
 Park. 
 
 Xone of the older portion of the community can forget 
 the thriftless appearance of the four villages in Providence 
 Township, exhibiting no reluctant spirit of rivalry. Hyde 
 Paik contained but a single store, Avhere the post-office 
 found ample quarters in a single pigeon hole; a small 
 Christian meeting-house standing by the road-side, and six 
 or eight scattered dwellings along the single roadway ; 
 neither physician, lawyer, nor miner, and but a single min- 
 ister, without a church of his own, resided within its pre- 
 cincts. Providence, known far and wide by the sobriquet 
 of Razorcille, acknowledged as the seat of government 
 for the county, had a dozen houses, two stores and a 
 post-office, a grist-mill and a bridge, an ax factory, three 
 doctors, no minister, and it did a snug business in the way 
 of horse-racing on Sunday, and miscellaneous traffic with 
 the round-about country during the week. Dunmore was 
 the equiil of Slocum Hollow in the number of its dilapi- 
 dated tenements, sheltering as many families. Such were 
 ihe towns that gave a negative welcome to the innovations 
 of the unknown '* Jersey ites," as they were termed, in 
 
232 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 half derision, by people hearing of their search and pur- 
 chase around Capoose. 
 
 New men naturally introduced new names. When the 
 white man first strayed into the valley, no other name 
 than Capoose — an Indian signification of endearment — was 
 heard until the connection of the Slocums with the rough 
 liollow, in 1798, opening land and trade, fixed the appel- 
 lation of Slocum Hollow. The memorable days of " hard 
 cider" substituted the name of Harrison for that of Slo- 
 cum Hollow. The Scrantons, not without ambition to 
 popularize a name never dishonored, assented to the ex- 
 change of Harrison for Scrantonia. With the growth and 
 triumphs of the iron-works, the brief vowels ia were 
 erased, leaving plain Scranton in possession of the field. 
 This name thus serves to perpetuate the memories of 
 the founders of the town, but would not the aboriginal 
 Capoose or the Indian names for their streams, Nay-aug or 
 Lar-har-har-nar, have been more musical and appropriate % 
 
 The first day' s work on the Harrison furnace was done 
 September 11, 1840, by Mr. Simeon Ward. During the 
 fall and winter months satisfactory progress attended it. 
 A small wooden building, afterward enlarged for "Kres- 
 ler's Hotel," was erected by W. W. Manness, who is yet 
 in the employ of the company, and jointly occupied as an 
 office, store, and dwelling. It was afterward torn down 
 to make room for the blast-furnace engine-house. As the 
 spring of 1841 opened, tenant-houses went up, and work 
 went forward without cessation or abatement. Mr. Grant 
 became a resident of Harrison, with his family, and for 
 many years, when the tide was low, conducted the man- 
 agement of the store with such urbanity and studied 
 regard for the interests of all, that he acquired considera- 
 tion and popularity among the yeomanry of the county. 
 
 The interests of P. H. Mattes were represented by his 
 son, Charles F. Mattes, w^io, from the time the furnace was 
 put in successful blast, has been efficiently engaged at the 
 head of one of the more important departments. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 233 
 
 The liberal doctrines of Methodism, itinerated and 
 •diflfiised in the valley as early as 1786, were rarely prac- 
 ticed, and had but a feeble recognition in any way until 
 1793. "At this time," writes the venerable Rev. Dr. 
 Peck, " William Colbert, a pioneer preacher, visited 
 Capouse, and preached to a few people at Brother Howe' s, 
 and lodged at Joseph Waller's. Howe lived in Slocum 
 Hollow, and Waller on the main road in or near what is 
 now Hyde Park. In 1798 Daniel Taylor's, below Hyde 
 Park, was a preaching place. For years subsequently 
 the pleaching was at Preserved Taylor's, who lived on 
 the hill -side in Hyde Park, near the old Tripp place. 
 When Mr. Taylor removed, the preaching was taken to 
 Razorville, now Providence, and the preachers were 
 entertained by Elisha Potter, Esq., whose wife was a very 
 exemplary member of the church. Up to this period, 
 preaching was held in private houses." School-houses, 
 moderate in capacity, served for religious purposes until 
 June, 1841, when a subscription was raised for the 
 purpose of building a "meeting-house" at some suitable 
 place within reach of missionaries and laymen. The great 
 bulk of the subscription com.ing from Harrison Iron 
 Works, governed the location of the church, which was 
 built in 1842, and jointly and harmoniously used as a 
 place of worship by Methodists and Presbyterians until the 
 latter erected a place of their own. The Methodists have 
 enjoyed the pastoral labors of A. H. Schoonniaker, Rev. 
 Dr. Peck, B. W. Goram, G. C. Bancroft, J. V. Newell, 
 J. A. Wood, N. W. Everett, and Byron D. Sturdevant. 
 
 The Presbyterians, now representing so much of the 
 intelligence and Avealth of the Scranton community, had 
 no definite organization in Scranton until February, 1842. 
 In 1827 missionaries were employed to preach at Slocum 
 Hollow and Razorville twelve times a year, generally in 
 school-houses and barns, and sometimes under the sheltei 
 of a friendly tree. Rev. Cyrus Gildersleeve, John 
 Dorrance, and the bold, blunt Thomas P. Hunt, were 
 
234 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 thus employed alternately. The success attending the 
 Methodists in building their church by subscription, ani- 
 mated tile fewer Presbyterians to a similar effort in the 
 same direction. The pressure of poverty among the 
 farmers of the valley, combined with tlie weak condition 
 of this denomination, having hut /o7ir members at Har- 
 rison, influenced the committee appointed in 184-i to select 
 a site for a church, to decide upon Lackawanna, three 
 miles below Harrison, as the place best calculated to favor 
 the majority of the Presbyterians. The church, built in 
 1846, was owned in common by the members at Lacka- 
 wanna and Harrison. This latter place was a mere sub- 
 ordinate preaching point, and yet cared for so well by the 
 young, gifted Rev. N. G. Parks, that in 1848 the Scranton 
 portion of this organic body, acquiring influence and inde- 
 pendence with the development of the village, sought a 
 peaceful separation, and at once asserted its strength by 
 the erection of an imposing churcli, costing $30,000, 
 capable of seating 800 persons. Since Mr. Park, the 
 Rev. J. D. Mitchell, John F. Baker, and the Rev. M. J. 
 Hickok, have all creditably ofiiciated within its walls. 
 Mr. Hickok, whose purity of mind and blameless life 
 endeared him to all, was hopelessly stricken with paralysis 
 in the fall of 1867, thus leaving the church without an 
 active pastor. 
 
 The spiritual wants of the Catholics in Scranton were 
 flrst looked after by the Rev. P. Pendergrast in 1846. A 
 small room in a private dwelling served for a gathering 
 place until 1848, when a church, 25 by 35, was constructed. 
 The constant accession of numbers rendered a larger 
 place of worship necessary in 1853-4, under the attention 
 of the Rev. Father Moses Whittey. The erection of a 
 Catholic church in Providence and another in Dunmore, 
 drew somewhat from a congregation yet so numerically 
 strong in Scranton, that Father Whittey, well known for 
 his calm deportment yet zealous devotion to the interests 
 of his church, looking to the future want and welfare of 
 
I.ACKAWANNA VAI.LKY. 235 
 
 his flock, began in 1864 to build a catluHlral, at an esti- 
 mated cost of $100,000. Tlie edifice is built in the Grecian 
 style of architecture, 68 by 158 feet, and will seat 2,300 
 persons. Few individuals in the valley could have 
 turned so powerful an influence to the greater advantage 
 of Scranton than has Father \Yhittey done in the erection 
 of this edifice. 
 
 The first Baptist church here was built under hopeful 
 auspices in 1859 ; in 1863, the Rev. Isaac Bevan, acting 
 in concert with those fostering the project, increased his 
 claim to public gratitude by the erection of a brick sanc- 
 tuary, 50 by 80, at a cost of $40,000. The church numbers 
 about 200 communicants. 
 
 St. Luke's Episcopal Church dates back only to 1852. 
 Within the next eighteen months, a frame church and 
 parsonage were finished and completed at a cost of about 
 $4,000. St. Luke's is now so comparatively wealthy and 
 popular in Scranton, that a new stone church is being 
 erected for a Parish, at a cost of $150,000. This ecclesias- 
 tical body, eschewing politics and religious ultraism, has, 
 under the ministerial administration of Rev. John Long, 
 AV. C. Robinson, and the Rev. A. A. Marple, the inde- 
 fatigable, gentlemanly pastor, grown into public favor 
 in an especial manner since its original existence here. 
 
 The German Presbyterian Church of Sci'anton Avas dedi- 
 cated in 1859 ; the Evangelical Lutheran Zion Church, 
 organized in 1860, purchased the First Welsh Baptist 
 Church of Scranton in 1863. 
 
 The Liberal Christian Society have a respectable 
 organization without enjoying a place of worship of their 
 own. 
 
 The German Catholics, looked after by their worthy 
 pastor, Rev. P. Nagel, built them a neat edifice in 1866, 
 at a cost of $11,000. 
 
 The above-named churches, enumerating only those 
 embraced within the old village proper of Scranton, are 
 named in the order of their development. 
 
236 UISTOliY OF THE 
 
 The fact is indeed creditable to the Lackawanna Iron 
 and Coal Company, that a great portion of the land occu- 
 ])ied b}^ these respective places of worship, was gener- 
 ously donated by them for this specific object. 
 
 In the Slocuni furnace of 1800, nothing but charcoal 
 was used for smelting purposes. Experiments, attended 
 with failure and sometimes with derision, were made in 
 Pennsylvania between 1837-9, toward the substitution 
 of anthracite coal as a melting menstruum in the manu- 
 facture of iron, for the more expensive and perishable 
 charcoal. The lion Works upon the Lehigh inaugurated 
 the change ; the Danville artisans were the next to enlarge 
 the province of stone coal. This long-delayed triumph of 
 coal, wonderful in the grandeur of its results everywhere, 
 governed the design of the new furnace at Harrison. It 
 was contemplated fiom the first to use the hall ore found 
 adjacent to one of the veins of coal running through the 
 whole coal region ; a brief trial proved it too expensive 
 to mine. Upon the southeastern slope of the Moosic, 
 about three miles from Harrison, a large body of iron ore 
 was discovered in the spring of 1841, which with the 
 intervening acres of land was purchased, and a railroad 
 stretched from the mine to the furnace. 
 
 The erection of miners' houses, the increased cost of 
 the iron-works awaiting blast, the unforeseen yet una- 
 voidable outlay for lands and railroad unprovided for in 
 the original estimate, exhausted the capital, and left from 
 the very outset an embarrassing debt. Under such aus- 
 pices, little calculated to encourage the enterprise, came 
 Col. George W. Scranton into Scranton, as a resident, in the 
 fall of 1841. A man of ardent faith, affable and persua- 
 sive address, full of honor and probity, whom no difficul- 
 ties could discourage, no honors cause him to forget the 
 good of the poor man, he was eminently fitted to aid Mr. 
 Henry in the superintendence and experimental inaugu- 
 lation of the iron-works. 
 
 The first effort to start the furnace, owing to various 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 237 
 
 causes incident to a new, wet, defective stack, appalled 
 the projectors with failure. Wood, charcoal, and even 
 salt and "brimstone, employed as auxiliaries to intensify 
 the heat, brought no fulfillment of hopes or prospect 
 of victory. A second eifort led to the same result. The 
 furnace was altered. The hot-air ovens Avere multiplied 
 and enlarged, the machinery changed, and the practical 
 knowledge and services of Mr. John F. Davis secured. 
 On the 18th of January, 1842, the furnace was blown in, 
 amid mutual applause and congratulation. About two 
 and a quarter tons of pig-iron per day was made the first 
 month. 
 
 The early trials and failures at the furnace, occupying 
 three months of constant struggle, awakened an interest 
 among the better class of people of the valley and else- 
 where, honorable alike to their intelligence and humanity. 
 Many, willing to check any and every advancement toward 
 general prosperity, boldly pronounced "tlie tltmg a Jer- 
 sey humbug !" as they prayed and predicted it would b(\ 
 Even such skepticism, when the molten stream of iron 
 issued from the furnace into bars, exciting astonishment 
 and pride, vanished into silence ; the people acquiesced 
 in the good feeling of the proprietors, whose recompense 
 thus far had been only hope deferred. 
 
 In the spring of 1843, additional fire-ovens, with other 
 improvements, were added to augment its capacity, whicli 
 thus far had yielded iron superior in quality, but deficient 
 in quantity. Iron, when manufactured, found no market to 
 any extent short of the distant sea-board, reached only by 
 two roundabout routes, viz. : the Delaware and Hudson 
 Canal, and the North Branch and Tide Water Canal, to 
 Havre-de-Grace. In either case, the iron must be trans- 
 ported upon heavy wagons from Harrison, fifteen miles to 
 Carbondale, then the terminus of the railroad leading to 
 Honesdale, or to Port Barnum on the Susquehanna. 
 
 The first year s product was shipped by the latter route 
 to New York and Boston, at a time when great commer- 
 
2o8 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 oial embarrassment perv^aded the conntry, and threatened 
 the annihilation of manufacturing interests in every sec- 
 tion. Since the commencement of the forge, September 
 20, 1840, iron had fallen in value over forty per cent. Its 
 demand and price continued to decline. More than this, 
 Lackawanna Valley iron had neither name nor character 
 in either of these places to carry itself into public estima- 
 tion. Thus were men whose fortunes were pledged to 
 foster and sustain a great development, greeted in advance 
 by restrictions especially baleful and adverse to their suc- 
 cess. Meantime, financial obstacles in Harrison increased. 
 The credit system was popular in the valley. It attenu- 
 ated its dubious length as an equalizing medium among 
 the inhabitants unwilling to accord it to the company. 
 
 The darkest period in the history of the partnershij) 
 was seen in 1842-3. In a remunerating sense, the iron 
 speculation had proved a failure, and left the treasury 
 worse than empty. Without character, money, or credit, 
 its affairs began to look hopeless. Their notes given to 
 individuals in lieu of money, were daily offered to farmers 
 at forty per cent, discount in the uncurrent tender of 
 Pennsylvania currency. Every petty claim of indebted- 
 ness was urged and pressed before the justices of the 
 township with an earnestness really annoying. 
 
 It was at this time that the existence of the company 
 was preserved and prolonged by a timely loan made them 
 by Joseph H. and E. C. Scranton,^ then of Augusta, 
 Georgia. 
 
 The persons once expecting but a negative advantage 
 tli(3mselves, expressed regret at their expected arrest and 
 destruction ; others looked calmly and coldly on the 
 severe, unabated energy with which the Scrantons, for- 
 getting every other consideration, fought for their bare 
 integrity and financial preservation. Their failure at this 
 especial time would have been of double signification and 
 
 ' KQled by the cars, Dec 29, 1866, at Norwalk, Ct. 
 
LACKAWANNA VAIJ.EV. 239 
 
 injury, while the Aoung, giant vulley, far up among the 
 hills, would have resumed tiie natural simplicity of its 
 former character. 
 
 As the company faltered under the pressure of distrust, 
 and danger menacing it from every side. Col. Scranton 
 never exhibited the elastic and buoyant disposition ever 
 characterizing the man, with such admirable advantage 
 as now. He proposed to enhance the value of their iron 
 25 per cent., by converting it into nails and bars, by the 
 aid of a Rolling Mill and Nail Factory, to be built on 
 the brook below Nay-aug Falls. To accomplish this 
 great project, Selden T. Scranton w^as sent to New York 
 to negotiate for funds, if possible. This he successfully 
 did. He thus obtained $20,000. The Rolling Mill and 
 Nail Factory begun in 1843, ^vas completed in 1844. 
 The erection of these w^orks with New York capital 
 has indirectly led to an investment in coal lands in the 
 Lackawanna basin, from the same quarter, of some one 
 hundred and fifty millions. 
 
 The plan of the village of Harrison, laid out on a 
 diminutive scale in 1841, by Captain Stott, a superior 
 draughtsman of Carbondale, gave such brisk signs of life 
 that the neighboring villages of Hyde Park, Providence, 
 and Dunmore, feared that its continued growth might, at 
 some future period, equal or possibly surpass their own ! 
 
 It yet had no post-office. Hyde Park and Providence, 
 a mile or two away, afforded the nearest mail facilities. 
 Dr. Throop, then residing in the latter village, a warm, 
 influential friend of the Scrantons and the improvements 
 they were striving to inaugurate, attempted to get one 
 established at this point. The Department at Washington, 
 influenced by the known fact that a post-office had been 
 suspended here a few years previous for the want of 
 support, naturally gave the matter an unfavorable con- 
 sideration. 
 
 Nor had the village a single minister, lawyer, or phy- 
 sician, within its boundaries. Dr. Gideon Underwood, 
 
240 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 now of Pittston, began professional life in Harrison in 
 1845 ; lie abandoned the place after a few months, for the^ 
 reason that it was '' too small to support a doctor." The 
 late Dr. Robinson was liis only competitor in the township 
 of Providence, where now no less than fifty physicians 
 manage to keep sonl and body together, and yet the 
 entire practice failed to sustain a gentleman every way 
 worthy of trust. Dr. Pier opened an office in the village 
 in 1848 ; Dr. John B. Sherrerd in 1849. Drs. Throop- 
 and Sherrerd started the first drug-store in the town, 
 which, after the death of Dr. Sherrerd, the next year, 
 passed into the hands of L. S. & E. C. Fuller, two gen- 
 tlemen who have, through a long series of years, obtained 
 a comparative competency by their diligence and atten- 
 tion to business. 
 
 In the spring of 1844, Selden T. Scranton, who, like all 
 the Scrantons already mentioned, originally came from 
 East Guilford, now Madison, New Haven County, Conn., 
 removed from Oxford Furnace, New Jersey, settled in 
 Harrison, exchanging positions with his brother George. 
 He was one of the men who shared in the acquisition of 
 the Roaring Brook lands, four years previous to this, and 
 who, by no idle stroke of fortune, succeeded in connecting 
 his name with its remotest future. Gaining some knowl- 
 edge of the mineral resources of the valley of the 
 Lackawanna from his father-in-law, William Henry, he 
 readily joined in the hazard of their successful devel- 
 opment ; and, by the happy exercise of a talent adapted 
 admirably to win friendship or insure success, he con- 
 tributed to sow the seeds, of which the fruits were to 
 appear in less than a lifetime. Selden was uniform in his 
 advocacy of all pertaining to the welfare of the valley, 
 and yet so honorable and consistent were his efforts in 
 this direction, that it can be said of him, as of few men, he 
 never made an enemy or lost a friend. The celebrated 
 Oxford Furnace is now managed and principally owned 
 bv him. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 243 
 
 Under a new direction of nieclianical industry, insti- 
 tuted at tli(5 LackaAvanna Iron Works by its founders, the 
 final strui^gle, which was life or death in a commercial 
 sense to the inhabitants of the township of Providence, 
 began to give way for actual remuneration. The T rail 
 was first manufactured in the United States in 1845. 
 Kailroads, everywhere shod with the thin, flat rail, called 
 for the T rail, the first of which was made in Harrison for 
 the New York and Erie Railroad in 1847. This pioneer 
 road through southern New York was then in operation 
 no farther than Goshen. English iron, costing the Erie 
 Company $80 per ton, had thus far been laid. 
 
 The presence of every variety f»f material cheaply 
 attained, led the Scrantons to believe that as good, if not 
 superior, T rail could be furnished by them, especially 
 upon the Delaware and Susquehanna divisions, at a 
 lower figure than the English iron masters across the 
 Nvater had hitherto afforded. 
 
 Joseph H. Scranton, a man whose active mind for nearly 
 a quarter of a century has been employed in guiding the 
 iron enterprise which this company have developed, pur- 
 cliased the interests of Mr. Grant in 1846. Mr. Piatt, who 
 subsequently became a partner, filled the position vacated 
 by Mr. Grant, and through the successive changes of 
 firms, the expansion and enlargement of business, he has 
 held the same satisfactory and creditable relation to the 
 place he has filled so long. 
 
 The year of 1846 was auspicious in the history of Har- 
 rison. Col. Scranton returned, and aided by Joseph and 
 Selden, negotiated a contract with the Erie Railroad 
 Company for 12,000 tons of iron -rail, to weigh 58 pounds to 
 the yard ; to be made and delivered at the mouth of the 
 Lackawaxen, in Pike Count}', during the years of 1847-8. 
 This arrangement was mutually advantageous to both 
 parties. It was of vital significance to that great road, 
 now stretching its fibers from the lake to the sea. At the 
 opening of the northern division of the Delaware, Lacka- 
 
24-4 HISTOUV OF THE 
 
 wanna, and Western Railioad, Mr. Loder. tlien PrrsidfMit 
 of the Erie Compai)y, stated in a pnblic speech that 
 nothing bnt the prompt fnlhlhnent of this contract averted 
 bankruptcy to the road, by enabling them within the 
 specified time to open it to Binghaniton. To the Scranton 
 Company it evoked life-long results. The men whose 
 common interests and joint sacrifices and struggles had 
 bound them together in the unity of brotherhood, felt the 
 invigorating and fervid influence of this great sale of iron, 
 Avhich gave to the valley a prospect and prominence it 
 never had enjoyed before. 
 
 Mills and machinery of a corresponding chai-acter, with 
 the wherewithal to erect them, were thus necessitated hy 
 compliance of the contract. 
 
 Several gentlemen, wealthy and warm friends of tht^ 
 Erie i oad, promptly came forward, and on the simph^ 
 obligations of the Scran tons alone, with no security, but 
 faith in their integrity, loaned them $100,000 to construct 
 the requisite iron-works. Extraoi'dinary activity was 
 noAv displayed in Harrison, in every department of busi- 
 ness, the active management of which passed into the 
 hands of Joseph H. Scranton, who came here to reside in 
 1847. 
 
 Up until now the means of transportation to market 
 of the now largely increased annual product of iron, 
 remained as difficult as at the commencement, with the 
 exception of the extension of the Delaware and Hudson 
 Canal Company's railroad from Carbondaleto Archbald, 
 Avhich reduced the hauling by teams to nine miles ; the 
 iron ore was carted three miles and a half from the mines ; 
 the limestone and extra pig-iron needed by the mill, pur- 
 chased at Danville, drawn from the canal at Pittston, and 
 the railroad iron, now the principal product of the works, 
 was drawn to Archbald upon heavy wagons, requiring 
 the use of over four hundred horses and mules. Even 
 this large force, gathered from the farmers of Blakeley, 
 Providence, and Lackawanna, sometimes at the expense 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKY. 247 
 
 of agricultural intei-ests, was able to luove the first rail 
 iron only with provoking tardiness. 
 
 Two large blast-furnaces were now in the course of con- 
 struction, as well as a railroad to the ore mines on the 
 mountain. This road was so graded that the empty cars 
 could be drawn to the mines by mules, and when loaded 
 with ore, return to the furnace by gravity power alone, 
 over five miles and a half of this circuitous road. 
 
 On the south side of Roaring Brook, some three hun- 
 dred houses had been built for the workmen ; upon the 
 the other, now the business part of Scranton, but a single 
 dwelling, aside from the few owned and occupied by the 
 company, stood. This had been erected by Dr. Throop 
 for his brother. With the constant influx of new-comers, 
 the doctor, who was recognized pre-eminently throughout 
 the country as the doctor, removed from Providence to 
 Harrison in 1847. On the old mill road leading from 8lo- 
 Gum Hollow to Razormlle, amidst the tranquil woodlands, 
 he built his modest cottage. He lived here many yeai-s, 
 Avith his family, with no house in sight of his own, sur- 
 rounded by the low murmuring pines, where, after the pro- 
 fessional drives of the day, he enjoyed the cheerful fireside 
 and smoked his pipe in quiet, with no sound to distuib 
 him, save the grave bo-loonk-hlonk of the denizens of the 
 adjacent swamp, tuning up their minstrelsy at each suc- 
 cessive nightfall. The cottage, remodified and absorbed 
 into business quarters, is yet seen in sound condition, near 
 the Presbyterian church. 
 
 The Lackawanna Iron Company, organized under the 
 general partnership law, consisted of George W. Scran- 
 ton, Selden T. Scranton, Joseph H. Scranton, and J. C. 
 Piatt as the general partners, and several New York gen- 
 tlemen as special ones. Edward C. Lynde and Edward 
 P. Kingsbury, two gentlemen eminently qualified for any 
 station, fill the respective positions of secretary and assist- 
 ant treasurer. 
 
 To carry through the programme of maniifacturiDig and 
 
248 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 delivering to the New York and Erie Railroad Coni]\^inj, 
 this quantity of iron, with the limited capital at command, 
 required extraordinary exertion and energy. Extra work, 
 additional machinery, and various expensive materials, 
 augmented the necessity of more mone}^ and labor. Large 
 iron contrivances which were essential to the works were 
 drawn, by the jaded horse or stubborn mule, sixty or sev- 
 enty miles over the rough, hilly roads for which upper 
 Pennsylvania was formerly distinguished. Teams consist- 
 ing of eight mules were used for this service with such vex- 
 atious experience, that willing and reliable drivers were 
 rarely found or retained. When such were apparently se- 
 cured, the company found it necessary to contract with the 
 keepers of the small taverns along the road from Strouds- 
 burg tQ the Hollow, to furnish meals for their drivers and 
 feed for their teams, and forward bills each month to the 
 office for payment. It was especially provided that no 
 liquor should, under any condition or circumstance, be 
 furnished the drivers. Yet bills properly attested for 
 " sixteen glasses of leming ayde (lemonade), at six- 
 pence a glass, and one pint of whisky," came from 
 places where a lemon had never been heard of before or 
 since. 
 
 The business of the company, so comprehensive in its 
 character, so beneficial in its influence, made many a val- 
 ley fireside exult with hopes and smiles. To witness a 
 town spring fl'om a pasture lot Avith such rapidity into a 
 maze of founderies, furnaces, manufacturing works, and 
 dwellings full of bright expectations, caused astonishment 
 and pride among the inhabitants, unused to such rapid 
 advancement. The rise in real estate along the Lacka- 
 wanna Valley, as well as Wyoming, since the organiza- 
 rion of this company, was at least one hundred per 
 cent., while the relations of the Scrantons with the pub- 
 lic were harmonious, and characterized throughout by 
 general good feeling. It is true, there were then as there 
 are yet, and ever will be, a class of croakers who gathered 
 
!ENJ. H. THROOP, M. 
 
LACKAWANNA VAI.LKY. 251 
 
 in bar-room groups and gravely predicted that "the 
 Scrantons must fail." 
 
 On the western side of the Lackawanna a line of four- 
 horse stages ran up from Wilkes Barre to Carbondale, 
 connecting at each place with a similai* line via Milford 
 and Morristown to New York, and via Easton to Phila- 
 delphia, and furnished the only mode of conveyance to or 
 from the Lackawanna, and brought Xew York daily 
 papers to Providence and Hyde Park in the forenoon of 
 the third day after their publication. 
 
 The mills were completed ; as they molded the hills into 
 iron fiber awaiting no longer a market, the Lackawanna 
 Iron Works stepped into the front ranks and established 
 their character beyond cavil or perad venture. The first 
 fifteen hundred tons of railroad ii-on was delivered at the 
 mouth of the Lackawaxen. Here it was taken by canal 
 to Port Jervis, and laid on the road between that place 
 and Otisville. After that portion of the Erie road was 
 opened to the public, the ('om})any. delayed by injunc- 
 tions urged on by the cupidity of Philadelphians and the 
 New York Central interests, in crossing the river into Penn- 
 sylvania at the Glass House rocks, finding their utter 
 inability to open the road to Binghamton by the time 
 specified without the delivery of the balance of the iron 
 at different points along the route by the Scranton Com- 
 pany, arranged such terms of delivery, in pursuance of 
 which the Scranton Company carted by teams some seven 
 thousand tons of rail, which they delivered at Narrows- 
 burgh, Cochecton, Equinunk, Stockport, Summit, and 
 Lanesboro, an average distance of about fifty miles, thus 
 enabling the company to lay the track almost simultane 
 ously at all points along the Delaware division as fast 
 as the grading was ready, and open the road for one hun 
 dred and thirty miles four days ahead of the appointed 
 time. The difficulty of carting so large an amount of iron 
 within so brief a period, can be inferred only b}'- those 
 
252 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 venmg. 
 
 A post-office, named Scrantonia, was established in 
 Harrison in 1848, and John W. Moore appointed post- 
 master. The name of Harrison was dropped for that of 
 Scrantonia. The same year the old names of Capoose 
 and Slocum Hollow were disowned and forgotten by new- 
 comers ; the accidental and transient ones, Lackawanna 
 Iron Works, Harrison, Scrantonia, were folded up and 
 laid away forever for the briefer name of Scranton. 
 
 The rapid expansion and concentration of business at 
 this point, as well as the absence of all necessary commu- 
 nications with the sea-board and the lakes, rendered an 
 outlet east or west most apparent and desirable. The 
 project of connecting the valley by railroad with the New 
 York and Erie road, in a northerly direction, was fi-e- 
 quently discussed by the general partners ; in fact, it was 
 the sanguine expectations of a line of public improvement 
 being extended both north and south at no distant day, 
 that went far toward deciding the original proprietors in 
 locating here. 
 
 With a view of bringing the subject of railroad facili- 
 ties, and connections with the valley generally, before the 
 minds of capitalists in a manner both advantageous and 
 effective, Col. George W. Scranton was detailed from the 
 active engagement of the affairs of the Iron Company in 
 the summer of 1848. 
 
 Valuable coal lands had been secured as a reliable 
 basis of such an enterprise ; large delegations of New 
 York and New England gentlemen were persuaded from 
 time to time to visit the valley and examine the vast min- 
 eral resources apparent along its border, and witness the 
 dark croppings of coal, the fertile farms and luxurious 
 intervale, the abundant water-power for mills or manufac- 
 turing purposes, the splendid sites and the fine timber ; 
 all of which, the moment a railroad outlet appeared, 
 would be trebled in value. By many, the valley was 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 2o.> 
 
 considered too wild ;md remote, or too difficult of access, 
 even for an exploring tour. Such never left the parental 
 roof, and it was left for bolder hearts and stouter arms to 
 plant and reap the harvest. An extra stage-coach, with 
 its five miles an hour speed, now and then brought into 
 the valley delegation after delegation from the East, which 
 were hailed with friendly solicitude by the inhabitants. 
 Often and alw^ays was the inquiry heard of that firm 
 friend of the public interest, Sam Tripp, "AYhen the 
 Yorkers were coming?" All eyes, for a time, were 
 directed toward tlie local movements of the Yorkeis, 
 and the hope of every honest citizen then as well as 
 now was, that long life and prosperity Avould be the for- 
 tune of all who came. 
 
 Until 1847 no car had rolled nor had a single rail 
 reached the remote Lackawanna, with the exception of 
 those upon the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company's 
 railroad from Carbondale to Honesdale. This road was 
 a gravity one, worked by stationary steam-engines and 
 liorse-power, over the Moosic Mountain, and was built in 
 1826-8. 
 
 Drinker" s route for a railroad from Pittston to Delaware 
 Water Gap, surve^^ed in 1824. to develop Avhich Scranton 
 Mas originally planned, and ultimately reversed in rela- 
 tion and purpose, had yet no living functions given its 
 indefinite existence. The line was run with a vieAv of in- 
 clined planes operated by watei-, and perhaps a canal over 
 the more level portion of the way. 
 
 Wurts Brothers, Meredith, and Drinker blazed the ti-ees 
 along the forest for their gramty roads through many a 
 lonely nook shaded by woods ; but the honor of conceiv- 
 ing and completing a locomottTe road from Great Bend to 
 the Delaware River, belongs to the late Col. George W. 
 Scranton — the firm, fast friend of every industrial interest 
 of the valley. Mountainous as were the general features 
 of the intermediate country, formidable as appeared the 
 idea of grading ranges offering stubborn resistance to such 
 
254 HISTOKY OF THE 
 
 invasions of the engineer, he advanced and nrged forward 
 his scheme until he was able to see and share its substan- 
 tial achievements and advantages. Under the immediate 
 direction of Col. Scranton, a preliminary survey was made 
 of the proposed route, which was found to be quite as 
 feasible as his own personal observations had led him to 
 expect, and, as the idle charter of Leggett's Gap Railroad 
 would answer eveiy practical purpose, after slight modi- 
 fications, it was purchased. 
 
 The public mind, understanding only the rough topog- 
 raphy of the country, without a single village of a thou- 
 sand inhabitants, was instructed into the benefits to fiow 
 from the construction of this rail highway to the upper 
 border of the State. The subscription books were opened 
 at Kresler's hotel, in Scranton, in 1847, by the commission- 
 ers, and the whole capital stock promptly subscril)ed, and 
 ten per cent, paid in. While these flattering movements 
 argued well for the common welfare of the valley, and 
 country adjacent, men of means were so shy of the enter- 
 prise, that it was the work of two long years of ceaseless 
 labor amidst every possible discouragement, before any 
 real capital could be calculated upon. The road was 
 commenced in 1850, and pushed forward in the same 
 spirit of earnest enthusiasm with which it was conceived. 
 To overcome the objection tliat it would not pay as an 
 investment, and reach and make a more northern market 
 (for the first loads of coal taken hence, were glr^en aioay 
 in order to introduce the black stuff into general use), 
 the Ithaca and Owego Railroad, one of the oldest roads 
 in the country, was purchased by the Iron Company 
 in 1849. This, like all railroads in the United States at 
 this time, was laid with the Jlat or strap rail — a rail pos- 
 sessing neither strength nor safety, as one end of it some- 
 times becoming bent would dart up with lightning-like 
 rapidity into the passing train, marking its progress with 
 appalling slaughter. 
 
 A new company being now organized, called the Cayuga 
 
LACKAWANNA VAI,LEV. 255 
 
 and Susquehanna Railroad Company, for the purpose of 
 building this road, Colonel Scranton was chosen Presi- 
 dent, who at once repaired to Ithaca and discharged the 
 duties of the position with acknowledged prudence and 
 success. 
 
 To carry out the original plan contemplated by the 
 ■colonel, of connecting the iron- works with New York 
 City by a locomotive road, a survey was made eastward 
 in 1851-2, and the next year the present line, running 
 parallel and sometimes embracing the Drinker route, 
 adopted. 
 
 Thus far Scranton had but a single hotel. Mr. Kresler, 
 popular as a landlord, could not in his abridged quarters 
 meet the demands of the throng turning into the village. 
 A large brick hotel, such as only courageous men could 
 have planned in such a place, was erected in 1852, by the 
 Iron Company, to which was applied the strange mis- 
 nomer of Wyoming House. Mr. J. C. Burgess became 
 the purchaser, and is the present owner. The next public 
 house emerging from the forest, from which it derived its 
 name — Forest House — whs titted up and kept by Joseph 
 Godfrey, Esq. The St. Charles, Kock's, and the Lacka- 
 wanna Valley House, appropriate in name, and a dozen 
 others less familiar to the wayfarer, have anticipated the 
 demand of the moving world until, to-day, Scranton can 
 boast of the beauty, comfoit, and healthfulness of its 
 hotels, rarely equaled, and surpassed nowhere within the 
 State. 
 
 The Iron Company reorganized in 1853, under a special 
 charter, with a capital of $800,000, and Selden T. Scranton, 
 now of Oxford Furnace, N. J., elected President, and 
 Joseph H. Scranton, the present Manager and President, 
 Superintendent. 
 
 After the Lackawanna and Western Railroad was con- 
 solidated with the Delaware and Cobb's Gap charter, 
 under the name of the "Delaware, Lackawanna, and 
 Western Railroad Company," work was commenced 
 
2o6 qiSTORY OF THE 
 
 vigorously on tlie southern division of this road. On the 
 21st of January, 1856, the first locomotive and train of 
 cars passed over the Delaware. 
 
 Rapid as has been the sympathetic growth of half a 
 dozen villages from Pittston to Carbondale, theirs has been 
 a snail's pace compared to the sturdier growth of Scranton. 
 In July, 1840^256 small brown tenements composed the 
 town of Slocum Hollow, where now the young city of 
 Scranton, perpetuating the name of its founders as long as 
 t lie Lackawanna shall flow by the dwellings of civilized 
 man, enumerates a population, constantly increasing, of 
 flve-and-forty thousand. 
 
 The stranger who visits Scranton may not find as much 
 wildness and sublimity around it as when, from the 
 Pocono Range, his eye first catches a glimpse of the truly 
 bold outlines of the Delaware Water Gap, he will, never- 
 theless, as he walks along the walls of Roaring Brook, and 
 gazes on the massive piles of furnace stacks, pouring out, 
 day after day, ponds of rude or finished iron, from the 
 ponderous bar to the delicate bolt, and sees the smooth, 
 yet resistless motion of the largest stationary engine on the 
 American Continent, feel proud and pleased with th^^ 
 sights of industry and thrift everywhere around him. 
 
 To get and appreciate a bird's-eye view of the town and 
 valley, let the tourist ascend the high bluff near the Bap- 
 tist Church in Hyde Park, overlooking the city, where 
 the charming panorama tliat unrolls itself before him, will 
 compensate in the highest degree for the trouble of the 
 visit. He will then look down into a region interesting 
 for its scenery, its strata of coal, its beds of iron ore, and 
 its Indian history. The first impression is one favorable 
 toward this portion of the valley, as there appears on 
 every side evidence of animation and thrift. 
 
 Yonder the noisy water (Roaring Brook) takes a white 
 Itiap from one of tlie loveliest and loneliest nooks carved 
 from the mountain, before it splashes on the busy wheel 
 of the manufacturer, and after being used three or four 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 2C:7 
 
 times in its passage through the city, in ingles with the 
 Avaters of the Lackawanna below. The huge, round, 
 slate-roofed locomotive depot, filled with engines, at first 
 strikes the eye, and reminds liim of the Roman Coliseum ; 
 while the landscape, sprinkled with brown-colored depots, 
 car-shops, and Vulcan-shops on every side ; the chaste, 
 imposing churches, the long white line of public and 
 private architecture contrasting finely with the deep green 
 of the surrounding trees, tastily left for shade ; the 
 trains of coal cars, serpentine and dark, emerging from 
 the " Diamond Mines ;" or skimming along the iron veins, 
 down a grade of seventy feet to the mile, from the pro- 
 ductive coal works at the "Notch," some two miles 
 distant, on their passage to New York ; the locomotives 
 of the Lehigh and Susquehanna, the Lackawanna and 
 Bloomsburg, of the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western, 
 of the Delaware and Hudson Railroads, rushing into 
 Scranton like some fleet devils, carrying on their back 
 the w^liole moving world whether they will or not ; the 
 vilhigps of Hyde Park, Providence, Dunmore, and Green 
 Ride, arrayed in thrifty garb, far up and down the valley ; 
 the Lee-har-hanna, with its modest throat and richer 
 sliade drawn like a belt of silver along the picture ; the 
 neat farm-houses, here and there nestling in some lovely 
 meadow, or half hid among the blossoms of orchards, 
 with the background of the unshorn mountain, swelling 
 upward from Wyoming or the Lackawanna region, all 
 make up a sight as beautiful as the Jewish ruler of old 
 once witnessed from old Mount Nebo. Nor is this all. 
 As he looks into the bosom of "Capouse Meadow," his 
 eye wanders over coal lands which, fifteen years before 
 the completion of a railroad outlet north from the valley, 
 could have been purchased for fifteen dollars per acre, 
 and which now are worth $800 and $1,000 ; and building- 
 lots, which then no respectable man was willing to accept 
 as a gratuity, now readily bring from one to five thousand 
 dollars each. 
 
i3^b HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Tlie growth of Scranton lias been marked by uniform 
 decades. 
 
 In 1826, the Drinker Railroad wrought consternation 
 among the pines of this secluded glen ; in 1836 the same 
 measure, combined with the North Branch Canal and new 
 county schemes, again awakened hopes partially fulfilled. 
 In 1846, sales of iron made by the Scranton Company, 
 enabled them to defy threatened bankruptcy ; in 1856, 
 the first locomotive engine rolled from Scranton, just 
 formed into a borough, to the Delaware River; in 1866, 
 incorporated into a city ; and in 1876, all the townships in 
 northern and central Luzerne will probably take their 
 places in the new county of Lackawanna, with the county 
 seat at Scranton. In 1866, Scranton, Hyde Park, and 
 Providence, were fashioned by the legislature of Penn- 
 sylvania into a city composed of twelve wards, with all 
 the municipal rights and regulations necessary for its exist- 
 ence. E. S. M. Hill, Esq., was elected mayor. 
 
 The newspaper interests of Scranton, now so prominent 
 a feature, had no place or foothold until fifteen years 
 ago. 
 
 During he year 1845, a newspaper called the Gowuty 
 Mirror was started in Providence (now the 1st and 2d 
 Wards, Scranton), by the late Franklin B. Woodward. 
 Harrison at this time had made so humble pretensions 
 that but a single advertisement from the village found its 
 way into this lively paper. In. 1852, the Lackawanna 
 Herald^ a paper of more partisan bitterness than real 
 ability, was issued in Scranton by Charles E. Lathrop. 
 Three years later the Spirit of the Valley was published 
 by Thomas J. Alleg^r and J. B. Adams for one year, 
 when the two were consolidated under the name of the 
 Herald of the Union^ purchased and edited by the late 
 Ezra B. Chase, — a gentleman of superior literary attain- 
 ments. Declining health induced him soon after to sell 
 out to Dr. A. Davis and J. B. Adams. In the spring of 
 1859, Dr. Davis purchased the interest of Mr. Adams, 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKV. 259 
 
 transferring it to Dr. Silas M. Wheeh^r, and the paper 
 was managed by these medical gentlemen with a degree 
 of originality and spiciness rarel}'^ seen in a country 
 newspaper. Dr. Davis at that time moved into Scranton, 
 building the tirst house erected on Franklin Avenue, and 
 now occupied by Dr. G. W. Masser. This paper finally 
 subsided into the Scranton Register, owned and edited by 
 Mayor E. S. M. Hill, until the summer of 1868. 
 
 Theodore Smith established the Scranton Republican 
 in 1856, conducting it in a highly creditable manner for 
 two years, when F. A. McCartney became the proprietor. 
 After being owned by Thos. J. Alleger, and conducted 
 fairly and honorably, it passed into the hands of F. A. 
 Orandall, then again into those of F. A. Crandall & Co., 
 the present energetic and spirited owners. The Scranton 
 City Journal came forth from the hands of Messrs. Bene- 
 dicts in 1867, and from the acknowledged industry and 
 qualifications of these gentlemen, the new paper can hardly 
 iail to thrive. 
 
 The Scranton WocJienhlatt, a German ])aper, was 
 started, with a large circulation, January 1865, by E. A. 
 Ludwig. It is now edited and published b}^ F. Wagner, 
 and presents a neat appearance. The Democrat — a bold, 
 original, ultra- democratic paper — edited by J. B. Adams, 
 has already secured the favorable consideration and good 
 opinion of the people of the countrj^. 
 
 The above named are and were all weekly publications. 
 
 One or two dailies and tri- weeklies have been born and 
 buried within tbat period ; some of them, especially the 
 Morning Herald, a daily published in 1866 by J. B. 
 Adams, evidenced considerable merit. None of them 
 however, exhibited the substantial prosperity shown by 
 tbe Scranton Daily Register, edited by E. S. M. Hill, 
 Esq., and managed in its local department by J. B. Adams 
 with a bluntness and severity of thought, which, however 
 creditable it might have been to his abilities as a writer, 
 offended the erring rather than corrected the errors of the 
 
260 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 day. Messrs. Carl and Burtch, purchased the paper in 
 1868, converted it into an evening issue, and by its teU*- 
 grapliic features and the vigor of its young editors, with- 
 out abating any of its democratic tendencies, it has already 
 gained a place in the public heart. 
 
 In spite of the failures in every inland town and city 
 in Pennsylvania to sustain a daily paper, with full tele- 
 graphic news, Messrs. Scrantonand Crandall essayed forth 
 the Scr anion Daily Repiihlican in November, 1867, as 
 an experimental measure. 
 
 Its prosperity and success, at first jeopardized by a 
 disastrous fire, is now fully assured in public opinion, 
 and all concede to these gentlemen the credit of first offer- 
 ing to the people a daily country paper, with telegraphic 
 news simultaneously enjoyed by the New York Asso- 
 ciated Press. Its local department, managed by Mr. 
 Chase, and its general editorials, somewhat ultra and 
 positive in their character, bear evidence of vigorous 
 thought. 
 
 Scranton abounds in industrial enterprises, which its 
 remarkable growth have prompted and fostered. 
 
 Finch & Co.'s Scranton City Foundeky and Machine 
 Works, situated on the Hyde Park side of the Lacka- 
 wanna, was established, in 1856, by Mr. A. P. Finch. 
 This establishment, representing higli engineering attain- 
 ment, is largely engaged in the manufacture of portable 
 and stationary engines, mining machinery, circular saw- 
 mills, turbine water-wheels, iron fronts, &c., &c. 
 
 Maclaren's Brass Foundery, deriving its name from 
 its founder and owner, John Maclaren, is located in 
 Scranton, near the depot of the Lehigh and Susquehanna 
 Railroad. Its establishment in 1866, to supply the de- 
 mands of a wide section hitherto seeking New York or 
 Philadelphia for the infinite variety of brass work needed 
 in the interest of commerce, gave proof of sound judg- 
 ment and a correct appreciation of the increasing wants 
 of the Valley of the Lackawanna. This is one of the* 
 
LACKAWANNA VALI.KY. 
 
 2t>l 
 
'^^'^ HlhTOKY OF IHE 
 
 most extensive brass founderies in the State, and while its 
 success adds to the wealth and vigor of Scranton, the 
 public are not indifferent to its general welfare. 
 
 Tjie Capouse \V()i;ks of Pulaski Carter, of Providence, 
 known far and wide by the superior character of the 
 edge tools issuing from them, as well as by the self-made 
 man instituting on the low bank of the Lackawanna this 
 'pioneer mechanical enterprise; The Sash and Blind 
 Manufactory of Messrs. Hand & Costen, of Providence ; 
 the Peovidence Stove Manufactory of Henry O. Silk- 
 man ; the ScRANTON Stove and Manufacturing Com- 
 pany, of Scranton, and the various individual and asso- 
 ciated operations and improvements within the city limits, 
 establishes the reputation of Scranton as a manufacturing 
 rather than a mining city. 
 
 The sketch of the history of Scranton can hardly be 
 api^ropriately closed without a glance at the great iron 
 works now in blast here, capable of smelting about sev- 
 enty thousand tons of ore a year. The sizes of these blast 
 furnaces may be inferred from the diameter of the bosJieSy 
 which are respectively 18, 18, 19, and 20 feet, with a 
 height of fifty feet. Into these furnaces air is forced by 
 four lever-beam engines of vast power. The steam cylin 
 ders are fifty-four inches in diameter. The blowing cyl 
 inders are 110 inches in diameter, with ten feet strokr. 
 The wind is forced by this apparatus into the furnaces, 
 under an average pressure of eight pounds to the square 
 inch. The huge fly-wheels whicli regulate the move- 
 ments of this enormous apparatus weigh forty thousand 
 pounds. In order to be prepared for any possible exi- 
 gency, and have increased blowing power, the Iron Com- 
 pany have built appropriate apartments, and set up still 
 another pair of engines upon the very ground where for- 
 merly stood, under one roof, the first ofiice, store, and 
 dwelling of Messrs. Scranton and Grant, in Harrison, sub- 
 sequently known as "Kresler's Hotel." 
 
 This pail- of engines have cylinders 59 inches in diarae- 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 263 
 
 ter, and blowing cylinders 90 inches. Each engine has 
 two fly-wheels, 28 feet in diameter, weighing seventy-five 
 thousand pounds. By this power they are able to force 
 air into the furnaces under a pressure of eight or nine 
 pounds to the square inch, a great advantage, as it is 
 found by experiments that in order for a furnace to yield 
 the greatest product, it must not only have a certain 
 amount of air, but that the air, to be most advantageous, 
 must be introduced under heavy pressure, and at many 
 places simultaneously, when it is more equally diffused 
 through the stack. The aggregate productive capacity of 
 the Scranton furnaces is about sixty thousand tons per 
 annum. 
 
 A walk of five minutes brings one to the rolling-mills, 
 which also stand on the north side of the Roaring Brook. 
 Midway between the furnace and the mills, down the bank 
 of the brook to the right, is seen a railroad track leading 
 into a mine directly under our feet, into which a few 
 blackened coal cars, drawn by mules, disappear in mid- 
 night. This vein of coal, at this point, which is used in 
 all the iron works now, is the very one first seen by the 
 exploring party, in 1840, led by Mr. Henry, and wliich, in 
 connection with the adjacent iron deposits, decided the 
 Scrantons and Mr. Grant to purchase this property for 
 sixteen dollars an acre. Entering the rolling-mill, one is 
 surprised to see the magnitude and the precision of the 
 whole arrangement. The principal product of the mills 
 is T railroad bars, of which about 40,000 tons a year are 
 finished. A great quantity of railroad spikes and chairs 
 are made, besides some three thousand tons of merchant- 
 able iron. 
 
 About 200,000 tons of coal are mined annually by the- 
 Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company, and consumed at 
 their works. 
 
 Some general idea can be formed of the imposing char- 
 acter of the iron-works by the fact that over two hundred 
 thousand tons of anthracite coal per } ear are consumed by 
 
264 HiSTORr OF the 
 
 them alone, while they furnish employment to an ( ffective 
 army of two thousand men ! 
 
 The amount of capital already expended by the Dela- 
 ware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad Company, in 
 their railroad and coal property, including the Cayuga 
 and Susquehanna Railroad, and the Warren Railroad, in 
 New Jersey, is, at this time, over fifteen million dollars, 
 and a large amount will yet be required to complete the 
 double track and properly equip the road. 
 
 The influence of the opening of this great eastern and 
 western outlet upon a valley so long shut out from the 
 great world by mountain barriers, make as plain as noon- 
 day, facts of yesterday and to-day. It is visible in every 
 hamlet, felt in every cottage by the wayside, and is writ- 
 ten in vivifying lines everywhere along the Lackawanna ; 
 while the vast revolution it has efi"ected in monetary 
 affairs, finds expression in the grand aggregate of pros- 
 perity seen throughout every county in Pennsylvania and 
 New Jersey through which the road passes. Much of this 
 prosperity is due to Hon. John Brisbin, President of the 
 road for the last ten years, and who has managed its 
 affairs with singular sagacity and skill. 
 
 What Scranton lacks in antiquity^ is compensated for 
 in the design of theoriginal village ; in its fine streets, 
 laid out with great regularity, and illuminated with gas 
 — in its ample water works, supplying the purest water 
 from the upper Nay-aug — in its street railroads, which 
 traverse every portion of the city — in its free schools, sur- 
 passed by none in the State ; in its churches, representing 
 so great a diversity of religious sentiment, in the magnifi- 
 cence or the modesty of their structures, that ' ' none need 
 fall among thorns or thieves ;' ' in its doctors of medicine, 
 sheltered by broad Latin diplomas, which all the diction- 
 aries in the Vatican would not enable them to read, skilled 
 in the wherewithal to heal the sick and invigorate the 
 feeble ; in its clever lawyers, blustering when opposed, 
 and ever ready to mystify and perplex the simplest mat- 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKV. 265 
 
 ter for a fee ; in its doctors of divinity who, learned in 
 biblical affairs, are ever ready 
 
 "By apostolic blows and knocks 
 To show their doctrine orthodox;" 
 
 in fact, by the general intelligence and thrift of its inhab- 
 itants everywhere observed within its borders. Wyoming 
 Valley, worthy of the ftime it has acquired the world 
 over, boasts of its gray obelisk with an honest pride, — of 
 its shire town, filled with elegance, wealth, and intelli- 
 gence, deriving much of its celebrity from being the resi- 
 dence of some of the finest laAvyers in the State, with, its 
 streets shaded by long lines of stately elms ; and yet it 
 lacks the marvelous and irresistible business impulse 
 which makes up the enchantment of Scranton City. Lo- 
 cated in the very midst of unbounded mineral wealth, it 
 will naturally exact tribute from the surrounding country 
 by the aid of the numerous railroads entering within its 
 limits, until the villages that begirt it now will expand 
 and commingle and involuntarily become merged into one 
 of the greatest cities of the State. 
 
 THE DICKSON MANUFACTURING COMPANY. 
 
 The first stationary steam-engine used in the valley of 
 the Lackawanna, between Carbondale and Wilkes Barre, 
 where now no less thanj^?)(9 hundred daily vindicate the 
 name of Stephenson, was put up in the rolling-mill in 
 Scranton in 1847. 
 
 The valley, at this time, had just become an object of 
 desire and competition, which led to its more energetic 
 development. One of the results of that development 
 which has aspired to make Scranton the great commercial 
 manufacturing emporium, is visible in the existence and 
 operations of the Dickson Manufacturing Company, which 
 was organized in 1856. 
 
 This company, with a capital of $500,000, absorbing 
 the "Cliff Works" and "Planing Mill" adjoining it in 
 
266 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Scranton, and the large foundery and machine-sliops of 
 Messrs. Lanning and Marshall at Wilkes Barre, gives- 
 steady employment to nearly a thousand men. 
 
 Not only is its business immense in volume, but sa 
 diversified in its general character, that the huge, station- 
 ary engine that throbs its lay upon the Moosic, or the 
 locomotive plovring the plain below — the mining ma- 
 chinery, and every mechanical contrivance that can be 
 wrought from iron or wood by the skill of the artisan 
 engaged in the works of this company, all promise a 
 measure of future prominence and remuneration, credita- 
 ble alike to mechanical genius, and its happy concentra- 
 tion and encouragement by Thomas Dickson, the Presi- 
 dent of this young, opulent association. 
 
 The following is a list of physicians who have, at one^ 
 time or another, lived and practiced their profession 
 within the area now embraced by the chartered limits of 
 Scranton City : — 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKY. 
 
 267 
 
 Xames. 
 
 Wlure Settled. 
 
 If 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 § 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 
 Slocum Hollow.. 
 Providence 
 
 Hyde Park!'..'.'!! 
 
 Harrison 
 
 Providence 
 
 1800 
 1813 
 1823 
 1884 
 laSB 
 188« 
 1810 
 1845 
 IS45 
 1-846 
 1846 
 1849 
 1850 
 1850 
 1S51 
 
 isis 
 
 1837 
 1840 
 1841 
 
 1845 
 1846 
 
 1830 Dr Davis oriHn.ilIv Ki.Itled nB.ir 
 
 " Orlo Hamlin 
 
 •' Silas B. Robinson 
 
 i860 
 1847 
 
 [Spring Brook. 
 
 •• Hiram Blois 
 
 
 
 
 " Benlamin H. Throop... 
 
 •' William H. Pier 
 
 " Gideon Underwood 
 
 " Nehemiah Hanford 
 
 " Horace Hollister. 
 
 Now resides in Scranton. 
 Now resides in Scranton. 
 Pittston. 
 
 " William E. Rogers 
 
 1858 
 
 
 
 Providence 
 
 Dunmore 
 
 
 '• Julian N.Wilson 
 
 " John B. Sherrerd 
 
 1853 
 
 i853 
 
 
 " George W. Massei- 
 
 " Bennet A. Bouton 
 
 " Johnathan Le verett 
 
 •' John P. Kluge 
 
 
 Surgeon in Army Potomac. 
 Removed to Scranton. 1867. Pre», 
 [Med Society. 
 
 Providence 
 
 3cranton 
 
 18.'52 
 1853 
 1853 
 1853 
 1854 
 1854 
 1854 
 1855 
 1855 
 1856 
 1856 
 1856 
 1856 
 1857 
 1857 
 1857 
 1857 
 1857 
 1858 
 IS-nB 
 1859 
 
 iS54 
 18.53 
 1865 
 
 
 " George B. 8eamons 
 
 " Augustus Davis 
 
 Dunmore 
 
 Removed to Scranton. 1868. 
 Hyde Park, Surgeon in Army. 
 
 Hyde Park 
 
 Scranton 
 
 1859 
 
 
 " Georire B. Boyd 
 
 " William E. Allen 
 
 
 Hyde Park 
 
 
 
 Asst. e.x-Surgeon. 1665, Prov. Marsh, 
 
 [office, Scranton. 
 Surgeon to the &4th Pa. Reg. during 
 Can.ior, N. Y. [the war. 
 Resides at Factoryville, Pa. 
 
 " Ralph A. Squires 
 
 " S. Burton Sturdevant.. 
 
 
 
 Providence 
 
 
 
 " Asa H. Brundage 
 
 •• Albert M. Capwell 
 
 " F Bodeman 
 
 1^8 
 1860 
 
 
 Dunmore 
 
 Scranton 
 
 Hyde Park'".'"' 
 
 •' William Frothingham.. 
 •• John W.Oibbs 
 
 1861 
 
 1858 
 1860 
 
 i859 
 1S62 
 
 1867 
 1865 
 
 New York. 
 
 Jewish Rabbi, Scranton. 
 
 Asst. ex-Surgeon, 1864- 5, in Scran- 
 [ton. 
 
 •• N. F. Marsh 
 
 •• Charles Marr . 
 
 
 " Kn.stiis W. Wells 
 
 u 
 
 
 i> 
 
 " K. B Evens 
 
 Hyde Park 
 
 
 " W. II. Heath ... . 
 
 
 
 
 
 1860 
 
 
 
 
 " J. -M. Fox 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ;i 
 
 18601.... 
 186l'iSfi7 
 
 
 " F. Wagner 
 
 ,1 
 
 Wilkes Barre 
 
 " Wm. Gelhaar 
 
 " P. H.Moody 
 
 " Willonghby W. Gibbs.. 
 
 Providence 
 
 Dunmore 
 
 Hyde Park! !!.■;.' 
 Scranton 
 
 1861 
 1862 
 1865 
 1865 
 186*1 
 
 1867 .... 
 
 Ex-Surg. dur'g the war, at Scranton. 
 Coroner, Luzerne County. 
 
 " Peter Winters 
 
 
 " S. P. Reed 
 
 1868 
 
 Scranton. 
 
 Surgeon during the war, 76th Reg. 
 [Pa. Vols. " 
 
 " John W. Robathan... . 
 " N. Y Leet 
 
 1865 
 1866 
 1866 
 1867 
 1867 
 1887 
 1867 
 1867 
 1867 
 1867 
 1867 
 1868 
 
 
 
 " A. W. Burns 
 
 " Harper B. Lackey 
 
 Providence 
 
 
 
 " J. B. Benton . . . 
 
 
 
 
 " C. H. Fisher 
 
 
 
 
 
 " L. F. Everhart 
 
 u 
 
 Surgeon 8th and 16th Pa. Cavalry. 
 
 " N. B. Roberts 
 
 " — McGinlie 
 
 Hyde Park 
 
 " William Barnes 
 
 
 
 
 
 " William Haggerty 
 
 " J.Willia.i.s 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 
 Providence 
 
 
 Names. | Located. \ Arrived. 
 
 Left. 
 
 Dr. A. P. Gardner 
 
 S 
 
 1854 
 1855 
 1858 
 1862 
 1865 
 1868 
 1868 
 1868 
 
 18')9 
 
 " — Reynolds 
 
 I, 
 
 
 " A. P.Hunt 
 
 " 
 
 
 " C.A.Stevens 
 
 
 " A. E. Burr 
 
 u .... 
 
 1868 
 
 " J. S. Walter 
 
 11 
 
 
 Drs. Clark & Ricardo 
 
 u 
 
 
 Dr. Sidney A. Campbell 
 
 •. 
 
 
268 
 
 HISTORY or THE 
 
 The superior or relative status of Providence and Scran- 
 ton as business villages, five-and-twenty years ago, is 
 plainly apparent in the enumerated list of medical and 
 legal gentlemen, who, to advance their fortunes or achieve 
 reputation, chose the former place for a residence, be 
 cause of its real as well as its expected importance. 
 
 Lawyers who have for a longer or shorter period lived 
 and practiced law within the city limits of Scranton : — 
 
 Names. 
 
 firiginul 
 location. 
 
 When Admitted. 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 Lewis Jones. Jr 
 
 Carbondale. . . 
 
 August 5, 1834.. 
 
 Now of Scranton. 
 
 Charles H. Silkmau. . . 
 
 Providence . . 
 
 January 1, 1838.. 
 
 " 
 
 Peter Byrne 
 
 Csrboucltilc 
 
 August 3, 1846. . 
 August 4, 1846. . 
 
 u 
 
 J. Marion Alexander. . 
 
 Providence . . 
 
 Kansas. 
 
 Elliot S. M. Hill 
 
 
 April 5, 1847 
 
 First May'r of Scranton. 
 
 David R. Randall 
 
 " 
 
 November 4, 1847 
 
 j Late District Att'y 
 ( Luzerne Co. 
 
 Daniel Rankins 
 
 
 August 7. 1850.. 
 
 Clerk of the Court. 
 
 Washington G. Ward. 
 
 Hyde Park.. 
 
 November 10, 1851 
 
 
 Samuel Sherrerd 
 
 Scranton .... 
 
 April 4, 1853 
 
 
 Edward Merrifield 
 
 Hyde Park.. 
 
 August 6, 1855... 
 
 
 George Sanderson 
 
 Scranton 
 
 Sept. 14, 1857 
 
 ( Founder of Green 
 ] Ridge, 
 
 *Ezra B. Chase 
 
 u 
 
 April 7, 1857. . . 
 
 
 
 
 f Register in the Dist. 
 
 
 
 
 1 Court of the U. S., 
 
 Edward N. WiUard... 
 
 '• 
 
 Nov. 17, 1857 
 
 ^ for the Western 
 [ District of Pa. 
 
 
 
 
 George D. Haugawout. 
 
 " 
 
 January 18. 1858. 
 
 
 Wm. H. Pratt 
 
 " 
 
 January 4, 1859. . 
 
 
 David C. Harrington. . 
 
 " 
 
 May 7, I860 
 
 
 Alfred Hand 
 
 a 
 
 May 8, 1860 
 
 May 16, 1860 
 
 Notary Public. 
 
 Frederick L. Hitchoock 
 
 
 John Handley 
 
 " 
 
 August 21, 18G0. . 
 
 
 Aretus H. W'iuton. . . . 
 
 " 
 
 August 22, I860.. 
 
 Notary Public. 
 
 Corydon H. Wells. . . . 
 
 Hyde Park. . . 
 
 August 30, 1860. 
 
 
 Frederic Fuller 
 
 Scranton .... 
 
 Nov. 13, 1860 ... 
 
 
 W. Gibson Jones 
 
 
 April 1, 1861.. . . 
 
 
 Charles Du Pont Breck 
 
 ., 
 
 August 18, 1861.. 
 
 
 Aaron A. Chase 
 
 " 
 
 August 20, 1862. 
 
 
 Zebulon M. Ward 
 
 " 
 
 August 17, 1863. 
 
 
 James Mahoii 
 
 
 Jan. 6, 1865 
 
 Dist. Att'y Scranton. 
 
 M.J.Byrne 
 
 ii 
 
 Dec. 5, 1866 
 
 
 Francis D. Collins 
 
 " 
 
 Dec. 24, 1866 
 
 
 Francis E. Looniis. . . . 
 
 '• 
 
 Feb. 20, 1866.... 
 
 
 Daniel Hannah 
 
 
 Feb. 21, 1867 
 
 
 Jeremiah D. Regan. . . 
 
 
 August 19, 1867.. 
 
 
 Lewis M. Bunell 
 
 " 
 
 1867 
 
 
 J. M. C. Ranch 
 
 " 
 
 
 
 Isaac J. Post 
 
 " 
 
 
 
 Charles G. Van Fleet 
 
 
 
 
 F. E. Gunstur, 
 
 " 
 
 Sept. 21. 1868... 
 
 
 Wm. Stanton. 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 Deceased. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKY. 2G^ 
 
 BLAKELEY. 
 
 "This towuship was called Blakeley from respect to the 
 memory of Captain Johnston Blakeley, who commanded 
 the United States sloop of war Wasp, and who signalized 
 himself in an engagement with the British sloop Avon.''' ' 
 It was formed in April, 1818, from "a part of Providence, 
 including a corner of Greenfield, east of Lackawanna 
 mountain."- It embraced Ragged Island (now Carbon- 
 dale) and the lands of the Delaware and Hudson Canal 
 Company, then brought into value by William and 
 Maurice Wurts. 
 
 During the Revolutionary war, a bridle-path, after- 
 ward leading through Rixe's Gap into the county of 
 Wayne, marked by trees, was made by the trapper and 
 hunter, but no settlement was attempted within its yet 
 unmeasured boundaries, until comparative tranquillity 
 came to Wyoming and Lackawanna in 1786. In the 
 summer of this year, Timothy Stevens, a war-worn veteran 
 from Westchester, New York, who had served in the 
 long struggle with courage and credit, moved into th«' 
 Blakeley woods with his family. No Indian clearing was 
 found, and but the vague trace of the deserted wigwam 
 appeared on the bank of the stream, where he encamped 
 and began a clearing for his home. Here, overshadowed 
 by forest, where the pulse of the great world only throb- 
 bed in storms and winds, he uprolled his cabin from the 
 rough timber felled, and lived many years with his family 
 alone. In 1814, he erected a grist-mill upon the Lacka- 
 wanna, subsequently known as "Motfsmill," the debr/s 
 of which can yet be seen by the road-side, above the 
 village of Price. 
 
 There came a strange character here in 1795, about 
 whom for a time there was great mystery. He carried a 
 gold snuff-box, from which he incessantly inspired his 
 
 ' Chapman. ' Court Records. 
 
270 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 nose, wore an olive velvet coat, was a man ot considerable 
 literary attainment ; exhibiting a good deal of 
 
 "Grandeur's remains and gleams of other days," 
 
 He had been a German merchant in Hamburg, received a 
 classical education, and was withal a clever linguist. His 
 name was Nicholas Leuchens. A man of culture, fond of 
 display in early life, he expended a thousand pounds 
 sterling at his wedding. He left his native shore to escape 
 conscription, landed in Philadelphia, in August, 1795, 
 and departed at once for Wyoming Valley, just emerged 
 from internal discord. Reaching Wyoming, he strolled 
 up the Lackawanna to the present location of Pecktown, 
 where he established the first log-structure upon these 
 exuberant lowlands. This was thirteen years previous 
 to the formation of Blakeley into a township, and Leuchens 
 was at this time the only inhabitant in this portion of 
 Providence, with the exception of Stevens, living a mile 
 or two down the valley. Finding no owner for the land, 
 he took possession of about five hundred acres, of which 
 he never acquired a title. Here rose his plain habitation, 
 roofed with boughs and barks, containing but a single 
 room, in which he piled successive layers of beds almost to 
 the very roof, so as better to repel the approach of ghosts, 
 ever inspiring him with special dread. In the winter of 
 1806, he taught a district school in the old jail-house, in 
 AVilkes Barre, and one of his pupils^ thus describes the 
 school-house. On a little basin of water, called " Yankee 
 Pond," lying back of the school-house, there was good 
 skating after a cold snap, which the boys in their rustic 
 freedom regarded as a healthier developer, both of muscle 
 and mind, than the musty lore he aimed to inculcate. 
 Leuchens had little control over his school ; the large]- 
 boys starting off to skate without permission, assent 
 would be given to others to follow, recruit after recruit 
 
 'Anson Goodrich 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 271 
 
 would be sent in vain after the delinquent pupils until 
 none were left to do homage to the master. Vexed at his 
 roguish and boisterous scholars, he would visit the skating 
 pond himself. Being sixty years of age, and near-sighted 
 at that, his appearance was greeted with a storm of 
 snow-balls, wliich he was unable to restrain or trace to 
 the mischievous authors. 
 
 The mental power and the forcep-like grasp of the Ger- 
 man trader distinguishing him in other days, forsook him 
 on his farm, with his fortune ; he grew aimless, indolent, 
 and disheartened, returned to Philadelphia, where he 
 died, and was buried by the hand of charity. 
 
 Upon the road-side from Providence to Carbondale, be- 
 tween the village of Price and the Lackawanna, can be 
 seen an orchard in the meadow where John Vaughn and 
 his sons settled in 1797. One of the pioneers in this year 
 was Elisha S. Potter. Learning of the rich wild lands 
 sold for a song along the Lackawanna, he left his native 
 place, AVliite Hall, N". Y., and sought them. Potter 
 was the first justice of the peace in the township, and so 
 well were the vexatious and harassing duties of the 
 magistrate performed by him, that litigating parties were 
 generally satisfied with his judgment and decisions. 
 
 Moses Dolph, the grandfather of Edwai-d Dolph, Esq., 
 with the Ferrises, made a pitch here in 1798. Of the chil- 
 ■dren of Dolph, none are now living. 
 
 There were yet no settlers farther up the valley than 
 Leuchens, and sparse and poor indeed were the dwellings 
 Intervening toward Wyoming. Mt. Vernon, formerly the 
 residence of Lewis S. Watres, Esq., was cleared and occu- 
 pied in 1812. 
 
 The forbidding aspect of the country along the borders 
 ■of the forest, the long severe winters, with their pro- 
 digious depth of snow, rising often with its long, white 
 lines of drift, to the very tops of the cabins, and the 
 absence of all roads to communicate with the settlement 
 below, imposed upon the inhabitants the most exacting 
 
272 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 hardships. iMarkings upon trees along the woods directed, 
 the path of the pioneer. No "bridge spanned the Lacka- 
 wanna at this time other than the one at Capoose and Old 
 Forge ; all streams were forded, if passed at all. Once 
 swollen bj the lengthened rain or spring freshet, all inter- 
 course with the neighborhood was delayed or suspended 
 with as much certainty as when the wintery months ren- 
 dered crossing formidable. 
 
 The earlier inhabitants enjoyed neither churches, school- 
 houses, nor mills. The product of the soil, in the shape 
 of corn and rye, was either mashed by the simple stone or 
 wooden mortar and pestle, or cooked and eaten whole. 
 Bear meat, venison, potatoes, and the scanty salt, com- 
 prised the luxuries of the day ; potatoes sometimes became 
 so scarce in the spring, that those planted for seed were 
 re-dug in a few instances to sustain a family perishing 
 with hunger.^ 
 
 For many years, wolves were so bold and disastrous 
 in their inroads upon all live stock left exposed at 
 night, that cattle and sheep were driven into high, stiong 
 inclosures, around which tires were often liglited jifter 
 nightfall for greater protection from these abundant 
 animals, whose howl, prolonged with terrible distinctness 
 and frequency at the very door of the cabin, made up 
 one of the exciting features of border life. 
 
 Wilkes Barre, Stroudsburg, and Easton, furnished the 
 only stores within a radius of fifty miles, and every 
 spring, after a tine run of sap, was the ox-journey under- 
 taken thither to exchange the maple sirup and sugar for 
 tea, calico, and salt. 
 
 For many years, sweet fern was substituted for tea ; 
 browned rye and indigenous herbs appeared on the table 
 for coffee. The pine knot, or "candle- wood," as the 
 Yankees termed it, cheered the household at night, and 
 blended its light with the friendly shadows of the moon. 
 
 ' Moses Vaughn, 
 
LACKAWANNA VALIJY. 9<73 
 
 In 1824, a post-office was established in Blakeley, and 
 jN". Cottrill appointed postmaster. 
 
 Between Oly pliant and Mr. Ferris' s, on the back road 
 running from Olypbant to Archbald, is seen a small clear- 
 ing on the bank of a creek, with no house or trace of a 
 cabin, occupied as late as 1820 by an Indian lialf-breed, 
 with his squaw and children, skilled as an "Indian doc- 
 tor." He never went from home, nor received compensa- 
 tion for his cures only in the shape of presents ; and yet, 
 in the low moss-covered cabin hid away in the edge of the 
 forest, he received many visits from the credulous ones in 
 the valley. He died soon afterward. 
 
 Blakeley has no scrap of local history. Originally em- 
 bracing the primitive coal-works of the Delaware and 
 Hudson Canal Company, its prosperity has steadily kept 
 pace with the advancement of this company, until the 
 villages of Archbald, Olypbant, and Rushdale, have gath- 
 ered a population of hardy, industrious thousands, at 
 whose touch tlie anthracite has been awakened from its 
 dream and sent its allegiance from the wood-side down to 
 the shore of the sea. 
 
 Peckville is prettily situated on the Lackawanna, does 
 a snug lumber business, while its inhabitants, character- 
 ized by intelligence, good-nature, and liberal attachments, 
 never yet have had a single breach in the social relations 
 of the neighborhood. 
 
 Jessup, a thriving village in 1855, dwells in the memory 
 of the inhabitants of the valley as a place which started 
 into life with too sanguine expectations of coal mines, rail- 
 roads, and iron developments, and was thus exposed to 
 a shock fatal to its existence as a town. 
 
 One of the first churches in the valley was the Blakeley 
 church. It was raised and inclosed in March, 1832, and 
 remained unfinished for many years. Its completion was 
 hastened by the ironical criticisms of a stranger who, upon 
 passing it, remarked that he " had heard of the house of 
 the Lord, but had never before seen his ho.rn.^'' 
 
 18 
 
274 HISTOEY OF THE 
 
 YANKEE WAY OF PULLING A TOOTH. 
 
 Long l)elore doctors, armed with lancets and well-filled 
 saddle-bags, went forth in the valley, empowered, like 
 the beast in Revelations, ' ' to kill a fourth part, ' ' at least, 
 of those whom they might meet on the way, the more 
 trivial duties of the physician necessarily fell upon the 
 patient himself or the skill of some good-natured neigh- 
 bor, or perhaps were assumed by some officious doctress, 
 whose roots and ^^ yarbs,^^ gathered from meadow and 
 mountain, had such wonderful ^^ vartu^^ in their simple 
 decoctions that no disease could deny or resist. Tooth- 
 ache, rarely treated with the inexorable dignity of turn- 
 key or forceps, vexed many a nervous sufferer by its pres- 
 ence. Sometimes, however, its court was summarily 
 adjourned by a process original, sudden, and cheap. 
 
 Among the settlers in Blakelej, at the time spoken of, 
 was a long, lean, bony son of a farmer, troubled with 
 that most provoking of all pains, or, as Burns called it — 
 "thou h — 11 o' a' diseases,"— the toothache. 
 
 The troublesome member was one of the wide-pronged 
 molars, as firm in its socket as if held in a vise. The 
 pain was so acute as it ran along the inflamed guns, that 
 the usual series of manipulations with decoctions and 
 "moments," alternated with useless swearing, failed to 
 bring relief to the sufferer. As the ache grew keener 
 with torture, a '"'• remejW^ agent Avas suggested and tried. 
 One end of a firm hemp string was fastened upon thf^ 
 rebellious member, while the other, securely fixed to a 
 bullet, purposely notched, was placed in the barrel of an 
 old flint-lock musket, loaded with an extra charge of 
 powder. When all was ready, the desperate operator 
 caught hold of the gun and "let drive." Out flew the 
 tooth from the bleeding jaw, and away bounded the mus- 
 ket several feet. 
 
 After this new way of extracting teeth had thus been 
 demonstrated by one so simple and unskilled in the den- 
 
LACKAWANXA VAI.LEV. 275 
 
 tal science, it became at once the chosen and only mode 
 practiced here for man}- years. 
 
 THOMAS SMITH. 
 
 Among other resolute pioneers who sought the shores 
 of the Susquehanna in 1788, appeaj's tlie name of Thomas 
 Smith, grandsire of the late T. Smith, Esq., of Abington. 
 
 On the east side of the river below Nanticoke, he laid 
 the foundation for his future home. The great ice freshet 
 of 1784, which bore down from the upper waters of the 
 Susquehanna such vast masses of ice, overflowing the 
 plains and destroying the property along the river, swept 
 his farm of all its harvest product, leaving it with little 
 else than its gullied soil. Hardl}' had his recuperative 
 energies again made cheerful his fireside, when tlie 
 "pumpkin freshet," as it w\as called, from the countless 
 number of pumpkins it brought down the swollen river, 
 again inundated its banks, sweeping away houses, barns, 
 mills, fences, stacks of hay and grain, catth", flocks of 
 sheep, and droves of swine, in the geneial destruction, 
 and spreading desolation where but yesterday autumn 
 promised abundance. 
 
 Smith, not stoic enough to receive the visits of such 
 tloods with indifference, moved up in the "gore" (now 
 Lackawanna Township) in 1786, "for," said the old gen- 
 tleman, "I want to get above high-water mark." 
 
 His son, Deodat, intermarried with the AllsAvoith iam- 
 ily in Dunmore, fiom whom sprung a large family of 
 children. 
 
 THE SETTLEMENT OF ABINGTON.' 
 
 Of the highlands of Abington, lying between the Sus- 
 quehanna River and the Lackawanna, now rendered 
 productiv ^ by a comely and industrious people, little 
 was known by the white man at the beginning of the 
 
 ' Named from Abington, Connecticut. 
 
276 IIISTOKY OF THK 
 
 century, else that its wild thresholds were crossed by the 
 Indians' pathway from Capoose village to Oquago, N. Y. 
 
 In 1790 a party of trappers, consisting of three persons, 
 penetrated the wilderness where now spreads out the rich 
 sloping farm of the late Elder Miller, with a view of 
 making a settlement, as trapping grew dull and furs be- 
 came scarce. Here they felled the underbrush and a few 
 of the forest trees, rolled tliem into a cabin roofed with 
 boughs, while the great crevices, liberally seamed with 
 wedges of w^ood and mud, imparted to the new structure 
 a Hottentot appearance. Their provisions having become 
 exhausted, and bear meat losing its relish, they shouldered 
 their guns and traps before the close of summer and aban- 
 doned the enterprise, so that no permanent settlement was 
 made until 1794. In the spring of this year Stephen 
 Parker, Thomas Smith, Deacon Clark, and Ephraim 
 Leach, father of E. Leach, Esq., of Providence, led by 
 the intrepid John Miller, on foot, slung their packs and 
 guns over their shoulders, and with ax in hand, fiist 
 marked and widened this ancient patliway of the wild man 
 through the mountain gap, known as Leggett's. This 
 gap, in the low range of the Moosic, offered then, as now, 
 the only natural eastern outlet to the township of Abing- 
 ton. Before the work was completed, it was abandoned 
 because of the unvarying obstruction offered by trees to 
 the passage of a cart or wagon, and the declivity rising 
 from Leggett's Creek abruptly into the very mountain. 
 The slighter depression in the range, half a mile south 
 of Leggetf s Gap, was then selected for a wagon road, 
 even with the disadvantages of its treble height. In 1791 
 encroachments were made upon the warriors' path through 
 the notch for the passage of a wagon, when the mountain 
 road relapsed again into forest. 
 
 Near the location of the present grist-mill of Humphreys, 
 the white man's clearing first emerged from the Abing- 
 tonian woods. This was made by Ebenezer Leach, who 
 afterward sold out his right at this point, and moved 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 277 
 
 down in tlie vicinity of Leggett's Gap, wliere he soon 
 "became a tenant of a small, low, log-cabin, remarkable 
 only for its rude simplicity. A clearing was niched out 
 upon the slope of a hill, where the corn soon sprouted 
 from the fresh burned fallow, and the pumpkins, with 
 their yellow sides and rounded faces, threw a Yankee 
 and domestic look over a region naturally rugged and 
 lonely. 
 
 Corn once raised and husked, was either cracked in 
 stone or wooden mortars, for the brown mush, or carried 
 in back-loads down to the corn-mill in Slocum Hollow, 
 to be ground. Sometimes, when the snow was deep or 
 drifted, the journey was made to the mill upon the slow 
 and cumbrous snow-shoe. 
 
 The utter solitude of Leggett's Gap, interrupted only 
 by the screech of the panther or the cry of the wolf, as 
 they sprang along its sides with prodigious leaps, made 
 even the trip to mill perilous in the cold season of the 
 3^ear. 
 
 "Many a time," said Leach, "have I passed through 
 the notch, with my little grist on my shoulder, holding in 
 my hand a large club, which I kept swinging fiercely, to 
 keep away the wolves growling around me ; and to my 
 faithful club, often bitten and broken when I reached 
 home, have I apparently been indebted for my life." At 
 length he hit upon a plan promising exemption from their 
 attacks. 
 
 Being told that they were afraid of the sound of ircm, 
 he obtained from the valley below, a saw-mill saw. To 
 this he attached a strong withe, by which he drew the saw 
 by one hand over a trail or road, as yet unconscious of 
 the dignity of a sled or a wheel, making a tinkling alter- 
 nately so sharp and soft as it bounded over a stone or 
 plunged into a root as to inspire them at once with fear so 
 great that his passage was only interrupted after this by 
 their indignant growls. 
 
 During one of his mill trips to Capoose, a timid fawn 
 
278 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 being pursued closely by two wolves, ran up to him, 
 and placed its head between the legs of Leach to seek 
 protection from its half-starved pursuers. This was done 
 in a manner so abrupt and hurried, as to first convey to 
 the rider a knowledge of the chase. The wolves came up 
 with a bound, within a short distance of where the fearless 
 arm interposed for the trembling animal, and, giving one 
 ferocious view of their white, sharpened teeth, crouched 
 away to their retreats. 
 
 So frightened had the fawn become, that not until the 
 path oj)ened distinctly ujion the clearing of Leach, could 
 it be induced to leave the side of its protector. 
 
 Deer and elk, at that period, thronged along the 
 mountains in such numbers that droves often could be 
 seen browsing upon saplings or lazily basking in the 
 noonday sun. 
 
 Tlie Ifoose, from wliicli the mountain range bordering 
 the Lackawanna derived its name of Moosic, were found 
 liere in vast numbers by the earliest explorers in the 
 Lackawanna Valley. The clearing of Mr. Leach subse- 
 quently embraced the Indian salt spring, mentioned 
 heretofore. 
 
 Parker and Smith located upon land north of this, while 
 Clark, drawn by the delicious landscape of Abington's 
 fairest mount, plunged into the woods, where now thrives 
 a village honoring his memory, in the preservation of the 
 name — Clark's Green. 
 
 On the summit of the hill commanding such a sweep of 
 mountain, meadow, lowland, and ravine, as stretches to 
 the eye turned to the south or the east, there then stood 
 the straight pine and the shaggy hemlock, interspersed 
 with the maple and the beech, where was erected the orig- 
 inal dwell ng-place of Deacon Clark. It was a substantial 
 compact of unhewn logs, notched deep at either end, 
 placed together regardless of beauty or timber. The tioor 
 came from ask-plank, full of slivers, unaided by the saw 
 or plane — the keen ax alone being responsible for 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 2^79 
 
 smoothness and finish. It was, withal, a comfortable af- 
 fair built in the wood-side, some 1,300 feet above tide- 
 water; but energetic, contented, and industrious, the old 
 gentleman passed under its humble roof many a pleasant 
 hour in the long evenings of autumn, when the hearth 
 glowed with the crackling fire, while his daily duties were 
 to give thrift and culture to one of the finest farms in 
 Abington. 
 
 The first settlement in Abington was made about the 
 year 1793 by Mr. Robert Reynolds, William Wall, and Mr. 
 Job Tripp, with a few young men, among whom were 
 Ezra Dean, Ezra Wall and Robert Stone. Most of those 
 w ho had plunged here in this old forest, w'ere, like those 
 who had commenced along the Lackaw-anna, so poor as to 
 be unable to pay for their land, until from the soil, they 
 could, by their honest industry and frugal management, 
 raise the necessary means. Not so, however, with Jt)b; 
 he had a little money, and was determined to make the 
 most of it. He purchased a grindstone and brought it 
 into Abington, w^hich for six years w^as the only one here. 
 This he fenced in with stout saplings, allowing no one to 
 grind upon it unless they paid him a stipulated sum, and 
 turned the stone themselves. This enterprise, although 
 it was comprehensive in its design, and brought to his 
 barricaded gi'indstone one or two dull axes a w^eek of the 
 toiling chopper, could not bring into play all the energies 
 of his mind, so he fenced in much of the woods by falling 
 trees, for a deer-pen or park, into which, after the deer had 
 wandered for his morning browse, or had been driven by 
 Job, the passage to the pen was closed, when the deer was 
 to be slain, and dried venison and buckskin were to effect 
 such a revolution in the commercial aspect of Abington,. 
 and he was to be the Midas who had brought it. The 
 chase over the acres he had thus fenced proved more in^ 
 vigorating to his stomach than beneficial to his pocket,, 
 and the project of the old man died with him a. few years 
 
280 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 later, marked only by the remaining debris of the fence 
 yet seen around "Hickory Ridge." 
 
 Elder John Miller, a man alike eminent for his long 
 sei- vices as a minister, and his virtues as a man, settled in 
 Abington in 1802. He was born February 3, 1775, in 
 Windham, Connecticut. Young, hopeful, and robust, he 
 emigrated to the inland acres of Abington, where, for 
 half a century, identified intimately with its local and 
 general history, he gave cheer and character to society 
 around him as much as the brook crossing the meadow 
 imparts a deeper shade and more luxuriant herbage to 
 its banks. The great influence he exerted over the people 
 of the township up until the very day of his death, in 
 February, 1857, in keeping alive the spirit of improve- 
 ment, husbandry, and morality, can yet be observed 
 along the farms of his neighbors, in the enterprise, intel- 
 ligence, industry, customs, and habits of the yeomanry 
 of Abington. Previous to the coming of Mr. Miller to 
 "The Beech," as Abington was designated until the for- 
 mation of the township in 1806, few had inclined toward 
 its rigorous domain. He located upon the spot marked 
 and vacated by the trappers twelve years before, pur- 
 chased three hundred and twenty-six acres of land for 
 forty dollars — $20 in silver, $10 in the customary tender 
 of maple-sugar^ and $10 in tin-ware. 
 
 The only store in the county of Luzerne was kept in 
 Wilkes Barre by Hollenback & Fisher, offering a variety 
 surpassed by the ordinary pack of the modern peddler of 
 to-day. At this store, Elder Miller was furnished witn 
 the necessary tin, which he manufactured into such ware 
 as the county called for. 
 
 Almost simultaneously with his arrival, he began to 
 preach the gospel and "turn many to righteousness." 
 During this long five-and-rifty years of spiritual labor, he 
 married nine hundred and twelve couples, baptized (im- 
 mersed) two thousand persons, and preached the enor- 
 nious number of eighteen hundred funeral sermons before 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 281 
 
 lie was called to receive his reward on high. It Avas rare 
 to witness a funeral in the valley when the elder was in 
 his prime, and find absent from the mournful gathering 
 his frank, friendly face, ever full of words of comfort and 
 kind reminiscence of the dead. 
 
 For a period of twelve years he officiated in the valley 
 as the only clergyman laboring here of any denomination. 
 
 Being a practical surveyor withal, there are few farms 
 in the northern portion of Luzerne County he did not trav- 
 erse while tracing and defining tlieir boundaries. His wife 
 — an estimable lady — was the fifth white woman living 
 in Abington. Elder Miller, although he held his own plow 
 and fed his own cattle, was the great representative of 
 Abington, whose various qualifications to counsel and 
 console, whose characteristic desire to do good, whose 
 benevolence of heart, grave but kind deportment as a man 
 of the world or the adviser of his flock, gave him an 
 ascendency in the affections of the community attained 
 b}" few. 
 
 While he has passed away, he left behind him in manu- 
 scripts events of his life, and incidents in the early histoiy- 
 and growth of Abington, whose publication could not fail 
 to interest all who knew him, and recall to the mind of 
 the reader the gray head and kindly greetings of a man 
 whose age, calm, deliberate air, whose venerable and un- 
 questioned piety, and whose great sympathy in the hour 
 of sorrow, made him one of the most remarkable persons 
 ever living in Abington. 
 
 This township was the twelfth one formed in the county 
 of Luzerne, and is sixty- three years old. At the Coui-t of 
 Quarter Sessions, held at Wilkes Barre, August, 1806, 
 Abington Avas formed from a part of Tunkhannock, " Be- 
 ginning at the southwest corner of Nicholson township, 
 thence south nine and three-quarter miles east to Wayne 
 County, thence by Wayne County line north nine and 
 three-quarter miles," etc. 
 
 The original inhabitants were from Connecticut and 
 
282 HISTOKY OF TUK 
 
 Rhode Island ; and even now, after the lapse of over half 
 a century with its mutations, the stern morality, the hon- 
 est industry, and the social virtues literally impressed 
 upon the hills of the parent State, are distributed and dis- 
 tinguished among their descendants. Although no evi- 
 dence of coal or iron exhibits itself within the boundaries- 
 of Abington, it furnishes one of the best farming and graz- 
 ing areas found in the county of Luzerne. 
 
 The only colored feature in the picture of Abington is a 
 colony of negroes, which, in spite of the double disadvan- 
 tage of prejudice and hereditary indolence, has drawn 
 from the frosty hills thereabout the wherewithal to sus- 
 tain animation in a very creditable manner. 
 
 ELIAS SCOTT, THE HUNTER. 
 
 Daniel Scott emigrated to the Lackawanna in 1792. His 
 son Elias was widel}^ known throughout the country forty 
 years ago, as a successful Nimrod, but the encroachments 
 of civilized life crowded the forest world from his reach 
 with the same remorseless force that the Indians have 
 been rolled up and frenzied to the very base of the Kocky 
 Mountains. 
 
 Some years ago, while he was standing near the Wyo- 
 ming House, in Scranton, in an apparently thoughtful 
 and sorrowful mood, the writer asked him what was the 
 matter. 
 
 "Matter ! matter !" he exclaimed, as he looked up with 
 a sigh, and pointed his wilted hand and hickory cane 
 toward the depots. "See how the tarnal rascals have 
 spiled the hunting-grounds where I've killed many a bear 
 and deer.'- 
 
 In the autumn months he would take long hunting- 
 jaunts, sometimes being absent a week from his home. 
 Upon his left hand appeared unmistakable evidence of an 
 encounter with a bear many years ago, while out upon 
 such an excursion on Stafford Meadow Brook, running 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. I'bJ 
 
 through the southern portion of Scrantoii. Encamped at 
 night among the willows on the border of the run, with 
 his leather knapsack for a pillow, his belt, keen knife, 
 and long, heavy rifle for his companions, where the glare 
 of his camp-fire startled the fawn as it browsed along the 
 mountain side, or was chased by the wolf or more blood- 
 thirsty panther down into the valley, he met old bruin at 
 daybreak, as his bearship was gathering beriies for his 
 morning luncli. His organs of digestio)i, iiowever, did not 
 relish the tickling sensation of the bullet thrown from Scott's 
 rifle, and he immediately approached the hunter with all 
 the familiarity and warmth of an old friend, until he came 
 frightfully close. Scott, declining his advances, retreated 
 as rapidly as possible from the wounded and enraged 
 brute, and by the frequent punches of his gun, now 
 empty and broken, avoided the embraces of the bear. 
 Walking backward from the animal, the heel of his boot 
 caught in a treacherous root of a tree, and he fell to the 
 ground. Before he could raise himself again, commenced 
 the death-struggle. Bruin sprang on the hunter with 
 such violence as to rupture an internal blood-vessel, and 
 for a moment the copious flow of l)lood fiom his mouth 
 threatened suffocation. Smarting with the wound of the 
 bullet, the bear seized the left hand of Scott in his mouth, 
 as it was uplifted to divert attention from his throat, wdiile 
 with his right arm he drew from his belt the well-tried 
 trusty knife. This he plunged repeatedly into the bear, 
 until, exhausted from the loss of blood, he fell dead on 
 the mangled hunter. 
 
 Hunters then lived a life of plenty, for game of all 
 kinds was so abundant at that period, that in the course 
 one year's casual hunting, Scott kilh d one hundred and 
 seventy-five deer, five bears, three wolves, and a panther, 
 besides wild turkeys in great numbers. He has killed 
 and dressed eleven deer in one day, three of them being 
 slain at one shot. 
 
 Mr. Scott informed the writer that many years ago, find- 
 
284 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 ing a rattlesnake den on the upper waters of Spring 
 Brook, he killed seven hundred and fifty of the reptiles 
 in a single day ; the next day he slew three hundred and 
 seventy-five more ; making a total of thirteen hundred 
 and twenty-fi'De of the bright occupants of the rocks thus 
 fraternizing in this snake castle or rendezvous, and de- 
 stroyed by the hand of a single man. He died in the 
 summer of 1867. 
 
 EARLY HISTORY OF THE SETTLEMENT OF " DRINKER'S 
 BEECH," NOW COVINGTON, 
 
 As the dweller in wigwams turned his footsteps toward 
 the setting sun, in search of hunting-grounds better 
 stocked than the Ppcono, he left behind him no region 
 more wild than the section of country lying between the 
 Delaware and the Lackawanna, known as Drinker's 
 Beech — a name made popular by the vast number of 
 beech-trees growing upon lands owned by Drinker. No 
 attention of the white man was directed to the tract until 
 1787. During this year, and that of 1791, Henr}^ Drinkei-, 
 Sr,, of Philadelphia, father of the late Heniy^ W. and 
 Richard Drinker, purchased from the State some twenty- 
 five thousand acres of unseated land in the Beech, now 
 embraced by Wayne, Pike, and Luzerne counties. An 
 effort was made in 1788 to turn this purchase to some 
 practical account by opening a liighway through the 
 lands. It failed for want of means. Four years later, 
 John Delong, a hardy woodsman of Stroudsburg, was 
 employed, with other persons, to mark or cut a wagon- 
 road to these beechen possessions, from at or near the 
 twenty-one- mile tree on the north and south road, which 
 was also called the Drinker road, from the fact that it was 
 opened principally at the expense of Henry Drinker, Sr., 
 who was an uncle of Henry Drinker, Jr., and was withal 
 a large landholder in the more northern portion of the 
 State. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 2S5 
 
 The road cut by Delong extended in a westerly direc- 
 tion, passed tliat romantic sheet of water, Lake Heury, 
 crossed the present track of the Delaware, Lackawanna, 
 and AVestern Railroad, and thence taking a southerly 
 course, terminated on a small branch of the Lehigh, called 
 Bell Meadow Brook, near the old Indian encampment 
 before mentioned, upon the edge of this run. 
 
 After the return of the choppers, the road grew full of 
 underbrush, and forbade passage to all but the hunter 
 and his game. In reopening it, in 1821, the name of 
 "Henry Drinker, 1792," was found rudely carved upon 
 a tree. 
 
 The late Ebenezer Bowman, Esq., of Wilkes Barre, 
 was employed to pay taxes upon these lands as late as 
 1813, after which time Henry W. Drinker, as the agent, 
 offered them for sale and settlement. 
 
 In the spring of this year, Henry Drinker, Sr., with 
 his sons, Henry W. and Richard Drinker, visited iStod- 
 dartsville — a faint village brought into being by the late 
 John Stoddard, who, being an alien, w^as impelled from 
 the city of Philadelphia to a tract of land embracing the 
 Great Falls on the Lehigh, w^here his lumbering opeia- 
 tions eventuated into a village of considerable note in the 
 days of the stage-coach over Wilkes Barre Mountain. 
 
 As the southern portion of the Drinker lands lay on 
 the- Lehigh and its upper tributaries, about twelve miles 
 northeast of Stcddartsville, it was decided to open a com- 
 munication to them from that place by a road nearly fol- 
 lowing the course of the river, if the same was found at 
 all practicable. 
 
 Previous, how^ever, to running any line of road, H. W. 
 Drinker determined to ascend that stream in a small canoe 
 or skiff, up to the very mouth of Wild Meadow Brook- 
 now called "Mill Creek." This the old hunters and 
 sturdy woodsmen declared impossible, as the stream in 
 one place was completely closed by a compact body of 
 drift-wood of very large size and great extent, on the top 
 
286 HISTORY OF THK 
 
 of which a considerable strata of vegetable and earthy 
 matter had accumulated, and brushwood was growing 
 luxuriantly ; in other places there were swift and narrow 
 rapids, beaver dams, and alder and laurel, twisted and 
 interwoven over the very current in such a manner that 
 it seemed as if no boat coald ascend the Lehigh, unless 
 carried upon shoulders the greater portion of the way, as 
 the bark canoes of the Indians were sometimes taken. 
 Notwithstanding these discouraging representations, by 
 offering high wages, a resolute set of axmen w^ere at 
 length engaged to undertake this truly formidable task, 
 and after the expenditure of no little energy and money, 
 accompanied with some of the hardest swearing among 
 the choppers, a boat channel to the desired point was 
 opened in the course of two months. 
 
 The first encampment of the Messrs. Drinkers, with 
 their choppers, was near the mouth of Wild Meadow 
 Brook, where they erected a bark cabin, or shed, open in 
 front and at the sides, and sloping back to the ground. 
 Each man was furnished with a blanket, in which he 
 rolled himself up at night, and Avhile a large crackling 
 fire blazed in front of the cabin without, the soft hemlock 
 boughs within furnished invigorating repose after the 
 fatiguing labors of the day. Now and then, they were 
 annoyed b}" the serenade of a school of owls, attracted to 
 the camp by the strange glare of the fire, or the piercing 
 scream of the sleepless panther, watching the intruders ; 
 in damp, rainy weather, by the bite of gnats or " punks," 
 as they were termed. Trout and venison were so abund- 
 ant around them, that an hour' s fish or hunt supplied the 
 €abin for a w^eek with food. 
 
 This encampment was made in 1815, when this new 
 avenue along the Lehigh was sometimes used for boating 
 and running logs. Provisions and boards were taken up 
 the stream from Stoddartsville in a large bateau drawn 
 by a tough old mare, hitched to the bow with a plow har- 
 ness, and with a setting pole to assist her when there was 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKV. 287 
 
 a tight pull, and push en derrlere when the speed slack- 
 ened too much to suit the ^ear- Admiral, as the hands 
 called the driver and owner of the animal ; sometimes 
 swimming through deep beaver-dams, or scrambling 
 along the narrow, rocky passes and rapids, to the aston- 
 ishment of otters, minks, and muskrats, the soft-furred 
 inhabitants of the banks of the stream. 
 
 "And if a beaver lingered tliere, 
 It most have made the rascal stare. 
 To see the swimming of the mare."' 
 
 In the summer of 1814, these lands were resurveyed 
 by Jason Torrey, Esq., of Bethany, Wayne County, into 
 lots averaging one hundred acres each. Lots were sold 
 at five dollars per acre, on live years' credit, the lirst two 
 years without interest ; payment to be made in lumber, 
 shingles, labor, stock, jiroduce, or any thing the farmer 
 offered or had to spare. 
 
 The first clearing was made in Drinker s settlement, in 
 1815, by the late H. W. Drinker, on a ridge of land, 
 where he built a log-house, about a quarter of a mile 
 south of the spot long adorned by his later residence. 
 
 During the year 1816 a road was surve^^ed and opened 
 from the Wilkes Barre and Easton Turnpike, at a point 
 about half a mile above Stoddartsville, to the north and 
 south road, near the Wallenpaupack bridge, a distance of 
 some thirty miles. This road is also known as the old 
 Drinker road. 
 
 At the Court of Quarter Sessions, held at Wilkes Barre 
 in 1818, Covington was formed out of a part of Wilkes 
 Barre, embracing the whole of Drinker' s possession. " In 
 honor of Brigadier- General Covington, who gallantly fell 
 at the battle of Williamsburg, in Upper Canada, the 
 ■court call this township Covington." ' H. W. Drinker 
 being an intimate friend of General Covington, this name 
 Avas given to the new township at his suggestion. 
 
 'Court Records. 1818. 
 
288 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Among the earlier setrlers were Jolin Wragg, Micliaeli 
 Mitchell, Lawrence Dershermer, Ebenezer Covey, John. 
 and William Ross, John and George Fox, John and 
 Lewis Stull, Samuel Wilohick, Archippus Childs, John. 
 Lafrance, John Gentlm, Henry Ospuck, John Fish, 
 David Dale, Edward Wardell, John Thompson, Mathew 
 Hodson, Peter Rupert, Wesley Hollister, John Besecker,. 
 Jacob Swartz, Nathaniel Carter, Samuel Buck, Richard 
 Edwards, John Koons, and Barnabas Carey. 
 
 The PhiladeliDhia and Great Bend Turnpike, originated 
 by Drinker, whose name it still bears, was the first to 
 gain admittance into the valley from the east as a public 
 highway. This turnpike commenced at the Belmont and 
 Easton road, some three miles above Stanhope, and ran 
 thence a northerly course to the Susquehanna and Great 
 Bend Turnpike, at a point near Ithamar Mott's tavern, in 
 Susquehanna County. 
 
 The charter for this road, over sixty miles of vast inland 
 frontier, was obtained in 1819, but the State, willing to 
 foster an enterprise promising to enlarge its development 
 and dignity, had so little faith in the civilizing advan- 
 tages of this proposed road that it favored it with the 
 limited subscription of only $12,000. The balance of the 
 stock was taken by the Messrs. Drinkers, Clymer, 
 Meredith, and other wealthy landholders. Drinker, who 
 located the road, superintended its general construction, 
 and was elected president of the company. 
 
 The four villages, Moscow, Dunning, Dalesville, and 
 Turnersville, diversifying the agricultural centers among 
 the hills and dales of the Beech, are all increasing in- 
 population and importance, and yet have ample room for 
 expansion. 
 
 SETTLEMENT OF JEFFERSON. 
 
 Although Jefferson Township was only formed in 1836, 
 from Providence, its settlement dates back to 1784, when 
 Asa Cobb taking advantage of the repose succeeding the 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 289 
 
 Revolution, located liis cabin, and made a clearing at the 
 foot of one of the larger and steeper elevations, deriving 
 its name from him, Cobb's Mountain, as it sends down 
 its steep slope to the old Connecticut road crossing the 
 range at this liigh point. This cabin, offering its unwa- 
 vering hospitality to friend or foe from Wyoming, was the 
 primitive structure in Jefferson, and its former location is 
 indicated by the mansion of his great-grandson, Asa Cobb. 
 Between the solitary dwelling in Dunmore and the 
 clearing at Little Meadows, in Wayne County, a distance 
 of sixteen miles eastward, the cabin of Mr. Cobb was 
 for many years the only one intervening. In 1795 Mr. 
 Potter chopped a place for his home in the extreme 
 eastern border of the township and county, upon a trib- 
 utary of the Wallenpaupack issuing from Cobb's Pond. 
 
 Jefferson has achieved no local history of interest, yet 
 its uplands were once familiar to the savage clans crossing 
 from the Delaware to their Wyoming villages. Upon the 
 very summit of the mountain, north of the old Cobb 
 house, the camp and signal fires of the Indian often rose, 
 jis the hunter or warrior gathered around the resinous 
 logs, while the Hames of the fire glowing high and red 
 among the tree-tops, w^ere visible miles away to the 
 eastward. At an early period, a large number of Indian 
 implements, to smite an enemy or secure the game, were 
 found commingled with the debris of these upraised 
 encampments. The township is sparsely settled, and 
 generally covered with timber, yet in spite of its altitude, 
 it possesses a few farms of surprising fertility and 
 beauty. 
 
 The Moosic or Cobb's Mountain, interposing its granite 
 bowlders between Jefferson and the Lackawanna, has 
 shut off all traces of coal formation, yet a coal mine was 
 discovered east of this range, a quarter of a century ago, 
 by a voluble, inventive genius, who was promised a farm 
 by the owner of the land, should the explorer find coal in 
 a certain locality. Making an excavation deep in the 
 
290 HISTOKY OF THE 
 
 mountain side, he actually toiled weeks in carrying 
 upon his shoulder baskets of anthracite for a distance of 
 six miles before the blackened appearance of the drift 
 gave satisfjictory evidence of the existence of coal. The 
 owner of this supposed coal property, always liberal in 
 his gifts, cheered by his good luck in the discovery, 
 promptly deeded a tract of land, from his many thousand, 
 acres, as a reward to the finder, who, like the kind- 
 hearted possessor, lived long to join in the laugh at the 
 joke. 
 
 The country east and southward of Cobb's, alternating 
 with forest and meadow, possesses much of the gloom 
 natural to the primitive wilderness in America when 
 trodden by the warriors. Wild beasts, to a certain 
 extent, inhabit the ravines and woods extending from 
 this point to the head-waters of the Lehigh over the 
 Shades of Death, on the Pocono, and haunt in places less 
 accessible to the footsteps of the hunter, making now and 
 then such demonstrations upon the farmers' sheep-pens as 
 to satisfy the fastidious that the keen, frosty air of the 
 mountain imparts a keener whet to the appetite than rum. 
 
 The winter of 1835 was one of great length and severity, 
 from the vast quantity of snow which had fallen. It lay 
 upon the ground for many weeks four and five feet in 
 depth on the level, while drifts, crossed only upon snow- 
 shoes, often rose to a prodigious height. Game perished 
 on the mountains in large numbers, and wolves even sought 
 the settlements for food. A gray, lean wolf, thus impelled 
 by hunger, found its way into the barn-yard of the late 
 John Cobb, Esq., in Jefferson, during the winter, while 
 the members of the family, with the exception of Mrs. 
 Cobb, were absent from home. The commotion among 
 the sheep in the yard, some distance from the house, 
 attracted her attention. With a heroism that rose instinct- 
 ively with the occasion, Mrs. Cobb, though naturally a 
 mild and slender lady, caught the pitchfork in her hand 
 and hurried forth to repel or dispatch the intruder. This 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 291 
 
 was comparatively an easy matter for the brave woman, 
 as the brute, in its starved condition, iiad become enfee- 
 bled, and, although for a moment it turned its lurid eye 
 and long, white, keen teeth upon the assailant, it soon fell 
 a trophy to a woman whose sterling courage, thus dis- 
 played, exhibited in a broader and better light the require- 
 ments and qualitications of the earlier women of the coun- 
 try. For the scalp of the wolf, Luzerne County paid Mrs. 
 Cobb the usual reward or bounty at that time of ten 
 dollars. 
 
 There lived upon a time in Jeffeison a man of fair men- 
 tal endowments, upright and honorable, glib in speech, 
 of unmeasured egotism, whose ambition led him to hope 
 for a division of the great county of Luzerne and the selec- 
 tion of the green plateau of Jiis plantation for the county 
 seat. Visions of court-house, jail, and prominence, rose 
 before him as he diffused his convictions among all par- 
 ties throughout the cf)unty with a persistency worthy of 
 success, urging the cutting in twain of its ancient bounda- 
 ries for the especial good of the Beech and Jefferson, offer- 
 ing land gratuitously for the public buildings ; and, as a 
 final unanswerable counterpoise, the old gentleman, in his 
 enthusiasm for his favorite scheme, exclaimed to the 
 writer, "Rather tlian see the thing fail, I would consent 
 to act as judge myself the first year or two for nothing." 
 
 CHASED BY A PANTHEK. 
 
 To the east of Cobb's clearing, eight or ten miles upon 
 the old Connecticut road, nestles down at the foot of a long 
 hill a tract of low, swampy land, known in the ancient 
 Westmoreland Records by the name of " Little Meadows." 
 Two natural ponds, flooding hundreds of acres, lying a 
 mile apart, divided by a strip of wild meadow-land grown 
 over with coarse grass and willows, afforded the earliest 
 pioneers to Wyoming a place to cheer their cattle Avith 
 food, and led to the adoption of the name. The first set- 
 
292 HISTORY OK THE 
 
 tlemeiit in the county of Wayne, aside from that upon tlie 
 Delaware, was made upon the edge of this meadoAv. 
 From this pLace to the Paupack settlement, a distance of 
 less than a dozen miles, stretched the woods, unbroken save 
 by a single farm-house, kept for a tavern, remarkable for 
 its neatness within, and its Slovenish appearance without. 
 A portion of this distance is swamp-land, grown full of 
 alder, laurel, beech, and the long, wrinkled hemlock, and 
 is a continuation of the swamp or ''Shades of Death," 
 extending their desolating aspect for a great space along 
 the Pocono. 
 
 Midway through this swamp flows the Five-mile Creek 
 in the most sluggish manner, from which the land upon 
 either side of it gradually ascends for a distance of three 
 or four miles. 
 
 In the autumn of 1837, while the writer was passing 
 from this tavern homeward on one bright, frosty mid- 
 night, accompanied by a friend, jnst as the clearing 
 receded from the view, the horse and ourselves were 
 startled by the loud cry of a panther, coming from tlie 
 thicket along the road-side. The dry limbs cracked as the 
 enormous creature sprang into the road behind us, and it 
 is difficult to tell whether horse or the whitened di'ivers 
 most appreciated the perilous condition. The moon shone 
 bright down among the opening tree -tops, as over the 
 road, frozen, steep, and stony, trembled the slender 
 vehicle. Deeper and farther the forest closed up behind 
 us, leaving little chance for us to reach Little Meadows in 
 safety. Turning the eye backward, and the approaching 
 form of the panther could be seen within a stone's throAV, 
 leaping along at a rate of speed corresponding with our 
 own. The silence of the woods, stretching back in sucii 
 utter loneliness, the sound of the nervous horse-feet, the 
 jar of the wagon over the stones, the terribly distinct yelh^ 
 of the pursuing animal breaking in upon the surrounding- 
 gloom, and our own defenseless condition, made such an 
 impression upon boyhood — that its mention here may seent 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 293 
 
 a wide digression — it never was effaced or forgotten. We 
 shot down hill after hill, around curve after curve, with 
 fearful rapidity, without uttering a word or hardly draw- 
 ing a breath, fearing every moment that the Avagon would 
 either prove treacherous to its trust, or that every leap of 
 the panther would interrupt our ride. For three miles, 
 down to the brook and over it, did the yellow beast follow 
 up our trail, uttering as it came its shrill, appalling cries 
 at intervals of every minute. Crossing the creek on a 
 rude, log bridge here thrown across the stream, the horse, 
 conscious of the danger, sniffed instinctively, hurried up 
 the ascent witli all possible speed, while the panther, 
 slackening his pace perceptibly and ceasing his cries, led 
 us to believe that the chase was abandoned. Not so, 
 however. As we emerged from tlie woods into the edge 
 of Little Meadows, where counige rose to a wonderful 
 ])itch, we gave one " hollo !" to ascertain the whereabouts 
 of the animal, hesitating whether to leave or spi-iug upon 
 us. Hardly had the echo of our voices returned from tlie 
 wood-side before the replying scream of the panther 
 reached us, in accents so distinct and appalling as to 
 remove all desire or effort to hold further intercourse 
 witli liis panthership. 
 
 x\.s for the panther, which had accompanied us six or 
 eight miles during our moonlight flight, with no benevo- 
 lent intentions, we took leave of his society with less 
 regret than we had left the fair ones at the homestead on 
 the Paupack. 
 
 DUNNING. 
 
 Madison Township, embracing an area of twenty-eight 
 square miles, much of which is timbered with the knotted 
 hemlock or the smoother beech or maple, was formed 
 from Covington and Jefferson in 184o. 
 
 Pleasant Valley, lying ten miles east of Scranton, on 
 the Delaware. Lackawanna, and Western Railroad, 
 within this township, is a deep vale scooped out of the 
 
294 HISTUKY OF THE 
 
 hills for the passage of Roaring Brook, in its descent to 
 the Lackawanna, wheiv the village of Dunning animates 
 the spirit of industry, and carries on a profitable traffic 
 with the people of Drinker's Beech, Like the Lacka- 
 wanna region, this short and narrow valley bears evidence 
 of once having been a lake, whose waters, enlivened by 
 fish and water-fowl, were liberated with heavy murmur 
 through the fractured mountain below. About one mile 
 west of the village, "Barney's Ledge," ^ a long, bold 
 bending of vertical rock, rises up some five hundred feet 
 at the door of Cobb's Gap, with rugged outlines, and, 
 stretching its strong arms right and left, half encircles the 
 village in its embrace. The old Drinker turnpike, once 
 merry with the passing stage-coach, finding its way from 
 Providence to Stroudsburg, and the light track of the 
 Pennsylvania Coal Company, pass through it. 
 
 Hunter'' s Bange, once famed for its trout-fishing and 
 Avhisky, lies in tlie vicinity. Although the rough sides 
 of Pleasant Valley, capable of great cultivation and 
 production, if brought out by patient toil, are marked by 
 an eruption of stumps wherever cleared, there is a fresh 
 business air about the village, with its vast leather-trade 
 and lumbering interests, that arrests the attention of th'.> 
 passer, and that gives assurance that when the scalping- 
 ax disperses the forest farther from the brook, it will, in 
 point of thrift and enterprise, excel many older towns 
 upon the line of this great locomotive road. 
 
 Hon. Abram B. Dunning, who i-epresented Luzerne 
 County in the Pennsylvania Legislature in a manner 
 so eminently satisfactory to his constituents during the 
 years 1852-3-4, as to be thrice elected — a compliment 
 seldom paid in this county — has grown up with the place, 
 and given it a name and an impetus alike permanent and 
 favorable in its character. Dunning enjoys the advan- 
 tages of a depot, two stores, post-office, two hotels, and a 
 
 1 Named from the late Barney Carey, who for many years kept a toll-gate on 
 the Drinker turnpike, within view of this ledge. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKY. 295 
 
 large tannery of Engine Sindcis, able to convert quarter 
 of a million's worth of raw hides each year into ready 
 leather. 
 
 CAKBONDALE. 
 
 Carbondale Township, underlaid with rich seams of coal, 
 lies on the Lackawanna, twenty-four miles from its mouth, 
 some 700 feet above the level at its confluence, and was 
 formed from Blakeley and Greenfield, in April, 1831. On 
 the eastern slope of the Moosic, near the present location 
 of Waymart, Captain George Rix, whose name lives in 
 the notch of the mountain, chose a dwelling-place, before 
 Waymart had even a name. This led to the settlement of 
 Ragged Islands (now Carbondale) by David Ailsworth in 
 
 1802. He was a farmer from Rhode Island. He fixed his 
 habitation in the spring of this year upon the spot known 
 since 1830 as the "Meredith Place," cut away and 
 burned the forest for a single crop of corn he planted 
 and secured by his little cabin : in the fall returned for his 
 family. The backwoods became his permanent abode in 
 
 1803, and by the aid of his trap, gun, and new land pro- 
 ductions, he lived a life of contented obscurity. His self- 
 reliant wife wove and spun eveiy yard of clothing material 
 worn, other than that manufactured from furs and skins, 
 secured with little trouble from tiie bold inhabitants of 
 the woods. Franklin Ailsworth ascended the Lacka- 
 wanna fi'om Capoose, to share the fortune of his father, in 
 1806. A daughter of Mr. Ailsworth, 66 years old, lamil- 
 iarly called " Aunt Ruth Waderman," who accompanied 
 her mother here in 1802, yet lives above Carbondale. 
 The first white child born in Carbondale was born on the 
 Meredith Place in 1806. The second family that ventured 
 into the Carbondale wilderness was James Holden, who 
 in 1805 chopped and logged a piece of land nt^ar Ailsworth. 
 He abandoned it the second year, and moved into the 
 Lake country. 
 
 Peter Waderman and James Lewis moved upon 
 
296 HISTORY OF TIIK 
 
 Ragged Island in 1807. Lewis abandoned his clearing 
 the second year, while Waderman reared up a bevy of 
 sturdy youngsters. The attire of Mr. Waderman, when 
 full, w^as imposing and unique. A bear-skin worn for a 
 coat, the fore-legs serving for the sleeves, a fawn-skin 
 vest, buck-skin pants, and a raccoon cap, with the tail 
 hanging behind when worn, set off his tall figure to 
 great advantage, and when he visited Capoose, to vote or 
 carry his grist to Slocum' s mill, children stood dismayed 
 or fled to their mothers at his approach. IS'ear where the 
 toll-gate stands, below Carbondale, Roswell B. Johnson, 
 from New York, who had married a Boston lady, took 
 possession of land covered with the tall hemlock and the 
 low thicket in 1809, and lived upon it for five years. 
 The "big flats," now occupied by a portion of Carbon- 
 dale, was never disturbed until 1809. During this year, 
 George Parker and his son-in-law, Winley Skinner, both 
 more familiar with the rifle than the ax, cut away the 
 timber for a corn-patch early in the spring of 1809. A 
 small, one story log-hut, warmed by the abundance of 
 fuel lying at the door, supplied them with shelter the few 
 months they inhabited it, w^hen they abruptly withdrew 
 from the place, in despair of ever seeing it emerge into 
 civilization. The green logs soon rotted down, and the 
 young saplings again triumphed in the place where the 
 cabin stood. 
 
 In 1810 Christopher E. Wilbur, an ingenious wheel- 
 wright from Dutchess County, N. Y., became a resident 
 of the farm now occupied by Horace Stiles. He emigrated 
 here to manufacture wooden wheels, then used along the 
 borders for spinning wool and flax, worked by the foot or 
 hand. There was no other wheelwright along the Lacka- 
 wanna other than him, and so clever was his hand in 
 working wood for the use of the busy housewife, that 
 every fireside in the valley was gladdened b}^ the hum of 
 his wheels. In 1812 he erected a miniature corn or grist- 
 mill upon the stream where he lived. It had no bolt, and 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 297 
 
 "but a single i un of stone diversified its work ; corn, 
 crushed by its rudely wield<'d power, had to pass through 
 a common seive hef'ore being fit for use. Mr. Wilbur 
 was a plain, practical man, and his house afforded a place 
 for a scliool and meetings as early as 1813 ; Elder John 
 Miller and Mr. Cramer alternately itinerated their diverse 
 doctrines at this point once a month. 
 
 Carbondale, by its origin and nature a mining village, 
 as indicated by its name, owes the vigor of its develop- 
 ment to the genius of William and Maurice Wurts. In 
 1814-15, these true pioneers in the valley, with compass 
 and pick, a knapsack of provisions slung over their 
 shoulders, penetrated and bivouacked along the eastern 
 range of the Moosic, exploring every gorge and opening 
 favoring the exit of coal, two bodies of Avhich they found, 
 and uncovered a few years later, by the aid of Mr. Nobles 
 and Mr. AVilbur, one at Carbondale, under the bluff, on 
 the western edge of the Lackawanna, the other on a strip 
 of half-cleared land in Providence, since known as the 
 Anderson farm. The wild land about Carbondale, orig- 
 inall}^ owned by an Englishman named Russell, living at 
 Sunbury, came into possession of William and Maurice 
 AYurts at the time of these explorations. 
 
 In November, 1822, these men, in quest of honest 
 reward for their labors, cheered onward by no friendly 
 hand from the inhabitants of the upper or lower valley, 
 laughed at for their perseverance in digging among rock 
 and rattlesnakes for naught, erected a long, low log- 
 house for the joint occupancy of themselves and their 
 workmen. Up until this time but a single horse-path, 
 showing its narrow and indefinite outline by marks upon 
 trees, led to the site of Carbondale, and j)assed through 
 Rixe's Gap to Belmont and Bethany. 
 
 Dundaff — named from Lord Dundaff, of Scotland — 
 became a place of some note in the backwoods before 
 Carbondale enjoj'ed even the honor of an appellation. 
 Redmond Conyngliani, an uncle of our excellent judge of 
 
298 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 the county of Luzerne, purchased the land where the 
 village now stands in 1822, laid it out for a town, whose 
 growth was to be stimulated by the rugged agricultural 
 developments of the country, and by the considerable 
 travel on the Milford and Owego turnpike, which passed 
 through the place as a stage route. Three or four small 
 houses stood here before this time. 
 
 The settlement expanded into a village of &uch prospect^ 
 that Mr. Stone Hamilton started a democratic weekly 
 newspaper, called the Dimdaff Republican^ the first 
 number of which was issued in February, 1828. It was 
 the only paper, with the exception of one or two pub- 
 lished in Wilkes Barre at this time, issued within the 
 county of Luzerne. 
 
 James W. Goff, Esq,, afterward sheriff of the county, 
 raised the first frame-house in Carbondalej in October, 
 1828. For a series of years the development of the 
 village, enriched by its subterranean possessions, sur- 
 passed in promise and rapidity every settlement within 
 the county. Churches were built, a railroad, licensed by 
 mountain planes, led its iron way to the waters of the 
 Dyberry, and a spirit of thrift blended its impulse with 
 the sober notions of the farmers of the surrounding town- 
 ships, hitherto poor and embarrassed. Awakened thus 
 by the activity of these brothers, whose spirit and effort 
 unlocked tlie mountains of the Lackawanna, and gave 
 luster to a name unhonored in their earlier achieve- 
 ments, the village, deriving nurture from the operations of 
 the company, of which they were the organic head, 
 compares, favorably to-day with the towns of the lower 
 valley. 
 
 The principal persons who found remunerative occu- 
 pation in the new, prosperous coal settlement, prior to 
 1832, were James Dickson, Charles Smith, Thos. Youngs, 
 Stephen Mills, Dr. Thomas Sweet, Salmon Lathrop, John 
 M. Poor, Samuel Ray nor, Stephen Rogers, D. Yarington, 
 Esq., R. E. Marvin, Henry Johnson, Hiram Frisby,. 
 
LAOKAAVANNA VALLKY. 
 
 299 
 
 James Aichbald, H. Hackley, John McCalpine, and E. 
 M. Town send. 
 
 Carbondale is now an incorporated city, rugged some- 
 what in the general style of its architecture, and yet from 
 the uplifted anthracite within and beyond its boundaries, 
 
 FIRST BAPTIST CHUIlOll 
 
 it gives employment, and even a compai-ative competency, 
 to its thousands of inhabitants. 
 
 It abounds in churches, the first of which, the First 
 Presbyterian church, was erected in 1829. However 
 
300 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 counter and diverse may be the religious convictions 
 of the mass, ample scope for their harmonions enjoyment 
 is here found in the different churches, representing every 
 Christiaii denomination. 
 
 The oldest coal-mines of the Delaware and Hudson 
 Canal Company are located at this point, which was for 
 many years the western terminus of their railroad leading 
 to the canal at Honesdale. The first car-load of coal 
 passed over this road, October, 9, 1829. 
 
 Maurice and William Wurts, in 1816, attempted to 
 transport a sample of coal across the mountain to the 
 Paupack waters upon sleds, from a superficial body they 
 had uncovered in Providence township, some five miles 
 above Slocum Hollow, and failed. After this route was 
 found to be impracticable, the irrepressible energy of 
 these men turned to the Carbondale placer, where the first 
 sled load of stone-coal from the Lackawanna Valley left 
 its bed, by the creek side, and was floated to Phila- 
 delphia upon rafts ; and while its claimed attributes for 
 heat, brought jeers from the passer to its patrons, it wore 
 and won its way into favor after many struggles, as the 
 stream, sometimes baffled in its upper waters, becomes 
 serene and goes unwearied to the sea. 
 
 APPEARANCE OF THE VALLEY IN 1804. 
 
 A brief retrospective view of Lackawanna Valley, as 
 it appeared to the eye in 1804, while shut out from the 
 great world almost as much as the Icelander among his 
 glacial peaks, will have a local interest, enhanced by the 
 fact that the reader is indebted for the faithfulness of the 
 picture to the memory of the late Elder John Miller. 
 
 In searching for material for publication, the writer 
 visited the elder in May, 1856. He was found alone in 
 the plowed field planting corn, dropping the seed from 
 a huge, leather bag, made from a boot-leg, hung by his 
 side ; and although he then was eigldy-one years of age, 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKY. 301 
 
 his extraordinary powers of vitality enabled him to fill 
 the farmer's place as ably as one forty years his junior. 
 Leaning his right arm upon his hoe, and successively 
 raising handfuls of corn, to be dropped again in the bag 
 through his fingers, he stood affixed for two long hours, 
 describing the appearance of tlie country as he saw it sixty- 
 four years before, interwoven with the remembrance of 
 lively gossip and anecdote. It was done with, that sober 
 good sense and cheerful temper that always gave his con- 
 versation a charm suited to every taste, circle, and place. 
 The first house standing near the confluence of the 
 Lackawanna with the Susquehanna, at this period (1804), 
 was that of Ishmael Bennett, a blacksmith. He was a 
 great Indian fighter and hater, having witnessed many of 
 the cruelties practiced by them after the battle across the 
 river. A huge elm-tree, seen a little east of the railroad 
 depot at Pittston, indicates the original location of his 
 dwelling. On the farm, now known as Bainum's, a little 
 pretension in the potash and agricultural line was made 
 by James Brown. Captain Isaac Wilson, who mai ried a 
 daughter of John Phillips, owned a narrow patch of land 
 immediately above. Just as the road, skirting along the 
 western border of the Lackawanna, below Old Forge, 
 emerges from the strip of wood into the sandy plain, 
 stood the residence of that old sunburnt veteran, Ebenez( r 
 Marcy. In 1778, he was engaged in the Indian battle, 
 and his wife was among the fugitives who fled froni 
 Wyoming on the evening of the memorable 3d of July of 
 this year. The tourist, as he passes down the valle}-, 
 can not fail to observe, as he passes over the Lackawanna 
 bridge, below the rapids, a deep, ragged, narrow passage 
 cat through a rock, that here turns aside the waters of the 
 stream as they come fretting and chafing over the rocky 
 bed, like an ill-curbed colt. This channel, dug out as 
 early as 1774 for mill purposes, now conveyed to the forge 
 below motive power from the stream above. At this 
 forge, standing a little below the bridge spoken of, Dr. 
 
302 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Wm. Hooker Smith and James Sutton lived and manu- 
 factured iron. Opposite this point lay the farm since 
 known as Drake's, on which a cabin had been fashioned 
 by Hermans, who claimed the land, while on the adjoining- 
 clearing there lived Deodat Smith, father of the late Thos. 
 Smith, Esq., of Abington. 
 
 An old gentleman named Cornelius Atherton resided at 
 Keys or Reiser's Creek. ^ He was a blacksmith by trade ; 
 and it is claimed that the first clotJiiefs shears in the 
 United States were made by him in Connecticut. His 
 son Jabez was shot in the Indian battle at Wj^oming, the 
 bullet passing through the femur., or thigh-bone, without 
 a fracture. One of those tragic episodes so frequent in 
 the earlier history of AVyoming was enacted upon this 
 creek, at the present location of Taylorsville. The day 
 after the Wyoming massacre, the whites remaining un- 
 harmed fled from the j^lains of Wyoming by every path 
 leading from it. To escape the knife or the merciless ax, 
 homes were hurriedly left, and all fled toward the Dela- 
 ware for safet3\ A party of six persons, two men, their 
 wives and children, were thus urging their single yoke of 
 oxen over this route, when they entered the glen with 
 comparatively little apprehension, as the savages were 
 supposed to be present at their bloody carnival below. 
 Hardly had a draught been taken from the creek before 
 the whoop and uplifted tomahawk announced the presence 
 of the savages as they sprang from the ambuscade. Before 
 the wliites could raise their guns upon their foes, and 
 defend their families or themselves, one man fell by the 
 dash of the tomahawk, while the other darted away in 
 the forest with such rapidity, as to draw away entirely 
 from the rest of the party the notice of the pursuing 
 Indians. It was now a moment big with peril. To flee 
 at once was the only hope to escape captivity, or perhaps 
 a lingering, barbarous death. Each mother gathered a 
 
 ' This creek took its name from Timothy Keys, once living here, who was killed 
 by the Indians in 1778. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLRY. 303 
 
 child to her bosom, and instinctively hurried awaj^ in the 
 deep, dark thicket of willows ))ordering this stream, as it 
 liowed along that swamjiy lowland. From the knife, 
 already gleaming and tried upon those they had loved so 
 long, these bold women, with their nursing babes, suc- 
 cessfully escaped. Although the stern wilderness frowned 
 before them, and their assailants were prowling in their 
 rear, they left their hiding-i)lace at night ; and, creeping 
 from bush to bush along the Lackawanna, continued 
 tlieir journey over Cobb Mountain toward the settle- 
 ments upon the Delaware. They subsisted upon roots 
 and berries — the manna of the wilderness — and at night 
 huddling together under some friendly tree, found wild- 
 dreaming repose. 
 
 After passing every danger and enduring every hard- 
 ship, heart-heavy, stripped, and starved, yet trusting in 
 God, the}^ arrived at the village of Stroudsburg in safety. 
 
 The Indians, as they returned from the chase, with the 
 warm and dripping scalp in their hands, finding their 
 victinis beyond reach, cut out the lolling tongue of one of 
 the oxen for a roast, leaving the other undisturbed, in 
 which condition they were found the next day by some 
 of the escaping settlers. 
 
 Along the path from this creek to Providence the woods 
 retained their native aspect until the highland farm, now 
 known as "Uncle Joe Griffin's," came in view. Upon 
 this plateau, where the rich oatlines of the Indian region 
 ]ose up in every form of beauty, stood a log-cabin, Avith 
 its loof running to the very ground — better to withstand 
 the storms of winter. Reuben Taylor lived here at this 
 time. 
 
 Mr. Lafronse had a possession right immediately above 
 Taylor's, while Joseph Fellows, Sen., who came to the 
 valley in 1796, had made a permanent residence on the 
 slope of the hill, near the present family mansion of Turvy 
 Fellows, Esq. Subsequently he received a commission 
 as a justice of the peace, an office which he tilled with 
 
304 HISTORY UF THE 
 
 ability and great satisfaction. His nearest neighbor up 
 the valley was Goodrich. 
 
 Hyde Park, as a village, had no existence, and but a 
 single cleared acre, half-hidden in the green park on all 
 sides surrounding it, was inhabited. Upon the site of the 
 residence of Hon. Wm. Merrifield, stood, in 1804, the 
 unhewn-log habitation of Elder Wm. Bishop, who, as 
 early as 1795, officiated as the first stationed minister in 
 Providence. 
 
 With the exception of the "Indian clearing," and a 
 little additional chopping around it, the central portion of 
 Capoose Meadow, or Tripp's Flats, was covered with 
 tall white pines. The road lay along the brow of the hill 
 for nearly half a mile from the house of Bishop, when it 
 reached the two-roomed log-tavern of Stephen Tripp, who 
 at this time had a large distillery operating here. 
 
 Tripp was a man of singular evenness of temper. He 
 never became boisterous or belligerent. The nearest 
 approach to it occurred here at his ta'cern. A stranger 
 "Stopping at his house, finding the landlord agreeable and 
 full of social qualities, ventured to ask his name. He 
 was told it was Tripp. "Trip, Trip, is it '^" said tlie 
 stranger, pleased with the reply; "that is a capital, 
 capital name I know, for I have a dog by that name— and 
 ' Trip ' is a good dog !" 
 
 Entering a small, dark cabin, near where now lives Ira 
 Tripp, Esq., there sat a short, gray-headed man, more 
 cheerful and communicative than his associates of the day,, 
 whose earliest life was full of incident and hardships, and 
 who emigrated from Rhode Island at the time of the for- 
 mation of Luzerne County, in 1786. This was the father 
 of Stephen. 
 
 About midway between this point and the Lackawanna 
 River, a little to the northeast of the "Diamond mines,'"' 
 a small tract of rich land had been purchased by Lewis 
 Jones from Wm. Tripp and John Gifford — a son-in-law 
 of Isaac Tripp — who lived here at this time. Jones's farm 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 305 
 
 included that intervale where yet lies the debris of an 
 old still-hoQse. John Staples occupied the Widow 
 Griffin farm — adjacent to that of Alderman Griffin — 
 which soou after passed into the hands of Mathias Hol- 
 lenback. 
 
 The Von Storch property, originally passing from the 
 proprietors of the town of Capoose to Dean, and from him 
 to Nathan Roberts, for a barrel of whisky, came into the 
 hands of H. C. L. Von Storch in the spring of 1807, 
 before coal lands had a name or a value in the valley. A 
 strip of pines lay between the clearing of Von Storch and 
 the cabin of Enock Holmes, standing on the site of the 
 village of Providence. Where now stands the cottage of 
 Daniel Silkman, lived Henry Waderman, who, as late as 
 1810, when the census was first taken in the valley by 
 the Hon. Charles Miner — a gentleman to whom all ac- 
 corded the possession in a high degree of those frank, 
 pleasing, and intellectual qualities, which seldom fail to 
 secure the regard of every one — occupied the only dwell- 
 ing he found aboce Providence. Mr. Miner recollected 
 this more distinctly from the fact of staying over night 
 with Waderman, whom he found cheerful, sociable, and 
 fond of relating stories of Bonaparte. 
 
 Upon the flats, now known as the Rockwell farm, dwelt 
 James Bagley, whose porchless abode gave welcome 
 shelter to children, cats, and dogs. Bagley' s ford way 
 crossed the Lackawanna, near his dwelling. 
 
 At the mouth of Leggett's Creek, Selali Mead cultivated 
 the narrow intervale, while Mr. Hutchins occupied a 
 patch of land rising up from the brook, known now as the 
 McDaniels' farm. The adjacent clearing, thick with 
 stumps, marked the well-chosen location of Ephraim 
 Stevens, who, bending and white with the years of almost 
 a century, passed away a short time since, leaving hin 
 estate to his son Samuel, subsequently deceased. 
 
 Half a mile beyond, on the farm so long rendered pro- 
 ductive by Colonel Moses Vaughn, one of the worthy 
 
306 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 descendants of Captain John Vaughn, lived John Tripp, 
 The orchard spread over the meadow crossed by tlie 
 Delaware and Hudson Railroad, on the western bank of 
 the Lackawanna, planted by Captain Vaughn, denotes the 
 place where he and his sons long drew nurture from the 
 soil. Upon the Decker farm lived Wm. McDaniels, whose 
 sluggish ideas of agriculture governed each successive 
 inheritance until the property came into possession of 
 Messrs. Pancost and Price, two Philadelphia gentlemen 
 of education and fortune. 
 
 The village of Price, peopled by hardy and industrious 
 Germans, stands upon a portion of the Decker farm. The 
 first clearing made in Blakeley turned to practical account, 
 was that of Timothy Stevens, who, about the close of the 
 Revolution, began a chopping on the farm known as the 
 Mott farm, where he "logged-off" land for a corn and 
 potato patch, which yielded abundance to the wants of 
 his family. 
 
 Nicholas Leuchens, the erratic genius before mentioned, 
 lived at the present sire of Peckville. Along the forests 
 of the Lackawanna, above Leuchens, the ax had rung, 
 only to mark the course of tlie trapper or trader coming 
 from Pleasant Mount, and but a single hut or cabin stood 
 between. Blakeley, Carbondale, Rushdale, Archbald, 
 and Jessup, had no impulse even toward a settlement, 
 nor was there a township formed in the valley north of 
 Providence; a "chopping," with the fallen pines di- 
 vested of their lesser limbs by fire, edged its way into 
 the green woods, where in latter years the "Meredith 
 Cottage," made rural and attractive by warm liospitality, 
 stood and still stands, to gladden the wayside. 
 
 Having now reached the extreme point of the valley, 
 on the west side of the Lackawanna, as far as settled in 
 1804, a glance of the eastern border, less sought after for 
 a dwelling-place or heritage at this time, will be as briefly 
 given. There are yet a few remaining who can bear tes- 
 timony to the rugged, narrow path along the stream. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKV. 807 
 
 overhung with interlocking trees, which led its way from 
 Ragged Island to Capoose, with only here and there a 
 break in the woodland for the occasional occupant. Upon 
 the farm known as the Dolpli farm, in Olyphant, lived 
 Moses Dolph, father of Alexander and grandfather to 
 the present owner, Edward Dolph ; immediately below, 
 Samuel Ferris, father of Samuel, William, and John, Avon 
 by hard toil a resting-place for his young family. From 
 the lands of Ferris it was nothing but woods, broken 
 only witliin a single mile by the blackened fallow of 
 John Secor, whose cabin, built from logs of great strength 
 and size, served to dispel all fears inspired by wolves 
 never slumbering about the clearing after nightfall. Be- 
 tween Secor' s and Dunmore, two miles away, two rights 
 had been improved respectively by Charles Dolph and 
 Levi Depuy. 
 
 The Corners (Dunmore) had two houses only— the 
 tiivern of AVidow Als worth and the residence of David 
 Brown. Between this point and Slocum Hollow, a log- 
 house of John Carey's, with its huge, stone chimney and 
 mud-chinked sides, had risen from the clearing, and the 
 bevy of children issuing from the door to wonder at the 
 occasional passer, or building dams of mud across the 
 stream running at the door, made up the daily picture of 
 domestic life at this solitary habitation between these two 
 named places. 
 
 At Griffin's Corners, there lived an old man named 
 Atwater, while on the Dings or Whaling propei-ty (now 
 Green Ridge, where the Hon. George Sanderson has 
 brought a town into being), stood by the brook- side the 
 rude yet hospitable dwelling of Conrad Lutz, occupied 
 by his son John. The old Connecticut road, familiar to 
 the Wyoming pioneers, folloAving tlie Indian trail, came 
 into Capoose Meadow, and crossed the Lackawanna at 
 Lutzs ford way. This fording-place. deriving its name 
 from Mr. Lutz, was traversed from 1769 until 1826. Tall 
 pines, alienated from Indian tenure, crowded upon the 
 
308 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 road leading to Slocum Hollow, where Ebeiiezer and 
 Benjamin Slocum, with their less than a dozen employees, 
 enumerated the entire white inhabitants of this tranquil 
 and independent settlement. 
 
 James Abbott, whose iron energy had animated the 
 glen of Roaring Brook, resided on the bank of Stafford 
 Meadow Creek. Some two miles below Slocum Hollow, 
 a tract of land improved as early as 1776, by Comer 
 Philips, was tenanted jointly by David Dewee and David 
 David. The latter met with a sudden death a year or 
 two later. Engaged at the break of day in prying up a 
 rock for a hearth-stone, he was mistaken by Dewee, in 
 search of game, for a beast of prey, and shot dead upon 
 the spot. His widow subsequently married Mr. Abbott. 
 
 John Scott, lather of the great hnnter Elias, lived upon 
 the farm lying farthest down in the township of Provi- 
 dence. His nearest neighbor was Joseph Knapp, a brave 
 old revolutionary soldier, spurning alike title or preten- 
 sion. At the surrender of Burgoyne he received a wound 
 long incapacitating him from active service. After tlu^ 
 declaration of peace he resumed farming in Columbia 
 County, New York, until 1790, when he emigrated to tlie 
 valley and settled in the " gore." ^ 
 
 His son Zephaniah, attaining eighty years, 3^et lives 
 among us. Much of his early life was spent in hunting 
 and trapping various animals inhabiting the valley over 
 half a century ago. Sometimes during the autumn months 
 lie was out alone for weeks, engaged in hunting, subsisting 
 on the trophies of his gun, and finding on friendly leaves 
 and boughs his only bivouac. He has kept a curious 
 record of the number of bears and other Avild animals he 
 killed upon the LackaAvanna ; of the time and manner of 
 their capture, with their respective weight, in a work 
 of over one hundred folio pages ; a work probably 
 
 ' The gore was a narrow strip of land, lying between Pittston and Providence. 
 It is now Lackawanna Township, set off as an electoral district, Feb. 25, 1795 ; 
 into a township at the November sessions, 1838. 
 
LACKAWANNA VArXEY. 309 
 
 unmatched in novelty and interest by any manusci'ipt of 
 tlie kind found in the country. He lias given it the in- 
 imitable title of " The Leather Shirty 
 
 This enumeration, embracing no paiticular creed nor 
 politics, comprised the entire inhabitants of the valley 
 four and sixty years ago. To many who may peruse these 
 pages the foregoing particulars may seem out of place, 
 but to those who visit the Lackawanjia Valley, or make 
 it their home, it will not be amiss to thus catch a retro- 
 spective glance of the days gone by, so as better to 
 contemplate tlie changes years have wrought, and judge 
 from the past how rapid and marvelous will be the pros- 
 perity of the future. Six years later the census was 
 taken by the Hon. Charles Miner. AYithin the Lackawan- 
 nian district existed but two townships, Pittston and 
 Providence, the first having a population of 694, the last 
 589, or a total population of 1,283 for the entire valley in 
 1804. Abington had an inhabitancy of 511. 
 
 The same territory, divided and sub-divided into cities, 
 townships, and boroughs, will furnish in 1870, accord- 
 ing to the same ratio of inci'ease, a population of one 
 Jiundred thousand. Diffused along its living border, it 
 falls to-day little short of eighty thousand, and a more 
 enterprising, intelligent community, a more thrifty and 
 successful peoi)le, remarkable alike for their love of 
 liberty and their attachments to their country, can no- 
 where be found. 
 
 The thrift everywhere diffused along the intervale, no 
 longer hid in its native fastnesses, has kept pace with the 
 steady hum of its population. It is in fact impossible to 
 contemplate the unvaried progress of the Lackawanna 
 Valley for the last thirty years without astonishment and 
 pride. It has been a progress at once so rapid, so liberal, 
 so vast and comprehensive in its character, as to exhibit 
 alike the importance of the valley, and the sagacity of 
 those to whom its development has been intrusted. Buried 
 deep in the forest of northeastern Pennsvlvania, as it has 
 
310 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 been within a few years, walled in fiom tlie great world 
 by natural mountain barriers, like the Northmen among 
 their glimmering crags, with no outlet to the east or the 
 west, but for the slow coach, swinging along at the rate 
 oi four miles an hour behind the jaded stage-horse, with 
 no incitement but its slumbering wealth, it has risen lil^e 
 a man awakened from his slumbers, strong, refreshed, 
 invigorated, until it has become one of the most com- 
 mercial and prosperous valleys in the State. 
 
 FORMATION OF TOWNSHIPS UNDER PENNSYLVANIA JURIS- 
 DICTION : PRIMITIVE MINISTERS. 
 
 Pittston was formed in 1790. 
 Providence was formed, August, 1792. 
 Abington was formed, August, 1806. 
 Greenfield was formed, January, 1816. 
 Covington was formed, January, 1818. 
 Blakeley was formed, April, 1818. 
 Carliondale was formed, April, 1831. 
 Jefferson was formed. April, 1836. 
 Lackawanna was formed, November, 1838. 
 Benton was formed 1838. 
 Newton was formed 1844. 
 Madison was formed 1845. 
 Fell was formed 1845. 
 Scott was formed 1846. 
 
 The same territory, divided into lots of 300 acres eacli, 
 extending back two and a half miles, was covered by 
 two towns, while under Connecticut jurisdiction, viz. : 
 Pittston and Providence. Three hundred acres of land 
 were appropriated or reserved in either of thes*^ original 
 towns for the use of i\iei first minister in fee ^ before otlier 
 lots were offered to the settler. Before the ministeria) 
 occupancy of these reservations, the adjoining town of 
 Wilkes Barre with that of Kingston, prospered under 
 the spiritual pleadings of the Rev. Jacob Johnson, a 
 Presbyterian minister, for whom a house was built by 
 the colony in 1772, and whose salary this year was fixed 
 at sixty pounds Connecticut currency. ^ 
 
 ' Westmoreland Records. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 
 
 311 
 
 After the annihilation of the Connecticut claim in 1782, 
 hy the court at Trenton, the commissioners allowed 
 "The Eev. Mr. Johnson to have the full use of all 
 the grounds he Tilled for two years, ending the first of 
 May, 1785." ^ He refused the kindness of the favor in a 
 spirit less chafing than biblical, as evinced by the fol- 
 lowing letter' of 
 
 "Jacob Johnson To the Com'* of the Pennsylvania Land- 
 owners, &c. : Gentlemen, 
 
 I thank you for your distinguished Favor shewed to me 
 the widows, &c., in a proposal of Indulgence, Permitting 
 us to reside in our present Possessions and Improvements 
 tor the present & succeeding Year. Altho I cannot Con- 
 sistly accept tlie offer, having Chosen a Com'^ for that 
 purpose, who are not disposed to accept of or Comply 
 with your proposals. However, I will for myself (as an 
 Individual) make you a proposal agreable to that Royal 
 President, Sam' 9'\ l&\ & 19'^ Chapter, if that dont suit 
 you and no Compromise can be made, or Tryal be had, 
 according to the law of the States, I will say as Mephe- 
 boseth, Jonathan's son (who was lame on both his feet) 
 said to King David, Sam' 19, 30, yea let him take all. So 
 I say to you Gentlemen if there be no resource, Neither 
 by our Petition to the Assembly of the State of Pennsy- 
 vania or otherAvise, Let the Landholders take all. I have 
 only this to add for my Consolation and you Gentlemen's 
 serious Consideration, Viz : that however the Cause may 
 be determined for or against me (in this present uncertain 
 State of things,) there is an Inheritance in the Heavens, 
 sure & Certain that fadeth not a way reserved for me, and 
 all that love the Saviour Jesus Christ's appearing. 
 
 I am Gentlemen, with all due Respect, & good Will 
 your Most Ob' Humble ServS 
 JACOB JOHNSON. 
 
 Wioming, Ap' 24t^ 1783. 
 
 To the Gentlemen Com'*, &c. 
 
 'Pa. Arch., 1783-1786, p. 32. ' Ibid., pp. 34, 35. 
 
312 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 N, B, it is my Serious Opinion if we proceed to a Com- 
 promise according to the Will of heaven that the lands 
 (as to the Right of soil) be equally divided between the 
 two Parties Claiming, and I am fully Satisfied this Opinion 
 of mine may be proved even to a demonstration out of 
 the Sacred Oracles. I would wish you Gentlemen would 
 turn your thoughts and enquiries to those 3 Chapters 
 above refered to and see if my Opinion is not well 
 Grounded & if so, I doubt not but we Can Compromise 
 in love and Peace — and save the Cost and Trouble of a 
 Tryal at Law." 
 
 The doctrines of Methodism were occasionally ex- 
 pounded to the people of Pittston and Providence in 
 1790 ; in 1794 an Englishman named William Bishop, a 
 fervid Baptist preacher, kindled his fire on the parsonage 
 lot in Providence, This lot lay on the east side of Hyde 
 Park, and extended over the marsh or pond which a few 
 years since gave to the interior of Scranton such a pisca- 
 tory appearance. The principal hotels and churches, as 
 well as the greater portion of Scranton, stand upon these 
 ancient church lands. 
 
 On the bluff, upheaved from the Lackawanna, whose 
 waters so gracefully bend around its base, the log-house 
 and churcli of Elder Bishop, combined in one, emerged 
 from the forest. It was a rude, paintless affair. No bell, 
 steeple, pulpit, nor pews, marked it as a house of worship ; 
 four plain sides, chinked with Avood held by adhesive 
 mud, formed a room where the backwoodsmen gathered 
 in a spirit of real piety, sincerity, and an absence of 
 display impossible to find to-day in the more costly and 
 imposing sanctuaries around us. 
 
 The habits of the assemblage were in keeping with the 
 character of the humble edifice. Women wore dresses 
 made from flax and woolen, fitting them so closely and 
 straight as a bean-pole. These were sometimes plain from 
 the loom, but generally colored and stinped with a 
 ■domestic dye, giving to the woolen fabric every variety 
 
I.ACKAWANXA VAF-LKY. 313 
 
 ■of finish and sliade. Instt^ad of the negative shoe worn 
 nowadays, the old-fasliioned ones then in use furnished 
 to the wearer one of the essentials to h)ng life and health 
 — a generous warmth. 
 
 The shadowy and often senseless duties of the milliner 
 were but slightly appreciated here at that time, for one 
 instance is related to the writer of a woman whose bon- 
 net, cut from pasteboard and trimmed as plainly as a 
 pumpkin, was worn summer and winter for the long 
 period of twenty-two years, with no other change nor 
 "doing up" than the addition of a single new ribbon or 
 string ! Appalling and incredible as may appear the fact 
 to the girl or the matron of the present time, the person 
 yet lives in the valley Avho remembers this pious and 
 economical mother well. The prudent wife and mother 
 who understood the necessity of supplying the wants of 
 the family from the scanty means within her reach, so 
 united industry with economy as to exhibit in the most 
 favorable light the qualities of the New England women. 
 
 Broadcloth coats were never seen unless brought from 
 Connecticut. Their place was supplied by the rough, 
 warm, honest homespun, or more frequently by a suit of 
 bear, or the coveted deer skin. Hats and caps ingeniously 
 constructed from the skin of wild animals found in evt^ry 
 thicket, were universally worn in winter, while in sum- 
 mer the straw hat, braided from the well-thrashed rye, 
 gave comfort and dignity to the wearer. 
 
 Men and boys went barefooted until they reached the 
 place of meeting, carrying their shoes in their hands, 
 putting them on during preaching, and after meeting 
 would walk home, sometimes many miles, upon the bare 
 feet, and the shoes were returned in the same manner 
 in which they had been brought. Many of the settlers, 
 pressed by the needs of the household, did not enjoy the 
 luxury even of carrying shoes. 
 
 The women were always seated upon one side of the 
 house, the men upon the other. The habit of the male 
 
314 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 and female portion of the community being seated pro- 
 miscuously in a country school or meeting-house was in- 
 dulged in here only within the last forty years. 
 
 PROPRIETORS' SCHOOL-FUND AND PRIMITIVE SCHOOLS. 
 
 The fund in the township of Providence, known as the 
 "Proprietors' School-Fund," came from a provision full 
 of forethought and wisdom. The original proprietors of 
 the seventeen towns certified to Connecticut settlers in 
 Westmoreland, in setting aside certain lots for religious 
 and literary purposes, inaugurated a measure that speaks 
 for itself. Nearly 2,000 acres were thus reserved by the 
 Yankees in the town of Providence. 
 
 The commissioners appointed under the act passed in 
 April, 1799, offering compensation to Pennsylvania claim- 
 ants, issued certificates or patents for the land from tlie 
 State to the committees for the said lots in trust for the 
 use of the proprietors of said town or township, and the 
 annual committee had from time to time sold or leased 
 for a term of years a great part of such lots, reserving the 
 remainder for the proprietors' use. 
 
 As the committees, however, were supposed by many to 
 be invested with little or no legal powers, the sales and 
 leases made by them were so little regarded, that some 
 debts and rents, due the original Yankee proprietoi-s, are 
 yet remaining unpaid. 
 
 A portion of the land thus appropriated by the old 
 Susquehanna Company for school purposes, was sold the 
 17th of September, 1795, to William Bishop, by Constant 
 Searles, James Abbott, and Daniel Taylor, who acted for- 
 the township. 
 
 With a view of confirming sucli contracts and sales, 
 which at the time were deemed advantageous for the 
 school fund, the proprietors of the township obtained an 
 act of incorporation from the Legislature during its session 
 of 1835, similiar in its character to that obtained in 1831 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. ''^.15 
 
 by the townships of Wilkes Barre, Hanover, and Ply- 
 month, clothing the trustees of the township with all the 
 privileges and franchises of corporations. John Dings, 
 Samuel De Puy, William Merrifield, Joshua Griffin, and 
 Nathanial Cottrill were vested with the authority of trus- 
 tees under this act, until after the annual election. 
 
 Although this act did not affect any sales previously 
 made by individuals acting for the township, and conse- 
 quently failed to reach and recover lands forever lost to 
 it, yet it enabled the proprietors who were subsequently 
 elected by tlie taxable inhabitants of the district, to sell 
 the remainder of this land, lying in the vicinity of Hyde 
 Park, for the sum of $3,300, which being secured by bond 
 and mortgage upon the property, now furnislies by its 
 yearly interest the "School Fund," a fund which con- 
 tributes so justly toward the support and success of what 
 is considered so essential to the promotion of national 
 welfare — common sell ools. 
 
 The first house built in the valley with especial reference 
 only to schools was erected in 1818, upon a plot of land 
 now within the limits of Providence village. The build- 
 ing was nine by twelve, without paint, steeple, or bell, yet 
 no college hall now offers more willing culture to the 
 young than did this plain edifice beneath the murmuring 
 pines, open its doors to the mischievous urchins of the 
 valley just half a century ago. 
 
 In reviewing the history of the Yankee settlements in 
 Westmoreland, much of the thrift and sprightliness of 
 the New England character can be traced in the element- 
 ary education imparted to them from the cabin school- 
 house along the forest. Many of the pioneers were men 
 of deep religious sentiment and principle, and after their 
 families had been sheltered from the storms and the intru- 
 sion of the inmates of the wigwam, they made provisions 
 for the school-house. 
 
 The school records of the various townships in the 
 valley, present no striking peculiarity, but as far as an}' 
 
316 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 judgment can be formed from the contents and character 
 of the former records, both of school and society, it leads 
 unavoidably to the conclusion that there has been no 
 relaxation of effort in the cause of education since the 
 earlier settlers passed away. The standard which they 
 created has not been overlooked, nor has the common 
 interest of every citizen in the education of the commu- 
 nity been forgotten. While the district and higher school 
 arrangements in the Lackawanna Valley are justly looked 
 upon as superior— and some are eminently so — they would 
 suffer none to-day by a comparison with any school 
 found within the precincts of the oldest settled counties 
 in the State. 
 
 The schoolmaster was, at an early period, an object of 
 terror to school-children, and of vast importance in a 
 a small neighborhood where he " boarded around." The 
 respected parson, frequent in his visits, and beloved by all 
 for his good wishes and kind words, only received more 
 courteous attention from the farmer and his wife, tluin 
 did the country schoolmaster — especially a 71610 one, 
 whose reputation for ''licking''' his scholars had hap- 
 pily preceded him. 
 
 It is well for the timid, nervous child, that the barbar- 
 ous and often surgical whip and ferule, and the triumph- 
 ant blows of a master strong in muscle and weak in 
 mind, have been exchanged for a more rational dis- 
 cipline. 
 
 While the writer recollects his own school-boy days, 
 when he spent many an idle hour in the old school-house 
 on the hill, surrounded on every side but one by sap- 
 lings, whose branches were often applied to the coatless 
 backs of the pupils by some itinerating vender of ab c's, 
 after the boys had been seated upon a high, hard, hem- 
 lock bench, six or eight hours, half frozen in winter and 
 quite boiled in summer, he can not but rejoice at the 
 progressive character of gomriiment in our common 
 schools, as well as in their grade. 
 
LACKAWANNA VAI.LKT. 317 
 
 PATHS AND ROADS — JOUKNEY FROM CONNECTICUT TO 
 PITTSTON IN 1793. 
 
 The general poverty of the earlier emigrants, united 
 with the agitated condition of Wyoming while the Prov- 
 ince of Pennsylvania acquiesced in British allegiance, 
 restrained the inhabitants from planning and woi-king 
 roads needed for ordinary intercourse. 
 
 Mountain trails trodden by the red men centuries before, 
 and by the whites seeking Indian homes for traffic in rum 
 and skins, led over the Moosic toward Connecticut undis- 
 turbed until 1769, when a narrow road long called the 
 " Cobbi-oad " was opened from the Province of New York 
 to Wyoming. This was the great and only highway 
 entering the valley eastward from 1769 to 1772. From 
 the Lackawanna to the Great Council Fires of the Six 
 Nations among the Lakes, there was no pathway other 
 than the warriors' trail connecting Capoose with Con-e- 
 wa-wah (Elmira), until 1788. 
 
 Among the traders roaming along this wood-wrapped 
 avenue for traffic Avith its tribal masters, was the after- 
 ward celebrated John Jacob Astor. 
 
 The conflicting claims to the territory embraced by 
 Wyoming and Lackawanna valleys, provoked a contro- 
 versy between Pennsylvania and Connecticut, long and 
 embittered. The claim of the Yankees being summarily 
 disposed of by the Trenton Decree, Pennsylvania assumed 
 jurisdiction over the valleys known as AVestmoreland no 
 longer. This obliteration of rival interest, however flnal 
 and prejudged it might have been, gave the settlers who 
 remained under the new order of things, leisure to repair 
 roads sadly neglected during and after the war. 
 
 The first appointment by the justices in 1788 of the 
 supervisors of roads in Pittston, was John Philips and 
 Jonathan Newman ; in Providence, Henry Dow Tripp. 
 
 At the September sessions, 1788, held in Wilkes Barre, 
 a petition was received from "Job Tripp and others, 
 
318 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 praying that proper persons may be appointed to lay out a 
 road in the town of Providence. It is ordered that Eben- 
 ezer Marcy, Isaac Tripp, Samuel Miller, Henry D, Tripp, 
 Waterman BaldAvin, and Jonathan Newman, be, and they 
 are hereby appointed to lay out necessary roads in said 
 town, and make return to this court at the next session." 
 At the December session, 1788, they reported that they 
 had laid out roads through Pittston, but had surveyed 
 none in Providence, so their report was not accepted. 
 
 As the road was essential to the wants of the upper 
 township, the court appointed six housekeepers to sur- 
 vey one fifty feet in width. This followed the old road 
 leading up through the Capoose, constructed under Yan- 
 kee jurisdiction. The next year, John Philips and David 
 Brown were appointed supervisors of highways in Pitts- 
 ton, and Job Tripj) and Wm. Alsworth in Providence. 
 
 It does not appear, however, that an}^ new roads were 
 laid out or worked up to this time, by any of these super- 
 visors — old roads only being surveyed and repaired. 
 
 Job Tripp, Constant Searles, Jediah Hoyt, Daniel Tay- 
 lor, and James Abbott, living in Providence, were ap- 
 pointed in 1791, to lay out roads here. The present road 
 leading from Pittston to Providence was surveyed by them 
 on the 4th and 5th of April, 1791. This began " on the 
 northeast side of the Lackawanna River in the town of 
 Providence, beginning at Lackawanny River, neare where 
 Mr. Leggett now lives,'- and thence through Providence 
 to the Pittston line. Gabriel Leggett then lived a short 
 distance above the residence and mill of the late Judson 
 Clark, in Providence. 
 
 The Lackawanna was yet bridgeless, and only crossed 
 by fording. Different fording-places took their respective 
 names from the respective owners of the land in the imme- 
 diate vicinity. Thus at the Capoose Works of Mr. Car- 
 ter, located a mile from the center of the ancient meadow 
 by that name — was Bagley' s ford ; at Providence, near 
 the mound of Capoose, Lutz's ford, etc. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 319 
 
 Leggett's Gap road was laid out in 1795. The Lacka- 
 wanna Turnpike Road Company was incorporated in 1817, 
 and was tlie first turnpike along the valley. 
 
 The journey from Connecticut to the Lackawanna in 
 1793, through a half-opened wilderness of nearly two 
 hundred miles, was no easy matter. K daj^'s drive Avith 
 the slow ox-team over a road barely answering its pur- 
 pose, was but eight or ten miles. At nightfall, a camping 
 ground was chosen by the road-side near some spring or 
 rivulet, when fuel was gathered and the bright, welcome 
 blaze of the fire in the woods lonely and deep, offered 
 light and company while the supper was being prepared 
 and partaken. If from the forest thronged with deer, 
 none was secured for the evening's meal, bread and 
 bacon issued from the chest, or corn-meal from the sad- 
 dle-bags was readily converted into "Johnny cakes." 
 Supper disposed of, and the oxen cared for by a liberal 
 supi^ly of browse, a few extra logs were piled on the fire 
 as the party crowded under the cover of the wagon and 
 found repose amidst the silence of night. 
 
 Along the Lackawack, whose sober waters no longer 
 rocked the Indian's ci'aft, this road offered few induce- 
 ments to j)ursue it as it drifted t<:)ward Wj^oming, passing 
 through the "Lackawa" settlement, and crossing Cobb 
 Mountain into Capoose. From the Paupack clearings to the 
 Lackawanna there was in 1793 but three dwellings, at 
 Little Meadows, Cobb's, and Alsworth's at Dunmore. 
 
 Several acres of land overgrown with wild grass and 
 lying ten miles west of the Wallenpaupack in a rich 
 intervale, were found inhabited by the red tribes when 
 the whites explored it in 1769. A small creek stretches 
 its languid line across the meadow into a neighboring 
 pond, where the abundance of fish gave joy to the wig- 
 wams on the western edge of the meadow, from whence 
 the Avarriors came forth with peace-pipe to smoke the 
 friendly welcome. This point, because of its prolific 
 growtli of wild grass, was selected for a residence by 
 
320 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Seth strong, in 1770. It was the first attempt to settle the 
 territory, now known as Wayne County. Mr. Strong 
 lived here at the time of the Wyoming massacre. 
 
 This farm is known as the Goodrich property, into 
 whose possession it came in 1803. It was the birthplace 
 of that eccentric genius, Phineas G. Goodrich, known in 
 every nook and corner of Wayne, as '■^long-nosed Good- 
 rich," who writes of Strong, "I had this from the early 
 settlers on the Paupack, who in 1778 hid their effects in 
 the woods and fled to Orange County, to escape the toma- 
 hawk and scalping-knife. There was a skirmish here on 
 our old place (Little Meadow) between the whites and 
 Indians. The whites were mostly slain. I remember the 
 mound that was raised over their one common grave. 
 Indians and whites were buried together. When a boy, 
 I used to find the arrows and broken hatchets of the red- 
 men around the mound and the hill." 
 
 In 1793 there lived a man here by tlie name of Stanton, 
 whose one-roomed log-house, eai-ly styled an "Inn," fur- 
 nished accommodation for tho wayfaring man and beast. 
 The structure itself, standing on th(- knoll rising west- 
 ward from the meadow, was half occupied by a huge fiie- 
 place and chimney grouped from stone and mud. The 
 guests, emboldened to ascend a ladder to the upper story 
 where the bare rafters greeted the head of the aspirant, 
 found only boughs and grass spread upon the pole floor- 
 ing for their reception and repose. 
 
 Such was this rustic inn, whose counterpart was seen 
 in many of the new settlements. Homely as was its fare, 
 plain as were its pewter dishes and single hunting-knife,, 
 the venison or bear meat swinging from the trammels,, 
 hunger made always welcome. 
 
 Fox-meat was not so readily appreciated. A stranger 
 passing the way, was di-awn to the table by the smell of 
 roasting meat. Taking a morsel of the smoking viand in 
 his mouth, it stung him like cayenne. Thinking that the 
 housewife had peppered one side of the roast too highly^ 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 321 
 
 he turned the dish around and took a slice from the other 
 side with the same provoking result. He laid down his 
 knife and fork, and asked the good-natured landlady, 
 Avliat kind of meat it was. "Why," replied she, very 
 innocently, "this morning my husband killed a fox, so I 
 thought I would roast the hind quarter." The stranger 
 was furious. "D— n your fox!" he exclaimed as he 
 dashed platter, grease, fox, and all to the floor, and hastily 
 resumed his journey. 
 
 Bishop Asbury, after visiting Wyoming in 1793, re- 
 turned to New York over this route' by Strong's, and thus 
 records it in his diary. 
 
 '''Monday 8, 1793. — I took the wilderness, through the 
 mountains up the Lackawanna, on the Twelve Mile 
 Swamp ; this place is famous for dirt and lofty hemlock. 
 
 We lodged in the middle of the swamp, at S ' s, and 
 
 made out better than we expected." ^ 
 
 Cobb's house on the slope of the Moosic Mountain, a 
 distance of about eight miles from Little Meadows, was 
 leached. The white cover of the wagon, jerking up or 
 down as it mounted over a root, or plunged into a rut, 
 ])assHd over creeks never yet spanned by a bridge. The 
 plain house of Cobb, floored, ceiled, and shingled with 
 the split slabs, was too small to accommodate the emigra- 
 ting party, who found in the hospitable wagon repose for 
 the night. Asa Cobb made the first clearing here soon 
 after the close of the Revolution. It was seven miles, or 
 one day' s journey from Cobb' s, to where now stands the vil- 
 lage of Dunmore. One green wave of tree-top was carried 
 to the very summit of the mountain, disturbed by no clear- 
 ing upon its western slope save that of William Alsworth, 
 whose cabin half hid under hemlock and spruce, was also 
 termed an inn. And, although the rude dwelling had 
 little of the finish about it of modern times, the social 
 comforts and the substantial meals and beds it furnished 
 
 ' Dr. Peck's Early Alethodism, p. 58. 
 
322 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 to the casual emigrant, was evidence that Alsworth had 
 lost none of the New England character. The good old 
 man, who acted as landlord, hostler, and waiter, and doing 
 every chore essential to household affairs, never was so 
 delighted as when he saw gathered around him the 
 happy face of the emigrant or his guests, and his greatest 
 pleasure seemed to be, to smooth with his dry jokes and 
 racy stories the ruggedness of each man' s daily road. 
 
 Pittston, a tidy village on the Susquehanna of half a 
 dozen houses, two only of which were frame, was thus 
 reached after a journey of thirt3^-one days.^ 
 
 THE RISE OF METHODISM IN THE VALLEY. 
 
 As the emigrants encamped upon Wyoming generally 
 acquiesced in Presbyterian tenets, an organization friendly 
 to their diffusion was easily effected under the ministra- 
 tions of the Rev. Jacob Johnson, an officiating minister 
 in the colony, as early as 1772, and Avho for many years 
 was the only one, with a single exception, in all the wide 
 territory lying between Sunbury and the Mohawk. 
 
 Not so, however, with the Methodists. As the noiseless 
 border of the Lackawanna began to thicken with a popu- 
 lation, whose physical wants for a time pressed those of a 
 spiritual character aside, Sabbath morning, with its asso- 
 ciations of youthful days in the old village church at 
 home, came and went with better observance. Hunting, 
 Ishing, horse-racing, or wrestling for drinks for the crowd, 
 were among the many ways chosen to wear Sunday away 
 by a large proportion of the inhabitants many years ago, 
 before religious influences crept into the new settlements 
 of Capoose or Pittston. The birth of Luzerne County, in 
 1786, modified elements hitherto adverse to either the 
 achievements of Methodism, or the favorable propagation 
 of the doctrines of any organic religious interests. 
 
 One of those liappy characters able to hew their way 
 
 ' Mrs. Von Storcli. 
 
LACKAWANXA VALLKY. 323 
 
 into a prominent usefulness emerged from a blacksmith 
 shop in Kingston, and commenced to exhort and explain 
 the liberal doctrines of Methodism to the world in 1787. 
 This was Anning Owen. He had early emigrated from 
 Connecticut to Wyoming with the pioneers ; had fought 
 beside the gallant Butler in the Indian battle on the plain 
 until the day was lost, escaping only with his life. He 
 accompanied the fugitives to the East after the massacre, 
 where he remained for nine years before he again crossed 
 the mountain and rolled up his log-cabin and shop on the 
 bank of Toby's Creek, in Kingston. Never neglecting 
 the duties of his shop until his appointments multiplied 
 far and near, he officiated in the double capacity of 
 blacksmith and exhorter for a few seasons before he 
 became a circuit preacher of singular efficiency and power. 
 
 A Metliodist class was formed at Ross Hill, AYyoming 
 Valley, in 1787-8 ; three years later a similar society, 
 fewer in numbers, was hrst organized in the Lackawanna 
 Valley, at the forge of Dr. Wm. Hooker Smitli and 
 James Sutton, by the Rev. James Campbell, who had 
 been sent hither by the Philadelphia Conference for this 
 specific purpose. The group, composed of five members, 
 were led by James Sutton as class-leader. 
 
 In the summer of 1792 Mr. Owen ascended the Lacka- 
 wanna to Capoose and upper Providence, where he 
 preached alternately at Preserved Taylors and Captain 
 John Vaughn's, in private houses. Captain A^aughn had 
 imbibed the broad doctrines of Universalism, but their 
 fallacious character was so demonstrated and proven 
 by the plain blacksmith, that be forsook them forever, 
 and became a zealous convert to Methodism. Meetings 
 were also occasionally held in other log-houses or cabins 
 along the stream, where the minister, generally poor and 
 penniless, tarried all night, and enjoyed the abundant 
 and real hospitality of the valley. Bisliop Asbury, in 
 his reconnoiter of the Lackawanna and Wyoming valleys 
 in 1793, appointed Valentine Cook presiding elder. 
 
324 HISIOKY UF THE 
 
 In 1800, Methodist meetings were held once a montli at 
 the house of Preserved Taylor, in Providence, who lived 
 upon the western border of Capoose Meadow. After Mr. 
 Taylors removal, the dwelling of Squire Pottei-, two miles 
 farther up the valley, became a stated preaching point. 
 In fact, the lonely school-house or the isolated cabin, 
 afforded the only places for religious gatherings in the 
 valley until the fall of 1828, when there was erected the 
 first meeting-house in that very portion of it last settled 
 — in Carbondale. 
 
 Meetings were sometimes held in cool groves or woods 
 from bare necessity. Some shaded nook, watered by 
 a spring or brook, was chosen for a camp-ground. Here, 
 around a circle well cleared of underbrush and sheltered 
 by hemlock or beech from the rays of the sun, rose 
 the whitened tents like the wigwams of the cunning bow- 
 men, in which were collected groups of old and young, 
 whose pilgrimage to this wild, joyous Mecca was long 
 remembered with pleasure and profit. 
 
 In 1803, two noisy itinerants went forth like John the 
 Baptist, to prepare the way of the Lord. They preached 
 at Kingston, Plymouth, Shawney, Wilkes Barre, Pittston, 
 Providence, crossed the Moosic Mountain at Cobb's, 
 journeying through Salem, Canaan, Mount Pleasant, Great 
 Bend, and Tunkhannock, and preaching in all these 
 places before returning to Wyoming. In 1807, a regular 
 circuit was formed, and a portion of the same route was 
 traveled over twelve times a year, or once in every four 
 weeks. From 1810 until 1818, George Harman and Eldei' 
 Owen officiated in this vineyard. One of the prominent 
 members of the church here then was old " Fatliei- 
 Ireland," as he was familiarly called, who emigrated 
 to Providence Township in 1795, and settled upon what is 
 now known as the Briggs's farm. He was a long time 
 a class-leader. In his intercourse with the world, his 
 kindness of heart, and his calm and virtuous life, until 
 his sun passed behind the horizon alter a long day, con- 
 
LACKAWANNA VALt.EY. 325 
 
 tributed no little toward softening the prejudices of the 
 illiberal against the Methodist Society. 
 
 The two events marking their distinctive era in the 
 development of Methodism in the valley were the visit of 
 Bishop Asbury in 1793, and the accession to its strength 
 of the young but bold and fervid presence of the Rev. 
 George Peck, D. D., in 1818. He brought with him 
 a fixed purpose to diffuse Christian truths in the new field 
 before him, in the exercise of which he was made familiar 
 throughout the country as the great champion of Metho- 
 dism. "In less than a century," said he to Brother 
 Taylor, as he was threading his way along the infant 
 settlement, "this charming valley, from its beauty and 
 fertility, will have a large population and need great con- 
 version." Heaven, in its mercy, has given the venerable 
 elder fifty -tJiree years in the pnlpit, with a yet firm step 
 and bright eye, so that he has not only lived to witness 
 the fulfillment of his prophecy, but has shared in the 
 triumjihs of faith w^ith a fidelity and complacency en- 
 joyed by few. Dr. Peck has achieved distinction as an 
 author of great ability, as his numerous, popular volumes 
 ott'cred the public attest. 
 
 Although many of the uncharital)le charge the spirit- 
 ual advisers of this denomination, with mercenary views 
 as they direct the wanderer on to the Iliew Jerusalem, we 
 find them as a body to possess as little selfishness, and 
 quite as much true, honest, available capacity, and 
 appreciation of the right, as can be found in the same 
 number of men of any creed or profession in the countrj^ ; 
 and, although some within the writer's acquaintance com- 
 mand a fortune, few a competency, while very many are 
 comparatively poor, thus affording a decisive commentary 
 on the utter want of judgment of the illiberal. And, yet, 
 beset, with every inducement, with no hope of personal 
 advantage or emolument from their ministerial labors, 
 and pressed by wants that pride conceals from the care- 
 less eye, how rarely do they wield their talents for money, 
 
326 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 position or power ! And yet when a whole life has l^eeu 
 spent to diffuse those sublime, simple truths which form 
 the basis of all morals, how little security does the purity 
 of character or the claim of age ofter from the assaults of 
 parishioners whose liturgy seems but a desire to exile 
 their pastor, and whose devotions are the convenience or 
 but the fashion of the hour ! 
 
 SMELLING HELL. 
 
 Anning Owen was a son of Vulcan, a stout, swarthy, 
 genuine specimen of earnestness, who spoke all he knew 
 and sometimes more, in the most impulsive manner. He 
 remarked often, that he preached as he hammered out hot 
 iron, to make an impression. His sermons were always 
 extempore; after he warmed up in his favorite subject, 
 his eye grew animated, his voice full and clear, as he dis- 
 played eloquence of a high order. 
 
 The Methodists labored under many disadvantages. 
 The self-sacrihcing and sometimes boisterous itinerants 
 who were toiling for their race merely for the sake of 
 good, and no possible hope of pecuniary gain, with few 
 thanks, little or no remuneration, often with scanty fare, 
 were sometimes accused of ignorance, bigotry, and fanati- 
 cism, and yet under the effective appeals of 'Elder Owen, 
 much of this common error was dispersed, while the 
 church, augmenting in numbers, surpassed every othei- 
 denomination in the extent of its prosperity. The loud 
 "hallelujalis," "glories," and "aniens," which pealed 
 forth from the preachers in such sharp accents as to be 
 heard at least half a mile from the stand at this period, 
 was so different from the sober mode of worship of the 
 more numerous Presbyterians, that many thought them 
 crazy, and in one or two instances attempted to enforce 
 silence by violent measures. 
 
 A good story is told of Elder Owen by an old uncle 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 327 
 
 of the writer, who liearcl him preacli at a quarterly meet- 
 ing, held at the court-house in Wilkes Barre, in the 
 winter of 1806. Never closing his sermons without 
 reminding sinners of the danger of br imstone, it liad at 
 length become so proverbial that the boys in a sportive 
 mood (for there were sons of Belial in those days as well 
 as now), had a living illustration of the virtues of his 
 doctrine, at the elder s expense. In the south wing of 
 the old court-house there was a large lire-place, in which 
 smoked a huge beechen back-log. Behind this some of 
 the boys had placed a yellow roll of the genuine article 
 before the meeting commenced in tlie evening. The elder 
 — or the Son of Thunder as he Avas called — opened his 
 battery with more force than usual upon the citadel of 
 Satan. He began to grow excited while elucidating the 
 words of his text, "he that believeth not shall be 
 damned."' The flames of the fire began to penetrate the 
 region wliere lay concealed the warming and wicked 
 brimstone, the fumes of which spread through the room 
 in the most provoking manner. The elder, with such a 
 re-enforcement to his brain and his battery, felt inspired. 
 Although ignorant of the joke the devil was playing upon 
 him, he soon appreciated the odor of his resistless agent. 
 Turning his eye upon the unconverted portion of the con- 
 gregation, he exclaimed in a loud voice, "Sinners ! unless 
 you are converted you will be cast in the bottomless pit." 
 Pausing a moment as he glanced indignantly upon the 
 tittering ones who were enjoying the scene in an eminent 
 degree, he raised himself to his utmost height, elevated 
 his voice to a still loftier key, and at the same time bring- 
 ing down his clinched fist with a powerful stroke upon 
 the judge's desk, cried out, "Sinners, Avhy don't you 
 repent, don'' t you smell hell P'' 
 
 It may be interesting to note that in 1833 the long- 
 remembered patriarch, Lorenzo Dow, with his long white 
 beard and imposing equipage, in passing down the valley 
 to his Southern death-bed, preached to a vast assemblage 
 
328 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 in a barn in Providence. This barn was blown over by 
 the great gale in 1834. 
 
 FORMATION OF ANTHRACITE COAL. 
 
 To the geologist or the philosopher, coal-formation 
 affords great scope for theory and reflection. The gener- 
 ally accepted supposition of scientific men, is that the 
 coal-fields, once densely covered with trees huge as the 
 California giants, were submerged by volcanic action, form- 
 ing a vast lake into which whirled chaotic material, sepa- 
 rated in the molten body into alternate layers of coal, 
 sandstone, and shale. Different seams or veins of coal 
 are thought to have been formed at different periods in the 
 world's history, but under similar circumstances, thus 
 alternately elevated or depressed. The progressive char- 
 acter of fossils appearing in separate strata, proves their 
 deposit at different periods ; and it is more than probable 
 that centuries passed between their respective formations. 
 Vegetable and organic remains found in one stratum, have 
 no analogy in another. In the igneous or fire-rock no 
 carboniferous element enters, while coal, viewed with a 
 microscope, delineates the carbonized character of its ori- 
 gin. Many hundreds of extinct species of plants have 
 been recognized in the secondary series of rocks. The 
 fern is found in the greatest abundance, while the branch- 
 ing mosses — the calamites — the sigillaria — the cycades, 
 and the palm appear in ceaseless profusion. 
 
 Geological examinations made in the Lackawanna coal 
 basin seem to favor the idea that the rocks of this region, 
 with their intervening coal strata, originally level in posi- 
 tion, were crumpled or folded into their present form of 
 alternate basins and ridges by the same tremendous con- 
 vulsions or slow changes which crowded up the Alle- 
 ghany ranges ; and that, since then, tbe action of diluvial 
 and atmospkeric agencies have worn away the upper or 
 coal-bearing strata on most of the high and exposed points 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 329 
 
 ■of the Moosic hills and mountains, leaving them only in 
 the troughs or depressions which were sheltered by the 
 mountain rock and left in the position now found by the 
 miner. The contraction or cooling of the anthracite lakes, 
 gave the dipping or broken appearance to many of the 
 veins of coal. Coal destitute of bitumen, or hard coal, 
 found only in a minute portion of the earth' s surface, every- 
 where in the carboniferous series presents the same phe- 
 nomena of fossils. The fern being identified in species 
 and genus to all those found in coal bottoms, it is inferred 
 that the earth in its primitive period was insular, and 
 that the rank vegetable growing then was the result of 
 the internal heat of the globe, which at that time was too 
 uniform to affect the latitudes. In fact, the immense 
 •quantity of fossils brought to light along the Lackawanna, 
 the remains of that by -gone time, attest how numerous the 
 herd, and how hot and fertile the clime of that ancient 
 epoch. 
 
 In the preparation of vegetable matter for coal, heat, 
 pressure, and water, were probably the controlling agents 
 employed millions of years ago in the great cooking labo- 
 ratory of nature. 
 
 ORGANIC REMAIiSrS IN" COAL STRATA. 
 
 Vegetable fossil and organic remains have been found in 
 various mines in the valley — more especially in the town- 
 ships of Providence, Blakeley, and Carbondale— im- 
 bedded in the inclosing strata, preserving ever}' original 
 outline except the change effected by the vast pressure, 
 from the rounded to the flattened form. 
 
 A large turtle family, fossil sea-shells, and fish resem- 
 bling the gar-pike, or common pickerel, in size and shape, 
 were found in Providence during the summer of 1856, by 
 Captain Martin, while engaged in sinking a shaft, at the 
 depth of some 200 feet. These were incased in the car- 
 boniferous strata in such relation to the older, deeper 
 
330 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 rock as to lead to the belief that the fish had once in- 
 habited an open space of water communicating with a 
 larger body or with the ocean itself, which by some up- 
 heaval of the earth became isolated, the waters of the lake 
 were drained, while the fish perished and, intermingled 
 with sand, shale, and stone, were translated into the petri- 
 fied specimens, now unresistingly summoned by the 
 miner's drill. 
 
 One large fish, more than a foot in diameter, and six 
 feet in length, its fins, scales, and general structure yet 
 distinctly recognized upon the stereotyping stone, was 
 exhumed from its sepulcher, and blackened and brainless 
 as it was found, takes us back to a period unknown and 
 remote. This fish was broken while being blasted out 
 by the miner, so that the skillful anatomist could soon 
 determine, by the nature as well as by the number of tlie 
 exposed vertebrae, its true species. 
 
 Rain-marks, foot-prints, stigmaria, and other charac- 
 teristics of the coal-measure, have been furnished in 
 interesting abundance, within a comparative small space,, 
 during the progress of the excavation at the shaft of the 
 Van Stork Coal Company in Providence. 
 
 In 1831, while Captain Stott was driving a drift in the 
 mines at Carbondale for the Delaware and Hudson Canal 
 Company, the roof of the mine, becoming dislocated from 
 the parent earth, fell in over a considerable surface, 
 furnishing the richest aspect of vegetable and organic 
 fossils. Deep in the fractured interstratifying stone and 
 slate were imprinted innumerable delicate impressions of 
 leaves, flowers, broken limbs, of the palm leaf and the 
 fern, so remarkable in size as to indicate that the tempera- • 
 ture of the earth's surface at the period of their growth 
 was far too heated for human life ; fallen trunks and 
 branches of trees, so singularly dark and beautiful, that 
 Daguerre could neither imitate nor improve ; huge outlines 
 and tracks of the ichthyosauri — the giant lizard, curious 
 in anatomical structure and strength; snakes, ribbed and 
 
LACKAWANNA YAI.LKY. 331 
 
 rounded, whose like is rarely known, and wliose analogiios 
 are only found near the tropics; a class of amphibians 
 intermediate between reptiles and tisli — the batrachlan 
 tribe — the mammoth frog, foot-marks of which were dis- 
 played, exhibiting five toes before and four behind, mark- 
 ing their presence and passage in otlier times ; all so dis- 
 tinctly and so terribly delineated upon this master-press of 
 nature, as to convey to the mind some faint idea of the 
 monsters once swarming the jungles, and whose courts 
 on the low, wet, warm marshes were suddenly adjourned 
 by the great phenomena of coal-formation. 
 
 MINERALS AND MINING. 
 
 The Lackawanna and Wyoming anthracite coal basin, 
 walled by low ranges of the Alleghany, and drained by 
 the placid Lackawanna and Susquehanna, is about fifty 
 miles in length and averages four in width. Veins of the 
 purest anthracite emerge from the foot of the mountains, 
 its entire length and breadth. The lower strata, sunk 
 at a mean depth of four or five hundred feet beneath the 
 surface in mid-valley, sliow themselves higher up the 
 mountain side than those located nearer the surface of the 
 valley. 
 
 In its mineralogical character, the Lackawanna Valley 
 is both varied and productive. Filled with the coal- 
 measure from side to side, it not only presents a series of 
 slate and shale interstratified with anthracite from a feAV 
 inches to as many feet in thickness, but iron ore and lime- 
 stone commingle and enrich the rugged acios of the intei-- 
 vale. Four of the great coal seams in the Lackawanna 
 Basin, viz. : the 7, 8, 10, and 12 feet veins (least thickness), 
 furnish a total thickness of 37 feet, or 44,000 tons per acre. 
 
 The productive character of this coal basin is exhibited 
 by the following table prepared by Professor Rogers, ' 
 
 ' Report of the Geology and Mining in the Lackawanna Valley. 
 
332 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 with especial reference to the coal-bearing in the township 
 of Providence : — 
 
 TABLE. 
 
 Least Thickness. 
 
 Good Coal. 
 
 Yield of good Coal per Acre 
 
 5 feet 
 
 3 feet. 
 
 4,000 tons. 
 
 7 " 
 
 H " 
 
 7,000 " 
 
 10 " 
 
 H " 
 
 12,000 " 
 
 6 " 
 
 3 " 
 
 5,000 " 
 
 12 " 
 
 9 " 
 
 15,000 " 
 
 8 " 
 
 6 " 
 
 10,000 " 
 
 6 " 
 
 H " 
 
 7,000 " 
 
 54 " 
 
 :!7i " 
 
 60,000 " 
 
 These seven veins alone yield 60,000 tons per acre. 
 Twelve distinct, separate beds underlying the entire 
 valley, furnish about sixty feet of available coal,— a sup- 
 ply ample for as many generations, or until the day of 
 ballooning shall bring forth a new discovery calculated 
 to supersede the coal fire, as the old beechen back-log of 
 times gone by has vanished into ashes. 
 
 While the center of the Northern and Lackaw^anna 
 coal-field is regarded as being near Pittston — the bed of 
 the ancient caldron once glowing with anthracite — mines 
 were first successfully worked at Carbondale at least one 
 thousand feet above the level of Pittston coal. About 
 twenty-five miles in length may be considered as the 
 extent of this field, running northeast and southwest with 
 the great Appalachian chain. 
 
 COAL LANDS FIFTY YEARS AGO. 
 
 Between the villages of Hyde Park and Providence 
 bristles from the road-side a clump of pines, swinging 
 their green limbs over a low, faded cottage, once made 
 attractive by the presence of a young and loving heiress. 
 To the south of this cottage a few yards opens a glen, so 
 worn by the rapid stream dashing through it after a heavy 
 rain or sudden snow-thaw, as to make it look almost 
 cavernous. Down this rock-rimmed ravine, where it 
 expands into the ancient meadow of Capoose. there lived 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKY. 333 
 
 an old gentleman in 1800. named Stephen Tripp, who 
 owned much of the land in the notch of the mountain, 
 about one mile above this point, called Leggett's Gap. 
 
 Upon the brink of Leggett's Creek, passing through 
 this gap, a small grist-mill was erected in 1805 by Joseph 
 Fellows, Sen., the remains of which are yet visible by 
 the road-side, but as the bank upon one side of the creek 
 rose almost vertically into a full mountain, and upon the 
 other ascended quite as abruptly hundreds of feet, covered 
 with the stern hemlock, neither road, team, nor grist could 
 approach the mill with safety, and the enterprise was 
 reluctantly abandoned. 
 
 This mountain mill-site, with a quantity of the wild 
 laud in the vicinity of the "Notcli," Mr. Fellows pur- 
 chased of Tripp, sixty years ago. for five gallons of 
 whisky ; Fellows stipulating in the purchase to pay 
 expense of survey and deed. The commercial worth of 
 whisky being one dollar per gallon, this sale realized 
 about fice cents per acre for lands now OAvned and mined 
 by the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad 
 Company, and worth at least five thousand dollars per 
 acre. Some estimate of the value of coal lands at this 
 period can be formed by the following incident. A then 
 young man from Connecticut, who recently died in the 
 adjoining county of AVayne, was passing along through 
 Slocum Hollow (now Scranton), and observing a promi- 
 nent cropping of coal by the road-side, asked the owner 
 what it was, and what it was good for ? 
 
 " Wal," replied the owner, who suspected it was no 
 great credit either to his judgment or his pocket to 
 possess such land, "they call it stone-coal, I believe, 
 but I wish the cussed hlacJc stuff was off!" 
 
 THE DISCOVERY AND INTRODUCTION INTO USE OF 
 ANTHRACITE COAL. 
 
 When lands passed from the natives to the whites, all 
 knowledge of mineral deposits was rigidly withheld. 
 
33 i HISTORY OF TFIE 
 
 Tradition gives a definite place to mines of gold, silver, 
 lead, iron, copper, and coal, in neighborhoods far up in 
 the vrilderness Avhere the wild man dwelt in his silent 
 realm, but so carefully did the Indians, who knew less of 
 the crucible than the cupidity of the trader, baffle the 
 whites in their concealment, that their existence or loca- 
 tion has become the subject of strange tales. If the men 
 skilled in the lore of the forest were familiar with 
 precious metals or black stones, their worth was taught 
 them by the whites. 
 
 Of the value, or even the existence of coal in America, 
 all races were ignorant until about the middle of the 
 seventeenth century. "At Christian Spring (near Naz- 
 areth) there was living about the year 1750 to '55 a 
 gunsmith, who, upon application being made him by 
 several Indians to repair their rifles, replied that he was 
 unable to comply immediately ; ' for,' says he, ' I am 
 entirely bare of charcoal, but as I am now engaged in 
 setting some wood to char it, therefore you must wait 
 several weeks.' This, the Indians (having come a great 
 distance) felt loath to do ; tliey demanded a bag from the 
 gunsmith, and having received it, went away, and in two 
 hours returned with as much stone-coal as they could well 
 carry. TJiey refused to tell where they had procured it." * 
 
 That portion of Pennsylvania purchased of the Five 
 Nations by the Connecticut Susquehanna Com^Dany at 
 Albany, July llj 1754, for "the sum of two thousand 
 pounds of current money of the province of New York," ' 
 embraced the Lackawanna and Wyoming coal district. 
 Fourteen years later, November 5, 1768, the same ter- 
 ritory was included in the Fort Stanwix purchase of the 
 Indian Nations by the Proprietary Government of Penn- 
 sylvania. The strife between Pennsylvania and Connec- 
 ticut over Wyoming resulted from these purchases. 
 
 As early as 1648, iron and copper mines were worked 
 
 ' Wm. Honry. '■'See original Deed of Six Nations to Susquehanna Co. 
 
LACKAVTANNA VALLEY. 335 
 
 in an imperfect manner by tlie Dutch and Swedes, at 
 a small village on the Delaware called Durham, a few 
 miles below Easton ; but no mention of coal is made upon 
 any map of Pennsylvania until 1770, when one published 
 by Wm. Schull, of Philadelpliia, bears tlie word "coal" 
 in two places. Pottsville and Minersville are now located 
 upon the points thus indicated. 
 
 On the original draft of the "Manor of Sunbury," em- 
 bracing the entire western side of Wyoming Valley, sur- 
 veyed in 1768 by Charles Stewart, in the Proprietary 
 interests, appears the brief notation, "stone-coal," with- 
 out further explanation. 
 
 A Yankee named Obediah Gore, who emigrated from 
 Connecticut to Wyoming in February, 1769, began lifw 
 in the new colony as a blacksmith. Friendly with the 
 remaining natives from motives of policy, he learned of 
 them the whereabouts of black stones, and, being withal 
 a hearty and an experimenting artisan, he succeeded after 
 repeated trials and failures in mastering the coal to his 
 shop purposes the same year. He is believed to have 
 been the first white man to give practical recognition and 
 development to anthracite as a generator of heat. Mr. 
 Gore, afterward an associate judge of Luzerne County, 
 was one of the brave defenders of Forty Fort in 1778, 
 when assailed by the British and their Indian-Tory allies. 
 In the few blacksmith shops in Wyoming Valley and the 
 West Branch Settlement, coal was gradually introduced 
 after its manipulation by Mr. Gore. 
 
 When the struggle for American Independence began 
 in 1775, the Proprietary Government of Pennsylvania 
 found itself so pressed for fire-arms, that under the sanction 
 •of the Supreme Executive Council two Durham boats 
 were sent up to W^yoming and loaded with coal at Mill 
 €reek, a few miles below the mouth of the Lackawanna, 
 and floated down the Susquehanna to Harris's Ferry 
 (Harrisburg) thence drawn upon wagons to Carlisle and 
 employed in furnaces and forges to supply the defenders 
 
336 HISTORY OF THB 
 
 of our country with arms. Thus stone-coal by its patri- 
 otic triumphs achieved its way into gradual use. 
 
 Beyond the limits of Wyoming, no discoveries of coal 
 were made until 1791. During this year, "a hunter, by 
 the name of Philip Ginther, who had built himself a 
 rough cabin in the forest, on the Mauch Chunk Moun- 
 tain, being out one day in quest of food for his family, 
 whom he had left at home without any supply, meeting 
 with but poor success, bent his course homeward as night 
 was approaching, considering himself one of the most 
 forsaken of human beings. As he trod slowly over the 
 ground his foot stumbled against something, which by 
 the stroke, was driven before him ; observing it to be 
 black, to distinguish which there was just enough light 
 remaining, he took it up, and as he had often listened to 
 the traditions of the country of the existence of coal in 
 the vicinity, it occurred to him that this might be a portion 
 of that ' stone-coal ' of which he had heard. He accord- 
 ingly carefully took it with him to his cabin, and the 
 next day carried it to Colonel Jacob Weiss, residing at 
 what was then known as Fort Allen, now Weisspoit." ' 
 
 Coal-pits were opened here in May, 1792, by the 
 "Lehigh Coal and Mine Company," which gratuitously 
 distributed the brittle compound into every blacksmith 
 shop in this portion of the State willing to use it. 
 
 When the forest began to recede and the fresh charred 
 land engaged the thoughts of the backwoodsman on th& 
 Lackawanna, stone-coal had neither value nor recognition 
 among men, with but a single exception. 
 
 In 1815, there died an eminent physician and surgeon 
 in Tunkhannock, who had formerly lived in the Lacka- 
 wanna Valley, and who made the first purchase in the 
 county of Luzerne of the right to mine coal here, of 
 which record evidence is furnished. This was Dr. Wil- 
 liam Hooker Smith, who made a number of such pur- 
 
 ' Henry's Lehigh Valley, p. 377. 
 
LACKAWANNA VAI.LEV. 337 
 
 chases for a mere song, between the years of 1792 and 
 1798. 
 
 A bushel of coal was sent to Christian Micksch, a gun- 
 smith in Nazareth, in November, 1798, but after trying it 
 for three or four days by repeated blowing and punching 
 and altering the fire in every possible manner, he grew so 
 impatient at his long, fruitless efforts, that he indignantly 
 threw it into the street, saying to Mr. William Henry, of 
 whom he had purchased a bushel, "I can do nothing 
 with your hlack stones, and therefore I threw them out of 
 my shop into the street ; I can't make them burn. If yon 
 want any work done with them, you may do it yourself ; 
 everybody laughs at me for being such a fool as to try to 
 make stones burn, and they say that you must be a fool 
 for bringing them to Nazareth." 
 
 During General Sullivan's march tlirough Wyoming in 
 1779, one of his officers wrote of the valley : ''The land 
 here is excellent, and comprehends vast mines of coal, 
 pewter, lead, and cox:)peras." * The last three named have 
 never been found here. The first few ark-loads of coal, 
 carried from Mauch Chunk to Philadelphia was pur- 
 chased by the city authorities, placed under the boiler of 
 an engine, where it "put the fire out, while the remain- 
 der of the coal was broken up and used for graveling 
 streets." ■ 
 
 Knowing that there was value in coal, which, in spite 
 of the universal prejudice against its encroachments upon 
 the old wood-pile and fire, would be made manifest by 
 moral firmness and persistent struggle, and that it would 
 rescue their mountains from oblivion, the Lehigh opera- 
 tors, animated by no liope of immediate remuneration, 
 mined a larger quantity of coal in 1806. The general dis- 
 trust, however, of using stony fuel for domestic purposes 
 Avas so prevalent even among intelligent persons, that 
 comparatively none could be sold, little accepted as a gift, 
 
 ' George Grant's Report, 1779. 'William Henry. 
 
 22 
 
338 HISTORY OF thp: 
 
 thus compelling these gentlemen to suspend operations, 
 and calmly wait and Avatch for the public mind to become 
 schooled in the treasures of the Lehigh. Men, however 
 upright and honorable, who talked of its introduction into 
 common use in Philadelphia, were deemed fanatics, and 
 ridiculed accordingly ; those attempting to sell the stuff 
 for cash, compromised their integrity, and in some 
 instances barely escaped arrest and maltreatment from 
 the hands of the populace. 
 
 The late Hon. Charles Miner came to Wyoming in 1799, 
 and for thirteen years afterward edited the Luzerne Fed- 
 eralist^ a weekly newspaper published at Wilkes Barre, 
 and conducted with such marked ability and success, that 
 ho soon became widely known as one of the strongest and 
 most pleasing writers in the State. ' An accomplished 
 scholar, an ingenious advocate, he combated the unspar- 
 ing prejudices of the bigoted with an earnestness calcu- 
 lated to correct rather than offend. 
 
 No man labored with more unselfish fervor to unmuffle 
 the coal-field or acquaint the masses with the grandeur of 
 its character, than did the author of the History of 
 Wyoming. Mankind, ever ready to embrace error, are 
 slow to perceive great truths. The fallacy of employing 
 stones gleaned from the mountain a hundred miles away 
 for fuel, was so great, that the gray-headed octogenarian 
 and the beardless youth — with all the intermediate condi- 
 tions of life — laughed at the joke attempted to be played 
 upon them. Old heads and young ones for once shared 
 harmonious convictions as they ari-anged themselves as a 
 unit on the orthodox side. Lectures delivered gratuitously 
 explaining the power and character of the new combusti- 
 ble ; certificates from Wyoming blacksmitlis attesting its 
 superiority ; newspaper articles written with ability and 
 patience, brought from the timid unbelievers not even a 
 dull acknowledgment or approval. Or if a few assented 
 to its possible future use in some capacity or another, 
 they blended their assent with such a negative spirit as to 
 
LACKAWANNA VALI.KT. 339 
 
 be little less obnoxious than the blmit, open hostilil}^ ac- 
 corded it everywhere in Philadelphia, the only place coal 
 was sought to be introduced. ' Quakers, acquiring a com- 
 petency by the slow accretions of patient toil, were the 
 tirst to menace and oppose the innovation of coal. As this 
 respectable body, generally calm in its judgment, repre- 
 sented the great bulk of Philadelphia enterprise and 
 intelligence, its decision carried a w^eight fatal and con- 
 clusive in the matter. Meantime, stone-coal, better under- 
 stood among feudal rocks, began to receive especial 
 homage in the Valley of Wyoming. 
 
 Jesse Fell — afterward Judge Fell— a plain, modest 
 reflective blacksmith, living in Wilkes Barre, gave it its 
 first successful impulse toward general domestic use. In 
 M'atching the light blue flame issuing from the furnace of 
 his shop, made livelier by a draft of air from the hale 
 lungs of a bellows, he conceived the idea of inauguratinp; 
 ;i coal iiie into an ordinary iire-place. His plan, just and 
 reasonable as it appeared in his own mind for a while, 
 faltered before the strong weapon of simple ridicule. 
 
 In the leisure hour of an evening, he built up a jamb 
 of brick woik in an old flre-place in his house, upon 
 which he placed four or Ave bars of common square iron, 
 with a sufiicient number up in front to hold wood and 
 coal. He filled this contrivance with hard wood, after 
 igniting which, he piled on a quantity of coal, sought 
 his bed and was soon lost in slumber. This was done 
 late at night lest the people of the neighborhood might 
 again laugh at him for the persistency of his folly. Early in 
 the morning as he awoke, he was astonished and cheered 
 to witness the coal fire announcing its own unconscious 
 achievement. That fire, kindling a glow of anthracite 
 throughout the world, carried the name of Judge Fell 
 down in history. Such was the theme of universal rejoicing 
 throughout the valley that the event was discussed at 
 every fireside ; the topic went wMth the people to church, 
 and w^as diff'used throughout the congregation at large : 
 
340 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 by common assent, it entered for a while into all conver- 
 sations at home and abroad ; it silenced every advei'se 
 criticism as it gave the signal for long and mntual con- 
 gratulations at the hospitable house of the judge, where 
 friend and foe alike acquiesced in the truth that Wyo- 
 ming was freighted with infinite fortune. 
 
 Judge Fell, long secretary of the Masonic lodge at 
 Wilkes Bar re, deeming the event worthy of note, wrote 
 the following memoranda upon the fly-leaf of the Masonic 
 Monitor, in the bold, beautiful off-hand style for which 
 he was reputed : — 
 
 "February 11th, of Masonry 5808. Made the experi- 
 ment of burning the common stone-coal of the valley, in a 
 grate, in a common flre-place in my house, and find it will 
 answer tlie purpose of fuel, making a clearer and better 
 fire, at less expense, than burning wood in the common 
 way. JESSE FELL. 
 
 "February llth, 1808." 
 
 A few ark-loads of coal went down tlie Susquehanna 
 with the spring freshets from Wyoming to Harrisburg, 
 where it was treated with the same indifference or derision 
 shown preceding cargoes to Philadelphia. 
 
 The intercourse between the inhabitants of Wilkes 
 Barre and Philadelphia being considerable in the unhur- 
 ried days of the stage-coach ; and anthracite being found 
 in abundance in 1812 on the upper waters of the Schuyl- 
 kill, united auxiliary influences to bear upon the public 
 mind in the city to such an extent, that the next year 
 wlien Col. George M. Hollenback sent tw^o four-horse 
 wagon-loads of coal from Mill Creek to Philadelphia, it 
 was sold with little effort to a few liberal patrons, among 
 whom were the Wurtses, afterward conspicuous as pio- 
 neers in the Lackawanna coal-field. 
 
 Up the Lackawanna, coal was first burned in 1812, by 
 H. C. L. Von Storch, of Providence. A bare body of it, 
 washed by the high waters of spring, early exhibited its 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKT. 841 
 
 bald, blackened features by the side of the stream, near 
 his dwelling. The same body or vein can yet be seen 
 lying equidistant between the bridge crossed by Sander- 
 son's railroad and Yon Storch's slope. Ignorant of the 
 laws of mining, Mr. Von Storch dug up the coal as 
 ordinary earth is dug. In an awkwaid grate, contrived 
 from iron made at Slocum Hollow, he used the coal as a 
 substitute for wood,. His success was so complete, that 
 although the woods encircling his clearing offered its 
 timber and coal for naught but the trouble of securing 
 them, the superior genius of the latter, as an economical 
 agent, was acknowledged even here. 
 
 This stratum of coal, half-hidden undei- its rocky pillow, 
 at once changed the entire tenantry and business aspect 
 of the valley. William and Maurice Wurts, the real 
 accoucheurs of this coal basin, were impelled hither in 
 1812 in search of coal, and while exploring every gap 
 and gorge, came across this prominent out-shoot. They 
 desired earnestly to purchase, and had it fallen into 
 their possession, as it possibly would have done had it 
 not been for the success of Von Storch in burning coal 
 found upon it, aside from the many changes it would 
 have effected in all the relations of the valley, it is barely 
 possible that Honesdale, Carbondale, Archbald, or Oly- 
 phant would have arisen from tlie wilderness, or grown 
 into towns of their present importance. 
 
 Nor can it be supposed that Scranton, with its irre- 
 sistible expansion, would have been even in existence to- 
 day as Scranton^ if, from the operations of the Wurtses on 
 Von Storcli's farm in Providence, "Wurtsdale," or 
 some other town, had sprung into being, because the men 
 whose name it bears— especially the late George W. and 
 the present Joseph H. Scranton, Avho have contributed 
 as much, if not more, to shape the varied industrial 
 interests of this section of the valley than any other 
 persons connected with its history — Avould have turned 
 elsewhere their really effective energies. 
 
342 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Bituminous coal, used to a considerable extent in Phila- 
 delphia at this time, being withheld from Liverpool by 
 the collision with England, intelligent men who had 
 acquired coal property and privileges for almost notliing, 
 aimed to suj^ply its pJace with anthracite. Hon. Charles 
 Miner and Jacob Cist, Esq., both prominent in the im- 
 provements of the day, sent down an arlv-load of twenty - 
 four tons of coal from Mauch Chunk to Philadelphia 
 in the fall of 1814. By personal address and the neces- 
 sities of manufacturing interests, they disposed of it all 
 with but little loss to themselves. As the cost of trans- 
 portation, fourteen dollars per ton, to an unwilling 
 market, exceeded the receipts, these gentlemen soon 
 withdrew from the proprietorship of the mines. While 
 Mr. Miner promulgated and widened a knowledge of the 
 qualiti cations of the new fuel, Mr. Cist, a merchant by 
 )irofession, a natural genius and mechanic, was the first 
 person to construct a pattern for burning coal in stoves. 
 The stove was a high, square affair, uncouth in style, and 
 3'et a great step in advance of coal grates in use at the time. 
 
 While the coal, in ordinary grates, burned without 
 smoke, spark, or flame, the flues of the chimneys built 
 without adaptation to its use, proved so defective that tlie 
 dust and sulphurous odor filling tiie low-roomed houses 
 from the fires were almost insufferable. The venerable 
 Dr. Peck informs the writer that when he came into the 
 valley, in 1818, there were but two houses along the 
 Lackawanna where stone-coal had made invasions upon 
 the green wood pile and smutty fire-place. One was Pre- 
 served Taylor's, the other at Von Storch's. At no place 
 in Wyoming was there at this time more than a single 
 grate used in any dwelling. Joseph Slocum, Lord Butler, 
 Philip Myers, Charles Miner, Jacob Cist, George M. 
 Hollenback, and perhaps a half-a-dozen others, comprised 
 the entire number of individuals having even a single 
 grate in their houses fifty years ago in Wyoming Valley.' 
 
 ' Dr. Peck. 
 
LACKAWAJ^NA VALLEY. 343 
 
 The first coal taken from the vaUey of Wyoming in 
 a canal-boat was started October 20, 1 832, 
 
 WILLIAM AND MAURICE WURTS — EXPLORATION IX THE 
 COAL-FIELD OF THE LACKAWANNA — CONCEPTION AND 
 EARLY HISTORY OF THE DELAWARE AND HUDSON 
 CANAL. 
 
 The war of 1812, dissolving many arrogant illusions 
 across the water, was a powerful if not the chief auxil- 
 iary in the work of changing the passive and sedate char- 
 acter of the Lackawanna coal-fields. 
 
 This war, interrupting commercial intercourse with 
 Liverpool and Virginia, cut off the supplies of fuel from 
 those places so completely, that charcoal rose to a ruinous 
 price. To the manufacturing interests of the countrj^, the 
 consequences were, of course, highly disastrous. Men 
 familiar with the nature of anthracite coal attempted to 
 relieve this embarrassment if possible, by the discovery 
 and introduction among manufacturers of tliis new kind 
 of fuel. 
 
 How their efforts were met and encouraged by tlie 
 grand, great aggregate popular side in Philadelphia, the 
 reader already understands. 
 
 Long before the coal heart of the Lackawanna was 
 startled by the drill of the miner, there was occasionally 
 seen in the valley a young, self-reliant, and determined 
 man, who, trained by experience in steady habits and 
 modest bearing, acquired the honor, in connection with 
 his elder brother Maurice, of planning and maturing 
 schemes under the shadows of the Moosic, which gave an 
 impulse to the interests of commerce, whose influence was 
 immediate and broadcast throughout the world. Ener- 
 getic and active, enjoying sound judgment, a robust body 
 that wavered only after long exposure in vindicating his 
 theory by a practical development, he roamed for a 
 series of years along the stream from its headsprings be- 
 
344 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 yond tlie coal-measure down to its staid outgoing. Tliis 
 was William Wurts, a merchant of Pliiladelphia. 
 
 His first hope, founded upon the obscure knowledge 
 attainable at that early day of the contour and geological 
 structure of the country, was to trace the coal up the val- 
 ley of the Lackawanna, in the direction of the general 
 trend of the mountain ranges, to the Delaware River. 
 Obliged to abandon this idea, and still retaining the Dela- 
 ware in view as the grand highway for the transportation 
 of his coal to market, his next conception was to reach 
 the nearest tributary of that stream, the Lackawaxen^ 
 leading a quiet life upon the opposite side of the Moosic 
 This barrier between the Lackawanna and Lackawaxen, 
 guarded by woods and granite, like the calumet offered as 
 a token of peace, increased rather than abated the fervor 
 of his enthusiasm. 
 
 The explorations of Mr. Wurts, commencing about 
 1812, were extended by himself and subsequently by his 
 agents over the central and northern portion of the valley 
 while it was as rugged as when it offered no longer a home 
 to the Monseys. None of the eastern passes in the Moosic, 
 viz. : Rixe's, Wagner's, and Cobb's had ever been marked 
 for a road, with the exception of the latter one. These he 
 repeatedly examined, with a view of finding a passage 
 from the coal-mines to the headsprings of the Lacka- 
 waxen, tlirough whose waters it was supposed that coal 
 could be carried toward an eastern market. 
 
 A trivial incident favored the researches and designs of 
 Mr. Wurts. While searching up and down the Lacka- 
 wanna he came across a hunter, named David Nobles, 
 familiar with places where black stones could be readily 
 pointed out. The State of Pennsylvania had not at this 
 time withdrawn its prerogative of imprisonment for debt. 
 David Nobles, struggling in vain with poverty he inher- 
 ited, being threatened for a trifiing debt by an extortion- 
 ate neighbor in the county of Wayne, tied to the woods 
 with his gun to avoid the officer and the jail. Mr. Wurts 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 345 
 
 found him rambling over Ragged Island, heard his simple 
 story, and, after giving him the wherewithal to secure his 
 exemption from arrest, employed him to hunt coal and 
 bring knapsacks of provisions over the mountain from 
 the township of Canaan, where a few farmers lived. He 
 became, during the summer months, the inseparable com- 
 panion of the pioneer, sounding his way up the winding 
 •of the Lackawanna. His knowledge of the woods and 
 location of coal territory made him competent as a guide 
 And invaluable as an employee. 
 
 After the discovery of vast bodies of coal upon lands, 
 the possession of which w^as essential in maturing the 
 •original purpose, Mr. Wurts and Nobles visited Northum- 
 berland to purchase them. As the shabby exterior of 
 Mr. Nobles carried no dignity, nor awakened suspicions 
 of wealth or any ulterior object, he was selected to make 
 preliminary negotiations and the final purchase. Nobles 
 intimated to the owner, who had no knowledge of the 
 eyes glancing longingly over his waste of acres, that he 
 and his numerous brothers desired to farm it on a large 
 scale somewhere along the frontier, where a considerable 
 tract of wild land could be bought for a trifle. The 
 owner, eager to accept any definite otfer for lands hitherto 
 unsought by the settlers below, readily acquiesced in the 
 terms of sale. Mr. Nobles, unable to make payment 
 himself, called in "his friend" Wurts, in whose name the 
 contract was signed for possessions, which gave him the 
 key to a coal fortress first assailed in the valley. 
 
 By such artifices, honorable and ingenious as they were, 
 Mr. Wurts secured control of several thousand acres of 
 coal land in the county of Luzerne, in the year of 1814. 
 The cost of the land at this time was but fifty cents to 
 three dollars per acre. The giant timber spread over it 
 was of no account, and much of it upon the site of Car- 
 bondale was felled and burned away to prepare it for the 
 reception of the cabins of the workmen. These pur- 
 chases made by an expenditure now considered nominal 
 
346 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 and vague, included the region where Carbondale and 
 Archbald are located, with a portion of the intervening 
 land, and a small section in Providence, on the Anderson 
 farm, above Cobb's Gap ; where, in 1814, he opened the- 
 seven and nine feet veins of coal to obtain specimens for 
 exhibitions in Philadelphia, New York, and other sec-^ 
 tions of country. 
 
 Hon. Paul S. Preston, of Stockport, Pennsylvania, now 
 hale and hearty, in his 73d year, a warm friend of the late 
 Col. Scranton and the Erie road, who, in 1849, predicted 
 "that the transit of coal north and west, within the next 
 quarter of a century would exceed that of the present 
 day to the south and the east," ^ thus writes : "In 1804, 
 my father run an exploration line from Stockport to Mis- 
 shoppen, passing through what is now known as (I believe) 
 Gris wold's Gap. In crossing the Lackawanna Creek, he 
 discovered stone-coal, with which he had become ac- 
 quainted in Western Virginia and on the Monongahela as 
 a surveyor previous to his location at Stockport. 
 
 " In the year 1814, I heard my father tell Maurice Wurts 
 in Market Street, Philadelphia, ' Maurice, thee must hold 
 on to that lot on the Lackawanna, that you took for debt 
 of David Nobles, it will be very valuable some day as it 
 has stone-coal on it and under it.' Whether Maurice was- 
 aware of that fact before, I know not. The lot, however, 
 was Tiling on to. Its location was where Carbondale now 
 stands." The next important event connected with the 
 liistory of the earliest coal operations in the valley, was 
 an attempt made by Wurts in the year 1815, to transport 
 the coal he had mined at this isolated point, to the Wal- 
 lenpaupack or some stream leading into it. 
 
 On the opposite side of the Moosic Range in the adjoin- 
 ing county of Wayne, threads along its base a narrow 
 creek, whose dark languid waters are so hid by the rank 
 alders and iron-like laurel, as to be concealed from the 
 
 ' See Auburn "Daily Advertiser," Jan. 19, 1819. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKY. 347 
 
 view, until its marshy border is almost ])assed. TJiis is 
 " Jones's Creek," one of the upper and larger branches of 
 the Wallenpaupack. Being eight or nine miles only from 
 the coal-mines opened in Providence, this creek, from its 
 convenient proximity, was selected as one of ani[)](- capa- 
 city, after the removal of ordinary obstructions, to carry 
 light rafts and a small quantity of anthracite down to 
 the Paupack. The whole summer of this year was spent 
 by Mr. Noble in clearing this stream of the interlocking 
 logs and drift-wood. After a raft had been lashed 
 together, two sled-loads of the lirst coal ever carried from 
 the Lackawanna, were loaded upon it. 
 
 A long, heavy rain had so swollen the volume of water, 
 that when the raft swung out into the current with its 
 glistening freight, it ran safely for the distance of nearly 
 a mile, when, encountering a projecting rock, the frail 
 Hoat went to pieces, and the coal sank into the flood. 
 Thus were the hopes of the young Philadelphian baffled 
 at the very onset, and the busy world neither delighted 
 nor grieved at the result. 
 
 The mind of Wurts, refusing rest, allowed no transient 
 failure to alienate or defer the maturing of his specific 
 scheme. 
 
 The old Connecticut road from the Delaware to Wyo- 
 ming, in passing over Cobb's Mountain, came within a 
 few miles of the two mines opened by Wurts. Over this, 
 to the slackened waters of the Wallenpaupack, one of the 
 tributaries of the Lackawaxen, and about twenty miles 
 distant, coal was next drawn on sleds by the slow ox- 
 team. Here rafts were constructed from dry pine-trees, 
 on which coal was taken as far as Wilson ville Falls, 
 where this stream, narrowing to about seventy feet in 
 width at the top, leaps over three consecutive ledges of 
 rocks of flfty feet each with singular force and beauty. 
 The coal being carried around these falls upon wagons to 
 the eddy in the Lackawaxen, was reloaded into arks and 
 taken thence to the Delaware, and if these were not stove 
 
348 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 up in their downward passage readied Philadelphia, 
 where nobody wanted the '' black staff," as all the blow- 
 ing and stirring given to it did not make it burn. 
 
 But little coal, and this at a ruinous expense, was taken 
 over this route, and it being abandoned as a complete 
 failure, led to operations farther up the valley in the wil- 
 derness, in the vicinity of Rixe's Gap. Here we next find 
 Maurice Wurts associated with his brother William, min- 
 ing coal on the Lackawanna, at the spot now called Car- 
 bondale. This was in 1822, and eight years before the 
 North Branch Canal was put under contract from Nanti- 
 coke to the mouth of the Lackawanna. The scene of their 
 operations was a bluff which rises upon the western side 
 of the town, then forming the immediate bank of the 
 river, whose channel has since been diverted. Here these 
 determined, far-seeing pioneers in the coal-fields kept their 
 men at work until late in the fall, forming a sort of 
 encampment in the woods, sleeping on hemlock boughs 
 and leaves before a large camp-fire, and transporting their 
 provisions for miles upon horseback. The mine was kept 
 free from water by a rude pumping-apparatus moved by 
 the current of the river, and when the accumulation of 
 ice upon it obstructed its movements, a large grate made 
 of nail-rods was put in blast, in which a fire of coal was 
 continually kept burning and removing the difiiculty. In 
 this slow laborious manner they succeeded at great expense 
 in taking out about eight hundred tons of coal, which 
 they intended to have drawn upon sleds over the moun- 
 tain through Rixe's Gap to the Lackawaxen during the 
 winter, in order to be floated down the Delaware to Phil- 
 adelphia in the spring. The winter of 1823 being unusu- 
 ally mild, snow remaining on the ground but few weeks 
 in heavy drifts, only about one hundred tons were drawn 
 over to the rafting-place, a distance of about twenty miles, 
 via Cherry Ridge. 
 
 Instead of arks, found to be too expensive and easily 
 broken in their downward passage, dry pine-trees were 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 349 
 
 cut, rolled into the stream, and lashed together raft-like, 
 upon which as much coal was deposited as would safely 
 float, and thus taken down the Lackawaxen and Dela- 
 ware to Philadelphia. 
 
 The price of anthracite coal in this city at this time w^as 
 but ten or twelve dollars per ton. At these figures it was 
 estimated that a remunerative profit awaited coal trans- 
 ported in this manner, or even in the unreliable ark, 
 provided the navigation of the Lackawaxen was made 
 safe by practical slack-water improvements. 
 
 In 1823, Maurice Wurts was autlioiized and empowered 
 by the Legislature of Pennsylvania thus to improve the 
 navigation of this short, wild stream. In the mean time, 
 the supply of coal from the Schuylkill and Lehigh 
 regions, small as it was, had so reduced the price as to 
 preclude any hope of a profit such as would justify the 
 expenditure, unless a new and better market could first 
 be found or created. 
 
 The demand for coal at this time can be perceived from 
 the fact, that during the entire year of 1820, only 365 tons 
 of anthracite were sent to market — ^just one ton a day 
 to supply every demand in the city of Philadelphia. 
 
 In 1823, only 6,000 tons of anthracite were carried to 
 the sea-board in the whole United States, being consid- 
 erably less than the amount now used in the Lackawanna 
 Valley every day in the year. 
 
 New York and the Lackawanna Valley, linked together 
 by the social chain of canal, railroad, and river, mutually 
 dependent upon each other, knew no interest in common 
 until schooled by the active and persistent agency of the 
 Wurtses. The original plan of looking to Philadelphia for 
 a source of revenue being frustrated by the reduced price 
 of coal, Maurice Wurts, in whom the privilege of im- 
 proving the navigation of the Lackawaxen was vested, 
 and who had now become largely interested in the enter- 
 prise, conceived the project of reaching New York by a 
 direct canal communication between the Delaware and 
 
350 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Hudson rivers. With the hope of accomplishing tliig 
 object, the exploration of the route on which the Dela- 
 Avare and Hudson Canal has since been constructed, was 
 undertaken by William Wurts alone ; and, after such a 
 superficial inspection as he could give it without an actual 
 survey, he concluded that the favorable character of the 
 ground, especially through southern New York, and the 
 abundant supply of water-power at the very beginning of 
 the route, would justify the prosecution of the enterprise. 
 
 The project of connecting the two localities by a water 
 communication, favored and understood by few, received 
 a primary and definite form, and although there seemed 
 to have been no just appreciation of the difficulties to be 
 surmounted, or the physical labor and expense incurred 
 in maturing a scheme full of advantage and traffic to the 
 valley, these two gentlemen determined to lend all their 
 energies to its completion. 
 
 The needful legislation from the respective States of 
 Pennsylvania and New York was obtained by tlieir 
 unaided efforts, and after an abortive attempt to interest 
 residents upon the route, or those living in the valley, 
 so as to obtain a general fund for tiie preliminary survey, 
 they engaged Benjamin Wright, then the most experienced 
 engineer in the countr}^ to make the necessary surveys 
 and estimate at their own expense. 
 
 The report of the engineer, made in 1824, confirmed 
 the most sanguine calculations of the projectors as to 
 the practicability of the work ; but the estimate of its 
 cost ($1,300,000) was discouraging, and to obtain sub- 
 scriptions for such an amount of money, at that time, 
 for such a work, seemed almost hopeless. Capitalists 
 naturally viewed with distrust a proposition to construct 
 a railroad over a mountain, whose cliffs seemed to exult 
 over physical ingenuity and science ; and when these 
 energetic men began to talk of opening a canal navi- 
 gation through an unknown region, at a period, too, 
 when such undertakings were regarded, even under the 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 351 
 
 most favorable circunib^tance?, as uiii-emiiiK^rativo and of 
 doubtful propriety, many persons, representing tlie current 
 of popular thought, unconscious of the celebrity awaiting 
 these gentlemen foi- tlu^r good judgment and cheerful 
 perseverance, weic active and clamorous in predicting 
 ruin and dishonor. 
 
 Happily for the interests of the country at large and 
 the valley especially, the inflexible men, inured to fatigue 
 and encampment upon rocks, who had glowed with the 
 hope of bearing the work across the country dividing the 
 Hudson from the shallow Dy berry, inherited the requisite 
 force and ability to urge it to a fjworable issue. They 
 recognized no opposition from any quarter. Conscious 
 that a failure would compromise forever their positions 
 as business men, and number their names among dis- 
 honest schemers, they concentrated every available re- 
 source to foster and advance the great enterprise. 
 
 Their plans, considered after repeated tramps over the 
 mountain, was to cross the Moosic by inclined planes, 
 connecting the railroad with the canal on its eastern side, 
 at the greatest elevation at which water could be obtained 
 from the natural ponds strung along the western terminus 
 of the route. ^ 
 
 Almost on the very summit of the Moosic, nestles 
 among the spruce and oak one of the loveliest sheets of 
 water found anywhere in the countr}^ known as " Cobb's 
 Mountain Pond." Around it gathers tlie forest, nowhere 
 broken by a clearing, and aside from tlie light step of the 
 deer upon the margin, or the sail of tlie wild bird over 
 its surface, no evidence of animated nature appears. 
 
 Upon one side of the pond, the waters are so shallow 
 
 ' It may be interesting to die local reader to learn, tlint in the original survey of 
 the proposed route, the western terminus of the canal was to be at Keene's, or 
 Hoadley's Pond, in Wayne County, a distance of only four or five miles from the 
 coal-fields. These ponds, estimated at a capacity of sixty acres, when united, 
 were to be converted into reservoirs, and were supposed to be capable of fur- 
 nishing the contemplated canal with the necessary supply of water at any extra- 
 ordinary drought brought by summer. 
 
352 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 that the tourist can wade Imndieds of feet toward its- 
 center, over white sand, without even wetting the knee, 
 while the northern side sends its bank down almost per- 
 pendicular for a great distance. In the center of this 
 waveless sheet there exists a perceptible movement of 
 the water or mimic maelstrom, able to swing around a log- 
 canoe. The pond, fed by unseen springs, finds a con- 
 siderable outlet, and forms the upper tributary of the 
 Wallenpaupack. The idea was early entertained by 
 William Wurts of bringing coal to this pond, some seven 
 miles from Providence, using it as the highest reservoir 
 for the canal. To carry out this plan, it was proposed 
 that subscriptions should be opened for a capital stock 
 of $1,500,000, and the Delaware and Hudson Canal and 
 Banking Company be organized. 
 
 The undertaking was greatly in advance of the knowl- 
 edge and comprehension of the day, and yet so lucid and 
 convincing were the arguments of Maurice and William 
 Wurts in relation to the coal subject, that when the books 
 were opened in New York the subscriptions exceeded the 
 amount authorized by the charter. 
 
 While wiser men were thus interpreting the wants of 
 the world, by opening a way into the Lackawanna 
 Mountains, the great popular mind had given little dis- 
 cussion to the theme. In fact, the first element of making 
 coal-fires had to be taught in New York in the same spirit 
 of Christian liberality and patience given to Philadelphia 
 by Messrs. Miner, Wurts, and others, a few years before. 
 
 A few persons, spurning pupilage in so plain an affair 
 as making a fire, failing to secure heat by putting the 
 coal in the bottom of the stove and the wood on top,. 
 refused to have further dealing with the dusky invention. 
 
 Stoves and grates, adapted to the use of anthracite coal, 
 being put up in New York, Philadelphia, and Albany^ 
 by the agency of these earnest gentlemen, not only demon- 
 strated to the observer the great superiority of anthra- 
 cite over charcoal and wood as a fuel, but, in spite of strong 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 353 
 
 natural prejudices arrayed against tlie project, it found 
 among reflecting minds a steady growth and advocacy. 
 
 The canal, commenced in 1826, was completed in 1828. 
 Originally constructed for boats of thirty tons, it subse- 
 quently was enlarged for those of fifty tons, and within 
 the past few years has again been so altered and improved 
 as to admit boats of one hundred and thirty tons. The 
 arrangements of this company have been judiciously 
 made at different points, such as Carbondale, Honesdale, 
 Olyphant, Providence, &c., for the accommodation of an 
 extensive business. Tlieir capital now exceeds fifteen 
 millions of dollars. 
 
 To show how far the results of this pioneer enterprise 
 from the valley have transcended the narrow views of the 
 community of that recent period, both with regard to its 
 capabilities and the use of coal, it may be stated, that 
 the idea of transporting one hundred thousand tons of 
 coal 'per annum over the railroad and canal (upon Avhich 
 idea the capacity of the former was at first based) was 
 at first scouted by many as preposterous, as regarding 
 both the disposal of, and the ability to deliver, such an 
 uuheard-of amount, whereas, during the last year (1868), 
 there was transported over this highway, by the Dela- 
 ware and Hudson Canal Company, nearly two million 
 tons of coal.^ 
 
 When this young enterprise was struggling its w^ay 
 into popular favoi-, equipoised between extennination 
 and a possible triumph, it did not escape the jealousy of 
 men engaged in transporting coal from the Lehigh, The 
 product of the mines had to force itself into a market over 
 the heads of envious and crafty competitors. 
 
 Unfortunately for the company, the small quantity of 
 coal taken to New York from the coal-pits at Carbondale, 
 in 1829, being surface coal that had lain for ages exposed 
 to the action of the elements, furnished plausible grounds 
 
 ' 1,840,681.06 tons. 
 
354 
 
 HIOTOKY OF THE 
 
 apparently for the statements of rival companies, that the 
 Lackawanna coal offered by the Wurtses was quite value- 
 less, or if otherwise, it was boldly asserted that the works 
 of this compan}'^ were so imperfect in their construction, 
 and so perishable in character, as not to be capable of 
 passing a sufficient amount of tonnage to pay interest 
 upon the original cost. 
 
 Indeed, to those who looked searchingly into the mat- 
 ter, with the imperfect knowledge possessed at that day, 
 the Moosic Mountain range might well have proved a 
 great stumbling-block in the way of this artificial outlet 
 to the valley. Habit has now so familiarized us with the 
 triumph of physical science over natural obstacles, that 
 we have ceased to feel or express astonishment at results, 
 which at that day were dismissed from the consideration 
 of rational men as visionary, foolish, and forbidding. Tlie 
 mode of overcoming elevations by means of inclined 
 planes was then almost untried, imperfectly known, and 
 little appreciated. The works at Rixe's Gap were the 
 first of this kind projected in this country on any con- 
 siderable scale. Much credit is due to the engineers 
 having charge of these works, and especially to Mr. 
 James Archibald, for many ingenious and highly efficient 
 contrivances connected with them. 
 
 There is one interesting feature connected with the early 
 
 FIRST LOCnMOTIVIC RUN IN AMKHK'A 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKY. 355 
 
 history of this road. The Jlmt locomoUm enguie intro- 
 duced and worked in America was run a shoi't distance upon 
 it in 1828, and Hone's Dahi' oifered its friendly gh^n for the 
 purpose of conducting the experiment. This locomotive, 
 called the " Stourbridge Lion," was ))uilt in England, of 
 the best workmanship and material, and most approved 
 pattern of that date. As compared with the powerful, 
 compact, and simply constructed engines of the present 
 day, it was complicated, unwieldy, top-heavy, and of 
 inconsiderable power, as will be seen by the accompany- 
 ing illustration, copied from an exact drawing of the 
 original, in the hands of R. Manville, Esq., Superintend- 
 ent of the Railroad Department. 
 
 The village of Honesdale, the eastern terminus of the 
 railroad and the western of the canal, lies snugly in the 
 bottom of a canal- like intervale, where, a single week 
 before the conception of these works, rose one dark mass 
 of laurel and hemlock, through wiiicli the LackaAvaxeii, 
 once famous for trout-lishing, after meeting with the 
 I)y berry, gropes silently along under Irving' s Clilf. 
 
 The road passed out of Honesdale by a sharp south- 
 westerly cuive, with a moderate grade, and ^^■as canied 
 over the Lacka waxen by a long lienilock trestling, 
 considered too frail by many to suppoi-t the great weight 
 of the mysterious-looking engine all ready for the hazard- 
 ous journey. As the crowd, gathered from far and near, 
 expected that bridge, locomotiv^e, and all, would plunge 
 into the stream the moment passage was attempted, no 
 one dared to run the locomotive across the chasm but 
 Major Horatio Allen, who, amid exultation and praise, 
 passed over the bridge and a portion of the road in safety. 
 The engine, however, was soon abandoned, as the slender 
 trestling, formin;- much of the body of the road, suf- 
 liciently strong for ordinary cars, was found too feeble 
 for its weiglit and weai-. 
 
 ' Named from the late Philip Hone. 
 
356 HI&TORY OF THE 
 
 Major Horatio Allen, the engineer of tlie New York and 
 Erie Railroad, gives the following account of the first trip 
 made by a locomotive on this continent : — 
 
 ''When was it? Who was it? And who awakened 
 its energies and directed its movements ? It was in the 
 year 1828, on the banks of the Lackawaxen, at the com- 
 mencement of the railroads connecting the canal of the 
 Delaware and Hudson Canal Company with their coal 
 mines — and he who addresses you was the only person 
 on that locomotive. The circumstances which led to my 
 being alone on the road were these : The road had been 
 built in the summer ; the structure was of hemlock timber, 
 and rails of large dimensions notched on caps placed far 
 apart. The timber had cracked and warped from expos- 
 ure to the sun. After about three hundred feet of straight 
 line, the road crossing the Laxa waxen Ci'eek on trestle- work 
 about thirty feet high, with a curve of three hundred and 
 fifty-five to four hundred feet i-adius. The impression 
 was very general that the iron monster would either break 
 down the road, or it would leave the track at the curve 
 and plunge into the creek. 
 
 "My reply to such apprehensions Avas that it was too 
 late to consider the probability of such occurrences ; 
 there was no other course than to have a trial made of the 
 strange animal which had been brought here at a great 
 expense ; but that it was not necessary that more than 
 one should be involved in its fate ; that I would take the 
 first ride alone, and the time would come when I should 
 look back to the incident with great interest. 
 
 "As I placed my hand on the throttle-valve handle, I 
 was undecided whether I would move slowly or with a 
 fair degree of speed ; but believing that the road would 
 prove safe, and preferring, if we did go down, to go hand- 
 somely, and without any evidence of timidity, I started 
 with considerable velocity, passed the curve over the 
 creek safely, and was soon out of hearing of the vast 
 assemblage. At the end of two or three miles I reversed 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 357 
 
 the valve and returned without accident, having thus 
 made the first raih-oad trip by k)comotive on the ^vest- 
 ern hemisphere." 
 
 This primitive machine was finally switched off tlie track, 
 a house built over it, and instead of being treasured as a 
 relic of early engineering in the New World surpassed by 
 no other, its rusted combination was partially destroyed 
 and scattered, quarter of a centur}^ ago. Some portions 
 of it are yet in use in Carbondale. 
 
 It might have been supposed by intelligent men, that 
 after the authors of this canal and railroad had shown 
 their operations to be practical and effective, when by 
 vast expenditure of means, time, and labor, the most 
 exhausting, their enterprise was completed, their physical 
 efforts and mental anxieties w^ould have been rewarded 
 with respite and profit : subsequent events assured them 
 that their labors had just begun. The cost of these 
 improvements liad far exceeded the original estimate, and 
 a large debt had thus been necessarily conti'acted in their 
 progress. The market for coal was so limited that a small 
 amount supplied the demand, and if it did not forbode 
 the disruption of the company, it alienated all hope of 
 immediate gain or dividend. Before the resources of the 
 company were developed, financial difficulties accumu- 
 lated. More than this, the cry of monopoly w^as arrayed 
 against it, at a time when the shares, first costing $100 
 each, had been six or seven years on the hands of the 
 stockholders without yielding a single dividend, and had 
 therefore, in effect, cost about $140 per share, could 
 actually be bought in the market at the time for about 
 $48 to $50 per share, or half what it had already cost. 
 
 The Wurts brothers, undaunted by these adverse aus- 
 pices, abated none of their confidence in a cause whose 
 fate involved their own integrity as well as the interest of 
 every valley tenant, taught by the narrow-minded to dis- 
 trust and oppose its success. Maurice Wurts (who had 
 superintended the canal during its constructinii, and 
 
358 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 resigned his office wlieii it was completed) undertook, in 
 this exigency, the superintendence of an important depart- 
 ment of tlie company's business, while his brother John, 
 then a prominent member of Congress, of the Philadel- 
 phia bar, assumed the presidency. These gentlemen 
 devoted their lives to promote and vindicate tlie material 
 interests of the company, and the proud, high, firm posi- 
 tion it has attained to-day, is much, if not mainly due to 
 the constant care and industry with which its affairs, dur- 
 ing a long series of years, sometimes hostile, were con- 
 ducted by them. This was done in such a broad spirit of 
 fidelity to the entire associated interests, that no charge 
 of self-aggrandizement or greedy selfishness emanated 
 from the most capricious. 
 
 Not only was tlie very existence of the company imper- 
 iled by financial dangers formidable in their character, 
 but legislative bodies, moved by the leverage of personal 
 jealousies and faiu^ied rivalry, labored to crush it, and 
 tliis too, at the instigation of men whose private fortunes 
 and social positions in life, came wholly from the opera- 
 tions they wei-e seeking to arrest and destroy. The bene- 
 fits which have arisen out of this undertaking, the general 
 and generating influences it has exerted in the Lacka- 
 wanna Valley, are various in kind and character, and are 
 diffused over a wide region of country, as Avell as concen- 
 trated in special localities. Prominent among these special 
 localities, may be named New York City, and the Lacka- 
 wanna Valley. Who can estimate the magnitude of the 
 impulse which the introduction of cheap fuel has given 
 to the growth of New York ? To tliis great outlet, con- 
 ceived and matured by Maurice and William Wurts, is 
 this great city indebted for the cheapening and supply 
 of this desirable and indispensable fuel. The history of 
 the company struggling for many years through appalling 
 difficulties, indicates that even here, neither the benefits 
 nor instrumentality by which it was attained, were appre- 
 ciated by the many recipients. But no estimate can be 
 
LACKAWANNA VAI-LKY. 359 
 
 made of the power whicli a work like this exercises over 
 the affairs of a nation, in encouragino; piivate and stim- 
 uhitino- public efforts for internal improvements. The 
 material benefits thus conferred upon the valley, in the 
 highest degree advantageous and practical to the expand- 
 ing activities east of the Alleghanies, can be estimated 
 readily by simply comparing the average value of coal 
 land and property noio and before the maturity of this 
 enterprise. The entire length of the canal, including 
 three miles of slack-water navigation, is 111 miles* the 
 railroad from Honesdale to Providence, thirty-two miles. 
 
 This road, vrith but a single exception, the oldest in the 
 country, represents more wealth, for one of its length, 
 than any other one in America. 
 
 During the last yeax the company have entered into 
 arrangements with the Baltimore Coal and Union Railroad 
 Company, whereby they control the railroad from Provi- 
 dence to the Baltimore mines, near Wilkes Barre, together 
 with the mines upon that justly celebrated property. 
 
 They have also completed an arrangement with the 
 Northern Coal and Iron Company, for the coal in the 
 property, recently purchased by the latter company of 
 the Plymouth and Boston companies. This property 
 is located on the west side of the Susquehanna, in Ply- 
 mouth, and is considered to be one of the most valuable 
 properties in Wyoming Valley. 
 
 The canal company also control the railroad and bridge 
 of the Plymouth and Wilkes Barre Railroad and Bridge 
 Company, which connects the property upon the west 
 side of tlie river with the system of railroads upon the 
 east side. 
 
 These alliances, w^ith other recent acquisitions, give the- 
 canal company a position from which it can ship coal in 
 all directions, and place it in the front rank of the great 
 coal corporations of the country.' 
 
 ' Statemeat of Coal mined and forwarded by tlie Delaware and Hudson Canall 
 
300 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 The Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, preserving 
 the same wise policy inaugurated by William and Maurice 
 Wurts, of giving great discretionary power to their officers 
 at the primary or mining end of the line, have prospered 
 beyond expectation or measure under the judicious man- 
 agement of Thomas Dickson, vice-president of the road, 
 and his able assistant managers, E. W. Weston, R. 
 Manville, and C. F. Young. 
 
 George T. Olyphant, of New York, is now the presi- 
 dent of this company ; its vast interest in the Wyoming 
 
 Company for the year ending Deceml^er 10, 1868, with sources whence re- 
 ceived: — 
 
 SENT NORTH. 
 
 Delav)are and Hudson Canal Company's Mines. 
 
 Carbondale.. .330,770 12 
 
 Grassy Island 97,724 14 
 
 Olyphant 294,041 19 
 
 Providence 31G,301 04 
 
 1,038,838 09 
 Contractor's Mines. 
 
 John Jermyn 171,298 10 
 
 Eaton & Co 141,418 10 
 
 B. & L. C. Co 95,182 13 
 
 ?:ik Hill Coal Co 62,753 04 
 
 Filer & Co./ 12,347 17 
 
 Mineral Spring Coal Co 541 04 
 
 483,541 18 
 Baltimore Coal and Union Railroad Compani/s Mines. 
 
 Mill Creek 111,722 04 
 
 Baltimore 53,770 09 
 
 165,492 13 
 
 Total l,i;87,873 00 
 
 SENT SOUTH. 
 
 Baltimore Coal and Union Railfroad Company's Mines. 
 Alill Creek and Baltimore Mines 152,808 06 
 
 Total production for 1868 ='1,840,681 06 
 
 Total production for 1867 1,468,314 10 
 
 Increased production for 1808 372,366 16 
 
 * or 2,061,565 tons of 2,000 pounds. 
 
LACKAWANNA VAr.LKY. 363 
 
 and Lackawanna valleys, however, come under the Juris- 
 diction of Thomas Dickson, of Scrantou. The village of 
 Olyphant derived its name from one, wliile tlie young 
 mining town of Dickson received its appellation from the 
 other. With a clear head and a disposition to turn hard 
 work to some account, Thos. Dickson came from Scotland, 
 quarter of a century ago, to try his fortune in the mountain 
 ranges of Pennsylvania. Although not ' ' to the manor 
 born," he has, by the aid of a practical turn of mind and 
 steady habits, made his way from the humble place of a 
 mule-drirjer, in the Carbondale mines, to the honorable 
 position he now occupies, with a rapidity and steadiness 
 almost romantic — thus presenting to the young men of 
 the country an illustration of the triumphs of a life of 
 probity and ambitious industry w^orthy of emulation. 
 
 FALLING OF THE CAKBONDALK MINES. 
 
 Those who have never entered the midnight chambers 
 of a coal-mine, far away in the earth, where no sound is 
 heard but the miner's drill or the report of a blast in 
 some remote gallery, and no light ever enters but the 
 lamps on the workmen's caps, which are seen moving 
 about like will-o'-the-wisps as the men are mining or 
 loading the coal into little cars, can not understand how 
 perilous the miner's occupation, or how much the place 
 he works in reminds one of the great pit itself, onl}' this, 
 in the language of the miner, is free from "the hate of 
 summer." Some of the mines are mere low, jet-black 
 coal-holes, gloomy as the tombs of Thebes, while others 
 have halls and chambers of cyclopean proportions, along 
 which are constant openings into cross-chambers or gal- 
 leries, some sloping downward, some upward, in which 
 roll along cars, drawn by mules, accompanied by a boy 
 as driver. Accidents not unfrequently happen in the 
 mines, by the explosion of powder, as the lamps are 
 continually around it ; by the falli.ig of slate or coal. 
 
364 HISTORY OF TEIE 
 
 before props are placed to support the treacherous roof ; 
 and sometimes by the falling in of the mines themselves. 
 After all the coal is taken from one stratum or vein, miners 
 frequently remove the pillars or props from the cham- 
 bers, so that the mines can fill in — this, in miner's 
 language, is called " robbing the mines." 
 
 During the winter of 1843 and '44, a portion of the 
 Delaware and Hudson Canal Company's mines, at Car- 
 bondale, "fell in" upon the workmen. Some days 
 previous to the final crash, the mine, in the phrase of 
 miners, began to "work," that is, the occasional cracking 
 of the roof over where the men worked, denoted the 
 danger of a fall. It came, and such was its force that all 
 the lights in the mines were extinguished in an instant, 
 while the workmen and horses, which were entering or 
 retiring from the black mouth of the cavern, were blown 
 from it as leaves are swept by the gale. The men who 
 were at work in their narrow chambers farther in th(^ 
 mine, heard the loud death-summons, and felt the crash 
 of the earthquaked elements, as they were buried alive 
 and crushed in the strong, black teeth of the coal -slate. 
 
 One of the assistant superintendents of the mines, Mr. 
 Alexander Bryden, was on the outside at the time tlie 
 low, deep thundering of the rocks within came upon his 
 ear. He hastened in to ascertain the cause of the disaster 
 or the extent of the fall. Penetrating one of the dark 
 galleries a short distance, he was met by three miners, 
 who informed him that the mines had broken, killing and 
 wounding many, and that they had just left behind them 
 about twenty men, who were probably slain by the 
 crushing slate. Although urged by the retreating men 
 to turn back and save his own life, as there was no hope 
 of rescuing their companions from death, the determined 
 Scotchman pushed along the gloomy passage, amid the 
 loosened and hissing rock, which, like the sword of the 
 ancient tyrant, hung over liis head. He reached the edge 
 of the fall. Earth and coal lay in vast masses around 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKY. 365 
 
 him, and here and there a body becoming detached from 
 the parent roof, came down with sullen echo into the 
 Egyptian darkness of the mines. Bry den, inured to danger 
 from his youth, was not deterred. The dim light from his 
 lamp revealed no passage, save a small opening made by 
 the huge slabs, falling in such a manner by the side of 
 the floor of the gallery as to form an angle. Through this 
 aperture he crept upon his hands and knees ; as he pro- 
 ceeded he found it so narrow that he was barely able to 
 force himself along by lying prostrate upon his abdomen. 
 
 About one mile from the mouth of the mines he reached 
 the "heading," or the end of the chamber, where he 
 found the twenty imprisoned miners uninjured, and 
 inclosed in one fallen, black, solid body of coal ! One 
 mile of wall between them and the outer world ! The 
 brave Scotchman, whose lips whitened not until now, 
 wept like a child, as he found among the number his own 
 son ! The boy had the genius of the father. When one 
 of the three retreating fugitives who had escaped from 
 tlie mine proposed, as they left, to take away the horse 
 confined here with the workmen, young Bryden, who 
 feared the torture of starvation in that foodless cell, 
 replied, '' Leave him here ; we shall need him I" 
 
 Bryden was upon the point of leading out his men when 
 he learned that another lay helplessly wounded, still far- 
 tlier beyond this point, in the most dangerous part of the 
 fall. On he continued his perilous mission until he enter- 
 ed the lonely chamber, A feeble cry from the miner, who 
 was aroused from his bed of slate by the glimmer of the 
 approaching light, revealed a picture of the miner's life 
 too familiar with the men wiio face danger in these cleft 
 battle-grounds. Almost covered by the fallen strata, he 
 lay half delirious with agony, blackened with coal-dirt, 
 and limbs gashed and fj-actured with rock. Lifting the 
 wounded man upon his shoulder, Bryden retraced his 
 steps. For rods he bore him along, witli the broken, 
 flaccid arms of the miner danslins: at his side. 
 
366 HISTORY OF THK 
 
 When the rock was too low to permit this, he iirst 
 crawled along the cavern himself, drawing his companion 
 carefully after him. Through perils which none can 
 appreciate who have not strode along the gloomy gal- 
 leries of a coal-mine, he bore him full one mile before he 
 reached the living world. 
 
 The fall extended over an area of about forty acres, and 
 although neither effort nor expense were withheld by the 
 company or individuals, to rescue the living, or to re- 
 cover the bodies of the dead, the remains of a few have 
 never yet been found. One man was discovered some 
 time afterward in a standing position, his pick and his 
 dinner-pail b(^aring him company, while the greater por- 
 tion of the liesli upon his bones appeared to have been 
 eaten off by rats. 
 
 Others, without water, food, or light, shut in from the 
 world forever by the appalling wall of rock, coal, and 
 slate around them, while breathing the scanty air, and 
 suffei-ing in body and mind, agony the most intense, 
 clinched tighter their picks, and wildly labored one long 
 night that knew no day, until exhausted they sank, and 
 died in the darkness of their rocky sepulchers, with no 
 sweet voice to soothe — no kind angel to cool the burning 
 temples, or catch the whispers from the spirit-land. 
 
 Eight dead bodies were exhumed, and six were left in 
 — one, the only son of a dependent widow. Mr. Hosie, 
 one of the assistant superintendents of the mines, was in 
 them at the time of the disaster, and escaped with his 
 life. Creeping through the remaining crevices in the 
 break upon his hands and knees, feeling his way along the 
 blackness of midnight, where all traces of the general 
 direction of the mine had disappeared, he often found 
 himself in an aperture so narrow, that to retreat or advance 
 seemed impossible. Once he was buried middle-deep by 
 the rubbish as he was digging through. Another convul- 
 sion lifted up the mass and relieved him. After being 
 in the mines two days and nights, he emerged into sun- 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKY. 867 
 
 light, the flesh being worn from his linger-bones in his 
 efforts to escape from the tomb-like captivity. 
 
 EARLIEST MAIL ROUTE IN THE VALLEY. 
 
 When the first and only post-office was established in 
 the Lackawanna Valley in 1811, the mail was carried once 
 a week on horseback from Wilkes Barre, via Capoose or 
 Slocum Hollow, to Wilsonville, the original shire town of 
 Wayne County, at the head of the Wallenpaiipack Falls, 
 returning nia Bethany, Belmont, Montrose, and Tunkhau- 
 nock. In 1762, or fifty years previous to this, the Rev. 
 David Zisberger, sheltered only by trees and friendly wig- 
 wams, made his way along the Indian pathway, from Fort 
 Stanwix, New York, to Wyoming and Philadelphia, 
 for a slight consideration, as can be seen by the fol- 
 lowing receipt : — 
 
 "Received ten pounds for my journey with Sr. Wm. 
 Johnson' s Letter to Teedyuscung at Wyomink, & bringing 
 his answer to Philadelphia. David Zisberger. 
 
 "Apbii, oth, 17G2." ' 
 
 Mail matter for the settlements upon the northeast 
 branch of the Susquehanna and its larger tributaries came 
 from Pliiladelphia, via Sunbury or Easton, to Wilkes 
 Barre, whence it was diffused tardily through the broken 
 openings of northern Pennsylvania. 
 
 The inhabitants being few, and poor witlial, scattered 
 over a wide range of territory, the post-office for the town- 
 ship was sometimes located at a point where there stood 
 but a single cabin, yet this did not render the operations 
 of the office any the less harmonious or effective. 
 
 There yet lives in the valley an old gentleman who 
 prided in the duties of mail-boy from 1811-24, and who, 
 during these dozen of years encountered dangers in ford- 
 ing streams swift and swollen, traversing roads lined 
 with stumps and stone, and yet, charactei-ized by a natu- 
 
 ' Documentary History of New York, p. 310 
 
368 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 ral cheerfulness and love of fun himself, he sometimes- 
 forgot the loneliness of his journey as he encountered 
 humanity in its most amusing aspects, at the stopping - 
 places on his route. 
 
 " At one point," writes our informant, "the office was 
 kept in a low, log bar-room, where, after the contents of 
 the mail-pouch were emptied on the unswept floor, all the 
 inmates gave slow and repeated motion to each respective 
 paper and letter." 
 
 Sometimes the mail-boy, finding no one at home but 
 the children, who were generally engaged drumming on 
 the dinner-pot, or the housewife, unctuous with lard and 
 dough, lol-li-bye-babying a boisterous child to sleep, was 
 compelled to act as carrier and postmaster himself. 
 
 At another point upon the route, the commission of post- 
 master fell upon the thick shoulders of a Dutchman, 
 remarkable for nothing but his full, round stomach. This^ 
 was his pride, and he would pat it incessantly while he 
 dilated upon the virtues of his "krout" and his " frow." 
 
 It would have been amazingly stupid for the Depart- 
 ment to have questioned his order or integrity, for as the 
 lean mail-bag came tumbling into his door from the saddle, 
 the old comical Dutchman and his devoted wife carried it 
 to a rear bedroom in his house, poured the contents upon 
 the floor, where at one time it actually took them both 
 from three o'clock one afternoon until nine the next morn- 
 ing to change the mail ! Believing with Lord Bacon, that 
 "knowledge is power," he detained about election time, 
 all political documents directed to his opponents. These 
 he carefully deposited in a safe place in his garret until 
 after election day, when they were handed over with 
 great liberality to those to whom they belonged, provided 
 he was paid the postage. 
 
 ' ' At another remote place where the office was kept, the 
 mail-bag being sometimes returned to the post-boy almost 
 empty, led him to investigate the cause of this sudden 
 collapse in a neighborliood inhabited by few. The pro- 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. iiby 
 
 lific number of ten children, graduating from one to 
 twenty in years, all called the postmaster "dad," and 
 as none could read, letters and papers came to a dead stop 
 on arriving thus far. As these were poured out on the 
 floor among pans and kettles, each child would seize a 
 package, exclaiming, this is for me, and this for you, and 
 that for some one else, until the greater bulk of mail-mat- 
 ter intended for other offices was parceled out and 
 appropriated, and never heard of again." 
 
 THE PENNSYLVANIA COAL (JO.MPANY. 
 
 The definite and successful character of the coal schemes 
 devised by the Wurts brothers, tested amidst every pos- 
 sible element of discouragementand liostility, inclined ca])i- 
 talists to glance toward the hills from Avhence coal sloAvly 
 drifted to the sea-board. Drinker and Mereditli, aiming at 
 reciprocal objects, and alive to venture and enterprise, 
 rach obtained a charter for a railroad in the valley, 
 Avhich, owing to the absence of capital, proved of no prac- 
 tical value at the time to any one. 
 
 Twenty-one years after coal was carried from Carbon- 
 dale by railroad toward a Xew York market, the Penn- 
 sylvania Coal Company began the transportation of their 
 coal from the Lackawanna. This company, the second 
 one operating in the valley, was incorporated by the 
 Pennsylvania Legislature in 1838, with a capital of $200, 000. 
 The proposed road w^as to connect Pittston with the Dela- 
 ware and Hudson Canal at some point along the Wallen- 
 paupack Creek in the county of Wayne. 
 
 The (jommissioners appointed in this act organized the 
 company in the spring of 1839, and commenced operat- 
 ing in Pittston on a small scale. After mining a limited 
 quantity of coal from their lands — of whicli the}' were 
 allowed to hold one thousand acres— it was taken down 
 the North Branch Canal, finding a market at Harrisburg 
 and other towns along the Susquehnnna. 
 
370 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Simultaneously with the grant of this charter, another 
 was given to a body of gentlemen in Honesdale, known 
 as the Washington Coal Company, with a capital of 
 $300,000, empowered to hold two thousand acres of land 
 in the coal basin. This last charter, lying idle for nine 
 years, was sold to William Wurts, Charles Wurts, and 
 others of Philadelphia, in 1847. 
 
 In 1845, the first stormy impulse or excitement in coal 
 lands went through the central and lower part of the val- 
 ley. Large purchases of coal property were made for a 
 few wealthy men of Philadelphia, who had reconnoitered 
 the general features of the country with a view of con- 
 structing a railroad from the Lackawanna to intersect the 
 Delaware and Hudson Canal near the mouth of the Pau- 
 pack. 
 
 Tlie preliminary surveys upon the proposed route had 
 barely commenced, before there sprang up in Providence 
 and Blakeley, opposition of the most relentless and for- 
 midable character. Men who had hitherto embarrassed 
 the company mining coal in Carbondale during its infancy, 
 found scope here for their remaining malignity. The 
 most plausible ingenuity was employed to defeat the 
 entrance of a road whose operations could not fail to 
 inspire and enlarge every industrial activity along its 
 border. Meeting after meeting was held at disaffected 
 points, having for their object the destruction of the very 
 measures, which, when matured, were calculated to result 
 as they did to the advantage of those who opposed them. 
 It was urged with no little force, that if these Philadel- 
 phians " seeking the blood of the country," were allowed 
 to make a railroad through Cobb's Gap, the only natural 
 key or eastern outlet to the valley, the rich deposits of 
 coal and iron remaining in the hands of the settlers would 
 be locked in and rendered useless forever. Such falla- 
 cious notions, urged by alms-asking demagogues with 
 steady clamor upon a people jealous of their preroga- 
 tives, inflamed the public mind for a period of three years 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 371 
 
 against this company, but after sacli considerations as 
 selfish agitators will sometimes covet and accept tranquil- 
 ized opposition, those amicable relations which have since 
 existed with the country commenced. 
 
 In 1846, the Legislature of Pennsylvania passed "an act 
 incorporating the Luzerne and Wayne Railroad Company, 
 with a capital stock of $500,000, \vith authority to con- 
 struct a road from the Lacka waxen to the Lackawanna." 
 
 Before this company manifested organic life, its charter, 
 confirmed without reward, and tliat of the Washington 
 Coal Company being purchased, were merged into the 
 Pennsylvania Coal Company, by an act of the Legislature 
 passed in 1849. 
 
 This road, whose working capacity is equal to one and 
 a half million tons per annum, Avas commenced in 1848 ; 
 completed in May, 1850. It is forty-seven miles in length, 
 passing with a single track from the coal-mines on the Sus- 
 quehanna at Pittston to those lying near Cobb's Gap, ter- 
 minating at the Delaware and Hudson Canal at tlie spirited 
 village of Hawley. It is worked at moderate expense, and 
 in the most simple manner for a profitable coal-road — the 
 I'ars being drawn up the mountain by a series of station- 
 ary steam-eng-ines and planes, and then allow^ed to run by 
 their own weight, at a rate of ten or twelve miles an hour, 
 down a grade sufficiently descending to give the proper 
 momentum to the train. The movement of the cars is so 
 easy, that there is but little wear along the iron pathway, 
 while the too rapid speed is checked by the slight appli- 
 cation of brakes. No railroad leading into the valley 
 makes less noise ; none does so really a remunerative 
 business, earning over ten per cent, on its capital at the 
 present low prices of coal ; thus illustrating the great 
 superiority of a "gravity road" over all others for tlie 
 cheap transportation of anthracite over the ridges sur- 
 rounding the coal-fields of Pennsylvania. 
 
 The true system, exemplified twenty years ago by its 
 present superintendent, John B. Smith, Esq., of uniting 
 
372 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 the interests of the laboring-man with those of tlie com- 
 pany, as far as possible, has been one of tlie most efficient 
 measures whereby " strikes" have been obviated, and the 
 general pros])erity of the road steadily advanced. 
 
 Through the instrumentality of Mr. Smith tliis has been 
 done in a manner so uniform yet unobtrusive, as to mak(- 
 it a model coal-road. It carries no passengers. 
 
 This company, having a capital of about $4,()00,00(i, 
 gives employment to over three thousand men. 
 
 FROM PITTSTON TO IIAWLEY. 
 
 A ride upon a coal-train over the gravity road of the 
 Pennsylvania Coal Company, from Pittston to Hawley, is 
 not without interest or incident. Starting from the banks 
 of the Susquehanna, it gradually ascends the border of 
 the Moosic Mountain for a dozen miles, when, as if 
 refreshed by its slow passage up the rocky way, it hur- 
 ries the long train down to the Dyberry at Hawley witli 
 but a single stoppage. 
 
 Let the tourist willing to blend venture witli pleasure, 
 step upon the front of the car as it ascends Plane No. 2, 
 at Pittston, and brings to view the landscape of Wyoming 
 Valley, with all its variet}^ of plain, river, and mountain, 
 made classic by song and historic by her fields of blood. 
 The Susquehanna, issuing from the highland lakes of Ot- 
 sego, flows along, equaled only in beauty by the Rhine, 
 through a region famed for its Indian history — the mas- 
 sacre upon its fertile plain, and the sanguinary conflict 
 between the Yankees and Pennymites a century ago. The 
 cars, freighted with coal, move their spider-feet toward 
 Hawley. Slow at first, they wind around curve and hill^ 
 gathering speed and strength as they oscillate over ravine, 
 woodland, and water. Emerging from deep cuts or dense 
 woods, the long train approaches Spring Brook, Cross- 
 ing this trout stream upon a trestling thrown across the 
 ravine of a quarter of a mile, the cars slacken their speed 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKY. 373 
 
 as they enter the narrow rock-cut at the foot of the next 
 plane. While looking upon the chiseled precipice to find 
 some egress to this apparent cavern, the buzz of the pulley 
 comes from the plane, and through the granite passage, 
 deep and jaw-like, you are drawn to a height where the 
 glance of the surrounding woods is interrupted by the 
 sudden manner in which you are drawn into the very top 
 of engine-house No. 4. 
 
 The Lybian desert, in the desolation of its sands, offers 
 more to admire than the scenery along the level from No. 
 4 to No. 5. Groups of rock, solitary in dignity and gray 
 with antiquity, are seen upon every side ; trees grow 
 dwarfed from their accidental foothold ; and only here 
 and there a tuft of wild grass holds its unfriendly place. 
 The babbling of a brook at the foot of No. 5, alone falls 
 pleasantly upon the ear. As the cars roll up the plane, 
 the central portion of the valley is brought before the eye 
 on a scale of i-efreshing magnificence. The features of 
 the scenery become broader and more picturesque. The 
 Moosic range, marking either side of the valley, so robed 
 with forest to its very summit as to present two vast 
 waves of silent tree-top, encircle the ancient home and 
 stronghold of Capoose. As you look down into this am- 
 phitheater, crowded with commercial and village life, 
 catching a glimpse of the river giving a richer shade to a 
 meadow where the war-song eclioed less than a century 
 ago, evidences of thrift everywhere gi-eet and gladden the 
 eye. 
 
 At No. 6, upon the northern bank of the Roaring 
 Brook, are located the most eastern mines of this com- 
 pany, being those which are situated the nearest to New 
 York City. These consist of a series of coal deposits, 
 varied in purity, thickness, and value, but all profitably 
 worked. The largest vein of coal mined here is full eight 
 feet thick, and is the highest coal mined on the hill north- 
 west of plane No. 6. 
 
 Upon the opposite range of the Moosic Mount lin in 
 
374 HI8T()RY OF THE 
 
 the vicinity of Leggett's Gap, this same stratum of coal 
 is worked by other companies. Each acre of coal thus 
 mined from this single vein yields about 10,000 tons of 
 good merchantable coal. 
 
 The Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad, 
 crosses that of the Pennsylvania at No. 6, giving some 
 interest to the most flinty rocks and soil in the world. 
 No. 6 is a colony by itself. It is one of those humanized 
 points destitute of every natural feature to render it attrac- 
 tive. 
 
 On either side of the ravine opening for the passage of 
 Roaring Brook, the sloping hill, bound by rock, is cov- 
 ered with shanties sending forth a brogue not to be mis- 
 taken ; a few respectable houses stand in the background ; 
 the offices, store-house, workshops, and the large stone 
 car and machine shops of the company are located on the 
 northern bank of the bi-ook. Some sixty years ago a saw- 
 mill erected in this piny declivity by Stephen Tripp, who 
 afterward added a small grist-mill by its side, was tlie 
 only mark upon the spot until the explorations and sui- 
 vey of this company. This jungle, darkened by laurels 
 blending their evergreen with the taller undergmwth, 
 was more formidable from the fact that during the earlier 
 settlement of Dunmore it was the constant retreat of 
 wolves. 
 
 Over this savage nook, industry and capital have 
 achieved their triumphs and brought into use a spot 
 nature cast in a careless mood. At the head of No . 6 
 stand the great coal screens for preparing the flner quality 
 of coal, operated by steam-power. 
 
 Up the slope of the Moosic, plane after plane, you 
 ascend along the obliterated Indian path and Connecticut 
 road, enjoying so wide a prospect of almost the entire val- 
 ley from Pittston to Carbondale, that for a moment you 
 forget that in the crowded streets elsewhere are seen so 
 many bodies wanting souls. Dunmore, Scranton, Hyde 
 Park, Providence, Olyphant, Peckville, Green Ridge, 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 375 
 
 and Dickson appear in the foreground, while the Moosic, 
 here and tliere serrated for a brook, swings out its great 
 arms in democratic welcome to the genius of the artificer, 
 first shearing the forest, then pros2)ering and perfecting 
 the industrial interest everywhere animating the valley. 
 The long lines of pasturage spotted with the herd, the 
 elongated, red-necked chimneys distinguishing the coal 
 works multiplied almost without number in their varied 
 plots, give to these domains a picturesqueness and width 
 seen nowhere to such an advantage in a clear day as on 
 the summit of Cobb Mountain, two thousand feet above 
 the tide. 
 
 Diving through the tunnel, the train emerges upon the 
 " barrens," where, in spite of every disadvantage of cold, 
 high soil, are seen a few farms of singular productive- 
 ness. The intervening country from the tunnel to Hawley, 
 partakes of the hilly aspect of northern Pennsylvania, 
 diversified by cross-roads, clearings, farm-houses, and 
 streams. Here and there a loose-tongued rivulet blends 
 its airs with the revolving car- wheel humming along some 
 sliady glen, and farther along, tlie narrow cut, like the sea 
 of old, opens for a friendly passage. Down an easy grade, 
 amidst tall, old beechen forests half hewn away for clear- 
 ings and homes of the frugal farmers, the cars roll at a 
 speed of twelve miles an hour over a distance of some 
 thirty miles from the tunnel, when, turning sharply 
 around the base of a steep hill on the left, the cars land 
 into the village of Hawley, a vigorous settlement, existing 
 and sustaining itself principally by the industrial manip- 
 ulations of this company, 
 
 A little distance below the village, the Wallenpaupack, 
 after leaping 150 feet over the terraced precipice, unites 
 with the Lackawaxen, a swift, navigable stream in a 
 freshet, down whose waters coal was originally taken 
 from the Lackawanna Valley to the Delaware in arks. 
 
 It is fourteen miles to Lackawaxen upon the Delaware, 
 where, in 1779, a bloody engagement took place between 
 
376 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 John Brant, the famous chief of the Six Nations, and 
 some four hundred Orange county militia. 
 
 The Tories and Indians had burned the town of Minisinl\, 
 ten miles west of Goshen, scalping and torturing those 
 who could not escape from the tomahawk by flight. 
 Being themselves pursued by some raw militia, hastily 
 gatliered Irom the neighborhood for the purpose, they 
 retreated to the mouth of the Lackawaxen. Here Brant 
 witli his followers formed an ambuscade. The whites, 
 burning to avenge the invaders of their firesides, incau- 
 tiously rushed on after the fleeing savages, ignorant or 
 forgetting the wily character of their foe. As the troops 
 were rising over a hill covered with trees, and had become 
 completely surrounded in the fatal ring, hundreds of sav- 
 ages poured in upon them sacli a merciless flre, accom- 
 panied with the fearful war-whoop, that they were at once 
 thrown into terrible confusion. Every savage was sta- 
 tioned behind the trunk of some tree or rock which 
 shielded him from the bullets of the militia. For half an 
 hour the unequal conflict raged with increasing fury, the 
 blaze of the guns flashing through the gloom of the day, 
 as feebler and faster fell the little band. At length, when 
 half of their number were either slain or so shattered by 
 the bullets as to be mere marks for the sharp-shooters, the 
 remainder threw away tlieir guns and fled ; but so closely 
 were they in turn pursued by the exultant enemy that only 
 tliirty out of the entire body escaped to tell the sad story of 
 defeat. Many of these reached tlieir homes with fractured 
 bones and fatal wounds. The remains of those who had 
 fallen at this time were gathered in 1822, and deposited 
 in a suitable place and manner by the citizens of Goshen. 
 
 The New York and Erie Railroad have sent up a branch 
 road from a point near this battle-ground to Hawley, thus 
 giving to the Pennsylvania Coal Company an unfrozen 
 avenue to the sea-board, besides dispensing in a great 
 degree with water facilities offered and enjoyed until the 
 completion of this branch in 1863. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 377 
 
 From 1850 to 1866, 9,308,8;)6 tons of coal was brouglit 
 from the mines to Hawley, being an average of 581,775 
 tons per year.^ 
 
 While a great part of the coal carried to Hawley ac- 
 knowledges the jurisdiction of this branch road, a limited 
 portion is unloaded into boats upon the Delaware and 
 Hudson Canal. 
 
 Once emptied, the cars return to the valley upon a 
 track called the liglit track, where the light or empty 
 cars are self-gravitated down a heavier grade to the 
 coal-mines. Seated in the " Pioneer," a rude passenger 
 concern, losing some of the repelling character of the 
 coal car, in its plain, pine seats and arched I'oof, you rise 
 up the plane from the Lackawaxen Creek a considerable 
 distance before entering a series of ridges of scrub-oak 
 land, barren both of interest and value until made other- 
 wise by the fortunes of this company. Leaving Palmyra 
 township, this natural barrenness disappears in a great 
 measure as you enter the richer uplands of Salem, where 
 an occasional farm is observed of great fertility, in spite 
 of the accompanying houses, barns, and fences defying 
 every attribute of Heaven's tirst law. About one mile 
 from the road, amidst the quiet hills of Wayne County, 
 nestles the village of Hollisterville. It lies on a ))ranch of 
 the Wallenpaupack, seven miles from Cobb Pond, on the 
 
 ' Report of Coal tran.sported over the Pennsylvania Coal Company's Railroad 
 for week and for year ending Deeember 31, 1868, and for corresponding period 
 last year: — 
 
 By Rail, week ending December 31 12,786 03 
 
 " Previously 912,063 10 
 
 924,8-19 13 
 
 By Canal, week ending December 26 Closed. 
 
 " Previously 29,004 19 
 
 29,004 10 
 
 Total by Canal and Rail, 1868 953,854 12 
 
 " To same dale, 1867 861,729 15 
 
 Increase 92,124 17 
 
 JNO. B. SMITH, Superintendent. 
 
378 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 mountain, and ten miles above the ancient ''Lackawa" 
 settlement. Amasa Hollistee, with his sons, Alpheus, 
 Alanson, and Wesley, emigrated from Hartford, Connec- 
 ticut, to tills place in 1814, when the hunter and the- 
 trapper only were familiar with the forest. Many of the- 
 social comforts of the village, and much of the rigid 
 morality of New England character can be traced to these 
 pioneers. Up No. 21 you rise, and then roll toward the 
 valley. The deepest and greatest gap eastward from the 
 Lackawanna is Cobb's, through which flows the Roaring 
 Brook. This shallow brook, from some cause, appears 
 to have lost much of its ancient size, as it breaks through 
 the picturesque gorge with shrunken volume to find its 
 waj into the Lackawanna at Scranton. 
 
 This gap in the mountain, deriving its name from Asa 
 Cobb, who settled in the vicinity in 1784, lies three miles 
 east of Scranton. It really offers to geologist or the casual 
 inquirer much to interest. This mountain rent, unable 
 longer to defy the triumphs of science, seems to have 
 been furrowed out by the same agency which drew across 
 the Alleghany the transverse lines diversifying the entire 
 range. Like the mountain at the Delaware Water Grap, it 
 bears evidence of having once been the margin of one 
 of the lakes submerging the country at a period anterior 
 to written or traditional history. Emerging from beech 
 and maple woodlands, you catch a glimpse of a long, 
 colossal ledge, bending in graceful semicircle, rising ver- 
 tically from the Roaring Brook some three hundred feet 
 or more. Its face, majestic in its wildness, as it first 
 greets the eye, reminds one of the palisades along the 
 Hudson. As it is approached upon the cars, the flank of 
 the mountain defies further progress in that direction, 
 when the road, with a corresponding bend to the left, 
 winds the train from apparent danger, moving down the 
 granite bank of the brook deeper and deeper into the 
 gorge, enhanced in interest by woods and waterfall. The 
 hemlock assumes the mastery of the forest along the 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 370 
 
 brook, whose waters wliiten as tliey ]iour over x>recipk'e 
 after precipice into pools below, which but few years 
 since were so alive with trout, that fisiiina- half-an-hour 
 with a single pole and line supplied the wants of a 
 family for a day with this delicious fish. In the nar- 
 rowest part of the gap, the cars run on a mere shelf, cut 
 from the rock a lumdred feet from the bed of the stream, 
 while the mountain, wrapped in evergreens, rises abruptly 
 from the track many hundred feet. 
 
 Greenville, a fossilized station on the Delaware, Lacka- 
 wanna, and AVestern Railroad, and once the terminus 
 of the Lackawanna Railroad, lies on a slope opposite 
 this point. 
 
 The great pyloric orifice of Cobb's Gap, once offering 
 uncertain passage to the Indian's craft, illustrates the 
 achievement of art over great natural obstacles. Roaring- 
 Brook, Drinker's turnpike, now used as a township road, 
 the Pennsylvania and the Delaware, Lackawanna, and 
 ^Vestern Railroad, find ample place under the shadow of 
 its walls. 
 
 A ride of an hour, far up from the bottom of the valley 
 through a forest trimmed of its choicest timber by the 
 lumbermen and shingle-makers, brings the traveler again 
 to Pittston, renovated in spirits and vigor, and instructed 
 in the manner of diffusing anthracite coal throughout 
 the country. 
 
 DELAWARE, LACKAWANNA, AND WESTERN RAILKOAD. 
 
 Historical Summary of the Susquehanna and Delaioare Canal 
 and Railroad Company [Drinker'' s Railroad) — The Leggett^s 
 Gap Railroad — The Delaware and Cobb^s Gap Railroad 
 Company — All merged into the Delaware, Lackawanna, and 
 Western Railroad. 
 
 Imperfect as was the knowledge of the value of coal 
 forty years ago, large bodies of it being discovered here and 
 there in the valley, mostly upon or near the surface, led 
 
380 IIISTOKY OF THE 
 
 the late Henry W. Drinker to comprehend and agitate a 
 plan of connecting the Susquehanna River at Pittston with 
 the Delaware at the Water Gap, by means of a railroad 
 running up the Lackawanna to the mouth of Roaring 
 Brook, thence U]) that stream to the placid waters of Lake 
 Henry, crossing the headsprings of the Lehigh upon the 
 marshy table-land forming the dividing ridge between the 
 Susquehanna and Delaware, and down the Pocono and 
 the rapid Alanomink to the Water Gap, with a view of 
 reaching a market. 
 
 This was in 1819. The contemplated route, marked 
 by the hatchet over mountain and ravine profound in the 
 depth of their solitude, had no instrumental survey until 
 eleven years afterward, but an examination of the country, 
 with which no woodman was more familiar than Drinker, 
 satisfied him that tlie intersecting line of communication 
 was not only feasible, but that its practical interpretation 
 would utilize the intervening section, and give action and 
 impulse to many an idle ax. In April, 1826, he easily 
 obtained an act of incorporation of the " Susquehanna 
 and Delaware Canal and Railroad Company." The char- 
 ter implied either a railroad operated up the planes by 
 water, or a canal a portion of the way. The " head- waters 
 of the river Lehigh and its tributary stream," were pro- 
 hibited from being used for feeding the canal, as it might 
 "injure the navigation of said river, from Mauch Chunk 
 to Easton." By reference to the original report and sur- 
 vey of this road, it appears that horses were contemplated 
 as the motive power between the planes, that toll-houses 
 were to be established along the line, and collectors 
 appointed, and that the drivers or conductors of "such 
 wagon, carriage, or conveyance, boat or raft, were to give 
 the collectors notice of their approach to said toll-houses 
 by blowing a trumpet or liorn." 
 
 Henry W. Drinker, W^illiam Henry, David Scott, Jacob 
 D. and Daniel Stroud, James N. Porter, A. E. Brown, S. 
 Stokes, and John Coolbaugh, were the commissioners. 
 
LACKAWANA VALLKY. 381 
 
 Among thefeAV persons in Pennsylvania willing to wel- 
 come and recognize th(^ practicability of a railroad route 
 in spite of the wide-spread distrust menacing it in 1830, 
 stood prominently a gentleman, by the aid of whom, the 
 Indian Capoose region of Slocum Holloto changed the 
 ruggedness of its aspect — William Henry. In fact, Messrs. 
 Henry and Drinker were two of the most indefatigable 
 and energetic members of the board. 
 
 In 1830, a subscription of a few hundred dollars was 
 obtained from the commissioners ; in May, 1831, Mr. 
 Henry, in accordance with the wishes of the board, 
 engaged Major Ephraim Beach, C. E., to run a prelimi- 
 nary line of survey over the intervening country. 
 
 By reference to the old report of Major Beach, it will 
 be seen that the present line of the southern division of 
 the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad is, in 
 the main, much the same as that run by liini at tliis time. 
 Seventy miles in length the road was to be made, at a 
 total estimated cost of $624,720. Three liundred and 
 thirty-six wagons (cars), capable of carrying over the 
 road 240,000 tons of coal per year, were to be emploj^ed. 
 
 Coal at this time was worth $9 per ton in New York, 
 Avhile coal lands in the valley could be bought at prices 
 varying from $10 to $20 per acre. 
 
 It was not supposed by the commissioners that the coal 
 tiade alone could make this road one so profitable, but it 
 was originally their object to connect the two at these 
 points, so as to participate in the trade upon the Susque- 
 hanna. For the return business it was thought that 
 "iron in bars, pig, and castings, would be sent from the 
 borders of the Delaware in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, 
 and that limestone in great quantities would be trans- 
 ported from the same district and burned in the coal 
 region, where fuel would be abundant and cheap." ^ 
 
 Simultaneously with this survey was the route of the 
 
 ' Commissioners' Report of the Route, 18.".2. 
 
iJ82 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Lackawaimock and Susquehanna, or Mereditli Railroad, 
 leading from the mouth of Leggett's Creek in Providejice 
 up to that graceful loop in the Susquehanna, called Great 
 Bend, forty-seven and a half miles away, undertaken and 
 surveyed by the late James Seymour, four years after the 
 granting of its charter. 
 
 Near the small village of Providence these two roads, 
 neither of which contemplated the use of locomotives in 
 their reliance upon gravity and seven inclined planes, 
 were to form a junction, and expected to breathe life and 
 unity into the iron pathway that was to grope its way 
 out of a valley having scarcely a name away from its 
 immediate border. Neither road proposed to carry pas- 
 sengers. 
 
 The report of the commissioners, presenting the subject 
 in its most attractive light, failed to excite the attention it 
 deserved. Men reputed as reliable looked upon the 
 scheme as unworthy of serious notice. Those who had 
 achieved an indifferent livelihood by the shot-gun or the 
 plow, saw no propriety in favoring a plan whose fullill- 
 ment promised no protection to game or greater product 
 to the field. 
 
 The few who felt that its success would interweave its 
 advantages into every condition of life, were not dis- 
 mayed. 
 
 In the spring of 1832, a sufficient amount of stock hav- 
 ing been subscribed, the company was organized : Drinker 
 fleeted president, John Jordon, Jr., secretary, and Henry, 
 treasurer. At a subsequent meeting of the stockhold- 
 ers, the president and treasurer were constituted a 
 financial committee to raise means to make the road, by 
 selling stock, issuing bonds, or by hypothecating the 
 road, (fee. The engineer's map, the commissioners' re- 
 port, and newspaper articles were widely diffused, to 
 announce the material benefits to result by the comple- 
 tion and acquisition of this new thoroughfare. 
 
 The Lackawauua Valley, set in its green wild ridges, 
 
LACKAWANNA VAr.LKV. 383 
 
 known in New York City only by the Delaware and 
 Hudson Canal Company, then in the fourth year of its 
 existence, confounded often witli the Laekawaxen region 
 lying upon the other side of the Moosic Mountain, neither 
 Drinker's nor Meredith's charter was received with favor 
 or attention. 
 
 The advantages of railroads were neither understood 
 nor encouraged by the inhabitants of the valley in 1832, 
 because the slow ox- team or jaded saddle-horse thus far 
 had kept pace with its development. To render the 
 scheme, however, more comprehensive and general in its 
 character, and make more certain the building of the 
 Drinker railroad, a continuous route was explored for a 
 gravity railroad, "from a point in Cobb's Grap, where 
 an intersection or connection can be conveniently formed 
 with the Susquehanna and Delaware Railroad, in Luzerne 
 County," up through Leggett's Gap, and running in a 
 northwesterly direction to the State of New York. 
 
 This was the Leggett's G-ap Railroad, an inclined plane 
 road which, when completed, was expected to receive the 
 trade along the fertile plains of the Susquehanna, Che- 
 nango, and the Chemung, now enjoyed so profitably by the 
 New York and Erie Railroad. 
 
 H. W. Drinker, Elislia S. Potter, Thomas Smith, Dr. 
 Andrew Bedford, and Nathaniel Cottrill — the last two of 
 whom are now living — were among the original commis- 
 sioners. 
 
 Public meetings were now called by the friends of the 
 Drinker road, at the Old Exchange in Wall Street, New 
 York, to obtain subscriptions to the stock of the com- 
 pany, and, while many persons acknowledged the enter- 
 prise to be a matter of more than common interest to the 
 country generally, as it promised when completed, to fur- 
 nish a supply of coal from the hills of Luzerne County, a 
 county where thousands of millions of tons of the best 
 anthracite coal could be mined from a region of more than 
 thirt^'-thn'e miles in length, and averaging more than two 
 
384 HisroRY OF the 
 
 miles in width, underlaid with coal probably averaging 
 fifty feet in thickness, and besides this, unlike most other 
 mining portions of the world, it abounded in agricultural 
 fertility. 
 
 While these facts where generally conceded, they pro- 
 duced no other effect, than bringing from capitalists the 
 favorable opinion that final triumph probably awaited 
 their hopes. In Morristown, Newton, Belvidere, Newark, 
 and other places in New Jersey ; at Easton, Stroudsburg, 
 Dunmore, Providence, and Kingston, in Pennsylvania, 
 meetings were called to draw the attention of the public 
 mind and acquire the requisite means to open this high- 
 way through the wilderness, where the wolf, crouched in 
 the swamp, bestowed with his gray eye as friendly a 
 glance upon the project as many capitalists were inclined 
 to give it. Every sanguine hope, every flattering promise 
 made in a spirit of apparent earnestness languished and 
 died like the leaves of autumn. 
 
 At length, engagements were made Avith New York 
 capitalists to carry the matter forward to a favorable ter- 
 mination, provided that Drinker and his friends would 
 obtain a charter for a continuous line of giavity railroad 
 up the Susquehanna, from Pittston to the New York State 
 line. In 183B, a perpetual charter for such a road was 
 obtained by their agency, and the first installment of five 
 dollars was paid, according to the act of Assembly. In 
 itself it was considered, that in connection with other 
 roads, at or near the Delaware Water Gap to New York 
 City, it would be Avith its terminus at Jersey City east- 
 wardly, and the State line near Athens, in Pennsylvania, 
 westward, the shortest and the best line the natural 
 avenues indicated from New York west. It was shown by 
 the ofiicial report of a survey made in 1827, by John Ben- 
 nett, of Kingston, Pennsylvania, that the distance from 
 the mouth of the Lackawanna of eighty- six miles had but 
 two hundred and fourteen feet fall, or about two and a 
 half feet per mile, the acclivity for the whole distance 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEV. 385 
 
 being in general nearly equal, and beyond this to the 
 city of Elmira at about the same grade. 
 
 The vast project of the New York and Erie Railroad 
 was agitating southern New York at this time. Of the 
 seven commissioners, John B. Jervis, Horatio Allen, 
 Jared Wilson, and William Dewy urged the adoption of 
 the present route, while F. Whittlesey, Orville W. 
 Childs, and Job Pierson reported adversely to it. 
 
 The New York gentlemen interested in Drinker's route, 
 having full faith in the realization of an idea promising 
 control of a line reaching the same point on the New York 
 and Erie Railroad (as laid down by Judge Wright, civil 
 engineer, but on which nothing more had yet been done), 
 at a distance of eighty-one miles short of this line, while 
 running through both the anthracite and bituminous coal 
 districts upon easier grades, were greatly encouraged to 
 hope for success; several sections in the "Susquehanna 
 Railroad" law were, by supplements, so amended by 
 legislative enactments as to fulfill upon that point every 
 expectation. 
 
 In October, 1835, the services of Doctor George Green, 
 of Belvidere, who was a friend of this improvement, and 
 who originated the "Belvidere Delaware Railroad," were 
 procured. William Henry's note, indorsed by Henry W. 
 Drinker, accepted and indorsed by the cashier of the 
 Elizabeth Bank as ."good," was taken by the doctor to 
 the Wyoming Bank at Wilkes Barre as a deposit and 
 payment, in compliance with the law called the "Sus- 
 quehanna Railroad" act of Assembly of 1833. 
 
 In consequence of the commercial embarrassments alien- 
 ating credit and confidence throughout the entire country 
 in 1835-6, the New York party, impoverished and appalled 
 by the shock, could give no further thought to the road. 
 Other parties being prostrated by insolvency or death, the 
 positive spirit, inaugurating the company, carried with it 
 thus far a success decidedly negative and skeptical. 
 
 Ten years had thus escaped, and not a single tie nor rail 
 
3S6 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 had sliod the road : here and tliere a few limbs clipped 
 from the forest- tree to aid the surveyor, and a few rods 
 graded for the flat iron bar, bore evidence of the hope of 
 the directors. 
 
 In the summer of 1836, there was traveling in the 
 Ignited States an English nobleman named Sir Charles 
 Augustus Murray, who, learning of the important char- 
 acter of this proposed road from one of his friends, became 
 interested in its success. A correspondence ensued, which 
 led to a meeting of the friends of the project, at Easton, 
 June 18, 1836 ; Mr. Drinker and. Mr. Henry on the part of 
 the I'ailroad company, and Mr. Armstrong of New York, 
 Mr. C. A. Murray, and Wm. F. Clem son of New Jersey, 
 wrote out articles of association ; the railroad committee 
 fully authorized Mr. Mui'ray to raise, as he proposed to 
 do, 100,000 pounds sterling in England, conditional that 
 the company should i-aise the means to make a beginning 
 of the work. Mr. Henry accompanied him to New York, 
 and furnished him with the power of attorney, under seal 
 expressly made for the purpose, and on the eighth of 
 August, 1836, Mr. Murray sailed for Europe. Mr. Henry 
 at once met and made arrangements with the Morris Canal 
 Board of Directors to raise $150,000 on stock subscriptions 
 to commence the road, but before these arrangements had 
 matured, discouraging news came from England through 
 Mr. Murray, who informed the company that the pros- 
 trated monetary atfiiirs of Europe rendered any assistance 
 by him out of the question. 
 
 To this meeting, which lasted three days, in the village 
 of Easton, can be traced the starting of the iron-works in 
 Slocum Hollow, whose varied and wide-spread prosjierity 
 have animated the entire domain of the Lackawanna.^ 
 
 The first iron- works in Scranton after those of Slocums', 
 were erected in 1840. In the summer of 1842, after the 
 artificers gathered around the Scranton furnaces had 
 
 ' See nistorv of Scr&nton. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKY. 387 
 
 lecarned to smelt iron Avitli the lustrous anthracite, the 
 directors of the railroad held only annual meetings. 
 Drinker and Henry had each expended nearly their en- 
 tire resources to fructify a project whose magnitude found 
 no i)lace or conception in the public mind ; this being 
 done in vain, postponed further sacrifices and efforts to 
 stretch the iron fiber from river to river, until greater 
 wants from the sea-board came up to the coal heaps, and 
 established mutual confidence instead of general distrust. 
 
 The simple acquisition of Slocum Hollow, in 1840, by a 
 New Jersey company, had but little interest outside of 
 parties concerned in the purchase AVho were taxed for 
 the rough pasture-land cleared on Roaring Brook, none 
 cared to inquire. Its purchase, however, originally sug- 
 gested by Mr. Henry with especial reference to the fur- 
 therance of Drinker's road, favored that result sooner 
 than was anticipated. With the concentration and expan- 
 sion of capital here at this time, a business was generated 
 which called for a better communication with the sea- 
 l)oard tlian the ox-team or the sluggish waters of a cana] 
 frozen up at least six months of every year. 
 
 Col. Scranton, in the simplicity of whose character the 
 whole country acquiesced and felt proud, representing 
 the interests of the iron-makers in Scranton, yet willing to 
 give power to a measure full of public good, conceived the 
 project, in 1847, of opening communication from the iron- 
 works northward to the lakes by a locomotlce instead of 
 a gramty road run by plane, stationary engine, and level, 
 as Drinkers, Meredith's, and the Leggett charters all con- 
 templated. The charter of the last-named road, kept alive 
 by the intiuence of Dr. Andrew Bedford. Tliomas Smith, 
 Nathaniel Cottrill, and other spirited gentlemen, was pur- 
 chased by the " Scranton Comi)aiiy" in 1849, by the sug- 
 gestion of Colonel Scranton. A survey was made the 
 same j^ear ; the road was comuK'nced in 1850. 
 
 For the purpose of giving favor and strength to a proj- 
 ect unable to m-ake its way to a practical solution withou* 
 
388 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 capital from abroad, a road was chartered in April, 1849, 
 to run from the Delaware Water Gap to some point on the 
 Lackawanna near Cobb's Gap, called ''The Delaware and 
 Cobb's Gap Eailroad Company." The commissioners, 
 Moses W. Coolbaugh, S. W. Schoomaker, Thos. Grattan. 
 H. M. Lebar, A. Overtield, I. Place, Benj. V. Rush, 
 Alpheus Ilollister, Samuel Taylor, F. Starburd, Jas. H. 
 Stroud, R. Bingham, and W. Nyce, held their hrst meet- 
 ing at Stroudsburg, December 26, 1850, choosing Col. Geo. 
 W. Scranton president. 
 
 The northern division of "The Lackawanna and West- 
 ern Railroad Company," carried by genius and engineer- 
 ing skill for sixty miles over the rough uplands distin- 
 guishing the country it traverses from Scranton to Great 
 Bend, was opened for business in October, 1851, thus ena- 
 bling the inhabitants of the valley to reach New York by 
 a single diiy's ride instead of two, as before. 
 
 Ti-avel and traffic, hitherto finding its way from the 
 basins of Wyoming and the Lackawanna to Middletown 
 or Narrowsburg by stage, and thence along the unfinished 
 Erie, now diverged westward, via Great Bend, sixty miles 
 away, before apparently beginning a journey eastward to 
 New York. This unphilosophical and wasteful manner 
 of groping among the hills in the wrong direction before 
 starting for New York, directed the intelligence of the 
 mass toward the purpose of Col. Scranton, of planing a 
 continuous roadway direct to New York, via the cele- 
 brated Delaware Water Gap. 
 
 The original charter of Drinker's railroad was pur- 
 chased of him in 1853, by the railroad company, for 
 $1,000. Immediately after this, a joint application was 
 made by the "Delaware and Cobb's Gap Railroad Com- 
 pany," and the "Lackawanna and Western Railioad 
 Company," for an act of the Legislature for their consoli- 
 dation, which was granted March 11, 1853, and the union 
 consummated under the present name of "The Delawai'e, 
 Lackawanna, and Western Railroad Company." 
 
LACKAWANNA VAI.LKY. 
 
 389 
 
 Of this cousolidated road, the late George W. Scranton 
 was unanimously elected President: how well he filled 
 
 this position until compelled to exchaiiiic it for the inva- 
 lid's shelf, let the movement of the iron pathway across 
 
390 UlbTOKY OF THE 
 
 a valley wlncli would be comparatively idle to-day with- 
 out it— let the mutually satisfactory adjustment of every 
 contiicting interest arising in the progress of this great 
 road — let the spirit of his administration, characterized 
 by qualities both sterling and comprehensive — more than 
 this, let the simple fact tliat he, inspiring capitalists with 
 the same confidence he himself liad acquired and cher- 
 ished, was able to draw forth the wherewithal to complete 
 a road deriving its origin and vigor from him, bear ample 
 and praiseworthy testimony. 
 
 The vast business of this road, which in the year of 
 1868 carried 1,728,785.07 tons of anthracite, requires one 
 hundred locomotives, about five thousand coal-cars, and 
 gives emploj^ment to over 5,000 men. Its total disburse- 
 ments at Scranton alone, through H. A. Plielps, the cour- 
 teous paymaster of the road, amounted, during the last 
 year, to over $4,000,000, while a considerable sum diffused 
 itself through the treasury department in New York. 
 
 Tlie same efficiency and ability with which Hon. John 
 Brisbin acquired popularity as the president of the great 
 primitive locomotive railroad in the Lackawanna Valley, 
 from 1856 to 1867, has been continued and even augment«^d 
 by Samuel Sloan, Esq., its present vigilant president, and 
 formerly the presiding officer of the Hudson Rivei- Rail- 
 road, whose admirable management of the interests of the 
 Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad, has placed 
 it upon a basis reliable and remunerative, and given it a 
 character, even beyond the States it traverses, enjoyed by 
 few, if any, railroads in the country. 
 
 The lease of the Morris and Essex road by the Dela- 
 ware, Lackawanna, and Western, for an almost indefinite 
 term of years, establishes more intimate relations between 
 the Lackawanna Valley and the sea-board than ever 
 enjoyed before, and marks an era in the history of coal 
 transportation, second only in importance to the concep- 
 tion of the original gravity raih'oad stretched like a rain- 
 bow over the Moosic in 1826 8 by Wurts brothers. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 393 
 
 Hitherto, the former road, vigorous with local traffic, 
 strove only to compete with a diverse railway for doubt- 
 ful dividends, w^ithout a Avish to advance or retard the 
 welfare of the valley. By a stroke of policy seldom 
 surpassed in the grandeur of its results, all this was 
 changed in January, 1869, by the practical foresight of 
 President Sloan and his associates. The consolidation of 
 these two roads gives a future interest to the Delaware, 
 Lackawanna, and Western road far beyond the apprecia- 
 tion of the hour. It abbreviates distance, offers a con- 
 tinuous and controllable rail from tlie mines to New 
 York, increases the value and tonnage of the road almost 
 fourfold, while the travel over it for all time to come 
 will make one steady, living stream of various lineage 
 and faith, steady, remunerating, and tlms commemorate 
 the wisdom of the men who inaugurated the movement. 
 The superintendency of the Morris and Essex division of 
 the line has fallen into the experienced hands of Hon. 
 John Brisbin. 
 
 THE LACKAW^ANNA AND BLOOMSBUKG KAILKOAD. 
 
 After the locomotive railroad from the Lackawanna 
 Valley had become a fixed fact by the genial efforts of 
 those to whom its failure or its success had been intrusted, 
 other roads began to spring into a charter being. Among 
 such was the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg Railroad. An 
 act incorporating this company was passed in April, 1852, 
 but not until some valuable and essential amendments were 
 obtained for the charter the next year, by the able efforts 
 of one of the members of the Pennsylvania Legislature — 
 Hon. A. B. Dunning — did it possess any available vitality. 
 This road, running from Scranton to Northumberland, is 
 eighty miles in length, passing through the historic valley 
 of Wyoming, where the poet Campbell drew, in his Ger- 
 trude, such pictures of the beautiful and wild. It also 
 passes along the Susquehanna, over a portion of the old 
 
394 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 battle-ground, wliere, in 1778, a small band of settlers 
 marched forth from Forty Fort, in the afternoon, to fight 
 the spoilers of their firesides, and where, after the battle, 
 the long strings of scalps dripping from the Indian belts, 
 and the hatchets reddened with the slain, told how sore 
 had been the rout, and how terrible the massacre tliat fol- 
 lowed. The dweller in wigwams has bid a long farewell 
 to a region so full of song and legend, and where can be 
 found the one to-day who, as he looks over the old plan- 
 tation of the Indian Nations, once holding their great 
 council fires here, upon the edge of the delightful river, 
 surrounded by forest and inclosing mountain, can won- 
 der that they fought as fights the wild man with war- 
 club and tomahawk, to regain the ancient plains of their 
 fathers 'i 
 
 Wyoming Valley, taken as a whole, compensates in the 
 highest degree for the trouble of visiting it. The grand 
 beauty of the old Susquehanna and the sparkling current 
 of its blue waters nowhere along its entire distance aj)- 
 pears to better advantage than does it here. Along the 
 Po or the Rhine, there loom up the gray walls of some 
 castle dismantled and stained with the blood of feudal 
 conflict ; here on the broad acres of Wyoming turned into- 
 culture, humanity wears a smile nowhere more sweet or 
 lovely. 
 
 The tourist who wishes to visit this truly interesting val- 
 ley, can step into the cars of the Lehigh and Susquehanna, 
 or the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg Railroad Company, at 
 Scranton, and in twenty minutes look ''On Susquehanna's 
 side, fair Wyoming !" Across the river, half a mile from 
 Campbell's Ledge, near the head of the valley, is seen the 
 battle-ground. About three miles below Pittstoii, left of 
 the village of Wyoming, rises from the plain a naked 
 monument — an obelisk of gray masonry sixty-two and a 
 half feet high, which commemorates the disastrous after- 
 noon of the third of July, 1778. Near this point reposes 
 tlip bloody rock around which, on the evening of that ill- 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 395 
 
 fated day, was formed tlie fatal ring of savages, where tlie 
 Indian queen of the Senecas, with death-mall and battle- 
 ax. dashed out the brains of the un insisting captives. The 
 diihris of Forty Fort, tlie first fort built on tlie north side 
 of the Susquehanna by the Connecticut emigrants, in 1769, 
 is found a short distance down the jiver from tliis rock. 
 
 The Lackawanna and Bloomsburg Railroad, while it is 
 a valuable auxiliary to the Delawar(% LackaAvanna, and 
 Western Railroad, in whose interests it is opei-ated, en- 
 joyed all the advantages of travel between central Penn- 
 sylvania and the Lackawanna Valley until the Lehigh 
 and Susquehanna and the Lehigh Valley railroads, bound- 
 ing over the mountain with the celerity and speed of a 
 deer, alienated a portion of the trade and travel. 
 
 Having the advantage of collieries with an aggregate 
 3^early capacity of a million tons of coal, threadin'j^ its way 
 along the green belt uf the Susquehanna over rich beds 
 of iron ore, worked in Danville by ingenious aitificers 
 v,iio have adopted science as their patron, it will ever 
 stand prominent among the railroads of the country. 
 
 While the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Rail- 
 road, with its greater length of thirty-three miles, carried 
 187,583 passengers during the year 1867, the Lackawanna 
 and Bloomsburg transported 269,564— an excess of 81,981 
 persons. 
 
 No railroad in the country of its length, lined with 
 scenery always exhilarating, would better repay tlie visit 
 of a few days in summer or autumn, than will this. It is, 
 in fact, all picturesque, while portions of it are really 
 magnificent. Thundering along the border of the river 
 and the canal, at a rate of thirty miles an hour, a glimpse 
 is now caught and then lost, of old gray mountain crags 
 and glens, covered with forest just as it grew— of sleepy 
 islands, dreaming in the half-pausing stream — of long, 
 narrow meadows, stretched along with sights of verdure 
 and sounds of life, and now and then a light cascade, 
 tuned by the late rains, comes leaping down rock after 
 
396 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 rock, like a ribbon floating in the air ! How the waters 
 whiten as they come through the tree-tops with silver 
 shout from precipice to precipice in the bosom of some 
 rock, cool and fair-lipped ! The scenery is especially 
 grand at Nanticoke — the once wild camp-place of the Nan- 
 ticokes— where Wyoming Valley terminates, and where 
 the noble river, wrapped up in the majesty of mountains, 
 glides along as languidly as when the red man in his nar- 
 row craft shot over the ripple. 
 
 Mr, James Archibald, life-long in his earnest devotion 
 to the interests of the Lackawanna Valley, is president of 
 the road. 
 
 SKETCH OF THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE LEHIGH AND 
 SUSQUEHANNA RAILEOAD. 
 
 This road, running from Providence to Easton, a dis- 
 tance of 120 miles, threads a section of country surpassed 
 by no other in the State for the grandeur of its scenery or 
 the interest of its history. 
 
 When the Indian civilizers first began, to fraternize with 
 the sachems of the Lehigh at Fort Allen or Gnadenhutten 
 (now Weissport) in 1746, all knowledge of anthracite coal 
 was so limited, that the word "coal" was noted upon 
 but a single map within the Province of Pennsylvania. 
 The casual discovery of coal, half a century later, near 
 this settlement, gave fetal life to the Lehigh Coal and 
 Navigation Company, and a prominence to the history 
 of this region not otherwise enjoyed. 
 
 At the confluence of the Ma-ha-noy (the loud, laughing 
 stream of the Indian) with the Lehigh, this fort was 
 located, eighteen miles above Bethlehem, forty miles by 
 the warriors' trail from Teedyuscung's plantation at 
 Wyoming. It was the flrst attempt of the whites to 
 carry civilization into the provincial acquisitions of Penn 
 above the Blue Mountain. Why a region so rough in its 
 general exterior should have been chosen for a sheltering 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKY. 397 
 
 place, can be accounted for upon no other theory than 
 that the gray rock liere bordering the Leliigh, took the 
 place in memory of the Elbe in their fatherland emerging 
 from the crags of the Alps. 
 
 This place, often visited by sachem and chief, whom 
 the missionaries first conciliated, then endeavored to 
 Christianize, "numbered 500 souls in 1752."^ Braddock's 
 defeat, two years later, opened the forest for the uplifted 
 tomahawk. Some of the Six Nations, exchanging wam- 
 pum and whiff's of the calumet with their Moravian 
 brothers, danced the war-dance before Vaudreuil, Gover- 
 nor of New France (New York State). " We will try the 
 hatchet of our fathers on the English," said the chiefs at 
 Niagara, " and see if it cuts well.'"' 
 
 The obliteration of the village, with the death or expul- 
 sion of its inmates, January 1, 1756, attested the trial of 
 both fire-brand and hatchet. 
 
 After a lump of coal found near Mauch Chunk, in 1791, 
 oy Ginther, had been analyzed and pronounced as such 
 by the savans of Philadelphia, the following persons, 
 Messrs. Hillegas, Cist, Weiss, Henry, and others, associ- 
 ated themselves together, without charter or corporation, 
 as the "Lehigh Coal Mine Company," for the purpose 
 of transporting coal to Philadelphia, in 1792. They pur- 
 chased land, cut a narrow road for the passage of a 
 wagon from the mine to the river, and sent a few bushels 
 of anthracite coal to Philadelphia in canoes or "dug-outs." 
 None could be sold ; little given away. Col, Weiss, the 
 original owner of the land, spent an entire summer in 
 diff'using huge saddle-bags of coal through the smith- 
 shops of Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton, and other places. 
 From motives of personal friendship, a few persons were 
 induced to give it a trial, with very indifferent success. 
 
 Under the sanction of legislative enactment, some 
 $20,000 was expended to prepare the Lehigh for naviga 
 
 ' Miner's Wyoming, p. 41. * Vaudreuil to the Minister, July 13, 1157 
 
398 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 tion. No more coal, however, Avas carried down tlie 
 stream until 1805, when William Turnbull, by the aid of 
 an ark, floated some 200 or 300 bushels to Philadelphia. 
 As the coal extinguished rather than improved the fire, 
 the great body of citizens refused to buy or make further 
 attempt to burn it, or be imposed upon by the black 
 stuff. 
 
 Messrs. Rowland and Butland were the next to lease 
 the mines, and fail. 
 
 The success of Jesse Fell, of Wilkes Barre, in 1808, of 
 burning coal in a common grate, led two of the representa- 
 tive men of the day, Chailes Miner and Jacob Cist, to 
 lease the Ginther mine in 1814, with a view of shipping 
 coal to Philadelphia. 
 
 On the 9th of August of this year, the first ark-load of 
 coal started from Mauch Chunk. "The stream," writes 
 Miner, "wild, full of rocks, and the imperfect channel 
 crooked, in less than eighty rods from the place of start 
 ing the ark struck on a ledge, and bioke a hole in her 
 bow. The lads stripped themselves nearly naked, to stop 
 the rush of water with their clotiies. At dusk they were 
 at Easton, fifty miles." 
 
 The impetaous character of the river, untamed by art, 
 and the absence of any demand for coal, induced these 
 pioneers to retire from the Manch Chunk coal-mines. 
 "This effort of ours," says Charles Miner, "might be 
 regarded as the acorn, from which has sprung the mighty 
 oals: of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company." 
 
 In 1817, three energetic gentlemen, Josiali White, 
 George F. A. Hauto, and Erskine Hazard, profiting by 
 each preceding failure, originated the plan of floating 
 coal down the inky, turbulent current from Mauch Chunk 
 to the Delaware by the aid of slackened water. 
 
 From Mauch Chunk to Stoddartsville, not a single 
 cabin rose in the wilderness ; the abandoned warrior's 
 trail alone intervened. 
 
 In 1818, the Legislature of Pennsylvania empowered 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 399 
 
 these gentleirKMi as the "Leliigh Navigation Company," 
 " to improve the navigation of the river Lehigh" by con- 
 structing wing-dams and channel walls along the more 
 rapid and shallow portion of the stream, so as to narrow 
 and contract the current for practical purposes. In Octo- 
 ber, 1818, *' The Lehigh Coal Company" built a road from 
 the Lehigh to the old Ginther mine on Summit Hill. 
 
 Arks of coal were carried down in the spring freshet ; 
 in the summer months when water was low, bear-dams 
 were constructed from tree-tops and stones, "in the 
 neighborhood of Mauch Chunk, in which were placed 
 sluice-gates of peculiar construction, invented for the'pur- 
 pose by Josiah White, by means of which the water 
 could be retained in the pool above until required for 
 us(\ When the dam became full, and the water had run 
 over it long enough for the river below the dam to acquire 
 tile depth of the ordinary overflow of the river, the sluice- 
 gatt^s were let down, and the boats which were lying in 
 the x)Ools above, passed down with the artificial flood. "^ 
 Some ]()() tons of coal thus found its way down the 
 Lehigh in 1818. 
 
 The partial success of a plan alike novel and unrelia- 
 ble, led to a more systematic slack- water navigation from 
 Mauch Chunk to Easton, forty-five miles. 
 
 The people of Philadelphia, educated reluctantly in the 
 use and art of anthracite, finding this avenue from the 
 coal-mines inadequate to the demands of commerce, lent 
 a hand to calm the swift watei'S of the Lehigh for coal 
 traffic. The Legislature of the State, infiuenced by men 
 able to bring greater political influence to bc^ar than this 
 sterile region could then offer, granted to Messrs. White, 
 Hauto, and Hazard, the privilege of improving the 
 navigation of the Lehigh as far as Wiiite Haven ; reserv- 
 ing, however, the right of compelling the company to 
 make a continuous slack-watei- navigation to Stoddarts- 
 
 ' Henry's "Lobigli Valley." 
 
400 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 ville, a sprightly lumbering village, fifteen miles farther 
 up the stream. 
 
 The Lehigh Coal and Lehigh Navigation Company were 
 consolidated in the spring of 1820. During this year 365 
 tons of coal, lowered down the Lehigh in arks by some 
 fifty dams, found its way to a tardy market. A few years 
 later, 400 acres of land was stripped of its stately pines 
 annually for the coast ruction of the necessary arks : 
 these were manipulated into building material in Phila- 
 delphia, while the iron was returned to Mauch Chunk for 
 repeated use. This destruction of wood, now seriously 
 felt, and the waste of time in building boats for a single 
 trip, subsequently led to a more practical method of 
 navigation. 
 
 The slack-water (canal) navigation was opened to 
 Mauch Chunk simultaneously with the Delaware and 
 Hudson Railroad, eastward from the Lackawanna Valley, 
 in 1829, to White Haven, in 1835. 
 
 As the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, already 
 embarrassed by the expensive dams they had built, could 
 see no benefit to accrue by the extension of their works 
 to Stoddartsville, it asked to be released from this par- 
 ticular part of the agreement, through the same body that 
 had so ungraciously imposed it. Objections and remon- 
 strances poured into the Legislature from Stoddartsville 
 and from almost every township in the county of 
 Luzerne. Andrew Beaumont, representing the expression 
 and interests of Wyoming Valley, with a strength and 
 ingenuity for which he was ever remarkable, interposed 
 means to frustrate the wishes of the company. The matter 
 was finally compromised ; the Navigation Company agree- 
 ing to erect a single dam on the stream above Port Jen- 
 kins, and carry channel walls and wing-dams from pool 
 to pool for the passage of rafts and logs from Stoddarts- 
 ville, and build a gravity railroad over the mountain from 
 White Haven to Wilkes Barre, The Legislature now 
 withdrew or repealed so much of the former act as 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 401 
 
 required the completion of the slack-water navigation to 
 Stoddartsville. 
 
 The valley of Wyoming ramifying with competing 
 railways, gained its first one by this scramble with a com- 
 pany with which its relations have subsequently become 
 pleasant and profitable. This railroad was begun in 1837. 
 
 A stream, rapid and treacherous as the Lehigh, passing 
 for miles through a mere fissure of vertical rock, bore 
 restraint with deceitful demeanor. Danger concentrated 
 in every dam. A sudden snow-thaw forced an infuriated 
 volume down the Lehigh, January 8, 1839, at the expense 
 of the company and their employees ; on the same day 
 of the month in 1841, another thaw released the snow from 
 the mountain and swelled the torrent with loss of life 
 and property ; the freshet, however, of 1862, resistless 
 and unparalleled in the extent of its ravages upon life 
 and property, appalled and smothered with a single wave 
 every lock-house and its inmates, every dam, boat, or 
 bridge, attempting to interrupt its passage. About 300 
 persons living along the river perished in that cold, dark, 
 memorable night. 
 
 The Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, with but 
 little left but the bare stream exulting over its liberation, 
 actuated by humane and practical impulses as well as 
 the wishes of the Lehigh Valley inhabitants, who every- 
 where opposed the reconstruction of the dams because of 
 their danger, made the Lehigh a safer companion by con- 
 structing along its berme bank, or the debris of the canal, 
 a locomotive railroad. While the immense forest around 
 White Haven, slashed into by the lumberman without 
 regard to economy or foresight, annually assured the road 
 considerable traffic, the gravity railway from Wilkes 
 Barre, terminating here, could not fairly compete with 
 other routes diverging to the sea-board from northern 
 Pennsylvania.* Years of reconnoissance of the interpos- 
 
 ' Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad. — Report of coal shipped south, for 
 week ending Dec. 31, 18G8:— 
 
402 HI8TOKY OF THE 
 
 ing mountain enabled the engineers to descend with a 
 locomotive into the plains of Wyoming triumphantly, as 
 the Jewish ruler of old came down from the sacred mount. 
 If there is grandeur in the bold outlines of precipice 
 and forest in the coal-fields of Pennsylvania, then the 
 scenery along the entire road is truly exhilarating, while 
 the view in ascending or descending the slope between 
 Penobscot and Wilkes Barre is singularly beautiful and 
 unique. The broad expanse of Wyoming Valley, with 
 
 Shipped from Wbbk. Total. 
 
 Harvey Brothers. IS* 11 
 
 Lances' Colliery 3,264 15 
 
 New England Coal Co 1,129 02 
 
 Morgan Mines 92 18 
 
 Parish & Thomas 19,100 12 
 
 New Jersey Coal Co 356 09 18,193 04 
 
 Gaylord Mines 245 01 
 
 Lehigh Luzerne Coal Co 220 01 5,010 03 
 
 Leliigh & Susquehanna Coal Co 15 10 
 
 Germania Coal Co 20,866 08 
 
 Franklin Coal Co 243 18 
 
 Wilkes Barre C. & L Co 4,772 01 335,544 17 
 
 Union Coal Co 2,040 07 
 
 Mineral Spring Coal Co 454 15 11,022 07 
 
 H. B. HUlman & Son 103 19 2,768 14 
 
 Bowkley, Price & Co 288 16 3,808 05 
 
 Wyoming Coal & T. Co 286 14 4,375 16 
 
 Henry CoUiery 356 02 9,490 08 
 
 J. H. Swoyer 5,405 03 
 
 Everhart Coal Co 482 06 3,406 17 
 
 Morris & Essex Mut. Coal Co 78 19 
 
 Shawnee Coal Co 219 14 20,297 05 
 
 Delaware & Hudson Canal Co 11,447 06 
 
 Pine Ridge Coal Co 325 05 12,898 04 
 
 Consumers' Coal Co 5,272 18 
 
 Albrighton, Roberts & Co 10,606 03 
 
 Other shippers 197 18 12,469 03 
 
 Total Wyoming Region .. 8,064 00 519,279 19 
 
 Total Mauch Chunk 4, 1 18 04 49,086 1 5 
 
 Total Hazleton 49 10 332,817 06 
 
 Total Upper Lehigh 2,389 12 141,499 06 
 
 Grand Total 14,021 06 1,042,683 06 
 
 Corresponding week last year 6,280 06 485,501 00 
 
 Increase :>.:541 00 557.182 05 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLKY. 403 
 
 her dozen villages sleeping quietly in her bosom :— the 
 Susquehanna making a low bow and bend around Camp- 
 bell's Ledge at the head of the valley, dividing the rich 
 bottom for twenty miles before it gathers in a measure of 
 its beauty and retires from the eye at Nanticoke, and the 
 green farms, dotted here and there with quaint home- 
 steads telling their story of strife and skirmish in olden 
 time, all make up a landscape rarely offered to the eye of 
 the traveler. 
 
 Steel rails, stretched over a great portion of the road, 
 impart a degree of security that must popularize it as a 
 great thoroughfare. In fact, the same far-seeing sagacity 
 that this pioneer company carried into the Lehigh Val 
 ley a quarter of a century ago, to secure and develop 
 antliracite, has led them to make a railroad in such an 
 excellent and thorougli manner as to be a marvel among 
 American railroads, reflecting equal credit upon the engi- 
 neers and managers who matured this great enterprise. 
 
 John Leisenring, Esq., of Mauch Chunk, ably lilled the 
 united position of superintendent and engineer of this road 
 until the summer of 1868. John P. llsley, a gentleman 
 who enjoyed high consideration as the superintendent of 
 the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg for many years, suc- 
 ceeds Mr. Leisenring in the superintendency of this road. 
 
 HON. GEORGE W. SCK ANTON. 
 
 Col. George W. Scranton was too universally known 
 and beloved throughout the country to be overlooked 
 in a work aiming to do justice to men who have gained 
 glory by carrying reformation and development to the 
 valley of which it treats. The following biographical 
 sketch of Colonel Scranton, prepared especially for this 
 volume, is from the able pen of Rev. Dr. George Peck :— 
 
 Col. Scranton descended from John Scranton, who was 
 cue of the colony who settled in New Haven in 1638. 
 The Scranton family was distinguished in the French and 
 
404 HISTORY OF Till'; 
 
 Revolutionary wars, some of them as privates and otiiers 
 as commissioned officers. Col. Scranton was born in 
 Madison, Ct,, May 11, 1811. At an early period in life, 
 he exhibited extraordinary qualities both of intellect and 
 heart. His opportunities for an education were embraced 
 within the privileges of the common school and two years' 
 training in "Lee's Academy." 
 
 In 1828, he came to Belvidere, N. J., and the first em- 
 ployment he obtained was that of a teamster, for which 
 he received eight dollars per month. His great industry 
 and general good conduct excited the attention of business 
 men, and he was soon employed as a clerk in the store of 
 Judge Kinney, where his great business tact and winning 
 management not long after gained him the position of a 
 partner in the concern. 
 
 On the 21st of January, 1835, Mr. Scranton Avas married 
 to Miss Jane Hiles, of Belvidere. After his marriage, he 
 engaged in farming, in which business he continued until 
 1839. At this time Mr. Scranton, in partnership with 
 his brother Selden, purchased the lease and stock of 
 Oxford Furnace, N. J,, and, contrary to the predictions 
 and fears of their friends, they succeeded in the business, 
 and maintained their credit through the season of embar- 
 rassment to business which followed the terrible crash 
 of 1837. 
 
 In 1839, Mr. William Henry, being impressed with the 
 advantages of the manufacture of iron in the Lackawanna 
 Valley, purchased a large tract, including what was called 
 Slocum Hollow, or what is now the site of the city of 
 Scranton. It contained "the old red house," two other 
 small dwellings, and a stone mill. With the exception of 
 a few acres of cultivated land, the tract was covered with 
 timber, a dense undergrowth, and a perfect tangle of 
 laurel. 
 
 The attention of the Scranton brothers was attracted to 
 this place, and, Mr. Henry not being able to comply with 
 the conditions of his purchase, they, in connection with 
 
^i^;'^$^^^^t:s^^^^fe:? 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 407 
 
 Other parties, in May, 1840, entered into a contract for the 
 property. 
 
 The practicability of smelting ore by the agency of an- 
 thracite coal, as yet was hardly established by success- 
 ful experiment. Tw^o furnaces only now produced iron 
 through heat generated by anthracite, and that under em- 
 barrassments and in limited quantities. The young com- 
 pany in which the Scranton brothers were the leading 
 spirits, was now to take a prominent part in a series of 
 experiments which were destined to contribute in no 
 small degree to one of the practical arts which has com- 
 municated a new and an undying impulse to modern 
 civilization. 
 
 The first experiment was made in 1841, and proved a 
 failure ; the second was likewise unsuccessful, but in 
 January, 1842. a successful blast was made ; others fol- 
 lowed with increasing encouragement. The practical 
 difficulties in manufacturing iron by antliracite were now 
 considered as overcome, but the price that the triumph 
 had cost, few understood, and none would ever under- 
 stand, so well as George W. Scranton. He was the genius 
 which presided over the struggles of many months, and 
 even years, of hope deferred and of distrusting doubt 
 which finally ended in complete success. 
 
 The scientific difficulties were no sooner overcome than 
 financial problems were to be encountered. They could 
 make iron, but how could they make it pay ? The future 
 city of Scranton was a straggling assemblage of huts, at a 
 distance from every great market, and without conveni- 
 ent outlet. These difficulties, with those arising from 
 want of funds, would have broken the spirits of ordi- 
 nary men, but our young adventurers, nothing daunted^ 
 resorted first to one experiment and then to another, until 
 they were able to exclaim, with Archimedes, Eureka — / 
 have found it. A bootless effort to manufacture bar-iroQ 
 and convert it into nails finally gave way to the project 
 of a rollinQ:-mill for the manufjicture of railroad iron. 
 
408 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 The great address of Col. Scraiiton succeeded with the 
 leading men interested in the New York and Erie Rail 
 road in making the contract to furnish rails needed by 
 the road, at a lower rate than they could be procured 
 elsewhere, upon the condition that the directors of the 
 road would advance funds to enable the Scrantons and 
 company to proceed with the business of making rails. 
 This arrangement untied the Gordian knot of the Scran- 
 tons' financial troubles. 
 
 Success in the iron business was not an occasion for 
 Col. Scranton to abate his energy in business. The manu- 
 facture of iron was but one of his great business projects 
 — it was but a part of a great system, which, when fully 
 carried out, was to reform the entire business interests of 
 this x)ortion of the country, and to change the whole face 
 of society. His plan was to enlist capital abroad, to con- 
 centrate it in the Lackawanna Yalley, and then to create 
 outlets by railway east with North and South; and he 
 lived to see his project succeed. 
 
 Col. Scranton was not in the ordinary sense a politician, 
 although he was a thorough student of political economy. 
 He had been an old-line Whig, but for years had paid 
 no attention to party politics. There was one principle 
 which he maintained against all opposers, and that was, 
 protection to home industry. Upon this issue he was 
 sent to Congress, in 1858, by a majority of 3,700, from a 
 district ordinarily polling 2,000 Democratic majority. He 
 directed himself incessantly to his favorite theme through, 
 the term, and was elected a second time. 
 
 We are obliged to pass over a multitude of interesting 
 incidents in the life of Col. Scranton for want of space, 
 and must now proceed to a brief estimate of his character. 
 In marking the character of a great man, it will be found 
 that it is only a few qualities which distinguish them 
 from other men and give them prominence. Such is the 
 fact with the great and good man of whom we are now 
 speaking. We begin with the great moral integrity of 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 409 
 
 the man. He was sincere — he was lionest — his views 
 were transparent. When in Congress he could get the 
 «ar of the most ultra free-traders. " Southern fire-eaters" 
 would listen to his arguments on protection and free 
 labor. They would often say to him, " Scranton, we can 
 hear you talk, for we believe you are honest." You 
 might differ from his opinions, but you could not avoid 
 believing in the man. His zeal was that of conviction. 
 His heart was upon the surface — it was "known and 
 read of all men." 
 
 His energy was inexhaustible. He never yielded to 
 discouragements, or acknowledged a total defeat. He 
 sometimes failed, but always tried again ; and, if neces- 
 sary, again and again, and triumphed at last. He often 
 spent the night in concocting a scheme, and early dawn 
 found him upon the path of its execution. Due time 
 usually brought success, but delay never staggered him. 
 He was fastened to his purpose, like Prometheus to the 
 rock, and there he hung, until mountains of difficulty 
 melted away, and the sun of success illuminated his patli. 
 A man of less hope would have been despondent where 
 he was confident, and one of a weaker will would have 
 fainted when he was firm as a rock. 
 
 Another trait of character holds the highest position. 
 Ool. Scranton had the rare faculty of impressing his own 
 ideas upon the minds of other men. This power depends 
 upon an assemblage of qualities. An honest expression 
 is essential to it. This expression means confidence. A 
 sympathetic nature. His earliest sympathy in return, 
 and sympathy exercises a marvelous control over the 
 judgment. Draw a man into sympathy with your feel- 
 ings and wishes, and you can lead him wherever you 
 please. Blandness of manner is another attribute of this 
 great power. A pleasant countenance, a happy face, has 
 more power than logic. Good conversational powers is 
 (»f the first importance in this enumeration. There must 
 be definiteness of view, lucidness of description, brevity 
 
410 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 in the statement of facts, naturalness and beauty in the 
 illustrations, command of language, perfect ease in man- 
 ner, and an expression of confidence both in your cause 
 and in your success. You must never for a moment 
 doubt the good sense and receptibility of the party you 
 would win over. All these attributes of character CoL 
 Scranton possessed in an eminent degree. 
 
 The crowning glory of Col. Scranton' s character was- 
 that he was a true Christian. All who knew him acknow- 
 ledged this. His conversation and his manners were 
 those of a true Christian gentleman. He lived beloved, 
 and died regretted by all. His great mental labors under- 
 mined his naturally sound constitution, and in the midst 
 of his usefulness, and at the zenith of his fame, he waa 
 called to his reward. 
 
 THE LEHIGH VALLEY RAILROAD. 
 
 A wild ridge of rock and forest twenty miles in widths 
 cuts off the Lehigh from the Lackawanna, and forms the 
 line of demarkation between the great northern anthracite 
 coal-basin and the first southern or Schuylkill coal district 
 of Pennsylvania. For many years it served the purposes- 
 of the hunter and the lumberman, and frowned on daily 
 intercourse between the people of the two sections of 
 country. 
 
 The first road to greet the Lehigh with an iron rail was 
 the Lehigh Valley Railroad. While it crosses but a mere 
 edge of the Lackawanna Valley whose commerce it aims to- 
 reach and partake, it has, by its immense traffic and the 
 admirable management of its interests, formed for itself 
 a character well known in the two valleys it connects and 
 traverses. 
 
 This great road, incorporated in 1846, under the name 
 of the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill, and Susquehanna. 
 Railroad, languished for years simply because the idea 
 was generally accepted, that the rocky chasm, washed 
 
HHXRV ROBERTS, M. D. 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 413 
 
 sometimes rudely by the Lehigh, could be by no possi- 
 ble legislation or engineering turned to any practical 
 railroad account. A bare organization of officers of the 
 contemplated road existed from 1846 until 1851, up until 
 which time $444.37^ had been expended conjointly in sur- 
 veying the route and building a fraction of a mile of the 
 road merely for the protection of its charter. No dis- 
 tinctive step toward smoothing the Leliigh ledges for a 
 locomotive was undertaken until those elements of a 
 positive and substantial character, which were introduced 
 more especially by Hon. James M. Porter, of Easton, and 
 Hon. Asa Packer, of Mauch Chunk, began to be devel- 
 oped and felt. 
 
 In 1833, Asa Packer, a young, ambitious boy, born in 
 Connecticut in 1805, moved into Mauch Chunk from the 
 sap-woods of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, with a 
 single jack-plane, hammer, handsaw, and a suit of rustic 
 homespun, as his whole inheritance. He had neither friend 
 nor acquaintance in the village, but being a man of clear 
 discernment, excelling in the art of industry and frugality, 
 distinguished for sobriety and sober sense, he devoted 
 himself zealously to various industrious pursuits, until 
 he became well known as one of the most eflBcient business 
 men in the State, and rose rapidly in the confidence of 
 the inhabitants of the Lehigh Valley, wliom he served 
 on the bench and in two successive Congresses. Such 
 was the man whose earnest qualifications inspired this 
 then unpopular project with organic life and triumph, 
 and whose liberality, exercised in the broadest spirit, 
 gave to the public an institution of learning which will 
 ti-ansmit the name of Packer down to all time. 
 
 "On the 31st of October, 1851," writes Mr. Henry, in 
 his interesting history of the Lehigh Valley, "Asa Pack- 
 er became the purchaser of a large amount of the stock 
 which had been subscribed, and commenced efforts to get 
 additional stock subscribed and the road constructed. 
 On the 13th of September, 1852, Robert H. Sayre was 
 
414 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 appointed chief engineer for the construction of the road ; 
 and on the 27th of November, 1852, Judge Packer sub- 
 mitted a proposition for constructing the railroad from 
 opposite Mauch Chunk, where it would intersect the Bea- 
 ver Meadow Railroad, to the river Delaware at Easton, 
 where it would intersect the New Jersey Central Rail- 
 road and the Belvidere Delaware Railroad for a consid- 
 eration, to be paid in the stock and bonds of the company, 
 which was accepted by the stockholders, at a meeting in 
 which all the stockholders, representing 5,150 shares of 
 stock, were present. 
 
 " On the 7th of January, 1853, the name of the company 
 was changed by act of Assembly to that of the Lehigh 
 Valley Railroad Company, and on the 10th of that month, 
 James M. Porter was re-elected president, John N. Hutch- 
 inson, secretary and treasurer, and John N. Hutchinson, 
 Wm. Hackett, Wm. H. Gatzmer, Henry King, John T. 
 Johnston, and John 0. Sterns, managers. 
 
 "Although the formal contract with Judge Packer for 
 the construction of the road was not signed until the 12th 
 of February, 1853, yet he began the work immediately 
 after the acceptance of this offer, on the 27th of Novem- 
 ber, 1852, by commencing the deep rock cut at Easton. 
 The work Avas prosecuted with vigor by Judge Packer 
 himself, at some of the hardest cuts, and by sub-contrac- 
 tors at other places, until its completion, September, 1855. 
 
 "Judge Packer, in the construction of this road, encoun- 
 tered great difficulties and embarrassments, from the rise 
 in the price of provisions and necessaries for the hands — 
 the sickliness of some of the seasons, the failure of sub- 
 contractors and the necessary re-letting the work at ad- 
 vanced prices, and the difficulty of raising money upon 
 and disposing of the bonds of the company, from the 
 stringency of the money market ; but, with an energy 
 and perseverance seldom met with, he worked through 
 it all." 
 
 A triHe less than 15,000,000 tons of anthracite coal was 
 
Week. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Tons. Gwi. 
 
 Tom. Cwt. 
 
 1,4G1 02 
 
 4,502 17 
 
 LACKAWANNA VALr.EY. 415 
 
 the entire shipment within the United States during the 
 year 1867. An aggregate of 4,088,537 tons of this amount 
 was taken from the Wyoming coal-basin, a portion of 
 which, 2,080,156 tons, swelled the tonnage of this young 
 giant railroad/ 2,603,102 tons of anthracite found its 
 way over the Lehigh Valley road during the year 1868, 
 being an. increase of 522,956 tons. 
 
 ' Some idea from whence this road derives its coal tonnage can be had by ref- 
 erence to the following report for a single week. 
 
 Lehigh Valley Railroad. — Report of coal transported over the above road 
 for the week ending December 26, 1868. 
 Fbou Wyominq Region. 
 
 Franklin Coal Co , 
 
 Audenreid Imp. & C. Co 
 
 Lehigh & Susquehanna Coal Co 
 
 Geriiiania Coal Co 
 
 Wilkes Barre C. & I. Co 
 
 Warrior Run Mining Co 
 
 Parrish & Thomas 
 
 New Jersey Coal Co 
 
 Union Coal Co 
 
 Wyoming Coal & Transportation Co 
 
 Newport Coal Company 
 
 Morris & Essex Mutual Coal Co 
 
 Kverhart Coal Co 
 
 Plymouth Coal Co 
 
 H. B. Hiilman & Sou 
 
 Bowkley, Price & Co 
 
 Mineral Spring Coal Co 
 
 Enterprise Colliery 
 
 Burroughs 
 
 J. H. Swoyer 
 
 Linderman & Co 
 
 Washington Mutual Coal Co 
 
 West Pittston 73 14 
 
 Barclay Coal Co " 
 
 Shawnee 698 09 934 15 
 
 ■Consumers' Coal Co 275 17 1,133 15 
 
 Harvey <k Brother 
 
 Wyoming Valley 443 08 1,363 17 
 
 Henry Colliery 
 
 New England 329 16 1,260 10 
 
 Delaware & Hudson Coal Co 
 
 Maltby Colliery 74 18 74 18 
 
 Oaylord Colliery 
 
 202 18 
 
 595 15 
 
 307 12 
 
 964 10 
 
 
 76 15 
 
 202 01 
 
 1,083 10 
 
 703 14 
 
 3,442 1<J 
 
 418 14 
 
 1,408 17 
 
 487 14 
 
 1,247 10 
 
 ,181 07 
 
 4,377 14 
 
 472 02 
 
 729 06 
 
416 HISTORY UF THE 
 
 This road, originally intended to connect only Eastoa 
 with Mauch Chunk, now runs up the Susquehanna River 
 to Waverlj^, New York, passing through some of the- 
 most picturesque scenery in the State. Emerging from 
 the Lehigh ravine, it traverses the entire length of Wyo- 
 ming Valley, on the south bank of the river, running 
 within a stone' s-throw of the celebrated Monocasy or 
 "Monockonock Island," crosses the Lackawanna at its 
 mouth, and leads its quiet way under a ledge familiar 
 with the sad, heroic scenes of Wyoming so touchingly 
 portrayed in Campbell's Gertrude, then follows Gen. 
 Sullivan's route and the old Indian pathway from the 
 Great Plains to the plantation of the dusky queen, whose 
 memory, cherished only to be despised, has been rendered* 
 infamous forever. No part of this thoroughfare is desti- 
 tute of historical reminiscence or interest to the traveler. 
 
 It would be difficult, and probably impossible, to find 
 a railroad in Pennsylvania whose ramifications and feeders- 
 are more numerous and important, along its entire length, 
 than tills. Forming one of the strong links in the great 
 chain of communication between central and lower 
 
 Cliaiincey Colliery 282 02 1,372 18- 
 
 Fall Creek 45 05 321 11 
 
 Ravine Colliery P. & E 
 
 Butler, H. S. M 
 
 Maryland Anthracite 50 12 2(;6 OT 
 
 Morgan CoMery 
 
 Tompkins 92 04 92 04 
 
 Rough & Ready 
 
 A. McJ. Dewitt 
 
 Rock Tunnell 
 
 Butler Colliery 207 09- 
 
 Other Shippers 9 06 
 
 Total Wyoming Region 7,729 15 
 
 Total Beaver Meadovs^ Region 6,733 08 
 
 Total Hazleton Region 14,422 16 
 
 Total Upper Lehigh 159 12 
 
 Total Mahanoy Region 1,095 10 
 
 Grand Total 30,139 01 
 
 Tnorease 1,614 05 
 
 25,560 
 
 14 
 
 26,563 
 
 19 
 
 70,509 
 
 06 
 
 922 06 
 
 8,814 
 
 14 
 
 132,370 
 
 19 
 
LACKAWANNA VALLEV. 417 
 
 Pennsylvania and southern New York, it derives addi- 
 tional consideration and strength from the many active 
 railroad tributaries swelling the volume of its traffic. 
 Almost every valley wliose drainage fertilizes the Lehigh, 
 rolls its tonnage and travel into this road with a bounteous 
 hand. 
 
 The Wyoming division of the Lehigh Valley Railroad 
 opens a new channel to internal commerce, and, in the 
 earnest hands of its superintendent, Robert A. Packer, 
 Esq., maintains the same character enjoyed by the older 
 portion of the road, and, like that, cultivates those rela- 
 tions which connect the anthracite coal-basins of our State 
 with the broad interests of the world on terms of mutual 
 usefulness and advantage. 
 
H. HOLLISTER. 
 
APPJHJNDIX. 
 
 LNDlA^I RELIC CONTROVERSY BETWEEX STEUBEX JEXKIXS AND II. 
 HOIXISTER, RESULTING FROM THE FOLLOWING EDITORIAL IN THE 
 " SCRANTON REGISTER," JUNE 22, 1865. 
 
 The red man has left us forever, but we did not suppose that 
 go many memorials of a departed race could be collected in the 
 entire country, as has been gathered in Luzerne and Wyoming 
 counties by Dr. HoUister, of Providence. His rare cabinet of 
 Indian relics embraces some ten tJiOusand implements used by 
 them in peace and war. Of the stone kind it is undoubtedly the 
 l;ii;;est in the world, and of great value to the antiquarian. The 
 doctor has refused the modest little sum of $2,000 for it, from a 
 Massachusetts college. The articles are stone, flint, and bui-ned 
 clay, tomahawks which have slain many a foe, skinning stones, 
 rare pipes of exquisite workmanship, huge and small pestles, 
 javelins or spears, arrow-points of the most delicate finish, beads, 
 death malls, quoits, hoes, gouges, sling-stones, Indian pots, 
 broken pottery rudely ornamented, lings, birds, amulets, ham 
 mers, battle-a.ves, war-clubs, mortars, stones tor weaving nets, bone 
 needles, and a hundred stone contrivances which made life in the 
 wigwam so agreeable to the poor Indian : all make up a collection 
 really unique, interesting, and inviting to all, and more especially 
 to the antiquarian. We have looked the collection through 
 repeatedly, and would recommend to our readers to call and 
 examine them. His collection is open and free to all, and the 
 doctor takes great pleasure in showing them to such as have a 
 taste in that direction. 
 
 We would note here that there appears to be a sort of rivalry 
 between the doctor and Steuben Jenkins, Esq., of Wyoming, who 
 is said to possess a large collection, but the doctor says it is hid 
 awav in old boxes and barns in such a manner that no person can 
 
120 APPKNDIX. 
 
 imagine what a glance would reveal. Now, if these gentlenieiv 
 will unite their collections and place them alternately at Wilkijs 
 Barre and Scranton, they will enable thousands to see their inter- 
 esting collections, and by that means determine what the parties 
 themselves can not do, which is the i-ichest, the rai-est, and the 
 oest. This is the only mode of determining the question, and the 
 determination of the question is one in which our whole commu- 
 nity is interested. We hope they will consent to the proposition 
 
 The following letter explains itself It will be seen that 
 friend Jenkins is not to be stumped out of the belief that his 
 collection is the collection. — Ed. Register. 
 
 Wyoming, June 30, 1865. 
 
 Editor " Sckanton Register " — Dear Sir : — I noticed in your 
 issue of the 22d inst. an article upon the subject of " Indian. 
 Curiosities." I take a great interest in every thing pertaining to 
 the " Indians,'' and the relics of their early manners, customs, and 
 arts, and particularly their stone implements of husbandry, the 
 chase, war, &g. I have been gathering articles of this kind for 
 more than thirty years past, from all parts of the United States^ 
 and, as you suggest, have succeeded in getting together consider- 
 able of a collection. I was somewhat surprised, however, to learn, 
 that Dr. Ilollister, of Providence, liad " a cabinet embracing some 
 ten thousand implements, which is undoubtedly the largest in the 
 worW Did you ever calculate how many "ten thousand " are ? 
 Did you ever properly conceive what the largest thing in the 
 world was ? Sit down and think of it awhile before you state 
 such things, and do not let your imagination run away with your 
 better judgment, I am afraid you have been talking with the 
 doctor lately about his collection. His enthusiasm frequently 
 gets the better of him, and may have some influence over you. 
 
 Now, I don't want it understood that there is any rivalry 
 existing between the doctor and myself upon the subject of the 
 largest collection. When I commenced making my collection, I 
 had never heard of such a man as Dr. HoUister, My object \n 
 collecting was to get at the history and character of the Indiait 
 race, as they were delineated in their implements of husbandry,, 
 
APPENDIX. 421 
 
 the chase, war, and ornament, and, tluougli tlieni, taking up the 
 discoveries of such things all over tlie eartlfs surface, endeavor 
 to trace out the antiquity and origin of the race. Enough lias 
 been discovered to satisfy those who have given the subject care- 
 ful consideration, that the whole earth was once peopled with a 
 homogeneous race, who used stone implements for all the pur- 
 poses of life, which are similar, and in many cases identical, with 
 those used by our Indians, and which the doctor pretends to 
 have found in such abundance that he now has ten thousand 
 specimens. 
 
 I don't know but that the doctor has the "ten thousand" 
 spoken of. I don't know but that he has more than I have. It 
 may be he has. It may be he has the largest collection in the world. 
 It may be. I don't wish to detract from either the doctor's num- 
 ber or size. I have an offer to make, however. I will place my 
 collection alongside of the doctor's in any hall in Scranton, pro- 
 vided one large enough can be had there, and will then leave it 
 to the public, who visit them, or to any three or moi-e pei'sons the 
 doctor and I can agree upon, to say which has the largest collec- 
 tion — the best collection — the collection which best delineates the 
 Indian cliaracter in every respect, as mechanics, as husbandmen, 
 as huntsmen, as fishermen, as warriors, as artists, &c. The one 
 in whose favor the decision is made shall then take both collec- 
 tions. Of course I should expect the doctor to leave out of his 
 L'xliibition every thing not properly belonging to a collection of 
 that sort — every thing not legitimate. I would not want any 
 imposition of any sort practiced upon the public in the matter. 
 
 I shall w^ant it fairly understood, before entering into compe- 
 tition wath the doctor, that the judges selected sliall be free from 
 prejudice against my collection, because it has been kept in boxes, 
 sheds, and barns, for the reason that it was too large to be kept 
 in a pill shop. The fact is, I never kept my collection for show ; 
 never made a show of it ; nor do I intend to do so very soon, 
 unless there is a point to be gained by it, or a i)urpose to be sub- 
 served. 
 
 Can you get the doctor to agree to the jjrojjosition I make ? 
 If you can I will meet him at your oftice some time soon, and 
 settle the preUminaries. Yoirs, very respectfully, 
 
 StEUBEX .J KNKTXS. 
 
422 APPENDIX. 
 
 In reply to Mr. Jenkins's letter of last week, we make room for 
 the following from Dr. HoUister. We do this most cheerfully, as 
 we are in hopes that the discussion as to which has the largest 
 and best collection of Indian relics, will eventuate in affording 
 our citizens an opportunity of becoming judges in the matter. A 
 sight of the collections is something to be desired. 
 
 THE INDIAN RELIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 Editor " Scranton Uegister" — Dear Sir : — As you have call- 
 ed public attention toward my collection of Indian relics, and as 
 Steuben Jenkins, Esq., of Wyoming, in your last paper, questions 
 the correctness of your statement, a word from me seems neces- 
 sary. Friend Steuben is a very good theoretical Indian, and 
 deserves the gratitude of all antiquarians, more for his zeal in 
 gathering so many remembrances of the bravest race the world 
 ever saw, than he does in lading them under a bushel and barns. 
 We occasionally visit Steuben to see his Indian cabinet, which is 
 large and invaluable. He goes to a drawer, unlocks and exhumes 
 a rare tomahawk or two, watching your throat closely lest you 
 might swallow a pestle or hatchet, and then he takes you to some 
 secluded corner, and from an old box guarded by cobwebs, gives 
 you a half-glimpse of some memento of the departed race, and 
 then to the shed, where he draws out of barrels many relics, as 
 the angler draws the sturdy bull-head from the sluggish stream. 
 
 His collection is said to be magnificent, by those who have 
 peeped into all his boxes and drawers, but mine is arranged in a 
 " pill shop," where anybody can see it cheerfully and gratuitously, 
 and it is too fine and valuable to be hid away for " thirty yeai's " 
 in obscure nooks. They are imperishable in their character, and 
 mostly made from stone — as iron and copper implements of the 
 later Indian period have little or no value. 
 
 Steuben objects to my i-elics being kept in a " pill shop," as he 
 calls their unpretending abode, and yet he proposes to make a big 
 show in Scranton. Well, suppose we have one. At considerable 
 expense and labor, mine are now arranged in Providence. Let his 
 be so arranged in Scranton. Or let the directors of the Wyoming 
 fair, this fall prepare a safe, suitable place for each collection to 
 be exhibited by Steuben and myself, then a committee chosen by 
 us can determine which cabinet, by its size and variety, gives the 
 
APPENDIX. 423 
 
 best illustration of the character and customs of the wild race, 
 once sheltered by our grand old forests. The one whose collection 
 as a grand whole shall be deemed best, shall receive a certificate 
 or diploma, and the one second best, must pay $50 to the Home 
 of the Friendless or some other charitable institution in Luzerne 
 County. 
 
 If I should possibly lose — (of which there is no danger, as 
 mv collection is undoubtedly the largest in the world of its kind), 
 I should have the pleasure of knowing that the public had seen 
 his relics, which were " too large for a pill shop," but just the size 
 for miserish boxes and remote shed-corners. 
 
 Aside from this, it would not only bring dollars to the fair, 
 but it would also diversify the character of that concern, which is 
 usually made up mostly by Steuben and Bill Miner. The first 
 one generally contributes a few bunches of fine grapes, and the 
 last one furnishes a ride on horseback. 
 
 H. HOLLISTER. 
 
 Providence, July 20, 1865. 
 
 Wyoming, July 22, 1865. 
 
 Editor of the " Scranton Register" — Dear Sir : — It is the 
 fate of genius to be misunderstood and undervalued. Lofty pre- 
 tensions and brusque impudence command greater consideration, 
 and insure more certain rewards than the mightiest genius, unat- 
 tended with patronage or place. It seems to be the fate of some 
 men, to be misapprehended and belittled, because they stand aloof 
 from, and, in their business pursuits and particularly in their 
 recreations, rise above the ordinary level of mankind. Their 
 motives are not the motives of other men, and as other men can 
 not appreciate them, they generally decry them. I have been led 
 to these reflections, from the fact that since Dr. Hollister and I 
 have been brought before the public in your very able paper, as. 
 possessors of very fine collections of the relics of the Indian races- 
 that once roamed monarch of this mighty Western world, not a few 
 persons have been found who laugh at the idea that the collections 
 are of real importance and value. Not a little of this have I 
 heard and seen in my presence, and I always feel a pity for the 
 man who indulges in it — from the fact that their views are on the 
 
 .;^^ 
 
424: APPKNDIX. 
 
 dollar and cent basis. If they were dollars that they could count, 
 and there were " ten thousand " of them, they would hold their 
 breath and stare in mute astonishment, but being " only ten thou- 
 sand " relics of a once great and noble people, who scoi-ned sub- 
 mission to or affiliation with a higher type of their species — they 
 can only laugh at their possessors. 
 
 The doctor and I, it appears, are fast drifting into a complica- 
 tion of affairs, that will need wise and cool heads to unravel. I 
 proposed to the doctor an exhibition of our respective collections, 
 side by side, in some hall in Scranton, provided one could be 
 obtained there large enough for the purpose — and the one having 
 the best and largest collection, by a decision of the umpires, to 
 take both. This the doctor declines, but makes this suggestion. 
 He has at considerable expense and labor arranged his collection 
 in Providence. He wants me at considerable expense and labor 
 to arrange mine in Scranton, and then submit the decision to the 
 people, who visit them. Well, suppose we do. I think I see mine 
 arranged in a hall in Scranton, and then thrown open to the public 
 examination. After a full and fair examination of my collection 
 the immense throng start in procession to Providence. I see the 
 long procession wending its way thither, down by the sand-banks, 
 past the cemetery, on by the mud-hole, and turning the corner, 
 commence Avinding their weary way up the high hill on which 
 Providence is seated. The file-leadei- of the grand procession 
 meets a denizen of the town, and inquires, " Where is the Indian—" 
 " What ! have we an Indian among us ?" 
 " I mean where is the Indian — " 
 " Exactly, but have we an Indian among us ?" 
 " Hold a moment, I mean where is Dr. Hollister's Indian col- 
 lection," 
 
 " Oh, yes, I understand you now, you turn up by the store, 
 pass on down by the church, till you get to the foundery — then on 
 the left you will find the doctor, with the latest story always out, 
 his collection on exhibition, and the doctor always ready to 
 expatiate on its merits, and declare it to be ' the largest in the 
 world.' " 
 
 Here is where the doctor would have me. Lawyers always 
 understand this if doctors don't. They alwaj^s think that the 
 last chance at a jury is worth twice as much as the first. I know 
 
APPENDIX. -±20 
 
 that it is generally said that first impressions last the longest. 
 While lawyers may believe that first impressions last the longest, 
 they also believe that last impressions are the strongest. The 
 doctor can't catch me in this way. 
 
 The other suggestion made by tlie doctor is to place our re- 
 spective collections on exhibition at the agricultural fair this fall. 
 To this I have no objection under proper arrangements, but the 
 idea that he or I at the end of the exhibition shall give $50 to the 
 Home of the Friendless, or to any other institution, is the highest 
 absurdity of which the doctor has lately been guilty. How long 
 has the doctor been engaged in laboring for other people, and 
 then paying some one else for what he has done ? I quit such 
 things some time since. I find my labors better appi-eciated, and 
 the results more satisfactory to myself when I get paid for mv 
 labor, than when I work for nothing, or give the fruits of my 
 labor to some one who has no claims upon me for them. No ! I 
 don't go into arrangements by which I, at least, shall labor a 
 week or two for nothing with the privilege of throwing in loO at 
 the end of time. Doctor, you knew you couldn't catch me with 
 such a preposterous proposition. I am too old for that, and you 
 ought to have known better than to have proposed it. I Avill see 
 if some reasonable arrangement can't be made to exhibit at the 
 <3ounty fair this fall, but I care nothing about this myself I now 
 have a silver cup, awarded to me by the Pennsylvania State fair, 
 for my collections of Indian relics, as far back as 1860. I don't 
 see how my honors would be added to by a diploma from the 
 county fair, but to meet the doctor I am willing to exhibit at 
 the county fair this fall under proper arrangements. 
 
 I didn't think the doctor was so observant as to note the watch- 
 ful care I bestowed on my collection when he visited it. But he 
 watched as well as I. The fact is, Indian relics disappear, when 
 the doctor is around, in a wonderful manner. They go as quietly 
 and as rapidly as "Trout glide along the mountain streams." 
 The doctor knows this, and the trouble is, I know it ; hence my 
 watchfulness when he is about. 
 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 
 Steuben Jenkins. 
 
45(5 
 
 THE INDIAN RELIC CONTKOVERSY. 
 
 Editok of the " ScRANTON REGISTER " — Tlu' Indian's side of 
 history has never yet been written, only in traditions perishing 
 with the race that knew them. It never will be written, only in 
 the rude stone memoi'ials they have left behind them. We shall 
 read of homes reddened by the tomahawk, and of hearths black- 
 ened by the fagot, but not of the wrongs urging the wild man to 
 defend the plain where his wigwam stood. For one, I do not be- 
 lieve that the same treacherous, thieving savage, rendered des- 
 perate by misfortune and impoverished by the whites, emerging 
 from the dark passes of the West, ai-e like those whose bones lie 
 buried among us. Had we ever pursued toward the red men that 
 humane, upright, consistent policy of Penn, instead of crowding 
 them inch by inch southward and westward from homes they 
 fought hard to protect, all the conflict with a race the American 
 nation can not afford to lose, would have been avoided. For no 
 race like this the world ever saw before or will ever know again. 
 So much of calm courage — so much of true nobility — so much of 
 unselfish friendship, could not be found in any other race or people 
 on earth, and yet these memorials of another day and another race 
 are the only visible evidences we have among us of the former 
 occupants of our valleys. 
 
 Men whose souls are built of wood, and whose pockets are unc- 
 tuous with traffic, can form no idea of Indian lore and history, as 
 taught by these relics, and it is not for such persons that Steuben 
 Jenkins immures his in sheds, or that mine are shown to the world. 
 Such undervalue them, because a man of dollars and cents can 
 not understand their worth or philosophy, when in fact each 
 tomahawk and spear-point — each pipe and battle-ax — each and 
 every implement of the earlier Indian stone period has a mean- 
 ing and a langu3,ge interpreting its history with as much 
 faithfulness as the hiei'oglyphics along the Nile tell us of ancient 
 times and glory. If I had space, article upon article could be 
 written upon the part implements like these have played in history 
 since Cain swung the war-club upon his brother Abel ; but the 
 purpose of this article is to reply to Steuben's last, and while I am 
 ut it I might as well trim up two or three limbs on the tree. 
 
 Some New York plagiarist has just issued a new book, which.- 
 
APPENDIX. 427 
 
 is sold on the cars, describing portions of our valle\% and he copies 
 page after page from my "Contributions to the History of tlie 
 Lackawanna Valley," without a word of acknowledgment or com- 
 ment. Now is not this a cheap way of giving interest to a volume 
 made from spoils ? The Historical Society of Wilkes Barre, whose 
 cabinet of Indian relics is even inferior to that of Steuben's, had 
 no existence until my little volume appeared, and my suggestions 
 urging it had been seen, and yet how little credit do I get there. 
 
 The "Nay-aug" companies of Scranton steal ray names as if 
 they were bastard words, and now brave Steuben comes along and 
 presumes to put in battle-array his boxes and barns, stuffed with 
 the Lord only knows what, against my tine Indian collection ! Old 
 rusty Wilkes Barre, how depraved and pretentious thou art in thy 
 decrepitude ! 
 
 Steuben and I, however, are going to have no quarrel, because 
 he is as generous with his pen as he is covetous of his Lidian traps, 
 and my object in writing has been to smoke them out of their 
 holes. As he virtually acknowledges my collection to be finer 
 than his (tin cup and all that he got at the fair '•'■far back as 1860 "), 
 there will be no necessity for their exhibition at the fair this fall, 
 to settle this point, because their removal would involve much 
 expense, beside necessitating the attendance of several watchmen, 
 as Steuben's memory is exceedingly defective and his hands very 
 awkwai-d around Indian relics. 
 
 In conclusion, I would say to my friends, wlio have eitlier read 
 or laughed over these articles, that my collection (the largest in 
 the world of its kind) is found in the airy village of Razorville, 
 under the shadows of no protecting barn or box, but in a large 
 office AvhoUy devoted to their free exhibition (and to Dr. Hoi lis- 
 ter's Family Medicines), arranged finely in glass cases, always? 
 open, except when Steuben is known to be in town, when they are 
 immediately locked, as I have observed that he is a liberal pro- 
 vider for those hungry and mysterious coat-pockets of his. 
 
 Providence, J.t<^?.<5« 3, 1 865. H. Hollisteh 
 
 INDIAN IIELICS. 
 
 Editok " Scranton Register" — Dear Sii: : — Dr. Hollister has 
 finally reached the goal of his anil)iti«)ii. lie lias backed down 
 
428 APPENDIX. 
 
 entirely from liis lofty pretensions of having " ten thousand speci- 
 mens " of Indian relics — " the largest collection in the world " — and 
 fails in every way to respond to the offers I made him to decide 
 the question of the respective merits of his collection and mine. 
 I here renew the offers I have made, and agree to give the doctor 
 all the benefit of any doubt that may exist in the minds of the 
 persons that may be chosen to decide. A friend of the doctor's, 
 who has seen both collections, says that the doctor was foolish for 
 thinking of competing with me. It would seem that if that was 
 M'eally the doctor's purpose, he had got fairly caught at it. But 
 his last article shows pretty conclusively what the doctor has been 
 at all the while, and shows, too, that the doctor has not been very 
 foolish in the operation. His object was to puff up his collection 
 of Indian relics, which I must admit is a very respectable one for 
 the time the doctor has been engaged in making it, and advertis- 
 ing his Family Medicines and his History of the Lackawanna Val- 
 ley, all of which he has managed to do very cleverly and without 
 cost. I feel that I have been taken in a little by the doctor, but 
 you, friend. Hill, have been taken in and done for so much nicer 
 than I, that I can not but laugh at your position. You, a long 
 resident of Razorville, knowing the character of its inhabitants, to 
 permit yourself to be used by one of them to advertise his nos- 
 trums for nothing, I am astonished at you. If I laugh at your 
 verdancy, I can not help it, and I hope you will not be offended. 
 
 I attended the State fair at Easton, last fall, and while there I 
 called upon Dr. Swift, of that place, who has a very large and 
 well-selected collection of Indian relics, in every respect superioi" 
 to Dr. Hollister's; and before leaving, the doctor gave me a stone 
 hammer, found in the vicinity of the Ontonagon River, in the 
 Lake Superior copper region. This hammer was made of a hard 
 cobble-stone, that would weigh about three to four pounds, with 
 a groove cut around it, to which the handle was attached with a 
 withe. It was pretty well battered up with hard usage. Copper 
 Avedges and chisels are found in connection with the hammer, in 
 the ancient workings of the copper mines in that region. One ox 
 these chisels was presented to me last week by Mr. Chambers, of 
 Philadelphia ; so that I now have both a hammer and a chisel, both 
 exceedingly rare and difficult to be obtained. Dr. Hollister, T 
 presume, has neithe' 
 
APPKNDIX. 
 
 429 
 
 The Lake Superior copper region seems to liave been resorted 
 to and worked by a race of men long before it became known to 
 the white man. Whether these miners — tlie mound builders of 
 the West, I have no doubt — and the Indians of the country were 
 the same race or not, is matter for conjecture. That they were the 
 mound builders who worked in the copper mines, I have no hesitancy 
 m believing, from the fact that hardly a mound has yet been explor- 
 ed, in which something made of copper has not been found. Priest, 
 in his "American Antiquities," says: "A vast many instances of 
 articles made of copper, and some of silver, have been met with in 
 opening these mounds. Circular pieces of copper, intended either as 
 medals or breastplates, several inches in diameter, have been found, 
 very much injured by time." Rev. Robert G. Wilson, D. D., of 
 Chillicothe, Ohio, furnished the Antiquarian Society within forma- 
 tion of a mound which once stood near the center of the town, 
 " Its height was fifteen feet, circumference 1 80 feet, composed of 
 sand. In excavating this mound, on a level with the surrounding 
 earth, they found a human skeleton, overspread with a mat manu- 
 factured from weeds or bark, but greatly decayed. On the breast 
 of this person lay ^chat had been apiece of copper^ in tlie form of 
 a cross^ which had become verdigris.'''' 
 
 The Historical Society of Wilkes Barre have a copper arrow- 
 point, which was found on the site of the fortification which once 
 stood on Toby's Creek, in the borough of Kingston, described by 
 Chapman in liis history of Wyoming. 
 
 Foster and Whitney, in their report of the explorations of the 
 Lake Superior copper region, say : " It is well known that copper 
 rings, designed for bracelets, are frequently met with in the western 
 mounds. We have several of these relics in our possession." 
 
 Samuel O. Knapp, agent of the Minnesota Company, in the 
 spring of 1848, explored an ancient mine on the Ontonagon River. 
 He gives this account of it: He found a depression twenty-six 
 feet deep, filled with clay and a mass of moldering vegetable 
 matter. When he had penetrated to the depth of eighteen feet 
 with his excavations, he came to a mass of native copper ten feet 
 long, three feet wide, and nearly two feet thick, and weighing 
 over six tons. On digging around it, the mass was found to rest 
 on billets of oak, supported by sleepers of the same material. The 
 wood is dark-colored, and has lost all of its consistency. A knift- 
 
430 APPKNDIX. 
 
 blade may be thrust into it as easily as into a peat-bog. The 
 earth was so packed about the copper as to give it a firm suj)port. 
 The ancient miners liad evidently raised it about five feet, and 
 then abandoned the work as too laborious. Every projecting point 
 was taken otf, and the exposed surface rendered perfectly smooth. 
 
 Trees are found growing on the heaps of rubbish thrown out 
 of these ancient mines. jNIr. Knapp counted three hundred :vii<l 
 ninety-iive annular rings on a hemlock which he felled on one of 
 these heaps. He speaks of finding these stone hammers, the 
 largest of which was 12 x 5| x 4 inches, and weighed 39^ pounds. 
 In addition to these, a copper gad, with the head much battered, 
 and a copper chisel, with a socket for the reception of a handle, 
 were found, containing the fragment of a wooden handle, which 
 crumbled soon after being exposed. 
 
 In clearing out one of these pits, at the depth of ten feet, a 
 fragment of a wooden bowl was found, which, from the splintery 
 pieces of rock and gravel imbedded in its rim, seemed to give 
 evidence that it had been used in bailing water. 
 
 At the Phoenix mine, a copper knife was discovered in the 
 explorations of an old working. 
 
 At Keweenaw Point and at Isle Royale, similar discoveries 
 have been made. 
 
 All must admit that the facts set forth above in regard to the 
 excavations, and the stone and copper implements found therein, 
 assign to them a very high antiquity ; but whether made by a 
 race distinct from the Indians is a question about which there is 
 some doubt, but I incline strongly to the opinion that we can not, 
 nor need not, look beyond the Indians for a solution of the problem. 
 I think it is their work. 
 
 How fortunate to be the possessor of specimens of their stone 
 and copper implements, used by them in their copper-mining 
 operations so far back in the history of this country. 
 Yours, very respectfully, 
 
 Steuben Jenkins, 
 
 INDIAN RELIC CONTROVERSY. 
 
 Editor of " Scranton Register :" — Indian Steuben is on the 
 •war-path again with his copper weapons; but as I intend to take 
 
APPENDIX. 431 
 
 off his scalp before long, if he leinains in viir costume, you need 
 fear no danger. 
 
 Some weeks ago, Steuben took up your suggestion of exhibit- 
 ing our respective collections of Indian relics side by side in 
 Scranton, and he suggested that the one having the largest should 
 take the other; but as I was too magnanimoiis to thus deprive 
 him of the results of thirty years' labor, I declined the offer, but 
 proposed that we exhibit them at the Wyoming fair, and tliat 
 the one whose collection should be the best calculated to thiow 
 light upon the customs, habits, and life of the aboriginal race, 
 should receive a diploma, and that the one second best must pay 
 $50 to the Home of the Friendless, or some other charitable 
 institution. This offer he not only declined, but attempted to 
 throw ridicule and suspicion upon my motives of philanthropy in 
 offering to bestow charity upon any one in this manner. 
 
 So your readers can see who is backing down. Instead of 
 performing any such retrograde movement, I am determined if 
 possible to draw his frozen contribution boxes out in daylight 
 where his copper traps can be seen without a tallow candle, and 
 then " the goal of vay ambition " will have been reached. iVnd 
 now I not only renew my offer of their exhibition at Wyoming 
 the coming fair, provided that assurance be given rae two weeks 
 before the fair that a safe, suitable place will be provided for 
 them, but I would here choose Steuben Jenkins one of the 
 umpires to decide the matter, because I believe that he would 
 give an honest decision, however " mysteriously Indian relics dis- 
 appear when he is around." It is true he has every advantage of 
 me, because he has made many a pilgrimage to Kazorville to see 
 my vast collection and learn how to arrange his, besides this he 
 telLs you that he has visited the collection of Dr. Swift, in Easton, 
 but failed in his loquacious mood to say why he visited it. 
 Knowing that he could not successfully compete with mine, he 
 goes to Dr. Swift to get the lomi of his for the purpose of exhibit- 
 ing them as his own ! Now, Steuben, this is not a graceful way 
 to launch your canoe after a lost battle ; besides, how dangerous 
 for Dr. Swift, if his collection is of any value I 
 
 Goldsmith imparts vanity to the one writing of himself, but I 
 did not suppose that I was so vain as to write my relics into 
 notice for the sake of getting mv book and " nostrums advertised 
 
432 APPENDIX. 
 
 for nothing " until Steuben discovered it. The volume spoken ot 
 has been out of print since 1857, and can be purchased nowhere 
 noAv ; and as to ray family medicines, I can not possibly supply 
 the great demand for them now, and why should I seek gratuitous- 
 advertisement, when you know, Mr, Hill, that I am in the habit 
 of paying liberally for what I get in that line. 
 
 I concede that Steuben makes out a strong case for himself 
 on paper (and Avhat sharp or lazy Luzerne lawyer could not ?) 
 and that he has a few copper hatchets — probably of French man- 
 ufacture — which I have not, but I regard the wooden, iron, and 
 copper implements found along our cataracts and caverns as of 
 little or no value to the antiquarian, although I have a few copper 
 arrow-points myself, which were found in an Indian's grave near 
 Tunkhannock, and presented to me with many other relics, some 
 years ago, by J. M. Robinson, Esq., of Meshoppen. 
 
 Important archaeological explorations pursued with admii'able 
 vigor and extraordinary success in the West — in South America, 
 and along the lakes of Zurich and Neufchatel in Switzerland, 
 adduce evidence that the construction of the copper relics some- 
 times found in western mounds, belonged not to any of our knovvik 
 Indian races. In fact, the Indian knew nothing of the use audi 
 value of copper till taught by the whites. 
 
 Their creation pertains to the bronze period, which some of 
 the Swiss archaeologists have concluded to represent an antiquity 
 of from two thousand nine hundred to four thousand two hundred 
 years; the age of stone from four thousand seven hundred tO' 
 seven thousand, and the wliole period of from seven thousand 
 four hundred to eleven thousand years. 
 
 I have some rare stone jiipes, some elegant stone chisels for 
 removing the char fi-om canoes, and a singularly beautiful stone 
 bird or idol, found along the Indian path crossing the farm of Dr. 
 Throop, in Blakeley, and presented to me by Mr. Shaw. I have 
 never seen or heard of any thing of the kind ever being found in 
 the country before. I also have a curious death-mall^ constructed 
 from a huge ovoid pebble, weighing twelve pounds, similar to 
 that used by the Indians to kill their captives. After the battle 
 of Wyoming, in 1778, an instrument like this and a war-club in 
 the hands of Queen Esther, mailed and slew the captives around 
 Bloody Rock. 
 
APPENDIX. 433 
 
 While the copper utensils spoken of by Steuben give nothing 
 but a faint conjectural idea of the occupancy of the county at the 
 time of their deposit, and belong to a period subsequent to tliat 
 of which I write, the antiquity of the stone weapons of war is 
 alike instructive and wonderful. 
 
 The bow and the arrow are spoken of in Genesis and many 
 other places in Holy Writ. Arrows were first made of reed ; then 
 of strong, light Avood, with a stone arrow-point fastened to the 
 end. Among the Hebrews, especially among the tribes of Eph- 
 raim and Benjamin, archers were numerous. 
 
 Among the ruins of the Temple of Luxor, on the Nile, two or 
 three thousand years old, one apartment exhibits a great battle, 
 in which the Egyptians, armed with bows and arrows, gained a 
 great victory over their Asiatic enemies equipped with javelin and 
 war-club. 
 
 In one battle between the Persians and the Tartars, 800 b. c, 
 it is related by Persian historians that their great chief Rustam, 
 with his own war-club, slew 1,160 of his foes ! 
 
 Fragments of Nineveh, now in the British Museum, introduce 
 us to their monarchs thirty centuries ago, clad in costume of war 
 and armed only with the arrow and the bow. 
 
 The javelin or spear was a missile weapon, and took the place 
 of our swords and guns. It is often mentioned in the Bible in 
 connection with light-armed troops. It could be thrown at the 
 enemy at a great distance, and in the great conflicts between the 
 Persians and Macedonians, the white javelins flew and fell like 
 snow-flakes upon the contending legions. When Xerxes crossed 
 the Hellespont with his gleaming millions, he was dared and 
 checked by the Spartans, armed with such missiles and animated 
 by no common courage. The Medes were celebrated for the use 
 of the bow, with which they fought on horseback with terrific 
 effect. Their arrows were poisoned with a bituminous liquor 
 which burned with such intensity that water increased the heat. 
 This is the first record we have of the poisoned arrow used so much 
 by the red warrior. I have several poisoned arrows in my collection. 
 "The sword," sang Mahomet twenty-four centuries ago, "is 
 the key of heaveu and hell, courage then my children, fight like 
 men, close up your ranks — discharge your arrows and the day is 
 your own ! " 
 
 28 
 
434 APPKNDIX. 
 
 In the hands of Tell, the arrow saved his son and gave fi'ee- 
 ■dom to the land of the Alps. 
 
 The Hungarians threw a small stone ax or tomahawk with 
 such dexterity at a hundred paces that a victim always fell. As 
 late as 1461 arrows tipped with Steuben's copper were used by 
 the English nation as a weapon of defense. 
 
 A tribe of Indians in Paraguay, South America, with these 
 rude weapons have maintained their independence against all the 
 power and treachery of the Spaniards for three hundred years. 
 
 The exploring party for the Pacific Railroad, in 1856, found 
 along the Colorado many of these stone tomahawks yet in use 
 among these savages. 
 
 Up the old Nile and along the track of the brave and lamented 
 Speke, the black warrior still goes forth thirsting for blood, 
 with club and lance and ever-beating drum. Is it strange then 
 that these stone relics running along the history of so many strange 
 centuries, should be gathered and cherished ? And if it " is fortu- 
 nate to be the possessor of" a few copper trinkets relating to a 
 people and an epoch alike indefinite and uncertain, how much 
 greater the pleasure to know that you can glance each day over 
 stone relics whose antiquity carries us back to the earliest periods 
 of traditional or written history ! 
 
 H. HOLLISTKU. 
 
 Providence, August 17, 1865. 
 
 INDIAN RELICS. 
 
 Editor of " Scranton Register" — Dear Sir : — I have read 
 the whole of Dr. HoUister's last letter relating to the " Indian relic 
 controversy." It is true I read it in a state of great trepidation 
 and alarm, for the arrows, spears, tomahawks, axes, death-malls, 
 scalping-knives, &c., that the doctor hurled at me from his vast 
 magazine, whizzed and buzzed so about my head, as to keep me 
 in a perpetual dodge, and yet I read it — all of it. You will won- 
 der, and so do I, as I look back at the dangers thi-ough which I 
 passed in doing so. Happily, however, 1 escaped unharmed, and 
 a careful examination convinces me that my scalp is still on. 
 
 The doctor renews his proposal, " that we exhibit our collections 
 
APPKNDIX. 485 
 
 at the Wyoming fair this fall, and tliat tlie one whose collection 
 should be the best calculated to tluow light upon the customs, 
 habits, and life of the aboriginal race should receive a diploma, 
 and that the one second best must pay $50 to the Home of the 
 Friendless Children in Wilkes Barre, or some other charitable 
 institution, provided that assurance be given him two weeks before 
 the fair, that a safe, suitable place will be provided for them." 
 
 This offer I no longer refuse, but accept of the same, and 
 assure the doctor that a safe and suitable place will be provided 
 for his collection, and I will get this assurance in writing from the 
 officers of the society and forward to liim in a few days. 
 
 The Indian relic controversy, so far as the doctor and I are 
 concerned, is now ended. The point I aimed at, and which the 
 doctor seemed to desire, — a public exhibition of our respective 
 collections, side by side, and a decision as to which has the best 
 and largest collection, — is now provided for. 
 
 It remains, however, for me to say a word in reference to the 
 doctor's very extraordinary learned disquisition upon the subject 
 of Indian relics. I must confess my great surprise at the antiquity 
 of the age of stone. I was aware that it commenced with man, 
 nearly but not quite six thousand years ago, but until I read the 
 ^loctor's article I was not aware that it extended back some five 
 thousand years before man appeared upon the earth — altogether 
 some " eleven thousand years." Man was, as I have stated — taking 
 the best authority we have upon the subject — created a little less 
 than six thousand years ago. I wish the doctor or some one else 
 would inform " the Avhole world and the rest of mankind," who 
 made stone implements eleven thousand years ago, who they made 
 them for, and what use they made of them ? Not more surprised 
 was I to learn from the doctor's article, for the first time in all my 
 reading, that " Mahomet sang twenty-four centuries ago." As I 
 understand it, Mahomet flourished but a little over twelve cen- 
 turies ago. I wish the doctor would inform me in what song of 
 Mahomet he finds the language he attributes to him. I have 
 Mahomet's writing, and have not as yet seen the song containing 
 the language the doctor attributes to him. But it was twenty-four 
 centuries ago. The doctor may forget in so long time where to 
 find it. But where does the doctor get his new chronology? 
 The stone period, extending back " eleven tliousand years ! " Ma 
 
436 APl'KNDIX. 
 
 hornet singing " twenty-four centuries ago /" I can't understand 
 it. The fault is mine, I doubt not. I feel sometimes — and I don't 
 know why I should not feel so now, as I stand before the mighty 
 mass of learning the doctor has accumulated before me — somewhat 
 as the great and learned Laplace did at the close of his long and 
 brilliant career, " that what I know is little, while what I do not 
 know is immense." I hope to live and learn yet for a time, and 
 with the doctor as a teacher, I have no doubt I may get to know 
 something. 
 
 The doctor says "he has a curious death-mall, constructed 
 from a huge ovoid pebble." When I read that, I thought myself 
 that the doctor had a cnrious-inall that would be the death of 
 somebody yet. I came near laughing myself to death the first 
 time I saw it, and I came a little nearer to it when I read the 
 doctor's last article. The fact is, I was confined to my house with 
 illness for four days afterward, and I can give no other cause 
 for it than that curious mall — a mere water-washed stone, having 
 no more marks or signs of Indian workmanship upon it than the 
 doctor's phiz has. 
 
 If the doctor will read history a little more carefully, he will 
 find that it was the Parthians and not the Medes who were cele- 
 brated for the use of the bow and arrow on horseback. Does the 
 doctor know what David killed Goliath with ? Has he any weapon 
 of that sort in his collection ? 
 
 In my last, I made the suggestion that while it was matter of 
 doubt among archgeologists whether the people who built the 
 mounds were the same that inhabited the country when first dis- 
 covered by the whites — I was satisfied that they were one and the 
 same people. But few facts can be gathered on which to found a 
 hypothesis, either way, but those facts, however few, when dis- 
 covered should have their full weight. Schoolcraft, the learned 
 Indian antiquarian, who made, in August, 1843, an elaborate ex- 
 amination of the mounds found at Grave Creek, Virginia, says that 
 " several polished tubes of stone were found in one of the lesser 
 mounds. They were about one foot long, one and a fourth inches 
 in diameter at one end, and one and a half at the other. They 
 are made of a fine, compact, lead-blue steatite, mottled, and con- 
 structed by boring in the manner of a gun-barrel. This boring is 
 continued to within three-eighths of an inch of the large end, through 
 
APPKNDI.X, 437 
 
 which but a small aperture is left. If this small aperture be looked 
 through, objects at a distance are more clearly seen. Its construc- 
 tion is far from rude, and it was probably designed as a tele- 
 scope." 
 
 Joseph Tomlinson, who settled at Grave Creek in 1 TV", first 
 discovered the mounds thei-e. Ills son, A. B. Tomlinson, in 1837 
 commenced excavating the larger mound, and in it, among other 
 things, he found a lot of beads, made of a kind of poi-celain, simi- 
 lar in appearance to the material out of which dentists manufac- 
 ture artificial teeth. I have in my collection a polished tube of 
 stone, exactly like the one described by Schoolcraft, which was 
 found some three years ago at Northumberland, in this State, in 
 excavating for the railroad ; and I also have a very large and 
 beautiful string of beads, of the kind found by Tomlinson, which 
 were dug out of some Indian grave at Wilkes Barre a year ago. 
 In addition to these are the facts of pottery and copper imple- 
 ments being common to the mound and to our Indians, the infer- 
 ence and proof are, therefore, very strong that the mound-builders 
 and the Indians were one and the same people, and that they were 
 1 linvf no doubt. The proof is all in that direction. 
 
 Aiiotiier word to the doctor and I am done. He should be 
 cortain of his facts before he states them as such, or draws con- 
 clusions from them. This is the great duty of every inquirer after 
 
 truth. Yours truly, 
 
 Steuben .Jenkins. 
 
 THE INDIAN RELIC CONTROVEKSV. 
 
 As Steuben Jenkins wishes to bury the hatchet for the pur- 
 pose of saving his own scalp, and as I value copper trinkets too 
 lightly to desire the possession of the top of his head, which for 
 the last few weeks has been quivering with scalping dreams, we 
 will smoke the calumet awhile, so that this article will be the 
 last one upon Indian relics the public will have for some time ; 
 not but what very much could be written about the former occu- 
 pants of our valley and their memorials : but how comparatively 
 few care for the relics of the red men! although as long as spring 
 can awaken flowers from the meadow, these memorials will have 
 their interest and value to the antiquarian. 
 
438 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 I will briefly answer Steuben's objections in the order of their 
 appearance. 
 
 1st. The ridiculous importance he gave to his copper hatchets, 
 tfec, some weeks ago — which were all of European manufacture — 
 vanished the moment I exhibited their utter want of claim to 
 antiquity, as shown by Squier, Charlevoix, Bartram, and Brabcuf, 
 leaving Steuben nothing to do but to sing " the song of Mahomet 
 twenty-four centuries ago." Mahomet was born 569 a. c, and 
 his flight took place 622 a. c, as every student of history knows, 
 but the typographical error made my article read twenty-four 
 instead of twelve centuries ago. Steuben writes too much, and 
 reads too little in his Koran to acquire or impart knowledge, 
 or appreciate the historical facts I have so liberally brought to 
 his view. 
 
 2d. I am sorry that I once exhibited that " curious death- 
 mall" to him, because I fear that it has knocked him senseless 
 forever, and yet that stone implement of death attracted him once 
 to Providence, and then how his eyes wished and his mouth 
 watered as he gazed on its vast proportions safely reposing under 
 glass, while the key was safe in my own pocket ! And when he 
 found that no persuasion could allure this unique and valuable 
 stone into his collection (of boxes hid in sheds), he discovered 
 that it was nothing more than " a mei*e water-washed stone !" 
 Steuben, the fact is, that the upper end of the county is too much 
 for your fussy copper kettles, even after a very clever Pittstoii 
 doctor helped you scour them up. 
 
 3d. It is true that the Parthians or Scythians — now the Tar- 
 tar race — were among the most skillful archers in the world on 
 horseback, and shot their arrows with unerring precision even on 
 a gallop; but if Steuben will look into the same history he refeis 
 me to, he will find that the first historical fact known of the Vwr- 
 thians is that they were the subjects of the Medes, fioni Avhom 
 they learned their skill in archery. This was before the Tartars 
 became powerful under the great Tamerlane. 
 
 4th. Would it not be creditable for Steuben to read some- 
 thing of chronology and archaeology, as Avell as to interpret cor- 
 rectly what I write ? I stated that " the Swiss archaeologists have 
 concluded that the age of bronze may represent an antiquity of 
 from 2,900 to 4,200 years, the age of stone from 4,700 to 7,000 
 
APPENDIX. 439 
 
 years, and ilie whole series a period of iVoni 7,000 to 11,000 
 years." 
 
 All must acknowledge the imperfection of archaeological 
 record, and presume that a mere definite chronology will event- 
 ually be established. Kenedy, in his Scriptm-al Chronology, says 
 that 300 diiferent opinions, founded upon the Bible, may be col- 
 lected as to the length of time that has elapsed between the crea- 
 tion and the birth of Christ. Fabricius, in his Bibliotheca Anti- 
 quaria, has given a list of 140 of these calculations. I would 
 refer Steuben to these works, also to the chronological works of 
 Dr. Hale, Prof Playfair, and DesvignoUes. And although the 
 literature of the Swiss is merged into that of France and Ger- 
 many, friend Steuben would find great information in perusing 
 the works of Lavater, Sismondi, Haller, Euler, Le Sage, Necker, 
 and other Swiss authors. 
 
 The " stone polished tube" in Steuben's possession, he thinks 
 was used by the Indians as a telescope. If it were possible to 
 conceive of any thing more comical than an Indian, inhabiting the 
 forest so dense that he could not see his own nose, looking through 
 Steuben's " polished tube" as a telescope into the thicket, it might 
 be found in the idea of Steuben's, that the " long polished tube" 
 was ever used by the aborigines for such a purpose ! 
 
 " Lo I the poor Indian whose untntored mind 
 Sees God in the forest," through Steuben's long tube 1 
 
 Schoolcraft no doubt drew an honest inference in the matter 
 from the light accessible then, but there is no possible evidence 
 in Indian histories or antiquarian explorations of any such use 
 being made of these " polished tubes." I have a broken portion 
 of one in my possession, which from my knowledge of Indian 
 character and habit, I am satisfied was used, like all these tubes, 
 V)y their medicine-men to render their incantations more potent 
 and effective. Spectacles nor telescopes never vexed an Indian's- 
 eye. So much for Steuben, who has switched himself off the- 
 track, where I am sorry to leave him — out on the switch. 
 
 In Wyoming Valley, where the Indian fought with tomahawk 
 and war-club to save his hunting-grounds, fortifications exist 
 whose history has been lost even to tradition. 
 
 Aloiiii the Lackawanna, Indian tribes loft no stich tra.'C. 
 
440 APPENDIX. 
 
 Although from careful explorations there appears to have been no 
 less than seven Indian villages along the Lackawanna — all stand- 
 ing upon its eastern bank — but a single mound denotes their place 
 of burial. Evidences of villages are found in implements of stone 
 and clay scattered along the river, generally where some tribu- 
 tary comes in. One peculiar feature appears in the fact, that 
 where the broken pottery is most abundant, no stone utensil 
 other than a corn pounder or pestle is found within twenty or 
 thirty yards — showing that the braves practiced archery away 
 from the shadows of their wigwams. Near the late Dr. Robin- 
 son's, a little stream puts into the Lackawanna, on the bank of 
 which, rising into a gentle knoll, many relics are seen, and yet no 
 culinary utensils are found. Near this point is seen a small ele- 
 vation which I have named Gapoose Mound^ as it stands at the 
 head of the old Indian meadow of Capoose. At the time of the 
 first settlement of Providence by the whites, in 1770, there were 
 about a dozen graves here. In 1799, however, a party of persons, 
 one of whom still survives, opened these graves. A small copper 
 kettle of European manufacture, large quantities of wampum and 
 arrow-heads were exhumed, carried away and lost. 
 
 Of the Indian's mortar, or mill, for pounding na-sump, or 
 samp, but few are found in the country unbroken. Whoever has 
 had the patience to toil up the mountain side to Bald Mount in 
 Newton, will find in a huge rock projecting over the precipice a 
 number of holes or Indian mortar-places, made in the stone by the 
 patient wild man, which no doubt were used by them for domes- 
 tic purposes. Some have the capacity of a gallon. Of course 
 portable ones were generally used by them, sometimes made of 
 wood, but oftener of stone. 
 
 This height was no doubt chosen for a camp-place, so as to 
 enable the Indians a chance to look down into the forest through 
 those " polished tubes." 
 
 How long the Indian smoked his pipe along the Hudson or 
 Mohawk before the discovery, we know not, but the white man 
 was first cursed with the knowledge of tobacco in 1492. No arti- 
 cle of luxury was constructed with more care — cherished with 
 holier memories — loved with more constant fervor than the 
 Indian's pipe. Their calumet, or pipe of peace, was among the 
 most prized and sacred articles of all the stone implements of tlie 
 
APPENDIX. 441 
 
 wigwam. I have in my collection a large number of pipes of 
 rare and exquisite workmanship. 
 
 I also have some elegant moose-skin robes, such as were 
 worn by Rocky Mountain chiefs, porcupine necklaces, and hunt- 
 ing-belts for stringing scalps and trophies, medicine bags, and 
 war caps in full plume — but these perishable things, while they 
 attract the superficial eye, have no more real value than copper 
 implements. So much for Indian stone relics, which some day 
 will gather around them more interest than they can possibly 
 command now. And yet " what are they good for ?" asks some 
 jingler of dollars. If every line of written history was oblitera- 
 ted forever, the presence and progress of races — their character 
 and conquests — the diffusion of tribes — their relative approach to 
 or departure from civilization — most of their habits, and many of 
 their religious notions could be plainly elucidated by the aid of 
 these relics, which to the unpracticed eye seem like rude, unmean- 
 ing stone. Upon the fairest face that ever smiled or wept, beauty 
 will perish, and lips proudly glowing with hopes of many sum- 
 mers, dissolve into untroubled earth, forgetting and forgot, while 
 these sad memorials of another day and another race, whose voice 
 gives back no echo from the wild, neglected by many, <lespised 
 by more, and treasured but by few, when many a voice is still, 
 and many a heart is cold, these simple relics will remain perfect 
 in their integrity, and beautiful in their silence ! 
 
 H. HOLLIBTEK. 
 
 Sept. V, 1865. 
 
 The following report of the Committee on Indian Relics, exhib- 
 ited at the late fair of the Lucerne County Agricultural Society, 
 will prove of interest to our readers. — [Editor Lucerne Union.] 
 
 The Committee appointed by the Lucerne County Agricultural 
 Society to report upon the Exhibition of Indian Relics, made by 
 Dr. Hollister and Steuben Jenkins. Esq., at the recent Annual Fair 
 on the Society's grounds, near the Wyoming battle-field, take un- 
 usual pleasure in saying that the exhibition was in every respect 
 far superior to any thing anticipated or looked for. The respective 
 collections of these gentlemen are a monument to their untiring 
 industry and love of science. They will challenge the admiration 
 of all men in all places where hereafter they may be evhibited. 
 
442 APPENDIX, 
 
 To the man of science and learning they are a voluyne of American 
 history, to be read and studied nowhere else. A single glance 
 over these splendid collections gives almost every implement used, 
 by the red man, whether in the fight, or the chase, the wigwam 
 or the corn-field, for there are the bow and the arrows, the knile 
 and the tomahawk of the warrior, the rude mortar and pestle for 
 the squaw, and the delicate arrow-head for the early practice of 
 the Indian boy. Here the book, and the only book of centuries 
 of aboriginal savage life, in war and in peace, unfolds to the eye 
 the living history of a people fast disappearing from their ancient 
 grounds toward the setting sun. We congratulate the Agricul- 
 tural Society in having been permitted to furnish to its numerous 
 visitors at their fair, so unique a display, awakening in the bosoms 
 of many of them such thrilling recollections of the bloody tragedy 
 once enacted on this same field. We have heard on all sides since 
 the opening of the exhibition but one continued expression of 
 praise and thanks to Messrs. Hollister and Jenkins. We are cer- 
 tain that every man, woman, and child, who have been gratified 
 by a sight of these relics, will not only join the Committee in 
 thanks to those gentlemen, but will co-operate with them in the 
 work in which they are engaged. In judging upon the compara- 
 tive size and merits of the respective collections, the Committee, 
 after a careful examination, concluded that the diflerence between 
 them was but slight, and as the one in whose favor that difierence 
 seemed to predominate, desired that the Committee, if practicable 
 and satisfactory to the Society, should render no decision upon 
 that point, but should treat both collections as equally meritorious 
 and entitled to the consideration of the Society, they have con- 
 cluded to adopt this view of the subject. The Committee would 
 therefore recommend that the special thanks of the Lucerne Agri- 
 cultural Society be extended to both Dr. Hollister and Mr. Jenkins, 
 and that in addition thereto there be awarded to each of those 
 gentlemen, by the Society, a silver pitcher or goblet, of value not 
 less than fifty dollars, with suitable inscriptions thereon to com- 
 memorate the facts. E. W. Sturdkvant, 
 
 C. DORRANCE, 
 
 C. Parsons, 
 
 Adw. T. McClintock. 
 
 John N. Conykgham, 
 
 Committee. 
 
II. 
 
 THE LACKAWANNA VALLEY FIFTY YEARS AOO AND NOW. 
 
 SoRANTON, settled less than a century ai^o, named after the 
 original Scrantons, and incorporated into a city in 1866, is the 
 largest one of its age in its commercial and industrial develop- 
 ment and in the growth of all the elements of civilization of 
 any city east of the Mississippi Eiver. 
 
 When the writer first passed through it in 1837 it had but two 
 dwellings, inhabited by Barton Mott, the miller, and the elder 
 Slocums. It had no church, no store or tavern, saloon or post- 
 office, and even the stage-coach, on its tri-weekly trips from 
 Wilkes Barre to Carbondale, ran no nearer to it than Hyde Park, 
 luilf a mile away. A single narrow wagon-road, crouched upon 
 cillier side with low, dense shrubbery, led the way through it. 
 Between Dunmore and Scranton stood but two solitary houses. 
 
 In the old Wurts and Drinker maps of the valley of 1826, 
 now in my possession, made by those gentlemen with a view of 
 running their proposed railroads from the Susquehanna to the 
 Delaware, this section was simply marked " Slocums," commend- 
 ing itself to the eye only by the half-employed, excellent water- 
 privileges of the wild-throbbing and trout-filled Nay-aug. 
 
 In 1840 the population of Scranton was about 100 persons, 
 but the census report as late as 1850 gave the population of 
 Providence township, without giving Scranton either name or 
 notice because there was no Scranton to name. Three years 
 later it was estimated at 3000 souls. In 1860 it was 9223. The 
 percentage of its growth from that time until now, owing to the 
 iron and coal industry, has been marvellous. In 1870 its popu- 
 lation was 35,092; in 1880, 45,850; in 1881, 48,672; in 1884, 
 67,062 ; in 1885, 70,000 and over. 
 
 The entire city has a territorial area of 19-^ miles. It is five 
 miles square and twenty miles in circumference, with five hun- 
 dred streets, named and numbered, which are over one hundred 
 miles in length. 
 
 443 
 
444 APPENDIX. 
 
 Scranton is situated in what is known as the Northern An- 
 thracite Coal Field, embracing an area of 198 square miles, or 
 126,620 acres of coal which is from thirty to fifty feet thick, 
 yielding about 6000 tons to the acre, making a total of 7,603, 
 200,000 tons. Up to the present time but three hundred mil- 
 lion tons of this has been mined and marketed. The rest lies 
 embedded in the bosom of mother earth. 
 
 " With such a basis for prosperity," says the Eev. David Spen- 
 cer, to whom, as well as to Colonel Price, we are indebted for many 
 of the facts herein stated, " it is impossible to predict any limit 
 to the grand future of Scranton and the Lackawanna Valley." 
 
 Its streets are wide and straight, and, considering the youth- 
 fulness of the city, have many things about them superior to 
 streets in older seaport cities. Give Scranton time for more de- 
 velopment, and we can have the finest streets of any city in the 
 world. Our municipality now expend $10,000 a year on our 
 highways, less than $500 for each of the twenty -one wards. 
 
 Our postal facilities, which were introduced in 1884, through 
 the instrumentality of Hon. Joseph A. Scranton, our present 
 popular member of Congress, and postmaster, Edward C. Ful- 
 ler, work to the satisfaction and advantage of all, and are very 
 conducive to the 75,000 or 80,000 inhabitants of the city. 
 
 the churches op scranton. 
 
 The churches of Scranton are numerous and generally well 
 patronized. 
 
 Adams Avenue M. E. Church. — Adams Avenue. Eev. L. C. 
 Mullcr, pastor. 
 
 Anshe Chesed (^Jewish Church). — Linden Street. Rev. S. 
 Freudenthal, rabbi. 
 
 Chestnut Street Baptist Church. — Chestnut Street. Rev. Owen 
 James, pastor. 
 
 Christian Church. — N. Main Avenue. Rev. C. W. Cooper, pastor. 
 
 Church of the Good Shepherd {Episcopal). — Monsey Avenue. 
 Rev. Joseph P. Cameron, S.T.B., rector. 
 
 First German Baptist Church. — Pittston Avenue. Rev. J. H. 
 Meyers, pastor. 
 
 First M. E. Church of Providence. — N". Main Avenue. Rev. A. 
 J. Van Cleft, pastor. 
 
I.. A. WATRES. 
 
APPENDIX. 447 
 
 First Presbyterian Church. — Washington Avenue. Rev. S. C. 
 Logan, pastor. 
 
 First Presbyterian Church of Providence. — Church Avenue. 
 Rev. George E. Guild, pastor. 
 
 First Welsh Baptist Church. — S. Main Avenue. Rev. J. W. 
 Williams, pastor. 
 
 German M. E. Church. — Adams Avenue. Rev. Jacob Kolb, 
 pastor. 
 
 Grace Reformed Episcopal Church. — 328 Wyoming Avenue. 
 Rev. G. Albert, rector. 
 
 Green Rid.ge M. E. Church. — Corner Monsey Avenue. Rev. J. 
 V. Newell, pastor. 
 
 Green Ridge Street Presbyterian Church. — Rev. M. F. Stahl, 
 pastor. 
 
 Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. — Services held in Y. M. C A. 
 Hall, Lackawanna Avenue. Rev. M. L. Zweizig, pastor. 
 
 Hyde Park M. E. Church. — N. Main Avenue. Rev. G. M. Col- 
 ville, |)astor. 
 
 Jackson Street Baptist Church. — Rev. N. B. Nay lor, pastor. 
 
 Methodist Episcopal Church. — Hampton Street. Rev. G. C. 
 Lewis, pastor. 
 
 Park Place Chapel {M. E.). — Court Street. Rev. H. H. Dresser, 
 ])astor. 
 
 Penn Avenue Baptist Church. — Penn Avenue. Rev. David 
 Spencer, D.D., pastor. 
 
 Plymouth Congregational Church. — Jackson Street, near S. Main 
 Avenue. Rev. Jonathan Edwards, pastor. 
 
 Primitive M. E. Church. — E. Market Street. Rev. H. G. Rus- 
 sell, pastor. 
 
 Providence Welsh Baptist Church. — N. Main Avenue. 
 
 Second Presbyterian Church. — Jefferson Avenue. Rev. T. R. 
 Beebei', pastor. 
 
 St. David's Church {Episcopal). — Tenth Street. Rev. Joseph 
 P. Cameron, S.T.B., rector. 
 
 St. Luke's Church (^Episcopal). — Wyoming Avenue. Rev. 
 J. Philip B. Pendleton, S.T.B., rector; T. F. Hunt, senior 
 wai'den ; A. D. Holland, junior warden. Vestrymen : John 
 Jermyn. G. L. Dickson, S. M. Nash, B. H. Throop, and J. II. 
 Bessel. 
 
448 APPENDIX. 
 
 St Mary's Church (Catholic).— WWWam Street. Kev. M. Whitty,- 
 pastor; Rev. Thomas Kernan, assistant. 
 
 St. Mary's Church (German Catholic). — River Street. Rev. 
 John Sebelle, pastor. 
 
 St. Patrick's Church (Catholic).— V rice Street, Rev. J. B. 
 Whelan, pastor. 
 
 St. Peter's Evangelical Lutheran Church. — Ash, corner Prescott 
 Avenue. Rev. Eugene Weisskopff, pastor. 
 
 St. Vincent's Church (Catholic). — Wyoming Avenue, corner 
 Linden Street. Rt. Rev. William O'Hara, Bishop of Scranton 
 Diocese and pastor; Rev. R. A. McAndrews, rector; Rev. T. F. 
 Coflfoy, Ist assistant; Rev. P. F. Broderick, 2d assistant; Rev. 
 Dr. McManus, 3d assistant. 
 
 Washburn Street Presbyterian Church. — Washburn Street, cor- 
 ner S. Hyde Park Avenue. Rev. W. I. Steans, pastor. 
 
 Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Church. — S. Main Avenue. Rev. 
 R. Faulk Jones, pastor. 
 
 Welsh Congregational Church. — W. Market, above Brick Ave- 
 nue. Rev. R. S. Jones, pastor. 
 
 Welsh Congregational Church. — S. Main Avenue. Rev. Lot 
 Lake, pastor, 
 
 Zion Lutheran Church (German). — Mifflin Avenue, Rev. P. F. 
 Zitzelmann, pastor. 
 
 The total sittings of the chui-ches in Scranton approximate to 
 thirty-five or forty thousand persons, while the membership is 
 considerably less. 
 
 OUR SCHOOL SYSTEM. 
 
 The public and private school institutions are thorough and 
 complete. In the city there ai'e thirty public school buildings, 
 with a seating capacity of seven thousand nine hundred and 
 twenty, all erected at a cost of $332,000, including the value of 
 the lots upon which they stand. Two hundred and five teachers 
 are employed at a total salary of $8009 per year, or about $40 
 per month. In 1879 there were five thousand four hundred and 
 forty-eight scholars upon the rolls, while in 1884: there were 
 seven thousand five hundred and eighty-three, with an average 
 attendance of six thousand seven hundred and seven. In the 
 case of school attendance the increase exhibits the very rapid 
 
APPENDIX. 449 
 
 growth of the city in population during the five years. In no 
 department is the permanent prosperity of a locality mo-e dis- 
 tinctly located. 
 
 HEALTH OP THE VALLEY. 
 
 The general health of Scranton is excellent. Located seven 
 hundred and fifty feet above the level of the sea, surrounded 
 by mountains two thousand feet high, it enjoys the advantages 
 of an invigorating atmosphere, pure water, and ample drainage, 
 and yet eighty physicians manage to sustain an indifferent degree 
 of thrift and prosperity. Epidemics and endemics, such diseases 
 as distract our seaboard cities, are unknown, while typhoid fever 
 is rai"ely seen in the valley. Pulmonary troubles are not indig- 
 enous. Unless inherited and brought in the system from some 
 other section of country, it is rare to see a case of consumption 
 among us. Sheltered by the Moosic Mountains upon either side 
 from the cold winds of March and December, the Lackawanna 
 Valley, with its genial air and its coal-mines, aff'ords to th )se 
 predisposed to phthisis the best prospect for hope, recuperat' n, 
 and longevity of any known place. 
 
 OUR CHARITIES. 
 
 THE LACKAWANNA HOSPITAL. 
 
 An institution originating solely through the agency of Dr. B. 
 H. Throop, one of the oldest in Scranton, was incorporated in 
 1871, and it has done and is still doing a vast amount of good to 
 the poor, unfortunate occupants of the city. This year (1885) it 
 received an appropriation of $15,000 from the State. Charles W. 
 Roesler is president, E. C. Fuller treasurer, and N. D. Green sec- 
 retary. 
 
 THE MOSES TAYLOR HOSPITAL. 
 
 Tlie Moses Taj'lor Hospital was the result of the thoughtful- 
 ness and benevolence and means of that noble man whose name 
 it bears. It was started in 1884. When completed, the maimed 
 and suffering will have occasion to rejoice over the measures of 
 relief aff'orded them through its instrumentalit3% Mrs. Payne, 
 his liberal daughter, supplemented this generous gift by donat- 
 ing $100,000 in addition. 
 29 
 
450 
 
 DEAF AND DUMB INSTITUTION. 
 
 Scranton looks thoughtfully after the needs of the unfortu- 
 nate children found within its precincts. Our young and talented 
 senator, Hon. L. A. Watres, and his able assistants urged a bill 
 through the Legislature in the spi-ing of 1885, appropriating 
 $45,800 for the establishment in this city of an oral school for 
 deaf-mutes. Governor Pattison, however, ignorant of every 
 generous thought or impulse, vetoed the bill because he had the 
 right to do so without the reason. The money thus appropriated 
 was to have been used in the erection of suitable buildings for 
 the maintenance of the school for two years. The oral system 
 was to be taught in preference to the sign system used in all 
 continental Europe except France. 
 
 Progress has discovered a much better method, and, instead 
 of the pantomimic action of the fingers, what is called the oral 
 sj'stem has been introduced, by which words may be read and 
 ideas communicated by the mere movement of the lips. 
 
 The oral school for deaf-mutes was established in this city 
 nearly two 3'ears ago, and since that time has been supported 
 by private subscriptions on the part of the directors and others. 
 But thirteen pupils are enrolled, as many mutes from this vicinity 
 attend the institution for deaf-mutes in Philadelphia. According 
 to the census there are in this section between eighty and one 
 hundred deaf-mutes of school age. Applications for admission 
 to the school have lately come from many places in the neigh- 
 borhood, and one was received from Lynchburg, Va. The 
 school-house is situated on the alley between Jefferson and 
 Adams Avenues, near Vine Street. The building used is the 
 first church building that was erected on the Scranton side of 
 the river. It served as a place of woi-ship for many congrega- 
 tions, and finally became the property of the German Methodists, 
 who moved it on the rear end of their lot. The new building 
 was to be erected on Washington Avenue, on the lot presented 
 the directors by the Pennsylvania Coal Company. The lot con- 
 sists of between four and five aci-es, and is pleasantly located. 
 
 The directors of the school are as follows : Hon. Alfred Hand, 
 President; Henry Belin, Jr., Secretary and Treasurer; William 
 T. Smith, Eev. Moses Whitty, John B. Smith, William Connell. 
 Fred. W. Gunster, E. J. Matthews, B. G. Morgan, Hon. L. A. 
 
Al>I'ENDIX. 451 
 
 Watres, Rev. T. E. Beeber, Colonel E. H. Ripple, Charles H. 
 Welles, Benjamin Hughes, J. C. Piatt, H. M. Boies, E. B. Sturges. 
 
 HOME OF THE FRIENDLESS. 
 
 Probablj" thei'e is no institution in Scranton or within tl^e 
 State which is devoted to a theme so lofty and dear, a charity 
 so broad and wholesome, as that of the Home of the Friendless, 
 at which all look with a feeling of satisfaction and pride. It 
 was chartered in 1873. Managed by liberal, self-sacrificing ladies, 
 of whom Mrs. Thomas Moore seems the leading spirit, the rug- 
 ged pathway of the lives of helpless children and women is 
 rendered less rough and lonely by the zealous, silent work of 
 these ladies. 
 
 The following are the officers: Mrs. Jutnes Blair, President; 
 Mrs. Greorge L. Dickson, Vice-President ; Mrs. Thomas Moore, 
 Chief Manager ; Mrs. W. D. Kennedy, Eecording Secretary ; Mrs. 
 C. P. Matthews, Corresponding Secretary ; Mrs. D. Langstatf, 
 Treasurer; Managers: Mrs. A. E. Hunt, Mi-s. J. R. Fordham, 
 Mis. C. B. Scott, Mrs. C. D. Simpson, Mrs. W. W. Winton, Mrs. 
 E. S. Moffitt, Mrs. B. F. Fillmore, Mrs. W. H. Perkins, Mrs. S. N. 
 Stetler, Mrs. Jas. P. Dickson, Mrs. L. B. Powell, Mrs. T. H. Dale, 
 Mrs. 0. P. Clark, Mrs. Joseph Ober, Mrs. S. A. Brightman, Mrs. 
 K. G. Judd, Mrs. R. W. Luce, Mrs. J. L. Stelle, Mrs. J. Genter, 
 Mrs. H. A. Loveland, Mrs. Wm. Von Storch, Mrs. H. A. Masser, 
 Mrs. A. Chamberlain, Mrs. Hendricks ; Auditors : Mrs. R. W. 
 Luce, Mrs. Wm. Connell. 
 
 Standing Committees. — Advisory Committee: Mr. H. A. Knapp, 
 Mr. H. S. Pierce, Mr. James P. Dickson ; Members of Executive 
 Committee: Mrs. W. W. Winton, Mrs. E. S. Moffitt; Committee 
 on Finance: Mrs. C. B. Scott (Chairman), Mrs. H. A. Loveland, 
 Mrs. Joseph Ober, Mrs. J. Genter, Mrs. O. P. Clark, Mrs. J. L. 
 Stelle, Mrs. E. G. Judd, Mrs. J. R. Fordham, Mrs. W. H. Perkins, 
 Mrs. C. D. Simpson, Mrs. B. F. Fillmore; Committee on Fuel: 
 Mrs. R. W. Luce (Chairman), Mrs. S. N. Stetler, Mrs. A. Hen- 
 dricks ; Committee on Repairs and Improvements: Mrs. James 
 P. Dickson (Chairman), Mrs. A. E. Hunt, Mrs. h. B. Powell, 
 Mrs. W. H. Perkins, Mrs. H. A. Masser. 
 
 Assistant Manager, Mrs. S. A. Brightman ; Matron of Home, 
 Mrs. Sarah E. Hopkins. 
 
452 APPENDIX. 
 
 BOARD OF TRADE. 
 
 Incorporated in 1871, this body has done very much to de- 
 velop the latent resources of the valley in general and of Scran- 
 ton in particular. With its indefatigable president, Colonel Price, 
 it has given an impetus to various manufacturing industries, li 
 has given importance to the huge piles of culm which disfigure 
 our valley as a heating agent and as a fertilizer, and it has been 
 the means of attracting a large amount of capital to this locality. 
 It has made its resources and attractions known both at home 
 and abroad. 
 
 The following gentlemen are the officers : Colonel Gr. A. Price, 
 President ; L. N. Kramer, Vice-President ; A. W. Dickson, Treas- 
 urer; K. W. Luce, Secretary. 
 
 Such men as H. S. Pierce, Judge Handley, Hand, Archbald, 
 Hon. Lewis Pughe, Hon. Wm. R. Halstead, Hon. J. E. Barrett, 
 Hon. L. A. Watres, Dr. Throop, John B. Smith, A. H. Yandling, 
 Wm. Cornell, John Jermyn, Thos. Moore, Ed. Merrifield, E. N. 
 Willard, W. H. Richmond, Ira Tripp, II. M. Bois, R. J. Matthews, 
 J. C. Piatt, Colonel Ripple, Thos. Sanderson, B. Hughs, and nearlj- 
 one hundred and fifty others, including the most prominent and 
 enterprising men in the city, are enrolled as members. 
 
 OUR WATER. 
 
 One of the future problems of our coal region is the question 
 of pure water for culinary and other purposes. Forty years 
 ago the Lackawanna, stocked with trout, gave an ample supply 
 of clear water to every human want; now it is the small, Ashless 
 stream, unfit for any but sewerage purposes. Its corrosive char- 
 acter will destroy the best boiler in a few months ; its filthy 
 properties almost turn the beast away from it with thirst. 
 
 Carbondale, Jermyn, Archbald, Jessup, Peckville, and Oly- 
 phant all have water-works, but none of them can compare 
 with the Providence or Scranton Water Companies in the purity 
 or the abundance of water. 
 
 The capacity of the Providence Water Company is three mil- 
 lion gallons daily. The great reservoir or gravel-pond in South 
 Abington, fed by the streams of those green uplands five hun- 
 dred feet above Providence, gives ample pressure for conflagra- 
 
APPENDIX. 453 
 
 tions and all other purposes. It is exempt from typhoid impuri- 
 ties, without sediment, and non-corrosive. The main reservoir 
 has a capacity of one hundred million i^allons, with a district 
 reservoir of three million of gallons. Other reservoirs, already 
 in view, can be constructed of almost utdimited capacity. 
 
 On the Koaring Brook, some four miles from Scranton, a 
 great substantial reservoir of this city is built, with a capac- 
 ity of three hundred million of gallons daily. This brook, 
 issuing from the springs of the Pocono, two thousand feet 
 above tide-water, gives Scranton the purest water in the world. 
 The reservoir yields tive million gallons daily, and holds two 
 hundred million gallons, which can be increased to any amount 
 required in future by the wants of the city. The waters of 
 both companies come from beyond the coal measures, are free 
 from all mineral impurities, and are superior for drinking or 
 manufacturing purposes. 
 
 THE LAKES OP THE COUNTY. 
 
 Among the larger lakes in the county there are but three 
 worthy of mention, — Paupack Lake, on Moosic Mountain, some- 
 limes called Cobb's Pond or Moosic; Crystal Lake, between 
 Carbondale and Dundaff; and Lily Lake, in North Abington. 
 Paupack is the original Indian name. On the Wurts map of 
 the valley of 1826 it is marked Paupack Pond. It is fed by 
 springs, and gives rise to Paupack Creek, which develops into 
 the Wallen-paupack (slow and swift water of the Indian), and, 
 after running some thirty miles through three counties, empties 
 into the Lackawanna at Hawley. 
 
 Crystal and Lily Lakes are both favorite summer resorts, 
 each having a hotel, and a small steamboat to give attraction 
 to their waters. White lilies in great jirofusion and varieties 
 are found on Lily Lake, which was formerly known as Wall's 
 Pond. 
 
 PRECIPICES. 
 
 Of the cliflPs and ledges of Lackawanna Count}' and vicinity 
 there are but few, viz., Barney's Ledge, Bali Mount, and 
 Campbell's Ledge. 
 
 Barney's Ledge, between Dunmore and Dunning, named from 
 Barne}- Cary, who kept the toll-gate on Drinker's pike, at 
 
454 APPENDIX. 
 
 Hunter's Eange, forty years ago, resembles Irving Cliff, in 
 Honesdale, in height and appearance. This ledge has nothing 
 to attract the eye of the visitor but an Indian spring bubbling 
 up from the surface and full of legendry. 
 
 Ball Mount, five miles westward from Scranton, in Newton 
 township, rises many hundred feet from the surrounding coun- 
 try, and affords to the eye a wide scope of territory. Shorn of 
 its forest by heavy winds, the precipice for a long distance is 
 comparatively bald. One large rock, perforated with holes of 
 various capacities, was used by the Indians for grinding or 
 pounding corn into samp for domestic use. This point will in 
 time become a favorite resort for parties. 
 
 Campbell's Ledge, at the junction of the Lackawanna with the 
 Susquehanna Eiver, was named by a man who never saw its 
 beauties or ti-od its borders. It is full of traditions, as will be 
 seen by the illustration upon page 26, of white men, pursued by 
 Indians, jumping off to escape, and of wild deer in droves hover- 
 ing around its base. It has been made renowned by Campbell's 
 " Grertrudc of Wyoming." Like the other ledges, it was prob- 
 ably made by the action of water in the later period of the 
 world's history. It is well worthy of a visit. 
 
 BUILDING DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 The Moosic Mountains bordering the Lackawanna were up- 
 heaved previous to the carboniferous era, and belong to the 
 igneous and early sandstone deposits. As a natural conse- 
 quence, building material, composed of conglomerate, blue and 
 white sandstone, is abundant and cheap. Nothing is equal to 
 the rough beauty of the white sandstone found on the side of 
 the mountain a mile west of Providence in great abundance and 
 quarried at little cost. 
 
 The building boom in Scranton has assumed gigantic propor- 
 tions this year. In 1884, 1400 new buildings were erected, while 
 this year this number will be largel}' increased. The new jail, 
 the Moses Taylor Hospital, the Young Men's Christian Asso- 
 ciation building, the store building of John Jermyn, and hundreds 
 of others are now in the course of erection. 
 
 It is impossible to predict the future of Scranton. With its 
 two mammoth and best-managed Bessemer steel-works in 
 
APPENDIX, 455 
 
 America, its busy silk-worivs, its street railway ; with its nineteen 
 newspapers, its $4,000,000 in bank subject to check, its scale, 
 terra-cotta, and fire-brick for stoves ; its electric light, its internal 
 revenue receipts of over $133,000, its factories, foundries, and 
 furnaces ; its iron-, brass-, and glass-works, its button factory, its 
 mills, and its countless industries that enliven capital and labor, 
 it is bound to become one of the first cities of the Union. 
 
 Scranton, by the momentum of her population, by the inevi- 
 table operations of natural causes, is pushing up and down the 
 valley with its building operations, and will, in the course of the 
 next half-century, cover all the unoccupied territory. 
 
 Fire department. 
 
 About One hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars' worth ot 
 property was destroyed by fire in Scranton during the year 
 1884. This comparatively small sum would have been greater 
 had it not been for the service of our efficient and voluntary fire 
 department. The telephone and steam-gong announce the pi-es- 
 ence of fires. Horses are kept in readiness at the engine-houses 
 to move at the first signal of alarm. 
 
 The entire force comprises three hundred and ninety men, 
 divided into companies, as follows: 
 
 NAMES OF COMPANIES AND MEMBERS OF EACH. 
 
 Nay-aug Huse Company 40 
 
 Franklin Fire Company 16 
 
 Liberty Hose Company 23 
 
 Crystal Hose Company 25 
 
 Neptune Engine Company 30 
 
 Relief Engine Company 27 
 
 Phoenix Hose Company 32 
 
 Niagara Hose Company 30 
 
 Columbia Hose Company 35 
 
 Gen. Phinney Engine Company Stii 
 
 Eagle Engine Company ,, 26 
 
 Excelsior Hose Company 40 
 
 Invincible Hose Company 30 
 
 Total 390. 
 
 MAYORS AND THE JUDICIARY. 
 
 From 1826 to 1834 there was but a single justice of the peace- 
 in the valley between Pittston and Carbondale, and this one 
 was Elisha S. Potter, whose small office stood in the village of 
 Providence, now the First Ward in Scranton City. Before this, 
 simple court, before whom no lawyer had ever appeared, lesa, 
 than a dozen cases were tried each year. Theny.w.eiriQ.no national 
 
456 APPENDIX. 
 
 jealousies nor prejudices then ; and the few white men scattered 
 along the stream were all brothers, and the duties upon the farm 
 demanded more attention from the good-natured settlers than 
 useless litigation. 
 
 Then came Esquire Fellows, Heermans, Slocum, Bristol, Pot- 
 ter, Leach, Ward, Derby, Jay, Spencer, Koon, Von Storch, 
 Miller, Collings, and many others prior to the development of 
 Scranton into a place demanding a Mayor's Court. 
 
 The first mayor of the city of Scranton was E. S. M. Hill, 
 editor of the Scranton Register, who was elected in 1866 for three 
 yeai-s ; the second was William N. Monies, elected in 1869 for 
 three years ; the third was M. W. Loftus, elected in 1872 for 
 three years ; the fourth was E. H. McKune, elected in 1875 for 
 three years ; the fifth was T. V. Powderly, elected in 1878 for 
 two years, re-elected in 1880 for two years, and again re-elected 
 ill 1882 for two years; the sixth was F. A. Beamish, elected in 
 1884 for two years. 
 
 AV. G. Ward, a shrewd and able lawyer, was elected the first 
 judge to preside over the Mayor's Court in October, 1870, and 
 he entered upon the discharge of the duties of his office the 1st 
 of December, 1870. He resigned, to take eff'ect the last day of 
 November, 1875. 
 
 His court lacked in dignity, but the good, honest sense and 
 ways of the judge served the people well, and made him popular 
 as a judge, and gave his court great character for fairness and 
 impartialit}'. 
 
 A single incident will illustrate the character of his court. 
 In a commonwealth suit, where a woman was on trial for selling 
 liquor without license, after one or two witnesses had been 
 sworn upon each side, it was apparent to the judge that the 
 woman was guilt}'. To save time he directed that the jury 
 return such a verdict from the box. In passing a paper along 
 for the juiymen to sign, one man shook his head and refused to 
 sign such a verdict, but wished to retire and consult. The judge 
 saw the hesitating juryman, and, raising and crossing his legs 
 upon the table before him, exclaimed, "Wishes to retire and 
 consult! Why, any juryman who fails to bring in a verdict of 
 guilty under such evidence is guilty of perjury !" 
 
 He was followed by Hon. W. H. Stanton, who filled the 
 
APPENDIX. 157 
 
 position very creditably until he resigned his commission some 
 three years afterwards. He is now pi-actising law and editing 
 the Scranton Democrat. 
 
 In 1874, Hon. John Handley was elected judge. He took 
 his seat upon the bench in 1875, and served faithfully until his 
 term expired in 1885. During the most critical and exciting 
 period in the histor}^ of Scranton, Judge Handley presided with 
 singular judicial grace and ability, and his rulings, covering 
 thousands of cases, simple and intricate, were those dictated by 
 sound sense, a clear perception of law and justice, and were 
 considered fair to both sides. He retired from the bench with 
 all the honors earned by the lamented Judge Mallory, Jessup, 
 Conyngham, and Woodward, of old Luzerne, carrying with him 
 the respect of the bar and the people without regard to politics. 
 The time will come when he will be accorded by all men the 
 place in the history of Scranton to which he is entitled as the 
 foremost jurist that the county has ever produced. 
 
 Bentlej' was appointed judge of Lackawanna County the 
 2l8t of August, 1878, and organized his courts on the 2d of 
 Sejnember, 1878, which he presided over until the 14th of 
 October, 1878, when the Supreme Court decided he was acting 
 without authority, and ordered a peremptory mandamus to 
 Judges Harding, Handley, and Stanton to organize and open 
 the courts in Lackawanna County, which they did on the 24th 
 of October, 1878. 
 
 Hon. Alfred Hand was elected judge of Lackawanna County 
 in 1879. He went upon the bench in 1880. He weai"8 his 
 judicial robes with honor, and for the last five years he has 
 been acting in this capacity has fulfilled the expectations of his 
 many friends. It is I'are to find a man to question his opinion 
 as a thorough and lucid jurist. 
 
 Hon. Egbert W. Archbat.d was elected judge in 1884, and 
 was inducted upon the bench in 1885. He is a young man of 
 promise, one of broad mind and liberal views, but he has had 
 no time as yet to demonstrate his fitness for the position he 
 fills; yet he is the son of a remarkable man, whose life was 
 spent to benefit his fellow-man, and whose conduct and char- 
 acter were such during a long life that the world where he was 
 known felt a loss, at his death. 
 
^58 APPENDIX. 
 
 The legal fraternity are repi'esented in Semnton to the 
 number of seventy-six. 
 
 OUR PHYSICIANS. 
 
 Thirty-nine years ago, in 1846, there were but two doctors 
 between Pittston and Carbondale, Dr. Silas B. Eobinson, who 
 died in 1860, and the writer. Dr. Throop had I'emoved from 
 Providence to Carbondale, where Dr. Thomas Sweet and Dr. Eaf- 
 erty resided, while in Pittston Dr. Anson H. Curtis practised. 
 
 Dr. Gideon Underwood, now of Pittston, was the first medicali 
 man to locate in Scranton, in the summer of 1846, but as the 
 town was too small and the practice too poor to support a, 
 physician, he removed to Northmoreland, Wyoming County,, 
 Pa. Dr. W. H. Pier settled in Hyde Park the same year. 
 Since that time until now doctors have rushed into Scranton,. 
 and at the present time there are eighty of them here. 
 
 In 1855 a medical society, embracing the physicians of the- 
 upper end of then Luzerne County, was formed in Scranton, 
 with such able men as B. A. Bouton, A. Davis, Silas M.. Wheeler, 
 Washington Gr. Nugent, and George W. Masser — all sleeping 
 in the silent hills — as members. It dissolved in 1868. A 
 few years since a new society, with the veteran Dr. Throop as 
 president, sprang into being, and it bids fair to become an 
 organization of mutual advantage both to the public and the 
 profession. 
 
 THE DELAWARE AND HUDSON CANAL COMPANY. 
 
 This corporation belongs neither to New York nor Pennsyl-. 
 vania. It was the joint product of both States, — a reciprocity 
 of mutual interests. Who can estimate the impulse given to the 
 city of New York by the introduction of anthracite upon the 
 island of Manhattan by this company, and who would have 
 fathomed the solitude of the Lackawanna if the moneyed men 
 of this city had withheld the material aid whereby its coal de- 
 velopment was inspired and hastened? Without the fuel-beds 
 of Pennsylvania to respond to the demands of New York City, 
 there would have been no right of way for canal or railroad 
 solicited from the Keystone State by individuals able to con. 
 ceive an enterprise that, with all their intellectual status, they 
 
DR. SII,AS B. ROBINSON. 
 
APPENDIX. 461 
 
 ■were unable to mature without the assistance of the more 
 advanced and magnanimous capitalists of that city. 
 
 Much of the brain-power was Pennsylvanian ; most of the 
 money entering into the corporation, first and last, came from 
 the Empire State. Thus conceived by men of one Slate and 
 vitalized by those from another, much of its present manage- 
 ment and inspiration comes from Pennsylvania. 
 
 Maurice and William Wurts, occupying the frontispiece of 
 early coal literature in the Lackawanna Valley, who educated the 
 mountains to extend a warm hand to inland and seaboard cities 
 everywhere, were Pennsylvanians. Thomas Dickson, late presi- 
 dent of the company, who carved legible and lasting characters 
 of success upon the growth and history of the corporation, al- 
 though cradled among the Scottish hills, was claimed as a Penn- 
 sylvanian in everything but birth ; while Pi-esident Olyphant 
 and CoE F. Young, of Honesdale, General Manager; A. H. Vand- 
 LiNG, of Scranton, Superintendent of the Coal Deparlmeni ; 
 Joseph J. Albright, of Scranton, Sole Agent Southern and 
 Western Department; R. Manville, Carbondale, Superintendent 
 of the Eailroad Department; Edward W. Weston, Providence, 
 General Agent of Real Estate Department ; Henry F. Athertdn. 
 G-eneral Paymaster of the Pennsylvania Division; Asher M. 
 Atkinson, Honesdale, Superintendent of the Canal Depart- 
 ment; Jared M. Chittenden, of Scranton, General Outside 
 Superintendent of Coal Breakers ; E. R. Peckens, of Plymouth, 
 Assistant Outside Superintendent; Chris, and Ed. Scharar and 
 Andrew Nichols, Mining Engineers, are all Pennsylvanians by 
 birth, with two exceptions, and it would be folly to question the 
 wholesome qualifications of these gentlemen, or the executive 
 ability with which their respective departments at the coal- 
 producing terminus of the company are managed year after 
 year. 
 
 In a broader sense than mere local pride, it matters little 
 which commonwealth preponderates in coal or capital as long 
 as both States share advantageously by the union. 
 
 This organization finds no parallel in America. It stands 
 alone. No other association of men so clearly illustrates what 
 harmonious capital and labor can accomplish as does this. The 
 first one in America that introduced and then abandoned a loco- 
 
402 APPENDIX. 
 
 motive, the second one ever constructed upon the continent, it 
 has in its development excited jealousy and admiration, range 
 praise and open hostility, while it ever and always paid dollar 
 for dollar, inaugurated the system* of monthly cash payments, 
 and maintained its high character for fairness and good faith in 
 dealing with its employes and the public that was established 
 by the managers of the company at its inception. 
 
 In 1826, when the corporation was sadly embarrassed, the 
 State of New York, impelled by the wise policy which had 
 given character to the administration of Governor De Witt 
 Clinton, loaned its credit to the company for $500,000. When 
 this became due, principal and interest were paid promptly, and 
 this instance is recorded as the only one where indebtedness to 
 the State was thus ever paid. 
 
 According to Mine Inspector Blewitt's annual report for 1884, 
 this compan}' operate sixteen collieries, emplo}^ 4291 men, and 
 mined and carried to market last year 1,624,444 tons of anthra- 
 cite. Its main office is in Scranton. 
 
 COAL WASTE AND COAL-BREAKERS. 
 
 No old resident of the coal region can forget the time when 
 no other kind of coal was seen or sold but lump coal. The 
 miner or laborer, immured in his lengthened chamber, with pick 
 and drill, broke up the larger lumps in the mine simply to facili- 
 tate easier loading into mine cars. In this form anthracite was 
 carried to market, and broken only as it was used, without 
 waste. Until within corapai'atively a short period no prepared 
 coal found its way into recognition and use. Each piece was 
 fractured by hand with the same patient labor that wood, drawn 
 from the forest in logs, required repeated strokes from the axe- 
 man to fit it for the fireplace. 
 
 One of the greatest conspirators of modern times against 
 economy is that invention of the devil known as a coal-breaker, 
 an institution that inaugurated a system of waste and loss of 
 anthracite beyond repair and almost beyond measure. When 
 posterity contemplates the flattened hills and culm-filled valleys 
 a century hence, this enemy will be taunted as the great robber 
 of the continent. 
 
 It was a disastrous day for all anthracite regions when com- 
 
APPENDIX. 463 
 
 peiing coal men assented to waste a third part of the coal by 
 breaking and screening it, for the sake of saving the remaining 
 two liirds in a prepared form. The eruptions of culm piles, 
 heightened into pyramids, all formed of the purest coal, around 
 every breaker from Carbondale to Nanticoke, exhibit the cer- 
 tainty and rapidity with which our streams are being choked 
 and our mountains turned wrong side out by a process alike 
 exhausting and wasteful. True, it oflfers its advantages to the 
 indolent consumer, but how fatal to the interior and exterior 
 of our unresisting hills and valleys! 
 
 The actual loss in coal while the iron teeth and tireless jaws 
 of the breakers subdue lumps into ordinary stove coal has been 
 estimated by Daddow at 20 to 25 per cent. Some estimate the 
 waste at 30 per cent., and some lower. Colonel Price, who has 
 given the subject great attention, fixes the percentage at 20 per 
 cent. 
 
 The total output of the four great companies mining coal in 
 the Lackawanna Valley being 146,218,150 tons, would exhibit a 
 total loss of 29,243,630 tons of culm deposit. This estimate is 
 too small according to more competent judges. Jared M. Chit- 
 tenden, a gentleman who was born in Mount Pleasant in 1823, 
 and whose unquestioned good judgment and official position in the 
 Delaware and Hudson Canal Company cause him to be regarded 
 iis the best judge in the Northern Coal-Field, has investigated 
 this matter for a lifetime. After the most careful reseai'ch, 
 he found the volume of loss in coal while preparing it b}^ the 
 usual grinding or breaking process to be precisely 29^ per cent., 
 or about one-third of its real weight. 
 
 This appalling amount is a total loss to coal territory, to all 
 companies engaged in its production, and to the world at large. 
 Before half of the coal owned by companies in the valley is 
 mined, the culm piles, which ah'eady smother villages and cities 
 along the Lackawanna, will close up the valley with ground 
 coal, and obliterate the fair vale from the sight of coming gen- 
 •erations. 
 
 Within the Schuylkill, Lehigh, Lykens, Wyoming, and Lack- 
 awanna coal area lies sufficient culm to pay the national debt 
 if it could be utilized with judgment and economy. 
 
 Within a radius of three miles of the Scranton court-house 
 
464 APPENDIX. 
 
 are two liundre(] and fifty boilers where steam is generated ex- 
 clusively from culm for power purposes. The manufactureis 
 save at least $25,000 each month in this manner. Still, in 
 spite of this, 6000 tons of the purest coal are wasted every day in 
 the year, and thousands of tons accumulated in culm dumps. 
 
 The false economy of breaking up coal by machinery began 
 under the auspices of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western 
 Compan}', in Scranton, in 1852. 
 
 The first annual report of this company, made in January, 
 1854, says ''that during the present year the steam-power coal- 
 breaker at Diamond mines has been completed, the influence ot 
 which will be stated hereafter." Some years later a coal-breaker 
 rose from the mines of the Delaware and Hudson Company. In 
 1855 the Von Storch lands in Providence were leased by Piltston 
 jTien. In 1857 a company was organized, who sank the Von 
 Storch shaft and erected a steam coal-breaker, with a view of 
 sending coal over the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western 
 Railway. 
 
 These Von Storch lands were desired by Maurice and William 
 Wurts when first exploring the valley for coal. Could these 
 gentlemen, in 1812-15, have purchased this rich tract as they 
 aimed to do, opened mines, sought Cobb's instead of Eix's Gap 
 for an outlet, tenanted the unploughed acres by encouraging and 
 developing a manufacturing town, there would have been no 
 Carbondale or Honesdale, and the forests then standing upon 
 their sites might yet have rung with the merry notes of wild 
 turkeys and singing birds. 
 
 In 1857 this shaft fell into the hands of the Delaware and 
 Hudson Company, and the breaker removed to the river, half a 
 mile away, where it ran until 1874. In this year, after masti- 
 cating some 2,000,000 tons of coal and leaving its Alpine mark 
 between Providence and Scranton, it was removed to make room 
 for a new one of greater capacit}^ and greedier proportions. 
 
 William P. Miner, editor of the weekly Wilkes Barre Record, 
 was the first man in the countiy to direct attention to this and 
 other destructive features of the coal trade, in 1855, in an able 
 and earnest editorial. 
 
 No man in the country has given more thought and attention 
 to the study of coal waste than Col. J. A. Price, of Scranton. 
 
APPKNDIX. 465 
 
 He proposes by dry steam and a proportionate quantity of air 
 to employ culm as a heating agent. 
 
 He says, " The construction of the apparatus is very simple. 
 It consists of a closed ash-pit, into which one end of funnel or 
 cone-shaped pipe is inserted, the larger end being upon the out- 
 side. At the mouth of the cone is placed a steam jet, which 
 when turned on directs its volume to the neck of the cone, and 
 the tendency of the steam to spray as it leaves the jet orifice 
 carries with it a large quantity of atmosphere. The air, passing 
 through the fire, is drawn by the chimnej'-suction, being assisted 
 by the steam-blast pressure, and thus su])ports combustion, while 
 at the same time the steam passes with it, is decomposed in 
 passing through the fire-bed, and resolved into its original ele- 
 ments of hydrogen and oxygen, both powerful adjuncts of com- 
 bustion. The hydrogen gas, the most powerful of the heat 
 generating elements which is formed, is exploded at the surface, 
 and the oxygen unites in the oi-dinary manner with the carbon, 
 altogether producing a fierce cutting temperature in the fire-box." 
 
 A large number of gentlemen engaged in the manufacturing 
 business have given favorable testimonials to the colonel's plan 
 of utilizing culm as a heating agent; but even if it can be used 
 to a considerable extent as a fertilizer or a generator of steam, 
 the naked fact is still apparent that the present generation, 
 while preparing coal, is robbing succeeding ones of nearly one- 
 third of the value of the products of our mountains and valleys 
 without disturbing us in the least. 
 
 HENRY ROBERTS, M.D. 
 
 Dr. Eoberts was born in Wyoming County, Pa., in 1820, read 
 medicine, and began practice in Lacyville. He soon after re- 
 moved to Providence. In 1857 he ran and was defeated for the 
 Legislature. 
 
 In 1859 he visited California, and while en route a thousancJ 
 miles beyond the Missouri he lost the use of his right arm by 
 the accidental discharge of a gun. After his recovery he visited 
 for six months various places in California before he returned to 
 Providence in 1861. During the invasion of the State in 1863 
 he enrolled a company of men in twent3'-four hours, accom- 
 panying them to Harrisburg as volunteer surgeon. In April of 
 30 
 
466 APPENDIX. 
 
 tho same year he was appointed one of the Examining Surgeons, 
 a position he held for twent}^ years. In 1868 was elected a 
 member of the Select Council of Scranton, and for nine consecu- 
 tive years was re-elected. In April, 1868, was appointed post- 
 mastev of Providence, and was only removed in 1884, after the 
 city of Scranton had practised the game of Jonah on the whale 
 in Providence. 
 
 Dr. Eoberts is regarded as a man of excellent judgment, and 
 he stands high as a physician and as a man. 
 
 HON. LEWIS PUGHE. 
 
 The city of Carbondale has contributed many of its best busi- 
 ness-men to the growth and development of Scranton within the 
 last three decades, — the late Colonel Monies and Joseph Gillispie, 
 two energetic men, William H. Eichmond, of the Hillside Farm, 
 Notary Public John M. Poor, Horatio S. Pierce, the successful 
 banker, — but none of them have been brought more pi"ominently 
 before the public than Mr. Pughe. 
 
 Truth, a most able newspaper, published in Scranton by Hon. 
 John E. Barrett, paid the following tribute to this prominent 
 stove manufacturer : 
 
 " The Hon. Lewis Pughe, who was recently the recipient of 
 numerous congratulations on the celebration of his sixty-fifth 
 birthday, is a happy illustration of the self-made man Avho owes 
 his success to honest industry and careful business management. 
 He was born in North Wales in 1820, and came to this country 
 in 1844, when he settled in Carbondale, the pioneer city of the 
 Lackawanna Valley, of which he had the honor of being elected 
 first city treasurer, and subsequently alderman and associate 
 judge of the Mayor's Court. A valuable tribute to his popu- 
 larity with all classes was his election as a Eepublican to the 
 Pennsylvania Legislature in the year 1859, at a time when the 
 district comprised the entire county of Luzerne, with a Demo- 
 ci-atic majority of over 2500. In 1867 he became a resident of 
 Scranton, and a partner in the well-known and eminently suc- 
 cessful firm of Monies & Pughe. In the year 1872 he was 
 elected a member of the Pennsylvania Constitutional Conven- 
 tion, and in that body was generally esteemed by his associates 
 for his fine social qualities, as well as for his comprehensive 
 
LEWIS PUGHE. 
 
APPENDIX. 469 
 
 views on all public questions, and the thorough knowledge of 
 the needs of the people, which he brought to the consideration 
 of all the important provisions which now form the organic law 
 of the State. It was in that convention that the way was paved 
 for the creation of a new county, and to the earnest labors and 
 convincing arguments of Lewis Pughe in resisting propositions 
 which, if adopted, would prove fatal to the project and prevent 
 the necessary legislation, the people of this valley are indebted 
 for the existence to-day of the flourishing county of Lacka- 
 wanna, with its capital in this city. All the power of Wilkes 
 Barre was directed against such a measure at the outset. But 
 when the late Chief-Justice Woodward, who was a member of 
 the convention, listened to Mr. Pughe's convincing argument, 
 bristling with statistics showing the wonderful resources that 
 made old Luzerne an empire in itself, he was so well pleased, 
 and so deeply impressed with the gi-and tribute paid to the 
 county's greatness, that he immediately declared to Mr. Pughe 
 ihat he would not interpose any obstacle that might prevent the 
 division of the county. Mr. Pughe was one of the Presidential 
 elector.s on the Hayes and Wheeler ticket in 1876. He was one 
 of the originators of the Scranton Board of Trade, and to his 
 efforts the Scranton Poor District is indebted for the wholesome 
 reforms which have made the Hillside Farm the model institu- 
 tion of its kind in the State. His recent election to the Board 
 of Health gives promise of needed reforms in that body. What- 
 ever he undertakes to do he believes in doing thoroughly, and 
 as he is still active, mentally and phj'sically, it is right to pre- 
 dict for him many years of usefulness. Mr. Pughe takes a deep 
 interest in educational as well as charitable matters. He was a 
 school director in Carbondale ibr ten 3-ears ; was a member of 
 the board of the old Fourth District, this city, and i-ecently 
 served a term on the Scranton School Board, where ho was a 
 valued and progressive member. He is president and one of the 
 largest stockholders of the Pittston Stove Company, one of the 
 most successful manufacturing establishments of its kind in the 
 country, with a capital of $100,000. Mr. Pughe's nature is 
 cosmopolitan, and he knows neither sect, creed, nor luitionality 
 in doing good." 
 
470 APPENDIX. 
 
 THE STRIKES. 
 
 Throughout the entire Northern Coal-Field mining was sus- 
 pended from the middle of May, 1869, to the middle of Septem- 
 ber. If the good effects of the war in stimulating the extraor- 
 dinary yet artificial demands for coal that it did, and beguiling 
 unneeded labor to the coal-fields that now creates its own em- 
 barrassment, were once acknowledged by all, then it must be 
 confessed that whatever apparent advantage was gained b}'- its 
 existence at the time has been thrice counterbalanced- by subse- 
 quent strikes, stops, and suspensions that have followed each 
 other, and that must inevitably follow while the means for pro- 
 ducing coal are so far in excess of its demands and consumption. 
 
 About the first of December, 1870, all the coal-producing com- 
 panies of this region ordered a reduction of wages. This resulted 
 in a strike known as the long strike, whose baneful influence 
 still shadows bankrupt merchants with hopeless indebtedness as 
 a reward for trusting in credit. All mines but private ones for 
 local trade were idle and silent. The immediate cause of the 
 strike was the reduction of wages of miners and laborers; the 
 remote cause, the great excess of mine labor. The plain truth is, 
 that for the amount of coal now demanded there are, by far, too 
 many miners and too many mines for its production. 
 
 When the fresh agricultural grounds of the West or the warmer 
 acres of the South invite the personal and permanent attention 
 of at least one-third of our miners and laborers, the remainder 
 can find remunerative employment, and prosperity will then, 
 and not till then, return to enrich and enliven the banks of the 
 Lackawanna. 
 
 The system of suspension inaugurated in 1869 by the miners, 
 whose association embraced the entire anthracite region, for the 
 avowed purpose of curtailing the production, was alike disas- 
 trous to coal companies, to the miner, and to the consumer. 
 
 The only safe remedy for over-production is the natural law 
 of trade, and to mine no more coal than can be readily sold and 
 consumed, for coal is a necessitj' rather than a luxury. 
 
 Concessions were made upon each side and work resumed in 
 the mines upon terms considered more favorable to the miners 
 than before. 
 
• Al'l'KNDlX. 471 
 
 The great excess of mine labor and other causes made itself 
 felt beyond precedent in 1877. It resulted in the greatest sus- 
 pension on record among us. 
 
 At noon, July 23, the employes of the rolling-mills, steel- 
 works, and machine-shops of the Lackawanna Iron and Coal 
 Company discontinued work and made a demand for an increase 
 of 25 per cent, on their wages. In the afternoon the firemen 
 employed by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad 
 and the engineers in the yard made a demand on Superintendent 
 Halstead, which not being complied with, the engines were run 
 into the round-house and the men ceased work. 
 
 On the arrival of the morning train on the Delaware, Lack- 
 awanna and Western road, July 24, a committee of the firemen 
 detached the passenger cars from the mail and express cars, and 
 then informed Mr. Halstead that the mail and express cars could 
 go thi-ough. Mr. Halstead informed them that the entire train 
 must go or none at all. 
 
 During the day the trains on all the roads leading into the 
 city were discontinued. On the 25th a committee from the mine 
 employes made a demand for an increase of 25 per cent, of wages. 
 The excitement in the valley and adjacent coal-fields began to be 
 intense. Kobert H. McKune was mayor of the city of Scranton, 
 and upon iiim all parties looked for relief and safety. 
 
 Samuel Sloan, President of the Delaware, Lackawanna and 
 Western Railway ; Thomas Dickson, President of the Delaware 
 and Hudson Canal Company ; W. W. Scranton, General Mana- 
 ger of the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company; W. R. Storrs, 
 General Coal Agent for the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western 
 Railway ; and F. S. Lathrop, Receiver of the Central Road of New 
 Jersey, all importuned the mayor by telegraph or letter for the 
 pi'otection of property they respectively represented, while he 
 was engaged in consulting Governor Hartranft, Colonel Osborne^ 
 and others in authority, for assistance and for a solution of the 
 increasing trouble. 
 
 Idleness in the valley was supreme. It was a long, dull Sab- 
 bath day. No coal trains, no men at work, little business, and 
 no confidence; merchants, men, and operators were impover- 
 ished, trade stood still, and all parties suffered. July 26, Gov- 
 ernor Hartranft having made a request for United States troops, 
 
472 APPENDIX. 
 
 the President issued a proclamation ordering General Hancock 
 to furnish them. During the day a meeting of Ihe mine em- 
 ployes was held at the Eound Woods, in the lower western limits 
 of the city. The shops of the Delaware, Lackawanna and West- 
 ern Railroad Company were all idle. Strong men doing nothing, 
 many of them strangers, loitered along the streets with no defi- 
 nite object in view. On the morning of the 29th a head-house. 
 No. 5, on the Pennsylvania Coal Company, was burned by an 
 incendiary. A bridge on the line was also burned, thus render- 
 ing this road from Pittston to Hawley inoperative, and debarred 
 the shipment of 30,000 tons of coal per week. The idle mines 
 were being flooded, and the outlook was gloomy and ominous. 
 
 On the next morning, July 30, the mayor sent for the execu- 
 tive committee of the firemen and informed them that he had 
 determined that if Mr. Halstead had men to run a train to New 
 York, one should leave the city that afternoon ; that he so far 
 had refused military aid that had been proffered, and he hoped 
 that he would not have to call upon troops to protect the trains. 
 A meeting of the firemen was held at two o'clock, at which this 
 proposition was made known and discussed, and by a decided 
 vote it was resolved to resume work after a seven days' suspen- 
 sion. The miners and shop hands still stood out. 
 
 John Brisbin, who died February, 1880, was the only promi- 
 nent man in the valley who had the entire confidence of the 
 miners, men, and the corporations. He had the singular faculty 
 of making everybody his friend. He believed that the miners 
 had rights equally to be respected with those of the company 
 he represented. 
 
 The committee, of mine employes appointed at the Round 
 Woods meeting chose Mr. Brisbin, whom they met at Mayor 
 McKune's office, as arbitrator, where, after discussing their differ- 
 ences for two hours, an agreement satisfactory to both parties 
 was concluded. 
 
 A full statement of their grievances was made by the com- 
 mittee ; the discussion was carried on in the most cordial man- 
 ner, and at the breaking up of the conference the committee 
 cordially thanked Mr. Brisbin for the fair and manlj' course he 
 had acted towards them. 
 
 When the conference broke up the best of feeling prevailed 
 
APPENDIX. 47;i 
 
 upon both sides. When the result was announced upon the 
 streets every one was happy, and the mayor was heartily con- 
 gratulated upon the results of the good work. 
 
 Early on the morning of August 1 the streets leading to the 
 silk-works were filled by miners and others going to the meeting 
 called at this point. Six thousand persons were present, incen- 
 diary speeches were made, and it was resolved to stop by force 
 the various works of the machine-shops, furnaces, and foundries 
 at once. 
 
 At this time Mayor McKune appeared upon the streets. As 
 he reached the corner of Lackawanna and Washington Avenues 
 he was met by a messenger from Mr. McKinney, the foreman of 
 the railroad car-shop, asking for his presence at the office. He 
 and his friends then went in that direction. The whole space 
 from the office to the main railroad tracks was filled by at 
 least five thousand persons, who were going through the shops, 
 driving away the few who were willing to work. As the mayor, 
 on his return, was opposite the main entrance of the shop the 
 angry crowd was emerging. Around him quite a multitude had 
 gathered. The leader of the gang cried out, " Who is it ?" 
 "The maj'or," some one replied. The leader then shouted out, 
 "Kill him! He has no business here!" Immediately several 
 pistol-shots w^ere fired, and the mayor was struck in the back 
 with a club, which caused the blood to spurt from his mouth, 
 and was also hit by a number of stones. He was prompth' sur- 
 rounded by workingmen, who strove earnestly for his safety. 
 They were nearly overpowered, when the Rev. Father Dunn, 
 of St. Vincent's Cathedral, arrived upon the scene, who, taking 
 the arm of the mayor, proceeded towards Washington Avenue. 
 They had gone but a few steps when a man jumped in front of 
 McKune, struck him a severe blow with a slung-shot, breaking 
 his upper jaw and fracturing the roof of his mouth. By this 
 time the excited crowd overpowered those in the rear and 
 rushed upon the unarmed mayor. A portion of it caught up 
 Father Dunn, and carried him away from the scene of conflict. 
 
 In the mean time the maj'or passed under the railroad culvert. 
 On arriving at the corner of Lackawanna Avenue he was met 
 by some of the posse that had been organized at the commence- 
 ment of the strike, and for whom he had sent when first at- 
 
474 APPENDIX. 
 
 tacked. They were coming to his assistance. He beckoned to 
 them to come on. He intended to make a stand at his office, 
 two blocks down the street. As he turned to go down the 
 avenue he was struck a blow on the head b}^ a hammer, which 
 for some minutes rendered hira unconscious. He was carried 
 by his police into the Merchants' Bank, where he regained 
 consciousness soon after. 
 
 In the mean time the pursuing populace was following the 
 avenue, and began an attack on the armed posse that had 
 issued from the company's store. A few shots were fired over 
 the heads of the crowd for the purpose of intimidating it, but it 
 failed to do so. When the posse had reached the corner of 
 Washington Avenue it halted and formed. Pistol-shots were 
 fired by the crowd, wounding Sheriff Bortree and Carl McKin- 
 ney. Orders were now given to fire. The company wheeled, 
 and out of forty muskets flashed the fatal bullets. Some aimed 
 over the crowd, others fired into it, killing four and wounding 
 a number of others. 
 
 This unexpected shot dispersed the people in every direction, 
 but volley after volley was fired until the streets were clear. 
 
 The scene of conflict presented a warlike spectacle. On the 
 corner of the street lay a man with the top of his head blown 
 off", and his brains and blood reddened the sidewalk, while three 
 others in the middle of the street were struggling in the last 
 agonies of death, and the wounded were being carried homo 
 or into di'ug-stores by their friends. 
 
 About two o'clock crowds again began to assemble on Lack- 
 awanna Avenue. The report had gone out that the mayor had 
 been killed, and that no other person was qualified to direct and 
 control the posse. He, however, in company with Colonel Eip- 
 ple, at the head of the police and a detachment of the halt- 
 organized squad, marched down the avenue, and cleared the 
 streets of people. 
 
 Early the next moi'ning. General Brinton, with three thou- 
 sand troops, arrived from Pittsburg, and were stationed here for 
 several weeks. The presence of this force insured order and 
 safety to persons and property that was salutary upon all sides. 
 
 Mayor McKune, maltreated by persons who sought his life 
 simply because he was mayor and nothing else, discharged his 
 
APPENDIX. 477 
 
 duties faithfully and fearlessly during this ci*itieal and exciting 
 episode in the history of Scranton, as tiie testimonials of thou- 
 sands of the citizens gave hiiu written assurance afterwards. 
 
 For several weeks after this laiuentablc occurrence in Scran- 
 ton, idle men gathered in groups and discussed the situation, de- 
 ploring the affray of August 1, while in the lower end of Luzerne 
 County, at Wilkes Barre, Plymouth, antl Nunticoke, the vexed 
 question of capital and labor was dangerously discussed for a 
 time. The presence of the militia, followed by regular troops, 
 stationed in Providence for a month, brought wiser counsels to 
 bear in this region, and from that time until now have produced 
 those harmonious relations between the workingmen and their 
 employers that now happily exist. 
 
 THE THIRTEENTH REGIMENT. 
 
 The long strike, while it accomplished no real good to any- 
 body, and defined no policy for future agencies, brought into 
 being the Thirteenth Eegiraent Infantry, Third Brigade, Na- 
 tional Guards. The genius of our people is not militarj^ and 
 nothing but the necessity of military' power, made apparent by 
 the events in the summer of 1877, developed this regiment. 
 
 On the 14th day of August of this year the Scranton City 
 Guards were organized by the union of Company A, Captain 
 Bryson ; Company B, Captain S. C. Mei-rian ; Company C, Caj)- 
 tain H. A. Courson ; Company D, Captain E. H. Eipple, under the 
 command of Major H. M. Boies and Adjutant F. L. Hitchcock. 
 
 In October, 1878, the regiment was organized upon the foun- 
 dation offered by the battalion of the Scranton City Guards. 
 
 The original officers of the I'egiment were : 
 
 Field and Staff. — Major H. M. Boies, Commandant; First 
 Lieutenant F. L. Hitchcock, Adjutant; Captain H. A. Kinngs- 
 burry, Commissary. 
 
 Won- Commissioned Staff. — H. N. Bunnell, Sergeant-Major ; S. 
 G. Kerr, Quartermaster-Sergeant; G. H. Madox, Commissary- 
 Sergeant ; W. W. Ives, Hospital Steward ; M. D. Smith and 
 Edward Brady, Principal Musicians ; and John J. Coleman, Bat- 
 talion Clerk. 
 
 Line Officers. 
 
 Company A. — Captain, A. Bryson, Jr.; First Lieutenants, D. 
 
478 APPENDIX 
 
 Bartholomew, H. A. Knapp ; Second Lieutenant, William Kel- 
 iow. 
 
 Company C. — Captain, A. H. Courson ; First Lieutenant, J. E. 
 Brown ; Second Lieutenant, L. A. Watres. 
 
 Company D. — Captain, E. H. Ripple ; First Lieutenant, J. A. 
 Linen ; Second Lieutenant, Samuel Hines. 
 
 Subsequently other companies were added to the battalion, 
 which was then organized into a regiment, composed of young 
 men of Scranton, Stroudsbui'g, Honesdale, and Factoryville, 
 whose character for sobriety, integrity, and every manly element 
 compares favorably with any other regiment within the State. 
 The regiment went into camp for instructions and drill at Long 
 Branch, N. J., in August, 1879, and in Lebanon, in July, 1885, 
 for seven days, where its appearance and demeanor were highly 
 commended by all. At two inaugurations it has appeared in 
 Washington, eliciting admiration by its soldierly bearing and its 
 gentlemanly deportment. The following are the officers : 
 
 Field and Staff. — Colonel, F. L. Hitchcock ; Lieutenant-Colonel, 
 
 E. H. Eipple ; Major, H. A. Coursen ; Adjutant, C. C. Mattes ; 
 Quartermaster, John P. Albro ; Surgeon, H. V. Logan, M.D. ; 
 Assistant Surgeons, A. J. Connell, M.D., C. L. Frey, M.D. 
 
 Non- Commissioned Staff. — Sergeant-Major, E. J. Dimmick; 
 •Quartermaster-Sergeant, A. P. Bradford ; Commissary-Sergeant, 
 L. M. Horton ; Hospital Steward, Edward Evans. 
 
 Line Offieers. 
 Company A. — Captain, L. A. Watres; First Lieutenant, George 
 
 F. Barnard; Second Lieutenant, M. J. Andrews. 
 
 Company B. — Captain, William Kellow ; First Lieutenant, H. 
 R. Madison ; Second Lieutenant, W. S. Millar. 
 
 Company C. — Captain, James Moir; First Lieutenant, AVilliam 
 B. Henwood ; Second Lieutenant, Charles W. Grunster. 
 
 Company D. — Captain, George B. Thompson ; First Lieutenant, 
 William A. May ; Second Lieutenant, 
 
 Company E (Honesdale). — Captain, Henry Wilson ; First Lieu- 
 tenant, W. H. Stanton. 
 
 Company F. — Captain, Roger L. Burnett. 
 
 Company G (Factoryville). — Captain, Charles W. Dopuj- ; First 
 Lieutenant, E. 0. Smith : Second Lieutenant, Abel D. Gardner. 
 
APPENDIX. 479 
 
 Company i? (Providence). — Captain, J. B. Fish; First Lieu- 
 tenant, W. B. Eockwell ; Second Lieutenant, Charles T. Weston, 
 
 Company I. — Captain Burke, of Parnell Guards. 
 
 A large armory has been erected in Scranton for its accom- 
 modation. 
 
 Company H, Captain J. B. Fish, of Providence, has also built 
 a substantial stone armory in the Second Ward, for the use of 
 the company and for public purposes. 
 
 AN INDUSTRIAL POINT. 
 
 Scranton is one of the best industrial centres in America. It 
 18 a great railroad centre. Over sixty trains a day come and 
 go over the roads passing through it, carrying at least one 
 thousand passengers, — the Delaware, Lackawanna and West- 
 ern, the Brie Eailway, the Philadelphia and Reading Company, 
 and the Delaware and Hudson. The Lehigh Valley and the 
 Pennsylvania Eailroad are already making towards the valley, 
 and are within a few miles of the centre of the locality. The 
 Pennsylvania Coal Company and the Bloomsburg Branch of 
 the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western road may be men- 
 tioned. 
 
 While the Delaware, Lackavvanna and Western is one of the 
 best constructed roads in the United States, it is also the shortest 
 route between New York and Buffalo, being 44 miles shorter 
 than the Lehigh Valley, 31 miles shorter than the New York 
 Centi-al, and 14 miles shorter than the Erie. Nearly half a 
 million of persons a year arrive and depart from its railroad 
 depot. 
 
 This magnificently-equipped road of four hundred and nine 
 miles of double track, reaching from the lakes to the sea, man- 
 aged with singular abilit}- and success by its president, Hon. 
 Samuel Sloan, and his able and judicious superintendent, W. 
 F. Halstead, gave the first impulse to Scranton as a village in 
 1856, and now fosters and gives greater encouragement and 
 vitality to the business interests than any other factor operating 
 here. Its army of fifteen thousand men, along the main line and 
 branches, and all others, all attest to the excellence of its general 
 management. 
 
 Three of these companies pay out over twelve million of dol- 
 
480 APPENDIX. 
 
 lars per year, besides vast sums of money being paid by its 
 other business interests. About forty thousand tons of anthra- 
 cite are mined and shipped each week from this vicinity, aggre- 
 gating some 12,000,000 tons as the output for this year, thus 
 illustrating the impoi-tance of Scranton as a great business 
 centre. 
 
 This company has twenty-one collieries, employing 6086 men, 
 and mined in 1884, 2,025,530 tons of coal. 
 
 Over one hundred million pounds of freight come to this city 
 over three railroads every month, while about thirty million 
 pounds of freight are dispatched from here. 
 
 Our railroad facilities place us within five hours' ride of New 
 York or Philadelphia, within eight hours of Buffalo and Os- 
 wego and Saratoga, and within ten hours of the capital of the 
 country, indicating how accessible we are to the great business 
 and fashionable world, and to the best markets in America ; so 
 that our own markets can be stocked with the eai'ly luxuries of 
 the South, while the late productions of the colder North, with 
 every variety offish from the sea and the rivers of the South as 
 well as from the lakes and streams of the North, with all the 
 outcome of Eastern manufacturers and the growth of our 
 Western prairies. 
 
 Aside from the millions invested in Scranton by the various 
 railroads and coal intei-ests, over twent}^ millions are employed 
 in manufacturing interests. 
 
 THK INDU.sTRIKS OP SCEANTON. 
 
 THK DICKS >N MANUFACTURING COMPANY. 
 
 Early in 1855 the anthracite coal business of the Lackawanna 
 Valley had assumed such proportions that it was deemed neces- 
 sary that a shop for repairing mining machinery and doing what 
 little new work was needed should be started in the then 
 southern portion of the Lackawanna coal region ; and conse- 
 quently, in February, 1856, Thomas, John A., and George L. 
 Dickson, Maurice and Charles P. Wurts, Joseph, Benjamin, and 
 C. T. Pierson, came to Scranton from Carbondale, and began the 
 erection of foundry and machine-shops, under the name of 
 " Dickson & Co.," and in May of the same year ran the first 
 
APPENDIX. 481 
 
 heat of iron in their foundry, the amount melted being about 
 two tons. They started with about thirty men, the greater 
 number of which were employed in the foundry. They also 
 had a machine-shop and small blacksmith-shop. The first few 
 yeai-8 of the business were not very encouraging, and the com- 
 plement of men remained about the same, with an average 
 monthly pay-roll of about $1200. A small boiler-shop was soon 
 added to the works, but this increased the number of men only 
 by about three, most of the work in that department being 
 repairs for coal-works. Notwithstanding the depression of 1857, 
 the works managed to keep in operation, and were enlarged 
 from time to time. 
 
 In 1862 the company was incorporated under the name of 
 The Dickson Manufacturing Company, with an actual capital of 
 $150,000, and an authorized capital of $300,000. The first offi- 
 cers of the company were : President, Thomas Dickson ; Secre- 
 tary and Treasurer, George L. Dickson ; Master Mechanic, John 
 A. Dickson. The number of men employed the first year, i.e., 
 1862, was about 150; the average daily melting of iron, three 
 tons ; monthly pay-roll, about $7500; and the sales for the fii'st 
 year were $200,000. 
 
 As the output of anthracite coal increased, the business of the 
 company increased with it, and in 1862 they purchased of 
 Messrs. Cooke and Co. the locomotive-shops known as "The 
 Cliff Works," which then had a capacity not exceeding five 
 locomotives per year. In 1864 the planing-mill adjoining the 
 Cliff Works was bought, and the manufacture of cars begun. 
 At this time (1865) they emploj^ed about 400 men, the daily 
 heats of iron were about four tons, the monthly disbursement 
 to men about $16,000, and the sales over $600,000. In 1866 the 
 foundry and machine-shops of Messrs. Lanning & Marshall, at 
 Wilkes Barre, were purchased, and a branch established there. 
 At these shops were manufactured car- wheels and axles, and 
 such repairs were executed as were needed about the coal- 
 works, the number of men employed there at that time being 
 about sixty. 
 
 The business of the company had so increased that in this 
 year the capital was enlarged to $600,000, which, however, was 
 not all issued till 1870. 
 31 
 
482 APPENDIX. 
 
 In 1867, Mr. Thomas Dickson retired from the presidency, 
 and George L. Dickson was elected president in his stead. Mr. 
 John C. Phelps, of "Wilkes Barre, was made vice-president, and 
 William H. Perkins, secretarj^ and treasurer. 
 
 With the rapid growth in the valley the company kept pace, 
 the locomotive-shops were enlarged, and in 1869 a large brick 
 foundry was built at the Penn Avenue shops ; this helped the 
 business of the Cliff Works as well as the general work, and as 
 additions had from time to time been made to the locomotive- 
 shops, their capacity was, in 1870, four engines per month. The 
 company then employed about 500 men at their three places, 
 the daily heats of iron aggregated about seven tons, the pay- 
 rolls were about $20,000, and the sales amounted to about 
 $975,000. In 1874 the Cliff Works were destroyed by fire, 
 entailing a large loss to the company. The work of rebuilding 
 was at once begun, and very much improved buildings replaced 
 those burned down, new tools of the most modern design were 
 put in, and the capacity of the shops increased to sixt}^ locomo- 
 tives per year. In 1876 the capital stock of the company was 
 further increased to $800,000, at which amount it now stands. 
 In 1878 a large brick building, three stories high, was erected 
 on the corner of Penn Avenue and Vine Street, to be used as a 
 store for the sale of shop and mine supplies, general ofiices and 
 storage-house, and the upper floors for the storage of patterns. 
 The depression of business from 1873 to 1878 was, of course, 
 greatly felt, but all departments were kept at work with a not 
 very large decrease of force. In 1880 about 600 men were em- 
 ployed, with a monthly pay-roll of about $30,000, and the sales 
 amounted to about $740,000 per year. 
 
 In 1882, Mr. G. L. Dickson resigned from the chair of presi- 
 dent, and Mr. H. M. Boies, who is known as one of the best 
 business men in the country, and as a gentleman of unblemished 
 character and reputation, was elected. In that year the work 
 of rebuilding the Penn Avenue shops was commenced ; a new 
 machine-shop was built, which is conceded by experts to be the 
 best-arranged shop, for the class of work done, in the country. 
 It covers 223 feet by 100 feet of ground, of which space the 
 machine-shop proper occupies 196 feet by 97 feet, together with 
 two galleries 25 feet wide running lengthwise of the building on 
 
APPENDIX. 48o 
 
 both sides, giving altogetlier an available floor-space of nearly 
 29,000 square feet. The remaining part of the ground on the 
 Vine Street end of the building is occupied by a four-stoiy 
 building. In the first story of this building are found, besides 
 the foreman's office in the tower, a large room for the storage 
 of tools and finished work, and also a very well appointed wash- 
 room. On the second (or main) floor are the superintendent's 
 office, a large reading-room for the men, and the paymaster's 
 office. On the third floor is the office of the mechanical engi- 
 neer, which has large storage facilities for drawings, the room 
 being fire-proof, and adjoining his office is a large, well-appointed 
 di-augh ting-office. A new brick pattern-shop was also built, 
 four stories in height, including the basement, 145 feet by 63 
 feet, the basement being used for storage of lumber, etc., and here 
 also is the power for driving the shop. The first or main floor 
 is used entirely for pattern-work, and the upper floors for storage 
 of lumber and patterns. The Penn Avenue shops were equipped 
 with new tools of the best and most modern design. There was 
 placed in the boiler-shop the Tweddell hydraulic system for 
 flanging and riveting. 
 
 In 1883 the company's sales amounted to over $1,400,000, 
 while the average heat of pig-iron was twenty-five tons per day. 
 At present about 1200 men are employed, with an average 
 monthly pay-roll of $50,000. The capacity of the different 
 shops at the present time is about as follows: 
 
 Penn Avenue Shops. — 600 tons of iron melted per month ; 100 
 stationary engines of all kinds, with cylinders over 22-inch 
 diameter; mining machinery of all kinds; blast-furnace and 
 steel-works machinery ; blast-engines and air-compressors ; roll- 
 ing-mill machinery of all kinds; machine-shop machinery of 
 all kinds; contractors' machinery of all kinds; water-works 
 machinery of all kinds; 20 large boilers per month, including 
 locomotive boilers ; 500 steel plate car-wiieels per month. 
 
 Cliff Works. — 100 locomotives per year. 
 
 Wilkes Barre Shops. — 150 stationary engines of all kinds, with 
 cylinders under 22-inch diameter; mining machinery of all 
 kinds; wire-rope making of all kinds; Cornish pumps of all 
 sizes; 50 cast-iron plate car-wheels per day : 200 cylinder-boilers 
 per day. 
 
484 APPENDIX. 
 
 For generating steam the company use culm, and thus save 
 man}' thousand dollars. 
 
 Their locomotives are spread over the globe. Along the 
 rugged Andes, in South America, they mutter up the sides like 
 the antelope ; on the broad prairies of the West they skim along, 
 and toil over the rocky barrier to the Golden City; and from 
 the great Valley of the St. Lawrence to the city of Mexico the 
 legend, "Dickson Manufacturing Co., Scranton, Pa.," appears 
 upon engines unsurpassed in beauty, speed, or excellence by 
 any other locomotives either in Europe or America. The officers 
 are H. M. Boies, President; W. H, Perkins, Secretary and Treas- 
 urer; and Sidney Broadbent, Superintendent. 
 
 SCRANTON BRASS- AND FILE-WORKS. 
 
 These works were founded in 1853 by John McLaren. In 
 1871, James M. Everhart became interested, when the firm 
 began largely to manufacture brass-works for water, gas, and 
 steam, also a patent superior file. 
 
 Mr. McLaren died in 1873, when Mr. Everhart became sole 
 proprietor. By the introduction of improved machinery, skilled 
 labor, and by strict attention to his affairs, he has given a high 
 character to the brass industry of this portion of the State. 
 The works give employment to a large number of men. 
 
 SCRANTON CITY FOUNDRY. 
 
 On the Hyde Park side of the Lackawanna, above the rail- 
 road bridge, is located the large foundry of Finch & Co. Ujion 
 the death of A. P. Finch, in 1881, Mr. I. A. Finch became sole 
 manager. The firm manufactures stationary and portable en- 
 gines, circular saw-mills, mining machinery, iron fronts tor 
 buildings, and all kinds of steam-heating apparatus. Their ma- 
 chinery is driven by a forty horse-power engine of their own 
 construction. Mr. Finch is a reliable man, and one of the best 
 business men in Scranton. 
 
 PLANING-MILLS. 
 
 Among the enterprises of Scranton belonging to a single indi- 
 vidual the planing-mills of Joseph Ansley excel all others in the 
 variety and excellence of machinery for fashioning lumber into 
 
APPENDIX. 485 
 
 doors, sash, flooring, blinds, sidinir, and mouldings. His build- 
 ings and bis lumbcr-j'ards occupy one aero and u half on the 
 Hyde Pai-k side above the railroad. The works were begun in 
 1848, and purchased bj' him in 1866. A seventy-five horse- 
 power engine drives the necessary machinery for dressing and 
 manipulating lumber into every i)0S8ible shape. 
 
 In 1884 his mills and yard were destroyed by fire, but his 
 indomitable energy immediately replaced them with great im- 
 pi-ovement. He sustains the highest character for probit}' and 
 fair dealing, and is considered an excellent citizen. 
 
 PROVIDENCE PLAMNU-MILL. 
 
 This old and well-known sash- and blind-factory is now man- 
 aged by Miller, Coleman & Co. It is located in Providence, the 
 First Ward of the city of Seranton. It was established by 
 Hand & Yon Storch in 1848. In the following April, Chauncy 
 Hand sold his interest to William and Gregory Yon Storch, and 
 tiiey continued the business until 1851, when it passed into the 
 hands of E. J. Hand & Son. The next year L. White joined the 
 firm, whose name was changed to Hand, White & Co. In 1862 
 the firm was Hand, Ward & Co. ; in 1863, Hand & Bristol, by 
 Judge Bristol, now of Wilkes Barre, coming in ; in 1865, Hand & 
 Costen ; in 1868, Hand, Costen & Co. ; in 1872, Costen & Spencer ; 
 in 1876, H. B. Eockwell ; in 1879, Wm. B. Eockwell ; and in 1884 
 by its present proprietors. 
 
 The works are run by steam-power, with the most improved 
 machinery for converting wood into every desired shape for use, 
 and through the intervening change of firms has enjoyed and 
 still enjoys a large trade in the Lackawanna Yalley. Jason H. 
 Johnson and his partners, Messrs. Millei- and Coleman, enjoy the 
 reputation of honorable business men. 
 
 SCRANTON STOVE-WORKS. 
 
 In 1840 there was but a single foundry iti the valley where 
 stoves were cast. Where the present Capouse Works of the late 
 Mr. Carter, in Providence, stands, Mr. Tilston made two patterns 
 of stoves. Grates were in general use, and were cast in great 
 abundance. 
 
 Stephen and John Tunstall afterwards opened a stove-foundrj' 
 
486 APPENDIX. 
 
 in the village of Providence, which, after a time, passed into the 
 hands of H. O. Silkman. It was finally burned. 
 
 Among the very largest interests of this city, the Scranton 
 Stove- Works stand conspicuously in the foreground. It is not 
 in the sense of manufacturing exclusively that these works have 
 served to very materially develop the local resources of our city, 
 but in the general and positive upholding of the many advan- 
 tages Scranton possesses for all classes of manufacturing and 
 wholesale features of trade. 
 
 The unremitting exertions to develop the unfathomable re- 
 sources lying at our very doors have not only served to demon- 
 strate scientific facts regarding it, but have been the source 
 which has carried the name of Scranton beyond the boundary 
 lines of this continent. 
 
 From nine to thirteen tons of stove-castings are turned out 
 per da}'. This product takes the shape of this famous cook and 
 healing stoves, dockasb series, which are known beyond the Mis- 
 sissippi Eiver, as well as through the Eastern mai'kets. The 
 works cover an area of two acres, and give emploj^ment to 150 
 hands. 
 
 No compliment which we can bestow would be greater than 
 to say that, among the leaders of this trade in the country, the 
 works in question have no rivals, which is borne out b}^ the 
 great extent of their trade, and certainly no statement is more 
 merited, or will be more readily endorsed by their numerous 
 patrons. It remains for us to say that the firm has every facil- 
 ity for doing the largest trade in stove-castings between Phila- 
 delphia and Pittsburg. The roster is composed of J. A. Price, 
 President; J. A. Lansing, Secretary; A, C. Fuller, Treasurer. 
 
 GREEN RIDGE. 
 
 In 1868, Green Eidge had no name or being. Upon the 
 ancient lands of John Dings, Joshua Grifiin, Henry Whaling, 
 and Michael Lutz, embracing a green slope on the east side of 
 the Lackawanna, opposite the Indian meadow of Capoose, a 
 mile from the court-house, this village or appendage of Scranton 
 has emerged within the last two decades. Hon. George San- 
 derson, the founder of it, a man of strong, good sense and great 
 public spirit, enriched himself b}^ purchasing a portion of these 
 
ArPENDix. 487 
 
 acres several years ago, and encouraging a village, which, tidy 
 and hospitable as the home of a wealthy class, depends upon 
 Scranton proper for its subsistence, trade, and mail. It is the 
 northern terminus of the Lehigh and Susquehanna Division of 
 the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad. It has its churches, 
 schools, stores, and street railway, and enjoys the advantages of 
 the Delaware and Hudson Company's railroad passing through 
 it. The new jail is being erected within its border. 
 
 SCRANTON GLASS COMPANY, LIMITED. 
 
 This young and vigorous company is located at this point. 
 The works comprise ten lots and are run by a thirty horse- 
 power engine and forty power boiler. The furnace-house is 80 
 X 100 feet, with nine ovens, which show a daily capacity for 
 handling 8000 pounds of metal. This is shown every night in 
 the form of 125 gross of bottles, in turn representing druggists' 
 glassware, beer and soda bottles, wine glasses, and flasks. 
 Eighty-five men and boys are employed throughout the furnace- 
 rooms, packing-houses, batch-house, box-shops, crucible-shop, and 
 sand- and crusher-house. The annual product will reach a value 
 amounting to $100,000. They have a standing order from one 
 liu-ge establishment in Chicago for all the ink bottles they can 
 111 like. A special force is kept on this order. Mr. Samuel Hinds 
 ib president; Charles Henwood, treasurer; and M. A. Goodman, 
 superintendent. 
 
 GREEN RIDGE IRON-WORKS, A. L. SPENCER, PROPRIETOR. 
 
 With a capital of $60,000, these works are run by three en- 
 gines, one of which is fed with culm, while the others use coal 
 costing $1.80 at the bed. An annual output of about four thou- 
 sand tons of wrought iron, which appears on the market in 
 the form of rails, bar-iron, toe-coi'k steels, strap-rails, band-iron, 
 horseshoe iron, truck- and car-axles, with something of a spe- 
 cialty in twenty-five pound iron T rails. A force of thirty men. 
 are employed. Scrap-iron is purchased by Spencer to any extent^ 
 and contracts are solicited by the Green Ridge Iron-Works for 
 working over scrap-ii'on. 
 
 Here are again displayed the direct and j)ositive facilities held 
 out by Scranton's peculiar location and other undisguised natu- 
 
488 APPENDIX. 
 
 ral advantages for the successful conduct of iron manufactui-- 
 ing. 
 
 While Lackawanna and adjacent counties supply the market 
 for the pi"oducts of these works, other sections of this and ad- 
 joining States would be equally quick to respond to a greater 
 and more diversified product. It can be added that flat, round, 
 and square iron is shown by these works. 
 
 The scrap-iron manufactured by Mr. Spencer is superior in 
 texture and durability. 
 
 UP THE VALLEY. 
 
 CARBONDALE. 
 
 This place was named before the Wurts's had erected a cabin 
 upon its site. The name was compounded by these gentlemen 
 in Philadelphia, in 1822, from carbon found in the dale. D. Yar- 
 rington, an old gentleman living in Carbondale, was boarding 
 upon the mountain, in Eix's G-ap, at that time when a lumber 
 two-horse wagon loaded with tools, powder, and camp parapher- 
 nalia, driven by a weary teamster, stopped at the Mountain Inn 
 to rest after his long journey. The teamster, upon whom de- 
 volved the task of finding the unnamed, unknown place, being 
 asked whei'e he was going with his strange load, replied, " To 
 Carbondale." No one knew where this was, but his loaded stuff 
 was prominently mai-ked in lai'ge lettei-s, " Carbondale, 143 miles 
 from Philadelphia on the Lackawanna River, Luzerne County, 
 Fenna." 
 
 Mr. Yarrington, knowing that some fellows with vague no- 
 tions of stone coal had been digging in the woods down by the 
 Lackawanna, some three miles from the Mountain Inn, directed 
 the bewildered teamster to the camp-ground under the hemlock- 
 trees, and then christened Carbondale. 
 
 William Wurts the elder paid me a visit in 1857, and gave me 
 the above facts. He then had a bad cough and was exceedingly 
 feeble. He died in 1858. 
 
 The city was the first to be incorporated within the limits of 
 Luzerne County, the act of Assembly creating it bearing date 
 March 15, 1851. On the 15th of December, 1850, a large fire de- 
 stroyed the greater portion of the village, which contained about 
 -five thousand inhabitants. 
 
APPENDIX. 489 
 
 The present population of the city is estimated at 9000. It 
 had a court-house, but the division of the county extinguished 
 its court in 1878. It has two banks, with an aggregate capital 
 of $160,000, twenty public schools, two newspapers, seven 
 churches, a superior water-works, and two military companies. 
 Horatio S. Pierce, although a resident of Scranton, is president 
 of the First National Bank, and is regarded as one of the most 
 popular and prosperous men in the Lackawanna Valley. 
 
 THE soldiers' MONUMENT. 
 
 In May, 1885, Carbondale erected a suitable monument upon 
 the square for her patriotic dead. It was the first city in Lack- 
 awanna County to place a stone to commemorate the men who 
 died to save the nation when in peril. The W. H. Davis Post, 
 Commander J. M. Alexander, and the citizens, generally, liber- 
 ally contributed to the expense of its erection. The monument 
 was dedicated on Memorial Day, May 30, with the most im- 
 pi'essive ceremony by various Posts and by the people of the 
 upper end of the county. Its erection was alike creditable to 
 the patriotism and the liberality of the citizens of Carbondale. 
 
 VAN BERGEN & CO.'s WORKS. 
 
 These works are located here. They are the oldest in the 
 county of Lackawanna, being established in 1833, under the in- 
 fluence of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company. 
 
 In 1850, J. Benjamin & Co. conducted the business. In 1873 
 the present firm entered, and made many alterations and im- 
 provements both in men and machinery. Five acres of land are 
 occupied by the machine-shops, pattern- and smith-shops, storage- 
 houses, store, and other necessary buildings. Throughout the 
 entire works the machinery is of modern design and most im- 
 proved kind, all driven by an engine of sixty horse-power. A 
 large force of qualified mechanics and machinists are constantl}* 
 engaged in building engines and all kinds of mining machinery. 
 Castings of iron and brass and car-wheels and other fixtures ai'e 
 turned out in large quantities, while repairing machinery in 
 general is made a specialty. The firm is also engaged in the 
 sale of general hardware goods, water-, gas-, and steam-pipe of 
 every description. 
 
490 APPENDIX. 
 
 Mr. J. B.Van Bergen was born in the State of New York, but 
 for many years has been a resident of Carbondale, filling several 
 offices of trust, and was elected mayor for four consecutive terms^ 
 from 1869 to 1873. 
 
 JERMYN. 
 
 Five miles below Carbondale stands the quiet village of Jer- 
 myn. A small brook, called Rush Brook, rushes through a defile 
 in the mountain, and from thence the name of Rushdale was^ 
 applied to the place ; afterwards called Baconville, then Gibson- 
 burg, and finally Jermyn, from John Jermyn, who operated here 
 in coal a few years ago. Like all the villages along the Lacka- 
 wanna, its life depends upon coal-mining, which is carried on by 
 the Delaware and Hudson Company, whose railroad runs through 
 it. Excellent water from a mountain stream comes into the vil- 
 lage, which is supplied with churches, schools, stores, hotels, and 
 drug-stores, enjoying a population of about three thousand. 
 
 THE JERMYN COFFIN- AND CASKET-WORKS. 
 
 These works are located here, and, in spite of strikes, suspen- 
 sions, and hard times, furnishes peaceful homes for the occupants 
 of a vast territory. John Jermyn is president of the company, 
 which employs thirty-five skilled workmen the year round. 
 
 MOOSIC POWDER-WORKS. 
 
 Half a mile below Jermyn is located the Moosic Powder- 
 Works. There are three powder-mills within the county in an 
 area of fifteen miles, — one on Spring Brook, at Moosic, one on 
 the mountain south of Olyphant, and this one. 
 
 The capital of this company, which was organized in 1865, 
 was $100,000, and it had a capacity of two hundred kegs a day. 
 In 1869 the firm of Laflin, Boies & Yurik, owners of the old 
 Ray nor Works at Moosic, was consolidated with the Moosic 
 Powder Company, and the capital was increased to $300,000. 
 The present capacity of the works is 1000 kegs per da3\ It is 
 in a thrifty condition. H. M. Boies is president of the company, 
 and J. C. Piatt treasurer. Both gentlemen are well known 
 and highly esteemed. Their main office is in Scranton. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 491 
 
 ARCHBAI.D. 
 
 In the wititer of 1844 civilization dawned slowly upon Arch- 
 bald, which was named from James Archbald. The narrow 
 interval, shaded by forest of pine and enlivened by the clear 
 waters of Lackawanna and White Oak l?un, was known as a deer- 
 way, where buck and doe, driven from the mountains by pursuing 
 hounds, attempting to ford the river to escape, fell an easy prey 
 to the rifles of Blakely hunters forty years ago. 
 
 A smith-shop to sharpen drills and miners' picks was built on 
 the eastern bank of the stream in 1844 by D. G. Sligh, which 
 
 AKCHBALD IN 1 fS44 
 
 Avas torn down in 1885. Under the auspices of the coal com- 
 pany two or three plain dwellings emerged from the fresh 
 stumps and fallen logs near the outlet of the run, where Messrs. 
 Archbald and Clarkeston had discovered coal. A bridge was 
 thrown across the Lackawanna by E. S. Benjamin before a foot 
 of land had been cleared upon its borders. It was the wildest 
 place in the coal-field chosen for a habitation, and considerations 
 of necessity rather than those of beauty of landscape governed 
 the selection of Archbald for a village site. A bridle- or foot 
 path led along the stream from Mount Vernon (now Winton) to 
 
492 APPENDIX. 
 
 Baeonville, but neither pike, road, house, or bridge ventured near 
 the waterfalls of White Oak Eun. 
 
 The growth of Archbald from that time until now has been 
 steady, and it now enjoys a population of over two thousand. 
 The Delaware and Hudson Company mine and send off a large 
 quantity of coal from here, while Jones, Simpson & Co. are also 
 engaged in mining coal and in a general mercantile business. 
 Their mines consist of a slope, drift, and a shaft, connected with 
 their breaker by a railroad two miles in length. Ten engines 
 are employed in operating these mines and in running the 
 breaker, working the pump, and in moving the cars. Three 
 hundred and fifty men and laborers are employed by the firm, 
 and 150,000 tons of coal annually shipped. Mr. George Simp- 
 son, of the firm, died last year. Mr. James J. "Williams is the 
 general manager of the business, and by his fair dealing and the 
 upright manner he conducts all transactions has made himself 
 universally popular. 
 
 KNITTING-FACTORY. 
 
 This factory, the only one of its kind in the valle}', was 
 started in 1881 by Messrs. Linderman & White. They manu- 
 facture woollen and cotton hosiery, jackets, hoods, making a 
 specialty of seamless socks. The works give employment to a 
 large number of females, and is a great acquisition to the village. 
 
 The purest spring-water is brought from a mountain run to 
 the town, and it enjoys all the advantages of a high-school, the 
 Delaware and Hudson Eailroad, and some commodious churches. 
 
 A mile down the stream from Archbald, in a sunny glade, lies 
 the young mining village of Winton, with its post-office, store, 
 and a colliery supplied with coal by the Pierce Coal Company's 
 opening on the mountain half a mile east of Archbald and about 
 two miles away. In the immediate vicinity coal has not proved 
 to be of the first quality, and yet the village, named from W. W. 
 WiNTON, one of the most liberal gentlemen of Providence, is ten- 
 anted by a hardy and contented pojmlation. Two locomotive 
 roads pass through it. The Dolph Coal-Works ai'e located here, 
 as is the quarry of stone from which tlu' county jail is built. 
 
Al'l'ENUlX. 493 
 
 PECKVILLE. 
 
 Named from Samuel Peck, deceased. This village is one of 
 the prettiest found in the valley, and less dependent upon mining 
 than any other. Its post-office, two churches, two drug-stores, 
 schools, and stores supply the wants of its residents in every 
 direction, while a grist- and saw-mill, and a jilaning-mill, all run 
 by water-power, occupy the attention of many of the artisans 
 of the place. 
 
 Peck, Wise & Co. carry on the business, and, owning the saw- 
 mill, they are enabled to secure the remaining pine forest be- 
 tween this point and Lake Paupack, on the summit of the 
 Moosic, saw, kiln-dry, plane, and manufacture the lumber into 
 doors, sash, blinds, flooring, siding, and mouldings as the car- 
 penters and builders may desire. The members of this firm are 
 all recognized by the people of the valley as business men of very 
 high order and as excellent citizens. This mill was burned in 
 1884 ; rebuilt in 1885. 
 
 OLYPHANT. 
 
 A mile below Peckville stands Olyphant. In 1840-44 a mill- 
 pond, a saw-mill, and three houses, two of which are yet stand- 
 ing, inhabited by Messrs. Barber, Travis, and Ferris, constituted 
 Olyphant. The lands fell into the hands of William Hull, a rich 
 farmer, living across the river, who refused to sell or lease them 
 to the Delaware and Hudson Company. 
 
 In August, 1858, Lewis Pughe, of Scranton, Edward Jones, of, 
 Olyphant, and Abel Barker, of Wyoming, made a lease with 
 William Hull for some 500 acres of coal-lands in Blakely, and 
 the same year the same parties made a contract with Mott, 
 Vosburg, and Newton for other coal-lands in the township of 
 Blakely, now Olyphant. The first-named party at once made 
 a contract with the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company to 
 furnish it with 150,000 tons of coal per annum, at 12J cents per 
 ton royalty, until the coal from these two tracts was exhausted. 
 
 Some thirty years before this, Wm. Wurts had purchased coal- 
 land from Jonathan Silsbee, below Hull's farm, on Eddy Creek, 
 but it was not until the acquisition of these lands in 1858 that 
 the company began to develop the place, which was then named 
 
494 APPENDIX. 
 
 Olyphant, from President Olj-phant, of the Delaware and Hudson 
 Company. 
 
 The growth of the borough has been rapid since then, and it 
 has at the present time every element of prosperity to make 
 desirable homes for the industrious dwellers of the village. The 
 Delaware and Hudson Company bring out a large quantity of 
 anthracite, while the private works of Johnson & Co. exhume 
 very many tons for local and foreign markets. 
 
 Churches, a high-school, four doctors, two drug and other 
 stores, good hotels, and a post-office accommodate the citizens, 
 while three railroad tracks pass through it. Water is brought 
 over two miles from the Moosic range, and amply supplies the 
 demand. 
 
 PRICE. 
 
 Down the Lackawanna, half a mile below Olyphant, this 
 settlement appears upon the old farms of Luke and Michael 
 Deckers of twenty-five years ago. It is the newest village in 
 the valley. Eli K. Price, Prof Pancost, and Dr. B. H. Throop 
 owned the fields where the town is situated. From Mr. Price 
 it took its name. Its first inhabitants were Germans. 
 
 In 1880, John Jermyn sunk a shaft and erected some expen- 
 sive coal-works here, which gave to trade and building lots 
 great impetus and activity in every branch of business. Mr. 
 Jermyn ships a large quantity of coal from this point to New 
 York each year. A single church, a fine school building, a drug- 
 store, post-office, three hotels, and four stores enliven the village, 
 which is the thriftiest one in the valley. A railroad depot and a 
 school-house stands midway between Price and Dickson City. 
 
 DICKSON CITY. 
 
 This place, where Peter A. Snyder was the sole occupant in 
 1844, and yet resides here, deigned to be called Yaughn, then 
 HoLLiSTER, but these gentlemen objected to have their names 
 thus perpetuated. It was called Dickson, from the late Thomas 
 Dickson. 
 
 Messrs. Pughe, Baker, and Jones leased the coal-lands at 
 Dickson, and subsequently sold their lease to Wm. H. Eichmond 
 and Charles P. Wurts. This change of property gave birth to 
 Dickson as a village and to the Elk Hill Iron and Coal Company, 
 
WILLIAM MERRIFIELD. 
 
APrEMJix. 497 
 
 of which Eichmond was president, until the breuUer was burned 
 in 1882. Mr. Eichmond has recently erected a breaker in the 
 Second Ward of the city of Scranton, where lie is mining coal 
 to great advantage. 
 
 The post-office department added city to the village, to distin- 
 guish it from other towns in the State by the name. 
 
 The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Eailroad have sunk 
 a shaft here that will keep busy and give sustenance to a large 
 number of men. 
 
 The old Indian apple-tree, described in this volume, page 61, 
 ^vas blown down on the night of Septeuil^er 23, 1885. It was 
 the oldest tree in this section of the Stale. 
 
 THE INCEPTION OP LACKAWANNA COUNTY. 
 
 Lackawanna County was erected out of Luzerne under an 
 Act of Assembly approved April 17, 1878. At an election held 
 in August, 1878, out of 11,601 votes, 0(jl5 wore cast in favor of 
 the new county. 
 
 As earlj' as 1837 the citizens of Lackawanna Valley living 
 above the bridge at Pittson began to agitate the question of a 
 division, which was only settled after forty years of dissension. 
 The sentiment of the upper townships was in favor of carving 
 Lackawanna County out of Luzerne. In fact, there was no 
 measure, no matter how meritorious, so fixed and popular in 
 the public mind as was this. No communication with Wilkes 
 Barre was had onl}^ by the tri-weekly stage or the slow wagon, 
 horseback or on foot, and litigants who sought redress by law 
 were compelled to stay there a week, at considerable expense, 
 before their cases were reached or postponed until another term. 
 
 In 1843, Hon. William Merrifield, of Hyde Park, was 
 elected to the Legislature. He served three consecutive terms, 
 greatly to the advantage and satisfaction of his constituents. 
 He was the real father of the new county. He was the first one 
 to give it shape and animation, in spite of strong opposition from 
 old Luzerne, which had great influence at Harrisburg because of 
 the ability and shrewdness of their evei'-present politicians. At 
 the session of 1844 he succeeded in passing through the House 
 of Eepresentatives the first bill for the erection of the County 
 of Lackawanna. 
 
498 APPENDIX. 
 
 Providence Village deserves more credit than ixwy other part 
 of the territory tor its steady efforts in establishing a new 
 county. 
 
 In 1840, Charles H. Silkman and Dr. B, H. Throop removed 
 from Honesdale to Providence, which at this time was consid- 
 ered the political Mecca of the valley. Nathaniel Cotrill's tav- 
 ern, now the Bristol House, as it was termed, was the place 
 where Bidlack, Beaumont, Butler, Fuller, Samuel P. Collings, 
 Kidder, Wright, Merrifield, and other genial politicians of lesser 
 light, were wont to meet annually before election for their coun- 
 try's good. In 1844-45 the valley was alive with excitement. 
 The friends of the new county purchased a press and type in 
 Carbondale, and started the Providence Mirror and Jjackawannian, 
 with Frank B. Woodward as its editor, although young Eandall, 
 Eankin, and Hill, — all deceased now, and all law students of 
 Silkman then, — and others contributed largely' to its editorial and 
 local columns. Silkman had three distinct objects in view: 
 First, the defeat of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company 
 from coming down the valley to Archbald with their gravity 
 raih-oad from Carbondale ; Second, to aid the Erie Eoad, then 
 being surveyed, whose agent he was, to come up the Lacka- 
 waxen and Paupack, through Hawley and Cobb's Gap, Leg- 
 gett's Gap, and follow the line now used by the Delaware, 
 Lackawanna and Western Eailroad to Great Bend, instead of 
 going to Narrowsburg; and Third, the division of the county 
 of Luzerne. He had little or no legal business, and his whole 
 time was devoted to the accomplishment of these three objects. 
 During the winter of 1845-46 meeting after meeting was held 
 at least once a week at either Green's hotel, in Hyde Park, 
 Cotrill's tavern, in Providence, at Waite Cannon's, now F. Keif- 
 er's place, in Price, or at the hotel of Levi Lillibridge, in 
 Blakely. There was no Archbald then. Not a tree had been 
 felled upon its site until the winter of 1845. 
 
 At these meetings Silkman, who was a fluent, persuasive, 
 incisive speaker, full of vigor and venom, was the moving spirit. 
 He called the meetings to order, appointed committees, made 
 speeches, wrote resolutions, and reported them for the Mirror and 
 Lackawannian, now on file in my office. The people of the valley 
 were fevered with an agitation unparalleled before or since. 
 
APl'KNDIX. 499 
 
 In 1852, Hon. A. B. Dunning, then residing in Providence as a 
 merchant, was sent to the Legislature for three concurrent ses- 
 sions without advancing the interest of the new county in the 
 least, owing to the determined and bitter opposition of Buckalew, 
 then a power at Harrisbnrg, and other selfish persons- in old 
 Luzerne, naturally inimical to a measure not calculated to ad- 
 vance their interests. Had the jiroposed new county been 
 erected at this time, Providence instead of Scranton would have 
 been the county-seat. 
 
 After its defeat, Silkman, beguiled into a purchased silence, 
 retired from the contest. The 3Iirror. with its editor, removed 
 to Virginia, where he soon after died of consuini)tion. 
 
 It was not until 1873, when the Constitutional Convention 
 was held, that Lewis Pughe and A. B. Dunning bi'ougbt it 
 favorably before the public. Especially was it due to the able 
 and convincing speech of Mr. Pughe that the objectionable 
 feature which required a submission to the vote of the whole 
 <;ounty was defeated. 
 
 James Archbald, F. L. Paries, P. Blewitt, and A. Bryson, Jr., 
 were appointed commissioners to survey the boundaiy line 
 between the old and new counties. 
 
 FIRST OFFICERS OF THE COUNTY. 
 
 Pj-esidunt Judge, Benjamin S. Bentle}';* Prothonotar}-. F. \^. 
 Hitchcock; Sheriff, A. B. Stevens; Treasurer, Col. William N. 
 Monies; Clerk of Courts, Joshua E. Thomas; Eecorder, A. M. 
 Eenshaw ; Eegister, John L. Lee; District Attornej^, F. W. 
 Gunster; County Surveyor, P. M. Walsh; County Commis- 
 
 * The appointment of Judge Bentley was made on the ground that 
 Lackawanna County, the moment it was erected, became, under the pro- 
 visions of the Constitution, a separate judicial district. A mandamus was 
 issued by the Supreme Court, wherein it was decided that the Constitution 
 did not execute itself, but that legislation was necessary before a new dis- 
 trict could be created, hence the appointment was illegal and void. Hy the 
 provisions of the New-County Act, the new county was to remain in tl;e 
 same judicial district with the old, hence the judges of Luzerne organized 
 and held the courts. By Act of Assembly of Marcli 13, 1879, Lackawanna 
 was made the Forty-fifth Judicial District, and John Haiidley assigned as 
 president judge, and Alfred Hand as additional law judge thereof. 
 
500 APPKNDIX. 
 
 sioners, H. L. Gaige, II. F. Bai-rett, Deiiuis Tierney; County 
 Auditors, W. J. Lewis, Eobert Reeves, E. J. Lyueti ; Jury Com- 
 missioners, Eugene Snj^der, J. J. Ljnich ; Coroner, Edward 
 Travers, M.D. 
 
 Scranton was naturally selected as the countj'-seat. On the 
 2d day of September, 1878, Hon. B. F. Bentley, of Williamsport, 
 who had been appointed ])re8ident judge, proceeded to organize 
 the several courts of Lackawanna County in Tripp's building, 
 situated on the southeast corner of Wyoming Aveiuie and 
 Linden Street. On the 17th of the following September the 
 court made an order designating Washington Hall, or the 
 provost-marshal's drafting place, on the corner of Lackawanna 
 and Penn Avenues, as a court-house. 
 
 Soon after the " Bentley Court" was instituted, A. A. Chase, 
 of Scranton, applied to the Supreme Court for a mandamus to 
 compel the judges of Luzerne County to meet and organize the 
 courts of the new count}', basing his application on the ground 
 that, l)y the provisions of the New-County Act, Lackawanna 
 was not a separate judicial district, and, therefore, the onl}- court 
 authorized by law was that to be established by the judges of 
 Luzerne Count}', the Eleventh Judicial District. The application 
 was sustained, and notwithstanding the large number of judg- 
 ments, mortgages, and deeds recorded, and suits begun, involving 
 hundreds of thousands of dollars, the Supreme Court, on the 
 18th of October, 1878, issued a peremptory mandamus to Gar- 
 rick M. Harding, president judge, and John Handley and William 
 H. Stanton, additional law judges of Luzerne County, to forthwith 
 organize the courts of Lackawanna County. And thereby the 
 " Bentley Court" and all proceedings thereunder were annulled. 
 
 Pursuant to this mandamus, the judges of Luzerne County 
 proceeded, on the 24th of October, 1878, to organize the courts 
 of Lackawanna County, and the county machinery was started 
 in due form of lavv. 
 
 The constant and increasing demands for space for officers, 
 books, records, etc., upon the county, which the Second National 
 Bank rooms could not furnish, made a new court-house quite as 
 imperative as had been the demands for a new county. 
 
 In the early part of 1879 the matter of erecting county build- 
 ings began to be agitated. Nothing positive as to a location 
 
APPKNIHX. 501 
 
 was determined until the 15th of December, 1879, when the 
 County of Lackawanna, by the county commissioners, accepted 
 as a gift a deed from the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company 
 and Edward F. Hodges, John B. Newman, and Isaac C. Price, 
 trustees of the Susquehanna and Wyoming Valley Kailroad 
 and Coal Company, for the block bounded by Washington 
 Avenue, Linden Street, Adams Avenue, arul Spruce Street. 
 
 Notwithstanding the many doubts expressed as to the possi- 
 bility of securing a substantial foundation on this propert}', 
 which had recently been an impassable swamp, yet the commis- 
 sioners determined to take the initiatory steps towards erecting 
 a court-house. And on May 15, 1880, they issued a circular 
 inviting competition from architects in presenting plans for a 
 court-house, in size to be not less than 100 feet by 140 feet, and 
 in cost not to exceed $100,000. 
 
 Plans were submitted and ])ro|)()s;iis made in August, 1880, for 
 the erection of the court-house ; hut it was not until March, 1881. 
 that the contract was awarded to John Snaith, of Ithaca, N. Y., 
 whose bid was $139,927 for superstructure and foundation to a 
 depth of iwenty-tbur feel holow water-table, and $5.00 per perch 
 for stone-masonry, and 60 cents per cubic yard for excavation ; 
 the building to be made of native sandstone, the same as that in 
 liie Librarj' Building, on Wyoming Avenue, and to be trimmed 
 with Onondaga gray limestone. The conti-act calls for the 
 completion of the building on the 1st day of April, 1883. 
 
 Ground was broken by the contractor on the 14th day of 
 April, 1881. 
 
 In excavating for the foundation, the greatest depth of exca- 
 vation is thirty -four feet eight inches below the grade of Wash- 
 ington Avenue; the average depth of foundation is twenty-nine 
 feet six inches. The additional cost for excavation and foun- 
 dation was $30,932.55 ; original contract, $139,927.00 ; total, 
 $170,859.55. 
 
 Mr. Snaith gave approved bonds in the sum of $75,000 for the 
 faithful fulfilment of his contract. 
 
 In order that the woi'k might be prosecuted as speedilj- as 
 possible, the commissioners decided, April 23, 1881, to issue 
 bonds for $150,000. pledging in payment therefor the taxable 
 property of the count}-, which amounts to I'nore than $30,000,000. 
 
502 APPENDIX. 
 
 on full valuation. These bonds bear five per cent, interest^ 
 and $100,000 of them have alread}^ been delivered, many at a 
 jiremium. 
 
 On the morning of May 25 a heavy, cold rain disappointed 
 the thousands that had assembled to witness and assist in the 
 laying of the corner-stone. The Catholic clergymen of the 
 city very opportunely tendered the use of their lai'go tent fur 
 the occasion. 
 
 The corner-stone, containing many interesting and valuable 
 contributions, literary and otherwise, was laid with true Masonic 
 ceremony b}" the Masons of Lackawanna County and Knights 
 Templar as escort of the acting officers of the Grand Lodge of 
 F. and A. M. of the State of Pennsylvania. Messrs. Stevens, 
 Buck, Kingsbury, Jacobs, Van Schoick, Alexander, Lewis, Van 
 Buskirk, E.oesler, Williamson, Davis, and Jacobs took part in 
 the ceremony. 
 
 We copy largely from Eobert McKune's admirable Lacka- 
 wanna County Memorial. 
 
 At this point the Hon. Alfred Hand was introduced, and pro- 
 ceeded to deliver the following oration : 
 
 My Fellow-Citizens, — It would have been appropriate to 
 prepare foi- this important occasion a history and some of the 
 characteristics of our laws, but in the ten minutes allotted me 
 by your Committee of Arrangements I can only give briefly a 
 Tribute to the Jurisprudence of Pennsylvania. 
 
 The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has to-day a system of 
 laws as wise, as just, and as finished as the world has ever seen. 
 Her civil jurisprudence is linked to the wisdom and experience 
 of the ages. It has gathered into its folds principles from Sinai, 
 Eome, Eunnymede, and Bunker Hill. Eighteousness, philoso- 
 phy, personal rights, and independence are stones in its founda- 
 tion-walls. Political equality rests upon all her citizens. Her 
 criminal code is as perfect as human ingenuity and research 
 have been able to formulate. Her principles of equity are ap- 
 plied to the smallest as well as the lai'gest ti-ansactions of life in 
 which human interests are at stake. Her administration of jus- 
 tice is comparatively inexpensive, free from intricacy, and, with 
 exceptional and unavoidable cases, speedy. " Eight and justice 
 are administered without sale, denial, or dela}'." 
 
APPENDIX. 503 
 
 We meet here to-day to dedicate this building to Tiaw and 
 Justice, solely and exclusively. In honoring these this great 
 concourse of all classes and divers organizations does honor to 
 itself". Religion is interested in this structure, but we do not 
 rear it to religion. Science is interested, but we raise it not to 
 science; art, but we build it not to art; social and civic life, but 
 we erect it not to these. Business is interested, but we place no 
 tribute to business on its walls. The fireside is interested in 
 these corridors, from the infant drawing life from its mother's 
 breast to the old man tottering on his staff, but they are not 
 dedicated to the family. But to that which regulates human 
 conduct in all departments — Law — and that which judges 
 thereof — Justice — we build a temple, grand in proportions and 
 beautiful in design. 
 
 Next to that science which treats of the relations of God to 
 man, is that which comprehends and considers the relations of 
 man to man. Yonder church-spires point man to Almighty God 
 for eternal life ; the spire which shall surmount this stone points 
 man to God for the regulation of this mortal life. Next to the 
 church is the temple of Justice — next in dignity, next in useful- 
 ness, next in honor. Does the Almighty appear at the altar or 
 sanctuary, so does he appear at the place of judgment; for it is 
 wiiuen, 'Ye judge not for man, but for Jehovah, who is with 
 you in the judgment." To law and justice we elevate these mon- 
 umental walls and towers. Law is inseparable from motion or 
 existence. It is written on the universe. There is no speech 
 nor language where its voice is not heard. On the stars of 
 heaven, on the comets whirling through space, on the rocks of 
 the mountains, on the dew-drop flashing in the sunbeam, on the 
 sunbeam coloring the dew-drop, we read the testimony to law. 
 All living creatures are under law. Man alone, in his relation to. 
 man, seems without law, until he begins to govern himself. 
 The Creator appears to have decreed that man shall make and 
 enforce his own law for his own conduct, responsible to the 
 Almighty for the mandate and the obedience. In this effort ta 
 enact " the rule commanding what is right and prohibiting what 
 is wrong," our own Commonwealth stands high among the 
 States of the world. Our law preserves the good of the past ;, 
 retains the old, not because it is old, but because it is good. Wo 
 
oOt APPENDIX. 
 
 glory in our common law. Christianity is a part of it. We do 
 equity under the forms of law. We sacrifice not justice to form, 
 protect the officer and citizen, place high responsibility on exec- 
 utive, judge, and legislator, hold them responsible for their trust, 
 and in the administration of that trust make them secure. 
 While we give large liberty to the people and make much of 
 personal rights, we at the same time protect them from their 
 own folly in times of excitement. It has always been the aim 
 of our law-makers and judges to bring law and justice together 
 in theoretical and practical harmony. Our civil law attests suc- 
 cess in this direction. Our criminal law is profound and philo- 
 sophical. It meets, as might be expected, greater obstacles in 
 the investigation and punishment of crimes. To protect the in- 
 nocent we, at times, screen the guilty. It needs always a just, 
 discriminating, and upright people. Would that I had the 
 power to impress upon the mind of every citizen of this county 
 a proper view of the noble attribute of Justice. Justice springs 
 from the bosom of the Almighty, is strong for good, terrible to 
 evil, full of blessing, security, and health to the State and society. 
 Justice sweeps away all subterfuges, disregards all false apolo- 
 gies, knows no passion or prejudice, entrenches herself in exact 
 truth, honesty, and intelligence. Justice has no maudlin sympa- 
 thy for evil-doers, falsely called merc}^; no disgusting sentiment 
 of licentiousness, falsely called liberty. Justice stands erect in 
 fair proportions, honoi'ably clad, with no blush of shame for her 
 acts. She comes forth to-day and says, in clear and truthful 
 tones, that sympathy for crimes is cruelty to the State. The 
 ancients represented Justice as blind, holding the scales even. 
 She is blind to parties, blind to passion and everything except 
 truth. She begs us never to pluck the bandage from her eyes 
 nor disturb the even balance of her scales. 
 
 As we stand here to-day, holding in our minds the picture of 
 this edifice as it will be, imagination brings to view the relation 
 it will sustain to the people of this county. Before this single 
 tribunal, which, under our economy, embraces all legal questions, 
 what scenes of human welfare and human woe will be enacted ; 
 what fortunes saved and fortunes destroyed ; what hopes ele- 
 vated and blasted! Homes will be cheered and made desolate, 
 truth maintained and falsehood exposed, reputations vindicated 
 
AIM'KNDIX. 605 
 
 and lost; peace will come to some and unrest to others; the 
 sacred relation of marriage will be protected and also sundered. 
 Here will be brought, as from a rough and troubled sea, the 
 conflicts, passions, and selfishness of the political arena; here 
 the quiet, stern mandate of the law shall say, "Peace, be still," 
 when the people, mindful of the respect due to their own tribu- 
 nals, with serene dignity, will submit and return to the calm of 
 ordinary life. Here will come up for adjudication the rights of 
 persons and the rights of things ; all those interests that relate to 
 personal security, personal liberty, and private property ; to mag- 
 istrates, the Legislature, to the people at large in their organized 
 capacity' ; matters civil and military ; all the relations of master 
 iind servant, husband and wife, parent and child, guardian and 
 ward, the rights and duties of artificial persons, bodies politic 
 tind corporate. Here will be resolved the intricacies of real-estate, 
 their tenures, the law of their descent and alienation. Here 
 will be redressed private wrongs, calling into action all the 
 machinery of courts of justice in their different divisions of 
 Common Pleas, Orphans' Court, and Equity, with all the multi- 
 plicity of suits and pleadings which once made men immortal, 
 but which are now so simplified that it is quite as hard to blunder 
 successfully as to plead scientifically. Here will be investigated 
 and punished public wrongs which test the frame-work of societ}- ; 
 oifences against God and religion, officers and government, public 
 justice, peace, trade, health, and economy, with the long cata- 
 logue of crimes from homicide to misdemeanors. Here will be 
 pronounced that sentence which is heaven's estimate of human 
 life, and tells a man that he is not fit to live, because he has 
 despised God-given life in another — that sentence which no just 
 law will ever repeal or reverse, "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, 
 by man shall his blood be shed." 
 
 What power for good in its silent influence has such a building 
 as this? Well may it call together such an expression from the 
 people as we witness here to-day. Not alone in the active 
 judgments rendered within these walls do we find the people's 
 estimate of right and abhorrence of evil, but in that greater, 
 more sublime, more eloquent tribute to justice which comes from 
 the voluntary obedience of the people. Law is best honored in 
 tsilent. unresisting obedience to her behests. As this corner-st.o>-. 
 
50(J APPENDIX. 
 
 holds secure for centuries yet to come the evidence of to-day's 
 progress, so our jurisprudence, unique in its combinations, holds 
 the wisdom and principles of to-day, gathered in all the past, to 
 be handed down unimpaired and venerable to the generations 
 yet unborn. This corner-stone, placed at the seat of justice for 
 this newest county of the Commonwealth, allies us to the wisdom 
 of the past, and gives hope in the onward progress of civilization. 
 This is akin to those historical events which in their significance 
 have themselves been termed corner-stones of liberty and truth. 
 Here and there in the great conflict between right and wrong, 
 truth and error, we find sacred spots wet with human blood and 
 tears, where some great principle was maintained and right 
 secured. We here, in harmony and gladness, make sacred this 
 spot on which this stone rests, assuring ourselves and the world 
 that within the lines which comprise this county justice shall be 
 upheld and private and public rights protected. This building, 
 completed as designed, from foundation-stone to turret-pinnacle, 
 is a fit emblem of our jurisprudence. In the long j^ears that 
 are passed in the history of our own and our mother-county, 
 we have dug deep through the muck and mire and tangled roots 
 of human pride, prejudice, and ignorance to lay a foundation 
 for our judicial system upon the primal rocks and stable 8up|)oi-t 
 of truth and justice; we have builded course after course until 
 our progress has lifted us into the sunlight of a pure atmospliere. 
 On this we have raised a fair structure of equal rights and 
 balanced powers that has called forth admiration and honor, 
 and at the same time points to a higher and nobler state of 
 perfection. We have our institutions preserved to us in won- 
 derful purity and power. On no part of this globe are human 
 rights more accurately adjusted with less friction or cause of 
 complaint than on Pennsylvania soil. On no soil are wicked 
 combinations against the peace of society more surely broken 
 up, nor the judgments of courts and juries more universally 
 just and unimpeachable. Our laws and their administration 
 are as nearly perfect as human nature has yet been able to 
 attain unto. Our machinery is well constructed, ready for per- 
 fect action and proper results, and as intelligence, temperance, 
 and integrity pervade the people, so will the dishonoring criti- 
 cisms which are occasionally made wholly vanish and disap- 
 
APPENDIX. 507 
 
 pear. On the true instincts of the people, enlightened hy ex- 
 perience and strengthened by knowledge and integrity, all 
 security and .peace of society rest. We hold the titles to our 
 homes, protection to life, property, and reputation at the disposal 
 of the twelve historic jurymen drawn from the people. When 
 they ai'e wise, educated, and upright, we are safe; when preju- 
 <lice, passion, ignorance, or recklessness characterize the trial by 
 jury, it loses its honored place in our jurisprudence, and indi- 
 vidual rights and safety are gone. May the honored progress 
 of our citizens in all that is noble and lofty, and their respect 
 for the institutions of law and justice that have been handed 
 down to us from our forefathers, preserve this county among 
 those noted for order, thrift, and happiness. 
 
 At the close of Judge Hand's address. Grand Chajilain E. W. 
 Van Schoick pronounced the benediction, thus concluding the 
 cei'emonies of the fraternity, and, after music by Bauer's Band, 
 the spectators dispersed. The ceremonies were ver}- impressive 
 throughout, and attracted earnest attention. 
 
 The following is the history prepared by E. Merrifield, Esq., 
 at the request of the county commissioners, and deposited in 
 the corner-stone : 
 
 The County of Lackawanna is the outgrowth of an agitation 
 that continued for nearly forty years. It is the fourth county 
 that has been taken from territory originally embraced in Lu- 
 zerne. In 1839, Joseph Griffin, of Providence Township, was 
 elected to the House of Kepresentatives, being the first to 
 occupy that position from the Lackawanna District. At that 
 time the question of dividing Luzerne and creating a county 
 out of the northeastern portion began to assume a serious 
 aspect, and became a disturbing element in local politics. The 
 opponents of the measure dealt a serious blow, when, in 1842, 
 they consented to the creation of the new county of Wyoming. 
 But this did not serve to quell the agitation, as in 1843 it was 
 made an issue, and William Merrifield, of Hyde Park, was 
 elected to the Legislature, and continued for three successive 
 terms. At the session of 1844 he succeeded in passing through 
 the House of Representatives the first bill for the creation of 
 Lackawanna County. William S. Ross, of Wilkes Barre, then 
 senator from the district, made a fierce and desperate oppositioPi. 
 
508 APPENDIX. 
 
 which resulted in its defeat by a tie vote. In 1852, A. B. Dun- 
 ning was sent to the Legislature upon the same issue, and 
 continued the two following years. Several times, by a very 
 flattering vote, he jnissed the bill through the House, Init 
 Charles E. Buckalevv, then senator from the district, occupied a 
 very prominent and influential position, and defeated it by a 
 bare majority. In 1857, through the influence of Buckalew, 
 and directly as the result of the agitation of the Lackawanna 
 County project, came the amendment to the Constitution pro- 
 hibiting the erection of new counties without being first sub- 
 mitted to the vote of the entire county. This was intended as 
 a fatal blow to the project, — in foct, proved such for the time 
 being, — yet it did not stop the clamor of the new-county advo- 
 cates. In 1863, Jacob Robinson and Peter Walsh, then members 
 of the House of Representatives, passed a bill submitting to the 
 voters of Luzerne the question of the erection of a new county 
 to be called Lackawanna. The election was duly held, and 
 resulted in its defeat by about 3000 majority. This proved a 
 quietus to new-county talk for more than five years. In 1870, 
 however, our people were again actively interesting themselves 
 in behalf of the project, and a bill was before the Legislature 
 for most of the sessions down to the final passage of the enabling 
 act of 1878. The beginning of dawn in the great fight was in 
 1873, when, in the Constitutional Convention, Lewis Pughe and 
 A. B. Dunning, members thereof, labored so zealously in its 
 interest. 
 
 Under the provisions of the new Constitution, all special legis- 
 lation being prohibited, it became necessary to pass a bill that 
 would not only be operative for one, but for all sections of the 
 State, and during the sessions of 1875, 1876, and 1877 our people 
 were co-operating with other interests to secure the enactment 
 of such a law ; especially during 1876, F. W. Gunster then being 
 a member of the House from Scranton, and occupying a promi- 
 nent and influential position, there was a s])irited and deter- 
 mined effort made. The fact, however, that it antagonized so 
 many of the different counties provoked a fight that was not 
 only formidable, but irresistible. Our thoughts and energies 
 were then directed to the question as to whether or not a bill 
 could be framed that would meet the exigencies of the case, and 
 
APl'tNDlX. 509 
 
 escape such general opposition. At a meeting of the Scranton 
 Bur during the winter of 1878 the matter was duly considered, 
 and the writer deputed to draft an act in accoi'dance therewitii. 
 This was forwarded and read in place by James O. Kierstol, 
 member of the House of Representatives from Sci*anton. On 
 the 17th of April, 1878, it became a law, and under which the 
 new County of Lackawanna was ushered into being. 
 
 The fight for the passage of the bill was interesting and excit- 
 ing. With Mr. Kiersted was J). M. Jones, his colleague, who 
 were ably assisted by A. I. Ackerly and John B. Smith, repre- 
 senting other sections of Luzerne, and Greorge B. Seamans, 
 senator from the district. Among those who devoted a large 
 })ortion of their time at Harrisburg in behalf of the project 
 were E. N. Willard, E. H. McKune, F. W. Gunster, F. L. Hitch- 
 cock, J. B. Barrett, and E. Merrifield, aided from time to time 
 by B. H. Throop, George Sanderson. A. H. Win ton, Lewis Pughe, 
 il. S. Pierce, J. A. Scranton, U. G. Schoonmaker, Corydon H. 
 Wells, and John H. Powell. The Scranton Republican, very able 
 in the advocacy, was for weeks placed upon the desks of the 
 members, and had much to do in creating a iiivorable sentiment. 
 After the contest had progressed for quite a length of time, with 
 varying prospects, but without substantial progress, a meeting 
 was held in the city of Scranton, which was the pivotal point, 
 and the result of which finally led to triumph. The soldiers 
 upon the battle-ground had been continually hampered for want 
 of necessary means. Aside from the liberal action taken by the 
 Scranton Board of Trade, the subscriptions had been compara- 
 tively small, and now had come a time when princely contri- 
 butions were a necessity. It must either be a plethoric treasury 
 or a graceful retirement from the field. The major part of the 
 opulent citizens of Scranton were singularly apathetic and in- 
 difterent to the necessities of the case. At this juncture Edward 
 N. Willard, Aretus H. Winton, and myself were so fortunate 
 as to call in council Benjamin H. Throop, George Sanderson, 
 William W. Winton, and Horatio S. Pierce, who succeeded in 
 talking each other into such a commendable spirit of liberality 
 as led to an adequate supply of the sinews of war, atid without 
 which there would not have been a new county. 
 
 On the 17th of April, 1878, in accordance with the require- 
 
510 APPENDIX. 
 
 ments of the act, there was filed in the office of the Secretary of 
 Internal Affairs at Harrisburg a petition, it being the initiatory 
 step under the terms of the law for the erection of the count}' 
 of Lackawanna ; whereupon William Gi'iffis, of Bradford County, 
 David Summers, of Susquehanna, and E. H. Saunders, of Phil- 
 adelphia, were appointed commissioners, who, after the requisite 
 investigation, on the 25th of June, 1878, made report recommend- 
 ing the erection of said county. On the 8th of July following. 
 Governor John F. Hartranft issued a proclamation ordering that 
 an election be held in the proposed district August 13, 1878. 
 There were cast 9615 votes in favor, and 1986 against the new 
 county, being a majority of 7629 votes in favor thereof A proc- 
 lamation by the governor, dated August 21, 1878, declared the 
 said county established. 
 
 The result, so one-sided in its final showing, was brought about 
 after a most thorough and exciting canvass. The friends of the 
 measure vied with each other in working heartily and faithfully 
 for success, hence it would be impossible, in a brief historical 
 sketch, to give all the names. Besides the gentlemen heretofore 
 named as friends of the cause, William N. Monies, I. H. Burns, 
 Mayor T. Y. Powderly, Cornelius Smith, E. W. Archbald, J. E. 
 Thomas, John F. Connolly, J. B. Collings, F. Johnson, and 
 George Allen were particularly active and influential in contrib- 
 uting to the result. In the evening the victory was celebrated 
 in a brilliant and never-to-be-forgotten mannei-. Lackawanna 
 Avenue was illuminated from one end to the other. Bells were 
 ringing, bonfires i"oared, the cannon thundered, and thousands 
 of people going from house to house, singing and shouting their 
 glad notes of triumph, formed a pageant that would have done 
 honor to any cause that ever claimed the prowess of knight or 
 hero. 
 
 By virtue of the power conferred under the law, the governor 
 commissioned the following-named gentlemen as officers of the 
 county: F. L. Hitchcock, Prothonotary ; A. B. Stevens, Sheriff; 
 J. E. Thomas, Clerk of the Courts; A. Miner Eenshaw, Eecorder ; 
 J. L. Lee, Eegister of Wills ; F. W. Gunstei', District Attorney ; 
 E. J. Lynott, Auditor; James Lynch, Eugene Snyder, Jury 
 Commissionei's ; William N. Monies, Treasurer ; Horace F. Bar- 
 rett, Henry L. Gaige, Dennis Tierney, Count}^ Commissioners. 
 
APPENDIX. 511 
 
 At the same time Benjamin F. Bentley was commissioned as 
 president judge, but by a writ of mandamus issued by the Su- 
 preme Court at the instance of A. A. Chase, the said appoint- 
 ment was declared illegal, and on the 24th day of October, 1878, 
 the several courts of the county were organized by Hon. Garrick 
 M. Harding, Pr-sident Judge, Hon. John Ilandley and Hon. W. 
 H. Stanton, Additicmal Law Judges. At the fall election of 1878 
 W. J. Lewis and P. M. Moffitt were elected associate judges of 
 the county. There was elected at the same time a full set of 
 county officers, but by a decision of the Supreme Court it was 
 held that the same was premature; hence the first election of 
 county officials by the people took place on the 4th day of No- 
 vember. 1879. 
 
 THE BANQUET. 
 
 Pursuant to a call, a meeting of the members of the bar of 
 Lackawanna County and the citizens who were active in the 
 'new-county movement was held on the evening of May 16. E. 
 Merrifield, Esq., was chosen president, and A. II. Winton sec- 
 retary. After a free exchange of opinions in regard to the ad- 
 visability of having further proceedings than those designated 
 by the commissioners, on motion of Hon. F. W. Gunster, sec- 
 onded by Dr. B. H. Throop, it was resolved that on the evening 
 of May 25 a banquet should be held. It was further resolved 
 that a committee of ten be appointed, with the president as ex- 
 ■officio chairman, to make the necessary arrangements for said 
 banquet. The following persons were chosen as such committee: 
 Dr. B. H. Throop, E. N. Willard, Esq., Hon. E. H. McKune, 
 Hon. F. W. Gunster, Hon. F. D. Collins, John F. Connolly, Esq., 
 I. H. Burns, Esq., Hon. Lewis Pughe, and Hon. D. M. Jones. 
 
 At a subsequent meeting the following persons were chosen to 
 iict on the several committees : 
 
 Committee of Arrangements.— R. H. McKune, J. H. Campbell, 
 R W. Archbald, VV. T. Smith, George Fisher. 
 
 Committee on Organization.— Dv. B. H. Throop. E. N. Willard. 
 H. A. Knapp. 
 
 Committee on Toasts.— F. W. Gunster, Dr. B. H. Throop, A. H. 
 Winton, F. D. Collins, U. G. Schoonmaker. 
 
 Committee on Invitations. — Lewis Pughe, H. M. Edwards, J. F. 
 Connolly, T. V. Powderly, C. Smith. 
 
512 Al'PENDlX. 
 
 Committee on Reception. — H. S. Pierce, W. W. Winton, D. W. 
 Connolly, E. B. Sturges, J. B. Collings. 
 
 Committee on Tickets. — E. C. Fuller, Thomas Barrownian, G. S. 
 Horn, J. Alton Davis, Victor Koch, Thomas F. Wells, John F. 
 Scragg. 
 
 The following invitation was issued to pei-sons residing out of 
 the city : 
 
 You are respectfully invited to a 
 Grand Banquet, 
 
 given under the auspices of the 
 
 Scr anion Bar Association, and Citizens, 
 
 'n honor of the erection of the County of Lackawanna, and the 
 
 Laying of the Corner-Stone of the New 
 
 Court-House, 
 
 to he held on the evening of May 35th, 
 
 at the Wyoming House. 
 
 Scranton, Pa., May 18, 18S2. 
 
 The following is the programme of toasts: 
 President of the evening, Dr. B. H. Throop ; Toast-Master, A. 
 H. Winton. 
 
 1. "Lackawanna County — Labor Omnia Vincit." Edward 
 Merrifield, Esq. 
 
 2. " Our Invited Friends and Guests — We Welcome Them." 
 Hon. G. M. Harding. 
 
 3. " Our Country — One and Indivisible." Hon. J. A. Sci-an- 
 ton. 
 
 4. " Our Commonwealth — The Keystone of the Arch." His 
 Excellency Henry M. Hoyt. 
 
 5. " The Pulpit— The Light of the World." Eev. Dr. J. E. 
 Smith. 
 
 6. " Our Military — The Pride of Our State. May we Never 
 Need their Prowess." Col. H. M. Boies. 
 
 7. "The Judiciary— Tiie Purer the Better." Hon. P. B. 
 Collins. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 513 
 
 8. "The Senior Bar — Old Men for Counsel." Hon. George 
 Sanderson, 
 
 9. "The Junior Bar — Lis Sub Judice." John F. Connolly, 
 Esq. 
 
 10. -'Our Constitution — The Step|)ini>--Slone to Oui- jS'cw 
 Count}'." Hon. A. B. Dunning. 
 
 11. "Our Manufacturing Interests — By Iiidustrv We 
 Thrive." W. W. Scranton. 
 
 12. " The Press — The Lever that Moves the World." Hon, 
 J, E. Barrett. 
 
 13. " Our City — The Third in the Commonwealth." E. P. 
 Kingsburj-. 
 
 14. "Our Commercial Interests — Made Prosperous by En- 
 ergy." Thomas H. Dale. 
 
 15. '• Our Fire Department — Nunquam Non Paratus." Hon. 
 Eobert H. McKune. 
 
 16. '• Old Counties, Farewell — The Transplanted Oak," 
 John Beaumont Collings. 
 
 17. "Our Absent Friends — Though Absent, to Memory 
 Dear." Col. J. A, Price. 
 
 18. "The Ladies — Omnia Vincit Amor." F, J, Fitzsimmons. 
 The following gentlemen were present, and partook of the 
 
 festivities of the occasion : 
 
 W. W. Winton, 
 
 Hon. C. E. Rice, 
 
 Hon. William H. Jessup, 
 
 Hon. P. M. Moffitt, 
 
 Hon. A. I. Ackerley, 
 
 Isaac Price, 
 
 J. J. Williams, 
 
 I. G, Perry, 
 
 .John Snaith, 
 
 John Jermyn, 
 
 Thomas R. Lathrope, 
 
 Thomas Johnson, 
 
 Hon. F. W. Gunster, 
 
 Hon. D. M. Jones, 
 
 Hon. A. B. Dunning, 
 
 Hon. L. Amerraan, 
 
 Col. Ira Tripp, 
 
 Col. George Sanderson, Jr., 
 
 Col. U. G. Schoonmaker, 
 
 W. W. Scranton, 
 
 E. C. Fuller, 
 
 Scranton. 
 
 Wilkes Barre 
 
 Montrose, 
 
 Carbondale. 
 
 Abington, 
 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 Archbald. 
 
 Binghamton. 
 
 Ithaca, N. Y. 
 
 Jermyn. 
 
 Carbondale. 
 
 Milwaukee. 
 
 Scranton. 
 
 Thomas Barrow man, 
 H. S. Pierce. 
 George Fisher, 
 W. T. S.nith, 
 Henry Belin, Jr., 
 George Jessup, 
 H. H. Coston, 
 
 E. P. Kingsbury, 
 J. E. Carmault, 
 C. H. Welles, 
 
 I. H. Burns, 
 
 F. J. Fitzsimmons 
 Thomas H. Dal.-, 
 E. B. Sturges, 
 
 Dr. R. A. Squire, 
 B. E. Leonard, 
 P. J. Horan, 
 Dr. L. V/ehlau, 
 H. Wehrum, 
 .John Tomlinson, 
 Dr. Thomas S:c«-int, 
 
514 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 €. R. Pitcher, 
 
 R. T. McCabe, 
 
 J. J. Flanigan, 
 
 John F. Scragg, 
 
 John Benore, 
 
 J. D. Knight, 
 
 D. F. Kearney, 
 
 H. D. Moses, 
 
 Henry Morton, 
 
 B. A. Hill, 
 
 J. H. Campbell, 
 
 Dr, H. B. Throop, 
 
 Selden T. Scranton, 
 
 Col. Charles Scranton, 
 
 Hon. Stanley Woodward, 
 
 Hon. J. B. Van Bergen, 
 
 Hon. D. R. Grant. 
 
 T. N. Eldridge, 
 
 J. C. Delanej', 
 
 H. C. Jessup, 
 
 H. L. Gaige, 
 
 Horace F. Barrett, 
 
 Hon. Alfred Hand, 
 
 Hon. Lewis Pughe, 
 
 Edward Merrifield, 
 
 A. H. Winton, 
 
 Hon. J. E. Barrett, 
 
 Col. H. M. Boies, 
 
 John F. Connolly, 
 
 Henry Jacobs, 
 
 W. W. Williams, 
 
 Dr. H. I. Jones, 
 
 Oxford, N. J. 
 
 Wilkes Barre. 
 
 Carbondale. 
 
 Binghamton. 
 
 Owego, N. Y. 
 
 Harrisburg. 
 
 Montrose. 
 
 Moscow. 
 
 Schultzville. 
 
 Scranton. 
 
 Patrick Coar, 
 Elhanan Smith, 
 L. A. Watres, 
 Joseph Godfrey, 
 H. A. Kingsbury, 
 R. W. Archbald, 
 H. M. Edwards, 
 H. A. Knapp, 
 Henry Sommers, 
 Henry Battin, 
 Dr. W. H. Pier, 
 M. H. Dale, 
 H. D. Hinsdell, 
 Victor Koch, 
 Reese G. Brooks, 
 William Keiser, 
 F. J. Johnson, 
 Dr. A. E, Burr, 
 S. Samter, 
 C. W. McKinney, 
 L. L. Eaton, 
 A. McNuIty, 
 John B. Collings, 
 Robert Reese, 
 J. M. Everhart, 
 W. McDaniels, 
 John Morris, 
 Thomas Stewart, Jr., 
 C. E. Pryor, 
 George Throop, 
 H. H. Yeager, 
 Robert H. McKune, 
 
 At eight o'clock the guests began to assemble at the Wyoming 
 House, filling the corridors and parlors. The Committee of 
 Reception was active in receiving and welcoming all, while from 
 Bauer's orchestra came strains of pleasant melodies, filling the 
 house with the sweetest music. The dining-hall was tastefully 
 adorned with flags of all nations. At the side of each plate 
 was laid a copy of the programme, the menu, and a buttonhole 
 bouquet. After full justice had been done to the menu, prepared 
 by Mr. John M(;Cabe, and which, with one accord, all pronounced 
 most excellent. Dr. B. H. Throop, the president of the evening, 
 announced that, as the inner man had been satisfied, the time 
 had arrived for the commencement of festivities, and requested 
 A. H. Winton, Esq., to proceed with the programme. 
 
 A. H. Winton, toast-master, said, — 
 
 Gentlemen op the Bar, Fellow-Citizens, and Invited 
 
APPEN'DIX. 517 
 
 Guests, — On the night of our great voting contest among 
 ourselves, when immense majorities came pouring in from all 
 directions, and assuring us that the proposed new county of 
 Lackawanna was carried almost unanimously, the roaring artil- 
 lery, the clanging bells, and the glad shouts of a long-suffering 
 but then delighted multitude, only feebly expressed our joy at 
 the consummation of our most darling wishes. 
 We will drink our first toast, 
 
 LACKAWANNA COUNTY. 
 
 and call upon Edward Merrifield to respond. Mr. Merrifield 
 responded in excellent taste, but as much of his speech is em- 
 bodied in his history of the county we omit it. 
 
 Mr. Winton. — We call upon Judge Stanley Woodward to 
 respond to the toast, 
 
 OUR INVITED GUESTS. 
 
 {Prolonged applause.) 
 
 Mr. Woodward : 
 
 Mv. Chairman and Gentlemen, — This is a day for congratula- 
 tion, and I have thought while sitting here that I would begin at 
 the beginning, and would congratulate the people and bar of 
 Lackawanna County, not only upon the present condition and 
 prospect of the county, but also upon the happy auspices under 
 which it first saw the light. Fortunately for me, my duty 
 in that respect has been anticipated by my learned friend, Mr. 
 Merrifield. But it must be evident to all from his remarks 
 that the birth of Lackawanna County was virtuous and pure. 
 {Applause.) It came in wedlock, and was not born out of wed- 
 lock. No dishonesty was used to produce Lackawanna County, 
 but, on the contrary, it was the outgrowth of public sentiment, 
 yet stimulated by public and private means. Therefore, I con- 
 gratulate you upon the glory of your beginning. {Applause.) 
 
 When I received from the commissioners of the county my 
 first invitation to be present to-day at the laying of the corner- 
 stone of your new court-house, something was said about Lu- 
 zerne County being the mother-county. And the use of this 
 term suggested to ni}' mind several ideas, and one of these ideas 
 was this: that it was rather strange that the people of Lacka- 
 wanna County should call upon Luzerne as their mother to 
 
518 APPENDIX. 
 
 rejoice with them to-dtiy or to-night. Why ? You call upon us 
 to congratulate not only you, but ourselves, upon the breaking- 
 up of the family. You left the family and went out to seek 
 your own fortunes. We were not in favor of peaceable seces- 
 sion, but were thorough Union men. You wei-e opposed to 
 union, and you have succeeded. I can't say it was an elopement. 
 In the first place j'ou did not go off and join yourself to some- 
 bod}' else; you didn't bitch yourself upon some other county. 
 It was a peaceable secession — an independent one. In the 
 second place, as I understand it, you didn't go off suddenly or 
 by night, or without notice {applause), and it was not an elope- 
 ment, therefore, in any sense. We received from time to time 
 notice of your going before you went {applause and laughter), 
 and from time to time we put sprags in the progress of 
 your departure, until we run out of sprags. {.Laughter and 
 applause.) 
 
 But as the mother-county, if I may be so bold as to represent 
 to any extent her sentiments to-night, I say to j^ou that we da 
 congratulate j-ou. {Applause.) We feel as proud of j'ou as a 
 natural mother feels when the boys and the girls do well. 
 
 A new court-house, such as you are going to build, is an 
 emblem and a type of your perseverance and your pluck. I 
 understand it is built on a swamp, a sort of swamp-angel, but I 
 hear, also, it is founded upon a rock, and is going to rise above 
 the mists and miasma, with healing upon its wings. And per- 
 haps a court-house, more than any other structure, does repre- 
 sent the civilization and morals of a community. It speaks for 
 law, and order, and justice, and is a fair expression and exponent 
 of the culture and thrift of the people who build it. 
 
 The goddess who holds the scales of justice should have a 
 shrine worthy of her purity and suitable for her purposes. If 
 she is to keep the balances and hold any equipoise, her eyes 
 must be kept clear of dust, her lungs well fed with pure air, 
 and her sense of smell unoffended by the incense of unclean 
 odors. 
 
 There can be no rivalry and nothing but friendship between 
 Lackawanna County and Luzerne County. {Applause.) Our 
 great veins of anthracite run more nearly north and south than 
 east or west, uiid therefore we may alvvays work in our great 
 
APPENDIX. 519 
 
 source of wealth on the same line. If it were otherwise, if our 
 veins lay east and west, across instead of along our pathwa}^, we 
 should always be blasting at the same breasts, and should finally 
 blow ourselves up. As it is, we can work in harmony. Your 
 Lackawanna Eiver flows peacefully and quietly into our Susque- 
 hanna, and notwithstanding the fact that they have different 
 sources and different names, they flow at last to the one great 
 ocean. And so Lackawanna County and Luzerne County, 
 divided in name, different in origin, bounded by different lines, 
 are still moving onward with one purpose and to one destin}', the 
 proudest territorial portion of the Keystone State. {Prolonged 
 applause.) 
 
 Mr. Winton. — Now, gentlemen, there is one man, the Hon. J. 
 A. Scranton, our member of Congress, we would like to hear, 
 but he is away. I have no letter. He is trying to make the 
 Susquehanna River navigable. When he gets through with 
 that, I hope he will tackle the Lackawanna, so we can easily 
 steam up to Carbondale and see those men who voted with us 
 on the new county; and in his absence the next toast, 
 
 OUR SISTER-COUNTIES AND OUR COUNTRY, 
 
 will be responded to by the Hon. W. H. Jessup. 
 
 Judge Jessup : 
 
 Mr. President, — If my friend. Judge Rice, thinks that "The 
 Commonwealth" is a very broad subject to engage your atten- 
 tion, what must be my feelings when called to respond, not only 
 to all the counties, but to our common country? {Laughter.') 
 
 Why, I feel, Mr. Chairman, very much as that good lady who- 
 removed to the West expressed herself when, at the first broody 
 clucking of her hen in the spring, she surrounded her with three" 
 or four dozen eggs and said to her, "Now, old hen, you came 
 West, and this is a growing community, and you must spread 
 yourself" {Applause and laughter.) 
 
 But what is a country? It is not the inanimate rock, it is 
 not the black diamonds that lie buried in your valleys; it is not 
 the ore in your hills, the precious metals in your mountains, nor 
 the gold in their sands. Your country and my country are the 
 men and women that adorn it. {Applause.) Look upon yon 
 uninhabited island, and it is no countrv. It is mind, it is Intel- 
 
520 APPENDIX. 
 
 lect, brain-power, that make a country; and to make that 
 country one and indivisible, that intellect, that brain-power 
 must be fully developed in the right dii-ection, and it is to that 
 point I desire for a moment to call your attention. The devel- 
 opment of the men and women of the country makes the 
 country. This, our beloved country, created on the principle of 
 freedom of conscience, baptized in the blood of martyrs, growing 
 strong in its very infancy and almost springing into mature man- 
 hood, increasing beyond the nations in former ages, and coming, 
 in its first century, into a second baptism of fire and blood, be- 
 cause forgetful of the principles upon which it was founded, has 
 come forth now pure, now tried in the furnace, and purified as 
 by fire. (Applause.) And as our country is composed of men, 
 so, my fellow-citizens, the future of our country depends upon 
 you and upon me. It will be what we and others like us, its 
 citizens, make it. Do we wish a country lasting? Let us re- 
 member the foundation-stones. Let us build upon the triple 
 base of Purity, Patriotism, and Virtue, and we may build a 
 tower which shall grow, and grow, and grow, until the ages 
 grow gray and hoary, and it shall still grow onward and upward. 
 No storms shall uproot it, and no tempests shall cause it to 
 totter. {Applause.) But when we forget the foundation-stones, 
 when political impurity and corruption shall be gnawing like a 
 canker-worm at the basis of our institutions, when fraud and 
 corruption shall stalk abroad in high places, when impurity shall 
 pervade our private and social circles, when justice shall lie 
 prostrate in our streets, then look to see the glorious tower of 
 our liberty totter and fall, and we be numbered with the nations 
 of the distant past, whose monuments are warnings to us of their 
 ruin, and among whose sepulchres we are to-day excavating and 
 bringing to light the foundations whereupon they builded, and 
 seeing by what means thej^ fell. 
 
 Let us learn the lessons of the past. Let us have a strong 
 desire to preserve our institutions ; let us be men of purity, men 
 of justice, men of virtue, and we may hope to see our country a 
 pure, and a happy, and a lasting one. (Applause.) 
 
 Tbe president moved three cheers, which were given 
 
 Music — " Star-Spangled Banner." 
 
 Mr. Winton. — The next toast is, 
 
Al'l'ENDlX. 521 
 
 OUR MILITARY, 
 
 " The pride of our StiUe — may we never need their j)rowe88." 
 I presume that refers to the old song, 
 
 "We'll have no fighting men abroad, 
 No weeping maids at home." 
 
 Colonel H. M. Boies : 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, — I never was called upon 
 to respond to so warlike a toast in so solemn a frame of mind 
 us I am after listening to this anthem. Nor was I ever called 
 up before in the presence of so man}^ judges, and I sincerel}' 
 trust I never may be again. I don't propose to spread myself 
 all over the military question of the country to-night. I sup- 
 pose, perhaps, it was intended I should limit myself to the 
 National Guard of the State of Pennsylvania {applause), which 
 has become in these later years renowned, not only in our own 
 State, but all over the country, for the perfection of its organi- 
 .zation, for the completeness of its equipment, and for the excel- 
 lence of its drill. And perhaps, to narrow the subject down a 
 Jittle more, I might confine myself nioi'e particularl}- to that 
 part of it which stands, we are all proud to feel, in the very 
 front of the National Guai-d of Pennsylvania; that part of it 
 which is comprehended within the limits of our own county. 
 (Applause.') I say this with all deference to our Wilkes Barrc 
 friends, who are present as our guests. In listening to what has 
 been said in regard to the tremendous struggle which preceded 
 the organization and birth of Lackawanna County, a struggle 
 which lasted through fort}' years, the length of time the chil- 
 dren of Israel Avandered in the desert, during which a whole 
 generation of men wasted themselves away in the painful effort 
 to achieve success in vain, my mind reverted to the time of the 
 organization of the Scranton City Guard. And there is a very 
 significant fact in this connection. After all this vain struggle 
 and this waste of resources which has been referred to, it was 
 not until the city of Scranton, by her courageous mayor and 
 those historic forty men, quenched the incipient fires of com- 
 munism in our streets; it was not until Scranton had demon- 
 sti'ated to the Slate that she was able to take care of herself, 
 
622 APPENDIX. 
 
 and, moreover, had proved conclusively by the formution of the 
 Scranton City Guard that she intended to take care of herself 
 in the future ; it was not until this time that the Legislature of 
 our State was influenced to grant our petition. (Applause.) 
 
 As soon as our organization had been formed — and I want to- 
 call your attention to this fact — gentlemen began to come up 
 here from Luzerne to look over the Scranton City Guard, — 
 Major Espy, Major-General Osborne, at that time the chief 
 military dignitary of this section, and our honorable friend, 
 Judge Woodward, who was then nothing but a colonel, I believe 
 (applause) ; and it is a remarkable fact that after they had been 
 here the opposition to the new-county project began to weaken. 
 What report they took back, unless it was that of the emis- 
 saries that Moses sent out to view the promised land, that they 
 had seen the sons of Anak there, and verily we were as grass- 
 hoppers in their eyes, and so we were in our own eyes. (Laugh- 
 ter.) Whether they took back this report or not, I cannot say, 
 but it is certain when the project next came before the Legisla- 
 ture our opponents appeared to have become suddenly very 
 weak-kneed and inefficient, and Lackawanna County sprang 
 into existence perfect, complete, and full-armed, like Minerva 
 from the head of Jove. 
 
 Now, this leads me back to the original thought with which 
 I started, and that is, that the object, and aim, and scope of the 
 National Guard is towards the triumphs of peace, and not of 
 war. The influences which the Scranton City Guard had upon 
 the formation of the new county were silent and unobserved, 
 but they were powerful and irresistible as those magic influences 
 of nature which are now bursting the seed and swelling the 
 branch, but with a force sufficient for rending the eternal rocks 
 asunder. We have listened to-day with delight to the grand antl 
 eloquent panegyric which our honoi-ed Judge Hand has delivered 
 upon the majesty and dignity of the law. But the wisest law, 
 the ablest administration of the law is vain, and weak, and 
 powerless as the wind, unless there stands behind the law an 
 ever-present, palpable, and sufficient power to execute it. And 
 it is this that is the sphere of the National Guard. It is not 
 only its sphere, its scope, and its plan, but it is at the same time 
 its weakness, for as it exists to maintain peace and order, its 
 
APPENDIX. 52it 
 
 very success destroys the apparent necessity for its existence. 
 When war's alarm is shaking the land, when our country's gov- 
 ernment is trembling against the advance of the foe, there is 
 scarcely "a man with soul so dead" who does not feel the fire 
 of patriotism burning in his breast, and is not inspired to deeds 
 of valor; but in time of peace, when there is no apparent neces- 
 sity for military organization, it is a difficult thing to bring men 
 up and keep them up to that point of patriotism which is neces- 
 sary to sustain the National Guard, and I wish to impress this 
 upon your minds, because there are many here to-night who are 
 largely employers of men of my command. Now, if we can 
 get these men into the National Guard and induce them, by 
 inspiring their patriotic motives, to devote the time and labor 
 that is necessary to sustain it, we should b}' all means do so. 
 Because at the present time there seems no necessity for this 
 service, encourage them in every way to devote the time that 
 is necessary to discharge their duty rather than restrain them 
 from devoting this time to it. 
 
 The greatest benefit the National Guard can bestow upon this 
 community, and upon the State, and upon the country is the 
 prevention of the evils which we dread. Thei-efore, it should 
 be sustained, and therefore I appeal to you to sustain it in the 
 future as you have in the past. (Applause.) 
 
 The president called for three cheers for the National Guard, 
 Avhich were lustily given. 
 
 Mr. Winton. — I call upon one of our most promising young 
 attorneys, whose clarion tones are heard daily in our courts, 
 Mr. John F. Connolly. (Applause.') 
 
 Mr. Connolly : 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, — I hardly consider it proper 
 that a member of the bar should be called upon to respond to 
 this toast. You all know, if there is any failing in the world 
 that lawyers have, particularly the younger ones, it is to be 
 egotistical. And I am afraid that the member of the bar called 
 upon to respond to this toast is liable to fall into this error, hence 
 I think the person who responds to it should be very guarded in 
 his remarks. I would say, as far as the junior bar of Lackuwanna 
 
524 APPENDIX. 
 
 County is concerned, that it is second to none in the State — in 
 size. {Laughter and applause,) Many of the young gentlemen 
 who are classed among the junior members of the bar are men of 
 great learning and ability. I am touching upon the egotistical 
 part now. If any of the rising towns out West are short of law- 
 yeva, all they have to do is to call upon the bar of Lackawanna 
 County, and we will honor their draft with either young or old. 
 
 It is true, as has been remarked by Judge Hand, that some- 
 times the junior members of the bar are somewhat impulsive. It 
 is also very annoying for the Court to listen to the simplest 
 principles and propositions of law they learned in their early 
 days advanced by the juniors with eloquence and vehemence. 
 But the argus-eye of the watchful client is on the budding 
 counsellor, and he must do his duty — his whole duty. But, you 
 must understand, the young members of the bar are eager to 
 earn a fee. They are anxious to make a reputation and satisfy 
 their clients, and in nine cases out of ten the class of clients 
 who employ young attorneys are satisfied if they only "spread 
 themselves." {Applause.) 
 
 It reminds me of a little anecdote I once heard. A j'oung 
 man, who was about to let the mantle of his father, who was an 
 old lawyer, fall upon him, began to ask his sire what he should 
 do in case certain things occurred. He sa3'8, "For instance, if 
 law is on my side and justice is against me, what shall I do ?" 
 " Why," said his father, "advocate the majesty and maintenance 
 of the law, though the heavens fall." "But," saj's he, "father, 
 suppose justice is upon my side and the laio against me, what 
 shall I do ?" " Why," he says, " argue in favor of justice, though 
 it cause a revolution." " But," he saj's, " suppose neither law nor 
 justice is upon my side, what shall I do?" "Well," he says, 
 " paw the air and talk around it." 
 
 That, gentlemen, is the unfortunate condition the junior mem- 
 bers of the bar are placed in. Tlie}' are generally given the 
 cases in which they must do the " pawing" and " talking 
 around," while the cunning old seniors look on and laugh, and 
 never for an instant think of the time when they were juniors. 
 Just where the " line of demarkation" — as the lawyers put it — 
 is drawn between the junior and the senior members of the bar 
 is more than I can tell. 
 
APPENDIX. 525 
 
 Now, considerable has been said here, and said with truth, 
 about the bar of old Luzerne. That it stood foremost amon-,^ 
 the bars of the State of Pennsylvania is, as I understand it, a 
 conceded fact. Some of the ablest jurists that Pennsylvania 
 ever boasted of were members of the Luzerne bar, and I am 
 proud to say that all the senior members of the Scranton bar, 
 and a great many of the juniors, once belonged to, and yet, at 
 times, grace that bar with their presence. (Applause.) 
 
 I regret that some member of the senior bar who is not a 
 comparative stranger among us did not respond to the preced- 
 ing toast. The gentleman who eloquently responded has been 
 hei-e but a short time, and the task of answering for the seniors 
 should not have been imposed upon him. Yet he did it so well, 
 I feel that I must thank him in their name. 
 
 It is no easy matter to become a lavvyer. It may be an eas}' 
 matter for a young man with an ordinaiy education and ordi- 
 nary ability, to be admitted to the bar. But thei-e is a good 
 deal of difference between being admitted to the bar and becom- 
 ing a lawyer. The young man who starts out in life with the 
 idea of getting admitted to the bar and stopping there, falls very 
 far short of reaching the mark. The young lawj-er who propose-* 
 to succeed in his profession must be incessant in his labors, and 
 he must be a man of ability. His work may be compared to 
 that of the clock. It must be work without haste, work without 
 rest. Unless he does that — unless he works without haste and 
 works without rest — he will never attain to that pinnacle of 
 fame to which manj' of the senior members of the old Luzerne 
 bar have attained. (Applause.) 
 
 On behalf of the bar of Lackawanna County, although they 
 are quite numerous, I will say we have among them men ot' 
 ability, men of energy, and, above all, men of integrity. (Aj'- 
 plause.) 
 
 A man who has not integrity, his ability amounts to nothing- 
 as a lawyer, because if a man is not truthful and honest — honesi 
 to himself, honest to his clients, honest to the Court — he nevei- 
 can, he never will, succeed as a lawyer. (Applause.) I may say 
 for the young men of the bar that they must generally bear ail 
 the rebukes and rebuffs of the Court, and when there is any 
 "sitting-down-upon" to be done by the Court, it generally falls 
 
526 APPENDIX. 
 
 to the unhappy lot of the unfortunate junior, whose client is 
 waiting and listening in some pi'ominent part of the court-room, 
 read}- to seal his doom unless he comes up to said client's fancied 
 standard. And all the while the young man is quoting " horn- 
 book" law, and the Court is incensed. 
 
 I say it with pardonable pride, that the junior — and I might 
 include a majorit}' of the senior — bar of Lackawanna County are 
 straightforward, honest, honorable men. Their escutcheon is as 
 yet unblemished and untarnished, and I trust it will remain so, 
 and in that temple of Justice, the corner-stone of which was laid 
 to-day, may they carve their way to fame and fortune. And in 
 a few years I trust that the bar of Lackawanna County may 
 not only be the first in Pennsylvania, but the first in the Union. 
 
 Mr. Winton. — Nearly nine years ago I stood in the city of 
 Philadelphia, in the hall of that convention composed of consti- 
 tutional tinkers, and sitting there I heard two men advocate 
 Lackawanna County. It was the day when Lewis Pughe and 
 A. B. Dunning made their famous speeches in our behalf. (-4/)- 
 plause.) Looking with eyes toward the future, I was satisfied 
 that that was the stepping-stone, and I said, " Oh I my prophetic 
 soul, mine uncle I" (Laughter and applause.) 
 
 And now, to respond to the toast of 
 
 OUR CONSTITUTION, 
 
 I call upon a man who has held the laboring-oar for thirty years, 
 A. B. Dunning. (^Applause.') 
 
 Mr. Dunning : 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, — I feel a pride to-night in 
 meeting my old associates in this new-county fight that I am 
 sure I will be unable to express. After the many speeches we 
 have heard, and the manner in which this whole question has 
 been discussed, I feel as though there was no ground for me to 
 stand upon. \n fact, my friend Merrifield carried the fortress in 
 the outset. (^Applause.) But, gentlemen, I never saw the hour 
 during the last thirty-five years that I was not a new-county 
 man. Now, that is a good ways back. Thirty years ago I was 
 elected to the Legislature, a young man, and the only reason I 
 consented to be a candidate, leaving my business and going to 
 the Legislature for $3 a day — that was the sum-total paid, and 
 
APPENDIX. 527 
 
 if you stayed over 100 days you got $1.50. and no more — wus be- 
 cause of the interest I felt in Lackawanna County. 1 had been 
 familiar with the fight from its inception. I remember well 
 when it was raised, and William Merrifield, the father of the 
 gentleman who introduced the topic here to-night, was elected 
 to the Legislature, and nearly gave us a county. I don't propose 
 to say much about what was done by our friends in the lower 
 end at that time, but the defeat of the measure was one of the 
 smart things they did. But taking the thing all the way along, 
 step by step, I look around me to-night and see gentlemen who 
 stood shoulder to shoulder with me in the Legislature and else- 
 where giving material aid. Dr. Throop spent two entire winters 
 there, giving most valuable assistance. I was fortunate enough 
 always to pass the bill in the House, and recollect, the second 
 time it was passed, we had so strong an assurance that it was 
 going through the Senate that my friend Throop, in the full con- 
 fidence that the thing was accomplished, gave what you may 
 ■call a little blow-out. He gave a banquet to tiie friends of the 
 bill that cost him two or three hundred dollars, thus showing 
 the interest he felt on the subject. But I cannot enumerate the 
 mtmy who have given years of service and means to this long- 
 <;on tinned struggle. None among them all, however, were more 
 liberal than Dr. Throop, and Col. Ira Tripp, both of whom have 
 kept open house at Harrisburg entire sessions, and their well- 
 known liberalit}' tells the story, so far as expense goes. " All is 
 well that ends well." The struggle is over, and we meet here 
 to-night to shake hands over the bloodless chasm, old and new- 
 county friends to rejoice together. I have the most kindly recol- 
 lections of old mother Luzerne, and many of her worthy sons 
 ^re bidding us Grod-speed in our departure from the old hearth- 
 rsione. 
 
 The lateness of the hour admonishes me to be brief. I will 
 therefore come at once to the toast — " The Constitution, the 
 «tepping-stone to the new county." I need not tell 3'ou, gentle- 
 men, that constitutions are the fundamental principles or rules 
 for the government of states or nations, dating back many cen- 
 turies, finding especial voice in Magna Charta, when the Englisb 
 Barons in the thirteenth century forced from King John t~« 
 gieat charter restraining monarchy and enlarging the rights of 
 
528 APPENDIX. 
 
 the people against kingly tyranny ; that Magna Charta found ite^ 
 way across the mighty deep in the '' Mayflower," its principles 
 taliing root in the virgin soil on this side of the Atlantic, grow- 
 ing and spreading until it culminated in the sanguinary struggle 
 of the Revolution, which gave to us the Constitution of 1788, 
 being the first charter of human liberty ever given to an abso- 
 lutely free people ; nor how in the progress of events, like the 
 rapidly-growing boy, the people became too large for their 
 clothes, and Uncle Samuel's pants were found so short that in^ 
 1837-38 it required material for a larger pattern. 
 
 Good Uncle Samuel, finding himself and family so well dressed 
 in the new suit, felt an inspiration for greater deeds and broader 
 enterprise. A forward movement is ordered along the line. 
 Coal is mined, canals were dug, railroads constructed, factories 
 were built, forges and furnaces, from their thousand stacks, sent 
 their leaping flames toward the heavens, and the busy hum of 
 industry filled the land with joyful sounds. 
 
 But history repeats itself. In 1873 the fashions were found 
 so changed that the garment must be revised, and, "Eureka!" 
 in one of the pockets, safely tucked away, is found our Magna 
 Charta, inscribed " Lackawanna County," the corner-stone of 
 whose temple of Justice was laid to-day, or, possibly, it may be 
 the "stepping-stone" referred to in the toast to which I am 
 attempting to respond. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, I fear I have alread}' wearied you, and, 
 knowing you are anxious to listen to the gentlemen who are to 
 follow me, without dwelling upon our long-continued struggle 
 before success crowned our eff'orts, our hopes, our fears, or speak- 
 ing of the treason of pretended friends, or after, how the heart 
 was made sick by hope deferred, the object of our eff'orts so near 
 at times, and, ah! so fur, I will close by returning my sincere 
 thanks for your kindness in recognizing me as one of the humble 
 workers in the cause we all had so much at heart. 
 
 Music — Overture, " Aurora." 
 
 Mr. Winton. — There is one man here among us who seems to 
 like Wilkes Barre, and has some cases down there. I will now 
 ask him to speak to the toast, 
 
APPENDIX. 529 
 
 OUR MANUFACTURING INTERESTS. 
 
 Mr. W. W. Scranton : 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen. — When the new county was 
 first talked about, they came to me and said it was a great thing 
 for manufacturing interests. They said law was going to bo 
 cheap. I have tried it a good deal since then, but I think the} 
 jnade a mistake in that. 
 
 Now, I don't hold myself as a great many do about the town, 
 but it seems to me that this community is based principally upon 
 the raining of coal — half of it depends upon it. Now these mines 
 are being woi-ked out more and more, and, in my mind, it is not 
 going to be forever. It will not be one hundred years before 
 these are all worked out. To me it seems that a gi-eat man}- of 
 us here are going to live to see the time when the growth of 
 this town, so far as it depends upon mining, is not going to 
 increase. When that time comes, we have got to fall back upon 
 something else. It seems to me that we ought to provide for 
 that beforehand, and provide, as far as possible, for our manufac- 
 turing interests. For that, we want good government; we 
 want law and order; we want moderate taxation. If you will 
 give us these things, we will jorosper and foster these little 
 industries, and in our time we will take cai-e of you. (Applause.) 
 
 Mr. Winton. — Now we come to a mighty power, 
 
 the press, 
 
 and, to respond, we have one of its brightest ornaments — a man 
 who was ever ready at Harrisburg to send therefrom at mid- 
 night the breeziest news in our behalf, making the long fingers 
 of the telegraph click out our successes; always ready here at 
 home, also, to assist us. I call upon the Hon. J. E. Barrett. 
 
 Mr. Barrett : 
 
 Me. Chairman and Gentlemen, — I have been admonished by 
 our worthy chairman that, as the hour is well advanced, those 
 who have long speeches to make would do well to cut them 
 short. I am further admonished by the frequent visits of the 
 "printer's devil," who has been flitting in and out during the 
 evening for copy, that the paper will go to press very soon ; 
 therefore, I must be brief Besides, it is rather dangerous for the 
 84 
 
530 APPENDIX. 
 
 press, in the presence of so man}- judges and lawj^ers, to be too 
 free witn Its utterances and opinions, as every careful editor 
 must always keep in mind the fact that caution is quite as essen- 
 tial as courage, since we have such a thing as a stringent libel 
 law in Pennsj'lvania. I am pleased to know, however, that in 
 •ease I should be arraigned in a temple of Justice for anything 
 uttered in this presence, I could bring up my case in banc, as I 
 believe we have a full bench here this evening, in which I have 
 full confidence. Gentlemen, it has been said frequently that the 
 press is the great lever in the world's progress; such I hope it 
 will continue, playing its part in the world's history side by side 
 with law and justice. In returning from the ceremony of laying 
 the corner-stone of our new court-house this afternoon, after 
 standing in the rain, unconscious of the discomfort of the 
 weather because of the great pleasure afforded in listening to 
 Judge Hand's admirable address, I fell in with a friend who told 
 me that he had often skated over the site selected for our temple 
 of Justice, and that he had also, on many occasions, caught bull- 
 heads there. This suggested to my mind a pleasant possibility. 
 We all know that most lawyers and many judges are fond of the 
 good old sport with which the name of Izaak Walton is insepa- 
 rably connected, and it occurred to my mind just then that for a 
 trifling outlay the county commissioners might provide for ex- 
 cellent fishing on the bench. It would be a most agreeable way 
 to var}' the monotony if the judges could drop a line into the 
 basement and enjoy themselves piscatorially in capturing an 
 occasional bull-head, while the intelligent jury, under the som- 
 nolent effect of some great advocate's plea, went in quest of 
 pastoral pleasures to the land of Nod. 
 
 But, as the press plays its part in the domain of progress, I 
 don't propose that one of its humble representatives will bore 
 you this evening with a tedious dissertation. The press, what- 
 ever else may be its shortcomings, is never at a loss to give 
 advice to judges, lawyers, governors, presidents, and emperors. 
 It can dictate a policy for the Peruvians that would discount all 
 the efi'orts of Blaine or Shipherd, and although the North Pole 
 has never been discovered, it can tell exactly how it can be done. 
 And need you wonder at this, when the electricity of the world 
 is the servant of the press, and through the still hours of night 
 
APPENDIX. 531 
 
 becomes the subtle courier that cai-rics information from the 
 uttermost ends of the earth, to add to our stock of knowledge 
 at the breakfast-table? With the electric telegraph and the 
 press, those twin-ministers of light and liberty, error is impossi- 
 ble, and tyranny becomes a monster of such hideous mien " as 
 to be hated needs but to be seen." The pi*ess needs no praise ; it 
 is its own best eulogist, and I trust that in the future of Lacka- 
 wanna County it will be found aiding the right. It was my 
 pleasure to see at Harrisburg, during the progress of our new- 
 county bill, several of the faces that grace this festive board. 
 They were always zealous and energetic in the interest of the 
 people of this section. In those days we all realized, more 
 fully than at any other time, the value of a friendly press, and 
 it was always a pleasure to me to meet a newspaper editor or 
 correspondent whom I could convince of the justice of our side. 
 As the press of Lackawanna has stood by the new county at its 
 birth, and as it stands by it now, so, I trust, it will be found 
 advocating its interests in all time to come; advocating an up- 
 right judiciary and the fearless administration of the law, and 
 always raising its voice 
 
 " 'Gainst the wrung that needs resistance, 
 For the cause that lacks assistance, 
 For the future in the distance, 
 And the good that it can do." 
 
 {Applause.) 
 
 Mr. Winton.— I now call upon Mr. E. P. Kingsbury for 
 
 OUR CITY. 
 
 Mr. Kingsbury : 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, — I appreciate the honor con- 
 ferred upon me in being requested to respond to the toast, '-The 
 City of Scranton, the third in this Commonwealth," but it is 
 hard for me to understand why I should have been selected for 
 this response, unless because it is customary lo go to the "oldest 
 inhabitants" for information, always being ready to make due 
 allowance for their old age, general debility, and the consequent 
 loss of a portion of their mental fticulties. (Applause.) This 
 may explain it, and, explaining it, will at the same lime account 
 for the feebleness of my effort. 
 
532 APPENDIX. 
 
 Scranton is properlj^ named, perpetuating as it does the 
 names and memories of the gentlemen who planted here the 
 seeds of industry, watering the soil with their wealth, practical 
 knowledge, and personal zeal, causing to spring forth from the 
 wilderness of a few years ago this city, now the third in popu- 
 lation in the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 
 
 But is it the third in population only? I think not. Could 
 good Uncle Joseph Albright whisper in your eai's the total 
 shipments of coal during the past year in his department; could 
 Brother Storrs, from the stores of his memory, tell you his 
 story for the year 1881 ; and, following him, the genial gentle- 
 man from the old town of Gibsonburg, who thinks well enough 
 of our city to invest largely here in real-estate, relate to you in 
 the "Jermyn" dialect "what he knows about coal-mining," to 
 say nothing of what could be added by the almost endless num- 
 ber of smaller operators who are " Connellizing" here (applause), 
 I have a notion that Scranton would rank well as the third city 
 of Pennsylvania in this particular. We might go on and speak 
 of our iron-mills and steel-works, our blast-furnaces, machine- 
 shops, and silk-mills, and many other branches of mechanical 
 industry, and thus show that we can, with much reason, lay 
 claim to being the third, city of our State in this particular also. 
 There are some things we may well be proud of as a city. We 
 are well governed, and good order, peace, and quietness prevail 
 to a greater extent than in any other city of its size I know of. 
 I doubt whether there is a city, in or out of our State, with so 
 laro-e a population, where crime and lawlessness exists to a lesser 
 degree than here, and where so small a police force is necessary 
 to maintain good order. {Applause.) When we consider the 
 ra])idity of our growth, this is truly remarkable. Why, so late 
 as 1852, and even later, I think, the voters of what was then 
 called Harrison (now Scranton) had to go to Hyde Park to vote, 
 and the whole of them put together could be crowded into one 
 of our street cars. Yet at the last charter election, in February 
 last, when our excellent mayor was re-elected, nearly seven 
 thousand votes were polled. 
 
 Again, we should congratulate ourselves upon the state of our 
 finances, our city debt, after deducting assets, being but about 
 S260,000. This, certainly, as compared with cities of like pop- 
 
APPENDIX. 533 
 
 ulation, is not formidable — ccirtainly not t'oriniduble unough to 
 forbid its reasonal)le increase for the purpose of properl}' paving 
 Lackawanna Avenue. 
 
 Again, Scranton, as a city, may be ])roud of its banks and 
 banking institutions ; for there is to-da}' on deposit in them, 
 subject to check, over $3,500,000, and not one of these institu- 
 tions but that can easily and promptly meet every one of its 
 obligations. How well I remember when yon First National 
 commenced business in a little frame buihliiig (half the dimen- 
 sions of this room) on Lackawanna Avenue, and the cashier 
 daily placing all the valuables of the bank in a tin box 7 x 9, and 
 depositing it for safe-keeping in the vault of Mason, Meylert & 
 Co. It would take a pretty good-sized vault to hold them now. 
 
 But, Mr. Chairman, time will not permit me to say more as 
 to the present proud position that our city occupies, or to give 
 more than a passing allusion to the splendid future which seems 
 opening up before her, and I will conclude with the sentiment, 
 " The Cit}' of Scranton, now the third in the Commonwealiii : 
 ma}' the rapidity of her gi-owth, and her successes in the pa^t, 
 be an earnest of her glory in the future," only adding that, 
 while in many things she is the third in our Commonwealth, in 
 others she is first, for no other city can boast of as big and 
 irregular paving-stones as Lackawanna Avenue can show, nor 
 of mud as deep and thick as can be found on Wyoming. {Ap- 
 plause.') 
 
 Music. — PhuUalion Medley. 
 
 Mr. Winton. — Out in Covington Township there lives a family 
 60 highly i-espectable, so esteemed, that we delight to honor the 
 very name. I call upon Mr. T. H. Dale to respond to the toast, 
 
 OCR COMMERCIAL INTERESTS. 
 
 Mr. Dale : 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, — I rather suspect that a 
 shrewd man, one who was engaged in commercial interests, 
 could take the self-congratulations and self-praise we have in- 
 dulged in to-night and discount it fifty per cent., and then liuve 
 a very reasonable capital to start the new county. (Applause.) 
 
 When the author Hawthorne was requested to respond to a 
 toast at a banquet given by the Lord Mayor of Tjondon, he was 
 
534 APPENDIX. 
 
 greatly agitated, and sought the counsel of a friend as to what 
 be should do. The friend's advice was this, that when he was 
 called upon he must certainly rise to his feet, or else the assem- 
 bled guests would think be was a fool and did not know enough 
 to say anything, but after he had risen to his feet he must say 
 just as little as possible, or else the same guests would think he 
 was a fool, and did not know when he had said enongb. T was 
 reminded of this incident by the fact that when your genial 
 Toast-Master notified me that, as President of the Board of 
 Trade, I would be expected to respond to the toast " Our Com- 
 mercial Interests," he was particularly emphatic that I should 
 be very brief and not say very much, just as though our com- 
 mercial interests were a sort of pigmy affair, and could be readily 
 handled in a speech of two or three minutes. 
 
 Now, if I may be allowed to use a paradox, commercial inter- 
 ests first made Scranton, and then Scranton made its commercial 
 interests. For before Scranton was, before it had assumed its 
 present stately proportions and " magnificent distances," as so 
 graphically described by Mr. Kingsbury in responding to the 
 toast " Our City," and long before an}' lawyers were here to give 
 a banquet, " commercial interests" in the persons of the Messis. 
 Scrantons had sought it out ; and the company ibey organized 
 turned out to be the foundation for that which has since become 
 Scranton City, with all its varied industries, and all its extended 
 business interests. I know, sir, that in the flight of time man\- 
 things we ought to remember sink out of sight, and the year?* 
 close over them, but there are some things that remain visible 
 across the years ; and so it is that to-night I desire to pay tribute 
 to the indomitable perseverance, to the will, the pluck, and the 
 energy of these pioneers in our commercial interests, and to 
 assert that their methods have been adopted, and have become 
 characteristic of those who have since developed our commercial 
 industries. And it is worthy of mention that if our town is 
 noted for any one thing above another, it is for the push, and the 
 vim, and the energy of those having in charge our commercial 
 interests, and out of this vim and this push has sprung that of 
 which we are so justly proud, the present flattering condition 
 and position of our business interests. {Applause.) I feel, too, 
 that credit should not be withheld from othei'S who have aided 
 
APPENDIX. 535 
 
 in building up our industries and our business enterprises — 
 manufacturers, bankers, merchants, even lawyers ; all have done 
 their share, and all deserve credit. I shall not even omit a 
 somewhat noted character, residing on our side of the river, 
 who some time since started a store in one of the back streets 
 of our city, and who was inclined to boast a gi'eat deal about 
 the wonderful stock of goods he was canying, and the large 
 business he was doing, and who, on one occasion, after expati- 
 ating largely upon his great purchases, declared he had "ever}-- 
 thing in the hardware line except molasses." {Laughter.) 
 
 Well, sir, out of these efforts has grown a commercial interest 
 that to-day is represented by over 850 firms doing business iiere, 
 by $7,000,000 invested in iron- and steel-works, by over $6,000,000 
 invested in merchandise, and over $4,000,000 invested in other 
 industries and other enterprises, making in all over $17,000,000 
 invested in business, exclusive of the great railroad and coal 
 corporations centring here. 
 
 I ought not to omit to mention something of the wonderful 
 growth of these corpoi-ate interests, but 1 am admonished that 
 one cannot treat this subject in a five minutes' speech, and so I 
 will simply take the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Eail- 
 i-oiui Company, and let that company illusti-ate what all these 
 com])anies are doing in the way of developing our commercial 
 interests. There was shipped from this region by the Delaware, 
 Lackawanna and Western Railroad in 1852 (the first full year 
 of coal shipments by this road) 67,487 tons of anthracite coa!'„ 
 and this amount has gone on increasing year by year until in, 
 1881 this road shipped the enormous amount of 4,511,636 tona 
 of coal. To accomplish this result, there has been added to its; 
 ])roperty coal-mine after coal-mine, and to its system of roads 
 railroad after railroad, until to-day it is one of the largest and 
 strongest corporate interests in our country. And the progress 
 of the coal industry as shown by this company can also be 
 applied to a greater or lesser extent to other companies doing- 
 business in this region. The marvellous development of the coal 
 industry has naturally and rapidly developed our general com- 
 mercial interests ; and in the words of Mr. Storrs, the general 
 coal-agent of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Company,, 
 "if the time ever comes (as I believe it must s<oon come) wheu 
 
536 APPENDIX. 
 
 the consumption of coal ovei'takes and equals the production, so 
 that there shall be full work for those engaged in the mining 
 and shipping of coal, we shall see a degi'ee of prosperity for these 
 regions heretofore unsurpassed." (Applause.) 
 
 And now, Mr. Chairman, since this is an occasion for mei-ri- 
 ment, and inasmuch as self-congratulations and spread-eagleism 
 seem to be the fashion rather than dry figures and statistics, I 
 declare to you that while I am neither a prophet nor the son of 
 a prophet, I yet indulge the hope that in that future which 
 geologists assure us is coming, when the sands of Jersey shall 
 have been covered by the waters of the Atlantic, when great 
 New York shall have been engulfed, when the huckleberry 
 heights of Pocono shall have been submerged, then, sir, will 
 come our glory; then our own classic Lackawanna will have 
 been made navigable, through an appropriation secured by our 
 Congressman, and Scranton will be the metropolis, the beat of 
 whose trade-pulsations will be felt to the utmost limits of the 
 great Eepublic. {Laughter and applause.) 
 
 Mr. Winton. — Now I come to one of the California pioneei-s. 
 I had prepared some remarks, but the best thing I can say is to 
 say he was the man in the gap — the Hon. E. H. McKune. 
 
 Mr. McKune : 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, — I feel somewhat out of 
 place to-night in responding to the toast, " Our Fire Depart- 
 ment." All the other gentlemen that have spoken here this 
 evening have spoken upon subjects they are perfectly familiar 
 with, but the Toast Committee have placed me upon a different 
 ground. I must sa^" this — that this day and this night have 
 been among the happy daj^s and nights of my life. {Applause.) 
 The da}' of the laying of the corner-stone of the new court-house 
 for the County of Lackawanna brings to my mind an incident 
 of which I was a participant in 1850, when, standing upon Tele- 
 graph Hill, looking down the straits, as the steamer " Oregon" 
 entered the gates, and upon her fore-sail was printed in large 
 letters, " Califoi'nia — she has been admitted to the Union." We, 
 as pioneers in '49, had in convention met and given birth to a 
 State, which went foi'th in her full completeness, clothed about 
 her loins with the leaves of the vine and fig. Upon her breasts 
 sihe bore the sheaves of her bounteous land with sandals of silver. 
 
APPENDIX. 537 
 
 'Upon her brow she wore a crown of the purest gold. In her 
 hands were the products of her vineyards and the fruits of her 
 •orchards. As she went forth her path was strewn with flowers 
 such as no queen of the earth had ever trodden upon in their 
 native beauty. As slie approached the capitol of our countr\-, 
 where sat in council the sages of the Union, her strength, 
 beauty, and wealth entranced them all. But, alas for the cupidity 
 of man. Some of those sages soon raised against her their oppo- 
 sition. For she was commissioned to bear to the capitol the 
 voice of her people, who, through her constitution, had bade her 
 say that they had decreed that all men who stood upon her soil 
 should be freemen ; that no blot of slavery should blacken her 
 escutcheon. She was the first to enunciate the grand principle 
 of " Popular Sovereignty" — that principle that was to bring the 
 minds of the sages in conflict. In the council chamber stood, 
 pleading her cause, Webster, Dickinson, Benton, Seward, and 
 others, while Calhoun and Berrien led on the forces in opposi- 
 tion. There she stood for long and weary months, awaiting ])er- 
 mission to enter into union with her sister States. She was not 
 ashamed of her representatives, for among them was Fremont, 
 to the world known as a hardy and successful explorer, who had 
 been the first to place the flag of our country upon the peaks of 
 the Eocky Mountains, who had secured the friendship of Kit 
 Carson and others of those adventurous men who had pas.sed 
 beyond the pale of civilization, and had joined their lives and 
 fortunes with the red men, who then held almost undisputed 
 possession of the vast plains beyond the great rivers. He, better 
 than any other man in the countrj", realized the value to the 
 Union of the acquisition of California. He plead with the sen- 
 ators to go forth with him and stand upon Mount Diablo, and 
 look away to the West, aci-oss to the Pacific, and behold, whiten- 
 ing her bosom, the great fleet of merchantmen who were bring- 
 ing as their lading the products of the lands of China, Japan, 
 and the islands of the sea ; and behold, as they enter the portals 
 of the Golden Gate, they salute the flag which would represent 
 the great country that lay stretched along its thousands of miles, 
 until it meets its boundary in the Atlantic Ocean. At the east 
 lie the valleys of the Sacramento and San Joaquin, while bej'ond, 
 in the forests, were to be seen the great trees — the wonder and 
 
538 APPENDIX. 
 
 admiration of the world. Still beyond lay the valley of the 
 Yosemite, where the travellers of all nations who are permitted 
 to enter within its portals stand in astonishment and awe as 
 they look around on every side and behold the effect of nature's 
 great forces, which has piled cliff on cliff until their lofty peaks 
 pierce the clouds, telling to man there is a God, while the 
 mountain brooks, leaping along their way and plunging over 
 mighty precipices, forming those beautiful cataracts which waft 
 forth songs of praise to the bounteous Giver of all good and 
 perfect gifts. So great a hei'itage as this great State, without 
 money and without price, was never before offered to a nation. 
 
 I thank you, sir, for introducing me as an old Californian 
 amid these pioneers of Scranton gathered here this evening, as 
 it has revived the memories of those days when I, too, was a 
 pioneer. I said that day, when the news arrived that we had 
 been admitted to the Union, was a happy day to me. 
 
 And so when we stood there in the Chamber, tallying as we 
 did when the vote was carried to 101 on the third reading of the 
 new-county bill, that was a happy moment. But there was 
 something in the future, — there was an election, — and to-night we 
 have no question at all in regard to the future. Thanks to the 
 first commissioners of the county of Lackawanna, they have laid 
 their ground well, and the noble edifice to be erected is now in 
 the hands of their successors, which, I have no doubt, under the 
 contractor and the architect, and the vigilant supervision of the 
 commissioners, will rise in all its beauty and majesty, so it will 
 be an honor not only to our city, but to the Commonwealth and 
 to the country. (Applause.) 
 
 Permit me, Mr. President, in behalf of the fire department of 
 this city, to thank you for remembering them at this banquet 
 and at this time. You citizens of Scranton have as fine an or- 
 ganization as there is in the United States, and are you aware, 
 fellow-taxpayers of the city of Scranton, that your whole fire 
 department of this city costs less money than one-half of the cost 
 of a single company in Philadelphia or New York? (Applause.) 
 This city is run under the system of cheap government which 
 Mr. Scranton referred to, and the fire department has had but 
 $5000 yearly appropriation for the last six or seven years, out of 
 which they run their steamers and hose-carts, and supply the 
 
AIM'KNDIX. 531) 
 
 hose, and do the woi-k free for you. I speak to you, gentlemen, 
 as representatives of the city of Scranton. Look well to j'our 
 interests; instruct your iaw-makers of the city to care well for 
 tlie firemen, for the day is fast approaching when the volunteer 
 department, if not well cared for, will demand from your handa 
 a paid fire department, which will cost you much more than 
 the present department costs you now. I speak with some pride 
 as a fireman. In 1842 I was elected as a fireman in the village 
 of Newburg. It has been my privilege to be a fireman from that 
 day until one year ago. Thirty-six years of my life have 1 not 
 laid down at night on my bed, or undressed myself, without 
 knowing where every piece of clothing I wore, or would be 
 compelled to wear if the fire-bell should call me out, was to be 
 found. 
 
 I look back over the labors thus performed with feelings of 
 deep satisfaction, and, while life is given unto me, expect to do 
 all in my humble power for the interests of the volunteer fire- 
 men. I feel highly delighted with the banquet, for it has gath- 
 ered together some of the pioneers of Scranton, and many of 
 the workers in the new-county cause, and all has gone as merry 
 as a marriage-bell. 
 
 Mr. Winton. — I call upon Mr. F. J. Fitzsimmons to respond to 
 the toast, 
 
 WOMAN. 
 
 Mr. Fitzsimmons : 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, — I will say but a word, 
 as I feel much embarrassed in speaking before this audience. I 
 am inexperienced and young, yet not so young but that I can 
 remember when the Democratic party were successful, and I 
 don't think I will have to live much longer to find it successful 
 again. (Applause.) 
 
 H: * * * ^ =i; :K * 'i= 
 
 The locomotive, with gleaming eye and thunderous voice, as 
 with lightning-speed it annihilates distances, is the grandest of 
 objects, but when it jumps the track and is stuck in the mud it 
 becomes one of the most despicable and helpless objects that 
 can be seen ; yet a woman out of her place — " out of her 
 sphere," if you please — is a still more despicable object. In 
 some of the Western States, I learn with alarm, she is being 
 
540 APPENDIX. 
 
 admitted into legal ranks. {Laughter.') While tiie immortal 
 G-reeley advised young men to do otherwise, yet my advice to 
 lawyers is, "Don't go West." {Laughter and applause.') 
 
 What chance would a most ingenious or eloquent advocate 
 have in winning a case before a jury that would be appealed to, 
 implored, and their appearances complimented b}^ some fair 
 Venus? {Laughter and applause.) 
 
 If it were within the range of possibility that the Court, too, 
 would lend a willing ear to her gentle requests, and lean towards 
 her in its rulings, it requires no ]>rophetic gift to say, with some 
 degree of certainty, that the lawyers of the present may be 
 the farmers of the future. It certainly is within the compass 
 of possibility that the judiciary might become influenced by her 
 wooings. This would be made possible only by the death of 
 our present judges. Some judges die, but few- i-esign. They 
 will in all probability hold court till the Great Judge sends after 
 them to give their proceedings here below a final review. 
 
 Woman has been in all ages the kindling inspiration of patri- 
 otism, eloquence, poesy, and song. She watched over our infancy, 
 and would not permit the winds of winter to visit us too roughly. 
 She is found by the bedside of the sick, administering every 
 comfort that the fever-heated brain suggests. She places the 
 last wreath of affection on the coflSn-lid and decorates the grave 
 with floral offerings. Her tribute of friendship, her mementoes 
 of kindness, her deeds of charity, are too numerous to be furthei- 
 mentioned at this time. Let us hope that at all times to come 
 her virtues may receive from a generous manhood the rewai-d 
 the}' so richly deserve, and that the bar of Lackawanna, though 
 3'oung in years, yet gi*eat in promise, may not only acquire a 
 laudable standing, from a professional standpoint, but that its 
 members may alwaj's willingly render their services in defend- 
 ing the fortunes and reputations of the sex, on behalf of whom 
 I have so poorly responded on this highly sociable and memor- 
 able occasion. {Applause.) 
 
 Mr. Winton. — I call upon Mr. S. T. Scranton, who now resides 
 in the foreign land of Jei"sey, but who was one of the pioneers 
 'of Scranton, and who helped to lay well and deep our sure foot- 
 in «>• whereon we have built so well. 
 
APPENDIX. 541 
 
 Mr. Solden T. Scran ton : 
 
 Mr. Chairman, — It gives me great pleasure to see so many 
 citizens of Scranton, a great many of wiiom I esteem as friends. 
 At this late hour I cannot expect to detain you, but only rise to 
 express my great pleasure in having been here with you on this 
 joyous occasion. I can but feel the liveliest interest in the pros- 
 perity of this new county of Lackawanna and of this city of 
 Scranton. I remember it when there were only seventeen souls 
 in this place. I have watched its progress, growth, and pros- 
 perity for forty-one years, from the 20th of last August, and 
 shall, while life lasts, look upon it with the liveliest interest. I 
 wish you all the prosperity and success you are worthy of. 
 (Applause.) 
 
 The chairman then called on Colonel Charles Scranton for a 
 speech. 
 
 Mr. Charles Scranton : 
 
 Mk. Chairman, and Gentlemen of the Lackawanna County 
 Bar. the Luzerne County Bar, and all the other "Bars" 
 HERE present (Imig/iter), and Fellow-Citizens, — I am very un- 
 expectedly with you on this joyous occasion. When I left my 
 home in New Jersey this afternoon, I did not even know that 
 anything unusual was in progress in your city. I find myself 
 30ur guest, and now you have called on me for a speech. At 
 this late, or early, hour, after so many good things have been 
 said, by so many good speakers, what shall I say? Shall I go 
 back to the early days of your town's history, and call to mind 
 some of the pleasant incidents of my early recollections of 
 Slocum Hollow? As this part has been somewhat overlooked, 
 I will, in my brief remarks, refer to the glory and work of the 
 early days of your city's history; for, from its foundation to the 
 present time, I have watched with deepest interest every step in 
 your rapid rise and progress, your wealth and prosperity. Then 
 you were a feeble folk. Now you have risen to rank and station, 
 and you are here to-night to celebrate a great event in your 
 history. — the lavingr of the corner-stone of a new court-house of 
 a county secona to none for its real wealth and enterprise in this 
 great Commonwealth. But we must not despise the day of small 
 things. Forty years ago I believe there was but one lawyer 
 rtbe late Charles H. Silkman") betweeo Carbondale and Pittston, 
 
-542 APPENDIX. 
 
 and only the small church-building in the same territory, and 
 very few (and they were very small) school-houses in this same 
 valley. Now your lawyers are numerous, as I notice by the 
 number here present, and j^our churches and school-houses are 
 numerous, and noted for their style of architecture, and the 
 moral and educational influences going out therefrom. (Ap- 
 plause.) I will give you one or two items that can hardly iiiil 
 to interest those living at that time, and those who have been 
 born since. At that time our worthy chairman was about the 
 only doctor in this section. The families were far apart and 
 generally very healthy. The whole vote of Providence Town- 
 ship, if my memory serves me, was about 147. The doctor, 
 though exceedingly conscientious, had pretty hard work to keep his 
 patients at that early day sick long enough to make a fair 
 living. (Laughter.) He had to go into the lumber and drug 
 business and trade a hoi'se occasionally to make a decent living. 
 I remember having been called up from New Jersey to help in 
 place of one of the book-keepers who was sick, or nearly so, by 
 the loneliness here after coming from the large town of Oxford. 
 It was then that, in order to relieve the monotony of the situa- 
 tion, I proposed getting up a debating school. The thing took 
 quickly, and I was appointed to draw up the constitution and 
 b3'-laws, and our worthy chairman was apjiointcd to give the 
 opening lecture. I need not tell you it was a grand one. 
 {Laughter.) I believe it had to be repeated at numerous villages 
 in the county. The late Hon. W. W. Ketcham and others began 
 in this little thing to show their brain-power. For the generous 
 part which I bore in the premises I was, with Mr. Charles F. 
 Mattes, excused from taking part in the debates, and we were 
 made "gentlemen judges" for the whole winter. Martin L. 
 Newman, the chief of police of the town, and the only constable 
 for miles around, was also on hand as a debatei-. Another great 
 event transpired. It was resolved, at a public meeting held at 
 the house of N. D. Green, Hyde Park, that the coming national 
 anniversary ought to be and should be celebrated with imposing 
 ceremony, and the citizens of Eazorville, Bucktown, and Slocum 
 Hollow were invited to co-operate to make it a grand success, 
 and show the folks down the valley what could be done up this 
 way. There are a few yet living who well remember the da}', — 
 
Al'PKNDlX. 543 
 
 'how the delegations came in froni the j)hices named ; how proudly 
 old Captain t'eltz, the grand marshal, led the procession, with 
 "sword and buckler" b}- his side, and his numerous Masonic 
 emblems dangling by his coat-collar (laughter); how the delega- 
 tion from Slocum Hollow, in single tile, fell in line with Colonel 
 George W. Scranton at the head, Dr. Throop second, with fiddle 
 and bow, Charles F. Mattes next with i-hirionet, some other one 
 with bass-drum. Esquire Grant, R. W. Olmstead, William Sands, 
 William Manness, and some twenty others, all marching to the 
 tune of " Auld Lang Syne" down the old stump-fence road, over 
 the teetering bridge, up the steep side-hill (laughter), and sol- 
 emnl}^ into the little church, well packed with eager listeners to 
 the oration that was to follow, and the martial music, and to 
 hear the rendering by the vocal and instrumental powers present 
 of the ode prepared for the occasion by one of the literati of the 
 vallc}*, which was all pla3'ed and sung to the principal tune, 
 "Auld Lang Syne." (Laughter.) 1 wish I had time to recite 
 it, and could remember it. (Cries of "Give us a verse!") Well, 
 it ran about this way : 
 
 " The land vvlicreon our village stands, 
 Where once the savage trod, 
 Is mostly cleared, you'll understand, 
 And covered o'er with sod." 
 
 {Loud calls were here given for more of it.) Well, another versfc 
 ran about thus : 
 
 " Brave Washington, now dead and gone, 
 No more of him you'll see ; 
 America, her greatest son. 
 He gained her liberty." 
 
 Now, to be more serious. 1 have heard from the gentlemen 
 who preceded me of the great struggle you have gone through 
 with in finally obtaining your object, — a new county. How 
 that, as you always need, you have had the good offices and 
 friendship of your worthy chairman, the doctor, all the way 
 through, in having the birth of this new daughter of old Mother 
 Luzerne more than a still-birth. But, as the legal gentlemen 
 present have stated it, no more new counties can be made under 
 your present Constitution. I therefore have to congratulate 
 
544 APPENDIX. 
 
 the friends from old Luzerne on the fact that no more counties 
 are to be cut from her territory ; that she will be spared all these 
 birth-pains in the future ; and now, side by side, these two 
 great counties, Luzerne and Lackawanna, one in interest and 
 origin, are to go on hand-in-hund in all the great work before 
 them. And, in conclusion, let me here sa}^ that the broad, deep, 
 and solid foundations laid here by the late William Henry, 
 Colonel Geoi'ge W. Scranton, Philip H. Mattes, Sanford Grant 
 (who still lives, and ought to be here to-night), and Selden T. 
 Scranton, at the beginning, and later aided by Joseph H. Scran- 
 ton and others, with the good will and fellowship of your chair- 
 man and the other citizens then in this vicinity, have made it 
 possible to have this new county, this corner-stone laid, this 
 banquet, this city — the third in size in this Commonwealth — so 
 well governed and orderly, that its police force is said to be the 
 smallest, for the same-sized population, in the Union ; and for 
 my friend, Mr. John Jermyn, who sits there, and who did his 
 first day's work in the garden of Mr. S. T. Scranton for seventy- 
 five cents, to be a millionaire; for your honoi'ed chairman to be 
 another; for my good friend on my right, Mr. J. J. Albright, to 
 come back from old Virginia shorn of his fortune, and now 
 rich beyond measure; for my young friend Connolly, whose 
 father did good work for the pioneers at the first old furnace, tO' 
 be the respondent to-night for the junior members of the bar of 
 Lackawanna Count}^ ; and so I might go on, did time and your 
 patience permit, and call out by name hundreds of others who 
 have made a name and fame, and money, and homes, here in 
 this city and valle}^ because of the solid foundations laid, of the 
 privations, hard work, and struggles of the pioneers, which 
 were overcome by their indomitable pluck, and aided by 30ur 
 churches, and schools, and good-fellowship. All these combina- 
 tions, with those before alluded to, form, in history, a part of the 
 enjoyment of this festive occasion. May God bless 3'ou all in all 
 the proper aims and objects of life, and "Justice, with her even 
 scales," be deeply fixed in your hearts, in your business trans- 
 actions for yourselves and others. 
 
 Gentlemen, I thank you for your patience, and your kind at- 
 tention to my remarks, which have been too long extended. 
 (Cries, " Go on ! Go on !") No, it is already too late. (Applause.) 
 
APPENDIX, 545 
 
 The President called upon Mr. J. J. Albright. 
 
 Mr. Albright : 
 
 Mk. Chairman and Gentlemen, — You all know I am no 
 speaker. 1 can only say I was here among the first pioneers. 
 When 1 came I was offered this whole plot of ground, about 500 
 acres, for $10 an acre. (A voice : "Why did you not bu3' it?") 
 I had not the five thousand dollars. (Laughter.) At that time 
 I did not remain here, but went to Virginia and returned in 1851. 
 The outgrowth of Scranton has been much greater than any of 
 us, even in what our friends call our fancy flights, ever con- 
 ceived ; and as we have listened this evening to the recitals of 
 the pluck and energy that have been for forty years with the 
 citizens of this section on the subject of a new county, so I may 
 say the same spirit has been manifested in her coal, her manu- 
 facturing, and commercial interests. {Applause.) Dark clouds 
 have settled, and storms at times have swept over us, and many 
 have been shipwrecked, but dismay caino not so strong as to 
 entirely dishearten all. There are those here to-night, and in 
 our cemeteries lie others, who were always ready when the least 
 glimmer of light appeared above the horizon to push forward to 
 victory. (Applause.) 
 
 Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I am thankful that I have been 
 permitted to see this day. It has been to me one of great jo\', 
 and as I have listened this evening to the many most excellent 
 speeches of congratulation, I desire to say that, while I wish to 
 see prosperity and success on evexy hand, yet I more rejoice in 
 the success of ovevy effort that tends to add prosperity to this 
 city. I trust that no person who was active in the formation 
 of this new county will ever have cause to regret the labor per- 
 formed, and that the temple of Justice, whose corner-stone has 
 this day been laid, will always be the house wherein equal and 
 exact justice to all shall be administered by pure and upright 
 judges. {Applause.) 
 
 Calls for Mr. John Jermyn. 
 
 Mr. Jermyn : 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen, — I do not know as I would 
 
 have been here with you to enjoy this most pleasant occasion if 
 
 I had had the least intimation that I should be called upon for a 
 
 speech, and I beg to assure you, gentlemen, that, with the excep- 
 
 35 
 
546 APPENDIX. 
 
 tion of this call, I am free to say that this has been one of the 
 most agreeable evenings, and I may say mornings, I have ever 
 been permitted to enjoy. The reminiscences of many incidents 
 that have transpired durin.g rny residence here, some of which I 
 was permitted to be a pariicipant in, has brought to my mind 
 the period when I came first to Scranton. The world has dealt 
 generousl}^ with me since then, and for that success I feel under 
 great obligations to one who at all times and under all circum- 
 stances was my friend, and who, as his brother has told you, I 
 did my first day's work for in this locality. I have desii-ed for 
 some years to give a public recognition of the esteem in which 
 I hold his memory. This, to me, seems my opportunity, and, as 
 no monument marks the spot where he now lies, I would sug- 
 gest that a subscription for the erection of a monument to 
 Colonel George W. Scranton be now started, and you may put 
 me down for one, two, or three hundred dollars. (Applause.') 
 
 Dr. B. H. Throop seconded the suggestion, and H. M, Ed- 
 wards, Esq., moved the appointment of a committee of five to 
 act with the chairman in carrying it into effect. The committee 
 was appointed, and consists of Dr. Throoj^ and Messrs. John 
 Jermyn, R. W. Archbald, H. M. Edwards, J. J. Albright, and 
 Henry A. Kingsbury. 
 
 Three cheers for the Toast-Master were lustily given. 
 Calls for P. W. Gunster. 
 Mr. Gunster : 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, — When I consented to act 
 on the Committee on Toasts, it was with the distinct understand- 
 ing that I would not be called upon to speak to-night. I tried 
 to do my work well on that committee, and the fact that we have 
 been so well entertained this evening is proof that the work of 
 that committee has been done well. 
 
 I am sorry that the gentleman who was on the programme 
 to-night, and who would have done the subject justice, is not 
 here to respond to the toast, " Our Absent Friends." 
 
 Many men have been interested in this new-county question 
 who are not with us to-night, and whom we shall never see again 
 in this life, — men like William Merrifield and Captain Eobinson. 
 And there is another man whom I shall always think of with 
 the feeling that when I met him, I met a man. He wasn't born 
 
APPENDIX. 547 
 
 in this country ; he was a Sootcluiuin, and, lilce all good Scotch- 
 men, he loved the land of his birlli. l)iit because he preferred a 
 country where it wasn't necessary- to iiave a standing army to 
 keep the crown upon the royal head, he came to this countr}'. 
 A man of keen perception, of strict integrity, of great energy ; 
 a man of unusual ability ; a man who was devoted to his country, 
 and when his countiy called, he was read}- ; a man who was 
 devoted to the interests of this community; a man who may 
 have had his faults, but a man who had his virtues and his 
 friends. I know that man is with us in spirit to-night. I propose 
 the name of William N. Monies. (^Applause.) 
 
 The guests then rose and drank to the memory of William X. 
 Monies. 
 
 The President called upon Mr. l.suac C. Price. 
 
 Mr. Price : 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, — By a mere chance I am 
 here with you this morning. I heard yesterday that during 
 the evening of that day you were going to have the laying of 
 the corner-stone, and I took a great deal of pleasure in attend- 
 ing yesterday and hearing the eloquent remarks of Judge Hand 
 upon that occasion. I came here on my first visit some nineteen 
 years ago, when cei'tain gentlemen who had control of my 
 movements thought you could not take care of yourselves. 1 
 was sent up here and remained four or five months at that time. 
 I have listened to-night with pleasure to the remarks that have 
 been made, and I am fully confident that if one tithe of what 
 has been said about Lackawanna County and about Scrantoii 
 City is true, you are amply sufficient to attend to your own 
 wants at this time. 
 
 I have heard this evening that this is one of the greatest 
 counties, the third largest city in the Commonwealth, with the 
 best judiciary, a most numerous and most distinguished bar. 
 Some of that is news to me. I did think that the little settle- 
 ment wherein I live down on the Delaware and Schuylkill Kivers 
 had something of a bar, and some legal talent, but it is now 
 somewhat of a question in my mind whether it amounts to as 
 much as I thought it did. I have about made up my mind, 
 "while sitting here, that if in my lifetime the period shall come 
 that Mr. Dale has spoken of, and my city shall be submerged. 
 
548 APPENDIX. 
 
 why I'll come up here and live {Laughter) — that is, if you will 
 let me (" Yes, yes, come") ; for I am really glad to say that I 
 believe that Seranton is a live place. When I first visited hero 
 nineteen years ago all of the opposite side of the street was 
 bare. Now on every hand I see good, substantial improvements, 
 and as year b}' year I visit you, these improvements stand out 
 in bold relief before me. I am glad to see them. I have some 
 interests here. I have had confidence in the future of Seranton, 
 and I am pleased to fully realize that my confidence has not 
 been misplaced. If time would permit, I should be pleased to 
 speak of some incidents that I have witnessed here, but the 
 morning hour warns me 'tis time to stop. I thank the President, 
 Dr. Thi-oop, for his invitation that permitted me to be with you 
 and enjoy this pleasant occasion. (Cheers.) 
 
 The band then played a medlej- of " Old Lang Syne" and 
 " Home, Sweet Home," and amid universal congi-atulations, all 
 retired, each to his home as best he could to enjoy his dreams. 
 
 THE SCRANTON POOR-HOUSE. 
 
 From the first settlement of the valley in 1769 up to 1835 
 there is no record of a single pauper being in Providence town- 
 ship. This included all the territory between Blakely and Pitts- 
 ton. But u single "craz}' person" or idiot was found in 1845 
 within a radius of five miles. For years afterwards foolish 
 people were confined in a wooden cage in some remote corner 
 of the house, without medical treatment or care, and thus they 
 passed away their lives without murmur or complaint. 
 
 With the development of Seranton, more especially, how 
 changed the condition of things. On the cold uplands of New- 
 ton township, seven miles from Seranton, a large tract of land 
 was purchased some years ago by the late Henry GriflSn and 
 others for a poor farm, upon which buildings for the insane and 
 poor were erected for the township of Providence. 
 
 A visit to this place less than a dozen years ago by Hon. 
 John E. Barrett, then the able local of the Seranton Daily Repub- 
 lican, with the writer, led his versatile pen to portray in such a 
 true and graphic manner the character, the number, and the 
 treatment of the unfortunate inmates which led to a general 
 chancre in every department. 
 
APPENDIX. 549 
 
 People ignorant of even the existence of the poor farm began 
 to visit and interest themselves in the place, and the taxpaj-ers 
 erected large and substantial buildings for the destitute and for 
 the insane. 
 
 The institution is now in a healthy condition, and is managed 
 by a board of dii'cctors, of which Hon. Lewis Pughe is president. 
 Every department is looked after so carefully by Superintendent 
 Beemer that the labor is thoroughly utilized from the pauper 
 quarters, and the poor tox is comparatively lights