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YALE
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

EBENEZER WARREN STURDEVANT.

By GEO. B. KULP.

Compliments of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society
of Wilkes-Barre, Penn'a.

GENERAL E W GTURDEVANTT.

EBENEZER WARREN STURDEVANT.
wilkes-barre, penn'a.
By GEO. B. KULP,
j\ MEMBER OF THE LUZERNE COUNTY (PENNSYLVANIA) BAR.
Ebenezer Warren Sturdevant was born June iith, 1806, in
Braintrim, Luzerne (now Wyoming) county, Pennsylvania, on
the property there originally owned by his maternal grandfather,
then by his father, and which he now owns. His father, Samuel
Sturdevant, was born at Danbury, Connecticut, September 16th,
1773, and died March 4th, 1847. His mother, Elizabeth Stur
devant, nee Skinner, was born at Hebron, Connecticut, July 16th,
1773, and died August 26th, 1833. Mr. Sturdevant's grandfather,
Rev. Samuel Sturdevant, took an active part in the struggle for
American independence, entering the army as an orderly sergeant,
and being promoted to a captaincy, serving uninterruptedly from
the battle of Lexington to the surrender at Yorktown. Soon
after he emigrated to Braintrim, where, al the place known as
Black Walnut Bottom, he bought a large farm, and resided there
until his death, in 1828. Ebenezer Skinner, the grandfather of
our subject on his mother's side, had located in 1776 at the mouth
of the Tuscarora creek, only two miles distant, on lands adjoin
ing the after- purchase of the Rev. Samuel Sturdevant. Upon
the advance of the Indians down the valley in 1778, he with his
family went by canoe down the river to Forty Fort, that being
.then, and for many years afterwards, the only means of travel up
and. down the Susquehanna. One of his sons, John N. Skinner,
was in the battle of Wyoming, and was one of those in charge of
the fort as- protectors of the women and children. Mr. Sturde
vant's mother, then but seven years of age, was with her mother
in the fort, and after the massacre went on foot, with the women
a'nd children spared by the Indians, through the wilderness called
the "Shades of Death" to the Delaware river, and thence to
Connecticut. Mr. Sturdevant, like all farmers' boys, remained at home until
the age of fifteen, living the uneventful and careless life of a boy

Ebenezer Warren Sturdevant.

on a country farm. At that age he entered the old Wilkes-Barre
Academy, then under charge of Dr. Orton as principal, and
remained under his tuition a year, making such advancement
educationally that he was fitted to continue his studies at Hamil
ton Academy, Hamilton, New York. Remaining at that insti
tution two years, he entered the sophomore class of Hamilton
College, then under the presidency of Dr. Davis. A year later
a large number of the class, including Mr. Sturdevant, left Ham
ilton to enter at various other colleges, Mr. Sturdevant entering
the junior class of Union College, under the presidency of Dr.
Nott. Here he took all the degrees conferred at the institution,
was the junior and senior orator, and graduated in June, 1830,
receiving all the honors in a class of one hundred and six, the
largest that had at that time graduated from any American edu
cational institution. In the July following his graduation, Mr.
Sturdevant entered the law office of Hon. Garrick Mallery, at
Wilkes-Barre, and remained two years as a co-student with the
Hon. George W. Woodward, since Chief Justice ofthe Supreme
Court of Pennsylvania. He was admitted to the Bar April 3d,
1832, upon the recommendation of John N. Conyngham, Oristus
Collins, and Thomas Dyer, the examing committee. In 1836 he
was appointed District Attorney of Luzerne county by Governor
Wolf, and also one of the aids of the Governor, with the rank of
Colonel. In 1837 Colonel Sturdevant was elected a member of
the convention to revise the constitution of Pennsylvania, to fill a
vacancy caused by the resignation of Hon. William Swetland.
He took his seat October 21st, 1837, and was one of the most
active and influential members of that body. The Colonel at
that time belonged to the Whig party, his colleagues from this
county being George W. Woodward and Andrew Bedford, M. D.,
Democrats. Chiefly through his instrumentality the word white
was inserted in the constitution of 1838, although Dr. Bedford,
the father of George R. Bedford, Esq., a member ofthe Luzerne
county bar, had on May 16th, 1837, submitted the following reso
lution to the convention:
"Resolved, That the committee on the third article of the con
stitution be instructed to inquire into the expediency of so
amending the said article that every white male citizen, who shall

Ebenezer Warren Sturdevant.

have attained the age of twenty-one years, and shall have resided
.in this State one year, and for six months next preceding the
election in the county where he may offer his vote, shall be enti
tled to vote in the township or ward where he actually resides,
and not elsewhere, for all officers that now are, or hereafter may
be, made elective by the people."
On the 17th of January, 1838, on the motion of Mr. Martin,
of Philadelphia, to amend the first section of the third article of
the constitution by inserting the word zvhite before the word
freeman, Mr. Sturdevant said:
" Mr. President, I must beg the indulgence of the convention
while I, as briefly as possible, submit my views upon the subject
novy under consideration. My inexperience admonishes me that
my opinions on so vital a question as this cannot carry with them
much weight, and inclines me to keep silence and learn wisdom
from the aged and experienced delegates, whose opinions we may
expect to hear before the close of this debate. I, however, sir,
have a duty to discharge, and never shall shrink from its per
formance. In justice to my constituents, in justice to the citizens
Of this Commonwealth, and in justice to myself, I feel called upon
to use my feeble exertions in the support of the amendment
introduced in this section ofthe third article. . . The amend
ment in this section, to which I shall confine my observations, is
in the first line ofthe third article. The section referred to com
mences thus: 'In elections by the citizens, every freeman of the
age of twenty-one,' etc. By the proposed amendment it will
read: 'In elections by the citizens, every white freeman,' etc.
This is the proposed alteratiqn, and I need not say that I feel in
common with every delegate in this hall that the subject is a
most important one. The question here proposed to be settled
is one that has, and is still producing much excitement in this
Commonwealth. 'Will the convention introduce into the consti
tution an amendment to exclude negroes from voting?' is a ques
tion that has been often asked me. I for one, sir, am as ready to
answer that question here as I ever have been — in the affirmative.
I am for settling at once this apparently vexed question, and of
placing it hereafter beyond the shadow of a doubt. I am aware
that there are a large number of the people of this State who
believe, or pretend at least to believe, that the framers of the
constitution of 1790 did not desire to exclude the negroes from
voting, and that the language used in that instrument conveys no
such idea; but, on the contrary, expressly includes them. Hav
ing come to this conclusion, they at once say that we are retro
grading, by creating now an exception, and introducing a distinc-

Ebenezer Warren Sturdevant.

tion where none heretofore existed. I regret much that more
examination had not been given to this subject by those who are
in favor of giving to the blacks political rights. I deny that a
negro is a citizen or a freeman, either by the constitution of I77^>
or bythe constitution ofthe United States, or by the constitution
of 1790, the present constitution. . . The constitution of
1776 provides that ' every freeman of the age of twenty-one years,'
etc., 'shall enjoy the rights of an elector,' and it declares that 'all
men are born equally free and independent,' and it further declares
that 'all men have certain inalienable rights, among which are
enjoying and defending life, liberty,' etc. Now, sir, at this time
slavery existed in this Commonwealth, and the children of slaves
were born slaves. If you apply the language used here to the
negroes, is it true? were they born equal? They were governed
by a distinct code of laws, and treated by the framers of fhat
instrument as neither citizens nor freemen. A severe penal code
was in force, by which they were punished and governed. They
had not the rights of trial by jury, and were regarded as having
no interest in the government of the country. By this constitu
tion, too, the freemen of this Commonwealth were directed to be
'trained and armed for the defense of the country.' Yet both
slaves and free negroes, by laws then, and for a long time after,
in force, were prohibited from carrying arms, either ' guns, swords,
clubs,' etc. (see Con. 1705J. 'Freemen,' then, as used here, could
not aDply to negroes. The framers of this constitution unques
tionably regarded them as a degraded race, and therefore took
no notice of them. Esteeming them neither citizens nor freemen,
they left them where they had found them, in the enjoyment of
no political rights. Such, then, was the condition of the negro
in 1776, and such it continued to be up to 1780, when an act of
the Legislature was passed 'for the gradual abolition of slavery'
in this Commonwealth. This law, among other things, repeals
the laws for the government of negroes before referred to, gives
to them the trial by jury, and ordains that no negro bdrn after
its passage in Pennsylvania should be a slave for life. This act
changes in no way the political rights of the negro. It gave him
no other rights or privileges than those specified. It conferred
not upon him the rights of a citizen, a freeman, or an elector. . I
think, therefore, sir, that up to the date of the constitution of
1790 the negro, although in the enjoyment of some additional
civil rights, was not a citizen or a freeman. Did the present con
stitution confer on him the right of suffrage? Pennsylvania was
still a slave holding State. All those unfortunate beings who
were slaves for life, at the passage ofthe law referred to, in 1780,
were still slaves, and their children, being born of slave parents,

Ebenezer Warren Sturdevant.

were slaves till the age of twenty-eight years. The Legislature
unquestionably had the power to have repealed the laws of 1780,
'for the same power which took off the burden might impose it
again at pleasure.' In the constitution of 1790 (art. iii., sec. 1),
nearly the same language is used as in the old constitution. The
language of the present constitution is, 'in elections by the citi
zens, every freeman ofthe age of twenty-one,' etc. Now, sir, had
the framers ofthe present constitution intended to have embraced
in the word 'citizen,' or 'freeman,' the negro population, would
they not have used some language that would have placed that
intention beyond doubt? A strong circumstance that of itself
would have much weight in my mind is, that the constitution of
the United States had been adopted prior to the meeting of the
delegates to form the constitution of 1790, and out ofthe thirteen
States who had adopted that constitution eight of them were slave
holding States. In this constitution the words 'citizen,' 'freemen,'
and 'people,' are used as in the present constitution of Pennsyl
vania, and most surely could not have then been supposed to
include either slaves or free negroes. Slavery existed in
this Commonwealth when the constitution of 1790 went into
operation, and for years after; and the negro, at that time, was
regarded as inferior to the white, and it was deemed neither
sound policy for the State, nor in accordance with the letter and
spirit ofthe constitution ofthe United States, to confer upon him
any political rights. . . No man, sir, on this floor feels more
sympathy for this unfortunate race than I do. No man regrets
more than I do the existence of slavery in this country. Yet, sir,
I am not disposed to interfere with the institutions of slavery in
any of our sister States. I am no abolitionist. I believe the
American people will have to answer hereafter for the sin of hav
ing introduced slavery among them; but, at the same time, I do
nofbelieve that the doctrines or measures pursued by the aboli
tionists will have the least tendency to expiate that sin. On the
contrarv, sir,- the course being pursued by. that class of men will
only tend to degrade the negro, to rivet still closer his chains,
and finally, by exciting sectional prejudices, may subvert the
liberties of our happy country. In this Commonwealth, sir, I
would give to the negro all those rights which he now enjoys.
I would place him ars nearly on an equality with the white as the
condition of his race would warrant. I would secure to him
those civil and religious privileges peculiar to our institutions,
but never, sir, would I concede to him that political, that conven
tional right, which was purchased with the blood and treasures of
our ancestors — the right of voting and being voted for. When
ever you confer on them the right of voting, you, at the same

Ebenezer Warren Sturdevant.

moment, concede to them the right of being elected to the high
est office in your State — a condition of things that no patriot can
desire to see. I am satisfied that it-. is not the desire ofthe black
to enjoy the right of suffrage. They, sir, would have been silent
on this subject, but that they have been goaded on by the mis
taken zeal of deluded philanthropists. . I call upon delegates
on this floor to pause before they yield a right to the negro,
which, by an attempt to elevate him, will degrade us; which will
violate a sacred pledge given by this State to her sister States at
the adoption of the constitution of the United States, and which,
while it is a triumph and a sanction given to the anti-Amerjcan
doctrines of the abolitionists, may result finally in the overthrow
ofthe Union."
Colonel Sturdevant was ably seconded in the convention by
such men as Charles J. Ingersoll, George W. Woodward, Andrew
Bedford, M. D., Robert Fleming, Almon H. Read, George M.
Keim, Samuel A. Purviance, James Pollock, Wm. M. Meredith,
Tobias Sellers, John Houpt, John A. Gamble, James Clarke, and
many other noted and distinguished men, and the amendment
finally prevailed by a vote of 77 for and 45 against it.
In 1840 Colonel Sturdevant was the Whig candidate for Con
gress, and, although running largely ahead of his ticket, was
defeated by Hon. Benjamin A. Bidlack, subsequently Charge
d'Affaires at Bogota, New Granada. In 1842 Colonel Sturdevant
was elected Brigadier General of the brigade comprising the
northeastern counties of Pennsylvania, and subsequently pro
moted to the office of Major General ofthe division to which his
brigade was attached. He held the two offices consecutively
during a period of seventeen years, and is now known as the
oldest Major General in the State.
General Sturdevant was in the active practice of his profession
successfully up to 1857. In 1840 he removed to his present
residence, then just completed, on the Firwood farm. Since his
retirement from an active practice, he has been chiefly engaged
in the management of his real estate interests, but formerly he
was identified with many of the most important enterprises ofthe
State and section, acting as director of one of the branches ofthe
Reading Railroad, for which he procured a charter, and taking
an active part in securing legislation authorizing the construction
of the North Branch Canal. He has been for thirty years a

Ebenezer Warren Sturdevant.

manager of the Wilkes-Barre Bridge Company, and was a direc
tor of the old Wyoming Bank. For the years 1835-6-7-8 he
was President of the Wilkes-Barre Borough Council, having for
his colleagues Henry Pettebone, W. S. Ross, Hendrick B. Wright,
B. A. Bidlack, Edmund Taylor, A. C. Laning, W. H. Alexander,
Hugh Fell, and Anning O. Chahoon. At present he is a director
of the First National Bank of Wilkes-Barre, and for years has
been a member of the City Council, chairman of the Committee
on Law and Ordinances, and is now President of that body.
During a long term of years, General Sturdevant has been in
some manner connected with most of the important business
enterprises looking to the development and improvement of the
various interests of the Wyoming and Lackawanna valleys. His
connection with the now gigantic iron interest ofthe Lackawanna
in the days of its infancy is peculiarly interesting. In 1839 he
was requested by the President of the Bank of North America,
Philadelphia, as the agent and attorney of the bank, to visit a
body of the land owned by the bank in the old township of
Providence (now city of Scranton), with a view to looking after
iron ore reported to have been discovered on one of the bank's
tracts by a well known hunter of that vicinity. On a pleasant
morning he set out in a buggy, carrying with him a saddle, a pair
of saddle bags, and a hatchet, in preparation for a journey through
the woods, if it should be necessary. Passing through the local
ity of Scranton, then called Slocum Hollow, where then stood the
old red Slocum house, the old forge on Roaring brook, and two
miles beyond the residence of Elisha Hitchcock, he found the man
he sought, to whom he agreed to pay $50 in consideration of his
showing him the ore, provided that a test should prove it to be
valuable. After unharnessing his horse, which he accoutred in
saddle and saddle bags, the General mounted and followed the
old hunter (who carried his rifle, with an eye to the possibility
that they might arouse a deer or a bear from their mid-day nap)
about five miles over a foot path pretty well obstructed by fallen
trees to Stafford Meadow brook, near which, in a small ravine,
on a tract in the warrantee name of Daniel Van Campen, and
owned by the Bank of North America, they found outcroppings
of iron ore on both sides of the gully. Taking as much of the

Ebenezer Warren Sturdevant.

ore as the General could carry in his saddle bags, the two returned
to the hunter's house, and hastily harnessing the horse, the Gen
eral drove back to Wilkes-Barre by moonlight. The next day
the ore was securely boxed and sent to the President ofthe bank
by stage. Soon General Sturdevant received a letter from the
President enclosing a statement of the very favorable analysis of
the ore by Professor Booth. The General paid the promised $50
to his friend, the hunter, and the Scrantons a little later bought
the Daniel Van Campen tract, with other lands adjoining, and
took initial steps leading to the wonderful development of the
interests ofthe Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company, and through
them of the thriving, energetic, and rapidly growing city of
Scranton. General Sturdevant up to 1842 had been an active and earnest
member of the Whig party, but becoming dissatisfied with the
Whig leaders during the administration of President Tyler, con
cluded to leave the party. General Sturdevant, as stated by him
in the Constitutional Convention, was no abolitionist. He was
also opposed to a national bank, which the Whig leaders of that
day attempted to foist upon the people, and also to the tariff bill
of that period. Since that time the General has been an ardent
Democrat, and quite prominent in the affairs of his party.
Though often tendered the candidacy for high political honors,
he has never willingly consented, preferring the comforts of pri
vate life to the highest office in the country.
For many years General Sturdevant has been a member ofthe
Protestant Episcopal Church. For more than thirty years he
was a vestryman of St. Stephen's Church, Wilkes Barre. He
was a liberal contributor toward the establishment of St. Clement's
parish, in which Firwood is located, and the erection of its house
of worship, and since the organization of the parish he has been
senior warden of that church.
General Sturdevant was married May ist, 1832, to Martha
Dwight Denison, of Wilkes-Barre, daughter of Austin Denison,
of New Haven, Conn., and Martha Denison, nee Dwight, and a
niece of President Dwight of Yale College. On her mother's
side she was ofthe seventh generation of descendants of Colonel
Timothy Dwight, grandson of John Dwight, of Dedham, Mass..

Bbenezer Warren Sturdevant.

the common ancestor, it is believed, of all who legitimately bear
his family name on this continent. She was a lady of very supe
rior education and fine accomplishments, as honest a christian
woman as ever lived, proud of the Dwight name, and cherishing
through life every incident in the history of the family, with
which she was thoroughly acquainted. She died October 20th,
1842. Only one child, Mary Elizabeth Sturdevant, who was
born April 10th, 1833, and died June 18th, 1835, was born of
this marriage.
On the 1 2th of May, 1847, General Sturdevant married Lucy,
daughter of Hon. Chas. Huston, a Judge of the Supreme Court
of Pennsylvania, who bore him four children, — Charles Huston,
Mary Elizabeth, Edward Warren, and Lucy Huston, — and who
died, in the fullest confidence of faith and holy hope, May 3d,
1879, at the residence of her daughter, Mrs. J. N. Stone, Jr., in
Philadelphia, surrounded by her husband and children, in the six
tieth year of her age. For more than thirty years Mrs. Sturdevant
had lived amid an increasing circle of appreciative and loving
friends. A devoted wife and mother, a faithful and exemplary
church member, a constant worshiper in her parish church, a
most efficient teacher in the Sunday-school, and a true friend to
all, to whom her friendship was helpful and full of comfort, her
loss to the whole community, and especially to the parish of St.
Clement's Church, was so great as to seem irreparable. She was
born in Bellefonte, Centre county, Pa., and was trained under the
pastoral care of Rev. Geo. W. Natt. She left, besides her hus
band and her two sons and two daughters, a countless number of
mourning friends, to whom the bereavement of her loss wa^
greater than can be told.
General Sturdevant, still in active business life, and identified
with the leading interests of Wilkes-Barre and vicinity, an efficient
and prominent member ofthe City Council, sound in health, and
thoroughly alive to the important events of the time, is passing
the latter years of his life at Firwood farm, the care of which is
his daily occupation and pleasure. His two sons, Charles Huston
Sturdevant and Edward Warren Sturdevant, are members of the
Luzerne county bar. Hon. John Sturdevant, so long and favor
ably known in Wilkes-Barre, was his brother, and Rev. Byron

Ebenezer Warren Sturdevant.

D. Sturdevant, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was his
nephew. Since 1858 the General has been a member of the
Wyoming Historical and Geological Society.

PHOTOMOUNT
PAMPHLET BINDER
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