History of Luzerne County Pennsylvania, H. C. Bradsby, Editor, S. B. Nelson & Co., Publishers, 1893 - Chapter 12, Part A

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                     History of Luzerne County Pennsylvania

                             H. C. Bradsby, Editor

                     S. B. Nelson & Co., Publishers, 1893

                                  CHAPTER XII.

                           THE DEAD THAT STILL LIVE.

A LIST OF THE PROMINENT EARLY MEN HERE - THOSE WHO STOOD IN THE FRONT - HON. 
CHARLES MINER's LIST AND OTHERS ADDED - ETC.

IN preceding chapters is mention of the doings of nearly all the early settlers. 
In ordinary cases this is the best account of men's lives. While it is true that 
worthy deeds live on forever, it is no less true that the association of the 
actors with the works do not always continue. But seldom in this world can it be 
said of a community, as of some rare individuals, that too much can not be told 
of them in the way of biography, as well as the most minute accounts of their 
acts and doings.

The following flowers "sacred to the dead" are culled mostly from the 
reminiscences of the late Hon. Charles Miner and from other sources; family and 
personal recollections which first appeared in a local paper under the signature 
of "Hazelton Traveler," adding to and completing to date where it was possible, 
as well as new ones from other sources.

Col. Zebulon Butler. - A biography of this eminent man, if at all complete, is a 
compilation of the essence of the story of the remarkable people who wrested 
this fair land from savagery and gave it to Christian civilization. A native of 
Lyme, New London county, Conn.; born in 1731; in full manhood when he first made 
his appearance among the people here, and his coming was hailed with 
declamations of joy, the settlers fully realizing that they were in sore need of 
just such a man. His father, John Butler, left the abundant evidences that he 
was a man of polite education. The best information is that both his parents 
came from England.

On the breaking out of what is usually called the old French war, Zebulon Butler 
entered the military service of his country, bearing the commission of ensign, 
in one of the provincial companies raised by Connecticut for the crown. On the 
northern frontier, particularly at Ticonderoga and Crown Point, his ambition was 
soon gratified by entering upon a field of stirring and honorable action. So 
early as 1761 he had attained the rank of captain, and the following year sailed 
with his company on the memorable expedition to the Havana. In the perils, the 
glory and the acquisitions of the capture of that important place, Capt. Butler 
shared. Whether his future companions in arms, Capts. Durkee and Ransom, served 
as subordinates in these early campaigns is not certainly known, but is rendered 
probable from the fact that both were officers in the old French war, and the 
three were in the Wyoming conflicts, early associated in friendship and action 
together.

Peace was concluded with France, and in 1763 the provincial troops were 
disbanded. The emigration of Capt. Butler to Wyoming in 1769, and subsequent 
events in which he bore a part up to the Revolutionary war, have been fully 
narrated. Soon after the contest with Great Britain commenced, Capt. Butler 
received the appointment of lieutenant-colonel of a regiment in the Connecticut 
line of the army, and in September, 1778, he "was appointed full colonel to the 
late Charles Webb's regiment, against the will of Lieut.-Col. Sherman, who 
intended to have had the regiment." This extract of a letter from Col. Thomas 
Grosvenor, dated 1778, is regarded as important, because it shows the excellent 
standing and popularity of Col. Butler the fall immediately after the massacre, 
when time sufficient had elapsed for the country and constituted authorities 
perfectly to ascertain the merits [p.322] or defects of his conduct on that 
memorable and trying occasion. When it is recollected that Lieut.-Col. Sherman, 
his competitor for the office, was the brother of the distinguished Roger 
Sherman, and that Col. Butler was absent while his rival was upon the ground, 
the commission reflects more than common honor upon the recipient.

After being withdrawn from Wyoming, Col. Butler served with honor to the close 
of the contest, and when the army was disbanded returned to his residence in 
Wilkes-Barre, where he passed the remainder of his life, the prudent but steady 
supporter of the rights of the settlers, looking confidently to the justice of 
Pennsylvania to settle the existing controversy, by an equitable compromise. 
Such was the estimation in which he was held that in 1787, on the establishment 
of Luzerne, he received from the supreme executive council the honorable 
appointment of lieutenant of the county, which he held until the office was 
abrogated by the new constitution of 1790.

On the 28th of July, 1795, aged sixty-four years, this gallant soldier and 
estimable citizen resigned his breath to God who gave it, and his remains were 
interred in the Wilkes-Barre cemetery.

Col. Butler was thrice married - first to Miss Ellen Lord before his emigration 
from Connecticut. The fruit of this union was two children: the late Gen. Lord 
Butler, and Mrs. Welles, consort of the late Roswell Welles, a lawyer of 
handsome talents and attainments, who in his day was judge of the court, colonel 
of a regiment and several times member of assembly. A daughter of Judge Welles, 
Mrs. Harriet Cowles, was consort of Col. Cowles, of Farmington, Conn. Lord had 
intermarried with the daughter of Abel Pierce. Their sons were Pierce, John, 
Chester, Zebulon and Lord.

Pierce is a farmer, on the fine plantation running from the river a few rods 
above the bridge to the village of Kingston; Rev. Zebulon Butler was the pastor 
of a Presbyterian congregation at Port Gibson, Miss.; John, Chester and Lord, of 
Wilkes-Barre, are among its most active businessmen. Sylvina, the eldest 
daughter, several years since deceased, was the wife of the Hon. Garrick 
Mallery; Ruth Ann, the second daughter, married Hon. John N. Conyngham; Phebe, 
married Dr. Donalson, removed with her husband to Iowa.

The second wife of Col. Butler was Miss Johnson, daughter of one of the first 
gospel ministers of Wyoming. Their union was brief, and a son, the late Capt. 
Zebulon Butler, their only child. It was said he was proud. In command of his 
company on parade he looked "every inch a man." Honorable, generous, high-
spirited, he seemed to pant for a wider field and more exciting scenes of 
action. In rolling the bullet and other athletic exercises he had no superior. 
The writer (Mr. Minor), knew, admired and esteemed him. He was cut off in the 
prime of life, and his numerous and interesting family are widely scattered.

While on duty at West Point, near the close of the war, Col. Butler married his 
third wife, Miss Phebe Haight. Three children by this marriage survived: Steuben 
Butler, of Wilkes-Barre, one time since commissioner of the county, and for many 
years editor of the Wyoming Herald; Lydia, who intermarried with George Griffin, 
of New York. (The late Rev. Edmund Griffin, whose accurate and extensive 
learning and brilliant talents gave promise of unusual usefulness and fame, and 
whose early death was so deeply lamented, was the grandson of Col. Butler.); 
Mrs. Robinson (whose late husband, Mr. John Robinson, was a direct descendant of 
the pilgrim minister), the third child. Their only daughter inter- married with 
H. B. Wright, Esq., speaker of the house of assembly. We can not refrain from 
the remark that it is at once curious and pleasing that two speakers of the 
house, and two president judges have been so intimately connected with the 
ancient Wyoming sufferers.

The distinguishing traits of Col. Butler's character were activity, energy, a 
[p.323] high sense of honor, a courage, moral and professional, that, when duty 
called, knew no fear. 

Gen. Lord Butler was the eldest son of Gen. Zebulon Butler. He was but a youth 
at the time of the Revolution, yet he was some time in camp with his father. He 
was tall - more than six feet - straight as an arrow, his countenance manly, 
with bold Roman features, his manners grave and dignified. Courteous he was; but 
it was the courtesy of a gentleman who felt the dignity of his own character. 
Lofty and reserved to those who loved him not, no one approached him with a joke 
or a slap on the shoulder. A man of active business habits, he wrote a bold, 
free and excellent hand, and his accounts and affairs were always in the 
strictest order. He rode admirably, and appeared extremely well on horseback; no 
one loved a noble steed better than he. He was always and everywhere the 
gentleman. Decided in his political opinions, and free in expressing them, his 
opponents said he was proud. If an unworthy pride was meant the charge was 
unjust. But if an election was depending, and he a candidate, he would neither 
shake hands with nor smile on a man with whom he would not have done the same as 
cordially if he had not been on the lists. His delicacy, in this particular, was 
probably carried rather to excess, for no truer republican ever lived - no one 
had a more sincere regard for his fellow-men - no man was more devoted to the 
independence and liberty of his country. But his reserve, which enemies 
construed into hauteur, was the result of early associations. His father, the 
gallant Col. Butler, who had been much with British officers in the old French 
war, and with the accomplished French officers in the war of the Revolution, had 
a good deal of dignity and gravity about him.

Frances Slocum. - One of the pathetic stories of the valley is that of Jonathan 
Slocum's family, members of the Friends society, all noted for kindness and 
benevolence, who were always assured by the Indians of not being harmed. His son 
Giles was in the battle of Wyoming, therefore the family was marked for 
vengeance, and the awful blow soon came. Nathan Kinsley had been taken prisoner, 
and his family found shelter under the hospitable roof of Slocum.

November 2 the two boys were engaged grinding a knife, a shot and cry brought 
Mrs. Slocum to the door, when she saw an Indian in the act of scalping Nathan, 
the eldest of the boys, aged fifteen. The savage entered the house, took up the 
little boy, Ebenezer Slocum, when the mother, pointing to the child's lameness, 
said: "See, he can do you no good!" He then put down the boy and picked up the 
girl, Frances Slocum, aged five, and taking the boy by the band marched off. A 
negro girl was also taken. This was all within 100 rods of the Wilkes-Barre 
fort; the dreadful alarm was quickly given and the Indians pursued, but were not 
found.

But a little more than a month after the above tragedy, December 16, Jonathan 
Slocum, his father-in-law, Isaac Tripp, and the aged William Slocum, were 
foddering cattle, when they were ambushed by Indians, fired upon, and Mr. Slocum 
shot dead; Mr. Tripp wounded and then tomahawked; both were scalped. William was 
wounded slightly, but escaped and gave the alarm. This occurred almost within 
the shadow of the Wilkes-Barre stockade. Could anything now add to the horrors 
of poor Mrs. Slocum? Within a month her little daughter carried away into 
captivity, a son killed and scalped before her eyes, two others of her family 
prisoners, and now her husband and father murdered.

It seems there was nothing left in life for that poor woman except to nurse the 
faith and hope that her little girl was alive, and that she would some day 
recover her. This was her waking and her sleeping dream. After the war and the 
delivery of many of the captives, this woman with her bruised heart would go to 
the place of surrender of captives in the faint hope of finding among the number 
her little Frances, only to return in black despair of disappointment. Her two 
brothers, prominent men of their day, joined her in the long hunt for the child 
and traveled [p.324] to every point where faint hope pointed. Heavy rewards were 
offered, after long traveling to the scattered tribes. The two brothers had 
exhausted every trace, and concluded she must be dead. Not so with the broken-
hearted mother. Her image was always before her - the same smiling, loving, 
happy child. At last a girl, about the suitable age, who could only remember 
that she had been carried off from the Susquehanna, and knew not her name or her 
parents, was taken to Mrs. Slocum's home, but in time both the girl and woman 
became convinced that they were not of the same blood, and the unknown returned 
to the Indians, and the mother again returned to the hunt and hope of recovering 
Frances, a search and a hope that ended together with the stricken woman's 
pilgrimage upon earth.

Fifty-nine years after the capture, August, 1837, a letter appeared in the 
Lancaster Intelligencer, by G. W. Ewing, of Indiana, stating the fact that there 
was then living near that place with the Miami Indians, an aged white woman, who 
had told him that she was taken from her father's house, near the Susquehanna 
river, when she was very young, and that her father's name was Slocum, a Quaker, 
and he gave some other particulars of her. The publication of this letter 
created a deep impression in this part of the country, where the story of the 
lost child was so well known. With her friends not an hour was lost. Her 
brother, Joseph, though nearly 1,000 miles intervened, moved by affection, a 
sense of duty, and the known wishes of a beloved parent, made immediate 
preparations for a journey. Uniting with his younger brother, Isaac, who resided 
in Ohio, they hastened to Logansport, where they had the good fortune to meet 
Mr. Ewing. Frances, who resided about a dozen miles from that place, was soon 
apprised of their coming. While hope predominated, doubt and uncertainty, 
amounting almost to jealousy or suspicion, occupied her mind. She came into the 
village riding a spirited horse, her two daughters, in Indian costume, 
accompanying her, with the husband of one of them. Her manners were grave, her 
bearing reserved. She listened, through an interpreter, to what they had to say. 
But night approached. Cautious and prudent, she rode back to her home, promising 
to return the coming morning. At the appointed hour she alighted from her steed, 
and met them with something more of frankness, but still seemed desirous of 
further explanation. It was evident on all sides they were almost prepared for 
the recognition. Mr. Joseph Slocum at length said, what he had so far purposely 
kept back, that their sister at play in their father's smith- shop with the 
children, had received a blow on the middle fidger of the left hand, by a hammer 
on the anvil, which crushed the bone, and the mother had always said that would 
be a test that could not be mistaken. Her whole countenance was instantly 
lighted up with smiles, while tears ran down her check, as she held out the 
wounded hand. Every lingering doubt was dispelled. Hope was merged into 
confidence. The tender embrace, the welcome recognition, the sacred, the 
exulting glow of brotherly and sisterly affection, filled every heart present to 
overflowing. Her father! Her dear, dear mother! Did she yet live? But they must 
long since, in the course of nature, have been gathered to their native dust. 
Her brothers and sisters? The slumbering affections awakened to life, broke 
forth in earnest inquiries for all whom she should love.

She then related the leading events of her life. Her memory, extremely 
tenacious, enabled her to tell that, on being taken, her captors hastened to a 
rocky cave on the mountain where blankets and a bed of dry leaves showed that 
they had slept. On the journey to the Indian country she was kindly treated. the 
Indian carrying her, when she was weary, in his arms. She was immediately 
adopted into an Indian family and brought up as their daughter, but with more 
than common tenderness. Young Kinsley, who was located near them, in a few years 
died. The woman showed all the quiet stoicism of the Indian nature. The first 
interview ended and she agreed to return the next day as stated. When complete 
recognition was established she invited them to go with her to her cabin home, 
where they spent several [p.327] days. Mrs. Ziba Bennett, daughter of Joseph, 
was one of the party. Every inducement that wealth and love could offer was made 
to induce her to return to her old home, but in vain. She thought it all over, 
and, no doubt wisely, concluded to remain with the people with whom she had 
spent so much of her eventful life. She felt that she was aging rapidly; that 
her days upon earth were but few, and in peace and the fullness of time she soon 
passed away. In Mrs. Abi Bntler's house in Wilkes-Barre conspicuous on the wall 
hung a full life-sized likeness of the "lost sister" in her Indian costume, of 
itself a mute, pathetic story of the Slocum family - a story read of all 
children and wept over by the mothers of the civilized world.

Mrs. Abi Slocum Butler departed this life March 15, 1887, at the residence of 
her daughter, Mrs. Ruth B. Hillard, in Wilkes-Barre. Mrs. Butler was a daughter 
of Joseph Slocum, one of the prominent pioneers, who married Sarah, daughter of 
Judge Jesse Fell, the man whom it was claimed discovered the use of anthracite 
coal in grates in 1808. Slocum's children were seven: Hannah, born in 1800, 
married Ziba Bennett and died in 1855; Ruth Tripp, born 1804, married Gen. 
William S. Ross, died in 1882, Deborah, born in 1806, married Anning Chahoon; 
Abi, born in 1808, married Lord Butler and died as above stated; George, born in 
1812, married Mary Grandon; Jonathan, born 1815, married Elizabeth Cutler Le 
Clerc, died 1860; Harriet Elizabeth, born 1819, married Charles B. Drake.

Abi was aged twenty-four when married with Col. Lord Butler, and spent her life 
in Wilkes-Barre. Her daughter, Ruth B., is the widow of W. S. Hillard; Mary B. 
Mrs. Eugene B. Ayers.) The four sons of Abi Butler were Joseph, Zebulon, Ziba 
and Edmund G., the last named only surviving their mother.

Lord Butler was the son of Gen. Lord Butler and a grandson of Col. Zebulon 
Butler, the latter one of the most distinguished of the great Revolutionary 
patriots in northern Pennsylvania. He was in command of the heroic band of 
pioneer settlers who fought the British-Indians and tories in 1778 near Forty 
fort. Col. Zebulon Butler married Anna Lord, and of this union was the elder 
Lord Butler born at Lyme, Conn., in 1770. Lord Butler was one of the early and 
most prominent men in Wyoming valley; advanced to the highest position in the 
State militia; was first high sheriff of Luzerne county, then prothonotary, 
clerk of the courts, register and recorder. The courts were held in his house 
for years on the corner of River and Northampton streets, where is now Judge 
Stanley Woodward's residence. In 1790 he was a member of the supreme executive 
council of the State; was postmaster in Wilkes-Barre in 1794; in 1801 he was a 
member of the State assembly, and afterward was county commissioner and then was 
county treasurer; filled the office of borough councilman of Wilkes-Barre; was 
president of the board, and from 1811 to 1814 was burgess. His wife was Mary 
Pierce, granddaughter of Abel Pierce, one of the distinguished pioneers of the 
valley. Their youngest son was Lord Butler, born in 1806; married Abi Slocum in 
1832, who was two years his junior, but who survived him twenty-five years, as 
he died in 1861 in the brick building on the public square, a building erected 
by Joseph Slocum in 1807 - the first brick edifice in Wilkes-Barre. Lord Butler, 
2d, was a civil engineer and identified with all the public works in this part 
of the State. The last twenty years of his life he was engaged in coal mining at 
Pittston with his brother, Col. John L. Butler, and his brother-in-law, Judge 
Garrick Mallory.

Col. Nathan Denison. - A name immortally linked with the battle of Wyoming. He 
commanded the left wing of Col. Butler's forces, and received the shock of the 
overwhelming flankers of the enemy; here was the heavy slaughter of that bloody 
day. The enemy suddenly rose from their ambush, to his left and rear, and with 
savage yells and fury bore down upon his command. In order to meet this movement 
that officer was compelled to execute the double maneuver of wheeling to the 
left and at the same time fall back to prevent the enemy from gaining his rear, 
a dangerous movement to attempt in the face of a flank onslaught, even with 
[p.328] the best of the "Old Guard." The commander promptly gave the order; the 
men quickly moved, when many lost all control of themselves and started a 
"stampede." Denison and his intrepid officers did all that could be done to 
rally the men and meet the shock of battle, but in vain. The bloody sequel is 
known to the world.

He was in command of the fort and negotiated the terms of honorable surrender, 
under the circumstances, alike creditable to his head and heart. The flaming 
falsehoods that went into the contemporary history of that day, into all the 
accounts of the scenes after the surrender, as published in the histories of 
Ramsey, Gordon, Botta, Marshall, and the London Gentleman's Magazine of 1778, 
while "all false," as Mr. Minor says, were a most outrageous reflection on the 
transactions as negotiated and carried out under the wise and able leadership of 
Col. Denison. In behalf of his memory let it never be forgotten, and strange it 
is that these writers never thought of referring to Col. Denison for the truth 
of history, the very man above all others cognizant of the facts - but seized 
upon the wildest imaginings and published these as the truths of history. He 
evidently regarded these bloody fictions as unworthy serious refutation, and 
during his long and worthy life among his old neighbors and friends he never so 
much as referred to them. He was ready to tell, and did often tell, all who 
inquired of him that after the surrender there was but one life taken, and that 
was the execution of Boyd, by Col. John Butler, as a deserter from the British 
army; he was tried by court-martial and shot. Much in the same way Gen. Sullivan 
executed one of his men here when on his noted expedition.

Nathan Denison and Zebulon Butler were commissioned by the general assembly 
justices in 1773, when this was, of the colony of Connecticut, erected into a 
chartered town, called Westmoreland, and attached to the county of Litchfield, 
Conn., and upon them chiefly devolved the work of organizing the machinery of 
civil government here. Both were men admirably equipped by nature and education 
for the difficult work of creating States.

From first to last Gen. Denison stood faithfully by his friends and neighbors, 
and to his last hour on earth no man was more beloved and respected by 
everybody. When the long double struggle was finally ended, and the jurisdiction 
of Connecticut ceased, and the Pennsylvania authority was complete, Gen. Denison 
was appointed one of the associates of the court for the county, the four 
members of the court being Denison, Gore, Fell and Hollenback, selected as men 
having eminently the full confidence of the people; men of integrity and sound 
sense.

Judge Denison, as he was universally called in the latter years of his life, 
returned to Connecticut soon after peace was declared, and brought his father, 
who resided here the remainder of his days, died in 1803, aged eighty-eight.

Col. Nathan Denison was united in marriage with Miss Sill in 1769, in a log 
cabin that stood on what is the corner of River and South streets, at one time 
where stood the old Wells house, - the first marriage in Wyoming.

Their son, Lazarus Denison, was born in 1773, and is said to be the first white 
child born in the valley.

George Denison, a son of Col. Denison, became one of the prominent men of 
northern Pennsylvania, was several terms in the legislature, and a member of 
congress; in every station serving with distinguished ability and fidelity.

Col. Nathan Denison departed this life January 25, 1809, aged sixty-eight years.

Dorrances. - Col. Benjamin Dorrance was a son of Col. George Dorrance, and of 
this member of the family Mr. Miner here makes special mention; opening his 
remarks with a description of the beautiful farm on which he resided - a part of 
the old Butler domain.

The Dorrance family came from Windham county, Conn. There were two brothers, 
George and John, who settled in Kingston; both men of intelligence and [p.329] 
energy. Lieut.-Col. George Dorrance, in 1777, led a large scouting party up the 
river consisting of eighty men, to disperse or capture a settlement of Indians 
and tories on the Wyalusing. Having accomplished the object, an unseasonable 
snow storm detained them beyond their expected time, and they suffered extremely 
from cold and hunger. By Col. Dorrance's order rafts were made of the huts from 
which the enemy had been driven, and the whole of the company were safely wafted 
down to Forty fort. In the battle Lieut.-Col. Dorrance commanded on the left 
wing under Col. Denison. His coolness in the midst of the fight, when one of his 
men gave way, is shown by the firm command, instantly obeyed: "Stand up to your 
work, sir." He fell in the prime of life, being about forty-five. In the 
Independent company of Capt. Ransom was Robert, the eldest of his two sons. He 
served to the close of the war; afterward in the western army; and was in the 
battle resulting in St. Clair's defeat. A good soldier, he was said to have been 
one of the few who did not abandon his gun in the flight. True to his colors to 
the last, he died in the army, supposed to have fallen in a subsequent 
engagement. Col. Benjamin Dorrance departed this life in August, 1837, aged 
seventy years, and was interred in the Kingston burying ground with every 
possible mark of respect and affection. He left two sons. Col. Charles Dorrance, 
resembling much his father. The Rev. John Dorrance was pastor of the 
Presbyterian church in Wilkes-Barre many years.

Benjamin Dorrance was in Forty fort at the time of the surrender, but a lad at 
the time. His young mind was deeply affected by the scenes of that day.

When a young man he was elected sheriff of Luzerne county. Soon after his term 
as sheriff expired, he was elected county commissioner. In 1808 he was chosen 
member of the assembly, and was re-elected for several terms, as often as he 
would consent to stand for the office. Among the characteristics of Col. 
Dorrance conspicuously shone the virtues of firmness and moderation. Ebenezer 
Bowman used to say he united in an extraordinary degree the suavitor in modo 
with the fortiter in re. Concession and conciliation, when no principle was 
involved, restoring harmony and inspiring confidence by healing councils, were 
his weapons and policy. Grave at the council board, merry at the banquet - his 
life has been highly useful, respectable and happy.

John Dorrance was born in 1733, the elder brother of Col. George Dorrance; lived 
a bachelor life and died in July, 1804, aged seventy-one years.

Lieut.-Col. George Dorrance, of the militia, reported killed, was severely 
wounded, taken prisoner, and being unable to march with his captors, it is said, 
was massacred the next day, the 4th. Perhaps it is nearer the truth to think he 
died of his wounds.

He and his brother John, sons of Rev. Samuel Dorrance, came to Wyoming with the 
early immigrants. George was born March 4, 1736. John died January 9, 1804.

Rev. Samuel Dorrance was a Scotch Presbyterian minister, and was graduated at 
Glasgow university, Scotland, and came to this country from Ireland in 1722, and 
was ordained a minister of the church at Voluntown, Conn., October 23, 1723, 
where he was serving as late as 1760. He died November 12, 1775, aged ninety 
years.

Benjamin Dorrance was a son of Col. George Dorrance; and he made this place his 
residence, returning with the family as soon as the dangers of war were passed 
enough for the Wyoming people to again possess their ruined homes.

Col. Charles Dorrance was a son of Benjamin Dorrance, and almost on the very 
ground where his heroic grandfather offered up his life as a sacrifice on the 
altar of liberty, spent his long, useful and honorable life.

Benjamin, father of the late Charles, was the son of George by his second wife. 
He was born in 1765 and died August 24, 1837. He was one of the most popular 
[p.330] men of his time, having been county commissioner, sheriff and seven 
times a member of the Pennsylvania legislature. He was also the first president 
of the Wyoming (now the Wyoming National) bank of this city. He married Nancy 
Buckingham, of Windham, Conn.

Col. Charles Dorrance was born January 4, 1805, and died at the old family home 
in Dorranceton, January 18, 1892. At the time of his death one of the oldest 
representatives of one of the most prominent pioneer families in the valley, a 
direct descendant of one of the noblest lives sacrificed in the Wyoming battle 
on the fateful day of July 3, 1778, and one into whose veins the patriotic blood 
of patriotic ancestry infused a spirit akin to theirs, which kept their early 
struggles and hardships ever fresh in his mind and filled him with a desire to 
honor their memory in public exercises on each recurring anniversary of their 
sacrifice. The spirit was finally inspiration for the organization of the 
Wyoming Commemorative association, which, beginning with the 3d of July, 1878, 
has annually held appropriate exercises on the monument grounds, conducted by 
the Colonel as president of the association  - a position which he filled from 
the time of its organization until his death. He was proud of his ancestry, 
proud of their self-sacrificing devotion to homes and country, and in his 
declining years manifested a desire not only to do them honor himself, but to 
inspire those younger than he with the same patriotic impulse, so that when he 
should have passed away there would be others to take up his work and continue 
it with the same zeal that had characterized his efforts in its behalf.

He was born and always lived in the old homestead, surrounded by a beautiful 
farm of generous and productive acres, and his home has ever been one of the 
pleasantest and most attractive in the valley, noted for its hospitality, always 
offering a hearty, whole-souled welcome to the guest and imparting to the 
visitor the same genial, comforting feeling enjoyed by all the members of his 
household.

While he never sought official position, he was still more or less a public man 
and felt a keen interest in all that pertained to the public good. One whose 
wise counsels were largely sought, he exerted an influence upon almost all with 
whom he came in contact, and his life was one of industrious activity and marked 
success.

His military title, which he carried for about fifty years, was won in service 
with the Wyoming Volunteers, having risen from the position of captain through 
the successive grades to the rank of colonel. He was for a number of years one 
of the prison commissioners of Luzerne county, his appointment having been the 
last official act of Judge Conyngham, and served as president of the board 
during his several terms. At the time of his death he was president of the 
Wyoming National bank and of the Wilkes-Barre Bridge company, both of which 
positions he had held for many years, discharging their duties with marked 
ability. Both prospered under his wise and judicious guidance. The Wyoming 
National bank is to-day one of the most stable institutions of its kind in the 
country, and the son, as its head, proved a worthy successor to the father who 
preceded him by more than half a century.

It may be said of Col. Dorrance that those who knew him best found most in him 
to admire. Beneath an exterior that may at times have appeared cold and 
indifferent, there was a warm-hearted, generous and sympathetic nature, and 
while his charity was not of the ostentatious kind, it may not be said that a 
truly worthy subject was ever turned from his door empty handed, and many there 
are who have cause to cherish grateful remembrance of him for kindnesses that he 
had done. His friendship was stable and lasting, he recognized worth whenever 
and in whomsoever he found it, and in his mind industry, integrity and honesty 
of purpose were cardinal virtues and passports to admiration and favor.

Of his family surviving he left a widow, who was Susan E. Ford, youngest 
daughter of Hon. James Ford, of Lawrenceville, Pa., and five children - four 
sons and a daughter: Benjamin F. and J. Ford Dorrance, of Dorranceton; John, of 
[p.331] Keytesville, Chariton county, Mo.; Charles, of Chicago, and Mrs. Sheldon 
Reynolds, of this city, to whom, besides a generous bequest of worldly 
possessions, he leaves an honored name and the record of an unusually long life 
of business activity, indomitable energy, supreme usefulness and flattering 
prosperity.

The first time the writer of these lines ever saw Col. Dorrance he was presiding 
over the regular annual meeting of the Wyoming Commemorative association, July 
3, 1891, at the base of the monument on the ground where is the dust of the 
fallen heroes. The grand old man, eloquent in every movement on the anniversary 
of that memorable day, and prophetic too in warning those younger men present 
that he was with them for the last time, at least officially, if not in propria 
persona, his noble face kindled with the fire of patriotism as he referred to 
the sacred ashes beneath the pyramid of stone above them. He counseled the 
younger generation to take up the good work that he was about to quit, and at 
each succeeding celebration to kindle anew the signal fires of liberty and 
patriotism. I could not but think that were it possible for the dead to know 
something of the movements upon earth - to see their descendants gathered at the 
base of their mausoleum, with this noble lineal representative of Col. George 
Dorrance presiding over the exercises of the day - they would know that the 
noble sacrifices of noble men were not in vain.

Col. Mathias Hollenback was a native of Virginia, who heard of this wonderful 
valley and came to see it; a born merchant and trader, and by association and a 
strong love of justice and liberty, became in a brief time a prominent 
"Connecticut settler."

In 1771, when the whole white population on the east side of the river occupied 
a stockade at the point where Mill creek unites with the Susquehanna, Mr. H. 
then aged eighteen, was one of its inhabitants. Huts were erected around the 
inside against the upright timbers. One was possessed by Capt. Zebulon Butler; 
next in the row was the store, containing the humble beginnings of the object of 
this notice. A boarding hut, having two rooms, was the third in order, kept by 
Dr. Sprague, Mr. Nathan Denison, a young bachelor from Stonington, making one of 
the family. On the enlistment of two independent companies being directed at 
Westmoreland, congress appointed Mathias Hollenback an ensign. Sergt. Williams 
used to take pleasure in relating the battle at Millstone, and the daring spirit 
exhibited by Ensign H., when he led and cheered his men, wading the river waist 
deep to attack the British regulars, insuring victory. When danger to Wyoming 
became imminent, and congress turned a deaf ear to pressing calls for 
protection, throwing up his commission he returned, not to avoid, but to meet 
danger. The skill acquired by eighteen months' service in camp was imparted to 
the militia, and his undaunted and elastic spirit infused into all around him. 
When the invasion came, when that terrible descent was made by Butler and his 
savage allies, when the war tocsin rung, and the alarm trumpet sounded from hill 
to hill, calling to battle, young Hollenback was among the foremost who sprang 
to arms and prepared to meet the foe. Our little army was composed chiefly of 
aged, or very young men, hastily called together. An enemy, fearful for his 
numbers, and terrible for his ferocity, was descending upon them. A vast 
distance and howling wilderness intervened between the settlement and any hope 
of assistance. It was indeed the moment to try the firmness of a soldier. Nearly 
all who were able to bear arms assembled; and Mr. Hollenback took his station in 
the midst of them. But two, or nearer three to one, was hopeless odds; while the 
right under our gallant Butler, where Hollenback was stationed, was advancing, 
the left, outflanked by hordes of savages, was compelled to give way. Thrown 
into confusion, the retreat became a rout, which no human courage or conduct 
could arrest. Mr. Hollenback was among those who escaped to the river. Expert in 
all manly exercises, he swam to Monocacy island, and then to the eastern shore. 
Foreseeing the necessity of instant aid from abroad, mounting his horse, he rode 
all night, gave information to Capt. Spalding's company, which so tardily had 
been [p.332] permitted to advance, and with praiseworthy thoughtfulness, rapidly 
returned, laden with bread, for the relief of the flying widows and their 
suffering children. Imparting a saving morsel to one, and then hastening on to 
another starving group, he came, said the ancient people, "like an angel of 
mercy." Ever prompt at the call of duty, Mr. Hollenback was actively engaged in 
collecting the remains of the slain, and giving them the most decent burial 
circumstances at that time permitted. On the passage by the Connecticut assembly 
of a resolve, allowing Wyoming to make, their own powder, Mr. Hollenback was 
looked to, to provide the requisite machinery. His arrival with the "Pounders" 
was spoken of by Mrs. Jenkins, with exultation, as an important event, for 
previously powder for the settlement was (chiefly) brought from Connecticut on 
horseback. After the enemy retired Mr. Hollenback was among the first to return 
and resume his former business. His shrewdness, foresight and enterprise soon 
had laid the sure foundation of his fortune. He was the first to establish a 
line of stores from Wilkes-Barre to the Genesee, along the Susquehanna river, 
and no man was better known through lower New York and all over northern 
Pennsylvania. At every principal point he established a store, and at such place 
would open a farm - carrying merchandise and commerce hand in hand. A most 
valuable man in the frontier community; his large views and public spirit were 
nearly invaluable in their time. After the contention over the soil here had 
ceased, he received many marks of favor from the Pennsylvania authorities. He 
was connected with the early militia of the county and from this circumstance 
received his military title, but he was more widely known in the later years of 
his life as "Judge" Hollenback. On the organization of Luzerne county he was 
chosen one of the associate judges - a position he filled nearly forty years, to 
the hour of his death. He was a noted friend of public improvements, and no man 
watched with keener interest the building of the canal up the river. He was a 
rough, strong man of large ideas and swift performance. Born February 15, 1752, 
he died February 18, 1829, aged seventy-seven years.

Col. John Jenkins was the son of John Jenkins, a magistrate and surveyor. 
Responsive to the first whisper of independence, the people of the valley 
assembled in town meeting to proclaim their hearty approval of the movement. The 
presiding officer at that meeting was Col. Jenkins; he was moderator, and in 
common with the other patriots assembled, devoted their lives and their sacred 
honor to the great cause of their fellow-man. Of that meeting and its resolves 
in behalf of liberty, Hon. Charles Miner has well said: "I would rather have 
those patriotic votes to show, as the work of an ancestor of mine, than the 
proudest patent of nobility ever granted by a king."

Col. John Jenkins was appointed tax collector, but was enrolled for military 
duty and was actively employed from first to last. He served the people with 
ability and fidelity in the Connecticut general assembly, when this was 
Westmoreland county. His neat and accurate records of surveys from Wilkes-Barre 
extending a considerable distance into New York, are the never-failing authority 
of civil engineers to this day. He was a democrat and nearly worshiped his 
ideal, Thomas Jefferson, while his friend and much a close companion in all 
those times that tried men's souls, Col. John Franklin, was an enthusiastic 
federalist. Here their political lines parted, but on the great question of 
liberty and human rights they were as the steel and magnet.

Of his capture while on a scouting expedition near Wyalusing, has been told on a 
preceding page. After a long and cruel captivity he returned and was the first 
to bring positive information of the invasion. The joy of the people at his safe 
return was turned to sudden gloom by the cloud then seen to be gathering in the 
north. He had been only recently married when captured. Mrs. Bertha Jenkins 
lived to the age of eighty-four years; died in 1841.

After the battle of Wyoming he joined Capt. Spalding's company and came in 
[p.333] with him under the command of Col. Butler. When the troops had advanced 
to the second mountain, within five or six miles of Wilkes-Barre, two parties 
were detached of ten men each, under Ensign M. Hollenback, to go down between 
the mountains and strike the valley opposite Nanticoke falls; the other, under 
Lieut. Jenkins, to go northerly and strike the river at Lackawanna. Ensign 
Hollenback saw a party of savages, who fled to their canoe; a shot from one of 
his rifles wounded an Indian, who sprang into the river, but was buoyed up by 
his friends till they reached the opposite shore, when he was carried off - 
whether dead or alive, could not be ascertained. One of our men, bravely, 
perhaps rashly, swam the river, found marks of blood, took the canoe as a 
trophy, and returned to his companions. Ensign Hollenback then marched up to 
Wilkes-Barre and met the main body. Lieut. Jenkins, on arriving at the river at 
Pittston, wheeled to march down, when he encountered a party of the enemy. His 
orders were prompt, his conduct spirited. At the head of his men he advanced; 
they fired on the Indians, but their retreat was too rapid. A person with him 
assured us that the conduct of Jenkins showed that he was of true courage, an 
undoubted soldier - a character which he sustained throughout the war. Congress 
conirmed his appointment - issued his commission  - and he continued in active 
service till peace.

In 1779, when Gen. Sullivan advanced into the Indian country, Lieut. Jenkins was 
selected, for his activity, zeal, and knowledge of the country, for one of his 
guides; the arduous and responsible duty he performed in a satisfactory manner. 
Lieut. Jenkins was in the decisive battle of Newtown, and among the most 
efficient and useful officers of his grade in that campaign. He was always at 
the post of duty, of danger and of honor; and left the service, at its close, 
with the reputation of a faithful patriot and good soldier.

When peace came Mr. Jenkins became an active surveyor, and followed his compass, 
both in the Genesee country, and on the waters of the Susquehanna. In civil and 
political affairs he took an active part, and possessed a large share of public 
confidence. He held various civil and military offices in Luzerne - was 
commissioner of the county, member of assembly, colonel of militia, etc. When 
the great division in parties took place, Col. Jenkins zealously espoused the 
democratic side - while his distinguished friend and rival, Col. Franklin, took 
an active part with the federal party. For many years these two famous champions 
maintained a prominent lead, and were, in a good measure, the rallying points of 
the different parties. It was huzza for Col. Jenkins! Huzza for Col. Franklin! 
Both were respected, both beloved, both were men of unquestionable public 
virtue, capacity and patriotism.

Col. Jenkins died in April, 1827, aged seventy-three. In person he was of middle 
hight, stout, well-proportioned, framed for strength, endurance and activity 
combined; extremely hospitable, remarkably clever, yet grave, almost to 
austerity, in his looks when in thought or not speaking, but when animated in 
conversation there was patent the open window of a noble soul.

Col. George Palmer Ransom, son of Capt. Samuel Ransom, was hardly fourteen years 
of age at the commencement of the war of the Revolution, yet he was among the 
first to shoulder his musket and go forth to battle for freedom. In the dead of 
winter, in 1777, as a member of his father's company, he marched out to join 
Washington's army. Capts. Ransom's and Durkee's companies, when they were sent 
to Washington had about eighty men each; attached to no regiment or brigade, but 
acted as independent, and were, therefore, always in the more exposed and 
dangerous positions. They went to Morristown by way of Stroudsburg; thence to 
Millstone. The enemy were at Brunswick, about an hour's march distant. The enemy 
came out in considerable force to forage, carrying three pieces of cannon. They 
were attacked, routed and forty-seven wagons and 130 horses taken from them. In 
the engagement Justice Porter was almost cut in two by a cannonball. Capt. 
Ransom [p.334] brought to Wilkes-Barre one of the wagons as a trophy. The 
property captured was divided among the soldiers and amounted to about $4. each. 
The two independent companies during the following summer suffered much from 
sickness. Colton, Worden, Austin and James Smith had returned or were on a 
furlough. The companies were at Brandywine and Germantown and the bombardment of 
Mud fort, and then stationed at Woodbury, and a portion of them on detached 
duty, and exposed to the enemy's hottest fire, where Constant Matthewson, of 
Ransom's command, was killed. They wintered at Valley Forge. The news now began 
to reach them of the threatened invasion, and some of the men came home, some of 
the officers resigned, and the two companies were consolidated and placed under 
Capt. Simon Spalding.

Young Ransom remained with Capt. Spalding, and without the saying, one can well 
imagine what a heavy heart he had when he bade his father good-by, as he was 
about to return to his home and the defence of his fireside. They were their 
last words together on earth. Capt. Samuel Ransom was but forty-one years of age 
when his noble life was the bloody sacrifice upon the sacred altars of home and 
liberty. Capts. Ransom and Durkee live forever! Linked together in immortality, 
as in life in the service of your fellowman, your chivalry and endurance were 
not in vain!

Capt. Spalding's company, with whom was Private Ransom, was on the day of the 
battle, July 3, at Merwine's, and met the flying inhabitants, and in August, 
under Col. Butler, marched into Wilkes-Barre. Ransom was present for duty and 
served in all of Gen. Sullivan's expeditions, and was in the battle of Newtown.

The gallant young soldier was taken prisoner by the British in December, 1780. 
An old man named Harvey, and Bullock, Frisby, Cady and Elisha Harvey were taken 
at the same time. From a diary kept by the young man it is learned that he was 
taken in February, 1781, to Canada, forty-five miles above Montreal, on the St. 
Lawrence, on an island, where were 166 Americans, guarded by tories. All were 
subjected to the most cruel and brutal treatment; scourged, flogged, starved and 
exposed to the bitterest weather, without bedding and sufficient clothing. He 
then says:

"We remained here till the 9th day of June, when myself and two others, James 
Butterfield and John Brown, made our escape from the island and laid our course 
for Lake Champlain. The 11th, at noon, we came to the lake, and three days after 
we got to a settlement at Hubbertston, Vt. - the next day to Castleton, to a 
fort - from that to Pultney, where I had an uncle living. My companions went on 
to Albany, and there proclaimed the cruelty of the Scotch officer. It was 
published in the papers; a flag was dispatched to remonstrate against such abuse 
of our men, and we had the pleasure to hear, not long after, that MacCalpin was 
tried and broke, the prisoners being called as witnesses against him.

"After visiting his relations at Canaan, Conn., of which he was a native, Mr. 
Ransom returned to Wyoming, and soon after joined his company, attached to Col. 
Butler's regiment, stationed at West Point, where he remained till honorably 
discharged, at the close of the war.

"From that time to this (1845) Mr. Ransom resided at Plymouth, upon the 
beautiful Shawnee flats, perhaps the richest portion of Wyoming. He was called 
by the votes of his fellow-citizens to command the regiment, which his knowledge 
of military tactics well fitted him to maneuver and discipline. Having served 
his country during the dark hours of the Revolutionary contest long and 
faithfully, unambitious of office, he lived respected and beloved. Hardships 
endured while in the service, combined with age, affected his limbs, so that he 
helped himself along with two short staves or crutches.

He was strongly made, broad chested, and active in early life. He sprang quickly 
and he moved fast who got ahead of him then. His life and cheerfulness in the 
most gloomy hour diffused itself in good humor and spirit through the whole 
company. [p.337] The death of his father, the losses and sacrifices in the 
Revolutionary contest - for the savages and tories spared nothing of theirs when 
they swept the valley by fire and sword - left him poor at the close of the war, 
and imposed the necessity of constant industry. Children and grandchildren, 
among the most respectable in the valley, are living and growing up around him, 
and may be proud to claim descent from such ancestors. Without being wealthy, he 
was comfortable in his old age. No one taking a livelier pleasure in beholding 
the freedom and prosperity of his beloved country, the fruits of his father's 
and his own toils and sufferings. Rare indeed is the case presented of a son 
serving through the whole Revolutionary contest, and of his father serving 
several years and laying down his life in the same noble cause. Verily the 
services and the blood of the Ransoms have been a portion of that seed from 
which have sprung up the independence, freedom and prosperity which make happy 
our favored land."

To this account Mr. Miner added the following note:

"1845. Col. Ransom is still in the enjoyment of very tolerable health, except 
his lameness, though his age is eighty-two. A grandson, George Palmer Steele, 
has just closed his term of office as sheriff of Luzerne. Capt. Ransom, his 
father, was born in Canterbury. He and Capt. Durkee had both been in the old 
French war. Durkee, at the time of his death, was fifty, Capt. Ransom forty-one. 
Col. Durkee, an older brother, who is frequently spoken of, 1769, and afterward 
as colonel of one of the Connecticut regiments, died at Norwich, more than forty 
years ago, and was buried with extraordinary display."

He died at his home in 1850, at the green old age of eighty-seven years.

Sergt. Thomas Williams. - Of the descendants of this border hero was the late 
Ezra Williams, of Plains; his daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth A. Stewart, was the 
mother of Mrs. George B. Kulp, of Wilkes-Barre. Robert Williams emigrated to 
this conntry from England in 1637 and located in Roxbury, Mass. Ezra's 
grandfather, Thaddeus Williams, removed to Wyoming valley from Connecticut at an 
early day; driven from here after the invasion in 1778, and his house and 
property destroyed. He afterward returned and settled in Wilkes-Barre. In 1790 
he was a resident of Weston, Conn.; died April 11, 1796. His wife, Frances 
Williams, nee Case, of Hartford, Conn., died in August, 1815.

Thomas Williams, son of Thaddeus, was born in Fairfield county, Conn., January 
19, 1756. Fired by the love of liberty, participating with the patriotic spirits 
of that day, who were indignant at the encroachments of England upon the rights 
of America, he was among the first that joined the standard of his country at 
Wyoming when the recruiting banner was unfurled by order of the continental 
congress. Mr. Williams was in constant service till the end except when allowed 
to return on furlough (which was a frequent practice in the service), when a 
brother or friend took his place for a season. Thus at one time Mr. Williams' 
brother, Isaac, took his place for a month or two. The year of the massacre 
Isaac Williams and John Abbott were ambushed by the savages, and both murdered 
and scalped, near Mill creek. Isaac was only eighteen when he fell. He was 
fearless and active, ardent and patriotic. It is impossible, even at this late 
day, to think of his melancholy fate without the most painful emotions. He fell 
in the bloom of youth, in the dream of a most promising manhood. But these were 
times of great trial and suffering. The deprivation of those nearest and dearest 
was a source of ordinary affliction. It was the common lot. In March, 1779, the 
spring after the battle, a large body of Indians came down on the Wyoming 
settlements. So broken were our people by that fatal invasion that they were few 
in number, weak and illy prepared for defence, although a body of troops was 
stationed in the valley for protection. The savages were estimated to exceed 400 
men. They scattered abroad over the settlement, murdering, burning, taking 
prisoners, robbing houses and driving away cattle. After doing much injury they 
concentrated their forces to [p.338] make an attack on the fort in Wilkes-Barre, 
situated on the river bank, just in front of the present residence of Hon. 
Stanley Woodward. Thaddeus Williams, father of Thomas Williams, occupied a house 
not far from where the late Judge Fell lived (near the corner of Northampton and 
Washington streets), and who for many years kept a public house. The Indians 
deemed it important to take this house before the attack on the fort should be 
made, and a detachment of twenty or thirty was sent for that purpose. It 
happened that Sergt. Williams was then at home. His father was unwell in bed. A 
lad, a younger brother of twelve or thirteen, was the only other male person 
with them, so that the task of defending the house fell entirely on Sergt. 
Williams. The odds were fearfully against him, the chances of success or escape 
desperate, but the call of duty to defend his parents from the tender mercies of 
the savages was imperious. He had been out in the service, and was familiar with 
danger. Naturally brave, being young and ardent, he resolved to do his utmost, 
and he did his duty like a hero. There were three guns in the house, all 
charged. The lad was directed as he fired to reload the pieces as well as he 
could, which the little fellow faithfully did. The enemy rushed up to the door, 
but it was barricaded, so that they could not force it open. Sergt. Williams, 
aiming through the logs, fired, and one of the enemy fell, when they fled, with 
a hideous yell, dragging away the wounded Indian. But, rallying again, they 
rushed up, surrounded the house, and several found places through which to fire. 
The sick father received by a ball a severe wound in the side, but Sergt. 
Williams was not idle. He fired several times, was certain of bringing another 
down, and thought a third, when the party again retreated. The next time they 
came on with brands of fire, and the fate of the besieged seemed almost 
certainly sealed, but Mr. Williams, getting sight of the savage who had the 
brand, took deliberate aim and fired. The savage fell, and his companions, 
dragging him away, with terrible yells, withdrew, and Williams was victorious. 
There is no doubt that the lives of his parents and the whole family were 
preserved by his courage and spirit. It was a glorious affair, and reflects on 
Mr. Williams the highest honor. How many he slew could not be known, as the 
Indians make it a point to carry off their dead, if possible. After the savages 
retired from Wyoming, Mr. Williams rejoined his company, and continued in the 
service till the close of the war. Thus, in the Revolutionary contest, the 
father was wounded, a brother was slain, and Mr. Williams himself served in the 
regular army for several ears, besides defending the house against a formidable 
attack.

Thomas Williams married, in 1782, Elizabeth Robertson, of Bethel, Conn. He lived 
at Danbury, Conn., until the spring of 1790, when he removed again to Wyoming, 
living until his death in the present township of Plains, rearing a family of 
six sons and four daughters, of whom Ezra was the third son. The following 
obituary notice is from the Republican Farmer and Democratic Journal of November 
20, 1839: "Died, at his residence in the township of Wilkes-Barre (now Plains), 
on November 12, 1839, Thomas Williams, one of the oldest and most respectable 
inhabitants of the valley. The whole life of Mr. Williams has been an eminent 
example of industry, sobriety, usefulness and patriotism worthy to be followed 
by all. He bore an honorable part in the Revolutionary struggle, and to the end 
of his life has manifested a live devotion to the cause of liberty, to which he 
devoted the prime of his days. He has reared a numerous and respectable family, 
who are justly esteemed for their intelligence and excellent moral character, 
and who on all occasions have shown an ardent zeal in support of the principles 
for which their father fought. He rests with his compatriots who have gone 
before him, whose memories are embalmed in the hearts of freemen."

Ezra Williams was a native of Luzerne county, where he was born September 24, 
1791. He died September 21, 1844. He married in February, 1818, Mary Black, 
daughter of Henry Black, of Bucks county. The maiden name of Mrs. Black [p.339] 
was Catharine Schattenger. Mrs. Williams was born February 27, 1792, and died 
July 10, 1869.

The Dana Family. - Pre-eminent among the many noble and patriotic people of 
Luzerne the name is immortally linked with that of Wyoming. Here was a race of 
men and women that would have ennobled itself in any place or time by its 
imperishable works; to-day but few are better known throughout the land.

Anderson Dana, Sr., was from Ashford, Windham county, Conn., a lawyer, the 
pioneer in the profession here, who, by his wise counsels, at once took a 
prominent place in the affairs of the people. A Puritan of the strictest sect, 
he was the strong friend and advocate of the church and school. He looked to the 
education of the young as of the first importance, and hardly had he cleared 
away the first trees around his cabin when he sent his oldest son, Daniel, to 
school at Lebanon to prepare for a regular college course. He was sent by the 
people to the Connecticut assembly at Hartford, from which he hastened to his 
home at the threatened invasion, and at once mounted his horse and rode over the 
settlement, rousing the people to prepare for the impending attack. [Mrs. J. R. 
Coolbaugh, of Wilkes-Barre, one of the descendants, informs us that Mr. Minor is 
mistaken on this point; that he reached home after a long, hard ride from 
Hartford, only in time for a hasty repast, when he went to the battle-field in 
the line. -ED.] By law exempt from military duty, as a citizen volunteer he was 
the first in the bloody conflict where his noble life was a sacrifice to the 
great cause. With him, and who fell by his side, was his son-in-law, Stephen 
Whiton, the noble young schoolmaster who had been married but a short time.

The widowed mother and daughter, even in that awful moment, had no time for 
despair. Mrs. Dana, with a thoughtfulness unequaled, knowing that, as her 
husband was much engaged in public life, his papers must be valuable, gathered 
up all she deemed most important, and, with her children, fled. Her husband's 
papers that she had hastily put in a pillowslip she carried on her back to 
Connecticut. Something of their value may now be known when it is told that 
these papers were the foundation title to much of the lands in the valley. These 
papers lost could never have been supplied, and the rightful owners of millions 
of dollars worth of these rich acres would have been cheated of their rights. Of 
these children was Anderson, a lad aged nine (thirteen?) all the male protector 
they had. The poor, distressed fugitives eventually found their way to their 
former Connecticut home, where Anderson was apprenticed and Daniel was in time 
sent to college, the women and children by their labors paying therefor. Daniel 
Dana became a lawyer, settled in New York and became one of the most eminent in 
the State.

Anderson Dana, 2d, completed his apprenticeship and returned to Luzerne to 
recover the patrimonial estate, and on the old homestead spent the remainder of 
his long and most honorable life. Prosperity, wealth and troops of friends were 
his. He made of the old Dana homestead one of the finest possessions in the 
county; the family mansion a landmark, and, in time, near the north line of the 
farm was the "Dana academy." Through this property was built the canal, and, in 
time, the railroad; the growth and spread of Wilkes-Barre made the broad acres 
in demand for building lots.

From his old family Bible, now in the possession or Mr. Clarence Porter Kidder, 
of Wilkes-Barre, is taken the following as entered therein in the neat and exact 
hand of Mr. Anderson Dana:

"Anderson Dana, born August 11, 1765; married Sarah Stevens; their children: 
Amelia, Laura, Asa S. (father of Judge Edmund L. Dana), Sarah, Francis, Louisa, 
Anderson, Eleazer, Sylvester, Mary and Charles.

"Mary married Lyman Church Kidder.

"Anderson Dana died June 24, 1851, aged eighty-six."

The son above named, Asa Stevens Anderson, was the father of Edmund L. Dana. The 
latter was born January 29, 1817, and spent his life here. He was a [p.340] 
lawyer, and, while still a young man, rose to the head of his profession. He was 
made one of the judges of the common pleas court, succeeding Judge Henry M. Hoyt 
in 1867. For many years he was widely known throughout the country for the 
strength and legal acumen of his decisions, and the published reports were 
accepted by the bench and bar without question. He was married in 1842 with 
Sarah Peters, daughter of Ralph and granddaughter of Hon. Richard Peters, of 
Philadelphia.

Sylvester Dana was another of the children that the heroic mother carried across 
the "Shades of Death." He devoted his life to the ministry of his beloved 
church; was the pastor in charge in Concord, N. H.

Eleazer Dana was the youngest; became a lawyer and for many years practiced in 
Owego, N. Y.

Hon. Amasa Dana, of Ithaca, N. Y., a grandson, was in congress several terms 
during the forties.

The posthumous daughter of Stephen Whiten was born several months after the 
flight from Wyoming; was married with Capt. Hezekiah Parsons, who was, during a 
long life, one of the prominent and influential men of the county. An account of 
the Parsons family is given elsewhere, but it may be here mentioned as a curious 
fact following in the long results of that awful day at Wyoming that Mrs. 
Hezekiah Parsons, even late in her old age, could never hear the report of 
firearms without being thrown into the most painful state of nervous excitement.

The Hardings. - "Remember the fate of the Hardings" was the inspiring cry of the 
patriots as they went out to battle on that historic day, July 3, 1778, and 
patriots died with these words on their lips, that will go ringing down the tide 
of history. "The fate of the Hardings" was a cruel one, indeed, but has left the 
oppressed of the world a watchword for all time and climes.

There were nine of the Hardings who were here, and early and active 
participators in the struggles of the day: Abraham Harding, Capt. Stephen 
Harding, Israel Harding, Henry Harding, Oliver Harding, Benjamin Harding, 
Stukely Harding and Stephen Harding, Jr. The last named, though at the time but 
a lad, was in some of the bloodiest of the many of those dark days. To this long 
list of the family Mr. Miner adds that of Elisha Harding, who lived here to an 
advanced age, and of whom he, over his new-made grave, used this expression: 
"One of the very few who were left among us who shared in the scenes and 
sufferings of Wyoming in the Revolutionary war, his departure creates a painful 
chasm, and compels the remark: 'A few years more and none will remain who can 
say: "I was there."

The Hardings came from Connecticut in 1770 and settled in old Exeter township. 
The very women and babes of this family were sturdy pioneers and patriots. When 
the Wintermoots in the early times erected their fort, the Hardings and 
Jenkinses deemed it best to erect one near, but above it. Of the work upon this 
fort, Elisha Harding, who was then a lad of thirteen, born in Colchester, Conn., 
in 1763, and came with his family in 1770. Mr. Miner says:

"Young Harding, then a boy too young to lift logs, had yet the true blood 
flowing in his veins; he could drive oxen; and he worked at the stockade with 
the spirit of youth and ardor of patriotism. This was in 1777. In November of 
that year John Jenkins, Jr., was taken prisoner by the Indians and carried to 
Niagara. A Mr. York and Lemuel Fitch were taken off at the same time. An old man 
named Fitzgerald was also made captive. The enemy placed him on a flax-brake and 
gave him his choice - to die, or renounce his whig principles and swear 
allegiance to King George. The reply is worthy of preservation in letters of 
gold: 'I am an old man - I can continue but a few years at most, and had rather 
die now, a friend to my country, than have my life spared and be branded with 
the name of tory!' He was a noble follow. And they had the magnanimity to let 
him go.

"The troubles, which may be said to have begun with the captivity of Jenkins, 
[p.341] now thickened around the settlement. In May, 1778, William Crooks and 
Asa Budd went up the river and stopped at John Secord's house, where Crooks was 
shot by the enemy, and Budd escaped. Was not the blood of Crooks the first shed 
at Wyoming? The people now repaired to the forts for safety. At Jenkins' fort 
were the family of that name, the head of which was John Jenkins, a man 
distinguished in his day by intelligence, zeal for liberty, and extensive 
influence. In May, 1777, he had been elected a member of assembly to 
Connecticut, from Westmoreland. He was the father of the Mr. Jenkins who was a 
prisoner; and afterward through the war a brave and active officer. Here were 
Capt. Stephen Harding, Benjamin, Stukely and Stephen Harding, Jr., William 
Martin, James Hadsall, Sr. and Jr., Samuel Morgan, Ichabod Phelps, Miner 
Robbins, John Gardiner, Daniel Weller and Daniel Carr, with their women and 
children.

"On June 30 the men left the fort and went up the river a few miles to work 
among their corn; they were ambushed by the savages, and six of them slain. 
Those who fell were Stukely Harding and Benjamin Harding, brothers of Elisha; 
Miner Robbins, James Hadsall, James Hadsall, Jr., and a colored man named 
Martin. The British Butler said our men fought as long as they could stand; when 
found their bodies were shockingly mangled - full of spear holes - their hands 
and arms cut, as if an attempt had been made to take them prisoners, and they 
had resisted to the last. Daniel Weller, Daniel Carr and John Gardiner were 
taken prisoners. Mr. Harding, of whom we write, used to say that in all his life 
he never saw a more piteous scene than that of Mr. Gardiner taking leave of his 
wife and children. After the battle he was allowed to see and bid them farewell, 
when he was driven off, led by a halter, loaded almost to crushing with plunder. 
He seemed an object of particular spite, probably arising from the revenge of 
some personal enemy. 'Go - go,' was the Indian's command. On the way, a few 
miles west of Geneva, he became worn-out - fell, and was given up to the squaws, 
who put him to death with cruel torture.

"The day before the battle Jenkins' fort capitulated to a detachment under Capt. 
Caldwell, and young Harding was among the prisoners. As suspected, Wintermoot's 
fort threw open its gate to the enemy. On July 3, in the afternoon about 1 
o'clock, word came up to Jenkins' fort that the Yankees were marching out to 
battle and all the warriors must go down to Wintermoot's to meet them. The issue 
is known. The next day young Elisha describes the savages as smoking, sitting 
about, and with the most stoical indifference scraping the blood and brains from 
the scalps of our people and straining them over little hoops to dry - a most 
soul-sickening sight. Among the expelled he sought his way to Norwich, Conn., 
bound himself to the blacksmith's trade, and despising idleness and dependence, 
nobly resolved to live above the world and want by honest industry. Married, 
settled, having an admirable farm, and he a first-rate farmer, comfort and 
independence flowed in upon him, crowned his board with plenty, and gave him the 
means of charitable usefulness in reward for early toils and present labor.

"A man of strong mind and retentive memory, he read much and retained everything 
worth remembering. Shrewd, sensible, thoroughly understanding human nature, few 
in his neighborhood had more influence. A justice under a commission from Gov. 
Mifflin, he rendered useful service as a magistrate for a long series of years. 
Of a ready turn of wit, an apt story - an applicable Scripture quotation - a 
couplet of popular verse, always ready at command, rendered him a prominent and 
successful advocate in the thousand interesting conflicts of opinion that arise 
in life. A keen sarcasm - severe retort - an unexpected answer that would turn 
the laugh on his opponent, characterized him, but never in bitterness, for he 
was too benevolent to give unmerited pain. Of old times he loved to converse, 
and his remarkable memory enabled him to trace with surprising accuracy every 
event which he witnessed or heard during the troubles here. He could describe 
every house and farm, [p.342] and name every farmer from the lower to the upper 
line living in Exeter before the battle, although but a lad of twelve or 
thirteen.

"A very worthy, a very clever, a very upright man, he leaves the world respected 
and regretted. Thick set, not tall, but well knit together, he seemed formed for 
strength and endurance; of an excellent constitution, well preserved by 
exercise, cheerfulness and temperance, he had known but little sickness. A year 
ago, 1839, the last time I had the pleasure to see him, his mind seemed in full 
vigor, and he gave promise of many years of life and enjoyment." He died in 
August, 1840, the result of a sudden attack of apoplexy, at the age of seventy-
five years.

In a foot note Mr. Miner says: "There was not a family in the country more 
ardently devoted to freedom than the Hardings. Those who fell at Exeter were 
taken to the burying ground near Jenkins' ferry and interred. Over their graves 
Elisha Harding erected a monument. On it is this: 'Sweet be the sleep of those 
who prefer death to slavery."

Thus, four of the Hardings were in the Exeter massacre - two of them killed -  
and four, namely, Henry, Stephen, Oliver and Israel, were members of Capt. 
Durkee's independent company.

So prominent was this family in the history of the early days, that the main 
facts are necessarily given in preceding pages. For later facts concerning the 
posterity the reader is referred to the biographical part of this work.

Sills. This family came to Wyoming in 1770, Mr. and Mrs. Sill and two young 
sons, Elisha Noyes Sill, aged nine, and Shadrack, younger. The family came from 
Lyme, Conn. Mr. Sill built the second house in Wilkes-Barre, where of late years 
has stood the dwelling of the late Col. Welles, and in this house was the first 
wedding - a sister of Mr. Sill with Nathan Denison, as relater elsewhere. 
Another of Mr. Sill's sisters soon after married in the same house, Capt. John 
P. Schott. In 1776 Elisha N. Sill, then aged fifteen, enlisted in Capt. Durkee's 
company, and soon after his brother Shadrack became a member of the same 
company. Hon. Charles Miner relates meeting Dr. E. N. Sill at Hartford in 1839, 
when he described the Millstone battle, in which the Sill brothers participated, 
correcting the current accounts of historians, or supplying any notice of that 
event as had most of the chroniclers of the day: "The two companies (Wyoming) 
which were there alone were out on parade, before sunrise; we saw the British 
coming over a rise of ground from toward Brunswick, artillery and infantry. 
Their numbers being too great, our companies retreated about half a mile. The 
enemy came out with a train of wagons for flour. While retreating we met Col. 
Dickinson with the New Jersey militia; our troops wheeled and all now charged 
the enemy, and a short fight put the British to rout.

The two Sills continued in the service in Spalding's company to the close of the 
war. Shadrack lost his health and was home on a furlough at the time of the 
Forty fort battle and fled with the exiles. In October, 1779, he removed to 
Connecticut with his father's family, became a physician, lived to an old age a 
useful and much respected citizen.

Dr. Elisha Noyes Sill died at Windsor, Conn., May 24, 1845, aged eighty-four.

Athertons. - There were two branches of this name that were among the earliest 
of the comers to Wyoming. The names of James and John Atherton are recorded as 
of the forty who came in 1762-3 and settled at Kingston. They were the first of 
the pioneers, and of those who, as Mr. Miner says, were double sufferers. It 
seems that James Atherton returned after the massacre, and, undaunted, commenced 
again the work of clearing the wilderness. In the list of the slain of the 
Wyoming battle appears the name of Jabez Atherton. Their arms essayed with other 
patriots to defend their country; their blood enriched its soil, and, as Mr. 
Miner well says, it is right to record that their descendants are in the full 
possession and enjoyment of the fruits of their father's toil, enterprise, 
bravery and sufferings. "In passing [p.343] through Kingston not far above the 
residence of Col. Denison, looking to the left, you may see embosomed in trees 
in a most romantic situation a neat dwelling, the farmhouse of a beautiful 
plantation. Intermarried with a daughter of the late Gen. Ross, here resides a 
descendant of one of the early settlers. The farm extending from the river to 
the mountain yields abundance, and it is a pleasure to add that it is the seat 
of intelligence and hospitality."

Jonathan Fitch was the first high sheriff of Westmoreland county, Conn., when 
that was the description of this part of Pennsylvania. He was the only man in 
the one large company of fugitives after the battle who fled across "The Shades 
of Death." He is mentioned here chiefly because he was one of the early and 
influential colonists. He was four times chosen a member of the Hartford general 
assembly. He probably never returned to this place after he conducted the women 
and children in their flight. At all events, in 1789 he is known to have settled 
on Fitch's creek, near Binghampton, N. Y. He was a man of high culture and 
refinement; became in time one of the judges of the court of New York.

The Durkees. - Maj. John Durkee had been in Col. Lyman's regiment at the taking 
of the "Havana." He is named in our annals as heading a party of the first 
emigrants in 1769-70. Arrested by Capt. Ogden and sent to Philadelphia, several 
months' imprisonment extinguished his ardor for the settlement of Wyoming, and 
he returned to Norwich. His name stands on the old records as one of the 
original forty settlers in Kingston. On the breaking out of the Revolutionary 
war, Maj. Durkee entered zealously into the contest. A paper published 
September, 1774, announces, "On Sunday morning 464 men, well armed, and the 
greater part mounted on good horses, started for Boston, under the command of 
Maj. John Durkee." Subsequently, in a subordinate station, he was with Putuam in 
the battle of Bunker Hill. Commissioned a colonel of the Connecticut line, on 
the continental establishment, this "bold Bean Hill man," as he was sometimes 
called, "accompanied the army to New York, fought at Germantown," and continued 
to serve with reputation to the close of the arduous struggle. He died in 
Norwich at his residence on, or near, Bean Hill, in 1782, aged fifty-four years. 
Military honors were accorded at his funeral, and the display on a similar 
occasion in that city had never been surpassed. It is evident he left property 
in Wyoming. Thomas Dyer, Esq., many years afterward, took out letters at Wilkes-
Barre, and administered upon his estate.

That Robert Durkee, his brother, received a commission as captain of one of the 
independent companies; that when congress refused, notwithstanding its solemn 
pledge, to allow the soldiers to return to Wyoming, menaced as it was by 
impending danger, he, like Ransom, resigned his commission, and hastened home to 
defend his family; that he entered as a volunteer into the battle and fell, is 
all on record. His residence was in Wilkes-Barre on the main avenue, below Gen. 
Ross' farm. The ancient house is still standing - the property including the old 
stone wall near where the State road turns off. His widow married Capt. Landon, 
a respectable citizen of Kingston, and a surveyor. She died. September 3, 1803, 
aged sixty-five. Amelia Durkee, a daughter, resided on the farm, and in August, 
1804, married Philip Weeks (whose family were such terrible sufferers in the 
battle). Some years afterward they moved to Oquago, and so far as our knowledge 
extends the name in Wyoming has ceased to exist but in remembrance.

He was the proprietor and founder of what is now the city of Wilkes-Barre - a 
place that for all time would have been signally honored to have borne his name. 
How striking it is in going over these ancient records that so few localities 
bear down to posterity the names and thereby the once green memories of those 
who were the actors, founders or creators of those very places or things that 
should most appropriately carry in their names the record of names that were not 
born to die.

Gen. Simon Spalding is a name always familiar to those who know anything of 
[p.344] the early and trying days of Wyoming. A history of those troublous times 
are his record. In 1841 his son-in-law, Joseph Kingsbury, in a letter to Hon. 
Charles Miner, from Sheshequin, wrote of him as follows:

"Gen. Simon Spalding was a native of Plainfield, Conn. He was born in 1741, 
married to Ruth Shepard in 1761, and died the 24th of January, 1814, aged 
seventy- three. [I may add that, frequently visiting Sheshequin from 1800 to 
1812, I often saw Gen. Spalding. He was a large man, of imposing and pleasing 
appearance. His merits and services deserve a much more extended memoir, and no 
one is more capable of doing justice to the subject than Col. Kingsbury. - 
MINER.] He was a captain in the Revolutionary war, and from good testimony, I 
have no doubt but that he was a brave officer. But Gen. Spalding, as a captain 
in the war, never had justice done to him. The affair of Bound Brook was a 
performance of his. He recovered the forage the British had gathered at the 
time, and took several prisoners. But just as the skirmish was over and victory 
secured, an officer of superior rank came up (I forget his name) and to him was 
the honor of the victory given, when he had no more to do with it than you or I 
had. Gen. Spalding first discovered this unjust account in Weems' little history 
of the Revolutionary war, and it mortified the real actor of the scene very 
much.

"Gen. (then Capt.) Spalding was with Gen. Sullivan in his expedition into the 
Genesee country. In this tour he discovered and took a fancy to Sheshequin. On 
his return to Wyoming he made known his intention to settle at this place. In 
1783, in company with his family and several of his neighbors at Wyoming, with 
their families, he removed from thence to Sheshequin. They arrived at this place 
on May 30. I have heard Gen. Spalding say that the Indian grass upon the flats 
at the time he came here, was as high as his head when he sat upon a horse. 
These pioneers set fire to it, and such a fire was never seen before by any one 
present; it ran from one end of the intervale to the other, a distance of about 
four miles, and no doubt was very destructive to the animals which made their 
homes in its dense covers.

"When the settlers took possession of Sheshequin there were a few Indian 
families resident upon Queen Esther's flats, and one family on this side of the 
river, but none of any note among them. These Indians proved very friendly, and 
the next year mostly moved off to the west.

"Gen. Spalding was a man calculated to gain the love and esteem of even a 
savage. A better hearted man I was never acquainted with. He had a peculiar tact 
in pleasing the redskins and usually when passing through the place on treaty 
business to Philadelphia, he would set some sporting on foot. I remember of 
hearing it told of a feat performed by a couple of these redskins at a time when 
a large company of Indians were on their return from the city of Brotherly Love. 
They always made it a point to stop a night with their old friend, who never 
failed in providing them something to eat. At this time he selected two long-
legged hogs and informed the chiefs that these hogs were a present for their 
supper and breakfast, on these conditions however: the Indians to select two of 
their fleetest runners, they to catch the hogs in a fair running race. This 
pleased the red men greatly. The young racers were stripped to leggins and 
clouts, armed with a scalping knife; the hogs turned loose on the flats and the 
sport began. Such ecstasy as the Indians and even the gathered pale faces were 
in at the rare sport, which lasted for nearly an hour. The hogs were at first 
too swift for their pursuers. Once and a while the two- legged would catch the 
four-legged animals, when seizing them by the tail would be thrown sprawling or 
dragged a distance, and then on their feet again and the race renewed as well as 
the shouts of the spectators. Finally the hogs were killed, and the racing 
frolic was followed by the barbecue of the animals, which were thrown on the log 
fire "feathers and all" and hastily prepared for the royal feast.

Capt. William McKerachan was the first officer of the Hanover company. [p.347] 
Evincing at once a spirit of singular modesty and patriotism, he said to Capt. 
Stewart on the morning of the battle: "My pursuits in life have thus far been 
those of peace; you have been used to war and accustomed to command. On parade I 
can maneuver my men, but in the field no unnecessary hazard should be run; a 
mistake might prove fatal. Take you the lead; I will fight under you with my men 
as an aide or a private in the ranks. Your presence at the head of the Hanover 
boys will impart confidence." So it was arranged, and they fell together.

McKerachan was an Irishman, coming from Belfast in the summer of 1764, a young 
man; landed at Philadelphia, and taught school in Chester county at Nantmeal; 
thence to Bucks county, spent a year or two there and in New Jersey in teaching. 
He came and settled in Nanticoke in 1774, where for a period he taught school. 
In time he opened a store and purchased lands. A man much esteemed in his time; 
was commissioned a magistrate by the Connecticut authorities. He fell at the 
head of the column July 3, 1778, linking his name immortally with that of his 
adopted country as a noble sacrifice on the altars of its liberties.

The Gores. - A family whose woes were a most important chapter in the suffering 
and trials incurred in the establishment of a free country; a large family of 
big men, women and children, as patriotic and heroic as ever the sun shed light 
upon. Already much has been written of the different ones of the family in other 
portions of this book, but one can not refrain from here condensing into the 
briefest space what was written of them by Mr. Miner in the Traveller, and 
published in 1845:

"Having given a sketch of the Bidlack family, it is proper to say that Bidlack's 
wife was a daughter of Obadiah Gore and a sister of Obadiah Gore, Jr., the 
latter so many years associate justice of Luzerne county. The family came from 
Norwich, Conn. At this time [1838] Mrs. Bidlack is eighty years old, but as 
active as at forty [she died soon after]; was twenty years of age at the time of 
the battle, and in the fort, and to the day of her death was considered the 
clearest authority on those things that came under her eyes at that bloody day."

Then speaking of the terrible sacrifices, Mr. Miner says: "Take the instance of 
the Gore family: The old gentleman was one of the aged men left in Forty fort 
for its defence. He was a magistrate under the Connecticut authority. His eldest 
son, Obadiah Gore, was lieutenant in the service and in the line before New 
York. In the battle of July 3, 1778, were his sons, Samuel Gore, Daniel Gore, 
Silas Gore, George Gore, Asa Gore - the father in the fort, and five sons 
marching out to the conflict! Nor was this all. John Murfee, who married a 
daughter of Mr. Gore, was also in the ranks; and Timothy Pearce, another 
brother-in-law, having ridden all night, came in and joined our army in the 
battle-field. Thus there were seven in the battle, while an eighth was in 
service with the regular army, and it proved a most bloody and disastrous day to 
the family. At sun setting five of the seven were on the field, mangled corpses. 
Asa and Silas were ensigns, and were slain, George was slain, Murfee was slain. 
Timothy Pearce held a commission in the regular army, but had hurried in. He 
also was killed. Lieut. Daniel Gore was near the right wing, and stood a few 
rods below Wintermoot's fort, close to the old road that led up through the 
valley. Stepping into the road, a ball struck him in the arm; tearing it from 
his shirt he applied a hasty bandage. Just at that moment Capt. Durkee stepped 
into the road at the same place. "Look out!" said Mr. Gore; "there are some of 
the savages concealed under yonder heap of logs." At that instant a bullet 
struck Capt. Durkee in the thigh. When retreat became inevitable, Mr. Gore 
endeavored to assist Capt. Durkee from the field, but found it impossible; and 
Durkee said, "Save yourself, Mr. Gore - my fate is sealed." Lieut. Gore then 
escaped down the road, and leaping the fence about a mile below, lay couched 
close under a bunch of bushes. While there, an Indian got over the fence and 
stood near him. Mr. G. said he could see the white of his eye, and was almost 
sure he was discovered. A moment after, a [p.348] yell was raised on the flats 
below, the Indian drew up his rifle and fired, and instantly ran off in that 
direction. Though the wave of death seemed to have passed over and spent itself, 
yet Lieut. Gore remained under cover till dusk, when he heard voices in the road 
near him. One said to the other, "It has been a hard day for the Yankees." 
"Yes," replied the other "there has been blood enough shed." He thought one was 
Col. John Butler, but could not say for certain. After dark Mr. Gore found his 
way to the fort and met his brother Samuel, the only survivors of the seven. The 
distress of Mrs. Murfee was very great. She feared her husband had been 
tortured. When she learned he fell on the field, she was less distressed; and, 
begging her way among the rest of the fugitives, traversed the wilderness and 
sought a home in the State from which she had emigrated, having an infant born a 
few days after her arrival among her former friends.

The mother of the Gore family survived to see her remaining children highly 
prosperous. Born in 1720, she lived until 1804, when she died at the house of 
her son in Sheshequin, aged eighty-four years.

In another chapter is an interesting account given by Samuel Gore of his part in 
the battle, embodied in his petition for a pension.

Maj. Ezekiel Pierce, whom Mr. Miner designates as the ready penman, who wrote 
all the early records of Westmoreland town when this was a part of Connecticut, 
came with his five grown sons in 1771. The sons were Abel, Daniel, John, Timothy 
and Phineas. In June, 1778, when the two independent companies were consolidated 
under Capt. Simon Spalding, Timothy and Phineas were commissioned first and 
second lieutenants, Timothy being one of the three who rode all night and the 
next day to hurry to the battle and death on that fatal July 3. John was also 
slain at the same time. Abel, the father of Mrs. Lord Butler, became a prominent 
citizen here. His son Charles was killed while yet a lad in the bloody struggles 
of civil strife, over the posession of the soil in the valley. A daughter became 
the wife and widow of Capt. Daniel Hoyt, and was living in Kingston in 1845.

The Finch Family. - Three of the Finch family - John, Daniel and Benjamin -  
were killed at the time of the invasion - two in the engagement, one murdered by 
the Indians the day previous near Shoemaker's mill.

Thomas Brown. - The names of Thomas Brown and John Brown are in the list of 
slain. Thomas, in the retreat, had nearly crossed the river, another person 
being in company. Overtaken by the enemy he was induced or forced to return, and 
on reaching the shore was instantly speared and tomahawked. His companion 
witnessed the deed but escaped. The particulars of the fall of John we have not 
learned. Daniel Brown, a brother, was then a lad in Forty fort. He now resides 
(1845) very independently near the Wyalusing, a neighbor to the gallant and 
fortunate Elliott, who escaped from the fatal ring with Hammond, having also 
near him Mrs. Wells, who was a Ross, and several other of the ancient Wyoming 
people. One of the stockades at Pittston was called Brown's fort, that family 
having erected it on their own land. Though not named, it is evidently referred 
to in the dispatches of Col. John Butler as one of the three that capitulated.

Asa and John Stevens. - Asa and John Stevens are named in the old records as 
inhabitants of Wilkes-Barre as early as 1772. Rosewell Stevens was one of the 
patriotic soldiers that entered the service in Ransom's independent company. Asa 
Stevens was an officer holding the commission of lieutenant in the militia, and 
was slain in battle. Like the Danas they were particularly distinguished by 
their zeal for the establishment of free schools, and the advancement of 
learning. This congeniality of sentiment led to the most intimate connection - 
Anderson Dana and Sylvester Dana marrying sisters of the Stevens family. 
Removing from Wilke-Barre, Jonathan Stevens settled in Braintrim, and afterward 
in Bradford county, where, on the organization of that county, having long 
exercised with [p.849] intelligence and firmness the duties of a magistrate, he 
was appointed one of the associate judges.

Nathan Beach, of Beach Grove, for many years one of the most distinguished 
citizens of Luzerne, furnished Mr. Miner a brief sketch of his life. Mr. Beach 
was a magistrate for many years, and for a still longer time postmaster at Beach 
Grove. In 1807-8 Beach and Miner represented the county of Luzerne in the 
assembly, then sitting in Lancaster. Room-mates as well as colleagues, a 
friendly intimacy commenced, which never suffered the slightest interruption. 
Active, enterprising, having a mind quick to perceive, a memory extraordinarily 
retentive, and a faculty to communicate with remarkable clearness and spirit the 
incidents occurring in his eventful life, a more pleasant or instructive 
companion, in respect to a ancient affairs, could rarely be met with. Even at 
the age of eighty-two (1845), his graphic account of the surrender of Cornwallis 
possessed more interest than any we have ever read or heard. Fortune has smiled 
on his exertions, and the poor exiled boy is now able to ride in his carriage 
and pair, abounding in wealth, still blessed with health, and buoyant in 
spirits, esteemed by a large circle of friends and acquaintances.

"In the year 1769 my father removed with his family from the State of New York 
to the valley of Wyoming, now Luzerne county, where he continued to reside 
within the limits of said county, until the 4th day of July, 1778, the day after 
the Wyoming battle. When the inhabitants, to wit, all those who had escaped the 
tomahawk and scalping knife, fled in every direction to places of security, 
about the first of August following I returned with my father and Thomas Dodson, 
to secure our harvest which we had left in the fields. While we were thus 
engaged I was taken prisoner by the Indians and tories; made my escape the day 
following. In the fall of the same year, 1778, my father and family went to live 
at Fort Jenkins. I was there employed, with others of the citizens, and sent out 
on scouting parties by Capt. Swany, commander of the fort, and belonging to Col. 
Hartley's regiment of the Pennsylvania line, continued at said fort until about 
the first of June, 1779, during which time had a number of skirmishes with the 
Indians. In May, 1779, the Indians, thirty-five in number, made an attack on 
some families that lived one mile from the fort, and took three families, 
twenty-two in number, prisoners. Information having been received at the fort, 
Ensign Thornbury was sent out by the captain in pursuit of the Indians, with 
twenty soldiers; myself and three others of the citizens also went, making 
twenty-four. We came up with them -  a sharp engagement took place, which lasted 
about thirty minutes, during which time we had four men killed and five wounded 
out of the twenty-four. As we were compelled to retreat to the fort, leaving our 
dead on the ground, the Indians took their scalps. During our engagement with 
the Indians the twenty-four prisoners before mentioned made their escape and got 
safe to the fort. The names of the heads of those families taken prisoners as 
aforesaid, were Bartlet Ramey, Christopher Forrow and Joseph Dewey: the first 
named, Bartlet Ramey, was killed by the Indians. Soon after the aforesaid 
engagement, in June, I entered the boat department. Boats having been built at 
Middletown, Dauphin county, called continental boats, made for the purpose of 
transporting the baggage, provisions, etc., of Gen. Sullivan's army - which was 
on its march to destroy the Indian towns in the lake country, in the State of 
New York. I steered one of those boats to Tioga Point, where we discharged our 
loading, and I returned to Fort Jenkins in August, where I found our family. The 
Indians still continued to be troublesome; my father thought it advisable to 
leave the country and go to a place of more safety; we left the Susquehanna, 
crossed the mountains to Northampton county, in the neighborhood of Bethlehem; 
this being in the fall of 1779. In May, 1780, the Indians paid a visit to that 
country, took and carried away Benjamin Gilbert and family, and several of his 
neighbors, amounting to eighteen or twenty in all. Said Gilbert was [p.350] of 
the society called Quakers. It was then thought expedient to raise a certain 
number of militia men, and establish a line of block-houses north of the Blue 
mountain, from the Delaware river near Stroudsburg in Northampton county to the 
river Schuylkill in then Berks, now Schuylkill county, in which service I 
entered as substitute for Jacob Reedy. In May, 1780, was appointed orderly 
sergeant in Capt. Conrad Rather's company, in which situation I served that 
season six months, as follows: Two months under Capt. Rather; two months under 
Capt. Deal; during this two months the Indians made an attack upon our block-
house, at which engagement some of the Indians were killed; and two months under 
Capt. Smeathers. During the winter it was considered unnecessary to continue the 
service. In May, 1781, the forces were reorganized at the block-houses, where I 
served four months. In September of the same year I entered the French service 
in Philadelphia as wagoner, with Capt. Gosho, wagon master, and was attached to 
the hospital department; arrived at Yorktown. Va., the last of September, about 
three weeks before the surrender of Lord Cornwallis. I remained with the army in 
the neighborhood of Yorktown until June, 1782, at which time the French army 
left Virginia for Boston; arrived at Providence, State of Rhode Island, about in 
November; remained there until the first of February, 1783, when the army 
marched to Boston, and embarked on board of their fleet. I then returned to 
Philadelphia, Pa., was discharged, and returned home after an absence of about 
eighteen months. I was born, says our family resister, July, 1763, near a place 
now called Hudson, on the North river, in the State of New York. Have continued 
to reside within Luzerne county from September, 1769, to the present time, 
excepting five years as before stated.

The Inmans, a family conspicuous in the days that were so dark and troubled here 
for the number of its name that gave their lives as a sacrifice. Five brothers 
went to the battle of Wyoming - two lay dead on the ground, three escaped, but 
Richard, from overheat and swimming the river, returned home only to die in a 
few weeks from disease thereby contracted. There were seven brothers; two 
remained at home that day because they could not secure arms; one, Isaac, was 
nineteen and the other a mere lad, both of whom would have been at the bloody 
sacrifice except for the fact stated. The parents were aged at the time, and it 
was doubly necessary for the two Youths to be with them, as the fates turned the 
battle and caused the following exodus. Elijah and Israel Inman were killed in 
the battle. Richard Inman saved the life of Rufus Bennett in the retreat by 
shooting the Indian that was in hot chase after him. Isaac Inman, the lad aged 
nineteen, spoken of above, was ambushed and killed by Indians the following 
winter. He was at home and thought he heard wild turkeys calling, and took his 
gun to find them. In a short time the family heard shots and the boy never 
returned. The family then knew that the "turkeys" were Indians, and they could 
only hope their boy was a prisoner and not dead. But when the spring melted away 
the snow, his mangled body was found where he had been murdered and scalped. 
Here were four of the seven brothers dead by the hands of the savages. Richard 
Inman had certainly killed one Indian, and it may be supposed that from first to 
last they had evened up with the savages in numbers slain, because they were not 
cowards. Col. Edward Inman in 1843 was a prominent and wealthy citizen on the 
old homestead south of Wilkes-Barre, where the father, Elijah Inman, had 
settled. The latter died in February, 1804, aged eighty-six, and his widow, 
Susan Inman, died in 1809, aged eighty-eight.