History of Luzerne County Pennsylvania, H. C. Bradsby, Editor, S. B. Nelson & Co., 1893 - Chapter 21 - Freeland - Jenkins Township

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Ed McClelland 
<ed.mcclelland@erols.com>

Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/luzerne/ 
HTML file: http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/luzerne/1893hist/
_______________________________________________ 

                     History of Luzerne County Pennsylvania

                             H. C. Bradsby, Editor

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

                                  CHAPTER XXI.

                                   FREELAND.

Perched upon the Broad mountain 2,190 feet above tidewater, sits as a jeweled 
crown the beautiful, thriving and bustling borough of Freeland - one of the most 
rapidly improving of any of the boroughs of southern Luzerne county. Here is a 
town built by employes - laborers mostly, who worked in the collieries near by 
on every hand, and while they worked in the valleys they concluded to make their 
homes on the hill, and the result is that in rather quick order they built here 
the queen town of all the surrounding country for miles and miles.

In 1842 Joseph Birkbeck purchased a part of the land on which the borough stands 
and immediately commenced to improve his farm, building his residence a short 
distance north of what is now the north borough line. The Birkbeck estate now 
owns the farm land joining the north borough limits. About the same time Aaron 
Howe (or Howey), commenced to open his farm to the west of Birkbeck, and the 
most of the town is built upon a part of his tract. These two then, were the 
pioneer settlers in this part of Foster township. They built their houses on the 
side of the hill and cleared and farmed the land along the hillside down into 
the valley. The first settler within the borough limits was William Johnson, 
laborer; then Thomas Morgan, a blacksmith from Jeddo; he sold to Patrick 
McGlynn; then came James Williamson, from Eckley, whose family still reside in 
the place. The first store was opened by Joseph Lindsey in 1875; then H. C. 
Koons started his place of business. Lindsey's store was on what is now the 
corner of Pine and Walnut streets, and Koons' was on the corner of Front and 
Center streets. The next store was that of Thomas Campbell, who is still one of 
the leading business men of [p.564] the place. The first schoolhouse was put up 
in 1868, and in time, where it stood was mined under and a squeeze threatened. 
The house was moved on the Birkbeck land and in its new place was within what 
became the borough. In adjusting the affairs between the borough and township, 
the building and a small amount of money was awarded to the township, and it is 
still a township school. Then was erected the present borough school building, 
on Washington and Chestnut, a one-story frame, containing five rooms and all 
modern facilities. Belonging to the school property is 150 feet square of 
ground.

In 1868 A. Donop, who was a clerk for G. B. Markle, at Jeddo, with an eye to 
good investments and a keen appreciation of the natural location, purchased the 
land and laid out the village and offered lots on favorable terms to settlers. 
Backing his judgment, he at once built for himself the building known as the 
"Old Homestead," opposite the postoffice. He named it Freehold, and this name 
continued until they came to name their postoffice, when it was changed to 
Freeland. The "point" had already grown to such importance that a postoffice had 
been granted and considerable business was flowing in and out of the place. 
However, there was no rush of capital here, nor was there a marked inflow of 
people. But Mr. Donop was active in sounding the advantages of the place and he 
offered lots for $10 bills that now are held up in the thousand mark. There was 
a steady but slow growth for several years. The very modest business places that 
have been opened catered to the trade that was about the country at that time, 
when almost anything was more abundant than purchasers with hard cash.

However, before the end of the first decade, such had been the prosperity of 
Donop's village that necessity demanded that proper clothes be provided for the 
youngster, and a movement was set on foot to organize a borough. An election was 
held and the vote was largely in the affirmative, and on September 11, 1876 - 
the great centennial year - Freeland became a borough and the village swaddling 
clothes were laid aside forever. As the garments had not been so long worn as to 
be out at the seat, it has been suggested by Mr. Thomas A. Buckley that they be 
generously given to Drifton, Jeddo, Upper Lehigh, Oakdale, Highland, Sandy Run, 
Eckley, Pond Creek, Buck Mountain, Drums, Honey Hole, or any of the other of the 
contributary places to their capital and business place; for their valuable 
contributions in the way of bringing here their trade, and for the other 
contributions in the way of thrifty residents.

The first officers were elected October 10, 1876, as follows: Burgess, Rudolph 
Ludwig; council, Henry Koons, president council, Manus Connaghan, John L. Jones, 
Patrick McGlynn, Hugh O'Donnell and Christopher Wiegand. High constable was 
appropriately enough William Johnson, who built the first house in the place. A. 
Donop, the village proprietor, was the first clerk. The borough was formed from 
Foster township and is bounded by the township on all sides. The incorporators 
had no very exalted ideas of the future of the place, and did not cut the 
clothes as is done for boys, "to allow for growing." The result is that to-day 
the smallest part of the place is the borough proper. It is emphatically mostly 
an "overflow" town, like they have overflow meetings in a hot campaign; the big 
end of the place is "out of doors," and it makes it a powerfully deceiving 
village. Strangers turn to the census and find it reported with a population of 
1,730, but when you come to see it, you find the borough boundary line is one of 
the main streets in the place. A witty Irishman worked out the puzzle and said 
it was a kangaroo town -  all hind legs. This little oddity is in the course of 
rapid correction, and not much doubt that by the time this is in the book, the 
borough limits will be properly extended and then Freeland will have nearly 
5,000 population, or thereabouts. A consummation the good patriots of the 
borough look forward to with great interest.

The burgesses and clerks in the succession are as follows: 1877, burgess, 
Rudolph Ludwig; clerk, A. Donop; both re-elected. In 1888, Rudolph Ludwig and 
George C. Farrar; 1879, D. J. McCarthy and George C. Farrar; 1880, both [p.565] 
re-elected; 1881, Peter Brown and L. T. Dodson; 1882, both re-elected; 1883, 
Rudolph Ludwig and L. T. Dodson; 1884, both re-elected; 1885, James Collins and 
L. T. Dodson; 1886, Rudolph Ludwig and L. T. Dodson, but Dodson did not qualify 
on account of sickness, when John M. Powell was appointed temporary clerk. July, 
1886, Thomas A. Buckley was elected clerk and has continuously held the office 
to the present; 1887, burgess, James Collins; re-elected the next year; 1889, B. 
F. Davis; 1890, W. D. Cowen; 1891, John M. Powell. Present city officials 
(1892): Burgess, E. P. Gallagher; council, Patrick Dooris, president; Dr. E. W. 
Rutter, Henry Smith, Owen Fritzinger, James Williamson and Frank De Pierro; 
clerk, Thomas A. Buckley; treasurer, B. F. Davis; chief fire, Charles Shepley; 
chief police, J. Kenedy; solicitor, John D. Hays, who has filled the office with 
eminence since the borough was incorporated; street superintendent, Hugh Bagler. 
The prominent railroad is the Lehigh, now the Reading system, which leaves the 
main line at Drifton and joins it again on the way to White Haven. The New 
Jersey Central road runs nearly a mile north of the place and has its depot at 
the Upper Lehigh.

The place is surrounded by colleries; the first was the Woodside, and for a time 
this was the name of the place. The incentive to the growth of Freeland was when 
Coxe Bros. & Co., or rather when Eckley B. Coxe gave it his kind encouragement. 
He presented the town with ten acres of ground that is the park on the south, 
and in various other ways, as the old settlers will tell you, gave Freeland the 
"boom" that has carried it forward in such fine style.

One of the best public institutions of Freeland being the water works. It was 
incorporated July 20, 1883, the incorporators being the following officials: 
President, Joseph Birkbeck; treasurer, Thomas Birkbeck; secretary, F. Schilcher. 
The works were commenced and completed in 1883, and the water was turned on in 
November of that year. The main supply is from two artesian wells, one on the 
east of town and one on the north. These furnish the finest granite-water, cool, 
and the freest from animal matter of any attainable waters. From the engines the 
water is pumped to the top of the hill west of town, where is one of the finest 
arranged reservoirs in the State, all under roof, and the building surrounded by 
a ten-foot fence quite a distance from the building, making it impossible for 
anything to be put in the reservoir from the outside. This water in the lower 
town has a fifty-pound pressure, sufficient to throw a large stream to the top 
of the highest building; capacity of reservoir, 470,000 gallons. This is, in 
addition to a third well, that can be used in an emergency, a reserve of water 
as the pumping is done direct to the pipes. The entire capacity of the pumps is 
sufficient for a population, in any emergency, of 50,000. The elegance of the 
Freeland water is another great inducement added to the place for making it a 
great summer resort. In many respects the altitude, the fresh, bracing winds, 
the cool and delightful nights, the health and its fine water will some day 
attract wide attention from those seeking the world's most delightful nooks as 
summer resorts.

At the second meeting of the council in 1876, steps were taken to grade and fix 
the streets and provide a "lockup." Chris Wiegand was made street supervisor and 
intelligently proceeded about the business. The lockup was built at the 
intersection of Pine and Johnson streets and became "Fort MeNellis," in honor of 
its first occupant. This served its purpose until 1884, when the present town 
building was erected, containing a council room and lockup. In 1885, 750 feet of 
hose was purchased; two carriages and a hook and ladder outfit provided. Bonds 
were issued for these improvements, that are paid off except a small amount not 
not due. In 1885 a hose house was built at a cost of $1,200, and the same year 
the streets were re-graded. In 1890, such had been the growth of the place, that 
a prime system of sewers became a strong necessity; an election was held, and a 
hot campaign on the subject ensued, and, by a majority of one, it was decided to 
push this work. Bonds to the amount of seven per cent. of the assessed value, 
making $5,965 [p.566] were issued and placed on the market, and two and a half 
miles of main sewers are being rapidly put down. There is no call on the 
taxpayers to pay the interest on the public debt, as it is expressly provided 
that saloon licenses shall pay it all; about $2,000 annually is paid by the 
saloons, and this defrays the total expense of the borough. So in the matter of 
taxation there is no place of its size less burdened with taxes. The salaries of 
officials are not "bloated" sinecures, but are noted for considerable labor and 
nominal pay therefor.

The present remarkable spurt in the growth of Freeland is largely due to the 
enterprise and foresight of the borough officials of 1891. They boldly faced the 
unreasoning opposition of the old fogies and the happy results are visible on 
every hand - the permanent and valuable improvements are being added.

The large and commodions opera house was built and opened to the public in 1889 
by John Jannes. His building that had formerly occupied the same ground was 
destroyed by fire in 1887. The building is a two-story, with a fine auditorium 
on the ground floor, and in this, on the main floor, are business rooms, with 
offices on the second floor. The planing-mill was built in 1885. In the place 
and adjoining are 2 hardware stores and 1 in the township; 2 drug stores; 2 
leading hotels; 2 merchant tailors and 2 in township; 4 clothing; 4 shoe and 
boot; 2 livery; 2 blacksmiths; 3 wheelwrights; 2 furniture; 2 lawyers; 5 
doctors; 1 baker, 2 in township; 2 watchmakers, 2 in township; 3 milliners, 2 in 
township; 1 cigar factory and 1 in township; 4 bottlers; 6 general dry goods and 
grocery stores, and 6 in township, and 40 small notion stores in different 
lines; 2 very bright and progressive newspapers. The particulars of the lawyers, 
doctors and newspapers will be found in their respective chapters as well as a 
mention of the societies of which Freeland could, if inducements were offered, 
count up about a hundred.

Citizens Bank of Freeland was incorporated January 30, 1890; capital stock, 
$50,000. Officials: president, Joseph Birkbeck; vice-president, H. C. Koons; 
cashier, B. R. Davis; directors: Joseph Birkbeck, H. C. Koons, John M. Powell, 
Mathias Schwabe, Charles Dusheck, Antony Rudewick, John Smith, William Kemp, 
John Burton and John Wagner; secretary of board, John Smith.

                                HANOVER TOWNSHIP.

The early history of this, one of the original Connecticut townships, is so 
closely interwoven with the history of the settlement and troubles of the 
Wyoming valley that it is there given mostly as found in Miner's Pearce's and 
Chapman's and other accounts of those "times that tried men's souls." The recent 
History of Hanover Township, by Henry Blackman Plumb, of Sugar Notch, published 
in 1885, is one of the important additions to the county's literature concerning 
the early settlers on the Susquehanna river. In his preface he says: "I was born 
in the house of one of the old veterans of the Wyoming massacre and the 
Revolutionary war." This was the house of Elisha Blackman, who was eighteen 
years of age when the bloody July 3, 1778 burst into history. Blackman was a 
resident of Wilkes-Barre from 1772 to 1791, and then in Hanover township till 
the day of his death, 1845. Mr. Plumb had carefully digested every accessible 
record and all that had been published, and from the lips of his venerable 
kinsman had heard his recollections of the dark and dismal story that enveloped 
the people as a pall during the last quarter of the eighteenth century. Mr. 
Plumb has performed his task with admirable fidelity and judgment, and has 
unconsciously reared for himself an imperishable monument in the hearts of the 
descendants of the pioneers, as well as the lovers of our country and its 
history. A single paragraph from his preface is given that all men may know the 
incalculable loss that circumstances have entailed upon us all: "But I must 
acknowledge my great indebtedness to Hon. Steuben Jenkins, for information and 
documents furnished. * * * He furnished the key to unlock hidden mines of the 
most valuable information to a historian of Hanover. It seems to me now that 
without the list of ancient transfers of land (transfers previous to [p.567] the 
Wyoming massacre) I should have remained ignorant of some of the most important 
facts contained in this book. * * * It is understood that Mr. Jenkins is 
gathering materials for a copious and searching history of Wyoming to its minute 
particulars; and from what I have seen of his acquisitions in this respect, I 
have reason to think the work will be most thorough and valuable." The death of 
Mr. Jenkins has ended that dream and even the store of invaluable materials in 
Mr. Jenkins' possession when he died are not now, and may unfortunately never be 
accessible to the compiler of the annals of Wyoming. Mr. Plumb was the first to 
find access to the old Hanover Town Record, and he tells us it is "the only book 
of the kind concerning Wyoming valley in existence."

The first name that will forever remain as a prime part of the story of the 
settlement of Hanover township is that of Capt. Lazarus Stewart, who fell at the 
head of his company of Hanover men at the battle of Wyoming, July 3, 1778. An 
account of him and the part he performed on that memorable day are given in 
previous chapters. Capt. Stewart and his forty men - the "Paxton boys" - came 
from Lancaster first in February, 1770. They were moving in behalf of 
Connecticut against the Penns, capturing Fort Durkee, and the four-pound canon 
that had been brought here. The roster of this company is as follows: Lazarus 
Stewart, Thomas French, Robert Young, James Stewart, Adam Storer, Jacob Stagard, 
George Ely, Lodwick Shalman, George Aspen, John Lard, John McDonnell, George 
Meane, Lazarus Stewart, Jr., William Young, Peter Kidd, John Robinson, John 
Simpson, Adam Harper, Peter Seamen, John Poop, Mathias Hollenback, (spelled then 
Hollenbaugh), Joseph Neal, Baltzer Stagard, John Stellie. John McDormer, William 
Stewart, Lazarus Young. William Carpenter, Luke Shawley, Nicholas Farrings, 
Conrad Phillip, Casper Relker, John Sault, Peter Szchewer, Robert Kidd, Ronemus 
Haine, and Adam Sherer. Within the next two years the following were all that 
remained in Stewart's company: Lazarus Stewart, Lazarus Stewart, Jr., James 
Stewart, William Stewart, Robert Young, John Robinson and Thomas Robinson -  
eight of the Lancaster men. Their places were partly filled by Charles Stewart, 
David Young, John Young, James Robinson, William Graham, John Donahaw, Josias 
Aspia, Hugh Coffrin, and John Franklin and Silas Gore; the last two from 
Connecticut.

One of Stewart's men was the first man killed in the Yankee and Pennite war for 
these lands; his name is given as William Stager, but it was probably Jacob or 
Baltzer Stagard. It seems that this campaign and the much fighting during the 
months of March, April and May, caused many changes in Stewart's men. Some were 
killed, drowned or captured, others sickened and others discouraged, sold their 
claims and left. What remained, however, were active in planting crops, and the 
summer moved along happily. In September, however, the Penn followers attacked 
the settlement and captured the fort. December 18, following, Capt. Stewart with 
thirty men re-captured the fort and expelled the Pennites from the valley. 
Connecticut had granted Hanover township, then including all of what is now 
Hanover, Wright, Bear Creek, Bucks, Denison and Foster townships, or everything 
from Wilkes-Barre township to the Lehigh river. At the time of the distribution 
or allotment of the lands, Hanover had but eighteen "proprietors," but each one 
of these had one hired man, and at that time the township was the same as the 
other townships, five miles square.

At a town meeting in Wilkes-Barre, October 19, 1772, presided over by Capt. 
Zebulon Butler, it was voted, "That Capt. Lazarus Stewart and William Stewart 
are deserving the town of Hanover, agreeably to the votes passed at the general 
meeting of the proprietors of the Susquehanna company, held at Windham, January 
9, 1771. The lands in Hanover were marked out and divided among the settlers in 
three divisions. The first division made in 1771 or 1772; the second in 1776 and 
the third in 1787.

The following Hanover men were in the battle of July 3, 1778: Captains: [p.568] 
William McKarrican, Lazarus Stewart; lieutenant, Lazarus Stewart, Jr.; ensigns: 
Jeremiah Bigford, Titus Hinman, Silas Gore. Privates: Samuel Bigford, Joseph 
Crooker, John Caldwell, William Coffrin, Isaac Campbell, James Coffrin, John 
Franklin, Jonathan Franklin, James Hopkins, Cyprean Hibbard, Nathan Wade, Elijah 
Inman, Israel Inman, Robert Jameson, William Jones, William Lester, Thomas Neil, 
Jenks Corey, James Spencer, Levi Spencer, Josiah Spencer.

The following escaped with their lives: Rufus Bennett, Col. Roswell Franklin, 
Arnold Franklin, William Young, Jacob Haldron, Ebenezer Hibbard, William 
Hibbard, Richard Inman, David Inman, John Jameson, William Jameson, Joseph 
Morris, Thomas Neil, Josiah Pell, Jr., Giles Slocum, Walter Spencer, Edward 
Spencer.

Mr. Plumb, from an old fly-leaf inscription of Elisha Blackman, gives the 
following as the "killed" and "escaped" as the names of his company that were 
Hanover men:

Killed: Capt. J. Bidlack, Lieut. A. Stevens, Sergt. D. Spafford, E. Fish, P. 
Weeks, B. Weeks, J. Weeks, P. Wheeler, T. Brown, S. Hutchinson, S. Cole, T. 
Fuller, E. Sprague, C. Avery, I. Williams, James Wigton. Escaped: Sergt. D. 
Downing, S. Corey, J. Garrett, Joe Elliott, G. Slocum, E. Blackman, J. Fish, P. 
Spafford, D. McMullen, Thomas Porter, Solomon Bennett.

As stated, Hanover was parceled in three divisions - first, second and third. 
Each of these divisions was cut into thirty-one lots, twenty-eight to Capt. 
Stewart and his men, and three to "public use." In the first division the lots 
were forty-two rods wide and reached from the Susquehanna river to the township 
line beyond the top of Big mountain and contained 430 acres each. In the second 
division were twenty-eight lots, divided among the same men and such associates 
as had come in. In the first division were the following, with the number of the 
lots to each: Capt. Lazarus Stewart, 1, 2 and 3; Lazarus Stewart, Jr., 4 and 5; 
John Donahow, 6; David Young, 7; Capt. Lazarus Stewart, 8; William Graham, 9; 
John Robinson, 10; James Robinson, 11; Thomas Robinson, 12; Josias Aspia, 13; 
Hugh Caffion, 14; John Franklin, 15; Robert Young, 16; John Young, 17; William 
Young, 18; William Stewart, 21; Thomas Robinson, 20; James Stewart, 21; William 
Young, 22; Capt. Stewart, 23, 24; William Stewart, 25, Charles Stewart, 26; 
William Stewart, 27; Silas Gore, 28; parsonage lot, 29; public lot, 30; public 
or local lot, 31.

Silas Gore had sold in 1772 his settling right in Wilkes-Barre and took one in 
Hanover. John Franklin had owned a settling right (unknown where), sold and took 
one in Hanover. Joseph Morse had owned a settling right in Plymouth and sold and 
took one in Hanover.

Capt. Lazarus Stewart built his residence and block-house on lot 3, afterward 
known as Alexander Jameson's, on a rise about midway between the river road and 
the river bank. Here was his family when he was slain in battle. All these 
houses were burned after the battle. Mr. Plumb thinks the township built its 
block-house in 1776, about three miles farther down the river, or two miles 
above Nanticoke, but the exact spot is not known. At the township block-house 
wherever it was, was where Roswell Franklin made so many gallant defences 
against attacks. There were several block-houses in Hanover in 1778, as all 
people then who lived here had to live mostly in stockades, and often defend 
them to the death. One of these defence-houses stood many years a short distance 
east of the late Samuel Pell's place. Even the ordinary cabins during the 
seventies were loopholed for defensive firing.

Christopher Hurlbut in his journal speaks of the "murder of John Jameson at 
Hanover Green in 1782, near where the church was afterward built."

The township records from 1770-1 to 1776 are lost, and no trace of them can now 
be found.

James Lasley was required to notify all the proprietors to meet at the residence 
of Titus Hinman, March 25, 1776. At the meeting John Jameson was moderator, 
[p.569] and James Lasley, clerk. Capt. Lazarus Stewart, William Stewart, John 
Franklins, Titus Hinman and Robert Young were appointed a committee of said 
district. Six acres were voted on which to build a meeting-house. April 25 
following another meeting, Caleb Spencer, moderator, same clerk. It was voted 
that the two roads to the Newport line be six rods wide. A meeting May 1 
following, Titus Hinman, moderator, same clerk, provided for the second land 
alotment; the second division as follows: Robert Young, 29; Charles Stewart, l9; 
William Young, 22; Thomas Robinson, 26; Capt. Lazarus Stewart, 9; Lazarus 
Stewart, Jr., 18; Hugh Coffrin, 24; James Robinson, 21; Capt. Lazarus Stewart, 
14, 31; William Stewart, 7; William Young, 25; John Donahue, 15; William 
Stewart, 10; Capt. Stewart, 28; William Stewart, 20; Thomas Robinson, 30; Elijah 
Inman, 12; Lazarus Stewart, Jr., 8; Capt. Stewart, 4; William Graham, public 
lot, 16; John Young, 3; John Robinson, 11; James Stewart, 2; Silas Gore, 13; 
David Young, 17; parsonage lot, 6; public lot, 5; Josias Aspiey, 23, and John 
Franklin, 27.

There were other settlers at this time in the township; the Hopkins, Campbells, 
Caldwells, Spencers, Bennetts; Hibbards, Jamesons, Humans, Wades, Lasley, 
McKarrican, Espy, Line and Pell.

By the time of this drawing, James Coffrin (Cofron, Cockron or Cochrane), had 
erected a gristmill. In the drawing William Graham (Grimes or Greames), drew the 
lot and Coffrin purchased the mill site of him. Coffrin deeded lot 1, second 
division, to John Comar.

The first roads were the "River road" and the "Middle road."

Lazarus Stewart made the first transfer of land in the township; November 25, 
1772, to David Young. The next month Young sold the same to Thomas Robinson. May 
8, 1774, James and John Robinson sold lot 7, first division, to Richard 
Robinson; June 11, 1774, Ebenezer Hibbard sold to Cyprian Hibbard; October 13, 
Ebenezer Hibbard to Edward Spencer; October 25, Robert Young to Samuel Howard; 
July 1, 1775, Silas Gore to Samuel Ensign; July 13, 1776, John Jameson to 
William and Cyprian Hibbard; August 30, 1776, Lazarus Stewart, Jr., to William 
McKarrachan, lot 8, second division; Robert Young to Samuel Gordon (no date); 
John Franklin to Samuel Gordon; June 16, 1776, James Coffrin to John Comer; 
September 11, Lazarus Stewart, Jr., to Nathaniel Howard (land not divided); 
September 11, Mathew Hollenback to Samuel Ensign; January 15, 1777, William 
McKarrachan to Gideon Booth, Jr.; February 5, Silas Gore to William McKarrachan; 
March 15, John Franklin to Nathan Howell; March 19, Gideon Baldwin to Caleb 
Spencer; Caleb Spencer to Peleg Burritt; May 2, William Hibbard to Cyprian 
Hibbard; May 13, Margaret Neill to Richard Robinson; May 20, James Lasley to 
Jenks Corey; May 25, Dr. Samuel Cooke to John Stoples; June 24, Mathew 
Hollenback to John Hollenback; June 24, Mathew Hollenback to James Lasley; July 
6, James Coffrin (Cochran) to John Comer; September 9, William McKarrachan to 
John Ewings; September 12, Peleg Burritt to Gideon Burritt; November 12, John 
Hollenback to (Deacon) John Hurlbut; January 15, 1778, William Stewart to 
Cyprian Hibbard.

James Coffrin's (or Cochran's) mill, in Hanover, was attached February 28, 1777, 
at the suit of Nathaniel Davenport, who sued and got judgment for œ80 at the 
September term, 1776, for "enticing and evilly contriving and persuading one Job 
Scot, who ye Deft. had then agreed and bargained with to build and erect a 
certain Grist-Mill in said Westmoreland, at a place called Hanover District, 
etc."

A deed in the old Westntoreland Records is found, from Robert Young to Samuel 
Gordon, dated  -   - , 1776, for "a tract of land situate on N. branch of 
Nanticoke creek (No. 16), adjoining and below where John Franklin's line between 
John Franklin (No. 15), and said Young's lot crosses the creek at the lowest 
place, and as the said line runs from one branch to the other, thence on the 
high bank runs on both sides of the creek down to the bank, next above the fence 
of John Ewing."

Nanticoke and Solomon's creeks were regarded as good mill power. Solomon's creek 
about half way up the mountain, was Gen. William Ross' mill, just below the 
[p.570] beautiful cascade, and to this day it is a famed resort for lovers of 
nature. Anthracite coal is found in the township everywhere from the river to 
the mountains.

At a town meeting of Hanover town, January 31, 1789, it was provided to allow 
Elisha Delano to build a sawmill on lot 29, first division, the mill to be built 
within the next year. The other portion of lot 29 was leased to Fredrick 
Crisman. This was the old "Red Tavern" lot, the name of the noted old hostelry. 
The mill finally was a gristmill and known as the "Behee mill." The Red tavern 
was built by Crisman on the "six-rod road" about 1789 and partly rebuilt in 
1805; here the town meetings were held.

An early industry was that of Ishmael Bennett, making grindstones at the foot of 
Little mountain, a short distance from the present Hanover Coal company's 
breaker. At Warrior gap whetstones were made.

List of taxables in Hanover in 1796:

John Alden, Abraham Adams, David Adams, Edward Adgerton, Nathan Abbott, Jonas 
Buss, Elisha Blackman, Jr., Stephen Burrett, Gideon Burrett, Joel Burrett, 
Thomas Brink, Rufus Bennett, Ishmael Bennett, Frederick Crisman, Nathan Carey, 
William Caldwell, Elisha Delano, Richard Diely, Richard Diely, Jr., George Espy, 
Samuel Ensign, Jacob Flanders, Jacob Fisher, Cornelius Garrettson, Andrew Gray, 
John Hames, Benjamin Hopkins, John Hendershot, Henry Huber, Jacob Holdmer, 
William Hyde, Ebenezer Hibbard, Calvin Hibbard, John Hurlbert, Naphtali 
Hurlbert, Christopher Hurlbert, Willis Hyde, John Jacobs, John Jacobs, Jr., 
Edward Inman, Richard Inman, John Inman, Elijah Inman, Jr., Jonathan Kellogg, 
Conrad Lyons or Lines, Conrad Lyons or Lines, Jr., James Lesley, John Lutzey, 
John Lockerly, Adrian Lyons or Lines, Michael Marr, Thomas Martin, Samuel Moore, 
J. S. Miller; Darius Preston, Josiah Pell, Benjamin Pott, Josiah Pell, Jr., John 
Phillips, Jeremiah Roberts, John Ryan, John Robinson, David Robinson, James A. 
Rathbone, George Rouch, George Stewart, Edward Spencer, David Stewart, James 
Stewart, Dorcas Stewart, Josiah Stewart, William Stewart, Daniel Simons, Peter 
Steel, David Steel, Abraham Sarver, Christian Saune, Archibald Smiley, John 
Spencer, John Treadway, Nathaniel Warden, Abner Wade, Arthur Van Wie, Ira 
Winter, Ashbel Wallis and William Young. Total, 91.

This would indicate a population of about 473, and it should be remembered 
included all the territory to the Lehigh river. About one-half of that district 
was cut off in 1839 and again reduced in 1853.

The mills in Hanover and on Mill creek were built about the same time, about 
1775. A sawmill and forge were about the same time built near Coffrin's mill, 
but Mr. Plumb thinks the last named was just across the line in Newport 
township. This was the noted Bloomery forge, and it made all the iron from bog 
ore obtained near by until iron could be shipped in by the canal, cheaper than 
they could make it at the Bloomery forge, and then that industry ceased - 1830.

Elisha Delano's sawmill - Behee mills - were built in 1789. In 1826 Jacob Plumb 
and his son, Charles Plumb, put up their carding machine in this mill - the 
first carding machine in this region to supercede the universal hand-carding. In 
1793 there was a saw and gristmill on Nanticoke creek near where is the Dundee 
shaft. Plumb thinks this was probably Petatiah Fitch's mill, as it was assessed 
to him in 1799. The land on which the mill stood was afterward the property of 
Jonathan Robins.

In 1840 Holland built his railroad from his mines at the mountain to the Hanover 
canal basin. Near Fitch's mill, a few rods down the creek, was a clover-mill, 
"an old mill," Mr. Plumb says, "in 1840." Another ancient and passed-away 
millsite and mill was where is now the Petty mill, on Solomon's creek below 
Ashley borough. One of its little queer millstones can still be seen. Nathan 
Wade built his sawmill about the same time of those mentioned above at 
"Scrabbletown (now Ashley).

About the beginning of this century roads were cut through Hanover township 
[p.571] leading to Wilkes-Barre, Easton, Stroudsburg and Sunbury and in other 
directions. They were simply "cutout" roads, but it now became possible to get 
about from place to place after a fashion; fords were improved and a few bridges 
began to span the small deep streams. They were the promise of the coming 
turnpikes and bridges, as the latter were blazing the way for the canal, and it 
in turn to become a roadbed for the railroad. The Easton and Wilkes-Barre 
turnpike was completed in 1807. Then Wilkes-Barre did all its transportation by 
wagons on the turnpike or Durham boats on the river. The first railroad in 
Hanover was in operation in 1843 - the Lehigh & Susquehanna - from Wilkes-Barre 
to White Haven. It crossed the mountain, commencing its incline plane at Ashley. 
The first locomotive over the road was in 1848, as told in the account of White 
Haven.

The total resident taxpayers in Hanover on the roll of 1799 was 102. There were 
2 gristmills, 2 sawmills, 2 distilleries, 10 single men, 8 blacksmiths, 2 
physicians, 1 cooper, 2 carpenters and 2 stores. The list of names was very 
little changed from that of 1796, previously given. According to the census of 
1800 there was a total population of 613 - 1 negro slave.

A mail route, weekly, was established, and passed through Hanover township in 
1797. This went around from Wilkes-Barre, through Hanover, Nanticoke, Newport, 
Nescopeck to Berwick and returned to Wilkes-Barre via Huntington and Plymouth. 
There was no postoffice on all this route, and the postman simply delivered mail 
to all those he could find or left it with their friends if prepaid.

In 1809 the taxables in Hanover had increased to 125; 90 dwellings, 148 horses, 
4 gristmills. In 1820, population, 879; 120 dwellings, 4 gristmills, 1 clover- 
mill and 16 unmarried young men; 13 non-naturalized foreigners; 135 engaged in 
farming; 30 manufacturing, and 1 merchant. The Bloomery forge is mentioned and 
valued at $600, employing 2 hands and using 150 tons of bog ore.

Mr. Plumb gives the names of the inhabitants of Hanover in 1830 as they appear 
on the assessor's roll: William Askam, William Askam, Jr., Jacob Andrew, Silas 
Alexander, William Apple, Rufus Bennett, Rufus H. Bennett, Nathan Bennett, 
Thomas Bennett, Thomas R. Bennett, Josiah Bennett, Andrew V. Buskirk, Elisha 
Blackman, Henry Blackman, George Behee, John Bobb, William Brown, Thomas Brown, 
Joseph Barnes, William Burney, Jacob Bideler, Benjamin Carey, Benjamin Carey, 
Jr., Elias Carey, Comfort Carey, Benjamin Carey (third), Besherrow Crisman, John 
Carver, Daniel Colghlazer, Peter Caldren, Jacob Deterick, Fredrick Deterick, 
George Deterick, Robert Downer, Dayton Dilley, Jesse Dilley, James Dilley, 
Richard Dilley, Bateman Downing, James Decker, Joseph Davis, Jr., Isaac 
Dershammer, John Dershammer, John Espy, John Frain, John Fredrick, Abraham 
Frace, John Foust, Peter Fine, Jacob Fisher, Henry Fisher, George Gledhill, 
Jacob Garrison, John Garrison, Lumen Gilbert, Charles Garringer, Daniel 
Garringer, John Garringer, Henry George, Jonas Hartsell, Samuel Huntington, John 
Hendershot, Henry Hoover, John Hoover, Michael Hoover, Amos Herrick, Miller 
Horton, John Honnis, Joseph Hartzell, Nathan Inman, John E. Inman, Richard 
Inman, Jr., John Inman, Isaac Inman, Caleb Inman, Israel Inman, Edward Inman, 
Asa Jones, Alexander Jameson, Robert Jameson, Samuel Jameson, George Kriedler, 
Daniel Kriedler, George Kocher, George Kocher, Jr., Elizabeth Knock (widow), 
Joseph Kirkendall, Christin Keizer, Valentine Keizer, Jacob Kintner, Henry Line, 
John Line, Conrad Line (fourth), James S. Lee, Washington Lee, Fredrick Lueder, 
John Lueder, Christian F. Lueder, George Lazarus, John Lazarus, Simon Learn, 
George Learn, Sr., John Lutz, Daniel Lutz, Jacob Miller, Ira Marcy, Henry 
Minnich, Peter Minnich, Valentine Moyer, John Moyer, George Moyer, Peter Mensch, 
Christian Mensch, John Mensch, Solomon Mill, Peter Mill, John Mill, Thomas H. 
Morgan, Eleazer Marble, John Merwine, John Nagle, Christain Nable, Peter Nagle, 
Jacob B. Overbeck, Samuel Pell, Jacob Plumb, Charles Plumb, Simon H. Plumb, 
Darius Preston, Hibbard Preston, Williston Preston, Samuel Pease, Samuel Pease, 
Jr., Joseph Rinehimer, Conrad Rinehimer, Conrad Rummage, Jacob Rummage, Jr., 
[p.572] George Rimer, Jacob Rimer, Lorenzo Ruggles, Jacob Rudolph, John Robbins, 
Elijah Richards, Henry Rinehard, Samuel Rogers, Thomas Rogers, Ashbel Ruggles, 
Joseph Shafer, Jacob Shafer, Joseph Steele, Henry Sively, George Sively, Charles 
Streator,  -  Sterling (widow), George Sorber, William Shoemaker, John Sorber, 
Andrew Shoemaker, George P. Steele, George Stettler, John Saum, Thomas Smiley, 
John Teal, Rebecca Thomas, William Teeter, James Vandermark, Silas Wiggins, 
Benjamin Wright, Jonathan P. Willis, Nathan Wade.

And the following unmarried men: Stephen Burrett, Henry Burney, John A. Carey, 
Richard Edgerton, Isaac Fredrick, Daniel Fredrick, Levi Garringer, Jacob Garris, 
David Inman, Levi Learn, John Rummage, Charles Sterling, Chester Steele. Total, 
186.

Of these there are living, John A. Carey, Charles Garringer, Daniel Fredrick, 
John Sorber.

Mr. Plumb estimates of these thirty-one have descendants still living in 
Hanover. These families, the reader will understand, are in this, Wright, Bear 
Creek, Denison and Foster townships and White Haven. The total number of 
inhabitants in 1830 was 1,173.

About this time, says Plumb, the fanning-mill was first introduced, an era in 
labor-saving machines - dividing honors with the canal that came at that time. A 
daily stage now ran from Wilkes-Barre to Easton, passing through Hanover. Then 
it was only two days to New York or Philadelphia. Nothing could improve upon 
this luxury until the packet canal came.

From the recollections of Julia Anne Blackman Plumb, as they appeared in the 
Historical Record, we summarize the following:

"I was born in 1806. My brother, Harry, went to Nanticoke to live about 1818, 
when I was about twelve years old. John P. Arndt owned the forge there and a 
sawmill and other mills, and Harry was a good mechanic, and Arndt got him to 
move down there and repair and build machinery for the mills and forge. He lived 
there about two years. On the way there, Askam's house was the first next to us, 
on the Middle road. He had lived there some years then.

"John Shaver lived where Harvey Holcomb afterward lived, where the crossroad 
turns off toward the river road. I think Pruner lived at the mill on that 
crossroad, that afterward Jonathan Robins owned, near where the Dundee shaft now 
is. Henry Sively lived in the little house on the river road, where the Robins 
or Pruner crossroad comes into the river road. Jesse Crissman once lived in this 
little house, and perhaps lived there at the time I am speaking of. Sively owned 
it afterward, and about 1838 George Koker owned it and lived in it, and died 
there about 1850, I should think. The Pruner or Robins crossroad I think went 
straight on, at that time, across the river road there, and on down to the river 
at the mouth of the creek that comes in there. Down the river road toward 
Nanticoke, the next house was Mr. Arndt's, where Barnett Miller afterward lived. 
A man by the name of Ebenezer Brown lived at the Pruner, or Robins mill, at that 
time. He had sons, Daniel and Harry. Mr. Brown had known father in Connecticut 
before they came here. Father was studying surveying at a school, and Brown was 
a scholar at the same school. Father was a young man then, in Connecticut, after 
the Revolutionary war was over, and before he came back here in 1786. Brown 
lived at the mill only a couple of years; he moved to Kingston, and lived at the 
west end of the Wilkes Barre river bridge. This would be about 1820. I think 
there was at that time a log house standing below the Andrus house, toward 
Nanticoke, two stories high, the upper story the largest, projecting out over 
the lower one all around the house. It was built during the Indian wars to 
protect the people from the Indians. Mother's maiden name was Anna Hurlbut, and 
she lived about a mile above this house, toward Wilkes-Barre. I think old Mr. 
George Koker, the first of the family here in Hanover, lived in it; the Pells 
lived next below, toward Nanticoke, where Samuel Pell afterward lived. The 
Pells, instead of a barn to [p.575] keep their hay in like us, had large square 
stacks outside, with great square posts at the corners, and a roof, thatched 
with straw, over the stack; and, as the hay was taken off and the stack got 
lower, they would let the roof down, to be near the top of the hay. The son, 
Josiah Pell, was in the Indian battle at Wyoming, where father was, and 
afterward in the army, and after the war lived with his father a great many 
years. The old man got married to a young wife, and gave all his property to her 
children, and the son, Josiah (the father's name was Josiah, too), moved, I 
think, up the Susquehanna river somewhere. Father used to meet him on the jury 
afterward. James Lee lived in the house beyond the Nanticoke creek, called Lee's 
creek then, in a nice, large house. Samuel Jameson lived on the left side of the 
road, next beyond Lee's. It looked like a frame house that he lived in, but I 
think likely as not it was log inside. I don't remember any house at that time 
on the river road, where Robert Robin's house was afterward built, where he 
lived and died. The Mills lived on the right beyond, and down in the fields, 
toward the river, there was an old log house and two or three barns, and a nice, 
new house.

"Mr. Anheuser, a son-in-law of Mr. Mill, had a store in a pretty nice house on 
the road. The old log house down in the field near the barn took fire, and it 
and three barns were burned. My brother Harry and Jesse Crissman were there. 
There was not much of anything in the barns. It was just before haying and 
harvesting. After the fire Mr. Anheuser moved to Wilkes-Barre and kept a store 
there. I understand that Mrs. Anheuser is still alive and living in Wilkes-
Barre. She must be very old. The next building, I think, was the schoolhouse. 
This was before the schoolhouse and church combined was built. When the church 
and school house combined was built, Charles Plumb, my husband, built the pulpit 
in the church part. The church room was over the schoolroom. There was a house 
beyond the schoolhouse where Thomas Bennett kept a tavern. He married a daughter 
of old Mr. George Espy. Alexander's store and house had not been built in 1818, 
and it was near this time when Mill's house and barn was burnt, I should think. 
The road here, a little ways from Bennett's tavern, turned down toward the 
river, toward Lee's mill. I can't remember how things were arranged down there 
by the creek, near the mill. Harry lived in the first house on the left across 
the creek, I think, and then a road turned off to the left down into Newport, 
and then across that road there were two or three more houses along the road 
nearby toward Col. Lee's, and then a large, nice house in which John P. Arndt 
lived. Arndt had two sons while he lived in Wilkes-Barre before he moved to 
Nanticoke, Philip and Hamilton. Philip was drowned in the Susquehanna river 
while trying to catch driftwood, and I think his body was never found.

"I think the first school I ever went to was up on the Middel road, near Lorenzo 
Ruggles', in some one's private house, across the creek from his house, and 
below it, southwest of it. I wasn't more than four or five years old then. We 
didn't call it but a mile from our house then, but now it is about two miles. 
Lydia Richards was the teacher. What makes me remember the school is, that she 
would put her switch or stick on the noses of the disobedient, to hold there 
without touching it with their hands. There was three disobedient at one time, 
and they were made to hold up their faces so that the whip would lie across the 
noses of all at once, and not fall off, and then they yelled. I remember among 
the scholars Ruth Edgerton, Rachael Hoover and Phoebe Wright. I only remember 
these three. Ruth Edgerton married Anthony Wilkeson. Lydia Richards was a sister 
of Elijah Richards, of Wright township, afterward. The next school I attended 
was on the 'Green,' about two miles or more off. The teacher was a Scotchman. 
The scholars that I remember were myself, Elisha and Betsy Blackman and Maria 
Askam. Maria Askam afterward married Thomas Brown, and lived about forty years 
at what is now called Newtown, in Hanover, adjoining the Wilkes-Barre line on 
the back road. They removed to Iowa. I don't remember any others. At Behee's 
[p.576] mill pond, on the road to this school, there was a sawmill close to the 
dam, and they were sawing logs. We could go into the mill right off the dam. The 
dam was also the road there as it is now - across the creek, and the children 
would frequently go into the sawmill and sit on the log as it was being sawed. I 
sat on one once with Maria Askam. I think Ludwig Rummage owned Behee's mill when 
I went to school first on 'The Green,' but it may have been later a few years. 
Behee owned it when I was twelve years old anyway. The schoolhouse stood on the 
hill top at 'The Green,' and the unfinished church stood next to it. This was 
about 1811-2. They had meetings in the church sometimes though. Father said he 
used frequently to sit in the upper story of that church, and look over here 
toward his own house to see if it took fire from the fires in the woods in the 
spring and fall. Nobody lived over back here then but he, or nearer than the 
Middle road, nearly a mile off, and the fires used to burn in the woods clear to 
the middle road at Askam's; but that must have been before 1806. Askam sometimes 
used to live in a little log house near South Wilkes-Barre on the Middle road to 
Solomon's creek. He was a tailor by trade, but he would rather do peddling than 
anything else, and so he wanted to live near town. In his peddling excursions he 
had been, he said, to Canada twenty-one times."

Julia Anna Blackman Plumb died on June 29 at the residence of her son, H. B. 
Plumb, Esq., in Plumbtown, at the advanced age of eighty-three years. She passed 
peacefully and painlessly away, in full possession of her faculties to the last. 
With the exception of a slight cold she was in her usual health, and death was 
due to the infirmities of advancing age. Interment in Hollenback cemetery.

She was Probably the last survivor of the second generation of the pioneers who 
participated in the battle of Wyoming, July 3, 1778. About seven years ago she 
became blind, an affliction that was severely felt by her, she having been a 
great reader. She had also become deaf. Otherwise her declining years have been 
marked with a degree of health and vigor not common to such advanced age. She 
was possessed of those sterling traits of character which ennoble our human 
nature and which made her life a benediction to all with whom she was thrown in 
contact. Her religious faith was after the teachings of the Swedenborgian 
church. For many years she made her home with her son, who has ministered to her 
every want with the most tender and devoted solicitude.

Mrs. Plumb was in the sixth generation from John Blackman, who was in 
Dorchester, Mass., now Boston, in 1640. He had eight children.

Second generation-Joseph Blackman, 1661, 1720. He had five children.

Third generation-Elisha, born 1700. He had four children.

Fourth generation-Elisha, 1727-1804. Had five children.

Fifth generation-Elisha, 1760-1845. Had ten children.

Sixth generation-The subject of this sketch, who was the ninth child.

Seventh generation-H. B. Plumb, of Hanover township.

Eighth generation-George H. R. Plumb, Esq., now of Duluth.

She was the daughter of Elisha Blackman and Anna Hurlbut, of Hanover township, 
and was born on the same farm where she passed her entire life April 25, 1806. 
She was married to Charles Plumb December 21, 1828, he dying three years later. 
The only child was Henry Blackman Plumb, the local historian and member of the 
Luzerne bar, who survives her. Her father was deeply attached to her, she being 
the youngest daughter, and she never left the parental roof. Upon her mother's 
death she assumed the entire care of her father's household, a duty far more 
arduous than falls to women nowadays. Her father was an extensive farmer, and 
nearly everything with the exception of tea, coffee and sugar was raised upon 
the home lands. The round of exacting duty embraced spinning, weaving, dairying 
butter and cheese, wool-raising, bee-culture, flax-raising, the care of harvest 
hands, and numerous other domestic duties quite unknown to the generation now 
growing up. Her father died December 5, 1845, at the age of eighty-six, her 
mother January 26, 1828, at the age of sixty-five. [p.577] Her father was Elisha 
Blackman, born April 4, 1760, in Lebanon, Conn. He came with his father, Elisha 
Blackman, in 1772, and participated in the battle of July 3, 1778, he being one 
of the fortunate few who escaped. He was a member of Capt. Bidlack's company, 
from Lower Wilkes-Barre, out of whose thirty-two men only eight escaped. After 
the repulse he succeeded in making his way to the Susquehanna river, which he 
attempted to swim. His efforts were noticed by a savage along the bank who fired 
a flintlock musket at him, but fortunately without effect. He succeeded in 
reaching the Monoconock island, where he secreted himself in the bushes. He was 
an eye witness to the killing of Philip Weeks, who had also sought to escape to 
the river, but was induced by a savage to return to the shore on a promise that 
his life should be spared. It is needless to say that the promise was shamefully 
and instantly violated and Weeks was killed and scalped. The Blackman boy, for 
he was only a boy of eighteen, lay concealed until darkness had covered the 
earth for several hours, when about midnight he took advantage of the dead 
silence and returned to the west side of the river and made his way to Forty 
Fort, in which such of the frightened settlers as had not fled toward 
Connecticut had taken refuge. About the same time another refugee came to the 
fort, Daniel McMullen, who was entirely naked, he having thrown aside his 
clothing when he took to the river. The next morning (July 4, 1778), these two 
men objected to the proposed capitulation of the fort, and rather than fall into 
the hands of the British and Indians as prisoners they took advantage of the 
opening of the gates to admit some cattle and fled, reaching Wilkes-Barre fort 
in safety. This fort was already abandoned, Dr. William Hooker Smith and the 
aged men composing the local military company - the Reformadoes - having gone to 
the Five Mile mountain as an escort for the women and children who were fleeing 
toward the Pocono on their way to their old homes in Connecticut. The only man 
in Wilkes-Barre fort was young Blackman's father. The family home was in South 
Wilkes-Barre near where the late Judge Dana's residence stands. Hastily 
concealing such family valuables as could be buried they got the cattle together 
and drove them toward the lower end of the valley, away from the Indians, where 
the oxen were found in safety several months later. They fled down the river, 
then up Nescopeck creek, and succeeded in crossing the Nescopeck mountain to 
Stroudsburg, where they overtook the main body of the fugitives who had gone by 
the way of the "Shades of Death" and Pocono mountain. When Capt. Spalding's 
company returned to the desolated valley in August to bury the dead, young 
Blackman accompanied and assisted in that melancholy duty. He then gathered such 
of his father's crops as had escaped the malignity of the tories and Indians. 
His father returned in November, and the crops harvested by the son found ready 
purchasers in the troops who were stationed in the valley. Father and son then 
returned to Connecticut, winter now drawing on, and the son enlisted in the 
Revolutionary army. He served a year in the New York lake region, and then 
returned to Lebanon, Conn. In 1786 he returned to Wilkes-Barre with his two 
brothers, Ichabod and Eleazer. In 1787 his father came, and took the oath of 
allegiance to Pennsylvania before Timothy Pickering.

The son married, in January, 1788, Anna Hurlbut, daughter of Deacon John 
Hurlbut, of Hanover, and in 1791 removed to Hanover and settled on the land 
where the family have ever since lived. He cleared up a tract of land, built a 
house and planted an orchard. This was between the middle and the back road. It 
was probably the only clearing on the southeast side from Newport to Wilkes-
Barre. Rufus Bennett came about the same time.

"Old Hanover Green," now the Hanover cemetery, was for many years the military 
training ground. A noted meeting place and the chronicler say; that there was on 
noted occasions as much as a whole regiment of men at the place. It is now the 
"silent city." Commenting on this Mr. Plumb says: "The militia organizations 
gradually fell into disrepute, as they took men's time from their labor and 
sober [p.578] work and seemed to be useless. They were never called upon for any 
other service than that of two days each year of poor drilling and marching 
about a little - together with considerable drunkenness. The act enforcing it 
was repealed in 1848, though a relic of it remained for some twenty years 
afterward in a military tax of 50 cents a year on each person of the proper 
age."

Samuel Holland bought lands in Hanover in 1838 for coal mining purposes -  the 
John B. Garrison, the Sterling and Andrew Shoemaker properties, paying at about 
the rate of $25 per acre - the first land ever sold or bought in Hanover for 
such purposes.

In 1840 the assessment had decreased $10,000, owing to the rush of emigrants to 
the West. The total number of taxables was 262; this too in the face of the fact 
that this was the time of building railroads and opening mines.

The census of 1840 showed a population of 1,938; 206 were agriculturists, 53 
mining, 5 commerce, 77 manufacturing, 3 professional and 1 pensioner.

In 1850 the population had decreased to 1,506. There were still thirty-nine log 
houses, but all of them showed to be getting old, and were rotting down.

In 1850-60 coal lands had gone up in the markets to an average of about $50 per 
acre, and the farmers were mostly rejoiced to sell these poor and worn-out lands 
at such good prices and hie themselves west for good, cheap farms, and the large 
coal operators now began to work in earnest. Mr. Plumb says, with much plausible 
reason, that those worn-out farms would have been excellent for sheep raising, 
but their neighbors persisted in keeping so many worthless sheep-killing dogs 
that this industry was totally destroyed. He says that he personally knew of a 
single dog that killed 117 sheep before he was killd. A result of the financial 
panic of 1857 was stopping coal operations and the bankruptcy of many of the 
investors.

The dam of Behee's old mill is the road crossing still on the creek and forms 
the pond above. The streams that once supplied this creek from the mountain long 
since ceased to flow, and often the pond is dried up. Petty's mill, built in 
1840, was the only one that survived to the present.

The ancient powder mill on the "Middle road," run by water power on Solomon's 
creek, ceased to manufacture about thirty years ago. The present brewery stands 
a few rods further up the creek.

Henry Blackman Plumb, in his admirable History of Hanover Township and Wyoming 
Valley, published in 1885, speaks thoughtfully of the more important subject of 
the effects of the rapid, remarkable advancement of the county in the 
development of the coal industry since 1860. The increase in population and the 
far greater increase in wealth in the coal districts in the county are carefully 
noted by him. When he has gone over the ground conscientiously he bravely 
approaches the far more important question of the effects that are flowing out 
to the people from this panoramic change.

"'Tis yours to judge how wide the limits stand,
Between a splendid and a happy land."

He is, in his comments, considering Hanover township, but his words are equally 
pertinent when applied to every mining district in the county:

"The township and the boroughs within it continued to prosper from 1870 till 
1873, when stagnation overtook them, and no progress was made in business, in 
property or in the condition of affairs until 1880. The "strike" of 1877 put the 
finishing touch to the want and distress of the inhabitants. The strike lasted 
six months, and for the next two years many families had to live on 'mush and 
molasses.' No building was done unless where it was absolutely necessary. No new 
mines were opened; no extension of old ones was made. After 1880 affairs grew 
slowly better, and in 1882 many new houses were built and old ones repaired and 
occupied, because rents could be got sufficient to justify the outlay. New mines 
were opened and old ones enlarged. House-building flourished in 1883 and the 
[p.579] railroads were crowded with passengers as never before, and all the 
appearances of prosperity had come again.

"In 1878 there were nine breakers in Hanover, Sugar Notch, Ashley and Nanticoke, 
within the old township lines, and only four of them in operation, and when at 
work it was only about half time or less. One of the breakers, the 'Hanover,' 
was struck by lightning and burned down. In 1883 there were ten breakers, and 
eight of them at work, sometimes full time and sometimes half time, but wages 
were high again, compared with what they had been, and half time part of the 
year produced no want among the workmen for the necessaries of life.

"Lands about the mines and their neighborhood for a distance of half a mile or 
more are generally uncultivated and thrown open to commons, on account of the 
difficulty of securing any crops from them, even if the crops grow. Unruly boys 
and men, and goats, cattle and hogs that run at large make it quite impossible 
to live by the cultivation of the soil in the neighborhood, and so the land lies 
open and vacant that once produced good crops. Nearly every family about the 
mines keeps a dog, some two,,three, or even four large ones, making it entirely 
impossible for any one to raise sheep within many miles of the mine. Dogs have 
been known to go many miles away from home to kill sheep. * * * There have been 
no sheep raised in Hanover since 1858.

"Goats are kept in large numbers, and make it almost impossible to have any 
shade or fruit trees, vines or shrubs about the houses, or flowers or even 
gardens. They are animals pretty well calculated for barbarians. but not at all 
for civilized communities. The destructiveness of these animals is one among the 
great reasons why everything appears so desolate and uncomfortable generally 
about miners' houses. Another reason is the desire to have all animals run at 
large for the benefit of the 'poor man.' I leave for others to decide whether it 
is really to the benefit of the poor man to have these animals run at large. * * 
*

"There are now five postoffices within the boundaries of Hanover, viz.: Sugar 
Notch, Ashley, Askam, Peely and Nanticoke. No business is carried on in the 
township and boroughs but the coal business and railroading, and such mercantile 
business and mechanical trades as are necessary on account of them, and the 
wants and needs of a mining population. Farming has fallen to a very low 
condition and but little is done. Garden products of every description are 
raised, mostly on the flats, and these have to be watched, frequently with arms 
in hand, night and day, to keep off thieves, and the arms sometimes have to be 
used. The mines, the railroads, the repair shops and machine shops are the 
business of the people now. In the whole township and the three boroughs, with a 
population of more than 12,000 in 1884, it is doubtful whether there are more 
than four blacksmith shops, not connected with the mines or railroads; while in 
the early times it took one blacksmith to every 100 people, old and young. 
Things that were formerly made here have ceased to be manufactured and some are 
no longer made nor used here or elsewhere. There are no tanneries now, no tool 
makers, no plow makers, no makers of seythes, sickles, cradles, knives, axes, 
hoes, harness, saddles, carts, wagons, carriages, brooms, cloth, cheese, soap - 
no weaving, no wool, no flax, no honey, no beeswax, no bees, no cider, no 
tobacco, no millwrights, no gunsmiths, no wheelwrights, no makers of woodenware. 
Indeed, there is almost nothing made here now and nothing produced except coal. 
But of coal the production is very large and overshadows everything else. * * * 
It seems as if when one enjoys one great and good thing he must forego all 
others. * * * The business of Hanover was at one time entirely agricultural, now 
it is entirely mining. Her future history, while the coal lasts, will be merely 
statistical - the amount of coal she produces, number of men employed, wages, 
persons injured or killed in the mines, or the capital invested. Her population 
will not be the owners - * * * Her owners will not be a part of the population. 
* * * 

"The taxes are very high * * * the reason for it is that assessments are [p.580] 
made by assessors not elected by the owners of the property, or by their friends 
and neighbors, but persons in general, not owners of anything and not 
responsible. The local taxes are also levied, collected and expended by the same 
class of persons. It may therefore be surmised that the taxes will be put, as 
they are where these people rule, to the highest point the law allows, and 
frequently higher, and that this condition of things is growing more and more 
oppressive every year. If this only fell upon the companies alone they could 
easily get it all back out of their workmen, but where a man with his family 
owns and occupies his house of five rooms and a loft 50x100 feet, worth 
altogether $1,200 or $1,300, and has to pay taxes amounting to from 50 cents to 
75 cents per month for his own dwelling, it seems pretty heavy. The owners of 
property are now pretty much all non-resident. No farmer can now own the back 
land and make a living on it and pay the taxes, insurance and repairs.

"There are but few Americans here now, whether natives of the township or new-
comers. They are not liked by the foreigners. The foreigners are about the same 
in nationalities as in 1870; being English, Irish, Welsh, German, Swede, Swiss, 
French, Polanders, Hungarians, Canadians and Scotch."

                                 HAZLE TOWNSHIP.

The Genealogy of this township is as follows: Hazle was carved out of Sugarloaf 
township in 1839. Sugarloaf was taken from Nescopeck township. The latter was 
formed in 1792. A part was taken from Butler township, November 6, 1856, and 
added to Hazle. Grandmother Nescopeck, mother Sugarloaf, and then the blooming, 
fashionable daughter, Miss Hazle - pretty in name and lovely in form and 
features. Though yet one of the "sweet girl undergraduates," she wears the jewel 
of the second city in the county of Luzerne. The south line of the township is 
the county lines of Carbon and Schuylkill counties, and, as well, is the south 
line of this county. The old Indian trail crossing Buck's mountain passed 
through the township near where is Hazleton, and on toward Nescopeck, through 
Conyngham village. So far as the records can inform us, the first whites that 
passed through here were Capt. Klader's company, on their way to the fatal 
ambush near Conyngham, in 1780. Then came and returned the burial party, and 
then Balliet, wife and two children, the latter swung across the horse in their 
beegums. In 1804 came the white man with his surveyor's instruments, surveying 
the turnpike that is now Broad street, Hazleton, and the well-traveled highway 
that passes on through Conyngham, Seybertsville, etc., on to the river. The 
first settlement made in Hazel probably was in 1804 - a camp for the surveyors 
and then for the laborers in constructing, the turnpike. The first settlement 
was where the town of Hazleton now stands, and for particulars thereof the 
reader is referred to that part of the history.

The face of the township is rugged hills once crowned with the dark old forests, 
chiefly yellow pine. There is very little agricultural land in it; rocky hills 
and the red shale, when denuded of its timber growth, is but little else than a 
barren waste. It was a great field for lumbering, many years, but now, except a 
sawmill of the Lehigh Valley railroad on the turnpike near Black creek, that is 
completing the work of cutting up the remaining lumber, when this once great 
industry will have passed entirely away. The settlements that constitute the 
present population were drawn hither by the opening of coal mines that commenced 
in 1836, a detailed account appearing elsewhere. We learn from Stewart Pearce's 
Annals that the earliest settlers in Hazle township were Anthony Fisher, Joseph 
Fisher, Casper Thomas, Conrad Horn, Adam Winters, at what now is "Horntown," on 
the turnpike just beyond West Hazleton. The first internal improvement of note 
was, as a matter of course, a sawmill on High creek, now within the city limits, 
erected in 1810.

It is made the second in importance in the county by its coal deposits, which 
are still being developed rapidly, and the great "breakers" rear their dark 
faces on nearly every hillside, and the gulches are being filled with the 
mountainous culm [p.581] piles that are the chips of the workmen down in the 
bowels of the earth digging for the precious black diamonds.

The old Lehigh & Susquehanna turnpike road, from Mauch Chunk to Berwick, formed 
the backbone of the early settlements through this portion of the county. The 
first toll-house in the county was in this township, now in the city, and the 
old building may yet be pointed out to the curious. David Travis and Conrad Horn 
were the two most legal-minded men at that time here. They were the first 
justices in 1840; succeeded by William Kisner and David Martz, and they by 
George Fenstermacher.

The many different collieries in the township constitute the abiding places of 
the population.

Jeansville, situated two miles south of Hazleton, is simply a part of Hazle 
township, though around the Spring Mountain collieries that are the cause of the 
existence of the place, are about 1,500 people. It was named for Joseph Jeans, 
of Philadelphia. Everything here belongs to the Lehigh Valley railroad, that 
corporation having purchased of the Spring Mountain Coal company. Coal 
operations were commenced here in 1845 by William Millans, who opened the slope 
and commenced in a small way shipping coal by first transporting overland to 
Beaver Meadow, where was the only point to reach a railroad. Jeansville is a 
neat and well-built hamlet, with two churches - Methodist and Baptist. The 
Presbyterian church was burned and never rebuilt; two schoolhouses. The first 
schoolhouse here was built about 1850. The two buildings they now have were 
built in the eighties. A very neat and well-kept cemetery was provided about 
1877. The place exists by virtue of its coal, and the attention of the outside 
world was attracted hither by Ario Pardee, the father of the coal industry in 
the Hazleton district. Mr. J. C. Haydon, who, as a pioneer operator in this 
section, is junior only to A. Pardee, is in charge of Jeansville and its 
collieries. He came to the place to take charge in 1865; leased the Spring 
Mountain Coal company's property and carried on operations, building the two 
present breakers, until the property was sold to the railroad, and at this time 
mines and markets the coal for the owners. One of the old breakers was burned in 
1881 and both have been rebuilt. The output, mostly from the Mammoth, Wharton 
and Buck mountain views, is at this time about 300,000 tons annually. The Beaver 
Meadow railroad extended their road from Wetherly to this point in 1845. The 
importance of the operations carried on here may be inferred somewhat when we 
state that their machine shops employ on the average 125 hands. This important 
part of the place commenced in a small way, doing simply this needed company's 
repairing in 1853, and has grown with a steady growth, now manufacturing steam 
pumps that are given the markets throughout the continent. With the shops is a 
large foundry where much work in that line is carried on.

Mr. J. C. Hayden, as stated, ranks next to the late A. Pardee in the early 
developing of the coal mines of this section. Like him, a civil engineer, and 
came originally from Philadelphia and surveyed roads and, in following canal and 
railroad work, went to northern Pennsylvania, and from there to this place, 
attracted by the information he had gleaned as to the opportunities here for 
mining.

Latimer has its railroad, postoffice, hotel and company store, and two breakers 
rear high their grimy, blackened faces, marking the spot where the pioneer 
miners here of Pardee & Co. have long since been actively engaged in mining.

Sugarloaf is another colliery town and is the property of the Diamond Coal 
company - the institution that laid off the Diamond addition to the city of 
Hazleton.

Laurel Hill mining tower is one of the old collieries.

Japan, a mining village, and has nearly 500 workmen. Here is Oakdale colliery.

Harleigh is a mining town of some importance. It has other stores than the 
company store, two hotels and a good school. The Big Black Creek Improvement 
company owns the collieries.

Beaver Brook is on the dividing line between this and Carbon county. Here is a 
company store, postoffice, three groceries and a blacksmith shop.

[p.582] Cranberry is a small mining town.

Crystal Ridge is another small mining collection.

Stockton bears with considerable dignity the name of Commodore Stockton. A mine 
was opened here in 1851 by Packer, Carter & Co. The place attracts your 
attention by the long line of "cave in" running parallel with the railroad 
track. December 18, 1869, occurred here a "squeeze" - caused by "robbing the 
pillars," and in this was carried down the house occupied by the Rough and Swank 
families. None of the bodies were ever recovered, and the spot where the house 
stood has been filled and a marble slab tells the story of the victims as 
follows:

"Elizabeth Rough, May 18, 1796; Margaret Rough, January 18, 1837; Isaac Rough, 
January 22, 1839; Elizabeth Rough, March, 1869; George Swank, 1819; William 
Swank, 1850. December 18, 1869."

The place is near Hazleton, yet it has considerable business outside the company 
store; a car repair and blacksmith shop; hotel, two stores, postoffice. The 
first postmaster was Ralph Tozer, a very familiar family name before and during 
the Revolution in the vicinity of Tioga Point (Athens).

There is quite a gathering of miners' houses at Mount Pleasant. The mines here 
belonged to the heirs of C. Koons and were operated by Pardee & Co.

Lumber Yards is a junction where the railroad forks, one branch going to 
Weatherly and the other to White Haven; a neat little station house and a few 
dwellings near by.

Humbolt has quite a mining population; a company store and the Humbolt colliery, 
owned by the Lehigh Valley railroad.

Hollywood is quite a colliery town, with the usual company store, hotel, etc.

Milnesville is one of the old mining towns. The colliery was opened in 1850 by 
William Milnes, and has a population of nearly 824.

Foundryville is a little railroad station, and is a colliery town of growing 
importance. A new breaker is being constructed by the Markle company. Jeddo was 
authorized to form a borough in 1871, but has neglected to perfect any of the 
machinery of such a municipality. The Woodside colliery is here and is operated 
by Mr. Markle. The employes about the mines to the number of 350 constitute the 
population. The past ten years has noted an increase in its population of eight 
souls. And yet it is not at all envious of Chicago.

Ebervale has 1,108 inhabitants, an increase of one hundred per cent. the past 
ten years. Hotel, postoffice, schoolhouse and church and store are the main 
points of the place.

Drifton is the town of Coxe Bros. & Co., and thereby, being the residence and 
headquarters of the members of the firm, is a noted place. Here was built the 
first iron and steel breaker; here are the machine shops of Coxe Bros. & Co., 
and here are the offices of their belt railroad. Mining is carried on here on a 
vast scale and the place is noted for the neatness of the dwellings of the 
employes, and on the hill beyond are the elegant mansious of the heads of the 
house, and the hospital, etc. The company store is a great concern on one side 
of the street, and is faced by the far more extensive building of the company 
offices, and Mr. Eckley B. Coxe's experimental shop and fireproof library 
building. In this building is the postoffice, telephone and telegraph rooms, and 
in one main room is a corps of book-keepers and clerks, giving it much the 
appearance of a great banking house. Mr. Coxe has built a neat and comfortable 
opera house for the benefit of the employes, a hospital for the same, a free 
library, a schoolhouse, hotel and three elegant churches are in the place. The 
town has splendid water privileges, the water being brought in mains from 
springs on the mountain side.

                              HOLLENBACK TOWNSHIP

Bears an important Luzerne county family name. The Delaware and Shawnee Indians 
had their camps and wigwams near the mouth of Wapwallopen creek. Stewart Pearce 
thinks that the Indian "grasshopper war" between the two tribes occurred near 
the mouth of the creek. One papoose had caught a grasshopper to eat - the squaws 
and children were of the two tribes in this vicinity - and when another papoose 
snatched the grasshopper and swallowed it, the squaws took up the matter and the 
bucks were called to the field of gore by the hair pulling and screams of the 
women and the fuia grew fast and furious.

In 1870 Hollenback had a population of 1,303, which was reduced to 736 in 1880 
by taking off the north half of the township and making Conyngham township; in 
the census of 1890 this was again slightly decreased, reporting a population of 
724.

A few German farmers came up from Northampton township in 1789, and set about 
the hard task of reducing the rugged land and stubborn soil to domestication. In 
1796 it contained but ten taxables, and at that time it was a part of Nescopeck 
and extended up to Newport township. In 1866 it contained six sawmills that were 
busy cutting lumber for the public markets.

Henry Whitebread, father of B. Whitebread, located in 1807 on the Tobias Hess 
farm, about a mile South of Hobbie. Other settlers came in that and the 
succeeding year, including John Bachman, who located on the M. Fox place, in 
Hobbie. Abram Shortz located where John Hart lives, two miles southwest of 
Hobbie, and John Balliett where Mr. Chipple lived, in the southeast part of the 
township. Mr. Balliett (who was the first blacksmith in the township) came from 
Switzerland, hence the name "Switze Hill" for that portion of the township. 
David Eroch located near the Ballietts, on the "Switze."

The first sawmill was built by a Mr. Craig, on the Shortz place, and went to 
decay long ago. The pioneer gristmill was built on the Big Wapwallopen, near the 
site of the upper works of the Dupont Powder mills. The first and only tannery 
was built by Samuel Snyder, on the creek where J. Harter lived. Both mill and 
tannery have now gone to decay. The first store was opened about 1825, by Amasa 
Shoemaker, near John Fox's. The first tavern was opened in what is now Hobbie 
about 1825, by Peter Goode. John Harter built the first frame house in 1848. 
Bernard Whitebread, now living half a mile southeast of Hobbie, assisted in 
raising the frame. The first postmaster was Henry Gruver. He was appointed in 
1852, and kept the office where was Grover's store, in the village of Hobbie. 
The first road laid out was the one running down the creek from Hobbie to 
Berwick. The pioneer horticulturist was Henry Whitebread. He set out an orchard 
in 1808. He brought the trees from his old home at Holmesburg, on the Pennypack 
creek, eight miles below Philadelphia. David Bachman set out an orchard on his 
place the following year.

Hobbie is a postoffice nearly in the center of the township, originally owned by 
Peter Goode and settled first in 1815. Nathan Beach bought of Goode and he had 
it laid off in lots and sold some of them. In the place are two stores, a hotel 
and blacksmith shop.

                               HUGHESTOWN BOROUGH

Is one of the important and thriving mining boroughs within the borders of 
Pittston township. It is situated between Pittston and Avoca. In the place is a 
large Catholic church, and the schools have 250 pupils. There is an extensive 
brick factory in the place and a general store. A number of collieries give 
employment to the people. The borough has a superficial area of about four 
square miles and an estimated population (1892) of 1,350.

                                HUNLOCK TOWNSHIP

Is but fifteen years old, being organized January 8, 1877; taken from Union and 
Plymouth townships, at the time of its formation containing a population of 759, 
which in 1890 increased to 881. When first known there were friendly and 
peaceable 584 Indians inhabiting in their way the foothills and had small 
patches in the narrow valley which they cultivated. The first settler was a man 
named Boggs, who located on the Abram Van Horn place, built his log cabin and 
cleared a small patch and lived there some years. Boggs joined the Revolutionary 
army and it is supposed he was away from home when his family was driven away or 
massacred by the Indians. All known is that the place reverted to the desert, 
that this family found it and the marks of their being once there were in the 
scattered ruins of their home. It is said that the friendly Indians who were 
neighbors of the Boggses shared their fate - driven off or massacred. Jonathan 
Hunlock, from whom the township gets it name, and Edward Blanchard settled prior 
to 1778 at the mouth of the creek. They were without families and returned to 
their old homes about 1790. Soon after Fredrick Croop settled near the river and 
opened the I. Davenport farm. About the same time came John Croop and the 
numerous family of Sorbers and settled back of the mountain and up the creek, a 
mile or more from its mouth, where Hiram Croop's mills were built. Philip 
Sorber, son of Jacob, made his improvement a mile still further up the creek. 
These two families - Sorbers and Croops - were mill men and built the sawmills 
and sawed out much of the lumber, cutting the larger part of their timber in 
their vicinity. Other German families followed the Sorbers and Croops, coming 
across from the upper Delaware, as the Millers, Cases, Davenports, Cragles, 
Deits and Braders. These made good and thrifty citizens - noted for their 
industry and sobriety. In 1797 Joseph Dodson moved into the settlement, from the 
adjoining Plymouth settlement. He had married Susanna Bennet, daughter of Joshua 
Bennet. His son Joseph B. Dodson, was born on the old place where he resided all 
his long life - an aged and respected citizen and the survivor of his family. 
Samuel Dodson and his brother-in-law Isaac Van Horn were pioneers and good 
citizens.

A smelting furnace was built in 1857, near the mouth of the creek, by William 
Koons. That once promising industry passed away when the canal came, bringing 
iron from the iron points. Nothing now marks the place of the old forge. 
Fredrick Hartman built his flooring mill in 1843, on the creek about three miles 
up. Ransom Monroe owned and operated it many years. Leonard Ritchie built his 
saw and feed mill about four miles up the creek in 1850. George Gregory, in 
1857, bought Pritchard's mill and rebuilt and enlarged it the next year, with 
his brother, Benjamin Gregory. In 1869 Jacob Rice built his feed and chopping-
mill about one mile from the mouth of the creek. Ransom Pringle became the 
leading merchant, and for many years carried on his store near the railroad 
station. Hiram Croop had his store near Croop's mills, other traders being 
Darius Whitsell and Alexander Dodson.

Hunlock Creek is a station on the railroad, where are two hotels and one general 
store.

Roaring Brook was once a postoffice, which was removed to the north part of the 
township; here is a country store and church.

Gregory is a postoffice and a tollgate on the turnpike; a gristmill and an 
extensive stone quarry.

                              HUNTINGTON TOWNSHIP.

This and Fairmount township are the richest agricultural portions of Luzerne 
county. Not only noted as the well-to-do land of farmers, but here is that 
superior general intelligence and refinement, as well as better culture, that 
mark the entire length and breadth of beautiful Huntington valley as the most 
favored place after all in the county. This entire region is without a railroad, 
without a town that deserves the name, and in the two townships there is but one 
licensed hotel. A licensed hotel is a place where liquors are sold. There are 
places for the entertainment of strangers, plenty of them, but licensed hotels 
there is but one, and that is away up in the mountain, on the old turnpike, 
where was a tollgate. This bespeaks the morals as well as the thrift and 
intelligence of the people of this favored locality.

[p.585] Huntington valley runs along north and south through the two townships, 
is not a valley after the fashion of the Wyoming valley. It is rolling, might be 
called, perhaps, better a "second bench," but is, until you strike the mountains 
in the north of Fairmount township, all a fine quality of arable land. The 
farmers find their outlet to Shickshinny on the river by a turnpike road, and in 
an early day the old Berwick turnpike led north to Elmira and south to Berwick.

Huntington is one of the seventeen "certified townships" laid out by the 
Susquehanna company and confirmed by acts of the assembly passed in 1799. Under 
the Connecticut title, previous to 1776, it was known as "Bloomingdale 
township," and the name was changed to Huntington in 1799 in honor of Samuel 
Huntington, a native of Windham, Conn., who was one of the signers of the 
Declaration of Independence.

This township lay across an ancient and well-trodden path of the red man, and in 
his travel to and from the western frontier during the dark days of border 
warfare, the few settlers suffered greatly in the loss of some of their number, 
who were murdered or taken prisoners, to say nothing of the stock and provisions 
taken and destroyed by the savages.

The first settler was John Franklin. He came from Connecticut in the spring of 
1775, as one of the Susquehanna proprietors under the Connecticut claim. He 
located on Huntington creek below what is now Hublersville (Huntington Mills), 
where he built a log house and spent most of the summer with his family. He 
returned to his native State in the autumn on account of the difficulties 
arising between this country and Great Britain.

Levi Seward, from Connecticut, located in 1776 in the north part of the 
township, and from him has sprung a large and respectable family. Nathaniel Goss 
came in 1776 and located on the farm now known as the Howard hotel property at 
Huntington Mills. The tract of 334 acres on which he settled was granted to 
Henry Marks by letters patent dated April 4, 1775. In 1782 or 1783 Abraham Hess 
settled near the head waters of Fishing creek, in the northwest part of the 
township. He came from New Jersey and was the progenitor of a large and 
influential family. Stephen Kingsbury was one of the pioneers locating where J. 
W. Kingsbury now lives, near Town Hill. He was a surveyor and assisted in the 
original survey of Huntington township. Reuben Culver arrived from Connecticut 
February 14, 1795, and located in the west part of the township, where Oliver 
Culver lived. The latter was born March 18, 1795, on his present farm. Reuben 
Culver was the father of a numerous family who have married into some of the 
first families of this county. Abel Fellows, Stephen Harrison and Samuel and 
Amos Franklin in 1777 located in the southwest part of the township, where many 
of their descendants still reside. From 1778 Thomas Williams, one of the 
pioneers who escaped from Forty fort, lived at the foot of Knob mountain during 
the remainder of his life.

Solon Trescott was born in Sheffield, Mass., in 1750, and located in Huntington 
in June, 1778. He built a log house near Col. E. L. Trescott's. About a month 
after he came he and Solomon Gas and Thomas and Samuel Williams were warned by 
the military authority to appear at Forty fort for the defence of the 
inhabitants against the Indians and tories. There they were taken prisoners, but 
escaped the same night, and reached their homes in Huntington on the night of 
the third day. They sought safety in Connecticut in the autumn of that year. 
After a few years Mr. Trescott returned, to find that a chestnut tree had grown 
up through the middle of his mansion. He left it as a monument to mark the place 
of his pioneer hut and built another and better log house a short distance from 
the old one, which he occupied for many years. His father, Samuel Trescott, held 
a proprietary right in Huntington under the Connecticut claim, and was one of 
the original surveyors of the township.

Col. Edward L. Trescott was one of the early settlers and was actively 
interested [p.586] in local military affairs, serving as major fourteen years, 
lieutenant-colonel seven years, and colonel seven years, and in his last years 
was an aide on the staff of Gov. Bigler, of this State. He was a great hunter, 
and killed with his own rifle more than a thousand deer in this township, 
besides a large number of bears and panthers.

John Dodson was born in Northampton county, Pa., February 26, 1771, and located 
in Huntington in 1796. He was the first Pennsylvanian who settled in this 
township, all other settlers having come from States east of this. He was a 
prominent and enterprising farmer, and died May 9, 1859, leaving a widow and 
eighteen children. Joseph Dodson located in Huntington township in 1806, on the 
farm where he died in 1851. He was prominently identified with all the 
progressive interests of his adopted township. He was the father of twelve 
children.

John Koons located in what is now New Columbus borough in 1819, and became one 
of the most prominent men in this part of the township. He was largely 
interested in the Nanticoke & Hughesville and the Susquehanna & Tioga turnpikes. 
In 1836 he was appointed postmaster of New Columbus, and in 1858 became 
interested in the building of the Academy and Normal institute at that place. He 
was appointed by Gov. Shonk one of the judges for Luzerne county. He built the 
Wyoming Valley canal from Shickshinny to the Search farm. He was a justice of 
the peace from 1871 to 1876. He was a surveyor and a merchant at New Columbus. 
He died February 13, 1878.

Jabez Matthias and Reuben Williams were also early settlers. Jabez came in 1798. 
John Johnson located near or on the town line road, east side of the township, 
and was soon followed by Earl Tubbs and Stephen Davenport. Jonathan Westover 
located near Pine creek, in the northwest part of the township, and Peter Wygant 
on the hill above Jameson Harvey's place. The Monroe family were early settlers 
on Huntington creek. Amaziah Watson settled just below the Scott house, on the 
Huntington creek road. Other settlers were William Brandon, a Methodist 
preacher, and William, Jared and John Edwards, who immigrated from Ireland soon 
after the close of the Revolutionary war.

Thomas Patterson, born in Scotland and educated in Ireland, located in 
Huntington about 1799, in the northeast part of the township. Mrs. Minerva T. 
Patterson now lives on the old homestead. Her grandmother, Margaret Louise, was 
a cousin of Louis XIV. of France. The grandmother of Thomas Patterson was a 
sister of Lord Montgomery, of Scotland. Thomas Patterson's wife was a daughter 
of Col. Nathan Denison, of Wyoming valley fame.

Among the other early setters previous to 1800 were Amos, Samuel and Silas 
Franklin, Richard Williams, David Woodward, Stephen C. Kingsbury, Thomas Tubbs, 
John Chapin, George Stewart, Peter Chambers, Nathan Tubbs, Jonathan Fellows, E. 
Wadsworth, Benjamin Fuller, Robert Wilson, Stephen Sutliff, Stephen Harrison (in 
1796) and Levi Seward, who came here in 1776.

Obadiah Scott, who settled on Huntington creek, about two miles below 
Hublersville, built the first frame house. It is still standing, and is known as 
the "old Scott house." John Koons had a clothmill at an early date, and was also 
engaged in the mercantile business, besides carrying on a large farm. He was a 
soldier in the War of 1812. He is now living at New Columbus.

Epenetus Wadsworth, grandfather of P. C. Wadsworth, located in 1794 near Town 
Hill. He was the first blacksmith in Huntington. He burned charcoal for himself 
and others. He was also the pioneer horticulturist, having set out an orchard on 
his lot in 1799, in which most of the trees are still in bearing and afford a 
good quality of fruit. The Indian trail from Shickshinny to Williamsport crossed 
his farm near the brick schoolhouse of Town Hill. The well-beaten path is still 
visible. Mr. Wadsworth was an extensive land operator for those days, and was 
also a local preacher.

Thomas Harvey, an Englishman, located at Harveyville and opened a shop, [p.587] 
where he carried on blacksmithing several years. This was soon after the advent 
of "Deacon Wadsworth." The pioneer tanner and shoemaker was Benjamin Fuller. He 
located near Huntington creek, not far from the Larned place. The first 
gristmill was a log structure, built in 1788, with one run of stones, by Mr. 
Hopkins, at the mouth of Marsh creek. He built a sawmill at the same place. 
Nathaniel Goss, grandfather of the present Nathaniel Goss, built a gristmill on 
the stream that empties into Huntington creek from the north, on the north side 
of the old Goss farm, now owned by A. Howard. It would grind about three bushels 
of corn per day. It was first run by hand, and subsequently by water power. 
Nathaniel Goss, Jr., built the mill known as the Workheiser mill, which stands 
on the opposite side of the stream from the old one. The land on which Hopkins' 
mill stood was donated for mill purposes by the Susquehanna company. In 1798 
Nathan Beach built the Rogers mill on Marsh creek. Bacon's carding and fulling-
mill was built on Huntington creek in 1817. The gristmill at Harveyville was 
originally built in 1798, and replaced in 1837 by a new one, which was 
subsequently burned, and the present one built in 1869.

The taxable inhabitants of Huntington in 1796 were:

Elijah Austin, Ralph Austin, James Benscoter, Elam Boname, Henry Baker, Anthony 
Benscoter, Andrew Blancher, Isaac Benscoter, Daniel Culver, Aaron Culver, Reuben 
Culver, Reuben Blish, Darius Callender, John Chapin, James Earles, John Evans, 
John Fayd, Silas Ferry, Abiel Fellows, Ovil Follows, Samuel Franklin, Daniel 
Fuller, Benjamin Fuller, George Fink, Amos Franklin, Nathaniel Goss, Elijah 
Goodwin, Doctor Gaylord, Philip Goss, Timothy Hopkins, Stephen Harrison, William 
Harrison, Caleb Hoyt, Samuel Hover, Emanuel Hover, Nathan Jennings, Joseph 
Kingsbury, Samuel King, Moses Lawrence, Elias Long, John Long, Rufus Lawrence, 
Jr., Rufus Lawrence, Sr., Joseph Moss, Nathan Monroe, John Miller, Solon 
Trescott, Gideon Post, Joseph Potter, John Potter, Jerry Preston, Loyd Marshall, 
Elijah Wood, Sr., Elijah Wood, Jr., Abel Sutliff, Miles Sutliff, Thomas 
Stephens, Jonathan Stevens, Amos Seward, Barney Sutliff, Eli Seward, Enos 
Seward, Jr., Enos Seward, Sr., Gad Seward, Obadiah Scott, Jesse Scott, Obadiah 
Scott, Jr., Abraham Smith, Thomas Tubbs, Thomas Taylor, Nathan Tubbs, Earl 
Tubbs, Nathan Tubbs, Jr., Job Tripp, Jabez Williams, Uriah Williams, Thomas 
Williams, Tarball Whitney, Daniel Warner, John Wandall and David Woodward.

The old turnpike running from Berwick to Towanda ran across the north part of 
this township, passing through the village of Cambra. The road was built about 
1812; daily lines of stages passed over it each day. It was abandoned as a stage 
route about 1840, and as a toll road about 1845.

The first road laid out in this township was the one through the Huntington 
Creek valley. Soon other roads were surveyed and worked.

April 1, 1836, a charter was granted to the Nanticoke and Hughesville Turnpike 
company, the road to run from Nanticoke Falls to Hughesville, Lycoming county, 
passing through New Columbus.

The Union Turnpike Road company was formed in 1875, and was chartered in 1876. 
The charter allows the company to extend its road from Shickshinny through the 
township of Huntington to Fairmount springs. The road is now completed about six 
and a half miles from Shickshinny to the Huntington creek valley. The 
Stockholders, N. B. Crary, J. W. Stackhouse, B. D. Koons, William A. Campbell, 
F. A. B. Koons, S. F. Monroe and D. G. Larned.

The Columbus Male and Female academy is the chief thing about the borough of New 
Columbus. It was built in 1858 by issuing 152 shares of $10 each, all subscribed 
and paid for by seventy-two persons. The most prominent men in founding this 
excellent institution were D. L. Chapin and John Koons. By their and others 
efforts the township was made an independent school district under the statute.

New Columbus became an organized borough in 1859. While it takes in considerable 
territory it has never become more than a hamlet in fact, and has only [p.588] 
about sixty voters. Here is Edgar's gristmill (water power), a fair merchant 
mill; also a lumber mill at what was old Careytown, which was taken into the 
borough limits; three general stores, one wagon manufactory of fair size and 
good work by Long Bros.

The Huntington Mills Educational society was organized in 1878. An acre of 
ground was purchased of Amos Howard, and a two-story frame building erected, 
suitable for an academy, at a cost of $2,000. The first term was commenced 
September 2, 1878 - 100 pupils, under Prof. J. W. Swingle. assisted by W. W. Van 
Horn. The stockholders were F. A. B. Koons, S. H. Dodson, Franklin Monroe, Perry 
Monroe, Dr. Clinton Bacon, Gove Larned, Amos Howard, George Remaly, William 
Workhiser, Redmond Koons.

Huntington Mills, formerly Hublerville, is on Huntington creek. Here are the 
paper-mills of F. A. B. Koons and Redmond Koons - firm name Koons Bros.; these 
were built in 1872, and from the surrounding country they obtain the straw for 
the manufacture of wrapping paper. They also have a store. There is an excellent 
gristmill, and some years ago, in the rear of the gristmill, was erected a 
carding-mill.

Town Hill is a postoffice, store and blacksmith shop, an old tannery and harness 
shop, two churches and a schoolhouse. It is east of New Columbus, a little over 
two miles.

Cambra postoffice has two stores, hotel (no license), wagon and blacksmith shop.

Harveyville, two gristmills with modern improvements; Koons' planing-mill is 
just across the creek. This was an old tannery and was converted into a planing- 
mill.

Register is a postoffice midway on the road from New Columbus to Huntington 
Mills. Here is a gristmill, store and blacksmith shop. This is a nice hamlet and 
has considerable trade.

                                JACKSON TOWNSHIP

Bears the name of the immortal old "Hickory" - the hero and statesman-the man of 
brains and both physical and moral courage. The township was formed in 1844; is 
fifteen square miles in area, and was taken from the original township of 
Plymouth. It once had only game and a grand old forest, that thirty or forty 
years ago gave employment to its nine sawmills cutting it into lumber; then 
there were three gristmills, and in the entire township was but one old-time 
country tavern. Its oak, hemlock and pine forests have faded away before the 
strokes of the woodmen's axes, and the people sought out every spot to make 
farms and homes. It lies in the hills, much of it broken and rough, and 
everywhere the sweet waters of the mountain springs suggested dairying to the 
thrifty inhabitants, and the township at one time bid fair to lead all others in 
the county in this respect.

The first white man to make this a permanent home was Palmer Ransom in 1795; 
leading the way for the soon coming of John Lemereaux, Jesse Brown, Maj. B. 
Fuller, and a few others. The increase for fifty years was very slow, the 
permanent settlements uncertain, in 1850 it contained a population of 592; in 
1880, 661; in 1890, 657; forty years showing a total increase of 69, and the 
last decade a loss of 4.

A pretty complete list of the early settlers is the following in addition to the 
above first comers:

Samuel and David Allen, William Baker, Jared R. Baldwin, Jude Baldwin, Asahel 
Drake, Rufus Drake, Jehiel Fuller, Thomas Lamoreaux, Edon Ruggles, Joseph 
Reynolds and Mathias Van Loon, these were the settlers in the other century. 
Griffin Lewis came in 1800; Thomas Case, Joseph Reynolds and Levi Bronson came 
in 1804; Anson Carskadden, 1806; Jared R. Baldwin, 1819; Joseph Howard, 1821. In 
the western part of the township the first settler was Henry Cease, 1831.

In 1795 Asahel Drake and Rufus Drake built the first sawmill on the J. M. 
[p.589] Nesbitt place; three different mills were built and worn out on this 
site. Soon after Jared and Jude Baldwin built their mill at Huntsville; Fuller 
near the same time built his near Baldwin's. Ziegler & Wilcox's mill was on the 
Baldwin site; George P. Ransom built his mill, 1815; worn out, and in 1840 torn 
down, and his son Chester built a new mill. In l823 John Lamoreaux and Daniel 
Davenport built their sawmill on Bidlack's creek. In 1830 Henry Cease built his 
on the old site of Josiah Cease's mill on Harvey creek; Sandford Parsons built 
at Huntsville in 1847; this afterward was Harvey Fuller's. Jeremiah Fuller and 
Truman Atherton added a gristmill to their sawmill at Huntsville in 1805 - the 
first food mill in the township. Henry Cease built the Gregory mill on Harvey 
creek in 1830. Harvey rebuilt and added a gristmill to his Huntsville property 
in 1863. The saw and gristmill of Ziegler & Wilcox was built by Truman and Green 
Atherton and Egbert Bogardus - a saw and gristmill with one water power. Albert 
Lewis is now the lumber man of this section. His mills at the lake are rapidly 
clearing up the remaining lumber of this section.

There are two hamlets and two postoffices in the township-Huntsville and Cease's 
Mills. At the latter is a gristmill. Huntsville is near the water reservoir, 
where is gathered the water with head to supply all the country south and 
southwest of Shickshinny. Below the reservoir about two miles is a second dam, 
and near this is now by far the most important improvement in the townsbip - Mr. 
Conynghams farm and summer residence. He has made expensive improvements and in 
the way of fancy farming and stockraising it has become famous; blooded dairy 
cattle and fine horses are the leading purpose. As an "outing" summer home this 
gentleman has all that heart could wish.

                                JENKINS TOWNSHIP

Bears the honored name of Col. John Jenkins, one of the most distinguished names 
connected with the settlement of this portion of Pennsylvania. Nearly the whole 
of the township is heavily underlaid with coal and the most of the land has 
passed to the coal companies. Though much of it is as fine farming land as any 
in the state, yet this interest is overshadowed by the later developed one. But 
little of the settlement ever extended more than the valley between the river 
and to Gardner creek.

The township was taken from Pittston, June 24, 1852. The first important 
settlement in the township was Joseph Gardner's gristmill in 1794, on Gardner's 
creek. In 1866, says Stewart Pearce, "the oldest living inhabitants are Peter 
Waiters, seventy-four and Letitia Cotant, seventy-one."

Isaac Gould, it is said, came about the same time as Joseph Gardner and were the 
first permanent settlers. They located near where the Laflin powder mills are. 
Daniel Seeley built the first sawmill (portable) on Gardner's creek. Jesse 
Thomas had a sawmill above the powder mills. James, John, Isaac and Joseph 
Thompson located in the hollow just below Sebastopol in the old road from 
Wilkes-Barre to Inkerman. John Stout had the first blacksmith shop on the hill 
near Yatesville. His coming was late as 1824. In 1846 George Price built the 
first brick house in the township on the road from Wilkes-Barre to Pittston. 
Other settlers on this road were Joseph, James and Jacob Swallow near the 
township south line; Jesse' Gardner was on Gardner's creek; Isaac Tompkins, 
James and Joseph Armstrong were nearer the river. Among others of the early 
settlers are mentioned William, Jacob and Daniel La Bar, Peter Miller, Anthony 
Lacoe, Abram Thomas, John Hess and a Mr. Goode.

The first schoolhouse was built about 1810 or 1812, near where the brick 
schoolhouse now stands, on the Wilkes-Barre & Pittston road, in Sebastopol. The 
old schoolhouse is now in use as a workshop, having been sold to Francis Yates. 
It stands opposite his residence at Yatesville. The first teacher was Joel Hale. 
There was a log schoolhouse at Inkerman on the hill above Port Blanchard. John 
Blanchard [p.590] and his sisters and George Cooper were among the early pupils. 
Roswell Hale was the first teacher at Inkerman.

The oldest cemetery is the Cooper burying ground, in the northwest corner of the 
township. We find upon the tombstones the following names and dates: Conrad 
Schiffern, born May 18, 1744, died May 18, 1820; Rachel Schiffern, born June 27, 
1742, died January 23, 1810; Adam Wagner, born 1754, died 1806; Margaret 
Tedrick, died June 6, 1811; Peter Sailor, died March 18, 1809, aged thirty-nine; 
Mary Ann Sailor, died May 26, 1814; Elizabeth Good, died February 27, 1825, aged 
thirty; Eva La Bar, died January 10, 1809, aged thirty-six; Rensselaer Billings, 
died April 1, 1806; Margaret Winter, died February 14, 1833, aged eighty-one; 
Peter Winter, died March 11, 1814, aged sixty-five; James Swallow, died February 
2, 1804, aged fifty; Elizabeth Swallow, died April 15, 1814, aged sixty; Mary 
David, died January 26, 1816, aged thirty-six; Nancy Blanchard, died September 
24, 1809, aged eighteen; Cordelia Blanchard, died December 27, 1794; Henry 
Cortright, Jr., died February 2, 1828; William Day, born in England in 1740, 
died February 7, 1829, aged eighty-nine.

Port Griffith was thus named in honor of one of the original stockholders of the 
Pennsylvania Coal company, one of whose mines is at this place. It was then the 
terminus of the company's railroad. It was for several years quite a flourishing 
place, and is at present an ordinary mining town. It is a station on the Lehigh 
Valley railroad, and is a postoffice. In addition to the overshadowing mining 
interest, there is a stone quarry and a large brickyard, two general stores, one 
hotel, and several small trading places; population, 900, engaged in mining.

Port Blanchard is a little below Port Griffith, and bears the name of an early 
resident, John Blanchard. The first settler here was Capt. Jeremiah Blanchard, 
who built his log house on the property that continued in the family name. He 
next built on the "old madsion" lot. John Blanchard located in the place in 
1823. The old hotel was opened in 1845 by Samuel Hodgson, and about the same 
time a postoffice was opened, and he was postmaster. There is a river ferry and 
a hotel.

Inkerman is a mining town; was first settled by Peter Winter in 1810, with his 
blacksmith shop, and this first advertised it. It is situated on what is known 
as the "back road" from Pittston to Wilkes-Barre. The mining interests have 
collected here about 630 inhabitants; postoffice, hotel, store, grocery; coal 
shafts 5, 6 and 11.

Sebastopol is but a mining suburb of Pittston. Nothing there except those 
engaged in mining.