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

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                     History of Luzerne County Pennsylvania

                             H. C. Bradsby, Editor

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

                                   CHAPTER XXI.

                                 KINGSTON BOROUGH

Was made a borough November 23, 1857. The petition therefor bore the names of 
the following: Robert H. Tubbs, F. Helme, Reuben Jones, Thomas Pringle, Richard 
Hutchins, William N. Raymond, A. H. Reynolds, Reuben Marcy, A. C. Church, 
William C. Morris, M. G. Whitney, George E. Hoyt, Abram Nesbitt, William Perigo, 
P. M. Goodwin, Abraham Goodwin, Jr., Abraham Goodwin, Thomas Myers, Francis A. 
Page, Anson Atherton, Isaac Tripp, M. F. Myers, H. S. Butler, George Sealy, 
Thomas Somers, Charles Raymond, F. C. Woodhouse, H. C. Silkman, R. Nelson, 
Samuel Griffin, William Loveland, Z. B. Hoyt, Thomas Slocum, Albert Skeer, H. M. 
Hoyt, Samuel Hoyt, Bester Payne, R. H. Little, Conklin Robbins, Ira W. Dilley, 
Thomas Fender, James Grenawalt, John Keller, William C. Reynolds, E. W. 
Reynolds, Joshua Belding.

The first election was December 15, 1857, at the house of Thomas Wambold. Ira 
Carl, judge; Reuben Marcy and Abram Nesbitt, inspectors. The following officers 
were elected: Reuben Jones, burgess; council, Bestor Payne, Marshal G. Whitney, 
Reuben Marcy, Thomas Pringle, president, and Richard Hutchins; high constable, 
Edward A. Pringle.

The early history of Kingston and the early history of the famed Wyoming valley 
are much one and the same. It goes back to 1769, or one hundred and [p.593] 
twenty-three years ago. Therefore much of its history is in preceding chapters, 
giving an account of the early settlement, the trials and tribulations of the 
first pioneers. Wilkes-Barre and Kingston were rival points for at least two 
generations, and, as usual in history, it was mere straws that decided, like 
fate, which should be the city proper and which should be suburb.

It is not now certainly known who was the first settler at the village of 
Kingston, but one of the first located in the township in 1769 settled within 
the limits of the borough, namely, James Atherton, who with his sons, James 
Atherton, Jr., Ashael and Elisha Atherton, built the first log house, nearly 
opposite the site of the old academy, on Main street. There the father resided 
to the time of his death, in 1790. His son Elisha occupied the old homestead 
until 1817, when he died. The old log cabin then disappeared.

This portion of the township was the last to be occupied by the settlers from 
abroad, and up to 1803 there were but three houses between those of James 
Atherton and Lawrence Myers, the latter at the corner where now stands the Abram 
Goodwin store. Previous to 1796 there was a small one-story house directly 
opposite the residence of Abram Reynolds. It was painted red, and for many years 
was occupied by Epaphras Thompson, a silversmith and a Baptist of the Hardshell 
order. He left here about 1818, and the house disappeared about 1835. It was the 
first frame house built within the limits of the borough.

Up to 1818 the old township line road was the only avenue to Wilkes-Barre; it 
was reached by the extension of the main Kingston road, ninety-nine feet wide, 
and was then known as the Wilkes-Barre and Blind Town road, as it led from the 
ferry opposite the foot of Northampton street, Wilkes-Barre, to Blind Town, 
separating the townships of Kingston and Plymouth. Near the point of 
intersection of these roads was a swing gate across the Blind Town road. There 
were no fences at that day on these extensive bottom lands to protect the crops 
from trespassing cattle, and every person passing was enjoined by stringent 
laws, with heavy penalties, to close the gate after him. This gate was 
maintained from 1770 up to the time of building the Wilkes Barre bridge and the 
opening of the present avenue from the bridge to Kingston, in 1818, when the old 
road from Eleazer Loveland's to the ferry was vacated, the old gate was unhung, 
and owners of lands had to build fences for the protection of their crops.

The road leading from Goodwin's corner to the Blind Town road, at the old 
Eleazer Loveland place, was not laid out in the original survey of the township, 
but was opened by Myers and Hallett Gallop, through their own lands, on the 
completion of the bridge in 1818. William Gallop built the first house (of logs) 
on the site of the residence of the late Giles Slocum.

At the junction of the new road given by Myers and Gallop with the Blind Town 
road, on the Plymouth side, was a small log house as late as 1802. From this 
point to where the railroad now crosses the Blind Town road there was but a 
single residence, which was occupied by Darius Williams. On the Kingston side of 
the Blind Town road there was not a residence up to 1796 between the Myers and 
Gallop road and Toby's creek, where Peter Grubb had a gristmill and a sawmill 
and lived on the site of the Kingston Coal company's No. 1 from 1790 to 1807. 
The mills subsequently became the property of Thomas Borbridge, who took them 
down in 1826. These were the only grist and sawmills ever built within the 
limits of the borough of Kingston.

On the triangle, in the rear of the old stone house, at quite an early day were 
a small tannery, a shop, and a dwelling house. The date of their erection is 
unknown, but in 1815 the property came into the possession of Gen. Samuel 
Thomas, and he built thereon a frame dwelling, which is now standing. Here he 
kept his justice's office from March 20, 1816, till his removal to Illinois, 
when he sold the property to Ziba Hoyt. In this house Gov. Henry M. Hoyt was 
born. In 1817 Levi Hoyt built his house on the triangle, a short distance 
southwest from his brother's. This [p.594] house is also still standing. The old 
homestead of Lawrence Myers (of hewn logs) was probably built as early as 1787 
by his predecessor. Lawrence Myers was appointed a justice of the peace July 7, 
1790. In this log house he held his courts and continued to dispense justice to 
the litigants of Kingston up to the time of his death in 1810. He was succeeded 
by Stephen Hollister, who left the township in 1816. The latter was followed by 
Samuel Thomas, and he by Sharp D. Lewis, who retired about 1840.

Henry Buckingham, from Connecticut, opened the first store, where is the Jacob 
Sharps residence, and in or about 1804 he built a dwelling and store on the lot 
owned and occupied by Abram Reynolds, east of McPike's hotel. Here he did 
business till 1821, and after him Thomas Borbridge, from Philadelphia, several 
years. William C. Reynolds was then the merchant here until his death. In 1807 
or 1808 Sidney Tracey opened a short-lived store in the Giles Slocum house. In 
1811 Elias Hoyt and Thomas Bartlett opened a store on Main street, a short 
distance above the Exchange hotel; and in 1818 Hoyt built and for many years 
occupied the store, afterward occupied by Laycock & Pringle. A. O. Chahoon and 
one Lanning succeeded Hoyt & Bartlett. Goods were brought from Philadelphia and 
New York on the old-fashioned Conestoga wagons, each drawn by four, five or six 
horses. Derrick Bird, Joshua Pettebone and John Shafer were among the old 
pioneer teamsters. James Barnes had a little book store connected with his other 
business about 1820. He owned all the land from Toby's eddy to Larksville, which 
is now worth millions of dollars.

Tradition tells us that at the time of the Wyoming Massacre a man by the name of 
Tracey kept a tavern near the corner where stands the Pike hotel. He was both 
schoolmaster and poet. He was the author of the ballad entitled "The Massacre of 
Wyoming." In 1804 John Ebert began building the Exchange hotel. He left the 
country in 1807, and James Wheeler built and finished the house, and kept it 
until 1809 or 1810. Naphtali Hurlbut then occupied the house several years. His 
successors were Archippus Parrish and Oliver Helm. William Johnson, John Sax and 
Frank Helm have also kept the old tavern, which was a popular resort for all the 
old settlers. Elnathan Wilson, about 1820, opened a tavern where McPike's hotel 
was built; afterward occupied by Thomas Myers & Co., as a store. A distillery 
was built about 1808, a log structure, where was made honest corn juice, 
opposite the old Exchange on Main street. It should be stated that they made 
"corn juice" mostly from potatoes. The noted "Myers Cocked Hat" was the old 
stone building put up in 1818 by James Barnes for a store. It was made a 
residence long ago, after Thomas Bordridge and Thomas Myers had had a store in 
it. The first floor was once a foundry and after all these vicissitudes it was 
converted into a residence and then again into a store, justice office, etc.

The ancestral home of Gov. Hoyt, called the "old Hoyt house," was on "Goose 
island," now the extension of Main street, west from Railroad avenue. An old 
landmark is the "old Loveland house," after many changes, still standing - a 
frame 
that stood at the intersection of the old Myers and Gallup, or Plymouth road, 
and the Blind Town road. The first cemetery was on the William Gallup farm. The 
first interment there was the body of Nathaniel Gates, died November 7, 1793. 
Most of the bodies have been removed and the grounds long neglected. The next 
burial there was Eunice, wife of Aaron Dean, died November 8, 1795; Elizabeth 
Grubb, died July 28, 1796; Peter Grubb, died July 23, 1807; William Gallup, died 
January 1, 1815; Betsy, wife of Peter Clark, died January 25, 1807; Hallet 
Gallup, died October 6, 1804; Mary Gallup, died October 6, 1804; Israel Skeer, 
died October 14, 1804; Hannah, wife of Alph Jones, born 1772, died 1864.

The business of the place is represented as follows: 1 seminary, 4 blacksmiths, 
4 boot and shoe dealers, 1 cigar factory, 9 carpenters and contractors, 1 
dentist, 2 draymen, 11 dressmakers, 3 druggists, 1 electric light company, 1 
flour and feed mill, 3 furniture dealers, 7 general stores, 10 grocers, 3 
hardware, 2 harness, 4 [p.595] hotels, 1 house furnishing, 1 laundry, 2 livery, 
2 lumber dealers, 3 meat markets, 2 merchant tailors, 1 miller, 5 physicians, 1 
stove and tinware, 1 undertaker, 1 upholsterer, 1 jeweler.

Present borough officers: Burgess, Butler Dilley; council: J. C. Van Loon, 
president; George W. Lewis, secretary; George H. Flanagan, George Nesbitt, A. J. 
Root, Robert Cooper, Abraham Hoyt and James Waddell; assessor and collector, E. 
C. Starbird; justices: C. W. Boone, Ira M. Carl; school directors: J. E. Nugent, 
Alexander Nichols, Enoch R. Aston, W. G. Colley, Thomas R. Phillips, E. B. 
Jacobs; postmaster, David S. Clark.

                               KINGSTON TOWNSHIP,

The heart of the rich and beautiful Wyoming valley, one of the eleven of the 
Susquehanna townships into which Luzerne county was divided in 1790, also one of 
the original formed under the authority of Connecticut and the Susquehanna Land 
company, has been diminished from its original size by taking off Dallas and 
parts of Franklin and Lake townships, and now contains but twenty-nine square 
miles, but is all naturally the most productive agricultural lands in the State. 
From this twentynine square miles are to be subtracted the territory of the four 
boroughs: Kingston, Dorranceton, Forty Fort and Wyoming. Stewart Pearce says it 
derived its name from Kingston, R. I., and was originally called "Kingstown."

The "forty" Yankees who entered the valley in 1769 had among them Ezra Dean and 
family. When they had their territory assigned and located they all met under 
the trees and Dean proposed to furnish the crowd a quart of whisky for the 
privilege of naming the township. The proposition was accepted and Mrs. Dean 
named it "Kingstown." All took a pull at the bottle and then said "Kingstown" 
and it was christened. The memorable old Forty fort stood within its limits, on 
the river a short distance below the church, about eighty rods from the river. 
"The first sawmill was James Sutton's on Tobey creek, built 1778. With Dallas 
and parts of Lake and Franklin, in 1796 it contained the following taxables:

James Atherton, Elisha Atherton, John Allen, Joseph Brown, Oliver Biglow, 
Alexander Brown, William Brown, Daniel Burney, Andrew Bennett, Josephus Barber, 
Caleb Brundage, Samuel Breese, Laban Blanchard, Almon Church, Gilbert Carpenter, 
Jonathan Carver, Samuel Carver, James Carpenter, Tunis Decker, Jesse Dickerson, 
Benjamin Dorrance, John Dorrance, Nathan Denison, Christian Cornigh, Joshua 
Fuller, Benajah Fuller, Hallet Gallop, William Gallop, Peter Grubb, John Gore, 
James Gardiner, Lewis Hartsoff, John Horton, Peter Hartsoff, Daniel Hoyt, 
William Hurlbert, Elijah Harris, Joseph Hillman, John Hinds, Stephen Hollister, 
Philip Jackson, John Joseph, John Keely, Samuel Landon, Nathaniel Landon, David 
Landon, James Landon, James Love, William Little, Isaiah Lucas, Lawrence Myers, 
Philip Myers, Nathan Mulford, Lewis Mullison, John Montoney, Isaac Montoney, 
Joseph Montoney, Andrew Miller, Elisha Matterson, Anning Owen, Able Pierce, John 
Pierce, Joseph Pierce, Elias Pierce, Oliver Pettibone, David Perkins, Aaron 
Perkins, John Rosenkrans, Aaron Roberts, Benjamin Roberts, Nathan Roberts, James 
Rice, Sherman Smith, Daniel Spencer, Martin Smith, Luke Sweetland, Joseph 
Sweetland, James Scofield, Comfort Shaw, Alexander Swartwout, Elijah Shoemaker, 
Abraham Shoemaker, Adam Shafer, Peter Shafer, Frederick Shafer, Peter Shale, 
Henry Tuttle, John Tuttle, Joseph Tuttle, William Trucks, Isaac Trip, Israel 
Underwood, Gideon Underwood, Abraham Van Gordon, Lemuel Wakely, John Wart, Ashel 
Fish, Benjamin Smith.

Around this spot centered those tremendous events of the colonial times. As 
said, here was Forty fort, and therefore, for the history of this particular 
part of the county the reader is referred to the preceding general chapters, 
wherein is told the story, from the first arrival in 1762, to the close of the 
contention between the Connecticut people and the Pennsylvania authorities.

The township was not only stripped of its territory by taking portions to make 
[p.596] other townships, but a large part of it now is in thriving boroughs. 
Commencing with Kingston and running north, is borough joined to borough for 
miles, reaching nearly to the north line of the township. To Kingston is added 
Dorranceton, Forty Fort and Wyoming, all being of recent formation, and all 
rapidly improving and property advancing. From the public square in Wilkes-Barre 
starts the electric car lines, and branching to Luzerne all the points to 
Wyoming are now well served, and the ride to the borough of Wyoming, now (August 
15, 1892) ready to run to Pittston, and before this is in print, on to Scranton, 
is a delightful excursion. You pass one moment through the business portion of a 
borough, then palatial residences and their well-kept lawns and shade trees; 
then the gardens and truck patches, and then perhaps a good-sized field of 
waving corn. How rapidly the panorama has changed the past twelve months - and 
how 
this will go on, until pretty much all Kingston township is the suburban towns 
of Wilkes-Barre, is not difficult to see. A gentleman can now do business in the 
city, and his family and residence in this beautiful suburb will be as formerly 
when their home was a few squares away. So nearly do the boroughs occupy all the 
ground in Kingston township that is historical, that the reader is referred 
thereto for much of its history. Of course the history of its trials and 
triumphs in the old colonial times is to be found in preceding chapters, that 
tell of the Revolutionary war and the struggle with the Pennsylvania 
authorities.

The principal hamlet in the township is Truxville, a station on the Harvey Lake 
branch of the Lehigh Valley railroad, and is principally given over to the 
Wilkes- Barre butchers, and here they have their abattoirs and cattle pens. This 
is the nearest station to the Conyngham farm. There is a gristmill (water power 
from Tobey's creek) and a general store in the place.

Ice Cave, where is said to be always natural ice in a natural icehouse, is in a 
deep gorge, where the creek cuts through the mountain. It is also a stopping 
place on the railroad. There is a tavern at the place.

Carverton was years ago a farm postoffice, about two miles northerly from its 
present abode. When the postoffice was moved to its present place the name went 
with it. At old Carverton is a farm and church. At the present place is a store 
and postoffice all in one.

The Scotch Settlement is quite a well-known neighborhood, which lies back of 
Dorranceton borough. It would now be known as a "mining patch." It is laid off 
in lots and streets, and long rows of miners' houses.

Coopertown is similar to the above and abuts on it. The two are only separated 
by a road.

Wilkes-Barre Driving Park Association. - W. J. Harvey, president; George 
Parrish, 
vice-president; George P. Loomis, secretary; John Laning, treasurer. It is the 
main sporting resort in the county, situated in Kingston township just across 
the river from the bridge.

                                LAFLIN BOROUGH

Is a product mostly of the Laflin Powder mills that are within the borough. This 
industry represents 7 mills and necessary works scattered along up the hollow of 
Gardner creek. The buildings extend 2,000 feet in the deep woods along the 
creek. These old trees and the great shed protections along between the several 
different buildings are a great promise of protection in case of an explosion. 
The product is mostly blasting powder, of which the plant turns out an immense 
quantity to the trade annually. The mills were principally built in 1872 by H. 
D. Laflin and C. M. Rouse, the first cost of the plant was over $100,000, and 
additions and improvements have been added from time to time. The superintendent 
of the powder works, Thomas C. Nattrass, has been in the employ of the company 
fourteen years and superintendent in this place nearly three years. Twenty-five 
men are employed about the works; the firm name of the company is The Laflin 
Powder Company. Laflin was organized and made a borough September 10, 1889. 
First officers:

[p.597] Burgess, Josiah Twist; council: John George, C. M. Rouse, William 
Weaver, Anthony Brown, E. R. Scureman, Albert Williams. Present officers: 
Burgess, William Howe; council: Thomas Golightly, president; Josiah Twist, 
secretary; Thomas Nattrass, treasurer; William Weaver, Elijah Scureman and 
Mathew Hart.

The powder-mills, breaker and a general store constitute the business of the 
place.

                                 LAKE TOWNSHIP

Was made a separate township in 1841, taken from Lehman and Monroe townships. It 
was called Lake because Harvey's lake is in it - the largest lake in the State 
as 
well as one of the most beautiful. The same year, 1841, the county of Wyoming 
was formed and the county line cut off a portion of Lake township and gave it 
back to Monroe township, leaving it as now with an area of thirty-four square 
miles; about one-eighth adapted to cultivation, the remainder is rough and 
hilly, some of it productive and all suitable for grazing; fine fruit is raised 
along the base of the mountains. Population: 597 in 1870; 1880, 863; 1890, 
1,144.

Harvey's lake covers 1,285 acres; the water is of great purity. Perch and trout 
are indigenous; pike were placed in the lake by Hollenback & Urquhart, who owned 
nearly the whole of Lake township at one time. Salmon were put in the lake in 
1876 by the State authorities. It is now an important resort and all about it 
are cottages of people from all parts of the country. The evidences of the 
rapidly growing importance of the place is found that within a few years the 
Lehigh Valley road extended its track from Wilkes-Barre to the lake, and then 
built from the lake to Pittston, and at the present time work is going on 
extending the railroad to the northwest, thus making the lake an important 
railroad junction and the place of easy access to the thousands that flock in 
that direction in the summer months. Excellent, but limited hotel accommodations 
and halls have been provided; and now is being prepared plans for a hotel and 
other buildings to meet the growing demands of visitors and cottage residents. 
Quite a village has sprung up and the evidences of growth and new improvements 
are to be seen on every hand. Two small steamers find constant employment 
carrying the people across and around the lake. The time will come soon when 
Harvey's Lake will be one of the country's noted resorts. The Lake house on the 
eastern shore was built in 1857 by Henry Hancock.

The first white man who lived in Lake township was Matthew Scouten, who was 
employed by the owners of the land to look after the property, as early as 1792. 
He cleared a smal tract, where Jacob Sorber afterward settled, and set out a few 
apple trees.

Daniel Lee settled at the head of Pike's creek in 1806, and the marsh is called 
Lee's pond, from him. He was employed by the farmers of Plymouth to care for 
cattle, which were driven here to graze during the summer.

Otis Allen came from Jackson township in 1836, and began clearing in the 
vicinity of Lee's pond. He brought his family in the spring of 1838. During this 
year Josiah, Nathan and Stephen Kocher, brothers, moved into the township from 
Hunlock township, and John Jackson, Andrew Freeman, Thomas Lewis and Ephraim 
King arrived. In 1839 Jonah Roberts, Elon Davenport, Daniel Casebear, David Moss 
and John Fosnot came, and in 1840 Moses C. Perrigo, Jacob Sorber, Jonah Bronson 
and Jonathan Williams. Previous to 1845 Clarke Wolfe, Jesse Kitchen, George P. 
Shupp, James Hawley and Edward Ide became residents.

Hollenback & Urquhart built a sawmill on the outlet of Harvey's lake in 1839, 
Joseph Frantz built the mill known as the Wildrick mill in 1843. It burned in 
1879. Nathan Kocher built a small mill a mile below the site of the Beaver Run 
tannery in 1845. The mill owned by S. Raub was built by Mr. Benjamin in 1847. A 
lath and shingle mill is connected with this one. Jonathan Williams built a 
small mill on Harvey's creek for Kocher & Urquhart in 1840. One was built by 
Otis Allen in 1860 on Pike's creek. George Snyder and Ira B. Sorber built their 
mills in 1866.

[p.598] F. A. and E. Williams erected a steam portable mill on the site of the 
Wildriek mill in 1879. The first gristmill was put up by Hollenback & Urquhart 
in 1840. They built a new one in 1860 just below. A planing-mill was erected by 
the same parties. All the mills formerly belonging to Hollenback & Urquhart 
became the property of the Hoffman Lumber company. At one time the mills of 
Hollenback & Urquhart, at the outlet of Harvey's lake, cut each year over 
1,000,000 feet of lumber. The present lumber interests in the township are the 
property of Albert Lewis, whose mills are at Harvey's lake. The lumber trade is 
closing up, simply because the logs are giving out.

The first road through the township was chopped out by the proprietors about 
1875 to induce settlement, and ran from Wilkes-Barre to Bradford county.

All the early settlers lived in log houses except Otis Allen and Jacob Sorber, 
who built block-houses. The first frame dwelling was erected by Josiah Kocher in 
1841. The Kocher brothers were carpenters, as were the sons of Otis Allen. The 
Allens were also millwrights. Stephen Kocher was the first blacksmith in Lake 
township.

The first store was kept by Hollenback & Urquhart for the benefit of the men in 
their employ from about 1850 until 1860. F. N. Ruggles established a store near 
the southeast corner of the township in 1872 and sold out in 1874 to his 
brother, C. W. Ruggles. James Sorber kept a store at Booth's Corners in 1863-5. 
Ruggles & Shonk had a store in connection with their tannery. Simeon Lewis kept 
store since 1871.

The Ruggles & Shonk tannery was built in 1874. The firm had built a sawmill in 
1872, which burned in the fall of that year and was rebuilt in 1873.

The first person buried in Lake township was Otis Allen, who died in January, 
1842, aged fifty-six years. He was buried in the Allen cemetery. In September, 
1842, Samuel C. Allen was buried here. The first person buried in the Kocher 
cemetery was Stephen Kocher, who died in September, 1842. The first in the West 
Corner cemetery was Mrs. Sarah Perrigo, wife of Moses C. Perrigo, June 26, 1852; 
the next, Martin M., son of Moses C. Perrigo, May 2, 1853, aged four years. The 
first burial in the White cemetery was that of Eva A., daughter of Theodore 
Wolfe, who died August 2, 1872, aged two months; then Gabriel Valentine, a 
stranger who died in the vicinity. The third was Mrs. Margaret Snyder, wife of 
Henry Snyder, who died September 2, 1872, aged seventy-nine.

The first school in Lake was taught by Jonathan Williams at the house of Otis 
Allen during the winters of 1842-3 and 1843-4. A schoolhouse was built during 
the summer of 1844 on the farm of Henry Ide. The first schoolhouse at West 
Corner was taught by a Mr. Williams in the winters of 1847-8 and 1848-9 in 
Nathan Kocher's house.

Outlet, at the south end of the lake, is a postoffice, and there is a gristmill 
here. The early postoffice was called Lake, but was moved several times and is 
now called Outlet.

Ruggles' old lumber camp, once a busy hamlet, is now going to decay; a store and 
sawmill constitute the place now.

Loyalville is a postoffice in a farmhouse.

Fade's Creek is a postoffice in the southern portion of the township.

                              LAUREL RUN BOROUGH

Was formed in 1881, of territory taken from Wilkes-Barre township, and is a 
station on the mountain side of the Central railroad of New Jersey. The 
postoffice name is Oliver's Mills, and except several mountain residences of 
citizens of Wilkes- Barre, the powder mills of Gen. Oliver constitute pretty 
much all there is of the place. The first borough officers were elected in 
February, 1882, as follows: Burgess, Henry Race; council, H. C. Burrows, Emanuel 
Marshall, Patrick Walsh, Alexander Young, Thomas Hughes and James Spearing; 
first clerk was O. H. Hartland. Present borough officers: Burgess, James Moyle; 
council, George Rother, president, Fredrick Gregory, Edward Lanning, Evans I. 
Harris, John Sheean, William Flaherty and S. L. Williams, secretary.

The Oliver Powder Mills company, organized and chiefly owned by Gen. Paul A. 
Oliver, purchased 600 acres of land, where is now Laurel Run, and their powder 
works, and built the plant in 1872, and commenced active operations in 1873. 
About 100 hands are in the employment, with a capacity of 1,000 kegs a day. The 
county has two other powder mills in it: The Dupont's at Wapwallopen, and the 
Laflin & Rand at Laflin.

                                LEHMAN TOWNSHIP.

This township was taken from Dallas in 1829, and named in honor of Dr. William 
Lehman. Its surface is undulating, and about one-third is good arable land; even 
the hill farms are productive, and when the many sawmills had done their work, 
the valleys and hill sides turned to green fields and beautiful lawns.

Its opening paragraph in history was one of the bloody episodes in the days of 
Indian troubles. March 28, 1780, Asa Upman and John Rogers were making sugar a 
short distance above the mouth of Hunlock creek, when they were suddenly 
surrounded [p.599] by Indians and captured. Upson was killed and Rogers carried 
off. Then they went to where Abram Pike was making sugar, near where is now the 
hamlet now called Pike's Creek, and captured Pike and his wife; camping here the 
first night and helping themselves to Pike's sugar. The ten Indian marauders the 
next day proceeded to where is the hamlet of Orange, where they captured Moses 
Van Campen and his aged father, and Peter Pence, killing old man Van Campen. 
They had painted Mrs. Pike and allowed her to return to her baby, which they had 
bundled and thrown on the roof of the cabin in the morning when they broke camp. 
How they carried the other prisoners to the mouth of Wysox creek, when by 
concert, Rogers, who was only a youth, and was the only one not bound at night, 
stole the Indian's knife, cut the others loose and they attacked their captors, 
killed some and the others fled. Some of the descendants of Rogers are now 
living in Lehman township. The story of Abram Pike and Moses Van Campen are told 
in the general history of the county. Pike has no descendants here; he spent the 
remainder of his life in the neighborhood, and lies buried in the Ide cemetary.

Nehemiah Ide and Jeremiah Brown in 1801 became the first settlers in Lehman 
township. The next man was named Avery, but he remained but a short time. 
William Fuller came in 1802, and two years after came his brother Isaac. Joseph 
Worthington in 1806 settled at Harvey's lake. That year came William Newman; 
John Whiteman in 1813; J. I. Bogardus and Ogden Mosely in 1814. About 1819 came 
Minor Fuller and Fayette Allen; Thomas Major in 1821, and Oliver Mekeel in 1823.

The first frame house was built by William Fuller, in 1801 or 1802, opposite the 
residence of his son, Chester Fuller. Isaac Fuller built a house in 1804; S. P. 
Ide in 1807; J. I. Bogardus and Ogden Mosely in 1814; Ezra Ide in 1819. Fayette 
Allen was the first carpenter; Daniel Whiteman, Nehemiah Ide and Oliver Ide were 
the others. Jonathan Heusted was the first blacksmith; his shop stood near the 
line of Jackson township, at Huntsville. David Gordon began blacksmithing in 
1839, near Z. G. Gordon's. He was in partnership with Ira Lain, a cooper, and 
they carried on both trades. William Gordon was the first shoemaker. He lived 
where is William Wolfe's place. Dr. J. J. Rogers was the first physician; 
followed by Dr. Moody about 1857. The first schoolhouse was a log building, in 
1810, near the site of W. H. Ide's house. J. I. Bogardus and Obed Baldwin were 
the earliest teachers, and were followed by Julius Pratt, Burr Baldwin, Mr. 
Perry and Elijah Worthington. The first schoolhouse at Lehman Center was built 
in 1836 by Daniel and Oliver Ide. Ellen Pugh and Maria Fuller were the first 
teachers here. Miss Fuller became Mrs. A. Ketcham. The next schoolhouse was the 
West Lehman schoolhouse, erected in 1842 by Nathan and Oliver Ide.

The first mill was erected in 1837 by Lewis Hoyt, Frederick Hartman, builder, on 
Harvey's creek. George Sorber built one this year, which was purchased by 
Jameson Harvey in 1840. This was burned in 1876, and Mr. Harvey built the 
present mill on the site. Mills were built by J. Harris in 1838; by Frederick 
Hartman, on the C. B. Major farm, in 1838, for Ephraim King; by Robert Major in 
1836; by R. W. Foster and Ansel Hoyt in 1840; by Rice & Mumford in 1844; by 
George Shupp in 1856, and by the Rice Bros. in 1873. Several of these mills have 
been burned, and some are entirely gone. Morris Lain's stood where J. Harris 
built his; I. Rice, of Kingston, owned the mill built by R. W. Foster; Jefferson 
Miers rebuilt the Ansel Hoyt mill in 1856, and it became the property of M. V. 
Bogart; Sidney Major rebuilt the Rice & Mumford mill, which was owned by Jameson 
Meeker; the George Shupp mill was burned in 1873, rebuilt by W. O. Ruggles. The 
first store was opened about 1848, by Daniel Urquhart and Edward Shott, near 
where the Lehman Center schoolhouse stands. They sold to Bogardus Fisher, who 
sold to Flick & Flannigan. Mr. Flick sold to Flannigan, who ran it many years 
and sold to R. A. Whiteman; the first postoffice was kept in his store in 1820, 
by John Whiteman; a weekly mail was brought from Kingston.

[p.600] The first burial was Nehemiah Ide, age seventy-seven, February 8, 1823. 
The next was Amos Brown's daughter Annie, July 23, 1823, aged fourteen.

Lehman Center is the principal place in the township; two general stores, one 
hardware, one hotel, two blacksmiths. The first burial in the cemetery at this 
place was that of two children of Thomas Major, Jr.

Pike's Creek is a small hamlet - postoffice, store, church and a blacksmith 
shop. 
Named of course for Abram ("Indian") Pike.

                                LUZERNE BOROUGH.

Luzerne became an organized borough in 1882, of territory taken from Kingston 
township.

The history of its first settlers is given in the general history of the 
settlement of Wyoming valley, as epitomized from Miner, Pearce, Chapman and 
other chroniclers of those early times. Mr. Miner's History of Wyoming is not 
only accurate, but in most respects is full of those interesting details of the 
people, brought down to 1844. To this are added the valuable Annals of Stewart 
Pearce, coming down to 1866. Dr. F. C. Johnson, in 1889, published in his 
Historical Record a communication from the pen of John Mathers his account of 
Luzerne borough, that is so complete as to make the best possible history of the 
place, and we give it nearly entire:

"The area of Luzerne borough is 296 acres, bounded as follows: Beginning at the 
center of Union street, on the west side of the D., L. & W. railroad, thence 
along the same north forty-six and a half degrees, east one hundred and thirty- 
nine and a half perches, to the line between the Pettebone estate and the estate 
of Charles Bennett, thence along said line north thirty degrees ten minutes, 
west two hundred and eighty perches to an old railroad, thence along same south 
sixty- five degrees, west twenty-eight and a half perches, south eighty-three 
degrees, west one hundred and thirteen perches, to edge of dug road, thence 
north sixty- four degrees, west fifty-three and a half perches to buttonwood in 
Raub's millpond, thence south thirty degrees ten minutes, east one hundred and 
eighty-six and a half perches, east thirty perches, south thirty degrees ten 
minutes, east two hundred and three perches to place of beginning."

To accommodate the little fringe of settlers at the base of the mountains, and 
just west of the borough lines, that were too few to provide their own schools, 
the west line of the borough was extended in 1890 to the top of the mountain. 
This increased the borough area about 175 acres.

"After an absence of fifty years from my native town, 'Hartseph Hollow,' I 
[p.601] return to tell you of Luzerne fifty years ago [named Hartseph, in honor 
of the early settler, Zachariah Hartseph].

"Within the present limits there were twenty-six dwellings, nineteen of which 
remain to tell the style of residences in 1839 and of an earlier date. A few of 
these remain where they were originally while the balance of the nineteen have 
been repaired or removed and only parts remain.

"Alighting from the train at Bennett station there can be noted at once the farm 
house on the Charles Bennett estate known in the olden times as the Isaac 
Carpenter house - a man from New Jersey of that name having bought the farm of 
the 
Nace heirs. Balser Carpenter lived and died in the house in 1839. Walking some 
distance on Bennett street we pass the Cramer house now occupied by Ellen, 
daughter of Morris Cramer who built it in 1823. That "lean to" on the E. W. 
Abbott's residence was built by two brothers, John and Jacob Hunter, in 1826. 
The front part of the house was built by Godfrey Bowman in 1811. Two tenants 
rented the house in 1839 - Charles Pearce and Betsey Shaffer. This dilapidated 
structure on the corner of Main and "high toned" Walnut streets was known in my 
childhood days as the Amanda Pettibone house. The fabrick has an interesting 
history. The Peggy Shafer house was built by Christopher Miner in 1816, stood on 
the ground where Eliza Harris built her residence, and fifty years since became 
the home and property of James Mathers, father of John Mathers. The old house 
was moved on Buckingham avenue and is now the home of Nancy Walker. The old 
homestead on the Hughes estate is at present the home and property of A. M. 
Hughes, daughter of James and Hannah Hughes who were the occupants fifty years 
ago.

"This old house blacked with culm dust from the Black Diamond breaker was the 
home of our early friend Reuben Holgate. It was built in 1817 or 1818 and 
occupied fifty years ago by George Haughton. That low kitchen connected with the 
Luzerne house was known as the James Holgate house which was built eighty- three 
years ago. Susan Hicks lived there in 1839. The old red mill looks very natural. 
It was an old house when we were small boys, and was the property then of 
Holgate brothers; built eighty years ago. James Holgate occupied the house in 
1839. Reuben Holgate built a store where J. E. Nugent & Co. now have a drug 
store, in 1830. It was moved across Hancock street about 1837, and is now a part 
of the Luzerne house, two stories of the front."

"The old red mill was built in 1839 for William Hanceck by Charles and John 
Mathers, two young millwrights. This was the first mill built by them after 
serving their apprenticeship. Their helpers were John Bartholamew, John Lott, 
William Haines, James Haines and Solomon Haines. The first miller was Lambert 
Bonham.

"That back kitchen on George W. Engle's rented house is a part of the old Philip 
Water's house, was built in 1824. George Houghton moved from this house into the 
Reuben Holgate house April 1, 1839. The house of Sarah Laphy was built by her 
husband David Laphy in 1836, who lived here with his family fifty years ago. The 
old house opposite the iron bridge was built about 1839 by Charles Laphy, who 
was then one of Hartseph's citizens. David Atherholt related the house between 
iron bridge and Waddell's shaft, it was built by Jonas De Long in 1814 and fifty 
years ago was the home of Peregrine Jones, when it was known as the Jonas De 
Long house. Thomas Waddell's rented house near the shaft was built by Josiah 
Squires in 1826, whose family resided here fifty years ago. Your humble scribe 
was born in this forbidding abode in 18 - . The Island schoolhouse was built 
between the years 1818 and 1825. It has been repaired a number of times. C. 
Hasbranch taught the winter term of 1839, hired for three months at $15 per 
month and board, commencing the term January 10, 1839.

"Between 1816 and 1820 a building was erected on the ground where H. N. 
Schorley's plaster and chopping mill is. This building and its connections were 
[p.602] used for different purposes in the olden times. Thomas Reese moved a 
barn across Toby's creek and had it for a blacksmith shop. This was then turned 
into a plaster and chopping mill, also a clover mill; an oilmill was connected 
with the building. Jacob Hoover had charge of it in 1839. The property was then 
owned by George Hallenback. Over fifty years ago George W. Little built the old 
part of Thomas Wright's mill. It was originally built for a plaster-mill. G. W. 
Little used it for a time as a dwelling."

About this time a boarding-house was erected for the accommodation of the 
"Louisa Little" furnace hands. It was built by Gaylord & Smith. William Wallace 
is now a renter in the house. The part of Raubville hotel that fronts on Main 
street was fifty years ago a storehouse built by Henderson Gaylor and Draper 
Smith in 1838. The front and old part of the residence of Mrs. Caroline Raub was 
built by George W. Little, and was his home fifty years ago. Raub's old red 
mill- house was built by John Gore in 1838. Henry Stroh was miller in 1839. 
Raub's white mill was built in 1812, by James Hughes, Sr.; it was repaired and 
repainted a number of times. George W. Little and John Gore owned the property 
in 1839."

"The ancient village was called Hartseph, in honor of Zachariah Hartseph, an old 
settler who lived here nearly 100 years ago. Our grandmothers used to tell us he 
had a son, Peter Hartseph, who 'was one of your handsome men.'

"The 'village blacksmith' fifty years ago was Pierce Bowman, a resident of 
Pringville at this time [1889]. I met him the other day on his way home from 
Luzerne postoffice with his Herald, which he peruses with as much interest as he 
did the Gleaner in the days of long ago. He gave me the address of a number of 
our early acquaintances still living. The list includes John Mathers, Andrew 
Raub, Hiram Johnson, Mary Ann Hughes, Ann Maria Hughes, Charles Hughes, Margaret 
S. Hughes, Edward Hughes, James Hughes, Betsey Houghten, William Houghten, Sarah 
Lapley, Martha Raub, Mary Raub, Deborah Raub, Henderson Bonham, Fuller Bonham, 
Barnes Bonham, Catharine Wagner, James Hancock, Elizabeth Hancock, Catharine 
Hancock, Ann McCormic, Charles Pierce, Jefferson Pierce, Kate Line, Ellen 
Cramer, Priscilla Cramer, Caroline Cramer, Susan Cramer, Elizabeth Stroh, Mary 
Stroh, Ruth G. Stroh, Peter Stroh, Sallie Stroh, Christiana Stroh, John Fox, 
Lucinda Reese, Mary Haines, Rachael, Margaret, Sallie Leagraves, John S. 
Carpenter and Elizabeth Carpenter."

A few days after Mr. Mather wrote the above account of the early settlers he was 
at a dinner of the descendants of old friends and they made up the following:

Josiah Squires built the first house ever in Luzerne, the noted log that stood 
on Tobey creek, a few rods from Waddell's shaft. The first child born there was 
Elizabeth Bowman, July, 1807; the first preacher was Benjamin Bidlack; the first 
Sunday school snperintendent, James Abbott; first physician, Eleazer Parker, 
1809; first schoolhouse, the Island, built in 1818; first teacher, Esther Dean, 
fifteen pupils; first blacksmith, Johnny Bowman; first butcher, John Woods, 
1825; first whisky seller, Adam Shaver. 1814; first cabinet-maker, George W. 
Little; first wagon-maker, Daniel F. Coolbaugh; first politician, William Hicks, 
Sr.; first undertaker, John W. Little; first miller, James Gray; first 
shoemaker, Peregrine Jones; first carpenter, Jonas De Long; first tanner, Samuel 
Thomas; first painter, Rhode Smith; first cooper, Josiah Squires; first miners, 
William Evans, Henry Beck, Nicholas Beck and Henry Brown; first gravestone 
cutters, Joseph Wheeler and Abel Flint. first news agents, William Barker and 
John Karkuff; first tailor, David Laphy; first merchant, Reuben Holgate; first 
gunsmith, Abel Greenleaf; first combmaker, George Houghton; first millwright and 
surveyor, James Hughes, Sr.; first milliner Amanda Pettebone; first dressmaker, 
Maria Trucks; first tailoress, Esther Marsh; first molders, George Shafer and 
William Norris; first temperance lecturer, Thomas Hunt; first gristmill, Little 
& Gore's; first plaster, oil and clover mill, George Hollenback's; first 
drugstore, William Tucks; first postmaster, E. Walter Abbott, commissioned May 
15, 1866; this was the time and cause of a change of the [p.603] name from 
Hartseph to Mill Hollow, because there were four mills there; first tin store by 
Martin Pembleton and James Pettebone, 1869; first candy shop, Morris Gibler; 
first culm bank, the Black Diamond.

This is largely a census of the survivors and descendants of the twenty families 
that fifty years ago constituted the inhabitants of what is now mostly Luzerne 
borough. What a pity for local history, which after all is the real history, 
that there is not another John Mathers for each locality and for each 
generation. While the borough of Luzerne lasts it will at all events carry down 
with its history the name of John Mathers, who jotted down in the above his 
recollections.

The first officers on the organization of the borough were: Ziba Mathers, 
burgess; T. M. Fry, secretary; council: Jesse T. Welter, president, Thomas 
Wright, James L. Crawford, Michael Laphy, John Thomas, Michael Farley.

The burgesses in the order of service as follows: Ziba Mathers, John McKay, J. 
B. Cole, A. J. Brace (who disappeared and his term was filled out by Lazarus S. 
Walker), Henry C. Johnson, Robert Wallace, William Wallace, and the present 
incumbent, Lazarus S. Walker. The present council: Jacob Young, president; David 
Pembleton, Benjamin Morrissey, James N. Hake, Edward T. Jones, Nathaniel Van 
Orisdale, Lancey Arnold, Addison C. Church; secretary, Henry C. Johnson; chief 
police, Gotlieb Walty; street commissioner, George Hughes. A fire company is 
organizing and a town and company house is being constructed on Hughes street, 
near Main. The borough is supplied with water by the Wilkes-Barre water company, 
which extended a thirty-inch main to the place in 1880.

In the borough are 4 gristmills, 2 breakers, 1 planing mill (the same party 
building machine shop), 1 lumber yard, 5 hotels, 3 livery stables, 3 company and 
2 general stores, 1 hardware, 1 clothing, 6 small trading places.

Electric street cars from Wilkes-Barre, every fifteen minutes, extended to this 
place in 1890; electric light by the Kingston electric light company - 
incandescent.

The most of the land in the original town limits is rich valley soil and 
admirably adapted to farming. Until after 1864 it was farmed extensively. The 
development of the coal business about this time and the growth of the place and 
the sale of lots for residences, rapidly changed the old conditions.

                                 MARCY TOWNSHIP

Was formed of territory taken from Pittston, Ransom and old Forge townships, 
January 19, 1880, and named in honor of the sturdy old pioneer and first settler 
in this region, Zebulon Marcy, a name that figures extensively in the first 
account of the people of Pittston township. A census was taken at its formation 
and found to be 1,159 inhabitants, which in 1890 had increased to 2,904, and the 
rapidity of the growth of the population since the recent opening of her 
collieries is specially marked in the growth of the village of Duryea, which by 
actual count in June, 1892, had a population of 2,195. No township in the county 
has had a greater comparative prosperity than this the past two years. It is 
rich in mining and agriculture. Three railroads, the Lehigh Valley, and the Erie 
& Wyoming Valley and the D., L. & W. railroads pass through it, and it enjoys 
every facility of transportation.

As stated, the new township was named in honor of Zebulon Marcy, who emigrated 
from Connecticut in the spring of 1770, and located about three miles above 
Pittston borough, on the left side of the road leading up the valley. Choosing 
this spot for his residence, upon the warrior's path, his rude log hut soon 
became famous for convenience and for the genial hospitality of its host. Mr. 
Marcy became a man of local importance, and was elected in January, 1772, the 
first constable of Pittston township.

When Conrad Weiser, a celebrated Indian interpreter, visited Wyoming in 1754, he 
found an Indian village called "Asserughney," on the banks of the Susquehanna 
between the mouth of the Lackawanna river and Campbell's ledge, near the site of 
the depot of the Lehigh Valley railroad. It was a small village, hunting and 
fishing [p.604] being the main sources of support. The summit of Campbell's 
ledge, towering above, afforded an uninterrupted lookout over the valley below, 
and was used by the Indians not only in watching over their wigwams, nestled 
along the river, but as a place to kindle their beacon or signal fires. This 
castle or encampment was the upper one of the Delawares in the Wyoming valley. 
It was a point of importance because of its favorable location for trading 
purposes. The great war path from the inland lakes of New York to Wyoming and 
the south, and the trail down the Lackawanna from the Minisink homes on the 
Delaware, passed through it.

The far-famed Campbell's ledge is situated on the west border of the township, 
where the Susquehanna seems to have broken through the mountain barrier, forming 
a wide gorge. The ledge was formerly called Dial rock, from the fact of its 
presenting a nearly perpendicular face of considerable length, lying directly 
north and south, and being first illuminated when the sun reaches the meridian. 
The Indians and the white people of the upper end of the valley thus had a 
timepiece more serviceable than many town clocks. It is a historic spot in the 
way of a natural curiosity. The mountain here is 2,800 feet high and from it is 
one of the finest views of the valley and its towns and boroughs. The ledge is 
only 2,000 feet high, but is approachable by a good road. This name was adopted 
for the ledge in compliment to Campbell's "Gertrude of Wyoming." Of course, like 
every other perpendicular ledge in America, that is finished off with a curdling 
legend of the "maiden's leap," or the "lover's leap," or something of that kind, 
always where the villain still pursued her." This, too, has been applied to the 
poet Campbell's namesake, and into its legend the story teller had a man named 
Campbell hemmed in by the legion of savages, and when fairly at bay on the edge 
of the precipice and the savages were upon him, jumped over, horse and all, 
rather than be slowly roasted by the painted cannibals. But this weak story has 
gone out of fashion.

Duryea is the postoffice village in the township situated two miles north of 
Pittston borough. In the vicinity of this place have recently been erected new 
coal breakers, and not only here but all over the township there has been a 
rapid rise in real estate. The village has postal, telegraph and telephone 
communications, as well as being topped by three leading railroads. The village 
is laid off and built up in good style, and elegant business and residence 
houses are just built or building on every hand. It already has a population of 
2,200, and constant increase is of daily remark. A Catholic and a Methodist 
church are already built. The Epworth have a league here, and the musical tastes 
of the village has supplied a cornet band under the leadership of John Farraday.

The collieries here are the Phoenix breaker and the Columbia breaker, of the Old 
Forge Coal company, limited, and the Babylon breaker, of Simpson and Watkins. 
The business houses are: 1 baker, 2 blacksmiths, 3 carpenters, 3 milliners, 1 
drug store, 2 dry goods, 2 general stores, 1 gent's furnishing, 3 grocery 
stores, 1 hats and caps, 4 hotels, 1 iron fence manufactory, 1 meat market, 1 
drill moving factory, 3 physicians, 2 livery stables, 1 undertaker.

                              MINER'S MILLS BOROUGH.

Thomas Wright, a bright, young educated Irishman, landed in Philadelphia in 
1763, and soon after was in charge of a school at Dyerstown, near Doylestown, 
where he married Mary Dyer. A few years after he removed to Wilkes-Barre and 
became the founder of Wrightsville, now the borough of Miner's Mills. He built a 
mill at that place in 1795, which has since remained in the possession of his 
descendants - to Asher Minor (his son-in-law); to Robert Minor; to C. A. Miner; 
four generations. From 1795 to 1801 Thomas Wright was one of the commissioners 
of Luzerne county. The mill was burned in the latter part of 1825; rebuilt by 
Robert Minor for his father. It is now the firm of Charles A. Miner & Co., 
making the fifth change and always in the same family. Thus has come into 
existence one of the important and prosperous outlying suburban towns of Wilkes-
Barre, that is connected [p.605] with the city by the electric street railway. 
As related elsewhere, Asher and Charles Miner each married a Wright. The name of 
the place is its history. The great mill is still the most important plant of 
the kind in the county. The Miners were men of varied talents and strong 
characters. They established newspapers, were important factors in developing 
the coal of this region, leaders in statesmanship and advanced manufactures 
successfully. In all these they were philosophical and practical; making money 
and expending it freely in aid of the growth of this region, and losing much 
money in some of their enterprises, simply, however, in each case because they 
were much in advance of their age and time. Charles Minor wrote and published 
articles concerning anthracite coal that were truly prophetic, and he backed 
those ideas with his patient toil and fortune only to fail because life was too 
short for him to educate the world to his advanced ideas. Now every child in the 
land practically knows what he then found it so difficult to impress upon the 
wisest in the community.

The borough of Miner's Mills was organized December 12, 1883. The meeting place 
in all preliminaries was at Michael Athey's hotel. The first officers: Burgess, 
Joseph Moore; council: Evan T. Morgan, secretary; John Gallagher, treasurer; 
George Ayres, Bernard Burke, president; Gavin Burt and Thomas Borland.

Present officers: Burgess, John Ross; council: William Coon, president; Joseph 
Moore, secretary; George Burt, treasurer; Gavin Burt, John Mayock, John Ayers, 
William Simons and Charles Mugan; assessor, John Hogan; collector, Thomas E. 
Jones; high constable, William McDonald.

The business interests in the place: 3 blacksmiths, 5 carpenters, 1 drugstore, 7 
general stores, 3 grocers, 1 hardware dealer, 3 hotels, 1 livery, 1 meat market, 
2 newsdealers and the great commercial mill.

                               NANTICOKE BOROUGH

May now begin the preparations for her centennial. One hundred years will, in a 
few months, have been reeled off in the great past since its first settlement. 
Mr. Plumb informs us that in 1793 William Stewart, who, it will be remembered 
owned lot No. 27, first division, had it surveyed off, platted the lots and 
streets and commenced the sale of lots in the embryo town. That there was a 
ready demand for the lots is shown in the fact that between February 9 and March 
14 of the succeeding year he sold thirty-six lots in the new town of Nanticoke. 
The name perpetuates that of the Indians, who had their camp near the river on 
the west side of the creek. The chief attractions that induced the Indians here 
were the abundance of shad then found in the river, as well as the game that 
made their homes in the forests. To this day may be found old remains and relics 
left by the savages. The main artery in the new village was to Great road. The 
total of lots at first was from No. 1 to 136. The names of first thirty-six 
purchasers were as follows: Jared Nelson, John Field, George Miller, Michael 
Palm, Daniel Herman, Thomas Beady, Michael Moyer, John Ewing, Elizabeth Stein, 
John Palm, Jr., Jonathan Hancock, Wyllys Hide, John Martin, Henry Stein, George 
Stein, Thomas Peas, Christian Srauder, Zekiel Bamboc, James Ainsworth, George 
Hegetshwiller, Henry Thomas, Peter Withington, Ebenezer Felch, Peter Steele, 
William Wood, Michael Killinger, John Ricker, Jr., John Harrison, Peter 
Heimbrick, John Fox, Jacob Miller, William Allen, Jacob Miley, George Sloan, 
Jesse Fell, Christian Beck. All of these except Hancock, Hide, Felch, Steele and 
Fell were residents of Dauphin county, and it is not known that any of them 
resided at Nanticoke. The present old part of Nanticoke is the Stewart plat. 
Stewart had here a ferry across the river. In April, 1778, a road was laid out 
from the river road to this ferry. The old road down to the ferry has long since 
gone, but there is a house where once was the ferry, and a passage-way, much the 
same as the old road, goes to it.

William McKarrichan, the first school teacher, was also the first merchant in 
Nanticoke. The bloody ending of his life is told elsewhere. The attention of the 
606 people was called to this point, and what originally made it a town site was 
the water power, and a gristmill and soon other mills were built to utilize this 
power. The "falls" here made navigation dangerous and difficult; even in running 
rafts, arks, Durham boats, etc., it was necessary to have skilled pilots to take 
the boats over the falls or rapids. This was enough to form the nucleus for the 
settlement. Then, too, at that time it was necessary for the farm people to have 
their houses as close as possible to each other, so that in case of an attack 
they could defend themselves in a body and give mutual protection.

Then on this rich bottom land were clearings where the Indians had performed 
their rude farming for years. These were farms ready made for the pioneers. The 
falls in the river were caused by this being the place where the river breaks 
through the mountains and leaves the valley, and the gathering waters rush and 
roar over the rocks and then peacefully resume their race to the sea. Then, too, 
where the waters have cut their way through the mountain is found in outcrop the 
coal, and this the people could gather, and from here coal was mined and shipped 
down the river long before the days of the canal.

After selling about one-third of his lots Stewart sold in lump the others to 
Mathias Hollenback, and he in turn sold his interest to John Mills and others.

As stated there was a ferry at Nanticoke soon after the permanent settlement of 
that place and Plymouth. When the canal was built there had to be another ferry 
across the canal. Below Nanticoke the canal was on the west side of the river, 
but from Solomon's creek to Pittston it was on the east of the river. The river 
was used for the canal a distance of about three miles above Nanticoke, but the 
regular artificial canal commenced again at Solomon's creek. The Nanticoke falls 
were dangerous to pass on the river and many were at one and another time 
drowned here.

Nanticoke borough was duly incorporated January 31, 1874. and now has eleven 
wards. In 1880 it had a population of 3,884, and by the census of 1890, a 
population of 10,044, and is a thriving, growing town. The chief business is 
coal mining, and its three mines and breakers have a daily capacity of 1,000 
tons each. Its territory was carved from Hanover and Newport townships, about 
one-third of it from Newport.

An elegant stone bridge has been built across Newport creek, near where the old 
mill stood. The ground around what was once the "corners" (an old time term for 
any road crossing) has been filled several feet and the topography of that place 
thereby much changed. The "corners" were the ancient town beginning, but as they 
were in a state of nature they are now no more. A wooden bridge was built across 
the river, just above the mouth of Nanticoke creek. At different points, Mr. 
Plumb informs us, this creek has been called by various names, as Lee's creek, 
Miller's creek, Robins creek, Bobbs creek, Rummage creek and Warrior Run creek, 
but the one proper name of it all is Nanticoke creek.

Washington Lee mined the first coal here in 1825.

Mathias Gruver kept the first tavern on Main street. In 1820 Thomas Bennett was 
the hotel-keeper of the place, in what is the Mrs. Rouse house. In 1820 there 
were charcoal pits, for manufacturing that fuel, where is now the Nanticoke 
hotel and Alexander block.

A man named John Oint in 1820 built the pioneer gristmill, sawmill, oilmill and 
the old forge called the trip-hammer shop. Oint sold soon after to Col. 
Washington Lee, who in addition opened a store and built and operated a 
distillery. Thomas Bennett opened a tavern and blacksmith shop.

The first resident physician was Alden I. Bennett, who came here in 1825. He was 
succeeded by Drs. Thompson, Robbins and Harry Hakes.

The first postmaster, David Thompson, was appointed in 1830, and kept the office 
at his house on the hill, near where C. M. Richards now lives. In 1838 Mr. 
Thompson and Daniel Stiles built a store where Washington Lee's banking-house 
now stands. The postoffice was kept there a few years.

[p.607] In 1838 Henry Stains built a store on the site of the Susquehanna 
company's store. In 1845 there was a small tannery on the site of the Fountain 
hotel. In 1851 there were but fifty-six dwellings within the present limits of 
Nanticoke.

The first borough election was held at the Fountain hotel, kept by Xavier 
Wernett, on Tuesday, February 17, 1874, E. N. Alexander and Patrick Shea were 
the inspectors. Lewis C. Green was elected burgess; Xavier Wernett, E. N. 
Alexander, Patrick Shea, George T. Morgan, Orin Council, Samuel Lines, William 
Fairchild, L. W. Carey, Thomas R. Williams, Joseph Shepherd and George Ahrs, 
school, board; Samuel Keithline, justice of the peace; George Hill, assessor; 
Samuel Line, L. W. Carey and Dr. A. A. Lope, auditors; L. W. Carey, clerk of the 
town council. The successive burgesses have been as follows: 1875-7, Lewis C. 
Green; 1876, Milton Stiles; 1878-9, I. D. Williams.

Present borough officers: Burgess, John D. Williams; council: Frank W. Davis, 
president; David B. Williams, James M. Turner, John E. Lewis, Vincent B. 
Keeoicz, Peter Conroy, John D. Goss, T. C. Bache, Elijah Jones, Edward Wernet, 
Anthony Galembeski; secretary, J. S. Dietrick; chief police, Lee Willington; 
chief of fire, Abednego Reese; street commissioner, Joseph Smith. The fire 
laddies have Stickney Hose company No. 1, Lape Hose company No. 2, Union Hose 
company No. 3 and the Hook and Ladder company.

Silas Alexander was appointed postmaster in 1844 and was continuously in the 
office until 1856, when he was succeeded by Lewis C. Paine, who in a short time 
was followed by Augustus Lease. In 1864 Mr. Alexander was again appointed 
postmaster and continued in the office until December 31, 1882, when he was 
succeeded by John H. Jonas and the latter by F. P. Crotzer, who was in turn 
succeeded by the present incumbent, George T. Morgan, with assistant H. J. 
Dilley and four clerks-and four carriers. The office was given free delivery 
January 1, 1892. The postoffice is always a fair index of the growth and 
prosperity of a place, and by this standard Nanticoke has much to pride herself 
upon.

In her coal industry, vast and important as that is, Nanticoke is about to 
receive a great addition thereto. The D. L. & W. company are about to open eight 
new collieries in the place and its immediate vicinity. The Susquehanna Coal 
company will also add new collieries to its already large business. Probably 
there is a larger proportion of Poles in Nanticoke than of any other 
nationality. Of course, like all mining places, there are great varieties in the 
nationalities. There are hamlets and important boroughs in the county where 
sometimes strangers are much puzzled on their first visits. In passing along the 
streets and stopping the chance individual to make some inquiry he will so often 
be met with a vacant stare, or, a little better, a shake of the head and a 
grunt, until one not used to such solecisms in his "glorious land of freedom," 
may be inclined to wonder whether he is dreaming or has been transported to 
Poland, Hungary or Bulgaria in his sleep.

One of the busy offices in Nanticoke is that of the Susquehanna coal company and 
its array of clerks, book-keepers and office men. It is capitalized at 
$4,000,000. Officers: president, G. B. Roberts; vice-president, I. J. Wistar; 
treasurer, A. Haviland; secretary, A. Mordecia; manager, Irving A. Stearns; 
superintendent, George T. Morgan.

First National Bank of Nanticoke was organized in November, 1888, and opened its 
doors to the public January 14, 1889; capital, $75,000; surplus, $13,000; 
deposits, $167,189.78. Directors: John Smoulter, Jr., president; H. W. Search, 
vice-president; J. C. Brader, William Fairchild, Gaius L. Halsey, Xavier Wernet, 
John M. Garman, C. Frank Bohan, Henry Schappert; H. D. Flanagan, cashier.

Nanticoke Water Company was chartered in 1885. Officers: George T. Morgan, 
superintendent, assisted by C. W. Moseley; J. S. Dertrick, secretary. Water is 
conveyed by gravity lines from Harvey's creek, and on reaching its end is pumped 
into the tall and capacious stand-pipe, ninety feet high. Thus the town is well 
supplied with excellent water and a head sufficient to give it pressure of 
ninety-five pounds [p.608] to the square inch. The pumphouse is at the foot of 
Lee street, where are two duplex pumps with a capacity of a million gallons per 
day.

Nanticoke Light Company has a fine electric plant, and the many arc lights of 
the streets and the incandescent lamps in the houses and offices are the 
greatest additions the place has so far received. The works were started in a 
small way by Hildreth & Co. in 1884, and in November, 1889, passed into the 
hands of the above stock company. The company has enlarged the building and 
added every facility in the way of dynamos and machine power, including the 
incandescent machinery and two arc machines and an additional engine. It now has 
a capacity of 120 arc and 1,100 incandescent lights. Officers: A. Reese, 
president; A. Lape, vice- president; T. F. Jacob, secretary; H. D. Flanagan, 
treasurer.

Nanticoke Board of Trade was organized in November, 1886, and its charter is 
dated February 14, 1887. Has forty members. Officers: J. C. Brader, president; 
Robert Schwartz, vice-president, and Henry S. Fairchild, constitute the board; 
William H. Sharp, treasurer; William P. Jones, secretary.

In the borough are 1 opera house, 8 halls, 1 bank, 2 bakers, 3 blacksmiths, 1 
stationery dealer, 1 bottler, 1 brick manufacturer, 5 carpenters, 2 carpet 
weavers, 2 cigar and tobacco, 5 clothing, 3 coal breakers, 9 confectioners, 5 
crockery and glass, 2 dentists, 6 druggists, 13 dry goods, 2 fancy goods, 1 
feedmill, 1 ferry, 1 fruit dealer, 5 furniture, 2 gent's furnishing, 33 grocers, 
9 hardware, 2 harness makers, 10 hotels, 1 laundry, 4 merchant tailors, 4 
milliners, 1 photographer, 3 private (Catholic) schools, 4 livery stables, 1 
stone quarry, 3 stove dealers, 3 undertakers, 4 jewelers.

                              NESCOPECK TOWNSHIP.

Stewart Pearce in his Annals, 1866, says:

"Nescopeck township was separated from Newport In 1792. Jacob Smithers, Jacob 
Shover, Martin Arner and Jacob Seyberling settled in the territory of this 
township in 1791, on the banks of the Nescopeck creek, near its mouth. In 1796, 
including Hollenback, Sugarloaf, Butler, Black Creek, and Hazel townships, it 
contained 31 taxables, 36 horses, 58 head of horned cattle, 3 gristmills, and 3 
sawmills. In 1797 Harvey D. Walker built a grist and sawmill about one mile from 
Nescopeck village. The first church was erected in 1811, on the turnpike, by the 
Lutherans and German Reformed members, about four miles from the village.

This township contains twenty-eight square miles, a portion of which is 
mountainous, and the remainder is flat or river-bottom and rolling land. Its 
timber is chiefly oak, chestnut and hemlock, and its soil is adapted to wheat, 
rye, oats and corn. Its market is Hazleton. It has 3 sawmills, 2 gristmills, 1 
carding and fulling mill, 1 forge, 2 stores, 2 churches and 3 taverns.

Nescopeck village is built on the site of an ancient town of the Delaware 
Indians. It was the rendezvous of the hostile savages during the French and 
Indian war, upward of 100 years ago. It has about twenty dwellings, one store 
and a tavern. The southern line of Luzerne county crosses the Susquehanna at 
this place, cutting the Nescopeck bridge diagonally about midway.

List of taxables in Nescopeck in 1796:

Walter Kaar, Henry Hepler, William Sims, Jacob Hepler, Abraham Arnold, Henry 
Mattis, Joseph Bush, Martin Herner, Henry Nulf, Lawrence Kurrens, Cornelius 
Bellas, Jacob Severlin, Michael Horriger, Christian Smeeders, Casper Nulf, John 
Nulf, Adam Nulf, John Freese, Benjamin Van Horn, George Tilp, Robert Patton, 
John Kennedy, James McVail, Adam Lurner, John Decker, Isaac Taylor, Daniel Lee, 
Zebulon Lee, John Pattman. William Rittenhouse and Joseph Kaar.

It is believed the first settler in what is now Nescopeck township was George 
Walker, in 1786, settled near where was the old-time Benjamin Evans' gristmill. 
Walker made improvement and commenced to build a mill, but the "Pumpkin [p.611] 
flood" of that year washed everything away. About the same time a family settled 
on the Michael Raber farm. The whole family were massacred. George Walker soon 
after the massacre left the country, and it is supposed went west, where he 
could have more room.

In 1787 a road was laid out from Nescopeck falls to the Lehigh river, following 
afterward very nearly all the way by the turnpike that passed through the 
village of Conyngham, on its way to Hazleton. Evan Owens was the proprieter of 
Berwick, and to this day you will hear old men speak of the "Owens road."

The first land grant was the Campania tract, lying west of Big Wapwallopen 
creek, surveyed to Daniel Grant in 1769; patented to George Campbell in 1773. 
The next grant was to Jacob Bittendorfer in 1808. This was then Evans mill 
tract.

Settlers along the Nescopeck creek in 1791 were Jacob Smithers, Jacob Shover, 
Martin Aton and Jacob Seyberling. In 1807 Henry Dewespecht, Michael Harrier, 
Conrad Bloos, Jacob Bittenbender, Jr.; William Moore, Thomas Cole, Conrad 
Reiderich, John Henry, Casper Henry, Michael Whitenecht, Michael Nauss, Conrad 
Bingheimer, Peter Clingeman, Bernard Snyder, John Rooth, George Bittenbender, 
George Keens, John Buss,  -  Daly,  -  Bassinger, and a surveyor by the name of 
Chesney had settled in Nescopeck. They were nearly all from Northampton county. 
From this time settlers came in rapidly. The Fortners, Sloyers and Smiths came 
about 1828, and the families of Evans and Williams soon after. Jonas Buss, who 
settled here in 1807, is now living at Mifflin, Columbia county, at the age of 
eighty- nine. He still retains his memory of early events to a remarkable 
degree, and we are indebted to him for many facts concerning the early history 
of the township.

William Rittenhouse, who owned large tracts of land in this and adjoining towns, 
built a log gristmill on Nescopeck creek about 1795, as an inducement for 
settlers to purchase his lands. He sold to Jacob Rittenhouse in 1808. Nathan 
Beach, so prominently mentioned in the account of Salem township as a man of 
great enterprise, built a mill on Wapwallopen creek near a place called "Powder 
Hole," in 1795. There were three mills on this site - all burned by accident. In 
1795 Samuel Mifflin built his sawmill near the mouth of Nescopeck creek. In 1824 
Henry Bowman built on this spot, using the old dam, his three-story gristmill; 
sold to Daniel Evans in 1838, who added a plaster-mill. In 1853 John McMurtria 
built his gristmill above the Evans mill; he sold to J. Johnson in 1860. In 1840 
John T. Davis built a fulling-mill on a branch of the Nescopeck; sold it to J. 
Stephenson in 1860, who ran it until it closed down. H. Haschner built a sawmill 
in 1867 on Nescopeck creek. On the same creek, in 1830, E. and J. Leidy built 
their forge, three fires and two hammers, making blooms and bar iron of ore 
obtained from Columbia county. The late Hon. Simon Cameron at one time had an 
interest in this forge. It passed into the hands of S. F. Headley, who enlarged 
it and ran it until 1854, when its fires were permanently banked. A tannery on 
Nescopeck creek was built in 1858 by Theodore and George Naugle; run until 1870. 
They built a sawmill in 1856.

Nescopeck Village was started into life in 1786 by the fact that at that time 
Samuel Mifflin opened his little store on the bank of the river, now in the 
village site. His agent and manager on the ground was William Baird, residence 
and store room all one. The building was frame and is said to be the first of 
its kind in the township. The next move toward making the place was the opening 
of George Rough's blacksmith shop near by. A ferry was now operated, and a man 
named Steiner opened his log cabin hotel at the foot of the ferry. In 1807 John 
Myers built his frame hotel and then the village began to put on airs, as well 
it might. Another was built by John Rothermel in 1815. His son, the painter of 
the celebrated picture, "The Battle of Gettysburg," was born here. In 1817 
Christian Kunkle built the stone house now owned by the Cooper heirs, in 
Nescopeck village burning the brick for the chimneys, and for a three-story 
building in Berwick, on the ground. Michael Raber built the first brick dwelling 
and burned the brick for all the rest.

[p.612] A bridge across the Susquehanna was built in 1816. A flood swept the 
bridge away in 1836, and the following year it was rebuilt. It is 1,250 feet 
long.

It is now estimated there are 650 residents in the village. The old stone house 
was once the hotel of the place. In 1827-8 the place was noted for its rapid 
growth and the business air that prevailed. The drowsy village was wakened into 
active life and the musical horns of the canal boats roused up the latent fires 
of the once lucky-go-easy natives. The little boys then, the little remnant now 
left, are very old men, love to tell how they played hookey and would go down 
and all day watch the great canal boats arrive and depart, and how they longed, 
and hardly dared hope, the time would come when they could reach the exalted 
positions of drivers on the canal. About the total business of the people was at 
one time canaling, and as soon as a boy was fourteen or fifteen his ambition 
would be gratified - surfeited the first round trip, and then he would commence 
scheming to run away from his cruel master. The boy had to whip the mules and 
the boss would whip the boys, or perhaps it would be more descriptive to say he 
whipped the mules through the boys - a kind of vicarious tickling. The village 
has 
an important railroad junction. The main line of the Pennsylvania Central passes 
through the place, and in 1886 a branch was built from here to Hazleton. No 
village in the county is improving better than this. Many of the people have 
their homes here and do business or work in some of the industries across the 
river in Berwick. Milton Brundage was the original town proprietor. His three 
sons have sold their interests and reside in Hazleton. G. P. Miller was the 
first to buy a lot on the north side of the main street, pick off the stones and 
build his present Central hotel. There are in the place 2 hotels, 1 grist mill 
(the old Evans mill mentioned above), 3 general stores; railroad round house and 
machine shops (working about 60 men); 2 drug stores, 1 furniture, 1 grocery, 1 
hardware, 1 meat market, some small trading places, blacksmith's and carpenter's 
shops.

Briggsville is the only other postoffice in the township. There is a store here; 
was at one time a tavern, but no longer open to the public.

Sugarloaf is a station on the Hazleton branch of railroad, six miles from 
Nescopeck. A station house. A fertilizing factory is the only business of the 
place.

                                NEWPORT TOWNSHIP

Was one of the original townships when this was Westmoreland county, Conn., and 
derives its name from Newport, R. I. It now contains within its boundaries but 
nineteen square miles, whereas originally it was all of what are now Newport, 
Slocum, Dorrance. Hollenback, Conyngham and Nescopeck townships.

The first settlement in Newport was made by Maj. Prince Alden, in 1772, on the 
Col. Washington Lee property. A few years after this his sons, Mason F. and John 
Alden, erected a forge on Nanticoke creek. In the same year Mr. Chapman put up a 
log gristmill, with one run of stone, near the forge. This was the only mill in 
Wyoming that escaped destruction from floods and from the torch of the savage. 
In 1780 it was guarded by armed men, and, as far as possible, it met the wants 
of the public, but many of the settlers were compelled to carry their grain to 
Stroud's mill, at Stroudsburg, a distance of fifty miles.

Even when Stewart Pearce wrote his Annals he states that the industry of 
farming, once quite a business of all the people, was passing away - the farmers 
selling their land to the coal companies and moving off. While the lands were 
mostly hilly and undulating, yet they were once productive, but when the coal 
operators got possession of them, farms began to be neglected and soon 
agriculture was given over to careless and indifferent renters or turned out as 
commons. "Companies seem to take no interest in the improvement of the farms, 
further than to rent them on short and uncertain leases for enough to pay the 
taxes." In other words, Newport is now almost exclusively "a mining district" - 
a 
term sufficiently descriptive to the average reader.

[p.613] Prince Alden made his improvement on Newport creek; in modern times his 
place was the property of Col. Washington Lee. This description is still 
somewhat vague, as Lee owned at various times a great deal of property. Either 
Alden's first location was in what is now a part of Nanticoke borough or was 
very close thereto. Of one thing there is little doubt, namely, that his 
settlement here was the cause of the coming of the first settlers in what is now 
Nanticoke borough, such as William Stewart and others, who came in 1773. About 
one-third of the borough of Nanticoke, the south part, was taken from Newport 
township. To which the reader is referred for the early settlers. The first 
record information we can find of the original settlers is of date June 13, 
1787, as follows:

NEWPORT TOWNSHIP. - At a meeting legally warned and held at the house of Prince 
Alden, Saturday, June 9, 1787, made choice of Mr. Prince Alden, moderator, and 
Mason F. Alden, clerk.
"Resolved, Whereas the survey of this town was utterly lost at the destruction 
of this settlement, it is, therefore, resolved that a committee of three persons 
be appointed to carefully inspect into and ascertain the proprietors and actual 
settlers of the town of Newport at or before the decree of Trenton," etc.
The town meeting provided for other things, but the material act is given 
verbatim. The committee appointed were Prince Alden, Capt. John P. Schott and 
Mason F. Alden. They were also to "allot out the third division of 300 acres to 
each proprietor." The persons who were residents and found to be entitled to 
lots, as reported by that committee, were as follows: James Baker, Mason Fitch 
Alden, John P. Schott, Prince Alden, Sr., William H. Smith, John Hegeman, 
Ebenezer Williams, William Smith, Caleb Howard, Clement Daniel, Isaac Bennett, 
William Stewart, George Miner, Peleg Comstock, Samuel Jackson, Benjamin Baily, 
Anderson Dana, John Canaday, John Jameson, Elisha Drake, John Carey, Edward 
Lester, Luke Swetland, William Hyde, Hambleton Grant, Turner Jameson, John 
Bradford, John Nobles, James Barks, Prince Alden Jr., Andrew Alden. There were 
seven other proprietors' names in the reported list, but they were non-
residents, and therefore omitted. It should be further explained that "non- 
residents" means those not in this part of the State. There are in the above 
list some who were well known residents of Wilkes-Barre and Plymouth.

Prince Alden and John P. Schott were agents to lay out the lots of land, or to 
act with the surveyors, and Shubart Bidlock and Elisha Bennett were chain 
bearers and ax-men.

September 15, 1790, William Jackson, Isaac Bennett and Silas Smith were 
appointed to care for the public lands. John Hegeman was appointed to revise the 
town records. It was voted that each proprietor in elections should be entitled 
to cast as many votes as he owned "rights."

In 1792 William Jackson, John Fairchild, Mason F. Alden, M. Smith, Daniel 
McMullen and Abram Smith were appointed a committee to lay out roads. They 
employed Christopher Hurlbut to do the work.

August 3, 1794, Isaac Bennett, Sidney Drake, John Fairchild, Jonathan Smith and 
William Jackson were appointed a committee to attend to the land trials with the 
Pennsylvania authorities, and to attend to any other township business that 
might arise. This committee, October 4, 1794, leased for 900 years lot 18, 
second tier, first district, to Elias Decker, at a rental of one peppercorn per 
year, if demanded to be paid into the town treasury. Also on the same terms to 
Jacob Crater, lot No. 49, third division. Putnam Catlin was voted £25 17s. 3d. 
for expenses of land trials. March 15, 1800, the committee leased to John Alden 
lot 25, for 999 years for $43, to be paid any time before the expiration of the 
lease, and $2.58 a year to be paid the treasurer; to Henry Schoonover, lot 1; to 
Abram Setzer, lot 13; to Andrew McClure, Nos. 26 and 27.

February 25, 1805, the following persons signed and agreed to abide by the lines 
and surveys established by William Montgomery under the confirming act:

[p.614] Silas Jackson, James Stewart, John Noble, Benjamin Berry, Mathew Covel, 
Andrew Dana, Nathan Whipple, Martin Van Dyne, Abraham Smith, Jr., John 
Fairchild, Abraham Smith, James Mullen, Fredrick Barkman, Philip Croup, William 
Bellesfelt, Cornelius Bellesfelt, Isaac Bennett, Andrew Keithline, Cornelius 
Smith, William Nelson, Jacob Reeder, Christian Sarver, Casomin Fetterman, Daniel 
Adams, James Reeder, John R. Little, Jonathan Kelley, Daniel Sims, William 
Jackson, John Jacob, Jr., Elisha Bennett, Henry Bennett, Michael Hoffman, 
Valentine Smith, John Lutsey, James Millage, Andrew Lee, Jacob Lutsey, Conrad 
Line, Jr., Jacob Scheppy (Slippy) and Henry Fritze.

After Chapman's mill had worn out, William Jackson put up his mill, also on 
Newport creek. And for years this was the only mill in the township. When it was 
worn out there was no other attempt at this time to build a mill in the 
township. John Slippey put up his sawmill about one mile west of where is now 
Wanamie; which was in after years changed into a foundry and made cast-iron 
plows here as early as 1820. Mason F. Alden and his brother John Alden built a 
small forge on Nanticoke creek, not far from Chapman's old mill - making their 
own 
iron from ores dug in Newport township. This ore running thirty-three per cent. 
of metal of a superior quality, and the Aldens sold their bar iron at onetime as 
high as $120 per ton. This property was afterward owned and operated by 
Washington Lee. All these mills and industry, like agriculture, have faded away, 
given place to coal mining.

The first store was that of Jacob Ramback on the road between Wanamie and 
Nanticoke. There was a "corners" once called "Newport Center." Here was the 
first postoffice, served by the mail coaches that ran from Wilkes-Barre to 
Conyngham in Sugarloaf township. This was the old "State road" that branched off 
from the old Berwick turnpike at the west end of Hazleton, on its way to Wilkes- 
Barre. The postoffice was abandoned long since. The township has never had but 
one resident physician - Dr. William Thompson, who lived near the Hanover line.

Wanamie is a postoffice and mining town. It came into existence by the opening 
of the Wanamie colliery. A company store, now a private one, a hotel, and a 
little shop or two are the entirety of the industries of the place outside of 
mining. The railroad passes it and has a station.

Alden is another mining town and is east of Nanticoke about four miles and about 
two miles from Wanamie. This was opened by the sinking shafts and erecting a 
colliery a few years ago by the Messrs. Sharp.

Glenlyon is about four miles from Nanticoke and the mines were opened in 1870. A 
postoffice, store and hotel and all else of the thriving place is connected with 
coal in some way. The Central railroad of New Jersey built a branch road from 
Ashley to Nanticoke and Wanamie and extended it to Alden and Glenlyon, thereby 
securing a large transportation of coal.

                                PARSONS BOROUGH

Was formed of territory taken from Plains township January 17, 1876, and John D. 
Calvin was elected first burgess, with Councilmen William Smurl, president; O. 
A. Parsons, G. W. Mitchell, A. A. Fenner, H. McDonald and Philip Harris. The 
clerk was Richard Buchanan. The succeeding burgesses were William Sword, John 
Trethaway, A. W. Bailey and Patrick Cox. Present officers: David McDonald, 
burgess; council: Thomas J. Jordan, president; Fredrick Pyatt, secretary; George 
M. Lewis, treasurer; W. W. Reese, Wallace Ross, John Mills, Daniel W. Kimble and 
Edward O. Boyle; collector, John J. Reese.

Parsons is one of the young, but one of the most vigorous and growing boroughs 
in the county. It has made itself of sufficient importance that a street car 
line (electric) was built there in 1890, and already it may be considered 
practically an adjoining suburb of the city, possessing as it does all the 
advantages of country and [p.615] city. But a few years ago what is now such a 
flourishing town, was dense forests, and here and there an opening in the dark 
old woods where a farmer had cleared away his "patch" and was tilling the soil. 
It is supposed the first settler was Daniel Downing, in 1785, on what became the 
Thomas Goren place. Hence the first house in Parsons was Mr. Downing's. In 1800 
he put up his sawmill across the run opposite Capt. Calvin Parsons. This mill 
was worn out, and rebuilt in 1842 by Calvin Parsons, who had some time before 
purchased the property. This second mill was in active operations until 1876, 
when it was dismantled and torn down.

In the spring of 1813 Hezekiah Parsons built the main part of the house now 
occupied by his son, Calvin Parsons. The house was then but one story high, and 
was the first framed house in Parsons. Hezekiah Parsons was a clothier by trade, 
and built a cloth-dressing mill on the north side of Laurel Run, a short 
distance from his house. In 1814 he associated with him in business Jehoida P. 
Johnson, and they built a carding-mill, and carried on both branches of business 
until 1820, when Mr. Parsons became sole proprietor. He continued the business 
till 1850, when he sold all the machinery to J. P. Rice, who removed it to 
Truxville. In 1810 Jehoida P. Johnson built a gristmill near Laurel Run, below 
where the carding-mill was built. In 1812 John Holgate built a turning-mill 
below Johnson's gristmill. They were both on what is now known as the Johnson 
property; they went to decay many years ago.

In 1832 Hiram McAlpine built a turning-mill on Laurel Run, near Mr. Parson's 
house, for the manufacture of scythe snaths; in 1839 the machinery was moved to 
Wilkes-Barre. The first resident blacksmith in Parsons borough was Rufus 
Davidson. He worked in McAlpine's shop. In 1838 Capt. Alexander built a powder-
mill on the site of Laurel Run coal breaker. It was blown up several times, last 
in 1864 or 1865, when owned by Capt. Parrish. In 1844 the Johnson heirs built a 
powder-mill just above the side of the gristmill on Laurel Run. This mill was 
blown up in 1848, and was never rebuilt. J. P. Johnson and C. Parsons 
manufactured powder kegs on Laurel Run from 1838 until 1858.

The first store in the borough was kept by Golden & Walsh, on the corner of Main 
street and Watson avenue; and the first tavern was the Eagle hotel, kept by 
Lewis R. Lewis, on the corner of Main street and Hollenback avenue. The next 
hotel was kept by Morgan Morgan, on Main street, between Hollenback and Welles 
avenues.

The pioneer postmaster was Samuel Davis. He kept the postoffice at the corner of 
Main street and George avenue. The next postmaster was John W. Watkins, who was 
succeeded by G. A. Freeman, and he by Hezekiah Parsons, who keeps the office in 
his store, on George avenue.

The first successful coal mining in Parsons was done in 1866, when the Mineral 
Spring mine was opened, and the coal breaker built by the Mineral Spring Coal 
company. The spring from which this company takes its name was on the lands of 
Calvin Parsons. It had gained some notoriety by the curative quality of its 
waters, and an effort was made but a year or two before the opening of the coal 
mines to buy the property, in order to establish a water cure. When the mining 
commenced in 1866 the source of the spring was tapped, and it was destroyed.

The next coal mine in this borough was opened in 1867 or 1868 by the Delaware & 
Hudson Canal company, at the Laurel Run breaker.

In addition to the great coal interests and industry of Parsons, there are 7 
general stores, 3 grocers, 3 hotels, 1 blacksmith, 3 boot and shoe makers, 3 
carpet weavers, 4 confectioners, 1 harness-maker, 1 livery stable, 4 meat 
markets, 1 merchant tailor, 2 milliners, 1 undertaker.

                               PITTSTON TOWNSHIP.

This is one of the original five townships formed under Connecticut, and its 
existence dates back to l768 - 124 years ago. Each township was five miles 
square, 
[p.616] and each was to be given to forty settlers who would organize, go upon 
the lands and become permanent settlers. Hence the word forty came to be a 
conspicuous one in this section of the country. Forty Fort is, therefore of 
itself, a historic name. Of the hundreds of millons of beings then animate, 
breathing lusty life, struggling, warring or cooing, not one is now left upon 
the earth alive - what a silence so far as they are concerned! What a thought, 
applied to any century and a quarter! What a gruesome and appalling silence and 
waste would settle upon all this world were this stream of new life dammed but a 
brief space of time! There was not even the solitary white man residing here in 
1768. But the hour had struck when all was prepared for the white man's advance, 
and the pressure behind broke away the obstruction and the tide came that was 
never to recede.

At a glance the reader will know it was named for Sir William Pitt, the elder of 
the English statesmen, spelled originally Pittstown. It is situated on the left 
bank of the Susquehanna river and in the northeast corner of the county.

The Pittston township formed in 1768 under Connecticut was one of the five 
townships of the Susquehanna Land company, and was surveyed and established in 
1768. In 1784 the high waters destroyed the surveyors' marks, and an act was 
passed for a new survey to ascertain the land claims of the Connecticut 
settlers. The lands in this township thus resurveyed became certified Pittston 
and contained thirty-six square miles.

The leading families who were in the township prior and during the Revolution 
were the Blanchards, Browns, Careys, Bennetts, Sibleys, Marceys, Benedicts, St. 
Johns [Miner says that Daniel St. John was the first person murdered at Forty 
fort after the surrender], Sawyers, the gallant Cooper, Rev. Benedict, the first 
preacher in that locality. Capt. Jeremiah Blanchard, Sr., was commander of the 
Pittston company. His command was cut off from Forty fort at the time of the 
battle and could not reach the patriots in time to partake in the fight. Zebulon 
and Ebenezer Marcy were brothers. The flight of Mrs. Ebenezer Marcy through the 
wilderness after the July 3, 1788, battle, with an infant six weeks old in her 
arms and leading another child two years old, and the death of the latter in 
that awful journey through the "Shades of Death" (most literally so in this 
case) is one of the many terrible tales of those times of deepest afflictions.

Zebulon Marcy was the first white man that ever built a brush or log cabin in 
the township, and may, therefore, be known as the first settler.

In 1776 Brown's blockhouse was erected in what is the borough of Pittston and in 
the attack in 1778 this building was the refuge of all the women and children in 
the vicinity, and was guarded by thirty men under Capt. Blanchard.

As said this township was one of the five formed in 1768. The first step that 
was so soon to be followed by the migrating of the first forty of the "Moss 
trooping" Yankees from the east and whose arrival and finding the Pennites in 
possession, determined to hold that possession, especially against the Yankees, 
was the opening episode in the "first Pennamite and Yankee war." This arrival of 
the Yankees was on the 8th of February, 1769, still in the dead of winter.

The morning of July 4, 1778, after the surrender of Forty fort to the British 
officer Butler, he sent a detachment across the river to Pittston and demanded 
the surrender of Fort Brown, commanded by Capt. Blanchard., The fort was 
capitulated on fair terms. Mr. Miner says the Indian captors marked the 
prisoners "with black paint on the face, telling them to keep it there, and if 
they went out each should carry a white cloth on a stick, so that, being known, 
they would not be hurt." It is related elsewhere how the two Butlers, with 
Obadiah Gore, Dr. Gustin and Col. Denison, met in the ruins of Wintermoot fort, 
and there the articles of capitulation were agreed on and signed for the 
surrender of Forty fort.

From Stewart Pearce's Annals we take the following, as the settlers of Pittston 
who were assessed in 1796. ln this list, of course, is nearly every one of the 
first settlers. The descendants of these are to-day among the prominent family 
names in this part of the county:

[p.617] James Armstrong, Enos Brown, David Brown, Elisha Bell, Waterman Baldwin, 
Jeremiah Blanchard, John Benedict, Ishmael Bennett, A. Bowen, James Brown, Jr., 
Anthony Benschoter, R. Billings, Conrad Berger, J. Blanchard, Jr., Samuel Cary, 
John Clark, George Cooper, James Christy, Jedediah Collins, John Davidson, David 
Dimock, Asa Dimock, Robert Faulkner, Solomon Finn, Nathaniel Giddings, Isaac 
Gould, Ezekiel Gobal, Joshua Griffin, Daniel Gould, Jesse Gardner, Richard 
Halstead, Isaac Hewitt, Daniel Hewitt, John Honival, Joseph Hazard, Abraham 
Hess, Jonathan Hutchins, John Herman, Lewis Jones, Joseph Knapp, Samuel Miller, 
William Miller, Samuel Miller, Jr., Ebenezer Marcy, Jonathan Marcy, Isaac Miles, 
Cornelius Nephew, John Phillips, James Scott, John Scott, William H. Smith, 
Rodger Searle, William Searle, Miner Searle, James Stephens, Elijah Silsby, 
Elijah Silsby, Jr., Comfort Shaw, Jonathan Stark, James Thompson, Isaac Wilson, 
John Warden, Crandall Wilcox, Thomas Wright.

The settlers on this side of the river in 1778 bore then part in the common 
defence, for we find records and traditions of at least two forts or stockades 
here, one near Patterson's lumber-yards and the other not far from the stone 
gristmill at the ferry bridge.

Dr. Nathaniel Giddings was the first physician in the settlement. He came from 
Connecticut in 1787, and practiced medicine here until his death, in 1851. He 
set one of the first orchards in the township on his farm, near the Ravine 
shaft. About the time he came Z. Knapp, grandfather of Dr. A. Knapp, located in 
that vicinity. William Searle came from Connecticut before the massacre, and 
occupied a farm near those just mentioned. Rodger Searle's first house stood 
where the Ravine shaft is, but in 1789 he moved to Pleasant Valley. David Brown, 
mentioned as assessed in 1796, had settled the D. D. Mosier place as early as 
1790. Some of the trees he set for an orchard on his farm are still standing, 
and mark the spot where he lived. His son, Richard Brown, settled Thomas 
Benedict's farm. Samuel Miller's farm was in this immediate vicinity. His date 
is 1789. Elijah Silsbee was here in 1778. His residence was on the north side of 
Parsonage street, opposite James L. Giddings. William Slocum lived where Edward 
Morgan now does, and the Benedict family lived near Mr. Morgan's stone-quarry. 
One of the first clearings, in what is now the lower part of Pittston borough, 
was made where the depot and the Farnham house now are. One of the early 
orchards was here. Another was set by Mr. Benedict near where the Pittston 
knitting-mill stands, and Rodger Searle set another at the same time on his 
place.

For sixty years after the settlements were begun in Pittston, the Yankee element 
predominated in the population of the township, but with the discovery of coal 
began the great influx of the various European nationalities that make up the 
heterogeneous population as it is found to-day. The Scotch came in large numbers 
in 1850-5, although many of the most experienced miners came to America before 
coming to Pittston, attracted by the gold mining of California. The inroad of 
the Welsh was more gradual, as they had previously come to the older mines at 
Carbondale, and came down the valley as the coal fields were developed.

The coal interests soon became the largest source of wealth in the township, 
although there is some valuable farming land in the small valleys and on the 
hillsides within its boundaries. Col. James W. Johnson was one of the pioneers 
in the mining and shipping of coal. He sent considerable quantities down the 
river in "arks" when this was the only mode of transportation. These "arks" were 
built during low water and floated off in high water, much in the manner of 
rafting. Col. Johnson sold his coal works to William R. Griffith and his 
associates, who also purchased the franchise of the Washington Railroad company, 
and by a consolidation of charters formed the Pennsylvania Coal company and 
became a large operator in mines and mining. The first shipment of coal ever 
made to the West was from this point. The humble beginning of what is now a 
never-ending stream. The Erie Railroad company became the proprietor of what is 
known as the Hillside Coal [p.618] & Iron Company colliery at Pleasant Valley, 
now known as Avoca. The Pittston Coal company was organized in 1875, by parties 
who had purchased the old Pittston & Elmira company, and operate the Seneca 
Slope, the Ravine shaft and The Twins. The Columbia mine, by Grove Bros., was 
opened in 1862; it stands at what was the head of the canal. Near them is the 
Phoenix Coal company. J. M. McFarlane & Co. sunk the Eagle shaft at Tompkins' 
colliery in 1850. They were succeeded by Alvah Tompkins in 1855.

The old Butler mines were opened as early as 1835 by John L. and Lord Butler. 
Their brother-in-law, Judge Mallory, of Philadelphia, became a partner, and 
their canal shipping point came in time to be called port Mallory, and this name 
was applied to the old hotel at that place.

The first sawmill in the township was built near the mouth of the Lackawanna, in 
1780, by Solomon Finn and E. L. Stevens.

In 1790 the strong necessity for highways and river crossings brought in action 
a board of authority in the premises with authority to lay out public highways 
in the township. The board was as follows: John Phillips, David Brown, J. 
Blanchard, Caleb Bates, John Davidson and J. Rosin.

The settlement on the Pittston borough side of the river dates as far back as 
1770. In 1772 John Jenkins, Isaac Tripp, Jonathan Dean and others established a 
ferry to connect these settlers with the settlement at Wyoming and Exeter. This 
was the old rope ferry, now supplanted by the two elegant wagon and foot bridges 
that span the river.

The next year James Brown, Lemuel Harding and Caleb Bates were constituted 
directors of the township, with authority to assess and collect taxes.

The first bridge was built in 1850 by the Pitts Ferry Bridge company. This took 
the place of the rope ferry. This bridge was replaced in 1864 by a covered 
wooden bridge, which was destroyed by the ice flood of 1875. The next year, 
1876, was built the present elegant iron bridge - a toll bridge by the King Iron 
Bridge company - and now belongs to the Ferry Bridge company.

The present elegant depot bridge was built in 1874, partially destroyed in 1875; 
rebuilt the same year. The railroad bridge was erected in 1874.

McCarthyville (popularly Corklane) is a mining town or collection of houses in 
Pittston township; joins Pittston on the east extending eastward a short 
distance beyond the D. & H. C. Company railroad and on the north reaches to 
Hughestown borough line and south to Browntown, and is separated from the latter 
by a line extending from Fairmount breaker to Market street, Pittston. There are 
900 inhabitants in McCarthyville; 140 dwellings. The community is engaged in the 
collieries. Has a new school-building of four rooms, 163 pupils; 2 hotels, 2 
stores and 1 coal breaker; it is reached by the D. & H. railroad and the Central 
of New Jersey.

Browntown is a mining place in Pittston township, on Pennsylvania coal company 
leaseholds. It joins Pittston on the east and extends toward the D. & H. Canal 
Company railroad; bounded on the north by a line from Fairmount breaker to 
Market street and on the south by an extension of Swallow street to the D. & H. 
Canal Company railroad. It is supplied with water by the Pittston Water company; 
has an estimated population of 1,000, in 200 dwellings, engaged in the mines.