(8) The "Penn Manuscripts," in possession of The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, at Philadelphia. In 1870 a large number of original letters, manuscript documents, charters, grants, etc., relating to William Penn and the Pennsylvania Proprietary family were offered for sale in England. They were purchased, and in 1873 were presented to The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. (9) A large collection of miscellaneous legal and other public documents, private correspondence, etc., relating to Wyoming, and bearing dates earlier than 1805. In possession of The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. (10) A small but very interesting and valuable collection of original letters, reports and other manuscripts relating to the Connecticut Susquehanna Company and Wyoming affairs prior to 1790. In possession of Mr. James Terry, a well-known archæologist and collector of New Haven, Connecticut. (11) "Stevens' Facsimiles of Manuscripts," various manuscript volumes entitled "American Loyalists" and a number of original, unpublished documents owned by the New York Public Library (Lenox Branch). (12) Through the friendship and kindly interest of the Hon. Whitelaw Reid, Special Ambassador from the United States to the Coronation of King Edward VII in 1902, the writer was enabled to procure from certain government archives in London complete copies of many original, unpublished letters, military reports, etc., written by British officers in New York and Canada during the years 1777-'83 relative to military and Indian affairs on the upper Susquehanna and at Fort Niagara near Lake Ontario, also concerning the British and Indian incursions upon Wyoming, as well as other important matters that transpired during the years mentioned. The writer of this is confident that no other American writer-early or recent-on the subject of the warfare waged by the British and their Indian allies along the frontiers of New York and Pennsylvania during the Revolutionary period, ever utilized these interesting and valuable documents. In addition to the various unprinted records and documents just enumerated, the writer carefully examined, and extracted much valuable material from, the following-mentioned printed records-many of which were published subsequently to the writing of Stone's and Miner's histories of Wyoming: (1) The "Pennsylvania Colonial Records"-sixteen volumes. (2) The "Pennsylvania Archives"-seventy-five volumes in four series. (3) "American Archives"-nine volumes. (4) "American State Papers"-thirty-eight volumes. (5) "The Public Papers of George Clinton." In 1853 the Legislature of New York purchased forty-eight folio volumes of original documents that had belonged to George Clinton, Governor of New York 1777-'95 and 1801-'4. These papers are being edited by Hugh Hastings, State Historian, and thus far six 8vo volumes have been published. (6) "The Journals of the Sullivan Expedition." (7) A series of a dozen or more articles written by Col. John Franklin over the pseudonym "Plain Truth," and published in the years 1801-'5. (S) An extended account of the battle of Wyoming and occurrences immediately following; written by Col. John Franklin, and published in 1828 in the Towanda Republican. (9) Over 15,000 pages of newspapers published in Boston, Massachusetts; Hartford, Norwich and New London, Connecticut; New York City; Philadelphia, Wilkes-Barré and Kingston, Pennsylvania, and covering the years from 1753 to 1875. Few things are less valued than newspapers not of the current date-unless they happen to bear a date that is very far from current. In that case they have a curious interest and no little worth. But few people appreciate how much that is of interest and value to the historian may be found in the columns of old newspapers. "Apart even from their value to the historiographer and the antiquary, few relics of the past are more suggestive or interesting than the old newspaper. It is, in mercantile phrase, a book of original entry, showing us the transactions of the time in the light in which they were regarded by the parties engaged in them, and reflecting the state of public sentiment on innumerable topics-moral, religious, political, military and scientific.” A year or two ago a writer in a London periodical said: "One of the functions of a public library is to take care of the printed records of the locality, and there is no better conspectus of local history than a long set' of the chief newspaper. Even the advertisements become of value in time. Research into the history of towns, and even of villages, has become so popular of late years that we cannot afford to neglect such valuable sources of information." On the ceiling of the dome over the reading-room in the splendid National Library at Washington appears, among other inscriptions, this from an unknown author: "We taste the spices of Arabia, yet never feel the scorching sun which brings them forth." Those who are fond of reading history, but are too ready to criticize unfavorably the work of the historian, should bear in mind this anonymous saying. The writing of history is not easy-for on more than a few points the writer is likely "to displease many and content few ;" but harder yet is the labor of gathering material for the work. Tom Moore, the poet, once said that there was no fool's paradise so beautiful as the conceiving of a poem, and no treadmill so laborious as the writing of it. It is a pleasant thing to be an author-after one's book is printed! Dr. Samuel Johnson, in the preface to his dictionary, said: "I look with pleasure on my book, however defective, and deliver it to the world with the spirit of a man that has endeavored well." The author of this present book would fain make use of those words in offering. these results of his labors to the sons and daughters of Wilkes-Barré— both at home and abroad in the world. CHAPTER II. THE NORTH BRANCH OF THE SUSQUEHANNA RIVER-THE VALLEY OF WYOMING-LOCATION AND DESCRIPTION POETRY AND LEGEND. "Oh! could I flow like thee, and make thy stream -Denham's "Cooper's Hill." "Oh! beautiful vision of Summer delight! Oh! marvelous sweep of the circling hills! In the northern part of Otsego County, in eastern-central New York, lies Lake Otsego, which, although not so large* as some of the many other lakes lying in that State, is nevertheless much larger than any lake within the bounds of the adjoining State of Pennsylvania. Lake Otsego was not known by this name to the Indians of early days. In Governor Dongan's time they called it "the lake whence the Susquehannah takes its rise." Cadwallader Colden (sometime Surveyor General of New York, and in 1760 and later years Lieutenant Governor) in his "History of the Five Indian Nations," first published in 1727, referred to it in similar terms. In 1745 the Mohawk chief Abraham described to William Johnson certain lands as lying "at the head of Susquehannah Lake." On the reduced reproduction of a "Map of the Eastern Part of the Province of New York" shown on the following page (this map was first published in 1756 in The London Magazine), the lake in question is indicated, but without a name. "In letters written from the lake in 1765 missionaries called it Otsego Lake, which is perhaps the earliest use of the name on record," says Francis W. Halsey in "The Old New York Frontier" (page 22). In the same county of Otsego, six miles west of the northern end of Lake Otsego, and 1,750 feet above sea-level, lies a smaller body of water, now called Canadurango Lake. On the accompanying map it is noted *It is nine miles in length, from north to south. Photographed from an original copy in possession of Dr. Charles S. Beck, Wilkes-Barré. as "Caneaderaga Lake"; but on another map published in 1756, and referred to by Mr. Halsey in "The Old New York Frontier" (page 124), it appears as "Canadurango." On a "Chorographical Map of the Province of New York," compiled by order of Maj. Gen. William Tryon, and first published in London January 1, 1779, "Caniaderaga Lake" and "Otsega Lake" are thus indicated. About the year 1822—and without doubt earlier-the first-mentioned lake was sometimes referred to as "Canadarque."* Inasmuch as it lay within the bounds of the patent obtained in 1755 by David Schuyler it was for many years called "Schuyler's Lake," and in some of the most modern cyclopædias and geographies is so named. Within recent years, however, its ancient name of "Canadurango" has been restored to it. The two lakes mentioned-whose outflows unite three miles south of Cooperstown, lying at the southern end of Lake Otsego—are the principal sources of the North, or Main, Branch of the Susquehanna River, which, flowing generally in a south-westerly direction to the Pennsylvania State line, receives in its course in New York the Unadilla River and several smaller tributaries. Crossing the Pennsylvania boundary, near the extreme north-east corner of that State, the river flows around the base of a spur of the Allegheny range of mountains, in the townships of Harmony and Willingborough, Susquehanna (formerly a part of Luzerne) County-forming, in this grand sweep, what for many years has been called the Great Bend of the Susquehanna. Reentering New York the river flows in a north-westerly direction to Binghamton, whence having received there the waters of the Chenango River-its course is west by south till it again makes an entrance into Pennsylvania in northern-central Bradford County. Then, running * See The Susquehanna Democrat (Wilkes-Barré), November 15, 1822. about six and a-half miles in a south-westerly direction, it receives its principal affluent, the Chemung, or Tioga, River.* The peninsula lying between, or at the confluence of, the Susquehanna and the Tioga (it is a broad and nearly level plain, extending northward to the State line) bore in early times the name of Diahoga or Tyogat; but for more than a hundred years now the locality has been known as Tioga Point. Near the southern end of this peninsula stands the town of Athens, laid out in May, 1786, under the auspices of the Connecticut Susquehanna Company, and incorporated as a borough in March, 1831. From Tioga Point the Susquehanna pursues, with many windings, a mean south-easterly course in Pennsylvania as far as the city of Pittston in the north-eastern corner of Luzerne County; receiving on the way numerous small tributaries. Just at the northern boundary of Pittston -having entered Wyoming Valley through a precipitous gap-it is joined by the Lackawanna River, once a limpid stream of considerable volume and value, but now, for the most part, no more than a sluggish, unsightly creek. Three-quarters of a mile below the mouth of the *The Tioga River rises in the south-eastern part of Tioga County, Pennsylvania. Flowing northward in this county it receives the waters of several creeks and small rivers, and then, crossing the New York State line, it is joined by the Chemung River and flows south-easterly (for a considerable distance in New York, where it is called the Chemung River) to the Susquehanna at Tioga Point. On Lewis Evans' map of Pennsylvania, published in March, 1749 (see Chapter IV), this river is indicated as the "Cayuga Branch" of the Susquehanna-"near as large as Schuylkill [River]." On the map on page 33, and on a "Map of the Province of Pensilvania" first published in 1756 (see Chapter V), "Cayuga Branch" is shown, with the Tioga tributary noted as "Tohiccon." On a map of Pennsylvania and part of New York by Reading Howell, published in 1791 (see Chapter XXIII), "Tyoga River' is thus indicated, both in New York and Pennsylvania. † On Evans' map of 1749 (see Chapter IV) the Indian town at that point is indicated as "Tohiccon." Evans had visited the locality in 1743. "Tyoga" is said by some writers to be derived from an Indian word "Teyaogen, meaning an interval, or anything in the middle of two other things." Other writers have stated that the parent-word means either "meeting-place" or "the meeting of the waters." Morgan, in his "League of the Iroquois" (edition of 1851, page 48), says that the parent-word is Ta-yó-ga, meaning "at the forks." For further and more interesting details concerning Diahoga and Tioga Point see Chapter IV. |