Hanover; 1782, Nathaniel Landon, Kingston; 1781-2, Abel Pierce Kingston, and Hugh Fordsman, Wilkes-Barre; 1780-2, John Franklin, Huntington; 1776, John Vincent.

Also the following list of justices of the peace at Wyoming under Pennsylvania previous to the organization of Luzerne county; all of them appointed in April, 1783:

Alexander Patterson, Robert Martin, John Chambers and David Mead, of Northumberland county; John Seely, Henry Shoemaker and Luke Brodhead, of Northampton county; Nathan Denison, of Wyoming; his name was used without his consent, and he refused to act.

Under the constitution of 1776 and the act of assembly approved on September 26, 1786, justices were elected in the county in the three districts formed by the act erecting the county, to serve for seven years. The following were so elected:

1787, Mathias Hollenback and William Hooker Smith, first district; Benjamin Carpenter and James Nisbett, second district; Obadiah Gore and Nathan Kingsley, third district; 1788, Noah Murray, second district; 1789, Christopher Hurlbut, first district; 1790, Lawrence Myers, Kingston township.

Under the constitution of 1790 the governor appointed the justices of the peace, to serve during good behavior, in districts to be made up of one or more townships. The following were so appointed:

1791, Lawrence Myers, Kingston township; Arnold Colt and William Ross, Solomon Avery and John Phillips, Wilkes-Barre district; Guy Maxwell, Tioga district; Peter Grubb and Nathan Beach, Kingston district; Christopher Hurlbut, Wilkes-Barre district; Joseph Kinney and Isaac Hancock, Tioga district; Minna Dubois, Willingboro township; John Paul Schott. Wilkes-Barre town and township. 1793, Moses Coolbaugh, Tioga township; 1796 Asahel Gregory, Willingboro township. 1797, Resolved Sessions, Tioga township. 1798, Noah Wadhams, Jr., Kingston district; Oliver Trowbridge, Willingboro township; John T. Miller, Kingston district; James Campbell and Joseph Wright, Wilkes-Barre township. 1799, Charles E. Gaylord, Huntington township; Constant Searle, Providence township; Matthew Covell, Wilkes-Barre township; Henry V. Champion, Wyalusing township; Elisha Harding, Tunkhannock township; David Paine, Tioga township. 1800, George Espy, Hanover, Wilkes-Barre, etc., townships; Jacob Bittenbender, Nescopeck, Wilkes-Barre, etc., townships; Benjamin Newberry, Northmoreland, Tioga, etc., townships; Thomas Duane, Wilkes-Barre township; Asa Eddy, Willingboro township (revoked March 28, 1805); Jonathan Stevens, Braintrim township; Guy Wells, Wyalusing township; Benjamin Carpenter, Kingston township; William Means, Tioga township; Zebulon Marcy, Tunkhannock; John Marcy and Thomas Tiffany, Willingboro township. 1801, David Barnum, Willingboro township; 1803, John Marsy, Nicholson, etc., townships; 1804, Bartlett Hines, Rush, etc., townships.

District No. 1, for which the first appointment was made in 1806, was composed of Huntington, Nescopeck, Salem and Sugarloaf townships until 1811; then of Huntington, Nescopeck and Salem townships six or seven years; then of WilkesBarre borough and township and part of Covington township till 1835, when it comprised only Wilkes-Barre borough and township; part of Covington township also belonged to it in 1836 and 1837. Justices for this district were commissioned as follows:

1806, Alexander Jameson; 1809, Abiel Fellows; 1810, George Drum; 1811, William Baird; 1813, John Buss; 1819, Conrad Sax; 1820, John Myers and Roswell Wells; 1823, James Stark; 1826, Richard Drinker; 1831, Amasa Hollister, Jr.; 1833, Charles L. Terwilliger; 1835, Benjamin Perry; 1836, John Stark; 1837, Eleazer Carey.

District No. 2 was at different times made up as follows: 1812, Wilkes-Barre,

Hanover and Newport townships; 1816, Kingston and Plymouth townships; 1819, Kingston, Plymouth and Dallas townships; 1831, Kingston, Plymouth, Dallas and Lehman townships; 1832, Kingston, Plymouth and Dallas townships; 1836, Kingston, Plymouth, Dallas and Lehman townships. Justices commissioned as follows:

1806, Cornelius Courtright and Thomas Dyer; 1808, Jonathan Kellog; 1812, Christian Stout; 1813, Francis McShane; 1814, Isaac Hartzell; 1816, Samuel Thomas; 1817, Jacob J. Bogardus; 1819, Dr. John Smith; 1820, Benjamin Reynolds; 1822, Alvah C. Phillips; 1825, John Bennett; 1826, Thomas Irwin; 1829, Reuben Holgate; 1831, James Nisbitt and Simeon F. Rogers; 1832, Fisher Gay; 1833, Jared R. Baldwin and Watson Baldwin; 1835, Sharp D. Lewis; 1836, Jacob J. Bogardus; 1837, Caleb Atherton and John P. Rice; 1838, Peter Allen and Henderson Gaylord; 1839, Addison C. Church.

District No. 3 was originally composed of Plymouth, Kingston and Exeter townships. Salem, Huntington and Union townships were made to compose this district in 1818, and Fairmount was added in 1835. Justices were commissioned as follows;

1808, James Sutton and David Perkins; 1809, William Trux and Moses Scovil; 1810, Stephen Hollister; 1813, Charles Chapman; 1818, Ichabod Shaw; 1821, Shadrach Austin; 1822, Christian Stout; 1823, John Dodson; 1824, Sebastian Seybert; 1827, Jonathan Westover; 1832, Andrew Courtright and Lot Search; 1835, Jacob Ogden and Newton Boone.

District No. 4 consisted originally of Pittston and Providence townships (revoked March 27, 1820), and, after 1819, of Hanover and Newport townships. The justices appointed were:

1804, Joseph Fellows and Asa Dimock; 1806, William Slocum; 1809, Enos Finch; 1819, Jacob Rambach; 1822, Samuel Jameson; 1823, Bateman Downing; 1831, Thomas Williams; 1838, John Vandemark; 1839, John Forsman.

In 1809 District No. 6 comprised Braintrim and Wyalusing townships; in 1816, Pittston, Providence and Exeter; in 1818, Pittston, Providence, Exeter, Northmoreland and Blakely townships; in 1833, part of Monroe township was added; in 1838, Carbondale township, and in 1839 Jefferson township. The list of justices for this district is as follows:

1806, Josiah Fassett; 1808, James Gordon and Charles Brown; 1809, Asa Stevens; 1815, James Connor; 1816, David Dimock and Isaac Hart; 1818, Peter Winter, Elisha S. Potter and Isaac Harding; 1820, Sherman Loomis and Deodat Smith; 1821, Ebenezer Slocum; 1822, Orange Fuller; 1829, David I. Blanchard; 1830, Ziba Davenport; 1831, Moses Vaughn; 1832, Daniel Harding and Joseph Griffin; 1833, Thomas Hadley and Amzi Wilson; 1835, Erastus Smith and Elisha Blackman; 1836, Samuel Hogdon and Sylvanus Heermans; 1837, James Pike; 1838, Judson W. Burnham, Gilbert Burrows and Elisha Hitchcock; 1839, John Cobb and Alva Heermans.

Under the constitution of 1873, justices of the peace and aldermen were to be elected for five years, and under the act of assemby of March 22, 1877, commissions were to take effect from the first Monday of May, the governor having power to appoint to vacancies up to thirty days after the next municipal election.

When this region, by the Trenton decree of 1782, finally came under the jurisdiction of Pennsylvania, it became a part of the county of Northumberland (county seat Sunbury), which had been taken in 1772 from Northampton (county seat Easton), the latter covering a large section of the original county of Bucks, from which it was formed in 1752.

"To extend to the remote settlement at Wyoming, the advantage of civil government in which they might participate affording them an opportunity to administer their local affairs by persons having the confidence of the inhabitants, chosen by themselves; to give the people an efficient representation in the council and assembly, so that their voice might be heard, their interests explained and their influence

fairly appreciated," a new country was formed on September 26, 1786, from part of the territory of Northumberland. It was named Luzerne, from the Chevalier de la Luzerne, a most popular minister from the French court during the Revolution, and for many years afterward a prominent figure in the public eye, and was bounded as follows: "Beginning at the mouth of Nescopeck creek, and running along the south bank; thence eastward to the head of said creek; from thence a due east course to the head branch of Lehigh creek; thence along the east bank of said Lehigh creek to the head thereof; from thence a due north course to the northern boundary of the State; thence westward along said boundary until it crosses the east branch of Susquehanna; and thence along the said northern boundary fifteen miles west of the said river Susquehanna; thence by the straight line to the head of Towanda creek; thence along the ridge which divides the waters of the east branch of the Susquehanna from those of the west branch, to a point due west from the mouth of the Nescopeck; thence east to the place of beginning."

The act creating the county provided for an election on the second Tuesday of the following October, to choose county officers and representatives in the legislature; and that Zebulon Butler, Nathaniel Landon, Jonah Rogers, Simon Spalding and John Phillips should be a commission to buy a site for the county buildings. In 1790 the county court divided the county into eleven townships. These retained the old names of Wilkes-Barre, Pittston, Hanover, Newport, Exeter, Plymouth, Kingston, Salem, Tioga, Wyalusing and Tunkhannock, but the territory of those townships which had existed under the Connecticut jurisdiction was extended.

The commissioners named above, to procure a site for county buildings, made choice of the public square in Wilkes-Barre; and in 1791 there was erected a twostory hewn-log building, about sixty feet long and half as wide, of which the second story was the courtroom (approached by steps outside), and the lower floor was for the jail and the jailer.

This structure gave way in 1801 for the building of a new courthouse on the same site. The old one was occupied, however, during the construction of the new, which was finished in 1804, when the log building became the Wilkes-Barre academy.

The new courthouse, which was in the shape of a cross and had a low tower and a belfry in the center of the roof, cost $9,356.06, and was used more than fifty years. In the year after the commencement of its construction a jail was built on the corner of Market and Washington streets, and between 1809 and 1812 a fireproof building for the county records, the three costing about $24,000.

In 1835 the legislature authorized the erection of the present courthouse, and its corner-stone was laid August 12, 1856. Under the supervision chiefly of Benjamin F. Pfauts, William A. Tubbs and Silas Dodson it was completed and furnished at a cost of $85,000; builder, D. A. Fell. Provision is made in this building for

the public offices, which formerly occupied a separate one.

The jail begun in 1802 served until 1870, although long before that time it had proved inadequate to the demands upon it and was unworthy of the advanced position of the commonwealth in the matter of prison discipline.

On April 2, 1867, the contract for the building of a new jail was awarded to Lewis Havens, at $189,575. On August 18, 1870, the sheriff was ordered to remove the prisoners to this jail, and November 4, in the same year, the building was accepted from the contractor. An expenditure of $18,500.93 above the contract price was incurred for additional and extra work. From a report furnished by the clerk of the county commissioners, it appears that the building and furniture cost $302,536.92. It is located above North street, between River street and the Susquehanna. It is built of stone brought from Campbell's ledge, opposite Pittston, occupies a lot of five acres, and the building covers three-fourths of an acre. It is a fireproof structure, and is at the same time substantially and tastefully built and