ewart had scarcely reached the cus of i apother serious offence committed or December 15, 1770, Stewart, at the head n Fort Durkee, and captured it a second A new warrant was it issued for L's arrest Prgome court, and direted to Peter Hackie. ried an armed force and proceeded to any 18, 1771, be 'demanded admittance. b. fast none but friends should be admitted. of Connecticut, and hat he should recogfer on acting under commissions from the den, who had accompanied Sherif take, vid bis fire being returned by Stewart's brother, was killed and three others wounded W untentole. He was short of provisions, Less than that of the enemy, It was impos 101, consequently, during the night, wifi. the Goy. Feun issued another proema#est of Lazarus Stewart, and 650 ech Sewut, John Simpst, Wil ara Speedy, d. A Lenard Cook. But Capt Stewart had ted bis formes with those of Capt. Butl ed these to ders vere now preparing for OBS. In April, 1771, Butler and Stewart, Hvaley, and, finding Ogden strongly nelled Fort Wyoming, they besieged it were defeated, and their supplies were cut il the Yankees were once more in possession

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Paxton, and he had married Martha Foy, the etable aid wealthy citizens in Lancaster con ity. his associates, being now identified with the ail. to Wyoming. He had obtained five tracts of proceeded to erect large dwelling or block bouse on below the residence of Gen E. W. Star devant. and multipled, and a suitabe "orm of govern it was ewart occupied some important positions. Farouses sad the entire settlopent, unmolested by the Pen: mites, for a period of nearly three years.

Plunket, with 700 men from Northumberland and was met at Nanticoke by Col. Butler, with 250 as forces behind a breatwork formed of logs and rocks, Hson Harvey. A- Piket approach 4 Butler's posi

Shat a breastwerk!" He was greeted by a blank Yankees, as the intention was to frighten, not to kill, en sent a detachment to the other side of the riv 1. alley near the residence of Col. Washington Le». Hare with a party under the command of Capt. Stewart. ecilence in a volley of bullets, which were poured it to ffect. One man was kille and several wounded. Col Butler was equally sue ssful on his side, but thing more effective ti an b.ark volleys. Plunket སྤི ན ༦ ཟླ Haberiand, and this was the last effort, until after of Pennsylvania to regain possession of Wyoming.

Capt. Lazarus Stewart was in command of the Hanover company, the command being turned over to him by Capt. McKarachan on the morning of the battle, saying, "Take you the lead, I will fight under you.'

Capt. Stewart died, as would a brave soldier, gallantly fighting at the head of his command, in the Wyoming battle, July 3, 1778. His daughter, Martha, was born only two days before the battle. When the awful news was conveyed to the widow and mother, she took her seven children and a small craft and floated down to Harrisburg. After the war she returned to this county, where she died about 1791.

Forty Settlers.-Preparations for a recommencement of the settlement of the Connecticut people on the Susquehanna, after the massacre and expulsion of 1763, were commenced at Hartford by a meeting of the Susquehanna company in 1768, where it was resolved that five townships, to wit: Wilkes-Barre, Hanover, Kingston, Plymouth and Pittston, each five miles square, should be surveyed and granted each to forty settlers, on condition that they remain upon the ground and maintain their rights against the intrusion of rival claimants. Forty were to set forth without delay, and others to the amount of 200 (for the five townships) were to follow the succeeding spring. To these 200 must be added all those other settlers who had immigrated on settlers' rights. These were mostly sturdy farmers who came to the five townships, and of them were soldiers who had served their country bravely and well in the then late Franco-Indian war. The additional 160 settlers to complete the possession of the five townships arrived the next spring, 1770. Added to these were others that had come, some of them from Pennsylvania south of this place. Assembled at what is now Wilkes-Barre, April 10, 1770, were 270 or 280 ablebodied men. The block-house at Mill creek was too remote from the cleared fields of the old town of Waughwawic (Wyoming), the flats of south Wilkes-Barre, where were cleared fields ready for cultivation. These people built Fort Durkee at Fish's eddy, in the sonth part of the city.

Having now complete possession, the Connecticut people entered with alacrity upon their agricultural pursuits, while their surveyors were employed in running out the five townships allotted to the actual settlers. But no one supposed that peace and security were finally yielded them by their alert and powerful opponents. Every breeze from the southern mountain awakened fears of an approaching enemy. Capt. Ogden with the civil magistrate, Sheriff Jennings, though absent, had not been idle, but having recruited their forces, appeared on the plains on the 20th of May. After reconnoitering the position of the Yankees, finding it too strong, and their number too large to be attacked with a rational prospect of success, they withdrew to Easton; and Sheriff Jennings, in his report, informed the Governor that the intruders mustered 300 able-bodied men, and it was not in his power to collect sufficient force in Northampton to dislodge them. In the delightful season of spring, nature unfolding her richest robes of leaf and flower, the Susquehanna yielding boundless stores of delicious shad, a brief hour of repose seemed only to wed the Yankee emigrants more strongly to the valley. The beautiful lowlands, where scarcely a stone impeded the plow, contrasted with the iron-bound shores of New England, and her rock-covered fields, was a prospect as inviting as the plains of Italy of old to its northern invaders. But another force was threading the paths of the wilderness to attack them. Col. Turbot Francis, commanding a fine company from the city, in full military array, with colors streaming and martial music, descended into the plain, and sat down before Fort Durkee, about the 20th of June; but finding the Yankees too strongly fortified, returned to await reinforcements below the mountains.

Early in September following, Sheriff Jennings, of Northumberland county, with the indefatigable Ogden, again descended upon the settlers with nearly 300 men and an iron four-pound cannon--the first piece of ordnance ever in what is

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now Luzerne county. This cannon had a terrifying effect on the people. Capt. Durkee was arrested and taken in irons to Philadelphia and the people with their leader gone, capitulated. The articles of surrender provided that only seventeen settlers be allowed to remain to attend to the crops and all others should at once leave the country. The third sad exodus commenced, and who can now draw upon the imagination a picture of the sad hearts that turned their faces back toward the East!

Capt. Lazarus Stewart and his followers, as already related, made the attack on Ogden's forces, in which William Stager, of Connecticut, was killed and several wounded-the first blood shed in the controversy between the settlers and Pennsylvania authorities.

The Yankees had captured the cannon and now they proceeded to capture Ogden, who was shut up in Fort Ogden. These farmers could not do much more with a cannon than make a noise, but they fired away two days and seemed to do no harm to the enemy within the fort. After quite a siege the fort surrendered, April 29, 1770, and Capt. Ogden retired from the scene of war and left the settlers in peaceable possession. The fort was burned and the property of the Pennsylvania people without much ceremony confiscated; in return, it was claimed by Durkee, for the bad faith on Ogden's part, who took everything when he had driven out the settlers, and the seventeen men left to care for the crops were simply turned out in the wilderness to starve.

Gov. Penn now called on Gen. Gage, in command of the royal troops in America, to assist in expelling the Yankees. But the English commander curtly replied that he thought it "highly improper for the king's troops to interfere in a matter of property merely between the people."

Planting time again had come; peace reigned and the indefatigable Yankees were in peaceful possession. The toothsome shad again came up the river in countless numbers, and from the rigors and famine of the camp and the march and siege these farmers turned with glad hearts to the huts of peace, the hunt of game and catching the fish in the river. New settlers began to arrive. Capt. Butler and his followers came now and were received with shouts of joy. Settlements commenced on the west side of the river. Old Forty fort was commenced and pushed to completion, with perhaps not a dream that its name was to become as historic as any spot on the continent. David Mead and Christopher Hurlbut, surveyors for the Susquehanna company, again were following the compass and locating townships to actual settlers. A peaceful and prosperous summer came with all its blessings, and time had lulled the vigilance of the people to a degree.

But the fourth time Capt. Ogden swooped down upon the settlers with an army, but under the civil authority this time of Sheriff Aaron Van Campen, Jennings' term having expired. He arrived September 21, by an unexpected route, and the men were mostly in the fields at work. He divided his force in squads of ten and seized the men in the fields and marched them to his camp, and at night retired to his mountain bivouac. The people were thrown in the utmost confusion at the dreadful news. They supposed a very large armed force had arrived. Durkee sent for aid, but his envoys were captured and carried to Ogden, from whom he learned the confusion prevailing, when he at once put his army in motion and stormed Fort Durkee, and after a short and severe struggle captured it. Capt. Butler was wounded and carried to the cabin of Mr. Beach near by. Butler, Spalding and a few of the leaders were sent to Philadelphia as prisoners, and the others to Easton. Again the settlers were driven off; their crops, abandoned, fell into the hands of the victors. Mr. Beach started in the night with his family down the river; stopped temporarily at what is Beach Grove, and finally located there.

The Pennsylvanians now retired, confident that this signal overthrow of the Yankees would permanently settle matters, and that the contest was at an end; leaving only a small garrison of twenty men to hold the fort.