weary, poor and literally like Rachel weeping for her children, now that the Revolution was closing its long chapter of war, thus woke to the new, sad realization that it was worse than peace with themselves left out of the protocol. Like a shadow of death overspread the cloud that now they must take up the battle anew against the authorities of Pennsylvania, and that they were left to fate by Connecticut. The decree of Trenton had been accepted by the latter and now where was a ray of hope for the settlers in the valley? They petitioned the general assembly of Pennsylvania for their rights.

"We have settled a country, which in its original state of but little value, but now cultivated by your memorialists, is to them of the greatest importance, being their all. We are yet alive, but the richest blood of our neighbors and friends, children, husbands, and fathers, has been spilt in the general cause of their country, and we have suffered every danger this side of death. We supplied the continental army with many valuable officers and soldiers, and left ourselves weak and unguarded against the attack of the savages, and of others of a more savage nature. Our houses are desolate, many mothers are childless, widows and orphans are multiplied, our habitations are destroyed, and many families are reduced to beggary."

In the history of State papers I have met none whose every word was so significant of the deep and earnest sense of men who spoke from hearts moved by higher or nobler impulses. Notwithstanding, as soon as the continental troops were withdrawn from Wyoming, where they had been placed for the protection of the people against the savages, Capts. Robinson and Shrawder, with two companies of Pennsylvania troops, marched and took possession of Fort Wyoming, which they named Fort Dickinson. Shortly after, the general assembly of Pennsylvania, in pursuance of the petition of the settlers, appointed Joseph Montgomery, William Montgomery and Moses McClean, commissioners, with instructions to repair to Wyoming and compromise the dispute between them and the commonwealth. They arrived in the valley in April, 1783, and immediately a spirited correspondence took place between them and John Jenkins, Nathan Denison, Obadiah Gore and Samuel Shepherd, the committee on the part of the settlers. The issue of this was that the State commissioners reported to the assembly, recommending "that a reasonable compensation in land in the western part of the State should be made to the families of those who had fallen in arms against the common enemy, and to such other settlers as had a proper Connecticut title, and did actually reside on the lands at the time of the decree at Trenton; provided they immediately relinquish all claim to the soil where they now inhabited, and enter into contracts to deliver up full and quiet possession of their present tenures to the rightful owners under Pennsylvania by the first of April next." This report evidently expressed the sentiments of Alexander Patterson, who had in charge the interests of the Pennsylvania settlers. Patterson had been in the employ of the Penn family, and had aided to arrest the Connecticut settlers in 1769. He was now a justice of the peace under Pennsylvania, and was settled in Wilkes-Barre, whose name he endeavored to change to Londonderry. He, with his associate justices, and backed by military force, under the command of Maj. James Moore, and Capts. Shrawder and Christie, commenced a series of contemptible and cowardly outrages upon the Yankee settlers. The soldiers were quartered upon the inhabitants. Col. Zebulon Butler, who had just returned from the army, and who boldly denounced Patterson's conduct, was arrested and sent to Sunbury jail. But, as the proceedings had been illegal, he was released. Mr. Miner says, "October 31, the settlement Shawnee was invaded by the military, headed by the justice in person, and eleven respectable citizens arrested and sent under guard to the fort. Among the prisoners was Maj. Prince Alden, sixtyfive years old, feeble from age, and suffering from disease. Compassion yielded nothing to alleviate his sufferings. Capt. James Bidlack was also arrested. He was between sixty and seventy. His son, of the same name, had fallen, as previ

ously recorded, at the head of his company in the Indian battle; another son, Benjamin, had served in the army through the Revolutionary war. Capt. James Bidlack himself had been taken by the savages, and suffered a tedious captivity in Canada. All this availed him nothing. Benjamin Harvey, who had been a prisoner to the Indians, was also arrested. Samuel Ransom, son of Capt. Ransom, who fell in the massacre, was most rudely treated on being taken. 'Ah, ha!' cried Patterson, you are the jockey we wanted; away with him to the guardhouse, with old Harvey, another damned rascal.' Eleven in all were taken and driven to the fort, where they were confined in a room with a mud floor, wet and comfortless, with no food and little fire, which as they were sitting round, Capt. Christie came in, ordered them to lie down on the ground, and bade the guard to blow out the brains of any one who should attempt to rise. Even the staff of the aged Mr. Alden was taken from him." The men secure, Patterson turned their families out of doors, and placed Pennamite claimants in possession of their lands and houses. In many other cases the widows and orphan children of soldiers, slain in battle in defence of liberty, were forced from their dwellings, and their few implements of agriculture were destroyed or carried away, by order of Patterson. The settlers now (1784) petitioned congress and the assemblies of Pennsylvania and Connecticut for redress of grievances, and the Pennsylvania assembly sent a committee to Wyoming to take depositions. These depositions were read before the assembly, and although Patterson was severely denounced by many members, he was not removed or deprived of his authority.

On January 23, 1784, moved by the petition of Zebulon Butler and others, congress adopted measures for the settlement of the dispute, but on the remonstrance of Pennsylvania the proceedings were discontinued. On the 13th and 14th of May following, Maj. Patterson's soldiers dispossessed 150 families, burnt several houses, and compelled 500 men, women and children to march through the wilderness to the Delaware river. Several children starved and died in the woods, and the sufferings of the whole impoverished throng, as they wandered night and day over rugged mountains and through deep swamps, were terrible beyond description. Elisha Harding, who was one of this suffering multitude, says: "It was a solemn scene; parents, their children crying for hunger-aged men on crutches-all urged forward by an armed force at our heels. The first night we encamped at Capouse; the second at Cobb's; the third at Little Meadow, so called. Cold, hungry and drenched with rain, the poor women and children suffering much. The fourth night at Lackawack; fifth, at Blooming Grove; sixth, at Shehola; on the seventh arrived at the Delaware, where the people dispersed, some going up and some down the river. I kept on east, and when I got to the top of Shongum mountain I looked back with this thought: Shall I abandon Wyoming forever? The reply was, No, oh no! There lie your murdered brothers and friends. Dear to me art thou, though a land of affliction. Every way looked gloomy, except toward Wyoming. Poor, ragged and distressed as I was, I had youth, health, and felt that my heart was whole. So I turned back to defend or die."

These cruelties to the settlers excited sympathy throughout the whole country, and the companies of Shrawder and Christie were discharged by State authority. But the inhuman Patterson re-enlisted many of the soldiers, and continued to perpetrate his hellish deeds in spite of instructions to the contrary. After an absence of several weeks the Yankees returned and fortified themselves under a cliff or rock, on the Eastern or Wilkes-Barre mountain. This, Mr. Miner says, they called Fort Lillope, but we have in our possession several orders, sent by John Franklin, John Jenkins and others, from this cave-fortress, to Matthias Hollenback, in Wilkes-Barre, for rum, tea, sugar, etc., and these orders are dated at Fort Defence. From this fort three or four persons entered Wilkes-Barre under the promised protection of Patterson, who arrested and beat them with iron ramrods. Franklin and Jenkins,

now having no faith in the promises of anybody connected with Pennsylvania, removed in the month of July, with their associates, to Kingston. On the 20th of that month a company of thirty young men, marching to Plymouth, met a body of Patterson's men on Rosshill. A conflict ensued, and Elisha Garrett and Chester Pierce were slain. Several of Patterson's men were wounded but none of them killed. Fortytwo effective and twenty old men, now aroused to vengeance by this bloody deed, placed themselves under the command of John Franklin. They first marched to Shawnee, and dispossessed the Pennamite families there, then crossing the river at Nanticoke, they drove off all from their dwellings on the east side, and compelled them to take refuge in the fort at Wilkes-Barre. This fort Franklin's men proceeded to surround. Patterson's troops made a sortie from the fort, and set fire to twentythree buildings, which were consumed. Franklin continued to invest the fort, and demanded its surrender, which was refused. An engagement ensued, in which the Yankees were worsted, and deemed it prudent to retire to Kingston.

Patterson and forty others were now indicted by the grand jury of Northumberland county, and Sheriff Antis was sent to arrest them. But Patterson and his associates saved themselves from arrest behind their threatening ramparts, and the sheriff was compelled to return without them. On the very day the sheriff attempted this arrest, Maj. Moore, who was returning from Northampton county, where he had secured a number of recruits for the Pennsylvania cause, was met by Capt. John Swift, at the head of thirty men, on Locust Hill. A conflict ensued. Jacob Everett, one of Moore's men, was killed, and several were wounded on both sides. Moore retired to Easton, while Swift marched back to Kingston.

The next movement in this unhappy struggle was the appointment of Col. John Armstrong, in conjunction with Hon. John Boyd, commissioners, to restore peace to Wyoming. Boyd was a member, and Armstrong was the secretary, of the supreme executive council of Pennsylvania. This Col. Armstrong was the author of the Newburg letters, had been minister to Spain and France, and was secretary of war in 1812, under the administration of President Madison. The commissioners arrived in the valley on August 8, 1784. Three-hundred infantry and fifteen horsemen were ordered to be placed at their disposal. They issued their proclamation declaring peace and good-will. They demanded a cessation of strife, and the surrender of arms by both parties. The Yankees were fearful of treachery and hesitated to accept the proffered mediation of the commissioners. But Armstrong pledged his honor as a man and as a soldier to respect his engagements, and make good his promises. The Yankees believed and laid down their arms, when they were immediately arrested. Capt. Swift's company of men, who had defeated Moore at Locust Hill, were bound with cords and handcuffed. In this condition they were marched away to Easton jail. Forty-two others were bound and sent to jail at Sunbury. Patterson's men were not disarmed. Armstrong then returned to Philadelphia covered with infamy.

The Sunbury prisoners were released on bail. The Easton prisoners procured their liberty through Edward Inman, a man of great physical strength, who knocked down the jailer, seized the keys, and liberated himself and comrades. Fifteen of them escaped to Wyoming, but eleven were taken and confined in jail three months. An attempt was then made to indict them for the murder of Jacob Everett, who, as before stated, was killed at Locust Hill. The attempt, however, proved a failure, for the grand jury ignored the bill. No bills were found in Northumberland county against the prisoners sent thither by Armstrong. On the other hand, Patterson and Moore were both indicted, which shows that the people generally through Pennsylvania sympathized with the Connecticut settlers in their sufferings.

In September, Armstrong returned to the valley with fifty men and arrested Franklin, Pierce and Johnson for treason, but they were never convicted. On the 29th of the same month the Yankees, under Capt. Swift, attacked a house which