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 one time 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.

66

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 WilkesBarre. 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

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.

son.

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 DavidHe worked in McAlpine's shop. In 1838 Capt. Alexander built a powdermill 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 1768-124 years ago. Each township was five miles square,

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 block-house 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. In 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:

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

& 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. McFarlane & Co. sunk the Eagle shaft at Tompkins' colliery in 1850. were succeeded by Alvah Tompkins in 1855.

J. M.
They

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.

PITTSTON BOROUGH.

The first settlement made in the place was in 1770, and possibly a short time before that, as the exact date can not be ascertained, David Brown and J. Blanchard were well settled here with others and there were enough people on this side the river by 1772 to warrant the establishing a rope ferry to connect them with the settlers in Wyoming on the opposite side and lower down the river.

The borough is on the east side of the Susquehanna river and a short distance below the junction of the Lackawanna with the Susquehanna river. Coming down