OF LUZERNE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SELECTIONS. "A stoic of the woods, a man without a tear." H. C. BRADSBY, EDITOR. ILLUSTRATED. CHICAGO: S. B. NELSON & CO., PUBLISHERS. 1893. PREFACE. THEM "Like far-off chime Of half-heard bells in some forgotten clime, Pealed from the kingdom of the dead yesterdays." HE last written usually, though the first read by most intelligent bookmen, is this page. Therefore authors often use this privilege to fence against adverse criticism, or apologize for errors of omission and commission; singularly forgetful of the fact that nothing of man's work is perfect, and that the dear critics are not only busy pointing out the "Mistakes of Moses," but are eagerly exploiting the faults of creation itself. In faith, I would welcome them all, because the critics and doubters I esteem the salt of every civilization, and I will rest content in the one fact, namely, that everyone competent to know, after even a cursory examination, will realize that the whole has not been the work of "the idle singer of an empty day." This book, with all its faults, is much of the story of the bloody defeats and the immortal triumphs of the pioneers, now running back one hundred and thirty years; that marvelous race of men, whose bared breasts and fearless hearts erected the only wall of defense against the cruelest adversity that ever so pitilessly struck a portion of the human race; the men and women, who, with the least resources, accomplished the greatest works. In the splendors about us behold their imperishable monuments! The patriotic Mecca of this great State is in Luzerne county-focused at the base of Memorial Monument, that stands sentinel over the ashes of the great dead. This is pre-eminently the historical spot of Pennsylvania, and here have come the poets and historians to mingle their meed of praise with the patriotic tribute of the civilized world to the devoted band whose scattered bones bleached on Abraham's Plains. From 1762 to the close of the year 1892 is the span of the quick told-off-years of the Beginning and the Now of the permanent settlement of Luzerne county-the fleeting years, as unheeded as the separate pulse-beat of lusty youth, yet here are their golden ripening fruits. To add something of the doings of the present age to the careful and well-told accounts of Isaac A. Chapman (1830); Col. William L. Stone (1841); Hon. Charles Miner (1845); Stewart Pearce (1866); Henry Blackman Plumb; Hendrick B. Wright; Sheldon Reynolds, George B. Kulp, Esq., and others, whose writings have been freely laid under tribute in preparing these pages, is the whole of the ambitious purpose of this publication. All of these able chroniclers, except Stewart Pearce, treat on special subjects, and the compiler hereof has found it his great pleasure to weave as well as he could, all their garnered facts into a connected whole and bring it down to the present hour. The late Hon. Steuben Jenkins |