ing her children from the house, and securing a loaf of bread for the supperless fugitives, she fled from the valley on the evening of July 3, 1778, across the mountain to Stroudsburg, in company with all her neighbors thus left feeble and defenseless. "She was," says Miner,

"taken in labor in the wilderness. Having no mode of conveyance, her sufferings were inexpressibly severe. She was able to drag her fainting footsteps but about two miles that day. The next day, being overtaken by a neighbor with a horse, she rode, and in a week's time was more than 100 miles with her infant from the place of its birth." The child born at this time, and subsequently married twice, died a short time since in Wyo ming County.

Marcy himself was a man of some local prominence in his day, and was chosen the first constable of Pittston, in January, 1772.

Barnabas Carey, whose right to settle in the township was voted in 1771, pitched farther up the valley, where, from the fallen tree and the fresh-peeled bark, he fashioned a cabin to afford him protection from the storms and the wolves. This was the first one erected by the white man above the Falls of the Lackawanna, and the honor of the achievement belongs to Carey. The next year he sold his claim to "the eight meadow Lott in ye Township Lockaworna to Jeremiah Blanchard for thirteen pounds and four shillings.'

"1

Constant Searles and John Phillips were among the Yankee emigrants who located in the valley in 1771. Frank Phillips, who was voted a settling right in “Lockaworna" in December, 1771, was the father of John, only fourteen years of age, and settled in the "gore," or wedged-like shape of land, lying between Pittston and Providence.

Six years later, Phillips's farm was sold to his son,

1 Westmoreland Records, 1771.

John, for thirty pounds, current money. Among the five commissioners chosen to purchase land, whereon to erect the necessary public buildings, at the time of the formation of Luzerne County, in 1786, was John Phillips.

After the Trenton Decree authorized a re-survey of the prolonged disputed lands in the seventeen old certified townships, Pennsylvania sent to Wyoming "200 flints and 2 Boxes of cartridges," because the inhabitants were reported "wrangling."1 At this time the Pennsylvania soldiers, excited and brutal with rum, and under the command of Captains Shrawder and Christie, began to lay open fields of grain for common pasturage, destroying every thing belonging to the Yankee settlers, while establishing the boundaries of Pennsylvania, regardless of those of Connecticut.

Phillips and his family were among those driven from their farms in 1784, in a manner so graphically described by Hon. Charles Miner in his History of Wyoming :—

"On the 13th and 14th of May the soldiers were sent forth, and at the point of the bayonet, with the most highhanded arrogance, dispossessed one hundred and fifty families; in many instances set fire to their dwellings, avowing the intention utterly to expel them from the country. Unable to make any effectual resistance, the people implored for leave to remove either up or down the river, as with their wives and children, in the state of the roads, it would be impossible to travel. A stern refusal met this seemingly reasonable request, and they were directed to take the Lackawaxen road, as leading most directly to Connecticut. But this way consisted of sixty miles of wilderness, with scarce a house; the roads were wholly neglected during the war, and they then begged leave to take the Easton or Stroudsburg route, where bridges spanned the larger streams, still swollen by recent rains. All importunities were vain, and the

1 See Pennsylvania Archives, 1784.

people fled toward the Delaware, objects of destitution and pity that should have moved a heart of marble. About five hundred men, women, and children, with scarce provisions to sustain life, plodded their weary way, mostly on foot, the roads being impassable for wagons, mothers carrying their infants, and pregnant women literally wading the streams, the water reaching to their armpits, and at night slept on the naked earth, the heavens their canopy, and scarce clothes to cover them. A Mr. John Gardner and John Jenkins, both aged men and lame, sought their way on crutches. Little children, tired with traveling, crying to their mothers for bread, which they had not to give them, sunk from exhaustion into stillness and slumber, while the mothers could only shed tears of sorrow and compassion, till in sleep they forgot their griefs and cares. Several of the unfortunate sufferers died in the wilderness, others were taken sick from excessive fatigue, and expired soon after reaching the settlements. A widow, with a numerous family of children, whose husband had been slain in the war, endured inexpressible hardships. One child died, and she buried it as she could beneath a hemlock log, probably to be disinterred from its shallow covering, and be devoured by wolves."

A small mound, sheltered by a friendly hemlock, lies by the roadside in Wayne County, where the little one was buried.

"One shocking instance of suffering is related by a survivor of this scene of death; it is the case of a mother, whose infant having died, roasted it by piecemeal for the daily subsistence of her suffering children."1

Elisha Harding, who formed one of this party, says that "the first night we encamped at the Capouse, the second at Cobbs, the third at Little Meadows (Salem), cold, hungry, and drenched with rain-the poor women and

1 Chapman.

children suffering much. The fourth night at Lackawaxen, fifth at Bloomington, sixth at Shehola, and seventh on the Delaware, where the people disbanded-some going up and some down the river."

Pennsylvania repudiated this ferocious conduct of the soldiers, and at once indignantly dismissed the respective companies engaged in proceedings so infamous.1

After the Compromising laws had pacified the valley, Phillips returned and took possession of his former farm. Timothy Keys, Andrew Hickman, and Mr. Hocksy settled in Providence Township in 1771. Keys was chosen constable of Providence, June 30, 1772. Among the first five women coming to Wyoming was the wife of Hickman.

The Westmoreland Records inform us that "Augustine Hunt, one of ye Proprietors in ye Susquehanna Purchois has made a pitch of about one hundred and fifty acres of Land in Lockaworna township in 1772."

John Taylor, with no companions but his ax, his rifle, and his faithful dog, early made a pitch in Providence on the elevation below Hyde Park, affording such views of village and valley, and known throughout the valley as the "uncle Jo. Griffin farm." Mr. Taylor subsequently became a man of more than ordinary usefulness in the colony. He was a prominent member of a number of committees, which received their existence with the expansion of the settlement, and he took an active part in the social and political organizations of the day.

Pitts-town, which was named in honor of the distinguished advocate and defender of American interest, Wm. Pitt, as was Wilkes-Barre from the united names of two bold and eloquent champions of American rights in the British Parliament, was one of the original townships laid out by the Proprietors of the Susquehanna Company, and extended from Wilkes Barre to Providence.

1 Miner.

Among the early families here, were the Browns, Bennetts, Benedicts, Blanchards, Careys, St. Johns, Marcys, Sawyers, and Silbeys. One of the Pittston forts being erected on the farm of Brown, was named in honor of him, and was at the time of the Wyoming massacre occupied by a small company of men commanded by Captain Blanchard.

This block-house was built in 1772. At a meeting of the proprietors and settlers held in Wilkes Barre, May 20, 1772, it was voted "that ye Proprietors Belonging to ye town of Pittston Have ye Liberty to Go into their town, and there to fortyfie and Keep in a Body Near together and Gourd by themselves until further notice from this Committee."1

Samuel Harden was chosen collector for Pittston, and Solomon Johnson "for ye town of Providence," in December, 1772.

Meadow lot, No. 13, in Lockawarna, was sold to Jeremiah Blanchard, in May, 1772, by Dr. Joseph Sprauge, one of the proprietors of the town, and the first physician who practiced medicine in the valley.

John Stevens was a proprietor in "ye township called ye Capouse Meadow." In May, 1772, he conveyed to John Youngs a settling right at Capouse Meadow, merely for the "consideration of ye Love, Good will and affections I Have & Do Bare towards my Loving Son in Law, John youngs, son to my wife Mary."

ISAAC TRIPP.

At Capoose Meadow, where the rude bearing of Indian life had been modified by whites friendly in their intercourse and gaudy with their presents, acres of rich woodlands had been surveyed and purchased for a few shillings in Connecticut currency, but no one