American History, Biography. Genealogy, &c. EDITED BY JOHN WARD DEAN, A.M. VOLUME IV. 1886-1887. BOSTON: PRINTED BY DAVID CLAPP & SON, 1887. Published quarterly at 18 Somerset st., Boston, Mass. Price 25 cts. a year, or 10 cts. a number. THE EDITOR requests persons sending books for notice to state, for the information of readers, the price of each book, with the amount to be added for postage when sent by mail. Families of the Wyoming Valley: Biographical, Genealogical and Historical. Sketches of the Bench and Bar of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. By GEORGE B. KULP, Historiographer of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society. In two volumes. Vol. 1. Wilkes-Barre, Pa. E. B. Yordy, Printer. 1885. 8vo. pp. viii.+504. Price per volume, $7.50. A history of the families of the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania is necessarily an important part of the history of Connecticut, that state having claimed, by the charter of Charles II., that portion of the present territory of Pennsylvania lying between the 41st and 43rd degrees of latitude. As early as 1753 steps were taken by Connecticut to settle this section with her own people. From 1760 to 1790 various companies of emigrants from Connecticut and the other New England states located on these lands. The claim of Connecticut was disputed by the colony of Pennsylvania, who had already granted these lands to her citizens. Out of this conflict of colonial authority, frequent and severe contests for their possession arose between the two parties, the Pennamites or Pennsylvania claimants, and the Yankees or Connecticut claimants. No one who has ever visited the historical Valley of Wyoming, and gazed upon its exquisite beauty, will wonder that the early settlers were willing to take up arms and do battle for such a prize. The struggle for its possession is narrated in the various histories of this section, and needs only to be referred to here. But from these emigrations of New England and Pennsylvania people have descended the Families of Wyoming Valley, whose history Mr. Kulp has preserved in this very interesting volume. Many of these families, repeating the history of most civil wars, have intermarried to such an extent that frequently the Pennsylvania family and name are found owning lands inherited from Connecticut ancestors, or the Connecticut family is found in possession of acres descended from some Pennsylvania ancestor. From these early settlers, who were men of bold spirit, undaunted courage, strong sense and religious principles, have come many whose names are to be |