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Death of Mrs. Munson,

[Letter to the Editor.]

Mrs. Elizabeth Munson, mother of D. A. Munson, died at her son's in Franklin Township, Columbia Co., on Thursday, the 5th inst., after an illness of nearly six weeks. The deceased was born July 7, 1797. Her father, Christian Atherholt, was one of the first settlers in the back part of Kingston Township, Luzerne Co., when all was a wilderness, for I have often heard Mrs. Munson tell about the hard times when their small crops were cut off by the frost. Once I remember her telling that all they had to eat was milk and roasted apples, also that she had worked a week for a yard of calico. She used also to tell about the wolves howling in packs near by, and some of them venturing even to come on the roof of their log cabin.

She was the second wife of Abel Munson, his first wife being Elizabeth Shaver, by whom were born seven children, Philip, Charles, Walter, Mary Ann, Asa, George and Able. By the second wife, David A. Mrs. Munson reared five of the step-children to manhood and womanhood, unprotected by a husband's hand, for as some of the readers of this piece will remember, Able Munson was killed Dec. 8, 1836, by the upsetting of his wagon along the narrows in Toby's Creek, where it is supposed he froze to death, as he was found with his head out of water. The team was also dead. The step children now alive are Philip, now a resident of Michigan; George of Iowa; Asa of Kingston Township, Luzerne Co. Mary Ann married George Atherholt, but died, leaving a child a week old, a girl, whom Mrs. Munson took, and with her son D. A., reared to womanhood, when she became the wife of George Johnson, of Brown's Corners, Jackson Township. There are living yet of her sisters, Mary, the wife of Hiram Harris, Rachel, the w.fe of John Anderson, and David Atherholt, their only brother. Those dead were Katy Schooley, wife of Isaac Schooley; Esther Delay, wife of Jacob Delay, and Nancy Fazer, wife of your townsman, John Fazer.

Mrs. Munson lived in Kingston Township until April 1, 1872, when she, with her son D. A., moved to Franklin Township, Columbia Co., where she enjoyed reasonably good health up to within a few weeks of her death. She was a member of the christian church for 40 years or more, and a strict attendant to church duties. She was buried at Mt. Zion, the funeral being conducted by Rev. W. S. Hamlin. May her christian-like life lead the family she left to higher attainments in the spiritual life that they may meet her on the other shore. Franklin Township, May 14, 1887.

D. A. M.

Mrs. Clement Hooper Dead. Rebecca M. Metzger, wife of Clement Hooper, daughter of Daniel Metzger and sister of Charles B. and Miss Linda Metzger, died Sunday, May 15, aged 48 years, 11 months and 3 days, at her home, 31 Madison Street. Mrs. Hooper died of a complication of lung and heart troubles, though her death came suddenly. She was married to Mr. Hooper in 1869, at the Metzger homestead, now occupied by Wm. Stoddart, they removing soon after to Philadelphia, where her husband was actively engaged as a contractor. His health breaking down, they removed to Wilkes-Barre. Deceased was an active member of Memorial Presbyterian Church and a worker in the Sunday School. She was educated at Wyoming Seminary, graduating therefrom in 1854. From that time until her marriage, 15 years later, she taught school, and there are hundreds of persons in Wilkes-Barre, now grown up and married, who received their first education at her hands. Like her mother, she was fond of going about doing good, and was a welcome visitant in the sick-rooms of such of her acquaintainces as needed her kindly ministrations. She was one of earth's noblest women, and there will be many an aching heart upon hearing of her demise. Besides her father and husband, five children are left to sorrow for a loving and indulgent mother-Cynthia, William, Carrie, Mary, Juliet. The funeral took place Tuesday at 4 o'clock. Interment in the family plot in Hollenback Cemetery.

Death of an Octogenarian.

Mrs. Esther McCarty, of Dallas, whose husband died several years ago, died on May 22d at 2 pm., after two or three weeks' illness, of rheumatism. Mrs. McCarty 8 years ago suffered a fracture of the hip, and had been unable to walk since. She had lived half a century in Dallas and was at the time of her death 88 years of age.

Mrs. McCarty leaves a large family of children, all adults: Mrs. James Riley, Mrs. Emilie Johnson, Peter H. McCarty, Wm. McCarty, Enoch McCarty, Harvey McCarty, all of Dallas, Mrs. Elizabeth Worden, a widow, of Harvey's Lake, and Freeman McCarty, of Wilkes-Barre. The funeral took place Tuesday at 2 pm. at the Dallas M. E. Church, with interment in the adjoining cemetery.

-Mrs. Julia A. Brown, widow of Truman Brown, of Jackson, Luzerne County, died at the residence of her son, Marion Brown, on Monday, May 2, aged 81 years. She was a sister of Gordon and Butler Swetland, of Mehoopany.-Tunkhannock New Age.

ROUT OF THE SIX NATIONS. Sullivan's Expedition in 1779-The Journals of the Officers and Centennial Proceedings of 1879 About to be Published by the State of New York.

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Maj. Gen. John Sullivan and the officers who accompanied him on his expedition against the Six Nations of Indians 1779 were certainly among the luckiest ones of the American Revolutionary war. They were lucky at the time in being detailed to perform a task in which the chances were many to one in favor of winning fame at the least exposure to danger, lucky in the time of year selected for their expedition, lucky in having been set upon the Indians at a time when the latter were poorly prepared to offer resistance, and lucky in having been given authority to exterminate as they went along. The operations of these Indians and their Tory leaders in the Mohawk Valley, in Schoharie, at Cherry Valley and at Wyoming had convinced the American commander that the most humane solution of the Indian problem then under consideration was to wipe out the power if not the persons of those troublesome New York tribes. The time selected for striking the blow was in summer, when the invading army would be able to destroy the growing as well as the stored supplies of the enemy, thereby reducing to want whatever number might survive the sword. The expedition started from the point of rendezvous on the Susquehanna, in Pennsylvania, in June, accomplished the object of its mission, and, returning, arrived at the point of departure in October. Any one acquainted with the country which Sullivan's army traversed would say that a midsummer journey through it must be a pleasant experience under the most trying conditions. The march of this military command was a picnic compared with the average experience of other sections of the American Army of the Revolution. The fame of the expedition would be secured by the fact of its having made an end of the power of the Six Nations, but it was preserved for a perpetual presence by the literary zeal and industry of the subordinate officers of the command.

The good luck of the expedition followed it after the war and is still with it. The many minute and accurate journals fell into the right hands for their preservation and now, after more than a hundred years, the conditions for their permanent keeping in book form are singularly propitious. In 1879 centennial celebrations of Sullivan's march were held at prominent points along the line, notably at Elmira, where the first important engagement was had with the Indians; at Waterloo, in commemoration of the

events in Geneva County; at Geneseo, the ultimate point of the march, and at Aurora on Cayuga Lake, the site of one of the Indian towns that were destroyed. The Legislature of 1879 passed an act authorizing the publication under the direction of the Secretary of State of the proceedings of similar celebrations of the hundredth anniversary of the battles of Oriskany and Saratoga, and of the founding of the State at Kingston. In 1884 an item of $5,000 was put in the Supply Bill to pay for the publication of the proceedings of the Sullivan celebrations and the journals kept by the officers of the expedition, but Gov. Cleveland vetoed it, not deeming the matter to be collected and published of sufficient public importance to justify the expenditure. In 1885 a special act providing for this pub. lication was passed and was signed by Gov. Hill. The Comptroller refused to permit the work to go on, however, because the amount to be expended, $5,000, was not specifically appropriated. Last year this defect was remedied by placing the amount in the regular Supply Bill. These records could not well be published by private enterprise. However desirable it might be to have them in accessible and authentic form, they would not make a book for popular sale. It was therefore fortunate for the Sullivan expedition that the Governor, who was to approve of the appropriation, was a native and life resident of the region through which the march was made. He had a personal pride in putting the record in book form. Another circumstance in favor of having the work of publishing this record done accurately and promptly is that it falls upon the present Deputy Secretary of State, Diedrich Willers, Jr., a resident of Seneca County, and something of an enthusiast on the history of the Six Nations.

Mr. Willers is now reading the proofs of the volume, which is published under contract by Knapp, Peck & Thomson, of Auburn. It will be a book of over 700 pages, printed and bound in popular book form. The editorial supervision primarily is in charge of Gen. John S. Clark, of Auburn, who has enriched the text with abundant foot-notes which throw much clear and useful side-light on the narative. There are 26 distinct journals by Sullivan's officers. Some of them are for the most part daily entries, giving the condition of the troops, the distance marched, the state of the weather, and the kind of country met with, while others are remarkably full. It seems as if the journalizers regarded their enterprise as one that future generations would be anxious to know all about. Besides the journals the book will contain accounts of the centennial celebrations of 1879, steel portraits of the principal officers, including

Gen. Sullivan, Gen. James Clinton, who conducted the right wing of the invading army from the Mohawk Valley by way of Otsego Lake and the Susquehanna to "Tioga Point," now Athens, Pa.; Col. Philip von Courtland, Col. Peter Gansevoort and others; also a most valuable feature in the shape of maps of the main march and the most important of the subexpeditions into the country of the Senecas and Cayugas. These maps are not deductions from the text of the journals. They are fac similies of maps made by the geographers and surveyors of the expedition. The route of the main march and the diversion through the Cayuga country were measured by the chain of the surveyor who accompanied the army, and accurate maps were made and preserved. In reading these journals and examining the maps one is surprised to see how the distances and comments on the country, then a forest save where the Indians had their corn-fields and their vegetablegardens, tally with the more accurate surveys of recent times. The length, size, character, and possibilities for navigation of the lakes from Cayuga westward as far as Sullivan marched in this State are set forth with an accuracy which left nothing for subsequent explorers and pioneers to add. Throughout the journals the original nomenclature and orthography have been preserved.

Gen. John Sullivan was engaged in the thickest of the fight for American independ ence, but his name might not be remembered before some of his compeers if it were not connected with this last struggle of the Six Nations for existence. He commanded the first American force that offered armed resistance to Great Britain. This was in December, 1774, near Portsmouth, N. H, the December before the battle of Lexington. He was born in Berwick, Maine, February 17, 1740, and was bred a lawyer. In 1775 he was appointed Brigadier General. The next year he went to Canada with a reinforcement, and by reason of his successes he was commissioned a Major-General in August, 1776. He did good work in the battle of Long Island, where he was captured. Having been exchanged, at Trenton, in 1776, he was in command of Gen. Lee's division. In 1777 he made a raid upon Staten Island, commanded the right of the American forces at Brandywine, gained a victory over the British at Germantown, but was afterwards repulsed, did some ex cellent service in Rhode Island, and was next selected by Gen. Washington to lead the famous expedition against the Six Nations. Throughout that incursion the strictest mil. itary discipline was enforced. It is probably true that no separate command during

the Revolutionary war was handled with the intelligence and appreciation of the work in hand that characterized the rout of the Six Nations. When he returned from the Indian country. Sullivan resigned his commission and re-entered Congress, which he had left in 1775 to take a command. From 1782 to 1786 he was Attorney General of New Hampshire, and for the next three years Governor of the State. His last service was on the bench as Federal Judge of New Hampshire, which position be held from 1789 till his death in 1795.

But for this Sullivan march into the western country of the Six Nations, New York State would have no soil west of Oneida and Oswego Counties, from the lake to the Pennsylvania border, that was touched by the Revolutionary war. The left wing of Burgoyne's army from Oswego was headed off at Fort Stanwix (Rome) and Oriskany, and its line of march bounded the Revolutionary territory of New York State on the west, except as to Sullivan's invasion. The country through which the Sullivan army marched must always be noted for charming scenery, richness of soil and the contentment and intelligence of its people. From Wyoming to the junction of the Eastern Susquehanna and the Chemung Rivers the valley is narrow but fertile. From this junction to Elmira some of the richest farms of Southern New York are spread out. The route thence to the head of Seneca Lake is the least attractive of Sullivan's entire march It was on this portion that the army met their most disagreeable experiences. The journals of the officers agree in execrating the Catharine swamp and the marsh land at the head of the lake. From where the village of Havana now stands the army bore to the right and followed the east shore of Seneca Lake, rounding the foot of it and making one of its most noted halts where Geneva now stands. Thence the line was west, past the north end of Canandaigua Lake on to the Genesee River, near the vil lage of Geneseo. This river being considered the western limit of the country to be invaded, the army countermarched intact till it arrived at the site of Geneva. Thence three expeditions were sent out, one, under Col. Peter Gansevoort, through the territory of the Onondagas, the Oneidas and the Mohawks, to Albany as the terminus of the march; another, under Col. William Butler. to cross the foot of Cayuga Lake and traverse its eastern shore; the third, under Col. Deerborn, to proceed to the west shore of Cayuga Lake and follow it to the head of the lake. Meantime the main army under Sullivan continued their return 'march up the east shore of Seneca Lake over the line advanced upon. Col. Butler and Col. Deer

born had orders to follow Cayuga Lake on either side to its head and thence to proceed across country and join the main army at or near Newtown, now Elmira. Col. Butler on the east side of Cayuga Lake destroyed an Indian village where Union Springs now is, another where the pretty village of Aurora now sits by the lake side, and others on his way up to the site of the present Ithaca. There he expected to be joined by Col. Deerborn, but the two detachments did not reunite till they joined the main army on the Chemung. About two miles south of Ithaca the last Indian village the expedition encountered was destroyed. When the army was reunited, all except Gen. Gansevoort's Mohawk detachment, near Newtown, a jollification was held after which the march back to Wyoming for further service was successfully accomplished. journals of the officers mention a minor expedition that was sent up the Chemung valley, while the main army was waiting at Newtown for the Cayuga Lake expedition, to dislodge any Indians that might be found as far west as Painted Post.-H. D. C. in New York Evening Post, Albany Letter.

The Merediths are Mixed.

The

A writer in the Honesdale Independent says the remains of Gen. Samuel Meredith, whom President Washington appointed United States Treasurer and whom Thomas Jefferson complimented for his integrity, lie buried at Belmont, Wayne Co., Pa., in a grave unmarked by any fitting memorial, and this writer, after lamenting this sad fact, says:

"You will allow me to say that history iuforms me that amuel Meredith was born in Philadelphia in 1779, and educated in the University of Pennsylvania. He was admitted to the Philadelphia bar in 1805, to the Wayne County bar in 1810 and to the Luzerne County bar in 1816. He was Prothonotary, and Register and Recorder of Wayne County from 1818 to 1821. In 1824 he opened the first coal mine below Carbondale. He was a man of energy and tact and died at Trenton, N. J., in March, 1855.'

Washington was first inaugurated as Presideat in April 1789, when Mr. Meredith, according to the above, was only 10 years old and rather young to be treasurer of the United States. At the beginning of Washington's second term, Mr. Meredith could have been only 14, and when Washington finally retired only 18. When the "Father of his Country" died, Mr. Meredith could not have been many months over 20 years old. The Wayne County antiquarian has either got his dates wrong or made Mr. Meredith treasurer at the wrong time. That worthy lived long enough to have been treasurer under President Taylor-when William M. Meredith, of Philadelphia, was secretary of the Treasury-or even under

President Pierce for two years.-Exchange.

The foregoing from the last issue of the Milford, Pa., Gazette, appears to present a case of very much mixed history. The tangle is straightened out, however, when it is explained that the Wayne County writer has given Thomas Meredith's history for Samuel Meredith's, the former having been the son of the latter. One of Thomas' daughters is Mrs. Capt. Graham, of this city. Samuel Meredith was treasurer of the United States under Washington and contributed with Mr. Robert Morris and other mutual friends the first monies that ever found their way into the treasury of the United States. The fact was developed in a letter written by John Sherman while secretary of the treasury after a careful examination of the old records of the office. His descendants have documentory evidence of the donation, which, by the way, is said never to have been repaid either to him or his descendants.

C. B. J.

Descendant of a Pioneer Family. John S. Marcy was born Nov. 1, 1821, in Marcy Township, and has lived there all his life, with the exception of 3 years when in the late war. Mr. Marcy's family consisted of eight children, four of whom are living. One is the wife of Charles Marcy, of Marcy Township, Lackawanna County; another is the wife of P. M. Conniff, of Wilkes-Barre, and J. W. Marcy, of Kingston, and M. G. Marcy, living at home. John Marcy's grandmother was the wife of Ebenezer Marcy and daughter of Jonathan and Content Spencer, of Saybrook, Conn., afterwards of Fishkill, N. Y. Ebenezer was born Feb. 11, 1768. He was proprietor of a mill in Wyoming Valley and wae at the fort on the east side of the river when the massacre occured on the west side. The boats having been removed he was unable to be present at the fight. In the fight Ebenezer Marcy's wife gave birth to a child on Pocono Mountain, which she named Thankful. Having subsequently returned to Wyoming Valley Thankful died at the age of 19.

Almost a Nonagenarian.
[Catawissa News Item.]

Mrs. Elizabeth Munson, mother of D. A. Munson, died at her son's in Franklin Township, on Thursday, the 5th inst., after an illness of nearly six weeks. The deceased was born July 7, 1797, died May 5th, 1887, aged eighty-nine years, nine months and twenty-eight days; her father was one of the first settlers in Kingston Township, Luzerne County, where she lived until in April 1872, when she, with her son D. A., her only child, moved to Franklin Township.

Old Time Dancing Masters.

[Letter to the Editor.]

I doubt if anything makes a deeper impression on the young than the glory of the first dancing school. If any exception be taken to this assertion, all I can say in return is, I am speaking for myself.

The first teacher I had the honor of perform ing under was a sedate gentleman by the name of Tobias, from Lancaster. That city city had produced some distinguished men, but in my view none equal to Mr. Tobias. He was a man of good presence, good manner, had the use of his heels, and was a medium violinist.

I think it was in 1839, he opened his school at Morgan's, on the present site of Mr. Darling's dwelling in Wilkes-Barre and another at Atherton's hotel in Plymouth. To get all out of the thing that was in it, I attended both. It was an easy matter, on a good horse, to ford the river at Plymouth, pass up through theInman and Lazarus flats, and thence on to Morgan's. Dark nights or stormy ones, or even a slight freshet, was no hindrance to an ambitious youth of 19. in search of knowledge. All the young damsels of the county seat attended the school. This probably had some weight; for that class of young ladies has never been excelled.

After this, probably the outcrop of Mr. Tobins' laborers amongst us, there was the annual ball on the 22d February at the Phoenix. To this came the notables of Berwick, Danville, Bloom, Tunkhannock and other outlying cities.

Porter, the memorable landlord of the Phoenix, had what was called a spring floor. It was over the long dining room and supported only at the sides of the apartment. The combined tramp of many feet, in time with the band, produced a vibratory motion something like the teeter of a buckboard. It always seemed a wonder to me, the whole affair didn't crash down with its live freight.

This short history pertaining to the subject of the dance, would be deficient without mention of Messrs. Morton and Jones. They were the successors of Mr. Tobias. Their school, very large and successful, was at the Dennis Hotel, where is now the National Bank.

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he be else than a prime manipulator of the strings?

I suppose it would pe proper to seek pardon for making reference to matters of such minor importance, knowing that the cotillion has gone down with many other barbaric usages of our ancestors. Our more favored lasses of the present day will scarce thank me for calling off their attention from the german, the polka, the waltz, and other matters coming in on the tide of reform. But the editor of the Historical Record called for items of antiquity, and this rambling sketch is in obedience to his demand. C. E. WRIGHT.

The Federal Constitution. Pennsylvania was the first of the large States to adopt the Federal Constitution. The excitement it called forth was intense, and the papers of the day were filled with able essays regarding it. In these papers will be found (almost entire) the debates in the Pennsylvania Convention called to ratify the Constitution. They have never been printed except in that form. What Elliot gives as the debates in the Pennsylvania Convention is nothing but the substance of James Wilson's remarks made in a running debate, brought into the form of a single speech. What called forth these remarks does not appear; nor are the views of the minority of the convention, which embody the very spirit of subsequent amendments to the Constitution, given at all. It was hoped that upon the centennial anniversary of the adoption of the Constitation Congress would make provision for collecting and publishing everything showing the development of thought that led to its formation. But as the appropriation requested for this purpose failed to pass, it is left to the citizens of each State to preserve the records of the part their ancestors bore in this momentous period of our country's history. Pennsylvania's part in the organization of the government, as in the struggle which preceded it, was broad and honorable-more broad and honorable than has ever heretofore been set forth. The example she set in recognizing the claims of the smaller States made the adoption of the Constitution possible.

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania desires to place this record permanently before the country. It proposes to publish in a single volume of 750 pages the debates in the Pennsylvania convention, and the ablest essays printed at the time, and if the space will allow, biographical notices of the members of the State Convention, and of Pennsylvania's representatives in the Federal Convention. The work is to be edited by Professor John Bach McMaster.

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