A The Legend of Lake Opelousa, The prosaic and vulgar name for Lake Opelousa is South Pond, but even with this title it is not as well-known as its great natural beauty and situation deserves. drive up Haulock Creek to Muhlenburg and two miles beyond will bring the tourist to this clear, lily-befringed pool, where it rests among low hills of forests and fields. Ouly the narrow and gingerly spirit of the present proprietor, it is claimed, prevents Lake Opelousa from surpassing, or as least equaling the other lakes of this vicinity as a popular summer resort. But a few summers can pass, nevertheless, before its healthy margin will be adorned by many summer cottages. How much more poetical and appropriate is the Indian liquid name, Opelousa, than any English title which could be given to such a lake. The legend which gives it this name is one of the prettiest of Indian traditions. Opelousa, it is fabled, was a handsome maiden belonging to the Shawnee village, which was situated not far from the present site of Bloomingdale. She loved, with passionate devotion a promising young Shawnee brave, named Wassaileya, but he, however, did not reciprocate her affection, being the admirer and slave of 8 maiden of the Senecas, whom he met one day on a hunting expedition in the northern forests. The Seneca tribe resented the intrusion of the romantic Wassaileya, whose amorous perseverance finally led to a declaration of open war. One of the battles or skirmishes took place in the woods bordering Lake Opelousa. The Shawnees were worsted that day, and Wassaileya, heroically though he had fought, had dragged himself, covered with wounds, to a secret hiding place in the woods. Here he was sought for and found by the faithful Opelousa. When she saw him she rushed forward to lay herself at his feet, but he, in the haste of misjudgment.conceiving that an enemy was approaching, directing an arrow, pierced her breast with a mortal wound. He heard her dying tale of devotion and forgiveness with consternation, for he had never guessed the truth before. The maid of the Senecas had proven false, but here was one who was the ideal of all his dreams, shattered by his own illfated hand. The body of Opelousa, according to a rare custom, was set adrift upon the Lake in a birch canoe of great beauty. It floated for many days, but at length delivered its fair burden to the depths. In the same canoe, repaired by his own hands, Wassaileya, thin and haggard, was to be seen day and night eagerly scanning the waters for many weeks. To no one would he speak, and all passed him by with a fearful look. At length, on a cold autumn midnight, those who were near and awake averred that they had heard a great shriek upon the Lake. Next morning Wassaileya's canoe floated upon the waves without its customary occupant. He had at length seen, either in person or in imagination, the form of Opelousa reclining upon the bottom of the Lake, and had leaped to embrace it in death. Such is the story of Lake Opelousa, and who will again dare call it South Pond? Beautiful as the lakes themselves are these names and traditions. Then, for the double attraction, why should not Harvey's Lake be known by its Indian name, Skandara? Lake Winola, but a few brief years ago, was Breeches Pond. Who could return to that dull, prosaic name now? There is a flavor of woods and nature's pure air in these Indian accents. We would be but according the lakes their right by restoring to them their early names. An Old Landmark Gone. The old Myers hou-e at Forty Fort was entirely destroyed by fire on Monday evening, June 20. The dwelling was unoccupied at the time. It is supposed that the fire was the work of incendiaries. The property was owned by Henry Myers and was one of the landmarks of the valley. The building was constructed of logs and was over 100 years old. If it had the power of speech it could tell some queer stories about the Red man and his antics. Local Taxes Fifty Years Ago. EDITOR RECORD: I find in looking over some old papers a duplicate for the county tax for the borough and township of Wilkes-Barre, which I collected for the year 1837, just fifty years ago, and to show the contrast I give you the figures. The whole amount of tax was $973 33, which I presume is now paid by a single individual or coal company. The whole number of taxables was less than 500, and what at first seems almost incredible, there are only three of the number that I can find who are now living. They are Nathaniel Rutter, Andrew T. McClintock and myself. J. G. FELL. Waverly, July 4, 1887. A Coal Company's Big Tax. In last week's RECORD was published a letter from J. G. Fell, of Waverly, who stated that the entire tax in Wilkes-Barre Borough and Township in 1837 was only $973 33, Mr. Fell venturing the opinion that an amount equally large was now paid by a single individual or corporation. The RECORD is since informed by Real Estate Agent Reuben Downing that the Lehigh & Wilkes Barre Coal Co. was assessed $18. 037.92 last year for the city of Wilkes-Barre alone-n tax 20 times that of the entire community 50 years ago. OUR CITY'S SIZE. The Census of the City Assessors Completed-Some Interesting Facts and Figures. On Dec. 1 of last year the city assessors, Dr. Sturdevant, Anning Dilley and John B. Quick, commenced the work of making a full and detailed census of the city by wards. Their work was finished on April 1st and many of the interesting facts and figures developed thereby are given below. It must be remembered, however, that the figures cannot show the exact population of the city to-day as there has been a very rapid growth since the work of the assessors began, some 8 months ago. The assessors believe that this growth will amount to about 4 per cent, which would make the total population to. day about 34,000. The The assessors find the area of the city to be about four square miles. number of streets accepted by the city is 144 and their aggregate length 82 miles. Some of the details of population, etc., by wards, are as follows, the population by the census of 1880 being given in each ward for comparison: First Ward-Males 1,121, females 920, colored 76, total 2,117; total in 1880, 1,536; children of school age 592; buildings 324; manufactories 6; churches 3; school house 1. Second Ward-Males 1,950, females 1,563, colored 0, total 3 513, total i 1880 1,684; children of school age 985; buildings 552; manufactories 9; churches 2; school houses 3. Third Ward-Males 1,465, females 1,360, colored O, total 2,825, total in 1880 2,344; children of school age 832; buildings 473; manufactories 6; churches 0, school houses O. Fourth Ward.-Males 584, females 735, colored 10, total 1329, total in 1880, 1301; children of school age 321; buildings 244; manufactories 4; churches 1; school houses 0. Fifth Ward-Males 976, females 913, colored 80, total 1969, total in 1880, 1430; children of school age 426; buildings 341; manufactories 17; churches 0; school houses 1. Sixth Ward.-Males 1073, females 1118, colored 26, total 2217, total in 1880, 2110;* children of school age 706; buildings 387; manufactories 1; churches 4; school houses 1. Seventh Ward-Males 461, females 647, colored 13, total 1121, total in 1880 1070, children of school age 229; buildings 230; manufacturies 6; churches 3; school houses none. Eighth Ward-Males 954, females 1128, colored 50, total 2132, total in 1880 1850; children of school age 417; buildings 382; manufactories 9; churches 4; school houses none. Ninth Ward-Males 586, females 546, colored none, total 1132, total in 1880 2110*; children of school age 345; buildings 206; manufactories none, churches 4; school houses 1. Tenth Ward-Males 628, females 821, colored 71, total 1520, total in 1880 1330; children of school age 377; buildings 281; manufactories 1; churches 2; school houses none. Eleventh Ward. Maies 1117, females 1114, colored 88, total 2319, total in 1880 1925; children of school age 601; buildings 319; manufactories 8; churches 3; school houses 2. Twelfth Ward.-Males 760, females 831, colored 23, total 1614, total in 1880 1152; children of school age 485; buildings 321; manufactories 0; churches 1; school houses 1. Thirteenth Ward.-Males 1420, females 1613, colored 74, total 3107, total in 1880 1728; children of school age 979; buildings 583; manufactories 2; churches 1; school houses 2. Fourteenth Ward-Males 1,992, females 1,813, colored 15, total 3,891, total in 1880 2,974; children of school age 1,089; buildings 689; manufactories 1; churches 2; school houses 2. Fifteenth Ward-Males 596, females 675, colored 25, total 1,296, total in 1880, 898; children of school age 426; buildings 244; manufactories 4; churches 2; school houses 1. In 1880 the Sixth and Ninth Wards were taken together. *Grand total for city-Males 15,683, females 15,868, colored 551, total 32,122, total in 1880, 23,309; children of school age 8,810; buildings 5,576; manufactories 74; churches 34; school houses 14. John Franklin. From Kline's Carlisle Gazette for Wednesday, Oct. 3, 1787, Dr. Egle's Notes and Queries in the Harrisburg Telegraph prints the following: "We hear from Wilkesburg, [WilkesBarre] in the county of Luzerne, that a court was held their last week in the most peaceful manner. Two bills, it is said, were found against John Franklin for riot and trespass, and for assault and battery. This incendiary, we are told, has retreated to Tioga, where he is stimulating a body of vagrants to commit fresh acts of rebellion and treason against the government of Pennsylvania." Two Preachers of Former Times. Among the able and faithful ministers of the gospel who inhabit this region of country, says the Carbondale Leader, there are now two who from circumstances are quite prominent. We refer to Rev. W. K. Mott, of the Baptist, and Rev. N. G. Parke, of the Presbyterian Church. The former has recently contributed to the local church history some reminiscences of his work reaching back a period of fifty-five years, while the latter has just preached his forty third anniversary sermon. No part of the early history of this region is more interesting than that relating to the progress of religious bodies, and nothing has made greater progress than the cause which, after all, lies at the foundation of true prosperity. In view of this fact we feel justified in giving up the space required to publish some of this history: Elder Mott was licensed to preach at Middletown, Susquehanna County, in March, 1832. Rev. J. B. Parker, a missionary of the New York Baptist convention having come into Northeastern Pennsylvania as a general missionary, W. K. Mott started with him on a missionary tour. Their method of travel was on horseback. From Middletown they first went to Laceyville, thence down the Susquehanna to Mehoopany, Tunkhannock. Exeter, Northmoreland and Wilkes-Barre. At all these places meetings were held. From thence they traveled to Plymouth, called at that time Shawnee, Nanticoke, Hunlock's Creek, and held meetings. Two other missionaries came into the Wyoming Valley about this time, Revs Charles Morton and Philip P. Brown. The latter located at Pittston. In August, 1833, at the Bridgewater Association in the church at Laceyville, Rev. W. K. Mott was ordained to the gospel ministry. He soon entered the Lackawanna Valley and began preaching. After three years of labor in this extensive field many of his people moved out west of Chicago. They desired him to go along but instead he removed to Hyde Park and took up his residence there April 15, 1837. It contained then just twenty families and only three members of a Baptist Church. His preaching stations were Pittston, Hyde Park, Providence, Blakely and Greenfield, and for a time he was the only minister in all this valley. From Pittston to Blakely he visited in two years every family on the route and the population was less than 2,000. On the east side of the Lackawanna, where Scranton is, was only a saw and grist mill and the Slocum house. There was a plank foot bridge across the river at Dodgetown, and to get across the river where Lackawan na Avenue now is he took off his shoes and stockings and waded across. He then went up to the saw mill and got some lumber to build a barn. He found a man to haul it, and as they were fording the river at Dodgetown he sat on the load and said to Mr. Atherton, who was driving. "These side hills and this valley will yet be covered by a great city." He has lived to see his prophecy fulfilled. August 26, 1849, the First Baptist church of Scranton was organized under his ministry. This is now located on Scranton Street. His account of meetings and his "valley experiences," as he called them, were thrilling. His references to praying loud as he went along the road through the then wilderness, were very touching. His toils and sacrifices were truly heroic, and to him is really due the first permanent establisment of Baptist worship in Scranton. On one occasion he lost his horse and had to go to his appointment "on his feet," as he quaintly expressed it. Elder Mott has attended over 1,000 funerals, all the way from Wilkes-Barre to Carbondale, of persons who have been buried in 75 different grave yards. He has married over 300 couples and baptized several hundred converts. He paid a good tribute to Elder John Miller, the old pastor who settled in Waverly in 1800, for his noble endeavors for Christ. All through this and the adjoining valleys are many houses where the name Elder Mott is a household word. He has preached in all the other churches hereabouts and has been the pastor of many of them. Dr. Parke was the pioneer preacher for the Presbyterians in all the territory between Carbondale and Wilkes-Barre. In his recent anniversary sermon he says: When I first preached in Pittston on the second Sabbath of June, 1844, there were not to exceed, in the valleys between Nanticoke and Carbondale, aside from WilkesBarre and Kingston, fifty members of the Presbyterian Church. There are now from eight to ten thousand. Rev. John Dorrance, D. D., and Rev. E. Hazard Snowden were the only settled Presbyterian ministers in the valley. Now we have twenty-five. There was not a Presbyterian house of worship, and only two or three of any kind, between Wilkes-Barre and Carbondale. There was a tradition of an attempt about the year 1840 to erect a Presbyterian Church in Providence. When the frame of the building was way up it was blown down in a thunder storm, and the enterprise was abandoned. There are now in the two valleys more than twenty-five Presbyterian spires pointing to the sky. The property controlled by the Presbyterian Church in these valleys, all told, could not have exceeded in value $10,000. Her property now exceeds in value $600,000. Wilkes-Barre was the only self-sustaining church in our connection in the valley, and all she engaged to pay her pastor, Dr. Dorrance, was $500. The church of Carbondale, which belonged to the new school branch of the church and was cared for by the Rev. Mr. Allen, may have been a self-supporting church. The amount reported to the General Assembly last year by the Presbytery of Lackawanna in maintaining the ordinances of God's house was $124,552. Not all of this but a large portion of it was paid by the churches of the two valleys. The contributions of these churches to other benevolent objects during the year amount to nearly $50,000. There were Sabbath-schools in the valleys in 1844, but this agency was then in its infancy. The Presbyterian Church had not fairly entered on this work. Last year our Sabbath-schools reported 12,892 scholars. Centennial of the Constitution. The RECORD is in receipt of several circulars relative to the centennial celebration of the framing and promulgation of the Constitution of the United States, which will take place at Philadelphia, on the 15th, 16th and 17th of September next. One gives the correspondence between the Constitutional Centennial Commission and Col, A. Loudon Snowden, appointing him marshal and his acceptance. Col. Snowden accepts "as a public duty, and from a conviction that we confidently rely upon the cordial and earnest support of our patriotic and public spirited citizens, in the effort to properly commemorate the establishment of Constitutional Government on this continent, which is esteemed by many thoughtful men not to be second in its beneficent results to the great Declaration itself." An appeal is made to those engaged in the various branches of business and industries throughout the Union, which have been developed under the guarantees and safeguards of the constitution to assist in making the processional display, as far as possible, a suggestive presentation of the marvelous advance made within the past one hundred years in the arts of peace. As the circular says, this demonstration should be made worthy of our country and the great event to be commemorated. J. W. Hofmann, Chief of Staff, desires that those intending to participate, will send information as to the probable number of men, horses and carriages they will bring; and the character of the display intended to be made, at the earliest date possible. The office of the marshal and chief of staff is at City Hall. The governors of the several States have been invited to co-operate, the following being some extracts from the circular of invitation: I need not remind you that is of the highest importance that this celebration should not alone illustrate our moral, intellectual and material progress within the past hundred years, but that it should be made so imposing as to leave an indelible impression on the minds of our people, particularly upon the youth of our land, as to the paramount importance of upholding and guarding the Constitution as the sheet anchor of our liberties and the bulwark of our prosperities and happiness of our people. It devolves upon us in the the coming celebration to illustrate, as far as possible, in the processional display, the marvelous material and industrial advance which has been made under the benign influence of the Constitution. It is a celebration in which all should participate. To assure success will require generous and cordial co-operation, and upon this I confidently rely. Without presuming to indicate a plan for your guidance I may say that it has been suggested that your Excellency appoint a committee to which shall be assigned the duty of directing the attention of your citizens to the subject, and the organizing your industries for participation in the demonstration, which it is proposed to make, if possible, the most imposing of the kind ever witnessed on this continent. Susquehanna County Centennial. Susquehanna County is a hundred years old. It is not absolutely certain where the first rude log cabin was erected by the white man but it is certain that commencements were made in old Willingboro, Brooklyn and Harmony in the year 1787. The largest and most noted of these settlements was undoubtedly at Great Bend. This was also the principal point of Indian occupancy in Susquehanna County. There was a small Tuscarora village opposite the Salt Lick on the Great Bend side of the river. The oid village of Great Bend was on the Hallstead side of the river. "A. B." writes as above in the Montrose Republican. In the same paper, Mies Emily C. Blackman, the historian of the county says: The townships settled in 1787, and consequently most nearly interested, Great Bend, Harmony, and Brooklyn- might easily secure much of value to make a public demonstration successful, the whole county joining with them in contributions to the early history and to the exhibition of its store of relics. Of these townships it is barely possible the last mentioned should be placed first in order of settlement, by a few months; but this can be ascertained only in one way, so far as I can see, viz: By finding a record of the deed given "at the end of the first year," by John Nicholson, Comptroller of Pennsylvania, to his cousin, Mrs. Adam Miller, who with her husband came to the Hopbottom lands in 1787. This would determine the season of their comingspring or fall; if the former, it would give almost certain precedence to Brooklyn, since what we know of the settlement on the Susquehanna is, that in the fall of that year, two families at least were there. Of course they may have been there months before. The earliest deed of land in Susquehanna County on record in the deeds books of Luzerne County is that of Tench Francis to Ozias Strong for land north of the river at Great Bend; but, two days later, Benajah Strong bought of Francis 600 acres south of the river, on both sides of the Salt Lick. The latter was sold a little more than a year later to Minna Du Bois and another party, and, for a half a century, this side of the river was the better settled. Correspondence with descendants of the Strongs, who may, possibly, be found at Homer and Lansingville, New York, would doubtless add to information respecting life at "The Bend" in 1787. Except for my weakened eyes it would be a delight to follow up such clues as I have; as it is, I can only express my most hearty sympathy with the movement already inaugurated, and commend it urgently to all whose interest in the compilation of the county annals was so cheering to me years ago. In any case, the Hallstead side of the river at Great Beend seems the most desirable place at which to celebrate the county's centennial." The matter has already been taken in hand by citizens of the county at a public meeting and a committee has been appointed to make the necessary arrangements. Captain John Fries. The following is from Gen. W. W. H. Davis, of Doylestown, Bucks Co., Pa., inre, ply to an inquiry concerning the Fries Rebellion. He says: "John Fries was a native of Hatfield Township, Montgomery Co., from about 1750, and married Mary Brunner, of Whitemarsh, at twenty. Five years afterward he removed to Milford Township, Bucks Co., where he spent his life. He died about 1820. Fries was a soldier of the Revolution. In 1860 I wrote the 'History of the Milford Rebellion,' but it was never printed in book form. W. W. H. Davrs." June 1, 1887. Chez Geneau, Libraire, Rue S. Severin. Avec Approbation & Privilege du Roi. Mr. Jenkins has the following to say of the old history in Notes and Queries (Harrisburg): This book was originally written and published in German about 1755 and subsequently was translated and published in French in 1768. (Referred to in Notes and Queries historical, vol. 1, p. 581.) It was thought to have been written for the purpose of staying the tide of migration to this country from Germany, and was translated and published in France for the same purpose. It gives a somewhat gloomy view of the situation of affairs in this country for the foreign emigrant, especially of the German portion, who came without means and were sold to pay the expense of the voyage. The writer was Gottlieb Von Mittelberger, and it was translated into French by M. Rouselot de Surgey. The author commences as follows: "I departed in the month of May, 1750, from Enzweyhingen, my country, in the bailiwick of Vaihingen, and went to Hailbrouc, where I found an organ destined for Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania. I took charge of it and embarked myself on the Rhine for Rotterdam. From there I went to Kaupp, in England, on a vessel which transported to America about 400 persons from Germany, from the Cantons of Wirtemberg, from Dourlach, from the Palatinat and from Switzerland. After nine days in port, we spread our sails, and in fine landed on the 10th of October, 1750, at Philadelphia, the capital of Pennsylvania." He exaggerates the length and hardships of the voyage, making the distance 1,700 leagues, and the time six months. He particularly descants upon the foul air in the vessels, the diseases engendered, want of care and proper food, etc., which renders those diseases more virulent and fatal, and |