ments the Meredith article by Dr. Hollister: EDITOR RECORD: Samuel Meredith's grave is marked by a marble slab, with the following inscription: "Samuel Meredith In the 78th year of his age." The grave of his wife is also marked by a marble slab, with the following: "Here lie the Remains of Widow of Samuel Meredith Died Sept. 23d, 1820. This stone is inscribed as a tribute by her children to the memory of an affectionate and respected parent." On the 4th of July, 1877, a large number of the citizens of this village met on the ground and cleaned up the little cemetery and straightened up the stones, etc.; and proceedings were then inaugurated for the purpose of erecting a monument more worthy of the man and the position he oocupied as the first Treasurer of the United States. An organization was formed and application made to Congress for an appropriation, which failed. These proceedings attracted wide attention at the time, and seem to have led to the inference that the grave is unmarked. On last Decoration Day a delegation from the G. A. R. Post proceeded to the cemetery at Belmont and placed flowers upon the General's grave. Pleasant Mount, Aug. 31, 1887. W. W. Further Meredith Correspondence. Reference was made by Dr. Hollister in a recent issue of the RECORD to Dr. Thomas Meredith Maxwell, of New York, who had gathered some material relative to General Thomas Meredith. The editor of the RECORD addressed a note to Dr. Maxwell asking him among other things if he is a relative of our former esteemed townsman, the late Volney Lee Maxwell, Esq. His reply is as follows: I am a grand nephew of Volney Lee Maxwell to whom you refer. He was a good. if not a great man, and I always remember him with affection and reverence. Barre is my native city, but it is a long time since I have made it an abiding visit. I am fond of biographical and historical research and that is how I happened to investigate my maternal genealogy. My earliest recollections are associated with the old Mereduh cottage, as it was ca led, at Carbondale, Penn. Thomas Meredith, after whom I was named, was a native of Philadelphia. In his early days he knew Washington, as did his father (Samuel), and his grandfather Wilkes Reese, who was born in Radnor County, Wales, in 1705. There is a reference to the two latter in Watson's Annals of Philadelphia, speaking of their intimacy with the Pater Patriæ. The family had a portrait of him, painted by Stuart, of which I have a reproduction. Samuel Meredith was born at Philadelphia, Penn'a., and was a prominent and wealthy citizen of that city. The old family name, as a patronymic, is now extinct in this country. Thomas Meredith was my mother's father, and my grandfather. The family which once stood so well has been unfortunate beyond precedence. Everything lost and ruined, except some of the old plate and rare autograph letters. Reese Meredith is said to have come to this country in 1730. He and his son Samuel were both signers of the "non-importation resolutions," Philadelphia, 1765. I enclose my original sketch printed for private distribution, from which Dr. Hollister drew his items. I do not seek any notoriety in this respect, and hope that you will excuse these details. T. MEREDITH MAXWELL. 358 East 72d Street. REV. H. E. HAYDEN, OF WILKES-BARRE. Dr. Hollister doubtless will pardon a correction of his interesting paper in the RECORD on Samuel Meredith. Mr. Meredith was a son of Reese Meredith, a native of Herefordshire, England, who came to Philadelphia 1730, m. 1738 Martha, dau. of John Carpenter, and had born, not in England, but in Philadelphia, at least three children: 1. Elizabeth m. Christ Church, Philadelphia, Mch. 18, 1765, Hon. George Clymer, signer of the Declaration of Independence. 2. Ann m. Christ Church, June 1, 1773, Hon. Henry Hill, of the Constitutional Conv. of Pennsylvania, 1776. 3. Samuel, the first Treasurer of the United States, born on the corner of Second and Walnut streets, Philadelphia, 1741, m. Christ Church, May 21, 1772, Margaret Cadwallader. No complete history of the family has yet appeared, but "Keith's Provincial Counsellors of Pennsylvania, 1733-1776," pp. 394396, gives the family of Samuel Meredith; and a very full, accurate and interesting sketch of Samuel, by his kinsman, Wharton Dickinson, late of Scranton, will be found Magazine of American History, iii., 555563. H. E. H. MR. WRIGHT, OF PLEASANT MOUNT. [Letter to the Editor.] Permit me to add a few words concerning the Merediths, which are written, not in a spirit of captious criticism but for the truth of history. Mount Pleasant township was organized in 1798; the Cochecton and Great Bend turnpike was completed in 1811, and this point soon became the business centre of the town. The post office was established here and named "Pleasant Mount," and the Pleasant Mount Hotel was built by John Granger in 1814, from which it will be seen that the village of Pleasant Mount began to grow and outstrip Belmont some six years before Gen. Meredith's death, and had he lived ten or fifteen years longer the course of events would not have been changed. The credit of moving first in the matter of improving the little cemetery and instituting measures to erect a monument belongs to Miletus Brown and Henry Spencer. Dr. Harmes entered heartily into the plan when it was proposed, and when the organization alluded to in a former letter was formed Spencer was elected president, Harmes secretary and Brown treasurer. Samuel Meredith, son of Thomas, was born at Belmont in 1823, and the family removed to the place below Carbondale in 1830, so that he was then about seven years old. He was several years younger than the writer, and I know from personal recollection that he was old enough to attend, and did attend the same school with myself in the school house which formerly stood in the valley of the Lackawaxen midway between Pleasant Mount and Belmont. Belmont formerly comprised four dwelling houses; there are now two. The Meredith mansion, now occupied by J. W. Fowler, has been well taken care of and is in good condition. It narrowly escaped destruction in July last, being struck by lightning and the interior considerably damaged, but it was not set on fire. W. W. PLEASANT MOUNT, Wayne Co., Sept. 15, '87. Golden Wedding Anniversary. One-half century ago Oct. 3 occurred the wedding of Caroline M. Swetland, eldest daughter of William Swetland of Wyoming, to Payne Pettebane, and the anniversary of the event was delightfully observed on Monday at the old home. The wedded couple began housekeeping at the place where they now reside. The house has of course been enlarged and repaired, but the site is the same and the occupancy by Mr. and Mrs. Pettebone has been continuous during the fifty years. They have had six children, only two of whom survive. One is a son in business with his father, the other is the wife of Allan H. Dickson, Esq. The anniversary was simple being attended by members of the family only. The most remarkable feature of the occasion was the presence of Mrs. Pettebone's mother, Mrs. Catherine Swetland, aged 88, who is still strong and healthy, and who still keeps house in the old Swetland homestead where the wedding took place. In front of the Swetland homestead stands the water trough which was established by Mr. Swetland just fifty years ago this fall, and which for half a century has blessed the the thirsty horses on the main road through the valley. The laying of the pipe in that trough was the first work done in the valley by Bester Payne, father of Hon. H. B. Payne. Bester Payne subsequently removed his pipe factory from Honesdale to Kingston. The old store house of William Swetland & Co., where he and Mr. Pettebone carried on their large general store business in early times still stands. No mercantile business has been transacted there since 1860, but Mr. Pettebone has maintained his business office In the adjoining store office. In 1837 goods purchased in New York were sent by sloop to Rondout, thence by canal to Honesdale, thence by the gravity road to Carbondale and thence by team to Wilkes-Barre. From Philadelphia they went by Chesapeake and Delaware Canal to Havre de Grace, thence by Susquehanna Canal to Columbia and thence by Pennsylvania Canal to Wilkes-Barre. In pursuance of the provisions of Mr. Swetland's will the old Forty Fort church was repaired in 1865 and is now again being put in order by a committee of the Forty Fort Cemetery Association, of which Mr. Pettebone is chairman. Mr. Pettebone is still actively engaged in business. He has a large plantation in Louisiana,-is in partnership with his son in the Wyoming Shovel Works under the firm name of P. Pettebone & Son, which is now a successful and thriving industry,-is a director in several banking institutions, -is one of the committee on the erection of the Nelson Memorial Hall at Kingston and has besides many other enterprises of business and charity. He will be seventy-four years old next December. There are few people now surviving who were present at the wedding although the assemblage was a large and gay one. The names of only five survivors can now be recalled. Thomas F. Atherton was groomsman and the bridesmaid was Rosanna Shoemaker, now Mrs. Col. Ira Tripp, of Scranton, where there is a promise or a probability of a golden wedding not many months hence. The wedding took place at seven o'clock in the evening and the next morning the bride and groom started on their wedding journey, which was by carriage to New York and Philadelphia. carriage was a buggy expressly hired for the trip. It took one month to make the journey and venison was frequently supplied at the stage stations on the route, This Half a Century in Journalism, Capt. S. L. Ennis hands the RECORD & copy of the first issue of the Public Ledger, of Philadelphia. It bears date of March 25, 1836, and is well printed and almost free from typographical errors. It is a trifle more than one fourth as large as the RECORD and bears little semblance to the Ledger of to-day, though a few peculiarities are still retained, as headings in brackets "Reported for the Public Ledger." Unlike most newspaper ventures the Ledger began with an advertising patronage sufficient to ensure it a handsome future-it having one-half its space with advertisements, set solid, in small type. The editorial announcement occupies a column and a quarter, and the purpose of the Ledger was to furnish the worthy poor with a penny paper, there already being a plentiful sufficiency of higher priced journals. A police reporter and a collector of news had been employed and the publishers guaranteed publication for one year at least. The chief item of news was the report of mayor's court to which two full columns were devoted-the record of the preceding week. A local item states that four daily lines of stages between Philadelphia and Pittsburg are unable to carry all the passengers and in another column is an advertisement of a combined canal and railroad line between those cities. That Congress was almost the same then as now is shown by this item: "The Congressional news up to this date possesses not the slightest interest-Congress seems determined to fritter away its time, instead of rendering it profitable to the nation-shame on such tardy legislation." A Pre-Historic Burial Ground. Our former townsman, H. C. Wilson, now of Mt. Vernon, O., has the largest collection of Indian relics in Ohio. Nearly all were found on his own farm, Knox County, as well as neighboring counties, being particularly prolific in aboriginal remains. From the Mt. Vernon Republican we clip the following: Licking County has long been noted for its richness in aboriginal remains, consisting of mounds, fortifications,etc.,but recently in the vicinity of Homer, ten miles south of this city, there has been a discovery which taken in connection with the surrounding forts and mounds is one of the most wonderful which has yet been unearthed. The find consists of an immense number of human skeletons, buried in a promiscuous heap, together with ancient pottery, arrows and spear heads, etc. The location is almost within the village of Homer, on the south bank of the creek and adjoining the cemetery. The remains were exposed by the erosion of the bank of the stream caused by the late freshets. The condition of the remains clearly show that the place was not a regular burial ground, but that the bodies are in all probability those of warriors, slain in some terrible battle at this place. The number and position of the skeletons precludes the possibity of anything but a battle to account for them, as there must be thousands heaped together in a huge trench. In the memory of those yet living there existed a large fortification adjoining the place where these bodies are found, but the creek has washed it away, and now by the same action brings to our gaze the remains of those who sent up their last defiant war whoop on this prehistoric battle ground. An Institute Teacher Dead. Mrs. Faith C. Hosmer died on the 31st of August, 1887, at her home in Rockford, Ill., after a severe illness of five days. For many years she was associate principal of the Wilkes-Barre Female Institute in connection with Miss E. H. Rockwell. She had been engaged in teaching for over fifty years and only ceased when overcome with the infirmities of old age. She was in the neighborhood of 70 years of age. Has Taken Wilkes-Barre Papers 72 Years CARBONDALE, Oct. 8, 1887.-EDITOR RECORD: Enclosed you will find oue dollar, for which send RECORD OF THE TIMES another year. At the commencement of the war of 1812, I was a constant reader of Charles Miner's Gleaner-for a ten year old boy, I felt a great interest in the "War New." That feeling continued with me to the end of the war in 1815, and at that time I became a subscriber to both Mr. Miner's and Steuben Butler's papers. On the 1st of March 1825, I left Wilkes-Barre and settled down in the village of Dundaff-staid there 22 years, then moved to Carbondale, first of April 1847, and in all these 72 years I have taken at least two papers from my native town-Wilkes Barre. In 1834 I became a subscriber to the New Yorker, published by Horace Greely & Co., afterwards the name was changed to Log Cabin, and finally in 1840, I think, it was changed again and called the New York Tribune. It was at first issued weekly, then semi-weekly and finally daily, and I still consider it Horace Greely's paper, and have from 1834 up to 1887, 53 years. When I get talking or writing on these old matters, I hardly know when or where to stop. D. YARINGTON. A Hitherto Unpublished Muster Roll Copied from an Ancient Diary of Christopher Hurlbut of Hanover Township. "Rolls of the First Company of the 5th Regiment of militia in the State of Connecticut, under the command of Captain John Franklin: Captain-John Franklin. Lieutenants-Daniel Gore, Roswel Franklin, Nathan Kingsley. Ensign-John Hagemen. Sergeants-Daniel Ingersoll, William Hibbard, William Jackson, John Hurlbut, Jr. Corporals-Benjamin Baley, Joseph Elliot, Henry Harding, John Fuller. Drummer-William Houck. Fifer-William Smith, Jr. This company was formed, certainly, previous to June 4, 1782, for the defence of Wyoming from the Indians, during the Revolutionary War, after the Massacre of Wyoming. This negative date is fixed by the circumstance that on the same page of the rolls, after the name of "Thomas Reed," the last one on the roll, and immediately under it a diary is commenced, beginning the 4th of June-and in that diary, going on day by day, is: "July 8-Showery; went into the woods to get shingles, but got none. Messrs. Jimeson and Chapman killed by the Indians on the road about half a mile from the house." That was his own house, the Hurlbat house, Christopher Hurlbut being the diarist. July 9th-Clear; attended the funeral of the slain men. 10th-Clear and cool; hoed corn. 11th Clear, hoed some and went to Nathan Carey's wedding. 12th-Clear, on the same business, at night came home." Without going any further into the diary, we'll only say here that John "Jameson' and Asa "Chapman" were killed by Indians on the 8th of July, 1782 in the road at the "Hanover Green," now Hanover Cemetery. The "Roll is not marked as if it had been kept by the first sergeant for use in a military way. This one is supposed to have been kept by Christopher Hurlbut who was not a member of the company though his brother John was; and as John Hurlbut's name is put down with a "Junior" to it. it is to be supposed that his father was still living. John Hurlbut, Sr., died in March, 1782, so that this roll is probably older than that. There is no date to it. H. B. PLUMB. Note-Mr. Miner's History of Wyoming.pp. 247 and 485, states that Nathan Kingsley was killed by Indians in Wilkes-Barre, Nov. 2, 1778. His father had previously been taken prisoner, and he, (the son) was living with Jonathan Slocum, and, according to Mr. Miner, was only fifteen years of age. This could not have been the Lieut. Nathan Kingsley of this company. Had his father escaped from the Indians and returned previous to the beginning of the year 1782? Fifteen of these men were Hanover men. A Century of Legal Life. P. A correspondent of the RECORD calls attention to the fact that this is the centennial year of the opening of the first court held for Luzerne County, and asks that the following from Pearce's Annals, be published: "On the 27th of May, 1787, Timothy Pickering, James Nesbitt, Obadiah Gore, Nathan Kingsley, Benjamin Carpenter, Matthias Hollenback and William Hooker Smith, who had been commissioned justices of the court of common pleas, etc., as provided in the first Constitution of the State, assembled at the house of Colonel Zebulon Butler, at the corner of Northampton and River Streets, Wilkes-Barre, and proclamation being made by Lord Butler, high sheriff, for all persons to keep silence, the commissions of the county officers were read, and the oaths of office were administered by Timothy Pickering and Col. Nathan Denison. This was the first court held for Luzerne County. The duties of prothonotary, register, recorder and clerk of court were performed by Timothy Pickering, who a lawyer of fine ability. Rosewell Welles, Ebenezer Bowman, Patnam Catlin and William Nichols were admitted and s worn as attorneys-at-law." was THE SHORTEST WILL ON RECORD, Some Information as to the Testatrix and to Her Father, Distinguished as an Editor and as a Statesman. The supposition of the Scranton Republican that a certain will of 16 words filed with the register of wills of Lackawanna County, is the shortest will on record is incorrect. What is believed to be the shortest will on record is one filed with the register of wills at Wilkes-Barre. It comprises, signature included, nine words and is as follows: "Emily R. Miner is my heir. SARAH K. MINER." The testatrix was the blind daughter of Charles Miner, the historian of Wyoming Valley, and the beneficiary is her niece, the eldest daughter of William P. Miner, founder of the RECORD. This will, which was filed Aug. 19, 1874, was written with lead pencil on a sheet of note paper and was contained in an envelope on which was written in pencil "Read this when I am dead." Upon being filed, the will was accompanied by an affidavit of Jesse Thomas, brother-in-law of the testatrix and father of Isaac M. Thomas, averring that he was positive the instrument was in the writing of Sarah K. Miner. Miss Miner was an exceedingly gifted woman, her deprivation of vision being counterbalanced by a marvelous memory. When her father was engaged in collecting data for his forthcoming history of Wyom ing, his blind daughter accompanied him on his visits to the surviving pioneers of the trying days of 1778, listened closely to their narratives, and recalled them to her father upon returning home to put his data on paper. She learned to read by touching the large wooden types in her father's printing office. When sent to an institution for teaching the blind, her parents were informed that she was the first child ever admitted who was able to read. She was not born blind, but lost her sight very early in childhood. Her father, who was born in Connecticut in 1780, came to Wilkes Barre at the age of 19 and in 1802 joined his brother, Asber Miner, in the publication of the Luzerne Federalist, successor to the Wilkes-Barre Gazette. Two years later Asher withdrew and went to Doylestown where he established the Bucks County Intelligencer, which still carries his honored name as founder. Charles Miner continued publishing the Federalist until 1810, when he sold to Sidney Tracy and Steuben Butler, who changed its name to the Gleaner, Charles, however, continuing to contribute to its editorial columns until 1816, when the office was sold to Isaac A. Chapman. Mr. Miner then engaged in Philadelphia journalism for a brief space, going thence to West Chester in 1817, where he established the Village Record, publishing the same for 17 years, his brother Asher having meanwhile joined him as partner in 1825. The Village Record, like his brother's Intelligencer, was well founded and is still a vigorous journal, published by the same family (Evans), to whom the Miner brothers sold in 1834. [Since the above was in type we are informed by the present publishers that upon going to West Chester Mr. Miner bought the Chester County Federalist, (Aug. 6, 1817) and changed its name to Village Record Jan. 7, 1818.-EDITOR ] Charles Miner was distinguished, not only as an editor but as a statesman and as a philanthropist. His contributions to the Gleaner attracted wide spread attention, particularly a series entitled "Essays from the Desk of Poor Robert the Scribe," some of which were attributed to Benjamin Franklin. Capt. James P. Dennis has handed the RECORD an autograph letter written from Washington in 1815 to Judge Jesse Fell, of Wilkes-Barre, by Abraham Bradley. It has the following reference to a series of articles then being written by Charles Miner: "P. S.-The editor of the Gleaner has acquired the highest reputation among all ranks of people and served his country and the cause he has espoused, at least equal to any editor in the United States. The humor and pleasantry with which he fills his columns, serve more to the promotion of good morals than the most powerful arguments of the superb genius. And when he touches upon politics, under the signature of Uncle Joba,' the humor and sarcasm are almost irresistible. His productions are copied into most of the papers from Maine to Ohio, and some of those to the South. Even the National Intelligencer cannot withhold, with all his Democratic austerity, from republishing some pieces which have no acrimony against his beloved system of Democracy. Every one 18 charmed " The writer of the letter referred to was a lawyer in Wilkes-Barre at one time He was a graduate at Judge Reeve's law school in Litchfield, Conn., and was one of the jadges of the Court of Common Pleas in Luzerne. A son, Abraham Bradley, Jr., was Assistant Postmaster General under Washington, practically Postmaster General. While in Congress, to which Mr.Miner was twice elected, serving from 1824 to 1829, he introduced a bill for the suppression of |