Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

20 years ago from memory, and showing the buildings as they appeared about 1840. The picture excited general interest.

The chairman called for extempore remarks upon Rev. Dr. N. G. Parke, Dr. Andrew Bedford, of Waverly, who has been a Luzerne medical practitioner upwards of 60 years: Mrs. M. L. Hartman, author of a History of Huntington Valley; Dr. Harry Hakes, Hon. Lewis Pughe, Wesley Johnson, Hon. L. D. Shoemaker, Rey. H. E. Hayden, and Evert Bogardus, Esq., of Norwalk, Ohio. All responded briefly. Mr. Bogardus gave some interesting reminiscences. The son of Jacob I. Bogardus, he was born in three townships-Bedford, afterwards called Dailas and subsequently set off as Lehman. He remembered when his father's nearest neighbor was Thomas Case, 2 miles north; John Whiteman, 2 miles northwest; Amos Brown, 21⁄2 miles east. Mr. Bogardus was still loyal to old Luzerne, and pronounced it the finest region he had ever seen.

The Luzerne Bar and Bench were largely represented, also the court house officials. Among the out-of-town visitors were W. A. Wilcox, Esq., Scranton; Alvin Day, Tunkhannock; Pierce Butler, Carbondale: Rev. H. H. Welles, of Kingston, H. B. Plumb, Esq., author of "History of ranover Township;" Col. Allabach, of Washington, the Mexican veteran who carried the American flag in the charge on Cherubusco; Rev. J. K. Peck, preacher and author; Will S. Monroe, a descendant of John Franklin and Capt. Ransom; Miss Geraldine Calver, sister of the writers.

Prior to adjournment at 4:30 Judge Dana announced that the several papers would be published by the society.

REV. BOSTWICK HAWLEY.

A Clergyman of 40 Years Ago Writes His Reminiscences of Wilkes-Barre and Encloses an Original Letter of Hon. Charles Miner.

The RECORD is enabled, through the courtesy of Mr. G. S. Bennett, to lay before its readers an interesting letter from Rev. Dr. Bostwick Hawley, who preached to the Methodist congregation here in 1847. He is very pleasantly remembered by our older citizens, who will be glad to hear from him and to know that he is enjoying a ripe old age in Saratoga. His letter is as follows:

GEORGE SLOCUM BENNETT, A. M.-Esteemed Friend: After a lapse of twenty-two years I have read for a second time the History of Wyoming, by my late and excellent friend, the Rev. George Peck, D. D., and with deep interest. Though more than forty years have passed since I became the pastor of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, and a resident of Wilkes-Barre, this re-reading of

the instructive volume took me in vivid thought over the whole valley, as it then was-beautiful, fertile, enterprising, from the Narrows and Campbell's Ledge on the north to Nanticoke and Plymouth on the south, including the two central points, Wilkes-Barre and the "Plains" on one side of the Susquehanna and Wyoming and Forty Forty Fort on the other. Wilkes-Barre was then a beautiful village, and Wyoming was a rural gem. The whole region was unbroken and unmarred by coaling operations and by railroads, except the Baltimore mine near at hand. Jacob's Plains, where I preached once in two weeks, was a beautiful region of farms and farm houses. In the little white church, now displaced by a larger one, was gathered an intelligent congregation and an excellent Sunday school. Of them I distinctly remember the Stark, Carey. and Abbott families. The late Rev. W. P. Abbott, eloquent and popular, was then a Sunday school lad, on whose head I gently placed my hand and said, 'You will make a man yet." So he informed me when he was a pastor in Albany, N. Y., and that he had thence on kept track of

me.

The large, intelligent and wealthy congregation that then worshiped in the old, historic and tall-steepled white church on the Square, included many whose names and features live pleasantly in my memory; among them are your honored parents and their then unbroken family; Pierce and Lord Butler, my next-door neighbors, the Hon. Andrew Beaumont and family, the Hollenbacks, Judge Conyngham, Gen. Ross and family, the Wood families, Sharp D. Lewis and family, two of whom then died as verging to maturity, Rev. B. Bidlack, Mr. and Mrs. Drake, W. W. Loomis, the Keslers, Father Moister, McAlpine and others, whose portraits adorn the walls of my mind. The family of the Hon. Charles Miner, the historian, to whose volume Dr. Peck frequently refers, and whose rural home was near by, is vividly recalled because of the intelligence of its several members, especially of Sarah, cultured and interesting in her blindness. Poet, musician, and dexterous, she was highly attractive and much beloved.

My residence at Wyoming, then New Troy, was more quiet and every way agreeable. The newly formed class was by me organized into a church; the old, weatherbeaten house of worship, long unoccupied, was remodeled and improved, and filled at the morning and evening services by attentive audiences. My charge included also Forty Fort and what is now West Pittston. Among the historic and honored families whose descendants then lived in that region, are those of Myers, Jenkins, Denison, Swet. land, Lee, Shoemaker, Wadhams, Pettebone

and to these I will add my well known friend, the Rev. Dr. Nelson. The delightful associations of those days were short. The constituted authorities of the church, thinking my services were more needed in another and larger place, removed me at the expiration of one year, and much to the regret of my family. Once only since those times have I visited that region, the same, but greatly changed.

The two chapters of the volume, the reading of which occasions this communication, and which most interested me, are those that contained the narratives of the original Myers family and of Frances Slocum, your great aunt, the long lost captive, borne away by the Delawares. Well did I know her brother Joseph, your grandfather, as also his manly sons and womanly daughters, than whom none were more useful or respected. I clearly call to mind in outlines the thrilling narratives of the visits made by your grandfather and two of his daughters to the forest home of the lost and found one, thrillingly interesting to me because of the character and nearness of the parties. I now see in imagination the Indian-like rortrait of your great aunt as it forty years ago hung on the west wall of the parlor of the homestead. After this second reading I am induced to think that the historic name of that heroine of the valley, Martha Bennet, is retained in your family and borne by your sister, Mrs. Phelps. [Mr. Hawley is in error here as to the relationship. The Ziba Bennett family of to-day is not the same as the Bennet family of Revolutionary days. The gentleman to whom this letter is addressed comes from pioneer stock on his mother's side only.-ED.] As the aged and good woman died so late as 1853, I am almost sure that I had the pleasure her acquaintance and visited her home. But I am trespassing. My apology is the pleasant reminiscences evoked from the dim past, and also that I have retained these many years, with other papers and letters, one written to me by the Hon. Charles Miner, which I send to you for preservation. It is a response to an invitation that he speak at a Sunday school anniversary, when your honored father was the superintendent, and your mother and aunts were actively engaged as teachers in the school. I recall the platform built over the chancel, the baskets of "goodies" under the platform awaiting distribution to the scholars. Yourself and Martha were then among the juveniles. Not being able to render the desired services, Mr. Miner responded in the words of the beautifully written letter I herewith send to you as a part of this communication. The following is the letter retained as a keepsake these thirty-nine years,

of

"RETREAT, June 25, 1847.-REV. B. HAWLEY: Rev. and Dear Sir: The first impulse of my heart was to say "yes" to your flattering invitation, but sober second thought admonishes me that a deaf man cannot be either a pleasing or an effective speaker, the ear being so necessary to the proper modulation of the voice. It would give me unaffected pleasure to do what would be agreeable to yourself, or to your society, which I so highly regard. I am sure that you will agree with me that true wisdom indicates to one of my age, deafness and imperfect health, to eschew, however attractive, the scenes of public excitement, and with cheerful resignation to cultivate those simple pleasures which my books. the cottage grounds and our domestic circle can afford. Very respectfully your friend,

CHARLES MINER." With pleasant recollections of the long past, and with kind regards to all who recall me, I am very truly yours,

BOSTWICK HAWLEY. Saratoga Springs, N. Y., Sept. 15, 1886.

A Historic Apple Tree.
[Bethlehem Times.]

Last week F. H. Huth, while on a trip to the West, stopped with relatives living in Gnadenhutten, Tuscarawas County, O., an old Moravian settlement. Among other places of interest visited was the old burying ground where, among other trees, stands an apple tree which was planted in 1774 by Christian Indians. This tree was planted eight years before the massacre of ninetysix Christian Indians at Gnadenhuettan, on the Tuscarawas River, by a band of white settlers, which occurred on March 8, 1782. The apple tree, still in good bearing condition, remains a living monument in memory of those Christian Indians whose remains sleep ber eath the sod once tilled by their own hands, and now shaded by the trees which were planted by them over a hundred years ago. The tree remains also as a sad reminder of the treachery of those white settlers who commited the massacre.

Death of au Octogenarian.

The Hobbie Owl says that Anthony Good, one of the pioneers of Hollenback Valley, died at his late home near Hobbie on Sunday. For several weeks he failed very rapidly, and his death was the result of the wearing out of the vital forces. Anthony Good was born in Whitehall Township, Lehigh County, Pa., March, 1805. His wife preceded him to the grave by about five and a half years. The union was blessed with twenty-nine grandchildren, seventeen of whom are living.

FRANCES SLOCUM'S RELICS.

A Tragic Story Recalled by the Placing on Exhibition of a Number of Articles Once Belonging to the Lost Sister of Wyoming.

The RECORD recently reprinted from a Western paper an item to the effect that some relics once belonging to Frances Slocum, the Lost Sister, whose romantic history is known the world over, had recently been found in Wabash County, Indiana. The item was so brief and unsatisfactory that inquiries were sent to the locality mentioned, from which it is learned that while the facts were somewhat distorted there was much of truth in the published reports.

Most of the articles referred to are owned by Gabriel Godfroy, of Peru, Ind., who married a grand-daughter of Frances Slocum, and by whom they were entrusted to the Grand Army of the Republic for their Loan Art Exhibition held August 9, in Wabash, Ind., and in whose elaborate catalogue (kindly sent us by the editor of the Wabash Courier), they are duly enumerated.

For the benefit of such of our younger readers as are not familiar with the narrative, a brief sketch of Frances Slocum will be interesting, before passing to the correspondence: A few months after the massacre of Wyoming her father's family was among the fugitives who ventured back into the Wyoming Valley, which had been desolated with fire and tomahawk. On November 2, 1778, a band of Delaware Indians stole Frances Slocum, then a five-year-old child, as also two other children, and hurried away from the 'settlement. The next month the father of Frances and his aged father-in-law, William Tripp, were cruelly killed and scalped. No tidings came of little Frances for 59 years, when by a most remarkable chain of circumstances it was discovered that she was living at Logansport, Indiana, with the Miami Indians, where she was found by her broth ers and sisters in 1837. The interview was a most touching one, the identification was complete, and every . entreaty was made to have the lost sister return to her home in Wyoming Valley, but all to no purpose, she preferred to live and die among the children of the forest. Two life-size portraits of her were painted by George Winters, one of which is now in the possession of Mrs. Abi Slocum Butler, her niece, who is living in WilkesBarre, and the other in the possession of

George Slocum Bennett, whose great-aunt she was.

Following is the interesting letter received from Mr. George C. Bacon, editor of the Wabash Plain Dealer:

"WABASH, IND., Sept. 9, 1886. - EDITOR RECORD: Your inquiry and copy of the RECORD at hand, concerning the relics of Frances Slocum, the "White Captive," or "Mah-co-nes-quah," as she was known among the Indians here. In reply will say that it is incorrect to say that these relics were "unearthed," because they have been kept carefully ever since her death by the head man of the tribe, Gabriel Godfroy.

[graphic]

FRANCES SLOCUM (from Pearce's Annals).

Besides the relics mentioned in your paper, the chief has in his possession the wardrobe of "Mah-co-nes-quab," consisting of a dress and shirt of mail, both heavily trimmed with silver ornaments, two shawls, a very fine red silk scarf, a magnificent brown broadcloth blanket ornamented with embroidery, and a

rair of scarlet flannel leggins of exquisite workmanship and ornamentation. All these are in excellent state of preservation. The article in the Plain Dealer I send you to-day states that the remains of Frances Slocum are buried in Miami County, which is a mistake-they lie in the tribal burying ground of her old home one mile west of "Deaf-man's village," on the banks of the Missinnewa River in Wabash County, about twelve miles from this city. I had the good fortune to see Peter Bundy in this city today-an Indian who married one of Frances Slocum's daughters,-and still lives on the home place, and learned the above fact from him. Also that she has two daughters buried at the same place; that Frances Slocum married Deaf Man, ("She-pah-ca-nah") war chief of the Osage village, and by him had four children, "Ke-ke-na-kush-wah," who married Capt. John B. Brouiellette; "O zah wah-shing-quah" whose first husband was Tah-co-na. Afterward she married Wahpah-pe-tah (Peter Bundy). I have no record of her sons. There are yet living many people who knew Frances Slocum, who died in March, 1847. Her oldest daughter died in the same year, as did also her husband, Capt. Brouielette; the younger, wife of Bundy, died in 1877. Peter Bundy is a most excellent old Christian gentleman and has a son who is a preacher in the M. P. Church."

GEO. C. BACON.

The catalogue referred to has among the Indian relics the "wardrobe of Frances Slocum, the white captive. Loaned by Gabriel Godfroy, Peru, Ind.: Blanket, three shawls, two ornamented shirts, pair of leggins, silver cross worn by Frances Slocum at the time of her death, besides medals presented by Presidents Washington and Jackson to chiefs of Miami Indians.

TEXT BOOKS OF THE OLD ACADEMY. One of the Pupils Writes About Them and the Code of Morals Taught Therein -Reminiscences Which Will Call Up Boyhood Days of Half a Century Ago. EDITOR RECORD: It would be interesting to compare the advance in the curriculum of study in our schools. In the Old Academy, primary department, about 1830, we had the so-called John Rogers primer, succeeded by Webster's spelling book. The latter contained spelling and reading. Most of the articles for reading were "ccompanied with wood cuts of the rudest description, some of which were reproduced a few years since in Harper's Magazine, to show the great improvements in engraving, particularly on wood. We well remember the stories accompanying those cuts, each of which contained a moral. The first one was a picture of a small farm house,

[ocr errors]

and an apple tree in which could be seen a youngster, while at the foot of the tree was a man in the act of throwing at the boy, the boy being represented about as large as the tree, and the man also out of all proportion with his surroundings. The story was something like this: "An old man found a rude boy up one of his apple trees, stealing apples, and desired him to come down. The young sauce-box told him plainly he would not. The old man then threw turf and grass at him, which only made the youngster laugh at him, whereupon the old man replied: 'As kind words and turf do not succeed, I will try what virtue there is in stones,' which soon made the young rascal hasten down from the tree and beg the old man's pardon. Moral-When mild measures do not succeed we must use harsher ones.

The next in order, as we recall from memory, was a picture of a milkmaid with a pail upon her head, on her way to market with eggs, and the story goes, she got to reckoning what the egg would bring in money and how much material she could buy with the same for a new dress. She becomes so engrossed with the subject that she forgets the balancing of the pail, which falls to the ground and destroys at once all her anticipations. The moral is apparent although I cannot reproduce the exact language.

Again, a fox is represented crossing a stream, his head only exposed above the water, a swarm of flies sucking his blood. A swallow offers to drive them away, which the fox objects to for the sensible reason that the present flies are already gorged and if driven away a fresh one would suck every drop of blood from his veins.

The next reading book was Murray's English Reader, in two parts, one of prose and the other poetry, made up of selections from the best English authors. This was succeeded by Murray's sequel to the English Reader, of the same general character as the first.

ar

This reader was entitled "The English Reader, or pieces in prose and poetry from the best writers: designed to assist young persons to read with propriety and effect, improve their language and sentiments and to inculcate the most important principles of piety and virtue." The work was ranged with select sentences and paragraphs, narrative pieces, didactic pieces, argumentative pieces, descriptive pieces, pathetic pieces, dialogues, public speeches, promiscuous pieces. The extracts were from the Bible, Milton, Blair, Hume, Johnson, Aikiu Addison, Gregory, Goldsmith, Horne, Dr. Young, Archbishop Fenelon, Lord Lyttleton, Cicero, &c., &c., all of a religious or moral tendency. The poetry was from Pope, Thomson, Cunningham, Young, Gray,

Cowper, Addison, Milton, and others. A boy would not be likely to iscover or appreciate the beauty of he sentiment or the language. but to the i per scholars, nothing can now be found in any of our schools to compare with it.

The grammars then in use were Kirkham's and Murray's, both of which were as dry as dust to the student, the latter being filled with notes in fine print, which made it particularly obnoxious, and it is very doubtful if the principles underlying the structure of our language were ever extracted by these helps; Mitchell's Geography and Atlas, Hale's History of the United States and Blake's Philosophy.

These were the books in the English department of the upper and lower rooms. The teacher in the lower room was named Chamberlain, and he was a good and faithful teacher, too. He boarded at Morgan's tavern, on the site of E P. Darling's residence, on River Street. He afterwards traveled through this country introducing Cobb's Spelling Book, which succeeded Webster's. He moved west and carried on a book store. Israel Dickinson, who taught in the upper school where young men were prepared for college, and who paid this place a visit last fall, said he was still living in the same town with himself. If this hasty reminiscence will be the means of calling out others of the alumni of the Old Academy it would be very pleasing to the WRITER.

Meaning of Susquehanna,

The word Susquehanna having been a puzzle to etymologists from the days of Heckewelder to the present, it is worthy to note that Prof. A. L. Guss, of Washington City, has carefully analyzed the name and determined its signification to the satisfaction of himself, at least. He says it is of Tockwock origin, and signifies the Brookstream, or the Spring-water-stream. The earliest use of it is found in the works of Captain John Smith of Pocahontas fame.

Sheep Raising in this Region. The following item is taken from a WilkesBarre paper of 1835:

"We understand our enterprising fellow citizen, Dr. Bedford, of Abington, is beginning to direct his attention to the subject of raising sheep in this county. As soon as the Doctor makes the experiment we hope he will give the public the result of his experience.'

It is a pleasure to know that Dr. Bedford still lives in Abington, honored in his later years as in early life, and in the enjoyment of health and competence. Has his experience in sheep raising been recorded?

An Old War Song.

In March last the Elmira Telegram printed a poem which was furnished to it by Corporal O'Brien of the 143d Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, and which was explained as follows: The song was witten by Amos Sisty on the departure for the Mexican War, in 1846, of the Wyoming Artillerists,' under command of Captain E. L. Dana. The ode was rendered at a meeting held on the occasion in the old Methodist Church on Public Square in Wilkes-Barre, which was addressed by Dr. Thos. W. Miner.

The poem having been copied into the Wilkes-Barre Leader, Lieut. Col. E. B. Beaumont, of the 4th U. S. Cavalry, addressed a note to that paper from Fort Bowie, Arizona, in which he stated that the poem was written by his father, the late Hon. Andrew Beaumont; that it was published in a Washington paper, Feb. 22, 1847, and copied from the Annapolis Democratic Herald. The poem was as follows:

AIR-"The Star Spangled Banner.” Oh say, did you hear the loud clarion of war Send its summoning blast o'er our hills and [spear, our valley? And Mars, with his helmet, his buckler and Call our youth round "The Star Spangled Banner" to rally?

'Mid these stirring alarms, See our sons rush to armsWhile the passion for glory each gallant heart warms: [boast, And the sons of Wyoming shall hence be our Be the theme of our song and the soul of our toast.

Behold where the fane of religion ascends, Those youth clad in arms round the altar

[blocks in formation]
« ZurückWeiter »