a

out of service on this occasion he returned to Wilkes-Barre, and after very brief period he enlisted again, this time at the call of the general government, for three years of the war in the 143d regi. ment, Pennsylvania Volunteers. This regiment was in the brigade, which was under the lamented Gen. Wadsworth, which went through the battles in Virginia. On the seventh day of the nine days' battle of the Wilderness he (Loop) received a bullet through his hip, which wounded him so severely that he was incapacitated for severe manual labor during the remainder of his life. He was taken to the Douglas Hospital in Washington and from there he was trans ferred to the City Hospital in Rochester. He continued to reside here up to the day of his death, which occurred within one day of his sixty-fifth birthday. An exemplary Christian, a faithful, loving son, brother and friend, his like will not soon be found again.

COLONIAL SECRETARY

THOMPSON.

The Supposed Stealing of His Body and the Excitement Which was CreatedA Man Who Figured Prominently in Continental Affairs.

A recent issue of the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin contained an article by Dr. James J. Levick, of Philadelphia, on "The Harriton Cemetery," an ancient private burying ground near Bryn Mawr, the paper giving details of an incident which agitated the community intensely half a century ago. It appears that the property passed in 1719 from Rowland Ellis, a noted Friend minister, to the Harrison family, who had come from Maryland, the iocality soon coming to be called Harriton. Richard Harrison provided by will for the reservation of two acres of his ground in Merion Township as a Friends' meeting house and burial place forever, the will bearing date of 1746. The cemetery is now a neglected little plot, enclosed by a stone wall, within which are 20 or more graves, marked and unmarked. Signboards offer a reward of $20 for arrest of trespasses who injure the property. The writer goes on to relate how these signs came to be placed there. In 1824 was buried here Charles Thompson, son-in-law of Harrison, the founder. He was an Irishman, an American patriot, and being, what was rare in those early days, a short-haud, writer he was chosen secretary of the Stamp Act Congress in New York, in 1765. He was unanimously elected secretary of the Continental Congress throughout its existence and was secretary of the first House of Representatives. It was he who officially notited Washington of his lec iou to the Presidency. He was called "the Sam. Adams of Philadelphia, the life of the cause of lib

erty." After his remains had been peacefully mouldering in the tumble-down burying ground of Harriton it was discovered that his grave had been opened and the body removed. The newspapers condemned the offence and reward were offered for the perpetrators. This soon brought out a letter from a nephew of Charles Thompson, that out of respect of memory of his uncle and after consultation with the relatives he had caused the remains to be removed to a more suitable place, a new cemetery known as Laurel Hill, and a granite monument to be erected. The affair caused great excitement, but the public finally acquiesced in the removal and it became forgotten. Dr. Levick's narrative is mainly new matter and is intensely interesting. Mr. Thompson spent his declining years in study of the bible, he having made an original translation of the Septuagint and the New Testament.

The Osterhout Free Library.

The will of the late Isaac S. Osterhout, who provided so munificently for the estab lishment of a free library in Wilkes-Barre, stipulated that no steps should be taken until five years have expired. This limit will be reached next spring and the trustees are casting about for some plan to pursue when the time for action shall arrive. A meeting was held by them last week, at which time a distinguished public library specialist was present, Mr. Melvil Dewey, of New York, professor of Library Economy in Columbia College, consulting librarian of Wellesley College, secretary of the American Library Association, editor of the Library Journal, etc., etc. The ground was carefully gone over with this gentleman and his views bad. It will be remembered that an arrangement has already been made for the purchase of the Presbyterian Church property on Franklin Street, though possession cannot be had under a year or so, or at least until the congregation shall be able to worship in some portion of their handsome edifice now in course of construction a few doors below, at the corner of Franklin and Northampton Streets.

It has been expected that the old church would be demolished and a library building erected on the site, but Mr. Dewey advises against such a course, at least for the present. His suggestion is that the trustees can as yet form no adequate idea of the extent to which such a library would be patronized and that should there prove to be little demand, any great outlay for an expensive building or for an immense collection of books would be undesirable. He recommends that the interior of the church edifice be converted into a library, this to be done without any considerable outlay, and that the books be purchased by degrees, or as

rapidly as the demand seems to warrant. After a few years of such a trial the building proper could be constructed and properly supplied with books. The church being in excellent condition, Prof. Dewey's suggestion would seem to be an eminently practical one. His suggestion also implies the use of such a portion of the interior as may be necessary for the reception of the collection of the Wyoming Historical Society and the use of the present Sunday school room for meetings of the society. Mr. Dewey's plan would not at once add a handsome building to our city, but would ultimately lead to this desired result.

165.

Now we have another volume from his nimble pen, entitled "On the Lackawanna. A Tale of Northern Pennsylvania." It is printed at Doylestown and is dedicated to his life-long friend and companion on the trout streams, Edward Dolph, of Scranton. All through, the book suggests the dark forests where trout abound, and there are numerous pen pictures of woods life which must have been actual experiences of this hardy fisherman, who even yet visits the trout streams of old Luzerne as regularly as the seasons. The volume comprises 253 pages and, as its title implies, has for its scene the Lackawanna-Wyoming region. It is a tale of the troublous time when the

Yankee and Pennamite contest for the soil of Wyoming vexed the souls of our ancestors and even spread desolation and death throughout this beautiful valley. It is a love story-for what purpose is it to write unless one weaves a tale of love? It opens, perhaps about 1780, certainly before 1782, with a thrilling forest fire in the mountains of the Lackawanna valley, and the meeting under a stone arch bridge (the only place of safety) of two fugitives, strangers to each other, a young man and a young woman, he a Pennsylva nian, she a Yankee, who has run away from her Connecticut home. The stone arch bridge, at so early a day, is rather a bold creation of the novelist, but then a writer of fiction must be permitted something by way of poetic license. They become separated while on the way to Capouse Meadows, and she loses herself along the Nayaug. After

wandering four days she is found half dead and given shelter by a Connecticut family. The pater domo intercepts a letter from her old home begging her to return, as a relative has died, leaving her the heir to the estate, it to revert after her death to another relative, who happens to be the man under whose roof she is now being nursed back to life. He determines upon making way with her by poison, but fails, she having been warned by a red-headed urchin who figures conspicuously in the narrative. Two other unsuccessful murderous attempts are subsequently made. Shortly after she is ordered under ariest by Col. John Franklin on suspicion of being a Pennamite spy. The evidence consists of a package found in her possession, addressed to Alexander Patterson. then in command of Wilkes-Barre fort. Her enemy inflames the Connecticut settlers with whisky and lies and an attempt is made by them to nang the suspect to the nearest tree. An old Quaker interferes and the tradegy is prevented, the crowd consenting to a trial, with an old Hollander as judge. She proves her Connecticut extraction and explains that the package was slipped into her hands by her unknown companion just before he left her, they having been fired at from an ambush. She is speedily transformed from a spy to a heroine. Col. Franklin makes an announcement which thrills her. Her new friend is a prisoner in the hands of Patterson, at Wilkes-Barre, and is to be shot on the accusation of embezzling certain funds committed to bis care by the State authorities, to be delivered to Patterson, the mysterious package already alluded to. She determines to rescue him, a feat which she is enabled to do, aided by the red-headed boy, who paddled his passengers down the Lackawanna and Susquehanna to Wilkes-Barre fort, where they got the sentinel drunk and then easily rescued the prisoner. The contests between the Yankees and the Pennamites wax warmer, acquaintance kindles into love and the reader cannot fail to become intensely absorbed by Mr. Wright's interesting narrative. Names of

familiar pioneers are here and there introduced, not forgetting the first physician of the Lackawanna region, Dr. Joseph Sprague. The author's bent of mind is strikingly seen in every chapter. Sometimes it is a little glimpse of the glories of angling for trout, again it is a flash of his legal acumen, and still again it is a touch of that religious fervor which has always made the author a leader in the church of his choice. The spirit and purpose of the book is excellent. It is a valuable contribution to the literature of the region and Mr. Wright may well entertain a just pride in being its author.

VOL. I.

FUGITIVES FROM THE SLAUGHTER. A Narative of Pioneer Suffering, Never before Published Here. Hair Breadth Escapes From the Savages.

All

In Wyoming's centennial year (1778), the gentlemen having in charge the event were the recipients of numerous interesting historical communications from persons in some way identified with the valley, but not able to be present at the exercises. these are now in the custody of the Wyoming Commemorative Association, and one of them has been furnished by Secretary Wesley Johnson for publication in the RECORD, It is an obituary of one of the fugitives from the slaughter, and was accompanied with an explanatory letter to Hon. Steuben Jenkins at Wyoming, from John L. Davison, Lockport, N. Y., a grandson of deceased. He says her maiden name was Elizabeth Fitchet, and that her husband was John Davison the son of John. The John D. Davison mentioned in the letter was the father of John L. Davison, the fourth bearing the name of John. The obituary was taken from the Theresa Chronicle, Jefferson Co., N. Y., of May 5, 1848, and is (somewhat condensed) as follows:

DEATH OF MRS. ELIZABETH DAVISON.

The above named lady departed this life on the evening of Tuesday, the 2nd instant, in the 87th year of her age, at the residence of her daughter in this village,

Mrs. Davison was a native of Poughkeepsie, from whence she removed with her parents to Pennsylvania at the period of the Revolution, and resided at the time of the massacre at Wyoming at a small settlement about six miles from that ill fated town.

The news of that lamentable event warned the settlers of the village, consisting of nine families, of which Mrs. Davison's formed one, of the dangerous situation they were in. Accordingly they lost no time in endeavoring to seek out a more secure abode, and after undergoing fatigue and hunger for nine days they were captured by a party of In dians and Tories and reconducted to their abandoned homes. Here their captors, whose business was plunder, after having selected the most commodious and sumptuous residence, set up life in a princely style, compelling their prisoners to perform all the menial offices of their household.

No. 4.

On one occasion a party of the brigands, returning hungry, ordered the captives to slaughter a pig and prepare them a supper. Preparation being hastened with all possible dispatch, the father of Mrs. Davison, employed, as desired by the savage leader, in dressing the food, a tall Indian standing in front of him, offered his hand in friendly greeting-another at the same moment planting himself in the rear of his intended victim with his tomahawk lifted as if to give the fatal blow, while the first savage attempted to seize the knife with which the prisoner was employed. A struggle ensued for the weapon, in which the savage disarming his foe, fell with the impetus of his own weight. Regaining his feet, the furious Indian sprang upon his prisoner, aiming the fatal plunge at his breast. The distracted daughter, who had remained till this moment, saw no more, but fled with the arrow's speed, and reported the supposed murder of her father in the rendezvous of her party-and then with the spirit of extermination aroused in her agonized breast, she procured a quantity of onions, a vegetable of which the Indians were known to be fond. Slicing them, she mingled with them a quantity of arsenic, and took her way to their place of banqueting to share the sad fate of her father, or destroy the savages. But their supper was ended and the banqueters gone on some new expedition of mischief. Where the girl had expected to find the mangled corpse of her father, no trace of him was to be met with, but during the ensuing night his party were gladdened by his return free from harm. Having eluded the savage who had been intent on having his scalp, he kept himself secreted till their departure.

On another occasion, accompanying a distressed wife, whose absent husband, it was feared, had fallen a victim to the violence of the times, to her deserted cabin on some Decessary errand, the sorrowing woman fell upon her knees and addressed her petitions with such fervor to the God of battles for the preservation and safe return of her husband as to inspire the trembling girl who had never heard prayer uttered in that Vent manner till then, with a sympathetic confidence with the poor wife, that the Supreme Disposer of events would not only restore the absent husband, but in due time rescue the suffering band of captives, whose

lives were suspended as upon the breath of a savage brigand.

"And when on the following morning," to use the impressive language of the deceased, "I saw Thomas Paine for whose preservation his wife had so fervently prayed, the only survivor of a scout of sixty chosen men, ascend from the river bank in his saturated apparel and rush to the embrace of his joyful companion, I claimed no further evidence that the eternal Jehovah took cognizance of and superintended the affairs of men."

The discovery of a barrel of spirits, which had been hidden in an adjoining field of wheat on the flight of its proprietor, led to the escape of the captives and consequent breaking up of this Tory rendezvous. The intoxicating beverage being distributed among the reckless band aroused the slumbering fiend in their fierce nature. A plot was formed in their drunken councils for the massacre, during the ensuing night, of all the prisoners in their possession, and but for the vigilance of Elizabeth, whose favor with the chief gave her assurance sometimes to mingle with his Tory court, the whole captive party must have shared the awful fate of their neighbors of Wyoming. Suspecting that all was not right, the beroic girl, taking advantage of the friendship of a young Indian girl, won the important secret; and then, acting in concert with the young squaw, locked it close in her own breast till the captives had retired with their children to their allotted "caboose" for the night, and the precise time had arrived when the frenzy of the savages had subsided into more helpless intoxication, she informed her party of their danger, who noiselessly and successfully stole from their drunken guard, took a new direction through the forest, and finally eluded their pursuers. Though in momentary apprehension of a recapture, or a scarcely more dreaded death that seemed inevitable from exposure or starvation, the hopes of this hunted party seemed not to be broken till on the third day of their second flight, the arrival of Col. Butler, with a force of 375 men, to their inexpressible relief, dispersed the brigands and garrisoned Fort Wilkes-Barre for the protection of the defenceless.

The father of Mrs. Davison, having suffered so severely from the depredations of the Tories, resolved to quit so insecure an abode. Accordingly, he set out immediately with his family. consisting of eight children, all of whom were under sixteen years of age, to return to Poughkeepsie, whither the mother of these children had some time preceded them. They had now a distance of some two hundred miles to traverse. The cattle, with the goods secured upon the

a

backs of the oxen, were given in charge of the heroic Elizabeth, now but seventeen years of age, who, without shoes and with no other covering for her head than man's hat, and in three places gashed with tomahawk,entered on her charge. When arrived at the Lehigh, Elizabeth with her cattle had no means of crossing but by fording, and being at a distance from her party, who crossed a few miles below upon fallen timber, was thrown upon the resources of her own invention for a mode of subduing the difficulty. Directing her cattle into the stream, which, to use her own language, "was as orderly as a company of soldiers," with the exception of the heifer, which she claimed as her private property, this animal she retained by regaling it with salt, with which her pocket was furnished for the use of her little herd, she watched the progress of the others till they were safely over, and then grasping her heifer by the tail with her right hand, directing the animal into the stream, holding a parcel containing her clothing above her head in her left hand resolved, in her own words, "if I must be drowned, to die with my heifer." But the strong and active beast, instinctively carrying its head above the surface, buffeted the current strongly, notwithstanding the burden of its struggling mistress, and both were soon in safety on the opposite shore.

On one of the last days of her journey Elizabeth in addition to her other charge, bore her little brother of two years of age sixteen miles upon her back.

At length the toilworn party arrived at their destination in August, 1778. Refugees bereft of home and possessions, the evils of destitution and want, reared their formidable front to menace the happiness of this sorely tried family. Yet, Elizabeth and her sisters procured employment in the families of their more wealthy neighbors, and thereby assisted their parents with the price of the labor of their hands, to retrieve their fallen fortunes. It was while thus employed that Elizabeth met her future husband in the person of a continental soldier, who became some few months later her companion for fifty-two years of wedded felicity.

The subject of this sketch was the mother of thirteen children, four boys and nine girls, most of whom are living. She has lived to see sons occupy honorable stations in the government she had seen in its infancy struggling for independence, and like other mothers of the Revolution, will remain engraved upon the memory as a monument of female patriotism and greatness. It would be well for the girls of the present day to read this sketch and profit by the example of this departed relic of the Revolu

tion. We are indebted to her son, Hon. John D. Davison, of this village, for many interesting incidents of her life, which we shall publish at some future day. Also to Mrs. Alvin Hunt, to whose able pen we are mostly indebted for this interesting sketch of the deceased.

[The narrative is interesting, but cannot be relied upon for historical accuracy, as is to be expected when it be remembered that it is the recollection of her childhood days by a woman in the extremity of age and who had never afterward lived among the scenes and people of her early frontier home. As narrated to her children the incidents would naturally be magnified by those who transcribe them, from a pardonable desire to graphically portray the difficulties through which she had passed. Such family traditions are always interesting, but must be taken with a grain of allowance. For example, it is highly improbable that any family in those days had "arsenic," nor is it likely that in the preparation for flight the fugitive would have been cool enough to carry a supply of salt for the pet heifer which was to save her life. Another difficalty presents itself as to the names. That of Davison does not appear anywhere in our local histories. Nor does that of Fitchet, though Fitch is a familiar name. The reference to Col. Butler as returning with a force of men, dispersing the Indians and garrisoning Fort Wilkes-Barre, is also a confusion of fact. If any of our readers are in possession of information that will throw light on the families mentioned they will confer a favor by addressing the RECORD.-EDITOR.]

In Memory of Harrison Wright.

A most interesting volume has just been issued by the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, the third in the "Proceedings and Publications" of that organization. It is a pamphlet of 128 pages and is a memorial to the late Dr. Harrison Wright, its recording secretary, whose death occurred last year. The book is given an additional value by the insertion of an admirable phototype of Dr. Wright, which is strikingly life-like. About half of the contained matter is taken up with a biographical sketch by George B. Kulp, Esq., the same covering the Wright family and the related families of Cist and Hollenback. A brief review of the literary work of deceased is given by Sheldon Reynolds, who was probably his most intimate confrere. Other contents are resolutions submitted to the society by C. Ben Johnson, a poem by D. M. Jones, Esq., proceedings of the Luzerne County Bar, of the Osterhout Free Library and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. The volume is from the press of R. Baur & Son.

THE HERO OF WYOMING. Some Incidents in the Life of John Franklin who Took an Oath Upon the Bleeding Form of his Murdered Friend That he Would Never lay Down his Arms Till the Pennamites Were Expelled From Wyoming.

At the last meeting of the Historical Society, Mrs. M. L. T. Hartman, of Shickshinny, read an excellent paper on the early history of lower Luzerne County, the same having been prepared for presentation at the Luzerne Centennial. We take pleasure in submitting a brief synopsis, Mrs. Hartman's sketch covering the events that transpired in the southwestern part of the county prior to its erection in 1786. Mention was made of the land troubles between the Pennsylvania government and the Connecticut settlers. The latter had become dis trustful of the honesty of the State authorities by reason of having been imposed upon by laws passed by interested and malicious parties in the Assembly and which had been enforced by tyrants. The Connecticut settlers had possessed and cultivated the land, acquired by purchase from its former owners, the Six Nations, had built homes in the wilderness and endured toil and privation, all because they had full faith in the right of the Connecticut charter to hold possession for them. Passing the over early troubles, arrests, imprisonments, persecutions, wrongs and revengeful murders perpetrated on the early Yankee settlers by Patterson, Armstrong and others, under pretext of Pennsylvania justice, mercy and truth, Mrs. Hartman proceeded to consider John Franklin. He was a representative Connecticut Yankee, the first white man to settle in the southwestern part of Luzerne County. He located there in the spring of 1775, cleared land, built home for his young wife and children. Others soon joined him as neighbors. Samuel Trescott (Mrs. Hartman's great grandfather) was surveyor of the land. Col. John Franklin's father, also named John was committee of Huntington appointed by the Susquehanna Company. The senior John Franklin was seldom in Huntington, but his son and namesake was his authorized deputy. About 1775 Nathan Beach and some others settled in Salem. Elijah Austin occupied the land and water power in Shickshinny, and the families of Huulock, Blanchard and others the lands about the mouth of Hunlock's Creek. The population of the region increased. A saw mill was built at Shickshinny by Elijah Austin, who brought the metal portions from Connecticut on sleds during winter, as the roads were too rough and bridgeless to be traveled with loads at other seasons.