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Indian Name of Hunlock's Creek.

The following recently discovered scrap of history which has come into my hands as secretary of the Wyoming Commemorative Association, is thought to be worthy of a place in the RECORD:

"Whereas, Jonathan Hunlock, one of ye proprietors of ye Susquehanna Purchase, has been here with a complaint, and says he is a Proprietor in ye Susquehanna Purchase, and he made a pitch in said purchase at a place called by ye name of Mossacota, down ye river, abont three miles from Nanticook fawls, down ye river, and on ye west side of ye East Branch of ye Susquehanna, etc."

The formal parts of this ancient document, dated April 5, 1774, which confirms the said Jonathan Hunlock in the possession of his "pitch," and is signed by a committee of settlers, we omit. From the foregoing it appears that the Indian name of the stream now called Hunlock's Creek, was Mossacota. This is a euphonious and pretty name, and its restoration as the name of that whirling, leaping, dashing mountain tributary would be approved by all lovers of the beantitul in nomenclature as well as in more solid matW. J.

ter.

The Texas Domain.

EDITOR RECORD: History to be of any real value should be correct in details. I have just been reading an article in No. 3 of your interesting collection of historical matter, entitled "How we acquired our Domain." Among other things, the article in dealing with the subject of the Texas domain, says that after the admission of that State into the Union, "Texas was bankrupt, and for the public lands we got from her, sixteen millions' dollars of her debts were paid by this country."

This is a mistake. The United States Government did not acquire one acre of land by way of dowry, when we received the young "Lone Star" Republic into the sisterhood of States. The sixteen million dollars incumbrance was assumed by the general government, but Texas still held all her vast domain from the rich cotton plautations on the lower Brazos and Colorado to the Cross Timbers and Great Buffalo range on the west to Rio Grande del Norte. The public lands of Texas were all sold by the State and not by the United States, and the proceeds of such sales went into the State Treasury, what little there may have been left after paying expenses of issuing land scrip which was sold in great measure to speculators and land-grabbers as low as twenty cents an

acre.

HAZLETON'S CENTENNIAL.

A Short History of Things Pertaining to the Location of Roads and Other Interesting Facts.

The Hazleton Sentinel prints the following interesting communication, which we presume is from the pen of Charles F. Hill:

Hazleton has a Centennial on hand which it is in duty bound to observe. Less than one hundred years ago Hazleton and its surroundings was a howling wilderness with nothing but a few Indiau paths through its solitary wilds. The paths originally led from the Lehigh Gap across this mountain to the mouth of the Nescopeck, a branch from this Nescopeck path from about Beaver Meadow led to the Wyoming region. The first organized effort to break through this wilderness was an act of assembly dated March 29, 1787, which resulted in opening the first turnpike road, which was done by Evan Owen, the founder of the town of Berwick. The road was strongly advocated by Timothy Pickering, Esq, and by Gen. Muhlenburg, and also by the Philadelphia Co. for promoting manufactures and the useful arts in the town Berwick, upon the Susquehanna, as you will see by the following communication of company named:

To the Honorable Committee of the Supreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania appointed for the special purpose of considering what future roads may be Necessary to be Opened, etc., in said Commonwealth.

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR HONORE:

The subscribers beg leave to mention to you the propriety of opening a road from or near Leonard Balliard's house in Mahanoy Valley, about 71 miles from Philadelphia into the road directed to be opened by an Act of the Honorable the Legislature, passed the 29th day of March, 1786, which I ads to the falls of the Nescopeck in the river Susquehanna. The advantages attending this proposed road would be very considerable to the inhabitants settled in the counties of Northumberland and Luzerne in particular, but to the State in general, many of whom have a circuitous route of two hundred miles, who would then have no more than half that distance to bring their produce to this market, which undoubtedly would be mutually ad antageous to the city and several of the counties. The said road would secure to a respectable part of the State the advantages of the Philadelphia market with considerable convenience. The distance necessary to be opened would be about 18 or 20 miles, and at present the views of the legislature in the opening of the

RECENT DEATHS.

Nescopeck road must be frustrated unless this prayer should be granted, and was designed to have been carried to the Water Navigation of the river Lehi, but as the commissioner who was appointed in pursuance of the said Act had it then not in his power to open it to the said communication, the views of the legislature in consequence are rendered in some means abortive, or at least are not attended with advantages thereby designed. This addition thereto your petitioners humbly conceive would perfect the intentions which the wisdom of the honorable legislature meant to carry into effect. We take the liberty of mentioning that there is a company established in this plan nominated "The Philadelphia Company for Promoting Manufacturers and the useful Arts in the Town of Berwick upon the Susquehanna," the view of which are to promote the intercourse of 8 weighty part of the State which they trust will be advantageous thereto and disadvantageous to none. We therefore wish that you will so far coincide with this statement of the important subject as to report to council the propriety of opening this road, and your petitioners as in duty bound will pray, etc. Signed by order and on behalf of the aforesaid company, by

BENJ'N SAY, President.

Philadelphia, Dec. 4, 1788.

Timothy Pickering, in a letter bearing the date Philadelphia, April 5, and 7. 1788, to General Muhlenburg, strongly advocates the building of this road for the £150 granted by the legislature for the purpose. The centennial for the passage of this act falls upon Saturday, the 29th day of March next. There is a strong feeling existing to observe the day, and the writer is assured that many historical papers will be produced and read, and many ancient documents and relics of the time brought out. Hazleton is the central point on the road, and it is assured that the Lehigh & Susquehanna Co. will throw open their gate during the entire observance of the centennial. It is high time to move in the matter. A large delegation from Philadelphia will be invited as well as from all the leading towns in the country. The event is certainly an important one, and the time a very opportune one to look back over the past history of the region, and compare it with the present.

Hazleton, Dec. 24, 1886.

NESCOPECK.

The Germantown Telegraph for Nov. 24, contains an article on Rev. Peter Keyser, a pioneer preacher in Germantown, born 1766. The article is by Rev. S. F. Hotchiss.

SARAH GORE WOOD.

This estimable lady, the widow of John B. Wood, died in Wilkes Barre Dec. 21, 1886, aged 81 years.

Mrs. Wood's maiden name was Sarah Gore, and she was the youngest of five children of John Gore. Her father was of the fifth generation of descent from John Gore, who emigrated from England to America in 1634, settling in Massachusetts.

She was a niece of the younger Obadiah Gore, whe figured conspicuously and honorably in the early Wyoming history. Obadiah Gore was a member of the first company of Connecticut adventurers who vainly attempted to settle Wyoming Valley in 1762 and was in the company of 200 whi. h came again seven years later. His name is intimately connected with the use of anthracite coal, he and his father, Obadiah, u-ing it for blacksmithing in Wilkes-Barre as early as 1769, nearly forty years before Jesse Fell discovered that it could be used as fuel in stoves.

The Gore family was severely stricken by the Wyoming massacre. Eight members went into the fight and when the sun went down upon that bloody field five were killed and one was wounded. The brothers Silas, Asa and George were slain, as also the husbands of two of the sisters. The three brothers who escaped-Obadiah, Daniel and Samuel-subsequently enlisted in the Continental army and served throughout the war, Obadiah as a lieutentant.

The youngest brother (father of the late Mrs. Wood) was only 14 years of age and was among the fugitives from the slaughter. Returning, he settled in Kingston married Elizabeth, daughter of Gen. Wm. Ross, and died at the age of 73.

Obadiah Gore, as justice of the peace, united in wedlock, in 1788, Matthias Hollenback and Miss Sarah Hibbard. He was a represenative from Westmoreland to the Connecticut Assembly and later he was a representative in the Pennsylvania Assembly. He took an aggressive part in the Pennamite wars, and when the Wyoming settlers in 1784, believing that they were oppressed by the Decree of Trenton in favor of the Pennsylvania claimants, sought a refuge in the domain of New York (an account of the proposed exodus being first made public at the recent celebration of the Luzerne Centennial), Judge Gore was selected as spokesman for the settlers, they naving united in a petition to the New York Assembly for a tract of land on which to settle. Mr. Gore bore the petition on horeback to Albany, succeeded in getting the matter to a favorable issue and returned home to Wyoming by the same lonely route through the wilderness.

Mrs. Wood, who was born in 1805 and died Dec. 21, 1886, married John B. Wood, and a sister married Moses Wood. She is survived by a daughter, Martha, wife of Major John Espy, of St. Paul, Minn.; Elizabeth, wife of Rev. A. J. Van Cleft, of Norwich, N. Y.; and Maria E., wife of W. B. Mitchell, of this city and by two sons, John G. and George B.

MARTIN CORYELL.

A telegram to the RECORD from Sylvanus Ayres, Jr., brings the brief announcement that Martin Coryell died Tuesday, Nov. 30, at Lambertville, N. J.

Mr. Coryell was for several years a resident of this city, actively engaged in developing the resources of Wyoming Valley, and his family have a host of friends here who will be pained to hear of his demise. Death was due to a pulmonary trouble, the fatal termination having been hastened by hemorrhages. Deceased was born in New Hope, Bucks Co., Pa., 71 years ago, and was the son of Lewis Coryell, who was a prominent Democrat in his day and a warm friend of Calhoun and other public men of National reputation. Mr. Coryell was a civil and mining engineer by profession and was identified with numerous important enter. prises in that line. He was prominent in the deliberations of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, ot which he was a valued member. He was a regular attendant upon its annual gatherings. in various sections of the country and was a contributor to its fund of scientific papers. Mr. Coryell came to Wilkes-Barre during the early part of the war having previou ly been engaged in professional duties in Hazleton, where he was engaged in coal mining in partnership with Ario Pardee. Af er coming here he was instrumental in developing coal lands below Wilkes-Barre and in organizing the Warrior Run Mining Co., an organization still in existence with Calvin Parsons as presi. dent and operated by A. J. Davis & Co. Some ten years ago he determined to retire from active business and selling the hand some residence built by him at 15 North River Street, he removed with his family to Lamberville, N. J., which had been the home of the Coryells for several generations. There he bought a controlling interest in the water works, enlarged them and the same have continued under his management as president, and that of his son Torbert as superintendent.

Mr. Coryell's training as an engineer naturally brought him in contact with the subterranean world and he was recognized as a skilled and learned geologist. This fact, together with his natural fondness for matters of an antiquarian character, made him an invaluable member of the Wyoming

Historical and Geological Society, of this city, of which he was an active member during his residence here, and a corresponding member ever since.

Mr. Coryell was the assistant engineer in the construction of the Belvidere Delaware RR., of which an ex-superintendent is J. A. Anderson, who married a sister of Mrs. Coryell, and he was inter ested in copper mining on Lake Superior.

He was married in 1842 to Myra Coryell, who survives him, as also two daughters and a son: Alice, married a Swiss merchant, Elie Erismann, their home being in Geneva, Switzerland. Emma L., married Sylvanus Ayres, Jr., formerly of this city, now doing business in New York, their home being in Lambertville, as is that of the son, Torbert.

He had three brothers and two sisters. Elias was educated at West Point and died young. Miers was for some years in business in China. The third brother, Ingham, is dead, as is a sister Rebecca. Another sister, Ellen, was twice married, first to a Mr. Torbert and then to the late Dr. Samuel Lilly, of Lambertville.

Mr. Coryell was of a retiring disposition, closely wrapped up in whatever work he had in hand, but a most genial companion when the cares of business were thrown aside. Possessing a fund of information on all general subjects, well read in the topics of the day, always bright and cheerful, fond of entertaining family friends, the Coryell home was ever the embodiment of genial hospitality, as many Wilkes-Barreans can

attest.

MRS. SARAH E. ATHERTON.

The entire city was shocked Nov. 30 to hear of the death of Mrs. Sarah E. Atherton. It was known only to the most intimate friends of Mrs. Atherton that she was not in her usual health, and her death was totally unexpected even by them.

Mrs. Sarah E. Atherton was born October 19. 1823, the daughter of John Perkins, a well known resident of Wyoming whose wife was Miss Eunice Miller, and whose grandfather was a notable meinber of the massacred band of 1778. Mr. Perkins had six children, five daughters and one son, Mrs. Atherton being the oldest. Four of the family still live, David Perkins, who resides at the old homestead in Wyoming, Mrs. Reuben Henry, of Jersey City, Mrs. E. A. Coray, of Exeter, and Mrs. Robert Black, of Scranton. Thomas F. Atherton married Miss Sarah E. Perkins in 1841, leaving her a widow in April, 1870. They had no children.

Mr. Athertou was one of the leading and wealthiest residents of Wilkes-Barre in his later years, a man widely popular and notable for his generous sympathies. He made a large fortune as owner of a country

store at Wyoming and as one of the first stockholders of the D. L. & W. RR. when that line was first projected. He was the founder and first president of the Second National Bank, and a touuder of the Vulcan Iron Works. He had scarcely finished his mansion on West River Street when death removed him in 1870. Mr. Atherton was the half brother of Mrs. Charles A. Miner, and the uncle of Thomas Henry Atherton, Esq. Miss Hattie Atherton, well known in Wilkes-Barre social and musical circles, is his niece. The handsome West River Street estate of Mr. Atherton, by a clause in his will, goes to his niece and nephew, in the ratio of one portion to the former and two to the latter.

Historical Notes.

The Doylestown Democrat of Dec. 7, 1886, contains an article on New Britain Homesteads,-Old Dunlap Farm, Warringtonand The Larzeleres.

W. H. H. Davis, editor of the Doylestown Democrat, cautions the public against a so-called "History of Bucks County," offered by A. Warner & Co., he claiming it to be an infringement on his copyright, which has 10 years to run.

The pamphlet written not long ago by Dr. James J. Levick, of Philadelphia, on the early physicians of that city met with a most favorable reception all over the country. It has been pleasantly mentioned by many leading journals in all sections.

Rev. John W. Sanborn, '73, of Albion, N. Y., read a very interesting paper before the Anthropological section of the A. A. A. S. on the "Iroquois League." Being himself by adoption a member of the Seneca Nation and a chief among them, the paper was all the more valuable as coming from inside authority. Mr. Sanborn has done some valuable classical work, and is now about to publish a hymn book in the Seneca dialect. -College Argus. (Wesleyan.)

The November issue of Wide Awake, (D. Lothrop & Co., Boston) contained an elaborately illustrated article on the Princess Pocahontas and her husband, John Rolfe. Among the others is a full page portrait of Pocahontas and her little son, Thomas Wolfe. The article maintains the truth of the saving of Capt. John Smith's life by Pocahontas. The article is made valuable by fac similes of portraits of both these historic personages, taken during their life time.

The Montrose Republican of Dec. 6 has an interesting letter descriptive of a trip through the Mohawk Valley and the historic events which occurred there. The writer, "J. C. B." does not believe that Brant was at the Wyoming massacre, but accepts the view that he was engage in raids to the north

ward. He pronounces Col. John Butler, Joseph Brant, and Walter Butler, "a diabolical trio whose footsteps, wherever they went, whether conjointly or separately, were red with the blood of innocence and helplessness."

Our domestic fowl sometimes have singularly voracious appetites. Pearce's "Annals of Luzerne" mentions the killing of a duck in Wilkes-Barre, in 1859, (by H. C. Wilson, we believe,) which had in its gizzard an awl with a handle three inches long. The West Chester Local News has been shown the contents of a chicken's gizzard that had been killed there, among which were a few white flint stones and 40 brass shells of 22 calibre that had been exploded in firing at a mark. The shells had been much worn by the action of the gizzard upon them and the greater portion had a piece of flint in them where the bullet had been and the brass partly closed over them by the milling process they had undergone, and from their appearance they must have been in the gizzard for some time. They had not in the least affected the health of the chicken.

The Great Flood of 1841.

The Allentown News says: "The death recently at Rockport, Carbon Co., of Adam Beers, aged 77 years, recalls a sad incident in the life of that man. In 1841, the year of the big freshet, he and his family tended lock at the Turn Hole, above Mauch Chunk. The freshet occurred in January of that year and Mr. Beers' three eldest children, Willliam, aged 8; George, 5, and Eliza, aged 3 years, lost their lives by drowning. Two of the bodies were never recovered. Mrs. Beers with her youngest child, a boy of about five months, in her arms, also had a narrow escape from a similar fate. In commemoration of the boy's miraculous escape from drowning he was fittingly named Moses. He is now a practicing physician, very prominent in his profession, in Newcomerstown, O."

Edited and Printed by Indians.

The Historical Society is in receipt of nearly a year's numbers of a Canadian journal published at Hagersville, Ont., called The Indian, devoted to the aborgines of North America and especially to the Indians of Canada. The editor is Chief Kah-ke waquo-na-by, or in English Dr. P. E. Jones. Among the contained matter is a biographical sketch of the famous Mohawk chief Brant. The author disclaims Brant's responsibility for the Cherry Valley atrocities, and no mention is made of the Wyoming slaughter. The journal is a highly interesting one from an ethnological standpoint and is edited with genuine ability. It contains a few articles in Ojiowa each week.

VOL. I.

JANUARY FEBRUARY, 1887.

PIONEER PRIVATIONS.

The Hardships of a Connecticut Family Who Came to Wyoming in 1778, as Told by one of the Sufferers-Sickness and Death in Transit Save Them From the Massacre.

It

The narrative of Mrs. Lydia (Hurlbut) Tiffany, daughter of (Deacon) John Hurlbut, of Hanover, Luzerne County, Pa. was dictated to her grandson, Myron Hurlbut, of Arkport, N. Y., in 1855, she being then eighty ye rs old. She was born in Groton, Connecticut, July 10, 1775, and came with her father's family to Hanover in the early spring of 1779. She married John Tiffany in Hanover in 1798 and removed to Arkport, where she deceased. She says: "John Hurlbut, my grandfather, settled in Groton, Connecticut. My grandmother's name was Stoddard. I think she was living when we moved from Groton to Wyoming. My mother, Abigail Avery, was born on the 1st of April (old style) 1735, and died in Pittston (formerly called Lackawanna) Luzerne County. Pa., Nov. 29, 1805. Father started to remove from Groton to Wyoming in the spring of 1778, probably very late in the spring, or early in June. They moved with two teams for carrying household furniture, one a wagon drawn by horses and the other a cart drawn by oxen. Father, mother and my two sisters rode horse-back. Sister Catharine carried me most of the way on the horse with her. We took along cattle, hogs and sheep. I think we crossed the Hudson River at Newburg. Just after crossing the Delaware River father was taken with the prevailing camp distemper, and there father and mother remained to recruit, while the caravan moved slowly forward under the direction of my brother John. My sister Abigail was soon taken with the same disorder, which she endured with great fortitude, though only six years old. She died, away from her parents, at Lackawaxen. John went back to inform them, and mother knew from his looks that something dreadful had happened. She would not permit him to tell what it was until after she had had a season of prayer in her closet, and thus was prepared to hear of the death of her child with composure.

Nos. 5-6.

"These misfortunes saved them from the greater misfortune of being in a situation to be massacred at Wyoming on the 3d of July, 1778. My brother Christopher had come (from Wyoming) to Lackawaxen to meet them, and thus he also was providentially absent from the massacre.

"Father turned aside to Shawangunc in the State of New York, where he carried on a farm for two years, (probably less) and then moved to Wyoming. Father bought eight hundred acres of land at Hanover, three miles above Nanticoke Falls. He built his first house of logs on the north bank of a creek, on the west side of the main road, perhaps a quarter of a mile from the Susque. hanna River. There was an alarm of Indians shortly after we moved there,-within one or two years. We fled in consequence from our dwelling and the Indians burned it. Brother John built a log house on the site of the old one, that, I think, is now standing. What furniture could not be removed was concealed. The large mirror and the pewter dishes were buried. For greater safety we had moved up to the Stewart place, near the lower end of Careytown, where there was a blockhouse and some soldiers. There father sickened and died. As there was no burying ground in the neighborhood he was, at his request, buried on his own farm. The grave has since been plowed over and its exact location entirely lost. He was buried directly back of, that is west of, the house that was burned, on the same bench of land, and, say ten rods from the place where the land begins to descend to the flats, and beyond the garden.

"My brother, John and Christopher were elders in the church, (probably at WilkesBarre.)"

At the time this was written, 1855, the house built by her brother John had been torn down more than twenty years. Her father had bought the farm of John Hollenback in 1777, built and occupied the house in the early spring of 1779, and in April of the same year was chosen member of the Connecticut Assembly, together with Col. Nathan Denison, to meet in Hartford in May. The Assembly met twice a year, and he was sent there four times before his death death in March, 1782. He was born in 1730. The parentheses are mine.

H. B. PLUMB.

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