A master hand was soon found, however, to solve the difficulty.

A petition was drawn with so much adroitness that it completely captured that august body, the Grand Inquest, and induced them to grant one-half the entire cost not only of the engine but also of the hose and other fittings when they supposed they were only contrionting about one-third of cost of the engine alone.

This petition was to August session, 1817, as follows: "The petition of Garrick Malley and others members of the Town Counoil of the Borough of Wilkes-Barre and other inhabitants of the County of Luzerne would most respectfully represent that from the increase of wooden buildings in the Borough of Wilkes-Barre the destruction by fire has become very frequent and the danger therefrom very alarming to all property within the borough, and the publick, as well as the individual interest, requires some more effectual means of preventing with ravaging fire (sic). In the opinion of your petitiouers this object can only be effected by procuring a fire engine with appropriate apparatus, the expense of which would probably amount to seven or eight hundred dollars, and inasmuch as the county and all individuals therein are interested in the preservation of the publick buildings and the records therein contained, in the opinion of your petitions it would not be unreasonable for the county to contribute in the procuring of a fire engine and apparatus, and in some measure to aid the town council in the preservation of the publick property as well as that of the individuals. Your petitioners therefore pray your honors to lay the matter before the grand jary of the county, and if they and the court shall think proper, they may grant some assistance from the funds of the county to aid the purposes aforesaid.

This petition was laid before the grand jury, and they made report as follows: "The grand jury in taking into consideration the importance of the subject of the within petition cannot at the same time forget the present pecuniary embarrassment of the inhabitants of the county still feel a disposition to afford some aid, notwithstanding the pressure for money upon the treasury, for so laudable an object, do therefore recommend to court to appropriate the sum of two hundred dollars for the object under consideration.

when the council make the said purchase." On the 7th of October following the borough council directed the president, Thomas Burnside, “to address a letter to John B. Wallace, Esq., requesting him to ascertain at what price a fire engine could be procured and the terms of payment in the city of Philadelphia."

At the meeting of October 29, 1817, the president laid before the council "a communication received from John B. Wallace, Esq, relating at what price a fire engine can be procured for in the city of Philadelphia," after which it was resolved "that Messrs. Mallery and Maffet be appointed a committee to call on the county commissioners and obtain from them a draft on the treasurer of the county for the amount of the appropriation made by the Grand Jury of August term towards purchasing a fire engine. Also on the treasurer and high constable of the borough and ascertain of them what sum of money they can procure in two weeks belonging to the corporation."

At the next meeting Oct. 31, 1817, it was resolved "that the president be requested to inform Ebenezer Bowman, Esq., treasurer of the corporation to retain in hand the money that he may receive from Oliver Helme, as the same being pledged towards purchasing a fire engine.'

NOTE-Oliver Helme was lessee of the ferry franchise for 1 year from 1st of April, 1817 at $125 per year.

Nothing more was done in relation to this fire engine until March 7th. 1818, when the Council resolved that the check drawn by the County Commissioners of Luzerne County, on the Treasurer of said county, for two hundred dollars be deposited in the hands of Ebenezer Bowman, Esq., treasurer of the corporation on account of a payment for a fire engine.

Also resolved that Messrs. Beaumont and Ulp be appointed a committee to contract with John Harris or some suitable person to haul the fire engine from Philadelphia.

[To be continued.]

The Slocum Summit Road. Senator Slocum's Mountain Summit road was opened to public travel May 29. The road runs through a portion of Mr. Slocum's farm, skirts the lower grade of the mountain, and reaches the summit by the easiest possible grade. The ride up the hill furnishes a fresh delight at every angle of the drive, presenting vistas most charming and picturesque. The summit is the crowning glory of the view. The scene is greatly enlarged by the 34 foot tower that Mr. Slooum has erected upon Indian Rook, and

which commands the broadest view of the Wyoming and Lackawanna Valleys.

This particular summit has historical interest. It was here that the Tory Butler, and his Indian allies camped on the 2d of July, 1778, preceding the day of the Wyoming massacre. The place was admirably adapted to the purpose of the cut throats, for while the main forces were cowardly hidden in the woods at the foot of the hill, the sentinels were stationed on the mountain in full view of the operations of the peaceful settlers in the valley. Thus Fort Blanchard at Pittston, Fort Jenkins at West Pittston, Fort Wintermoot in Exeter Borough and Forty Fort in Forty Fort Borough, were under constant surveilance. Senator Slocum prides himself in the fact that he lives upon the property of his ancestors since the original settlement of the valley. The tourist now may look down from the heights upon a scene not in the least suggestive of the terrible conflict which destroyed hundreds of homes. Peace and harmony, industry and thrift have given a very different aspect to the beautiful vale, and it is hoped that it may forever continue.Pittston Gazette.

VanCampen's Descendants.

EDITOR RECORD: I take pleasure in furnishing the RECORD with an extract from a letter bearing date April 27, 1888, from a descendant of Major Moses VanCampen, giving much information concerning his descendants, which may be of interest to your readers. The writer is Miss Mary Lockhart, of Almond, N. Y., a granddaugh. ter. She says:

"Moses Van Campen married Margaret McClure, the daughter of James McClure, a worthy citizen of Bloomsburg, Pa. The location where the town of Bloomsburg now stands was a part of the farm given her by her father. He had no sons to perpetuate his name, but had five daugh ters who all were women of unusual refinement of and of benevolence of heart. They were born in Pennsylvania (their home then was on the Fishing Creek) with the exception of the youngest daughter, who, I think, was born after their removal to the State of New York.

manners

Mary VanCampen, the eldest daughter, my dear mother, more closely resembled her father than any of his other children. She married George Lockhart, who was of ScotchIrish descent, a native of the north of Ireland, emigrating when about nine years of age with his father and the rest of his family to this country. Shortly after his father's

arrival he bought about 300 acres of land on the Susquehanna River, below the Wyoming Valley, but the title not proving valid he lost it all, retaining only what was secured by a second payment.

after his

My father and mother are the parents of eight children, one dying in infancy, seven growing up to adult age, five sons and two daughters. The eldest son, Moses Van Campen Lockhart, died in October of last year. The second son, James, a merchant in Angelica, died in 1886. The third son, John, served under Gen. Sherman in the war of the Rebellion. He died in 1870, his death doubtless hastened by hardships endured while in the army. The fourth son, Alfred, formerly a merchant of Angelica, is now in the Patent Office in Washington. He entered during the administration of President Arthur. The fifth son, Joseph, lives on the farm my father bought shortly marriage and where he and my mother lived until their decease. My father died in 1854. My mother died in 1864. The sixth child was Elizabeth. She was married to Henry W. Crandall, a merchant of Almond. She died in 1874. Of seven children but three survive, two brothers and myself. Anna, the second daughter of Moses Van Campen married Alvir Barr from Connecticut, for many years one of the most prominent lawyers of Allegheny Co., N. Y. They had two children, a son, Moses, now living in Angelica. After the removal of my grandfather to Dansville, Mr. Burr went to live in his very pleasant home after he retired from his profession. The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Burr, Harriet, married John Olmstead, a banker, who lives at Yonkers on the Hudson. She died in 1885. The third daughter, Priscilla, married Mr. Samuel Mulholland, a farmer, who lived on the shore of the Canisteo River. At their decease they left two daughters, Sarah, the eldest, now Mrs. Frederick W. Landers, who resides in Decorah, Iowa, the other daughter Mary, now Mrs. Frank Lewis, living in St. Paul, Minnesota.

The fourth daughter of Moses Van Campen was Elizabeth. She married the Rev. Robert Hubbard, a Presbyterian clergyman, a native of Sherbourne Mass., a graduate of Williams College, and one of the most exemplary of men. They left one son, now the Rev. J. N. Hubbard, of Tracy, CaliforHe is a graduate of Yale College, author of the Life of Moses Van Campen, and of the Life of Red Jacket.

nia.

The fifth daughter, Lavinia, married Samuel Southworth, M. D., a prominent physician of Allegheny County. She died at the early age of 32 years, leaving two little daughters, one of whom died in girlhood. The other, Margarette, married a Mr. Mills,

Cincinnati is going to have a centennial exposition beginning July 4 and continuing to October 27, celebrating the settlement of the Ohio Valley, the Northwestern Territory, the State of Ohio and the city of Cincinnati. The RECORD acknowledges courtesies from the Cincinnati Press Club, which will open headquarters on June 9. Each State has a number of representatives on the Board of Honorary Commissioners, of whom Gov. Beaver is one and our townsman, Hon. L. D. Shoemaker, is another.

The territory bounded by the Great Lakes, the Ohio and the Mississippi Rivers, was ceded to the United States by New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Virginia, between the years 1780 and 1787; the most important cession being by Virginia, March 1, 1784.

Thus was created the great public domain known as the Northwestern Territory, comprising the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, a portion of Minnesota and a small part of Pennsylvania.

This territory was organized under the famous ordinance of 1787-a sort of constitution, a great organic law, passed by Congress July 13 of that year-and on the 27th of October following the Ohio Company completed the purchase of about a million and a half acres of land north of the Ohio and near the Muskingum River. April 7, 1788, the first white settlers, forty-eight in number, landed on the site of the present city of Marietta, Ohio. Civil government was established there for the whole Northwestern Territory, and in July, 1788, the Territorial Governor, Arthur St. Clair, assumed the duties of office.

The second English settlement was made at Columbia, now a part of Cincinnati, in October, 1788, though the site of the city had been surveyed and platted as early as July of that year.

These events of National importancethe establishment of States, the founding of cities, the transportaion of Anglo-Saxon civilization to the Ohio valley and the great Northwest-will be appropriately celebrated on the hundreth anniversary of their o0currence.

The event is endorsed by the Legislature of Ohio, the Honorary Commissioners_being the appointments of the Governor. The citizens of Cincinnati have contributed as a guarantee fund over one million dollars.

The city has granted the use of Washington Park, immediately opposite the permanent Exposition Buildings, and there is now erected an elegant structure, cruciform in shape, 600 by 110 feet one way and 400 by 110 feet in its transverse section, two stories in height.

The permanent buildings consist of the great Music Hall, capable of holding eight thousand people, Dexter Hall, Art Halls' Horticultural and other halls, and at the centennial will be devoted entirely to entertainments, art, flowers and still life.

Adjoining the permanent buildings is Machinery Hall, a vast building, thirteen hundred feet in length by one hundred and fifty-four feet in width. This great buildings have under roof the largest connected covered area ever used for any Exposition held on the Western Continent, and being in the center of Cincinnati, within ten minutes walk of all the hotels, depots and public resorts, with numerous street and cable cars near its doors, there will be no annoying delays and orushes, and visitors can come and go with ease and celerity.

History of West Branch Valley.

The first instalment of the "History of the West Branch Valley of the Susquehanna" is issued from the press of the Gazette and Bulletin, Wiiliamsport, and comprises 40 pages of most interesting matter. Much of it is entirely new, though the work is a reprint of Col. J. F. Meginness' history which he published 32 years ago, and which has long been out of prins. The author is quite well known as "John of Lancaster," over which nom de plume he has written much interesting local history. The work will cover the first settlement, privations endured by pioneers, Indian wars, predatory incursions, abduction and massacres, together with copies of curious old documents, eto. Considerable space is given to early Indian history and all the important deeds from the aborigines are quoted in full, for the purpose of showing how the lands were acquired, and the amounts paid for them. Our Indian history is so vague that the emcise account here given is most acceptable to the general reader. The history will be issued in 12 parts, $3 for the set and only 800 copies will be printed. As the early history of the West Branch is closely interwoven with that of the North Branch, the admirable volume of Col. Meginness should find not a few purchasers here to the northward.

SUGAR LOAF VALLEY. Some Interesting History of that Portion

of Luzerne County.-Not Entirely in Harmony with the Historians.-Indian Atrocities in 1780.

[The following from the pen of the late John C. Stokes appeared some 20 years ago in the Hazleton Sentinel, of which Mr. Stokes was the founder and at that time the editor.]

Local tradition furnishes us with many interesting incidents and reminiscences of early times in Sugar Loaf Valley, that are worthy of preservation, being illustrative of the hardships encountered and privations endured by the pioneers of that beautiful and fertile valley; and there are old persons still living there who have seen and conversed with some of the "seven months men" who escaped the massacre of 1780, near the spot where Conyngham now stands. A brief synopsis of a few of the accounts that have come down to us from a past generation may not, though given disconnectedly, be devoid of interest.

Many of our readers are familiar with the short accounts of the Sugar Loaf massacre in Mr. Miner's History and Mr. Pearce's Annals. Brief as these accounts are, however, they differ very materially from the true version of the affair, if we may credit the concurrent testimony of a score of aged men and women now living, who have heard the facts in the case narrated by men who belonged to the party that the Indians attacked, and by those who were afterwards sent to inter the dead bodies of the victims. Mr. Miner's account was from the lips of Abigail Dodson, who was taken prisoner with the Gilbert family, from Mahoning, below Mauch Chunk, and conducted over the great "war path" or Indian trail that crossed the Quakake, and passed over the mountain near the present sites of Tresckow and Ashburton, entering the valley by the little ravine that extends from the toll gate toward the Little Nescopeck. The Gilbert family were captured in April, 1780, the year after Sullivan's expedition; and as the Sugar Loaf tragedy Was enacted in the autumn of the same year, while Abigail was still in the hands of the savages, she received her account from the prisoners brought to Canada, who, no doubt, supposed that the entire party were killed or captured as since stated in the published account; but there is undoubted evidence that such was not the case. A great uncle of the Engle brothers who now lived in Hazleton and the valley, escaped over the Nescopec mountain, and across the Susquehanna to Fort Jenkins, losing one shoe in his flight, and Abraham Klader, a brother of the officer in command, concealed himself in the Little Nescopeo Creek, clinging to a tree that had fallen across the stream, and keeping only his

face above water until the enemy disappeared, when he emerged from his concealment and succeeded in reaching his home. Frederick Shiokler also escaped on the Back mountain, avoiding the Indian trail and finally reaching the white settlement in the Lehigh valley in safety.

We have conversed with an old gentleman, now eighty-four years of age, who fifty or sixty years ago heard Shickler, then an old man, relate his adventures. After reaching the top of Back Mountain he left the path to his right and managed to keep out of sight of the Indians, whose yells he could distinctly hear as they followed the path in pursuit of him. A few others are known to have escaped, but nothing reliable can now be gathered respecting their names or the particulars of their escape.

Both Miner and Pearce say that the company was commanded by Capt. Myers, while Chapman, page 133, says that Wm. Moyer was in command; but the oldest living descendants of the early settlers, with a number of whom we have conversed, agree in asserting that the company was under the command of Capt. Klader, who after performing deeds of prodigy and valor that caused his name afterwards to inspire feelinge akin to veneration, was finally killed and scalped and snbsequently buried, as were also others of the party on what is now the farm of Samuel Wagner, about a half mile from Conyngham. We visited Wagner's farm a few days since, in company with Mr. S. D. Engle, of this borough, and were conducted by Anthony Fisher, a man whose locks are whitened by the frosts of ninety winters, to the spot where the brave Klader rests, but no trace of the grave is now to be seen. The oak tree under whose branches he lay, and upon which were the initials of his name, D. K., was sacrilegiously cut down fifteen years ago, and even the stump is decayed and gone. Mr. Fisher, many years ago, was intimately acquainted with John Wertz, who had belonged to the party that buried the slain and marked their leader's grave by outting the initials spoken of above. As the old man leaned upon his staff and surveyed the spot, he gave expression to feelings of deep regret that the tree was not permitted to stand as a memorial of the heroic deeds of those by-gone days. Well might they have exclaimed, who revered the name of the hero of Sugarloaf Valley,

"Woodman spare that tree! Touch not a single bough!" Klader sold his life as dearly as possible. Four Indians, or, according to some aocounts, seven, were dispatched by his own hands before he finally succumbed to numbers. The Indians in retaliation, inflicted upon him every torture that savage cruelty

could devise. The details of their barbarities are too shocking to relate. We were shown, by Mr. Fisher, a flint look and a gun barrel, both much eaten by rust, that were plowed up on Klader's grave a few years ago. These relics are in the possession of Mr. Samuel Wagner.

[Copied from the Hazleton Sentinel, Sept. 1866. Jno. C. Stokes, Ed.]

In a former number we gave some aocount of the massacre of 1780, in Sugarloaf Valley-John Balliet, of Whitehall, Lehigh (then Northampton) County, expected to accompany the party who were Bent to bury the victims of that massacre, but sickness in his family compelled him to remain at home. Upon the return of the party, however, Balliet was so favorably impressed with their glowing descriptions of the valley that he resolved to settle there, which determination he carried into effect in the spring of 1784, locating on what is now known as the Beisel farm, about one mile from Drums. The Indian paths crossing mountains and streams, afforded no passage for wagons, and his "moving" consisted only of what he was able to carry on horseback. His chlldren were placed in two bee hives, typical, perhaps of that industry which transformed the wilderness into as miling garden, and these were tied together and thrown across the back of a horse. In descending the Broad Mountain on their journey, the cord uniting the hives broke, and in the language of the old nursery song, "Down came cradle and baby and all." After a short gymnastic exercise in the feat of turning sumersaults down the side of the mountain, the children were again comfortably ensconced in their hives, and the party, like Joe, the ounning sweeper in the "Bleak House" moved on. Upon reaching their destination, Balliet and his family improvised a ride habitation by placing poles around and against a tree over which some sort of covering was thrown to shelter them until a house could be erected. Their first house, which was built of logs, was in a year or two after destroyed by fire with all their household effects except one bed.

Mr. Balliet was soon followed by other settlers, among the earliest of whom were Reab, Wenner, Shiber Delp, Hill, Bachelor, Spade and others. Few, perhaps, who now "beneath their own vine aud fig tree" enjoy all the luxuries of an advanced civilization, reaping the fruits of their ancestors' toil, have an adequate conception of the hardships and privations endured by these hardy pioneers. They coveted none of the superfluities or expensive follies of the present day, but were humbly thankful for their "daily bread" and for the rough couches upon which they were wont to repose their

weary limbs. They could say in the words of Whittier:

"Let vapid idlers lol! in silk
Around the costly board,

Give us the bowl of samp and milk

By homespun beauty poured."

These early settlers were obliged to carry their grain on horseback to Sultz' Mill, on Lizard Creek, one mile below the present town of Lehighton, wait there until it was ground, which was generally done during the night, and return with their "grist" the following day. Stephen Balliet, when only ten or eleven years of age, made frequent trips alone to this mill orossing the Buck and Broad Mountains and he and his horse partaking of one piece of bread each on the journey. After Rittenhouse's mill, about a mile below Berwick, was built, the settlers carried their grain there in preference to going to Lizard Creek, until Philip Bittenbender built a mill near Nescopeck, (now Evan's), when they found it still more convenient to carry their grain to him.

It was not, we are assured, until 1793 that Samuel Woodring built his mill at or near the present site of Straw's mill, though Mr. Pierce fixes the date at 1788. This mill had but one run of stone and was built of logs, with a log dwelling house attached to it.

Captain Gilman Converse.

I am not aware of any contributor to the pages of the Historical Record having given a line commemorative of this New England man, so well known for years by the citizens of Wilkes-Barre. And I would be very glad, essaying a few words regarding him, if my recollections were more full than they

are.

Before I became acquainted with Capt. Converse, (living in a different part of the Commonwealth,) he was first officer on a steamer running between the two commercial ports of Luzerne and WyomingCounties. Excepting the staple of maple sugar, it was never clearly apparent what demand of internal trade required the establishment of a line of steamers between these two seaports on the Susquehanna. Nor do I know how long the venture triumphed over the intricacies of a channel demanding the exercise of the highest nautical skill. Nor what length of hours or days elapsed in stemming the rifts on the upward voyage. But one distinctive feature has survived the downfall of the hazardous undertaking. The fame of the commander. Certainly no more genial, alert and bold navigator ever trod the quarterdeck of a vessel. He was the impersonation of naval superiority. He was alive with enthusiasm. His face beamed with perpetual gayety. The manner of one bred and nurtured in the courts of royalty, may well be supposed