VOL. I.

Recollectious of James W. Chapman, The Montrose Republican has an article signed C., which stands for J. W. Chapman, father of Mrs. S. L. Brown, of Wilkes-Barre, in which the writer quotes from a recent issue of the RECORD and adds some interesting comments of his own. Mr. Chapman thus corrects an inadvertence which crept into the article:

The Wilkes-Barre RECORD has been publishing some extracts from the Gleaner, a Wilkes-Barre paper published in 1811. The introduction to the article says, published by Asher Miner and Steuben Butler; but I think it must have been Charles Miner and Butler, as I know that Charles Miner, the founder of the Gleaner, was associated with Steuben Butler in publishing for some time, and that he sold out the Gleaner establishment as early as 1818 or before, to Isaac A. Chapman, an uncle of mine; for I was there attending school during the winter of 1816-17, when the paper was published by him. Charles Miner, on leaving the Gleaner, went into the publication of a paper at Doylestown, Bucks County, with his brother Asher, I believe, and subsequently established The Village Record at West Chester, which he made a very popular newspaper. Asher Miner (and possibly Mr. Butler), was engaged in publishing a paper in Wilkes-Barre called The Luzerne Federalist, still earlier than the Gleaner.

"March 20. The Commissioners of the Willkes-Barre Meeting House and Bank Lottery have appointed Thomas Dyer, Esq., treasurer of their Board, upon whom the holders of fortunate tickets may call for payment of prizes. Ebenezer Bowman, Lord Butler, Mathew Covell, managers."

Only think-of a meeting house, now called a church, to be built from the avails of a lottery! But such was the fact. The old meeting house first built in Wilkes-Barre on the Public Square where now stands the Court House-for years the only house of worship in town, having a very high steeple, occupied alternately by the Presbyterians and the Episcopalians, and finally by the Methodists, was originally built (in part at least) by means of a lottery! I was aware of that fact from hearing much about it from my parents-one of the commissioners con

No. I.

cerned in it, Peleg Tracy, having married my mother's sister; and another, George Haines, married a sister of my father. Wonder if they licensed drinking saloons in those days for means to build churches?

"April 19. Thomas Parke (Col. 129th Regiment Pennsylvania Militia) calls a meeting of the commissioned and staff officers at the house of Joseph Chapman, Jr., in Bridgewater, armed and in uniform, as the law directs."

Col. Parke was well known as one of the early settlers of that period. He began the farm since known as Parkevale, near Springville, and was one of the County Commissioners of old Luzerne when it included Susquehanna County. He was the father of the late Benj. Parke, Esq., and was a gentleman of very dignified bearing as a military offfAs was the custom in those days, he called out all the officers of the regiment once a year for a training drill, and generally at my father's house in old Bridgewater, now Brooklyn.

cer.

"April 26. A complete workman is engaged to finish the vessel now on the stocks in this port. It is contemplated to have her launched and fit for the shareholders to dine in on the 4th of July. Those who are in arrears, it is presumed, will pay up their shares with the promptitude which their engagements and the importance of the undertaking demand. As no mention of the vessel is made in the report of the Independence Day celebration, we presume the work was not completed in time."

I think this must refer to a vessel built about that period at Wilkes-Barre mainly by the enterprise of a prominent business man, then well known, by the name of John P. Arndt. Elisha Mack, an early settler from Lyme, Conn., at "Mack's Corners," in Brooklyn, who was a ship carpenter by trade, was employed to "boss" the job. It was said to be nicely done, and when launched into the Susquehanna, Capt. Joseph Chapman Sr., who after being an officer in the Revolution served several years as a sea captain in the West India trade, was chosen to "christen" her as it was called, with a bottle of wine, calling her the "Experiment," if I remember rightly, intended for sale (as well as for sail) at Baltimore or some other place down the

Many of our writers, especially newspaper historians, use the term colonial to the events in Pennsylvania under the proprietary government. Prior to the purchase by William Penn, it was the Colony on the Delaware, after wards the Province of Pennsylvania. New Jersey, Maryland and Pennsylvania were provinces, while Massachusetts, New York, Virginia and others were always colonies until they declared their independence. The governor of a colony was appointed by the Crown-those of the province by the proprietary. Perchance the use of this term colonial as to Pennsylvania arose from the fact that Mr. Hazard, who edited them, misnamed our Provincial Records, Colonial Records. He ought to have known better.-Dr. W. H. Egle in Harrisburg Telegraph.

An Aged Preacher's Burial,

The funeral of Rev. J. P. Rice was held at Trucksville July 30, at 2 pm., the remains arriving at Kingston from Hunlock's Creek on the 12:40 pm. D., L. & W. train. Rev. A. Griffin, of the Kingston M. E. Church officiated, and preached a sermon from the words found in Job 5, 26: "Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season. There was a very large attendance of relatives and friends of the deceased. Among the relatives being his aged wife: a brother, Rev. C. L. Rice, of the Wyoming Conference, and stationed at North Fenton, Binghamton District; Dr. Rogers and wife (Mrs. Rogers being a sister) of Huntsville; his three sons, Levi Rice, of Lehman, William, of Harvey's Lake and Lyman, of Dallas; also, a step-daughter, Mrs. Harrison Steele, of Shelby, Ohio, and a stepson, Jacob Rice, with his wife, from Hunlock's Creek, with whom Mr. Rice and his wife were living at the time of his death. Mrs. George Cook, of Three Rivers, Mich., a daughter of the deceased, was not able to be present. Judge James Phoenix and wife, of Beaumont, were also present. Mrs. Phoenix is a sister of the deceased. Interment was made in the cemetery at Trucksville.

Mr. Rice was born in Knowlton Township, N. J., Aug. 22, 1805. He was the son of Rev.

Jacob Rice. He came to Trucksville in May, 1814. He was for many years a class leader, exhorter and local preacher in the M. E. Church. He was possessed of many sterling qualities and leaves behind him a good name, which "is rather to be chosen than great riches."

MEDALS GIVEN TO THE INDIANS. Brief Description of Five Historical Medals in the Possession of tho Wyoming Historical Society-Also of One Which Ought to be, But is Not

At the fall meeting of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, Rev. Horace Edwin Hayden, of this city, read a paper on the various silver and copper medals presented to the American Indians by the sovereigns of Englaud, France and Spain, from 1600 to 1800 and especially of five such medals of George I., of Great Britain, now in the possession of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society and its members. The same now appears in pamphlet form, also in the second volume of the published proceedings of the society. The paper is a most interesting one, tracing briefly the American discovery and the subsequent treatment by the whites of the aboriginal inhabitants, particularly in the bestowal of medallic tributes, and other presents. France and England early vied with each other in thus seeking to attachment of the Indians. We have space for only a portion of the description of the Wyoming medals. For a more satisfactory idea of the subject the reader is referred to Mr. Hayden's valuable pamphlet. We quote and condense a few paragraphs:

The Indian medals of George I. are the first that bear any especial reference to the peculiar life and pursuits of the Indians. Each of the four medals which I here present for your examination, contains on the obverse the bust of George I., and on the reverso, the device of an Indian hunting the deer. Two of these medals have a historic connection that is interesting.

Those which belong to my own cabinet were discovered about 1858, in the bank of the Ohio River, at Point Pleasant, West Virginia, on the spot where the bloody and stubborn battle of Point Pleasant was fought, in 1774, between the colonists, under General Andrew Lewis, and the combined Indian tribes, under Logan, Cornstalk and Outacite; a battle which began one-half an hour before sunrise, October 10, 1774, and continued, almost without cessation, until sunset the same day. It is more than probable that these two medals were worn by Indian chiefs on that day, and were lost in the conflict or in the flight. They were presented to me by the late Dr.