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 Old Connecticut Town of Westmore= 
 land in Pennsylvania.* 
 
 During the Revolution the spot in 
 Pennsylvania which we occupy to-night 
 was in the New England town of West- 
 moreland. It occupied soil that was 
 claimed by two States. It was part of 
 Pennsylvania's unbroken territory and 
 it was separated from Connecticut by 
 only the projecting lower portion of 
 New York State. Seventy miles square, 
 bounded on the north by the New York 
 line and on the east by the Delaware 
 River, Westmoreland County (for the 
 town subsequently became a county), 
 had a population of about 2,000 souls. 
 The same territory now has a popula- 
 tion 350 times' as great, or close to three- 
 quarters of a million. It was a part of 
 the nearest Connecticut county, and its 
 members of the legislature had to go on 
 horseback nearly 200 miles, much of 
 the distance through a wilderness. It 
 was for this fair region that Pennamites 
 and Yankees struggled* in civil war for 
 a generation. The governor of Con- 
 necticut issiued a proclamation forbid- 
 ding all settlements in Westmoreland 
 except under the authority of Connecti- 
 cut, while the governor of Pennsylvania 
 warned all intending settlers that the 
 claims of Connecticut were only pre- 
 tensions and that no other authority 
 than that of the Penns must bs recog- 
 nized. The Indians had always been 
 opposed to the settlement of this region 
 tay the whites and made dire threats 
 that were executed many times by 
 bands of prowling savages. The inter- 
 necine struggle between Connecticut 
 and Pennsylvania was waged for a 
 third of a century and was never in- 
 terrupted except during the Rovlution- 
 ary War, when by common consent 
 both parties suspended their local strife 
 and joined in a common defense against 
 
 the growing oppressions of Great 
 Britain. When the war clouds of the 
 Revolution were gathering, but had not 
 yet burst, a Connecticut man who was 
 afterwards to play a part in the West- 
 moreland settlement, was a missionary 
 among the Six Nations. A treaty was 
 in progress— one of great national im- 
 portance, as one of its purposes was to 
 fix a permanent boundary between the 
 Indians and the whites. The council 
 was held in the colony of New York and 
 was attended by the governors of the 
 interested colonies and by some 3.000 
 Indians. It was dominated by the 
 Penns, John Penn, a son of William 
 Penn, being present. He wanted the 
 lands in northeastern Pennsylvania 
 which were claimed by Connecticut and 
 which had been bought by Connecticut 
 from the Indians some years previous. 
 The commissioners had boatloads of 
 gold and guns and gewgaws, and be- 
 sides these an abundance of that argu- 
 ment so potent with the Indians then 
 and ever since — rum. It is needless to 
 say the Penn interests prevailed. As 
 Connecticut was not. invited to the 
 council which was to wrest from her a 
 part of her ex-territorial possession, the 
 Wyoming region, this Connecticut mis- 
 sionary xindeitnok — entirely without au- 
 thority, however, — to defend the Con- 
 necticut interest by dissuading the In- 
 dians from selling to the Penns the land 
 which Connecticut claimed. 
 
 While the treaty was in progress the 
 king's agent. Sir William Johnson, gave 
 a banquet and the missionary, by rea- 
 sion of his sacred office, rather than by 
 reason of his being- a New Elngland 
 man, was among the invited guests. 
 The feast was made the occasion of 
 bursts of eloquence as to the greatness^ 
 
 * Paper read at Scranton, December 22, rgo^ before the New England Society 
 of Northeastern Pennsylvania by F. C. fohnson, M. D., member of Wyo- 
 ming Historical Society, Moravian titstorical Society, New England 
 Historic-Genealogical Society, Etc. 
 
Y\'^S^ 
 
 of England and toasts were drunk to 
 the health of King- George III. Amid 
 the noisy merrymaking of the con- 
 vivial company the Connecticut mis- 
 sionary could hear the muttering of the 
 gathering storm, he could already feel 
 with Patrick Henry that the next breeze 
 from the north was to bring to their 
 ears the clash of resounding arms. So 
 when the adulations of the king were 
 all over and the preacher from Con- 
 necticut was called upon, the scene was 
 not unlike that on the night when in 
 the revel at Babylon there appeared, 
 written across the wall in letters of 
 fire those words which foretold the 
 doom of Belsl-azzar. These are the mis- 
 sionary's thrilling sentences: I drink 
 to the health of King George III of 
 Great Britain, comprehending New 
 England and all the British colonies in 
 North America, and I mean to drink 
 such a health so long as his royal ma- 
 jesty shall, govern the British and 
 American subjects according to the 
 great charter of English liberty, and so 
 long as he hears the prayers of his 
 American subjects. But in case his 
 British majesty (which God in great 
 mercy prevent) should proceed contrary 
 to charter rights ar.d privileges, and 
 govern us with a rod of iron, and the 
 mouth of cannons and utterly refuse 
 to consider our humble nrayers, then I 
 should consider it my indispensable 
 duty to join my countrymen in forming 
 a new empire in Am.erica." 
 
 It does not surprise us to learn that 
 in after years when the missionary was 
 pastor at Westmoreland he denounced 
 the Pennamite outrages with such ve- 
 hemence that he was dragged before 
 the court and compelled to give bonds 
 for his peaceable behavior. 
 
 Two resolutions of the Westmoreland 
 people in town meeting assembled soon 
 after the snock of Lexington and 
 Bunker Hill deserve to be remembered 
 — one "to make any accommodation 
 with the Pennsylvania party that shall 
 conduce to the best good of the whole, 
 and coine in common defense of liberty 
 in America," and the ether was "to act 
 in conjunction v.ith our neighboring 
 towns within this and the other colo- 
 nies in opposing the measures to en- 
 .slave the colonies, and that we will 
 unanimously join our brethren in 
 America in the common cause of de- 
 fending our liberty." This resolve was 
 more than lived up to, for Westmore- 
 land not only raised her quota of troops 
 for the Continental Army, but she sent 
 more and she kept on sending until she 
 was left defenseless herself, except for 
 
 a home guard, made up of such of her 
 remnant of men and boys as were either 
 too young or too old for service in the 
 army. More than this, she out of her 
 scanty resources armed and equipped 
 duch companies as she sent to the 
 front. 
 
 Throughout the war the New Etig- 
 landers in Pennsylvania were greatly 
 irritated by certain of their neighbors 
 who Avere not in sympathy with the re- 
 volt against the mother country. It 
 must be admitted that the Yankees of 
 Westmoreland were pretty severe on 
 these Tories, for the latter were repeat- 
 edly expelled as spies and in some in- 
 stances their properties were confis- 
 cated. Driven from their farms by the 
 Yankees, these Loyalists had no other 
 recourse than to seek shelter at the 
 nearest British stronghold, which was 
 Fort Niagara. Their tales of the per- 
 nicioiTs activity of the Westmoreland 
 "rebels" in raising troops and in perse- 
 cuting the Loyalists inspired the expe- 
 dition which destroyed Wyoming in 1778 
 — an expedition made up of a motley 
 force of British soldiers, painted In- 
 dians and smarting Tories. 
 
 When news came from Niagara of 
 the threatened invasion by the British, 
 the Westmoreland officers and men in 
 Washington's army pleaded to be al- 
 loweci leave of absence that they might 
 hasten to the defense of their families. 
 On the ground that the public safety 
 required their presence at the front the 
 permission was not granted. As Miner 
 says: "History affords no parallel of 
 the pernicious detention of men under 
 such circumstances. Wives wrote to 
 their hsubands, begging them to come 
 home, and many responded to the 
 piteous call. Who can blame them for 
 placing the pleadings of wives and chil- 
 dren above the cruel order of their su- 
 periors to remain at the front?" The 
 fears of invasion were only too well 
 founded. Butler and his combined force, 
 came down the valley of the Susque- 
 hanna and destroyed the settlement. 
 Some of the patriots who had hastened 
 to defend their families fell in the mem- 
 orable battle. Out of the 400 Connecti- 
 cut men in the fight only 100 came out 
 alive, and John Butler stated in his of- 
 ficial report that his Indians had taken 
 227 scalps. The destruction of Wyo- 
 ming by uncontrollable savages, led by 
 a British officer, sent a thrill of hor- 
 ror thi'ough the civilized world and a 
 protest went up against such barbarous 
 methods, methods entirely foreign to 
 what we call modern and enlightened 
 warfare. The people of England in- 
 
 Aiithor. 
 
 tP»rtnn\. 
 
stantly joined in denunciation of the 
 turntng loose of savages upon defense- 
 less frontiers and the tomahawking and 
 scalping of fellow Anglo-Siaxons. That 
 the conimander of the British invading 
 force should in cold blood report that 
 his Indians had taken hundreds of 
 scalpsi — scalps for which the king was 
 offering pay — caused the people of the 
 mother country to cry out in shame 
 against such inhuman warfare between 
 civilized belligerents — belligerents, too, 
 of the same blood. The sentiment in 
 England in favor of the American colo- 
 nies was strengthened, not only among 
 the people, but on the floor of Parlia- 
 ment, three of whose statesmen, Pitt and 
 Wilkes and Barre, have been honored 
 by having their names incorporated in 
 two of our Wesitmoreland cities — 
 Wilkes-Barre and Pittston. It is not 
 going too far when we assert that this 
 revulsion in England against the em- 
 ploym.ent of savages by British officers 
 had an influence in bringing the Revo- 
 lution to a close. 
 
 Not only was the Revolution shorten- 
 ed by the reaction of the people of 
 England from the destruction of Wyo- 
 ming bj' savagesi, but it was perhaps 
 shortened still further by the campaign 
 the next year, when in order to make 
 such horrors as that at Wyoming im- 
 possible of repetition, Washington sent 
 Gen. Sullivan with an expedition which 
 ravaged the country of the Six Nations 
 so completely that the great Indian 
 Confederacy never engaged in another 
 battle. Had it not thus been crushed 
 the Indian allies of the British might 
 have harassed the frontiers indefinitely 
 and thus prolonged the revolution. 
 
 While we are considering how the 
 comparatively insignificant frontier post 
 of Westmoreland was a factor in the 
 Revolutionary War we may perhaps 
 consider that the occupancy of the 
 Wyoming region by the Moravian mis- 
 sionaries for the two decades prior to 
 the Revolution had an influence in 
 shortening the struggle by holding some 
 of the Indians friendly to the colonies, 
 or at least bringing about their neu- 
 trality. 
 
 Throughout the entire Revolutionary 
 M ar the Indians devast.ated the region 
 with fire and hatchet, but the close of 
 that great struggle witnessed no cessa- 
 tion of suffering for the Connecticut 
 settlers. The Pennsylvania govern- 
 ment, which no longer had to fight a 
 foreign enemy, now turned again with 
 ferocity upon the Connecticut settlers, 
 who were already impoverished by war. 
 The climax of the Pennamite cruelty 
 
 was reached when the soldiers obliter- 
 ated the Connecticut boundaries and at 
 the point of the bayonet dispossessed 
 all the Connecticut claimants, and 
 drove men, women and children across 
 the wilderness to Connecticut on foot. 
 
 How did the civil strife end? It ter- 
 minated as strife usually ends, by com- 
 promise. After a thirty years' war. 
 with loss of life on both sides, the con- 
 testants came to an agreement. The 
 legislature of Pennsylvania a little 
 prior to 1800 enacted several laws cal- 
 culated to settle all differences fairly 
 and justly. All Connecticut claimants 
 who were actual settlers were given 
 title from Pennsylvania on the payment 
 of small sums. It took many years for 
 Pennsylvania to recognize the rights of 
 the Connecticut people and to make 
 such concessions as would pacify them. 
 The Connecticut peoi.ile, roused to des- 
 peration, had undertaken to form a 
 ncAV State out of northeastern Penn- 
 sylvania. The movement wasi so far- 
 reaching as to be aided by such promi- 
 nent men as Oliver Walcott, Joel Bar- 
 low and Ethan Allen of Ticonderoga 
 fame. Pennsylvania became alarmed 
 at a movement which threatened to dis- 
 m.em.ber the State for a constitution 
 had been drawn and officers decided 
 uron by the revolutionists •. Under this 
 pjessure Pennsylvania made conces- 
 sions that were sati^factoiy to the 
 Yankees. With the erection of the new 
 Pennsylvania county of Luzerne the 
 New England town of Westmoreland 
 disappeared from, the map and remaiii- 
 ed onl3' as a mem.ory. 
 
 It would be interesting to trace the 
 results that might have followed the 
 form.dtion of a New Eingland State on 
 soil claimed by Pennsylvania. Ethan 
 Allen boasted that he had made one 
 new State and that with 100 Green 
 Mountain boys and 200 riflemen he could 
 repeat Vermont in spite of Pennsylva- 
 nia. Had not Pennsylvania nipped the 
 project in the bud by conciliating the 
 Yankees, a civil war, more far-reach- 
 ing in its consequences than the Penna- 
 mite war, Avould have resulted. Turbu- 
 lent Yankees from all over New Eing- 
 land would have rallied around Ethan 
 Allen and a struggle would have ensued 
 which might have involved the Union 
 in it? disastrous consequences. 
 
 It is interesting to know that of the 
 Penn claim to Westmoreland there is a 
 portion of the Sunbury Manor along 
 Hiarvey's Creek in Luzerne County 
 ".till in the possession of the Penn heirs 
 in line of succession under William 
 Penn. 
 
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