Part 99

This was the fourth paper in the English language established in Philadelphia and the first one with four columns to the page, printed in all the colonies. Joseph Galloway and Thomas Wharton were silent partners of Goddard. The Chronicle was published until February, 1773, when it was removed to Baltimore.

The Pennsylvania Packet, or the General Advertiser, was first published in November, 1771, by John Dunlap. During the British occupancy Dunlap continued the publication of the Packet at Lancaster, and in July, 1778, he published at Philadelphia, and made it a semi-weekly, and then a tri-weekly.

In 1783, Dunlap sold his paper to D. C. Claypoole, who had previously been a partner, and a year later the Packet was published daily. This then became the first daily newspaper in the United States.

The Pennsylvania Ledger, or the Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey Weekly Advertiser, was first published in Philadelphia, January 28, 1775, by James Humphreys, Jr. Humphreys was deemed a Tory and his paper denounced as being under corrupt influence. Humphreys was obliged in November, 1776, to discontinue the Ledger, and leave the city.

He returned when the British occupied Philadelphia and revived the publication as a semi-weekly. The last number was published May 23, 1778, a month before the British evacuated the city. He was in possession of advance information, as are some editors of today.

The Pennsylvania Evening Post by Benjamin Towne, as a tri-weekly, was first published January 24, 1775, and it was the third newspaper in the colonies which was published as an evening paper. This paper continued publication in Philadelphia during the British occupancy.

Towne was proscribed by a law of Pennsylvania. He did not, however, leave the State, and continued to publish the Post until 1782, when it died a natural death.

Story and Humphrey’s Pennsylvania Mercury and Universal Advertiser first came before the public in April, 1775. This was the last newspaper to be established in Pennsylvania prior to the Revolution. The Mercury was short lived. The printing house, with all its contents, was destroyed by fire in December, 1775, and in consequence of the event, the paper was discontinued.

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John F. Watson, Annalist, Historian, Antiquarian and Collector of Historical Objects, Died December 23, 1860

John Fanning Watson died December 23, 1860, at the age of eighty-two years, and left behind him a monument to his mental powers in his “Annals of Philadelphia.”

Mr. Watson was a native of Burlington County, N. J., where he was born June 13, 1779. His parents were of English origin; his grandfather, Thomas Watson, came to America in 1667, settling at Salem, where William Watson, father of John F. was born.

Among his ancestors were some of the earliest settlers of our country. All were devoted patriots, with the exception of one, a distinguished Tory, General Edmund Fanning, a graduate of Yale, in 1757, of whom The Gentleman’s Magazine, for 1818, says, “the world contained no better man.”

After completing the usual course of education to qualify himself for mercantile pursuits, John Fanning Watson entered the counting-house of James Vanuxem, an eminent merchant of Philadelphia, with whom he remained but a short time, having offended the French interests of that firm by becoming a member of the Macpherson Blues, of which body of volunteer militiamen, he was one of last six surviving members at the time of his decease.

He was now nineteen years of age, and a clerkship in the War Department at Washington was offered him, which he accepted, and held until 1804, when he engaged himself in business with General James O'Hara, formerly Quartermaster-General to General Anthony Wayne’s Indian Army, and chief founder of the City of Pittsburgh.

During this business connection Watson resided at New Orleans, holding the responsible position of Commissary of Provisions for the United States Army at all the posts in Louisiana.

At this period there was no Protestant worship in that city, and to remedy this, together with Edward Livingston, he became the prime. mover in establishing the Protestant Episcopal Church by giving a call to the Reverend Mr. Chase, since the venerable Bishop of Ohio and Illinois.

After a residence of two years at New Orleans sudden domestic affliction caused his return to Philadelphia to the support of his widowed mother, and to this event the public are profoundly indebted for his invaluable services as a local historian of the olden time. As such his works will ever be enduring monuments of his wonderful assiduity and laborious research.

Following his return to Philadelphia he made his first essay as a bookseller and publisher, establishing a business on Chestnut Street.

Among the various works he published were Dr. Adam Clark’s Commentary on the Old and New Testament, the Select Reviews of Literature, etc.

He contributed frequently to the columns of various literary, scientific, historical, and ecclesiastical serials.

Besides historical works, he left some unpublished manuscript volumes on theology, which show great originality of thought and deep research. He also devoted some pages to the vindication of Cromwell. To his marriage with a lineal descendant of the Lord Protector may be attributed some of the interest he evinced on this subject.

In 1814, Mr. Watson was elected cashier of the Bank of Germantown, which position he held till 1847, when he was chosen treasurer and secretary of the Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railroad Company.

During his connection with the Bank of Germantown he resided in the stone bank building of which the celebrated annalist himself says, “The house in which I now reside was once honoured with the presence of Generals Washington, Knox and Greene, shortly after the battle of Germantown. They slept in it one or two nights.”

In 1859, being at that time eighty years of age, he retired from all

## active business.

In 1820, he began to collect antiquarian material, the first being history and legends of Germantown, though none of them were printed until about 1828, when some extracts from his manuscript books were printed in Hazard’s “Register of Pennsylvania.”

In 1830 the first edition of the “Annals of Philadelphia,” was issued, the same “being a Collection of Memoirs, Anecdotes, and Incidents of the City and its Inhabitants from the days of the Pilgrim Fathers; also Olden Time Researches and Reminiscences of New York City in 1828.” It was in one volume of eight hundred pages, and illustrated by lithographs.

In 1842 the work was republished in two volumes, revised and enlarged, and again, in 1856, he made a full and final revision, adding an appendix to the second volume. The editions subsequent to the first did not contain the matter relative to New York.

A noteworthy characteristic of Watson was his reverence for the graves of great and good men, who had been useful in their generation, as illustrated in the removal of the remains of Thomas Godfrey, the inventor of the quadrant, and family from a neglected spot on his old farm to Laurel Hill, where a suitable monument was erected by subscription to his memory.

In 1832, he published “Historic Tales of Olden Time” of New York City, which was followed the next year by “Historic Tales of Olden Time, concerning the Early Settlement and Progress of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania.”

Then followed other volumes of both New York annals and works other than history.

Mr. Watson’s first publisher and most active co-worker was Samuel Hazard, and to them is due the awakening of that spirit of antiquarianism and historical research from which sprung the great Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Watson was an ardent collector of all objects of historic interest, many of which are now deposited in the Philadelphia Library and with the Historical Society.

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Colonel Plunket Begins Action in Second Pennamite War on December 24, 1775

The first armed conflict between the Proprietary Government and the Connecticut settlers in the Wyoming Valley occurred when the Yankees came down into the region in 1769 and seated themselves under the Government of Connecticut. The conflict lasted, with more or less intensity, until 1771, when the Penns were compelled to surrender and leave the intruders in questioned possession of that territory. This series of attacks, assaults and real battles has since been known as the first Pennamite War.

For four years the Yankees lived in tranquillity, and were not even seriously disturbed by the Indians.

On September 28, 1775, Colonel William Plunket, the Provincial commandant at Fort Augusta, at the head of a large body of troops, defeated the Yankees at Squire John Vincent’s in Judea Township on the West Branch, and marched all the men as prisoners to Sunbury.

The old colonel was more elated than wisdom seems to have justified. He became the man of the hour and, supported by a resolution of the Provincial Assembly, October 27, 1775, which justified the attack on the Yankees, he set about to muster troops for an expedition against the Connecticut settlers at Wyoming, in spite of the fact that the weather was becoming very severe. Snow had fallen early in November.

The Council of Safety of Connecticut learned of the determination to send a large armed force against their settlement at Wyoming, and Governor Trumbull wrote to the President of Congress, November 11, 1775, complaining of this invasion.

Congress adopted a resolution requesting both States to prevent hostilities. But the Assembly did not welcome this interference, especially as they had received a letter from Colonel Samuel Hunter, lieutenant for Northumberland County, dated Sunbury, November 20, 1775, acquainting the House that two of the Magistrates and Sheriff William Cooke had an interview with Colonel Zebulon Butler and some of the principal men among the Connecticut settlers at Wyoming. They read the late Resolves of the Pennsylvania Assembly to them, and inquired whether they would peaceably submit themselves to the laws of Pennsylvania. They answered that they despised the laws of that Province and never would submit unless compelled by force.

Two days later, November 25, Governor John Penn wrote to Judge Plunket and his associate Justices as follows:

“I have just now received a message from the Assembly, founded on a letter addressed to them from the county of Northumberland, respecting the Connecticut settlers at Wyoming, requesting me to give orders for a due execution of the laws of this Province in the counties of Northumberland and Northampton. In consequence thereof, I do most cheerfully order you to use your utmost diligence and activity in putting the laws of this Province in execution throughout the County of Northumberland; and you may depend on the faith of the House, and my concurrence with them, that every proper and necessary expense that may be incurred on the occasion will be defrayed.”

After the failure of the expedition to Squire Vincent’s the New Englanders in Wyoming managed, by the aid of spies, and in other ways, to keep themselves informed as to the movements of the Pennamites.

There are letters extant which reveal the activities in and about Sunbury which were written there and sent to Colonel Butler and others in authority at Wyoming. One such letter advised Colonel Butler that the Pennamites were surely going to march against Wyoming, and would not be stopped even by Congress.

It was the purpose of Colonel Plunket to recruit all the troops which could be raised along the West Branch settlements at Fort Augusta, and then form a junction with the troops which were to be raised in Northampton County, at Fishing Creek, about a mile and a half above the present borough of Bloomsburg.

The Connecticut delegates in Congress presented a memorial in that body on December 18, 1775, in which they complained bitterly of the threatened invasion, and advised Congress that the troops had begun to march December 11. This was accompanied by depositions from inhabitants, tending to strengthen their statements about the number of the invading forces and their intentions.

During the continuance of the first Pennamite War from 1769 to 1771, every expedition against Wyoming was of a civil character. There were no direct military maneuvers. The Sheriff of Northampton County, of which county Wyoming was then a part, was the chief officer on duty, merely supported by the military commanders, with their several companies; the burnished musket, the glittering bayonet, the four-pounder, the whole martial array being simply an appurtenant to a peace officer while he should serve a civil process.

The same policy was again pursued. Colonel Plunket and his large force and fine equipment, were the mere accompaniments of the Sheriff, whose business to Wyoming was to arrest two or three individuals on civil writs.

The old colonel had mustered 600 well-armed and well-equipped men and the march was taken up at Fort Augusta, December 15, 1775.

In order that the proposed expedition might be considered of a civil rather than a military character, this small army was denominated the “_posse comitatus_ of Northumberland.” Moreover it was to be accompanied on its march by William Scull, the newly elected Sheriff of Northumberland County, within whose jurisdiction the Wyoming lands lay, if to be considered a part of the Province of Pennsylvania.

He was provided with a train of boats, with two small field-pieces, one of which was mounted on the largest and leading boat, ready for action on board or to be landed if necessary. There was a second field-piece mounted on one of the other boats, a large supply of ammunition for cannon, rifles and muskets, supplies and stores.

About the time Colonel Plunket began active preparations for his expedition Benjamin Harvey, Jr., and another Yankee settler and trader of Wyoming Valley, who were returning from Harris Ferry in bateaux laden with supplies, and laboriously and slowly pulling their boats up the Susquehanna toward home, were seized by the Pennsylvanians as they reached Sunbury, thrown into jail, and their boats and cargoes confiscated.

When Plunket was ready to proceed up the river he placed Harvey in the leading boat, with orders to pilot the flotilla of the expedition to its destination.

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Pennamites Humiliatingly Defeated by Yankees, December 25, 1775

On December 20, the very day on which Congress adopted resolutions calling on Pennsylvania and Connecticut to cease armed conflict during the period of the Revolution, it was learned by the Yankee scouts that Colonel William Plunket and the Pennamites had pushed their flotilla up the North Branch of the Susquehanna River as far as the mouth of Nescopeck Creek, about nineteen miles below Nanticoke Falls, but that they were advancing slowly on account of the snow, which was then falling, and the ice which was gathering on the river.

Colonel Zebulon Butler quickly mustered his available force, which numbered about 400 men and boys, on Saturday, December 23, and marched to the left bank of Harvey’s Creek, where he encamped for the night on a level stretch of land near the river.

The vanguard of Colonel Plunket’s expedition arrived at “Harvey’s Landing” shortly after the Yankees had gone into camp above Harvey’s Creek.

Major John Garrett was dispatched under a flag of truce to Colonel Plunket to ascertain the meaning of his approach with armed militia. The answer returned to Colonel Butler was that he came peaceably as an attendant to Sheriff Scull, who was authorized to arrest several persons at Wyoming for violating the laws of Pennsylvania, and he trusted there would be no opposition to a measure so reasonable and pacific. Major Garrett reported to Colonel Butler and advised him of the strength of the enemy.

Colonel Butler early Sunday morning (December 24) dispatched Ensign Mason F. Alden with a detail of eighteen men to remain on guard at Harvey’s Creek. Captain Lazarus Stewart, with twenty men, was detached to the east side of the river, above Nanticoke Falls, with orders to lie in ambush and prevent the landing on that shore of any boat’s crew.

Colonel Butler, with the remainder of his force, then retired up the river about a mile to a point of natural defense on the plantation of Benjamin Harvey, Sr., where a precipitous ledge of rocks extends from the Shawanese Mountains in a southerly direction almost to the bank of the river, a distance of nearly half a mile. The Yankees took up their position in this rocky rampart, and wherever it was defective for their defense they erected breastworks of logs and stones.

Later in the morning of Sunday about 11 o’clock, Ensign Alden, being apprised at the mouth of Harvey’s Creek of the approach of the Plunket expedition, retired with his men up the river and joined Colonel Butler.

Deploying his column on the flat just abandoned by the Yankees, Plunket directed a spirited advance in pursuit of Alden, not doubting but that the main force of the settlers was near and that the hour of conflict had arrived. In less than thirty minutes the advancing line was halted by Colonel Plunket, who exclaimed, “My God! What a breastwork!”

Scarcely had those words been uttered when there came a discharge of musketry, crackling from end to end of the long-extended rampart, and giving no uncertain notice that the unlooked-for barricade was garrisoned.

One of Plunket’s men, Hugh McWilliams, was killed and three others wounded, while the whole body of Pennamites was thrown into great confusion and without returning the fire of the Yankees immediately retreated to Harvey’s Creek.

They then brought two of their boats from Harvey’s Landing past Nanticoke Falls by land and made preparations to cross the river in detachments, in order to march by way of the eastern shore against the village of Wyoming, the objective point of the expedition.

After nightfall the boats, well filled with soldiers, started across the river some distance above the falls. In the bow of the first boat sat Benjamin Harvey, still held a prisoner by the Pennamites, and acting as pilot under compulsion, while Colonel Plunket himself occupied a place in the second boat.

When the boats nearly reached the opposite shore they were, without warning, fired upon by Captain Lazarus Stewart and his men, who were concealed in the thick brush on the river’s bank.

Two or three men in the first boat were wounded, one of whom, Jesse Lukens, subsequently died. All the occupants of the boat would have been killed, probably, had not Harvey made his presence known to the Yankees. The boats were hurriedly backed astern, whereby they safely shot through the rifles and into the pool at Harvey’s Landing. Thus ended the occurrences of Sunday.

Early in the morning of Monday, which was Christmas, the Pennamites were astir. Colonel Plunket formed his men and marched them into two divisions toward the breastworks held by the Yankees. While one division stormed the works, the other ascended the mountain on their left in an attempt to turn the right flank of Colonel Butler’s defenders.

The conflict lasted, with frequent cessations, during the greater part of the day, and on the part of the Yankees three or four men were killed and three times as many more wounded. Toward the close of the day Colonel Plunket realized that the position of the Yankees was too strong to be carried by assault and he ordered a retreat down the west side of the river.

In this movement he was closely pursued by Captain Stewart and his party on the east side of the river, who determined, if possible, to capture at least one of the boats of the Pennamites. But Harvey, who was still a prisoner, called to them not to fire. So the expedition was permitted to float peaceably downstream toward Fort Augusta.

Colonel Zebulon Butler reported the battle to the Connecticut authorities under date of December 27, 1775, and stated the losses among the Plunket forces to have been fifty or sixty dead and wounded and that two were killed and three wounded of his own party and that one had since died.

The Pennamites reported the affair quite differently. William Scull, the Sheriff; Samuel Harris, Coroner; William Plunket, Samuel Hunter, Michael Troy and John Weitzel, Justices, wrote to Governor Penn under date Sunbury, December 30, 1775, in which they related the expedition as one to serve legal processes. They blamed the Yankees for firing upon the Sheriff’s posse without warning, and even with firing on the wounded as they retreated down the river.

The Governor transmitted this letter to the Provincial Assembly and asked them to pay the bills.

Four days after the battle the inhabitants of Westmoreland assembled in town meeting, elected officers and appointed a committee to repair to Philadelphia to “lay before the Honorable Continental Congress an account of the late invasion made by the Tory Party of the Pennsylvania people.” It was also voted to collect funds for three women whose husbands were killed in the battle.

Jesse Lukens, who lost his life in this ill-fated expedition, was a young man of much promise, the son of John Lukens, who was the Surveyor General of Pennsylvania from 1769 till his death in 1789. Jesse was born August 8, 1748, and had only recently arrived at Sunbury on a vacation and joined the Plunket expedition as a lark.

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Pennsylvania Militia in Battle of Trenton, December 26, 1776

Early in the Revolution Pennsylvania began to suffer severe losses. Each of the battalions organized at the request of Congress had been sent immediately to the front, some to Canada, some to the defense of the Hudson, and the balance with the main army.

During the summer of 1776 the necessities of the Continental service were such that the Council of Safety of Pennsylvania placed the State battalions under Colonels Samuel Miles, Samuel J. Atlee and Daniel Brodhead at the disposal of Congress. These were marched to Long Island, where, with the Continental Regiments of the Pennsylvania Line, viz: Colonel Shee’s, Magaw’s and Lambert Cadwalader’s, they were engaged in battle August 27, which resulted in the defeat of the American forces and the evacuation of Long Island. The Pennsylvanians sustained severe loss. Lieutenant Colonel Caleb Perry and other officers were killed. Colonel Miles, Colonel Atlee and Lieutenant Colonel James Piper were among the many taken prisoners.

Fort Washington was reduced November 16 and again Pennsylvania lost heavily and the battalions of Morgan, Cadwalader, Atlee, Swope, Watts and Montgomery were taken prisoners, and, in addition to those losses, Howe was menacing Philadelphia.

Congress made a precipitate adjournment in Philadelphia and removed to Baltimore. General Washington dispatched Major General Israel Putnam to Philadelphia to direct the defense of that place. He arrived December 12, and assumed military command of the city. The fort at Billingsport was of little consequence, and works were commenced at Red Bank, N. J.

General Howe returned for winter quarters in New York, leaving British troops at Trenton and Burlington, which threatened Philadelphia from the east side of the Delaware. The Americans had brigades under Lord Stirling and Generals Mercer, Stephen and De Fermoy, at the several ferries from Coryells (New Hope) to Yardleys. General Ewing was farther south with the Pennsylvania Flying Camp. Philemon Dickinson’s troops were opposite Bordentown, Cadwalader’s were near Bristol, and Colonel Nixon’s Third Pennsylvania Battalion was at Dunks Ferry.

On December 25 Colonel John Cadwalader and Colonel Samuel Miles, who was then a prisoner of war, were appointed by Pennsylvania to be brigadier generals.

General Washington, with his army, was on the west bank of the Delaware, encamped near Taylorsville, then McConkeys Ferry, eight miles above Trenton.