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Andrew Mesaris Email
Director Information Technology . Luzerne County Pennsylvania
Wilkes Barre, PA
Locationa*************@luzernecounty.org
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Luzerne County, Pennsylvania is full of opportunities. It's a wonderful place to live, work and visit. It has a rich history, a dynamic present and a promising future. Whether you live in Luzerne County or are looking for a place to call home; are visiting for the first time or the hundredth; are looking to expand an existing business or locate a new one; or you would like to know more about Luzerne County and the services available from county government, this website is your guide and resource. When white men first arrived in America from Europe, no more than 20,000 Native Americans lived in all of Pennsylvania, and by the time William Penn arrived in Philadelphia in the last years of the 17th century, only a small population of Iroquois was living here in the Wyoming Valley. In fact, because they felt they did not have sufficient numbers to properly settle this beautiful valley, the Iroquois had given permission to several other tribes, including the Delaware, to settle along the banks of the Susquehanna River. This splendid part of Northeastern Pennsylvania is called the Wyoming Valley because the Delaware referred to the Great Plains on both sides of the river as “Maugh-wau-wa-me,” which the early English settlers, somehow, translated into Wyoming. Penn’s Grant To understand the numerous conflicts involving the settlement of the Wyoming Valley, it helps to understand the famous grant that gave William Penn the right to own and administer Pennsylvania. In 1681, in settlement of a large debt owed to Penn’s late father, Admiral Penn, the Duke of York arranged for King Charles II to grant to William Penn a charter for a huge area of land west of the Delaware River; land the English King called Pennsylvania (Penn’s Woods) – roughly 350 miles by 160 miles. Penn spent relatively little time in Pennsylvania, and all of that time creating Philadelphia, establishing a colonial government for Pennsylvania, and distributing parcels of land (called Manors) to family and friends. Although William Penn never traveled more than forty miles from the center of Philadelphia his authority over all of the lands given to him under the grant was dominant – or so Penn and his family believed. As the population of Pennsylvania expanded west and northwest from Philadelphia, it is likely that few, if any, of the settlers that were buying land from William Penn ever ventured up the Susquehanna into the Wyoming Valley. Although immigrants came into Philadelphia by the thousands in the last two decades of the 17th century and into the early decades of the 18th century, the northeastern part of Pennsylvania was remote and entirely too mountainous. This gloriously beautiful Wyoming Valley was unheard of and undreamed of by Penn’s settlers for perhaps as long as half a century. Conflicting Grants Although Penn’s family was not aware of it, the Wyoming Valley, clearly in the area contained in Penn’s grant, was also claimed by Connecticut by right of the charter given to Governor John Winthrop Jr. in 1662. Connecticut’s charter stated that lands from sea-to-sea were all part of Connecticut. Because the King knew little about his colonies, and nothing at all about geography, Connecticut and Pennsylvania claimed the same territory in what is now Northeastern Pennsylvania. More than a decade before the war with England began; Connecticut adventurers began to explore the Wyoming Valley. This beautiful river valley, from three to six miles wide and with many thousands of acres of relatively flat, fertile farm land, stretching for as many as twenty-five miles between two splendid mountain ranges, was an Eden for the native tribes that occupied the valley, and a splendid “new home” for the settlers from Connecticut. Because of rapid settlement into Connecticut, and with farm land at a severe premium, settlers and opportunists in Connecticut began to look westward for available lands. Although the logical step for westward expansion for the Connecticut colonists was into New York, New Yorkers quickly said no to that prospective invasion. So, in 1753, private individuals in Connecticut, organized as the Susquehannah Company, persuaded the Connecticut government to support efforts to settle the northern third of the land constituting the colony of Pennsylvania. The Susquehannah Company had two significant obstacles to overcome: The Iroquois and Penn’s strong claim upon the land. Nonetheless, the company began to make plans to move settlers over the mountains and rivers and to begin to settle along the banks of the North Branch of the Susquehanna River. Their first tentative settlement was established in 1762, near what is now Wilkes-Barre General Hospital. These first intrepid Connecticut Yankees, perhaps one hundred strong, built a small village and waited to see what would happen. Since the British, the Indians, and Philadelphia had all warned the Connecticut Yankees against this settlement, things quickly became interesting. The Yankees headed back to Connecticut for the winter of 1762-63, but returned in the spring. Several months after the Yankees returned in the spring of 1763, Chief Teedyuscung (the principal chief of the Delaware), was killed in a suspicious fire at his log house. In the fall of that year, the chief’s son retaliated, killing twenty settlers. That massacre persuaded the rest of the Yankees to return to Connecticut. The First Yankee-Pennamite War The Yankees stayed put in Connecticut for five years. In late winter of 1769, shortly after a militia sent by the Penn family (known as Pennamites) arrived to maintain the trading post established by Captain Amos Ogden two years earlier, forty Connecticut Yankees arrived on the banks of the Susquehanna River, followed by three hundred more in April. Those forty Yankees eventually gave their name to the community of Forty Fort (the fort of forty). With 300 aggressive settlers, the Connecticut Yankees were then the dominant players in the settlement of the valley. By the end of that first summer, the Yankees had established five townships – Pittston, Plymouth, Wilkes-Barre, Nanticoke (later Hanover) and Forty Fort (later Kingston) – and had built Fort Durkee. Historians tell us that all these town names were chosen to honor prominent English places or individuals. One local historian, Sally Teller Lottick, has speculated “The Connecticut settlers may have believed that if their conflicting claims with Pennsylvania ever reached a British court these names would work in their favor.” Wilkes-Barre was named in honor of John Wilkes and Isaac Barré. Historians indicate that these two prominent members of the British parliament were “zealous advocates of the American cause.” Although the Yankees started out as the larger of the two forces, the Pennamites moved a substantial number of recruits into the area during the summer of 1769, and by November they were ready to begin to make life uncomfortable for the Yankees. The Pennamites were moving freely among the settlements, and harassing the Yankee settlers. Life was anything but comfortable for all parties in the conflict during the winter of 1769-70. On April 2, 1770, with the help of the Paxtang Boys, Scotch-Irish Presbyterians from Lancaster County, the Yankees captured the Pennamite’s Fort Wyoming. That battle marked the conclusion of the First Yankee-Pennamite War. For the next half dozen years, the Connecticut Yankees controlled the Wyoming Valley. One of the little known facts about this early Wyoming Valley period was that on June 29, 1774, the entire region (then known as Westmoreland) became a town in Litchfield County Connecticut – even though the actual county was located straight east two hundred miles. Following the start of hostilities in the American Revolution, a significant battle (the Battle of Rampart Rocks) took place between Pennamite forces and Yankees on December 25, 1775. With the Yankees once again victorious, Connecticut created a separate Connecticut county in the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania – Westmoreland County. The Revolutionary War and the Battle of Wyoming Once the Revolutionary War began in 1776, the men of the Wyoming Valley were called upon to serve in the Continental Army. While the men of the valley were away, a contingent of British troops and their Indian partners entered the valley. The famous Battle of Wyoming took place on July 3, 1778. Foolishly, a much smaller American force decided to leave the security of their fort to meet the British and the Indians on the open field of battle. In less than thirty minutes, the Americans were severely routed by the British and their Indian fighters. Those who were able to outrun the Indians made their way back to the fort, but many men were captured and put to death. On July 4, 1778, British Major John Butler demanded the surrender of all forts. In return for agreeing not to fight for the American side, the settlers were allowed to leave the valley. During the next summer, in retaliation for the July 4th massacre following the Battle of Wyoming, American forces under the command of General John Sullivan returned to the Wyoming Valley and the upper Susquehanna River and destroyed forty native villages and “ravaged all their farmlands.” General Sullivan’s actions essentially marked the end of the Native American populations in the upper regions of the Susquehanna River. The Decree of Trenton At the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, both Pennsylvania and Connecticut claimed ownership of the Wyoming Valley. Congress was asked to decide on the legal owner. With the Decree of Trenton on December 30, 1782, the federal government officially decided that the Wyoming Valley belonged to Pennsylvania. With the decision of the Decree of Trenton in their favor, Pennsylvania then ruled that the Yankees were not citizens of the Commonwealth, could not vote, and were to give up their property claims. Second Yankee-Pennamite War This action by Pennsylvania led to the start of the Second Yankee-Pennamite War. In May of 1784, the Yankees were forcibly and very cruelly marched away from the valley. In November, the Yankees returned with a considerable force and captured and destroyed Fort Dickinson. With that victory, Captain John Franklin proposed a creative solution by suggesting that a new state, separate from Connecticut and Pennsylvania be created. He proposed to call that new state Westmoreland. Recognizing that a compromise was required to resolve the considerable disagreements and hostilities, and not wanting to give up any part of Pennsylvania to a new state, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania reversed its earlier decision and agreed that Yankee property claims prior to the Decree of Trenton should be honored. The Yankees accepted this proposal. As part of the compromise that ended the Second Yankee-Pennamite War, Pennsylvania separated a significant new county from what had been Northumberland County (which had included the Wyoming Valley). On September 23, 1786, the Pennsylvania General Assembly created Luzerne County, naming it in honor of Chevalier de la Luzerne, the French minister to the United States during the latter stages of the war. This newly created county encompassed a large area; Lackawanna, Wyoming, Susquehanna, and part of Bradford County would all eventually be separated out as independent counties.Luzerne County Pennsylvania Address
200 N River StWilkes Barre, PA
United States