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Wilkes-Barre in 1844
(Rev. N. G. Parke, D. D. D., Pittston Gazette - June, 1869)

Some little girls who are not too old to listen to stories, whose mother lived in Wilkes-Barre when the cows found good pasture in the upper part of Franklin street, wish me to tell them something about Wilkes-Barre, the capital of Luzerne County, as it was twenty-five years ago and I feel like gratifying them as far as l can do so without examining records. As there are other children who would possibly relish what I have to say, I will write it down.

Twenty-five years ago, on Saturday preceding the first Sabbath of June, I reached Wilkes-Barre for the first time, not in a railroad car, nor in a stage coach, but on "horseback," having traveled during the week in this good old fashioned way over two hundred miles. Of Wilkes-Barre I only knew it was situated on the Susquehanna River, and was not far from the scene of the ever memorable "Wyoming Massacre."

From Rev. J. W. Sterling, then a tutor in Princeton College, I had letters to Rev. John Dorrance, Mrs. Chester Butler, Mrs. George Hollenback and Mr. John L. Butler, all of whom now rest in Hollenback Cemetery.

Mr. Kutz, a shrewd, honest German, who understood his business thoroughly, as travelers learned who attempted to dispute with him, kept the toll gate at the bridge. Like many others he could not "see the minister" in me, and collected of me the usual toll, but subsequently with the remark, "ministers go free on this bridge, but I did not know you were a minister," returned it. I was tempted to put on the "white cravat" but never did.

The Presbyterians worshiped in a very plain wooden building that was erected during the ministry of the Rev. Nicholas Murray, D. D., and that stood where their present elegant edifice stands. The Rev. John Dorrance, to whom the people of Wilkes-Barre are largely indebted for their flourishing Seminary, under the care of Rev. W. S. Parsons, was their pastor, and to him they paid a salary of $500 and he found his own house. As he had a wife and six children to provide for, this cannot be regarded as "large pay." They do no better now.

"Old Michael," the terror of bad boys and the kind friend to all good children, was their sexton, and had charge of burying the dead generally. Every evening at 9 o'clock he was in the habit of ringing the bell that hung in the tower of the old church on "the Green"—the only one in town at that time. This ringing of the bell by "Old Michael," which was probably practiced before his day, if there was such a day in Wilkes-Barre, was occasionally an annoyance to some young men who were fond of visiting in our "well regulated families," as it was an intimation that the time had come for young people to be at home.

The Methodists worshiped in the old church on the Green, which was ornamented by a more beautiful spire than is now to be seen in the valley. There is no house of worship in Wilkes-Barre that was standing twenty-five years ago. The Episcopal Church was served by the Rev. R. B. Claxton. D. D., now of Philadelphia. He was married about this time to a daughter of Judge Scott, a lady of great excellence of character.

The Rev. Mr. Lescher of the German Reformed Church ministered to the Germans from Exeter to Nanticoke. In Wilkes-Barre he had no house of worship until he erected one—the church on South Main street, now occupied by the Lutheran congregation.

Mr. Samuel Strong, a graduate of Yale College, had charge of the Academy which stood on the Public Square, and Deacon Dana taught an academy in South Wilkes-Barre. My impression is, that there were more young men preparing for college at that time than there are now although the population then was not a tithe of what it is now.

The leading physicians of the town were Dr. Thomas W. Miner, Dr. Boyd, Dr. Smith and Dr. Day—all men of culture and ability in their profession.

Harrison Wright, Edmond Dana, Andrew T. McClintock, Warren J. Woodward and Henry M. Fuller were among the young and rapidly rising members of the Wilkes-Barre bar.

The old court house which has given place to the immense pile of brick and mortar now on Public Square, was of wood and before its removal was very much dilapidated, having been used freely for almost everything except anti-slavery lectures.

The Record of the Times, now a leading journal in northeastern Pennsylvania, was conducted by S. D. Lewis, Esq., whose tender regard for the reputation of every one interfered sometimes with judicious and wholesome criticism of men in public life who were derelict in duty.

Charles Miner, Esq., was collecting the material for his History of Wyoming, a book that will be prized more highly fifty years from this time than it is now.

The leading coal men of the town were J. L. and Lord Butler, whose mines were in Pittston, and Alexander Gray, who superintended the coal works of the Baltimore Coal Co. The Butlers sent to market in 1844 about 18,000 tons of coal and the Baltimore company probably three times as much; and these mines furnished a large proportion of the coal that was sent to market from the coal basin lying between Carbondale and Nanticoke from which millions of tons are sent annually.

Wilkes-Barre in 1844 was a quiet beautiful and comparatively isolated agricultural town, nothing like the stately, citified Wilkes-Barre of 1869. There were not to exceed half a dozen brick houses in the town, and property rents for as much as it would have sold for then. The most of the people were "to the manor born," and had at least a "speaking acquaintance" with their neighbors; and their reputation for intelligence and hospitality and general uprightness of deportment was well deserved.

Until within a few years the old Butler house was standing on River street, the residence of J. L. Butler and his father before him, neat, unpretending and substantial, with "the string always out," it was a type of what Wilkes-Barre once was. The costly and magnificent mansion of Stanley Woodward, Esq., to which it has given place, is a type of what Wilkes-Barre now is. There may be more conveniences in the modern house for entertaining friends handsomely than there were in the old house, but there cannot be more generous hospitality.

There were stages from Wilkes-Barre going out every morning for New York and Philadelphia by the way of Easton and by Hazleton and Tamaqua under the direction of Col. Horton. A tri-weekly stage carried the mall between Pittston and Wilkes-Barre, and passengers, when there were any.

Father Hunt was then comparatively a new man in the valley and was gently stirring up the people of Wilkes-Barre on the subject of temperance, a subject on which they have been conservative, as they have been on the subject of slavery. To temperance lecturers, abolition lecturers and fugitive slaves Wilkes-Barre has never been a paradise.