Hill the road ran north by west to "Heller's" (twelve miles from Easton); thence about a mile and a-half to and through the Wind Gap; thence to Brinker's Mills (about nineteen miles from Easton). Some three and a-quarter miles beyond "Brinker's" a road leading to Fort Penn branched off to the right. (This was the road which had been used for several years by persons traveling from Wyoming to Fort Penn, and to the Delaware River a few miles farther on.) The distance to "Learn's" from where the Fort Penn road branched off was six and a-quarter miles; or, as previously noted, twenty-eight and a-half miles from Easton. Six miles beyond "Learn's" the road crossed White Oak Run at what was later called "Rum Bridge." This was near the west line of the present Pocono Township, Monroe County. Atthe thirty-seventh milepost the road entered the Great Swamp (previously described herein), and about two and a-half miles VIEW OF LAFAYETTE COLLEGE HILL farther on crossed Tunkhanna FROM MT. JEFFERSON, IN 1871. Creek, near which was a locality known as "Indian Field." At exactly the forty-first mile-post the road crossed Tobyhanna Creek, over which a bridge was constructed, not far from the present hamlet of Tompkinsville in Tobyhanna Township, Monroe County. The forty-fifth mile-post was at Locust Hill, or Locust Ridge-so called because the elevated ground at that point was covered with a growth of small locust trees. The forty-seventh mile-post was at the western end of what the surveyors called the "Great Swamp "-Locust Hill lying within the territory covered by this swamp. Passing this locality the road descended a mountain diagonally to the Lehigh River, which it crossed at or near what is now Thornhurst, in Lehigh Township, Lackawanna County. At the place of crossing the water was shallow and the river bottom smooth and solid. No bridge was necessary. From the Lehigh onward, for three miles, the country was of a rolling character, covered with very heavy timber and with an almost impenetrable growth of laurel. Boulders, too, of great size, were scattered apparently in all directions. In order to avoid this stretch of bad lands the road was turned in a slightly more westerly direction, and at the entrance to a small swamp-which the surveyors named "Shades of Death "-the fifty-first mile-post was set, while the fifty-third mile-post marked the farther border of this swamp. At the fifty-fifth mile the road entered "Bear Swamp," passing through it for a distance of one mile, and crossing, a little more than midway, Bear Creek-which the surveyors designated "a Branch of Schuylkill." From Bear Swamp the road ran in an almost straight course two and three-quarters miles to Nathan Bullock's property-passing his house and clearing on the south. At sixty miles the road passed through a notch, or gorge, in what the surveyors called "Moosic Mountain" (now known as Wyoming Mountain, as explained on page 44, Vol. I); and at sixty-one and three-quarters miles Laurel Run-along the right bank of which the road ran for a mile or more—was crossed, at a point where the creek turned towards the north-east, to continue its course along the south-eastern base of Wilkes-Barré Mountain. On this mountain (called by the surveyors "Susquehanna Mountain") the sixty-second and sixty-third mile-posts were set-the former on the south-eastern slope of the mountain (not far from where Captain Davis and Lieutenant Jones and their companions had been massacred), and the latter on the north-western slope of the mountain, a full quarter of a mile west by south from the bold, jutting ledge known since that day as Prospect Rock. (See page 49, Vol. I.) From this point the road continued on down the slope of the mountain, and then over the foot-hills in a course almost north-westerly, until it terminated in Northampton Street in the town-plot of Wilkes-Barré. At the sixty-fifth mile from Easton the road crossed the small creek described on pages 58 and 59, Vol. I, and from that point to Fort Wyoming, via Northampton Street, the distance was half a mile-making the total distance from Easton to Fort Wyoming by this new route sixty-five and one-half miles; being from one and a-half to two miles shorter than by the route leading from "Bullock's" to and through Solomon's Gap, and thence in a northerly direction to the Wilkes-Barré town-plot. The late Hon. G. M. Harding of Wilkes-Barré, in a paper entitled "The Sullivan Road," read before Wyoming Valley Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, and published in 1899, states: "Contemporaneous with the orders given to Colonels Courtlandt and Spencer for opening a road from Larner's [Learn's] westward toward the Susquehanna, orders were also issued to Col. Zebulon Butler, who was in command of the fort at Wilkes-Barré, to open a like road from the latter place easterly, over and beyond what was then known as the 'Three-Mile Mountain' [Wilkes-Barré Mountain]. No particular or definite point was indicated for the meeting of the two divisions of the contemplated through road. Both divisions were to be pushed forward with all possible despatch-each in its proper direction-until a meeting was had, no matter where. Colonel Butler was aware that a road constructed on the line of the bridle-path (already described) from the level land below, up by Prospect Rock' to the top of the Three-Mile Mountain,' would be too rough and too steep for the safe passage downwards of the artillery and the supply trains of the coming army. He at once selected a more feasible route. Competent engineers, and a force of road-builders consisting mostly of the then necessarily idle settlers in the Valley, entered vigorously upon the work. The road started at the westerly foot of the mountain, near a spring known as 'Bowman's Spring,' and not far from the present breaker of the Franklin Coal Company. The course up the mountain was generally easterly, along the mountain side, though in places it followed depressions, and was here and there somewhat circuitous. Reaching the summit, it passed on for a considerable distance. * It descended the easterly side of the mountain to a point within about fifty yards westerly from the [Laurel Run] station of the Central Railroad of New Jersey. From this point the road continued directly up Laurel Run for a mile and a-quarter." * In the foregoing statement there are several important errors, due, chiefly, to the undoubted fact that Judge Harding never saw the original maps, or plots, of the surveys made by the topographical engineers of Sullivan's army-which maps are more fully referred to on pages 1099 and 1172. As previously stated, the entire course which it was intended the "Sullivan Road" should follow from "Learn's " to WilkesBarré was surveyed and marked out by the engineers, who worked in advance of the road-builders proper. The engineers followed pretty closely the old bridle-path, known as the "Lower Road," up to a point a short distance beyond where it crossed Laurel Run, and near where Captain Davis and Lieutenant Jones had been murdered. Thenceforward, instead of following that path* down along the south-eastern base *The bridle-path, or "Lower Road," did not run over the crest of Wilkes-Barré Mountain, and down "by Prospect Rock," as stated by Judge Harding. of Wilkes-Barré Mountain to and through Solomon's Gap, the engineers went diagonally up the face of the mountain, passed over its crest, and continued down the other side-at first, diagonally (passing in the rear of Prospect Rock), and then in a zig-zag course. Having reached the foot of the mountain, the course of the proposed road was run in a north-westerly direction, over the foot-hills, till it terminated at the head of Northampton Street in the town-plot of Wilkes-Barré. In other words, the present Northampton Street, from Pennsylvania Avenue (formerly Canal Street) south-east to the city line, and continuing thence as a township highway through "Georgetown," past Prospect Rock, and on over the mountain to Laurel Run (forming what was once a section of the Easton and Wilkes-Barré Turnpike), follows a course almost identical with that of the old "Sullivan Road" for the same distance. The section of the "Sullivan Road" extending from "Bullock's" to Northampton Street was not built in its entirety by the men of Colonel Butler's command (as stated by Judge Harding on page 17 of his pamphlet), but only that stretch of it lying between the crest of the mountain and Northampton Street-as is shown by the "journals" of the Sullivan Expedition. And, as a matter of course (the whole line of the proposed road having been surveyed), in opening up this Wyoming section of the road, a "particular, or definite, point was indicated for the meeting " of this section with the section which was being constructed under the direction of Colonel Van Cortlandt. The road which Judge Harding mentions as having "started at the westerly foot of the mountain near a spring known as Bowman's Spring, was not the "Sullivan Road" or any part of it, but was a public road which was constructed in 1788 or '89 to supersede that portion of the "Sullivan Road" which passed up and over the mountain in the neighborhood of Prospect Rock. This "Bowman's Spring" road is referred to more fully in a subsequent chapter. The troops under the command of Colonel Van Cortlandt having completed the construction of the road from "Learn's" to White Oak Run (a distance of about six miles), removed their camp early in the morning of May 17th to the west side of this little creek-giving the name “Rum Bridge" to the locality. There the camp remained until Sunday, May 23d, the men working meanwhile on the road in front, although the weather was either foggy or rainy every day. In the morning of the 23d tents were struck, and the camp was removed some six miles to a point in the Great Swamp between Tunkhanna and Tobyhanna Creeks. In the evening of the same day a Sergeant and five men were sent forward to Wilkes-Barré with letters from General Sullivan to General Hand. They reached Wilkes-Barré safely, and returned to camp in the evening of May 26. The troops remained at the camp last mentioned exactly one week, working industriously on the road in front, and also building a substantial bridge across the Tobyhanna, together with a connecting causeway-the whole being 115 paces in length. While stationed there Colonel Van Cortlandt wrote to Governor Clinton of New York, dating his letter May 26, 1779, at "Great Swamp Wilderness, of the Shades of Death, 25 miles from Wyomen." The letter reads in part as follows*: "By an officer passing to your State [I] have just time to inform you of the good health and spirits of the officers and men under my command. I have, in a letter sent * See the "Public Papers of George Clinton," IV: 851. |