e Dallas Post
An independent paper, of the people, devoted to the great farm-
ing section of Luzerne and other counties.
; Trucksville, Shavertown, Lehman, Dallas, Luzerne, The Greater
~ West Side, Shawanese, Alderson, Centermoreland, Fernbrook, Lake-
ton, Sweet Valley, Harvey's Lake, Huntsville and Tunkhannock are
circulated by The Dallas Post.
Also 100 copies for Wilkes-Barre readers; 150 copies outside of
Luzerne and Wyoming Counties, but within the boundaries of Penn--
sylvania; 200 copies to friends far away.
Entered as second-class matter at the Post-Office at Dallas, Pa.,
under Act of March 3, 1879.
Subscription $1.00 per year
~ Payable in advance
Address all Communications to
THE DALLAS POST
Lehman Avenue Phone Dallas 300 Dallas, Pa.
®
EDITORIAL COLUMN
Devoted to the Current Topics of the Day
: COMMENCEMENT
Beauty surrounds us on all sides at this time of the year. Every hillside,
stream and hedge-row holds a charm that can be found at no other season.
The whole world renews itself and springs to life. With renewed strength
d ccurage we face new problms. Everything in nature is fresh, clean and
sike all periods when we are most deeply touched by nature and surrounding,
~ there is a poignant sadness about it all which we cannot comprehend.
Shelly in his Ode to a Sky Lark expressed it:
; We look before and after;
i We pine for what is not;
: Our sincerest laughter
With some pain is fraught.
E Our sweetest songs are those
gy That tell of saddest thought.
By this time next aSturday most of the schools in this vicinity will have
closed for the summer vacation. It will be rather lonely around the Dallas
“Post, for we have enjoyed frequent visits of teachers and pupils who have
; topped in often to give us items land contribute to our school page.
Li Many of these young faces we will probably not see again for some time.
In the fall many of the graduates will be leaving for college or will enter some
We shall always be glad to hear from them and we
They will always find in the
business or industry.
will take pride in their successes and triumphs.
Post a friend cager to share their honors.
I have burned down twice and
through sickness and troubles I have
never accepted charity from any one.
I am an old man, and by proper hand-
ling what is left of my property will
support me and bury me.
Contributors’
~~ Column
—
iditor of the Post: :
_ Your Word-O-Gram page interests
me both as a puzzle and as a mathe-
matical wonder. You say in your de-
scription of the contest that there are
een advertisers om the page. Turn
to i count them.
. 2 pr A. SUBSCRIBER.
Many thanks for the correction.
well let it run the same way ag:
this week, just to let everybody see
how well we can add. Next’ week
we'll correct it.
i THE EDITOR.
If T wish to spend my last days with
my one child who understands me, and
takes good care of me, I cannot se2
why so much must be said about it.
I wish to say it is very foolish for any-
one to think, much less say, that I
ever cheated them out of anything, or
that they. have anything coming to
them from my property but the one
who feeds, clothes, pays’ all my bills,
unless I feel like selling it to them.
No use to say what any one will de
after T am dead. My land or any per-
sonal property I will do with as I see
fit, and hearsay does not bother me
in the least. I want anyone in doubt
with any money to spare to find out
while T am alive and well and in my
right mind, not after IT am dead, so
that I can defend myself. I wish no
hard feelings or ill fill of any one. 1
only take this means of explaining
my true feelings.
CHARLES OAKLEY.
R.F..D Route I. Box 12, Dallas, Pa.
The Vagabond
There’s one weekly newspaper that
we like especially. Now that we've
embarked in the newspaper business
and know some of the difficulties and
problems facing the country publisher,
we appreciate it even more.
We started to read the Tunkhannock
New Age and Republican soon after
we had learned to read; when Sioux
was pronounced S-eye-ox and many
other words took on colorful and
wierd pronunciations. Since that time
we have eagerly looked forward each
week to the arrival of this fine old
paper. When we were in college we
received it regularly and next to let-
ters from home and once in a while
one from Wilkes-Barre, nothing the
postman could hand us was more ap-
preciated.
Unless memory plays us a trick, we
can remember no time when this big
news letter failed to reach us some-
time on Thursday; an accomplishment
one appreciates when he knows some-
thing about newspapers. Since our
earliest recollection we cannot once re-
member having seen a typographical
error or misspelling in the New Age.
It’s always clearly printed and its al-
ways bulging with news.
Never have its editors been in such
a mad rush for advertising that they
have sacrificed ideals for increased
revenue in the business office. The
editors have very definite opinions on
cigarette smoking, dancing and other
little habits that some of us are wont
to call petty vices. Rather than be-
lieve one thing and print another, the
Tunkhannock New Age and Republi-
can has turned away hundreds of dol-
lars which it might have gained by
printing dance, cigarette, playing card
and other similar types of advertising.
Rather unusal for a newspaper in
this day and age when its good ethics
to editorially hammer Lucky Strikes,
radio advertising on one page and on
another print a full page advertisment
suggesting that young. women reach
for a Lucky instead of a sweet in cff-
der to keep a trim figure.
Unlike many other community
papers, pushed by the competition of
big city papers, the New Age does not
lift news items from other papers and
print them as its own. When items are
reprinted full credit is given to the
original writer. That's a virtue. Of
course, we're always proud when we
= Roses and Brickbats
Tditor of the Post:
~~ ¥ like your paper very much. ts
more interesting now than ever before.
~ But can’t you print it clearer? ; The
pictures last week were Very indis-
tinct. The point to your cartoon was
ompletely lost: because the printing
‘was so poor on the last picture. I like
style headings.
y A WYOMING COUINTIAN.
/ weve worked hard this week to
make the press print better. Do you
think we've gotten any results in this
week’s edition?
i
your new
THE EDITOR.
“ And Still Another
: itor of the Post:
nothing like being frank
z about it. In the Dallas personals last
week under the title “Auxiliary Pic-
nie,” yeu come right out with it and
‘say what Kind of time is in store for
But didn't you leave some words
Or did you get excited because
he dominie and wife were mentioned
in the next paragraph. I'm glad you
told your readers sometime ago that a
machine doing the spelling on the
Post now and not humans.
Yours for more of the new type
‘gpelling. :
gel > A. GEOGRAPHER.
Can you beat that?—KEditor.
A Bit Personal
To Whom It May Concern:
I wish to make this statement
through the Post. So much has been
said concerning my property that i
own, and always have owned, that 1
feel the only way to reach every one 18
through the press, so I take this means
to explain the real facts. The property
1 now occupy, as well as the one I
sold to Mrs. Jenkins, was bought and
paid for by my OWN IONey. gave
‘my mother, Mrs. Elizabeth oyt, now
‘deceased, a life lease so she would be
assured of a ‘home as long as she
lived. After a short time she sold it
her brother, Joseph Hoover, her life
lease. He occupied the place for
some forty years for the sum of three
hundred dollars.
After mother’s death the property
came back to me, as Joseph Hoover
always knew it would. This has made
‘some hard feelings in the family, which
I feel should not be, as it is lawfully
and by al right, my property.
My mother had no dime or dollar in
my property. I am sole owner. I can
ell, borrow or dispose of it any time.
Anyone who knows anything should
know I could not borrow a thousand
dollars on some one else's property. If
am not mistaken, the law says I am
entitled to all the property rights my
deed calls for and that I pay taxes on.
owding over fences and using prop-
rty that belongs to me must come
back or, so my la r informs me,
sould not will away my property. Tha
she could do was to sell her life
Early History
of Dallas
(Continued from Page 1)
Up to the present time, local histor-
ians have found so much of interest
connected with the settlement and
growth of Wyoming Valley that they
have neglected to note many import-
antevents in the rise and progress of
the country surrounding. There is, no
doubt, a vast deal of interesting his-
toric meterial connected with every
township in the present county of
Luzerne, which, years ago, could and
should have been recorded and given:
permanent place in its annals,
which, from long neglect, is now either |
lost forever, or so poorly and inaccur-
ately handed down -to us as to be
comparatively valueless. In some parts
of the country the work of collecting
this material ‘has been too long delayed
to make it possible now to get any-
thing like an accurate account of men
and events from the date of the first
settlement. The men who knew of theri
own knowledge, who lived and had
experience in the earliest days, are
gone, leaving ds only the children or
grandchildren to relate what was told
them by their ancestors. This kind of
hearsay and tradition lets in an ele-
ment of uncertainty which should not
exist in any historic record.
With the view and purpose of writ-
ing down what I can learn, at this
late day, concernig ‘the “over the
moutain” or hill country west of Wyo-
ming Valley, and especially of the
present township and borough of
Dallas, I began inthe year 1885 to make
some effort to collect these materials
and data from every source known to
me, from examination of records, from
conversation and correspondence with
those whose memory runs farthest
back and is clearest, from monuments,
maps, deeds, &c., and have, in: the
following pages, recorded, as best I
can, the result. I have endeavored to
collect abundant proofs and the best
evidence to be had before putting
down any statement herein as fact.
For the reasons given above, I have
not been able to entirely exclude hear-
say evidence or tradition; but when-
ever relied upon it has been fortified
by thetestimony of more than one
witness on the same point.
The township of Dallas originally
embraced all the teritory of Luzerne
county northwest of the present boun-
dary lines of Kingston, Plymouth and
Jackson townships, extending to the
present Sullivan, then Lycoming coun-
ty line. Tt included all of the township
of Monroe and parts of Forkston,
North Branch, Northmoreland and
Eaton townships, in present Wyoming
county. All of Lake and Lehman town-
ships and part of Ross, Union and
Franklin townships in present Luzerne
county. Dallas township originally
joined to Kingston township as it now
does on the line cf the gonthestaniy
side of certified Bedford township.
The northern portion of present Dallas
township is drained by Leonard's Creek
which passes through the villiage of
Kunkle to Bowman's Creek and with
that into the Susquehanna river near
Tunkhannock. The southern and lar-
ger portion of present Dallas township
including nearly, if not quite all, of
certified Bedford, is drained by Toby's
Creek, which pases, by an easy grade,
through a cut or gap in the mountains
to Wyoming Valley at a point near
the center of greatest population and
activity. This is noted as an important
fact, because the first immigrations
to a country always follow the streams.
This opening through the mountains
made the country about the head
waters of Toby’s Creek very accessible
to those living near its outlet. As woon
as the settlements in the valley in-
creased so that neighbors lived near
enough to see each other, there were
some restless souls uho felt crowded
and began ti seek homes farther back
into the woods. The soil in the valley
was sandy and not very vich:i> The
trees. that grew -upon it were scrubby
and small, while upon the higher lands
about Dallas the soil seemed stronger
and was covered with a heavy forest
of very large trees. Some who first
settled in the valley reasoned from this
that the soil about Dallas, which could
raise such very large Arees, must be
richer and better for farming purposes
than the soil of the valley, and they
sold their farms in the valley and
moved back. Of course, the anthracite
coal of the valley was not known of
or considered then.
The Earliest Settlers and Their
| Improvements
The difficulties of settling Dallas
township were very great. It was
comparatively an easy thing to cut a
path or road along the banks of Toby's
Creek and find a way even to its
source, but to settle there alone, many
miles from any clearing, and meet the
wolves, bears and other wild animals,
which uere terrible realities in those
| early days, saying nothing of the still
pending dread of the prowling Indian,
| was a very serious undertaking.
When a young boy I heard Mr.
Charles Harris, then an old man, tell
some of his early recollections, which
ran back to about the time of the
battle and massacre of Wyoming. He
told us of the Indians who once came
into the house where he and his
‘mother were alone and demanded food.
There being nothing better they
roasted a pumpkin before the fire and
scraped it off and ate as fast as it
became soft with cooking. He also
told us about his father’s first settling
on the westerly side of Kingston
mountdin at what is still known as the
“Harris Settlement” about two miles
north of Trucksville. He said that his
father forked al the first day felling
trees and building a cabin. Night came
on before the cabin could be enclosed.
WitWh the darkness came a pack of
wolves, and, to protect his family, Mr.
Haris bruilt a fire and set up all night
to keep it burning. The wolves wer
dazed and would not come near a fire,
and when daylight came they disap-
peared. To pass one night under such
circumstances required bravery, but to
stay, build a house, clear a farm and
raise a family uith such terrors con-
stantly menacing exhibited a courag
that commands our highest esteem.
The time had arrived, however, for
the settlement and clearing up of that
“pack of the mountain” country, and
seen some of our humble work re-
Everyone who knows me Knows
printed in the New Age.
ly mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Hoyt,
there were volunteers ready and
anxious to do it. Of those volunteers
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I have been able to get the names of
a very few and to learn where some
of them lived. They settled alone and
lived alone, leaving almost no evidence
except a thread of tradition as to how
they lived. '
Among those earliest settlers in that
cast wilderness about Dallas were
John Kelley, John Wort, Elam
Spencer, Ephriam McCoy, William
Trucks, John I.eonard, Thomas Case,
the Baldwin family and the Fuller
family. There were many others who
came after the beginning of the pres-
ent century, but most, if not all, of
the above named, had settled in that
region before the year 1800.
John Kelley and John Wort were
revolutionary soldiers and settled near
each other in present Dallas (then
Kingston) township. They were, in
mv opinion. the first who settled and
built homes within the present town-
ship of Dallas, probably earlier than
McCoy or Leonard (Mr. eParce in his
Annals of Luzerne County gives Mc- |
Coy as the builder of the first house
in Dallas), as both names appear in
the assessment books of Kingston
tounship for the year 1796, while Mc-
Coy’s name does not appear there un-
til several years later, probably for
reasons hereafter explained.
John Wort then (1796) had fifty
acres of land, three of which were al-
ready cleared, while John Kelley had
a like number of acres in all, of
which six acres were then cleared.
Wort then had one horse and two
cattle, while Kelley was credited with
owning no horses but four cattle. John
Wort’s settlement was on the souther-
ly sile of the present road leading
from Dallas borough to Orange post-
office or Pincherville, in Franklin
township. The old log house in which
he afterwards lived was still standing
a few years ago nearly opposite where
Leonard Oakley then lived, about half
a mile southwest of late residence of
Sanford Moore, nou deceased. John
Kelley lived on _the same side of the
same road about three-quarters of a
mile near Orange postoffice on the lot
in the warrantee name of John Eaton.
In the early days of this century the
“Kelley clearing,” as John Kelley's im-
provement was caled, was a somewhat
noted spot, and is found frequently
mentioned in the early road views,
descriptions in deeds, etc., in that part
of the country. ePople went there
from miles around to cut hay from his
low marsh land, where grass grew
abundantly before it had yet been
started on the newly cleared land of
the neighborhood, Among other things
most difficult to get at that time was
hay for horses and cattle. The first
clearings, I am told, were all used and
needed to raise a sufficient supplp of
grain and other food for the families,
and a long time elapsed before enough
land was cleared so that farmers
could spare a part of it to stand in
grass or hay. The first hay crops
were, as a rule, exhausted long before
the new grass could be had, and one
of the methods of piecing out the horse
feed was to send the boys in early
spring to gather the ferns that would
push themselves up from the ground
and begin to unroll almost before the
snou was gone. Another expedient
was to cut evergreen trees and brush
of different kinds and drag them into
the barnyard for the cattle and sheep
to feed upon.
John Leonard settled and made a
clearing at the lower or southeastern
end of part two of lot one and part
one of lot two of certified Bedford
(then Kingston and now Dallas) town-
ship, near the new stone county bridge
across Toby's Creek, also exactly at’
the point where the northermost and
the middle branches. of Toby's Creek
some together near the eastermost
corner of Dalas borough, now called
Leonard’s Station on the Wilkes-Garre
and Harvey's Lake Railroad. The
clearing made by him still remains
surrounded by almost unbroken woods
as he left it. A few stones from the
tumble down chimney of his héuse and
a few apple trees standing near mark
the spot where his house stood, near
the eastern end of the clearing. It
has always been and is still known as
Leonard’s Clearing or Leonard’s
Meadows. He bought this land, 150
acres, of a relative, Jeremiah Coleman,
of Plymouth, in the year 1795, and
probably settled there soon after. In
the deed for the land I.eonard is
named as a resident of Plymouth
township. In 17966 he uas assessed in
Plymouth township as the owner of
45 acres of land, a log house and four
cows. He does not appear to have
been assessed in Plymouth township
after 1796. The assessment books for
Kingston township for the next seven
years cannot now be found; but in the
vear 1804 we find him assessed: in
Kingston township with 18 acres of
cleared land (about the amount of the
present clearing) and the 145 acres of
unimproved land, one house and four
COWS. He was regularly assessed
thereafter in Kingston township for
the same property until 1807, when all
trace of him disappears. He was a
shingle-maker, and the spot where his
1 clearing was made is said to have been
an old halting place for the Indians,
who used to travel up to Harvey's
Lake and across the country that way.
Joseph Shaver, of Dallas borough,
informed me that his father, John P.
Shaver, who afterwards bought and
| settled near the Leonard clearing,
{used to tell of the trials he had when
a boy, about the year 1802, in driving
a team from Wilkes-Barre up Toby's
Creek to John Leonard's clearing to
get a load of shingles. There were no
roads, only a roadway cut through
the woods from the valley along Toby's
Creek to where Trucksville now is,
and from there over the hills some-
what as the main road now runs, to a
point near the maple tree by the pres-
ent road on the present line between
Kingston and Dallas townships, near
the cross roads and late residence of
James Shaver, deceased. From there
he said there was a path down to
Leonard’s house. There (were no
bdiges then, and the difficulties of the
trip were greatly increased by his be-
ing obliged frequently to cross and]
recross the creek and part of the way
to drive. in the bed of the creek, both
going and returning. :
In the woods a few rods south of the
Leonard clearing there is still stand-
ing a carefully dug and walled up
cellar in the center of which stands a
tall pine tree. I have been unable to
find anyone who could give me any
information as to who built this cel--
lar. It may have been the commence-
ment of a house for John Leonard,
Jr., who appeared about the year 1906
as a single freeman, but who disap-
pears with John Leonard, Sr., in 1807,
after which date the records of this
county show no further trace of either
of them.
Charles Car Scadden (or (Skadden),
of Plymouth, bought a lot next to
Leonard’s from same grantor in the
same year, but, as far as I can learn,
never lived on it.
Dev. William Case,” of Xingston
borough, tells me that I.eonard was
related to his family and to the Skad-
den family—all formerly of Plymouth
—through marriage, and that, in his
opinion, this same ohn Leonard moved
to Ohio and settled near Cleveland
about the year 1810. This fact, and
the vague uncertainty about it and
about the exact name, no doubt gave
rise, a few years since, to an effort
on the part of a portion of the Case
and Skadden families at Plymouth to
establish relationship with the great
philanthropist and millionaire,’ Leonard
Case, who died at Cleveland, Ohio, in
the winter of 1879 and 17880, leaving
as it was, by some supposed, no nearer
heirs.
Elam Spencer, a, Connetcicut Yankee,
bought the balance of lot one of certi-
fied Bedford—168 acres—of Jeremiah
Coleman in the year 1800, and is said
to have moved into the house with
John I.eonard and to have lived there
while erecting a domicile for himself
on the upper end of the tract, near
where his son, Deming Spencer, after-
wards lived in the Leonard House, this
son, Deming Spencer, was born in the
year 1800. (This is given as an old
tradition about Dallas, although the
tombstone of Deming Spencer gives
the date of his death 1873, aged 76
years). He is said to have been the
first white child born within the terri-
tory of present Dallas township.
(Continued Next Week)
Beyond Power of Proof
“There is gold at the end of the
rainbow,” said Hi Ho, the sage of
Chinatown. “Like other beliefs, this
persists because no traveler has been
The Week's Doings
The First National Bank of Dallas
has received samples of the new and
smaller currency which the govern-
ment will put into circulation next
month. The one dolalr bills bear the
portrait of George Washington, the
two dollar bills that of Jefferson and
the five dollar bills that of Hamiltok
The older bills now in circulation will
be withdrawn only as they become
soiled and ragged. In size the new
bills resemble the French franc and
the ‘paper money of other European
countries, although the paper used is
of better stock.
—_——
Contractor Peter O. Lutz has re-
ceived the contract to build a 40x80-
foote garage for Chapin. the Chevrolet
dealer Benton, Tie wullding
>
i “e.
was designed by Mr. Lutz and is to be’
of modern brick and block fireproof
construction. The building will be
erected on the- site of the old Benton
Store Company structure which was
destroyed in the famous Fourth, of
July fire in 1920. Benton is Mr. Lutz's
old home and he is especially pleased
to win the contract for the construec-
tion of one of the community’s largest
and finest new buildings.
—(—
There has been considerable activity
around the Lehigh Valey station this
week where the genial A. S. Culbert
is station master and master of cere-
monies. Early in the week a carload
of mules and horses was unloaded for
the Bulford stables. A number of
tank cars of heavy oil for the Dallas-
Kunkle road were also unloaded this
week.
James Oliver has installed a novel
device in his garage to carry off the
carbon monoxide and smoke from run-
ning automobile motors. The arrange-
ment has three intake pipes located in
different parts of the garage. These
are placed over the exhaust pipes
when motors are running and are
conected with an outlet pipe on the
roof of the building. The system keeps
the garage free from dangerous gases
and bad air.
A. J. Sordoni has purchased a
$10,000 automatic telephone pole-hole
diger and erector which the Common-
wealth Telephone Company is trying
out in the vicinity of Lake Winola.
The machine, operated by two men,
can erect and dig holes for forty poles
a day. Under the old system it took
three hours for a man to dig one hole.
—_——
L. A. McHenry is rapidly disposing
of the stock of lumber of the A. O.
Adleman Lumber Company, which he
recently purchased. A carload of
mixed lumber was shipped to Stull
Brothers Lumber Company of Alder-
son this week. A part of the remain-
ing stock will be used by Mr. McHenry
this fall when he builds his new apart-
ments and store building on Pierce
street, Kingston.
Janitor, editor, printer, printer's
devil, pressman, advertising solicitor,
and in his spare fime man-about-
town, Irwin Coolbaugh, with his
capable partner, Ben Rood, this week
hauled truck load after truck load of
ashes to fill in the gullies around the
Dallas Post building and give the
property a more presentable appear-
ance. Eager to finish the work, Coolie
and Ben hauled ashes from back yards
and cellars without charge until the
local supply was exhausted and the
price of ashes went up accordingly.
The last local quotation on ashes was
$1.00 a load plus carrying them out of
the celar and hauling them away.
Needless to say, Coolie has quite haul-
ing for the time being in order to let
the market settle before further at-
tempting to improve the appearance of
the Dallas Post property. In the
meantime residents who are willing to
give their ashes away and have them
hauled away will do the Post a favor
by calling Dallas 300 and asking for
the clean-up committee.
—0
Character
Character is what you build into
your life by industry, sobriety, thrift,
and trustworthiness. ~ It is worth
more to you than a bank account. You
able to say it is untrue.”—Washing-
ton Star
can always turn character into cash,
but never cash into character. ;
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