I
was reading an article in the New England
Ancestor magazine from 2007 titled “New England Moves WEST – Connecticut’s
Pennsylvania ‘Colony’”. I had written about this in an earlier blog titled “Genealogical
Tapestry – History of Connecticut 1636-1800” (*1), where I had included a brief
synopsis of the time that settlers from Connecticut moved to the Wyoming Valley
area of Pennsylvania (Wilkes-Barre and Scranton) in the late 1700s.
This
article gives an extensive overview of the process of how the settlers from
Connecticut tried to establish towns in the area which would actually be
considered part of Connecticut (which was ultimately unsuccessful). The article
also gave a detailed description of how to find your own relatives in this area
by referencing a 3-volume reference book Connecticut’s
Pennsylvania “Colony” 1754-1810: Susquehanna Company Proprietors, Settlers, and
Claimants. I would love to do this research, but a search for copies of
these books revealed that they are only available is print form and the cost
was in excess of $100 for the set – far beyond my limited budget for my
genealogy habit for this type of material.
In
searching for possible other material, I ran across an online copy of a book, Genealogical and Family History of the
Wyoming Lackawanna Valleys, Pennsylvania. This resource had not only the
benefit of being free and immediately available, but because of being delivered
as a e-book, it was searchable! So, I spent several hours searching through it,
looking for the names of people who were related to my Connecticut ancestors
who might have participated in this movement from Connecticut to the Wyoming
Valley of Pennsylvania. (For those who are interested, I looked for references
to the names of towns in Connecticut where my relatives lived (like “New Haven”,
“Wallingford”, etc.) then looked if the family names identified with those towns
were ones that I recognized from my family tree.) Here are a few I have found:
James Sutton was the pioneer
head of what became in later years one of the most prominent families in the
Wyoming Valley. His wife is my 3rd cousin, 6 times removed as she is
a descendant of Samuel Hooker, my great*8 grandfather, and the father-in-law of
Rev. James Pierpont of New Haven.
George Gatlin (*2) was born in
Wilkes-Barre in 1872. He is a famous painter of American Indians. He is my 6th
cousin, 3 times removed, being the great-grandson of James Sutton.
Henry M. Hoyt (*3) was born in
Wilkes-Barre in 1830 and was the 18th governor of Pennsylvania. His
wife was a descendant of Rev. Thomas Buckingham, the step-father of my great*8
grandfather, Samuel Hooker, and one of the co-founders of Yale University with Rev.
James Pierpont.
Gustav Hahn was a lawyer and
professor of modern languages at Wyoming Seminary. His wife, Mehitabel Munson is
my 6th cousin, 3 times removed, being a descendant of my great*9 grandfather,
Samuel Munson of Wallingford, CT.
I’m
sure there are many more, but I am excited to know that there are many who live
in this part of Pennsylvania and are distant cousins.
Notes:
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