In an earlier blog, I had written about the History of Connecticut and how the part of Wilkes-Barre and Scranton, PA had been settled and claimed by families from Connecticut in the mid-to-late-1700. I wondered if I could document any of those earlier settlers as being relatives of mine.
One of the resources which I found was “History of Luzerne, Lackawanna and Wyoming Cos. Penn. 1786-1800” (available in Google Books and other places). In looking through this for a list of those early settlers, I found a short paragraph with a bio of an individual which read:
“A. H. Russell was born in Washington township, near Russell Hill, January 24th, 1834. His father, Alban Russell, came from Connecticut many years ago, and from him Russell Hill received its name.”
Since that’s not only my last name, but my initials as well, I was naturally intrigued. Where was Russell Hill and was A. H. Russell related to me? So, I temporarily abandoned my initial search for early settlers to find the story of this Russell family.
Using the facilities of ancestry.com as well as other websites, I quickly located A. H. Russell. I was a little disappointed that the “A. H.” did not stand for “Alan Harold” (my name), but “Alban Hartwell”. Apparently that combination of names was very common in that family line, as it was not only his name, but the name of his uncle and his grandfather. I also discovered that the above quote was incorrect as the Alban Russell who came from Connecticut was his grandfather, not his father. Also, his birth was in 1823, not 1834. (Note – to avoid confusion in the rest of this blog, I’ll refer to the Alban who was from Connecticut as Alban#1 and the Alban in the book as Alban#2. The uncle of Alban#2 I’ll refer to as Alban#3.)
Alban#2’s Russell family line was: Alban#2 (1823-1904) <- Schuyler (1800-1859) <- Alban#1 (1771-1850) <- David Jr (1715-1797) <- David Sr (1673-1752) <- Rev. James (1640-1709) <- Dr. Richard Woodward (1611-1676). Dr. Richard Russell came to Charlestown, MA from Herefordshire, England in 1640 as part of the Great Migration. Thus, there is no connection to my Russell ancestors, at least those in the last 10 generations.
But there were other connections that I was able to find.
First, Alban#1’s great-grandmother (the wife of Rev. James Russell) was Mabel Haynes (1645-1676). She was the aunt of Sarah Haynes (1659-1696), the second wife of my great*7 grandfather, Rev. James Pierpont (1659-1714) and the ancestor of the members of the Pierpont Family Association in New Haven, CT.
Second, the wife of Alban#1 was Hannah Hartwell (1769-1869). The name Hartwell is also significant to me. Hannah’s great-grandfather was Samuel Hartwell (1666-1744). Samuel is also the great*5 grandfather of my great-uncle, Joseph Hartwell (1900-1991), making Alban#2 the 4th cousin, twice removed of my great-uncle Joe.
These connections were one on my mother’s side (Pierpont) and one on my father’s side (Hartwell). But I was also able to find two other direct cousin connections.
Third, there is a direct connection between myself and Alban#2 on his mother’s side. One of his great*5 grandfathers is Peter Mallory (1627-1698). Since Peter is also my great*9 grandfather (on my mother’s side), that makes Alban#2 my 6th cousin, 4 times removed.
And finally, there is at least one direct connection between myself and Alban#1 (on Alban#2’s father’s side and on my father’s side). One of Alban#1’s great*3 grandfathers is John Lawrence (1609-1667). John is also my great*9 grandfather, making Alban#1 my 4th cousin, six times removed and Alban#2 my 6th cousin, 4 times removed by another path.
Alban#1 was born in Killingly, CT in 1771. In 1795 he married Hannah Hartwell who lived near Plymouth, MA. They lived for a few years in Killingly and their first two children (Alban#3 and a daughter, Alvisa Louisa) were born in there. They moved to PA sometime between 1798 and 1800 as their son Schuyler was born there in 1800. They had other children also born in PA during the coming two decades. These dates mean that Alban#1 was not among the Connecticut settlers who took part in the Pennamite Wars as the last conflict between CT and PA was in 1784 and it was in 1799 that the US Congress finally settled everything.
In an 1869 map of the area, there are three Russell families living in the village of Russell Hill. I’m not sure who they are as there are no first names given. There was a post office located there from 1843 to 1908. And the Russell-Prevost Cemetery is still located there. The cemetery is named after Russell Hill and the Prevost family who are the most numerous ones buried there (the cemetery is on Prevost Road). There is at least one Russell occupant – Phoebe J Russell Arnts who is the granddaughter of Alban#1 through his son Wilbur. Other members of the Russell family are buried in other locations in Wyoming County.
According to the Wyoming County Historical Society (pawchs.org):
“In 1762 settlers from New England came to the Wyoming Valley, but were driven out by the Indians. It was not until after the Sullivan expedition in 1779 that families were able to establish a permanent settlement in the Tunkhannock area. In 1842, Wyoming County was created from part of Luzerne County. The name ‘Wyoming’ is derived from an Indian word meaning ‘extensive meadows.’”
[Map of Russell Hill]
It’s been an interesting investigation – finding distant relatives who share the Russell surname living just to the north of me in eastern PA, and a bonus of finding a location even named after them. That place now is barely known, with the post office a distant memory (the area is now part of Tunkhannock) and the small cemetery of 188 old graves hidden away on Prevost Road just down the road from the Russell Hill United Methodist Church at the intersection of Route 6 and Prevost Road, and just a few old postcards depicting the beauty of it. There are still a number of Russell families living in the area (with addresses in Tunkhannock). Perhaps on a nice summer day (after the COVID pandemic is just a distant memory), I’ll take a drive and visit the area.
[Russell Hill postcards]
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