Item 35: Letter from Zebulon Butler to Daniel Montgomery, 1784 January 6; Reverse, Note by William Montgomery, 1833 August 6
Item — Box: 10, Folder: 35
Dates
- Created: 1833 August 6
Creator
- Butler, Zebulon, 1731-1795 (Person)
Access:
All series and subseries within this collection are open for research, with the exception of a few files within the Academia series that are restricted. The Academia series contains financial and sensitive institutional records from Wilkes College, and financial report records from Princeton University that will remain restricted for 80 years upon creation.
Extent
1 items
Language of Materials
From the Collection: English
Type of Material:
Letter.
Condition Note:
Good. Lightly tattered edges, some very minor folds, and browning of the paper present.
Measurements:
12 ⅞ in. x 8 in.
Description:
This front of this letter, dated December 24, 1783, is written by Zebulon Butler, a lieutenant colonel during the American Revolutionary War, and is addressed to Daniel Montgomery, who at this time was a Northumberland County Elected Censor. In the letter, Butler is writing to say that he has seen the observations of himself sent by Montgomery in a letter to Colonel Nathan Denison. Butler explains that though the letter states that he and Montgomery’s father, William Montgomery, became intimate friends without the younger’s approval, Butler suggests that there was little choice but to invite the elder into his home as his wife, Phebe Haight Butler, was very ill. Their home was being accosted by soldiers and the situation is said to have been terrible for her. With his father coming into the home, the others were put out and Mrs. Butler recovered.
On the reverse, there is a note, dated August 6, 1833, by William Montgomery, brother of Daniel, concerning and collaborating with the details within Butler’s letter on the front.
Named in a line on the reverse of the letter, the conflicts that are occuring with the soldiers during this period in the home are likely connected with the third Yankee Pennamite War, a military conflict following the Decree of Trenton decision to grant Pennsylvania ownership to the lands after decades of conflict between Connecticut and Pennsylvania. However, while the Decree of Trenton gave Pennsylvania the right to soil, it did not give them the right to title. Pennsylvania, however, under the command of the Pennsylvania Assembly and Patterson, forcibly removed “one-hundred and fifty” Connecticut families from their homes under Patterson’s command. They forced the families to “find their way through the wilderness of the Lackawaxen to the Delaware Valley, a distance of about eighty miles,” without supplies or clothing to sustain them (Gnichtel, The Trenton Decree of 1782). The violence and brutality levied by Patterson’s troops was so severe that it drew attention from neighboring states, and condemnation on the governing bodies of Pennsylvania. That critique ultimately led the Pennsylvania Assembly to remove Patterson from his position within the valley around July 1784, replacing him with colonel John Armstrong.
Location:
Wyoming, PA
Transcription:
Wyoming 6 Jan[ua]r[y] 1784
Dear sir,
By this you’ll be informed that I saw
your Letter to Col[onel] Denison I am much
obliged to you for thinking of me
I observe you say I have taken the
Esq[ui]r[e] as an inmate (sic) [intimate] without your
approbation as to my approbation it
was on no other terms only to save
Life. Mrs. Butler was Extremely Sick
and I had 20 soldiers 2 women & 2
Children forced into my House to
Quarter Intreaties (sic) and tears would
have no Effect there she must Dye [die]
with their Noise and Tumult if I
had not taken this step I was inform’[e]d
that the Esq[ui]r[e] had said that I could
not have them Moved on any other
terms then to have him to come
in on them terms I consented and the
Soldiers went out and he moved in
Mrs Butler soon Recovered and is now
well I am not of^ my guard about A Crokadill (sic) [crocadile?]
I am sir with Esteem your Most
ob[i]d[ient] Humbel (sic)[Humble] Serv[an]t
Zeb[ulo]n Butler
Mr. D Montgomery
Back: [In hand of g and brought down to Sunbury Jail my Father and others bail[e]d them all out Col[onel] Butler was at our house two weeks and became an intimate friend of my Fathers. It appears my Father had wrote to him to beware of certain men which the Col[onel]’s kind feelings led him to be unsuspicious of him and his answer as within Aug[us]t 6 1833 William Montgomery Col[onel] Butler By the Pennemites (sic) [Pennamites] The contest between the Cont [Connecticut] settlers and the Pennsya [Pennsylvania] troops was after bloody— Mr. Daniel Montgomery Northumberland
Back: [In hand of g and brought down to Sunbury Jail my Father and others bail[e]d them all out Col[onel] Butler was at our house two weeks and became an intimate friend of my Fathers. It appears my Father had wrote to him to beware of certain men which the Col[onel]’s kind feelings led him to be unsuspicious of him and his answer as within Aug[us]t 6 1833 William Montgomery Col[onel] Butler By the Pennemites (sic) [Pennamites] The contest between the Cont [Connecticut] settlers and the Pennsya [Pennsylvania] troops was after bloody— Mr. Daniel Montgomery Northumberland
Creator
- Butler, Zebulon, 1731-1795 (Person)
Repository Details
Part of the Wilkes University Archives Repository
Contact:
84 W South St.
Wilkes-Barre PA 18701 US
570-408-2000
570-408-7823 (Fax)
ask.archives@wilkes.edu
84 W South St.
Wilkes-Barre PA 18701 US
570-408-2000
570-408-7823 (Fax)
ask.archives@wilkes.edu