In 1662 Charles II granted Governor Winthrop the territory between the 41st and 42nd degree of north latitude running from Narragansett Bay to the Pacific Ocean.

In 1681 Charles II granted William Penn the territory between 39 degrees 43 minutes and 43 degrees North Latitude overlapping Connecticut's claim.

This set the stage for three bloody wars waged by Pennsylvania on settlers from Connecticut between 1769 and 1784.

The third Pennamite-Yankee War in 1784 was the scene of the most brutal savagery in the colonies since Sir Robert Carr annihilated Plockhoy's Mennonite settlement on the Delaware in 1665, raped the women and sold the men into slavery in Virginia.

The deportation of the Arcadians and Cherokees were brutal affairs but the atrocities committed by the Pennsylvania militia were only exceeded by the Bataan Death March.

The trouble began in 1753 with the formation of the Susquehanna Company by the citizens of Colchester and Windham Connecticut for the purchase of the Wyoming Valley from the Iroquois who owned it by right of conquest from the Susquehannas about 1675.

The Susquehanna Purchase Deed, dated July 11, 1754, conveyed all land between the 41st and 42nd degrees of North Latitude from a line ten miles east of the Susquehanna for two degrees of Longitude West or one hundred twenty miles to the Susquehanna Company.

This comprised most of eighteen present day Pennsylvania counties. The deed was signed by two Seneca, seven Mohawk, two Onondaga, six Oneida and one Cayuga Chief on behalf of the Iroquois Confederacy.

A number of Delaware Chiefs conveyed all territory between the 41st and 42nd degrees of North Latitude from the eastern boundary of the Susquehanna purchase to the Delaware River to the First and Second Delaware Companies, two Connecticut companies, on December 20, 1754, May 6, 1755, and October 27, 1755 .

The first settlement was made at Cushietunk in present day Damascus Township, Wayne County, Pennsylvania by Joseph Skinner about September 4, 1755.

Pennsylvania attempted to excite Teedyuscung, a Delaware Chief to attack the settlers and issued unexecuted warrants for their arrest.

Friendly Delawares sent word to Teedyuscung that any interference with the settlers would mean war.

The French and Indian War (1754-1763) interrupted settlement in the Susquehanna Purchase until the summer of 1762 when a settlement was made at Mill Creek north of present day Wilkes-Barre.

This settlement was destroyed during the Pontiac War (1763-1764) when Captain Bull and his Delaware Indians massacred some twenty of the inhabitants and dispersed the rest on October 15, 1763, on their way back from a raid in Northampton County.

The British government signed the Fort Stanwick Treaty, which established a diagonal line across Pennsylvania, on November 5, 1768, and opened up territory east of the line to settlement.

The same day the Six Nations deeded all land in the province not heretofore conveyed to Thomas and Richard Penn.

The Penns, relying on the 1736 Deed of Preemption wherein the Indians had agreed to sell no land within the limits of Pennsylvania except to the heirs of William Penn, interpreted the 1768 deed to mean all land in Pennsylvania.

The Wyoming Valley was east of the Fort Stanwick line and the Susquehanna Company determined to occupy it in spite of Pennsylvania and dispatched forty men, including two from Pennsylvania, to occupy the Wyoming Valley.

They arrived about February 6, 1769, and were promptly arrested on a charge of trespass by Sheriff Jennings of Northampton County, Pennsylvania and Captain Amos Ogden who had established a trading post on the site of the old Yankee settlement at Mill Creek.

They were incarcerated in the Easton jail from which some escaped and the rest were released on bail.

Major John Durkee joined the original forty with two hundred and sixty more men in the spring. They erected Fort Durkee on the eastern bank of the Susquehanna and named their town Wilkes-Barre.

Colonel Turbutt Francis invaded Wyoming in July with flaring banners and beating drums demanding the surrender of Fort Durkee. The Yankees declined the Colonel's courteous offer and the good Colonel returned to Pennsylvania with silent drums and trailing banners.

Sheriff Jennings and Captain Ogden, with a large force of Pennsylvanians, captured Major Durkee in November and again drove the Yankees from the valley.

Captain Zebulon Butler assumed command of the Yankees in January of 1770 and recruited Lazarus Steward and the Paxtang Rangers to the Yankee cause .He compensating them with the grant of Hanover Township.

The Paxtang Rangers had been outlawed by Pennsylvania and with prices on their heads had openly defied Pennsylvania authority for years. The Rangers drove the Pennamites from the Valley in February of 1770.

Captain Ogden regained temporary possession of his trading post but was forced to surrender in April. Construction then began on the celebrated Forty Fort in Kingston Township west of the Susquehanna.

Captain Ogden returned in the fall with a large force and captured Fort Durkee. The Yankees recaptured Fort Durkee in January of 1771 and the Pennamites erected Fort Wyoming nearby. The Yankees laid siege to Fort Wyoming in July and the First Yankee-Pennamite War ended on August 20, 1771, with the capitulation of Fort Wyoming.

The town of Westmoreland, which extended from the 41st degree of North Latitude to the New York line and from the Delaware River to fifteen miles west of Wyoming, was created in 1774 and annexed to Litchfield County Connecticut.

The four years of peace was broken, in December 1775, when Colonel Plunkett invaded Westmoreland with six hundred Pennsylvania militia. Colonel Zebulon Butler posted his regiment behind a natural rampart of rocks above Nanticoke Falls on the west side of the river.

The Rangers occupied the east side and protected the Yankee flank. Plunkett advanced on the morning of December 25 and thus began the Battle of Rampart Rocks. The battle raged all Christmas day. The Pennamites suffered severe casualties and broke and fled shortly before dark. Yankee losses were slight.

Westmoreland furnished two full companies to the Continental Army plus numerous individual enlistment's. Zebulon Pike was appointed colonel of a Connecticut regiment of the Continental line.

The British invaded Westmoreland on July 1, 1778, with two hundred rangers commanded by Colonel John Butler and five hundred Seneca led by Sayenqueraghta.

They occupied Fort Wintermute, and took no action on the 2nd. The Yankees fled to Forty Fort where most of the Twenty Fourth Regiment was assembled on July 3, 1778.

The Yankees made a serious mistake and decided to meet the British in open battle. At one o’clock they formed a line of battle and advanced to face the British line which was drawn up from Fort Wintermute westward. The Yankees opened the firing but were only able to get off about three volleys before they were flanked on the left by Sayenqueraghta and his warriors.

What followed is known as the Wyoming Massacre. Of the three hundred men who went into battle about two hundred were killed. The prisoners were clubbed to death that night, only two prisoners escaped. Forty Fort surrendered on the of July 4, 1778. The women and children were spared but the Indians plundered and burned the settlements. General Sullivan destroyed the Indian villages in western New York in 1779 in retaliation.

Upon ratification of the Articles of Confederation, by Maryland on March 1, 1781, Pennsylvania petitioned Congress to adjudicate the controversy under Section II Article 9. The commission appointed began hearings on November 18, 1782, and handed down a decision, known as the Trenton Decree, in favor of Pennsylvania on December 30, 1782.

There was considerable opinion at the time, backed up by a large body of evidence, that the decision of the court was a predetermined political decision and not a judicial determination.

Previous boundary adjustments had left the actual occupiers of the land secure in their ownerships and possessions and only the political jurisdiction had changed. Pennsylvania's Plan of Compromise, however, was the Bitter Pill known as To the Conqueror Belong the Spoils.

The Pennsylvania land speculators appointed Alexander Patterson to represent them. Patterson drafted the Plan of Compromise, styled himself chairman of the Pennsylvania Landholders Committee and completely dominated the commission of which he was not a member. The commissioners approved Patterson's plan and presented it to the Yankees.

The five point plan called for:

1. Pledges of obedience to be given.

2. A written and public disclaimer of all claim to land held under title from Connecticut.

3. The settler to take a lease of half of his farm for about eleven months and immediate surrender of the other half together with abandonment of all claim to his house and possessions by April 1st following.

4. Extension for one year of leases to widows of those slain by the Indians.

5. Extension for two years of the lease to Rev. Jacob Johnson the minister at Wilkes-Barre.

The Yankees rejected these harsh terms and the third Pennamite-Yankee War began.

The Pennsylvania Legislature confirmed Patterson's actions and he returned to Wyoming as dictator, judge, jury and executioner.

Fort Durkee was renamed Fort Dickinson and Wilkes-Barre was renamed Londondary. Troops were quartered in private homes. People were arrested and jailed without warrants or formal charges.

Colonel Zebulon Butler was imprisoned. Major Alden, a feeble old man, had his staff broken by Pennsylvania troops who compelled him to hobble and crawl to Wilkes-Barre.

Prisoners were crowded into packed cells without blankets or food and water. They were forced to lie on muddy dirt floors and the guards had instructions to: Blow out the brains of anyone who tries to rise.

A devastating flood of the Susquehanna washed away all buildings in the lowlands during March of 1784 and a petition to the Pennsylvania Executive Council for assistance and relief was denied out of hand.

Zebulon Butler petitioned Congress to constitute a court to try the private right of soil and Congress fixed the fourth Monday of June for the court to convene.

The Pennsylvania land speculators began to fear for their profits and on May 13, 1784, an operation commenced that would have made Sherman proud.

Patterson ordered the land depopulated. Roads were destroyed, fences torn down, land monuments obliterated, water supplies were polluted and wells filled up.

One hundred and fifty families were driven from their homes at the point of Pennsylvania Bayonets.

Women, children, feeble old men, all were driven at the bayonets point to Fort Dickinson and confined in a pen like animals without food or water.

Over eight hundred souls were driven through the Lackawaxen wilderness without food or water. Heavy rains flooded the Wallenpaupack and women and children waded for miles through waist deep mud and water. Little children cried for bread.

The weak died in the mud without the benefit of clergy given to felons. The nightmare continued for fourteen days of Pennsylvania Hell.

Hell would probably been preferable as the spring was late and the icy water was bitterly cold.

The dangerous path through the wilderness to the Delaware by way of the Lackawaxen was deliberately chosen to produce as many casualties as possible.

A route down the river or over the mountains to the friendly German settlements would have been too humane to suit the Pennsylvanians.

All would have probably perished if the good people of the Delaware and Neversink Valleys had not packed their horses with food and clothing and met the starving exiles on the trail.

The atrocity was so egregious that even some of the less callused Pennsylvanians were offended.

The exiles were urged to return, the troops dismissed and Patterson along with forty-five of his men were arrested by Sheriff Antis and indicted, tried, convicted and fined by the Northampton County court for their part in the eviction.

The land speculators backed Patterson to the limit. The discharged soldiers were hired and organized under Patterson's command in an attempt to maintain the eviction by force.

The returning exiles were denied access to their homes, which were occupied by Patterson's men and forced to take shelter in a rocky cleft of the Wilkes-Barre mountain which they named Fort Lillo-pe.

Anyone captured attempting to forage for food was stripped naked and chased back to the mountain.

A band of armed Yankees was assembling and under their protection the refugees were able to abandon Fort Lillo-pe and occupy and fortify three deserted buildings on Richard Brockway's farm near Abrahams Creek in Kingston Township.

On July 20 Patterson attacked twenty three Yankees, killing two before his troops broke and fled from a withering Yankee fire.

The Yankees reoccupied Kingston, Plymouth and Hanover a few days later and drove the Pennamites into Fort Dickinson which they then besieged.

The siege continued until August 6 with the loss of several lives. Pennsylvania now ordered the Northampton militia to support Patterson.

Major Moore, under indictment in Northampton County for his part in the May eviction, was ordered to return and complete his work. A party of forty Yankees intercepted Moore's force at Locust Gap on August 2 and turned him back.

Negotiators then attempted to arrange a truce in the siege. The Yankees were promised that the Sheriff would disarm the Fort if the Yankees would lay down their arms. The Yankees complied on August 6 but Patterson refused to disarm so the Sheriff returned the Yankee's weapons and asked them to give up the siege and go home but to feel free to defend themselves if disturbed by the Pennamites.

Pennsylvania then appointed Colonel John Armstrong, author of the infamous Newburg Address, and secretary of the Executive Council along with John Boyd, a member of the Council, as Commissioners to drive out the Yankees, and for that purpose gave them four hundred Northampton County militia. <

Armstrong faithfully promised the Yankees that he would compel Patterson and his men to disarm if the Yankees would lay down their arms and pledged his sacred honor to do justice.

The Yankees surrendered their arms and having done so were immediately seized by the militia as Armstrong intoned You are prisoners.

The Yankees were handcuffed in pairs and denied food and water as was the Pennsylvania custom. While imprisoned they were given water and a loaf of bread a day. The Northampton County grand jury ignored the bill of indictment and Sheriff Antis released his prisoners on bail.

Armstrong arriving in Philadelphia to bask in the praise of his masters, the land speculators, was astonished to learn that the Yankees were again on the march and that his troubles were just beginning.

He immediately returned with a force of fifty men and occupied the Fort at Wilkes-Barre.

Some Green Mountain Boys, getting a little bored after settling with their land speculators and successfully establishing an independent Republic, were starting to drift down. Thus reinforced, the Yankees again besieged the fort at Wilkes-Barre but were forced to abandon the siege due to the strong resistance of Patterson and Armstrong.

The Pennsylvania Council of Censors issued a manifesto on September 11th condemning the Pennsylvania authorities in no uncertain terms for the inhuman and illegal actions undertaken on behalf of the land speculators.

An Act of the Assembly passed on September 15th restored the Yankees to their possessions. The land speculators were not discouraged.

The corrupt Assembly advanced Armstrong to Adjutant General of Pennsylvania and authorized him to raise the militia of Bucks, Berks and Northampton Counties and ordered him to proceed to Wyoming and complete the expulsion of the Yankees.

President Dickinson wrote to the Executive Council objecting to Armstrong's appointment and the proposed plan of conquest.

The Council, which was as corrupt as the Assembly, and with its pockets also overflowing with the land speculators gold, not only overruled Dickinson but offered rewards for eighteen of the principal Yankees.

Armstrong hastened back to Wilkes-Barre but was only able to raise forty men to accompany him. The back of Armstrong's forces was broken when they assaulted a heavily fortified Yankee position during the Battle of Brockway's Farm.

Armstrong evacuated the fort at Wilkes-Barre on November 27, 1783. The Yankees burned the fort on November 30th ending the third and last Pennamite-Yankee War.

Congress had managed to avoid acting on Zebulon Butler's petition to determine the private right of soil under Section 9 of the Articles of Confederation by shuffling it about and finally denied it on September 21, 1785.

The war was over but the ill will lingered on. The Yankees had been abandoned by Connecticut and wanted no part of Pennsylvania.

The idea of a new state began to form in the minds of the Yankees. In April of 1786 General Ethan Allen showed up in Wyoming in full regimentals. Allen said he had formed one new state and that with one hundred of his Green Mountain Boys and two hundred riflemen he could establish another one.

Pennsylvania not only abandoned the military occupation of Wyoming but also civil jurisdiction. Sheriff Antis served no writs against Yankees and only one Pennsylvania magistrate, David Meade, remained in the area with no means of enforcing a decision even if anyone had asked him to make one.

Meade issued a warrant for the arrest of several Yankees who had harvested his hay and carted it off. He attempted to try the case himself in his capacity of Justice.

The prisoners before the bar did not answer the complaint but threatened Meade. One responded by advising Meade to quit Wyoming.

Meade was informed: