The Susquehanna Company of Connecticut laid out townships in what would become Luzerne County.
Courtesy of the Library of Congress
Col. John Durkee
Courtesy of the Find A Grave website
With a thriving population combined with a short farming season in rocky soil, residents in the British Colony of Connecticut who were part of the Susquehanna Company were ready to head into the frontier in the late 1760s.
A group of Connecticut settlers led by Major John Durkee left Norwich, Conn., in late March or early April 1769, for the 260-mile journey on horseback and open wagons to stake Connecticut’s disputed ownership of the Wyoming Valley.
After they arrived in late April 1769, although several sources indicate they arrived in mid-May 1769, they got busy and constructed Fort Durkee in the area of today’s South River and West River streets, Wilkes-Barre, along the eastern shore of the Susquehanna River.
The Susquehanna River was spelled as Sesquehannah, and the area was known and spelled Wioming in Susquehanna Company papers that are accessible online.
“Shortly after completion of the fort, committees of settlers, under the direction of Major Durkee, began to locate and establish the five gratuity or settling towns, voted by the Susquehanna Company to be laid out…three on one side of the Susquehanna River and two on the other side,” reported the Times Leader Evening News on May 31, 1921, of a lecture given by Oscar Jewel Harvey, a historian who published the 718-page book A History of Wilkes-Barre.
Those five townships were named Wilkesbarre, Nanticoke (renamed Hanover after German settlers), Pittstown, Plymouth, and Forty Township (renamed Kingstown).
What was the motive behind Major Durkee coming up with the name Wilkesbarre? It all began in England in 1765 when the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act, a direct tax on newspapers, writing paper, documents, and playing cards in the 13 British colonies.
Years before the passage of the Stamp Act, Durkee had served with Isaac Barre, an officer in the British Army during the French and Indian War (1754-1763). After Barre suffered a gunshot wound to his face, he returned to England and became a member of Parliament, where he strongly opposed the Stamp Act tax upon the British American Colonies.
Another member of Parliament, John Wilkes, who never set foot in the colonies, also opposed the Stamp Act tax.
The reputations of Wilkes and Barre were widely known throughout the colonies despite the limitations of communication at the time.
So, when it came to naming one of the five townships, Durkee, who is believed to have joined the Patriotic organization “Sons of Liberty” in 1765, honored Wilkes and Barre in naming a township after the two British politicians in 1769.
During the Pennamite-Yankee wars, Durkee was captured by the Pennamites and kept in a Philadelphia prison for about two years. When he was released, he visited the Wyoming Valley and returned to Norwich, Conn., where he became a major in the 3rd Regiment of the Connecticut troops in the Revolutionary Army and fought in the Battle of Bunker Hill in Boston. The two officers of the 3rd Regiment were Colonels Israel Putnam and Benedict Arnold.
Durkee never returned to the Wyoming Valley, despite being considered its founding father. He died at the age of 53 in Norwich, Conn., and was buried in the Old Norwichtown Cemetery.
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