Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the 1790s

Work

Farms, courts, small trades

Daily labor centers on farming, clearing land, hauling, small trades, and county business. A 1799 sale notice lists household goods, carpenter’s tools, and animals¹¹, showing how craft work, home property, and farm stock overlap.

Faith

A Congregational beginning

The east-side settlers include Congregationalists at Wilkes-Barré⁸, who had decided in 1791 to build a church. The older dead lie in the nearly three-acre burying ground⁶ bought before the Revolution.

Law & power

The courthouse dominates

County power is visible in the two-story hewn-log courthouse and jail^4,5 on Public Square. The court itself had begun meeting locally in 1787 at Zebulon Butler’s house at Northampton and River streets⁴.

In the air

Titles and jurisdiction

The local argument of the age is land: jurisdiction over the Wyoming lands^6,3 had passed from Connecticut to Pennsylvania, while claimants still remembered Susquehanna Company titles. Pennsylvania Heritage describes the post-Trenton years as violence and ejectment³ lasting into 1790.

What people feared

War not far behind

The violence of the Revolution and the Pennamite-Yankee struggle is not old history here; the Battle of Wyoming in 1778 remains within adult memory. In 1798, national danger feels local when Samuel Bowman raises infantry at Wilkes-Barré¹².

Home & table

Houses partly hidden

One known house is exceptional: Lord Butler’s 1793 house² included parts of an older log cabin. For ordinary dwellings, the record is thinner: no detailed online description found gives their number, materials, or plans.

Money

Debt in print

Money troubles are public enough for the newspaper: insolvent-debtor applications¹¹ appear in the 1799 Gazette. But exact household budgets remain elusive because no local price list found gives Wilkes-Barré wages or staple food prices.

Roads & news

Ferry, road, newspaper

Movement across the river depends on the ferry opposite the foot of Northampton Street⁹. Printed news and official business arrive through the Wilkes-Barre Gazette & Luzerne Advertiser¹¹, with court notices, rewards, and sales.

Year by year

1. 1786Luzerne County was created by Pennsylvania from part of Northumberland County. here^1,3
2. 1787The first Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas met at Zebulon Butler’s house in Wilkes-Barré. here⁴
3. 1790Luzerne County was divided into eleven townships, including Wilkes-Barre. here⁴
4. 1791A hewn-log courthouse and jail was built on Wilkes-Barré’s Public Square. here^4,5
5. 1793Lord Butler built a house in Wilkes-Barré that reused parts of Zebulon Butler’s earlier log cabin. here²
6. 1794The Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania brought federal military power into state politics and would have been discussed across Pennsylvania. the country
7. 1797Louis Philippe, later king of France, stayed in Wilkes-Barre while traveling to the French Asylum settlement. here¹³
8. 1798The Quasi-War crisis with France led Samuel Bowman to raise an infantry company at Wilkes-Barré. the country¹²

Pictures from the time

What the sources say

• Wilkes-Barré stood on the east side of the Susquehanna River in the Wyoming Valley, the old core of Connecticut-Yankee settlement in what Pennsylvania made Luzerne County. from the sources^1,2
• Pennsylvania created Luzerne County on September 25, 1786, from part of Northumberland County and named it for the Chevalier de la Luzerne. from the sources^1,3
• In 1790 the county court divided Luzerne County into eleven townships, including Wilkes-Barre, Pittston, Hanover, Newport, Exeter, Plymouth, Kingston, Salem, Tioga, Wyalusing, and Tunkhannock. from the sources⁴
• The Wyoming Valley population rose from fewer than 2,000 residents in 1790 to almost 13,000 in 1800. from the sources¹
• The first Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas met on May 27, 1787, at Zebulon Butler’s house at the corner of Northampton and River streets in Wilkes-Barré. from the sources⁴
• In 1791 a two-story hewn-log courthouse, about sixty feet long and thirty feet wide, was built on Wilkes-Barré’s Public Square, with the courtroom upstairs and the jail and jailer below. from the sources^4,5
• The old Wilkes-Barré burying ground was purchased in 1772 and contained nearly three acres. from the sources⁶
• In 1793 Lord Butler built a house in Wilkes-Barré that local history says included parts of Zebulon Butler’s 1773 log cabin. from the sources²
• Wilkes-Barré’s name honored the British parliamentary allies John Wilkes and Isaac Barré, a choice made by the Connecticut settlers. from the sources⁷
• Ordinary work in and around Wilkes-Barré in the 1790s was mainly farming, clearing land, hauling, small trades, and county business rather than the later anthracite industry. inferred
• The great coal-mining and coal-breaking landscape later associated with Wilkes-Barre had not yet become the organizing fact of daily life in the 1790s. inferred
• Congregationalists at Wilkes-Barré had decided in 1791 to build a church on the east side of the Susquehanna. from the sources⁸
• A later township history describes the old road to Wilkes-Barre as reaching the ferry opposite the foot of Northampton Street, showing the importance of river crossing between Wilkes-Barré and Kingston. from the sources⁹
• By 1799 Wilkes-Barre Township, including the village and nearby areas, had 121 taxables and 112 horses. inferred¹⁰
• The Wilkes-Barre Gazette & Luzerne Advertiser was being published by 1799 and carried court notices, insolvent-debtor applications, constable rewards, and estate-sale advertisements. from the sources¹¹
• A 1799 Gazette extract advertised a sale that included household goods, carpenter’s tools, and animals, the sort of mixed property that linked home, craft, and farm economy. from the sources¹¹
• A 1799 Gazette extract named applicants seeking benefit under Pennsylvania’s insolvent-debtor laws, so debt and court-supervised insolvency were visible public matters. from the sources¹¹
• The Trenton Decree of December 30, 1782, transferred jurisdiction over the Wyoming lands from Connecticut to Pennsylvania, but the land-title controversy remained a living political memory in the 1790s. from the sources^6,3
• Pennsylvania Heritage describes the post-Trenton years as a period of violence and ejectment against settlers claiming under Susquehanna Company titles, continuing until 1790. from the sources³
• The Battle of Wyoming in 1778 and the earlier Pennamite-Yankee conflicts were recent enough in the 1790s to shape local memory, land claims, and distrust of outside authority. inferred
• Samuel Bowman was raising a company of infantry at Wilkes-Barré in 1798 during the United States’ anticipated war with France. from the sources¹²
• Louis Philippe, later king of France, stayed in Wilkes-Barre in 1797 while traveling to the French Asylum settlement. from the sources¹³
• No detailed online description found in this search gives the number, materials, and floor plans of ordinary Wilkes-Barré houses in the 1790s. not known
• No local price list found in this search gives Wilkes-Barré wages or staple food prices for the 1790s. not known

Sources

1. History of Luzerne County. Luzerne County, Pennsylvania
2. History of Wilkes-Barre. City of Wilkes-Barre
3. Historical Sketch of Luzerne County. Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine, 1975
4. History of Luzerne, Lackawanna, and Wyoming Counties, Pa., Part 13. W. W. Munsell & Co.; transcribed at LDSGenealogy, 1880
5. History and Directory of Newton and Ransom Townships, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania. Library of Congress digital scan, 1912
6. History of Luzerne, Lackawanna, and Wyoming Counties, Pa.. University of Scranton digital collections, 1880
7. Naming Wilkes-Barre. Wilkes University
8. Forty Fort Meeting House: The Architecture of a Union. Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine
9. History of Luzerne, Lackawanna, and Wyoming Counties, Pa.. University of Scranton digital collections, 1880
10. Wilkes-Barre Township. PAGenWeb Luzerne County
11. 1799 Wilkes Barre Gazette & Luzerne Advertiser newspaper extracts. Wyoming County Historical Society
12. A History of Wilkes-Barré, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, Volume I. Oscar Jewell Harvey; transcribed at LDSGenealogy, 1909
13. Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Wikipedia

Wilkes-Barre in other decades

Nearby, about the same time