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Nescopeck Township, Pennsylvania One Place Study

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Location: Nescopeck Township, Luzerne, Pennsylvania, United Statesmap
Surnames/tags: One_Place_Studies Pennsylvania Wapwallopen
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Nescopeck Township, Pennsylvania One Place Study

This profile is part of the Nescopeck Township, Pennsylvania One Place Study.
{{One Place Study|place=Nescopeck Township, Pennsylvania|category=Nescopeck Township, Pennsylvania One Place Study}}


The goal of this project is to find and make genealogy records for the Nescopeck area available to people that had family in the area or that passed through the area since the late 1700's. When Nescopeck Twp was first split off of Newport Twp it included most of Hollenback,Sugaloaf and possibly part of Butler townships as well as Nescopeck borough and the Wapwallopen area.

The leader of this project is Butch Smith.

Here are some of the tasks that need to be done,all help is appreciated.

  • Find and transcribe as much of the cemetery and church records for this area as possible. A few of the records are fairly thorough but some are only partially done. A good example is the Mt Zion church,while there are some records available online,there are some missing families also.
  • If anyone has any family history from bibles or any other records that can be of help that would be great also
  • Find an transcribe census records for the area.

Will you join in this project? Please post a comment here on this page, in G2G using the project tag, or send me a private message. Thanks!


  • I added these few lines from H.C. Bradsbury's history of Hazle Township here to help explain my methodology,

The Genealogy of this township is as follows: Hazle was carved out of Sugarloaf township in 1839. Sugarloaf was taken from Nescopeck township. The latter was formed in 1792. A part was taken from Butler township, November 6, 1856, and added to Hazle. Grandmother Nescopeck, mother Sugarloaf, and then the blooming, fashionable daughter, Miss Hazle—pretty in name and lovely in form and features.

  • If you go to the section for townships you'll find the other townships that were originally part of Nescopeck,those links will take you to pages for those townships and there you can find links for pages for the churches and cemeteries that are in that township as well as anything else I find that I think is interesting.
Nescopeck Twp 1873
Original land warrants for lower Luzerne Co,includes Nescopeck,Hollenback,Conyngham,Butler,Sugarloaf,Black Creek and Hazle

Name

Geography

Continent: North America
Country: United States
State/Province: Pennsylvania
County: Luzerne
GPS Coordinates: 41.033333, -76.166389
Elevation: 267.0 m or 876.0 feet

Nescopeck Township early history

  • An excerpt from chapter 8 of Bradsburys,History of Luzerne Co,

Joseph Nutimus, king of Nescopeck, or chief of the Fork Indians, Mr. C. G. Hill informs us, was a Delaware. Toward the end of his life he was known as Old King Nutimus. Mr. Hill maintains he was the chief instigator and actor in the massacre of the Moravians in 1755. The Indians occupied Nescopeck between 1742 and 1763. One of the earliest references to Nutimus was in 1733, when Thomas Penn speaks of an expected visit from him, and expected trouble from him, as, he says, in their last year visit, they “left a bag of bullets.”

Nutimus and his tribe had the lands in the forks of the Delaware and Lehigh rivers above Durham, and the tribe made headquarters where Easton now stands. In this territory this chief was supreme, subject only to such restrictions as the Six Nations imposed on the subjugated Delawares.

Nutimus and his tribe always claimed they were the chief sufferers in the land-trade swindle that has gone into history as the Walking Purchase by the Penns.

The two sons of William Penn were the proprietaries, and it must be acknowledged that there was shrewd jockeying on their part whereby they got immensely the advantage of the Indians in that trade. And the bloody retaliation, as usual, fell upon the heads of innocent settlers. This Indian chief and his people watched the proceedings of that “walk” and denounced it at the time, and never ceased to proclaim their contempt for the whole thing, and when the settlers began to pour in upon these rich and coveted lands in the forks, the Indians obstinately, and with increasing insolence, held their grounds; they were very angry at the white intruders, and prepared to give them the reception of “hospitable hands to bloody graves.” After five years of contention, the Pennsylvanians appealed to the Six Nations to control or punish the insubordination of the Delawares, and a council was called in Philadelphia July 12, 1742, where Cannassatego, a chief of the Six Nations, delivered his famous address to the Delawares. He told them they had sold their lands, given several releases, and warned them that they deserved to be taken by the ears and shaken into some sense. He closed his bitter and taunting speech by peremptorily ordering them to move to the place provided for them at Nescopec, on the Susquehanna river. This order Nutimus and his tribe had to obey, and the Penns were again the winners. No further notice came from the tribe at Nescopeck until 1757, and the Franco-Indian war was on. Conrad Weiser was sent to Nutimus, and reported that his people were much inclined to side with the French, and Nescopeck was now a town where the enemy rendezvoused. Two Indian spies were sent up from Harrisburg, and they reported seeing 150 warriors at Nescopeck, busy painting and dancing war dances. Gnadenhutten was burned and the people massacred in November, 1755. [Weissport is now built on that spot]. The slaughter of the inoffensive Moravians and the many murders about Nescopeck were simultaneous events largely, and showed an intimate connection with each other, and Mr. Hill has not much doubt but that Nutimus was fully cognizant, if not a participator, in the Moravian massacre.

It is believed that Nutimus, with his family, left Nescopeck about 1763, and finally joined the Delawares in Ohio.

  • When Evan Owen was first scouting a location for the future home of Berwick,Pa his first thoughts were most likely to find a location where people could raise crops and the excess shipped most easily to Philadelphia. Once coal was found in the mountains around and south of Hazleton the markets got a lot closer with the wave of miners that descended on lower Luzerne Co to dig the coal. At the same time railroads were fast becoming the next mode of transportation and Berwick made a name for itself when ACF and it's predecessors started building railroad cars.
  • H.C. Bradsbury's History of Luzerne County, Nescopeck Township,

CHAPTER XXI. (continued) NESCOPECK TOWNSHIP.

Stewart Pearce in his Annals, 1866, says:

"Nescopeck township was separated from Newport In 1792. Jacob Smithers,Jacob Shover, Martin Arner and Jacob Seyberling settled in the territory of this township in 1791, on the banks of the Nescopeck creek, near its mouth. In 1796, including Hollenback, Sugarloaf, Butler, Black Creek, and Hazel townships, it contained 31 taxables, 36 horses, 58 head of horned cattle, 3 gristmills, and 3 sawmills. In 1797 Harvey D. Walker built a grist and sawmill about one mile from Nescopeck village. The first church was erected in 1811, on the turnpike, by the Lutherans and German Reformed members, about four miles from the village.

This township contains twenty-eight square miles, a portion of which is mountainous, and the remainder is flat or river-bottom and rolling land. Its timber is chiefly oak, chestnut and hemlock, and its soil is adapted to wheat, rye, oats and corn. Its market is Hazleton. It has 3 sawmills, 2 gristmills, 1 carding and fulling mill, 1 forge, 2 stores, 2 churches and 3 taverns.

Nescopeck village is built on the site of an ancient town of the Delaware Indians. It was the rendezvous of the hostile savages during the French and Indian war, upward of 100 years ago. It has about twenty dwellings, one store and a tavern. The southern line of Luzerne county crosses the Susquehanna at this place, cutting the Nescopeck bridge diagonally about midway.

List of taxables in Nescopeck in 1796:

Walter Kaar, Henry Hepler, William Sims, Jacob Hepler, Abraham Arnold, Henry Mattis, Joseph Bush, Martin Herner, Henry Nulf, Lawrence Kurrens, Cornelius Bellas, Jacob Severlin, Michael Horriger, Christian Smeeders, Casper Nulf, John Nulf, Adam Nulf, John Freese, Benjamin Van Horn, George Tilp, Robert Patton, John Kennedy, James McVail, Adam Lurner, John Decker, Isaac Taylor, Daniel Lee, Zebulon Lee, John Pattman. William Rittenhouse and Joseph Kaar.

It is believed the first settler in what is now Nescopeck township was George Walker, in 1786, settled near where was the old-time Benjamin Evans' gristmill. Walker made improvement and commenced to build a mill, but the "Pumpkin [p.611] flood" of that year washed everything away. About the same time a family settled on the Michael Raber farm. The whole family were massacred. George Walker soon after the massacre left the country, and it is supposed went west, where he could have more room.

In 1787 a road was laid out from Nescopeck falls to the Lehigh river, following afterward very nearly all the way by the turnpike that passed through the village of Conyngham, on its way to Hazleton. Evan Owen was the proprieter of Berwick, and to this day you will hear old men speak of the "Owens road."

The first land grant was the Campania tract, lying west of Big Wapwallopen creek, surveyed to Daniel Grant in 1769; patented to George Campbell in 1773. The next grant was to Jacob Bittendorfer in 1808. This was then Evans mill tract.

Settlers along the Nescopeck creek in 1791 were Jacob Smithers,Jacob Shover, Martin Aton and Jacob Seyberling. In 1807 Henry Dewespecht, Michael Harrier, Conrad Bloos, Jacob Bittenbender,Jr. William Moore, Thomas Cole, Conrad Reiderich, John Henry, Casper Henry, Michael Whitenecht, Michael Nauss, Conrad Bingheimer, Peter Clingeman, Bernard Snyder, John Rooth, George Bittenbender, George Keens, John Buss, — Daly, — Bassinger, and a surveyor by the name of Chesney had settled in Nescopeck. They were nearly all from Northampton county. From this time settlers came in rapidly. The Fortners, Sloyers and Smiths came about 1828, and the families of Evans and Williams soon after. Jonas Buss, who settled here in 1807, is now living at Mifflin, Columbia county, at the age of eighty- nine. He still retains his memory of early events to a remarkable degree, and we are indebted to him for many facts concerning the early history of the township.

William Rittenhouse, who owned large tracts of land in this and adjoining towns, built a log gristmill on Nescopeck creek about 1795, as an inducement for settlers to purchase his lands. He sold to Jacob Rittenhouse in 1808. Nathan Beach, so prominently mentioned in the account of Salem township as a man of great enterprise, built a mill on Wapwallopen creek near a place called "Powder Hole," in 1795. There were three mills on this site—all burned by accident. In 1795 Samuel Mifflin built his sawmill near the mouth of Nescopeck creek. In 1824 Henry Bowman built on this spot, using the old dam, his three-story gristmill; sold to Daniel Evans in 1838, who added a plaster-mill. In 1853 John McMurtria built his gristmill above the Evans mill; he sold to J. Johnson in 1860. In 1840 John T. Davis built a fulling-mill on a branch of the Nescopeck; sold it to J. Stephenson in 1860, who ran it until it closed down. H. Haschner built a sawmill in 1867 on Nescopeck creek. On the same creek, in 1830, E. and J. Leidy built their forge, three fires and two hammers, making blooms and bar iron of ore obtained from Columbia county. The late Hon. Simon Cameron at one time had an interest in this forge. It passed into the hands of S. F. Headley, who enlarged it and ran it until 1854, when its fires were permanently banked. A tannery on Nescopeck creek was built in 1858 by Theodore and George Naugle; run until 1870. They built a sawmill in 1856.

Nescopeck Village was started into life in 1786 by the fact that at that time Samuel Mifflin opened his little store on the bank of the river, now in the village site. His agent and manager on the ground was William Baird, residence and store room all one. The building was frame and is said to be the first of its kind in the township. The next move toward making the place was the opening of George Rough's blacksmith shop near by. A ferry was now operated, and a man named Steiner opened his log cabin hotel at the foot of the ferry. In 1807 John Myers built his frame hotel and then the village began to put on airs, as well it might. Another was built by John Rothermel in 1815. His son, the painter of the celebrated picture, "The Battle of Gettysburg," was born here. In 1817 Christian Kunkle built the stone house now owned by the Cooper heirs, in Nescopeck village burning the brick for the chimneys, and for a three-story building in Berwick, on the ground. Michael Raber built the first brick dwelling and burned the brick for all the rest.

[p.612] A bridge across the Susquehanna was built in 1816. A flood swept the bridge away in 1836, and the following year it was rebuilt. It is 1,250 feet long.

It is now estimated there are 650 residents in the village. The old stone house was once the hotel of the place. In 1827-8 the place was noted for its rapid growth and the business air that prevailed. The drowsy village was wakened into active life and the musical horns of the canal boats roused up the latent fires of the once lucky-go-easy natives. The little boys then, the little remnant now left, are very old men, love to tell how they played hookey and would go down and all day watch the great canal boats arrive and depart, and how they longed, and hardly dared hope, the time would come when they could reach the exalted positions of drivers on the canal. About the total business of the people was at one time canaling, and as soon as a boy was fourteen or fifteen his ambition would be gratified—surfeited the first round trip, and then he would commence scheming to run away from his cruel master. The boy had to whip the mules and the boss would whip the boys, or perhaps it would be more descriptive to say he whipped the mules through the boys—a kind of vicarious tickling. The village has an important railroad junction. The main line of the Pennsylvania Central passes through the place, and in 1886 a branch was built from here to Hazleton. No village in the county is improving better than this. Many of the people have their homes here and do business or work in some of the industries across the river in Berwick. Milton Brundage was the original town proprietor. His three sons have sold their interests and reside in Hazleton. G. P. Miller was the first to buy a lot on the north side of the main street, pick off the stones and build his present Central hotel. There are in the place 2 hotels, 1 grist mill (the old Evans mill mentioned above), 3 general stores; railroad round house and machine shops (working about 60 men); 2 drug stores, 1 furniture, 1 grocery, 1 hardware, 1 meat market, some small trading places, blacksmith's and carpenter's shops.

Briggsville is the only other postoffice in the township. There is a store here; was at one time a tavern, but no longer open to the public.

Sugarloaf is a station on the Hazleton branch of railroad, six miles from Nescopeck. A station house. A fertilizing factory is the only business of the place. History of Luzerne County Pennsylvania; H. C. Bradsby, Editor S. B. Nelson & Co., Publishers, 1893


Coal Region

Nescopeck Creek

Lusanne to Nescopeck Turnpike

  • Lusanne was a large area of Northampton Co that was north of the current Lehigh Valley before the counties of Carbon and Schuylkill were formed. Mauch Chunk which later became Jim Thorpe was the first town to spring up from Lusanne.
  • Wikipedia

Susquehanna and Tioga Turnpike

  • also called Berwick and Tioga Tunrpike
  • Wikipedia

Townships

Salem Twp

Salem Twp hasn't ever been a part of Nescopeck Twp but there is considerable overlap of families because of the close proximity.

Cemeteries

  • Pine Grove is the cemetery along Market St in Berwick,there are some family members that started out across the river in Nescopeck Twp buried there.

Other marriage records

Baptisms and other church records

Genweb pages

More Maps

Books of local interest

local railroads

Connecticut claims to Pennsylvania territory and the Yankee/Pennemite War

Bradsbury's History of Luzerne Co

  • This is a very good book with a lot of useful info but it shouldn't be taken as the gospel truth for genealogy research,it's a good starting point but research should be double checked as there are some mistakes.

Pennsylvania Frontier Forts





Images: 8
Mt Zion Church
Mt Zion Church
Turnpike School,1 room schoolhouse.
Turnpike School,1 room schoolhouse.
Mt Zion,upper cemetary and the old church bell.
Mt Zion,upper cemetary and the old church bell.
Looking north towards Mt Zion church
Looking north towards Mt Zion church
Lenape Park
Lenape Park
view all
Collaboration


Comments: 2

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Kimbel-162 Sally Kimbel
Wow! What a great page about this area! I wanted to find some examples of One Place Studies on Wikitree, and this is a great one. Thanks more making it!
posted by Sally Kimbel

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