When Connecticut Yankees began to settle the Wyoming Valley in the 1760s, both the local Pennsylvanians and the powerful native Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) strenuously objected. The Connecticut Colony and William Penn had been granted the same land by King Charles II of England, resulting in the instigation of the Yankee-Pennamite Wars. In 1788, during ongoing conflict, a band of young Yankee ruffians abducted Pennsylvania official Timothy Pickering, holding him hostage for nineteen days. Some kidnappers were prosecuted, and several fled to New York's Finger Lakes as the political incident motivated state leaders to resolve the fighting. Bloody skirmishes, the American Revolution and the Sullivan campaign to destroy the Iroquois all formed the backdrop to the territorial dispute. Author Kathleen A. Earle covers the early history of colonial life, war and frontier justice in the Wyoming Valley.

The Battle of Wyoming: For Liberty and Life explores the infamous 1778 Revolutionary War battle in Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania. The Battle of Wyoming (and the so-called Wyoming Massacre that followed) was a relatively small event, but its impact would help to dictate the fates of Britain, the American Indians, and the newborn United States. The Battle of Wyoming rebuilds this important conflict using factual narrative, quotations, illustrations, biographies, and even a guide to battle sites in modern-day Wyoming Valley.

Northeast Pennsylvania's Wyoming Valley was truly a dark and bloody ground, the site of murders, massacres, and pitched battles. The valley's turbulent history was the product of a bitter contest over property and power known as the Wyoming controversy. This dispute, which raged between the mid-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, intersected with conflicts between whites and native peoples over land, a jurisdictional contest between Pennsylvania and Connecticut, violent contention over property among settlers and land speculators, and the social tumult of the American Revolution. In its later stages, the controversy pitted Pennsylvania and its settlers and speculators against "Wild Yankees"—frontier insurgents from New England who contested the state's authority and soil rights. In Wild Yankees, Paul B. Moyer argues that a struggle for personal independence waged by thousands of ordinary settlers lay at the root of conflict in northeast Pennsylvania and across the revolutionary-era frontier. The concept and pursuit of independence was not limited to actual war or high politics; it also resonated with ordinary people, such as the Wild Yankees, who pursued their own struggles for autonomy. This battle for independence drew settlers into contention with native peoples, wealthy speculators, governments, and each other over land, the shape of America's postindependence social order, and the meaning of the Revolution. With vivid descriptions of the various levels of this conflict, Moyer shows that the Wyoming controversy illuminates settlement, the daily lives of settlers, and agrarian unrest along the early American frontier.

Although history records the hurricane that struck northeastern Pennsylvania in June 1972 as "Agnes," residents of the Wyoming Valley affected by the storm and the resulting damage simply refer to it as "the flood." As the Susquehanna River rose to over 40 feet and left her banks, citizens could do nothing but watch as their lives were forever changed. A raging torrent unearthed dozens of previously resting bodies in the Forty Fort Cemetery, houses were knocked off their foundations or swept away entirely, and citizens took to their boats to rescue those who did not heed the warnings of the sirens that wailed when the waters began to surge through the city streets. And yet, amidst the drama, a wedding--scheduled long before the storm--proceeded, though not quite as envisioned by the bride and groom.

"The History of Wyoming" explains detailed information of territorial and state developments. This second edition also includes the post-World War II chapters containing discussion about the economy, society, culture and politics not included on the previous edition.

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1893 Edition.