Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1872-07-13
CORRESPONDENCE.
BELLEFoNTE, PENN'A,
July 9th, 1872.
July 3IU, IoIZ,
EMANUEL WILvERT, ESQ,
My Dear Sir:


July 9th, 1872.
EMANUEL WILvERT, ESQ,
Ny Dear Sir:
sirous that the suggestion of yourself and
II. d. Wharton, be followed up, and fit
ting memorial be published of your late
Centennial Celebration. l feel certain that
if the citizens, or the Post of the Grand
Army, will take hold of it, handsome
sum will be realized toward the completion
of the monument proposed to be erected on
the public square in Sunbury.
The celebration was n complete success,
and your citizens deserve much commend
alton for their iberaiity in providing funds,
their wholesou!ed hospitality on .he occa
sion, and their unselfsh sacrifices for the
accommodation of strangers. The various
committees worked up the details of so
large an undertaking with infinite credit to
themselves. 1 commend especially, the
police, whose energetic 'laying on of
hands" quelled promptly the slightest dis
turbance, and cowed down the drunken
fools, whose antics usually destroy the hap
puess OF such occasions.
The Hon. W. l.. Dewart ran the meeting
with rare ability; Judge Jordaus address
was worthy of the occasion and l will
stand another ''ducking' to hear Mr..
Purdy's "reminiscences over again.
Gen. Camerous short address was, to
me, one Of The most interesting incidents Of
the day. He certainly struck key note
for a celebration of this kind when he COM
mendcd the greatness, the virtue and the
influence upon the country, of the old-time
people 0. Sunbury and Northumberland
county. Possibly it excited smile on
some faces, but will prove to you that
from the loins of Mr.. Purdy's blind bachelor
spranS a lady to whom the first families Of
New York State are indebted for their re-
fined intellectual culture.
III is about time some one should brush
the cob-webs from the historical portraiturc
of DR.. William Plunkett, the first presiding
Justice d northumberland county. Ills
: gifted graud-sou, Judge William Plunkett
Maclay, of Miillin county, could do so, if
he were not too much engaged i'll doing
nothing.
In the first place will legitimate his de-
cendauts. DR.. PlunkCtt married II daugh-
T ter of John Harris, Sr., aud sister of John
Harris, the founder Of Harrisburg. At
the time of his marriage he resided at Car
Isle, Penn'a, where his four daughters
were born Elizabeth in 1755-married to
Hon. Samuel Maday, L. S. Senator 1903
1908. Isabella married TO Wm Bell, ESQ,
of lzabcthtown, \. j. Mrs. Bell was at
the head of the celebrated female school at
Albany, New York, ut the close of the last
century, where were educated the Misses
Jay, Mrs. Bangor, and other ladies' promi-
nent in New York ,eoeioty. Margaret
irieu isaac Iiichardson, a surveyor in
Sunbury, many years ago, who afterwards
y went 10 The GencSseG country, n. Y. Hes
ter, tnc younSesl, was married at Milton,
TO Col. Robert Baxter, uf the British army.
Tradition has it that they wesa separatcd
the day after their marriage, by a eeremp-
, tory order TO Col. Baxter to join his reGi-
ment. At all events they never met again.
One child was the issue of this union, Mar
earet Baxter, the late accomplished wife of
! DIR. Samuel Maclay, of Millroy, Pa. The
!, latter visited Europe many years since and
secured her fathers estate. 4hc marriage
, was proved by some old lady in Selns-
grove, Judge Burnside (the elder having
charge OF the case. This grand child is
the one mentioned specially in DIR. PUNK
etts will, on record in Sunbury il79lD.
McGinnis puts his eyes out and kills him
in 1901.
The fact is DR.. Punkett does not de-
serve the disrospectful illusions made to
him in McGinns' "IlistOry of the West
Branch." Our people had no historians :;
the Yankees have had Miner, the eloquent
Col. Stone, Geo. Peck, d. D., who have
made Col Plunkett's expeditions as re-
nowned as Braddock's defeat, aud given it
about as bad coloring. AS stood above
his unmarked grave in your old cemetery
and watched the long trains that drew
thelr hundreds to your celebration, aud
heard the shrieking car whistles, tie shouts
OF happy people, and the thunder peals Of
artillery, fondly wished he could raise
from his silent slumbcr for one glance upon
the prosperity of his country, which he did
so much TO put forward.
True, in college prank he committed
some deed that made England too hot to
bold him. The stories are so different do
not know which to believe us to what he
did do; but during the Revolutionary war
he was in Philadelphia, aud chance threw
nm into company of British officers, of
whom II brother of Lord Egliton was one.
Plunkett knew hin and was rather chary
about an introduction, but was relieved
speedily by the remark of the brother: Il
wish you had billed the damned rascal
then l would not be here"
lie was not tory, but as he had held
the hinS's high commission of Justice Of
her MaIesty's Court of Northumberland
county, his sense of honor would not allow
MN 10 take an active open part in the re-
Dellion. l saw among the papers of Cap
tain John Lowdon, the member of the Su-
preme Executive Council from Northum-
Deriand county, correspondence dated June
~, lI14, which shows that William Ma
clay, William Plunkett and Col. Samuel
Hunter were relied upon to organize the
resistance to the encroachments Of the
Crown.
The fact is our old joking friend Jacob
COOK, OF Muncy, gave full swing to his
marvellous memory when Mr.. McGinnis
came around With his note book, never
supposing it would all go down upon the
record as actual verify.
To resume, however, with Gen. Came
ron's line of thought, would have care
fully prepared memoir made of Col. Samuel
Hunter, who for fifteen long years stood
with drawn sword upon the outpost of
civilization, and drove back the advancing
hordes of sayaSes. The more i become
acquainted with our frontier history, the
more l admire the virtues and heroic foIti- !
tude OF this man. There was time when
he was counselied to give up Fort Augusta.
lie replied by sending his wife down the |
riyer with her brother, Col. Abraham |