Judge Obadiah Gore, Jr.

Multiple DNA Matches on Ancestry.com (Confidence Moderate) via the Wealthy Ann Gore Spaulding line. This line will take you to me. Stephen Wesley Kendall

Obadiah Gore Jr. learned the trade of a blacksmith, and settled in his native town. He was married March 27, 1764, to Anna (born December 18, 1744), third child of Richardson and Sarah (Plumb) Avery of Groton, New London County, Connecticut. (For a sketch of Richardson Ayorv and some of his descendants, see a subsequent chapter.) In the Autumn of 1762 Obadiah Gore, Jr. (then in the nineteenth year of his life), and his younger brother, Daniel, came with the original New England settlers to Wyoming (see page 403, Vol. I) as the representatives of their father, a member of The Susquehanna Company; and it is quite probable that the two youths" were here at the time of the massacre described on page 430, Vol. I.. In the Spring of 1769 Obadiah— accompanied by his brothers Daniel and Silas—again came to Wyoming; this time in the company of settlers led by Major Durkee. He was here during the ensuing Summer again in 1770, and in 1771 took part in the siege and capture of Fort Wyoming. For this last-mentioned service he was admitted as a proprietor in the town of Wilkes-Barre September 84, 1771; and when the final distribution of. the Wilkes-Barri lands took place in 1772 he drew House Lot No. 6, as well as lots in the other divisions of the town. (See pages 713, 728 and 655.) Prior to 1778 he acquired, also, House Lot No. 5, which he continued to own until March 20, 1786, when he sold it to Aaron Cleveland for £15. Lot No. 6 he continued to own until 1787, or later.

During the first few years subsequently to his second coining (1769) to Wyoming Obadiah Gore, Jr., worked at his trade. He and his brother Daniel were two of the small number of blacksmiths to be found among the New England settlers in the valley at that time; and these two were undoubtedly the first men, not only in Wyoming but in the world, to use "stone-coal," or anthracite, for fuel—they having used it as early as the year 1769 in the fires of a smithy or forge at Wilkes-Barre\ As evidence that, as early as 1774, at least, Obadiah Gore, Jr., appreciated the fact that anthracite coal had some value, the following paragraph is here introduced, taken from an original letter written in May, 1774, by Mr. Gore to The Susquehanna Company, and now in the possession of the present writer. " There is a large ... opened on it and successfully worked for a long period. Concerning the connection of Obadiah Gore, Jr., with the early burning of anthracite coal, further and fuller references are made in Chapter LI, post.

As early as June, 1772, Obadiah Gore, Jr., was a member of the Wyoming Committee of Settlers (see page 735), and thenceforward, for more than thirty years, he was prominent and influential in the affairs of Wyoming. His name is frequently mentioned in the following pages. From February to July, inclusive, in 1772, he was Town Clerk of Wilkes-Barre. In October, 1772, he was sent by the Wyoming settlers to the General Assembly at New Haven to present an important memorial. (See pages 750 and 751.) In 1775 he was surveying lands in the Wyoming region for some of the Susquehanna, proprietors.

Miner ("History of Wyoming," page 192) says: "During the Summer [of 17761 Captain Wcisner, from New York, was sent to Wyoming to enlist part of a rifle company for the Continental service. Obadiah Gore, Jr., * * received the commission of Lieutenant ana raised about twenty men, with whom he marched to headquarters. Soon after, however, it being deemed proper that, as they were enlisted in Connecticut, they should be credited to her, and not to the New York Line, they were transferred to the regiment of Colonel Wyllys." At the session of the General Assembly of Connecticut held in October, 1776, Obadiah Gore, Jr., was "appointed to be First Lieutenant in one of the eight battalions" then ordered to be raised (see "Records of the State of Connecticut," 1:14); and according to "Connecticut in the Revolution" (published at Hartford, Connecticut, in 1889) Obadiah Gore, Jr., was commissioned January 1, 1777. First Lieutenant in the Third Regiment, Connecticut Line, commanded by Col. Samuel Wyllys. He (Gore), according to this book, was "on duty at Westmoreland; was in Sullivan's expedition, and was retired from service January 1, 1781, by reason of the consolidation of the 3d Regiment with the 1th Regiment, Connecticut Line." Craft, in his "History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania," says (page SOU): "In 1776 he [Obadiah Gore, Jr.] entered the Continental army in a regiment commanded by Col. Isaac Nichols, and served six years; was commis sioned First Lieutenant by John Hancock, October 11, 1776, and by John Jay, March 16, 1779." The present writer will not attempt to reconcile these different accounts of the military commissions and services of Lieutenant Gore, but will simply state that there is indisputable evidence at hand to prove that Obadiah Gore, Jr., was a Lieutenant in the Continental forces in the years 1776 to 1780.

Lieutenant Gore was not in Wyoming at the time of the battle of July 3. 1778, but was with the army under General Gates, at White Plains, New York. About the 18th of July he joined Colonel Butler at Fort Penn (now Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania) and was sent by the latter "as express to headquarters"—as is shown by an original document in the handwriting of Colonel Butler, now in the collections of The Wyoming Historical and Geological Society. (See, also, "Proceedings and Collections of The Wyoming Historical and Geological Society," VII : 131. 146.) In August, September and October, 1778, and in March, 1771), Lieutenant Gore was on military duty at the Wyoming Post in Wilkes-Barre—and presumably was here during the Winter of 1778-'79. According to Connecticut in the Revolution" (page 267) Lieutenant Gore and the following-named men of the Third Regiment. Connecticut Line, were at the Wyoming Post November 11, 1779. Asa Chapman, Sergeant, Thomas Park, Corporal, Deliverance Adams, Turner Johnson, Ebenezer Park, John Oakley, Benjamin Potts, David Shaw, Lemuel Whitman, Crocker Tones, John Plainer and Joshua Farnum. In May, 1779, Lieutenant Gore was appointed by the General Assembly of Connecticut, and duly commissioned, a Justice of ... of Wilkes-Barre, and in 1782 was Treasurer of the county of Westmoreland. He was one of the two Representatives from Westmoreland who sat in the General Assembly of Connecticut at the sessions held in October, 1781, and in May and October, 1782. In February, 1783, he was the bearer to the Legislature of New York of an important memorial from a large number of Wyoming inhabitants. (See Chapter XXI, post.)

In the latter part of 1784 Lieutenant Gore removed from Wilkes-Barre to a section of the Susque hanna region which subsequently formed a part of Luzerne, later was in Lycoming, but now is in Bradford, County, Pennsylvania. He located first in what is now Ulster Township, but the next year removed to what is now Sheshequin, on the left bank of the Susquehanna. (In the note on page 443, Vol. I. we refer to the original Sheshequin as being on the left Dank of the river. This is an error, inasmuch as it was on the right, or west, bank, within the limits of the present township of Ulster. August 28, 1775, The Susquehanna Company granted to Elijah Buck—who in 1802 was living in Tioga County. New York—Ahohab Buck, William Buck. Asahel Buck. Thomas McClure, Matthias Hollenback, Obadiah Gore and others a township called "Ulster," containing twenty-five square miles of territory and located on the west side of the main branch of the Susquehanna at and above Tioga Point. Owing to the breaking out of the War of the Revolution no survey or allotment was made in pursuance of the aforementioned grant, nor was any attempt at settlement made. July 21, 1786, after Lieutenant Gore and others had settled in that locality. The Susquehanna Company—by a committee consisting of Zebulon Butler and John Franklin—issued a new grant for the township of Ulster, which included territory on both sides of the river, but took in only a small part of the territory covered by the original grant. This new township was surveyed in 1786 by Lieut. Obadiah Gore, "Agent and Surveyor for the following-named grantees—as shown by the original records of The Susquehanna Company, Book I, page 25. Simon Spalding, William Buck, William Judd, Timothy Hosmer, Obadiah Gore, Elijah Buck, Thomas Baldwin, Henry Baldwin, Joseph Kinney, Joseph Kinney, Jr., Joseph Spalding, John Spalding, Reuben Fuller, "Widow" Hannah Gore, Samuel Gore, Abraham Brokaw, Avery Gore, Joseph Ptaton, Joshua Dunlap, Lockwood Smith, Aholiab Buck's heirs, John Shephard, Stephen Shephard. Nathan Dcnison.

Defries, Abner Kelly and Benjamin Clark. This township ofr Ulster was merged in the township of Tioga in 1790 by a decree of the Luzerne County Court, but some twenty years later it became one of the original townships of Bradford County, and existed under the name of Ulster until 1820, when the township was divided—the portion west of the river retaining the name Ulster and the portion east of the river receiving the name Sheshequin. It was in this last-mentioned Sheshequin that Obadiah Gore lived.)

Craft states in his "History of Bradford County" that Obadiah Gore built in 1787 the first framed house in what is now Sheshequin Township, and that he also had the first distillery in the township. From 1791, at least, until 1821 he conducted a store there—probably the first one in Sheshequin. In 1788 Lieutenant Gore was employed by the Boundary Commissioners of Pennsylvania (one of whom was David Rittenhouse, mentioned on page 792) to assist them, in conjunction with the Commissioner* of New York, in running the boundary-line between the two States. As shown by an original MS. in the handwriting of Obadiah Gore, now among the papers of The Susquehanna Company in the possession of The Connecticut Historical Society, "Little Beard," "Big Tree," and other chiefs of the Seneca and Cayuga tribes of the Six Nations, leased to Simon Spalding, Obadiah Gore, Elijah Buck, John Shepard, Matthias Hollenback, and fifteen others, under the date of March 5, 1787, a large tract of lane! on the Susquehanna and Tioga Rivers, in the "Connecticut Gore region." The consideration paid was £1,600, New York currency, and the lease was to run for a long term of years.

May 11, 1787, Lieutenant Gore was commissioned by the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsyl vania one of the two Justices of the Peace in and for the Third District of Luzerne County, and one of the seven original 'Justices of the Court of Common Pleas of the county. (See Chapter XXIV.) He served as a Justice of the Court of Common Pleas until August 17, 1791. when, under the ne»

riginal Justices ot the Lc i Justice of the Court of : the State (adopted in 17!

< »crveu .1 " . i i U3in_c \ji Luc \_ulii i ui \_uiiiiinjii i Icub mini nuguvL i , J. i <r & mticii, uuuci iuc «**

Constitution of tne State (adopted in 1790), he was appointed and commissioned an Associate Judge or the Courts of Luzerne County, to serve during good behavior. In this office he served until April, 1804, when Sheshequin, Ulster and other of The Susquehanna Company's townships in the northern section of Luzerne County were set off and annexed to Lycoming County.

Craft (in his "History of Bradford County") says of Judge Gore: "He was a man of superior mind, and benevolent in the fullest sense of the word. His name was a household word among the settlers in the backwoods for a long time, and they ever found in him a friend who would assist them from his ample stores as their necessities required." Mrs. Perkins (in "Early Times on the Susquehanna") says: "He [Judge Gore] was a man of dignity of character, and pleasing in his address. He was a man of much taste, and cultivated a great variety of fruit. He also planted the mulberry tree and raised silk-worms to some extent. lie was at one time a merchant, and opened a store of goods in his house on the hill, where he always lived, and at the same time carried on farming quite cxtensivelv. There was much in bis beautiful situation to comfort his family and attract his friends." He was a man of fine appearance, as is indicated bv the photo-reproduction on page 833 of his portrait, painted when he was about forty years of age. That he wore a wig as early as 1787 (when he was forty-three years of age), is shown by the following extract from a letter written at Philadelphia in November, 1787, by Col. Timothy Pickering to his wife at Wilkes-Barre. "I have desired Mr. Burkett to purchase a wig for Esquire Gore, but he nas not yet found one ready-made. The peruke-makers ask eight dollars to make one.

The following verses from Alexander Wilson's poem, "The Foresters." referred to on page 65, Vol. I, describe the poet's visit to Judge Gore's home at Sheshcquin in the Autumn of 1803:

" "Tis now dull twilight; trudging on we keep

Where giddy Breakneck nods above the steep,

And down the darkening forests slowly steer,

Where woods, receding, show a dwelling near—

A painted frame, tall barracks filled with hay,

Clean, whitewashed railings raised along the way.

Young poplars, mixed with weeping willows green,

Rise o'er the gate, and fringe the walks within;

An air of neatness, pleasing to the eye and mind,

ttespeaks that courtesy we so quickly find.

The aged Judge, in grave apparel dressed,

To cushioned chairs invites each weary guest;

O'er the rich carpet bids the table rise,

With all the sweets that India's clime supplies;

And supper served, with elegance, the glass

In sober circuit is allowed to pass.

The reverend sire, with sons and grandsons round.

Ruddy as health, by Summer suns embrowned.

Inquires our road and news with modest mien;

Tells of the countries he himself has seen.

His Indian battles, midnight ambuscades,

Wounds and captivity in the forest glades;

And with such winning, interesting store

Of wildwood tales and literary lore

Beguiles the evening and enthrals each heart,

That, though sleep summons, we are loath to part;

And, e'en in bed reposed, the listening ear

Seems still the accents of the sage to hear.

The morning comes. (Ye gods! how quickly hies

To weary folks the hour when they must rise!)

Groping around, each fixes his particular load,

And, full equipped, forth issues to the road."

Judge Gore died at his home in Sheshequin March 21, 1821, and his wife died there April 24, 1829. The children of Obadiah and Anna (Avery) Gore were as follows: (1) Avery, born January 10, 1765. (2) Weltkea Ann, born August 10, 1767; married to Col. John Spalding, son of Gen. Simon and Ruth (Shepard) Spalding of Sheshequin. (3) Hannah, born September 8, 1769; married October 8, 1788, to Elisha Durkee (born January 6, 1764), said to have been either a nephew or a cousin of Col. John Durkee mentioned on page 480, Vol. I. Elisha and Hannah (Gore) Durkee removed to Scipio, New York, where the former died August 21, 1819, and the latter died April 6, 1855. (4) Anna, born February 8, 1772; married Tune 3, 1790, as his first wife, to John Shepard (born at Plainfield, Connecticut, April 17, 1765), for many years a prominent resident of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, where he died May 15, 1837. His wife Anna (Gore) died September 7, 1805. (5) Sally, born Septemlier 22, 1774; married to Isaac Cash of Ulster (born August 12, 1766; died April 12, 1813). She died .March 23, 1813.

_______

   Westmoreland 7th March 1779

Sir: I have been in the Continental Service Ever since the beginning of August 1776 and was at the White Plains when the Emeny _ist* off this place last July. You doubtless have heard the particulars of the Action in Which I lost three of own brothers. viz: Silas, Asa, and George, and two brothers in law Timothy Pierce and John Murphy --- Daniel and Samuel was in the battle but escaped, --- Our families were all drove out from this Settlement without the help of horses and cattle, and with no more than what they could carry out throught the wilderness on their backs. And our buildings all burnt and our household Furniture and clothing all carried away or destroyed, but we have got the possession again and have about 140 Continental Soldiers here, besides a number of Inhabitants that has returned, and we have a very strong fort with Artillery and provisions plenty ....... Father moved back his family in Nov. last and he took the small pox of which he died the 10th of January last.--- Mother and the children has had it by inoculation and recovered and now live with me. Daniel and his family & Silas widow and her children are here, --- Asas, widow and her child is a Preston, Hannah and her children is at Plainfield, Lucy and her children are at Canaan*.... It is a healthy time with us at present. We have no news or nothing, nor nothing new happened here since the 10th of last month when a party of Indians came down & and killed 3 men, and wounded another who has since recovered. The Indians lost one killed dead on the spot and two others badly wounded as apparent by the blood, but we could not catch them ---- I desire to be remembered to Annl* and all my cousins. Mother desires to be remembered to you and
your family.
I remain yours, Obadiah Gore
To: Capt. Nathaniel Gallup
Photostat Copy by Forrest Gore Smith of the original.. Copy received from Paul Gore 1968.
Typed 19 October 1998 by Patricia M. Gore Palmer, Alaska
Note: Obadiah Gore wrote this letter 7th of March 1779, about the plight of his Brothers at the Wyoming Massacre 3 July 1778. Asa, Silas, & George GORE; and his two brothers who survived, Samuel & Daniel GORE. The letter was written to his uncle Nathaniel GALLOP husband of an Aunt Hannah GORE.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OLD ORPHAN COURT DOCKET (1)
Sept. 6, 1787
Obadiah GORE (Guardian)
Obadiah Gore appointed guardian to Asa Gore, miner under 14 yrs, son and
heir of Petioner's brother Asa Gore deceased and also guardian to John, Sarah
and George MURPHY, children of John Murphy deceased and wife Lucy, the said
Lucy being the sister of the said Obadiah Gore.
Sources:

HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF STONINGTON, County of New London, Connecticut, from its first settlement in 1649 to 1900, by Richard Anson Wheeler, New London, CT, 1900, p. 398