Look Back: An ode to Sullivan

A large party of people left on a special train car from the Lehigh Valley passenger station in Wilkes-Barre for the one-hour ride over the mountain to Bear Creek to dedicate a bronze tablet and boulder on Oct. 12, 1898.

When they arrived, they gathered for lunch at the Mokwa Inn that was decorated with autumn foliage, ferns and wild flowers on tables, reported the Wilkes-Barre Record on Oct. 13, 1898.

“It was a pretty affair and the guest were rife in their praise of the generosity of their host, Albert Lewis, who was never yet known to do anything in a half-hearted way,” the newspaper reported.

The ceremony was to dedicate the bronze tablet and boulder in remembrance of American Revolutionary Army General John Sullivan’s march from Easton to Wilkes-Barre in June and July 1779. The event was hosted by the Wilkes-Barre branch of the Pennsylvania Society of the Colonial Dames of America and the Daughters of the American Revolution.

“After lunch at the beautiful Mokwa Inn, the visitors were taken in carriages to the site of the bridge, about an eighth of a mile from the inn. Here, benches had been placed on both sides of the roadway and the speaker’s stand alongside the stone and tablet was adored with American flags and evergreen. Over the roadway floated a handsome American flag,” the Record reported.

The ceremony took place at today’s Bear Creek Dam in Bear Creek Village along state Route 115, which was formerly known as Sullivan’s Trail. The event honored Sullivan’s army that constructed a bridge over Ten Mile Run, which was one of several creeks that formed Bear Creek Lake when Albert Lewis constructed a series of dams to harvest ice and for the lumber industry.

“The dedication of the stone and tablet was to mark the bridge erected by Gen. John Sullivan over Ten Mile Run, near the Village of Bear Creek, during his famous march against the Six Nations,” reported the Record.

Gen. Sullivan’s march and pursuit of the Six Nations is widely known as retaliation for the crushing defeat of the American militia at Wyoming by British Tories and Native Americans on July 3, 1778.

Sullivan arrived in Easton and began gathering supplies for the pursuit. A road — Sullivan’s Trail — was cut through the Poconos and Bear Creek and over what was then called Susquehanna Mountain into the Wyoming Valley, today’s Wilkes-Barre City.

The bronze tablet was 24 inches by 22 inches in size with the inscription: “This stone marks the site of a bridge built by Sullivan’s Army on its march against the Six Nations, 1779. It was presented by Mr. Albert Lewis to the Wilkes-Barre Branch of the Colonial Dames and by them inscribed, 1898.”

The Wilkes-Barre Record published excerpts from several diaries of members of Sullivan’s Army and their march through Bear Creek.

“The whole country from Easton to Wyoming is very pore and barren and I think such as will never be inhabited it abounds with deer and rattlesnakes.”

“The road from Pokono to Wyoming is entirely new but will undoubtedly become public should that place flourish.”

“This day we marched 20 miles and through Bear Swamp where we had to make a new road being fitted with a bridge for our carriages and wagons.”

Dr. Jabez Campfield, the doctor who served on Sullivan’s march, noted Bear Swamp in a 1779 letter that was published in the Record Oct. 13, 1898.

“We crossed and passed through Bear Swamp, through which runs a considerable stream, called Ten Mile Run. Four miles from Wyoming, we crossed a high mountain.”

As for the Oct. 12, 1898, ceremony, the Record reported: “The afternoon was a delightful one all through and the visitors were charmped with the beauty of Bear Creek and its surroundings.”