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GENEALOGICAL AND PERSONAL RECORD,

JENKINS AND PLAINS TOWNSHIPS, PARSONS AND YATESVILLE BOROUGHS.

JOHN ABBOTT. at Plains; married, and entered into businesswith E. A. Hancock, under

the firm name of Hancock & Macknight ; doing a general merchandising John Abbott, whose portrait we give, born in Wilkes-Barre town- was business. He is postmaster; is a member of the board of county ship, Luzerne county. Pa., April 8th, 1800. His father, Stephen Abbott, auditors of Luzerne county, and one of the directors of the poor for the in 1769 and built was the son of John Abbott who came to the valley central poor district. the first dwelling house in the borough of Wilkes-Barre. In 1812 the old flre-place was still to be seen on the corner lot of Northampton JOHN MITCHELL. and Main streets, from whence he removed to the Plains in 1774 and John Mitchell, of Plains, Luzerne county, is a native of Scotland, hav- settled on the same farm afterward occupied by Stephen Abbott dur- ing been born in Ayrshire, in 1816. He is a son of Kobert Mitchell and ing his life, and where ho died. After the battle of Wyoming, in 1778, Mary Brown Mitchell, who came to West Pittston in 1851, where they John Abbott returned to his previous home on the Plains, with a view resided until the death of Robert Mitchell in 1862. He had lived to the to gather and save of his crops what the Indians had left; and while advanced age of seventy-flve years. His wife, who survived him, died engaged in this work in company with Isaac Williams, a brother of in 1875, at the age of eighty-four. Their son, the subject of this article, the late Thomas Williams, was attacked and shot by a party of In- came to the coal fields of Pennsylvania in 1849, and since that time his dians. career has been so eventful and successful that a passing mention of his On the maternal side the subject of this memoir was descended from life and character should not be omitted from the pages that record the Constant Searle, a member of Captain Hewet's company, who was growth and development of the industry in which he has been promi- slain at the battle of Wyoming, July 3d, 1778, at the very commence- nent. When he was but a mere child— a boy of eight years—he began ment of the action. His granddaughter was the mother of our John working as a slate-pjcker in the mines of Scotland, where he spent about Abbott, who, it will be seen, has abundance of martyr blood in his five years. In 1829 he went from home and made himself a home in Nova veins. Scotia, where he resided until his removal to the Wyoming valley in Mr. Abbott continued with his father, going to school and working on 1849. During the twenty j'ears of his residence in Nova Scotia he was the farm, until he had attained his majority, when he, like many other married to Miss Isabella Smith, a native of that province. She died in young men, went to Mauch Chunk and entered the service of the Le- September, 1878. Mr. Mitchell's first work in this State was done at Port high Navigation and Coal Company, in which he continued for about Griffith for the Pennsylvania Coal Company. For eight years he worked ten years. Tliis was before the company had made their canal navi- as a miner, but in 18.i7 he began a more independent career by taking a gation, and his business was to run the old rude coal boxes to Phila- contract from the North Branch Coal Company to mine, prepare and delphia down the slackwaternavigation and through the "bear-trap" deliver their coal in coal barges for eighty-five cents per ton. He sub- locks. Skill was required in this work and Mr. Abbott very soon ac- sequently made similar contracts with Thomas Fender, of Plymouth, quired the reputation of an expert, and a popularity along the line for and in 1860 he leased a coal property in Plains of Volney Maxwell, Esq., the dry wit and humor which he always had at command. In 1829 he and became a coal operator. The following year he leased another left Mauch Chunk and returned to his farm on the Plains with $1,5C0, property at very favorable rates, and from these two properties he the net savings of his nine years of hard service. In 18.30 he was mar- amassed during the first three years of the civil war a large i)art of the ried to Hannah Courtright, the daughter of Cornelius Courtright, Esq., magnificent estate which he has since retired to enjoy. In 1864 Mr. a prominent citizen of Luzerne county. From this time Mr. Abbott Mitchell sold his rights under these leases and invested the ]>roceeds in was engaged in farming, in which he was very successful, up to the time valuable coal lands in the same vicinity, which he now leases. After be- of his death, which occurred on the 33d of November, 1861. His widow, coming a citizen under the American government he cast his first vote for one son and two daughters still survive him. John C. Fremont, and he has ever since been identifled with the Kepubli- The prominent traits of John Abbott's character may be written in a can party. He was one of the Presidential electors elected by the Re- few lines. He was a good neighbor and friend, a inrst rate financier in publicans in 1880. He has lived to see his children—three sons and four making his investments, and a most industrious business man. daughters—all well situated in pleasant homes.

E. A. HANCOCK. CALVIN PARSONS. Elisha A. Hancoekwas born in Plains township,Luzerne county,Pa., in Calvin Parsons was born April 2nd, 1815, where he now lives. He was June, 1839. He served in the 9th Pennsylvania cavalry from its organi- married August 17th, 1837, to Miss Ann Parsons, of Enfield, Hartford zation in the fall of 1861 until the close of the war. He lost a leg at the county. Conn. Mrs. Parsons was born June 22nd, 1814. Their children battle of Averysville, N. C. His regiment was the only one of Pennsyl- are: Oliver A., born May 11th, 1838; Louisa A., May 4th, 1840; Almeda vania cavalry which accompanied Sherman on hismarch to the sea. He is A.,' July 31st, 1843 ; Annie D., July 24th, 1848, and Hezekiah, October 20th, at present attached to the staft of Governor Henry M. Hoyt as quarter- 1854. Mr. Parsons was for many years a manufacturer of woolen goods master general of the State of Pennsylvania. He is a member of the firm at Parsons and is now a farmer. He was commissioned in 1835 as cap- of Hancock, Beds & Co., who are doing a large shipping and commission tain of the Wilkes-Barre and Pittston Rifle Blues, an independent business in Philadelphia. In the spring of 1866 he associated himself in company. business at Plains with O. B. Macknight, under the firm name of Han- cock & Macknight, and from a small beginning, in a new building, which JOHN AND MART SEARLE. was intended to bo used as a small store and large hotel, their business John Searle, deceased, was a son of Rodger Searle, who was in the kept increasing until the entire building is controlled by them. Wyoming massacre, and a grandson of Constant Searle, from Connecti- cut. He was born February 15th, 1795, and died in 1863. He drove stage O. B. MACKNIGHT. from Wilkes-Barre to Montrose in an early day and was interested in O. B. Macknight was born in Lancaster county. Pa., in July, 1839. He stage and mail routes until his death. He was married in September, was a member of the 9th Pennsylvania cavalry, and served from its 1822, to Mary, daughter of the late Henry Stark. She was born at Plains, organization in 1861 until its muster-out, at Lexington, N. C, July, 1865. February 16th, 1800, in the old house that stood where the shaft of the He joined as an enlisted man, and through gradual promotion was mus- Enterprise colliery is sunk, on the farm where she now resides. This tered out with the rank of captain. At the close of the war he settled house was built by her father, who was one of the early settlers of the *^-

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