WYOMING VALLEY MASSACRE 



037-1 



WYTHE 



WYOMING VALLEY MASSACRE, wia^'a 

 When the Revolutionary War broke out, 

 irning Valley, in the present Luzerne 

 County, Pa., v 

 a chartered town 

 o f Connecticut 

 and proved itself 

 a stanch sup- 

 porter of the 

 colonial cause. 

 The few residents 

 with British sym- 

 pathies, called 

 Tories, were 

 driven out, and 

 most of the men 

 joined the Conti- 

 nental army. The 

 Tories, however, 

 joining them- 

 selves to a band 

 of other Tories 

 and Indian allies, 

 marched upon 

 the Valley in the 

 summer of 1778. 

 The inhabitants 

 immediately took 

 refuge in Forty 

 Fort, which was 

 lie present 



MASSACRE MONUMENT 

 Erected at Wilkes-Barre to 

 commemorate the deeds in 

 Wyoming Valley in 1778. 



city of Wilkes- 

 Barre; there were but 400 men among them, 

 while the invaders numbered 1,100, of whom 

 700 were Indians. On July 3 there occurred a 



battle in which the settlers were utterly de- 

 feated, almost two-thirds of them being killed 

 during the conflict or tortured to death after- 

 ward by the Indians. The remainder retreated 

 to the fort, which capitulated the next day. 

 The settlers were then allowed to find their way 

 to nearest settlements, many of the women 

 dying of the hardships they were forced to 

 endure on the way. The beautiful valley was 

 devastated and the villages were laid waste. 

 The event was a sad chapter in the war. See 

 REVOLUTIONARY WAR IN AMERICA; TORY. 



WYSS, vecs, JOHANN RUDOLF (1781-1830), a 

 Swiss educator and author, remembered chiefly 

 for his entertaining story The Swiss Family 

 Robinson. It relates the adventures of a 

 family which was shipwrecked on an island in 

 the Pacific Ocean, and is the best of several 

 stories written in imitation of Defoe's Robin- 

 son Crusoe. Wyss was born in Bern, Switzer- 

 land, where he became professor of philosophy 

 and held the post of librarian. He also wrote 

 the Swiss national hymn, Rufst du, mein Vatcr- 

 landf 



WYTHE, GEORGE (1726-1806), one of the 

 signers of the Declaration t of Independence, 

 and a member of the Constitutional Conven- 

 tion. He was born in Virginia and was edu- 

 cated at William and Mary College. From the 

 outbreak of the Revolution he was actively de- 

 voted to the patriot cause, and in 1775 sat in 

 the Continental Congress. After the war he 

 served as judge of the Virginia high court of 

 chancery, and was for ten years professor of 

 law at William and Mary College. 



