The Stone Families of Abington Township
Lackawanna County Pennsylvania
LUZERNE COUNTY was created out of a part of Northumberland and Northampton counties in 1786. The uninhabited area known as Beech Woods, later to become ABINGTON, became part of Luzerne County where it remained until the formation of LACKAWANNA COUNTY in 1878. Land and other records, prior to 1878, are contained in the archives of Luzerne County in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
In the year 1790, a tract of land in northeastern Pennsylvania was surveyed under the Connecticut claims by a party of surveyors from the state of Rhode Island. They laid out lots of about 300 acres each.
This survey was called Ebbington, being named for a Colonel Ebbings of Warwick, Rhode Island. Ebbings was the land agent from whom the claims had been obtained. The tract included Eaton, Tunkhannock, Abington, Greenfield, part of Blakely, Benton, Nicholson and Carbondale.
Three fur traders came into Ebbington during the same year of the surveys. A lad of eighteen named Ephraim Leach was bound out to the tanners trade in Plainfield, Connecticut. He had not yet finished his seven year apprenticeship.
When the trappers told Ephraim about their proposed journey to the wilds of Pennsylvania, he ran away from his employer and joined the fur trappers of 1790. The three fur traders were William Clark and sons Jeremiah and William.
After a brief stay, William Clark and his sons returned home with the excellent results of their trapping. Because Ephraim Leach had broken his indenture to the tanners trade in Plainfield, Connecticut, he could not return without the risk of being put in jail by his former employer. He stayed on and became the first white settler in the Ebbington forest.
He was the owner of a warrant for Bounty Lands (inherited from his father who fought and died in the Revolutionary war).
The immigration to Beech Woods began during the 1800's with the arrival of William Wall, Job Tripp, Ezra Dean, Robert Reynolds, Jonathan Capwell, and Jonathan Dean, with sons James and Jeffrey.
Then in 1801 followed, George Bailey, Joe Briggs, Samuel Hall, John Lewin, Stephen Parker, Fineas Reynolds, Solomon Reynolds and Abner Sherman.
In 1802, came John Miller, Jonathan Hall, and the brothers Lemuel, Robert, John and James Stone with their sister Celinda.
[The above excerpted, in part, from "This is Waverly", by Mildred Mumford and available at the Waverly Community House, Waverly, Pa.]
The story of the STONE FAMILIES OF ABINGTON begins with James Stone (1753-1836) and Rebecca Sheldon Stone (1757-1815), daughter of Job and Lydia Gibbs Sheldon, whom he married in 1776 in Coventry, RI.
They had nine children, eight of whom married and left descendants in Abington, PA.
Mary Stone (born 1779) was the oldest daughter of James and Rebecca. At 18 years of age, she married Stephen Parker. The young couple set off in 1801, with their young son Alvah (1800-1861) , to settle in Abington. Mary Stone Parker thus became the very first of the many Stone Families to populate Abington. Stephen and Mary Parker had ten children. Eight married and raised their many children in Abington.
No doubt the marriage of Mary Stone to Stephen Parker was an influence in the decision of her brothers, Robert, John, Lemuel, Samuel and sister Celinda to immigrate to Abington in 1802. That same year, two other of the earliest settlers, Elder John Miller and Jonathan Hall, from Plainfield, CN arrived and settled in Abington.
Following the death of their youngest child, Asenath (1798-1813), James and Rebecca Stone, settled in Abington in 1815. They were accompanied by James (1789-1867) and Rebecca (1795-1868) who remained to care for their parents and young sister, when the rest of the children (Robert, John, Lemuel, Samuel and Celinda) left the farm in Coventry and settled in Abington in 1802.
Along with the Stones were other descendants and relatives from Rhode Island that headed to Luzerne (now Lackawanna) County, PA. Many were from Scituate Rhode Island which borders on Coventry, Rhode Island where James Stone resided. Some of those families included members of the Ralphs (Relf, Relph), Colvin & Franklin families.
A map of Abington area (courtesy of Rootsweb Lackawanna PA Genweb) shows Stone lands as well as Curnel Colvin Relph's property.
It is of interest to keep in mind that all of these first settlers were under 25 years of age and had traveled over 200 miles to make their homes in the wilderness forest of Abington.
