Walking Tour features Wilkes-Barre's pre-Civil War role

Jul. 9—WILKES-BARRE — A new, fascinating tour entitled, "Walking in the era of Lincoln and the Civil War in Wilkes-Barre," will focus on some of the people who strongly supported President Abraham Lincoln, as well as local figures who opposed Lincoln and the Civil War.

The walking tour will be introduced on Saturday, July 22, by the Luzerne County Historical Society.

Created by Dr. William V. Lewis, Jr., a board member and past president of the Historical Society, as well as a Commissioner of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, much of the tour is base on the publication he created in 2015 entitled — "Lincoln: Luzerne County Friends and Foes."

Lewis' work was created for the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's death.

"The tour stops at a number of pre-Civil War buildings in a Wilkes-Barre and we discuss several people who were close friends of Lincoln, as well as some of his bitterest enemies — all with lifetime or long-term connections to Wilkes-Barre," Lewis said.

Included are men like David Wilmot, who Lewis said studied law in Wilkes-Barre — and whose wife was from here — who created the "Wilmot Proviso," that literally sparked the events that became the Civil War.

Lewis said the tour also covers some of the local Underground Railroad history of the area.

"In a very small area, we can cover a wide range of topics about heroes and leaders in the Civil War, and how even what were then small communities had such a significant impact on the nation," Lewis said.

Walking Tour highlights

Congressman Chester Butler

Born in Wilkes-Barre and a local attorney, Butler represented the area in Congress while Lincoln served his one term in the U.S. House. They became friends and Lincoln asked for his help when he left Congress. Lincoln wanted a political appointment from newly elected president Zachary Taylor.

On the current site of Wilkes University's Dorothy Dickson Darte Performing Arts Center, at the corner of Northampton Street and South River Street, is where Butler was born — in the what started as a cabin built by the Commander of the Battle of Wyoming, Zebulon Butler.

Lewis said this was where the Luzerne County Courts first met and Chester Butler was born in 1798 in the Butler House that stood at this corner — beginning in 1773 as a log cabin and expanded in 1793.

David Wilmot

Lewis said history says that in the 1830's, a young law student here in town courted his future wife in the parlor of Arndt's Tavern — a favorite meeting site in early Wilkes-Barre history.

His name was David Wilmot and he had come to Wilkes-Barre to study law under the tutelage of George Washington Woodward, who Lewis said was a judge and a politician who, of all the people who lived in the Civil War era in Wyoming Valley, Woodward was the one who probably hated Lincoln the most.

Wilmot was a brilliant and highly skilled orator. On Aug. 8, 1846, while still in his first term of office, he stood up of the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives and introduced an amendment to a funding bill to buy vast amounts of Western lands from Mexico, after their recent defeat.

His measure — the Wilmot Proviso — called for banning slavery in any of the new Southwestern territories that America was about to take over. In doing so, he started a political firestorm in Congress, as the Southern legislators went crazy trying to prevent such a decision.

The unstoppable fire he lit would eventually lead to the Civil War.

During Wilmot's second term in Congress, he would serve with a one-term Congressman from Illinois — his name was Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln would support the ideals Wilmot had set out, calling himself a "Wilmot Man."

Wilmot was a leader in the emerging Republican Party, both nationally and in Pennsylvania — in fact, he is often called the founder of Pennsylvania's Republican Party.

In 1860, he threw his full support behind the candidacy of Abraham Lincoln. After Lincoln won, the first person he invited to meet with him in Springfield, Illinois, was Wilmot — Lincoln even walked over to Wilmot's hotel to greet him when he arrived.

Wilmot died in Towanda in 1868.

Osterhout Library

The Civil War and the Lincoln era would bring the federal government much closer to all the people of our nation. In 1860, the citizens of Luzerne County would give Lincoln the majority of their votes for president — four years, later the county would go Democratic and not support his re-election.

A war was raging, slavery was something few local people had ever seen — and fears of a continued long war and the rumors that the freed slaves would inundate the North, taking all the jobs, had spread through most rural areas.

But some buildings have survived from that era, like the Osterhout Library. Built in 1849, it served as the First Presbyterian Church until 1888 — when the congregation moved to their new building down the street.

In 1889, a place for a town library was being sought out and it was decided that this building, the former church, would make a perfect temporary place to house the new library.

In April 1865, this was still a church and people gathered here to mourn the death of President Lincoln on Easter Sunday — just a day after the murdered President had died. The telegraph had brought the sad news to the community.

Directly across the street, once stood the home and law office of George Washington Woodward, who was a huge opponent of Lincoln.

As a judge and as a politician, Woodward did whatever he could to oppose Lincoln and his policies. Woodward was born in 1809, the same year that Lincoln was born.

About the tours

Tours on Saturday, July 22, will begin in front of the Historical Society's Museum, which is behind the Osterhout Library.

Tours will take place at 11 a.m., noon, 1 p.m., and 2 p.m.

Tickets are $10 per person and children 12 and under are free.

The guides are all historical society volunteers.

For more information, call the Historical Society at 570-823-6244, ext 3.

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Reach Bill O'Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.