How did this cataclysm befall? I will tell you. It all came of the ignorance or carelessness of a King. In 1620 King James I. of England granted a Charter to the Plymouth company for the ruling of New England in America. The charter covered North America from the fortieth to the forty-eighth degrees of north latitude, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans. The Plymouth Company proceeded to sub-divide its territory. In 1631 it granted a charter to the Connecticut Colony which covered the space between the forty-first and forty-second degrees of north latitude "and from the Narragansett river on the east to the South Sea on the west throughout the main lands." The South Sea was the Pacific Ocean. In 1662 King Charles II. gave a new charter to Connecticut confirming the act of the Plymouth Company. Nineteen years later this same King in the grant of Pennsylvania to William Penn, included a portion of the same territory, already given by him to Connecticut. The ignorance or carelessness of King Charles, in due time bore a rich harvest of strife and bloodshed. Under the Connecticut charter (which was the older) my ancestors, and perhaps yours, came into this valley of the Susquehanna, and sat themselves down. Under the Pennsylvania charter (which was the younger) came sheriffs, and armed men, to drive them off. On the tongues of men this disputed section was known as Wyoming. In the statute book it is called Westmoreland. Having explained how the Connecticut people under a claim of right, built up a government within the present boundaries of Pennsylvania, I have said all I desire to say on that subject. It explains how a part of what is now Pennsylvania was really a part of Connecticut in the last years of our Colonial history, and in the first years of our history as an independent nation--from 1774 to 1783. This Twenty-fourth regiment of Connecticut Militia was organized on that part of the soil of Pennsylvania which was known as the Wyoming region, and in that region it performed its deeds, and lived its organic life. I am aware that this explanation is quite unnecessary. I am aware that the Society that listens to me contains many descendants of the men who made the history I am about to relate. I am aware that the great-grandchildren of Captains Bidlack, Franklin, Spaulding, and Whittlesey here reside. I know that descendants of the Buck, Gore, Mathewson, Satterlee, Stevens and Tozer families abound in this old town. A writer who knows your community better than I do could mention others.