Storm Stops French Refugees in Settlement
Work December 20, 1793
Frenchtown, or Asylum, was the name of a settlement founded in Northumberland County (now Bradford) in 1793, by French refugees as the residence of the doomed Queen of France, Marie Antoinette. But the Terrorists prevented her ever seeing America.
During the French Revolution, when many of the Frenchmen fled from their homes, not a few sought refuge in San Domingo, and those jumped from the frying pan into the fire. The Negro slaves soon heard of the success of the Revolution in France and revolted against their masters. That bloody conflict was termed the “Horrors of San Domingo.” Many of the French exiles came to America and took up their residence in Philadelphia, where they were cordially welcomed.
So great was the number of refugees it was deemed necessary that some provision should be made for their settlement as a colony.
The two most active and influential promoters of the colony scheme were Viscount Louis Marie de Noailles and the Marquis Antoine Omer Talon. The former was a distinguished military officer under Rochambeau in the siege of Yorktown, Va., where he commanded a regiment. He was one of the Commissioners to arrange the articles of capitulation for the surrender of Cornwallis. He was a brother-in-law of Lafayette.
Marquis Talon belonged to one of the most illustrious families of the French magistracy. He was Advocate General when the Revolution broke out. In 1790 he was compromised in the flight of the King, Louis XVII, and was arrested and imprisoned for a time. He fled to Marseilles, where a wine merchant, Bartholomew Laporte, placed him in a large wine cask and carried him aboard a vessel sailing for America.
Laporte sailed with Talon and they became citizens of the United States. The borough of Laporte takes its name from Judge John Laporte, son of the early immigrant.
The refugees organized a company, and M. Charles Felix Beu Boulogne, and Adam Hoopes were delegated to select a site. They proceeded to Wilkes-Barre, where they arrived August 27, 1793. Judge Matthais Hollenback accepted their letter of credit from Robert Morris.
They examined several localities, and finally selected the Schufeldt Flats, now called Frenchtown, in the Township of Asylum, nearly opposite Rummerfield station, in Bradford County.