Within the ancient fieldstone walled confines of the relatively small MARCY Cemetery located outside Tunkhannock, Wyoming Co, PA lie the remains of many members of the Pre-Revolutionary Zebulon MARCY family. Zebulon Marcy, Esq. was one of the earliest settlers of Tunkhannock, which was the third of the original certified towns, and was then called Putnam. after General Israel Putnam, of the Revolution, he owning lots here. Putnam was granted, September 24, 1775, and on December 20, lots were taken by twenty-six persons. It was organized in 1790, the borough in 1772.

Zebulon Marcy was the father of a large family and one of his daughters, Sarah Marcy Whitmore, was born in the Fort at Wilkes-Barre, PA on the 24th of June, 1776, nine days before the great Indian Massacre which resulted in disaster to the pioneers of the Susquehanna Valley.

Many of the early settlers in our area were killed at the Wyoming Massacre, but the Zebulon Marcy family survived to return to their Dutchess County, NY roots. General John Sullivan marched his army up the Susquehanna River soon after the massacre to drive the Indians from the county. Once Zebulon Marcy felt his new homestead area was again safe he returned with his family to his home near where the Tunkhannock Creek empties into the Susquehanna River in what is now Wyoming County, Pennsylvania.

An elderly Wyoming County pioneer, Zuriel SHERWOOD, born in 1776 recounted at the age of 94 his journey in 1789 from Danbury, Fairfield County, Connecticut in a series of articles published in the Wyoming Democrat newspaper in Tunkhannock, PA from August 1870 through January 1871.
Zebulon MARCY and his family, including Zebulon's brother Ebenezer MARCY, are often mentioned in Zuriel Sherwood's narrative. There are many, many interesting stories about this MARCY family in Wyoming County, Pennsylvania.

Zebulon Marcy and the other early settlers found themselves engulfed in the Pennamite and Yankee war. Marcy was a strong leader on the Yankee side and once found himself hung by the neck until nearly dead. Only rescue by a friend saved his life that time. In another incident, Zebulon Marcy's life was spared by the fates when he was shot by a Pennamite just a short distance above what is now Tunkhannock. Esquire Marcy's habit of carrying an old fashioned steel tobacco box in his vest pocket deflected the ball and thus he survived intact. His high regard for that tobacco box is evidenced since he kept it until he was a very old man and then gave it to his daughter Mrs. Whitmore. Hopefully it remains in the Marcy family yet today.

The Wyoming Democrat newspaper of October 1854 published in Tunkhannock recounted the story of the tobacco box in an obituary for Sarah Marcy Whitmore. The article also mentions that Mrs. Whitmore was married twice. Her first husband was John McCord, a Tunkhannock merchant, and Samuel Whitmore was her second husband. Whitmore died about the year 1830. Her obituary spoke highly of Sarah Marcy Whitmore as a "valuable and kind neighbor; her hand was always extended and open to relieve the wants of the poor and needy; and especially was she the good Samaritan in times of sickness..." The article also said she had no children and left a few legacies to her friends and $200. to the Abington Baptist Church.

While I am in no way - that I am aware of - related to the Marcy family of Wyoming County, PA , I certainly have a great deal of respect for these early pioneers that helped settle this rural northeastern section of Pennsylvania along the Susquehanna River. I visited the Marcy Cemetery during this past Memorial Day and thought that it would be fitting to post what little I did know about this family so that others who may be related might learn more about them. The cemetery dates way back to the late 1700's and as the centuries pass, it is getting harder to read the existing headstones. It would be a shame for this history to be entirely lost.

Anyone wishing to visit the MARCY Cemetery in Tunkhannock, Wyoming County, PA will find it located on Sunnyside Road at the eastern end of Tunkhannock Borough. It is just past the much later Sunnyside Cemetery located on the same road, off Business Route 6 E. The Zebulon Marcy Cemetery is located on the right hand side of the road and when I visited last week had awfully deep creeping myrtle plants pretty much halfway up the headstones throughout the cemetery save for one small beaten path, making reading those marvelous old epitaphs hard to get at, but certainly worth the trudge.

Though the sources I used to describe the life of Zebulon Marcy state he was from Dutchess Co, NY, somewhere in the back of my mind I also think I read somewhere that he may have originally been from Connecticut.

We have a very capable and knowledgeable staff at the Wyoming County Historical Society here in Tunkhannock housed at the corner of Bridge and E. Harrison Street, Tunkhannock, PA 18657 in an large old 1800's two-story brick schoolhouse that would be more than able to answer any questions you may have about the Wyoming County, PA MARCY family.

There is also a good deal of information in books written by Cecil and Mary Krewson, "A Millennium Keepsake - Wyoming County Salutes the Millennium - An Historic Overview of Wyoming County, Pennsylvania 1700-2000", Vol I and Vol II. These books may still be available locally in the Tunkhannock, PA area or perhaps on-line. I do have a copy of both books which are extraordinally well done, if you can't find them. Let me know if I can be of any help.