The LuLac Edition #5, 758, September 5th, 2026

 

NATHAN DENISON

PATRIOT, JUSTICE OF PEACE

HISTORICAL LEGACY

 

Nathan Denison was one of the first forty settlers to move from Connecticut when the Susquehanna Company began the colonization of the Wyoming Valley. He soon became one of the valley's leading citizens.

Denison was a member of the Wyoming Valley Patriotic Security Committee, which was tasked with protecting the American Revolution against its enemies. When the American War of Independence broke out, he became a lieutenant colonel and deputy commander of the militia regiment organized by Connecticut in the valley. When the regiment's colonel, Zebulon Butler, entered the Continental Army, he was promoted to colonel and regimental commander in 1777. He was deputy commander of the patriotic troops at the ill-fated Battle of the Wyoming Valley in 1778 in which 340 men from the Wyoming Valley were killed.

Denison represented Westmoreland County in the Connecticut Legislature from 1776 to 1780 and was a member of the Pennsylvania Supreme Executive Council from 1787 to 1789 and Lieutenant of the County from 1791. He also served as a judge under the jurisdiction of Connecicut from 1776 to 1783 and from 1791 to 1809.

Nathan Denison married Elizabeth Sill (1750-1812) in 1769. They had four children.

Denison House, also known as the Colonel Nathan Denison House, is a historic home located at Forty Fort, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. It was built about 1790, and is a 2+1⁄2-story, frame building with a central chimney in the New England style. A rear addition and full-width front porch were added in the mid-19th century.[3] The house has since been restored to its appearance in the 1790s.

It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.

Col. Nathan Denison was a Revolutionary Officer and a Luzerne County Judge. The Denison House features a table on which the Articles of Capitulation were signed, surrendering Forty Fort to the British and ending the Battle of Wyoming. . In 1774 he and Zebulon Butler became justices of the peace of the newly established town of Westmoreland. In 1777 Denison was made lieutenant colonel of the Connecticut militia, and later in the year he was promoted to colonel, a grade he held until 1780. He commanded troops in the Wyoming Valley Massacre in July 1778 and figured prominently in that action. After the war he held several important posts under the authority of Pennsylvania. He died on 25 January 1809 at the age of sixty-eight.

The following is a video from David Decosmo's public affairs show that was dobe with Mark Ricetti a few years back with a tour of the Denison House.  

 

 Before the anniversary of the House the home was repainted to its original color, (it was red before) and new slate walls and sidewalks were added.