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<b>First Posted:</b> 7/5/2008<br><br>ANDREW M. SEDER 
 
 aseder@www.timesleader.com
WYOMING &amp;ndash; Two hundred and thirty years ago, three of Betsy Bell Condron&amp;rsquo;s forefathers and more than 300 others lost their lives in the bloody Battle of Wyoming. On Friday, she and 300 others gathered to pay their respects. 

The annual commemoration of one of the bloodiest skirmishes of the Revolutionary War included music, the laying of more than three dozen wreaths, re-enactors dressed in period garb and remarks by Luzerne County Historical Society Executive Director Jesse Teitelbaum. 
Teitelbaum, whose last day with that title is today, told those seated under a white tent and standing on the grass in the shadow of the 62 �-foot-tall monument that marking anniversaries, whether of good or bad events, is important.
&amp;ldquo;We can&amp;rsquo;t know where we&amp;rsquo;re going if we don&amp;rsquo;t know where we come from,&amp;rdquo; he said. 
Condron knows very well where she came from. She can trace her family&amp;rsquo;s history back to three of the patriots who battled the combined British Tory and Indian force on July 3, 1778 &amp;ndash; Elisha Richards, Samuel Ransom and Elias Roberts. She carried a floral wreath to the monument in their honor. By the end of the two-hour program, the monument was surrounded by floral arrangements, each brought by different families, organizations or veteran associations. 
&amp;ldquo;I wouldn&amp;rsquo;t miss it,&amp;rdquo; said Condron, who made the short drive north on Route 11 from her home in Kingston. She&amp;rsquo;s been coming nearly ever year for four decades. This year her daughter Betsy Parkhurst Carroll was visiting from Florida and joined her at the ceremony. 
&amp;ldquo;I&amp;rsquo;m so proud of the heritage that we have from the early settlers that came here and what they bequeathed to us,&amp;rdquo; Condron said.
 While standing near the monument wearing a red hat, she said &amp;ldquo;pride and thankfulness&amp;rdquo; are the overwhelming feelings she has for those who served and died trying to create the United States and those who have done the same in America&amp;rsquo;s name.
Technically a very distant relative of Condron, Loraine K. Prutzman also traces her lineage back to Capt. Samuel Ransom. The former Lehman Township resident now residing in Danville wore a shirt with her great-great-great-grandfather&amp;rsquo;s name on it. She said the event is sort of a family reunion for non-family members. Though she only sees some of the people at the event once a year, she said it brings back memories and a feeling of community.
&amp;ldquo;It&amp;rsquo;s a coming together, even if it&amp;rsquo;s only for a few words,&amp;rdquo; Prutzman said. &amp;ldquo;It&amp;rsquo;s very invigorating that we&amp;rsquo;re making a statement that this is important.&amp;rdquo;
 Though Condron and Prutzman are regulars at the annual event, Marianne Lurie was in attendance for the first time on Friday. The Back Mountain resident stood looking up at the towering monument and reading the inscribed names of those who fought in the battle. She pointed out that many of the last names of those who fought at the battle are names of families, streets and municipalities throughout the region today: Denison, Buck, Ransom, Carey, Blackman, Hollenback, Ross, Slocum, Pierce and Butler among them. 
Elizabeth Raymond, of Reno, Nev., attended her second Battle of Wyoming anniversary commemoration. Her husband, Jim Pagliarini, is a native of Wyoming, and the couple were back in the borough visiting family. Raymond, who identified herself as a &amp;ldquo;colonial historian,&amp;rdquo; said the historically significant battle deserves to be remembered. Other historical commemorations, she said, are held only on five- or 10-year increments or the crowds are only a handful. 
&amp;ldquo;For this to have taken place so long ago and that it&amp;rsquo;s still honored to this day, with this many people, says a lot,&amp;rdquo; Raymond said.
Pagliarini said he didn&amp;rsquo;t attend the anniversary event often growing up, which he regrets. He said he didn&amp;rsquo;t have the perspective on it he does now. He made the comment standing under a large tree next the monument that bears the carvings of hundreds of initials including his, carved sometime before the bicentennial anniversary of the battle. 
A monumental massacre 
The inscription on the monument honoring the Battle of Wyoming, also known as the Wyoming Massacre, includes the names of 128 of the men who lost their lives, the names of 45 who survived and this inscription: 
&amp;ldquo;Near this spot was fought on the afternoon of the Third of July 1778, the Battle of Wyoming, in which a small band of patriotic Americans, chiefly the undisciplined, the youthful, and the aged, spared by inefficiency from the distant ranks of the Republic, 
led by Col. Zebulon Butler and Col. Nathan Denison, with a courage that deserved success, fearlessly met and bravely fought a combined British Tory and Indian force of thrice their number. 
&amp;ldquo;Numerical superiority alone gave success to the invader and widespread havoc, desolation and ruin marked his savage and bloody footsteps through the Valley. 
&amp;ldquo;This Monument, commemorative of these events and in memory of the actors in them, has been erected over the bones of the slain by their descendants and otherwise who gratefully appreciated the services and sacrifices of their patriot ancestors.&amp;rdquo;
    
Andrew M. Seder, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 570-829-7269.

Remembering a massacre