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Phineas Waller

Pennsylvanian farmer and landowner

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 4, 2026
Entity authorityQ19974214 ↗
Source-derived summary

Phineas Waller (January 31, 1774 – June 3, 1859) was an American landowner and the father of David Jewett Waller Sr. In the first part of the 1800s, he worked as a farmer and distiller, but in 1823, he moved to his father's farm in Oaquago, New York. While in New York, he created the failed village of Wallersville and attempted to build a bridge across the Susquehanna River. In 1836, he returned to Pennsylvania and purchased a number of tracts of land.

Early life

Waller was born on January 31, 1774, in Wilkes-Barre. He was the first child of Nathan Waller and Elizabeth (Weeks) Waller. When he was an infant, at the beginning of the American Revolutionary War, his family temporarily relocated to Connecticut.

By 1799, Waller was one of 121 taxable residents in an area in and around Wilkes-Barre, which was then a village.

Career

In April 1816, Waller was one of three viewers of the second petition to create a new township in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, Dallas Township. The other two viewers were Anderson Dana and David Richard.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Phineas Waller” as pennsylvanian farmer and landowner. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1774, 1859, 1823, 1836—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1774-01-31. The account is most persuasive where Phineas, Waller and Pennsylvanian can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as pennsylvanian farmer and landowner. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q19974214. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1774, 1859, 1823 and 1836.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Phineas Waller”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Phineas Waller primary sources, Phineas Waller archive and Phineas research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Phineas Waller” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.