Congregations. The latter organization, after 1901, aided the Industrial Removal Office, working to reduce the number of Jewish immigrants in New York City, thus lessening the attendant reaction of immigration restrictionists, and winning public opinion for continued immigration. With this equipment, the community became an important center of Jewish activity in northeastern Pennsylvania, reaching out to Hazleton, Plymouth, Pittston and the smaller towns in the vicinity. As of 1905, the Jews of Wilkes-Barre numbered about 1,800, or about three percent of the total population. Other Early History Many Jews were connected with the sale and exploitation of land in Pennsylvania. In 1763, owing to the depredations of the Shawnee and Delaware Indians in Bedford County, twelve traders suffered a loss of £80,000, among whom were David Franks, Levy Andrew Levy, and Joseph Simon. On July 5, 1773, the sale of southern Illinois took place. The Indian nations of the Illinois country conveyed their property to twenty-two residents of Pennsylvania, among whom were Moses Franks, Jacob Franks, Barnard Gratz, Michael Gratz, David Franks, Moses Franks, Jr., Joseph Simon and Levy Andrew Levy. This territory never became the property of those interested in its sale. The greatest speculator in land in the province was Aaron Levy, who in 1779 purchased land in Haines township, Center county, upon which he laid out the town of Aaronsburg (recorded October 4, 1786), the first town in the United States laid out and named after a Jew. Levy was interested with Robert Morris in the well-known speculation in lands in the western portion of the state which resulted so disastrously to the "financier of the Revolution" (see Levy, Aaron). It is estimated that there were not more than 800 Jews in Pennsylvania at the close of the War of Independence. The greater portion had taken up their residence after 1765, and many had arrived eleven years later, after New York had been occupied by the British. The Jews enjoyed all the rights of the other inhabitants, except that none could become a member of the General Assembly. There was nothing in the Constitution as established by the General Convention in 1776 that prevented a Jew from becoming a judicial, executive or military officer of the commonwealth. On December 23, 1783, Rabbi Gershom Mendes Seixas, Simon Nathan ("parnas"), Asher Myers, Barnard Gratz, and Haym Solomon, the "Mahamad" of the Congregation Mickvé Israel, Philadelphia, petitioned the Council of