USA > New York > Tioga County > Owego > Early Owego, N.Y.; some account of the early settlement of the village in Tioga County, N.Y., called Ah-wa-ga by the Indians, which name was corrupted by gradual evolution into Owago, Owego, Owegy and finally Owego > Part 19
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41
Anson F. Paige was deaf and dumb. He was a bookbinder. His bindery was for several years in the third story of the brick buildings on the northeast corner of Main street, and North avenue, which were built by Franklin Slosson in 1854 and known as Franklin block.
The children of Dr. Joel S. and Ann Eliza (Limbrick) Paige were as fol- lows:
1. Thomas Limbrick Paige, born 31 March, 1834, at Owego. Married Alzoa N. Wilbur, daughter of Ismond Wil- bur, 4 June, 1862, at Owego. He died 10 Dec., 1867, at Owego.
2. Lucy Bonner Paige, born 4 Oct., 1840, at Owego.
3 .. Lucy Aiken Paige, born 30 Aug., 1842, at Owego. She was married to Elijah Ransom Page 10 Aug., 1804, 21 Alexander, N. Y.
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4. Mary Paige, born 4 Feb., 1846, at Owego. She was married in 1863 to Norton Smith at Alexander.
Thomas 1 .. Paige learned the printer's trade in Owego, but aban. doned type-setting for a clerkship in Goodrich & Co.'s dry goods store. In May, 1864, he formed a partnership in the dry goods business with Abram HI. Miller, buying the stock of Henry N. Hubbard and continuing the busi- ness in the store now occupied by E. E. Strait on the south side of Front. street until his death in 1867.
JARED HUNTINGTON.
Jared Huntington came to Owego from Hebron, Conn., in 1813, and lived here until his death, forty-eight years later. His father, Solomon Hunting- ton, was a saddler and a son of John Huntington, who was born Nov. 14, 1700, at Norwich, Conn. Solomon Huntington . was also born at Norwich August 6, 1738. He married Dimis Fuller. He lived at Hebron, where he died June 4, 1798.
Jared . Huntington was . born at Hebron Dec. 22, 1784, and followed his father's occupation of a saddler and harness maker. His first wife was Elvira Bliss, of Columbia, Conn. She was born in 1782 and died at East Haddam, Conn., in 1809. Four years after her death he removed to Owego, where he worked at his trade. In 1818 he married . Martha Draper, whose father was a blacksmith and whose dwelling house and blacksmith shop were at the northwest corner of North avenue and Main streets.
Mr. Huntington lived for many .. years in a house which stood near the sidewalk on the west side of Lake
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street on the ground now occupied by the two brick stores known as the Hooker block, His house was at the north part of the lot and his harness shop adjoining at the south end of it. At the time of the great firein Septem- ber, 1849, all the buildings on the west side of Lake street were burned from Front street to the Huntington property, where the progress of the fire was stopped. Another fire in October, 1870, burned all the wooden buildings from the Main street corner south, including the Huntington house and shop. The old well between the two buildings, which for many years furnished the water for several house- holds 'in the neighborhood, was in use, until the Hooker block was built.
Mr. Huntington was clerk of the town of Owego. from 1826 to 1834, in -.. clusive, and assessor from 1841 .to 1846, inclusive. He was for many years a justice of the peace. He was also superintendent of the poor of Tioga county from 1832 to 1837. He died .at Owego, July 2, 1861. Mrs. Huntington, who was born in 1795, died April 11, 1877, at Cazenovia; N. Y., at the honte of her daughter, Mrs. Phelps.
The children of Jared and Martha (Draper) Huntington were all born at Owego, with one exception, as fol- lows:
1. Jared Bliss Huntington, born
. May 2, 1809.
2. Elvira' M. Huntington, born 19 July, 1819. Married James M. Swift, son of Thomas Swift, of Falmouth, Mass. She died 27 Feb., 1854,- in Brooklyn, N. Y.
3. Adeline E. Huntington, born 4 Sept., 1821. Married Frederick E. Platt, of Owego, 4 Sept., 1821. She died 14 Jan., 1873.
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4. Emily Catherine Huntington, born 9 Aug., 1823, at Owego. Married Dr. Jared F. Phelps in 1842.
5. Martha A. Huntington, born 12 Oct., 1825. Married Milton W. Han- chett, of Syracuse, N. Y., in 1848. 6. William Silliman Huntington, born 14 Dec., 1827.
7. Harriet Laura' Huntington, born 30 Jan., 1830. Married James M. Swift, who was the husband of her siser, Elvira M. Huntington. She died 10 Sept., 1901, at Cazenovia, N. Y.
. 8. George Milnor. Huntington, born 8 August, 1832. Married Louise Den- ton, of Binghamton, 1 Oct., 1857.
9. Charles T. Huntington, born 16. Nov., 1834. He was a telegraph oper- ator. He died 11 May, 1899.
Geo. M. Huntington learned tele- graphy in 1847. In 1853 he was die vision operator and train dispatcher on the, Susquehanna and Western divisions of the New York & Erie railroad until. 1862, when he was called to Washington and appointed superintendent of military railroads under Gen. D. C. McCallum: At the M -- SR3. Cy1 . bqx, clpdo klellrmpU close of the war he was in charge of all the captured roads leading into Richmond. These were turned over to their owners in 1865. In 1868 he was agent in New York city for the Great Southern mail route. In. 1873 he went to St. Paul, Minn., as general passenger and ticket agent of the West Wisconsin railroad. The next. year he was appointed general eastern agent of the Virginia Midland rail- road.
ERASTUS MEACHAM.
Erastus Meacham was a black. sinth, a son of Silas Meacham, and was born Feb. 9, 1798, at Cornwall, Conn. He was only seven years old when his parents removed . to Bain-
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bridge, N. Y. When fourteen years of age he was apprenticed to learn the blacksmith's trade and eight years later, in. 1820, he came to Owego, ma- king the entire journey on foot. He worked as .a journeyman blacksmith for a short time, but in July, 1821, he formed a partnership in the black- smithing and wagon making business with Daniel Chamberlain, a wagon maker, who lived in the first house north of the Congregational church in .: Park street, which was .afterward owned by John f. Matson and which still stands there. . Mr. Chamberlain at one time conducted a bakery in the cellar of this house. His wagon shop was at the side of the house. It was in this wagon shop that the Baptist church of Owego. was organized in 1831. Mr. Chamberlain sold the prop- erty to Mrs. Henry "H. Wells, of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., about the year 1830 and removed to Choconut, Susque- hanna county, Pa., and died there.
In October, 1823, Mr. Meacham pur- chased of James Caldwell two village lots on the west side of Lake street, north of and adjoining the ground on which the Owego national bank now stands and fronting 100 feet on the street. There he conducted a black- smith shop several years. In August, 1838, he opened a general country store in John Carmichael's building, which stood on the north side of Front street and east of Lake street. He continued in business there several years, a part of the time in company with his son, Myron E. Meacham. Then he removed on the Ott farm on' Germany hill in the town of Tioga, where he engaged in farming thirteen years. He afterward returned to
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Owego, where he resumed work at his trade of a blacksmith, which he fol- lowed all the rest of his life. He died at Owego Jan. 25, 1890, at the ad- vanced age of nearly 92 years.
Nov. 9, 1820; Mr. Meacham. married Betsy Lake, daughter of Truman Lake, of Spencer. She died at Owego Aug. 29, 1892, aged 89 years. . They were two of the forty original men- bers of the Congregational church of Owego. Their children were Myron E. Meacham, who removed to Hor- nell; Mary A. Meacham, who married Henry Shipman; Maria and Milton H. Meacham, both of whom died in in- fancy, and Melinda Meacham, who married John M. Head.
JAMES ARCHIBALD.
James Archibald, a tanner, came to Owego with his wife and six children : from Caldwell, Warren county, N. Y., on Lake George. His father, Robert Archibald, came . to America from Scotland and fought in the revolution- ary war.
James Archibald was born on the day of our national independence, July 4, 1776, in the town of Bolton, Warren county, N. Y., and he arrived at Owego on Washington's birthday, Feb. 22, 1822.
According to the state military records James Archibald was in 1804 promoted to ensign in Simon DeRid- der's regiment of the brigade in the. county of Washington, which county adjoins Warren county. The next . year he was promoted to lieutenant, and in 1808 he was reported .as "moved."
The family settled on a farm owned by James Pumpelly on the south side
of the river. .. In 1824 Mr. Pumpelly built a small tannery there. It stood on the south side of the road leading to Nichols, between that road and the river, and was a little west of where the Nichols road leaves the highway running from Owego to the Montrose turnpike. Mr. Pumpelly leased this tannery .to Mr. Archibald. The water to run the tannery was supplied from a little run (dry now for many years), which came down from the hill to the river, a little .east of the tannery. The power to grind the tanbark was sup- plied by a horse: Nearly all the vats were out in the field in the open air.
In June, 1830, Elihu Parmenter, who conducted a tannery on the Hunting- ton creek, in the northern part of the village of Owego, and James Archi- bald purchased the exclusive right for a term of fourteen years for the use of a patent for handling hides and skins, which patent Samuel Rogers, Jr., of Philadelphia, had obtained in January, 1829. The purchase was made of James Brown, who owned the right to sell in Tioga and Tompkins counties. It provided for vats 31% feet deep, 31/2 feet wide, and from 7 to 8 feet long. This introduced new methods of tanning here.
This tannery was abandoned about the year 1844. The building was moved five or six rods down the river and converted into a barn. Many years later it was used by Gurdon H. Pum- pelly as a part of a large tobacco shed, now standing there.
In May, 1832, three of Mr. Arch- bald's sons, Alvah B., Almon W., and Samuel A. Archibald, purchased lots 15 and 16 in Coxe's patent of John Redman Coxe, of Philadelphia. These
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lots contained one hundred acres each and were on the side of the hill south of this village, and the road which passes over the hill to the Montrose turnpike passes diagonally through them. The same month they also purchased lot No. 176, which is south of and adjoining the other two lots and. contained 270 acres. This in- cluded the present farm of James For- syth and the small farm sold to Col. Henry McCormick in September, 1832. While engaged in tanning Mr. Archibald and . these three sons cleared much of the woods from' the farms. Their sawmill stood on the north side of the creek known as the Pumpelly creek and on the east side of the road. The ruins of the old mill stood there until a few years ago. They engaged extensively in lumber- ing and purchased and shipped a great amount of lumber down the river in addition to that produced. from their own farm.
The three sons were not only en- gaged in lumbering, but they also engaged in the tanning business, in the sale of boots and shoes, and in the manufacture of deer skin gloves and mittens. Alvah B. Archibald con- ducted a leather and shoe store on the south side of Front street, a little be- low Park street. He was elected a justice of the peace in January, 1862, but was prevented by ill health fron assuming the duties of the office. . He died in the following June.
The second tannery built by the Archibalds was in 1838. It. stood on the bank of the river just below the bridge. It was about 90 by 50 feet in size. It was burned in the fire of Jan. 31, 1860. It was replaced the
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same year by a larger tannery, 114 by 50 feet, with a brick engine house 50 by 22 feet, and a bark house 22 by 36 feet. It was composed of four build- ings, all attached. This tannery was twice burned, in January, 1860, and September, 1878. It was rebuilt on a smaller scale. In 1881, when the · Lackawanna railroad was built to Owego, the company bought and oc- cupied the ground on which the build- ings stood for its tracks. The tannery building was cut in two. Part of it was used as an ice house for a few- years and finally the whole was torn down.
Almon W. Archibald retired from the lumbering business in . 1852 and engaged in farming. He removed to this village six years previous to. his death and lived in west Front street. Samuel Archibald conducted the tan- nery for several years alone until he discontinued the tannery, business al- together.
Allen C. Archibald, the youngest son of James Archibald, was a civil engineer. He went south and lived at Louisville, Ky. At one time he was employed in the survey of the Panama canal.
James Archibald followed farming all his life. He died Feb. 8, 1857, at Owego. His first wife was Mary Wil- son, of Bolton, who died in 1814. His second wife, Elizabeth Chase, was. a Quakeress and was born in the colony of Rhode Island in 1774 .. She died May 31, 1860, at the home of her son, Allen C. Archibald, in Louisville, Ky:
The children of James and Mary (Wilson) Archibald were as follows: .
1. Martha Archibald, born in the town of Bolton, Warren county, N. Y.,
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in 1803. Married Samuel Babcock, of Owego. He died in 1839, and she in 1851.
2. Alvah Bosworth Archibald, born in the town of Bolton. in 1805. Mar- ried Jane MeQuigg, daughter of Daniel MeQuigg, Jr., of Spencer. She died in 1856 and he June 8, 1862. Their only. son, Frederick Archibald, was killed in the battle of Gettysburg in 1863.
3. Almon Wilson Archibald, born 5 Novy, .1807, in the town of Bolton. Married Abagail Bates, of Owego, 3 Aug., 1828. She died 8 Jan., 1862. He married second Valeria A. Babcock, of Windham, Pa., daughter of Benjamin Babcock, 30 April, 1864. . She died. 19 July, 1896, and he 17 Feb., 1892, at Owego.
4. Anson Samuel Archibald, born at Caldwell, N. Y., 11 June, 1810. Married Adaline Macon, daughter of James Mason, of Kelloggsville, N. Y., 22 Feb., 1828. ; She. died. 28 Jan., 1887, and he. 25 Nov., 1891. Both died at the old. homestead:
5. Maria Baldwin Archibald, born at Caldwell, N. Y., 27 June, 1812. Mai- ried Ralph Manning, of Berkshire, N. Y., 31 Jan., 1849. : He died. 22 Sept., 1872, in Berkshire. She died in 1897, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Mary Labrec, at Big Foot, III. Mr. Manning was the father of Gurdon G. Manning, who was a dry goods mier. chant in Owego.
The only son of James and Eliza- beth (Chase) Archibald was Allan Chase Archibald, born 15 Jan., 1818, at Caldwell, N. Y. He married Mary A. Pinney, daughter of Joshua E .. Pinney, of Owego, in 1840. H- died in 1862. in Cincinnati, Ohio, an i she 29 Nov., 1892, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth A. Cline, in Wilmington, Del.
When James Archibald came toOwe go Richard Brown was conducting a small tannery, mention of which has been made in these articles. At that
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time a man named Wicks was con- ducting the tannery on the Huntington creek, which tannery he subsequently sold to Elihu Parmenter.
Samuel Archibald was a member of the board. of village trustees in 1858; 1859, 1868, and 1869. He was also a commissioner of highways of the town of Owego. He was a commissioned officer in the state militia, serving as lieutenant, captain, and major.
Samuel Babcock, who married Mar- tha Archibald, was a blacksmith. He came to Owego from Bolton, N. Y., in 1823. He lived on the west side of North avenue, south of Temple street. He owned three village lots. On one of them was a blacksmith shop, on an- other a carriage shop, and between them was his dwelling house. Samuel and Martha (Archibald) Babcock ha.I. · four sons, Edward, George W., David, and Alvah Babcock, and two daugh- ters, Elizabeth and Emily Babcock.
Elizabeth Babcock was the first wife of Albert A. Baker, a son of Lemuel Baker. He was a stone cutter and went south to work on a contract on the state capitol of Tennessee at Nashville, . and died at Huntsville, Ala., July 25, 1901. He returned north just before the breaking out of the civil war and lived on a farm he hal purchased two miles south of Newark Valley. From March, 1874, to Decem- ber, 1877, he was engaged in the dry goods business at Owego. He after- ward returned to Alabama, where he engaged in the marble business. He was a brother of James R. Baker, who is still living at Owego.
Emily Babcock married Mr. Elliott, of Alabama. Both the sisters died at Huntsville.
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George W. Babcock now lives .. at Ithaca. He was for many years in the. charge of the repair shops of the Erie railroad at Owego and later in charge of the repair department . of .the Geneva, Ithaca. & Sayre branch of the Lehigh Valley railroad.
Alvah Babcock was a tinsmith. He went to Huntsville, Ala., a short time before the breaking out of the civil war and served in 'the Confederate army. He died at Huntsville in Octo- ber, 1865. Edward. Babcock also died at Huntsville about three weeks after Alvah's death.
CALDWELL ROW.
Mention has been made in these papers of Caldwell Row. This was' a block of wooden buildings. one and one-half stories high and painted yel- low. It extended on the north side of Front street from Lake street to the present Ahwaga house block. The row was occupied as stores, shops, and dwellings. The owner, James Caldwell, who lived at Albany, was a wealthy tobacconist. He invested largely in lands in this part of the state. He acquired this property in January, 1797, by purchase from Wm. Rhodes and John McGregor, New York merchants. The purchase in- cluded seven Owego town lots .con- taining about 1,108 acres and eight other lots in the village of Owego, for all of which he paid £ 800.
. Three of the village lots comprised all the land on the north side of Main street including the M. E. church property and the lot on which the new graded school building now stands with all the land between them, in-
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Cluding the part through which Spen- eer avenue now extends.
Another of these lots was the west one-half of the present square bound- ed by Lake, Main, Church, and Front streets, and included the land oppo- site on the south side of Front street to the bank of the Susquehanna river.
Still another of these lots was at the northeast corner of Front and Church streets. now owned by F. C. . flewitt and extended back to Main street. All this property had been originally owned by James McMaster, who sold it to his brother, David Mc- Master, from whom it was purchased by Rhodes and McGregor.
Among Caldwell's other investments in lands, in southern New York was the purchase in July, 1804, for $4,000 ofnineteen village. lots containing 1,936 acres in what is now. the business part of the city of Elmira. Mr. Caldwell never lived at Owego, but came here occasionally tolook after his property. He died in 1831, aged about 70 years.
The ground on which . Caldwell Row stood became the property of Caldwell's daughter, Mrs. Stephen Sewell, of Montreal, who sold it in May, 1832,- to James Ely, Jonathan Platt, and George Bacon. This piece. had a front of 128 feet on Lake street and 115 on Front street. It was .divided by agreement, Ely taking the lot on which Ahwaga hall now stands, Platt the lot now occupied by the Ti- oga national bank and the store ad- joining west of it, and Bacon the cor- ner lot on which the Partridge drug store stands. Mr. Bacon also received in the division the part on the east side of Lake street where the brick
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front building now occupied by the Owego national bank stands.
The lot between the Tioga national bank and the corner drug store in Front street was sold in September, 1832, to James W. Taylor and Nelson B. Skeel, who erected thereon a three- story wooden building, which was so narrow and towered so high above all the others that it was commonly known as "the lighthouse" and "the shot tower." John Carmichael bought the bank lot, on' which he built a three-story brick store in 1835. The "lighthouse" leaned on Mr. Car- michael's property so that he had to cut away the rafters to build his . walls. Dr. Jedediah Fay bought the lot on which Ahwaga hall stands in 1835 and built a three-story building thereon, with two stores, one of which he occupied as a drug store.
.Taylor & Skeel were tailors and occupied their building as a tailor's shop. Taylor removed to Ohio about . the year 1840. Skeel came here from one of the eastern states and after re- maining here a few years went west, where he became captain of a Missis- sippi river steamboat and died while running a steamboat on that river ..
VINE KINGSLEY.
Vine Kingsley, one of the earliest settlers at Owego, came in 1790. He married Esther Wright. At the first election for officers of the town of Owego on April 3, 1800, he was elected to three offices-overseer of the poor, poundmaster, and 'fence-viewer. The offices of overseer of the poor and fence-viewer he held by re-election four years. He was also appointed a justice of the peace. In 1805 he re-
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moved to Scipio, N. Y., where he died in 1811, aged 44 years. . He had three sons, Josiah Wright Kingsley, born in 1796 at Owego, and Elias and Eliada Kingsley (twins), born about 1805. . The three brothers removed to Perry, Wyoming county, where Josiah W. died in 1885 and Iliada in 1856.
ELIAS AND EBENEZER ALLEN.
Elias Allen was an early . settler here. He was a shoemaker, but did not work at his trade, but dug wells and built cellars. He lived on the ' east side of North avenue adjoining the Presbyterian church property.
His son, Ebenezer Allen, was also a shoemaker. His shoe shop and resi- dence, a small building one and one- half stories high, was on the north side of Mainstreet at the Northavenue cor- ner, then known as the Tinkham cor- ner. In 1823 his shop was on the south side of Front street, a little west of Church street. Later he purchased a lot near Leach's mills and built a house there, and there he died Jan. 20, 1867, aged 73 years.
Mr. Allen was an expert river pilot and made trips down the river with rafts and arks during the rafting sea- sons. He was many years bellringer and sexton of the . Presbyterian church. He was also for many years and until his death crier of the courts of Tioga county. He was an expert fisherman and owned the eel. rack which was in the Susquehanna river opposite the month of the Owego creek, which remained in use several years after his death. One of his daughters, Mary Ann Allen, was a nurse and matron at St. Lake's hos- pital in New York 32 years. She died in that city Dec. 20, 1904, aged 80
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years. Another daughter, Frances Allen, became the wife of Watson I .. Hoskins, of Owego. She died July 5, 1905, at Owego, aged 74 years. A third, Miss Adeline Allen, lived at La- fayette, Ill.
GEN. ISAAC B. OGDEN.
Gen. Isaac B. Ogden , was a cabinet maker. He was born in New Jersey in 1805. His mother died when he was very young and he was reared by his grandmother, Mrs. Canfield, of Smithboro. He learned his trade of a cabinet maker at Owego. He after- ward went to New York city, where he spent several years, and upon his return here he formed a partnership in the cabinet making business with Dana & Kingsley.
At that time all the furniture in use was made by hand, and the demand hereabouts was largely supplied by his firm. In 1834 Mr. Ogden pur- chased the interest of his partners in the business, and the next year he. . married Priscilla G. Goodman, daugh- ter of Philip Goodman, who was for several years landlord of various pub- lic houses at Owego and an early comer here.
Mr. Ogden's cabinet shop stood on the north side of Main street opposite where the new. Owego hotel now stands. This cabinet shop was burned Aug. 5, 1841. The fire burned all the wooden buildings to the North avenue corner, and up North avenue to the old Tioga house, a hotel which stood about where Sporer, Carlson & Berry's piano factory is now. This fire burned Gen. Ogden's dwelling house, which stood east of the cabi- net shop, together with James Conk.
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lin's wagon shop, and Gad Worthing- ton's residence.
The cabinet shop was immediately rebuilt on a larger scale. The new manufactory was a large two-story wooden building, painted red, which stood on the north side of Main street opposite where the new Owego hotel now stands. The factory was in the rear part. The front part, which was' used as a salesroom, was so large that it was also used sometimes as a place for holding public meetings and for the performances of travelling theatrical companies, etc.
. There has of late been a craze in these parts for collecting old furni- ture, which after having been re- paired and revarnished by a more modern cabinet maker is made to do new service in the parlors and sitting rooms of our citizens. Much of this stuff, which its happy possessors rank with the masterpieces of Sheraton, Chippendale, and Heppelwhite, was turned out at Gen. Ogden's factories and was the workmanship of Gideon O. Chase, Abram B. Elston, Ossian E. Dodge (afterward the 'principal singer in his travelling . concert company, known as "Ossian's Bards," which gave concerts throughout the coun- try), and many other good workmen of the time, whose names some of our "oldest inhabitants" still remember.
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