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 4
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Mr. Leach and his brother-in-law, Dr. Samuel Tinkham, who had settled at Owego in 1792, had purchased land where jointly, and Dr. Tinkham was, probably, influential in inducing Mr. Leach to come here .. In a, letter writ- ten by him to Mr. Leach, dated Sept.
7, 1801, Dr. Tinkham writes:
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deed of your lot is made out and will be completed in a few days. The crops on : the farm are "tolerably good. Wheat is likely to be plenty in this country this season, and we hear that it bears a good price down the river. If you should think proper ' to make sale of your farm I believe there will be an opportunity within a twelve month. .
This farm of 253 acres in the town of Tioga was sold by Col. David Pix- ley: June 30, 1800, to Polly Tinkham (Dr. Samuel Tinkham's wife and Col. Pixley's daughter) for a .consideration of $100. The sanre property was deeded Aug. 7, 1800 by Dr. Tinkham to Caleb Leach, consideration $1,550.
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April 25, 1806, Mr. Leach bought of Henty Stewart 140 acres of land on the Owego creek, partly in the town of Tioga, to which he added other land in 1812. There he built in 1809 a grist mill, saw mill, woollen mill,and. a di tillery. The distillery he soon dis- mautled. and abandoned. The saw mill was burned later, and the wool- len haill was burned in 1855.
When Mr. Leach came to Owego he lived in the building on the south side of Front street, opposite the park, in a part of which was .Dr. Tinkham's store, and remained there until 1809 when he. buift the mills and his residence 'in the town of Tio- ga. The house stood on the west side of the highway west of the mills. It was rebuilt about 1822 and re- mained there until this year (1907) when it was torn down.
A few years after the death of his wife Mr. Leach divided his property among his children, reserving a small income, and retired from busi- 'ness. For his service in the army he received à pension dated . March 1, 1831, of $96.66 a year. At about this time he went to Utica to live with his youngest son, Dr. Ebenezer Leach, where he died March 18, 1837, aged 82 years. His body was buried in the Friends' burying ground at New Hart ?. , ford, about four miles from . Utica.
Caleb, Leach and Abigail Tinkham, daughter of Ephraim Tinkham, of Middleboro, Mass., were married Jan. 17, 1782, at Plympton, Mass. She died July 2, 1818. . Their children were as follows:
1. Ebenezer Leach born 3 Sept .; 1782; died 31 January, 1796.
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2 .. Abigail Leach born 19 March, 1785; died 24. Dec., 1795.
3. Dr. Caleb Leach. Jr., born 17 Nov., 1786; married Harriet Duane, of Owego.
4. Ephraim Leach born 10 Oct .. 1788 at Plymouth, Mass .; married Sophia Jones; of Owego, 4 Jan:, 1812. Died February 19, 1855. On the day of his funeral the annual festival of the Pioneer Historical Association of the Susquehanna Valley was being held.at Ahwaza hall. Judge Avery an- nounced his death and said that the funeral procession would arrive from Tioga at the Presbyterian church vard at 3:30 o'clock when his ac- quaintances and friends would have an opportunity of paying the last tris bite of respect. to his memory. Ephraim Leach was a man of scien- tific attainments. He planned and constructed the first . bridge. across the river at the foot of Court street in, 1828 and he: designed and con- structed the first Gre engine used in Owego, in 1830. He conducted Leach's mills until his death, after which one of his sons, Stephen W. Leach, con- ducted them until Stephen's death in April, 1899.
6. Sammel Tinkham Leach, born 19 Sept., 1792; married Clarissa Hart of Candor; died 22 May, 183%.
7. Dr. Ebenezer Leach (2) - born IS March, 1797; married Olive Fos- ter. of Now Hartford, N. Y .; . died at Utica 21 July, ISCI
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8. Abigail Leach (2) born 6 .Oct ... 1402; died 6 August; 1803.
CAPT. MASON WATTLES.
The first man to engage in the mer- cantile business in Owego after the coming of the white people from the east was Capt. Mason Wattles. He came with his wife and two small : daughters from the town of Franklin Otsego county, "N. Y., in 1792; the same year that Dr. Samuel Tinkham came from Massachusetts. He was then forty years of age, and he had
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accumulated considerable wealth. The Wattles were refined and cultivated people.
Captain Wattles was born March 3, 1752, in New Hampshire, but the place of his birth je not known. At the time of his enlistment in the Con- tinental army in 1775 he was enrolled as a resident of. Newcastle, Maine. His military record, as obtained from Massachusetts archives; as follows:
June 24, 1775, he was a member of Capt. Samuel Cobb's company in Col. Thomas Nixon's Fourth Massachu- setts regiment of infantry. .. In August he was a sergeant in the same com- pany. In November he had been pro- moted to ensign From Jan. 7, 1777, to Dec.31,1779, he ranked as a lieutenant in the Sixth Massachusetts infantry. He was taken a prisoner of war May 17, 1779. While thus a prisoner in the hands of the British he was deprived of any opportunity for further , pro- motion, but in June, 1781, having been exchanged and having rejoined his regiment, in which there was a vacancy, he was promoted to captain, his appointment to date from April 13, 1780. His name last appears in a return of officers entitled to the com- mutation of five years' full pay in lieu of half pay, agreeable to act of con- gress of March 22, 1783; rank, cap- tain Sixth . Massachusetts regiment, commanded by Col. Benjamin Tupper.
After the revolutionary war he was appointed major in a regiment of Mas- sachusetts state militia. After his re- moval to Otsego county, N. Y., he was commissioned captain of a company of light infantry in 1792. He resigned this captaincy soon afterward upon removing to Owego.
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When Capt. Wattles came to Owego he invested largely in real estate, and at one time owned what is now some of the most valuable land in the vil. lage, occupied by brick blocks and handsome residences. He was the owner of the entire. square now bounded by Front, Main, Lake, and Court streets, with the exception of the ground occupied by the county buildings and the old academy. Ho also owned an acre lot at the north east corner of Main street and North avenue, on which Otis S. Beach's drug store and other buiklings now stand, and an acre at the northeast corner of Front and Lake streets, now occupied by W. B. Partridge's drug : store and other buildings. The tier of lots on both sides of Front street extending from . Church street to Paige street was also his' property, and he owned many other lots in other parts of the village, which are now occupied by valuable residences.
The Wattles family lived in a house which Capt. Wattles built on the north side of Main street at what is now the northeast corner of: that street and Central avenue. This house was afterward the residence of Judge Latham A: Burrows, and later of David P. Tinkham. . It was occu pied , by Mr. Tinkham's widow, Mrs. Harriet G. Tinkham, until it was, ro- moved in 1866, when the Park hotel was built in its place.
It is not known where Capt. Wat- tles's store was situated, but it was. probably, on the bank of the river either opposite or below Court street. His business investments proved un- fortunate for him, and in February,
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1799, his real estate was seized by the sheriff for a debt of £578 for goods purchased from Jacob . Conkline, a New York merchant. In November. 1802, the property was all deeded by Conkline and Captain Wattles to Robert Bowne, another New York merchant, who sold goods to other Owego merchants of that time and who was also, probably, a creditor.
Capt. Wattles remained in Owego several years, during a portion of which time he held, the office of jus- tice of the peace and also practised law. He was an associate judge of Broome county from 1807 to . 1812. Owego was at that time a part · of ~ Broome county. From March 28, 1806, to March 22. 1822, the present towns of Newark Valley, Owego, Richford, and Berk- shire were a part of Broome county: Capt. Wattles was generally known here as Judge Wattles. He also held the office of clerk of Broome county from Feb. 18, 1811 to Nov. 9, 1812.
In April, 1811, Capt. Wattles pur- chased a farm of 128 acres in the town of Nanticoke, Broome county, and later removed there. He. was liv- ing there as late as Feb. 1; 1814, when he made his will. . Later he're- moved to New York city, where he died July 16, 1819.
The Wattles descent is as follows: John Wattles married Judith Fitch in 1722.
Their second son, Mason Wattles (1), was born June 25, 1727; married Irene Chandler June 29, 1747.
Their second son, Mason Wattles (2), was born March 3, 1752.
Capt. Mason Wattles was married. about 1783-5 with Catherine Hough- ton. They had two daughters. Eliza
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A. Wattles, the elder, was the first wife of Samuel M. Avery, of Nanti- coke, who died at Jenksville in 1888. Cornelia Wattles, the younger daugh- ter, was married to John W. Oddie about the year 1805.
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There was another Mason Wattles in Broome county, Col. Mason Wattles, said to have been a nephew of Capt. Wattles, and who derived his title of colonel from his having been colonel in the 20th regiment of artillery, to which he was promoted from captain in 1822. His only daughter, Sarah Wattles, was married to Dr. John W. Knapp, of Harford, N. Y., in 1844. Col. Wattles.lived at Liśle. He had a son, Harry J. Watties, whose widow is still living at Killawog.
THOMAS DUANE.
Thomas Duane, who was one of the first merchants , in Owego, is, sup- posed to have been of French extrac -. tion. He came here from King- ston, Pa., in 1800. His wife was the widow of an officer in the continential army who was killed in the massacre at Wyoming by the Indians and "tories" on July 3, 1778.
Obadiah Gore, one of the most prominent men of Wyoming, was one of the aged men left in Forty Fort, for its defence, while the settlers marched out to meet the enemy. Five of Gore's sons went out to the conflict. Three were slain, as were also his sons-in-law. John Murfee and Timothy Pierce.
Timothy Pierce, who held a. com: mission as lieutenant in the regular army, had ridden forty miles through the Great swamp the night previous and come to join his friends on the
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battle field. His wife was Hannah Gore, Obadiah Gore's daughter. A1 the time of the massacre she, with her two daughters, Clarissa Pierce, who was three years and nine months old, and Polly Pierce, who was only nineteen months of age, had taken refuge with the rest of the women in .the fort, while the men went forth to meet the enemy.
Ten years subsequent to the mas- sacro, March 12, 1788, Lieutenant Timothy Pierce's widow, Hannah Pierce, became the wife of Thomas Duane.
When Mr. Duane came in 1800 with his family to Owego, he built his store on a lot he had purchased on the south side of Front street, extending from the east line of Lake street one- half the distance to Church street. The Imber for the construction of this store was brought up the river from Wilkes-Barre in · keel-bottomed boats, which were polled up with long setting-poles,placed against the shoul- ders of the men who polled the boats. This was tedions and laborious work, and the boats were propelled very slowly; but it was the only way of transportation then. The family also came in one of these boats.
The store was built on the bank of the river. It was painted yellow and had a lean-to in the rear. One side of the building was occupied as a store and the other side as a residence by the family, as was customary in those days. " In the centre of the building was a huge chinmey. Here the Duanes lived for several years.
Later in life Thomas Duane, was generally known as Judge Duane. In
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August, 1811, his step-daughter, Polly Pierce, purchased of John Hollenback two acres of land, a small portion of lot No. 25, on the bank of the Susque- . hanna river in the eastern part of this village and built thereon a house. The house stood about where Victor P. Decker's house now stands, a little past of the small crock, known for many years as Hollenback's creek, which empties into the river. This house is worthy of some notice, for it was then the most pretentious one in Owego.
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Nearly all the best of the early houses were large rectangular build- ings, with a wide hall throught the middle from front to rear, with no porches, sometimes with a small stoop, but usually without any. This house had the usual hall through the centre, and it had also wings at each side. There was a high double porch ' at the front extending up nearly to the roof. : On the south side was a high piazza, commanding a view of the most beautiful part of the river. Here Judge Duane lived with his fam- ily in good style for several years.
When Polly Pierce died in 1815 she left a will in which she devised this property to her half-brother, Timothy Pierce Duane, who the next year sold it to John H. Avery. It passed through the ownership of several persons af- terward, and in 1832 it again became the property of John .HoHenback.
This house was for several years used as a tavern, where river raftmen' sometime stayed while their rafts and arks were tied up in the Hollenback eddy for the night. At one time it was occupied by a canal boat captain
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named Butler. One night previous to the day on which he was about to leave Owego on one of his periodical trips he dreamed that he fell over- board. from a canal boat and was drowned. The dream made such an impression upon him that in the morning he narrated it to his wife. She was considerably affected, and endeavored to dissuade him from go- ing away. He laughed at her fears and went on his way. A few days af- terward she received information of his death, which had happened in every respect exactly as it had been presented to him in his dream.
The house was for several years · uninhabited, and was commonly known as "the haunted house." Su- perstitious people believed that it was haunted by the ghost of Butler. Mys- terious noises were said to have been heard there at night and lights were seen to flash from its windows. Less credulous people avered that the lights and noises which had been seen by belated passers-by passing . along the highway, were caused by people of not particularly reputable . character, who consorted there at night.
The building had been deserted about thirty years when it was burned. The fire is said to have been set by an incendiary, who wanted to give the firemen a run. Mr. Hollen- back offered a reward of $50 for the arrest and conviction of the incen- diary, but no one was arrested, al- though a certain person was sus; pected of having caused the fire.
Judge Duane later removed to a farm of twenty aeres, west of the lit-
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tle. Nanticoke creek, a part of the farm now occupied by Mrs. Herman M. Tilbury and her family, where he died October 14, 1821. His wife had died a few days previous, on the 5th of the same month. Their bodies were buried on this farm between the highway and the river. The land has been cultivated many years and there is now nothing left to indicate where the graves were made.
The genealogy of the Duane family is as follows:
Thomas Duane, born 1759. Married Hannah Pierce 12 March, 1788. Died in Owego 14 October, 1821. His wife was born in 1751 and died in Owego 5 October, 1821. Their children were: 1. Henry' W. Duane, commonly known as Harry Duane, born 17 Aug., 1789. Died in Owego 21 May, 1816, unmarried.
2. Harriet Duane, born 19 May, 1792. Married 'Caleb Leach, Jr. She died 7 Oct., 1818. Their children were Harry Leach, unmarried. Died and was buried at sea. Mary Leach mar- ried Lucius Truman, of Owego. Har- riet married George S. Leonard, of Owego, and died 1 Jan. 1874.
. 3. Timothy Pierce Duane born 11 Sept. 1794. He was a farmer. Mar ried Laura: Steele, daughter of Aaron Steele, 20 Oct., 1822: He died at South Owego 11 August, 1872. She died 13, Oct., 1775. Their children were: Mary . P. and Emily Duane, unmarried. Hannah Duane, married William June. Burr Duane, unmar- ried. John Duane. Rebecca Duane. married Jerome B. Richardson.
Henry Wm. Duane, Thomas Duane's . eldest son, was a clerk in his father's store. He was in company with Capt. Jesse McQuigg in the mercantile business in 1812 and for a few years afterward. McQuigg & Duane's store was in a wooden building on the west
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side of Lake street, two doors north of Front street. They failed in busi ness ..
Polly Pierce was born at Wyoming. Pa., 14 Dec., 1776, and died in Owe- go 19 June, 1815. Her sister, Clarissa. was born at Wyoming, 11 Oct., 1774, and died 26 Jan., 1805. Her husband's name was White. They were married about 1796. Their children were Ed- win, Polly, Timothy Pierce, and John P. White.
GEN. DANIEL CRUGER.
These sketches would be incom- plete without the name of Gen. Daniel Cruger being inchided. His sojourn here was brief, but he was the first editor and newspaper publisher in this part of the state when much of it was a forest, and he later became one of the most prominent lawyers in this state. He was of sufficient in- portance to be included with William 1. Marcy, Daniel S. Dickinson and thirty other prominent members of the New York bar. in L. B. Proctor's "The Bench and the Bar of New York," a volume of 779 pages, twenty of which are given to Gen. Cruger.
Gen. Cruger's. ancestors wore Huguenots, who. after the massacre of St.Bartholomew escaped from France. The branch of the family from which; he descended settled in Holstein. . His father, whose name was also Daniel. Cruger, came to. America in 1768 and settled at Sunbury, Pa., where ('n. Cruger was born Dec. 22, 1780. Soon after his birth the family removed to Newtown (now ' Elmira). where ; the father engaged in the mercantile busi- ness.
When young Cruger was thirteen
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GEN. DANIEL CRUGER.
From a photograph from a painting owned by Gen. Cruger's granddaughter, Mrs. Benjamin Dorrance, of Dorranceton, Pa.
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years of age, Mr. Webster, one of the earliest printers in Albany, came to Newtown to visit relatives. He saw young Cruger, and was attracted to' him by the boy's lively intelligence, vivacity, and activity. He induced the elder Cruger torapprentice his son to him for the purpose of learning the printing business. :
Having learned his trade and ob- tained all that could be learned in the printing business, young Cruger came to southern New York with a rather limited printing outfit, but one ade- quate to the needs of his business, and established a newspaper at old Chenango village, a small settlement which was at that time on the west ·side of the Chenango river, about one mile above the present city of Bing- hamton. This settlement was com- menced in 1793 or 1794, and no settle- ment was thought of where Binghan- ton now is before the year 1799.
The first number of the paper, which was called "The American Con- stllation," was, published Nov. 22, 1800,and at that time Gen. Cruger was only nineteen years of age. Although the paper was printed at. old Che- anngo, it was dated "Union," for the reason that the post office at Union was for a long time the only one in that part of the country .:
As in 1801 Owego had become the .only settlement in this part of the state that had grown to any imiport- ance young Cruger removed his news- paper establishment here that year. He established his office in a lean-to in the rear of a house which stood on the north side of Front street, where Lewis Il. Leonard's residence now stands. The house was a double one,
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occupied by Eleazer Dana, one of the early lawyers in Owego, on one side, and by Luke B. Winship on the other, and he boarded with the Winships. Here he printed the paper until Aug. ust, 1803, when he sold it to Stephen Mackand Henry Steward, who changed the name to "The American. Farmer."
Young Cruger's father had in the mean time removed to Bath, Steuben county, and after the sale of his paper the son went to Bath, where he worked for a time at the printer's trade: It was fortunate for his future prospects that the work proved injurious to his health, as he was compelled to re- nounce it, and he entered the office of Gen. S. S. Haight as a law student. After he was admitted to the bar, about the year 1806, he became Gen. Haight's law partner. Me soon be- came one of the leading lawyers of the Steuben county bar.
In 1806 Gen. Cruger was appointed an adjutant in the Steuben county regiment of militia which was com- manded by Col. Geo. McCullock. In 1808 he was commissioned second "major in the regiment commanded by Lieut .- Col. Samuel S. Haight, his - law partner.
In 1812 he went with Gen. McClure's brigade to the northern frontier. Soon after he reached the seat of war; Gen. McClure, understanding that certain orders directed him to burn the town of Newark, in Canada, he took the necessary steps . to obey. Major Cruger and. Mr. Spencer, another of- ficer, however, dissented from the view of the order taken by Gen. Mc- Clure, and objected to burning the town. About this time Mr. Spencer
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was called home by ilhiess in his fam- ily, and major Cruger stood alone in his opposition. The general therefore prepared to carry out his construction of the order, and major Cruger was ordered to enter the town with a flag of truce and inform the 'inhabitants of the coming .conflagration." He obeyed the order, entered the town with an orderly, and after giving the usual notice, he and his orderly as- sited the inhabitants in removing their effects, and the town was soon in flames.
In 1816 Col. Haight was promoted to: brigadier-general, and major Cruger was made lieutenant-general of the regiment . In 1819 he was again promoted to major general of the 25th division of infantry. In 1822 he re- signed:
In 1813 he was elected by. the Dem- ocrats of Allegany and Steuben · counties to the assembly, and he was re-elected four times thereafter. h. 1816 he was elected speaker of the assembly, after a bitter contest, by a majority of one vote. His popularity as speaker was such that in the fall .of 1816 he was. nominated to con- , gress in the Twentieth congressional district and elected. He was a promi- nent member of the house,
April 17, 1815, he was appointed district attorney of the Seventh dis- triet, consisting of the counties of Steuben, Allegany, and Tioga. This office was then one of the most im- portant in the state, second 'only to that of attorney-general. There were at this time twelve district attorneys, the state being divided into twelve distriets,each district embracing. with-
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in its jurisdiction several counties. He was district attorney of the Sev- enth district until June 11, 1818, and from that date he continued as dis- triet attorney of Steuben county until February 19, 1821.
Gen. Cruger's first wife was Han- nah Clement, of Bath. They were married about 1806. She died in 1828. While in congress, Gen. Cruger be- came acquainted with Mrs. Lydia Shepard, of Wheeling, Va., who was in Washington trying to collect a claim of .her . deceased . husband against the goverment. He subso- quently . went to Wheeling, where they were married in 1833. After his marriage, he gave himself up entirely to agricultural pursuits and the man- · agement of his wife's property. June 12, 1843, while attending a meeting of the directors of the Wheeling bank, he was stricken with apoplexy and died within a few moments. His body .. was buried in Stone Church come- tery at Elm Grove, Ohio county, Va.
STEPHEN MACK.
Judge Stephen Mack, who during his . residence of fifteen years in Owego was one of its most active and promi- nent citizens, was born at New Mark- borough, Mass., March 20, 1765 .: He was a son of Orlando Mack, of Hebron, Conn., and great grandson of John Mack, who came from Scotland to America about 1680 and settled at Lyme, Conn. Two older brothers of Stephen Mack served in the Continen- tal army and became distinguished of- ficors. One died a prisoner of war in a fortress in Canada.
In early life Judge Mack was a mer- chant. In 1799 he kept a general
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'JUDGE STEPHEN MACK.
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, country store at Cooperstown, N. Y. · The particulars of his coming to Owe- go, as given to the writer several years ago by his son-in-law, John Carmi- chael, were as follows:
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While conducting his mercantile bus: iness at Cooperstown, he made a con- ract with the United States govern- ment to furnish about 100,000 spars, to be delivered at Baltimore, Md. He pur- chased the timber in the winter, pay- ing for it in goods from his store .. In March, 1799, while about to start it down the river there came a great freshet, carrying away and scattering along the stream all of his timber. He came down the river to Owego in quest of his property, but ascertaining that it would cost him as much to secure it as it would be worth when gathered to- gether again, he abandoned his search. The loss of his timber made him a bankrupt.
During his sojourn in Owego he had become impressed with the beauty of the Susquehanna valley and its ap- parent advantages to settlers, and he decided to come here to live. He was a man of great vigor, enterprise, and ability, and he at once became an active and prominent citizen: He en- gaged in the mercantile business, in which he was successful.
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