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 9
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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
About the year 1803 Gen. Laning formed a partnership in the lumber manufacturing business with Guy Maxwell, of New Town (now Ehnira), under the firm name of Maxwell & Laning. They purchased considera- ble land on the east side of the Owe- go creek, northwest of this village, and engaged in the manufacture of lumber. This partnership continued until 'the spring of 1811 when Mr. Maxwell sold his interest in the real State to Gen. Laning, together with the sawmill thereon.
Mr. Maxwell was a son of Alexan- der. Maxwell, of Claverack, England. In June, 1770, Alexander Maxwell and . his wife embarked from a Scottish port for America, but were ship- wrecked in the Irish channel and landed on the coast of Ireland, where Guy Maxwell was born July 15, 1770. He was two years of age when he came to Virginia with his parents, who settled at Martinsburg. He was apprenticed to the mercantile trade (as was the custom in those days) at
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Pittsburgh, Pa,, his term of appren- ticeship. expiring in . July, 1788. company with Samuel Hopkins he opened a store at :Tioga Point (Athens) in the following September and sold goods in a store building owned by Matthias Hollenback. In August, 1796 be removed to New Town (Elmira), where he had bought one hundred acres of land in what is now the most valuable business. part of that city.
In 1790 he acted as secretary to Col. Timothy Pickering, the principal negotiator " on the part of the governi- ment when Red Jacket, Cornplanter. Big Tree,and about 1,200:other Indians were gathered at New Town in No- vember, 1790, for the purpose of hold- ing a treaty with the United States. He was appointed sheriff of. Tioga county. by Gov. Clinton . and served froni February, 1800 to January, 1801. He built the first fouring mill at New Town. He died February 14, 1814.
Guy Maxwell was. the father of William Maxwell, of Elmira, who was > district attorney and surrogate : of Tioga county, and of Thomas Max- well, who was clerk of Tioga county and afterward postmaster of Elmira. Thomas Maxwell was the father of Mrs. Abram H. Miller, of Spencer, later of Owego ..
Mr .. Laning's store was in a roomi that was afterward the barroom of the old Franklin house, which stood on the north side of Front street, east of Court street. This store stood where the third brick store east of Court street now stands. Gen. Lan- ing bought the property in February,. 1804. The lot was just one-fourth of
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the present square bounded. by Front. Lake, Main, and Court streets.
Gen. Laning was only forty-one years old when he met with his death by accident. February 12, 1820, he fell through a trap door in his store- house to the cellar below and was killed.
Among Gen. Laning's clerks were : Jonathan Platt, Benjamin . Durham, and Asa H. Truman, all of whom afterward became. successful mer- chants.
The old storehouse was torn down about 1835. by Gen. Laning's widow, who erected a store on its site for her son, Matthias H. Laning. This store: was afterward occupied by Rayns- ford, Drake & Co., and later by John Bassett, who in February, 1839, set it on fire for the purpose of defrauding an insurance company, and who, when he was about to be arrested for the crime committed suicide by cut- ting his throat with a razor.
Gen. Laning derived his military . title: from his service in the state militia. In 1811 he was adjutant in the regiment of which. Gen. Oliver Huntington was the colonel com- mandant. In 1817 he was colonel .of. the 53d regiment of infantry .. In 1819 he was promoted to brigadier-general of the 41st brigade of infantry and held this commission at the time of his death.
Mrs. Laning was Mary Ann Hollen- back, daughter of Matthias Hollen- back, of Wilkes-Barre, Pa. After her husband's death she continued to live in a large white house which stood on the north side of Main street, nearly opposite Park street, and there she died March 1, 1854, aged 71 years.
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The children of Gen. John and Mary Ann (Hollenback) Laning were as follows:
1. Augustus C. Laning, who re- moved to .Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
2. Mathias .H. . Laning, who re- moved in 1835 to Wysox, Pa., where he kept a store and built a large' sec- tion of the North Branch canal. He died there 3 May, 1890.
3. Mary Ann Laning, who married John S. Rosette, of Philadelphia:
4. Sarah Laning, who was the first wife of Dr: Ezekiel B. Phelps and who died at Owego 3 Nov., 1842.
5. Ellen H. Laning, who married Mr. Bicking.
6. Emily G. Laning, who. married John J. Taylor in 1837 and died in Owego 25 Nov., 1879.
7. John C. Laning, who lived at Owego and died here 18 May, 1897.
Mr. Bicking and Mr. Rosette were · business partners and conducted a wholesale dry goods store in Phila- delphia.
John J. Taylor was one of. the ablest lawyers of his time in Owego. He was born April 27, 1808, at Leo- minster, Mass., and was graduated from Harvard university in 1829. He : studied law in Troy, N. Y., and came to Owego in 1834, where he soon ranked as one of the ablest lawyers in southern New York. He was dis- trict attorney of . Tioga county from 1841 to 1843. In 1846 he represented Tioga county in the constutional con- vention, and was also a supreme court commissioner. He was a mem- ber of the 27th congress in 1852-4, where he gained some distinction as . a speaker, particularly on account of his speech on the Kansas-Nebraska. . bill. In . 1858 he was the Democratic candidate for lieutenant-governor of " this state on the ticket with judge
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Amasa J. Parker for governor. Hewas prominent in securing the construc- tion of the Southern . Central railroad from Owego to Auburn, and was one of the original directors of the road and vice-president. . In September, ' 1869, he was chosen president, and was re-elected several times there- after. He was also president of the the old National Union Bank of Owe- go. He died at Owego July 1, 1892.
JOHN PUMPELLY.
John Pumpelly, the father ofJamies, Charles, William, and Harmon Pum- pelly, all of whom became distin- quished citizens of Owego, was born in 1727.
The name Pumpelly, is of Italian origin, and at different periods it has been spelled Pompili, Pompilli, Pum- pilly, Pompilie, Pumpely, and in va- rious other ways. The name is said to be a corrupted form of the name. Pompilie, or Pompilly, which are French forms of the very ancient sur- name of Pompili, and the last way of 'spelling the name is found in the ar- . chives of the city of Spoletto, near ' Rome, one Signor Pompili having dis- tinguished himself in the defence of one of the gatesofSpoletto when Fred- .erick Barbarossa laid seige `to that city. The traditions of the American branch state that the family came from Avignon, France, and becoming Protestants emigrated to the French kingdom and afterward fled to Cana- da .. .
Jean Pompilie, the French Hugue- not, who emigrated to Canada, had a · son, John Pompily, who came from Canada to Massachusetts in the early part of 1700. He is said to have run
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away with and married a Miss Mun- roe, a young girl with some fortune and nich beauty, who after his death married a clergyman named Glover. .
His only son, John Pumpely (so he' himself wrote the name), the subject of this sketch, was born in 1727, one month after the death of his father. He was brought up in the household of Mr. Glover, and at the age of eleven or twelve years ran away and enlisted as a drummer in Capt. John Loring's company of the king's ser- vice. He served through the whole French and Indian war as a member of Capt. Rogers's rangers and. was promoted as sergeant . for distin- guished bravery while bearer of dis- patches for the relief of Fort William Henry, carrying the dispatches. safely through a country infested with hos- tile Indians. The last few miles of this dangerous expedition were made in a dead run, chased by three In- dian warriors. It is said that he stood near Gen. Wolfe when Wolfe was mortally wounded at Quebec and that he himself was wounded at the same time. He also served as a revo- lutionary soldier and was commissary to Gen. Israel Putnam at the time of Burgoyne's surrender, and traditon says that he was the means of saving the life of that distinguished officer when Putnam fell into a lake during a skirmish.
John Pumpelly was twice married. His first wife was. Eppen Hillebrantz Meijer (called in this country . Appy Meyers,) a young woman of Dutch descent, whom he married in 1759 at Halifax, Novia Scotia, while he was in the army. She died in. 1809, aged 63 years.
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The five sons and two daughters of John and Eppen ( Meijer) Pumpelly were as follows:
1. Bennet Pumpelly, born 16 June, 1761. Married Mary Irish in the town . of Turner, Maine, 23 March, : 181.5.
2. Betsy Pumipelly; born 13 Sept., 1763.
3. Appy Pumpelly, born 20 Dec.,
1764. Married Daniel Merrill, Jr., in 1821:
4. John Pumpelly, born 8 Jan., 1767. 5. Ruel Pumpelly, born 16 Feb., 1769.
6. Barnard Pumpelly, born 4 May, 1770. He was killed in St. Clair's de- feat. .
7. Capt. Samuel. Pumpelly, born 10 Sept., 1773. He was married twice. llis first wife died 19 Dec., 1820 .. He married second, Hannah Doten, widow of Holmes Doten, 'and daughter of John Bess, of Paris, Maine. He died 10 Nov., 1819.
Bennet Pumpelly served in the con- tinental army during the revolution and was a personal friend of Lafay- ette, who when in Boston, in 1824, sent a special invitation to Mr. Pumpelly to visit him. lle was a sergeant ma- jor in Col. Weissenfield's regiment, and served through the whole war.
John Pumpelly lived first at Pem- broke, Mass., and afterward at Salis- bury, Conn. His second wife was. Hannah Bushnell, daughter of Capt. Samuel Bushnell, of Salisbury, Conn. The children of John and Hannah (Bushnell) Pumpelly were as follows:
1. James Pumpelly, born 20 Dec., 1775, at Salisbury, Conn. Married Mrs. Mary (Pixley) Tinkham, widow of Dr. Samuel Tinkham, of Owego, 7 April, 1805: He died at Owego 4 Oct., 1845, and she 4 June, 1848.
2. Jerusha Pumpelly, born in the state of New York in 1778. Died 22 Nov., 1793, at Salisbury, Com.
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3. Charles Pumpelly, born 18 Dec., 1779, at :Salisbury, Conn. Married Frances Avery, daughter of Sanruel Avery, of Owego, 2 Sept., 1803. He died at Owego G Jan., 1855, and she 21 Oct., 1848.
1. Maria Pumpelly, born 14 -- , 1785, at Salisbury, Conn. . Married Aber Beers. She died at Owego 3 Dec., 1858.
5. Mary Pumpelly, born 23 Nov., 1786, at Salisbury, Conn.
6. William Pumpelly, born 17 June, 1788, at Salisbury, Conn. Married Sarah Emily Tinkham, daughter of Dr. Samuel Tinkham, in June, 1814. She died 31 March, 1822. His second wife was Mary H. Welles, daughter of George Welles, of Athens, Pa., whom: he married 20 Oct., 1824. He died at Owego 16 Nov., 1876, and she in Paris, France !! Dec., 1879.
7. Harriet Punipelly, born 10 Nov., 1791, at Salisbury, Conn. Married David McQuigg, who was a son of Capt. John McQuigg, one of the earli- est settlers at Owego. He was one of the earliest merchants at Ithaca.
S. Harmon Pumpelly, born 1 Aug., 1795, at Salisbury, Conn. His first wife was Delphine Drake, daughter of judge John. R. Drake, of Owego. His second wife was Maria Brinkerhoff, daughter of Peter Brinkerhoff, of Al- bany; N. Y., whom he married in 1841. He died 29 Sept., 1882, at Albany, and she 22 April, 1887.
John Pumpelly, with his second wife and five of their children .came from Salisbury in May, 1802 to the state of New York. They crossed the Hudson river at Catskill and came thence through a wild country, with now and then a clearing, to Owego. The settlement here then was small, composed of a few unpainted frame houses, with occasionally a log one, . and mostly scattered along on each side of the then crooked highway, which is at present known as Front
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street. What is now the village was then covered with woods.
William Pumpelly, who was but thirteen years old at that time, in- formed the writer a few years before his death that when the party turned from Front street into the road which extended north and ran about where Lake street is now they passed through pine woods, the . trees in which were of such great size that in his youthful imagination they seemed to touch the sky. The family pro- ceeded on their way north to their destination, then known as Beers's settlement, in the town of. Danby, Tompkins county. At that time. the only house where Ithaca now stands was a log hut, hardly suitable for a pig pen ..
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John Pumpelly lived at Beers's set- tlement in the old' house, which is still standing, until his death on July 11, 1819, aged 92 years. His. wife, Hannah Pumpelly, after his death came to Owego to live and at her death on Dec. 31, 1832, his body was brought to Owego. Their remains are intorred in the Presbyterian burying ground in Temple street. A portrait of John Pumpelly is in the possession of the Albany branch of the family.
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ABNER BEERS.
Abner : Beers, who married John Pumpelly's daughter, Maria, was born at Stratford, Conn., Dec. 7, 1777. He was a descendant of James. Beers, who lived in Gravesend, Kent, Eng- land, where James's brother, Richard; also resided. James was a mariner and died in 1635. He had two sons, James and Anthony, who in that year . came with their uncle, Richard Beers, to Watertown, Mass., where Richard was a representative to the general court thirteen years and a captain in the military service. He was mor- tally wounded in King Philip's war at Westfield, Mass., and died Sept. 4, 1675.
Anthony Beers, son of James, of Kent, removed from Watertown to Fairfield, Conn., in 1659. He was lost at sea in 1676. He had nine children, of whom Barnabas, the youngest, was born Sept. 6, 1658. Barnabas also had nine children, of whom the youngest Abner Beers (1) was born Dec. 6, 1736. He married Hannah Beardslee Oct. 6, 1761. They had eight chil- dren, of whom Abner Beers (2), the youngest, was born Dec. 7, 1779.
Three brothers of Abner Beers (2), Nathan, Jabez, and Rev. Lewis Beers, M. D., came from Stratford, Conn., and settled at Beers's settlement (now. Danby), in Tompkins county, in 1797. Abner Beers (2) came there later, in 1804, and in 1806 he opened a store in a log house. When the brothers had become fairly settled they brought their father, . Abner Beers (1) and their mother from . Stratford to Beers's settlement, they · later removing to a farm in the town of Spencer, in Tioga county, where he
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was living in July, 1808, when he made his will. He died- Jan. 3, 1816, and she April 10, 1817.
When Dr. Lewis Beers, who had been a practising physician at Strat- ' ford, came to Tompkins county he bought two hundred acres of land and his brothers bought one hundred acres 'each adjoining. Dr. Beers added by other purchases until he was one of the largest land owners in the county. He was the first postmaster and the first justice of the peace in the town of Danby, receiving his appointment in 1807 from Gov. Tompkins. He was later appointed judge of the court of common pleas. He was the first and only president of the Owego and Ith- aca turnpike company from 1812 to 1841. . He was a physician,' farnier, minister of the gospel, and merchant. He was 81 years of age at the time of his death in 1849.
Jabez Beers was a justice of the peace and succeeded his brother as judge. He was a member of assembly in 1812-1813. : He was a carpenter and erected the first frame building at Ithaca.
About the year 1812 Abner Beers (2) kept a tavern five or six miles this side of Ithaca. Later he removed to the town of Candor, where he en- gaged in farming and lumbering. He came to Owego to live in 1818. He lived on the south side of Front street, west of McMaster street. His house was on the lot now owned by Mrs. Eliza J. Pride and stood about twenty feet back of the well which supplied the family with water and which well is still in use and is near the sidewalk.
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Mr. Beers was a carpenter and builder. He built the first Tioga county clerk's office in 1825 and. the old Owego academy in Court street. in 1827. The next year he also built the first bridge across the Susquehanna river at the foot of Court street from the plans of Ephraim Leach, and he died the same year.
Įlis children were Harmon, Eli. David, Mary, Abner, Charles, Frances, and John James Beers.
Dr. Eli Beers was a physician at Danby:
Col. Abner Beers was born June 24, , 1812, at Beers's settlement. In 1846 he went to Yazoo, Mississippi, where for many years he was a planter. He came to Owego in 1878 and died hore May 30, 1881.
David, Charles, and John James Beers lived at Owego. Charles Beers was born June 4, 1819, in this village and lived here all his life. He was en- gaged in the livery business and farm- ing several years. . His livery barn was on the east side of Lake street where the post office now stands and . was burned in 1872. He died Dec. 29, 1891.
John James Beers was a farmer and lived on the farm which after his death became the property of E. H. House on the north side of the Hunt- . ington creek and west of the old Owego and Ithaca turnpike. He died May 2, 1880.
David Beers was for many years a merchant at Owego. He was born April 20, 1809, at. Beers's settlement. In 1820, two years after his coming to Owego, when he was only twelve years of age, he began business on his
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own account by permission of his father.
Ilis first speculation was the pur- chase of shad of the river fishermen. At that period there were no dams in the Susquehanna to prevent shad from coming up the stream in the spring, and the fish were taken here in large quantities during the shad season. He purebased shad .of the het-owners and went every other day to Ithaca with a load of these fish, finding a ready sale for them at the many taverns on the road and in Ithaca.
With the proceeds of these sales Mr. Beers was enabled to begin busi- ness in a small way as a grocer in one of the stores in Cauldwell row, on the north side of Front street, a little east of Lake street.
His first stock of goods was bought for him in New York by William Pum- pelly, who forwarded them with his own goods to Catskill, whence they were brought by teams to Owego. Af- ter a time he removed to the south side of Front street, adjoining judge Drake's store. Later he went to Apa- lachin, which was at that time an im- portant lumbering point, where he built a store and conducted a general mercantile business two years. His. goods, which he then received by the way of Ithaca, he sold in exchange for long shingles, which he shipped down the river in arks to market. He sold his store and stock of goods to Aaron Steele and returned to Owego.
John Kinney, a tailor, owned a house and lot on the west side of Lake street, the same lot on which . M. A. Lynch's saloon now stands. Mr. Beers bought the property and opened
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a meat market. He subsequently con- verted the lower part of his house in- to a store, where in company with his brother-in-law, Albert R. Thomas, he conducted a general country store until the building was burned in the . great fire of 1849. He immediately rebuilt. . Two years later he pur- chased Mr. Thomas's interest in the store and continued the business alone until September, 1866, when he sold the property to Martin Ashley.
A short time previous to the fire of 1849 the general country stores grad- ually discontinued the sale of many articles of merchandise such as are now found, only in, crockery, hard- ware, and grocery stores, but Mr. Beers continued to keep the stock of a general country store the same as during the early mercantile days of . Owego, until he retired from business. .He removed to Brooklyn, where he died Dec. 27, 1890, at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Charles O. Anderson.
Abner Beers : (2) died at Owego Sept. 7, 1828.
JAMES PUMPELLY.
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JAMES PUMPELLY.
James Pumpelly, the eldest son of John Pumpelly, was one of the most progressive men that ever lived in · Owego. He was a self-made man. His enterprise and public spirit were manifested when the village was at its formative period, and it is largely due to him that its advancement was so rapid. He wa's foremost by reason of his wealth in every public enter- prise. He was a leading spirit in es- tablishing turnpikes, in building the old Ithaca and Owego railroad, in building the first steamboat. on, the Susquehanna river built for commer- cial purposes, and in preparing the way for the construction of the New York & Erie railroad to Owego. At the convention at Owego Dec. 20 and 21, 1831, of the people from all along the line, representing fifteen or six- teen counties, to advocate the applica- tion to the legislature for a charter for a railroad from New York to Lake Erie, he was one of the vice-presi- dents.
When the Pumpelly family came to Beers's settlement from Connecticut in 1802 James Pumpelly . was 28 years old. He rode the entire dis- tance on horseback. He was a sur- veyor, as was also his father. The family was not in prosperous circum- stances. There was an old story that when James Pumpelly came to Owego to engage in surveying. he had only fifty cents in his possession, with which he purchased a hatchet to cut away the brush while surveying in the woods. This story was not exactly correct, but it had some foundation in truth.
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One of Mr. Pumpelly's early ac- quaintances. was Zelotes. Robinson, who lived within twenty miles of Salisbury, and they knew each other before coming to Owego. Mr. Robin- son for five years from 1818 con- ducted Mr. Pumpelly's saw and grist mills at Jenksville, and for five years afterward he conducted . one of Mr. Pumpelly's farms. It was while thus engaged that Mr. Pumpelly told Mr. Robinson how he came to Owego with a party of surveyors, having obtained a job of surveying, and all the money he had was five New England shil- lings. While sitting with an impe- cunious friend on the bank of the river, near where the Court street bridge now is, Mr.' Pumpelly divided the five shillings equally with this friend. ..
Mr. Pumpelly began his work here with a surveying party an an axe- man. One of the party was the father of Gov. Hawley, of Connecticut. Mr. Pumpelly later became agent for the owners of large tracts of land in the "Twelve Townships," and with the aid of his brothers, William and Har- mon Pumpelly, he surveyed that im- mense territory. He was agent for lands on both sides of the Owego creek its entire length, and estab- lished a land oflice in Owego. He purchased lands in large. tracts on his own account and sold portions of them from time to time at a hand- some profit. As is usually the case, many purchasers failed to make their payments in full and forfeited what. they had already paid, allowing the land to go back into Mr. Pumpelly's possession, to be sold. again.
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Mr. Pumpelly and Joshua Ferris, of Spencer, surveyed the several sec- tions known as Watkins & Flint's purchase. This land comprised about 363,000 acres, including the present towns of Candor and Spencer. A. de- scription of this tract may be found on page 26 of Gay's "Historical Gaz- eteer of Tioga County," published in 1888.
Mr. Pumpelly's real estate trans- actions were extensive, and he soon became the largest land owner in this part of the state.
On the north side of Front street, opposite Dr. Samuel Tinkham's house, was Dr. Tinkham's office. This office was after Dr. Tinkham's death occu- pied by James Pumpelly as a land of- flce and it remained there until No- vember, 1880, when it was removed to the east side of Academy street and converted into a small dwelling:
Mr. Pumpelly married the widow of Dr. Samuel Tinkham April 7, 1808, six months after Dr. Tinkham's death. She was the daughter of Col. David Pixley, who died in August, 1807, leav- ing much real estate. The property of both Dr. Tinkham and Col .. Pixley naturally came under control of Mr. Pumpelly.
Dr. Tinkham was living at the time of his death in the house built by James McMaster on the south side of Front street, east of Academy street, ón the lot where M. A. Lynch's house is now. There is a well on this lot. The house stood on the west side of the well and a carriage house on the east side. After his marriage Mr. Pumpelly moved into the house and lived there until 1829, when he built
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the large brick house which stands at the northeast corner of Front and Chapel (now Academy) streets.
The lot on which this house stands then comprised all the land west of the lot on which Mrs. A. Chase Thompson's residence stands and was bounded by Front, Chapel, and Main streets. When this house was built it was the largest and most expensive one anywhere in this part of the coun- try and created widespread comment. It was predicted by the knowing ones that the investment of so much money in a house would ultimately cause the financial ruin of the owner.
Mr. Pumpelly moved into the house when it was completed and lived there until his death on Oct. 4, 1845. At the time of his death he was the largest land owner and wealthiest man in Owego. His wife survived him nearly three years, dying June 4, 1848. While living in the McMaster house Mr. Pumpelly is said to have reared his own children and those of Dr. Tinkham with strict impartiality. Two of his sons, George J. and .Frederick H. Pumpelly, and one of Dr. Tink- ham's sons, David P. Tinkham, were sent to college and were graduated, George J. Pumpelly from Yale and the others from Union. The other chil- dren did not aspire to a higher educa- · tion and received their instruction at the village. schools and the Owego academy.
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