USA > New York > Broome County > Gazetteer and business directory of Broome and Tioga Counties, N. Y. for 1872-3 > Part 24
USA > New York > Tioga County > Gazetteer and business directory of Broome and Tioga Counties, N. Y. for 1872-3 > Part 24
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The First Congregational Church, of Newark Valley, was or- ganized Nov. 17, 1803,į by Rev. Seth Williston, with six mem- bers. It was the first church in Tioga county. The first house of worship was erected in 1804; the present one, which will seat 500 persons, was erected in 1868, at a cost of $13,000. The first pastor was Rev. Jeremiah Osborn ; the present one is Rev. Jay Clisbe. The Church property is valued at $15,000.
The Congregational Church of West Newark was organized with twelve members, Sept. 16, 1823, by Rev. Zenas Riggs, its first pastor. The house of worship, which will seat 250 per- sons, was erected in 1847, at a cost of $1,500, which is one-half
*Statement of D. Williams Patterson, the distinguished genealogist of Newark Valley, who has kindly furnished us with much information per- taining to this town and vicinity.
+ This information was obtained by our agent while canvassing the town. He exercised great care, but the correct figures may vary from those here given.
* French says, in his State Gazetteer, that it was organized in 1798, by Rev. Seth Williston, a missionary from Connecticut. Our informant is D. W. Patterson, to whom we have previously acknowledged our indebt- edness.
There is little doubt that Williston officiated in the capacity of mission- ary prior to 1803, as we are otherwise informed that he held the first re- ligious exercises in the barn of Wm. W. Ball.
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NEWARK VALLEY-NICHOLS.
the present value of Church property. Previous to the erec- tion of the church edifice, meetings were held in the barn of Wm. Richardson, until the erection of a commodious school house, when that was used. The church was formed under the Presbyterian form of government, but was changed to Congre- gational in 1842. The present number of members is twenty- four ; the present pastor is Rev. Wm. Macnab.
The First M. E. Church of Newark Valley, was organized Dec. 3, 1830, with eighteen members, by Rev. Moses Adams. The house of worship was erected in 1832; and was rebuilt and enlarged in 1857. It will seat 300 persons, and was erected at a cost of $2,000. The present value of Church property is $5,000. The present pastor is Earles S. Alexander; the num- ber of members, 234 .*
The Reformed Methodist Church at Ketchumville, was or- ganized with nine members, in 1837, by Seneca Ketchum, at the instigation of Ephraim M. Turner. The house of worship, which will seat 250 persons, was erected in 1852, at a cost of $1,000. There are fifty-five members. Rev. S. L. Dimmick is the pastor.
The Alpha Church (M. E.) at Jenksville, was organized with about twenty-five members, by Rev. - Salisbury, the first pastor, in 1852, in which year the house of worship, which will seat 350 persons, was erected at a cost of $1,500, which is the present value of Church property. There are twenty-five mem- bers. Rev. S. Lindsley is the pastor.t
The Newark Valley Baptist Church, at Newark Valley, was or- ganized with twenty-six members, Oct. 27, 1857, by Rev. L. Ramsted. Meetings were held for a short time in the Congre- gational church, until about 1858 or '9, when a building was procured and remodeled, and was used for religious services un- til the present edifice was built in 1869. It will seat 450 per- sons, and was erected at a cost of about $10,000. Rev. D. F. Leach was the first pastor ; the present one is Rev. Russell H. Spafford. There are 115 members. The Church property is valued at $11,000.
NICHOLS was formed from Tioga, March 23, 1824. It lies upon the south bank of the Susquehanna, near the center of the south border of the County, and contains 19,850 acres,
* Two and one-half miles east, at what is known as East Settlement, is a church, an offshoot of this, under the same pastoral care. The building is worth about $2,000.
+ This church is a part of the Speedsville (Tompkins county) charge and is under the same pastoral care.
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NICHOLS.
of which, in 1865, according to the census of that year, 13,402, were improved. It had a larger per centage of improved land than any other town in the County. The surface is a broken upland, which terminates in steep declivities upon the river. The summits of the hills are broad and attain an elevation of from 300 to 500 feet above the river. A productive gravelly loam forms the soil of the valleys, and a moderately fertile gravelly and clayey loam, underlaid by red sandstone, the hills.
The only important stream in the town is Wappasening Creek, which enters the town from Pennsylvania at the village of Wappasening and flows north into the Susquehanna. That river forms the north and west boundaries of the town.
The population of the town in 1870 was 1,663. Of this num- ber 1,637 were natives and 26, foreigners; 1,645, white and 18, colored.
During the year ending Sept. 30, 1871, the town contained twelve school districts and employed the same number of teachers. The number of children of school age was 527; the number attending school, 421; the average attendance, 219; the amount expended for school purposes, $4,477; and the value of school houses and sites, $6,320.
NICHOLS,* (p. v.) situated near the center of the north border, on the south bank of the Susquehanna, near the mouth of Wappasening Creek, contains two churches, (Presbyterian and the "Free Meeting House," which is occupied by the Method- ists,) a fine school, five general stores, one drug store, one hardware store, one boot and shoe store, two hotels, two wagon shops, one blacksmith shop, one cooper shop, one shoe shop and a grist and saw mill. It is about two miles distant from Smithsboro station on the Erie R. R., and is nine miles below Owego. Its population in 1870 was 281.+
* Nichols was formerly known as "Rushville," which name was given it by Dr. Gamaliel H. Barstow, in honor of Dr. Rush, of Philadelphia; but when it was ascertained that there was another village of the same name in the State, (Yates county) its name was changed to that it now bears in honor of Col. Nichols, the patentee of Nichols Patent. In return for the compliment Col. Nichols directed his agent, Judge Emanuel Coryell, to give $200 toward the erection of some public building, and this sum was applied to the erection of the "Free Meeting House," the one now occu- pied by the Methodists and which was the first church built in the village. A meeting was held Feb. 20, 1829, at the house of Peter Joslin, and a Free Church was organized. The following trustees were appointed, viz. : Emanuel Coryell, Nehemiah Platt, Gamaliel H. Barstow, Peter Joslin, Jonathan Hunt, Wright Dunham, Daniel Furgeson, John Petts, John Cassel, Sylvester Knapp, Ezra Canfield, Edwin Ripley, Cyrus Field, Justus Brown and James Thurston. The church was built in 1829-30, by Hezekiah Dunham, contractor.
+ Of the inhabitants of Nichols in 1870, 275 were natives and 6, foreign- ers ; 280, white and 1, colored.
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NICHOLS.
HOOPERS VALLEY, (p. v.) named in honor of Robert Lettice Hooper, patentee of Hooper's Patent, is situated on the south bank of the Susquehanna, opposite Smithsboro, on the Erie R. R., with which it is connected by a bridge crossing the Susque- hanna. It contains one wagon shop, two blacksmith shops and about twenty houses.
EAST NICHOLS (p. o.) is located in the south-east corner, six miles south of Owego.
WAPPASENING is a hamlet situated on Wappasening Creek, near the State line, about one and one-half miles above Nichols village, and contains a blacksmith shop, a saw mill, a grist mill, a turning shop, twenty houses and about seventy-five inhab- itants.
CANFIELD CORNERS is situated in the north-east part, on the east bank of the Susquehanna.
The first settlement in the town was made by John and Frederick Evelin, (the descendants of the family now spell the name Eveland,) A Vangorder and two sons (Leonard and Ben- jamin) and a man named Sullivan, all of whom lived near Can- field Corners .* The families of Ebenezer Ellis, Pelatiah Pierce and Stephen Mills settled in the town at a very early day, as early as 1787, and probably prior to that time, as Daniel Pierce and Daniel Mills, sons of Pelatiah Pierce and Stephen Mills, were born in the town, the former in 1787 and the latter in 1788. Alex. Ellis, of Barton, son of Ebenezer Ellis, was born in Barton, in October, 1788, to which town Messrs. Ellis and Mills soon removed. Geo. Walker purchased the premises of Mr. Ellis and occupied them. James Cole settled here about the same time as those previously mentioned, on the farm where Emanuel Coryell subsequently resided, and when Judge Coryell and Robert Lettice Hooper visited the valley on their exploring and surveying tour, they were entertained at his house. The settlers in the town thus far claimed but a possessory interest in the land they occupied, having, as yet, received no title from the patentees. Judge Emanuel Coryell came, with his family, from Coryell's Ferry, on the Delaware, N. J., in 1791.t Families by the name of Jones, (Isaiah) Bass
* Statement of John W. Lanning, (son of Daniel Lanning, one of the first permanent settlers,) who was born in this town and is now nearly eighty years of age.
French says Ebenezer Ellis, Pelatiah Pierce, Stephen Mills and James Cole made the first settlement in 1787.
+ Judge Coryell had been in the valley of the Susquehanna, at this and other points above, two or three years previous, in company with Robert Lettice Hooper, exploring and surveying lands, in which the latter had an interest as patentee. He became the agent of Mr. Hooper and of those
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NICHOLS.
and Emmons lived at an early day upon the Moughantowano Flats, and the latter is credited with having raised the first crop of wheat in the town. Caleb Wright occupied the farm upon which the village of Nichols now stands at an early day, and Stephen Dodd resided next below him. Major Jonathan Platt and his father, also named Jonathan, came with their families from Bedford, Westchester county, in 1793, and settled upon what was known for many years as their homestead. The elder Mr. Platt died two or three years afterwards from the effects of an injury received while preparing a field for wheat. His son, the Major, held among other offices of trust, that of sheriff, for several years. At his house the first town meeting was held. Col. Richard Sackett was a contemporary pioneer with Major Platt. Miles Forman, a Revolutionary soldier and pensioner, well known at an early day as sheriff Forman, also came from Westchester county in 1794-5. Major John Smyth, a Revo- lutionary soldier, came from Monroe county, Penn., in 1794. He was accompanied by his sons General John, Gilbert and Nathan Smyth. Gilbert became a resident of Barton. John, after his marriage with the daughter of Benjamin Goodwin, of Tompkins county, in 1797, became a resident of Ithaca, and
who subsequently acquired the title to the patents originally vested in that gentleman.
He served in the Commissary Department during the Revolutionary war, and was granted a pension of $240 per annumn, under the act of 1832.
His journey, with his family, to Nichols was made by crossing directly from the Delaware to Wilkesbarre, and thence ascending the river in a Durham boat, by the aid of men employed at the latter place. The jour- ney upon the river occupied two weeks.
Owing to the reasonable prices at which the lands for which he was agent were held, and the liberal inducements offered those who were seek- ing homes in the west, this section of the county was more rapidly settled than others, and even than the Boston Ten Townships, where the lands were held at prices which were deemed unwarranted.
Mr. Coryell served, for many years, with rare ability and dignity, as First Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of the widely-extended county of Tioga; and was, for several years, elected Member of Assembly from this county, in which position he wielded an extensive influence, and by his affability, acquired a strong personal popularity. He was the first Su- pervisor of the town. Says C. P. Avery, in The Saint Nicholas:
" His house was the center of good cheer for the vicinity in which he lived, and, bred among gentlemen of the old school, who were models of hospitality-he knew well how to cheer the coming and brighten the heart of the parting guest.
"From early youth he suffered from a physical infirmity, which interfered much with his walking, and caused him great inconvenience, yet his natural flow of good spirits and his neefniness were not materially affected by it; a constitutional cheerful- ness saved him from anything like gloomy and morose feelings. With great kindness of heart and a hand open to charity, he was at the same time tenacious of his personal honor and prompt to resent an intentional insult or injury, by whomsoever and under whatsoever circumstances it might be offered.
" * * * His political views, like all his other principles of action were openly and freely avowed, and, as an ardent admirer of General Hamilton and of the school of policy and doctrines of which he was recognized at the time as the exponent, Mr. Coryell, with characteristic frankness, was not lukewarm in identifying himself with the politicians and statesmen of that party."
Mr. Coryell died in Janury, 1835, at the age of 82.
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NICHOLS.
owned a tract of land upon which a portion of that village stands. Nathan, who was noted for his practical benevolence, died on the farm on which he resided for sixty-three years pre- vious to that event, May 15, 1857. The following statement made by him previous to his death, describing the manner in which the early settlers lived, was furnished us by his nephew, Hon. Washington Smith. He says :
"Many of the settlers brought plenty of clothing with them. As that was used up domestic manufacture was the popular doctrine of the Valley -wool, flax and deer skins being the raw material for the manufacture of clothes for male and female.
" Buckskin was much worn; some men dressed in buckskin from head to foot. As for food, there was an abundance of deer, and the river afforded shad and other fish plentifully; corn and wheat were soon raised in sufficient quantities to supply the inhabitants. But the difficulty of get- ting the grain to a mill was such that much of it was prepared for food by pounding it in Indian mortars. Wheat was sometimes boiled and eat with milk. Soon there were two or three tub mills built, one at Shepard's and one at Owego. Caleb Wright built the first mill in what is now the town of Nichols. 'The Indian mortars were generally constructed in the top of hardwood stumps, and the grain cracked by means of a stone pestle made for the purpose and attached to a bent sapling as a sweep."
Lewis Brown, from Westchester county, Benjamin Louns- bury, Ziba Evans, Jonathan Hunt, Richard Sarles and Asahel Prichard, a soldier of the Revolution, were early settlers. Messrs. Prichard and Sarles afterward removed to Owego, where they died at advanced ages. Daniel Shoemaker, a Revolutionary hero, and native of Ulster county, came here from Monroe county, Penn., in 1801 or '2 and settled upon the Maughan- towano plain, on land purchased by him of Robert L. Hooper, in 1792, and which is now occupied by H. W. Hooper, his grandson. Jonathan Pettis, Joseph and John Annibal, Joseph Morey and David Briggs, of Briggs settlement, Wm. Thatcher, Daniel Laning and John Russell were early settlers. The latter served in the war of the Revolution, and moved from Litch- field, Conn., in 1801, to Orwell, Bradford Co., Penn., relying upon the title of the State from which he emigrated, and, find- ing it invalidated, removed to this town the year following, and subsequently to Windham, Penn. Isaac Sharp, an early settler in this town, served with distinguished bravery during the Revolution. An incident which appears in The Saint Nich- olas, for March, 1854, will serve to illustrate the devotion with which he entered into that struggle.
"Upon one occasion, at an early period of the war, the Colonel of his regiment desired a detachment of picked men for an expedition then planned and which required men of nerve and prowess. Among other volunteers for the enterprise, Sharp stepped forward, although destitute of shoes. The officer in immediate command drew the attention of the
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superior officer to the condition of his feet, remarking that they required men with shoes. Sharp promptly convinced them, in his own ready way, that his feet, although unprotected, were as sound as his courage."
Judge Gamaliel H. Barstow emigrated to this town from Sharon, Conn., in 1812. "No gentleman within the limits of the County," says C. P. Avery, "has shared more largely in public confidence, and none whose political influence at home and throughout the State, has been more marked and dis- tinguished." In 1815 he was elected Member of Assembly and filled the position three successive years. In 1818 he was elected State Senator from the Western District, which then comprised nearly half the territory of the State, and in the same year was appointed First Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of his county. In 1823 he was again elected to the Assembly. He was Treasurer of the State of New York in 1825. In 1826 he was elected to the Assembly, and in 1830 he was elected to Con- gress, serving one term. In 1838 he was made Treasurer. He filled other minor offices with marked ability ; and his whole political career is pronounced singularly free from corruption. The first frame house erected in the village of Nichols was built by him. He-died at Nichols, in April, 1865, aged eighty years. The first birth in the town was that of Daniel Pierce in 1787.
C. P. Avery, in speaking of the early occupancy of the town by Jadians, says :
"For many years after this town was first settled, many Indian families lived upon the plain, near the mouth of the Wappasening. That portion of this town and the river flats generally, have furnished many articles of Indian handicraft and use, which have been brought to light by excava- tions and the plough, as well as by the washings of the streams. The Maughantowano plain was a favorite corn-ground of the natives, and while it continues still unimpaired in its aboriginal distinction, it is of no little fertility and historic value, in the vestiges of our Indian predecessors, which are thrown upon its surface from time to time, and have already en- riched many cabinets. From events of stirring interest, which have there occurred, * *
* it is emphatically 'storied ground.'"
The first grist and saw mill built in the County was erected in this town, by Caleb. Wright ; and the first steam saw mill in the County was also built in this town, by George Kirby, in 1833 or'4.
Asbury M. E. Church, located on the river road in the north- west part of the town, was organized in 1817, with four mem- bers,* by Rev. John Griffin, its first pastor. The church edi- fice, which will seat 250 persons, was erected in 1822, at a cost of $2,000, or one-half its present value. It was the first church
* The four original members were Elijah Shoemaker and Phebe, his wife, and Daniel McDowell Shoemaker and Anna, his wife.
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NICHOLS-OWEGO.
built between Owego and Elmira. Rev. George Comfort is the present pastor. The number of members is thirty-eight.
The M. E. Church, located at Nichols village, was organized in 1829. The Society worships in the "Free Meeting House," (of which previous mention has been made,) which was re- paired and rededicated by it in 1872. The original cost of the building was $2,000. It will seat 400 persons. Although re- paired and occupied by the Methodists it is still a free (?) church-" open to all orthodox denominations." The present number of members is 149; the present pastor, Rev. George Comfort. The Church property is valued at $8,000.
The First Presbyterian Church of Nichols was organized with thirteen members, in 1859, and their house of worship, which will seat 300 persons was erected in 1865, at a cost of $3.000. Rev. G. M. Life was the first pastor; Rev. A. McMaster is the present one. There are eighty-five members. The Church property is valued at $10,000.
OWEGO was organized Feb. 16, 1791. Spencer was erected from it Feb. 28, 1806. It is the south-east corner town in the County. It is the largest town in the County, and covers an area of 53,650₺ acres, of which, in 1865, according to the cen- sus of that year, 34,985}, were improved. The surface consists mostly of uplands, which are cut in two by the Susquehanna, and broken by the valleys of small streams. Their summits are broad and rolling, and rise from 300 to 500 feet above the river. The river intervale presents, in some places, an un- broken flat of more than a mile in width. The declivities bor- dering on the streams are generally very steep. The soil in the valleys is a deep, rich, gravelly loam; upon the hills it con- sists of a less productive gravelly loam, underlaid by hardpan. The principal streams are Susquehanna River and Owego, Apalachin and Nanticoke creeks. The Susquehanna flows west through the central part; Owego Creek flows south to the Susquehanna, through a broad and beautiful valley, its two branches uniting in the north-west part, and forms the west boundary of the town north of its recipient; Apalachin Creek flows north, through the south-east part, to the Susquehanna ; and Nanticoke Creek, which rises in the north part, flows south through the center, to the Susquehanna. Numerous small streams are tributary to these.
Traces of valuable minerals have been found in the town, but they have not been sufficiently developed to determine whether they exist in sufficient quantity to render them profit- able. On the farm of Henry McCormick, about one mile south of Owego village, have been found traces of gold, zinc, lead and
BROOME AND TIOGA COUNTY BUSINESS DIRECTORY. 196-4
F. M. SNOOK DENTIST!
Filling Teeth and locating Diseases of the Mouth made a Specialty.
PLATE WORK OF ALL KINDS DONE AT HIS OFFICE.
Tooth Powder and Brushes of the best quality always on hand.
OFFICE IN SHIPMAN BLOCK,
COR. BROAD AND WAVERLY STREETS, WAVERLY, N. Y.
C. F. STRAIT. 2 MANUFACTURER AND DEALER IN
PINE, HEMLOCK AND HARD-WOOD
LUMBER,
LUMBER YARD. I UMEER YARD
LATH
GROUND HEMLOCK BARK, &c., CANDOR, - TIOGA CO., N. Y. Constantly on hand and for sale, Seasoned PINE, CHESTNUT, HEMLOCK AND HARDWOOD LUMBER AND LATII. Also HEMLOCK BARK. L?
196-B BROOME AND TIOGA COUNTY BUSINESS DIRECTORY.
MASON, ROOT & CO General Hardware Store,
Stoves, Tin and Hollow Ware,
Belting
HARDWARE
and
AND
Gas and Steam
Hose.
CUTLER
Fitting.
IRON & LEAD WATER PIPE, Furnaces & Ranges, Gas Fixtures of all Descriptions, Rubber, Hemp and Soap Stone Packing. 83 WASHINGTON STREET, BINGHAMTON, N. Y. O. R. MASON. C. O. ROOT. J. W. DOUBLEDAY.
HAMILTON CHILD DIRECTORY PUBLISHER,
22 & 21 EAST WASHINGTON ST.,
SYRACUSE, N. Y.
Author of the following DIRECTORIES OF COUNTIES in the State of New York:
Wayne, Ontario, Seneca, Cayuga, Tompkins, Onondaga, Madison, Cort- land, Chemung, Schuyler, Oneida, Steuben, Orleans, Niagara, Gen- esee, Chenango, Monroe, Herkimer, Saratoga, Montgomery and Fulton, Albany and Schenectady, Rensselaer, Washington, Wyoming, Columbia, Ulster, Schoharie, Otsego, Sullivan, Lewis, St. Lawrence and others.
COMPETENT MEN Desiring Permanent Situations as
CANVASSING AGENTS,
Can be accommodated at any time on favorable terms.
196-C
OWEGO.
silver. A company has been formed and drilling is now in progress to determine the value of the underlying strata. One and three-fourths miles south of the village of Apalachin is a salt well, from which flows about forty barrels of brine per day.
The N. Y. & Erie R. R. extends through the town, along the north bank of the Susquehanna. The Southern Central R. R. enters the town on the north line and extends along the valley of Owego Creek to Owego. The Cayuga Division of the D. L. & W. R. R. enters the town at Owego.
In 1870 the town had a population of 9,442. Of this num- ber 8,622 were natives and 820, foreigners; 9,250, white and 192, colored.
During the year ending Sept. 30, 1871, the town contained 37 school districts and employed 50 teachers. The number of children of school age was 3,180; the number attending school, 2,285 ; the average attendance, 1,283; the amount expended for school purposes, $22,267; and the value of school houses and sites, $23,175.
OWEGO,* (p. v.) the County Seat,t is finely situated at the confluence of Susquehanna River and Owego Creek. The former stream flows through the southern part of the village, and the latter forms its western boundary. It was incorporated April 4, 1827. The population of the village in 1870 was 4,756.1 It contains seven churches, (Episcopal, (St. Paul's) Presbyterian, Congregational, Baptist, M. E., African M. E. (Bethel) and Catholic) six graded public schools,§ six hotels, two boot man- ufactories, | the Bristol Iron Works, T Erie R. R. Bridge shop,
* Owego is named from the creek at whose mouth it is located, and means, says Wilkinson, " swift or swift river." Further mention is made of this creek on page 157.
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