USA > New York > Tioga County > Historical gazetter of Tioga County, New York, 1785-1888. Pt. 1 > Part 27
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II, ISHI, and remained in that connection until July 2, 1869. Since that time it has been associated with Congregational churches. Rev. Mr Osborn remained with them until 1818, when he resigned; was succeeded by Rev. Marcus Ford, who was ordained December 3, 1820, filled the position acceptably, and resigned on account of ill health April 27, 1859. Samuel F. Bacon became their pastor in 1866; Samuel Johnson in 1871. Jay Clisbe, January 14, 1872, commenced his labors. At present they have no pastor.
During the winter of 1830-31 a revival occurred, and in the April communion 107 joined the church by profession of faith, and six by letter ; in July following twenty-two more, thus more than doubling the membership. January 12, 1823, eight mem- bers were dismissed to form the North church, in Berkshire, now the Congregational church of Richford. Three were dismissed, September 14, 1823, to form a church on West Owego creek. In June and July, 1833, seventy-two members were dismissed to be embodied in a church at Berkshire, which was organized July 24, 1833, with sixty eight members, of whom fifty-four were from this church. The first house of worship was built north of the village of Newark Valley, where now stands the brick house owned by Samuel Watson. It was erected as early as 1803 or IS04, and was a plain framed house, twenty-four by thirty-six feet in size, with posts eleven feet high and a step roof. It was never finished, but was left open from floor to rafter. This is the style of meeting-houses that for fourteen years the ancient worthies of this church worshiped in, without a fire, except the few coals the good old mothers carried in their foot-stoves. This building was moved across the way, a little below its original site, in the corner of the sugar-maple grove, afterwards used by Rev Mr. Ford for a barn.
The second house was built on the old site and dedicated July 4, 1817. It was forty-five by fifty-five feet. with a spacious gal- lery and the old fashioned high pulpit. For fourteen years more the congregation worshiped here, when the gradual growth of the two centers of business, Berkshire and Newark Valley, each three miles from the meeting-house, made it inconvenient for the people. September 1, 1831, the society instructed the trustees to consult the several individuals belonging to the society rel- ative to a change of place of worship, and report it next meet- ing. The trustees reported in favor of moving, and the report was accepted, the north part of the society giving their consent.
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$1,944.86 was subscribed for a new church, and the contractor bought the old house, took it down, and used it in the new house, built on the site where the present church stands (Otis Lincoln presenting half an acre for that purpose), and substantially like the old one. In 1849 it was moved back from the street and re- built in modern style, dedicated, and used seven years. In 1867 it took its third journey, about 100 feet to the north, to make way for its successor. In 1868 the present building was erected at a cost of $12,725, and was dedicated January 14, 1869. After the completion of the new church the old " traveling sanctuary" was again removed, and is now used and known as the "Allison Opera House."
Methodist Episcopal Church .- As early as 1822, Rev. George W. Densmore, stationed at Chenango, visited and preached through here, by way of Lisle, making a circuit. He was one of the first ministers in Oneida Conference. Admitted on trial in 1810, full communion in ISHI, ordained in 1812. In 1826 Rev. Herota P. Barnes and Fitch Reed preached occasionally, there being no Methodist organization here. During the years 1831-32, David A. Shepard, located at Berkshire, preached here, and held quarterly meetings in the old town-house in 1831, and organized the first society, composed of seven members, Minerva Collins, Mary Ann Ruey, Munson and Experience Clark, Miel Dean and wife, and Selecta Williams. In 1833, this place was recognized by the Oneida Conference as Newark Station, and Moses Adams was the first stationed minister. the church being built under his- pastorate. The society now has a fine brick edifice, erected in 1883. There is a brauch society at East Newark, about three miles east. At this place they erected a fine church in IS59.
A Free-Will Baptist Church was located at this place prior to 1820. with a meeting-house on the corner of Main and Silk streets ; Rev. John Gould as pastor. It was in a weak condition, and the most of the members united with the Methodist church after their organization.
The Baptist Church of Newark Valley was organized October 27, 1857. by a council composed of delegates from other churches ; among them Revs. L. Ranstead, J. W. Emory, --- Smith, of Candor, and W. H. King, of Owego. There were twenty-six constituent members at the formation of the church. The first baptism in the church was Stephen Platt, April 11, 1858. Rev. D. T. Leach preached here as a missionary from the Home Mis- sionary Society, and was settled as a pastor June 9, 1860. Ser-
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TOWN OF NICHOLS.
vices were held for a short time in the Congregational church, and about 1858 a church was erected. In 1869 a large and com- modious brick edifice was erected at a cost of $10.000.
A Congregational Church was organized at West Newark, in IS23, with twelve members. The first services were held in William Richardson's barn. In the winter of 1823-24 they built a school house sufficiently large for church purposes also, and worshiped there until 1848, when the present one was built. Rev. Zenus Riggs was the first pastor.
The Alpha Methodist Episcopal Church was organized at Jenks- · ville 'in 1852, with twenty-five members. . The first pastor was Rev. - Salisbury.
A Reformed Methodist Church was organized at Ketchumville, with nine members, in 1837, and a church erected in 1852.
N ICHOLS# is that part of the county lying in an angle formed by the western boundary of the town of Owego, and the Pennsylvania line, and is bounded on the north and west by the Susquehanna river. Owing to the peculiar course of the river, the town is of an irregular shape, having a breadth at the eastern end of some five or six miles, which diminishes towards the western part to scarcely more than one mile, the extreme length on the southern line being between ten and eleven miles. This territory was formerly a part of the town of Owego, from which it was separated and added to Tioga, in 1813. In 1824 it was taken from Tioga and organized into a separate township. The western part of the town thus organized was included in a considerable tract of land known as Hooper's Patent, which embraced lands in other parts of the state. The eastern part was known as Coxe's Manor, or Patent, concerning which we have spoken in subsequent pages of this work.
The surface of the town is mostly upland, terminating in steep declivities upon the river, and broken by the narrow valleys of small streams. The summits of the hills are broad, and attain an altitude of from three hundred to five hundred 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 principal stream in the town is the.
* Prepared by Miss Mary L. Barstow, of Nichols Village.
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Wappasening creek, which enters the town from Bradford county, Pa., at the hamlet of the same name, and flows north into the Sus- quehanna. That river forms the north and western boundaries of the town. As an agricultural town Nichols has always been prosperous. Every year has seen the area of her cleared land increased, and her general condition improved. Fine farms and good farm houses are to be seen in every part of the town. There is no finer agricultural town in the Susquehanna Valley, nor one which, to the passing traveler, presents a more agreeable succes- sion of hill and valley, woodland, meadow and running stream. · It has an area of 19,850 acres, of which 14,200 acres is improved land.
Early Settlement. -- The first permanent settler in the town was probably Emanuel Coryell, who came to the Susquehanna Valley as agent for Colonel Hooper, for the sale of his lands. He found there however, several of these irregular settlers that are com- monly found on new lands. Among them we find the name of Mills, Ellis, Pierce and Walker. The children of Ellis and Pierce were said to be the first white children born in the town. Only George Walker became a permanent resident. He was the father of Samuel Walker, afterwards well known in the town. Among other early settlers honorable mention should be made of Isaac Sharp, a settler of mixed blood, who was a soldier in the army of General Gates, and was present at the " taking of Burgoyne." He raised a large family of sons, who were afterwards well known among the lumbermen and laborers of the country. There were also two families of the name of Jones, one of whom was said to have raised the first crop of wheat grown in the town.
Emanuel Coryell, a patriot of the revolution, was the son of the proprietor of Coryell's Ferry, on the Delaware, where Wash- ington and his army were ferried over before the battle of Tren- ton. An accident which happened to him in infancy, prevented him through life, from walking without the aid of a cane. Owing to this circumstance, his father felt it necessary to give him as liberal an education as was to be had at the time, in order to his taking up one of the learned professions. He chose that of medi- cine, and had become a student in the office of a Dr. Ingham, at Coryell's Ferry, at the beginning of the war, when he at once threw aside his books and entered the army, where, as he was prevented by his infirmity from entering the ranks, he went into the commissary department, where he did good service, ranking as captain, during the entire war. He, with the rest of his
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father's family, and the American people generally, came out of the conflict rich in hope and the consciousness of duty well performed, but with very little of the means wherewith to support their fami- lies. A year or two before the close of the war he had married a lady of Bucks county, Pa., and at its close, having no profession, he took up his residence on his father's farm. He soon, however, became engaged with Colonel Hooper in exploring and survey. ing lands of which the latter was patentee, and at length became his agent for the sale of those on the Susquehanna.
These lands, as we are told by the Hon. C. P. Avery. in his Susquehanna Valley, to which the writer is indebted for many facts relating to the settlement of the town, were held at reason- able prices, and liberal means were adopted to induce immigra- tion from the Eastern States. Judge Avery adds : "The liberal promptness with which valuable territory in Nichols was placed in the market, caused that portion of the county to fill up more rapidly at an early day, than any other section within its limits." Having, at a visit made to the county during the previous sum- mer, in company with Colonel Hooper, selected a spot whereon to pitch his tent, Mr. Coryell left his home at Coryell's Ferry some time during the summer of 1791, and started for the "Sus- quehanna Country," a journey much more formidable to the emigrant of that day than one beyond the Mississippi would be at present. They traveled in an emigrant wagon, which carried the family, consisting of himself, his wife and five children, and a young girl living with them, named Isabel Mac Adams. We are told that a cow was driven along with thein for the benefit of the children. They must necessarily have had another man with them, as Mr. Coryell, with his infirmity, would scarce have been able to undertake such a journey without assistance. They crossed the country from the Delaware to the Susquehanna, which they reached at Wilksbarre. Here they were detained for a time while making arrangements to ascend the river. At the end of a week a craft was procured which Judge Avery calls a " Durham boat." but which we have heard spoken of simply as a flat boat. It was probably not unlike one of our large ferry. boats, but, of course, must have contained a cabin. This was manned by two boatmen, who propelled it up the river by means of setting-poles. Placing his wife and family on board of this primitive conveyance, together with such articles of furniture and household stuff as they had been able to bring with them, they set out on the remainder of the journey. This, we may
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easily believe, it took them two weeks to accomplish, as the river was low and they frequently had to lie by to wait for a rise of water. They finally landed at a place known afterwards as Coryell's Eddy. It was at the foot of a high bank, on the top of which stood the log cottage which was to afford them temporary shel- ter. This was occupied by an old man named James Cole, who lived there with his wife and daughter and a grandson, Elijah Cole, and cultivated some fields along the river. This man was from Wyoming Valley, and, with his family, was familiar with many of the tragic events connected with its history. In this house Mr. Coryell and his family found a home until another log dwelling in the vicinity could be made ready for their reception. In this they lived for some years, until they were able to procure materials for the erection of a better one. This, too, was built of logs, " weather-boarded," that is, covered with siding to give it the appearance of a framed house. It stood near a fine " Indian clearing" of some ten or twelve acres, about a mile above the first one, and here grew up Mr. Coryell's large family of sons and daughters.
With the exception of the lands lying contiguous to the river, the country at that time was covered with forests, principally of white pine, a tree always indicating a fine soil wherever it grows, but mingled with ash, maple, hickory and beech, and other valu- able hard woods. These woods abounded with game and the rivers with fish. The shad, that best of all river fish, came up in immense numbers every spring, and were caught by the settlers in nets, the owners of the land along the river being entitled to a certain quantity for the " land right." These fish, salted down, formed an important and very acceptable addition to the stores of the settlers. The climate was mild, though the winters were cold and invariably snowy, and there were no prevailing diseases except those caused by the malaria commonly found where for- ests are being cleared up. Mr. Coryell, who, as he was appointed a few years later first Judge of the county court, is com- monly spoken of as Judge Coryell, took up for himself a tract of land along the river, which must have comprised an area of nearly a square mile, or 640 acres; extending from what is now the Asbury church lot, on the west, to a point above, where the public road and the river approach each other; besides three or four hundred acres of wild land lying on both sides of the Wap- pasening, a mile above its mouth.
The next settler on the river, in point of time, was General
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John Smyth, who wrote his name as it is here spelled. He came to town in the year 1794. He, too, was a soldier of the revolu- tion, from Monroe county, Pa. He was accompanied by his three sons, only one of whom, however, finally made it his home in Nichols. Mr. Nathan Smith inherited his father's farm, which lay between that afterwards owned by Edmund Palmer and the lands purchased soon after by Mr. Shoemaker, who was the next person to settle on that fine tract of land known then and since as the Maughantowano Flats.
Daniel Shoemaker, a revolutionary soldier and pensioner, was of that Shoemaker family whose name occurs with such tragic significance in the history of Wyoming. He emigrated directly from Monroe county, Pa. He must also have taken up nearly or quite a square mile of land. The Maughantowano Flats - since corrupted to Montontowango-comprised some of the choicest lands not only in the county, but in the state. They had been, as Judge Avery tells us, the favorite corn ground of the Indians, who had not yet disappeared from the country, some families living, we are told, at the mouth of the Wappasening creek. The county has afforded some valuable Indian relics.
Edmund Palmer came to Nichols not far from the year 1800. . He purchased a farm below, and immediately adjoining the Shoe- maker property. In 1804 he married a daughter of Judge Coryell, and built a house on this farm, where he lived many years. He subsequently purchased the farm lying between the property of Judge Coryell and that of the Smiths, of a man named Barnes, who was perhaps the original purchaser. In 1827 he built the house so long the home of the Palmer family. Meantime, settlers came into other parts of the town. Colonel Richard Sacket came from Long Island. The date of arrival is not known. He pur- chased a square mile of land. the lower line of which must have been just above the present village of Hooper's Valley. He built his house near a stream called the Little Wappasening creek, which divided his land into two nearly equal parts. The Colonel was said to have been, at home, a gentleman of wealth ; but the pleasures of the turf, for which Long Island has been famous, to- gether with generous housekeeping, and a general carelessness about business matters, gradually reduced his fortune till at length finding that he had a family growing up about him, while his means for maintaining them were diminishing, he abandoned the race ground and other kindred delights, and turned his thoughts toward emigration. Having been in the county of Tioga before,
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where he was hospitably entertained at the house of Judge Coryell, he decided to take up his residence in the same town. His family consisted of a wife and several daughters, and having brought and established them in their new home, he settled down to get his living by farming. But it was late in the day to take up a new business. and the Colonel lacked the energy that had impelled him in the pursuit of pleasure. He was a charming man in society ; an excellent man in community ; a genial host, an agreeable neighbor ; but all this did not prevent his constantly growing poorer, until at the time of his death he was utterly re- duced ; while in possession of property that ought to have made him one of the wealthy men of the county. He died in 1827. Soon after his death his family received a large property from the death of one of his brothers, who died in Syracuse, to which city they finally removed ; and his widow, after having experi- enced the extremes of fortune, finally died in affluence. The property at Nichols was left encumbered with a law-suit, which was finally decided in favor of his heirs, and it gradually came into the market. The part that was occupied by the family as a home is now owned by Mr. Sherwood.
In 1793 Jonathan Platt and his son, who bore the same name, with their families, came into the county from Westchester county, N. Y. They purchased land up the river, a mile above the village of Nichols, and built a house known as the Platt home- stead for many years. Miles Forman, a son in-law of the elder Platt, came two or three years later, and settled near the same spot, building the house known as the Forman homestead, which remained in the family until the decease of his grandson, the late Stephen Forman, who died in IS84. The elder Platt died within two or three years after his arrival. His son, Major Platt, and his son-in-law, Major Forman, both afterwards filled the office of sheriff of the county, the one for two years and the other for three. The office at that time was an appointive one, and held but for a term of one year at a time. Benjamin Lounsberry another son-in-law of Mr. Platt, settled a few miles farther up the river.
Four brothers named Hunt, three of whom took up farms on the river, must have come into that part of the town not far from the same time. We hear also the names of Laning, Dunham; Smith and Evans, among the earlier settlers on Coxe's Patent. Ezra Canfield probably came somewhat later. He built the brick house, the first in the town, standing at the corner of the river and the hill roads; which gave the name of Canfield Corners to
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the postoffice afterwards established there. Although this was perhaps a part of the territory of Nichols somewhat harder to reduce and. cultivate than the western part, yet its inhabitants formed a community of most prosperous farmers. Their lands have constantly improved from year to year, and there are more names of the original settlers to be found there than in any other part of the town. Mr. Lounsberry raised a family of seven sons, all of whom at one time owned farms which still remain in their families. The house built by Mr. Canfield is at present the pro- perty of Samuel Smith.
Caleb Wright came to Nichols at an early day, and took up land a mile in extent along the river, lying on both sides of the Wappasening creek and including that where the village of Nichols now stands. He was a millwright by trade, and must have been possessed of some means. He built a dam across the creek, with a race nearly half a mile in length, and erected above the mouth of the stream the first grist mills and saw-mills in the town. He had a family of sons, who did not, however, inherit his habits of sobriety and industry. Most of them parted with their rights to their father's estate before his death, some went west, which at that time meant the state of Ohio, where their descendants became prosperous and even wealthy. Thomas Wright, one of his sons, settled on a farm on the river, probably deeded to him by his father, where he built a framed house which stood about half way between the road and the river, in the rear of property now owned and occupied by Mr. Ross, in the village of Nichols. His farm was immediately above that of Stephen Dodd, who also built a framed house on the upper edge of his farm, which is still in existence though little more than a heap of ruins. Thomas - Wright was for some years a prosperous farmer, but finally fell into difficulties and sold his farm to Jacob Middaugh, a settler from the Delaware, and moved to some distant part of the town. His family all did well and two of his sons were at one time, and perhaps still are, among the wealthy men of Tunkhannock, Pa.
Among the poorer settlers in the town, Stephen Reynolds de- serves mention. He came from eastern New York, and settled on the bank of the creek, on land belonging to Judge Coryell, where there was a "sugar bush," that is, a collection of maple trees, from which the maple sugar was made, which is now regarded as such an article of luxury. Mr. Reynolds was a cooper, and worked during the year from place to place at his trade, except a few weeks in the spring, when he and his family made sugar.
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He was very poor, and could neither read nor write, the same being true of many of the emigrants, but he brought up his family of sons to be what he himself was, honest and industrious. These all accumulated property, and became the owners of good farms, and their descendants are some of them among the substan- tial men of the county. The manufacture of sugar was, at that time, an industry of considerable importance in the country, the settlers depending on it almost entirely for their supply of that article. Parties of men would leave their homes, at the proper time in the spring, and go sometimes considerable distances into the woods, till they found a place for a "sugar camp," where they would stay during the sugar season, returning often with some hundreds of pounds of sugar, which they made a profitable article of merchandise.
Judge Coryell, soon after his arrival in the county, was called to fill various public offices. After being supervisor of the town he represented the county in the assembly of the state six differ- ent times during the twelve years subsequent to 1796, and was. then appointed first judge of the court of common pleas for the then widely extended county of Tioga. This office he held until disqualified by age, according to the old constitution of the state. His death in 1835 was the severing of another of those links already becoming few, which bound together the two great periods of our national history. Until his twenty-third year he was a subject of the King of England. From his thirty-first, he was a citizen of our great republic. He had lived at a historic time. He wasfamiliar with the mon and the events of the revo- lution, and. with those of succeeding times, when the republic was on trial, and its success of failure trembled in the balance. He was an ardent politician as he had been an ardent patriot, and he scarcely outlived the feelings engendered by the conflicts of that period. He was a man of fine manners, with that quick sense of honor and courtesy that we are apt to attribute exclusively to gentlemen of the old school. He filled the numerous offices to which he was called in the town and county of Tioga, with credit and ability. His hospitable mansion was ever open to entertain strangers, and to receive the large circle of relatives and friends that delighted to do him honor. He was a generous host, an easy landlord to his many tenants, and a steady friend to the poor. He reached the venerable age of eighty one years. He outlived none of his children, nine of whom, with numerous grand- children, followed him to his grave in the Coryell cemetery,
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