USA > New York > Tioga County > Historical gazetter of Tioga County, New York, 1785-1888. Pt. 1 > Part 29
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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
John S , son of Joseph, married Deliverance A. Bixby, by whom he had four children, Amos, Enoch, Alvy and Lottie. Mrs. Rey- nolds died in 1876. His present wife is Roxany Sipperly, daugh- ter of Robert Fleming, of Flemingville.
Wait Smith was born April 4. 1779. and in 1802 came from Tunkhannock, Pa., in a canoe, and settled in Smithboro, where Platt and George F. Eckert now live. He built a shop and
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conducted the blacksmithing business there, and for many years his was the only blacksmith shop between Owego and Athens. He married Rachel, daughter of Ezekiel Newman, by whom he had eleven children, the oldest of whom, Lucinda, married James Waterman. Wait Smith settled above the present village of Smithboro; Ward Smith and James Smith settled there also, the former near the corner and the latter just below. A Benjamin Smith came in and settled on a farm above Wait Smith, and a Joshua Smith, a millwright, came in there from Vermont; Jared Smith, a stone-mason ; Gabriel Smith, a preacher, and a Daniel Smith also settled in there. None of these Smiths were related except Ward and James, who were brothers. In consequence of all these Smiths locating there the place was called Smithboro.
John Waterman, of English descent, came from Peekskill, N. Y., in the year 1800, and settled first on the place known as the Wright farm, in Smithboro. His son, James, married Lucinda, daughter of Wait Smith, of Smithboro, by whom he had thir- teen children, born as follows: William, Aug. 22, 1819; Mellissa J., Sept 23, 1821 ; Alonzo C., Nov. 23, 1821 ; Wait S., April 23, 1826: James O., March 25, 1828 ; John G., June 20, 1830; Mary A., July 21, 1832; Ezekiel N .. Oct. 9, 1834; Martha J., Oct. 22, 1836; Samuel C., July 24, 1839 ; Sarah M., Nov. 29, 1840; Ben. jamin M., Aug. 2, 1842. and Helen, April 26. 1845. Alonzo C. married Sarah J. Parks, of Nichols, by whom he has seven chil- dren, viz .: Walter S., Martha JJ., Mary, Harriet, James, Elma A. and Margaret. John G. married Margaret, daughter of job Wolverton, of Barton, March 27, 1859. and by whom he has had three children, born as follows: Eliza G .. Jan. 2, 1860. died Feb. 8, 1879; Charles H., born Sept. 19, 1861, and Katie D., Sept. 25. 1871. Benjamin M. married Helen L. Sears, by whom he has two sons. Fred and Jed.
Sampson Howell, of Sussex-now Warren-county New Jersey, was born in 1718and died there February 3, 1803. His children were Sampson, Elizabeth, Isaac, James, Levina, Levi, Nathan, Garrett, John, Aaron, Achsa, Lucretia, and Usual O. James came to this town in 1806 and located first on the river road where Thaddeus Steward now lives. He next removed to the farm now occupied by Emanuel Coryell which property he traded with Elijah Cole for the property on Wappasening creek, recently occupied by John L. Howell, his son. He subsequently purchased other par- cels of land until his estate amounted to several hundred acres. He married Amelia, daughter of Robert Laning, of New Jersey,
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by whom he had six children who arrived at maturity, viz .: Elizabeth, William, Frances, wife of Stephen Morey, John L., Mary A. wife of William Morey, and Robert. Robert Howell was born on Wappasening creek September 4, 1815, and at an early age evinced a curiosity and taste for Geology. His mind first awoke to the wonders of this science as he strolled, a child, along the creek which exposed to view a variety of curious stones, drift and fossils ; but the disadvantages under which the youth of those early days labored, forbade him to know anything of the secrets which lie hidden in them all. Finally, as if by the direc- tion of Providence, a yankee doctor brought into the country a work on Geology, the first ever seen in this section. The book was bought by a neighbor-an Englishman who had retired from the British army-and of him young Howell purchased the work, paying him therefor one hundred young apple-trees from his father's nursery. This was his elementary text-book and the nucleus of a scientific library now containing several hundred volumns. Though his education was limited to a few quarters in the district schools, he ranks high among the scientists of his day. He has lectured on geology, mineralogy, paleontology and the animal kingdom; and has contributed much that is valuable on the subject of agriculture, ornithology and on native forest trees. For forty years he has kept a record of the weather, for twenty- one years for the weather bureau at Washington. He was a mem- ber of the American society for the Advancement of Science for twenty years; his name having been presented by Prof. Aggisiz. He has also been a faithful collector for the Smithsonian Insti- tute at Washington, D. C. Though in his seventy-third year he manages his farm and is still a most diligent student, devoting the time not given to his farm work to scientific studies. He has recently been appointed by the U. S. geological survey, commis- sioner for Tioga county, to look up the forest resources of the county. He married first Rhoda, daughter of Joseph Morey, by whom he has one son Arthur M. His present wife is Sarah, daughter of Platt Lounsberry, of this town.
Oscar E. Farnham, son of Joel Farnham, of Tioga, was born in that town Sept. 17, 1839. He received his early education there and at the Owego Academy. At the breaking out of the war he was employed on his father's farm and at the turner's trade. On April 19, 1861, he enlisted in Co. H, 3rd N. Y. Inf,, and served until June, 1863, when he re-enlisted in the 5th N. Y. Cavalry, in which regiment he served until mustered out in July,
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1865. About one year of this time was spent in rebel prisons, where he suffered untold hardships and privations. While being 'transferred in cattle cars with several hundreds other prisoners, he, with twenty-five of his comrades in misery, escaped by jump- ing from the train at Millen, Ga. All were retaken but five, four of whom kept together, but Mr. Farnham was separated from them and traveled alone three hundred miles through marshes, woods and swamps, subsisting on nuts, roots and berries, and on food stolen for him by colored people whom he met in his jour. ney. He traveled thirty-four days before he reached the Union lines, where he joined Sherman's army in front of Atlanta, a few days before that city was taken. He was detailed an orderly at Gen. Sheridan's headquarters, in the winter of 1864-65. Mr. Farnham was at the battle of Big Bethel-the first real battle of the war-and was also present at Appomatox when Lee surren- dered. He married Jane Wilson, by whom he has three chil- dren, viz .: Minnie, wife of Charles White; Lillian and Philip Sheridan. His grandfather, Joel Farnham, came from Wyoming, Pa., to the town of Tioga when there was but one house where the village of Owego now stands. He settled on the farm owned by the late Frederick A. Farnham, where he built a carding-mill, wheelwright-shop and cider-mill. He married Ruth, daughter of Enoch Slawson, of Newark Valley, by whom he had ten chil- dren.
Henry Washburn came from Flat Brook, N. J., about the year ISos, and located on the farm now occupied by the widow of Absalom Adams, on the river road at Hooper's Valley. He then bought a farm of something over a hundred acres, and the first clearing he made was on the farm now owned by Henry Neal. He married Sarah Harris, by whom he had eight chil- dren, viz .: Noah, Nicholas, Rachel, wife of Conwell Ellis ; Hiram, Benjamin, Henry, Betsey, wife of Henry Riddle : Reuben, Han- nah, and Esther, wite of Andrew Raising. Nicholas settled where John H. Washburn now lives. He married Mercy Hoo- ver, by whom he had eight children : Sarah, who died at the age of three years ; Elizabeth, wife of Hiram Ellis ; Reuben, of Illin- ois ; Joshua, John HI., a member of Co. K, 109th Regt., N. Y. Vols .; Abiah, wife of John Barr, Jr .; William, of Nichols, and Mercy J., wife of Chester Ellis. George H., son of Noah Wash- burn, married Nettie, daughter of John Adams of Cameron county, Pa.
Anna, the widow of Luther Hale, came from Bennington, Vt.,
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in 1814, having one child, Ruth, now the wife of Daniel White, of this town. Mrs. Hale married Dr. William Wood, and after his decease, Jacob Totten. Her daughter, Ruth, married first, Hiram Rogers, by whom she had one child who died in infancy. Her second husband was Peter Goss.
Joshua White came from Duanesburg, N. Y., in the spring of 1819, and located on the farm now occupied by Bretton Briggs. He married Rhoda Duel, by whom he had nine children, born as follows: Wilbur, February 15, 1787 ; Doris, December 22, 1789 ; William, January, 20, 1791 ; Phoebe, Aprit 13, 1793 ; Charlotte, September 4. 1796; Silas, September 6, 1798; Daniel. August, IO, ISOI ; Stephen, April 14, 1806; Mahala, widow of Abraham B. Ward, October 23, 1808. Daniel, married Maria Morey, by whom he had ten children, viz .: Benjamin, who died in infancy ; Joseph W. and Henry, of Nichols : Charles, of Owego ; Diantha, wife of Elihu Briggs; Platt, of Nichols: Laura, wife of Aaron VanDyke; George, Perry. deceased : and Susan, wife of Dr. Gordon, of Sandusky, O. His present wife is Ruth ( Hale) Goss; Joseph W., married Permelia, daughter of Jonathan Hunt, De- cember 25, 1845, and by whom he has four children, viz .; Martha J., wife of John H. Wait, Benjamin F., a physician of Wells- boro, N. Y., Samuel H .. and Maria, wife of Fred Bostwick. Platt married Fannie M , daughter of Elbridge Russell, of Owego, by whom he has one son, Frank P.
Nathaniel Moore was born in New Hampshire, and when he was but three years of age, bis parents moved to Plattsburg. in this state. In 1816 he removed to this town and located on what is known as the Moore homestead. He married Nancy, daughter of Thomas White, by whom he had eight children. When he settled here there was no land cleared between the river school house and his place, except a piece where J. Lounsberry's saw- mill now stands, and a piece near where Benjamin Dunham's house now stands. This piece was sowed with Canada thistles for sheep pasture, the seed having been brought from Canada for this purpose. by Joseph Densmore, who resided on the place.
Absalom Adams, son of Rev. George Adams, who was also a corporal in the war of the revolution, was born in Wilkesbarre, Pa., March 3, 1797. He located in Barton in 1830. where he re- mained until April. 1846, when he removed to this town and set- tled on the farm now occupied by his widow and his daughter, and @which is under the management of his grandson, S. B. Adams. He married Maria Moss, by whom he had six children,
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viz .: Elizabeth S. and George Q., deceased ; Louisa M., wife of Henry Light, of Tioga, and Eliza (twins); Maria, wife of William H. Manning, of Owego ; and Horace G., of Norwich, N. Y. Mr. Adams died December 8, 1884. Mrs. Adams still resides on the homestead.
Eben W. Whipple came from Palmer, Mass., in 1822, and located first in Windham, Pa., where he resided until 1829, when he came to this town and settled on the farm now owned by his son, Andrew G. Whipple, on road 33. He married Nancy, daughter of Gideon Graves, a soldier of the revolution, by whom he had eleven children, viz .; D. Adams, of Owego; Andrew G. of Nichols ; Martha, who died at the age of thirteen years ; Har- riet, widow of Anson Dunham ; Adeline, widow of Frank Roper; David L., deceased; Mary P., wife of Levi Terbush ; Nancy, who died at the age of ten years ; Eben, who died in infancy : Willett, also deceased, and Marcia, wife of James Lounsberry, Jr. Mrs. Dunham married first, Robert Laning, by whom she had three children, viz .: Judd, who died at the age of eight years ; Willett S., of Chicago, Ill .; and Robert F., of St. Paul, Neb.
Joseph Ketcham came from Rensselaer county, N. Y., very early in the history of this section, and settled on the farm now owned by Loring C. Pearl. His second son, Abijah, married Cornelia, daughter of John Smith, Sr., of this town, by whom he had seven children, viz .: T. Jefferson, deceased; Charlotte, wife of La Fayette Williams, of Candor ; Charles, of Owego; Eli G., of Nichols; Adelbert, of Owego: Emma, wife of Stephen Evans, and George. of Williamsport, Pa. Eli G. married Har- riet E., daughter of Anson Dunham, by whom he has three sons, Clarence, George and Clark.
Peter, son of Nathaniel Brown, was born in Bedford, West- chester county, N. Y., Sept. 10, 1795, and when five years of age his father removed with his family to Orange county, N. Y. Here Peter married, and after several years his wife died, leav- ing him with a family of six children. He was a soldier of the war of 1812, and served at Harlem Heights. After the death of his wife, he removed with his family to Litchfield, Pa., where he married Elizabeth, daughter of Aaron Van Gorder, Aug. 1, 1840, by whom he had five children, viz .: Levina, wife of Henry Morse, of Litchfield : Lucinda, wife of Adonijah Hunt, of Nich- ols ; Martha, wife of Abram Bennett ; Nancy, wife of Oren. Park, of Litchfield, and S. Otis Brown, of Nichols. The latter married
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Lemira, daughter of Alanson Munn, of Litchfield, Pa., by whom he has two children : Hanlan Reed and Archie.
Aaron Van Gorder came from Sussex county, N. J., in 1819, and settled in Tioga, near Smithboro. He married Sarah War- ner, by whom he had thirteen children, viz .: Jacob, Elijah, Dan- iel, Elizabeth, widow of Peter Brown ; Ellen, Israel, Clara, Adam, Margaret, Mary, Horace, Charles and Allen.
Cranston V. S., son of Isaac Bliven, was born in Windham, Conn., Oct. 3, 18OS. He came with his father's family to the town of De Ruyter, Madison county, N. Y., when about three years of age, and from there to Cortland county, and from thence to Tompkins county, after he had served an apprentice- ship at wagon-making. He married Caroline R., daughter of Joshua Gager, of Binghamton, by whom he had three children, Cranston, a merchant of Nichols ; Caroline R. and Eugene. Mr. Bliven came to this town in 1834, and established the wagon-mak- ing business at Hooper's Valley. He now lives retired, after having spent fifty years in active business here. Cranston mar- ried Adell, daughter of Jonathan Platt, by whom he has two children, Frank C., aged fourteen years, and Bessie, aged twelve.
Zina Goodsell was born in Catskill, N. Y., August 22, 1815, and when sixteen years of age came with his father's family and settled in Smithfield, Pa. In 1842 he married Lydia, daughter of Ebenezer Slawson, by whom he has had five children, viz .: Sarah A., deceased, William, Laura, wife of Edgar Shoemaker, Joshua, Jane J., wife of Charles Bostwick, of Rome, Pa. In 1844 Mr. . Goodsell settled near the state line, on the farm now occupied by Eben Stanton.
Dr. George P. Cady was born in Windsor, Berkshire county, Mass., January 1, 1833. He received his early education at Hins- dale Academy ; and his degree from Berkshire Medical College, at Pittsfield, in 1855. Soon after, he removed to Nichols, N. Y., and entered into partnership with his uncle, Dr. G. M. Cady, which partnership lasted until 1874. Here he married Susan, daughter of Hon. Nehemiah Platt, by whom he has two children, Margaret J. and George M.
Dr. George M .. son of Dr. George P. and Susan (Platt) Cady. was born in Nichols in 1865. He received his education here and at Binghamton, and graduated from the New York Medical Uni- versity in 1887. He is in partnership with his father and is junior member of the firm of Latham & Cady, druggists.
Dr. Edward, son of Levi Pease, was born in Windham, Pa., in
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October, IS51. He was educated there and at Rome, Pa. !! studied medicine with Dr. Warner, of Le Raysville, Pa., an with Dr. Cady, of this place. He graduated from the Medica College of Ann Arbor, Mich., in 1873. He has practiced here since September 1, 1874.
Early Items .- The settlers, whether poor or otherwise, had to undergo all the hardships and privations incident to the life of the emigrant. They had to make their way from wilder- ness to civilized country with very little help. They lived very much upon their own resources. Nearly all the clothing for their families, as well as the supply of articles necessary to sup- port life, were produced at home. For many years there was no store nearer than Athens, Pa., or Owego, where articles of general merchandise were sold, and an expedition to either of these places, which could only be undertaken in the winter when there was sleighing, was an arduous undertaking for the house-wife, and not to be entered upon more than once or twice a year. And everything, too, had to be done by hand -- there was no machinery. Carding, spinning, weaving and sewing in-doors, and sowing, reaping, mowing and threshing, on the farm. There were no fanning-mills, even the winnowing of the grain had to be done by a hand fan. This was an implement made of basket work about three feet in diameter ; about one-half its circumference flat, and the remainder turned up like a basket, and holding perhaps half a bushel of grain. The person using it took it between his hands. by the two handles on either side, like those of a corn basket, and shaking it up and down separated the chaff towards the flat part of the fan, where it could be brushed off or carried away with the wind. This must, one would think, have been a somewhat slow process, and it must have taken a man some time to " thoroughly purge his floor" of any quantity of grain. The nearest grist- mill was for a long time several miles away, up the Chemung river. Whenever a grist was wanted, a messenger, generally a boy, was put on horse-back with a bag of wheat behind him and sent to mill. When he arrived there, as the mill was small, he had to wait his turn among other customers. If the water was low, he frequently had to come home without his grist, and thus the mistress of the house was often days together without bread, hav- ing to supply its place with potatoes or other vegetables, or rice, of which edible some of the good house-wives with a view. to such exigencies, sometimes contrived to keep a store on hand. Crab apples and wild plums grew in the fields, and berries of all
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kinds, including strawberries, were plentiful. These made the delicacies of the table.
Facilities for education could scarcely be said to exist at all. The state had as yet made no provision for the instruction of its children, and the settlers had to take up with such teachers and such schools as they were able to procure. These schools could only be taught during the summer, in some barn or other out-of- door building fitted up temporarily for the purpose, the teacher being some transitory person who had found his way into the country, and had no other employment, or some one of the in- habitants who could sometimes be induced by the necessities of the time, to devote a few weeks or months to the instruction of the children. Occasionally we hear of a lady being engaged in some of the families as private instructress .. At one time, for several successive summers, the children of Judge Coryell, and probably others, were sent across the river to a school near Smith- boro. The first school-house in the town, we are told by one of our local histories, was a log school-house which stood on what is now the farm of Samuel Smith, up the river. The first one that we hear of elsewhere stood at a turn in the road about half a mile below the residence of Judge Coryell. This however, must before long have disappeared, as we next hear of the children walking two or three miles to a school on what is now the farm of Harvey Dunham. This also must have been removed, and the next we have any knowledge of was in the village of Nichols. We do not know exactly at what time the first public school law of the state was passed, but as we find mention made in IS12, of a superintendent of public instruction, it probably dates not far from that time. The town must then first have been divided into districts. The one which comprised the village of Nichols orig- inally included those immediately above and below it, on the river. The one below was set off first, and a school-house was built which, after being removed once or twice, was finally fixed at Hooper's Valley, where there is a very good school building. The one above was, after a time, set off into a district by itself, but was finally made a part of it again at a later period. We have no record of the building of the school-houses in the other districts of the town, but the one in Dist. No. I, the extreme western district on the river must have been built early ; and the old "line school-house," which is so called from its position near the state line, in the district up the Wappasening, has probably stood more than half a century. These schools throughout the
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town must have been of an inferior character in very many instances. They were supplemented by occasional select schools of more or less merit; but these finally disappeared with the establishment of the graded school in the village of Nichols.
The comparative growth of the town is shown by the follow. ing figures, giving the census enumeration for the years men- tioned : IS25. 951 ; 1830, 1,284; 1835, 1,641 ; 1845, 1,924; 1850, 1,905 ; 1855, 1,871 ; 1860, 1,932; 1865, 1,778; 1870, 1,663; 1875, 1,687; 1880, 1,709.
Organization .- Nichols was set off from Tioga and organized as a separate township, March 23, 1824. Owing to the destruc- tion by fire of the town records, we are debarred from giving the customary proceedings of the first town-meeting. The burning of the building in which the records were kept, together with its contents, occurred in 1864, during the clerkship of Luther Conant.
BUSINESS CENTERS.
NICHOLS VILLAGE is situated near the Susquehanna, at the point where the highway running parellel to that river, is joined by the one running north from the Pennsylvania line. At the time of the arrival of Dr. Barstow, in IS12, the lumber trade which afterwards became one of the prominent industries of the county. had made little more than a beginning. But southern New York and northern Pennsylvania were rapidly filling up with a hardy race of pioneers before whom the forests were soon to disappear. Besides the mills of Caleb Wright, mentioned before, at the mouth of the Wappasening, James Howell an emigrant from New Jersey, whose sons J. L. Howell and. Robert Howell are still living among us, built or purchased one up the stream about a mile distant from the river. Mills were also built at various points along the creek both in Nichols and in the adjoining County of Bradford, Pa. All the lumber manufactured at these mills had to find its way down the creek to the river to the various landings where it was to be rafted ; that is, made into floats or "arks" to be sent down the river. The junction of these two great highways of the country nearly midway between the eastern and western extremities of the town, seemed to pre- sent a central point where a village might grow up. The dwell- ers on the hills as well as those in the valley, began to feel the want of some nearer place than the neighboring towns, where
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they could obtain the articles necessary for the convenience and comfort of their families. They wanted stores and shops ; they wanted a resident physician. They wanted mechanics, and they wanted schools. The place was ready ; there was only lacking some person of sufficient energy to take advantage of the situa- tion, and the right man finally came. The ground on which the village was built was at this time pretty well cleared up, though the woods approached it on the south and west.
Gamaliel H. Barstow, so long and prominently known both in the town and in the county, was an emigrant from Connecticut. He was born on one of the hardest and rockiest farms in the town of Sharon, Litchfield county, in 1784. He lived and worked on his father's farm until past his majority, when he left it and went to Great Barrington, Mass., to the house of his brother. Dr. Samuel Barstow, where he applied himself to the study of medicine. He had had at the age of seventeen a great desire to study law, but his father objected so strongly, having a prejudice against lawyers,-by no means peculiar to himself at that time --- who, he thought, were men who got their living without work, and, therefore, could not be honest, that he was obliged to give up the idea. This was much to be regretted, as the peculiar bent of his mind rendered him much more capable of attaining success in this profession than the one he finally adopted. He, however, went so far as to procure a copy of Blackstone's Com- mentaries, of the contents of which he made himself master. This knowledge proved of the greatest possiblle value to him in sub- sequent years. He was accustomed to say that he would never have been able to fill the places in the Legislature and on the Bench, to which he was afterward called, without it. Having remained with his brother until he obtained his degree in ISII, he turned his thoughts towards the West, that being then, as now, the great field where young men sought fame and fortune. He first came to Wysox, Bradford county, in northern Pennsyl- vania, where his brother, Dr. S. T. Barstow, settled some years before. Here he remained some months while making his observ- ations and looking about for some eligible place where he could finally pitch his tent; and hearing at length of the settlement on the Susquehanna in the adjoining county of Tioga, where there seemed to be a good opening for a physician and a man of enter- prise, he determined, without seeing the country, to try his for- tune there. Having made this decision, with characteristic energy he returned at once to Connecticut to make his prepara-
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