USA > New York > Tioga County > Our county and its people : a memorial history of Tioga County, New York > Part 74
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
ber 4, 1871, now living in Richford, and Catherine, born May 20, 1873, and living at home. At the outbreak of the civil war Mr. Geer was a member of the New York State Militia, 37th regi- ment, and went on defense duty at Fort Wadsworth. He after- wards participated in what was called the Pennsylvania invasion with his regiment. He served one year on the U. S. receiving ship, Vermont, and was detailed as clerk. He was mustered out at the end of the year and returned to Richford. Mr. Geer is now adjutant of Belden Post, G. A. R., No. 342, of Richford, and has held that office two years. Mr. Geer was elected supervisor for his town on the republican ticket for five consecutive years and in 1889 was elected sheriff of Tioga county. He is a member of Friendship lodge F. & A. M., and of the Malta Commandery of Binghamton.
HON. DANIEL P. WITTER, son of Asa and Delia (Torry) Witter, was born in Richford, July 2, 1852. He received only a common school education and has always resided on the old homestead. For several years he was president of the Richford dairymen's association, was many years a member of the Tioga county dairy- men's association and is a life member of the state dairymen's association. He was twelve years a director of the Northern Tioga agricultural society and one year its president. Mr. Witter has made a scientific study of the preparation of food for cattle, has spoken before the state association several times and received numerous letters from residents of other states for information on that subject. He was elected assessor on the republican ticket in 1884, being endorsed by both democrats and prohibitionists. He was supervisor three years and a most useful and influential member of that body. He was nominated for member of assem- bly in 1895 by acclamation and at the polls received 2,004 major- ity. He served on the legislative committees of excise, insurance and internal affairs. He was nominated for the same office in 1896 by acclamation and at election received 2,062 majority. In 1897 he served on the committee on excise and was chairman of the committee of internal affairs. March 1st, 1876 Mr. Witter married Sarah, daughter of W. F. Belden. They have two chil-
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TOWN OF RICHFORD.
dren, Grace and DeBert. The family are all members of the Con- gregational church. Mr. Witter was for twelve years superinten- dent of its Sunday school and Mrs. Witter has been teacher of the primary department fourteen years. She has also been proni- inent in W. C. T. U. work in both town and county.
ASA WITTER, son of Daniel P. was born in 1798 in Windham, Conn., and died February 1st, 1884 in Richford. He learned the shoemakers trade, and September 1st, 1823 came to Speedsville, worked one year at his trade and then located in Berkshire. Here he labored several years at shoemaking, then purchased a farm which he cultivated in connection with his work on the bench. His parents resided in Homer for several years then came to live with hin, and ended their days in his home. On April 1st, 1827 Asa married Louisa Collins. They had nine children, of whom George B., Louisa and Frances A. are now living. Mrs. Witter died December 22, 1848. August 8, 1849 he married his second wife, Delia Torry, daughter of Samuel Torry. April 1st, 1852 they moved to the homestead in Richford. Of their five children are living Sarah, wife of George M. Smith, Daniel P. and Fred- erick W. Both Asa Witter and his wife were members of the M. E. church in Berkshire. He was both trustee and steward over fifty years and held every position in the church and Sunday school. His son John was in the 5th New York cavalry and was killed at Harper's Ferry, August 25, 1864. His son Ralph enlisted in the Union army from New Jersey and survived the war until October 16, 1887, when he died at Owego. His son George enlisted from Ohio, serving in the regiment with ex-President R. B. Hayes and President Wm. Mckinley. He lives at Waverly, a physical wreck from an injury in the army.
FRANKLIN BLISS, son of Hiram and Anna (Ross) Bliss, was born November 7, 1843, in the town of Berkshire. He received a com- mon school education and September 25, 1861, enlisted in company E, 76th New York regiment as a musician and served three years, then enlisted in company B, 7th Veteran Reserve Corps, and served until the close of the war, when he was honorably discharged with the record of a longer term of service than that of any other man
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
from Tioga county. He is a member of Belden Post, No. 342, G. A. R. After the war Mr. Bliss resided in the west nine years, then lived two years at Hartford Mills, and in 1876, came to Rich- ford and bought a feed mill, which he has since conducted. He has been commander of the local G. A. R. post and was elected justice of the peace in 1895. In 1865 Mr. Bliss married Mary Jewett, of Richford. Their three children are Bert, Lydia, widow of Fred Whitlock, and Walter (deceased). Hiram Bliss, born in Berkshire county, Mass., November 7, 1802, came to Cortland county about 1824. Removing to Berkshire about 1840, he built a grist mill and a sash and blind factory at Rawson Hollow and conducted both of these enterprises until his death. He was an unswerving republican and a most useful citizen.
EDGAR F. BELDEN, son of William F. and Miranda (Finch) Bel- den, was born July 15, 1846. He was educated at Brookside Semi- nary and Dryden academy. He married, December 31, 1867, Eliza Patch, daughter of William J. They had four children : Arthur E., who was educated at Cortland Normal school; William P., who was graduated from Cornell law school in 1894, and is in legal practice at Grand Rapids, Mich .; Clarence F .; Alice M. Mr. Bel- den was clerk in a store for ten years, and has since been engaged in dairying and farming. He built "Brookside " creamery in 1893. He is a prohibitionist in political faith, and a representative of one of the best elements of citizenship. His family is connected with the Congregational church, of which Mr. Belden is a deacon. William Belden came to Richford from Lenox, Mass., in 1818, and purchased one hundred acres of land in Richford, which he cleared of its original forest. He was fairly well educated, taught school, and held the office of justice of the peace for seven years. He married Phebe Wright. They had five children : Fannie M., William F., Carlos, Charles F. and Anna Phidelia. William Belden died April 2, 1859, and his wife May 13, 1855. William F. Belden was born June 1, 1813, and was five years old when his father came to Richford. He married Miranda L., daughter of Elam Finch, and had a family of seven children : Eugene C., Edgar F., Oscar E., Arthur, Sarah M., Esther C. and Frances H. Mr. Belden was both
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TOWN OF RICHFORD.
justice of the peace and justice of sessions, and also a deacon of the Congregational church. He died March 26, 1895. His widow resides with her son Edgar F. Mr. Belden was captain of a rifle company in the state militia. Eugene C. Belden, son of William F., was born June 24, 1844. He enlisted and was a sergeant of company G, 137th New York regiment, was killed at Peach Tree creek, July 20, 1864, and was buried at the government cemetery at Marietta, Ga.
CLINTON CLEVELAND was a native of the town of Maine in Broome county, where he was born in 1825. He married Rachel Herrick in 1849 and came to Richford in 1868 and engaged in luni- bering. For nearly twenty years, until his death on January 10, 1887, he set an example of a truly christian life before the com- munity, and he filled acceptably the deaconship of the Congrega- tional church. His children were Sidney (died when sixteen) and Belle (Mrs. J. W. Allen). Mrs. Cleveland resides with her daughter.
J. W. ALLEN, son of Jeremiah and Pauline (Johnson) Allen, was born in November, 1851, in Geneva, N. Y. He received a good common school education and when eighteen became a teacher, working however at the carpenters' trade for three years. Marrying Belle Cleveland, daughter of Clinton Cleveland, in 1872, he made his home in Richford and engaged in the lumber busi- ness. He has ever since been an important factor in the business, political, and social life of the town, and still is an operator in lumber in Lycoming county, Pa. He was a member of the firm of Smith, Allen & Finch, which opened a general store in Rich- ford in 1888, and in 1891 built the paper-cutter factory, which five years later he sold. He is now the successor in merchandising to H. S. Finch, recently buying him out. Republican in politics Mr. Allen is an active partisan. He is a member of the county com- mittee, and was supervisor of Richford in 1894-'95-'96-97. The family attends the Congregational church. He has three children, Herriek C., Vera I. and Ross J. Allen.
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, the Standard Oil king, was in early life a resident of this county. About 1840 his father purchased a pine lot in Richford, built a saw mill, and here his family resided for some years. Later Mrs. Rockefeller and the children resided three miles east of Owego village, Mr. Rockefeller living in Cleveland, Ohio, whither the family followed him about 1854. While living in Richford Mr. Rockefeller was often absent from town for long periods of time, presumably attending to special medical practice for the treatment of cancers, and his first act on returning from these journeys would be to pay the village merchant his bill for the supplies furnished his family during his absence. Several families of the name, and relatives, now live in the town. John D. Rockefeller was born in Moravia, N. Y., on July 8, 1839. He was a pupil of Owego academy under Principal William Smythe. When nineteen years old he engaged in the produce business for himself in Cleveland, was successful, saved his profits, and in a few years bought a share in an oil refinery. From that time his prosperity was rapid. He was an organizer of the Standard Oil company, in which he is a chief owner, and he is now believed to be the wealthiest man in the world, with his wealth increasing at the rate of $20,000,000 annually. His recent munificent gift of $1,000,000 to the University of Chicago does him credit.
797
GEOLOGY.
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APPENDIX.
GEOLOGY. *
The geology of Tioga county is soon told, the Chemung rocks covering the entire area ; yet on the tops of the highest hills is found a flat rock, in layers but little more than one-fourth of an inch thick, of nearly the same color as the Chemung rocks, and without fossil remains, so far as I have examined them. State geologist James Hall years ago pronounced these layers to be Che- mung rocks ; they may however be the lower layers of the Cat- skill group, formerly called the Montrose sandstone. This is gen- erally of a brick-red color, often the soil has the same color.
Probably of all the rocks of Tioga county nine-tenths are Che- mung. This formation occupies a large area, running from 200 miles above Binghamton west to Chautauqua county, and is sup- posed to be over 3,000 feet in thickness. It is composed of a fine- grained sandstone and shale, or soft stone. Perhaps the greater portion of the rock is shale, and much of it is not fit for building purposes. Iron pyrites are sometimes found in small nodules or lumps, and some of the fossil crenoids of the lily encrinite family, and other fossils, contain traces of carbonate of iron. When the rock crops out along streams the fossil is found in the rocks in layers of from one-fourth of an inch to five or more inches, and is corroded, with, in some places, over three inches wholly decom- posed. In building a road a few miles above Nichols several tons of dark stones were piled np. In fifteen or twenty years the pile had crumbled to dust. I think that the Chemung rock of a bluish-
*By Robert Howell, correspondent of Smithsonian Institution.
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
gray color stands exposure well. The fewer the fossils the better it is for building. The drift or glacial period scattered millions of tons of Chemung rock in every direction. These stones are sound to-day. If the glacial period was over 200,000 years ago they show great power of resistance to the atmosphere.
The Chemung rock lies here nearly horizontal. In a few places the dip is perhaps two or three degrees. According to the geolog- ical classification of rocks there is below the Chemung (conse- quently under an older and a different formation) fifteen older formations of sedimentary rock, all containing animal remains, and above the Chemung there are six or seven formations, so the Chemung is about two thirds of the distance up the geological colunin. The fossil remains in the Chemung are nearly all marine shells, fish and plants. Little dry land existed when the Chemung group was forming.
Its shellfish numbered twelve or fifteen varieties. Of the spir- afers (in old geological works called delthyrus avacula) several kinds exist. The same may be said of the lingula, discina, step- tophrychus Chemungensis (a large showy shell), and the stepto- donta. These shells are sometimes two inches in diameter. A large number of the productella also appear, with others like a clam or oyster shell and a few similar to a snail. The miripien are numerous, but hard to extract from their stony matrix. One kind of nautilus apparently exists, but, like all spiral shells of the group, they are badly decomposed and crumbly. Three or four orthaceratiti (a singular chambered shell) are found, some very large in the older and earlier formations. This fossil was from 12 to 15 feet long, of the crenoids and coral tribe. The lily encrinitis is frequent (but not found here) and hard to obtain perfect. The stem or body often decomposes, leaving a singular spiral hole in the stone. There are also two or three other fossils not easily de- scribed. Of the cornuta there are several, often imperfect, "in shape of a yearling calf's horn." Within two or three years I have concluded that one kind of this cornuta is a fossil sponge. These fossils are found in situ, scattered over hills and second flats. During the last forty years I have sent many boxes of them to the
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GEOLOGY.
Smithsonian Institution, to United States and state geologists and to colleges and museums.
The vegetables shown in the Chemung rocks are partly land plants, sigalara and lepidendron, and some ferns. The largest I have of the first are not more than two inches through, while in the Catskill, just above the Chemung, this fossil is over five feet through. While the Chemung rocks were forming there was little dry land, and the seaweeds were enormous.
The Drift Period .- The great gravel formations between Barton and Waverly and on to Athens, Pa., is the work of the drift or glacial period. Spanish Hill is a moraine, and the large potholes near Waverly are the results of the glacial ice movement. In many parts of Barton these gravel beds are several hundred feet thick, and contain bowlders and pebbles brought from almost every rock formation lying northeast of this county. Some of the bowlders of granitic gneiss must have come 250 or 300 miles. All of the twelve or fifteen sedimentary formations between here and Lake Ontario appear. The Medina sandstone is the oldest and lowest formation in the state due north of this county, and some of the bowlders from it will weigh more than 300 pounds. The quantity of that stone found here in bowlders, pebbles and gravel is enormous. Every road running through our gravel lands, when, washed clean by hard showers, shows the pebbles and large stones of the Medina, of all tints from pale-red to dark-red, all worn smooth by being tumbled and ground under the glacial ice. (All drift here is rounded and smooth).
The gravel knolls made by the glacial or ice period are found in every town in the county. So are the second or gravel flats. They appear in Barton, Tioga and Owego, in places over 100 feet deep, making beautiful building sites, and also in a few places on high hills some miles from the Susquehanna, both in this state and Pennsylvania, and from 500 to 700 feet above the river level. Bowlders from nearly all the hard rocks north of Tioga, many of them brought from Clinton, Franklin and Essex counties, 300 miles away, and in size from an ounce to 2,500 pounds in weight, are plentiful. These are of granitic gneiss, hornblende, and several
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
kinds of trap or volcanic rock. Of the softer rocks, Potsdam and Medina sandstone, etc., scarce any bowlders are found, nor of the Niagara shale, the Clinton group, the salt group, or of the Hamilton. All these are found in the higher or secondary flats ; they were probably worn out before reaching here. Bowlders are found in Nichols, all smooth and rounded, 15 or 20 varieties on one small field. Glacial work is still going on. All of the higher mountains of the United States show present glacial operation.
The southern or lower part of Spanish Hill, the singular moraine near Waverly, is nearly level on top for about seven acres, and is about 175 feet high. From this level the high part slopes down from 20 to 30 rods, forming a basin holding perhaps 1,000 hogs- heads, and covered with forest. The rest of the hill is from 16 to 20 feet wide at the top and from ten to fifteen feet wider at the bottom. It is composed of round stones of all of the shales, from the size of a quart bowl down to half that size, and they appear as if broken up for a great road. Around the north side of the hill are several large basins or potholes. Each will hold hundreds of barrels, all situated in the soil, and all undoubtedly made by the ice or drift period.
Within a few miles of Waverly are other singular and similar knolls and hollows. Spanish Hill, nor any of these knolls has any connection with our hills, but are always found in the flat coun- try. At and near Tioga Center are "hogbacks," some are from 60 to 80 feet long, and from 16 to 20 feet high, only a few inches thick at the top, nearly all formed of small stones and a few large flat ones. Near Apalachin "hogbacks" are found close to the Susquehanna, of singular and romantic shape.
On my farm in Nichols is part of a moraine about 90 feet high. The drift in one place went to the top of the hill. It is a bed of small round stones and gravel, and appears as if every formation in the state had contributed something to the pile.
OTHER SKETCHES.
LANCELOTT B. TERBUSH, of Flemingville, was born in Albany county, N. Y., December 3, 1834, a son of Ralph and Sarah (Holms) Terbush. The family are descendants of an old line of nobles of Holland. Its first American representatives located in Albany county about the year 1700. Lancelott B. Terbush left home when fifteen years old, worked as a lumberman, and later as a farmer until 1860 when he came to Tioga county, locating in the town of Tioga. In 1884 he removed to his present estate just north of Flemingville in the town of Owego. There he was engaged in farming and blacksmithing until within the past few years. Dur- ing the civil war he was a soldier of the union. In November, 1862, he enlisted in the 5th N. Y. Cavalry, with which command he remained until the close of the war. At the battle of Stony Creek he was injured by the concussion of a bursting shell. With the exception of thirty days, when he was absent on furlough, Mr. Terbush was in every skirmish in which the " old fifth" was engaged during the war. He is a member of Williams post, No. 334, G. A. R., of Newark Valley. It is to such men as he, who steadily and patiently endured the discomforts and dangers of army life, that the country owes its existence to-day. Mr. Terbush was married on November 21, 1861, with Theresa Cook, a daughter of Dewitt and Angeline (Boudish) Cook. She was born August 9, 1847, in the town of Tioga. They have two daughters : Della, wife of Willis Perry, of Owego, and Effie, wife of B. Frank Joiner, of Flemingville.
PHILIP E. BELLIS, of Halsey Valley, son of Charles Bellis (see page 664), was born in Barton in 1854, received his education in the district schools of Tioga and Barton, and at an early age was em- ployed in the lumber woods of Pennsylvania, afterward in the lumbering regions of the west. After some years thus passed Mr. Bellis returned to this county and has since been a farmer. He is now a prosperous agriculturist on Oak Hill in the town of Barton. He takes great interest in and is a member of the Patrons of Hus- bandry, is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and is a republican in politics. In 1881 he went to Michigan, but soon was called back by the death of his father, and then for eleven years resided on the home farm with his mother, when she moved to Waverly. In 1891 Mr. Bellis was married to Jenniefred King, of Barton, the only daughter of S. D. King, a well-known graindealer and farmer of Barton, who died in 1895. Mr. and Mrs. Bellis have no children.
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OTHER SKETCHES.
LYMAN PARK TRUMAN (see page 284) was from 1833 until his death in 1881 the most conspicuous citizen of the county in the lines of its commercial activity, and the impress of his indomita- ble will and keen business acumen was seen far beyond its limits. He was a natural financier, a man of creative impress and of orig- inal and highly successful methods. Where other men could see only ordinary conditions his brain would discern far-reaching pos- sibilities, which under his almost unerring sagacity would develop into vast sources of wealth, business activity or political power. He was blessed with natural advantages. He came of a long line of stalwart New England ancestors who so conserved their vital forces as to strengthen the stock with each generation, and he possessed a massive physique with wonderful powers of endu- rance and a brain large and commensurate with his great body. From the commencement of his commercial activity, little by little, steadily and continually, the influence of his personality ex- panded until all the circles of business energy existing in a wide radius were controlled by impulses projected from his brain. He never imitated. Whatever successes others won, mattered noth- ing to him. He developed his own plans, perfect in detail from con- ception to consummation, and dictated to others the methods to in- sure success. He dominated his associates and his ideas became theirs. He attached men to him so that their aid and service re- sembled the loyal devotion of the ancient vassal to his liege lord, and he never allowed contradiction. In everything in which he had part his will was law. Although holding local office to some extent and ably serving three terms in the state senate, his home was in the region of business and finance. Here his nature was given full play and the result was the acquisition of great fortunes for his own and others enjoyment. Had his lot been cast in the broader opportunities of New York city and the more responsive atmosphere of Wall street, Lyman Truman would have shown himself facile princeps among the moneyed Napoleons and financial kings of that great metropolis.
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