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F 157 CIF85
CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
UNDES SO BY EZRA
BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 1891 BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE
Cornell University Library F 157C7 F85 History of Columbia County, Pennsylvania
3 1924 028 852 569
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UN
Y
OUN
1865
D
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D
A.
Cornell University Library
The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library.
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http://archive.org/details/cu31924028852569
A
HISTORY
OF
COLUMBIA COUNTY,
PENNSYLVANIA.
FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES.
BY JOHN G. FREEZE COUNSELLOR AT LAW.
ELWELL & BITTENBENDER, PUBLISHERS, BLOOMSBURG, PA. 1883
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 18.6, by JOHN G. FREEZE, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
PREFACE.
TF the time and labor which have been required to prepare this Lvolume for the press had been fully foreseen, it would not have been undertaken. Those who are the most competent judges of what has been done, will be the first to excuse and overlook what may have been left undone. If it had been attempted many years ago, while the actors in our early history were still alive much valuable information might have been recovered which is now forever lost. We have at this day only glimpses of the ear- ly times and the actors in them. Diligent inquiry has in some cases been rewarded, but in most cases no information has been vouch safed. For substantial reasons the publication could not be longer delayed, and what has been gathered is here pre- sented.
An examination of the table of contents will give full know]- edge of the subject matter ; and the extended and exhaustive in- dex will enable the reader to turn readily to any subject he may wish to look over. The body of the book will sufficiently show the authorities and persons to whom I have been indebted for as- sistance and information in the compilation of the work ; and it is only necessary here to tender them my most sincere thanks.
.
The publishers have been at considerable expense in illustrating
the work, thus rendering it more valuable and entertaining.
1893.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
SUBJECTS.
PAGE.
Early History 1
The Rivers 9
The Forts 13
Indian Purchases
35
Organization of the County
39
Streams and Mountains.
46
Improvements and Productions
52
Townships and Boroughs
55
Population
59 65
Removal .
Election Returns 74
Bloomsburg.
85 96
Berwick .
Catawissa
101
Jerseytown
198
Smaller Towns
113
The Courts 122
Biographies of President Judges 130
Normal School 151
Common Schools
167
Agricultural Society 181
Poor Houses 184
Bibliography 187 Madame Montour 195
Post Offices
206
Legislative 'Representation
209
Military Record
235
CONTENTS.
SUBJECTS. PAGE. Military Occupation 392
The Arrests 398
The Trials 442
The Rantz meeting.
472
The Club meeting of 1863 483
Special cases 487
Wm. Kessler
D. L. Chapin
Leonard R. Cole
The Fishingcreek Confederacy
496
Captain Silvers' Statement
497
Appendix No. 1.
Plea of John Rantz
500
Herman Alrick's Review 506
Appendix No. 2. +
Argument of Judge Black
514
Opinion of the Court.
550
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Brower's Building 86
Moyer Brothers' Building 88
Columbia County Prison 89
Sanitarium
91
Bloom Furnace.
92
Exchange Hotel .
94
Reay's Paint Works
113
Orangeville Academy . .
116
Columbia County Court House
122
Hon. Warren J. Woodward
142
Hon. William Elwell 146
Normal School Building 153
Columbian Building 189
Hon. Charles R. Buckalew 211
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.
CHAPTER I. EARLY HISTORY.
THE VALLEYS.
1 TT is hardly possible to write the history of any county lying within the Forks of the Susquehanna, without giving as an introduction to it, a,sketch, more or less extended, of the celebra- ted valley in which it lies ; and that is especially the case with the territory now known as Columbia county, because it is com- prised within a region of country, which from Fishingcreek to the upper end of what is now called Lackawanna Valley, was origi- nally known as Wyoming, or in Indian, Maughwauwame, signi- fying "large plains." A number of tribes inhabited the region now composing the counties lying on the North and West Branch; but the earliest historical bands in Columbia county seem to have been the Shawanese, who had a village on the flats below Blooms- burg near the mouth of Fishingcreek, another at Catawissa, near the site of the present village, and also another near the mouth of Briarcreek below Berwick. The Delawares were also settled within the valley, and with some others, were under the control of the Six Nations, and were ordered by them from point to point, at will.
The Shawanese came from the Carolinas, and kept moving north, until by agreement they were allowed to settle upon the Susquehanna, about 1697. They were a brave and warlike tribe, and gave the Proprietary Government a good deal of trouble.
2
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.
They were quick to resent an injury, and quite as quick to accept one. The Delawares became sureties for them, and seem to have kept them within bounds.
Over the whole country watered by the Susquehanna, the Six Nations claimed the rights of a conqueror, and from Shamokin to Diahoga (Tioga) they reigned supreme, as well as between the West Branch and the Juniata, which had likewise been assigned to the Delawares and Shawanese for hunting grounds.
In Pennsylvania the Susquehanna River is known and distin- guished as the North Branch and West Branch. The North Branch however, which rises in Otsego county, New York, is the principal stream, and originates the name; the West Branch be- ing but an effluent, rising in the mountains of Clearfield county and the springs of Cambria, and comes to be known as the West Branch of the Susquehanna, after it has attained considerable size. It receives several large streams before it pours its waters into the Susquehanna proper at Northumberland, among which are Muncy Creek, Loyal Sock, Lycoming, Pine Creek, and others of lesser size ; whereby, in a course of something over two hun- dred miles among the mountains of the interior, its volume of water has been swollen so as to equal that of the North Branch. Of the North Branch an eloquent writer observes :
"Other streams have their beautiful points and intervals, but the Susquehanna has every form of beauty or sublimity that be- longs to rivers. We have seen them all -- Connectient, Hudson, Delaware, Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri-there is nothing like the Susquehanna on this continent. Its peculiar character depends upon its origin in the New York meadows, its passage through the magnificent Pennsylvania mountains, and the richness of the valleys that lie between those mountains. Every where its course is deflected ; it begins a wooded lake ; it winds with the charac- ter of a limpid brook by meadows and over silver pebbles ; it makes its way through mountains ; it loiters restingly by their base ; it sweeps in broad curves by the valleyx. Its vast width in its mad spring freshets, when swollen by the melted snows it rushes from the mountains with irresistible force, sometimes caus- ing frightful inundations, leaves, with its fall, island after island in its mid-channel, of the richest green and most surpassing beauty; while those passages through the mountains afford points of
3
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.
scenery far finer than any one would believe them to be from any description, if they have not seen them."
It is not generally admitted which valley bears off the palm of beauty. The denizens of each are strenuous in the praise of their own locality, and point with exultation to many an historical spot. The counties properly included within The Forks of the Susque- hanna should perhaps lie south of a line, to be drawn from the west line of Clinton county at the river, to the point where the North Branch strikes the Pennsylvania line ; and would include Clinton, Lycoming, Bradford, Sullivan, Wyoming, Luzerne, Co- lumbia, Montour and Northumberland.
No region of Pennsylvania has been written over with so much care and vim and zest. The historian, the poet and the roman- cist have labored to illustrate its valleys, and to heighten, if pos- sible, the charms of its scenery. Comprising many rich and pop- ulous counties, to which, years ago, the hardy settlers flocked for cheap lands, the pleasures of the chase and the fishing-rod, its local history is peculiarly rich. A fierce warfare raged between our own people for the possession of its rich alluvials, and at last the Legislatures of the several States were obliged to interfere to stop the feud. Within its borders occurred some of the niost bloody battles in which the white and red man contended for life and subsistence. Fierce and protracted were the struggles ; and we find marks of them not only on their very sites, but so tena- cious was the hold of the Indian, that he has indelibly stamped his nomenclature upon almost every one of the streams, the moun- tains, the passes, and the valleys.
Here no cockney has built his Londons, Liverpools, or Man- chesters ; no matter-of-fact cmigrant from "Der Faderland" has be-Rhined or be-Rhoned our most beautiful river ; nor have the creeks and valleys to play second fiddle to some European local- ity. Their musical, aboriginal names still cling to them, and will cling to them forever.
Hark to the music of a few of them . We have Wyalusing, Tunkhannock, Lackawanna, Wyoming, Nanticoke, Catawissa, Mahoning, Shamokin, Chillisquaque, Muncy, Loyal Sock, Lycom- ing, Towanda, Kittaning, Sheshequin, and many others.
The Indians seem to have called what is now Towanda, "Awan- dæ ;" and perhaps what is known as Pine Creek is a little easier
4
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.
of pronunciation than the aboriginal "Tiadaghton." So, also, what is known as Muncy Creek was, in the native dialect, "Oc- cohpocheny," and by some of the tribes was called"Longeserango." The name Mumey was doubtless given by the whites as easier of pronunciation, or because the tribes inhabiting the region were called the "Monseys," or Wolf tribes.
Lycoming was in Indian "Locomick :" and "Stonehauge" is by some given as the Indian name of Loyal Sock. It, as well as Muncy, may have been known to different tribes by different unines : for Loyal Sock is undoubtedly Indian, and signifies "Mid- dle Fork"-the explanation being that it enters the Susquehanna about midway between Muncy Creek and Lycoming Creek. There is reason in this, and the authority for it, though mislaid, satis- ties my mind.
Chillisquaque, "The Frozen Duck," is named from the legend of a beautiful squaw having met an untimely death upon the banks of that quiet stream.
Nanticoke and Lackawanna are most certainly Indian, and I ain informed by a Welshnan that the roots of both words are certainly Welsh. He explains them to have reference to streams of water, in his own language, and their peculiarities answer ex- actly to those of the streams which they here designate. It is impossible to say if the meaning of the words in both languages is the same : but it is a little remarkable, that in both, the words should have reference to water. rather than woods. fields or mountains.
Born within the Forks of the Susquehanna, ou the very bank and directly at the mouth of one of its romantic tributaries, with the tempest roar and sunny sparkles of both streams, the most fa- miliar sounds and sights of my childhood, and the peculiar, sweet- sounding Indian name of each in my young ears, it is no wonder that the region watered by "the river of the winding shore" should be to me the loveliest spot on earth, and from which God grant that war, pestilence, and famine be ever abseut. And there is no valley in the world which for beauty of scenery, fer- tility of soil, salubrity of climate and facility of access-for the mineral wealth of its hills, the moral health, hospitality, and in- telligence of its inhabitants-surpasses that lying in the Forks of the Susquehanna, in the good old commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
5
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.
But it is not only for the things mentioned that this valley is celebrated. Its historical associations and recollections are fully worthy of its high character in other respects. Within that ter- ritory lies the beautiful Valley of Wyoming, the plain tale of the massacre of whose citizens brings tears to the eyes of the most careless reader, and whose charms and horrors have been painted but not heightened, by the magic pen of Campbell. Here, too, the celebrated Van Campen followed the trail of the Indians, or suffered as a prisoner in their cruel hands; a narrative of whose adventures, some of them occurring almost in sight of where I write, would be more exciting than a ro- mance. In this charmed region, Captain Samuel Brady perform- ed many of his famous exploits, and made his hairbreadth escapes. And no greater name than his brightens the roll of Indian fighters.
The celebrated Montour family, of which Madame Montour, the interpretess, seems to have been the head, and whose name is in- delibly stamped upon one of our most beautiful ranges of hills, lived, acted, died, and some of them are buried in the forks of the Susquehanna. Catharine Montour, whose head quarters were at Catharine's town, at the head of Seneca lake, and whose sons are alleged to have been at the massacre of Wyoming, and also at the butchery at Fort Freeland, and a woman called Queen Esther, sometimes confounded with them, and who is alleged to have been the executioner at the bloody rock of Wyoming, all have helped to give to the Forks of the Susquehanna a romantic history.
Here dwelt the Lenni Lenape, "the original people ;" and the council-fires of Tamanend, their most illustrious chieftain, were kindled in its forests. For many years annually on the first of May throughout Pennsylvania, his festival was celebrated. In Philadelphia, the members of the "Tammany" society walked the streets in procession, their hats decorated with bucks' tails, and upon reaching the wigwam, had a talk, smoked the "peace pipe," and performed Indian dances. From him also the celebrated. New York society took its name. Here, too, in his early youth came Logan, the famous chieftain and orator of the Iroquois. He has left a name that can never be forgotten while eloquence and pathos are admired. "Who is there to mourn for Logan ?" "Not one," sayest thou, O old man eloquent ! Thou art mistaken, most
6
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.
disconsolate chieftain ! Who has not read of thy beloved Alvar- etta, and shed a tear over her sad and untimely fate, adding to it a copious flood for the great grief that rent thy heart ?
Would that I had a pen that could fitly narrate the story of the Forks of the Susquehanna ! How could a Cooper or an Irving people its hills and valleys with ever-living characters ! Not one of the localities made everlastingly famous by those niagie writers had lralf the natural beauties and adaptations to romance and song, which lie uneelebrated and almost unknown within the windings of this exquisitely beautiful stream. What withering satire lies in the fights of the Pennamites and Yankees over the Connecti- cut surveys ! What romance in the history of Madame Montour, the Canadian half-breed, liberally educated, and mixing in the best society of Philadelphia, and anon leading the life of the tramping squaw, with the roving tribe of her husband. What room for incident and adventure, not the imaginings of romance, but the narratives of sober truth, in the lives of Van Campen and of Brady !
For although thinly populated before the Revolutionary war, that portion of the Forks of the Susquehanna embraced within the original limits of Columbia county was by no means destitute of a place in its history. It had its Fort Riee, located near the head waters of the Chillisquaque-Fort Bosley, located at Wash- ingtonville, on the Chillisquaque-McClure's Fort, on the flats be- low Bloomsburg-Fort Wheeler, three miles above Bloomsburg, on Fishingcreek-Fort Jenkins near Briarcreek, about Jacob Hill's present residenee-Fort Freeland on Warrior's Run -- Boone's Mills about seven miles distant from the last-Fort Montgomery about twelve miles below Fort Muncy and not far from Bosley's Mills-Fort Meninger at the mouth of Warrior's Run-and Fort Swartz about one mile above the present Borough of Milton. Each of these forts has its local history which will be spoken of in its order.
The valley must have been very thickly populated by the In- dians, for many remains of Indian towns are pointed out. Very extensive burial grounds are known to exist at several places within the Forks. Curiosities of various kinds-mounds, excava- tions and fortifications, of undoubted Indian origin-are found in large numbers. Through this valley ran some of the most impor-
..
7
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.
tant and frequently traveled "war-paths" known in the history of the race. Shall I trace them out for you by existing roads and villages ? You can put your finger on the "paths" on almost any map.
"The Shamokin Path" began at the place now called Sunbury, and continued up the West Brauch by the mouth of Warrior Run and an Indian town there located, thence through the gap in Muncy hills to the town of Muncy, where the public road now passes.
"The Wyoming Path" left Muncy on the West Branch, ran up Glade Run, thence through a gap on the hills to Fishingcreek, which empties into the North Branch at Bloomsburg, twenty miles above the junction, crossed the creek, passed into (now) Luzerne county through the Nescopeck gap, and up the North Branch to Wyoming.
"The Wyalusing Path" was traced up the Muncy creek, near where the Berwick turnpike crosses, then to Dushore, thence to Wyalusing creek and to the flats above.
"The Sheshequin Path" ran up Bouser's Run, thence to Lycom- ing Creek, near the mouth of Mill Creek, thence up Lycoming to the Beaver Dams, thence down Towanda Creek to Sheshequin flats.
"The Fishingcreek Path" started on the flats near Bloomsburg, on the North Branch, up Fishingercek to Orangeville, on to near Long Pond, thence across to Tunkhannock Creek. It was on this very path that Van Campen, the most prominent Indian figh- ter on the North Branch, was captured, and within six miles of where I write.
Several other less important paths led into these great thorough- fares, and are well known in their neighborhood.
Such are the materials for a history of The Forks of th Sus- quehanna. In detached pieces and from other points of view it has been written ; but there is the more interesting one of perso- nal adventure which it seems is lost for ever. The many books and narratives which have been written prove the eagerness with which the public desired to know whatever was remembered of the different localities which, by love and war, have been inade famons.
Some day justice will be done to our most beautiful river ; some
8
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.
day an Englishman or a German, an Italian or a Russian, will travel along its "winding shore" and celebrate its beauties ; after which our countrymen will awaken to its romance, and consent to admire its valleys and love its hills. From the lake in which it rises, to the bay into which it discharges its waters, it is the most beautiful streani on the continent : the history of the people who lived upon its banks is the most mournful and romantic ; the ad- ventures of its heroes the most thrilling and exciting, and the most worthy of that ancient race who roamed through its forests.
9
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.
CHAPTER II.
THE RIVERS.
CHE Susquehanna was always a favorite stream among the In-
T dians, and a residence upon its banks was coveted by all the tribes. We find the Delawares, the Shawanese, the Gangawese, or Conays, the Monceys and others on the two branches and in the val- leys lying in the Forks of the Susquehanna. But above the Forks the west side of the West Branch was much better known than the west side of the North Branch. On the former, almost every stream can be identified by its Indian name, but not in the latter. Fishingcreek and Hemlock and Green and Huntingdon seem to have lost all trace of the aboriginal title, and in no authority which I have been able to consult, have I found any certain clue to the Indian name.
And that is the more singular, because the war and hunting paths of the different tribes lay through Columbia county, and across and along the streams I have mentioned.
Van Campen tells us that when in 1778 he headed a scouting party, they started from McClure's Fort, went up Fishingcreek about three miles to Wheeler's Fort, thence to the head waters of Green Creek, crossed over through Eves' swamp to Little Fishing- creek, thence to the Chillisquaque Creek, and from that stream to the Muncy hills, and erossing them struck the waters of Muncy Creek, and thence ascended or descended as the exigencies of the service required.
Subsequently, in 1780, a party of Indians came upon the set- tlers about Wheeler's Fort, killed Van Campen's father and brother, and taking Moses prisoner, went up Big Fishingcreek to Huntingdon creek, thence to the mouth of Little Tunkhannock Creek, thence up the river to Big Tunkhannock, and on to Mes- hoppen, Wyalusing and so by the Painted Post to Albany. In none of the narratives of such expeditions which I have read, does
10
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
the original Indian name of Fishingcreek or any of its affluents appear. There must be such a designation and any authentic in- formation upon the subject will interest all our citizens.
It is perhaps proper to add here that the Historical Map of the Pennsylvania Historical Society gives the Indian name of Fishingcreek thereon, from some old authority, as being Names- cesepony.
Nescopeck was the only southern Indian route for travel be- tween Wyoming and Shamokin. Coming down the Susquehanna on their way to Easton, Chester. Lancaster, Conestoga, Philadel- phia, or other places for holding councils, they left the river at Wyoming or at Nescopeck, and only predatory raids for murder or plunder came down the river on the west side. Consequently we have less knowledge of that than of other portions of the Valley. The name of the Shawanese village located near where Bloomsburg now stands has never turned up amongst all my researches.
C'atawissa is "ye most ancient" village of which we have any knowledge, and was known by that name to whites and Indians in 1728, and douhtless much earlier. James Le Tort writes under date of "Catawasse, May ye 12, 1728," concerning a difficulty . near that place-"We always thought that the Governor knew nothing of the flight between the Shawaynos and the white peo- ple." And the famous chieftain Lapackpitton, who left his name temporarily upon the place, was there in 1754.
The West Branch, as it is now called. was known to the In- dians by the name of Otsinachson ; and I refer to some of the localities upon that river because all the territory above Point Township to the Lycoming county line was once a part of Colum- bia county. In 1755 Mr. Weiser writes to the Governor that a company of Indians had informed him that they intended to build a town on the river Otsinachson, at a place called Otstuagy, or as given elsewhere. Otstnacky, and desiring him to send some men to fence a cornfield for them. This place is believed to be Loyal Sock, and it is said that a large Indian village was located at the mouth of the creek on the north side. And accordingly, in June following, we find him writing to the Governor as follows : "Last night I arrived safe at my house from Otstuachy, an Indian town about 45 miles above Shamokin, on the north-west branch
11
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY.
of Susquehanna river, where I have been with ten hired men to fence in a corn-field for the Indians, according to your Honor's order." Farther along in his letter he says : "I left one sack of Flower with them, the same I did to the Indians at Canasoragy, about ten miles on this side of Otstuachy."
So, in another letter from the same Conrad Weiser, from the same place, dated May 2, 1754, he says : "Last night I arrived safe from my journey to Shamokin and Wyomink, of which I think I am obliged by your Honor's orders to lay before you a just and distinct account, which is as follows : April the seven- teenth I set out from home and went by the way of John Har- ris's and Thomas McKee's, being afraid of the two high moun- tains and the bad road that leads from them to Shamokin. I ar- rived at Shamokin the twentieth of April, found that two of the Shick Calamys being about thirty miles off on the north-west branch of Sasquehannah, eommonly called Zinachson, I sent a mes- sage for them, there being a great number of Indians at and about Shamokin. I thought fit to send my son with James Logan, the lame son of Shick Calamys, with another Indian to Oskohary, Nishkibeekon and Woyamock, three Indian towns on Sasquehan- nah (North East Branch), with your Honor's message. They set out from Shamokin on the twenty-second, by water, because there was no fodder to be had by the way for horses. On the twenty-sixth they came back again and reported that they lodged the first . night at Oskohary with Lapackpitton, the chieftain, and Sammy interpreted your Honor's message in Mohock to James Logan, and he to Lapackpitton in Delaware. That Lapackpitton was well pleased with the message, thanked them very kindly, and gave them the string of wampum back again which they had given him, and told them that it was best to leave the string at Niski- beckon, where there were more Indians, with old Nutimus, their chief. When they arrived at Niskibeckon, old Nutimus was from home, but the rest of the Indians received the message very kindly, and said they would lay it before Nutimus and the rest of their Indians after they should come home. At Woyamock it was just the same, Paxanosy, the chief man there, was from home also, the message with another string of wampum was taken well by those that were at home."
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