USA > Pennsylvania > Bradford County > Athens > A history of old Tioga Point and early Athens, Pennsylvania > Part 62
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and it was said of him that no man in northern Pennsylvania had so extensive and accurate a knowledge of the nature and situation of land titles and the laws bearing on them. When asked the secret of his uniform success in his numerous land-suits, he replied, 'I always know my case before I begin.', He was a man of varied and extensive reading, fond of the natural sciences, geology being his favorite study." He was thoroughly conversant with the early history of this region, and communicated his love of it to the writer long years ago. As will be shown he wielded his "eagle's quill" with power when the necessity arose. Pleasant and genial, an instructive and delightful talker, his "old castle" at Wyalusing was a charmed spot to all the children of the younger generation in the family circle. Tall and of erect and dignified car- riage, his port was that of the old-school gentleman. To some who knew him his retirement from public life was a disappointment. Said one, while admitting the existence of defects, "but who has his power, his pathos, his tenderness, wit, humor, eloquence? + * * * If he had been forced into the world, and compelled to grapple with great questions, either literary, scien- tific or political, he might have been one of the first men of his time." But he chose to spend his life with his wife and children in comparative retirement at Wyalusing; where he died Sept. 23, 1866, from the effects of a fall from a carriage.
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having seen the H. R. daily proceedings at this period, we do not know if Henry Welles was active in obtaining the passage of this law. But it seems an appropriate place to give some extracts from a letter of Caton's written when he surmised that Welles was in the Legislature :
"If there, you must see that the public mind is precipitated by a too great impetus of feeling and passion. That measures fraught with evil consequences are hurried into laws that will incorporate themselves with the political exis- tence of the state. That the mature judgment of age which takes caution for its guide is silenced by the impetuous voice of schemers and speculators, and that the rich store of national experience drawn from the history of the old world is deemed trash, and inapplicable to the character of man on this side of the Atlantic, as if he were not governed by the same errors, the same feelings and the same virtues and vices. Disguise ourselves as we may, call ourselves by what name caprice or self love may dictate, we will find that man is the same being, pursuing the same objects by the same means that his forefathers did; and pain- ful as the catastrophe will be we shall find that we have wasted like a prodigal the abundance of political happiness which Providence gave us, and we shall transmit a curse to future generations by manifesting to the world that we have neither virtue nor wisdom enough to live free. Heaven grant that our days may be exempt from the crisis, but I do not think and dare not hope they will."
These impassioned utterances seem worthy of a great statesman, and may have stirred Henry Welles to make the telling speech already alluded to. The supplement of 1813 having made the methods of procedure very clear, Mr. Caton employed Garrick Mallery of Wilkes- Barré as counsel in place of Hopkinson, and suit was brought in the Bradford County Court, summons being first issued June 15, 1813. The distance at which Mr. Caton lived proved a great hindrance to the prog- ress of the case, the State requiring every paper in the chain of title to be submitted. Much as he seemed to desire the matter settled, having made a claim for damages of fifty thousand dollars, the case was put over again and again, awaiting the arrival of the necessary papers. Mr. Mallery turned to Henry Welles for assistance, many of his letters be- ing still in existence. In November, 1814, he wrote :
"There is still some defect in the chain of title and God only knows whether we shall be able to obtain them from Mr. Caton * * * we must be prepared for trial at the next court. I despair of ever obtaining the papers *
* * The deed from Harper to Carroll it is alleged is lost, it may be supplied by the deed of Harper and Carroll to Caton in 1813 &c."
This is the only record of the retransfer of the property to Caton, but proves that the property did not long continue in the name of Car- roll. Mr. Mallery was at last successful in obtaining all necessary records, and the suit, which had been continued from term to term for three years, was finally tried at the September court of 1816. The jury, which was composed of representative men of Bradford County, ren- dered a verdict for the plaintiff of $7975.78, their valuation of the 319 acres certified to Connecticut claimants under the Bedford and Ulster Act. On the application of Richard Caton to the Board of Property, January 22, 1817, the title papers were examined and the verdict ap- proved. Three days later Henry Welles wrote to his brother :
"I am glad to inform you that the judgment in the case of Caton vs. Com- monwealth has passed the ordeal of the accounting department and the money paid. It was done promptly and honorably by the officers of the Government.
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IMPROVERS-NOT OUTLAWS
This event is a very desirable one, that Mr. Caton should be paid, and the titles to the contested land on the Point placed on a safe footing; they are now among the safest in Pennsylvania-the whole from first to last has been well done."
It is noticeable that here the Commonwealth seems to have lost money. Lockhart had paid originally to the State about $270, and the patents granted to the Connecticut settlers had brought in but a small amount. Lockhart had received only one-fourth of the purchase money from Welles and Caton, yet he had profited. Caton had paid that fourth, $3200 ; but he had now received more than twice as much, aside from his sales, and was assured of a clear title for both himself and Henry Welles, apparently. And yet at the very date Welles wrote :
"It may well be questioned whether titles will be very safe and perfect in the state if certain people have their wills. The settlers bill has passed the H. R. this day after four days continual debate. In form it is very good, and freed from the most objectionable features of last year's bill, so that I shall support it, but I fear in vain,-Senate is very determined on most questions, and perhaps more on this than almost any other. I shall incur the odium of having defeated it again, but no matter, I will not trouble myself with anticipations."
A few weeks later he writes the bill was lost by a majority of one vote, adding :
"My position has produced a considerable change in favor of the principles of indemnity to settlers, but not enough to effect the object ; indeed I very much doubt whether it will ever be effected."
The Settlers Bill or Cause, as it was generally called, was at this period one of the most important matters to the Connecticut settlers, who had not been granted certificates ; and many of whom had later suffered ejectment at the hands of the Pennsylvania Landholders' agents. Ninety-two such cases were listed in the "Seventeen Towns" in 1818, and many were in the half-share settlements of this region. The "Settlers plea" was for indemnification in case of ejectment. The petitions for this Act, sent from Bradford County, both in 1817 and 1818 were written by C. F. Welles, said to be "well and ably drawn, and highly spoken of among the members." They protested against a blind application of British forms, because in the British Isles the lands were all improved, while in Pennsylvania it had been all wild lands of little or no value. Here "the settler's improvement increased the value of the lands fifty times without any estimate of his labor." His so-called trespassing had been felling the trees, opening roads, building fences, tilling the soil ; how could he be called a wrongdoer ? Moreover, the settlements had been made permissively, with tacit consent or even general encouragement. Instead of being a trespasser from the begin- ning, he was rather a benefactor and really had an equity from the be- ginning. Often these settlers had had residence for a score of years, yet the laws now permitted the landholder to eject him without a penny of remuneration for all his years of labor, and with no possible claim, as in English countries, for rent or damages. Under these circum- stances what would the settler do but appeal to the Legislature for some protection of his interest? Though the first bill was lost, it was by so small a majority that the Settlers' Cause was made an issue of the gubernatorial campaign of 1817. A strong point against Joseph Heis-
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ter, the Federalist candidate, was, not only that he was a landholder pledged to his Philadelphia supporters to defeat this movement ; but in 1801, when the landholders tried to make the Legislature march 2,000 troops into upper Luzerne to drive off the settlers, and more than 1,300 of the inhabitants of Luzerne petitioned Congress to protect them, their own Representative, Joseph Heister, was chosen to present this petition ; and he refused to do so, having doubtless fairer reasons than are at- tributed to him. While the complications arising in those unsettled times are often incomprehensible, the Settlers' Cause from present view point would seem to include that of the half-share men, which had been serious since the Intrusion Law and the repeal of the Act of Limita- tions of 1785, so far as relates to the Seventeen Townships. By this they were practically outlawed.
In the case of Satterlee vs. Matthewson the eminent Chief Justice Huston considered the Settlers' Cause as did President Judge Scott of Luzerne a little later. After presenting a statement of their sacrifices, sufferings, etc., Judge Huston said, "Are such people outlaws-God forbid ! They are not to be so considered."
The Act of Limitations was a general law passed 26th March, 1785, limiting the time during which actions for inheritance or possession would lie to twenty-one years. The so-called territorial act, suggested by Cooper, and passed in 1802, had for its manifest object "to cut up by the roots the title of Connecticut in all other parts but the seventeen townships."
Findlay having been elected, the bill again came up, and was placed in the hands of Henry Welles in the Senate, who wrote February 6, 1818 :
"I entertain but faint hope of the success of the settlers' bill in the Senate ; there are seventeen votes dead against it, and great talents. I cannot bear the thought of its failure in my hands; it is the only measure I ever failed to carry when I exerted myself."
It was presented to the House in an impracticable form, exciting alarm and weakening confidence in the cause and its supporters. Henry Welles, though assured of its failure, went through the longest debate he had ever conducted in the Legislature, receiving many compliments as having "conducted the bill with great ability." A second debate fol- lowed a week later, when he again "spoke upwards of an hour-and then just lost the bill." How instructive and interesting must have been all these debates in the Legislature on questions concerning the Con- necticut claim ; lost, alas, to history, as there were only meagre notes made in House journals. Among Henry Welles' papers has been found a long and remarkable address, no doubt one of those made at this time which shows not only considerable ability, but also a fair-minded atti- tude toward the Connecticut claimants, which has not always been at- tributed to him. As the paper is undated and has no heading, it is difficult to decide just what the measure was, so many were proposed at that period; but he mentions that the proposed act is to quiet the Pennsylvania claimants, whose lands were surveyed in the Connecticut claim between the dates of the confirming and the compromising laws,
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FIRST BRADFORD COUNTY COURTS
"all others having been provided for," and the Pennsylvania claimants' only refuge being the ejectment process. In this speech Mr. Welles proves that the Commonwealth has sold the land twice, and concludes with the remark that it would have been better to dispossess the inhab- itants with the bayonet and the rifle, that they would have been driven into a state where it would have been safer to rely upon Acts of As- sembly. The whole speech is a scathing rebuke to Pennsylvania, as regards the various "quieting acts." It was doubtless this to which he referred in letters of February 6th, 19th, 24th and 28th, 1818. The exact purport is not known, but in the Senate journal the bill under discus- sion at these dates is entitled "A further supplement to an act, entitled An Act offering Compensation," etc., plainly meaning Compromise Act of 1799. Henry Welles writes that :
"Hill reported the same insane bill that excited such alarm last year, wholly impracticable and weakening the chances, and the confidence of unsettled mod- erate men in us and our cause. The opposite party rejoice in this development of our views as they maliciously call it. * * * I have just gone through the second debate upon the bill compensating Pennsylvania claimants, spoke upwards of an hour much to my own satisfaction-and then just lost the bill. Do you think it might be worth while to show a little vanity and insert into a newspaper a sketch of remarks upon the bill; I have a mind to send you a sketch, and if you think worth while publish it; and if not it will not mortify me. I will think of it, and perhaps send by Mr. Sharp (bearer of letter)."
This was written to C. F. Welles, then controlling editor of the Bradford Gazette. The sketch does not seem to have been published. (See Appendix C.)
It is necessary now to retrace our steps for a time and gather the loose threads. In 1813 John Bannister Gibson, afterwards considered one of the foremost jurists in Pennsylvania, was made President Judge of the Eleventh Judicial District, composed of the counties of Tioga, Brad- ford, Susquehanna and Wayne. He was expected to live at Tioga Point, but did not. He held the office for three years, and was pro- moted to the bench of the Supreme Court. The first court was held at Towanda that year, and proved a great convenience in the region which had known little law and order. In 1814 William Briggs, who after- wards built the Exchange, came to town with his brothers from Berne, Schenectady County, N. Y. This year David Paine lost his lovely wife, and it was written "the death of Mrs. Paine has darkened Tioga."
Perhaps, because of the pending suit, Richard Caton now refused to sell any detached lots, a decision detrimental to the advancement of the town, and very trying to General Welles and Colonel Lockwood. (The Governor had now appointed Mr. Welles on his staff, with the rank of General, a title by which he was ever after known.) They had found lots could be sold for higher prices, and had made several sales which Caton repudiated. He had some wild lands also, as Colonel Lockwood wrote that he could not find any surveyor that would under- take to run out the lands on Pine Creek, for the curious reason that "pork was not to be had at any price for to keep the hands on."
In spite of these sales sufficient money was not collected to pay taxes on Caton's share of the Point, and Colonel Lockwood had spent all of his means to lay out a road from Towanda, now the county seat,
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to the State Line, and the Sheriff threatened tax sale. In 1815, in a very dignified letter, Henry Welles intimated that he would prefer to have no further responsi- bility as to the property or papers of Mr. Caton, but that they should all be un- der Mr. Lockwood's care.
John Franklin Satterlee, son of Elisha, had now grown to manhood, and was fast becoming an in- fluential citizen, with active interest in progress of town and county. In 1808 he married Julia Prentice of Milltown, and a little later he began mercantile busi- ness in the Prentice home
SATTERLEE HOMESTEAD, 1847
at "Spring's Corners." He had a keen sense of wit, as shown in a few of his let- ters that have been pre- served. His daily diary must have been excellent reading. Unfortunately, that and many other papers were lost in the fires which destroyed two successive Satterlee homes. Even busi- ness was humorously trans- acted by John F., as shown in a letter to Stephen Tut- tle in 1813 :
"Dear Sir, Yours came to hand last mail, covering a ps of democratic paper on which I had the honor of writing a note for $500-dear paper- which is inclosed. The other day had to pay only $15 for the privilege of retailing goods under the mild administration of King James-God and Con- gress only know what will come next."
About 1815 he decided to buy the old tavern built by James Irwin, afterwards kept by George Welles, and later
ohne Sottole
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EARLY COUNTY POLITICS
by David Paine and his brother Enoch, who lived in Athens from 1808 to his death, in 1816, and was engaged in mercantile business with his brothers, obtaining most of their goods of Orrin Day of Catskill, and bringing them overland. The old tavern was in Caton's share of the village plot ; some one must have attempted to make trouble, which Jesse Keene helped to settle, as per letter written from New York, Sep- tember, 1815 :
"Dear Frank, Good News-is better than Bad at all times. I have seen Mr. Caton, he told me to inform you that the Property is yours irrevocably, to give yourself no uneasiness; on his return to Balt'o he will confirm it to you by letter. How is the Mighty fallen. Believe me your friend, KEENE."
Probably Mr. Satterlee was already in the house, as he made ap- plication for a license in Athens that year, with many others; to wit, Saltmarsh, Paine, Murray, Decker, Jacobs, Dunlap, Granger, Johnston, and even Dr. Hopkins, of whom it has been said he never had a license. This list of applications is still preserved with the following message on it addressed to Satterlee : "Observe secrecy-it's the soul of business." The tavern changed owners again in 1828.
Early Political History of the New County.
The political history of Tioga Point and Athens, if it could be completely written, would make an interesting chapter, but the mater- ial at hand is insufficient. However it is doubtful if politics have ever been as lively in Old Bradford as during the time when it was Nere Bradford. The period from 1814 to 1818 was an epoch of its own. Much has been gleaned from letters of this period, also from such old newspapers as have been accessible. It is a matter of regret that there seem to be no complete files of the various publications of the Bradford County press of this period; also that such as there are seem to be jealously guarded. Many inaccuracies of history are due to the fact that the most earnest students are refused access to necessary sources of information. Having delayed our work, hoping for more complete data, it now seems necessary to make the most of that at hand. In considering the politics of this epoch, a general idea of conditions is essential, which in this case is drawn from Mr. Craft's introduction to his account of Bradford County political history :
"On the adoption of the constitution our people were almost unanimously Federalists * * * the chief reason being that they thought the questions relating to the land controversy would be definitely settled in the federal courts. But after the decision of the U. S. Circuit Court in 1795 against the Connecticut claimant in the case of Van Horn vs. Dorrance, the settlers had less confidence in the fairness of federal courts, and became alienated from the party. In addi- tion several acts of the Adams' administration made the Federal party unpopular, and in 1800 many voted for Jefferson; the following 4th of July was celebrated in many parts of the country with great Democratic rejoicing."
It may thus be seen that the sentiment of the Connecticut settler was originally against the Federalists. In the election of October, 1812, county officers were elected for the new county. This was the first time the people could express their vote by themselves. Curiously enough every elective officer was a Federalist, although the Federal
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majority was not large. The previous elections, from 1800, had shown that in the country of the half-share men the questions arising from the land controversies overshadowed all national political issues for a score of years or longer. Yet at this period the Connecticut settlers seem to have become Federalists, and the Pennsylvanians, Democrats (or old time Republicans). Charles F. Welles and his brother, General Henry Welles, were Democrats; and in 1814, in connection with Gen- eral Samuel Mckean and other prominent politicians, they started the Bradford Gazette, published at Towanda or Meansville. Burr Ridg- way was the editor, but C. F. Welles was the power behind the throne. While party spirit ran very high, and political writings were strongly tinctured with partisan animosity and hostile criticism, it was said :
"His articles on political questions were marked by a breadth of view and urged by a cogency of reasoning that carried conviction to the mind of the reader, while the corrupt politician received scathing rebukes from his trenchant pen."
In presenting the story of this period it will be easily seen that then, as now, no one's character was safe who was active in politics, and both parties appear corrupt. Regardless of name or fame, we will give both sides as far as obtainable. Having no Gazettes of earlier date than February, 1817, let us begin with the advent of its opponent, the Washingtonian, said to have been published for about two years, beginning with the issue of September 2, 1816. The editor was Lewis P. Franks, a man of keen intellect and an able but trenchant pen, sup- posed to be in the employ of certain "Sheshequinites," notably Simon Kinney, then County Treasurer; Joseph Kingsbery, and Col. Harry Spalding. The following extract from a letter of Henry Welles to his brother indicates a still deeper purpose in the establishment of the scur- rilous sheet, whose motto was "I claim as large a charter as the winds, to blow on whom I please."
"Dec. 9, 1816. Harrisburg. * I want also, if there is anything worth notice in the Wash (ingtonia) n, that it should be sent to me by post regularly ; the Bradford Gazette will come, of course. You are on the spot, and know the events that have taken place, and can anticipate with some certainty the inten- tions of our opponents : and on your opinion as to the expediency of attacking the supporters of the Washn I will rely, and act accordingly. I have been told since my arrival that that paper is established in the country up Susquehanna as a part of the system that is now zealously acted upon in the state generally by the Federalists and old-school men: I mean that of establishing presses in various parts for the purpose of overthrowing our party: 'tis said the W . . n is supported by donations in Phila. I send to you the Harrisburg Rep (ublica) n of this morning: you will see a mode recommended by the electors of collecting the opinion of the republicans in the state as to the person who shall be sup- ported as the candidate for the next Governor. I hope you and the other dem- ocrats of the county of Bradford, & perhaps Tioga if practicable, will attend to the business, and either elect at your court some democrats to act as delegates & send them down here, or if you can confide in us, authorize Mckean and my- self to perform that service; don't omit this."
Some old memoranda say that Thomas Overton and Michael R. Tharp were the real founders of this paper, these men, representing many Philadelphia landholders, and both at this time having acquired a very unenviable reputation from fraudulent dealings with settlers in Ulster and Smithfield.
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THE WASHINGTONIAN AND ITS EDITOR
But doubtless the Sheshequinites promoted it on purely political grounds, and since the two Welleses and Mckean were in office, there- fore they were made the butt of all the abuse of the "Peter's Patterns," as the paper was called, for people loyal to Washington resented the use of his name. The sheet was published for at least one year, some say two; but probably it was only in connection with the elections of 1816, and the campaign for Heister against Findlay, in 1817.5 While it was supposed to be a weekly paper, not many copies are now known, although several numbers are proven both by letters and by the Brad- ford Gazette, which paper was called by Franks the "Chronicle of Slightness." That there was a brave fight to prevent the publication of this or any Federalist paper is shown in the issue of November 4, 1816. In the first place several columns were devoted to "The sup- pression of the Mirror of the Times, a paper of which little is known to-day, except that it was suppressed in a most arbitrary manner, the whole printing outfit having been stolen in the night and carried first to Tioga Point and later to Newtown. C. F. Welles was said to be the aider and abettor, but nothing is now known of this high-handed robbery except what is found in the Washingtonian. In the same num- ber the editor accuses Burr Ridgway ( who was postmaster as well as editor) of having suppressed Franks' letter, known to be an order for paper from the mill, so that none arrived and no Washingtonian could be issued October 21st or 28th. The abuse of Welles and Mckean was open and constant ; and in a very short time a most useful weapon was found in the Welles-Matthewson controversy, which had seemed to be abandoned after the visits of the commissioners under the Bedford and Ulster Act.
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