USA > Pennsylvania > Bradford County > Athens > A history of old Tioga Point and early Athens, Pennsylvania > Part 77
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These annals would not be complete without some mention of Henry C. Baird. He was born at Huntington, Conn., July 7, 1820, the youngest of eight children of Samuel Beard, a pioneer of Connecticut. Both of his grandfathers were Revolutionary soldiers. When he was a boy his parents moved to Chenango County, and also lived for a while at Tioga Point and Troy. He studied law with his brother and then with H. W. Patrick, and practised in Athens and the county courts for nearly fifty years. He won high rank as a lawyer, and was considered an ex- pert on land titles. He always declined to act if the suit involved manip- ulations to warp the cause of justice. He was so prominent in the affairs of Athens that an Elmira paper wondered "if there was more than one
3* Dan Elwell settled in Milltown about 1797 and resided there nearly fifty years, al- though his last days were spent in the home of a daughter at Van Etten. He married a daugh- ter of Dr. Prentice, one of three sisters; sterling women, who as Mrs. Elwell, Mrs. Satterlee and Mrs. Spalding, left their impress on the community; not only by their noble lives, but by their discipline and influence with their sons and daughters.
The Elwells had nine children; John, Nancy, Prentice, William, Evert, King, Edward, Phoebe and Julia, closely connected with the early days of Tioga Point. William or Judge Elwell was twice married and had several children, one son, Ephraim, still residing in To- wanda. Judge Elwell removed to Bloomsburg, Pa., after his first appointment, and continued in residence there until his death.
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HENRY C. BAIRD
person in Athens, for Squire Baird marries everybody, buries everybody, collects all the tolls on the canal, and handles all the mail." He was one of the most genial men ever known in the town, replete with history, and bub- bling over with wit. The little picture of the bright eyed young man is from a group photograph in the Tioga Point Museum. We greatly regret that he did not put on paper, as promised, his most interesting recollections. At his death he was the oldest practising at- torney in Bradford County, a position now held by an old Athens resident, Isaac N. Evans. (See note on page 574.)
George O. Welles, son of Ashbel; James H. Welles, son of Henry ; and Hugh Tyler, son of Francis, were admitted to the bar in the 40's, and practised at Athens. George O. Welles was also active in the town, erecting buildings, etc., and was a prominent member of the Pres- byterian Church. His home was on the plains, near Hayden's Cor- ner. He and his family were highly regarded by all residents of that time. About 1850 he left Athens and removed to West Virginia, where his son, George A. Welles (well remembered by the older boys), now resides. Hugh Tyler was a brilliant young man, who died be- fore his prime. N. M. Stevens, a temporary resi- dent, was a lawyer of this period.
There seems no more appropriate place to intro- duce Edward Herrick, Jr., who, though much younger in generation, was one of the lawyers of Athens. He is included in our portrait- ure as a tribute to his work in rescuing from destruc- tion so much that has proved most valuable to the history of the town. He was the son of Castle Hopkins
Edward Herrick.
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Herrick and Rachel Herrick; born at Athens, 1841; died at Washing- ton, D. C., February 21, 1890. He studied law at Albany, N. Y., also at Lockhaven under Richard Peale, and was admitted to the bar in 1866, practising in Bradford County courts until 1880. He then had an ap- pointment under the state and later under the National government. He was a natural antiquarian, and made considerable preparation to write a history of Old Tioga Point, which he abandoned on leaving the town. He married, in 1872, Miss Ella Jackman, and four sons survive them.
Early Physicians.
THE OLD DOCTOR'S SADDLEBAGS
To the pioneer the doctor was sometimes a necessity, even if he had to come from fifty miles away, for in this lovely valley the population were unusually afflicted with terrible scourges of fever of various sorts, doubtless all malarial, but designated as "the cold fever," "the She- shequin fever," "the Newtown fever," etc., showing that there was a distinction and a difference. It required fortitude and bravery to practice in the wilderness, where long journeys were made on horse- back, often in darkness, fording deep streams, the horse almost making its own path.
The illness that arrested the progress of Dr. Stephen Hop- kins+ and led him to settle at Tioga Point may well be called a bless- ing. He was just twenty-four years old, and had practised some years before coming here, having studied with Dr. Stephen White, later of Fort Stanwix. For fifty long years he pursued his practice in the
4 Mr. Charles C. Hopkins, the genealogist of the family, has furnished such facts as he has gleaned. It would be very natural to think this Stephen Hopkins was a descendant of Stephen Hopkins, who was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, but the American progenitor and line of descent is not known, further than that Dr. Stephen was the son of William of Roxbury, Morris Co., N. J., where Stephen was born, 3 Sept., 1766, one of a fam- ily of five children. The father, at an advanced age, served as artificer in the Revolutionary War, and later removed to Palmyra, where he had made a large purchase of lands; emigrating thither in 1791, where both he and his wife died a few days after their arrival, probably from the exposures of the journey. Dr. Hopkins m. Jemima Lindsley and had Minerva, m. Walter Her- rick; Celestia, m. Edward Herrick; Eliza, m. Dr. Thomas T. Huston; Charles L., m. Amanda, dau. of John Shepard; Phoebe, m. Rev. James Williamson. Their posterity is well known in the valley, though few remain to-day. Edward Herrick, great grandson, made some investi- gation, according to which Albert Holbrook, a distinguished genealogist of Rhode Island, thought William to be a son of Col. Wm. Hopkins, the elder brother of Gov. Stephen Hopkins.
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valley from Newtown to Sheshequin and in frequent consultation from Palmyra, N. Y., to Wyoming. His journal records him as present at 2500 births. For twenty-five years or more he was the only physician at the Point, although soon after his arrival Dr. Adonijah Warner came from Granby, Mass., and was his partner, but he soon removed to Wysox. Probably a more successful physician than Dr. Hopkins never practised in this region. He willingly traveled night and day on horseback over rough paths to minister to his patients. He used some heroic methods of his own ; for instance, his treatment of the prevalent fevers with hem- lock sweats and rye mush, a less debilitating process than more usual methods. This was universally successful, except with the peculiar "cold fever" already mentioned. While he had a fiery temper, it was usually well controlled ; and to his patients, young and old, he was not only a life saver, but a genial, loveable man. To-day he lies unknown and forgotten in the old burying ground. There is, however, one old lady of ninety-four who grows eloquent in her praises. Yet she knew his heroic treatment when a child, for after a prolonged illness, having little relief, he ordered her parents to take her down to the creek and give her a veritable cold plunge, which proved the needed tonic. Dr. Hop- kins was short and stout, with blue eyes and a ready smile and pleasant word for all. His hospitality was far-famed and unsurpassed ; he was in very truth a royal entertainer, for it was he who made welcome the three distinguished French princes in his private house, although in later years he kept a famous hotel. In those days he wore the ruffled shirt, wig, knee buckles, etc., to which in later years he laughingly alluded. It is difficult to picture him as a young man, for he has long been known to us as "old Dr. Hopkins," and we have been wont to think of him as in the lost and only portrait painted by Curran Herrick, with white hair and beard, and big white tie. W. F. Warner wrote: "Dr. Hopkins, with his flowing locks, white as snow, would have been selected by Pericles as a model to represent Galen, the originator of practical materia medica." That he became more careless of personal appearance may be assumed from the last recollection of him "standing on the abutment of the Chemung dam watching the rising river, his long loose house gown blow- ing around him in the wind." That his practice was lucrative is shown by his continued investments and erection of the most pretentious house in the village.
The esteem in which he was held is evinced by his election or ap- pointment to very many positions of trust in Tioga Point, being asso- ciated with the Presbyterian Church, the Academy, the Masonic Lodge, etc. He died without previous illness March 29, 1841 ; yet not without some premonition, for his last act was one in keeping with his life. He burned all accounts against patients, saying he knew many were too poor to pay, and he feared his heirs would attempt collection. His son Charles inherited the homestead and opened the street that bears the family name. In his youth that son Charles was a madcap boy, whose pranks are still town talk, and often found recorded in letters. There is to-day in our Museum the old doctor's desk, time-worn and honored, containing some few family relics.
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EARLY PHYSICIANS
Dr. Amos Prentice, son of Thomas, son of Thomas R. of England and the Massachusetts Bay Colony, came from New London to Mill- town in 1797, and had probably the first drug store in the valley. He practised until his death in 1805, and was succeeded at Milltown by Dr. Ozias Spring, the ancestor of the well-known family of that name, now practically extinct in the valley. Dr. Spring was called "a travelling drug store," who freely used the lancet. Dr. Thomas T. Huston was son of Dr. Thomas Huston, of the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, who have given so much moral character to Pennsylvania. He was born at Car- lisle, Pa., in 1793, graduated from Dickinson College in 1810, and from Philadelphia Medical College in 1813. In 1820 he came to Tioga Point, where he practised for four years, and married Eliza, daughter of Dr.
EIM COTTAGE, BUILT BY DR. PRENTICE
Hopkins, with whom doubtless he was associated. Yet it is likely that the old physician's jealousy of his practice drove the young man away, as he left in 1824, practising for several years in other parts of the state. However, he returned to Athens in 1832, and was in active practice until his death in 1865. "His reputation as a surgeon and physician gave him a good practice, but much of it was among the poor, whom he served as long as he could go." It was his custom to give a pound of tea to who- ever named a boy for him. He was as careless in collecting his fees as he was generous ; therefore he never amassed property. "Dr. Tom, as he was familiarly called, was long, loose and lank, a veritable Scot, with a kindly eye and a fund of ready Irish wit." In an old diary we found the following description : "The Doctor's Points-Very tall, buttermilk eyes, sandy hair and whiskers, good form, straight." He always wore a tall silk hat, and in later years carried a cane, which was more often swung than used as a support. W. F. Warner says :
"A notice of the reputable men of that generation would be incomplete with- out mention of Dr. Huston, the ubiquitous ! the multitudinous ! the perambulating news-gatherer and communicator! a worthy and excellent man who in a wider field of action, might have become as famous as his brother, Chief Justice Huston."
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Dr. Huston, at his second coming, purchased the house on the river bank in lower part of town, where he and his family long resided. He had four daughters and one son, Charles, well known later as lawyer, editor, etc., in Bradford and Lycoming. The father of "Dr. Tom" had an interesting Revolutionary career, told in State Archives. He never had any sort of a portrait. That he was ready to practise wherever found is evinced by the story attached to one of his instruments now in Tioga Point Museum, and here reproduced. Very near the close of the old doctor's life, Mr. George W. Walker came hastily to town seeking to have a refractory aching tooth extracted. Not finding "Dr. Tom" at home, he sought him on the street. They met near the old Exchange ; the doctor, without ado, bade his patient be seated on the hotel steps, and
DR. HUSTON'S TURNKEYS
applied the old-fashioned instrument of torture, the turnkeys. Having extracted the troublesome member, instead of collecting a fee, he pre- sented the patient with the turnkeys, saying, "Put those in your pocket, I never want to see them again."
April 25, 1825, a stranger on horseback drew up at the door of Sat- terlee's tavern. Being questioned, he gave his name as Dr. William Kiff, on his way to Virginia to practise his profession. Dr. Huston had just left town, and Dr. Hopkins was disliked by some few people. Here was a good opening for a young physician, and Mr. Satterlee urged the young man to stay, and so he did. Dr. Kiff was of Irish descent ; his parents came to America previous to the Revolution, in which his father took part. They settled in this vicinity, but were driven out by the Indians, and finally made a new home in Bloomsville, Delaware County, N. Y., where William was born May 22, 1790. He served through the war of 1812 under Captain Penfield. When mustered out at New York City he returned to his old home and studied medicine under Dr. Clark. At Tioga Point he very soon acquired an extensive practice and wore him- self out in hard country practice, riding hither and thither on his little horse Lightfoot, who could pick her way even across a ford in the night. He was an active and upright Mason, at his death one of the oldest mem- bers of the fraternity in the state, being ninety-six years old. July 9, 1829, he married Jane Walker and had four children, William d. young ; Horace, a well-known citizen, dec'd ; Frances (Mrs. Hancock), and Isa-
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EARLY PHYSICIANS
bel, d. 1854. His first house near the old Exchange was burned, the later one is still occupied by his daughter, to whose courtesy we are indebted for the excellent portrait of young Dr. Kiff here presented. His prac- tice extended over a longer period than that of Dr. Hopkins, whose enmity he incurred by intruding upon his circle of patients. Nevertheless, he was a suc- cessful practitioner, and was finally considered one of the ablest members of his profession. In all the long rides the early doc- tors carried their medicine, etc., in saddle-bags, the quaintest of which were Dr. Warner's, not easy to DR. WILLIAM KIFF photograph. Those shown, which were of the sort more generally used, were carried by a physi- cian of much later date.
In 1841 Dr. Fred S. Hoyt, a graduate of Berkshire, Mass., Med- ical College, opened an office in the Athens Exchange, and had for many years an extensive practice. After his death, in the sixties, his family moved away, and their history cannot be traced. Dr. Hoyt was a hand- some and attractive man, and a skilful physician, and made many warm friends.
The system of homeopathy was introduced into this vicinity by Dr. Leonard Pratt. Among his students was John L. Corbin, who had al- ready attended medical lectures at Hobart College. Dr. Corbin began practice at Factoryville in 1848, and settled in Athens in 1852, where he became a successful practitioner and spent his entire life. He was the son of Oliver Corbin and Lucy Hill, Connecticut settlers at Warren, where the doctor was born July 26, 1819. He married Mary, daughter of Julius Tozer Jr. His wife and two children are still town residents.
This sketch should have been prefaced by an account of the grave of what may have been the first physician of Tioga Point. It was acci- dentally discovered in 1897 on the river bank, back of the Museum-Lib- rary. With the skeleton evidently of a white man, buried in a box with buckles, buttons, coins, a dirk and peculiar clay pipes, were found sur- geon's knives of various sorts and much broken crockery, evidently surgeon's paraphernalia of a primitive time. Absolutely nothing is known about this, further than the find.
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OLD TIOGA POINT AND EARLY ATHENS
Doubtless the first practice of medicine at Tioga Point was in the hospital of Fort Sullivan, where there were very many sick, besides the wounded.
It seems hardly fair to omit from this chapter a notice of Dr. Ezra P. Allen ; for while he did not reside in Athens during the period of our history, he belonged to this locality, as he was born in Smithfield in 1821. He was the son of Ezra Allen of Halifax, Vt., who settled in Smithfield in 1819. Dr. Allen was sixth in descent from James and Anna Allen, original emigrants, who settled in Dedham, now Medfield, Mass., in 1639, and are supposed to have come from Scotland. He was a graduate of the Berkshire Medical College of Pittsfield, Mass., also attended lec- tures in other medical colleges. He had an extensive country practice in the vicinity of Smithfield previous to 1860. After the Civil War he set- tled permanently at Athens, although for eight years he occupied a pro- fessor's chair in the medical department of Hobart College, Geneva, N. Y., delivering each season about one hundred lectures. He was an adept and expert surgeon, well known and appreciated in medical circles throughout the state. January 18, 1844, he married Honnor H. Harris, of Coleraine, Mass., and they had eight children, several of whom still survive, though only one is now a resident of Athens. Both the doctor and his wife died in 1896. For many years he was the foremost physi- cian of the regular school in this vicinity. The old saddle bags pictured were carried by him in the early days of his country practice.
Rural Amity Lodge, No. 70.
The first Masonic service in this valley, of which we have any record, was the Masonic funeral sermon, "a discourse delivered in the Masonic form," at Tioga Point, August 18, 1779, on the death of Capt. Davis and Lieut. Jones, by Dr. Rogers.
It may be observed that Col. Proctor, commander of artillery under Gen. Sullivan, was an ardent Mason, and had been given a warrant to form and hold a traveling military Lodge, the first warrant of this kind granted to the American army.
There were some settlers at Tioga Point who had been made Masons before they came thither ; and diversified as their individual opinions were on public questions, as Masons they met each other as chosen brethren. About 1795 Arnold Colt, Secretary of Lodge No. 61, at Wilkes-Barré, came to Tioga Point to reside ; and with other Brethren soon petitioned the Grand Lodge for a warrant to hold a Lodge at Tioga Point, with Arnold Colt, Master ; Stephen Hopkins, Senior Warden, and Ira Stephens, Junior Warden. The warrant was issued July 6, 1796; it is on parchment and still preserved. For various reasons the first meeting was delayed until May 21, 1798, when it was held at the house of Mr. George Welles, now better known as Pike's Hotel, burned in 1875. Clement Paine, already a Mason, was made Secretary. Arnold Colt's residence was brief, and in 1799 Col. Joseph Kingsbery was elected Master and re-elected annually for sixteen years. The Lodge met alternately at Ulster and Tioga Point, and was likened to "a Palm
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RURAL AMITY LODGE
tree sprung up in a desert. Around the altar of that lodge the angry waters were stilled! The Yankee and the Pennamite sat down together for the first time, and ate and drank, and gave to each other the hand of brotherly love." The lodge was a place where our forefathers loved to meet ; many of the members came a day's journey to attend its meetings. A portion of David Paine's house was finally rented, and later, as seen, the upper room of Athens Academy. While for a season in later years they suffered from the general debasement and persecution, they re- vived, reorganized in 1847, and have ever since enjoyed unusual prosper- ity. Among the more prominent speakers of early days were Noah Murray, who delivered a discourse June 25, 1798 ; Clement Paine, Jo- seph Kingsbery, Moses Park and Samuel Satterlee,. already known to our readers. Many of the pioneers were devoted Masons for long periods, even to 50, 60 and 70 years. An excellent history of this lodge has been printed, prepared by Joseph M. Ely, Jr.
Early Newspapers.
Although Clement Paine was importuned to print a paper at Tioga Point prior to 1800, it not only was not done, but the town had no paper until 1841, when the Athens Scribe was started as an advocate of the New York and Pennsylvania Improvements. The editor was O. N. Worden, a Whig in politics, although the paper was originally sustained by both parties. The first issue was August 5, 1841, and the office was in Chester Stephen's old store building (next lot north of library). The Athenian, edited by Academy pupils, was printed on the Scribe press, and sometimes included in the paper. The best men of the valley assisted in editing the Scribe, and it had three hundred patrons. The paper was suspended in 1842, the improvement boom having sub- sided. It was immediately succeeded by the Democrat Laborer's Advo- cate, which gained the largest circulation of any paper in the county, Mr. Worden having as partner Jason K. Wright. The suspended work on the canal bankrupted the patrons and the paper in 1845. In 1852 Charles T. Huston, having the use of press and office, started the Athenian, published for a short time only. Mr. Huston was a brother- in-law of Mr. Worden, and has been a printer for a large part of his useful life. In 1855 M. M. Pomeroy, familiarly known as "Brick," published the Athens Gasette for about two years. He was a bright but eccentric man, and published a very newsy paper, of which but one copy has been found. But after a visit, in 1871, "Brick" wrote his venture up himself, as here appended.5 No other paper was published prior to
5 "Sixteen years ago Athens, or Tioga Point, as it was then more generally called, was a quiet place of six hundred people. Our editorial pin-feathers were sprouting ambitiously then. A friend told us there was a fine opening for a weekly paper at Athens. In those days we believed all we heard and took the advice of a friend.
"He was correct! It was a fine opening. In two years the bottom fell out, and we went through the 'fine opening' we had fallen into.
"The how of it was this: Nat. Harris was a merchant. J. E. Canfield was the active secretary of an insurance company. Shipman & Welles were owners of a big foundry, where much work was done. R. M. Welles was a maker and seller of agricultural implements. G. A. Perkins kept a store. Hen. Baird was a justice of the peace. Nate Edminster was constable, and John E. Snell was another. C. Comstock was a grocer. 'Squire' Patrick was a lawyer. W. S. Burdick was a jeweler, and Jim Wilson kept a saloon. Ike Evans was a lawyer, and
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OLD TIOGA POINT AND EARLY ATHENS
1866, doubtless because the many Towanda publications took the patron- age. A complete file of the Scribe and the Advocate was preserved by the editor, and presented to our Museum by the well-known Charles T. Huston, editor of the historical Gleaner of later date.
Some idea of the trials of very early printers, similar to Pomeroy's, may be gleaned from the following notice published in the Bradford Gazette of 1817, asking payment of arrears:
"Wheat, Rye, Oats, Buckwheat, flax, linen, cloth of a good quality, tallow and sugar will be received in payment if delivered at the Bradford Gazette office."
'Senator' Reeves was both justice of the peace and attorney. Chester Park and his go-a-head son Dana were merchants, and Herrick's drug store was another!
"All these people were to give us their business and take the paper. In the place was an old press and some type left there by somebody who had failed before us, without money enough to move the stuff away. The old material was cleaned up and put in motion. The Athens Gazette became a fixed fact. We had two hundred subscribers-all good at the end of the year!
"We printed pill-labels for Herrick-insurance cards for Canfield-warrants for Baird- letter-heads for Patrick-direction tags for Shipman & Welles-hand-bills for Nat Harris- 'oyster signs' for Jim Wilson-fanning mill directions for Raym. Welles-and-and took it all out in trade!
"The Athens Gazette died! It was a lively lingerer, but at last it sort of ceased to bubble, and one day with all our debts and twenty-one dollars in cash left over, we started for the west!
"The causes of this decease were many. We could not live on a business of seven hun- dred and eighty-four dollars a year. We could not find a place at the top of the column for every advertisement, nor could we stand penny-ante when Hen. Baird, 'Sen.' Reeves or John E. Snell would lay the things down and with a look of 'business' say, 'I raise you five cents!' So we quit Athens and decided to no more let others raise us, but to raise others."
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