Centennial history of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, Part 102

Author: Stocker, Rhamanthus Menville, 1848-
Publication date: 1887
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : R. T. Peck
Number of Pages: 1318

USA > Pennsylvania > Susquehanna County > Centennial history of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania > Part 102

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

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GREAT BEND.

southwest side of the river, were sons of David, a brother of Major Trowbridge. Commencing up Salt Lick Creek at the New Milford line, Eli Summers was the first settler. His sons were Calvin, who kept a hotel at Summersville ; David and James, farmers ; and Ira, a clothier. Mr. Summers also had a grist and saw-mill. Dexter Parmeter built a shanty and made a small clearing on the next farm, going down- stream towards Hallstead. Lemuel Smedley after- wards enlarged the clearing until he had about fifty acres cleared. He spent the remainder of his life on the farm, and in 1839 Amasa Trowbridge purchased it and made further improvements, and is the present owner. Lyman Trowbridge bought about four hun- dred acres adjoining and cleared land which has since been divided into three farms. Jacob Carson and John Humphrey own most of the old place. Jona- than Hawks commenced on the river flats adjoining. Eleazer Brown and Elijah Skinner were successive owners of this property. The Erie Railway runs di- rectly through the best part of the flats, and they be- came owners of this farm, and have sold it to H. N. Holt. Ebenezer Brown commenced on the next farm, where he died. His family of eight sons and one daughter are all dead.

Honorius Preston afterwards became owner in 1867. C. H. Warner is the present occupant. Jacob Clark kept a tavern on the next farm. His sons, John, Ja- cob and Moses, removed from the place. Sewell Cor- bett then owned the farm which is now owned by James Johnson. Josiah Stewart owned the next farm, including a saw-mill and grist-mill on Salt Lick Creek. John Strong, a carpenter by trade, af- terwards owned the property. John McKinney next purchased the property and run the mills ; he also started a carding and cloth-dressing works. His son, Comet Mckinney, now owns the property, but the grist-mill has ceased to grind, and the saw-mill does but little work. Henry Mckinney, another son, is a resident of Great Bend. Gerritt Johnson lived and died on the next farm. Luthier Mason, Seelye Trow- bridge and Paul Barriger have successively occupied the next farm. James Clark, the hatter, lived and died on the next farm. He had a large family. Jane, one of the daughters, is the wife of David Thomas, of Great Bend. Mr. Low purchased the property now owned by his son.

Deacon Daniel Lyon, a cabinet-maker and farmer, owned the next farm. He built the Baptist Church at Hallstead alone. His large family all moved clse- where. Truman Youngs subsequently owned the property. The Minna Dubois estate was next. Mr. Dubois was a large holder of real estate within the present limits of Hallstead Borough. Asaliel Avery owned a property afterwards owned by Col. Jeremiah Baker, who had a store in part of the house where Rev. James McCreary resides. This property was afterwards owned by the Dayton brothers. Follow- ing down the river were Simeon Wylie, Thomas

Bates, - Hall, Asa Adams and John L. Travis, who resided up by the State line. Samuel Blair resided across the Susquehanna from Travis, next to the State line. Joseph Thomas bought this property in 1814 and died in 1831, leaving a family of eleven children. David Thomas, one of the sons, bought out the heirs and resided there many years. Frederick Hen lived on the farm afterwards owned by John Gillespie. The Noble Trowbridge farm and hotel was next ; it is now owned by Richard Gillespie. The next place was the Sylvenus Hatch farm, then fol- lowed the Judge William Thomson farm, which ex- tended down to the bridge, and is within the borough of Great Bend. Lowery Green owned this farm when the railroad was built. Jonathan Dimon came to Great Bend in 1791 and purchased the next farm of Ozias Strong.

He had seen service in the Revolutionary army. His son, Charles Dimon, was justice of the peace for many years and postmaster at Great Bend. He had a controlling influence in the community, and being op- posed to vice and immorality in every shape, his influ- ence was exerted for the best interests of the place. He acquired sufficient legal knowledge to enable him to discharge the duties of his office with ability, and his decisions were respected. He died unmarried August 22, 1864, aged seventy-nine years. James and Jona- than Newman lived on the next two farms beyond Dimon's toward Harmony. Jonathan was here as early as 1795, and bought land lying up the river, above the ferry, of Minna Du Bois. Isaac Reckhow lived next above Newman's. His sons, Vincent and Adelbert, are cabinet-makers in Great Bend. Daniel Buck settled at Red Rock, so called because the figure of an Indian had been painted there on a rock, which could be plainly scen many years after the settlers came here. Almon Munson, who came in 1800, had a hotel on the next farm above, and William Taylor resided on the next farm. Dr. Skinner and his brother lived near the line. Jason Treadwell was raised up by the township line, where his father died. The family have all removed from the neighborhood. John Maynard was a pioneer blacksmith on the farm owned by W. D. Lusk. Isaac Snedaker lived up Trowbridge Creek near the State line. James Vance, Rufus and Jolin Fish lived on Snake Creek. John I. Way lived below Noble Trowbridge. Jason Wilson was a tailor by trade and had the hotel by the bridge and the post-office a number of years. Dr. Fobes, the first regular physician of the place, was here in 1791. About this time the settlers in Mt. Pleasant began to open a road from Mr. Stanton's house westward to Great Bend; it went about one-half mile south of the Great Bend and Cochecton turnpike, which afterwards took its place.

Before November, 1792, the settlement must have largely increased, as a road which had been laid out on petition of Lewis Maffet and others-William For- syth among the viewers-was opposed by a remon-

532

HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

strance sent to the court and signed by "Orasha " Strong and fifteen others. The first report made the road " begin at a stake about three rods above a place called the Three Apple Trees, and run northwesterly to the State line." The court granted a review of the road by different men, among whom Asaph Corbett, then in New Milford, and Asahel Gregory, in what is now Herrick, must have been disinterested parties. They made the road begin opposite James Parmeter's, at a stake in the north bank of the river. Messrs. Bennett, Parmeter, Strong, Leonard, Asa Adams and Isaac Hale (the last in what is now Oakland) viewed and laid out two other roads that season, the first " beginning at a hemlock stump, opposite Seth Put- nam's saw-mill, northerly (W. E. W.) to the south bank of the Susquehanna River, then northeast to the north bank of said river, then up said river, intersecting the road first laid out; " the other appears to liave con- nected these with the house of Benjamin Buck, one mile above Ozias Strong's. In 1793 the court ap- pointed Ichabod Buck, constable ; Horatio Strong and Jonathan Bennet, supervisors ; and Elisha Leonard and Ichabod Buck, overseers of the poor. From this time the town rapidly increased in prosperity and in- fluence.

Willingborough assessment for 1813 contained the following names :

Asa Adams.

Nathaniel Lewis.

Asa Adams, Jr.

Almon Munson.

Clarissa Avery,

Ashbel Munson.

William Abels.

Almon Munson, Sr.

Daniel Buck.

Luther Mason.

Samuel Blair.

John Maynard.

Ethan Buck.

Jonathan Newman,

Ichabod Buck.

James Newman.

William Buck.

Abner Newel.

Joseph Bens.

Jonathan B. Newman.

Ebenezer Brown.

Anna Newman.

Silas Buck.

James Parminter.

Jeremiah Baker.

Dexter Parminter.

Rachel Bates.

Moses Rowley.

David Buck.

Andrew Richards.

James Clark.

Josiah Stewart.

Samuel Chalker.

Thomas Smith.

Emery Cary.

Garet Snedaker.

David Crocker.

Eli Summers.

Jonathan Dimon.

Isaac Snidker.

Charles Dimon.

James Snidker.

Meany Du Bois.

David Snidker.

Abraham Du Bois.

Jacob Seiner.

Rufus Fish.

Israel Seiner.

John Fish.

William Thompson.

Moses Foster.

Lyman Trowbridge.

Dudley Holdridge.

Noble Trowbridge.

Sylvenus Hatch.

Abel Trowbridge.

Frederick Hen.

James Vance.

Jonathan Hawks.

Simeon Wylie.

William Johnson.

John I. Way.

Richard Lewis.

Edward White.

Daniel Lyon.

- Wilson.

SAMUEL LOOMIS was born in Broome County, N. Y., October 6, 1840, the son of C. F. and Betsey (Lyons) Loomis. The Loomis family are of the old New England stock. Three brothers, Englishmen, emigrated about the middle of the seventeenth cen- tury, and settled at Agawam, Massachusets. Thomas

Loomis, one of the brothers, moved to Hartford Coun- ty, Connecticut, where he died in 1689, leaving two sons and one daughter. One of his descendants, Ger- shom Loomis (1777-1851), was a native of that State, and in 1819, with his wife, Clarissa Stoughton (1783- 1854), and children, he moved west and located in Broome County, N. Y., where he was a farmer, and for twelve or fifteen years was justice of the peace in Sanford township. He subsequently died in Illi- nois. His son, Confucius F. Loomis (1809-85), was born in Connecticut also. He was a farmer and lumberman, and in 1855, coming to Susquehanna County, he established a steam saw-mill on the Wiley Creek, at the point since known as Steam Hollow. Here he carried on quite an extensive business, and gained a high reputation as an honorable, energetic and moral man. He possessed great physical strength and was an athlete. His wife, Betsey Lyons, born 1815, is a sister of David Lyons of Lanesboro'. Their children were Harriet T. (1836-58), was the wife of J. D. Fisk, of Lyndon, Illinois; Rebecca B., born 1838, married, first, Abraham Carpenter, and after his decease was united to Samuel Crouch, who was con- nected with the Erie Railroad over twenty years, and is now living, retired, at Chattanooga, Tennessee ; Samuel P. ; Julius F., born 1842, an extensive business man at Chattanooga ; and John S. Loomis, born 1846, a prominent railroad official in Kentucky. The early days of their son, Samuel P. Loomis, were spent on the home farm, in Broome County, N. Y., and his book- knowledge was obtained at the common schools and at the academy at Windsor, New York. During the six years his father operated the saw-mill in Great Bend township he aided him in the work and ac- quired habits of industry and self-reliance. The suc- ceeding four years found him in the train service on the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western and the Erie Railroads, and in 1864 he went South, and engaged in running an engine for the United States government between Nashville and Chattanooga, in which posi- tion he remained until the close of the war released him. Returning northward, he accepted employment as engineer on the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad, at Cincinnati, Ohio, and continued with that company until appointed master-mechanic and train-despatcher upon the Cincinnati, Richmond and Chicago Railroad. In this position he brought out several valuable mechanical improvements, which were adopted by the railroad and gave him a reputa- tion of no mean extent. He continued in this em- ploynient for some years, then resigned and came back to the home of his parents. Here he soon took a leading place in the township affairs and served as school director for six years, assessor two years and constable and collector for a like term. He carries on lumbering in winters, agricultural implement business in spring and fall, and the ice business (which he originated in this locality) in summer and winter, be- sides running his farm, which is adjacent to the Hall-

danil Joonis

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GREAT BEND.

stead borough limits. He is a stanch citizen, and commands general respect and esteem, as did his fa- ther before him. In 1881 he married Hattie E., the daughter of Harvey Holdridge, the miller of Oakland borough, and has two children,-Harvey C. and Fred. Lyons. He is an officer in Great Bend Lodge, No. 338, F. and A. M. Harvey Holdridge, born in 1828, in Schoharie County, New York, the son of Zebulon Holdridge (who died in 1882, aged eighty-four years) and Jerusha Durant, his wife, was for many years in- terested in building at Susquehanna, and erected a large number of stores and dwellings there, besides the school-house at Lanesboro', and that formerly at Susquehanna, also the Episcopal Church at Oakland. He married Fanny S. Hull, who was born in Vermont in 1833, and has two children-Hattie (Mr. Samuel Loomis) and Jessie F.

RED ROCK AND VICINITY. - Daniel Buck and family first located in the vicinity of Red Rock. Wright and Samuel Chamberlain came from Gibson, and engaged in lumbering and farming opposite Red Rock. The country back of them is a highland re- gion at the time they erected their mills, covered with pine-forests and known as Egypt. The timber has been removed to a great extent, but this mountain- ous region is still unpopulated. Being sterile, stony land, the home of the rattle-snake, it is almost worth- less for farming purposes ; but the lands along the Susquehanna River are productive, and the Chamber- lain and other farms across the river are cultivated with profit. D. Mckinney afterwards owned the Chamberlain mills, which are now owned and oper- ated by Charles De Haert. Stephen Keech resided just below the Chamberlains. The steep rock bluff at the river-bank is said to have presented an even sur- face years ago, on which the Indians had painted, in red colors, figures of Indians and animals ; but this surface has crumbled away, and the rock now presents a rough and uneven surface.

HICKORY GROVE OR TAYLORTOWN .- Almon Mun- son, in 1800, settled at this place. It was at his hotel that Jason Treadwell was arrested after having been identified by Joel Welton as the man he saw in the woods with a gun, of whom he was afraid. The whole neighborhood were assembled, and Welton selected Treadwell from the crowd. William Taylor came here in 1815, and erected saw-mills, and carried on lumbering and farming. He died in 1851. He was succeeded in the lumbering business by the Daytons, and ex-Sheriff McKune has the mill now. Samuel Wright bought the farm in 1867, and their son, Samuel S. Wright, has the farm, and is station agent on the Erie Railroad at Hickory Grove. Robert Colwell bought the Almon Munson farm of Jonathan Taylor in 1844. Almon Munson, Jr., and William Taylor were his neighbors at that time. About 1848 Nathan Skinner erected a store here, and has been succeeded in business by L. Tiel, Burton Fox, Daniel W. Van Antwerp, who sold to Charles D. Smith in

1879. Irwin Hawkins built the store that Charles Stockholm occupies.

Almon Munson's children were Ashbel, who moved to Lenox and died there ; Almon, who lived and died here (his sons are Chester, Levi, Thomas, Daniel and Edward and daughter Mercy Ann, wife of Elias Mc- Coy); Phila, of the old family, was the wife of Silas Buck ; Sheldon resided on the homestead for many years and finally removed to Michigan, where he died; Benajah removed to Wisconsin.

Hickory Grove is so named because the school- house is beautifully located (something unusual) on a little hillock that is covered with a growth of hickory- trees. Samuel Wright, who taught in the common schools of New York and Pennsylvania for forty- seven years, taught here seventeen years and really died in the harness; for he had a stroke of paralysis one night after he had taught school, from which he never recovered. He possessed great enthusiasm as a teacher, and was a very successful instructor.

Hickory Grove post-office was established Novem- ber 22, 1872, with James F. Blessing, first postmaster. His successors have been Albert O. Fox, 1875; Chas. N. Van Antwerp, 1876; John Lane, 1879; Chas. D. Smith, 1881; Edwin R. Waterman, 1886.

LOCUST HILL AND VICINITY .- Jonas Brush, formerly of Litchfield, Connecticut, settled one mile south of Great Bend, born in 1810, on the farm located by Henry Lord in 1797, subsequently owned by Asahel Avery. His oldest son, Jonas Brush, Jr., was the first settler on Locust Hill, in Great Bend town- ship, about 1812, where he spent his life and reared a large family of children. Mrs. Doctor Charles Fraser and Mrs. Charles Avery, of Montrose, were all of Henry Lord's family that remained in the county.

Isaac Stoddard and wife from Litchfield County, Connecticut, in 1816 came to Locust Hill. He died in 1853, aged eighty-two, and she died in 1856, aged eighty. Michael Downs now owns the Stoddard farm.

William Fox came to Locust Hill, from Litchfield County, in 1833, and bought the Ethel Stoddard im- provement, consisting of a log house, frame barn and about twenty-five acres cleared, of Carmalt. He made further improvements, and at his death was succeeded in the ownership by his son Orlo, the present occu- pant. Daniel Fox settled in Wayne County, and Ezra in Jackson township. Thomas Wilmot com- menced on the farm adjoining, afterwards owned by Thomas Dickson, and now owned by John Lane. Seth Hall first settled where Cicero Dickson lives, followed by Heman Stoddard. Myron Mayo came about 1820, and commenced where his son Charles now lives. Orrin Mayo commenced where D. A. Brown lives. Almon Munson, Jr., settled on the next place below, where Jolin Tiel now lives. William and Orlo Fox commenced where Andrew Keut lives. Calvin Brush, Enoch Hawkins and Washington Hawkins reside in East Hollow.

534

HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

The Methodists, in the vicinity of Locust Hill held meetings in their school-house for many years, and in 1875 erected a neat little church. It belongs to Randolph charge. Ethel Stoddard, John Lockwood and Captain Wilmot, in earlier days, and Calvin Brush, Alexander Brown and Stephen Bevins, have been prominent members.

CICERO B. DIXON .- Thomas Dixon (1800-61), a native of the lake country, N. Y., settled at Windsor, N. Y., about 1823, and for seventeen years thereafter was a partner with Jesse Lane, of Lanesboro', in the lumber business. The products of their mills were hauled to the Delaware and rafted to Philadelphia markets, Mr. Dixon's part of the business being to raft and market the lumber. He also for a few years carried on a distillery at Windsor. In 1840 he bought the present farm of John Lane, on Locust Hill, Great Bend township, where he continued farming and lumbering until 1849, when he exchanged his prop- erty for the present farm of his son Cicero B. Dixon, where he resided till death. He was an ardent student, and gathered together a library of much value, with which he was familiar. He was an earnest advocate of the abolition of slavery, and gave freely of his means for the purpose of freeing those in bondage. He was frequently dubbed "Daniel Webster " by his fellow-citizens for his recognized culture and superior ability as a debater and advocate of whatever princi- ples he thought right and just. His charity was pro- verbial, and his sound judgment and counsel invalu- able in the community in which he resided. In 1827 he married Matilda D. Sumner (1802-72), the daugh- ter of George Sumner and second cousin of the late Hon. Charles Sumner. She came to Windsor with her brother Charles after their father's death, about 1825. She used to relate that during the War of 1812 she saw the troops pass the family homestead, at Hill, N. H., on their way to battle. Thomas Dixon's mother was a Hotchkiss, of Broome County, whose cousin, Giles Hotchkiss, was a prominent law- yer and Congressman. The children of Thomas and Matilda Dixon were Ann E. (1830-42) ; Susan E., born in 1832, married George Fairchild, a farmer and lumberman of Broome County, and now resides at Susquehanna, Pa ; Mary H., Victoria and Rush, all died young ; Zemira (1841-74), was the wife of Alex- ander Brown, a farmer of Great Bend ; Smolensko (1843-45) ; Cicero Brush Dixon, born July 4, 1846, married, in 1868, A. Marilla Ford, a native of Ots- dawa, Otsego County, N. Y., born July 25, 1847, a daughter of John (1813-74) and Eliza Grace Smith (1815-51) Ford, whose family were from Herkimer County. John Ford was the son of Abijah and Sally Russell Ford, and both the Dixons and the Fords are of English descent. The Russells were among the early settlers in Broome County, and Sally's father, Captain Russell, served in the War of 1812. For many terms, before her marriage, Mrs. Dixon was a teacher in Broome County, and generally interested

in educational matters. The children of Cicero Dixon by his marriage to Miss Ford are Ross W born 1869; Llewellyn B. and Lucius W. (twins born 1872, died in infancy ; and John Ford, boi 1875. Both Mr. and Mrs. Dixon are members of th Methodist Episcopal Church at Great Bend, and h has been a member of the Great Bend Masoni Lodge since 1885. His early education was obtaine. at the district school and at Professor Rogers' Selec School, at Susquehanna. His main business has bee; farming, but since 1883 the firm of Dixon, Rose d Co. have been engaged in the manufacture of lumbe and railroad ties at the old Dayton Mill. Mr. Dixon is a Republican in political affiliations, has served siz years as school director, and is now serving his sec ond term as assessor of his township. He is a prac. tical and intelligent farmer and a prudent business man.

DUTCH SETTLEMENT .- Ezekiel Mayo came to Great Bend in 1832, and cleared up the farm and erected the stone house where his son Le Roy lives. Eliza, one of his daughters, is the wife of Albert Judd, a farmer in the vicinity. The Dutch settle- ment is up a little creek that rises in New York and falls into the Susquehanna near Great Bend. Isaac H. P. Roosa eame up this creek in 1828-29 and pur- chased two hundred acres of land of Judge Thomson and made the improvements on the place now occupied by his widow. His sons, David, Robert, Hiram and Herman, located near by. When Mr. Roosa came, in 1828, there were three other families in the neighborhood. Peter Wilsey lived on the farm now owned by Mrs. Monell. Silas Buck was on the opposite side of the creek, on the place now owned by Luke Smith. Mr. Buck afterwards removed to Great Bend borough and carried on the grocery business there. Lute, Sandy and Mrs. Eme- line Griggs, three of his ehildren, reside in the village. Jonas Smith lived where Charles Brant now resides. Olive, one of his daughters, became the wife of William McIntosh, a resident of the borough. Rufus Isbell began on the next farm north of Roosa's, where David Roosa afterwards died. James Carlisle took up the farm where Herman Roosa lives. Peter Calder lived on the last farm next the State line, now occupied by his son Cornelius. Henry Hendrix purchased about fifty acres of Isaae Roosa and made a commencement; Robert Roosa purchased this property, and by subsequent purchases made his present farm. William Reynolds lived up the creek next to the State line. Francis Gray and Isaac Reckhow built the saw-mill that is now the property of Herman Roosa, about 1852. Henry Gunn built his saw-mill in 1866-67. A man by the name of Rouse began where B. B. Tuthill lived. Clement Wilmot formerly lived on the farm now owned by Addison Brush. Ira Odell commenced on what is now part of the Henry Hendrickson estate. Heman Stoddard began on the next farm and sold it to his brother

Cicero B. Dijon

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GREAT BEND.

David, the present owner. Jonas Smith first took up the next farm ; John Gray lived there many years and Marcus Colwell is the present owner. Hiram Gifford came from Litchfield in 1849. His children are Eunice, wife of Henry Gunn Sheldon, of Massa- chusetts ; Orlando, who lived and died here; Harriet, wife of Henry Hendrickson; and Rachel, wife of Almiron Foote, reside adjoining the homestead near the State line ; and Frank Gifford resides at Riverside.

Daniel Buck, son of Eben Buck, an Englishman who lived in Connecticut, was born in 1730. He was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in his native State. In early life he was engaged in the old French and Indian War, in which he distinguished himself. He was a self-made man and a doctor as well as a minister. In 1786 he left the valley of the Mohawk, near Albany, where he had resided some years, brought his family with teams to Otsego Lake, crossed it and came down the river in canoes seventy miles to near where Windsor village now stands. Here he remained nearly two years and then moved down to Red Rock. Ichabod and Benjamin, two of his sons, were there married and had families. Icha- bod built a house just north of where the Erie Railroad passes through the tunnel; Benjamin located just south of this place, and their father located between them, on the line of the track over the tunnel. The high rocks on the river were painted red ; that gave the location the name of Red Rock, a name which it still retains. On the island adjacent the foundation of a house was found. There, for five years, he had to pound grain in a mortar to make bread. There John B. Buck, the narrator of these facts, was born in 1795, and is still living with his daughter, Mrs. Grimes, aged ninety-two years. There were nothing but paths through the woods at that time. Hundreds of Indians passed up and down the stream then. Daniel Buck removed to the Bend bridge and resided on the farm afterwards owned by Jonathan and Charles Dimon. He died in 1814, and is buried in the Episcopal burying-ground. Benjamin moved down the river and occupied the farm since known as the Newman place. Enoch Denton Buck came later and located at Taylortown. Of Daniel Buck's large family, Ichabod and Silas lived and died here. Ichabod Buck was a Christian to whom the pioneers of Great Bend were indebted for religious teaching, influence and example. He had five sons,-William, who died at Great Bend, whose daughter Eliza is the wife of T. D. Estabrook, of Great Bend, and whose son Noble T. is a resident of Hallstead. John B., of Ichabod's family, is probably the oldest citizen born in Susquehanna now living or that ever has lived up to this time (1887).

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Centennial history of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, Part 102

Author: Stocker, Rhamanthus Menville, 1848- Publication date: 1887 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : R. T. Peck Number of Pages: 1318

Author: Stocker, Rhamanthus Menville, 1848-
Publication date: 1887
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : R. T. Peck
Number of Pages: 1318