Centennial history of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, Part 11

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 11

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).

The Milford and Owego road runs diagonally across Susquehanna County in a northwesterly direction from the point where it enters the county in Clifford, through Dundaff, Rynear- son's Corners in Lenox, Brooklyn, Montrose, Friendsville to Owego, passing out of the county through Apolacon township, near the forty-third mile-stone.

The road was not run to avoid hills. It seemed to have been the design of B. T. Case to pass it over every high hill anywhere along the route,

for it is located on a continuous succession of hills and valleys; but it has the merit of keep- ing its general course more nearly direct than most of the roads in Northern Pennsylvania.

In 1831 the following statement of affairs was made :

Cost of making the road $108,723.00

Stock paid by the State. 31,000.00

Stock paid by individual subscribers. 64,700.00

Debts due by the company. 7,150.00

No dividend declared the preceding year.

Tolls received for year 1830. $3,823.56

Expenditures 3,654.06

Balance in hands of treasurer $169.50

The following statement was made in 1839:

Total receipts from gates. $4,976.78

Balance from 1838 1,849.44

Total $6,826.22

Expenditures :

Paid on Brunson claim .. $209.31

Road and bridge repairs. 2,165.25

Dividends

683.50

Toll-gatherers, managers, secretary, treasurer and agents .. 1,012.46

Viewing committee

77,69

Incidental. 29.11

Total. $4,177.32

In Susquehanna Bank and treasurer's hands, 648.90

Unpaid dividends.

1,218.00

Balance.

1,430.90

Receipts for 1839. 4,976.78

Receipts for 1838

4,690.97

Increase. $285.81

The following persons were managers from 1808 :

1808, John Brodhead, John Brink, James Barton, Matthew Ridgeway, Dan Dimmick, Bartlett Hinds, Benjamin Carpenter, Asa Stanton, George Bowhan- nan, Francis A. Smith, John H. Schenk, Caleb Forbes, James Pumpelly ; 1809, George Biddis, James Rose, Robert H. Rose, Hosea Tiffany, Amos Harding ; 1810, Lewis Collins, George Rix, Joshua Miles, Jonathan West, Isaac Rynearson, Simeon Ainsley ; 1811, Abram J. Stryker, Ebenezer Coburn, Charles Gere, Putnam Catlin ; 1812, John Fobes; 1815, Isaac P. Foster ; 1816, Benjamin Case, Charles Fraser ; 1817, Frederick Bailey, Isaac Post, Stephen Wilson. From 1826 to 1833, R. H. Rose, I. Rynearson, Leman Turrell, F. Bailey, I. P. Foster, C. Fraser, I. Post, D. Post, C. Gere, B. T. Case, George Rix, P. Catlin and Jeremiah

LINES OF TRAVEL.

Gere were managers, and Isaac Post was secretary, at the pay of six dollars per year. The managers re- ceived two dollars per day.

March 20, 1830, an act supplementary to the act incorporating a company for making an artificial road by the nearest and best route through the counties of Wayne and Luzerne (now Susquehanna), beginning at Milford, thence through said town and counties to the forty- third mile-stone on the north line of the State, was passed, authorizing the Milford and Owego Turn- pike Co. to build a road, commencing at or near Dundaff, thence to Carbondale, thence to in- tersect the Milford and Owego turnpike at the most convenient point. This act was necessary to connect the road with the new and growing town of Carbondale. Anthracite coal, the de- velopment of which was destined to revolution- ize modes of travel in Northeastern Pennsylva- nia, was constantly growing in favor with the people as a fuel, and Carbondale was one of the first cities developed by the new industry. Consequently it became necessary to connect this town with this great eastern and western thoroughfare. The Milford and Owego and Newburg and Owego were the two highways that connected New York City with the Gene- see and Lake country, as it was then called, and still farther west, but the building of the Erie, and Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroads destroyed these roads. In 1851 they began to throw open their gates to the public, and in 1861 the charter of the Milford and Owego road was repealed.

BRIDGEWATER AND WILKES-BARRE TURN- PIKE .- An act was passed March 30, 1811, to incorporate a company for making a road from the northern boundary line of this State, at the most suitable place, near the twenty-eighth mile- stone, to the place where the seat of justice is established for the county of Susquehanna, thence by best and nearest route to borough of Wilkes-Barre. The road was begun in 1813. May 9, 1819, Ebenezer Bowman was president and Benjamin Perry was secretary. The board of managers present were Messrs. Dorrance, I. Post, B. Jenkins, E. Tuttle, Scott, Shoemaker, G. Miller, I. Slocum, E. Harding, Raynsford. They resolved to divide the whole road into two 4

sections,-the northern section to commence at the State line, and to extend to the east bank of the Susquehanna River, at or near the house of Isaac Slocum, in Tunkhannock Township, Lu- zerne County ; the southern section to com- mence on the west bank of the Susquehanna River, nearly opposite the house of Isaac Slo- cum, extending through the townships of Tunk- hannock, Exeter and Kingston to the borough of Wilkes-Barre. The commonwealth sub- scribed $15,000, of which $10,000 was appro- priated to the northern section and $5000 to the southern section. The Bridgewater and Wilkes-Barre turnpike entered the southern part of Susquehanna County, in Springville township, passing through Springville village, Dimock and Bridgewater, crossing the Milford and Owego turnpike at Montrose, thence through Silver Lake township to Chenango Point or Binghamton. Lord Butler was presi- dent in 1821. In 1819 Jabez Hyde, Jr., Samuel Warner and Bela Jones reported that fifteen miles of the road were completed. In 1824 William Jessup, Silvanus S. Mulford and Walker G. Woodhouse, commissioners on the part of the State, reported that the last section was completed. Benjamin Lathrop was ap- pointed manager on the part of the State for a number of years. About 1841 the gates were thrown open.

"In 1813 the Clifford and Wilkes-Barre turnpike was also begun, and cost $1200 per mile.

"In 1818 books were opened for subscription to stock in the New Milford and Montrose turnpike ; but it appears there never has been a turnpike between these two points, though more than twenty years later the subject was again engaging the attention of some of our most enterprising men."

PHILADELPHIA AND GREAT BEND TURN- PIKE .- "1 In 1818 the Legislature passed 'an act to authorize the Governor to incorporate the President, Managers and Company of the Phila- delphia and Great Bend Turnpike Road,' which should 'commence at or near the thirtieth mile- stone on the Easton and Wilkes-Barre turnpike

1 Blackman's, page 512.

6 6

HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

road, pass over the nearest and best grouud through Leggett's Gap, in Lackawannock Moun- tain, and terminate on the Cochectou and Great Bend turnpike road, at or near the tavern of Itliamer Mott, in the county of Susquehanna.' Work upon the road was begun in 1821. It followed the Nine Partners' Creek through Harford to Lenox post-office and Lenoxville, thence to the southern boundary of our county and below, as ordered by the act of Legislature. Messrs. Thomas Meredith, William Ward and Henry W. Drinker appear to have had charge of the contracts on this road-much of the business, at least, was in their hands. This great thoroughfare has ceased to be a toll-road, and the travel over it is limited almost entirely to local business; but, in its day, it served to open a most desirable communication with Phila- delphia, and contributed greatly to the advan- tage of the county."

The Belmont and Oghquagah Turnpike Com- pany was chartered February 26, 1817. The commissioners were Thomas Meredith, Ira Mumford, Jr., Sanford Clark, Joseph Tanner, Benj. King, Asa Stanton, Thomas Spangenberg and Walter Lyon. The road was built chiefly through the exertious of T. Meredith, Esq.

It was begun in 1821 and finished in 1825. The following turnpikes were incorporated as follows :

Abington and Waterford, January, 1823; Dundaff and Tunkhannock, April, 1828 ; Dun- daff and Honesdale, March, 1831 ; Lenox and Harmony, April, 1835 ; Lenox and Carbondale (past Clifford Corners), March, 1842, extended to South Gibson by act of March, 1847; Brooklyn and Lenox, March, 1848 ; Tunkhannock Creek Company, March, 1849.

MAIL AND STAGE ROUTES .- " 1 In 1798 a mail was run once in two weeks between Wilkes-Barre and Great Bend, and the following year a weekly route was opened between Wilkes-Barre and Owego. These routes were sustained chiefly, if not altogether, by private subscription, the subscribers paying as high as fifty cents per quarter to the mail carrier.

" In 1810 Conard Peter contracted with the

government to carry the mail once a week in stages, from Sunbury to Painted Post, by way of Wilkes-Barre and Athens. He sold his interest in the route from Sunbury to Wilkes-Barre to Miller Horton." It is probable that the letters to the first settlers in Susquehanna were addressed to Wilkes-Barre, and remained there until called for. The first mail carried through the wilds of Susquehanna County was

AN OLD-TIME STAGE COACH.

carried on horseback. The Scarle brothers worked with the Horton brothers-Miller, Jesse and Lewis Horton-at an early period. Deodat Smith was one of the pioneer mail-carriers. Isaac Post and, later, John Buckingham and other hotel-keepers, assisted in forwarding the mails, but John Searle had one of the longest rounds of those pioneer post-riders. When he was a mere boy, as early as 1816, and perhaps as early as 1812, he carried the mail once a fortnight from Wilkes-Barre to Pittston, Tioga Point or Athens ; thence across to Silver Lake, Great Bend (then Willingborough), Harmony, Deposit, Stockport, on the Delaware, in the northeastern part of the State, southward to Mount Pleasant, Bethany, on the road down the Lackawaxen through the swamp where Hones- dale now is to Lackawaxen ; thence to Milford. Here he turned his course westward, and fol- lowed the road taken by the Wyoming settlers from the Delaware River westward through the barrens of Pike County to Shohola, Salem, Cobb's Gap and Providence, thence back again to Wilkes-Barre. This lone youth rode through these wilderness paths or roads a distance of about three hundred and twenty miles in two weeks. He blew a horn as he passed a settler's house. "2 When papers came, the men would

1 " Annals of Luzerne," page 452.

2 P. G. Goodrich, in "History of Wayne County."

5., by AH Ruth

Danh Pearle

LINES OF TRAVEL.

gather and discuss the news. It took four months for the news about the battle of Water- loo to reach the Beech Woods." The early post-offices of this county were Montrose or Bridgewater, established in 1808, Isaac Post, postmaster ; Willingborough, 1808, Dr. Eleazer Parker, postmaster ; Silver Lake, 1810, R. H. Rose, postmaster; New Milford, 1811; Laws- ville, 1814; Spriugville, 1815. John Buck- ingham, of Montrose, W. R. McLaury, of Cherry Ridge, and Lewis Cornelius, of Milford, and other hotel-keepers run a two-horse stage for a few years prior to 1824. That year the stage business of Northeastern Pennsylvania was revolutionized. Stogden & Stokes were large contractors, and the Horton brothers appear to have been sub-contractors. They contracted to carry the mails in four-horse coaches from Baltimore to Owego, by way of Harrisburg, Sunbury, Wilkes-Barre and Montrose ; and from Philadelphia to Wilkes-Barre, via Easton ; also from New York City to Montrose, by way of Newark and Morristown, in New Jersey, and Milford, in Pennsylvania. In 1826 Daniel Searle came as agent of these contractors, and the following year moved his family here. In 1830, through the assistance of his friend, Judge Mallery, he obtained the contract to carry the mails from Jersey City to Owego. Samuel Dimmick, of Milford, had some con- neetion with it part of the time. It was one hundred and forty-nine miles from Jersey City to Montrose, and thirty miles from Montrose to Owego. The route was divided into sections of about fifteen miles each, and one four-horse coach would drive back and forth in one section each day. It required at least one hundred horses and twenty coaches, besides extra wagons, to run the stages. These coaches held ten passengers each comfortably, but were often crowded with fifteen persons. This route was one of three great thoroughfares to the West, the Newburg route and a route by a road farther north in New York being the other two routes of travel. Mr. Searle received twenty- two thousand dollars per year for carrying the mails, but it was not very profitable, as the Western mail would be so large that at times there would be nearly a two-horse load of mail

matter alone. Mr. Searle had more or less to do with carrying the mails for a great many years. Rasselas Searle was agent at Milford a number of years.

About 1840 Mr. Randall got the route, and Leonard run it till 1846. He afterwards run a stage from Montrose to Great Bend until it was discontinued, when the Delaware, Lacka- wanna and Western Railroad came through New Milford, and a line of stages was established from Montrose to that point. When the Erie road got as far as Middletown the route ceased to pass through New Jersey, but passed up to Port Jervis, thence to Middletown. After the turnpike to Carbondale was completed, the stage-route lay through that city, thence to Honesdale and Narrowsburg, all of which has been discontinued. Leonard Searle run the stage-line from Montrose to New Milford until he died ; then Azur Lathrop had charge of it for a number of years. He was succeeded by W. W. Williams, Williams & Son, W. E. Wil- liams (now Williams & Pope). Montrose is not a railroad centre, but is a stage route centre for the surrounding country. There are two stages to Alford and return, two to New Mil- ford and return, two to the Narrow Gauge Railroad depot and return ; one daily to Friendsville, via Forest Lake and St. Joseph, returning through Birchardsville; one to Rushville, via Fairdale and Rush ; one to Corbettsville, New York, cia Franklin Forks, Lawsville and Brookdale; one to Auburn Centre, via Elk Lake and Auburn Four Corners ; and another overland to Bingham- ton, via Richmond Hill, Sheldon, Silver Lake and Brackney.

We conclude our account of the early roads and mail-routes with a biographical sketch of Daniel Searle, the most prominent mail contrac- tor that ever lived in Susquehanna County. He also kept the Milford and Owego turnpike in repair a number of years. From 1832 to 1836 he received two thousand dollars for the first year, and twenty dollars per mile thereafter, to keep the road in as good repair as the Cochectou road was kept.

DANIEL SEARLE .- The Scarle family came to the Wyoming Valley from New England.

HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

Constant Searle (1728-78) was a native of Little Compton, Rhode Island, who fell at the battle of Wyoming, July 3, 1778. His wife, Hannah, (1731-1813), a daughter of Sinion and Hannah Miner, was a native of Stonington, Coun., and dicd at Pittston, Pa. Their children were Constant (1759-1806), born in Little Compton ; William (1751-1817), born in Stonington, and died at Pittston, Pa .; Roger (1762-1813), a native of Preston, Conn., died at Pittston ; Elizabeth (1757-1820), born in Stonington, died in Pittston (her husband was Capt. D. Hewitt, who fell at Wyoming, refusing to sur- render); Sarah, born in Stonington in 1768, married Jedediah Collins, and died in Ohio, where she removed from Pittston, in 1817; and Hannah, born in 1754. At the time of the memorable Wyoming massacre Constant Searle was quite an old man. Followed by his grandson, Miner Searle, he sent the boy back with his sil- ver sleeve buckles, brooch, etc. He was decply impressed that he would never return, which proved true. He was bald and wore a wig, which was among the trophies the Indians sported with after their victory. His son Roger, then a lad of sixteen, was also in the battle. He fled to the river, and there, with the afterward celebrated Anning Owen and his brother-in- law, Benj. Carpenter, they concealed themselves under some grape-vines until after dark. It was here, while thus concealed, that both Owell and young Searle became deeply convicted, and both afterwards became active, useful members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The sleeve buckles and brooch are still preserved by the decendants of Constant Searle. The children re- turned to Wyoming about 1780. Their farm, which they had before the war at Kingston, being occupied, all except Constant settled at Pittston, and he located at Providence, where he died. The Widow Hewitt subsequently married Ishmael Bennett, who owned a large tract of land below and adjoining the Lackawanna River, at its junc- tion with the Susquehanna, where the Bloomns- burg and Lehigh Valley Railroads intersect and have their depots. She reared a family of nine children, was one of the early Methodists of Pittston, a member of the first class formed in the place, of which her brother Roger was

leader, and at their house, the early Methodist preachers found a resting-place. Here Rev. Benj. Bidlack used to hold forth, and on one of these occasions, when he was through, Mr. Bennett stepped up to him and said, "Here, Bidlack, is a dollar I give you, not so much that you are a preacher, but because you are a good old soger." Dollars in those days were very acceptable to the weary itinerants, as well as a good meal of Aunt Lizzie's well-cooked chickens.

Roger Searle married Catherine (1767-1849), a daughter of John Scott, of Pittston. He owned and occupied the farm in Pittston where the Ravine Coal-Works now are, and there reared his family. Dying in middle life, the charge of the family devolved on his widow, whose saga- city, industry and prudence were equal to the task. She survived her husband thirty-six years, and continued to reside on the old homestead, where she hospitably entertained her numerous friends. She was a member of the Baptist Church from girlhood, to which she adhered until her death. Their children were John, married Mary, daughter of Henry Stark, of the Plains, where he resided. He was carrying the mail from Wilkes-Barre to Milford as early as 1815. Daniel (1797-1879), married, in 1825, Johannalı (1804-77), also a daughter of Henry Stark ; they lived together fifty-two years, and celebrated their golden wedding with their children and friends. Leonard married Lydia, a daughter of Elder Davis Dimock, of Montrose. Rasselas married Anna Cross, of Milford, who died, when he married Nettie Tompkins, of Binghamton, and is living at Montrose in 1887. Milton never married and remained on the homestead with his mother. Clarissa became the wife of Joseph Dayton, of Binghamton ; Betsey, wife of Solonion Brown, of Pittston ; and Mehetable, wife of Thomas Fell, of Pittston. Of them, three sons-Daniel, Leonard and Rasselas-made Montrose their home, and were early and successfully employed as mail contrac- tors and in the early staging business for a quarter of a century.

Daniel Searle, son of Roger and Catherine (Scott) Searle, was born on the old homestead at Pittston, and as early as the age of twenty-two he went to Tennessee, where, with Miller Hor-

LINES OF TRAVEL.

ton, he engaged in driving stage on the National Pike. He remained there for some six years, and used to relate in after-years many incidents connected with his experiences, among which those relating to some of his distinguished pas- sengers, like Henry Clay, Daniel Webster and the political magnates of their time, who were accustomed to journey by this route through the South on their errands of politics or business. Returning to Pittston, he purchased a farm (Wilson), on which he settled, at the head of the canal near the old forge, and about 1826, with his brother John, who lived on the Plains, began running a line of stages between Wilkes- Barre and Dundaff. In 1827, leaving the stage business with his brother John, he removed to Montrose and assumed the duties of general agent for Stogden & Stokes, of Baltimore, and Reasides & Co., who ran a line of stages from Jersey City to Owego. Upon the expiration of their contract, about 1830, Mr. Searle took the contract (being backed by Judge Mallory, of Philadelphia), and continued the management of this stage route until 1850, when he disposed of his interest to McCormick & Co., of Ithaca, N.Y. For many years, in connection with Jacob Peters, Philadelphia, Miller Horton, Wilkes- Barre, and Augustus Morgan, of Binghamton, he also ran a line of stages from Philadelphia to Utica, crossing the Jersey City and Owego line at Montrose. He had the contract for keeping in repair forty miles of the former, from Tunkhannock to Binghamton, and one hundred miles of the latter, from Milford to Owego. Associated with Hiram Mix, of Towanda, Ells- worth, of New York, and Thompson Peckins, of Bridgwater, he completed large contracts on the Croton Water-Works during their construc- tion, and in building the aqueduct across Har- lem River. He took contracts for many sec- tions of the North Branch Canal, and built the outlet lock at Nanticoke, below Wilkes-Barre. In partnership with Asa Packer and Thompson Peckins, he built a large part of the Lehigh navigation from Easton, on the Delaware, to White Haven, Luzerne County. During the same time he also carried on general mer- cantile business at Montrose for many years, and latterly at Carbondale in partnership with Martin

Curtis and his brothers Leonard and Rasselas, under the firm-name of Curtis & Searle; and a large lumber business in Lathrop township, this connty, where he owned one thousand acres of timber-land, until he was succeeded in this latter interest by his son, Roger S. Searle, in 1847. He retained his interest in his father's estate at Pittston and added thereto other real estate, which has proved to be valnable coal lands. A part of the property is leased in per- petuity to Grove Bros., of Danville, Pa., and a part to the Lehigh Valley Coal Company. He was one of the directors of the old Susquehanna County Bank upon its organization, in 1838, was early interested in agriculture and, with David Post, Isaac Post, Wm. Jessup, Henry Drinker, Judge Baker, George Walker and others, organized the Susquehanna Agricultural Society. Politically, he was an Old Line Whig, an admirer of Henry Clay, and a warm friend of Philander Stephens -- Congressman at one time from this county-and upon the birth of the Republican party, in 1855-56, he was among the strong men to support its principles and lead its cohorts to victory. He was twice the nominee of the Whig party for legislative honors, but failed of election, once only by sixty and again by two hundred, although the opposition had a majority of fifteen hundred. Mr. Searle was a generous man, and a liberal contributor to all interests of a worthy natnre demanding support. Formerly an Episcopalian, in his later years he became a Universalist. For fifteen years before his death he resided at West Pittston, where he owned a residence on River Street, and there he spent the last years of his life, dying at the age of eighty-two years. His life-work left its impress upon all with whom he labored and associated, and the fond recollections of his many virtnes will embalm his memory in the hearts of those who knew him best. In social life his genial nature ani- mated any circle in which he moved, and the infirmities of age never took the merry twinkle from his eye or changed his cheerful disposition. His children are Roger S , born in 1826, resides at the foot of Jones' Lake, in Bridgewater town- ship; Henry S., born in 1829, a merchant at Battle Creek, Mich .; Ellen (1831-67) was a

HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

teacher and prominent in sanitary and charitable work at Montrose for many years, and died at Pittston ; Johannah, born in 1834, widow of Charles D. Lathrop ; Daniel W., born in 1836, a lawyer at Montrose; Dotha (1838-44) ; Mary Jane, born in 1841, wife of Judge J. B. McCollum, of Montrose; Hetty D. (1845-47); and Clara Maria, born in 1852, a resident of Brooklyn, N. Y.

LEONARD SEARLE was born in Pittston, Luzerne County, Pa., November 7, 1807. His father, Roger Searle, died while he was young, and his mother, while visiting her sister at Chenango Point (now Binghamton) often carried him in her arnis as she went on horseback by a forest road that run through Montrose. On one of these occasions she stopped at the old Post Hotel, which he owned years afterwards. The Searles were early engaged in carrying the mails on horseback, as post-boys and afterwards as proprietors. Leonard was post- boy on the route that ran from Montrose to Silver Lake, thence by forest paths through old Lawsville to Great Bend. At fifteen years of age he became the regular post-boy, making weekly trips, and sometimes in the forests between Dr. Rose's and Great Bend he found himself in close proximity to howling wolves. This work had a tendency to develop his character and fit him for staging on a larger plan in after-years.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Centennial history of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, Part 11

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