Centennial history of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, Part 120

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

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institution, which they were not slow to appreciate. One great inconvenience had been swept away, and a new era seemed to dawn upon the rising settlement. The frame of this old mill has long survived its builder, and at present forms part of the residence of Charles Morse. David Summers died in April, 1816, at the age of fifty-five. His widow died in 1844, aged eighty-four. They had five sons,-Eli, Calvin, David, James and Ira. All were born before Mr. Summers came here. David died in 1831, and Eli, who had removed to Illinois, died in August, 1870, at the age of eighty-seven. Calvin, James and Ira remained at Summersville, where they became very prominent citizens in building up and advancing the interests of the township. The many enterprises they originated and successfully carried out will be spoken of in their proper place.

Hezekiah, Daniel and Samuel Leach were probably the next permanent settlers after David Summers. They located about 1799 at the foot of the Mott Hill, on the old road that had been cut through, one mile south of Robert Corbett's. Hezekiah Leach, after- wards known as Captain Leach, came from Litchfield County, Conn., on horseback, bringing with him his gun, together with other necessaries, and a huge bear- trap, weighing sixteen pounds. He took up some three hundred acres of land, and immediately com- menced clearing away the forest in true pioneer style. He married a daughter of Robert Corbett.

To furnish the necessary accommodations for travelers, nearly every other house along the New- burg turnpike was turned into a hotel. Even then none scarcely ever lacked for patronage. Mr. Leach was by trade a carpenter, and put up many of the early framed buildings in this locality. The timber for the frame work was hewn in the woods, and was usually very large and heavy. When put together in proper shape it formed structures of great strength and endurance. For his own use he erected a heavily- framed edifice, thirty by eighty feet in size, and two stories in height, with a great stone chimney and fire-place, and on the opposite side of the road cor- responding barns and sheds, one of which was a hundred feet in length. With such facilities for the accommodation of the traveling public, he soon be- came one of the most noted hotel-keepers on the road. George Leach, son of Hezekiah, who was born here in 1802, used to say "his earliest recollections were those of travelers, from year to year, filling the house from garret to bar-room ; and of a cellar stored with liquors and eatables in their season, while the long sheds were crowded with horses and vehicles. Customers were moving at all hours, coming in until midnight, while others, long before daylight, at the summons, 'Hurrah, boys! we must be off again,' were starting away. On a rainy day, or when work was slack, crowds of men and boys would gather to pitch quoits, or play various games of skill and strength. Balls, sleigh-rides and parties were fre-

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quent in winter. Whiskey was as common-and almost as much imbibed by most persons-as water. It was deemed an absolute necessity on many occa- sions where it is now disused. Liquors were then much purer than they now are, yet many a strong, good-hearted, useful man, through their seductive in- fluences, came 10 poverty, disease and death." The lively times of hilarity and fun experienced at the old Leach tavern are remembered and often spoken of by our oldest residents of the present day. Cap- tain Leach was also somewhat of a "Nimrod," as well as hotel-keeper and pioneer, and many were the hunting stories he used to tell while sitting in the chimney-corner during the long winter evenings, where his many guests congregated to chat and listen with interest and delight. While residing here he killed five hundred and forty-eight deers, sixty-one black bears, eleven wolves, one panther, and wild-cats, raccoons, etc., in great numbers. He also killed a light straw-colored bear near Hunt Lake, which was deemed a great curiosity. Its skin was purchased by a Judge Woodward, somewhere near Cooperstown. Mr. Leach had eight children, - George, Harry, Lucien, Lewis, Julius, Sally, Emily and Cornelia. His descendants are now scattered from Boston to California. He died on the 1st day of January, 1840, at the age of sixty-six. His property was pur- chased by Secku Meylert, and some years afterwards divided up and sold to Robert Gillespie and Nathan Fish. The old house, with its great timbers, has been cut in two parts, and much of it demolished; but a part of it still remains, and, having been removed a few rods, forms a large and convenient residence at the Meylert Corners. Hezekiah Leach, Sr., father of Captain Leach, was also here at an early day. He was an active patriot in the War of the Revolution. He died in 1823, at the age of eighty-three.

Daniel Hunt located for a short time near Hunt Lake, but he removed to more agreeable quarters, after making a slight beginning, and did not return. He also married a daughter of Robert Corbett.

Benjamin Doolittle came from Connecticut, and took up six hundred acres of land, in 1799; though he did not become a resident here until December, 1801. He located just west of the summit of the Peck Hill, where John Bisbee now resides, a little over a mile west of the borough line. He married Fanny, daughter of Ichabod Ward. Their children were Nelson, Albert, George, Harry, Benjamin and Lydia.

Mr. Doolittle remained some time, making very considerable improvements, and was an active and useful man in the community ; but as the country began to be more cleared up and thickly settled, he yearned again for the frontier, and finally emigrated westward, and settled in Ohio. In December, 1801, John Foot arrived with his wife and three children, from Vermont. He was the next settler west of Mr. Doolittle, and was by trade a shoemaker. His son,

Edwin Foot, many years afterwards became the first Daguerrean artist in Montrose.

Among the other settlers of 1801 were Josiah and Peter Davis, and Nathan Buel, who took up a piece of State land, on the present Franklin road, above Sum- mersville, lately known as the Tracy Hayden farm. Mr. Buel had two children-Arphaxed, who lived to an advanced age, near the spot where they had made their first settlement, and Polly, who became the wife of Mr. Leighton.

The next year, 1802, John Hawley, father of Deacon Hawley, added his name and energy to the New Milford settlement. He located a short distance east of Mr. Doolittle, on the place lately known as the "Ralph Vailes farm." His sons were John, Uriah and Newton. One of his daughters married Elias Carpenter, one of the Nine Partners, of Har- ford, and another married Belus Foot, son of their pioneer neighbor, and settled near by, where she resided all her days. In those days chopping fallow constituted the chief employment of the settlers during the winter, and logging, picking and burning brush, harrowing in grain among the roots and blackened stumps, and rolling up log and pole fences around the borders, constituted the principal work in the summer and fall. "Logging bees " were then in vogue, and were looked upon by many as a privilege instead of a duty. Word was passed around to ten or fifteen of the neighbors, and on the appointed day the sturdy backwoodsmen assembled with oxen and handspikes, and the work commenced, while their wives made fried cakes, and dressed a goose or wild turkey, and a supper fit for a king was prepared for the blackened toilers. Work among the ashes and charcoal always produced a sharp appetite, and the savory meal prepared by matronly hands was relished and highly appreciated. When the log heaps, num- bering one or two hundred, and covering several acres in extent, were burned in the night, as they often were, a grand spectacle was presented. The whole clearing was lit up to the pitch of noonday, while the tall trunks of the surrounding forest stood out in bold relief, presenting a picture well calculated to ever haunt the memory of the beholder.

Deacon Hawley, son of the early pioneer, settled on the Franklin road, near Mr. Buel, where he shortly afterwards built a distillery. Grain grew abundantly on the rich fallow grounds of the new settlements, and there being few facilities for conveying it to distant markets, it was sold very cheap. Rye was sometimes sold for twenty-five cents per bushel. Large quanti- ties were used at the distillery, where it was manu- factured into whiskey, to supply the numerous hotels. The small clearings were in those days well protected" from the cold winds by the surrounding forests, and peach trees grew readily and yielded well. There was a large peach orchard in a new clearing where George Corwin now lives, and another on the Montrose road where William Harding now lives, which was then

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owned by a man by the name of Mason. Hogsheads of peaches were delivered at Deacon Hawley's to be manufactured into peach brandy. For many years the work was carried on more or less extensively, and was the chief means of supporting Mr. Hawley's fam- ily; but eventually, becoming convinced of te evil it was producing, le abandoned the business. Deacon Hawley was many years a prominent member of the church and a valued citizen in the community. Min- isters occasionally came this way, and meetings were held in the different dwellings or primitive school- houses. Among the more noticeable of these early ministers were Rev. Burr Baldwin, Rev. Mr. Hill and Rev. Lyman Richardson. Deacon Hawley took a very active part in the religious exercises, and minis- ters met with a pleasant reception at his house. He was the first in this section to advocate the anti-sla- very cause, and his vote at the election was often the only one supporting that party. He died in 1866, at the age of eighty-four years. Merab, his wife, died in 1830, at the age of fifty-five years, and Phebe, his widow, in 1869, aged eighty-three years.

Prominent among the settlers of 1803 and 1804 were Cyrenius Storrs, Joseph Sweet and family, and Col- onel Job Tyler and family, who came here from Har- ford. They all located on the main road southeast from Captain Leach. Mr. Storrs took up a piece of heavy timber-land on the flat just west of the present Baptist Church, which, years afterwards, made a very desirable farm. He died in 1855. His son, Origen, is still living on Mott Hill, a short distance to the west- ward of the spot where his father settled. Few, if any, have lived in the township longer. Mr. Tyler settled just over the hill to the east, where he took up a large piece of land which made one of the smooth- est and best farms in this section of the country. Part of it was in later years owned by Oliver Lathrop, who was long known as a good scholar and a much-es- teemed citizen of this vicinity. Mr. Tyler was pos- sessed of considerable means for a settler of those times, which, together with mature judgment, made him eminently successful. He had three children,- Jared, who settled near him on the east, where he re- sided most of his lifetime, but who eventually moved to Harford, where he died ; Nancy, who became the wife of Francis Moxley and lived on the adjoining farm to the west; and another daughter, who became the wife of Brewster Guile, of Harford. Colonel Tyler died in 1857, at the age of seventy-seven years. Joseph Sweet located east of Mr. Storrs. In 1812 Thomas Sweet kept a licensed tavern on the place af- terwards known as the Seymour farm. Some time af- terwards he sold to Jonas B. Avery, and moved to Harford. Jonas B. Avery kept a well-regulated pub- lic-house for some time, while the old turnpike was thronged with travelers, and lived to see many of the early inconveniences of the border dwindle away be- fore the steady march of civilization. He died in 1836, at the age of seventy years. His wife died in

1835, aged sixty-three years. They had but one son, Franklin N., commonly known as Major Avery. He died in 1843, aged forty-seven years. His widow, Ro- sanna, survived her husband twenty-six years, dying in 1869, at the age of seventy-two years. Two brothers of another family of Averys, from Groton, Conn., also settled near here at an early day. Their names were Ebenezer and Park W. Avery. They married sisters, the daughters of Jonas B. Avery.

In the spring of 1804 Seth Mitchell, then a young man of nineteen, came from Roxbury, Litchfield County, Connecticut, with Mr. Doolittle, who had been to Connecticut on business. A ball was held in David Summers' mill during that year, in which twenty-five couples of young people from New Mil- ford, Great Bend and Lawsville took part. In later years this mill became the well-known Summers' hotel. Mr. Mitchell found employment with Mr. Doolittle during the first summer, and in the fall re- turned on foot to Connecticut. He came back in the spring of 1805, and purchased one hundred acres about three miles west of the borough, and at once set to work.

Josiah Crofut and Joseph Gregory came in from Connecticut that spring, and took up the present Henry Northrop place, adjoining the lands of Mr. Mitchell. Excepting these two families, Mr. Mit- chell's nearest neighbors south and west were six miles distant. Between his place and Montrose there was no road even cut out. Mr. Crofut rolled up a large log house, and Mr. Mitchell, being a single man, boarded with him-working two days in a week for his board, and two days more to get a yoke of oxen, to use the other two days for himself. In this way he chopped and cleared five acres during the summer, and on the approach of autumn sowed a fine piece of grain. Their first season in the heart of the great forest was a hard one. Provisions were scarce, and there were no stores nearer than Great Bend. Mr. Crofut's log house was extremely rude at first, and the ground in the large apartment was but half covered with floor. There were only five boards over- head at one end for a chamber-floor, and upon these Mr. Mitchell's straw-bed was placed. To this primi- tive perch he was obliged to climb by the log walls ; but he was no grumbler, and always made the best of the situation ; and the sighing of the tree-tops and pattering rain on the roof so close above his head, soothed him to sleep as well as though his weary brain had been pillowed on a downy couch in the midst of a magnificent palace. His brother, Nathan, came in the spring of 1806, and took up a lot adjoin- ing his on the west, now owned by Tracy Frink. They boarded with Mr. Gregory this summer, and when he was ready to set out for Roxbury again, in the fall, he had added eight acres more to his clear- ings, and sowed it to grain. Nathan built a house in his own clearing in 1807, and moved therein. He died in 1816, at the age of thirty-five.

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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

" Military drills, or ' Trainings,' as they were called, were common in the settlement here at this time, as well as many years afterwards ; and these events were looked upon hy the hoys and young men as the great holidays of the year. Ginger-hread was made and sold in large quantities, aud peddlers and venders came in from Binghamton to sell fancy articles and wares iu eudless variety. The Stars and Stripes floated gayly in the new clearings, and the music of the fife and drum sent back their stirring echoes from the surrounding woods. Social greet- ings were exchanged by old and young, and a day of general pleasure and festivity was indulged in. Mr. Mitchell, though only twenty-three years of age, was elected captaiu. An artillery company in Harford had a very nice hrass cannon which had seen service iu the old French War. They often used to unite with the New Milford compauy on gen- eral muster day, aud awake the slumbering echoes of the wooded hills with the deep-toned notes of the great gun. At one of these military parades some years later the window-glass iu Jouas Avery's house was shattered to fragments by the heavy firing of this cannon near it."

In 1815 Mr. Mitchell built a large frame house, which is still standing, and is at present owned by Ezra Beebe. By judicious economy and hard labor he finally acquired a handsome competency; adding to his farm from time to time as he obtained the means, until it eventually numbered four hundred and seventy acres. He cleared over three hundred acres of land, and built more than seven hundred rods of stone wall, built one log and six frame dwellings, nine barns, including two horse barns, besides numer- ous sheds and out-buildings. He was supervisor of the township fourteen years, justice of the peace ten years and was an active and consistent member of the Baptist Church about fifty years. Lemuel Mitchell owned the farm in later years, but sold it to A. B. Smith, who came from Baltimore in 1849. Ezra Beebe purchased the place in the fall of 1866, and Mr. Smith moved to the borough.

William Rockwell was probably the only settler who came here in 1805. Freeman Badger, of Cheshire, Conn., came to the New Milford settlement prior to 1804, but went back after staying a short time, and did not return as a permanent settler until 1806. He was an energetic and useful man in the community, and his death, which occurred in 1855, deprived the settement of an influential citizen. John O'Brien now occupies the place where Mr. Badger first located. Mr. Badger's father, David Badger, also died here, in 1835, at the age of eighty- six. His mother died in 1828, aged seventy-five. Mary, wife of Freeman Badger, survived her husband only five days. Their son, Frederick, was for many years a prominent man in the township.

In 1806 Asa Bradley came from Connecticut with William Ward, and took up two hundred acres of land where Henry H. Bradley now resides. He was at that time a single man, and boarded with Mr. Doolittle, on Peck Hill. His first clearing was made on the hill near the northwest corner of his lot, a mile or more from his boarding-place. The second summer he rolled up a little cabin in his clearing, and obtaining a small supply of provisions, he stayed here most of the time alone. The third season he cut and logged a large fallow, which he fenced and sowed, when he returned to Connecticut, as usual, to pass the winter. The next spring he came back with an

ox-team, bringing with him a wife. He had no shelter of his own fit to move into, and he gladly accepted the very kind hospitality of Deacon Hawley until he could roll up a log house for himself. Mr. Hawley, at this time, lived in a rude triangular apart- ment in one corner of his distillery.

In those days there was not much notice taken of township lines, and New Milford had not been set off as a separate corporation. John Hawley, Sr., was elccted one of the overseers of the poor of Lawsville in 1804, and Hezekiah Leach, a supervisor of Willing- borough. From 1801 to 1806 one justice's district included Lawsville, Nicholson and Willingborough. These remote townships of Luzerne were little known at the county-seat, which was at Wilkes-Barre, and the officers and inhabitants were often placed in wrong positions. Thus we find S. Hatch, who kept a hotel at Great Bend, spoken of as a taverner in Nicholson ; and Abel Kent, Wright Chamberlin and Hosea Tif- fany, taverners in Nicholson and Willingborough. This state of things was constantly causing more or less confusion and inconvenience, and in 1805 a pe- tition was circulated for a new township. In August, 1807, the Luzerne County Court established the township of New Milford with the following bound- aries :

" Beginning at the turnpike road, on the south line of Willing- borough ; thence west, along said line, to the east line of Lawsville ; thence south one mile aud a half; thence west to the extent of five miles from said turnpike ; thence south to the north line of Nicholson township ; thence east to Wayne County line; thence north along said county line to the southeast corner of Willingborough ; thence west along the south line of Willinghorough to the place of beginning."

By these boundaries its width from north to south was made the same as it is at present, but it extended east to the Wayne County line, and, in addition to its present territory, included all of what is now Jackson and Thomson, and part of Ararat. In 1815 the township of Jackson was organized from the eastern part of this territory, and New Milford was reduced to its present limits. Most of the settlers had come from Connecticut, and the name of New Milford is thought to have been given to the new township in honor of New Milford in that State.

Having been properly organized, the first township election was held at the house of John Hawley, on Peck Hill, March 18, 1808. John Hawley and John Slater were elected judges of election, Hezekiah Leach town clerk, and Thomas Sweet and Benjamin Doolittle supervisors and constables. At the second town-meeting, held on the 3d of March, 1809, Nathan Buel was elected clerk, and Benjamin Hayden and J. Gregory supervisors.

The spring of 1807 was rendered memorable in this section on account of the greatest single snow-fall of which we have any knowledge in Susquehanna County. On the night of April 1st snow fell four feet deep on the level. The stumps and fences were nearly all covered up, and for a time it was almost impossi- ble to travel about at all. The news of such an im-

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mense snow-fall in the new settlement probably had some influence to retard emigration here, as but few more settlers came during the next fonr or five years.

In 1810 the entire population of the township was one hundred and seventy-fonr. At the time the connty was officially organized, in 1812, two years after it had been set off from Lnzerne, New Milford contained sixty taxable inhabitants. Besides these, Robert Bonnd, Thomas Clymer, Abraham Du Bois, Henry Drinker, Samnel Meredith and Isaac Wharton were taxed as non-resident land-holders.

About this time John Phinney came from Wind- ham County, Conn., and located on the hill west of the village, near where Messrs. Doolittle, Hawley and Foot had their clearings, which were now becoming considerably extended. He was many years an active and influential citizen in the township. He died in 1867, aged eighty-five; Lucretia, his wife, in 1853, aged sixty-six. Philander Phinney, the present pro- prietor of the Eagle Hotel, in New Milford borough, is his son. John Phinney's father, Samnel Phinney, came into the settlement shortly after his son. His wife, whose maiden-name was Hyde, was one of those who escaped from the Wyoming Massacre in 1778.

Gurdon Darrow, another worthy settler, arrived here from Groton, Conn., May 6, 1812. He taught school a couple of winters, and, in 1814, responded to the draft and proceeded to the seat of war. He was stationed at Danville for a time, under the command of Captain Frederick Bailey. In 1815 he married Sally Moxley, and the next year moved to Harford, where he died in 1885, in his ninety-fourth year. He had a family of six children, fonr of whom are now living. His wife died in 1864, aged seventy-five. At the time of his death Mr. Darrow was the oldest man in Harford, the oldest member of the New Milford Baptist Church, and probably the oldest school- teacher in the county. In his yonng days Gordon Darrow was steward on board the revenne cutter " Active," running between New York and Sandy Hook ; and he remembered well of seeing the keel of the vessel that Captain Cook made his first voyage around the world in, then lying at Newport, R. I.

Deacon Robinson Lewis also came from Groton, Conn., in 1813. He was on his way to the Chemung Flats, when hestopped at the old Jonas Avery tavern, and, being acquainted with several of the settlers in this section, he finally resolved to settle here. He took np the place now owned by E. W. Watson, which he sold some time afterwards to William Ten- nant, and bonght an improvement made by Joshna Jnne, on the head-waters of the Meylert Creek. He died here in 1858, aged sixty-nine. Mr. Lewis was a very prominent member of the Baptist Church in its early days, and served as deacon many years. Abi- gail, his widow, died in 1879, in her eighty-fourth year. She was a faithful member of the Baptist Church for fifty years. Their children were John,

George, Oliver, Joseph, Robinson, Sylvester, Emeline and Julia. Joseph went to Wisconsin about 1848, and John went West a few years later, and became a doctor. George, Oliver, Robinson and Sylvester are still living in the township. Emeline became the wife of Hiram Williams, and lived many years on the old homestead. They are now living in Franklin. Julia became the wife of Josiah Williams, and died shortly afterwards.

The list of taxables for 1813 also recorded the names of John Belknap, John Dikeman, Titus Ives, William Phinney and Jacob Wellman. They were all prominent men of the township for many years. John Belknap located on the turnpike, just below Hezekiah Leach, where he built a saw-mill. Many years afterwards, when a very old man, and his mind somewhat weakened by age and infirmity, he wan- dered from home one night, in the month of October, and did not return.

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Centennial history of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, Part 120

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