Centennial history of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, Part 141

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 141

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At that time Northern Pennsylvania and the adja- cent parts of New York presented, with little ex- ception, the solitude of an immense wilderness. Be- tween Harmony and the month of Snake Creek about a dozen families had located but a year or two previ- ous. Another small settlement, styled "the Irish set- tlement," had been made at Hopbottom (now Brook- lyn), and another fifteen or twenty miles south, at Thornbottom, below the present county line. From neither of these could our adventurers expect an ade- quate supply of provisions, if they should continue through the summer.

Wilkes-Barre and a "French settlement" on the Susquchanna, below Towanda, were the nearest places on which they could depend; and to reach these, a wilderness of forty or fifty miles must be traversed, without beasts of burden and without even a path. These considerations determined their return to Attle- borough to secure their harvests. From the diary of Caleb Richardson, Jr., we learn that the following agreement was made in the spring of 1790, after the return of the purchasers to Massachusetts :-

"To run a centre line lengthwise, which should be one hundred and sixty rods from the exterior lines ; then beginning at the northeast end and going upon the centre line one hundred and fifty rods, would make two lots of one hundred and fifty acres each ; and to proceed until they should have sixteen lots- eight on each side of the centre line-the remainder at the southwest end to remain as public property to the company. Then, to apportion each man's share, it was agreed to make sixteen paper tickets to repre- sent and designate the sixteen lots, and to let each man draw for himself two lots, and upon going back in the fall and viewing the land, cach man to make his choice of the two he had drawn. Then, for ad- justing the remaining eight lots, it was agreed that he who, in the candid judgment of the company, had the poorest lot of the eight already chosen, should have his choice out of the remaining eight lots, and to proceed in this way until the whole should be dis- posed of." This was eventually done to general sat- isfaction. In the fall of the same year, nearly all returned, accompanied by several others. They brought with them an ox-team, tools, clothing, pro- visions, etc. Having labored awhile, they left again,

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late in the season. The spring of 1791 found most of them on their land, clearing and cultivating. In the fall they returned to Attleborough. About that time the settlement became extensively known by the name of "Nine Partners," from the fact that the original purchase was made by nine partners, though only eight returned to share the first division. On the 2d of February, 1792, Hosea Tiffany and wife, with their children, Hosea, Amos and Nancy, and Robert Follett, wife and daughter, Lucy, left Attle- borough with ox-teams and reached the settlement the first week in March. In this company were the first white women who visited this place. A consid- erable number of persons were on the ground, with- out families, during the season. Among these was Joseph Stearns, who occupied what was afterwards known as the John Tyler farm. He was from Tol- land County, Conn., and returned there in the fall for his family, and on the way back to Nine Partners he stopped at Mt. Pleasant, and remained there, but his sons Otis and Ira afterwards became residents of Harford and Gibson. Ira Stearns died in Harford December, 1870, in the eightieth year of his age.

The supply of provisions raised was insufficient for all; consequently the settlers resorted to the French settlement, Wilkes-Barre and Binghamton (then Chenango Point) to mill. The stump at the door, ex- cavated so as to form a mortar, was often the most convenient mill. The settlers here, as elsewhere, were often uncomfortably straitened in their necessary amount of food, but an abundance of deer and fish tided them over many hard places and proved to be manna in the wilderness to them. Caleb Richardson, in his account of the settlement, says, "That the middle of the centre line was not only the middle of the first purchase, but is now near the centre of Har- ford a short distance southwest from the graveyard. In coming upon their lands in the fall for the purpose of chopping, a number of others accompanied them from their native town, with a view of purchasing. Those of the first purchase came with a team attached to a wagon, which is said to have been the first wagon that ever passed over the road from Mt. Pleasant to Harford. While running the centre line they came to a quagmire, difficult to cross, and Follett called it a pulk, a name that it still retains, as well as the creek that issues from it. Several new beginnings were made that fall, and most of those that began then returned the next spring."

About this time the settlement became known as "Nine Partners," a name which was retained until Harford was incorporated. There was a great deal of travel between this place and Attleborough, and the place became extensively known by that name. “In the early settlement there was the greatest degree of cordiality and good understanding among the settlers; their interests and employment being similar, there was nothing to create discord; there was no great road near them and no newspaper circulating among them.

They knew bnt little of politics. They built their own cabins and in the fall of the year visited one another in the evenings with undissembled friend- ship." "To be sure, their tables, perhaps, were mostly flat stones, their provisions mostly roast potatoes, and no one could much exceed his neighbor in furniture; there was no round-about road nor fences to get over to go home; all that was necessary was a brand of fire and to notice marked trees."

Hosea Tiffany and John Tyler had the two central lots, where the village of Harford is now located principally upon the Tyler lot. 1 Hosea Tiffany was the oldest of the " Nine Partners." He came with his family in 1792. He was one of the county commis- sioners in Luzerne before the county was set off. He was also appointed justice of the peace in 1799, which commission expired when the new county was erected in 1812. His first log cabin stood on the ground now occupied by the Congregational Church, and his garden was the present grave-yard. He afterwards lived where C. S. Johnson now lives, and his son Amos kept a public-house there. An amusing story is told of him as justice of the pcace. He had mar- ried a couple who, becoming dissatisfied, came to him to be unmarried. He invited them ontside, and taking his ax and putting his foot on the log said, " Let the one that wants to be unmarried first, lay the head there." He married Nancy Wilmarth. Their children were Nancy, wife of Captain Asahel Sweet. Hosea Tiffany, Jr., was county commissioner two terms ; he married Polly Sweet, and lived on a farm below the village. His son, William C., succeeded him on the homestead and was justice of the peace two or three terms. His daughter, Mrs. Martha Carpenter, resides there now. Amos Tiffany lived with his father and commenced tavern-keeping as early as 1817. About the tinie the Philadelphia and Great Bend turnpike was built, he built the Gow House. His son Vernon, the only one of his children now living, resides in North Harford. Angeline, one of the daughters, was the wife of Otis Grenell. Joshua K. Adams married Peddy, the youngest daughter of Hosea Tiffany. He came to Harford in 1811, and was a cabinet-maker and undertaker. His first shop was near his father-in-law's. This burned down and he moved where Barnard now lives, which was a part of the Hosea Tiffany homestead. Here he erected another shop, and was the village cabinet-maker, making chairs, tables, etc. He had worked for Jacob Blake, an old settler here, who died without children, before erecting the latter shop. He had six daughters by his first wife. Polly, wife of David Hine and Sarah lived in the place. His second wife was Minerva,

1 There were a number of Tiffany brothers,-Captain John, who settled in Mount Pleasant, Wayne County ; Zachariah and Ezra settled in New York ; Noah, Hosea and Thomas in Susquehanna County. They were all Revolutionary soldiers. Their sister Patty married a man by the name of Wilmarth, who died, and she came with her children to Nine Partners. Caleb Richardson, Sr.'s, wife Esther was also a sister, and Dexter Stanley's mother was another sister.

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daughter of Ezra Follet. They had four sons,-Alva, Loris, J. B. and Edwin,-who were all in the late war. One of Alva's sons, Samuel K., lives in Salem, Wayne County.

EDWIN TINGLEY TIFFANY .- The New England homestead of this family was at Attleborough, Massa- eliusetts, where John Tiffany died in 1788, and his wife, Deliveranee Parmenter, died in 1798, at the age of eighty one years. One son, Thomas Tiffany (1756-1835), mar- ried Melatiah Tingley (1762-1835), a sister of Elkanah Tingley (1760-1838), the first settler of the Tingley family in Harford from Attleborough in 1795, and the

his death, (his son Judson sueeeeded him, and his grandson, Edson M., is a merehant at Hopbottom, whose sketeh is in this volume) ; Thomas resided north of the Nine Partners' settlement, the property being owned in 1887 by his grandson, George W. Tiff- any ; Pelatiah resided in Brooklyn and died at the Center ; Dalton resided adjoining the homestead in Harford ; Lewis resided adjoining his brother Thomas in Harford ; Millie became the wife of Calvin Corse, of Jackson ; Betsey, the wife of Nathaniel Norris, of the same township ; Preston resided on Meshoppen Creek in Dimoek; and Orvill lived and died in Nicholson

Ederim Tiffany .

daughter of Thomas and Martha Tingley. In the fall of 1794 this Thomas Tiffany, with his wife and ehil- dren,-Lorinda, Alfred (1781-1860), Thomas (1784- 1848). Pelatiah, Tingley (1788-1866), Dalton and Lewis,-eame from Attleborough and joined the Nine Partners' settlement. He had other children born here,-Betsey, Millie, Preston and Orvill. Theeldest, Lorinda, married Noah Potter, of Gibson; Alfred set- tled near Kingsley's Station, where he resided until

township, Wyoming County. Thomas Tiffany, Sr. upon settling in Harford, located on a lot in the south- west corner of the Nine Partners' settlement, which ineluded the Beaver Meadow, where Dalton Tiffany's sons now own. He spent the remainder of his life on that farm ; was commissioned a justice of the peace in 1799.

Both himself and his wife were laid to rest in the old cemetery at Harford village. His fourth son,

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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

Tingley Tiffany settled on a woodland tract of one hundred acres, one and one-half miles north of the Nine Partners' settlement, cleared most of it and made it his homestead. He went as asubstitute for an- other man to the War of 1812, and belonged to Col. Fred. Bailey's regiment. He belonged to the old Whig party, and was an Anti-Mason. He was a public-spir- ited man, took a deep interest in all matters pertaining to education and gave liberally to the support of the church and charities. He married, January 1, 1818, Achsah Carpenter (1798-1868), a daughter of Obadiah and Mercy (Tyler) Carpenter, who had settled in Har- ford in 1795, also from Attleborough. This Achsah Carpenter was a devoted wife and mother, a Christian woman and a member of the Congregational Church at Harford. Their children are Edwin Tingley, born June 17, 1821 ; Cynthia A., born in 1826, wife of E. Wells Butler, of Griggsville, Ill., and Achsah Me- lissa (1829-1880), died unmarried.

Edwin Tingley Tiffany spent his boyhood on the home farm, attended the home district school, and was further educated at Franklin Academy under the eminent educator, Rev. Lyman Richardson. For a dozen or more terms he was a teacher in Harford and adjoining townships, in which capacity he was known as a good disciplinarian, a thorough instructor and a careful student. He also has done a large amount of land surveying in the vicinity. In 1845 he married Margaret Hardenbrook, who was born in Montgomery, Orange County, N. Y., March 11, 1822. For eleven years following he farmed the homestead, teaching a part of the time during the winter seasons. In 1856 he began as a clerk in the store of Penuel Carpenter, where the residence of Dr. Blakslee is now located, and in the fall of 1860 bought out Mr. Carpenter, ran in debt for his goods and began mercantile business on his own account. He afterwards bought out Cy- rus S. Johnston, and removed his business across the street, where he continued trade until January, 1866, when he sold to Jones, Babcock & Tanner. The same year he built his present store, which he opened with goods the following 1st day of March, and success- fully conducted general merchandising until 1883, when he disposed of his business to his sons, who con- tinue in trade. Mr. Tiffany has been closely identified with the political and business history of the town- ship and village for many years, and one of the strong supports of the church, and of the educational inter- ests in the vicinity. Altogether he served twenty-one years as postmaster at Harford, being first commis- sioned by President Lincoln. He was displaced by Johnson and reinstated by President Grant, and served until displaced by Postmaster General Vilas. He voted for Henry Clay in 1844, was one of the fore- most in the organization of the Republican party in 1855-56 in Harford, and voted for General Fremont, and was a warm supporter of President Lincoln and his administration throughout the war. He has served his township as town clerk, treasurer and

school director, and was one of the early members of the Harford Agricultural Society, of which he has served as secretary, treasurer and one term as its president. In 1855 he united with the Congregation- al Church, which he has served as deacon for many years, and for fifteen years past he has superintended the Sunday-school connected therewith. His chil- dren are Henry Judd, 1847, married Maggie A. Gil- lespie ; Clara Melissa, 1849; and Amherst Lee Tiffany, born in 1851, married Ida M. Crandall and has one san, Ralph Douglass Tiffany, 1881.

John Tyler built a log house up in the lot on the farm now owned by Mrs. Jones. He came from Attleboro', Mass., where he was born in 1746. He was one of the first deacons in the Harford Church, and served in the same capacity after his removal to Ararat. He was an agent of Henry Drinker in the disposal of lands on the Tunkhannock and Lacka- wanna Rivers. His wife, Mercy (Thacher) Tyler, was known far and near by her untiring and unselfish efforts in behalf of the sick. She was a skillful prac- titioner in the specialties which she adopted. Deacon John Tyler died in Ararat in 1822, aged seventy-seven, and his wife died in January, 1835, aged eighty-three. Their sons were John, Job, Joab and Jabez. Their daughters were Mercy, Mary, Polly, Nannie and Achsah. John was a farmer and lived where widow Hotchkiss now lives. Of his three children, Clara was the wife of Win. M. Clark, of Syracuse, N. Y. (she is a talented lady and has traced the pedigree of a number of old families very carefully); John W. died at Cazenovia; Harriet A. was the wife of Rev. Willard Richardson. Job Tyler married Sallie Thacher and settled in New Milford. Joab Tyler married Nabby Seymour and retained the homestead, which embraced the ground now occupied by the village. He was elected a deacon in the church and eventually took his father's place in civil and religious affairs. He was public-spirited and contributed towards churches and schools and built miles of turnpike road. He died at Amherst 1869, in his eighty-fourth year. His sons-William S., Wellington and Edward S .- were educated at Amherst College.

WILLIAM S. TYLER was born at Harford Septem- ber 2, 1810. He graduated at Amherst College in 1830, and in 1831 became a classical teacher in Am- herst Academy. He afterward graduated at Andover Theological Seminary and was licensed to preach in 1836; but, being elected professor of the Latin and Greek languages and literature in Amherst College about that time, he was not ordained till twenty-two years later. He has published "The Germania and Agricola of Tacitus," "The Histories of Tacitus," "Prize Essay on Prayer for Colleges," " Plato's Apology and Crito," "Life of Dr. Henry Lobdell," "Theology of the Greek Poets," "History of Amherst College," "Demosthenes De Corona," "The Olyn- thiacs and Philippics of Demosthenes," besides con- tributions to papers. He is undoubtedly the ablest

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scholar that Susquehanna County has ever produced. Edward S., his brother, had charge of a school in New York for a number of years. Jabez Tyler, of the original family, lived on Mount Ararat, in Ararat township. He had two wives-Harriet Wadsworth, and Mary Kingsbury. Royal and Harrict were children by his first wife ; Williston K., who died in the army. Denison and Julius were the second. Mercy Tyler was the wife of Obadialı Carpenter, a farmer in Har- ford. Their children were Asa, Penuel, Amherst, Obadiah L. Mary Tyler was the wife of Cyril Car- penter, of Greenfield, Lackawanna County. Tyler Carpenter, one of their sons, lived and died in Har- ford. Polly, wife of John Carpenter, lived on the farm now occupied by Harry Van Buskirk. Nannie Tyler was the wife of Thomas Sweet ; Charlotte, their daughter, was the wife of Rev. Lyman Richardson. Achsah Tyler was the wife of Rev. Whiting Griswold. Their son Joab went South and Melissa became the wife of J. C. Gunn, of Honesdale, Pa. After Mr. Griswold died Achsah became the second wife of Jason Torrey ; Rev. David Torrey is their son. Ex- Governor C. C. Carpenter, of Iowa, was a grandson of John Carpenter, Sr., who married Polly Tyler.

Caleb Richardson, Sr., was one of the "Nine Part- ners." "He was a soldier in the French War of 1765 and had traversed the Mohawk Valley before any settlements were made upon it, and was with General Bradstreet at the taking of Frontenac. He was a captain in the War of the Revolution, had command and licld the fort where the Battery is now, in New York City, while General Washington re- treated." After the war he was justice of the peace in his native town. In the spring of 1790 he was one of the nine partners, but did not return to settle. His son came in 1806 and he came in 1808. He was a very capable business man. His wife, Esther, a sister of Hosea Tiffany, died in 1822, aged eighty-three, and he died the year following, aged eighty-three. They had lived together sixty years and are buried in the Harford burying ground.

Caleb Richardson, Jr., was with the " nine part- ners " when they entered into an agreement with Drinker's agent for the original purchase of land, and not being one of the purchasers, he witnessed the agreement on a hemlock-stump for a writing- desk. He was a justice of the peace and deacon in Attleboro'. He came to Harford in 1806, and took up land outside of the original purchase, about one mile from Harford, and made a clearing on what has since become classic grounds-the site of the old academy and preseut orphans' school. In 1810 he was elected deacon of the Harford Church, a position which he retained until his death, in 1838, aged sev- enty-six. In 1837 he wrote the "History of Nine Partners" for his grandson, C. J. Richardson. He had five sons,-1 Rev. Lyman Richardson, of Harford

Academy, whose children were Dr. Edward S., Rev. Willard, N. Maria, E. K., George L. and Lyman E. ; Deacon Lee Richardson, died in 1833 (he had five sons,-Dr. William L., of Montrose, Ebenezer, Ste- phen J., Wellington J. and C. Judson Richardson, of Chicago) ; Caleb Coy, was the third son ; Preston, was an alumnus of Hamilton College (his life-work was principally in connection with the academy) ; Dr. Braton Richardson, the fifth son, was a physician in Brooklyn, Pa.

Robert Follett, one of the " nine partners," lived where Burt Sherwood now lives. His sons were Robert, Jr., Walter and Lyman. Walter was a blacksmith, a trade which he learned of Freeman Peck. He worked at his trade in Harford, and was coroner in 1836 and sheriff in 1839. He moved to the Arunah Tiffany place, and finally went into a hotel. He died in Binghamton, N. Y., aged nearly eighty ; being free-hearted, he saved nothing. Lyman lived in Harford until 1850, when he moved to Lenox, near the southwest corner of Harford, where he lived with his son, Captain Albert C. Follett, and died there, aged seventy-three. His widow is living, aged eighty-six, and has been blind, so that she could not see to read for thirty years, and twelve years so that she cannot discern light; but she says " she is thank- ful and contentcd."

EZEKIEL TITUS (1769-1846) was one in a company of nine young men who left Attleboro', Mass., in the early spring of 1790, seeking a home in a new country, and purchased a tract of land in what is now Har- ford, four miles long and one mile wide, the following May. Titus, with the rest, returned to Massachusetts, and the same fall, 1790, came back equipped with tools to begin a settlement. He was married to Lois Richardson in 1786, who came to the new home with her childreu,-Leonard (1787-1870), Richardsou (1791-1875), Preston (1793-1862) and Sophia (1795), -in the fall of 1795. One child, Lydia (1798-1868), was born here three years after their arrival. In the division of this land, while these young men were in Massachusetts after their first visit, Ezekiel Titus drew a lot just north of the present location of the orphans' school, where he ercctcd his log house, which was ready to receive his family on their arrival. The mother did not live to see the settlement in a very advanced condition, but died in 1801. The sec- ond son, Richardson, lived to be nearly eighty-five, and died unmarried. Preston married Tryphena Whitney, resided in Harford and had four sons and four daughters,-Crawford, was killed at a 4th of July celebration at Montrose ; David, depot agent at Nicholson; Otis, resides at Elk Lake; and Edwin Titus, succeeded to his father's homestead ; Delila ; Clarissa ; Nancy ; and Lorancy. The eldest daugh- ter, Sophia, married Michael Scheiks, and resided in Ohio, and Lydia became the wife of Oramy Seeley, of Harford, and had children,-Merritt, a farmer and carpenter near Harford ; Emeline, widow of Freeman

1 See Harford Academy.

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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

Peck, resides at Scranton ; Olive, wife of Edwin Clinton, of Gibson ; Brayton, of Kansas ; and Charles Seelcy, of Syracuse. Ezekiel Titus' second wife, Betsey Jones, had no issue. By his third wife, Betsey Jeffers, a daughter of Nathaniel Jeffers, he had chil- dren,-Ezckiel Prosper, settled in Ohio; Albert, of Hopbottom ; and William Ira Titus (adopted as Car- penter), of Harford. His fourth wife was Clarissa, the widow of Jonas Halstead, of Benton, Pa., by whom he had no issue. Leonard, the eldest son of Ezekiel Titus, married Elizabeth Maxon (1787-1870), a daughter of Nathan and Nancy Maxon, who set-

Leonard Titus

tled in Harford from Rhode Island in 1800. She was a member of the Free-Will Baptist Church at Loomis Lake, a woman of great vigor and persevering indus- try, even in her old age, and at eighty-one spun thir- teen or fourteen pounds of wool during the summer, and knit five pairs of socks. In 1819 Ezekiel and Leonard erected the present residence on tlfe prop- erty, situate on the road leading from Harford to Kingsley's Station, which has been the home resi- dence of the family since. In this house Ezekiel Titus died, was buried at Harford, and Leonard spent the remainder of his life. Leonard was a quiet and unostentatious citizen, a man of good morals, honor- able in his dealings and exemplary in his habits. He never sought any office; was a Democrat in early life, but afterwards a Republican and a supporter of the Union cause during the war. Their children are Sylvenas (1812-78), resided and died in Lenox; Al-

zina (1815-52), was the wife of Griswold O. Loomis, of Lenox; Huldah (1817) ; Charles B. (1821); Sarah C. (1823) ; and Anna M. (1825). The last three re- side on the homestead, and contribute the engraving of their father to this work, all being unmarried.

THE THACHER FAMILY .- The name is undoubt- edly of French origin. Among the ancient parlia- mentary writs, as early as Henry VIII. and earlier, it is found spelled Le Thaccher and Le Thachère.

The correct spelling is followed in this sketch. The evidence on this point is abundant and conclu- sive. Good usage is on the same side. About seventy years ago "t" was interpolated by a portion of the family in Harford. A few in other localities, and at various times have done the samc. Ninety per cent. of the family in the United States adhere to the proper form.

There are Thatchers in New England, New Jersey and Canada who are not of the race. This makes the spelling important. The name Thacher is very com- mon in England.

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Centennial history of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, Part 141

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