Centennial history of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, Part 143

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 143

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Himfranco

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HARFORD.

ford Academy under the eminent teacher, Rev. Ly- man Richardson, and for several terms was a success- ful teacher in the home district schools. In 1854 he married Marietta I. Blandin, who was born in Hones- dale, August 24, 1831, a woman devoted to her family and to the church and charitable works, and who was for one year. 1850, a teacher of music in the Harford Academy. For ten years following his marriage Mr. Jones farmed the homestead and then sold it to David Van Buskirk, and in the fall of 1865 bought the preseut property in the village limits of Harford, formerly owned by Deacon Joab Tyler, a farm of one hundred and thirty acres. The following spring he purchased the store property, adjoining the village home, of E. T. Tiffany, and managed both his farm and general merchandise store until his death, Sep- tember 9, 1879. Henry M. Jones was a public-spir- ited man, and contributed much to the improvements of the village and township. He was a friend to the poor, upon whom they often relied for counsel, was often chosen executor and administrator, and was a citizen highly esteemed by all who knew him or had dealings with him. His quick perception, good judgment and ju- dicious management of business gained him a compe- tence; yet, while he himself was prospered, he also desired the success of others, and he liberally contrib- uted to worthy objects and to the church (Congrega- tional) of which he was an attendant and officer, and his wife a member. He was always deeply interested in educational matters, and a man adhering to the principles of temperance. For one year he served as president of the Harford Agricultural Society. He was sought by his fellow-townsmen for positions of trust, and he served as justice of the peace for several years, and filled nearly all the offices of the township. He was elected on the Republican ticket, and creditably served the people in the State Legisla- ture for the years 1873 and 1874, during which time his vote was always cast for measures tending to pro- mote the welfare of the people and elevate the condi- tion of the laboring class. His genial ways, social disposition, frank and open manner, and his honest purpose and pure motives in life's work were marked characteristics, and his death left a vacant place among the citizens of Harford not easily filled. His children are Mary C., William Henry and Sarah A., died young. The surviving children are Daniel Austin, 1864, and Edward E. Jones, born in 1867. A sketch of his only surviving sister, Sarah Jones, born in 1828, may be found in the chapter on authors.

Austin Jones, a native of Andover, Tolland County, Conn., came to Harford about 1812. About 1825 he settled on East Hill, built the present residence in 1832, and there spent the remainder of his life. He was a reliable and trustworthy citizen, no seeker after political place, unostentatious in his ways, a man of sterling worth in the community, and an influential and working member of tlic Congregational Church at Harford. He was the eldest of seven sons, one of

whom, Dr. Jones, was a prominent citizen of Ala- bama. Polly T. Carpenter was one of the early zeal- ous Christian women of the church, full of missionary spirit, a woman of decided views, and possessed a superior intellect. She was born in Harford, and was the daughter of John Carpenter, Sr. (1766-1838), one of the Nine Partners in Harford from Attleborough, in the spring of 1790, who was the son of Daniel (1744-1803) and Elizabeth Tyler (1748-1821) Carpen- ter. Her mother, Polly Tyler (1772-1811), was the daughter of John Tyler, who was born in Attle- borough in 1746, and settled in Harford in 1794. Mrs. Henry M. Jones was the daugliter of Daniel (1806-70) and Mary A. Davison (1807-86) Blandin, who were among the first settlers of Honesdale, Wayne County. The former was a native of Attle- borough, and came with his parents, Spencer and Nancy (Carpenter) Blandin, to Bethany, Pa., in 1816. This Nancy Carpenter was a sister of Joliu Carpenter, Sr., and was born in 1786. Spencer Blandin was a soldier in the War of 1812; Daniel Blandin was agent for the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company at Honesdale for twenty-two years, and himself and wife members of the Presbyterian Church there. His wife, Mary A. Davison, was also a native of Attleborough, and her parents were natives of Nova Scotia. Their other children are Emmons T. (1833-58), a surveyor ; Albert C. (1835-70), a teacher of the freedmen after the war, died in Charleston, S. C .; Henry W., 1838, re- sides on the homestead in Honesdale; George D., 1842, also on the homestead.

MANUFACTURING .- About the first manufacturing that was done here, as elsewhere, was that of good old rye whiskey. Almost invariably in these old Yankee settlements in Wayne, Susquehanna and Luzerne the distillery was set up by some good elder and deacon, contemporaneously with the first church and school- house in the place, and Harford is no exception to the general rule; hence we find that Joab Tyler, John Seymour and Saxa Seymour had a distillery near the centre of the village, about where Thacher's store now stands. Samuel Guile also had a distillery about two miles out of the village, where Van Buskirk now lives ; but when the temperance reformation awaken- ed the moral sense of the people on this subject, the distilleries were abandoned. The first grist-mill was built by Mr. Halstead, in 1796, in the southern part of the settlement, on the site of the Harding mill. Tyler, Seymour and Carpenter built a grist-mill on the outlet of Tyler and Tingley Lakes, and sold it to Freeman Peck, who moved the old mill and built the present grist-mill, which he sold after a few years to S. B. Guile and Chas. H. Miller. The latter soon pur- chased Guile's interest. The mill is now owned by John Smith. Rufus Kingsley built a fulling-mill on Martin's Creek in 1810, and the same year Elkanah Tingley built a carding-machine where Dauiel Oakley subsequently had a mill. Penuel Carpenter, Harvey Sibley aud Dexter Sibley married sisters. They ercet-

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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

ed a woolen factory in partnership, and carried on manufacturing a short time. Messrs. Tiffany, Follett and Elias Carpenter erected a saw-mill in 1800, about one hundred rods southeasterly from the grave-yard. The Harding mill and the mill down by Leslie's were the principal saw-mills in early days. Amos Sweet erected a blacksmith-shop in 1795; Frecman Peck worked at blacksmithing many years. Gaius Moss built an upper-leather tannery about 1820. He had about ten vats, and carried on tanning and currying. In 1839 Lysander and Silas B. Guile bought him out. Shortly afterwards Silas bought his brother's interest,

sold to Wm. E. Reynolds. Wesley Osterhout also carries on carriage-making.

SILAS BREWSTER GUILE .- Samuel Guile, Jr .- or Guild-(1781-1847), a native of Columbia, Tolland County, Conn., was the sixth generation from John Guild, who came from Scotland in 1630, and first settled at Watertown, Mass., and afterwards, in 1636, colonized, with others, at Dedham. He married Hannah Coleman (1783-1871), a native of Coventry, Conn., and for several years thereafter resided on the homestead at Columbia, where he carried on cloth-dressing. In 1810 he removed to Cov-

J. B Guila

and continued the business until 1863, when he turned it over to his son, W. B. Guile, who has since built larger, and has a tannery with forty-five vats, that consumes about eight hundred cords of bark per year. Messrs. Eaton & Co. manufactured scales here a num- ber of years ago. Dr. Wm. R. Blakeslee has recently erected a steam saw-mill with a capacity of about eight or ten thousand feet of boards per day. He employs about five men. Taken with its steam- whistle, it is the liveliest industry in the village. Joseph T. Whiting started wagon-making, and John Sophia learned his trade of him. Sophia succeeded Whitney, and carried on the business for a time and I

entry, where he continued his business as a cloth- dresser. During the War of 1812 he was drafted, but had only gone as far as New London, when the war being ended, the troops were dismissed. In 1820 (spring), with his wife and six children, he removed to Harford, traveling the distance with two one- horse wagons. He bought a farm of Austin Jones on East Hill, the property of Franklin Hines in 1887, then largely cleared, and about 1845 sold this farm to his sons-in-law, and removed to Harford village, where both himself and wife lived until their deaths. They were members of the Congregational Church at Harford. They had children,-Sarah, born

Millbom Oakley

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HARFORD.

in 1803, widow of Amasa Chase, of Great Bend. Rockwell (1805-55) died at Downer's Grove, Ill .; Lois (1807-56) was the wife of Simeon Tucker, of Harford; Silas Brewster, born in Columbia town- ship, Conn., June 1, 1809, died in Harford March 16, 1887; Alvira (1811-79) was the wife of Abel Read, Jr., of New Milford; Lysander (1813-64, died in Salem, Wayne County; Harlan (1815-36) died at home; Temperance, 1817, the widow of Col. John Blanding, resides in Binghamton ; Hannah, 1821, wife of Obed G. Coughlin, Harford; Susanna, 1823, widow of the late Stephen W. Breed, of Brook) lyn, resides at Asbury Park with her son, an Episco- palian clergyman ; Catherine (1826-81) was the wife of Dr. George M. Gamble, who practiced for a time in Harford. Of these children, Silas B. for many years a farmer and tanner, resided in Harford village. He narrated just before his death that in boyhood he went to New Milford on foot to buy the leather for a pair of shoes, whichi, after being cut out, were made at home, and of walking the entire dis- tance to Montrose, the nearest place that he could buy a wool hat, and that he had to walk to Harford village, a distance of two and one-half miles, when a boy, to school. In 1831, just after attaining his majority, he married Catherine Chase (1810-48), a daughter of Elder Daniel and Catherine (Filbrook) Chase, of Windsor, N. Y. Elder Chase was a Free- Will Baptist preacher throughout this part of the State, and after his second marriage settled in Wayne County, where he died. Two sons, Amasa and David, were tanners at Great Bend, the former herein men- tioned. Catherine Chase was a member of the Free- Will Baptist Church from girlhood, and a devoted wife and mother. The children by this union are Melissa J., born 1831, widow of Dr. J. N. Wilson, of Hollisterville, Wayne Co .; Sarah Catherine (1834- 79) was the wife of Charles H. Miller, of Harford, and Winslow Boynton Guile, a tanner at Harford. Mr. Guile, like most of the young men of a half-cen- tury ago, had to depend upon his own resources for his start in life, and upon becoming of age he had only a pair of steers. After his marriage for four years he rented his father's farm, and for three years fol- lowing another farm. In 1838 he bought a sixty- five acre farm near the village, but soon sold it, and in 1839 purchased, witli his brother Lysander, the Gaius Moss tannery in Harford, and began business. After two years he bought his brother's interest, and suc- cessfully carried it on alone until 1863, when he bought the Waldron farm, resided on it eight years, and returned to his small farm of a few acres in the village. He was succeeded in the tannery by his son, who, after running it for a few years in partner- ship with Abram Eaton, built one on a larger scale in Harford. Mr. Guile was one of the charter members of the Harford Agricultural Society, and has been officially and as a member identified with it since. He served his township as supervisor, poormaster

and school director for several years, and in all his public trusts, his fidelity to principle and honcsty of purpose were exemplified and characteristic of his whole life work, He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church for many years, and a contributor to the worthy objects in the vicinity demanding sup- port. For his second wife he married, in 1850, Polly W. Tyler, who was born in New Milford November 20, 1820, and is the daughter of Col. Job Tyler (1779-1857) and Sally Thacher Tyler (1781-1860). The former, a native of Attleborough, Mass., came here with his parents, John and Mercy (Thatcher) Tyler, in 1794, and joined the "Nine Partners' " set- tlement. This Sally Thacher was a daughter of John and Sally Thacher, who settled in Harford in 1795. Col. Job Tyler was a large farmer in New Milford township, and attended the Congregational Church at Harford, where also Mrs. Guile retains her membership. Mercy Thacher's father was the fourteenth in an uninterrupted line of Thachers, who were ministers of the gospel.

Elder Daniel Chase's father, William, was born in 1742, and his father, William, lived in Stratham, N. H., whose wife's name was Phebe Rollins. Cather- ine Filbrook's mother was a native of Ireland, was stolen from the seashore by a sea captain when only nine years old and brought to America.

Polly W. Tyler's only brother, Jared (1806-77), a farmer, resided in Harford ; her only sister, Nancy, born in 1804, was the wife of Francis Moxley, of New Milford.

HARFORD POSTMASTERS .- A post-office was es- tablished at Gibson June 29, 1811, with Robert Chandler as postmaster. December 24, 1813, Laban Capron was appointed. The department at Washing- ton say : "This office was originally called Hartford or Gibson, and Laban Capron's appointment was to Harford. Gibson was adopted between 1819 and 1828, but there seems to have been no official action in the matter." Major Capron had the office at his residence, more than a mile west of the present village. April 1, 1825, Saxa Seymour was appointed, and he brought the office into the village. He held the office for twenty-five years and was succeeded in 1850 by George G. Pride. Benjamin F. Eaton was appointed February 11, 1852, and Levi R. Peck December 2, of the same year. His successors have been George W. Seymour, 1853; Silas B. Guile, 1857; Henry C. Mox- ley, 1861; Edwin T. Tiffany, 1862; Winslow B. Guile, 1867; E. T. Tiffany, 1869; C. H. Miller, 1885. The great western mails in the stage-route days were on the Milford and Owego and Newburg

1 It appears that Laban Capron superseded Dr. Chandler in 1813, and took the mail down to his place. March 2, 1819, David Tarbox, Jr., was appointed postmaster at Gibson, and I think that he superseded Capron, and that the inhabitants of Harford got their mail at Gibson (Burrow's Hollow) until 1825, when Saxa Seymour was appointed post- master of Harford. S. B. Guile and Wilson Thacher remember getting . their mail at Gibson about this time.

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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

turnpikes. Harford lay between these two great thoroughifares on the Philadelphia and Great Bend turnpikes ; consequently it was not on the great mail lines to the West. Gibson and Cameron's were the two points on these routes from which the first mails were obtained after the routes were established.

The first mail-carrier that is remembered was Oney Thacher, about 1826. The route then was from Rynearson's Corners (Lenox) to Harford, thence to New Milford, following the Philadelphia and Great Bend turnpike. Mr. Thacher carried the mail on his back and traveled afoot. He was a very precise man, and counted the number of steps that he had to travel so that he knew when he took a step exactly what part of his journey was being accomplished. He carried the mail once a week until the railroad passsed through Montrose depot; then a daily route was soon after started. Ovid Coughlan was one of the first drivers on this route. A. J. Seaman and others were carriers. The route was changed to New Milford until recently. The mail runs twice a day from Kingsley's Station to Gibson by way of Harford. Daniel M. Farrar is the present mail-carrier.

Oakley post-office, first called West Harford, was established August 5, 1852, with Daniel Oakley as postmaster. March 7, 1854, the name was changed to Oakley. In 1875 Denison K. Oakley was ap- pointed postmaster. This place was named in honor of the Oakleys, who had mills here. At one time it was a station of the Delaware, Lackawanna and West- ern Railroad, but the cars do not stop there now.

take a bushel of corn or wheat of his own rasing, and carry it on his back to Wilkes-Barre, where the near- est mill was located. He built the present frame- house in 1806,which took the place of the block-house, made of hewn logs notched together, and this house, without much repairs, has sheltered the family for a period of eighty-one years. He died here in 1841. He came to this place from Thornbottom with only two shillings in money, reared a family of five sons and three daughters, and before his death gave each of his sons a farm. He is said to have bought and used the first spring-wagon (wooden springs), brought into the township. He was drafted in the War of 1812, but his second son, Thomas, volunteered and went in his father's place, going as far as Danville, when peace was made and he returned home.

The children of these worthy pioneers were James (1794-1851), resided and died in Brooklyn; Thomas (1796-1857), also resided and in the same township ; Daniel (1798-1874), resided and died in Harford ; Betsey (1800-79), was the wife of Sylvenus Wade, and died in Greenbush, Wis., where they were the first settlers ; Millbourn (1802-83), succeeded to the home- stead ; Polly (1805-59), the wife of Daniel Chubbuck, died in Iowa; Cyrus (1807-69), resided and died in Brooklyn ; and Sarah W. (born in 1812), is the wife of Virgil Tiffany, of Minnesota, being the only surviving child, in 1887, of this family of children. Millbourn Oakley, the fourth son, spent his entire life of eighty- one years on this place. He was a careful and in- dustrious farmer, added one hundred acres, by pur- chase, to the original farm, and made a comfortable competence for his children. He was much interested in educational matters and gave his children the op- portunity of completing their home education at the Harford Academy. Of his seven children, all were teachers for one or more terms.

MILLBOURN OAKLEY .- The grandparents of Mill- bourn came from New England to Dutchess County, N. Y., during the latter part of the last century, and in 1783 removed to Thornbottom now (Nicholson). They had a large family of children, of whom Jotham was eldest, was born in 1770, and was thirteen years old when the family settled in Pennsylvania. When Millbourn Oakley was a moral young man, and had marked exemplary habits. He was an attendant at church in boyhood, and was a member of the church at Harford, from 1843 until his death, of which Rev. Adam Miller was pastor for fifty-three years. The old family pew was always well filled until his children scattered and found homes of their own, and the pa- rents became so enfeebled by age that they could not leave their homes. He was one of the founders of the Harford Agricultural Society, and its first vice-presi- dent in 1858, and he was also a life-member of the Susquehanna Agricultural Society. He was a lover of fine horses and cattle, and his name is still familiar throughout the county as the raiser and exhibitor of the finest shown at the county fairs. He married, in March, 1825, Nancy Carpenter, who was born in Har- ford, May 13, 1804, and is living on the homestead in 1887. She was an early pupil of Rev. Lyman Rich- ardson at Harford. Began teaching school at the age of thirteen, and continued hier school-work until she was twenty-three. She has been a member of the a boy he frequently visited the low-lands and streams of this county as a trapper. In 1793 he married Sarah Millbourn (1768-1839), whose father was an Englishman, and whose mother subsequently married a Mr. Jones, also an Englishman, and settled in Brook- lyn, this county. In 1795 Jotham Oakley took up one hundred and thirty acres, a woodland tract ad- joining the Nine Partners' settlement in Harford, and built a block-house thereon. He began clearing off the forest, and with genuine pioneer fortitude, both him- self and faithful wife, a woman of noted force of char- acter and possessed of great courage, met the incidents, fatigues and hardships consequent upon a settlement in the wilderness unflinchingly, and made a home for themselves and children. This homestead has been in the family since, nearly a century, and is the home of Millbourn Oakley's widow. It was necessary to have salt and meal and flour. To obtain the salt, a trip had to be made to Syracuse, by the old salt- roads leading through long stretches of woods. To get meal or flour at this time, Jotham Oakley used to , church for seventy-two years, since she was twelve

D. Ko. Oakley

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HARFORD.

years of age, and is a woman of remarkable strength of mind, although for many years she has been infirm in body. A devoted wife and mother, her Christian life has left its impress on the lives of her children. She furnished largely the facts for this sketch. Her father, John Carpenter, Sr. (1766-1838), was one of the Nine Partners, and married, in 1793, Polly Tyler (1772- 1811), who bore him children, -- John, 1793, lost on Lake Erie; Asahel (1796-1842); Polly T., 1798, wife of Austin Jones, Harford ; Jesse, 1801, died in Cali- fornia; Betsey (1803-86), wife of Sterry Tanner, of Harford; and Nancy Carpenter, the youngest, and widow of Millbourn Oakley. John Carpenter mar- ried his second wife, Lydia Pattee (1785-1861), in 1813, who died without issue. His parents were Daniel and Elizabeth (Tyler) Carpenter, who had eleven children, and resided in Attleborough, Massachusetts. The children of Millbourn and Nancy Oakley are Lydia J. (1827-61), wife of Erastus Finn, of Benton ; Pa .; Williston K. (1830-61), died at home; Eliza, 1831, first, the wife of John C. Webster, and second, of David Salisbury, of Franklin; Daniel C., 1835, a farmer of Lenox; Betsey M., 1836, wife of Watson Jeffers, a farmer of Harford; Samuel H., 1840, a far- mer in Harford ; and Elvira H. Oakley, married, first, James Hartley, of Lenox, and after his death became the wife of W. A. Browning, a farmer of Fleetville, Pa. These children, with the grandchildren and friends, celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the mar- riage of their parents, when they were made happy, and welcomed all with that hospitality and good cheer characteristic of the old home.

D. K. OAKLEY was born in Harford township, June 18, 1824,-son of Daniel (1798-1874) and Sally H. Carpenter (1802-1870) Oakley, and grandson of Jotham Oakley, of the previous sketch. Daniel Oakley became one of the leading business men of Susquehanna County. His indefatigable energy and honorable, straightforward character were strongly impressed upon his surroundings, and he enjoyed, in a marked degree, the confidence and esteem of his fellows.

He successfully operated the saw-mill on Martin's Creek, at Oakley, over fifty years, and was postmas- ter at that place twenty-four years. As a young man, he was warmly interested in religion, and at an early age became a member of tlie Congregational Church at Harford, which connection he retained throughout his life. The cause of education had his unswerving friendship, and the needy were never sent empty away. He gained much pleasure in the knowledge of having been one of those members who called the late beloved Rev. Adam Miller to the Harford Church pastorate, and his trusteeship was always a happiness. His children were Loretta C., died in early womanhood; Denison K .; Maria, the wife of N. T. Hull, a farmer of Candor, Tioga County, N. Y .; Daniel Chauncey, drowned in Oakley Pond 1833 ; Mary, the wife of J. S. Peckham, a leading

farmer of Brooklyn township; and Julia A., the wife of R. L. Gere, also a Brooklyn farmer.

After a liberal education at the district schools and at the Harford University, Denison K. Oakley taught in the schools of his native county for three years, prior to going to Wisconsin, where he also taught school and organized and superintended a Sunday-school at Kaukanna for about three years. Returning to Susquehanna County in 1852, he found the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad had been in operation for some few months through his home property, from Scranton north, and appre- ciating the opportunity of markets thus opened for the immense forests of the vicinity, he purchased the mill property (which had been in the hands of the railroad company during the building of the road), and began manufacturing and shipping lumber. Scranton was just then beginning to erect its head as a centre of population, and lumber was, of course, in strong demand; hence the product of the Oakley mill was made a part of many of the buildings now forming a section of that city, and Mr. Oakley reaped his legitimate reward. This business he has contin- ued until the present time, in addition to large farm- ing interests in the same locality. Foreseeing that Scranton must, of necessity, become a prosper- ous and large city, Mr. Oakley, in 1860, invested in land there, and has been engaged in the erection of business blocks and residences not only for himself, but for others by contract; and in 1885 he there took up his residence, still continuing, however, to main- tain his milling and farm interests at Oakley Station. He has served as postmaster at Oakley since 1875, and superintended the Sunday-school there for fifteen years. He united with the Congregational Church at Harford in 1839, by election in 1855 served the church as chorister for twenty-eight successive years. Superintended the Sunday-school for six years, and served as deacon of the church from 1866 to 1883, when he was granted dismission and recommended to admission to the Presbyterian Church at Brooklyn.

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Centennial history of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, Part 143

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