Centennial history of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, Part 154

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

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settlers in Gibson, on the Claflin place. He died in Ararat at an advanced age. Eliza, another daughter, is the wife of Ira Washburn, of Gibson. Their chil- dren were Libbie, who died at the age of sixteen ; Emily ; William T., who married Mary Hill, and re- sides on the place where his father first began; Hat- tie, wife of Horace A. Bushnell, station agent at Nineveh ; Elbert married -, a daughter of Wal- lace Barnes, and resides on his father's farm, near the Gibson and Jackson line; Frank and George live at home.

PHINEAS PICKERING (1771-1849) came to New Milford when a young man and married Anna Kent (1780-1866). His brother Jotham came with him, and they both settled in Gibson, near Gelatt, in 1812, on farms adjoining. Phineas cleared up the farm where the widow of Edgar Whitney now resides. He was a sober and industrious man, working at the trade of shoe-making in winter and farming in summer. He and his wife were members of the Free-will Baptist Church at Union Hill. They secured a comfortable livelihood and reared a large family of children, and died at a ripe old age. Their children were Augustus, who married Lydia Tripp, and resided in Jackson, where H. S. Brown now lives; John B. married Elsie Tripp, and resided in Gibson, where A. Manzer now lives; Flora was the wife of Jones Isbell, a cabinet-maker, who died in Binghamton ; Sophia was the wife of Henry Barriger, a resident of Uniondale ; Myra was the wife of George Jennings, a resident of Scott, Wayne County, Pa.

JOTHAM PICKERING was born in 1810, at New Milford, but spent his boyhood days from 1812 with his parents in Gibson. He was too good to work, to be sent to school when there was anything to do on the farm, but he improved his ineager opportunities winters and remembers his old teachers with pleasure. The first school he attended was taught by Horace Thayer, on Kennedy Hill. He afterwards attended school at Gelatt. Chas. Chandler, P. K. Williams and Martin Hall were teachers there, The day before he was twenty-one years old he took his axe and went into the woods on the hill where he now resides and commenced chopping a fallow. He purchased thirty- five acres of land where his house stands, of Torrey Whitney, which with subsequent purchases amounted to one hundred and twenty acres, his present farm. He commenced without a dollar in his pocket, having nothing but his axe, a determined purpose and strong muscles to depend upon to secure means to pay for his land and support for his family. In 1837 he married Mary Ann Hopkins, who was born in Rhode Island in 1817. She was a daughter of Peter Hop- kins; one sister, Ann, wife of Edgar Barton, resides at Susquehanna ; Joanna, wife of Arthur Vosbery, resides at Havre de Grace, Maryland. Mrs. Pickering has been a true helpmate, in the discharge of every duty devolving upon a farmer's wife with fidelity. Mr. Pickering proceeded to clear up a farm and pay

EM, Whitney

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for his land. His well-tilled fields are the visible tokens of the competency which he has secured by honest industry. His first rude log cabin has given place to a comfortable dwelling, and he has recently erected one of the most commodious and conveniently arranged barns in the county, with underground stabling for forty head of cattle. He has a good orchard and keeps a few sheep, but depends upon dairying, which he has pursued successfully for many years. Mr. Pickering is nature's man, blasted right out of the rock, and is a good specimen of the Sus- quehanna County farmer, who has made his money by pure farming. He is a Republican, and his towns- men have elected him Supervisor ; but he is no office- seeker, and does not trouble himself much about politics or politicians. He and his wife have been members of the Methodist Church for more than forty years, and for eighteen years he has been one of the stewards of the church. Both are hale and strong, the result of well-ordered lives. Their children are Martin A., who married Esther Lewis, and resides in Jackson ; Sirana H., wife of Elon Dix, died in 1882, aged forty years; Joanna is the wife of C. D. Mum- ford, of Starrucca.

JACKSON CENTER .- The first owner of the land where the roads corner extending north so as to in- clude a portion of the village, and the oldest docu- ment connected therewith, is the lease of Joshua Harris to his son-in-law Uriah Thayer. This quaint document is dated Jackson, June 2, and reads as follows :

"This Indenture made between Joshua Harris, of Halifax, County of Windham, State of V. T., of the first part aud Uriah Thayer and Lydia Thayer, his wife, now residing in Jackson, Susquehannalı, State of Pennsylvania, of the second part. Now, this indenture wituesseth that Joshua Harris dose herehy leese unto his well beloved duahfter, Lydia Thaye, and son-in-law, Uriah Thayer, a sartain tract of land here after discrihed, and for the purpose hereafter mentioned, and under the restrictions hereafter inserted. The land is fifty acres, lying in the Township of Jackson County and State abov mentioned, it is part of the lot No. 5, survaid Joseph Shippe, ym, beginning at the origanal north line sd lot at the east side of the Harmony Road, leading from Joel Lamb's to Stephen Tuckor's ; thense south on the east side of sd Road to the four corners whare the Ararat Road leading from David Briant's to ararat intersects the Harmoney Road ; thense easterly on the South line of my land I hought, deeded to me by Jonas Preston and Nathan Banker, of the city of Philadelphia, and sd deed is recorded in Montrose. I say on the North and South line of sd land beginning or joining to the Harmony Road the east side, thens extending east, far enough east to make fifty acres. The Tunkhannock Crick runs through the fifty acres near the middle of sd fifty acres. The ahove discribed fifty acres I, Joshua Harris, Lease unto my children hefore mentioned, during their life, for their own comfort and use, that they may theirhy be enabled to provide for their Rising family, which now consists of seven children, all healthy at preasant thru Divine Goodness. The eldest of them is not yet nine years old, all of them vary prommiceing Children, and dear to Joshua Harris their grandfather."

The lease provides for building houses, planting or- chards, &c., and " in case of sickness or death of Uriah or Lydia or any other misfortune that may render it necessary for Joshua Harris or his wife, Clarissa, to use the place for the before-mentioned family, they shall have the privilege of doing it." This lease was confirmed by will probated in 1850 giving the above

fifty acres and twenty acres more to the children of Uriah Thayer when the youngest was of age. Reuben Harris, his son, also came in possession of another part of the Joshua Harris property in 1826, and lived at the corners nearly half a century and died there in 1885, aged eighty. E. W. Tucker owns the property now. Nathaniel Hill worked in a mill, and his health failed and he purchased some groceries and kept them in his father's house for a year or two, then he purchased a lot off of the Thayer property and erected a small store about 1830-40, which with additious and re-building constitutes the present hotel property known as the "Geary House." Hill kept whiskey, tobacco, groceries, &c., the usual stock in trade of the early store, and he was post- master also from 1837 to 1844. In 1842 Warren Ting- ley went into partnership with him and the house was enlarged for a tavern in connection with store- keeping. This firm soon failed and the property fell into the hands of a man by the name of Jones. His successors in the ownership of the hotel have been Turner, Bartlett, Van Horn and Geary. The Central Hotel was started as a drug store in 1860 by Chauncy Fletcher. In 1867 the house passed into possession of Delos Roberts who refitted and enlarged it, chang- ing it from a grocery store to a hotel. The house was originally built by Roswell Culver and John Olin and sold to Dr. Whitney who sold to Fletcher, who had the post-office during the war when so many anxious wives and mothers approached the office with tremb- ling hearts, not knowing what news they would hear from the " boys in blue."

Alvin J. and Samuel Seymour succeeded Hill in the grocery business about 1844. They soon discontinued, and that was the last mercantile business that was carried on in the old pioneer house of the village. It was thereafter used exclusively as a hotel. After the Seymours discontinued James D. Hill commenc- ed business above where the Baptist parsonage now stands. Hc also had the post office, where Whitney and Foster converted a blacksmith shop into a grocery store. Frank Benson had this store afterwards and Charles A. De Lancy has a grocery store and the post-office there now. Is- aac Comfort, son of John Comfort, one of the first settlers of Lanesborough, bought a tract ofland which had been taken up by Asa Hall, just north of Thayers', (Stephen Tucker had the third house in the place, the Reuben Harris place on the corner aud the Hill hotel being the others.) Hiram R. Houghton, of Massachusetts, through the advice and encourage- ment of Stephen Tucker, bought the Comfort tract and erected the first blacksmith shop in the village and paid for the land by blacksmithing. He married Sophia Benson and died when only thirty-six years of age, leaving four children. Hosea Benson bought the interest of one of the girls and after the war, in Septem- ber 1865, he erected a store. The first firm was Bensou, Manzer & Tucker and they did a business of sixty

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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

thousand dollars in three years, when their partner- ship expired by limitation, and H. M. Benson took charge of the business which he has continued until now. Daniel D. Duren built a wagon-shop which he converted into a.store about 1880 where Charles Esta- brook now sells goods. H. M. and P. K. Benson started a hemlock butter-tub factory in 1878 and made the first hemlock butter-tubs in this country. It had been supposed previous to this that butter would not keep in a hemlock tub. They employed from ten to fifteen hands for eight years and used two hundred and fifty thousand feet of hemlock per year, and man- ufactured from thirty thousand to forty thousand tubs , per year. The timber supply is growing less and the factory is not doing as much as formerly. Houghton had the first blacksmith shop near Stephen Tucker's. He was succeeded by Mr. Miller, Elias M. Bryant and Joseph Foster whose shop was converted into a store. Frank and William Spencer, Stewart Hobart and C. C. Bookstaver are the present blacksmiths. A. S. Bingham and C. C. Bookstaver erected a wagon-shop and have made as many as seventy-five wagons and four hundred sleighs in one year, but the average number is much less. A. S. Bingham has the busi- ness now. The village is centrally located in a fine farming district and contains two hotels, three stores, a wagon-shop, a butter-tub factory, a blacksmith shop, two physicians, a school-house, two churches and about one hundred inhabitants.

A post-office was established in 1833, called Barry- ville, with Amos Chase as post-master. In 1836 the name was changed to Jackson. In 1837 Nathaniel Hill was appointed post-master; James D. Hill, 1844; Guerdon G. Williams, 1854; Chancy Fletcher, 1861; Delos Roberts, 1866; H. M. Benson, 1871; Le Grand Benson, 1879; Frank A. Benson, 1880; Sanford J. Engle, 1881 ; Charles A. De Lancey, 1885. North Jackson post-office was established April 21, 1854, with William Birdsall as postmaster. His successors have been Nathan S. Williams, 1856 ; James Y. Potter, 1861; Jesse L. Williams, July, 1861; Frederick Bryant, 1865 ; Susan C. Davidson, 1882. A post-office was established at Lake View in 1879, A. D. Corse, post-master. Pelatiah Gunnison was the first justice of the peace in Jackson by appointment of the Gov- ernor. James Hall, Martin Hall, Reuben Hill, Wm. H. Bartlett, Roswell Culver, Nelson French and Lorenzo Dow Benson have been justices since. Mr. Benson was first elected in 1856; after the expiration of the first term he was re-elected, but refused to take his commission ; but, being elected again the follow- ing year, he has been continued by re-election until the present time.

Stephen Tucker was born in Halifax, Windham County, Vt., February 9, 1794. He was three months in the War of 1812, and the November before he was twenty-one he and Joseph Bryant started on foot for Pennsylvania, having for his outfit a pack of twenty- nine pounds, a good reputation and the good wishes

of many friends. He arrived in Jackson the last of December and hired to Hosea Benson. At this time Hosea Benson, Jairus Lamb, David Bryant and Deacon Daniel Tingley were the only residents in Jackson. During the summer he contracted for one hundred and twenty-six acres of land, chopped and cleared two acres and rolled up a log house. He returned to Vermont and married Lucy Harris, sister of Reuben Harris, and returned to his cabin in the wilderness and cleared up a farm. During the con- struction of the New York and Erie Railroad he contracted for and delivered one thousand tons of coal in Broome and Chenango Counties, drawing it from Carbondale, a distance of fifty miles, bringing salt, pork and stoves in return; he brought the first stoves into this section. He was a constituent mem- ber of the Jackson Baptist Church and rendered liberal aid in the erection of the church in 1842. He died in 1882, aged eighty-eight. His children were James, who commenced where J. H. Miles lives and afterwards lived where his son Stephen does; Clarissa has been a teacher nearly all her life in Wisconsin ; Elizabeth was first married to N. M. Wills, and her second husband was W. H. Bartlett ; Sarah was the wife of Rufus Walworth; Williston resides in Thom- son borough. Eunice was the wife of J. H. Miles ; Evander resides on the homestead; Emerson N. re- sides on the Reuben Harris farm; Amos lives in Wichita, Kansas (Reuben Harris lived on the corner many years and died in 1884 at an advanced age); Olive is the wife of Jas. C. Bushnell and Ella the wife of Eli Bloxam, of Ararat. Ichabod Hill came the next year after Martin Hall did and located adjoining him. His children were James, Nathaniel, Archibald, Reuben, Eunice and Achsah. Reuben remained on the homestead, which is now occupied by his son Isaac. Joseph Powers lived neighbor to Hall; he bought of Ichabod Powers, who took up the land before Hall came. His children were Joseph, Eliza, Eunice, William and Esther. Eunice and William reside on the homestead. Eliza is the wife of Harvey Gray, of Rush. David Barrett came early and sold his improvement to Eli Barnes and returned to Ver- mont. Charles C. Barnes occupies the place now. Alzada, wife of Horace Payne, and Martha were the daughters. Jonathan Moxley resided where his son Edwin lives. Jas. Cargill, Sr., settled where J. D. Benson lives, and Edward Moxley afterwards lived where Arnold Cargill began. Henry Perry lived near Hall. Captain Page came in 1816. His son, Rosman Page, owns the place now. L. S. Page was justice of the peace many years. The first saw-mill was built on a branch of the Tunkhannock by Russell Whitney. Leander Griffis has a grist-mill.

LEANDER GRIFFIS .- His grandfather, Abner Grif- fis, served as a minute man in the Revolutionary war, and received a pension until his death, at the age of over eighty years, at Unadilla, N. Y. In the spring of 1799, with Ebenezer Whipple and his step-

Gotham Sickening

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son, Ezra Lathrop, he came down the Susquehanna River from Unadilla to the mouth of the Wyalusing Creek in canoes ; thence up that crcek on ox-sleds to Bolles Flats between Fairdale and Grangerville on the Creek road. For many years le resided with his son, Elisha, a hotel-keeper and farmer of Forest Lake township, and, after the death of his wife, re- turned to Unadilla, where he died. A further ac- count of the Griffis family will be found in the sketch of Byron Griffis, of Jessup township.

His second son, John Griffis (1785-1865), a native of Unadilla, removed with his parents to Susquehanna County, and when of age took up a piece of land and commenced to clear and improve it. He shortly af- terwards returned to New York State and married Susannalı (1792-1865), daughter of Ebenezer and Susannah (Marsh) Leonard. After marriage, returned to Rush, where he remained until 1830, when he re- moved to Jackson and purchased of Arby Rounds one hundred and twenty-six acres of land, which he cleared up, improved and lived upon until he died. He was a great hunter, and to recount the number of deer and other wild animals that tradition has it he killed would read like a tale of fiction to day.

Himself and family attended the Jackson Baptist Church, of which his wife was a member. He was an influential citizen of Jackson, and he was esteemed and respected by his fellow-townsmen to the day of his death. Himself and wife died the same year, and were buried on the homestead farm. Their chil- dren were Patty, wife of Joel Turrell, of Forest Lake; Lydia, wife of Manning Woodmansee, of Bucking- ham, Wayne County, Pa .; Lovina, wife of Miner Turrell, of Forest Lake; Seymour, married and re- sided in Jackson until his death; Leander; Morris, married and was residing in Buckingham, Wayne County, Pa., when the war of Rebellion broke out, enlisted for three years, at the end of which term he re-eulisted, was taken prisoner and confined in prison where he died; Edwin, was married and living in Ontario County, N. Y., during the war, was a soldier in the army and died at Harper's Ferry hospital; Sylvester, married and residing in Jackson ; Susannah,. widow of Almanson Nye, residing in Jackson ; Ade- line, wife of N. P. Nye, residing in Jackson,-all ex- cept the latter born in Rush. Leander, the second son of John and Susannah Griffis, was born October 22, 1819. He was eleven years old when his parents came to Jackson, and during his boyhood had the usual advantages of the district schools of that day. But the lessons of those early years were not all learned from books. By precept and example he had early engrafted on his mind the broad and phil- anthropic principles embodied in the "golden rule." He early learned that industry, sobricty and economy were necessary adjuncts to success in life. He re- mained with his father on the farm until his mar- riage. In 1846 he married Phidelia, daughter of Obed and Mehitabel (Marsh) Nyc, who came from

Vermont to Jackson in 1816 and settled on the farm now occupied by N. P. Nye, where they died,-the former at the age of eighty-seven, the latter aged seventy-three. Here their daughter, Phidelia, was born, December 23, 1819. Their other children were Harriet, who married Oramel Brown, of Jackson ; Norman P., now residing on the homestead in Jack- son ; Almanson, who resided in Jackson until his death; Lodema, who married Joseph G. Moore, of Jackson ; Marcella, wife of Sylvester Griffis, of Jack- son, and Pherona, wife of Wallace Barnes, of Gibson. Immediately upon his marriage, Mr. Griffis removed to a woodland tract that he had previously purchased, and upon which he had erected a small house and made some improvements. Here he remained two years, when he sold it and removed to the homestead farm, which he afterwards purchased of the heirs, and upon which he now resides. His present com- fortable and commodious home he erected in 1870. Their children are Orville, 1847, married Abbie J., daughter of Elias Bryant, of Thomson, is a farmer, and resides on the homestead; Flora, 1848, married Charles T. Belcher, a farmer of Jackson.

In politics, Mr. Griffis has clung to the political faith of his ancestors, which was democratic, and for many years he has been a representative democrat in his town. While active and persistent in advo- cacy of the principles of his party and in efforts for its success, yet never offensively so, and his fellow- citizens, both in town and county, have attested their appreciation of his integrity and ability by frequently electing him to various offices within their gift. He has served his township on election boards, as au- ditor, school director and supervisor, and in 1882, '83 and '84 he honorably and creditably served the county as one of its county commissioners. Among the thrifty and intelligent farmers of Jackson, Mr. Griffis stands in the front rank, and a life of industry and perseverance has had its reward in surrounding him with home comforts in his declining years.

William Barrett came from Vermont to Jackson, in 1829, and settled where O. E. Barrett now lives. He cleared up that farm and reared a family of six boys and three girls. Three of the boys,-Stanford W., Wallace W. and Edwin L., reside in Bingham- ton. Volney B. and Charles C., reside in Jackson. Leroy died in Columbus, Ohio. Levi, Hosea, David and Chester, brothers of William, camc later. Levi located near East New Milford. Hosea located near Lake View, in 1832. He built a frame house that winter, and moved in the next spring. He bought fifty-six acres and cleared up a farm. He married Polly Lindsley. Three of his sons,-Alvin, Luther and Alonzo, reside in Jackson. George resides at Susquehanna. Hollis is a merchant at Burrows' Hol- low. Smith is in McKcan County. Elias, son of Austin, is a butcher. Mrs. Barrett is living, aged eighty-seven. George W. Tyler cleared the farm where he lives. George Curtis, and his son James

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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

Curtis, present county commissioner, reside in North Jackson.

Edwin L. Leonard came from Vermont in 1830, and was the first settler on the Upper Tunkhannock, on what is now the creek road. He lived a short time with Austin Benson, until he had made a clear- ing and erected a frame house. He died at the age of seventy-one. His wife, whose maiden name was -Marsh, married again, and is living, aged eighty- one. There were ten children in Mr. Leonard's family,-Lorenzo D. married and died in Minnesota. Frederick F. married Emily Hollister, of Salem, and resides on the homestead farm, which, for its size, is the best farm in Jackson township. They have three children,-one daughter, Kate, a school teacher, and two sons. Leroy C., of the original family, re- sides in Illinois. Cordelia M., married E. R. Hough- ton, of Susquehanna. Josephine is the wife of W. W. Larrabee, of Jackson. Cynthia V. was the wife of Melvin Larrabee. Edwin A. married Mary Miles, and resides in Jackson. Velosco V. and Fillmore M. live in Nebraska.

Veranous Larrabee came from Windham County, Vt., in March, 1831. He first located near William Bartlett's, then he bought where Isaac Hill lives; from there he went to Jackson Corners, and started a little tannery where Dr. Wheaton lives. He died in 1864, aged seventy-five. His wife was Lucy Bennett, and they had a family of twelve children. Among them,-Adin B., who lives in North Jackson, and has one son George. Lorenzo D. Benjamin, who lives in Windsor, N. Y. One of his sons, Hadley B., was county superintendent of Wayne County two terms. Charlotte was the wife of Calvin Dix. Asa Ham- mond is her second husband. Lorenzo D. has one boy, Melvin, resides in Jackson. Emory B., the oldest boy, came with his father, being then nineteen years of age, and located where Elias Barrett lives, and cleared up that farm. He married Laura Wheaton, and had a family of seven sons,-Alfred W., a school teacher, William H., Oscar G., Windsor, John W., Winfield C .- Emery B. and all of his boys but the youngest son were in the army, and all came out alive. Oscar was twice a prisoner, and was one of the one thousand one hundred that lived without tasting food for five days at the second Bull Run battle. They all reside in the county in the vicinity of home. William H. owns the George Perry farm, and is erecting one of the finest residences in the county. He has one of the most convenient slaughter-houses and meat-shops in the State. The building is thirty-six feet square, and has a stone floor, with blood channels in the slaugh- ter-room, a large cooler for meats in summer, a win- ter meat cellar, salt meat cellar, hide cellar, etc. A ten horse-power engine runs the sausage cutter and tallow-rendering machine, a French burr-inill for feed, besides supplying heat for the building. Mr. Larra- bee has been running meat into Susquehanna for twenty-six years.

Nelson French came to Jackson from Dummerston, Vt., in 1831, and took up seventy-eight acres of land in the wilderness, and cleared up the farm where he now resides. He was county commissioner in 1863 and has been deacon in the Congregational Church many years. He has six children, all of whom located in the vicinity. Ephraim French, father of Nelson, came later and located where Tallman lives. The Free Will Baptist Church is built upon part of this ground. Charles French, another son, in September, 1832, and first located where John Calnon lives. He sold that and located where he now resides. He had a large family that are scattered far and wide. Smith L. resides on the homestead. Nathaniel French came into the neighborhood when Charles did and cleared up a farm. He married Betsey Chase and raised a large family of children. Martin, Edwin, Newell, Myron, Merritt, Sylvester L., Sabria M., Chloe C. and Almeron Gat Corse commenced where Charles French now lives. William Larrabee came with Charles French and cleared the place now owned by his son, B. F. Larrabee. Solomon Madison was here when French came, and Ephraim French bought his improvement of his son Sheffield Madison. Joseph Madison, Solomon's oldest son, first made a clearing where Yale lives. The French school-house was built about 1835.

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Centennial history of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, Part 154

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