Centennial history of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, Part 160

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 160

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

The church has furnished as ministers Charles Mil- ler and his sons, William A. and Edward F., and Sidney W. Rivenburg. The latter was ordained in 1883, and is now a foreign missionary in Assam.

In November, 1817, James Reaves was elected the first deacon, but was succeeded, in 1818, by Eliab Farnam, who served until his death in 1854. Frank- lin Finn has been a deacon since 1846, and the other deacons are John G. Wetherby and I. O. Finn. Others who have served in that capacity have been James Wells, David Mackey, Alfred Merriman and D. W. Halstead.

The Sabbath-school maintained by the church has

803

CLIFFORD.

ninety-nine members, and I. O. Finn as its superin- tendent.

The Clifford Methodist Episcopal Church .- The pre- sent church dates its existence from the organization of a class in 1859, which had Alfred Thompson as its leader, Arnold Green as an exhorter and a dozen other members. But prior to this, preaching had been held at this place by the ministers of the old Dundaff, Herrick and, later, Clifford Circuits, and a small class had here been formed, which went down owing to the removal of its members.

The first meetings were held in the Baptist Church, but after 1852 in the Union Church of Clifford. An increase of members in recent years stimulated the society to erect a house of worship for its exclusive use, and on the 22d of November, 1882, was dedicated the fine edifice at Clifford village. It is a frame structure of attractive appearance, thirty-two by forty- two feet, with pulpit alcove, and a vestibule in the bell tower, which is eighty-five feet high. The win- dows are of stained glass, and the interior of the church has been upholstered throughout. It has not inap- propriately been called the "Parlor Church." The entire cost was more than twenty-five hundred dollars. At this time the trustees were N. C. Church, Arnold Green, L. Z. Burdick, Abraham Churchill, Julius Young, Alexander Green, John Bolton, G. H. Ste- phens and Peter Bennett. The latter has been the leader of the class since 1860, and in 1887 the mem- bership was fifty-seven.

The parsonage at Clifford has been occupied since 1882. It is a comfortable home, and is valued at fifteen hundred dollars. The minister in charge is the Rev. H. A. Blanchard.

The First Universalist Church of Clifford was incor- porated April 13, 1876, on the petition of William S. Wells, James T. Handyson, D. C. Wells, Hiram Wells, Holloway Robinson, James R. Johnson and Z. Ferris, the three first named being trustees. This board controls the old Union Church at Clifford, and had as its members in 1877 Sylvester Wells, D. C. Wells and B. F. Wells. The Union Church was built in 1852 on a lot of land secured from the farm of Jacob G. Cuddeback by an association of stock- holders, eachı share of stock being rated at five dol- lars, and entitling the holder to a vote. It is a sub- stantial frame edifice, whose front is relieved by large pillars, and cost about one thousand dollars. Not being much used in late years, it bears a neglected appearance and needs repairs. In this house the Methodists, Adventists and Universalists have held meetings, the first and the last named statedly. The Universalists were never strong numerically, and have usually had the same ministers as the Gib- son Church, in addition to the services by visiting clergymen. The first of this faith in this section were the Rev. William Wells and his family, who came from Orange County, N. Y., in 1834. He preselied the gospel of love frequently, and held

many funeral services until his death, in 1857. The past few years Universalist services have not been held during the winter, and often irregularly in other seasons.

The Welsh Congregation of Clifford Township be- came an incorporated body April 12, 1869, on the petition of Samuel Owens, Thomas R. Davis, Evan Jenkins, Thomas Reynolds, David J. Thomas, Thomas Watkins and Henry Davis. But the congregation was organized as early as 1834, one of the first cares of the Welsh immigrants coming into Clifford about that period, being a provision for their educational and spiritual needs. Thomas Edwards, one of the early Welslı settlers, became the first minister, and preached until the close of 1835, when he accepted a call to Pittsburgh. The meetings were held at the house of Zachariah Jenkins, on Cambria Hill, on which the first church edifice was built in 1839. This was used until it was found too small to accom- modate the growing congregation, when a new struc- ture was raised on an adjoining lot in the summer of 1854, under the direction of a building committee composed of Rev. Daniel Daniels, Evan Jenkins, Edward Hughes, John Reynolds and Benjamin Dan- iels. It is a plain frame building, thirty-one by forty-five feet, but had an attractive interior. It is proposed to remodel this church in the summer of 1887 by adding a lecture-room, twenty by twenty-six feet, and a tower, eleven by eleven feet, in which will be a vestibule. The tower will be raised to a suffi- cient heiglit to contain a bell. It is estimated that the new edifice will cost three thousand dollars, and the work has been placed in charge of a committee composed of John Watkins, Samuel Daniels, Walter M. Leek, David Davis and E. K. Anthony. The ground on which the church stands has been enlarged to one acre, a part of which is devoted to the burial of the dead. In 1836 the Rev. Jenkin Jenkins, a son of Zachariah Jenkins, one of the first members, became the pastor, and so continued until 1843. It was under his direction that the first meeting-house was built. At the same time that he served here he preached in the Presbyterian Church at Dundaff, and thus the Welsh Church passed under the care of the Presbytery, though retaining its form as a Con- gregational body. This relation was sustained nomi- nally until after 1850. Mr. Jenkins was educated at the Auburn Theological Seminary, and was a minis- ter of ability. At the time he left the congregation it was comprised of the following families or single persons : Thomas Walkins, Daniel Moses, Noah Owens, David Edwards, David Anthony, David J. Thomas, Henry Davis, John Howells, David Evans, William Rowell, William P. Davies, Robert Ellis, Evan Jenkins, Jenet Jenkins, John Michael, Sarah Bell, David Richards, David Rees, David Moss, Ed- ward Hughes, Benjamin Daniels, Mary James, John Davis, Daniel Davis, Guenellian Reynolds, Daniel Harris, Mary Jones, Thomas Evans, Lewis Evans,

804

HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

Evan Jones, Elizabeth Owens, Margaret Harris, Da- vid E. Thomas, Job Nicholas.

From 1843 until 1848 the congregation had no reg- ular pastor, but was supplied with preaching and had lay services. . "They often hield meetings with Americans who were religious, though neither could understand the language of the other. Some prayed in Welsh, others in English, and both sang the same tune together, each using their own language in hymns of the same meter, while the Holy Spirit communicated its influence from soul to soul, until sometimes all present would be in tears."1 In 1848 the Rev. Samuel Williams became the pastor, and remained two years. He was succeeded in 1850 by the present pastor, the Rev. Daniel Daniels, whose services have been continued ever since.

He was born in Glamorganshire, South Wales, in 1816, and came to the country at the age of sixteen, living for twelve years at Carbondale. At that place he was licensed to preach in 1842, and in 1847 he was ordained to the ministry. He served the Beaver Meadow and Colcrain Churches until 1850, when he became the pastor of the Clifford Church and of the charge which includes the Welsh families of Gibson and Herrick. Few ministers in the county have labored more zealously than he, or have had a longer continued pastorate. The congregation in 1887 had ninety members, of whom Samuel Owens and Rich- ard Davis were deacons, and Walter M. Leek clerk. Benjamin Daniels was the first clerk, and others who served in that capacity were Samuel Owens, Thomas R. Davis and Zachariah Jenkins. The principal services are still held iu the Welsh language, but in prayer-meetings and lectures the English is often spoken, and it is but a question of a few years when it will be the prevailing language, not only in the church, but in the Welsh settlements of this part of the county.

The Clifford Seventh-Day Baptist Church was or- ganized about 1832 with eleven members, as follows : Elias Burdick, Sarah Burdick, Kendal Burdick, Han- nah Burdick, Harriet Burdick, Putnam Edwards, Dolly Edwards, Mason Burdick, Zebediah Burdick, Mary Burdick, Philip Burdick.

For more thau twenty years the church had no regular preacher, there being no other church of this denomination in the State, and none nearer than a hundred miles. But missionaries sometimes visited this isolated band, and strengthened the faith of the members by preaching frequently, sometimes remain- ing a month or longer. Prayer and conference meet- ings were also held every Sabbath at the houses of the members, usually at Elias or Kendall Burdick's. After 1854 there was a cessation of services for about a year; but in 1856 the Burdick family were joined by Deacon Barber Cardner and others of that family, and the services were renewed. This awakened so

much interest that a small plain, frame meeting- house was built on the farm of Kendall Burdick in 1857, which was dedicated by Elder Alfred Burdick, from Rhode Island, assisted by Elder Libbius M. Cotteral. At a more recent period the house was en- larged by the addition of ten feet to its length, and it has since been kept in fair repair. Articles of faith were adopted the same year, and Philip Burdick elected as a deacon to serve with Barber Cardner. Upon the death of the latter, in 1864, Stephen Card- ner was chosen a deacon, and he and Philip Burdick have since served in that capacity. In 1854 the church also became connected with the Central Con- ference of New York, of which body it has since been a member, and soon after Elder A. W. Coon became the pastor, serving many years. In consequence, the membership increased, reaching its maximum in 1882, when thirty-four persons belonged. In 1886 twenty-eight persons constituted the membership, and although there was no regular pastor, those be- longing rigidly adhered to the faith which they had accepted in the face of much opposition. Though not strong in numbers, the church is firmly estab- lished, and is the only one of this denomination in the county.

The Elkdale Baptist Church was organized July 25, 1851, as the "Union Regular Baptist Church of East Clifford," and bore that name until 1886, when the above title was adopted. The constituent mem- bers were eighteen in number, as follows: Alanson Halstead, Phoebe Halstead, Lucy Weaver, Eleanor Brownell, Martin Bunnell, Phoebe Halstead, Fanny Wells, Clarissa Burns, Harriet Coon, D. W. Halstead, Thomas Burns, Benjamin Dexter, Benjamin Coon, Cordelia Arnold, Lovissa Baker, Lovissa Halstead, Philena Dexter, Irena Bunnell.

On the 23d of August, the same year, Thomas Burns and Alanson Halstead were elected the first deacons of the church, and they and F. F. Hayden, the present deacon, are the only ones who ever served in that office. D. W. Halstead was elected the first clerk at the same time, and was succeeded in 1858 by S. A. Halstead. From 1859 to 1870 Wright Wells was the clerk, and the next three years D. L. Stevens served in that office. In 1873 James W. Lowry was elected, and has since served, with the ex- ception of one year (1883), when Wright Wells was again the clerk. He is also a trustee of the Abington Association, to which the church belongs.

The Rev. J. L. Richmond was the first pastor of the church, but in 1852 the Rev. J. W. Parker com- menced preaching for one-fourthı his time. Elder Wm, A. Miller began a pastoral relation in 1854, and soon after others supplied the pulpit. In 1860 the Rev. R. J. Lamb was called, and seven years later the Rev. A. O. Stearns began a pastorate which was con- tinued a number of years. The successive ministers have been the Revs. Wm. A. Miller, S. E. Miller, A. N. Whitcomb, R. M. Neill and Wm. James. Since

1 Miss Blackman.

805

CLIFFORD.

1886 the church has had no regular pastor. On the 21st of January, 1854, the Rev. D. W. Halstead was licensed to preach, and frequently exerciscd this gift here and in the neighboring churches. He was zeal- ous of good works, and the early prosperity of the church was greatly promoted by his labors. He sleeps in the cemetery, by the church, but his good works are still held in remembrance.

The first meetings were held in the school-house, but in 1854 the present neat house of worship was erected and lias since been made attractive by re- pairs. It was dedicated May 3, 1855. It is plain frame, with a slate roof, and has several hundred sit- tings. Its interior is very inviting. On the lot a number of horse-sheds have been erected. The prop- erty passed under the control of a board of trustees, which was incorporated January 24, 1855, and which was composed of Alanson Halstead, Thos. Burns, Wright Wells, Martin Buunell, D. W. Halstead and L. B. C. West. Their successors, in 1887, were F. F. Hayden, Geo. H. Hayden, John Burdick, Alden Bur- dick, J. W. Lowry and S. E. Lowry.

The Second Clifford Baptist Church was organized ou the west slope of Elk Hill December 8, 1841, with six male and four female members. Wm. Tripp was chosen deacon, but did not serve long, as death called him to his reward Sept. 7, 1842. The meetings were held in the Brundage school-house, on the Collar road, and worship was statedly maintained, the Rev. Charles Miller being the first minister. Soon after George A. Hogeboom was licensed to preach, and ministered to the church at intervals for seven years. Elder Wm. A. Miller also preached at this place. In 1846 there were sixteen communicants, and the following year Elder Win. McKowan was one of the preachers. In 1848 the church asked to be dropped from the Abington Association, which was not granted. The following year Elders John Miller and Henry Curtis were delegated to visit this and the Herrick Church and ascertain their condition and prospects. They reported that they found them in a state of decline and unable to maintain an existence. On the 1st of December, 1850, the church was dis- solved and the members dispersed among neighboring churches. For many years the north western part of the township had no organized religious body, except the Welsh congregation, but in 1874 an effort was made to form a Free-Will Baptist Society, which was at- tended with some success. A number of members were gathered together and preaching was statedly held by Elders Stone, Fish and Prescott. In 1878 a number of persons who attended these meetings con- nected themselves with the Methodist Church at Clifford, leaving the Free-Will Baptist so few in numbers that the meetings were discontinued. This condition of things prepared the way for the organi- zation of the West Clifford Evangelical Church. In 1879 the Rev. J. W. Hollenbaugh, an itinerant of the Evangelical Association, visited this section and his

preaching was received with so much favor that he was solicited to hold services regularly. An awakened interest made the organization of a class possible, which had among its members G. W. Moore and wife, W. H. Hasbrouck and wife, B. F. Beunett and wife, Thomas N. Doud and wife, Moses Cox and wife, J. R. Bennett and wife, Charles Truesdell and wife. Others were added until, in a short time, about forty persons belonged. This made the erection of a church possible. It was completed for dedication in the fall of 1880, by a building committee, composed of W. H. Hasbrouck, C. D. Ransom and George W. Moore. The church is a frame, thirty-two by forty- two feet, surmounted by a spire, in which is a bell weighing seveu hundred and fifty pounds. The loca- tion is on an eligible lot from the farm of Hasbrouck, at West Clifford hamlet, affording a convenient house of worship for this part of the township. It was erected mainly through the efforts of the pastor, the Rev. Hollenbaugh, who was the preacher until 1880.

Since that time the appointees by the Central Penn- sylvania Conference, of which this church is a part, were the following : 1881, Rev. N. H. Hartman ; 1882-83, Rev. J. W. Messenger ; 1884-86, Rev. B. F. Keller; 1887, Rev. C. D. Moore.

West Clifford charge embraces, besides the above church, preaching appointments in Lenox and Har- ford, the entire membership being about sixty.

CEMETERIES .- One of the first places of interment in the township was ou the hill east of the Baptist Church at Clifford. It is said to contain the remains of twenty persons, and was not used after 1814, when John Robinson was the last person buried there. The graves have long since been obliterated .. Not long after the old ground was abandoned, George Oram set aside three-fourths of an acre lower down the valley, which was enlarged by his sons, after his death, by the addition of several acres. The whole has been inclosed by a substantial stone wall, and beauti- fied by the planting of evergreen and shade-trees. It is a public cemetery and contains many hundred dead. For many years Burgess Smith was the sex- ton, and interred more than four hundred persons. The trustees in 1887 were James Decker, Henry Riv- enburg and Monroe Callender.

On the west side of the brook and along the Car- bondale turnpike is the handsome burial-ground of the " Clifford Valley Cemetery Association." This body was incorporated August 22, 1866, as the Clif- ford Valley Cemetery, on the petition of P. H. Gard- ner, S. E. Miller, Thomas W. Atkinson, W. W. Wallace, William H. Hasbrouck, E. S. Lewis, J. G. Wetherby, J. B. Stephens, John Montgomery, James F. Hodgson and William Lott. The charter was amended in August, 1878, and the name changed to the present title. Four acres of land admirably adapted for the purpose were purchased and im- proved, being laid out into streets, alleys and blocks,

806

HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

twenty by thirty-two feet. The cemetery was in- closed with a stone wall, and many of the walks have been graded. Many of the shares of the Associa- tion's stock have become the property of J. B. Ste- phens. In 1887 the officers of the association were J. G. Wetherby, president ; P. H. Gardner, secretary ; Julius Young, treasurer ; T. W. Atkinson, S. E. Miller and E. R. Gardner, auditors.

In the northeastern part of the township are several private and neighborhood cemeteries, which have been well kept. Among these are the burial-places on the David B. Stevens and Elisha Burdick farms. The former is small, but contains a fine monument. In the latter many interments have been madc. There are also several small cemeteries near the Still- water, all being of a private nature.

CHAPTER LI.

DUNDAFF BOROUGH.

THE borough of Dundaff is located on the high lands near the southeastern part of the county, one mile northwest from Crystal Lake, seven miles in the same course from Carbondale, and twenty-four miles southeast from Montrose. In the best days of the New Milford and Owego turnpike it was one of the most thriving villages on that thoroughfare, and sus- tained a relation of importance to this part of the State which was not excelled by any other place in the county. Its early residents were enterprising and ambitious men, whose aspiration in 1820 contem- plated the formation of a new county, of which the then embryotic village of Dundaff should become the county-seat. In later years the village had all the interests common to prosperous towns of that period, including factories, newspaper, bank and an academy (as is related in these pages), and exerted an influence which caused it to be widely known. But it is diffi- cult to overcome natural obstacles when competing towns, in addition to the advantages of location, re- ceive the impetus connected with extensive transpor- tation facilities. In such an uneven struggle it is with towns, as with men, a question of the survival of the fittest. The one contending against the modern railway must go to the wall. Notwithstanding the efforts of the place to avert such a fate, the decline began in the second decade of the history of Dundaff, and after 1840 the claims of the newer town of Car- bondale to become the business centre of this part of the State were fully conceded. Each succeeding decennial census showed a diminished population and the departure of quickening interests, with no new life to take the places of those who had been rendered inactive by age. From being one of the foremost places, Dundaff has descended to occupy the position of a small county trading point, whose enhaucing

feature is the beauty of its rural surroundings. The scenic attractions of Crystal Lake and the hills of Clifford have caused Dundaff to become a popular summer resort, and the presence of hundreds of visi- tors lends animation to a place whose appearance otherwise indicates neglect and decay. The popula- tion of the village at different periods was as follows : 1830, two hundred and ninety-eight; 1840, three hundred and four; 1850, two hundred and ninety- six; 1860, two hundred and forty-five; 1870, one hun- dred and eighty-seven; 1880, one hundred and seventy-one. In 1887 there were about one hundred and fifty inhabitants, three churches (two only oc- cupied), a good hotel, several summer resorts, two stores and several shops.

The first clearing on the site of Dundaff was made as early as 1799 by Benjamin Bucklin. He made a small opening in the forests, but did not bring in bis family until the summer of 1803. At that time he became the first permanent resident, occupying the house which he had built on the side of the hill, east of the present Presbyterian Church. His sons, War- ren and Albigence, lived with their father, and the latter son afterwards occupied the pioneer home, which he sold to James Coil in 1813. The elder Bucklin built a saw-mill on the brook, in the lower part of the village, which was the first in the township, but was never in successful operation. He returned to the Mohawk Valley in 1813 and his sons moved to Ohio in the course of a few years. During their resi- dence here, a man by the name of Hulse made an improvement on the outlet of Newton Lake, a little above the present grist-mill, removing at an early day.

James Coil lived in the Bucklin house several years, following his occupation as a farmer and drover. In the rear of the building several of the early settlers were buried, but this graveyard and the old log house have long since disappeared from view. But the site of the latter is indicated by the remains of the fire- place. Coil soon after built a small house on the site of the present hotel, in which he opened a tavern. Later, he improved lands at Crystal Lake. His son James bought a tract of land within the limits of the present borough in August, 1816, and others made purchases of adjoining tracts the same time. Trans- fers of these properties were soon after made, Asa Dimock, Jr., becoming the owner of a tract in 1817, which afterwards passed to Nathan Callender, and was improved by him.

In 1816 Redmond Conyngham began making pur- chases of lands in this locality, adding to his posses- sions, in 1819, such tracts as made him the owner of most of the real estate south of the road which had been cut out the previous year to Crystal Lake, and which later became the Milford turnpike. The same year (1819) Peter Graham purchased about five hun- dred acres of land on the north side of the road, including the land on which the Bucklin house had been built. He was a merchant in Philadelphia, but

807

DUNDAFF.

made some improvements, which he placed in charge of his farmer, Peter Campbell, a Scotchman. Graham spent his summers ou his farm and contributed much to the early prosperity of the place. The site of the homestead is now occupied by the residence of O. T. Hull, and is within the limits of the borough. An- other portion of this tract is included in the farm on which George Graham resides, and which has been highly improved by Howard Spencer as "The Grange." Before 1825 some of this land, bordering on the turn- pike, was set aside for village lots, but the beginning was made on the Conyngham lauds.

Redmond Conyngham resided at Wilkes-Barre; but having great faith in the future of this section, he here made extensive investments and projected many improvements. Iu 1820 he laid out the village on his lands along the turnpike, which he called Dun- daff. This name was suggested by his friend, Peter Graham, in honor of Dundaff Castle, in Scotland, the home of Sir William the Graeme, who was a com- panion-in-arms of Sir William Wallace. But prior to this the Corners had become a business place. In 1818 Asa Dimock had a store opposite the Coil tavern, which was kept that year by his son Warren, who had come with him from Herrick. The assured con- struction of the Owego and Milford turnpike, and the inducements held out by Redmond Conyngham for settlers to locate in his village, attracted many people to Dundaff, a number of whom became per- manent residents. Though a beginning had scarcely been made, a brilliant future was predicted for the new town, as may be learned from an account of a celebration held at Dundaff on the 4th of July, 1820: "Toasts being in order George Haines, Esq., pro- posed, 'May the pleasant hills of Dundaff become the seat of justice.' "

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

Centennial history of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, Part 160

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