Centennial history of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, Part 162

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

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Warner were appointed the building committee. The frame of the church was raised April 18, 1826, but the house was not completed for dedication until April 13, 1827. On the same day the pews were rented, but few of the fifty seats remaining unsold. In later years they were nearly all occupied, and their sale was a source of revenue to maintain regular ser- vices. This house stood on the rear of the lot, and, until 1833, was without a spire. The building was provided with one about that time, and a bell placed in it, which was one of the oldest in America. It was cast at Amsterdam in 1603, and after being used in Europe and New Jersey a number of years, was brought to Dundaff by Gould Phinny. It was small and slightly cracked, but served the wants of the community well until its destruction by the fire which consumed the church on the night of Oct. 8, 1853. This fire was the work of an incendiary and caused great excitement in the borough. The Council offered a reward of two hundred and fifty dollars for the con- viction of the person committing the act, but no ap- prehension followed. The work of rebuilding was soon after commenced, under the direction of Elder Jaman H. Phelps, and on the 27th of May, 1855, the new edifice was formally dedicated by the Rev. Sid- ney Ward, of Carbondale. It is remembered that on this occasion the weather was very inclement, the ground being covered with several inches of snow. The edifice was placed near the road, where, from its position, it is a most conspicuous object for many miles around. It is a frame building, with spire and bell, and there are sittings for several hundred people. On the 21st of January, 1853, the church became an incorporated body, with E. O. Ward, Thomas P. Phinny, C. C. Church, Elisha Phinny, Miles B. Ben- edict, Henry C. Healey, Thomas Arnold, Chauncy Smith, Thomas H. Phinny, Jaman H. Phelps, J. B. Slocum and Alanson Yarrington as incorporators. Within the past dozen years the church has been but little used, and it begins to show the signs of neglect from want of occupancy. On the 26th of April, 1826, the Susquehanna Presbytery met at Dundaff, and in- stalled the Rev. Charles Thompson as the first pastor of the church, a relation he sustained until the sum- mer of 1828, when he returned to the East. His sal- ary was considered liberal, being three hundred and fifty dollars per year. In the last year of his pastor- ate, the following persons were pew-holders in the church, paying a rental of from two dollars to eight dollars per year : James Rolles, Peter F. Ball, Wm. Sillsbee, Sloane Hamilton, Hugh Fell, Horace G. Phelps, Peter Graham, Otis Severance, Goodwin Baker, Charles H. Wells, William Mason, James Tinker, Asher Peck, D. D. Spencer, H. H. Ellis, Ezra Steward, Gould Phinny, Stephen Hodgson, William Terbell, Benjamin Ayres, Solomon Williams, Richard Meredith, J. V. Mapes, Peter Hopkins, James Coil, William Wells, Peter Rivenburg, George W. Healey, Joshua Fletcher, Philip I. Stewart, Arthur Smith,

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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

Anson Rogers, Reuben Arnold, Win. Johnson, Luke Harding, Captain Burns, James Warren, Dilton Yar- rington, William Coleman, Earl Wheeler, Jesse B. Dills, John W. Wells, Mrs. Hawver.

In the early part of 1831 James Adams became the minister, and after an interval of a few years, in which there was preaching by supplies, the Rev. J. M. Babbitt became the pastor. At this time the rul- ing elders were Jaman H. Phelps, Dilton Yarrington and James Brundage. Miles B. Benedict was elected elder April 13, 1842, and, at the same meeting, the Rev. E. O. Ward was installed as the pastor of the church. He had commenced preaching the preceding fall as a licentiate, and served with great acceptance. His ministry extended over a period of twelve years, and was marked by the growth of the congregation and its activity in church-work. In 1846 there were eighty communicants, and two years later the maxi- mum number, eighty-nine, was reported. Within the next few years a steady decline began, owing to removals, and when the Methodist and Episcopal Churches were organized, after 1850, the number was still further diminished. In 1854 the Rev. George N. Todd became the last regular pastor of the church, his ministry continuing several years. The debt resting upon the new church and the depression which followed the decline of the village hastened the suspension of the services, and for a number of years occasional meetings only were held, until 1869, when they were practically discontinued. In 1845 Abel Flynt was elected an elder, and Aug. 1, 1869, Joel Stevens was ordained to that office in place of Elder J. H. Phelps, who removed to Scranton. The last session meeting appears to have been held Aug. 9, 1869.

DUNDAFF METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH .- AS early as 1833 the few Methodists living at Dundaff were formed into a class which embraced Horace G. Phelps, Benajah P. Bailey and half a dozen other members from the Wilbur and King families, and preaching services were held at long intervals. The old school-house was first occupied, but, in 1839, a lot was purchased from Dilton Yarrington, east from the brook, on the rear end of which was built, that year, a plain frame meeting-house, which was placed in charge of Trustees Philip I. Stewart, Stephen Hodgson, Richard Meredith, William H. Slocum, George W. Fish and William Wilbur. The building occupied that site until 1872, when a lot was secured on the Main Street, and it was moved front and placed in repair. In 1882 it was remodeled at an outlay of six hundred dollars, and the spire built, in which was placed a bell, the gift of Henry O. Wilbur, of Phila- delphia, who presented it in honor of the long mem- bership of his parents, William and Arminda Wilbur. It is a small but inviting edifice, and August 6, 1885, passed under the control of an incorporated board of trustees, composed of R. P. Christopher, Thomas Halstead, William Wilbur, George M. Rogers, J. H.

Littell, Luther Wells and Henry Sullender. The church has had a membership which ebbed and flowed with the business life of the village. After 1850 a new class was organized, with the following members : Alfred Thompson, leader ; Charlotte Norton, Ann Hodgson, Lydia A. King, Arminda Wilbur, Mary Meredith, Elizabeth Tripp, Adaline Gardner and Harriet Thompson. In 1860 William Meredith became the leader. The removal of many members in recent years has again diminished the membership, leaving but sixteen in 1887. The church has sustained many circuit relations, and has never had an independent pastorate ; but, for many years, the field of Methodist labor in the southeastern part of the county was known by the name of Dundaff Circuit, which em- braced appointments in half a dozen townships. Later relations were sustained with Dundaff, Her- rick and Uniondale. The present minister is the Rev. J. H. Littell, of the Uniondale Circuit.

ST. JAMES CHAPEL, PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL .- The services of the Episcopal Church were held at Dundaff as early as 1835, the Rev. Samuel Marks and other clergymen occasionally preaching. The former billiard-room of Colonel Gould Phinny was used as a place of worship at first; but later services, con- ducted by the rectors of Trinity Church, of Carbon- dale, were held in the Presbyterian Church, to the erection of which the Episcopalians had contributed liberally. In this building was formally organized the parish of St. James, November 19, 1855, when the following vestry was chosen : C. C. Church, William H. Slocum, wardens; Elisha Phinny, Thomas P. Phinny, Thomas Graham, Dr. Ira Goodrich, Benja- min Ayres and Thomas Arnold, vestrymen. Rector A. Beatty, of the Trinity Church, Carbondale, preach- ed in the new parish until May, 1856, when the Rev. John A. Jerome became the first rector and served the parish three years. He was a Low Churchinan, and his sermons attracted large congregations. In May, 1859, the Rev. John H. Drumm became the rec- tor, and continued until he went to the war, as a chaplain, October, 1861. Under his direction the work of building a chapel was begun, in 1860, as it was deemed best for the parish to have a house of worship exclusively its own. Thomas P. Phinny donated a fine lot near his residence for this purpose, when Bishop Samuel Bowman removed the first sod for the foundation of the building, June 13, 1860. The corner-stone was laid by the rector sixteen days later, the sermon being preached in the Methodist Church. Before the close of the season work was sus- pended on the chapel, and for more than a year it was in an unfinished condition. Finally, through the zealous efforts of a few members, it was so far com- pleted that Bishop Stevens held services in it Novem- ber 4,.1862, the Rev. S. D. Day being at that time the acting rector. But it was not until May 11, 1872, that the chapel was formally consecrated, the Rev. Bishop Howe officiating. It is a substantial frame

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edifice, in the Gothic style of architecture, having a capacity for several hundred people. In 1878 a bell was secured and the following year a furnace sup- plied.

The Rev. S. D. Day was succeeded as rector by the Rev. A. H. Cull, but soon after the Rev. Horatio C. Howard became the rector and served the parish un- til 1879. The following year the Rev. John Scott succeeded him and remained until the fall of 1885. The Rev. F. H. Stricker was the next and last rector of the parish, discontinuing his services in the fall of 1886.

Owing to removals, the communicants of the par- ish have become few in number, and services are held only occasionally, but there are prospects of reviving interest. In 1882 a full vestry was elected, and was composed of T. P. Phinny, rector's warden ; Nelson Coleman, church warden ; John Rivenburg, William Johnson, J. C. Olmstead, O. P. Phinny, George Gra- ham, A. H. Ayres, Jason H. Wells and Henry Brownell.

Within the limits of the borough are the public cemetery and the Ayres burial lot. Both are well kept. The former has a retired, peaceful location, and is maintained by the community at large.

CHAPTER LII.

HERRICK TOWNSHIP.

As originally erected from parts of Gibson and Clifford in May, 1825, this township was a right-an- gled parallelogram, extending north and south, along the Wayne County line, eight miles, and four and a half miles from east to west. This area was retained until 1852, when three miles of its territory on the north were taken off to form Ararat township. It is thus one of the eastern border townships, the second from the south and the fourth from the north. The township was named in honor of Judge Edward Her- rick, at that time presiding over the courts of the county.

The surface of Herrick is elevated, the general level being about two thousand feet, and has but few points lower than eighteen hundred feet. In the south west- ern corner is the North Knob of Elk Mountain, with an elevation of twenty-seven hundred feet, which is the highest known point in this part of the State. Extending north and forming, as it were, the west wall of the township, is a range of the Tunkhannock Mountain; and along the Wayne County line is a similar wall, formed by a range of the Moosic Moun- tain. The upper part of the township is a continua- tion of the table-lands of Ararat, and is cold and swampy in some localities, conditions which favored the growth of immense forests of hemlock trees, for

which this section was noted. Here are the sources of the East Branch of the Tunkhannock, which drains the western part of the township, having a general southeasterly course and passing into Clifford near the centre of the south line. The volume is small, and has been greatly diminished since the country has been cleared up. Near the centre is Low Lake, the largest body of water in the township. It is nearly a mile long, but less than one-fourth of a mile wide, and has a small outlet which passes through Lewis Lake, a smaller sheet of water, several miles southeast and just above Uniondale. At this place the outlet of the latter lake has superior water privi- leges, descending rapidly over ledges of rock until it falls into the Lackawanna. Both lakes were named for early settlers in their vicinity, the former for Jolin N. Low, who lived and died on the Price place prior to 1814; the latter for David N. Lewis, who owned this body of water in early days. The Lackawanna rises in Ararat and passcs -into Herrick a slender stream, but, taking the waters of many brooks, attains considerable volume before flowing into the "Still- water," in Clifford. Its course is almost due south.

The soil of the lower half of the township is quite fertile, and some good farms have been made. In the northern part the cereals do not grow so well, but grass grows luxuriantly where the country has been well cleared up. It was originally very heavily tim- bered. Along the hills in the southeastern part are surface indications of anthracite coal, and it is claimed that the Forest City vein may here be found, though at a much lower depth. In the spring of 1887 an effort was made to ascertain the correctness of this belief by means of a bore-hole, and in April, 1887, such a hole was being drilled.

The building of the Jefferson Branch Railway in 1871 opened a new era in the history of the township, and thenceforth its development was much more rapid. It traverses Herrick north and south, east of the centre, and has stations at Herrick Centre and at Uniondale. The " Brace " road was one of the first thoroughfares in the township, and was opened for travel as early as 1791. Its course is not definitely remembered, as it was abandoned at a very early day. In a general way it can be obscurely traced from a point below the village of Uniondale northwest to what was afterwards the Newburg turnpike. Before passing out of the township, into what is now Gib- son, it ran parallel with the new road a mile or more, and within half a mile of it. From all accounts it was not much used after the new road was opened, and most of the houses which had been built on it were taken down and rebuilt on the more favorably located highway. Some of the old citizens remem- ber seeing the bridges on the old " Brace " road, long after other traces of the road had disappeared. A road to Great Bend from Northampton County was located on the following petition, and confirmed in April, 1799: "To begin at the line of said county,

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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

where the road crosses said line, and run west to the third Lackawanna bridge, thence to Abel Kent's, thence to Asahel Gregory, thence to Johnson's Creek, thence to D. Church's, thence to Tunkhannock Creek, thence to Joseph Potter's, thence to old Brace road, thence to David Hamilton's, then to Daniel Hunt's, then to Daniel Leach's, then nearly west to Salt Lick, then to R. Corbett's, then north six miles to the ferry Great Bend-23 miles."

When the Newburg turnpike was located it fol- lowed the general course of the above road. The Wilkes-Barre turnpike, better known as Lyon Street, is the principal road running north and south.

THE EARLY SETTLERS .- It is said that Nathaniel Holdridge was the first settler of Herrick, living here as early as 1789, but removing soon after to Great Bend. No account of any improvement he made could be obtained. About 1791 a number of perma- nent settlers came, among them being Abel Kent and his brother Gideon and their families, Asahel Greg- ory and family, Jonas and Sylvanus Campbell and two hunters named Church and Hale. The latter followed their calling successfully, as the woods at that time abounded with game. It does not appear that they made any substantial improvements and they may have removed at an early day.

The stay of the Campbells was somewhat longer, Jonas remaining at least twenty years. In the course of time he married a daughter of J. C. Awalt, a Hes- sian soldier who came to Herrick before 1800. He located on the road to Mount Pleasant, near the county line, and had a large family. A child of Campbell's, two years old, was drowned by falling in a spring in June, 1811, and was the first person buried in the cemetery at Uniondale.

The Kents settled on the old " Brace " road, west of where the Wilkes-Barre turnpike crossed it, and about a mile south of the Newburg turnpike. Abel, Jr., opened and kept a tavern on the present Thomas farm as early as 1798. He died in 1806. He had brothers named John and Carlton. The sons of Gideon were Gideon, Jr., and Durham. The older members of the family died and others removed to the Lake country. The Carlton Kent mentioned later on was a son of Abel, Jr. From their being so numerous, this section of the township was known many years as the " Kent Settlement." The family name is not perpetuated among the present residents of the township. John Kent was the first settler of what afterwards became known as Dimock's Corners.

Asahel Gregory, who also had lived on the old road, then moved up to the turnpike, about half a mile west of John Kent. He was the first justice of the peace in this section. His career was an active one for the times, in the hardships of which he had a full share. He brought his family down the Susque- hanna River to the Bend on a raft, and when their destination was reached he built a log hut, peeled bark to shelter the bed, and took possession. Mr.

Gregory lived in Herrick over forty years, when he removed to the residence of his son Samuel, in Bridgewater, where he died April, 1842, at the age of eighty-three. He was a Revolutionary pensioner. His remains rest in the burial-lot on Dr. Asa Park's old place. Hubbel Gregory, his son, had a small store, about 1820, near his father's residence in Her- rick. He removed to Michigan and died at Ann Arbor, in the seventy-second year of his age.

South from these Walter Lyon settled in 1792. He was a native of Massachusetts, and the son of a Rev- olutionary soldier, killed at the battle of Trenton. Before removing to this county he had lived in Ash- ford, Conn., from which place he started early in the spring with his wife, Mary (Bishop), and daughter Hannah, nine months old, on a rude sled drawn by a yoke of steers. His wife's step-father, a Mr. Green, accompanied them, carrying a pair of steelyards and driving a heifer-all their worldly goods. His brother and family, on their way to Genesee County, N. Y., were in their company as far as the Susquehanna River. Finding sleighing difficult, at this point he made a canoe out of a tree, in which he placed his wife, child and Mr. Green and sent them down the river to Great Bend, proceeding thence over the land with the cattle to meet them at that point. Here he loaded up his family and drove to the tract of four hundred acres he had bought, and on which he had built a cabin the preceding summer. He subse- quently purchased a number of hundred acres more in the same neighborhood and settled all his sons around him, along what became known as Lyon Street. Walter Lyon was a person of great energy of character, and well fitted to be a pioneer. " In early times he was obliged to take his grain to Great Bend on his back, and return with his grist in the same manner. Once, when the water was low, he was obliged to wait for his grist three weeks; and, not wishing to make a second journey, he hired out to husk corn. In the mean time, his family had only potatoes and milk to eat, and were in great fear for his safety, as his route lay through. forests then tra- versed by bears, panthers and wolves, and broken by only a few clearings. He was an active man in town- ship and county affairs, being a justice of the peace, a major in the Seventy-sixth Regiment Pennsylvania Militia and a county commissioner, besides being often intrusted with other public business."1 He had a large family, including sons named Wheeler, Jacob, John, Henry and Walter, and daughters who married Colonel Asa Dimock, M. Mumford, E. Free- man, Nathan Cottrell, Alanson Read and David N. Lewis. Walter Lyon, Sr., died in 1838, aged sixty- eight, but his wife survived him until 1854. The homestead is now occupied by Charles W. Lyon, a son of Wheeler. Lafayette, George H. and Walter E. are sons of Jacob Lyon, living in the county. Giles

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HERRICK.

H. Lyon, a son of John, now occupies his father's homestead. Frank, a son of Henry, lives in the county ; but no children of Walter, Jr., remained in Susquehanna. A son, James W., living at Guelph, Canada, has become a celebrated book publisher.

Jacob Lyon, Sr., was a colonel of the "Washington Guards," a volunteer battalion of State militia. "He was honest, patriotic, intelligent, public-spirited and generous." In late years many members of the Lyon family have removed from the township, and the de- scendants are not near as numerous as formerly.

Luke Harding came about 1800 from the State of Massachusetts, and settled north of Walter Lyon, on the farm now owned by Charles R., a grandson, and a son of Elisha, who also lived on this place. An- other son was Luke, who lived on Elk Mountain, where he reared one daughter, who became the wife of Artemas Carpenter. Addison C. Harding, a son of Elisha, lives at Herrick Centre.

In 1805 Joseph Sweet settled at what is now Her- rick Centre, but sold and moved away in 1815, Ezra Newton becoming the owner of part of the farm. He kept a pioneer tavern at that point.

Asa Dimock, an older brother of Elder Davis Dimock, came from Pittston in March, 1807, and mnoved into a house of one room, on the old " Brace" road, in the Kent neighborhood. At this time his family consisted of a wife and four children. In 1811, after the turnpike was finished, he moved up to the neighborhood which afterwards became known as "Dimock's Corners." But the post-office estab- lished here in 1826 was called "Dimockville," and so remained until it was discontinued, in 1845. Of this office Warren Dimmock, a son of Asa, was the first postmaster. Asa Dimock was a blacksmith, and built a shop near his residence, where he carried on his trade. He was the postmaster of an office here as early as 1815. He also carried the United States mail from Chenango Point to Newburg, on the Hudson River, once a week, sometimes on horse- back, and sometimes in a single wagon or cutter.

"I recollect," says his son Shubael, now of Wis- consin, "his coming home from Newburg with the mail, flying a white flag from a pole stuck up in his cutter, with the word 'Peace" inscribed on it in large letters. This, at the close of the war with Eng- land, caused great excitement along the road.

" Often have I heard the panther scream and the wolf howl in the wilderness around us, and seen the scalps brought to my father, to secure to the success- ful huntsman a certificate for the bounty allowed for them. I recollect an old hunter (Wademan) once came in my father's absence, and, while waiting for his return, he took out from his knapsack some nice white-looking meat to eat for his dinner, and, at the same time, invited us to taste it. I was the only one who accepted the invitation, and then he told us it was the meat of the panther he had kille !. "

In 1818 Asa Dimock removed to Dundaff, where

his son, Warren, kept tavern a short time, then re- turned to the Corners. Nine years later, Asa Dim- ock, Sr., lived with his son, Shubael, in Lenox, where he died in 1883, when this son also returned to Herrick, but later moved to Wisconsin. No descend- ants of this family remain in the township, and the Dimmicks of this part of the county, as the spelling of their names indicates, belong to another family. They are the descendants of Captain Edward Dim- mick, a Revolutionary soldier, who came in Septem- ber, 1807, from Mansfield, Conn., to improve three hundred acres of land, which he had bought of Thomas Meredith. This land was west of John Con- rad Awalt, and south of the present Presbyterian Church, at Uniondale.

The following spring he brought in his family, consisting of sons named Martial, Eber, Joshua T., Shubael and Edward, and daughters named Eunice, Esther and Abigail F. He lived and died on the present Shubael Carpenter place. He was a mason by trade, and built many of the large chimneys of the first houses. In the winter he made shoes, and also carried on a tannery on a small scale. He died in September, 1836, aged eighty-eight years.

The oldest son, Martial, married Oshea Smith, and lived on the Martial O. Dimmick place until his death, March 25, 1879, at the age of eighty-eight years. His sons were Martial O., Elmer D., Sidney D., Francis M. and Addison. Of the early days at Unionville, Martial Dimmick said, in his reminis- cences: "In July, 1808, towards night, there came a thunder-shower, which continued till near midnight ; and, although I have lived here sixty-two years, I have never seen, I think, half as much water in the Lackawanna, at one time, as there was the next day. It swept bridges and all before it to its mouth. Everything in our little cabin was as wet as though it had been dipped in the sea. In June, 1809, I went to the Chenango River, five miles above its mouth, to one Mr. Crocker's, and brought three bushels of corn on horseback, between forty and fifty miles, as none could be obtained nearer. But what a change has taken place in the sixty-two years since I came to this section ! Then it was woods, woods, all around, abounding with wild animals, and these were really necessary for food for the inhabitants. One could shoot and kill a large fat buck that would weigh about two hundred pounds, and nice wild tur- keys that weighed twenty-one pounds dressed, or catch them in traps, as I have done. The Lacka- wanna Creek, passing right through the settlement, swarmed with speckled trout. Surely these were almost the staff of life, for bread was often scarce ; but this game has passed away, and the time which made it necessary.

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Centennial history of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, Part 162

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