Centennial history of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, Part 34

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 34

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SUSQUEHANNA .- The large and flourishing town where the shops of the New York and Erie Railroad are located may well be called the banner-town of the county. The first union was organized April 18, 1874. The first officers were Mrs. William Emery, president; Mrs. Judson Cook, vice-president ; Miss Casteline, secretary ; Mrs. Griswold, treasurer. "Working and praying and praying and working " has been their motto from the first. A large number of men employed in the shops and along the line found at the headquarters of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union many warm friends and encouraging words. The young ladies were very active. They were twice burned out, but succeeded in keeping their or- ganization, literature, reading-room, etc., in good order for work. Bands of Hope were sustained for the children. In the winter of 1887, J. Will McConnell spent three weeks in earnest temperance work under the auspices of the Union. He was sustained by the pastors of tlie churches and the best people in the community. As a result, about thirteen hundred persons signed the pledge, and to many it was the be- ginning of a better life. Mr. McConnell re-

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TEMPERANCE.

ceived three hundred and ten dollars for his services ; all expenses were paid, and fifteen dollars left for the treasury of the Women's Christian Temperance Union.

A Law and Order League was formed, and a fund of three thousand five hundred dollars was subseribed to carry on the work. A public sentiment was educated which says, "The sa- loon must go." The present officers of the Union are,-President, Mrs. J. Barnes ; Vice- President, Mrs. Carrie W. Cook; Treasurer, Mrs. Levi Page ; Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. Lizzie Cook.

The county officers are, - President, Mrs. Judge Cook ; the vice-presidents are the presi- dents of the several local unions ; Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. J. Barnes; Treasurer, Mrs. Emma Perkins.

Superintendents of Departments. - Sunday- school work, Mrs. S. B. Chase, Great Bend ; legislative and legal work, Mrs. Henry Warner, Montrose (formerly of Great Bend) ; jail work, Miss E. C. Blackman, Montrose; Sabbath ob- servance, Mrs. Lizzie Cook, Susquehanna ; mothers' meetings, Mrs. Levi Page, Susque- hanna ; scientific instruction, Mrs. U. B. Gillett, Gibson ; temperance literature, Mrs. Dr. L. A. Smith, New Milford; influencing the press, Mrs. C. Hawley, Montrose.

The writer of this article being interested that our taxpayers of the county should know something of the expense of crime caused by intemperance, subjoins the following statement, obtained from the county officers, the burgess of Great Bend (where the crime was committed), and from State reports of prison expenses.

On the night of November 9, 1884, Theodore Gillen was murdered in a saloon, and his body placed upon the railroad track. The following will show the expense of " one night in a saloon :"

Commonwealth

vs.

Patrick Winters,

Thomas Driscoll,

Indictments. Murder and Accessory to it.

and

Valdine Wilmot.

COSTS OF PROSECUTION.

Witness bill, April 18, 1885 $168.43

. August 15, 1885 . 173.20

" November 13, 1885 101.15

Costs of Justice's Court, District Attorney,

Clerk of Court and Coroner's Inquest . . 100.00

Detectives' bill 215.00

Cost of four days' session in April, 1885 400.00 = " August, 1885 400.00

two November, 1885 200.00

Extra expenses in bringing witnesses outside

the Commonwealth, and incidentals thereto 200.00 Cost of transporting prisoners to penitentiary 143.00

Expenses to borough of Great Bend, not paid by county . 985.00

Board of prisoners in jail 423.00

penitentiary 1700.00

Total

$5204.80

This report was published in the county at the time, and accepted as correct.

GOOD TEMPLARS .- The Independent Order of Good Templars had fifty lodges and five thousand members in the county at one time. There are only a few of these lodges in active operation now, but take the order throughout the world, and it is larger now than it ever was before. Previous to the War of the Rebellion a number of the States had cnacted prohibitory laws ; during the war most of these laws were repcaled, and the excitement consequent to a soldier's life, with its demoralizing tendencies, affected cvery neighborhood in the land. The old temperance organizations, such as Wasling- tonians and Sons of Temperance, were nearly all disbanded. At this crisis the Good Tem- plars' Order was instituted, and it spread rapidly throughout the Union. It admitted women and enlisted them in this great work, and although most of the Good Templars' lodges have surrendered their charters, the influence of this organization still lives and is bearing fruit in the increased interest which is being mani- fested in the temperance question throughout the land. The Prohibition party of Susque- hanna County polled 472 votes for St. John in 1884, 550 for Wolfe in 1886, and 934 for W. C. Tilden; but the vote for the Prohibition can- didates does not indicate the temperance senti- ment of the county by any means. Both of her Representatives and State Senator voted to sub- mit a prohibitory constitutional amendment to the people, and they represent a large majority of the voters of the county, regardless of the old party lincs. We close this temperance

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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

chapter with a biographical sketch of Hon. Simeon B. Chase, of Great Bend, who was prominently connected with the Good Templars for many years, and whose wife is now promi- nently identified with the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.

HON. SIMEON B. CHASE was born at Gib- son, Susquehanna County, April 18, 1828. He is a descendant of English ancestry that settled in New England in the pioneer days of our country's history. Aquila Chase (1618-70), one of three brothers that came from Cheshire' England, in 1639, settled in Hampton, N. H., and had a family of eleven children. Thomas, one of these children, married Rebecca Follans- bee; their son, Elder Daniel Chase (1770-1850), came to Jackson township in 1816, and subse- quently resided in Windsor, N. Y., and Mt. Pleasant, Wayne County, Pa. He was a well- known Baptist elder, who preached and engaged in missionary work in this section of the country. He married Catharine Fillbrook, and of their seven children, Amasa (1805-76) married, in 1827, Sarah, daughter of Samuel and Hannah (Coleman) Guile, a settler of Har- ford township, where the family history will be found. He did not remove with his parents, but remained in Harford, where he learned the tanner's trade of Gaius Moss. Simeon B., their only son, attended the common schools of the county, and by teaching school in the winter to earn the means, together with diligence in his studies at all times, he prepared himself for ad- mission into Hamilton College, where he was graduated with honors in 1851. He partially defrayed his collegiate education by acting as deputy prothonotary. His industrious, perse- vering efforts at this time, and throughout his career, in fact, illustrate the power of self-help, a prominent characteristic in many of our most illustrious men. He read law with F. B. Streeter, and was admitted to the bar of Sus- quehanna County in 1851. He was a Demo- crat, and, in connection with his brother, E. B. Chase, edited the Montrose Democrat for four years, commencing with 1851. In 1856 he, with other Free-Soil Democrats, assisted in forming the Republican party, and became at once a leading and influential member. He

was chairman of the convention of 1856, that nominated David Wilmot for Governor, and has been chairman of the Committee on Nomi- nations once since. He was elected Representa- tive to the State Legislature in the years 1856, '57, '58, '59. Here he took high rank, occupy- ing the position of chairman of the Ways and Means, Judiciary and other important commit- tees. He was a prominent candidate for Speaker one term, though not elected ; he occu- pied the Speaker's chair most of the session, on account of the protracted illness of the Speaker- elect. Thoroughly familiar with parliamentary law, self-possessed, firm, an excellent speaker and of commanding and agreeable address, he presides with dignity and ease over the most turbulent bodies, always preserving order and decorum during the most exciting discussions. As a presiding officer he probably has no supe- rior in the State. In 1868 the Good Templars employed him to give his entire time to the temperance work, and probably no more fitting selection could have been made, for he signed the Washingtonian pledge when but nine years of age and has ever kept it inviolate. He also worked with the Sons of Temperance from 1850 to 1853, and with the Good Templars from that time forward. Always a master-spirit, he at once took and kept a controlling position among his co-workers, and has held many important positions in the Order of Good Templars. He was presiding officer of either State or Na- tional Lodges almost continuously for about twenty years from 1856, and attended every session of the R. W. G. L. of North America, over which he presided for five consecutive years. He was Grand Worthy Chief Templar of the State of Pennsylvania for seven years, and discharged the duties of his office with ability and dignity. His reputation thus be- came extended beyond his home surroundings, throughout the State and nation. Mr. Chase commenced to make temperance speeches when he was only sixteen years old, and his clarion voice has rung ont in opposition to the traffic ever since. Since 1872 Mr. Chase has acted with the Prohibition party and was president of the first National Convention of that party when James Black, of Pennsylvania, was nomi-

Simeon B. Chease

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GENERAL EDUCATION.

nated for President of the United States. He was candidate for Governor on the Prohibition ticket in 1872, for judge of the Supreme Court in 1878 and from the Bucks, Lehigh and Northampton district for Congress in 1886.

Mr. Chase is a polished writer and has writ- ten much that has had an extended influence. His "Digest and Treatise on Parliamentary Law," which has passed through many editions and has had a large circulation in Europe as well as America, became a standard work in the Good Templars' Order. "Good of the Order " and " Manual of Good Templarism," for "Mills' Temperance Annual," are among his well-known works.

He is the author of the ritual of the Grand Lodge of the order. He was connected with the banking business at Great Bend and New Milford for a few years, and is now practicing law at Easton, Pa., although he continues to make his residence at Great Bend, where he usually spends Saturday and Sunday. He is a Presbyterian and an elder in the church and was twice commissioner to the General Assembly of the United States. He has also been superin- tendent of the Sunday-school for many years. He was married, May 1, 1851, to Miss Fanny Du Bois, daughter of Abraham and Juliet (Bowes) Du Bois. Mrs. Chase is a worthy com- panion of hier distinguished husband and has contributed her full share to the success of the temperance cause. She was active with her husband from 1854 until 1874. She was dele- gate to the National Convention in 1874 in Cleveland, Ohio, which organized the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and was chosen vice-president for Pennsylvania, and the same winter called and presided over the con- vention that organized, and was the first presi- dent of, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union in Pennsylvania. She held the office of president for five years thereafter, and has been State superintendent of the Sunday-school de- partment of their work ever since. Mrs. Chase is the author of a book on Good Templar work entitled " Derry's Lake," which has been repub- lished in Edinburgh and London. She also wrote the three degrees, " Faith, Hopeand Char- ity " in the Good Templars' Ritual, which have

been translated into eighteen different languages and are still in use. Their children are Nicho- las Du Bois, 1852, a lawyer in Easton, Pa. ; Martha Ellen, who died at the age of twenty- one ; Emmett C., 1858; George A., 1862; Marcella, Simeon and Catharine died in child- hood.

CHAPTER XV.

GENERAL EDUCATION.

Pioneer Schools-Public Schools-Academies-County Institutes-Su- perintendents and Teachers.

THE earliest settlers of Susquehanna County, coming as they did from Connecticut, Massachu- setts, Vermont and Eastern New York, were people who highly appreciated that basal truth, " Knowledge is Power."

At that early period, amid their trials and sacrifices, they organized and sustained common schools of a valuable character. Next to their reverence for the God of their religion, perhaps, was their desire for knowledge; and few were the localities which had not at least one man or woman who was energetic in establishing a pub- lic school.

Of necessity, the school buildings were rude and simple in style. They were built of logs ; the scholars sat on slab benches with faces towards the writing tables and their backs toward the centre of the room. The fire-place occupied one end of the building, and logs were used for fuel to warm the school-room.

Not a few of the early teachers undertook the preparation of this fuel as a healthy morning exercise. Pupils often traveled more than three miles to school. Many New England customs, religious and social, were firmly established by the early settlers; also the New England method of teaching. Teachers were seldom educated specially for the business, however; but the best educated among the farmers and mechanics often spent a part of each year in teaching. Male teachers taught for ten and even eight dollars a month, and a female for one dollar per week

1 Written by Professor B. E. James.

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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

and board. Schools were kept open from three to six months in a year.

The method of hiring and paying teachers was in substance as follows : Notices of a school meeting were written and posted in the neigh- borhood. At the meeting a school committee was chosen in their own way, which committee selected the teacher, and exercised a general su- pervision over the school. The teacher was paid by the patrons of the school in proportion to the number of days they sent to the school. Not less than twenty-four and often twenty-six days were expected as a month's service. The teacher made out the rate-bills and the commit- tee, or the teacher for them, collected the bills. Prior to the law of 1834 no assistance by pub- lic money or appropriation was given, except from " the county funds."

Aid from this source could be secured in special cases by an act passed in 1809, in the following manner : The assessor was instructed to make inquiry if any persons there were in the district so poor as to be unable to pay tui- tion for their children, or a part of them. In case names of such indigent children were re- turned to the commissioners, a warrant for the tuition of such children was drawn on the county treasurer in favor of the teacher in- structing them.

According to the commissioners' books, Sus- quehanna County paid $273.60 in 1832 " for pupils' tuition ; " the orders varying in amount from three shillings to two dollars. These orders were drawn in favor of sixty teachers. While in a majority of cases this assistance was received gratefully, in others it acted unfavorably to attendance at the schools, pupils and parents objecting to the term " County Scholars." There were no blackboards, no uniformity of text- books and little attempt at class recitation. Much time was wasted by this lack of organi- zation. The pupil, when puzzled in arithmetic, walked across the room to the teacher, who " worked out the sum " and handed it back to the pupil, who returned to his seat.

In some of the homes of the county may be found The English Reader, The American Preceptor, Hale's History, Murray's Grammar, Webster's, Dillworth's and Cobb's Spelling-

Books and Daboll's Arithmetic as representative text-books of those times. Fool's-cap paper was easily arranged into writing-books, in which the copies were written by the teacher, who used a goose-quill pen. A teacher who could make a good quill pen enjoyed, justly, an enviable prestige on account of that artistic acquirement. Occasionally ambitious boys and girls were in- structed in the art.

According to Superintendent William C. Tilden's excellent report of the schools in 1877 and other available records, it is probable that the earliest common school of the county was started in Harford township in 1794. Later, schools were begun in Great Bend in 1800 and 1801; in Brooklyn in 1800 ; those at Great Bend were taught by Alba Dimond and Abijah Barnes, and at Brooklyn by Leonard Tracy. Mollie Post taught a school in Lenox, near Glenwood, in 1804, using a barn for a school- house till needed for hay, then closing the term under a large tree. Miss Post taught a school in Gibson in 1807. Esther Buck taught a school in Franklin in 1806, and Joshua Rayns- ford one in Bridgewater in 1803, having an attendance of forty-two scholars.

It is not possible within the limits assigned the present chapter to refer to many of the names of worthy pioneer teachers, or enterpris- ing committees and trustees of common and higher schools. We are assured that all such persons will be fully presented in the detailed history of townships and boroughs. But with all their discouraging circumstances and defec- tive methods of instruction, they accomplished an educational work which told mightily for the mental and moral future of Susquehanna County, and the work of the teachers and pro- moters of those schools is to be the more highly valued in view of the fact that then, even more than now, there were stubborn opposers to pub- lic education, opposers who maintained that general education was not only needless, but positively harmful.

Of the higher public and select schools, the Susquehanna Academy was incorporated by act of Assembly passed March 19, 1816; the Legislature also granting two thousand dol- lars towards the erection of a building in Mont-

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GENERAL EDUCATION.

rose, the law then allowing appropriations for aiding public elassical schools.

In 1850 a new academy building was com- pleted at a cost of four thousand two hun- dred dollars. A normal school was established in this building in 1857, J. F. Stoddard being prineipal.

In 1863 the borough school directors leased the building for graded school purposes. It has since been known as the Montrose Graded School. Owing to the constantly-increasing demand for public education, but few branches beside those found in the common school curric- ulum can be undertaken. Formerly boys were prepared for college at this school.

In 1817 the Centre School-house was built in Harford, in the edge of a beautiful and thrifty grove of evergreens; and Lyman Richardson opened in it a classical select school.

Young men were there prepared for college, teaching and the professions ; and Harford be- came the prominent educational centre of North- ern Pennsylvania. Lyman Richardson, enter- ing the ministry, was succeeded by his brother Preston, a graduate of Hamilton College, in 1829.

Thus organized, it continued nearly forty years. This classical institution was wholly a private affair, but was the germ of the Frank- lin Academy, incorporated in 1836. Franklin Academy was afterward enlarged, under the more ambitious title of Harford University.

Though never a denominational school, the life of the school came largely from the Con- gregational Church at Harford. The annual commencement exercises grew to be elaborate affairs. The close of the term occurred the last of June. Large stages were erected under cover in a spacious field. The attendance numbered thousands, including many from ad- joining counties, as well as States. Horace Greeley was once a visitor, and delivered an address. The library of the institution at one time embraced several thousand volumes. A laboratory and a large amount of philosophical apparatus added effectiveness to its course of study. The benefits of this popular institu- tion were within the reach of those of slender means, and the accommodations for students to

board themselves were so ample that the best of the youth from all parts of the country were there constantly represented.

A glance at the detailed history of Harford will show that an unusually rich harvest of distinguished men attended at some time in their careers Harford University-many reaching eminence in law, the ministry and in the faculties of colleges. Not a few have stood high in the councils of Legislatures and the United States Congress. The buildings and grounds were purchased by Charles W. Deans, and an orphan school was opened in 1865. In 1868 Henry S. Sweet took charge of the school, continuing his supervision till Decem- ber, 1886, when it passed into other hands. The success of the Harford Soldiers' Orphan School has given a true worth to this noble State work in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

An academy was built at Dundaff in 1833, Hon. Almon H. Read being instrumental in procuring two thousand dollars from the State for its improvement, in 1839.

John Mann opened a select school in 1833. In 1839, with improved facilities, it was in- corporated as Mannington Academy. Saint Joseph's College was opened near the site of Mannington in 1852, continuing till 1864, when it was destroyed by fire. It had an at- tendance of about one hundred.

Four professors and four priests, with other assistants, aided in carrying on the school. The valuable library connected with the col- lege was lost. The college has never been re- built. The loss of that institution was keenly felt by the people of Choconut and adjoining localities.

A building was ereeted at Dimock Corners by L. H. Woodruff, in which select or academic schools were taught for many years. Some years later another building was erected, by a company of citizens, in which select schools often comprising two grades, were taught. The building finally passed into the hands of the township school directors, who have since used it for public school purposes.

A school known as the " Newtonville Semi- nary " was opened by Samuel Newton in 1839. This was situated about four miles from Mont-

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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

rose. It continned several years. A private Catholic school was taught at Susquehanna by Thomas Wall in 1856. Laurel Hill Academy, also Catholic, was established at Susquehanna in 1857. It still continues with a large at- tendance. This, in brief, is an ontline of the private and higher schools which have existed in the county.

According to Miss Blackman's history, " In June, 1830, Hon. Almon H. Read offered three memorials from Susquehanna Connty, praying for a general system of education. An act to establish a general system of education, by common schools, was approved by Governor Wolf, April 1, 1834, to which an act supple- mentary was passed a fortnight later. Both these were still far from satisfactory to the public." Mr. Read was instrumental in after- ward securing the passage of legislation more acceptable to the general public. There were those, however, who opposed persistently, and often, through the county press of those days, the principle of the majority's imposing a tax upon the whole people for the purposes of uni- versal education.

Hon. William Jessnp issued a circular to the districts urging the assembling in convention, with a view of at once adopting the amended law of 1834 and agreeing npon plans for the application of the general law throughout the county. A majority of the districts were represented and co-operated in this move.

It is a notable fact that while Harford stood in the foreground as to school privileges, that township was one of the last to accept the law of 1834. Being satisfied with their excellent high and other schools, it was with a sigh of regret that they relinquishied the old régime for the new. While numbers of common schools were faithfully and cheerfully maintained ac- cording to the spirit of the school law in differ- ent localities of the county, it is unquestionable that the schools in the aggregate were greatly benefited by the enactment of 1854, which created the superintendency. It is probable, however, that no office ever commenced its history in Susquehanna County with a more bitter opposition.

rectors' convention in 1854 and his salary fixed at three hundred and fifty dollars.

Mr. Richardson's successors in office were elected in the following order :

B. F. Tewksbury, elected 1857, one term; A. N. Bullard, elected 1860, one term; E. A. Weston, elec- ted 1863, one term ; W. W. Watson, elected 1866, two years ; A. W. Larrabee, appointed 1868, one year ; W. C. Tilden, elected 1869, three terms; O. E. French, elected 1878, one term; B. E. James, elected 1881, two terms; U. B. Gillett, elected 1887, present incumbent.

Educational meetings were at once organized by the first superintendent, and with little intermission they have been continned during a large part of the school year to the present time.

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Centennial history of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, Part 34

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