Centennial history of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, Part 57

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 57

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Isaac P. Foster and J. W. Raynsford had a store here at an early day ; likewise Woodhouse & Fordham.

E. P. Stamp commenced grocery business at Montrose in 1870. His place of business was burned in 1875, and he purchased a lot and built a store, which he traded to Augustus Faurot for the old Raynsford farm. Faurot sold it to Dr. Decker, the present owner (1887). Decker occupies the front part of the building. Simon Sayre occupied the back part of the store until

he died. He was succeeded by John Burns, who is doing a good grocery business.

N. H. Lyons and Jerre Lyons were book- binders by trade, and started that business when they came to Montrose, in 1819. They had a larger business than one would think possible in this new country. They had the first book-store.

George Fuller appears to have been the second bookseller and stationer. He was followed in the same business by A. N. Bullard, who was succeeded by A. H. Smith. W. B. Deaus bought of Mr. Smith in 1866, and now occupies part of L. M. Tyrrell's store, which was erected about two years ago on the B. R. Lyons lot.

F. H. Stevens had a stationery-store from 1876 to 1886, the time of his death. William H. Turrell has recently purchased the business of the estate.

C. D. Miner has been a merchant at Montrose for a number of years.

Byiugton Thatcher commenced grocery busi- ness in the basement of the Keystone Hotel in 1862, was burned out in 1866 and is now in Mawhiney's basement.

William H. Boyd and A. L. Webster formned a partnership in 1858, and engaged in the tin and sheet-iron business. J. H. Corwin bought Webster's interest in December, 1865, and J. R. Cooley became one of the firm of W. H. Boyd & Co. in 1876. In 1883 Mr. Corwin sold his interest to Boyd & Cooley, who have been conducting business at the rink since the fire of 1886. Mr. Corwin bought Griffis' interest in the firm of Griffis & Bostwick. They occupied Wilson's store, which was destroyed in 1886. Bostwick & Corwin purchased the lot and have just erected one of the finest brick buildings in the place. Mr. Boyd also has laid the founda- tion for a brick building on his corner.

D. P. Little has recently started a hardware- store in one of the new buildings that have been erected on the burnt district.

L. H. Griffis has the only bakery in the place.

MEAT-MARKETS .- The people of Montrose were early supplied with meat by butchers, who brought it in wagons and sold it from door to door. Alexander Allen butchered here as early as 1836-38. Zipron Cobb had a meat-market

Eng ª by AH Ritchie

A. S. Wilson

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after that for a number of years. Edgar Harper had a meat-market in Post's basement. After that Emmett and John Kirby occupied the same place. Then Samuel Henstock and Nel- son Hawley had markets. These have been succeeded by Philip Hahn, C. D. Hawley & Co., A. B. Hamlin, Wallace Hewitt, E. Tiffany and Myron Kasson, who sold to Hamlin again, who has the business in 1887. S. B. Rogers & Co. started in 1883.

MASON SAXON WILSON .- The subject of this sketch is well entitled to especial notice in this volume by reason of his Jong-continued career as a merchant at Montrose, his constancy in the support of its varied enterprises, charities and religious institutions, his correct habits, Chris- tian example and high moral sentiment ; and because he has continued to the great age of nearly four-score and nine years well preserved in mind and able to transact his own business. He has never sought political preferment ; neither has he shrunk from responsibility and trust when placed upon him by liis fellow- townsmen. For a half-century Mr. Wilson was engaged in mercantile pursuits here, and in the early times when there were no railroads or canals, or means of transportation of merchan- dise, he recites the long and tedious way in which his goods were conveyed from New York to this place; which, after being run np the Hudson in sloops to Newburg, were thence carted by way of the Newburg turnpike the entire distance of one hundred and ten miles, sometimes taking many days for the accomplish- ment of the journey. This state of things ex- isted until the completion of parts of the Erie Railway, when goods were shipped from New York by that road to its terminus, and thence by the way of Port Jervis or Great Bend to Montrose. In the early days of business at Montrose, he says, there was little or no money paid in the sale of his merchandise, but a bar- ter was constantly carried on between the farmer and the merchant, and in turn between the mer- chant and the jobber. He came to Bridgewater township with his parents in 1799, then an in- fant of nine months, who settled just outside and south of the borongh of Montrose. His parents had come from Burlington, Otsego Co.,

New York, where he was born June 28, 1798, and located in this then wilderness place, hav- ing no nearer neighbors than five miles to the west at Fairdale, on Wyalusing Creek, and about the same distance to the east, in what is now Brooklyn township. The log house occu- pied by the family had been erected by his fa- ther, Stephen Wilson (1772-1848), who had visited the place in the fall of 1798 in company with Samuel Wilson, his brother, and Samuel Coggswell, brother of his wife, Anna Coggswell (1775-1865). Here his boyhood was spent until the age of sixteen, when he becanie a clerk in the store of Isaac Post at Montrose, and con- tinued with him until he reached his majority. At the age of twenty-two a lingering illness compelled him to return to his home, where he remained for three years. Returning to Mon- trose, he became the partner of Mr. Post in 1825, and in 1828 with his eldest son, William Post, and continued his business relations with that firm until 1835, when he established mer- cantile business on his own account, which he continued until his retirement from active busi- ness, in 1865. In 1831 he united with the Bap- tist Church at Montrose, and has been a con- sistent member since, a period of fifty-five years, and he was treasurer of the church suc- cessively for a half-century, from 1831 to 1881. He was a director and one of the founders of the Susquehanna County Bank, treasurer for many years of the old Montrose Academy, and one of its board of trustees ; and he was also chosen frequently as assessor. In politics he was originally a Whig, but upon the formation of the Republican party, adopted its principles. He married, August 25, 1825, Mary (1800- 72), a daughter of Paul and Mary (Halsey) Sayre, of Southampton, L. I., who bore him children, Saxon M. Wilson, born in 1826, for many years a merchant succeeding his father, married first Laura Johnson, and has two chil- dren-Mary Cooper, wife of Lewis H. Sprout, and Mason B., who died, leaving a widow and two children, Mary and Robert ; his second wife is Marietta Fuller ; Fanny Mulford Wil- son (1828-51); Mary Sayre Wilson, born in 1830, widow of the Hou. La Fayette Fitch ; Eliza and Adelia died in infancy. For his

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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

second wife, in 1873 Mr. Wilson married Eliza Halsey Mitchell, who died July 4, 1885. Mr. Wilson's ancestors were residents of Ver- mont, and his paternal grandfather was a sol- dier in the Revolutionary War. His parents, Stephen and Anna Wilson, left Bridgewater township in 1819 and settled at Wysox, Brad- ford Co., and in 1823 removed thence to West Almond, Allegany Co., N. Y., where they re- mained for seven years, when they settled at Belfast, on the Genesee, where they died. Stephen Wilson was an assessor of Bridgewater township when his returns had to be made at Wilkes-Barre, and he was one of the commis- sioners of Susquehanna County in 1815. He was among the early members of the Baptist Church at Montrose. Stephen Wilson and Anna Coggswell were married in 1795, and their children are David (1796-1846), married and reared a family of children, moved to Brad- ford County and thence to Ohio, where he died ; Almeda (1800-35) was the wife of John Bard, Jr., a farmer in Bridgewater township; Samuel Coggswell, born in 1803, was a pub- lisher at Montrose with George Fuller, married and moved to Allegany Co., N. Y., where he published for some time the Angelica Reporter, was surrogate of that county, its first judge, and is now a retired lawyer at Belfast, in the same county ; Anna, born in 1804, widow of Dudley B. Smith, at Fort Dodge, Iowa ; Polly, born in 1806, is the widow of Miller Dean, of West Almond, N. Y .; Stephen, Jr., born in 1808, resides on the farm where his father died; Orpha, born in 1810, widow of John Jennings, of Lawrence, Michigan ; Robert Stacy Wilson (1812-82), learned the printer's trade at An- gelica with his brother, Samuel C., afterwards read law and practiced his profession there un- til 1836, when he moved to Ann Arbor, Mich- igan ; there he was elected a justice of the peace, probate judge, and served as a member of the Michigan State Senate for one term. He was a delegate from that State to the convention which nominated James K. Polk for President. In 1850 he removed to Chicago, where he practiced his profession for three years, when he was elected judge of the Recorder's Court of the city, and held that office by re-election for ten years.

BENJAMIN RICHARDS LYONS was born at Coleraine, Franklin County, Mass, Nov. 4, 1802. He spent his boyhood at school until the age of fifteen, when he accompanied his parents to Chesterfield, N. H., and was a clerk in a store at that place for nine years. In June, 1824, he came to Montrose and served as clerk for his brother Jerre, who had established mer- cantile business here in 1819. The following year he returned to Massachusetts, and in 1826 married Maria Augusta (1801-1846), daughter of Clark and Nancy (Lyons) Chandler. In 1831, with his wife, he returned to Montrose and became a partner with his brother in busi- ness. Their store was located on the site of the First National Bank building, and was burned that year. They erected a new store, which, in turn, was destroyed by fire in 1884, when the site was sold, and the present First National Bank building erected thereon. Mr. Lyons continued in mercantile business here until 1884, when he retired from active business life, hav- ing been almost continuously in mercantile business as clerk and merchant for a period of sixty-seven years. In 1849 he established a branch store at Lanesboro', this county, and was associated there in business with his brother Joel until 1860. In 1835 he established the tin and stove business, and in 1849, in company with others, a foundry for the manufacture of stoves and other castings. This latter interest he soon after sold to his partners. For several years he had associated with him, in Montrose, his brother-in-law, Mr. Francis B. Chandler. He was a director in the old Susquehanna Bank, and one of its organizers, when James C. Biddle was made its president. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and was one of the build- ing committee in 1860 to erect the present church edifice. Mr. Lyons is, at the writing of this sketch, eighty-four years of age, and has outlived most of the associates of his earlier business years. He is a man well known in Montrose, who has given to the poor and to worthy institutions, demanding aid, largely commensurate with his means. His sympathies have ever been drawn towards those less for- tunate than himself; and while of himself he has been successful in business, discreet and ju-

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Sandwich Islands as a missionary of the Con- gregational Church, where he remained nntil his death, a period of fifty-five years. The grand- parents of Benjamin R. Lyons-David (1737- 1803) and Abigail (Draper) (1740-1829) Lyons-were farmers at Coleraine. He was one of the men who assisted in pitching the British tea into Boston Harbor in 1773. One of his sons, Daniel, (1778-1850), settled at Great Bend, where he was a cabinet-maker, farmer, and for some time kept a hotel. He was a deacon in the Baptist Church there, and alone built the meeting- house. During his residence at Montrose he erected the stone building back of the court-house, now nsed by one of the fire com- panies. The other children of David Lyons were Jer- re, Jesse, Seth, Abigail, Nancy, David, Aaron, Joel and Polly.

dicious in the management of affairs, the failures of others and the destruction of his property by fire have caused him great loss. In him the church has always found a liberal giver, and many of the citizens of Montrose will remember his unostentatious donations for their relief. Mr. Lyons is a man well informed on the cur- rent topics of the day, and many years ago sur- ronnded himself with a valuable library of choice literary productions. His father, Dr. Jerre Lyons (1765-1825), married, in 1790, Mary Richards (1765-1808). He was a native of Roxbury, Mass., a university grad- uate, practiced his profession as a physician at Cole- raine, Mass., and at Chesterfield, N. H., and died at the latter place. His children were Rev. Luke Lyons (1791-1845), a Congregational minister during his life, died in Illinois ; Betsey (1793-1871) wife ABEL TUR- RELL, of Mon- trose, Pennsylva- nia, was born in what is now For- est Lake, Snsque- hanna County, Pa., October 16, 1812. His pa- rents, Leman and Lncy Turrell, of Gilbert Minor, resided in Coler- aine, and there died ; Mary, died young; Nathan Holmes (1796- 1877), came to Montrose in 1818 was, by trade, a book-binder, and died here ; Jerre (1798-1875), came to Montrose ( came from Litchfield Co., Conn., in 1810. He in 1819, and remained in mercantile business un- was reared on the home farm of his father, and in boyhood obtained a fair cducation by at- tendance at the district school, and by close at- tention to his studies at home, which he further completed at Johu Mann's Academy, and at the Montrose Academy. For two years, commenc- til nearly the time of his death ; Nancy (1800- 1839), married a Mr. Tenney, of Gill, Mass .; Benjamin Richards, subject of this sketch ; Barney (1805-1830), was in the store with his brother Jerre; and Rev. Lorenzo Lyons (1807- 1886), educated at Union College, went to the ing in 1837, he was a teacher at Wilkes-Barre.

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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

From May, 1839, to January, 1846, he was the editor and proprietor of a newspaper in Mont- rose : first the Montrose Volunteer, and after- wards the Montrose Democrat, by a change of name of the paper. From April, 1848, to May, 1875, he was successfully and continu- ously engaged in the drug business in Mont- rose. Hc then retired from active business with a competence. He was one of the organ- izers of the First National Bank of Montrose, and a director several years. He married Adelia Catlin October 19, 1843, who was born in Bridgewater, Susquehanna Co., Pa., Janu- ary 7, 1818. Her parents, Erastus and Polly (Wright) Catlin, were formerly from Litchfield County, Connecticut.

They have one child,-EDGAR ABEL TUR- RELL, who graduated at Yale College in 1867, and at the Columbia College Law School in 1869, and was thereupon admitted to the New York State bar. After studying and traveling in Europe for two years, he began the practice of law in New York City in 1872, at 170 Broadway, where he has since continued in the successful practice of his profession, in both the State and United States Courts. He is a niem- ber of the Bar Association, the Law Institute, the Manhattan Club, the Young Men's Demo- cratic Club (of which he was secretary and vice- president several years), the Delta Kappa Epsi- lon Club, and various other organizations of the city. He received the degree of Master of Arts from Yale College in 1870.

Events in the family of LEMAN and LUCY TURRELL and near relatives:

Leman Turrell was born in New Milford, Litchfield County, Connecticut, July 5, 1776. In the spring of 1794, at the age of eighteen years, he came to Pennsylvania to survey land under the Connecticut title, for his uncle, Job Turrell, and returned in the fall. In 1797 hc and Lucy Turrell (1776-1864) were married, and continued to reside in New Milford, Con- necticut. In April, 1810, Leman Turrell, with his family, consisting of his wife and four chil- dren, left their native place in Connecticut, and removed to the western portion of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, now Forest Lake, and bought a tract of woodland on the line of the

Milford and Owego turnpike, about two miles east of Friendsville. He subsequently added to his original purchase, until he acquired five hundred and twenty acres. He was an enter- prising and thrifty farmer, and with the assist- ance of his sons, cleared a large portion of his land, and brought it into a state of cultivation, and erected good buildings thereon. His ser- vices as a surveyor were often sought by others, and upon the construction of the Milford and Owego turnpike, he contracted for and com- pleted about one and a quarter miles of the same, through the forest, first removing the trees with their roots from the earth, and then making a wide and well-formed road, mainly taking stock for pay ; and he was one of the managers during its continuance as a company road, supported by toll. In those days this turnpike was a portion of one of the main and most direct stage-routes from Ohio and the West to New York and the East, and fine four- horse stage-coaches and extensive droves of cattle passed over it, and it was as important as a railroad now.

The entire family of Leman and Lucy Tur- rell consisted of five sons and two daughters, whose ages are in the order named,-Britannia, 1798-1839; Stanley, 1800-79; Joel, 1801-73; Leman Miner, 1808-83; Abel, 1812; Lucy Ann, 1816-83; and James, 1818.

Britannia, wife of Adolphus Olmstead, whose daugliter, Sarah Britannia, became the wife of the late President-Judge Farris .B. Streeter, and now resides in Towanda, Pa., where her son, Harry Streeter, is engaged in the practice of law ; and their son, Garrick Mallory Olm- stead, lately deceased, was a graduate of La- fayette College, and a prominent lawyer in Jer- sey City. Stanley, Joel and Leman Miner were successful farmers in Forest Lake. The latter purchased eighteen hundred acres of land in Nebraska, and sold it to settlers; and he was an efficient and exemplary deacon in the Bap- tist Church at Birchardville. Joel succeeded his father as surveyor of land and roads, and by election he held the office of county surveyor. His son, Wilson J., was his successor in said office. Abel, a prosperous editor and merchant in Montrose. Lucy Ann, wife of Abner Griffis;

Fng 2 by AH Futchie.

Abel Turrell

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their older son, Henry L. Griffis, a student of Lafayette College, and now professor of natural science in the high school at Binghamton, N. Y., and also a civil engineer. Lafayette College con- ferred on him the degree of Master of Arts in 1885. James resides in Longmont, Colorado ; his son, Judson Wade Turrell, learned the drug business with his Uncle Abel, in Montrose, and removed to Longmont, Boulder County, Col- orado, where he was elected member of the State Legislature at the last election ; and he owns a fine drug-store in that town.

Leman and Lucy Turrell were persons of strict integrity, honesty and perseverance, and these qualities prevail in their children, and may be considered characteristic of the family.

William, father of Hon. Wm. J. Turrell (for biography, see Law Chapter), was a brother of Leman Turrell. Rachel, a sister of Leman, and wife of David Noble, had one son, a prom- inent member of Congress from Ohio many years. Leman, William and Beebe Turrell were sons of James Turrell, Jr.

' Amy, a sister of Lucy Turrell (wife of Leman Turrell), became the wife of Alpheus Fuller, whose son, Jerome, was a prominent member of the New York State bar, a mem- ber of the State Legislature, a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1866, a delegate to the National Convention of 1848, wherein he nominated Millard Fillmore for Vice- President. By the death of President Taylor, in 1850, Fillmore became the acting President. He then appointed Mr. Fuller Minister Pleni- potentiary to Russia, which position he declined. He then appointed him chief justice of the Territory of Minnesota, which position he held until its admission as a State. Returning to Monroe County, N. Y., he was elected judge, holding his court in the city of Rochester, and he held that office by re-election until he was retired, at the age of seventy years, under an article of the Constitution which he had assisted in making.

Not for want of merit, but from a desire for brevity, the names of many equally worthy members of branches of the family are omitted.

AZUR LATHROP, second son of Judge Benja- min Lathrop, spent his boyhood on the farm of

his father and obtained his education at the dis- trict school and at John Mann's Academy, St. Joseph. He was a teacher for three winter terms in this county and spent the winter of 1836-37 in the Senate chamber at Harrisburg as a reporter for the Pittsburgh Times and Har- risburg Reporter, of which latter General Simon Cameron was then one of the proprietors. After spending a year at home he took a tour of the West, and in the spring of 1840 returned, and in the fall of the same year settled at Mon- trose in the mercantile business (Avery & La- throp). From 1844 to 1849 he was engaged in mercantile business at Springville and served as postmaster at that place under commission of President Polk for four years. Returning to Montrose, he continued in the same business as a successful merchant more or less of the time until 1872. In 1858-60 he built the brick block of three stories now occupied by Mr. M. S. Dessauer, a merchant -the second story con- taining various offices and the third story the hall of the F. and A. Masons. In 1862 he purchased the Franklin Tannery of New York parties, which he conducted for some six years and sold to Munger Brothers, the present pro- prietors ; and from 1865 until 1868, under the firm-name of A. Lathrop & Co., he also owned and conducted a tannery at Laporte, Sullivan Co. Upon the failure of the Montrose Fork Company, in 1864, he became one of its proprie- tors and continued the business until the sale of the building to C. M. Crandall & Co., toy works, which were burned in the fall of 1886. In 1875 he established the planing-mill and lumber-yard at Montrose, still conducted by A. & G. R. Lathrop. After the murder of William H. Cooper, the banker, Mr. Lathrop was appointed by the court the trustee of his estate.

He is a large employer of laborers ; a large farmer ; a director and one of the largest stock- holders of the First National National Bank of Montrose ; was one of the principal movers in the Montrose Railway Company and a director for several years, and closely identified with the stage and express business of the place. For nearly a half-century Mr. Lathrop has been one of the main factors in the business interests of Montrose Borough and Susquehanna County,

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closely connected with its public matters and in the distribution of moneys among its people. Following the religious persuasion of his father, his family are members of the Episcopal Church, of which he has served as vestryman and warden for more than twenty years, and he has been a member of Montrose Lodge, No. 240, F. and A. M., since 1857. On January 9, 1849, he married Sarah E., daughter of John and Sarah Cornell, who died August 22, 1862, leaving two daughters-Ella Virginia, wife of John S. Court- right, Esq., a lawyer at Montrose, and Flor- ence May-at home. For his second wife he married, September 9, 1865, Mrs. Rebecca (Gil- bert) Burling, of New York, by whom he has one son, Gilbert Azur, a veterinary surgeon at Montrose.

The family of Lathrop, of Susquehanna County, are lineal descendants of Rev. John Lo- thropp, the pioneer of the family in this country, who was born in 1584, graduated at Queen's Col- lege, Cambridge, 1605, and was a minister of the Church of England at Egerton, Kent, from 1611 to 1623, when he became an Independent and was at once settled over the First Indepen- dent Church of London. He was a leader, which is proved by the fact that the authorities kept a watchful eye upon him, and arrested and imprisoned him; but, in 1634, being for a time released, he escaped to this country and settled first in Scituate and later in Barnstable, Mass., where he died in 1653. A full account of the family in New England may be found in a genealogical memoir of the Lo-Lathrops, com- piled by the late Rev. E. B. Huntington, A.M., of Ridgefield, Conn.

HON. CHARLES F. READ, only son of Hon. A. H. Read, was born October 6, 1816. The first fifteen years of his life were spent at home, and eight or nine years of that time he attended school at the old academy ; July, 1831, he en- tered the Register printing-office for five years. In connection with his office duties he was re- quired to carry a mail on horseback, together with three or four hundred newspapers, once a week, through Brooklyn, Harford, Gibson, New Milford, Great Bend, Corbettsville, Laws- ville and Franklin, a distance of sixty miles. Faithfully serving out the term of his engage-

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Centennial history of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, Part 57

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