USA > Pennsylvania > Lycoming County > Genealogical and personal history of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. Volume I > Part 13
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of the kind I ever knew), and continued cold and dry all winter. I could not get a bushel chopped for distilling, there being no mill in the neighborhood but Shoemaker's, and it was so nearly froze up that it could not grind but very little for the people for bread. Some had to go a great distance to get grinding; and the water that I depended on to supply the still-house entirely froze up.
I had run in debt for six hundred and fifty bushels of rye, at six shillings and six pence per bushel ; had provided myself with twenty head of horned cattle and forty hogs, to be fed on the hill slop. Not having this article, that I entirely depended on to winter my creatures, I boiled and exhausted my whole stock of rye. The country being new, there was no hay to be got at any price; and I hauled straw, some of it ten miles, and used every means in my power to keep my creatures alive; yet in the spring I had only just half my cattle alive, and nine hogs, and was obliged to sell my still to pay for the rye, and quit distilling, and before harvest arrived I had run short of bread. There was no grain to be had in the neighborhood. I went in search of some, got two bushels of wheat sixteen miles off and paid two dollars a bushel. I must here tell you of a great feat I once performed of speed in traveling. There were a hundred and fifty acres of vacant land adjoining the little farm I was in possession of, and there was a warrant out for one hundred acres of it. I was watching to see what part of the land they would lay their warrant on. As I knew that they could not cover all the land with that warrant, I was determined, if I could, to deprive them of the balance; and I be- lieve they mistrusted me for watching them, and took advantage of my absence from home to lay their warrant, and dispatched a man on Friday with an application for the fifty acres. I came home on Sunday noon, took a little refreshment, and went to Sunbury that afternoon, thirty miles ; got my application signed by two justices on Monday morning and
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started at eight o'clock, and was in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, one hundred and sixty miles from Muncy ; entered my application next morn- ing and obtained the land. The other man came to the land office a few minutes after I entered my application. I performed this journey on foot, to save expense, and believing that I could do it sooner than any horse I had. I continued to work on my little farm; had to use the strictest economy to support my helpless family.
In 1795, Lycoming was taken from Northumberland and erected into a separate county, and in the winter of 1796 I was appointed a justice of the peace by Governor Mckean, which office I held nine years (until it was vacated by my being elected to the State Senate), and was the only justice, a great part of that time, where there are now ten town- ships and more than ten justices, and the fees of the office did not pay for my salt. There never was a certiorari against my proceedings, nor an appeal from my judgment ; nor did I ever issue a scire facias against a constable. I had the good fortune by proper management with the peo- ple, to put litigation under my feet, until other justices were appointed, when it was encouraged by some of them.
In 1802 I was elected a county commissioner, and assisted in erect- ing one of the handsomest court houses in the state. About this time I received a letter from Dr. Tate, introducing William Hill Wells to me, who settled in the woods where Wellesborough now stands, the county seat of Tioga.
Mr. Wells applied to me to furnish him with provisions in his new settlement. He had brought a number of negroes with him from the state of Delaware, where he moved from.
I put eighty-eight hundred weight of pork on two sleds and started to go to him with it. It was fine sledding, but dreadfully cold weather. In crossing the Allegheny mountains, the man I had driving one of the
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teams froze his feet up to his ankles. I was obliged to leave him, and the next morning put the four horses to one sled and the pork on it and started for Wells. I had six times to cross Pine Creek. A man coming into the settlement from that part of the country had frozen to death the day before. I passed him lying in the road. The second crossing of the creek was about fifty yards wide, and when the foremost horses got to the middle of the creek the ice broke with them; the water was about mid-side deep, and in their attempting to get on the ice again, drew the other horses and sled in the creek, and pulled the roller out of the sled. I got the horses ashore and tied them; I went back to the sled, the water running over the pork. I had to go partly under water to get an axe that was tied on the sled, to cut a road through the ice to get the sled ashore. Sometimes in the water up to my middle and sometimes stand- ing on the ice, the water following the stroke of the axe, would fly up, and as soon as it touched me it was ice. When I had got the road cut to the shore, I went to the sled and got a log chain; had to go under water and hook first to one runner and then to the other, and back the horses in through the road and pull the sled out. It was now dark and I had six miles to go, and four times to cross the creek, without a roller in my sled to guide me. On descending ground it would often run out of the road, when I had difficulty to get it in the road again; not a dry thread on me, and the outside of my clothes frozen stiff. It was twelve o'clock before I got to the mill, the first house before me, and there was neither hay nor stable when I got there. I thought my poor horses would freeze to death. Next morning, as soon as daylight appeared, I cut a stick and put a roller onto my sled; the very wood seemed filled with ice. I started froni there at ten o'clock; had fifteen miles to go to Wells', the snow two feet deep, and scarcely a track in the road. I met Mr. Wells' negro five miles this side of his house coming to meet me on
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horseback, about sunset. He said there was a byroad that was a mile nearer than the one I was on, and he undertook to pilot me, but he soon lost the path, and we wandered about amongst the trees, till at length my sled pitched into a hole and overset. I then unhooked my horses from the sled and asked the negro if he thought he could pilot me to the house, but he acknowledged himself lost. I looked about and took a view of the stars and started with my four horses and left my pork in the woods, and fortunately got into Wells', and when I got there he had neither hay nor stable, or any kind of feed, nor any place to confine my horses, but to tie them to the trees. He had a place dug in a log that I could feed two of my horses at a time. All the buildings that he had erected were two small cabins adjoining each other-one for himself and family, about sixteen feet square, that I could not stand straight in, built of logs and bark for an upper floor and split logs for the lower floor. The negro cabin was a little larger, but built of the same materials. I sat by the fire until morning, and it took me all that day to get my pork to the house and settle, and I started next morning for home without a feed to give my horses there, after standing three nights and the snow at their bellies.
I have been thus particular in detailing the circumstances of this trip, leaving you to judge of the hardships that I had to endure; but it is only a specimen of much of the kind that I have had to encounter through life.
I was at this time living in Pennsborough, which place, when I came to this part of the country, was entirely in woods. There was barely a beginning to the town when I moved to it some years after. Stephen Bell had put up a shell of a house, which I purchased, and two lots adjoining, which house I finished, and improved with other buildings handsomely about it. I went on to purchase by little, as I was able and
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could get it, until I owned and cleared the principal part of the land in and about the town, and sold lots for the improvement of it, which is now one of the handsomest villages on the West Branch.
On the 28th of September, 1804, my wife deceased, and on the IIth of June, 1807, I married Mary McCormick, widow of William McCor- mick. In 1808 I was elected to the State Senate from the district com- - posed of the counties of Lycoming and Centre. At the expiration of my time in the senate, I sold the balance of my land in Pennsborough to George Lewis, of New York, for four thousand dollars, which enabled me, with the assistance I got by my last wife, to make the first payment for five hundred and seventy acres of land on the West Branch of the Susquehanna, at the mouth of Loyalsock Creek.
It was an Indian reserve, and part of the tract had been cleared by the Indians, but a great part of it was in a state of nature, and was in woods from Loyalsock creek for two miles on the road leading to Muncy, with the exception of two small patches; but is now handsomely im- proved and a scattered town nearly that distance from the creek.
I purchased this tract of land in the spring of 1812, but could not get possession of it until 1813. Having sold my property at Pennsbor- ough, I rented Walton's mills for one year and then came on my farm at Loyalsock.
In 1811 Governor Snyder sent me the appointment of major gen- eral of the ninth division of Pennsylvania militia for seven years. At the end of which time I was re-appointed for four years, and in 1813 the same governor sent me the appointment of prothonotary of the Court of Common Pleas, register of wills, recorder of deeds and clerk of the sev- eral courts, and since I have been in this place I have been three times nominated as a candidate for Congress by regular meetings convened for the purpose of making nominations twice by the old Democratic
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party, when there were only two parties known and distinguished as the Democratic and Federal parties, but did not stand a poll; and once by the Antimasonic party in a convention of delegates from different counties in the district. At this time I agreed to stand a candidate, as a rallying point for the party, though well convinced that I had no chance of suc- cess, for I well knew the Masonic party was all powerful in the district. I kept the offices of prothonotary, etc., about four years, and then re- signed them and returned back to my farm.
After I purchased this farm I was only able to make the first pay- ment ; and the balance of the purchase money being a heavy debt, I was fearful of the consequences, and sold one hundred and twenty acres of it, for $25 per acre, which I had cause afterwards to repent of, for I had to buy it back again in less than two years for $55, and some of it at $100 per acre, or let it go into other hands, which I was not willing to do. Thus, instead of this sale relieving me in my embarrassment, increased it, but it is all paid, though I have met with many losses. But my farm being a very productive one, I have been able, with good man- agement and hard labor, to sustain myself against them all. I have sold, in Baltimore market, one year's surplus produce of my farm for $4,000, wanting $5; besides nearly $200 worth at home, and besides feed, seed, grain, bread and meat, and the produce of it has enabled me to build a good merchant mill, 50 by 60, with run of stones, which cost me, race, dams and all, rising $10,000, and the losses I have met with are not much short of that sum.
Now, here let me give a history of another trip that I had in that wilderness, that I traveled to Mr. Wells' and in which I suffered more, much more, than I did in going to Mr. Wells'. I contracted with the commissioners of the east and west road, to deliver them 100 barrels of flour in Potter county. I started with seven sleds, carrying fifty barrels
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of it. After I got into the wilderness it was forty miles between houses, and the snow very deep. There was a cabin half way, which we expected to lodge at, we got to the place a little after dark, when we found the cabin burnt down. This was the night previous to "cold Thursday"-termed so by everybody at that time. The horses being very warm when we stopped, and it being dreadful cold, and the snow drifting upon them, almost covering them up, they began to tremble amazingly. I felt alarmed for the horses; we had a number of blankets along, expecting to lay out; we mustered them all up, brushed the snow off the horses as well as we could, and tied the blankets all on them. We then went to work to try to get a fire. Our fire-works were not good; and it was towards the middle of the night before we got a fire, then a very poor one. We danced around it until the day star appeared. We then hooked to, and there were very few of the horses that would stretch a chain, until we beat them severely, to get them warm. We had three miles of a hill to ascend. After I got the hindmost team to the top of the hill I got a severe hurt that entirely disabled me. I was not able to walk a step, was obliged to sit on the top of the barrels, suffering the most excruciating pain, until sundown, before we got to the first house, when it was feared that some of those driving the teams would freeze to death.
Such has been my toil and unceasing labor, ever since I have had a family to raise and educate my children, and place them in a situation that they would not be dependent. I have brought them all up to in- dustry, and am happy to have it in my power to say, they follow my example.
I have not only built a mill, but have built several dwelling houses, barns and other necessary out houses on the farm, and improved it well. There was scarcely a good panel of fence on it when I came to it.
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I am now 77 years old, and receive a pension, payable semi-an- nually, for my Revolutionary services, under the act of Congress of 1822, of $173.33; and must, according to the course of nature, shortly leave what I have, whether it be little or much, of this world's goods, to my children, who have the natural right to it, hoping that they will al- ways keep in mind that "God giveth and He taketh away," and that they will so act as to merit and receive his blessing, without which there is no real comfort or enjoyment in this world-nor can we expect it in that which is to come.
And now my sons, having complied with the request of my children, in giving them some of the events and transactions of my life, without going into a minute detail, which would be a very laborious task; (be- sides my life has been a very checkered one, and I could not relate, from memory, one-half of the incidents of it, and have only related some of the facts that never will be erased from my memory while my senses last) that, when the grave closes on me, you will not neglect to support the principles that your father so often ventured his life to establish, and so many of your uncles lost their lives in support of-principles that gave your country birth, as a free and independent nation-that secures to you and your children, life, liberty and property, and the equal rights of your fellow men (not that I have any doubt you will do so) ; but I wish to leave it as an injunction on you, and my grandsons, and if I could, on the world of mankind in general. And although those prin- ciples have been disregarded and violated by corrupt and unholy men, yet I trust, that there is a redeeming spirit abroad in the land. That the people will return to their first love and check the career of designing demagogues (who like wolves in sheep's clothing, have assumed to themselves the name of Democrats), and revive those principles before they become exinct.
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To conclude-let me again urge it upon you (as a father's ad- vice), always to support, with your voice, votes and influence, the equal rights of your fellow men.
These are the principles that carried us triumphantly through a bloody war against one of the most powerful monarchies on earth- principles that the sages of the Revolution pledged "their lives, their fortune, and their sacred honors," to support. And set your faces against any and every measure hostile to those principles, particularly against secret societies, the very nature of which is at war with the fundamental principles of our government, and if carried out, must inevitably destroy it. It is true, that I have had a double share of political persecution in vindication of them; but that detracts nothing from the righteousness of the cause and the obligations we are under to our country to support them.
You will perceive, from my narrative, that although I have in early life, been nipped with the frost of adversity and poverty, that it has rather operated as a stimulant than a damper to my industry.
Whenever a man becomes destitute of a laudable ambition to pursue some useful business, he becomes a drone, and a dead weight upon the commonwealth; he is neither useful to himself, to society, nor to his country.
Died in August, 1837.
BURROWS FAMILY.
Of the Burrows family of Williamsport. Pennsylvania, the first ancestor of whom any special knowledge is known today, was Vincent Meigs, of Dorsetshire, England. He was born in 1570 and emigrated to America, settling in Weymouth, Massachusetts. He was living in New
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Haven, Connecticut, as late as 1647. He removed to Guilford and finally to what is now Killingworth, Connecticut, where he died in 1658. His son, John Meigs, was born in 1600, and died January 4, 1672. He married a Miss Fry (a sister of William Fry) in England, in 1630, resided in Weymouth, Massachusetts, and New Haven, Con- necticut, in 1647, removed to Guilford, Connecticut, in 1654, and to Killingworth, Connecticut, in 1663, where he was made a freeman in 1669. He was a tanner and had a large estate. Among his books were Latin and Greek dictionaries. He died at Killingworth, Connecticut, 1672 .* His daughter, Elizabeth Meigs, died 1664. In 1650 she mar- ried Richard Hubbell, who was born in Great Britain in 1627. He died October 23, 1699, at his home in Pequonnack.
The Hubbells were originally a Dane family. The following is the recorded description of the family coat-of-arms: "Hubbell-Arms : Sable, three leopards' heads, jessant, fleur-de-lis, or-Crest: A Wolf passant, or-Motto: Ne cede malis sed contra," meaning "Yield not to misfortunes, but surmount them." "These arms can be traced to a period of remote antiquity, and are still to be seen upon the crumbling monuments in the ancient Saint Peter's church at Ipsley, Warwickshire, England, where for nearly 700 years the family possessed its entailed estates, and sent forth sturdy sons to battle for the reigning king." It is believed that Richard Hubbell emigrated to America between 1645 and 1647, for on March 7, 1647, he took the oath of fidelity to the government of the New Haven Colony. Sergeant Richard Hubbell was a planter, a leading citizen, and an extensive land owner.
His son, Lieutenant Richard Hubbell, was born in Guilford, New Haven, Connecticut, in 1654 and died in 1738, and when about eight
* See Hubbell's History, page 5.
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years old moved with his parents to Fairfield county. He was a wealthy planter and held many offices of trust. In 1738 he willed to the First Congregational Church of Stratfield Parish, a silver tankard of very elegant workmanship, which is still in use, and which was worth fifty- five pounds sterling. On November 5, 1685, he married Hannah More- house, who died April 2, 1692. On October 12, 1692, he married Hannah Sillway (or Silliman), of Malden, Massachusetts.
Their fifth child was Nathaniel Hubbell, born August II, 1702; died 1761. He graduated at Yale College in 1723. He was a Presby- terian minister. He married, March 5, 1721, Esther Mix, of New Haven, Connecticut.
Their fifth child, Lois, married John Borrows, June II, 1753. John Borrows was born in 1719, and died March 30, 1810. January 27, 1777, he was commissioned Captain and January 22, 1779, Major.
Their fourth child was John Burrows, born May 15, 1760; died August 22, 1837. In assisting to establish the American Independence his services were as follows: John Burrows, Jr., joined the army at Norristown, Pennsylvania, and was employed as an express rider, at forty dollars per month. He spent the winter with the army at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, enduring much hardship and exposure. At the battle of Monmouth his horse was shot from under him, and General Washington presented him with another one. He was with Washington fourteen months, during which time he was a member of his house- hold, except when absent carrying dispatches for the army. Washington stayed for a time at the house of Major John Borrows, at Newtown, opposite Trenton, from which point he crossed the Delaware at night. John Burrows (the son) crossed with him and was present at the capture of the Hessians. He took part in the battle of Springfield, which was the seventh battle he was in during the war. By an act of congress,
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passed 1822, he was granted for his services in the Revolutionary war, a pension of one hundred and seventy-three dollars and thirty-three cents, payable semi-annually. The following are the authentics for the above statements : Biographical Annals of the West Branch Valley, History of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania ; also in Heitman's Affairs of the Revolution. In 1796 he was appointed a justice of the peace, by Governor Mckean, which office he held nine years. In 1802 he was elected county commissioner. While commissioner, he brought, in his own wagon, a bell from Philadelphia and superintended the hanging of it in the old court house belfry. He aided in erecting what was then the handsomest court house in the state, and had this bell removed from the old to the new building. Its " ring " is now, 1905, as clear- toned as it was over a century ago. In 1808, he was elected to the state senate from Lycoming and Centre counties. In 1811 Governor Snyder appointed him major-general of the Ninth Division of Pennsylvania Militia, for seven years, and at the end of that period he was re-appointed for nine years more. In 1813 Governor Snyder appointed him protho- notary of the court of common pleas, register of wills, recorder of deeds, and clerk of the several courts. After serving four years, he resigned and returned to his farm. He was three times nominated for congress, but never elected. General John Burrows was a man of high integrity and sterling worth. He left behind him quite a fortune, and his son Nathaniel Burrows became heir to one hundred and twenty-five acres of land upon which now stands the chief part of Montoursville, Pennsyl- vania. His daughter, Sarah, married Tunison Coryell and their de- scendants are numbered among the most prominent people of the West Branch Valley.
Nathaniel Burrows was born December 11, 1797, and died Septem- ber 14, 1879. March 30, 1824, he married Eliza Jordan, born November
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30, 1802; died December 24, 1886. They lived together five years after they celebrated their golden wedding. He was for many years a justice of the peace. Eight children were born to them. I. The first died in infancy; 2. The second, Sarah Jane, born February 27, 1827, died March 17, 1897. On October 1, 1850, she married George Bubb and they had seven children. Two died young, the others were: (1) Na- thaniel Burrows, a successful business man, whose active interest in the board of trade has done much for the growth of Williamsport. (2) Mary Helen, who married James S. Lewars. (3) Henry Clay, the well known wholesale grocer. (4) Alice M., who married George H. M. Good, of Osceola Mills. (5) Nellie Tree (deceased), who married Samuel Stevens.
3. The third child was John Hubbell Burrows, born July 9, 1829, October 9, 1855, he married Jane Gallaher Ziegler, who was born No- vember 21, 1836. On October 9, 1905, they celebrated their golden wedding. They had two children: Kathryn D. and Laura E. The latter married Justin L. Hill, on December 3, 1886. They have two children, Helen Burrows Hill and Justin Edgar Hill.
4. Cornelia Burrows, born September 15, 1831, married Ambrose Barber Henderson on March 2, 1859, and they have six children living as follows: (1) Elizabeth, (2) Samuel (married to Jean Wells), (3) May (married to the Rev. George L. VanAlen), (4) Gertrude, (5) Blanche, (6) Charlie.
5. Mary Williamson Burrows, born May 4, 1834, married William James Paulhamus, and had five children. Two died young; the others are: (1) Frank, who married Harriett Everett and lives at Bethlehem. (2) Cora. (3) Harry.
6. Charles Scott Burrows, born February 25, 1837, married Eliza- beth Jones, and they had two children: Herbert and Bessie.
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7. Francis Jordan Burrows, born January 20, 1840; married, April 7, 1873, Margaret Huling Low and had two sons: (1) Alexander Beede (deceased), and (2) Frank G., a journalist residing at Dayton, Ohio.
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