USA > Pennsylvania > Bradford County > History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 100
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William Means, or, as he was generally known, Esquire Means, as heretofore shown, one of the original proprietors of Towanda, donated from his portion of the plat two lots, on the corner of Spruce and Bridge streets, for church purposes, but which, since his death, have been appropriated to private uses. He was the first magistrate of the town, being commissioned Dec. 20, 1800, and built the first log house on the site of the then future borough. In 1802 he built the " old red tavern," opposite the Means ferry, and near the present Eureka mowing-machine factory. He also
built and occupied the house now occupied by his grandson, Col. John F. Means, on the corner of Bridge and Main streets, in which he died in 1828.
The father of Col. John F. Means was born, lived, and died in Towanda, and his son succeeded to his property. The latter has been an enterprising, energetic man, building largely in the borough, and engaged in projects for the material prosperity of the town, which he has assisted mueh to develop and enhance. He remodeled and rebuilt the Means House, which was opened to the public as a hotel in 1863 or 1864, and has been so maintained until early in March, 1878, when it was destroyed by fire, entailing a loss of several thousand dollars. Col. Means was elected sheriff in 1845, and was colonel of the 35th Regt. Pa. Militia of 1862. Adam Conley lived at the corner of Pine and Main streets, where he also had a blacksmith-shop.
Ebenezer B. Gregory, also one of the original proprietors of Towanda, donated from his portion two lots for an academy, but which after his death shared the same fate as the lots donated by Esquire Means for the meeting-house. He came to Towanda at an early period. His wife was an accomplished lady, and taught school. He lived in a house near the river-bank, in the rear of the present residence of Hon. Edward Overton; and near his residence, on what was called the Glebe lot, a log house was built for a par- sonage for the Congregational society, but which was never occupied as such. In 1814 it was occupied by Jesse W. Woodruff as a tailor-shop.
Col. Harry Spalding lived 'in the house where William Mix now lives, and kept a store in a building appurtenant to it, which was afterwards moved away. He also kept a tavern in his house.
Gurdon Hewitt came to Towanda in 1818, married a daughter of Esquire Means; was a merchant on Spruce street, and afterwards on Main. He removed to Owego in 1827, where he resided until his death, which occurred Dee. 24, 1871, in his eighty-second year. His wife died in Towanda, and he married for his second one a daughter of Col. Platt, of Nichols, N. Y. He was born in New : London, Conn., and, with his parents, emigrated to Che- nango Co., N. Y., while a boy. He acquired a large for- tune, though commencing in his youth with slender re- sources.
In 1820, Nathaniel N. Betts, the father of N. N. Betts, cashier of the First National bauk of Towanda, came from Unadilla, N. Y., to officiate as a clerk for Mr. Hewitt. Mr. Betts married a daughter of Esquire Means, and after her death he married a daughter of Dr. Warner, of Wysox, and engaged in mereantile pursuits with Joseph D. Mon- tanye, at the corner of Main and Court streets, in a frame building erected by Eliphalet Mason. Mr. Betts was, in his later years, a magistrate, and scrupulously honest in his official relations. He died in 1875.
Burr Ridgway came to Towanda from Wysox in 1812. To Wysox he came in 1803, from Philadelphia. He lived in an old log house directly in front of Harry Spalding's when he first came to Towanda. In 1814 he bought the Bradford Gazette of Thomas Simpson, giving $800 for the establishment, and continued the publication until 1818, when he sold it to Lemuel Streator and Edwin Benjamin,
Afterwards the wife of Dr. Adonijah Warner, and mother of Mrs. N. N. Betts, of Towanda.
t See portrait in this history, and account of Fox family before Revolution.
396
HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
who changed the name to the Bradford Settler. He was elected county commissioner in 1813, being the first Dem- ocrat ever elected to office in the county. He was also a magistrate and the prothonotary of the county afterwards. He was a prominent politician of Bradford for many years. He was of Quaker descent, but embraced the faith of the Methodist church in later years, and died in that commu- nion. He removed to Monroe some years previous to his deccase .*
Andrew Irvine came to Towanda in 1820, and in 1828 erected the first brick house built in the borough, bringing the bricks from Wysox. It was located on his tannery lot, and occupied by him, on Maiu near Bridge street, about where Taylor & Co.'s store now stands, and was burned down afterwards. He was elected county treasurer.
Andrew Trout was a soldier of 1812, and came to To- wanda about 1821. He and George H. Bingham were drowned when running a raft over the Shamokin dam one dark night. William Salmon escaped by swimming ashore, but was carried down the river two miles by the current before gaining the bank. Mr. Trout was the father of Capt. Andrew J. Trout, of the 5th Pennsylvania Reserves, in the war of the Rebellion.
Hon. David S. Barstow came to Towanda in 1823. He was born in Sharon, Litchfield Co., Conn., Nov. 6, 1796, graduated at Union college, Schenectady, N. Y., in 1817, studied law at Albany, N. Y., and was admitted to practice in the supreme court of New York in 1821, and in the Bradford courts in 1823. He was a resident of the bor- ough thirty-six years, and died April 30, 1859. He was a member of the State legislature, and filled many offices of trust and honor with distinguished ability and fidelity. He married a wife in 1841, and left a son and two daughters surviving him.
Hon. William Elwell was a distinguished lawyer, and is now judge of the 26th judicial district, and resides in Bloomsburg, Columbia Co., Pa.
Dr. Jobn N. Weston came to Towanda in 1825. He was elected sheriff of the county on his personal popularity, being the candidate of the Whig party, then in the minority. In 1842, Weston street was so called in his honor.
Hon. George Scott came from Massachusetts to Towanda previous to 1812. He was commissioned an associate judge of Bradford County, by Governor Snyder, in 1812; as prothonotary, in 1818 ; as clerk court of quarter ses- sions, oyer and terminer, and orphans' court, in 1824; held these positions until 1830. He was county treasurer in 1823 and '24. He was the publisher for a time, also, of the Bradford Settler, and was prominent in the politics of the county for many years. He married a Miss Strope, of Wysox, and was the father of H. Lawrence Scott, who was subsequently United States collector of internal reve- nue. His other children were Rowena, married Burton Kingsbury, and now deccased ; Ellen, married Gen. H. J. Madill ; Wilson, a promising young lawyer, now deceased; George, died from injuries received from the kick of a horse ; Luther, Clinton, and Walter.
Dr. Charles Whitehead came to Towanda in 1824, and
was the first resident physician in the borough. He lived on Main near State street.
Henry Mercur settled in Towanda in 1810, coming hereto from Lancaster Co., Pa. He is the father of Ulysses, Henry S., Mahlon C., James W., and Hiram. Ulysses was admitted to the bar in 1843, was elected president judge of this judicial district in 1861; served eight years in congress, 1865-1873 ; and is now on the supreme .bench of Pennsylvania. Rodney A. Mercur, his son, is a rising young lawyer of Bradford.
Christopher L. Ward came from Susquehanna county to Towanda in 1838, and purchased and occupied a brick house built by Charles Toucey on Third between Maple and Lombard streets. Ile was an eminent lawyer, a gentleman of fine literary tastes and talents, and the dispenser of a princely hospitality. He had the largest and best selected library in northern Pennsylvania. This library was pur- chased of his estate by his daughter, and donated by her to Lafayette college, at Easton, Pa. Mr. Ward was president of the old Towanda bank in 1838-42, president of the Bradford County historical society, and at one time chair- man of the national Democratic committee. His first wife was a daughter of Judge Rainsford, and his second one was a sister of Dr. H. C. Porter, a lady of superior taste and refinement, as her literary culture fully indicated. His children were Ellen, wife of the late Hon. William H. Miller ; Henry, a lawyer ; and Mary, who died of consump- tion in South Carolina. He died in the summer of 1870.
Dr. Samuel Huston came from Hooksett, Mass., to To- wanda in 1827, and was an eminent physician and Master of Towanda Masonic lodge for a number of years. He married a daughter of Col. Hiram Mix, deccased, and died in May, 1856, in his cottage on York avenue, where his. widow now resides. He was the father of a large family.
Jesse Woodruff was one of the early settlers in the borough ; was a tailor, and lived in a log house north of the present residence of Edward Overton. He subsequently built a framed house near the site of the present residence of Mrs. Dr. H. C. Porter. He built the Bartlett hotel next, on Main street, nearly opposite the court-bouse, about where the Bradford Reporter office now stands ; and sub- sequently removed to Sugar Creek, and from thence out of the county to the west.
David Cash, an attorney, and nephew and law-partner of Simon Kinney, was admitted to the bar of Bradford County in 1822. He was a successful practitioner. He married a Miss Spencer, and died in 1863. His widow still survives, and occupies the house built by Mr. Cash on Third street.
William B. Storm, the cashier of the old Towanda bank, removed to the city of Washington, and secured a position in the treasury department.
William Kecler (2d), a painter, invented a valuable water-wheel and safety-boat.
James Catlin at one time edited the Bradford Gazette. He became subsequently a celebrated portrait-painter, and some of his delineations of noted Indians adorn the walls of the Smithsonian Institution at Washington.
Enos Tompkins sold his farm in Rome township in 1833 or 1834, and purchased a lot and erected an elegant resi- dence on it, on Main street, near Lombard. The same is
* See histories of Monroe and Wysox.
C. D. Ward ..
397
HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
now owned and occupied by J. D. Montanye. He was a man of active business habits, integrity, and sagacity, and owned an extensive area of lots on the west side and south end of the borough. He built near the red tavern a large chair and bedstead factory and iron foundry. He was for several years president of the Towanda bridge company, and removed to Belvidere, Boone Co., Ill.
Hon. Ellis Lewis lived in the Barstow house, corner of Main and Maple streets, in 1831 or 1832. He was an attorney, represented this county in the legislature, was attorney-general of the State, and judge of the supreme court.
Hon. George Sanderson was a lawyer and a State senator, and removed to Scranton, where he recently died.
William Patton came to Towanda in 1823. Ile was born in Huntingdon in 1799, and came from Mifflin county, where he was admitted to the bar, to Bradford. He mar- ried the eldest daughter of Reuben Hale, and on her death married Mrs. Ann Jane Gai, of Washington, D. C. Mr. Patton was a magistrate; district attorney of the county ; held at successive periods clerkships in the State senate, in the United States war and navy departments, and general land-office, and in the United States senate ; in the latter body for more than twenty-five years. He was a captain in the militia, and in 1833 was elected major- general, and at the age of sixty-five volunteered for the de- fense of Washington against an expected attack during the late Rebellion. He was a prominent member of the order of Good Templars, and, in 1872, was one of the presiden- tial electors on the National Temperance ticket, and for two years was District Deputy Grand Worthy Chief Tem- plar for Bradford County. He was several times a delegate to the Grand Lodge of the State, and State temperance conventions. Ile began his temperance life carly, in the delivery of an address to young men; and was the orator at Towanda on the Fourth of July, 1850. In 1866 he was a delegate to the National Conservative Union conven- tion at Philadelphia, and is the author of an "Essay on the relative states of the white and colored races of man- kind," arguing for their separate creations, and consequent disunity. He was also a somewhat leading member of the Patrons of Husbandry, and was president of the Bradford County historical society for two years. When Judge Black resigned his seat in the State constitutional conven- tion, Judge Woodward presented the name of General Patton as his successor, Ex-Govs. Bigler and Curtin sec- onding the nomination ; but Mr. Barr, editor of the Pitts- burg Post, was elected. Hon. Joseph G. Patton, whose biography is given elsewhere, is the son of General William Patton, and Mrs. J. J. Griffiths was a daughter. The gen- cral died this present year,-1878.
Ethan Baldwin, Esq., a lawyer and physician, came from Washington Co., Pa., to Towanda in 1819. His residence was on his farm in North Towanda township. He removed to Harrisburg, and from thence to Philadelphia. " As an advocate at the bar he was famed for metaphorical com- parisons and illustrations, and his imagery was often sublime." He had an extraordinary memory and prolific imagination ; had an inventive genius, and among other things invented a dirt-excavator for work on canals, which
was said to operate well. He was badly disfigured by an explosion of steam in one of his experiments.
James McClintock, from Lycoming Co., Pa., read law with his uncle, Ethan Baldwin, and was a young man of superior ability. His first plea before a jury was in the case of the Commonwealth vs. Hall, for an aggravated assault on James P. Bull, editor of the Bradford Settler, in which he displayed great oratorical powers. His poetic genius was also more than medium. He settled in Wilkes-Barre. Death robbed him at once of a loved wife and a large prop- erty, which, added to political defeat, unbalanced a brilliant intellect, and the darkness of insanity settled on him for- ever, momentary gleams of the sunlight of reason only rendering the gloom more fearful.
Col. James P. Bull came to Towanda from Ohio, in 1822 or 1823, and edited the Bradford Settler, then the sole organ of the Democratic party. He was appointed a clerk in the treasury department at Washington, by Hon. Samuel D. Ingham. He was talented, tasteful, and ener- getic as an editor, but impetuous and scathing in his de- nunciations of political candidates and parties. He was colonel of the Fifteenth Regiment of the Ninth Division of Pennsylvania militia, and at one of the trainings of the regiment inaugurated a sham battle, in imitation of Indian warfare, which was an admirable affair of its kind. He married a Miss Wallace, of Williamsport, and died in the communion of the Methodist Episcopal church.
Col. David M. Bull came to Towanda in 1826. He was a merchant and mail contractor, and assistant editor of the Bradford Settler. He was a sutler in the Union army during the Rebellion, was three months a prisoner in Libby, and held a position in the New Orleans custom-house through the influence of Senator Cameron. He was mar- ried twice ; first to a Miss Patrick, of Wysox, by whom several children were born to him, and secondly to a Miss McCauley, of Washington. He died in New Orleans.
George H. Bull came to Towanda in 1826; was a justice of the peace, and a man of stern integrity. He removed to Newark, N. J., where he died and was brought back to Towanda for burial,-Towanda lodge of Freemasons, of which he had formerly been Master, performing the funeral rites.
Nathan Bull, the father of James P., George H., and David M., went from Saybrook, Conn., to Ohio, and from thence came to Towanda in 1826. He removed to HIale's Mills, in which George H. had an interest, where he died.
Wm. A. Overton, father of D'Alanson Overton, Esq., was a resident of the borough in 1840. He was a heavy mail contractor with his brother-in-law, D. A. Saltmarsh, in the southern States, and suffered ruinous losses through the Rebellion, being obliged to abandon his contracts on ac- count of his Union sentiments. He moved to Brooklyn, N. Y., and held a position in the custom-house in New York, and died at his son's residence in Towanda in 1873. His wife was Eliza Saltmarsh, of Athens.
Hon. Wm. T. Davies, an attorney, and present State senator, was born in Wales in 1831, and with his parents came to the township of Pike in 1833. He taught school in 1856-60, read law with Edwards and Williston, and Wm. Watkins, Esq .; was admitted to the bar in 1861.
398
HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
The same year he was commissioned captain of Company B, One Hundred and Forty-first Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, and served two years. In 1863 was elected district attorney of Bradford County, and in 1876 elected State senator from this district for a term of four years. He married a daughter of William Watkins, Esq.
Joseph D. Montanye came to Towanda from Owego, N. Y., in 1826, as a clerk for Gurdon Hewitt, and subse- quently formed a mercantile partnership with Nathaniel N. Betts, Sr., and engaged in trade at the corner of Main and Court streets, in a frame building ereeted by Eliphalet Mason. In 1848, Mr. Montanye erected a brick building on the same site where he is yet in trade, having been con- tinuously in business in the same place fifty years and more. He is a superior mathematician, and is yet a vigorous, hale, and hearty man, though aged seventy-seven years. "He married a daughter of Abner C. Rockwell, who was the first sheriff of Bradford County, and who came to what is now Monroe township, from Connecticut, seventy-eight years ago. Mrs. Montanye is yet living, at the age of sixty-eight years, a genial, refined, Christian lady.
1
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Their children were George D., once a prominent mem- ber of the Bradford bar, formerly district attorney of the county, and more recently United States collector of internal revenue, and died in 1876, a gentleman of refined taste and extensive literary attainments ; Frank, now deceased ; DeLa; and De Lester. Joseph D. Montanye's father, Abram D. Montanye, resided for a number of years near Owego, N. Y. His grandfather (whose name was also Joseph D. Montanye) moved from New York city to Stroudsburg, Monroe county, Pa. From there he passed over to the Wyoming valley, and purchased some lands, but owing to the great troubles between the Connecticut and Pennsylvania claimants, in regard to land-titles, he re- turned to Stroudsburg. Later in life he moved into what is now the town of Union, Broome county, N. Y., and pur- chased land on which he continued to reside until his death, which occurred about 1815. During the Revolutionary war he was frequently employed by Gen. Washington as bearer of dispatches, and in other confidential relations.
The Montanye family were originally Huguenots. They fled from France to Holland, at the time of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, and came from Holland with the Dutch, in the early settlement of New Amsterdam, and took a prominent part in founding what is now New York city. One of the family was governor of New Amsterdam in its early history. Others held high positions of trust, both in church and state.
Col. Allen Mckean came to Towanda from Burlington township in 1848. He is a native of Burlington, and a nephew of General Samuel Mckean. He was elected pro- thonotary for four terms in succession, and held the office twelve consecutive years. He held a clerkship in the United States treasury department at Washington from 1861 to 1863, and afterwards was paymaster in the Union army. On Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania, under the call of the governor, he raised and commanded a company of volun- teers, and led it to the front. He was a very competent officer. His too generous nature led him to indorse the paper of friends, by which he impaired seriously a fine
fortune, accumulated by years of labor and business success. One wing of the Republican party, of which he was an ardent supporter, offered him a nomination for congress, but having accepted the candidacy for the legislature, at the hands of his conservative friends, he declined the nomination for congress.
Col. Mckean is yet a resident of Towanda, in a fair state of health, and in the full possession of his mental powers. His memory is replete with incident and fact of the earlier times of Bradford, and his information of the political history of the county is valuable and reliable. Having been conversant with the legal and official history of Bradford for many years, his memory is a store-house of well-preserved unwritten data, from which large drafts are honored with readiness and a pleasing urbanity. His con- tributions, too, on the township history of Burlington, have been valuable and important.
Col. Hiram Mix came to Towanda from Wysox in 1822. He and his brother, St. John Mix, were merchants on the corner of Main and Park streets. He married a Miss Martin, and, on her death, was again married,-to Miss Graves, an intelligent and well-educated school-teacher. While returning from a western tour, he and his wife were exposed to a malarial fever, of which they both died, shortly after their arrival at their home. His sons were William, Harry, and Hiram deceased ; and his daughters, Amelia, wife of Hon. D. F. Barstow, Celinda, wife of Dr. Huston, Elizabeth, wife of Col. Jno, F. Means, Matilda, wife of Jos. Kingsbury, Jr., and Emily, wife of George Mix, who moved to the west. Col. Mix was an enterprising man, and of good business habits.
Dr. Caleb W. Miles came to Towanda about 1812, and lived on Main street, near the red tavern.
H. S. Mereur, oldest son of Henry Mercur, built his brick bloek on Main street in 1848. He died suddenly at Pittston, while engaged in the coal trade. He served one term in the legislature. His son Fred. has charge of the Lehigh valley coal-mines at Wilkes-Barre.
Hamlet A. Kerr came from Milton to Towanda in 1828, and edited the Bradford Settler a short time, and removed to Northumberland.
Col. John A. Codding came to Towanda in 1854, on his election as sheriff. He subsequently engaged in the hard- ware line with C. S. Russell, and is yet a prominent resident.
Miller Fox, yet a resident of Towanda, is the son of Deacon John Fox. He is a civil engineer by profession ; was clerk of the county commissioners for the years 1830 to 1835 inclusive ; is at present president of the Towanda bridge company and of the Susquehanna collegiate institute.
Hon. John La Porte built and occupied a house on the corner of Main and Lombard streets. His official and po- litical record is given in the political history of the county. He was the only son of Bartholomew La Porte, one of the French refugees to Asylum from the proscriptions of the French Revolution of 1798. Bartholomew was a sailor, and on his return to Cadiz from a certain voyage learned of the condition of things in France, and at once sailed for America. He married a daughter of Maj. Oliver Dodge, a Revolutionary veteran. Hon. John La Porte was twice a member of congress, and died suddenly in Philadelphia.
Wir H. Hoster
27 Barton
Jam Fauston, M. D.
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399
HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
Eleazer T. Fox, Esq., was born in Owego, N. Y., in 1825, came to Greenwood in 1841, and clerked for E. Rainsford. Esq., merchant. In 1843 came to Towanda and clerked for Means and Overton in a store on the corner of Main and Bridge streets, where the Means House lately stood. In 1846 formed a mercantile copartnership with A. D. Montanye. February, 1847, was married to Lydia S. Homet, daughter of Charles Homet, one of the early French settlers in Frenchtown, and in March of that year was burned out at the great fire, which consumed the court-house and all the buildings south of it to Pine street. In 1866 estab- lished the wholesale house of Fox, Stevens, Mercur & Co., and afterwards of Fox & Mercur. In 1874 retired from the mercantile business, and assumed the management, as trustee and administrator, of sundry estates, and was elected a member and chief burgess of the town council, and in 1876 was elected president of the Citizens' national bank of Towanda.
Hon. Joseph C. Powell was born in Dutchess Co., N. Y., in 1786. In 1796 emigrated to Pennsylvania, and settled in what was then Old Sheshequin, now Ulster, in this county. When a young man he removed to Troy, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits. Soon after the organization of the county he was elected county commissioner, and subse- quently sheriff, when he took up his residence in Towanda; was afterwards appointed prothonotary by Gov. Ritner, which office he held for several years. In 1847 was elected to the State legislature, and in 1854 died at his residence in Towanda, aged sixty-eight.
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