History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 103

Author: Craft, David, 1832-1908; L.H. Everts & Co
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia : L. H. Everts
Number of Pages: 812

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The mother died in 1865, aged seventy-nine. The father died in 1874, aged eighty-eight.

HON. DAVID WILMOT.

No man has ever lived in Bradford County, nor indeed in northern Pennsylvania, who has achieved so wide a reputation as David Wilmot, whose picture, accompanying this sketch, will be hailed with joy by many of his ad- mirers. He was born in Bethany, Wayne county, Pa., where he spent his boyhood and youth, and where, and at Aurora, he was educated. At the age of eighteen he com- menced the study of law at Wilkes-Barre, where he remained until his admission to the bar, when he removed to Towanda, Bradford County.

Immediately Mr. Wilmot took a prominent position as a politician, taking the side of the party opposed to General McKean. For several years he occupied a commanding position in the political affairs of the county, and won a wide reputation as an able and effective speaker.

In 1844, Mr. Wilmot received the unanimous nomina- tion of the Democracy of the Twelfth congressional dis- trict, composed of the counties of Bradford, Tioga, and Susquehanna, henceforth known as the " Wilmot district." He was elected by a large majority, and took his seat at the opening of the Twenty-ninth congress, in 1845, where, in common with the Democratic party, he favored the annexa- tion of Texas. On the 4th of August, 1846, the president sent to the senate a confidential message, asking an appro- priation to negotiate a peace with Mexico. A bill was introduced in the House, appropriating two millions of dollars for the purpose specified. It had now become so

HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

407

apparent that the proposition was intended to strengthen the pro-slavery influence in the general government that, at Mr. Wilmot's suggestion, a consultation was held by a few of the northern representatives who were opposed to the extension of slavery, the result of which was the offering by Mr. Wilmot of the celebrated proviso, which has been so generally known as the " Wilmot Proviso," which pro- vided that in any territory acquired from Mexico " neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of the territory, except for crime," etc. This proviso was adopted in committee, and the two-million bill, con- taining the proviso, was sent to the Senate, where it was killed by John Davis, of Massachusetts, talking against time and preventing its passage.

candidate for vice-president on the ticket with Fremont. He could have commanded the unanimous nomination, but was averse to it. He was chairman of the committee on resolutions, and drew up the platform adopted by that con- vention.

The next year, 1857, Mr. Wilmot was nominated for governor He had, under the provisions of the amended constitution creating an elective judiciary, been chosen president judge of the judicial district composed of the counties of. Bradford, Susquehanna, and Sullivan, in 1851, but resigned the office for the purpose of entering the gubernatorial contest. Although defeated by Wm. F. Packer, his speeches made throughout the State had awak- ened a deep interest in the principles of the Republican

David Vilmos

In 1846, Mr. Wilmot received again the unanimous nomination of his party for congress, and was re-elected. In 1848 the question of slavery began to be agitated, and the Free-soil party was formed, which nominated Martin Van Buren for the presidency. Wilmot, however, received the unanimous nomination for congress, and was re-elected by a large majority, and was succeeded by Mr. Grow in 1850.

On the formation of the Republican party, Mr. Wilmot very soon espoused its principles and identified himself with the movement. In fact, the very measures he had proposed in congress in 1846 had no small influence in leading to its existence. At the Republican national convention held in Philadelphia in 1856, Mr. Wilmot was proposed as the

party, and though defeated, the party was strengthened by the canvass.

In 1860, Gen. Simon Cameron was named in the Penn- sylvania Republican convention as their first choice for president, and according to usage Mr. Cameron selected Wilmot as delegate at large to the Chicago convention, of which he was made temporary chairman, and when Mr. Cameron's name was withdrawn, used his great influence to seeure the nomination of Abraham Lincoln, whose confi- dence he enjoyed during his administration.

The selection of Gen. Cameron to be secretary of war created a vacancy in the United States senate, which Mr. Wilmot was elected to fill, and took his seat in that body March 18, 1861. A wide field of honor and usefulness

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

seemed to be opened before him. He was in the prime of manhood, in the full vigor of his mental powers, revered everywhere as the champion of freedom, and his friends confidently expected him to win for himself a still loftier name while advancing the cause of human rights. But at the outset of his senatorial career his health began grad- ually to fail, until it was almost impossible for him to attend to the routine of his duties. He served two years on the committees on foreign affairs, claims, and pensions, and was succeeded, in 1863, by Mr. Buckalew.

At the conclusion of his senatorial term he was appointed by President Lincoln a judge of the court of claims, which office he held up to the time of his death.

He was a man of strong convictions, and outspoken in the expression of his opinions; a man greatly beloved by his friends and unsparingly hated by his enemies. He was a powerful speaker, keen in debate, carrying with him the hearts of his hearers, and producing conviction in others frequently by the strength of his own.

He died at his residence in Towanda, on the 16th day of March, 1868, aged fifty-four years one month and twenty-six days. He is buried in Towanda cemetery, and his resting- place is marked by a plain slab on which is inscribed, in addition to his name and the dates of his birth and death, that celebrated proviso which has made his name immortal.

TROY .*

TOWNS, cities, and communities, regularly planned and organized at their earliest foundation, like the ancient city of Asia Minor from which we derive our name, are seldom without records and archives, preserved frequently with sacred care, to be referred to by succeeding generations as undoubtedly accurate and ample chronicles of their origin and progress.

The village of Troy, Pennsylvania, such as it is at the present, or whatever it may be in the future, was but the offspring of chance, and we may easily imagine the original locality as dark and forbidding, with its low and marshy grounds, heavily shaded by a forest of hemlocks and pines, interspersed with tangled thickets of laurel, through which roamed the deer, the bear, and the panther, unmolested save by an occasional arrow from the quiver of the wander- ing Indian hunter, whose distant wigwam marked some spot more congenial for the abode of even savage humanity.

The greater portion of our borough, according to old maps and original surveys, is included in three lots of warrant No. 1004. The western lot, of about 220 acres, was taken up by Elihu Smead, and the two eastern are inscribed with the names of Aaron and Moses Case; while the southwestern, of 130 acres, lying on what is now Can- ton street, was the territory of Joseph Wills.t

The division line between Elihu Smead on the west, and the lots of Aaron and Moses Case, was about three-fourths of a mile in length, and its course north 18° west, passing through Pomeroy's brick stores on the west side of Canton street and the outer corner of the opera-house. Adjoining the lots above named, east, was a tract of 200 acres in the name of Thomas Backer, and south of this the lands of Samuel Rockwell, the father of Luther and Rufus Rock- well.

The early name of the township in the maps of the county, under the old Connecticut title, was Augusta.

The grant of the town of Augusta was made June 18, 1794, with the following bounds: beginning at the north- west corner of Burlington in the south line of Columbia, and near the southeast corner; thence south five miles to the west line of Burlington ; thence west five miles ; thence north five miles; thence east five miles; and was granted to parties who had been deprived of their rights by the Penn- sylvanians.

On the Susquehanna company's records are the follow- ing : " At a meeting of the proprietors of the township of Augusta, legally warned, and held at the house of Joseph Bulkley, innkeeper, at Fairfield, Conn., March 9, 1795, David Allen, moderator, it was resolved to give Mr. Na- thaniel Morgan, one of the proprietors of said township, five hundred acres, to be laid out in regular form, provided he settle the township with eight settlers, so as to secure said township to the proprietors, agreeably to the regulations of the general meeting.

"Oct. 17, 1798, Nathaniel Morgan has made choice of lots No. 44 and 45 in Augusta, out of which he takes the above-mentioned five hundred acres.

" Attest, JOHN FRANKLIN, Clerk."

The beginning of a little town at this point, with its tavern, store, and post-office, came about merely from the crossing of the old road east and west with the route sur- veyed as early as 1807, from the West Branch to the State of New York, at Elmira ; and these cross-roads, irregular as they still are in direction, width, and outline, constituted for a long time the entire system of streets. The beginning of anything like town, village, or corners can be dated but little if any earlier than the year 1820, and the indications at that period must have been very slight.

If we look back to the early settlers of this region we shall find them to have been for a long term of years few and far between. Probably the earliest permanent settler, within a radius of five or six miles at least, was

* Contributed by C. C. Paine.

+ Mr. Wills must have been an early settler here, and lived to an advanced age. Many of us still remember secing him scated or standing near the pulpit of the old Baptist church, with a white handkerchief covering his venerable head.

FIRST PRES. CHURCH, TROY, BRADFORD CO ., PA .

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

back into the times and circumstances that surrounded the pioneers of this region, in order to enjoy a realizing sense of the true meaning of hard times.

Another early settler, one of the few still remaining of the times in which he arrived, is Hon. Reuben Wilbur, who has almost completed his ninety-third year, having settled here in 1807. He spent about six months with Esquire Nathaniel Allen, of whom he purchased about three hundred acres, being the same land which Judge Wilbur has occupied for more than threeseore and ten years. He originally contracted for it at fifty cents per acre under the Connecticut title, but was obliged finally to pay four hun- dred dollars under that of Pennsylvania. The possession- right he purchased of Paul Dewitt. Regarding the weather of those days, he says that in the year 1807, about the 1st of April, a snow fell four feet in depth. There was at the time scarcely a ton of hay in all this section, and not to exceed five tons in the county. Straw beds had to be emptied, and browsing on the buds of trees was resorted to in order to carry the cattle through.

Elihu Smead and Aaron Case seems to have been at that time the only inhabitants of the village proper, the latter living in a cabin near the present residence of Mrs. George Hull. Thomas Barber lived near the site of the old Taylor house, now owned by G. F. Viele; and Joseph Barber near the present residence of John A. Parsons.

Without referring particularly to Judge Wilbur's subse- quent career as sheriff of Bradford County and State sena- tor, we may be allowed to give an incident related by a resident of Wellesboro', formerly of Columbia, and who very probably was himself a little mixed up in the circum- stances as narrated. It serves to illustrate the ready fae- ulty of adjusting difficulties and taking things, as we may say, by the smooth handle, which has been characteristic of the judge.

A number of years since, while he held the office of associate judge, there was a small tavern kept somewhere in Cabot Hollow, by one Peter Cooper. Here a number of the young men of the surrounding country,-farmers and the sons of farmers,-during the period of their sowing an unfortunate crop of wild oats, were in the habit of meeting for what is called a jollification. Departing from thenee late one night, quite a number chanced on their way home to pass the house of an individual whose name may or may not have been Joe Gilpin. By this name, however, we will call him. Neither he nor his family en- joyed affluent means, nor in faet a very good reputation. Some words passed between this man and the party of rowdies, who finally entered the house, sang some songs, and inflicted a little damage on the furniture and fixtures, such as they were, before resuming their way homeward.

The next morning Judge Wilbur was interviewed by the injured proprietor, who recited his grievances and demanded a warrant for the offenders. His relation was listened to by the judge with a considerable amount of patience and sympathy, and he declared they ought to be made an ex- ample of. " But, Mr. Gilpin," said he, " if you take this matter into court costs will be incurred, your lawyer will charge you a heavy fee, and what with the expense and delay you may fail in getting proper compensation for the

grievous damage you have sustained. Now, I'll tell you how we'll fix this thing : as associate justice of the court of quarter sessions of Bradford County, I will take your testi- mony in the matter, and you will please consider yourself under oath in making your statements. Then I will make out a list of the fines each man is to pay upon the spot."

So the judge sat down at his desk, with pen, ink, and paper, while Gilpin recounted the part each offender had taken in the damages done. One, for instance, had upset the table and broken some dishes. The fine imposed upon him was two bushels of wheat. Another had broken the leg of a chair, and was set down for three bushels of potatoes. A third had spilled a panful of milk and smashed several pipes, and was accordingly sentenced to pay ten pounds of pork. So on through the list.

" Now, Mr. Gilpin," said the judge, signing his name to the document, " I deputize you to collect these fines, which are to compensate you for the damages you have suffered. You can get some bags, borrow a horse and wagon from some neiglibor, and call upon the parties immediately."

The man departed, well satisfied with the arrangement, and lost no time in starting upon his tour of collection, with the judge's warrant in his hand. This, although it must be considered to have been a somewhat informal doc- ument, yet carried with it such respect and authority that every one without hesitation paid or commuted, and the humble home of the outraged eitizen was soon better sup- plied with the substantials of life than ever before, inso- much that he afterwards declared that he wouldn't much care if those same chaps came around his way again.

Upon an eminence overlooking Sugar creek, something over a mile eastward from Troy village, there stand the ruins of a building, probably one of the first framed houses built in this region. The stone wall which has long supported the ancient structure is tottering to its fall. Within, you may see the chimney of stone, with its ample fire-place. Near by are some aged Lombardy poplars, which Dr. Almerin Herrick, in his journal, now unfortunately lost, states that he assisted in setting out in the year 1818.

This building was formerly the residence and tavern of Major Ezra Long, who came hither from Vermont, about the year 1810.

For many years this locality constituted the headquarters of this section of country. Here was the post-office, and here were held the military trainings and elections, together with other public and social gatherings, long before the present village had an existence. There was also here an institution for the protection, if not the improvement, of the understanding,-this being a shoe-shop, employing a number of hands, carried on by Silas Rockwell; and, alas! up a little ravine east of the creek was an institution for the confusion of the understanding,-a small distillery. Liquor was in considerable demand, and was known in the current language of the times as " Mudpaw."

The " Ivy Lodge" of F. and A. M. had also its regular sessions at this place ; the " Compass and the Square" being conspicuous emblems on Major Long's tavern sign, with the date of 1812, which is still preserved in the office of the Troy House.

Samuel Rockwell, the father of Luther and Rufus Rock-

RESIDENCE OF HORACE POMEROY, TROY. BRADFORD CO. PA.

RESIDENCE OF S. W. POMEROY, TROY, BRADFORD Co., PA.

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

well, occupied in those days a house near where H. F. Long now resides. Like his son Luther, he left nine sons grown to maturity. He afterwards built and occupied a two-story house at the summit of the hill, south of the road to Troy, which was standing not many years since.

THE FIRST MEETING-IIOUSE

in the region was erected in 1808, on the summit of the hill, where the old burying-ground remains and the fore- fathers of the hamlet sleep. The size of the building was about 24 by 36; it was built of hewn logs, and the timber was got out and dressed by Ruben Wilbur and Stephen Palmer. The church was occupied for worship one month and thirteen days after the appointment of the building committee.

Elder Rich was probably the earliest pastor of the Bap- tist church who worshiped there.

The traveled road in those days, instead of leading, as afterwards, directly over the hill, passed through the old burying-ground and down the steep declivity towards the creek, through a little ravine known by the not very musical name of the " Pinchgut." Its route towards Troy village was formerly much ncarer the creek than at present.

THE FIRST FLOURING-MILL

was originally erccted by an individual named Ward, and afterwards owned by Major Long. Were we able it would be a matter of curiosity to compare its machinery and di- mensions (the dam being then only six feet in height) with those of what is now known as Long's mills, standing upon the original site and rebuilt by H. F. Long in 1858.

Another mill on a small scale was afterwards built by Thos. Barber, in the glen above, near the bend in the Rock road ; some of the spars of the dam were to be seen but a few years since still projecting above the water. The card- ing and cloth-dressing works below Long's mills were put in operation by Samuel Conant about the year 1808. The main building, which, with the older one in its rear, was destroyed by fire in November, 1875, was built by Luther Rockwell for Clement Paine in 1840.

Elder Adriel Hebard is said to have come into this sec- tion from Vermont about the year 1800, and occupied a house on the present site of J. G. Loveland's. The large butternut-tree shading the road near the house below is said to have been planted by him.

West of the Burlington road, about half-way between Major Long's and Esquire Allen's, stood

THE OLD SHAD SCHOOL-HOUSE,

probably the earliest institution of learning, and there are those among our citizens who may remember taking their first lessons from Webster or Cobb within its humble walls. It took its name from the weather-vane, in the form of a fish, which surmounted the building.

The first board-roofed house in the township was erected by Gen. Elihu Case in 1798. The first house in the borough was built by Timothy Nichols, father-in-law of E. Case, in 1800. It stood near where the new Presbyterian church now stands. Nichols sold to Elihu Smead, who

previously had resided at the foot of the mountain, on Smead creck.

Elder Rich, a Baptist preacher, was the first adult in- terred in Glenwood cemetery, in 1812.

DR. ALMERIN HIERRICK,

then a young man, came hither, in 1817, from the State of New York, to find a suitable opening for the practice of his profession. He remained for two or three years at Major Long's, and finally became a settled citizen of the county, quite as much from the force of circumstances as from choice. Accustomed as he had been to a society of literature and refinement, he found it difficult to reconcile his mind to the idea of settling down for life in a region so rude and wild, and with so little prospect, as it then seemed to him, of general improvement. In his diary kept at the time (and to which, were it now to be had, it would be in- teresting to refer) he often indulged in the expression of such a feeling, and on two occasions had fixed upon a day for his positive departure. On the arrival of the time set, however, the entry is made that, although a considerable amount was due on his books, which he had hoped to realize, he actually could not succeed in collecting a sufficient amount in money to carry him out of the country. But a good citizen was thus saved to the community, of which he long continued a useful member. Not long after this the doctor was married to the lady who now, in old age, has survived him some thirty-three years, and we do not hear subsequently of his repining at the fate which had kept him here. It was about the year 1820 that he was ap- pointed postmaster and removed to the present site of Troy, then and for some years after known as Lansingburg; the original name of the township, under the Connecticut title, having been Augusta.

One of the earliest documents connected with the progress of the place at an carly period is the following, dated Nov. 5, 1823 :

" At a meeting of a number of the inhabitants of the vicinity of Lansingburgh, at the school-house, to devise or fix some plan for finishing the sd school-house, thereby making it the more comfortable for our children, and we, the proprietors, the more applauded hy foriners. Voted, nnanimons, that we finish off the school-house. Proceeded to sine for the purpose above-mentioned, and then voted that after the subscription is expended, to proceed in finishing off the same, and we are bound to pay in proportion to what we have already sined. To be superintended by Almerin Herrick.

(Signed) " LABAN LANDON, Chairman.

"ELIHU CASE, Secretary."

The accompanying subscription is signed by A. Herrick, Churchill Barnes, and John Dobbins, well known in the early history of the place, both acting for some time as justices of the peace; Elihu Newbery, Zoroaster Porter, Benj. Oviatt, Isaac N. Pomeroy, Vine Baldwin, Elihu Case, Ansel Williams, Abraham Case, James Lucas, Dan'l Gregory, and several others. It is noticeable that there are three columns opposite the signatures : one being for number of days' work subscribed, another for number of bushels of wheat, and the third for number of feet of luniber. There is also a column for subscriptions in money, but all the contributions are in the other columns. Dr. Almerin Her- rick's subscription takes the lead, being 8 days' work, 2

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

bushels of wheat, and 10 pounds of iron ; Elihu Case's subscription, 1 day's work, 200 feet of boards, and 10 pounds of iron, towards andirons; Vine Baldwin's, 20 pounds of fourpenny and eightpenny nails and 20 pounds of iron.

We do not understand these subscriptions payable in iron, only so far as Elihu Casc explains his by stating that it was for andirons,-an article getting to be nowadays so much out of use that some may not even understand that. But, considering the scarcity of gold, silver, and bills in those days, we are rather carried back in imagination to the times of the Spartans, who established an iron currency, so cumbrous, however, that its transportation to any amount required the aid of at least one ox-cart.

The old school-house stood on the present site, or nearly, of F. H. Parson's meat-market. It might well be supposed to have gone out of existence long before this time, but having been bought years ago by one Bryan Hanaway, it was removed down Elmira street, where it still forms part of the small dwelling belonging to S. W. Pomeroy, below the residence of Edward E. Loomis.

In Dr. Herrick's bill for the work, etc., which he super- intended on the school-house, we find the following rates as then prevailing : for 14 days' work by himself, 56 cents per day ; for carpenters' work by James Lucas, Joshna Landon, and others, 75 cents per day ; for board of work- men, 182 cents per day ; for boards (probably a good quality of pine Inmber), $3.75 per thousand feet ; and for nails, 12} cents per pound.

ELDER OVIATT,

whose name appears on the subscription referred to, was a preacher, and also filled up the time by working as a house- joiner and carpenter. Dr. S. E. Shepard relates an anecdote of him showing a good faculty at repartee. In one of his discourses he had made a characteristic illustration of the kingdom of God, by comparing it to the building of a house, nicely fitted and framed together in all its parts. It hap- pened that a somewhat critical individual of the name of Sill was afterwards discussing the points of the sermon with Elder Oviatt, and among other difficulties and objections he inquired :

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History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 103

Author: Craft, David, 1832-1908; L.H. Everts & Co Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Philadelphia : L. H. Everts Number of Pages: 812

Author: Craft, David, 1832-1908; L.H. Everts & Co
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia : L. H. Everts
Number of Pages: 812