History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 13

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

USA > Pennsylvania > Bradford County > History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 13

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This year, 1774, a French gentleman, who signs himself St. John de Creve Coeur, in company with an Indian escort, passed up the river from Wilkes-Barre to Anaquaga, and thus describes the country :] "There are sixteen districts from the line of their (the Connecticut people's) claim to the bounds of Wyolusing, seven on the west side of the river, viz., Wapwallapen, Sisshiney, Shawney, Lackawaney, Exeter, Mahapaney, Wyolusing; nine on the east side, to wit, Aldentown, Nanticoke, Wioming, Pittstown, Coupas, Tanhanock, on the banks of a stream of the same name, Mashapi, Standing Stone, Wyssack. These districts all have an extent more or less considerable on the river, depending upon the proximity of the mountains, the breadth of the plains, and the fertility of the woodlands. The most narrow extend to both sides of the river. We arrived on the fifth day at Wyolusing, situated ninety miles from Wilkesbury. It is a plain of considerable extent, and of great fertility. I observed that the blue grass had been replaced by white clover, with which the pastures were covered. There were as yet only a very few families living here. Their cattle were of great beauty. The savages were anxious to get home, we therefore left this place the next morning. Passing up the river, they showed me the remains of the ancient villages of the Senecas,-Sissusing (Sheshequin?), Teogo, Shamond (Chemung), Ockwackao (Owego), Shenando, etc. In fine, after three days' naviga- tion, always against the current, we lauded at Anaquaga, one hundred and ninety-eight miles from Wilkesbury."

The reader will observe that in the above description Wyalusing is located on the west side of the river. On the map which accompanies it, Wyalusing is marked as lying on both sides of the river, including the plains on the east, and reaching from Rocky Forest to Frenchtown on the west. That this whole country was known by the old peo- ple as Wyalusing is also evident from the narrative of Mrs. Budd, given in the following pages, in which she describes her home, which was at Terrytown, as being in Wyalusing.

# Paris Ed. I., pp. 202, 203.

IHISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

Some of the grants made by the Proprietaries to their friends of lands in the county having been located and surveyed as early as 1775, a few from the neighborhood of Philadelphia came, either as lessees or tenants, upon these lands, for the purpose of keeping off intruders and holding the claim for the grantees. Of this class was Philip Fox, who must not be confounded with the Fox family at To- wanda, settled at Fairbanks, Caspar IIoover nearly opposite, on the Dodge farm, at the upper end of Terrytown, and perhaps others.

Henry Pawling, a wealthy gentleman of Providence, in what is now Montgomery county, having purchased of Job Chillaway the Wyalusing plains, also four rights in the Susquehanna company, which were located on part of the same land, his three sons-Benjamin, Jesse, and William- settled on it probably the same year (1775). Isaae Han- cock came with them as tenant and housekeeper; Rich- mond Berry and a man by the name of Page were laborers on the plantation. The Pawlings were young men without families, who, from their wealth and social position, were well known throughout the county. Hancock, Berry, and Page each had families.

In 1777 the farms in Springfield lying on the river were all taken up, and settlements were established on the Wyalusing ereek above Camptown, and on the river at Asylum, Standing Stone, Macedonia, Wysauking, Towanda, Lower Sheshequin, and perhaps at Sugar Creek.

In Wilmot, besides Philip Painter, Leonard Lott was settled on the Gamble place. Above, at the mouth of Sugar Run, Hieks had sold to Prinee Bryant, and he to Benjamin Eaton, April 1, 1777, who lived there until the spring of 1778. William Crooks lived above on the Hor- ton place, on the lots drawn by William McKarrichan, Esq., of Hannover.

In Wyalusing, the Pawlings, Haneock, Berry, and Page lived on the site of the old Moravian Indian town; Isaiah Pasco probably next above, on a lot owned by Elihu Wil- liams; James Wells and his family next above, near where the old Foley house formerly stood ; Nathan Kingsley, in the old house still standing a few rods north of the railroad depot; Amos York, on the farm lately owned by John Hollenback, deceased, and his nephew Miner Robbins near him. Captain Robert Carr had sold his lots on the north side of the Wyalusing creek to James Forsyth, and he to Abraham Bowman. Ephraim Tyler was living on the creek on the farm lately owned by Justus Lewis, deceased ; William Dann above him, near Mr. Cleaveland's ; Benja- min and Stephen Skiff on the Jonas Ingham farm, still farther up the creek, on a pitch made by - Staples ; Justus Gaylord, the elder, with his family, were settled at the Old Misiseum. Besides these there were in the town- ship Josiah Dewey, Caleb Atherton, Jacob Burt, a man named Winters, and John Segar ; the latter probably a tenant of William Kinsley's, in the lower part of Browntown.

At Terrytown were Benjamin Budd and his family, in- cluding for a time his three sons, John, Joseph, and Asa, and Parker Wilson.

In Asylum, Peter Shoefelt had removed to the West Branch, and James Forsythe was living at Frenchtown, Samuel Ketchum on the farm now owned by William

Storrs, and Samuel Cole, with his family, Jacob Bruner, and Stephen Sarah at Macedonia.

In Standing Stone, Anthony Rummerfield was on the creek which bears his name; Simon Spalding, Lemuel Fitch, the four Van Alstynes, Henry Birney, Charles Angar, John Pencil, and Adam Simmons above him at various places below the York narrows.

In Wysox the Van Valkenbergs and Stropes were living near the Wysauking creek, William Nelson on the Lanning place, Isaac Larraway and his son, Isaae Larraway, Jr., on the flats nearly opposite Towanda, and Samuel Showers near them.

Ou the Towanda flats Jacob Bowman had moved near Mr. Fox, while Capt. John Bartles had settled, or at least made a pitch, above them towards Monroeton, and probably John Neeley at Greenwood.

At Sheshequin, on the Gore place, John Lord had set- tled, but had sold his possession to William Stewart; whether he continued to live there or not is uncertain. Mrs. Whittaker speaks of a family living at Sheshequin, but does not give their names.

John Seeord, with his family and sons, James and Cyrus, lived at Tioga Point.

Although of different nationalities, holding lands under adverse titles, and of diverse opinions, tastes, and habits, the inhabitants lived together in peace and quietude, with- out law, without peace-officers, without courts ; and having no need of any. In the retirement and simplicity of their forest homes, removed at a distance of more than fifty miles from the lower settlements, their wants were few and easily supplied. Game was abundant in the forests, the river and ereeks swarmed with fish, the samp mortars were their mills, the skins of wild animals furnished clothing for the men, and the loom, which was an essential part of the fur- niture of each household, enabled the housewife to secure the necessary fabrics to clothe the women and children. Occasionally some trader would come up with a boat-load of articles which would be exchanged for corn and peltry, and now and then one or two in the neighborhood would take a eanoe-load of grain to Wilkes-Barre to mill for flour and fine meal to be used on extra occasions. With his axe the pioneer constructed his log house, which he eovered with bark, and made the furniture, which was in keeping with the rude simplicity around him. All occupied the same social level and mingled in the same social enjoyments, aided each other in their labors, and shared with each other in the fruits of their toil. The picture given by one of their number of the domestie comfort and joy in these re- tired homes is one now rarely met with.

In a new and sparsely-settled community, as this was at that time, we look in vain for anything like an organized condition of society. The people were getting ready to live. Each was fully occupied in providing for present needs and future necessities. Erecting log houses and barns, clearing up little patches of ground for meadow and grain-fields, marking out the lines of their claims, and building fences constituted all the improvements they were able to make. The solitary exception to this was a saw-mill commenced by Anthony Rummerfield, but which he was unable to fin- ish. Schools they had none, and of stores there was no

HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

need. Rev. Jacob Johnson, of Wilkes-Barre, is said to have visited here a few times and preached an occasional sermon.

At Wyalusing, in the autumn of 1776, Aholiab Buck, of Kingston, married Lucretia, daughter of Amos York, which doubtless was an occasion for happy greetings and good cheer for all the country round ; while in the same family the death of one son and the birth of another brought alternate sorrow and joy to the household, and aroused the sympathies of the community in their mingling with the. gladness or in their ministrations to sufferings of their neighbor's home.

But war thrust its ruthless plowshare through this gar- den of peace, and upturned opposing sentiments and evil passions, which bred animosities and feuds that not only put an end to the peace but ultimately to the very existence of the settlements.

At the beginning of the Revolutionary war quite a number of persons settled about Exeter and Tunkhannock beeame dissatisfied with the measures instituted by the Whigs of Wyoming, were branded as Tories, and threat- ened with arrest ; to escape which they forsook the lower settlements and came to this county, where they would be farther from the eircumspeetion of the Whigs, and nearer and more serviceable to their friends. Among these were the Secords, Jacob Anguish, and George Kentner. Here they were looked upon with suspicion and distrust by the decided Whigs, with commiseration by the more conserva- tive, and received aid and sympathy from others whose sentiments of loyalty to the British crown were decided and outspoken.

The quiet and prudent among the settlers had hoped that peaceable measures would prevail among them. They were exposed to immediate danger in case the war should be transferred from the coast to the interior. They were just on the confines of the Indian country, and innst necessarily suffer the horrors and eruelties incident to border warfare if the savages violated their pledge of neutrality. They were about equally divided in sentiment among themselves, as many being favorable to the Crown as were in sympathy with Congress. Every consideration of prudence would seem to counsel mutnal forbearance with each other and peace with their dusky neighbors. In the summer of 1777, British emissaries came among the Indians, persuading them to violate their pledge of neutrality, and among these set- tlements, stirring up the disaffected and endeavoring to muster recruits for St. Leger, who was then investing Fort Schuyler. This same year some deserters from the Ameri- can army sought refuge in the settlements. Diversity of sentiment began to develop itself. The old land quarrel was renewed. The terms Yankee and Pennamite were dropped, and those of Whig and Tory took their place. The peace once disturbed, a thousand things contributed to foment the quarrel.

During the latter part of this year the Indians began to assume a more threatening attitude towards the Susque- hanna settlements, and before the close of the year acts of undisguised hostility began to be perpetrated, and many of the Whigs were plundered of their property, and the men carried into captivity. Those who escaped sought refuge at

Wyoming, then esteemed a place of comparative security. Those who sympathized with the British interest removed their families within the British lines, and the men joined Johnson's Royal Greens. The whole county was swept clean of white settlers-both Tory, Whig, and neutral-by the various hostile expeditions which passed through it, and from 1779 to 1783 was probably without an inhabitant, either white man or Indian.

To aid the commissioners, appointed under the act of 1799, in confirming titles to the Connecticut claimants, Nathan Kingsley, Esq., and Justus Gaylord, Jr., made out a list of the carly settlers in Springfield ; Jacob Bowman and Henry Strope a like list for Claverack, which will be referred to as the Springfield and Claverack lists, and will be found in full at the close of this chapter.

To preserve the record of these early settlers, such sketches and facts as can now be obtained will be given.

Leonard Lott settled on the farm now owned by Joseph Gamble, in Wilmot township. He was married on Long Island to a Frenchwoman named Letitia Flander. Re- moved to Stillwater, N. Y., where he was living in 1773. In the summer of 1777 he was at Wilmot, from whence he removed to Plymouth in the early part of the winter, and lived there with Ira Manville from the 10th of December, 1777, until the 1st of June, 1778. He was at the Forty fort at the time of the battle. After the war he returned to the Gamble place, remained there two or three years, when he moved to Meshoppen, thenee to the Mehoopany creek, where he died. His descendants still reside in Wy- oming county.

Philip Painter lived farther up the river, on the farm subsequently purchased by James Quick. He was probably a lessee of Philip Weeks, the Connecticut claimant, but of his history I have been unable to learn nothing more, except that after the war it is probable that he settled in North- umberland eounty.

Edward Hicks, from Dutchess Co., N. Y., made a pos- session at the mouth of Sugar Run, as early as 1775, and remained there about a year, and left. He embraced loyal- ist sentiments, and was taken by the Westmoreland militia, December, 1777, from which time his name disappears from our local records.

Prince Bryant, of Providence, R. I., a tanner by trade, occupied this farm in 1776. By deed dated April 21, 1777, he sold the property to Benjamin Eaton, for £200, and described it as " a certain lot or parcel of land in West- moreland, being the lot that I bought of Amaziah Close, containing three hundred aeres, lying in a district that was laid out by Jeremiah Ross and Lieut. Wells ; said lot is sit- uated on the south side of the Susquehanna river, opposite Wialuchin." About this time he was engaged for nine months as post-rider between Hartford, Conn., and Wyo- ming, making the round trip each fortnight. In January, 1781, he was living in Goshen, Orange Co., N. Y., to which he removed about the time of the battle of Wyo- ming. He subsequently settled above Athens, near the mouth of Cayuta creek, where, in 1788, he owned six hundred acres of land, on which were two dwelling-houses, a grist-mill, and a saw-mill, which in January of that year he sold to Nathaniel Shaw and John Shepard.

HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

Benjamin Eaton, who purchased of Prince Bryant, was from Kent, Litchfield Co., Ct. He remained on this prop- erty until the spring of 1778, when he removed to Wyo- ming for safety. Near by him was settled Calvin Eaton, probably a relative. In 1787, Mr. Eaton was living in the " Mohawk district, Montgomery Co., N. Y.," when he sold his land in Bradford County to Isaac Benjamin. In Er- win's History of Painted Post it is said that, " in 1795, Benjamin Eaton opened the first store in the town, if not in the county, for the benefit of civilization." I have failed to learn anything further of his history there. A note from Prof. D. C. Eaton, of Yale college, gives the follow- ing faets : Benjamin, fifth son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Parker) Eaton, was born at Tolland, Conn., Feb. 1, 1732. Thomas was the oldest son of Thomas and Lydia (Gay), who was the son of John, oldest son of John, who emigrated from London to Massachusetts Bay in 1635.

It may be added, that Isaac Benjamin sold the farm to Jonas Ingham, Sept. 4, 1789, whose great-grandson now occupies it.

It will be remembered that Henry Pauling, of Mont- gomery Co., Pa., purchased of Job Chillaway the site of the Mission village, in May, 1775. Soon after he sent up Isaac Hancock to take possession of his lands and culti- vate them. Here, on the 10th of September, 1777, Mrs. Hancock gave birth to a daughter, Betsy, who became the wife of Jesse Ross. Mr. Hancock returned to his home, near Philadelphia, late in the fall of the same year. His subsequent residence in the county will be noticed in the township annals.

In order to make his title secure, Mr. Pauling purchased four rights in the Susquehanna company, and his three sons, Benjamio, William, and Jesse, came upon the property in the year 1776 or '77. The wealth and social standing of the family gave the young men great influence among the settlers. Generous of their means, fond of the hunt and the rough sports of the times, they soon became the leading spirits in the community, and lived on terms of great friend- ship with their neighbors until the breaking out of the Revolutionary war, when their ardent zeal for their Pennsyl- Vania title, the suspicions and possibly unwise eagerness of the prominent Whigs to crush out all loyalty to the crown of England, led them, in common with many other prominent men in the colonies, although greatly to the mortification and chagrin of their father, who espoused heartily the cause of the colonists, to join the loyalists, and identify themselves with the interests of the mother gov- ernment. The prominence of the family made the course of the young men the subject of much correspondence among the leading men of this valley, a few extracts from which are appended.

In a letter written by Judge Gore, he says, " The cireuni- stance of Mr. Pauling is this: when he had purchased of Job Chillaway, he then sent his son, John Pauling, to Wyoming to purchase a number of Connecticut rights to cover the tract he had purchased of the Indian. Those Connecticut rights were laid in a different direction from the former, so as to cover about one-half of the bottom land, while the Indian right took no other. Afterwards he settled three sons, to wit : Benjamin, Jesse, and the other

name don't oeeur. However, they lived there several years in good agreement, so far as I know, until the Indians made war against the United States, when these young men went off and joined the enemy. One [William] was appointed a captain in Butler's rangers, one a lieutenant, and the third a quartermaster. They were all personally down against the settlement at Wyoming, with the savages, and exercised great severities upon the prisoners. They are yet at Niagara, one a justice of the peace."

In 1802, Col. John Jenkins writes to Joseph Kingsbury as follows: "The three Paulings who left our settlement the year before the battle in 1778, went and joined Col. John Butler. They were commissioned as officers in his rangers. They afterwards returned home in the winter, and made arrangements for their friends, returned again, and joined Col. Butler early in the spring of 1778."

Living in the immediate neighborhood of the Paulings were two families, one named Page, and the other Rich- mond Berry. They were tenants of the Paulings, and were loyalists. Berry was taken by the militia in 1777, and his family were removed to Wyoming in the following spring.

James Wells lived next above the Paulings. His house stood in a grove of white oaks, about sixty rods above the Stalford line, and twenty rods west of the State road. He was a native of Colehester, Connecticut, from which place he emigrated to Wyoming in 1771, and removed to Wya- lusing in 1774. In company with Jeremiah Ross he laid. out the town in that year. He probably had two children born in Wyalusing, viz., Alice, born in 1774, the first white child born in the township, and Mary, born in 1776. Mr. Miner says (Hazleton Travelers, p. 57), " The family were the earliest settlers in Springfield, on the Wyalusing, from which, on danger becoming imminent from the savages, they removed to the more densely settled part of the country, in the valley." He and his oldest son, James, enlisted in the First Independent Company, of Wyoming, under command of Captain Robert Durkee. In this company Mr. Wells was first lieutenant. He, with others, on learning the great danger to which Wyoming was exposed from the savages, resigned his commission, left his company in New Jersey, and hastened home to participate in the ill-starred battle of Wyoming. In this battle he probably served as a private in Captain Bidlack's (lower Wilkes-Barre) company, which was on the right wing of the patriot army. Here he was surrounded and slain. There is a tradition, which comes pretty well authenticated, that he was wounded in the leg so that he could not run, and the Indians attempted to cap- ture him. Being a man of stalwart frame and giant strength he hurled off his enemies, when one sunk a toma- hawk into his skull, which ended his life. He was forty- six years of age.

After the battle, the mother with her ten children fled with the other fugitives to their friends in Connecticut, where they remained until 1787, when they returned to Wyalusing, where the family will be again mentioned. James, Jr., served in Captain Spalding's company until the close of the war, when he removed to the State of New York. James and Amos Wells were appointed in 1773 to settle the line in dispute between the towns of Kingston

HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

and Plymouth, and reported in November of that year. He was a proprietor of Charlestown, one of the Susquehanna company's townships, laid out on the West Branch, and sacked by Plunket, September, 1775, but there is no cvi- dence that he ever lived there. Little else can be found in the meagre records of these early times, but these scraps show that he had the confidence of the early settlers in this part of the country.

Nathan Kingsley, Esq., lived on the northern half of the farm now owned by George H. Welles, at Wyalusing. The old house in which he lived is still standing about thirty rods north of the railroad depot. He was the oldest son of Salmon Kingsley, and was born in Scotland, Windham Co., Connecticut, January 23, 1743, and married Rocce- lana ( Wareham ?), of Windsor, Connecticut. (Prof. James L. Kingsley, of Yale College, was a nephew of Nathan.) He came to Wyoming about 1772 or '73, and was one of the original proprietors of Springfield. August 8, 1775, he was appointed one of the committee of inspection for the county of Westmoreland. He purchased by deed bearing date January 8, 1776, of Elijah Brown, for £60, one-half of a saw-mill "standing on a creek called by ye name of Moughshopping, together with one-half of ye stream, tools, and timber belonging thereto," etc. He sold the same to Thomas Wigton on the 8th of March follow- ing. The precise date of Mr. Kingsley's settlement at Wyalusing cannot now be fixed. He was there previous to the survey of the township of Springfield in October, 1777, and had set off to him lots numbered 34 and 35, and it appeared that subsequently, in his absence, the township committee changed his corners.

About the latter part of this year he was captured by the Indians, and remained in captivity nearly a year. While in captivity he secured the friendship and confidence of the Indians by his skill in doctoring their horses. He was, in consequence, allowed considerable liberty, and permitted to go into the woods to gather herbs and roots for his medi- cines. Seizing a favorable opportunity, he made his escape, and reached Wyoming in safety. During his captivity his family found a home with Jonathan Slocum, a member of the Friends' society. Here Nathan, Jr., was killed, and another son carried into captivity by the Indians. Mr. Miner gives the account as follows : " A respectable neigh- bor, Nathan Kingsley, had been made prisoner, and taken into the Indian country, leaving his wife and two sons to the charity of the neighbors. Taking them home, Mr. Slocum bade them welcome until Mr. Kingsley should be liberated, or some other mode of subsistence present. On the 2d of November (1778), the two boys being engaged grinding a knife, a rifle-shot and cry of distress brought Mrs. Slocum to the door, where she beheld an Indian scalping Nathan, the eldest lad, fifteen years of age, with the knife he had been sharpening. Waving her back with his hand, he en- tered the house, and took up Ebenezer Slocum, a little boy. The mother stepped up to the savage, and, reaching for the child, said, 'He can do you no good ; see, he is lame.' With a grim smile, giving up the boy, he took Frances, her daughter, aged about five years, gently in his arms, and, seizing the younger Kingsley by the hand, hurried away to the mountains; two savages, who were with him, taking a

black girl seventeen years old. This was within one hun- dred rods of Wilkes-Barre fort. An alarm was instantly given, but the Indians eluded pursuit, and no trace of their retreat could be found."

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History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 13

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