USA > Pennsylvania > Bradford County > History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 49
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Northern Tier Gazette,
and still edits and publishes it as a Republican journal. It has 28 columns, and is devoted to local news, literature, and general miscellany chiefly. It is well conducted, and is a good, spicy local paper.
ATIIENS.
The first press here was that of the Athens Scribe, an advocate of New York and Pennsylvania improvements. No. 1, issued Aug. 5, 1841, prophesied the railway con- nection since accomplished. The paper was printed in a building of Chester Stephens, on the north side of the Academy Square ; was published by O. N. Worden, from Montrose; was Whig in politics, but sustained by both parties. There was no Waverly then, and the Tioga Point valley furnished three hundred patrons from both sides of the State line.
President Tyler's course had partly discouraged the Whig party, and the Scribe was suspended at the close of 1842.
In 1841, Mr. Worden printed the Athenian (No. 1). It was a small monthly paper, of which six numbers were edited by Wm. F. Warner, Edwin C. Marvin, James H. Forbes, and Ezra O. Long. In 1842, Mr. Worden printed a campaign paper for the " Workingmen's Party." March 3, 1843, appeared the Democratic Laborer's Advocate, conducted by Mr. Worden, Whig, assisted by Capt. Jason K. Wright, Democrat; thus representing both national parties. The paper gained the largest circulation of any
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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
in the county, but it had no official patronage, and the sus- pension of work on the canal and the bankruptcies following caused such unprecedented hard times in this region that money could not be raised to procure printing-paper, and the printer removed to the county of Wyoming. Eight years passed, and the New York and Erie railroad was built up to Waverly. In August, 1852, Charles T. Houston, from Lewisburg, started the Athenian (No. 2), which con- tinued two years. About 1855, Mark M. (" Brick") Pomeroy, from Waverly, issued the Athens Gazette (No. 1) for about two years. His subsequent career is well known. It is said a Democratic campaign paper was here issued about 1855, by Franeis S. Smith.
Eight years again passed without a press in Athens. The near completion of the Lehigh valley railroad aroused enterprise, and in 1866, S. Frank Lathrop, from Le Rays- ville, commenced the Athens Republican.
Early in 1868 the paper was changed by Walter K. Green into the Athens Democrat, and after six months was removed to Waverly.
In 1868, D. V. Stedge issued a Weekly News, but in 1869 the office was removed to Rome.
Business enlarging in the district, Charles T. Huston, from Williamsport, started the Athens Gleaner, March 16, 1870, an independent sheet, with home history as a specialty, receiving contributions from Dr. D. Bullock, Sidney Hay- den, L. H. Elliott, Rev. D. Craft, Edward Herriek, Jr., O. N. Worden, and others. It called out many loeal rec- ords and traditions, giving an impetus to historical pursnits, and gaining a circulation of over fifteen hundred. It had little official aid, and the repeated prostration of the printer by sickness compelled him to discontinue the Gleaner with No. 196, Oct. 30, 1874.
Athens Gazette.
In April, 1870, Mr. Charles Hinton, from Horseheads, N. Y., issued the Gazette (No. 2), independent at the out- set, but for some years past a Republiean organ. In 1876 it appeared on a double sheet, under control of a company, but was soon after destroyed by a fire. It was revived April 6, 1877, and is now in the name of S. C. Klisbe, Mr. Hinton making job-printing a specialty, for which he is well prepared. In 1875 Our Pet had a short life. In Sep- tember, 1875, Cannon Brothers issued the Bradford Demo- crat, but six months afterwards it was removed to Rome. In 1876, Julius Corbin issued a few Athenians (No. 3). The same year, Mr. Huston, for a committee, issued the Democrat, for the campaign.
CANTON.
The Canton Sentinel was established in 1871 by its present proprietors, Messrs. C. H. Butt & Son. It is a 20- column sheet, Republican in politics, and devoted chiefly to local news, which its managers place before its readers promptly and acceptably.
BURLINGTON.
In 1857-58 The Good Samaritan was published by Dr. Sweeney, in the interest of religion and medical science, as Dr. Sweeney understood those subjects. It existed a little more than a year.
ROME.
The Rome Register was published in 1875-76, for a short time, by Cannon Brothers, as the organ of the " Greenback" party.
LE RAYSVILLE.
A paper, with a high-sounding name, was published for a short time in Le Raysville, by S. Frank Lathrop, who re- moved it to Athens, and changed its name to the Athens Republican, in 1866.
BOOKS AND AUTHORS.
The literary fame of Bradford is by no means confined to the newspaper press, able as that department may be ; but her citizens have carried the name of the old county into the high places of song and seience by their eontribu- tions to the literature of those departments of intelligence, as well as into the arena of history.
POETRY.
Mrs. Marguerite St. Leon Loud, a daughter of Dr. Bar- stow, of Wysox, in which town she was born, has won an enviable reputation as a poetess by contributions to vari- ous periodicals. See " Poe's Autobiography," Griswold's " Female Poets of America," Read's "Female Poets of America," Nay's " American Female Poets," Allibone's " Dietionary of Authors."
She was married in 1824 to Mr. Loud, of Philadelphia, where she has since passed the principal part of her time.
Mrs. Julia A. Scott, a daughter of George Kinney, of Sheshequin, born in 1809, married in 1835 to David L. Scott, of Towanda, where she died in 1842, was a poetical contributor of merit to the periodicals of her time. In 1843 a collective edition, 12mo, of her poems, with a memoir of the author, by Mrs. Sarah C. Edgerton, was published in Boston. In 1854 a new 12mo edition, with a memoir of the poetess, by Mrs. Caroline M. Sawyer, was issued. In Griswold's " Female Poets of America" selec- tions of her poems appear, and a notice of herself.
SCIENCE.
James Macfarlane, A.M., has given to the world one of the most exhaustive treatises on the eoal regions of America that has as yet been issued from the press. Professor Macfarlane is a native of Gettysburg,* Adams county, Pa., but removed to Towanda, Bradford County, about 1845, and was employed in the capacity of a civil engineer on the North Branch canal. He subsequently pursued the studies of the legal profession in Perry county, and was admitted to the practice of the law before the courts of Bradford County in May, 1851, and was elected district attorney of the county, in October, 1853, for a term of three years. In 1855 he was appointed general superintendent of the Bar- clay coal and railroad company, and held the position twelve years. In 1867 he received the appointment of general sales agent of all the bituminous coal companies of
# The family mansion of the Macfarlanes, a large brick house, stands at the foot of Cemetery hill, and was riddled with bullets during the progress of the sanguinary battle on that historic point.
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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
Tioga county, which position he still holds, with head- quarters at Syracuse. In 1873 he was appointed by the governor of Pennsylvania one of the commissioners of the geological survey of the State, a work still in progress, and to which Professor Macfarlane gives much attention. He has a son who is superintendent of the bituminous coal mines at Bradford, Mckean county, Pa.
In 1873, Professor Macfarlane wrote his exhaustive and able work, " The Coal Regions of America, their Topo- graphy, Geology, and Development." His publishers were D. Appleton & Co., of New York. It is an octavo of 674 pages and a copious index, and illustrated somewhat pro- fusely with sections, diagrams, and cuts of the coal fields and manner of mining, and has several very fine maps of the mining regions showing the extent of the fields and their location. It is a most valuable addition to the econ- omic geological literature of the world, and has had an ex- tensive sale for a scientific work, running through several editions. Professor Macfarlane is also the author of the article on geology in " Appleton's New American Cyclo- pedia," the latest edition. He also contributed the chapter on geology, topography, etc., for this work,-the history of Bradford County.
HISTORY.
Mrs. Julia A. Perkins, daughter of John Shepard, Esq., of Athens, where she was born and still resides, has, besides contributing various articles of historical value to the weekly press, published (1870) a neat 12mo, of about 300 pages, entitled " Early Times on the Susquehanna." This work is replete with valuable information, and is the first work compiled and published, by a local historian, on the history of any part of Bradford County. Her husband is George A. Perkins, of Athens.
Sidney Hayden, author of " Washington and his Masonic Compeers," and other contributions to Masonic literature, is a resident of Sayre. Mr. Hayden's writings evince careful and exhaustive research, and painstaking preparation. His motto has ever been, " Dates are the bones of history, and accuracy is its life." In treating of whatever relates to Masonry as a speculative science, to its history, or to the biography of its leading exemplars, Mr. Hayden has no superior, probably, in the United States.
BIOGRAPHY.
Elder Thomas S. Sheardown, born Nov. 4, 1791, in the county of Lincoln, England, was converted, and united with a Baptist church in England, when he was twenty-one years of age. In 1820, emigrated to the United States; soon commenced preaching for the Baptists of southern New York and northern Pennsylvania ; settled with the Baptist church of Troy, where he recently died at an advanced age. In 1865 he dictated his autobiography, a 12muo of rearly 400 pages, which was published by O. N. Worden and E. B. Case, Lewisburg, Pa., 1866. The book is one of thrill- ing interest, and incidentally of much historical value. It has passed through two or more editions. The book bears the following title: "Life and Times of Sheardown."
Dr. George F. Horton published (Philadelphia, 1876) the " Horton Genealogy,' a work involving a vast amount of
labor in its compilation, which, in addition to its genealogi- cal records, contains sketches of individuals representing dif- ferent branches of the family, and illustrated with the Hor- ton coat of arms, a view of the old homestead, which is claimed to be the oldest house in New England, and por- traits. As Dr. Horton has a biographical sketch in another part of this work, nothing more need be said here.
CHAPTER XVI.
POLITICAL HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.
No division of political sentiment existed among our people prior to the adoption of the federal constitution. At the beginning of the Revolutionary struggle, the people of this county were about equally divided, some adhering to the Continental congress, about the same number re- maining loyal to the British crown, and about a third part being neutral, desiring peace, and not wishing to be identi- fied with either of the great parties. The subsequent set- tlers were, hardly without exception, those who had been defenders of American freedom, and many of them had been soldiers in the Revolutionary army.
On the adoption of the constitution, our people were almost unanimously Federalists, for two reasons, one of which was that many of their military associates were of that party, but the chief one was that they thought in the federal courts the questions relating to the land controversy would be definitely settled. In 1795, the case of Van Horn vs. Dorrance was decided in the United States circuit court against the Connecticut claimant. By this decision many of our people lost confidence in the fairness and equity of federal courts, and became alienated from the party. In addition to this, several acts of the Adams administration had made the Federal party unpopular with the people. Consequently, in the presidential election of 1800, many of our people gave their votes for Jefferson, and the next 4th of July was celebrated in various parts of the county with great rejoicings on the part of the Democrats.
Political meetings began to be held in the county as early as 1799. In the issue of the Wilkes-Barre Gazette, August 10 of this year, is a paragraph stating that at a meeting of a respectable number of the inhabitants of Springfield, Allensburg, Rindaw, and Ulster, held at the house of Jere- miah Lewis, in Springfield, for the purpose of consulting who would be the best candidate for governor, Ezekiel Hyde was chosen chairman and Samuel Gordon, secretary ; but the result of consultation is not given ; and on the 24th of August, 1804, another meeting was held in Rush township.
Search for election returns in Luzerne county for the period during which we were incorporated in her territory has been unavailing. It is quite certain that all such papers are hopelessly lost. In the newspapers we have found par- tial returns for 1801, '2, '3, and '4. In the first year there were two election districts in Bradford, viz., Tioga and Wyalusing; the former casting 112 votes and the latter 39. The candidates for assembly were Lord Butler and John
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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
Franklin against Matthias Hollenback and Benjamin Car- penter. The two former received in Tioga, Butler, 106; Franklin, 112 votes ; while Hollenback received 3 and Car- penter 2. For commissioner, Arnold Colt received 110 votes, and Mr. Pettibone, his opponent, 1. In the Wy- alusing district, for assembly, Butler received 20 votes; Franklin, 23; Hollenback, 18; and Carpenter, 15. While for commissioner, Colt received 24, and Pettibone 15 votes.
In 1802, Thomas M'Kean, a Democrat, was a candidate for re-election for governor, and Jarues Ross was the Federal candidate. There were now three election districts,-Tioga, Wysox, and Wyalusing, -- which respectively gave for Ross 96, 26, and 36 votes, for M'Kean 20, 20, and 7; the whole number of votes cast in Tioga was 118; in Wysox, 49; in Wyalusing, 43; 210 in all,-a number less than half of what is polled in some townships.
In regard to legislative and county offices, individual preferences had much more to do with the result than any adherence to party. For instance, in the Tioga district, of the four candidates for the State senate, Joseph Kinney received 58 votes; Laurence Myers, 21; while neither Thomas McWhorter or Nicholas Kern received a vote,- the latter did not get a vote in the county. In Wysox Mc Whorter received 3, Myers 17, and Kinney 32 votes ; while in Wyalusing the vote stood, Mc Whorter, 28; Myers, 7 ; Kinney, 6. For assembly, Franklin received every vote but 3 in the county in 1802, and all but 10 in 1803. In 1801, out of 151 votes cast, John Jenkins received 147 for sheriff. Franklin was a Federalist and Jenkins was a Democrat.
In a letter, dated Wyalusing, Oct. 1, 1805, and signed by John Hollenback, Guy Wells, Elisha Keeler, Daniel Ross, M. Miner York, Jabez Hyde, and Benjamin Stalford, addressed to William Ross, Esq., and others, they say the Republican citizens of Wysox district have nominated Moses Coolbaugh, and have talked of Reed Brockaway, but are willing to consult with the lower part of the county, and select the person who would be most agrecable to all the freemen of the county.
On the 25th of September previous "a meeting of the respectable inhabitants of Wysox and Orwell met at the house of Jacob Myer," and put in nomination Moses Cool- baugh and Job Irish, but neither of them was elected.
At another mecting, held at Wyalusing in the same Sep- tember, Justus Gaylord, Jr., and Rosewell Welles were recommended for the assembly, and John Jenkins commis- sioner. The two nominees for assembly were from this county, viz., Moses Coolbaugh and Justus Gaylord, Jr.
In a letter, dated Oct. 3, 1800, written by Clement Paine to Col. John Jenkins, he says, " The undernamed persons in this township (Athens) may be depended on to give their votes in your favor : Wright Loomis, George Welles, Jona- than Harris, Elias Satterlee, Daniel Satterlee, Capt. Stevens, Pitkin Pratt, John Miller, David Alexander, Capt. Tozer, Major Mathewson, Capt. Jos. Spalding," and adds, " We may, I think, with safety calculate on at least double the number I have named above in your favor."
At a meeting of delegates from the districts of Wysox, Wyalusing, and Braintrim, held at the house of Bartholomew La Porte, in Asylum, Sept. 17, 1806, both Moses Cool-
baugh and Justus Gaylord, Jr., were again nominated for the assembly. This nomination was confirmed by other delegates. Mr. Miner says of this election the votes for Justus Gaylord, Jr., were 333, and for Justus Gaylord, 38, making a total of 371 ; Moses Coolbaugh had 364. Justus Gaylord was an old man and not a candidate, and it was supposed thie votes cast for him were intended for his son, Major Gaylord, in which case they would have elected him. Mr. Miner adds, as a significant fact, that less than 400 votes in the county of Luzerne elected a member of the assembly. Mr. Coolbaugh was a Democrat, while Mr. Gay- lord was a Federalist.
These items, extending over the first twenty years of the history of this part of old Luzerne, indicate the fact that the questions growing out of the land controversies overshadowed all national political issues, that those issues began to be more definitely made as the local disturbances subsided, and a gradual growth of the Democratic (or old Republican) party is observed, and also that three-fourths of a century ago people were ambitious for office, sought the influence and active exertions of their friends to secure it, as well as now, and the healthful interaction and struggles of political parties instead of weakening have only strengthened the foundations of liberty.
In the election of October, 1812, county officers were elected for the new county of Bradford. This is the first election in which our own people could express their vote by themselves. At this election every clective officer was a Federalist. Just how the vote stood cannot now be ascer- tained. It is, however, pretty certain that the Federal majority was not large. In 1816, Eliphalet Mason, a Democrat, was elected county commissioner. He was the first Democrat elected to a public office in the county after its organization. The appointed officers were Democratic, as Governor Snyder was of that party.
From this time forward to 1836 the county was unvary- ingly Democratic in its majorities where political issues were at all prominent. In 1836-the Whig party, which succeeded to the Federal party in 1828, carried the county by a ma- jority of 58 votes for Harrison over the Democratic vote for Van Buren. But in 1840 the county swung back to its Democratic moorings, giving "Young Hickory" ( Van Buren) 213 majority over the " Farmer of North Bend" (Harrison). The Abolition vote first showed itself then, there being just a couple of " baker's dozens" of the Lib- erty men (26) that sowed the seed which produced such mighty fruit in after-years. In 1848 the Democratic party was rent in twain by the " Hunker" and " Free-soil" fac- tions, and the Whigs carried the county for General Taylor (" Rough and Ready") by a handsome plurality of 1383 over Cass, and 1492 over Van Buren. The vote in 1852 was solid again in the Democratic party, and the regular majority was polled, about 400, the Abolition vote having increased to 281.
In 1856 the Republican party first appeared, and, aggre- gating to itself the bulk of the Whig party, the free-soil element of the Democratic party, and the Liberty vote, swept the county by a vote for Fremont of 6969 to 2314 for Buchanan, 71 for Fillmore, and 7 for the Liberty ticket. Since then the Republican party has carried the county, at
25
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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
every general election, with majorities varying from 3019 (1876) to 4915 (1860),-the average majorities of 1856, 1864, 1868, and 1872 being about 4275 over the Demo- cratic vote.
THE LIBERTY (OR ABOLITION) PARTY.
The question of the immediate abolition of slavery in the United States began to be agitated quite early in Brad- ford County. In 1830 and 1831 the question was dis- cussed with considerable warmth in the Terrytown Lyceum by Ebenezer Terry and George F. Horton and others, who argued in favor of the question ; but it was not until 1840 that the discussions of slavery and its abolition crystallized into a political organization, as before shown, in the county.
The Wyalusing anti-slavery society was formed in 1837, -John Mckinney being its first president, and Justus Lewis its first secretary. The Bradford County anti- slavery society was organized soon afterwards, and held meetings in the court-honse at Towanda,-Deacon Giles M. De Wolf being its first president, and Deacon Charles Stearns the first secretary. The meetings were held with- out disturbance until the annual meeting in February, 1839, when a scene of the wildest confusion took place, in which the speaker, Mr. Chase, from Philadelphia, was dis- gracefully treated, and a hearing refused to the citizens of the county. Leading and prominent citizens of the town and county were present, Hon. David Wilmot making a speech against the abolitionists, but not countenaneing the violence resorted to, and by which the meeting was broken up. The good sense of the people prevailed, however, and within a year from that time the discussions had so in- creased throughout the county that more toleration was exhibited, as the sure resulting reaction of proscriptive measures. A convention was held shortly after the above disturbance took place, attended by over 200 of Bradford's most respectable men and women; in Wysox, however, as no place of meeting could be had in Towanda.
The Liberty party was the logical sequence or outgrowth of the anti-slavery sentiment of the people, and was form- ally organized for separate political action, Sept. 12, 1840, by twenty-five or thirty of the voting Abolitionists of the county, at the court-house in Towanda. Isaac Camp was chairman, and Isaae G. Palmer secretary of the meeting of organiza- tion. A platform of principles in favor of independent po- litical action for the overthrow of slavery was adopted, and a full ticket nominated, which received at the next general election 52 votes .*
The party maintained its integrity until 1856, when it was merged in the Republican party, as a whole, though occasionally a few of the " old guard" voted for the old principle of abolition rather than accept the new idea of non-extension.
In 1848 it was also swallowed up, principally in the " Free- Soil" element, then dominant.
Among the earlier and more prominent standard-bearers of the party, when the name of " Abolitionist" was a term of reproach, may be named Deacon Giles, M. De Wolf,
Deacon Charles Stevens, Capt. Isaac Nichols, Abel Bolles, Esq., Dr. George F. Horton, Isaac and Clark Camp, Capt. John Keeler, Charles Overpeck, William Brown, Francis Viall, J. R. Emery, A. C. Hinman, Daniel Coolbaugh, Jeremiah Kilmer, Benj. Stevens, Zephaniah Lane, Milton Lewis, Justus Lewis, J. W. Ingham, Dr. James De Wolf, Nelson Atwood, Solomon Cooper, Thomas Ingham, besides many others who voted with them.
THE ANTI-MASONIC PARTY
was organized in Bradford County, for political purposes, about 1827-28, Mr. O. P. Ballard and other leading men taking a part in its formation. Though it never succeeded in electing its candidates, it polled, nevertheless, a good vote for several years, and exerted a considerable influence through- ont the county. A strong anti-Masonic sentiment existed in the minds of many who never acted with the party, which had its effect more upon the lodges of the order than else- where, nearly if not all of the latter in the county being closed for a time.
LABORERS' PARTY IN BRADFORD.
In 1842 several counties in the State had a Working- men's or Laborers' party. A meeting held in Athens, in August, resulted in calling a convention at the county- seat, and nominations were made as follows : Representative, Chauney Frisbie, of Orwell; Sheriff, John Van Dyke, of Canton ; Prothonotary, Theodore Wilder, of Springfield ; Register and Recorder, E. W. Hale, of Monroe; Commis- sioner, N. B. Wetmore, of Herrick ; Coroner, Gordon Wilcox, of Smithfield; Auditor, Benjamin Thomas, of Towanda.
President Tyler's position had partially divided the Whig party, and much confusion prevailed. Some of the Whigs made up a headless ticket : they nominated no rep- resentative, and most of them (the Scribet interest ineluded) supported Mr. Frisbie ; but the Argust interest and others sustained the Democratic nominee, Mr. Elwell, and gave him 313 majority.
In 1843 the " Workies" organized more fully, estab- lished a weekly paper, held meetings, and created quite a division from the stereotyped Democratic and Whig con- test. They held that the non-producing classes, lawyers especially, had too many of the offices, which they used for their own advantage against the interests of the masses. Their paper had this motto: "The Laborers' party will endeavor to fill all State and county offices with the best workingmen that can be found in both old parties. We are for low salaries, little legislation, few offices, no sine- cures, reduced taxes, and strict accountability of office- holders." Able men from both parties (like Joseph Kings- bury and Geo. Kinney, Whigs, and John L. Webb and Asa Pratt, Democrats) wrote and argued for the third party. They made up the following ticket, after conferr- ing with Tioga and Susquehanna counties :
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