USA > Pennsylvania > Bradford County > History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 68
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MEANS OF COMMUNICATION.
About the year 1840 there was a road opened through the town, leading from Canton borough to Columbia flats (now Sylvania borough). Chester Thomas, afterwards sheriff of the county, had the contraet for opening the highway. No post-office has ever been established in the township. A post-route was provided for by congress from Troy to Fall Brook, but, for some unexplained reason, has never been put under contract or offices opened. There is, however, no part of the town more than four miles from an office, Sylvania lying on the north, Troy and Alba on the east, and Canton on the south.
A SAW-MILL
was begun in 1837 by L. P. Newell, a son-in-law of Gosper Webber, in the town, but soon afterwards he abandoned the erection of the same, and removed to the State of Maryland. Col. Hinman, on his arrival in the town, completed the mill and soon after had it in operation, and was able to supply the wants of the fast-increasing settlement in the line of lumber.
REMINISCENCE.
Soon after Mr. Pierce settled on the mountain his oldest daughter, then about seventeen years of age, accompanied by a younger brother and sister, went out to hunt for the cows, and were lost before accomplishing the object of their quest. Night coming on, they were compelled to stay in the woods during the night. Being bewildered, they knew not which way to go to reach home, though it was but half a mile distant. The next morning more than a hundred men responded to the agonized call of the father and mother for help, from the older settlements on the mountains, and the lost were soon found, as they did not remove from the place where they spent the night, near the Wilson possession.
TOO MUCH TURKEY.
When the township was first settled the wild turkeys were very plentiful in the woods. Chester Thomas, before
named, who was a hunter of some repute, was one day crossing what was known as " Turkey ridge," in quest of greater game, when he heard the well-known " gobble" of a turkey. He waited a few moments to get a glimpse of the bird, and seeing, as he supposed, the back of the gobbler, drew a bead on the game, with the intention of firing in- stantly, but for some unaccountable reason dropped his piece again. Again the turkey " gobbled," and now, sure of his aim, the sportsman drew his rifle again to his eheek, glanced quickly along its shining barrel, and again unconsciously recovered his pieee. Again came across the morning air the challenge of the noblest feathered game of the American forest, and again the hunter's rifle pointed at the object, and as his finger was about to press the trigger Jacob Craigle stood upright before him, and the rifle dropped from the nerveless grasp of the well-nigh involuntary homicide. In relating the incident " Old Chet" said, " If I had pulled on him I should have killed him sure. My knees trembled all the way home, as I thought how near I had come to killing a man. If I had touched the trigger, Jacob Craigle would never have gobbled like a turkey again."
There were but few of the Armenians, however, who were much given to hunting. They found that the man- ufacture of maple-sugar was more profitable, if not quite as pleasurable, and every settler had, per consequence, his " sugar bush." The Wood Brothers made 12,000 pounds in one season. 2000 pounds was considered a fair yield from 300 trees.
POPULATION.
In 1850 Armenia contained a population of 310 souls. In 1860 these had increased to 403, and in 1870 they had fallen off to 391, 2 of whom, only, were foreign born, and 5 were colored.
ARMENIAN PATRIOTISM.
In 1860 the full vote of Armenia was polled, sixty-two ballots being east. In the war of the great Rebellion, from 1861 to 1865, Armenia sent FIFTY-SEVEN men of her own citizens to the battle-field in the defense of the Union. Eleven of these patriots never returned from the fields on which they fell. Their names were Arthur Rundell, Amos Chapman, James Whitehead, Abner Miller, John H. Dumond, Barlow Smith, Lincoln Burnham, Herrick Welch, Albert Woodworth, Sanford Richmond, and Jud- son Knights.
J. A. HOMET
MRS. J. A. HOMET.
PHOTOS. BY G. H. WOOD.
HOMET'S MILLS.
Step
RESIDENCE OF J. A. HOMET, FRENCH-TOWN, BRADFORD CO., PA.
ASYLUM.
ORIGIN OF NAME.
The name of Asylum was given to this town by the French refugees from the revolution of 1798, who settled herein, as more fully set forth in the general history of the county.
SITUATION.
It is situated on a bend of the Susquehanna, which sweeps to the northeast, then gracefully curves back and forth, and finally sweeps back again to the southeast to the same general course pursued by it through the county.
The township lies between the townships of Towanda and Monroe on the west, Albany on the southwest, and Terry on the south, the river forming the boundary on the north and east, between it and the townships of Wysox, Standing Stone, and Wyalusing.
DRAINAGE.
The township is watered and drained in the interior by Bennett's and Durell's creeks, and Ellis' creek, a tributary of Bennett's, the two former taking a northeasterly course through the central and southern-central part of the town, and Ellis' coming in from the western part, in the Ellis hill district.
SETTLEMENT.
Stephen Durell located at the mouth of the creek since named in his honor-Durell creek-in 1789 or 1790, and built a house and saw-mill there. He was said to be a " quiet, steady, and respectable man," and somewhat ad- vanced in years, when he came. In 1788 he was ensign in the " Wyalusink" company of the upper battalion of Lu- zerne county militia. He was probably from Connecticut .*
In the fall of 1782, Benjamin Ackla, Richard Benjamin, and Amos Bennett came to what was afterwards called Bennett's creek and built some log houses, and in the spring following moved their families in from Wyalusing, where they had been living for some time previously. They were originally from Florida, near Goshen, in Orange Co., N. Y.
Amos Bennett came to Wyalusing as early, probably, as 1783-84, and lived there some five or six years. He built a little tub-mill at the falls just below the road on Bennett's creek. The ruins of a saw-mill now mark the site. He had a house on the flats below the present residence of William Storrs. He died in the spring of 1811, at the age of sixty-five years, and his wife followed him the next year.
The children of Mr. and Mrs. Bennett were Amos, Jr.,
Thomas, John, David, Nathan, Benjamin, Susan, Hetty, Hannah, Prudence, and Martha. Hannah married Ben- jamin Ackla, and Martha married Richard Benjamin, who came to Bradford County with Amos Bennett, Sr. Hetty married Justus Seeley, who came in from Canada, to which place the family returned about 1800. Prudence married Jacob Strickland, of Wysox, and moved west about 1811. Amos, Jr., married Amy Wilcox, and moved to Sugar creek, near Joshua Bailey, where he died. Thomas went to the Genesee, married, lost his wife, and died insane. John married Hannah Vargison, and moved to Albany, near the old Schoonoven place. Nathan also went to the Genesee country, married Polly Ellsworth, and joined the Mormons. Truman Bennett, of Terry, is his son. David also married in the Genesee country, and died there. Ben- jamin married Betsey Abbott, a sister of Mrs. Elias Vaughan, and lived on the Storrs place. He was drafted in the War of 1812, and marched as far as Danville, where the company was discharged.
Richard Benjamin lived where H. L. Haight now lives. His children were Jonathan, John, Patty, Polly, Peter, David, Jesse, Sally, Hetty, Betsey, and Joshua, besides two who died in infancy. Jonathan married Leah, daughter of Benjamin Ackla, and lived on the Seeley hill, and died Feb. 1, 1847, aged seventy-seven years. The property is now owned by William Storrs. They reared eleven chil- dren, all of whom, with their mother, were living. July 30, 1874, in the neighborhood. John married Patty Vincent, and, for his second wife, Hannah (Johnson), widow of his brother David. He lived where his son Harry lived in 1873. Of eleven children of his but two survive. Patty married Amos Vargison, and Polly married Samuel Chilson.
Benjamin and Hannah Ackla reared eleven children,- Betsey, Amos, John, Anna, Leah, Phebe, William, Jona- than, Polly, Benjamin, and David. Mr. Ackla died April 26, 1835, aged eighty-two years.
Deacon Reuben Wells and a Mr. Shaw came to the Gil- bert place at an early day and planted a piece of corn, stayed until it was grown and hoed, and then went back to Connecticut for their families. Their bill of fare was a meagre one, fish being the only article, and that served without salt. They varied this, however, on Sundays by swimming the river and partaking, at Mr. Fitzgerald's, of what buttermilk and mush they could stow away. They lived in a log house near the spring, a few rods below the present residence of Richard Gilbert. Deacon Wells after- wards went to Wyalusing, and subsequently to Bridgewater, Susquehanna Co.
Samuel Gilbert came from Colchester, Conn., about 1790, and lived a year or two at Kingston, and then moved to the farm now occupied by Richard Gilbert. Here he
# In the history of New London, Conn., it is said that Capt. Philip Durell commanded the British ship-of-war " Cygnet," cruising off New London, at which point she arrived Jan. 11, 1764. and that this officer was the best known to the inhabitants. Page 478,
267
268
HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
rented a piece of land of the French, who were just begin- ning their settlement, and he afterwards bought the farm of the Asylum company. The usual hardships of the pio- neers were considerably mitigated by the appliances of com- fort of the neighboring French. Samuel Gilbert was born March, 1742, and died Oct. 12, 1813. He married Mary Dodge, June 12, 1769. She was born Sept. 20, 1749, and died Jan. 7, 1833. Their children were Lydia, Irene, Hannah, Eunice Anne, Fanny, Daniel, Samnel, Jr., and Oliver.
Charles Homet emigrated from France to America in January, 1793, and settled in Asylum in 1796. He was one of the French families who remained in Bradford, and did not return after the restoration in his native land. He died Dec. 29, 1838, in the seventieth year of his age. His wife, Theresa (Schillinger), preceded him, Jan. 3, 1823, aged sixty-three years. She was a native of Strasbourg, France. Their children were Charles Frederick, Francis Xavier, Harriet, and Joseph. Mr. Homet married for his second wife Cynthia Sickler, in 1827, by whom he had one daughter, the wife of E. T. Fox, of Towanda.
Anthony Vander Pool* came from Kinderhook, Colum- bia Co., N. Y., aliont 1790, to Bradford County. He was the ancestor of the large family of that name now in Brad- ford. His first stopping-place was Aquaga, where he re- mained a year or two and then came to Durell's creek, and from thence moved into the French settlement and engaged in the employ of that colony. He built a small log mill on Fowler creek and lived there four or five years, but, being despoiled of the title to his land, removed to Wyalusing, and after a short time moved to the hill near Moody's pond, where he died, aged ninety-nine years, in the spring of 1838, and was buried on Ellis hill. Martin Van Buren married a niece of Mr. Vander Pool, the daughter of a brother in Kinderhook. Abraham Vander Pool, now a resident of Bradford County, is a son of Anthony Vander Pool, and from him the above facts concerning his father were obtained.
Anthony Vander Pool's children were William, Anthony, Richard, Mary, Peter, Samuel, Vina, Abraham, Henry, Catherine, and Eleanor or " Lane," nearly all of whom are dead.
Isaac Wheeler came into Asylum along with Anthony Vander Pool. He was also from Kinderhook, and was a drummer in the Revolution. He was an intelligent, aetive, hard-working mechanie, but unfortunately was addicted to drink, and never accumulated property. His mechanical genins, expended on the manufacture of spinning-wheels, chairs, ete., and his pension, supplied his few wants. He moved to Indiana in February, 1822, where he died. He married Eleanor Johnson, and their children were Mary (Mrs. Abraham Vander Pool), Kate, Peggy, Margaret, Nicholas, Samuel, and Richard. None of these are now living in Bradford County.
Nicholas Johnson, a brother of Isaac Wheeler's wife, came also from Kinderhook, some time between 1797 and 1800, but located at first at Towanda, where he lived for
several years, and then settled in Asylum, and finally re- moved to Ohio, 1832-33. About two years after Nicholas Johnson came into the county bis brother Richard also came, but never gained any permanent location, and, with his wife, is buried at Frenchtown.
Richard Wheeler, a brother of Isaac Wheeler, also came about the time the Johnsons did, but returned to New York, and finally came back again, and died here. Ambrose Vin- cent, who married a sister of Mrs. Isaac Wheeler, came in 1804-6. He was killed at Wysox, in 1822 or 1823, by the caving in of a well. His only son, William, married Mary Cornelins.
Henry Cornelius married another sister of Mrs. Wheeler, was a Revolutionary pensioner, and eame into the county soon after the Johnsons. He died on the mountain below Towanda, on a little farm he bought there.
Samuel Seeley was a Revolutionary soldier. He came to the Connecticut grant before the war. After the war he eame back to look after his family, but could not find them. Thinking they were killed, or had died, he went back to Goshen, N. Y., from whenee he originally came, where he married Miss Deborah Benjamin, a sister of Richard Ben- jamin, and in 1802 came to Wyalusing creek, where he lived a few years, and then removed to the Herrick place, where he remained some seventeen or eighteen years, and then removed to the State of New York, where he resided twenty-one years. While there he instituted measures to seenre a pension, and going to Crawford Co., Pa., to get the certificate of the captain of the company in which he served in the war, he found, much to his surprise and pleasure, the prothonotary of that county to be the husband of his danghter, born just after he was drafted into the army. His remaining children (he had three at the time he was drafted) were living in that vicinity. From them he learned' his family had been driven off by the Indians, and everything in their neighborhood had been destroyed. In 1827 he came back for a short time to where Keizer now lives. In 1815 he built a saw-mill near My- ron Frisbie's, but ere it was finished Hollenback served an ejectment on him, and he abandoned the place. He died in 1840, at the age of eighty-eight years.
The Chilson family were early settlers in the town, and were also from Florida, N. Y. Samuel and Albert were the heads of the family, but Albert, after two or three years, moved west. Samuel Chilson lived on the Ackla place, and died February, 1846, at the age of eighty-five years. Samuel Chilson (2d), Jehiel, and Joel, nephews of the elder Samuel, eame to the county about 1811, a brother, Asa, coming in 1809. Robert, George, Anson, and William were also brothers. Robert came in 1814, and Anson soon after the War of 1812 had closed, he serving tlrerein. After some seven years he removed to Horseheads, N. Y., where he passed the remainder of his life. Robert lived and died on the farm now occupied by his son Benjamin, his death occurring about 1860. William came in 1813; removed to Smithfield, where he died. He lived with his brother Samuel in Asylum a number of years. Asa, after some twelve years, returned to Florida, where he died from an injury received in sharpening a scythe, terminating in lockjaw. Samuel Chilson (2d) died at Frenchtown.
# The old records of Columbia Co., N. Y., spell this name Vander Pocl.
PHOTOS, BY G. H. WOOD ) TOWANDA
MRS. LUCY J. HOMET.
F. X. HOMET.
M. E. CHURCH, ASYLUM, PA.
RES . OF F. X. HOMET, ESQ., ASYLUM TP., BRADFORD COUNTY, PA .
G H. WOOD, PHOTO.
F. H. HAGERMAN.
BARN YAR
"VALLEY FARM" RESIDENCE OF F. H. HAGE
C H. WOOD PROTO-
ARNO VIEW
MRS. F. H. HAGERMAN.
RIMAN, ASYLUM TP., BRADFORD COUNTY, PA.
RESIDENCE OF P.W. MOREY, ASYLUM TP., BRADFORD COUNTY , PENNSYLVANIA .
269
IIISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
Nathan Bailey, Harry Ellsworth, John Stringer, and Joseph H. Ellis were all among the early settlers.
MACEDONIA.
Solomon Cole was probably the carliest settler in this part of the township of Asyluni, and came thereto first be- fore the battle of Wyoming. His son Samuel was killed in that massacre, and he himself was also present there. Molly Cole's husband was also killed at the same time. Mr. Cole owned at one time all of the land lying in the bend of the river at this point. He went into the Genesee country and died there. A son, Solomon, succeeded to a part of the tract in or about 1796. Philip Fox, who mar- ried a sister of Solomon Cole (the second), was residing in this place when his brother-in-law came. Three brothers of Solomon also came,-Elisha, Abishai, and John. Abishai lived on the Kellum place, John lived near Solomon, and Elisha owned the farm where Warford resides. He subse- quently removed to Towanda creek, a little below Monroe- ton, where Salisbury Cole now resides. Abishai and John moved out of the State north and west, and never returned. Solomon died on his farm and was buried in Macedonia. His children were Samuel, Sally, Daniel, Benjamin, Solo- mon, and John, who grew up to maturity. Samuel died in the town, Sally married a Mr. Richards and lives in Warren, Daniel owned the Bishop farm, Benjamin died in Genesee at his grandfather's. Rev. Elisha Cole, of To- wanda Creek, was a son of Samuel Cole. Moses Warford and Benjamin Coolbaugh were among the earliest settlers. The widow of John Cole, a son of Solomon Cole, Sr. (the second), is still living in the county, and has given some of the facts relative to the Cole family.
Molly Cole was once met by an acquaintance, mounted on a horse, who accosted her rather lugubriously, thus : " Good-morning, Molly ! How do your sins appear this morning ?" "On horseback, sir !" was the quick, incisive response of the lady.
Sartile Holden came from Vermont. He had pursued an absconding debtor into the State of New York, and by taking lumber and staves had secured his debt. These he attempted to run down the river (Susquehanna), but his raft lodged on Cole's island. He then removed his lumber to the shore, near Mr. Birney's, in Standing Stone, and be- ing a cooper, worked up his staves into barrels. While en- gaged on this job he became acquainted with the country, bought the tract on which he afterward lived, and moved his family here in 1802. His family consisted of four sons and three daughters. Three of the former and one of the latter only accompanied him, however, to Pennsylvania. The title to Mr. Holden runs thus: Warrant to Jeremiah Talbert, March 16, 1774. Survey of Nov. 13, 1774. Deed to Holden from Talbert, Aug. 26, 1808. Patent to Holden, Nov. 20, 1823.
Jabez Sill came into the town in 1816, with his son Jabez, who is yet a resident of the town. He was at the battle of Wyoming, though but fourteen years old, and stood sentry at the fort during the fight. He died at his son's house, with whom he had lived since 1830, in July, 1838, aged seventy-five years.
Richard and Charles Townley were early residents of
the town, but removed to Tompkins county, N. Y., subse- quently. They conveyed their interest in lands to M. de Noailles. Richard Townley had ten children, five of cach sex, and was a prominent citizen in New York ; was judge of the county courts, and a member of the State legislature for several terms. IIe died on the farm he settled on in 1838. Charles Townley had two sons and one daughter ; was a farmer, a deacon in the Baptist church, highly esteemed, and died in 1820. R. Alexander, his son Robt., R. Cooley, Benajah Stone, were also settlers before 1793.
SCHOOLS.
About 1798 a log school-house was built on the ridge below Israel Smith's, and the first school taught here was presided over by a son of the Emerald Isle, named William McCarty. The returns of the school year ending June 1, 1877, give the following exhibit of the status of educa- tional privileges in the town of the present : seven schools were taught, averaging five months each ; three male and four female teachers were employed, the gentlemen receiving an average of $24.75 per month, and the ladies $15.04 salary ; 167 boys and 120 girls attended the schools. Five mills were levied on the dollar for school purposes, and one mill for building purposes, the tax amounting to $854.97. The amount received from the State was $219.85. Teachers' wages amounted to $745.64, and other expendi- tures to $233.36.
REMINISCENCE.
Amos Bennett and family were at Wyoming at the time of the Indian attack, and were living there in a log house. During the progress of the battle, a party of Indians came near and were discovered. Prudie, out of curiosity, opened the door, but was instantly pulled back into the house, and the door reclosed. Scarcely had the inquisitive girl been dragged into the house, when a bullet struck in the door- post, where she had stood a moment before.
One of the Frenchmen at Asylum committed suicide. Mrs. Abraham Vanderpool relates that about eleven o'clock one night (when she was a little girl) the family heard some one scream, but it being heard but once, no notice was taken of it. The next morning some of the negroes came to inquire about their master, and her father (Isaac Wheeler) went with them, and soon found him sitting on the ground, with a handkerchief tied about his neck, and the corner of it to a bush, the spring of which had choked him to death. He had lost some money, and on account thereof became insane.
A MACEDONIAN CRY.
The name of Macedonia was given to the Cole settle- ment by reason of a sermon preached by Amos Akla, in which the words " Macedonia," " Macedonian cry," " Come over and help us," etc., were used very freely. The boys took up the phrases, and called the settlement Macedonia, a cognomen which has ever since clung to that part of the town.
POPULATION.
In 1850 Asylum contained 820 souls, eleven of them being colored. In 1860 there were 1241, and in 1870, 1155. Of these, 47 were foreign born, and 60 were colored.
A THEN S .*
THE township of Athens, as the lines are now run, forms but a small part of the original township by this name, set off by the courts of Luzerne county, in 1797. From time to time its area has been reduced by the formation of other townships out of its territory, the last of which was Ridge- berry on the east, and Litehfield on the west. The town- ship is now about six miles square, and contains twenty- three thousand acres.
About half-way between the fifty-sixth and fifty-seventh milestone, the Susquehanna river enters the county front the State of New York, and running in a southwesterly direction, forms, for about one mile, the eastern boundary of the township; the remainder of the eastern boundary is the west line of Litchfield. On the south of Athens lie Sheshequin, Ulster, and Smithfield, while Ridgeberry bounds it on the west; the line dividing the two townships begins on the sixty-fifth milestone, and the line of the State forms the northern boundary.
The Tioga (New York Chemung) enters the township a little west of the sixty-fourth milestone, and, after tracing an irregular eurve about two miles, leaves the township a little east of the sixty-third milestone ; enters again at the sixty-first milestone, and, after running about five miles in a southerly direction, flows into the Susquehanna. It re- ceives Orcutt's creek on the south at the first bend after entering the township; and, on the west, Tutelow (sometimes spelled Toodle) creek, soon after entering the township the second time ; Murray's and Reddington ereeks near its june- tion with the Susquehanna. The latter river, after entering the township, runs about two miles in a southwesterly direc- tion, thenee sontherly to its junetion with the Tioga, and out of the township. It receives from the uorthwest the Cayuta (sometimes ealled Shepard's creek), and, from the east, Satterlee's, Franklin's, and Moore's creeks.
The large rivers divide the township into three nnequal parts. That east of the Susquehanna consists of a broad flat on the south and next the river, on which were the farms of Col. Franklin, Elisha Satterlee, Elisha Mathew- son, and others, while to the north and east the land rises into the high hills which form the western part of Litelifield.
Between the rivers is a broad and nearly level plain, ex- tending north ward to the State line. On this was the Tioga, the Diahoga of former times, and later the Tioga Point of the early settlers, a place of the most historic importance of any in the county. Here, from the days long before the historie period of this county began, was the Indian town, first of the Susquehannocks, and then of the Iroquois, until the power of that confederacy was broken by the conflict of the Revolutionary struggle. Here was witnessed the grandest
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