History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 71

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 71

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Thus the matter stood until 1810. In 1809, Mr. Welles was elected to the legislature. While here he secured the passage of what was known as the Bedford and Ulster act, by which those townships were allowed the benefits of the provisions of the compromise of 1799. Before the com- missioners appointed to carry into effect this law, Mrs. Mathewson preferred her claim ; but Mr. Welles showing that he held the Pennsylvania title and was in possession of the land under the law, Mrs. Mathewson's claim was rejected.

Failing in the courts to retain possession of the land on the Point, except of her house and lot, for which Mr. Welles had given her a deed, she commenced suit against Mr. Sat- terlee to recover the land which had been assigned to Mr. Mathewson in the original distribution of the lots. But Mr. Satterlee had purchased the Pennsylvania title, and suc- cessfully resisted in the courts her efforts to dispossess him.

These were deemed very important eases. Twice they were carried to the supreme court on questions of law ; one of them was tried before Judge Huston, who had the rep- utation of being one of the best-informed judges on land law in the State.

But the case did not end even here. The son Constant, becoming of age, and finding that no relief could be had at the courts, repaired to Harrisburg, and in 1823 and 1824 laid his case before the house of representatives, asking for a special enactment which would give the title to the lands on the Point to the family. Here he found friends, but the thing asked for was so palpably illegal that the legisla- ture refused to grant his request. In 1827 and 1828 he was chosen representative, and after unremitting perseve- rance on his part the legislature appointed commissioners to appraise the land in controversy, and paid Mrs. Mathew- son from the public treasury the sum of $10,000.

Thus ended a controversy which for more than twenty years agitated the public mind, both in the township and in the county. From being a mere personal and legal question it came to be one of general interest and political significance. Messrs. Welles and Mathewson being opposed to each other politically, each was put in nomination for the legislature. The issne was made on the merits of the controversy about the land. The politics of the county degenerated into a personal quarrel between these two men about 127 acres of land. With the termination of this case no other questions arose in this part of the county in which the Connecticut title was involved.

ATHENS BOROUGHI.

The surveyors of the Susquehanna company made a survey and plan of the town of Athens, which is the one after which the village was built. In 1802, George Welles employed Mr. James Pumpelly to make a new survey of the village, which he called Lockhartsburg, in which a broad street was laid up the left bank of the Tioga, called the " Tioga way," and one up the right bank of the Sus- quehanna, called the "Susquehanna way." The main street was called " Union," and the town was crossed at convenient distances by other streets. The people, however, had become so accustomed to the old names that to substi-

tute new ones in the face of a decided public sentiment was found to be impossible.

In 1795 the Duke de la Rochefoucauld speaks of Athens as an inconsiderable village of eight or ten houses, with its single tavern crowded with travelers going to settle near the lakes. The year before there had been three taverns. He adds that the merchants carried on an inconsiderable trade in hemp, which they obtained from the valleys above. Evi- dently the duke was not pleased with Athens, nor with the entertainment he found. His bed was soiled, and he slept with his boots on. His food did not suit him, and altogether his picture is a forbidding one. In 1798 it is described in the " American Gazetteer" as a place contain- ing as yet but few houses, but as promising to be a place of importance.

It will be remembered that Judge Hollenback had estab- lished a store in Athens, for the purpose of engaging in the Indian trade, as early as 1784. This he abandoned after a few years for other enterprises. David Alexander and Mr. Hepburn also had small quantities of goods. When Mr. Welles came to Athens he bought up a large quantity of goods, valued at more than $11,000. The building in which Caton & Welles had their store was nearly opposite the Irwin tavern. After the store was abandoned, the building was changed to a dwelling-house, and occupied by Judge Herrick in 1813, and has remained in his possession ever since.

By an act of assembly approved March 29, 1831, the village of Athens was erected into a borough. Its terri- tory included all between the rivers from Satterlee's landing to the north line of the Welles farm. The limits have been extended so that now the borough of Athens is bounded on the north by the north line of old Ulster, and includes all south of that line between the two rivers to the extremity of the Point. The municipal officers are one burgess, a town council of six members, and one high con- stable. The first burgess was David Paine.

In 1842, Mr. Sherman Day visited the place, and de- scribes it in the following language : " Athens, now one of the pleasantest villages in Pennsylvania, extends across an isthmus between the Tioga and Susquehanna rivers, about two miles above their confluence. Above and below the town the land widens out into meadows of surprising fer- tility. The long main street of the village runs lengthwise of the isthmus, and is adorned by delightful residences and verdant shades and shrubbery. There is an academy here, and Presbyterian, Episcopal, and Methodist churches. There is a substantial bridge over each of the rivers. That over the Susquehanna has been recently erected ; that over the Tioga was built in 1820. Population, 435."

Since the completion of the Pennsylvania and New York railroad, Athens has been rapidly improving. Well-kept stores and numerous places of business attest the thrift of the people. There is a national bank,-chartered in 1865, with a capital of $100,000,-of which Mr. Nathaniel C. Harris, a grandson of Jonathan, one of the early settlers in Athens township, is president, and Charles T. Hull cashier. There are six churches, viz. : Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Universalist, and Roman Catholic. There are three hotels and one brewery. The graded

RBI

12. -

J. L.CORBIN'S BLOCK , ATHENS, PA. GENERAL DEALER IN ALL KINDS OF MERCHANDISE.

RES. OF WM. CAMPBELL, LITCHFIELD, BRADFORD CO., PA .

And Thehard

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

school is kept in the old academy on the public square, and has 200 pupils. Besides the ordinary manufacturing estab- lishments common to villages, Messrs. Kellogg & Maurice have the most extensive wrought-iron working establish- ment in northern Pennsylvania. They began with the manufacture of iron bridges, after an improved pattern. As their business has increased they have enlarged their works, which are located near the railroad depot, introduced new machinery, much of which was designed in the establish- ment, until their facilities for turning out all kinds of wrought- and cast-iron work are unexcelled by any shops in the country. They are now receiving orders for bridges, and other work pertaining to their line of manufacture, .from nearly every State in the Union. They employ about 200 men, and their work gives universal satisfaction. At present they have a contract for building the elevated railway in New York, and the iron bridges on the Pacific railway.

The Novelty furniture works manufacture bed-room suites, in which they employ about forty hands, and find a market for their goods in southern New York and northern Penn- sylvania.

Athens contains a number of elegant private residences. There is not a village in Bradford County, and but few in the commonwealth, which can boast a finer street than Main street of Athens. It extends the entire length of the vil- lage proper, running nearly north and south. On the east side are residences exclusively ; on the west, stores, shops, and residences. The street is finely shaded, and as straight as the surveyor's compass can lay it.

The enumeration of the census of 1870 gives the white population at 944, and 21 colored. Since then there has been a large increase, and the number of inhabitants is estimated at nearly 1500. In 1870 the number of dwell- ings was 185, and the number of families 193; the value of real property was put at $497,700, and of personal at $216,800.

SAYRE .*

It was the design of Col. C. F. Welles, Jr., through whose indomitable energy and far-sightedness the people are largely indebted for their present railroad facilities, to make Athens the common junction of the Pennsylvania and New York, the Southern Central, and the Geneva, Ithaca and Sayre railroads. It was afterwards found to be more advantageons to make the junction at Sayre. To this place the offices of the company have been removed. A town has been laid out, and a number of elegant private residences have been erected, among the most noticeable of which is that of Robert Packer, Esq., the superintendent of the Pennsylvania and New York railroad. The place owes much of its prosperity to the prudent but generous management of Mr. Howard Elmer, who has fostered the enterprise by a liberal dealing towards purchasers, and wise counsels to those who have undertaken business there.

On the west side of the Tioga and opposite to Athens, Messrs. Underhill and Nobles have established a large tan- nery, in which about thirty hands are employed, and where thirty thousand sides of sole leather are turned out annually.

Spanish Hill, on the northern border of the county, is an oval-shaped hill, whose regular slopes and level top have given rise to the opinion of its artificial origin. On the top were the remains of very ancient fortifications, but by whom erected is no wise certain. The origin of the name has given rise to a great deal of speculation, but nothing definite is known of it.

The township contains eighteen school districts, and by the census of 1870 had a population of 2256 souls, 443 families, 432 dwellings, 260 farms, which were valued at $1,742,856 ; 462 horses, 1647 cows, and other personal property to the value of $317,400. The value of farm productions was placed at $227,779, and of live-stock at $163,625. There were cut 4731 tons of hay, and made 146,580 pounds of butter.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

JOHN SHEPARD.

John Shepard was born April 17, 1765, at Plainfield, Conn., of a family who had been long settled there. He was educated in the academy at that place, which was under the direction of Nathan Daboll, the celebrated arithme- tician and astronomer. At the close of the war, early in. 1783, Capt. Simon Spalding, who had married a sister of Mr. Shepard's father, removed to Sheshequin, and, having erected his buildings and comfortably settled his family, he went to his native place, Plainfield, to purchase stock for his new plantation. On his return his nephew, the subject of this sketch, accompanied him to Sheshequin. There he remained with his uncle until late in the year 1784, when he engaged with Weiss and Hollenback as clerk in their store at Newtown, now Elmira. In the spring of 1785, disliking the confinement of constant duty in the store, Mr. Shepard started with a servant and a stock of goods on a trading expedition among the natives, exchanging his mer- chandise for furs. He continued these expeditions until some time in 1786, when he engaged with Mr. Hollenback as a clerk at his store on Tioga Point, and thenceforward Tioga and its immediate vicinity was his place of abode during life. Jan. 2, 1788, Mr. Shepard, in company with Nathaniel Shaw, purchased the mill property at Milltown, consisting of grist-mill, saw-mill, two dwellings, and other buildings. This was the first mill erected in all this part of the country. It had been built by Prince Bryant, and the purchase of it at so early a day is but one instance of the remarkable foresight of Mr. Shepard. Early the fol- lowing year he purchased the interest of his partner, and thenceforward was sole owner of this valnable property. At the June sessions, 1789, of the Luzerne county court, Mr. Shepard was licensed to keep a tavern at Tioga, and in April, 1796, and August, 1799, this license was renewed ; but in what building he kept hotel we have no knowledge. His life was an active one. He was merchant, miller, a distiller, and constantly purchasing and selling real estate.

In 1797 he was first elected supervisor of Athens, a po- sition to which he was subsequently frequently called. In 1809 he was first appointed justice of the peace for Ly-

# Named in honor of Robert Sayre, superintendent of the Lehigh Valley railroad.

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

coming county, and in 1812, on the erection of Bradford County, this commission was renewed.

June 3, 1790, Mr. Shepard married Anna, daughter of Judge Gore, of Sheshequin, and settled on a farm at Mill- town, on the opposite side of the creek from the mills. He lived on this farm for more than twenty years. Six of his children were born there. His wife and eldest son died there.

In December, 1798, his grist-mill was burned. It was rebuilt and in operation in six weeks. He added a fulling- mill and oil-mill. The year 1805 was one of peculiarly severe domestic afflictions. In February his oldest son, Prentice, a lad of fifteen years, received an injury from a fall on the ice, of which he died in about six weeks. In August his uncle, Dr. Amos Prentice, a near neighbor and valued friend, died. September, Mrs. Shepard was so in- jured by a fall from her carriage that she survived the acci- dent but thirty hours, and in the fall of the next year William, a son of Dr. Prentice, died of fever.

In 1811, Mr. Shepard married his second wife on Long island, a Miss Hawkins, of Stony Brook. She had five children, two sons and three daughters. She died Jan- uary, 1844.

Mr. Shepard, after a life of great activity, enterprise, and usefulness, died May 15, 1837, at the age of seventy-three years. Mrs. Geo. Perkins, author of " Early Times on the Susquehanna," a work of great interest and value, is a daughter of his.

HON. EDWARD HERRICK.

The New England family of Herrick traces its lineage to Henry Herrick, who was born in Leicestershire, England, in 1604, and came to America in 1629. The ancestral seat of the English family is at Bean Manor park, in the parish of Loughborough. The family patronymic is said to be of Anglo-Danish origin, and belongs primarily to the period of the Danish invasion of England.

Henry Herrick joined the American colony organized under royal letters patent issued in 1629 to the company of Massachusetts Bay. His name appears, with that of his wife Edith, daughter of Hugh Larkin, of Salem, among the thirty members of the first church established at Nauni- keag,- then Salem,-a settlement which divided with Charlestown the colonists who had landed at Cape Ann in June of the same year, in the expedition from England organized under the charter above mentioned.

The American progenitor of the family died in 1671, leaving six sons and one daughter. From Ephraim, the third son of Henry Herrick, in the seventh generation, came the subject of this sketch. A brief tabulation of this descent is given as follows :

(1) HENRY, of Leicestershire and Salem, born Aug. 16, 1604, died 1671.

(2) EPHRAIM, of Beverly (formerly Salem), born Feb. 11, 1638, died Sept. 8, 1693.

(3) STEPHEN, of Beverly, born March 15, 1670, died (about) 1730.

(4) EDWARD, of Preston, Conn., born Oct. 16, 1695, died Jan. 9, 1735.

(5) RUFUS, of Dutchess Co., N. Y., born March 13, 1734, died Jan. 28, 1811.

(6) SAMUEL, of Amenia, N. Y., born Feb. 23, 1757, died May 24, 1824.

Edward Herrick was born at Amenia, in Dutchess Co., N. Y., Oct. 26, 1787. His father, Samuel Herrick, was a merchant and farmer living on a tract of land in Amenia called the " Oblong." His grandfather held a captain's commission in the Provincial Army of New York State, and retired from the service with the rank of colonel. He was present at the assault on Ticonderoga, in April, 1775. His first commission was issued in 1775, and his name appears on the muster-roll of the Fourth or Dutchess county regiment as captain, under date of the 30th of June of that year.

Samnel Herrick, the father of Edward Herrick, served as clerk or orderly to Colonel Rufus Herrick, and at the close of his term of service retired to the " Oblong" property, on which had dwelt in turn his own immediate ancestor. The latter married Margaret Per Lee, a daughter of Edmund Per Lee, of Amenia, born in London, England, of Huguenot parents, who had fled from France to escape persecution on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Of this union there were ten children, Edward Herrick being the fifth son.

Edward Herrick was placed early in life under the tuition of Rev. John Barnet, a clergyman of note, residing in Dutchess Co., N. Y. After remaining several years under the tuition of Mr. Barnet, he entered, Dec. 6, 1804, at the age of seventeen, as student-at-law, the office of his cousin, Gen. John Brush, at Poughkeepsie. Here he remained a year and a half, and in June, 1806, started for the State of Ohio. On his way thither he paid a visit to his brother Walter, second son of Samuel Herrick, who had engaged in mercantile pursuits at Tioga Point, Pennsylvania. At Zanesville, Ohio, the eldest brother, Samuel, was engaged in the profession of law. He remained as a student in the office of the latter about a year, and from thence proceeded to Chillicothe, where he continued his legal studies until admitted to the bar from the office of his cousin, Henry Brush, Esq., Aug. 8, 1808, being then some months under age. He immediately entered upon the practice of the law in Newark, in the county of Licking, and rode the circuit of the counties of Muskingum, Guernsey, Licking, Knox, and Tuscarawas. In 1810 he was appointed district attorney for the three last-named counties.

In 1812, on his return to Ohio, after a short sojourn in Athens (induced by the condition of his wife's health), the last war with England having broken ont, Mr. Herrick was commissioned colonel of a militia regiment, and in the same year was elected to the Ohio legislature from the county of Licking, while still under the age required by law to qualify him for the office. In December, 1812, he took his seat in the Ohio legislature, and soon after signalized his advent to the place by introducing a resolution which proposed to organize the legislative body into a battalion for home defense. This resolution failing, he remained in his seat until the adjournment of the legislature, and then became engaged in the occupations incident to his military office. At this time (1813) the northern border of Ohio was the field of active military operations. Mackinaw had been

E. P. Allen M.D.

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

taken, Hull had surrendered at Detroit, and the whole pen- insula of Michigan was under the enemy's control. The frontier settlements of Ohio were harassed by English and Indian allies, and the defeat of Gen. Winchester had spread consternation throughout the State. The excitement inci- dent to these events determined the people to their own defense, and inspired the militia organizations in which Col. Herrick took part. The seriousness of the situation had prompted his action in the legislature. But the magnitude of the danger brought to the defense of the State the regular troops, and the battle of Lake Erie finally restored the arms and authority of the government.

In the summer of 1813 Col. Herrick returned to Penn- sylvania, and took up his residence in Athens. Here he resumed the active practice of the law in Bradford and the adjoining counties. His first appearance professionally is of record in his admission to the bar of Susquehanna county in August term, 1813. His first residence in Athens was in a log house built by Judge Hollenback, in 1786, which stood on the lot now (1878) occupied by the residence of Cornelius Hunsicker. In July, 1814, Col. Herrick was. appointed brigade inspector, by Governor Snyder, of the counties of Lycoming, Potter, Mckean, Bradford, and Tioga. In 1818, July 6, he was appointed by Governor Findley, president judge of the thirteenth judicial district, composed of the counties of Bradford, Susquehanna, and Tioga, to which were subsequently added Potter and MeKean. He continued on the bench until the last of February, 1839, a period of twenty-one years. Upon the adoption of the new constitution, which limited the judicial tenure, in 1838, Judge Herriek retired from the bench, and was succeeded by Hon. John N. Conyngham. His place in the history of the judicial district of which Bradford County has been a part, is third on the list of the eminent men who have from time to time presided over the busi- ness of her courts, his predecessors being John Banister Gibson and Thomas Burnside. In 1836, among the various public duties that had been imposed upon him, Judge Her- rick was appointed by President Jackson a member of the board of visitors to the West Point military academy. Taking an active interest in public improvements, he was a delegate in 1825 to the canal convention at Harris- burg, and strongly advocated the construction of the North Branch canal. The townships of Herrick in Bradford and Susquehanna counties were named in honor of Judge Her- rick, during his occupancy of the bench.

In 1820, Judge Herrick had purchased the villa built by Michael R. Tharp on the bank of the Susquehanna, in Athens, since so well known in that vicinity as his own resi- dence. His retirement from the bench closes Judge Her- rick's active professional life ; from that period down to his death, which took place on the 7th day of March, 1873, he remained in comparative retirement from public life.

Judge Herrick was married three times : first, Nov. 5, 1810, to Celestia Hopkins, daughter of Dr. Stephen Hop- kins, of Athens, who was born March 26, 1792, and died Aug. 28, 1830 ; second, to Rebecca Ross, daughter of An- drew Ross, Esq., of the District of Columbia, who died April 10, 1854 ; and third, to Eliza H. Foote, daughter of Judge Foote, of Cooperstown, N. Y. His children were,

Castle Hopkins, born Dec. 10, 1811, married March 2, 1832, Rachel Mcade Herrick, daughter of Samuel Herrick, of Zanesville, Ohio, and died Sept. 22, 1865, leaving two sons and one daughter; Edward Curran, born June 22, 1814, married Eliza Tyler, and is yet living; Helen Eliza, born May 19, 1818, married Chauncey N. Shipman, and died August, 1830, leaving one daughter ; Andrew Ross, born Aug. 4, 1833, died Oct. 21, 1852, unmarried; Ed- mond Per Lee, born Aug. 20, 1834, living and unmarried; and Robert Ross, born June 8, 1839, died Feb. 12, 1860, unmarried.

Judge Herrick accumulated a handsome independence by the prudent management of his affairs, and the investment of his official salary in the vicinity of the growing village in which he died, where he had passed the largest period of his active life, and, in retirement, had watched for half a century the development of things around him, where he had lived to link the story of primeval days with the last struggle of American independence and the mighty energy of internal war that shook the continent, and called into action all the resources of the most powerful nation on the globe. In peaceful retirement he passed away, his life an example of probity and prudence, of well-appointed talents usefully exerted and fitly rewarded in every station he had been called to fill. His life, prolonged far beyond the common lot of man, covered some of the most remark- able epochs of the world's history, an age of wonder in the progress of invention and development, the spread of eivili- zation, and the progress of events unparalleled in the his- tory of mankind. His faculties remained clear and un- clouded unto the end, and all these things it was his lot to have seen.

In person he was above the ordinary stature, graceful in carriage, and in his latter days, as in his youth, a model of comeliness and dignity. His bearing bore always the traces of that peculiar discipline to mind and manners which comes of a temperate habit and the exertion of an intelli- gent will, animated by an earnest principle, and a benevo- lent and conscientious spirit. Of him, with all his worldly honors, his spotless life, and manly virtues, his talents of head and heart, it may be said, as justly as it was ever said of mortal man,-

" He bore, without abuse, the grand old name of gentleman."

H. W.

E. P. ALLEN, M.D.

Dr. Ezra Pascal Allen was born in Smithfield, Brad- ford Co., Pa., June 5, 1821. He was the second son of Ezra Allen, who emigrated from the town of Halifax, Ver- mont, in 1819, and is the sixth generation from James and Anna Allen, who came probably from Scotland, and settled in Dedham, now Medfield, Massachusetts, in 1639. The doctor traces down the line of his descent from the first ancestor in the following order :

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History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 71

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