History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 89

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 89

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The Towner family endured hard service in the wilderness in clearing up their farms, and though naturally vigorous, healthy, and ambitious, their severe labors undermined the robust constitutions of some of the children, whose descend- ants are now reaping the fruits of their parents' exposures and privations. Abraham's family were all carried off by consumption.

George Murphy commenced on Towner hill in 1803, and John Hicks in the hollow west of him, in 1804. Murphy's son, S. W. Murphy, now occupies a portion of his original possession.

In 1805, the settlement in Rome township gained another valuable acquisition in the family of William Elliott, in which were a number of boys.

James Elliott, a resident of Towanda, Nov. 14, 1874, aged then eighty-seven years, gives the following facts con- cerning his father's family. The family came from the north of Ireland to America,-at least six sons of the family did,-during the early colonial period. They were all athletic men. One of them, named James, settled at Albany, N. Y., being married at that time. Another, John, was a seafaring man, and the others were lost sight of. James was in the colonial military service, and his sword and cocked hat were long time-treasured relics in the family halls. William Elliott and his brother John, father and uncle of our informant, living near the Connecticut line, beard much of the Susquehanna country in its praise, more especially that part of it claimed by that State, and, there- fore, John, and the oldest son of William (Joseph ), packed their knapsacks and started on foot in the spring of 1803, to view the land for themselves, with a view to bring the families for settlement. They arrived in due time in Wysox, where John rented a farm of the widow Moger, now a part of the Piollet farm. This lady was the daughter of Moses Cool- baugh, and afterwards became the wife of Burr Ridgway.

Upon this farm John raised some corn and sowed some rye, and in company the two cleared eight acres of new land and sowed it to wheat. This was also on rented land. The sowing produced good crops of both cereals.

They returned to their homes late in the fall, and pre- parations for the removal of the families to the new country at once were commenced. Three span of horses, and as many sleighs, were loaded with the household goods and supplies and the two families, numbering in all twenty persons, young and old, among them an aged grandmother. She endured the journey very well, but died the next summer of fever and agne, and was buried near the mouth of Wysox creek, but no stone tells where she sleeps. It was a cold winter, with snow and ice plentiful. They crossed the Hudson at Catskill, on the ice, as well as every other stream in their way, and drove on the ice from Lower Ulster-then old Sheshequin-to the cabin of William Means, at what is now Towanda borough. They arrived at Mr. Means' after dark, and being so numerous, he could not accommodate the entire party in his log house, but offered to keep the grandmother in that,-and the new house, then inclosed and the chimneys built, the balance of the party were welcome to. The offer was accepted, and soon roaring fires were built in the capacious fire-places, and the beds spread on the floor.

The families had just got fairly and comfortably honsed when Mr. Means came in, and seeing the family of boys there assembled, at once struck a bargain with William Elliott for the rent of his farm on the east side of the river. This farm then contained more than 100 acres of good corn land, but which has since been nearly all washed away by the river, scarcely seven acres being left. At the expira- tion of his lease, Mr. Elliott moved up Bullard creek, a branch of the Wysox, where he obtained title to land from Le Ray in part, and partly by possession. Here he spent his last days in quietness, departing this life at the age of ninety-five years, and was buried on his own farm. John Elliott never owned any land, but reared a large family, was several years a widower, and died at his son-in-law's, Isaac Horton, at the age of eighty years. His only son is now living in Kansas, and several daughters are living in different States of the Union.

William Elliott's family of fourteen, children by two wives, have at this date-1874-dwindled to three sons and two daughters. His son Thomas engaged in merchan- dising about 1813, and continued in that line of business until near the close of his life. He died in 1866, leaving a competency for his widow and only son. Samuel is yet living on the old homestead, where his brothers, John Hiram and Daniel, lived and died. Larmen lived in Mansfield, Tioga Co., Pa., where he died, leaving a widow and two sons, well known and highly respected in that region. He was a ready writer, and by profession a teacher. William Elliott had one son in the War of 1812, and one of his daughters lost two sons in the Rebellion.

Joseph Elliott, of Wyalusing, was a relative, doubtless, of William, though distantly connected. He was, with William, a pensioner of the Revolution. William was a member of the Methodist church, and his son James was the only Baptist in the family.

PHOTOS. BY GEO. H. WOOD.

et Ws Elliott

Sarah & Elliott

RESIDENCE OF S.W. ELLIOTT, ROME, PA.

353

HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

About 1806, Reuben Bump* and Russell Gibbs came into the northwestern part of the town, in what is now known as " Bumptown." Mr. Bump was a great hunter, and pro- verbially drew a long bow in relating his exploits, as it always seemed to the settlers, which relations received the appellation of " Bump stories," and as such were remembered long afterwards.

Achatius Vought began a clearing on Park's creek, about two miles north of Rome village, in 1807. Here he lived at the time of his death, which occurred about 1844. His wife, familiarly known as " Aunt Jenny," went to her rest, at the age of ninety-three years, about 1872 or 1873. Godfrey Vought died at eighty-eight years, and his wife Polly at ninety-three.

There is a singular coincidence in the longevity of some of the early settlers. The wives of the brothers Godfrey and Achatius Vought and Henry Lent, attained the same age ere they died, ninety-three years. William Elliott at- tained the greatest age of any in the township, dying at the age of ninety-five years.

Rev. C. E. Taylor came to Rome from Connecticut, in 1817. The family consisted of his wife, two sons and one daughter, Edwin W., Delamar, and Abby Jane. Mr. Taylor was a native of Groton, Connecticut, and his wife, whose family name was Janes, was a native of Springfield, Mass. Mr. Taylor was a cooper by trade. The family came in with a two-horse team, erossing the Hudson river at Newburg. He located on a piece of land on Taylor hill, and lived in a house of Simeon Rockwell's until he could find one for himself, which was a framed one, the boards being nailed on with wrought nails. On August 11, 1818, their third son, C. E. Taylor, was born and eradled in a hemlock box. In 1819, Mr. Taylor commeneed work at his trade, and continued it until about 1821, when he re- turned to his farm, where he spent the remainder of his days. He died Sept. 11, 1860, his wife still surviving, aged ninety years. The original location has never passed out of the family, and three sons and the only daughter are living on their own farms adjoining it and each other. The youngest son and his aged mother still oeeupy the home- stead. Mr. Taylor was in the service during the war of 1812. A son of Miner O. was in the Rebellion, and died in the service of the Union, in the 6th Regiment, Ohio Volunteers.

C. E. Taylor married Emeline K. Warner, of Pike. Dr. A. Frank Taylor, his son, is a graduate of the Cleve- land, Ohio, medical college.

Martin Van Buren Moore, so named for his maternal grandfather, is of the Kinderhook Van Burens. When his mother was a girl of fourteen her father lived on the Hudson, and his house was burned by the British in the Revolution. He served in the Continental army until the surrender of Burgoyne. Mr. Moore's father's name was James, and his mother's Eunice Van Buren. Mr. Moore was an early settler on the hill.

FIRSTLINGS.

The first wheat field occupied the land on which Judge Passmore's orchard now stands. The seed to sow this field was brought from Sheshequin. Nathaniel P. Moody was the sower, and brought one bushel, and his sons Enos and Moses each half a bushel. The first orchard was set out soon after by Mr. Moody. The apple-trees which stand in front of the residence of Dr. H. Riee were planted out by Mr. Moody for the benefit of the public.

The first framed house was built in 1804 by Godfrey Vought, who in a short time after built the first franed barn. They are both now standing and doing good service.

The first grist-mill was built by Burr Ridgway in 1808. Soon after it was finished he sold it to his brother, David Ridgway, who owned it until 1818, when he disposed of it to Sylvester Barnes. Previous to this the nearest mill was Hinman's, at Wysox, near the present residence of Matthias Lanning. The people had in those earlier days little use for a power mill, each family being provided with the de- viee,-partly pioneer and partly Indian,-the mortar and spring-pole pestle. After they began to raise wheat they found their primitive device insufficient, and so transported their grain on their backs to Himman's and had it ground, and returned their flour by the same mode of transit. In a few years after, Jacob Myer built a mill on the present site of Myer and Frost's mill.

The first mechanie shop was a blaeksmith's, put up by Silas Gore, in 1812, in the southern part of the township, near where S. O. Allen now resides.

The first saw-mill was built by Godfrey Vought, Andrus Eiklor, and a Mr. Wells. It stood on the farm now owned by Henry Vought, near the confluence of the Bullard and Wysox creeks.

The first white child born in the township was Benjamin Moody (late of Asylum township), his birth occurring in the year 1798.

The first death that occurred in the township was that of Mrs. Frederick Eiklor in 1800. In 1801, Henry Lent went to Sheshequin, and on his return through the deep snow became exhausted and bewildered by the darkness and by the intensity of the cold, was frozen to death. He was found a few days afterwards near a tree, around which hc had run in the vain attempt to prevent freezing, finally falling exhausted in the snow in a stupor which ended in death. This spot was near the dividing line of the farms of Prof. J. G. Towner and Washington Towner.

The first wedding in the township was that of James Lent and Chloe Parks in 1803, at the house of the bride's father, John Parks. Rev. E. Cole officiated in eonsum- mating the marriage. In 1804, another marriage was eel- ebrated between Andrus Eiklor and Caty Vought, at the new framed house of Godfrey Vought, the father of the young bride. " Aunt Caty Eiklor" was a widowed bride more than thirty years, and for the last few years of her life was an inmate of the house in which she was married over seventy years before her death. She was more than fourseore years of age when she passed to her long and dreamless sleep.

The first school-teacher was Frederick Eiklor, who taught in the first log school-house built in the township, in 1803,

# In the "History of Amenia, N. Y.," pp. 84 and 85, it is said, "Jedediah Bump and his brother James came from Granville, Mass. They were probably of Huguenot descent, the original name being Bon-pas, then Bumpas, and Bumpus, and finally Bump. Mr. Bump's sons were Roswell, Elijah, and Herman."

354

HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

or thereabouts. It stood near the present residence of O. F. Young.

The first religious preaching was held at the house of John Parks, soon after Mr. Parks came to it, in 1801. The preacher was Elisha Cole, late of Monroe township. In 1812, James Elliott, Joel Barnes, of Orwell, and Mrs. Amos Mix, of Wysox, were baptized in the Baptist faith by a missionary from Boston, named Hartwell, which was probably the first baptism by immersion in the vicinity. The rite was performed at what is now Myersburg.

The territory now included in the borough of Rome was once divided between two school districts, known as the Upper and Lower districts. The Baptists held their meet- ings in the lower, and the Methodists theirs in the upper school-house. In 1827,* Deacon Stephen Cranmer (Baptist) organized a Sunday-school in the lower school-house, and was its superintendent for several successive years. This was the first Sunday-school organized in the township. On May 18, 1835, the Methodists organized a Sunday-school in the upper school-house, and continued it until they held their meetings in the Baptist church. In 1846, the Pres- byterians organized a school in their house of worship.

The first church edifice erected in the town was that of the Baptists, some two or three years previous to the crection of the Presbyterian honse, and the Methodists were per- mitted to worship in that church. They united with the Baptists in sustaining Sabbath-schools on the union plan. The Methodist house of worship was dedicated in Febru- ary, 1850, and in May following a Sunday-school was or- ganized, with E. A. Ridgway superintendent. Since that time it has been maintained (except in the winter months), with the exception of two years, when the Methodists and Baptists again united.

FOOD AND FASHION.

The bill of fare was more varied in pioneer times than were the fashions of the costumes. With the exception of breadstuffs, which in earlier days were scarce, the larder could be easily supplied from the forest and stream, and the severe toils of the frontier gave a piquancy to the sauce that left no room for dainty palates. Shad, eels, trout, and venison were plentiful, the former filling the river before the current was dammed for mechanical pur- poses. Shad and eels, too, were articles of barter, but veni- son was free to all comers whenever it was brought in. The costumes were more simple, and less easily obtained, and calico and delaine were out of the question. Buckskin pants and roundabout, covering a tow, alias linen, home- spun shirt, was " the style" for the young men, who called upon their sweethearts in these, their " Sunday fixin's," and were graciously received by them clad in tow " frocks," and not infrequently were they further attired with neatly-fitting doe-skin jackets.

CIVIL HISTORY.

In 1830 the people began to feel that a new town would be a great convenience, and, consequently, in September of that year, a petition was sent to the court of quarter sessions of Bradford County to erect a township ont of portions of

Sheshequin, Wysox, and Orwell. On the hearing of the petition, the court appointed Ezra Long, James Geronld, and Samnel Strait, Jr., viewers, who reported favorably on the measure during the same term of the court. In a few weeks after a meeting was called of the citizens to select a name for the new township, at which several names were suggested, among them Watertown, Pleasant Valley, etc. At length, Larmon H. Elliott suggested that, in view of the fact that the town was in the same latitude as Rome, in Italy, the name of the new township should be called Rome, and a large majority of the citizens voted to accept the suggestion. In February, 1831, the court confirmed the report of the viewers and the action of the people, and ordered that a new township be accordingly set off, to be known as Rome. In the fall of 1831 the people tested the relative strength of the two great parties then dividing the people of the Union, politically, the Democratic and Whig parties, and polled a full vote, 80 ballots being cast, equally divided between the two presidential candidates.

The population of the township in 1850 was 1308; in 1860, it was 1450; and in 1870, it was 1563, of which 53 were foreign born.

The township is divided into eleven school districts, eachı of which has a school-house, wherein schools were taught during the last school year ending June 1, 1877, an average of over six months.

THE BOROUGH OF ROME

was incorporated in February, 1860. It is situated in the southeastern part of the township, and includes an area of about one mile and a half along the Wysox creek, by an average width of about one-third of a mile. The population in 1860 was 230, and was returned at the same figures in 1870. The borongh contains a post-office, several stores, a foundry, several mechanic shops, three churches,-Method- ist, Baptist, and Presbyterian, and their parsonages,-a school-honse, and a goodly number of cosy and elegant resi- dences. There is a post-office also in Centre Valley, district No. 10, known as North Rome.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

DEACON STEPHEN CRANMER.

The subject of this sketch was born in Morristown, N. J., August 25, 1791. He was the youngest of three children (Abraham and Dyer being the names of his two elder brothers) of Stephen and Nancy Cranmer. The Cranmer family in this country are supposed to be descendants of the martyr Cranmer who was burned alive for his religions belief in the reign of Queen Mary of England, and to have come to America about the time of the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth Rock, 1620.

His parents moved from New Jersey and settled in Monroe township, Bradford County, the same year he was born. Soon after their removal to this county, and when Stephen was only six months old (his elder brothers being four years and two years), his father and mother both died, leaving three orphan children. His father, when dying,

# Contributed by John A. Moody.

PHOTO BY G.H WOOD.

Sater vought

PETER VOUGHT.

The subject of this sketch was born in Peekskill, Westchester Co., N. Y., Oct. 22, 1799.

He was the fifth child of a family of twelve children of Achatias and Jane Vought, of Peekskill, and of German descent. His grandfather and grandmother on his father's side were of German birth, as was also his grandfather Oakley on his mother's side. His grandfather, Joseph Vought, saw the struggles of the Revolu- tionary War, heard the din of battle, and encouraged the patriots, while several of his sons bore service to their country.

When the subject of this memoir was only five years of age, his father with his family removed and settled in the wilderness in what is now the township of Rome, and only a short distance from where Peter now lives, on Park's creek. This was in the year 1805, and the family was one of the first to settle in the township. His father was poor and surrounded with a large family, and unable at first to make a purchase of land, but took up some, and in the course of a few years made a contract for the same with the owners, but was located on it for some twenty years before he was able to gain a title.

In this way the Vought family began struggling with poverty ind all the incidents of pioneer life. Such was the parental training of this family that they not only became good representative busi- hess men, but men of integrity in morals and all that makes the nan. His father died at the age of seventy-two years, May, 1845 ; lis mother died at the very advanced age of ninety-four years, in August, 1865.

Peter's life until he was of age was spent at home clearing land, receiving only a very little education from books, and what he did receive was obtained only by dint of courage, such as going to school in winter without shoes, and with only rags sewed around his feet to keep them from the frost and snow. This was getting an education under difficulties ; but his native talent and good common sense led the way and made up largely for his deficiency n book knowledge, so that his subsequent life gives a lesson to his children that one's education does not all come from books, nor pecuniary success wholly depend upon a correct knowledge of the ise of the English language.

At the age of twenty-one years he set out for himself, and in a few years hought some thirty acres of timher-land which he cleared, erected a log house which in due time was supplanted by a commodious frame one, now the home of the subject of this sketch. Since his first purchase he has made additions thereto, and at one time owned some two hundred and twenty acres in one body, one hundred acres of which he mostly cleared with his own hands.

He is now enabled to look back over seventy-nine years of labor, and see around him trees of over a half century's growth of his own planting yielding fruit for his grandchildren.

He assisted in erecting the first school-house and church in his vicinity, and during his whole life has been a liberal supporter of such interests. Over forty years ago he united with the Methodist Episcopal Church of Rome, and is still a member of the same.

In politics he is a Democrat, but not radical in his views, looking rather to principles involved than to men.

In March, 1823, he married Miss Lydia Ditrich, of Schoharie Co., N. Y., to whom were born three children, Henry, John, and Almeda (now deceased). His wife died March 21, 1831, aged twenty-seven years.

For his second wife he married, Aug. 30, 1831, Miss Betsey Morris, daughter of Eli and Ruth Morris, of Catskill, N. Y., and who removed and settled in the township of Rome when Betsey was only thirteen years of age, she being born Jan. 25, 1812. To Mr. and Mrs. Vought have been horn three children, Lydia (died at the age of sixteen), William (died in infancy), and Morris, who married Miss Celestia E. Chaffee, of Rome township. They have five children, carry on a part of the old homestead, and care for his father and mother in their declining years. The wife of Peter Vought is connected with the same church as her husband, and with him looks down the balance of life's journey as only a little way. Mr. Vought is now in his seventy-eighth year of age, and, although crippled some seventeen years ago by the falling of a tree, is in good health, and bids fair for many years of usefulness as counsel and comfort to his children. He is the only member of his father's family alive at the writing of this sketch, but nearly all of his brothers and sisters lived to advanced ages.

( PHOTOS. BY G. H WOOD.) Joseph July

Julia Jeely

RESIDENCE OF JOSEPH SEELY, ROME, BRADFORD Co., PA.

355

HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

gave his children to their grandfather. After two years the grandmother died, and the children were separated, Stephen being placed in a family by the name of Heacock, who were poor but honorable. In this family he grew up, and while at first his adopted father was a member of the Presbyterian church with his wife, he afterwards became intemperate in his habits, and not only ruined himself, but his children. Stephen during these years saw the effects of the use of liquor, followed the instructions of his adopted mother, who was a Christian woman, and received such inn- pressions of the necessity of good habits, that during his whole subsequent life temperance and religion were joined hand in hand upon the banner of his heart. He remembered seeing the baneful effects of the intoxicating cup in the year 1800.

At the age of eighteen years he began learning the car- penter and joiner trade with his adopted brother, Nathaniel Heacoek, and until he was of age worked at this business and farming.

At the age of twenty-one he came to what is now the village of Rome, Bradford County, and purchased a wilder- ness tract of land, entting the first tree to prepare for a new home on the very day he was twenty-one years of age. His first business was to erect a dwelling, which in a short time he did, and which for some time after was used as a school- house.

In the year 1814, Sept. 27, he married Miss Polly Vought, daughter of Godfrey and Polly Vought, who were among the first settlers of Rome township, and came there when their daughter Polly was only four years of age, she being born July 13, 1793:

Fully established in their new home, they began as only pioneers can to carve out a fortune in the wilderness.

The forest gave place to fields of grain and grass, rude log cabins were supplanted by frame houses. The resolu- tion, endurance, and zeal of the settlers soon established church and school, and days of beginning were looked upon as bygone.

After many years of church service in school-houses, Stephen Cranmer gave the land for the erection of a new church edifice, it being the first ereeted in Rome, and was erected and dedicated to the Baptist church in 1845. In this work he was foremost, and was really the leading spirit in its construction, and the founder of the Baptist church of his township and village.

The first house he built on his tract of land now forms a part of the old homestead, now owned and occupied by his daughters, and in which he lived from the time of his marriage until his death.

His early religious life led him to be prominently identi- fied with church interests, esponsing the Baptist faith, and he was appointed a deacon of the Baptist church at Rome at the time of its organization. He was a great Bible student, and proclaimed the truth with effect as a licentiate preacher, for several years prior to his death, in liis village and town- ship. By all who knew him he is remembered as a man of great integrity of purpose, a strong mind to do whatever he conceived to be right, a liberal supporter of any enter- prise looking to the up-building of good society, and tlie establishment of the same upon a religious basis.

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History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 89

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