USA > Pennsylvania > Bradford County > History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 97
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About 1794, Parshall Terry built a small grist-mill on a very small stream on the farm now owned by Maj. U. Terry, and occupied by J. W. Van Auken. Jonathan Terry took his fine brown mare, drove nails in her hoofs, and went to Wilkes-Barre on the ice with a jumper constructed for the purpose, and there bought the mill-stones, and, after getting his mare shod, loaded them upon the jumper, and came home upon the ice, making the trip in a little over three days. This mill was long known as Grandfather Terry's " little mill," and it was a fine acquisition to the comforts of Terrytown.
Parshall Terry and Uriah Terry were the two great men of Terrytown. The former was a tailor, and he could make a coat for a man in a day, and would often do it for one dollar. He was an enterprising, go-ahead man, and he was hated by the Pennamites with almost perfect hatred. Once they had him in jail at Easton, but by his genial disposi- tion and blandishments he soon won the good-will of the jailer, and was granted the freedom of the premises around the jail. After remaining there for some weeks, one day, whilst enjoying his freedom in the presence of the jailer and several other persons, all at once he discovered that the jail was on fire, and he ran and cried " Fire ! fire !" and then made his way with more than double-quick to the woods, and before the jailer and others found out the ruse he was ont of their reach. He laid in the woods two nights. An Indian woman gave him a loaf of bread, and then he made his way to Wyoming to his family. He was not taken back, though it was soon known that he was with his family.
Uriah Terry was the school-master, moralist, and theolo- gian, and also the poet laureate, of Terrytown, Wyalusing, and all this section of country. Many of his poetical ef- ·fusions found their way into the public papers, and have been preserved. His poem on the death of Washington carries sublimity in every stanza, and was and is well worthy of the hero whose death it commemorates. He died at
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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
Terrytown in 1810. Parshall Terry moved to East Pal- myra in 1808,-died there a few years afterwards. These two men were elders in the Presbyterian church of Wya- lusing, and meetings of that church, for a time, were held alternately at Wyalusing and at Terrytown. It is the oldest church in northern Pennsylvania. The next permanent settler after Jonathan Terry was Maj. Oliver Dodge, whose wife's maiden name was Abigail Harris. They had a family of seven sons and three daughters. All grew up to maturity and had families. They are all dead. They all left Terry- town except Edmund. He lived here all his days, and died here at the age of eighty. Maj. Dodge had quite a large landed property, but the most of it has passed out of the name. J. E. Dodge and Dimock D. Dodge, two of the great-grandsons of the major, own a portion of the old homestead farm, and they are the only representatives of the Dodge family now left at Terrytown. Maj. John Horton, Sr., settled in Terrytown in 1792. He had a family of six sons and five daughters. All lived to maturity. Two daughters and two sons are still living, viz., Mrs. Lydia Stalford, in her eighty-seventh year, lives in Wyalusing, and Mrs. Elizabeth Baillet, aged seventy-eight, lives in Wis- consin. Geo. F. Horton, in his seventy-third year, and Edmund Horton, aged seventy, both live at Terrytown, and own the most of the old homestead farm.
Joshua Terry, Nathaniel Terry, and Nathan Terry soon left Terrytown and moved to East Palmyra ; so also did Israel Parshall. Lebbeus Garner settled in Canada. Among the early settlers of Terrytown we find the names of Ells- worth, Shoemaker, Wells, Marsh, Barges, Vargison, Wyeth, Vanderpool, Carr, Leonard, Turner, Crocker, Gaylord, and others ; but of these families no representatives are left in Terrytown, and only a few of them in the township of Terry.
Parshall Terry and Uriah Terry were lineal descendants, in the fifth generation, from Richard Terry, who emigrated from England, and settled in Southold, Long Island, N. Y., in 1640. They moved from Southold to Orange Co., N. Y., and thence to Wyoming, and afterwards to Terrytown, as already stated.
Major John Horton, Sr., was a lineal descendant of Barnabas Horton, of Mousely, England, who emigrated to America in 1638, and settled permanently at Southold, Long Island, N. Y., in 1640 (vide Horton Genealogy, page 8), where he died in 1680.
Major Horton was born in the township of Goshen, N. Y., July 30, 1763, moved to Wyoming valley in 1787, and in 1792 to Terrytown, as above stated, where he bought land and settled permanently, and where he died on April 28, 1848, and where also Deborah Lucy Horton, his wife, died May 25, 1844, aged 78.
Major Horton built the first framed dwelling-house on the west side of the river, in the township of then Wyalusing, now Terry. He was the owner of the first two-horse wagon ever brought into Terrytown. He also owned the first fanning-mill and built the first framed barn. It was built in 1805, and is still in a good state of preservation, and owned by Edmund Horton.
Major Horton was a wagoner in the Revolutionary war towards the close of the war, and was stationed in Mamak-
ating Hollow, and afterwards on the Neversink creek, not far from the present Port Jervis. He was major of a battalion of militia in Wyalusing, frequently held township offices, and was one of the prominent men of the place.
He was not a public professor of Christianity, but his life in the main was in harmony with its teachings. He was universally esteemed, and at his funeral a larger con- course of people gathered than had ever before been wit- nessed in this part of the country on a funeral occasion. Deborah, his wife, was a woman distinguished for her emi- nent piety, unwearied industry, and good economy; she knew well how to guide the house. Their children were all born in Terrytown except Ebenezer, who was born at Little Britain, N. Y., and Anna and Lydia, who were born in Wyoming. Of their children, Anna, Francis, and Harry died unmarried ; Ebenezer died in 1826, leaving nine chil- dren, seven of them are still living ; Eunice, wife of Thomas Ingham, Esq., died in 1844. He died in 1855, leaving four children.
Major Oliver Dodge, was born in Connecticut. He is believed to have been a lineal descendant of John Dodge, who emigrated from Lancashire, England, about 1633, and settled in Wenham, Mass. Israel, a great-grandson of John, settled in Canterbury, Conn., and from him came the family of Major Oliver Dodge. It is an instance of names going by contraries. If there is any fighting to be done there is no dodge to them. Five of them were in Bunker Hill battle. Samuel and Levi Dodge, from Massa- chusetts, and Israel, from Connecticut, served through the Revolutionary war.
William Dodge was the first of the name who came to New England. He came over, when a single man, in the ship " Lyon's Whelpe," which sailed from Yarmouth, May 7, 1629 ; settled at Salem, Mass. He in a few years went back to Lancashire, married, and returned with his wife and two brothers, Richard aud John, the latter mentioned above. Gen. Henry Dodge and his son, Augustus C., de- scended from this Canterbury stock.
A large number of the Vanderpool family* are found in Bradford County, but only a part of them reside in the township of Terry.
Maj. John Horton, Jr., was one of the prominent citizens of Terrytown. He was born March 23, 1793. He was a careful business man. Though long engaged in mercantile pursuits, he never had occasion to fear financial crises or revulsions, living always prepared to honor his pecuniary obligations at maturity. In enterprises for the public good he was always among the first. He was constable for many years, justice of the peace for five years, and declined a re- election ; was treasurer of the county for two years, and was one of the electors on the Democratic electoral ticket in 1848. He was captain and then major in the militia, and from 1828 to 1835 brigade inspector. He never made : public profession of Christianity, yet he conscientiously and habitually practiced its virtues. He was a regular attend- ant upon public worship, and paid more money for the Terrytown tabernacle (union meeting-house) than any other person. He was popular and pleasing in his manners, and
# An account of this family is found in Asylum.
MRS. GEO. F. HORTON.
DR.GEO. F.HORTON.
RES. OF DR. GEO. F. HORTON, TERRYTOWN, BRADFORD CO., PA.
.
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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
politically a man of mark, but never a politician, holding office only when the office sought him. He died Feb. 21, 1867. His end was quiet and peaceful. His son, Col. Joseph H. Horton, now a coal-dealer in Ithaca, N. Y., enlisted in the service of his country in August, 1862; was 1st lieut. of Co. A, 141st Regt., when he went in ; served through the war, and came out lieutenant-colonel. He received a gunshot wound in his wrist in the battle of the Wilderness, but recovered the use of his arm and returned to the service, and was with his regiment at Lee's surrender.
New Era is a small village situated about five miles southwest from Terrytown. It was near this place that the French refugees built a house for secreting the king and queen of France if they had succeeded in getting them to America. Mr. Charles Homet, Sr., lived there about two years before he settled at Frenchtown. Isaac Schoonoven settled there after Mr. Homet left, and remained there until he died.
Jason Horton, Esq., was one of the earliest permanent settlers at New Era. Lawrence Wiggins lived there for some years. John Morrow and N. T. Horton had a store there in 1830-31. But they left. Henry Gaylord, Esq., lived there a few years (1839 to 1843), and then moved back to Wyalusing. J. A. Record had previously lived in the house which was occupied by Esquire Gaylord. In 1837, Jonathan Harrison moved from Connecticut and settled just beyond New Era. He built the first and probably the only shingle house-that is, with shingles for weather-boards-that was ever built in Bradford County. It is still occupied. Jonathan Buttles has been a prominent citizen there for many years. He is a manufacturer of wooden bowls, and also of lumber.
J. L. Jones, Esq., settled in New Era at an early day. He was a justice of the peace, and a man of good business capacity. He died in 1876, leaving a widow, his aged parents, and three sons. His widow moved to Terrytown and built a house, in which she now resides. His sons occupy the old homestead. One of them is a physician. Ebenezer Brock, a first-class carpenter and joiner, has long lived in the vicinity of New Era. John Dyer is also there, an undertaker and furniture-store keeper. John Huffman, an enterprising farmer, resides in the vicinity of New Era.
New Era has a public-house, an Odd-Fellows' hall, two saw-mills, a grocery, kept by Henry Yetter, and a store, by Mr. Buttles. D. F. Wills, Esq., resides not far from New Era, and he is a prominent man in his locality.
It is situated in a good agricultural district, and its pop- ulation is increasing.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.
GEORGE F. HORTON, M.D.,
the ninth child and fourth son of Major John and Deborah (née Terry) Horton, was born at Terrytown, Jan. 2, 1806. On both sides the family lines run back to Puritan stock and to those who served in the Revolutionary war. Major John Horton was in the sixth generation which descended
from Barnabas Horton, who emigrated from England in 1638 and settled at Southold, New York, in 1640. Major Horton was a wagoner in the Revolutionary war, being too young to serve in any other capacity (born in 1763). April 9, 1785, he married Deborah, daughter of Parshall Terry, who was one of the inmates of the famed Forty fort the night of the terrible massacre. At this time Deborah was a little past twelve years of age, and the recollections of those terrible scenes were strongly impressed upon her memory till the day of her death, and she never could relate them without tears. She was a woman of marked charac- ter, of great energy, and deep picty.
Major Horton built the first framed house and the first framed barn, and had the first wagon and the first fanning- mill in the township.
George Firman received his elementary education in the log school-houses of his native town, where he soon mastered the branches taught there, and then himself spent some time in teaching. He entered the Van Rensselaer school (now known as the Van Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute), at Troy, N. Y., where he enjoyed the instruction of Prof. Amos Eaton, renowned in his day as a scientist; from this institution he was graduated, August, 1827.
He studied medicine under Dr. Samuel Hargam, of Lu- zerne Co., Pa., and commenced practice in the autumn of 1829, at his native place, Terrytown. He soon acquired an extensive reputation as an able physician and a skillful surgeon, and consequently an extensive ride. He has con- tinued in the practice of his profession to the present,-a period of nearly fifty years. He has ever kept himself fully abreast with the most advanced theories and latest dis- coveries pertaining to the science of medicine, and has con- tributed of his own vast store of knowledge, derived from a large and varied field of observation, for the benefit of his profession. He has been one of the most active members of the Bradford County medical society from its organiza- tion. He is also a member of the Pennsylvania State medical society, of which he was elected the presiding officer, in June, 1862. He is also a member of the Ameri- can medical association, and an honorary member of sev- eral other medical societies. Although living in a retired part of the country, where he has been deprived of many of the social advantages to be had in more favored localities, yet such has been his reputation, that he has frequently been called long distances as consulting physician in diffi- cult and obscure cases. Settling in a wild region, where roads were frequently nothing but sled-paths, he was obliged to ride on horseback, and now after he has seen more than his threescore and ten years, still prefers that mode of traveling.
Though constantly engaged in the work of his profession, he has not been indifferent to the duties he owed to society, or to other literary pursuits, and especially has he been an enthusiastic student of natural history. As a botanist he has an extensive acquaintance with plants, and his her- barium contained specimens of more than a thousand dif- ferent species collected by his own hands from their native habitat. In 1858 'mm wrote the report of the Bradford County medical society on the geology of the county, which, accompanied by a map, was published in the " Transac-
49
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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
tions" for that year. This was the first local contribution on this subject from this county. In 1876 he published the " Chronicles of the Horton Family," a work of great merit and prepared with great labor.
On the question of temperance the doctor has always taken advaneed ground. He was either the first or second person to sign the pledge in this part of the county, while his position in the abolition and liberal party has been de- fined elsewhere. For twenty years he was postmaster at Terrytown, was county auditor in 1836; besides holding other offiees, he was township treasurer and township clerk ten years, and surgeon of the 15th Regiment of Pennsyl-
vania militia in 1831. In the fall of 1872 he was elected delegate from the fourteenth senatorial district to the con- vention for revising the constitution of Pennsylvania, fill- ing the place with credit to himself and to the satisfaction of a large majority of his constituency.
He was married June 4, 1832, to Abigail Terry,-her grandfather, Jonathan Terry, stood sentry at the fort in the Wyoming battle. They have had eight children, five of whom-two sons and three daughters-are living, married and settled. The doctor and his wife are both in good health, and are enjoying a green old age. The doctor is a ruling elder in the Presbyterian church at Terrytown.
TOWANDA.
THE geographical situation of the township of Towanda is between the townships of North Towanda, on the north, the Susquehanna river (which divides it from Wysox) and Asylum on the east, Monroe on the south, and Bur- lington on the west. The area of the township is about fifteen square miles. Its surface is hilly, running up into high, pine-covered summits, except along the Towanda creek, where alluvial flats lie on either side of the same. The soil is fertile, even to the very summits of the hills, and produces the cereals and the grasses with certainty almost universally. Dairying is the principal business of the farming community.
The Towanda ereek passes northeasterly through the southeastern portion of the township, with two or more small affluents coming in from the north.
The township is divided into four school distriets, each having a school-house, in which schools are taught an average of six or more months in each year.
Towanda was one of the original towns of 'Bradford County, being organized before the county was. In 1857 North Towanda was taken from Towanda, and formed into a separate township.
SETTLEMENT.
The history of Rudolph Fox, and his family, the first settlers in what is now Towanda township, to which they came before the war for American Independenee, and from which they fled before the savage Iroquois, has been given in the general history of the county. He returned to his devastated possession in 1783, accompanied by Elisha For- syth and his father and his family. Mr. Fox rebuilt his ruined home, on the flats on Towanda creek, between the present road and the Susquehanna. Ilis original purchase of the Indians was patented to others in connection with himself, he receiving but four hundred acres, the same being patented to him as the " Fox Chase." His daughter Elizabeth, whose portrait we here present, subsequently married William Means, Esq., whose history is given in connection with the borough. An incident of the heroism
1
of Elizabeth, while but a girl of thirteen years, is given in Chapter III., to which our readers are especially referred. Mr. Fox was subsequently drowned in the Susquehanna.
MRS. ELIZABETH MEANS.
Elisha Forsyth was born in Connecticut, in 1776. The family was a Scottish one from Edinburgh, the ancestor coming to America with his three sons, John, Jonathan, and James. Jonathan, the father of Elisha, came to Wy- oming with his family, and was in the battle of July 3, 1778. His family lived at Nanticoke falls, and fled to Carlisle, whither he followed them, escaping from the mas- sacre. In 1783, he came with his family to Towanda with Mr. Fox, but remained a short time only, removing to Choconut. Elisha afterwards built the first ark that ever ran down the north branch of the Susquehanna. It was
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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
sixty feet long, built of white-oak timber, caulked and tarred, and its owner, Judge Ashbel, carried wheat in it. Capt. Thomas Parks assisted in its construction.
Jacob Bowman was also a pre-Revolutionary settler in Towanda, and returned to his land after the close of that struggle. He received a warrant for a tract on the east side of Towanda creek, at its mouth, Feb. 1, 1793; the survey was made December, 1803, and the patent issued June 27, 1805. The field-notes of the survey show a mill on the point just above the island. An agreement was made between the Asylum company and Jacob Bowman, inn-keeper, Dec. 31, 1803, for the sale of a tract of laud bounded by Jacob Bowman and Reuben Hale, it being a part of a tract surveyed to John Singer on a warrant dated July 1, 1784. John Singer was a millwright, and built the mill before mentioned previous to 1800. Rudolph Fox sold to Caspar Singer, May 21, 1792, a portion of the " Fox Chase." John Singer was a son of Caspar.
Jacob Grantier, a German, was an early settler in the township. He sold to George Welles and Reuben Halc, in July, 1799, a lot on Towanda creek, in Asylum. He located first where Judge Scott lived. He removed to Canton township, where some of his descendants yet reside.
Silas Scoville, and his brother Orr, sons of Elisha Sco- ville, of Connecticut, from whence he and his family re- moved to Exeter, Luzerne Co., Pa., came from the latter place to Towanda in 1788. Silas bought a possession one mile south of Towanda village, and Orr bought the original Grantier place, now owned by H. L. Scott, son of Judge George Scott. The farms were purchased of a man named Smith, who " farmed a little and preached a little," as necessity required or occasion offered. Orr Scoville married Polly, a sister of Ezra Rutty, removed to Canton, and from thence to Indiana, where he died. He reared a large family, who remain in the west. Silas married, June 4, 1796, Abigail Harris, of Exeter, and remained on the farm he first bought till his death, his children and grandchildren now possessing it. The present dwelling on the farm is the fourth one in succession, two having been burned. His house was ever the home of the Connecticut emigrants, sometimes for weeks together, while they were looking about for a place to make a home. The first plow used upon the farm was made by Mr. Holcomb, now of Le Roy. It was brought to the farm by a son of Mr. Scoville, mounted on a horse attached to the plow, which had a wooden shoe placed on it, on which it was dragged through the woods a distance of fourteen miles. It was made en- tirely of wood with the exception of the share. Silas Scoville died June 18, 1824, aged sixty-one years, and his wife died February 28, 1855, aged eighty-one years.
His family consisted of the following-named children : Phebe married Nathan Stevens, of Wyalusing; Harris married Olive Ackla ; Harry married Sarah Courtright, of Luzerne county ; Calista died in her youth ; Caroline mar- ried Hugh Frazier ; Silas married Maria Dill ; Joseph Jen- kins married Harriet Taylor, of Pike township; Abigail married Reuben Delong.
Joshua Wythe was a Bostonian, and was burned out in the great fire in that city about 1791, and soon after re- moved to the lake region of central New York to find a
home and retrieve his fortunes. Here the family were sorely afflicted with the ills incident to that region, and on his recovery sufficiently to enable him to travel, he came to Towanda, in 1794, in his pursuit of a more favorable locality for a home, and purchased a farm about two miles above the mouth of Towanda creck, on what is known as the George Bowman place. He bought of Heath two hundred and fifty acres, who made the original possession. Mrs. Wythe died in 1805, in her forty-fourth year, and was buried on Cole's flats, and Mr. Wythe returned to Boston, and married a second wife, and moved to the west, selected a home, and sent for his children, all of whom went to him except his daughter Mary (now Mrs. Mary Dodge), who, as she said to us, " had made other arrangements, and stayed behind." She consummated those arrangements shortly afterwards, being married in 1808. Mr. Wythe died in Cincinnati. His first wife was Elizabeth, a danghter of Col. Brewer, of Cambridge, who died in the Continental service during the Revolution.
The children of Mr. and Mrs. Elizabeth Wythe were as follows : Susanna, married a Leonard, and moved west ; Elisha, married Nancy Salisbury, removed to Delaware Co., Ohio, where both died; Joshua, married Hannah Pond, and went west with Elisha; George, lived in Harrisburg with his uncle, John Wythe, and learned the printer's trade,-he married and lived in Pittsburgh, and from thence went to Kentucky, where he died ; Harriet, married John Bates, and lived in Covington, Ky .; Mary, married (first) Daniel Gilbert, and (second) Maj. Oliver Williams Dodge ; Prentice, went west, and died unmarried in his early man- hood ; Francis, married, and removed to the west,-he was born in Towanda; Nancy was married, and lived in Ken- tucky ; Elizabeth ; Henry ; and Fanny, went west while young, and settled there.
Daniel Gilbert was a native of Connecticut. He bought the farm of Joshua Wythe, whose daughter Mary he mar- ried in 1808, and built his house thereon situate the same year. He subsequently exchanged this farm for the Green- wood place, and that again for the Mintz place, known as the dry saw-mill, being the next farm above the Wythe farm. Upon his death his widow married Maj. O. W. Dodge, who died Feb. 1, 1845. In May, 1844, Mrs. Dodge moved to her present farm in the township. Reuben Hale came from Glastonbury, Conn., to Towanda township about the year 1799. His first purchase, dated June 20, 1799, was of two hundred acres of land, and a mill bought of George Welles, of Tioga Point. He married Wealthy Tracy, of New London, Conn., in 1803. He was the first postmaster of Towanda, being appointed in 1810, and was for many years a justice of the peace. He was prominent among the citizens of the county for many years. His chil- dren were five,-Eliza, who married Gen. William Patton ; Nancy, married Benjamin Spies ; James Tracy ; Reuben White ; and Elias W. Mr. Hale died about 1825.
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