History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 122

Author: Bradsby, H. C. (Henry C.)
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, S. B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1340

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P. H. NICHOLSON, proprietor of meat-market, Athens, is a native of County Galway, Ireland, and was born March 17, 1853, a son of William and Winifred (Spellman) Nicholson, natives of Ireland. The father, who was a farmer, died in Ireland in 1864, in his fifty-fifth year; the mother is now a resident of Athens. P. H. Nicholson is the fifth in a family of ten children, of whom four are now living. He came from Ireland to Athens in 1870, and worked in the tannery six years ; then followed the butchering business one year, after which he was in the furniture works until the spring of 1883, when he engaged in his present business. He was married in Jersey City, in May, 1881, to Miss Anna M. Rohan, who was born in County Clare, Ireland, in Jan- uary, 1861, and to them were born four children, viz .: William E., John T., Mary and Winifred. They are members of the Catholic Church ; Mr. Nicholson is a member of the Sexennial League and of the World Beneficial Association. Politically, he is a Democrat.

GEORGE W. NOBLE, farmer and dairyman, Wells, is a native of Chenango county, N. Y., and was born May 29, 1832, a son of Alonzo C. Noble, who was born in Schoharie county, N. Y., July 20, 1808. The parents of Alonzo C. Noble were Oliver and Thankful (Crosby) Noble (natives of Massachusetts and Dutchess county, N. Y., respec- tively), the former of whom, a tanner, currier and shoemaker, died in Cayuga county, N. Y., in the fall of 1839. Mrs. Thankful Noble died January 18, 1830, in her fiftieth year. Alonzo Noble's grandfather,

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

Aaron Noble, who was a native of Massachusetts and a captain in the Revolutionary War, died in Butternuts, N. Y. The paternal grand- father, Obediah Crosby, was a native of Dutchess county, N. Y. He was reared in Schoharie county, N. Y., until the age of seven- teen years, when he went to Chenango county, N. Y., and remained there eight years; in May, 1833, he removed to Wells township, where he resided four years, and then proceeded to Broome county, N. Y., and was there two years, when he returned to Wells town- ship. He lumbered in Springfield township. and resided there about one and one-half years; also lumbered in Tioga county, Pa., and resided there five years, since when he has resided in Wells town- ship. He married, in Bainbridge, Chenango Co., N. Y., October 24, 1830, Aurelia Landers, daughter of Joseph and Deborah (Rider) Landers, natives of Massachusetts, whose family consisted of two sons and four daughters, of whom Mrs. Noble is the only one living, and was born in Bainbridge, Chenango county., N. Y., March 28, 1806. Joseph Landers was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. Mr. Noble, although in his eighty-fourth year, is active, and has been a man of remarkable endurance; by industry and good management he has accumulated considerable property. Our subject, who is the eldest and only living child of two children, was reared in Chenango county, N. Y., until one year old, when the family removed to Wells township, this county, where he has since resided, except the times mentioned above, when he was with his father in the lumber business. Mr. Noble is one of the most successful farmers of the township, and is engaged extensively in the dairy business ; is also a breeder of Jersey cattle ; he owns a well-improved farm of 230 acres, and a timber lot of eighty acres. Mr. Noble was married in Southport, N. Y., in 1856, to Mary, daughter of John W. and Sarah Ann (Wyker) Pellett, native of Sussex county, N. J .; she is the eldest of two children living, and was born in Sussex county, N. J., February 28, 1837. To Mr. and Mrs. Noble were born two children : Ella, wife of Edward Joralemon, and Alonzo P., married to Helena Corry. The family are members of the Baptist Church. Mr. Noble is a member of Wells Grange, No. 524, and is now filling the office of justice of the peace, a position he has held fourteen years; he has served two terms as school director and nine years as auditor ; politically he is a Democrat.

JOHN O'BRIEN, farmer, Ridgebury township, P. O. Wilawana, was born in Athens, this county, September 1, 1841, and is the young- est of the six children of John and Mary (Daley) O'Brien, natives of County Cork, Ireland. He began life for himself at nineteen, farming, which has been the chief occupation of his life. He enlisted at Elmira, June 5, 1861, in Company D, Thirty-fifth N. Y. V. I., and participated in the battles of Second Bull Run (where he was taken prisoner), Fredericksburg, Antietam, Rapidan, White Sulphur Springs, Culpeper, Slaughter Mountain, and several others, also in the skirmishes at Fall's Church, Ball's Cross Roads and Arlington Heights. He was mustered out June 5, 1863, and then returned to Ridgebury, where he resumed farming on his present place. Mr. O'Brien was married, April 30, 1864, to Miss Ellen, daughter of Thomas and Catherine

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

(McCarty) Chambers, of Ridgebury, natives of Ireland. They have had eight children, viz .: Thomas, born March 17, 1865; Frances, born September 30, 1867, and died May 17, 1870; Kittie, born August 5, 1868; John, born May 27, 18-, and died April 11, 1870; Mary, born March 16, 1875; William, born April 4, 1877; Nellie, born June 10, 1879, and Gertrude, born June 1, 1886. Mr. O'Brien and his family are members of the Catholic Church at Ridgebury, and in politics he has always been a Democrat.

JOSEPH OCHS, proprietor of " Ochs' Hotel," Towanda, was born at Rochester, N. Y., March 17, 1848, and is a son of Augustus and Theresa Ochs, natives of Baden, Germany, who came to America in 1848, settling in Rochester, N. Y., where they died. The subject of this sketch was reared in his native city, where he received a German and English education, and served an apprenticeship of three years at the shoemaker's trade. On June 6, 1863, he enlisted in Company C, Sixteenth New York Cavalry, and was honorably discharged from the service October 3, 1865. In 1866 he located in Elmira, N. Y., where he worked at his trade three years; he then went to Chicago for eighteen months, St. Louis, six months, and in 1871 he came to Towanda, entering the employ of Humphrey Brothers & Tracy, shoe manufacturers, with whom he remained ten and one-half years; then embarked in the restaurant business, in which he was engaged six years; afterward kept the " Commiskey House," three years, and in May, 1891, purchased the " Seeley House," now known as "Ochs' Hotel," which he has completely refurnished, making, also, other improvements, and has since successfully conducted. Mr. Ochs married, September 29, 1875, Mary, daughter of James and Mary Nestor, of Towanda, and has two children: Frank and Nellie. Mr. Ochs is a member of the G. A. R., and in politics is an Independent.

EDWIN C. OLIVER (deceased) was born in New Jersey, February 19, 1816, a son of William and Mary (Carpenter) Oliver, and of English parentage. He was reared in his native State until fourteen years of age, and his early education was received under his mother's instruc- tion. On the death of his mother, in 1830, he located in Watkins, N. Y., there learned the cabinet-maker's trade, and afterward, for sometime, worked as a journeyman in Elmira, N. Y .; in 1838 he settled in Troy, embarking in business for himself on a small scale, and succeeded by his indomitable energy in building up a business that eventually gave him a competency. He died in 1881 after a successful business career of forty-three years, honored and respected by all who knew him; he was the first burgess of Troy, having been elected to that office in 1845, and served as a justice of the peace of Troy several terms. His tastes were literary, and he was a critic of note. On September 5, 1838, he married Eliza M., daughter of Jabez H. and Rebecca (Wood) Beers, of Elmira, N. Y., by whom he had three children : Perry H., Ellen (Mrs. C. G. VanFleet) and Lyman H. Mr. Oliver was a promi- nent member of the I. O. O. F., and one of the charter members of Troy Lodge; in politics he was a stanch Democrat.

SEVELLON S. ORMSBY, postmaster, New Albany, born in Albany township, this county, within the limits of the present borough, August

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

15, 1838, is a son of Dyer and Charlotte (Wilcox) Ormsby, the former a native of Connecticut, who came to Bradford with two brothers, Daniel and Milton, in 1812. The father was a farmer and a man of consid- erable political influence; was a justice of the peace; died at the age of seventy-nine ; the mother was a native of Monroe township, and a daughter of Freeman Wilcox, one of the pioneers of the township and a soldier of the War of 1812; she died at the age of eighty-eight years. The subject of this memoir was reared as a farmer; in August, 1861, he responded to his country's call for troops by enlisting in Company K, Fiftieth P. V. I., and was in active service nearly three years, when he was wounded by a gunshot in the left leg, below the knee, in the charge in front of Petersburg; the same day his leg was amputated in the field hospital. He remained in the service until June, 1865, after the close of the war, and is now a pensioner. Mr. Ormsby was married December 25, 1864, to Matilda Brown, of Albany township, and they have had three children, as follows: John B., a telegraph operator, married to Louise Arnt, of Scranton, Pa .; Ella Louise and Fred G. Mr. Ormsby is a member of the G. A. R. and the I. O. O. F .; politi- cally he is a Republican, and has been collector, constable and assessor of his township; is now postmaster at New Albany, which position he has held some time ; he is much respected in the community.

DANIEL G. OSBORN, farmer and stock-grower, of Windham, Pa., P. O. Nichols, N. Y., is one of the leading citizens of Windham township, and a war veteran. He resides in the immediate vicinity of where he was born, February. 26, 1839, and is a son of Peter and Rachel (Gardner) Osborn, natives of Orange county, N. Y., who came to Bradford county in 1827, locating in Windham township, and spent the remainder of their lives on their farm. The father died Novem- ber 12, 1882, the mother September 24, 1852. Their family consisted of eight children, as follows: Elizabeth, Sarah (wife of Charles John- son, a farmer of Windham, who died in 1861), Parmelia (wife of Job Bixby, who died in 1883), William (died April 25, 1890), Laura (wife of Peter Barnes, who died in 1850, and she married Jefferson Wait, of Nichols, N. Y.), Henry B. (a harness-maker in Evergreen), Richard (died in 1874, in Wisconsin, had been a soldier in the Fifth Regiment, New York Cavalry, Company G, returned from the army in broken health and never recovered), and Daniel G., whose name heads this sketch. The latter received his portion of his father's estate, and purchased the interest of the other heirs in the homestead, and now owns 100 acres of highly improved land. He was married in LeRays- ville, January 1, 1866, to Esther E. Russell, widow of Morgan Russell, and daughter of Martin V. B. and Abigal (Bidlack) Towner. Morgan Russell was killed in the battle of Chancellorsville, Mav 3, 1863; he and his brother lay side by side on the field. Daniel G. Osborn's family was as follows: Millie A., Martin P., Lettie M. and Morgan D., and two children that died in infancy. Mr. Osborn enlisted in the cause of his country, in 1862, in the Seventeenth Regiment, Pennsyl- vania Cavalry, Company D; went direct to Washington, then into Virginia, and his regiment was detailed on picket duty for two months on the Oquaqua river, when they were captured, December 28, 1863,

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

and carried off to Richmond ; were in Castle Thunder two weeks, when with a steamboat-load of others, they were exchanged, and were on parole, at Annapolis, until June 1, following, when the exchange was completed. He returned to duty with his regiment. Three months after, he was taken sick with typhoid fever, and was sent to Columbia Hospital, and finally given a certificate of disability, and discharged, February 15, 1864. He has never recovered from the effects of his army sickness, and receives a small pension; he is a Republican.

W. H. OSBORNE, station agent, L. V. R. R., Athens, is a native of Chemung county, N. Y'., born June 16, 1848, and is a son of Ira and Sarah (Jadwin) Osborne, the former a native of Chenango, and the latter of Orange county, N. Y. His grandfather, Jonah Osborne, was a soldier in the War of 1812. W. H. Osborne, who is the second in a family of seven living children, received an academic education, and taught district school five terms ; then learned telegraphy, and in 1870 he commenced work as an operator at Athens. On October 3, 1871, he went to Frenchtown, this county, as agent and operator; he remained there three years, when he was again transferred to Athens, as operator, and in 1877 he was appointed assistant to agent; June 16, 1886, was appointed station agent. The receipts of the station are about $150,000 a year. Mr. Osborne was married, in Athens, March 20, 1877, to Mrs. Charlotte B. Halbert, daughter of Hewitt and Elizabeth (Dodge) Andrews, the former born in Washington county, and the latter in Onondaga county, N. Y. Both her grandfathers, W. H. Andrews and Josiah Dodge, were soldiers in the War of 1812. She is the eldest of four living children, and was born in Windham, Bradford Co., Pa., October 3, 1852. To this marriage have been born four children, viz .: Ralph, Izora, Elizabeth (deceased) and Harold. They are members of the Methodist Church ; he is a member of Queen Esther Council, No. 1153, Royal Arcanum, and Sexennial League. In politics he is a Democrat.

CHARLES OSTRANDER, farmer, of South Creek township, P. O. Gillett, was born in Orange county, N. Y., November 25, 1827, a son of Daniel and Mary (Halleck) Ostrander, both of whom were born in Orange county, N. Y. Daniel Ostrander is a son of Jacobus Ostrander, who was a native of Ulster county, N. Y., and was an unostentatious farmer, who lived an uneventful life ; he reared a family of four children all of whom grew to maturity. Charles was reared and educated in Hamptonburg, Orange Co., N. Y., and always confined himself to tilling the soil in preference to speculation. March 1, 1847, at the age of twenty, he married Miss Mary Ann, daughter of David Van Buskirk, by whom he had six children, five of whom are living: Almira, Ann Marie, Charles, Samuel and William H., and four of whom are married. In 1859 he removed to Ridgebury, this county, where he resided eight years. In 1867 he moved to South Creek, where he purchased a farm of seventy acres with improvements. His first wife having died, he married, December 27, 1870, at Mill Port, N. Y., Mrs. Unice, widow of John Sterling. By this marriage he had one child. In 1862, when our country needed defenders to protect her integrity and preserve her union, Mr. Ostrander was not found wanting; he joined Company G,

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

One Hundred and Seventy-first P. V. I., in which he served nineteen months, and was honorably discharged, the war having closed; he now enjoys a pension. Mr. Ostrander is a general farmer and an enterpris- ing man of sterling qualities ; he is a member of the G. A. R., and polit- ically is a Republican.

B. J. OVERFIELD, blacksmith, Camptown, was born in Wyoming county, Pa., September 4, 1859, a son of Benjamin and Lois Ann (Camp) Overfield. His father was a farmer by occupation, and had a family of eight children, as follows : Harriet, married to Albert Bunnell, a farmer of Wyoming county; Jennie, married to John H. Fellows, now mayor of Scranton ; Emma, married to Warren Dunlap, a farmer of Lackawanna county, Pa .; Ida, married to Winfield S. Lacey, a mechanic working at Pasadena, Cal .; B. J .; N. E., a black- smith of Meshoppen, married to Miss Effa Bullard, of Meshoppen ; Nancy M., married to Wallace Baily, a farmer and butcher of Mans- field, Pa., and Ferris, an engineer in a quarry at Meshoppen. B. J. Overfield, the subject proper of this sketch, was born and reared on a farm and educated in the common schools; at the age of twenty he entered the shop of Charles Newman, of Meshoppen, to learn his trade, and after eight months spent there he came to Merryall, where he opened a shop for himself, and remained one year; then removed to Camptown, and for one year rented his present shop; but in 1883 he pur- chased it, together with his residence property. He has a large business, and besides horse-shoeing and general blacksmithing does all kinds of carriage repairing. Mr. Overfield was united in wedlock, March 15, 1881, at Little Meadows, with Lucettie S. Billings, a daughter of Samuel Billings, a farmer of Wyalusing, Bradford Co., Pa., and this union has been blessed with four children ; Bennie B., born December 19, 1881; Nirum A., born February 8, 1884; Lois A., born July 19, 1888, and Grace E., born August 1, 1890. Mr. Overfield is a member of the I. O. O. F., Wyalusing Lodge, No. 503; also of the P. of I., Camptown Association ; in politics he is a Republican. He has always depended on his own resources, and has been very successful.

HON. EDWARD OVERTON, JR., Towanda. While this gentle- man is the only living member of the family of that given name, yet, in this instance, the careers of father and son, and their professional lives, have been so nearly the same, that it makes it easier to ward off confusion by continuing the designation of senior and junior, than oth- erwise. The name Overton will remain familiar to the future genera- tions of the county, as long as its civic organization lasts. Edward Overton, Sr., was a son of Thomas Overton, who was buried in Ulster Cemetery in the year 1836; the family had immigrated from Clitheroe, Lancashire, England, in 1816, where Edward Overton, Sr., was born, December 30, 1795. He was educated for the bar, in London, and had the advantages of the counsel and advice of his uncle, Giles Blaisdell, an eminent barrister of his day, and commenced the study of law at the early age of sixteen. As evidence of the difference between then and now, it may be mentioned that the articles of enrollment of Edward Overton, Sr., as a student of the law, are recorded, in the King's Bench, with a stamp duty of one hundred pounds sterling

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

thereon. The young English lawyer, with his father's family, came permanently to America, locating in Wilkes-Barre in 1815, and was at once examined and soon admitted to practice in the courts.

He opened his office at Athens (or Tioga Point) and after three years came to Towanda, where he spent the remainder of his life, and where, for more than half acentury, he stood at the head of his profes- sion,and at one time, in the much litigation growing out of the Connecticut claims, he was widely known as the foremost lawyer of his day, in that tremendous arena where many of the most noted jurists of the Commonwealth had met as legal gladiators. He had identified him- self with the Federal and Whig parties, but eschewed official life entirely, giving his time and best efforts to his profession, and to those large affairs for the development and improvement of the country. He organized the Barclay Coal & Railroad Company, which purchased of the Barclays, of London, 20,000 acres of the coal lands, to reach which the Barclay Railroad was built. This opened up that heretofore wild- erness, and eventually developed the entire coal interests of Bradford county. Mr. Overton died in Towanda, in 1878, widely honored and universally regretted. He had married, in the year 1818, Eliza, daugh- ter of Henry Clymer, of Philadelphia, and granddaughter of Hon. George Clymer, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independ- ence, as well as one of the framers of the Constitution of the United States. They had the following children : Mary, Giles, Blaisdell, Henry Clymer, Louisa, Francis Clymer, Edward, Jr., and Eliza.

The subject of this sketch, the youngest son, and next to the young- est child, was born in Towanda, this county, February 4, 1836; attended the public schools and was graduated in the Princeton Col- lege, in 1856, when he commenced reading law in the office of Judge Mercur. He received his attorney license in 1858, and at once opened an office. In 1861 Judge Mercur, who was county attorney, was elected president Judge, and the county commissioners thereupon appointed young Overton to fill the vacancy in the office of attorney. In 1867 he was appointed to the office of register in bankruptcy, for ten years filling this responsible and busy office with distinguished eminence, and it is told truthfully by his friends, that in all the busi- ness that came before him, he was in no case reversed by the superior court. He resigned his office in the bankrupt court when elected to Congress, in 1876, and at the end of his term was re-elected, serving four years. His career in the national halls of legislation was one of dis- tinguished purity and eminence, and as some evidence of this, in Mr. Blaine's "Twenty Years in Congress," Col. Overton is one of the five Pennsylvania Congressmen that he specially mentions. While there is no county in the Commonwealth that made a more brilliant record than Bradford in the Civil War, yet there is no name in the county more entitled to prominence and pre-eminence in our war records than that of Col. Overton.

When the war cloud burst, the young lawyer was deeply engaged in the duties of his office of county attorney, but without hesitation laid down his office and volunteered in the cause of his country, enlist- ing for a term of three years, in the Fiftieth P. V. I., and at its organ-

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

ization was elected major. The organization of the regiment was completed in September, 1861, B. C. Christ, colonel; Thomas Brenholtz, lieut .- colonel, and Edward Overton, major. No regiment in the war experienced harder or more field service than the Fiftieth, and it earned its cognomen of the "Old Reliable." On one occasion, at the battle of South Mountain, when Gen. Wilcox was sent to for two regi- ments to go to Gen. Cox who was severely pressed, he turned to Maj. Overton, in command of the regiment, and said: "Take the 'Old Reli- able' and go; that is as good as any two regiments," and, without the saying, the command neither on that nor any other occasion fell short of the extravagant expectations of them by the generals, under whose eyes they had met the enemy in the "thirty-eight battles," the modest history that was inscribed upon its banners at the close of the war, by order of the Secretary of War. Gen. Wilcox, referring to this circum- stance, under date of October 11, 1883, says: "On this day, Septem- ber 14 (1862), Major Overton in command of the regiment, * *

was performed the double feat of changing front under a heavy fire, and checking an incipient panic. This was done well and gallantly under the cool bravery and good management of Col. Christ, of the brigade, and Maj. Overton, of the regiment." Col. Christ was brevetted brigadier general, Lieut .- Col. Brenholtz was killed at Jackson, Miss., on Big Black River, July 16, 1863, and from that time Col. Overton was in command of the regiment. A curious error in our war history should be here corrected. In the battle of Nye river, near Spottsyl- vania, May 9, 1864, Gen. Christ's brigade and Col. Overton's com- mand were exposed, and certain regiments had been driven in con- fusion, when Col. Overton, with five companies, took the responsibility, and charged the advancing rebels, nearly 3,000 strong, and repulsed and scattered them, making considerable captures. Gen. Cutcheon, who, by accident, witnessed this remarkable feat, happened to see Capt. Schwenk, of one of Lient .- Col. Overton's companies, but did not notice the Lieut .- Colonel in command, and reported the charge as hav- ing been made by the captain. Gen. Wilcox, who had incorporated this error in his report, afterward wrote and corrected it, as far as he well could. He pronounced it a fine bayonet charge, and said it was the " peculiar glory of Maj. Overton and his little battalion of the Fiftieth."

Maj. Overton was made lieutenant-colonel, to date from the death of Col. Brenholtz. The command went West, and was in the Vicks- burg campaign, March 23, 1863. The department reports of the " Old Reliable," at the close of their service, being 125 killed, 450 wounded, of whom 150 died ; 134 in Southern prisons, of whom 56 died. In all this service Maj. Overton was but once wounded, and that, was at the battle of Antietam, September 17, 1862, where he received a gunshot wound in the leg. Returning to his home, he resumed at once the active practice of his profession, and as lawyer and politician has well demonstrated that peace hath her victories as renowned as war. In 1869 Edward Overton, Jr., and Miss Colette T. Rosseel were joined in the bands of wedlock ; she is a daughter of Rev. Joseph A. Rosseel, of the Presbyterian Church. The children of this marriage,

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History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 122

Author: Bradsby, H. C. (Henry C.) Publication date: 1891 Publisher: Chicago, S. B. Nelson Number of Pages: 1340

Author: Bradsby, H. C. (Henry C.)
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, S. B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1340