History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 133

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

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

party. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he is one of the substantial business men of the community.

JOHN H. ROWE, farmer, Smithfield township, P. O. Ulster, born in Smithfield, this county, February 7, 1844, a son of William L. and Rhoda A. (Williams) Rowe, the former a native of New Jersey and the latter of Connecticut. The father came to this county in 1825, and was a journeyman shoemaker and a great traveler. The Will- iamses were among the first settlers in Smithfield. Mr. Rowe, who is the fifth in a family of ten children, was reared on his father's farm, and educated in the schools of the township. When he was seventeen years of age he enlisted in Company H, Fifty-seventh P. V. I., and was in the service over three years, in twenty-five hard-fought battles and numerous minor engagements. He was wounded twice, and was a prisoner four months in Belle Isle and Libby Prison; he is a pen- sioner and a member of the G. A. R. On May 10, 1868, Mr. Rowe married Ann Elizabeth Smith, of Smithfield, who was born September 1, 1848. They have had one child, Arthur M., born November 21, 1874. Mr. Rowe has been a successful man, and is now the owner of a fine, well-improved farm; he is a Republican in politics, and takes an active interest in the affairs of the party.

WILLIAM S. ROWE, mechanic, Orwell, was born in South Danby, N. Y., August 4, 1838, and is a son of John and Rebecca (Struble) Rowe, the former of whom was a native of New Haven, Conn., and the latter of Ithaca, N. Y., both of English origin. His father was born in 1794, a son of Robert Rowe, also a native of Connecticut ; of hisgrand- father's family, he has remembrance of four boys and two girls, of whom Ira and Henry lived their lives out in Connecticut, John (the father), came to Bradford and located in Rome, and Truman also came to Bradford, locating in Springfield township; of the girls, Jane remained in Connecticut, while Larinda came to Bradford, married Mr. Olmstead and located in Sayre. John Rowe, father of subject, was a farmer, and came here in 1840, buying the tract of land now owned by Frank Van Loon, but sold and removed to Sheshequin, where he died July 6, 1870. He was three times married, the first time to Rebecca Struble, by whom he had the following children : Ira and James, deceased ; Wealthy Ann, married to Daniel Eiklor ; Larinda, married to Ezra Chandler; Elizabeth, married to Hiram Morris, both deceased ; Sarah, married to Austin Russell ; William S .; Rebecca, deceased. His second wife was Lucinda Fletcher, by whom he had the following children : James F .; Catherine, married to Jesse Denmark. His third wife was Mrs. Abigail Jane Lines, widow of Harry Lines, of Connecticut, daughter of John and Margaret (Strope) Parks; by her first marriage she had the following children : Elizabeth M., Mrs. Rowe; Mary A., married to Albert Conklin, whom she survives; John M .; Elmira R., married to Dillis Bennett; Morris H. By her second marriage she had the following : twin daughters, Ada and Ida, married to List Chilson and James Lockabee, respectively ; Elashu W. and Frank Henry. The mother died when W. S. Rowe was four years old, and when thirteen he left his father's home and went to Peter Allen's; then to Harry Clark's, where he made his home until he

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

reached his majority. He received a common-school education, and worked on the farm. He began working at his trade of mason after reaching his majority, and soon became an expert at it, and has been doing extensive contract work on bridges, etc., during the past twelve years. Mr. Rowe was united in wedlock, November 8, 1855, with Elizabeth M. Lines, and has had a family of eight children, as follows : Mary A., born September 25, 1856, married to Landon Jackson, of Warren, Pa .; Leslie O., born July 12, 1858, died, aged seven ; Lottie J., born January 29, 1860, married to Charles W. Lines, of Connecticut ; Walter V., born December 15, 1862, married to Lizzie Middaugh, and resides in Orwell; Ida E., born November 19, 1864, died in infancy ; Leslie E., born March 27, 1866, and died at the age of four years ; Charles E., born February 16, 1868, died in his second year ; Francis W., born December 25, 1874, and is residing with his parents. The family worship at the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he is a Repub- lican. Mr. and Mrs. Rowe have lived in their present residence since 1859, where they enjoy the society of a large circle of friends and neighbors.

WALTER V. ROWE, mechanic, Orwell, was born in Orwell town- ship, this county, December 15, 1862, spent his boyhood there and attended the common schools, and the academy at Orwell Hill. When nineteen years of age he found employment in a music store at Owego, with John Thompson, and was there three years; then went to work with his father to learn the trade of a stone-mason, and has followed that occupation six years. The principal part of his work has been done on this side of the river, working mostly with his father, and assisting him on the public works in this county, but he sometimes takes work on his own account. On November 1, 1886, he married Lizzie, second child of William and Mary (Yetter) Middaugh, and to this union have been born three children ; Lottie, born August 26, 1887; Charles, born November 6, 1888, and Ethel, born August 26, 1890. Mr. Rowe has been for some time engaged in buying and shipping hay and buck- wheat. He is recognized as one of the thrifty and industrions men of the county; politically he is a Republican.

PROF. LINCOLN E. ROWLEY, principal of schools, Athens, is a native of Schoharie county, N. Y., a son of Alfred W. and Susan (Defandorf) Rowley, natives of New York State, the former of whom was a farmer and died in Schoharie county, N. Y., in February, 1887, in his sixty-sixth year; Susan Rowley died in 1867, in her forty-fifth year. Lincoln E. Rowley, who is the youngest in a family of six chil- dren, was graduated at Cazenovia Seminary, Madison county, N. Y., in the spring of 1884, and attended the Syracuse University two years. He was elected principal of the public and high schools of Sidney, N. Y., in the fall of 1886; he was elected principal of the Athens schools in 1889, and re-elected in 1890 and 1891. Prof. Rowley was united in marriage at Sidney, N. Y .. with Miss Martha Butler, a daughter of William and Catherine (Chawogo) Butler, natives of N. Y., and is the eldest in a family of three children. Prof. and Mrs. Rowley are mem- bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church; politically he is a Republican.

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

A. RUFF, superintendent for E. B. Stone & Company, Wyalusing, was born in Stroudsburg, Monroe Co., Pa., a son of Godfrey and Cath- erine (Posinger) Ruff. His father was born in Veternburg, Germany, and his mother in this State, her parents being natives of Germany; his parents reside in Wyalusing. Godfrey Ruff was a soldier in the Civil War, and is a pensioner. Their daughter, Clara, married Henry Smith, a hardware merchant of Wyalusing, and is deceased; Frank, the eldest of the family, died in 1891, at Wyalusing; Steward, brake- man on the Lehigh Valley Railroad, resides at Wyalusing. A. Ruff, the subject of this sketch, passed his boyhood in the vicinity of Strouds- burg, and until sixteen attended the schools of that city, then followed farming until 1880, when he came to Wyalusing, and shortly afterward entered the employ of Bosworth, Stone & Company, where he has, by close application to business, and careful watch over his employer's interest, climbed steadily toward the top, until he now fills the posi- tion of general superintendent. He was united in marriage, October 17, 1883, with Minnie R. Gaylord, daughter of Joseph and Lorinda H. (Jayne) Gaylord. This union has been blessed with four children : Charles S., born February 25, 1885; Anna L., born March 12, 1886; Joseph G., born January 8, 1888, and Emma, born November 25, 1889. Mr. Ruff is identified with the Democratic party; has held the various town and borough offices, and is now auditor. He has made his way without assistance, and has been very successful. He owns a beautiful home at the corner of Senate and Second streets, which be built in 1885.

DAVID M. RUNDELL, farmer, P. O. West Burlington, was born in Burlington, this county, October 21, 1851, a son of Lorenzo M. and Susan (Lane) Rundell, natives of Bradford county, the former of French origin, the latter of Irish. The father, who was a Methodist preacher many years, spent the latter part of his life on the farm, and died in 1880, at the age of sixty-three years; the mother, now aged sixty-six years, is living with her son. The grandfathers were both pioneers and preachers in the Methodist Church; the maternal grandfather died about 1831, at the age of sixty years. Mr. Rundell was married October 21, 1879, to Lettie Mckean, of West Burlington, who was born October 21, 1857, a daughter of Jesse B. and Mary (Van Dyke) McKean, farmers and natives of this county, of Scotch-Irish origin, the former of whom died January 10, 1891, at the age of seventy-four years ; the mother is living with her daughter at the age of seventy years. Grandfather Van Dyke was one of the pioneers of Towanda township. To Mr. and Mrs. Rundell have been born two children : Clare, born in 1881, and Bertha, born in 1885. The family reside on the old Mckean homestead, a fine farin of 145 acres, which Mr. Rundell owns as well as two other farms of sixty-five and eighty-three acres, respectively, also in Burlington township; dairying, sheep-raising and tobacco- growing are here carried on quite extensively ; the eighty-three-acre farm lies on the shore of the famous Mountain Lake on which Mr. Rundell contemplates opening a fine summer resort. He is a Repub- lican, and has been assessor and held other offices of public trust. The family are consistent and faithful members of the Methodist Episcopal

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

Church, of which he is a steward, and they are workers in the Sunday- school.

WILLIAM S. RUNDELL, farmer, P. O. Towanda, was born in Burlington township, this county, May 10, 1824, and is a son of David and Polly (Ensign) Rundell. David Rundell came to this State from France when a young man, and was a pioneer Protestant Methodist preacher, and was one of the founders of that church in America. He rode on horseback many thousands of miles over the mountains of Pennsylvania, and made the trip a great many times between his home and Philadelphia. He was at one time the owner of the Minnequa Springs farm, and at the time of his death had improved it and given it some of its reputation as a health resort. William S. Rundell is the youngest in a family of nine children ; he was married November 17, 1843, to Nancy, the eldest of the five children of Joshua and Polly (Gregg) Bailey, of French ancestry, born February 26, 1825, in the township in which she now resides. They have had ten children, four of whom are now living, as follows: Milton L., born April 15, 1846; Lorenzo B., born July 3, 1848; William A., born May 11, 1857; and Nancy A., born May 19, 1865, all of whom are married and prosperous. Mr. Rundell settled on his present farm forty one years ago, and has since lived here, an honorable and honored citizen, and a prosperous tiller of the soil. His farm is under a fine state of cultivation, while with his general farming he has combined that of tobacco and stock- raising. He is a member of the I. O. O. F., a Republican in politics, but independent in his voting, and has been a school director for seven- teen years.

ASA RUSSELL, farmer, P. O. Orwell, was born in Orwell town- ship, this county, December 25, 1853, and is a son of Burton and Sailie (Elsworth) Russell. His father was a son of Dan Russell, the first settler of Orwell township, who came from Vermont and settled on Wysox creek, in 1796. Burton Russell was born in Orwell township, September 8, 1806, and was married March 16, 1831. His family con- sisted of the following children: Mary A., born November 12, 1833, married to William Harrington; Helen M., born June 7, 1836, married to Amos Jillson; Dan E., born December 29, 1839, married to Matilda Maston ; Sophronia L., born May 21, 1842, died March 2, 1845; Mer- cur J., born November 8, 1844, married to Anna Statia Russell, November 9, 1869; Ralph L., born February 8, 1847, married to Mary Kennedy; Samuel C., born May 6, 1851, died July 26, 1868, and Asa. The father died in 1877, and the mother July 6, 1870. Burton Russell was reared on the old Russell homestead, which is now occupied by Stephen Russell, and, after reaching his majority, removed to the neighborhood where Asa now lives, and settled on a tract of the wil- derness, which he at once commenced to improve, and built the first frame house in that neighborhood, and owned about six hundred acres of land, and some of the buildings he erected are yet standing. He had to make a journey to Harrisburg on foot, to complete his title. He followed lumbering extensively, and made numerous trips on rafts down the Susquehanna river. Two of his sons, Ralph and Dan, served in the Union army. Asa passed his boyhood on the farm, and received

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

his education in the common school and at Orwell Hill Academy; when eighteen years old he commenced teaching, and taught three winters in Montour county, and two in Luzerne, then came home and has fol- lowed farming since. He now owns 110 acres of fine farm land, which he has improved by erecting comfortable and commodious farm build- ings, and has his farm well stocked. He was united in wedlock, July 4, 1876, with Sarah Hendershot, of Orwell, and to them have been born three children: Harry L., born November 15, 1883; Gertie, born July 26, 1887, and Mabel, born January 21, 1889.

Mercur J. Russell was born and reared on a farm, has successfully followed farming, and now owns eighty acres of highly improved land. He has a family of three children: Cora, Burton and John M. Both brothers are members of the K. of H., and are stanch Republicans in their politics.

CHARLES P. RUSSELL, farmer and stock-grower, of Windham township, P. O. Lix, is a native of Rome township, this county, born May 22, 1834, and is a son of Reuben and Sarah (Eiklor) Russell, of Pennsyl- vania and New York, respectively, and of remote Irish and German extraction. The father, who was a carpenter and a well-esteemed and good citizen, died in 1876; the mother survives. In their family were ten children, of whom Charles P. is the sixth. He was reared in the place of his nativity, and had access to the schools of the vicinity in a moderate way, but sufficient for a fair education in the rudiments of learning, and during his minority he learned the carpenter's trade in his father's shop. These were his only aids in starting in life for him- self. On August 5, 1862, he enlisted in the One Hundred and Forty- first Regiment, P. V. I., Company I. To name the command he was in tells the terrible story of war for all its members, a regiment that stands pre-eminent in the annals of that struggle. At the battle of Fredericksburg the first and second fingers of his right hand were taken off by a gunshot, and he had to go three days before he could secure a surgeon's attention; in the meantime lockjaw and death impended. Afterward he was attacked with typhoid fever, and also small-pox, and finally was discharged from the hospital and service and returned home. Mr. Russell was married in Sheshequin, to Mrs. Clotilda Chandler, daughter of Nathaniel and Catherine Courad, natives of New York. she being the second in a family of nine children. Her first husband was Allen Chandler, who died in the army, a soldier in Company D, Seventeenth Pennsylvania Cavalry, and when his regi- ment was captured on the Potomac he escaped, but from exposure he contracted a fatal sickness. He left one child, Linda J., wife of George Strope. Mr. and Mrs. Charles P. Russell have one child, Allen, who is a farmer. Our subject and wife live on the farm owned by the latter.

JUDGE C. S. RUSSELL is the leader in the insurance and real estate businesses in Towanda. He is a native of the county, having been born in Windham township, May 13, 1824. His parents, Julius and Eliza (Seymour) Russell, came from Connecticut, and were of the distinguished stock which has faced and subdued all obstacles and hardships in making the country what it now is. The grandfather, John Russell, following the westward current of his day, removed

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

West, in the year 1800, and settled in the town of Owego, Tioga Co., N. Y., but on account of continued sickness in his family returned to Connecticut in 1804. In 1814 he again turned his steps westward, and this time became a citizen of this county by purchasing a farm, and settled in Orwell township, bringing with him Julius (the sixth of seven sons), who was born in 1796, and was eighteen years of age when the family came to this county. The young man remained with his parents (to whom eight daughters were also born) until he was twenty-one, when he returned to the old home in Connecticut, where he learned a trade, and in 1823 was married to Eliza Seymour, who came with him to Bradford county, and to the small dwelling prepared for them in Windham township. They were diligent in work, as they had chosen it, careful in the management of the farm, and solicitous for the welfare of the children who came to brighten their home and assist their labors. The respect which they com manded at home widened in its circle of influence, and in 1842, by an almost spontaneous movement, the people elected Julius Russell to the office of register and recorder of the county. He had not long been installed in office when circumstances determined him to bring his son Chauncey, then eighteen years old, to Towanda, to make him clerk and, if competent, his deputy in office. The proposal was to the young man like thunder from the clear sky. His horizon of work had been bounded by the labors and duties of the farm, and any reason- able ambition might well be satisfied in the grand work of developing the new country. But the father had command of the situation, and with reluctance the young man left his first home and entered the register and recorder's office at the county seat. This was the first turning point of his life, for from that day he has been a citizen of Towanda. His father continued for a quarter of a century to watch the son's progress, and died in 1868, at the old farm home, full of years, and the respect of all who knew him, followed to his grave by a wide circle of friends.

The son progressed rapidly as deputy in his father's office, fully mastering the business, and by his suavity, promptness and diligence making himself acceptable to all. When his father's term of office had passed, he was tendered the place of deputy prothonotary, and was in this position from 1845 to 1848, when he was appointed clerk to the commissioners of the county, and continued in that office until 1851. He then left the court-house and engaged in the hardware trade in Towanda, with D. C. Hall as a partner, and soon had built an exten- sive trade. Closing out this establishment in 1858, he accepted the employ of the Farmers' Union Insurance Company, of Athens, and was its secretary and traveling agent two years. In 1860, in company with John A. Codding, he returned to the hardware business and, resuming at the old stand, and so remained until 1876. In 1873 he was nominated by the Democracy for the office of associate judge, and in the face of and adverse majority of 4,000 he was elected, the only Democrat on the ticket who did not suffer defeat. He was the last associate judge of Bradford county, and it will remain a part of the history of the county that his influence was manifest far more during

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his term than had ever been the case with any other associate judge in this portion of the State. He honestly believed that saloon licenses were not a public necessity, and, having the courage of his convictions, it is only necessary to say that the last two years of his incumbency of the judgeship Bradford was a "dry county," so far as saloons were concerned. Since 1876 he has been engaged in insurance and real estate, and conducts an extensive business. He filled the responsible position of burgess of Towanda eight successive years. As a business man, farmer, official both in county and borough, he has ever main- tained a high position of respectability and public confidence, possess- ing a moral courage that has never been questioned, and his honor as a man and official has never even been discussed.

Judge Russell was married in Wysox township, September 20, 1853, to Miss Mary P., daughter of Robert and Aurelia (Satterlee) Spalding, a great-granddaughter of Gen. Spalding of Revolutionary fame, and, on her mother's side of the line of Elisha Satterlee, one of the distinguished early pioneers. Judge and Mrs. Russell are mem- bers of the Universalist Church, of which he is secretary and trustee. He is a prominent Mason of the thirty-second degree, and is one of the oldest members of the fraternity in the county. He has likewise for many years filled official and foremost places in the Order of Odd Fellowship. He is a man of such broad and generous public spirit that he sacrificed a fortune of no small proportions trying to develop the manufacturing interests of the county, and then commenced again at the bottom of the ladder to toil and climb toward the top, and suc- cess crowned his efforts.

DANIEL E. RUSSELL, postmaster, Windham Centre, one of the prominent citizens of Windham township, was born in Orwell township, this county, December 29, 1839, a son of Burton and Sally (Ellsworth) Russell, natives of Bradford county. The Russells have always been agricultural people. The father died on his farm in 1877, having been preceded to the grave by his companion and helpmeet in 1872. Their family consisted of six children, of whom Daniel E. is the third in the order of birth. He spent his young life and grew to manhood on his father's farm in Orwell, was educated in the public schools, and com- menced life on his own account a farmer, and in time became the pos- sessor of 110 acres of farm land and a pleasant home, which, owing to wounds received in the army, he was compelled to sell on account of physical inability to attend to the same. He was married in Litchfield township to Nancy M., daughter of James R. and Thedotia (Merrill) Mastin, of New York and Pennsylvania, respectively. He enlisted in the army in 1864 in Company E, One Hundred and Seventy-ninth Reg- iment New York Infantry. He was in the Army of the Potomac in front of Petersburg. October 12, 1864, while assisting to mount a large cannon at Fort Welch, a shot from the enemy struck the fort, and the shock and fall that he received caused paralysis, from which he has but partially recovered. He was sent to the hospital at City Point, then to Alexandria, where he was discharged March 7, 1865. Cyrus Cook, an uncle, was obliged to take him home, and even when he bought his farm he had to be carried on a bed to see it.

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

JOSEPH P. RUSSELL, farmer and stock-grower, Windham township, P. O. North Orwell, is a native of Windham township, this county, born May 9, 1844, a son of Austin and Annes (Bates) Russell, natives of Pennsylvania and Connecticut, respectively, and of English stock, a family that followed agriculture. The father died in 1853 ; the mother is now living, at the age of seventy-eight. Their family consisted of eight children, of whom Joseph is the fourth. He grew to his majority in his native place, and worked on the farm in summer, attending school in winter. On June 20, 1862, he enlisted in the One Hundred and Ninth N. Y. V. I., Company K, and was sent at once to the Army of the Potomac; was in the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House, North Anna, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg, where he was taken prisoner, July 30, 1864, and was sent to Danville prison ; here he remained seven months, when he was taken out, Feb- ruary 22, 1865, and had the luxury of reposing one night in Libby Prison. He barely tipped the scales at sixty pounds, after being two weeks at home, prior to which he would probably have required apoth- ecary scales ; he was unable to walk when he came home, so crawled on his hands and knees into the house. When before Petersburg, he was standing with Edwin Wilber before a porthole, reading a paper, when a ball entered, grazing his scalp and killing Wilber instantly. On making a charge on the breastwork at Petersburg, twenty-nine of his company were killed, but three escaped, of whom he was one. Mr. Russell describes the dead on the ground after the battle as thick enough to walk on; and, in looking them over, he found his old and dear friend, Alexander Atherton. In the battle of the Wilderness, Mr. Russell's clothes were riddled by bullets; there were four holes shot in his hat, and his haversack was shot off, in consequence of which it cost him fifty cents to get water to cook his supper. His prison life, like that of many others of the poor fellows, he says, was " worse than any nightmare!" He saw an unfortunate German shot dead for daring to look out of a window. The prisoners had a daily allowance of one- pound rations, of the rankest quality, and more than one contrived to catch rats and mice, and eat them! Mr. Russell was united in marriage with Emelia Tanner, daughter of Henry D. and Olive E. Tanner, natives of New York, and of this marriage there are five children : Austin H., Elec, Lottie B., Hattie C. and Olive E. Henry D. Tanner, father of Mrs. Russell, was a native of Schoharie county, N. Y., born August 10, 1826, a son of George and Elizabeth (Ditchridge) Tanner; the family immigrated to this country immediately after the Revolu- tion ; the father died in 1868, and a few months thereafter the mother passed away in the State of Wisconsin ; in their family were six children, of whom Henry D. was next the youngest. He was reared in Susque- hanna and Bradford counties, and became a carpenter and joiner ; came to Bradford in 1832, and married Olive E. Towner, daughter of Joseph and Emily (Pratt) Towner; they had three children : Emelia (Mrs. Russell), Olin C. (married to Isabella Rickey), Hattie (died in 1879, aged twenty-four years; had married Stanley Pete, a dentist). Mr. Tanner was a worthy soldier in the State's emergency call to repel

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History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 133

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