History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 40

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

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Barclay branch of the Lehigh joins the main line at the east end of Towanda bridge, and runs southerly through the borough to its junc- tion with the Barclay Railroad.

State line and Sullivan branch of the Lehigh has its junction with the Barclay Railroad at Monroe Station, then southerly up the south branch of Towanda creek through Monroe and Albany township, entering Sullivan county one mile south of Laddsburg.

The Northern Central Railroad enters the county from the south. a short distance below Grover, passes through Canton, Minnequa, Cowley, Troy, and passes into New York a short distance north of Fassett.

The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western enters the State near the 59-mile stone, and runs westerly through the borough of Sayre and leaves the State, passing into New York near the 65-mile stone.

The Bradford County Agricultural Society was first organized in the spring of 1853, with the following officers: Gen. Darius Bullock, president ; Chauncey Frisbie. and Charles Wright, vice-presidents ; Edward Overton, corresponding secretary ; William Scott, recording secretary ; Henry Booth and Guy Watkins, assistant secretaries ; William Elwell, treasurer. Managers: Emanuel Guyer, G. F. Redington, Eli Baird, J. F. Means, W. C. Bogart, Joseph Towner, Jessie Brown, B. Laporte, E. W. Hale. The first annual fair was held at the court-house and on the Public Square, in Towanda, October 6 and 7, 1853, and proved a surprising success. The fairs in 1854, 1855 and 1856 were all held in the same place. During the fair of 1856 Hon. Horace Greeley delivered an address entitled " Science in Agri- culture." In 1858 no fair was held. In 1859 ground was leased just south of Towanda, and fairs were held thereon in 1859-60. The breaking out of the Rebellion disrupted the Society, and no fairs were again held until 1874, when the Society was reorganized, and a fair was held that year at the Rutty Driving Park, in North Towanda, as was also the fair in 1875. In 1876 the Society took possession of its present grounds, under a lease of five years, and in 1889 purchased the grounds.

Col. M. Laning was one of the early and prominent organizers, and for several years was president thereof. The officers for 1891 are as follows : R. H. Laning. president ; P. W. Morey, L. J. Culver, E. J. Ayres, Louis Piollet, Norman White, vice-presidents ; Wm. E. Lane, Towanda. Pa., secretary ; Wm. J. McCabe, corresponding secretary ; George W. Blackman, treasurer. Managers-Geo. A. Wood, Mercur ; Hugh McCabe, N. Rome; N. V. Weller, Athens; J. A. Decker, Towanda ; Myron Kingsley, Standing Stone; Frank Moore, Orwell ; E. J. Ayres, Macedonia; Louis Piollet, Wysox; J. O. Nichols, Mountain Lake. Executive Committee-R. H. Laning, president, ex-officio; Louis Piollet, Hugh McCabe, Myron Kingsley, Geo. A. Wood. Superintendents - Frank Moore, horses ; Geo. A. Wood, sheep and swine; Louis Piollet, cattle; J. O, Nichols, poultry; Hugh

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

McCabe, domestic and educational ; E. J. Ayres, farm and dairy ; N. V. Weller, machinery and mannfactures ; J. A. Decker, R. H. Laning, Myron Kingsley, entrance, exits and forage; Myron Kingsley, super- intendent of buildings and grounds.

CHAPTER XXIV. ALBANY TOWNSHIP.

T THE south line of this township rests on Sullivan county. The State line and Sullivan road pass through the township, follow- ing along the valley of the south branch of Towanda creek. The first settlers located on the Fowler branch of Towanda creek in 1800. They were: Ephraim Ladd and his sons, Horatio, Charles W. and John; Joseph Langford, Jonathan and Rodgers Fowler, brothers. In 1801 Sheffield Wilcox and his sons, Freeman, Rowland and Sheffield, Jr., Edward Warren, and a man named Granger came. Ephraim Ladd cleared the first spot in the township. Horatio Ladd settled near New Albany in 1805, up to which time there had never been a wagon up the creek. Charles W. Ladd built a stone house at New Albany in 1819. The same year Horatio Ladd and Daniel Miller built. Charles W. was the first postmaster at Albany, in 1820. Joseph Langford, after a short stay, loft the settlement.

. Sheffield Wilcox, Sr., improved the Amazi Heverly place in 1801. His children were: Andrew, Thomas, Louis, Freeman, Rowland, Eunice, Sheffield, Jr., Desire, Amy and Jeremiah. Capt. Brockaway owned the Connecticut title to the township. Joseph Priestly had the Pennsylvania title. There was but one house between the Fowlers' in Monroe, and Mr. Wilcox's place, which was John B. Sanders'. Mr. Granger, who came with the Ladds, settled on the top of Wilcox hill, cleared a piece of ground, went back for his family and died. His sons, Calvin and Dorus, came on, but after a year or two went back to Vermont.

Daniel Miller came in 1801, and located where his son Russell after- ward lived. John B. Hinman was one of the early settlers, a son of John Hinman, of Wysox. A sawmill was built on the place where he settled. He sold to Humphrey Goff in 1810 ; Goff sold to Freeman Wilcox.

Jonathan Frisbie came in 1803, and settled on a tract near the Eilenberger pond, building on the knoll just above the spring ... William Lee came in 1810, stopping with Jonathan Frisbie until he built his own cabin. He removed to Hibbard Hill in 1823 ... Amzi Kellogg came in 1812, and built a log-house south of the Wilcox tavern ; afterward he went farther south in the township ... Archelus Luce came and settled west of the turnpike, beyond Kendall's mills ... William Miller came in 1817, and improved the Stevens farm ... John

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

Forggerty came in 1819. His name was said to be William Bowlin ; he deserted from the English army and took his mother's maiden name ... John Nicholas came in 1819, and settled on the hill east of New Albany, on the George Lenox farm. Nicholas was a basket- maker ... Simeon Chaplain came in 1818, when a lad sixteen years of age, and worked on the Berwick turnpike. He afterward married Mr. Nicholas' daughter, and settled on the hill east of New Albany ... Peter Steriger came in 1824, and settled on the farm that became the Russel Miller farm ... Hugh Cavanaugh came in 1830. Previous to any of the settlements above named, the French had made several clearings, and put up several cabins. These were all in ruins when the Ladds and Wilcoxes came in 1801.

Henry Hibbard came in 1827, and settled at what became Hibbard- town; cleared a large farm, and built good buildings. . . . David Sabin, Silas Moon and James Allen were early settlers.

The first sawmill was built a little below Wilcox's Tavern, in 1820, by the Wilcoxes ; a sawmill is still on the same site. . . . Mr. Miller built one about the same time, where the old French mill stood. The heavy timber along the creek soon caused a number of sawmills to be built. . . . The old Berwick and Elmira turnpike road passed through this township, and was largely built through this locality by some of the settlers above named. This road was built through Albany town- ship in 1819-20. It was projected by those who owned large bodies of land, for the purpose of reaching them. The State had made a grant of 2872 acres of land to aid in its construction. The company forfeited their charter in 1847, and it became a public road. . . . Louisa Alden taught the first school in 1812.

New Albany Village is the most important point in the township, and is a shipping point on the railroad. Here are a postoffice, store, church, Odd Fellows' Hall, and about twenty-five buildings.

Laddsburg is a station on the railroad, and has a large sawmill.

Evergreen is a station four miles north of New Albany.

CHAPTER XXV.

ARMENIA TOWNSHIP-ALBA BOROUGH.

ATE in the afternoon, May 29, 1803, Alba became permanently settled," writes Dr. Irad Wilson, son of Noah Wilson. Noah Wilson came on horseback, in 1802, on an exploring expedition to where is now Alba, and the beautiful, pellucid stream that runs through the place suggested to him the name " Alba," and so it was christened. This lone horseman spent the summer at the place that had looked so enticing when he first beheld it, and he planted and raised the first crop of corn grown in that settlement; he made his clearing by

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

simply setting fire to a " windfall " at the base of Armenia mountain (which he also named), and after burning it over, planted his corn with a shoe hammer-the only farming implement he had. He raised about forty bushels of corn and stored it for his family next year. This corn was raised on the Watson-Freeman farm. Mr. Wilson cleared four acres and sowed it in wheat, within what is now Alba borough. During the summer he lived in his cabin, about "the size of a common bedstead," open at the end, and covered with bark ; his bed was hemlock boughs, and his horse blanket was all the bed-covering he had. A man named Linzey then lived on a farm that became the Allen Taylor place. In the fall Mr. Wilson returned to his old home in Vermont, and spent the winter there. He had purchased 3000 acres of the Susquehanna Company, the track includ- ing Alba borough and the surrounding country. He sold to Elisha Luther and Kilbourn Morley each a farm, and Luther came on with him the next year. When the titles failed Mr. Wilson refunded each what they had paid him, although he never recovered from the company a cent. David Palmer became the owner of Morley's pur- chase. In 1804 Jeremiah Smith and Samuel Rockwell came to Alba in sleighs, Smith settling on the Horace Welsh farm, and Rockwell coming to the ownership through his grandson, Jacob G. Rockwell. David Pratt came in the fall of 1804, and stopped on the Nelson Reynolds place; at the same time came Levi Morse, who stopped on the Perry Elliott farm. Mr. Wilson described Troy as he found it on his way with his family to Alba in 1803. Elihu Smead had a little log cabin with about an acre, cleared, and John Barber had his place, where is now the steam mill, and this was all there was of Troy. South of Troy they came to a small opening of Caleb Williams and Reuben Case-the latter was the homestead of Gen. Elihu Case- and then to the Sam Case clearing, afterward Edwin Williams's; then to Aaron Case's place, afterward Shepherd Spalding's and Dr. Reuben Rawley's, now William A. Thomas's. All these early set- tlers turned out and helped cut a road to Alba for the Wilson family. Irad Wilson remembers that the house was barely large enough for his mother and father to sleep in, and so be slept under the wagon, and the two men with them, by the side of the log where was a fire. The next day all hands fell to, and before night built a new house, and all slept in that royally. The one-legged bedstead was a forked stick driven into the ground, and poles laid from that to the cracks between the wall logs, and bark for a bed rope. In time a bass-wood floor was laid.

The first school in Alba was taught in 1806, by Martha Wilson, sister of Irad. The first child born in the place was a daughter of Noah Wilson, and she became Mrs. Chester Williams. She was born July 17, 1804. During this year Patty Luther, a child, died, and soon thereafter her mother, Cynthia Luther, died, and these deaths estab- lished the Alba burying ground. The first marriage was a double one, in 1807, by Nathaniel Allen, Esq., the parties being Robert Mckean and Martha Wilson, and the other was David Soaper to Polly Luther, both the brides being of Alba, and the grooms of Burlington, All

HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

were married in the woods in sleighs, where they had driven to be sure they were in Lycoming county, in order that the ceremony would be legal.

ALBA BOROUGH.

Alba is an incorporated borough, the principal place in the town- ship, which is covered by the Armenia mountains. There three of Irad Wilson's sons are living. Volney M. and Addison live in the borough. There are four general stores, one physician, a Disciple church and Miller & Bros.' large lumber business. Seeley Larned resides there-the noted horse trainer, and lover of that faithful animal, and who has done much for the improvement of the horse in western Bradford.

Though the country is quite broken in Armenia, yet there are farms reaching to the mountain tops.

CHAPTER XXVI.

ASYLUM TOWNSHIP.

STEPHEN DURELL located at the mouth of the creek since named S in his honor-Durell creek-in 1789 or 1790, and built a house and sawmill there. In the fall of 1787, Benjamin Ackla, Richard Benja- min and Amos Bennett came to what was afterward called Bennett's creek, and built some log houses. Amos Bennett came to Wyalusing as early, probably, as 1783-84, and lived there some five or six years. He built a little tub-mill at the falls, just below the road on Bennett's creek. The ruins of a sawmill now mark the site. He had a house on the flats below the present residence of William Storrs.

Richard Benjamin lived where H. L. Haight now lives. His chil- dren were Jonathan, John, Patty, Polly, Peter, David, Jesse, Sally, Hetty, Betsey, and Joshua, besides two who died in infancy. Jonathan married Leah, daughter of Benjamin Ackla, and lived on the Seeley hill, and died February 1, 1847, aged seventy-seven years. The prop- erty is now owned by William Storrs.

Deacon Reuben Wells and a Mr. Shaw came to the Gilbert place at an early day, and planted a piece of corn. They lived in a log house near the spring, a few rods below the residence of Richard Gilbert. Samuel Gilbert came about 1790 and lived a year or two at Kingston, and then moved to the farm now occupied by Richard Gilbert. Charles Homet emigrated from France to America in January, 1793, and set- tled in Asylum in 1796. He was one of the French families who remained in Bradford, and did not return, after the restoration, to his native land. He died December 29, 1838, in the seventieth year of his age. His wife, Theresa (Schillinger), preceded him January 3, 1823, aged sixty-three years. Mr. Homet married, for his second wife,

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

Cynthia Sickler, in 1827, by whom he had one daughter, the wife of E. T. Fox.

Anthony Vander Poel came about 1790, to Bradford county. He was the ancestor of the large family of that name now in Bradford. His first stopping-place was Aquaga, where he remained a year or two and then came to Durell creek, and from thence moved into the French settlement and engaged in the employ of that colony. He built a small log mill on Fowler creek, and lived there four or five years, but, being despoiled of the title to his land, removed to Wyalu- sing, and after a short time moved to the hill near Moody's pond, where he died, aged ninety-nine years, in the spring of 1838, and was buried on Ellis hill. . Isaac Wheeler came into Asylum along with Anthony Vander Poel. . Nicholas Johnson, a brother of Isaac Wheeler's wife, came some time between 1797 and 1800, but located at first at Towanda, where he lived for several years, and then settled in Asylum. . About two years after Nicholas Johnson came into the county his brother Richard also came, but never gained any permanent location, and, with his wife, is buried at Frenchtown. Richard Wheeler, a brother of Isaac Wheeler, also came about the time the Johnsons did, but returned to New York, and finally came back again, and died here. Ambrose Vincent, who married a sister of Mrs. Isaac Wheeler, came about 1804-6. Henry Cornelius married another sister of Mrs. Wheeler, was a Revolutionary pensioner, and came into the county soon after the Johnsons. He died on the moun- tain below Towanda, on a little farm he bought there.

Samuel Seeley was a Revolutionary soldier. He came to the Con- necticut grant before the war. After the war he came back to look after his family, but could not find them. Thinking they were killed or had died, he went back to Goshen, N. Y., from whence he originally came, where he married Miss Deborah Benjamin, a sister of Richard Benjamin, and in 1802 came to Wyalusing creek, where he lived a few years, and then removed to the Herrick place, where he remained some seventeen or eighteen years, then to where Keizer now lives, in 1827. In 1815 he built a sawmill near Myron Frisbies', but ere it was scarcely finished Hollenback served an ejectment on him, and he abandoned the place.

The Chilson family were early settlers in the town. Samuel and Albert were the heads of the family, but Albert, after two or three years, moved west. Samuel Chilson lived on the Ackla place, and died February, 1846, at the age of eighty-five years. Samuel Chilson (2d), Jehiel and Joel, nephews of the elder Samuel, came to the county about 1811; a brother, Asa, coming in 1809. Robert, George, Anson and William were also brothers. Robert came in 1814, and Anson soon after the War of 1812 had closed; he serving therein. Robert lived and died on the farm occupied by his son Benjamin, his death occurring about 1860. William came in 1813; removed to Smithfield, where he died. He lived with his brother Samuel, in Asylum, a num- ber of years. . Nathan Bailey, Harry Ellsworth, John Stringer and Joseph H. Ellis were all among the early settlers.

Macedonia .- Solomon Cole was probably the earliest settler in this

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

part of the township of Asylum, and came thereto first before the battle of Wyoming. His son, Samuel, was killed in that massacre, and he himself was also present there. Molly Cole's husband was also killed at the same time. Mr. Cole owned at one time all of the land lying in the bend of the river at this point. A son, Solomon, suc- ceeded to a part of the tract in or about 1796. Philip Fox, who mar- ried a sister of Solomon Cole (the second), was residing in this place when his brother-in-law came. Three brothers of Solomon also came : Elisha, Abishai and John. Abishai lived on the Kellum place, John lived near Solomon, and Elisha owned the farm where Warford resides. He subsequently removed to Towanda creek, a little below Monroeton, where Salisbury Cole now resides. Abishai and John moved out of the State. Solomon died on his farm and was buried in Macedonia. His children were : Samuel, Sally, Daniel, Benjamin, Solomon and John, who grew up to maturity. Samuel died in the town; Sally married a Mr. Richards and lives in Warren; Daniel owned the Bishop farms; Benjamin died in Genesee at his grandfather's. Rev. Elisha Cole, of Towanda creek, was a son of Samuel Cole. Moses Warford and Ben- jamin Coolbaugh were among the earliest settlers.

Sartile Holden came from Vermont. He had pursued an abscond- ing debtor into the State of New York, and, by taking lumber and staves, had secured his debt. These he attempted to run down the river (Susquehanna), but his raft lodged on Cole's island. He then removed his lumber to the shore, near Mr. Birney's, in Standing Stone, and, being a cooper, worked up his staves into barrels. While engaged on this job he became acquainted with the country, bought the tract on which he afterward lived, and moved his family here in 1802. His family consisted of four sons and three daughters.

Jabez Sill came into the town in 1816, with his son Jabez. He was at the battle of Wyoming, though but fourteen years old, and stood sentry at the fort during the fight. He died at his son's house (with whom he had lived since 1830) in July, 1838, aged seventy-five years.

Richard and Charles Townley were early residents of the town. They conveyed their interest in lands to M. de Noailles.

A " Macedonian Cry."-The name of Macedonia was given to the Cole settlement by reason of a sermon preached by Amos Akla, in which the words " Macedonia," "Macedonian cry," "Come over and help us," etc., were used very freely. The boys took up the phrases, and called the settlement Macedonia, a cognomen which has ever since clung to that part of the town.

Asylum was laid out on the Shoefelt flats nearly opposite Rum- merfield, in Asylum township; platted about 1794, and several improvements were placed on it in 1795 ; it contained about 2,000 acres in the bend in the river ; it was intended by the French refugees to found here a city, and at one time there were over fifty houses, a horse- mill, and a still ; a cemetery ground was laid out on what is now the Gordon property. Surveyer John A. Biles, of Homet's Ferry, has found among the old records a plot of the old town. The land is all now private property and cultivated.

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

CHAPTER XXVII.

ATHENS TOWNSHIP - ATHENS, SAYRE AND SOUTH WAVERLY BOROUGHS.

W HEN Ulster township was formed, it was supposed its northern line was the State line; hence, that being the most northerly, it was called the "Seventeenth township," the north line of which crossed the river east and west a short distance above "Mile Hill." But after the survey of the State line in 1786, it was found there was an interval of two or three miles between that line and the supposed north line of Ulster. Therefore, the township of Athens was surveyed the May following, and the north line of Ulster was removed to its present position, a little below where the two rivers meet, and this formed the "Eighteenth township," or Athens. Prior to that Tioga Point was supposed to be in Ulster township, and for years letters for this place were directed to Ulster postoffice. Col. John Jenkins surveyed the lines of the township in 1786. His notes describe it: "Beginning on the Tioga north, running five and one-half miles south ; then east five miles; then north five and one half miles ; then on the State line five miles. On each side are converging ranges of moun- tains, and along the base of each flow the two beautiful rivers, and then mingling their waters they go singing to the sea.

" There is not in the wide world a valley more sweet Than this vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet."

Prospect Hill and Spanish Hill present as delightful landscape views as ever greeted the eye of beholder.

Athens is the oldest platted village in northern Pennsylvania, that remains substantially as laid out by its founders. There were Indian and Missionary villages that were laid out in the early part of the last half of the eighteenth century, but these had a brief existence, or were so changed as to have lost all original identity. An ancient record, not all now legible, but mostly so, reads as follows: "Athens and Tioga Point, as laid out in 1786 by John Jenkins, under a grant to Prince Bryant and others, from the Conn .- Susquehanna Company, May 9, 1796; also Milltown, between said town and State line." A careful and accurate copy of the original town plat was made in 1886, by Z. F. Walker. This old town plat is historical, it is now one hundred and five years old, and on its margin is a complete list of the first proprietors or lot-holders, with some account of the chain of title in the earliest transfers thereof. The map is Athens township in its entirety, an exact square, and the system of water courses within its limits-the two rivers, " Great," or Susquehanna, and the "Tioga Branch " and their junction near the south line of the township; the location of " Queen Esther's village" on the west bank, just below the river junction, and on the map, is the information that the " Queen's village "

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

was " burned by Col. Hartley, September 28, 1778." It was claimed by Prince Bryant, Elisha Satterlee and their associates, fifty others, that theirs was the original grant from the Susquehanna Company, although there was a claim made of an earlier grant of August 28, 1775, to Asahel Budd, and others, to the " Point " as a part of Ulster. The map shows the location of Sullivan Fort-a triangle reaching from river to river, at the narrowest point in the peninsula, on the street leading to the bridge, giving a port face to the two rivers above and below, and at the point where the rivers came nearest together and about the center of the island in the Susquehanna river. This old fort site is now near the southern extremity of the built portion of Athens borough. In the first division of the old town plat, the lots are divided by a main street running nearly north and south, and fronting respectively on the two rivers, shortening and lengthening as the rivers approached or widened from each other-they passed below the fort a short distance. They numbered, commencing in the north line and west side, "No. 1," and continued on down to " No. 27," and then commencing on the south line, at "No. 28," they reached to "No, 53," when the remainder on the east side was made a burying ground; ground for a public square ran from river to river, and lay between lots 14 and 15 on the west side, and the corresponding ground between 40 and 41 on the east side was given for an academy, and known as " Academy Square." The following were the original village proprietors: John Franklin, John Jenkins, Elisha Satterlee, Prince Allen, William Slocum, Elisha Mathewson, Christopher Hurlburt, William Jenkins, John Swift, Reuben Cook, Abrain Nesbit, Nathaniel Cook, Benjamin Allen, Ira Stephens, Waterman Baldwin, John Hurlburt, Oliver Bige- low, William Jackways, Elijah Harding, William Jones, Nathan Cawrey, Uriah Stephens, Thomas McClure, Benjamin Gardner, Abra- ham Miller, Asahel Buck's heirs, Phineas Stephens, Mathias Hollen- back, Jonathan Burwell, Nathan Dennison, Joel Thomas, John O'Neal, Thomas Handy, Mason F. Alden, Solomon Bennett, Eldad Kellogg, Gideon Church, Benjamin Smith, Ethan Allen, Ebenezer Slocum, Thomas Baldwin, John Hagerman, Ishmael Bennett, Duane O. Patrick, Richard Halsted, and William Hyde.

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History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 40

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