History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 58

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

USA > Pennsylvania > Bradford County > History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections > Part 58

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Judson Beeman says : "My father's family consisted of three sons and three daughters. We went there in the woods, without house or shelter. We moved into the Pool house, and stayed there the first year ; then we put up a board shanty, in which we lived the following summer, and the next year my father, who was a carpenter, built a framed house. The hardest part of the work was hauling the boards up the hill from Andrews' mill. My father lived here until he died, in

554

HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

August, 1830, at the age of seventy-six years. He, as well as my mother (whose maiden name was Grace), was buried on Lacy street. Seymour, my eldest brother, sold to Hollon, and moved away. Alfred, another brother, married Rachel, a daughter of Gerrit Smith, and lived on Lacey street. Gerrit Smith also went to New York, near Cayuga lake, and died there."

Silas F. Andrews, son and executor of Ebenezer Andrews, or Andrus, as the name is sometimes spelled, was the first to settle on the Sugar run, above the river. He came about 1792. His wife was a daughter of Isaac Hancock. His father was one of the original proprietors of certified Springfield, was a settler in it before the Revolutionary War, and died soon after the war closed. Under date of December 29, 1792, the orphans' court of Luzerne county issued to him letters of administration on his father's estate. He bought the lot on Sugar run first above the Ingram property, where he built a grist and saw mill at an early day ; the gristmill was but a small house of logs, with one run of stone ; the sawmill was of the same sort, very service- able, but small. Mr. Andrews was an active business man; he not only built the mills, opened a road from them to the river, but was engaged in various enterprises for the improvement of his neighborhood. Mr. Andrews moved away, up the river, about the year 1800, having sold to William Brindle, a Dutchman, who came from near Harrisburg. He kept up the Andrews' mills for three or four years, and then moved to the West branch, although his son kept the property for some years later, when Joseph Preston succeeded to the ownership. Among other early settlers we may name Joseph Ingham, who lived where Washington Ingham now lives.

By deed bearing date September 4, 1789, Jonas Ingham purchased of Isaac Benjamin the Connecticut title to lots Nos. 7 and 8 on the Springfield list, which are at the mouth of Sugar run, and the land now owned by J. W. Ingham. Joseph, the son of Jonas Ingham, took the property and began to make improvements, and built the mills, which, although they have been twice or three times rebuilt, were on nearly the same site as the ones now in use by Mr. Ingham.

Thomas Ingham, a son of Joseph, succeeded to the property, and then his son, J. Washington Ingham. The family and mill have been landmarks in this part of the country for more than fourscore years. A brother is J. W. Ingham, is the Hon. T. J. Ingham, president judge of the district composed of the counties of Wyoming and Sullivan.

Ephraim Marsh, came about the year 1799, and built a house about half-way between the river and Andrews' mill ; also Eliphalet Marsh, a brother of Ephraim, and son of Simeon Marsh, who was a hunter, and lived on the place owned by Hiram Horton. The Marshes sold to Ebenezer Horton, and moved first to Lime, or Vaughan hill, and then to the Allegheny. Ephraim was father of Sydney Marsh. Old " Bussy " Rosecrantz came up to tend mill for Joseph Ingham ; Gideon Baldwin, Jr., married his daughter Betsey. The Gilsons lived on the Horton place for a time ; Joseph Ellsworth married one of the daughters and moved into Pike township.

Previous to the Revolutionary War, Samuel Gordon, Thomas

555

HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

Wigton, and probably James Anderson had emigrated from Ballybay, in Monaghan, Ireland, and found homes in the Susquehanna valley. In 1799, Anderson returned to Ireland for his parents, and on coming back to America, in 1801, persuaded John Gamble, Jr., to come over with him, and in 1811 other members of the Gamble family,-which included John and his wife, Elizabeth Kennedy, and their sons James, William, Joseph and George, and John Morrow, who was a lad, the son of Nancy, a daughter of John Gamble, who married Mr. Morrow- sailed from Belfast, March 14, 1811. They first came on the farm owned by William Mittem and Charles Boyd, in Wyalusing township. Soon after John Gamble, the father, and his son James, bought land in Wilmot, on which the Gambles now live. Joseph Gamble, born September 8, 1791, still lives on a part of the property.

John Morrow, Sr., whose wife was Nancy Gamble, came soon after. He died October 24, 1837, at the age of sixty-seven years, and was buried on Lacey street. Nancy Morrow died April, 1860, aged eighty- four, and was laid beside her husband. John, Jr., bought the farm in the Bend, on which his son Francis G. lives. He married Sally Hor- ton. Hon. Paul de Morrow, president-judge, was her son.

James Gamble had married, in Ireland, Isabella Nesbit (born May, 1791; died July, 1868). William Nesbit, her brother, came over in 1826 or 1827. After being here for a year or two he sent for his father Nathaniel, and his brother Nathaniel. The father died in 1830, having been here a year and a half, at the age of seventy-six years. The Nesbits lived in a house on the place where Stephen Dodd lives. Nathaniel, Jr., was a man of venerable age and of unblemished charac- ter. From these beginnings the settlement of Ballibay, in Herrick, was commenced, all of the families there and in Wilmot being related either by blood or marriage. They came poor, but, by dint of great industry and economy, have cleared up farms, built good houses, educated their children, and are among the leading families in the county.

Stephen Preston, went to the Andrews' place about 1810, purchasing of Wm. Brindle, when the latter moved to Muncy. He died upon this place in 1827, aged sixty-five years. His wife survived him many years, but is now deceased, and both are buried at Wyalusing. John Gamble and his son James bought a tract in Wilmot, of 400 acres, of Thomas Keeney, where Joseph Gamble now lives Ignatius and Allen Wilson, father and son, came in after 1819. The Winslows came about the same time. Edward Winslow married a daughter of I. Wil- son. They were from Mehoopany. William Nesbit came in 1826, and the father, Nathaniel, a little later; they lived in a house near the pres- ent residence of Mr. Dodd.

There was an early burial-place near the log school-house, and a boy named Stranger, a brother of Robert, killed by a falling tree, was one of the first interments there.

Allen Keeney states that Nathan Beeman taught the first school in Wilmot, but Judson Beeman says that Simeon Rockwell (a half- brother of Timothy Beeman) taught school in Wilmot before Nathan or his father came to the country.

556

HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

CHAPTER LVII. WINDHAM TOWNSHIP.

O NE of the first settlers in Windham was Philo Brainerd. He came in 1801, bringing his family, consisting of wife, four sons, and one daughter, being induced to locate here from reports of the cheapness of the land, fertility of the soil, and advantages of water-power for the construction of mills. He first purchased a tract of land of Col. Hale, a Connecticut claimant, but the title proving worthless he lost the whole, after having built upon itthe mills which were afterward known as the Shoemaker's mills, afterward owned by some of the Judson family. He next purchased a section of State's land, 640 acres, which he divided among his sons, retaining the central portion for himself. He then made an opening on the right bank of the Wappa- sening, and built a log house near the hickory tree which is vet standing. He built a framed house in 1809 on the Four Corners, but the first framed house in the township was erected by Darius Brainerd, in 1808, on a little eminence some rods south of the creek. This house was burned in January, 1829.

Jephtha Brainerd was born at Chatham, Conn., in 1754. Although a farmer by occupation, in his younger days he served as sailor for a few years, and seven years in the struggle of the American Revolution, ending with being captured by the British and confined in a prison- ship. . In 1779 he. married Abigail Mack, who was born in East Haddam, Conn., in 1758. Their children were Darius, born October, 1780; Levi, born November 29, 1781; Drusilla, born August, 1783 ; Jephtha, Jr., born July 23, 1787 ; and Henry, born October 11, 1799.

Jephtha Brainerd was not only a kindly and social neighbor, a capital story-teller over his mug of cider, but a prominent man in the pioneer settlement, being often chosen to adjudicate disputes, and hav- ing served as a member of the Legislature. Darius Brainerd was drafted near the close of the last war with England, and went as far as Wilkes-Barre. He married Tamar Williamson, of Owego; his location was east of the forks at Windham Centre. He had quite a family, many of whom are still living in the county. Philo, his son, resides at Towanda. He died April 12, 1824, leaving a widow, one daughter and five sons. Jephtha Brainerd, Jr., married Betsey Smith, in 1810. He was an inveterate joker, and vet was appointed a justice of the peace, and licensed as a Methodist preacher. He removed to Illinois in 1837. Drusilla Brainerd was married to John Dunham, in 1808. They had two daughters and one son, John L., who inherited a portion of the Brainerd estate, the son receiving the old homestead, which he occupied until 1848, when he sold to P. Kuykendall, and moved to Sullivan county, Pa. The daughters are living still, in pros- perous circumstances. Drusilla died a widow, August 12, 1825. Levi

557

HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

Brainerd died September 25, 1817, and Henry Brainerd in April, 1824. Abigail (Mack) Brainerd died in 1837; her husband, Jephtha, lived to a good old age, and died July 3, 1825.

Daniel Doan moved into Windham in the fall of 1800. He lived in Windham Centre. His son, Seth, narrates that Thomas and John Fox were the only men there when his father came, they having come the preceding spring. The children of Daniel were Seth, Daniel, Jr., Joseph, Nathan, Reuben, Charles, Sally and Phoebe. Daniel Doan, Jr., married Sylvia, daughter of James Bostwick, of New York. Joseph Doan lived about three-fourths of a mile from the Centre, on the place now occupied by his youngest son, Joseph. He lived and died there.

Among the earliest settlers was Stephen Smith, who came about 1805, and settled where the widow Doan lives; he remained until 1817, when he sold to Joseph Webster. He was an old man, had been a captain in the Revolutionary War, and was the first settler on the place.

Gerard Smith, brother of Rensselaer and grandson of Capt. Stephen Smith, came in 1805 and settled on the Webster place, pur- chasing of Rensselaer Moon. He built two sawmills on the Wappasen- ing, at Madden's, the first in the township. There was also a grist- mill at the same location, contemporaneous with the mills above men- tioned. Gerard Smith sold to Joseph Webster. Rensselaer Smith, born in 1801, came in 1812. The Foxes, from Connecticut, had pre- ceded him, and were among the first settlers. Jonah Fox lived at the Johnsons' location, and his son, Thomas, lived where Jacob Reed for- merly kept tavern. Russell, another son, lived nearly opposite his father's place. The sons of Thomas Fox were Harry, Silas and George. They lived near the State line. . David Short, a preacher, with his father and brothers, Reuben and Abel, came about 1807, and located where the widow Doan resided.

Other early settlers were Lyman Winchester, who lived a little above Brainerd's, and was a great hunter; Nathan Spalding, from Rhode Island, who sold his possession to Daniel Doan, Sr., and moved into Warren ; Augustus Hulon, who lived where the creek crosses the road below Windham Centre, and who was connected with and always followed Capt. Smith in his migrations ; and Jonathan Pease, who took out a patent for a large tract of land, in behalf of the set- tlers, and then deeded off their respective lots to them. He died August 2, 1836, aged sixty-nine years. His wife died March 16, 1845, in her eightieth year.

Joseph Webster, in 1813, came from Connecticut and settled on the place occupied by George Smith, purchasing of Capt. Smith, Gerard Smith and Augustus Hulon. He died in 1830. At the time of his coming Edmund Russell was justice of the peace; Mr. Webster suc- ceeded him, and continued in office until his death. . Edmund Rus- sell and Parley Johnson (brothers-in-law of Mr. Webster), settled in Windham a year or two before him, and gave such a flattering de- scription of the county as to induce Mr. Webster to locate there. His business was largely lumbering. Nathan Doan married his widow, who still survives.

558

HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

John Bussell, with his family, came from Litchfield county, Conn., to Orwell, in 1800; after various changes he settled in Wind- ham, in 1817, where he bought a tract of land, upon which he lived until his death, in 1820, aged sixty-four years. . Edmund Russell, son of the above, lived in Windham, He died February 21, 1840, aged sixty-one. Of the other sons, Henry died in 1871, aged eighty- three years; John, Jr., moved to Wisconsin in 1819, and died there ; William lived next below Esquire William Russell, and died in 1858, aged sixty-four years; Samuel, born in 1784, died in 1832; Julius, born 1796, died in 1868; George W. lived in Windham until 1842, and subsequently went to Wisconsin. Of the daughters, Brazilla lived at or near Hartford, Pa .; Sarah was married to Col. Theron Darling, and lived in Orwell; Polly (Mary) was the wife successively of Mr. Anthony and James Bush, and resided in Windham. James Bush died February 17, 1861, aged eighty-two. Edmund Rus- sell was the first of the family to move into Windham. He built the stone tavern commonly called the " Stone Jug."

Parley Johnson, a blacksmith, came in 1809, and settled near Shoemaker's mill, on the Wappasening. . Amos Verbeck, an old pioneer, who lived on the State line, came, in 1804. from the Hudson river. He sold to Stephen Morey, and went to Wisconsin, with his children, in 1844. . Benjamin Shoemaker, a son of Daniel, and half-brother of Elijah, of Wyoming Valley, came from Northampton county and settled in Bradford as early as 1800. He purchased the gristmill since known as Shoemaker's, built by Jephtha Brainerd in 1790. It was a small log building, containing one run of stone, and was burnt in 1815. Another one was erected on its site.

Caleb Wright built the first sawmill and gristmill on the Wappa- sening. For a number of years logs were hauled to the mills near the river, where they were sawed, and the lumber run down the river in rafts. Wright's mill was built as early as 1812. The Dunhams owned the site. Seth Doan built a sawmill on the head-waters of the Wysox as early as 1848, on a lot bonght of Col. Kingsbury.

Benjamin Shoemaker kept a public-house from the time of his settlement until his death, and his wife kept it after his demise. It was a general stopping-place for the people down the river when going to Ithaca. Mr. Shoemaker married Eunice Shaw, of Cherry creek, Northampton county. She died in 1858, aged seventy-seven.

John S. Madden, a native of Ireland, on the Wappasening, is an enterprising citizen. At his place in Windham, about two miles below the center. are sawmill, gristmill, plaster-mill, a carding-mill and a tannery. . James Mapes sold his place to Benjamin Shoemaker.

Hesselgesser was an old hunter and squatter. He lived on the hill, on the farm of Samuel Shoemaker, purchased in 1815 by Mrs. Benjamin Shoemaker.

Tyle Sherman carried two bushels of wheat a distance of seven miles to Shoemaker's mills, and laid his load down but once. In 1802 the late Henry Russell, then seventeen years of age, was sent to mill, with Josiah Grant, to get two bushels of wheat ground. They traveled two hundred and sixty-two miles, over paths only indicated by

559

HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

blazed trees, to obtain the flour needed. At another time he took a small grist in a canoe from Nichols to Lackawanna (now Pittston), poling the canoe down and back, over two hundred miles. Such were the discouragements experienced by the early settlers.

In 1815 there were but two horses in the town. Lumbering was largely engaged in in the early days. At one time there were twelve sawmills.

Windham has one store. . Windham Centre has two stores, a blacksmith shop and a wagon shop. . Windham Summit has one church.

CHAPTER LVIII. WYALUSING TOWNSHIP-WYALUSING BOROUGH.

IN the cycles of time come the fleeting years, the fleeting tribes, nations and civilizations, and the great march taken up when the morning stars sang together goes on and on forever. Because the seed and its environment, of which come sprouting and growth, ripen- ing of other seed and decay of the bearing stem, are the eternal law of change and reproduction, is the chiefest cause of the historical interest that attaches to the gray traditions of the pre-historic peoples that once lived, flourished and passed away, and their changing prede- cessors, coming and going like the leaves of the poppy, until the cir- cling throng comes within the range of vision of the chronicler and historian, and give us the foundation-beams on which press the pres- ent great superstructure of our societies and civilizations. The ascend- ing rounds of the ladder it is that invests all the interest there is to past barbarisms, as they furnish the materials for the coming explorers, hunters and trappers, the conquerors of empire and the missionaries of the Church, that give the students of history and biology all their interests in the dim and uncertain past.

In this respect Wyalusing is the central point of interest in the northern tier of Pennsylvania. A little spot, Friedenshütten, about three miles square, figures pre-eminently in our Colonial history ; it is on the North branch of Pennsylvania's great river, the Susquehanna, and is a part of Bradford county and Wyalusing township, and even includes, resting upon its outer border, a part of the borough of Wya- lusing-connecting itself, as it closely does, with the Wyoming Valley, it gives our history its first important chapter. Here is a cove of fertile alluvium, one of the many that indent the shores of this curious river in its winding through the Appalachian mountains and highlands that cross the State from northeast to southwest-where is to be seen a peculiar condition of infrequent occurrence in nature-a great river with no valley proper of its own. The first the writer noticed of this strange formation was standing upon the summit of Vaughn hill, with the river hundreds of feet below the jutting wall, and looking out over

560

HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

one of the finest perspectives he ever beheld, up and down the river, that coils in and out like a silvery serpent; and away in the blue distance is Pool mountain, and still further is Mount Pisgah, one of the first points in the State to kiss the jocund morn. Here, it is plain to see, the river has simply forged its way, cutting here and there the rock walls of the points of hills, with no certain valley to point to its once wide shores.

One hundred and twenty-five years ago the pure and gentle Mora- vian, David Zeisberger, came, planting in the wilderness the cross of Christ and telling the simple children the transcendent story of the Redemption. On the beautiful cove at the mouth of Wyalusing creek had settled a clan of the tribe of Minsis Indians, under their chief, Poppanhauk. This, beautiful and fertile spot was on the line of the southern warpath of the powerful Iroquois, or Six Nations, in their southern marauds, and hence it had passed into traditions as the " beau- tiful but bloody ground." The Indians under Poppanhauk had come here after their chief had met the Moravians near Bethlehem, and had been most favorably impressed with them and their Christian teach- ings. They had fled from what is now Carbon county, in 1752, it is supposed, and took up their abode at the Wvalusing. In May, 1760, Christian Fredrick Post, of Bethlehem, going on a mission of danger to the Six Nations, came to the Wyalusing village and spent the night with the Indians. He was accompanied by John Hays, and describes the village as a "religious band of Indians on the east side of the river," and he estimated the place to consist of "twenty well-built Indian houses." At the request of the Indians Post tarried a day and preached to the villagers. This sermon, May 20, 1760, was the first church ser- vice in northern Pennsylvania, and, therefore, when David Zeisberger came as a missionary in 1763 the way had been prepared by Post, and he soon baptized Poppanhauk. John Woodman, an evangelist of the society of Friends, had visited the place a short time before the arrival of Zeisberger in 1763, and had preached to the Indians.

The Moravian Mission properly commenced at Wyalusing 1765, after the end of the Pontiac conspiracy, and the return of Pappanhauk with his people, who had been driven ont of the country, and had been in the barracks at Philadelphia. And the history of that missionary post, proper, is from May 9, 1765, to June 11, 1772. These peaceable and friendly Indians were first under the care of Moravians, and also were aided by the Colonial government. The site of their first village was at old Browntown, in more modern times the noted stage stand and most important place in the south part of the county, until the work of building the canal was completed, when what is the borough of Wyalusing commenced to grow, and Browntown slowly faded away. It was situated about five miles south of the present borough. The old Ira Brown farm is, no doubt. where the first Indian village was located. In 1776, it being resolved to select a more suitable place for their village, the "upper end of the flat" was agreed upon, and the village was moved, and upon this site stands the memorial monument of "old Friedenshutten, within plain view of Mrs. Judge Stalford's residence, and near the railroad track. This was made into regular streets, and thirty-five huts and cabins were moved from the old to the

561

HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

new village; and, with the others, was moved the church house, and set up in the center of the plat, " near an excellent spring," and a log dwelling was put up for the missionaries. In January, 1767, a new and more commodious church house was erected, of square timbers, 32x22, and covered with a shingle roof in 1768. And in that year they made the further improvement of sash and glass in the four win- dows; and in the following September, 1769, a belfry, in which was hung a bell. June 11, 1772, this bell was taken down and hung in the front part of Timothy's canoe, that headed the procession, and tolled so mournfully until the voyageurs. en route for the Allegheny country, rounded the point down the river which forever shut out from their view the " huts of peace." Thus we see it was the second town that was given the name of "Friedenshütten" (huts of peace). At the time of the abandonment of the place it had grown to fifty-two dwell- ings-thirty-nine log cabins and thirteen huts ; left as empty, silent sentinels in the wilderness. The fate of this deserted village is not precisely known. It was left to the care of Job Chillaway. The site is now part of the farm of the late Judge Levi P. Stalford. The troublous times of the Revolution swiftly followed the exodus ; in fact, that movement was but the forerunner of the coming war ; and, from accounts of Sullivan's expedition, we learn that a division of his army encamped on the village site, and then "there was not the appearance of a house to be seen, the old Moravian town having been destroyed- partly by the savages and partly by the whites, in the present war."

In this little Moravian church, the festivals of Easter, Pentecost, Christmas and Epiphany were celebrated after the Moravian custom. On Chrismas Eve of 1768, the chapel was finely illuminated, the picture of the Nativity being surrounded with fifty lights, for the first time furnished with burning tapers, and the whole people joined in the chorus : " Gelobet seist Du Jesus Christ, Dast Du Mensch geworden bist." On this occasion a strange scene was presented : Indians for many miles up and down the river had come, decked in all their barbaric splendors of skins, feathers, beads and paints, and, mute with wonder- ment, crowded about in that wondering silence characteristic of the wild children of the woods.

These religious Indians retained their native characteristics-the men hunting and the women planting, hoeing and harvesting the corn, beans and pumpkins ; in addition to planting on the Judge Stalford farm, they cultivated fertile patches on the creek, and on the island above the village, and on Sugar run. The women also cut and carried the winter supply of fuel ; often followed the men on the chase, and halted at designated points, which were the base of supplies; or, when required, repaired through the woods and over mountains, despite the weather, to distant hunting lodges, with venison or bear's meat that had been taken from the cache-the Indian's store house for future or summer use ; again in the later winter or early spring they were required to repair to the sugar camps and make the annual supply of maple sugar ; in the summer gathering flag and rush for mats, huckle- berries, pulling wild hemp for making bands, picking cranberries in the swamps, especially in Wilmot township, and ginseng and

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 58

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