History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 59

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.

wild potatoes ; they also cut the rank wild grass and made hay, and for this purpose they had to go seven miles up from Wyalusing to Mes- chasgunk (Flea-town), as there was not a sufficiency of grass nearer.

From the diary of the Moravians, who kept the Wyalusing mission, are take the following extracts :

" July 14, 1765 .- I gathered bark for covering my hut (Zeis- berger). . July 21 .- The entire nation of the Tutelars (but a handful of people) passed en route for Shamokin, to hunt. . Sept. 30 .-- This evening a wolf was killed in the town. . Jan. 2, 1766 .- The hunters brought in ten deer. . Jan. 18 .- The young men went out on a bear- hunt and returned on the 17th with seven. The meat was apportioned among the heads of families. . Sept. 23 .- Esther, with other sisters, went to gather ginseng. . Nov. 4 -Cornelius trapped two wolves near town of a pack that had been tearing calves. He secured the culprits by an ingenious piece of strategy, having suspended one of their slain victims from a tree, and immediately under the lure placed two rifles, with muzzles directed toward the only point of approach, in attempting to pass which a rope nicely adjusted, so as to control the triggers, would inevitably be disturbed and discharge the pieces."

In the diary for 1768 are the following :

" April 23 .- The Susquehanna rose and inundated the plantation. June 25 .- The Captain of Shamunk, the new town above Tioga, came to purchase corn. . August 22 .- Council set a bounty of two quarts of corn for every inhabitant on a wolf-scalp, payable to the fortunate hunter. . September 13 .- Set watches and kept fires burn- ing through the night, to guard against the depredations of wolves. September 14 .- Unroofed the church in order to build it higher by two rows of logs. . October 25 .- My wife and myself harvested potatoes. . November 21 .- Excessively cold weather and deep snow. . March 20, 1769 .- Twenty Nanticokes from Zeninge arrived. They report a scarcity of food, almost a famine up the river, and they bring the blankets and strouds which were apportioned among them at the last treaty, to barter away for corn. . July 16 .- Twenty families came up from Shamokin to procure corn. . July 20 .- Forty Indians from different points, all half famished, came for corn. July 23 .- Ten Cayugas came on the same errand. There is scarcity with us also, and the Indians eat but one meal a day. . January 16, 1770 .- The brethren felled trees and hewed logs for the proposed school- house. . March 26 .- Bro. Jungman was busy boiling maple-molasses. May 16 .- Took 1200 shad. . June 6 .- planted corn for the second time, the worms having destroyed the first planting entirely. June 16 .- There arrived two Mohawks, sent by the Six Nations, with a message and a belt to the New Englanders at Wyoming, to the effect that if they (the New Englanders) delayed evacuating the valley, they would come down and take them by the hair and shake them. October 12 .- My wife and myself bound buckwheat. December 20 .- The school closed for the term. The scholars have been punctual in their attendance, and have made commendable progress. Some write on slates, the younger ones on wooden tablets. . April 27, 1771 .- Daily we have a plentiful supply of pigeons."

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

From these faithful annalists of the ancient times we glean the following authentic history. June 10, 1772, thirty canoes were ready at the bank to convey the people away from their "huts of peace," never to return. Others were to go overland to Mercy creek, the first under Brother Roth and the other under Brother Ettwein. In their journals they speak of the movements of white men through Wyalusing and vicinity. There were no white men residing in the valley during the occupation of Friedenshutten by the missionaries. In one place they mention the fact that a white man, " an Irishman " was residing in Schechshiquanink (Sheshequin), this entry is dated December 5, 1768, and is again mentioned February 2, 1769. He assisted Jim and Sam Davis in conveying Missionary Roth's effects to Sheshequin when the latter was settled there at the dates given. Another man ( "an Irishman " again) is noticed as in Sheshequin, referred to December 20, 1770, spoken of by three Indians that passed through the Indian village. These Indians were police in the hunt of this man to arrest him, and they said he had stopped a short time in Sheshequin. Occasional visits are mentioned of traders passing through-a man named Anderson of Easton who made regular annual trips; another named Ogden, of Wyoming, whose trading house and dwelling were sacked and burned by the Connecticut men in April, 1770.

The causes of the exodus from Friedenshütten were first the evident coming trouble between the Yankees and Pennamites and the growing indications that John Pappanhauk's title to the lands assured to them would ultimately be involved, and second the action of Job Chillaway in securing a survey to himself of the land from Penn. Chillaway assured the Indians that he had acted thus, solely in their common interests, but this assurance was not satisfactory. The authorities at Bethlehem were offered lands in Ohio for these people, and they there- fore determined to abandon forever Friedenshütten.

The order for the survey at Wyalusing to Job Chillaway was made May 20, 1772, and the survey was made by John Lukens, surveyor general, September 16, 1773, and Chillaway's title confirmed as sur- veyed March 10, 1774, and his patent March 12, following, and is signed by Thomas and John Penn for six hundred and twenty-three acres, now the farms of the late Judge L. P. Stalford and Mr. Brown ; the boundary lines as follows : Beginning at the easterly side of the northeast branch of the Susquehanna, at the mouth of Wyalusing creek ; thence up along the side of said creek, one hundred and thirty- nine perches to a post ; thence by Benjamin Bear's land, south fifty- seven degrees east, one hundred and ninety-four perches to a marked white oak ; thence by vacant land south thirty-seven degrees east one hundred and forty-two perches to a marked pine, south sixty-eight degrees east, ninety-six perches to a marked pine and north sixty-seven degrees east one hundred and forty-two perches to a post; thence by. William Kinsley's land (spelled Kingsleys in the patent) south seventy degrees east, one hundred and forty perches to a marked buttonwood at the site of the northeast branch on Susquehanna aforesaid; thence up along the side of the said branch on the several courses thereof eight hundred and eight perches to the place of beginning. The tract

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

being a part of the " Manor of Pomfret " in the county of Northum- berland.

May 4, 1775, Job and Elizabeth Chillaway conveyed by deed this tract of land to Henry Pawling, great-grandfather of the late Judge Levi Pawling Stalford, in consideration of the sum of £784, sub- ject to a mortgage of £236 due parties in Philadelphia; and Pawling, by his will, dated August 29, 1792, conveyed a part of this land to his daughter, Catharine Stalford (spelled Stalmford), wife of Joseph Stalford. She was to locate her 275 acres according to her pleasure. The commissioners appointed to settle the titles in Springfield town- ship assigned the upper half of the Pawling tract to Connecticut claimants, leaving to the Stalford family, where it is now, the part actually occupied by the Indians.

The Moravian brothers of Bethlehem visited Wyalusing in 1870, and hunted out the grounds of Friedenshütten, and a memorial monn- ment was erected on the old village ground, standing in front of the late Judge Stalford's residence, and near the track of the Lehigh Valley Road. The dedicatory services of the monument were held June 14 and 15, 1871. It is of drab sandstone from near Pittston; the founda- tion stone is front Laceyville; total height of the structure is fifteen feet ; on the eastern face is the following: "This stone was erected on the 15th of June, in the year of Redemption 1871, by members of the Moravian Historical Society." There was present at the dedica- tion Bernhard Adam Grube, eighty years old, a grandson of Rev. Grube, who had been a teacher and adviser at old Friedenshütten, who told the audience interesting reminiscences of his grandfather who died at Bethlehem, March 20, 1808, aged ninety-three years. In the course of his remarks he pointed out a little girl, sitting at his side, Annie W. Lehman, whose great-grandfather, John Heckewelder, had followed the Indians of Friedenshütten into the western country casting his lot with theirs in the darkest days of the mission.

The Pawlings took possession of their land, and they brought as tenant, Isaac Hancock, who came in 1776, who soon had cleared a farm near the old Indian village site. It is a disputed question whether any white man remained in the valley during the War of the Revolution or not, and yet from the late Judge L. P. Stalford's notes is taken the statement that this man Hancock opened the first public-house and kept it from 1780 to 1795 ; and he farther states that he was the first justice of the peace; that he was here from 1766 to 1795, and that his daughter, born in 1777, was the first white child born in this vicinity.

It is well to here state that the Moravians are Protestants who came from Moravia, in the south of Bohemia, and in 1574 were expelled on account of religion. In 1627, at the council of Ostrorog, the Bohemian and Swiss churches were consolidated and took the name of "Church of the United Brethren." They are Episcopal in government, Calvanistic in doctrine, and noted for their missionary zeal ; they established themselves in Bethlehem, Pa., in 1742, and from there sent out their missionaries to the heathen in all lands.

Hon. L. P. Stalford, under date of November 6, 1867, wrote to

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

Hooker's Northern Tier-Gazette, of Troy, in reply to Mr. Hooker, giv- ing some incidents of the settlement of Wyalusing that he had heard his father relate, expressing regret that, in 1857, his books, papers and memoranda were burned with his house.

The whites came first to Wyalusing about the year 1776; Joseph Stalford leased the land to Isaac Hancock, who built near old " Frie- denshütten " church. The same year Nathan Kinsley settled on the same lot, and built his log house near the mouth of the creek. The same year, three brothers, Reuben, Amasa and Guy Welles, came and also built near the creek's mouth. These were of the family of C. F. Welles. In 1778 came Thomas Lewis, father of Justus Lewis, and settled down nearer the Indian village. These were all from Connect- icut, and claimed under the Susquehanna Company. Thus stood the Wyalusing settlement until 1778. In 1792, L. P. Stalford's grand- father, and his father, Benjamin Stalford, came and built their log house near the Indian village. Stalford found himself surrounded by adverse claimants, and finally compromised the whole and kept for himself 480 acres " as far up and down the river as the Indians had cultivated."

He relates the horrible tragedy that occurred in Nathan Kinsley's family : In the year 1778, just before or after the Wyoming massacre, a party of Indians traveling up the river, in passing Kinsley's house saw two boys in the dooryard grinding an ax ; an Indian fired and killed one of the boys, and they seized the other and carried him off. Poor, broken-hearted Kinsley spent the remainder of his life trying to find his boy, but could never hear of him. The Kinsley house stood, until very recently, covered and protected by C. F. Welles', a solemn memento of the pioneers. The whole settlement gathered and pur- sued the Indians and overhauled them in the western part of the township, where a sharp fight took place, in which one Indian was killed, and the Indians tomahawked a white woman captive.

The first tavern at Wyalusing was kept by Isaac Hancock, in a log house, of course, about one hundred rods from the Indian church. People traveled on horseback and in canoes, and the rush to the north gave this hostelry much patronage. The first frame house in the town- ship was built by Joseph Stalford in 1796-got the lumber from Tioga Point-on this roof were real feather-edged shingles and hand-wrought nails. . Samuel Gordon built the first gristmill in 1792-one-horse water power without bolt. In 1796 Joseph Town built a saw and grist mill. About the same time the people, four miles along Wyalusing creek, built a school-house. This was used by the Presbyterians for a number of years as a church.

In the period from 1820 to 1830 there were five stills in full opera- tion in the township; two taverns, of which one was kept in full blast by one of the church deacons, who sold liquor freely, and another prominent brother ran one of the distilleries.

The first church services, after the Moravian church was destroyed, was at the house of Widow Lucretia York, in 1785, on the old John Hollenback place. Services were held here until the Presbyterian Church was organized at her house in 1793-the first of the kind in the

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county, held under the direction of a man named Baldwin, his wife and Mrs. York constituting the total first membership. This organization afterward moved to Merryall and continued to the present. Joseph Stalford's first frame house was burned in July, 1851, and four men lost their lives in the conflagration. It is said that Hancock had a rope factory, using wild hemp to make strings, ropes and cords, in much demand by the Indians in packing.

Mrs. York was a daughter of Manassah Miner, of Connecticut, where she was born in February, 1730. Her husband was Amos York, who came here in 1773 and proved himself an ardent Whig. He was cap- tured by the Indians February 14, 1877, and taken to Canada through " the deep snow," in which he suffered incredible hardships, but was finally exchanged and reached his native place in Connecticut, where he died, leaving a widow and eight children, the youngest child being but three weeks old. Added to the horrors of their situation, they had been plundered by the Indians and were in the wilderness, surrounded only by the enemy. She took her family to Wyoming, and it was at the battle where her son-in-law, Capt. Aholiab Buch was killed, leav- ing a widow with a four-months'-old infant. This woman set out with the hegira with her eight children and orphan grandchild for Connec- ticut. In 1785 she returned to Wyalusing and remained till her death, which occurred October 30, 1818, when she was in her eighty-eighth year.

Nathan Kinsley, Justus Gaylord, Oliver Dodge, Thomas Lewis, Isaac Hancock and Gideon Baldwin were appointed by the court commission, in 1788, to lay out all necessary roads in Springfield township, the first regular roads opened in Wyalusing.

In 1771 Lieutenant James Welles, of Connecticut, came as a settler, and he became proprietor of one of the two townships surveyed by the Susquehanna company-Charlestown township. In 1775 Col. Plunket, under orders from Pennsylvania, with a force of armed men, broke up the settlement, burned the buildings, plundered their property and took the men as prisoners to jail. James Welles was the father of Reuben, Guy and Amasa Welles. Justus Gaylord was one of the men captured by Plunket, and was lodged in Sunbury jail. When released he returned to Wyalusing and lived where the railroad now crosses the line between the Welles and Stalford estates. Among those who fled to the forts for protection were Z. Marcy, E. Sanford, I. Thompson, Phelps the Elder, N. Depew and R. Carr. It is not known that any of these ever returned.

1780-1786 .- The valley of the North Branch originally formed a part of Northampton county, but subsequently it was set off to Northumberland, and in 1780 the township of Wyalusing was created. As then described it was bounded on the north and south by parallel lines running due east and west, the north line crossing at Standing Stone and the south line at the mouth of Meshoppen creek ; the eastern boundary being the east line of Susquehanna county, and its western line the limits of the headwaters of Towanda creek. The organization of the township did not take place until some time after the act creating. Luzerne county was erected September 25, 1786, and

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

Wyalusing was one of its eleven townships. The townships of the Susquehanna Company were never recognized by the Pennsylvania authorities as political divisions.

When the country had quieted from the effects of war, the old settlers in the valley about Wyalusing began to return. Among the first to arrive was Thomas Brown, who occupied a clearing on Sugar run creek, about half a mile from the river.

In 1791 Richard Vaughan was buried at Wyalusing. He was a native of New York, born in 1754, and came to Lackawanna with two brothers; he served in the Revolution, and was part of the time a quartermaster. All the Vaughan family, except the son Elias, left this country. He was commissioned postmaster in 1811, and retained the office a number of years. He removed to Vaughan Hill, where his posterity reside ; he married Sarah Abbott, March 6, 1807, and died in 1865, in his eighty-third year.

The next arrivals after Brown were the Kinsleys, Amos Ackley, Richard Bennett and Judah Benjamin, about 1782. These all clus- tered about what was known as Browntown, along a path which fol- lowed nearly the course of the old canal. By 1795 they began building up along the creek. Benjamin's house was nearly five miles from the mouth, and was near a place lately occupied by G. W. Jackson. He removed to Pike township. Ackley lived about sixty rods still further up, at the foot of the hill beside the old mill. He removed to Durell creek, and there are several of his descendants now there. Bennett built a small mill near where stands Bascom Taylor's barn. This small mill, perhaps the first-a small affair-is mentioned in a survey of 1890. It may be said to be the first mill in the county.

Isaac Hancock returned about 1785. It has been mentioned that his third daughter, Polly, was born here September 10, 1777-the second white child born in Wyalusing; Amos York's son, who died in infancy, being the first. Polly Hancock was married to Ezekiel Brown. Soon after Hancock's return he built his log tavern, nearly opposite the Sugar run ferry road ; here he dealt out entertainment to man and beast generously, together with New England rum and home-made whisky.

Ancient chronologists inform us that Justus Gaylord was one of the most prominent citizens of this part of the county, honored and respected by his neighbors, full of public spirit, and his good judgment was freely given for the promotion of the public weal. In 1806 he was placed on the Luzerne county ticket for the Assembly. The vote stood : Justus Gaylord 38; Justus Gaylord, Jr., 333 ; Moses Coolbaugh 364. He was beaten by this mistake of the voters, though really having a majority of the votes. Less than 400 votes, it will be seen, at that time elected, although the district embraced what is now Luzerne, Wyoming, Susquehanna and Bradford counties, except the Tioga district. The first school in Wyalusing was taught in Justus Gaylord's house, the teacher being Uriah Terry, the founder of Terrytown.

Joseph Elliott came in 1785, from his native place, Stonington, Conn., where he was born October 10, 1755. Elliott was captured at the battle of Wyoming, stripped and led to the "Bloody Rock" with

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

the other captives to be butchered. When six or seven men in the fated line had been murdered, one, Thomas Fuller, shook off his captors and sprang to escape, but was seized and tomahawked; while this attracted the attention of the Indians, Elliott and Hammond at the same time broke away and fled, Hammond to the mountain and Elliot to the river. Though hotly pursued he escaped, but was wounded in the shoulder by a ball when nearly across; secreting himself, he made his way in the dark to Wilkes-Barre to the fort. As soon as he recovered he again joined the army, and was in Sullivan's expedition ; he and John Carey were chosen as express between the army and Wyoming, and their service was arduous and heroic. In 1792 Elliott removed to Merryall. where he died March 29, 1849, the last survivor of the battle of Wyoming. He was twice married, his first wife being a daughter of Thomas Brown; after her death he married, October 17, 1787, a daughter of Thomas Lewis.

The " hard times" of those years, the poverty among a people who had endured all that borderers could suffer and live-their property destroyed, and fleeing for their lives from burned and desolated homes, it required brave hearts and willing hands to return and renew the bitter struggle for existence. Timothy Pickering passed up the Sus- quehanna in 1784, and he says: " We were under the necessity of pass- ing through the Wyoming settlements from Nescopeck to Tioga. The inhabitants, from the causes before mentioned (the Indian depreda- tions), were universally poor, and their stock of cattle small and inad- equate to the common purposes of husbandry. From Nescopeck to Tioga, a distance of one hundred and twenty miles, we tasted bread but once." For several years, corn, coarsely broken in their stump mortars, and venison, formed almost exclusively their only articles of diet. It must be borne in mind that the first settlements were on the low river flats. In the ice-floods of 1784 these grounds were covered with water, and in 1789 the river suddenly rose to a greater height than ever before known, causing much destruction of property. Hay in the stacks, corn in the shocks, and cattle on the meadows were all swept away, and the greatest suffering followed. This was the great "Pumpkin Freshet," so called from the number of pumpkins that were seen floating on the raging river.

Often the early history is found mostly in ancient church records. In 1793 the first Presbyterian Church, in the whole valley drained by the North branch of the Susquehanna, was formed in Wyalusing, there were thirteen members : Uriah Terry, Lucretia York, Justus Gaylord, Jr., and his wife Lucretia, Zachariah Price and Ruth his wife, Mary Lewis, Abigail Welles, Sarah Rockwell, Anna Camp, James Lake, Thomas Oviatt and Hannah Beckwith.

Mary Lewis, nee Turrell, was the wife of Thomas Lewis; they were married May 20, 1768, and came to Wyalusing in 1786 and built their cabin a few rods south of the borough, near the river. Here their son Justus was born, August 24, 1787. The wife, widow and mother died January 23, 1813. . Anna Camp, nee Oviatt, was born in Connecti- cut January 27, 1749, married Job Camp, February 22, 1773, and they came to Wyalusing in 1792; settling in Camptown, and there lived

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until his deathı, January 17, 1822; she died November 19, 1825. Abigail Welles, a sister of Mrs. Lewis, wife of Deacon Reuben Welles, was an early comer.

In 1794 ten persons were added to the church : Justus Gaylord and Elizabeth, his wife; John Taylor and wife, Deborah; Daniel Turrell and his wife, Temperance; M. Miner York, Bernetha Buck, Parshall Terry and Reuben Welles.

John Taylor was a native of Dauphin county, Pa., born January 7, 1770, and came to Wyalusing in 1793. On May 16, 1794, he was married to Deborah Buck, daughter of Capt. Aholiab Buck and grand- daughter of Mrs. Lucretia York. Deborah was born in Forty Fort, March 25, 1778. three months before the battle where her father was slain. She died September 26, 1856.

Rev. Manassah Miner York was the only son of Amos York, born in Stonington, Conn., in October, 1767. His father died when he was aged eleven years, and the lad had to face many hardships. He mar- ried Betsy Arnold, in 1792, and having studied for the ministry was licensed in 1809, in which year he became the stationed minister at Wyalusing, and continued here until 1818; he died in Wysox, January 2, 1830.

The additions to the church in 1795 were Deborah Horton, Uronia Stalford and Zeruah Lacey. The first, who was a daughter of Par- shall Terry, and wife of John Horton, came with her father to Terry- town in 1792, and died in May, 1844.

Nathan and Aden Stevens came in 1806, and settled several miles up the creek.

Thomas Lewis founded and named the once noted place in the township, now a mere cluster of farm houses, called Merryall. He came from Connecticut where he was born April 11, 1745 ; on May 20. 1768, he married Mary Turrell; he served in the Continental army under Washington, and was in the battle of Ticonderoga, and in the army invading Canada. In May, 1787, he came to Wyalusing. In 1788 he moved up the creek four miles, purchased Warrum Kinsley's land and named the settlement " Merryall," where he died in Febru- ary, 1810; he was the pioneer of the country up the creek. In the same boat that brought the Lewis family up the river, came Reuben, Amasa and Guy, sons of James Welles, and occupied the place held by their father previous to the Revolution.

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History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 59

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