History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 60

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

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Maj. Reuben Welles removed to Susquehanna county; Amasa went to Pike township in 1817, where he died in 1836, aged seventy-one years. Guy Welles was born in Connecticut in 1766. and in 1790 mar- ried Elizabeth Ross, daughter of Perrin Ross. Mr. Ross was killed at the battle of Wyoming. Guy Welles moved up Wyalusing creek where he died in 1828. He was elected justice of the peace for Brain- trim and Wyalusing in 1800, and held the office twenty-five years.

David Shoemaker and Thomas Wigton, brothers-in-law to Maj. Gaylord, were among the early settlers. It is said Wigton was here before the war; he was a school teacher and one of the original pro- prietors of Springfield township.

It has been mentioned that Uriah Terry taught the first school in

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the house of Maj. Gaylord in the winter of 1792-93. The next spring a log school-house was built near where the Presbyterian church stands, the first building of the kind in the township; it was burned, and another built of hewed logs; it stood in front of the cemetery. In that school the "master" was paid by the parents at the rate of a bushel of corn to a bushel of wheat per quarter.

Benjamin Ackley, the first blacksmith, came in 1791 and built his log house where Elisha Lewis' house stands. His wife was Nancy Maxfield, to whom he was married in 1780; after her death he married Amy, daughter of Thomas Lewis; he was commissioned a justice in 1813, when the county was formed; he died in Wyalusing in 1855. He had a large family of children, as did also his neighbors, four families : John Hollenback, Maj. Taylor, Mr. Buck and Mr. Ackley, all within a square mile, and, collectively, they had upward of sixty children.

The Stalfords came in 1792, and in a few months this family and lineal descendants will have been one hundred years on the same farm, where now reside Mrs. Levi P. Stalford and daughter. Joseph Stal- ford's wife was Catharine Pawling, and to them were born three sons and one daughter. Of these, Benjamin Stafford, was the late Hon. Levi P. Stalford's father, and in the possession of the family are two-thirds of the original Stalford farm, the title of which came through the Indian, Job Chilloway. Joseph Stalford was a son of Samuel Stalford, of Tipperary, Ireland, where Joseph was born.

He immigrated to this country when quite young, and in Philadelphia married Elizabeth Richardson ; then went to Montgomery county, and thence to Wyalusing. In 1795 Joseph Stalford had the highest val- uation of any man in the township. Judge Levi P. Stalford, son of Benjamin and Urania (Turrell) Stalford, was born in Wyalusing April 11, 1811. Benjamin died in 1841. Levi P. Stalford was elected a justice in 1847, and associate judge of the county in 1863; in 1842 he married Mary Rebecca O'Callaghan, of New York, born October 16, 1818, who, surviving her husband, with her daughter occupies the old family homestead. Mrs. Hannah Loomis (widow of Lieut. James Wells) died at the Merryall settlement in 1795, and while she lay a corpse the neighbors cleared off a place for the grave, and this was the first of the Merryall burying-ground.

A bridge was built across Wyalusing creek at Camptown in 1799, but, before entirely completed, it was carried away by the flood of 1800. In 1803 John Dalton murdered Amos Hurlbut on the low ground Where Hiram Stevens lived-the first capital offense in what is now Bradford county. He was tried at Wilkes-Barre and sentenced to the penitentiary for a term of eighteen years, but was pardoned out in 1808.

Job Camp, who came in 1792, planted a crop of corn, and next year brought his family. The only way they could reach this place was to follow the one road from Connecticut to Pittson, and then push up the river. The cart and younger members of the family and small belong- ings were placed on a keel boat, and two men hired to push it up the river ; to pay them took all of Mr. Camp's crop of corn. In order to get the oxen up the narrow path to Wyalusing they were unyoked and

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in single file driven along the narrow Indian trail-passing many dan- gerous places on the tall cliffs. This terrible rugged path was the only highway to Wilkes-Barre, fifty miles away, and where the inhabitants must go for all necessary supplies, either over this path or by river.

As stated, Samnel Gordon built his mill, near where is the Lewis mill, in 1793. For this mill-the Connecticut Company having offered any one who would build the first mill a township of land-Mr. Gor- don was given Walsingham township, but, this title having failed, the mill property was lost.

Joseph C. Town, a carpenter, built a sawmill on the creek near Aaron Culver's, and soon after Grover's gristmill was put up. The people now began to feel they were having all the luxuries of life. In 1798 he added a gristmill, and for the first time this mill had a bolt, and people began to disdain the husks, and feed on poundcake. The freshet of 1800-1, however, swept this all away, and all the sections of country far around felt the awful calamity.

What traveling was, originally, when this country all lay in a state of nature, may be imagined to some extent when we describe the nature of the roads and highways in 1795, after the people had trav- eled over them and fixed them as best they could. Duke Rochefou- cauld, in May, 1795, passed up the river, and of this subject he wrote: "The road was bad, and we were several times obliged to travel in foot-paths which were hardly passable. We frequently met with quar- ries of mill-stones, and with spots where a path only eighteen inches in breadth was cut through the rock, or where the road was supported by trunks of trees, narrowed by falls of earth, obstructed by fallen trees, and led along the ledge of a precipice. . At times the road is even and good, often recently cut through the wood, or interrupted by new settlements (clearings), the fences of which occasion a circuit of nearly a furlong, at the end of which it is difficult to find the road again. We often passed over declivities, rendered more dangerous by the ground being strewed with loose stones or fragments of rocks. Fortunately, it so happened that we never got more than a few rods out of our road, but we were obliged to inquire of every one we met to avoid more considerable detention."

At this time there were scattered along the river from Browntown to Fairbanks probably forty-five or fifty families-and up Wyalusing creek-each a distance of about six miles. To these were that year assessed about eight thousand acres of land, one-fifth of which it is estimated was even rudely cultivated. Forests of great trees and dense undergrowth, for which there was no market for timber, con- fronted on every hand the pioneer, as he stood, ax in hand, in the great valley, now the happy homes of its teeming population. Round log floorless huts, with one little room, regardless of numbers, sex or pre- vious conditions were the sum total of the architecture of the primitive land. The fat soil of the valley sent forth its strong and tangled veg- etable life, as though to defy man's strongest hands and stoutest hearts. After twenty-five years of sore struggles, stricken despair and bloody deaths, the men in the serried ranks of war, the poor women and children in the dead of winter, flying across rivers, hills, mountains,

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

through a trackless wilderness, starving, dying, bivouacing the dreary days and weeks beneath the cold stars, where babes were prematurely born, and where the little weak wails were hushed in death often, and their little cold bodies carried in the mother's arms for many days to reach a place of even safe sepulture, are but glints of the awful experi- ences that encompassed these people.

When Rochefoucauld traveled through the county, he mentions Wyalusing and Asylum as the only settlements from Wilkes-Barre to Tioga Point (Athens).

' The list of taxables in 1795 was as follows; Benjamin Ackley, Sherman Buck, Gideon Baldwin, Daniel Brown, Humphrey Brown, Richard Baldwin, Stephen Beckwith, Benjamin Crawford, Dr. Jabez Chamberlain, Job Camp, William Dalton, Samuel Gordon, James Gordon, Justus Gaylord, Jr., James Hines, Mathias Hollenback (lived at Wilkes-Barre), Isaac Hancock, Nathan Kinsley, Warrum Kinsley, David Lake, Robert Lattimore, Thomas Lewis, Thomas Oviatt, John Ogden, Philip Place, Reuben Place, Zachariah Price, Israel Shear, John Shoemaker, David Shoemaker, Thomas Smiley, Joseph Stalford, John Taylor, Joseph C. Town, Amasa Welles, Guy Welles, Reuben Welles, Nathan Winton and Miner York. This assessment covered the whole of the original township. The total was nineteen horses, eighty six horned cattle and seven slaves; real estate and personal property valued at $10,291.

In 1797 John Hollenback established a shad fishery at Wyalusing, the first in this section of the country. . This brings us to the time in the history of the valley when Col. John Franklin's scheme to estab- lish a new State, carved out of this portion of Pennsylvania, collapsed, and the clouds lowered darkly over the Connecticut settlers; immigra- tion from that region, where practically nearly all immigrants formerly came from, ceased nearly entirely and the gloomy years set in that are fully described in a previous chapter, entitled " Seventeen Townships."

Fairbanks Settlement .- In 1798 Humphrey Brown surveyed a town plat of two or three acres and christened it "Fairbanks." The story of the settlement is something as follows: Benjamin Crawford was the first settler in that vicinity, in 1789, and built near where is the railroad cut. In 1793 he moved to the Jabez Chamberlain farm, where he built a cabin, and the next spring, while chopping, a tree fell on him and broke his leg. Mr. Crawford died here in June, 1804. and was buried at Terrytown, across the river. The next farm above Crawford's was that of Nathan Winton, who sold to Hum- phrey Brown. The particular place where " Fairbanks" was located is described as " lying between Justus Gaylord and Benjamin Craw- ford." The original town consisted of a small log hiut. Settled just above this place were the children of Gaylord and their families-Mrs. Wigton, Mrs. Shoemaker, Timothy and Chauncey Gaylord. These all sold their claims to Charles Homet, and most of them left the county. Gilbert, Daniel and Hezekiah Merritt, brothers, and relatives by mar- riage of the Strunks and Biles families, came about 1825. Simeon Marslı made the first improvement on Vaughan hill, at the Indian spring, at the head of the run which empties at the railroad tank, near

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

Fitzgerald's. He sold his improvement to Stephen Charlott, who in 1815 exchanged property with Elias Vaughan and went to Rummer- field.

In 1801 John Hollenback came to Wyalusing and opened his store -the marvel of the time, as he brought 2,400 pounds of goods from Philadelphia in wagons to Middletown, and then on boats and pushed up the river. He had. been engaged for his uncle, Mathias Hollenback, in trade along the river since 1796.

In 1801 Wyalusing held its first "Fourth of July " celebration. The inspiration thereto chiefly was because it was the year of Jeffer- son's first inauguration as president-the first Republican-Democrat elected. John Hollenback presided at the meeting, and Jonas Ingham delivered a spirited address, devoted mostly to the " Disputed Land Titles," in which he ably defended the Connecticut claimants. Uriah Terry prepared and read an ode on the death of Washington. . In 1821 John Hollenback built his gristmill at the mouth of the creek.

Charles F. Welles was one of the prominent men of Wyalusing at the time of the organization of Bradford county. He was a son of the noted George Welles, of Athens. Charles F. was a native of Glastonbury, Conn., born November 5, 1789; he married Ellen J., daughter of Judge John Hollenback, and came to Wyalusing in 1822, where he died September 23, 1866. He was a man of the highest character-the first prothonotary of Bradford county, a man of wide and varied knowledge-a scholar and poet. A man of liberal enter- prise, he was of incomparable value to the young county. His influ- ence, on the completion of the canal, secured the building of the canal basin at Wyalnsing, on which he put up his large warehouse and coal bins, and thus contributed so much to the trade and prosperity of the place. His splendid old family residence stands as a landmark, occu- pied by his son. Widow C. F. Welles died in 1876, at an advanced age.

Jonathan Stevens came to Wyalusing in 1805, and soon opened a small store and tavern near where is the Welles residence. The Stevens family were English, and were driven from England for taking part in the revolution that resulted in taking off the head of Charles I. Asa Stevens was father of Jonathan ; he was a native of Connecticut, and among the first immigrants to the Wyoming country; he was a lieutenant, and was killed in the Wyoming battle. Jonathan was his second son, born at Canterbury in July, 1764; he was sixteen when he enlisted in the Revolutionary army ; he married Eleanor Adams, of Brooklyn, in October, 1785; he was a tailor, and came to this vicinity in 1795, and in 1805 to Wyalusing, where he remained until 1812, and then to Standing Stone, where he died in June, 1850. He was one of the first justices, appointed in 1800; in 1811 he was elected to the State Legislature ; in 1818 he was appointed associate county judge, and was in office until 1840, when it was changed by the new consti- tution ; was many years a deputy and county surveyor, and surveyed every foot of ground for many miles around Wyalusing.

This brings us to the period that marks the first great change in this part of Bradford county-the canal era, which commenced to excite public attention as early as 1826. The second wave of coming immi-

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

grants marked this as an era. The two-horse coach and its daily trips from Wilkes-Barre to Athens or Waverly had grown to be a great institution. One of the last to drive on the daily route from Towanda to Waverly was Jim Smith, a resident of Wyalusing, who was born near old Browntown. He once drove from Browntown to Towanda, but moved up as the canal was built and drove the last through trip, and mournfully witnessed his favorite yield to the proud ship of the raging canal. The strong men along the line were alert to induce the building of locks, basins and towns adapted to their individual benefit as well as the public's. It was individual influence, no doubt, that fixed upon what is now the borough of Wyalusing-that was the knell to old Browntown and Fairbanks. Before the canal was com- pleted it was understood that here was to be an important point, and the village was platted and lots were purchased, and the founding of a town was soon well under way.

Camptown is the next town to Wyalusing borough of importance in the township. It is a cluster of houses and, as a business center for the surrounding country, has gathered quite a number of people, and remains an important point. They have a postoffice; two general stores ; a furniture factory that does an important trade, started about 1840; a creamery that was started in 1889; one harness shop, and two blacksmith shops. C. H. Amsbry, some years ago, operated a woolen mill near Camptown. It was originally built by John Hollenback, and in its prosperous days was one of the most important industries in the county. In 1840 John Ingham built here a spoke factory, and this and the sawmill, planing-mill and woolen-mill were all operated to their full capacity, getting their driving power from the Wyalusing creek, that here affords splendid water privileges. The gristmill at this place is an excellent one, and is provided with the modern roller process. It is now operated by J. E. Adams & Son.

Homet's Ferry .- A postoffice and general store is the sum total of the "make-up" of this place.

Churches .- The early doings of the church people of Wyalusing is given in the first part of this chapter. There are now in the borough three churches. The Second Presbyterian Church (Rev. David Craft's church) at this time is without a pastor, Mr. Craft having accepted a call in an adjoining county. This Society was organized in 1854, and was the Second because the old church at Merryall was the First. Rev. John White was the stated supply until 1857. The building was erected in 1855. Rev. Thomas S. Dewing succeeded White, and remained until 1861, when Rev. David Craft came and remained until Mav, 1891. The latter became the regular pastor in 1866.

The first church building at Merryall was put up in 1828 by con- tractor Justus Lewis; it was not completed and dedicated until 1831, and Rev. Simon R. Jones became stated preacher; it was this year that the congregation at a full meeting resolved to leave the Congre- gational service to again become Presbyterians. Thus, after a lapse of nearly twenty-five years, Presbyterianism was again established in this valley. In 1836 these earnest Christians were torn and troubled over the slavery question. There never had been many slaves or slave-

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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

owners in this county, and yet thus carly do we see that the question of abolishing slavery was greatly disturbing the good people of Wyalu- sing. The preacher, Rev. George Printz, deprecated the discussion of the subject in the church. The congregation was rent into furious factions ; obstreperous members were arraigned and tried, and the furies were loosened, and finally the anti-slavery portion of the congregation secured letters of dismission in 1842, for the purpose of forming a new Presbyterian Church. Their whereas boldly said : " We believe that truth is in order to godliness, and the Scriptures say 'first pure and then peaceable.'"

In 1844 a parsonage was built at Merryall. This improvement was made under the ministration of Rev. S. F. Colt, who served the church with marked success about ten years. When he took charge the con- gregation was scattered over a wide range of country, and he adopted the idea of placing a new organization in each locality where there were living a number of members, and thus making it more convenient for all. The result of his labors in this direction resulted in laying the foundations of the churches at Herrick, Stevensville, Rush, and Wyalusing (2d).

The Old-School Baptist Church on Vaughan hill, was once a flour- ishing institution-never very numerous, but the members, far and near braved all wind and weather, and their "meetings," whether many or few were present, were real religious and social events. It was organized in the early " forties," and among a primitive and pioneer people gave that fullest measure of consolation. Of late years it has been somewhat neglected.

The Methodist Episcopal Church at Camptown, and the church at Wyalusing are served by Rev. J. B. Davis, of Camptown. They have a flourishing Baptist Church at Camptown, presided over by Rev. Franklin Pearce.

Industries .- Geo. H. Welles' gristmill was built in 1820, and an addition added in 1869. The mill has the new roller process, and has a capacity of fifty barrels a day. It is furnished with water-power from Wyalusing creek. . I. C. Fuller's steam planing mill, put up in 1870, manufactures all sorts of building material.

Wyalusing has two general stores, one drug store, one clothing store, one furniture store, two grocery stores, one bakery, one hard- ware store, two meat markets, one jeweler, two hotels, three black- smiths, two wagon shops, one gristmill.

WYALUSING BOROUGH.

Wyalusing had long been the most important village between Tioga Point and Wilkes-Barre, and had, for some years, contained the requisite population for organization as a borough. The leading people, however, were conservative, and it was not until 1887 that they consented to clothe the place with the dignity and authority of incorporation. A special election on the subject was called in February, 1887, and March 16, following, in accordance with the unanimous voice of the people, Wyalusing borough was duly incorpo- rated and officers elected as follows : Burgess, David K. Brown ;

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council, J. V. Taylor, H. J. Hallock, E. B. Stone (each for three years), H. J. Lloyd (two years), and I. M. Brown and I. C. Fuller (one year). E. W. Fee was the clerk. These served out their terms ; those for the one-year terin were re-elected : for the two years, Lloyd was re-elected, and H. T. Smith succeeded Stone; for three years, Taylor was re-elected, and J. G. Keeler succeeded Hallock. Dr. V. Homet was the second burgess, and R. R. Garey the third.

The old warehouse, that was once the point of so much stir and business in the canal days, stands yet as a landmark, near which are the outlines of the basin. Welles' mill was built where it now stands, in 1869. The first old mill was built in 1820-a frame with four run of stones, and in the course of time it was replaced and moved to where it now stands. It is a merchant mill, supplied with water- power from Wyalusing creek, and has a capacity of fifty barrels per day.

H. L. Case opened to the public his creamery in April, 1888. It has a capacity of 1,000 pounds of butter per day, and opens a fine market for the farmers for a circuit of six miles in every direction. It has just added the Ely valve system, one of the important recent improvements introduced into the county. In the borough are two general stores, one fancy goods, one furniture, one clothing, one drug, two groceries, one bakery, one hardware, two meat markets, one jewelry, two millinery, two hotels, one steam-planing mill (built in 1870 by I. C. Fuller), three blacksmiths, two wagon-makers, two physicians. Population of the borough, 420. There is an elegant high school building.

CHAPTER LIX.

WYSOX TOWNSHIP.

R OSWELL FRANKLIN settled on the Wysox flats in 1785, it is supposed. His brother Jehiel came with him, and the last-named settled on what is now the Robert Laning farm. He sold to Solomon Franklin, who sold to Job Irish. Jesse Allen, an old Revolutionary soldier, was here in 1787, and cleared the old York farm, which he sold to Theophilus Myer.

Ralph Martin came in 1789, and settled on the Conklin farm near Mversburg. Maj. Coolbaugh came about 1790, and purchased the improvement of Asahel Roberts, afterward the Darius Williams farm. Mr. Coolbaugh was the first justice of the peace, and was elected to the Legislature, and William Myer succeeded him as justice.

John Hinman came in 1791. He put up a mill and sold afterward to Judge Harry Morgan. A deed to John Hinman for one-half of Nelson's possessions is dated May 1, 1791. . Nancy Man, a spinster, in

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1799 lived where now resides Joseph Piollet. . Wilbur and Robert Bennett came to Wysox in 1800, and purchased land of Samuel Bow- man. . Joshua Shores came in 1795, and in a short time made his improvement on Shore's hill. He died on the hill in about 1825.

The earliest permanent settlers in Wysox came about 1790, and of these were: Stephen Strickland's father and his young family, the grandfather of Morgan and Stephen Strickland, Jr. The Strickland farm numbered several hundred acres in the " plains," on the west side of the river. The original tract was divided among the Strickland heirs. The next farm east was the Mathias H. Laning place; was settled originally by Job Irish-father of Col. Jud Irish. A few years later John Hinman settled a little northwest of the Laning farm on the road leading to Shore's Hill ; he built the first gristmill in the township, on Laning creek. This was great joy to the settlers, as before they had to go ninety miles to Wilkes-Barre to mill. Hinman's sons were John and Abner C. Hinman, the latter of whom resides on the old homestead. Moses Coolbaugh, father of Daniel, Cornelius and Samuel Coolbaugh, was with the first settler and located on the Rev. Darius Williams' place. He was the grandfather of Edwin B., Eustace and Morris I. Coolbaugh. John Strope was the first settler (1800), on the Harry Morgan farm. The first blacksmith, Henry Tuttle (1800), built adjoining Strope on the south, put up his shop, and followed his trade many years ; his son John inherited and lived on the homestead. John Elliott came about 1804, and was the first settler on what is now the splendid Piollet lands, near the river ; his sons Thomas and Deacon James Elliott, and Joseph and Samuel Elliott, lived in Towanda and at Rome. Sebastian Strope settled in 1804 on the Magill farm, near the mouth of Wysox creek, and his land extended north toward Myersburg; his son, Harry Strope, lived in Towanda. About the same time Ralph Martin made his improve- ment on the Joseph Conklin farm. William Coolbaugh, already men- tioned, was the first settler in Myersburg, about 1806. Jacob Myer came and built a gristmill, then soon after a sawmill, and from him the place received its name ; his sons were William, Alvin, Jacob and Isaac Myer ; His grandson was Hon. E. Reed Myer, who eventually occupied the old homestead.

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History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 60

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