USA > Pennsylvania > Susquehanna County > History of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania. from a period preceding its settlement to recent times, including the annals and geography of each townshipAlso a sketch of woman's work in the county for the United States sanitary commission, and a list of the soldiers of the national army furnished by many of the townships > Part 14
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From the above tract (118 acres and some perches), styled Pleasant Valley on the surveyor's map, sixty-three acres and a little over should be deducted as having been conveyed by M. Salsbury to J. H. Reynolds, and by him to William B. Stod- dard. Possibly that portion of the town including the property of the Roman Catholic church should be excluded also, as once a part of Wm. P. McKune's land.
Sedate Griswold, formerly owner of a large tract within the borough limits, died here recently.
" On the site of Susquehanna Depot, one single farmer had sufficient work in 1848, the summer through, to guard against the encroachments of rattlesnakes that sung in his barn, and made music in his hay fields." Twelve years later a population of 2000 persons had apparently driven the reptiles from the place, but not from its neighborhood, which in 1870 they still infest.
That Sarta in. Fr. 119
araved it
James S. Greff
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
The borough has one street which runs in the valley, follow- ing nearly the course of the Susquehanna; the streets parallel to it are reached by steep acclivities, or by long staircases be- tween the blocks of buildings. It well deserves the title it has received-the City of Stairs. It is said that some of the Erie employés go up to dinner two hundred feet above their work.
For a time after the Erie Railroad was finished, the popula- tion decreased, but it now gains steadily. Americans, English, Irish, and Germans are found numerically as named, with a few Italians and Poles. Many of the machinists in the Erie work- shops are English.
JAMES B. GREGG, Master Mechanic of the Erie Railroad shops, is a native of Delaware, and is of Quaker parentage. The homestead was in New Castle County, near Wilmington.
He attended the State common schools until he was seventeen years of age, at which time he persuaded his father to permit him to learn the machinist trade, rather than pursue farming, to which he was brought up. His father procured him a position, though reluctantly, in the extensive machine shop of Geo. Hodgson, an Englishman, in Wilmington, Del.
At the expiration of his apprenticeship, in 1836, he attended school for three years ; one and a half years under the tuition of Jonathan Gause, near West Chester, Pa. ; and the same time at the High School of John Gummere at Burlington, N. J. These teachers were Quakers; and the schools were noted in their day as first-class schools, where young men could procure a thorough practical business education, including the languages if desired.
Mr. Gregg then spent one year in traveling in the Western States, and on his return was appointed general Foreman of the Piermont shop, the only one then on the New York and Erie Railroad. Here he remained until 1851. He was then promoted to the office of Superintendent of Motive Power at Susquehanna Depot.
This place is 195 miles from New York city, and 274 miles from Dunkirk.
The following is from correspondence of the 'Broome Re- publican,' May, 1859 :-
" The shops were located here in the summer of 1848. The buildings were then few and small. In 1854, they covered five acres, and in 1859, 350 men were employed, doing the work for 319 miles of the road. The capital then invested in the shop machinery was about $200,000. Sub-shops were sta- tioned at Canandaigua, Owego, Hornellsville, and Port Jervis, of all which, Mr. Gregg was the superintendent.
" In the Susquehanna shops, there are sixteen departments of labor ; each of which has its foreman, who has, in the performance of his duties, absolute control of all that pertains to his branch of business ; subject of course to the general foreman of the shop. He is not only required to see that every piece of work that leaves his department is perfect in itself, but is held individually responsible for the material used in its manufacture. Nor is the foreman alone responsible. There are in the several departments what are termed ' gangs,' over whom presides a subordinate foreman appointed to attend some particular job.
" Admirable system is observed in the general management and discipline that prevail throughout the shops. The care of tools is so secured as to insure the company from the consequences of any neglect on the part of their em- ployés.
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
"In 1856 the steam hammer was introduced into the Susquehanna shops ; in 1857, there were two hammers only, and the saving, in being able to manu- facture their own material, was estimated at $25,000 for one year."
In response to inquiries respecting later work here, Mr. Gregg kindly furnishes the following statements :-
"I continued to increase our facilities for doing work by erecting additional buildings from time to time, as business increased, until it was found, in 1862, of pressing necessity, and from the great danger of our then wooden buildings being destroyed by fire, to construct still larger and more durable buildings.
" At the request of the general superintendent, Mr. Minot, I furnished ground-plans for the construction of such shop buildings as would meet not only the then greatly increased wants of the company, but all future contin- gencies. These plans were laid before the board of directors, and in due time were accepted and adopted. The buildings were commenced in 1863 and finished in 1865, at a cost of $1,250,000 ; the tools and machinery cost, in addition, $500,000.
"The buildings, covering eight acres, are acknowledged to be the most extensive of their kind in this country, and also the most complete in their arrangements for economizing labor and facilitating work. This is the tes- timony of railroad men from all parts of this country, as also of our visitors from England.
" I made provision in the construction of the buildings, by consent of the company, for a library and reading-room ; and this is now an important insti- tution, as connected with our shop system of management, for the benefit of the employés.
"I also made a like provision for a lecture-room, 42 × 60 feet. Both these rooms the company, upon my recommendation, very generously fitted up, at their own expense, with all necessary furniture, gas fixtures, and steam- heating apparatus.
"The library, which is 'circulating,' contains about 2500 volumes of well-selected, miscellaneous works, and is growing at the rate of 400 to 500 volumes annually. Our subscription for daily, weekly, and monthly reading matter, for the supply of the table for daily reading, is about $120 per year.
" I cannot speak of this library and reading-room in terms of too great praise, as an agent in the building up of good citizenship in our community. The books are read at about an average of 400 volumes per month by per- haps not less than one thousand persons. Each book can be retained four- teen days.
" It is the only library, reading-room, and lecture-hall connected with any similar shop or manufactory in the country.
" The number of men employed varies from 650 to 700, as our wants direct. The average amounts of money paid them is about $38,000 per month, wages being more than doubled within the last dozen years.
" I hazard nothing in declaring it as my opinion that no shop or manufac- tory of any kind in this country, employing a large body of men, can so truthfully boast of the intelligence and high moral worth possessed by the employés, as of this shop. Nor can any similar number of workmen boast of possessing so large an amount of property or real estate as is actually possessed, and in fee simple owned, by the employés of this shop, which is not less than $600,000 worth.
" The company originally owned about 300 acres of land, now covered by happy, thrifty homes of Susquehanna Depot. Prior to May, 1859, the company duly appointed me, by act of the board of directors, etc., their agent and attorney for the control and sale of the above property.
" By being careful to employ none but men of exclusively temperate habits
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
and of good moral character. aside from being good workmen, and by holding out to these men encouragement to purchase lots and build houses for them- selves, every lot of the 300 acres is now sold and deeded, and, in addition, our men have purchased largely of adjoining lands.
" The number of steam hammers is now increased to six, and with these I am now supplying forged work, axles, etc., and all iron work for bridges for all parts of the road and its branches. I have also very largely introduced the manufacture of cast-iron drilled wheels for engines and cars for the whole line of the road, the annual number supplied from this shop averaging about 11,000 wheels. In the construction of new locomotives, the rebuilding and repairs of old ones, and, indeed, for the care of the road in all particu- lars, this shop has now become largely responsible."
Theodore Springsteen is chief clerk; John T. Bourne, store- keeper; and Robert Wallace, general foreman. Forty-six miles of steam pipe heat the Erie shops and depot.
The Sisters of Charity occupy the building erected by Martin Newman, which was once Scoville's hotel. Near this point, the traveler coming north on the Lenox and Harmony turnpike, is suddenly met by a view of scenery remarkably beautiful. Be- fore him is the abrupt bend in the river, and the Ouaquago Mountain, with its southern slope skirted with the new and flourishing village of Oakland. Lanesboro is at the right, and a little beyond, the grand stone bridge or viaduct that spans the valley of the Starucca. Its nineteen piers and eighteen arches are here distinctly seen, and, stretching still beyond the Sus- quehanna, in its due north course to the State line, is its valley rich in beauty and in the historical interest that gathers around it. The locality has been painted by one of its own residents. (See later page.)
The first four hotels were: J. B. Scoville's, Thomas Carr's, Elliot Benson's, and Robert Nichols'-not one of which was kept up as such in 1869. The Starucca House, near the rail- road station, and the Canawacta House, had succeeded them, also the Hotchkiss House on Church Hill.
The churches are the Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, Metho. dist, Baptist, and Universalist.
L. P. Hinds was the first lawyer who located in the place; John Ward, the first merchant.
William Stamp, of Susquehanna Depot, is the inventor of a new steam-gauge, which is said to be a work of great value.
At present (1872) a city charter is petitioned for. Susque- hanna Depot received from the State $3000 for schools. This allowance was made, partly in consideration of the fact that the place has no revenue from the Erie Railroad property.
The graded school building is a large and fine one, the site of which was selected with a view to accommodate pupils as to distance; but otherwise, it appears unfortunately chosen, on account of the lowness of the ground and the proximity of the railroad shops.
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
North1 Susquehanna, or Oakland Village, is connected with Susquehanna Depot by a bridge across the Susquehanna River. This was first built in the fall of 1855, by a stock company, of which Thomas Jackson, M.D., was President, H. C. Godwin, Vice-President, and L. P. Hinds, Secretary. They with F. A. Ward, Levi Westfall, J. B. Scoville, and William W. Skinner, constituted its managers. The original expense was about $4700. This bridge was carried away by a freshet, and the half of the expense of the one which takes its place was borne by William M. Post.
In 1852 or 1853, the Van Antwerp and Newbury farms, with a part of Elijah Westfall's land, comprising about 400 acres lying north of the river, had been purchased by J. B. Scoville for Messrs. Jackson and Godwin, who laid out fifty or sixty acres in village lots, which they sold to William M. Post in 1857.
Prior to 1864, there was only one road in Oakland Village- the old Ouaquago turnpike-and but one or two farm houses. Five years later, there were three streets between the old turn- pike and the river, and three cross-streets of the five laid out were open.
A hotel was built in 1864, near the north end of the bridge, by T. T. Munson, which has since been known as Telford's. After selling the hotel, Mr. Munson established the first store here.
West of the bridge there is a saw and grist-mill; east of it, a sash and blind factory. In 1869, there were about seventy buildings in the village. It now (spring 1872) contains over one hundred houses, and is steadily growing. A neat school- house, with blinds, serves as a place of worship for the Metho- dist society. A union Sabbath school begun here 1865, by Mrs. William M. Post and Mrs. Cockayne, with eight scholars, numbered over one hundred scholars in four years.
The village is an independent school district. The majority of the residents are Erie Railroad employés.
CHAPTER X.
BROOKLYN.
WHEN first settled, in 1787, the area of Brooklyn was an atom in the vast space allotted to the most northern district of Luzerne County, and which, in 1790, was designated as Tioga
1 Or West, as it is called by the people of Harmony.
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
township. In 1795 it belonged in part to Nicholson township; in 1806 it was wholly in Bridgewater (then still in Luzerne), and in that portion of it which, at the second term of court after the organization of Susquehanna County, was included within the limits of a township then petitioned for, to be called Waterford. Of the latter, it was proposed the southeast corner should be where the county line crosses Martin's Creek ; that the creek, for ten miles, should be its eastern border; thence a line due west five miles, its northern; thence a line running south to Luzerne County (now Wyoming), the western; and thence east to the place of beginning, the southern.
This made the northern boundary nearly on a line with that of Dimock, as since run; but Waterford as finally granted, April, 1814, was twelve miles north and south. This brought the northwest corner within two miles of Montrose, and it was soon thought expedient to change it, leaving the residents along the Meshoppen, as far down as Lindsley's or North Pond, still in Bridgewater.
February, 1823, the court changed the name of the town to Hopbottom (that being the name of the post-office, as also of the settlement from an early day); for, as there were already three Waterfords in the State, it caused derangement of the mails. In 1825 a meeting of the citizens was held, and they decided to petition the court and the postmaster-general for a change of name, both of town and post-office, to Brooklyn, with a favorable result.
In 1846, Brooklyn was reduced nearly one-half, by the erec- tion of the township of Lathrop, since which time its limits have remained unchanged.
The Hopbottom Creek, so called from the number of wild hops once found growing in its valley, runs through Brooklyn from north to south, having its source in Heart Lake, between New Milford and Bridgewater, and reaching Martin's creek in the northeast corner of Lathrop.
It is said that " up Martin's Creek a former hunter's range ex- tended (as also to the upper branches of the Wyalusing) ; the fur of the marten, then abundant, was his chief aim." It is probable the creek derived its name from this circumstance, and that it is incorrectly called Martin's creek.
" Dry" Creek is also a tributary to Martin's Creek in certain seasons.
Horton's Creek has its rise in the western part of the town- ship, and crosses the southern line about midway ; thence passes entirely through Lathrop to join the Tunkhannock below. It was once a rival competitor with Martin's Creek for railroad honors.
South Pond (Ely Lake) and the half of North Pond, the latter
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
on the west line of Brooklyn, and the other near it, are the only lakes of the township.
The surface is very uneven. The traveler over the Owego turnpike (which enters the township at Oakley's and leaves it near its northwest corner) will cross some high hills, and, in going over the road from Kingsley's to the Center, will find those even higher; but here is some of the best land.
SETTLEMENT.
In 1787, John Nicholson, Comptroller of Pennsylvania, and owner of extensive tracts of land throughout the State, attempted to colonize his lands along the Hopbottom ; and, in five years, collected about forty Irish and German families from Philadel- phia, and "down the Susquehanna." He had agreed to supply them with provisions, for the first year at least, and that they should have the land seven years ; the settlers in the mean time to clear what they could, and to build upon each lot a house and barn, and at the end of seven years to have the first right of purchase at the price the land might then be worth.
Adam Miller, a Protestant Irishman, though part of his life had been spent with a Roman Catholic priest, had married a cousin of Nicholson, and both were persuaded by him to come to his Hopbottom lands in 1787. At the end of one year they became discouraged, and Nicholson, to induce them to stay, deeded to Mrs. Miller 175 acres of land.
Mrs. Miller's maiden name was Elinor Nichaelson, as the name was spelled in the old country. Her father was a brother of John Nicholson's father, and a Welshman; her mother was an Englishwoman.
Mrs. Fox, a Dutchwoman among the colonists, once com- plained to Mrs. Miller of their fare, when the latter responded : " Peggy, we ought to thank the Lord that we have enough such as it is." But "Peggy" could not assent, and replied : " Do you really believe anybody under the heavens ever thanked the Lord for johnny-cake ?"
The eldest child of Adam Miller is now living (1870) in Michigan, in her eighty-fourth year, and she was about one year old when her parents came to what is now Brooklyn, and was just three years old when her brother William was born there, December, 1789. His was the first birth in this county, so far as has come to the knowledge of the compiler.
Elder Charles Miller, for many years a minister in Clifford, was also born on the Hopbottom, March 20, 1793. His sister Anna Maria, now the widow of John Wells, was born there in 1795, and was in her fifth year when her parents with their family went to Obio. They returned the same season to Tunk-
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
hannock, and, early in the spring of 1800, reached Clifford Corners, in the vicinity of which they lived and died. (See CLIFFORD.)
Richard McNamara and Robert Patterson came in 1787. The latter is buried in Brooklyn.
William Conrad (or Coonrod, as then pronounced) was among the earliest of Nicholson's colonists. He was one of the Hes- sians employed by Great Britain in the Revolutionary War. All the time he had to prepare for the expedition was less than twenty-four hours, and then he left home and country forever. He supposed the expedition was designed only to go to Eng- land; but, when there, it was joined by the British fleet and sailed for America. The next year he was with Lord Howe at Philadelphia. The Hessians were then told, that if they deserted to the Yankees, they would be killed and eaten up. Conrad, however, made his escape, and the first American officer he met gave him a dollar. He soon found inhabitants with whom he could converse in his own language, one of whom, Page, ac- companied him to this section. Hardships of every kind awaited the family of Conrad here. Their first home was under the shelter of a hemlock root, where one of his children was born. He stayed in Brooklyn long enough to make a small clearing, build a log-house, and set out an orchard on the farm afterwards owned by Andrew Tracy, Esq., and then removed to Harford, where he lived more than forty years, and where he died. A son of his is still living in the county, a little east of Hopbottom village; and another branch of the family is living at South Gibson.
Little is known of those who came in 1787, with the excep- tion of a few persons. Mrs. Wells (mentioned above) states, that a physician, whose name was Caperton, accompanied the first settlers, and that he, Mr. Fox, and Mr. John Robinson, were her father's near neighbors.
The majority of these known as " the Nicholson settlers" were Irish, and their locality was called the Irish Settlement by the settlers of Great Bend and "Nine Partners." Nicholson had furnished teams, a quantity of "sugar kettles" for boiling sap, and erected a log grist-mill (about sixty rods below Whipple's present saw-mill), but failed to supply provisions as he had agreed ; the families, being left to care for themselves, suffered much from want, and not knowing how to manage in the wilder- ness, became discouraged, and after a few years abandoned the settlement.
Among the few whose names are connected with the improve- ments purchased by the New Englanders, there were, besides the settlers already given, another Conrad, Trout, McIntyre, and Denison.
8
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
John Jones, a well-educated Welshman, came from Northum- berland, 1790-2, and became a sort of superintendent of the settlement. His family consisted of his wife (formerly Mrs. Milbourne), and his stepson, Bloomfield Milbourne, with their three daughters, Nancy, Betsy, and Polly. The last-named died in 1802. Nancy became the wife of Samuel Howard, a later comer, and Betsy, of John C. Sweet, of Harford.
A son of one of the earliest New England settlers in Brooklyn (J. Sabin) narrated the following incident :-
" I remember one time Mr. Jones went to Wilkes-Barre, forty miles away ; bought two five-pail kettles, in which to boil sap, hung them astride his mare, drove her before him, and walked himself. When he had nearly reached home, some brush caught in the legs of the kettles, which so frightened the beast she ran into the woods and broke them both."
In 1792 Mark Hartley, of Scotch descent but of Irish birth, and then living at Northumberland, was induced by Nicholson to join the Hopbottom colony. He was accompanied by his wife and two children, Mark and William, the latter only eight weeks old, now Esquire Hartley, of Lenox. He remained less than five years in the settlement before removing to the vicinity of Glenwood.
From 1792-95 the last of the Nicholson colonists came. They were William Harkins, James Coil (to Adam Miller's clearing), and Prince Perkins (colored), with his son William, and two grandchildren. Prince had been the slave of Captain Perkins, of Connecticut (the great-grandfather of C. S. Perkins, now of Brooklyn), but as he became a freeholder, and spent his life in the township, his history forms a part of it. He came from near the mouth of the Tunkhannock, after ac- quiring his freedom in Connecticut by the laws of the State.
Denman Coe and Wright Chamberlain, from Connecticut, were on the Hopbottom, in 1795. (See Gibson.) James Coil removed after a few years to Clifford. [The location of the Nicholson settlers can best be given in connection with that of the New Englanders.]
On the failure of John Nicholson, his lands in the Hop- bottom settlement passed into the hands of John B. Wallace, of Philadelphia, and from him, in 1818, to Thomas B. Overton, then of Wilkes-Barre. A portion of the lands of Brooklyn belonged to the Drinker estate.
The earliest New England settlers came to this section sup- posing themselves to have clear titles to land under the " Con- necticut Delaware Purchase." Prior to locating on the Hop- bottom, Joseph Chapman-a sea-captain, who had made fifty voyages to the West Indies-and his son Joseph, from Norwich, Ct., had begun an improvement on their purchase in Dimock, or
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
" Chebur," as that town was then named, on Connecticut sur- veys. But, as there was no building on their land, they pro- cured an improvement in the adjacent town of " Dandolo"; the section including the Irish settlement or Nicholson colony, and in the fall of the same year (1798) Captain Chapman brought his family to the log cabin vacated by John Robinson. He re- mained here until the spring of 1800, when with his wife and his sons Isaac A. and Edward, and his daughters Elizabeth and Lydia, he removed to the house, which he in the mean time had built on his place in Chebur.
The only child of his first wife, Joseph Chapman, Jr., re- mained upon the Hopbottom place, but was not then without neighbors, from one to three miles away, nor many months with- out a companion.
The incoming of Andrew Tracy can best be given in his own words, though fully to understand his position, the reader must be informed that he was Secretary and Recorder of the Con- necticut Delaware first Company, and that this was the final effort of the Connecticut claimants under the Indian Delaware Purchase to obtain possession. Captain Peleg Tracy, his eldest son, appears to have purchased the first improvements of Messrs. Jones and Milbourne, on the present farm of Obadiah and W. P. Bailey, as early as his father secured those of William Conrad, the place a little north of Brooklyn Center, which is now owned by Jared Baker; but he did not come to occupy it until two weeks after his father's arrival with his family.
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