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 22
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All the sons and nearly all the grandsons of Joab Tyler were educated at Amherst College ; an institution which for forty years was daily remem- bered in his prayers. Of his sons, Susquehanna County may well be proud ; each filling a post of widely honored usefulness. One died on the coast of Labrador while in pursuit of health.
In his reminiscences of Harford, one of them mentions having once seen fourteen wolves troop across his father's farm, in broad daylight. Deer grazed like cattle quietly in the meadow till the hunter's rifle brought them low.
John Carpenter, Sen., was a son-in-law of John Tyler; one of his grandsons, C. C. Carpenter, is now governor of Iowa.
The ancestor of the Richardsons of this county emigrated from England about the year 1666, and settled in Woburn, Mass. The next generation moved to Attleborough, in the same State, where the family became numerous. Caleb Rich- ardson, a son of Stephen, of Attleborough, and a great-grand- son of the first settler of Woburn, was one of the nine part- ners of Harford. He had been a soldier in the French War of 1765, and traversed the Mohawk before any settlements were made upon it. He went with Gen. Bradstreet in his expedition down the Oswego River, and across Lake Ontario to the taking of Frontenac, at the outlet of the lake. He was a captain in the war of the Revolution, had command and
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held the fort where the Battery is now in New York city, while Gen. Washington retreated from New York. After the war he was acting justice of the peace in his native town. He came in the spring of 1790, with eight others, to Susquehanna County, and was the only one of the nine partners who did not return to settle upon the purchase then made. He came, however, eighteen years later (1808) and died in Harford in 1823. His wife was a sister of Hosea Tiffany.
His son Caleb became justice of the peace in Attleborough, upon the expiration of his father's appointment, and was elected deacon of the church to which he then belonged. Deacon Richardson came to Harford in 1806, and was elected deacon of the Cong. Church here, Oct. 1810, and retained his office to the close of his life. He died April 1838, aged seventy-six. The year previous to his death he wrote for his grandson, C. J. Richardson, a history of the Nine Partners' Settlement, to which the present history is largely indebted. He had five sons.
The eldest, Rev. Lyman Richardson, was a distinguished educator, and was, for many years, at the head of the literary institution at Harford, and was connected with it about forty years. Dr. Edward S., Rev. Willard Richardson, of Delaware, and N. Maria, were the children of his first marriage, E. K. Richardson, Principal of the New Milford Graded School, George Lee, and Lyman E. by his second marriage. The eldest and the two youngest sons are deceased.
Lee, the second son of Caleb R. was a deacon and colonel of militia. He died in 1833. He also had five sons : Dr. Wm. L. (of Montrose), Ebenr., Stephen J., Wellington J., and C. Judson Richardson of Chicago.
Caleb Coy, the third son of Caleb, is the only one living.
Preston, the fourth son, was an alumnus of Hamilton College and a member of Auburn Theological Seminary, which he was forced to leave on account of pulmonary hemorrhage. He spent the residue of his life in establishing the school at Harford, where he died in 1836. His only son died before him.
"Dr. Braton Richardson, the youngest son, passing the days of his boy- hood in a new country, was, to a great extent, deprived of the literary ad- vantages which have sprung up with the progress and growth of the people ; yet his education was not neglected, for around his father's fireside, he and his brothers diligently prosecuted their studies.
" In 1825 he commenced the study of medicine with Dr. Thomas Sweet, of Wayne County. In 1828-29 he was a student in the office of Dr. Charles Marshall, at Newton, Sussex County, N. J. He attended two courses of lectures at the Western District Medical College, and received the degree of M.D. at Albany in 1834. He commenced practice at Carbondale, Pa., in 1829, continuing there one year, when he removed to Brooklyn, Susquehanna County. In September, 1840, he married Lucy C. Miles, of the same place,
Lyman Richardson
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
and was there for a third of a century engaged in an extensive and successful practice, until prostrated by the brief illness which terminated in his death on the 20th day of March, 1864. He had no children.
" As a physician, Dr. Richardson was in the foremost rank of the profession in Susquehanna County. He despised quackery out of the profession or in it, and was a zealous supporter of medical organization for its suppression. He was remarkable for his punctuality in all appointments, and whenever absent or tardy, it was well known there must be a good reason for it. For several years he represented the County Society at the State Society, of which he was one of the Censors, and twice attended the American Medical Association as a delegate." { From Biography in ' Transactions of State Med- ical Society.']
A blacksmith's shop was erected by Amos Sweet, in 1795 ; a grist-mill, in 1796, by a Mr. Halstead (who died early), in the southern part of the settlement, where Harding's mills now stand; a saw-mill, by Messrs. Tiffany, Fallet, and Elias Car- penter, in 1800, about one hundred rods southeasterly from the village graveyard; a fulling-mill, in 1810, by Rufus Kingsley, on Martin's Creek; and in the same year a carding-machine, by Elkanah Tingley, where D. K. Oakley now has a mill, two miles below Kingsley's.
The road to Martin's Creek " from near Van Winkle's mills on the Brace Road," was laid out in 1800. "The inhabited part of the Beechwoods" was now open. As early as 1793, a road had been surveyed "from the Stockport road in Nine Partners to the road called Harding's, in Thornbottom;" it was laid out the following year, and was seven miles in length.
[The writer is at a loss to understand the use of the terms " Brace Road" and "Stockport Road," in this vicinity. The latter may simply have led to the road of that name in Har- mony ; the Brace Road of earliest mention was not supposed to reach so far west.]
In 1798 another, from the State line "near the 19th mile- stone, via Major Trowbridge's, and thence to the road on the waters of Tunkhannock, 108 perches higher up the creek than the 16th mile.tree on Tunkhannock road." The road from Asahel Sweet's to Solomon Millard's, on the Tunkhannock, was ordered in 1800; and the same year, another from Robert Cor- bett's, on the Salt Lick, via Comfort Capron's, to the same point.
In 1798 the township officers of Nicholson (13 miles by 20), included E. Bartlett, S. Thatcher, E. Stephens, Potter, Casey, Tiffany, Millard, and T. Sweet. In 1797 H. Tiffany was poor- master. In 1800 Major Trowbridge was collector for Willing- borough and Nine Partners. At the first election of officers after the erection of the township of Harford, 33 votes were polled.
A military organization was required in 1798 or 1799. Oba- diah Carpenter was the first officer.
Thomas Tiffany was commissioned justice of the peace in
.
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1799 ; and Hosea Tiffany two or three years afterwards, the former having resigned. On the erection of Susquehanna County, this commission became void.
Capt. Asahel Sweet,1 now (1869) ninety-two years of age, is able to recall the following incident, which occurred about 1800 :-
He started with his oxen and cart to carry grain to Hallstead's mills, at Thornbottom. At Rynearson's (in Lenox), he reached the end of the road, and was obliged to push into the stream and travel down it five miles, until he reached Marcy's saw- mill, where the water in the race was so deep he had to betake himself again to the shore; but from this point there was a road which he followed two miles to the grist-mill. Returning, he retraced his course up the stream five miles. The weather was warm.
He was married January 1, 1801, and moved in April follow- ing to the farm ever since occupied by him. His enterprise procured the first cannon in the county. On one occasion he hid it in the "Pulk" to keep it from being carried off to Wilkes- Barre. The Harford artillery was often in requisition in other places on Independence Day.
Nathan Maxon, from R. I., settled in 1800 on the farm where Almon Tingley lives. His daughter, Mrs. Leonard Titus, now (1869) 81 years of age, has spun 13 or 14 lbs. of wool during the past summer, besides knitting five pairs of socks. In the olden time, when 30 knots of linen thread were a day's work, her week's work was accomplished in five days. This was the ambition of "the girl of that period."
Jacob Blake was here about 1802 or 3. He died in 1849, aged 74.
Rufus Kingsley came in 1809, from Windham, Conn. He had been a drummer in the battle of Bunker Hill. His farm was the one since owned by his son John at Kingsley's station on the Del. L. and W. R. R.
Thos. Wilmarth was the first constable (1808 ?).
In 1810 there were 477 inhabitants; in 1820, 641, and in 1830, 999.
The first store in Harford village was on the corner, north- west of Dr. Streeter's, kept by a Mr. Griswold, as early as the fall of 1812 or spring of 1813. At that time Joab Tyler lived above Dr. S., on the brow of the hill. Joab T. and Laban Ca- pron were commissioned J. P.'s in 1813. Mr. Capron resigned
' He died March 13, 1872, aged nearly ninety-four and a half years. The compiler considers her interview with him (in 1869) one of the greatest privi- leges of her route through the county, permitting the remembrance of a beau- tiful picture of old age, confiding in the ministry of a daughter, who for eighteen years occupied the house alone with him.
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
soon after, and Hosea Tiffany, Jr., was commissioned. He re- signed in 1826, and was followed by Samuel E. Kingsbury. Mr. K. died in 1831, and Hosea Tiffany was re-commissioned. Mr. T. died in 1836, and was followed by Payson Kingsbury. Mr. K. resigned in 1839, and John Blanding was commissioned. Since 1840, under the new Constitution, John Blanding and Amherst Carpenter were the first justices elected.
PHYSICIANS.
Dr. Comfort Capron commenced the practice of medicine in Harford (then Tioga township), in 1794, and continued to prac- tice until his death in 1800, at the age of 56 years.
Mrs. Mercy Tyler used to ride on horseback for miles around to visit the sick. " On one occasion a person was very sick, when the snow was so deep Mrs. T. could not go on horseback ; but so very important was her attendance considered, and so much confidence prevailed in her skill, that four stalwart men volunteered to bring her on their shoulders. Strapping on their snow-shoes they proceeded to Mrs. Tyler's house, wrapped her up in a blanket, and carried her on their shoulders to the house of her patient."
Dr. Luce came in 1808, but removed after a few years. Dr. Horace Griswold came and left prior to 1812.
Dr. Streeter, a native of Connecticut, came to Harford from Cheshire, N. H., in 1812. He was, at first, in the west part of the town, with Obadiah Carpenter; but after his marriage (to a granddaughter of Dr. Capron) he removed to the house pre- viously occupied by Robert Follet, about a hundred rods above his present location. Here he remained while he built what is now the middle part of his residence. His ride extended into Brooklyn, Lenox, Clifford, Herrick, Gibson, Jackson, Ara- rat, Thomson, Harmony, New Milford, and Great Bend. At the latter place several physicians had successively settled, but only one or two were there in 1813, and for years after. Dr. Chandler, of Gibson, confined himself to specialities, and Dr. Mason Denison, who had established himself at Brooklyn, left after two or three years. Dr. S. continued to practice over forty years, and now, at the age of 87 (1872), attended by two daughters (the third removed), enjoys his well-earned rest, among the people to whom his virtues and his services have endeared him. His eldest son, Hon. Farris B. Streeter, is Pre- sident Judge of the XIIIth Judicial District of Pennsylvania, and resides at Towanda ; his second son, Hon. Everett Streeter, was at the time of his death, a judge in Nebraska. The youngest, Rienzi, resides in Colorado.
Dr. Clark Dickerman, came to Harford in 1832, and remained in the practice of his profession until his death in 1853. With-
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
in the last fifteen years, Drs. Edwards, Gamble, and Tiffany, natives of the place, have been its physicians : the last has deceased.
Dr. E. N. Loomis is an eclectic physician.
Harford has furnished other places with physicians from among her sons, of whom we can mention Thomas Sweet, of Carbondale, Daniel Seaver, Braton Richardson, late of Brooklyn township, W. L. Richardson, of Montrose, Edward S. Richardson (deceased), Lorin Very, of Centreville, La., Asahel Tiffany, of Milwaukee, Wis .; William Alexander, of Dundaff ; Henry A. Tingley and James D. Leslie, of Susquehanna Depot.
SCHOOLS, ETC.
The common school from 1794; a church organized in 1800, and still efficient ; a library of historical works, and others of a substantial character, begun in 1807, and read with care and interest ; a select school established in 1817, merged into an Academy in 1830, and still later into a University ;- may all be reckoned as having had powerful influences bearing upon the earlier and best interests of the people of Harford, and by no means confined to them. We have but to inscribe the name of RICHARDSON to represent the honored instructors of many youths in Harford, of whom not a few have since been written on the roll of fame,-and better, that of usefulness.
We append on the next page an illustration of the Harford Academy. The buildings, with some alterations made by C. W. Deans, Esq., are now used as a Soldiers' Orphan School.
The early settlers were characterized by industry, frugality, morality, and mutual kind feeling. Hardly distinguished in interest or employment, or temporal circumstances, they found at each other's rude cabins a homely but cordial entertainment. Remote from public roads, they were mostly shut in from the rest of the world, and for a time knew little of its agitations. For nearly ten years they were also left undisturbed by taxes or military duties ; and entirely overlooked by the officers of justice in the immense district of which this section formed a part.
The power of moral training, and of public opinion, were their officers and exactors.
" During the first four years, not a professor of religion settled in Nine Partners. Still the Sabbath found them resting from their labors. Nor was the day devoted to hunting or public amusements. Three of them, who during the second season occupied one cabin, were several times annoyed by the visits of some one, perhaps from a neighboring settlement, of laxer views respecting the sanctity of the Sabbath. On a repetition of the visit, it was proposed to read aloud from what they styled ' a good and interesting book,' for mutual edification. The expedient was successful, and was the beginning of a practice continued through the season. This may be accounted the first
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
Fig. 17.
T. HORTON &CO N.Y.
HARFORD ACADEMY.
1844.
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
approach to the form of any part of social worship attempted in the settle- ment.
" Among the settlers of 1794-5, were several professors of religion. In the fall of 1794 they were visited by Rev. Mr. Buck, then preaching at Windsor, N. Y., and at Great Bend. The visit was soon repeated. His ser- mons, the first heard in the place, were preached in a bark-covered cabin, which stood in the field a short distance northwesterly from the Congrega- tional church. A 'reading meeting' was then by vote determined upon ; and on motion of Ezekiel Titus, John Tyler was appointed to conduct it. These meetings were sometimes at Amos Sweet's, but oftener at Deacon (John) Tyler's-the red house now standing some rods west of the residence of H. M. Jones, but then on the site of the latter. They were held regularly every Sabbath ; the Scriptures and sermons were read, and, with singing and prayer, constituted the humble public worship of the day."
A recent writer says :-
" These 'reading meetings' (continued one-fourth of a century) were trans- ferred in 1806 to a one-story meeting-house (no spire) ; afterwards to a church with steeple and a pulpit half as high as the steeple, with a great east win- dow behind the pulpit; and, not a deacon but a reverend, was seen there 'standing in the sun.' "
A missionary named Smith preached in Harford a few times ; afterwards a Mr. Bolton, an Irishman, was employed to labor for a time. A Mr. Thacher paid them a transient visit or two, and organized a society, but it never went into operation. The missionary visits of Rev. Messrs. Asa Hillier, David Porter, and others, are remembered with interest.
A Congregational church was organized June 15, 1800, by Rev. Jedediah Chapman, a missionary from New Jersey, sent by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. It con- sisted of seven members, viz .: Obadiah Carpenter and his wife, Ama, John Tyler and his wife, Mercy, John Thacher, Mercy Carpenter, wife of O. Carpenter, Jr., and Miss Mary Thacher ; all having letters from the Congregational church in Attle- borough, of which Rev. Peter Thacher (father of Mrs. Mercy Tyler) was pastor.
The first revival occurred in the winter of 1802-3, under the labors of Rev. Seth Williston, in the service of the Missionary Society of Connecticut.
Joseph Blanding was the first convert. He came to the set- tlement in 1794, and remained here until his death, in 1848, in the eighty-second year of his age.
From 1803-10 the church had an occasional sermon from missionaries passing through this section. In 1806, a small meeting house-twenty-two feet by thirty-had been erected on land given by Hosea Tiffany and son ; it was afterwards re- moved across the road, and now forms a part of the residence of Miss Lucina Farrar.
In the winter of 1808-9, occurred the second revival, which was one of great power. Meetings were held almost daily-
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some of them in what is now Brooklyn and Gibson-then con- sidered within the bounds of the same church. Distance, dark- ness, and bad roads were no obstruction to the gathering of reli- gious assemblies anywhere. The services were conducted prin- cipally by Rev. Mr. Griswold, of West Hartwick, N. Y., and Rev. Joel T. Benedict, of Franklin, N. Y. The latter remained only four or five weeks; the former, for awhile afterwards. In July following, forty-three persons united with the church, Mr. Benedict returning to officiate on the occasion.
Rev. Ebenezer Kingsbury, who had been pastor of a church in Vermont, visited Harford, and received a call to settle, Feb- ruary 21, 1810. He was installed in August following, and was then nearly fifty years of age. His pastoral labors here continued seventeen years, and were crowned with success ; several seasons of special religious interest occurring. In these he was sometimes assisted by Rev. Messrs. York and E. Conger; and the then "new measure" of visiting from house to house by the elders was practiced.
He was a native of Coventry, Conn. He graduated at Yale College in 1783, and studied theology with Dr. Backus, of Somers, Conn. His labors, under the auspices of the Mission- ary Society of Connecticut, began in this county in 1808, and were continued, half the time, during his pastorship, and for several years afterwards, with feeble churches.
He travelled over a large part of the counties of Susque- hanna, Bradford, Luzerne, and Wayne, on horseback, by marked trees and bridle-paths, preaching in log-cabins, barns, and school- houses (of which there were a very few at that time), and as- sisted at the formation of nearly all the churches in this region. He was everywhere esteemed. He had four sons who lived to manhood, of whom E. Kingsbury, Jr., was a lawyer, and after- wards, speaker of the State Senate. Payson K. was several years a deacon in the Harford church. He died in 1843. Wil- liston K.'s funeral sermon was the first sermon preached in the present house of worship, in 1822-long before it was finished and dedicated.
Samuel Ely K. became justice of the peace in Harford.
Rev. E. Kingsbury's death occurred at Harford, March, 1842, in the eightieth year of his age. His widow died in 1859, at the age of eighty-eight. Her house was ever open to "the sons and daughters of want."
The successor of Rev. E. Kingsbury in the Harford pulpit was the Rev. Adam Miller, who began his labors there in 1828; was installed April 28, 1830, by the Susquehanna Presbytery, having been ordained in the interval. In 1872, he is still at his post, having had the longest pastorate of any one in the county.
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
Seven hundred and ten persons have been connected with the church since its organization; and it is not too much to attribute to its influence very much of the prosperity, intelli- gence, and high standard of morals that have ever character- ized the township. Sabbath-school instruction was commenced about 1816.
The people of Harford were forward in the temperance re- formation, in the cause of anti-slavery, and in various objects of Christian enterprise-foreign and domestic missions, education for the ministry, and distribution of Bibles and tracts.
From the Congregational church the following persons have been furnished for the gospel ministry :-
Revs. Lyman, Willard, and Preston Richardson; Washing- ton, Moses, and Tyler Thacher; William S. and Wellington H. Tyler.
In 1821, Miss Hannah Thacher, daughter of Obadiah Thacher, joined the Choctaw Mission, and while there became the wife of Dr. W. W. Pride. The health of the latter failed, and they returned to Susquehanna County. [See Gibson and Spring- ville.]
In 1823, Miss Philena Thacher, a sister of Mrs. Pride, joined the same mission, married the Rev. B. B. Hotchkin, and remained, in the nation until her death.
Respecting the Harford Baptist church, the record says :-
"June 6, 1806, brother Thomas Harding, sister Hannah Harding, brother Abijah Sturdevant, and sister Polly Sturdevant thought proper to meet every Lord's day for to worship God, not having the privilege of meeting with the church at Exeter, to which we belonged ; Elder Davis Dimock being the pastor." In August, 1809, the four had increased to fifteen; in 1810, they first celebrated the Lord's Supper; in 1812, when recognized as a church, they numbered twenty members. The place of worship was at the old mill- site, in the southeast part of the town, generally called "Harding's," and at school and private houses throughout the neighborhood. The formation of neighboring churches often weakened the membership, and, in 1841, the church was reported to the association as having disbanded.
In 1853, however, a revival was enjoyed, the church was reorganized with twelve members, and the same day (22d Dec.), a neat house of worship was dedicated, near the Harding mills. The church has never enjoyed much pastoral labor. Some of the Baptists in Harford township are members of the West Lenox and New Milford churches.
The Universalist denomination has always been numerous in Harford, and formerly a minister was sustained among them one-half of the time; but they never erected a house of worship, and at present most of the denomination are connected with the societies of Brooklyn and Gibson.
Within a few years the Methodists have erected a neat church at Harford village.
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.
The marriage of Orlen Capron to Ama Carpenter, October, 1798, was the first in the settlement.
The first birth was that of Robert Follet's son Lewis (who died young), September, 1794; the first death, that of an infant daughter of the same, and whose burial was the first in the village graveyard, December, 1796. The first adult interred was Dr. Capron, June, 1800.
Henry Drinker, of Philadelphia, gave a deed, December 6, 1803, for one acre as a burial-ground, for the use of families within three miles of it. Hosea Tiffany and his son Amos, by their deed, September, 1824, annexed seventy-five perches on the northeast side of the lot, and the whole is now enclosed with stone-wall. Mr. Drinker also gave fifty acres in the north- ern part of the town for "a ministerial lot;" in 1830 or 1831 this land was sold, and the avails were applied to the erection of the Congregational parsonage, adjoining the late residence of Joab Tyler, Esq., one-fourth of an acre being donated by him for that purpose.
Eight of the " nine partners" were living in 1830, forty years after their first visit to the beechwoods of Pennsylvania. In 1844 only two remained, and in 1872 all are gone.
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