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 26
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Cyril (or Seril) Peck came to explore in 1799, and after- wards cleared the Williams farm, in the lower part of the town- ship, near Auburn, where he resided until his death, in 1811.
At April sessions, 1799, the court at Wilkes-Barre was peti- tioned to order a road "from near the Forks of the Wyalusing to intersect the road from Tunkhannock to Great Bend," etc., and viewers were appointed, who reported at August sessions, 1801, thus :-
" Beginning at the southeast corner of E. Hyde's store, thence running to Captain Picket's, thence to the creek by S. Maine's, thence to Mr. John Rey- nolds', thence to Ozem Cook's, thence to Captain Hinds', thence to Snake Creek, thence to the Barnum north and south road running through Kirby and Law's settlement, to a tree by D. Barnum's, thence on to intersect the road running from the Great Bend to Tunkhannock near the bank of Wyley's Creek, about one hundred and twenty chains south of Great Bend." Report approved.
This, with the minute details omitted, gives the route of a road, which has again and again been altered in certain places, along the Wyalusing.
The same year, Ezekiel Hyde and others petitioned for a road afterwards obtained, from the Forks, nearly north to the State line; and others petitioned for one from the Forks to Tioga Point.
In 1800, Walter Lathrop, from New London County, Conn. (father of the late Judge Benjamin Lathrop), settled on what is now known as the Levi Shove farm; but he remained there only two or three years, when he removed to a farm in Bridge- water, nearly three miles south of Montrose, where he died in 1818.
"The farms on the Wyalusing below the present western line of Jessup, were occupied by the first settlers in the following order: Levi Leonard,
7
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
Elijah Adams, Nathan Tupper, Wm. Lathrop. Salmon Brown, John Jay. Joab Picket, Dan Metcalf, Jabez Hyde, Isaac Brownson, and Daniel Ross.
"In 1801, when Isaac Hancock was appointed justice of the peace for Rush, he was located where Dan Metcalf began in 1795, on the farm adjoin- ing that of Daniel Ross. When Susquehanna County was erected, its west line was run between them, and the name of the part set off with Bradford County, was changed to Pike township.
" Esq. Hancock was born near Westchester, Pa. Before the Revolution- ary war, he was at Wyalusing for a time, and returned there about 1785.' He is mentioned on the records of Luzerne County as a 'taverner' for Springfield township, in 1788. At this time he was also one of the over- seers of the poor, for the district composed of the whole extent of Luzerne County, from the mouth of the Meshoppen, north to the State line. His sons were John and Jesse. Of his seven daughters, Mrs. Daniel Ross, Mrs. Jesse Ross, and Mrs. Benajah Frink were residents of this county. The last named was twin with Jesse H., and is the only one of the family now living. Mrs. Frink states, that Polly Canfield (of the Middletown family) taught school on a rock, somewhere on the farm of Daniel Ross, about 1798, and had six scholars.
" Huldah Fairchild, daughter of Ephraim, also taught school early in this neighborhood.
" Elders Sturdevant and Thomas Smiley were among the first preachers here.
" There was, in 1801, no settler on the east and west road between Elk Lake, in the present township of Dimock, and the mouth of its outlet, in Rush."
April, 1801, on petition of Seril Peck and others, viewers were appointed to lay out a road from Joab Picket's, south along the Deer Lick to Auburn. They accomplished their task August, 1802, and reported at January sessions, 1803. Jabez Hyde, Jr., was assessor in 1802, and Joab Picket and Stephen Wilson were supervisors; Aden Stevens was collector. The latter two resided at the east and west extremes of the town- ship, eighteen miles apart ; Stephen Wilson being one-half mile below Montrose, and Colonel Stevens at Stevensville, now Bradford County. The territory the collector canvassed is now embraced in eight or ten townships; the county seat was seventy miles distant, "to which the scanty taxes-only $130 -gathered by a thousand miles travel through trackless swamp and forests, were conveyed. Few, if any, remain whose names were then on the list." Colonel Aden Stevens died July 28, 1858, aged eighty-eight.
In 1804, elections were held at Jabez Hyde's.
Colonel Thomas Parke was supervisor of Rush in 1805. J. W. Raynsford was at the same time one of the auditors. Soon after they were included in Bridgewater.
Not long after the beginning of the century, changes oc- curred in the occupation and ownership of the farms on the Wyalusing. Most of the cabins of the first residents were nearer the creek, and across the road, from the houses of the
1 From Rev. D. Craft's ' Wyalusing.'
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
present. In several cases we have only the memory of survi- vors to indicate their sites-the old landmarks and relics of former occupancy being obliterated.
In 1806, Col. Ephraim Knowlton came to the Leonard farm. He resided here until his death, in 1838. The Adams farm, now owned by Robert Reynolds, was for years owned by John Hancock, and the house of the latter is still standing. Ebene- zer Picket, Sr., came from Vermont several years later than his son Joab, and settled where Nathan Tupper had made the first clearing. The place was afterwards occupied by Warren Lung; and Robert Reynolds has recently moved to it. Mr. Picket's wife died here in 1808. He died in 1826, aged 80 years. Ebenezer Picket, Jr., resided with his father until his marriage (with Catharine, daughter of Deacon William Lath- rop), when he built near where the Baptist meeting-house at Grangerville, now stands; he afterwards lived on the State road, but for thirty or more years preceding his death, he occupied the David Doud farm, next below the Bolles school-house. He died in 1867, in his 81st year.
In 1810, a road was surveyed from Jonathan West's (then in Bridgewater), to John Jay's, passing Nathan Tupper's place.
In 1811, Jabez Hyde, Jr., was elected sheriff of Luzerne, under circumstances which showed the strong hold he bad on the public confidence. In 1814, he was in the Legislature ; and two years later, on the election of Dr. Charles Fraser to the Senate, he was appointed by Gov. Snyder to take his place as prothonotary, register, recorder, and clerk of Susquehanna County. These offices he held until 1820. The next year he was again elected to the Legislature, and in 1823 was appointed one of the three commissioners for expending $50,000 in im- proving the navigation of the Susquehanna River. He was a delegate to the State Convention for altering the Constitution. After the revision, he was appointed by Gov. Porter to the Bench of Susquehanna County. Perseverance was strongly characteristic of Judge Hyde. Few men have in times of poli- tical excitement, held so many important trusts, and had so universally the esteem of their fellow citizens for strict high- minded integrity. He died at his residence, in Rush, Oct. 8th, 1841, aged 66.
Stephen Hyde resided with his father, and brother Jabez, Jr. He was accidentally and fatally shot while hunting, by Horace Dimock, in the summer of 1811 or '12.
In 1812, Dennis Granger came from Vermont, and located near the cemetery, where he resided until his recent death.
William Granger was killed, while assisting to raise the barn now standing near the main road, on the place long known as the Warren Lung farm.
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
In 1813 or '14, Levi Shove occupied John Jay's farm, on which Walter Lathrop made the first clearing.
In 1818, Joab Picket's farm (now Snyder's) was occupied by William Ross.
That of Dan Metcalf was occupied by Ichabod Terry, who married Lucilla, daughter of Mr. Metcalf. Mr. Terry remained here until his death, in 1849, at the age of 66 years. It is but very recently that the large stone chimney of the old homestead disappeared.
Salmon Brown's place (now Elder H. H. Gray's), was for many years occupied by Alanson Lung.
Daniel Ross died on the place he cleared over seventy years ago. The homestead forms a part of the hotel of Wm. H. Sher- wood.
After the organization of Susquehanna County, and conse- quent division of Rush, one-fourth of the poor-tax was allowed, in 1813, to that portion remaining in Bradford County. The list of taxables for 1813, within the present bounds of Rush, in addition to the persons previously mentioned as residents, included several who appear to have remained but a few years : Hezekiah Low, Daniel Roots, and others. Jabez Sum- ner resided on the Deer Lick, and afterwards in Auburn. Fairchild Canfield was two miles up the North Branch.
Robert H. Rose, Henry Drinker, and others were taxed for unseated lands. Their names occur on the town records, for the first time, in the transcripts of 1810 and 1812.
The whole number, including residents of Choconut and Middletown-as they were before the organization of Jessup and Forest Lake-was about 180. The same year a bridge was ordered, near Joab Picket's, across the Wyalusing, to be built at the expense of the county. A road was surveyed from the North Branch to the Middle Branch of the Wyalusing.
In 1816, Lloyd Goodsell (from Auburn ?), Philander and Francis Pepper, from Connecticut ; Robert Estes, and others were here.
John M. Brownson was then town clerk; and in 1818, he was a merchant at the Forks. William Lathrop had a saw- mill at the junction of Lake Creek with the Wyalusing.
Elections were held at Joab Picket's.
In 1819, Larry Dunmore, George Devine, Jacob Eaton, Wil- liam Lathrop, Jr., and John Hancock, were among the new taxables. The last named was afterwards town clerk, overseer of the poor, and county commissioner.
Russel Very was here in 1820; Isaac Deuel in 1823.
In 1824, Rushville post-office was established ; David Shove, postmaster.
In 1825, there appears on the town records a list of " ear-
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marks," by which the sheep and swine of the different owners in the town might be recognized.
J. Demmon Pepper was on the Mineral Spring farm in 1826. His father was located not far from it.
David Dewers was here in 1827.
Tarbox, Burrows & Co. were merchants at Rushville in 1829. The building occupied by them was consumed by fire on the 29th of October, 1871.
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In 1831, Samuel Shoemaker was taxed with a grist mill, near the confluence of the outlet of Elk Lake and Wyalusing Creek. Richard S. Shoemaker, a brother, purchased and took posses- sion of this property in 1838. The present mills, grist and saw- mill, were built in 1858; and make use of both of the above- named creeks. S. Shoemaker had seven sons, of whom four reside in Susquehanna County.
In 1835, Rush Centre post-office was established. Two years later, Bruce's Valley post-office took its place. It was located at the present residence of H. H. Gray. Alanson Lung and A. Picket were the postmasters here. This is discontinued, and Rush post-office, at Grangerville, takes its place. The East Rush post-office, of which J. F. Dunmore was the first post- master, was established prior to the last named.
David Hillis, the first Irish settler, came in 1836; Carroll, in 1839; P. Redding, in 1841; and James Logan, in 1842.
Mrs. Catharine Calwell, born in Ireland, died in Rush, August, 1872, aged 105 years.
Within a few years, a Baptist church has been erected at Grangerville. At Rushville, the Presbyterian church was built in great part by Henry J. Champion and Chandler Bixby, both now dead. The Roman Catholic church is at Bixby's Pond. There are three M. E. churches in the township; at East Rush, Rush Center, and on Devine Ridge. The last named was built in 1867-8, principally through the liberality of George Devine and sons. Five of the latter live here on adjoining farms.
Among the physicians who have practiced in Rush, the first on record is Dr. Reuben Baker, who married a daughter of Isaac Hancock. He lived just below the latter, and conse- quently outside of the county ; but was generally to be found, it is said, at the Deer Lick-his leisure being spent in hunting. He practiced extensively over the western half of the county, prior to the in-coming of Dr. Leet, of Friendsville. (See Phy- sicians.)
Rush has but one store, kept by N. Granger, at Grangerville, who has been in the business there for about twenty-four years.
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
The poor-house of Rush, Auburn, Forest Lake, and Spring- ville, is located on the Larry Dunmore farm.
The Wyalusing Railway, to extend from the mouth of the Wyalusing to the forks, or junction, of the North Branch, is projected.
CHAPTER XVI.
DIMOCK.
DIMOCK was principally included in Springville from 1814 to December, 1832, when it became the nineteenth township, taking from Bridgewater one mile across its southern border.
The town was named in honor of Davis Dimock, then asso- ciate judge of the Susquehanna courts.
Excepting a slight alteration of the line between Dimock and Jessup, its dimensions have remained as at first, six and a half miles east and west, by four and a half miles north and south.
From the timber frequently found here it has been sometimes called " The Basswood township."
With the exception of the outlet of Elk Lake and near tribu- taries, the township is wholly drained by the Meshoppen, or Mawshapi, in Indian language, signifying cord or reed stream. (So, Chapman, who generally quoted from Heckewelder; but another authority makes it glass beads, from a distribution of them among the Indians in this locality.)
The area of Dimock, under the Connecticut surveys, was comprised of parts of Chebur, Bidwell, Dandolo, and Manor. The last named was only three and three-quarters miles in width, while most of the townships were six miles square.
The first settlers of Dimock were Thomas and Henry Parke in 1796; Joseph Chapman and son Joseph in Chebur, tempo- rarily, in 1798; George Mowry, and sons Ezekiel and Charles, as early as 1799, in the western part of Manor; Martin Myers and Thomas Giles the same year; Asa and Ezekiel Lathrop and Asahel Avery, 1800-1802.
Thomas Parke, usually styled Colonel Parke, came with his younger brother Henry from Charleston, R. I., June, 1796, and commenced a clearing on the Meshoppen Creek, near the south- east corner of what is now Dimock township. They were the sons of Benjamin Parke, who was slain at the battle of Bunker Hill (being in command of a company) June, 1775, leaving a widow, four sons, and two daughters. Thomas and Henry were the younger sons, and, under the care of their grandfather, a
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
Puritan clergyman, received a good education. Thomas was a fine mathematician, a good practical surveyor, and an occasional contributor to the newspapers of that day published at Wilkes- Barre by Charles Miner and others. He had filled several minor offices in his native State, invested his patrimony and means in the purchase of the Connecticut title to lands in Penn- sylvania, and came here the legal owner, as he supposed, of some 10,000 acres-nearly half of the township of Bidwell- lying on the waters of the Meshoppen, and covering parts of what is now Dimock and Springville. He fixed his residence on the farm (Parkevale) where he lived till his death in 1842. When he came to look up his lands he found only two settlers west of "Nine Partners," and they were near to what is now Brooklyn Center. West of that to the W yalusing Creek was a belt of twenty-five miles north and south, an unbroken forest. With the aid of his compass he explored and marked a path to the forks of the Wyalusing, the nearest place where any bread- stuff's could be obtained, from whence they were to be brought on his back until the next season, when a small green crop was raised. In the winter of 1797 he walked home to Charleston, R. I., and walked back the next spring.
In 1800, he returned to Rhode Island, and was married to Eunice Champlin, of Newport; and in 1802, brought her with an infant son to a log-cabin in his wilderness home. Here, a true helpmeet to her husband, and a blessing to all who knew her, she raised a family of eight children. She died November 10, 1858, in the ninetieth year of her age.
In an obituary notice of Col. Parke, published in the 'Sus- quehanna Register,' in 1842, it is stated that he was employed as an agent by several persons who held bodies of land under the same title as his own, and spent most of the first years of his residence here, in surveying and dividing the country into townships and lots for selling to the settlers. Knowing that this territory was covered by the charter to Connecticut, and had always been claimed by the Connecticut company, he, in common with many of the soundest men in the Union, believed that the Connecticut claimants had the best title to the land. So believing, he firmly adhered to his rights, and defended the title both by argument and with his pen, until the legislative and judicial tribunals of the last resort had settled the question otherwise. He never believed the decree at Trenton just or right.
During the pendency of this controversy, he evinced that scrupulous honesty, and unswerving integrity, which through life characterized all his acts, by refusing to give up the agency for the Connecticut claimants, and to accept an agency on the other side, together with a lease for all the lands he claimed;
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
which would have made his title indisputable. He thought that in so doing he would show a distrust of the title under which he and others claimed lands; give his opponents an advantage over others for whom he acted, and thereby injure those who, relying upon his integrity, had entrusted their in- terests to his care, and who were not present to accept a sur- render of his agency, and act for themselves. By this decision he lost all the worldly estate he possessed, and was afterwards obliged to purchase upon credit, from his successful opponents, paying, by surveying, about six hundred acres, including the farm upon which he resided and died.
He was for three years one of the commissioners of Luzerne County, and one of the three trustees appointed by the governor, in 1811, to run the lines, lay off, and organize Susquehanna County.
His eldest son, Hon. Benj. Parke, LL.D., after an absence of some thirty years, returned to the paternal home in 1860. This is near the site of the log-house to which he was brought in 1802.
"That dwelling stood in a beautiful valley, nearly surrounded by hills, be- side a brook of pure water which ran through, and gave name to the valley. Though of unhewn logs, it was of ample size and comfortable It appeared, however, as a home far different to those who then saw it for the first time, than it did to the one who had toiled six years to prepare it. Col. Parke brought with him his sister, a young and accomplished girl, besides his wife and infant son. They, as most of the women who emigrated early to Sus- quehanna County, had been reared in the bosom of New England families, and left the society of dear friends and relations. They had enjoyed, too, from childhood, a frequent intercourse with the city of Newport, the then emporium of New England fashion and style. What a change and contrast ! A small clearing in the midst of a dense forest ; few neighbors within five miles, and none nearer than a mile and a half of their dwelling. Their house, being of larger size than most others near, and upon the only traveled road leading eastward, in that section, was the general stopping-place of most of those coming from the Eastern States, to look for or settle upon farms in that part of the country. Here they were most cheerfully received, and en- tertained without charge, though beds and floors were frequently filled and covered with lodgers.
"No one then thought of receiving pay from such transient guests. Their company and the news they brought from the outer world was more than an equivalent for their entertainment."!
Sarah C., daughter of Col. Thomas Parke, was born here De- cember 5, 1802-the first birth in the township.
One of our venerable townsmen who, when eighteen years old, was living at Col. Parke's, communicates the following in reference to Henry Parke :-
1 Extracted from an address delivered at the Nineteenth Annual Fair of the Susquehanna County Agricultural Society, October 5, 1865, by Mr. Parke, then president of the society.
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
" An uncle of the Hon. Benj. Parke was occasionally a resident there for some days together. He was a very sociable, intelligent gentleman, and I was often entertained with his account of the first settlement of that region. Among other things, he told of backing provision from Black Walnut Bot- tom, on the river, following a line of marked trees; and once, being belated, he failed to find the clearing, and camped by the side of a log till morning. Starting again, in a few moments he discovered the clearing, and was much vexed that he had lain out so near home."
This incident proved a serious one to Mr. H. Parke; he be- came chilled that wintry night, and his constitution was perma- nently injured. He was an early school teacher, and for many years acted as constable, deputy sheriff, and tax collector for the northern part of Luzerne County, then extending to the north line of the State. He owned and, for several years, re- sided upon the farm (Woodbourne), now the residence of George Walker, Esq. He was never married. He died in the city of New York, in 1831.
The venerable Charles Miner, of Wyoming, wrote, not long before his death, respecting this region as it was in 1799 and 1800 :-
" Thomas Parke and his brother Henry-active intelligent men-with a black boy, were alone in Bidwell. Charles Mowry was one of my fellow-stu- dents in Nature's beechwoods academy. After I became a printer, he wrote an article for my paper. I said to him, . Mr. Mowry, you are capable of better things than rolling logs. Come to my office, and in two years you will be fitted for a printer and editor.' Brother Asher at Doylestown needing belp, he entered his office. proved a good writer, clear, nervous ; became pre- ceptor in the academy ; established a paper at Downington, Chester County, which he sustained with profit and reputation many years. He was invited by Governor Findlay's friends to remove to Harrisburg, and he afterwards became canal commissioner. As honest and clever a fellow as ever breathed, but as thorough a Democrat as I was Federalist."
Reference was made in the annals of Brooklyn to the tempo- rary residence, in 1798, of Captain Chapman and son, in Che- bur, to 400 acres of which they supposed they held a legal title; but this eventually shared the fate of Colonel Parke's.
They named their place " Montcalm;" cleared a few acres around the site of the house they erected in 1799, on the Ting- ley farm, about a mile below Dimock Corners. In the fall of the same year it was occupied by Martin Myers, while his own house was being built a short distance below, and while the family of Captain Chapman were in Dandolo, on the farm now occupied by C. M. Chapman, his great-grandson. Joseph Chap- man, Jr., remained there permanently, but his father and the younger members of the family came to "Montcalm" in the spring of 1800.
" Isaac A. and Edward, sons of Captain Joseph Chapman, were boys who spent their days in the laborious occupation of felling and clearing the forest, and assisting to provide for the wants of the family ; and their evenings by the light of a huge blazing fire, studying whatever books could be obtained 15
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
from the few ' settlers,' who lived within a circle of from ten to twenty miles around, and who were all neighbors warmly interested in each other's wel- fare and happiness. In this manner, aided by a very intelligent elder sister, and the occasional assistance of the more educated of the settlers, did these two brothers educate and improve themselves to such a degree, that to hu- man apprehension, only an early death prevented them from being the very first men in our State. They were both excellent mathematicians, practical surveyors, and draughtsmen. Poetry and landscape painting were occasion- ally resorted to as an amusement, and many of the singular events and rude scenes of that new and wild country were the subjects of their pen and peucil. Edward afterwards studied law, and commenced the practice at Sunbury, where he died deeply lamented by all who ever had the pleasure of his ac- quaintance." (From ' Harrisburg Keystone,' 1839. B. Parke, Esq. Editor.)
In reference to the sister to whom they were so much in- debted, the Hon. Charles Miner said :-
" Miss Lydia Chapman, a lady of high intelligence and great merit, became an inhabitant of Wilkes-Barre and an instructress of a school. Married with Dr. G. W. Trott ; their accomplished daughter intermarried with the Hon. G. W. Woodward."
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