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 29
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Of the success of the superintendent in gaining the confidence of the parents whose children are her pupils, an anecdote is told which will bear repeating. A man who had been greatly opposed to having his children attend the school, became con- vinced at last of the benefit they had derived from it. Aroused to a sense of gratitude, before leaving the place he resorted to Mrs. G. to express it, which he did by saying, "It's the d -- dest best Sunday-school I ever see !"
One of Miss N. G.'s class was not the dullest pupil, though from his familiarity with his father's mill he drew his own inference when his teacher told him he was " made of dust." The next Sabbath, when he was asked the question, " Of what are you made ?" he promply replied, "of saw-dust !"
Miss Carrie Hartley, a former pupil and teacher in this school, was for two years a missionary in Madura, India.
HON. G. A. GROW.
Galusha A. Grow was born in Ashford, now Eastford, Windham County, Conn., and in May 1834, at the age of ten years, came from Voluntown of the same county, to Susquehanna County, Penna., with his widowed mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Grow. Her husband, Mr. Joseph Grow, had died some years pre- vious, leaving her with six children-the oldest a daughter but fourteen years old, and the youngest a babe, also a daughter; her four sons, Edwin, Fred- erick, Samuel, and Galusha, were between them in age, in the order of their names as here given. Mrs. Grow brought to Susquehanna County only her oldest son, the youngest daughter, and Galusha. Her eldest daughter, then recently married, was going to meet her husband who had bought land in Luzerne County just below Dundaff. They were accompanied by Samuel A. Newton, who afterwards bought in Brooklyn. and Charles Barstow, who bought the hotel and farm at Crystal Lake. Mrs. Grow bought the farm in Lenox formerly owned by Solomon Millard. The land was then in a poor state of cultivation, and the whole 440 acres were obtained for $1300. A yoke of oxen and one cow constituted the stock on the farm that year, and a field of oats and a few acres of corn were the result of the united labors of Edwin and the oxen driven by Galusha. The pigeons that year rested on Elk Hill,1 and were very destructive to the farmers' oats and corn. As Ga-
- lusha was then too young to work, he was assigned a post upon the ridge of a barn, which then stood between the corn-field and the oats, that he might with two small sticks rattle upon the roof and scare off the pigeons. So he spent the days, after the corn came up till it was too large for the pigeons to disturb. He was obliged to be up early in the morning, and to carry his dinner with him, as the pigeons were so numerous they would destroy a whole field in a very short time. Imagination sees the embryo Speaker of Congress perched on that barn-roof no less happy and no less dignified-since his post
' The Volunteer of that season had a paragraph respecting the eastern part of the county : " Nine miles in length and two in width-every foot of which, and almost every tree and branch of which, are occupied by pigeons."
The beech-nuts were the attraction.
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was one of essential service-than in the palmy days when he occupied the third seat in the nation.
The children had been scattered among relatives after the death of their father until Mrs. Grow's residence at Lenox ; but here they were all eventu- ally gathered in one family, and remained such for years after attaining their majority and engaging in business. The mother died in 1864, and is remem- bered by her neighbors as a woman of uncommon worth, and deserving of more than an ordinary tribute.
During the winter of 1836-'37, and that of '37-'38. Galusha was at school in the old school-house, which has recently been converted into a neat chapel for the use of Mrs. F. P. Grow's Sabbath-school. In that building there was then occasionally an old-fashioned spelling-school-" choosing sides " between the scholars and those of the next district, which extended as far down as Bacon's. Here, too, when he was not yet fourteen years old, he took an active part in the Debating Society, which was held alternately in each of those districts, for which he prepared himself on his walks twice a day to and from foddering cattle. about one mile from the house.
Assisting his brother in the small country store originally established by Mrs. Grow's energy, on the present site of the Glenwood post-office, and accompanying him in the spring in rafting lumber down the Susquehanna to Port Deposit, Md., Galusha found occupation for seasons when not in school until he entered Franklin Academy at Harford, in the spring of 1838. He and his younger sister Elizabeth (afterwards the wife of Hon. J. Everett Streeter) then had rooms a mile from the academy at Mrs. Farrar's, where they boarded themselves; but the winter following, his sister not being with him, he roomed in the Institution, and boarded, as one of a club, with Mrs. Walker, mother of the present Governor of Virginia.
Preston Richardson was then Principal, but at his death, soon after, the Rev. Willard Richardson succeeded him. and was Mr. Grow's teacher until he left, in 1840, for Amherst College. His first political speech was made in his senior year at Amherst, in 1844. He graduated as stated in the 'Men of Our Day,' " with high honors in his class, and with the reputation of being a ready debater, and a fine extemporaneous speaker." He commenced study- ing law with Hon. F. B. Streeter in the winter of 1845, and was admitted to the bar of Susquehanna County April 19th, 1847.
He was law-partner of Hon. David Wilmot at Towanda, 1848-49 ; but his health then demanding a resort to out-door pursuits, he spent some time in surveying, peeling bark, working on the farm, etc. In the fall of 1850 he received the unanimous nomination for the State Legislature by the Demo- cratic Convention of the county, which he declined.
The same season, the Hon. David Wilmot withdrew as a candidate for Congress in the 12th District, with the understanding that the free-soil party would support Mr. Grow, hitherto unknown outside of the county. The result was the election of Mr. Grow, just one week after his nomination, by a ma- jority of 1264 over the Republican candidate, John C. Adams, of Bradford. He took his seat December, 1851, at the time but 26 years old-the youngest member of Congress.
In 1852 his majority was 7500, and at the next election the vote was unan- imous, owing to his opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska bill. From the date of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, Mr. Grow severed his connection with the Democratic party ; still he continued to represent the Wilmot Dis- trict until the 4th of March, 1863 His defeat at the election the previous fall was owing to the Congressional apportionment which united Susque- hanna County with Luzerne, thus giving a preponderating Democratic vote.
Mr. Grow's " maiden speech" in Congress was reported as among the ablest speeches in behalf of the Homestead Bill-a measure he persistently brought forward every Congress for ten years, when he had at last the satis- faction of signing the law as Speaker of the House of Representatives.
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His passage-at-arms with Keitt, of South Carolina, is yet fresh in the minds of many, as a timely and appropriate answer to former Southern insolence ..
July 4th, 1861, he was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives, and " at the close of his term received a UNANIMOUS vote of thanks, which was the first unanimous vote that had been given by that body to any Speaker in many years."
He was drafted under the first draft, and, although exempted by the board of examination as unfit for military duty, he still furnished a substitute.
Mr. Grow's public career has been admirably summed up in ' The Men of Our Day,' as " marked by a persistent advocacy of free homesteads, free ter- ritory, human freedom, cheap postage, and indeed every measure by which the people were to be made wiser, purer, and happier."
In 1868, the popular voice in Northern Pennsylvania, and most of the Re- publican press of the State, proposed Mr. Grow as successor to Mr. Bucka- lew in the U. S. Senate, and by many "his nomination as the Republican candidate for Governor would be accepted with great cordiality and enthu- siasm."
Mr. Grow is now (1872) at the South, and President of the Houston and Great Northern Railroad of Texas.
No man of Susquehanna County has ever been so widely known to states- men at home and abroad ; nor is it probable that, very soon, any combina- tion of circumstances will place another of our citizens more prominently. before the public.
For the following list of trees, shrubs, and plants found in Le- nox, with other items, the compiler is indebted to a lady of the township :-
Among trees are found the beech ; birch (black and yellow); basswood (the American lime or linden) ; butternut, or white walnut; button-wood, or American plane-tree ; chestnut; cherry (black. choke, and red) ; the slip- pery elm ; hemlock ; hickory (bitter-nut and small-fruited) ; iron-wood ; maple, (hard and soft) ; oak (black and white) ; pine (white); white poplar, or Amer- ican aspen ; sumach (smooth and poison) ; tulip-tree, or whitewood; willow ; witch-hazel ; and walnut.
Among shrubs and plants, the mountain currant ; cranberry ; dogwood ; elder (common and panicled) ; frost-grape ; gooseberry ; hazel; mountain- laurel; American rose-bay ; raspberry (red and black); wild rose ; sarsaparilla ; sassafras ; scouring-rush ; thorn ; thistle (Canada and common); whortleberry ; trailing arbutus ; anemone ; spring-beauty ; pink azalea, or May-apple; ad- der's tongue ; artichoke; bloodroot; boneset ; blue-flag; blue-eyed grass ; bulrushes ; butter-cup; burdock ; cat-tail; catnip ; celandine ; checkerberry, or wintergreen ; chickweed; white clover ; several varieties of club-moss ; comfrey ; cotton-thistle; cowslip; crane's-bill; cut-grass; red columbine ; dandelion ; ox-eyed daisy ; yellow dock ; dodder; "Dutchman's breeches"; several varieties of ferns, among them the maiden's hair, and walking fern; golden-rod ; goldthread; Indian-pipe; June-berry ; lilies (meadow, white pond and yellow pond) ; live-forever ; high and low mallows ; milk-weed ; mullein; many varieties of moss ; stinging nettle ; wild parsnip; partridge-berry ; peu- nyroyal ; peppermint pickerel-weed ; common plaintain; poison-ivy ; poke ; prince's pine ; purslain ; fringed polygala; Solomon's seal (one variety) ; side- saddle flower ; varieties of sorrel; spearmint; strawberry ; tansey; trillium (white, pink, and dull red) ; violets (deep and light blue, and white) ; water- cress.
The farms of this township produce wheat of excellent quality on the high grounds ; with oats, corn, potatoes, rye, buckwheat, and clover. Of fruit there are apples, pears, quinces, grapes, and peaches, though the latter are of a very poor quality, and not abundant. In seasons of unusual length, dry- ness, and heat, sweet potatoes of very excellent quality have been grown in the valleys of Lenox.
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
In early times raccoons were more numerous than animals of any other kind ; but deer, black bears, and wolves were here in great numbers. There were also panthers, wildcats, beavers, skunks, woodchucks, squirrels (black, red, gray, and chipmunks) ; mink, muskrats, marten. etc. As late as Decem- ber, 1869, a wildcat was shot in Lenox. Driven by dogs, it had taken shelter in a tree.
Bee-trees were of great value ; and perhaps few were more profitable than one recently found in the township, from which was taken 256 lbs. of honey.
CHAPTER XVIII.
AUBURN.
WHEN Susquehanna County was set off from Luzerne by act of legislature in 1810, the southern line divided the township of Braintrim, and by decree of court, April, 1814, the portion above the line-about six miles by eight-received the name of Auburn. This name had been given by Connecticut survey- ors to a section including part of this township, while on Penn- sylvania records it had until this time only the former. With the exception of Great Bend it is the only township of our county which retains its original dimensions.
It is bounded on the north by the township of Rush, on the east by Dimock and Springville, on the south by the county of Wyoming, and on the west by that of Bradford, thus being the southwestern township of Susquehanna County.
The Susquehanna River comes at one point within two and a half miles of its southern border.
Tuscarora Creek runs four and a half miles across the north- western part of Auburn. The Pochuck in the western, the Little Meshoppen near the center, and the west branch of the Meshoppen (Riley Creek), have their sources within the town- ship. The middle branch of the Meshoppen crosses the south- east corner. The Little Meshoppen unites with the main stream a few rods from its mouth.
The lakes of Auburn are few and small, none larger than ordinary mill-ponds, except the one crossed by the northern line of the township, Kinney's Pond, which is one mile in length and from one-quarter to one-half mile in width.
The general surface is rolling or hilly, but nearly every acre is tillable. The soil is a clayey loam.
There are various stone-quarries in the township. The strata of a quarry about half a mile south of Auburn Corners are from half an inch to several inches in thickness, without the dip so common to the rocks of this region, but horizontal, with the
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
appearance of having been deposited in quiet waters, and not disturbed by any subsequent upheaval. Marine shells are occa- sionally found imbedded between the layers, also vegetable remains or their impressions.1 Stone has been drawn from this quarry for building purposes, both to Wilkes-Barre and Mont- rose, though in the latter case it might appear like "taking coals to Newcastle."
The township has four post-offices, viz., Auburn Four Cor- ners, Auburn Center, South Auburn, and West Auburn, or New Laceyville, and these points are so many centers of business, the last mentioned being the portion of the township first settled. This was in the vicinity of the upper branch of the Tuscarora Creek, which rises in Kinney's Pond.
SETTLEMENT.
In 1797, Lyman Kinney, from Litchfield County, Conn., made a clearing on the place now owned by Hamlet Hill ; it was then a part of the 3000 acres which his father Daniel had bought under a Connecticut title. As this proved defective, Lyman, prior to 1814, sold his improvements to John and Thomas Morley, and left. The Pennsylvania title was held by Henry Drinker, of Philadelphia, who transferred it to Thos. P. Cope, of the same city.
Lloyd Goodsell, it is asserted, was the first settler in East Auburn; his location is now occupied by Frederick Russell. His wife was a daughter of Isaac Bronson, of Rush.
Myron Kasson has been supposed by some to be the "first to attack the unbroken forest of Auburn, lying out in the woods at night, not knowing of a human being within ten miles of him." Mr. Miner mentions both in his list of the settlers here in 1799. Both left for the East in the fall.
Ezekiel Avery, in 1800, came from Connecticut with Benajah Frink, then single, and made a clearing northwest of the corners (where Mr. Linaberry now lives), and was the first who wintered in Auburn. His wife the next spring brought in the family ; on the journey one of the horses was lost, and they had to diminish their means of support by the purchase of another. His sons were David and George.
William Frink, father of Benajah, came this year, and began a clearing on the hill between the latter and Mr. Avery, and afterwards located here with his family. He died about 1829. His son William was but a lad when he came to Auburn.
Benajah Frink built the first frame house upon the site of the one now occupied by Mrs. Jacob Titman; he also built the first
1 A variety of these, as also of Indian relics found in the vicinity, are now in the possession of J. B. Beardsley.
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
cider-mill. He split pine logs and shaved them to make clap- boards. He married, February, 1805, the youngest daughter of Isaac Hancock, of Rush, and his sons were, Orrin, Tracy, Isaac, and William. He died August, 1851. His widow is living in New Milford, after having spent sixty-one years in Auburn. She states that Mr. Kasson came in a year later than Mr. Goodsell, and that he boarded with the latter. She remem- bers hearing at the time that Mr. G., being out of meal, went to get his grain ground, and was gone two or three days, during which the family lived on squash and milk. [It is possible Mrs. F. mistakes Mr. Kasson's second coming for the first ; he had left the town when she came to it.]
According to the recollection of Mr. Paul Overfield, of Braintrim, Solomon Kinney came, in 1800, to the farm now occupied by J. Benscoter, two and a half miles northwest of Auburn Center. He was the first in that vicinity. It is said that, after harvesting a fine crop of wheat, he lost the whole by fire communicated to it from a fallow which he was burning, and from that to his house. He saved a few effects, and with his wife left the country never to return.
Eldad Bronson and son Amos came to the town about 1801, from Connecticut.
John Passmore, then a minor, came from Rhode Island, and took up land near the Corners, under a Connecticut title, but did not locate until five years later.
Cyril Peck, Ezekiel and Asa Lathrop were considered in the neighborhood, though located beyond the township lines.
Hiram Carter and Thomas Wheeler were the first settlers in South Auburn, the former on the place now owned by Rufus J. Carter, and the latter on the one now owned by E. O. Dunlap. Both came in June, 1805, from Black Walnut, in Braintrim, near Joshua Keeney's.1 The sons of Hiram Carter were Jonas, Theron, Samuel, and Daniel.
Chester Adams must have come to Mr. Kasson's place at Auburn Corners prior to 1805, as at that date Mr. K. was on the farm at Springville, which Mr. Adams sold him in exchange for that at the Corners.
His sons were Chester and Elijah.
The sons of Thomas Morley were, Ambrose, John, Thomas (representative 1843-44), and Eben. P.
Eli Billings settled about 1805, on the Tuscarora Creek, at what is called New Laceyville. He had a son Eli, who made
1 To prevent confusion, it may be well to state there were three distinct families in old Braintrim whose names are so similar as to cause mistakes. Capt. Joshua Keeney and Capt. Joseph Kinny were outside of Susquehanna County ; Deacon Daniel Kinney, father of Lyman Kinney, as above, and Solomon Kinney of another family.
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
the first clearing where Elisha Cogswell now lives, and who died in 1815. Eli Billings, Sen., in 1839, sold to David Lacey. When he came to the place there was a man named Sesson on the farm, now owned by Rev. Bela Cogswell (over the line in Bradford County), and one George Gamble where Oliver Warner now lives; and these were the only families between him and Abiel Keeney's saw-mill on the Tuscarora, two miles above Skinner's Eddy. The site of this saw-mill, some time between 1790 and 1800, was occupied by a saw and grist-mill, built by Elihu Hall.
Nathaniel, second son of Eli Billings, made the first clearing and put up a log house on what is known as " the James farm."
Hosea, the third son, had two sons, Eli and Nathaniel. Joseph and Henry Billings were sons of Eli senior. Most of the family moved to the West, and none are now in Auburn.
William Cooley, who married a daughter of Joshua Keeney, came in a year or two after H. Carter and Wheeler, and settled near the present site of Carlin's mills, on the Little Meshoppen, where his widow still resides. Robert, Stephen, William, and Daniel Cooley were brothers.
In 1806, John Passmore returned, made a clearing, and built a cabin at Auburn Corners. Feb. 1807, he married Elizabeth Overfield of Braintrim. He was commissioned the first justice of the peace in 1816, by Gov. Snyder, for Auburn, Rush, and Middletown. He had four sons, Norman, John, Nicholas, and Joseph, and seven daughters. He died March 12th, 1835, aged 53 years.
In 1807, John Riley came to the place still known as his, southwest of the Corners; and a road was laid out from the river to Cooley's. This road was afterwards extended farther north, as appears by the court record :-
Luzerne County, ss., November session, 1808. The petition of Joshua Keeny and others was read, praying for viewers to be appointed to view and lay out a road from or near William Cooley's, on Little Meshoppen, to inter- sect a road now laid out near Lathrop's mill, a distance of about eight miles ; wherefore the court appoint Henry Chapman, Eleazar Gaylord, Thomas Wheeler, Asa Lathrop, Myron Kasson, and Zophar Blakesly to view the ground proposed for said road.
Many were the privations endured among the early settlers ; but, to some, there was none greater than the absence of their former privileges of religious worship. About 1808, Eld. Davis Dimock came to this little community and baptized a few of its members. Meetings for prayer were held at Ezekiel Lathrop's, a mile south of the Lakes, in Dimock.
David Avery, oldest son of Ezekiel, and his sister, now Mrs. Jonathan Vaughn, used to come to the " Middle school-house " in Bridgewater (just below the south line of Montrose), a dis-
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
tance of twelve miles, to hear Eld. Dimock preach. She rode on horseback, and her brother walked beside her; they could not have come in a wagon if they had had one. When David went to Harris' mill, about nine miles from home, he frequently spent the night, in returning, at George Mowry's, above the Lakes; and, so scarce then was meal, Mrs. M. would take some from his sack to provide him a supper. He went West 25 years ago.
There was little grass ; cattle browsed on young brush, and hogs were " turned out to beech-nuts " In common with others in all this section, the first settlers of Auburn purchased their lands under the Connecticut title, and many paid their money, in good faith, to the agents of the Connecticut claims. After the final legal decision made in favor of the Pennsylvania title, some who had paid their money, and toiled hard to secure a home, gave up in despair and left the country.
Occasionally, additions were made to those who remained, and in 1813, the first assessment of the township (still called Braintrim) was made by the commissioners of Susquehanna Co. The tax-payers were : Chester Adams, Ezekiel and David Avery, Eli Billings, Eldad Bronson, Amos Bronson, Hiram Carter, William and Stephen Cooley, Benajah Frink, Philip and George Haverly, Abraham Lott, Thomas Morley, John Oakley, John Passmore, Comfort Penney, John Riley, John Ross, and Thomas Wheeler.
In 1814, James Hines appears to have had the farm of John Ross, and Daniel Sterling that of Comfort Penny, who had re- mnoved.
Robert Dunlap, Simeon Green, Larry Dunmore, Jesse and Josiah Wakefield were among the new-comers, as also in 1815 were Elias and Amos Bennett, Lawrence Meacham, Palmer Guile, and James B. Turrel. The last named bought of Lloyd Goodsell.
In 1816, Philonus Beardsley bought a farm of John Pass- more, the same now occupied by J. B. Beardsley, his son. He brought his family from Litchfield Co., Conn., the following year. His oldest son, A. Beardsley, Esq., of Springville, re- mained in Auburn until 1829. Charles, the second son, after- wards resided in Montrose, and later, established an extensive carriage manufactory in New York city.
Mr. P. Beardsley resided in Auburn until his death, early in 1833.
In 1817, John Oakley's place was occupied by Charles Ash- ley. Julius Coggswell was in Auburn this year ; also Thomas W. James, Hiram Whipple, and Solomon Dimmock.
Jabez Sumner and others, who may have come a year or two
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
earlier. [In taking the tax list for a guide the compiler is not sure of the precise year of arrival.]
In 1818, Curtis Russel; in 1819, Edward Dawson, John and Waltrin Love.
The first town meeting on record was in 1819. Philonus Beardsley was then elected town clerk; Elias Bennett and George Harding, supervisors ; Curtis Russel and Hiram Whip- ple, constables; C. Adams, B. Frink, and E. Bennett, freeholders ; John Passmore and John Riley, poor-masters.
In 1820, there were thirty voters in the township.
During the next five years, Francis Pepper (from Rush), David Taylor, Daniel Gregory, George and Simeon Evans, Samuel Tewksbury, and Milton Harris had arrived. The last named and S. Evans had saw-mills.
In 1826, and for five or six years following, Jonathan Kel- logg, a cabinetmaker, Joseph Carlin (where he and his sons now live), Robert Manning, Thomas Risley, Caldwell McMicken, Richard Stone, William Sherwood, Elisha Coggswell, Jacob Low, Alden H. Seeley, and Oliver C. Roberts, besides the sons of several early settlers and many temporary residents, appear among the taxables. William Overfield made the first clearing on Shannon Hill in 1832. We extract from a newspaper the following :-
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