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 32
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Mrs. Park's descriptions are doubled in value by their uni- versal application. She adds :-
" There were two services on each Sabbath, with an intermission of an hour, or (in winter) of half an hour. During this time the people remained in and around the house where the meeting was held, separately eating a lunch brought from home, or engaging in such conversation as was thought to befit the occasion. All common secular talk was considered a desecra- tion of the day, and children of religious families were strictly charged to be very circumspect in this particular.
" When no minister was present our public worship was conducted by Dea- con Ward, of New Milford, who was a good singer and reader ; but Mr. John Foot usually led the singing, and sometimes he or Mr. B. Doolittle read the sermon."
The church has maintained public worship to the present time, the pulpit being supplied by different ministers ; and from time to time large additions have been added to their member- ship.
Two churches, one in New Milford and the other in Liberty, have been organized with members who belonged originally to the " Union" church.
During Mr. Hill's ministry, the South school-house was the established place of worship. At that time there were no Sab- bath-schools, but Mr. Hill took great pains in the religious instruction of the young, giving them lessons to commit, and meeting them at appointed times to hear their recitations, to explain to them the word of God, and to pray with them. He preached but one-half the time in Lawsville, one-fourth in New Milford, and the remaining fourth he was employed as a mis- sionary to labor in more destitute places around. In his absence the three resident church members were pursuaded to conduct regular public worship. There had been a season of unusual
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religious interest in this region a number of years before a church was organized. At that time Titus Smith and Friend Tuttle were converted, and the number of family altars in Laws- ville was then increased to three. Other individuals on joining the church, years afterwards, dated their first serious impres- sions from that period. In 1818 there was another revival of religion, and on the 9th of August fourteen members were added to the church. The school-house was too small for the occasion, and the meeting was held in Ephraim Smith's barn. In the summer of 1820 there was another revival, which extended, as the former did not, beyond the present limits of Franklin, to nearly if not quite all those families in the north- ern part of Lawsville, which were regular attendants on public worship.
Rev. Lyman Richardson, of Harford, about this time licensed to preach the gospel, labored in Lawsville with great faithful- ness and success. Intent only on serving his Master, he left his pecuniary reward to be measured by the ability and generosity of the people. In the September following about thirty were added to the church, of various ages, from the gray-haired man to the little girl of ten years. Mr. R. left soon after to labor in Wysox. In 1821 Rev. Enoch Conger, employed by the Sus- quehanna County Domestic Missionary Society, visited the church at different times, and formed the first Sabbath-school in Lawsville. During the succeeding two years he was hired to preach there one-half the time, and for the better accommo. dation of all who attended on his ministry, he preached alter- nately at the three school-houses-north, south, and east; but the Sabbath-school was held every Sabbath at each of the school-houses. In the autumn of 1824 Mr. C. removed to Ohio. His youngest child at that time was Williston Kingsbury, after- wards Lieutenant Conger, of the company that arrested Wilkes Booth. Rev. Enoch C. died at the West in the spring of 1872.
The first church edifice in Franklin was erected on Cemetery Hill in 1824. Its cost was about $1400. In 1846 it was repaired and greatly improved at an expense of $400, and in 1866 the old building having been removed, a neat and commodious one took its place, costing something over $3000.
In 1836, the church changed its form of government to Pres- byterian. Five elders were chosen, among whom were Roswell, and Dea. Titus Smith. Friend Tuttle, who once shared with them the principal care of the church, had died in 1822, leav- ing a whole community to mourn his loss. He was eminently a peacemaker.
The first parsonage built was erected in 1849. (Rev. Mr. Hill had bought a few acres of land, and built a frame dwelling house and barn prior to 1820; and as late as 1867, this first
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parsonage of Franklin might have been seen a few rods east of the Upsonville Exchange, but it has since been demolished.) This was destroyed by fire, May 22d, 1858; but on account of the terrible affliction that accompanied it, the loss was scarcely felt. It was late on Saturday night when the building was discovered to be on fire. The family were roused from sleep, and the pastor, Rev. Joseph Barlow, under the bewildering ex- citement of the moment, as is supposed, attempted to enter the room where the fire was raging. As he opened the door, the flames burst out upon him, suffocating him, and causing death before he could be reached. His body was nearly consumed.
Mr. Barlow was born near Manchester, England, in April, 1787. He was converted early in life, and entered the ministry in the Methodist connection before he attained his twenty-first year. He emigrated to this country in 1819, united with the Presbyterian church in 1835, and became connected with the Montrose Presbytery the same year.
A larger and more convenient parsonage was completed in 1860, on the site of the former, a few rods south of the church.
The Methodists have a neat church edifice at the Forks, erected at a cost of $4000. There is also a Baptist church in the same neighborhood.
A temperance society and a tract society were formed in . Lawsville at an early day.
At present there is no licensed retailing of ardent spirits ; hence intoxication, pauperism, and crime are but little known. in the community.
The first school-house-a log structure-was erected in 1806, on the farm Sylvester Smith formerly owned, and near where Stiles Jacobus lives. The first teacher was Esther Buck (after- wards Mrs. James Newman of Great Bend); the second was Polly Bates (Mrs. Sylvester Smith); the third, Penila Bates (Mrs. Seth Hall), both daughters of Thomas Bates of Great Bend. Anna Buck and Selina Badger were later teachers. It is not known that there was any winter school till about 1809, when Dr. Gray, a transient settler, was employed to teach-he and his wife living in the school-house at the same time. James De Haert taught there the next winter. (He died at the house of Rufus Lines in 1813.) It is thought Leman Churchell taught during the winter of 1810-11 the last school in the building. Mr. C. was a Methodist exhorter, and held regular meetings in school-houses at an early day.
The old school-house was built in 1811 or '12. It stood nearly forty years, and was then accidentally burned. A better one was soon built near its site. The first building called the East school-house, was erected in 1818; but a better one has for many years stood in its place. In 1819, the North school-
18
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house was set a little north of Upsonville; later at this place, and was afterwards removed to make room for the brick school- house which is still standing. Lucy Upson (Mrs. S .. W. Trues- dell) taught the first two seasons. Farther west, the Allard and Baker school-houses were in one neighborhood.
The first post-office in Lawsville was established in 1811, and Richard Barnum (brother of Stephen) was the first postmaster. The office was kept on the same ground nearly fifty years. It has since been removed to a store called " Upsonville Exchange," a short distance above, and is kept by J. L. Merriman. After the town of Franklin was erected, some confusion in mail mat- ters was occasioned from the fact that there are other towns of that name in the State ; and consequently the name of Upson- ville was given to the post-office, in honor of Allen Upson, then P. M. The name attaches to the neighborhood. Freder- ick Lines was the first P. M. appointed in Franklin after the division of Lawsville; he resigned the office on becoming jus- tice of the peace.
In Franklin, August 18, 1846, four generations mowed to- gether: Charles Blowers, aged eighty-six; John Blowers, sixty-three ; Daniel C. Blowers, thirty-eight; and Albert Blowers, fourteen. The first named was a native of Dutchess County, New York. He lived to see the fifth generation, and died at the age of ninety-one, in Franklin.
Franklin Forks, at the junction of Silver and Snake Creeks, besides its churches, has two stores, two saw-mills, a blacksmith shop, a school-house, and a post office.
" Mungerville is situated in the Snake Creek Valley, three miles north of Montrose, on the direct road to Binghamton. It contains about 100 inhab- itants, has a large tannery, saw-mill, store, school-house, and a number of good dwelling-houses. It has no post-office.
" J. H. & E. P. Munger, during the past year, have tanned 27,860 sides of sole leather, which is 1000 more than was ever tanned here before, in a year. They give constant employment to about twenty-five men, and con- sume about 3000 cords of bark annually, for which they pay cash, at a good price, making employment for many in the surrounding country. They have lately fitted up a store.
" L. Foot, having purchased the saw-mill formerly owned by A. Lathrop, has taken out the muley, and put in a circular saw, and now cuts from four to five thousand feet of lumber a day, with a full head of water."
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CHAPTER XX.
LIBERTY.
PRIOR to the erection of the township of Franklin, the most of its area, together with the whole of Liberty, was included in " Old Lawsville"-the third township set off by the court of Luzerne between 1790-1800, from the territory now included in Susquehanna County. But, though with Franklin the older settled portion of Lawsville had been taken away, the prestige of the old name was left to the remainder or north part ; and " the more's the pity," it should have been so undervalued as to be exchanged less than a year later (September, 1836) for that of Liberty. Its area is about four and a half miles by six.
Most of what has been already written respecting the surface and productions of Lawsville, applies equally well to the north as to the south part of the township. Corn is the best crop, but rye is good. Corn is solid; weighs over sixty pounds to the bushel.
The most profitable business for the farmer in this section is the same as that in so many other townships-the making of butter. Sheep are kept in considerable numbers.
Next in importance to Snake Creek is Ranney Creek, which rises near the Catholic church, in the township of Silver Lake, and running northeast, crosses nearly three-fourths of the width of Liberty, and empties into Snake Creek at Brookdale. Still another stream rises in the former township between "Der- went" and Cranberry Lakes, which joins the outlet of Mud Lake, and pursuing an easterly course empties into Snake Creek at Lawsville Center. Both these creeks afford fine mill privileges. Bailey Brook has a short course near the center of the township, while Wylie Creek forms its southeastern boundary for about a mile and a half.
Tripp Lake, a small sheet in the western part of Liberty, has an outlet also emptying into Snake Creek, near the "Pleasant Valley House" of B. Jones, Esq.
The early settlers appear to have been men of great physical endurance and firmness of mind; prudent, counting the cost, and ascertaining if the work to be accomplished was within the compass of their means; their plans once matured, they were pursued with unflinching determination. They were generally persons of very limited means, and were obliged to sustain
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themselves by their own energy and industry. Several were in their minority when they settled there.
The township had for its first resident the Hon. Timothy Pickering, of Revolutionary fame. It is known that late in the last century he found his way into the valley of the Snake Creek and built a cabin on land now in Liberty and owned by Garry Law, Esq. He made a clearing and remained a year or two. Either before or soon after this, he became a large land- holder in this and other townships of the county. About the same time, Stephen Ranney, of Litchfield, Connecticut, made a small clearing on the farm now owned by Perry B. Butts. He spent one or two years here and then left; but Ranney Creek perpetuates his name [written Rhiney on the atlas].
A man named Bronson, also from Litchfield, Connecticut, made a clearing on what has been long known as the Ives farm. A Mr. Clemons (Philo?) made a small clearing near Calvin Markham's place, but soon left.
The first actual settler with a family, was Samuel Woodcock, another Litchfield County man ; his location was near where the saw-mill of Alanson Chalker now stands, about half a mile from the State line. This was in 1799 [one authority makes it 1800]. Mr. W. superintended the building of a saw-mill and grist-mill for Robert Bound, a large landowner in the township.
In 1800, Joseph and Ira Bishop, both young men without families came in. Joseph settled where Knight and Munson's tannery stands in Brookdale, and his farm contained about 100 acres. Ira settled on what was afterwards known as the Hance farm.
In 1805, Waples Hance moved in and purchased the above farm and lived there until his death in December, 1843, at the age of ninety years.
No further mention is made of any settlement of this part of Lawsville until 1811, when John Holmes, Edward Hazard, Peleg Butts, Jonathan and Jesse Ross, Caswell and Nathaniel Ives settled on the creek in the north part of the township. The Rosses were on the farm now owned by E. Lockwood and C. Markham.
Peleg Butts was previously in Silver Lake. He lived to be eighty years old, and died on the farm now occupied by his sons Abraham and Isaac, very near the State line in Liberty.
Samuel Truesdell and sons, in 1811, located southeast of Lawsville Center, on the farm lately occupied by one of them, S. W. Truesdell, Esq. The latter was a justice of the peace for the township twenty years; he died October, 1872, aged seventy three. He furnished many items for these pages.
Within the next four years, Israel Richardson (1812), Asa
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
Bennet, Joseph Hutchinson (1812), Jedediah Adams (from Great Bend), the family of Caswell Ives (Reuben then a boy), Dr. Stanford, Benajah Howard, Ebenezer Allen, David Bailey, and some others came in. Asa Bennet settled where I. Comstock recently lived. Ebenezer Allen settled on the place now occu- pied by Daniel Adams.
David Bailey came from Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He died in Liberty about the year 1844. His widow (Mary) died in 1868, aged eighty. Their descendants number about one hundred. The historian of the Abington Baptist Association, Rev. E. L. Bailey, was their son. He was three years chaplain to the Senate at Harrisburg, and subsequently became pastor of the Baptist church in Carbondale, where he died in 1870.
Rev. H. C. Hazard, now sixty-five years of age, gave in 1870, the following items respecting his father, Edward Hazard :-
" Fifty-eight years ago last March, my father, with his family, moved from Otsego County, N. Y., down the Susquehanna River to where Windsor Village now stands, and over the Oghquago Mountains to Great Bend, via Taylortown ; crossed the river in a scow, thence down the south side of the river to the mouth of Snake Creek, and up the creek two miles, where he located in an almost unbroken wilderness. The wolves were our nearest neighbors, especially at night. I saw one in the daytime within ten rods of the house, where a beef had been dressed the day before. My father used to kill as many as forty deer in a year; the hides furnished clothing and the carcasses meat.
There was not a school-house from Binghamton to Montrose, and a meeting-house I had never seen. The first school-house was built where is now Brookdale, on Snake Creek, at my father's instigation ; and he, being a carpenter and joiner, built the house, and afterwards taught the first school. I went to Binghamton to the grist-mill with my father in a canoe, some fifty years ago, when it was a wilderness where half or two-thirds of the city now stands; however, we usually got our grinding done at Josiah Stewart's, where Mckinney's mill now stands. Great Bend was our point of trade."
In 1813, George Banker came from the south part of Laws- ville, where he located three years earlier.
In 1815, Daniel Marvin came to the place previously occupied by Joseph Hutchinson.
Jonathan Howard came from Dutchess County, N. Y., in 1817, and remained in Liberty until his death, in 1869, at the age of eighty-eight. He was a soldier in the war of 1812.
Archi Marsh came from Connecticut on foot, in the fall of 1817; he was accompanied by S. W. Truesdell, who was returning from a visit to his native place.
Stephen Dawley, a son in-law of Joseph Webster, Senior, ac- companied the latter, when he came to Lawsville, in February, 1818; but Mr. D. located in the north part, now Liberty. They were sixteen days on the journey from Connecticut, with two yoke of oxen, the weather being very cold.
Though Joseph Webster and his son John were permanent
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
residents of Franklin, his son Alexander and family located in Liberty, and James and Joseph, Jr., came here afterwards.
Previous to 1820, Constantine Choate, Chauncey North, Au- relius Stevens, John Morse, and Peter Gunsalus were here. The last named had been in Franklin. David O. Turrell came in 1820; Roger Kenyon, Senior, in 1822, and Garry Law in 1826.
In 1820, with the exception of the clearings of Jonathan Howard and Peleg Butts, the country west of Snake Creek to Silver Lake was an unbroken wilderness. There was no sale of land on the Pickering tract, in Liberty, until after 1820, ex- cept in the valley of Snake Creek. (The population of Laws- ville, in 1820, was 466-females a majority of 8.)
Israel Richardson, a surveyor, originally from Windsor County, Vermont, came to Lawsville (Liberty), from Willing- borough (Great Bend). He had been a school-teacher at the latter place, where he had resided three or four years, and where he married Lucy Adams, a daughter of one of its first settlers. He kept a diary from which some extracts are taken, as illus- trative of the necessities and customs of the times. He raised his log house, near Snake Creek, on the 23d of March, 1812, and soon after brought to it "a back-load of goods." On the 1st of April he occupied the house, "on the 13th put up the east gable end, laid some chamber-floor, and brought the table home on his back." On the 30th he "leveled the ground in the house." "Trainings" were important affairs in those troublous times; on the 20th of May, the second of the kind for that month, he " went to training out to Post's." (He does not speak of Montrose until eighteen months later.)
On the 1st of June, " went to mill to Chenango Point- Bevier's-absent three days." In November of the same year he was engaged in clearing out "the old Bronson road"-a road of no small consequence to the early settlers; over it the mail was carried to Silver Lake to Great Bend, thence to Laws- ville, and back to Montrose, once a week.
Late in November, "split sticks for chimney. Made a paper window in north side of the house."
The first season he raised only one acre of green oats, and one hundred and seventy bushels of potatoes. In December, he hired out at twelve dollars per month, the usual rate when board was given.
Early in 1813, while farm-work permitted, he, like most of the pioneers, " could turn his hand" to various occupations. "Made a pair of shoes in an evening." "Made swifts, warping- bars, and spool frame;" for the wife of the pioneer could always spin, and generally weave.
"Made twenty-four bass-wood sap troughs in a day." A
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little later, he adds : "Bass-wood troughs did leak-put ash- wood in their place."
In the spring he was frequently engaged in surveying, in which he was quite often the companion of James De Haert, the brother of Balthasar, so long and favorably known in Sus- quehanna County. The brothers were long engaged in the effort to develop the resources of the Salt Spring on Silver Creek.
Balthasar De Haert came to Chenango Point, or vicinity, about 1801. Had received the title of judge in New Jersey. James De H. had also some knowledge of law. Judge De H. was considered by Dr. Fraser, for whom he wrote many years while Dr. F. held county offices, as one of the most honorable and upright of men.
Occasionally Mr. R. visited the fish ground, Susquehanna River, and in May, he mentions bringing home forty shad. He also found a " bee-tree," which was then a fortunate occur- rence, both on account of its ready store for honey, and because, with proper care, the bees could be hived for future service.
In November of this year "gathered thorn-apples at Samuel Symmonds."
Early in December the entry runs, "I and wife finished the chimney." From various narrators we learn that it was no un- common thing to pass months without any chimney-a hole in the roof serving as vent for the smoke of a fire built within a circle of large stones placed against the wall, or in the center of the cabin.
It appears the culture of tobacco was attempted here as early as 1814, as Mr. R. mentions his tobacco plants in July ; under date of Oct. 16th, writes, " I stript tobacco."
The war. then in progress between England and the United States made demands on the new settlements as well as the old, and, November 4th, Mr. R. was " notifyed to march a soldier- ing." A substitute was engaged for $50, but his own services were soon rendered, the famous Danville expedition starting and returning within the same month.
During the year 1815 reference is made to the meeting held at Jos. Bishop's and in other private houses by "Priest Hill," and by the Baptist missionary, Elder Peter P. Roots. "Log- ging-bees " occasioned not only opportunities for mutual service among neighbors in clearing up their farms, but were merry- makings besides. All heavy work was done by " bees." There was of course little market for wood, consequently to free the land of it, it was rolled up in heaps after being felled and chopped into convenient lengths, and then burned.
In January, 1816, Mr. R. " followed otters' tracks down as far
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as Simmons'." (Samuel Simmons settled where Charles Adams now resides.)
The terrible cold summer of 1816 finds a comment in, " The chestnut trees are full in the blow, the 10th day of August !"
One Sabbath in 1817, " All go to hear Priest Gilbert at the old Bennett house."
Every horse was then considered able to " carry double," and the " pillion" was the appendage of every saddle, when wheeled carriages were not to be thought of for family church-going.
In July he "laid out the road from Vance's to Southworth's," (then near Jones' Lake).
Not far from this time the streams were suddenly swollen by heavy rains, and the bridge over the Snake Creek (near Bailey Brook ?) was carried off, a serious calamity to the then straitened resources of the township, and which was repaired only by help from the county.
Very little cash found its way to the pockets of a people so far from markets for their produce; once in a while "a paper dollar" is seen, but spoken of as a curiosity.
"S. B. Welton agrees to make 80 rods of good rail fence for a shilling a rod, of posts and rails, five feet high, hog tite." At this rate the workmen made about a dollar a day ; but it was common for a man to accept fifty cents for chopping or logging, " and found." Venison was from 2 to 3 cents per lb., pork 10 cents, and milk 1 cent per qt. A note is made of the purchase of a partridge "for 10 cents in money down," but 12} cents were demanded for an orange.
March 20th, 1818, " Town meeting held at Esq. Lines'."
The months of July and August found Mr. R. chiefly engaged in surveying, and from his notes one must conclude no one was more familiar than he with the lands in Lawsville and on the " Wharton track," beyond, (?) and with all the roads in the vicinity.
"September 24th I go to the Bend and see the elephant." Later, "Carry some cloth to Summers' fulling.mill to be dressed for me a coat and pantaloons." (Broad cloth coats were not often seen in farm-houses in 1818.)
Thanksgiving-day was observed the 19th of November. A great wolf hunt is mentioned about this time.
In June, 1819, the arrival of "Englishmen just from England" is noted-probably the founders of "Britannia " in Silver Lake.
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