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 34
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He lived to see all his children, and his wife's children, hopefully con- verted and baptized into the church, and all comfortably settled in life, except one, who, in the triumphs of faith, went before him to the spirit land. His own death occurred October 11, 1822, in the sixty-eighth year of his age. Mrs. Hinds died May 7, 1834. Her first husband was Isaac Post, of South Hampton, L. I.
Conrad Hinds, son of Captain Bartlet, by his first wife, lived in Bridge- water nearly sixty years. In 1810 he was baptized by Elder Dimock, and his after-life proved the sincerity of his faith.
He was ordained deacon of the Bridgewater Baptist church in 1829. The Bible was his study, and religion his theme at home and abroad. Hence, when others flagged he seemed most awake. In other respects he was rather retiring, and, next to his religion, home, the farm, and the deep wildwoods had most attraction for him. He lived until October, 1860, when his death was the last of the first family that located within the present limits of Mon- trose.
Isaac Post was born in South Hampton, L. I., August 12, 1784. During the first years after the arrival of the first family of settlers in Montrose he was the mill-boy, and often went down to the mouth of the Wyalusing, on horse-back, after flour and provisions. He was also the cow-boy and hunter ; was depended upon mostly for venison; was acknowledged to be the best woodsman-surest to keep the points of the compass, and find his way home from the chase.
1 The northeast corner of the Manor was somewhere between the lots now owned by J. D. Drinker and Walter Foster.
19
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
He chopped some acres of forest in the upper part of his place before any of the family discovered it, and when it was discovered Captain Hinds sup- posed some squatter had been trespassing upon his premises. Young Post had done this by hiding his ax, then taking his gun as if on a hunt, he would go to his chopping. As he often brought venison home at night, no one suspected his business.
He chopped down the first tree in Montrose; helped build the first log- house in 1800; built the first frame-house in 1806; the first store, and the first blacksmith-shop ; was the first postmaster, March, 1808. He also built the first turnpike, 1811-14 ; ran the first stage; was the first treasurer of the county.
Fig. 18.
THE OLD POST HOUSE. .
[The chimney was twice as large as shown in the cut. The adjoining buildings are modern. ]
In 1812 he passed through military grades from ensign to major, and in 1811 was brigade inspector to July 1814, and, as such, had charge of the Danville expedition. He built the academy in 1818; the Baptist meeting-house in 1829; was a member of the State legislature in 1828-29; and associate judge of Susquehanna County courts from October 17, 1837, to Feb. 1843.
He was baptized into the Bridgewater Baptist church in 1810.
In 1814 he was challenged by a recruiting officer, Lieut. Findley, to fight a duel. He did not signify his acceptance, but Findley, on being told he could shoot a rooster's head off with a pistol, backed down and asked pardon.
Isaac Post gave the county all of the public grounds and half of the lots as marked on the first town plot.
There was not, during his life, a public improvement in which he did not have a prominent part as originator or promoter.
He was a prominent Republican (as the democrats were originally called), and, in 1817, was a delegate from this county to the convention at Harris- burg that nominated Wm. Findley for governor.
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
When in the legislature he secured the passage of an act making Susque- hanna County a separate election district, when he knew this would defeat his re-election.
He was a Masou, but finally refused to meet with the fraternity because they appointed drunkards to reclaim drunkards. He ultimately became opposed to all secret societies. When one of his sons asked his advice about joining the lodge, he replied, "One fool in the family is enough."
One incident is here taken from his diary, as illustrating his persistent courage in an emergency. Under date of January 2, 1815, he says :-
"Left Greene and reached the river (at Chenango Point) when the sun was two hours high. The boat being frozen in, the ferryman would not come over after me. I then took my clothes in my arms, got on my horse with my knife handy to cut the harness if necessary, and bounded into the river- cutter and all. A number of persons stood expecting to see me go down, but fortune favored me and I got over safe, and arrived home (twenty miles) about 12 o'clock at night."
Isaac Post married his step-sister, Susanna Hinds. She died November 15, 1846, aged sixty-four. Of their sons William L., Albert L., Isaac L., and George L., the eldest was the first male child born in Montrose, in 1807; he died while in the service of the government, at Washington, D. C., Feb. 26, 1871. With the exception of a few months, Montrose was his life-long residence, as it is now the resting-place of his remains. Born in the first and then half-finished framed dwelling-house of the town (See Fig. 18), he lived to see all of the changes which have since taken place, and to take a prominent part in making it all that it is to-day.
Of the six daughters of Judge Post, but one survives. He died March 23, 1855.
David Post, brother of Isaac, was two years his junior. He came into what is now Montrose, in 1801, and spent the remainder of his life within twenty rods of the first cabin he here entered. The two brothers cleared most of the forest which covered the place. They acted together in busi- ness matters, successfully and harmoniously; and were also together in all the improvements of the town and county.
D. Post was appointed a justice of the peace by the governor, and gave great satisfaction. He started the first furnace for casting iron in Montrose. He was among the number baptized into the Bridgewater Baptist church by Elder Dimock, in 1810. He took a prominent part in all matters pertaining to the interests of the denomination in this section of country to near the period of his death.
He was kind, generous, and social. He was a republican of the early and later times ; a strong friend and supporter of free missions, and of the anti-slavery movement. In the settlement of difficulties in the community and in the church, in arbitrations and councils, his services were often sought.
He lived in three different houses, one of which was the first log-cabin in the place ; the second, a small frame house, built by his step-father, just below our cemetery-hill, behind the row of poplars that still stand between the residence of I. N. Bullard and the first road leading to the cemetery.
To that house, now gone, he brought his bride-Minerva, daughter of Samuel Scott- in January, 1809, and there three of their eleven children were born. In 1814 he built the house so long known as his residence, at the foot of Main Street, the rear of which stands on the site of Capt. Bartlet Hinds' log-cabin, which had been scarcely more of a landmark to the first settlers of Bridgewater than Esq. Post's large, hospitable dwelling was to the first comers to the new county seat. It stands due north and south.
For thirty years or more the court judges made this their home during the sessions. Here several newly married people began housekeeping,
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having the use of one or two rooms; bachelors and maidens and any home- less ones found it a kindly shelter.
Esq. Post and his wife passed more than fifty years of life together. He died February 24, 1860, in the seventy-fourth year of his age ; she died Feb. 24, 1871, aged nearly eighty-one years. They had eleven children, of whom only five survive.
Robert Day was a man of determined purpose and of undoubted in- tegrity. He was a Baptist church member, whose Christian life and pro- fession dated from the "Great Revival" of 1810. He aided in the erection of the first grist-mill of Bridgewater, on the Wyalusing Creek, two miles below Montrose. Between that point and the borough he cleared a farm and erect- ed buildings, where he resided until within a few years, when he moved into town, where he died June 26, 1865. A Christian patriot, loyal to the last, he lived to rejoice over the end of slavery and the rebellion.
In 1804 he married Hannah, daughter of Jedediah Hewitt. She died in 1815, leaving two children. By his second marriage he had two daughters. The only one of his children now living is H. H. Day, Esq., of Susquehanna.
The farms of Daniel and Eldad Brewster were those since occupied by Thomas Johnson (ex-sheriff and justice of the peace and recently deceased) and Horace Brewster.
Daniel Brewster served two years in the war of 1812. He removed many years ago, and died recently on Frenchtown Mountain, aged ninety-two.
Eldad Brewster married in 1815 Hannah, third daughter of Deacon Moses Tyler. He died December, 1831, leaving his widow with nine children, the youngest but five months old. The sons are Horace, Daniel, and Warren.
In 1800 Amolo Balch made a small clearing one and a half miles south of Stephen Wilson. In 1801 Joshua W. Raynsford, a native of Windham County, Connecticut, came to the clearing that had been begun by Amolo Balch. His log-house was by the spring near the present new road. It is said that Balch sold his improvement to Robert Day for a horse, and R. Day sold to J. W. Raynsford. Not one of them had any legal title to it, Balch having been indicted for intrusion early in 1801. J. W. Raynsford after- wards went on foot to Philadelphia to see the Pennsylvania landholder, and obtained from him a valid title. The farm was a desirable one, almost the only bit of table-land between Montrose and the present south line of Bridge- water. To this place, on which he had erected a log-cabin, Mr. Raynsford brought his family in the spring of 1802. They made their first meal on water cresses. A small tributary of the Wyalusing has its rise on the farm.
In the spring of 1802, he bought for fifty cents a half bushel of potatoes, and planted them with a handspike, and reserved the rest as a precious ad- dition to a scanty larder. In the fall of the same year, all of his boots but the legs were worn out, and he went on horseback, barefoot, twenty-seven miles to procure leather for another pair.
Until 1803, the cabin, like all others in the vicinity, had only oiled paper for windows. Three days' absence from work (reckoned as worth fifty cents per day), while making the journey to and from Wilkes-Barre, where glass could be obtained, and where he procured twelve panes (7x9) for twelve shillings, made the coveted windows of four panes each, a costly outlay for those times. But his trip afforded his neighbors the opportunity of securing supplies of sugar, tea, etc., which he brought in his saddle-bags, in that spirit of accommodation which belonged to the early settlers, while the precious glass was carried by hand the whole distance. The cabin reached, the glass was deposited upon the bed, whilst the neighbors came in to get their share of the groceries purchased. After the proper measure had been given to each, for which the " steel-yards" had been in requisition, Mrs. R. thoughtlessly tossed them on the bed, and instantly shivered every pane of the dear-bought glass !
Joseph Raynsford, father of J. W. R., joined him in this wilderness not
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long after, and erected a framed house, which is still standing, and is almost the only relic in the county of a style of houses built at that early period.
Fig. 19.
THE OLD RAYNSFORD HOUSE.
The door seen in the engraving opens into the room where the " first Con gregational church of Bridgewater" (now Presbyterian church of Montrose) was organized, in 1810. In the mean time, J. W. Raynsford built a house a few rods north, with a porch or piazza on two sides-and here he resided several years ; but only its crumbling foundation is now to be seen. He was appointed a justice of the peace about 1812; and had his office here until about 1817-18, when he moved into Montrose, having built the house now occupied by F. M. Williams. After a short time he built and removed to the house opposite the present residence of Jerre Lyons, to which was added a two-story office, since removed. Here his father died, July, 1832. His mother died in the old house previously.
A man of marked characteristics, the influence of Joshua W. Raynsford could not fail to be felt. He was active in the social, political, educational, and religious interests of the community. Upon his disconnection with the Presbyterian church, of which he was an early member, he became the chief instrument in the formation of the Episcopal church of Montrose. His habits of system and order were apparent in all his affairs. He kept a diary. from which, in his later years, he was accustomed to read for the pleasure of others many of the incidents of his pioneer life; it is unfortunate that it is not available for these pages, excepting a few items, which were taken down by his hearers. During his magistracy of thirty years, he had 36,680 suits before him, which are registered in twenty-four folio volumes ; he took ac- knowledgments of one thousand deeds, and united one hundred and four couples in marriage.
He was twice married. His first wife, a daughter of Walter Lathrop, died, March, 1831, leaving six children ; the three daughters are now deceased, and none of the sons reside within the county. The pall and bier were first used at Mrs. R's. funeral. Mr. R. died suddenly, November 12, 1852, aged seventy-three. His widow died about two years afterwards.
In the winter of 1803-4, J. W. Raynsford had taught the first school within the present limits of Bridgewater, in a log house, about a mile southwest of Montrose, and had then forty-two scholars. This surprising number in so new a settlement will be accounted for as we return to the list of in-comers.
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
Elias West and family, from Connecticut, settled in 1801, on the farm that is now crossed by the north line of Dimock and the Wilkes-Barre turnpike.
David Harris and family, from Southampton, L. I., were on the Wyalusing, at the place already mentioned as the site of the first grist-mill. It is probable he began the mill this year, as he was taxed for one, but it does not appear to have been completed under two or three years.
Jonathan Wheaton and family, from Otsego County, N. Y., settled about half a mile east of Capt. B. Hinds. He was then the settler nearest to the lake, which, in consequence, was long known as Wheaton's Pond ; but his cabin was on the site of a house, now reached by a road turning to the left from the foot of the hill, on the brow of which now stands the Methodist church. Like Capt. Hinds, Mr. Wheaton was a Baptist, and the two agreed with Daniel Foster, a Presbyterian (three miles away), to meet for religious worship every Sabbath ; this was sacredly observed by the trio, from 1802 to 1807, when their number was greatly increased. But we anticipate.
Jedediah Hewitt, from Norwich, Conn., with his wife, son, and five daughters, settled next below Robert Day, on the Wyalusing.
Thomas Crocker, a native of Bozrah, Conn., came to look for land, made a small clearing and rolled up the walls of a house on what is now the Conklin farm in Dimock, in 1800. He then returned for his family, and, in 1801, had brought them as far as Barnum's, in Lawsville, when he was persuaded to remain and work for Mr. B. a year. On learning that the road to Tunkhannock would not pass the place he had selected the previous year, he gave it up. In 1802, he brought his family to the farm adjoining that of Elias West on the north. Here he remained until 1812, when he removed to the farm where he died, in 1848, in his eighty-third year. Mrs. C. died in 1844, aged seventy-five. They had eight children. Their sons were Hyde, Lucius, John S., Austin, and Daniel W.
In. 1802, Samuel and John Backus, from Norwich, Conn., settled just below J. Hewitt, and the families were, for the second time, neighbors. Two of the daughters of Mr. H. were wives of the former, and another became the wife of R. Day. John Backus died February, 1871, in his ninety-fourth year.
Abinoam Hinds, a brother of the first settler in Montrose, and Isaac Peckins, brother-in-law of the former, came from Middleboro', Mass., and settled a little west and southwest of B. Hinds. A. Hinds bought of R. Day what has since been known as " Howell Hill." He died in Bradford County, February, 1849, aged eighty-four. His family is still represented here by his son, Major D. D. Hinds. Isaac Peckins died in May follow-
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
ing, at the same age; his widow, in February, 1852. His house is now within the borough limits, near the western line. It is said that Esther Peckins taught the first school in Montrose, in a barn.
A newspaper writer, under the heading of A Drawn Battle, says :-
"Over thirty years ago, the venerable Isaac Peckins thus narrated to me an adventure which happened about two miles northwest of Montrose :-
"'One day I went out to cut an ox-yoke, in a little swale or swamp near the medder on your father's farm. The briers on the wet ground had grown up drefful thick, and taller than my head. Wal, I was chopping, when I heered a kind of growling and stirring among the bushes on ahead. I looked and see a little kind of sheep path that way. So I got down on my hands and knees-for I couldn't go straight-and crawled along under some ways. At last, I came to a round spot, about as large as this room. There wa'n't any- thing onto it, but the tall briers rose all around. Right on t'other end there was another hole which led out. Just as I popped up my head and stood straight, there stood a great black bear within three feet of me. He stood still, and looked right at me. I had left my ax behind, and had nothing to defend myself. I remembered an old hunter't used to be around here, named Hale, who said there was no animal in this country that would touch a man if he looked at it straight in the eye. So I looked at him, and stepped towards him. He brussled up, and snarled, and stood still. I thought it was a ticklish place. I lifted up my voice and yelled and heowled as loud as I could. That seemed to set the creetur crazy. He heowled and tore the ground with his feet. I didn't know what would become of me. At last I took off my old hat, shook it, and ran at him. All at once he dropped his brussels, turned round, dropped his tail, and run out the other hole. I followed him, and was near enough when he went out to kick him behind. I had a good will to, but thought I was satisfied to get off as well, and I went back by my hole. Terrible great creetur !' ""
The fourth of July, 1802, was celebrated by a flotilla of log- rafts on the lake-young people all afloat together, singing, huzzaing, and afterwards enjoying a lunch.
Jacob Roberts, from Vermont, in 1803, bought of Samuel Wilson the first farm south of Stephen Wilson, and which has been occupied until recently by his son, Zina Roberts.
About the same time, Walter Lathrop and family came into the south neighborhood; thus, there were about a dozen fami- lies, besides those whose arrival preceded that of J. W. Rayns- ford, within the present limits of Bridgewater, when he taught ; and, doubtless, families farther down the Wyalusing were repre- sented in his school. It was not far from this time that the first death of an adult occurred-that of Mrs. Hyde, the mother of Mrs. Thomas Crocker.
Walter Lathrop's log-house stood on the spot now covered by an orchard, just below the house built within a few years by Silas Perkins. He afterwards built the small framed house, now gone, that stood just north of the latter, where he died in
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1817, aged sixty-eight. Mrs. L. died in 1838, aged eighty-three. Their sons were Benjamin, Daniel, and Rodney who died at the West.
Benjamin Lathrop, late associate judge of the county, came with his father from Connecticut. He married a daughter of Asahel Avery, and located on that part of his father's farm which is now owned by Wm. Haughwort, where he resided many years before removing to Montrose, and where Mrs. L. died. They had five sons and one daughter, and by his second marriage he had one son, all residents of Montrose, except Benj. F., a physician, who died at the West. Judge Lathrop died July, 1861, aged seventy-seven.
Daniel Lathrop married a daughter of Jacob Perkins, and lived in the small house previously occupied by his father's family. Still later, he removed to the old Raynsford house, where he was gate-keeper on the turnpike; but, subsequently, he built the house now occupied by G. Decker, where he died July, 1842. He was twice married. Of his ten children, only two sons and one daughter (of Montrose) reside in the county.
Jacob Perkins removed from Dimock and lived opposite the last residence of Daniel Lathrop, where he died in 1846, aged eighty-two. His widow died in Montrose in 1851, aged eighty- four.
In the spring of 1804, John Bard and Zebulon Deans came in, on foot, from Lebanon, Windham Co., Conn., and selected farms adjoining. They then returned to Connecticut, but brought in their families in the fall. Each had a span of horses, but they were two days in coming from Great Bend, as they were obliged to cut brush to clear the road before them. The arrived the 4th of October. The Bard family stopped at the house of Walter Lathrop; the Deans at that of Thomas Crocker. Both began immediately to roll up log-houses.
It was not until 1810 that J. Bard (commonly called captain) occupied the farm of Thomas Crocker ; he first cleared the farm at present owned by Perrin Wells. He brought in six children ; John, now dead, was the eldest; Samuel, our respected towns- man, was then eight years old ; the children at length numbered eleven, two of whom died when young men, within two weeks of each other. Captain Bard died in 1852, aged seventy-nine ; Mrs. Bard, "a great worker," lived to be ninety, and died in 1863.
Mr. Deans built his first house this side, or east of Mr. Bard, on the site of the red house for many years occupied by his son James, but which has since been burned; his framed house, with rived clapboards, was erected in 1814, on the Wilkes-Barre turnpike, a little below the late residence of J. F. Deans, south of the graveyard. That too is gone; it resembled the Rayns- ford house now standing, and like that, around it cluster asso-
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ciations dear to every early Presbyterian or Congregationalist of the township.
The family of Mr. Deans consisted, in 1804, of his wife (a sister of Thomas Crocker) and two sons, Orimel and James- the latter ten years old the day they reached Great Bend -and two daughters. Their first thanksgiving-dinner here consisted of potatoes roasted in ashes, with salt.
Zebulon Deans was a carpenter and joiner, and built the first Presbyterian church in Montrose. He joined this religious body at its first communion, was elected deacon in 1812, and became a ruling elder, which offices he held until his death in 1848, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. His wife died in 1851, in her eightieth year. They had four daughters and three sons. The eldest and the youngest (John F.) have removed from the county; James, also a Presbyterian elder, died in Montrose, September, 1865, aged seventy-one.
In November, 1804, Benajah McKenzie came from Lebanon, Windham County, Connecticut, and selected his farm-the same occupied by him until within a few years-in the extreme southwest corner of the present bounds of the township. Cap- tain Bard and Mr. McK. went twenty miles to Merryall the first winter for grain, and had it ground there, at Black's mill. The site of this mill is a little above the present mill of Elisha and J. E. Lewis, two and one-half miles below Camptown, near the mouth of the Wyalusing. It was a common thing to go that distance to get grain ground, and indeed this place was the nearest for the purpose, to all in this vicinity, whenever Har- ris' or Griffis' mills were out of order or were too full of work.
Mr. Mckenzie worked for Joab Picket in 1805, and was there while the Pennsylvania surveyors were trying to run their lines on lands which were claimed under the Connecticut title. Holders under the latter did not hesitate to take their guns and shoot to intimidate the surveyors, and for a time embarrassed their operations.
During the eclipse, June 6th, 1806, Mr. McK. was chopping in the woods where the graveyard now is, near the south neigh - borhood church; it grew so dark he was compelled to stop work and he went up to the log school-house, which had been erected in 1805 on the same side of the road, near the top of the hill, just below the present residence of R. Wells. Isaac A. Chapman taught the first school there. Prior to this a log school-house had been built and used on the Stroud place. The next school-house was built near the graveyard, also on the west side of the road, on nearly the same site as the one that was left standing twenty years ago.
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