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 42
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75
Fire Hill-so named because of a succession of destructive fires along its summit-is the long, high ridge south of the Wyalusing and west of the ridge bordering South Creek, on the southwest. It nearly covers the Roberts District.
Dutch Hill-settled by persons of Dutch descent, but born in New York-comprises the section north of the Wyalu- sing and east of Forest Lake Creek. Between these hills is another, which, with equal propriety, might be called "Jersey " Hill.
Jessup, at the time of its first settlement, was in the remain- ing portion of old Tioga, Luzerne County ; but, soon after, was included in Rush, as originally bounded. To the settlers from Connecticut it was known as MANOR in the eastern, and USHER
CONNECTICUT SURVEY.
NORTH
M
NOT
Nº18
NO5
Nº8
nyalusı
SOIT
Nº 9
V016
South Cipek
N
S
Nº3
NO 15
-
Nº10
C
Nº14
No 2
Nº1l
G
V012
Nº 13.
DRAWN BY MISS X D B.
MANOR. Del ware first Purchase
No. 1. ELK LAKE
EZEKIEL MOWRY.
Q. GEORGE MOWRY
CHARLES MOWRY
No. 4. EZEKIEL MAINE
F. MEACHAM MAINE.
J. JEREMIAH MEACHAM
N. NEHEMIAH MAINE.
S. SAMUEL MAINE
W. STEPHEN WILSON
M. SUBSEQUENT LOCATION OF MONTROSE R. JOHN REYNOLDS.
No. 7. OZEM COOK.
19. ASAHEL AVERY
17. SAMUEL COGGSWELL.
Mashopping fraters.
r
Hill. Jessup, at the time of its first settlement, was in the remain- ing portion of old Tioga, Luzerne County ; but, soon after, was included in Rush, as originally bounded. To the settlers from Connecticut it was known as MANOR in the eastern, and USHER
357
HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
in the western part, of the " Delaware First Purchase," as dis- tinguished from the lands claimed by Connecticut along the Susquehanna. The first settlers of Jessup located with their families on and near Bolles' Flat, March 10th, 1799. The men may have been on the ground during the previous summer. They were Ebenezer Whipple, his step-son Ezra Lathrop, and Abner Griffis. They came from Otsego County, N. Y. In the same company there were Wm. Lathrop, brother of Ezra, and Nathan Tupper, both of whom located below the present limits of Jessup.
Four brothers, Samuel, Nehemiah, Ezekiel, and Meacham Maine came from the East about the same time with those just mentioned. Samuel Maine is mentioned in Mr. Miner's list of early Wyalusing settlers, as here, with a family of seven, in 1798; but from other sources of information it seems evident they did not precede Mr. Whipple. Samuel and Meacham Maine were in Usher, and the other brothers in Manor. Ezekiel Maine, Jr., was born on "the Shay farm" where his father began his clearing, and where David Turrell afterwards lived. It was once known as Maine Hill. His farm was east of that of his brother Samuel, who was located on the flat at the junction of South Creek with the Wyalusing. Two or three old apple trees now designate the spot. He sold the farm (or whatever title he may have had to it-one derived from Connecticut) to' Samuel Lewis, his brother-in-law, who came a year later; and he then moved to what is now called the Hunter farm-once Butterfield's.1 Meacham Maine was on the water-shed between the two principal creeks emptying into the Wyalusing from the south. He and his brother Samuel removed to Indiana prior to 1813. Nehemiah Maine's location was first in what is now Bridgewater, but very soon after, where Urbane Smith lives in Dimock.
Other settlers of 1799 were Holden Sweet, Zebdial Lathrop, and Eben Ingram. Jeremiah Meacham, John Reynolds, and Daniel Foster were here to select their lands, and the first two rolled up cabins. The same year, Holden Sweet began the first grist-mill (now Depue's) in a portion of which he and his family lived. In less than two years-after spending all his property in trying in vain to bring the water in troughs for a quarter of a mile-he became discouraged; changed situations with Abner Griffis, and cultivated his improvements, while Mr. G., in a few
' The location given to Samuel Maine on the map of Manor is the place he sold to Joseph Butterfield, about 1812. There is a discrepancy in the statement respecting his location, as, in 1801, the court record places his name where Meacham M.'s appears on the map. Another authority confirms the record, stating that the latter was on " the water-shed " between two creeks running north into the Wyalusing.
358
HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
months, succeeded in starting the mill. For more than a year it was without a bolt; and he sold a cow to procure one. Pre- vious to this the settlers found the nearest mills at the mouth of the Wyalusing, and at Frenchtown, 20 miles distant.
Zebdial Lathrop was located north of E. Whipple, on the place now occupied by H. Whitney; he died more than thirty years ago. Zebdial, Jr., removed to Rush, afterwards to Iowa, where he died. Ruby, sister of the latter, and now Mrs. Ros- well Morse, resides in Rush; another sister, Mrs. John Han- cock, is dead.
Jeremiah Meacham selected the farm adjoining Ezekiel Maine's on the east. He then returned to Connecticut for his family, and arrived here-nine in all-on the 1st of March, 1800. They came via Great Bend to H. Tiffany's in "Nine Partners," and from thence to Stephen Wilson's, and found but one house between-that of Jos. Chapman in what is now Brooklyn. Upon reaching Ezekiel Maine's, and finding no path beyond, the family halted until a road was cut. There was not a nail in Mr. Meacham's house, the shingles being held on with poles.
The east line of Jessup passes through the house occupied by his son Sheldon, until his recent decease, on the farm cleared by Mr. M., and where he died. A part of the estate passed to the late Jeremiah Meacham, Jr., who resided on it until a few years since. In early life he united with the Bap- tist church, in which he was deacon for many years. As an upright, honest, Christian man, his name and character are without blemish. He died in Montrose, February 24, 1871, aged seventy-eight years. [The compiler received from him the original map of the survey of " Manor," and several items of much interest.]
John Reynolds and Daniel Foster came, the second time, from Long Island, in company with Bartlet Hinds, of Bridge- water, in May, 1800. They lived in the cabin that Mr. Rey- nolds had built the previous year; and to this, in the next fall, Mr. Foster and his family came .. His son Walter was then in his eighth year. He says :--
" The cabin had no floor, except that mother had a short board to keep her feet warm. When Mr. Reynolds brought his family in the spring of 1801, father moved into his own house across the creek, Mr. Reynolds being on the left bank, on a knoll still marked by the remains of the old chimney and foundation of the house. He had the first fulling-mill in Jessup. Its site is marked by the stone chimney left standing when the building was burned. For some years, his family occupied a part of it. My father built, in 1812, a framed house, also on the right bank, but a few rods further west. He paid for his land twice,-first to his friend Mr. Reynolds, who held a Connecticut title only, and afterwards to the Wallace estate, or rather to Peter Graham, to whom the obligation was transferred. After giving to
359
HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
the latter one hundred and thirty acres and the saw-mill, he had two hundred and fifty acres left."
Mr. Foster died in 1829, and the place, until within a few. years, was occupied by Walter Foster, since a resident of Mon- trose, but who deceased in September, 1872, at the residence of his son, near Scranton. The death of Mrs. Walter F. occurred at the same place the preceding February.
Ichabod Halsey came with Messrs. Reynolds and Foster, in 1800, and began on the farm now occupied by the Roy brothers.
Samuel Lewis, with five in his family, and James Carroll, also with five, were included in Mr. Miner's list of fifty persons, old and young, who were, in 1800, on the Wyalusing between Fair- dale and the present east line of Rush.
Charles Miner was on the Wyalusing in 1799 and 1800, and took up two lots, one on the farm now occupied by Buckingham Stuart, where he cleared four acres and sowed it with wheat. This he harvested in the fall, and while it was in the stack, it was destroyed by bears. The place is still known as Miner Hill. The other lot was located where Benajah Chatfield after- wards lived, and is now occupied by Lyman Picket. Here Mr. M. built a bark cabin, and, with the assistance of a man who came with him, commenced chopping; but, being unaccustomed to the business, he made slow progress. He soon cut his foot, and was taken to Mr. Whipple's, where he was cared for for several weeks. "When he got well, his taste for farming subsided," says a son of Mr. Whipple, "and he began to think he had mistook his calling." Mr. Miner's own account of his experi- ences about that time, was given in a letter read at the Pioneer Festival, Montrose, June 2, 1858, in which, after mentioning that he and a Mr. Chase went from Mr. Parke's to the Forks of the Wyalusing, he says :-
"Mr. Bronson piloted us to lot 39 in Usher. The vocabulary of us in- truding Yankees spoke of Usher, Ruby, Locke, Manor, Dandolo, and Bid- well, as our recognized localities. A hill, descending gently to the south for half a mile ; a spring gushing from its side, running through groves of sugar maple, beech, cherry, whitewood, and here and there a monster of a hemlock, through swales now green with springing grass; we made a bark cabin, open in front to a huge log against which our fire was kindled ; a bed of hemlock- boughs ; each a blanket ; a six-quart camp-kettle to boil our chocolate; plates and dishes made from the soft whitewood or maple. Here we took up our quarters for the summer (1799). Chopped awkwardly, slept soundly, except being awaked too early from our town habits by the stamping deer, for we had taken possession of a favorite runway. This, if my memory is correct, was about two1 miles west from where Montrose was afterwards located. That summer and the next, population poured in rapidly under
1 In his history of Wyoming, he gives it three miles west, which is nearer correct. He probably supposed Montrose located on the old road to Great Bend, which ran farther west than the present one.
360
HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
the auspices of Col. Ezekiel Hyde, our Yankee leader. His headquarters were at Rindaw.
"From Wilson's, down the east branch of the Wyalusing to the Forks, . were Maine, Lathrop, Whipple, Sweet, Griffis, Tupper, Picket (the famous ' painter' killer), and Beaumont; on the middle branch, at the large salt spring, the Birchards, I think the first and only inhabitants of Ruby ; on the north branch, in Locke, the Canfields and Brister, the renowned wolf-slayer. The Parkes were the only settlers in Bidwell, as Wilson was in the Manor. [The map shows his location just outside of Manor.]
" Was it a time of suffering ? No! no ! of pleasurable excitement [Mr. M. was then but nineteen years of age], of hope, health, and mutual kindness. Novelty gilded the scene. There was just enough of danger, toil, and pri- vation to give life a relish.
" My Sunday home was at Mr. Whipple's, whose residence was on the Wya- lusing. a mile south of us. He was a capital hunter. An anecdote will give you his character. Just at dusk, he returned from the woods in high spirits. ' I have him-a large bear-we will go out in the morning and fetch him in !' Behold ! as he had shot in the twilight, he had killed Nathan Tupper's only cow. Mr. Whipple, the most fore-handed settler, had three. Neighbor Tupper,' said he, 'I am sorry-it was an accident. Now choose of mine which you please.' 'I won't take your best; let me have old Brindle; she is worth more than mine,' said Mr. Tupper; and the matter was settled by that higher law, 'Do as you would be done by.' Not an instance of dishonesty, or even of unkindness, do I remember. Grain was scarce, mills distant; a maple stump was burned hollow for a mortar, early corn pounded ; the good Mrs. Whipple stewed pumpkins, and of the mixture made capital bread.
" The rifle of Mr. Whipple furnished abundance of venison. Deer were plenty-a few elk remained-on the river hills that encircled us, there were the pilot and rattlesnake, where annual fires prevailed. In the deep shade of the dense forest they had not yet penetrated."
J. W. Chapman, Esq., relates the following :-
"Mr. Whipple happened along one day with his rifle, where my father and Mr. Jeremiah Gere were chopping trees, and stopped to talk a few min- utes of his exploits in shooting partridges. 'What !' inquired one of them, ' you don't shoot them with a rifle-ball, do you ?' . Of course,' replied he. ' I always take their heads off with a ball, rather than mangle their bodies with shot,' continued he. They looked at each other with a somewhat incred- ulous glance, as if suspecting it to be rather a tough yarn ; when one of them happened to espy a couple of those birds a few rods off, hopping up at each other, in play or fight. 'There's a chance for you, Mr. Whipple,' said he ; 'if you can shoot off a pheasant's head with a ball, let's see it.' The old man deliberately drew up his rifle, and quietly said, ' Wait till they get in range ;' and the next moment pop went the rifle, and sure enough both their heads were taken off by the ball ! Their incredulity vanished, while the old hunter walked off with his game in triumph."
In these early times he killed, besides other game, as many as one hundred deer in a year.
Cyrus Whipple, a son of Ebenezer, now living in Iowa, writes :-
" I was five years old when my father emigrated from Otsego County, New York, to the banks of the Wyalusing. Soon after there came a freshet, the creek overflowed its banks, and a portion of its current swept through our cabin, running near our fireplace a foot deep or more. I remember my mother's washing and dipping up the water by the side of her kettle. This was our introduction to pioneer life."
361
HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
He also states, that Mr. Miner after he went to Wilkes-Barre, and after his marriage, came several times to see his father.
" On one of these visits Mr. Miner said, ' I tell my wife, sometimes, I never . enjoyed life so well as I did when I lived away up in the woods with Uncle Whipple ; and she'll box my ears for it.' On another occasion my father re- lated to him a wolf story, which Mr. Miner published fifteen or twenty years after my father's decease, adding : 'The noble old hunter now sleeps in the bosom of that soil of which he was one of the pioneers, after having filled up and rounded off an amiable, useful, and blameless life.'"
Ebenezer Whipple occupied the centre of the Flat seven years. He sold his possession to Peter Stevens. He afterwards lived on the Carrier place, where he died in 1826, aged seventy-two.
There were then heroines as well as heroes. A sister of Cyrus Whipple's, then a young girl, saw a deer in the creek as she was passing by, and called at a house for a man to shoot it. As it happened, only the lady of the house was in; she took the gun and accompanied the girl within shooting distance, but then her courage failed. The girl herself now rose to the oc- casion. Seizing the gun, she fired, and instantly a famous buck lay splashing in the water.
One day in the absence of her husband, Mrs. Cyrus W. saw a ferocious wild-cat within a few rods of the house. It caught a goose and began to eat it. The thought, that it might at an- other time make a meal of one of her children, nerved her, though naturally a very timid woman, to sally forth with a rifle to shoot it. When she came near, it placed its paws upon a log, and gave a growl of defiance; then she brought the rifle to bear upon it, and the next moment it lay lifeless.
A road was petitioned for in 1801, " to run by Abner Griffis' grist-mill." Another, "to begin between the houses of Ezra Lathrop and Abner Griffis on the Wyalusing Creek road, to in- tersect the Nicholson road near the house of Joseph Chapman, Jr." (on the Hopbottom). Of this, John Robinson, S. Wilson, Jabez A. Birchard, and Myron Kasson were viewers. Another, to begin " between the houses of Ebenezer Whipple and Ezra Lathrop, and run north past Zebdial Lathrop's to Ellicott's road, near the 34th mile-tree." Another, petitioned for by Ichabod Halsey and others, " to cross the Wyalusing at Foster's saw- mill," etc.
David Doud was on the Wyalusing as early as 1801, and oc- cupied the first clearing of Mr. Miner.
David Olmstead was in as early as 1802. He was born in Norwalk, Connecticut; was a soldier of the Revolution, in the northern campaign under Gen. Gates, also with Washington in his retreat from New York, and at Ticonderoga. One of the marked features of his character was a devoted attachment to the faith of the Protestant Episcopal church. He died in Jessup (then Bridgewater) November 29th, 1829.
362
HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
Samuel Lewis was located near him. In an advertisement, in 1802, the latter gives his address as Usher, Headwaters of the Wyalusing, Luzerne County.
About half a mile above the location of Mr. Griffis' mill, Jacob Cooley built a still (distillery) in the year 1803. This undertaking failed in less than seven years. During this time he lost two children; one being drowned in the creek, the other scalded in the still.
He bought the mill of Griffis, about 1804, and built the first dam near the mill, of poles. He lived in the mill until 1811, when he rented the place to D. Lampson for two years, and left ; when he returned, he built a house just above, on the same side of the road, opposite the present residence of E. Bolles.
From Cooley, the mill passed into the hands of Jesse Ross; from him, to his son Isaac H .; from him, to his brother Perrin ; then to Asa and Adolphus Olmstead ; next, to Mason Denison; and successively to Samuel Bertholf, Benjamin Depue, Timothy Depue, and to his son T. J. Depue, the present owner.
Abner Griffis had five sons: Solomon, Ezekiel, John, Elisha, and Robert. The last named went to his present location in 1814, and his father made his home with him the year following, but afterwards spent some time with Solomon in Otsego County, New York; then returned to Jessup, but finally died at Solo- mon's. Of the latter, Mr. Miner says : "He was the beau of the Wyalusing; he had a fine form, a ruddy cheek, bright eye, pleasant smile, manly expression, and-with the rifle-no superior."
If Mr. Miner's recollections of the pioneers of Jessup were all pleasant, their remembrance of him was equally so, and blended with pride in his after-course-the success he achieved -and the eminent service he was able to render to others. After he went to Wilkes-Barre, he was a teacher, then editor of the ' Luzerne Federalist.'
January, 1804, he married Miss Letitia Wright, of the same place.
In 1811 he, with Mr. Butler, established the ' Gleaner,' which became very popular. He was afterwards editor of the 'True American,' and of the 'Political and Commercial Register' of Philadelphia; and was twice a colleague of Buchanan in the State Legislature. His ' History of Wyoming' is completely ex- haustive of the subject of Connecticut claims in this region, and is a standard work. He died when more than eighty years of age.
Levi Leonard, of Rush, is said to have been the first teacher in Jessup. Another authority gives Hosea Tiffany, of Harford, as the first.
In the spring of 1807, on the last day of March or the first
363
HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
of April, there was four feet of snow on the ground. Mr. J. Meacham's wife and three daughters were then all confined to their beds with sickness. Dr. Fraser came from Great Bend to attend them. Their fire-wood being exhausted they were obliged to burn the fence, as the woods, though only eight or ten rods off, were inaccessible by the ox team. There were no drifts on account of the woods. For seven days it was cold, blowing weather; then the sun shone out; and in the little clearings the snow melted so rapidly, that with the large amount in the woods, it caused what is known as "the great flood."
Matthias Smith was a settler of 1808. His first wife, who died early, was a daughter of Ebenezer Whipple.
William C. Turrell's farm adjoined that of M. Smith on one side, and of Asa Olmstead on the other. He was here some time prior to 1810.
Col. Turrell's log-house was on that part of his farm now owned by Dr. N. P. Cornwell, on the same side of the road as the house of the latter, but west of it, on the flat. The place was known by the name of "Turrell's Flat."
In 1811 he was chosen Lt .- Col. of the 129th Regiment Penn- sylvania militia, and was always an active and influential man in the township. About thirty years ago he went West, and died there some time afterwards. His brother David's farm adjoined that of Lyman Cook, which was next to William C. Turrell's on the east, near Fairdale. He also went West, and died in Michigan, in 1849, aged 66. Another brother, with the christian name of Doctor, made an improvement early, where William Robertson now lives, on Dutch Hill.
Robinson Bolles came from Groton, New London County, Connecticut, in the autumn of 1810, with his wife and nine chil- dren. They were twenty days on their journey-their wagon drawn by horses-two days being required from New Milford to the former location of Ebenezer Whipple. This had been sold to Peter Stevens, from whom Mr. Bolles purchased. The house stood in the center of the flat, but the latter afterwards built, on the north side of the road, the large house now owned by his grandson, Amos, a son of Simeon A. Bolles.
The sons of Robinson Bolles were Simeon A., Abel, Nelson, Elkanah, John, James, and Lyman. He also had five daughters. The most of his descendants settled within the county, and several in Jessup. He was highly respected for his strict integ. rity and love of justice. He died in 1842, aged seventy-six ; his widow died ten years later, aged eighty-four.
In 1812 Zephaniah Cornell settled in that part of Bridge- water, now in the extreme northeast corner of Jessup, the farm of two hundred acres extending into Forest Lake.
In 1828 he sold the lower part of it to Marvin Hall, and
364
HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
moved to the north part-now known as Cornell Hill; he after- wards bought out Mr. Hall, returned to the old homestead, leav- ing the Forest Lake part of the farm to his son, S. D. Cornell, who still occupies it. He died in Jessup December 8, 1871, aged nearly eighty-nine.
The first settler on Dutch Hill was a native of Conn., Lemuel Wallbridge, who was located, as early as 1812, near its top. That year, Christian Shelp, originally from New York, and of Dutch descent, came from Milford, and bought of Dr. Rose four hundred acres, just below Mr. Wallbridge. Henry Pruyne, father-in-law of Mr. Shelp, accompanied the latter from Great Bend, where he had settled two years previous. He was a soldier of the Revolution and a pensioner. His death occurred in 1843, and that of his widow, Rachel, the following year, at the age of eighty-one.
Charles Davis, a son-in-law of Mr. Shelp, came in about the same time with the latter, and settled near him. The sons of Christian Shelp were John, Nathaniel, Henry, Christian, Jr., and Stephen. The Shelps were the first of the Dutch families in Jessup. Henry S. now lives on the same place where his father lived forty years ago. [The Shays were the first family from New Jersey, and came twenty-five years later.]
Dutch Hill is noted for its famous yields of maple sugar. "
The improvement of Doctor Turrell (before mentioned) was just below Mr. Shelp's. It was purchased by the Wallbridges (Lemuel and son Henry), and sold by them to John Robertson ; the lot being the southern limit of the lands of Dr. R. H. Rose.
In the spring of 1812 Buckingham Stuart and Isaac Hart left the town of Hinesburg, Vermont, and arrived, the second day of April, at Col. Turrell's, now Fairdale, journeying on foot.
Mr. S. was a carpenter and joiner, and a millwright; and he worked at his trade a number of years, principally along the Wyalusing Creek.
In 1813 Nathaniel Stuart, father of the above, came in and took up three hundred acres just below Reynolds and Foster. His son, Nathan, who came the same year, returned to Vermont, and there lost his wife and four daughters by drowning in a freshet.
Mrs. Cyrus Whipple was a daughter of Nathaniel Stuart ; she died in Dimock.
Abraham, son of Nathaniel S., died in Auburn; Isaac in Iowa; his daughter, Mrs. Luman Ferry, is dead; Mrs. Law- rence Meacham is in Auburn; two other daughters have left the county.
Buckingham Stuart married Cynthia H. Agard, a sister of Levi S. Agard, and, in 1819, removed to the farm where he now resides. This is the same farm where Mr. Miner began, in 1799,
365
HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
which D. Doud bought in 1801, and which, in 1809, was occu- pied by Ichabod 'Terry ; afterwards by Levi S. Agard, who died there, and was succeeded by Mr. Stuart. The latter is now (1872) eighty-two years old; has had three sons and one daughter.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.