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 43
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Fire Hill was settled in 1812 by Hart Roberts, who after- wards went West and died. Henry Bertholf now owns his place.
Prior to 1813 there were other " new-comers" mentioned on the tax-list, among whom were: William A. Burnham, where James Carroll first settled, and now the Walker farm ; John Blaisdell, from Massachusetts, on Porter Ridge ; Israel Birch- ard, from Forest Lake, where he located in 1801; Jacob and John Bump, on the hill north of Dr. Cornwell's; James Cook, where Cyrus Sheets now lives. The sons of Israel Birchard were Pliny, Harry A., Jesse, Upson, Horace, Ralph, Lyman, and Lucius; and several of his descendants are now residents of the township. His life is said to have been an undeviating example of integrity. He died in Jessup December, 1818, aged fifty-three.
Jonas Fuller, a millwright, came from Vermont in 1813; the next year he looked for land, and bought one hundred acres, then in Bridgewater, but now on the line between Jessup and Dimock. He is now a resident of Auburn, and is nearly or quite eighty years old. He narrates many incidents of the early times. At one time when passing between Elk Lake and Coo- ley's Mill he met a wolf. Neither saw the other until they were a few feet apart, when Mr. F. raised his arms, and, giving a loud yell, so frightened it that it turned and ran away.
Champlin Harris, then boarding with Mr. Fuller, with a trap caught at least a dozen bears and wolves. He was noted for prowess in hunting. He settled in Jessup on the present loca- tion of Samuel Warner.
Lory Stone, a native of Litchfield County, Conn., came in 1814 to the farm where he died October 31, 1871, in his eighty- third year. Mrs. S. survived him only one week, and died at the age of seventy-nine. They were the parents of the present postmaster at Montrose. Another son resides upon the home- stead.
The same year Benajah Chatfield came from Vermont, and occupied one of the clearings made by Charles Miner ; Salmon Bradshaw came from Connecticut, and settled where Matthew McKeeby now is ; and Christopher Sherman, where Jasper Run- dall lives. Christopher Sherman's sons were Jonathan C., Jesse, and Abel. Their father had been a soldier of the Revo- lution. He died in 1835. Benajah Chatfield died the same year, aged seventy-three; his widow, December, 1843, aged seventy-eight.
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
Before the close of 1815 David Sherer, with his son-in-law, John Robertson, and their families, came from New Hampshire. The former bought of Henry Wallbridge the farm now owned by E. J. Jagger, who purchased it of D. Sherer in 1837. John Robertson lived twenty years on what is known now as the Steiger farm, and then purchased the place where he now lives with his son William. He had five sons. The sons of David Sherer were John, who became a Presbyterian minister ; William, who was a physician in Virginia and Kentucky, and died in the latter State ; James and Samuel, at present residents of Dimock. Their father died on the farm they now occupy, in 1846, aged eighty-seven. He left Ireland when five years old; was a Revolutionary soldier when aged eighteen, and was at the battle of Stillwater, the surrender of Burgoyne, and with Washington in the encampment at Valley Forge. He became a Presbyterian, and was a consistent church member for the last fifty-five years of his life.
His daughter Mary (Mrs. Baldwin of New York) was one of the early teachers of the township. David Robertson, son of John, was also a teacher about forty years ago.
In 1816 John A. Patch came to what is called "the Abel Sherman farm," when that was in Bridgewater, and remained on it until 1831. He died in the township March, 1840. His widow, Polly, is still living. The family consisted of seven sons and four daughters. Three of the latter now live in the county ; one son, Joseph H., is in Forest Lake, the others are either dead or out of the county. Benjamin L., the youngest, has been, for several years, a president judge in Carroll County, Illinois.
In the same year Reynolds and Frost were in partnership as clothiers.
In 1817 Thomas H. Doyle was a cloth dresser, six miles from Montrose on the Wyalusing road, and in 1818 Isaac H. Ross and Jonathan C. Sherman took the same stand-the house is now a part of Depue's mills.
In 1819 James Young, Sen., a native of Scotland, came from the vicinity of Philadelphia, and settled in that part of Jessup once Bridgewater. He had started for Silver Lake, having heard flattering accounts of the lands of Dr. Rose, but upon reaching the place of J. W. Robinson, in what is now Dimock, he was induced to purchase land belonging to the Wallace estate (now in Jessup), about three-fourths of a mile west of B. Mckenzie. Here his family occupied a log-house, without a door, as many had done before them. Such hardships, however, seem not to have shortened the lives of the pioneers; Mr. Y. ยท lived to be seventy-three, and his wife, who died in 1862, nine- teen years later, was over ninety years of age. The farm is now
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owned and occupied by their son James. Mr. Y. left this place two years after he came to it, and lived, perhaps, a dozen years on the Mallery farm before returning to the old homestead.
George Clagget made the first improvement on the corner where Dr. N. P. Cornwell has been located since 1837. It was a part of Col. Turrell's farm; Curtis Bliss owned it in 1820. The latter and John Shelp went through western New York on a tour of exploration about this time, and, in a letter soon after published in Waldie's ' Messenger' (at Montrose), he says :-
" As to the soil we are satisfied from what we saw, and from the informa- tion we received of the amount of crops raised where we have been, that if we and our neighbors will cultivate our soil as it ought to be cultivated, there are few places which we have seen on our route that will be able to claim a superiority over us as to quantity of produce, and certainly none as to value."
Two of his neighbors took nearly the same route, soon after, to judge for themselves of the correctness of Mr. Bliss' state- ments, and add :-
"Though our soil generally is not equal to some that may be found west- ward, yet, independent of the sickness interrupting the labors of a farmer on the flats, our crops, acre for acre, are worth much more here than there. There is one thing well known to all the settlers in our county-that the soil here is very lasting-for the oldest farms, when ploughed and properly cultivated, produce the best crops, better than new lands."
Mr. Bliss states :-
"I have been in thirteen States of the Union, and in comparison with all the parts that I have seen (taking into view the price of land and the uncom- mon healthiness of this county), I can truly say I think there is every reason for the inhabitants of Susquehanna County to be satisfied with it."
The first post-office was established in 1829 at Fairdale, Asa Olmstead, postmaster. It is spoken of as re-established in 1842, Daniel Hoff, postmaster.
About twenty years ago another post-office was opened on Porter Ridge, Pliny Birchard, postmaster. On his resignation Robert Griffis, Esq., was appointed postmaster, just at the expiration (under the new Constitution) of his term as justice of the peace. He held the latter office, by appointment and election, about thirty years, and the post-office ten years; but the mail is now discontinued at that point.
Elder William Brand was located in Jessup in 1832, having then but recently arrived from Portsmouth, England, where he was settled many years as a Baptist minister. One of his daughters was a successful teacher in Montrose. She married Rev. Justin A. Smith, D.D., now of Chicago, in which city she died in September, 1871. Eld. B. removed some years ago.
Dr. William Bissel came into the county in 1827. He was then a medical student with Dr. Samuel Bissel of Brooklyn. In Nov. 1831 he read with Dr. Fraser, and was for two years in
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
business with Dr. Leet at Friendsville; then came to Jessup, not far from his present location, on one of the early clearings of John Blaisdell. Elder Brand also occupied one of these clearings.
In 1837, the Rush Baptist church was organized at the Bolles school-house, and, twenty-five years later, also the Jessup Sol- diers' Aid Society. The old building stood on the corner op- posite the present neat structure, near the grave-yard.
The first officers appointed by the court after the erection of Jessup were: L. W. Birchard, constable; John Bedell, Orrin S. Beebe, Waller Olmstead, supervisors.
The first officers elected by the people: L. W. Birchard, constable; John Bedell, James Waldie, and Walter Foster, supervisors; Elkanah Bolles, clerk; Asa Olmstead, treasurer ; Lory Stone, assessor ; Erastus V. Cook, Joseph W. Smith, and David S. Robertson, auditors; J. C. Sherman, Henry Shelp, Simeon A. Bolles, John Hancock, Waller Olmstead, and Horace Smith, school directors; John Hancock, judge of elections; James Bolles, Asa Olmstead, and Jeremiah Baldwin, inspectors ; Joseph W. Smith, justice of the peace.
There is now in the possession of Edgar W. Bolles the trunk of a hemlock two and a half feet in diameter, bearing unmis- takable internal marks of a sharp tool in several places. The tree fell in 1851, and opened in such a way as to show the marks, which, from the subsequent layers of wood, are sup- posed to have been made more than two hundred years ago.
CHAPTER XXIV.
FOREST LAKE.
IN 1835 viewers were appointed to mark the bounds of a new township to be taken from parts of Middletown, Bridge- water, and Silver Lake. Their report was accepted by the court May, 1836; and the twenty-second township was named Forest Lake from a small sheet of water near its former center. The west line of Bridgewater previously passed through it.
The new township was about four miles east and west by five miles north and south ; but it has since been twice enlarged by the reduction of Middletown. The middle branch of the Wya- lusing rising in the northwest, and the outlet of the lake, flowing into the east branch, principally drain the township; though Choconut and Silver creeks have their sources in the northern and eastern parts.
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
The Milford and Owego turnpike (completed December, 1821) crosses the township, diagonally, from southeast to northwest, overtopping the high hills, and coursing down them to leap, but never to follow, the narrow streams. In extenuation of its route, it is said, the road was built to accommodate the early settlers, who were fond of locating on the tops of hills; not only because the soil was better than in the valleys, but also because of the wider prospect. A writer in 1832 says of this turnpike-
" Any one who has toiled over its endless hills will recollect them, and for those who have not, a description is useless. Like the Falls of Niagara they must be seen to be wondered at. Few teams from Montrose proceed further than the Apolacon road ; for though the distance is greater by three or four miles, the latter route is preferred, and can be traveled in a shorter time. Still, before you get here, fifteen long miles over fifteen dreary hills have to be traversed."
Written as this was, at a time when it was sought to bring everything to bear favorably upon the interests of the western part of the county, and when a railroad from the Lackawanna coal field to Owego was in contemplation, one might have been tempted to exaggerate existing inconveniences; but impartial criticism will sustain the writer. A gentleman traveling over the road for the first time, on arriving at the hotel, in Montrose, remarked before several gentlemen (one of whom located it),. " There's just one mistake they made when they laid out that road." " Ah! what's that ?" was asked. "Back here there's a piece of level land, whereas, if they had turned a little to the right, they might have made another hill." Many a joke is told at the expense of the surveyor of the road. A foreigner who settled in the township said, " If I believed in the transmigration of souls, I should hope the soul of the surveyor of the Owego turnpike might be given to an old horse, and doomed to go before the stage between Montrose and Owego."
In 1799, Jesse and Jabez A. Birchard came from Connecticut to what is now called Birchardville, on the Middle Branch of the Wyalusing, worked on land under a Connecticut title, and built themselves log houses. The locality is now within the present area of Forest Lake, though it belonged in Middletown, from the organization of that township. When the Birchards came, " Ruby" was their recognized locality ; probably, they then knew nothing, and cared less, for the metes and bounds of Pennsyl- vania. Hon. Charles Miner, in 1799, mentions them as the first and only inhabitants of Ruby. He was then in "Usher," (now Jessup); and in a letter to the pioneer festival, held at Montrose, June, 1858, he says : "I used to run over by the lot lines, to the settlement of my good friends, the Birchards, and spend a day of pleasure with them. It was at the deer lick at their door, that I shot my first buck."
24
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
In March, 1800, Jabez A. brought his wife, the first woman in the place; and until May or June following, she did not see a woman, when two girls-Betsey Brownson and Betsey Hyde- walked through the woods from the Forks of the Wyalusing, to make her a visit, and stayed two nights; the distance, going and returning, being about fifteen miles.
Mr. and Mrs. B. had six children : Mary M., wife of Lewis Chamberlin, formerly of Silver Lake, and Fanny H., wife of Amos Bixby, are dead ; Charles D., Backus, and George, now live in Iowa. Jabez A., Jr., also resided there from 1836 until his death, October 20, 1871, aged sixty-seven. He was a mem- ber of the first legislature of Iowa, and held many offices in Scott County.
In 1846, the father also removed to Iowa, where he died, De- cember 18, 1848, aged seventy-three.
His farm in Forest Lake is now occupied by Edward Slawson.
Jesse Birchard brought his family in the spring of 1801, to the farm vacated early in 1870 by his son, the late John S. B. They had but partly unloaded their goods, when upon leaving them to go to Jabez's to dinner, sparks from a fire which Mr. B. had kindled fell upon them, and communicated to the house, which, together with their goods, was totally consumed. An earthen platter, an heirloom in the family from the time it was brought from England in the " Mayflower," was broken to pieces in saving their effects.
Mr. B. died May 20, 1840, in his seventieth year.
In the fall of 1801, Israel Birchard (cousin of Jesse and Jabez) with wife and six children; Jehiel Warner and wife; Eli Warner, and Joseph Butterfield, then a young man; came to- gether from Granby, Mass., and settled in the neighborhood. There was not a cabin between Mr. Warner and the New York State line. The late Wm. Gordon occupied the first location of Israel Birchard, who afterwards lived in Jessup, where he died December 11, 1818.
The Birchards are descended from one of the old families of Hartford, Conn., whose English ancestor settled at Martha's Vine- yard, in Puritan times. The New York branch of the family spell their name Burchard.
Mrs. Jesse B. is said to have been a granddaughter of Winslow Tracy (born 1690), whose wife was a descendant of Wm. Brad- ford, second Governor of Plymouth Colony and one of the com- pany who made the first landing at Plymouth Rock. Mrs. B.'s Norman ancestry is traced back to A. D. 956; the settlement of the De Tracy family in England dates from King Stephen's time. This surname is taken, it is said, from the castle of Tracy, on the Orne.
Jehiel Warner built a log-house in 1800, on the site of Sewell
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Warner's present residence, and returned to the East for his family.
Jonathan West and family came from Conn. the same year. Chester Wright is now on his farm, where the Milford and Owego turnpike crosses Pond Creek, or the outlet of Forest Lake. Here Mr. W. brought up a large family ; all now scattered. Two houses built by him are still standing near "the corners." He was an upright man, and " efficient in the promotion of good." He died May, 1832, aged seventy-one. One of his sons, Joshua, lived on the farm, at the head of the lake, and built the house which is still standing.
In 1801, Benjamin Babcock came, and was the original settler of what has since been known as the Brock farm. In the spring of 1832, while attending to his cattle, he was injured in the head by one of them, and died from the effects. He had been a Revo- lutionary soldier, and was eighty-two years old.
During this year the township of Rush was erected. It in- cluded all the present township of Forest Lake, until the erection of Bridgewater.
In 1802, Samuel Newcomb settled at the outlet of Forest Lake, and for many years it was known as "Newcomb's Pond." He bought the house built by Eli Warner and added to it, making it a double log-house. This he sold in 1819 to Wm. Turner, an Englishman, and removed to " Fire Hill" (Jessup), where he lived twenty-five years or more, and then left the county to re- side in central New York. His wife was a daughter of Jonathan West.
In 1803, Luther Kallam came from Stonington, Conn. (where he was born in 1760), and settled on Pond Creek, a little more than two miles south of the " Pond," where he resided until his death, June 5th, 1846, in the eighty-sixth year of his age. He enlisted, when but sixteen years old in the Revolutionary army ; served, at different times, three years ; and was in three engage- ments, one of which was at White Plains, N. Y. He is spoken of as a man of spotless integrity. He raised a large family, and his funeral was attended by about thirty of his grandchildren, and several great-grandchildren. Until recently one of his sons occupied his place, and it is still called the Kallam farm.
In the winter of 1809-10, Ezekiel and Elisha Griffis (brothers) moved into this section from the banks of the Wyalusing, where they had lived since 1799.
Ezekiel built on the site of the present residence of his nephew, Abner Griffis. Only a part of his house remains, and that is used as an out-building. It was once occupied by Adam Waldie, who purchased the farm about 1820, when Ezekiel removed to Bradford County.
Elisha built across the road from his brother, and resided there
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
until 1832, when he moved into the house Mr. Waldie had left several years earlier. In 1837 he built the large house now occupied by his son Abner, and lived in it until a short time before his death, when he again crossed the road to his old home. Here he died, May 17, 1870, aged eighty one years. He had seven sons: Abner, Calvin B., Milton, Austin B., Elisha, John, and Jefferson ; and one daughter, Mrs. E. B. Cobb of Rush. All but one of the family reside in the county.
Mrs. G. was a daughter of John Blaisdell. She died in 1861. In his last years Mr. G. related several incidents that occurred prior to his removal from the Wyalusing. He had cracked many bushels of corn in a mortar before a mill was started. He learned to write by lying before a fire of pine-knots, his face shaded by a board. As late as 1810 he was often in the woods a whole week without seeing a human face. While clearing his farm in Forest Lake he was seven years without a team ; it was cheaper to hire than keep one. The farm now supports the largest dairy in the county-about one hundred cows.
Stephen and Thaddeus Griffis, former residents of the county, belonged to another branch of the family.
In the spring of 1810 Loami Mott came from Stockbridge, Mass., to the place cleared by Joseph Butterfield, who then left for Bridgewater. Mr. B. had married; and had two children while in Rush (now Forest Lake). Isaac and Simon E. Fessenden now occupy the farm. Loami Mott was a deacon in the Baptist church. He died in 1857, aged eighty-two years. His sons are Merrit, Willard, and Elijah.
Samuel Clark, father-in-law of Loami M., came at the same time with the latter, and died twelve years later in the house built by Joseph Butterfield. His age was seventy-six. He had been an armorer in the Revolution. Orange Mott was a brother of Loami. He settled on the lower end of Stone Street, where Luke Jagger now lives. His sons are Orange, Rev. Wm. H. (of Hyde Park), Linus, Chester, and Amos. He died January 23, 1871, aged ninety eight years, three months, and six days. The compiler had the pleasure of seeing him the previous fall. He was the oldest man then living in the county. He had been a member of the Baptist church over fifty years.
Leman Turrel was born in New Milford, Litchfield County, Conn., July 5, 1776 (the day after the declaration of Indepen- dence of the United States was signed in Congress). In 1793 he first came to Pennsylvania, in company with his mother, to visit his sister (Mrs. Kingsley), who then lived at the mouth of the Wyalusing Creek. His mother rode on horseback, and he walked; the distance being about two hundred and fifty miles.
In the spring of 1794, at the age of eighteen, he again came
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to survey land, under the Connecticut title, for his uncle, Job Tur- rell, and returned in the fall.
In the summer of 1809 he came once more, and bought a tract of woodland upon the head waters of the middle branch of the Wyalusing Creek (now Forest Lake, two miles east of Friends- ville, on the Milford and Owego turnpike road). Here he built a log-house in the wilderness, three miles from any other; and cut a road, at his own expense, the same distance, through the forest, to reach it.
In April, 1810, he removed with his family, consisting of his wife Lucy and four children, to his new woodland home. By untiring industry and perseverance he cleared a large farm, built a commodious residence, and acquired a handsome competence.
As occasion required he practised as a surveyor of land and roads; and when the Milford and Owego turnpike road was located through his land, he, with his two older sons, Stanley and Joel, built more than one mile of it themselves.
He had seven children, all now living excepting the eldest. They were Brittania, Stanley, Joel, Leman Miner, Abel, Lucy Ann, and James. [Joel has since deceased.]
As no district schools could be sustained during this early set- tlement Mr. T. taught his children himself in the evenings after the labors of the day were over, by which, with their own co-ope- ration and efforts, they obtained a better education than many persons do with all their present advantages.
The original farm, to which have been made large additions, is now owned and occupied by the three older sons.
Leman T. died December 28, 1848, in the seventy-third year of his age, and his wife died December, 1864, in her eighty-ninth year.
Perry Ball came from Stockbridge, Mass., about 1810 or 1811, and settled on the farm where his grandson, E. G. Ball, now resides, half a mile east of where Loami Mott lived.
Seth Taylor, a native of Litchfield County, Conn., located first, in 1810, on the farm next below Garrad Stone. He settled after- wards on the road leading from the middle branch to the Choco- nut, where he remained until 1861; when, in company with his son Edwin, he removed to California, and while there made his home with his son Job T. Taylor, Esq., one of the earliest set- tlers of Plumas County. There he died, June 26, 1869, aged nearly eighty-eight years. He was a justice of the peace for Forest Lake at the time of its erection.
In 1810, Darius Bixby and Philo Morehouse, from Vermont, settled one mile east of what is now Friendsville. The former afterwards moved to the shore of the pond, in Middletown, which bears his name.
Philo Bostwick came in about the same time, and, for nearly a
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quarter of a century, was a leading man in the community. The elections were held at his house, at the foot of the hill on Stone Street. He was a justice of the peace for Middletown ; his death occurring in 1834, two years before the erection of Forest Lake, and long before Stone Street became a part of it. He was killed, while chopping, by the fall of a tree ; his age was fifty-one years.
Garrad Stone and wife came from Litchfield County, Conn., in 1810, and settled on the farm of three hundred acres, lately occu- pied by his younger brother Judson. It was then in Rush, but from 1813 in Middletown. He died September 21, 1855, at the age of sixty-seven. His first wife died November 6, 1848, aged sixty-two. Three married daughters survive.
Judson Stone came August, 1813, the day after he was twenty- one years old, and bought two hundred and eighty acres of land in Middletown, and began to clear up.
In the fall of 1814 he returned to Connecticut, and married, the following January, Polly Turrell.
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