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 44
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He set out with his young bride for Susquehanna County, making the journey with an ox team, the usual mode in those days of emigrating westward. They were sixteen days upon the road. He lived upon the place first selected as his home until the death of his wife, July 17, 1855, when he purchased his brother's farm adjoining, where he lived until his death. His wife had a cheerful temperament. A log-cabin in the wildnerness, with only a chest for a table, could not check her vivacity. Pri- vations gave but a keener zest to pleasures.
Mr. Stone built the large house now occupied by his son-in- law, Geo. B. Johnson.
From boyhood until his death he was by principle opposed to war. His convictions on this and other matters pertaining to Church and State were similar to the religious teachings and tenets of the Society of Friends, for whom he expressed the greatest consideration.
He was strenuously opposed to the use of tobacco and intoxi- cating beverages.
Between 1840 and 1845 he was largely interested in the tan- nery business. He subsequently formed a mercantile partnership in Friendsville with Amos Mott, and afterwards with Ahira Wickham, which continued for several years. In all these enter- prises he was successful.
In 1855 he was married to Catharine Stone, widow and second wife of his brother Garrad, who now survives him.
He died June 22, 1871, aged seventy-eight years and ten months. Six daughters survive, all the children of his first wife.
The widow of Walker Stone (a brother of Garrad) came from
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Connecticut, in 1829, with five children, of whom Judson Stone, 2d, is the only one now living in the county.
Canfield S., another brother, came in 1821 to the farm just north of Judson's first location ; it was afterwards occupied by his son James, who died in 1860.
The three farms constituted a tract given them by their father, Canfield, who purchased it prior to their arrival. He lived and died in Connecticut. One of Canfield's daughters is Mrs. Calvin Leet of Friendsville.
The road from Birchardville to Friendsville, from its occupa- tion by the three brothers, received the name of Stone Street. It is parallel with a creek which empties into the middle branch at the former place, and has been recently taken from Middle- town. The line now runs fifty rods west of the road, near the late residence of Mr. Stone, but is, perhaps, half a mile from it at the turn near Birchardville.
Philip Blair was on the Middle Branch, below Birchardville, in 1813.
A year or two later, Abiathar, William, and Samuel Thatcher were settled near Leman Turrell.
In 1815, Stephen Bentley, originally from Rhode Island, came with his family, from Greene County, N. Y. He bought a farm on the Owego turnpike about five miles from Montrose, where he kept a public house a number of years. His children were Stephen, Marshall, Benjamin S., and George V .; and two daugh- ters. He died in 1831, and his wife seventeen years later, aged about seventy-five years. With the exception of the youngest son, none of their family remain in the county.
In 1817, Wm. Gaylord Handrick settled near the east line of Middletown (as originally located); but, after a year or two, he built the large red house near the tannery on Stone Street. He was a tanner and shoemaker. He served as a justice of the peace for many years, and a term as county commissioner. His death occurred in 1866. He was thrice married and had thirteen children, all by his first wife, of whom six are living in the county ; William B., Wakeman C., Henry F., and David C .; Mrs: I. P. Baker, and Mrs. William Miles of Dimock.
In 1819, William Turner and wife arrived from England ; having heard of Dr. Rose's lands being occupied by a British settlement. Mr. T. purchased the log-house and farm vacated by Samuel Newcomb, at the foot of "Newcomb's Pond." This was named by Mrs. T., "Forest Lake"-then a most appropriate name; as, in the immediate vicinity of the lake there was but one clearing, and it was all forest to St. Joseph's.
Under the transforming hand of taste, the log-cabin became a charming home. The rustic gate of laurel boughs, and the trellised porch, lent an outward grace to the rude fence and
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rough walls; while the spirit and intelligence of the occupants made the spot "the retreat of the social, the gay, and refined." The place still bears marks of the care she bestowed upon it. What the locality was on the arrival of Mrs. T. can be best understood from a letter written by herself. It was published in the 'New York American' and ' Phila. Union,' and copied into the 'Susquehanna County Herald,' edited by Adam Waldie.
Extracts of a letter from an English lady to her friend in New York.
" COUNTY OF SUSQUEHANNA, Sept. 3, 1821.
" To Mrs. -:- The kind interest you expressed for us on our arrival at New York as strangers, and the generous solicitude you evinced lest our trial of farming in this country should end in disappointment, induces me now, after a period of nearly two years, to give you the following brief state- ment; and your kind heart shall judge of our present prospects. On our arrival at Montrose, we were directed to Silver Lake; where we were re- ceived with a courtesy which, I confess, I had not expected to meet with in the backwoods ; for we had been told they were only inhabited by wolves, and bears of two kinds, biped and quadruped. It was therefore no small sat- isfaction to us (after a journey of one hundred and fifty miles from New York), through forests whose gloom and vastness are appalling to an Euro- pean's eye, accustomed to the groves and rosegirt meadows of England, to find that we had escaped being devoured by the wild beasts of the wilderness ; and instead of meeting with a complete land-jobber, ready to take every ad- vantage of foreigners, we had to deal with a gentleman, whose manners bore a pleasing promise of what we have since proved-a liberal and unbiased conduct. After viewing several farms we fixed upon the one we have now purchased, consisting of 294 acres, with a lake in which is plenty of fish. The person from whom we purchased the improvement, had held the farm seventeen years, and had built on it a double log-house and a good barn ; himself and family were living here till the day we entered. Accustomed, as we had been, to a home possessing all the comforts, and some of the elegancies of life, our rustic log-hut, surrounded by black-looking stumps, which seemed to stand like memento moris, gave a cheerless and disheartening aspect to our Susquehanna home; but a very few days of active industry turned our log-house into a clean cottage. A little white-wash and paint have a talis- manic effect on dirty walls ; a comfortable carpet hides a rough floor; and the good polish of housewifery will soon make dull things bright. Out-door improvements require more time and labor ; and, where neglect has suffered the bramble to overrun the land, the English settler has much to do ere he can bring his farm to look tolerable to his eye. But a good flock of sheep are better exterminators than the scythe or reaping-hook ; they are fond of the young shoots, and these being frequently bitten down, the root is soon destroyed. · We have now a pretty flower-garden in which my favorite roses grow luxuriantly, with lilacs, rhododendrons, etc., with many annuals and perennials, some of which are from dear old England. Our porch is covered with the calabash, the morning-glory, and scarlet run- ners, which the humming-birds delight in, and perch on their blossoms as tame as our pet robins. I love to see the native plants mingling their beau- tiful dyes with my own country's flowers. It seems like what our nations should be, united, blending their glories without rivalry. . We
are delighted with the excellence of the water. We have a spring that has not failed us one day, winter or summer. Your kind apprehensions for our health have proved fruitless ; not one of us has had a cold even-which, I confess, surprises me, as our winters are more severe than those of England ;
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but the air is salubrious, and we have enjoyed excellent health through all the seasons. It is a great pleasure to us to read how the world goes, and we get ' The Observer' regularly once a month, so that we have all the news about a month after it is published in London-an advantage few emigrants can boast, I believe, four thousand miles from home. You know I laugh- ingly told you we should rival your concerts in New York ; we sing Mozart's beautiful operas in our forest; and last winter we had some quadrilles very gracefully danced in our parlor-the first that ever were danced in a log- house perhaps. In short, come and witness my content and happiness in my new home; my harp sounds as sweetly in our log house as it did in a loftier dome. I believe it is the first that has breathed its tones in Susquehanna.
" Yours, etc."
The publication of the foregoing in Mr. Waldie's paper, called out the following, addressed to him by a gentleman who signed himself "Bridgewater." (This part of Forest Lake was then Bridgewater. The "Eudoxia" referred to was Miss Waldie; and "Musidora" was Miss Maria Bentley, afterwards, Mrs. Foster).
" A letter in one of your late numbers, for its purity of language and har- mony of style, is not exceeded by anything I have read. Eudoxia has likewise favored us with a specimen of her talents, and I hope she will not be offended at my reminding her, that her masculine understanding, and correct style, are highly appreciated by all who have the honor to know her. Musidora too-the timid, the retiring Musidora, need not fear to write-her uncommon understanding, refined taste, and richly stored mind, need only to be known to be adinired and respected. I beg there- fore, sir, that you will use your influence, to prevail on this accomplished and fascinating trio, to comply with our respectful request, that they will condescend to employ a few of their leisure moments to amuse, delight, and instruct us, with their pens."
In 1822 Mrs. Turner issued a volume of her poems entitled the ' Harp of the Beech-woods.'
Five years later her harp was mute in forest halls; her husband finding himself unequal to the task of subduing the wilderness, and making a living, abandoned his enterprise in Susquehanna County, and went to New York city, where Mrs. T. engaged in teaching music.
Later she wrote from Manchester, England, respecting their residence in Forest Lake.
" I believe the locality was all the insurmountable difficulty. Had we fixed near a navigable river, or within easy distance of a good market, the capital we sank in the purchase of Forest Lake, would, in its interest, have rented a small and profitable farm."
In 1833 she wrote-
"I am pleased to hear such good accounts of Forest Lake [there was then no township of this name, and she intended only to designate the vicinity of the lake], and that it is not abandoned to the raccoons, the squirrels, the deer, and the wolves, but sociably inhabited, and elegantly improved by the good taste of Mr. and Mrs. Brown."
In 1819 John B. Brown, also an Englishman, located near the lake. He was an intellectual acquisition to the neighborhood,
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but he remained only a few years. The house he occupied has since been burned. It stood just north of the present residence of Chauncey Wright. It was built by William Wynn, who soon left it to reside in Montrose. On Mr. Brown's return to England he traveled northward; and contributed to the 'Register,' published at Montrose, a series of articles entitled 'Things in Scotland.'
Not far from this time Frederick Brock, a German, located at " Brockville," five miles from Montrose, on the farm cleared by Benjamin Babcock. Mrs. B. was from Philadelphia, and in that city their son Frederick died April, 1841, in his thirty-third year. He was known in this vicinity as a young man of excel- lent talents and acquirements. He left a widow (who died a year later) and two children, since dead. Fred. Brock, Sen., died November 5, 1843, and his widow has since deceased.
Michael Flynn, one of the first Irishmen in Forest Lake, occu- pies the Brock farm.
Adam Waldie came with his wife and sisters, from Scotland, to the present town of Dimock in 1819; two years later he removed to the farm formerly occupied by Ezekiel Griffis, for which he paid $2100. IIe grew weary of his situation; and as this was but part payment the land reverted to Dr. Rose.
In December, 1822, he went to Philadelphia, and published ' Waldie's Circulating Library,' a valuable literary paper.
· " Mr. Waldie was highly esteemed, not only for his literary attainments, but for his amiable manners and gentlemanly bear- ing." The publication of the 'Messenger' and the ' Herald,' de- voted to the dissemination of useful intelligence, and neutral in politics as they were, at a time of very great political excitement (over two years from June, 1820), could not have had other than a salutary influence.
The condition of things here, as described by Mr. Waldie a short time before he left, show that it was owing to no defect in our soil that he was induced to leave. He says in the Susque- hanna County 'Herald,' June 29, 1822 :-
" A very few years since, this country was the sole possession of Indians and wild animals. The earliest settlers, trudging along for the distance of twenty or thirty miles to mill with a bushel of grain on their backs, were con- sidered fair game for the ridicule of the inhabitants of the surrounding country. They considered those people insane who could ever think of set- tling among these hills. Mark the consequence. This season there have been teams from the neighboring counties to purchase grain in Montrose, and were supplied. We do not mention this boastingly. We feel grateful that we have a supply for those in want, and mention it simply to show how rapidly a change has been effected in this county, as well as in other parts of the Union. Though the settlement here does not show such a rapid, mushroom growth, as many places have exhibited, we hope that it will show a stamina equal to any."
C. F. A. Volz, a native of Wurtemberg, Germany, built the
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house on the top of the hill, east of the lake, about 1824. He made application to the court, September, 1823, for naturaliza- tion, which was not granted in full until May, 1828. He is spoken of as a highly accomplished gentleman. His farming was like that of many amateurs-better in theory than in prac- tice. The raising of sheep received considerable attention from him, and with some success. He named his place "Hope." It was near the sixth mile stone on the Milford and Owego turn- pike. The house is described as " rambling and disjointed," and is still odd enough, after some alterations have been made for the sake of convenience. Mr. V. was sometimes styled " Baron," but this may have been only a matter of compliment. He was a single man, and his domestic affairs were managed by Tom Brown and wife. His death occurred in 1839.
The farm was secured before his death to B. T. Case, Esq., and is now in the hands of his heirs.
John S. Towne, a blacksmith, was here as early as 1824. His house is the present place for holding elections. He married a daughter of Jehiel Warner.
The forests of the township, besides beech, include hemlock, maple, birch, and ash; not much pine is found. The soil is con- sidered rather better than that of Silver Lake.
No flax was raised for some time before the war, but consider- able attention has since been given to its culture. Little wheat is grown, but excellent crops of corn, buckwheat, oats, rye, and potatoes are raised. The country in this section was quite thickly settled as early as 1830. Those persons who located themselves early in that part of Middletown since set off to Forest Lake, were, in many instances, never residents of the lat- ter; their death or removal occurring previous to its erection into a township-and their names and efforts are all associated with the former.
The Birchardville post-office, established in 1826 in Middle- town, is retained in Forest Lake.
In 1831, the second post-office within the limits of Forest Lake was established under the name of " West Bridgewater," Zura S. Doty, postmaster. Its name was afterwards changed to Forest Lake post-office, and Elisha Griffis was appointed postmaster. The office has since been changed to Seth Wright. Within fifteen years Chase post-office was established in the western part of the township (as it was then); but the name and office are now discontinued, and that of Forest Lake Center takes its place.
About 1830, Robert W. Huddlestone built a grist-mill at the outlet of the lake. Every stick of timber used was cut and drawn by Alexander Smith, now of Montrose.
The first pickerel ever put in Forest Lake were obtained by
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Messrs. Volz and Brock, from Lathrop's Lakes (Elk Lake); and for five years no fishing was allowed there. The pickerel have always been abundant since that time. Mr. Smith himself " cut a hole in the ice and dumped the strangers in"-half a barrelful. Some years later when three lads were out in a frail canoe fish- ing, one Josephus Kenyon, aged fifteen years, was drowned.
Huddlestone's mill was rebuilt, in 1845, by Chauncey Wright, Esq., who came to Forest Lake, from Choconut, three years pre- vious, and established the clothing works where the factory now stands, and where the business has been continued ever since by his son, Chester Wright; who added, in 1847, a carding-machine. The woolen factory was built twenty years later by Wright Brothers & Southwell.
As early as 1815 a grist-mill and distillery, erected by Jabez A. Birchard, were in active operation; as also a wool-carding establishment and saw-mill, by Loami Mott, in the Middletown portion of the township. A few years later Wm. G. Handrick started a tannery on Stone Street, now owned by Mr. Guylfoyle. There are now five or six saw-mills in the township.
At the time of the " morus multicaulis" fever, in 1839, Horace Birchard, a resident of Forest Lake, manufactured a superior quality of silk; he had several species of the mulberry.
The school-houses of the township are all new.
The library formed forty years ago at Jehiel Warner's (then Middletown) is now kept at the same place, in Forest Lake, by his grandson, Sewell Warner. An annual contribution from each member enables the association to make occasional purchases of new books. The whole number of volumes is between three and four hundred.
Joseph Backus, of Bridgewater, now over eighty years of age, taught a common school thirty winters in different localities, closing his services thirty years ago in what is known as the Griffis District in Forest Lake. Recently he visited that dis- trict, and says :-
"Now, after so long an absence, what do I find on my return ? Not a single family remaining that was there at that time; some removed, others snatched away by death's relentless hand; their places being occupied by strangers, and by those who were my former pupils; and the son of one of those I found to be the teacher of the school."
The Baptist church of Rush, since Middletown, and now Forest Lake, was the first church organized within this section. It was the result of the labors of Elder Davis Dimock, who had fre- quently threaded the forests to gather up the scattered members of Christ's fold, holding meetings in the " Washington school- house,"1 and in another near Jesse Birchard's. From the narra-
I This school-house was in the northwest corner of Jessup. It has been gone many years.
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tive of the great revival in Bridgewater in 1810, given by Elder Dimock some years later, we learn that "people came from a great distance, and he was invited to preach in other towns, and some in each place believed and were baptized." All joined the Bridgewater church, as there was no other in this region of the country.
In 1811 those who lived in Rush (then eighteen miles north and south by eight miles east and west) agreed to meet on the Lord's Day for prayer and reading of the word of God; and also to invite their neighbors. Elder Dimock sometimes visited them, and February 29, 1812, they were constituted a church with twelve members, not one of whom is now living. . The last one of the twelve, Mrs. Naomi Birchard, died in 1870, aged seventy-two. But their descendants and others, to the number of eighty, maintain the organization then effected, and worship in a neat church-edifice erected at Birchardville. After Elder Dimock, Elders Parker, Brand, Frink, H. H. Gray, and Tilden have occupied its pulpit.
The Baptist church of Forest Lake was organized in 1842 with sixteen members. A house in the vicinity of the lake was purchased and fitted up for a meeting-house; though refitting is necessary to make it comfortable.
The first Presbyterian church of Rush, now Forest Lake, was organized December, 1811, at the house of Jehiel Warner. Its constituent members were Jesse and Israel Birchard, Jonathan West, Zenas Bliss, Harriet and Lydia Birchard, Polly Bliss, Maria Fishback, Phinis Warner, Anna and Laura Stone, and Minerva Taylor.
The first ministers whose services were occasionally enjoyed here were Revs. Joseph Wood, O. Hill, E. Kingsbury, and Solo- mon King.
In 1822, if not earlier, preaching and church-meetings were held at the house of Jesse Birchard; in 1827 at the school-house near J. A. Birchard's. The records of the church were kept just twenty-six years, during which twenty-three members only were added, and the same number taken from it by death or other- wise, and after 1837 neighboring churches absorbed the rem- nant.
The Methodist church at Forest Lake Center was built in 1847. It was repaired and rededicated in 1871.
There are five cemeteries-the oldest at Birchardville, donated by Jesse Birchard; one near J. Stone's; one on the farm of L. M. Turrell, land donated to the public by his father; one near the lake, and another near S. D. Cornell's.
Jabez A. Birchard's oldest child, Mary, was born in 1801-the first birth in the township. Hubbard Warner was the next, and
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there was not a death in the neighborhood " until those children were old enough to sit up with the corpse." This death was that of Miss Betsey Rice, who died at Loami Mott's, and was the first person buried near the Baptist church at Birchardville. Now thirty of the name of Birchard are buried there.
CHAPTER XXV.
CLIFFORD.
IN April, 1805, Asahel Gregory, and other residents of Nichol- son (which then covered territory now including eight townships of Susquehanna County), petitioned the court at Wilkes-Barre for a division of the township. At April sessions, 1806, the report of viewers was finally confirmed, and Clifford was erected with boundaries " beginning at the northeast corner of Nicholson, on the Wayne County line" (or where Long Lake nearly touches it in Ararat), " and running nine miles due west, thence due south to south line of said township," thirteen miles, to a point now included in Luzerne County. Upon the organization of Susque- hanna County, in 1810, the size of Clifford was nine miles east and west by twelve miles north and south.
In November, 1813, by the erection of Gibson, it parted with a little more than half its area; and in May, 1825, by the erec- tion of Herrick, with a strip of five or six square miles on its northern border. Thus it lost Uniondale and lands westward to nearly the foot of the western slope of Elk Mountain. But there is still left to Clifford the principal outlook from the mountain- the Rock.
From this point a prospect is obtained unparalleled in extent, if not in beauty, to that obtained from any point in Susquehanna County, and probably in eastern Pennsylvania.
Some persons claim that the mountain is " the highest point of land between the lakes and the ocean." However this may be, it is certain that few mountains in our State are more than two or three hundred feet higher; if it is correct, as given in 'Bur- rowes' State Book,' that the highest is but twenty-five hundred feet above the Atlantic, for, by the survey of the table-land in Ararat township, the railroad summit is 2040 feet above tide- water, and, from the northeast side of Prospect Rock, one looks down upon that eminence. Some assert that the north peak hides the view of " the summit" from the rock, but it was pointed out to the writer during her recent visit there.
On a bright November day the five lakes in the immediate
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vicinity glistened in the sunlight; though they were not then " gems set in emerald wreaths," for the hills were brown and the forests faded to somberness. Yet, the scene was full of grandeur, impressing one principally with its vastness. "The sea! the sea !" was the idea presented by the view along the wide horizon, for the hills were as billows on billows; white sails were imaged in painted houses far away, and, in some places these crested the hills as foam crests the ocean.
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