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 45
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Except on the north the view is uninterrupted to an extent which included all that has been described by others as distin- guishable from the summit of the north peak, which is said to be the higher, and from this point the landscape is pronounced
"One of surpassing loveliness and grandeur. Overlooking the Lackawanna and Moosic, which are in its immediate vicinity, the view is terminated, southwardly, by the Blue (or Kittatinny) Mountains, in which the Wind Gap and Delaware Water Gap are both distinctly visible. Eastwardly can be distinguished the extension of the Blue Ridge into New Jersey and New York, stretching upward along the Delaware, and still beyond, the Shawney Creek range, until it is lost in the greater elevation and bolder outline of the far-famed Catskill. On the north and west, the eye takes in the whole of that immense tract comprehended in the bold sweep in the Susquehanna River. It enters Pennsylvania at the northeast extremity ; and then, as if deterred by a succession of mountain fastnesses through which it must break, or re- pentant at leaving its parent State, it turns again across the line, and does not re-enter Pennsylvania for many miles. Here is presented a combined view of all the beauties of mountain and rural scenery. Bold bluffs indent the extreme distance, along the wide and graceful sweep of the river ; on the intervening hillsides, which rise apparently one above another, like an am- phitheatre, until the horizon is reached, numerous tracts of cultivated ground appear, as if cleft out of the deeper green of the forests ; while, here and there, gleaming in the sunlight, many a crystal lake is seen, adding life and brilliancy to the picture."
Another writer, says :-
" Necessarily, a clear day, good eyes, and a spy-glass of some power, are needed to enjoy all that may be seen from any of these sublime altitudes. From all points but the southeast, the elevations seem to be covered with the native forests. Approaching it from Dundaff or Clifford, however, it is cultivated to its summit. We left the horses at a point where Mr. Finn' has erected a three-story house for the entertainment of travellers and sight seers. A path through small trees and brush, brings you to a perpendicular ledge of rocks, skirting which on the east you find some stone steps,2 upon which you ascend to Pulpit or Table Rock -- quite a level plat of sodded sur face, just in the edge of Clifford township."
This ledge is so large, however, that from "Kentuck," in Gibson, its outline can be distinctly traced. It is another " Look- out Mountain," without its bloody associations. To the south- east can be traced, by the steam of their locomotives, the line of
1 Mr. Clark Finn owns the land including the rock, but the western slope belongs to David Thomas.
2 For these accommodating steps the public are indebted to Mr. Charles Wells, of Clifford.
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the railroad from Carbondale to Honesdale; to the west, that of the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western; and, near at hand, that of the Jefferson Railroad.
The steam from the stationary engine of the first named, six- teen miles distant, rises in a straight column-a prominent object in that direction. Twenty five miles northwest from the Rock, a cleared field above the Fair Ground at Montrose, is seen ; and, on and beyond this, lie against the sky the blue hills bordering the Susquehanna River in Bradford County. Withdrawing the eye from remote objects, the whole of Clifford lies before it like a map. At the left gleams Cotteral Pond, from near which one traces the East Br. of the Tunkhannock, until it is hidden at " the City ;" but it appears again on Decker Flat, and below. Directly south, four or five miles away, far above the Tunkhannock, rests Crystal Lake, flooded with light, and near it Newton's Pond, both being just beyond Dundaff, whose spires and public houses can be readily distinguished. Above Clifford Corners, Alder Marsh lies low near the Cemetery, whose white stones, like those on the hill beyond "the City," are plainly seen. The latter glimmer between the dark evergreens that ornament the ground sacred to the dead. Near by is the Baptist church. Another can be seen on the left, and the Welsh church on the right. Round Hill1 is the southwestern spur of Elk Mountain. Seen from any point, it appears symmetrically round, and wooded enough to give it beauty. Apparently just back of it, but really some miles away, towers Thorn Hill, which figures in the early history of the township. In all directions stretch roads which cross each other, and pleasant farms lie between. At the right, the sheen of Long Pond beyond the "Collar road,"2 and even that of Mud Pond, seems almost just beneath one's feet. The Milford and Owego turnpike can be traced from Dundaff over the tops of the hills, and away into Lenox (near the Baptist church), and into Harford and Brooklyn. Kentuck and Ken- nedy Hills rise at the right, in Gibson. Looking again to the left, Millstone Hill rises this side (west) of the Lackawanna, in Clifford, and as its name imports, furnishes a valuable stone for milling purposes. It hides a view of "Stillwater." The spire of Uniondale church, in Herrick, seems very near, though really five miles off; and farm-houses equally distant, appear, in the clear atmosphere, also but little removed.
It is difficult to prevent the eye from straying to distant ob- jects, so wide is the range of vision, and so impressive the scene.
Most reluctantly, and after hours of pure enjoyment, do we
! Once owned by Walter Forrester, a Scotchman; at present, by Wm. T. Davies.
2 John Collar and family lived in the vicinity. It connects the M. & O. and Newburgh turnpikes.
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turn from the Rock, lingering the while, and even returning in the wrench of parting from a view such as we may never behold again.
At the foot of the stone steps, a short and steep declivity, at a right angle with our path, brings us to a spring of delicious water, whose flow is constant and ever the same; no less during the severest drouths, nor greater after driving storms or melting snows. Refreshed by a draught, we retrace our steps with some difficulty to the path, and resume the descent, finding our impro- vised staves of almost equal service as in the ascent. The tim- ber of the mountain is principally oak, chestnut, hickory, and birch, with some beech.
The geography of no other township of Susquehanna County can be studied at one view, though much of Gibson, and the more prominent features of a dozen townships may be seen from the old Harmony road in Ararat, and from the summit east of it.
Bits of landscape of surpassing beauty often greet the vision, especially in the vicinity of the Susquehanna River and smaller streams ; but the bird's-eye view of Clifford outvies them all.
Still, it appears this section was not settled as early, by several years, as the less inviting parts of the county. A few hardy pioneers found their way hither, and it was long known as the " Eikwoods Settlement "-the township as well as the mountain being the home of the elk in great numbers.
The forests of Clifford appear to have been broken in three places at nearly the same time.
From what can now be learned, it is probable the first stroke of the settler's ax resounded here, in 1799, on the east branch of the Tunkhannock, about a mile below the deep valley, now styled the "City,"1 and was wielded by Amos Morse or his son, William A., on the farm now occupied by Ezra S. Lewis. They left in 1818. Miss Sally Morse was the first teacher in Clifford.
Benjamin Bucklin began clearing on the site of Dundaff pro- bably in 1799, but did not locate there until three or four years later.
In the spring of 1800 Adam Miller and family settled on the flat, within fifty rods of what is now known as Clifford Corners.
He had been, in 1787, one of the first company of settlers on the Hopbottom, and possibly of the first in Susquehanna County. He emigrated to Ohio, in 1799, with his wife and four children. All were on horseback-four horses transporting the family and
1 A newspaper correspondent says : "On inquiry as to the origin of so large a name for so diminutive and yet pleasant a place, it was stated, as tradition, that it arose from a preacher, passing through, discoursing from the text, 'Up, get ye out of this place, for the Lord will destroy this city.'" It is also known as McAlla's Mills, from the business conducted here for many years succeeding 1831, by John McAlla.
25
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
baggage-two of the children being carried in baskets placed over one of the horses. These children were the late Elder Charles Miller and Mrs. John Wells, of Clifford, from whose lips the narrative is given. The baskets were made in the shape of cradles, so the children could sit or lie down, as suited them. A journey of six weeks through a wilderness, such as the country exhibited in 1799, was far from agreeable to any of the party. Before they reached their destination Mrs. M. fell and broke her collar-bone, and they were detained three weeks at the wigwam of a hospitable Indian family. When they gained the promised land, Mr. M. could not suit himself in regard to location, and after a few days he broached the subject of a return to Pennsyl- vania. His wife, who had secretly longed for this, was soon ready to resume journeying, and the same season found them in the vicinity of Tunkhannock, and in the following spring they followed up the east branch of the creek to the flat at Clifford Corners. Here they lived twelve years, when they removed to Thorn Hill, where Elder William Miller, their grandson, now resides. While clearing at the latter place, Mr. M. had the use of the flat two years.
He belonged to the free-communion Baptist church, which was organized by Epaphras Thompson about 1802, but, in 1804, he left it to unite with the strict Baptists of the Abington Associa- tion.
Mrs. M. died at Thorn Hill, March, 1816, aged sixty-one years ; her husband died April, 1831, aged about sixty-six years.
Amos Harding, in the summer of 1800, built, within sight of Adam Miller, on the same flat. His sons were Tryon and Zal- mon. One daughter became the wife of James Stearns; another, the wife of Joseph Baker. He, with all his family, went to Ohio about fifty years ago.
David Burns came from Otsego County, N. Y., about 1800, and settled about two miles east of where Dundaff now stands, on the road leading to Belmont. He was a little west of a small stream, now known as Tinker Brook, and his farm on the large county map is marked by H. Hasbrook's name.
Opposite where the name of J. Westgate stands, Mr. Burns lost his only son about five or six years after he came into the wilder- ness, an account of which was written by Mrs. Thos. Burdick (one of his daughters), and published, August 1869, in the Mont- rose 'Republican ;' she was the youngest of four girls, when her parents came in. She says :-
" I was not old enough to remember anything about coming here. The first of my recollection, we lived in a little log-cabin, hemlock bark for the roof, and the floor basswood logs. Our neighbors (who were very few) built in about the same style, for we were all poor. There were no saw-mills, so we could not get boards to build with. When we had been here about two
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
years we had a little brother (Eber). He was the idol of my parents, being the only son. About this time father went back to New York State, and got some sheep and a pair of oxen. Before he got his team he would take a grist on his back and carry it to Mt. Pleasant, a distance of about seven miles, that being the nearest grist-mill. The woods were our pasture. We found the cattle by the tinkle of the bell. Wild beasts were very plenty ; and oh ! the fear I have undergone while looking for the cattle and going to the neighbors. The wolves would come near our cabin and make the night hideous with howling. On one occasion one of father's oxen was missing. Three weeks after, father was hunting and found the head of the missing ox, and presently heard his cattle not far off. He went to them. A large wolf had the remaining ox by the flank, and the other cattle were running around them bellowing. He tried to shoot and not hit the cattle. In the excitement his gun went off by a branch catching in the lock, and the wolf ran away. These were hard times, but my parents did not get discouraged ; they kept on toiling, clearing land, and raising grain. Mother spun flax and wool to make our clothes, until we had plenty, and to spare. We had fish, deer, and bear-meat. Our pigs lived on the nuts of the forest. Then father built a new log-house. I will not give a description of it. It was a palace compared to our little cabin. I was then six years of age, and my brother was in his fourth year. We had lived in our new house but a short time when our enjoyment was turned to sorrow. One pleasant morning in Octo- ber, father said to Eber, 'Do you want to go with me?' He was much pleased, and started off in high glee, forgetting his hat and shoes. My sis- ters and myself went with them to a chestnut grove, but the burrs pricked my brother's bare-feet, so he wanted to go home. One of my sisters went with him to where the road was plain, and then returned. It will be remem- bered that the roads at that time were mere paths ; we followed by marked trees. We did not get home until near night; the sun was about one hour high. Oh! what horror and confusion. My brother had not been home. He was lost. Have the wild beasts killed him ? were our first thoughts. He had been gone all day. What could we do ? My father ran as fast as he could to the woods. I can see him in imagination as plain as I then did, and I shall never forget that day until I forget all. My sisters went to a few of our neighbors for them to come and help look for him. They fired guns and blew horns all night to frighten, if possible, the beasts. But to add to our grief, in the night came on a terrible thunder-storm. The streams rose very high. Before morning the weather changed from warm to very cold. The men who had been out all night were so chilled they could scarcely speak, their clothes being wet. They thought my little brother could scarcely live through such a night-he being thinly clad-even if the wild beasts had not devoured him. In the morning the storm had past, and one of our neighbors went to Mt. Pleasant and Great Bend, and called on all the people on his way to turn out and look for a lost child. Men came from all parts as far as the news reached, and searched four days, and then gave up looking. Oh ! what grief my parents endured. My father sought far and long, but all to no purpose. No trace of him could be found. Two years from this event my mother died. Father married again, and lived here until I was eighteen years of age ; then he moved to the State of Ohio, from thence to Indiana, where he died of old age. I am the only one of the family living in this section of the country. I have lived near seventy years within one mile of where my father first built his log-cabin."
Jonathan Burns, known as Captain Burns, an elder brother of David, was located at first near the site of Dundaff; but in. 1802. he removed to the east branch of the Tunkhannock, near the mouth of the creek that bears his name. From him sprung the
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
present Burns family, David having left no sons. His sons were Henry, Orrey, Alexander, Ziba, Jonathan, Thomas, and Ellery, Alexander was a justice of the peace, and died in the township. He is said to have been a man of fine manners and considerable culture for the times. Orrey died in Burlington, Bradford County ; the rest are living. The father of Jonathan and David Burns came from the north of Ireland, and was Scotch-Irish.
" Captain Burns was a strong, athletic man. He was fond of all active sports, and hunted a great deal for profit as well as pleasure. It was easier to lay in a store of bear-meat or venison than to procure and fatten hogs.
" At one time, late in the fall of the year, he went out hunting on the Lackawanna mountains, south of where Carbondale now stands. While busily engaged in securing game to supply the family larder, the Lacka- wanna had become so swollen with rain as to be impassable. The weather had changed from the mildness of 'Indian summer' to piercing cold. His tow-frock was almost literally frozen to his body. His. companion had be- come so discouraged that he sat down and declared he could go no further. Burns cut a whip and applied it with such vigor to his back, that he was stimulated to renewed exertions.
"They built a fire on the bank of the river, and the next morning the water had so far subsided that they felled trees across the river and went over safely. Burns then carried eighty pounds of bear-meat and a rifle weighing twenty pounds a distance of twelve miles without laying them off his shoulder.
" At another time he carried two bushels of wheat to the mill at Belmont, a distance of ten miles, and the flour, in returning, and stopped but once each way to rest."
James Norton, the father-in-law of David Burns, came from Sara- toga, N. Y., about 1802. He was then an old man, and accompanied his sons Reuben and Samuel. They settled near Mr. Burns' on what is called the Burch road. Another son, Ishi, settled where the Crystal Lake hotel now stands.
Reuben was near the present Burch school-house ; Samuel a little west of him.
About the same time that James Norton and family came, a widow Norton also came to the township, with three daughters and six sons. The latter were Abner, Daniel, Asahel, Luther, Lemuel, and Silas. Daniel and Asahel had families when they came.
Asahel was the first settler at the "City ;" Luther was about half-way between this place and Dundaff, at the foot of Arnot Hill; Abner, Daniel, and Lemuel settled on a road northwest from the Burch road, near where Tinker Brook crosses it. One of the daughters was married to William Upton, who afterwards settled here. Silas was on "the Lyon road," or the road leading to Herrick.
The Nortons are now all dead, or have left this section, with . the exception of Mrs. Horace Dart, a daughter of Abner. He had the first grindstone in the township. Previously they had to go from six to nine miles to get their axes sharpened.
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
William Finn, the youngest of five brothers who eventually came to Clifford, was the son of James, a Baptist preacher, who was in the Wyoming valley in 1778, and one of the party who were left to defend the women and children gathered together in the block-house or fort at the time of the massacre. He was forced to retire to Orange County, N. Y., whence he had emi- grated; but in a few years he returned to Wyoming, and sub- sequently moved to Tunkhannock where he died. His widow came with William Finn soon after, or in 1802, to the present township of Clifford, and afterwards married Daniel Gore. William F. cleared and cultivated a large farm lying one mile west of Dundaff, where he reared his family of eight children. He built three dwelling houses, one of stone, which was then considered a fine affair. His first framed-house was the second of the kind in Dundaff. His saw-mill was the first in successful operation there. He married the youngest daughter of James Norton, and both, now over eighty years old, are living with a daughter in Fleetville, Luzerne County.
Solomon, John, James, and Daniel, brothers of William Finn, also came in, and some of their descendants are still in the town- ship. John was a blacksmith; James was a justice of the peace in 1821, and had twelve children, ten of whom lived to adult age. Of eight sons Clark, living on Elk Mountain, is the only one in Clifford.
Benjamin Bucklin and family, including Albigence (or Alba) and Warren, his sons, came about 1804 and remained several years. His farm covered the site of Dundaff, and his house was the first built there.
A saw-mill was built by Mr. Bucklin on the stream which runs through Dundaff, and which was the first in the township; but William Finn's mill, on the same stream, was the first in suc- cessful operation.
He went back to the valley of the Mohawk before 1813, and his sons afterwards went to Ohio.
Near the present woolen factory at Dundaff, there was early a family by the name of Hulse.
In 1806, James Wells had a farm of 100 acres at the City. He was a native of Minnisink, on the Delaware, where he had a grist-mill, and furnished the Revolutionary army with flour. He had a black boy in his service, and sent him one day with an ox-team with flour for the soldiers, when he was waylaid by the Indians and shot at. They cut out the tongues of the oxen and left them to perish, but the boy escaped and fled home.
After the war, he was settled for some time near the mouth of the Tunkhannock, whence he came to Clifford. In 1807, he owned the half of a grist-mill near the present site of McAlla's. His first mill had been destroyed by a freshet; Asahel Norton
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
was his partner in putting up the second, which was also carried off in a similar manner, before 1813. He built a house with a sloping roof and well-guarded porch, and was then living in it; it is now occupied by Mrs. McAlla.
He sold his farm to Lemuel Norton and Horace Phelps, and moved to the flat where James Decker now lives, about a mile above Clifford Corners, and where Mrs. Wells died February; 1831, aged sixty-nine years. They had thirteen children-five sons and eight daughters. Three of the sons, John, William, and Eliphalet settled in Clifford.
James W. died June, 1839, aged eighty-nine, at the residence of his son Eliphalet, on the Collar road, where D. J. Jones now lives. His oldest son, John, was married November, 1813, to Anna Maria, daughter of Adam Miller, and moved to the place where Charles Stevens now is, west of the City ; and, fifteen years later, to the farm where his widow still resides, near the base of Elk Mountain. He died December, 1843, in his fifty- fifth year. Of their eleven children, ten lived to adult age.
Adam Wells died six years ago, aged fifty-four, of black fever ; and Jesse, another son, with six of his family, died of the same disease in the course of a few weeks. Eliphalet, another son, is in California; Charles and James are in Clifford. A son of Adam Wells is a merchant at the City. To the annalist it is in- teresting to find the descendants of a worthy pioneer remaining in the vicinity where he labored for their benefit.
Matthew Newton came from Connecticut in 1806 with his wife, daughter, and five sons-Henry, Matthew, Benjamin, Isaac, and Thomas. He bought the first improvements of Jonathan Burns. Newton Pond commemorates the name of this family.
Matthew Newton, Jr., manufactured all the wheels used by the first settlers in spinning wool or flax. Erastus West suc- ceeded him in the business, but moved into New York State over fifty years ago.
From 1806 to 1811, we have no certain data, except that Epaphras Thompson, a Baptist minister, became a resident. The year 1812 is spoken of as "a religious time." .
Ransford Smith settled near the forks of the Lackawanna, just above Stillwater Pond. His sons were Ladon, Ransford, Benja- min, Samuel, and Philander.
A large number of new-comers appear upon the tax-list of 1813; among them were the Deckers, Buchanans, Collars, Hal- steads, B. Millard from Lenox, Richard Meredith, James Reeves, Leonard Rought, Joel and Jacob Stevens, Urbane Shepherd, the Taylors, etc.
The Clifford and Wilkes-Barre turnpike was begun this year. A road was granted from James Reeves' to Joseph Sweet's.
The heaviest tax-payers within the present limits of Clifford
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
were Amos Harding, Adam Miller, Lemuel Norton, Wm. A. Morse, and Joel Stevens. The last named was a clothier.
In 1814, L. Norton had a grist-mill at the City ; and a road was granted from the mill to I. Rynearson's in Lenox. J. Doud had also a mill on the east branch of the Tunkhannock, four miles west of Dundaff.
Richard Meredith was the first person who applied for natural- ization in Susquehanna County. He was born in the parish of Bubourn, County of Kent, England, July, 1773 ; sailed from Liv- erpool, June, 1808, and landed in New York the September following. His application to the court was made January, 1814 ; but it does not appear that he received his papers until February, 1822.
James Coyle, farmer and drover, first appears on the tax-list for 1814, also James Coyle, Jr., and George Coyle (or Coil, as the family write the name); Calvin and Luther Daly, and William Upton. James C. bought out Albigence Bucklin, whose log- house, the first dwelling in Dundaff, was opposite the late resi- dence of Dr. Terbell. A burying-ground was in the rear. In August, 1816, James Coil, Jr., bought of J. B. Wallace lands which the latter had bought one month earlier of the Marshal of the State, and which had been patented October, 1800, to David H. Conyngham, and surveyed on warrants of 1774, in the name of Samuel Meredith. J. B. Wallace sold at the same time lots numbered 20-22, 33, and 34, to C. and L. Dailey, A. Buck- lin, J. Hancock, and Daniel Taylor; also to Redmond Conyng- ham, who sold to Wm. A. Morse 100 acres adjoining C. Dailey's, and which was transferred (with 100 acres from Dailey) December, 1817, to A. Dimock, Jr., and afterwards to N. Callender.
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