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 46
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Elnathan and Ebenezer Baker were located at the City in 1814.
Ellery Crandall came from Hopkinton, R. I., in 1815, and still lives where he first located. Elias Burdick and his nephews, Thomas, and Billings B., also came from R. I .; Simeon, their brother, came the next year, and remained in Clifford until his death, December, 1870, in the eighty-second year of his age. The sons of Elias are Luther, Stephen, Elisha, and Caleb.
In 1816 Ezra Lewis came to the old farm of Amos Morse. John Westgate, who came from . Rhode Island to Mt. Pleasant, this year, reached Clifford in 1817, and is now living, over eighty years of age, about three miles northeast of Dundaff. In 1817, the elections were held at the house of James Wells.
In 1818, Asher Peck, with his wife and one child, came from New London County, Conn. He is still living on the farm where he first settled.
Early in 1818, John Alworth purchased the grist-mill of L. Norton ; Nathan Callender had an interest in a saw-mill trans- ferred from Millard and Buchanan; John Doud had a mill
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
transferred from Calvin Daly. James Green, Reuben Arnold, Lawton Gardner, Peter Rynearson, George Brownwell, Nathaniel Cotteral, Asa Dimock and sons Asa and Warren, and Philip J. Stewart from the Corners, in Herrick, and other new names, ap- pear on the tax-list for the first time. Benjamin Brownwell and Joseph Berry were also here.
Asa Dimock had a store at what is now Dundaff, and Warren D. kept a tavern opposite. The latter was opened by James Coil, and is the back part of the hotel which was years after- wards finished by G. Phinney. Horace G. and Austin Phelps had a carding-mill at the City.
A road was then being cut out past Crystal Lake.
.Nathaniel Cotteral married a daughter of Jonathan Burns, and was located near the lake that bears his name. He removed to Providence, Luzerne County, where he died three or four years since.
Peter Graham's purchase of over 500 acres was made in 1819. He was a merchant in Philadelphia, and spent only his summers in Dundaff. The place is now occupied by his son George. Peter Campbell, a Scotchman, had charge of the farm, and was a permanent resident.
Redmond Conyngham made additional purchases in 1819; and in 1820, laid out the village named by him Dundaff, in honor of Lord Dundaff of Scotland.
On the 4th of July of that year, the national anniversary was celebrated here by the new-comers, and Geo. Haines, Esq., gave this toast : " May the pleasant hills of Dundaff become the seat of justice." In the fall of 1820, a newspaper styled 'The Pennsyl- vanian' was ostensibly published at Dundaff, but in reality at Montrose, during the excitement of a political campaign.
Redmond C. was an elder brother of the late Hon. John N. Conyngham of Wilkes-Barre, and represented Luzerne and Sus- quehanna in the State Senate about fifty years ago.
From the fact that the Milford and Owego turnpike passed through Dundaff, and from the inducements offered by Mr. Conyngham, the place began to attract settlers rapidly.
He dug a cellar and a well on a knoll overlooking the lake and present borough, but it does not appear he ever built a house and resided here. He owned a grist-mill here in 1820.
John and Peter Rivenburg were also here at that time.
In 1821, the first physician, Henry Burnham, came and re- mained a year or two. Previously, Dr. Giddings practiced, coming from another county.
Jacob Bedford was the first hatter in the place.
Samuel Davis, a blacksmith; Stephen Lampson, a carpenter ; William Tinker, Samuel Woodruff, and Elias Bell were new arrivals.
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
In 1822, Col. Gould Phinney bought several farms in the township. R. Conyngham bought the Lake farm. James Coil sold land to both these parties, at a later date.
Isaac Truesdell (Truesdale ?) was on the western slope of Elk Mountain-the first settler there. Martin Decker was on the flat now occupied by J. C. Decker.
James Rolles came the same year. He had twenty-two chil- dren, of whom the eldest, James, now resides on the eastern slope of Elk Mountain.
In 1823, Phelps and Phinney owned enterprises at the City, which had not then a thought of being outdone by the new set- tlement at Dundaff, and was styled Phinneyton.
Kendall Burdick, a brother of Elias, came in 1824; and died in Clifford, March, 1871, aged ninety-three.
March, 1824, Col. Gould Phinney came with fourteen others from Wyoming Valley, and settled in Dundaff. Charles Wells arrived the following April, and at first kept store for Col. P., but afterwards independently many years. Before this time there were but three dwellings, with a school-house and hat- shop, in the place. Nathan H. Lyons had a distillery. Geo. W. Healy, merchant; C. B. Merrick, physician ; John Wells, Robert Arnet, Ebenezer Brown, miller; Benjamin Ayres, stage propri- etor ; and Archippus Parrish, were among the new-comers. Mr. Parrish took charge of the Dundaff Hotel. Col. Phinney at this time had a grist and a saw-mill, a blacksmith and wagon shop, and a store in Dundaff; also an interest in a line of stages, and a farm, and gave employment to many. In 1825, he started a bank, and transferred his store to Joseph Arnold. A public toast, July 4th, 1825, at Dundaff, in reference to this and to the failure of the old Silver Lake Bank, was: " Fifty per cent. dis- count-Experience has taught us that silver is too heavy a metal to swim on Silver Lake-May the NORTHERN BANK be established on more permanent foundation."
DILTON YARRINGTON came to Dundaff in 1825. He was born at Wilkes- Barre, in 1803. His father, Peter Y., was a blacksmith, but, in early life, had been an agent for Matthias Hollenback in trading with the Indians in the vicinity of Tioga Point, at which time he was taken captive by them. He was retained about four years, between Cayuga and Seneca Lakes, before he could make his escape. Abel Yarrington, grandfather of Dilton Y., came to Wyoming from Stonington, Connecticut, in 1772, with his wife and three children ; Lucinda, afterwards Mrs. Arnold Colt, John, and Peter, then two years old. Abel Y. had the first regular public house, and the first ferry at Wilkes-Barre. On the day of the massacre, July 3, 1778, the leading men, in anticipation of an engagement with hostile forces, agreed that Mr. Y. should remain at the ferry, to facilitate a retreat if necessary. In the disaster that followed, he ferried many persons over, who fled eastward, and remained at his post until the Indians were in sight, and their shots skimming the water by the side of the scow or flat; he then was obliged to turn a deaf ear to the entreaties of those on shore, and, taking in his family, escaped down the river. He was in Wyoming again in 1780, if not sooner; was a strong
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
believer in the rights of Connecticut claimants to Wyoming ; and one of the volunteers who went from Wilkes-Barre to suppress the " Whisky Rebellion."
The experiences of both his father and grandfather left their influence upon Dilton. In 1816, he began learning his trade with his father, and for thirty years he worked in a blacksmith shop. On the last day of February, 1825, he walked from his father's (one mile below the court-house in Wilkes- Barre) to Dundaff-thirty-seven miles-arriving before dark. Where Car- bondale now is, there was then a thick laurel swamp. The next year he was employed by Gould Phinney at blacksmithing, but in 1826 set up business for himself. In 1827, he was married ; and in 1828 built the house he occu- pied until 1842 (lately vacated by Thomas Arnold), and then built on the lot next above. He says :-
" Christmas, 1825, I ran a race on skates, on Crystal Lake, with Benajah P. Bailey, for $10 a side. I took the stakes; distance one mile from north to south corners-I ran it in 2 minutes and 33 seconds. I then ran one- fourth of a mile with Gould Phinney for $20 a side. Judges decided that he was half way when I was out. At the end of the last race, I jumped fifteen feet, six inches, on skates. The ice was smooth and the day pleasant; and, as word had been sent out to neighboring towns, there were more than 500 people there to see the race."
In 1835, D. Yarrington was appointed justice of the peace by Gov. Wolf, and held the office until he was elected, under the new constitution, for five years following 1842.
He assisted in forming the first temperance society in Dundaff, and also the anti-slavery society, when both organizations excited the strong aversion of a majority of the community.
He removed to Carbondale in 1847, where, with two sons, he still resides.
Dr. William Terbell came to Dundaff in 1825 or'6, and built just below Gould Phinney, on the hill near the Presbyterian church. He removed to Corning in 1837.
The following persons, it is said, were then residents: Wood- bury S. Wilbur, Stephen Lampson, Wm. Wells, carpenters; Benajah P. Bailey, tanner and currier; Samuel Davis and David Pease, blacksmiths; Alex. C. Shafer and Hugh Fell, wagon- makers; Ezra Stuart, shoemaker; Oliver Daniels, cooper ; Ly- man C. Hines; Earl Wheeler, Lawyer; Charles Thompson, Presbyterian minister ; Joseph B. Slocum, tinner; in 1827, Mat- thias Button, physician ; Isaiah Mapes, merchant; Thomas Wells, justice of the peace ; and Nathan Daniels. This year the "North- ern Bank of Pennsylvania," suspended operations.
Sylvester Johnson and Sanford Robertson, merchants ; Jona- than Stage, John Bennet, and Thomas Burch, farmers, were here in 1828.
Pickerel were then brought from Tunkhannock to stock the lakes.
Several who had been in business at the City removed to Dun- daff, and among them the Phelps family, of whom there were eventually seven brothers here, originally from Connecticut. Horace G., a merchant, went to Corning in 1836, and died but recently. Alexander C. is a physician in Abington ; Jaman H. was a tanner and currier at Dundaff in 1828, now of Scranton ;
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
Edward died at D. in 1836; Norman, now a farmer in Abington ; John Jay, recently a banker in New York, but now deceased ; and Sherman D., who removed in 1830, and has since resided in Binghamton, N. Y.
On the 5th of March, 1828, Dundaff was incorporated a borough, one mile square.
A few days previous, Sloane Hamilton, formerly a teacher at Montrose, established the 'Dundaff Republican'-a " political, literary, moral, and religious mirror," the subscription list of Elder D. Dimock's ' Mirror' being transferred in part to this. Controversy was excluded, but the strong religious sentiment then prevailing demanded religious intelligence. Mr. H. was joined by Earl Wheeler, April, 1831, but in March, 1832, the paper passed into the hands of Amzi Wilson, who changed the name to 'Northern Pennsylvanian ;' and in December, removed the establishment to Carbondale, which place was then thought about to become a great city.
In 1829, if not earlier, another physician, Joseph Falkner, ar- rived. He died in 1843 or '4.
Nathan Callender died in 1830, and at this time Benjamin Ayres kept the tavern of which Mr. C. had been proprietor at an early day. When Mr. C. left it, he built opposite the banking house-which since 1832 has been the residence of Thomas P. Phinney, Esq.
James Chambers came in this year, and Wm. H. Slocum, wagon-maker.
B. Ayres afterwards kept the hotel near Crystal Lake; the present house was built by Peter Campbell.
Dr. Wm. S. Gritman came in 1830, and left in 1836. Dr. Thomas Halsey was also one of the temporary residents. Dr. Merrick died in the place. Dr. Johnson Olmstead has been a resident and practicing physician for more than twenty years.
There were at least three taverns in Clifford in 1830, and four more applicants for licenses which were probably obtained ; these were all or principally located on the line of the Milford and Owego turnpike. This great thoroughfare, which contributed so much to the business activity of Dundaff and Clifford, has ceased to be a wonder, but it shows the enterprise and endurance our fathers possessed.
A convention was held at Dundaff, February 22, 1830, in favor of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company. The delegates were among the most prominent men of the county.
The company had been complained of as obstructing naviga- tion by placing dams in the Delaware and Lackawaxen, and as being unwilling to open the canal to the public. The subject was one of intense interest to all classes of our citizens. There had been resolutions, in various quarters, in favor of memorializ-
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
ing the legislature against the company ; but at a meeting held in Montrose on the 1st of February, 1830, other resolutions were unanimously adopted against memorializing, and in favor of the canal, which, it was believed, would be a great benefit to Wayne, Pike, Susquehanna, Bradford, and Luzerne Counties.
The meeting on the 23d February, 1830, also passed resolu- tions in agreement with this. The final report of the committee before the legislature exonerated the company from blame, with- out a dissenting voice.
In 1831, Phelps, Phinney & Co. established a glass factory at Dundaff. The glass blown here was said to be of an excellent quality.
The Dundaff Academy was established in 1833. Six years later, Hon. A. H. Read procured $2000 from the State in aid of the institution. The building, still standing, never had any archi- tectural beauty, but it had a praiseworthy influence in another and a better way, and associations cling around it which are re- called by many with pleasure. Revs. E. O. Ward and E. Allen, and Miss Farrar, were among the first teachers.
In 1837 a military convention was held here, which attracted considerable attention. At an early day, there had been two companies, commanded by Captains James Wells and James Coil.
Dundaff had high aspirations, as appears by the toast given July 4th, 1820; but in 1836 they began to yield to the claims of Car- bondale, which was the proposed seat of justice of a county to be carved out of Luzerne, and the townships of Clifford, Herrick, and Lenox of Susquehanna County.
In 1838-9 there were renewed petitions for a division of the county, indicating the tendency of the people to unite with Lu- zerne; and it cannot be denied but that the natural features of the section justified them. Had their wish prevailed over that of the central and western portions of the county, the result could not have been more depressing to the enterprise of Dundaff than it has been by their remaining.
To the tourist and summer visitor, Dundaff and vicinity have great attraction. A steamboat costing $3000 has been placed upon Crystal Lake, and a commodious hotel has been erected.
There are other points of interest within easy access, the chief of which is Prospect Rock. If one does not care to climb so high an elevation, a short ride to the school-house in Marsh Dis- trict will furnish a delightful view about eighty miles in extent.
As late as 1867, a deer was killed at Stillwater Pond, by Wm. Hartley, Esq., the head of which, an unusually fine one, he stuffed, and with its branching antlers, it now ornaments the hall of his residence in Lenox.
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
RELIGIOUS.
The Presbyterian church received its charter from the Supreme Court in 1830. The edifice had been occupied about two years. Rev. Wm. Adams was then the pastor. The church was self- supporting from 1834 to 1844, had able ministers, and over sixty members, of whom but very few remain in the place.
The Baptist society is the oldest in the township, dating from about 1802, when the Rev. E. Thompson officiated as a mis- sionary, near Clifford Corners. Elder Charles Miller was pastor of this church, and died here in 1865, aged seventy-two. He was succeeded by his son, Elder Wm. Miller. A Baptist church was built at the City in 1855. The "Seventh Day" Baptists have a church in the Burdick settlement.
"St. John's Chapel" (Episcopal) in 1835, was the former bil- liard-room of Col. Phinney. The edifice in which they now worship was not erected until within the last ten or twelve years.
The Methodists have a church at Dundaff, and another (Union ?) at Clifford Corners. Including the Welsh church, there are eight houses of worship in the township.
In the cemetery at Clifford Corners are the graves of the fol- lowing residents for a long period of time in the vicinity : Rev. Wm. Wells, born in 1790, died in 1857; John Alworth, aged 83 ; Roger Orvis, 81, and his widow, 87; Artemas Baker, 73; James Greene, 72; David Smith, 76, and his widow, 93; Peter Riven- burgh, 66; Stephen Hodgdon, 63; and Geo. Brownell, who died in 1869.
THE WELSH SETTLEMENT.
The slopes of Elk Mountain were not, in general, cultivated before the accession of the Welsh to the population of Clifford.
The pioneer among them was Thomas Watkins, a native of Carmaerthenshire, South Wales. He left that country about 1830, and in 1832 came from Carbondale and bought a piece of wild land at the base of South Peak, but still well up on the mountain from the City on the Tunkhannock-its real southern base. All around him was a dense forest, mostly of hemlock. Here Mr. and Mrs W. resided, without the society of their coun- trymen, two years.
In 1834, Zacharias Jenkins, Daniel Moses, David Anthony, David Rees, William P. Davis, Rev. Thomas Edwards, David Edwards, and Robert Ellis, with their families, settled around him.
Mr. Ellis, a native of North Wales, had been in America seve- ral years, and came from New York, with the others, to Clifford. He located on the Collar road, which connects the Newburgh with the Milford and Owego turnpike ;- along which several small openings had been made. His widow and son, Robert E., Jr., still occupy the old place, near the head of Long Pond.
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
With the exception of Mr. E., the party of immigrants were from South Wales. They left their native country May 21st, 1834, from Swansea, in a brig bound for Quebec. The vessel was only of 200 tons burden, not much larger than a canal-boat. There were on board, the captain and five sailors, with thirty-four passengers. Most of the latter were religious people-Dissenters -now "coming to a country where they could be freed from paying tithes and supporting a church they did' not believe in." They held religious meetings on board the ship, and as they had cross-winds the greater part of their voyage, they were seven weeks on the water before landing at Quebec. Three families among the passengers remained in Canada ; the others came to Clifford.
Zacharias Jenkins settled east of Long Pond, where Samuel Owens now lives. He was accompanied by his son Evan, who married a daughter of Wm. P. Davis, and has since removed to a farm near the line of Gibson. Ann, a daughter of Z. J., was the first person buried in the Welsh settlement.
For many years the families endured all the hardships of pioneers, often carrying heavy burdens to mills, and from Car- bondale, twelve miles distant. The few cows they owned browsed in the woods during the summer season, and as they often failed to come home at night, their owners were obliged to hunt them up, and they were often lost in the woods.
Mr. Jenkins, when sixty-seven years of age, was lost in a swamp near Mud Pond. Night overtook him, and, as wolves in great numbers, and an occasional bear or panther, roved through the woods, he climed a tall pine for safety. Here he remained through the night, the wolves howling around him. In the morning, he followed the outlet of the pond through water and thickets, until he came to the Milford and Owego turnpike with- in one mile of where Lonsdale now is. When asked how he spent the night, he replied, "Happy, praying and singing most of the time." He is remembered as "an excellent singer and a good christian."
Thomas Watkins cleared a large farm and remained in Clif- ford until his death, May, 1870, at the age of sixty-seven. He was a worthy and much esteemed citizen. His widow resides with their son Watkin, on the old homestead ; another son, John, is near by.
Most of those who were heads of families among the first party are dead.
The second party of immigrants came soon after, but they had been located at Carbondale two or three years previously. Among them were David J. and David E. Thomas, Evan Jones (from North Wales); Job Nicholas, John Michael, and others.
Like the New England Pilgrims, the first care of this people
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
was provision for their spiritual and educational needs. The church was organized the same year, 1834. Thomas Edwards, their first pastor, remained among them until the close of 1835, when he accepted a call to Pittsburg.
In 1836, Rev. Jenkin Jenkins, son of Zacharias, who preceded his father in coming to America, finished his studies at Auburn Theological Seminary, N. Y., and took charge of the Presbyte. rian church at Dundaff, and also of the Welsh church at the settlement. He preached to both churches nearly seven years, and then moved to Illinois. He is now in Minnesota.
Henry Davis, a native of Glanmorganshire, South Wales, left the old country about the same time as Mr. Watkins, but did not follow him from Carbondale, until 1836; when he came to the farm adjoining his, on the western slope of Elk Mountain.
In 1839, the first church edifice was built. After several years it was found inadequate to the accommodation of the increasing settlement, and about 1856, the present neat struc- ture, with a spire, was erected.
Rev. Samuel Williams succeeded Mr. Jenkins in the pastorate, remaining about two years. He is now in the Middletown settlement.
They often held meetings with Americans who were religious, though neither could understand the language of the other. Some prayed in Welsh, others in English, and both sang the same tune together, each using their own language in hymns of the same meter, while the Holy Spirit communicated its influence from soul to soul, until sometimes all present would be in tears.
In 1850, Rev. Daniel Daniels became pastor of the church, and is still retained in its service. His charge includes also the Welsh families of Gibson and Herrick.
In Clifford there are forty-two Welsh families, though there are in all but twenty-two family names; and what is still more remarkable, there are but six additional names in the entire settlement, which extends in the townships mentioned above, and includes seventy-five families.
An emotional and poetical people, the Welsh are still emi- nently practical, and are possessed of much stability. Their character reflects the features of their native land, whose rugged fastnesses are linked with heroism and song. Temperate, indus- trious, and honest, they constitute a most desirable class in a community.
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
CHAPTER XXVI.
LATHROP.
THIS is the central township on the southern line of Susque- hanna County. It was taken from Brooklyn April, 1846.
The names given to this section, while it was a part of Luzerne, were: Tioga, Nicholson, and Bridgewater. Soon after the organi- zation of Susquehanna County, it formed a part of the new town- ship of Waterford, and shared its several names, until formed into an independant township, named in honor of Benjamin Lathrop, Associate Judge of the county.
The north line of Lathrop crosses six well-traveled roads, one of which-the Abington and Waterford turnpike-for many years, subsequent to 1823, was the great thoroughfare of the township. Two other roads, as well as this, traverse the entire length of Lathrop, besides the Delaware, Lackawana and West- ern Railroad, which follows Martin's Creek on the east side- the tract set off April, 1853, from Lenox. Prior to this date the creek had been the boundary line. The railroad crosses the county line near the house of H. P. Halstead, about half a mile above the village of Nicholson.
Horton's and Martin's Creeks drain the township, passing through it from north to south. Tarbell's, Lord's, and a part of Field's pond-the only ones larger than mill-ponds-are still small sheets of water. The outlets of the first two are tributary to Horton's Creek. The valley of Martin's Creek is a narrow deep gorge, barely wide enough for a carriage road on the west side, and for the railroad on the other; and comparatively few of the population are located on it below the village of Hopbottom.
So far as can be ascertained, the present area of Lathrop, in the spring of 1799, had but one human inhabitant-a hermit by the name of Sprague. Charles Miner, writing of this individual and of his own experiences in 1799, said :-
"Four or five miles below Captain Chapman (then living on C. M. Chap- man's present place, in Brooklyn) lived in solitude Joseph Sprague, twelve or fourteen miles of wilderness intervening between him and Marcy's mill in the settlement on the Tunkhannock.
" Having made sugar with Sprague on shares, I took a horse load down the Tunkhannock, peddled it out, a pound of sugar for a pound of pork, seven and a half pounds for a bushel of wheat, five pounds for a bushel of corn. Saw the Susquehanna, got a grist ground, returned, and with Mr. Chase'
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