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 51
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Of J. S. Peironnet's sons, R. D. and John S. were merchants of Friendsville in 1835, and for several subsequent years ; Fred- erick was a physician. Two daughters married Henry and Sackville Cox. The family removed to the West several years ago.
The year 1819 was marked by the arrival of a large number from the vicinity of Philadelphia who belonged to the religious Society of Friends.
FRIENDSVILLE.
About this time Dr. Rose set off a tract three-quarters of a mile long by three-sixteenths of a mile wide on each side of the Milford and Owego turnpike, which he named Friendsville. This was in reality the name of the settlement of Friends, though
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
few of their number were within the prescribed limits, the lands of some lying in what is now Forest Lake and Middletown, and of others in the center of the present township of Choconut.
William Salter, Samuel Savage, William and John King (English), John and Thomas Nicholson (from Ireland), Thomas Barrington, Daniel Richards, Enoch and George Walker (from Chester County), were among the earliest Friends here. The last named located at "Lakeside," but soon removed to " Wood- bourne."
Lydia, wife of Daniel Richards, was a minister among Friends. Their sons were, Abel, Roland, Daniel, Samuel, and Joseph. Mr. Richards is buried in Friends' Cemetery ; Mrs. R. died in 1840, in her 70th year, at the West. The Nicholsons were located east of the lake. John died in New York ; Thomas removed to Springville.
Thomas Barrington died in Ohio. Samuel, his brother, came to the place S. Barnard had occupied ; he died in Friendsville (or vicinity). Elizabeth, his wife, is mentioned as "a woman whose mild and courteous demeanor was happily blended with the unobtrusive graces of the christian." She died in Spring- ville at the house of her son-in-law, Thomas Nicholson.
Samuel Savage left after two or three years.
William Salter had a store at Friendsville in 1820. Dr. Levi Roberts came about this time. He died here about five years later. His lands passed eventually into the hands of Isaac Carmalt and Joshua Gurney. James Palmer, a blacksmith from Delaware Co., John Hudson, Thomas Darlington, Nathan Hallowell, Jehu Lord, Seth Pennock, John L. Kite, Joseph and William Thatcher (from Chester County), whose land was transferred from James Thayer and David Owen, were among the arrivals prior to 1825.
John Hudson was an Englishman ; his son Jobn married Susan, sister of Caleb Carmalt, and both are buried in Friends' Cemetery.
John Lord was a minister among Friends; he died in Ohio. His three daughters were the wives of Seth Pennock, John L. Kite, and John Mann.
Those who came in 1819 and 1820 were diminished nearly one-half within three years. T. Darlington and N. Hallowell left not long after. They were located just north of Lakeside.
What was thought of this section by a visitor, and by others at that time, may be learned from the following letter dated June, 1821, and first published in the ' Village Record,' edited by Asher Miner, in Southern Pennsylvania; it was written by Samuel Baldwin, of Chester County, who afterwards purchased lands here, which, by 1823, had reverted to Dr. Rose.
" The timber of Susquehanna County is a suitable proportion of white pine and hemlock, for building, fencing, etc .; white ash, chestnut, wild
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
cherry, and beech, some white and black oak, with a plentiful proportion of sugar maple to supply a sufficiency of sugar and molasses for the inhabi- tants, and some for exportation.
" The county is, as respects the surface, what is generally called a ridgy or rolling surface-very few of the hills too steep for cultivation, and their summits appear equally fertile with any other part. In the hollows or val- leys there are delightful clear streams, a proportion of which are large enough for any kind of water-works, and they abound with trout and other kinds of fish. I think it the best watered country in my knowledge. Sufficient evidence can be produced that abundant crops of wheat and rye have been raised there, and Indian corn at the rate of 100 bushels to the acre, and these crops without ploughing the ground. The custom of the country is to raise several successive crops with harrowing the ground only.
"From a free conversation with the inhabitants, I was assured that the air is generally serene and clear, the climate very healthy-seldom if ever any fog-clear of fever and ague, or fall fevers.
" The Friends' settlement is called Friendsville, and is situated on the great western turnpike leading to the Lake Country. There are divers turnpikes passing through said county from Philadelphia and New York, and our navigable waters furnish an easy mode for the conveyance of pro- duce to those markets-say 160 to 180 miles distant, and there is a pros- pect of having the distance considerably shortened.
" The Friends hold meeting regularly twice a week, under the care of a committee of the monthly meeting of Stroudsburg."
Mr. Waldie, editor of the ' Messenger,' which he then published at Montrose, added in his paper the following comments upon Mr. Baldwin's letter :-
" We hope it will allay the foolish and unfounded ideas regarding our situation, soil, etc., which have been latterly entertained in the cities. That the most incorrect opinions are circulated in Philadelphia, by certain peo- ple, we ourselves know ; and if we had given credence to the many idle tales we heard we certainly should never have ventured here. But, like Mr. Baldwin, we wished to judge for ourselves ; we visited it, and are satisfied."
Yet he, too, disposed of his interests in the county as early as Mr. Baldwin.
Benjamin T. Glidden, a native of New Hampshire, came to Friendsville from New York State, about 1825. He was a blacksmith. He remained but a short time before his removal to Warren, and subsequently to Little Meadows; but in 1831 he purchased a farm near Stanley Turrell, in what is now Forest Lake. Two years later he was again in Friendsville, and built the house now owned by J. Mulhare, where he died Febru- ary, 1852, aged 68. His sons are Benjamin, of Friendsville (the late county treasurer), and D. W. Glidden, of Montrose.
The lands and store of William Salter were transferred in 1827 to Thomas Christian (not a Friend), who kept a store and tavern many years in Friendsville.
Caleb and Sarah Carmalt joined the Friends' Settlement in 1829. During the previous year Mr. C., in addition to purchas- ing the half of Dr. R. H. Rose's estate in Susquehanna County, had secured the farm now known as "Lakeside," from Thomas
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
Williamson, of Philadelphia, who bought it, in 1819, of Jacob Goodsell. Goodsell's Pond has since been known as Carmalt or Choconut Lake.
Fig. 23.
" LAKESIDE," NEAR FRIENDSVILLE. RESIDENCE OF MRS. CALEB CARMALT. (The Lake lies about sixty rods south of the house.)
CALEB CARMALT.
Caleb Carmalt was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania. His ances- tors emigrated from Cumberland County, England. His education was mainly the result of his own efforts. He first entered a printer's establish- ment, and learned the business ; but afterwards entered the office of a dis- tinguished conveyancer of Philadelphia, and learned the profession thor- oughly, reading law to such an extent that he is said to have " committed Blackstone to memory." He was a member of the Society of Friends, grow- ing more interested in their principles as he grew in years. During the first ten years of his life he resided in Philadelphia, and was always active in political and public affairs.
He removed to this county in 1829, becoming, by his purchases from Dr. R. H. Rose and others, one of its largest land owners ; and he exercised a great influence among the settlers.
The division of the Society of Friends carried from the community in which he lived, many of those who were most nearly associated with him.
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
The completion of the Erie Railroad superseded the great stage routes, and contributed to isolate this section from the outside world.
Thus the latter years of his life were spent in seclusion, although he never lost his activity until his last illness. He died March 10, 1862, in the 70th year of his age, leaving five children, and a widow who still has her home in the house he built more than forty years ago.
In 1830, the division among Friends took place, and the meeting at Friendsville, then consisting of only about ten fami- lies, was broken up. Most of the Orthodox Friends left within a year or two after the division.
[The following tribute to Miss Richards, a successful teacher and army nurse, is from the pen of a grateful pupil.]
Elizabeth W., the only daughter of Daniel and Lydia Richards, accompanied her parents and brothers from Chester County, about 1820. Their first location was where J. Carrigan now resides ; but afterwards the present H. Duffy farm within the borough limits.
Like the majority of early settlers, they secured the necessities of life by daily toil ; yet, in their thirst for knowledge, evening always found the family with books and slates in hand.
Many were anxious to avail themselves of Miss Richards' success in im- parting instruction ; but her instinctive modesty and desire for a retired life prevented her becoming as widely known as her attainments deserved. She occasionally, after her parents' death, gave up her school, or changed its lo- cation, while she devoted her time and sympathies to aged and feeble rela- tives, in different States. Her mission to California in attendance on her youngest brother-the late Joseph T. Richards, Esq., of Montrose-was as heroic as it was sad.
The journey at that time-in 1852-was but rarely attemy ted by women, and almost only by those impelled by love and duty. Yet the privations were nothing compared to the changes of climate; the miasma on the Isthmus, which induced the Panama fever ; the severing of home ties ; the feeling of care and responsibility on her part ; knowing, as far as human foresight could foresee, that her beloved charge could not live to be her protector on the re- turn voyage ; the trials of an invalid in a strange land; their peril on the rainy night, when their hotel at Sacramento was consumed by fire ; their flight and exposure, only escaping with the bedclothes wrapped around them ; their journey to a more genial southern clime ; then the last sad scenes, and the lonely grave in which now rest the mortal remains of her only treasure in that far off El Dorado ! Her reliance on the All-sustaining arm alone carried her through all and brought her home a composed, though sorrowing woman. She now turned her attention to her brother's orphan children. This duty occupied her time for several years.
On the breaking out of the rebellion, she offered her services to the Gov- ernor of Ohio (where she was then residing) as hospital nurse. She was assigned to duty at Camp Dennison ; but the effects of the Panama fever had never been wholly eradicated from her system, and the exposure and hard- ships of camp life, together with her new duties, soon induced typhoid fever, which terminated her life while yet in its prime in the autumn of 1861.
The township was accommodated in 1831 by a second post- office at Ellerslie-the first being established at L. Chamberlin's in 1829.
The high hill just on the line dividing Choconut from Apola- con was for twenty years or more a part of the estate of Samuel Milligan, Esq .; " Ellerslie," his residence, however, was on the
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
Apolacon side of the line. It is difficult to associate him with the latter township, as it was not erected until years after he left Choconut.
The year 1832 was one of lively interest to the inhabitants of Choconut, pending discussions relative to roads. The Milford and Owego turnpike was their principal communication with the outside world, but this was fearfully hilly, and other avenues were sought; the Choconut Creek and Wilkes-Barre turnpike was projected, but never constructed. Reference is elsewhere made to the jokes perpetrated at the expense of the former road; they were sometimes grim enough. A drover once remarked, "Every rod of the Owego turnpike ought to make a barrel of soap; for my cattle alone have lost grease enough there to come to that much."
In 1833 the strife was earnest to obtain the location of a rail- road from the Lackawanna coal field up Martin's Creek to the East and Middle Branches of the Wyalusing, and down the Choconut, and from thence to Owego. S. Milligan, Esq., made an able speech in behalf of this route, but other measures ob- tained favor, and resulted in the construction of the present Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad.
In the fall of 1833, John Mann, who had hitherto given his attention to his farm and saw-mill, opened a boarding-school at his residence. During the summer of 1834, the school was sus- pended for the purpose of erecting suitable buildings. In 1839 it was incorporated as "Mannington Academy." This institu- tion was of service not only to Choconut, but to all the towns in the vicinity. The Choconut and Friendsville Lyceum had been established January, 1833, and both institutions combined to develop much hitherto latent talent.
John Mann's hearty efforts in the anti-slavery cause served it well, and abundantly heaped upon himself the adverse criticisms of others. He went to Great Bend in 1842, and taught school in the Bowes' mansion for a time, and soon after left the county.
The cause of temperance found early advocates in Choconut.
Edward White was probably the first Irishman (not Protest- ant), in the vicinity of Friendsville. He was a man of education, and it was owing to his influence probably, that other Irishmen located here. His residence was in Middletown, where Keenan brothers are now. His land was over a mile in extent.
The first Irishmen in the township were Thomas and Michael Donnelly, brothers-in-law, and Michael Donnelly second and third, uncle and nephew, distantly related to Michael Donnelly first. All came as early as 1327. Michael Donnelly who lives
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
on · the flat where his father, M. Donnelly, 1st, located, was then a little boy. Michael D., first and second, are dead.
Michael Kane, Sen., Jeremiah O'Keefe, Dennis O'Day, and Michael Ryan were among the first twelve families. Within five years from this time a large number of Irishmen were here, and, among them, Edward Burke, who is still a resident of Cho- conut. His son John, who studied at Harford, and graduated at Hamilton College, is now prosecuting attorney for eight counties in Iowa. Edward Clark came in 1832; has served five years as justice of the peace; Michael, son of Cornelius Hickey, who came in 1837, has also served five years, and is now postmaster and merchant at St. Joseph's.
In 1831, Edward White contracted for building a small Roman Catholic church at Friendsville, and supplied all the materials, the frame excepted. This church has since been greatly improved through the influence of Father Mattingly, and has a large, fine-toned bell-the only church bell in the vicinity.
St. Joseph's College, on the Choconut Creek, was opened in the autumn of 1852, and was destroyed by fire on the night of Jan- uary 1, 1864. " The building was insured, and cost about $5000. The chapel was elegantly fitted up, and the college was in a most flourishing condition, there being nearly a hundred students in attendance. There were four regular professors engaged, assisted by four clergymen and a corps of subordinate teachers. The libraries were all destroyed, and were very valuable. Fortu- nately there were no lives lost, although a portion of the pupils lost their clothing."
The convent in the same vicinity was built about 1858, and was discontinued (removed to Susquehanna Depot) October, 1866.
The corner-stone of the cathedral, situated at the head of the valley, was laid in November, 1859. The cost of the building has been estimated at about $25,000; but this is thought too low. The church records were burned with the college.
Fathers O'Reilly and Fitzsimmons were influential in estab- lishing the college; but the cathedral was built by the efforts of the former, Father Fitzsimmons being then in Wilkes-Barre.
Among the later Friends were: Joshua Gurney (Orthodox), Stephen and Hannah Brown, Benjamin and Mary Battey, and members of the families of Mann, Griffin, and Taylor. In 1839, there were sixty-two members of the monthly meeting at Friends- ville. The meeting-house, now gone, stood by the Friends' burying-ground about half a mile from the borough, on the road leading to the lake. In 1849, the meeting was discontinued in consequence of many removals of Friends, and this "Prepara-
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
tive" was attached to the monthly meeting at Scipio, N. Y. Only one member now resides in Choconut, and in Friendsville not one remains.
Friendsville was incorporated as a borough in 1846, with the following limits :-
" Beginning at a stake and stones on the lands of Joshua Gurney, in the township of Middletown, thence south 37º W. 320 rods across lands of said Gurney and those of William Carlon, deceased, to a stake and stones ; thence north 53º W. 480 rods to a stake and stones on lands of Canfield Dayton in the township of Apalachian ; thence north 370 east 320 rods to a stake and stones on lands of the estate of James Peironnet, deceased ; thence south 53º east 480 rods across the corner of Choconut to the place of beginning ;" just twice the original limits.
Very little, comparatively, of this tract is occupied by village lots. The residents are mainly located on Turnpike Street, which passes through the center, and between North and South Streets. The principal cross-roads lead to Binghamton, Silver Lake, and the Wyalusing. Two churches, a school-house, two or three stores, two hotels (J. Foster's was formerly Hyde's), a post-office, a wagon-shop, two blacksmith shops, two physicians' offices, and one justice's comprise the principal business of the place; farms extend within the borough limits.
CHURCHES.
The Choconut Baptist church was constituted January 29th, 1814, at the house of David Owen, by "messengers" from the churches of Bridgewater and Rush, Elder D. Dimock presiding. The original members were: Bela and Lucy Moore, Stephen, Daniel, and Keziah Platt, Silas P. and Amy Truesdell, Aurilla and Lydia R. Owen, and Achsah Doty. Of all the members who united during the first three years, not one was connected with this church forty years later. Meetings were held at the houses of Deacon Bela Moore and D. Owen, until 1817, when a school- house was occupied for a year or two; after that, quite regularly at the house of Edward Cox for four years, when a meeting " at the lower school-house near Brother Edward Cox's" is mentioned, the next year, at the school-house near Capt. Scoville's.
The meeting-house was built about 1831, on the farm of Ed- ward Cox. Elder Dimock preached here occasionally until 1822, when Elder Joseph Bingham came; in 1825, Elder Worden preached here a part of the time, and a Thursday evening prayer- meeting was established. In December, 1826, a written covenant was adopted. Elder James Clarke became the pastor of the church, and resided near it for five years. His son, Aaron B., a summer resident of Montrose, was for thirty years a principal of public schools in New York and Brooklyn.
Elder Curtis came late in 1831; Elder Brand in 1833 ; Elder
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
C. G. Swan in 1834, for a time, and again in 1838, and then again in the spring of 1843, when there was a large accession to the church. In 1845, Elder Webster preached here, and there were then forty members in good standing; yet, ten years later, the church disbanded.
The causes of this decline, as given by Horace Bliss, then deacon and clerk of the church, were these : " That, though there have been nearly two hundred members since the organization, they were reduced to about thirty, of whom only seven or eight were male; ahout thirty having taken letters to Vestal, N. Y ., and a number of others having sold their lands for various rea- sons, to immigrants, and removed; Presbyterian and Methodist churches had grown up around them; and the remnant left pos- sessed small means and moderate talent, and were in the midst of a people to whom they could have no access in a religious point of view."
Deacon Bliss died in Silver Lake at the house of his daughter, Mrs. Andrew Rose.
The Silver Lake and Choconut Presbyterian Church, organized in 1816, is mentioned fully in the following chapter. The first house of worship was erected on Choconut Creek 1831-33; but it became a private residence, and was first occupied as such by Horace Bliss. It had no spire.
The Presbyterian church at Friendsville was built in 1841, and had once quite a flourishing congregation ; and an academy, under care of the Presbytery, was established here.
For a long time there has been but occasional preaching here; the Episcopal service has been conducted by Rev. E. Mulford. The house is fast going to decay.
CHAPTER XXX.
SILVER LAKE.
DURING the first term of court in Susquehanna County, viewers were appointed to lay off a new township from the northern part of Bridgewater, to be called Silver Lake, after the name of one of the many beautiful sheets of water within its proposed limits.
In August, 1813, it was the first township added to the original ten townships of the county. Its eastern boundary was then the west line of Lawsville; its southern, Bridgewater; its western, Rush (from which Choconut was separated a little later); and its northern, the State line. Its area was thirty-five square miles
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
(5 by 7). In 1836, three or four square miles were set off to Forest Lake township.
From a map of surveys made prior to the settlement of this section, we learn that the tract just north of, and nearly surround- ing, the lake was called Hibernia ; this, if not prophetic, is at least not a misnomer in reference to the present cast of its population.
The whole township of Silver Lake was included in the one hundred thousand acres (or, by actual measurement, 248 tracts of 400 acres each), purchased by Dr. R. H. Rose, February 18th, 1809, of Anne, widow of Tench Francis; who bought of Eliza- beth Jervis and John Peters, whose patent was obtained from the State in 1784. The purchase covered a tract at least thirteen miles in extent on the State line.
Perhaps to no one individual is Susquehanna County more indebted for the early development of its resources than to Dr. Rose. His father, a Scotch gentleman, and his mother, a lady of Dublin, came to the United States a little before the Revolution- ary war, and settled in Chester County, Penna., where their son, Robert Hutchinson, was born. He received a liberal and accom- plished education.
Dr. Rose said of himself (introductory to a sketch of his voy- age to Italy, in the 'Port Folio,' September, 1822) ;-
"In the early part of my life I was accustomed to pass my winters in Philadelphia, and the rest of the year in the country. I spent the greater part of 1799 rambling in the wilderness which now forms the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. I hunted with the Indians, slept in their wigwams, and was half tempted to remain with them.
" Among the Indians I had the reputation of being a good hunter, and capable of enduring much fatigue ; but my companions in the city considered me as a sybarite, and seldom found me out of bed before noon. One reason of my indolence was that I had nothing to do. We may be 'stretched on the rack of a too easy chain.' I sometimes thought myself capable of better things.
"'I don't know what to do with myself,' said I to an acquaintance. He replied 'you are fond of poetry, painting, and music-go to Italy.'
" A few days after, he told me a ship was ready to sail, bound for Leghorn ; and my trunk was soon on board."
From the sketch of the voyage which followed, it appears to have been no holiday affair. He set sail June 23d, and did not pass the Azores until the 29th of July. At Gibraltar the ship was attacked by privateers, and disabled so much as to oblige them to remain two months to re-fit; when again en voyage, they reached Leghorn November 3d (probably 1800).
The incident which led him, not long after his return, to come to this region, is given by one who heard it from his lips :-
"One morning he met Colonel Pickering on the street, when the latter asked : 'Rose, what are you going to do with yourself this summer ?' "' I have not decided.'
"'Come with me; I am going as government agent to look after those disputed lands."
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
" At that time Dr. Rose was 'a splendid shot,' and passionately fond of nature ; and Colonel Pickering judged rightly that such an excursion would suit his taste. In recounting it, Dr. Rose said that he was so pleased that he determined on purchasing a tract, though at the time he had no thought of living in the country himself. It was in the course of some of the business transactions connected with the land, that he met the lady he afterwards married; and the fact that her physician said her health required a country residence, determined him to locate on the banks of the lovely mountain lake ever after associated with his name.
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