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 56
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As early as 1788-89, Samuel Preston and John Hilborn were engaged in constructing what is known as the old North and South Road, from Pocono Point, near Stroudsburg, on the Delaware, north to the State line. It was built mostly by private enter- prise, the gentlemen mentioned being in the employ of Tench Coxe and Henry Drinker, landholders, of Philadelphia, and the State appropriated $1000 towards it. The act of legislature also provided for another road, to leave the North and South Road at or near Mt. Ararat, and to be constructed westward to the mouth of the Tioga River. But, as the Susquehanna River, with which the former was connected, furnished so good a substitute for this road, it was never constructed.1
We are told there was, in 1820, no road in what is now Thom- son township, except "an old log road from Simond's settlement (in Ararat) to Starucca."
The first settlement within the present limits of Thomson was made by John Wrighter, in the spring of 1820. He came from Mt. Pleasant, but was originally from Dutchess County, N. Y. His father was a native of Bavaria; his wife was born and brought up in London. Having lost his property through the dishonesty of a supposed friend, he was very poor when he came, and, consequently, he and his family endured many hard- ships and privations, in addition to those of conquering a dense wilderness. They made their first home by the side of a log, on which they laid boards from their wagon; the boards having been left by some lumberman. Here they found shelter until they built a log-house. For three weeks, they were near starva- tion, having to subsist on frozen potatoes and what meat Mr. W. could procure with his rifle.
He was a blacksmith, and sometimes worked through the week at Harmony, eleven miles distant. Saturday nights he would take a bushel of meal, with other necessaries on his back, and walk home. Once, being belated on account of the dark- ness, he could not keep his course, and he waited for the moon to rise. He laid his bag on the ground, making of it a pillow, and fell asleep. Twice he was aroused by wild animals walking around and smelling him; but, fortunately, this was the extent of the danger, and soon the moon arose, allowing him to pursue his journey.
He has seen from thirty to forty elk at one time near his home,
1 This statement is made in the 'History of Mt. Pleasant,' by Rev. S. Whaley; but, on the map accompanying Proud's 'History of Pennsylvania," the only road laid down in the section which now comprises Susquehanna County, is the one from Belmont to Tioga Point.
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
with horns so large they appeared like immense chairs on their heads. The woods abounded, at that time, in elk, deer, bears, wolves, wild-cats, and panthers.
Though Mr. W. has been classed among hunters, he cultivated a farm, and devoted but part of his time to hunting. " His suc. cess was owing more to his calm and fearless manner of meeting wild animals, than to any dexterity. He had a tall, heavy-built frame, and his movements were slow, but firm and forcible. His mind, partaking of his bodily characteristics, was well balanced." (Rev. S. Whaley.)
Joseph Porter, the next settler, came in 1823, and commenced clearing a farm on the Starucca Creek, about two and a half miles from John Wrighter's, at what is now Thomson Center. At first he boarded with Mr. Wrighter, while chopping daily on his own place. One time when at work later than usual, it became so dark before he could reach Wrighter's that he lost his path ; the wolves came upon him, and forced him to climb a tree, where he remained until daylight.
In 1824, and prior to the arrival of the third settler, the Bel- mont and Oquago turnpike was finished to Harmony. It passes entirely through Thomson, from the point now marked as its southeast corner, via the Center and the Canawacta Creek, to Comfort's Pond, near which it enters Harmony township. It was incorporated Feb. 1817.
Frederick Bingham moved into Thomson in the spring of 1826, and began a clearing about half a mile from the Center.
Capt. Jonas Blandin came in the fall of the same year, and settled at the Center. In the spring of 1828 he opened an inn which he kept for about fifteen years. He had received a cap- tain's commission, in 1818, while in Vermont.
Collins Gelatt, Joel Lamb, Jr., and Ebenezer Messenger, came in about this time, and Enoch Tarbox a little later, all settling not far from Porter and Blandin.
The first child born in the township was John M., son of John Wrighter, January, 1821.
The first day-school was kept by Miss Leafy Blandin, who had about a dozen scholars, in a log-house built by Joseph Por- ter, at Thomson Center.
RELIGIOUS.
Elder Nathaniel Lewis, a local preacher from Harmony, was the first who preached in Thomson, and who also formed the first Methodist class there. It consisted of five members : Fred- erick and Rachel Bingham, John and Ann Wrighter, and Betsey Gelatt.
The eccentricitics of Elder Lewis have been previously no- ticed. At one time whilst he was preaching, some unruly boys
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disturbed the meeting to such an extent that the elder's patience gave way, and he upbraided them as the most hogmatical set of scoundrels he ever saw. On being told that there was no such word in common usage, the elder said, I don't care, it was appli- cable.
The first traveling preachers were Elders Warner, Barnes, and Herrick. The North Bainbridge Circuit then extended to this section, and embraced one hundred and twenty miles of travel, requiring two weeks for the trip. Elders George Evans, Peter Bridgman, and Benjamin Shipman succeeded the former three on this circuit. The first Sabbath-school was formed by elder John Deming, a local preacher. It was held in a school-house about a mile north of the Center.
There was no church edifice in the township until the Metho- dists built the fine one, at the Center, in 1851, and which was dedicated Jan. 1852. The society has a large membership.
The Free-will Baptists have a society, recently formed, and have regular preaching, in a school-house one and a half miles west of the Center.
MISCELLANEOUS.
At the first township election in the spring of 1834, there were only thirty-five votes polled ; but, in the fall of the same year, at the general election, fifty-one voters appeared, being within five of every taxable in the township. To account for this number, it must be remembered that, at that time, Thomson included the north part of what is now Ararat, which was then comparatively well settled. Thus among the first township officers of Thomson we find Nathaniel West, Hezekiah Bushnell, and Obadiah L. Carpenter, all afterwards included in Ararat. Charles Wrighter and Jacob Clark were the first constables, the latter being also the first town clerk. Nathaniel West and Joel Lamb were the first supervisors. Benjamin Ball and Hezekiah Bushnell, first overseers of the poor, and John Wrighter, Christopher Toby, and O. L. Carpenter, first auditors. Charles Wrighter and Joel Lamb were the first justices of the peace. There was a post- office at Wrighter's as early as 1825.
Prior to the division of Jackson township, a post-office by that name had been established at what is now Thomson Center, but in 1836, the name was transferred to what had been Barryville, in the western part of that township. Jonas Blandin received his appointment in 1830, and, with a short interval, retained the office in Thomson nearly thirty years.
Until the Fremont campaign, the township was strongly Demo- cratic, and since then has been as strongly Republican.
The first temperance society was formed in 1834; Martin J. Mumford, President.
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
There is now a flourishing lodge of Good Templars, who hold their meetings weekly. Organized Sept. 30, 1867.
C. P. Tallman, the first merchant, established a store in 1841. The spring of 1842 was a remarkably early one, and favorable for the making of maple sugar, so much so that within an area of two miles square, 14,694 lbs. of it were made that season.
The site of J. Blandin's inn is now occupied by a more com- modious public house.
Jesse Stoddard, 80 years old in April of 1869, chopped forty cords of stove-wood in the months of December and January following.
The Jefferson Railroad winds in and out of the township much as the Starucca Creek does, and has already wrought great changes all along its course, whilst Thomson Center, from being spoken of only as a by-word, has attained to no small importance. It is a railroad station, has two sawmills (one steam power), a church, a store, and post-office, a blacksmith shop, etc.
Starucca depot is within the township, though the village of that name is just over the line in Wayne County. There is a large amount of unseated land in the township.
[The only residents of Thomson who contributed to its annals, were Jonas Blandin and his son G. P. B., Esq.]
CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE NICHOLSON LANDS.
NEXT in importance to the long disquiet occasioned by dis- puted titles, when Connecticut denied to Pennsylvania the right of soil within the bounds of old Westmoreland, was that to which settlers on the Nicholson lands were subjected for a period of nearly twenty years : firstly, by an alleged lien of a Philadelphia corporation ; and afterwards by one of the State on the Hopbottom tract, as well as on that called "Drinker's Meshoppen tract." John Nicholson was comptroller of Pennsyl- vania from 1782 to 1794, and during that period was owner of about 3,700,000 acres of land in the State. In 1785, he, with Dr. Barnabas Binney, purchased from the State sixty tracts, including a considerable portion of the township of Brooklyn ; and paid to the State the full amount of the purchase-money. In 1789, he commenced a settlement upon the lands which, by the partition between him and Dr. Binney, had been allotted to him. In 1795, he borrowed from the Widow's Fund Corporation of Philadelphia, $37,166, and secured the payment by a mortgage
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
upon thirty-five tracts in Brooklyn. The mortgage fell due in 1799. No part of the money was paid to the corporation, and Nicholson died insolvent.
In 1805, the corporation agreed to sell to John B. Wallace and thus closed the mortgage of Nicholson, the lands being bought in for the corporation ; who, on Wallace's paying the purchase-money, were to convey the same to him. The pur- chase-money was payable in fifteen years from March, 1806, and the interest payable annually. Mr. Wallace paid the interest for several years, and continued to sell the lands until 1823 or '24, when he had sold about 2250 acres-the best part of the land-and for which he had received payment.
In 1823, the state of the title and the interest which the cor- poration held in the land, becoming known to the settlers, ex- cited much anxiety among those who had paid Wallace, but who, as was then ascertained, had received no title.
Some went to Philadelphia, and requested that the business might be closed. A correspondence was continued between them until 1826 or '27, when a committee for the corporation came and met the settlers at Mr. Breed's, in Brooklyn; but nothing was or could be effected with those who had not paid, until the question of the corporation's title was settled.
Wm. Jessup, Esq., had seen the officers of the corporation in Philadelphia, and obtained the assurance that no settler who had paid Mr. Wallace, should be again called upon to pay for his land. He wrote to some of the settlers, and had a meeting at his office, when it was agreed that he should bring a suit upon the lot on which Jeduthan Nickerson lived in order to settle the question in Brooklyn. Those present assured him that counsel should be employed, the cause fairly tried, and thus the title might be settled. But counsel was not employed. Afterwards, another suit was brought against some settlers in Bridgewater, who doubted the corporation's title. Messrs. Case and Read ex- amined the papers, and pronounced the title good. Obadiah Green employed Mr. Wurts, who pronounced the title bad. Those settlers who were satisfied with the decision of Messrs. Case and Read, agreed to contract for their lands, having ten years in which to pay for them ; but Mr. Wurts entered a plea for Green. The issue was duly tried, and a verdict was rendered for the corporation.
Another cause was also tried, and the right by law of the cor- poration to call upon those who had paid to Wallace, to pay again, was fully established. But Mr. Jessup urged that the title of the settlers, as made by Wallace, should be confirmed, and that thus the fears and anxieties of those who had honestly paid their money should be quieted. In the fall of 1832, he succeeded in getting instructions which authorized him to make releases in all cases in which the settlers had paid Mr. Wallace.
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
The foregoing refers to that part of the corporation's lands not interfered with by what are called the Allen surveys.
In 1775, Benjamin Chew, Andrew Allen, and others, took up a large quantity of land, a portion of which lay upon the Hop- bottom Creek. By the attainder of Andrew Allen, in 1778, his part of those lands was confiscated to the State ; and by a deci- sion made subsequently by the supreme executive council, the share belonging to the State was located in Brooklyn, on what was called the Chew and Allen warrants. When the surveyor located the Nicholson warrants, he laid them upon part of the lands confiscated to the State.
The State having received pay from Nicholson, it was sup- posed that the titles of those who held under him, were good as against the State, and that the State never would claim the land from those who had paid their full price ; until the decision was rendered in the case of Wallace vs. Tiffany (Amos ?), by which it was decided by the Supreme Court, that the title passed by the officers of the land office to Nicholson was irregular, saying also, that legislative action would be necessary to regulate the title.
Mr. Joseph Chapman was partly on the Allen lands, and through the procurement of Mr. Jessup, and with the assistance of Messrs. Read and Jones, an act from the legislature was passed confirming the title of any settler who held under the Nicholson title-on application to the legislature. But with the great body of the Allen lands, Mr. J. had nothing to do, as they were cov- ered by the Mary M. Wallace warrants.
THE NICHOLSON COURT.
Thus far all that has been said refers to events prior to Nov. 1834. We pass on now to the panic of 1841. By an act of legislature a year previous, commissioners had been appointed to hunt up and settle the claims of the estate of John Nicholson to lands formerly purchased by him in various parts of the State. These commissioners had given notice through the papers that they would be in Montrose on a given day, to adjust the respective interests of the State, the heirs and creditors, and also of the settlers of any such lands in this county.
The streets of Montrose on the day specified (in August) were thronged, but the commissioners failed to appear ; and they did not make their appearance until about the middle of November following, when for two or three weeks they exhibited at McCol- lum's Hotel their papers and maps, and drew the attention of crowds. Even those who had no personal interest in the Nich- olson lands, began to feel insecure against unexpected claimants to their lands, which they had long owned and occupied with a confidence not less than their more unfortunate neighbors. Sev- eral townships were in a panic.
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
The editor of the 'Susquehanna Register,' under date of Sep- tember of that year, remarks :-
" Such has been the excitement prevailing, that all sorts of ridiculous and improbable stories have been set afloat, and circulated, with various addi- tions, improvements, and embellishments, among the credulous, the marvel- lous, and uninformed ; until many know not what to believe, or how much to be alarmed. While many who have never paid anything for their lands, eagerly embrace the offer of the commissioners to compromise, by contract- ing to pay fifty cents or a dollar per acre, in the hope of getting a title from the State at that cheap rate, even some who had long ago paid for their farms, under a title supposed to be settled, also came forward and paid their five dollars each, as an earnest to bind the contract, and secured what they supposed to be their last chance of saving their farms! Some, however, concluded to hold on awhile to their titles already obtained, before paying . out their money for a mere quitclaim deed from the State to all right, title, and interest of John Nicholson ; to wait for some legal decision to see if that title was good for anything."
In order to allay the excitement, Benjamin T. Case, Esq., con- tributed to the same journal three pertinent articles, giving the result of his own investigations for many years, as counsel for persons interested in those lands. He was induced to this step by the fact, that the uncertainty in respect to titles was having a tendency adverse not only to his own interests, but to those of the county ; as new-comers declined to purchase and settle where there was so little appearance that they could remain in quiet possession. Mr. Case stated that the Nicholson claims presented themselves in three points of view :-
1. The claims of the heirs-which were barred by the statute of limitations.
2. The claims of the creditors; but there was no mortgage upon the records of the county ; and if there were, it is presumed to be paid, in law, after twenty years; and a judgment is lost after five years.
3. Commonwealth liens, and of these there were three ; those of December, 1795 and '96, and of June, 1800. The statute of limi- tations does not extend to a debt due the State; but Mr. C. was not aware of any lands in this county so situated as to raise the question about their being barred by the lapse of time. "To us citizens of Susquehanna County it is a mere matter of specula- tion. To Binney's share of the sixty warrants issued to him and Nicholson, neither Nicholson's heirs, creditors, nor the State can have claim. As to the residue (thirty-five tracts, called the Hop- bottom lands), John Nicholson mortgaged them, January 22d, 1795-eleven months before the State obtained her first lien-to the Widows' Fund Corporation, to secure the payment of $37,166;1 which settles the question; for in the event of the
1 On the 1st of January, 1799, with interest annually. The money not being paid, the'mortgage was duly foreclosed in Luzerne County, the land sold at sheriff's sale, and the present owners now hold under that title. (B. T. Case. )
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
State lien being prior to the mortgage, only the money arising from the sale could be claimed, not the land ; even if a judgment be reversed for error after a sale on it, the purchaser's title on it is not disturbed."
In March, 1842, the "Nicholson Court" decided that "the Nicholson claim to the corporation lands in Brooklyn and Bridgewater is good-FOR NOTHING !"
It was estimated that two hundred persons in Susquehanna County paid $5.00 each to the commissioners; but in Wayne, Pike, and Monroe Counties they failed to raise such an excitement as they did here. In Wilkes-Barre, the indignation of the people, when the commissioners offered for sale lands that had been owned and occupied since 1774, was manifested in such a way as to cut short their work there. Here, the people had not so long battled with "the powers that be;" and were weary of the demands of the holders of warrants, which warrants were in some cases as many as three and four for the same tract, showing that some one at the land office could give an "irregular" title.
DRINKER'S MESHOPPEN TRACT.
A part of this was in Auburn and Springville. John Nichol- son took out 168 warrants of 400 acres each, of land included in what was then Luzerne County ; seventy-eight of which inter- fered with prior surveys of Samuel Wallis, from whom Henry Drinker purchased ; and were on the south end of the Meshoppen tract. Both Wallis and Nicholson paid the State for the land, but as Wallis's surveys were of an earlier date, the Board of Property decided in his favor. Nicholson appealed to the Su- preme Court, and the decision was again in favor of Wallis. In view of these facts, B. T. Case, Esq., stated, " Patents regularly issued to Drinker, who bought of Wallis, and the purchasers under him on those lands, hold under this title, and what is to disturb them ?"
Henry Drinker, Geo. Clymer, and Samuel Meredith held 168 warrants, of dates 1790-'91-'92 and '93, paid for and patented. It was to these John Nicholson laid claim by virtue of other warrants, dated August 17, 1793; a date subsequent to all the warrants issued to the above, and for more than forty years the matter had been supposed to be settled by the Supreme Court ; and in a report made by Mr. Kidder of the Senate of Pennsyl- vania, March, 1842, after a second investigation of the subject, it was stated that "the Judiciary Committee cannot discern even the shadow of a claim, either in law or equity, that the Nichol- son estate has upon the Drinker lands in Susquehanna and Luzerne Counties."
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
SAMUEL EWING'S LANDS.
Ten of these tracts lay on the Lackawanna Creek, in the eastern part of the county, and were purchased from Ewing by Nicholson; but Ewing continued to hold the title in his own name, as a trustee for Nicholson. Those who purchased of Ewing without notice of a trust, took the land discharged of the trust. A mortgage, August, 1795, by Nicholson to Ewing, was duly foreclosed, and sold at sheriff's sale, by Ewing. Thus, in the opinion of one of Susquehanna's ablest lawyers, "There is no land in the county covered by the State's liens, or to which the heirs or creditors of John Nicholson have any valid claim; and if those who compromised with the commissioners persist in claiming to hold exclusively under those contracts, law-suits are sure to follow." Happily, the Nicholson claim to the widow and orphans' fund, and the Drinker tracts, was, as stated pre- viously, decided against them by higher authority, and from that time Susquehanna County land-owners have had "peace."
Henry Drinker was the owner of what are called the West- town school lands,1 in Lenox, and Fields and Collins were also holders of lands in the same township. Wm. Hartley bought the Fields title; C. L. Ward, the Collins lands; and these were all settled and sold to the settlers at fifty cents per acre, which quieted the titles in this portion of the county. The titles of one-half the lands in the township were in dispute for twenty- five years.
CHAPTER XXXV.
GEOLOGICAL FORMATION AND MINERAL RESOURCES.
GEOLOGICAL FORMATION.
THE following items are gleaned principally from the State Geological Reports of Prof. Henry Darwin Rogers.
In the State of New York, local geographical names are given to whole series of strata, as is also the case in Europe; but, in the geographical surveys of Pennsylvania and Virginia, Prof. Rogers has preferred to use the successive periods of the day, from dawn to nightfall, as technical terms applied to fifteen divi- sions of the Paleozoic rocks, including the Silurian, Devonian,
! These lands were a donation by Henry Drinker, the elder, to the Friends" Boarding School at West-town, Chester Co., Penna., an institution in which he took much interest.
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
and Carboniferous formations of English geologists. Only three of the fifteen are found exposed in the district of which Susque- hanna County forms a part : "Vergent, or Descending Day," " Ponent, or Sunset," and "Vespertine, or Evening." These cor- respond to the Upper Devonian and Lowest Carboniferous forma- tions of other geologists. " Vespertine," the highest in our county, is still a lower formation than "Umbral, or Dusk," of Prof. Rogers's series, and thus many hundred feet beneath "Seral or Night- fall"-his nomenclature for the true coal measures.
Pennsylvania, orographically, or in the relief of its surface, is divided into ยท five districts-the fourth, or northeast, comprising the counties of Susque- hanna, Bradford, and part of Tioga; and is watered by tributaries of the north branch of the Susquehanna.
Hydrographically, the State has three divisions-Atlantic, Ohio, and Erie. But though the fourth district is drained by an Atlantic river, it belongs, orographically, to the valley of the St. Lawrence ; being the first or highest of the succession of plains or terraces by which the surface descends to Lake Ontario.
The northeast division of the district consists of three geological forma- tions, or, perhaps, more properly, three series of the great Paleozoic forma- tion-the Vespertine Gray Sandstone, Ponent Red Sandstone, and Vergent Shales-distributed in obedience to four wide, anticlinal waves, and three in- tervening synclinal troughs.
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