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 63

Author: Blackman, Emily C
Publication date: 1873
Publisher: Philadelphia, Claxton, Remsen, & Haffelfinger
Number of Pages: 768

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 63

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

This was entered according to Act of Congress, by H. Hall, Philadelphia, 1819. Another edition was published the same year, by John Miller, Piccadilly, London (England).

More than one English immigrant bemoaned the day he read ' Johnson's Letters,' and heaped upon the author accusations born of disappointment. " Too rose-colored," his descriptions may have been ; but so, also, were the notions of town-bred people re- specting their own capacity to endure the inevitable ills attend- ant upon pioneer life.

Samuel Barnard was among those who left the old world in 1819, with hopes founded upon statements contained in the ‘Let- ters.' While in this county he devoted himself to the prepara- tion of a-

" POLYGLOTT GRAMMAR of the Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, Greek, Latin, Eng- lish, French, Italian, Spanish, and German languages, reduced to one common rule of syntax, and an uniform mode of declension and conjugation as far as practicable."

This was published in 1825, in Philadelphia, New York, Bal- timore, and Boston. President John Q. Adams was a subscriber for the work. Mr. Barnard presented an elegant copy, prepared expressly for the occasion, to General Lafayette. Several col-

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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.

leges subscribed for copies, as also the Department of State at Washington.

He removed to New York, and afterwards to Kentucky, where he died in 1850. One of his daughters, Mrs. George Fuller, is still a resident of Montrose.

We are indebted to the same alluring 'Letters' for the arrival from England, in 1819, of Mrs. Juliana Frances Turner. During the next three years she wrote the 'Harp of the Beechwoods,' a volume of sixty-five poems. This was published at Montrose, by Adam Waldie, in 1822.

Some of her ballads, in old English style, are quite pleasing. Other pieces possess real merit ; but fairies and goblins seem most frequently to have entertained her fancy and engaged her pen. A sample of the smoothness of her style may be seen in the fol- lowing extract :-

"THE COT OF CONTENT."

"On the banks of the Schuylkill still evening was glinting, And the tide's silvery surge a soft murmuring kept,

While the bright hues of autumn the slope woods were tinting, And the brown sunny mountains in mellowness slept. There I marked a sweet villa, the day star declining,

Where the jessamine lingered, with late roses blent ;

Where the scarlet-leaved creepers neat trellised were twining, And they called the sweet bower-the Cot of Content."

Mrs. Turner was born in London, married in 1802, and died in England early in 1837.

Reference has been made to Adam Waldie as her publisher ; on another page his connection with the newspaper press is given. His position as editor of a literary rather than a politi- cal journal, and his influence in calling out the talent that lay dormant here, entitle him to grateful mention.

In 1823, a painting was made by - Thompson, of Susque- hanna County, from a scene in 'The Pioneers.'

In 1829, a new hymn book, by Sebastian and Barzillai Streeter.

In 1832, materials for a history of this section, by C. L. Ward, destroyed by fire.

A number of pamphlets have been issued from the county press, some of which are remembered : The Atonement, in Seven Links, by Jireh Bryan ; a Historical Discourse, by Rev. Adam Miller, 1844, published by A. Turrell ; a discourse. on Baptism, by Rev. A. L. Post.

In 1837, 'The Spectator' office printed a book of seventy-six pages, entitled 'Intellectual Chronology,' for schools and learn- ers, by "Technica Memoria" [R. Pike]. It endeavored to simplify the acquisition of dates, by the use of letters for figures, weaving them with words, and often into poetry.

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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.

From 1820 to 1840, the newspapers contained frequent contri- butions of much literary value, from various parts of the county. The schools at Mannington and Harford sent out many ; and some fugitive pieces of poetry of real merit gave evidence of native talent if not of genius.

The following, by Miss A. L. Fraser, is only one poem of many of hers worthy of mention :-

" LINES.

" How beautiful she lay Upon her couch of death, Ere from the lovely clay, Parted the living breath. Could one so loved be dying, Whose gentle voice we heard,

Sweetly to ours replying In many a tender word ?

" Like sculpture fair her brow Gleamed through her sunny hair ;

How rich her cheeks' warm glow- The hectic rose was there. O bright deceitful blossom ! Flower of the fatal breath !

'To the eye thou'rt life and beauty, But to the wearer-death !

"Bright shone her eye, and clear As the cloudless blue of heaven ;

Its spirit-light how dear, How soon to darkness given !

Now she has passed the shadow, Ours is the void, the gloom ; She bathes in love's pure ocean, Far, far beyond the tomb !

" Sweetly the morning star, Fading is lost in light- So fled the maid afar, Forever, from our sight. Weep not ! she dwelt among us A bird of brighter skies, Whose song was sweet while fettered, Far sweeter when it flies !"

It would be erroneous to suppose that the last thirty years have been less prolific in poetical or prose contributions to the local press; but attention can only be called to compositions of a more enduring character.

" Edith May" is the nom de plume of Miss Drinker, the gifted poetess whose summer home has been in Montrose for the last twenty-five years; and whose poems, evincing true genius, have delighted readers both at home and in the literary circles of our country. A Philadelphia firm solicited her poems for publi- cation, and they appeared in 1851, prefaced by a tribute from

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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.

N. P. Willis. She also published, in 1855, 'Tales and Poems for children.'

It has been frequently remarked, "she might have sat for her own

"THEODORA."

"In her eyes are tranquil shadows Lofty thoughts alone can make, Like the darkness thrown by mountains O'er a lake.

" If you speak, the slow returning Of her spirit from afar To their depths, is like the advent Of a star. * * * *

" Be a theme however homely, It is glorious at her will,

Like a common air transfigured By a master's skill.

" And her words, severely simple As a drapery Grecian-wrought, Show the clear symmetric outline Of her thought."

During the late war, Mrs. L. C. Searle issued a pamphlet volume entitled, 'McClellan the Second Washington.'

She has nearly ready for publication the biography of her father, Elder Davis Dimock.

In 1865, the 'Life and Times of Sheardown' was edited by O. N. Worden, of New Milford. Its title in full gives a general idea of the work.

' Half a Century's Labors in the Gospel, and Thirty-five Years of Back- woods Mission Work and Evangelizing in N. Y. and Penn'a. An Auto- biography, by Thomas S. Sheardown, as related in his seventy-fourth year to a Stenographer.'

Also, ' A Jubilee volume,' entitled-

' The First Half Century of the Northumberland Baptist Association, situated in Northumberland, Montour, Sullivan, Lycoming, Clinton, Union, and Snyder Counties, Penn'a. From 1820 to 1870. Compiled at the request of the Association by O. N. Worden.'

He has also issued various historical sketches.

In 1866, Rev. H. A. Riley, late pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Montrose, Pa., wrote and published 'The Restoration : or, The Hope of the Early Church Realized ;' a 12mo. volume of nearly three hundred pages.

In 1868, a second edition was issued by J. B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia, the title of which gives a clearer idea of the work. 'The Restoration at the Second Coming of Christ. A Summary of Millenarian Doctrines.'

The New York 'Evangelist' said :-

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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY

" This volume is an addition to the popular literature on the subject of the Premillennial Advent of Christ. The book is the presentation in a modi- fied form of a series of sermons preached to the congregation over which the author was settled. His endeavor seems to have been to present the whole subject in a simple scriptural light, relying on no arguments but those which come from a fair interpretation of the inspired words, and turning aside to scarce any objection which is not drawn from the same source."

The ' Western Episcopalian,' in a review of its merits, stated that-

" In the language of Dr. Seiss' introduction, ' it is a work of a sober, mature, and candid mind, conscious of having something important to com- municate. It ably deals with the great questions of the course of future Providence, and the consummation for which our religion teaches us to hope. It makes no pretensions, but is full of important truth, fairly deduced, popularly presented, and suitably enforced. It is 'meat in due season,' from a faithful steward, and a workman who need not be ashamed.'- This eulogy, we think, is no more than just, and we cordially recommend the volume to all who are seeking an insight into the solemn subject of which it treats."

' The Nation : The Foundations of Civil Order and Political Life in the United States,' by Elisha Mulford, 1870.

In compassing his object, Mr. Mulford discussed, amongst other subjects, The Relation of the People and the Land : Rep- resentative Government: The right of Suffrage: The Nation and the Commonwealth: The Nation the Antagonist of the Empire : The Nation the Antagonist of the Confederacy : The Nation the Integral Element in History : The Nation the Goal of History.

The work is one upon which the compiler is quite willing to confess her inability to pass judgment, and may be allowed, in- stead, to give the opinions of others.

James B. Angell, President of the University of Michigan, says :-

" It is the most valuable contribution to political philosophy which has been written in the English language in this generation. Its hearty recog- nition of the moral element in the national life carries it back to the good old times of Hooker and Milton. It ought to impress our people with the conviction that not alone tariff and exchanges, but above all the moral and religious spirit of a nation determines its career and destiny."

Charles Sumner wrote :-

" I have read it from the first to the last with constant interest and sympathy. It is a most important contribution to our political literature, and cannot fail to strengthen and elevate our national life." In a private letter to an eminent scholar, Mr. Sumner says : "It is thoughtful, matterful, learned, and right."

J. L. Diman, Professor of History in Brown University, says :-

" It is not only by far the most profound and exhaustive study in the field of speculative politics that American scholarship has yet produced, but we shall be obliged to go very far back in. the literary annals of our mother country to find anything worthy of comparison with it. Certainly since the

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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.

fruitful discussions of the seventeenth century, England has produced no single political treatise which, for seriousness of conviction, and sustained elevation of thought, deserves to be ranked beside it."

The following is from the literary items of the 'Boston Re- corder :' --

" Very little has yet been known, personally, of Mr. E. Mulford, the author of that profound and sterling work, ' The Nation.' Born in Montrose, Penn., and a graduate of Yale College in the class of 1855, he studied theology for a time at Andover, and afterwards in Germany, where also he entered upon the thorough study of German philosophy and political science, of which we see the first-fruits in his great treatise. He was for a time the rector of an Episcopalian church at Orange, N. J., from which position he retired a few years since, and took up his residence at Friendsville, Susquehanna Co., Pa., near Montrose, where he has since lived in strict seclusion and close devotion to study."

He obtained in college special distinction in literature, and was the chief of the editors of the 'Yale Literary Magazine."

A correspondent of the 'Golden Age' writes of his (Mr. Mul- ford's) retirement, closing thus :-

" There, in a delightful domestic circle, with the brightness and gayety of children giving grace to every day, he realizes such a life as Southey and Wordsworth lived. It is in the midst of such an atmosphere of refined and thoughtful leisure that he has for years been building up the great argument on which he has ' sought to give expression to the thought of the people in the late war, and that conception of the nation which they who were so wor- thy, held worth living and dying for.' "

Wm. A. Crossman, in 1867, prepared a work to facilitate county business, entitled ' Assessors' Form Guide,' and its worth is securing its use in several counties besides our own.

Hon. S. B. Chase, of Great Bend, has issued several works, among which are the following: 'Digest and Treatise on Par- liamentary Law' (now in its ninth edition); 'Good of the Order ;' 'Manual of Good Templars ;' 'History of Good Tem- plars,' for Mill's Temperance Manual.

Mrs. S. B. Chase, in 1870, issued 'Derry's Lake,' a good tem- perance story.

Mrs. Laura Trowbridge, of Great Bend, is the author of a cook-book of "more than thirteen hundred sensible receipts," from a practical cook.

Mrs. Mayo, of Susquehanna Depot, has executed oil-paintings of scenery in that vicinity, which are said to possess much merit.

Mrs. Theodore Smith, and her sister, Miss L. Avery, excel in water-colors, particularly in painting " Autumn Leaves."

Stephen Wilson, a former resident of Montrose, but now living in Philadelphia, became quite a successful portrait painter.

' The degree of LL. D. was recently conferred on Mr. Mulford by Yale Col- lege.

REV. ELISHA MULFORD, LL.D.

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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.

LIBRARY ITEMS.

[As mention has been made in the annals, of such township libraries as have come to the knowledge of the writer, the pub- lic libraries of Montrose only are referred to here] :-

"1818. A meeting at the house of Chapman Carr (hotel), to form a library association ; the second meeting at Stephen Wilson's.

" 1820. Susquehanna Library, Joseph Backus, librarian.

" 1821, December. Opening of reading room at Montrose hotel.

" 1823. Meeting to establish a library.

" 1840 (or about that time). Montrose Literary Association ; R. J. Niven, secretary. Books of the association sold at auction, December 25, 1841.

" 1866. Montrose Book Club ; J. H. Williams, secretary.

"1869. $500 subscribed for a public library.

"1871-2. Another fund, including a part of the former, and the establish- ment of a reading room and library. Rev. Mr. Ford, of the Baptist church, was the first secretary and librarian of the association."

There are private libraries and museums of value doubtless in many homes of the county. The Syrian curiosities of Rev. J. L. Lyons were recently purchased by John B. Gough. Occa- sionally, books of ancient date are discovered in the possession of persons throughout the county, the oldest being two copies of a Bible printed in 1599 in London; one owned by Elder Pitcher, of Clifford (who has also four books of the 17th century), and the other by Edw. Paine, of Ararat. Another Bible, of the date of 1613, is owned by H. R. True, Middletown. A Latin Treatise on the Bible, London, 1621, is owned by W. L. Thatcher, of Harford. A gentleman of New Milford owns a work printed in 1688.

Mrs. Perry, of Harmony, has in her possession two coins of the day of Constantine the Great, A. D. 306 (1566 years ago), also a money box, once the property of the Proctor family, in the days of Salem witchcraft, A. D. 1692.

GEORGE CATLIN.

George Catlin, the artist, is a son of Putnam Catlin, Esq., and came with his father to Brooklyn, where he taught school; he also spent some time at his father's house at Great Bend. He was born in Wilkes-Barre ; but, when quite young, was taken with the rest of the family to Ouaquaga, N. Y., where he remained ten or twelve years prior to coming to Susquehanna County. We have his own testimony to his two inveterate propensities-those for hunting and fishing.

He was disinclined to books in his childhood, but in early manhood read law for a profession, attending the law school of Judges Reeve and Gould two years ; he read two years longer, was admitted to the bar, and practiced several years. In the mean time a passion for painting acquired possession of him. He says :-

" After having covered nearly every inch of the lawyer's table (and even encroached upon the judge's bench) with penknife, pen and ink, and pencil sketches of judges, juries, and culprits, I very deliberately resolved to con- vert my law library into paint-pots and brushes, and to pursue painting as my future and apparently more agreeable profession."

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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.

He commenced painting in Philadelphia. In the midst of success, after a few years, he decided " to rescue from oblivion the looks and customs of the vanishing races of native man in America."

In 1832, he started for the Great West, without government or individual aid ; and, during the summer and fall, his letters from the Mandan Village, Upper Missouri, were published in the 'N. Y. Commercial Advertiser' and the 'N. Y. Spectator.' During the winter following he visited his father at Great Bend.

In 1834 he was among the Comanches and Pawnees, and, later, on the Red River, 200 miles from Fort Gibson, at the mouth of the False Washita. January, 1836, a letter of his was published in the 'Montrose Volunteer,' from which we learn that his wife was then with him.

His letters to the N. Y. papers, published November, 1836, were reprinted here, and it was said of him, "The productions of his pen are hardly less graphic than those of his pencil."

In the fall of 1837, Mr. Catlin lectured in New York, in connection with the exhibition of paintings, while Black Hawk, Keokuk, and about fifty Indians from four tribes were present.

In 1838, the value of his paintings was estimated at from $100,000 to $150,000.

In eight years he visited about fifty tribes, and brought home more than 600 oil-paintings (in every instance from nature) of portraits, landscapes, and Indian customs, and every article of their manufacture, such as weapons, costumes, wigwams, etc. He exhibited this collection in New York and Washington, and also in London and Paris. He had offers from noblemen in England for his collection, but he declined them, preferring to dispose of it in his own country. He offered it to the government of the United States for $65,000. The bill for its purchase was discussed in the Senate, and lost by one vote. This was probably owing to the influence of H. R. Schoolcraft, who had endeavored to secure the use of Mr. Catlin's paintings to illustrate a work he contemplated editing for the United States; but Mr. C. had already incurred great labor and expense towards a publication of his own, and declined his proposition.

Further than this, Mr. Schoolcraft stated, in his large work afterwards published and presented under authority of the government to scientific in- stitutions throughout the civilized world, that Mr. Catlin's descriptions of the Mandan religious ceremonies were contrary to facts, that they were the works of his imagination, that the tribe was not extinct but rapidly increasing, etc. Mr. S.'s statements were not made from his own observation, and Mr. Catlin, in a memorial presented to Congress in 1869, has abundantly disproved them. In this memorial, dated Brussels, Belgium, December, 1868, he petitioned for an act of Congress authorizing Mr. Trubner, of London, the present pro- prietor of his " O-kee-pa," to supply him with a number of copies of that work (descriptive of the ceremonies referred to above, and attested to by the late Prince Maximilian of Prussia, who visited the Mandan tribe about the time Mr. Catlin did), equal to the number of copies of Schoolcraft's book circu- lated, for presentation to the same institutions and libraries, as far as possible. This was all the amende he asked. This has not been granted, unless very recently.

While in London, unfortunate speculations subjected Mr. Catlin's collection to liens, under which it was seized and advertised to be sold at public auction. Mr. Joseph Harrison, of Philadelphia, then passing through London, paid off the liens and took the collection with him to Philadelphia.

It was under these discouraging circumstances that Mr. Catlin left London in 1853, for Venezuela, South America. He traversed British and Dutch Gui- ana, the valley of the Amazon, and other parts of Brazil, the Andes, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, California ; reached Vancouver and Queen Charlotte's, and having visited most of the tribes of Indians of the Pacific coast as far as Kamt-

553

HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.

schatka and the Aleutian Islands, he returned to cross the Rocky Mountains from San Diego to Santa Fé and Matamoras, thence to Guatemala, to Yuca- tan, to Cuba, and back to London. His last roamings were in some places extremely hazardous.

At this time he added one hundred and twenty-five full length portraits, and many other paintings, to his previous collection. He says :--

" With the labor of thirteen years, I have visited and recorded the looks and customs of nearly every tribe (and remnant of tribes) now existing in North America."

The following high compliment was paid to Mr. Catlin during the recent exhibition of his American Indian collection in Brussels, by Mr. P. Van Schendel, the celebrated artificial light painter :-

" I paid four visits to Mr. Catlin's Indian collection, being particularly de- lighted with his landscape views, in which I find a remarkable effect of per- spective, and that produced visibly, without the application of the rules of per- spective science; and his night scenes of salmon spearing, deer hunting, etc., by torch light, and his numerous sun-setting scenes I found of such striking effect, neatness of tone, and brilliancy of colors, that they are not to be equalled by any of the existing artists of Brussels."

In 1871, Mr. Catlin returned to this country and exhibited his collection in New York, and more recently in Washington, D. C.

Influential city papers urge that it be bought by the government. He is now verging on eighty years of age, and still retains, if his deafness be ex- cepted, a vigor of mind and body that many men of half his years might crave.I

From an English paper we learn that he is preparing to publish a work enti- tled 'The Lifted and Subsided Rocks of America, with their Influences on Oceanic, Atmospheric, and Land Currents.'

CHAPTER XLII.

PHYSICIANS AND THE MEDICAL SOCIETY.

THOSE WHO PRACTICED IN THE COUNTY BEFORE 1820.

1787. A Dr. Caperton, it is said, accompanied the Nicholson settlers to Hop- bottom, now Brooklyn, but may not have remained more than a year. 1788. Rev. Daniel Buck, of Great Bend, practiced as a physician.

1791. Dr. Forbes, at Great Bend. He left before 1807.

1794. Comfort Capron, in Nine Partners Settlement, Harford, until his death in 1800.

1801. Noah Kincaid, ) who died in 1804.

1801. Asa Cornwell, { "Phesitions" on tax-list for " Willingborough."

1804. Robert Chandler, at Gibson, a " Root and Cancer Doctor" of consider- able practice.

1804. Charles Fraser, at Great Bend. He left soon after, for a time, but re- turned, and remained until 1813, when he removed to Montrose, where he practiced to the close of his life.

1807, or earlier, Reuben Baker, near the Forks of the Wyalusing, but just below the present line of Susquehanna County, practiced extensively in its western townships.

1 George Catlin died at Jersey City, December, 1872.

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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.

1807, or earlier, Jonathan Gray, at Great Bend.

1807. Eleazar Parker came to Great Bend and remained two and a half years.

1808. Dr. Luce, at Harford for a few years, then removed to Great Bend.

1809. Eld. D. Dimock, Bridgewater.

1810. Horace Griswold, at Harford a year or two.

1811. Mason Denison, at Brooklyn a few years, then at Montrose, where he practiced to the close of his life, 1838.

1811. James Cook, in Bridgewater.

1812. Asa Park, in Bridgewater.

1812. Joseph B. Streeter, in Harford, practiced over forty years, is still living, the oldest physician in the county.

1812. Dr. Stanford, in Liberty.

1813. Daniel McFall, at Great Bend, where he died in 1835.

1813, or a little later, Benj. A. Denison, at Montrose, afterwards in Dimock.

1814. Israel Skinner, on the line of Great Bend and Old Harmony (now Oak- land).

1815. Samuel Bissel, Brooklyn, where he died in 1829.

1816. Calvin Leet, a short time in Choconut, then removed to Friendsville, where he still resides.

1816. William Bacon, at Hopbottom.

1817. Lemuel W. Bingham, New Milford, fifty years.

1818. Charles B. Johnson, Silver Lake.

1820. Dr. Emerson, Silver Lake.

Dr. Jackson, of Tunkhannock (father of Thos. Jackson, M.D.), practiced in Springville at an early day. Mrs. Mercy Tyler, of Harford, and afterwards of Ararat, rode extensively in answer to the calls of the sick.

THE FIRST MEDICAL SOCIETY.

In May, 1820, Dr. L. W. Bingham proposed the formation of a county medical society, but no organization was attempted until September 23, following. At present no papers can be found to give the result of a meeting for this purpose, advertised to be held on that day. But whether Dr. Bingham's effort was successful or not, the credit of making it should be awarded him.

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Author: Blackman, Emily C Publication date: 1873 Publisher: Philadelphia, Claxton, Remsen, & Haffelfinger Number of Pages: 768

Author: Blackman, Emily C
Publication date: 1873
Publisher: Philadelphia, Claxton, Remsen, & Haffelfinger
Number of Pages: 768