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 67
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75
ROAD FOLLOWING FLAT BROOK
-
6
SOFT : CIR
20 FT. DEEP
5
2
3
4
RIVER ROAD
JOE SMITH'S DIGGINGS.
1 Situation of J. I. Skinner's house.
2. Pit filled and grain growing over it.
3. A larger pit filled.
4. A smaller one partly filled.
5. A pit that has not been disturbed, in the woods.
6. Fence. Relative positions only, not exactly proportionate distances, are here given.
Starting from Susquehanna Depot to reach this place, one crosses the bridge and turns to the left following the road nearest the river, which strikes the old river road at Shutt's house; then continuing on down until he crosses a creek and comes in sight of a school-house, with a grove beyond it, in front of which, on the opposite side of the road, is a graveyard. Just above the school-house he turns into a road on the right, and follows up " Flat Brook" to the farm now owned by J. I. Skinner. From his house a path leads about 120 yards southeast to the largest excavation, which was also the last one, from which proceeds a drain about twelve rods long.
The sides of the pits were once perpendicular, but one has been wholly filled up, and corn is growing over it; another, in addition to the large one mentioned, is now partially filled, and the sides in consequence are sloping. In the fourth (the one just over the fence), no alteration has been made, ex-
582
HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
cept as cattle have pushed in the surface around it to reach the water which gathers there. It is under the trees, the land not having yet been cleared.
Poor Emma Hale Smith- lived long enough to rue her "inquiry into Joe's character ;" the pretext she gave for leaving home the day she went with him to be married.
(Her mother said to Mrs. D. Lyons, "Don't you think Emma was such a goose as to go up to Joe's father's to find out his character ?")
Joe Smith removed to Ohio where he founded a church; from there the " Saints" moved to Independence, Mo .. Smith following them January, 1838. From Independence they went to Nauvoo, Illinois, where Smith was impris- oned, on a warrant obtained by the owners of the "Expositor" newspaper, which had been demolished by Smith's orders. On the 27th of June, 1844, a mob of nearly two hundred men broke into the jail and shot Joseph Smith, Jr., and Hiram, his brother.
THE TREADWELL TRIAL.
[In the early period of the labors of the compiler in preparing a history of Susquehanna County, she spent several weeks in condensing the voluminous notes of one of Treadwell's counsel, B. T. Case, Esq., and weaving in such outside information respecting the case as had come to hand. On account of its being the first trial of its kind in the county, it excited an intense inter- est, which has scarcely yet disappeared ; but the annals have so grown upon her hands as to render compression a necessity, and the repulsiveness of this subject, together with the fact of the greater frequency of trials of this kind at the present day, may justify its selection for only a passing notice here. Should there be any persons who feel an interest to look further into the facts of the case, they are welcome to take the fuller account originally pre- pared for this work, or perhaps they may find it published hereafter in the newspapers of the county. ]
About sunset, May 11th, 1824, the body of Oliver Harper, son of Hon. Geo. Harper of Windsor, N. Y., was found lying and streaming with blood in the old Harmony road, a mile and a half below Lane's mill (Lanesboro). A foul murder had been committed, and suspicion pointed to Jason Treadwell, of Harmony (Oakland), or possibly just over the line in Great Bend, as the author of the deed. He was arrested and brought to Montrose jail. His trial took place Sept. 1-5, 1824, before Judge Herrick, with D. Dimock and Wm. Thomson, Associates. He was defended by B. T. Case, Esq., and Hon. Horace Williston, late of Athens, Bradford County ; while N. B. Eldred and Garrick Mallery, Esqs., were the attorneys on the part of the Commonwealth. The evidence daily grew stronger to implicate Treadwell as the murderer ; and the jury's verdict was, " GUILTY." Upon his own statement he knew who committed the deed ; he lent the rifle to the murderer, gave him provisions while lying in the woods two days-the time within which Harper and another man were expected to pass with money; received the rifle in a secluded spot the evening after the murder, and kept him secreted that night. But until he saw his own immediate danger of paying the penalty, he was silent as to any knowledge of the murder.
He was executed Jan. 13, 1825, on the only gallows ever erected in Sus- quehanna County. The location was on the west side of the public square, nearly in front of the present residence of Dr. Vail. [There is some discrep- ancy in the statements respecting this.] The remains were taken to Great Bend and interred on the bluff above the 60-feet cut on the Erie Railway, between the house of I. Hasbrook and that of the late Isaac Reckhow, Esq. He left a widow and seven children. The county newspaper, for two months after the execution, contained earnest discussions upon the question of capi- tal punishment.
583
APPENDIX.
The Hon. H. Williston relied upon his client's protestations of innocence until the following incident occurred on the trial :-
One witness described the disguised person seen in the woods the day Har- per was shot, and not far from where he was found dead, as having on a par- ticular coat, from which a certain button was missing. The coat was pro- duced, shown to be Treadwell's ; but there was no missing button. The fact tended to discredit the witness, and favor Treadwell. As the trial passed on Mr. Williston drew the coat towards him, carelessly turned it over so that he could see the button alleged to have been missing, and discovered, by the thread, etc., that the button had been newly sewed on! A cold conviction of Treadwell's guilt passed over his lawyer like an ague chill, as this mute fact corroborated the witness. He revealed it to no one then, and but rarely in later years. Both O. N. Worden, Esq. (who furnished the item), and Hon. W. J. Turrell, have heard the incident from his own lips.
The former in a recent statement says :-
" While in Great Bend village, Mr. Hinsdale, a shoemaker, who saw Tread- well hung, stated that his brother received, about twenty years ago, the printed confession of a man who was hung near New Orleans, in which the criminal stated that he had committed seven murders, but knew of only one man being hung for his crimes. That was Treadwell, of Susquehanna County, Pennsyl- vania. Both lay in wait for the murdered man One was to shoot first, and if his shot was not successful, the other was to shoot next The first shot fell to the man named ; his victim fell dead ; and so Treadwell did not have to shoot, and did not shoot, although he was in every respect, excepting the first shot, a murderer.
" The name of the criminal who was hung, and the exact time and place, Mr. Hinsdale cannot recall ; but having, although young, witnessed T's execution, this revelation of the probable accomplice remains clear upon his mind."
NOTE TO PAGE 24 .- The following letter of Hon. J. W. Chapman is in ex- planation of the magnetic variation in running the county line :-
"Having as county surveyor retraced, and with careful chain-carriers remeasured the east line of Susquehanna County, under the direction of our county commissioners in August, 1870-a little over two years ago-I am able to give the precise course and distance from personal observation.
"In doing so I have to correct the survey of Mr. Case in 1827, from whose notes the statement is made. Although the very best authority, generally, in such matters, Mr. Case reported the whole distance to be six perches less than 24 miles to a stone-heap erected on (what he took to be) the State line. Charles Avery, Esq., who was one of the commissioners at the time, and now the only living man among us who accompanied Mr. Case in 1827, says, they built the monument on a marked E. and W. line, which they took to be the State line; and it being in the wilderness, several miles from any habitation at the time, and late in the last day of the week, and a storm impending, they quit without further examination.
" We found the stone monument according to his measure, but the true State line over three-fourths of a mile beyond, proved by tracing it eastward 120 perches to the sixth mile-stone from the Delaware River, by which the exact width of the east end of the county is proved to be 242 miles, and the length only 33 miles and 200 perches, instead of 34 miles, as generally quoted ' from the sixth to the fortieth mile-stone.'
" Having some years since measured the west line of this county also (ex- cepting the width of Auburn township), I know it starts from the fortieth milestone, and the width must be about 244 miles at the west end-or } mile less than the east end; and the State line of Pennsylvania and New York being due east and west on the forty-second parallel of latitude, we found the present variation of the magnetic needle to be 530; the apparent course of the State line being 841º E. and N. 8410 W. The present apparent course of the east line of the county was found to be N. 323 E. ; while the true
*
584
HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
meridian being 520 therefrom, the real course of the line must be about N. 24° W.
" This line was originally run for the division between Northampton and Northumberland Counties, Wayne County since taken from the former, and Luzerne (now Susquehanna) from the latter; and, instead of striking the State line at the sixth mile-stone, as generally supposed, it is 120 rods west of it.
"The matter may be more briefly stated thus : Susquehanna County ex- tends from 120 perches west of the sixth milestone on the New York State line to the fortieth, and is consequently 33g miles in length by about 24} miles average width ; the east line being 242 miles precisely, and the west about 244; the true polar course of the east line being N. 24º W .; and the north line due west, embracing an area of about 824 square miles."
WOMAN'S WORK FOR THE UNITED STATES SANITARY COMMISSION.
MONTROSE AND BRIDGEWATER.
In Montrose, woman's work for the soldiers of the late war began imme- diately upon the formation of the first company of volunteers, April 22, 1861. During the ten days which elapsed before its departure for the seat of war, trembling fingers prepared lint while hearts ached at the thought, so sud- denly forced upon them, of its possible speedy use. To most women, the roll of the drum, and the company's drill, were depressing rather than in- spiriting ; but, since men must meet their country's call, the women of 1861, as those of 1776, arose to make them ready.
Mrs. Judge Jessup had prepared a dinner for sixty volunteers from Sus- quehanna Depot, the day the company was organized.
Mrs. Wm. L. Post procured subscriptions for the purchase of a flag for the company, two days later.
On the 26th, while picking lint, a number of ladies were in consultation at Mrs. W. J. Mulford's, in regard to the making of blouses, haversacks, and shirts, material for which had been provided.
April 29th a full meeting was held at Academy Hall, for cutting out and arranging the work, which was consigned to committees, and distributed throughout the community. The few sewing machines then here were kept constantly busy in the work.
On the 30th at Mrs. B. S. Bentley's, and on May 1st, at Mrs. F. B. Chan- dler's, there were large gatherings of the ladies engaged on the shirts and blouses, while the young ladies, at Mrs. I. L. Post's, finished eighty-four haversacks. Everywhere there was activity and excitement.
May 2d, 1861, all the preparations were completed, garments and haver- sacks having been taken to Judge Jessup's, and, at 11 A. M., the company, (Charles Warner, captain,) marched there to receive them.
In each haversack, Mrs. Jessup had placed a Testament ; and within each, another had slipped a printed card, endorsed by the " Mothers and Sisters of Montrose," at one of the meetings of the previous week. It was expressive of the spirit in which they began the great work afterward accomplished by them, saying to the volunteers, " We regard you as a part of the great National Police, to whom we shall owe not only our personal safety, but the preservation of the true idea of national self-government."
From Judge Jessup's house the company marched to the court-house, where the flag was presented them, and its acceptance acknowledged in a speech by Ira N. Burritt, who has since done his country honored service. Fifty-six carriages took the volunteers to the depot. A sadder day had never been known in Montrose. Though the enlistment had been only for three months, it was expected severe fighting would occur in the mean time, but that this would end the war. On reaching Harrisburg, other measures
585
APPENDIX.
were found to prevail, and enlistment for three years being demanded, the most of the company returned home by the 11th of May following. Upon the organization of Capt. G. Z. Dimock's company, Sept. 19, 1861, and prior to their departure on the 27th of the same month, the ladies of Montrose busied themselves in preparing for their comfort.
In December following, four large boxes were forwarded to the com- pany at Beaufort, S. C. The perilous voyage in the " Winfield Scott," with the overtasking of mind and body it involved to those on board, and particu- larly to Company D., Fiftieth Pennsylvania Volunteers, placed a number of the latter on the sick list, and for them a special box was prepared. These boxes were gratefully acknowledged, January, 1862.
Though the U. S. Sanitary Commission was at work ere this, and in Sep- tember, '61, had received the endorsement of President Lincoln and General Winfield Scott, little was known of it here.
In July, 1862, just prior to the organization of the Montrose Soldiers' Aid, public notice was given that a box would be forwarded, as soon as filled, to our sick and wounded soldiers in a Philadelphia hospital. The call was promptly met by our citizens generally. The receipt of this and of a second box was gratefully acknowledged six days later.
July 31, 1862, the ladies of Montrose met and organized a Soldiers' Aid Society-the first in Susquehanna County. It orginated in the casual meet- ing of four ladies, detained by a shower, in the vestibule of the Baptist church ; when one of them, being the wife of a soldier (C. W. Mott), then sick in camp, and another, the daughter of a soldier (E. B. Mooney), mentioned the receipt of letters from them, which revealed their destitution. Actuated by these accounts, the ladies then and there agreed to exert themselves to secure the formation of a society for the relief, not only of the soldiers in question, but. as far as might be, for that of their suffering comrades wherever they could be reached. A number of the ladies of the borough were shortly after- wards called upon and requested to meet at Mrs. Mooney's, on the day above mentioned; when, as it resulted, the four were joined by perhaps as many more. Mrs. Wm. L. Post presided ; and the organization was effected by assent to certain rules, making the chief officer, or president, to be chosen weekly, that the responsibility might be shared by all. Miss Kate N. Hill was elected a permanent secretary and treasurer.
During the week following, Mrs. J. W. Chapman and Mrs. Benjamin Case, as well as the former, solicited from the community such material as could be made available in preparing comforts for the soldiers ; their second meet- ing was at Mrs. Post's, and was fully attended. The gentlemen of the place, from the outset, encouraged the movement. A lawyer offered a room in his office for their accommodation, but, before they had occupied it, Mr. B. R. Lyons, having two large rooms over his store, most conveniently fitted up for the purpose, tendered their use to the society. Over fifty ladies gathered here about the middle of August, 1862; and, with varying numbers (often more than fifty), they met here every week for two and a half years, during which, Mr. L. did gratuitously everything for their comfort which kindness and liberality could devise. He furnished fuel for three winters. During the first months, no one was obliged to stay at home, on Soldiers' Aid day, because of a storm or of bad walking ; the carriage and escort of Hon. M. C. Tyler were always in readiness, and often secured an efficient meeting, that must otherwise have been a failure.
The report of the society, from its organization to October 6, 1862, showed an income from private cash donations, subscriptions, avails of concert by Montrose band, and of the ladies' table at the fair, etc., amounting to $274.43. From this $21.23 had been paid to the express company for charges on seven boxes. Of these, one was sent to Capt. Dimock, Fredericksburg, Md. ; two to Miss Ellen Mitchell, Point Lookout, Md. ; one to Mr. Charles
586
HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
Neale, Washington, D. C .; two to Quartermaster Gen. Hale, Harrisburg, Pa. ; one to Miss E. P. Heberton, Media, Pa. The contents were shirts, dressing-gowns, slippers, canned and dried fruit, etc.
Early attention had been given to drying berries and currants for the use of the sick in army hospitals ; but, in the fall of 1862, a call from the Sani- tary Commission for dried apples furnished glad work for many neighbor- hoods. A circular, entitled, " What they have to do who stay at home," issued by the same soon after, was of great service.
The society had the free use of the columns of the Montrose newspapers, and it is but just to refer very much of its efficiency to this fact.
As winter approached, attention was given to knitting and procuring woolen socks for soldiers in actual service. An entertainment was given by the society, Christmas eve, at Academy Hall, the avails of which were $154.43. Prior receipts from the Odd Fellows and Masonic Lodges, and private donations in money and clothing had given abundant means for the work in hand; and, by the close of 1862, the eighth box had been filled. This was forwarded to the Sanitary Commission in New York. The ladies were assured that, with one exception, their consignments had reached the parties designed ; one box, it is supposed, fell into the enemy's hands.
About the 1st of January, 1863, the Montrose Aid elected new officers, and abrogated the plan of rotation in the office of president ; Mrs. Mary L. Wootton was chosen permanently ; Mrs. F. B. Chandler, vice-president ; Mrs. M. C. Tyler, Mrs. Joel D. Lyons, Mrs. I. Vadakin, Mrs. Hugh McCol- lum, Mrs. Wm. L. Post, Mrs. Erastus Rogers, Mrs. N. Mitchell, and Mrs. Gilbert Warner, on financial and executive committees; Miss Hetty D. Biddle, treasurer ; Miss Ellen Searle, secretary ; a new office was resolved upon-that of corresponding secretary-and Emily C. Blackman was elected to fill it. The first meeting of a Mite Society acting in connection with the Aid, was held Jan. 6th, at Mrs. Charles Neale's.
Not far from this time the ladies of Philadelphia responded favorably to an appeal from H. W. Bellows, President of the U. S. Sanitary Commission, for uniting the women of that city, "and throughout the Keystone State, in a more systematic supply of the wants of the National Soldier, who falls wounded or sick in the service of his country." In return the President of the Commission addressed to Mrs. Moore, the Corresponding Secretary of the organization in Philadelphia, a circular to be communicated to the women of our whole State, giving a statement of the facilities enjoyed by the Sanitary Commission for doing its work, and its reasons for wishing to con- centrate the efforts of individuals and societies then acting independently.
This circular came to us accompanied by one issued by the Women's Pennsylvania Branch of the U. S. Sanitary Commission, and signed by Caleb Cope, president and treasurer; R. M. Lewis, secretary; Mrs. M. B. Grier, chairman, and Mrs. B. H. Moore, corresponding secretary, with more than fifty names on the different committees of the ladies of Philadelphia, comprising many of its best citizens. An appeal from them merited and received consideration, and particularly as it was based on facts such as these :-
" That the Commission's agents are notified of the time of an army's ad- vance, and permitted to transfer their stores to as near the front as possible- and that they are the only organization authorized by Government to pass within the lines, and administer their supplies on the field of battle for the saving of life and the relief of suffering, knowing no difference between men from any section who are nobly fighting for the preservation of the Union.
" The work must be left undone if THE WOMEN of the land do not keep the Sanitary Commission supplied with the means of doing it."
Then followed a statement of their own organization, and an invitation to " every loyal woman" in the city and State, and surrounding counties of other States, to co-operate with them.
587
APPENDIX.
In response to this, the Soldiers' Aid of Montrose, March, 1863, became an auxiliary of the Women's Pennsylvania Branch, by all unanimous vote of the Society ; and thereafter were stimulated to a greater degree of activity. First, by having a safe and prompt mode of transportation, free of expense to ourselves ; thus allowing us to use all our funds for the purchase of ma- terial and maintenance of the Society ; and, secondly, by the encouragement received through a correspondence with the Commission, as also with the ladies of the societies that soon organized in our vicinity. From the Mon- trose Aid, an appeal had been issued through the local newspapers, in the endeavor to arouse the county to exertion and to a connection with the Sanitary Commission. Circulars from the Women's Pennsylvania Branch were received by the society, and distributed by letter, and by personal inter- view on the street, one public day, when almost every township was repre- sented in Montrose. The society's appeal had solicited the correspondence that was afterwards so mutually encouraging, and which served to give to the societies of the county some unity of method as well as of purpose.
Still, this would have failed to effect a result commensurate with the demand, but for the acceptance, by Miss SARAH M. WALKER, of her appoint- ment, May 5, 1853, as Associate Manager of the W. P. B. for Susquehanna County ; the duties of which post she at once assumed, by correspondence, being then in Philadelphia. Upon her return to her " mountain home," she made a visit in person to several societies, and in other instances assisted in their organization. Her presence and influence were the mainspring in the machinery of operations from that time onward. The demands upon her pen, so freely met ; the amount of travel and exposure to which she was subjected ; the untiring voice of entreaty and encouragement which she gave to the work, are facts known throughout the county, and her services were fully appreciated by the highest officers of the Commission. But we anticipate.
In March, 1863, Miss Walker then in Philadelphia, " meeting with the cir- culars of the Women's Pennsylvania Branch, became interested in the com- pleteness of the system, and sent them to the . Ladies Aid' in Montrose, which resulted in a cordial response of valuable supplies-the very first received at the rooms, No. 1307 Chestnut street." Within five months three dozen boxes had been forwarded by the society to the same destination, besides one box to the militia by Major Jessup. The secretary in her report of these gave the number of articles (shirts, 254, and other things in proportion), but added : "Not having estimated each consignment when sent, it is impossible to do it now."
Our rooms had been witness to exciting scenes through this summer. Extra meetings had been called after the Gettysburg battles, and four boxes were packed and forwarded within forty-eight hours. When the militia and "emergency men" were about to leave, the society, too, was pronounced in the public prints
" EQUAL TO THE EMERGENCY .- If our men deserve credit for the promptness with which they responded to the call of the Governor, there is no less praise due to the ladies who did so much to get them ready. Haversacks for a hundred men were to be made and filled with three days' rations, woolen shirts were to be made, and a hundred other little conveniences were to be got realy in a few hours. The ladies undertook the work, and by the time the company was ready to go, everything was ready for them to go with."
The society had been befriended in the matter of funds.
The "Emergency Band" gave the avails of a concert, $100; the music department of the Academy gave another, with just half that result, but which permitted the society to give to each of two nurses $25, for the pur- chase of such delicacies for the sick as might be wanting in the hospitals. A strawberry festival-the berries a donation from J. P. W. Riley, and the proceeds of which were nearly $65; a private dramatic entertainment sup- plied over $40 ; a still larger sum was given by the citizens; on one occasion
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.