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 8
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" The first house, and the one in which I was born, was built in an exceed- ingly primitive style. One huge log nearly made one side of the house, of which material the dwelling was built, for the mill-going saw 'these valleys and rocks had never heard.' The floor was made of strips, split, or halves of logs, flattened ; the roof was covered with ' shakes,' four feet long ; the beams overhead extended beyond the body of the house some five or six feet, making a stoop or piazza, from the roof of which, in autumn, used to hang the seed-corn for the ensuing year. The house was situated near a fine spring of water. Its furniture was not of the present-day style; the bed- steads, chairs, tables, and cooking utensils belonged to another age. We had no stoves, no carpets ; we needed none. We had an immense fireplace, and the forest all around us. The day found us busy ; the night gathered us around the broad stone hearth, glowing with a well-piled fire, where we re- counted the hopes, adventures, and news of the day, in much the same man- ner as is done to-day, in well-regulated families.
" For years we had no other evening light than that from the blazing hearth- fire, pine-knots, or a candle. The only way we had for lighting a candle was by means of a sliver from the wood-pile, or by taking a live coal from the fire and blowing it with the breath until it glowed, and then placing the wick of the candle against it. This was not always immediately successful, and fre- quently caused the young housekeeper to blow until her cheeks were as red as roses. Especially was this frequently the case of Sunday evenings, when young gents were present. It was many years after the country was settled before whale-oil lamps were introduced, and until then our only resource for light was the fire, blazing, or the consumption of fat in some manner.
"Our food was mainly meat, from the forest ; bread, vegetables, short-cakes, johnny-cakes, and buckwheat pancakes. We used to eat our venison cooked in various ways. A venison steak is epicurean, and reckoned among the best of backwoods dishes. Our bread was baked in a flat, shallow cast-iron kettle, set upon coals, with coals heaped upon the cover. Our biscuits were baked in a tin oven, shaped like a letter V, so arranged as to heat both the top and bottom of the biscuits. Our short-cakes were baked in a long- handled frying-pan, heated at the bottom with coals, and by the glowing fire at the top-and good cakes it makes, too-better than any of the new-fangled ovens of the present day. If the fireplace was well supplied with necessa- ries, it had an iron crane, from which cooking utensils could be suspended at a greater or less height above the fire. The crane wanting, its place was supplied by some other device for suspending the pots-generally trammels -an exceedingly clumsy and inconvenient arrangement, by which vessels
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
used in cooking must be suspended from a pole, crossing the chimney high enough above the fire not to burn.
" Did the good housewife desire to get breakfast, she first filled the tea-kettle and hung it over the fire, or set it on fresh coals, drawn from the wood fire, on the hearth to boil; she then put her meat to frying in a spider, having legs about three inches long, by setting it on fresh coals ; her potatoes, if boiled, were put in a pot and hung over the fire; if she desired pancakes, they were baked on a round griddle, suspended over the fire-when the griddle was hot enough, she swung out the crane and put on the batter; one side baked, the crane was swung out, the cakes turned, and again swung in ; when done, again swung out, cakes removed, and another batch spread on."
"In those days, stores were few and distant. Powder and lead were among our most necessary articles, and these cost long journeys. For some years no store was nearer than Bainbridge, N. Y., then Windsor, and finally Great Bend-supplied by teams from Catskill. A man named Whittemore first began trading at Windsor; Bowes at the Bend. He built, about sixty-five years ago, the square house near the Presbyterian Church."
Shad were so numerous in early times, that they were sold for one cent each.
"A FISH STORY .- After planting, one year, the men thought they would have a play day. They agreed upon a fishing party, and were to drive the river. We first began at the island, by building a willow and brush fence, or net across the north side of the river, so as to stop the fish. The other side we had three horses mounted by boys, who rode back and forth, scaring the fish into our pen or net, between the island and opposite shore. A large party then proceeded up the river some three miles, and drove the fish down -floating before them a rude sort of brush net, in the water, so that it was really easier for the fish to run down stream than pass it. They came down the stream driving, splashing, swimming, and wading, and having a gay time, until they reached our pen or brush net; when we piled in brush and made a fence which it was difficult for the fish to pass. We then began throwing out the fish, and the great creatures would splash against our legs, and dash about in vain efforts to escape. We captured by this frolic eigh- teen hundred shad. Each boy and girl had five-each woman thirty, and the balance were divided equally among the men-of course they secured the lion's share. The whole ended with a real feast and frolic, with shad for meat instead of quails. The evening was joyous, and the entertainment bountiful, and the whole passed off with a zest and appetite which cannot be surpassed by our present efforts."
Another reminiscence of Mr. Buck's runs thus :-
" Wolves were exceedingly troublesome to the early settlers. They would enter the fold at night and kill sheep and lambs, and, sucking the blood and eating a portion of the flesh, would leave the flock ruined for the farmer's coming. In those days each family made its own cloth for all the various purposes. The clothing of the father, the mother, the sons, and the daughters, was the handiwork of the busy mother. The flesh was also a reliance for food; hence the loss of the sheep was a dire calamity for a farmer. The sheep had for many years to be yarded close by the house. The ducks, geese, and chickens also had to be protected at night."
Three or four brothers of Rev. Daniel Buck figured in the early history of Wyoming. Elijah (and possibly Asahel) was one of the first forty settlers of Kingston ; William is mentioned in the old records of Westmoreland as a fence-viewer and grand juror, in 1774, and Capt. Aholiab Buck was one of nine cap-
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
tains slain the fatal afternoon of July 3, 1778. William, a son of Asahel Buck, was massacred the same day. An older brother of the four, Eben, had two sons, Elijah and William, the former of whom settled near Athens, Pa., as early probably as 1788.
" Priest" Buck, as the minister was generally styled, had seventeen children, ten of whom were those of his second wife; sixteen lived to have families. In addition to the sons already mentioned, who were of his first wife, there were Daniel, Israel, Silas, and Hiram. The majority of the family settled and died in the State of New York. Silas died in 1832, at Great Bend, where his widow still resides. Two of his sisters, Polly and Rachel, also died here. Enoch Denton died in Ohio; Israel, in Wyalusing, where some of his descendants reside. He had fifteen children.
Rev. Daniel Buck died at Great Bend, April 13, 1814. He had buried his first wife in Connecticut ; his second wife died at Great Bend, September 6, 1828, and rests beside her husband in the cemetery near the Episcopal church.
Capt. Ichabod Buck was born in New Canaan, Connecticut. He died in Franklin, Susquehanna County, March 19, 1849. A recent writer says of him: "He was a Christian, and to him perhaps more than to any other man were the early settlers of Great Bend indebted for religious teaching, influence, and example." He had five sons : William died at Great Bend ; John B., the author of several sketches given in these annals, is still living (February, 1872) at Susquehanna Depot; Benjamin died young; Elijah, living in Illinois, and Benjamin, in Michi- gan. His daughter Lucy, now dead, was born at Red Rock, April, 1791; and Deborah (Mrs. Lyman Smith, of Binghamton), March, 1793. The latter is the only survivor of the six daughters. Mrs. I. Buck died at Great Bend.
William Buck married a daughter of Oliver Trowbridge 1st; she was eight years old when her father came to Great Bend in 1796, and is still living in the same town.
Elijah and William, sons of Ichabod Buck, form the third set of brothers of these names in the Buck family : the first being the brothers of Rev. D. Buck, the next his nephews, and the third his grandchildren.
David Buck, who lived in 1807 on the north side of the Sus- quehanna River opposite Wright Chamberlin's, was not a near relation of this famly.
Thomas Bates lived about a mile below the bridge on the south side of the river. He died here before 1820, much esteemed.
We insert here brief sketches of three of the early settlers of this section.
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
SIMEON WYLIE served his country through the war of the Revolution, hav- ing entered the service in the spring of 1776, at the age of eighteen years. He was early detached from the ranks as waiter to General Arnold, and served as such until the time of Arnold's defection, and was the principal witness to prove the identity of Major André, his visits to Arnold at his quarters at the Robinson house, and the manner of Arnold's escape. From that time, he served as a sergeant to the close of the war. He was in the battle of Long Island, and White Plains, in 1776, in the northern campaign, at the battle of Bennington, and at the capture of General Burgoyne in 1777. He was also in a preceding battle in which Arnold was wounded, and was in the battle of Monmouth in 1778.
In the confusion of the retreat from Long Island, on the evening after the battle, Sergeant Wylie was one of a party of seventeen (including a lieutenant), left in a piece of woods near the enemy. Not knowing in the dark what course to take, they agreed to wait until daylight, and then attempt to cross the East River or Sound. As soon as it was light they sent two of the party to search for a boat and give a signal to the detachment remaining in the woods. Upon hearing the signal the latter hurried to the shore, where they found a boat which had been drawn upon the beach, and, while pushing it with some diffi- culty into the water, they saw a party of "red coats" passing. They however succeeded in launching the boat and took to the oars. The enemy being near discovered them, ordered them to "halt" and surrender, or they would fire upon them. Disregarding the threat they pushed on, and the enemy fired and continued to fire until the boat reached the New York shore, and so well was their aim taken that every man except the lieutenant and Sergeant Wylie was either killed or wounded. The killed were buried with the honors of war, and the wounded taken to the hospital in New York. Some forty years after, a crippled pensioner traveling through this part of the country stopped for the night with Mr. Wylie. In the course of the evening he spoke of the Revolution and the cause of his lameness. He proved to be one of the seventeen. He remained with Mr. Wylie through the winter and taught school. Sergeant Wylie was a brave man and a good soldier. This bloody transaction, with many other revolutionary reminiscences, he was accustomed to narrate with thrilling effect.
In the spring of 1835, he buried his wife (a daughter of Rev. D. Buck), with whom he had lived forty-nine years. She had resided forty-three years on the farm where she died, and had been a member of the Presbyterian Church eighteen years. He died suddenly while on a journey into the State of New York to visit one of his sons, September 14, 1836, aged seventy-eight years.
JONATHAN DIMON was a native of Fairfield County, Conn. In his minority he served several years as a soldier in the army of the Revolution. A few years after the war he moved with his family to Willingborough, in the spring of 1791. He purchased a farm of Ozias Strong, and followed farming for the remainder of his days. His success was such, he was able, to a considerable extent, to supply provisions to the Wyoming settlers.
He was the third postmaster at Great Bend, for several years from 1813. He was a man possessing intelligence, energy, integrity, and influence, and who exercised hospitality almost to a fault. He was an opponent to immorality, intemperance, and Sabbath desecration ; a supporter of educational and reli- gious institutions. He died suddenly June 8, 1821, aged sixty years, greatly lamented, and was followed to the grave by a larger number of persons than had ever before been seen at the Bend on such an occasion. His widow, Mrs. Abigail D., and the mother of his ten children, was a member of the Baptist Church many years. Her children were all living at the time of her death in November, 1834.
CHARLES DIMON, son of Jonathan, was six years old when his father settled at Willingborough. He was educated at the common schools, which were then taught by competent teachers. At a suitable age he commenced work-
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ing on the farm with his father, and pursued the same occupation through life.
January, 1810, on the resignation of Dr. E. Parker, he was appointed the second postmaster at Great Bend, which office he held until March 2, 1813, when he was appointed justice of the peace, by the Governor of Pennsylva- nia. April 23, 1823, he voluntarily resigned his commission for the purpose of pursuing his favorite occupation of agriculture.
About nine years afterwards the people, without his knowledge, sent a petition to the governor to have him reappointed, which was done; his second commission being dated December 3, 1832, and which he reluctantly accepted. He was twice elected under the amended constitution, and com- missioned, viz., March 17, 1840, and March 18, 1845. His fourth commission terminated March, 1850, when he absolutely refused another election. He discharged the duties of a magistrate with ability and with general satisfac- tion, having acquired a good knowledge of the laws relating to his office. He had the reputation of being as reliable a justice as any in the county, and his decisions were respected.
He was a man of strict morality, inflexible in his opposition to vice in every form, both by precept and example-a true son of his father-always aiming at right, and opposing wrong and deception. He had a controlling influence in the community, and bore the reputation of an honest, Christian man, to tomb. He was friendly and courteous; always extending the hand of friend- ship to all deserving persons ; hospitable, and ready to assist the unfortunate, using his influence for religion which he professed to have experienced, and always endeavored to sustain the best interests of the country in her civil, literary, religious, and political institutions. He was never married. To relatives, friends, and society the loss of such a man was a calamity. He died at the Bend, August, 22, 1864, aged seventy-nine years.
Dr. Fobes, the first regular physician of the place, was here in 1791. Robert Corbett, though then where New Milford village is, was a taxable of Willingborough. A Mr. Worden, early in the nineties, was near the present line of Oakland.
" As early as 1791, the settlers of Mt. Pleasant began opening a road to Great Bend. It left the north and south road nearly opposite Mr. Stanton's house (in Mt. P.), and proceeded westward, varying from half a mile to a mile south of the Great Bend and Coahecton turnpike, which has taken its place." (Rev. S. Whaley.)
Before November, 1792, the settlement must have largely increased, as a road which had been laid out on petition of Lewis Maffet and others-William Forsyth among the viewers-was opposed by a remonstrance sent to the court and signed by " Orasha" Strong and fifteen others. The first report made the road " begin at a stake about three rods above a place called the Three Apple Trees, and run northwesterly to the State line." The court granted a review of the road by different men, among whom Asaph Corbett, then in New Milford, and Asahel Gregory, in what is now Herrick, must have been disinterested parties. They made the road begin opposite James Parmeter's, at a stake in the north bank of the river.
Messrs. Bennett, Parmeter, Strong, Leonard, Asa Adams, and Isaac Hale (the last in what is now Oakland), viewed and laid
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
out two other roads that season; the first, "beginning at a hemlock stump, opposite Seth Putnam's saw-mill, northerly (W. E. W.) to the south bank of the Susquehanna River, then N. E. to the north bank of said river, then up said river inter- secting the road first laid out;" the other appears to have connected these with the house of Benjamin Buck, one mile above Ozias Strong's.
In 1793, the court appointed Ichabod Buck, constable ; Horatio Strong and Jonathan Bennet, supervisors ; and Elisha Leonard and Ichabod Buck, overseers of the poor. From this time the town rapidly increased in prosperity and influence.
November, 1795, Jonathan Newman, formerly of Pittston (was there in 1789), bought of Minna Du Bois land lying north of the river, above the ferry. Nathaniel Holdridge, the first settler of Herrick, must have been here then, as he was con- stable the following year.
In 1796, Oliver Trowbridge, called Major Trowbridge, came in. The same year Horatio Strong received a license to keep a tavern. He had only a log-house. This, it appears, was purchased by Oliver Trowbridge, who built, in 1797, a framed part to the house, an upper room of which was used by a Masonic Lodge ; the walls of it were papered-the first instance of a papered room in the county. He was licensed in 1801. He had four sons-Noble, Lyman, Augustus, and Harry (the latter two died at the West)-and four daughters, of whom Mrs. Wm. Buck is the only one now living at Great Bend.
Noble Trowbridge (J. P.) in 1810 built the wing of the present large house occupied by his son Oliver, about one and a quarter miles from the State line. The old bar-room, kitchen, and dining-room of this once noted tavern are well preserved ; also, the old sign of the Indian and his arrows, though it no longer invites the traveller to rest. Here were seen the old " tester" bedsteads, with blue and white linen hangings, such as some of us now cherish as the handiwork of our grand- mothers.
From the porch, views of river, hills, and meadows of great beauty are obtained, and pleasure-seekers much frequent this locality. Trowbridge's Creek reaches the river just below.
Noble T. had six daughters and three sons-Oliver, Grant, and Henry (dead).
Lyman Trowbridge settled in the south part of the township near Salt Lick Creek. He had four daughters, and four sons- Amasa, Augustus (dead), Charles, and Lafayette.
Daniel and Seelye Trowbridge, who lived on the south or west side of the river, were sons of David, a brother of O. Trowbridge, 1st.
Henry Lord, originally from Maine, came from Dutchess
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
County, N. Y., in 1797, and settled about half a mile south of Great Bend. The place was afterwards occupied by Asahel Avery and Jonas Brush. He had eleven children, only two of whom-Mrs. Dr. Charles Fraser and Mrs. Charles Avery, of Montrose-remained in the county, when their father removed to Yates County, N. Y., after residing here about twelve years.
The same year, Jonathan Newman was constable, and Oliver Trowbridge and Samuel Hayden, supervisors. The year fol- lowing, Sylvanus Hatch was constable, Samuel Blair and Henry Lord, poor-masters; Samuel Blair, assessor. (All these offices, it will be remembered, included then a supervision of all the territory now included in Great Bend, Oakland, Harmony, and New Milford, and Jackson, Thompson, and part of Ararat; but in the last three there was then no settler.)
Asa Eddy, afterwards first justice of the peace of the town- ship, offered for sale, in 1798, " six valuable farms at and near Great Bend-indisputable titles given."
Facilities for travel increased. The road from Mt. Pleasant, projected in 1791, appears not to have been satisfactorily lo- cated; for, January, 1798, Messrs. Parmeter and Hatch, Dudley Holdridge (son of Nathaniel), David Summers, Joseph Potter, and Asahel Gregory, were appointed to view and lay out the road, which, after reaching the house of Daniel Leach, ran nearly north to the Salt Lick, then to R. Corbett's, then north six miles to the ferry at Great Bend. The report of the viewers was not presented and approved until the next year.
In November, 1798, J. Dimon petitioned for a road " begin- ning two miles from the ferry, and running up the river to a place called Harmony, and thence to the State line ;" also, for " a road leading from the aforesaid road across to the line above mentioned, toward a place called Ouaquaga, in the State of New York." John Hilborn, Ichabod Buck, S. Blair, J. Dimon, Isaac Hale, and J. Newman, were appointed to lay out these roads.
During this year, a " post" was engaged to ride from Wilkes- Barre to Great Bend once a fortnight, for the delivery of papers. A road had been laid out to "the road on the waters of the Tunkhannock," in January previous. It will be remembered that, at this time, Harmony and Great Bend as townships had no existence.
In 1799, Sylvanus Hatch was a licensed " taverner at Hatch's ferry," as the location was then frequently called. A part of the old log building is still standing across the road from where the three apple trees stood, on the farm of Ozias Strong. Mr. H. did not own the log tavern, but he afterwards purchased one of the fan-shaped farms (see diagram), and kept a promi-
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
nent hotel on it, below the present Methodist church. This building has recently been divided.
David Brownson was constable in 1799; Isaac Hoyt one of the supervisors, and Thomas Bates, freeholder.
Benjamin Gould was an early settler, on a part of N. Trow- bridge's farm. Jonathan Dimon was one of six settlers whose farms converged at a point near the nineteenth mile-stone. Each farm had a river front, and all extended about two miles on the river, somewhat as shown by the diagram.
Fig. 10. THE "FAN" AT GREAT BEND.
19 th.
STATE LINE
MILE ST.
6
5
SUSQUEHANNA RIVER
4
3
2
The original Strong farm, on which Great Bend borough is located, may have extended over Nos. 1, 2, and 3; but No. 1, once occupied by Rev. D. Buck, became the farm of Jonathan and Charles Dimon; No. 2, once that of Horatio Strong, be- longed successively to Josiah Stewart, William Thomson, Lowry Green, and W. S. Wolcott; No. 3, once that of Sylva- nus Hatch, since owned by Truman Baldwin; No. 4, the Trowbridge farm, after O. Trowbridge left the tavern-stand of H. Strong; No. 5, the present Gillespie farm; No. 6, now owned by A. and D. Thomas, was once Samuel Blair's.
The first three, of course, have been much divided; but a daughter of Jonathan Dimon is still a resident of part of No. 1.
Sections of those owned by Hatch and Trowbridge once comprised the farm of Mrs. Andrew Johnston, the " first bride of the valley." She was the daughter of Garret Snedaker, who settled in Broome County, in 1794, and married Mr. Johnston, in September, 1796. He died in 1815, leaving her with six sons and one daughter. Mrs. J. related to the compiler, in 1869, her 5
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
surprise on coming here from New Jersey, when a girl, at the dress of people at meetings on the Sabbath. "One young woman wore a waistcoat (without sleeves) and a petticoat; the men wore leather coats and pantaloons." She lived in Great Bend, with her son, John B. Johnston, until her death, in January, 1870, in her ninety-third year.
In response to inquiries respecting Minna Du Bois, his grand- son, J. B. D., says :-
" As near as I can learn, my ancestors of the name Du Bois left France at the time of the persecution of the Huguenots. They first fled to Germany, and afterwards came with the Germans to this country, and settled at or near Esopus, on the Hudson River.
"My great-grandfather, Abraham Du Bois, received his portion on the death of his father, and moved to New Jersey. He had three sons : Abra- ham, Nicholas, and Minna. My grandfather, Minna Du Bois, was the youngest of that family. He was a wild youth, ran away, shipped and went to France. This was just before the Revolution. In the war that was then going on between France and England, my grandfather Du Bois joined the French navy. The vessel to which he belonged was captured by the Eng- lish, and he and the other prisoners were taken to England and kept as prisoners in the mountains of Wales, until the war was over. He then came home. His brother Abraham, a wealthy jeweller in Philadelphia, and a large land-owner, made him an agent and sent him to Great Bend, to take care of his landed estate in this section. Several tracts here bore the warrantee name of his son, Nicholas Du Bois.
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