History of Tioga County, Pennsylvania, Part 33

Author:
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Harrisburg : R. C. Brown
Number of Pages: 1454

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Williston, and put up for the night. Sad, weary and financially not very flush, the impression on my mind of the small village, as it then was, was not the most favor- able; and the approach to it up Crooked creek had prepared my mind to dislike it. A small gathering of "Charleston friends," as they were then called, paying their daily visit to the tavern, tended somewhat to disturb the gloom of silence that might otherwise have hung over the place; and before I went to bed that night I was pre- pared to believe that Wellsboro was at least a very stirring little town.

"An early walk next morning revealed a very pleasant little village, a snug little nook surrounded on all sides by romantic hills covered then mostly by forests, but, as they appeared to me, full of beauty, and from their summits presenting as fine landscape views as I have ever seen. A few years ago Dr. Saynisch, of Blossburg, who was a native of, and familiar with, Switzerland and her romantic landscapes, remarked to me that the landscape views around Wellsboro were ex- ceeded by none in his native country. He particularly admired the view from Wetmore hill, where just before sunset the scenery is most beautiful, and the reflection from the stream that runs along the valley into Wellsboro makes it appear like a silver thread winding deviously through the green of field and pasture.

"At that time we had on the site of the present court house, a court house and jail built of squared logs; and log houses then were quite an institution. Judge Morris lived in a log house on the side hill above the High School building, and a two- story block or hewed log house occupied the spot where John N. Bache now lives, and it was occupied by the father of the Wellsboro Baches. There for a long time were held the courts after the judicial organization of the county, and there was kept the postoffice till after the election of Polk, in 1845, when, not being a good Demo- crat, Mr. Bache [he was postmaster for more than twenty-three years] was super- seded by a carpet bagger.

"Where the Presbyterian church now stands was a log house occupied by Mrs. Lindsey and family, and a log church, sixteen by twelve, stood back of where Mr. Sherwood's office now stands, built by Mr. Benjamin W. Morris, the father of Judge Morris, for Quaker meetings. A part of Mr. Converse's house was in existence before my time, and was built of logs, which are now covered with siding. There was another near the building now ocupied by M. M. Sears as a restaurant. This was occupied by John Beecher, then, or near then, the treasurer of the county. There was also a log house near the site of E. J. Brown's, called the Hoover house, built and then lived in by Mr. Hoover, the father-in-law of William Eberenz, and the grandfather of Mrs. E. J. Brown. I think those were all the log houses within the bounds of the village.

"Beginning at the upper end of Main street, there was the house of Captain Greenleaf, near the site of Mr. Osgood's, and his shop near where Mrs. Nichols' house stands. This has been moved, rafted over, and is the house between Mrs. Nichols' and the creek. The house now occupied by H. W. Dartt was built by Lorentes Jackson on the Chester Robinson lot, and afterwards moved to where it now stands. On the corner where Dr. Shearer now lives Ezekiel Jones had a house and blacksmith shop, and on the corner across the street from his place was a small house in which lived Colonel Field, the father of Prescott Field. On the opposite side of Main street lived Ebenezer Jackson on the corner; further up 'Uncle Eben,' and near

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where William Harrison lives was the house of "Lias.' The two last were colored families, and 'Uncle Eben' and his wife, 'Aunt Hetty,' were especially respected by everybody. [They were slaves of William Hill Wells and were given their free- dom when he left the county]. Everybody in Wellsboro knows their daughter, Betty Murry, who is no older now than when I came to Wellsboro, more than fifty- one years ago. Near Dr. Packer's office was another house. I don't remember its occupants then. On the opposite side of the street, where Judge Williams lives, was a small story-and-a-half house occupied by Colonel Hill, the father of Garwood Hill.

"Near the site of the old bank was a high-roofed house in which Alpheus Cheney, the first sheriff of Tioga county, for some time kept a tavern. What became of him I do not now remember. The next frame house on the northwest side of Main street was the Kimball tavern, a house of very respectable dimensions for the place and times. Below that was a two-story house near Harden's, now standing back on Water street. Opposite this house, on the southeast side of the street, was the 'Yellow Tavern,' kept, I believe, at that time, by Roswell Alford. This was the property bid off at sheriff's sale by Judge Lewis for a mere nominal price, and the decision in an ejectment for which first settled the law that a sale on a judgment which was a lien on the property discharged all mortgages whatever on the same property. It was a surprise to all the lawyers of the State, and was the cause of the present mortgage law being enacted.

"There was a small shoemaker shop on the next corner, owned by a man whose remains lie buried in Ross Park, Williamsport. [Now occupied by the City Hall]. Going on down to near where Will Herrington's store is, was a small two-story house with stairs to go 'up chamber' on the outside slanting down on the sidewalk. This was occupied by Francis Hill, whose wife was a sister of Mary and Sally Lindsey, and a very clever fellow he was, too. The next building on that side was on the corner where C. C. Mathers' store stands, and was a long, rough-looking building, in which a man named James Borst had a kind of store. Opposite, on the northwest side of the street, was the Bliss house, painted red. Opposite that, where the Cone House [now Coles] stands, was the Murphey tavern. And opposite that was a two- story house built by Dr. Brown, a most excellent physician. This was also sold out at sheriff's sale, and bid off by Judge Lewis. Dr. Brown was the father of .Mrs. Colonel Huling, of Williamsport. The next on the street was B. B. Smith's, on the northwest side, which I see is torn down, and around the old cellar are piles of stone which would indicate that somebody is going to build. Then came the Taylor house and tannery in the forks of the road, but now demolished, and next the Fellows house.

"Up what is now called Central avenue was the house now owned by Mr. Rey- nolds. A house, burned down, where Jerome B. Niles' house now stands, and there was a house above it long occupied by Mr. Donaldson, but now, I see, demolished. This house was occupied by Dr. Bundy, and in the cellar was a dissecting room where two or three persons learned a good deal of anthropological science. As the house is torn down now, the secret may be told, for no one will be sleeping there to .see ideal ghosts, as they certainly would have seen them if they had known that cellar had been used for such a purpose. There was also a house further up the

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avenue, which was moved across the road and turned into a barn, and its place oc- cupied by a house since built by William Roberts.

"Over the creek, near Mass Bullard's, was a stone distillery in which William Bache made pure whiskey, which did not kill on sight like the present article. In my travels over the village I have left out mention of a small two-story house on the corner of M. M. Converse's lot, in which then lived Ellis Lewis. The house now stands up in the German settlement. There was also passed over the public office near the old bank, supplanted by the brick office. This building was sold at auction forty-three years ago-bid off for $100, moved across the Green, lived in by the writer [Josiah Emery] till October, 1871, and is now owned by the Bingham estate. I have also omitted Fish's tannery, near where the foundry now stands.

"The Academy at that time was unfinished in the upper story, the two lower rooms only being used for the school. I may have passed over some of the houses then standing, but have mentioned all I can call to mind. The reader will con- clude that we were a small settlement; and families that ranked as high in culture and refinement as any in the present day did not disdain to live in log houses. They suited themselves to their circumstances without murmuring.

"When I came there Mr. William Bache was postmaster, and the office was kept in his dwelling, the tall log house situated where John N. Bache's house now stands. Mr. Bache was an Englishman, brother-in-law of Lant Carpenter, whose wife was Mr. Bache's sister. Carpenter was a celebrated Unitarian preacher, a friend and companion of Dr. Priestley, and father of the celebrated Carpenter family in Eng- land, Miss Mary Carpenter, the philanthropist, and William B. Carpenter, one of England's most distinguished scientists, as well as his brothers, Philip and Russell Carpenter, both scientific men.

"Mr. Bache was a man of strong common sense, well read, and a man of more than ordinary ability. He always preserved the character of a Christian, and though manufacturing whiskey for others, he drank but little himself, and was never but once known (at least to the writer) to be in the least intoxicated. On the 4th of July, 1828, we, the patriotic citizens of Wellsboro and the surrounding country, celebrated. In the cool shade of the wide spreading elms on the flat, above Dickin- son's pond, seats were improvised, a stage erected, a president, several vice-presi- dents and secretaries were chosen, and a great multitude gathered to listen to the orator and pass judgment on the speaking qualities of the new teacher of the Academy. Then, when the speaking was done and duly applauded, a procession was formed, and we all marched up to Colonel Kimball's to a gay dinner and to whiskey, rum, gin and brandy for the men and the Colonel's best wine for the women. And thus we dined and drank and listened to music till the sun began to sink low in the west and some heads lower. Mr. Bache was one of the most jolly of the crowd.

"A sober company sat at Mr. Bache's breakfast table next morning, of whom I was one, being a boarder. After the preliminary grace had been said Mr. Bache very solemnly remarked that he believed he was slightly 'out of the way' at the celebration, and he hoped the family and especially the young boarder, who also needed forgiveness, would forgive the little mishap; and he was sure the Lord would, as He knew very well it was the Fourth of July !

"Mr. Bache had a scientific and inquiring turn of mind, was a great lover of

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nature, and had a quick and appreciative sense of the ludicrous. The lapse of more than half a century has not blotted out the memory of the pleasant six months I spent in that family, and especially the remembrance of the many good qualities of its female head. As one who knew Mr. Bache well, I can bear testimony to his in- tegrity and purity of mind.

"Samuel W. Morris and family were considered at that time, or considered them- selves, or were, at the head of the aristocracy-though it would seem that in a village of two hundred and fifty inhabitants, many of whom lived in log houses and all comparatively in the woods, such an article as aristocracy was an entirely unneces- sary ingredient of society. I hardly know how to describe the 'aristocracy of so small a village, or tell upon what it was founded, unless upon culture and avoid- ance of amusements such as are found in such places. Judge Morris, Mr. Norris and Mr. Bache were educated men. The first was educated at Princeton, the last two in England. I do not know that any of these families made any assumption of aris- tocracy. The people assumed it for them. There was, however, a kind of quiet distinction between the Yankee element which largely predominated, and the down country element with a large English ingredient in it.

"The Yankees claimed to be the practical element, and preserved among themselves a kind of brotherhood, a 'hail-fellow-well-met' spirit, shook hands heartily, and each one considered himself equal to and no worse than his neighbor. Those who had got into their heads that those down country people were aristocratic accused them of being a little too exclusive, of reaching out two fingers for a Yankee to shake, and of thinking each himself as good and a little better than his neighbor, especially if the neighbor happened to be a Yankee. There was no general outward expression of such a feeling, but an observant person could see it occasionally.

"The Morris family were of English descent, were originally Quakers, and the father of Judge Morris, Benjamin Wistar Morris, held the position of leader among the Quakers, and sometimes preached when the spirit moved him.

"I have spoken thus far of these two families in a general way. They were totally different in most things. In one point, however, they resembled each other; that was in the education and bringing up of their families of children. They both acted on the precept of which Solomon has the credit: "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.' In each family the general rule was 'spend your evenings at home.' The children were not taught, as many children are nowadays, that amusement and fun are the chief objects of life. They learned, too, by precept and example, that profanity was vulgar, and that vulgarity was the mark of a low character. Most of the children of these two fami- lies were my pupils while I was in charge of the Wellsboro Academy. William E. Morris became an able civil engineer, and B. W. Morris the present Protestant Epis- copal Bishop of Oregon and Washington. The children of the other family have done no dishonor to the system adopted by their parents.

"Another family I remember most distinctly was that of Benjamin B. Smith. He was one of the notables when I came into the county; was, I think, the only justice within the bounds of the village, was editor and publisher of the Phoenix, a man of infinite mirth and fun, and full of reminiscences of funny happenings when he and Amos Coolidge, enterprising Yankees, as they were, peddled dry goods and

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notions in their younger days. Mr. Smith was like a great many other men I could name. He had in his character a popular and an unpopular element. No one claimed that he was unjust in his dealings or unfair in his decisions; and yet his ways were not such as to endear him to the masses. He was a man of rather more than ordinary talent, active and persevering; was a Wellsboro man in contradistinc- tion from a Willardsburg man, and consequently had enemies in such men as Uriah Spencer and William Willard, who were active advocates of the removal of the county seat to Willardsburg, now Tioga borough, and in those days, as now, it was not always safe to rely implicitly on what one enemy said of another.

"Mr. Smith came into the village near or before 1820. He was the first teacher in the Wellsboro Academy. His school was not classical. Mr. Lowrey, a graduate of Yale, was the first classical teacher regularly employed by the trustees. There must have been a good deal of fun in school keeping at that early time, for Mr. Smith had an inexhaustible fund of very amusing school-keeping anecdotes. His system of managing his children was the very reverse of the system of the other two families mentioned above. His motto was, 'let 'em run; they will come out all right in the end.' Well, most of his did 'run,' and most of them came out right in the end; but the one that didn't run came out ahead. The exception of Mr. Smith's family does not lessen the value of the precept, 'guard well the ways of your children.'

"In calling up to memory the old personages that lived in Wellsboro, in 1828, one could hardly fail to remember 'Old Mr. Royal Cole' and his worthy companion, 'Old Mrs. Cole,' and that would bring to mind the old frame building, the Cole house, situated just below Walter Sherwood's. It was, however, torn down many years ago to make room for a better building. Mr. and Mrs. Cole were the parents of Mrs. Erastus Fellows, who seemed to have inherited her mother's longevity as well as her quiet and amiable propensities. Lewis Cole, a lawyer of Potter county, was also their son, and the Wetmore boys their grandchildren.

"Ebenezer Jackson was an old man when I came to Wellsboro, and lived in a small frame house diagonally across from Dr. Shearer's. He had a peculiar and emphatic way of saying 'Which?' when he did not understand what was said to him, while he was crier of the court, which office he held for many years. He was a great ore hunter, and was always talking of the wonderful resources hidden in the hills of Tioga county, and was firm in the belief that it would sometime be one of the richest counties in the State. He believed largely in coal; and though not given the credit of the original discovery of coal at Blossburg, he claimed to be the first suggester of its presence in the county. He always contended that there were large bodies of that mineral in that part of Delmar now called Duncan and Antrim. * * Ebenezer Jackson was the grandfather of Mary Emily Jackson, who was a pupil of mine in 1828-29, and who early displayed a good deal of practical genius. Many of her poems were published in a Philadelphia literary paper, and one published by George P. Morris in his magazine he pronounced equal to any written by Mrs. Hemans, who was then the female poet of the day.

"Israel Greenleaf was also another well known citizen of Wellsboro. He lived in a frame house on the same side of the street below what was known as the Hoover log house. He was a wagonmaker, and had a large manufactory near where Mrs.

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Nichols lived. This was afterwards removed from its former site and transformed into a double dwelling house. He was a native of Connecticut, where he was born in 1765. He came to Tioga county at an early day and purchased a large tract of land in Charleston township, under a Connecticut title. It extended from the east line of Delmar and embraced the whole or part of the Alden Thompson neighborhood. But when the Connecticut titles were declared invalid the captain woke up one morning to find himself a poor man instead of a large land holder. He served in the Revolu- tionary War. Captain Greenleaf died June 1, 1847, aged eighty-two years, and was buried in the old graveyard on the hill, where his tombstone may yet be seen sur- rounded by trees and brambles. His wife, Sarah, preceded him to the grave, dying March 8, 1840, aged seventy-two years.

"Amos Coolidge, reference to whom has been made, built the house that for- merly stood on the site of the Bennett house, and owned and cleared up what has since been called the Nichols hill and farm. He was elected one of the trustees of the Academy in 1828, and was the active member of the building committee who finished up the upper story of the building. He was the father of a large family, viz: Charles, Amos, Jr., Kilburn, William, Wesley, George, Mrs. E. M. Bodine and Mrs. Metzgar, of Potter county. Mr. Coolidge was in his younger days and in his middle age, an active, enterprising, hard-working man, and did much to advance the material interests of the town. In the bringing up of his family he was ably seconded by his wife, who was a most invaluable woman, and to whom the family owe a debt of gratitude, the magnitude of which they will never fully understand, and can never fully repay except by training their children as she trained hers. One must have lived in the times now passed away to comprehend the full worth of a discreetly pious and truly good woman. Mr. Coolidge died May 16, 1851, aged sixty-nine years, seven months and twelve days, and was buried in the old graveyard on Academy Hill, where, in a thicket of brambles, his marble headstone still stands. It is re- gretted that the record of his amiable and Christian wife is not at hand.

"I have mentioned a number of the matrons of Wellsboro who aided materially in moulding the sentiment of the young and in making society better; there are others of equal piety and domestic virtue entitled to mention in this connection. The first woman on my list was my first female acquaintance in Pennsylvania. She was my landlady. The first six months of my residence in Wellsboro I was a boarder at Mr. Bache's, and I had an opportunity to know intimately the internal machinery and management of the family. In the method of training up a family of children the father and mother were a unit. She was a quiet, motherly and good woman, never to my knowledge fretting or scolding, and everything moved on like clockwork. Her religion was of the quiet kind, never strongly emotional or demonstrative, but manifest in good works and in a well ordered walk and conversation. She has long since passed away to the better land. Her children are fathers and mothers, grand- fathers and grandmothers, of whom those who know them must judge.

"Mrs. Bliss, who was a sister of Roswell Bailey, was not, when I first knew her, a religious woman-at least not a member of any church-though she afterwards became a Methodist. In bringing up her family she labored under many untoward circumstances. Her husband was an easy, unenergetic man, but well meaning and honest, and was anxious that his children should come up right. On Mrs. Bliss,

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however, devolved the main burden of their home education. They were brought up right under very pleasant home influences and were a united family. The eldest daughter became the wife of Rankin Lewis and she possessed the same kindness of heart that characterized her excellent mother.

"Mrs. Samuel Wells Morris was the daughter of William Ellis, a Quaker, who lived and died near Muncy. She was the mother of a large family of boys and girls, and was originally, with the rest of the family, of the Quaker faith, but when the Episcopal church was established in Wellsboro the family became active supporters of that church. Mrs. Morris was more than an ordinary woman; was well educated, and was in all her ways and by her natural or inherited instincts a lady. She was called somewhat aristocratic in her general carriage and associations; but that arose more from the consciousness that her duties were at home, and that she ought not to permit her social instincts to interfere with the higher duties she owed to her family. And yet she was a woman who could command respect in any society she might grace by her presence, and was, when in the society for which she was fitted, a very social and pleasant woman. In one position she eminently excelled, and that position was that of a domestic educator of children.

"While Judge Morris was a valuable member of society, and did much for Wells- boro, to his wife he owed much of his leisure for outside operations, in the relief she afforded him from the drudgery of looking after domestic affairs. She was said to be a very benevolent woman, ready at all times to relieve distress. I do not place her above most others I have named; but she had the means, and with the disposition to act, she probably did more in the line of charitable work than many whose disposition to relieve distress was equal to hers.

"Of Mrs. Erastus Fellows I must confess I knew comparatively little; and yet I cannot give any reason for this lack of knowledge. We lived upwards of forty-three years in the same village, and I met her in her home often, and yet I never fully com- prehended her. She was the widow of Moses Johnson when she married Mr. Fellows, and was then the mother of a son and a daughter. She was married to Mr. Fellows previous to 1828, and had always lived in Wellsboro, most of the time as landlady of the Fellows tavern, which was always a temperance house. I knew her principally as the mother of two families of children. In her method of bringing them up she compared favorably with any in my list. She was a woman of good sound sense, with a mind predisposed to inquiry, and a good member of society. Her children were no disparagement to her character as a mother and as a domestic educator.

"Mrs. Mordecai M. Jackson was a Quaker and had all the characteristics of a Quaker lady. She was the only person in Wellsboro that I recollect was clothed in the Quaker garb. With her it was not a boastful display of her Quakerism, but a mere conformation to Quaker custom. To her it was as much a habit to wear drab as it was to be good-to be clothed in Quaker dress as to be clothed in righteousness. She was a very exemplary woman. She was not, however, of that impracticable class who, when she saw that circumstances made a change in church relations an advan- tage to her children, would refuse to yield to the pressure for change. I cannot say that she became a member of the Episcopal church, but think she did. Her family and herself at all events were attendants and active supporters of that church. I have

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History of Tioga County, Pennsylvania, Part 33

Author: Publication date: 1897 Publisher: Harrisburg : R. C. Brown Number of Pages: 1454

Author:
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Harrisburg : R. C. Brown
Number of Pages: 1454