History of Tioga County, Pennsylvania, Part 67

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

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HISTORY OF TIOGA COUNTY.

HON. SAMUEL BAKER, THE FIRST WHITE SETTLER.

The distinction of being the first white settler within the township of Lawrence, and indeed in the county of Tioga, belongs to the Hon. Samuel Baker,* late of Steuben county, New York. He was born in Branford, Connecticut, April 24, 1763, of Puritan ancestry. Jonathan Baker, father of Samuel, removed with his family to White Creek, Washington county, New York, before the Revolutionary War. Early in August, 1777, Burgoyne was marching by easy stages from Ticonderoga to the Hudson. The forests in advance of him were swarming with hostile savages. One of these parties came upon young Baker and a younger brother picking berries. Both boys hid themselves and might have escaped had not Samuel been too anxious to see a live Indian, when he was discovered and captured. The next day, after a journey of considerable hardship, the party reached the camp of Burgoyne, and Samuel was redeemed by a British officer for twelve dollars, and became a waiter at army headquarters. After the surrender of Burgoyne he was found by an American officer, who gave him two dollars and told him to go home, which he did, and remained there until 1781. In that year, at the age of eighteen, he enlisted in Col. Marius Willett's regiment, for the protection of Tryon county, and took part in the skirmish of Canada Creek, in which the noted Tory leader, Capt. Walter Butler, was killed.

In 1786 he married Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Daniels. Having pur- chased a right in the Susquehanna Company, in the spring of 1787, provided with only his rifle, he started alone to locate his land on the Tioga, the unexplored west. Striking the headwaters of the Susquehanna, he came to Tioga Point (now Athens), then pushed up the Tioga to Painted Post, and on to its junction with the Cowan- esque, and there he built his cabin and commenced a clearing. His log house was near the west bank of the Tioga, almost directly east of the residence of Charles Beebe, in Lawrenceville, near a large oak on the lands of Mrs. Damon. He was the first settler in the valley of the Tioga in Pennsylvania. Samuel Harris, son of John Harris, the founder of Harrisburg, located at Painted Post, was his nearest neighbor, and next to him was Colonel Hendry, below Big Flats. Having provided himself with a cow, purchased probably at Tioga Point, Mr. Baker managed to live through the summer. He planted with his hoe a piece of corn and raised a good crop. Game and fish were to he had at his own door.

Before autumn he was joined by Capt. Amos Stone, who had been a prominent actor in Shay's notable rebellion against the operation of the Federal Constitution in western Massachusetts. Shay's army was defeated January 25, 1787, and his adherents sought refuge from the federal authorities wherever they could. Baker and Stone remained here alone until Christmas day, 1787, when Baker, leaving Captain Stone to hold his claim, started for the Hudson to bring on his wife and child. The weather was severe. Night overtook him at Big Flats. He kindled a fire on the bank of the river and laid down, but though accustomed to exposure, so intense was the cold he could not sleep. Early in the morning he resumed his journey, and in due time reached his family in safety.

* For the facts relating to Samuel Baker and Richard Daniels, I am indebted to A. J. McAlI, Esq., of Bath, New York, who. obtained them at first hand.

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In the spring of 1788 he brought his wife and infant daughter, accompanied by his wife's father and mother, to Tioga Point. Leaving his family here until the freshet in the Tioga should subside, he struck across the country to see how his friend Stone fared. On reaching the bank opposite his cabin not a human being, except an Indian pounding corn in a samp mortar, was to be seen. Baker supposed his friend had been murdered by the savages, and he lay in the bushes an hour or two to watch the red miller. At length he saw the captain driving the cow along the bank of the river. Baker hailed him, when Stone, seeing who it was, sprang into the air with delight. He had not seen the face of a white man during Baker's absence. In a few days, returning to the Point, he brought his wife and little one and his wife's parents to their new home in the forest.

Now that his family was with him, Mr. Baker, with redoubled energy and zeal, set himself to work to make for them a comfortable home. There were many Indians living in the neighborhood, who, though peaceable, yet now and then by their unexpected visits caused the young wife some trepidation. She had, however, far more dangerous neighbors in the deadly rattlesnakes which swarmed in great numbers in the vicinity. One day while engaged in some out of door duties, her little one, whom she had carried in her arms from the Hudson the year before, was sitting upon the sill of the open door. Casually turning her eyes that way, the mother witnessed a sight that would have paralyzed an ordinary woman. A large rattler was coiled in front of the child attempting to charm it, while the child was reaching out her tiny hand to clutch the sparkling, diamond-like eyes of the reptile. The snake would duck its head to avoid the hand. This it did several times. The mother, equal to the emergency, flew to the rescue, reached over the glittering charmer, seized the child, threw it into the house and killed the snake. For several years the sturdy pioneer quietly pursued his labors and diligently sought to enlarge his clearing and make comfortable his woodland home.

Early in June, 1793, the settlers were startled by a cavalcade of battered, travel- stained horsemen, and shaggy, leather-dressed hunters emerging from the forest into the clearing. Their first thought was of a party of Pennsylvanians to dis- possess them of their homes which they were holding under a Connecticut title that had been declared void by the Pennsylvania legislature. The leader was a tall, spare, dark-visaged gentleman of courtly manner and bearing, who, as he gracefully vaulted from his saddle, introduced himself as Captain Williamson, "of whom you have doubtless heard," and craved the hospitality of the frontiersman. The greet- ing in return was most cordial, and from that day the two men were fast friends.

Great uneasiness was beginning to be felt by the settlers here on account of the uncertainty of their Connecticut titles. Captain Williamson promised Mr. Baker a farm, with a clear title, of any shape or size he should wish wherever he should locate it on the Pultney estate. At the suggestion of Benjamin Patterson, one of Williamson's surveyors, he located a farm in the deep and beautiful valley extending from Lake Keuka to the Conhocton. In the summer of 1793 he went upon his location, erected a log house, made a clearing, receiving a conveyance from Mr. Williamson, dated October 19, 1793, for 200 acres of land, after which he re- turned for his family. In the spring of 1794 he removed from the Cowanesque with his wife and four children, viz: The daughter born on the Hudson, and two

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daughters and one son, William, born on the Tiogat, to his farm in Pleasant valley. Here he continued to reside in peace and comfort, beloved and respected, until his death, which occurred December 2, 1842. His wife was a woman of great strength of mind and high character, stately in manner and a most devoted member of the Episcopal church. Beside the four children they had on leaving Lawrenceville, eight were born to them in Pleasant valley.

OTHER EARLY SETTLERS.

Richard Daniels, father-in-law of Samuel Baker, was born in Albany, New York, and served in the French and Indian War of 1754. Soon after the war he returned to Columbia county, New York, and married Cornelia Hoos, a near rela- tive of Martin Van Buren, and took up his residence in Coxsackie, New York. In the War of the Revolution he was a loyalist, but his wife was a true, spirited American, and in every way his superior. He was "a North River Dutchman, short, stout, stubborn and thrifty." They had two children, Elizabeth, who was said to be the very likeness of her mother, and married Samuel Baker, and Mary, ,who died unmarried, probably before leaving their Coxsackie home. He accompanied his daughter to Lawrenceville in 1788, where he had a log house near his son-in-law. Mrs. Daniels brought some apple seeds, which she planted, and from which grew trees that were standing near the site of their residence until a few years since. He fol- lowed Mr. Baker into Pleasant valley in 1794, where he had a beautiful farm north of the inlet, which he conveyed to his grandson, Richard Baker, in 1816, and soon after was laid to rest.

Amos Stone was a captain in the Connecticut Line in the Revolutionary War, and an active participant in Shay's Rebellion. He was born in 1759 and unmar- ried when he came to Lawrenceville, but in the winter of 1789 he married Miss Eliza- beth Ives*, of Newtown, now Elmira, New York, and brought his wife to Lawrence- ville on a "pung." He lived a near neighbor to his friend, Mr. Baker, and removed with him to Pleasant valley in 1794, purchasing the farm next east of Baker. The conveyance from Williamson is dated December 4, 1793, for 160 acres, which he paid for by cutting the road from Bath, New York. He lived to the advanced age of eighty-three years, entering into rest in 1842, having outlived his wife a number of years. He was light-hearted and jolly, making many friends, an intelligent and respectable farmer, and left many descendants.

Of William Barney but little is known, except that he came from the "North. River" and settled in the neighborhood of Mr. Baker. There are very strong rea- sons for believing that his log house was on the north side of the Cowanesque, on the farm subsequently owned by John Cady. That he had a family is certain, as in 1811 his son, George Barney, writes from Vincennes, "Indiana territory," to a friend describing his home, etc., who must have been at least twenty-one years old, and born before his father left the Cowanesque. He also removed to Pleasant valley, bought a farm adjoining those of his old Pennsylvania neighbors, the con-

t Some of these were, no doubt, the first white children born in Tioga county.

* She was doubtless of the family of Ives who subsequently settled in Tioga, but who were for a short time- at Southport. They were from Bristol, Connecticut, uear where Captain Stone had lived.

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LAWRENCE TOWNSHIP AND LAWRENCEVILLE.

veyance bearing date October 18, 1793, for 160 acres. These four families seem to be almost inseparable. They came on the Tioga nearly the same time, settled near each other here, left the same spring for Pleasant valley, where they took adjacent farms, and all of them lived to an advanced age.

Another pioneer of considerable note in his day was William Holden. He came also from the neighborhood of Albany, New York, when a mere boy. There is a tradition that he accompanied the party who came to survey the State boundary line. He was here before 1790, probably as early as 1788 *. At that time he was but a young lad. In the assessment for 1800 his age is given at twenty-eight. He built a log cabin west of the present Main street, in Lawrenceville, and put under cultivation a few acres of ground. About 1795, having sold his possession to Uriah Spencer, he went up the Cowanesque and made a settlement at Osceola, on Holden brook, which is named in his honor. He was a bachelor and seems not to have had a residence at any one place for a great length of time. He was expert in making post and rail fence, and during the latter part of his life he was employed the most of the time in that occupation by the farmers. He fell a victim to the drink habit, and for several years was maintained at public expense. He died near Pritchard station about 1846, about seventy-four years of age, and was buried in a little ceme- tery near Henry Colgrove's. He was of good family. After he became a public charge he was visited by his brother and sister, both in affluent circumstances, who desired him to return and spend his remaining days with them. This he refused on the ground that his tastes and habits were such as to reflect upon them, while the culture and refinement of their home would be an uncomfortable restraint upon him. He was a man of much natural ability and shrewdness, and had his surround- ings and early opportunities been of a more favorable character he would have made his mark in the world.

The period from 1790 to 1800 was one of considerable activity along the Tioga valley. At the first named date there was no road except nature's highway, the river, and the trail of the boundary surveyors now being rapidly obliterated. There was not a saw-mill nor a flouring-mill in the county. The settlers were compelled to go to Tioga Point for anything better in the way of breadstuffs than their samp mortars afforded. In 1791 an act was passed providing for the opening of a road from the mouth of the Loyalsock creek to where the State line crosses Troup's creek. The survey was made in the spring of 1792. It crossed the Tioga at the forty- eighth milestone near the south line of the township; thence in a northwesterly direction, crossing the Cowanesque near the present railroad bridge; thence in a west by northwest course to the ninety-second milestone on the State line. Near the Cowanesque crossing on the north side is marked "Baker's house," evidently a mistake, probably "Barney's." The road, however, was never opened. In 1792-93 Capt. Charles Williamson, agent for the Pultney estate, in the State of New York, was engaged in opening a wagon road from Williamsport, on the West Branch, to Williamsburg, on the Canaseraga creek, a distance of 150 miles. The survey of this

* Captain Buel Baldwin said that Colonel Eleazer Lindsley's settlement on his tract north of the State line preceded by some little time the construction of the Williamson road, as also did the settlement of William Holden on the south side.

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road followed the east bank of the Tioga the entire width of the township*, but when the road was built, on account of expense in construction, it crossed the Tioga a mile above the State line, and became the present main street of the borough of Lawrenceville. In May, 1793, the Williamson party of road makers was at Lawrenceville. In Williamson's account book, under date of May 3, 1793, is the entry, "To cash paid Samuel Baker for Mr. Bennitt on account of his charge to the Germans, $14.30." This road made the Tioga valley accessible to the people about Sunbury and Northumberland, and brought a large emigration to this township from that part of the country, mostly of the class known as "Pennsylvania Dutch," a hardy, thrifty race.

April 11, 1795, was passed by the Pennsylvania legislature the "Intrusion Law," inflicting heavy fines and imprisonment upon any one convicted of taking pos- session of, entering, intruding or settling "on any lands in the counties of North- ampton, Northumberland or Luzerne by virtue or under color of any conveyance of half-share-right, or any other pretended title not derived from the author- ity of this commonwealth," except in the seventeen townships of Luzerne county. Under the vigorous operation of this law a number of people from this township were arrested and, having been indicted by the grand jury, were taken to Williams- port for trial, but, much to the credit of the court, were acquitted. During the decade under consideration all of the original settlers moved away from the town- ship, but others came to take their places.

Uriah Spencer was among the pioneers of this period. He was born in Salis- bury, Connecticut, and married Miss Deborah Elliott, of Guilford, Connecticut, first cousin of John Elliott, of Kent, both of whom were lineal descendants in the fourth degree of the celebrated John Eliot, missionary among the New England Indians. Mr. Spencer had purchased of Hon. James Hillhouse, of New Haven, Connecticut, a near relative by marriage and a considerable dealer in Pennsylvania lands, the Connecticut title for the township of Hamilton, which included a large part of the present Lawrence township. Mr. Spencer came to Lawrenceville first about 1794, without his family. At this time Baker and his friends, except Holden, had removed to Pleasant valley, and Holden sold his possession to Mr. Spencer, it is said, for a barrel of whiskey. William Dewees, of Philadelphia, and Josiah Lockhart, of Lancaster, had entered warrants of survey for a great part of Mr. Spencer's town- ship. He was active in selling Connecticut rights until, with quite a number of others, he was arrested for violating the intrusion law and taken to Williamsport, where he was duly indicted by the grand jury at the May sessions, 1797, and finally tried and acquitted at the September term, 1798. Soon after his acquittal he re- moved up the Tioga to what was later known as the John Elliott place, and subse- quently to Tioga, where he became one of the most prominent men of the county.

John Elliott, a cousin of the wife of Uriah Spencer, was born in Kent, Litch- field county, Connecticut, November 3, 1760, and died in Lawrence, December 13, 1845; his wife, Penina Walter, born March 11, 1777, died August 29, 1870. Hav- ing bought the Connecticut title to a farm in Uriah Spencer's township, he started with his family the first of March for his new purchase, with two sleighs and two

* So it is laid down on a Williamson map in the possession of Judge Spencer of Corning, New York.

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teams of horses. Crossing the Hudson river at Catskill, he came to Unadilla, where, loading his effects on a raft, he floated down to Tioga Point. Here he left his family while he went up to Tioga, procured a canoe and secured the services of Robert Mitchell and returned to Tioga Point for his goods and family. Returning, he stopped at Erwin Center, where he learned of the arrest of Mr. Spencer*, and deter- mined to keep out of Pennsylvania until the trouble was settled. In 1811 he re- moved to Lawrenceville, occupying land formerly improved by William Holden. In 1816 he sold his farm to James Ford, and going up the river to Risings, bought of John Shepard, July 8, 1816, 193 acres, with the improvements made by Uriah Spencer. In his native town Mr. Elliott had been a justice of the peace and a mem- ber of the legislature. He is spoken of as an honest, conscientious man. His old residence, with its porch and four tall, round columns, is still standing, a con- spicuous and interesting landmark of other days.

Thomas Wilson and his family, consisting of his wife, three sons, Thomas, Joseph and Alexander, and one daughter, Amy, who later married Daniel Walker, came from Maryland and settled on the Smith farm in 1795-96. Thomas, Jr., and Alexander moved to Batavia, New York. Joseph went to Angelica, New York, but after his father died he returned to Lawrence and occupied the farm until his death, September 11, 1857, at the age of eighty-seven years. His wife, Linda Shum- way, died August 31, 1827. Thomas Wilson, his son, Thomas, and their neighbor, Daniel Ingersole, who came to Lawrence about the same time, were arrested and taken to Williamsport for violating the intrusion law, having bought and settled upon their farms under a Connecticut title, in 1797. Mr. Ingersole settled on the farm owned by the late George L. Ryon. He bought the Pennsylvania title of Samuel Pleas- ants, "with buildings and appurtenances," by deed bearing date October 14, 1806, and sold it to Jacob Reep, May 11, 1812. Leonard Cole and Benjamin Cole were also among the "intruders," and probably lived where Norman Allen now lives, as early as 1795-96. They owned no land, but occupied several places for a short time and died in the vicinity of Lawrenceville. George Buchanan settled on the place now owned by ex-Sheriff John Irvin, probably before 1800. He sold to Eleazer Baldwin, deed bearing date October 15, 1808, and left this vicinity.

Jacob Reep came from near Danville, Pennsylvania, in the fall of 1795, to Athens, Pennsylvania, where he spent the winter. His wife, Amy Walker, had four brothers and one sister living there. The next spring, loading his goods and family in a canoe, he pushed up the river as far as Elmira, when his wife and one child, with a horse and cow, took the bridle path over the hill to Lawrenceville, while he pushed his canoe up the stream. He first settled on the George L. Ryon farm, where he remained several years. Doubting the validity of his title, he afterwards removed farther up the river to the "old Reep homestead," now owned by the heirs of Peter Reep, where Jacob died in 1829. The deed from Charles Spurrell, Surry, England, for 169 acres of land, "whereon said Reep now lives, with the buildings, improve- ments and appurtenances," bears date August, 1820. The following incidents illus- trate pioneer life. One morning a good tracking snow had fallen and Mr. Reep

* This fixes 1797, as the year of Mr. Elliott's trip. Had Spencer been arrested when Elliott first came to Tioga, he certainly would have known it. That event must have occurred while Elliott was at Tioga Point. The arrest was in April or May, 1797.

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HISTORY OF TIOGA COUNTY.

went out to hunt deer. He followed one until the deer crossed his track, when he found an Indian was following the same deer. Mr. Reep left the chase to his red competitor and came home. One night the pigs, which were shut in a pen, were making a great noise. When going out to see what was the matter he found a bear trying to get out of the pen with a pig. He ran for his ax, intending to break bruin's back, but struck him on the side; the ax stuck fast, the bear escaped and he never saw his ax again. Jacob had two sons, Jacob, Jr., who married Betsey, daughter of Adam Hart, and had two children, a son, Peter, who died young, and a daughter, Amy, who married Abram Walker; and Peter, who married Catharine Ridgely, to whom were born fourteen children.

Obadiah Inscho located on the east side of the Tioga, a mile above Lawrence- ville, upon the Horton farm, in 1798. Here he resided until his death in 1820. Many of his descendants are living in this county.

Adam Hart joined Mr. Reep on the south, his farm including what is now called Somer's Lane. He was of German parentage, served seven years in the American army during the Revolutionary War, and with his brother George was an early emigrant from Reading, Pennsylvania, to Lawrence. The Harts were enter- prising and thrifty farmers. Adam built a distillery on the little stream which still bears his name, said to have been the first erected in the county, and also a saw- mill. He had two sons, John and Daniel, and one daughter, who was married to Jacob Reep. He and his wife moved to Mansfield about 1823, where they died. George Hart served seven years in the Revolutionary War. He had one son, John, whose family now lives in Liberty, and two daughters, one of whom was married to Joseph Middaugh, and the other to Joseph Rowley, who moved to Big Flats, New York.

Joseph Middaugh, son of Samuel, who lived on the Chemung, came from the east a young man, married a daughter of George Hart and settled adjacent to him. He had a saw-mill and did quite an extensive lumber business. Mid- daugh and the Harts bought the Connecticut title to their land, but finding it worthless bought of the Pennsylvania owners, giving mortgage for the payment of the purchase money. It is likely that Elias Westbrook, who came from the Wyoming valley and settled near Tioga Junction, came before 1800, but the pre- cise date has not been ascertained.

Thus, at the beginning of the present century, nearly every farm along the Tioga valley from the State line to the present Tioga township was occupied by hardy pioneers, whose thrift, push and enterprise were beginning to let the sun- shine into the woods, and commencing to hew out of the wilderness the beautiful farms, and introduce the appliances of civilization, which for nearly a century have distinguished this portion of the county.

In the meanwhile settlements began to be pushed with equal enterprise up the Cowanesque. Among the first of these was that of John Cady. He was born at Saratoga, New York, July 4, 1774, and was married to Permelia Frick in 1795, at Southport, New York. He came immediately to Lawrenceville and settled upon the farm, recently the home of his daughter, Mrs. Robert Stewart, on which William Barney had formerly lived. Barney had built a rough log house with bark-covered roof, a few stones laid up at one side for a fire place and a hole in

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the roof for the escape of the smoke and had cleared a few acres of land for a corn patch. A hollow maple stump at the door, over which swung a stone pestle suspended from a spring-pole, was the mill. Here young Cady brought his eighteen-year old wife for her wedding trip. And here they lived, industriously clearing and improving their farm, reared a family of children, and spent their old age in peace and comfort until their death, which occurred to Mr. Cady August 23, 1850, and to his wife February 3, 1862. . Mr. Cady's father, Zebdee Cady, came about the same time, made a settlement on the south side of the Cowanesque near the "old red house," remained a few years and then went to Ohio, where he died.

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History of Tioga County, Pennsylvania, Part 67

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