USA > Pennsylvania > Tioga County > History of Tioga County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations, portraits and sketches of prominent families and individuals > Part 6
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At this time not a white man inhabited the domain of Tioga county. It had been the hunting ground of the savages for ages, and their paths were traccable in all directions; and when settlers began to invade their land on the waters of the Susquehanna these paths were used by the warriors of the Six Nations, and by the French in
28
HISTORY OF TIOGA COUNTY.
where we trust we shall be as successful as at the former. We have the honor, etc.,
"FRA. JOHNSTON. SAMUEL J. ATLEE. "WM. MACLAY."
Answer of the Six Nations in relation to the lands:
" BROTHERS FROM PENNSYLVANIA,-We have heard what you have said and are well pleased with the same. The consideration we have fully agreed to on which we are to receive for the lands, and agreeable to your re- quest have appointed Captain Aaron Hill, Onegueanda- honjo and Koneghariko, of the Mohawk tribe; Kayen- thoghke, Thaghneghtanhare and Teyagonendageghti, of the Seneca tribe; Ohendarighton and Thoneiyode, of the Cayuga; Sagoyakalongo, Otoghselonegh, Ojistalale, Oneyanha, Gaghsaweda and Odaghseghte, of the Oneida; and Onasaghweughte and Thalondawagon, of the Tus- carora, as suitable persons to receive the goods from you. With regard to the creek called Teadaghton in your deed of 1768, we have already answered you, and again repeat it, it is the same you call Pine Creek, being the largest emptying into the west branch of the Sus- quehanna. Agreeable to your wish we have appointed Thaghneghtanhare to attend your surveyor in running the line between you and us.
" We do certify that the aforegoing speech was this day made by Captain Aaron Hill on behalf of the Six Nations to the Pennsylvania commissioners. Witness our hand this twenty-third day of October anno Domini one thou- sand seven hundred and eighty-four.
" SAMUEL KIRKLAND, MISS'RY. " JAMES DEAN, INTERPRETER."
After this acquisition of territory by the authorities of Pennsylvania immediate attention was directed to it by them. Lands were properly surveyed and placed upon the market. The running of the boundary line between New York and Pennsylvania and the cutting out of the Williamson road, which ran north and south through the lands within the present limits of the county, in the year 1792, broke the stillness of the primeval forests, which no citizen of Pennsylvania before dared disturb. The spell was broken. Lycoming county was organized in 1796, being formed from Northumberland; eight years later Tioga county, by an act of the Legislature, was created, and nearly three-fourths of a million of acres of virgin soil was ready for occupation by the pioneer-consisting of valleys of alluvial soil and undulating plateaus, covered with an immense growth of pine, hemlock, oak, chestnut and ash, abounding in springs of water as pure and sparkling as ever emanated from mother earth. The great hunting grounds of the Six Nations were invaded, not by a band of warriors bent on death and destruction, but by an army of pioneers intent on cutting down the forests and hewing out homes for themselves in the wild mountain regions of the Tioga. Nor were they of that class who sometimes invade a country penniless and be- come mere squatters; but the wealthy and intelligent of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, and the New England States eagerly sought out homes in north- ern Pennsylvania. As early as 1792 William Bingham of Philadelphia, a United States senator, purchased over a million of acres upon surveys made by the officers of the commonwealth and by them regularly returned to the surveyor general, many thousand acres of which were in Tioga county. He died in Philadelphia, February 6th |
1804, in the fifty-first year of his-age. His will, bearing date January 31st 1804, was duly proved and filed in the register's office of Philadelphia, and a copy is filed in the county of Tioga. He devised his estate to five trustees for the benefit of his son and two daughters. His trustees were his sons-in-law Alexander Baring (afterward Lord Ashburton) and Henry Baring and the testator's friends Robert Gilmore, of Baltimore, and Thomas .Mayne Willing and Charles Willing Hare, of Philadel- phia. These trustees continued the sale of these lands, which had been commenced by Senator Bingham, and in the year 1845 the general land office of the estate was located at Wellsboro by William Bingham Clymer, a grandson of George Clymer, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
In 1786 Andrew Ellicott on the part of Pennsylvania and James Clinton and Simeon De Witt on the part of New York commenced the survey of the boundary line between New York and Pennsylvania. We append the report made by them October 12th 1786:
"We the subscribers, being appointed commissioners agreeably to laws severally enacted by the Legislatures of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the State of New York, for the purpose of running and marking a boundary line between the said States, to begin at the River Delaware in forty-two degrees north latitude, and to continue in the same parallel of forty-two degrees to the western extremity of the s'd States, have in con- formity to our appointment finished ninety miles of the said boundary, extending from the River Delaware to the western side of the south branch of the Tioga River, and marked the same with substantial mile stones. Wit- ness our hands and seals this twelfth day of October in the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty- six-1786.
" ANDREW ELLICOTT, [L. s. ] for Pennsylvania.
" JAMES CLINTON, [L. S.]
" SIMEON DE WITT, [L. S.]
for New York.ยป
On the 12th of October 1787 Andrew Ellicott and Andrew Porter make the following report:
" LAKE ERIE, October 12th 1787.
" DR SIR,-We arrived here on the 8th and the same day began our course of observation, which will probably be completed in 5 or 6 days. The random line passed between Le Beauf and Presque Isle, about 5 miles north of the former and we conjecture about 6 miles south of the latter. Considering the unexpected difficulties we had to encounter for want of competent knowledge of the geography of the country, the death of our horses, time taken up in making canoes, and treating with the Indians, our business has gone on beyond our most san- guine expectation, and without the intervention of some uncommon circumstance or accident will be completed in 14 or 15 days. We divide the line in such a manner as to make 6 stations, at each of which we determined a point in the parallel of latitude, by about 36 observa- tions. Neither attentions or exertions have ever been wanting on our parts towards scientific and permanent completion of the business entrusted to us, and the gen- eral behaviour and industry of our men has been such as to entitle them to our thanks.
"We are, sir, your humble servants,
" ANDREW ELLICOTT.
" ANDREW PORTER.
"David Rittenhouse, Esq."
29
THE STATE LINE-TIOGA'S FIRST SETTLER.
On the 29th day of October 1787 the commissioners made their final report, accompanied by maps showing the topography of the country from the Delaware River to Lake Erie. We subjoin the report:
" We the subscribers, being commissioned agreeably to laws severally enacted by the commonwealth of Pennsyl- vania and the State of New York, for the purpose of running and marking a boundary line between the said States in the parallel of forty-two degrees of north lati- tude, beginning at the River Delaware and extending to a meridian line drawn from the southwest corner of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, have in conformity to our appointment extended the said line from the nine- tieth mile stone to Lake Erie, and marked the same in a lasting and permanent manner by mile stones, or posts surrounded by mounds of earth where stones could not be procured. The stones at the several points where the latitude was determined are large and well marked, and contain on the south side, 'Pennsylvania, latitude 42 N. 1787,' also the variations of the magnetic needle; on the north side 'New York,' and their several distances frem the River Delaware.
" Witness our hands and seals this twenty-ninth day of October one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven. "ANDREW ELLICOTT, [L. s.] Commissioners from Pennsylvania. "ANDREW PORTER, [L. S.]
"ABR'AM HARDENBERG, [L. s.] Commissioners from " WILLIAM MORRIS, [L. S.] New York."
It may be proper to mention here that, owing to the lapse of time and the destruction and removal of many of the landmarks established by the commissioners in the years 1786 and 1787, and the consequent disputes and litigations in relation to the true boundary between New York and Pennsylvania, the Legislature of Pennsyl- vania passed an act, which was approved by Governor John F. Hartranft May 8th 1876, creating a commission to act in conjunction with a similar commission from the State of New York to re-survey said boundary line and determine its true location. The commissioners entered upon their work, and have from time to time made re- ports of progress; but no final action in relation to their work and the ratification of the line agreed upon by the commission has as yet been taken by the Legis- latures of Pennsylvania and New York. It is, however, anticipated that it will be done in the near future and the perplexing questions settled permanently.
CHAPTER II.
INCENTIVES TO SETTLEMENT-CHARACTERISTICS AND EXPERIENCES OF THE PIONEERS.
T HE first events which led to the settlement of the unbroken forests of Tioga county were the treaty at Fort Stanwix, N. Y., in 1784, by which Pennsylvania became the owner of the territory comprising the northern and northwestern counties of the State; the subse- quent establishment of a boundary line between Pennsylvania and New York in the years 1786 and 1787;
the cutting out of a road for the surveyors from the Delaware River to the Tioga River at a point where the borough of Lawrenceville is now situated; the sur- vey into small tracts of all the lands acquired in the treaty of 1784; and the cutting out by Robert and Ben- jamin Patterson in 1792-3 of the Williamson road from the Lycoming and West Branch at Williamsport across the Laurel Ridge Mountains to the Tioga River, via what is known as the "Block House," in the township of Liberty, thence down the valley of the Tioga to the State line, and thence to Bath, N. Y. Explorers and land viewers from the east struck the road made by the surveyors in 1786, before alluded to, and followed it westward until they reached the Tioga at the mouth of the Cowanesque; and at this point they might either turn south and follow up the Williamson road in the valley of the Tioga, or continue westward up the beautiful valley of the Cowanesque.
The first white settler within the present limits of Tioga county was Judge Samuel Baker. He followed the road cut by the boundary commissioners in 1787, and located at the ninetieth mile stone from the Delaware River, being where the borough of Lawrenceville is situated. We are indebted to Hon. Guy H. McMaster, of Bath, Steuben county, New York, the author of the History of Steuben County published in the year 1852, for a brief biography of Judge Baker.
" Samuel Baker, a native of Bradford county, Con- necticut, when fifteen years of age was taken prisoner by a party of Burgoyne's Indians, and remained with the British army in captivity till relieved by the surrender at Saratoga. After this event he enlisted in Colonel Wil- lett's corps, and was engaged in the pursuit and skirmish at Canada Creek, Herkimer county, N. Y., in which Captain Walter Butler la brother of the noted Colonel John Butler', a troublesome leader of the tories in the border wars, was shot and tomahawked by the Oneidas. In the spring of 1787 he went alone into the west, passed up the Tioga and built a cabin on the open flat between the Tioga and Cowanesque Rivers at their junction. He was the first settler in the valley of the Tioga. Harris, the trader, was at the Painted l'ost, and his next neigh- bor was Colonel Handy, on the Chemung below Big Flats. Of beasts he had but a cow; of 'plunder,' the few trifling articles that would suffice for an Arab or an Arapaho; but like a true son of Connecticut he readily managed to live through the summer, planted with a hoe a patch of corn on the flats, and raised a good crop. Be- fore autumn he was joined by Captain Amos Stone, a kind of Hungarian exile. Captain Stone had been out in 'Shay's war,' and dreading the vengeance of the govern- ment he sought an asylum under the southern wing of Steuben county, where the wilderness was two hundred miles deep and where the marshals would not care to venture, even when backed by the great seal of the republic.
"On Christmas day 1787 Mr. Baker, leaving Stone in his cabin, went down the Tioga on the ice to Newtown (now Elmira), accompanied by an Indian. They were
30
HISTORY OF TIOGA COUNTY.
clad according to the rude fashions of the frontiers and the forests, in garments partly obtained by barter from outpost traders and partly stripped by robbery from the beasts of the forest. Tomahawks and knives were stuck in their belts, snow shoes were bound to their feet, and knapsacks of provisions were lashed to their backs. Such was the equipment deemed necessary for travelers not a century ago. The snow lay upon the ground four full feet in depth. It was brought in one of those storms which in former days swept down from Canadian regions and poured the treasures of the snowy zone on our colonial forests, storms which seldom visit us in modern days. The pioneer and his savage comrade pursued their journey on the ice. The Tioga was then a wild and free river. From its source, far up in the 'Magnolia Hills' of the old provincial maps, down to its union with the equally wild and free Conhocton, no device of civil- ized man fretted its noble torrent. A single habitation of human beings stood upon its banks; but it bore now upon its frozen surface the forerunner of an unresting race of lumbermen and farmers, who in a few years in- vaded its peaceful solitudes, dammed its wild flood, and hewed down the lordly forest through which it flowed. The travelers kept on their course beyond the month of the Canisteo to the Painted Post, where they expected to find the cabin of one Harris, a trader. On their arrival, however, at the head of the Chemung they found that the cabin had been destroyed by fire. The trader had either been murdered by the Indians or devoured by wild beasts or else he had left the country, and Steuben county was in consequence depopulated. Disappointed, the travelers continued their journey on the ice to Big Flats. Here night overtook them. They kindled a fire on the bank of the river and laid themselves down to sleep. It was one of those clear, still, bitter nights when the moon seemed an iceberg and the stars bright and sharp like hatchets. The savage rolled himself up in his blanket, lay with his back to the fire, and did not so much as stir till the morning; but his companion, though framed of that stout stuff out of which back- woodsmen are built, could not sleep for the intensity of the cold. At midnight a pack of wolves chased a deer from the woods to the river, seized the wretched animal on the ice, tore it to pieces, and devoured it within ten rods of the encampment. Early in the morning the travelers arose and went their way to the settlements be- low, the first of which was Newtown, on the site of the present city of Elmira. From Newtown Mr. Baker pro- ceeded to Hudson, where his family was living.
" At the opening of the rivers in the spring he took his family down the Susquehanna to Tioga Point (now Athens) in a canoe. A great freshet prevented him from moving up the Chemung for many days, and leaving his Captain Stone fared. On reaching the bank of the river opposite his cabin not a human being was to be seen, ex- cept an Indian pounding corn in a samp mortar. Mr. Baker supposed that his friend had been murdered by the savages, and he lay in the bushes an hour or two to on the Hudson River.
watch the movements of the red midler, who proved after all to be only a very good natured sort of a 'man Fri- day,' for at length the captain came along driving the cow by the bank of the river. Mr. Baker hailed him, and he sprang into the air with delight. Captain Stone had passed the winter without seeing a white man. His man Friday stopped thumping at the samp mortar and the party had a very agreeable reunion.
"Mr. Baker brought his family up from Tioga Point, and lived there six years. * *
* He did not hold a satisfactory title to his Pennsylvania farm, and was in- clined to emigrate. Captain Williamson visited him in 1792 and promised him a farm of any shape or size (land in New York previous to this could only be bought by the township), wherever he should locate it. Mr. Baker accordingly selected a farm of some three hundred acres in Pleasant Valley, in Steuben county, N. Y .; built a house upon it in the autumn of 1793, and in the following spring removed his family from the Tioga. He resided there until his death, in 1842, at the age of 80. He was several years associate and first judge of the county court, and was a man of strong practical mind and of correct and sagacious observation. This was the first white man who settled within the limits of Tioga county, and in a measure he is a type of the sturdy and intelligent pioneers who afterward made this county their home, cutting down the forest and bringing it up to its present high state of prosperity."
The beautiful streams of pure spring water, abounding with fish, the abundance of wild game in the forests, the rich alluvial soil of the valleys, and the excellent grazing lands on the plateaus and ridges, soon attracted a strong, intelligent and courageous population to Tioga county. They came from New York, Connecticut, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware and the central and eastern portion of the old Keystone State-from Lycoming, Northumber- land, Dauphin, Cumberland, Lancaster, Chester and Philadelphia counties the tide of immigration flowed in. Those from Maryland, Delaware, Virginia and Philadel- phia settled in the central portion of the county and gave names to the township of Delmar and the county seat, Wellsboro. The orginal name of the township of Del- mar, given to it by the early settlers, was Virdelmar, formed from the abbreviations of the names Virginia, Delaware and Maryland. The abbreviation Vir was sub- sequently dropped.
The early settlers of Liberty township came from Ly- coming, Northumberland, Dauphin and Lancaster coun- ties and spoke the Pennsylvania dialect of the German language, which many of their descendants continue to speak.
The settlers in the valley of the Tioga were principally
family he struck across the hills to see how his friend from the New England States, and will be referred to in
the several township and borough histories in their proper order.
The settlers in the Cowanesque Valley and the western portion of the county were from the counties bordering
3[
PIONEER EXPERIENCE.
Volumes could be written descriptive of the character and experiences of the pioneers of Tioga county. It seems to us that W. D. Gallagher when he wrote the fol- lowing poem had in his mind the pioneer of this county, it is so applicable to this locality and describes so well the feelings, actions and indomitable perseverance and energy of the people who first erected their rude dwel- lings in the valley of the Tioga, or upon the ridges and uplands. When Tioga county was first settled it was "away out west " to the New Englander, and " away up north" to those who emigrated here from the waters of the lower Susquehanna and Delaware and the States of Maryland and Virginia. With a change of the line "Fifty years ago " to "Ninety years ago," nothing can be more appropriate:
A song for the early times out west. And our green old forest home. Whose pleasant memories freshly yet Aeross the bosom come; A song for the free and gladsome life In those early days we led,
With a teeming soil beneath our feet And a smiling heaven o'erhead. O, the waves of life daneed merrily And had a joyous flow In the days when we were pioneers, Fifty years ago.
The hunt, the shot, the glorious chase, The captured elk or deer, The eamp, the hig bright firo and then The rich and wholesome cheer: The sweet sound sleep at dead of night By our camp-fire blazing high, Unbroken by the wolf's long how] And the panther springing by. O, merrily passed the time, despite Our wily Indian foe,
In the days when we were pioneers, Fifty years ago.
We shunned not labor! When 'twas due We wrought with right good will, And for the home we won for them Our children bless us still. We lived not hermit lives. but oft In social converse met: And fires of love were kindled then That burn on warmly yet.
O, pleasantly the stream of life Pursued its constant flow In the days when we were pioneers, Fifty years ago.
Our forest life was rough and rude And dangers elosed us round, But here, amid the green old trees, Freedom we sought and found. Oft through our dwellings wintry blasts Would rush with shriek and moan;
We cared not-though they were but frail We felt they were our own. O, free and manly lives we led, Mid verdure or mid snow, In the days when we were pioneers, Fifty years ago.
At the commencement of the present century Penn- sylvania contained only 602,365 inhabitants and New York 589,051, Pennsylvania leading New York by 13,314. The settlements in Pennsylvania at that time were chiefly confined to the lands upon the lower Lehigh, Delaware, Schuylkill, Susquehanna and Allegheny, and in New York with but few exceptions all the regions west of Utica, on the Mohawk, and of Newburgh, on the Hudson, were|
sparsely settled. In parts of Pennsylvania and New York where there are now nearly four millions of human beings then there were but a few thousands. An area in New York and Pennsylvania comprising 30,000,000 acres was then substantially a great forest, broken only here and there by a few isolated settlements and clearings. The great Six Nations of Indians had held in check settlement by the Anglo-Saxon race. The march of General Sullivan during the Revolutionary war into the heart of the territory of the Six Nations, with soldiers from various States of the Union, showed these hardy veterans a land which they desired to occupy, and which after the close of the Revolutionary struggle they did occupy. After peace was declared, treaties with the In- dians made, lands surveyed and the titles perfected, there was a general rush to these lands, from the rugged coasts and hills of New England in the east to the low lands of the Potomac in the south. Many of the settlers, as we have before stated, came with ready money; but ready money was not the only thing needful-energy, courage and physical endurance were required. Here was a vast wilderness, extending from the lower waters of the Delaware, Schuylkill and Susquehanna to Lakes Erie and Ontario and beyond the Rivers Mohawk and Gene- see. The pioneer came, stood upon some mountain in Tioga, cast his eye over this great forest and selected his land; secured his title either by contract or deed, and prepared himself for the great battle.
A log house is erected, with room for nothing but the really necessary furniture; for the first few months the only tools he uses are his axe and gun. A clearing is commenced, and as he stands at the foot of some huge forest tree, with uprolled sleeves, axe in hand, and knows that it is in his power to hurl it to the ground, there is a feeling of self-reliance and independence more valuable than gold and silver. His trusty rifle is near at hand in case deer, bear, wolf or panther should come that way in the evening it hangs upon rude hooks cut from the forest, with bullet pouch, charger and powder- horn. Blow succeeds blow; tree after tree has gone down before his well-directed efforts, and soon the sun- light dances in upon his work and smiles with approba- tion.
The first season passes away and the foundation for a prosperous home is laid. Our pioneer has a wife who possesses equally with him courage and ability to per- form each day's duties with cheerfulness and without a murmur. Perhaps in her solitude she may at times think of her former home in the sunny south, or of the cheerful, happy firesides of New England; but it is only for a moment. Her whole ambition is to make a home pleasant in the land of the Tioga. While her husband is clearing the forest and bringing the lands under cultiva- tion she is busy in her domestic duties, plying the needle, the loom or the spinning-wheel.
Although the life of a pioneer was one of toil and anxiety, still it was not without its bright and enjoyable moments. There was a strong tie of friendship and mutual sympathy between these early pioneers. They
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HISTORY OF TIOGA COUNTY.
were all engaged in the same great undertaking to re- claim the wilderness and compel it to bloom and bear frait. Five, ten, or twenty miles then were comparatively a short distance, and such a journey was thought no more of a hardship by the early settlers than a walk of a few squares by the present residents of towns and cities. Did a settler wish to raise a house, barn or mill, or roll the logs together in the fallow, to ask was to receive help from all the settlers for miles around, who cheerfully responded and by their united strength of muscle ac- complished the desired object. This was also true of the harvest. If a settler, through unforeseen circumstances, was unable to gather in his crops, the same helpful spirit was manifested. In sickness and in death the hand made rough by honest toil would lend assistance, and the cheek bronzed in the sun would be moistened by the tear of sympathy. There was a sort of forest or pioneer chivalry prevalent in those days. If a difficulty or dis- pute arose it was settled at once, either by arbitration or personal prowess, and when thus disposed of there was no appeal. Should there be one who suffered himself to entertain vindictive or malicious feelings toward his brother pioneer after the olive branch of peace had been extended and received, he was deemed an unworthy brother and was shunned and avoided by his neighbors far and near. Such a state of things was of rare occur- rence. Men met then on the level; no aristocracy was tolerated; theirs was a common cause, and shoulder to shoulder they marched to victory. The wilderness was reclaimed, hamlets, villages and towns came into being and comfortable farm houses had taken the place of the log huts. Broad fields of grain and pasture land and granaries rich in stores of golden corn were the result of a few years' toil and perseverance.
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