USA > Pennsylvania > Tioga County > History of Tioga County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations, portraits and sketches of prominent families and individuals > Part 61
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Nicholas, the father, died in 1824 or 1825, and was
259
THE PRUTSMANS OF TIOGA-JOHN GORDON.
buried in ground adjacent to that of the Willard family, sons, all now dead, and has three daughters living; Eliza- which is now occupied by the south line of Willard beth has six children living, and has lost one. Abram street, near the west H. B. Smith lot, as noted on Beers's married Maria Cole, and had seven children, five of map. His age was probably near 78 years. Jacob was whom are still living. his administrator, and he published in the Tioga Pioneer, JOHN GORDON, who came to Tioga between the years under date of March 20th 1826, a notice to debtors and 1800 and 1803, was a native of Scotland, either of Edin- creditors. burgh or its near vicinity, born in the month of March
Jacob Prutsman's farm consisted in all of 365 acres, 1761. While attending school he was seized by a British including that of his son Abram on the north, and An- press gang, with three of his mates, forced into the Eng- drew's on the south, and was purchased chiefly of Gener- lish service, and brought to this country at an early age. al Cadwallader, of Philadelphia. The homestead place At the age of 17 (as appears by a discharge paper still at the time of his death comprised about 233 acres, and existing, and in possession of his daughter, Mrs. Ambrose it is now included in the " model farm " of O. B. Lowell, Millard , he was a private in Captain Robert Scott's com-
who by additional purchases has enlarged it to 500 acres.
Jacob Prutsman's wife was Mary Miller, of Strouds- burgh, Monroe county, Pa., a member of quite a numerous family, one of her brothers occupying a farm in the Wyoming Valley, on which was the famous rock where it was said Queen Esther with her own hand toma- hawked fourteen of the defenseless citizens of the valley, who were fleeing to Forty Fort for protection at the time of the Wyoming massacre.
Both Jacob and his wife were persons much esteemed and respected by their neighbors. They had excellent qualities of mind, and habits of thrift and industry that were displayed in numerous ways. Jacob himself was noted for his good humor and native wit, which were of- ten subjects of remark and merriment to his neighbors. Jacob Prutsman's children were in 'all fifteen, of whom nine lived to be over 60 years of age.
pany of His Majesty's 53d regiment of foot, and in con- sequence " of being of a consumptive and weakly consti- tution, that rendered him unfit for service, and, at his own request, having provided another man in his room," was discharged from the service December 24th 1779, probably at Whitehall, N. Y. It appears that he attended school for a while in this country, and by association with Indians acquired such a knowledge of the Indian tongue as enabled him to act as an interpreter for a Mr. Mckenzie, who was employed by the government to ex- plore some portion of the Indian territory, and was in his service some two years. He married Sarah Rath- bone, sister of Major William Rathbone and first cousin of Mrs. Dr. Willard, at Sheffield, Mass .; subsequently removed to Berkshire county, Mass .; thence to Chenango county, N. Y., where he occupied a farm near the present city of Binghamton, given to his wife Sarah by her father Daniel Rathbone. He came to Tioga at the period named, and purchased subsequently of the proprietor of the Charles Marshall tract quite a body of land, which was subsequently sold by him and divided into three farms; the north part he sold to Dr. Simeon Power, the south part to his step-son John Main, and at a later period, either 1816 or 1817, the center and remaining part to Roland Hall. At the same date he purchased of William Willard jr. 24 acres on the west side of the Cove, including what is now known as the Colonel Johnston place, with some portion of the Gordon purchase sold off. The house in which he lived on the farm was a double log house, and kept as a tavern or wayside inn. On his new purchase he built a story-and- a-half frame and clapboard dwelling, with large chimney and fireplace and cellar underneath, the characteristic style of that time as previously described. In connec- tion with the improvement and cultivation of this little farm he carried on a small tannery, probably the same one subsequently purchased and carried on by Levi and Joseph W. Guernsey, on the site of Bartholomew Kelly's and was buried in the Bentley burying ground. His
Jacob himself was born March 21st 1773, and died April 12th 1862; Mary, his wife, was born June 8th 1778, and died August 24th 1846; John, their son, born in 1798, died in 1878; Mary, born March 28th 1800, widow of Elias Westbrook, is still living; Abram, born Decem- ber 17th 1801, died June 7th 1882; Elizabeth, born May 7th 1803, widow of Solomon Westbrook, is still living: Andrew Miller, born December 18th 1807, married Marianne Bentley, and had six children, five of whom are still living; Adam, born in 1809, married Zylphia Isenhower, moved to Princeton, Ill., in 1838, and is still living, with one child; Sarah, born February 14th 1811, married David Smith, and died April 14th 1840; Eunice died January 18th 1833, aged 14 years; Catharine, born in 1812, married Thomas Westbrook, and died at Princeton, Ill., in 1874, leaving six children; Rachel, unmarried, born October 4th 1814, is living at the village homestead; Margaret, born June 10th 1816, married E. C. Goodrich, and resides in Tioga, having one child, a daughter; Su- san, born in 1817, died early; George Miller, born Oc- tober 28th 1822, married Caroline Power, and died on the homestead farm in 1861, leaving three children, who house. Mr. Gordon died the 18th day of April 1821, died in December 1862.
John Prutsman owned the valuable farm of 90 acres, |widow died at Mainsburg, this county, in 1854.
The children of John Gordon were: Edwin, who mar-
in the borough and across the Cove, sold to O. B. Lowell ! in 1864, subsequently to A. S. Turner, and to Henry N. ried Lucy Power, and moved to a place near Michigan Smith in 1868, which was the original claims of Benajah , City, Indiana, about 1840, but is now dead, the widow Ives and Jesse Losey. He married Phebe Middaugh, of still living; Marcia, who died November 8th 1810, aged Chemung, and had eight children. "Polly " had five 20 years, and was buried in the Bentley graveyard;
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HISTORY OF TIOGA COUNTY.
Groves, who married a Miss Lincoln, and had children Byron and Mary; Mary, widow of Ambrose Millard, now living at Elmira, probably not far from 88 years of age; Brittania, wife of Dr. Pliny Power, who died at Detroit, November 15th 1881, and is buried there in Elmwood cemetery; and three other children dying early in life. Captain Groves Gordon had charge of the third com)- pany 129th regiment 9th division of Pennsylvania militia, and officiated in that capacity in the years 1826 and 1827. He remained at the old homestead up to 1840,
when he moved to Cuba, Allegany county, N. Y., where serves good health and a lively remembrance of early he died.
Major WILLIAM RATHBONE, brother-in-law of John during the first decade of the present century; remem- Gordon, came from Saratoga county, N. Y., probably about the date of Mr. Gordon's settlement, and purchased his claim of Jesse Losey, and built before the year 1812 the old frame farm house known as Ambrose Millard's. He married Irena, the eldest daughter of Nathan Niles. It was at his house that Ambrose Millard first stopped on coming to Tioga; and subsequently, on his marrying Mary Gordon, niece of Mr. Rathbone, March 4th 1812, he purchased of him the farm, Mr. Rathbone returning to Saratoga county, and after years removing thence to Canada.
THE MILLARD FAMILY .- Colonel Ambrose Millard was a native of Saratoga county. His father was Jehoiada, and a brother of his named Abiathar was the maternal grandfather of President Millard Fillmore. Colonel Mil- lard first came to Beecher's Island, it is said, in the spring of 1810; but Ira McAllister, born in 1799, claimed to have come from Chenango county with Mr. Millard when he was in his seventh year. Mr. Millard was engaged in the mercantile and lumbering business at that place about a year and a half, and then, selling out, he came to the house of Major Rathbone at Tioga. He paid a visit to Saratoga, and on his return married Mary Gor- don, March 4th 1812, and subsequently bought the Rath- bone farm as previously stated. The farm extended from the river to the line of the Robert Morris tract, now the east line of the B. C. Wickham farm, with the Benajah Ives farm on the south and the Dr. Willard place on the north. Mr. Millard was one of the county com- missioners from 1813 to 1816, and in 1814 he and his associates, Timothy Ives and Hopestill Beecher, divided the county into six districts for justices of the peace. He himself was commissioned a justice of the peace by Gov- ernor Snyder, in 1816; was one of the original trustees of the Wellsboro Academy, and also for the construc- tion of the county buildings. He was in trade at Tioga -in the "Vail & Ives " store, subsequently the old yellow post-office-from 1828 to 1832 inclusive. He
was also for a time engaged in the tanning business, probably with his father-in-law, John Gordon. After resigning his farm to Elijah De Pui he moved into the present Edwin Goodrich house, and devoted himself to law practice up to the time of his death. He died June 27th 1852, at the age of 70 years, and was buried in the old village cemetery. In 1870 his remains were removed to Elmira and buried in Woodlawn cemetery. At one
time he owned a quarter interest in the William Willard saw-mill. He was a major and colonel in the 129th regiment Pennsylvania militia, the latter title being the one by which he was designated for many years before his death. He was a free mason of the old " Willard Lodge." His children were: Mary, wife of Thomas De Pui; Sarah, wife of Richmond Jones, and Brittannia, wife of T. B. Tompkins, both of Elmira; Jeannette, wife of Mr. Bishop of Detroit; and Carroll, of Elmira.
Mrs. Millard, though nearly 90 years of age, still pre- events at Tioga. She enumerates the old families here bers well the school-teachers Dennis Hawes and Jemima Hotchkiss; Drs. Willard, Beard and Simeon Power, the first physicians; the meetings of the Baptist society at the houses of Benjamin Bentley, the Mitchells, Dr. Simeon Power and others, of which society her mother, Mrs. John Gordon, was a member; and especially she recalls the Rev. Mr. Bigelow, also Rev. David Rathbone, of Lawrenceville, a collegiate and an eloquent preacher, who in consequence of a severe lameness was obliged to deliver his discourses sitting, and was killed on his way from Lawrenceville to Tioga by the upsetting of his car- riage on the hillside road between the Berry burying ground and the old ford, or "Kiphart crossing," as it was then called. He designed preaching at Tioga the following day. He was second cousin to Major Rath- bone and Mrs. Gordon. Major Ambrose Millard's mother, wife of Jehoiada Millard, died March 6th 1815, aged 75 years; and an infant child of his March 2nd 1821, both of whom are buried in the Bentley ground.
THE BENTLEY FAMILY .- Major Benjamin Bentley came from Chemung, N. Y., in April 1806, and settled on the Crozier tract north of Cobin Van Camp. His ancestors were of Scotch origin, and are traced back to the troublous times that dethroned James the Second of England. His grandfather came to America about the year 1750, bringing with him a family of twelve sons, who are supposed to have been the pro- genitors of all the Bentley family in the country. One of their sons, James, served in the old French war; and he and a younger brother, Green, served together in the war of the Revolution. The gun carried by Green is now a relic in the possession of his great-grandson, Mel- ville Bentley Prutsman, of Tioga. Benjamin Bentley was the son of Green Bentley, and was born in Litchfield, Conn., September 24th 1772. In 1790 Mr. Bentley joined a company of surveyors employed by the Hol- land Land Company, and went with them as far as the Genesee country. There he was engaged a part of one year on the farm of the elder General Wadsworth, and, returning to Chemung, on the Tioga River, he married Mary Keeney February 11th 1791. He purchased a farm at Wellsburg, near the mouth of Bentley Creek, so called from the settlement of himself and his father at that point. Here his father, Green, and his only brother, Green jr., joined him, the latter removing subsequently to Millport, N. Y. Benjamin subsequently removed to
261
MAJOR BENJAMIN BENTLEY-HARRIS HOTCHKISS.
Muncy, Lycoming county; and after a residence of three She had six children, among them Christopher, Martha or four years at that place, failing to obtain a good title to (Mrs. Brown', Harland, Mary and Melvills Christopher and Harland were both lieutenants in the war of the Re- his land, he removed to Chemung, and finally to Tioga, settling near his brother-in-law, Richard Mitchell. He bellion. Christopher served in all four years; was in bought an interest in three "claims"-one of Rufus Adams, one of Asa Stiles, and one of Cobin Van Camp or of one of his sons-comprising in all 460 acres, the title in fee to which was finally secured, 106 acres from Mark Wilcox (included in the S. M. Fox warrant), and the rest from General Cadwallader, in the Crozier tract.
Major Bentley always took an active part in church affairs. He united with the Baptists at Chemung, Elder pensioner, living in the State of Nebraska. Harland, Goff pastor, and brought a letter, as did his wife Mary, after a service of a little less than a year, was dis- from the church there to those of the same faith at Tioga, charged for disease contracted, and died at home June where a complete church organization was formed in 2Ist 1863, aged 25 years. 1816. Before this event, however, his wife Mary died, September 14th 1815, and was buried in the old Bentley graveyard. April 19th 1816 he married Jane Otterson, an aunt of Franklin J. Otterson, long connected with the New York Tribune as associate editor. A grand- daughter of Major Bentley says of him:
" He was a man of sterling integrity, indefatigable per- serverance, and a pure, conscientious Christian. In creed he was a Baptist, as were his ancestors as far back as there is any record. He was a lover of justice and honor, and fond of improvement and progress. In 1810 he was commissioned by Governor Snyder a major to serve in a regiment commanded by Colonel Ambrose Millard, and received notice during the war of 18:2 to hold himself in readiness for marching orders; but the war closed without requiring his services. He was gen- erous, social, kept open house and hospitable fare, and was a great favorite in his neighborhood, and among his acquaintances, who were extended from Chemung Point to the Genesee on the north and to Williamsport on the south.
" Seven years previous to his death he became entirely blind, and during this period, his mind being left a great deal for occupation to a review of his past life, he would recall incidents of his boyhood, when his mother and her children were obliged to leave home and secrete them- selves in the woods at night, for fear of the Indians and Tories; of the time when he carried the surveyor's chain, and camped at night where is now the city of Elmira; of the hardships of a pioneer life, converting the forests into fields of waving grain, and pounding his grain in the hollow of a stump. And when his last hours came they were the fitting close of a well spent life-the beautiful sunset of an active day, when, through the spirit of faith, he assured his weeping friends that he saw again, and that the room was filled with a glorious light."
Benjamin Bentley died September 7th 1854; Jane Bentley, his second wife, died January 26th 1865; and these two, together with the first wife, are now buried in Evergreen cemetery. He had fifteen children, viz .: Wil- liam, Thomas, Daniel, Bathsheba, Bethuel, Jesse, Green, Marianne, Mercy, Benjamin jr., Benoni, James, Ephraim, Elisha Tucker, and one son born previous to Green and dying early, as did also the first three. Of this family there are but three living. Green, residing at Stevens Point, Wis., was born January 28th 1807, and moved west in 1849; Marianne, the wife of Andrew M. Pruts- man, born March 6th 1809, on the 25th of November 1880 celebrated the 50th anniversary of her marriage.
fourteen battles; was captured and held a prisoner six- teen months, seven in Libby prison, four at Macon, Georgia, two at Charleston, and on Morris Island ex- posed to Union guns, afterward at Columbia and Fayette- ville, where he and six others made their escape by cut- ting through the bottom of a car with a serrated case knife, and finally joined Sherman's army. He is now a
HARRIS HOTCHKISS was a native of Connecticut. a Revolutionary sailor and soldier, and in his latter years a pensioner. He married Lucy Carey, of Connecticut, moved to Fort Edward, N. Y., and finally, with quite a family of children, came to Tioga in 1804. His son Harris, now living at Lamb's Creek, was born on their way hither, at Scipio, N. Y .- Mr. Hotchkiss remained a year at Tioga, and removed to what was then called " Cuni- berland Settlement," subsequently " Welsh Settlement," six miles from Wellsboro, where he remained six years. He then returned to Tioga, and bought of William Wil- lard jr. a tract of 22 acres, on the west bank of Crooked Creek, half a mile from its mouth, where he and his wife resided up to the time of their death. Their son Dennis, about the year 1840, to save the homestead place from execution, went to Connecticut, procured there $500, re- turned and paid up in full the incumbrance resting on it; but subsequently he found the property had been mort- gaged to Ellis Lewis and Mrs. Parmentier by William Willard, and it finally passed into the hands of Mrs. Parmentier through the active intervention of Colonel Johnston, who was then her agent.
Harris Hotchkiss, in the Revolutionary war, while in the marine service of the United States, was captured by the British and confined for some length of time, part of it in chains, on board of the notorious "Jersey " prison ship, suffering much by exposure to the cold and want of proper food.
He had a family of fifteen children, named Eliza- beth, Orange, Jemima, Lucy, Sabra, Emily, Matilda, Charles, Peter, Clarissa, Harris, Aurelia, Norris, Cynthia and Dennis (born May 8th 1815 . Orange, the eldest son, was a bridge builder, and was engaged in the construction of the first bridges over the Susquehanna at Towanda and McCall's Ferry, and of one over the Juniata near its mouth. He subsequently went to the Pacific coast, and finally died in an English seaport, the master and owner, as it was said, of a merchant vessel. The son Norris was a sort of modern Nimrod, famous in his day for being probably a surer shot and having killed a greater number of deer than any other man in the entire county. He enlisted in the company of which E. G. Schieffelin was captain (45th Pennsylvania volunteers), and was killed September 14th
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HISTORY OF TIOGA COUNTY.
1862, at the battle of South Mountain, and buried on the field.
Of the children living Charles is residing in Middle- bury township; Matilda, wife of Harford Butler, in Del- mar; Harris at Lamb's Creek, and Aurelia, Cynthia and Dennis at Tioga. Dennis was one of the first conduc- tors on the Corning and Blossburg Railroad. Aurelia, it is said, can probably tell more of the abduction of the county records, in the fall of 1828, than any other person living. She subsequently married William Patrick, a singular character, shrewd, active and stirring night and day, and about as well known in Tioga for forty odd years as any one in the township. He died six or seven years since. Dennis married Diantha Eames, and has children Seymour L., Engene B., Millard F. and Pardon Damon. Seymour's wife was born at Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, England, her father being Stephen B.
THE BALDWIN FAMILY .- Captain Eleazer Baldwin, January 9th 1857. Eleazer Baldwin enlisted in the civil father of Buel Baldwin and Thomas L. Baldwin, settled near the village of Lawrenceville in March 1806. His grandfather, John Baldwin, was a well-to-do farmer and merchant, living in old Norwich, Conn., and had two sons, Jabez and Rufus. Jabez served through the entire Revolutionary war, as the family representative and hero in that struggle, serving for himself; his brother and a brother-in-law. The father, losing much by the too free acceptance of continental money, settled his af- fairs at Norwich, and removed to Hanover, N. H., pur- chashing land not far from the seat of Dartmouth Col- lege. His son Rufus helped to erect the first buildings connected with that college, which were of log construc- tion, hastily put up, to comply with the terms of the be- quest of Lord Dartmouth. Eleazer, the son of Rufus, Captain Buel Baldwin moved from Lawrence township to Tioga in 1846, settling on the old Rufus Adams farm, then the property of his brother Thomas. Here he re- sided until 1879, when he moved on to property of his own, lying on the Adams Run, not far from the dam or upper basin of the Wickham water works. He was county commissioner in 1839-41, was a captain in the Pennsylvania militia, and has always held a prominent place in the esteem and respect of his fellow citizens for his stirring, active and industrious habits, combined with his social disposition and knowledge of men and events, especially in Lawrence and Tioga townships. He is leaving the Dartmouth school, went to Geneva at the time that General Williamson had just arrived there, with a squad of foreign workmen, and commenced clearing land and cutting a road through to Seneca Falls. Robert Patterson was also there, as agent for the Pulte- ney estate, and was keeping a public house. Eleazer had about $200 in half dollars with hin, and Patterson of- fered to sell him a township or two townships of land, on credit, at probably 1272 cents per acre. He remain- ed in the employ of General Williamson one season, and then returned to New Hampshire. The following year, about 1798, he came to Bowman's Creek, near noted among his fellow citizens for his remarkable mem- Tunkhannock, Pa., to look after a Connecticut title ory of events that have transpired within the range of which he had bought. Abandoning this title he his experience, as well as of traditions current when he was a boy. To him and to his daughter Sarah the writer of this sketch is under many obligations for the interest they have manifested in his work, and for important facts furnished.
moved up Sugar Creek with a yoke of cattle-the first ever driven up that stream-and settled near Troy, Pa. His father and brother subsequently coming to that place, he gave to them the occupancy of his farm there, and moved to Lawrenceville, when Captain Buel
Baldwin was a child only thirteen months old. The wife of Eleazer Baldwin was Betsey Storms, born in Tol- land county, Conn. She was left an orphan with her grandparents, who moved to Unadilla, and thence to Sugar Creek, Bradford county, Pa., where she and Eleazer were married. Eleazer Baldwin was collector of taxes in 1813 for Tioga township, at that time comprising two- fifths of the county. He was both a farmer and a lum- berman, and occupied a prominent position in the affairs
of his township up to the time of his death. Buel, the eldest son, was born February 11th 1805; Eunice, in July 1810; Moses S., September 15th 1815; Thomas L., in December 1817. Eleazer, the father, died about 1835, aged 60 years; and the mother November 19th 1862, aged 77 years, and they are both buried in the Lawrenceville cemetery.
Buel Baldwin's wife was a Miss Chipman, born Sep- Shakespeare, who claimed to be a lineal descendant of tember 9th 1815. Her mother, whose maiden name was the poet. As the latter had one son and three brothers it is not improbable there is collateral, if not lineal blood relationship. Harris Hotchkiss sen. died November 21st 1854, aged 96 years, and his wife August 27th 1853, aged 84 years, and they are both buried in the old ceme- tery. Sarah Andrus, was born April 9th 1789. Mr. Baldwin and Miss Chipman were married June 17th 1833, and have had born nine children: Jeanette (first wife of John [. Mitchell), September 18th 1837; Sarah C., March Ist 1840; Francis D., December 3d 1844; Eleazer, February 10th 1846; Emily B., January 18th 1851; and B. Stevens war; was in Colonel Cox's regiment, and after ten months' service was transferred to the veteran volunteers, and received an honorable discharge. He died in March 1876, from disease contracted in the service. Mrs. Jeanette Mitchell left three children-Herbert B., George D., and Clara A. Thomas L. Baldwin married Jerusha De Pui; Moses Baldwin a Miss Wiley; and Eunice, Obadiah Inscho. Of Thomas Baldwin's chil- dren there are living Thomas jr., Vine, Anna, Benjamin, Jabin B., Edward C. and Henry Lewis. Mrs. Thomas Baldwin died in April 1877, and is buried in Evergreen cemetery, beside three children who died young. Mr. Baldwin is at present residing in Williamsport, with his daughter Anna and two youngest sons.
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