USA > Pennsylvania > Tioga County > History of Tioga County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations, portraits and sketches of prominent families and individuals > Part 62
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Thomas L. Baldwin came from Lawrence to Tioga
263
THE DE PUI FAMILY OF TIOGA.
first as clerk in Wickham & Tuthill's store, about 1836; corner." The name of Aaron Dep niapivots in several in 1845 he became partner with Mr. Wickham on the dis- communications addressed to the coun. l. L Philadel- solution of the firm of Wickham & Tuthill; about 1848 phia, in 1760, 1761, and 1776; and an act of the As- was associated with David L. Aiken and John A. sembly, passed the 13th day of September 1785, estab- Mathews in the same business ; subsequently with lishes the voting place of the fourth election district of George McCloud and Alonzo Guernsey, and again with Northampton county comprising the townships of Ham- Frank H. Adams. By the destructive fire of 1871 he suffered heavy losses, but built a fine brick store at a cost of $6,000 and resumed business. He finally re- tired after the death of his wife. He was elected to the Legislature in 1854, and served two terms. It was in his second term that the Tioga County Bank was chartered, and he was elected its first president and John W. Guernsey cashier on its organization. ilton, Lower Smithfield, Delaware and Upper Smithfield' at the house of Nicholas De Pui, in Lower Smithfield. Nicholas Depui, as one of the justices of Northampton county, was appointed by the supreme executive council of the State, November 18th 1780, to preside in the com- mon pleas, quarter sessions, and orphans' courts. Nicho- las jr. and Moses Depui were joined in a proclamation of 65 persons, under date of October 6th 1787, claiming themselves to be " proprietors, purchasers and settlers of a tract of land known by the name of Susquehanna pur- chase, and are in consequence of a royal chartered right, together with that of an absolute purchase from the aboriginal proprietors with our associates, to wit the Sus- quehanna Company), in possession of the whole of the aforesaid purchase," etc.
THE DE PUI FAMILY .- Elijah De Pui, it is said, came to Tioga subsequent to the birth of his two eldest chil- dren, Betsey and Vine, and previous to that of his son Thomas, who was born April 14th 1806. He settled next north of Nicholas Prutsman, purchasing an interest in the latter's claim. He was born in the same county and township as were the Prutsmans, and it was his ac- quaintance with this family that induced him to settle near them on the Tioga River. The family tradition of the De Puis De Puy, as he spelled it is that their an-
It will be seen by the foregoing references that the father and grandfather of Elijah De Pui, respectively Nicholas sen. and Samuel, were connected with the Con- cestor, one Nicholas, a French Huguenot, came to necticut title, as was also Nicholas jr., and possibly Eli- America subsequent to the revocation of the Edict jah De Pui. The old homestead house of the De Pui family, in the original Northampton county, and below the Delaware Water Gap, on one of two islands, called De Pui Island, is a large, old-fashioned stone building, with four large, square rooms, a wide hall, a wide stair- case, and high, old-fashioned fireplaces and mantel pieces, and overlooking the Jersey lands upon the op-
of Nantes, which exposed so many of the French citizens of Protestant faith to the renewal of those persecutions by the Catholics of their country that had existed pre- vious to the establishment of the edict, by Henry IV., nearly ninety years before. This ancestor, fleeing, as did the great body of Protestant citizens who had the means and were able to get out of France-to the extent of at posite side; and is the same building that was stockaded and guarded by four swivel guns during the old French war, as previously described.
least 250,000 people-came to Pennsylvania, and settled in Northampton county, near the Delaware Water Gap, probably as early as 1686 or 1687. It is certain that
Elijah De Pui was born in 1774, and came to Newtown several families of the De Puis were in existence in that not far from the year 1800, about the same time that his section of the State, lying between the Lehigh and Dela- old acquaintance and fellow townsman Nicholas Pruts- ware Rivers, as early as 1749, when a treaty was made man came to Tioga. As the oldest grist-mill in North- with twenty-four Indian chiefs for the purchase of the ampton county was said to have been built by a De Pui, Finds lying between the Delaware and Susquehanna and had been owned and conducted as a branch of busi- Rivers; and a map of the said purchase, made at the ness in the family from one generation to another, it time, locates " Depui's" residence near the Delaware was natural that Elijah De Pui should have had an in- timate knowledge of the construction of such a mill, and with proper mechanical skill could readily build one. Hence it is found he was by occupation a millwright, and was engaged in the construction of the old McCoy grist- mill, below Corning, assisted by Timothy and James Goodrich, about the year 1805. His daughter Eliza (Mrs. Jabin S. Bush) thinks her father and family moved to Tioga as early as the spring of 1806, the father and mother each on horseback, carrying a child, and preceded by a team and wagon with the household effects. He Gap, and within the present limits of South Smithfield, Monroe county. A Samuel and an Aaron " Depew " were among the ten Pennsylvanians who were included in the 684 persons constituting the Susquehanna Land Com- pany, who purchased of the Indians at Albany and Mo hawk Castle, July 11th 1754, what is generally known as the "Connecticut title." Lieutenant Governor Sharp, writing to Governor Morris, dates his letter at " Depui's, Leha Gap, December 10th 1754;" and three commission. ers appointed to visit and examine the various forts erected between the Schuylkill, Lehigh and Delaware occupied first a small log house on the north side of the rivers, to guard the settlers against the approach of race, close to the foot of the hill, that was built and for a time occupied by Nicholas Prutsman. He subsequently built a plank and frame building, of moderate size, on the south side of the race, farther to the west; and in later years a still larger frame-and-clapboard house, gen- French and Indians, during the old French and Indian war, speak of coming "at 7 P. M. to Samuel Depui's; around the house is a large but very slight and ill-con- structed stockade, with a swivel gun mounted at each
264
HISTORY OF TIOGA COUNTY.
erally known as the " De Pui homestead," in which Mr. De Pui resided until about the year 1839, when he re- moved into the house in the village built by " Chris. Charles." About 1810 he built the " De Pui grist-mill," which continued to be one of the most important grist- mills on the upper Tioga up to the time of its destruc- tion. He built a saw mill adjoining the grist-mill, and carried on an extensive lumbering business many years; also a fine and well cultivated farm. His farm consisted of flat and hill land, purchased from the Robert Crozier tract, and his own entry of a vacant tract of 147 acres and 123 perches, in May 1832-in all 384 acres; besides which he acquired the old Lyman Adams farm, 100 acres, on the river south of Berry's, and also the Ambrose Mil- lard farm of about 70 acres. In 1819, 1820 and 1821 he was one of the county commissioners; and December 16th 1819 was appointed by Governor William Findley a justice of the peace for part of Tioga and Lawrence townships.
On his removal to the village, in 1839, his son Vine succeeded him in the occupancy of the old farm, and in the flouring and lumbering business, and so continued up to the time of his death, in 1866. Vine also acquired possession of a part of the Ambrose Millard farm, of about 25 acres on the east side of the Williamson road, in Tioga borough, and built first the house now owned and occupied by Miss Anna Maria Wickham, which he sold to the Tioga County Bank; and secondly a large, fine house on the site of the present O. B. Lowell resi- dence, which was destroyed by fire in 1863 or 1864.
Elijah De Pui married Ency Baldwin, daughter of Morgan Baldwin, about the year 1801, and had children: Betsey, born June 9th 1802; Vine, in 1804; Thomas, in 1806; Benjamin, in 1809; Almira, December 13th 1813; Mary, in 1815; Ency A., in 1817; Eliza, about 1820; Anna, in 1824; Jerusha B., about 1825. Of this family Vine married a Miss McGrath, of York, Pa .; Thomas married Mary Millard, of Tioga; Almira, John W. May- nard, of Williamsport; Mary, William H. Wisner, of El- mira; Ency, E. B. Campbell, of Williamsport; Eliza, Ja- bin S. Bush, Tioga; Anna, W. W. Willard, Williamsport; Jerusha B., Thomas L. Baldwin, Tioga.
Elijah De Pui died March 17th 1853, in his Soth year; his wife, Ency, August 8th 1838, in her 56th year. Of the children Betsey and Benjamin both died young, and are buried near the apple grove close by the old place of residence of Nicholas Prutsman, "De Pui farm "; Thomas B. died June 10th 1840, aged 34; Mary died in August 1840; Ency B., June end 1854, aged 37 years; Anna, May 18th 1851; Jerusha B., in April 1877.
Mrs. Eliza Bush, of Tioga, the only survivor of Elijah De Pui's family, had children: Mrs. Henrietta Caldwell, Omaha, and Mrs. Anna Miller, Shippenburg, Pa .; and Alva, who died aged about 19 years. Four sons and one daughter and the widow of Vine De Pui are living in the western States and Territories. Thomas De Pui, who was a very promising lawyer at Tioga at the time of his death, left two daughters and one son, now dead. The writer regrets his inability to procure more definite dates than above.
JAMES MATTESON and JAMES DICKINSON were here in 1807 and 1808, but early moved into Middlebury town- ship, and have had no particular association with Tioga since a very early date. Matteson was a shoemaker, and was in the habit of going about with his kit of tools to work for families wherever his services were needed. The writer remembers him to have worked for his father, at the present Wickham place, in this manner as late as perhaps 1836 or 1837. He married Kate Dickinson, daughter of James, about the first of July 1808. James Dickinson settled on the old Wellsboro road, that ran over the point of the hill in the rear of the present resi- dence of Clark Cole, close by some old apple trees that are still standing. His residence there gave to the hill near by the name of Dickinson Hill, which it still re- tains. On this hill Alexander Brown, in returning once from Wellsboro afoot, after dark, was followed by a panther. Drawing his knife and facing the animal, he walked backward, keeping his eye upon it, until he came out on the "Streeter clearing."
THE ADAMS FAMILY .- Captain Lyman Adams was a native of Lenox, Mass., and a nephew of Dr. William Willard, his mother being a sister of the doctor; and through the solicitation of the latter he moved from Tin- mouth, Rutland county, Vt., in the spring of 1808, arriv- ing at Tioga on the 4th day of July, accompanied by his wife and five daughters-Anna, Susan, Sophia, Phebe and Lucy. He settled first in a house of Dr. Willard's, near the Willard mill, on the race. In the years 1809 and I810 he was collector of taxes for the township of Tioga, comprising at that time two-fifths of the entire county. He subsequently moved on to what was for many years termed the Adams farm, now that of Nelson Miller, occupying a house on the east bank of the river, and opposite the high ridge on the west ascending to the Bayer Hill; a very pleasant spot, and surrounded by sev- eral fine, large peach trees, which from the fact of their absence nearly everywhere else in the township were rendered the more noticeable and valuable. Captain Adams subsequently moved to Wellsboro, and kept there for some time a public house, it appears, as late certainly as 1825, and perhaps 1826. His daughter Jane was born in Wellsboro, March 7th 1825; and his daughter Maria was married by Justice Benajah H. Ives to G. R. Lilli- bridge, on Monday evening May 7th 1827, at her father's house in Tioga village; this places the removal of the family from Wellsboro to Tioga between the two periods above named. His old homestead place on the river bank, containing 176 acres, was sold by John Beecher, sheriff, as "late the property of Lyman Adams, Pliny Power and Jeremiah Brown," on December 18th 1826. Captain Adams's village home continued in his possession and that of his son Hiram up to the construction of a new building in place of it, and finally its sale to R. P. H. McAllister, about 1865 or 1866, and Hiram's removal to his farm on Bear Creek.
Captain Adams was born at Lenox, Mass., April 12th 1775, and died of heart disease June 27th 1847. His wife, Sophia, who was a sister of Thomas Mantor, was
265
IRA MCALLISTER-THE DAILY FAMILY OF TIOGA.
born April 21st 1782, and died July ist 1868; and both at the time employed. Mrs. McAllister was born No- are buried in the Mill Creek cemetery. They had chil- vember 9th 1788, and died December 31st 1870, and dren: Anna Mrs. Augustus Niles , Susan "Mrs. Lorain both she and her husband are buried in Evergreen Lamb, Sophia, spinster: Phebe Mrs. Amos Utley , cemetery. Thomas, the son, married Margaret Long; Lucy Mrs. Sullivan Powers , Maria Mrs. G. R. Lilli- Eliza, the daughter, married Edgar Dunham, and sub- bridge), Lyman N. husband of Caroline A. Mantor , sequently Clark Tinkham. She has a son, Edgar Dun- Julia Mrs. Samuel Naglie , Jane Mrs. Edwin Crane , ham, and a daughter named Tinkham; and Thomas Hiram husband of Maria Naglie , and Mary Mrs. Dr. has sons Vine and Ira. R. P. H. married Phebe Hall, A. J. Cole .
and has a daughter Mary and son David. R. P. H. Mc- Allister is the depot agent of the Corning, Cowanesque and Antrim Railroad at Tioga. Vine, his nephew, is the telegraph operator.
Anna is still living, and resides with her son A. E. Niles, at his farm on the river, one and a half miles south of the village, and apparently is enjoying excellent health. Her memory of events in Tioga goes back to THE DAILY FAMILY .- John Daily, living on his farm two miles south of the village of Tioga, on the east bank of the Tioga River, and at the foot of the Daily Hill, is the oldest living inhabitant of the township. He enjoys very good health for one so advanced in years; his frame is quite erect, footstep firm, eyesight and hear- ing good, and he is still fond of the newspaper, and as much interested seemingly in political intelligence as tober 14th 1791, and came first to Beecher's Island, this county, in 1811; married Violetta Niles, daughter of Nathan Niles sen., on Christmas Eve 1813, at the very place where he now lives; and moved from Beecher's Island the following spring, settling in the old homestead 1808, the time of her father's settlement here, at which date she was a little over ten years of age. The family stopped first at the house of Dr. William Willard, and she remembers distinctly the style of it. She was born March 6th 1798. Her sister Mrs. Lorain Lamb was born June 27th 18oo, and both she and her husband are living at Mansfield, in good health. Sophia, born February 18th 1803, died May gth 1852; Phebe died December ever. He was born in Washington county, N. Y., Oc- 16th 1874, aged 68 years, her husband October 13th 1844, aged 42 years, and Wells Utley, their son, Febru- ary 6th 1864, aged 38 years; Lucy Mrs. Powers, died in 188r, at Alpena, Mich .; Maria died many years ago at Ann Arbor, Mich .; Lyman N. died November 13th ISSo, in his 65th year; his widow and a son and daughter, house of his father-in-law. He remained here two sea- Frank H. and Mary are living. Jane Crane died at Wil- liamsport, in December 1881, aged nearly 57 years. William and Mrs. Mary Cole both reside at Mansfield; Mrs. Naglie near Towanda, Pa .; and Hiram at Tioga. Sophia and Lyman N. are buried in the Mill Creek cem- etery, as also Mrs. U'tley and her husband and son.
sons, and then removed to Delmar township, where he staid until 1838, moving back into the old homestead at that period and during the construction of the Corn- ing and Blossburg Railroad. His farm consisted origi- nally of 212 acres of the Bartholomew and Patton war- rant, and 81 subsequently purchased of A. C. Bush, on the west side of the river
IRA MCALLISTER, born in Greene, Chenango county, N. Y., November 24th 1799, claimed to have accom- At the time of his settlement, in 1814, Mr. Lawrence, grandfather of William Lawrence, of Rutland, and Mr. White, father of Daniel White, of Middlebury, had been settled at the month of Mill Creek; but both were then dead and buried in what is now called the Mill Creek panied Ambrose Millard, in his seventh year, to Tioga; but it is probable he came at a later date than this would give, and must have been in his tenth or cleventh year, which would agree with the settlement of Colonel Millard at Beecher's Island in 1810. As he grew up he acquired or Guernsey cemetery. Mr. Lawrence had lived in considerable knowledge and skill in the various trades of a log house at the foot of the hill, on the lett of the carpenter, blacksmith and mason, and was generally a road going south; and in this house, at the time of very handy and useful man in various employments. He his coming, lived John Nichols, whose wife was a married Mary 1. Hall, daughter of Roland Hall, in Jan- sister of Timothy Brace. Here Timothy boarded, and uary 1824, and settled in a house opposite Captain H. was carrying on the lumbering business at the saw mill B. Graves's distillery, on Wellsboro street, where the on the race at the foot of the hill, which had been built twins Thomas and Eliza were born September 19th 1825; by Mr. White. Timothy subsequently married Temper- subsequently he removed to a house near the site of the ance Niles, and settled in the Lawrence house. present Bayer boarding house, where R. P. H. McAllister Mr. Daily remembered also Aaron Gillett, father of was born August 17th 1828; then lived in a house near the Aaron Gillett of Covington township, who was living the old school-house on the bend of the road leading to on the point of the hill where is now the Guernsey the lower ford of the river; then at Somers lane, where school-house, and who subsequently built a large hewn - he was engaged in blacksmithing; then two years on Es- log house at the same place, which after it was nearly quire De Pui's farm; then in the "Sullivan Power house," completed took fire and was burned down, burning to near the Cove; the Bentley house, the James Dewey , death one of his children.
house, and finally in a house on the site of the present William T. Urell residence, where he died March 29th | Uriah Spencer was living near the race, to the left of the 1854. His death was the result of his being caught in the machinery of Fish & Somers's tannery, where he was
Lyman Adams was then living on the old Adams farm. road leading to Crooked Creek ford, and with him was Elijah Welsh, who was driving the saw-mill, and who
33
266
HISTORY OF TIOGA COUNTY.
subsequently married Polly Spencer, and after her death the widow of Charles Spencer, who is now the wife of Heber Cole. Farther down were Jacob Kiphart's family, Jacob and Nicholas Prutsman, and Esquire De Pui. Dr. Simeon Power and Pliny, his brother, were living on part of the John Gordon farm, at Somers' Lane, and were both practicing medicine. In the village were Dr. Wil- liam Willard and son William jr., and Allen D. Caulking, who had just completed the tavern stand subsequently known as the "James Goodrich tavern." In one room of his house Caulking opened a store, the first store it is believed in Tioga. Others then at Tioga were Peter Roberts and sons, the Berrys, the Loseys, Gershom Wynkoop, Levi Vail and Samuel Westbrook.
Mr. Daily's wife, Violetta Niles, was born March 9th 1794, and died September 6th 1878; Nathan Daily, their son, born March 19th 1815, died June 28th 1850; Ruth A., wife of William Adams, born January 19th 1822, died July 21st 1868; Daniel Daily died July 4th 1860, aged 18 years; and they are all buried in the Guernsey cemetery. His children living are Martin Van Buren; Salina, widow of Peter Mantor; and Julia, wife of Henry Miller.
THE CAULKING FAMILY .- Allen Daniel Caulking, son of Asa and Lovina Caulking. was born in Montgomery county (the part now Broome), N. Y., October 8th 1789. He came to Tioga about the close of 1812 or beginning of 1813, and built in the latter year the public house long subsequently known as the "Goodrich House," in the north room of which he opened a store of general merchandise-the first introduction of that branch of business in Tioga, goods having been previously pur- chased by the inhabitants of the valley at Painted Post and Newtown. While here located in business he mar- ried Mary Ann Willard, January 15th 1815; and here ELIJAH WELSH, who married Nancy Spencer, carried on Mr. Spencer's saw-mill as early as 1812 and 1813. He was one of the county commissioners from October 16th 1824 to about the same date in 1827. He early re- moved to Sullivan township, and there died about 1865. His second wife was the widow of Charles Spencer, for- merly Charlotte Bliss, and now the wife of Heber Cole, Middlebury. Emily, his eldest daughter, was born December 9th 1815. Mr. Caulking was subsequently succeeded in the public house by Peter Campbell, he himself removing to a house east of the road and south of Crooked Creek ford, where his son Hiram W. Caulking was born, August 15th 1817. He subsequently removed to Lawrenceville, where his daughter Mary Ann was born, July 24th 1819; and also, it is believed his son Henry S., July 15th 1822. By SAMUEL WESTBROOK was born in the town of Che- mung, (then) Montgomery county, N. Y. His father was Samuel, brother of Elias and Benjamin Westbrook. He came quite early to Tioga; married Mary Berry, March 5th 1809, and subsequently settled on a part of the old Rufus Adams farm. He was a collector of taxes for the year 1816. His wife Mary died April 22nd 1847, aged 57, and left five children: Thomas, who married Catha- rine Prutsman; Samuel, who married Maria Bush (both removing to the State of Illinois); Lucinda, who married Hiram Cook, and Rachel, who married Pardon Damon (both of Lawrence township); and Judith B., who mar- ried Charles T. Robinson, of Tioga. The daughter Ra- chel died December 8th 1831, aged 16 years, 9 months deed dated June 20th 1817 he purchased of William Willard jr. half an acre of land on Main street, Tioga, where now stands the Episcopal church and P. S. Tut- tle's store. This lot he sold to Timothy Goodrich, June Ist 1819. In 1823 or 1824 he went west to select a loca- tion with the design of removing his family to it, and he held for a while a pre-emption claim where the city of Indianapolis now stands; but, returning home, he moved his family to Wellsboro, where he kept a public house in the years 1825 and 1826. He died in August or Septem- ber 1826, and his widow kept the house until the follow- ing spring, when she and her family removed to Tioga. She resided several years in the old William Willard jr. mansion, and it was here that her daughter Emily was and 10 days; and Judith B. died March 8th 1842, aged married to William Garretson, in 1836. In 1840-44 she |21 years, 8 months and 22 days. Mr. Westbrook mar- resided in the old Ambrose Millard farm house, and it ried for his second wife Catharine Middaugh.
was here that her second daughter Mary Ann, was mar- ried to Francis Carey, a tailor by trade, and now a resident of Elmira, N. Y. Hiram W. and Henry S., the sons, went about 1843 to their uncle Henry's in west Tennessee, and subsequently to Rodney, Missis- sippi, where Henry died about 1849, leaving descendants. Hiram W. in 1852 or 1853 returned to Tioga, married Mary Ann Daggett, and purchased of her father, Seth Daggett, his homestead farm of 227 acres, lying on Crooked Creek, two and a half miles west of Tioga. He resided here until 1879, when he removed to Elmira, and is there at present. He has a family of several chil- dren. The mother, Mrs. Mary Ann Willard Caulking, died at Elmira, July 19th 1874, in her Sist year, and is there buried.
LEVI VAIL, who married Fannie Spencer, daughter of Uriah Spencer, was here in 1813, but it is not known whence he came. He was one of the earliest school teachers; was a collector of taxes for the township in 1814; at a later period a merchant and successor to Al- len D. Caulking in that business, and built in 1821 or 1822 the store building on the site of the present P. S. Tuttle store, occupied by Vail, Ives & Co. in 1826 and 1827, by Ambrose Millard in 1828-32, and finally from 1857 to 1868 by William T. Urell and Mrs. Sarah M. Etz for the post-office, and which suffered destruction in the general fire of 1871. Mr. Vail was county treasurer for the years 1827 and 1828, receiving his appointment from the county commissioners (Elijah Welsh, Elijah Stiles and Captain James Goodrich) on Thursday, January 4th 1827. He moved his family to the State of Wisconsin about 1836, and settled at or near Milwaukee, and had sons William, George and Augustus, and a daughter Eleanor.
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