USA > Pennsylvania > Tioga County > History of Tioga County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations, portraits and sketches of prominent families and individuals > Part 63
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OLD FAMILIES OF TIOG.A.
ROLAND HALL was a native of the city of Philadel- 1839, aged 21; Caroline, who married Wilham Rose, and phia, and married there a Miss Bostwick, who was a near died March 29th 1843, aged 22 years, 10 months and 25 relative of Dr. Benjamin Rush. His brother Thomas days; Louisa, widow of Thomas Hance, and still living; married a Miss Fullerton. Both of the brothers subse- William S., who died September 16th 1848, aged 23; quently moved to Lycoming county, Roland settling at John S. jr., who died April 28th 1850, aged 23; and McKeeney's Forge, on Lycoming Creek, eight miles Loyal N., who died July Ist 1830, aged 11 months and above Williamsport, and Thomas at the latter place. 12 days.
Roland and his family removed to Tioga not far from
William Allen, the grandfather, was first buried on the the year 1815, and settled first at the William Willard point of the Prutsman Hill, as was also, it is believed, mill; subsequently he bought the central part of the the son Loyal N .; but they were removed to the old Van Groves Gordon farm, now the Knapp firm, and sold the Camp burying ground on the Allen farm. Here also all same in three or four years to Clarendon Rathbone. the other members of the family were buried, except the mother; but they have been removed to Evergreen cemetery.
While occupying this place he planted the orchard long known as the John Middaugh orchard. In 1820 Mr. Hall lived in a house standing on the ground of the present residence of B. C. Wickham, and there Stewart Geer was born, July 11th 1820. At a later period he lived in house near the " Garretson house," subsequently
GERSHOM WYNKOOP was here in 1812 and resided here until about 1835. He was employed considerably about the various saw-mills-those of Dr. William Willard, Uriah Spencer, Elijah De Pui and Jacob Prutsman-and occupied by William Lowell. About the year 1827 he resided at different periods near by each of them. He moved to Northumberland county, and finally died at was a very honest, industrious and useful citizen. He Liverpool, Pa. He had sons Alexander, Matthew, and had children Peter, Betsey, and two younger daughters.
Benjamin, and daughters Mary who married Ira Me- Betsey was for several years a domestic in the house of Allister,, and Nancy who married Henry Willard . His the writer's family and was regarded as one of the most son Benjamin Rush was married to Deborah Corson, of patient, kind-hearted and even-tempered of girls. The writer, then a mere lad, who had reason to appreciate her many kind acts, is gratified to make the acknowledg- ment here. The family moved to Rochester, N. Y., about 1835.
Williamsport, June 21st 1828; and he subsequently pur- chased the James Goodrich hotel, Tioga, where he re- mained a short time, subsequently selling it to Jacob Schieffelin and removing to Blossburg, where he kept the United States Hotel many years, and where he died.
Hle had daughters Phebe and Jane, and a son Joseph Hail. Phebe married R. P. H. McAllister, of Tioga, and has one daughter and one son. Mr. Hall is buried in Evergreen cemetery.
THE GOODRICH FAMILY .- Captain James Goodrich, with his wife, and two sons, William and Edwin, moved from "Shoemaker's," on the Tioga River, three miles below Corning, where he had been keeping a public house, to Tioga on the 3d of June 1819, and occupied the tavern built by Allen D. Caulking, but which had
THE ALLEN FAMILY .- John Smith Allen married Margaret Westbrook at Auburn, N. Y., December 17th , just previously been purchased of William Willard jr. by 1817, at which time he was engaged as a carpenter in the Timothy Goodrich, whose brother James succeeded
construction of the State prison at that place. They Peter Campbell in its management. soon after removed to Tioga, where Mr. Allen followed The Goodrich family dates back by tradition to a his trade for some time, but subsequently kept the James settlement in this country, at Boston, in 1630, of two brothers who came from Totness, Devonshire, England, and whose ancestor, Nicholas, had sufficient station to bear by letters patent a coat-of-arms with a field argent and three cross-crosslets above a fess gules. One of the brothers had a family of thirteen children, and the other remained unmarried. Goodrich house from 182. to 1826, and again that of Dr. William Willard, which had been previously enlarged and improved There he remained until about 1832 or 1833, removing thence on to the John S. Allen farm, now David L. Aiken's. He was a popular hotel keeper, social and genial, and a very excellent violin player- qualities which endeared him to his neighbors and ac- The immediate ancestors of James were of Connecticut birth. His grandfather was David, and his father Zebulon, born in the town of Farmington, Hartford county, that State. The father married Honor Waples, of the same place, and subsequently re- moved to the town of Hancock, Berkshire county, Mass., quaintances. Samuel Besley, who was a popular hotel- keeper at Painted Post and Cooper's Plains many years, married a sister of Mr. Allen. The father of Mr. Allen, William Allen, died at the son's house in Tioga village, April 28th 1827, aged 73 years; and the mother, Ruby, January 14th 1837, aged 79 years. John S. Allen died where James, the subject of our sketch, was born Oc- November roth 1836, aged 45 years, 6 months and 23 tober 7th 1790, the youngest of a family of seven chil- days; and his wife Margaret-who lived with the only surviving member of her family, Mrs. Louisa Thomas Hance, at her residence in the village for some thirty years or more-died January 21st 1881, aged 85 years, 11 months and 9 days. They had children: Ann Maria, who married Richard Searles, and died October 20th dren; the elder ones being named, in the order of birth, Seth, Timothy, Joseph, Sarah, James ist, Honor and James and. The father was a volunteer soldier of the Revolution, and served under General Stark at the battle of Bennington. He died in August 1792, when James was not yet two years of age, and was buried on a farm two
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HISTORY OF TIOGA COUNTY.
nnles west of the Shaker village of Hancock. The mother subsequently married Issachar Rowley, about 18o2, and after her husband's death came to Steuben county, N. Y., and lived with the son Timothy until her death, in 1825, when she was buried in the Corning cem- etery. James came from Hancock to Corning in 1804, and lived with his brother Timothy until married. He occupied himself in the same employments as those of the brother-carpenter work, distilling and farming. His brother was the contractor for building the first bridge over the Conhocton at Painted Post, and over the Canisteo at Erwin; aided Elijah De Pui in the con- struction of the McCoy grist-mill about 1805, and also of arks for the transportation of grain down the Tioga and Susquehanna Rivers, which at that period were the only outlet for surplus products. James was commissioned an ensign in Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel S. Haight's reg- iment of militia by Governor David D. Tompkins, April 15th 1811. The following year he was drafted for the war of that period, serving in Jonathan Rowley's com- pany, Colonel Philetus Swift's regiment, and General George McClure's brigade; and, reaching the Niagara River, at Lewiston, he volunteered to cross over. He was stationed three months at Fort George, under com- mand of General William Henry Harrison. While there Lieutenant Roosevelt and himself had command of a troop of 25 horse, which at one time penetrated as far as Stony Creek, capturing many unparoled citizens, among whom was an English captain in disguise, formerly a resident of Newtown, now Elmira. At the close of the war he was commissioned the lieutenant of a company in the 96th regiment of infantry (April 6th 1815) by Gov- ernor Tompkins, and a captain in the same regiment March 4th 1817, by Lieutenant-Governor John Taylor. He married Deborah Armstrong McLean at Benton Cen- tre, then Ontario county, N. Y., January 24th 1815. Her father was a Scotch-Irishman, born at Antrim, county Antrim, Ireland, about 1748; who, leaving his widowed mother, Elizabeth Fleming McLean, and a sister, came to America, landing at the city of Philadel- phia, after a three months' voyage, in the year 1775. His intention was to see the country, and, if satisfied with it, return the following year and bring his mother and sister; but the embargo on commercial intercourse between the two countries, ensuing on the opening of hostilities that intervened, prevented; and, with that in. stinct that usually arrays Irishmen against the British government -- which influenced many prominent men of that nation, residents in this country at that period, for which a lasting gratitude should be due-he joined the patriot forces as a private. He served three years, endur- ing much hardship and passing through the battles of Long Island, White Plains and Brandywine, the encamp- ments of Valley Forge and White Marsh, the battles of Germantown, Trenton and Monmouth, and was pres- ent at the execution of Major Andre, at Tappan. At the close of his service he married Sarah Armstrong, daughter of James Armstrong, likewise of Scotch-Irish descent, but early settled in Lancaster county, Pennsyl-
vania. His first place of residence after marriage was at Mifflin, on the Juniata River, where five children were born-James, William, John, Alexander, and Elizabeth. In 1796 the family removed to Geneva, N. Y., the house- hold effects and a part of the family ascending the Sus- quehanna in a bateau while the farm stock was driven by the way of Williamsport and the Williamson road. Settlement was first made at the Castle farm, three miles from Geneva, where was born Red Jacket, the celebrated Indian chief of the Seneca tribe. Here George McLean and his sister Deborah were born. Subsequently the family moved to Benton Centre, three miles from West Dresden and one and a half miles west of Seneca Lake, and settled on a farm purchased of the Pulte- ney estate. Here John McLean died August 9th 1841, aged 93 years; and Sarah, his wife, September 8th 1841, aged 88 years; and their remains now lie in the Dresden cemetery, which overlooks the lake.
December 7th 1820 Captain Goodrich bought of Uriah Spencer, as agent for Judge Charles Huston, Centre county, Pa., 49 acres and 14 perches of land out of the Robert Morris tract, now included in the farm of B. C. Wickham; also, August 21st 1826, of his nephew, Issa- char Goodrich, son of Timothy, a tract comprising about 40 acres, extending from the river to the aforesaid B. C. Wickham tract, south of Wellsboro street, and north of Ambrose Millard's farm, including the tavern stand and the site of a good portion of Tioga village; also, March 2nd 1832, of William Willard jr., lots 6, 9, 11 and 13, and the east half of lot 7, as numbered on the town plot of Tioga; also, September 27th 1831, one-fourth of an acre from Theodore Worthington, which is now occupied by. the Episcopal church; also, July Ist 1833, of William Willard jr., a triangular lot lying north of Wellsboro street and east of the Cove, containing an acre; also, February 18th 1839, of James Squires, lot No. 69 of the town plot, east of the above lot No. 68, both of which are now occupied by the tannery of O. B. Lowell & Co .; also, in 1845, the "Streeter tract" of timbered land, 421 acres, including a mill and mill privileges, now the site of Ham- mond Station and the Hammond farm; and also, in 1859, the "Colony house and lot," now the property of Dr. Thomas.
Captain Goodrich was appointed postmaster at Tioga May 31st 1821, and continued in the office until suc- ceeded by Uriah Spencer, July Ist 1835; he was also deputy postmaster under A. C. Bush three or four years. He was elected county commissioner for three years, commencing November Ist 1825 and ending at the same time in 1828. It was during his term that the first bridges were built over the river, north of the village, and over the creek by the "dead waters," or near the mouth of the Elkhorn, contracts being made at his house for the same, respectively June roth and August 19th 1826. He built the rear portion of the "Wickham house " in 1821, and the fiont or main part, as it is now, in 1841. He kept the old public house, or "Goodrich stand," with intervals of residence on his farm and the Streeter place, from the spring of 1819 up to 1859, it be-
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OLD FAMILIES OF TIOGA.
ing occupied by others in the meantime about ten years. On his repurchase of it in 1848 he much enlarged and improved it. The house was included in the general conflagration of the 9th of February 1871, and the site of it is now the vacant lot lying between the Wickham block and the residence of John W. Guernsey.
James Goodrich died March 22nd 1879, and his wife Deborah A., born August 15th 1797, died January 26th 1868. Their son James jr., born November 9th 1822, died May 14th 1869. All are buried in lot 10, section A, Evergreen cemetery. A son John Joseph was born Oc- tober 10th 1828, died November 18th 1829, and was buried in the northwest corner of a lot two rods square reserved by Captain James Goodrich in his gift of the old cemetery ground to the supervisors of the township. This grave was the first one made in said cemetery.
The children of James and Deborah Goodrich are, in order of birth: William Augustus, born July 31st 1816, and Edwin Constant May 6th 1818, both in the town of Painted Post, Steuben county, N. Y .; Sarah Eliza, born April 27th 1820; James jr., November 9th 1822; Henry Harrison, February 28th 1825; John Joseph, October roth 1828; Harriet Patterson, February Ist 1831; John McLean, December 26th 1833; and Ellen Augusta, June 24th 1840.
Of these, Edwin married Margaret Prutsman, May 28th 1850; Eliza married Colonel James P. Magill, of Philadelphia, December 4th 1845: Harriet mar- ried Daniel Watts, November 5th 1855; and John Mc- Lean married Harriet Barber, May 8th 1855.
So far in this historical sketch it has been the purpose of the writer to give as faithful a record of the genealogy of the early settlers of Tioga township, and their imme- diate descendants as it has been practicable for hini to obtain. He has been careful and quite extended in this respect, covering a period of thirty years-from 1790 to 1820-bringing to the attention of the present generation names that were fast passing out of recollection, and which properly belong to the field of historical inquiry and research, while the genealogy of the present genera- tion is within their own possession or immediate reach, at least from the latter date down to the present time. He has already included in his pioneer and prim- itive sketch the names of no less than four hundred per- sons; and he has done this that there might be a more enduring record of the dead, and of the living who have come properly within the range of this historical sketch, than it is possible for monuments of either brass or stone to give.
CHIEF SETTLERS BETWEEN 1820 AND 1830.
during this residence of his father's family Here. Dr. Pliny Power married Brittania Gordon, and was resident physician at Tioga up to about 1835, when he removed to Detroit, Mich .; he was at one time a member of the Legislature of that State. Following him in the order of settlement at Tioga, as near as can now be stated, were Henry Van Wey, lumberman and farmer; Elder Amos Mansfield, an occasional preacher, and a farmer, who subsequently moved to Rutland township; Jesse Keeney sen., a wagon-maker, and several sons and daughters; widow Daniels and her three sons James, Harry and Solomon; Joseph Brown, William Patrick, Phineas Stevens, Clement Slate, Clement Couch, Silas Campbell, lumbermen and farmers; Levi and Joseph W. Guernsey, tanners and curriers, the latter subsequently in partner- ship with Jonah Brewster, his father-in-law, in the store built by them on the site of the Park Hotel; William Garretson; Hobart B. Graves, merchant and distiller; George W. and Rankin Lewis, the latter editor and pub- lisher of the Tioga Pioneer; Eugene Cushman, Elijah Stiles and Christopher Charles, merchants; Dr. Thomas T. Huston, resident physician until about 1835, and brother of Judge Charles Huston, of the supreme bench; M. T. Leavenworth, attorney and counsellor at law, ad- mitted to practice in our courts May 17th 1826; Rev. Elisha Booth, an occasional preacher of the Baptist per- suasion, and successor to Lewis brothers in the publica- tion of the Pioneer ; George Mix, George A. Gardner and Mr. Pickard, school teacher, the latter marrying a Miss Lamb, sister to William Willard jr.'s wife; George Dan- iels and Charles Fish, shoemakers; Dean Dutton and Joseph Aiken, farmers; Dr. H. Roberts, at the hotel of James Goodrich, in 1826; Jacob Schieffelin sen., who re- moved from New York city to Charleston township in 1828, and subsequently to Tioga; and George March, residing on Wellsboro street.
THE KEENEY FAMILY .- Jesse Keeney, one of the fore- going settlers, who has left numerous descendants, living both in Tioga and Middlebury townships, was born Sep- tember 28th 1778, in Litchfield county, Conn .; removed with his father's family to the east or north branch of the Susquehanna; thence to Chemung township, Mont- gomery now Chemung) county, N. Y .; thence to Tray- ton, Cortland county, and finally, in 1823 or 1824, to Tioga, accompanied first by his eldest son, Elias, and three years subsequently joined by his family. His father, Thomas, born May 21st 1751, was a Connecticut settler; removed his family to the east branch of the Susquehanna River prior to the year 1787, and settled near the mouth of Mehoopany Creek. He was one of the fifteen or eighteen persons concerned in the abduction of Colonel Timothy Pickering, prothonotary of Luzerne county, on the night of the 26th of June 1788, from his residence in Wilkes-Barre, by a forcible entrance of his dwelling, dressed and painted in the costume of Indians. The Keeney family subsequently removed to Chemung; thence to Fabius, Onondaga county, N. Y. Thomas, the grandfather of the present Keeneys of our county, died
Dr. Pliny Power came and settled for a time with his brother Dr. Simeon Power, both of whom were early set- tlers in Lawrence township; Simeon, who had been sheriff of the county from his election in the fall of 1815 up to January 1st 1819, settling some three years subse- quently on the Benajah Ives or John Prutsman place, Tioga, then removing again to Lawrence. Simeon 1. Power, sheriff in 1859-61, was born at Tioga in 1820, at the house of his son-in-law, Richard Mitchell sen.,
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HISTORY OF TIOGA COUNTY.
Tioga, about 1828 or 1830, and was buried in the Mitch- ell graveyard, but was removed a few years since to Chemung, and there re-buried beside his wife, who had died subsequent to him at the house of their daughter, Mrs. Palmer.
Jesse Keeney the son came to Tioga in 1823 Of 1824, and built the wagon shop afterward remodeled into the dwelling house of William Garretson as it at present ap- pears. He here carried on his trade of wagon making several years; then removed to Mill Creek, and built the saw-mill near the site of George Ellis's farm house; thence at a later period to the old Lyman Adams farm, and finally to a house near the mouth of Mill Creek and west of the Williamson road.
Jesse Keeney sen. was born at Litchfield, Conn., Sep- teniber 28th 1778, and died at Tioga, June 18th 1834; his wife-Caroline Middangh, sister of John Middaugh-was born September 13th 1781, and died at the residence of her daughter Mrs. Brady, August 13th 1848, and both she and her husband are buried in the Mill Creek or Guernsey cemetery. They had children: Elias; Sally Ann, wife of George Daniels; Thomas; Parmelia, wife of Erastus Hill, Waverly; Abram S., born July 11th 1811, married, first, Anna Matilda Mudge, and afterward Sarah Matilda Crandall (sister to Charles Crandall, inventor of the "Crandall blocks "); Jesse M., born September 9th 1813, died January 6th 1882; Catharine, wife of De- linas Walker, both deceased; Mercy, widow of Clinton Brady; Richard, Marsh Creek; George D., Keeneyville; and Ruby, wife of Charles Wilcox. Abram S., who now resides in the village of Tioga, joined the Baptist church in 1831, under the ministry of Elder Sheardown, at the same time that Mary and Almira De Pui joined, and has been deacon of the church about 40 years. Jesse M. Keeney married Mary Ann Fellows, of Sullivan township, and he there joined the Methodist church, of which he was class leader many years, and up to the time of his death. Thomas Keeney jr., who lived at Mitchelltown in 1816, and joined in the organization of the Baptist church there, subsequently moving to Middlebury, was a brother of Jesse sen.
WILLIAM GARRETSON .- No person who has ever lived in Tioga, peculiar and singular as the man was in many respects, ever left so strong a remembrance of his individuality and character as William Garretson. No stranger who ever came to the village temporarily, either on business or for observation, and staid sufficiently long to make the acquaintance of its citizens, including William Garretson, went away from it with a stronger and more vivid impression of any individual in it than of the "old 'squire," or " quaint philosopher," as he was termed by friend and stranger in his more advanced years. It is probable, had Mr. Garretson lived in Con- cord, he would have been in intimate fellowship with Emerson, Alcott and Thoreau, and been a member of their school of philosophy; but as it was, in the place where he lived so many years, his school was specially his own, in which he could only be regarded as a tutor, with never any associates; except, perhaps, for a short
period Hiram K. Hill, the village school teacher, during the time when Fourierism flourished-chiefly through the influence of the New York Tribune. This Hiram K. Hill subsequently established the short lived Fourier society at Gaines, this county.
William Garretson was born at Mount Pleasant, Jeffer- son county, Ohio, October 13th 1801, of Quaker parent- age, his mother being a descendant of the Bright family of England, and his grandfather a native of Holland. His elementary education was obtained in his native place, and in his 19th year, filled with a spirit of ad- venture common to one of that age and to the then frontier country in which he was born, he engaged him- self as a hand on an ark loaded with produce for the New Orleans market, and floated down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to that city. Remaining there but a short time he proceeded to Mobile, where he made the acquaintance of Moses Austin, subsequently commodore of the Texan navy and president of that republic. Coming north through Georgia and the Carolinas he at length arrived at Alexandria, Va., where he taught school for a season in the year 1820. Thence he went to Lew- isburg, York county, Pa., where he studied medicine with Dr. Webster -Lewis, and also law, probably with Ellis Lewis, brother of Dr. Lewis, remaining there from the fall of 1821 to the summer of 1825. In September of the latter year he settled at Wellsboro, as also did Ellis Lewis, either at the same time or nearly contempor- aneously, each establishing himself as a practicing at- torney and counsellor at the bar, Mr. Garretson's office being in the prothonotary's office, and Ellis Lewis's one door west of the commissioners' office, on Main street. Here Mr. Garretson remained in practice until Febru- ary 1827, when he removed to Tioga, or "Willardsburg," as it was then more generally termed. His old friend Ellis Lewis, receiving about the same time the appoint- ment of deputy district attorney of Lycoming county, re- moved to Williamsport, where in time he received the appointment of attorney general of the State, January 29th 1833; was elected associate judge of the supreme court in the fall of 1851, and became chief justice of that court January 5th 1855.
Mr. Garretson was admitted to practice at the several courts of Tioga county September 13th 1825; in the dis- trict court of the United States for the western district of Pennsylvania October 3d 1831; in the supreme court of Pennsylvania for the middle district, at Sunbury, June 20th 1832. In the spring of 1826 he was elected second lieutenant of the Wellsboro artillery, and com- missioned by Governor Schultz for said office the 8th of May of the same year, his term of office to expire August 31st 1828. He was appointed by the brigadier-general of the second brigade ninth division of Pennsylvania militia his aide-de-camp, and commissioned as such by Governor Schultz August 3d 1828, to serve until Angust 3d 1835. The 8th day of March 1831 he was appointed and commissioned by Governor George Wolf justice of the peace for district number four, composed of the township of Tioga and part of Lawrence, to hold con
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WILLIAM GARRETSON.
tinuously during good behavior. Under the constitution of 1837-8 he was elected a justice of the peace for Tioga township, February 27th 1855; again March 3d 1860; and for the borough of Tioga February 4th 1863. On the second Tuesday of October 1836 he was elected by Tioga county alone a representative in the Legislature for two years, during which term he made a speech on the free school system. He was elected county auditor on the 8th of October 1839, for three years. On the 14th of October 1862 he was elected county surveyor, an office which he declined, and E. P. Deane was appointed in his place. He was a member of the Masonic and Odd Fellows' orders and of the Sons of Temperance association, being appointed G. W. P. of the latter asso- ciation for the subordinate divisions of Lawrence, Tioga and Covington February rst 1856.
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