USA > Pennsylvania > Tioga County > History of Tioga County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations, portraits and sketches of prominent families and individuals > Part 64
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When Elder Elisha Booth succeeded Rankin Lewis & Co. in the publication of the Tioga Pioncer, and changed its name to the Northern Banner, Mr. Garretson as editor aided Mr. Booth in its publication, about 1829 and 1830. In 1844-46 Mr. Garretson and family resided in Wellsboro, and he had for a time in 1845 and 1846 editoral charge of the Tioga Herald, a Whig organ, and wrote for it the then customary "Carrier's Address" for January Ist 1846, in which he refers to the famine in Ireland, and criticises with considerable severity the Federal administration, and the attitude of the south on the slavery question. Up to that time he had always been strongly Democratic, yet he early drifted into the anti-slavery party, and supported it up to the time of his death. As a memento of his early attachment to the Democratic party we give the following toast, proposed by him at the Fourth of July dinner in 1826, at the house of James Kimball, Wellsboro: "The next president- May he be made of Hickory, or anything rather than Clay."
As an evidence of his equally early sympathy for "the bondman of the south," he gives in the January and February numbers of the Agitator for 1868 a detailed account, first, of his participation in procuring, through a letter handed him from his old medical preceptor, Dr. Webster Lewis, employment for four fugitive slaves in the fall of 1828; secondly, of being counsellor for two of them who had been captured by their masters on writs issued by associate Judge Ira Kilbourn, of Lawrenceville, in March 1829; and thirdly, of being one of the nine defendants including Almon Allen and Samuel Hunt, of Mansfield; William Garretson, H. B. Graves and Groves Gordon, of Tioga; Dr. O. F. Bundy, of Wellsboro, and John Barnes jr., Joseph McCormick and Anson Phinney, of Lawrence) placed on trial for the rescue of the said slaves, at the summer term of the U. S. district court at Williamsport, in 1832, resulting in the final release of himself and all the defendants, at a cost to the prosecu- tors of not less than $3,000. The article is exceedingly interesting, as portraying the dangers of slave hunting and slave rescue in times which happily no longer exist in our Union.
treasury department at Harrisburg; and in ISog was ap- pointed law clerk in the department of internal revenue at Washington, D. C., a position which he occupied at the time of his death, which occurred December 21st 1872. Here his services and ability were so much ap- preciated that he was twice promoted, and was about to receive a third promotion with much increased salary at the time of his death. Resolutions commemorative of the deceased were adopted by the officers and clerks of the internal revenue bureau, including the following:
Resolved, That in this event we recognize a loss, not only to those immediately associated with the deceased in daily labor, to whom the amiability of his character and the intimacy of long association have endeared him, but to the bureau with which he was connected, and to the community of which he was a valued and esteemed member; a loss of one whose literary attainments, mature judgment, quick sympathies and large benevolence in- spired high respect and distinguished him in the society in which he moved.
His old and esteemed friend Mr. Cobb, the original proprietor and editor of the Wellsboro Agitator, but then as now cashier of the United States mint at Philadelphia, on the same day of Mr. Garretson's death wrote to his old home a letter characteristic of his able pen, in which he draws an admirable portraiture of the superior char- acter, intellect and virtues of the deceased, and in which he says : "To me he was what the stars were to the shep- herds of Chaldea-a light discoursing eloquently of the Great Light of the universe. He saw clearly in advance of very many men whose patient search into hidden things has given them to fame. He was an educator, and in his sphere wielded more influence than he knew. Unready of speech as he was, he never spoke that men did not acknowledge that he was master of his theme."
On the 27th day of the same month, the court of com- mon pleas of Tioga county being then in session, the announcement of Mr. Garretson's decease was formally made to the court by F. E. Smith, whereupon Hon. Henry Sherwood and John W. Guernsey were appointed a committee to prepare and report resolutions suitable to the sad event; which were accordingly so made, and a committee appointed to present them to his family.
Mr. Garretson was extremely social in his character, and as companionable to the young as to the old. He was an inveterate reader, both of books and newspapers, so much so that his profession suffered for the want of closer attention, and this was an obstacle to his business success. Had his aspirations and ambition been equal to his abilities the respect and esteem in which he was held by the citizens of his own county would have gained him eminence either in Congress or on the bench. For the latter position his logical and reflective mind, his thorough knowledge of elementary law, and withal his strong and instinctive perception of right and wrong, would have made his elevation to it eminently proper. But while others sought and aspired for it he seemed content to walk in an humbler and less responsible sphere; and who will say that his choice was not wiser
In 1860 and 1861 Mr. Garretson held a clerkship in the and nobler, allying him nearer to the antique mould of
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HISTORY OF TIOGA COUNTY.
philosophers, who, disdaining wealth, ostentatious pride and display, were content if the simple wants of nature were supplied, and they had leisure afforded them to gain knowledge and wisdom from a more intimate study of nature and themselves?
Mr. Garretson was the chief educator of his own chil- dren, and, excepting two of them who died early. they have grown up and are engaged in useful and honorable occupation. He was married in 1836 to Miss Emily Caulking, of Tioga, who is still living, and is residing with her son William in Brooklyn, N. Y. They had chil- dren (who are still living): Henrietta Bright Garretson, wife of an Episcopal clergyman, and resident at Walla Walla, W. T .; Emily M. Garretson, wife of Mr. Rams- dell, recorder of the District of Columbia, and long the Tribune agent at Washington; William C., merchant, a resident of Brooklyn, N. Y .; Hiram F., lawyer, a resident of Victor, Iowa; Addie Knox, married, a resident of Grant City, Mo .; Stella B., single, a resident of Walla Walla, W. T. There were two children, Ellis Lewis and Emily, who both died young and are buried in the old cemetery.
Mr. Garretson's funeral services and burial took place at Tioga, during a severe snow storm, on the 26th of De- cember 1872, many citizens from Wellsboro attending. His remains lie in lot 2, section B, Evergreen cemetery.
BETWEEN THE YEARS 1830 AND 1840
the following persons settled at Tioga:
The Bush brothers came in June and John W. Guern- sey in October 1831; John W. Maynard and N. H. Hig- gins about the same time, and B. C. Wickham the follow- ing year. Joseph Fish, shoemaker, came in March 1831; settled first near the old Fish saw-mill, below the mouth of the Elkhorn, but moved to the corner of Walnut and A. C. BUSH and his brother JABIN S. BUSH, lumber- men and merchants, came in June 1831. The former is dead, and a brief biography of him will be found below; the latter is still living, now the owner of Bush's Park and other valuable real estate, and the cultivator of a small farm including a valuable orchard of apple and pear trees. Cowanesque streets two years after, and there established his shop and a small tannery, which he conducted until he built a fine shoe store on Main street, and moved into the J. B. Steele house about 1860. He was born March 11th 1809; has been justice of the peace of the borough two full terms, and entered on his third term April 9th 1881. Martin Lowell and William Lowell-the latter Alvah C. Bush, a man well known throughout the county, and a leading and public-spirited citizen of Tioga, died very suddenly of apoplexy, at his residence, Thurs- day morning October 14th 1880, at the age of 76 years. His remains were taken by special train to the residence of his brother, the Hon. Joseph Bush, at Bainbridge, N. Y., for interment in the family cemetery. the father of O. B. Lowell, who was born in the vil- lage of Tioga-and Daniel A. Lowell and his wife Mary A. (father and mother of the former two), together with aunt Abigail Preston, came about 1832, as did Thomas and Herbert Hollis, all of whom were hatters, and erected for their business the main building now occupied by Paul Kraiss' cabinet shop. Josiah and Alvah Wright, He was the son of Joseph and Betsey Bush, who were among the very earliest settlers of Chenango county, N. Y. He was the second of seven children, only two of whom survive him. He was born at Bainbridge, N. Y., in 1804, on the place originally located by his father, being a beautiful farm on the banks of the Susquehanna, which now remains in the family and is owned by his youngest brother, the Hon. Joseph Bush. He inherited from his father great energy and sagacity, and several years before his majority, with his father's assent, engaged Henry Messereau and Jacob and Colonel Horace S Johnston, lumbermen from Chenango county, N. Y .- from whence also came the Lowells and Hollises-came in 1832 and 1833. Henry H. Potter, public house keep- er, removed from the public house at Lawrenceville to the old Dr. Willard stand at Tioga about 1830. A. D. Cole, wagon maker; J. B. Shurtleff, printer and editor of the Tioga Gasette; Barney Roberts and William Mirch, blacksmiths, and Daniel Platt settled here at the same period; also Nelson and Robert Andrus, who established | in business for himself, principally in lumbering on the
a foundry on ground in the rear of Kraiss' cabinet shop, James A. and William Hathaway, shoemakers, who built a shop on ground a little west of James Fields's store, arrived in 1834. Hiram Babcock, carpenter; Mr. Vail- lant, from Philadelphia, silversmith (who built the present Rachel Prutsman house); Hiram Pickering, car- penter and joiner, born in New Hope, Pike county, Pa., and brother to Daniel F. Pickering, long postmaster of Elmira and member of the Legislature for Chemung county, Dr. Cyrus Pratt, editor and proprietor of the Tioga Banner, all came about 1835. E. W. Derow, from Lancaster, Pa., a harness maker and subsequently part- ner of William Willard jr. in mercantile buisness; Butler Smith, father of Lyman H. Smith, first a merchant in partnership with John C. Knox in the old H. B. Graves store (on the site of the Episcopal church), and subse- quently proprietor and landlord of the old Willard stand; John C. Knox; Mr. Andrus, husband of Mrs. Andrus the school teacher; Ichabod Davis, from Rhode Island, who owned the Mrs. Hance place and followed garden- ing, and his son Joseph, a cabinet maker, all settled here about 1836. Thomas Hance, a farmer; Dr. F. H. White, now of Rutland township and aged about 85 years, and Daniel S. Craig, tailor, came here in 1837. Dr. Abel Humphrey, still a resident physician of Tioga, and a special mail agent from the spring of 1861 to the spring of 1869, came in 1838; Henry Ford, tailor, and Lorenzo Ford, harness-maker, some time previous to 1838; Dr. Joseph McConnell, Mr. Rodgers, silversmith, and Frank and Benjamin Carey, tailors, about 1840; Carpenter H. and Andrew Place, shoemakers, as early as 1835; Hiram K. Hill and E. W. Hazard, school teachers, in 1839; and William, George, Arvine, Israel and Gurdin Mann at the same time.
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A. C. BUSH-THE GUERNSEYS OF TIOGA.
Susquehanna. At the age of 22 he engaged in mercan- tanning and currying business, succeeding Gordon & tile business in connection with lumbering, and carried Millard, remained only a few years, and then returned to on the same largely and successfully.
In 1830 and 1831 he traveled extensively over the then west and finally, in 1831, settled in Tioga, which he always afterward considered his home. At Tioga he en- gaged in lumbering and mercantile business, manufactur- ing, buying and selling lumber in the markets of the Sus- quehanna, and at Albany, New York, Fall River, Boston. Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington.
He was a very active politician for many years, and was the contemporary and intimate friend of a class of men once active in Tioga county, but who have long since passed away, such as Asa Mann, of Mansfield, R. G. White, of Wellsboro, Anson V. Parsons and Ellis Lewis, afterward of Philadelphia, and many others who might be named.
His first wife was Miss Ellen Bigelow, daughter of the Hon. Levi Bigelow, by whom he had his only child- Mrs. John A. Matthews, of Winona, Minnesota. His second wife, who survives him, was Miss Anna Bige- low, a sister of his first wife.
After active lumbering business had practically ceased upon the Tioga River he was engaged in speculations in New York city fifteen or sixteen years, residing there winters and returning in the summer to his elegant home in Tioga, which was his pride and to which he ever re- turned with satisfaction. In 1873 he conceived the idea of improving the hillside east of the village, intending then, with other parties, to erect thereon a public school- house. He was to furnish and improve the grounds, and the other parties to erect the buildings. The enter- prise failed on the part of the others; but he carried out his part, which resulted in what has since been favorably and widely known as Bush's Park, a place of resort for the public, which he opened gratuitously to every one. Mr. Bush was never better pleased than when he saw it filled with a bright and happy party. The only com- pensation he demanded or would receive was that the guests should enjoy themselves to their fullest capacity.
He was a man of unusual business capacity, sharp, shrewd and justly discriminating, and while in New York possessed the confidence and respect of the leading financiers of that city. He was a man of very general information, and was thoroughly familiar with the busi- ness interests of the country. Socially he was courteous and polite, but a man of strong prejudices and impulses. He carried out his purposes with energy, and was untir- ing in his efforts for those he liked, and those he did not like he let alone, thus avoiding any difficulty.
He was a large-hearted, public-spirited man, and his loss is deeply felt in the community where he lived and among those who knew him best."
Susquehanna county. Joseph was engaged for a while in trade with his father-in-law, Judge Jonah Brewster; sub- sequently in lumbering on Mill Creek, then in farming and public house keeping at the mouth of that stream, where he built about 1839 the fine old mansion now the property of A. S. Turner He was high sheriff of the county in 1843-45, as was in 1852-54 his oldest son, Henry A., now a resident of Willsboro. Joseph W. was born October 5th 1799, and died July 18th 1849; his widow, Ann Brewster, died March 26th ISSI, aged about So years. They had sons Henry A., Brewster W., Alonzo B., Wallace and. Charles, and two daughters.
P. B. Guernsey owned the present Nelson Miller farm, and built the fine mansion thereon; was appointed super- intendent of the Tioga Railroad after the laying of the T rail in 1852, and was killed by a collision at Six Mile station, November 22nd 1852, aged 40 years, 2 months and 2 days. His wife was the daughter of Rev. William Donaldson.
Hon. John W. Guernsey is specially mentioned in the sketch of members of the bar; but it may be said here that by the death of William Garretson and the recent death in September 1882 and since the preparation of the sketch of his life on page 75) of Clarendon Rathbone, of Blossburg, he is left the oldest practicing attorney at the bar of our county, having had a continuous practice from 1835 to the present date, except a residence of about one year at Norristown; near Philadelphia. His patrons are chiefly the older settlers and their descend- ants, whose confidence he acquired forty years ago, and which by his professional integrity and uprightness he has retained through life. He has been justice of the peace six years for the township and six for the borough, and September 15th 1882 entered on a third term; has also been burgess of the borough two terms; was a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1854 and 1855, and of the Senate in 1852 and 1853.
John W. Maynard settled at Tioga about 1831, in the Chris. Charles house, and built an office opposite. His first wife was Sarah Ann Matthews, and his second Almira De Pui. He removed to Williamsport about 1838, where he still resides. N. H. Higgins, lawyer, came at the same time, but early moved away.
BENJAMIN C. WICKHAM, merchant, farmer and banker, came in May 1832. He was born at Mattituck, Long Island, in 1804, son of Thomas Wickham, of an old and long established family of that place. His brothers, Joseph P., Henry P. and Alfred, were all once wholesale dry goods merchants in Pearl street, New York. Alfred died at Tioga, November 21st 1841, in his 32nd year, and is buried in the old Tioga cemetery. Benjamin C. Wickham came to Elmira in October 1827, and was in copartnership with a Mr. Viol nine months; then continued alone until 1831, when he associated David H. Tuthill with him under the firm name of Tuthill & Wick- ham. They established a branch store at Tioga, under
THE GUERNSEY FAMILY .- In October 1831 came John W. Guernsey, attorney and counsellor, brother of Levi and Joseph W. Guernsey (the first settling at Tioga in 1825, the second in 1827) and of Peter B., who came in IS34, all natives of Montrose, Susquehanna county, Pa. Levi, who was partner with his brother Joseph in the Mr. Wickham's management and in the firm name of
34
274
HISTORY OF TIOGA COUNTY.
B. C. Wickham & Co., a copartnership which existed up to 1844, when it was succeeded by Wickham & Bald- win, who in turn were succeeded by Baldwin, Aiken & Mathews about 1848. In the fall of 1859 Mr. Wickham became the president of the Tioga County Bank, in as- sociation with A. S. Turner as cashier; the bank was con- ducted by them until 1867, when it was changed to a private banking house, of which Mr. Wickham still re- tains the presidency, and David I .. Aiken is cashier. Mr. Wickham's first wife, Catharine Mathews, died August 19th 1846, in her 41st year, and is buried in the old village cemetery, beside three children who died young.
FROM 1840 TO 1850
the following prominent citizens came to Tioga: Dr. H. H. Borden came from Steuben county in 1842; studied medicine with Dr. Abel Humphrey, and commenced practice in 1847; opened a drug store in company with C. O. Etz, in the J. B. Steele store, and subsequently built one, in 1861, which was destroyed by the fire of 1871. He is now in the drug business, in copartnership with Dr. T. R. Warren, in the Wickham block. Dr. War- ren is both physician and dentist, a graduate of the dental college of Philadelphia.
Henry E. Smith, shoemaker and dealer, from Otsego county, N. Y., came in 1841; is successful in his busi- ness, and he and his son Carter are owners of two val- uable farms (one of which includes the old John Pruts- man and Elijah De Pui farms, lying within the borough limits of Tioga), besides a valuable store, and private residence.
Philo Tuller, a native of Wayne county, N. Y., and a cabinet maker by trade, arrived in 1841; has been in the drug business since 1866, and postmaster since 1869, and so uniformly attentive, obliging and accommodating in that office as to make his political opponents wish he may change his politics to suit a change of administra- tions.
Frederick E. Smith, a native also of Wayne county, N. Y., came in 1843; for a while was engaged, in copartnership with Ira Baker, in keeping the Goodrich House; subse- quently a student at law with C. H. Seymour, and has been a practicing attorney since 1850. He has been the register in bankruptcy for the eighteenth (and is now for the sixteenth) Congressional district since the passage of the bankrupt act of March 2nd 1867. He is more fully spoken of under the head of members of the bar, on page 77.
P. S. Tuttle, a native of Greene county, N. Y., came to Tioga in the fall of 1840, and until recently has been en- gaged in trade, from which he has retired in consequence of impaired eyesight. He built a fine store on the site of the old Vail store, consumed by the fire of 1871; and a
subsequently studied law with Mr. Garretson, and prac- ticed his profession until his death, early in the summer of 1882. He was State senator for the twenty-fifth dis- trict for the years 1877-80.
Jacob Schieffelin sen., mentioned as having settled in Charleston in 1828, and of whom a sketch is given in the history of that township (page 115), came from there to Tioga in 1845, and settled in the old Gordon house, now the site of the Colonel H. S. Johnston residence. He was born in New York city, of German extraction, and his father, grandfather and great-grandfather all bore the name of Jacob. His grandfather during the Revolution- ary war moved on to the neutral territory of the French, at Detroit; and it is said the latter's son, father of Jacob Schieffelin sen., was for a time an officer in General Knyphausen's division of Hesse-Cassel troops during the same period. He subsequently married, at Phila- delphia, a Miss Lawrence, a member of the Lawrence family of Long Island, through whom the children ac- quired possession of large tracts of land both in Penn- sylvania and Ohio. Jacob S. sen. died December 27th- ISSo, and his wife, Elizabeth Black, January 27th 1881, and both are buried in Evergreen cemetery.
S. B. Wellington came from Essex county, N. Y., about 1846, and carried on the lumbering business ex- tensively. He was the father of Q. W., James and Samuel Wellington of Corning, and Mrs. O. B. Lowell and Mrs. C. B. Farr of Tioga. He died in 1854, and his widow resides in Tioga.
Major Seth Daggett, father of Allen and Lewis Dag- gett, and of Mrs. Daniel Dewey, Mrs. William T. Urell, and Mrs. H. W. Caulking, was born in Westmoreland, New Hampshire, July 3d 1790; came in 1808 from Paris, Oneida county, N. Y., to what is now Jackson township, this county, and established there, in conjunction with his father Reuben, the Daggett mills, on lands purchased of the Bingham estate. He married Eunice Allen, of Barnestown, Greenfield county, Mass. He came to Tioga in 1842, and purchased the William Willard jr. property in the village, including the old mansion and 12 acres of ground, subsequently acquired chiefly by F. E. Smith and which he now occupies; also three farms now known as the William A. and H. H. Goodrich, E. M. Smith and H. W. Caulking farms. His'chief occupation through life was lumbering. He died January 2nd 1874, and his wife Eunice died March 22nd 1864, aged 74 years and 7 days; their children were Allen, George, Lewis, Clymena, Minerva, Rowena, Richard, Mary Ann and Charlotte. Major Daggett was sheriff in 1830, but re- signed.
J. B. Steele and his father-in-law, Mr. Slocum, came to Tioga in 1848, and conducted a general store on the "New York plan " four or five years. Mr. Steele built the residence in which Joseph Fish now resides. Mr. dwelling house on the site of the Dr. Willard residence. Slocum purchased of Major Seth Daggett his town prop- He rebuilt his store, of brick, and it has now been rented erty of twelve acres; and, removing the old Willard for a restaurant and bakery. mansion, built on its site the fine residence now occupied C. H. Seymour, a native of Pulteney, Steuben county, by Frederick E. Smith, which the latter has since largely .N. Y., came in 1842. He was a carpenter by trade; but improved. Mr. Steele subsequent to the civil war moved
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ORGANIZATION OF TIOGA BOROUGH-THE FIRE OF 1871.
to the city of Charleston, S. C., and has occupied the office of mayor of that city. Mr. Slocum returned to Homer, Cortland county, and is now dead.
Judge Levi Bigelow and wife, parents of Mrs. A. C. Bush and Mrs. F. E. Smith, came from Bainbridge, Che- nango county, N. Y., about 1849 or 1850, and resided in the H. B. Graves cottage house, generally called the "Derringer house," up to the time of their death: He died October 5th 1868, in his 84th year, and Hannah his wife June 3d 1866, in her 77th year.
THE BOROUGH OF TIOGA
was organized in February 1860. Its boundaries were surveyed by David Heise, assisted by James Dewey and A. D. Cole, to run through the center of the water courses that bordered the " island," as it is called; yet it is claimed by the corporation that the inner banks of the stream limit its extent. As two bridges span the river, one the creek, and three the cove, leading from the island, it is obvious there was much liberality in not taking any portion of them from the township-a delicate regard for the rights of property not often exhibited by corporations. This, of course, gives the township the exclusive right to repair her own bridges, without any molestation or conflict of authority.
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